Overcoming Evil in the Last Days Expanded Edition by Rick Joyner

Author:Rick Joyner [Joyner, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7684-9622-2
Publisher: Destiny Image Publishers
Published: 2009-01-24T16:00:00+00:00

The Religious Spirit and Murder

When Adam and Eve chose to live by the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they were partaking of the religious spirit. The first result of this was self-centeredness—they started looking at themselves. The first child born to them after they partook of this fruit was Cain, who is the first biblical model of a man controlled by the religious spirit.

“…Cain was a tiller of the ground” (Gen. 4:2) or earthly-minded. The religious spirit will always seek to keep us focused on the earthly realm, rather than the heavenly realm. The “seed of Cain” judges by what is seen and cannot understand those who “…endured, as seeing Him who is unseen” (Heb. 11:27).

In Revelation 13:11, we see the second beast “coming up out of the earth.” This is because the spiritual seed of Cain emphasizes tilling the ground. This earthly-mindedness has produced one of the most evil beasts the world will ever know.

Cain also tried to make an offering to the Lord from his own labors. God rejected that sacrifice but accepted Abel’s sacrifice of blood. The fruit of our labors will never be an acceptable offering to the Lord. This was a statement from the beginning that God would only accept the blood of the Lamb. Instead of receiving this correction and repenting, Cain became jealous of his brother and killed him (see Gen. 4:1-15). Those who attempt to live by their own works will often become enraged at those who take their stand on the righteousness of the Lamb.

That is precisely why Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee of Pharisees, was so enraged against Christians. They represented the greatest threat to that on which the Pharisees had built their whole lives. Because of this, the Pharisees could not endure the very existence of the Christians. Religions that are based on works will easily become violent. This includes “Christian” sects where a doctrine of works has supplanted the cross of Christ.

The Lord said that, if a man hates his brother, he is guilty of murder (see Matt. 5:21-22). Those who are driven by religious spirits may well try to destroy people by means other than the physical taking of their lives. Many of the onslaughts of slander instigated against churches and ministries are the ragings of this same religious spirit that caused Cain to slay his brother.

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