Prayer isn’t what you think it is, and neither is God (part 1)

I’m fasting and praying for miracles throughout Advent/Christmas, and sharing excerpts from the Shepherding All God’s Creatures prayer event. If you’d like to join, or need prayer, let me know and I’ll lift you up every day.

A glimpse into my “why” and my heart… There were scientific and philosophical reasons I couldn’t simply reject the idea of spirituality/intelligent design/God when I wanted to, and there were historical reasons to believe the man Jesus Christ was the incarnation of God. (But now that I know him, what a perfectly loving and irreligious God!)

However, much of religion is not consistent with the same logic or evidence, or even the Bible itself! Example: Religion teaches (through humans like Augustine) that “God is in control” and that we pray in order to convince God to do something, as if “He” always *could* yet chooses not to. But Jesus treated suffering as if evil (not God) were causing it, and he always wanted to help fight it – but sometimes couldn’t!

I pray to live in resistance against that evil, deceived state of the world, as if to poke holes in the spiritual oppression so that God’s miraculous light can sometimes break through the darkness. We don’t always see it happen, but that’s reflective of warfare – of other wills being involved – not “God’s will”…

But if more of us recognized our power/role in prayer – and our responsibility to reflect God’s love in ACTION – it would help accomplish some of what Jesus came to do which isn’t fully manifested yet. Even many Christians are confused about what we celebrate and WHY, which leads to a misconception of God that isn’t beautiful enough to change us or the world.

All creation is suffering and waiting for us to see the truth about God (and therefore  about  lnfjourselves – Romans 8: 20-23), “Christmas” and the cross, and why God offered himself as a gift to all. I’m respectful of others’ free will to reject it; but most people actually reject an illusion of God. I just pray people are set free from religious deception so that they can freely choose. And I pray all creation will once again be set free from the blinding control of evil in this present darkness.

“Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the LORD.”
Isaiah 11:9

“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” 1 John 3:2

“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” 1 John 3:8b (NOT to save us from an angry God! but from a spiritual evil which is inherently destructive by stealing us away from the source of life/love)

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:16-18

Thank you for reading and following our blog!  We pray you are blessed by our posts and teaching, and will share with others.  Blessings to you and yours! ~ Jessica Lopez