Killing Religious Vipers

03.23.20

Towards the end of 2019 I had a flashback to when I was a young girl. I laid down across a row of chairs in the church, and suddenly, I began to see a picture of myself dancing with Jesus in an endless harvest field. It was breathtaking. At the time, I had no idea of the seeing gift God was giving me. In fact, I assumed it was just me imagining Jesus so that I could feel closer to Him. It’s amazing how God can be developing gifts in you before you ever have a theology to understand.

As a child, I felt God’s pleasure when I danced. In fact, we used to have a massive curtain in our sanctuary that walled off a portion of the room. During worship, when I’d feel the anointing, I used to go behind the curtain and dance. It became a holy of holies, or a place beyond the veil for me. It was where I could encounter God without the fear of what other thought about my wild worship.

The memory overwhelmed me, because somewhere along the lines, I had forgotten that God had been pursuing me relentlessly since the beginning. He knew I would make mistakes and take wrong turns, especially in my teenage years, and yet He was still reaching out. He didn’t think, “I’ll just wait until she’s older and past the rebellious stage.” Instead, He locked those encounters in my heart to let me know I’m valued and that He wanted to be with me long before I could do anything for Him.

It’s never been about doing it FOR Him. It’s about being WITH Him. As I remembered the vision, I asked the Lord, “Why were we dancing in a wheat field?” He spoke to me saying, “That field is the harvest of your life.” I was blown away. There was no end to this field. I could only see golden wheat and Jesus, as far as the eye could see! The impact was endless.

As I grew older, the Lord used dancing in worship as a way to break me free from the fear of man. I felt Him drawing me out beyond that curtain. I knew He wanted me to be unashamed to come out and take that fire out into the world with me. I knew Jesus tore the veil, but many times that fear of man acted like a curtain or wall that kept me from outwardly expressing my love for Jesus.

At sixteen years old, I vividly remember an encounter I had with God in this area. I was driving down the road and worshipping in my car, when the presence of God overwhelmed my heart. I felt the tugging of the Holy Spirit inviting me to pull over and go deeper into His presence. He asked me, “Will you dance with me?” I thought, “Here? On the side of the road? People will think I’m crazy!”

I was so bound in that fear. I couldn’t shake the feeling that God was leading me into deliverance. I pulled over next to a massive field of grass, rolled my windows down, turned my speakers all the way up, and got out of the car. I challenged myself to be like David, declaring, “I will be even more undignified than this (2 Samuel 6:22)!” I danced with all my might, until the discomfort broke off of me and I began laughing uncontrollably in the joy of the Lord. So what if they stare? I’d rather be free to be what I was created to be and get some critical looks from men, than to be bound in the fear of man and be judged by God for never reaching my potential. Something changed in me that day, and though I still have times where I wrestle with the fear of man on a regular basis, that moment stands as a memorial that I can overcome it!

The years went on, and I regret to say I continued to wrestle with that fear of man in different ways. I would swing back and forth between an obsession with doing ministry so that people would think highly of me in the church, and falling into peer pressure for fear of people thinking of me as “too religious” or a “goodie-two-shoes” in the world. I struggled to find the truth of who I was because I was too busy listening to who everyone else thought I should be.

As a young adult, I finally made my choice to serve God, but then, I found myself too busy doing ministry FOR the Lord, to spend time WITH Him. I started to become more like Martha than Mary. The Lord showed me a vision of this time in my life. I saw myself between 18-21 years old trying to dance alone in that field. Interestingly enough, I saw the ends of the field were covered in a dark tree line that seemed to be encroaching and diminishing the land usable for planting. He spoke to me again, “I love that you wanted to dance FOR me, but I’d much rather dance WITH you.”

When I was dancing with God in the vision as a girl, the harvest of my life was ever expanding, but when I was dancing on my own, trying to accomplish things for God rather than with Him, the harvest dwindled. Intimacy it what gives ground to the impossible! We will always produce more together than apart. God has brought me full circle over the past years. Teaching me to lean into Him at all times and to work with Him and the body of Christ to see a supernatural harvest.

Recently, I saw a vision of myself running through that same wheat field with Jesus. He was holding my hand, leading me forward, but looking back into my eyes with love and laughter. Glory radiated from his face and made the wheat sparkle like the most brilliant gold. Peace and joy surrounded me. I glanced down at my feet, taking my focus off of Jesus only for a moment. Suddenly, I saw vipers weaving in and out of the stocks of wheat. They were trying to bite at my heels. I felt the rush of fear, but Jesus beckoned me to look at Him. He said, “Just keep running WITH me.” I set my gaze on Him and peace was restored.

I was lifted out of my body into the heavenlies, high above the field. I saw the vision replay from this new perspective. My eyes were locked on Jesus as I ran. I now could see that the vipers were there from the beginning. Miraculously, as I kept synergized with Jesus, my feet would leave the ground at the perfect time to keep from being bitten by the snakes.

When I looked down in fear, I got caught up in trying to avoid the vipers. It was in that terror of being consumed with avoiding them that I was actually most susceptible to being bitten. Jesus spoke to me and I reset my gaze. As I watched us run together, I could see His feet. He was not avoiding the snakes. Instead, His pace was perfectly synchronized to crushing the heads of every viper ahead of me. Almost as if He was using their bodies as stepping stones to move us forward. After He would crush them, I would tread on them. I thought about the scripture in Luke 10:18-20 NIV, “So He told them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

I felt like I was in a beautiful scene of a romance novel every time I looked into His eyes and all the while, I was in the midst of warfare. The Lord spoke to me saying, “Intimacy is a killer of vipers!” He reminded me of John the Baptist calling out the Pharisees and Sadducees in Matthew chapter three. Immediately, I knew that God was speaking to me about confronting my own religious mindsets and how it would give me authority to address the religious mindsets in others as well. It is time to repent for entertaining these spirits in our lives. As you read the rest of this content on religious spirits, I want to challenge you to not picture people, ministries, or groups that you think fit these sterotypes of “vipers,” but rather to ask yourself which of your own actions have been motivated by them.

Remember this, in Ephesians 6:12 TPT the Bible says, “Your hand-to-hand combat is not with human beings, but with the highest principalities and authorities operating in rebellion under the heavenly realms. For they are a powerful class of demon-gods and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage.” People ARE NOT VIPERS. These spirits may have someone bound up, but we are called to bring deliverance, just as Jesus did! To alienate a person because they operate under the influence of a religious spirit, and note that you are just “using discernment” is not the heart of God. This is not to say that you cannot guard yourself from people with wrong motives, but it is to say that we must continue to maintain a compassionate heart full of persistent prayer for those who are bound. In The Final Quest, Rick Joyner says that the Holy Spirit told Him, “I never come to take sides. When I come, it is to take over—not to take sides.”

We have this ridiculous notion when God speaks to us that He is protecting us from other people. I see it all the time. A big part of the human condition is blind spots. We tend to listen to messages and even read the Word through a filter of how it applies to every around us. We hear the pastor say something, and instead of embracing the burn of conviction in our own soul, we point it out in others. We must listen first through the understanding that if we’re on this side of eternity, there’s still a measure of that lesson that we ourselves need. No matter the subject. I will be there first to admit that I battle wrong motives every single day. The only thing that changes them, is being continually purified and washed by my relationship with Jesus. Let’s stop the charades, can we actually be honest about what is happen in our hearts, instead of hiding under a veil of filthy self righteousness?

About a year ago, as I watched our Easter production, I had vision of the Holy of Holies leading to the temple. In a flash, I saw Jesus being crucified and the veil being torn (Matthew 27:51). This act in the Bible was symbolic of the fact that God was inviting everyone to be priests through Christs sacrifice. He was stepping beyond this old covenant into our hearts, where we must worship in spirit and in truth. Next, I saw this dark, filthy spirit rise up as a veil between the Holy of Holies and the Inner courts. I asked the Lord, “What is that?” He said, that is a religious spirit of “self-righteousness.” When we try to accomplish righteousness on our own, it disregards what Christ came to do and it becomes an opposing force to true intimacy with the Lord (Isaiah 64:6).

To unpack this a little more, lets read Matthew 3:7-12 (NKJV), “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Much like the fear I had when I was dancing, these religious people were consumed with the fear of man, rather than the affirmation of the Father. It caused them to have a performance mentality. John the Baptist made it clear that they were only there because it had become the “popular” thing to do, not because they wanted to walk in genuine repentance and a fear of the Lord. We must be more than words. Stepping into that river with John the Baptist was supposed to be symbolic of the washing away of their sins. It was a picture of surrendering to the flow of God’s spirit in continual repentance. Their hearts and motives were the complete opposite of what baptism stood for. It was a disgrace to the beautiful picture the Lord was trying to paint.

I find it interesting that He called them a, “brood of vipers.” Vipers are extremely venomous snakes that strike from the mouth. They represent the toxic voice of the enemy that comes to sink its fangs of false beliefs and lies into your life. Like the serpent that twisted the truth in the Garden when talking to Eve. In the natural, the poison from being bitten causes blood to coagulate. In other words, it creates a blockage that stops up the flow of the blood stream, which is the very source of life in our body. If you think about the spiritual implications of this, this is exactly what religious spirits and religious mentalities do. They block the flow of the gracious blood of Christ by choosing legalism or antinomianism over a personal, life-giving relationship with the Holy Spirit.

John baptized people with water, but the Holy Spirit came to baptize us with fire! Have you ever noticed how snakes respond to fire? Snakes cannot regulate their own body temperature. It’s extremely deadly for them to remain at a hot temperature for too long. This is why they quickly slither away when a hot fire is stirred up. They are afraid of being burned. When you lose your ability to regulate, you will wrongly discern the fire of God that’s meant to purify you and deal with your flesh, for something that was meant to harm you. Out of instinct, when things get heated, these snakes start biting in efforts to “protect” themselves. If we do the same out of fear, we may find ourselves sinking our teeth into the very thing that God wanted to use to bring us transformation.

John the Baptist boldly confronted two different religious parties. The main difference between these groups was their interpretation of the Torah. The first was the Pharisees. This group of people were extremely legalistic. They spent their days obsessing over creating traditions based off of the boundaries God gave to Moses. They took something that was meant to be the borders of a safe haven, and turned it in to a prison cell. For every law, they made a thousand rules of how it must be applied. They took the 613 commands God gave in the Torah, and made an entire book called the "Midrash" that extrapolated countless chains to bind the Jews to those commands in an excessive way. The Pharisees idolized these rules and traditions over truly knowing the heart of God.

On the other side of the coin was the Sadducees, they were equally religious in their stuck mentalities, but were too loose. They rebelled against the boundaries of the safe haven God created through the law. They made a mockery of it through reckless lifestyles that completely dishonored His truth. For lack of a better way of saying it, they were the “grace abusers” of that era. Instead of legalism, they dealt with great entitlement. They believed they were the exception to the rules because they were the “freest” thinkers. They were overly influenced by Grecian mythologies and a “worldly” culture and twisted the scripture to support their selfish ambition. Yet they held on to the “religious” titles because they realized it was more advantageous to do so. It was a way for them to consider themselves moral, without actually living in holiness. The Sadducees idolized their own desires and immediate wants over truly knowing the heart of God.

Both of these spirits are running rampant in the church today. I saw two types of snakes in the vision with Jesus. One was a rattle snake and the other was a common or European viper. The common viper is not overly aggressive. In fact, I read that it only bites when it is sought out and disturbed. In other words, it will keep to itself, until offended, then it’s fangs come out. You can coexist with these snakes for quite a while, before seeing any dangerous tendencies in them. Rattlesnakes on the other hand, are extremely territorial. They will begin to rattle and make a lot of noise in attempts to intimidate anything that comes into their space. If they feel like you are not going to back down, they bring out the fangs. One article I read even explained that they “demand respect whenever they are encountered (Pets on Mom.com)!”

As soon as I studied these various snakes, I saw the prophetic parallel. The Pharisee spirit operates as a rattlesnake. They are territorial, they make a lot of noise, they demand respect through tactics of intimidation. The Sadducee spirit is much like the “common viper.” They like to play the part of a less aggressive snake, but will be quick to bite as soon as they feel personally attacked. Many in the church are dealing with a pharisee spirit, they are territorial and obsessed with making a big deal of themselves through external religious acts for the sake of maintaining influence. Others are content to live their own way, and would prefer to claim the “title” of Christian for the sake of looks, but when challenged on their lifestyle, they are quick to strike those who challenged them. Both religious groups hate vulnerability. They are completely resistant to change and determined to manipulate systems for the sake of self. They are consumed with narcissism and it is an abomination to God.

Just moments after John boldly confronts these religious spirits, Jesus came on the scene exemplifying true humility and righteous motives. He didn’t get baptized for the sake of others watching. He did it out of obedience to God’s Word. When asked about His motive, Jesus replied, “It is only right to do all that God requires (Matthew 3:15 TPT).” God is looking for people who will love Him through obedience.

Several years ago, I was working as a worship leader and youth pastor at our church, and I felt like God asked me to sign up to be baptized again. I thought, “This is so strange! I was baptized as a little girl and have been in ministry for years, why do I need to be baptized again?” I wrestled with the thought over and over again, and could not shake the feeling that it was God. I battled such fear of man. I thought, “The congregation is going to think I’ve been living in sin! They’ll assume the worst of me, wondering what I need to be cleansed from.” It was paralyzing at the time, but now, looking back I realize how ridiculous that was! Jesus never sinned and yet He was baptized. God was asking me to humble myself and prove my obedience in the face of that fear of man. In the same way, I feel that in this season, the Lord is dealing with this fear of man and a selfish ambition that seeks to "save face” rather than being obedient.

That night I was baptized by my older brother, Michael, and as I walked off the platform I heard the Lord say, “This is My daughter, whom I love; With her I am well-pleased!” This is the same message that God spoke over Jesus after He was baptized. When we surrender ourselves in constant repentance and grace, the Holy Spirit comes upon us as God’s stamp of approval. His comfort beckons us to forsake the opinions of man, for a greater thing: The truth of God!

So what do these spirits look like today? Imagine this scenario: Volunteers at church need to be there by nine in the morning and everyone knows that it is good to be on time. Someone dealing with a pharisee spirit would be so stuck to routine, and worried that people would think of them as a heathen to actually be late. Let’s say they’re driving to church, and God speaks to them saying, “I want you to stop and tell that homeless person about Jesus.” The Pharisee spirit would convince a person to blatantly disobey God, thinking inwardly that, “Me being known as someone who is always on time is more important.” but outwardly proclaiming, “I must honor my authority.”

On the other hand, a person dealing with a Sadducee spirit knows it’s good to be on time too, but they will always have an excuse as to why it was ok for them to be disrespectful of everyone else’s time. Let’s say God asks them to pull over and minister to that homeless person, as well. They would do it just for the sake of having a valid reason to give their friends when they arrived late. Then from that point on, they would make an excuse that their being late was really a “God-thing” because they’re trying to make “room for the Spirit, in case He wants to move.” In both of these scenarios, the motive is not right. Both people care more about themselves, than the hearts of the people surrounding them.

Jesus would do it right. He’d think about the hearts of the people waiting on Him. He’d find someone to fulfill His responsibility and send a message to let His leaders know what was happening. He’d stop for the one and minister to that homeless persons heart. Then He’d be off to fulfill His commitment as a volunteer as soon as possible. He’d probably be even more intentional about being on time the next few times to show He respected the system set in place by His authority. And He would always do everything out of a selfless motive to care and love for God and for others.

The bottomline is this: Jesus knew the heart of God because He had an intimate relationship with Him. The very point of volunteering in church is to minister to hearts and to see transformation and growth in ourselves and others around us. He knew that the laws were made for man, to keep us protected and covered. He understood that the interpretation of every rule had to be submitted to the Holy Spirit in every single moment in order to love people well. He was humble and honoring in everything He did.

In fact, in Mark 2 the Pharisees confront Him on this very stance:

“One Saturday, on the day of rest, Jesus and his disciples were walking through a field of wheat. The disciples were hungry, so they plucked off some heads of grain to eat. But when some of the Pharisees saw what was happening, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples shouldn’t be harvesting grain on the Sabbath!” Jesus responded, “Haven’t you ever read what King David and his men did when they were hungry? They entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the sacred bread of God’s presence. They violated the law by eating bread that only the priests were allowed to eat. But there is one here who is even greater than the temple. Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for the sake of people, and not people for the Sabbath. For this reason the Son of Man exercises his lordship over the Sabbath.” Mark 2:23-28

First, I’d like to point out where Jesus was in this scenario… Apparently, a lot of revelation comes from wheat fields! There is a higher law at work here and that law is called PURIFIED, UNCONDITIONAL LOVE! The sabbath was not created by God to trap people in the condition of hunger without a means to fix it. The sabbath was created to teach people how to rest in Him, instead of trying to do life in our own natural strength! Jesus didn’t just look at God’s words, He understood His heart and motive and that ruled everything He did. The Sadducee spirit would look at this as an excuse to not obey the rule of the Sabbath, claiming that God’s law was contradictory, and therefore, by way of reason, they didn’t have to follow it. That is not at all what was happening when the disciples picked off the grains of wheat though.

In Matthew 5:17-19 TPT Jesus said, “If you think I’ve come to set aside the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets, you’re mistaken. I have come to fulfill and bring to perfection all that has been written. Indeed, I assure you, as long as heaven and earth endure, not even the smallest detail of the Law will be done away with until its purpose is complete. So whoever violates even the least important of the commandments, and teaches others to do so, will be the least esteemed in the realm of heaven’s kingdom. But whoever obeys them and teaches their truths to others will be greatly esteemed in the realm of heaven’s kingdom.” Love is how the law is perfected! It looks beyond the words, just as God doesn’t judge by external appearances, but by the internal workings of our hearts! When my Dad teaches on this specific text He says that when David ate the bread that was meant for priests in the Old Testament, He reached beyond His dispensation into the realm of Christ sacrifice. Christ’s perfect love covered Him, making Him a PRIEST of the New Covenant. Which means it was lawful for Him to eat of it.

1 Peter 2:5 NIV says, “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Jesus fulfilled the law! The bread in the Holy of Holies was a symbolic foreshadowing of Him to begin with. He IS the bread of life. When David ate that bread, He was taking communion and prophetically stepping into the fulfillment of Jesus sacrifice, before it ever even happened! WOW, WOW, WOW!!! Think about it, God is outside of time! He is not bound by the numbers on a clock or even the day on the calendar. He can cover us far beyond our human limitations (even time), when we commune with Him through the sacrifice of Jesus! The Pharisees and Sadducees were consumed with the external rule, but God is looking to expose what is happening under the surface.

I want to point our to you with several keys from my vision of the viper to help you deal with these religious mindset and the fear of man:

1. When you focus on fear you give it power. Fear feeds all religious spirits. Think about it, we’re afraid to let God live outside of our small minded boxes, because anything that goes beyond our understanding makes us feel out of control. If we want limitless harvest, we must surrender our limitations to the only One who is truly limitless.

2. When you focus on Jesus, He confronts the things you’re afraid, and gives you the authority to tread on it! All authority comes from intimacy. Position yourself to constantly ask this simple question, “Lord, What is on your heart?”

Maybe you feel like you have dealt with the religious mentalities in yourself, but are constantly confronted by people who haven’t. Maybe you’ve been bitten, rather than being the one biting. In Acts 28:1-10, Paul was bitten by viper. He stirred the flames of a fire and it jumped out and latched on him. In the same way, when we walk in intimacy with the purifying fire of God, it stirs up these religious spirits. The story goes on to say that as soon as He is bitten, the people of the island began making judgements, assuming He must have done something wrong. They thought it was God punishing him. Next, he did something simply profound: he shook it off into the fire. When the venom had no effect on him, those same people that were once criticizing him, now jumped to the opposite conclusion and assumed He was a god. People will always find things to say that aren’t true. Our job is to shake it off and allow the blood of Jesus to keep us safe from the venom.

I find it interesting that the scripture doesn’t say a word about Paul addressing their opinions and assumptions. He simply went on living and setting an example through doing miracles and sharing the gospel. His life set the record straight, not his words. In the very next scripture, it says that a chief official invited Paul to stay with Him. When we stop getting caught up in defending ourselves and worrying about insignificant opinions, God promotes us and gives us a place of greater influence and provision. He was able to use this experience to see Kingdom expansion. We can do the same when we get our eyes off the vipers, the naysayers, soothsayers, and most importantly, get our eyes off of ourselves. It’s time for the church to turn from religion and reset our gaze on Jesus!

Let’s step up to becoming forerunners like John the Baptist. He ate wild locust and wore camel. He opposed cultural norms so that He would have the authority to speak into them. He stayed focused on Jesus and it made way for reformation in His society. He spent his days in the flow of the river, loving the Lord and baptizing others into that same love! God is purifying our motives and teaching us to stay in His flow at ALL times! As the Holy Spirit begins highlighting these impure motives and mindsets, surrender to His process of maturation and watch miracles manifest!

“Deliver me, O LORD, from evil men; Preserve me from violent men, Who plan evil things in their hearts; They continually gather together for war. They sharpen their tongues like a serpent; The poison of asps is under their lips. Selah” Psalms 140:1-3 (NKJV)