Mammon thrives on the carnal desire of Independence from God

Mammon is a real demonic spirit that tempts people, both the unsaved and saved into sins. We all feel anxious at times about earthly duties or needs. Mammon seeks to enslave us all to this anxiety. The human carnal mind is hostile against God and therefore cannot submit to God (Romans 8:7). Thus, it is natural for it to seek independence from God. 

The world seeks help in all places when it faces suffering, pain and evil - governments to make laws, societies to rise up against evil, academics to research the particular evil action of interest, scientists to make drugs that help people cope with depression, and teachers, psychologists and social workers to comfort people in distress. Yet, it accuses God, by accusing the Bible is being of little help, outdated or even in their wicked, vile blasphemy and holier-than-thou attitude, immoral.  How dare anyone accuse God of being immoral! The world even dares accuse God of being evil. Such are those who eyes are filled with darkness and seek darkness:

 The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light (Luke 11:34-36).

As the world seeks after the lust of the eyes, its eyes become darkened. All its perceptions are darkened. An unsaved person may think, "money is not everything". The real issue that do you seek after God first, or your own carnal, earthly, ungodly desires. Money is not only not everything - it is nothing. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever (1 John 2:17). 

You may say, "well, I'm a Christian so I can never be under the spirit of mammon". Such is the attitude of many modern evangelicals who think they are so gracious in rebuking those Christians who express disgust at sinners as judgmental, while being judgmental themselves. No! As long as you fail to fully rely on God, that is fully and completely rely on God's Providence, instead of trusting in your own human strength and abilities, you are under the spirit of mammon. To be under the spirit of mammon is to be enslaved to, in the case of the unsaved, or succumb to serve your own carnal desires in the case of the true Christian. The Christian can and does fall into sin. Falling into serving mammon from time to time is not excluded. 

Many Christians show that they are yield to mammon's temptations as a besetting sin, not a habitual sin. The unsaved serve mammon habitually. The mammonised Christian serves mammon besettingly. A besetting sin is a sin that one often falls into. The mammonised Christian is a true convert but struggles with and often falls into serving mammon, that is, to be anxious about one's needs and to seek earthly, worldly approval. One may ask how is being anxious about one's needs and seeking earthly, worldly approval related. Both are signs of yielding to the carnal desires of seeking one's earthly needs and the things that are of the world.

One modern evangelical, who loves to accuse me of mishandling the Bible and inspecting this blog because I am such as "dangerous heretic", rebuked me harshly and mockingly, saying that he disagrees (meaning that he hates) that way I speak about mammon. He says that it is from "our" sinful hearts (because he does not want to individualise it, but generalise sin like the unbeliever does when convicted of sins) that we sin. This is an extremely deceptive argument that and his motive is really avoid the issue. He loves to use "nuanced" language, which he tries to impose on me, so that he can distinguish between different issues he wants to cherry-pick.  

In saying that one yields to the spirit of mammon, one is by no means shifting the responsibility. No! The temptation is one thing, but yielding to it is that fault of the person who sins. 1 Kings 22:22-23 refers to a lying spirit. 1 Timothy 4:1 and 1 John 4:1-2 refer to deceiving spirits. Evil spirits do exist. One needs spiritual discernment to understand how the operate. 1 Corinthians 12:10 states that one of the gifts of the Spirit is the ability to discern spirits: To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues. It must be noted how it says spirits. 

The modern evangelical flippantly and rudely said, "And I don't find the name of these evil spirits in the Bible". Simply because something is not named explicitly in the Bible does not mean it does not exist.  The Bible does not tell us everything and some things only come by discernment to only some individuals. Could I not have been given some revelation about these evil spirits that you deny because they are not found in the Bible, Mr Modern Evangelical?

The spirit of independence thrives on the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life. Independence is that which gives so many people, especially those vile, abominable secular women in the west their sense of pride. It blinds those under the spirit of mammon into thinking they do not need God for anything, even one's very life. 

The lust of the eyes tempts a person to think that because he cannot see how God works or blesses, and denegrates God. The lust of the flesh seeks to get what it wants and hates God for not doing what is wants, and blames God when it suffers the consequences of sin. The pride of life tempts a person to think that he is better than God because he has some earthly achievements, he does not need God and has virtually lived independently of God.

The spirit of mammon is the spirit behind independence from God.