Hey, Kyle Lance Martin here, with Time To Revive and welcome to God Today. You know, growing up, I grew up in Northern Indiana in an Amish community. I’m not Amish, but it was a very religious environment. We had a very conservative background, and so every Sunday I’d go to church with my family. My parents, they loved God, but it was interesting – we very rarely talked about the gospel. We very rarely talked about a relationship with Christ. What it was – it was religion. It was, “I’m going to do this on Sundays, maybe on Wednesdays.” But it didn’t become personal, it didn’t become real to me until college.
When I went to college I had a Damascus Road experience which opened my eyes to who Christ was. I began to see I needed to tell somebody about Christ, not because of religion, but because I have been personally changed. I love this verse in 2 Timothy 1:7 it says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear…” What happens in religion is that fear takes over. We’re afraid of man, we’re afraid of what somebody else is going to think. But no, the scripture says He hasn’t given you a spirit of fear but of, “power, and love, and a sound mind [sound judgment].” And that’s what starts to happen. When you embrace these truths, watch this. In verse 8 it says, “So don’t be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord.” Let’s not be ashamed about who Christ is in our lives. Because when we’re not ashamed, guess what? There are people out there ready to embrace Christ.
So, I’m gonna pray right now that we would overcome this spirit of religion and embrace a relationship so that somebody else can experience the living Christ. Heavenly Father, I pray right now, I speak against the spirit of religion in any of these homes, in any of these communities, maybe it’s got a stronghold against this nation. I speak against that stronghold, and God, I’m asking that you release this relationship mindset in my life, in the churches’ lives, and that it would sweep across this world. I believe, Lord. I believe you want to use the church to embrace the spirit of relationship. Let us not be afraid any longer of who you are in our lives. In your Name, we pray, Amen.