Many people have been asking me lately what I think of various motivational speakers, self-help gurus, etc. Obviously it would depend on the “motivator.” However, I have found several things to watch out for. We don’t want to be like those the Bible describes as having “itching ears”—listening only to people who tell us what we want to hear. So, here is my list of warning signs.

Watch out for:

Personality Cults—A personality cult exists when one leader exhibits inordinate amounts of emotional control over his/her followers.

Created Dependence—The leader creates the impression that the followers would be lost without him/her.

Whole-Life Prescriptions—The leader prescribes solutions for every area of life, usually including diet (i.e. what not to eat and drink).

Elimination of God as Source—the leader wants the followers to either follow him/her or to look inside themselves for salvation. True reliance on God is looked down upon as weakness.

Relativism—the leader makes every source of spirituality acceptable as long as it is not definitive or exclusive, as is Christianity.

Lack of Moral Prescription—the leader does not prescribe boundaries for areas many people struggle with morally (addictions, sexuality).

Overemphasis of Moral Prescription—the leader only focuses on addictions and claims that they or the follower, him or herself, can deliver them (again, the Christian God is left out of the equation)

Focus on Self-Empowered States of Mind—leader focuses on instructing followers to maintain a constant state of happiness or peace by either reliance on the leader or reliance on themselves (again reliance on our human abilities is substituted for reliance on God).

This is just a small list that could be added to extensively. This list stands in sharp contrast to the teachings of Christ. What it boils down to for the Christian is this: We were created to be in relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Jesus said I can do NOTHING apart from the Father. Jesus, our example, was in complete, utter, and total communion with God. Every single thing he did, every state of mind he had, every good deed and success he had was a fruit of his relationship with his Father. Jesus never told himself to be happy. He never cleared his mind to attain a peaceful state. Instead Jesus said that peace is a gift from the Father. It’s not something we create. It is something God has created and that he gives to us when we are in relationship with him. This kind of peace that Jesus described is “not as the world gives.” In other words, the peace that the world gives is transitory. It only lasts for a few minutes. Then you have to release your fears and concerns all over again because they keep creeping up on you. The peace that Jesus gives actually stands guard over our hearts and minds. It is a deep peace. It is divine in its source.

There is much talk these days about the divine within. Truly we were all created in the image of God and his image is stamped on every human. We must treat everyone with respect because we stand in awe of the Creator. However, that does not mean that there is a divine source within those who do not follow Jesus. Jesus said that when a person puts their faith in Him,  He (Jesus) will become like a fountain inside of him or her—a source welling up into eternal life. The world does not have this hope. However, many gurus of today speak of every human having a divine source within them and that everyone can connect to God within themselves and eventually realize that they themselves are a part of God—that in reality they, themselves, are God. This is new age deception.

The reason this teaching is so dangerous is because if you tell someone they have 100 million dollars in the bank they will stop working. In reality, they don’t even have a penny in the bank. But because they are deluded they stop looking for money. In the same way, people who are told they are God, have God inside them, are divine, etc., stop looking for God. They think they’ve got God in their back pocket, when in reality they have no relationship with God. Jesus said that if they loved God they would love him. Yet, Jesus Christ, to this day remains the one person people hate. They hate him because he said “I am the way, the truth and the life. NO ONE comes to the Father except through me.” People can’t stand that. They can’t stand that there is only one way. If there is only one way, and we acknowledge that, then we are accountable. We have to obey or disobey. We have to sin or not. No one wants to talk about sin or anything negative. Many gurus of today ignore the entire issue of sin and say, “I’m OK, You’re OK…as long as what I do doesn’t hurt anyone, then what I believe is fine.”

The real question then comes down to, “Are some things true and other things false?” I believe that the answer is a resounding, “Yes!”  There is only one way for new human life to form—a sperm and an egg must unite. There is no other way. If there is only one way for new physical life to form, then it makes sense that there is only one way for spiritual life to form. In fact, Jesus said that spiritual life is actually like physical birth. He said that just as a man is born of a woman, so we must be born again from God if we want to live spiritually. He said this to a Jewish man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus didn’t get the lesson at first, and neither do many today. There are billions of examples of absolute truth—a strawberry is not a cherry, black is not white, when I am asleep I am not awake, etc.. Make your own list. Yet, when it comes to the most important question of all, “Is there a God and if so, can I know him?” we say that whatever people believe determines that reality. That doesn’t make sense at all.

If I believe God is made of stay-puffed marshmallows and you believe he is a young man in India in an orange robe, can we both be right? If I believe God is Jesus’ Father and tells us to love our enemies and you believe that Jesus was not God’s son and that we should kill our enemies, can we both be right? Does it make any sense that God inspired all the world religions and that he would then make them each oppose each other with completely different doctrines? I believe that God is not a God of confusion, but of order. Look at the creation. It is magnificently ordered. Every leaf, every flower has a pattern to it. There is no way that God would inspire all the religions of the world to be in utter chaos in relationship to each other. He would not inspire the Buddhists to say that when life is over and we reach Nirvana that we cease to exist and then also inspire the Christian religion to say that we live forever, fully conscious and alive. God is not the author of confusion. Just as a good school-teacher is not going to teach you a bunch of contradictory facts, so God would not give us the religions of the world to confuse us.

Some say that man made these religions, not God, and that is why it is so confusing. It’s man’s fault. To a large extent this is true. Man has come up with most of the religions of the world. Judaism and Christianity stand out because they represent God coming to us, not a system of man working his way to God. God came to the Jews on Mt. Sinai, giving them CLEAR instructions on how to live and declaring emphatically that he was the ONLY God, there were no others. There would never be another. He performed miraculous signs to prove who he was. Jesus, likewise, came to us. He was the God from Mt. Sinai coming in the form of a baby to satisfy the sacrificial Jewish system, by becoming the last and final sacrifice for the sins of the world. That is very definitive. Again, he said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” He was being very clear. He wasn’t giving some confusing message. He didn’t say, “Just picture a higher power.” He didn’t say, “Look inside yourself for the divine.” What he did say is look at me. If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. He was totally clear and emphatic about this with us humans because we are so easily confused.

Those who choose to rise above the relativism that pervades our world right now will find themselves with a fight on their hands. No one want to hear about one way, even if that one way would forgive them of their sins, even if that one way would give them lasting peace. The reason people react so violently against Jesus is because by following his way, they must give up their own way. The Bible says we all have that tendency within us—to go our own way, do what we want to do, believe what we want to believe even if it is not true, etc.. However, they key to true happiness is a life of surrender—a life where we say to Jesus, “I want you to fill me up with you, less of me, more of you. I want to live in relationship with you. I want to be born again in my spirit. I want to have a friendship with you and live forever.”

Don’t ever be afraid to talk about sin. And if you go to a church that does not talk about sin, get out! You can’t heal the disease without first defining it. But defining it is not enough. It must be cut out and cleansed. Jesus is a gracious and loving physician. He knows just what we need even before we ask. Don’t let anyone get you to substitute your reliance on Jesus with anything else. One of his names is Counselor. Do you need a counselor? It’s not wrong to look to another human for counsel, but at the core of your being you must know that Jesus is your BEST counselor. Whatever another counselor says is secondary to His voice. One of his names is Prince of Peace. Do you need peace? Ask Jesus and he will give you this gift. As you grow in your relationship with Christ, you will experience his peace more and more. Whatever you need…healing, love, acceptance—all these are meant to be found in Christ. There is no satisfying substitute for Jesus.

It takes courage to let Jesus be enough for us. It’s easier to reach for the chocolate bar than the apple. It’s easier to be a couch potato than to exercise. Anything truly satisfying will cost you something. So instead of going for mind over matter or positive thinking, go for getting in your prayer closet for a peace that LASTS. Instead of listening to a speaker tell you to look within yourself for all the power you need for life’s challenges, look to the ONE who created life, get in relationship with him and let his life course through you. The Bible says that Jesus is the Word of God, that he was with God in the beginning, even before the world was made. In the book of John, it says that there was not ONE SINGLE THING that has been made that he did not make. So if you want to really talk about living, get into relationship with the one who created EVERYTHING. That’s true living. Don’t let someone con you with feel good relativism so that you can do whatever you want whenever you want. Learn how to follow THE WAY and learn a life of service to the King.