The Spirit of Sheep's Clothing, pt 1

Your will is the greatest, most powerful single force that can prevent you from hearing God’s voice. You can choose to hear Him or not to hear Him.

Externally though, there is a very powerful force from Satan that focuses only on preventing you from hearing God’s voice. This force is seldom seen in such places as nightclubs, casinos, shopping malls, and devil worship services. In fact, this force is found primarily in churches.

This force attacked Jesus more than any other and is the tool that Satan used to initiate the arrest and crucifixion of our Savior. This force—this type of spirit—is the most ruthless, dangerous, and subtle spirit that any of us will encounter. And we all have or will encounter this spirit.

Its name is: religion[1].

This spirit’s goal is to use religious doctrines to prevent Christians from growing up spiritually by convincing them that it’s good and godly to maintain the status quo. This spirit’s work is extremely subtle and deceives people into believing that by following man-made doctrines and the letter of the law that they are doing God’s will. Additionally, people with religious spirits believe that all that they do pleases God, no matter how contrary or non-Biblical their attitudes and actions are.

To help understand the spirit of religion, here are a few actual and obvious examples of its influence in people’s beliefs:

• “I won’t go to a church that allows people to wear jeans.”
• (Pastor speaking to his congregation) “The Bible says that we are to avoid the appearance of evil. Therefore, no one in this church should go to a theater to see the movie, The Passion of the Christ.”
• (Another pastor) “The Bible says that Wine is a mocker. Any members of this church that drink wine will be disciplined.”
• "Men that have hair long enough to cover even part of their ears cannot be part of the leadership and traveling ministers with long hair will not be invited here to preach."
• “This is how I’ve worshipped and served God all my life and I’m not about to change now!”

The above might seem to be obviously from a religious spirit, but there are other things people do that look very good and very holy. Yet, it’s not always the belief that is wrong; it’s the motive behind the belief.

For example, two men pray and study their Bibles for two hours each day. The first man keeps track of his time and how many chapters he’s read. He feels a strong sense of accomplishment at the end of the two hours. The other man doesn’t care if he reads only one verse over and over. And although he might have a prayer list, he’s content to say nothing during that hour of prayer.

The first man believes that his two hour ritual will make him more spiritual—but that’s all it is, ritual. The second man gives two hours of his day to be in God’s presence, to listen and learn, and to build his relationship with Him.

Ritual instead of relationship is religion.

The goal of the religious spirit is to replace the relationship with God with performance and ritual. When this happens—when the traditions of men take priority over God’s Word—then His Word gets nullified (Matthew 15:6). But praise God, we are justified freely by His grace through the blood of Jesus.

Jesus’ Rebuke Reveals the Religious Spirit

There was a group of people during the New Testament times that were very moral defenders of God’s laws, attending all services at the synagogue, and were fervent in spreading their beliefs. Sounds like a bunch of good and fine people, right?

In fact, this group of people was the most influential in the nation. Additionally, they were the progressives of the day, willing to adopt new ideas and adapt the law to new situations. Jesus’ disciples had great respect for this group and were careful not to not offend them. This group, the Pharisees, had a place of honor among the people.

But man looks on the outward appearance, whereas God sees the thoughts and intent of everyone’s hearts. Throughout Jesus’ ministry, the Pharisees watched Him carefully to find fault and to criticize Him. Each time they confronted Jesus, He replied with words that exposed their true nature which has as its foundation, the spirit of religion.

The entire chapter of Matthew 23 is devoted to Jesus’ rebuke to the Pharisees—leaders in the country. These are Jesus’ most stinging rebukes to anyone and there are eight pronouncements of “Woe to you…you hypocrites!”

“Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.” (23:3, 4)

The first characteristic of the religious spirit that Jesus reveals is hypocrisy. This spirit is quick to point out the failures and immaturity of others while at the same time, refuses to acknowledge their own sins or weaknesses. It’s very easy to see the shortcomings in someone else’s life, but we must first remove the log in our own eye before even mentioning the speck in another’s eye.

The religious spirit imposes standards on others that the leaders themselves do not have in their own lives. They place “doctrines” of great weights on those under them to keep them burdened, tired, worn out, and under submission. Additionally, they refuse to stoop down to help those that are under these or any other weights.

There are preachers today who consume a lot of television or radio time trying to place the burden of giving large sums of money to their ministry regardless of the pain the givers will endure from doing without some material needs in their lives. While at the same time, these preachers live in massive estates and have millions in the bank. Placing burdens on the people that they themselves refuse to carry.

A church required their members to attend every single service and every intercessory prayer meeting—and these were held seven days a week! While at the same time, the leaders did shift-work, each having only one meeting per week to conduct so that the other leaders could do whatever they wanted.

But Jesus said that although in this world there are rulers over the people, His kingdom is the opposite. Anyone who wants to be great among men must be a servant. And anyone who wants to be first, must be a slave—just as He came not to be served, but to serve, and give His life for others (Matthew 25:28).

Part 2 continues to unveil the religious spirit and show that how it worked in Jesus' day hasn't changed and is seen in many of today's churches.

It is my prayer for you that Father will continue to help you to hear His voice, and more and more frequently.

With God’s grace and in His peace,

Gary

[1] Specific names of demons are mentioned in the Bible: infirmity, unclean, dumb, and foul, for example. While the Bible was not written to be a complete resource of demonology and the spirit of religion is not specifically mentioned, it is safe to conclude that there are spirits that work their evil in the name of religion.

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