Church Never Taught Me

The Failure of Man-Made & Corrupt Religion

Growing up in several different Lutheran churches, I never understood why it seemed to be a cycle of the same simple messages and stories repeatedly. I always felt that I wasn’t learning new things and could barely stay awake for weekly sermons. I hold no ill-will to those who participate in a muted ideology or for those that feel fulfilled with that kind of experience. I am only sharing this for those that question why most [not all] “religions” and “churches” don’t leave them with an awe-inspiring view of life and a fulfilling relationship with God. Below I share the lessons that the churches I attended growing up did not fully teach or completely left out these important messages.

God’s Gift of Free Will

God gives us FREE WILL, which allows us to choose His will for our life or our own wants. It allows us to choose Him as our Lord & Savior. Let me repeat that, the Heavenly Father that created your entire being gives you the choice in whether to believe in Him and his goodness & glory. He wants nothing more than for you to choose Him & His love for you.

Understanding that bad things will happen in this fallen world, but God uses EVERYTHING for our good if only we have eyes to see, ears to hear and a heart open to growth and understanding. Romans 8: 28 states, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

Love is All You Need

Everyone longs to be loved unconditionally, unfortunately in this world we all end up looking for that love in all the wrong places. Our soul yearns for the type of love that only God provides. God’s love is our home and when we lose connection to that love in this life, we struggle to find that peace & comfort of home. I have so much more to say about this, it will need a future post of its own.

You Are the Church of God

The word church is overused in modern society and much of modern religion has allowed corruption to distort the most important parts of this life we live. Church is a building structure that people gather to worship the Lord. What that church never taught me was that I am a part of God’s living church or “ecclesia”. God’s children are THE church, and Jesus is the ruler of this earthly realm in which we live. While worshiping in a church building with other believers is wonderful, it is more important to develop and consistently strengthen our personal relationship with the Lord.

When we choose the Lord and give Him our lives to fulfill His will and purposes, God’s Holy Spirit will fill us, teach & guide us along our journey. Our bodies are a home for God’s Spirit to reside. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 states, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So, glorify God in your body.”

We Battle Evil Every Day

Satan, the Devil, Lucifer, or leader of the Fallen Angels is real & you battle him and his hordes of demons daily. Our individual life is a spiritual battle for your mind and soul. Satan and his demons know God’s word, they study you and they come at you & upon you to steal, kill & destroy you. Satan wants you to fall away from God and he is the father of LIES & deception.

Created in God’s Image

Every human being is created from PURE LOVE, a love that we cannot fully understand from here on earth. God is infinite wisdom, in all things, all knowing and consuming power, light and love. What does it mean to be created in God’s image? I think about this topic often and think that it has multiple meanings. First, God is Spiritual Father and creator of the universe [MIND/SOUL], Jesus his first earthly son that walked the earth [BODY], and Holy Spirit is helper and teacher that guides our journey to all truth [SPIRIT]. Our human SPIRIT is breathed into us at conception. Genesis 2:7 says, “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”  We are given an earthly BODY to experience the natural world that God created. Our MIND is the unique personality, thoughts, emotions, feelings, logic reasoning, that provide our free will to choose how our SOUL experiences creation and fulfills God’s purpose for our earthly lives.

Secondly, we were created to reflect the goodness, glory, love & joy of our Heavenly Father. Each child born unto an earthly mother is pure and reflects the true essence of our Creator. Though this fallen world quickly attacks us at every angle. Which is why Jesus incarnated on earth as God’s sinless son that sacrificed his life on the cross to overcome sin for all of us. God resurrected him to the Heavenly thrown to allow God’s Holy Spirit to be sent into the earth to connect each of us back to our Heavenly Father that we may walk this journey with God in us, among us and gone before us.

You Are a Spiritual Being

We are spiritual beings having a human experience in this earthly realm that houses the battlefield of good versus evil. The natural world is what we see, hear, smell, taste & touch around us, but there is a spiritual world that we cannot experience without our spiritual senses awakened. The spiritual world has a huge impact on our daily lives no matter whether you believe it exists or not. Important to remember that forces of evil are only powerful if we fall from God.

God’s Spiritual Gifts

Our loving and divine Heavenly Father offers us spiritual gifts that provide everyone the tools needed to fight the enemy that attempts to separate us from God. I don’t ever remember mention of spiritual gifts in church growing up, in fact the Holy Spirit was completely missing.

God gives us our natural talents and the ability to gain new skills to fulfill earthly purposes. But there are a spiritual set of gifts that are available to us when we accept Jesus as our Savior and ask the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. Spiritual gifts allow believers to fulfil God’s will on earth and to build and increase the Kingdom of God right here and now.

God the Father blesses us with gifts of purpose and each of us shines in one of these specific love languages: prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading and mercy. This is the overarching gift that God gives us to interact with those around us, not to limit the use of each of these gifts, because there are no limitations on God's blessings.

Jesus bestows our specific ministry gifts upon those he chooses such as apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher.

And finally, the Holy Spirit offers incredibly important tools such as wisdom, knowledge, discerning of spirits, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, different tongues & interpretation of them.

God made each of us truly unique with gifts, tools and responsibilities that he created just for us. We all play a vital role in fulfilling God’s will on earth as it is in heaven while building and strengthening His Kingdom.

Love One Another

Of course, the church mentioned loving your neighbor as yourself, but this has become somewhat distorted by society. Jesus gave us the perfect example of how to live our lives. Jesus loved like no other, but he also called out bad and evil every chance he got. Jesus called out the church leaders of the day for several things, he even called out his own disciples for their sins and shortcomings. Today, it seems that people believe that loving someone means you agree with all their decisions and actions.

For example, I have a relative of mine that constantly tells others that they don’t love him because he believes that he should be female, and they are against transgender people. I will always love and have love for him no matter what he chooses [God gave him that free will], but that does not mean that I must agree with his choices. I believe that God created him a male and that the creator of the universe doesn’t make mistakes. So many examples today of Christians sitting back and agreeing with evil, because they should love and accept everyone without disagreement.

Jesus’ Word

A sentence in the Bible that stands out to me, but apparently not to the churches I grew up in is John 14:12, Jesus says, “Truly, Truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

Jesus healed the sick, delivered people from demons, multiplied food, commanded storms, walked on water and raised people from the dead! God works thru his children, and He wants us to participate in everyday modern miracles. The churches failed to mention spiritual gifts and never once mentioned that healing, deliverance and all things Jesus did are all not only possible now, but happening every day. There are entire ministries devoted to healing and deliverance across America and the entire world. God’s children must learn how to fulfill God’s will on earth, and it starts with getting to know the heart of God. There is always more to learn about God and His never-ending love for us and want for us to live a beautiful life that He created us to experience.

Conclusion

If you don’t believe in Jesus or the power of the Holy Spirit living inside you, repent of your sins, forgive others and ask Jesus to come into your life. I have zero doubt that God will better your life and the world you experience if you let Him.

And if the church you currently attend doesn’t discuss the above topics, please look for one that does or find online spirit-filled leaders and worship that can help keep you mindful of the spiritual world surrounding us. It will be life-changing to live a spirit-filled life closer to God than you ever thought was possible. What does it hurt to try?