Love (Not Religious Duty)

Religion is easy. Go to church once or twice a week. Sing some songs. Listen to a man speak an eloquent message. Smile through your teeth at people. Go home and put the Bible back on the shelf. As I said before, religion is easy.

Many Christians are influenced too greatly by a spirit they don’t know exists. We call it the spirit of religion. When religion, or the traditions of men, gains authority over an audience, not only is church boring, predictable and repetitive, but identity is lost and the power of God is made null and void. Without the power of God, why?

One man telling people what to believe will bring in theology that is created by man’s standard rather than God’s. If you want perfect theology, look at Jesus’ life. What He did is what He commissioned us to do. His commission to us was not out of harshness to stir guilt or to contrive striving out of self-worthlessness. It was out of love to stir love for others. The magnitude of our task cannot be driven by motives of guilt, shame, or heaviness, but out of love, compassion and faith.

Anything we can do in our own strength is not God. What God does is beyond our ability. However, He wants to use us. He has to use us. No more Ark of the Covenant. No more Jesus on earth. Now, the Holy Spirit is here. He seals your salvation and baptizes you with fire to draw people to Him through the signs, wonders, miracles, supernatural healing. This is God’s design to reach mankind with the knowledge of salvation in Jesus.

A church that is saturated with the culture of ordinary and natural, whether by appearance or sustained limitations, is nothing short of absent of the Holy Spirit’s power and the love of Christ. An emphasis on man to deliver an eloquent message can leave listeners in a state of misguided opinions and terrible theology. Our God is not ordinary. He is extraordinary. He is not natural. He is supernatural. We are not here to suffer for His glory but instead we are to bring the kingdom of God on earth by revealing the love of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, we’re playing church. We’re playing games.