Recently my husband and I, along with a large group of others, went to a church of a certain denomination in order to see the premises and take a look around. We were greeted by the pastor and his wife, as a couple of young men and women with them stood obediently by and awaited the orders from the pastor. Immediately one could sense the spirit of religion and how uncomfortable these people appeared to be. While this was not a formal meeting, these men and women were dressed in business attire. The women with no makeup or jewelry, long hair done up and dresses and the men in suits and ties, clearly everyone had their place. This group of people we were with were completely the opposite, some of us were dressed in jeans and shirts or shorts, most everyone in attendance were dressed casually. There was a rather obvious difference in appearance as well as some kind of denominational and non-denominational beliefs which made some uncomfortable although no words were exchanged.
The religious spirits do not need to speak to get their message across.
While we toured the premises, I watched carefully all those in attendance and I tried to take in the premises with a natural eye but my spirit was grieved and so I found myself praying in my prayer language, searching for Holy Spirit’s take on all that I was seeing. As I took note of how excited the group of people were and how the “well dressed” people appeared to be intimidated by our group, my heart knew the Spirit was grieved. My first thought was, how I wish these people would be this excited about the word of God. While I enjoyed seeing their excitement and understood why they were I also saw the unique difference in the two groups of people, yet they were supposed to all be believers of the same Lord, even so their response to each other saddened my heart because it appeared as if we were merely strangers. One group was solemn and almost fearful as it appeared that the staunch religion they were in had stolen their joy. Whereby the other group was outwardly enthusiastic. I thought how desperately we are in need of revival in order to become one in Christ as was originally intended. Clearly religion has caused a huge divide within the Body of Christ and I knew God was grieved over the state of the Bride.
4 [There is] one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who [is] above all, and through all, and in you all. [Eph 4:4-6 NKJV]
Religion is Carnal
There may be one body but it has been cut into many pieces by religion. Apostle Paul must have discerned this to be a potential problem as well because he wrote to the church in Corinth pleading with them not to follow man’s doctrine nor be divided.
Now I plead with you, brethren, by the n