Mario Murillo: Satan’s Deceptive Tool to Make You Unavailable to God
The goal of distraction is to make you unavailable for the move of God.
The devil is doing something very special today. He is distracting God’s people so that they will not be available when He moves to save America.
You need to trust the troubling in your spirit. You came out of a Christian meeting, shaking your head. When you expressed your concern, several people tried to make you think there was something wrong with you.
Distraction No. 1: Out of Bible experiences: When you heard a preacher tell stories and give illustrations, but never quotes the Word of God. You expressed concern, but were scolded and told that God is saying new things and this makes our movement more relevant to outsiders. That bothered you.
You hear bestselling Christian authors being praised for being “brave enough to downplay the Bible.” That troubled you. You need to trust the troubling in your spirit.
Distraction No. 2: Prophetic games: You believe in the prophetic, but you are troubled by the fixation believers have for obsessively chasing “a fresh word from the Lord.” It seems that there are far greater concerns right now.
You are bothered that they do not instruct believers to organize against the evil overtaking America. Or to teach us how to challenge “woke” education for our children’s sake. You feel that the games they play distract God’s army from the real battles we should be fighting.
Distraction No. 3: Sleeping through the harvest: You wonder, ‘Why aren’t we winning souls?’ You wonder, ‘Why is there no call to come to Christ in church meetings?’ You wonder, ‘Why is there no training to win souls?’
You see people every day, barely hanging on to their sanity. You know Jesus is the deepest Desire of mankind—even when they don’t know it. The cold, brutal emptiness of the atheistic agenda intensifies that desire.
I see this every night in the Tent. Sitting before me are the trophies of modern perversion: tattooed, spiked hair, boys in dresses, and young girls dressed as men.
They are addicted and angry, to the point of suicide. And then they hear His voice. The tears burst forth, and they do not care who sees it. They run to Christ, and God rushes to meet them. Maybe you are like me…you wonder how can anything be more important than this? Trust the troubling in your spirit.
Distraction No. 4: Worshipping worship: It bothers you that we can sing the phrase, “Open the floodgates of heaven” 185 times, and not notice people walking out, because they just don’t get it. You love worship, but you feel that people are not focused so much on God so much as the warm feeling that singing gives them. Trust the troubling in your spirit.
Distraction No. 5: Emotional excesses: When people are rolling around on the floor moaning, it bothers you. You wonder why we think it is spiritual to look crazy to outsiders. You immediately think of the verse 1 Corinthians 14:23, “Therefore, if the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, will they not say that you are out of your mind?”
There is a place for the prophetic, strong worship and outward expressions of excitement. But what we do not want is to be unavailable for what God is doing in this hour to turn America around.
Trust that warning signal in your spirit. Do not lose heart. Do not let people overthrow your discernment.
In this hour the Holy Spirit is doing a fresh work to make us effective to a lost and dying generation of Americans.
You are not wrong to see the excesses and call them out in a spirit of love—sometimes firm love!
Many are feeling this troubling about the current fads in the church. They are yearning for more… David Wilkerson gave the best description of them. He said, “God-hungry people are saying among themselves, ‘This is not it. There is something more. The bigness and the sensationalism of it all has left us empty and dry. We want more. More than entertainment. More than big, showy buildings. More than a shallow celebrity gospel. We want deeper values. We want to see Jesus. We want spotless robes of righteousness. We want to go back to doing things in total dependence on God.'”
Many of these people were chased out of churches that were once fiery, Spirit-filled churches. They saw their church become obsessed with impressing outsiders. They no longer feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in the worship services.
What are their chief complaints? They see the world system operating in the church. They can’t stomach the fact that prayer and anointed preaching have been replaced. The house of God is now a glitzy entertainment center.
They are done with egocentric preachers with grandiose, expensive and carnal visions that have nothing to do with soul winning or revival. They accuse these preachers of being distracted and even derailed from their first love.
They are deeply hurt that their church punishes them for wanting a move of God, but at the same time caters to lukewarm members.
What is the urgency that drives them? They see America on the verge of destruction. They believe we have no time to play games. Trust the troubling in your spirit. Stay available! God is up to something big.
For the original article, visit mariomurillo.org.
Mario Murillo rose from poverty in the Mission District of San Francisco. After being revolutionized by Christ, he felt a call to the University of California at Berkeley. His international ministry was launched after a four-day conference in San Jose, California, extended for six months with a total attendance of nearly 250,000 people. Since then, Mario’s voice has been heard by millions around the world, bringing a message that zeroes in on the hurts of society. He presents Christ clearly and intelligently, and openly declares the power of Jesus to totally transform a life. His simple declaration: Come and see. Christ has the power to end addiction, racism, violence and disease.
