Galatians 4:10-11 (NKJV)

‘You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.’

It is possible to labor in vain. It is possible that after a heir has entered his inheritance, he turns again and goes back into slavery. They say that by some strange desire, a horse that is rescued from a burning building would at the first opportunity, want to rush back into the same building, which is still on fire. It’s weird but many heirs have voluntarily returned back to slavery. This was what Paul was fighting against.

I can’t explain it but there is something in us that likes the laws of ‘days, months, seasons, years’. It seems more organized and we like organized religion. We love that systematic arrangement of don’t touch, don’t taste. It makes sense and gives validity to religion. We love ‘special programs, special timings, special givings, special fasting’s’, and these give a false sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, not knowing that these are beggarly practices. There’s nothing wrong in them per say, but when these give you a sense of acceptance and fulfillment in the spiritual walk, then you’ve returned to beggarly elements. We are above these things and these have no value in terms of your identity as a heir of the kingdom. And we must reject those preachers who want to tie us down and make us feel relevant by multiplying beggarly practices around our lives. If this is church life, then it is bondage.

‘Lord, you’ve done so much to bring us to the point of freedom from beggarly spirits and beggarly elements. It’s strange how the Church has reintroduced these forms of bondage and made these ordinances the requirements for acceptance and progress with God. Lord, I reject these religious chains and choose to walk in the freedom that has been purchased for me in Christ. Amen.’