Empty Rituals

Many times we merely go through the motions of the Christian life and wonder: Why doesn’t God bless me? Why don’t I receive healing? Why don’t I prosper? Why is there no blessing in my family? Why doesn’t my emotional state change? Why aren’t my finances blessed?

Perhaps it is because, although we have retained the rituals of religion, we do not enjoy God’s present-day presence with us. We must seek that real Power of God! We must go where His active Presence is and bring reality to the rituals in which we participate.

The Hebrews lacked spiritual discernment and believed that the mere fact of having the ark of the covenant with them would guarantee them victory in war. But despite taking the ark into battle, they suffered a terrible defeat. The Philistines, Israel’s bitter enemies, defeated God’s people and took possession of the Ark. They kept it with them for twenty years.

What happens in a nation when both the people and the civil authorities, and even the ecclesiastical authorities, have turned away from God and His blessing is no longer upon them? What happens? God’s presence departs. His presence is hindered. The gifts of the Spirit, the anointing of God, the Shalom of God cannot dwell in such a land.

What happens when people believe that God’s presence is made possible through empty rituals, programs, songs, merely physical things, rather than through the present-day presence of God that blesses those things and gives them life? What often happens in churches? God’s presence has departed, but the people continue with the religious routine.

People keep singing as though nothing had happened; the organs keep playing as always; the lights and microphones are turned on when the service begins. Everything a church does is done. Even the symbol of the ark remains in place as a supposed sign of God’s presence and movement. But God is not in any of those things. His presence does not reside in metal or wood.

We believe that with hollow praises, mere programs, and empty rituals that do not truly represent a people who are living in and enjoying God’s presence—we believe that through these things we will receive the blessing and succeed in our battles, in our fights against Satan and all the forces that seek to destroy our lives. But we suffer defeat.

God does not fall in love with a piece of wood, even if it is covered with gold! Nor with any other symbol, even if He blessed it at another time. The Ark itself had no absolute importance or value. The Ark was simply a symbol of God’s presence. One might have thought, “God will never allow that ark to be captured.” It was too sacred a symbol.

But it was captured! It was captured because God’s presence was not there at that moment. And in that fact lies a lesson for our churches.

If we come to church believing that we will be blessed simply because the Pastor or the musicians are going to perform certain rituals, we are tragically mistaken. One must actively participate in the symbols of faith for them to have meaning.

The actions themselves mean nothing. What makes the difference is the heart that joins itself to the action, makes it present, and turns it into the power of God. My lived experience, my heart, and my passion must be joined to the gestures of my religion. God does not want empty rituals. He will never bless the rubble of a dead religion. We must cry out to the Lord for a fresh visitation of His power, so that His Spirit may once again blow through our gatherings and we may be that glorious Church He needs in these last days.