Recently, the Holy Spirit has been correcting my thinking and attitude surrounding true faith.

He said something that cut straight to my heart:

“You need to humble yourself and acknowledge that you’re still being religious.”

That hit me hard. I thought I had moved past religious thinking… the mindset I picked up from growing up in church. But He was exposing something deeper.

At this time, the Holy Spirit was encouraging me to express parts of myself that I had buried. He told me to dress how I wanted, to dance, to embrace my personality; the parts I had been taught were “unholy,” “flamboyant,” or “too much.” In Church, I was told these things were wrong, so I suppressed them.

And now, God Himself was telling me to stop hiding.

I was trying to approach Him in ways that felt safe and comfortable rather than fully surrendering to Him. Then He said something else that shook me:

“I didn’t choose someone else. I chose you. Be yourself. Who do you fear?”

I had to sit with that for a moment.

When the Holy Spirit mentioned fear, He wasn’t talking about being afraid of God. He meant holy fear; the kind of deep respect that draws you into His presence. It’s that overwhelming awe that makes you want to be near Him, to please Him, not out of obligation, but out of love.

That’s when the Holy Spirit made it clear: My issue was faith and holy fear.

Let’s break these down and then bring it all together, addressing the religious mindset.

Faith as a Living Reality

The Holy Spirit started teaching me about faith, and He spoke these words:

“Faith makes the unseen realm evident. It instills hope in those who witness it.”

Faith isn’t just an internal belief; it manifests. True faith reveals the reality of the Kingdom of God. It’s something people can see when they look at our lives.

Then He said:

“Genuine faith empowers and moves you to do good works by My Spirit.”

Faith isn’t passive. It doesn’t just sit inside you; it moves you. If faith isn’t pushing you to step out, to trust God, to take action by His Spirit, then what you have isn’t faith. It’s just mental agreement.

Also, it gives you access to supernatural power from the Holy Spirit to think with Jesus’ mindset and wisdom. This empowerment gives you energy to do God’s will as well.

Then He took it deeper:

“Faith is to trust in Me as I Am to do what I said I would do. Not only with My written Word but moment by moment with My Holy Spirit.”

It’s one thing to trust God’s written principles, but it’s another to trust His presence, hear His voice and be led by Him moment-by-moment. Strong faith requires both.

Then He said:

“There is no faith apart from a personal relationship with Me.”

Faith isn’t just about intellectual belief. It’s about knowing Him personally. You can’t genuinely trust someone you don’t have a real relationship with.

A part of this, is doing what Jesus taught the women at the well in the Book of John; worshipping God in Spirit and Truth. This is a deep concept but a key part of it is to worship God as He truly is and come to Him as you truly are.

God doesn’t like image. He wants authenticity.

Much of the modern church system is built upon and propagates image; looking the part, acting the part, and fitting into a mold.

The good news is that God already knows all of who we are (including the ugly parts) and still loves us.
We don’t have to perform for Him. We can be ourselves with Him.

Defining Faith

After all this, the Lord asked me to define faith based on what He had just taught me. Here’s my attempt:

“Faith is trust in a God you know personally, who supernaturally empowers you to fulfill His will and walk in His ways.”

Faith isn’t just confidence in God; it empowers us. It’s knowing Him so intimately that we trust Him enough to follow wherever He leads.

But then the Holy Spirit dropped another truth bomb:

“The strength of faith is directly connected to the fear of the Lord. How can you trust someone you don’t hold in high regard?”

Many of us struggle with faith because we don’t truly revere God; meaning we don’t hold Him in the highest respect because of who He is. If we don’t see Him as all-powerful, completely good, and infinitely trustworthy, how can we fully put our faith in Him?

If we don’t hold God in the highest regard, we’ll always hesitate to trust Him.

Bringing it all Together

This conversation with the Holy Spirit humbled me. I realized I had been treating faith as a powerless belief system rather than a living relationship.

And I realized that my fear of people was stronger than my fear of the Lord.

I had been holding back who I was, afraid of how others would perceive me, afraid of breaking the religious expectations I had grown up with. But God was asking me to let all of that go.

Nothing the Holy Spirit taught me had anything to do with my outward appearance. In fact, He encouraged me to dress how I want and to pursue the things I enjoy which I was judged for in the past.

The religious mindset says, “This is how you should look, act, and behave to be holy.”

But God didn’t ask me to fit into a mold. He asked me to trust Him, revere Him, and walk with Him.

Maybe, like me, you’ve been wrestling with being yourself in God’s presence. Maybe you’ve felt trapped in a religious mindset that makes faith about rules instead of relationship.

I want to let you know: you’re in good company.

Jesus Himself confronted religious mindsets. He said to the religious leaders in Matthew 23:27-28:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

Jesus was never about image: He was about authenticity.

And that’s what He wants for you and me.

So, if you’ve been trying to fit into a mold that God never asked you to, I encourage you: let it go. You don’t have to prove anything to God. You don’t have to be someone you’re not.

You just have to know Him. Love Him. Trust Him. Let Him transform you His way. When you do, your faith will manifest the Kingdom of God to those around you in His perfect timing.

That’s real faith.