10 Temptations of Spiritual Renewals In Your Life – Part 1

The Holy Spirit has brought many renewals to individuals and to his church over the centuries, bringing needed refreshment and invigoration to the people of God. Usually there is a strong sense of his presence and believers find themselves experiencing God in ways they never had before. This continues today. If we want to preserve the benefits God gives in renewal we will be wise to watch out for common temptations and faults that often accompany renewals, whether it is individual renewal or community renewal. Here are 10 temptations of renewal we need to watch out for today:

1. A spiritual sweet tooth. This means putting a high priority on sweet spiritual feelings or blessings. This becomes a huge distraction from God’s work in renewal. He definitely wants to give good spiritual feelings but the problem is that we become attached to and focused on them. We seek God’s hand instead of his face. This sweet tooth is often hidden because we think we are actually seeking God himself when we are really seeking spiritual pleasure. We secretly become spiritual hedonists. The solution is to stay focused on God and let blessings be there without distracting us from our continuous focus on Jesus.
2. Triumphalism. When the Holy Spirit brings God’s blessings we can easily be tempted into thinking that our Christian life is going to be all power and victory. This is triumphalism. Instead, scripture teaches that the Christian life is made up of the way of the Cross as well as the Resurrection. (Phil. 3:10). We should always be open to the various ways God wants us to die to ourselves and to endure hardships. This keeps us connected to Jesus who is our model.
3. Neglect of holiness. In some renewals there is a big emphasis on growth in holiness. In others there is not. In such cases it appears that participants get the idea that their freedom in the Spirit leads to freedom from “legalism” so that they don’t have to pay much attention to personal holiness. This is a sign that the renewal is weak and will probably soon fade. Remember, if the HOLY Spirit is coming on people they should be more holy.
4. Focus on prosperity. This problem seems to begin as a seed in a renewal which later grows into a significant emphasis. From what I can tell this has only become a common problem since the late 20th century. In previous centuries spiritual renewals were guarded against materialism. The general idea of the prosperity emphasis is that devoted Christians should expect to become materially prosperous. This is in spite of the model of Jesus and his apostles who had almost no possessions.  Scripture says “If we have food and clothing we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” I Tim. 6:8-10 (NIV).
5. Neglect of pastoral counseling and guidance. It is very tempting for pastors to just let people act as they please when the Spirit seems to be moving in a place. It is hard to be the one who has to stop someone from doing something that they think they are doing in the Spirit. But we must remember that our flesh is always looking for opportunities to deceive us. Neglecting the application of pastoral wisdom and correction leads to immature and damaging behavior and ultimately dampens the move of the Spirit.

Next week we will look at the remaining 10 temptations of spiritual renewals.