Relationship vs Religion fresh Word from the Lord!

Hello, hello, my name is Shakeeta Torres and I am a licensed therapist. I'm a certified life coach. I'm a co-author. I'm so many different things, but most importantly, I am a daughter of the Most High God, and that is where I thrive. And I will always say that. I will always keep that in the back of my mind because I know that so many times people get caught up in titles and everything, everything that, you know, that they're doing for God, and they forget that God desires more than anything to have relationship with them and to see them be whole. And so, as you can see by my screen here, the topic today is called Relationship Versus Religion with God. And so I'm going to ask you to just bear with me. I have quite a bit to share. I Um, hopefully it won't be too long, but I'll go as long as Holy Spirit is leading me to when it comes to this topic. I'm pretty sure, um, some of you guys that's probably watching this video right now has probably heard of it before, have heard a teaching on it, and I just feel like there's never too much education about this topic because not everyone follow the same exact people. The people who might follow me might not follow the people that I follow when it comes to learning and getting education and getting knowledge, but the Lord put this on my heart today so heavily to share this. I've always wanted to talk about this particular topic, but God hadn't really fully released me. But today he released me to share this teaching with you all. So first I want to go back before, before I start, let me just go into prayer. So Father, I just bless your name. God, I give you all the honor, I give you all the glory, I give you all the praise. Praise, Father. Father, I ask you, Holy Spirit, to speak through me, God. Let your words flow through me like a river, God. Let it flow, God, from a pure place, God, from a place of love, God, and a place of boldness, authority, and just honor unto you, Lord. Lord, I submit every word, every thought to you, Holy Spirit. You have your way, Holy Spirit. I surrender every good gift you have given to me, oh God, unto you, God, to be able to bring your name glory and to be able to help somebody to be free, Lord, In Christ's name I pray, amen, amen, amen. And so before I start, um, the Lord really put it on my heart to just share my story and to share, you know, my testimony, um, with you all, and why this topic is so passionate, um, to me. So first, let me talk about last night, or I would say this morning. So over the past, like, maybe 2 years or so, I have had countless dreams of me seeing this religious type spirit, or, you know, um, demonic entity operating in the church. I'm always at church whenever I see this particular, like, dream. And every single dream has been different, okay? Every dream has— I looked at my journal Um, for some of you who have dreams or visions or want an app that you can just journal on, if you're a person that likes, you know, technology, I use an app called Journey, J-O-U-R-N-E-Y, and I love it because I'm able to write down all my dreams and I'm able to like add tags to it. So for example, today's topic is about religion. So dreams that I've had in the past about the spirit of religion, I can tag it as religion And so when I go back to that tag, I'm able to see all the dreams that I've had about religion. Now, sometimes I forget to record some dreams, but when I pulled up my tags today, there were about 6 dreams up here over the course of the past 2 years. They were very detailed and very just like graphic. And, uh, but last night, oh my God, it just took like the icing off the cake. Okay, so let me share my dream with you I had last night. I'm not going to go into all the other dreams I've had because if I do, this will be an entirely long video, and I would have to sit here and break down the dreams and what it mean, because you have to— you do have to like sit with God and get understanding and get revelation as to what he is showing you. And for me, it can come in that moment or it can come over the period of time, okay? So the dream that I had last night was I saw myself, um, sitting like in a pew, okay, like a church pew. And I had on this skirt, and the skirt had a split on it on the left side. The split came up to my knee, the middle of my knee. You couldn't see, um, anything. It was a long dress, it was a very beautiful dress, and it wasn't anything wrong with what I had on. Well, beside me there was this woman. I didn't see her face, but I can just, um, hear her voice and I could feel her presence. It was very dark And she looked— she was like, I'm looking down at my dress and I hear her saying, how dare you? How dare you sit here and wear a dress like that to church? Who do you think you are? You will never be good enough. I mean, she was literally verbally attacking me, attacking me, attacking me, you guys. It was so intense and it was so emotional, emotional in my dream. I began to weep. My heart was broken. It had broke my spirit in my dream. And so while I'm crying in my dream, all of a sudden I see this, um, a lady. She was a Caucasian lady. She had on like round glasses. She has short curly hair. She said, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. She said, wake up, it's okay. You, you are good enough. It's okay. It was almost like God was using an angel, from what, from what I perceived, from what I was seeing, to like speak back, to like speak life back into me. And so I up. But when I woke up, y'all, I was still crying, you guys. I was crying for about a good probably 3 to 4 minutes, like nonstop. I was like weeping. And I kept hearing God say, daughter, daughter, it's okay, it's just a spirit. Wake up, it's a spirit, come out of it. I'm like, I had a hard time coming out of those emotions. And when I finally like woke up good, I was just like, I was still sad. Even this morning when I woke up, I was still so sad because that spirit, that woman had hurt my feelings so bad. And so, um, my husband woke up and I was sharing with him a little bit. I was crying. He said, I didn't hear you, um, this time. But sometimes he is— he can't hear me when I'm like having dreams or I'm saying something. He can hear me, he hit me praying, he hear me do all kind of things in my dreams, okay? Oh God, thank God for my husband. He's so supportive. And so, um, I had got in the shower and I still felt this like emotion and like heaviness in my heart. And so I began to pray. I'm like, Father, I just thank you, Lord. I you, God, that this spirit has no control over me. I thank you, God, that, you know, that this spirit has no dominion over my life. I come out of agreement with every single word this spirit has spoken over me. And as I begin to start praying and really pressing in, I can feel the emotions like lift. I can feel— I felt lighter. I felt like God was like lifting me back up. And I was like, wow, God, that spirit is so strong, okay? And so today I had to attend an event, and I didn't really have time to kind of write my dream out. I wrote out a little bit, but about this time my girls are up, you know, their mommy, you know, what you doing? So I didn't have a chance to really sit and write it down. So after the event that I spoke at today, I went ahead and began to write out my dream. And as I'm writing, I feel myself get really, really like emotional again. And I felt God's Spirit so heavily on me, and I'm like, God, like, okay, what do you want me to do with this? I keep having these same recurring dreams over the years, okay? And he said, I want you to do a teaching about this. I want you to share your journey. I want you to share your story so people can be set free from this spirit. And I'm like, wow. So God began to bring back to my remembrance my journey trying to break free from the spirit of religion. And I was like, wow. I'm writing, I'm getting emotional. I can feel God's heart, like God's heart towards people who were operating in this, and God's heart towards people who have been a victim of this type of spirit. And both ends don't please him. Both ends actually makes him sad, all right? And so, um, let me go into my story a little bit. I'm not gonna be able to share everything, but I want to share just enough for you to understand exactly where I'm coming from, okay? So please bear with me. If you need to turn on the other captions to be able to see the words that I'm saying, please do that, okay? I'm gonna try my best to speak slowly and to speak exactly what I need to say. And so for me, in 2008— before that, I had been saved before, I had gotten saved before, I had backslid. And honestly, I backslid a lot because I felt like I couldn't live up to God's expectations. All right, that definitely is what a spirit of religion— okay. And so I found myself backsliding like over and over again. But I could always hear God's voice. I could always feel God's presence whenever I would listen to gospel songs. I was in the world now, in the world doing my thing, operating in sin, doing what I want to do, okay? But God was still pulling on me, pulling on me to come closer to him, to get my life back to him. So in '08, you know, I shared my story a little bit on my podcast about my, uh, my salvation journey. Oh, it's a long story. It's a long story. But bypass that. So I was in a ministry that operated heavily in the spirit, but now looking back at that time when I was in it, I didn't know they also operated heavily in the spirit of religion. So it was all about, okay, you can't wear this, um, you can't wear that, uh, you don't need to have on too much makeup, you don't need to have on earrings and jewelry. Like, they really look at the outward appearance a lot. Um, there were times when I was criticized because it is so sad because I'm almost like— let me see— yeah, I'm almost half the size I was in '08 that I am today. I've had children, I'm older. This has been, what, 2008 to 2022 now? It's been a long— over 10 years, okay? And so I was smaller And I'm the kind of person that, like, when I was in the world, I did a little bit but not that much. I never wore short skirts. Everything I wore for the most part was like long skirts. So here I am in church, I'm a baby in Christ, and I'm wearing a skirt past my knees. I mean, I had, you know, I had a nice figure. And, you know, a shirt like I might have on now, you know, a blouse tucked into my skirt. And the women, not all of them, but a couple of them were like criticizing me. Oh, you can't wear that, it's showing your figure too much. I'm like What am I supposed to do, wear a sheet? But it hurt my feelings. And that dream I had last night reminded me of how I felt— my God— in '08 when I was attacked by a woman of God who was older, you know, the mother of the church, about what I had on. And I remember telling my sister in Christ at the time, I said, you know, she was the one to help bring me to Christ. I said, Sister So-and-So, you know, came to me and said these things to me, and it hurt my heart. And she was so angry. She said, I'm so sick of her. So obviously they were very aware that this woman was doing this to people. I am a baby in Christ. When someone's a baby in Christ, I mean, even when they mature, you have to meet them where they are. If I see somebody come to church right now, they have on, oh my gosh, stilettos and a crop top and a short skirt, I'm not going to address that. I care about their heart. I care about what's going on in their heart, and so does God. Okay, and so, you know, it hurt me. So I stayed in the church for a season, and, you know, looking back, I see why. A lot of things that God was, um, teaching me when it came to his spirit, um, when it came to how to hear his voice and all these different things. Okay, so fast forward some, my husband had got stationed in a different, um, state, and I was having to like travel back and forth to go see him. Even with that, they was telling me, oh you should be at church every single Sunday. Your husband should understand. I'm a newlywed, okay? We got married in '09. I'm a newlywed. Why is it that I have to stay here every Sunday when my husband is there? We're newlyweds, okay? Freshly saved. We still like trying our best to break free from the world, you know, um, bad habits and sinful nature, right? And so like we're trying to break free, and like my husband is there by himself at this time. I don't have any children. It doesn't make any sense to me, but it took another woman of God who didn't go to my church at the time to tell me, Shakeeta, go see about your husband. That church is not going nowhere. She said, you can listen to your sermons on the way as you drive to see him. I— my husband, our agreement was every other weekend we would take turns. One weekend I would go there, me and him, you know, make our church together on Sunday. We might not the following Sunday. He would come to, you know, back home and we would go to that church. That was our agreement because it wasn't fair for it all to be on him to drive the drive here all the time. He worked like, whoo, like 60 hours a week. He was exhausted, you know. At this time I was working part-time, I was in school. I did not work no— nowhere near the amount of hours that he had to work. So it was not— it's not fair. He's my husband. And so that was religion once again, pretty much saying that if I didn't go to church, if I wasn't present there, that means that I wasn't hearing God, I wasn't honoring God, and all this stuff. And it was crazy because during that season, you guys, on my way driving to see my husband, I would play worship music a lot. I would be in prayer a lot, even when— because I was in a season where all I wanted to do was pray, pray, pray, pray, because I just felt the need to pray about so many different things. And I grew exponentially in prayer and on how to pray. And so I remember one Sunday I was at church and I was like, you know, just like praying, and it's like praying to myself and praising God. And a girl beside me, she said, wow, I can't believe that, you know, you've grown so much and like you only hear half the time. And I'm like, oh my God, like— and at the time, once again, I didn't know it was the spirit of religion. I didn't know that, okay? And so, um, yeah, I, I dealt with a lot of different things when it came to religion in that particular ministry. And the people there, I love them. If you hear this message now, I'm definitely not trying to make anyone look bad or feel bad, but I'm just doing what thus says the Lord and speaking God's truth and speaking on— speaking about what's on God's heart. Okay, so fast forward, um, I finished graduate school and I had just had my daughter, and my husband said, okay, he had orders to go be in Georgia. So we moved to Georgia, and during that time it was like I was so focused on trying to find another church, okay? And I just felt kind of naked because I was so used to being a part of his ministry and I was seeking another building to go to. And I'll never forget, a woman of God told me, Shakeeta Torres, she said, seek God, don't seek church. And at the time I was like, okay, she didn't really break it down for me in that context as far as what she meant. But now I know exactly what she meant. And so I was searching and searching and searching for church, searching for a church, and we finally found one. It was, it was good. It was definitely not like what I was used to But, you know, we, we made it work, okay? But here's what I noticed with myself, right? Being away from this church and then being in a season where I had to be like more, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Not naked, not secluded, but not busy with church, not busy with ministry, because I also served there at the old church I used to go to. And I just remember looking back, God, I thank you for help. Oh, thank you for deliverance. I just remember that one, during that time, me and my husband both was going through a valley season. I just had a little girl, she was what, 2 months old at the time, my oldest one. Um, I dealt with postpartum depression. I was dealing with, you know, just like not being with my family and my friends. Like, it was like, we live, we like almost 9 hours away. From where we lived. And it was difficult trying to be a new mom. I'm still a new wife at this point, trying to figure all this out. My hormones are everywhere, you know. Uh, I was going through so much. And so I remember I was in the kitchen cooking. I'm like, God, I'm just so tired. Oh my God, like, please, like, help me. I said, tonight before I go to bed, I'm gonna go into prayer and just pray and just pray and just pray. And in that moment I heard my husband say, "You feel that?" He heard it like really loud in the living room. I said, "What you talking about?" And by the time I said that, I felt this wind just rush through my whole body and I fell to my knees. The burden I was carrying, it was like a swift wind came through it, took the burden and left. And I was like, "Oh my God." And in that moment, I began to hear the Lord and he said, You don't have to wait to pray tonight. You don't have to go to your prayer closet to pray and talk to me. Pray right now. And so I didn't realize that I had been, you know, spending a lot of time like, okay, when I get home, I'ma pray. When I get to this place, I felt like my altar was like one place, but my altar is wherever the Lord gonna meet me at. Okay, you can pray anywhere, anytime, any place. And I did not realize that the church I was at was kind of like teaching that. It was almost like every single prayer you had that you pray, you had to be laid out, slain out, speaking in tongues, just like carrying on. Okay, speaking in tongues is powerful. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is we people who are religious will make you feel like you have to do all that to get God's attention, and that's not true. You can talk to God right now wherever you are. Any season of your life, and God will meet you right there. He will meet you right there, okay? So over the years, fast forward a little bit, I've had to ask God, Father, now I realize what I'm dealing with. I realize that this spirit of religion is hindering my relationship with you. I said, Father, please stretch my mind. God, stretch my thinking. Help me to see who you truly are in your word. And so over the years, like, God has shown me, okay, daughter, it's religion. You're operating in religion. And the thing about it is religion shows up in so many different ways, and I'll go into that in a little bit. But religion shows up in so many different— it can be very subtle, it could be very abrupt, it could be very loud, it could be very quiet, it can hide. And for me, mine showed up with, you know, having this high, like, um, this high level of, like, expectation of myself as a woman of God to be a certain way, to earn my salvation, to work and do things for God, when God is saying, all I want is you, all I want is your heart, I want relationship with you. No matter what, does not earn your love. It does not. And I pray that this right now will release somebody's mindset as they listen to this video, that your works does not equate or is going to make up for the love that God has for you. He loves you right where you are. And so even with that, there were times when some of my friends with him, with Shakeeta Torres Torres Torres, you're like, God is showing me that you still have this like areas in your mind of like religion operating because they had been almost like embedded in me And I didn't know. I'm like, wow. So it had been, uh, it had been a process for me over the years, and I'm finally— oh, for the most part, I feel like I'm free from it. If I'm not, God will show me. I want God to show me. Father, show me areas where I'm being religious. But I honestly, in my heart, don't feel like I have that right now because I used to at that point where I would criticize myself. I didn't really criticize other people. It was more so myself and how I thought I should act as a Christian. What you wear, what songs you listen to. Like, oh my gosh, y'all, it was just, it was just horrible. I can definitely say that I put some of those like levels of, um, of my husband and like expecting him to do certain things too. And God would even tell me with that, he's a grown man, you can't expect him to be a certain way or do certain things because you do. Like, he's my son and you're my daughter, so worry about yourself, okay? Because what God told me Worry about yourself, okay? Oh Lord, God would get me real quick, okay? So, um, moving forward. So back in 2018, um, you know, I'm a therapist, and you know, over the years I've counseled a lot of leaders, a lot of upcoming leaders, and a lot of people who are already leaders, okay? And so I noticed that most of the people I, I counseled were very prophetic people. Okay, they hear God's voice and, you know, they understood God's Spirit and they would have experiences that they really couldn't, couldn't really express to other people. And I understood that because I myself was going through the same thing as a woman of God, as God's servant, as God's mouthpiece, as God's prophet. And I never really put that out there, um, because I don't want to be— I want to be seen as a woman of God, God's daughter, a person that love God's people. At the end of the day, that's what I desire more than anything. And I remember that I, um, was— so I asked God, I'm like, God, I'm like, is it okay if I create a prophetic group for these women? It was about 10 women that I had been counseling for months that all were prophetic women. And I could see areas where it was broken, but I could also see areas where God was trying to elevate them and grow them. And so, um, he said yes. He said if you create a group, he said I'll bless it. Okay, I asked God for permission and God said yes. So I began a group, I invited the women, and they did— they showed up. They showed up. Okay, we had about maybe about 6 to 8 sessions, maybe. It was powerful, it was amazing. And every time God would give me a specific topic to teach to them, and guess what topic was? Relationship versus religion. Yep, I had to do a whole teaching on that. I think I still have it in my drawer, and I have notes that I'm pretty sure would be very helpful for somebody. I need to pull it out because I didn't even use those notes for today. Um, today is more about my testimony and giving you knowledge and education. This right here is all scripture, it's just all scripture, okay? And so, um, as I was teaching it, one of the ladies who was there, I could see her just become like uncomfortable And she began to cry, and then she begins to like just be like extremely emotional. And then she said, y'all, I have a confession. I've been operating in religion. Which, you know, I had an idea that there were some things going on with her for sure, but I didn't quite know what they were until she began to confess what it was that she was doing. So she said things like, you know, I, um, don't read the word of God unless I fast for a few days because I want to make sure I'm pure before I read God's word. I'm like, wow. Um, she began to share just like different mindsets she had. She said, I become very envious of people. I judge people by their hair, by their clothes, what they wear, uh, where they go. Um, she began to share all these things that show that she operated in a spirit of religion. And I was like, wow. And we just begin to pray for her and begin to love on her. And that's why God had me teach that teaching in 2018. My God, I thank you, Lord. I thank you, God. And so today I'm going to go over with you a little bit more about the spirit of religion and what it looks like, okay? But as I said before, as a Christian therapist, over the years I've had to counsel so many people and they believe that God is angry with them. They believe that they have to operate a certain way for them to like earn God's love. And so we do— I will send them videos or articles about the spirit of religion, and it would just set them free because they had no idea they were operating in the spirit of religion. Okay, so what is a religious spirit? So I'm pulling up on my phone because it's a lot to read. So a religious spirit is a type of demonic spirit that influences a person or group of people to replace a genuine relationship with God with works and traditions. When people operate out of, of a religious spirit, they attempt to earn salvation. This spirit has established non-biblical beliefs and customs for generations. Yet as believers, we shouldn't turn a blind eye to the work of the religious spirit. It is lurking around attempting to cause judgment and destruction among believers and those in the body of Christ. My God. It says, we know the enemy is an angel of light attempting to counterfeit any of God's good and perfect gifts in efforts to cause chaos, confusion, shame, and guilt. Exactly what I felt last night in my dream. Shame, guilt, my heart was broken. I felt like I wasn't good enough. And that spirit, that's what it does, okay? So it says that for such as false— for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself transformed himself into an angel of light. 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 13 through 14. This religious spirit is out to imitate the work of the Holy Spirit. We must be clear that no matter how hard Satan tries to force the work of the Holy Spirit, he cannot. But he can cause great confusion and deception. The good news is, when you seek to be led by the Holy Spirit, you will be able to identify and deal with this bitter and hypocritical spirit. My God. There are a number of trademarks of the religious spirit, but the Holy Spirit has equipped us with God's full armor. And so as I was saying before about, you know, I've been to different churches, you know, in my life where this is what I see. This is religion too, okay? First of all, there's nothing wrong with getting excited to me, um, about shouting, about, you know, praising God and being loud. But the thing about it is, like, are you operating in a religious spirit? Because you don't have to always yell to get God's word across. To me, I see a lot of competition in that before in the past. Um, the louder you yell does not mean that you're more anointed. And like, the people— oh my gosh, y'all, it's just so much. For example, for me, when I'm in prayer and I'm praying with God, I go deep. I can get in a whole nother level, a different realm, okay? I'm not saying that to like just brag or whatever. I'm just sharing, I'm just sharing an example with you. But it's just me and God, and I'm not doing that to show off to nobody. It's just me and God. There are times I also pray for other people, and, and I also get to that, to that, to that, to that level. But again, I'm not doing that to, uh, show off or to like be seen, right? It's the spirit operating in me, okay? Now my husband, he's more subtle. He prays, he doesn't like, you know, get loud like I do sometimes or any of that. But baby, he's anointed. And whatever he say, what thus says the Lord, wherever he prays for me, wherever he lay hands on me, it knocks me to my feet, to my— like, it knocks me down, okay, spiritually, because in a good way, because he's anointed. So it's because someone is louder than another person who's not It does not mean that you are more anointed than them, or the person who was louder than you is more anointed than you. God cares about the posture of your heart. He cares about your heart. And every prayer doesn't require that. Every prayer doesn't require— sometimes it's best like to pray and then listen. Pray and then listen. When you pray and listen to God, God is showing you and telling you exactly what to pray. Like I said before, there's nothing wrong with praying loud and praying with great authority and just being immersed in it. But is that how you are naturally, or are you pushing yourself to do that just to be seen, to be heard, and to appear to be more anointed than somebody else? Hello, somebody. Okay, that's a whole nugget all by itself. All right, okie dokie. So what are some signs of a religious spirit? So as I was saying before, the first part of this video This spirit shows up in different ways, and there is different levels to this spirit. And to be honest, now that I think about the dreams that I've had, that's exactly what God's been showing me over the past couple of years. Every single dream I've had about this spirit has been different settings, has been different people. There has been different levels to it. I've seen some that was very subtle in my dream, and then I've seen some that were like very boisterous and prideful and just nasty. And the whole church is just nasty, like it was just just like, oh my gosh, I'm like, it was so disgusting. Like, I should probably— about a month ago I had a dream before where I had went to, you know, a church building and I went inside. It was disgusting, it was nasty. And I'm like, oh my God, this is so nasty. But what it was, it was a religious spirit. And then God showed me who the ministry was attached to, and he was like, everybody in the whole church is religious. I'm like, oh my God. And I knew that, but for God to actually show me in the spirit what it looks like to him was, was horrible. And I'm like, God, what do you want me to do? Because this person ain't gonna listen to me if I share this with them. He said, you're right, they're not. I'm just showing you what this person is about, and you just pray for them, okay? So that's what I'm doing. I'm just like praying because like they're not going to receive what it is that God wants to say, because God has been trying to speak to them, but their hearts have become hard. And they're like the Pharisees, they know everything, they think that they have it all together. When really operating in religion. Okay, so what are some ways to identify a religious spirit in other people and even yourself? All right, so one thing is concerns with outside appearances of being holy and righteous. This spirit deceives those in the church into thinking if they act like a Christian, it replaces the need of Christ in their lives. These are dangerous thoughts. Pride slowly begins to creep in and puffs up the believer's thoughts and actions. This blocks the blessings, blessings of an intimate relationship with God. In James 4:6, it says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Jesus. The next one is attempts to earn God's love and salvation through their works. Says, even though a believer could know the truth of our Savior, this spirit suggests to the mind that they must earn God's love with their actions. Pressure is turned on and thus builds, builds, causing feelings of guilt, shame, and doubt. So Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 through 9 says, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and not that of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by your works, lest anyone should boast. Jesus. So it's like, if you're gonna boast, boast about God, boast about, you know, his goodness and how salvation is a free gift. These are the very things that keep people from coming to Christ, okay? Because they feel so judged and belittled, and like they have to like rise to your standards to even be a Christian. Like Y'all, God's heart is like— he's so sad because it's like I can feel his heart. He's like, I'm tired of my people who claim to know me and claim to know me are like turning people away because of their religion. Y'all, let me tell you something, this has been burning in me all day. Help me, Jesus. The next one is it craves a position of honor in the church. All right, it is closely related to pride. This spirit drives believers to seek positions in the church or ministry where they will be recognized and commended. As a result, the believer becomes isolated because he or she is more focused on task and praise than honoring God and thinking of others. I've seen this before too. Jesus Christ, help us, Lord. It says, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4. The next one is it develops a harsh judgmental attitude towards others. This spirit will skillfully mutter words of judgment towards others in believers' life. In a believer's life. This voice will become louder and louder until he or she feels completely justified to place blame and accuse their brethren. This, like the position of honor, isolates the believer and can blind them of their own weaknesses. My God. And so, you guys, it's so much more. It's, it's, it's a lot. It's so layered, and it can be so subtle, like I said before, and it can be so, um, loud as well, okay? Um, this spirit absolutely— when it's— when it's— when it be— once it becomes so embedded in a person, it operates in pride, and it feels like, oh, that ain't me, you know, that ain't me, Lord. And y'all, I know people like this. That's the sad thing. And they, they don't want to listen. They become rigid and refuses change. Like I was just saying, a religious spirit rejects any revelation that calls for change. And that's what God was showing me about this particular church and person that I know. He was pretty much showing me they're not gonna listen. They're not gonna listen to your revelation because one, they think they're better than me. I know that for a fact. They think they're better than people in general. And God began to also show me areas in this person's life where they were operating in sin and didn't even care. Like, it was like they thought because like they had this title and people viewed them as a certain way that they were holy, that they can do their sin and like do it without getting in trouble with God. And that's not true. God is not pleased. Okay, my God. Oh, you guys, so I will definitely post, um, this information at the bottom of this video as well, so you'll be able to see it and go back and study it. Go back and study this stuff for yourself, okay? So here are the warnings against a religious spirit. I said, God, I said, what other scriptures do you want me to bring up in the Bible? Give me an example of where to go to in the Bible to help these people to understand and have scripture— other scriptural references? And the Lord said, the Pharisees. Duh, the Pharisees were the most hypocritical, religious, judgmental people probably in the whole entire Bible. I don't know, I haven't read the whole Bible before, but what I do read, I read to understand, I read to get revelation, okay? Not to say, oh, I read a whole book That's for Vision 2. Jesus help us, Lord. Thinking because you know more word than somebody else that you're more like advanced than them, that you're better than them— no sir, no ma'am. Does not mean that. That's why God can use those who are humble, who we think, you know, don't have enough in them. But God will fully equip you. Talking to you, if you feel like God cannot use you because you do not have enough of word or authority or anointing in your life, Listen, God is looking at your heart and he will equip you as you go. So if you have a chance, go back and watch my video that I did, A Word for 2022. I talk about that a little bit, what God was saying. He don't care how long you've been saved, he wants to use you. All right, so back to this word. So I'm not going to read the whole entire thing because it's just too much, okay? It's a lot. Go back and read it. The whole chapter in Matthew 23 is Jesus pretty much correcting the Pharisees. Like, Jesus was coming for them and letting them know about themselves, okay? Lord have mercy. So I'm just going to read, um, Matthew chapter 23, verse 13. It says, woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. So you are holding God's people back with all your rules, all your standards, all your expectations that you don't— that, you know, that you yourself don't even have for you. He said, woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You travel over the land and the sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. So you're teaching them the same thing that they— my God, Jesus help me, Lord— they're teaching the people that they're winning over to Christ per se, but really over to the law, you know, to the book of law, that they have to do all these things, but she making them do twice as much. As you had to do to come to Christ. What kind of— what is that? Like, what? Y'all hear what I'm going— so verse 25, I'm going down. It says, woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. So Christ is saying, on the outside you look glamorous, you look beautiful, like you have it all together with your fancy hats, with your robes, with your, uh, my God help me, Lord, whoo, I feel God's presence so heavy right now, oh Jesus. You look put together, but on the inside you're raggedy. That's what God is saying, and that's the only way I can— I know how to put it. And God is saying, clean out your vessel, clean out your heart. Let Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, change you from the inside out. Only Holy Spirit can do that. As believers, we sow seeds, we water seeds, but God is the only one that can change a person. I know that, I'm a big believer of that. So how dare me as a woman of God sit here and put somebody else down for some of the same things that I used to do myself. And if I didn't do it, guess what? Uh, it still doesn't make me better than them because it could have been me, okay? It could have been Shakeeta Torres. It could have been you. Oh my God. Oh God. And so if you read the whole book— I'm not going to read this, it's long, it's about 39 verses and it's very meaty. And so what I did, I said, God, I'm a person that like to, like to research words and understand the meaning of different words. And so I said, God, let me look up the word woe. Okay, because the word woe was all throughout chapter 23 in the book of Matthew. Here, to the term woe used by Christ come from his heart of love that is broken by the stubborn blindness of God's people. So just how I felt this morning when I woke up, where I was so grieving, my heart was so aching, I just couldn't shake it— that's how God feels. That's how God feels. He is so saddened to see his people operate in this and saddened to see people be turned away from Christ because of it. Because not everybody is strong, y'all. I was so fortunate during that time to have a sister in Christ that was able to speak life back into me and encourage me. And I've been that way ever since. I'm at a place where I know people are people and God is God and he is sovereign. And so we have to learn how to separate it because people are going to fail you. People are not perfect, including myself. I'm not perfect. I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna fail you. Don't put all your hope in me. Put your hope in Christ because I cannot live up to your expectations. And many times we see people on big platforms who are amazing men and women of God, and when they fall, our hearts are crushed, okay? My heart become crushed because I know how many people are gonna fall away from Christ because of that person and what they're doing. That's what makes me sad. The person who is, you know, falling, you know, you know, coming up short, I actually pray for them. Like, God, please, God, I pray that like they don't allow this to pull them away from God even the more, and they repent and they come back to Christ because there's so many souls attached to them. So that's what my prayer is when I see— and God has shown me time and time again in the spirit— people who have fallen away and no one even knows yet, okay? And I pray for them and intercede for them because I know the importance of kingdom. I know the importance of God's heart and how he feels towards the body of Christ. And you should too. As a believer, you definitely should too. This should be your stance. Pray for your leaders. Pray for those who you see fallen. Don't talk about them. Don't gossip about them. Give them the truth and love. And God's Spirit and be led by Holy Spirit, because everything is not meant to be released. Everything is not meant to be talked about but between you and our Heavenly Father. Jesus, help me. Lord, help me. God, who help me? Jesus, help me. God. And so the next part is gonna be the last part, you guys. Healing from a religious spirit. So I asked God, okay, God, how do you heal from a religious spirit? And how do you heal if you have been offended by someone who's operating in a religious spirit? So I just said just now that if you've been offended by someone who is, um, operating in this spirit, understand that it's not God. Understand that you can't lump God in with them because they're gonna fall short. You can't put people on a pedestal and expect for them to be perfect because nobody is perfect, okay? You have to form a true and genuine relationship with God for yourself. For a season, yes, you're going to be a baby, but there's going to be a season, a time when God's saying, grow up, it's time for you to eat meat, no more milk. You can't be dependent on this person to feed you. Let Holy Spirit feed you. Let God feed you. Go to your word and let God feed you. That's what I had to do. That's what I had to do for Shakeeta Torres. I love me a good sermon now. I love going to church. I love praising. I love it all. But people will lead you astray, but God never will. My God. So how do you heal as a person who's operating this way? First of all, check your heart and motives. Ask God, ask him, Holy Spirit, am I operating in a religious spirit? Have I ever operated in a religious spirit? Humble yourself. Ask God to break any pride off of your life. So God can speak directly to your heart. My God. And once you do that, you ask God to shine light on those areas of religion and to change your mindset, to change your heart. And you do that by talking to him, you do that by being in your word, you do that by, you know, praise and worship. And it's a process depending on how— depending on what level you're on, depending on how deep seed it. This is in your mind and your heart. It could take some time. It can take some time because it's layers to it, and that's okay. Just let God work with you. He will meet you right where you are. And you ask God, Father, heal my mind, heal my heart, okay? And it can be the very little subtle things. My God. And so you guys, this is all I have for today concerning the word that God has given me about relationship versus religion. He told me today to release this. God's timing is perfect. I could have released this years ago, but the Lord did not put it on my heart to do that. But today he told me, share it, share your story, share my word with my people. And so I will say this too, You know, my people who are, you know, any kind of leadership role you in, whether you a therapist like myself, aspiring, aspiring therapist, whether you a life coach, you know, whether you a pastor, apostle, whatever capacity you work in, please, please, please take out time to study this because it's going to help you but also help other people be set free who feel like they have to earn God's love and they operating in shame. In guilt and condemnation, okay? This will set their minds free. I oftentimes— I'm in different Facebook groups who people will, you know, make statements like, what this person saying, they're dealing with shame and guilt with the church and this and that. I'm like, Lord Jesus, this is religion all day. And I see it. And so moving forward, now I have this video, I will share this. I was like, hey, here's a word God gave me about, you know, this area. Look at it, because people don't know because they don't read the word. They don't read the word of God. They don't ask God questions. Okay, read the word of God. Read the word of God. So I know today was very meaty, it was long. I'm not sure how long it was, but I do want to say thank you so much for listening and watching this video if you made it to the end. Um, I want to say a quick prayer before I, um, turn off the video. So Father, I just thank you. Father, I thank you for, um, allowing me to release this word today. Father, Father, I pray God that you are pleased. Father, Father, I pray God that I have, um, did exactly what you have wanted me to do, God. I pray for every single person who's listening right now, every single person that, that, you know, that, that this word reaches their hearts and changes their minds and dig up and uproot areas in their life that they're operating in the spirit of religion, Father. Father, show them, Father, that, that, God, you desire to love them. You desire to have pure and authentic relationship with, um, with them, Father. That, God, they don't have to perform. They don't have to put on. They don't have to you know, alter their whole personality and who they are to other people to appear to be holy. Because God, you are the only one that's holy. You're the only one that's perfect, Father. Thank you, God. Just bless your name, Father. So Father, I just thank you again for your word. Thank you, God. I pray, God, that this word, God, just break down barriers, break down barriers in our hearts, in our minds, in our spirits, Father. So Father, set us free right now, because the word of God said that whoever is free is free indeed. And God, we desire to be free. To operate in freedom and liberty, Lord God, and in your spirit, Lord. In Christ's name I pray, amen and amen.