Saturday, July 25, 2009

Leaving the System~Bon Voyage


How many times have I heard someone refer to the “system” as being synonymous with the institutional entity erroneously called the church? I don’t know. All I do know is that it is way too confining a definition, too small a picture for me. Why? It’s because “we know that we are children of God and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one”. This control is in actuality the matrix of religion, otherwise known as the world system, and it has completely saturated our beliefs, outlooks and thought processes.
This matrix of religion exists within and is entrapped by our soul and is what fuels beliefs, philosophies, creeds, etc. There has to be an impetus, otherwise all such ideologies would be a house of cards. Satan, being the father of religion, is both the impetus and the instigator.
I want to make it clear that Satan operates from within the arena of the soul. That is the location from which not only evil emanates but also where truth wishes to reside, (be fleshed out) contingent upon our choices. Our spirits (if we have been born-again) are pure and perfect forever, having been indwelt by the spirit of Christ.

“Leaving the system” is usually interpreted as making an exodus from a religious or institutional setting, and yes it is, but it is only a very miniscule part of the departure. Everything outside of being ‘in Christ’ is religion. This includes our moral conduct, how we choose to live our lives, our definition of right and wrong, etc., and it doesn’t matter one whit whether one is a believer or an atheist. Religious organizations may be flavoured differently but are but one expression of the father of lies’ intent to draw Christians away from the simplicity of the gospel - which is there is NOTHING we can do to earn God’s favour. Our good works, our ‘holiness’, our right living are all based on Satan’s deceptive assertions that by our ‘doing’ or being a good person we can be ‘like God’.
So, leaving the “system” does not/cannot extricate us from Satan’s influence in terms of the religious bondage he has intertwined within the strands of our soul. This may come as a surprise. Many who have left institutional Christianity blame their former religious leaders for duping them and leading them astray from the truth. That may be partly true, but it is essential to remember that these religious leaders have been lied to by the same enemy that exists in everyone’s soul. In other words, these leaders are just as deceived as you and I who have begun to see the truth. Our anger is misdirected; it’s not the leaders or the system that is responsible for the deception: it is the Father of Lies himself. In gratitude to Christ for opening our blind eyes, our response should be to pray for those leaders still enslaved within the chains of religious bondage.

Rich

6 comments:

silent wings said...

Rich,

This was spot on! :)
I can attest to this outworking in my own life. I haven't been in a institutional church setting, nor my children in a institunsional school setting in 2 years but THAT is not the source of frustration and bondage. It is the war waged in my very soul...and the lies I wrestle with within me on a moment by moment basis that have been the hardest to kill.

Rich said...

Silent Wings,

I loved what you said here, "THAT is not the source of frustration and bondage. It is the war waged in my very soul...and the lies I wrestle with within me on a moment by moment basis that have been the hardest to kill."

As I said to my wife the other day, the truth is always held in tension, there is no meaningful growth (His life being fully formed in us) without constant contention, resistance by the enemy of our soul.

Talking with some others often what I get (at least it sounds that way to me) is a rehearsed rote script, which sounds as lifeless as a android trying to come across as being alive!

It is within this very arena of the soul that His life has an extended meaning and significance imo, many would try and convince me that they are on some kind of a fixed, auto-pilot stance, which again is so colorless and lifeless to my way of thinking.

silent wings said...

:) Colour on!

Rich said...

Christianity is not about learning to live within the lines; Christianity is about the joy of coloring.

Gosh darn I love that quote, it fits me to a T!

silent wings said...

And can you believe how hard that is for me? I have believed my whole life that this was what it was all about...trying sooooo hard to do it all so right, so perfectly, and slowly losing the joy of living. Actually, I've forgotten HOW to live. I just wanted a plan. Give me some rules. Give me a colouring book! I will "follow" you Jesus. And then I went away to a minisry school and healing retreat and Holy Spirit says: "It's ok to color outside the lines." I was wrecked! A dam was bursting! I got back from my time away and asked God for "the plan" and He says " My mercies are new every morning. If I give you a plan, you don't need me....do you? I want a relationship. I want to walk WITH you day by day moment by moment...."

I'm not that free of an artist yet but the Creator lives in me and He IS free...someday I will return to the joy of colouring. :)

Rich said...

Silent Wings,

The operating system chip we were all born with (born in sin and shaped in iniquity) only complies and functions according to its embedded scripting, aka, performance, do good get good, do bad get bad, ugh!

I love what Wayne Jacobson was sharing with Brad on the last pod cast, that LIFE didn’t come because of ‘management’ but because of Him becoming our only LIFE! The church you and I and others is “the fruit of something” not the cause of something!!

I love what Oz Chambers has said that has stuck with me for a long time and something I need constant reminding of, “There are many artistic people, but few true artists.” A true artist is one who clearly sees what most can not see, they take what they see and cature the wonder and beauty of it and bring into the realm where by anyone with eyes can freely feast upon it (or words to that affect).

The true Artist, Christ in us (the Author and developer of our faith) has us in His divine ‘dark room’ and is bringing forth in us as us the fully formed life of His Son. He sees with intense and ferocious clarity that which is our very birth right, and is working in the secret places of our being, rooting us in the true knowledge that we are His beloved, cherished and liked sons and daughters!