Churches vs. Brothels
The enemy likes to lurk in the churches. Jesus walked into brothels.
Let me set the stage for you:
The enemy desires to be God. He yearns to be in the one place he cannot remain. The enemy longs to take the souls of those who belong to the Lord and Savior. He does not need to twist and distort the minds of those who already dwell in his playground.
Jesus walked into brothels to LOVE those who were playing while blindfolded. He entered places that were not His home. Jesus desired the souls of sinners so He could bring them an unconditional love—so He could bring them salvation.
The enemy wants something he can never have: God.
Jesus wants something that originally belonged to Him: our hearts.
This revelation was brought to my attention, which exposed the spirit of religion that is within many.
The spirit of religion is a derivative of the enemy’s schemes against God’s children. It is his attempt to distort God's house of worship and His family.
Why would he do that?
It starts with the enemy’s desire to be God, his desire to have what he cannot access. His weapon is to distort God's Word in the eyes and minds of those who follow Jesus.
How does he do such a thing?
Place a spirit of religion in the minds of Gods children.
This spirit operates through legalism, performance-based faith, and self-righteousness rather than true relationship with God. Here are some key effects:
A Lack of True Intimacy with God: People caught in this mindset often struggle to experience the love and freedom found in Jesus.
Spiritual Pride and Judgmental Attitudes: The Pharisees in Jesus' time are a prime example—they knew the law but missed God's heart (Matthew 23:23-28). This spirit creates a critical, condemning mindset, making people more focused on others’ faults than their own need for grace.
Hypocrisy and a Double Life: Since the focus is on outward appearances, people feel pressured to put on a mask while secretly struggling. Jesus rebuked this in Matthew 23:27, calling the religious leaders “whitewashed tombs”—beautiful outside but dead inside.
Division and Strife in the Body of Christ: The religious spirit creates a “us vs. them” mentality, leading to denominational divisions and disunity. It chokes out love, humility, and grace, replacing them with arguments over doctrine.
In hopes of keeping his slaves away from God, he uses God’s own people against themselves, hoping it keeps the ones in darkness further from the LIGHT.
The ones who are supposed to be filled with light, the ones who are supposed to be the fruitful fig tree, the ones who are supposed to love like our Father—are instead full of judgment and hate. They are fig trees with leaves, and NO FRUIT.
What good does that do? NONE. It only pushes the lost deeper into the pit. I speak on this because I was one of those lost sheep, wandering, looking for my Shepherd. I was searching for God in all the wrong places. Nearly every encounter I had with a “religious” person ended up pushing me further away from God.
Funny fact is, I was closest to God while I was at my lowest, and pushed further away from Him while attending a baptist university. Ironic isn't it.
Jesus met me at my lowest. He loved me in my darkest times. Jesus met me in the brothel, not the church. He went into the darkness to pull me out of hell. He didn’t go to the light to bring me to the light. He didn’t slam His works over my head, hoping it would make me want to follow Him.
SO… what gives those who follow Him the right to go about it differently? “It” being the way Jesus lead others to Him.
The enemy places spirits of judgment, deception, hate, greed, self-reliance, self-righteousness, and pride in the minds and hearts of religious figures because he knows their HEARTS are not fully devoted to the Lord, but are devoted to themselves. The devil feeds off the works of religion.
These individuals are using Jesus as a marketing tool for themselves rather than an opportunity to love others as He loved them.
Church is supposed to be a place of uplift, not of teardown.
Why did God place this on my heart?
He is sick and tired of seeing His own people slapped around by the hand of the enemy. He is sick and tired of the Pharisees and Sadducees that have arisen in the church—flaunting their money, their “righteous ways,” and their laws derived from man’s heart.
God did not give us His only Son for our salvation just for us to fall under the enemy’s hand again. He gave us His Son so we could be set free once and for all—so we could ignite the fire Jesus placed inside of us and bring it to others who do not yet know of such a thing.
He is sick and tired of the ones using His name to get to the top. He is sick and tired of man-made law. He is tired of bad soil killing His fig trees.
Following Jesus is not about judging others and thinking you are holier than thou. Following Jesus is not about seeing those who are in darkness and shunning them away because "Oh my gosh, how could they live that way?"
Trust me—you were living in your own darkness too. You just FORGOT where HE brought you from. You forgot the LOVE He showed you that made you fall in love with His heart.
Jesus did not walk up to Mary, who was a PROSTITUTE, and say, “Oh my gosh, Mary, how dare you. You’re a sinner, and you are going to hell.”
It was the opposite.
He followed her into her darkness. He followed her into her pain and showed her UNCONDITIONAL love—a love she had never experienced before. A love that only HE can bring.
He EMBRACED her with open arms.
Matthew 9:10-13:
"While Jesus was having dinner at the home of Matthew, many tax collectors and 'sinners' came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?' Jesus heard them and said, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners.'"
God uses the broken. God equips the called, He does not call the equipped.
He KNEW whose AUTHORITY He walked in. He KNEW He was one with God. He did not need to prove Himself or flaunt His majesty. He walked humbly and in love.
So this is for all the religious people who are on the devil’s merry-go-round, and without realizing it. We are all sinners. The only difference is that the lost have not yet been exposed to the unconditional love and grace that we have been GIVEN.
Romans 6:8-14
"Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."
The next time you encounter someone in pain or living a life you do not agree with, show them love, not judgment. The next time you come across someone in a dark place, be the light for them, not a cave. The next time you experience something that is not GOD'S truth, pray for them, dont condemn them. You have no idea what God can do when you bear the fruit of His Spirit. You can’t move mountains walking in pride—you move mountains walking in His love.
Embracing someone who has not experienced the LOVE of Jesus is the only way they will ever get a chance to hug Him.
We are all God’s children—some just don’t know it yet.
I was once one of those who did not know His love. Unfortunately, it was the enemy’s games played within the church that pushed me further away.
Thankfully, it was those who truly FOLLOW Him and walk in His light that led me back to the One who saved me.
It is time we all start to embody the love of Jesus in the brothel rather than the lies of the enemy in the church.
