Another criticism of Sozo is that we ask a person to picture or describe God which, to some, is a violation of the 2nd commandment. While these people acknowledge that a mental picture is not a graven image, it is the first step to creating one. If someone were to carve an idol, the first step would be to picture the god. So, using this logic, the first step to greed is earning money…the first step to hoarding is saving that first dollar….the first step to gluttony is eating one bite beyond what is necessary for life. Where does this logic stop? The first step to frivolous living is taking a vacation. YES! the first step to carving an idol is having a mental image, but that doesn’t make having a mental image wrong!
I cannot imagine praying or worshiping without seeing a mental image of the One I am praying to. I don’t usually see His face, though my husband does. This was a regular part of our devotional time long before I ever heard of Sozo. I cannot understand why a man can preach about God, giving a verbal depiction of Him that may or may not be erroneous, but to ask someone to give their own verbal depiction of Him is wrong.
I realize that we as humans, will not have an adequate picture of God. We do not know Him fully and so our picture of Him…..the way we see Him…..is flawed. But, that’s exactly what Sozo is trying to help with. We ask the person how they see God and allow God to speak the truth to them about Himself. To me, it’s far safer than listening to a sermon in which a person of authority tells me what I should believe about God. God is the one speaking to the person about Himself….and I think He knows best about that subject.
Another criticism is that we regularly pray to each member of the Godhead individually. Somehow, praying to one member of the Godhead opens us up to demonic entities. So, I pray to one member of the Godhead, I am communicating with God….but if I speak to another member of the Godhead who is just as much God, I may be communicating with a demon? How does that work? If I communicate with God….I am communicating with God. The only way to believe it opens the possibility of communicating with the demonic is if the one to whom I am speaking us not God.
Jesus spoke to the Father and told us of the coming of the Holy Spirit. He acknowledged that they are three yet one. He also speaks of us being God’s children, His siblings or friends and the Holy Spirit as our comforter. So, Jesus speaks of each member of the Godhead as fulfilling different roles in our lives. Yet, for us to acknowledge that is wrong?? It’s opening the door to the demonic? If each of the three is God….then whomever I address in my prayer…is God.
By the way, if one truly believes this, they need to stop encouraging children to ask Jesus into their heart, or to help them when they are scared or alone or need Him. We really need to stop speaking to Him at all. Speaking to Jesus is prayer. We need to stop inviting the presence of the Holy Spirit, that’s speaking to the Holy Spirit, aka, praying to the Holy Spirit.
And, a lot of hymns need to go:
Jesus, keep me near the cross….a prayer to Jesus
Come, Holy Spirit, we need You….a prayer to the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit, thou are welcome in this place….
Jesus, Lover of my soul, let me to Thy bosom fly…
Jesus, stand among us….
Come gracious Spirit, heavenly Dove….again, a prayer to the Holy Spirit
Just a little talk with Jesus makes it right? Or, does it invite more trouble? Prayer is talking with God. Put it to music, and it’s still talking with God. Just a little talk with Jesus….is praying to Jesus.
I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto Me and rest.” You heard Jesus??!! Well, that’s prayer. You talk to Him….He talks to you.
We regularly pray to and speak to and sing to each member of the Godhead. They each play different roles in our lives. One is our Father. One is our Bridgegroom. One is our Guide. Three, yet one. The Bible describes Him as three different entities, yet one. It is so explicit in their threeness that Christianity has been accused by some as being polytheistic. All three were involved in Creation, yet Jesus said He needed to go so the Holy Spirit could come. Three, yet one. It’s the basic doctrine of the Trinity.
The problem I see in these criticisms is that we it creates a god who is unapproachable…..a god with whom we simply cannot relate. He stays an ethereal spirit that we can’t really draw close to. Our relationship with Him stays cerebral…in our minds. We can know about Him, but we can’t really know Him. We don’t experience Him, which is what HE means when He wants us to know Him. We depend exclusively on our natural senses and never develop our spiritual senses. And, so what cannot be seen or evidenced in the natural world cannot be known. We place undue trust in our natural minds to comprehend Him because we forbid ourselves from experiencing Him in any other way. This elevation of reason and natural mind is the surest path to deceit.