Do not be deceived into being religious 

Jesus came to reconcile us with God the Father (2 Corinthians 5:18). This is not a relationship where we hold one another at arm’s length but one that is intensely personal and intimate. Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-31), where the father saw his lost child from afar, felt compassion for him and ran to him, hugged him, and kissed him. This is a picture of our holy God who graciously reaches down through the heavens to come save us and dwell with us when we humble our hearts before Him. The Bible says that there is “more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7 NKJV)

(简体中文 > 不要被欺骗而相信宗教 | 繁體中文 > 不要被欺騙而相信宗教)

Isaiah 57:15 NKJV  For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

The religious fail to understand the Father’s heart

The prodigal son had betrayed his father, spent his father’s inheritance on prostitutes and decadent living, and came back humiliated and penniless. He was probably still smelling of the pig sty that he had been living in. Yet his father saw past all that and hugged and kissed him. This loving father covered his son’s shame by giving him the best robe, welcomed him back by putting a family ring on his hand, and provided relief by putting sandals on his weary feet. The father responded to his son’s contrite heart.

A religious person will probably become quite indignant or offended by all this, because they will fail to understand the father’s heart. A religious person judges by what they see on the surface, based on their own rules and presumptions, and fail to discern the true heart of the matter from God’s point of view.

1 Samuel 16:7 NKJV  7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

What is a religious spirit

There are many definitions of what it means to act religiously or to have a religious spirit. Perhaps the simplest way to describe a religious spirit is that it is a way of thinking that:

• takes the focus off Jesus and His heart
• distracts us from the most important commandment of all, which is to love God with all our hearts

Another example of this is the Pharisees who chastised Jesus for delivering a crippled woman of a spirit of infirmity during sabbath (Luke 13:10-17). By law, no ‘work’ should have been done on a sabbath, it is one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-10). In theory, the Pharisees were right but they had missed the heart of God, Jesus retorted by saying, “ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” Jesus acted out of the Spirit of love and mercy (Ephesians 2:4-6). By doing so, was showing them that holding on strictly to the law without discerning the heart of God can ‘kill’ ie. the crippled woman would have remained crippled. Following the Holy Spirit gave her a new life.

2 Corinthians 3:4-6 NKJV  And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Not always obvious

A religious spirit that is proud, legalistic, critical, harsh, judgemental and resists the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51) is relatively easy to spot.

A religious spirit that operates subtly is much harder to identify!

Two people can evangelise on the street to win souls, but one will be led by a religious spirit of performance and the other led by Jesus’ love. How can we distinguish between the two? The truth is that we won’t be able to without the spiritual gift of discernment, but God sees into their hearts and knows who is doing for themselves and who is doing for Him. Instead of jumping into judging one another, we can recognise that the important thing is that the gospel is being preached (Philippians 1:15-18).

Jeremiah 17:10 NKJV  I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.

Following the Spirit of God

It is helpful to describe what it means to not be religious — which is to obey the Holy Spirit. As followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are to put to death the deeds of the flesh and follow the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:12-14). It is those who are led by the Spirit of God who are children of God. Jesus followed the lead of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 4:1), and so should we.

Romans 8:12-14 NKJV  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 

When we ask Jesus to be our Lord and Saviour, we are in essence, asking Him to “deliver us from this present evil age” (Galatians 1:3-4) and all the influences of this world. We get baptised in water in Jesus’ name, which represents us being washed by the living waters of the Holy Spirit (John 7:38-39) and are ‘resurrected’ as new creations by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 6:4-5, Romans 8:11, 2 Corinthians 5:17). From that point on, we are to live as people who are dead to our old worldly selves and made alive in Christ through the power of His Spirit who now lives in us (John 14:17, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 6:19, Romans 8:9, Galatians 4:6).

Romans 8:9 NKJV  But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

Romans 8:11 NKJV But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

We are led by the same Spirit that Jesus was led by and by the same Word of God that He obeyed.

This takes faith and discipline because what the Lord desires will be contrary to our own fleshly desires as well as our logical minds (Galatians 5:17-18). God’s ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). It takes humility to follow the gentle voice of the Lord in our hearts, because we can easily drown His voice out with unbelief and doubt. We obey the Lord because we love Him.

Galatians 5:17-18 NKJV  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

John 14:15-17 NKJV  “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

As we mature in our Holy Spirit-led knowledge of God and of His written Word, we will find that our souls (mind, emotions, and will) come to a rest (Matthew 11:28-30). The Lord’s thoughts and desires become our “navigation system” and our will becomes subjected to His will. We no longer rely on what we feel or think. Romans 6:22 describes this as becoming slaves of God, with the fruit being holiness and everlasting life. He will personally teach us and guide us on all that we need to know and do (Galatians 1:1, 1 Corinthians 2:13). Such a life is one of liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17) as we are freed from anxiety and ruminating. The Holy Spirit “carries us along” in our day-to-day (2 Peter 1:21). This is what it means to have Christ in us. “The life which we now live in the flesh we live by faith” as we are directed by the Lord Himself, and not our thoughts or anxieties (Galatians 2:20).

Matthew 11:28-30 NKJV  Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Romans 6:22 NKJV   But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.

Galatians 1:12 NKJV  For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Following the carnal soul

The religious person, however, follows the inclinations of their souls, which include their own emotions, their own minds and their own will.

We need to emphasise that a religious person is not necessarily malicious or an arrogant ‘Pharisee’. They may be well intentioned, they may have kind, compassionate hearts, they may be sacrificial — but they have been misguided by the anxieties in their hearts or by wrong teachings and doctrines. They tend to be more carnal than spiritual, following their own flesh and human understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6) rather than the Spirit of God.

Here are some examples.

Example 1: Elders who followed their emotions

A husband and wife were elders of their local church for many years. Over that time, they witnessed some things behind the scenes that grieved them, including church treasurers who stole money and pastors who committed adultery. In their grief, they began to tell other church members about what had happened, warning them that not all churches could be trusted — instead of forgiving those errant church workers, asking them to step aside from leadership to go into a time of getting themselves right before God, and praying for them. Because they followed their carnal emotions, they could not see that they had fallen into gossip and self-righteousness, causing disunity. They were right to expose such sin (Ephesians 5:11-14) but their response missed the heart of God. The Holy Spirit brought revelation one day. He said, “Be careful what you say about the church. Remember she is still My bride (2 Corinthians 11:2), even if she has committed adultery, the Lord will judge her but He will not stop loving her.” If they had sought the Holy Spirit for counsel, their response to the situation would probably have been different.

Example 2: A leader with a need to self-protect

There was an up-and-coming leader in a church. He had a good attitude and was caring towards others, but the Holy Spirit showed that he was bound to religion. This was because of a stronghold in his mind, “I need to protect myself,” that came from him feeling very abandoned and vulnerable growing up. Now as an adult, his emphasis was on “good works that people cannot criticise but only praise”. His motives were based on his carnal desires rather than on his relationship with the Lord.

Example 3: A man who carried a ‘fake cross’

There was a man in his forties who had gone through many losses in life, which impacted his health, marriage, work, and friendships. When he turned to God, he vowed to give God everything. The Holy Spirit showed that he had been carrying a fake cross. He sacrificed for the sake of fulfilling an inner desire for self-righteousness, out of a place of brokenness, of shame, guilt, and approval-seeking. His motivation was not to love Jesus. A spirit of religion tempts people to use God’s work to soothe their insecurities and inferiorities, turning the church into a temple of works, rather than a temple of the Lord’s Spirit.

Example 4: A hyper spiritualised form of religion

There was a young lady who felt that she was called to be a prophetess, so she began to pursue online teachings and spent many hours a day in bible study and prayer. She prayed in tongues non stop. Living this hyper spiritualised life did not transform her to become more loving, joyful or peaceful (fruit of the Holy Spirit). She was pursuing greater ‘elevation’ in the spirit to be a better prophet. It became about works, albeit a hyper spiritualised type of works. Whenever God anointed or appointed someone in the Bible, it was not because they had worked for it. Many, like Moses or Gideon, were not looking for it or even ‘deserve’ it, so to speak. We need to keep in mind that one of the greatest miracles is the transformation of a spiritually dead person to become more and more like Jesus.

Example 5: Competition between churches

The board of a church began to adopt commercial models for running ministry, looking at how well everything looked and performed on time, and how much they could grow in size and offerings. These became the basis for their annual KPIs (key performance indicators). This church had forgotten its true Head and fallen into performance and religion.

Example 6: Religious training in school

A lady went to a Catholic school where she was taught the importance of good deeds. As a student, she would pray repeated prayers and visit old folks homes, and was ‘graded’ for her religious activities by the nun in school. The more she did, the better her grades in her religious report card. Because this earned praise from the nun, she felt that this behaviour must please God as well. When she turned to Jesus, she did not know how to relate to God except for doing lots of good works. As a result, she didn’t hear the Lord’s voice until she renounced her bondage to a spirit of religion.

Ephesians 1:22-23 NKJV  And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Do not become discouraged

If you feel like you have been influenced by a spirit of religion in some way, please do not be discouraged. 99.9% of Christians have struggled with it at some point. The important thing is to not let it become a way of life.

Religion bewitches

A spirit of religion and performance is mostly generational. It can pass down through family lines or through a spiritual authority, such as a church or a denomination. It can be part of the ethnic culture we were born into.

Religion is the work of a principality that controls large groups of people through the propagation of ‘group think’. Such mind manipulation is a form of witchcraft.

Let’s examine Galatians 3:1-6. The Galatian church began striving for a relationship with God without the Holy Spirit, instead of listening to Him by faith. This was an entire church that witnessed miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit but as the apostle Paul pointed out, they became ‘bewitched’. Paul contrasted this with Abraham, who heard the voice of God and obeyed. Let us remember that there was no Bible in Abraham’s time. Abraham had a personal encounter with God. He didn’t know everything about the Lord but he had the faith to obey nonetheless. So Abraham’s righteousness was not based on his Bible knowledge, how good he was, or how much he had done in a church. He was deemed righteous because he obeyed the prompting of the Lord. This is what it means to have faith, which is to trust the Lord’s heart and follow His voice (John 10:5, 10:27).

Galatians 3:1-6 NKJV  O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?  Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

John 10:3-4 NKJV  To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 

Here are some tell tale signs of a person who will be prone to become religious.

Be free of religion and renew our mindsets

If you recognise the need to come out of religion, here is a guided prayer and some suggestions.

First, please ask our Heavenly Father to forgive us for missing His heart and for not operating in love. He will welcome us with open arms!

Then ask the Holy Spirit to show us the mindset that has driven us towards religion. Do you feel the need to prove yourself? The Lord doesn’t need you to do that. In fact, it grieves Him because He values you simply because you belong to Him. Have you been hurt by other sinful people and now judge others in self-righteous self-defence? The Lord will help you heal as you forgive those who have hurt you and help convict them of their sins as well. Our responsibility is not to become bitter because bitterness quenches the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30-32). Have you been part of a religious group that sets conditions for you to be accepted ? Do they place priority on things other than Jesus Christ? The Lord will bring conviction (John 16:8-11) by giving you a word or a sense of understanding, or even answer you in your dreams. Let’s be open to how the Lord will work in your heart and humbly respond like the prodigal son did.

After we have repented, let us take up our authority in Christ and command spirits of performance, control, mind control, and religion (and whatever else the Holy Spirit brings to mind) to leave and go into the pit of fire, in Jesus’ name. Invite the Holy Spirit to cleanse and renew us. We may find that our mind seems clearer and that our chest area feels less restricted. This is the work of the Lord who refreshes us when we repent.

Acts 3:19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,

Then ask the Holy Spirit to come be our Master and commit to trusting and following Him by faith, like Abraham did. Greet the Lord first thing in the morning and ask Him to show His plans for us for the day ahead. Sit with Him with open hearts and listen. Ask Him to show us His heart for a person, situation or even nation. There may be times we don’t hear anything and other times when we receive incredible revelations. The point is to be patient as we keep buildIng our listening skills.

Another extremely crucial aspect of living by faith is to be filled with the written Word of God. Jesus is the eternal Word (John 1:1). Ask the Holy Spirit to open our spiritual eyes as we read the Bible. Don’t be quick to dismiss anything we don’t understand, ask the Lord, who is the Author, to explain His Word to us. Meditate on what the Lord is highlighting for the day (Joshua 1:8) and allow the Holy Spirit to give us deeper understanding. He will fill our minds and hearts with the eternal truths of God as we ask Him for wisdom (James 1:5-8) and help us prosper in all His ways.

John 1:1 NKJV  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Joshua 1:8-9 NKJV  This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

May this sharing be a blessing to you as you seek to love the Lord with all your heart and follow the Holy Spirit all the days of your life.