There seems to be a link between how alcoholism works in a person and how Charismatic thinking and teachings work in a person. Both seem to be an addiction that can have a hold on a person. They try to walk away, but keep getting drawn back in.
I saw the alcoholism issue with an old friend. He effectively stopped drinking entirely for a year, but then seemed to start fantasizing about alcohol again, as odd as that sounds. He seemed to be drawn to it and I was afraid that there really was nothing I could do to keep him away from it permanently.
This same irresistible attraction seems to be there with Charismatic teachings. I suppose the reason for this is because both alcoholism and Charismatic teachings appeal to the flesh. They both promise to make you happy and elated. They both promise to take all of your troubles away. So when life gets hard, they are like a Siren's call pulling people back to them.
Everyone has their own Siren's call when life gets hard. For some it's something healthy. For me, it's just writing. This is my coping skill and what I keep coming back to over the years that helps me. For others it's drinking, or Charismatic concepts, religious addiction, or food binging, or drugs.
I worked in a group home once with teen girls who had gotten into drugs etc. They talked a lot about coping skills. Each girl even had to wear a lanyard at all times that listed her coping skills. Wouldn't it be funny if every human being did this. The point was that when she started to feel out of control, she could look at her list of healthy coping skills and do one of those to calm herself down. Most had lists like "go for a walk, go to the gym, journal, watch a movie, drink some hot chocolate" etc. I think more people need to think about this concept of coping skills so they go to things that are good rather than destructive things.
Obviously alcoholism is destructive, but not many realize how destructive things like Charismatic teaching can be. I'm all for the gift of tongues, when it's done properly, and I like teachers like Joel Osteen, but there are extreme things that can be very destructive to a person's mentality. The more people listen to such teaching, the more they think they deserve everything. They start to think they deserve to always be happy and have everything they want and that God wants that for them. But that simply is not the truth about God. That God is not the God of the Bible. People start to think God is their genie and they can get anything at anytime.
It's kind of cute to have such confidence but it's also foolish. It's not looking at reality. It's living in a fantasy world where you become God and you can call the shots about anything. This is very sad. :(
The fact is Jesus said that once we become Christian we WILL suffer and we WILL be persecuted for our faith. The opposite of Charismatic teaching is true, when we get saved life becomes harder, not easier. It is much easier to do everything that Satan wants you to do when you aren't saved. You are simply flowing with the current. But once you are saved, he starts opposing you and trying to stop almost everything you do. When you're not saved, you don't have any enemies really. When you are saved, you have all the forces of darkness trying to stop you, trying to discourage you, and trying to do everything they can to take you out. They don't want you to tell people the good news and free people from their trap, so they are set against you.
To think that life will get perfectly easy when you become a Christian is a terrible lie. You simply will not have perfect health. God will not necessarily make you rich. And God will NOT give you everything you want. We follow God not for such things but simply because it feels good to know you are a child of God. It simply feels good to know that he approves of you now and you are his forever. That is it. Yes God is God, but don't expect too much from God, because the Bible has not promised us much more beyond offering salvation to us. But isn't that enough?! I would think so.
Teaching such lies about a perfect Christian life can cause many to walk away from the faith, because when things do get really hard, and they WILL, they will be disillusioned with God. They will think "But God isn't like that right? I'm supposed to have a perfect life now right?" But that is because people taught them lies about God. People made false promises about what living the Christian life is really like. The world will ALWAYS be hard, Christian or not, because we live in a fallen world. We may wish that we could make it all better somehow, but the fact is, it won't be until heaven. One day, God "will wipe every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." But that day has not yet come. One day it will, but not yet. And that is the truth.
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