Who is your favorite celebrity? How would you feel today, if you were invited to meet with him or her? How would you feel when, after all the wait, anticipation, and fear dissipates and the moment comes when you actually meet your favorite celebrity? What would you say? What would you talk about with them? What things do you have in common with them?
If the above scenario seems daunting, perhaps we can look at it another way. When we put people on the pedestal, there are a lot of expectations we put on the event of meeting them in person.
The opposite can be true for you too. Perhaps there is someone in your life who admires you in some way. Perhaps they have had a fear of meeting you because of the all the conditions you might experience or feel when it comes to having this meeting come true for them. And when the moment comes when they do meet you, for you, there would be no fear, no anticipation, and no anxiety built up at all. The same would be true for your favorite person. There is no nervousness in them, because they likely have gone through this type of meeting over and over again, and because they are comfortable meeting people who admire them because of their celebrity experience and the fact that they are required to cast off fear while performing.
So let this rest on your mind. If you knew you would meet any famous person in the world tonight, but you were the most famous person on earth, how would you feel about meeting them now? Meeting others from a place of peace, confidence in who you are, knowledge of things that are above the worldliness, and the troubles and thoughts assigned to such important events would be natural. What if the most famous person in this scenario is Jesus Christ?
So now, let’s take that thought further, what if you were friends with the most famous person, Lord, King, and God of the world and you were getting to meet anyone in the world while with Him? Would your thoughts and feelings change about meeting famous or intimidating people? It should.
Idols, Idols Everywhere!
Famous people, past, present, and future are created beings. They have lived, live now, or will live lives like we do, but the major difference is that these people are recognized by man as important, superior, or higher than us in some way. This is our constant battle with the evil spirit of pride. It is through insecurity and inferiority that we feel lesser than any other created being. Perhaps we don’t feel as though we have anything in common or we believe that the other person has lived a life that is so far above ours, or that we cannot be from the same planet. In some ways, that may seem true, but in the Kingdom of God, is this true? When we elevate people (man) to the stature of a god, this is idolatry.
Definition of idolatry
noun
idol·a·try | \ ī-ˈdä-lə-trē \plural idolatries
1: the worship of a physical object as a god
2: immoderate attachment or devotion to something
Merriam-Webster
God created all people as equals. He calls us brethren; brothers and sisters on earth. Any reaction to another human being in a higher place than God is idolatry and perhaps is a big challenge for our minds in our world today. However, there is none higher than God and none to be worshipped other than Him. It’s for a good reason.
“You shall have no other gods before me." Exodus 20:3
Dream: Meeting Prince
In a recent dream, I had a distinction of meeting someone from the past that I once held in high esteem. It was Prince, the music artist well known as a prolific musician, singer, songwriter, and performer. His movie Purple Rain, changed my life as a child as I watched it repeatedly, listened to the mesmerizing music, and watched how powerfully he moved people with his emotional songs. I managed to not pay too much mind to the other songs or lyrics as they were evil, exploitative, sexual, and demeaning in their context. As a child, I justified him and his music as good. Several years later, as an adult and a saved and baptized-in-the-Spirit Christian however, my thoughts about the music in the past changed.
In this dream, I was told that I was about to meet prince and I must admit, I was excited. The current feelings that his music and life were demonstrably evil faded away as I was led in a city down streets that appeared as downtown Minneapolis. I was with a large group of people and walked into a courtyard, where I was then called away to pray for someone. Upon returning, alone this time, I walked down the same city streets and made notice of the shops, stores, and the occasional cemetery with the headstones of people as I made my way back to the courtyard outside this famous musician’s house. As I walked, I heard a voice telling me about Prince’s life. How he didn’t believe in God, but respected the people he met and their religious beliefs.
The voice told me how at the end of Prince’s life, He gave money to charities of believers and helped people in ways, but kept it private. As I walked past the city blocks and came upon the courtyard outside of Prince’s now much smaller than his earthly palace-like house, I walked toward the door and heard the words, “he’s been waiting for you” spoken in my mind. At the thought of this and the stairwell leading up to Prince’s living spaces, I recall hesitating and thinking, “I’m finally going to meet Prince!” and I looked down at my cell phone thinking, “I should call my wife and tell her!” Before I could though, I began walking up the stairs, turning the corner and looking at the same group of men I was with before now in the kitchen area of Prince’s house. As I walked towards this person who I once idolized, sang songs with through many a worn out tapes and CDs over the years, the feeling of crying came over me as I realized that this is the man who was once a famous person, who died tragically, but made a fortune, and had made such a profound impact in my life when I was younger. Now, here he was before me, dead, but made alive. Saved, when all the people in churches everywhere would say that he would be hell based on his lack of belief and the life he had lived.
The men surrounding him turned to greet me and I heard one of them say, “here he is!” about my presence in the room. Then, Prince walked over to me and seeing my emotional state and the sudden fear and onset of joy that resulted in with meeting this person who I held in such high esteem in my life, reached his arms out and said, “give me a hug!” I had a sudden realization that something wasn’t right. He didn’t look like Prince that was once here on earth, but had a different look to him. His face was more white than I would assume it to be in life and his hair, now curly, shoulder length, and salt and pepper colored. His words echoed in my ear as he walked over to me, embraced me and spoke the words, “let it go, let it go….”, as I was pulled from the dream into a waking state.
It was in the moments after waking that I realized that I must not think too highly of myself. In fact, I thought, if this was Prince, who I somehow retained adoration for in life after Jesus, but is now dead, and I still react like a fan-girl to his presence, then what how do I really feel about myself? How do I really feel about meeting God? Do I truly feel worthy of His presence? Do I honor Jesus Christ the way I seemed to honor a celebrity in a spiritual dream?
Not all people are what they seem to be. Celebrities are real people with real childhoods, who are people just like everyone else. But their successes or failures in life can turn them into a larger-than-life personas in our minds, because of the way our world elevates, celebrates, and mandates that we worship them. We do so by paying attention to their works, hearing them on the news, radio, tv programs, movies, magazines, etc., constantly. It’s quite unnerving the way we are subjected to this celebrity worship and become entranced by the entertainment industry by having us imagine they are so much more glorious than anything else on earth. But should we be so intimidated by them?
Spirits of Pride and Fear
Are there people who don’t have issues with pride or the opposite of pride, which is unworthiness, inferiority or insuperiority? I don’t believe so. It is now well known that Prince had such terrible nervousness and stage-fright, that he started taking pain killer medications to be able to show up and perform on stage. This inevitably cause his addiction to pain meds and subsequently killed him. Everyone experiences some form of emotional feelings of fear when dealing with being on camera, talking on radio, speaking in front of people, or performing in some way. This fear of speaking and performing in public is so common, it is listed as the most-common fear in studies where it was 25.3% of those surveyed.
I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Luke 15:7
Fearless with Jesus
As created beings of God, we are all, technically, celebrities. We are all celebrated in creation when we repent. We are all made in the image of God, and we are all to be conformed in the likeness of His firstborn son, Jesus Christ.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Romans 8:29
Jesus Christ was fearless. He walked among us, did and said things that were rejected by men, and kept going in order to complete His mission from God. He had to be bold and righteous in the face of men who were deceived by the evil one of this world and speak the truth then He knew He would be rejected. He had to claim the throne when all perceived He was a nobody (Nazarene) from nowhereville (Galilee).
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Isaiah 53:3
In the same way, Christians must be bold too. We must not be fearful or timid in the eyes of the enemy or our fellow brethren. We should walk upright, be as bold as lions, and speak God’s truth to all of creation regardless of what men say, think, write, or curse against us. We must trust the Prince of Peace, who is Jesus Christ and not the princes we face in life.
Do you suffer from fear and pride via insecurity or inferiority of who you are in Christ? Do you feel like you are unworthy or not good enough to approach the throne of God? He says we are to do so with grace and confidence (Hebrews 4:16). This ungodly fear keeps His best people from being who they were created to be and it is time to move on from this place into His promised land. We must reject the thoughts and fears of the enemy for glory of God to be made manifest among men. This is the boldness needed in this hour. Are you ready?
Blessings to you this day. May the Lord give you an overwhelming abundance in boldness as ambassadors of Christ and the power to move in His Spirit to help those who need you. Fear not; be of good cheer!
“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”
2 Corinthians 1:20-22