The dangers of the religious spirit

Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him (Matt. 2:2 KJV)

When Jesus was born, wise men from the east read the stars and knew that a King had been born in Israel. They traveled miles from the East to Jerusalem in search of the newborn King. However, one very striking paradox in this story is that the wise men from the East came to Jerusalem and informed the Chief priests, including the Scribes, Pharisees, and Doctors of the Law that the promised King of Israel had been born! One would have expected these leaders to have known.

The Jewish religious leaders had fallen into an age-old enemy called religion or rather the religious spirit. God gave the Jews the laws to relate to Him. They took those laws, create a religious system for themselves and left God out of it. They were in charge of the system.They had so lost their connection with the Lord that when God Himself came as a human being, they had no idea he had been born. Sinful Gentiles from the East and a few pious Jews knew of His birth, but not a single one of the religious leaders had an idea.

It is saddening how this spirit is ravaging Christianity today. It makes God’s people not to know Him but rather get so preoccupied with the rules, the systems and how things ought to be done. It causes us, God’s people, to have beautiful services which might be spiritually empty. We may have well organized Christian religious systems controlled by people’s opinions and mindsets and not God. It will make us busy with spiritual things that we want and have organized for ourselves whereas God is not the Author of them.The religious spirit hardens our hearts against God. Beware of its subtle influences.

MEDITATE

What are some of the consequences of the religious spirit? ( John 8:55, 2 Tim. 3:5…)

APPLY THE WORD

Let intimacy with the Lord and complete surrender to the leading of the Spirit be your ultimate goal, otherwise, you run the risk of following your own or other people’s will for your life.