There is so very much that we simply cannot see unless God shows it to us. I’m not sure there is any way to draw a line between heart-led moral perception and a direct move by God to point something out; I don’t think words can delineate the boundary line. But I’m convinced there’s a huge difference between those two together versus human intellectual capability.
Stop for just a moment. Let’s understand something; let’s get our minds used to how this works. Review: There is no objective body of truth out there. Ultimate reality is rooted in God’s Person. Reality is flexible in the sense that the only thing that matters is what God wants you to do. And that includes realizing that God may want others to do things entirely different, and that leading them into that path may require giving them a radically different perception of things. Perception is reality in the sense that your reality is as good as anyone else’s so long as you are confident in the Lord’s guidance. So the key is not what is objectively real, but what fits into your sense of mission and calling.
Fallen human minds cannot grasp ultimate reality, so the question of what is ultimately real is a waste of time. We can’t get there, not even in theory. What we need is enough to move forward and act in serving Christ. This is the divine moral equivalent to “need to know.” The difference is that God is not like the government, keeping hidden a supposed body of information that is actually true. God isn’t hiding anything; He’s been trying to reveal Himself and His Creation since the Garden of Eden. The only limiting factor is our own internal resistance to His truth. Our minds reject the notion that they are limited and fallible.
This is why the idea that faith can be reasonable is so very wrong. True faith — commitment and trust in God — is entirely unreasonable. It demands things that no human reason can possibly justify, since human reason cannot grasp the true nature of God’s intent. Only the heart can handle that sort of truth. It won’t hurt you to be aware of the deception by which the rest of the human race lives, but we cannot live there ourselves.
Mainstream organized religion subverts faith by insisting that faith be reasonable. Whatever they have after passing it through the intellectual filters is no longer faith. They seek to build unity on the basis of shared logic, not the Person of Jesus Christ. (This is the same mistake of Judaism, confusing the orthodox image of God with the Person of God.) How many of you, after having experienced mainstream religion, struggle with the idea of fellowship and unity that doesn’t require having the same intellectual understanding of things? How many of you are prepared to work with a brother or sister who holds a different theology? We are taught to believe that such is not possible.
This is what happens when you build religion on presumed factual knowledge. Mainstream religious leaders assume the facts are immutable, but even if that were true, no living human is capable of knowing the facts in full. Not even in theory can any human mind really lay hold of the facts. Instead of seeing the ineffable truth of God, they chase the presumed factual historical basis of certain events, when those who recorded those events worked under no such delusion.
It’s not as if the mainstream religious leaders are so devious and capable of foreseeing this enslavement of billions of souls. This is merely the net result of Satan working through his agents over centuries. But make no mistake; this is not some dark evil plot predicting every move men have made; it’s opportunistic. The Devil is quite happy with any answer but the right answer. That’s what makes his job so easy; all he has to do is keep you away from God’s calling on your life.
I got close enough to religious leadership to see this stuff up close and personal. There is a great love for talent, but that talent has to be recognized by the right patron. It’s pure politics. One rises in the system solely by sucking up to the right people. What isn’t so obvious is how there are several different routes; it’s not always just one right group of people. One need only gain any sponsorship that can grant momentum; the system is based on herding, not shepherding. Popularity comes in many different forms, but without some kind of popularity, there is no advancement. The individual in question need not be ambitious himself, only sponsored.
People who still attend churches I once did have asked me why I don’t come back. Of course, their question assumes I’m wrong for following the call of God instead of knuckling under the current leadership. Somehow I must be rejecting Jesus and His gospel. I don’t tell them that they don’t know Jesus, only that they don’t know Him well enough to grasp that He can call people outside of the existing institutional churches.
Here at Kiln of the Soul virtual parish, the only membership requirements are that you look at my teaching and say, “I can tolerate that.” It’s this instinct to correct everyone who thinks differently that kills genuine spiritual fellowship. It you can’t tolerate the teaching here, do your own thing. If you are following the call of God, He’ll make sure you don’t have to work alone. But by all means, have enough faith to do it alone if necessary.
