How the Spirit of Religion fights the Spirit of God

Definition: by the spirit of religion we mean that group of evil spirits which inspire loyalty to religious concepts and practices in such a way as to oppose and possibly to counterfeit the true work of the Holy Spirit.

Satan knows he cannot stop people from being religious. He therefore seeks to pervert the religious instinct of mankind by deception. All religious deceptions work to draw men away from glorifying and enjoying Christ. Religious spirits work in many different ways, and with many different tactics. We may see through some of their tactics only to be completely fooled by them in another area of our attitudes and thinking. Therefore we must be humble enough to admit that we too, not having fully possessed the mind of Christ as yet, could be deceived in some areas.

It should be obvious to Christians that the power that non-Christian religions exercise over the minds of men comes from Satan. Only a supernatural power could drive men to worship rocks or rats. What power is it that keeps people away from worshipping the true God, the Creator and turning their primary affections to false gods and other vain things? It is the spirit which is now at work in the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2).

However, religious spirits are at work not only outside the church of Christ, but also within it. The extent to which Christendom has been infiltrated by evil spirits is greater than it will ever be possible to calculate. It extends virtually to every local church and across every denomination to a greater or lesser extent. This fact can be demonstrated logically by considering for a moment the theological disagreements and bad relationships which exist between churches, and also within individual local churches. How can these things be so, when Jesus put so much emphasis on us loving one another (John 13:34, 35), and was so emphatic in his desire for the unity of the church to reflect the unity of the godhead? (See John 17). Obviously the spiritual power behind these problems is religious in nature.

The religious spirit will also rear its ugly head when a man or woman full of the mercy of God and the power of the Holy Spirit begins to confront religious people in churches with the truth. At these times demons get stirred up and if possible will provoke all kinds of unreasonable and malicious attacks on such servants of God. In some situations they may even be publicly cast out of those so influenced by them. This ministry is necessary, and in the last days will become more and more common.

Jesus Christ had little trouble dealing with demons provoking sickness and disease in people. However, the Lord faced greater opposition from people controlled by religious spirits. These people did not know they had religious spirits. They thought they represented the true religion of God. They did not want to be free of the spirits that made them feel important and more righteous than those around them. Because of their pride and hardness of heart, even the Son of God could not help them to come to the Father. These people were known as the Scribes and Pharisees, the chief priests and experts in the law. It was these people who hated Jesus and conspired to crucify Him. They were motivated by pride, envy and self-righteousness. They refused to humble themselves and believe in the Messiah, despite the many proofs that Jesus gave. This remained true even after they were confronted with the fact of the resurrection.

We make a serious mistake if we assume that the spirit which motivated these Jewish religious leaders can in no way influence us. In fact, those who think like that are probably the very ones who are influenced by such spirits. While these religious spirits will obviously not promote exactly the same errors now as they did in those people, there will be similarities of attitude and behaviour which will be clearly seen.

This subject is actually a vast one and we need the help of the Spirit of God to be able to get free from the influence of religious spirits.  Most people, myself included, will have an ongoing battle with these kinds of spirits.  If we are not fighting them, perhaps it is because we are happy to be securely in their grip.

The Scripture gives us many clues as to the marks of the activity of religious spirits, especially those religious spirits which are closest to the truth and therefore harder to detect.

Characteristics of the Work of Religious Spirits

Fear of not being good enough

    When we think our salvation depends all on us we will be fearful, because the Bible says that we all stumble in many ways. Until we cast ourselves at the mercy of God and truly give ourselves to Him, we go through a cycle of hearing laws, falling short, feeling guilty, trying to measure up, and repeated failure.

    People under religious spirits are carrying heavy burdens and do not have the sense of freedom that comes when we know that our sins are washed away.  The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and JOY in the Holy Spirit. If you are religious but you have no peace or joy, something is wrong. Condemnation and unrighteous judgment may have stolen it from you.

Fear of People

If you are asking yourself more often: "What will the people at church think?" than "What will Jesus think?" you are bound by a religious, man-pleasing spirit.

We should not offend people unnecessarily, but if we must choose between offending people and offending the Spirit of God, then let people take offense if they must. Many were offended at Jesus.

The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be kept safe. (Pr. 29:25).

Fear of the Pharisees kept many Jews out of the Kingdom of God.

"Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. (John 12:42,43)

When you are at church you behave in a certain way, because you are more conscious of people than conscious of God. If you really feared God more than people, you would not watch some of the garbage you watch on television. But remember that God sees all that you do.

When will you give up that garbage, confess it to God and get on with serving the Lord from a pure heart?

Performance, not grace-based.

The religious spirit seeks  to have us serve the Lord in order to gain his approval, rather than from having received our approval from the cross of Christ.

Doing works to atone for our sense of guilt, rather than trusting the blood of Jesus

Some people are driven to do good works to make up for the wrong they have done. This kind of works will never bring us God's acceptance. It is another way of rejecting the sacrifice of Jesus when we say to God, "No, let me pay for it."

Emphasis on External Thing

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