Someone suggested that Christians should use the real colors of the rainbow, make a flag, and fly it in opposition to the rainbow flag of the homosexual agenda, which has different colors.
This sounds clever and even smart, but it is far from it. The world, and even most Christians, do not know God's colors of the rainbow. When they see a rainbow flag flying, no matter what the colors, most people are going to assume the person flying it is in solidarity with the homosexual agenda.
God never told us to fly a rainbow flag; it is the idea of a person who wants to use Satan's tactics against him while playing right into his hands.
Another bad idea that was suggested and used for a few years was the "What would Jesus do" bracelet. It sounds clever, but diverts attention from the leading of the Holy Spirit while placing one's trust in an inanimate object. It becomes an idol because it is trusted instead of the Holy Spirit.
While speaking with a young man several years ago, I asked him why he wore the bracelet. He told me the bracelet helped remind him of the right things to do and say. Then he told me it causes questions in the minds of unbelievers, so they will ask him about God, opening the door to evangelism.
While all this sounds clever, it places the young man's trust in the bracelet rather than in the Holy Spirit. God never told us to trust in any object for anything. He told us to know His word and trust the Holy Spirit for everything.
I reminded the young man with the bracelet that everything he told me the bracelet does for him was the job of the Holy Spirit, but instead of trusting in Christ, he was trusting in that bracelet. I told him that it would be better for him to seek Christ in prayer, read His Word, and follow it, so that when anything comes up in conversation, he will lean on the Holy Spirit to give him the words.
Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
When we are proud and depend on our own ideas, even in service to Christ, we will trust in the wrong things and become prideful about our own brilliance. And, worse yet, we will end up boasting about what we are doing without regard to the Holy Spirit.
When mankind loves how clever they think they are, they will end up glorifying themselves instead of God. When the Holy Spirit moves within someone, it is God Who gets the glory not man.
Ephesians 1:17-21 "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come."
It is easier to trust in objects we can see than in the Holy Spirit we cannot see. This is spiritual laziness. When we question all things as God commands us to do, we will not be caught up in superficial, prideful tactics that take our focus off the Holy Spirit.
Philippians 1:11 "Filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."
When we trust in Christ, we walk by faith, not by sight. We need no objects to guide us, the idols that distract us from the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible has everything we need to follow Christ, we need not add clever human tactics that bring us glory and place our trust in ourselves.
Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Our power as born-again believers comes from the Holy Spirit not from any object or clever idea man has devised.
Luke 24:47 "and in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem."
We are commanded to speak the truth of the gospel through the power of the Holy Spirit. Any clever ideas man invents that replace trusting in the Holy Spirit are Satan's way of distracting and diverting attention from Christ.
I noticed that the ideas of man that seem so clever run hot quickly and burn out, but God's ways are everlasting; they do not change, and the Holy Spirit is the One Who is elevated.
We worship in Spirit and in Truth, Jesus Christ is Spirit and Truth. He is the very essence of His own word, the Bible. We need no objects other than the Bible itself to bring the gospel to the world.
My prayer is that believers will seek Christ and go more deeply into understanding, so they are not distracted from what Christ commanded in His Word. May those who have trusted in Christ stop devising their own plans apart from the word to elevate themselves.
Trust only in the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, and no idols will be used to demonstrate the gospel. Our lives are living testimonies, and our preaching is the means by which we bring the gospel.
