2 Kings 18:4 He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)
The Nehushtan in the Hebrew Bible was a sacred object in the form of a snake of brass upon a pole. In the old testament, Moses used a 'fiery serpent' to cure the Israelites from snakebites( Num21:9). It was an instruction God gave to Moses for that moment for curative purpose but it wasn't meant to last forever. After the Israelites received their healing, they continued to worship an ordinary serpent of brass. They made a god of it. It was during the reign of Hezekiah that the serpent of brass was destroyed. That was hundreds of years after the serpent was made. Today, most believers are making the same mistake.
There are believers that have a replica of Nehushtan in their houses. There are people that do not believe in God's word. They have special oils, and objects they consult for different occasions. Some ministers have set up Nehushtan in their churches as anointed oil, water, soap, candle, mantles and other objects. The intention of God for giving the instruction that those things should be used was not for the purpose of deifying them. God wanted people to exercise obedience to an instruction for that time and it worked but not to be used forever. God doesn't want those things to replace his word. It doesn't mean God can not lead us to use certain things at some point in time but they are not to be defied.
When faith is tied to objects, idolatry is established. There are subtle idol worshippers in church today. Do you notice that services where they tell people to bring an object is mostly packed full but tell people to come for a word seminar or bible study meeting, the attendance maybe scanty. A televangelist told the story of how he was led to throw his jacket into the crowd for a flow of the anointing. It worked. In every meeting, he made it a tradition to throw his jacket into the crowd. A father called him to order. If he had not stopped, some would only attend his meetings to catch jacket not the word. We must be careful not to place 'things' above God's word. We all have the tendency to deify Nehushtan because of results but we must consciously place the word above all else.
Father, deliver me from Nehustan mentality in Jesus name.