Why do people believe in Ghosts but not God?
People are happy to use clairvoyants, watch ghost hunters which highlight the supernatural, but cannot bring themselves to accept there is a supernatural being working for the good of all. Some people expect God to perform miracles when things go wrong and protect us from the evil in the World. But there is evil in the world which often seeks to harm us. Do we acknowledge that God is beside us when we are ill, guiding the doctors to cure us? Do we humble ourselves and accept that the way God want us to do things is not the way we want to do things? People get upset or refuse to do it God’s way because they think they know better; this usually results in them getting deeper into trouble. Humility is a difficult thing for most human beings, but it is important in acknowledging God and accepting his guidance in the things we do.
The term Spiritual Power or Protection can easily be misunderstood. Most people associate it with mystics, spiritualism, or some psychic power. Most of these involve people parting with money to get help from people who are supposed to have these powers, many being frauds who are in it to make money from gullible people who are willing to give them loads of money. The Spiritual Protection I am referring to comes from God through his Holy Spirit. It is freely giving by God because he loves and cares about all of us. To understand this power, we need to look at how God helped his people during Old Testament times.
Deuteronomy chapter 4 seeks to encourage obedience to the law and particularly the prohibition of images. It emphasises the uniqueness of Israel’s God and the intimacy of his relationship with her is regularly expressed. (Deuteronomy 4.1-40 sets out the general command to obey the law) In 4.6 there is explicit identification of the observance to convent law with the possession and manifestation of wisdom, which is significant for later Israelite wisdom literature, where wisdom is seen as a gift from God.
The abstract nature of God and the absence of any physical representation of him imposed great difficulties for a people living in a world where all other people represent their gods in visual, physical form depicted in images often represented in the form of statues. The people were punished when they built a statue. The theme of educating the children which continues throughout is in the context of the covenant. Making the commandments known to your children. The transmission of the faith to the children is a recurrent theme of significance in Deuteronomy. It can be hard for people to understand why it was wrong for the Israelite to build a statue, when our churches are full of statues and images. These are meant to serve as reminded of the story of the people of God and not the focus of the worship. It can be hard for people to worship a God they cannot see and open themselves to feel the presents of His Holy Spirit.
In Deuteronomy 4.1-2, 6-9 Moses set out the law as given to him by God. Luke put it into words, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and minds”. (See Luke 10.25-37) This rule should be at the heart of all action. The law set out in Deuteronomy helped people to understand why it is harmful to break these laws. These ethical codes of conduct teach people that they should not do anything to harm others and face the trails and temptations of the world. People often reject the idea that there is a God because it would mean they would have to change their lives. In a world where greed and selfishness dominate it easy to see why people reject there is a God as they do not want to change the self-centred ways to a life that care about others. Perhaps if more people were to believe and follow God’s laws the world would be a safer place for all.