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Religiousness is a Powerful Force
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The Adversary is All-In and He's going All-Out
YOU may not be ALL IN, — but your adversary the devil SURE IS ! And he’s out to deceive you, and absolutely trash you! Once you’ve enter into that Born Again Kingdom of God, you seriously need to equip yourself, cause your adversary the devil, — HE IS ON THE HUNT !
" Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."
" Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." - Ephesians 6:11-16
" Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." - 1 Peter 5:8
Like a line drawn in the sand, — one of two things are happening in the life of a believer. Two fires are raging! Either we are exploring and expanding the Kingdom of Heaven, — experiencing all kinds of Kingdom benefits. Or we are square dancing with that invisible force called '-The Religious Spirit-' . A distractive, disruptive, divisive, and deceptive force created by the adversary to manipulate us through our fears, our phobias, and our insecurities, where our knee jerk reactions create a reality that is nothing close to how the Lord is wanting us to function.
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The Adversary is Looking to Imprison
The adversary’s plan has always been to imprison us into some form of distorted powerless religious identity, verses who God designed us to be according to Jesus, — powerful beings filled with the fire of God. Powerful beings covered with the glory of God! Jesus came to restore that. What Jesus modeled to His disciples is a true representation of what we really need to be going after. We, who are born again, are now walking temples who are sealed by the fire of Holy Spirit, re-established and re-ignited to walk with His glory once again. It’s amazing how the Jesus model, that true identity that was released by Jesus himself, — has completely sifted through our hands once again. Sifted so bad where most of us today are exemplifying something that is nothing close to what Jesus modeled! This is all part of the great falling away that is happening today.
The adversary knows that when we do tap into who we need to be, that the Kingdom of God will follow in a big way, — just like it followed Jesus. And when the Fathers Kingdom expands, — his kingdom falls apart. This ruthless adversary lost everything at the cross, — everything. And he has no plans of loosing what he has rebuilt in the last 2000 years! He is skillful in the art of war and the art of deception. This destructive spirit has been strategizing, and rebuilding. He is sharp, he is intelligent, and he knows exactly what to say, what to do, and how to dance around the real issues as he has perfected the art of manipulation, along with the ability to self-preservate. As he protects and defends while expanding his ground, the strongman behind the religious spirit is building roadways into our minds with a religious mindset that only adds to the on going distortion. Once caught in his religious web, its pretty tough for us to connect the dots.
He has this natural ability to create all types of crisis so that when we dance in the crisis with him we become none effective, — where God designed us to be highly effective and extremely powerful. The whole drive behind the religious spirit is to steer us into the false so that we end up walking in a counterfeit. His whole game is that he renders us powerless, as we become spectators of a gospel that he has absolutely toned down.
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Walking in Religious Busyness
Knowing that it doesn’t take a whole lot for us to compromise that resting place, the adversary steers us into our personal religious busyness. The last thing the adversary wants is for us to come to grips with who we really are according to Jesus. Our busyness in building our kingdoms, ministries, and enterprises will prevent us from walking in the fullness of that reality. The vastness and the ugliness of this thing is massive. Deception, distortion and destruction is what this religious spirit is all about as it parades itself as an instrument of light, — as it lures many into entertaining something that looks so close to the real deal. A sure shoo-in for this religious spirit is when the great commandment to love one another is playing second fiddle to the great commission. It’s when the commissioning to expand and build, has priority over love, — that is when we start to see that '-stage performing religious spirit-' start to take shape. For some crazy reason, many, and I mean many have settled for a powerless gospel, as the puppet master unleashes his greatest show ever.
We cannot allow the adversary to stage us, council us, and direct us anymore through our fears, our phobias and our stresses. We cannot allow him to direct us where he is able to continually misdirect to where we end up with the same old, same old, — that whole cycle needs to be broken. We need to saddle up with the freedoms that Jesus has for us, freedoms that are backed by the Holy Spirit and with the Angelic. Freedoms that rightfully belong to both you and I. According to Jesus, and according to our heavenly Fathers original design and His original intent, we were always meant to walk in a powerful freedom that freely expands His kingdom. Many today have no clue of the religiousness that has bled over into their personal and corporate lives. Many have no understanding on how deep and wide this thing goes, — nor how close it is to home.
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The Demonic and the Religious Working Together
It’s amazing how the demonic and the religious spirit work together. Make no mistake about it, — it is the demonic influences that send the religious spirit in motion. It’s a powerful force! The demonic works in the shadows, and it’s the demonic that moves all those powerful dark pieces in the background while the religious spirit, fueled by witchcraft, work powerfully in the forefront, creating all kinds of drama, as it brings those hidden pieces strategically to the forefront, — like in a chess game.
The two working together create a cluster of distractions that have the ability to overwhelm anyone. And how destructive those distractions are in our personal walk depends on how much distortion we have allowed in our walk with the Lord, — and that distortion comes because we have somehow misplaced true discernment. But the religious spirit will tell you all is good as the spiritual body count continues to pile up in the wasted lands of religiousity.
Having been manipulated into the middle ground, the demonic and the religious now have all the intentions to squeeze us from all sides. These pressures are strategically designed to alter our identities, our character, and the way we function. To distort us personally, and corporately, and to distort the Holy Spirit operating system within us. Distorting our callings and to fragment us as a people as he sends us off entertaining the false while marching forward with his false narratives.
To break this cycle, — we need to be free from one who is pulling all the strings behind the curtain, the same one who has activated his minions to create a demonic swirl that hovers over many. Minions that have been specifically equipped for their targeted assignments and have inroads to complete those assignments. Demonically weaponized, this spirit plans to continue winning its share of battles. Plus it plans to preserve the very ground it conquers, — at whatever cost. It will throw whoever it needs to under the bus to preserve itself. It has very little accountability. The success ratio behind this spirit is very high! We truly need to be brushing up our skills if we plan to turn it around!
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Jesus Came to Set Us FREE
Jesus came with a model of government where we serve one another, where we are truly taking care of the Fathers Business. Jesus came with a powerful Kingdom, His Fathers Kingdom. He came with a finished product. He even said, '-It is finished-”. According to Jesus, it was a done deal. Whom the Son sets free is free, but the religious spirit is always wanting to add to it and steer us into building something, — no mater how big or small as long as it keeps us busy.
The end game for this spirit is to have ultimate control, to steer us away from the freedoms given, and to have influence over a gathering or at least have that swing vote. It wants to steer the bride of Christ and the Fathers business into such a dysfunctional mess releasing a distorted government that is nothing close to what Jesus exemplified to His disciples. It wants to take something powerful, that is rightfully ours for the taking, and turn it into something powerless as it assumes control. And it uses those that have no clue that they are being used, but for those that do, — it's pure manipulation on their part and that is evil.
Present day, — this religious spirit covers a lot of territory and has been the adversary’s choice weapon for mass destruction and mass deception. For me, my safeguard to avoid all this is to follow those who exemplify servant-hood like Jesus did. To follow those mighty ones as I watch them be the mightiest servants of all. When I follow these ones, these true servants of God, — the chances of me walking in religiousness are slim and none! So my prayer for the reader today is that whatever degree of religiousness that has attached itself to you be broken off in Jesus name! And that from this day forward, you truly do tend to the Fathers business! That the Holy Spirit would seal you today to be only doing what your Heavenly Father is doing! Nothing more, nothing less! I pray this prayer for you in Jesus name, and may the Kingdom of Heaven expand where ever you go! Amen!
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EkklesiaRising.com / JesusMinistries.ca