"God's kingdom is a kingdom of liberty in which everything is permitted unless specifically prohibited. Satan's kingdom is a controlled hierarchy in which nothing is permitted unless authorized." That quote from Taking Our Cities for God by John Dawson hit me especially hard when I read it this week. This is what the religious spirit is all about, control. We have said it in these pages several different ways so one more is not going to hurt. Let us get to that in a minute.
Sometimes when confronted with a spiritual truth, I am almost dumbfounded. It hits me and then I wonder why I had never thought of it in exactly that way before. I know it is true, but I could not have formed the words to express it myself. That is exactly what happened when I read the quote above.
I always thought it would be great to know things other people do not know or to see things other people do not see. It seems as though television and movies are replete with people who have special abilities in those areas. It used to be they were ordinary people who aquired the abilities. Lately though, the whole concept has just gotten weird. I think we may be being set up for something.
There are people with unsual abilities to see into the spiritual realm. Let us be careful to not let our minds translate that into something freaky. When we think if unusual, spiritual insight, we often think of some wild-eyed prophet bellowing about the end of the world. Or perhaps our minds run to someone who is so spiritual we, mere mortals can only hope to ever acheive that level of insight. The truth is, everyone who has accepted the Lordship of Jesus has the ability to see into the spiritual realm. That ability comes right along with the Holy Spirit coming to help us and to guide us into all truth. (John 16:13)
A religious spirit cannot allow freedom. It has to sit in some position of authority in a religious hierarchy and call the shots, so to speak, or it has no power. This is such a core concept regarding religious spirits that I almost wanted to make this its own post in the series, The Workings of a Religious Spirit. Some people mistake a religious spirit for a controlling spirit. This too is deception. Why is this so? Controlling spirits affect many people from every walk of life. Religious spirits are present in our churches and corollary ministries. This makes them more heinous and deceptive. Those who are supposed to be the more spiritual among us are the perpetrators, the hosts if you will, of the religious spirit. They think they are doing the right things when in fact they are in agreement with the religious spirit. Is it then any wonder that we do not see more of God's power expressed through The Church?
Perhaps you are sitting there and do not believe what I am saying is even happening. Whenever I come up against that situation, I always ask the Lord to give me a reason the other person should believe me. That is for those of you with whom I have no credibility and those of you who do not have the insight and experience to know this by the spirit. It may be for you if you are being deceived by the religious spirit. Ask yourself a question something like this, "When I know the Lord is speaking to me to do something with whom do I check for permission?" Now compare your answer with the quote at the beginning of this post.
I can hear the protests now. Pastors, elders, deacons and whomever else shares the leadership in a local church cannot let anyone who thinks they have a psalm, a teaching, a tongue, a revelation or an interpretation just blurt it out. They have to protect the people and maintain order. Oh really? Before you completely make up your mind about that, read 1 Corinthians 14:26.
What is the pastor's job? The answer is in Ephesians 4:12 and there is some elaboration in the next several verses. There really is not anything there about protecting the sheep from the sheep. I am probably being overly simplistic, but I am of the opinion the Bible is not difficult to understand unless one listens to differing theological points of view. I honestly do think that in most cases the newest Christians have the best theology. That is because the church has not had the opportunity to mess them up yet. I also think people study theology in an effort to convince themselves and others of what God cannot do. Enough about what I think.
We could now begin to quote scripture after scripture about the blind leading the blind (Luke 6:39) and to not lord it over others (Matthew 25-26). Quoting scripture to people who are deceived serves no practical benefit. By definition, those who are deceived cannot see the truth in the area in which they are deceived. I am speaking from experience here by the way.
The single antidote against living in any kind of deception is to walk in the spirit. Deception comes when we rely on the power of our soul to determine what is right and what is wrong; to do what seems right to us as men. That always leads to death. (Proverbs 14:12) Those who live in the spirit do not make any provision for the flesh. (Galatians 5:16) "...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (1 Corinthians 3:17) So walk in the spirit. You will find liberty and freedom.
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