By Adrian Ko

There are times when those of us who have a prophetic call upon our lives apparently encounter incredible resistance within the local churches we attend. And why is that? The very Pentecostal or Charismatic environments that are supposed to foster the prophetic apparently have elements that resist it like crazy. For some reason we attract people who want to affect control, manipulation, strife, etc. and who want to diminish us and reduce what God is doing within us into their own confining concepts. (Boy, doesn’t this article sound dangerous?)

Having an appearance of Godliness

Let’s understand the spirit of religion a little better. At one level we kind of chuckle and grin when some people just can’t help but wear three piece suits (and notice the red tie supposedly representing the Blood) and a thick Bible (has to be King James for some reason) and then they speak for God (supposedly) they use what I call the “Pentecostal Vibrato” and sound very much like, “OooooOOOOooo… for the LoooOOood would sayeth unto thee, yea….!”

Yet at another level we are dealing with a spiritual enemy that affects us through people, hence the people themselves are not the enemy (Eph 6:12).

When Jesus ministered on earth, the number one enemy to His anointing was a spirit of religion. The Pharisees, priests, etc. of the Gospels were a bunch of nasty folks who nullified the Word of God with their traditions (Mark 7:13). Jesus said to them, “How terrible it will be for you experts in religious law! For you crush people beneath impossible religious demands, and you never lift a finger to help ease the burden.” (Luke 11:46 NLT). (Notice Jesus showed compassion to sinners but went after the religious folks!)

So after putting up with all this reality speech from the Lord, you’d kind of figure they wanted to put Jesus to death (Matt. 26:4 and Mark 14:1). If that was its response to Jesus moving powerfully in God’s power in the earth, what do you suppose its attitude would be towards you if you are pursuing God’s best for your life?

The nature of the spirit of religion is to:

• Seeks to limit God and define how God will move by pointing to how He moved in the past. This puts God in a box. Remember: God eventually did abandon the Ark of Covenant to inhabit our praises instead.
• Put you to spiritual death to your dreams in God and everything God has promised you (Think: Joseph).
• Put people beneath impossible religious demands and burdens (Pharisees)
• Make your own relationship with God feel inferior (Oh, definitely the Pharisees)
• Make other “religious” folks appear more godly and superior so that the spirit of religion can use them to boss you around and make you feel inferior (Pharisees, Saducees, e.t.c.-ees)
• Silence your voice and what God wants to say through you (Saul the spear-chucker)
• Snuff out your gift and what God wants to do through you (All the demons in hell)
• Kill the prophetic anointing (Jesus was the Anointed One)

So how do we deal with these attacks?

Remain Christ-like. There are some Charismatics and Pentecostals who think that because they move in the power gifts that they are better than others. Hey everyone, that’s called pride. Prov. 16:18 (Holman’s Translation) says, “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.” No-one is exempt from exhibiting Christ’s character. We can prophesy with pinpoint accuracy to thousands but if we didn’t show the love Jesus we are nothing (1 Cor 13:2).

Be completely humble. If you are dealing with a particularly strong attack from a Leviathan spirit that is twisting all your communication and turning fellow Christians one against the other, the only way to defeat this is through humility. Remember: A soft answer turns away wrath (Prov. 15:1).

Continue to serve those above you. Even Joseph served when he was a slave in Potipher’s house and later when he was imprisoned. The prophetic gift of dream interpretation continued to develop as Joseph’s maturity and character developed. Hey, situations and circumstances happen to us. But how do you respond? If you don’t respond properly Christ’s character doesn’t take root. Remember: there may be nine gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:8) but there are also nine fruit of the spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). The fruit of the Spirit is the character of Christ: love. The respect for the authority appointed over you will develop and prepare you for the place of authority at a future appointed time. Potipher’s house and the prison prepared Joseph for second in command of the Egyptian empire, and his prophetic gift had venue at geopolitical levels.

Is God using this to prepare you for His best? This is a very difficult concept to grasp but the Lord sometimes allows a certain degree of spiritual warfare in our lives to work on us. In 2 Cor. 12, Apostle Paul had an abudance of exceptional visions and revelations. In order to keep him from being prideful and arrogant (or “puffed up” like a pufferfish) the Lord allowed a “messenger” of Satan (the same Greek word used for the word “angel”) to become a thorn in Paul’s flesh. The end result was not for God to remove it but for God to have Paul rely in greater dimension on God’s character quality of grace. “Each time [God] said, ‘My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness.’” (2 Cor. 12:9 NLT) This has yet another redeeming factor: knowing God in a greater dimension. Ultimately the size of our spiritual platform is directly related with the size of our revelation of who Jesus is!

Above all, show them love. That is what Jesus would do. Ask God to reveal His heart for the people through whom the spirit of religion may be attacking you.

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Adrian Ko is a speaker and writer on the prophetic and the heart of the Father.  His focus is on helping provide believers with a developmental roadmap to hearing God and flowing in the prophetic.  In addition, he moves in the Word of Knowledge and Wisdom, and he is involved with both the renewal and prophetic steams of the Spirit. Used by permission: