Spiritual warfare is first and foremost about discernment and spiritual perception. The Holy Spirit gives us the discernment to know what spirit we are battling when we come up against the enemies strongholds. This discernment enables the Body of Christ to first understand what we're dealing with, and then how to effectively deal with it, then get back to the preaching of the gospel and the advancement of the Kingdom of God. Such is the case with the discernment and subsequent battling of the spirit of religion that is dominate in the South East. In this post, we will continue to deal with the destructive effects the spirit of religion has on the Church of Jesus Christ.
The Lord has determined that His people are to be a part of a local congregation. If we are "IN" Christ, and Christ is "IN" us, then we are a part of the Church Universal. However, we all live, work, raise families, and worship in local areas. God expects of us to find a "LOCAL" expression of the "UNIVERSAL" Church and to become a part of it. The attack of the spirit of religion that undermines this, is that it encourages Christian believers to never really become a part of a local congregation and to reach maturity within that body.
The reasons for being a part of a "local" church body are extremely important and "life-sustaining" to Christian believers. First, within the local body there is accountability. Throughout the writings of the Apostle Paul, we see admonitions of local bodies of believers to hold each other up to a holy standard of faith and living. In other words, there is accountability within the Body of Christ. Second, we are all meant to receive and use, various "gifts" from the Lord, through the Holy Spirit. Those "giftings" have a two-fold purpose: 1) For the purpose of having power to be witnesses of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. 2) To edify and build-up the local body of believers, the church. Third, we are placed within a local church body for the sake of "Christian mutuality." Christian mutuality is the principle within the Kingdom of God in which God's people mutually support one another. When one grieves, we ALL grieve. When one rejoices, we ALL rejoice. When one is in need, we ALL are in need. When one has abundance, we ALL have abundance (see Acts 2:43-45).
However, the attack of the spirit of religion renders these extremely important principles about the church and the Kingdom of God, null and void. At the prompting of the spirit of religion, Christians move from church to church, masking the spiritual deception as "promptings" from the Lord. Phrases like: God is done with me here! I am just here for a season! Or, my ministry is to go from church to church and help out the pastor, then leave! This spiritual deception renders the Body of Christ weakened and underdeveloped! Perhaps that's why the statistics on the effect the Christian Church is having on America is so pathetic! We are loosing the battle for the soul of America because we do not recognize our enemy and how he is attacking us! Consider the outcome of this type of spiritual deception: There is NO accountability! There is NO spiritual edification of the Body through the giftings of the Holy Spirit! There is NO Christian mutuality! For many Christians do not stay in a local church long enough to develop any of these Divine principles of growth and maturity! Hence, the Body of Christ is severely weakened! We sing our songs. We pray our prayers. We listen to Pastors preach good messages. We may even do some outreach and ministry. BUT.... We "NEVER" fully develop! We "NEVER" fully mature! We "NEVER" quite get to the place where our commitment and faithfulness supersede our desire to "leave" and "run" from our spiritual obligations!
Look, growth and maturity are not easy things! Accountability sometimes is not the most pleasant thing! Staying with your Brothers and Sisters through the difficult times, well, can be.......... DIFFICULT! But, this is where and when we experience GROWTH! This is where we are REFINED! This is where our faith GROWS in "leaps and bounds" and this is exactly what God intended to happen! However, for many it NEVER happens, because just when it gets a little too uncomfortable; or demanding; or a little unpleasant, ...... God suddenly "CALLS" us somewhere else! This my Brothers and Sisters is "DECEPTION!" The deception of the "spirit of religion!"
My Brothers and Sisters, if this describes your Christian experience thus far, ..... YOU CAN BE FREE! The steps are relatively easy! The first key is recognition of your enemy and his tactics. Then confession and repentance to God for believing that deception. Third, (and this one gets kind of hard but is necessary) you may need to make restitution. Restitution to the Christian Brothers and Sisters and/or pastors, God lays on your heart, that maybe your actions have offended. Unity within the Body of Christ begins with reconciliation! Reconciliation brings unity, which in turn brings the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit!
I write this to you as a Pastor. I have seen people leave, just when they were about to have a "breakthrough" and their faith reach new levels of maturity and depth. However, I do not write these blog posting out of anger or hurt, I write them out of a sincere desire to minister to Brothers and Sisters who have been deceived by the spirit of religion! I write these blogs revealing what God has shown me, we are battling within the church! Please receive these writings with the love, concern, anointing and truth God is using through me to those within His Body! Together, we can defeat our enemy, ...... the spirit of religion! GOD BLESS YOU!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
Doing Battle with the Spirit of Religion Part 3
WARFARE!
That's what the Apostle Paul says we are engaged in here while we wait upon the return of the Lord. Listen to what he says about this in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." NIV
The Church needs to desperately come to the realization that we are truly in a spiritual war! The individual battles are for the souls of people, the hearts of our cities, and the advancement of the Kingdom of God. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the enemy is taking this war much more serious then we are! Many of us become so content to think of our participation in the Kingdom of God from a "bless me-bless me not" mentality. However, we must ask ourselves the question, from a military standpoint, what is the purpose(s) behind the attack of the spirit of religion upon this area of the United States and the Body of Christ?
First, is the obvious answer. To saturate the church with religion is to provide a type of "fake spiritual stimulus." We "FEEL" very spiritual when we go to church, so, church is doing a good thing in our life, and God must be pleased with our ability to stay "connected" to Him, in the midst of such sinful lifestyles of people all around us! We go to church, we sing familiar songs (and even throw in some new ones, so we are viewed as contemporary), we pray, the preacher preaches, we hug, pat each other on the backs, and go eat dinner. We ARE the Church..... TRIUMPHANT!...... Right?...........WRONG! We are actually pathetically impotent in our spiritual discernment and advancement of the Kingdom of God! We gather together and "YELL" at the devil and are smugly satisfied with our spiritual strength and victory! And the devil.......... LAUGHS!
The second, purpose of this attack of the spirit of religion is that it weakens the churches that ARE truly repentant and seeking to serve their Lord. Churches launch into ministry because of a sincere devotion to their Lord based upon the gifts and finances of those in their church at the time of their ministerial undertakings. The spirit of religion attacks, and soon those good Christian brothers and sisters are headed down the street to their "NEW" church where something "GRAND" and "EXCITING" appears to be happening! The church that is truly trying to do something to carry on the ministry of Jesus, is suddenly thrown into a situation that may be "over their heads" because of a limitation of people and resources.
The third purpose of the spirit of religion's attack is to keep the Body weakened. What I mean is, God "gifts" each member of the Body with Spiritual Gifts (charis) intended to be used WITHIN the local Body to strengthen and mature that local Body. More than any other thing, the devil fears a spirit-filled Church! And, if he can keep people moving around from church to church, they never fully develop or use those gifts, and the intended purpose of strengthening the Body is never realized, hence Spirit-inspired, well thought out ministry plans suffer a type of "spiritual abortion."
The fourth reason for this attack of the spirit of religion is quite simply to bring division. To "divide and conquer" is one of the most basic strategies of ANY military campaign! And let me remind you ONCE again, ..........we are at WAR! People moving from church to church to church, leave in their wake hurt feelings, broken commitments, and help facilitate a weakened divided Body! ONLY when their is unity in the Body of Christ do we see the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (See Acts 2). The outpouring of the power of the Holy Ghost is EXACTLY what we so desperately need ........ RIGHT NOW! This will NEVER happen, as long as the spirit of religion goes unrecognized and undefeated! However, REMEMBER.............
"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."
Knowledge of our enemies strategies and attack points, are the beginning of defeating the spirit of religion! FIGHT ON!!!!
That's what the Apostle Paul says we are engaged in here while we wait upon the return of the Lord. Listen to what he says about this in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." NIV
The Church needs to desperately come to the realization that we are truly in a spiritual war! The individual battles are for the souls of people, the hearts of our cities, and the advancement of the Kingdom of God. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the enemy is taking this war much more serious then we are! Many of us become so content to think of our participation in the Kingdom of God from a "bless me-bless me not" mentality. However, we must ask ourselves the question, from a military standpoint, what is the purpose(s) behind the attack of the spirit of religion upon this area of the United States and the Body of Christ?
First, is the obvious answer. To saturate the church with religion is to provide a type of "fake spiritual stimulus." We "FEEL" very spiritual when we go to church, so, church is doing a good thing in our life, and God must be pleased with our ability to stay "connected" to Him, in the midst of such sinful lifestyles of people all around us! We go to church, we sing familiar songs (and even throw in some new ones, so we are viewed as contemporary), we pray, the preacher preaches, we hug, pat each other on the backs, and go eat dinner. We ARE the Church..... TRIUMPHANT!...... Right?...........WRONG! We are actually pathetically impotent in our spiritual discernment and advancement of the Kingdom of God! We gather together and "YELL" at the devil and are smugly satisfied with our spiritual strength and victory! And the devil.......... LAUGHS!
The second, purpose of this attack of the spirit of religion is that it weakens the churches that ARE truly repentant and seeking to serve their Lord. Churches launch into ministry because of a sincere devotion to their Lord based upon the gifts and finances of those in their church at the time of their ministerial undertakings. The spirit of religion attacks, and soon those good Christian brothers and sisters are headed down the street to their "NEW" church where something "GRAND" and "EXCITING" appears to be happening! The church that is truly trying to do something to carry on the ministry of Jesus, is suddenly thrown into a situation that may be "over their heads" because of a limitation of people and resources.
The third purpose of the spirit of religion's attack is to keep the Body weakened. What I mean is, God "gifts" each member of the Body with Spiritual Gifts (charis) intended to be used WITHIN the local Body to strengthen and mature that local Body. More than any other thing, the devil fears a spirit-filled Church! And, if he can keep people moving around from church to church, they never fully develop or use those gifts, and the intended purpose of strengthening the Body is never realized, hence Spirit-inspired, well thought out ministry plans suffer a type of "spiritual abortion."
The fourth reason for this attack of the spirit of religion is quite simply to bring division. To "divide and conquer" is one of the most basic strategies of ANY military campaign! And let me remind you ONCE again, ..........we are at WAR! People moving from church to church to church, leave in their wake hurt feelings, broken commitments, and help facilitate a weakened divided Body! ONLY when their is unity in the Body of Christ do we see the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (See Acts 2). The outpouring of the power of the Holy Ghost is EXACTLY what we so desperately need ........ RIGHT NOW! This will NEVER happen, as long as the spirit of religion goes unrecognized and undefeated! However, REMEMBER.............
"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."
Knowledge of our enemies strategies and attack points, are the beginning of defeating the spirit of religion! FIGHT ON!!!!
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