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Overcoming Religiosity

Rick Joyner wrote a series of book in 2006 and one of them was called, "Overcoming the Religious Spirit". A few years later, Tommi Femrite wrote a book called "Conquering the Religious Spirit" which dealt with the same topic yet was of course very different. It's rare that two people can write the same book, even in the Christian circle. These books say so much about how to recognize what a "religious spirit" is and how to be free from it.

One of the most common things I hear from people when I mention Jesus to them is, "Oh, well I'm not religious." I have to say to them, "neither am I!" God's not interested in religion. He's not. I am convinced that Jesus wants his kingdom here on Earth as it is in heaven. Religion and religious activities keep us from that kingdom and leave us trapped and bound to a spirit opposite of what He wants for us.

Todd Bently wrote, "The religious spirit likes to keep us from the things of the spirit. Under its influence, many times we become so law-focused, or doctrinally obsessed, that we lose the passion for power and anything that involves feelings. We also can easily walk in law instead of love. When we become more determined to punish someone for not following the letter of the law than to love them and see human need, it might be a good sign that we are operating under the influence of this spirit. Many times when we are giving ourselves over to this judgmental heart, we ourselves are doing the same or worse things.

Nothing is more damaging than a religious spirit binding a life. By placing rules and expectations on people, unbelievers or new believers, it cuts them off from wanting anything to do with God. Many times we are worried about what we are going to look like than the value of a person’s soul. How quick we are to come against people’s outward sins and forget about our own inward darkness. If we value the heart of God toward His people rather than our own judgmental opinions, we will seek to guide with a gentle heart those who are bound by religion into truth."

"Conquering the Religious Spirit" is now being translated into German and I have been asked to design the cover. This is a very special project for me because I want this book to be read by people who may have been hurt by Christians preaching at them and condemning them instead of loving them, people who think "religiosity" is Christianity, and Christians who may have been raised in homes or come from churches that fell away from the true teachings of Jesus and became trapped in the spirit of religion.

"The religious spirit has a voice. It speaks in this way, "You have to get up early in the morning and pray; You have to tithe; You have to bless your meal each time you eat, before you eat; You have to have a good outward appearance; You have to be at every prayer meeting." These are all things that I do or have done. However, I don’t want to do anything because I feel I have to. We do so many things out of obligation and duty. It is called pretense or hypocrisy when we draw near to God with our lips, but our heart is far from Him. There is nothing wrong with doing the outward things. Many of them were commanded in the Old Testament. But none of them were commanded with the intention that obedience would take place based on duty and not passion and thankfulness of heart that God gave man a way to be forgiven."

This book is going to be important. I am honored to be a part of the German version... now a few million more people can read it.

The bird on the cage is hand drawn and I like it better than the flying bird below. If option two is preferred, I plan to draw that bird as well.

Maybe the bird flying out could go on the back? I just love the simplicity of this design. I can't take all of the credit for it since I always go to my husband for creative ideas as well. The initial idea was to have the bird inside the cage, trapped and content, but then we liked the idea of representing the freedom that comes when the religious spirit is broken.

Any thoughts?