Why I Hate Religion: 10 Reasons to Break Free from the Bondage of Religious Tradition (3 page)

I
often say that excuses are nails used to build houses of failure. Some Christians come up with one excuse after another for why the Word doesn’t work for them. If they don’t receive an immediate answer after praying, they are quick to give up and say, “Well, God is in control,” or “It must be God’s will for me to go through this.” The truth is that this type of thinking is fleshly. God does not want you to suffer; He wants you receive a breakthrough. Many people don’t realize that there are other reasons why their prayers are not answered.

What holds most Christians back from receiving the things they are asking God for is a religious mind-set that blames Him for their problems rather than focusing on the true culprit—themselves. Instead of looking at the part they play in a situation, they shift the blame and accept a life of sickness, poverty, and defeat, and they use religion to try to justify it.

People often fail to examine what they are
not
doing in their lives. They don’t read their Bibles or apply what they read to their
daily lives. Yet they don’t understand why things just don’t seem to be working out. Religion has taught them that God decides whether or not they will receive answers. The “sovereignty” of God has become their excuse for not seeing results.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary
defines the
sovereignty of God
as “God’s absolute right to do all things according to His own good pleasure.” Basically, this definition says that God chooses to do what He wants to do. If He doesn’t
feel
like answering your prayers or if you have done something to anger Him, then He won’t; but if He is in a good mood, He just
might
give you what you want. This is religion’s answer to why someone’s prayer goes unanswered. This type of thinking, however, is contrary to the Word and completely negates the fact that our good works have nothing to do with God being good to us. Neither is God playing a game of “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” to decide whose prayers He will answer and whose He won’t.

Mark 11:24 says, “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” The key to answered prayer is believing that you have the answer when you pray, because the answer has already been provided by grace and through your faith you have received it. This is a perfect picture of resting in the finished works of Jesus. Resting in God or the finished works of Jesus does not mean inactivity. You rest while you work, knowing with confidence that it is already provided and taken care of. To rest in God is the highest kind of faith. When you pray, you rest in the finished works of Jesus for the answers to your prayers.

As Christians, we must not use resting in God as an excuse for laziness. Unfortunately, too many people in the Body of Christ only want to say “Abracadabra” and have money suddenly appear out of thin air. Sadly, they are deceived and misinformed. They think they can sit at home and wait for God to bless them. It doesn’t work that way. Money doesn’t fall from the sky.

When it comes to seeing financial increase, there is a role that honest labor plays in that process. God expects you to work. This is clearly spelled out in 2 Thessalonians 3:10: “If any would not work, neither should he eat.” Laziness and not resting in God while you work disqualify you from receiving a harvest, and limits God from moving on your behalf. Listen to the fate of the lazy man in Proverbs 24:30–31: “I went by the field of the lazy man, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, behold, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles were covering its face, and its stone wall was broken down” (
AMP
). Even though this man was able to work, his laziness caused his vineyard not to produce a harvest. Anyone who refuses to take care of his or her household and uses religious excuses to cover up slothfulness will experience the same thing—a house in shambles.

Only diligent people—those who rest in God’s abilities—will reap a harvest, not the people who work only when someone stands over their shoulder or who only do enough work to avoid termination. Proverbs 6:6–8 says, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer,
or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.” The ant can be admired for its work ethic. No one tells the ant what to do. It is responsible, diligent, and hardworking. However, if we don’t rest, then God won’t work, but if we rest, then God works. We can’t afford to be working and God resting. Let’s rest while He works!

Some people don’t want to look through the classified ads or go from business to business to fill out applications. They want to sit at home and “trust God only.” Although they keep checking their mailboxes for unexpected income, they only receive bills. They then try the lottery but only become discouraged when someone else wins. They fail to realize that they are in this situation because they are not doing what needs to be done in the natural realm, and trusting God while they do it!

When things don’t quickly change, they lose hope. Proverbs 13:12 states that not having your hopes fulfilled will make your heart sick. That’s why many people fall into depression and despair. Proverbs 21:25 says, “The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour.” Nothing moves God like a believer who decides to step out in faith. But if you don’t do your part and work, you won’t see results. Once you begin to do something, however, God is able to bless the work of your hands because you understand how to rest while you work.

A young man once told me that he couldn’t do any manual labor because he didn’t want anything to happen to his hands. He needed to preserve them because he was an artist. Instead of working, he sat at home while his wife struggled to make enough
money to pay the bills and take care of their children. That’s not biblical, that’s foolishness!

God can’t bring a harvest to a lazy person who won’t work and trust Him. If you want a breakthrough in your life, you must learn the power of trusting and resting in God. Wealth never comes into the hands of a lazy person or the person who uses religion to try to magically get something to happen. Proverbs 10:4 says, “He becomes poor who works with a slack and idle hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich” (
AMP
). I believe you must be diligent in rest while you work.

Along with the work that you must do in this physical world, you also have to work the Word. If you want the promises of God to come to pass in your life, you must know what the Bible says regarding your situation and how to apply the Word to your life, not just religiously quote Scriptures. There are people who can recite the Bible from cover to cover, but they don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. Therefore, they still experience lack in their lives.

Working the Word means that you read and study your Bible and then receive a revelation of what the Word means. It involves the process of meditation as well, which means to ponder the Word and turn it over in your mind. God sent the Holy Spirit to help you receive a better understanding of the Scripture. He is your Comforter, Helper, Counselor, Advocate,
Intercessor, Strengthener, and Standby (see John 14:16
AMP
). He was deposited into your heart the day you accepted Christ (see Rom. 5:5). Although everyone has access to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, you have to learn how to have Him operate on your behalf.

The Holy Spirit wants to move in your life, but He is unable to do anything until you trust Him, open your mouth, and speak Word-based directions. He cannot do anything if the Word is not operating in you. When you don’t spend time reading your Bible and getting the Word in your heart, you limit what the Holy Spirit is able to do. He can only bring to pass the Word that you trust, know, and declare. If you don’t know what God has promised you, the Holy Spirit doesn’t have anything to work with. Remember, He’s a helper. It’s up to you to find out what rightfully belongs to you.

How much of the Word do you have operating on the inside of you? In other words, are you a doer of the Word rather than a hearer only? It’s not enough to be able to quote the Word. You have to
rely
on the Word with confidence. It needs to be the basis by which you conduct and govern your life. This goes beyond head-knowledge of the Word to what I call “heart-knowledge.”

Heart-knowledge occurs when you become so intimate with God that you begin to hear the voice behind what you read in the Bible or hear from the pulpit. God has given you the
logos
Word, or the “written Word.” The prerequisite to hearing His voice is
knowing the written Word. When the Holy Spirit speaks to you, or reveals the written Word to you, you have received the
rhema
Word from God.

The
rhema
Word is the prophetic Word that God gives you to strengthen you and reveal, or give insight into, God’s supernatural plan for a situation. It’s inside knowledge that will help you overcome anything. God desires to speak to all of us. He has something to say about every situation in your life. Unfortunately, if there’s no Word in your heart, He is limited in what He can say to you through the
rhema
Word.

Can you see why you must become a student of the Word? Think about it. If God has the answer to every one of your problems and all you need is to have the Word working in your life, wouldn’t you take the time to study it? There are people, however, who would rather toss the blame on God’s sovereignty than to take the time to get in the Word. They don’t want to work at trusting God to bring the Word to pass in their lives.

When you hear people talk about the sovereignty of God, realize that they are strangers to what the Bible says and to their covenant (see Eph. 2:12). Because of the covenant, the promises that God made to mankind thousands of years ago still hold true today.
If they knew the Word, they would know what God says about working and blessings.

A covenant is a vow, a promise, or a pledge between two or more parties to carry out the terms of an agreement. A covenant during biblical times was stronger than any contract that you sign today—it was a matter of life and death. Covenants at that time were sealed with blood and couldn’t be broken except by death. We have a blood covenant with God through Jesus’ death and the shedding of His blood. This covenant guarantees us victory in life (see Heb. 12:24). The terms and conditions of the covenant are found in the Bible, but religion has taught people to carry their Bibles to church on Sunday and leave them in the car until they return the following week.

Your Bible should not lie on your coffee table or the backseat of your car without ever being read. It is the key to having wholeness in every area of your life. Unfortunately, many people never take the time to find out what it says. Instead of gaining strength from the Word, they throw their hands up in the air and say, “Well, you know God is God. If it was meant for me to have it, He would have done something by now.” They don’t know their rights because they never take the time to find out what they are.

Even though God is sovereign, He can’t do whatever He wants because He is bound by the Word. If He promised to prosper those who seek Him first, then He is bound by His promise. If He didn’t do what He said, then He would be a liar. And we know that He can never lie. “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Num. 23:19). Once God has spoken, it will come to pass (see Titus 1:2). God says in Psalm 89:34, “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.”

God will never change His mind about what He has said.
All He needs you to do is put Him in remembrance of His Word (see Isa. 43:26). That is why it is important for you to be a student of the Word and not just a religious churchgoer. Once you find out what the Word promises regarding healing, wealth, deliverance, peace, and so forth, you can have it in your life. Unfortunately, because this takes
faith
, most people don’t take the time to do it. They transfer the blame to God when things aren’t working right, rather than taking responsibility for their own situation.

The main reason people don’t get into the Word is because they don’t think it takes all that to receive from God. When this is your attitude, you have positioned yourself to oppose the Word and have revealed your true nature—laziness. It is time to recognize when you’re operating in the flesh and change your mind-set to line up with the Word. Romans 8:5 says, “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” The flesh will tell you that you don’t need to read your Bible or spend time in prayer. The flesh doesn’t care that the Word is a person’s connection to God.

Christians who renew their minds with the Word and learn what it says will experience the promises of God. They will tithe and sow seeds to the advancement of the kingdom of God. They will attend church to hear the Word and take the time to study it
to hear the voice behind God’s written words. These people will diligently spend time getting to know God. Their faith will always be rewarded.

It’s time to stop blaming God for the situations in which we find ourselves. God is not the problem; a fleshly mind-set is! Where a person is today is the result of his or her choices, not God’s sovereignty. So I encourage you to choose to be diligent and work hard, resting in God as your Source. Do your part spiritually, and in the natural realm, and God will bless your diligence. Proverbs 13:4 says, “The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.” Remember, the choices you make determine what you have and where you are in life.