Imagine

Think about this for a minute… Us believers have a history of driving nails through God and pinning him exactly where we want him to be. It’s uncomfortable but true, it was us believers who nailed him up there.

We listened to Religion that time too, we obeyed him, that great dark Lord who accuses us in a voice he pretends is God’s. We listened to his lies about sin and judgement, hell and condemnation. We listened to what he said the ancient scriptures meant. We didn’t have to, God was right there in front of us urging us to believe he didn’t condemn us. We could have asked him, but we didn’t.

We listened to Religion tell us this God-Man’s message was ‘unscriptural’ and much too lenient and merciful – we listened to his lies so long we believed him and so we nailed God to a tree.

And think about this too for a minute… Us believers, we’re still human, still gullible like that. Religion is still allowed to accuse and rule us with his lies about God. ‘Old dispensation’, ‘new dispensation’, it doesn’t matter, it’s all just so much jargon. The point is this, Religion, that crafty wily demon, is still allowed to twist what our teachers say about the ancient scriptures. Can you imagine that?

We nailed God up once before because he wouldn’t follow our rules, and now, daily, we, me and you, we still make rules that God has to follow. Just like before, if he doesn’t fit with what we think, we refuse to believe him. He has to listen to our interpretation of the Bible, he’s not allowed to tell us his. We think we already know what it means. Can you imagine that?!?

Imagine if we were courageous enough to realise that yes, us believers, in all our sects, denominations and world-famous churches, really are capable of blocking our ears to God. Imagine if we had the courage to shake off all our rules and customs and ‘teachers’ and ‘prophets’ and just hear God speak. Would that be too scary, or would it be wonderful?

Imagine if we began to hear him speak in full sentences and paragraphs and our brains were free to think again. How cool would that be, for us and those around us who we keep pushing away from God with all the rules Religion teaches us. Imagine if we were able to think, just us and God thinking together, instead of our religious bosses having to think for us. Can you imagine that?

Imagine if we had the courage, and our ‘teachers’ and ‘prophets’ had the courage too, to realise that just like we did once before, we’re nailing God up again – nailing him to all the rules and regulations that wily Accuser Religion has told us are true. Imagine what it would look like if we had that much courage and we weren’t afraid of what Religion and his servants might do to us.

Jeremiah had that much courage, so did Elijah. And Jesus, Paul and Peter. And Luther, and Luther-King too. Can you imagine them in some of our pews, can you imagine them believing the stuff we get told, just sucking it up instead of asking God himself – it wouldn’t look right on them would it? They looked a lot better on their own, out there in the world, hearing God say things that were relevant to the man on the street.

Imagine what our lives would be like without all the accusations and talk of sin and hell and punishment. Imagine if we didn’t demand that God always be talking and thinking about that. Imagine if we realised that condemnation comes from The Accuser, not The Redeemer. Imagine if we were free enough just to hear God’s voice. Free to hear his words clear and pure and untainted by Religion’s conditioning and safe-guarding and ‘covering’, the covering that so often suffocates us.

Imagine if we untied God and set him free from Religion, it would be as momentous and world-changing as if the Pharisees had done the same – untied God – just moments before the nails went in.

Imagine if we set God free from all the customs, and rules that us Charismatics, Evangelicals, Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians and every other denomination and sect have thrust on him. Imagine that!

Imagine if we asked him what he thought about our Christianity instead of telling him what he is supposed to think. That would be a novel approach – Christianity able to listen to God so well that we could hear him speak in full sentences and paragraphs. Impossible right?? Well maybe not, not if we begin to imagine and expect it.

Imagine if God didn’t have to obey all our rules anymore. Imagine if he didn’t have to be angry about sin, didn’t have to throw us into hell unless we grovel and say sorry. Imagine if we freed God up to be the father he wants to be, to be able to love his kids without condition like we can.

Imagine God being free to be the God we always wished he’d be. Imagine being able to talk back and forth with him like a friend. Imagine not having to worry about those mischievous, angry, sin-focused ‘prophesies’ at new year, the ones from the superstar ‘prophets’, the ones we spread around on Social Media like so much vomit after a raucous new year’s party. Imagine if we didn’t believe their message that God stops talking to us when we’re not good enough – he didn’t stop talking to Adam and Eve or Cain. Imagine if we knew God well enough to know he’s not that sort of father, that those lies come from that ‘other father’.

Imagine if we knew how to hear him clearly enough, that we could ask him with confidence whether all those big flash ‘prophets’ really were hearing him, or whether some of the stuff they say on social media and YouTube is trickery from that other father.  And spare a thought for them, Religion’s superstars, imagine if the pressure was off them to pretend they hear God on behalf of everyone else.

Imagine how delighted they’d be if we left them alone long enough to earn an honest living. Maybe, just maybe, they don’t want to live up to our expectations that it is them and not God who should be leading us. Imagine being able to hear God ourselves. Imagine discovering that he just wants to be with us, just wants to talk, even if we haven’t been good, or tithed or had enough quiet times, or gone enough times to small group or church. Imagine that!

Imagine being one of those with enough courage to free God from the prison Religion has built for him. He broke our chains, imagine having the courage to break the chains we have put on him.

We can’t put chains on God? Think again, it was us believers who drove in the nails, and laughed and scoffed at his message. Not just everyday people, but believers. Can you imagine that?

Imagine if God was allowed to speak to us whenever he wanted instead of only if we obey all the rules those New Year’s Prophecy ‘prophets’ say we have to. Imagine if we didn’t believe their trickery, their lie that God isn’t going to answer us when we call because we haven’t been good enough. Imagine if we threw off those shackles and were as confident as God told Joshua to be, confident enough to hear God ourselves and were no longer subject to their manipulation and control.  CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT?!?!
 
I can. The more I hear God speak, the more I can imagine it – me and God free to talk, and you and God, and them and God – free enough to talk and plan and laugh with Him, without all those suffocating rules and regulations.

If you can imagine it, then join me. No I don’t have a movement, or a group, or a donations or payment plan – what I mean by join me is have your own conversations back and forth with God, instead of letting others decide for you what he’s saying. Hey hey, imagine that!!

And Religion, you dark and festering sore, you murderous, manipulative majesty, be afraid. You have burnt, drowned, hung, drawn and quartered those who dared question your rules. But now it’s your turn buddy boy, so be very afraid! We’re coming for you, and there are more of us every day, your days are numbered! First we’ll expose your lies, and then we’ll crush your system forever.

“How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to earth, you who once laid low the nations.” ISAIAH 14:12