Welcome to today's inspiration with Eagle Wing's Faith Ministry. With me today, I have Apostle Chris Williams, my husband, and myself on taming. We are so glad that you're allowing us to come into your living room today to hopefully bring you revelation, some impartation, and maybe even a tweak of correction that will be illuminated to help you maybe tweak your life a little bit. Today we're going to be talking about 10 characteristics of a religious spirit.
So get your notebooks out, get your Bible out, and let's dive right in. First we want to open up with prayer. Heavenly Father God, we just thank you for this day, Father God. We ask that every viewer that is listening and tuning in right now, Lord God, that they would receive something, something, whether it be a sentence, a word, or the whole message that would change their lives to help them draw closer to you, Father.
And God, we thank you for every single viewer that's partaking of this message. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Okay, we all know, I hope you all know by watching us already that there is a huge difference between religion and relationship.
And I was very blessed early on when I got saved because I found relationship because I wasn't indoctrinated into religion. And religion can really stump you up by denominational factors, by rules and regulations to where you almost feel like you're being set up for failure. But that's not our God. Our God is all about relationship and about family and about relationships with other people and how to govern that in the church body in itself.
So today I'm going to give you some practical characteristics of religious spirits and how they can be recognized so that you can see, am I being caught up into something that is not biblical, not godly, not ordained by God? Because I think we get so wrapped up in so many rules and being boxed in that we forget of being in his presence. You know, the rules, the regulations come from God, his presence. He's the one that corrects.
He's the one that imparts. He's the one that edifies. We are just the vessels to be used to release his word. Amen.
So number one. And today's going to be kind of more of a teaching than maybe what you're used to from us. At least I think that's how it's going to come out. Religious spirits have no authority in Jesus Christ.
Jesus hated religious spirits. This was not a religious person. He did things that shook religious kingdoms, which I like that part because I like shaking things up. Kingdoms of the earth.
Acts 19, 13 through 16 says this. Apostle, can you read that to us? Yes. Acts 19, 13 through 16 says that, but also some of the Jewish exorcists who went from place to place attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits.
It's the name of the Lord Jesus saying, I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. So what they were simply doing is when they were trying to, and these were exorcists. These were people that were actually trying to remove an evil spirit from someone. And they seen Paul and Jesus doing that.
But Jesus and Paul, and any of the disciples, none of them claimed to be exorcist. They were followers of Jesus and Jesus, you know, well, we all know who he claimed to be, the son of the living God. And then it says the sons and verse 14, seven sons of one skiva, a Jewish chief priest, we're doing this. And the evil spirit answered and said to them, I recognize Jesus and I know about Paul, but who are you?
It's all of a sudden here they are trying to remove an evil spirit out of this person. And the evil spirit says, and they were trying to use the name Jesus, removed the evil spirit in the name of Jesus, but they didn't have no relationship with Jesus. They didn't have any recollection. All they knew is of him.
They didn't know him. And if I can say, that's a big difference, a huge difference in knowing of him and knowing him. And that's the difference between religion and relationship. When it says in scripture to abide in him and he abides in us, that's in us, that's through us, that's around us.
When we know of him, that means you've heard, there's some hearsay gossip that I've heard about that man, but I don't know him. Go ahead, Paul. And so here the evil spirit recognizes, wait a minute, I know Jesus and I know Paul, but I don't know you. And the evil spirit answering and saying to them, I recognize Jesus.
In verse 16 it says, and the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. So religion, religion without relationship gets you beat up, gets you running for your life, possibly naked and wounded. And the key thing is, and in this scripture, this evil spirit did not know who they were, but he knew Jesus and he knew Paul. If I was going to say anything about that scripture right there, as I want to make sure, first of all, that I know Jesus and that I'm in relationship with him, I don't know of him, but I know him.
And the second thing that I want to point out in this scripture is that the evil spirit knew Jesus and he knew Paul. So guess what? I want him to know who I am. If he knows who I am and he knows who is in me, then I'm okay with that.
But if he doesn't know me by this scripture, he didn't know those priests. And wait a minute, remember it says, seven sons of one skiva of Jewish chief priests. So this is a priest that should have known, the evil spirit should have known who he was. This priest should have had some form of relationship with God.
But obviously he didn't. He didn't have any relationship with God. So that's actually a scary point. So that's a difference between religion and relationship.
I hear it a lot of times in the church today on radio and everything like that about religion, religion, religion. And I try to stay away from religion because religion has nothing to do with relationship. I know what the society says, they categorize in all church, everything, all of that. Even in our tax papers and stuff, it says religion.
Yeah, what's your religion? But I try to stay away from that because I don't want to fall under religion. I want to fall under relationship. In the study that I did in this, it said sometimes they were referred to as vagabond Jews and exorcists.
In other words, they were religious and the story reveals that they had no power over unclean spirits. Now for those that you might not know, the word vagabond actually means, it's kind of funny honey how we're tying this all in together, but I want to give a definition of vagabond. That's all over the place. I do have notes all over the place.
I have been studying this for a while. The vagabond is translated from a Hebrew word, nuwa. I'm not sure I'm pronouncing that right, which means a fugitive to wander up and down. So a vagabond is a person who is wandering and these priests were in oftentimes referred to as a vagabond and exorcist, but they were religious and there was no power.
They had no power. I want to remember that when you become saved and you're abiding in Jesus, you receive, people negate how much we receive from Jesus when we take him into our hearts. We receive an impartation that is powerful. That means that everything that's in me, once I become saved and I become baptized in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of tongues.
And yes, we believe in that here at Eagle, the Eagle in the Strength Ministry is because that's where power comes from. That's where the oneness comes from, not oneness with religion or denomination or cult, but relationship empowers you that when you come upon an unclean spirit or you come upon a witch or a warlock, that you have all power and authority to speak to that as didn't Jesus say to Peter, yet be behind me, Satan. Think about that. You have all power and authority to speak to that unclean spirit and demand it to leave.
When you have sickness arise, you have the power to declare God's word. You may be waiting on a manifestation for that. You have the power, but if you have spirits that are attacking you, such as a vagabond spirit, and we're going to be talking a lot about this over the next few episodes about the spirits that can try to attach yourself. And if you're caught up in religion, those spirits are going to chase you because it's about, it's about you've been caught up in religion and you haven't been delivered out of religion to come into relationship.
I hope that makes sense. Can we go to number two? We're going to move to number two. Number two, if you're taking notes, religion steals youthful joy of young people in serving Jesus.
I have to kind of stop right there before I go on. We have had many people in our ministry literally needing deliverance from religion because their joy has been stolen from them. Their peace has been taken from them. We're so busy trying to please man that they forget the one who we need to please.
And that's God Almighty. We need to be searching and seeking and praying and fasting. Lord God, are we pleasing you? Because I know that you out there that are viewing right now.
I know that bottom line, when you lay your head down on that pillow, you want to hear those faithful words. Well done, good and faithful servant. And we are all servants. Forget titles right now.
Let's forget about titles. Let's just focus on your relationship with Jesus Christ and how you serve Him. And that's being free from the spirits that might be holding you back because of religion. As I said, number two, religion steals the youthful joy of young people serving Jesus.
It makes the elders become demonically old. In Matthew 19, 14. Apostle, can you read that? Yes.
And this is where Jesus, and I'm actually going to read two of the verses. Verse 13 and 14. Matthew 19, 13 and 14. Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay his hands on them and pray.
And the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, let the children alone do not hinder them from coming to me. For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. I know before we go any further, I know that there is a lot of churches out there, big churches, small churches.
Everybody wants a place to send their youth. I am a firm believer. I grew up when I was growing up in church. We didn't have a youth church where the youth growing up, we sat in the church.
We heard the raw preaching from the preacher. We seen and it was around the altar calls. The same everything from beginning to end. I had to set my little happy rear end on the pew and be quiet and show honor through the house of the Lord.
Now, saying all that, there's a lot of churches today that have big youth. And I'm not against that. But what I am against is if the youth are being sent back to a room just to be babysit or they sit back and they can go back there and play games and shoot poo and not get anything from the word from scripture, then that's where I have a problem. Because I believe in my heart that the children should be raised up being taught about Jesus Christ, about what scripture says, even from the beginning of Genesis all the way to Revelation, they should be taught about worship, about praise.
They should be taught about getting into his presence. They should be taught about relationship and not just, hey, do you know Jesus? Oh yeah, I know that's what the teacher. I'm talking through relationship, relationship that goes past the barriers of their relationship with their mother and father.
They should be taught a lot of this stuff. They should be taught about speaking in tongues, about prophesying, about the gifts of the Spirit. If they're not ever taught this, then how will they ever know? Because if we're not teaching them, the world is.
Tag your head. I mean, Jesus said forbid the disciples from stopping the little children from coming to Him. I do not believe in an age of spiritual accountability. Everything that has breath, everything that has breath.
It doesn't say some have breath. It says everything that has breath must praise and serve the Lord according to Psalms 150 for 60. Yes, let everything that has breath praise the Lord, praise the Lord. That's talking about the little children, the little children.
They actually, by not being a part of and seeing. They're not, please, for those of you that we've been talking, you know, you feel like if you're a big church and you've got a youth group that you're not doing your part, we're not saying that. We're just saying things that we have observed that a lot of times kids are babysat. But there are youth leaders that are anointed and appointed.
That's why I truly believe when you're setting up your leadership that you don't just put somebody into fill the seat. Because then that religious spirit comes on, you're sending your kids to be babysat. When, what if they're hearing the word of God, we know this young evangelist, well, he was young then. And how old he is now.
We watch this young man grow up and he isn't, he's evangelized the world. This young boy was like eight, seven, eight years old and his parents always had him in there and he could preach like nobody could preach. And to this day, that young man can, he's evangelized the world because he was in the, and he has made such an impact on my life because when I saw him, I wasn't saved and I was blown away by this young man who worshiped like nobody could worship. And I believe because he heard the word preach and there was an activation and an impartation.
Religion did not bind him up. Because his parents had him in that, in the services, he was never sent back. So what am I saying is leadership needs to focus on placing individuals who are called to that position because it's about worship. It's about the word of God and being imparted and then being activated to know how to go out in the world.
But religion will stop that. Religion almost has a cause and effect of people clocking in on Sunday and clocking out and say, I went to church. That's not what God ordered and ordained for the body of Christ. If you want to evict religion out of your church, I would say teach your young children how to get into the presence of God.
Teach those young children and young teens how to get into the presence of God, how to have a relationship because once they tap into that, once they connect with that, with that relationship with Jesus Christ, when they connect with it and they just scratch the surface, I mean, we all have tasted something, just a case and we're like, oh my goodness, that really tastes good and we want more. And sometimes we overdo that. Well, you can't overdo God. And once you get a taste of Jesus Christ, I mean, true, true relationship with Him, you're going to want more.
And the young people of today, if we could get them to get into relationship, it will actually evict religion out of your church, out of the church, not the local church, but the church body, the body of Christ. It'll evict the religion spirit out of there. Anyone because it can't stay. And when the religion spirit is broken off, then you'll start to see health manifest, a healthy body of Christ.
That's what God is doing right now. He's purifying, that's the hour that we're in, is he's purifying the church, getting rid of that so that relationship can truly be built with him because you want to know what? He's a jealous God. Oh, yes he is.
And he misses his children, worshiping him in spirit and in truth. Our son, Sunday, was just crying out on behalf of God because he felt the brokenness of God's heart being broken because people are bound in religion. Hence, that's why we're bringing this message. Okay, number three.
Hold on a moment because you mentioned about God as a jealous God. First off, that scripture. So we know he's jealous God. But if it wasn't scripture, then I can prove it without using scripture, but use scripture.
The one scripture that says he's a jealous God, I don't even have to use that. If God, the Father, sends his son to the earth, to walk this earth and show how to have relationship with him, to give us an image of how to have her and then send his son to the cross and allow it. And actually God, the Father is the one that put him on the cross, but put him on the cross so he has to die for our sins. I'm sitting here telling you God's a jealous God because he went to that extreme to gain possession back to gain relationship back with us because it was broken at the beginning.
And so God had to, he jumped through hoops. He run through walls. He swam the ocean. He done whatever he needed to do all the way to Jesus Christ.
Having to down the cross, he went to that degree to get back in relationship with you. Don't take it lightly. I want with what he just said. Do you realize those of you that are sitting there on your couch right now or sitting in your recliner or you may be watching this late at night and you're laying in your bed and you just were scrolling through?
Did you ever think, ever think how much he truly loves you that he would put his son on the cross and then to see people getting bound up in religion, robbing you from him? Yes, he's a jealous God. That's how much he loves you and he loves us. Do you know that when he put his son on that cross, we're coming up in a time and a season of Easter and that walk Jesus had to take.
And his father, knowing he had to let him do this because he loved you so very much, but you may be so bound up that you don't even realize what even Easter means. Easter means maybe the Easter bunny and eggs, but I want to tell you something. It is far greater than any of that. That is nothing to the, how much he loves you that when he, his son went on that cross.
So you could be free, free from religion, free from an orphan spirit, free from anything that is opposite of God that you could be delivered and set free. He had to turn away from his son. Hear me on this saints. He had to turn away.
He could not look on his son because his son took off righteousness and put on sin. He put on your sin so you could be set free. And then he said it is finished. But during that time, during that time, his father couldn't even look at him.
Saints of God, could you possibly be battling something right now that has caused you to sin and the father cannot look upon you, but you still feel that nudge. You still feel that drawing. You still feel that pulling, but you just don't know how to let go. That means you need deliverance and God is here to deliver you this day to set you free.
The truth shall set you free. That scripture, if you allow him, if you call upon him, if you ask him into your heart this day because he did it for you. Jesus went to the cross for you. He was resurrected for you.
I forgot what time I didn't forget, but that just stirs me up when I know how much he loved us to set us free and we allow people. We allow people that we maybe have made an idol. Saints of God, idol is a part of religion that needs to be broken off of us so that we're free, free to worship, free to communicate with the Father. Do we need the church?
Yes, and we're going to talk more about that. But I'm telling you today is a day of freedom. Our days are short. We're running out of time.
Jesus is coming back really soon. Don't waste another hour. Don't waste another moment. Don't sit and go, well, I got to do this, this and this.
I need to finish this plan up or I need to finish it. No, today, today, make it to God. I'm sorry. I have become complacent.
I'm sorry. I have become lazy. I am sorry that I put my phone ahead of you. I'm sorry, God, that I didn't worship you in spirit and in truth.
I'm sorry, God, that you gave me an assignment and I dilly-dallyed and I didn't do it in your timing. Today, make the conscious choice that you won't allow religion to bind you up, that you won't allow man to put you in a corner and say not yet. Get discipled, be equipped, be set forth to do the work of God. He says to go into all the nations and spread the gospel.
That's all of our commandment. That's primary of what we're supposed to be doing. That's why we're coming into your house right now to spread the gospel and truth of Jesus Christ that you won't be bound up no more. So I want to pray with you right now.
I want to pray. Go ahead. Before you pray, we're going to come back. We've got 15 seconds left, but we're going to come back next week on this.
Go pray. Yes, we're going to continue. But I believe right now that Jesus is setting you free. In Jesus' name, I pray.
Amen. We love you. God bless you until next week. I appreciate you all watching our show this evening.
If there's anything, anything whatsoever that you have heard that has spoken to your heart and you feel the need to either rededicate your life or turn your life over to Jesus, I encourage you to reach out to us. We would be more than happy to speak with you either on the phone or via email or however you can reach out to us. And it's easy. We can say a prayer for you.
Jesus says to Nicodemus that you must be born again to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. So I encourage you to turn your life over. If you need to rededicate, that is also to turn your life back to. Repentance is simply turning from the direction that you were going to a new direction.
You're no longer the old person that you are. You put you become a new person through the gift of salvation. So I encourage you to reach out to us at EagleWingsFaith.org. You can click on the tab, contact us, and you can put it through the website or you can email us straight ewfmchurch at gmail.com.
And we look forward to hearing from you. God bless you and we will see you later.