After getting over the hurt of friends and family rejecting your sanctification and rejecting you in relationship, you find refuge in the local church. You find welcomed arms and like minded people with hope and joy in their eyes. As you continue to go through your process, you will start to find even those who claim to be followers of Christ not so like minded. While we are all in the process of sanctification and will continue to be until our Savior returns or we take our last breath, there are some people that you will find have settled for something less than God and our Savior Jesus Christ. For those who struggle with earning their salvation and then those who struggle with keeping their salvation through human effort, you will battle with this "religious spirit" for the rest of your journey in Christ. When you have been set free by our Lord and Savior, you will come to find out that there is nothing you can do as far as a work in order to earn God's grace or to keep it upon your life. You learn that His Grace is a GIFT and that any attempts to earn it through works defeats the point of Christ dieing on the Cross. A saint's works are simply an assignment given from the God, to be accomplished in God's timing, through the Holy Spirit that resides in the saint, so that no man may boast!!!
So practically you will find that you will start to see people's actions differently and your own actions will start to be motivated out of a motive from God. You will start to discern when actions that people commit will come from a soulish place (out from a selfish motive) or from the Holy Spirit. People will then see your response to this discernment and start to once again separate from you. There are many reasons to justify separating from a saint that people use in the church. The Holy Spirit bares witness in a saint to everything that God is doing around them. The Spirit gives us eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to understand the things of the Kingdom of Heaven. When you start to see things and hear things that others don't and you respond to them, the religious spirit seek to separate you from the rest of the sheep. We see in the scriptures that our Savior didn't have many issues coming from the gentiles (or the unsaved people in the world), they came from the people who he came to save, the Jews in the church. When the Spirit of God exposes the motives and darkness of the religious spirits, a separation must take place. In this country we experience a separation in relationship, being talked about with rumors being spread, and maybe even being asked to leave a church. In other countries people are still being beaten, publically humiliated, imprisoned, and put to death. As we continue to grow in Christ and He be revealed in us through His Holy Spirit, this is the cross we will bear. We will have to choose each day to let people talk, pray for them, love them, and continue to be a light!!! The joy of bearing the cross is that God will always have at least one saint in each season of your life running the race with you. You will find your comfort in Christ and the few companions that God has allowed to walk through this season with you. The whole point is that this process is not a foreign one to God's elect and you are not the only saint going through it right now!!! May this comfort you as you continue to press towards the mark of your high calling in Christ!!! Be encouraged!!! Have a wonderful life of enjoying the same persecutions as your Savior Jesus Christ did on purpose!!!!!
Matthew 13
A Prophet Without Honor
53 When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. 54 Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. 55 “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56 Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” 57 And they took offense at him.
But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.”
58 And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
Matthew 16
Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[b] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[c] will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[d] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Romans 8
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
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