religious spirit

[tturt]

Recall the first time I saw a picture of Jesus laughing. I wasn't just mad, I was furious - How dare they. I was right, talked about it and needed to straighten every Christian out. He needed me to defend Him. Later learned it was a religious spirit and asks the Lord to eliminate it. He did.

It's difficult to explain but see it's judgmental, angry, rigid.

Thankfully God is always the answer.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

Recall the first time I saw a picture of Jesus laughing. I wasn't just mad, I was furious - How dare they. I was right, talked about it and needed to straighten every Christian out. He needed me to defend Him. Later learned it was a religious spirit and asks the Lord to eliminate it. He did.

It's difficult to explain but see it's judgmental, angry, rigid.

Thankfully God is always the answer.

IMHO a lot of people impose their own idea of righteousness on to our Father.They/we forget that Lord Jesus said He did not come to call the "righteous" .
Matt 9:13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

And they/we forget that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Of course no one wants to be reminded that our own righteousness is as a filthy rag in our Father's eyes. Religion has infected the Body of Christ,imho, and has cause harm in many ways.

 

[Sabertooth]

Religious spirits and (for me) a spirit of pride seem to be more sneaky than so many others.

 

[Mark Quayle]

Religious spirits and (for me) a spirit of pride seem to be more sneaky than so many others.

And once they've taken hold, they become habit.

 

[topher694]

The religious spirit is also sometimes called leviathan. It is very common but takes many different forms. It is an extremely difficult spirit to deliver because it operates in pride and self-righteousness... i.e. the problem is always with others, never itself.

 

[mourningdove~]

Recall the first time I saw a picture of Jesus laughing. I wasn't just mad, I was furious - How dare they. I was right, talked about it and needed to straighten every Christian out. He needed me to defend Him. Later learned it was a religious spirit and asks the Lord to eliminate it. He did.

It's difficult to explain but see it's judgmental, angry, rigid.

Thankfully God is always the answer.

Your post made me chuckle, cuz I also had a very strong negative reaction when I first saw that picture of the laughing Jesus. I felt it was so disrespectful. Really, I just hated it! lol

For me, it was not a religious spirit. It was much simpler than that: I actually just never thought of Jesus 'laughing'. Wow! Can you imagine that! What a limited understanding I had of Him!

But God used that photo to cause me to re-think some of my ideas about Jesus ...
He used it for good.

Yep, God is always the answer.

 

[Sabertooth]

For me, it was not a religious spirit. It was much simpler than that: I actually just never thought of Jesus 'laughing'.

The Nazarene, Michael Card (1986)​

 

[tturt]

There's some topics in the Christian realm that generate a lot of responses and often strong opposition - sometimes ignoring Biblical support that causes me to wonder about religious spirits.

 

[spiritfilledjm]

I understand where you're coming from. For me it has to do with the overall message of the picture. Is the intent to mock Christ and make fun of Christianity (i.e. "Buddy Christ" in Kevin Smith's movie, Dogma.) or is it something like a picture of Jesus sitting, spending time with children, and he happens to be laughing? Jesus did have a sense of humor, his interaction when meeting Nathaniel in John 1:43-49 is proof of that. His response to Nathaniel wasn't so much Him saying to Nathaniel that there was no deceit in him despite his being an Israelite as it was a tongue-in-cheek response to Nathaniel's comment about Nazareth. It was, basically, Jesus joking with him. Nathaniel was actually asking, how do you know what I said when he asked how do you know me? Nathaniel also knew that Jesus wasn't close enough to the fig tree to hear Him, which gave Nathaniel the proof he needed.

Either way, it's ok to be mad about someone mocking us, our faith, our God and Lord and Savior. Just do not sin. Forgive them, ask Jesus to show the person the way.