There was a time when the devil attacked the office of the Evangelist. I remember a great speaker who came to Uganda whose name I shall withhold. He spoke so eloquently and many were converted because of his teaching. He was an excellent speaker.
The problem is that he was leading people to a certain religious denomination. There was another priest belonging to one of the major religious denominations who had airtime on great Christian television networks. He would preach powerfully from the Bible about salvation but again the problem was with the fact that in the end, he drew people to his religious denomination.
Such men do well to preach Jesus, but the problem is that they attach to Him man-made rules and religious confines which make the power of God of non-effect.
On the other hand, men like Festo Kivengyere, Billy Graham, Reinhard Bonnke, T.L. Osborn and others also had religions to which they subscribed, whether Baptist, Anglican or whatever. However, these were successful in ministry simply because they never led people to themselves or their religions but to the foot of the cross, and that is the difference. It would be up to the masses to decide on which church they wanted to attend.
They did not come bearing the banner of the Baptist, Anglican, Presbyterian, Catholic, Evangelical or Pentecostal church; they came bearing the banner of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus did not die for any religion. He died for people.
Paul told us to beware of enticing words of human philosophy and Jesus warned us to beware of the leaven of religion. Religion has distorted prayer to be words said. Prayer is not only what you say but who you are and what you do daily.
It is a very unique force but the enemy will do everything to turn it into a tradition, a narration or a competition. Jesus, on the way to Calvary asked the women who were crying for Him to cry for themselves. Crying is a part of prayer and in Jesus saying that, He made a powerful point and that is, true prayer is personal. It is not done for show or religious purposes. It is a personal fight.
Robert Kayanja is the founder of Robert Kayanja Ministries and lead Pastor of Miracle Centre Cathedral – Rubaga, Kampala. He is also the CEO of Channel 44 TV. This article extract has been taken from ‘The Holy Spirit 77 Days of Glory Series 7th Book’. Find it Here.
