Category Archives: image

I’m only helping

I was addressing a young woman who couldn’t believe that she was doing anything wrong. Her defense was … I’m only trying to help. But what if the help is contaminated with selfishness? Her defense challenged the authority of my query about her underlying motive, and actually confirmed my suspicions. Holy Spirit would not have retaliated against my inquiry.

You see, selfishness always calls it something else other than what it really is. Everything we do is either the love of God or it’s selfish. 1 Corinthians 13 states that you can give all your money to the poor, and even your body to be burned, but it will profit nothing if it isn’t for God.

You call it helping. I call it showing-off.

You say “I’m just helping”, but more often than not, it’s a lie. What you’re really doing is showing-off how capable you are, or how clever you are. Your inner spirit is saying … “don’t tell me what to do. Look at me, I already know without you telling me”. This is really having a spirit of self-authority, which means your spirit disrespects authority. When someone questions, either verbally or silently, the correction of an authority, they reveal what spirit they are of. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. The façade image has to be broken if you want to be truly honest about your heart.

You call it helping, but it’s really trying to gain points of favor

I once asked a young man … why are you so willing to help? His reply was more honest than I was expecting. He said … so that when I’m having trouble, you’ll be obligated to help me. This is selfish help. God calls it holding a debt over the person you’ve helped. That’s sin, not love. It gains no heavenly credits.

You call it helping, but it’s really so the person will be obligated to like you or help you back.

You call it charity. I call it control and obligation to get others to do what you want.

You call it helping, but it’s really trying to gain position due to hatred-envy of your more favoured sibling.

You call it helping, but it’s really to make yourself feel worthwhile and look good in the eyes of others.

It’s hard to pin contaminated help. Helping is a tricky way of promoting your pride because no one can say you’re doing something wrong. But, you can smell contaminated help … eventually, it smells ‘off’.

You call it used and then dumped

I call it … asked to leave because you wouldn’t do what you were told

You call it independent thinking

I call it … challenging the thinking of the authority, so you can live in your own self-authority. I call it … no one’s going to tell you what to do.

You call it friendship. I call it servitude.

When you expect a friend to act a certain way towards you so you feel good and valued, that’s not friendship, it’s servitude. On many occasions I’ve asked people … what’s a friend? The common reply is … someone who will listen to me, support me, and be kind to me. Sounds right, but it’s all a lie.  God says ‘friendship’ is serving God, not keeping people happy (John 15:14). I’ve discovered that selfishness gathers friends for its own self-value and wants, because that same person that demands friendship will invariably TELL that friend how they’re supposed to behave towards them, expect them to be loyal to them first, and TELL their friend off if they are not being nice to them. That’s usury. There’s no freedom to have a differing opinion, share another friend, or say any truth that might offend their feelings.

You call it sorry. I call it selfish

I queried a young man as to why he felt so sorry for a woman who was having a mood because she was told she was wrong? His response was … so that when I have a mood, others will have to be sorry for me. This is contaminated sorry. It’s not love; it’s fake and selfish.

You call it protecting. I call it possessive, manipulation and control

I once queried a young Christian man as to why he was so protective of his family. He informed me that his domineering father had demanded of him to protect his mother. He complied because it gave him value in his father’s eyes and made him feel good. It fed his self-value. The value of protection became inherent is his spiritual DNA. His own family loved his protection, but they also feared his control. His protection looked good on the outside, but it was contaminated and used to manipulate the family to do exactly what suited his agenda. There was no freedom of opinion or choice. It was all a sham to protect and promote his own personal image. Protection made him feel ‘the man’ and it won his family’s support and value.

I’m good

You can’t correct ‘good’, or ‘help’, or ‘protection’; they look good. But, if they’re contaminated, they’re evil. If I find myself challenging a person’s ‘good’, I’m actually challenging the demonic spirit. It’s easy to forget that Satan comes in sheep’s clothing.

Many times I’ve challenged the evil in people’s spirit, but they invariably discredit my correction by justifying their goodness. All they’re really doing is preserving their image by trying to manipulate me to focus on their goodness, and hide the spirit that dwells within them. From God’s perspective, it’s what’s behind the image that’s important. If I’m correcting, I’m addressing the evil spirit behind the human façade. If you protect your image all you’re doing is reinforcing your pride, hiding the evil in you, and running away from God.

Good and help is not of God until your image has been smashed.

Keys to the Kingdom (Matthew 16:19)

The one key that unlocks the door to the kingdom of heaven, is “the DEATH of IMAGE”. That is, how I look in the eyes of other people. Until you give up the preservation and promotion of your image, you can’t be saved. King Saul talked himself into thinking he was great (1 Samuel 15:17). The fruit of that decision was envy and hatred of David because people sang his praises more than Saul’s. The consequence was hell.

‘Self’ rises up daily, so ‘death-to-self’ needs to be a daily exercise (Luke 9:23-26). You can’t do this in your own strength and you can’t do it without being treated unfairly, and like Christ, you learn to take it for His will.

The Ten Commandments are simply designed to expose my image

Image is another word for idol. Promoting or protecting IMAGE is a contravention of God’s second commandment … ‘do not make a graven image’. It may not be graven in stone or wood, but it’s engraved in your spirit. Protecting or promoting my image is the same as worshiping myself. The reason people lie and pretend to be good is simply to protect their image. It’s either image or it’s God. You can’t have both. Image is seeking the world’s favor. You can’t serve God and the world. Most Christians live in the middle, but that’s really just keeping the world happy so you don’t look bad in the eyes of the world, or get persecuted by the world.

James 4:4 … friend of the world, enemy of God.

Devaluing the Ten Commandments is a satanic plot to con humans to lower their resistance to sin and thus promote their image so they miss out on heaven with God

Satan tricked Eve with the temptation to be her own god (Genesis 3), and the same scam is still working today. It’s a clever GRACE scam, but it’s idol worship without even knowing it. It separates you from God because it’s wilful sin (1 John 3:4). Be as good as you like, it won’t save you. In fact, it conversely promotes evil (Proverbs 28:4 … they that forsake the law, praise the wicked), and that’s why the world is rising up and Christianity is decaying under the world’s intimidation.

The fruit of devaluing God and His commandments is a chaotic world, climate disasters, wars, disease, and a fake church that silently condones the world’s behaviour and undisturbingly watches sin being legalised. The world calls homosexuality, ‘love’. I call it ‘hate’ God. The world’s argument is … if God is irrelevant, then His laws are irrelevant, and thus I can do what pleases my flesh without any conscience. Plus, if a man is allowed to have sexual relations with a woman, who says it’s wrong for a man to have sexual relations with another man as long as they’re both consenting. The world defiantly says … I will do what I like and no God is going to tell me what I can and can’t do!

You can’t REPENT until you let God smash your IMAGE

Gideon smashed the image, then God could use him. Phineas speared the mocking evil that was destroying the Israelites (Numbers 25:8). You can’t escape destruction until you repent of your sin, and you can’t see your sin without letting God smash your image.

There’s a big difference between … I’m sorry for hurting your feelings, or … If I’ve done something wrong, I’m sorry, or … I’m sorry, but you make mistakes too, or … I’ll say sorry if you say sorry, too!

and, … I’m wrong, and I apologise unreservedly, and Lord God, I’m sorry for protecting my image and feelings instead of trusting you. Please forgive me.

The Truth

Why are people trying to be good? The answer is … Fear of looking bad and the pride of looking good. Until you sacrifice the fear and pride of what the world thinks of you, and the need to promote yourself in the eyes of others, and instead, give up your image to the will of God, Jesus will not open the door of heaven to you (Luke 14:33).

May God open the eyes of His remnant.

Pastor Samuel Abbel