Leading The Way

Dr. Michael Youssef: Shadow spirituality is any form of spirituality that does not acknowledge Jesus Christ as the only Lord of life. Shadow spirituality is any spirituality that does not say that only and exclusively it is rooted in the power and the authority of the Holy Spirit of God. Shadow spirituality is any spirituality that does not affirm that the Bible is God's own self-revelation to the world.

Guest (Male): Up next, Dr. Michael Youssef contrasts shadow spirituality with real spirituality. Thank you for making time in your day for this enlightening episode of Leading the Way. Dr. Youssef is the author of more than 50 books, including the culture-shifting title from just earlier this year, An Unholy Alliance. You can browse available past and current titles when you go to LTW.org. Or you can always speak with a ministry representative at the call center. That’s 866-626-4356.

Okay, you can probably recall a time when you were in a really dark location that was suddenly lightened by a brief bright light, maybe from lightning or a passing car. And that sudden light created a momentary shadow in the shape of something or someone that caused you to be afraid. Well, the world's view of spirituality is kind of similar to that. Short-lived shadows of the spiritual realm around us cause people to experience fear, but it’s a lack of understanding. That's why today Dr. Youssef is beginning a quick audio series called Heal Me, Oh God, revealing the spiritual healing available through Jesus. So listen along as Dr. Youssef begins.

Dr. Michael Youssef: To say that there is a huge spiritual vacuum in the life of this generation is an understatement. To say that there is a severe spiritual hunger and starvation in this generation, it’s an understatement. Just look around you. Look around you and see the multi-billion dollar business of fortune tellers and tarot card readers and clairvoyants and astrologers and psychics, false and otherwise.

They are all a clear indication that there is a deep longing in the human soul. There is a huge longing for spiritual wholeness. There is longing for physical wholeness. And there is nothing wrong with that longing, by the way. God created us with that longing inside of us. God created us with a spiritual vacuum on the inside of us. God created us with that desire, for that desire to be fulfilled. God created us incomplete.

Not only that, but God made only one provision for that completeness to take place. God made only one provision for that wholeness to become a reality in your life and in my life. God made only one type of food that can satisfy that inner hunger. God made only one drink that quenches that inner thirst. God made only one object that can fill that empty space. God made only one permanent solution for that permanent problem.

Every other alternative to God’s provision is only temporary. It's not real. Oprah’s solutions are a Band-Aid on a gaping wound. Dr. Phil’s solutions are Teflons. New Age spirituality is fake. These are like eating sawdust. They may fill your stomach, but very soon you'll die of spiritual malnutrition. All of these so-called spiritualities are what I call shadow spirituality.

And shadow spirituality today is taught in many a church. That is the saddest part. That's the part that wants you to go on your face and cry and weep in bitterness, that this shadow spirituality is preached in many a pulpit today. This shadow spirituality is practiced by many church-goers today. This shadow spirituality is even invaded some of the so-called evangelical churches.

So what is that shadow spirituality? Shadow spirituality is any form of spirituality that does not acknowledge Jesus Christ as the only Lord of life. Shadow spirituality is any spirituality that does not say that only and exclusively it is rooted in the power and the authority of the Holy Spirit of God. Shadow spirituality is any spirituality that does not acknowledge that it is Father God and not Mother Earth who is the God of power and might.

Shadow spirituality is any spirituality that does not affirm that the Bible is God's own self-revelation to the world. Shadow spirituality is what secular-minded people just refer to simply as spirituality. So what is that spirituality? I want to give you a definition. Don't forget it. This is their own definition, by the way. I'm not making this up. This is their own definition: any dimension of human experience that’s beyond the physical is called spiritual and spirituality.

So, dabbling in the occult, they call that spirituality. Loving nature and worshipping nature, they call that spirituality. Any form of mysticism and mental control, that's spirituality. Search for God, any god, that’s called spirituality. If you worship angels and take good care of your guardian angel, that's called spirituality. To our culture, spirituality is represented by Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates. You don't know what you're getting.

Others have defined spirituality bluntly as ABC: Anything But Christianity. What does shadow spirituality or a counterfeit spirituality hope to achieve? Shadow spirituality says they want people to be enlightened and they want them to be empowered. Enlightenment and empowerment, that's their goal. Counterfeit or shadow spirituality’s stated aim is to help the person to reach an improved state of emotional health, a strong self-esteem, a balance of spirit, body, and mind.

I'm sure some of you probably sitting here saying, "Well, Michael, wait a minute. What's wrong with these goals? They sound good to me." On the surface, they do sound good. They look like wonderful goals. Who doesn't want to improve their emotional state? Don't you? Well, for starters, that's their aim. Nobody ever said that any of them have achieved it or can achieve it.

I can aim at reaching the summit of Mount Everest. That's a wonderful aim. Everybody said, "Michael, isn't that great? That's a great goal." Some people come and say give me a pat on the back. "Isn't that great?" But those who know me will say, "Lots of luck." There is no way on God's Earth for me to reach the bottom of Mount Everest, let alone the top. That's an elusive goal. That's an impossibility. It's like playing a hoax on someone.

Furthermore, I don't want an improved emotional health. Do you? I don't want it. What is an improved emotional health? Who can judge when you've improved? Who’s going to judge that? How are you going to know when you're improving? No, I don't want improvement. I want to completely be healed. I want my emotions to be completely healed. I want complete emotional transformation. I want a complete whole emotion. I want complete healing of my emotions.

And the only way to experience complete wholeness in every way is to be able to say with the Apostle Paul, "I live, but it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." That is it. That's how to have wholeness in life. Not with the mumbo-jumbos or jumping through hoops or doing 27 things.

Shadow spirituality is deceptive. And in shadow spirituality, a person can declare himself whole whenever they feel happy. But in true spirituality, I become whole when I reflect the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. In shadow spirituality, you put a Band-Aid on a gaping wound, but in true spirituality, you get the complete permanent surgery. In shadow spirituality, you might get a quick fix, but in true spirituality, you receive the power to overcome day in and day out.

In shadow spirituality, you get a placebo, but in true Christianity, you'll get the real thing. Shadow spirituality, a person has the power to make themselves whole, which is a lie. But in true spirituality, the Holy Spirit of God declares you whole. And God the Father says that is right. Why? Because God the Son has been invited to live on the inside of you.

I'm amazed, I'm absolutely astounded at how many Christians refer to the Holy Spirit as "it". I am absolutely amazed. But when the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit, the Bible is talking about a person. He is the third person of the Trinity. He is the very spirit of the mighty God. Not just a loose force in the world that you toss to people like a football. He's not something you blow on people and they fall. No, you don't blow on people the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 34:16 tells us that the Holy Spirit of God controls the course of history. Nehemiah 9:30 and Zechariah 7:12 tell us that he reveals God's truth and will. Psalm 143:10 tells us that God's people will know the way to faithfulness through the Holy Spirit. And in Numbers 11, the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit of God equips individuals for leadership. He is no other than the supernatural mighty power of God, the very breath of God himself.

And he is given to us, not to play with us. Listen to me, believers. The Holy Spirit is not given to us so that he may play with us. He's not given to us so that he may serve our purpose. He's not given to us so that he may become our personal genie. No, and a million nos. He is the spirit of the living God. He is the hurricane force that created the universe. He is the mighty wind that blew on the dust and Adam showed up.

He is the mighty wind that parted the Red Sea. He is the power that moves the air, even to the point of violent movement. He is the energy that is released with the spiritual force and power. He is the supernatural power that breathed upon your dead soul and my dead soul and quickened our spirits. He is the power that guides us and leads us and empowers us to live a holy and righteous life. That's who he is.

Jesus said in John chapter 14, 15, and 16 that when he goes to the Father, he will send his Holy Spirit to dwell on the Earth. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon Samson and left. The Holy Spirit came and ministered through Isaiah and left. But then God has been promising that this trickle of rain one day is going to become a shower. And one day the Holy Spirit of God is coming to dwell in the lives of the believers.

And right on schedule, the Holy Spirit of God on the Day of Pentecost showed up. And he showed up in wind and in fire. The wind that blows upon our dead spirits and quickens us, and the fire of purity and righteousness that burns away the dross of sin out of our lives. The Bible tells us four things about the Holy Spirit. Everything else is counterfeit and shadow spirituality.

First, the Word of God tells us that he quickens our dead spirits. Secondly, the Bible tells us that he transforms our fallen nature. Thirdly, the Bible tells us that he seals us for God's ownership. And fourthly, the Bible tells us that he fills us with his presence. How about that? Number one, he quickens our dead spirits. Let me tell you something, some of you might not have known this. Listen carefully, especially all of you chosen frozen. You know who you are. Listen to me.

Every one of us was born spiritually dead. Every one of us was born spiritually stillborn. Every one of us was born dead in trespasses and sin. Every one of us was born not knowing that we are sinners and desperately need salvation. Every one of us was born with our backs to God and did not know that we needed God. Every one of us was born that way. Every human being on the face of the Earth was born that way.

But the Holy Spirit of God breathed in us and created in us a hunger and thirst for God. He breathed in us when he showed up in my life and showed me that I am living in rebellion against a holy God. He breathed on us and he opened our blind spiritual eyes to see that we are heading for hell without Jesus Christ. He breathed on us and he showed us that we cannot save ourselves with our own good works.

He breathed on us and he showed us our desperate condition without Jesus Christ. And that is why I genuinely, deeply, emotionally, and intellectually feel sorry for those who are caught up in false spirituality. I weep tears. I pray my heart is for love the sinners because if I did not, I would not be doing all that I'm doing. I don't long to see them end up in eternal judgment. I long for them to know Jesus.

And I have nothing in my heart but compassion and love toward those who don't know the Savior, the only Savior of our souls. Those who fall in the trap of believing that if you peel away layers of negative thinking, if you peel away the layers of bad feelings, if you peel away the layers of hurtful memories, if you just keep on peeling this, you become self-empowered and self-actualized. It's a lie, my friend. It's a lie.

You see, that way you don't need the Holy Spirit. You don't need God to open your blind eyes. You see, what will happen? You try to forgive yourself when you feel like it, and your spirit cannot do that. And that is why shadow spirituality, in that kind of life, there is no right and wrong. You see, now you understand when you read some of the curriculum of your kids when they bring them in front, there is no right and wrong.

Right or wrong is what you decide. Right or wrong is up to your standards. Right or wrong is what you make of it. There is no need for the Holy Spirit of God to convict you and forgive you. You convict yourself and you forgive yourself. I can't think of a worse nightmare. Do you know why? Because the Bible said, "Even if our conscience condemns us, he is greater than our conscience." I can't think of a worse nightmare to be living that way, not knowing the loving forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit of God not only quickens our dead spirits, but secondly, he transforms our fallen nature. This woman said to me, she was caught up in this shadow spirituality, this counterfeit spirituality for some time. And she told me, she said, "I kept on peeling layers of myself as they told me to do." She said, "I kept doing this. And then I got to the core of my soul and I found nothing."

She said the nothingness I found was not the nirvana I was promised, but emptiness—emptiness that nearly killed me. "But thank God," she said, "the Holy Spirit of God not only showed me the way of forgiveness and peace, but he began to transform me into the likeness of Jesus Christ." That's what he does. He doesn't only quicken our dead spirits. He doesn't only transform our fallen nature. But thirdly, he seals us with ownership.

You know, the Apostle Paul got the idea of the sealing from the merchants in the port of Ephesus. There was a lot of bad timber being sold, and the Ephesians were really exercised about that because their grain of wood, their timber was the best in the world. So they said, "We've got to do something about this. We want to make sure that people understand and don't mix our good timber with the bad timber, with the bad wood that they're buying from elsewhere."

So they created a seal that cannot be imitated, that cannot be duplicated. And they would put that seal on their wood, on that timber. Why? Because they did not want theirs to be confused with the other inferior grades of wood. And the Apostle Paul saw this and he said, "I know exactly what the Holy Spirit of God has done." Now, when the buyers would go and buy the timber, they'd look for that seal.

And it's the same way the Apostle Paul said God the Holy Spirit places a seal of ownership on everyone that belongs to Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit of God is the one who authenticates and testifies whether you belong to Jesus or you don't. So whenever a sealed child of God goes through doubt—and make no mistake about it, all of us go through doubt, the devil is around to try and make us doubt—you know what happens?

The Holy Spirit of God comes to you as you are spending time with God in prayer. And he whispers in your ear. He says, "You're mine. Jesus has redeemed you. And I have personally sealed you. You belong to Jesus. Don't listen to the devil." Not only that the Holy Spirit himself quickens our dead spirits, not only the Holy Spirit of God transforms our fallen nature, not only the Holy Spirit himself seals us with his ownership, but fourthly, the Holy Spirit of God daily fills us with his presence.

Please listen carefully to what I'm going to tell you. A lot of people get confused on this. While the Holy Spirit sealed, the seal of the Holy Spirit happens once in the life of the believer, the filling of the Holy Spirit is continuous. While the sealing of the Holy Spirit is dependent upon God’s gracious favor, the filling of the Holy Spirit is dependent upon you asking him every day and every moment of every day to be filled of his spirit.

While every committed believer in Jesus Christ is sealed by the Holy Spirit, the sad thing is not every believer in Jesus Christ is daily filled by the Holy Spirit because they don't ask for it. They don't ask for that filling. And that is why the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:18 says, "Be continuously," that's what it means, "be continuously, continuously, continuously filled of the Holy Spirit."

Believer, if you've known Jesus, been sealed of the Holy Spirit, and have not been filled daily, and you know your life is in a mess, begin today to ask the Holy Spirit of God, "I've been missing out on the greatest blessing by asking you, Holy Spirit, to fill me every day."

But then there may be somebody here today. That person may be they know a great deal about Jesus. They may actually even go to church. They may actually be seeking after Jesus. You may be seeking after him today. You may feel good about coming to church and singing and praying. But by the same token, you have never fully surrendered your life to Jesus Christ.

And thus you have never really received the quickening of the Holy Spirit of God in your life. You come to church and you know there is something missing. Do you know what that something is? It is someone. It is someone. And he is a gift that God the Father gives you when you surrender to God the Son. And his name is God the Holy Spirit. He can breathe upon you today. He can breathe upon your dead soul, your dead spirit, and he can quicken your spirit even now. Will you ask him?

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for Leading the Way. Do you have spiritual questions? How about taking just a few minutes to speak with a Leading the Way pastor or a counselor? They'd be so happy to help guide you toward biblical answers. And you can start at LTW.org/Jesus.

I just want to say, dear Dr. Youssef, I so look forward to listening to your daily teachings from the Bible, for they are jam-packed and loaded with knowledge, instruction, clarity, and unlimited power of the Lord's Holy Spirit. Your teachings have helped me and are continuously helping me in my daily walk with the Lord in all areas of my life. Above all else, I greatly admire the strong, real, authentic love that you have for the Lord Jesus Christ. That love stands out in a big way in all the messages I have ever heard you speak. Thank you.

Prayfully consider standing with Dr. Youssef and Leading the Way today. The number to call to give securely is 866-626-4356. And online, we are at LTW.org. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth around the world.