I have a confession to make. I watch The Bachelor, I drink alcohol sometimes, and I often listen to secular music (gasp). “But you’re a pastor’s wife!” some say. Yes I am, and I am on a journey to be a free pastor’s wife. This is my testimony about the religious spirit and how it worked in my life and my journey to get rid of it.
Since I was a Junior in high school, as far as God went, I was desperate to know him. I became a Christian as a small child but didn’t really go after a relationship with Him until high school. It is interesting to me that the first thing I did when I rededicated my life to God was to un-friend all of my unsaved friends. It was religious rule #1.
At Home
My family, while being Church-going Christians, was not particularly religious. My dad was a deacon in the church and brewed beer in his garage (a big no-no in the Baptist Church). My mom was and is a very strong Christian and I always knew her to have very close friendships with unbelievers. It was more the church that taught me the religious rules such as don’t drink, don’t watch anything that is not G or PG, don’t listen to secular music or read secular books.
I went to a Baptist University and while I cherish the journey in college of going after Jesus and a deep relationship with him, I see now how the religious spirit took up residence with me during those years. I became very judgmental; an expert of the law. I learned the “right” way to do everything and applied it to everyone around me. I came home from college and judged my own family. Sorry mom and dad. While Beverly Hills 90210 may not have been the best show for my teenage sister to watch, it really did not go over well to inform my mom that God was NOT ok with this.
Religious Spirit
Over the last 20 years, from college to now, God has been very gracious with me. He has allowed me to learn lesson after lesson, giving me glimpses into people’s lives and helping me to see that there is, in fact, not always one right way to do things. He has exposed this thing called the “religious spirit” to me and showed me pretty regularly over the last few years how I have partnered with it. Now I would like to be completely free of this spirit and would like to help others become free of it as well.
The religious spirit is a demonic spirit that parades itself around as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, causing most believers at times to believe it is from God. It appears to be godly, but in fact, when you search deeper is of the devil. I believe the religious spirit’s intention is to prevent intimacy between the bride and Christ. Because of this, we cannot afford to continue to partner with this spirit. The religious spirit lives in the law. It stands directly opposed to the fact that Jesus died on the Cross to fulfill the law and so it constantly points Christians back to the law even though we don’t have to live by it any longer. It causes us to believe that if we follow a set of rules we will be closer to Jesus or “more godly”. The truth is the direct opposite. The more religious rules you make and follow, the less you know Jesus and therefore the less you know the Father (John 14:9). Take a look at the Pharisees in the New Testament.
Philippians 3
Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. 7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
I’ve read this my whole life to mean that Paul is saying that all of his accomplishments and good things that he had done were considered a loss because he had done them (not the Lord) and that it is better to have Jesus than all those good things. Although that is partially true, what he is really saying here is that ‘every rule that I have followed that I thought would bring me closer to God actually did the opposite and I consider that all rubbish now and I want to really know Christ. And to really know Christ is to embrace what He did on the cross for me and give up on striving for the law once and for all! Paul recognized that even though he was the model for the righteous man because of his standing with the law, his standing with the law actually did nothing to bring him closer to Jesus. The Pharisees were all about the law and they missed Jesus, the son of the living God! The same religious spirit that lived in the Pharisees is alive today and at work in many Christians today. In Matthew 7 it says:
22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Do & Don’t
We tell people “don’t watch those movies, don’t listen to secular music, don’t drink that drink” and then we replace that with “go to church every Sunday, read your Bible every day, listen to only worship music”. Now some of these are things that may help some people but they will never replace a face-to-face relationship with God. And these examples are just scratching the surface of how deep we take this. On a deeper lever it’s: feeling guilty for not talking to that person about Jesus, going to church and feeling better about yourself as a Christian because of it, or vowing to be a “good witness” by not revealing who you really are to people, as not to “cause them to stumble”. Some preachers preach, “you must be pure (as if you can make yourself pure)”, or “stop sinning because you can’t come before God if you aren’t pure”. This is what I call the doctrine of doo-doo, because it is all about doing and it is crap! It grieves my heart that we make these rules and then call them holy. Don’t get me wrong; I too fall into these lies and I want to be free of those attitudes!
I often wonder how it was in the Old Testament time, before Jesus’ death and resurrection, that people were even able to follow that command to Love the Lord with all their heart, soul, and strength without an encounter with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. My inclination is that their inability to really do that is what led them to have a desperate need for a savior, the Lamb of God to free them from the law, which allows us to enter into relationship with God (enter the Holy of Holies).
Freedom
My personal first step in eradicating the religious spirit in my own life is to go after healing in my heart, soul, mind, and flesh; to take down those lies that keep me thinking I am separated from God. Christian counseling, sozo/healing prayer, worship, living a lifestyle of forgiveness, and allowing myself to grieve to heal wounds has helped tremendously. As my wounds heal (we all have them), and as I replace lies with truth, I am able to stand and and know that I am the person God created me to be, not perfect, but truly holy and blameless before Him. And from that place I can walk in the reality of ‘Christ in me’ and that unity and intimacy.
My second step is to allow myself to be the same person I am at church as I am at home; to stop putting on my “Sunday best” and really be myself. I’ve discovered that it is not easy to do this and I don’t always get the reactions I want. Some people find comfort in the persona of the perfect-appearing pastor’s wife. But I will press through and love people by bringing them me, the real me, until they become comfortable with that. I challenge you to do the same. Be who you are around the body of Christ; the same as you are at home. I realize that in this process we still have to have wisdom in what we share and whom we share it with. But by not allowing a religious spirit to take away our right to be ourselves we can have true union and spur one another on towards love and true righteousness: something that we are, not something we can achieve.
Amen Holly to often the “Church” put to much inportance on appraince,
how a person looks, not there chareter and how they treated others and family.
Lord help us. Char
The fashion show that happens each weekend as the church meets is coming to an end. Instead of masks, people will be their true self coming to worship with others. It will be beautiful.
Holly, what you have blogged is really amazing thank you so much for speaking up!!!!
I also grew up in church, went to Bible college and learned how to judge.. It wasnt until I went through a season of crying out to God that my eyes were opened and discovered that what I had “learned” wasnt Biblical.
Jesus sat with sinners, drank and ate with them. He spoke “freedom” and WALKED in power.
I am finding that the “religious spirit” keeps people “humble and powerless and ties their tongue”. It keeps us in a place of constantly repenting and crying out for more. When Jesus said that “We are FREE and to do likewise…(what he did). We HAVE everything we need!
I wonder if when we get this revelation… how many people in the marketplace will see Jesus through us and not “judgement” from us.
2 “Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh”.
I have had dream after dream of vicious dogs chasing me and at the same time bears playing like dogs.
The religious spirit is vicious and will not “tolerate” freedom. lol…i think that is why Jesus never stayed in the synagogue but with the hungry sinners. I choose to follow in his footsteps;)
Thank you Holly for this awesome testimony! Several years ago, while commuting home from Anchorage, the Lord spoke to me and said, “The Spirit of Religion is Pharaoh.” Considering that I was not asking him about the Spirit of Religion at the time, this startled me and I asked, “What on Earth does that mean?” Of course he did not bother to answer me until my commute several days later – again out of the blue – and he said, “The Spirit of Religion is Pharaoh. It sits on a throne and declares itself God.”
This description fascinated me. I began analyzing it, and realized that this is exactly how this spirit operates. In the church, it starts carving out territory at the highest levels. It explains to us what God will and will not accept through our “mutually accepted doctrine.” In our hearts, it tells us what is or is not acceptable through fear and guilt. We often mistake perfectly acceptable behavior for sin, because we have been taught that we will be rejected for it. This shames us and brings guilt which has no place in our lives. It also causes us to mistakenly worship, or give a false throne in our hearts, to the enemy.
God then began teaching me that detecting the Spirit of Religion is much easier than I at first imagined. He said, “Listen to the tone of my voice, listen to the nature of the message.” I began to realize that in every way that the Spirit of Religion attempted to show definitions, formulas, or rules and regulations, the end consequence was the same – rejection, shame and guilt. The Spirit of Religion screams, “You are not good enough! You can never be good enough! You need to try harder, or the father cannot accept you. Why should he be proud of you?”
Good heavens. No wonder we have so much trouble with it!
The Lord’s voice, in contrast, is complete with Love, Passion, and Mercy. He always says, “I Love YOU. I accept YOU. I died for YOU, as you are NOW, as you were THEN. Yes, I want you to turn away from sin, but I WANT you to turn to ME. I have the power to clean you, to guide you, and to hold you – with a strength you could never match and never need to.” Once I understood this distinction, it became much easier to tell the two apart. Love is the key. It is our father’s very nature, and the essence of what Religion attempts to destroy.
Again I want to thank you, Holly for sharing your testimony. For being willing to love, and to risk the extra attention and efforts of Religion within our hearts. I stand with you in this battle, and look forward to the victories we can win against this Pharaoh! 🙂
Holly
Thank you for your transparency and boldness to confront the lies of the religious spirit head on. You carry a grace and love for people allows free exchange of truth to destroy barriers instead of building them. Keep at it.
Beautifully said Holly. Our need for each other in the body of Christ is so important…the only way to connect our hearts is to be real and authentic and to begin to explore the reality of our union with Christ and the understanding that we are righteous and holy in Him.
Love you!