Esther Ideh and the Recovery of a God-Centred Christianity
There are moments when a short video clip does more than make a good point.
It exposes an entire spiritual operating system.
That is what happened to me listening to two short excerpts from a much longer conversation with Esther Ideh on The Shining Light Show, hosted by Flourish Ubanyi.
The complete conversation is worth watching:
The Shining Light Show — “Stop Being Lukewarm | Jesus is calling you to be a TRUE Disciple | Esther Ideh”
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-bQxnib4zI
The Shining Light Show channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@theshininglightshow
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-shining-light-show/id1700965951
Esther Ideh:
https://www.instagram.com/esther.ideh/
Haverim Ministries:
https://www.haverimministries.com/
I first encountered the thoughts as two short clips.
In one, Esther asks whether many Christians are actually being driven more by Satan and their problems than by God.
In the other, she challenges a Christianity that celebrates prophecy, miracles, spiritual manifestations and emotional experiences while sometimes failing to ask the most important question:
Who is God?
Taken together, I don’t think these are simply two provocative social-media moments.
They reveal a coherent and necessary challenge to contemporary Christianity.
And the more I have thought about them, the more I believe the issue is much bigger than prayer, spiritual warfare, miracles or intellectual Christianity.
The real question is:
WHAT IF GOD HAS BECOME USEFUL TO US, BUT NOT BEAUTIFUL TO US?
What if many of us seek God primarily because of what He can solve, what He can stop, what He can give us or what He can make us feel?
And what happens when God Himself becomes the point?
1. WHAT IF SATAN HAS BECOME TOO IMPORTANT TO OUR CHRISTIANITY?
In the first clip, Esther makes an uncomfortable observation:
“Satan is the reason people want to pray. Satan is the reason people want to fast.”
She continues by suggesting that, for some Christians, even seeking the face of God and some of our songs have become shaped by fear of Satan.
Then she asks the question that stopped me:
“If Satan didn’t exist, would you still believe in God?”
That is a serious question.
She is not saying Satan does not exist.
She is not arguing that spiritual warfare is unbiblical.
She is asking something much deeper:
Has the enemy become the reason we need God?
Think about how easily our Christianity can be organised around opposition.
I need protection.
Therefore I need God.
I need provision.
Therefore I need God.
Someone is attacking me.
Therefore I need God.
My business is struggling.
Therefore I need God.
My marriage is in difficulty.
Therefore I need God.
I need healing.
Therefore I need God.
I need breakthrough.
Therefore I need God.
These needs are real.
Prayer concerning them is legitimate.
But there is a subtle danger.
God can gradually become the means, while the life we want becomes the destination.
And suddenly we have two very different spiritual operating systems:
GOD AS THE MEANS → MY DESIRED LIFE AS THE DESTINATION
versus
GOD HIMSELF AS THE DESTINATION → EVERYTHING ELSE FINDS ITS PROPER PLACE
That distinction is enormous.
Because perfectly legitimate Christian practices — prayer, fasting, deliverance, spiritual warfare, prosperity, healing and breakthrough — can become transactional.
God becomes useful.
But is He desired?
Remove the crisis.
Remove the enemy.
Remove the financial problem.
Remove the sickness.
Remove the urgent prayer request.
And the uncomfortable question remains:
DO I ACTUALLY WANT GOD?
2. CHRISTIANITY AS ESCAPE
Esther goes further.
She reflects on the way Christianity has sometimes been presented to us:
Come to Jesus and your problems will disappear.
Come to Jesus and your life will become successful.
Come to Jesus and you will get the car, the house, the job and the life you desire.
Again, there is nothing wrong with believing that God provides, heals, protects and blesses.
The problem comes when the blessing becomes the gospel.
There is a version of Christianity that doesn’t really invite people to God.
It invites people to a better life, with God as its sponsor.
But Scripture presents something much deeper.
David says in Psalm 27:4:
“One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.”
There are enemies in Psalm 27.
There is danger.
There is opposition.
David is not naive about any of them.
But they do not become the centre of his spirituality.
His enemies are present.
God is the destination.
That distinction matters.
Perhaps mature worship begins when:
GOD BECOMES BEAUTIFUL ENOUGH TO DESIRE EVEN WHEN WE NEED NOTHING FROM HIM.
Then prayer changes.
Prayer isn’t merely something I use to change circumstances.
Prayer becomes communion.
Fasting is no longer merely spiritual leverage.
Fasting becomes hunger for God.
Worship is no longer merely the atmosphere we create before a breakthrough.
Worship becomes beholding Him.
Holiness isn’t simply avoiding behaviour that might “give Satan access.”
Holiness becomes becoming like the One we love.
And obedience is no longer merely the price we pay to receive God’s blessing.
Obedience becomes love expressed.
Jesus said:
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
— John 14:15
So perhaps the journey of Christian maturity looks more like:
NEED → SEEK → BEHOLD → LOVE → BECOME → OBEY → SERVE
We may begin with what God can do for us.
But surely we must mature into wanting God Himself.
And eventually, because we love Him, the question changes from:
“What can God do for me?”
to:
“What can my life become for Him?”
3. THEN ESTHER TAKES THE ARGUMENT FURTHER
The second clip initially seems to address another issue entirely.
But I don’t think it does.
It is the same problem appearing in another form.
Esther recounts a conversation with someone who suggested that defending the Christian faith could be relatively simple:
Give somebody an accurate prophetic word and they will believe.
Esther’s response is important because she does not reject the supernatural.
She says explicitly that she believes in spiritual gifts.
She speaks positively about prophecy, healing the sick and even raising the dead.
But then she says:
After giving somebody a prophetic word, after healing the sick and raising the dead, they can still ask, “Who is God? Why should I give myself to Him?”
That is profound.
A miracle may demonstrate power.
But a miracle does not necessarily explain character.
A manifestation may produce awe.
But it does not automatically produce understanding.
A prophetic word may convince someone that something supernatural occurred.
But that person may still ask:
Who is this God?
What is He like?
Why is He worthy of my life?
And that means there is another danger.
In the first clip:
GOD CAN BE REDUCED TO A SOLUTION.
In the second:
GOD CAN BE REDUCED TO AN EXPERIENCE.
4. “GOD, WHAT DID THAT MEAN?”
Esther describes something many Pentecostal and charismatic Christians will immediately recognise.
We love the electricity.
We love the wind.
We love the thunderstorm.
We love falling under the power of God.
We love moments in which something supernatural appears to be happening.
But then Esther asks why we so rarely get up afterward, dust ourselves down and ask:
“GOD, WHAT DID THAT MEAN?”
What a question.
Because an encounter can be real and still be misunderstood.
An experience can be powerful and still leave us immature.
We can feel something without learning anything.
We can fall down and rise without becoming wiser.
We can shout.
We can cry.
We can tremble.
We can experience something extraordinary.
And yet remain unchanged.
There is nothing wrong with spiritual experience.
The mistake is stopping at the experience.
Because:
ENCOUNTER WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING CAN PRODUCE EXCITEMENT WITHOUT TRANSFORMATION.
Perhaps every significant encounter with God should eventually lead us to ask:
What happened?
Why did it happen?
What does this reveal about God?
What does it reveal about me?
What is God teaching?
What must change?
What must I now do?
Which brings me to something remarkable.
This is almost precisely the purpose of the framework we have increasingly used in our own teaching:
WHY. WHAT. HOW. NOW.
5. WHY, WHAT, HOW & NOW
What happened?
I encountered God.
Why does it matter?
What does this reveal about God, myself, His Kingdom or His purposes?
How should that understanding change me?
What must I rethink, surrender, practise or become?
Now what?
What obedience does this require?
That moves Christianity from mere experience to formation.
It is not enough to say:
“God moved.”
We must ask:
“What was God saying?”
It is not enough to say:
“I felt God’s presence.”
We must ask:
“What is His presence forming in me?”
It is not enough to say:
“The enemy was defeated.”
We must ask:
“Now that I am free, who am I becoming?”
That changes everything.
6. GOD IS TOO BIG FOR ONLY YOUR HEART
Then Esther makes perhaps the most important statement in the entire conversation:
“You can’t serve God without your mind, and you can’t serve God without your heart.”
She concludes:
“God is too big for only your heart, and He’s too big for only your mind.”
That is an extraordinarily useful corrective.
Because Christianity sometimes seems trapped between two errors.
On one side:
CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT THOUGHT
Emotion.
Manifestation.
Prophecy.
Spiritual warfare.
Intensity.
Experience.
And sometimes an almost deliberate suspicion of thinking.
On the other side:
CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT ENCOUNTER
Theology.
Argument.
Information.
Intellectual sophistication.
Correct propositions.
But little wonder.
Little intimacy.
Little worship.
Little encounter.
Esther refuses both.
And rightly so.
Jesus did not command us to love God with only our emotions.
He spoke of loving God with our heart, soul, mind and strength.
So perhaps we might say:
HEART WITHOUT MIND CAN DESCEND INTO SUPERSTITION.
MIND WITHOUT HEART CAN DESCEND INTO STERILE RELIGION.
HEART + MIND CAN LEAD US TOWARD KNOWING GOD.
This matters particularly if we truly believe that wisdom is God’s operating system.
If God possesses wisdom and understanding, seeking His face cannot mean switching off the very faculty with which we enquire, discern, understand and apply wisdom.
God does not require our brains to go on holiday before we can worship Him.
7. THE FRIEND WHO ONLY CALLS TO EAT
Then Esther gives a wonderfully simple analogy.
Imagine having a friend who only contacts you when it is time to go and eat.
Eventually you might say:
There is so much more to me than food.
I have wisdom.
I have understanding.
There are things I love.
There are things that interest me.
Why don’t you ever ask me about those things?
Now put God into that picture.
God, heal me.
God, protect me.
God, provide for me.
God, fight my enemies.
God, promote me.
God, give me a word.
God, give me an experience.
God, let me feel Your presence.
Again:
None of these prayers is inherently wrong.
But when do we ask:
God, what do You love?
God, what do You think?
What matters to You?
What are You doing in the world?
What are You like?
What breaks Your heart?
What gives You pleasure?
What are You trying to teach me?
What do You want me to become?
At that moment Christianity begins to move from:
USING GOD
towards:
KNOWING GOD.
And perhaps this is the single thread joining both Esther Ideh clips.
8. TWO DISTORTIONS — ONE PROBLEM
The first clip challenges:
GOD AS SOLUTION.
The second challenges:
GOD AS SENSATION.
But both distortions arise from the same deeper problem:
God is not actually the centre.
In one version, the problem is the centre.
In another, the experience is the centre.
The enemy can become the centre.
The miracle can become the centre.
The prophecy can become the centre.
The breakthrough can become the centre.
Even our personal transformation can become the centre.
But Christianity begins to recover its proper order when:
GOD BECOMES THE POINT.
Not merely God’s gifts.
God.
Not merely God’s protection.
God.
Not merely God’s power.
God.
Not merely God’s presence as an experience.
God Himself.
9. EVERYTHING GOD TEACHES US IS TAKING US SOMEWHERE
This gives deeper meaning to something I have been thinking and teaching for some time:
EVERYTHING GOD TEACHES US IS TAKING US SOMEWHERE.
Prayer is taking us somewhere.
Thanksgiving is taking us somewhere.
Worship is taking us somewhere.
Holiness is taking us somewhere.
Obedience is taking us somewhere.
Faith is not simply for receiving things.
Thanksgiving is not simply acknowledging benefits.
Worship is not atmosphere.
Holiness is not mere rule keeping.
Obedience is not a transaction.
Service is not church activity.
There is a progression:
FAITH → THANKSGIVING → WORSHIP → HOLINESS → OBEDIENCE → SERVICE
And ultimately that “somewhere” cannot merely be:
victory over Satan.
It cannot merely be:
a successful life.
It cannot merely be:
another encounter.
It cannot merely be:
another testimony.
The destination is:
TO KNOW GOD.
TO LOVE GOD.
TO BECOME LIKE HIM.
TO LIVE FOR WHAT HE DESIRES.
10. FROM EXPERIENCE TO FORMATION
That means perhaps we need two pathways side by side.
The first:
NEED → SEEK → BEHOLD → LOVE → BECOME → OBEY → SERVE
And the second:
EXPERIENCE → QUESTION → UNDERSTAND → KNOW → LOVE → BECOME
Put them together and an extraordinary picture of discipleship begins to emerge.
We bring God our needs.
But we don’t remain need-centred.
We experience His power.
But we don’t remain experience-centred.
We begin asking questions.
We seek understanding.
Understanding produces deeper knowledge.
Knowledge awakens love.
Love produces transformation.
Transformation produces obedience.
And obedience eventually becomes service.
The Christian life is not simply about receiving increasingly powerful things from God.
It is about becoming increasingly formed by God.
11. PERHAPS THIS IS CHRISTIAN MATURITY
So I find myself arriving at this proposition:
CHRISTIAN MATURITY IS NOT LEARNING HOW TO GET MORE FROM GOD.
IT IS LEARNING HOW TO KNOW MORE OF GOD — WITH HEART, MIND, LIFE AND OBEDIENCE.
That does not diminish prayer.
It purifies prayer.
It does not abolish fasting.
It reorients fasting.
It does not deny spiritual warfare.
It puts Satan back in his proper place.
It does not dismiss miracles.
It asks what the miracle reveals.
It does not reject manifestations.
It asks what the manifestation means.
It does not suppress emotion.
It connects emotion with understanding.
It does not worship intellect.
It brings the mind into loving submission to God.
The result is not cold Christianity.
Quite the opposite.
It is:
Worship with wisdom.
Fire with formation.
Power with purpose.
Encounter with understanding.
Prayer with communion.
Holiness with beauty.
Obedience flowing from love.
12. ABOUT ESTHER IDEH
It is important to me that these thoughts are properly attributed because these reflections did not begin with me.
They were provoked by listening to Esther Ideh, a Nigerian Bible teacher and Christian thinker whose own description of her work is wonderfully concise:
“Helping believers think. Helping thinkers believe.”
Her Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/esther.ideh/
Her YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@estherideh
Esther is also the founder and steward of Haverim Ministries, whose work focuses strongly on serious engagement with Scripture, discipleship and understanding the biblical text.
Haverim Ministries:
https://www.haverimministries.com/
Haverim describes Esther as a Bible teacher and prophetic voice whose work is centred on Scripture and transformation.
Haverim leadership profile:
https://www.haverimministries.com/leadership
The conversation from which these particular ideas emerged was with Flourish Ubanyi on The Shining Light Show.
The full Esther Ideh episode:
“Stop Being Lukewarm | Jesus is calling you to be a TRUE Disciple | Esther Ideh”
The Shining Light Show:
Apple Podcasts:
Flourish Ubanyi:
The Shining Light Show describes its mission as using testimonies and honest faith-centred conversations to help people live out the Christian faith practically across life, relationships, career, emotional health and personal development.
That context matters.
Because what Esther is doing in these excerpts is more than making provocative statements for social media.
She is doing theological discipleship in accessible public language.
She is asking believers to think.
Without asking them to stop believing.
She is inviting thinkers to believe.
Without asking them to stop thinking.
That combination is rare.
And necessary.
13. THE QUESTION WE MUST NOT ESCAPE
So perhaps the questions are no longer simply:
Do you pray?
Do you fast?
Do you believe in spiritual warfare?
Have you experienced God’s power?
Do you believe in prophecy?
Have you witnessed miracles?
The more penetrating questions are:
Why do you pray?
Why do you fast?
What do you think God is for?
What happens after the manifestation?
What did the experience teach you?
Would you still desire God if there were no enemy to defeat?
Would you still worship if there were no breakthrough required?
Would you still seek Him if your needs were already met?
Do you love God beyond what He can give you?
Are you interested in what God Himself loves?
And perhaps the most important question of all:
DO I WANT GOD — OR DO I SIMPLY WANT WHAT GOD CAN DO?
Because mature worship may begin when:
GOD BECOMES BEAUTIFUL ENOUGH TO DESIRE EVEN WHEN WE NEED NOTHING FROM HIM.
And mature discipleship may begin when, after God moves, we do not simply celebrate the movement.
We ask:
“GOD, WHAT DID THAT MEAN?”
That is the paradigm shift I hear in Esther Ideh’s words.
A Christianity not driven primarily by Satan.
A Christianity not addicted to sensation.
A Christianity not frightened of thought.
A Christianity not satisfied with benefits.
A Christianity centred on God Himself.
Heart awakened.
Mind engaged.
Life surrendered.
Obedience flowing from love.
Because God is not merely the One who helps us win.
GOD IS THE ONE WE WERE MADE TO KNOW.
Sources & Further Listening
Esther Ideh — Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/esther.ideh/
Esther Ideh — YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@estherideh
Haverim Ministries
https://www.haverimministries.com/
Esther Ideh — Haverim Ministries Leadership Profile
https://www.haverimministries.com/leadership
The Shining Light Show — Esther Ideh Full Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-bQxnib4zI
The Shining Light Show — YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/@theshininglightshow
The Shining Light Show — Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-shining-light-show/id1700965951
Flourish Ubanyi — Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/shininglight_flo/
