This post will teach you what a religious spirit is and how to recognise it in your own life. Divine healing is part of grace, so entertaining the religious spirit in any part of your life may slow you down and keep you stuck.
Healing is right the way through the Bible, beginning in the garden of Eden.
Genesis tells us that God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which represents the Law, in the garden. Yet it was not this tree in the centre of the Garden, but the tree of Life.
WHAT IS A RELIGIOUS SPIRIT?
Adam and Eve put their eyes on the wrong tree. When Eve took from this tree, she gained a religious spirit of thinking.
To me, this is like having a legalistic mindset.
When we take our eyes off grace (which I think we all do from time to time), a religious spirit can influence us without us realising.
Are your eyes on the tree of Life (Jesus / grace) or on the tree of knowledge of good and evil?
Sometimes on a healing journey it’s easy to fall into a legalistic mindset, but this is the wrong foundation and will keep you battling illness.
The moment you take from the wrong tree, you’ll develop 4 mindsets that hinder your healing. (I took this from Barry Bennett who I first came across at the Charis Bible College)
1. YOU’LL BE NATURALLY MINDED
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
Gen 3:7
- Adam and Eve became more aware of the natural realm than the spiritual one when they lost the glory of God.
Are you more aware of what the doctors say and the symptoms in your body? Keeping our eyes on the natural realm keeps us powerless; there are no miracles here.
he considered not his own body
Romans 4:19
Abraham was way too old to become a father but he didn’t even consider his age or what others may have said; the impossible was more credible to him.
There have been seasons in my life, where I feel unable to get out of bed or pain has been so extreme yet in myself I’ve felt quite healed. This is the result of meditating on the Word.
On one occasion I recall going to see my consultant down in London. En route I had a couple of scriptures I muttered to myself again and again. I remember sitting in the doctors office feeling I had stepped onto the moon.
He was talking about how all procedures had failed and that he was running out of options, yet there was such a peace and an indifference which wasn’t cognitive. We were on different wavelengths.
In this moment, I was far more aware of the spiritual realm than the natural one.
The more you and I renew our minds, focusing on Jesus and reading the Word, the more we increase our capacity to receive and overcome the impact of the religious spirit.
We can’t psych ourselves into living in the spiritual realm.
2. YOU’LL BE SELF CONSCIOUS
- Adam and Eve realised they were naked, even though they had been naked all along. They became self conscious, focusing on their weaknesses.
If you’re believing God for healing, know that God heals in spite of all your weaknesses.
If you think that God won’t heal you because of past mistakes or because you think there are too many flaws in your life, this is the religious spirit speaking.
I remember thinking that God wouldn’t heal me because I didn’t consider myself to be ‘super spiritual’.
I had people in my life telling me that I had too many things in my life to sort out with too many hindrances blocking my healing.
When Jesus healed people, he never told them to repent first. He cleansed the leper, opened the eyes of the blind and healed the multitudes.
There’s no way these people were all perfect!
Several years ago, I recall hearing God say ‘Lorna, if you think your healing is down to your and your obedience, you completely devalue what my Son has done for you…”
I hope this speaks to someone today. God may want to heal you from a religious spirit dominating you.
3. YOU’LL START EARNING FROM GOD
- Adam and Eve tried to atone for their own sin by sewing fig leaves together. Fig leaves in the Bible speaks of self righteousness.
If you think that reading more of the Bible, praying or fasting more will convince God to heal you, or serving more in church, giving funds to charity and so on, will stand you a better chance of healing, then this is self righteousness, or a religious spirit.
It can be so deceptive, we don’t even know it’s operating.
Underneath this behaviour is the thinking ‘I better be on my best behaviour if I’m expecting God to bless me’
I’ve come across a few people who increase their serving in church once they develop illness. Isaiah 64:6 tells us “all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags”
Paul says we remain under the curse of the law when we rely on our own efforts instead of receiving healing by faith.
He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.
Matt 8:17
The only qualification to receive healing is to believe that Jesus took our sicknesses to the cross.
We appropriate this by faith. If you’re unsure about this then see IS IT ALWAYS GOD’S WILL TO HEAL
In the story of the lame man lowered through the roof, the house was full of pharisees. I’m sure there would have been several in need of healing, yet only one person, the lame man, got healed.
When we have a religious spirit, we trust in ourselves or our goodness, we hinder the flow of God’s grace for healing in our lives.
4. YOU’LL HAVE A FEAR OF GOD
So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Gen 3:10
- When Adam and Eve took from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they no longer saw God as a God of love and were scared of him.
Not all Christians know the love of God. Spending time with him is a chore or a duty. They find the Christian walk a massive struggle as in their own strength.
What they know of God in their heads hasn’t reached their hearts.
(I know this is true because I was one of them!).
GOD’S NOT TEACHING YOU SOMETHING
In the early days of the illness I thought God was teaching me something and that I was on a path of suffering for him to perfect me somehow.
The name David means ‘beloved’. We have to know the love of God before we can knock down any giant of sickness.
If you relate to this, meditate on the verses showing God’s love for you. If might take some time but if you’re consistent, knowing the love of God is worth seeking.
The tree of knowledge of good and evil will never give you the revelation of who God really is, His love and His goodness towards you.
Of course you’ll learn many things in your suffering, the Holy Sprit teaches things all the time. BUT God is not waiting for you to learn something before he heals you.
If you think he is, this is a religious spirit.
Picture the difference it would make to all those who are believing God for a breakthrough to allow God to heal any mindset cause by a religious spirit that has unconsciously crept in
Are you continually striving trying to please God in order for him to bless you? If not, are you more aware of the world around you, than the Spiritual realm? Let me know below.
Take care
Lorna x
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