Religious Spirits: Legalism

[Music] hello this is David eager Hernandez and you're watching Spirit Church here on the encounter TV network I'm beginning now a new series I really do sense in my spirit that now is the time to bring you this truth this message this series has been on my heart for quite some time but I know that this is of the Lord that I bring it to you now I'm going to give you some hard-hitting truth I'm going to expose a lot of demonic activity I'm going to offend some but my hope is that this truth will liberate many I want to talk to you about religious experience and so for part 1 of this series on religious spirits I'm talking to you about a spirit that is so powerful so deceptive that it's turning churches into cults and the truth of the matter is that you may very well be in a church that has turned into a cult without you even realizing it but I'm gonna give you the signs for recognizing these religious spirits and I'm gonna teach you how to uproot them and expose them but first Stephen Moctezuma is here with me he's gonna lead you in some very anointed worship and then don't miss it we're gonna get right into this message as I begin this new series Oh thirsty [Music] although we come to the fountain dip you heart in the streams but the pain and the sorrow be washed away in the waves of you mercy this deep cries up to D we say come on Jesus [Music] come Jesus [Music] are we come to the fans dip your heart in ministry pain in the sorrow he was away in the waves of his mercy Steve peiser to we shake Jesus [Music] Jesus [Music] Jesus [Music] oh Jesus [Music] spear [Music] so the spirit of legalism is a very dangerous very effective religious spirit now when I say religious spirit I want you to know that I don't mean exclusively demonic activity or a demonic Byng what I'm talking about is a paradigm or a mindset or a way of seeing things that is stuck in a certain way so a religious spirit is an attitude a religious spirit is a mindset a religious spirit is a system that causes people to be burdened with things that the Bible does not place upon us legalism insist on specific practices rather than godly principles you know many believers in their walk with Christ go between two extremes they find themselves going between legalism and liberalism now on the site of legalism you have all of the constraints you have all of what people would call holiness but I think it's a false sense of holiness on the other side is liberalism this is where believers think they're free to do anything that they want they can live however they want and God won't judge them both extremes are demonic both extremes are deception so where do we find the balance where do we find the truth where do we find our footing and our foundation the simple truth is that between legalism and liberalism is love and a love for Jesus is the key to overcoming both you see when I'm legalistic I may have what I call righteousness but I'll never have joy and when I'm walking in liberalism I may have what I call joy but I'll never have true power but when I walk in the love of Jesus when I walk with my heart filled with the passion for his name and for his words then I will choose to live in holiness because I love him not because I'm afraid of being punished by God and I'll have the power I'll have the freedom I'll have the joy all at once so you don't have to choose between legalism and liberalism you can walk in the love of God which gives you both benefits you'll have joy and you'll have power you'll have freedom and you'll have holiness it's possible to balance the two now in Luke chapter number 10 verses 38 to 42 we a very familiar portion of scripture which tells the story of Mary and Martha I'll simplify the story for you Mary and Martha are expecting Jesus into their home mary spends the time talking to jesus fellowshipping with jesus where as Martha spends the time preparing a meal for Jesus to eat now somebody once asked me in regards to Mary and Martha what did Mary see that Martha didn't my response was that they both saw the exact same thing in fact they both wanted the exact same thing to please Jesus the problem is they went about it in different ways now Mary came to the place of fellowship Mary came to the place of love and because of that she received this thing which would not be taken away from her which was first love for Jesus Martha on the other hand trying to gain that love try to work for it and because she tried to work for it she missed what Jesus was already doing for her now let me be very clear here I'm not saying that you can live any way that you want in fact the scripture is very clear that God punishes sin that sin has consequences the believer is to live holy and righteously and the believer is to walk in a reverence toward God so that their life can reflect the godly character that God wants us to have now having said that there is also an extreme on the other side where people demand a strict adherence to a set of rules and expectations that God never put on any one individual so I'm gonna read a portion of scripture to you it's quite long while relatively speaking at least for a teaching like this but I want to read this to you anyway and I want you to really listen to the spirit behind what is being said here the scripture is found in Colossians chapter 2 I'm gonna begin reading at verse number 6 this is what the Bible says and now just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord you must continue to follow him let your roots grow down into him and let your lives be built on him then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught and you will overflow with thankfulness verse 8 don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world rather than from Christ for in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body so you also are complete through your union with Christ who is the head over every ruler and authority when you came to Christ you were circumcised but not by a physical procedure Christ performed a spiritual circumcision the cutting away of your sinful nature for you were buried with Christ when you were baptized and with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God who raised Christ from the dead verse 13 you were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away then God made you alive with Christ for he forgave all your sins he cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross in other words the scripture here is saying that it's done it's finished God took care of this verse 15 in this way he disarmed the spiritual rulers had authorities I love that he shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross so don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbath's for these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come and Christ Himself is that reality don't let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels saying that they have had visions about these things they're sinful minds have made them proud and they are not connected to Christ the head of the body for he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments and it grows as God nourishes it you have died with Christ and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world so why do you keep on following the rules of this world such as don't handle don't taste don't touch such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them these rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion pious self-denial and severe bodily discipline but they provide no help in conquering a person's evil desires I love verse 23 because it says it gives us the reason why people are keen on accepting these rules and regulations as godly standards the truth is that we feel like we're accomplishing something in our own strength when we're able to hold to these devotions and because it requires self-denial because it requires discipline it makes sense to us that those are the things that God requires but here the scripture makes it very clear that you're not to condemn anybody for what they eat or for what they drink you're not to condemn anybody because they don't celebrate the Sabbath like you celebrated or a ceremony or a certain specific ritual that you think is godly the issue is not our desire to serve the issue is the emphasis on the wrong ways to serve God does not necessarily delight in sacrifices he delights in pure hearts Matthew 23:23 says what sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees hypocrites for you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens but you ignore the more important aspects of the law justice mercy and faith you should tithe yes but do not neglect the more important thing so here we see that it's not necessarily the practices that are wrong is the denial of the principles behind those practices that creates a religious mindset and a religious bondage people doing what before they understand why I'm not saying therefore that we should adhere to every strict code and we should adhere to everything that man puts upon us I'm simply saying that we should do good we should do things in this world that accomplished things for the Gospels sake but if the heart behind it is lost it becomes religious this burdening of the people this giving of rules that God did not give to us is partly why Jesus was so angry with the Pharisees Matthew 23 13 says what sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees hypocrites for you shut the door the Kingdom of Heaven in people's faces you won't go in yourselves and you don't let others enter either people constantly putting these burdens these regulations I'm not talking about God's moral law I'm not talking about holiness talking about man-made religious systems and institutions and rules and expectations that the scripture does not place upon us the Bible makes it very clear that God's commands are not burdensome first John chapter 5 verse 3 says that exactly loving God means keeping his Commandments and His commandments are not burdensome people message me all the time can i play video games is it okay to wear these types of shoes is it okay to shop at that mall is it okay if I'm on social media is it okay if I eat at this kind of restaurant is it okay this is it ok that is it ok this is this is it is that a sin am i right with God still if I went to this place or that place look we've got to stop living in this religious paranoia we've got to stop trying to come down to the very last detail of everything that we do otherwise you're gonna live in religious paranoia and fear you're gonna relate you're gonna be living under burdens Jesus calls this straining at gnats and swallowing camels you're so fixed on all these little things yet you miss God that's what the frustration was with the Pharisees that Jesus had Matthew chapter 11 verses 28 through 30 say come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls my yoke is easy and my burden is light in other words my teaching my way of teaching is not necessarily something that doesn't require self-denial we believe in self-denial but what Jesus is saying that there's a simplicity to his teaching he gives you rest do you lack peace do you lack rest then you're not in the will of God if the way you serve God takes your peace if the way you serve God takes your rest if the way you serve God has you living in a constant paranoia then you're not under the yoke of Jesus you're under the yoke of a religious spirit Matthew chapter 22 verses 37 to 40 say jesus replied you must love the Lord your God with all your heart see it begins with love all your soul and all your mind this is the first and greatest commandment a second is equally important love your neighbor as yourself look at this verse 40 the entire and all the demands of the profits are based on these two commandments stop worrying about what you eat what you wear what day you attend church how you pronounce the name of God we have people commenting on our ministry content all the time well he's not talking about the one true God because he didn't say Yeshua or he didn't say Yahweh well look what about God's name in different languages what about the phonetic pronunciation that's given to him all around the world you see there's a religious scrutiny right there people are so focused on the very specifics of the practice the pronunciation of the name of God rather than the principle the identity of who we're talking about so they miss the power of God they miss these things because they're so focused on things that don't matter legalism insist on actions to earn salvation legalism demands a very strict adherence to a very specific code of conduct look I'm not talking about holiness I believe in holiness so I'm not talking about holiness I'm talking about silliness there's a big difference between holiness and silliness there's a big difference between righteousness and nonsense we must not live in fear but in the love of God so religious people will ask this what about holiness well that depends entirely on what you mean by holiness if my holiness you mean adhering to man's idea of what I should be doing if by holiness you mean I subscribe to your program if my holiness you mean I hold to your set of exact ideas then no I don't believe in that form of holiness but if by holiness you mean living according to the Word of God if by holiness you mean staying away from sin and walking according to the nature of God then of course I believe in holiness but we cannot Rob that term holiness give it a different different definition and then demand that people adhere to our definition of what holiness is now this is important because a legalistic ministry a legalistic church if it is not corrected will become a cult now I believe let me say this very clearly I believe in the Church of the Living God I believe in the Bride of Christ I believe in Church Authority I believe in pastors as overseers look I myself am under submitted happily so under a wonderful man of God who I go to for counsel who can correct and rebuke me and I don't give him a hard time about doing it if he corrects something in me I take it and so I want to be very clear here I'm not giving anyone here an excuse to leave a church because they don't like being told what to do or to stop following the teachings of a man of God or a woman of God because it's challenging you in a deep way you should be challenged you should walk in holiness I'm talking about something completely different so for the record I believe in church authority I believe in the structure of the church yes God has given us a structure I believe in the system of the church that Christ himself implemented so no I'm not like these hippy Christians with hippy theology no man forget the buildings forget the pastors forget the churches forget the organizations let's just go out in the streets and be bums and win people for Jesus that's not what I believe I believe in structure I believe in pastoral headship I'm under it I'm submitted to it what I'm talking about is different so churches can become cults men can become cult leaders pastors can become cult leaders now when a church is centered around a man and his rules that's a cult when the man replaces god that's a cult if being right with God requires that I'm right with a man or a woman of God that's a cult so and I'm not talking about bitterness and those sort of things of course your brothers and sisters in Christ of course we should walk in right relationship with each other if we want God to hear our prayers what I'm talking about is men are women who will use that biblical principle to their advantage when manipulating people in other words if you don't do exactly what I want you to do and if I disconnect from you because of that or if you have to disconnect from me because we have a disagreement and you aren't willing to change your mind and therefore you're definitely not in the will of God that's manipulation I'm not talking about reconcile with one another I'm not talking about living at peace with your fellow brother or sister in Christ that's biblical absolutely you need to be right with your brothers and sisters in Christ I'm talking about those who use it to manipulate people and make it impossible for them to be right with each other unless they adhere exactly to what they want so here are some signs that you're in a cult not a church number one righteousness is equated with an extra-biblical adherence to a specific set of rules and expectations in other words things that are not in the Bible demands that are not in the Bible and I'm just gonna give you an example here that was I'm not gonna mention any one Church in particular but there was a ministry I was familiar with where if the people didn't come to every service that was available that week they were considered in rebellion and they had like six services that week and if you weren't at each and every one of those early and then stood late to fellowship then you were considered not right with God because you missed a service and that shows you weren't truly hungry for God and it shows that you truly didn't want everything God had for you that's not that's not biblical so that's an extra-biblical adherence to a specific set of rules and expectations the next one right standing with God is connected to right standing with a certain man or woman of God in other words I have to be right with them I have to obey them I have to have their approval to have God's approval the next one the next sign you know you're in a cult leadership is constantly emphasizing ideas like submission to leadership or submission to the pastor or submission to the vision or submission to the house now it is biblical to be submitted to a man or woman of God but if this is a constantly running theme if this is something that is being pushed again and again and again and again this could be a sign that you're in a cult not a church the next sign leadership is above healthy respectful questioning you can never ask them a question you can never challenge respectfully and privately of you that they hold you can never disagree without being rebuked or ostracized you can never disagree without being labeled as rebellious and I'm not talking about actual rebellious agreement I'm talking about specific concerns that you bring respectfully say hey I had a question about this or thought about this that's different here's another sign members are kept tired overworked and unable to do much else besides church and ministry the reason for this is if you can keep someone tired you can keep someone susceptible so some ministries or churches will keep the people working constantly so that they're exhausted and if exhaustion is encouraged as a spiritual quality there's a danger sign members are afraid to make life decisions without the permission of leadership now I worded this very carefully on purpose there are two key words afraid and permission the people are afraid of leadership and number two the leadership grants permission in other words not advice not counsel they give permission now I believe in godly counsel and I believe in obeying your pastor submitting to your pastor even in seasons where you might disagree but what this is is control based on fear they want to tell you what job you can take they want to tell you what school you should go to they want to tell you who you should date and if for some reason you don't take their advice and you decide to do what's on your heart or what God placed in your spirit and you're labeled as rebellious or disobedient or not serious about following Jesus then that's a problem they may say things like hey but you gave your life to Jesus so it's not yours anymore you can say yes I gave my life to Jesus not to you and so that's a very important distinction again I believe in past all headship I believe in submission it's benefited my life greatly I would not be here today if it wasn't for that but I'm talking about people who abuse this and they don't lead people they control people and that's not godly the next time members who leave no matter the surrounding circumstances are labeled as rebellious or outside of the will of God if there's a pattern in your church of people constantly leaving it could very well be a problem with leadership especially if everyone who leaves under any circumstance good or bad positive or negative with conflict without is labeled as rebellious or outside of the will of God that might be an issue in other words if you're not if you don't stay connected with me if you don't stay connected with this church if you don't stay in this specific place that we've laid out for you and you leave that you're outside of the will of God you're in rebellion you're not truly living for Christ that is a dangerous sign especially if this is a pattern now again sometimes rebellious people do leave churches it happens all the time in fact some people watch this and they use it as an excuse to say I don't have to be a part of a church I would encourage you be a part of a church where you can attend locally and being accountability towards somebody but this right here is something else entirely this is manipulation this is causing fear this is basically labeling people so that those who are inside will remain disconnected from them not to be infected by them but again there are some circumstances where rebellious people do leave there are some circumstances where people do have to be kicked out and there are some circumstances where who will leave ministries and they've left the will of God because of that that's not what I'm talking about here another side members are discouraged from fellowshipping with believers from other churches and ministries now this should never be the case unless there is something that the pastor sees is a major doctrinal error I'm talking about someone who teaches that Jesus didn't rise from the dead or someone who teaches that Jesus is wasn't God those are very good reasons to not fellowship with other churches but if they don't want people fellowshipping with other churches simply because they're trying to keep everybody collected in one place so that they can look good when they have their crowd everywhere that they go that's an issue or they don't want other people fellowship and with other churches for the fear that they may go visit that other ministry that's insecurity and that's an issue so another sign members are afraid of missing any church function at any time for any reason for fear of being rebuked looked down upon or otherwise ostracized say they take an annual family vacation and they go and they're labeled as uncommitted they're labeled as lukewarm Christians they're labeled as half-hearted that's a sign that you could be in a cult instead of a church the next side members are seen as belonging to a certain man or woman of God in other words if they go visit another church or they go to be a part of another ministry and the pastor calls that passed or the pastor calls that mention says hey why are you using my people why do you have my person there that's a sign that they see the people as theirs that's a sign that they see the people as property and not as Souls and that is another sign now again guys these are just signs these are things that have to all add up to create the case you may see some indications because not every Church is perfect you may see them leaning a little one way or the other way I'm talking about something very extreme here so don't again hear what I'm not saying I don't want a mass exodus from people leaving churches I just want to equip you with some truth now then the next sign here and then I'm done is if you're afraid to assess or even consider these signs because you are afraid of being embarrassed or ostracized you may be in a cult so if you're a member of a church and you're recognizing patterns here you need to pray if you're a pastor who hears these signs and says oh man or they're actually churches like that yes there are you need to pray God keeps you balanced now if you're someone who's offended by this you're listening to me you're saying how could you say that people are gonna leave my church because of this then you need to repent you need to get yourself right because if all of these signs are even a majority of them describe the way you are running things you're operating under a spirit of legalism and you need to let God's people go and that is it for the lesson I want to pray with you now I want to pray that God would settle this truth in your heart that God would give you discernment because remember you can't make snap decisions you need to really really pray about this you need to really go through this list again there is no such thing as the perfect church but I want to see people liberated from cults not from churches with flaws there is always going to be a flaw in a church but watch out for these signs do they all add up are they on the extreme side pray through this discern through this let's believe God for discernment father in the name of Jesus I pray for that one receiving this prayer now and I ask Allah that you would give them discernment open their eyes and speak to them and let them be set free from every bit of demonic influence in the name of Jesus we pray I want you to say it because you agree say Amen now I know some of you like when I prophesy or give words of knowledge sometimes that flows remember this is the Holy Spirit's channel so the words of knowledge may flow sometimes and not other times but the anointing is still flowing even if I'm not calling things out mana welcome now the new members of Spirit Church there you are up on the screen we love you and we are praying for you I always say that because I always mean it be sure to join the Spirit family now over 7,000 members strong you want to join the spirit family go to David Hernandez ministries.com / Spirit Church now to your comments these comments are from Stephen moctezuma's teaching he taught on a deeper level of worship I was actually out that week because I am now a father to my precious little Arya Rose Hernandez Jess and I could not be happier with our little miracle now Jess did an amazing job and justice doing an amazing job she's a great mother we have a beautiful little girl and I want to thank all of you who prayed for us I want to thank all of you who sent in gifts we got gifts from all over I hope we were able to send cards to everybody I hope my office did that if you didn't get to thank you let me take this time now to say thank you for what you sent in for her we so appreciate it we love you all and that's why mr. Stephen Moctezuma filled in for me he did an amazing job by the way he's got to come back and do these again even if I'm still here but the first comment from that particular video I'm going to read is from Mia Sarek who writes brother Stephen you preached from the heart of worship great job love your personal truths as well god bless you and your family sizzling rights god bless you brother Stephen may the lord enrich you all the days of your life loved the teaching Corey Smoot writes Stephen and Nick thank you guys for glorifying God with the beautiful worship music and keeping the ministry going well evangelist Hernandez is enjoying his new bundle of joy congratulations and may God richly bless everyone this ministry Samuel riah's writes Thank You Steven Moctezuma for the message you brought today from the Lord may God continue to use you and David Hernandez in the teachings and worship your worship music moments makes my heart relax in God's presence god bless you Stephanie loves Jesus writes congratulations David and Jessica I became a partner today I only found out about spirit church just a few days ago and have been so blessed thank you David for your great and such amazing teachings Thank You Steven your music blesses my heart love Stephanie well thank you Stephanie for writing in to us and thank you everyone for writing in to us in the comments section by the way if you'd like me to possibly read your comment on the next edition of Spirit Church then go ahead and leave a comment in the comment section right now whether that's on Facebook or on YouTube in the app wherever it is you can leave a comment there my team will go through it and we'll feature some of the comments next week also while you're at it don't forget to subscribe to our Channel and click the notification bell so that you can receive notifications now as Stephanie said here she became a partner with us and really that's how we keep all this content going you know nowadays everything is being sold people are selling their content they're charging registration fees for their events but we as a ministry want to leave our content free and we want to leave our events open for free for the most part there are some very specific instances like sometimes Steve and I will be invited to minister at someone else's conference obviously if they charge that's on them but for the ministry we want to try to make as much of it available for free as possible this is why we need your help consider today becoming my partner for $30 or more a month I'll appreciate it Steve will appreciate it Jes will appreciate it my little Aria Rose will appreciate it well thank you for it and just to say thank you for partnering with us I will send you either carriers of the glory encountering the Holy Spirit in every book of the Bible or 25 truths about demons and spiritual warfare if you sign up for $30 or more a month do that today everything helps now is the time to step in and help us win souls and build believers through events and media this ministry is growing as you can see the eve answer growing let's continue to do this guy stand with us join us in our efforts to preach the gospel and spread the truth all around the world sign up for a one-time gift or a monthly gift to day everything counts go to David Hernandez ministries.com / partner well that is it for this edition of spirit church here on the Encounter TV network until next time remember nothing is impossible with God thank you for watching encounter TV don't forget to subscribe also help me win souls by spreading the gospel through events and media make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now

Channel: Encounter TV

Views: 58,451

Rating: 4.9217429 out of 5

Keywords: david diga hernandez, exposing religious spirits, religious spirits, religious spirits deliverance, signs of a religious spirit, am i in a toxic relationship, signs of a cult like church, top 7 signs of a cult, signs of a cult family, signs of cultism, escaping a cult documentary, escaping a cult story, strange church cult, abusive church, controlling boyfriend, controlling girlfriend, controlling pastor, abusive relationships, how to study bible

Id: ylg-qF7QrmU

Length: 34min 26sec (2066 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 22 2019