“… you must not use the same formula …”
(Ex 30:32, GNB)
One of the character traits inherent to God’s name Elohim is his creativity, His position as original Creator (Smith’s Bible Dictionary). Following God is thus always a journey which is new, creative, original. Satan always works with the counterfeit, the copy, the formula.
When Aaron made the holy anointing oil God’s directions were very direct – “… you must not use the same formula to make any mixture like it. It is holy, and you must treat it as holy.” Every action has an original blueprint which ascribes to all God’s plans and details (1 Kings 6:38). It constitutes a unique action, a reflection of the creativity of the Eternal God, and can thus never, ever be reduced to a formula.
In this way the law, which is in essence only abiding to a formula, falls outside the will of God. God considers choice, individuality and freedom as of paramount importance. The sons of God are led by the Spirit of God (Rom 8:14), and that process will always bear the blueprint of His originality. (An interesting aside – the meaning of the Arabic word “Koran” comes from the Hebrew word Qara’ or Qorai’, which means recitation or useless repetition.)
Satan and his kingdom ALWAYS makes use of a counterfeit, which is why everything that contains elements of repetition, tradition, liturgy, form and ritual, that which has become part of a comfort zone, should be examined carefully. Satan often bases his agenda on an idea originally of the Spirit, but which, due to a lack of Spiritual sustenance, has become the mindless repetition of formulas.
One night God spoke to an important preacher, instructing him to blow over his church so that they may receive the Holy Spirit. As a member of the audience I considered this a strange gesture, since Spirit is carried over through the laying on of hands (Acts 8:18). But it is also true that Christ blew over his disciples in order for them to receive the Spirit (John 20:22), and this could possibly be a similar action, I reasoned. This indeed proved to be the case, and the individuals who approached the pulpit received the Spirit as the preacher blew over them. Very taken with this turn of events the preacher attempted the same technique at his next service, but to no avail. Yet he huffed and he puffed, and before long a different spirit was at work, bringing about the results he was expecting.
Accordingly one could argue that the Toronto-blessing was originally a manifestation of the Spirit, but that mindless formulas evolved it into a movement which was not of God – “They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals …” (Deut 32:17).
Spiritual formulas provide us with false comfort and binds us to false religious altars.
Sela: Ask God to remove all copies from your spiritual constitution.
- Read: 1 Kings 6; Ecc 2; 1 Tim 3
- Memorise 1 Tim 3:16
