As a young man, leader, husband, business CEO, coach, public speaker and pastor, I’m constantly learning new perspectives. Some good, some bad, some useless and some that I adopt right away. I wear a lot of hats and have for a long time (almost 10 years). When was I just starting out, my personality, character and commitment varied with different ‘hats’. I was one way at church, another at work, another with my family… you get the point. I thought this was the best way to approach life. I believed you needed to be someone different in every situation, and therefore had different identities in different areas of my life. I often tied my identity to my achievements and positions. I would justify behavior based on who I was that day and what job I was doing. I spent years doing this and with a decent amount of success. I made money in the business I worked for, enough to buy a house at 19 years old. I was running a youth group before I turned 20 and was involved in all kinds of ministries. I was meeting people that were leaders in the community and in some cases, our nation. I felt important! At church I learned how to church, how to do everything that was expected of me if I wanted to grow and achieve success in the church world. I dressed up, wore the proper socks, showed up on time, stacked chairs, vacuumed, submitted to leadership, never challenged anyone (until later on in life), was hungry to learn and grow. I did this in the business world and in the family world as well for a long time. The thing is, I was experiencing success but not growth. I was becoming more and more difficult to work with when it came to business and I was becoming less and less satisfied with what I learned the church world had become. I was starting to get jaded, hurt, lacking trust and feeling trapped. I tried running off to bible school a few times but God always had a different plan. I could show you examples of every area of my life but for the purposes of this piece, I’m going to focus on the church world. There are a number of things that can happen when you feel like you’re stuck. I found out I was operating out a spirit of religion, not a spirit of freedom.
Spirit of Religion
You can become complacent and simply existing. You start conforming to the expectations of those around you and you fall in line like a good christian should. Your passions start to fade as you become the person everyone around you knows you to be… nothing more, nothing less. You create routines that leave you feeling just satisfied enough to keep going. You hide your addictions because you’re worried they may affect your position or what people will think of you. You’re worried that if they find out, they won’t forgive you (which sadly is sometimes the case). You become less worried about the call of God in your life and you become more worried about what leadership and others think of you. Looking for the approval of others and the promotion from man becomes your focus. People who don’t have passion look into your life and say things like “well you’re young, that passion with change” or “what a naive perspective, one day you’ll learn the world doesn’t work that way” or one of my personal favorites to pick on “You’ll never influence people if you don’t calm down and try to be more like them”. If you choose to listen to these things you start to re-evaluate whether this dream you have is even from God, whether this passion is something you should continue to foster. If you aren’t careful, you can become someone who is better at putting fires out than someone who starts and fans them into blazes.
The spirit of religion leaves you with a “sense” of power but none of the real thing. Your power and authority come from a position that you hold. From a lifestyle that you think places you above others. It produces in you a need to control and micro-manage things you were never meant to. It also produces fear… fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of leaders (I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve been told that a person in my position is more often than not, the one who splits churches), fear of success. The spirit of religion is present when you can decide whether someone is worthy to lead by some of the following things:
- Whether or not they will submit to you directly.
- Do they have a spiritual father or elder
- Are they associated with the right denomination
- Have they been to bible school
- Do they have at least 10 years in the ministry
- Are they learned or have a degree
- Do they fit into the box you create (professional and well kept)
None of these things are bad things. In fact, you can do these things while operating in the Spirit of Freedom but they aren’t indicators of a Spirit of Freedom. Please hear me when I say this, these are good things! They should never be the standard by which you judge someone worthy of speaking the gospel.
Leadership isn’t just about being the pastor, or the elder in the church. God gave us apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists and teachers for the equipping of the saints. That means that the saints are supposed to be going out! They are supposed to be leading! The saints are the ones who are more often than not, in the world and not of it! What I mean by that is pastor’s don’t often work a full time job (outside the ministry). Pastor’s aren’t working day in and day out with people who aren’t churched. The purpose of the 5 fold ministry is to equip and send out leaders with the right tools, a healthy understanding of the truth of God’s word, and all the passion they can muster.
Spirit of Freedom
This is where I ended up being led in my walk with God. I learned a great deal about identity, purpose, value, and authority. This statement is foundational to walking in a Spirit of Freedom. “Your identity doesn’t change with your circumstances”. I found out really quickly that having multiple personalities in different places was not the right answer. I had to be the same man in every area of life. My purpose had to be one that could be active and growing in every area of life. That purpose was to be a representation of Christ to everyone I met everywhere I went. Doesn’t Paul say that to the Jews he relates to Jews and to gentiles, gentiles? Yes he does!
He’s not talking about changing your character, your ideals, or the truths that you carry inside you. The fruit of the Spirit doesn’t look different in either of those scenarios. He’s specifically talking about strategy. If I want to preach to a bunch of millennials, I’ll probably have jeans, a baggy shirt and possibly even a beanie on my head. If I’m ever going to a speaking engagement with a group of baby boomers and my goal is to relate to them, I’ll probably dress up. I’d wear nice tie, suite, dress shirt and the works. This is what Paul is talking about. Please remember though, that the strategies are about outreach. If you want to walk as Christ did, you can’t be worried about petty things like how people dress or what their hair looks like. That would fall under the spirit of religion. The spirit of freedom reverses the motive. Let me explain. A spirit of religion would say you have to dress a certain way so that believers will receive you. A spirit of freedom would say you choose to wear something that would honor the audience God has asked you to speak into. THIS DOES NOT MEAN you have to dress up to preach. John the Baptist, the man who baptized Jesus, was NOT a well kept man by any stretch. He was, however, someone that had a great responsibility and honor.
What should we look for when operating from the perspective of a spirit of freedom? Qualifications include things like the fruit of the Spirit. Do you see the fruit of the Spirit working actively in their lives? Do they love others? Is the Holy Spirit leading and training them? Are they quick to repent, selfless in everything they do and ready to lay their lives down for the kingdom? What I love about the Spirit of freedom is that there is not age limit (whether old or young). There is no pre-determined amount of training. No set amount of time attending a church is required. People who live in a Spirit of Freedom are always willing to learn. They are passionate about wisdom and understanding. They are constantly in God’s Word, doing everything they can to become more like him.
The new testament also gives some qualifications you need to see in leaders of the Body of Christ before they are released:
3 This is a trustworthy saying: [a] The one who would an elder be, a noble task desires he. 2 Therefore, an elder must be blameless, the husband of one wife stable, sensible, respectable, hospitable to strangers, and teachable. 3 He must not drink excessively or be a violent person, but instead be gentle. He must not be argumentative or love money. 4 He must manage his own family well and have children who are submissive and respectful in every way. 5 For if a man does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, so that he won’t become arrogant and fall into the Devil’s condemnation. 7 He must be well thought of by outsiders, so he doesn’t fall into disgrace and the trap set for him by the Devil. 8 Deacons too, must be serious. They must not be two-faced, addicted to wine, or greedy for money. 9 They must hold firmly to the secret of the faith with clear consciences. 10 But they must first be tested. Then, if they prove to be blameless, let them serve in ministry. 11 Their wives must also be serious. They must not be gossips, but instead be stable and trustworthy in everything. 12 Deacons must be husbands of one wife and must manage their children and their families well. 13 Those who serve well in ministry gain an excellent reputation for themselves and will have great assurance by their faith in the Messiah Jesus.
1 Timothy 3 (NIV)
I love this verse because all of these character traits come from abiding in Christ. They are examples of the fruit of the Spirit being present in their lives. The reason the Spirit of Freedom is necessary for good healthy church growth is because it doesn’t put people in a box. You can learn to do these things very quickly or you can be trained for many years and still have none of these things. The disciples only followed Jesus for three years before things started shaping up for them and they ended up being the heads of the entire church!
The Spirit of Freedom produces a great many things in your life. It sees others with the same value God sees you. You are able to lead well and promote. You are not fearful of things you can’t control, and you know your authority in Christ. Your identity can flourish and grow to be everything God has called you to be. Your passion for Christ is there for a reason, it should never be diminished. It should, however, be used properly. (study patience). Are there expectations of leadership while operating in the Spirit of freedom? Yes, there are. It’s not a free-for-all – that would be called chaos. The Spirit of freedom produces power because there are biblical parameters we are supposed to follow.
So what’s the difference?
The spirit of Freedom is walked in when everything we do lines up with God’s word. The spirit of religion comes in when men and women start making rules and expectations of people that aren’t in God’s Word. These two can look SOOOOO similar on the outside, but they are VASTLY different on the inside. One produces leaders, the other produces followers. One produces power while the other produces hopelessness. If you’re finding yourself stuck in the spirit of religion, the best way to get out of it is to head straight to God’s word. Find who you are to God. Spend lots of time praying and seeking God. Let God be the one who builds and flourishes your identity. Once you’ve done this, and you know that you know who you are, you can step into what God has called you to. It took me a VERY long time to finally step into what God had called me to, but I needed to be who God called me to be before I could serve the way he wanted me to serve. Today I can say I walk in freedom to the best of my ability. I sometimes find that religion tries to sneak it’s ugly head into parts of my life and thank God for the Holy Spirit who brings conviction, wisdom and knowledge so that it can be dealt with quickly. My hope is that after reading this, you will be able to better identify where you’re at, and have a starting point for moving forward.