In my view, a 'religious spirit' is a human spirit which is contaminated or hindered by the self in the soul (mind, emotions, will). It is a self that tries to please God or be accepted by Him, instead of resting in the Person of Christ and all that He accomplished. It does not necessarily mean for salvation, but also for living. We may trust in Christ for salvation, but try to improve ourselves, overcome bad habits, by our self and not by Christ. Or even , it could just be living our own life by our self and never realizing Christ is with us. For example, maybe we fix breakfast 'by our self', thinking about our appearance, our food, our issues, and never invite and welcome the Lord's presence with us. We could even say it is simply "ignoring the Lord", and surely, it is not good to be ignored by anyone we love, our spouse, children, parents etc. Some believe a ' religious spirit' is an actual evil spirit or demon, but in any case 2 Cor 3:15-18 is how to be free from it.
2 Cor 3:15-18
New International Version (NIV)
15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Just "Reading the Bible" is not the way to be free from a religious spirit. Obviously those in verse 15 read the scriptures, but a veil still covered their heart. The veil is actually our self, our own human concepts, opinions, traditions, that are void from any spiritual reality, particularly the reality of the Holy Spirit. They had the Scriptures but they did not have the Person.
The best and sure fire way to be free from a 'religious spirit' is to turn our heart to the Spirit of the Lord. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom (vs 17). Where is the Spirit? Living in our spirit (1 Cor 6:17). So to turn to the Lord is also to turn to our own spirits, where the Holy Spirit dwells. This takes time, effort, and patience, to cultivate the presence of God in our life, by having a relationship with the Holy Spirit. Probably the worst advice to give someone affected by a religious spirit is a list of rules or 'how to's'. So we should be clear that this is a matter of living out a relationship with the Spirit in our daily life.
Having a religious spirit or not is nothing to do with the outward things. Is not about our outward activities, what music we worship with, what clothes we wear, whether we have tattoos or not. Being free from a religious spirit is not about having disorder or chaos either. Some charismatic or pentecostal assemblies have quite 'wild' worship styles and think they are not religious. But having a religious spirit does not mean we dress like the Amish or a nun. A person who worships God with rock music, has Christian tattoos and rides a motorcycle, may be just as religious as an ascetic monk, if they are only following the outward form of the religion out of their self but denying the Holy Spirit. It comes down to whether or not we have a heart that is turned to the Lord's presence, are we living the Christian life in and from our spirit in the Holy Spirit?, or are we living it out of our own independent self, manifested through our human soul (mind, emotions, will).
Doing something religiously is being presumptuous, it does not respect the fact that God is with us, living inside of us, even closer to us than the air we breathe. It is doing something of ourselves, without the Lord's specific instruction, without the sense of His peace and presence, and even without fellowship with Him as we do it. It is doing something 'because we have to' (e.g. compulsion), or 'because we want to', rather than 'because the Lord led me to'. When we review the Lord's ministry on Earth, and even the apostles in the book of Acts, it should be about doing things which seem good to the Holy Spirit and to us (Acts 15:28) . It is doing something together with the Lord, and in this sense it reflects the married life of two people becoming one.
Where more than one person is living like this, not in religion but in freedom, there is the genuine Church, Christs own Body, and His bride (Ephesians 5:25-27). This is also to say, where we have a group of people living religiously, and not in freedom of the Spirit, that is not Christ's Bride, Body or Church.
By comparing Ephesians 5:25 with 2 Cor 3:15-18, we can see that Christ actually died for a group of people living in unity and freedom with the Holy Spirit:
Ephesians 5:25, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it.
That is, Christ not only died so that sinners could get to Heaven, and He didn't die for a religious organization - Christ died so that He could have a church, a group of people on the Earth living in freedom, cooperation and unity with Him to accomplish His will (to defeat satan) and finally to return with Him to judge (1 Th. 3:13, 1 Cor 6:3). This Bride of Christ, is not your stay at home type baking muffins and choc chip cookies, she is a warrior Bride, whose appearance is terrible to the enemy: Song of Solomon 6:10 Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?
To live in freedom, unity and cooperation with the Lord, with our hearts turned to the Lord, is His will, not just for us individually, and not just so we can be free ourselves, but to have a group of such people, a church which He can use to accomplish all that He wants to accomplish.
2 Cor 3:15-18
New International Version (NIV)
15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Just "Reading the Bible" is not the way to be free from a religious spirit. Obviously those in verse 15 read the scriptures, but a veil still covered their heart. The veil is actually our self, our own human concepts, opinions, traditions, that are void from any spiritual reality, particularly the reality of the Holy Spirit. They had the Scriptures but they did not have the Person.
The best and sure fire way to be free from a 'religious spirit' is to turn our heart to the Spirit of the Lord. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom (vs 17). Where is the Spirit? Living in our spirit (1 Cor 6:17). So to turn to the Lord is also to turn to our own spirits, where the Holy Spirit dwells. This takes time, effort, and patience, to cultivate the presence of God in our life, by having a relationship with the Holy Spirit. Probably the worst advice to give someone affected by a religious spirit is a list of rules or 'how to's'. So we should be clear that this is a matter of living out a relationship with the Spirit in our daily life.
Having a religious spirit or not is nothing to do with the outward things. Is not about our outward activities, what music we worship with, what clothes we wear, whether we have tattoos or not. Being free from a religious spirit is not about having disorder or chaos either. Some charismatic or pentecostal assemblies have quite 'wild' worship styles and think they are not religious. But having a religious spirit does not mean we dress like the Amish or a nun. A person who worships God with rock music, has Christian tattoos and rides a motorcycle, may be just as religious as an ascetic monk, if they are only following the outward form of the religion out of their self but denying the Holy Spirit. It comes down to whether or not we have a heart that is turned to the Lord's presence, are we living the Christian life in and from our spirit in the Holy Spirit?, or are we living it out of our own independent self, manifested through our human soul (mind, emotions, will).
Doing something religiously is being presumptuous, it does not respect the fact that God is with us, living inside of us, even closer to us than the air we breathe. It is doing something of ourselves, without the Lord's specific instruction, without the sense of His peace and presence, and even without fellowship with Him as we do it. It is doing something 'because we have to' (e.g. compulsion), or 'because we want to', rather than 'because the Lord led me to'. When we review the Lord's ministry on Earth, and even the apostles in the book of Acts, it should be about doing things which seem good to the Holy Spirit and to us (Acts 15:28) . It is doing something together with the Lord, and in this sense it reflects the married life of two people becoming one.
Where more than one person is living like this, not in religion but in freedom, there is the genuine Church, Christs own Body, and His bride (Ephesians 5:25-27). This is also to say, where we have a group of people living religiously, and not in freedom of the Spirit, that is not Christ's Bride, Body or Church.
By comparing Ephesians 5:25 with 2 Cor 3:15-18, we can see that Christ actually died for a group of people living in unity and freedom with the Holy Spirit:
Ephesians 5:25, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it.
That is, Christ not only died so that sinners could get to Heaven, and He didn't die for a religious organization - Christ died so that He could have a church, a group of people on the Earth living in freedom, cooperation and unity with Him to accomplish His will (to defeat satan) and finally to return with Him to judge (1 Th. 3:13, 1 Cor 6:3). This Bride of Christ, is not your stay at home type baking muffins and choc chip cookies, she is a warrior Bride, whose appearance is terrible to the enemy: Song of Solomon 6:10 Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?
To live in freedom, unity and cooperation with the Lord, with our hearts turned to the Lord, is His will, not just for us individually, and not just so we can be free ourselves, but to have a group of such people, a church which He can use to accomplish all that He wants to accomplish.
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