We long for an Oracle priest to connect us to the spiritual world: one that has broken through to the spirit in a way that the common person cannot. He alone knows the mind of the deity. He understands the prescribed rituals to join us with unseen powers. He can provide the means to achieve our desires, whether good or evil. The words of this juju man are thought to be the very words of the god.
As such he becomes the necessary mediator between the god and the “laity” common people: a sacred spiritual priest. In short, the words of the Oracle are the words of the god.
By a subtle but evil association, we have conceived that the “Man of God” is the Oracle of God. Somehow, we have replaced the juju man in the bush with the “Pastor” in our minds. Thus this inbred thinking of African Traditional Religion [ATR] has been transferred into the “church.” By so doing, clergymen have actually become antichrists in a very practical sense by competing with Christ Himself.
“Prayer Points” have their origin in this mentality: that the Oracle priest speaks for the unseen god. The “Man of God” tells the people what God wants them to practice, believe, and pray; this is ATR.
Many believe that the “pastor” hears from God and then transmits to the people the “word” from God that he has received. This is the traditional mindset in ATR. Here is how it works. The people have no direct access to the deity. They therefore come to the Oracle priest who alone has entrance there. The priest, through sacred ritual, divines the message from the deity. He then brings the message of the god to the people for a price. The people pay the Oracle/priest and leave with the message of a god they have never known and never encountered. It is what is done in the village; it is what is done in the “church.”
Of this mentality, we must repent. “There is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus” -1 Timothy 2:5. A pastor is not your mediator. If he is, then he is an antichrist, a substitute for the One and only Mediator, Christ Jesus the Lord. A “Man of God” has no more access to the Lord than any other true believer. Heaven is open to the lowliest and weakest Christian.
“Therefore, since we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. This High Priest of ours understands/sympathizes with our weaknesses. He is One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” –Hebrews 4:14-16. There exists no separate and special class of Oracle priests among believers in Christ.
All are priests. All have equal and direct access to the Majesty in heaven, the true and living God, apart from human mediators. You need no Oracle to intercede for you or to tell you what to pray.
The Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit both intercede for you; seeking human mediators is turning back to the deception and bondage of ATR. Jesus is “able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” –Hebrews 7:25. What will the mediation of a “Man of God” add to that? He is not your Oracle.
The Holy Spirit Himself guides us in what to pray. “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for the saints [holy ones/true believers] according to the will of God” –Romans 8:26,27. Why do you need a “Man of God” to give you “prayer points”? You don’t. You are a priest and heaven is open.
In ATR, the Oracle is “anointed” with supernatural abilities and access to the god that the common people do not possess. Therefore it is only through him that “average” people can experience the supernatural. This we need to repent of. In Christ Jesus, all are anointed with the same Holy Spirit, equally and fully. No one’s anointing passes that of another. There are no “super” Christians.
We share in the same life, spiritual blessings, and anointing. “Little children you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. The anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, it is true and is not a lie. Just as it has taught you, abide in Him” -1 Jn.2:18,20,27.
These truths are what are known in the Bible as the priesthood of all believers and the anointing of all believers. Practice these; abide in these. Throw aside the bondage of ATR’s Oracle mentality.