Out of Egypt

One of the most powerful hindrances to our ability to hear the Spirit speaking to us and to our strength to thereafter obey what He says is our religious heritage. We are programmed to believe certain religious practices and objects and designs have spiritual value. Some of what we value is actually very costly liability.

We are taught by our denominational headquarters that our collection of favorite teachings and habits and interpretations of favorite Scripture passages is “the Word of God.” I am entertained by the number of feverishly defended practices people who declare all of their ways are “Scriptural.” Especially mislabeled examples are pulpits, throne-like chairs behind them, buildings that we call churches, senior pastors being supreme leaders of congregations, building funds, entire denominations that are completely devoid on purpose of prophets or apostles, Bible studies that don’t improve someone’s ability to perform service to Yahweh in their city or workplace or neighborhood… The list is much longer, but I don’t want to bore you out of reading to the end –

The descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Israel who were enslaved in Egypt for a few hundred years had no Scriptures to study. Moses wrote the first 5 books of what we call the Bible. 4 of them came from his lifetime, the first was what had been memorized by at least 1 person in each generation since Adam. Their main religious influence was the Egyptians’. Hence, when they made a calf of gold after they became convinced that Yahweh had killed Moses on the mountain, they pointed at it and said, “This is your god, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

After 10 plagues in a few days, Yahweh brought Israel out of Egypt. After several plagues and 40 years, He only managed to get Egypt out of Israel in two lives – Joshua and Caleb. Don’t be like that. If He shows you something that has no value, don’t even give it to GoodWill. Throw it away and thank Him for letting you know.