There is a faith – and trust – in God that sits outside religion.
And outside of the exploitative walls of online publishing platforms such as Medium.
That faith – and trust - is faith and trust in God.
And only in God.
This faith neither trusts nor gives credibility to what does not come from God.
Religious faith, if it is in the definitions and explanations of God a particular religion has limited and burdened him with, is just faith in the religious groups who stole custody over how God is understood, from God.
Like everyone else, religious leaders are not called by God to exert authority over him and imprison him in chains of their choice.
They too, are called to trust in God.
Not present themselves as an alternative.
Trust in anyone who has offered their own take on God to the world, is not trust in God.
To even entertain what they offer one must entertain what has not come from God and what has not been expressed with his blessing.
For the record, I use the word ‘trust’ because that’s what God wants.
He wants us to trust in him and the things he says.
And not a single soul who made it their place to speculate about him.
Why would God ever permit anyone to say a word about him that might be incorrect? Especially when he promised to reveal the Truth himself.
How does speculating about God honour, respect and serve him?
It does none of these things.
Any speculation about God can be considered unsolicited and non-consensual misrepresentation and exploitation.
It is evidence of the mistreatment of God.
Not service to him.
God asked us to trust him.
Which also demands that we trust Jesus.
If someone ever attempts to question, belittle or dismiss the faith and trust that exists in God alone, the reply is easy.
Always easy.
‘God’s Truth is coming.
My faith, which is expressed through my trust in God and Jesus – and not in anyone else - will be rewarded at this time.
Whether I live to see that day or not.
History will validate me.
And God will know I never wavered. Or sought to know him through one who stole custody from him over how the world might come to understand him.
I trust that God knows himself.
And I will remain watchful for a time when he reveals the Truth as he sees it, and when he reveals the truth as it is – just as Jesus asked me to.
I will not be caught embracing one who does not know God and who acts without his blessing, when he chooses to speak for himself.’
When one who trusts in God and Jesus hears from one who says, ‘this is who I say God is’ or ‘this is who we say God is’ - be they Pope, prince or pauper – they will reply as follows.
‘God and Jesus did not tell me to watch for one who speaks of their opinions on God.
Or those who define God in ways that suit themselves.
God, through Jesus, said I should watch for God’s own voice.
And yours is not it.
You are attempting to rob God of his right to revelation and of his right to custody and control over how he is understood.
And you compete with God by offering yourself as an alternative.
I am not watchful for you.
And if I trust anything you have to say about God, I cease to trust in God.
So be on your way.’
Religions, to become what they have become, had to defy God.
They had to define and explain him themselves.
They had to limit God to their word on him.
And in doing this they made God what they wanted or needed him to be.
How ironic.
Christianity, and its more specific bodies such as the Catholic Church, had to defy God and Jesus - and surrender the trust and watchfulness they asked for - to become what they are.
The Pope has the world’s eyes trained on him. He is an alternative to God, and he has made himself so.
Shouldn't he be practising the same watchfulness as everyone else, instead of offering himself as the one to be watched?
It seems to me his trust lies in himself. And that he is asking the world to know God through him, instead of God.
Our world’s religions are not founded upon a trust in God.
They are founded on the desire to hold authority over him.
Of course, in God’s eyes, they have none. No one apart from God has the right or authority to define him.
It is a right he believes should be reserved for him alone.
And who could argue with that?
When one offers the world their personal take on God, they place greater value and importance on the way they understand God, than on the way God understands himself.
Blessed are they who trust in God alone.
And who embrace his own direct Word, revelation and testimony - when he speaks, no matter how he speaks.
In a world founded on the exploitation of God and in a world where people use God to make a name for themselves and to give themselves relevance in that world, God’s own voice was never going to be easily accepted.
And the greatest roadblock to the world's acceptance of God was always going to be those who ordained themselves authorities on God.
To attain such power and authority, and to remain the person to whom others look, to ‘know’ God - God must remain silent.
Or, more accurately, God must be kept silent.
Our eyes must look away from God, so they are trained on the one who has declared themselves an authority on him.
But God has asked us to watch for his voice.
Those who embody the worldly faith that exploits God, ask us to look to them.
Who to trust?
Well, that depends on who we want to trust.
Be sure of one thing, though. We cannot trust both.
In a world such as ours, God’s voice is not to be trusted.
But our unsolicited and non-consensual misrepresentations and exploitations are.
The worldly faith will always deny God.
And will work against him.
It must.
God is the greatest threat to any worldly voice that has made a name for itself by competing with him for custody and control over how he is understood.
If God speaks for himself, these voices must fall silent.
They must become what they should have been in the first place.
A humble servant of God who trusts God’s own Word on himself.
Whatever worldly authority they have established – and all that came with it – is reduced to rubbles.
What was once perceived as adoration and praise becomes the spoils of exploitation and abuse.
Just worldly treasures accrued by trafficking unsolicited and unauthorised ‘information’ about God to a world that values being seen as smart when it comes to God, over loving and honouring him through the being that is conditional expression.
They no longer have footing in the world when it comes to being an expert on God, because that footing has been claimed by the only one who had any right to sole custody over that footing in the first place.
The world should no longer look to them to ‘know’ God. And God would argue it never should have.
But that is the risk anyone - or any institution or group - took when they positioned themselves as authorities on God.
They made themselves an eternal enemy of God because they have made themselves an eternal alternative.
Whenever God chose to say, ‘Here I am, as I am’ – and for this to happen only God can have authority over the substance and form of what follows – everything that came before was going to be rendered false, misleading and non-consensual.
Not to mention combative.
Any definition of God that preceded his own, and those who created it, were always going to be found guilty of the ultimate crimes against God.
Those of robbing him of his right to revelation and of sole custody over how he is understood, of creating and honouring false gods and of presenting themselves as an alternative to the Truth that could only come from him.
We should never forget how God reveals himself to the world.
He does it through messengers who bring his own Word and the things he wants to say to the world.
Not their own.
Every time God does this, what happens in these moments is this - God has offered himself to the world.
He exposes himself as he truly is, in the way that he wanted to. And he will always be received in these moments by one of two reactions.
Rejection.
Or a loving and trusting embrace.
It does not matter when God defines himself.
Or how he defines himself.
Custody over both these things belong to God.
Our job is to accept God as he comes, and to adapt our love for him, and understanding of him, to the things he shares about himself.
Not offer this love and understanding to the things we learn from those who have decided the world should learn about God through their misrepresentation and exploitation of him.
Or to those responsible for offering us these unsolicited perversions of God’s Truth.
Ours is the world of a billion gods.
The only way to make sure we trust in the right one - the one true God - is to reject or discard any information about him that does not come from him.
All that came before God’s own Word, revelation and testimony as to his true nature and form, is the enemy of his own Word.
For it stole the space God and Jesus tried to preserve through their call to watchfulness.
God’s own Word and testimony has returned.
And today his own voice and his own understanding of himself competes with all who have ever made themselves an alternative.
Those who ‘explain’ God to the world today and call the eyes and ears of others to their ‘explanations’ – behaviour God has labelled Godrobbing – battle with God for custody over how he is understood.
Today we can all ask ourselves the following question.
‘In whom do I really trust?’
And our answer to that question will be the same answer to the question God is asking everyone who exists today.
‘In whom do you trust?
Me?
Or someone who robs me of custody over how I am understood and of my right to revelation?’
And so it is.
Amen
Postscript
Three of the nine books of conditional expression, sourced in the Word of Life, have referenced the misrepresentation and exploitation of God - and his disdain for it -that is rampant on the Medium publishing platform.
Where those responsible for the abuse are those who call themselves faithful, and who trumpet to the world about their great faith.
Strange, given everything one might learn about God there comes not from God - nor with his blessing - but from one God has labelled a Godrobber.
Click on the links below or on the image below to locate the books which highlight the rampant exploitation of God inflicted upon him by the worldly faith.
22 Days of God and the Fight for Life
Contra Mundum: God Against the World
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