![]() Dear Friend, How are you? I’m well. In March 2021, I happened to find a Pastor Rick Joyner’s book, “Overcoming the Religious Spirit” in an online bookstore and I became very interested in reading it. The reason I wanted to read it was that I wondered whether I was under the religious spirit from certain experiences and thoughts and I wanted to understand my status and overcome it, if I had the spirit. Back in my Singapore time, I listened to Derek Prince’ teaching online on seraphim’s covering his face and feet with his wings. I saw Sister Ruth Prince, the wife of Derek Prince wear covering on her head in every place where Derek Prince preached. Then, I also heard from my home group leader in Singapore church that the ladies in our church had to wear the head covering long time ago, but not anymore. At that time, I tried to be dressed up on Sunday. I mean dressed up by ‘dressed as formally as I was dressed for the workplace.’ I thought I would go to the presence of the King of kings and thought what I would dress as if I were invited to our president’s place and so on. After I listened to Derek Prince’s teaching, I thought I would wear closed-toe shoes rather than open toe shoes like sandals or flip-flops. In Singapore, as the weather is always hot and humid like the summer in Korea, I noticed that the dress-code in church is very different from that in Korea. Many wear sandals or flip-flops and very short pants in church, just as they wear in the hot weather outside. I tried not to judge others, while I myself tried to be dressed up and started to cover my feet. As I’ve seen online many pastors across the globe preach in jeans, hoodies, and so forth, I believe we have freedom in Christ. Yet, I wanted to do my best to be as formal as I could be in the dress-code. Then in 2020, as I had Sunday service online at home with the pandemic around, I just wore my lounge clothes that I usually had during the week. I didn’t wear socks to cover my feet. And I didn’t even wash my face nor brush my teeth before the online service. It made me think that I was dressed up for the church service, not to honor the Lord, but to look like a God-honoring believer to others. It made me wonder whether I was just like the Pharisee. Then, in January 2021, I found myself reading the Bible out of legalism and out of pride, as I shared in my previous blog, “Martha and Mary.” I recalled some of my experiences and teachings of Derek Prince. I found I had something in common with him, when I listened to his sermons. He once shared his experience that he repented of self-righteousness in him when the Holy Spirit let him know. I repented after listening to his testimony too. Then in another teaching, he said that he used to think to himself, “how many out of this congregation would be faithful and go to Heaven?”, whenever he looked at the people in church from the pulpit. Then, the Lord spoke to him one day, “It’s none of your business!” I just laughed out, listening to it, not only because the Lord had a sense of humor, but also because I used to think to myself just the same as Derek Prince did. When I went to my Seoul church, which is a mega-church, and I looked at the huge congregation, I used to ask that question to myself. Then I realized it was out of pride and the Lord would say to me too, “It’s none of your business!” I can’t exactly recall, but Neville Johnson said something like this: holiness is not about whether your skirts should be below the knees or above the knees or whether you should wear sleeveless or not. It is about our heart. And he said people argue whether something is good or bad, just like the Tree of Good and Evil. But our Lord sees why we are doing it, i.e. what our heart motive is. So, I read in the book, “Overcoming the Religious Spirit” by Pastor Rick Joyner: Like most of the enemy’s strongholds, the religious spirit builds its work on two basic foundations: fear and pride. The religious spirit seeks to have us serve the Lord in order to gain His approval, rather than from a position of having received our approval through the cross of Jesus. Therefore, the religious spirit bases a relationship to God on personal discipline rather than the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ. The motivation for doing this can be either fear or pride or a combination of both. Joyner, Rick. Overcoming the Religious Spirit (Combatting Spiritual Strongholds Series) (p. 7). MorningStar Publications, a division of MorningStar Fellowship Church. Kindle Edition. After I received the teachings from the pastors and meditated on them, I believe that whatever I do or whatever I wear, it must come from the love toward God and toward others. If we choose not to wear short skirts or short pants out of the love toward the brothers and sisters in church, for them to be focused in the worship, I think it’s not religious. Yet someone might wear sleeveless shirts or short skirts, saying he or she is free in Christ. But if his or her heart attitude is actually “If you’ve got it, flaunt it!”, I don’t think it’s from the freedom, but from the pride. Of course, only God would know our motives. In addition, I believe the Lord would speak to some of us in person and tell him or her to do something. I heard that the Lord told my friend’s daughter not to put on eyeliners. It doesn’t mean all Christian ladies must not make up their eye lines. In a Dennis Walker’s book, “Catching the Initiatives of Heaven,” he wrote that he made a tent in his home, after the Lord told him to do. So, he literally set up a tent and encountered His presence in the tent. And his wife actually loved his spending time in the tent, saying something like the more he spent his time in the tent, the more he would be like Him. I think it doesn’t mean we all need to literally set up a tent in our homes, unless we are told to do so by Him. So, I believe some of us might have special and even strange orders from the Lord, and we must not judge others for them. Friend, Does this speak to you? I think I will write more on religious spirit sometime later. In the meantime, I pray that whatever we do, we do out of the pure hearts and out of the love toward our Father and His children, in Jesus’ name. In Christ, we have freedom and we receive the love of Father and we manifest it toward others. Have a bliss! Yunee “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:10~14) Comments are closed.
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