Ministry of Flesh
Why does this generation of people get so fooled by religious zealots all the time? I’m not talking about on fire, spirit-filled trailblazers sent by God. I’m talking about the people who perform the acts of a Christian so great but they are filled with nothing. They have no power or little power, or even the gift without repentance.
I’m talking about how people get so awed about that guy that prays 15 hours a day. About the girl who sits in the worship room all day long. The guy that preaches on the street corner all day long. The guy that feeds the homeless every weekend. The girl that prays for every single person that walks in the church building.
Nothing is wrong with any of these things, but when we do these things because we’re trying to show the world how mighty we are, how amazing and on fire we are, this is where we go wrong. Too many people flock around these types of people. Little do they know, this type seek to be worshipped.
“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.” Matthew 6:5
Nothing is wrong with praying on the street corner if you’re being led by God, but everything is wrong when your agenda is to be seen by everybody.
Religion is all about man and flesh, and people with religious spirits tend to honor men more than God. In the religious world, everywhere you go, everybody is clamoring about the next hotshot with a little gifting, about the next prophet that is speaking everybody’s lust into existence. It’s all about man, it’s all about who’s the most on fire in their eyes. And then everybody worships them.
If you’ve ever been in a religious environment, you will notice that the spirit of competition is constantly governing the atmosphere. Who’s praying the most? Who is going to come out with the next amazing word? Who’s going to wow our flesh and entertain us? This is what it’s all about in religion. All about man! All about the flesh! Religion is a ministry of flesh.
It thinks about the flesh, it talks about the flesh, it worships the flesh, it is fueled by flesh, and it gets excited over flesh. And if you’re trying to get everyone’s attention, you can thrive easily in a religious environment. People will love you, they will worship you. They will even put you in their church leadership and pull you left and right, and churches will start to fight over you.
Yet it’s a cycle of destruction, because if you can’t keep performing for them, they will move onto the next hotshot. When someone younger than you and more gifted than you comes around, you will be back on the back burner. Then comes jealousy, and then comes the spirit of Cain, the spirit of competition.
Then you get bitter and angry and destroy your heart. Yet in God’s eyes, your heart was already headed for destruction because you weren’t after Him in the first place. You told people how after Jesus you were. You preached to people and told them to go after Jesus with all their heart. Yet deep down you were fueled by vainglory. Yes, you were after Jesus, but you weren’t after Jesus for Jesus. You were after Jesus for the glorification and not the transformation.
And even though everybody liked you, eventually, when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, your works get burned by fire because even though your works were in His name, they weren’t for Him, they were for you. And even if you preached sound doctrine, it wasn’t for Him, it was for you.
If all your preaching is about how you did this and you did that and what you do and how you do things, that’s already a sign right there. It’s one thing to be an example to other believers, yet it’s another thing to use the word and the spirit to get everybody focused on you. The word and gifts are for them, not for them to get them focused on you.
You can preach sound, you can pray for people and they can fall out, you can heal people, you can bring revival to a city. Yet if it’s all for you deep down inside, it’s dead to Him. Manifestations of power that came from you are dead in His eyes because He knows what it was all about. The Bible says they cast out demons, healed the sick, and cleansed the leper, yet they still didn’t know Him.
It’s possible to do all those amazing things and still be far from Him and still be all about yourself. Yes, it’s a ministry, but it’s a ministry of the flesh. And, yes, you drew people, but you were really drawing people to yourself. This isn’t about people that act like the next super Christian. This is about looking for people that are sent from the throne room, looking for the divine sons of God. The world isn’t waiting for the next religious zealot. The world is waiting for the sons of God, Why? Because they will come to reveal the heart of the Father!
I don’t want people that come in Jesus’ name to minister to me. I want people that are sent by Jesus Himself to minister to me. That are sent by The Father Himself. Just because they speak in His name, doesn’t mean they come in His name. Doesn’t mean He sent them. These are the type of people that their hearts are far from Him and they minister the word of God, too. Yet it’s all to be seen by men. Their ministry is a ministry of flesh.
By Joe Pinto
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