This morning we continue our series entitled, “Power of Fellowship.” This series is about being intimate with God and how your vertical (upward) relationship with God impacts your horizontal (outward) relationships with others. This is vastly different that the way I grew up. I grew up in a very religious household, within a religious family, and I attended a religious church. The reason I hate religion is because I did all of that — participating in rites, rituals and routines — and I never knew God. I did not come to know God until I was 23 years old, serving in the military. I had been going to church all my life, but I never met Jesus until I got out of a religious environment. In this series I pray you get delivered from religion and you come to have a real relationship with The Father, through His Son Jesus, by the intimacy of the Holy Spirit.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. When you look at the people God used in the Bible and the journeys they went on, the experiences had nothing to do with rituals or religion. These people had to have a real relationship with God. Abraham left everything he knew to head out to an unknown land, just because God gave Him a promise. David’s life got turned upside-down from being a quiet shepherd boy, to a national hero, to a reigning king, just because God sent someone to his house to anoint him for his purpose. Gideon was transformed from a scared farmer with low self-esteem into a military commander and fearless war-hero, just because God called him a mighty man of valor. Peter was transformed from a fisherman to a fisher of men and the leader of the New Testament church, by simply responding to Jesus’ call to follow Him. Paul went from the leader of a terrorist organization who was persecuting Christians to a leader of the group he was persecuting, and it had nothing to do with rites, rituals or routines. This only happened because he came to know God personally and intimately. The point is that if you are going to be transformed from the man/woman you were into the man/woman you are called to be, it is NOT going to happen because you follow a routine. It is not going to happen because you wear certain clothes or recite pre-canned prayers. It is not going to happen because you blindly follow the words of a man. If it is going to happen, it is because by establishing and fostering a real relationship with your real God. This is the only way you will become who you are called to be. This is the only way you will leave the mark in this world you are destined to leave. You must be delivered from religion and develop your relationship with the Father, Son and Spirit through fellowship.
2. My sister and I talk all the time about the fact that we grew up in a church that taught us to do certain things, to recite certain prayers, and to blindly follow the leadership without ever questioning anything and without ever studying the Bible for ourselves. Looking back, I can now see how crazy this is. Jesus did not die so I could then have another mediator between God and myself. Jesus is my High Priest. I come to the Father directly, in the name of His Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. My wife was raised in a church that focused more on her appearance than her relationship with Jesus. She was told that she could not wear makeup, or earrings, or pants. Because if she did, she would be a “Jezebel”. How ridiculous is this? What do pants have to do with Jesus? A couple of days ago I had lunch with a young lady who told me about being raised in a church where she was strictly told what to do and say, and how everything was so strict that she thought she could not “bother God” with what she considered to be petty requests. She was under a dogmatic and religious system that trained her to submit to a certain set of rules without even truly knowing the God she was supposed to be serving. This is why I hate religion. If you are reading this and you are currently in a religious environment, living with a religious mindset, I pray you get delivered from it. Jesus died so you could have a true and intimate relationship with Him. Anything less is less than God’s best.
3. The young lady I met with was stationed with me some time back. She said to me, “One day, when you were preaching, you talked about simply talking to God the way you talk to your friends. I have never forgotten that. That really changed my life.” God wants you to have a relationship with Him. This means He wants to talk to you and wants you to talk to Him, the way you talk to anyone else. Ask God for a parking spot as you are driving up to the mall. Ask God to hold the elevator for you if you are running late and you need the help. Ask God for small things, big things, anything! Talk to Him in the morning and throughout the day. Walk with God in earnest, and believe me, He will walk with you. Once you start living this way, you will never go back to religion. Because you will realize that there is no power in it.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, You sent Your Son Jesus to die in my place. Jesus literally died for me. Now You have sent Your Spirit to live in me. Holy Spirit is literally living INSIDE of me. You did this so I can have a direct connection to You. Holy Spirit is my Spirit-to-Spirit connection to You because You are a Spirit. Jesus is my High Priest and He has given me access to You, in His name. So I come to You boldly and regularly. I talk to You and You talk to me. I walk with You and You walk with me. Living this way I will get to know You better, I will discover who and what You called me to be, and I will change the world. Because I won’t really be the one doing it. It will be You Father, living in me, giving me the words and performing the work. I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
