Did God Create a Religion? Part One

Did God Create a Religion? Part One

(I edited this post on August 22, 2010)

God Created a Family not Religion or a Membership Club

Every human being has a measure of faith which God put in his heart. It's meant for us to seek Him and He helps us find who He is.

I've had a hunger for God when I reached the bottom of my life. All of a sudden I wanted to know who He is. "Who are You?"

I had so many questions to ask Him, but didn't know how to find Him. I didn't know He said He is as far as the word in my mouth. All I needed was just to talk to Him and that took me into a journey of finding who God really is.

I have already seen enough religion in my life to know that I am not seeking man-made forms and structures, customs and traditions - but I want God Himself, pure and revealed.

After all He revealed Himself to our forefather in dreams, visions, in a bush, through angels, in a voice, and as a man. Why can't He do it today? I didn't know that God still speaks to His children and even desires for them to know Him. I lived in a religious system that believes that God cannot speak to His children today, and I believed it.

Even thought I didn't want religion I found myself having a relationship with God through the system I was raised with. I used to read prayers from a prayer book thinking this is how God wants me to talk to Him.

I remember He said to me one day "Elana, when you speak to your father in Israel, do you read from a book to him?" I smiled, realizing how much the religion of the Pharisees was part of my walk with Him. I wanted to be free from religious mindset, religious practices and believes, but I couldn't see them in my own life.

Being part of a body of believers, it always struck me that we're meeting together once a week, but it mainly ends with a nice Hi and Bye. There is fellowship but there isn't much friendship or a sense of family.

I remember when the Lord spoke to me once and said to me "Elana, fellowship is not friendship".

That stuck in my mind for a long time and it created a curiosity in me "So, what's assembly and getting together should be like, Lord?"

I would like to share with you some of what the Lord has taught me. I pray He will speak to you and reveal to you more.

God Called Abraham and started a Family

With my many questions, and seeking more the Lord spoke to me once that He did not build a membership club, He created a family. He showed me, when He called Abraham, He never called Him a coordinator, a leader, a Bishop, a Deacon, or a Pastor. These are merely functions. He called him a FATHER because He wanted a family.

With family and children in His mind, God wanted him to be a father to His many kids. He revealed Himself to a childless man and decided that he would be a father to the family He wanted to create. Abram was merely called to be a father who would witness to God's kids who God is for him.

God was Abram's 'friend' (the Hebrew says 'beloved'), so He had to first be a Father to Abram in order to raise him up a father. If God called you to shepherd His children it's by revealing Himself to you as YOUR Father. Abba in Hebrew means Daddy. He wants to be a Father to His children, so they can be spiritual fathers and mothers to the next generation and lead them to experience God as their Father as well.

God made sure Abraham knew Him personally in every area of his life, so he could be an example of who God is for his family. God called Abraham "father of many nations" even before he had any children. Isn't it funny when God calls the things that are not yet seen in our life as if they ARE?

Imagine Abraham introducing himself in the sheep market as "Hi I am Father of many nations" and his friends are thinking "This guy is nuts. He so wants children so bad, and in his old age he thinks he will have kids".

When Isaac was born God called him "Will Laugh" because He laughed at those who thought that His children have no future or a hope.

Abraham had such a testimony to share with others - how his God had done the impossible with him and his old wife.

God raised Abraham to witness to His children the love of God for him; his experiences with God; who God is for him; and the heart, nature and power of God. He wanted a father who would put a hunger in others to want to know Him more and seek and experience Him for themselves.

Such should be our assemblies and family gatherings as we meet with our spiritual parents who share with us who God is for them; what He has revealed from His heart to them; what He has shared with them in their journey with Him; what He has taught them and what is He saying to us all today about the move of his Spirit.

After all, our Messiah (Christ Jesus) said He will reveal to us things to come and we will know things many prophets and kings desired to know and didn't know.

I want that. I want to know Him in an intimate close relationship. I want to know His heart and what He is thinking about me and His Bride. After all God is Love, so that means he is also a Lover. The book of Songs of Songs is filled with His own words to His beloved bride.

We are the generation that brings a revelation of the Lord as our Father and Jesus as our Lover. The Lord spoke to me in May 2009 that He is raising up spiritual father and mothers as He is returning the hearts of the fathers to the children.

Paul explained to us that there are many guardians (tutors, teachers) in God's family, but there are not many fathers.

1Co 4:15-17 NIV Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. (16) Therefore I urge you to imitate me. (17) For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.

It is through proclaiming Good News to people that we become their spiritual parents. If not many were fathers in the Church in Corinth it means their ten thousand tutors in Christ did NOT proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to them.

What were they teaching them? Was there a different gospel they heard? Yes!

2Co 11:3-6 NIV But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (4) For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. (5) But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those "super-apostles." (6) I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.

Their thousands of spiritual 'leaders' were teaching them a different gospel and were not spiritual fathers to them.

The churches in Galatia had heard a different gospel as well– it was the gospel of the old covenant of the Law.

Gal 1:6-7 NIV I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— (7) which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

This brought me to ask the Lord "what gospel do I follow? What Good News was preached to me, Lord? I ask You to reveal and show me Your Gospel – the Good News that Paul preached.

In the book of 1John we see a beautiful picture of God's design for His family. We see the spiritual fathers of our faith testifying to those who do not know the Lord yet, inviting them to come and have fellowship with them. They are sharing with a generation who had not been walking with God and testifying to them what they have seen and heard. This reveals to us the foundation of being spiritual parents.

1Jn 1:1-3 NASB What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life-- (2) and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us-- (3) what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, (Why do they proclaim and share their experiences with the Lord?) so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Spiritual parents proclaim and share what they have heard from the Lord, seen with their eyes, looked at and touched with their hands, testified and manifested in their lives.

The Word who is Jesus was ALIVE to them and they wanted Him to be ALIVE for those who don't know Him yet. The Lord wants to become alive in your life and not merely words in His love letter (Bible); so you too can share with others "this is who the Lord is for me".

That's how spiritual kids are being raised up. They watch their parents and learn more from experience than by reading or studying about God. Kids don't study who their parents are in a book, they experience their parents and this is who the Lord wants to be for us. The Book which is His love letter is supposed to help us know His nature, but every word there God wants to personally reveal to us by Himself.

Isa 54:13 NIV All your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be your children's peace.

Joh 6:40 MKJV And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him should have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day.

Joh 6:44-45 MKJV No one can come to Me unless the Father who has sent Me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. (45) It is written in the Prophets, "And they shall all be taught of God." Therefore everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to Me.

Basically what the spiritual fathers of the faith are sharing in 1John is… "Come, and have fellowship with us as we share with you who the Lord is for us, as you hear from us; as you also experience for yourself who He is for you; as you know the Lord personally for yourself; as you grow in your faith in Him. Come, and then you will also become a witness of who the Lord is for you and you can share it with others."

This is what being a spiritual fathers means. You grow and mature in FAITH; in knowing who the Lord is; in deepening your friendship and intimacy with Him; in seeing who He is; and becoming like salt to others. As you share your walk with the Lord, you make others hungry for more.

This is what He wants church to BE – it's not a focus on DOING and WORKING. The focus is on being and then the doing will follow and flow naturally in our life.

First let's find out who we ARE – find our identity in Christ, and the doing will flow as a result of being in Him.

It's the Law of the old covenant that focuses on works. It's called the Law of works and focuses on doing, on performance, on deeds and behavior, and not on relationship and knowing God personally. It focues its teachings on how a believer in God should work for God; should behave and perform by trying to transform you into the image of Christ.

The Law of works is also called the Law of sin. It focuses on man's sins, failures, weaknesses, inadequacies and mess and it expects man to take away his own sins.

Law teachers see man as incomplete in Christ. They see what's missing and lacking in you, expecting you to get rid of the failures. Man could never take away his own sins. This is why Messiah needed to come so He could take away the sins (which He did). Law teachers do not see you as complete in Christ and therefore help you FIND that new identity for yourself.

In religion (old covenant of the Law) you need to perform in order to become.

In the new covenant in Christ, you have already because Jesus performed as He fulfilled all the demands of the Law. As you know Him, you find out who you are in Him and therefore also perform.

The old covenant of the Law focuses on perfection and meeting the demands of the Law which no man could ever fulfill. It focuses on all the daily washings and cleansings, sacrifices man does for God and daily "rituals" we need to perform in our relationship with the Lord.

What if I get up in the morning, and the way I talked to my husband would go like this:

I would take a book he wrote – his biography book – and I would read it as he is right next to me. I would ask him some questions about what he meant; write some comments down. Then I would put some music on and sing two songs for him, and then I would pray about my needs and quote some of what he wrote in his book : "you said you love your wife – me – and you would take good care of me – so protect me and the kids and I ask it in your name."

Wouldn't this be weird?

Isn't it mechanical and programmatic?

Something is wrong here in this picture. But this was my religious walk with the Lord.

I remember I asked the Lord once "Why didn't Your disciples ever pray? Why didn't You mention their prayers?"

The Lord had a kind of voice as if saying to me (Elana, come on, you must be joking. He said "they talked to Me all day while I was with them." I laughed. Oh, Yes, I said. It was so funny. I didn't even realize how much I didn't understand what prayer was.

What if we wake up in the morning like the disciples who were with the Lord and we would say:

"Good morning Abba (Daddy)", and you give Him a kiss and a hug and ask for one too. "You know, I didn't sleep well tonight. Did You try to speak to me and tell me something?"

As you're getting ready for the day, you talk and have a casual conversation, and you share with Him what's in your heart, and ask Him what His plan is for the day. You have coffee with Him and you sit quietly to listen to what He says to you.

What if you're engaged in a conversation with the Lord all day; being aware of His presence; checking your mind and heart for His "heavenly emails" and hearing what He says. That's prayer without ceasing. It's a conversation and an organic live relationship with the Lord.

What if as spiritual parents we focus on …

BEING, and no on DOING and works;

What it means to BE in Christ and not on what we need to DO for Christ;

Who He is - our identity in Him - and not on who we're not;

What He has done and His finished works, and not on our dead works or what we haven't done for God;

Receiving from Him and not on how we bear fruits and give God our good fruits (like Cain). Adam and Eve were invited to eat God's fruits the focus was not on how they need to bear them. Does a tree worry about the fruits it bears? It's by eating the fruits of the Holy Spirit that we are able to bear them later.

What if we focus on knowing the Lord more and more; on hearing His voice not through the Law; and knowing His heart and His thoughts for us?

I believe all the rest (performance, doing, works) flows from the transformed life as we see and experience who the Lord is for us.

As we taste of His fruits in the Garden; as we fellowship with Him; as we talk together and we hear Him speak; as we allow ourselves to sit with Him and be silent and only receive from Him "Dad, I need a hug right now".

We have this freedom in Jesus to boldly come to our Father just as we are and enjoy His presence. We no longer need the Law rituals of cleansing and washing to enter His presence because we have already been cleansed by His blood once and for all. He lives in us and it's by His blood that we had been already perfected (Hebrews chapter 10:14).

It's wonderful to see people who love Jesus get together and actually "BEING" the church. I am not saying "doing" church, but being God's family.

See Part Two in the next post. What is Church about?

Many blessings

Elana Polinger