Why I Hate Religion: 10 Reasons to Break Free from the Bondage of Religious Tradition (9 page)

Change is not that far off if the Body of Christ would just get back to the basics of their faith in Jesus Christ. If believers would start opening their Bibles and reading them for themselves, they would have the power of God flowing in their lives on a consistent basis instead of this hit-or-miss traditional mess that is going on now. And if preachers would stop preaching what they think the people want to hear and, instead, start preaching what the Spirit of the Lord is really saying, our churches would be packed with people who are hungry for the power of God and demonstrating that power in their lives.

When I started World Changers Church, in New York City, I let the church know up front that I don’t play church games. I give them the Word and nothing else. I’m not going to rhyme or jump through hoops to keep them coming to church. If people can’t hear and understand what I am saying when I preach, how can faith come?

It doesn’t matter if I talk in a calm manner or shout as loud as I can, it won’t make the words any more anointed. When you preach according to how God called you, you will get results. I don’t preach a sermon to get a “10” or to get people’s approval. I want God to approve of me. I am, however, going to trust God to build leaders in this fellowship who know how to use the Word as a recipe book to whip the devil and everything he throws at them.

When sickness comes, they will know to immediately go to 1 Peter 2:24, which says, “By whose [Jesus’] stripes ye were healed.” They will know that if they honor the Lord with all their increase, that they will be blessed to be a blessing (see Prov. 3:9–10, Gen. 12:1–3). They will be well equipped in the Word and more than conquerors in this world. They will trust Jesus and lean on His undeserved favor for everything.

My prayer is that every Christian will turn back to their first love, turn back to the Word, and turn away from hyper-emotionalism. I also pray that every minister will begin to take seriously the call of God on his life and stop prostituting the gospel of Jesus Christ for personal gain or to build up their self-image. It’s not about you. It’s about Jesus and souls being saved.

Never forget that
minister
means “servant.” Church is a place to serve the people of God and to perfect them for the work of the ministry. It is not the place to gain adoration or accolades from them. It is wrong for a minister to use his gifts to glorify himself rather than to glorify God.

We need to start preaching the Word in season and out, when it’s popular and when it’s not, because Jesus is on His way back. We are living in the last sliver of time before our Lord and Savior returns, and we must be ready for the harvest of souls that is on its way into the kingdom of God. Get away from this traditional method of having church and get before God for His wisdom and revelation. A highly charged emotional environment is not necessarily an indication that the anointing is present.

If you want to transform your life and the life of your unsaved friends and loved ones, get in the presence of God by getting in His Word, not the realm of emotions. While emotions do have their place, a religious, emotional show in church won’t get the job done, but will only leave you feeling the same way you felt when you came in the church doors. The Word, on the other
hand, will feed your spirit and give you the tools you need to succeed in life.

H
ave you ever had a need and prayed to God, but your prayer went unanswered and your need remained unmet? You may have pleaded with God, saying, “Lord I need you; my baby needs a pair of shoes and I got a light bill due. My telephone is disconnected, and I can’t wait until my next paycheck. I need some money right now, Lord. I need you now, Jesus. Help me, Jesus! Help me!” Sound familiar? Everyone has been here at one point or another. Prayers like these are emotional, and they don’t move God. He is, however, moved by faith. It is the only way to get results in God’s kingdom. Religion, on the other hand, turns prayer into an outward display of emotion that has no power behind it.

I know Christians who pray and cry, thinking:
Surely God will move on my behalf, because He knows how much I need Him.
But after all that was said and done, the money never came in, and eventually they got angry with God. They thought God was able to help them, but they didn’t see any results. They thought,
Doesn’t God know what I need before I ask Him?

On that point, they’re right. The Bible does say in Matthew 6:8
that God knows what you need before you ask, but you have to ask according to His Word, not your needs. See, God isn’t moved by your needs or anyone’s needs. God isn’t even moved by your tears, even though He does “feel” for you. The truth is, God is only moved by His Word. You’ve got to speak words of faith to God, not fear-filled pleas for help, if you ever want to see your prayers answered.

God will never answer fear-based prayers nor respond to fear-based praise. Many Christians decide they will pray and praise God because they need something to happen right away. They’ll spend all day on their faces pleading with God, or singing and lifting their hands, trying to get Him to move quickly on their behalf. But what they don’t realize is that any prayer or praise motivated by fear and not by faith is not received by God. When you send up fear-based prayers, you are actually pushing God farther and farther away from the equation, because just as Satan needs fear to operate in your life, God needs faith in order to move.

Everything in the world system falls under two laws—the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus or the law of sin and death (see Rom. 8:2). Love, healing, prosperity, deliverance, and faith are all found in the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, while sin, sickness, poverty, bondage, and fear are found under the law of sin and death. That means a prayer motivated by fear doesn’t qualify to be answered because it originated from the wrong system.

Fear enters when you begin looking at your present situation and hearing the words of the enemy from TV, doctors, loved ones, and even your checkbook. Those words then create an atmosphere of doubt and unbelief. And once you start functioning in fear, you tie God’s hands and cut off His access to your situation. Operating in fear will also hinder you from being able to receive and follow through on God’s directions to you. Because of unbelief, when He tells you to do something, you won’t obey because you doubt that He will follow through on His end of the deal.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” You can’t please God without faith. If doubt and unbelief are anywhere around, you negate your faith and sever your connection to God altogether. When fear is present, faith is not, and God can’t do anything with a faithless prayer.

Believers need to understand that both fear and faith are spiritual connectors. Just like faith will connect you to the things you desire from the Word, fear will connect you to the things you fear the most. That’s what happened to Job. Job was the greatest man in the whole East at one time, but he lost everything he had because of fear. Job 3:25 says, “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.”

Job repeatedly offered sacrifices on behalf of his children because he feared his children may have sinned and offended God in some way. As a result of this demonstration of fear, he opened the door to the enemy to destroy everything he had. He lost all of his cattle and wealth, as well as his ten children. His fear put everything he had under the power of Satan, and negated the hedge of protection God had placed around him and his family (see Job 1:12). So out of fear, Job took what was meant to honor God and turned it into a fear-based ritual that connected him to what he feared the most, the death of his children.

So likewise, Christians must be careful that they don’t take their prayers and praise, which are holy before the Lord, and transform them into powerless rituals. Don’t say, “Well, I need to praise the Lord right now because they’re about to put me out of my house,” or tell your whole family to pray harder than they’ve ever prayed before so the “snatch man” doesn’t come and repossess your car.

When you do that, you aren’t praying or praising Him out of a heart of faith; you’re doing it because you’re desperate and scared. That’s all fear-based, and God won’t receive any of it. You are carrying out the form of prayer, but you lack the power of the Word of God to back it up. It doesn’t matter how loud you scream, how long you pace the floor, or how hard you rock back and forth; if your prayers aren’t Word-based, they won’t go any higher than the ceiling.

Please understand, it is the Word that fuels your prayers and gets God to respond, not your needs or begging and pleading. You don’t pray to get God’s attention or to try to get Him to do something, because He’s already done all He’s ever going to do. Hebrews 4:3 says, “For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

God has already healed, prospered, delivered, and set you free, so now all you have to do is rest in His promises. Your stance as a believer is to stand on the promises you find in the Word. See, prayer is communication with God, believing and receiving what He has already given to us in Jesus. So getting your prayers answered is really on you. Everything that He’s done is going to be based on your receiving and your believing what He has already said in His Word.

Prayer is saying to God what God has already said in His Word, and it is based on your having faith in the Word that God has already given to you. If you want results, your prayers must consist of releasing your faith in some specific area of God’s Word, because the prayer system without the Word won’t work. Otherwise you have simply had a kind of therapy session with God that made you feel a little better for the moment. If anything happens, it’s because of the intercession of someone else on your behalf or it’s because of the grace of God.

Fear-based prayers are the result of people who don’t understand the true nature of God or His Word. God is not some tyrant or slave master. He’s a loving Father who wants only the best for you. He desires more than anything to see His people prospering and having sweatless victory, but He has also set a system in place that He will not trespass. And since God won’t change, it is up to
us to learn the laws that govern this life and submit to them in order to be successful.

We have to open up our Bibles and find out what God has to say about our individual situations and then meditate on those Scriptures until they fill our hearts to overflowing. For example, if you have a terminal disease, meditate on Psalm 103:3–4, which says: “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies,” until it becomes more real to you than that disease that’s attacking your physical body. When your heart is full of the Word, your prayers will be fervent and produce the healing you desire, as opposed to making desperate pleas to God for the answers you hope for. Get your focus on Jesus!!

God is not trying to make it hard for you to get your prayers answered; He understands and cares about everything you are going through. “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as
we are
, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:15–16). He is full of compassion for you. He just wants you to come boldly to Him, believing that His Word already entitles you to total life prosperity.

The key to answered prayer is your level of confidence in God, His Word, and His ability to bring it to pass. You’ll find that the Word is always the common denominator in the prayer system. First John 5:14–15 says:

When you pray according to the Word, you know God hears your requests. And if He hears you, then you know whatever you requested is your present possession, so it’s a settled issue. No wavering back and forth. You must believe you’ve received your request the very moment you pray. “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24). The Amplified Bible says, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust and be
confident) that it is granted to you, and you will [get it].” The key to your confidence is your understanding of God’s Word. When you get on your face and you pray those Scriptures, it should be settled then and there.

You must do whatever it takes to build your confidence. If you have to take the Word of God concerning your finances, health, or family into prayer with you, then do it. Just don’t come out of that prayer time and let your confidence wane. If you get off your knees and somebody says, “Well, is it all right?” and you say, “I don’t know, we’ll see,” then you didn’t believe you received it when you prayed. When you believe you receive, you come out of your prayer time saying, “Yeah, I got it!” And then from that point on your response should be, “Amen, Lord. I believe I received that when I prayed.”