Are you religious or spiritual? 3 ways to find out
Are you religious or spiritual? In my last post, I explained how to identify the difference between being religious and spiritual. This is a continuation of the second post.
Christianity is not just a religion. It is a way of life. Christ is the centre of Christianity and the cross is the bridge God chose to connect to men.
Christianity is a culture of the Godhead and God's way of revealing Himself to Mankind. This has always been God's intention from the beginning of time. To bring man to himself. To bring man back into divinity.
But due to man's nature, it's so easy to twist something and make it benefit us instead. It's so easy to seek our benefit above God's benefit.
God was/is NEVER the problem. Man's nature will always be the problem. And man is capable of twisting anything including Christianity to suit his needs.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
Galatians 1:6-7
So it's amazing people easily point to the God as the problem whenever anything bad happens in the world. Or blame Christianity for not being the way their hearts want it to be.
But since the heart of man is desperately wicked and the nicest man on Earth is inevitable from such truth except he accepts Jesus, then Christianity cannot be what we desire it to be. It can and should be what God wants it to be or we would slowly slip into empty religious activities.
Quiet time has become just a to-do list
I'm so guilty of this. There was a time I would make a list of the things I had to do the next day, including spending time with God. After my 'Quiet time' I would move on to other things somewhat relieved that I'd gotten that ticked off the box. This made it hard for me to give God more of my time when he demanded it during the day.
So technically, I was giving one hour of my time to God and the other 23 hours were for myself and the world.
Imagine this. You're married to someone you love. But your sex life and intimate moments has become a to do list to just tick off the box. Now I'm not saying couples can't schedule their love making to fit their lifestyle pattern, but if you stop being intentional about your time together, it becomes boring and unadventurous.
After a while love-making becomes something you have to do, and not because you enjoy it.
Over time, you might find yourself even despising it.
If your spouse just wants to cuddle you or kiss you or spend time with you, you may push them away because you believe it can lead to more and you don't want to ruin your 'perfect' schedule or get pregnant in the process.
It's the same way with God. God doesn't want to be put in a box. He wants to take over our lives completely.
We are not meant to fit him into our plans, we must strive to fit into His
Temi Jatto
God is so mighty he wants to be expressed through our lifestyle. And you don't have to wait for the perfect time or the perfect song to express Him.
You don't have to push him away anytime you sense him tugging at your heart to pray or just meditate on his word. You don't have to seek out the perfect journal to write how much he means to you.
Confidence in flesh above God
A religious man may ascribe all glory to God externally, but his life pursuits or other conversation doesn't reflect what he's giving thanks for.
It's so easy to believe all our diligence in reading the Bible is behind our revelatory knowledge of the word.
But that's not Christlike nature. That's confidence in the flesh. Just because we are experiencing a surge in revelatory doctrines in these times has nothing to do with us.
It's because God is merciful and is ready to reveal himself in these last days. So His church can grow and transform into the image of His Son.
There are bible scholars who struggled to decode the book of Revelations and yet still ended up missing it. So we cannot afford to think it's due to our intelligence or because we read the bible better than others.
I read my bible for years and was still clueless about many things except the things I had been taught. I tried to understand God but I wasn't able to comprehend him according to the letter.
The true revelation of God's word makes us see our unworthiness and race towards Christ's worthiness as he unveils himself. Christ exposes our greatest need in Himself and when we see it, we long to obey. Our hearts tremble in awe and wonder and the race becomes easier.
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are NOT burdensome
1John 5:3
If the revelatory word of God doesn't come, we will struggle to keep up. This is because God encapsulates His grace as he sends us instructions. When Christ is revealed, He endows us with grace to obey and it becomes less difficult.
But first, the heart must be willing
Unwillingness to yield
It's so easy to hold on to the past revelation of God's word that we had or that he gave us years ago. But a spiritual man is easily intreated. He's open to letting down his way of doing things and be open to God's will however it may come.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, WILLING to YIELD, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy
Some people are so unteachable because they feel they know it all. But such a soul is not growing or open to learning. And that soul has become religious over time and would rather stick with what's comfortable while living in denial.
Every time I hear a new revelation from my pastors, I have to intentionally tell my soul to 'chill' before raising it's armour.
There was a time God told me something and I was so sure. A few months later, the plans changed and I had to keep moving with God.
Remember Abraham? God had given him the Son he promised. The same God also asked him to sacrifice the promised son.
Sounds contradictory right?
All God is seeking are souls pliable for use. A rigid person cannot enter the kingdom because such a soul can easily miss God when he comes through a different route. Just the way the Pharisees missed Jesus coming through the virgin birth. They were expecting a Messiah according to their understanding of God.
Now this is not advocating we should listen to anything. We must still be led by the Holy Spirit. We must also judge everything through scripture rightly dividing the word of God.
Without spiritual growth, we will be gullible to anyone that brings a contrary doctrine to us and gladly put up with it, assuming it to be truth.
From Genesis to Revelation, God's primary plan for man entails salvation of our spirits, soul and body. For man to love him the way He loves us.
Anything outside this has become mere religion.
Bloom with Love. Xx!