I have seen people live very miserable lives for decades. Apparently, they go to church every Sunday, they engage in all church activities, they wake up every day at 3am to pray, they fast a lot and give their all in service.

Growing up as a kid, I have continuously asked men why that was so. Most people told me that God designed it that way because their true riches are in heaven. It was constantly preached to me that one has to be poor in this world to gain in heaven and that the scriptures say, “In this world you will face tribulation.”

I have seen people being born poor, living poor and dying poor. I have witnessed people doing the same things expecting different results. They cling to the hope that one day their enemies will be astonished by their success. It has always been about God vindicating them before their enemies.

Religious institutions; just even look at the name. They are mere man-made institutions. They are structured built by men who expect that God will now come. It is no less than starting an apiary. You build your hives, smear some honey on them and expect bees to colonize them.

It is more or less like building a teaching institution, you do your marketing through crusades and promoting your sermons online for people to attend and boom, they meet God; because a lot of people think that God is pleased with numbers or that a church with numbers is registered in heaven.

Let me ask again. What was the ministry of Jesus called? Did he have a Deliverance or a Baptist ministry? Was he Catholic? Or did He not even cook on Saturday because it is the Sabbath? How about Paul? Did he have Paul International Ministries? Did Timothy have an Oasis of God Faith and International Ministry?

Well, I am not against the naming of Churches but I am against institutionalizing them. I am against the thought that the four walls of the Church is the sanctuary. I am against the political structure and the division of power in the Church.

Consider the church as a university with different lecturers. There are people who specifically want some preacher to preach on a particular Sunday. If he doesn’t, they go straight home or put their air pods on. There are others who will be grumbled if their song was not sang by the choir.

Institutions fight in the flesh, that’s why you will see them battling with their fellow institution; the Government. The Government is by default supposed to automatically bow down to the Church, but since they regard the Church as just another body, like a worker’s union, it can drive its agenda through – no wonder Churches became vaccination canters during COVID times.

There was a reason why some book in the Bible was called ‘Acts of the Apostles’ and not ‘Acts of God’. Most religious institutions would merely truncate it to Acts. The book depicts the Acts of men who lived and walked through this earth. Men who did wonders and great things that are no longer potent in men running mere religious institutions today.

The Church is in the man of God and not the four walls of the Church but religion came to reverse that. There is a reason why the Bible is mostly about names of men and not names of religious institutions. This explains why so many people who run individual ministries get a great number of ardent followers.

This is because men follow men. Men never follow tents nor concrete walls. It is sad that will go to Church and the man of God tells you, “Do not follow me, follow God.” And then you will wonder why you are in Church in the first place. You will be like, “Did I come to follow a space?”

There is a reason why Jesus, God, came in form of man. There is a reason why Jesus, who is God, had to gain the favor of men as in Luke 2:52.

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” – Luke 2:52 NKJV

There is a reason why Jesus had to say this.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”  – John 14:12 NKJV

There is a reason why the Bible says:

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” – Galatians 2:20 (NKJV)

So dominion was given to man and that’s why Paul says that we should imitate him as he imitates Christ.

“Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 11:1

So what is in a man that we should follow him and not merely the structures laid down by institutions? What is man that other men should follow him? In man, can God live. God will only use men to carry out his agenda. He will not use horses or rabbits.

This is why I also say that not all men are the same contrary to popular beliefs. We are not all equal in the eyes of the Lord. So what is man that a religious institution cannot define him? That people would rather forsake their fancy churches and go to an illiterate man who can do miraculous powers?

The answer is with David.

⁴ What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit^[c] him?
⁵ For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
⁶ You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet, – Psalms 8:4-6 NKJV

David says that man was given dominion over all the works of the hands of God. Man can carry God’s agenda on earth but human structures cannot do that. I am not against the building of Churches nor that people should congregate. I believe people should congregate for the agenda of God only.

It is sad that a spirit filled pastor today hired by a religious institution will have difficulty preaching something he has been led by the spirit to simply because the religious institution has got a sermon timetable that he has to follow.

If you are a spirit-filled man, you can read the spirits and atmospheres around people. You can read sorrow in men and the spirit prompts you to speak comfort unto them. But the sermon time table says you should speak against prosperity teachings that day. You will not have fulfilled the agenda of God and the Church would just be reduced to a four wall concrete building.

A lot of souls have been crushed in the church as each sermon is prepared. The church has been reduced into a digital marketing schedule where you prepare an annual content calendar. It is funny that the corporate world is very versatile and can change based on analytics. The church on the other side changes its schedule only when there has been a destructive social norm or when it has been attacked.

It is sad that people do not go get lifted up from their sorrows, they do not get healed, they do not get the power to run the race and fulfill their God-given dreams simply because the church lost its potency. The church has become tradition and most people are stepping out of it looking for something interesting and peculiar. Sadly, the devil always has something peculiar for them.

The church has become a school with hired lecturers called pastors and becomes so fired up when they get attacked. So called religious leaders retaliate by quoting tons of scripture of how holier they are. They think they are ready for battle; the battle to win a soul but they lost it long time ago. Sadly, they continue to lose it every day by not invoking the Spirit of God.

Dear church, this is not another attack on you, it is a call to face the reality; the reality that you are engaging in human warfare; competing to be first, to have the best sanctuary, to be the most amazing church with polished instructors and have your face on the media casting that which you do not stand for. That’s not how you win souls for the kingdom, you are just giving the devil free advertising.

It is time to rise up and stand out. It is time to kill the spirit of religion and worship the true God. God is not worshipped in the natural. The Bible says that:

“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” – John 4:24 NKJV

Stop engaging the arm of the flesh and start engaging the arm of the spirit. In that will you carry out the agenda of God on this earth.