Right and Wrong Thinking

I recently listened to The Free Believers Network podcast episode entitled “The People Revelation”, May 22^nd 2010. In this podcast episode, the hosts discussed how people tend to not see the other person and truly appreciate them, if they hold onto a particular concept about that person. In other words, when we make our lives about what is right and what is wrong, we totally miss the heart, the essence of other people. It’s as if for some people, the concept of what is right or what is wrong is actually more important than the true value of the other person. When we learn to associate with another person, to connect with them on a heart level and be prepared to see things from their perspective – everything changes. Rather than judging another person for what they do, say, think and believe – we can move to a place beyond that were all of that does not matter and we choose to really love that person.

Christianity can be a belief and practice that is riddled with contradictions, such as, “You’re saved and set free from sin…but make sure you keep the rules, otherwise, you’re sinning.” These contradictions make no sense! Likewise, whether you are Christian or not, trying to love people when you hold onto a concept about that person, being either right or wrong, it causes us to miss the essence of what love really is. When we hold onto labels, such as, “He’s gay”, or, “She’s fat,” we put obstacles in the way of our seeing the light in a person’s life; because it all becomes about some aspect of what they do, believe or have. The biggest contradiction about Christianity is trying to love other people, and yet, holding onto concepts of what is good, bad, right or wrong. There is a desperate need, for Christians and non-Christians alike, to re-connect with the heart.

The use of labels is a sure-fire way of causing enmity and division with other people. I will admit that relationships on all levels have been a struggle with me since day one. I have encountered a lot of rejection and even verbal abuse from people. I believe what causes this is the beliefs and attitudes of a person. When you contract around concepts of right and wrong, even with the best of intentions, you inevitably fall into the trap of judging others.

When you judge other people, I believe it sends out a signal to other people, especially those particularly affected, that they can feel. This concept is not necessarily New Age, not that there is anything good or bad about New Age, but this is something that is rather commonsense and matter of fact. Don’t take my word for it, test it out in your own life, think about some of the relationships you have and your attitude towards those people. We are immersed in an invisible world that only comes alive when we decide to “tune-in” to those things. This concept works with television and radio; this also works on a human level, just search the internet on “kirlean photography”. Even if you don’t believe in humans sending out waves of thought and emotion – there is ample evidence about body language which works on a subtle, physical and psychological level. It is impossible to hold onto judgements and bitterness towards another person, and for them to not feel affected by those thoughts in one way or another. That judgementalism is bound to rebound on you in some way. I love the way The Message Bible puts it:

¹ "Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults - unless, of course, you want the same treatment.

² That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging.

Matthew 7:1-2 MSG

I liked what Aimee Dassele said in the podcast episode “The People Revelation”; Aimee said that she had come to the conclusion that instead of considering what is right and wrong and making blanket judgements from there – it is better to consider whether something brings you life or not. Living life by a set of rules, as some people do, inevitably leads to making judgements about a person that are not true. Even if your judgements towards a person are indeed true, a person might drink excessively, a person might have an anger problem, but those things should not affect the way that you see them and interact with them. Our whole perspective on life, and other people, changes when we consider whether something brings us life and peace, or death, emptiness and frustration. What is right for one person may not be right for us, and vice-versa. The problem with blanket judgements and rules is that there is little or no flexibility for movement. We are all different people with different lives, goals, preferences, upbringings, strengths and weaknesses. When we consider if something brings us life, we re-connect the heart and see what is right for us. We can also connect to the heart of the other person and see things from their perspective – it is also known as compassion.

Releasing and inquiry provides the framework and tools that are conducive to re-connecting to the heart. Releasing and inquiry is not about rules or principles, what is right or wrong, but about welcoming “what is”, embracing reality, allowing other people and yourself to be the way they are, and living from that place. Everything originates from a thought and we can question those thoughts which are stressful to see if they bring us life and peace or frustration and emptiness. We cannot control other people; we cannot control our own thoughts; but by re-connecting to the heart in the framework of releasing and inquiry, we allow ourselves to let go of the contraction around a thought, want or emotion in order to find freedom from it. Only in the freedom from the contraction around beliefs and concepts, can we truly love ourselves, others and life.

Why Affirmations Don’t Work

Affirmations are flawed because they are more-often-than-not motivated out of selfishness and fear and are not a genuine expression of what you believe, and perhaps, what you even need. Affirmations do nothing to deal with the underlying beliefs that are causing the stress and dysfunction in a person’s life. It is rather like placing a plaster or band-aid on a festering sore and expecting it to heal.

Apparently, our beliefs are established early on in life. Some experts say that the first six years of our lives are the most formative years of our lives. Little do some people realise that many of the issues they fact in adult life today, have their roots in something that they thought or experienced when they were just a child. Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy seems to have a decent track record in dealing with these issues – but it is expensive and can take a long time to complete. Also, a person is ill equipped to perform Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy on their own life, without years of relevant training.

The use of affirmations can also be compared to piling positive thoughts on top of layers of negative beliefs. I remember reading in a book on self-hypnosis over 15 years ago that the use of self-hypnotic suggestions was like pressing the record button on a tape-recorder and overriding the existing message. This sounds convincing, but unfortunately, it is not true.

Another problem with affirmations is that their appeal lies in the promise if being able to have what you most desire – all through changing what you believe in the subconscious mind. However, even if you believe that you can have, be or do a certain thing – there is no guarantee that you will attract it or that it will happen to you. I believe in making myself receptive to something, certainly, but affirmations can become a fantasy to many people as they dream of making certain things happen, such as the accumulation of wealth, the adoration of others and so forth.

Releasing and inquiry do not attempt to try to make things happen or to try to influence other people by the creation of beliefs. In fact, releasing and inquiry highlights the dangers of creating beliefs. It seems that the creation of beliefs is what causes problems in a person’s life. It is as if beliefs become hot-spots for the focus of anxiety. Beliefs equate to expectations – when we hold on to expectations, we are inviting anxiety because expectations often argue with reality or “what is”.

Byron Katie often says, “If you want to suffer on purpose – get a plan.” This concept is also conveyed throughout Eckhart Tolle’s powerful book, The Power of Now. Tolle teaches that as soon as our minds are allowed to drift unnecessarily into the past or the future, it causes anxiety and all manner of struggle for us. Keeping our mind on the present is by far the best means of alleviating anxiety and the confusion it brings. But affirmations become an invitation to examine what is wrong with us and what we believe we should do, be or have. Affirmations work hand-in-hand with the refusal to accept yourself as you are. Affirmations take the mind into the past or the future, as you try to make up for past failures and attempt to build an ideal future.

The Sedona Method identifies the want for approval as one of the core wants that controls our lives. Affirmations are often an attempt to make the changes to your life that you see as fundamental in attracting the approval of others. A person who is considered voluptuous could consider herself to be overweight when compared to the universally accepted concept of beauty in the form of stick-thin models, which adorn the front cover of fashion magazines. Who is to say what is beautiful and what is not? Culture, upbringing, experiences and I would say destiny – all contribute towards a person’s personal preferences and what is right for them. So why would a person want to change an aspect of their life in order to conform to another person’s sense of perfection?

Affirmations also become an expression of a want for security, as you attempt to get those things into your life that you feel will make you more secure: money, power and possessions. There is something powerful and freeing in accepting yourself as you are and being content with what you have right now. In the acceptance of self comes peace of mind and a sense of security in which you trust in yourself, life, God, the Universe or others to meet your needs, as and when they arise. The need to “feather ones nest” and build for the future now, is an expression of insecurity.

Lastly, the want for control is compounded by the promises of various self-help methods and the use of affirmations, as you attempt to change yourself, others and circumstances in a desperate attempt to control your life. There is something liberating in being able to accept circumstances as they arise, knowing that whatever does happen, you will be able to face it and deal with it. I think one of the biggest reasons we want to control circumstances is because of the pain that occurs when something happens that it contrary to what we expected. But rather than attempting to find the latest self-help and spiritual methods that we can use to control our lives and bring added comfort and peace through that, we simply embrace everything that we have experienced thus far and we accept whatever is happening in our lives right now.

Byron Katie often states that the only suffering that we experience is the contraction around a belief. Most people struggle with this concept and seek to refute it, as if it is condoning wrong-doing. However, when you perform inquiry for yourself, you eventually come to see that this statement is absolutely true.

So it would seem that there is a need to move away from creating new beliefs, towards the approach of letting go of existing wrong beliefs. But what is a wrong belief? How do we know if a belief is good or not? Byron Katie asserts that there are no good beliefs. It is not simply a matter of determining what beliefs are good, bad, right or wrong. It is more a matter of knowing that it is not the belief itself that causes problems, but the contraction around a belief. When we use releasing we are letting go of our attachment to a want for emotion.

Lester Levenson, the creator of releasing, advocates releasing on even the most positive emotions! This is proof that it is not the emotions that cause problems or pain, as such, but our attempt to control them by holding onto them or resisting them. If emotions or wants are simply allowed “to be”, to exist as they are, they will eventually dissipate by themselves, without our need to control them. As soon as we grapple with beliefs, desires, thoughts, wants and emotions – we have the effect of holding them in place. Affirmations do the opposite of what we want them to do for us, a lot of the time, in that they become expressions of our anxiety. That is the reason they feel so empty and mechanical a lot of the time, because when we say them we don’t believe we actually have them.

I also feel rather dubious about visualisation, which is like affirmations but instead of speaking out what we desire, you try to picture the end result in your mind. I cannot help but feel that for some people, visualisations simply coalesce with the fantasies of neurotics.

What about those people who make positive affirmations and they experience something wonderful as a result?

Firstly, how can we be certain that their experience was a direct result of the affirmations or other spiritual practices they performed? I have come to the conclusion that many things happen in life without our intervention. Despite this, we seem keen to attribute such things, whether good or bad, to something that we did. I have reached the conclusion that peace of mind and a sense of security are by far the best ways to experience happiness and success in this life. The people, who sing the praises of their self-help and spiritual beliefs, are often naturally secure-minded and confident people who live their life from that positive-mindedness. I believe in a lot of cases that their adherence to a certain self-help or spiritual practice actually does little or nothing to affect their emotions, success and personal experiences.

Secondly, I believe that a person can make positive expressions based on what they truly believe in their heart to be true in that moment. When you are facing a traumatic incident, the spontaneous outbursts that you come out with are expressions of what is true for you at that moment. This concept has been reversed-engineered by advocates of positive thinking, who assert that if you make yourself say positive things, then you will eventually believe it those things will become a reality in your life. This is a misnomer.

So it would seem that working with the attachment to a thought is by far the best means of affecting real, lasting change in a person’s life. This transformation is not something that can be consciously controlled towards a certain set of beliefs, goals and expectations. Our only goal in releasing and inquire is the attainment of inner peace, free of the turmoil that is created when we attach to beliefs. We cannot always control what does or does not happen in our lives, we cannot always dictate how successful and prosperous we will be, but if we are clear minded, that is the best condition we can be in, in order to live life to the full and experience true, lasting peace, fulfilment and even success in this life.

“If we want to know the truth about who we are, all we have to do is let go of our attachment to thoughts and feelings. In silence, who or what we are makes itself known.”

- Lester Levenson.

My Experience with Affirmations

My Introduction to Affirmations

I will admit that my whole perspective on life and the struggles I was going through, was transformed when in 1994 I read the classic self-help book The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Dr Joseph Murphy. The concept of the mind comprising the conscious and the subconscious opened up a whole new world to me. All of a sudden I felt like I had the keys to bring control to my life through the establishment of positive beliefs in the subconscious mind. Affirmations were the key.

Faith Teaching

My interest in self-help and spirituality led me to become a Christian in 1995. I didn’t really take it seriously at first though. I was aware of the stigma surrounding Christianity, which many people did not really take it seriously when it came to success and inner transformation. It was only in 1998 when I had a profound spiritual experience – I finally became a lot more serious about Christianity. It was around that time that I began reading the faith teaching of Kenneth E. Hagin. Hagin’s advocated the approach of finding Bible verses that supported your need and then confessing that you have them already. This is based mainly on Mark 11:23, which is the main faith verse of the Bible and is often quoted in various self-help and spiritual books that recommended the use of affirmations, such as The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Dr Joseph Murphy. I would say that Hagin’s teaching is somewhat like a Christian version of The Secret and The Law of Attraction.

Disappointment with Affirmations

I’ve dabbled with various forms of self-help, Christianity and New Age in the past. But I would say that nothing influenced me more than the concept of being able to literally re-program the subconscious mind with positive thoughts. However, I found that the affirmations I did manage to use, did not make a lot of difference to my life. In fact, I would say that they just exacerbated my anxiety. I would feel guilty and annoyed with myself for not making greater efforts to use affirmations. I would get confused as to what to actually affirm; constantly re-hashing my affirmations list. Going to church during this time did not help as I became convinced that the blessings did not come to me because there was sin in my life, and so on.

When a certain practice, be it self-help, spiritual or otherwise, is not spontaneous, enjoyable, convincing and enduring – you really do have to question whether or not there is any credibility to it. I personally believe in God and that He has a plan for my life. Other people may or may not believe in God, but they do believe in destiny. You have to consider the fact that if affirmations are that powerful and they are something you really need to do – surely there would be something stirring you on the inside to keep going with it? Affirmations, for me, have become like the weights set that are gathering dust in the spare bedroom.

As I look back in retrospect it would seem that all those things I did, learned and experienced - have led me to the point that I am at today. It is difficult sometimes to not feel disappointed about some of the spiritual and self-help practices that I engaged in; those things that seemed to promise so much, but delivered so little. I am reminded of some of the more wacky New Age practices of carrying or wearing certain crystals or colours that are supposed to attract certain special properties. But at least you know not to do those things again in the future. It seems that experience is indeed the best teacher.

Releasing Using the Sedona Method

I think it was around the summer of 2008 when I started using the The Sedona Method. The Sedona Method in turn led me to The Work around the end of 2008. The concept of releasing demonstrated by the Sedona Method was something totally new to me. Well, it wasn’t totally new to me as I had experienced releasing to some degree through a new method of Christian approach to prayer created by Liberty Savard known as “loosing and binding”.

But nothing I ever experienced before came close to the sheer simplicity and power of this method of releasing. It was just so spontaneous and practical. Rather than having to create positive affirmations to make changes to your life – all you had to do was to release on the emotions and their underlying wants, in the moment. The great thing about the Sedona Method is that at its core is a simple, yet profound, concept of three basic wants, which give rise to negative emotions and the entire struggle that we experience in life. The great thing is that we can let go of these wants straight away, just by asking a short, simple releasing question.

The Sedona Method employs a large array of various methods or “tools” to facilitate releasing. These “tools” range from basic to rather advance. As you progress with releasing you can try the various “tools” for yourself and find which ones suit you the most; which ones seem to work best in given situations.

For more information on releasing, please visit the following official websites:

• http://sedona.com
• http://releasetechnique.com

Inquiry through the Work

I came into The Work through the chat on a Sedona Method forum I was following at the time; this was around the end of 2008. The Work seemed to have a very similar goal to the Sedona Method, in that it wasn’t about attracting or claiming things – it was all about finding peace of mind. This peace of mind was to be attained using The Work, through a process of inquiry which questions anxious thoughts as they arise in the moment:

• Is it true?
• Can you know for certain it is true?
• Who are you and how do you react with that thought?
• Who would you be without that thought?

These four questions naturally lead a person towards the finale of inquiry – the turnaround. The turnaround is firstly the direct opposite: “Jane should love me more” becomes, “Jane should not love me more.” There are other turnarounds, such as the self, “I should love Jane more.” Or, “I should love me more.” Then there is the other, “I should love Jane more.”

As a person begins to question their anxious thoughts, their beliefs, the attachment to that thought weakens to the point whereby they find freedom from that thought – as the thought lets go of you. It is pointless to try to force the thought out of your mind, as recommend by the positive thinking branch of self-help.

The great thing about The Work is that you don’t have to perform Psychoanalysis on past beliefs and experiences. There is no need to probe painful memories from the past and to try to figure out how they affect you today or why you even did those things. Inquiry does not even utilise various “tools” and methods as seen in releasing. Although these “tools” are simple and practical – it can sometimes be confusing as to what tools are right for a given situation.

Inquiry uses the same system every time for each session, comprising the four questions and turnaround. As with the Sedona Method, there is not an emphasis on learning spiritual principles or rules to follow. However, as you do the Work for yourself and hear others doing it – you do pick-up certain spiritual concepts. But these spiritual concepts are the consequence of performing releasing and/or inquiry for yourself – they are not taught by a teacher or guru – they are experienced. In this way, you get to know what is true and what is not, through your own experience, through the interaction and questioning of your own heart. The problem with most self-help and spiritual “teaching” is that they just give you a whole load of concepts and principles, that someone else has conjured-up or experienced in their own life, and then expect you to just accept it as true.

For more information on The Work, please visit the following official website: http://thework.com

What About Prayer?

When a Christian embraces releasing and/or inquiry, he or she must consider the role of prayer. In fact, even without releasing and inquiry the role of prayer must be questioned.

Word of Faith

From around 1998 to 2005 I was heavily into a branch of Christianity which is known as Word of Faith. I bought most of the books on faith by Kenneth E. Hagin. Hagin often wrote in his books that everything that pertains to life is written in the Bible; any need that you have, if it is written in the Bible, you can have it if you believe it and claim it. Hence the nickname “Name it and Claim it”.

Up until the moment a Christian gets hold of this faith teaching, they are inclined to use prayer as a means of asking God for things. But faith teaching focuses on Bible verses that tell you what you already have in Christ. For example, 1 Peter 2:24 NIV says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” So if you were to pray along the lines of this verse, you might make the following declaration, “1 Peter 2:34 says that by Jesus’ wounds I was healed. Christ bore my wounds on the cross; He bore my sickness so that I don’t have to. I therefore declare that I am already healed.”

Back-up Verse Theology

The problem with Word of Faith is that you end-up living your life by anxiously finding Bible verses to back-up everything you do or want. Darin Hufford of the The Free Believers Network calls this concept, "Back-up Verse Theology". Christians really can get rather obsessive with this concept, to the point were they can’t even go to the grocery store to buy some milk, without first having a back-up verse to support it.

Back-up Verse Theology disconnects the heart and gets a person into making decisions based on written text. Furthermore, a person can basically make scripture mean anything they want it to: if you get six different people to read a Bible verse, you could get six different interpretations. People might disagree with that statement, but I have seen it happen time and again. It is like a lot of other things in life, in that you only hear what you want to hear, you only see what you want to see and you only believe what you want to believe. A person’s interpretation of scripture, therefore, is largely determined by their needs, aspirations, fears, and pride and life experiences thus far. Human beings are essentially selfish by nature; we tend to want what is best for us and our nearest-and-dearest.

Prayer and Blessings

Kenneth E. Hagin’s books on faith were just like the extravagant claims made by many evangelists today: Hagin would quote a scripture text, his interpretation of the text, how he prayed or confessed that text and what happened as a result. This inevitably leads some Christians to believe that they can pray the same prayer and be blessed in a similar spectacular fashion. This approach fosters fanaticism and fantasy – leading people into an alternate existence that is far removed from reality.

Prayer is not a “magic wand” that you can use in order to get blessed how you want, when you want. Despite this, preachers know how to manipulate a crowd of predictable, desperate Christians by playing the crowd according to their needs. Preachers will often use clichés and pep-talk to stir-up the crowd’s fantasies. They will say things like, “God doesn’t just want to do something good in your life – He wants to do something amazing!” Okay, there might be an element of truth in that, but I cannot help but feel that it can get you away from reality and into a realm were you have your head in the clouds expecting something miraculous to happen, rather than just getting on with your life in the here-and-now. Miracles can and do happen, I won’t doubt that, but we can run into difficulty when we are “believing God” for this or that.

Prayer is not a means of “blackmailing” God into giving you what you want. Some Christians will pray something along the lines of, “Lord, Lord, Your Word says that if I sow diligently then I will reap a harvest. Now you know Lord that I’ve been making a lot of effort serving in the Sunday school at church for two years now. So I now demand that I reap the reward for the good work that I have sowed…” Basically, blackmailing God doesn’t work!

It never ceases to amaze me how long a person can be held captive by the promises of charismatic preachers. It is tempting to believe that if you could just pray the right sequence of prayers persistently enough – you could experience the same kind of miracles that you hear about in the lives of other people in the church. But it is only when years have passed by in your life and nothing significant has happened that you finally being to consider that perhaps none of these amazing, way-out things you’ve been hoping and praying for are actually going to happen. At that point it is quite possible to lapse into despair or perhaps get angry towards the church, and maybe God, because you feel that you’ve been duped.

For more information on this subject, check out Darin Hufford’s blog on Spiritual Porn Addiction and the The Free Believers Network podcast The Lust of Sensationalism, April 14, 2010.

The Grace Message

Since 2004 or 2005 I came into what is known as the “grace message”, which moves away from rule keeping and into the love of God. Most Christians, who come into the grace message, first go through a season of religious legalism. This season of religious legalism can often last for several years. It seems that the legalism, which represents the Old Testament, seems to prepare the heart for love, by providing a contrast of what love is not.

The grace message moves away from religious performance and focuses more on knowing that you are right with God, just the way you are, without having to keep rules and modify your behaviour. This is a huge relief to those people who have believed that they need to maintain a certain standard of holiness; otherwise, they would be cursed by God.

The grace message looks back upon Word of Faith teaching and explains why it does not work and what faith really is. From this perspective, we can see just how much of an effort it really is to accurately identify what you genuinely need, find a Bible verse that says you can have it (or that it is already yours) and then confess it until you receive it. Wouldn’t it be so much better to be blessed by God when you don’t even expect it?

The grace message focuses on the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:31:33.

³¹ "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³² "For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Matthew 6:31-33

So it seems that the secret to getting your needs met and living in abundance, seems to be to not worry about things. Despite this verse, we still tend to worry about basic provision. As soon as we feel anxious about what we need, we start to plan and figure things out – we are worrying about it. A lot of so-called prayer is motivated out of worry. Some people pray because they worry that God won’t provide for them unless they do. We get this impression that God is sitting at a desk in Heaven, stacked high with prayer requests and that we need to convey to God how important our need is, otherwise, we will just be ignored. It is truly exhausting to have to pray about every little thing in your life and for the lives of others.

Real faith comes when we embrace the concept that God loves us and knows what’s best for us; that we just need to trust in Him and not worry about things and that He will meet our needs, as and when they arise, without us having to pester Him about them.

Prayer as Heart-Felt Expression

So is prayer is not required to get our basic needs met – what is its purpose? There is always a motive behind a prayer. Fear and lust can motivate a person to pray, to an extent. But fear and lust tend to not last that long and eventually you get worn out. Love is the more powerful motivating force that enables a person to endure with a situation or activity for however long it takes. When a person prays out of fear or obligation, they tend to just “worry their prayers”. Prayer as a religious obligation tends to be awkward, repetitive, predictable, mechanical and ineffective.

It is only when prayer is expressed naturally from the heart that it becomes something intimate and powerful. Prayer is therefore, an expression of the heart towards God, as part of an intimate relationship with Him. Prayer is not a means of “getting stuff”.

The best example of prayer in the Bible, I believe, is King David in the book of Psalms. David often cries out to God, expresses himself naturally and lovingly. David obviously had a strong relationship with God and experienced the presence of God and His favour on his life, firsthand. David prayed boldly; he knew what he wanted and did not pray according to a formula that someone else had recommended.

When Prayer Does not Seem to Work

I think one of the definitions of madness is to do the same thing over and over again, expecting the same result every time (when it actually never happens). We are told in James 5:14 that if someone is sick, you can call for the elders of the church to pray the prayer of faith and they will be healed. Well, it seemed to work every time for Jesus – but it does not seem to work a lot of the time for most Christians. Despite this, we will still pray the same prayers over and over again, expecting the same result.

I reached a point whereby I just got fed-up with prayer and just stopped doing it. Christians get prayer requests all the time from people on the internet or in church. I tend to just ignore prayer requests now, because I know it just won’t work. This sounds like I don’t have faith, but I just don’t want to feel that sense of disappointment when my prayer does not get an answer. I’m not alone in this and I know that many Christians feel the same, but won’t admit it. Fortunately, The Free Believers Network hosts have expressed these same feelings about prayer as I have.

I cannot tell you the amount of times I’ve tried to pray and nothing has happened. Despite being single for many years and reading lots of books on faith and prayer – still I find that my mind goes blank a lot of the time when I sincerely attempt to pray about something. It reminds me of a blog entry on the hugely popular blog Stuff Christians Like, entitled Treating our quiet times like magic spells.

I do believe that prayer does work and it is powerful. But unless you are like King David in the Bible with a strong, intimate relationship with God – prayer could very well be a struggle for you. Prayer can actually become something that works against us in that it becomes an excuse to rail against God and to express your fears and anger towards Him, in a way that seems acceptable, even Biblical. Prayer can also be a bit of a cop-out, a platitude, an excuse that we use to avoid something, “Don’t worry brother – I’ll pray for you…” This reminds me of the The Free Believers Network podcast episode, “Using the God Card To Avoid Intimacy”, 11^th December 2009. In this podcast, the hosts discuss the ways in which people blindly use Christian lingo as a way to hide from intimacy with others.

Sometimes people need our practical help more than they need our prayers. As James 2:14-16 points out:

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?

¹⁵ Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.

¹⁶ If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?

James 2:14-16 NIV

Perhaps then, it is best for insecure Christians to actually leave prayer for a while until they believe that they are loved by God and right with Him? Knowing that everything flows from there, including met needs. I don’t want to try to lay down a spiritual “template” here and try to establish rules and guidelines. If you really want to pray, then by all means, pray! But I think it helps if we can somehow get the right perspective on prayer and to really examine our motives behind it.

Inquiry – The Only Prayer You Will Ever Need?

I think the transition from prayer to inquiry has been greatly facilitated by the realisation that God is not waiting for me to pray, ask, claim or attract things, before He will move in my life and bless me with something. Neither is faith based around concepts, such as believing in the virgin birth, miracles, the rapture and so forth. Faith is not a means of “believing God” for something, like a new car or a spouse. God knows what we need and is more than willing to provide us with those things. But I am convinced that what gets in the way of this process is our own thinking, more to the point, our worrying; worry is, of course, an expression of fear. When we worry about having something, we really don’t believe that we can have it. Yet faith says that we already have something.

Genuine faith believes that God is good and that we are accepted by God just as we are. When you come out of religious legalism, you can still have some rather restrictive beliefs that prompt anxious thoughts. Inquiry is the idea means by which we can question those anxious thoughts and come to see that they are not true.

The truth of the matter is that to a great extent, none of us really know in the long run where our lives are going to lead, and therefore, what we really need in this moment. We could be praying for things we don’t need or things that would not be good for us at this moment.

Inquiry works by inquiring into the anxious thoughts that arise in the moment, the thoughts that insist that we need a certain thing or that a certain person or situation needs to be changed. Rather than taking an anxious thought and trying to reverse it or find relief from it by wishing, hoping and praying for something else – it would be better if we simply questioned that thought in order to find relief from it that way. But it would seem that we are often reluctant to resist and relinquish these anxious thoughts that insist we need this or that. A thought that cries, “I need more money”, can prompt many anxious prayers to God demanding that very thing. It takes a certain spiritual maturity and a change of perspective to question that thought using inquiry, knowing from the outset that the conclusion, the turnaround, is going to be, “I don’t need more money.” It is the freedom from these thoughts that brings lasting peace and the ability to live your life as it was meant to be lived – until you find relief from anxious thoughts – you may never truly know what that is. I do believe that there is scope for asking God for things in prayer, the Bible seems contain many such instances. But until I reach the kind of level of boldness, intimacy and trust towards God – my prayers are likely to be nothing more than expressions of insecurity or dull rituals.

What About Faith?

I just recently wrote some entries in my Christian blog The Divine Nature which I feel provide a summary of my Christian journey so far:

Grace Origins…How It All Started

Grace Elements…Righteousness and No-condemnation

Grace Elements… Unionist Teaching

Grace Elements… Free Believers / Anti-I.C.

A New Found Freedom

I have been led into what is known as the “grace message”, which is basically Christianity without the rules. This grace message seeks to get back to what Christianity was meant to be - the way it was before man-made religion took over and made it into the restrictive moral code that we see today.

My lifelong struggle with depression and anxiety has been the catalyst that has driven me in a quest for answers. This quest for answers has taken me through many mainstream avenues of self-help and Christianity. There have been the highs and the lows, but on the whole, I must be honest and say that it has been rather disappointing. What peaked in a profound encounter with God in October 1998 seems to have twisting, turning road with many pitfalls and dead ends.

But I am so glad that none of those concepts I was pursuing, worked for me, if they had, I would had stopped right there. If I would have found peace during my religious, Christian rule keeping phase – I would have stuck with that; that would have been an awful thing because I would have been proud and judgemental towards those “heathens” and “sinners” that I felt where not obeying God.

I remember attending the annual New Age fair in London when I first moved to the area – this would have been around 1995 to 1997. I saw some wacky things there! I remember believing that certain gemstones and crystal had certain special properties that I would experience if I wore them. I remember buying a sachet of yellow dye, a “colour bath”, which I could add to bathwater and bathe in it to make me more intelligent – because it would attract a particular energy. If you are reading this and you are into New Age, I don’t mean to make fun of your beliefs – but I have experience a lot of it and I can honestly say in hindsight that most of it is wacky and impractical.

All I was really looking for was something that brought me peace of mind and a sense of purpose. It seemed to me that at every stage in my spiritual journey, there were always those people who seemed to have it all together: people, who seemed to know it all, were confident and seemed to be proof that whatever they believed in, worked. But I feel that these sources of inspiration were a really bad distraction from what really mattered in life.

Now that I think about it, it seems that no matter what beliefs you hold onto, if you are confident, you can convince yourself and others that what you believe is the right thing. The various cults that have been spawned in the last few decades, they have all been headed by strong, charismatic leaders: David Koresh for instance, who convinced his followers to kill themselves. I would even include the Jehovah’s Witnesses in this list of cults. The Watchtower Bible Tract Society as they like to be called has seen tremendous growth in a relatively short space of time – all due to strong leaders who furthered the cause. Apparently, the Mormon Church is the richest church in the world – it all comes down to strong leaders who hold their devoted followers in their sway.

I think one of the biggest revelations I ever gained was that of the subconscious mind and conditioning: operant conditioning and classical conditioning. Ever since I read Joseph Murphy’s, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind around 1994 – I feel my whole perspective on life changed. Nowadays I am convinced that every little thing you experience, think and feel contributes towards conditioning the subconscious mind, negatively or positively. The result is that you are either a secure minded person or a negative minded person: one will lead a happy, fulfilling life whilst the other is more likely to live a frustrating and disappointing life. The difference is, of course, all in your mind – what you believe. It is for this reason that we need to look at the subject of faith. But it really does seem to me that no matter what spiritual or religious “template” you apply to your life, if you are confident, positive-minded and secure – your life is bound to go well for you and you are more likely to be able to influence others in what you believe.

I cannot tell you the amount of time I have put into studying and writing about the causes of depression and anxiety – it has been a mystery to me. It does seem to be a combination of experiences, thoughts and feelings, all of which seem to contribute towards a person either being positive or negative, secure or insecure. The answer to a happy and rewarding life seems to lie in simply being happy, positive-minded and content in life. I have been through many of the popular forms of claiming things and attracting things through affirmations and I can honestly say that it really does not work. Most “normal”, secure and positive-minded people don’t live their life that way; it is really only the negative-minded, insecure people of this world who attempt to control their lives through trying to “attract” and “claim” things.

I have come to the conclusion that best way to live a happy and successful life, is to simply not worry about things. It seems that as soon as we start worrying about things, we try to control reality, and as soon as we do that, we suffer and we struggle. If you will take an honest look at affirmations, you will see that they are an effort to attempt to alleviate worry, suffering and struggle – through the acquisition of power, possessions and relationships. But it is the very pursuit of these things that causes people to worry and to resist reality.

I look back on my Christian pursuits and beliefs and really begin to wonder what really worked well, what was true, what was a misnomer and so on. I honestly do admit that trying to convince the releasing and inquiry communities to become Christians is rather futile. It is my hope, however, that I can present a Christianity based on love, not rules, that will at least prompt an element of curiosity in people that would cause them to want to know more. My heart does go out to Christians who have been abused by the church and are struggling with a religion that demands performance and adherence to a set of rules.

It seems hard to fathom, but all of that religious rule keeping and religious abuse is actually all part of the journey. Galatians 3:24 says that the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ. The Apostle Paul himself was a zealous Pharisee who persecuted Christians. Paul was not just abusive – he killed people! It seems that an aspect of knowing what love is found in knowing what it is not. The Bible is divided between the Old Covent and the New Covenant; one is based on rules and one is based on love. It seems that most Christians experience life lived in the Old Covenant, following rules, before coming into the grace message, the New Covenant, where they come to know God’s love for them.

I am just glad I have come into what is known as the “grace message”. Thankfully, there is a revolution going on now in the Christian world. Despite the sharp decline in church attendance, more and more Christians are becoming part of the revolution as they find relief from the oppression of religious performance and they come to know the Father’s love for them through Christ.

If I could “witness” Christ to someone now – I think I would point them to one of the grace preachers on my Grace Preachers List and Grace Preachers List II on my Christian blog, The Divine Nature. I would advise people to simply download the freely available messages from my favourite grace preacher, Bertie Brits.

But the weirdest thing is they many people just don’t seem to “get” this message: they don’t receive it in their hearts. It would seem that many Christians first go through adversity before they can humble themselves enough to become a Christian. Furthermore, hardly any Christians up to now seem to have come to the knowledge of God’s love for them, without first having to jump through all the religious hoops and experience all the wacky fads in the church.

Since the start of the year, I have really enjoyed listening to The God Journey and The Free Believers Network: "Into the Wild". I've downloaded as much as I can of these podcasts and am mostly listening to “Into the Wild”. These podcasts are radical and take Christianity out of the concept of organised religion as we see in the church system. These podcasts hardly touch upon scripture, preferring to look at the language of the heart and live according to love. I think it is good to balance this kind of “teaching” with messages from someone like Bertie Brits, who will help you to see the Bible from the correct perspective of God’s love towards us. But if you have not gone through those years of abuse in the church through religious performance, you may find it rather hard to relate to what they are saying and to sense the freedom in what they convey.

Life is about knowing that you are okay the way you are and that God accepts you independently of your behaviour and conduct – the Bible uses the term “righteousness” to describe this condition. The true message of the Gospel is the complete opposite of the Old Testament law of the Ten Commandments and the numerous rules and rituals that were followed, and are still followed today, by the Jews.

It has taken me a long time to get to the place, spiritually, where I am now. I don’t have it all together and I still struggle with depression and anxiety. But even the hosts of The Free Believers Network admit that they also struggle with depression. It seems that whenever you resist reality you experience stress, which in turn, leads to that aching emptiness on the inside that we know as depression. But I do concur with the experiences of Darin Hufford of The Free Believers Network, in that trying to suppress your emotions when you are feeling bitter towards the church, and anything else in life, is probably the worst thing you can do.

I spent a lot of time and effort studying the Bible from this perspective of grace. I honestly thought that studying the Bible from the correct perspective would change my beliefs and attitudes, and therefore, my life. But I can honestly say that it has not changed my life very much at all. In fact, it has probably made me more anxious as it has caused me to hold onto certain expectations.

It is difficult to know what works and what does not work when it comes to self-help, New Age and Christianity. Anything that focuses on acceptance of self and love for others, is moving in the right direction. I believe in Christ and I believe that faith in the true Gospel is a good thing. In fact, I believe that proper faith in the Gospel can be an incredible thing. The world has developed a concept of Jesus that sees him as long-haired and effeminate, as depicted by Leonardo De Vinci in the painting of the Last Supper. We have seen a very good looking Jesus with an American accent as portrayed by Hollywood, particularly during the fifties and sixties. Even New Age presents us with a Jesus who, to be honest, is a bit of a hippy who only ever talks about love and peace (which is quite different to the Jesus of the Bible).  The real Jesus, I believe, is the personification of our source of strength and freedom; as well as representing and bringing God’s love for us to humanity – that can only ever be good news.

I find that the more I try to pin down what beliefs were right or wrong, good or bad, the more I find myself trying to create more rules, concepts and formulas for other people to follow. I suppose I’ll never really know what beliefs really worked for me and benefited my life. There is so much teaching on suffering out there; it is rather inspiring to hear the testimonies of others who relate how something wonderful came out of their suffering.

We cannot change the past and the best thing that we can do is to embrace who we are now fully, as well as what has or has not happened to us. It seems to be the way in which we deal with past traumas that largely dictate how we are going to experience life from this moment on. One way of seeing it is that everything that happened to me in the past, even all of the spiritual misnomers and religious abuse, was all part of the journey and all contributed towards who I am now, and who I am becoming. I like to see it as a big block of marble, which a great sculptor can carve away at in order to produce a masterpiece. I like to see that sculptor as God. I know I cannot help God – but I can hinder Him: I hinder him with my strong opinions, ambitions and judgements.

I honestly don’t know what is best for me right now. But I know that my own thinking interferes with my life. When I hold onto a belief, I suffer. Even when I studied the Bible from the perspective of God living in me by faith – I still struggled with thoughts such as, “He should…they should…she shouldn’t…I’ll never…” Perhaps something wonderful has been created in me through the spiritual revelations I’ve gained. But none of it will benefit me if I am still reacting badly against life and resisting reality in my mind.

This is where releasing and inquiry comes in. Rather than attempting to discern what principles and beliefs are good, bad, right or wrong – it is much better to simply release and/or inquire (I prefer inquiry at the moment) with who you are now and what you believe at this moment. The awful thing about following a set of rules is that you disconnect the heart in preference to listening to your head. Releasing and inquiry help a person to re-establish that heart connection, that place where God lives, so that you can truly know what is right for you now, what decisions you should make and finding freedom from the past so that you can experience peace from this moment onwards. As I continue with releasing and inquiry, I’m finding that there are some Biblical concepts that I still hold onto, such as my right standing with God through faith in Christ. But many of the other beliefs, particularly those that oppose love, simply fall away under the truth that inquiry brings.

Inquiry versus Repentance

The concept of repentance is found throughout the Bible, examples being Luke 13:5, Luke 17:4 and Acts 2:38. Repentance has been taken to mean the confession of sins. It has been assumed that in order to become a Christian, a person must first repent, typically through the recital of what is known as a Sinner’s Prayer. Interestingly though, the Sinner’s Prayer is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. This is proof that the Sinner’s Prayer is actually a man-made concept established by the church.

The Bible does mention confession in relation to sin and guilt in Leviticus 5:5, but that was the Old Testament law which the New Testament has superseded. The New Testament actually states that the Old Testament was the ministry of death in 2 Cor. 3:7. Now we have a new and better covenant (Hebrews 12:24).

I think Romans 10:8-10 is probably the main New Testament text for confession:

⁸ But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach):

⁹ that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

¹⁰ For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Romans 10:8-10 nkjv

The prominent Word of Faith preacher, Kenneth E. Hagin, often quoted this text in his books on faith; Hagin did this to illustrate the importance of belief and confession with the mouth going together as a means of having faith. But this concept has been misused into becoming a formula with which Christians can make anything happen in their life, if they claim it by confessing that they have it. This often results in a repetitious, cold recital of words from a script without any feeling.

I would say that confession is an expression of the heart. Matthew 12:34 says, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” The Living Bible puts it this way, “For a man's heart determines his speech.” When you believe something in your heart, you are likely to express it verbally. When the disciples were in the boat with Jesus and the boat started taking in water because of a storm – the disciples cried out, “Teacher, don't you care if we drown?” (Mark 4:38 NIV). If the heart is full of fear – you will speak fear; if the heart is full of confidence – you will speak confidence.

Returning back to the confession unto salvation in Romans 10:10 – I don’t think that needs to be some set script that a person recites; it could be nothing more than an expression of, “Wow! I’m saved!” Confession is simply expressing in spoken words, what is in your heart. In fact, the Greek word translated “confession” actually means to say the same as.

The Greek word translated “repent” means to change one’s mind or to think differently. It is assumed that confession somehow goes together with a change of mind, but this is not necessarily the case.

The term “repentance” is used most often in church in relation to confession of sin. There is growing controversy in the church at the moment regarding confession of sin. Notable Christian grace preachers are standing by the conviction that 1 John 1:9 was not written to Christians and that the concept of confession from sin is nothing more than a misnomer; these grace preachers include Steve McVey, Joseph Prince, Bertie Brits and Bob George. It is not very practical to have to live your life constantly analysing things to see if they are sinful or not; then, having to beg God for forgiveness every time you have done something that you consider to be wrong. There are many Christians who believe that when they sin they come out of fellowship with God, and therefore, they must repent in order to get back into God’s favour and blessing. The great news is that through Christ we can now live in unbroken fellowship with Him.

¹⁰ He died once for all to end sin's power, but now he lives forever in unbroken fellowship with God.

Romans 6:10 TLB

Repentance is nothing more than a change of mind. There is something cold and mechanical about having to ask God to forgive you every time you succumb to a bad habit, get angry, swear or look adoringly at a member of the opposite sex. When Christianity becomes all about being saved from hell and not sinning – it becomes distorted, fear-based and loveless. It is only when Christianity becomes about love and a relationship with God that it becomes living and active. If you decide to live your life a certain way, to do or not do a certain thing, do it because you want to and you know the consequences of indulging or avoiding that thing. Don’t try to live your life a certain way just because someone else, or the Bible, says that it is good, bad, right or wrong. When try to you live your life by a set of rules, you engage the mind and disengage the heart. People live their life by rules when they allow fear and guilt to control them. When you live by love, you allow your heart (and intuition) to dominate you.

When a person truly repents, they come to the sudden realisation of how what they are doing, or not doing, affects their life and perhaps the lives of others around them. But if a person knows that something is bad for them, like smoking for instance, asking God for forgiveness every time you smoke is not really repentance – it is more like a means of being absolved of guilt.

I have found that every action is first determined by a desire. Every desire is determined by a thought. Behind every wrong behavioural pattern are a pattern of wrong thoughts. When the focus is on behaviour modification, the result is a suppression of desire and a futile attempt to control behaviour, which never works. To focus mainly on controlling behaviour and action is like focusing on the fruit, rather than getting to the root.

It helps enormously when we approach things at the level of thought. If we can control our thinking – we can control our lives. However, it is not that easy in that thoughts arise from the subconscious mind, often unannounced. I have struggled with anxiety most of my life, and I can vouch for the difficultly in trying to substitute negative thoughts with positive ones, as recommended by many self-help books.

In order for repentance to benefit us in some way, we need to get a revelation of how a pattern of thinking affects us. Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, but it would appear that government health warnings that smoking can kill – does not seem to do the trick. In my previous blog entry, The Fear Factor, I discussed the way in which the church attempts to use fear in order to try to control people and to instil disciple in people. Fear is not always an effective weapon in the struggle against wrong behaviour, if it was, all of our prisons would be empty!

In a previous blog entry entitled The Ticking Time bomb Analogy, I discussed the way in which life circumstances can literally explode in our lives at certain times. It seems that our stubborn beliefs and attitudes can become fertile ground for negative circumstances to grow from a small seed to something big. It is often only at that moment when something begins to adversely affect our lives, that we suddenly wake-up and notice it. But at that moment, of course, it is often too late to do anything much about it. If only we could become aware of these things earlier so that we could “nip them in the bud”.

Repentance, a change of mind, does come to us freely and spontaneously at times. You can suddenly become overwhelmed with a sense of sorrow at just how your angry outbursts are affecting your partner, for instance, and you want to do something about it. More than anything though, just check on the inside and see how it feels when you hold onto a certain belief – does it bring you peace or stress? In this way, you engage the heart rather than the cold, mechanical and loveless pursuit of following rules. There seems to be something really powerful about noticing the affect that a stressful thought has on you, how you feel on the inside and how you treat other people as a result. It is this realisation that seems to have the most power in affecting real change on a heart level. Just by knowing something is good, bad, right or wrong does not always seem to be effective in altering a person’s beliefs, attitudes and behaviour.

This repentance, a change of mind, can be triggered as a result of a traumatic experience – such as divorce. It would be wonderful if there was a process in which a person could expedite this process of repentance by focusing on the way in which they feel when they think a certain thought; with the knowledge that this seems to be the best way to change a person’s thoughts, attitudes and desires, and therefore, behaviour. Otherwise, without such a method, we are left to allow the tragedies and struggles of life to simply shock us into thinking and behaving correctly.

Inquiry through the use of The Work is the best way that I know of when it comes to establishing a change of mind which is effective and lasts. Just four questions and a turnaround is the best means of performing surgery on those thoughts that are spreading throughout all areas of your life and affecting everything you do, just like a cancer. If you are new to The Work you can find out more, I would recommend that you check-out Byron Katie’s official website at http://www.thework.com.

The Fear Factor

I just recently wrote some entries in The Divine Nature which I feel provide a summary of my Christian journey so far:

• Grace Origins…How It All Started
• Grace Elements…Righteousness and No-condemnation
• Grace Elements… Unionist Teaching
• Grace Elements… Free Believers / Anti-I.C.
• A New Found Freedom

This journey has led me into what has come to be known as “the grace message”. This is a focus on the true essence of the Gospel message, which means “the good news”, as express by the Apostle Paul in his letters to the church: the Epistles.

Rather than focusing on keeping a set of rules, the grace message focuses on God’s love for us and who we are in Christ. This sets us free from the burden of constantly having to analyse verses of scripture in order to extract principles and rituals to follow. It is a matter of learning not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and instead, embracing all that God has done for us through Jesus Christ.

It seems that many Christians who come to the revelation of this grace message, first go through a period of time, often years, of pursuing religious obligations that stifle a person’s life and adversely affect their personality and mental and emotional health. Yet it would seem that this season of development in the Christian life is somewhat necessary in that it prepares you for the real truth of who Christ really is and what he represents. It seems that the best way to know what the love of God is – is by experiencing for yourself what it is not. It does make a person wonder if someone can truly value the message of God’s unconditional love for us – without having first gone through the stifling religious system provided by the institutional church. This subject was discussed by the Free Believers Network in the Podcast No Pain No Gain Part 1 Jan 26, 2010 and No Pain No Gain Part 2 Jan 29, 2010.

I recently listened to a Podcast by the Free Believers Network entitled Chemo-Fear-Apy 1^st May 2010, which discussed the way in which the institutional church has used fear tactics to control its followers, to create a reverence for God and to “win souls to Christ”. The hosts of this podcast related how many people in the church today were persuaded to become Christians through a message of “hell and damnation”. Some people have also been enticed into reciting the “Sinners Prayer” through the promise of power, wealth, miracles and healing. Ironically, all of these things just so happen to be the kind of things that entice people into following witchcraft!

In the Chemo-Fear-Apy podcast, one of the host’s spoke of a well-known preacher whom he said had an “anointing from hell” – he literally turned strong Christians into quivering wrecks. The host of the podcast did not mention this man’s name, but it is rumoured that it is John Bevere.

I have read a few books written by John Bevere and heard his teaching on CD. The focus of this man’s message appears to be obedience and respect for authority. Bevere’s teaching is studded with testimonies from a full-time ministry perspective of the dangers of disobedience to God and not respecting authority. I feel that I have no reason to doubt this man’s experiences and even the convictions of his heart. I believe that obedience and respect of authority is indeed important. But it is the way this man goes about trying to convey the message and how people are meant to process what he says – that is what concerns me. Just by giving people a horror story of what happened when he made a wrong decision, is no viable means of instilling obedience and correct attitudes in people.

It seems that fear does work to some extent when it comes to influencing a person’s behaviour. If you hold a gun to a person’s head, for instance, I think you can pretty well get them to do almost anything. But on a more down-to-earth level – you can subtly influence people to do things they would not normally do, by threatening to withdraw approval or support from a person or to not do a certain thing for them. Religion uses this technique of manipulation and behaviour modification through fear; take for instance the preaching of the story of Jonah getting swallowed-up by a whale for failing to act upon the dictates of God.

It seems that many Christians dutifully turn up to church every Sunday to get a fresh infusion of fear. Fear is an effective motivator: if you are wandering through a jungle or the desert and you see a snake or a ferocious wild animal – you are likely to run for your life. But fear is no substitute for love when it comes to genuine heart transformation that really lasts.

So when a Christian comes into the grace message, the message of God’s unconditional love for them, there is a tendency to utterly reject everything they have been told and taught before in the church regarding obedience through the threat of fear.

Does this mean that the message of the likes of John Bevere and Joyce Meyer are untrue and not applicable anymore? Personally, I find myself in agreement with the likes of John Bevere in that obedience and a bad attitude does make trouble for a person. But I am more inclined to move away from the focus on disobedience in the form of action and to focus more on the root causes of disobedience: wrong beliefs and attitudes. After all, most of what we do, if not all of what we do, is motivated from a belief and attitude. An attitude is our belief system turned inside out and exposed to the world.

Trying to control behaviour through focusing on behaviour is one of the most futile and frustrating pursuits a person could ever engage in. It is for this reason, I believe, that the concept of positive thinking was established: it was realised that a person’s thinking was ultimately responsible for a person’s desires, which in turn influenced their actions. But even positive thinking is flawed in that thoughts arise from the subconscious mind with little or no warning; when they do it is often difficult, if not impossible, to control them with a conscious effort of the will.

Many adherents of the Christian grace message assert that as we focus on the message of God’s love for us, then we will experience His love and will then be more able to love ourselves, know what is right for us, and obey God and to love other people as we love ourselves. I agree with this concept to a great extent, but I have also found that just by studying this grace message, my deeply rooted beliefs and attitudes have not been transformed.

Coming into the revelation of God’s love for us is so freeing, so wonderful, that we tend to reject anything fear-based which seems to portray God in the negative light of the Old Testament. This creates sensitivity to the preaching of people like John Bevere that provokes a negative response which causes a person to reject such teaching. But I cannot help but feel that there is also something of a naivety amongst grace believing Christians in that they assume that they can have wrong beliefs and attitudes and everything will go well in life for them. I’m not trying to water down the grace message at all, but there is truth to this matter?

People will cite the story of Abraham when he went to Egypt, lied to Pharaoh, and was made very wealthy as a consequence of that. Christians will say that we can be blessed when we sin – but is there any truth to that statement? I expressed my own beliefs about this matter through a series of blog entries on The Divine Nature:

• Sin and Patience in Relation to Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael
• A Sense of Security and Acceptance – Part 3
• A Sense of Security and Acceptance – Part 2
• A Sense of Security and Acceptance – Part 1
• What is Transgression?
• What is Sin? – Part 2
• What is Sin? – Part 1
• What is Unbelief?
• Will God Bless You When You Sin?

In Summary, I wrote that sin is not just wrong behaviour and action – it stems from wrong desires, thoughts, beliefs and attitudes – it is these things that we should focus on when it comes to changing our world and the world around us. I think one of the greatest revelations that I have gained during my years of spiritual study and practice has been the concept of developing a sense of security. This, I feel, is fundamental to the spiritual growth and maturity of an individual; as well as the mental and emotional health of a person. Without a sense of security – we are left to fend for ourselves through fear.

How are we supposed to process a message or teaching that seems to find its basis in fear, I wonder? I think perhaps it is simply something to bear in mind – not something that we should use to beat ourselves into submission with; neither should we reject it completely nor dismiss it as a lie. For me, I feel that this truth actually brings me a sense of comfort in that it reminds me of perhaps why life is not going so well for me, when I’m still behaving like an arrogant, overly opinionated jerk at times; or I am holding onto unrealistic expectations of myself and others.

Otherwise, I am left wondering why this grace message isn’t really working for me. I could be left wondering whether I need to buy more books on the grace message or listen to more podcasts that tell me about God’s love for me. But to be honest, I feel like I’m through with chasing after the latest spiritual fads and formulas.

The question then becomes: how do I change my beliefs and attitudes for the better? How do I develop a sense of security that releases me from the grip of fear?

I believe that the answer to these questions is to be found in releasing, through the Sedona Method or Release Technique, and through inquiry through the use of the Work. These methods do not rely on the creation of new, more positive beliefs. But rather, these methods seek to establish a sense of security, free from fear, through the effective handling of existing, wrong beliefs. This is done by releasing the hold that these beliefs have on the mind and emotions can be welcomed or let go of; or they can be questioned using the four questions and turnaround, in order to see that they are not true. Through inquiry, you do not try to let go of persistent, stressful thoughts – they eventually let go of you!

The Four Gospels

It might surprise some people to learn that the Four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – are not actually the Gospel at all! These books chronicle the earthly ministry of Jesus, but the actual revelation of the Good News of redemption only came after the death, burial and resurrection of Christ! It is for this reason that the most important books in the Bible are the Pauline Epistles: letters written to the churches by the Apostle Paul.

The four Gospels provide accounts of Jesus’ parables, miracles and his encounters with the Pharisees, who were the religious elite of the day. The members of this Jewish sect would often try to trick Jesus because they felt that their religious empire, and pompous way of life, was under threat. There is a definite parallel here between religious pride during Jesus’ earthly ministry and some religious people today. It would seem that as soon as rule-keeping factors in the equation – pride and judgementalism is the result. I felt that being a Christian entitled me to be blessed more than unbelievers, as if God hates anyone who is not a Christian – but that is not true.

There are many Christians who read the Four Gospels as if they are some kind of rulebook. In fact, some Christians use the cliché of the word “Bible” being an acronym for “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth”. But as soon as the Bible becomes a book of rules, the onus of effort shifts from Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, to what we can do for other people and for God.

Jesus actually raised the Old Testament law to another level in the Gospels. In Matthew 5:20, Jesus said that our righteousness should exceed that of the Pharisees. This seemed impossible because no one was as religious as the Pharisees, who diligently kept all the Jewish laws and customs. Jesus actually opposed these laws by healing on the Sabbath in Mark 3:1-6. If the Pharisees were more interested in loving other people, rather than adhering to rules for selfish purposes, they would have been delighted that someone was healed; but no, we read in Mark 3:6 that the Pharisees plotted with the Herodians to kill Jesus!

Christianity seems to be so steeped in rule keeping that you would think that Jesus was more zealous of keeping rules and rituals than the Pharisees, but no, it was actually the other way around. In Matthew 12:1-2 we read about how Jesus’ disciples plucked corn to eat, but they came under criticism from the Pharisees because it was the Sabbath. You would have thought that Jesus would have agreed with them, if He was more interested in rules than in love. But no, we read in Matthew 12:3-4 of how Jesus answered the Pharisees by relating the story of King David and how he ate the showbread in the temple because he was hungry (which was considered unlawful in a religious sense).

If Jesus was more interested in rules than showing mercy on others then surely He would have been the first in line to stone to death the woman caught in the act of adultery in John chapter 8. In John 8:5 the Pharisees quoted the Law of Moses in that it stated that anyone found guilty of adultery should be stoned to death. Jesus replied to them in such a way that they felt convinced of a guilty conscience and left one by one. The Pharisees were adhering to the Old Testament law as set-out in Leviticus 20:10. Jesus being a Rabbi (Jewish Teacher) should have agreed with them – but He didn’t. The reason why Jesus did not agree with the Pharisees is because He was living according to love, not according to the Old Testament law of do’s and don’ts.

So if even Jesus did not keep the rules – how was it that He lived a life without sin? It was because He lived according to the Father’s love. Jesus fulfilled the law, even though He allowed His disciples to pick corn on the Sabbath; He Himself healed on the Sabbath; and He allowed the woman caught in the act of adultery to go free, rather than agreeing that she be stoned to death.

It is only in the Epistles, the letters to the churches that we read of Christ setting us free from the law so that we could be free to enjoy a relationship with God the Father, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit.

So it seems that the whole purpose of the Four Gospels was to bring man to the end of himself. In other words, Jesus sought to show mankind that they could not stand blameless before God in their own effort; a Saviour was required who would save man from His sins. After all, who needs a Saviour when you think you’re good enough to live without one?