Most of us have heard this mantra in one form or another: “Dream it. Visualize it. Experience it” (DI-VI-EI). It’s a common take on life embraced by gullible denizens living in the 21st Century Thunder Dome. And, yes, CHRISTIANS can easily fall for its allure.
The DI-VI-EI mantra makes it difficult to believe that God is in control and we aren’t. Think about it like this: How can we have unbridled belief that God is in control if, at the same time, we are claiming a world-based mantra for healing, wealth, successful relationships, and “security”?
That is a “name it and claim it” life. And it’s a joke. Let’s call this DI-VI-EI mantra what it is—a SCAM that Christians must INTENTIONALLY AVOID.
At its root is a believer’s deep attraction to take SHORTCUTS to intimacy with Christ. WRONG. The key to spiritual growth is not KNOWING about God. It is BEING what God wants us to be. And there is no shortcut to “being in Christ.”
It is convenient to blame man’s search for shortcuts to God on technology. But that is nothing more than today’s focal point. It is not the cause. The cause of our deep desire to master our own fate through shortcuts started at the fall when Adam and Eve believed in themselves more than they believed in God.
This can be boiled down to one immutable truth:
Seeking shortcuts to master our own fate looks at our belief that God is in control NOT as an end, but a means to a reward.
Here is the bottom line:
Seeking shortcuts to intimacy in Christ views our faith as the MEANS to pleasure and fulfillment. But that is a LIE. Our faith is an END all by itself. The ONLY end that matters in life on earth.
Jesus is not a means to our end. He is the end.
