The people of the world are steeped into religion. No matter the culture, every people group on earth has ceremonies and rituals in an effort to appease the ‘gods.’ When I say religion I mean man made, demon devised, systems of thought that have a form of Godliness but denies the power thereof

(II Tim. 3:5).

Religion is really nothing more than will worship and certainly has nothing to do with Jesus. Jesus did not come to start another religion; he came to reestablish the family God lost when Adam sinned in the garden. Religion is an invention of the devil to destroy true relationship with God.

Setting people free from the bonds of religion is what the apostle Paul spent most of his life doing. It was such a costly occupation because people resist change. And even though the New Testament is almost completely dedicated to setting us free from the bonds of religion, born again Christians still continue to cling to religions concepts however.

Living by a bunch of does and don’ts is not the Gospel (Col. 2:20-23). Jesus didn’t suffer crucifixion so we could have a better rulebook.  He came to restore what sin had stolen. He came to reconcile us back to the Father so that we might once again worship the Lord in Spirit and truth (John 4:24).

Being Christian for many people means living by a dress code and following the church’s prescription for food, and entertainment. The concept of a loving, forgiving, healing God is strange and even blasphemous in some circles.

We have to be careful because it is so easy to fall into the religious trap of ‘good works.’ Without even realizing it we begin to base our relationship with God on performance instead love. We think things like, “Well I have given so He has to bless me,” instead of, “I’m blessed to be a child of God so I would like to give.” Or, “I have gone to church every Sunday for a year God must answer my prayers,” instead of “God answers my prayers because I’m us child.”

We think that God owes some how us for our ‘good works. And while it is true that He is not unjust to forget our labor of love we owe Him everything for allowing us to become partakes of the blood of Christ.

We like religion because it justifies the flesh.  True relationship with God on the other hand does exactly the opposite by crucifying the flesh.  Who wouldn’t pick exaltation over crucifixion? Coming into relationship with God exposes our sin and lazy spiritual lifestyles. Religion covers it up by hiding it under the law and allowing the ‘more righteous’ to judge the less righteous.

Jesus came to set the captives free. He came to Earth too not only show us how to live but died in our place so that we could have life. Religion is a cheap substitute for a loving caring relationship with your Lord and Savior.

Grace covers our sins so that we are free from guilt to love God with all of are heart, minds and soul.

Rocky J. Malloy

Recently a man told me, “I call it like it is.”  That might sound noble but it could not be further from the truth.  God calls it what it’s not (Rom. 4:17).

Acknowledging situations or things by calling them like they are requires no faith and Paul called that sin (Rom. 14:23) because it is of fear.  Calling things that are not as though they were requires faith because it is of love.  Anybody can look at a bad report and agree with it. It takes faith to look at the same situation and call it what God calls it.

People fear faith.  They prefer to wrap themselves tightly in verifiable facts calling it security.  They deny the existence of that which cannot be tested, proven, or measured.  Those in fear shout the loudest about the foolishness of faith in a world of science.

There is a physical reality, a perceptual reality and a spiritual reality.  One is based on the facts, the other on opinion and the last on the truth.  The truth is always greater than the facts or opinions.

Anytime we are faced with a fact or an opinion that is not TRUE we must act in faith.  Not by denying the facts or opposing opinion but by declaring the truth.  In other words we must have more faith in the truth than we have in facts or opinions.

We are so conditioned to act in fear based on circumstances that we find it fearful to act in faith based on truth.

Romans 8:15 says that, “For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”

Being sons of God we operate on a higher plane than physical reality.  We soar in the high places of spiritual reality.  “We have the same spirit of faith (that God has), according as it is written, I believe and therefore have I spoken; we also believe and therefore speak” (2 Cor. 4:13).

Living by faith means believing and speaking the truth no matter the facts or opinions.  In order to believe and speak the truth we must first hear the truth (Rom. 10:17).  That is why in Mark 4:24 that Jesus warned us about what we hear.  Listening to doubt and unbelief will cause you to speak doubt and unbelief; which will “again put you back into the bondage of fear.”

Being a Christian carries with it a great responsibility of believing and speaking the truth all the time.  Believing the truth and speaking the truth is called love and it drives out all fear, doubt and unbelief (1 Jn. 4:18).

We go to church, read the Bible and pray to fill ourselves with the love of God so that we can always believe and speak the truth.

The next time you are faced with a situation that requires the declaration of truth and the spirit of fear comes on you like a chill on a cold night what are you going to do?  Operate in the spirit of fear or the spirit of faith?  Speaking the truth in love will grow you into all things even Christ (Eph. 4:15).

I say that you are of the spirit of faith and that no doubt or unbelief can be found in you thereby denying the devil all access to your life.

Rocky J. Malloy

Several times in both the New and Old Testament God is called our healer. One of the most profound and direct scriptures is 1 Peter 2:24 where it says, “By his stripes you were healed.” If that is true why are so many apparently God fearing dedicated Christians suffering from illness especially in light of Romans 2:11 where it says “God does not show favoritism.” If he ever healed anyone all must be entitled to be healed.

The primary reason that some people don’t receive their healing is they don’t believe God would do it or they don’t qualify. They have no faith in the grace of God. The Bible calls these thoughts “imaginations that exalt themselves against the knowledge of (or faith in) God” II Cor. 10:5. Another name is for these “destructive reasonings” is Religion. Religion is a counterfeit spiritual system based on works and on the thoughts and philosophies of men instead of faith in the Word of God.

Religion appears to be the road to God with its rituals, sacraments and penitence but it has no power. Power comes from faith not works. The only ‘work’ we are called to do in the New Testament is to believe God. Many people attend church and enjoy Christian fellowship, but they never really cross the void of doubt and unbelief to enter into true faith.

People don’t get healed because they base their healing on works instead of grace, which disqualifies them every time! According to the way most people think they are just too unworthy to be healed. They have heard too many sermons outlining how God is testing us or improving us somehow through our own suffering.

Let me ask you, do you think our suffering brings pleasure to God? Was Jesus’ suffering less than complete? Must we finish the job? Is it not prideful to think that we are good enough to suffer for our own imperfections when Jesus, the only

perfect sacrifice, has already suffered for us?  And if we could suffer in any way for our imperfections why did Jesus need to come at all?

Since the fall of Adam man has operated in the dark concerning spiritual things and has erroneously reverted to his own understanding when it comes to the things of God.  That is why God sent the Holy Spirit to guide us and teach us all things concerning what Jesus did for us on the cross Jn. 16:13.  Jesus paid the price for our redemption, spirit, soul and body from sickness, poverty and eternal damnation.

After all God did for the Children of Israel, they did not enter into the Promised Land because they could not believe.  They died in the desert because of their doubt and unbelief, just like many Christians today die in their disease.  God has provided a place of healing but many people don’t enter in because they think that somehow they deserve to suffer.  They base God’s ability to heal them on their works, sins or imperfections instead of Jesus’ sacrifice.

The Bible says, “Study to show thyself approved.”  Approved for what?  Healing and all the other promises of God.  Study the Word until what God says about your situation and what you believe is the same thing.

Remember, He said, “I am the Lord that healeth thee” Ex. 15:26.  Anybody that says anything to the contrary is extrapolating the truth in order to justify his or her doubt and unbelief.  The Bible never says that He is the “God that makes you sick.”  What is does say is that, “If you can believe, all things are possible” Mk. 9:23.

Believe God and be healed!

By Rocky J. Malloy

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, rejecting the very truth that can save them (Hosea 4:6a).  Bad things happen to us because we are ignorant of the wiles, the diabolical plots, of the devil.  Instead of learning how to defeat the devil, we blame God, saying that He allowed some kind of sickness or calamity to befall.  We have created great religious excuses for the devil’s victories in our lives, when most of the time we are at fault.

Jesus said in Luke 21:34-36 that we should be cautious or our lives would be destroyed by gluttony, drunkenness or the cares of this world.  Any doctor would tell you that these three things account for almost all known diseases.  Gluttony is more than being overweight.  It is a life style that is out of balance, out of harmony with the needs of our body.  Drunkenness is selfishness personified caused by a deficiency of the soul.  The cares of the world, or worry, are simply doubt and unbelief, which is sin.

Jesus outlined our destruction as a lack of knowledge concerning the proper care of our spirit, soul and body.  Our bodies need a balanced diet; our souls need giving and loving relationships and our spirit needs the word of God so that it may operate in faith.

Jesus told us that we could escape all the demonic plots of the devil if proper attention was given to the areas he outlined in Luke 21.

John said the devil could not even touch us if we could avoid sin (I Jn. 5:18) understanding that sin is doubt or unbelief in the word of God.

Hearing God will keep us from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, will keep us from making wrong or hasty decisions and will alert us to demonic traps (Jn. 10:4-10).

Look at what happened to Job.  His kids were drunken gluttons (Job 1:1-5).  Job was so ‘worried’ about them that he was constantly making sacrifices for them.  His greatest fear being that something would happen to them (Job 3:25).  So the devil told God that Job’s fear had broken down the hedge of protection that his prayers had made.  (Fear is of the devil and he uses it like God uses faith.  Worry is the result of fear and peace is the result of faith.)  The Bible calls fear a trap of the devil (Prov. 10:24).

God did not give the devil permission to harm Job but be could not deny that the actions of Job’s children had put them in harms way nor could He deny that Job’s worry had cancelled his faith.

After Job had repented for saying things like “the Lord gives and the Lord takes away”, for accusing God and for saying things he didn’t understand, he was able to defeat the devil (Job 42).  God was able to bless Job with twice as much as he had before he fell, once he got back in faith and put his trust in the Lord.

People use the book of Job out of context when trying to explain ‘the will of God’ and why bad things happen.  In doing so they put the blame on God, when we are the ones out of balance with nature, living selfishly without concern for others and in constant sin because we have little confidence in the word of God.

So ignorant saying like, “in every life a little rain must fall” or “God gives the devil permission to harm us” or “bad things happen to teach us or punish us” all sound religious but they are contrary to the word of God.  Bad things happen to ‘good’ people because they are ignorant of the word of God and fall prey to the devil.

If you want to enjoy a life that has a lot less demonic hassles: eat right, love your enemies, live in peace and don’t sin.  You can do that by reading your Bible, living generously and praying.

The just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17).

Rocky Malloy

How you respond to crisis often times revile whether you have a relationship with God or not. When the pressure is on what comes out, love and trust or legalism and religion.
Recently I experienced the difference in a very profound way.

Lourdes and her husband were in a horrible car wreck. Her husband almost bled to death, her two-year-old baby girl was killed and she was declared brain dead when she arrived at the hospital.

I went to Lourdes’ hospital room believing God for a miracle and her family went to a funeral parlor to make arrangements for her death. They actually purchased her coffin.

The differences between religion and relation were never so clear to me. Her parents, like many religious Christians, were responding to crisis by agreeing with the devil instead of with God. Instead of confronting death her friends and family accepting it as if it was from God.

Religion doesn’t resist the devil rather it justifies demonic acts as ‘coming from’ or ‘being approved of’ by God. Religion destroys our resolve to fight because it complicates the will of God to the point where we no longer understand it. It becomes something that defies logic.

The religious elite tells us that God’s ways are not always our ways and that sometimes means illness, accidents and even premature death. But that is not what the Bible says, rather it says His ways are higher, more loving and forgiving than our ways (Isa. 55:7-9)

The problem with religious people is that they do not understand what it means when God gives His word. He cannot break His word like men do (Heb.6:18). For instance God said, “Do not kill” (Ex.20:17). If He could kill why didn’t He just kill the devil and all of his demons? Why didn’t God kill Adam and Eve and just start over or why doesn’t God just kill people that reject Him instead of sending them to hell?

The answer is: God gives life not death (Mat. 10:10). He cannot give something he does not have.

I know religion goes crazy with this recalling all of the times were God ‘killed’ people. Unfortunately that is simply not true. In every case people rebelled against the word of God choosing death over life just like Adam and Eve did. When that happened the destroyer moved in for the kill (I Cor. 10:10).

Religion is death because it separates us from the love of God with ridged rules and rituals. Relationship on the other hand is life because it communicates with God. It is not complicated to know the will of God in any situation. Anything that interrupts communication with God and life is not from Him. Hunger, illness, poverty and confusion all lead to death and away from God. Faith understands ‘God’s will’ is always abundant life. Faith acts on that knowledge. We are told by God to resist the devil because every thing in his bag of tricks is meant to separate us from God.

Lourdes was released from the hospital just two weeks after her accident. Today Lourdes’ empty coffin is a testimony to the goodness of God and the trust we can have in His word. “If we can only believe, God’s word, all things are possible (Mark 9:23).

Rocky J. Malloy