Religion vs Relationship

Religion vs Relationship by Carolyn Schmekel

I have become aware that the current warfare is focusing on Religion Vs Relationship.  It has become all about I’m right and you are wrong.  We are trying to win the battle in the religious arena while losing our relationships. For some it is all about having answers, having it all explained and the rules laid out so they will know what to do to be “right”.  They will win the answer game (after all it is just everyone’s personal interpretation) and lose the (intimate) relationships both with the Lord and with their family.  All this because we stopped pursuing a relationship with the Lord and want to feel the comfort of being “ok”, or “right”.

Knowing that we are loved, unconditionally, and without restraint can’t be explained or intellectualized.  It can only be known.  It can’t even be proven.  It is spirit to Spirit, and goes to the deepest places…beyond words.  The Bible opens us up to having head knowledge of Who God is and Why He wants that relationship with us.  It shows the relationship through the stories of the prophets and the saints.  The Bible doesn’t answer everything, even though some want to claim it does.  How can it, when it is about our Creator who is the greatest Mystery there is!  It will take eternity to discover all there is to discover  (meaning, all will never be known)and the joy we have in that discovering is much like the joy of discovering our first love…each new awareness brings a sense of new life.  So, religion tries to codify, explain, or ritualize these amazing truths.  This is not wrong in itself.  When religion becomes the Object, instead of the means to discover the Person of God, then it binds us up instead of frees us.  When it keeps us from the Reality of new life in Christ, then it becomes a powerful force of deception.  It is a deception that is very hard to become free from; because it holds so much of the truth God wants us to know about.  Knowing “about” and knowing, period, are very different.

I want to encourage your families as they contend with troubling issues.  God has given us all power through the Holy Spirit, and a measure of gifts to ensure our success in the battle we wage for true freedom of the hearts and minds of our children and grandchildren. 

I wondered if the warfare we sense is simply awareness that the enemy had begun another offensive.  God’s plan for us is to gain authority to operate in all the areas of life we are called.  The only way we gain authority is to experience something and overcome it.  So, fear of any type is only overcome by facing it and using the spiritual and natural tools at our disposal to gain the victory.  I believe God’s call to “be vigilant at all times” has more to do with paying attention to our own hearts and minds than what other people or situations may be doing.  Read in Revelation all the times it is said “he who overcomes shall…”.  Great promises are there.  There continues to be a hedge of protection around us.  The enemy cannot do anything without God’s permission, because we are His.  The safest place in the world is in the center of God’s will.