GOD, THEY’RE STARTING TO SOUND LIKE THE THOUGHT POLICE: The latest is when we hear you speak, we’re supposed to check with the local pastor to make sure it was you?
God, they can’t be serious?
This conversation is going to be uncomfortable for some people, but, God, surely someone needs to have the courage (or is it stupidity?) to question the organisation.
They're definitely serious, but rest assured, the idea never came from me.
That’s what I thought, but…
The bible makes it very clear that you don’t need any man to teach you, ‘the Spirit you have received teaches you’, you know that as well as I do.
I hate to tell you this, God, but you’ve got a whole industry that seems to have overlooked those bits. First off, the bosses are far more comfortable with the bible than hearing you direct, but then they seem to ignore the bits in the bible that don’t fit with their ideas.
That’s nothing new.
But, why, for goodness sake?!? You and the apostles were very clear that the new way would be to hear you direct. You said that when the Spirit came, we wouldn’t need to rely on the priests to hear you.
Give them time.
Give them time?!? They’ve had 2000 years!
Yes, they have, but there’s a new wave of people coming who will no longer rely on others to hear me. Finally, there’s a hunger to hear me that no amount of leadership or theology will be able to squash.
Are you sure?? Right now, even to mention the idea of hearing you direct without checking with the pastor invites criticism. It’s rife in big American churches, but it’s popping up in New Zealand churches too. It’s like a spreading cancer.
The cure is on its way.
Well, I’m not holding my breath. They say it’s dangerous to hear you direct without checking with ‘the leadership’. They warn we might get deceived. Worse, if you question the organisation, they accuse you of being bitter, backslidden, and demonised – asking uncomfortable questions is considered decidedly unholy.
It’s always been dangerous to question the thinking of powerful governments and churches. You know that, so why get upset about it now?
Because you said, ‘set my people free’ and this is the opposite! Good grief, people are starting to rely on their pastors to hear you, or to check that what they’ve heard is really is you. People don’t want to test the spirits, they want their pastor to test it for them. What’s with that, God??
Fear. Fear of getting it wrong.
Well, someone’s got to crush that fear, because the atmosphere it creates is getting to be a drag. We are supposed to be free, and yet the thought of telling others about this ‘amazing life of freedom’ we live is, well, frankly, embarrassing, because the reality isn’t like that at all. People are afraid of breaking rules and not meeting expectations.
From the outside it can look like a police state. If you question what the elders and pastors say, there’s a horrified hush, people want to distance themselves from you in case they are seen as rebellious too. They say you’re bitter and need to repent.
As I said, nothing new. Governments and churches have always been that way. King James was the head of the church – on one hand he organised the translation of the bible, on the other he organised the systematic torture and murder of thousands of innocent women. Humans, church leaders included, are easily corrupted, expecting anything else is foolish. Absolute power corrupts absolutely
Why isn’t that stuff about King James etc common knowledge?
People would rather not know. Church history, both ancient and modern, is far from pretty. They’d rather console themselves that the monsters belonged to a different denomination than theirs.
Is that true though, are some denominations really worse than others?
No. The worst crimes of the church, including paedophilia and mind-control, can be found in almost every denomination. The book makes it clear that all temptations are common to all humans.
Wherever you find humans grouped together corruption is possible. The more powerful the government or church, the more likely that corruption will surface. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
HOW TO HAVE YOUR OWN CONVERSATION WITH GOD LIKE THIS — SEE DISCUSSION BELOW :)
HOW TO HAVE YOUR OWN CONVERSATION WITH GOD LIKE THIS
TIP # 1: Write out your question to God and then, don’t wait for the answer to come, start writing trusting God to supply the answer as you write.
TIP # 2: Remember it’s a conversation, not a subservient prayer. Yes, sure, you’re talking with God, but it’s a conversation. So, just like you would in a conversation with any other friend — when you’re not convinced by what you hear you should most definitely challenge it.
TIP # 3: If you think you’ve made up what you’ve written, you should write something like, ‘God, I think I made that up’, then write what comes next. Do that again and again until you feel in your gut, no matter how unlikely it seems, that what you’ve written really is God. TEST THE SPIRITS AND ASK AND KEEP ON ASKING. Both are things that the apostles and Jesus made clear are very important.
The reason I publish these conversations with God is he seemed to say that anyone reading them would be able to see that if someone as mixed up as Mark Holloway could have a back and forth conversation with God ( like a friend ), then surely they could too.