Religious Prisons

Some people are just about impossible to edify. You can show them the love of God, seek common grounds with them, and demonstrate an obvious spirit of peace and graciousness toward them and those around them for an extended period of time; and they won’t have any of it. You can demonstrate repeatedly that you aren’t defensive about anything they disagree with you about, and you can manifest over time in spirit and in deeds that you indeed care about them in every way; and they just refuse to allow themselves to be edified by anything you do. So many of God’s people simply will not let themselves be a partaker of the fellowship of the holy Ghost with their brethren in Christ, for the life of them. You can talk about carnal things or spiritual things, and you can even incorporate good clean humor, and they just won’t hear of it. Instead they lock themselves into a religious prison where they can neither receive God’s love from anyone, nor can they put it out; because it isn’t dwelling there FOR them to put it out. Understand now that I am talking about people who HAVE received the Spirit and are thereby in the body of Christ and the kingdom of God (I Cor. 12:13; Jn. 3:5). God really endures an enormous amount of grief watching his people deprive themselves of the untold joy of walking in his Spirit with him and with one another. It truly is a self imposed robbery of the joy of the Lord, that so many folks are devoted to something or someone that names the name of Christ, but in fact is leading them further from the communion of the holy Ghost WITH Christ and his people (II Cor. 11:4; Rev. 3:20; II Cor. 13:14). And the shame is that it’s all in the supposed name of Jesus and spirituality that these things are done (II Tim. 3:5; Tit. 1:16).

Satan has so many people deceived with religious traditions and doctrines of men, and has trained them to just block out anyone who doesn’t meet their man-made religious standard. Friend, that kind of mindset is NOT of God. The mind of Christ in someone teaches them that the holy love of God IS the doctrine to adhere to, and that the only tradition worth following is to be free from sin and the sectarian spirits of this world so that we can exercise and demonstrate that love to everyone we meet (Jn. 8:31,32). And the Spirit of God also teaches and trains those who are willing to learn, to joyfully seek to share and receive that love with and from everyone who has God’s spirit. The fear of receiving some spiritual evil from someone is not of God, and is not a result of believing truth (I Jn. 4:18). When God’s love is full and unhindered in someone, they are always looking for ways to transfer that love to anyone they can, especially to God’s people. And they are not looking for ways to fearfully avoid someone who has clearly demonstrated the love of God to them in honesty and sincerity (II Tim. 1:7,8). It is truly saddening to see someone choose to remain in a religious prison, with no joy, peace, or real love to rejoice in; but rather choose a rigid man-made form of doctrine that chokes the life right out of them. And while the spiritual life is being drained from a person, in a lot of cases they are made to believe that they are the elite of the body of Christ, and indeed the very elect. Be careful of these kinds of spirits my friend, because the things described in this short writing, which negate the love and fellowship of God’s Spirit, are not behavioral traits of the elect of God (Rom. 8:15). The main characteristic of the elect of God is a spirit that freely demonstrates and promotes the genuine love of God to everyone they are around, and is always willing to engage anyone therein. Amen.