Love God? Religion? Not So Much?

So you say, "I love God. I love Christ. Religion, not so much." If that's so, this episode is for you.

And so welcome. I got something to share that I think would really bring to light where you're at in this season, and so I wanna dive right in.

And what I'm gonna share is not mainstream. It's actually Christ-stream. And I kid you not, this is not out there. I haven't really seen it much out there, and honestly, I wasn't looking for it.

All I was looking for early on was the truth and nothing but the truth. And when I started diving in, I started to realize that the truth was a person. His name is Christ Yeshua. That's why he says, "I am the truth, the way and the life." And so that became my… That began my journey. I wanted to know the truth.

And when I stumbled across this, honestly, it disturbed me. And then I digested it, and it eventually went down really smooth. And from that point on, it's like, wow, this feels right.

And I began sharing it with my husband, and it started doing to him what it was doing to me. It was bringing us closer to God, to know God in a way that I never thought possible. He never thought possible. And so I would be completely selfish if I didn't share this with you, and that's why I'm here.

The Verse That Shattered My Reality: 1 John 2:27

And so let's dive right in. First scripture, 1 John 2:27. I'm gonna share it here. And bear with me because I'm new to this software that I'm using, so I need to get myself familiar with it. All right, let's go here. Okay. Let's use that one. Okay.

1 John 2:27, 2:27, excuse me, from the Easy English Bible says, "But Christ has given the Holy Spirit to you, and he continues to help you, so you do not need people to teach you what is true. The Holy Spirit himself teaches you everything about God's message. He helps you to know what is true. He does not tell you any lies, so you must remember what he has taught you. Continue to live together with Christ."

This one shattered my reality, um, because it says here that, "The Holy Spirit himself teaches you everything about God's message. He helps you know to know what is true." And when it said here, "So you, so you do not need people to teach you what is true," I mean, wow. Okay, God, so I'm looking for all these denominations to see which one is the one I'm supposed to go to, but you're telling me that I don't need a man on the pulpit, a person, to teach me what is true because the Holy Spirit is gonna himself teach me everything I need to know about your message, about you.

And so I grabbed this. Like I said, it was disturbing because after growing up, you know, in, in, in church for so long and, um, understanding that I was supposed to go to a church in order to know about God and, oh, God forbid you miss a Sunday or in, in my case a Wednesday or Friday, 'cause my parents' denomination, the one they went to, it was, it was like that. It, it was… They, they ran a tight ship. And so For me growing up that way to have read this, it put everything on its head that I was taught. And as I walk you through the next one here, it's gonna confirm it even more.

So okay, let's for, for context, for this to really come home to you as it came home to me, keep in mind that 1 John 2:27 was written at a time where Christ had already gone to heaven. He had already risen, he had already sacrificed himself and risen, gone to heaven, and this is John just sharing this message with the churches now that Christ had already left. And so this co- this point in time is important for you to keep in mind because what John is doing here is he's revealing to you in this one verse everything that Christ was telling us when he was here on Earth.

The Samaritan Woman at the Well: John 4:19-24

So, one of the ones that he shared with us, one of those words that he shared with us that John here is pointing to is the account with the Samaritan woman at the well. We all know that one. So let's go there.

And it's John 4:19-24, NKJV version says, "The woman said to him, 'Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.' Jesus said to her, 'Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.'"

Yep, our Lord said it first before John revealed it in 1 John 2:27. So here he says- He says But the hour is coming and now is. Like, that time is, like, right now, right now, not later, later. It now is. Like, he's saying it's right now when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for Father's seeking such to worship Him. It's now. He said it's now. And he told the woman, he said that, "Believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither, on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father."

See, this was important because when you read historically, what, why was she asking this? Why the Samaritan woman was asking our Lord this? Where to worship, if on the mountain or in Jerusalem? It was because the Samaritans and the Jews, they hated each other. Like, though they were Israelites, right? From, from families that are Israelites, from Samaria, they were family, but yet they couldn't stand each other and they saw each other like they were from another world. And to talk to a Jew, to talk to a Samaritan, and vice versa, was, like, unheard of in that time. That's how much the dissension in between them was at.

And they didn't just disagree on this one topic as to where to worship God, and mind you, they worship the same God. But they could not decide and come together in the middle on any, on this topic or a- many other topics. So it wasn't just this one. It was many others.

And so this is why this woman asks our Lord. She had already perceived he was a prophet because he had told her personal things about her life that nobody else would've known. And so when our Lord told her the personal things about her life that, that he wouldn't have known, well, this is where she perceived that he was a prophet, so she took advantage and said, "Hey, this, this man must know where we are to, w- where we ought to worship God. He's gonna give me the word of God to know where I have to worship God, 'cause I don't know if my own people are right about this, but yet I don't even know if the Jews are."

And so she asks him this, and his answer is so key for us to understand that if our Lord said that the time is now that, that we will not, neither worship on a mountain and neither worship in Jerusalem, which he was pointing to the temple- This is letting us know that this t- this that he's talking about is what John is talking about in 1 John 2:27 when he says that we know- we need nobody to teach us, for the Holy Spirit would lead us and teach us everything we need to know

And I like this part that our Lord says right here The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.

There it is. There was gonna be a spirit-type worship. That's why the Lord was letting us know, yeah, you don't n- you're, you won't need to go to the mountain, and actually it's now. You won't need to go to the mountain or to the temple in Jerusalem because you're gonna be worshiping in the Spirit of God, in spirit and in truth, because God is spirit.

He was giving her revelation, but yet he was giving us a revelation of this as well, especially for us, for, for those that have asked like you have Do I go to church to worship? I'm not… I'm fond of God, but I'm not too fond of church. I'm not too fond of religion. He's answering this for you.

Destroy This Temple: John 2:19-22

All right, let's move on He comes, he confirms this word further In John 2:19-22, when our Lord says, He says, so it reads here, "Jesus answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' Then the Jews said, 'It has taken 46 years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days?' But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them, and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said."

Here it is again. It's right in front of our eyes. Our Lord said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." And the disciples perceived that he was speaking of the temple of his body So when he had risen from the dead, it reads, "His disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said."

So what he's saying here is basically he's confirming the word that 1 John 2:27 just told us when I first started this, and he's confirming the word that he gave the Samaritan woman, you will neither need to worship at the temple or the mountain, right? Which is what he was pointed to. When he says Jerusalem, he's pointing at the temple. And so here he is again, letting us know, yeah, whatever, destroy this temple, in three days I'll raise it up. And the, the author here, the disciple here Which is John who wrote this book. He's pointing us to the temple of Christ's body. This is what Christ was pointing to that he was gonna raise.

You see, the author himself informs us and reveals to us here that his body, Christ's body, was gonna become the temple. Yep isn't that freaking amazing?

All right, so where am I? Destroy this temple. His temple was gonna become that place of worship in the Spirit.

All right, so This is where when the Lord makes this makes the statement It was a revolutionary statement. I mean, he was… It was a revolutionary statement, just like it was with the Samaritan woman. These are revolutionary statements in that time Because temple worship was like the, for the Jews, hence why they exed out the Samaritans, though they were family, and didn't talk to them over this, but many other topics.

And so for, for our Lord to say that he was bringing something new, something of this nature that didn't involve the temple anymore, it was revolutionary. Now you can understand why he pissed so many people off. And I know I'm gonna piss some people off, but, you know, I wanna bring this message to people that want to really know the Lord Really want to know the Lord. Because this is what's gonna bring you to the Lord.

The Temple Fell in 70 CE

And so circling back to this, he said, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." You know, that temple was destroyed. When you look at historical articles, I'm not talking YouTube, I'm not talking Facebook, I'm not talking social media, people. Go to the library. Go look up scholarly articles. Go look up historical facts in places where they are reputable facts. Go there and you'll find that this temple was destroyed in 70 CE. 70 CE

And so our Lord knew this was coming. This why, this is why he announced it, not just here, but in another, in another, uh, in another couple scriptures, he prophesies that that temple's gonna be destroyed. But our Lord was bringing in, ushering in something new. He was ushering in a worship that involved worshiping God in the Spirit, in what would be the temple of his body That was revolutionary.

The System We Rebuilt

But yet, let me tell you, in today's world, though the Lord died for us to do away with the man leads man system, which that was the Old Testament system The Old Testament system was a man leads man to God. One man ordained by God, and everybody would go to that man to know what God was saying in every season. That was the old temple system.

Tell me why today's churches look the same way It's a man leads man to God system.

Not the Pastors, the System

I'm not here, and I wanna make this clear, I am not talking about my human brothers and sisters who decided to become priests, pastors, preachers. No. They're victims of the system. That's why I call it system. I'm not talking about the humans. I'm talking about the system that my brothers and sisters, when they feel that God calls them, that's where they go to. They go to that system, bible school, university in order to learn what God wants from them.

And that system teaches them That they are called to lead man to God. So they repeat the same system over here all over again. It's like history repeats itself all over again.

And what our Lord did was he brought something really, really, really different for us and to us. He made his body the new temple. He made his body the new temple. That's why I made this picture in the middle like that. He rose and became our temple. The Bible says this. I don't say this. The Bible says this. I just showed it to you, and I will share a couple more scriptures where the Lord confirms this with his word

Yeah. If, if you have already received this, uh, before and you've seen it in the Bible, please comment . Or if you have any questions about this, please do ask. I wanna read them, and I want to be able to go and create more episodes where I possibly can get to those questions.

So circling back, Christ came to do away with that system. This is what he's revealing to us.

My Kingdom Is Not of This World: John 18:35-36

All right, but that's not it. There's more. Let's go over here. Let's go to this scripture. Let's go to now John 18:35-36 because like I said, we're gonna let the Lord confirm this even more.

So it reads here, "Pilate answered, 'Am, am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to me. What have you done?' Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now my kingdom is not from here.'"

There it is. He said it. Here, let's, let's just use logic. Let's just use logic. He said, "My kingdom is not of this world." I mean, we could just go home. It's drop mic moment right there. We just go home.

Here's this man, our Lord and Savior, his own nation, right here, it says it in the scripture, have delivered him to Pilate, which, I mean, we know how that story ends. They ended, they ended up deeming him guilty and putting him on the cross and murdering him His own people, his own nation did this. So this is whom he's talking about.

But furthermore, he's not just talking about them. He's letting us know through what Pilate asks that his kingdom is not of this world. He's making another revolutionary statement

He came to do something so different that doesn't look like what's already out there, what was already out there when he was here on Earth And that temple system is one of those things

But yet That's what we created again. We created the same system that was torn down by our Lord, the very one that he said he's not of the world. His kingdom is not of this world But yet we copied that same system of that time in today's church system

All right. I'll let that simmer I'll let that simmer. I know that. I pray that you receive it. I pray that it, it breaks the chains that are not allowing you, that are not allowing you to fully come to God. Because deep, deep down inside, there might be some, there might be some condemnation about Maybe I'm, maybe I do need to go to church. Maybe God's not pleased with me because I haven't selected a church and I need to go on Sundays and I haven't gone

You Came Home to Your Temple

You know, I, I pray that this broke those chains for you to know That the temple, when you, when you accepted Christ in your heart You came home to your temple that day

And that's where you go when you worship. Every minute, every second of your life. It's now gonna be an eternal worship because you can just do it with Him anywhere, anywhere. In your shower, while you're cutting the lawn, while you're cooking up something delicious in the kitchen, while you're cutting hair, while you're working your corporate job, 24/7, 365.

Isn't that great news? Ugh. Now, that's great news. I like that news. It sounds like the good news gospel to me. When I came across it, I'm like, "This is the good news gospel. This feels like the good news gospel."

And I got to skip Sundays all together too, but that's another story. We're not gonna go there. That's my confession. It stays in between us.

One Mediator: 1 Timothy 2:5

All right So let's go now. Yep, there's more. And I'm almost closing, okay? So just one more. Okay, where did we leave off? Yep. Kingdom's Not of This World. Like I said, that could have been a drop mic moment. We could just go home. But let's do this one. I just wanna bring this home to you even more. I wanna bring this home to you even more.

There it is I like this scripture. Oh, look, I didn't color it there. Okay, here we go. Ooh, let's make this… Bam, that's nice right there. Okay, we'll do it there.

The scripture says, let me put on my glasses. 1 Timothy 2:5, New King James version says, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

So our Lord Yeshua is now that mediator that God gave us to be our mediator in between our affairs with men here on earth, whatever those may be, and God He's our mediator He's our mediator.

Before this was necessary. See, this is important for, for us to know right here. Before It was the system. It was necessary. Why? Because the Holy Spirit hadn't been given yet. It, the Holy Spirit was only given to the priest, this man I'm circling.

And so that priest, his job was to know God, because now he had the Holy Spirit to lead him to know God in that way so that he can now share God with everyone around him And make God known and help them in any circumstances, whether it be fights in between the people or questions about God, he was the man. He was the man they had to go to to know about God

Christ did away with that. And so now he became our mediator In between man and God

And so I think you get the gist of it. This, this is not something that is necessary for us to know our Lord and Savior

Back Where We Started: 1 John 2:27

And so I just wanna close by saying that I pray that God brings you and leads you to all truth. All truth. And I wanna circle back to John, 1 John 2:27, back where we started I pray that he leads you and teaches you. The Holy Spirit himself teaches you everything about God, about God's message. He will help you to know what is true like it says here. You don't need people to teach you what is true.

I wanna leave you with that. God bless you, and may he enrich you with himself, make himself known to you, and may this be a message that gives you so much joy That you just can't wait for every day to wake up and see what beautiful little messages, what ways God wants to make himself known to you inside of you. All right. God bless you. We'll see you next time, as the good Lord wills