Why there are so many religions and doctrines of man?

Let´s take a walk back through what we have called the gospel road. First let’s make a few underlying

statements that may need explaining as we go.

1.Man hides his self righteousness behind his sin.

2.The Godhead said let’s make man in our image. “OUR” should be noted.

3.God had a plan from the very beginning to make man in the image of the Godhead. God did not say I

will make man in my image. He said let’s make man in our image. What is that image?

4.If we are made in the God heads image. What does that look like?

Theologians have done us a disservice. They have explained the Godhead as a trinity and it is feeble listening to Christians trying to explain the trinity. They say ,water, steam and ice and such attempts to explain just don't do it. There is no natural explanation for the Godhead and the closest example we have is what the bible translators could not translate.

There is no English word for spiritual koinonia. This word arrived in the bible in Acts 2 right after Pentecost. Perhaps a great way to bring understanding is to say it this way. Godhead and koinonia could be seen as the same. Koinonia is God delivering Godhead to man or ¨let’s make man in our image.¨ This is true church and intimacy with God and man. So church if it is correct can only be explained as you would explain the Godhead. To limit it to our humanistic ways is to put the God head into mans sardine tin.

So without entering koinonia we are not completed as being created in God’s image. We have looked naturally at what God said and have missed the spiritual side of the statement. So there are a few things that are essential in getting a small understanding of the journey to koinonia.

1.    Without having independent identity we cannot be Godhead koinonia. The Godhead has individual identity that they have laid aside to be one with each other. They are separate but they are one. Their individuality is transparent as they choose to lay it aside to be one. In koinonia we cannot be united with the godhead until we have had independent identity and laid it aside. The only way to have independent personality is for us to break away from God and to think we can do it ourselves. How this happened is completely amazing really.

2.    But before we start out in talking about this lets remember God is completely all powerful nothing happens that He does not or has not allowed.

So the first step of creation was to use lucifer. Lucifer became self righteous and was thrown out of heaven. He took a third of the angels with him and it always puzzled me how these angels would agree to go with him. Lucifer was in fact playing a very important part of creation without even knowing it. God had a master plan to create man and man needed identity to be in the Godheads image.

So Lucifer now known as satan came into the garden The same garden of Eden where you have to ask yourself why did God put a tree there that he knew satan would make man eat from? I suggest God needed man to enter the self righteousness of lucifer. In heaven sin never existed and never will but obviously self righteousness did. Lucifer became self righteous and was thrown out of heaven. Now Adam and Eve entered the same self righteousness as lucifer and were thrown out of Eden and separated from God.

God’s creation was going according to his plan and man now had identity separate to God. Man had become self righteous on his journey to become God righteous. In that self righteousness man thought he could be one with God and craved to be like God. In fact he still does, many churches teach people to be more Christ like and this is the initial self righteousness that God allowed man to establish to reveal his plan.

Adam and Eve knew they were not Godhead and lucifer had fooled them into thinking he had a way for this to happen. I suggest they knew the godheads plan to make man in their image and knew they were not complete. So let’s now jump to God bringing about his plan. Man desired to be part of the Godhead and I will paraphrase. God met man in his righteousness and says OK you want to be like me and one with me. I will give you 10 commandments. There are only 10 and if you can keep them we will be all good.

Is that not a beautiful thing? God knew he better keep it simple while revealing to man he was self righteous and in being such his self righteousness is offensive to God.

Man tried his hardest and failed. Man made a focus of the failure and tried even harder to be righteous.

Just like we see today in church systems based in mans righteousness. They will always make a focus of sin or the lack of to attain for God. So we know ultimately man failed and I will jump up to John the Baptist and Jesus.

Jesus was an amazing piece of the plan and had been from before the creation of man. Man was at the point he needed to be exposed in his self righteousness and that could only be done by removing his sin. Sin really is a place all men hide their righteousness. Think about it all our sin is somebody else´s fault. We blame our parents, friends, life you name it. Sin is indeed a problem that defines man as he hides from God in it.

So Jesus comes to do away with sin. He did not just forgive sin he did away with it completely and passages like 1 John 3 show us. This passage says if we see sin we have not seen God. You see sin is what defines man and as long as we can see sin or the lack of it we will always think we have attained something or are pleasing to God. This is a compete lie man created. God does not care about the sin he cares about the righteousness and all our attempts at religion feed mans righteousness.

So Romans tells us sin comes via the law and if there is no law there is no sin. Romans then reveals to us how Jesus fulfilled the law. He completed the righteous requirements of the law and in so doing the law was absorbed into Christ. Jesus became the law and did away with the law and in so doing he took away any knowledge of sin. This is troubling to the self righteous part of man. We need our religion and our good works to become like God. As we work on sin, as we see sin in others, as we define sin or our lack of all we are doing is strengthening our self righteous core.

In Jesus we no longer have an excuse for self righteousness and Jesus himself said it is better that I go as I will send you a comforter who will teach you what I say and will come alongside you and will be in you. If Jesus had of remained the focus of sin would have remained with Him. He needed to go so that creation could be competed by the Holy Spirit coming to work and unify with us.

When we finally see we just can’t figure life out and that our self centered actions are limiting us we are able to give up. To say Jesus I don't have the answers my sin has run my life and is a chain that keeps me bound to myself and the systems of the world around me. Then I can turn my life over to Jesus. As man enters Jesus and Jesus enters man amazing things happen. Man via Jesus can now see he can’t do life in his own strength. As man lives his own ways he remains in the power of sin and lives in the carnal knowledge of sin. But in abandoning life or losing life we find life. I lose self to find God self.

The amazing journey continues as Jesus left the and sent the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit now brings us to koinonia and this word arrives in the bible for the first time in Acts2. The day of Pentecost is all about walking koinonia. Man in his self righteousness makes it about manifestations or knowledge but in reality it is the first step in Holy Spirit life.

The baptism of the holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in Tongues shows us we can’t make our new salvation and unity with Christ about us. I must abandon control to speak in tongues. Sure I can still control and tongues does not force itself on me. But my first lesson in spirit life is that I must live God righteousness by the state of who I am not by what I do. The issue we have created as humanistic men is making Pentecost about manifestations or doctrine. It is not a movement of knowledge the Baptism of the Holy Spirit s all about a romantic Holy Spirit co-joined life. It is about surrender of my righteousness and assuming of God righteousness. Now I am free to find my true identity.

So the Spirit filled church becomes self righteous in their claim to power and manifestations and the non-spirit filled church becomes self righteous in their claim to solid bible teaching they can grasp with their self righteous heads and the true church of koinonia refuses to make natural doctrine of God romance. They live Holy Spirit doctrine and the koinonia true bride just enters the flow of love and becomes the flow of love. Koinonia church understands God completes us as we complete God and it is this way as the God head chooses to make it this way. 

Chosen vulnerability.

Understanding gifted people

Any who are gifted always have the danger of becoming so strongly idealistic. Everything around their life goes up for grabs and they ask questions of all. Nothing remains sacred as this person pushes the boundaries in their life. The area of the gift is the gateway to strong ideals of how things should be done and it always borders on problems if not handled correctly.

Think of the frustration when you are good at something, gifted beyond any of your piers or those around you. You see things in a different light and easily can be tipped into frustration of cynicism with the world around.

Questions arise like, wondering why the world does not see it your way when you are only trying to help it. A gifted person can see a whole picture that others just cannot and in seeing the whole picture they many times try to change the world around them to see accordingly.

We have written about self righteousness and here again it resurfaces as a threat to the gift. It is a threat in that is will distract from the fullness of the revealing inside the gift.

What often happens is the person gets sidetracked and pulled away from their gifted area. Sure they are still very much part of the gift as it is part of them but slowly creeps in a frustration or even anger at the world around them. Now the manifestation of the gift is distorted and tries to fit into a place it has no regard in being.

Maybe we could say it this way, a gifted person once frustration sets in starts to play God. The feeling of correctness is overwhelming and the actions to help others while coming from a maybe genuine heart will always produce frustration and anger as they are rejected. Yes some who are dazzled by the magnificence of the gift are bewitched by the environment but outside that circle the world rejects the change. This highlights the need for koinonia community again with a gift. Stay inside your gift and allow others to come to that community who are equally gifted in their areas of expertise. That can never happen when a person righteously is trying to change the world.

We could say that if I have anything to teach others then I am placing myself above these people and in so doing will entertain self inflated and grandiose ideals of self. Even when I can see a problem, as a gifted person who understands spiritual koinonia all I can do is surrender my frustrations, fears and such to koinonia. Now I don’t come with what many perceive as arrogance but rather I come in love and appreciation of others and myself and God. Then in this atmosphere of creation I create.

SPIRIT scenery

In a life of gifts things are seen another way and really in Gods world we understand things have to happen differently to be life. In spirit life we see a picture and live that picture that we see in the gift. As we rest in the picture, intimacy with koinonia, God and man exists and things happen. It is the intimacy of koinonia that produces the needed parts.

Man’s way is to see a picture of what we want and to work on putting the pieces together. The minute we are working to produce in this way our gifts have been sidelined and we are now crossing to areas that are someone else’s gift. So for example the bible gives us a good example. In Ezekiel 37 there is a prophet who is standing in front of a valley of bones. God says to the prophet what do you see and the prophet says I valley of bones, God says he sees a great army. I see this story as a great example of spirit life as a gifted person. God looks and sees a great army. Man looks and sees dead bones. Gifted people look and see a great army in their gift but others just see fragments and bones. The gifted see the bigger picture.

In this story the bones come together and a great army stands before the prophet. Now as ordinary people we are amazed when things come together to form an army. But a gifted person can see the army before it ever exists. They did not build the army it was already in existence and the bones coming together was a natural spiritual event.

A gift inside koinonia can see the future because inside a gift there is no time anything is possible. That cannot be fathomed or understood by mans brain but to the gifted they can see through spiritual eyes.

See the picture and enter the landscape of it. It is then all things are possible to them who believe as there will be an assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. As we rest in heavenly places or in the landscape of the spiritual gifted picture before us life beams out of the landscape and changes the world around us. It creates and in creating others who can see enter the landscape and together life is released life that will change the world one breath at a time.

The natural way we are all very familiar with is we work as orphan hearts to achieve a picture we can see. Independently we can fall into the trap of thinking we can achieve as we are better than others. After all we see things others cannot see. It is in this dangerous slide of death to a gift many frustrations will be encountered and the frustration will be internalized. Trapped by despair we will offend the world around us and ultimately be in danger of persecution and isolation. As what people do not understand they either isolate from or persecute.

The power is not in the picture the power lies in abiding. As we abide in spiritual life brought to us via koinonia then creative power is released. The power is in abiding not in acting. Looking from our carnal eyes we must abandon our identity and take a spiritual identity that can only come from Christ himself. Every religion with Christianity included is an attempt to fabricate this symbiotic relationship. All religion is a failure to connect as it is never about abiding it is about working to be something we are not. While religion keeps us busy striving for a promised pot of gold we can never abide in a spiritual landscape.

I am thankful for the many years I worked inside religious systems. During those years I travelled ministering in churches of tens, hundreds and even thousands. In this a lot was discovered that now bring understanding in greater ways. So some get upset with religion and claim to be away from it but they miss the point the problem is not the name of the organization it is the heart of man. Man’s heart constantly tries to take control. This type of man has an orphan heart that demands respect and its way of doing life.

Take for example a soccer club. I have been very involved with soccer having many kids who play. At first I was astounded at the soccer club we were in. It is totally religious; it ticks moves and acts exactly as a religious church. I could go into all the actions but we all know the actions as we have all done them. Ultimately it boils down to a man worshipping himself and expecting others to follow. If I am the best at soccer coaching then others will recognize that and do as I say to get better results. We now end up with a church of “coach”. The followers do whatever he says and groan about it and talk behind his back about how much of a burden the coach is. They tolerate it as it is their church and after all they are using the coach as the coach is using them. All seek self and cannot see this as the God of this world has blinded their eyes.

If a coach understood the spiritual statement that he who wants to be the greatest among you must be the servant of all. If he had a glimpse of this then koinonia could happen. Now the coach of leader cannot be a servant by choice and actions, it is by a movement of the spirit brought about by a spiritual connection via koinonia. You see in koinonia Christ and others release life to my very being. As they are life together with me the spiritual landscape that is painted is never ending.

Sp to a soccer team a spiritually intelligent coach has realized he is naturally devoid of understanding how to get players to the next level. Yes he can train them and as one great coach said. “A hard working player will always play better than a gifted player who is lazy”. There are many hard working coaches who have no time to enter a spiritual landscape of koinonia. They are too busy working to fabricate a picture but the trouble is they are working from the wrong end.

You can’t see a picture and fabricate it. You can only see a picture and enter it and abide. You can only abide when we understand he who wants to find his life must lose his life. This is a hard statement to grasp and in reality it cannot be grasped it must be entered. It can only be entered as we start to realize we have played God in our own lives and are humbled enough; often by failure to reach the end. Until we reach the end we cannot start. Our natural prowess has to fail before we can lose our life to find spiritual life.

I have talked to no end of people who see a glimpse of a spiritual landscape and want to use it to bolster their position. So for example who would not want the benefits of koinonia and they will use and rape koinonia as much as they can for their own ends. As long as I can see self, as long as I think I can do something to change the world I am useless and will probably ultimately fail. Sure enough I can change the world but until I enter spiritual koinonia the change will never reach the fullness of what it should have been.

So the disease of the young is to see a picture in a gift but in seeing they think they are the picture. They think they are the Lego toy set and in arrogant orphan heart pride push away the spiritual release of life they need to enter a spiritual landscape.

Remember a child plays with Lego and enjoys what it builds but never thinks they are Lego. I have never seen a child pretend to be Lego but they sure pretend to be in the scenery it built. Even a child understands it is their father playing with them that creates amazing Lego landscapes. The gift of Lego given by the father is amazing but the fun begins when dad plays with the child and other brothers and sisters come together and create a landscape of Lego like no other. Now hours of endless fun are created as a community. Nobody thinks they are the Lego, all the Lego is doing is bringing intimacy.

When a coach understands they are not Lego. When they submit their need for identity and validation then landscapes are built like this world has never seen.

So just like you can’t choose your natural family you can’t choose your koinonia family. You are born into it and until we embrace the family we will always act as an orphan. Yes the orphan can build some Lego creations but nothing like what the family can do while being together and making landscapes. Yes each part being perfected by different eyes.