That Religious Spirit

• This teaching tonight is for self-awareness and self-evaluation of your calling to spirituality in Salvation.
• Salvation comes to spiritually draw us back into reconciliation with God through Jesus by quickening our soul to awaken him by the heard Word of God from his spiritual death. We all need to come into the knowledge of the Spirit of God and to be assured that our relationship with God is genuine through Jesus and you (we) have not fallen into a religious practice of patterns of what mankind thinks, imagines, and feel is God and His Will toward all.
• You must first evaluate yourself with the question of “did God call the spirit Man in me to Salvation?”
St John 6:44 No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
• Evaluate and reevaluate your declaration confessed in Romans 10:9-10 to see if you are on the right spiritual track that will lead you into the Will of God and His righteousness and not on a roller coaster ride of delusions and illusions orchestrated by the devil through your flesh and its Will.
• This is an established truth! No matter what generation you are or was in this fact holds true.
• You must also question yourself by evaluating your “faithfulness, obedience, and stewardship” in and toward the Spirit of Word of God in Spirit and in Truth.
• So, whether you are a sinner fresh off the work force of sin, or a lukewarm believer, or a backslider this Word of God is valid and holds all truth when it comes to your soul being reconciled back to God, his Creator.

Let’s begin some spiritual evaluations and or reevaluations!

What is a religious spirit?
• A religious spirit is a demon that wages war against the completed work of Jesus, its acceptance, and its true fulfillment of the reconciled covenant He established between God and the spirit Man in you.
• That religious spirit comes to work hard to keep you from ever establishing and settling into a true, intimate, and spiritual relationship with God our Father through His Son Jesus.
• A religious spirit is an evil spirit that manifests itself in people’s lives and lifestyles and the number one characteristic of it is “SELF RIGHTEOUS”.
• Self-righteousness is an attitude that is contrary to the Word of God, its spiritual teachings, and its spiritual interpretations.
• Self-righteousness involves arrogance, legalism, pride, and moralism, and often leads to judging and condemning others that believe in the spirituality of the Word and Will of God.
St Luke 18:9-14 is the parable of the Pharisee and the publican.
9 And He spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:
10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
• A spirit of ownership gives many the type of attitude of the Pharisee that says I’m entitled.
1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time:
• We judge by the spirit that is working in us! In doing so we tend to think and believe that we are all on the level of spirituality and all have the same faith.
• We judge by possessions and our temporal stuff that we say that God Himself has blessed us with, but they are full of violations that violates would His Word.
• A religious spirit is often associated with an attitude or lifestyle that tries to replace a genuine intimate relationship with God with its own works, rules, rituals, ceremonies, and traditions.
• This type of believer thinks that they are right with a little Word that they have opinionated in their own understanding and that settles it.
• Or this type of believer knows scripture upon scripture with no faith in the Word, no works, and no governing of the Word in and over their life.
• It is hard to tell them anything in Spirit and in Truth. They are beyond teaching.
Who is the author of a religious spirit?
• Satan is the author of all wicked, evil, and demonic spirits.
• 1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
Who does he prey on? Or who is at risk of being used by a religious demon?
• Smart people; educated people; highly intelligent people; rich people; well off people; slick people; hustlers; skimmers and scammers; fast talkers; weak people; shallow people; lukewarm people; proud people; perfectionist; people with motives that are not God’s intent; etc.
• But the Spirit of God has equipped His people through spiritual discernment and wisdom to try the spirits to see if that spirit is of God and His seed. (1 John 4:1-5; 3:9)
St Matthew 10:16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
• A person with a religious spirit tends to judge others by their outward appearance rather than knowing that their walk portrays what is in their heart.
• A person with a religious spirit won’t rely on the Spirit of God and His Will for him but will try to earn God’s love and Salvation through their own efforts and understanding without the Spirit of Jesus. This is not biblical!
• Ephesians 2:8-9 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
• Many believers here have the delusion that they don’t have to attend a local assembly to get God and His righteousness, not Jesus, but God. This is not biblical!
• Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
• A person with a religious spirit has an outward righteousness only. It follows the traditions of men, his doctrines, his belief, his rules, regulations, and righteousness and will never permit the Spirit of God’s transforming power to renew his heart to represent, resemble, and get back the image of the Spirit of God after their likeness with dominion.
• A person with a religious spirit is critical of others growth in Christ by criticizing their relationship and walk in Christ because they tend to focus on their perceived shortcomings rather than accepting the total Will of God for their life in spirituality.

In closing,

• The spirit that crucified Jesus was a religious spirit made up of the elders, priest, followers, and learners of the Law.
• This is that spirit that was so powerful that it killed Jesus.
• That religious spirit is an enemy to the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
• That religious spirit is man’s way not God’s way.
• Man’s rules and what he has regulated and added to get to God instead of doing it God’s Way which is Grace through faith.
• Jesus had to constantly battle with religious people that felt like they knew God and didn’t like His ministry sent by God because they were of Abraham’s seed.
• So, they would follow Him to accuse Him through lies and say that He blasphemed against God.
• St John 8:32-37
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
33 They answered Him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
35 And the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the Son abideth ever.
36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
37 I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill Me, because My word hath no place in you.
• Many that say they believe and they love you seek to kill you in spirit because of the Word of God that you have hidden in your heart.
• Jesus would keep confounding the wisdom of man (the scribes, Pharisees) but they kept coming to Him, never learning but He kept telling them the truth though they were beyond teaching.
• So, when we reject or rebel against the Word of God in Spirit and in Truth, we take on our own righteousness to keep our own learned ways, practices, lust, desires, and habits of our flesh for the devil to stay in control and oversee what we want to do.
• The objective of a religious spirit is “control”. It is all about control!
• When you began to spiritually grow in Christ to learn more than the same old same old after many years, a religious spirit will come to you to say: “It really don’t take all of that”, “that is just their opinion”, “they just want your money”, “you getting too deep”, “our family don’t do that like that or we don’t believe like that”, or “we are Baptist, or Pentecostal, or Catholic, or Jehovah witnesses”, “you can teach your own self to”, “I was church hurt”, etc.
• This is how religious spirits talk to you themselves or through other people to keep you bound up in their ungodly rules and regulations that will keep you from spiritually growing and accepting God’s Way in Christ for you as a born-again new creature.
• That spirit talks in terms of traditions, rituals, ceremonies, habits, practices, and personal belief to make you feel like you need to have some kind of work to add to your Salvation other than hearing, faith, righteousness, deliverance, and holiness (sanctification) in Spirit and in Truth.
• Jesus came and destroyed the spirit of control over the soul of Man by condemning sin in the flesh.
• A religious spirit is a demon that opposes the Grace of God to you and will try to undermine your acceptance of the work of Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s covenant for the new life of soul in you and me.

Amen

Wednesday, July 10, 2024, Apostle Tracey Robinson