Upside Down Religious Spirit

I was all set to write a post on preparation for entering the promised land. In fact I had already started writing it. Then I had one of those serendipitous things happen that we become accustomed to God doing and not taking the credit. My eldest daughter, Charity, had been on my mind for a few days, but I had not thought of her at the appropriate time to call. I finally got around to it last night--and of course that was not an appropriate time either, but she called me back half an hour or so later. She said she had another book I needed to read. Like I am not already backlogged. Then of course she had to follow up with an email giving me some highlights of yet another book then the one she had mentioned. "Preparation for entering the Promised Land" was one of the highlights listed. Everyone knows I am not a dumb as I look so that post will have to wait until I read that book. I ordered it from Amazon and it should be here next week.

Sometimes I feel like I am completely dragging my feet here and I suppose sometimes I am. However, processing what I just described in the previous paragraph did illumine a very interesting concept. At least I thought it was a very interesting concept and since this is my blog, you can either read it or not.


We are battling against a religious spirit here in the Santa Maria valley. That spirit has infected all the churches in the valley to a greater or lesser degree. Of course the insidious nature of a spiritual attack is such that the spirit is very difficult to identify. That set me to wondering. Well, that and the conversation with Charity did anyway. Since the churches are infected with the spirit, the leaders of the churches are obviously unwittingly in collusion with the spirit or it could not be propagated. I know, that sounds bad and I am treading as carefully as I know how. Let me see if I can explain what I mean. Oh, and the point of this post (I think) is that it is not only the leaders.

Very often a pastor, usually of a smaller church, will not be the one who is unwittingly in agreement with the religious spirit. It is often a layman who holds some office in the local church that will be the problem. This person and the people around him or her become so inflated with their own importance they
seek to, oh gee, I cannot write what I am thinking. What they do is make the pastor impotent because of their self-centered importance. They earnestly play church for their own benefit. It is all part of the greater deception of the religious spirit.

The nature of the religious spirit is such that it causes people to believe they are doing Godly things when they are in fact only being religious. They have the form of Godliness we talked about early on, but they deny the power of God. Do we not all deny the power of God to some extent? That is symptomatic of a religious spirit. Even best, brightest, and most faith-filled among us act as though we believe there are things God cannot do.

The classic question about God's omnipotence is, "Can God make a rock He cannot pick up?" The answer, of course, is "Yes He can." The very simple explanation is however, once he has created that rock, He is also able to pick it up. Now we are not talking about ability, but rather desire. His ability is unquestioned so "Can He..." is not a valid question. "Will He..." is the real question. We can easily get caught in our own story loop when we begin to ask a question like that. It goes something like this. I know God can, but I am just not sure he wants to. So if He does not want to, then He will not so it is the same whether He can or not.

May we settle the question of what God wants for us by referring back to a verse we have quoted over and over in this blog? Jesus said, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10) If you are still having a problem with this concept let me suggest a slight modification of the Ben Franklin close that salesmen sometimes use when a prospect cannot make up his or her mind. Take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle lengthwise. Label one side of the paper, "Thief." On that side of the line write all the things in your life that are missing, lost, or ruined. Label the other side, "Abundant Life." List over there all the things that would be good, beneficial, or would simply make life a little better. That side shows what God wants for you. Now we are back to the question of, "Will He."

Let us finish by reminding ourselves of just how much God loves us. Romans 8:32 asks the question, "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" That only leaves two questions in my mind. Who is included in "us all" and how many things are included in "all things"? Yes, that sounds too simple. Then again sometimes we are the ones who overcomplicate things.