Being Exposed of having Idols in our Heart and Returning to God to Drink and Enjoy Him

The evil condition of a wicked person is that they don’t come to the Lord to eat and enjoy Him; rather, they may do many things, but they don’t drink Him, and they have idols in their heart, seeking after God yet still having other things and matters that they worship.

As believers in Christ, we have the divine life in our spirit, and the Lord wants to spread Himself from our spirit to all the inner parts of our being.

However, our heart is like flypaper – it sticks to all kinds of things, people, situations, and matters, and before we know it, we spend much more time with a particular thing or person than with the Lord.

The first characteristic of our God, His first attribute, is that He loves us and He is jealous over us; He doesn’t want us to pursue, seek after, and spend time with other things – He wants us to be His and His alone!

In the book of Jeremiah the Lord said that His people have committed two evils – they forsook Him as the fountain of living waters (evil number one) and they hew out for themselves cisterns (evil number two); these cisterns, however, hold no water, for they are broken.

We can testify in our daily life that, even though we love the Lord, we read His word, we meet with the saints, and we pursue Him, there still are some things that we take as our “fountain of water”, that is, there still are some idols.

These idols may not be something on the mantle that we worship but are in our heart; we may spend much time on a certain website, we may have an app that really makes us happy and we love playing a certain game, we may enjoy a certain sport, we may consume much entertainment, or we may just spend hours and hours on Instagram or TikTok.

We may say that we don’t sin, we don’t do an evil thing, but to God such a thing is evil, for we forsake Him as the fountain of living waters, and we hew out for ourselves cisterns that are supposed to hold water but actually they do not satisfy us.

We may run after a certain thing, we may work very hard to obtain something, but nothing apart from God can satisfy us or quench our thirst.

Apart from God Himself dispensed into us as living water, nothing can quench our thirst and make us God’s increase for His expression.

Everything apart from God is vanity and chasing after wind; we may find a temporary enjoyment or pleasure in one thing, but the next day we are dissatisfied and disillusioned, and our heart is broken.

But when we open to the Lord and spend time with Him, when we turn our heart to Him and allow Him to dispense Himself into us, our inner thirst is quenched, we are satisfied, and the rivers of His pleasures makes us happy; we become the increase of God for His corporate expression.

Nothing is more Wicked in God’s Eyes but not to Drink of Him and Enjoy Him yet to Do many Things

According to Isa. 55:7, the evildoer, the wicked one, is the one who doesn’t come to drink of God; in the eyes of God, nothing is more wicked than His people not drinking of Him and not enjoying Him.

The evil condition of the wicked is that they don’t come to the Lord to eat, drink, and enjoy the Lord; they may do many things, but they don’t contact the Lord.

Such a word is spoken not to the unbelievers but to the people of God; we as the people of God may be wicked in God’s eyes when we are busy doing many things yet we don’t contact God, we don’t drink God, and we don’t enjoy God.

We may be busy in the things of the Lord or with our own things, yet if we don’t come to contact the Lord, to take Him, to receive Him, and to taste and enjoy Him, we are evil in the eyes of God (Isa. 57:20-21; 55:12).

This is similar to the Lord’s word in Jer. 2:13 where He says that His people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Him as the fountain of living waters and they hew out for themselves cisterns (broken cisterns which hold no water).

In God’s eyes an evil one is not just someone who commits murder or does evil things; an evil person is one who doesn’t drink of God.

He calls us, invites us, and welcomes us: Everyone who thirsts come to the water, with no money, buy and eat; why do you spend money on things that don’t satisfy – eat what is good, and let your soul delight in fatness (Isa. 55:12).

In the New Testament the Lord Jesus calls us again and again to come to Him and drink, for He is the true food and the true drink, and if we don’t eat of Him and drink of Him we have no part with Him.

We may think that we are not involved in evil things, we don’t do bad things and we don’t hang around with evil people, but simply by not coming to the Lord again and again, simply by not drinking the living water, we are evil in the eyes of God.

Only God can give us joy, happiness, and enjoyment; the way to enjoy Him is to come to Him, contact Him, take Him, receive Him, taste Him, and enjoy Him.

We are made as vessels to contain God as the living water; when we don’t contain God as the living water, we are useless – we are good for nothing, for we’re empty vessels, vessels with nothing in it.

In the sight of God this is evil, for us to be empty or to try to fill ourselves with things other than Him.

We may not enjoy God and drink of Him, but we may spend so much time on our phone, watching things, doing things outwardly, shopping, travelling, and having idols in our heart.

This world is an idol department store, and we can see it all in the palm of our hand; we can “choose our idol” and we can “follow our idol” simply by checking our smartphone or computer.

May we realize that it is utterly wicked and evil in the eyes of God not to drink of Him, not to eat Him, and not to enjoy Him, even though we may be busy doing things either for Him or just for ourselves.

We may even have morning revival, come to the meetings, sing hymns, and pray, yet we may not contact the Lord.

We may meet with the saints, we may visit the new ones, we may call the ones who want to have a Bible study over the phone, but we may not contact the Lord; this is evil in His sight, and we are a hypocrite when we do this. Oh Lord Jesus!

Lord Jesus, save us from being evil and wicked in Your sight by not coming to You to eat and enjoy You. Save us from merely doing many things for You yet without contacting You and drinking You. Oh Lord, may we forsake all other things and stop our doing to just come to You, contact You, eat You, drink You, and enjoy You. Oh Lord, save us from just going through spiritual motions without contacting You. Save us from having idols in our heart; save us from having things or matters that would replace You in us. We come to You to drink and eat of You, for only You satisfy our soul, and Your presence delights us. We love You, Lord Jesus!

Being exposed of having Idols in our Heart which Estrange us from God and Returning to Him

According to the Bible, God’s intention is to dispense Himself into man as man’s satisfaction so that He may be enlarged, but man became unfaithful and unchaste, and man forsook God for idols.

Even as believers, we may have idols in our heart (Ezek. 14:3), which is anything within us that we love and treasure more than the Lord and that replaces the Lord in our life (1 John 5:21).

An idol is not merely something sitting in the living room, but anything in our heart that replaces God.

For example, at one point brother Watchman Nee was at an impasse: the Lord wanted him to serve Him and follow Him, but he had a girl whom he loved in school; so the Lord told him, It’s either Me or her.

Then brother Nee was reminded of the word in the Psalms, Whom do I have in heaven but You, and there’s nothing I desire on earth but You. This verse saved him, causing him to put aside this young lady, follow the Lord, and serve Him.

Eventually, the Lord did give him this lady in marriage, and she became his wife, but she was not an idol to him.

It’s all about whom and what you love; there’s a rivalry going on, a competition which God does not allow.

So we need to guard ourselves from idols, garrison ourselves from idols, from anything that can become our idol.

Our heart can have an idol just like that; in the morning we may not love something, but by the end of the day we worship it, and we may not love something today, but we may love it tomorrow.

Many things can stick to our heart if we’re not careful, so we need to guard our heart above all that we guard.

If we set up idols in our heart, we are estranged from the Lord Lord through our idols (Ezek. 14:5); idols cause us to be estranged from God.

Our being a believer is a matter of loving God; if we love anything else more than Him, we are estranged from God, and this leads to separation and even divorce….Oh Lord!

All those who have idols within them yet seek God in an outward way cannot find Him (Ezek. 14:3; Jer. 29:13).

We may seek Him, but we may not find Him; we may pray, but He doesn’t open, and our prayers may not be answered when we ask, because our heart is drawn away and goes after other things.

God demands nothing less but a full heart; He tells us to love Him with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, for He deserves nothing less.

According to the book of Jeremiah, by worshipping idols, Israel made themselves vain, nothing, for they had so many idols that the number of them was according to the number of their cities (Jer. 2:5, 28, and 11:13).

Israel exchanged the reality of their God, their glory, for the vanity of idols (2:11; Psa. 106:20; Rom. 1:23).

If we have idols in our heart, we exchange the glory of God for vanity, for unreality; worshipping idols is worshipping unreality.

May the Lord save us from apostasy, that is, leaving the way of God and taking another way to follow things other than God; apostasy is to forsake God and to turn to idols (Jer. 2:19). Oh Lord!

By having idols in our heart we defect the One we believe into, we revolt against Him, and we go after something else.

When Israel was captured by the Babylonians, they still would not give up their idols and had to carry them from the good land to Babylon; these became their burden (Isa. 46:1).

Anything that replaces God or occupies the position of God is an idol, and this becomes a burden to us.

We notice this especially when we need to clean up our house or move house: we have so many things that we used to love, so many things that our heart is still loving…and we have to carry them wherever we go…

The dumb and voiceless idols (1 Cor. 12:2; Hab. 2:18-20) make their worshippers dumb and voiceless; the idols have eyes but can’t see, they have mouth but can’t speak, they have legs but can’t walk, and they have hands but can’t do anything.

All those who worship the idols become like them, dumb, senseless, and voiceless – they become dead like their idols.

But when we turn to the Lord, when we turn away from idols to serve the living God, our mouth is open, we are dumb no more, and we believe – therefore we speak!

No worshippers of God should be silent; all should use their voices to speak forth, Jesus is Lord! in the Spirit of God; such a speaking is the main function of all the spiritual gifts.

For us to call on the name of the Lord with a proper spirit is the way to participate in, to enjoy, and to experience the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3b; Rom. 14:17).

It is only the dead who don’t praise God, but we will bless Him, from now to eternity (see Psa. 115:17-18).

This is what we as believers should do all the time; our real church life and Christian life is to praise the Lord, call on His name, and speak forth His wonderful deeds!

May the Lord have mercy on us and expose the idols in our heart, and may we realize that whatever we possess and even whatever we are can become an idol.

Just as Israel was evil and unfaithful to God in forsaking God for idols, so we do many times, so we need to return to the Lord, contact Him, enjoy Him, and drink of Him as the fountain of living waters!

Lord Jesus, have mercy on us and expose any idols in our heart, anything in us that replaces You and demands our time and love. Save us from setting up idols in our heart, thus being estranged from You as our real, loving Husband. Oh Lord, we return to You, we repent for loving other things, and we turn our heart to You. We call on Your name and we praise You for all that You are and have done. We give ourselves to love You with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength! Lord, You deserve everything that we are and have; we call on Your name, we forsake anything that tries to draw us and attract us, and we lift our voice to speak, Jesus is Lord! Hallelujah, praise the Lord!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Jeremiah, msg. 6 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations, week 3, The Two Evils of God’s People and God’s Faithfulness in Fulfilling His Economy.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Idols once they won thee, charmed thee, / Lovely things of time and sense; / Gilded thus does sin disarm thee, / Honeyed lest thou turn thee thence… / Not the crushing of those idols, / With its bitter void and smart; / But the beaming of His beauty, / The unveiling of His heart. (Hymns #437)
  – How we must give Him all our heart and from all idols turn! / Oh, who else could there be who loves so tenderly? / Lord Jesus, You’re the only One who makes our heart to burn— / O please do not delay! Come quickly, e’en today! (Hymns #1311)
  – Lord, we’ve been drawn off by many things; / Now we turn our heart back—how it sings! / We repent of loving other things— / Jesus, Lord, You’re our first love. / Never more could we desire / Anything that’s less than You, / And to this we would aspire— / Simply to be filled with You. (Song on, Jesus Lord, You’re our first love)