Is your Church BLOCKING You from God?
VideoTranscript
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The veil was thick, heavy, and imposing, woven from the finest materials, dyed in royal blues and purples, embroidered with golden cherubam, whose wings seem to guard the way into God's most holy presence. For centuries, this massive curtain hung in the temple, separating the people from the Holy of Holies, that sacred space where only the high priest could enter, and only once a year, trembling with fear, and waited with the sins of an entire nation. But on that dark Friday afternoon, as Jesus breathed his last breath on the cross, something extraordinary happened. The earth shook, rocks split apart, and that impenetrable veil was torn violently from top to bottom, as if invisible hands had reached down from heaven and ripped away the barrier that had stood between God and humanity for generations. This wasn't just fabric tearing. This was the sound of chains breaking, walls crumbling, and a new reality bursting forth.
The veil they had declared, "Keep out!" for centuries was suddenly, dramatically, irreversibly destroyed. Matthew tells us, "Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split in Matthew 27:51." In that moment, everything changed. The separation was over. The distance was eliminated.
God was no longer confined to a room that only one man could enter once a year. The way was open and it would never be closed again. But here's where things get interesting and maybe a little bit uncomfortable. 2,000 years later, we've somehow managed to hang up new veils. Not physical curtains this time, but systems, structures, and hierarchies that whisper the same old lie. You need someone else to get to God for you. You're not holy enough, trained enough, or qualified enough to approach him yourself.
The very religious institutions that were meant to celebrate and proclaim the torn veil have sometimes become veils themselves, standing between believers and the astounding truth of who they really are in Christ. Think about it. How often have you heard or maybe even believed that you need to go through proper channels to really hear from God? That your prayers somehow carry less weight than those of a religious leader? that the Christ who lives in you, who chose to make your heart his home, is somehow less accessible to you than to those with titles and positions. Paul couldn't have been clearer when he declared this mystery that had been hidden for ages. Christ in you, the hope of glory in Colossians 1:27.
Not Christ in the building, not Christ in the hierarchy, Christ in you. The early believers got this. They understood something revolutionary had happened. They met in homes, breaking bread together, sharing their lives, experiencing the presence of the living God without any intermediary except Christ himself. Paul told them straight up, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." In 1 Timothy 2:5, one mediator, not two, not three, not a whole system of them, just Jesus. And this same Jesus lives in you right now, as close as your own breath, more intimate than your own thoughts.
But somewhere along the way, as the church grew and organized, as buildings were built and hierarchies established, we started rebuilding what Christ had torn down. Layer by layer, tradition by tradition, we constructed new barriers. Don't get me wrong, organization isn't evil, and structure can be helpful. But when these things begin to obscure the fundamental truth that every believer has direct, immediate, unlimited access to God through the Christ who dwells within them, we've got a problem. You see, there's something threatening about this truth to religious systems that depend on control and hierarchy. If you really believe that Christ lives in you, if you truly grasp that you have the same access to the father that any religious leader has, if you understand that the Holy Spirit teaches you directly just as Jesus had promised, but the counselor, the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name will teach you all things in John 14:26.
Then what happens to systems built on spiritual inequality? This isn't about rebellion or disrespect. It's about recognizing what's already true. You are the temple now. Paul makes this crystal clear. Don't you know that you are a temple of God and that God's spirit lives in you? In 1 Corinthians 3:16, not you collectively as an institution, but you personally, individually, your body is the Holy of Holies.
The same glory that once dwelt between the cherubam and the temple now dwells in you. How can we let anything or anyone convince us that we need to go through them to access what's already living inside us? Jesus himself confronted this religious gatekeeping head on. Remember what he told the religious leaders of his day. But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For you don't enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter. Matthew 23:13.
They had turned relationship into religion, intimacy into ritual, and direct access into a complicated system of requirements and qualifications. Sound familiar? I wanted to take a moment to tell you about my book, The Broken Mirror: Rediscovering Our True Nature in Christ. Readers call it a fantastic book where you will feel yourself discovering your identity in Christ. One reviewer praised it as five-star material for the spiritual mystic or group Bible study. It's time to escape legalism and shame. Discover you're already God's beloved child with divine nature flowing through you with what reviewers describe as excellent writing style and elegant pros like a campfire discussion with a knowledgeable and gifted recon tour.
Journey from Genesis to Revelation, uncovering your true identity. This book shows how to access God's peace, wisdom, and strength from within. Your struggles become opportunities for divine light to shine through. Available in hard coverver, paperback, Kindle, and audio book. The link to the book is in the video description. May God bless your journey along his path for you. The truth is, many sincere, well-meaning religious leaders don't even realize they're rebuilding the veil.
They've been taught that their role is to be the mediator, the one who hears from God for the people, the one who explains what God really means. They've inherited systems that, while often started with good intentions, have gradually shifted the focus from Christ in you to Christ in the institution. And believers hungry for God, but unsure of their own access, accept this arrangement, not realizing they're settling for secondhand revelation when firsthand encounter is their birthright.
But you were made for more than secondhand faith. Jesus didn't die and rise again so you could live off someone else's revelation. He tore the veil so you could walk boldly into the throne room yourself. The writer of Hebrews puts it beautifully. Let's therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and may find grace for help in time of need in Hebrews 4:16.
With boldness, not with fear, not through someone else, but with confidence of a child approaching a loving father. This divine identity, this reality that you are a living, breathing temple of the most high God, it changes everything. It means that when you pray, you're not sending messages through a cosmic portal service hoping they reach heaven. You're having a conversation with someone who lives inside you. It means that when you need wisdom, you don't have to wait for someone else to hear from God for you. James says, "But if any one of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him." James 1:5.
Ask of God directly. No middleman required. Think about what this means for your daily life. That struggle you're facing right now, you don't need to wait until Sunday to get a word from God about it. The Christ who lives in you is available right now in this moment. That decision you need to make, the Holy Spirit, your counselor and guide is already present with you, ready to lead you into all truth. You're not a secondass spiritual citizen waiting for the real spiritual people to help you out.
You are a carrier of the divine presence, a living sanctuary where heaven and earth meet. Now, this doesn't mean we don't need each other. Far from it. But there's a massive difference between interdependence in the body of Christ and dependence on human mediators. We're meant to encourage one another, learn from one another, and serve one another, but we're not meant to replace Christ's role in one another's lives. When Paul talks about the body of Christ, he describes different functions and gifts, but he never suggests that some members have God's ear while others don't. Every single part of the body is connected directly to the head, which is Christ.
The religious systems that obscure this truth often do so with the best of intentions. They want to protect people from error to maintain order to ensure proper teaching. But in trying to protect the truth, they sometimes end up hiding it. They create environments where believers feel more connected to the institution than to Christ himself. Where people know more about religious protocol than they do about their identity as God's dwelling place. It's like what happened with Israel in the wilderness. God's presence was right there with them.
a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night. But when God spoke at Mount Si, the people were terrified and told Moses, "You speak with us and we will listen, but don't let God speak with us lest we die." In Exodus 20:1 19, they chose mediation over direct encounter. And many believers today make the same choice. Not out of fear of death, but out of fear that they're not worthy, not qualified, not spiritual enough to hear from God themselves.
But here's the beautiful truth. Your worthiness isn't based on your qualifications. It's based on Christ's finished work. When God looks at you, he sees you clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Paul declared, "For you are all children of God through faith in in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Galatians 3 26 and 27.
You have put on Christ. You're wearing him like clothing. How much more qualified could you possibly be? This revelation should revolutionize how we approach our faith. Instead of seeing yourself as someone trying to reach God, see yourself as someone in whom God already dwells. Instead of begging God to come down and help you, recognize that he's already there, ready to work through you, instead of feeling like you need someone else's faith to carry you, realize that the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead lives in you and is more than capable of handling whatever you're facing.
Paul prayed that believers would understand what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to that working of the strength of his might which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. Ephesians 1 19 and 20. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you right now. You don't access this power through a religious system or a spiritual hierarchy. You access it because it's already yours in Christ. This truth has been hidden in plain sight, written clearly in scripture, but often obscured by layers of religious tradition. John tells us, "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things."
In 1 John 2:20, "And again, as for you, the anointing which you receive from him remains in you, and you don't need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is no lie, and even as it is taught you, you will remain in him. 1 John 2:27.
This doesn't mean we don't learn from teachers. Paul himself was a teacher. But it means that your primary source of truth and revelation is the Holy Spirit within you, not any human system or authority. The implications of this are staggering. It means that the homeless believer on the street corner has the same access to God as the most educated theologian. It means that the new convert has the same Holy Spirit as a seasoned minister. It means that your prayers offered from your heart where Christ dwells are heard just as clearly as anyone else's.
There's no spiritual hierarchy when it comes to access to God. The ground at the foot of the cross is level and the veil has been torn for everyone. So why do we keep hanging it back up? Why do we accept systems that tell us we're not enough? That we need more training, more approval, more credentials before we can really know God or be used by him? Often it's because we've believed lies about our identity. We've accepted a definition of ourselves that's based on our performance rather than our position in Christ.
We've looked at our failures and concluded that surely God must be more present with those who seem to have it all together. But God's presence in you isn't dependent on your performance. It's dependent on his promise. Jesus said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Hebrews 13:5. Never means never. Not when you mess up.
Not when you doubt. Not when you fail. The Christ who lives in you doesn't pack up and leave when you've had a bad day. He's committed to you, permanently residing in the temple of your heart, constantly working to transform you from the inside out.
This is why Paul could say with such confidence, I have been crucified with Christ. And it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. Galatians 2:20. Christ lives in me. Present tense, current reality, not future hope, but present possession. This is your identity.
This is who you are. When religious systems obscure this truth, they rob believers of the joy and power that comes from knowing who they really are. They create dependent, weak Christians who are always looking outside themselves for what God has already placed within. They foster environments where people are more concerned with pleasing human authorities than with cultivating their relationship with the Christ who lives inside them. But when you grasp this truth, really grasp it, everything changes. Prayer becomes a conversation with an inddwelling friend rather than a formal petition to a distant deity. Scripture reading becomes the spirit within you illuminating truth rather than you trying to figure things out on your own.
Challenges become opportunities to experience the power of Christ working through you rather than obstacles that require someone else's faith to overcome. You start to understand what Jesus meant when he said,"Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also, and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my father." John 14:12.
Greater works, not because you're special in yourself, but because the same Christ who worked miracles now lives in you. The religious systems that hide this truth keep believers operating far below their potential, always waiting for someone else to do what they've been equipped to do themselves. This isn't about pride or self-sufficiency either. It's about recognizing and walking in the reality of Christ's sufficiency within you. It's about refusing to let any system, no matter how well-intentioned, stand between you and the intimate relationship with God that is your birthright as his child. It's about tearing down every veil that would obscure the beautiful truth that you are God's temple, his dwelling place, his home on earth.
The early church father Irenaeus said, "The glory of God is man fully alive." When you understand your divine identity, when you recognize that Christ truly lives in you, you come fully alive. You stop living like a spiritual beggar and start living like the temple of God that you are. You stop waiting for someone else to hear from God for you and start listening to the spirit who dwells within you. You stop accepting veils and start walking in the freedom that Christ died to give you. This message might make some religious authorities uncomfortable. It might challenge systems that have been in place for generations.
But it's the truth that sets people free. Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." In John 8:32. And the truth is that Christ lives in you. The truth is that you have direct access to the father. The truth is that no human system or authority can improve on what God has already established in you through Christ. So what do we do with this truth?
First, we believe it. We stop accepting any message that makes us feel like secondass spiritual citizens. We reject any system that implies we need human mediators to access what's already ours in Christ. We embrace our identity as temples of the living God, carriers of his presence, hosts of his spirit. Second, we live it. We approach God with boldness, knowing we have every right to come into his presence because Christ has made the way. We trust the Holy Spirit within us to guide, teach, and empower us.
We stop outsourcing our spiritual life to others and start taking responsibility for our own relationship with God. Third, we share it. We help others understand that they too are temples of God, that Christ lives in them, that they have the same access and the same anointing. We refuse to rebuild veils that Christ has torn down. We create environments where every believer is encouraged to encounter God directly, to hear from him personally, to walk in the fullness of their identity in Christ. The veil has been torn. It can never be repaired.
What God has opened, no religious system can shut. You are free to enter the Holy of Holies, not because of who you are in yourself, but because of who Christ is in you. You don't need anyone's permission, approval, or mediation. The way is open. The access is yours. And the Christ who lives in you is waiting to reveal more of himself to you and through you. This is the gospel.
Not just that your sins are forgiven, but that God himself has taken up residence within you. Not just that you're going to heaven someday, but that heaven has invaded your heart today. Not just that God loves you, but that he loves you so much he's made you his home. No veil, no barrier, no separation. Just you and the God who lives within. closer than your next breath, more real than your next heartbeat. Let this be our prayer.
Aba Father, thank you for tearing the veil and making your home in our hearts. Forgive us for accepting new veils that hide the truth of our identity in Christ. Open our eyes to see ourselves as you see us, as your temples, your dwelling place, your beloved children with full access to your presence. Give us courage to reject any system that stands between us and you and wisdom to help others discover the Christ who lives within them. May we walk boldly in the freedom you died to give us living as the carriers of your glory that we truly are in Jesus' name. Amen.
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