The Spirit of Sheep's Clothing, pt 2

We continue this study of the most ruthless, dangerous, and subtle spirit that any of us will encounter. Here are two more characteristics of the religious spirit.

Speaking to the multitudes and His disciples, Jesus said of the Pharisees and scribes:

But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’ But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. (Matthew 23:5–8)

The religious spirit has the attitude, “Aren’t I great!”

All of us need to feel a sense of significance. We all need to know that we are valuable. We all like to be appreciated and receive recognition. This need is normal because that need was placed there by God so that He could fulfill that need.

But, the religious spirit seeks to receive this recognition and honor from men and does so with an arrogant and prideful attitude. It can be as subtle as wearing very expensive clothing to impress others to the more obvious attitude of actually expecting and demanding adulation for what they do and who they are.

For example, a person who lives in and prefers to wear jeans and t-shirts, wears expensive clothing when attending Sunday morning services. Dressing up for church is okay. Dressing up to appear spiritual is religious.

There are no verses to indicate that Jesus told Peter to wash up and change his clothing before attending the Sermon on the Mount because he smelled like fish.

Many years ago, a man once told me how much money he gave to his church the previous year. The amount was indeed impressive as it was twice what I earned that whole year. But he bragged about it and wanted some kind of “aren’t you spiritual” reaction. He wanted man to be impressed, therefore God was not impressed. And all that money he gave, all that treasure in his heavenly account, became nothing (Matthew 6:2).

Jesus told us that our Father in heaven sees the good that is done in secret and it’s those things that He rewards.

A television reporter asked a millionaire preacher why he drives a top-of-the-line Mercedes. To which the preacher quickly retorted, “What do you expect me to drive, a Honda?”

The religious spirit deludes a person into believing that they actually deserve the most expensive stuff, the best of everything, and the adulation from others while at the same time, looking down on those that have less and are less “blessed” and less “spiritual”—supposing that gain is sign of godliness. 

The church in Smyrna (Revelation 2) was the poorest, lowliest, and experienced more tribulations than the other six churches in Asia. Yet Jesus distinguished them from all the other churches by saying that they were rich!

This particular characteristic of the religious spirit—arrogance—has two expressions and both are divisive. First, as described above, it makes a person desire to be great in the eyes of others. Second, it seduces other people into placing that religious leader above their own personal relationship with God—actually worshipping that leader. This codependent relationship with the religious leader gives the follower the attitude of, “Aren’t I great! I’m a follower of the greatest, most popular, Word preacher in the area!”

The Apostle Paul saw that happening at the church in Corinth and said:

For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. “Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Corinthians 1:11–13)

We can see this happening today when, for example, people read, listen, and attend every service or conference by one minister, yet have no personal Bible study or prayer life. These “groupies” believe the lie from the religious spirit that all they have to do is sit under the teachings of the great spiritual leader to please and serve God. But they replace their relationship with God with that of the minister.

Jesus said that He is our Teacher, that our heavenly Father is our Father, and that the greatest among us is the servant.

Jesus describes in Matthew 23:13 the second characteristic of the religious spirit:

But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

This is the first “Woe”. Jesus reveals the main goal of the religious spirit: to prevent others from entering into the kingdom of God and have a one-on-one relationship with Him. The religious spirit wants to be in control and fears losing that control because it knows that if people have a living, breathing relationship with God, the religious spirit cannot be in control.

There are many churches in America where God stirred things up to bring a new and fresh revelation of Himself that would help the people walk closer with Him. But the spirit of religion—allowed by the people—quenched that new move of God.

For example, years ago and from many churches across the country and around the world, the leadership and some members of the congregation attended and experienced the revival outpouring of the power of the Holy Ghost in Toronto or Brownsville. They brought back to their churches a greater expression of their own love for God and a greater sensitivity of the moving of the Holy Spirit.

Some of these people for the first time danced during worship. In other churches, they praised God by speaking in tongues. In other churches, the pastor met with his leaders to discuss what he experienced and that he wants to steer the church away from programs and into an actual relationship with the Savior.

Today, many of these churches are very different from what they were. But other churches are no different than they were before some of their people visited Toronto or Brownsville. The religious spirit fought the change and the moving of the Holy Spirit with great viciousness and won.

These characteristics of the religious spirit—the resistance to change and preventing the work of the Holy Spirit—is perhaps the most easily recognized aspect of the religious spirit. This is not to imply that if a person or a church won’t change regarding a particular issue that they are bound by the religious spirit. Changing the color of the church’s walls isn’t the issue.

There are churches that have followed the same pattern for decades of singing three songs, greeting one another, singing five more songs, giving in the offering, and then listening to a forty-minute sermon. They would do well to begin the next service with waiting on God and allowing Him to lead. God created us and saved us so that we could have a relationship with Him, not with religion.

The religious spirit will utilize any deception to prevent people from accepting the fact that Jesus is the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). If the results of a recent poll by Newsweek and Beliefnet1 are accurate, an astounding two-thirds of the just over one thousand adult evangelicals that were polled actually doubt that salvation is obtained only through Jesus and that people of any other faith—as long as they are “good”—can also go to heaven. This is shocking evidence of the success of the religious spirit in America’s churches.

But this poll reveals an even more wicked method of the religious spirit: if it can’t stop people from having a direct, personal relationship with God, it will try to change their focus from Him and His Word to focusing on themselves and their experiences. This very subtle tactic is designed to make people actually place their spiritual experiences above God’s Word, thus closing themselves to His written thoughts and wisdom and opening themselves to demonic spirits.

No matter how impressive and numerous a person’s dreams, visions, and other experiences that bring knowledge and insight, we must always keep God’s written Word as the supreme and final authority.

Paul warned the Colossians (2:18–19) to not be deceived by the religious men whose teachings and doctrines are based on their own experiences:

Let no one defraud you by acting as an umpire and declaring you unworthy and disqualifying you for the prize, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions [he claims] he has seen, vainly puffed up by his sensuous notions and inflated by his unspiritual thoughts and fleshly conceit, And not holding fast to the Head, from Whom the entire body, supplied and knit together by means of its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. (AMP)

Part 3 continues this study and reveals six more characteristics of the religious spirit.

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

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