7-11-2026 Practicing a Religion or Living in Faith  

At the church I attend, for a while now, we have been talking about realigning our lives with God, through the Holy Ghost, so we make the right decisions for the crossroads we face, understanding our relationship with the Lord then applying what we learn into our lives so we can better serve the Lord.

Today, how many people do we think are living in faith or just practicing a religion?  It makes a difference.  Israel thought they were doing the right thing by keeping the Law, but take note that Jesus had to reprimand them for knowing the Law but not living by it (Matt. 23:1-7).

On 5-30-2026, I posted on the blog “Religion vs Faith.  Father has given me a couple of ‘tweaks’ since then. 

In that entry I gave definitions for religion and faith along with a couple of their associated words.  Please refer back to that 5-3-2026 entry to review the definitions for here, I’ll start with the conclusions

So very basically, religion is believing in a set of rules while religious is putting those rules into practice.

Faith and faithful bring into ‘not just knowing’ the principles and putting those principles into practice but truly believing in what we profess with all our heart, mind and spirit that which is  true (Matt. 22:37).  That is we truly understand who God is and what we believe and accept Him and His statutes, without any doubt.

In a cult, people allow someone else to form their belief system and either don’t know or don’t care about checking it out to see if what is being said is true or not.  They practice a ‘religion’, a set of concepts and rules which they really (usually) don’t understand.

We all have our own concepts of what these words mean, but hopefully, this list will bring us to a better understanding of how we can discover what we are reading in the scriptures or hearing from other people.  All helping us to follow the pathway God, the Creator of all things, which He has intended for us.  That is discovering the difference between just knowing about rites and rituals, but living in their truth from our heart (Job 42:5).

Today, how Many Christians are just abiding in a set of rules versus truly living in faith.  Out of about 8 billion people in the world less than 1/3 profess to be Christian.  Out of the approximately 265 billion Christians how many truly are abiding in God’s guidelines?

At church, we’ve been talking about Awakening our Spiritual Senses, Understanding the Times we are in, Removing Veils and being ready to move into the Next Season.  In some form or fashion, we have been doing this for a year.

Father tells us that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments (John 14:15).  The first and greatest commandment is to love God above all else land then love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:29-31) because, upon these two commandments rests the law and what motivated the prophets (Matt. 22:37-40).  We show our faith by keeping God’s law and God’s law is to love – as God loves us.  God loves us so much that He gave His only begotten son to stand in for us, on the cross, for the judgements we deserve (John 3:16).  This enables us to live eternally with Him as faith in (Jesus) cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:4-7). 

I’ve known Christians who have worked themselves ‘ragged’ doing things in the church, yet we may find some who labor in the church will find themselves left out.  Some will ask “Lord “Haven’t we prophesied, in your name cast out devils and done many wonderful works?”  And Jesus’s reply will be “I never knew you, depart you who work iniquity” “(Matt. 7:21-23).  Why?  Doing the commandments of men make the works of God of no effect.  We discover many will honor God with their lips but their heart will be far from Him (Matt. 15:1-9).

Jesus told His disciples to ‘beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees’.  The disciples came to understand that Jesus was talking about what those men preached (Matt. 16:6-12).  That is beware of men who use the Law, not to help men to grow in the Lord, but to hold control over men for their own purposes.  And these things are why Jesus tells us to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves (Matt. 10:16).   We need to know what we are up against but remember to always be humble (gentle) our job is to bring souls to Jesus Christ – in love, not to squash them with our knowledge. 

We need the Holy Ghost in us (John 14:16-18).  The Holy Ghost will give us what to say when we need it (John 16:13-16).  Jesus commands us to receive the Holy Ghost (John 20:21-22) for then we shall have power - to be witness and to able to do the things that Jesus did (Acts 1:7-8 & John 14:12-14).  Father will reveal things to us through His Spirit (HG).  The Holy Ghost will teach us what to say as He compares Spiritual things to spiritual things because through Him (HG) we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinth. 2:10-16).  So we trust in the Lord with all our heart and not with our own understanding and acknowledge Him in all our ways and He will direct our path (Prov.3:5-6).

OF course, for all this to matter, we need to have received Jesus into our heart as Lord and Savior (Rom. 10:9).  We need to acknowledge that Jesus took ‘my place’ on the cross so I might have life and healing in living for Him (1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 3:18).

Jesus taught and preached the kingdom of God to His disciples (Luke 3:23, so we can understand our relationship with the living God (Acts 1:3).  That Relationship is that The Father is in Jesus, Jesus is in the Father and Jesus is in us and we in Jesus (John 14:11, 20). 

The power of God is in us through the Holy Ghost (Acts 1:8), and that is the same power with which Jesus operated (God commanded and the Holy Ghost [breath] carried God’s Words into action – Gen. 1:1-31).  We can do those things which Jesus did (John 14:12-4)!  (Where is our faith?)

The Holy Ghost was given to the apostles and disciples in the upper room (Acts 2:1-4) yet we may receive the HG at the same time when we receive Jesus as with Cornelius (Acts 10:44-48) or as with Phillip and the Samarians After they had received Jesus, Peter and John came up to the Samaritans so they might be baptized in the HG (Acts 8:5-17).

Father gives Jesus the works to do and Jesus gives us those works to do.  Jesus says that as we keep His Commandments, we can ask Father anything in His name and He (Jesus) will do it enabling us to do what Jesus, Himself, did (John 14:11-17).  All because Jesus has returned to the Father, yet, He will come back for us (John 14:3)! PTL!

So we need faith to truly understand religion so we can accomplish what Jesus has set before us.  It isn’t just knowing what to do, but reaching down into the power (thru the HG) to go and ‘git ‘er done!

The difference between religion and faith comes into reality through our relationship with the Lord.  If we love Jesus, we are going to do His works.  If we don’t do His works do we truly love Jesus or do we just love the praises of man?  Do we do the works to show that the love of Jesus abides in us (via the Holy Ghost)?    Do we just follow a set of rules set forth by man?  Do we truly embrace God’s love by living the lifestyle Father has set before us and then learning how to do it? 

Allowing Father’s love to operate in us and through us in the Holy Ghost enables us to sharpen our Spiritual senses so we can recognize the times we are in and remove the veil hindering us so we can reach and fulfill the tasks Father may have laid before us.

Paul tells us not to quench the Holy Ghost (1 Thess. 5:19). Are we allowing the HG to awaken our Spiritual senses so we can understand the times we are in, so we can remove the Veils, so we can move so we can walk closer with the Lord so we can accomplish what Father has planned for us?

Amen