I Lost Religion and Found God

God is not found in a religion or a holy book, He is found in the core of every single human with a soul. We are ultimately a part of Him.

This is not a sermon okay?

Yahuah (God) exists outside of time and any religion. In fact The Creator does not have a religion, and even if He did it would definitely be what Yahusha (Jesus) practiced.

Just making it perfectly clear, l am not an atheist or agnostic, neither do I judge anyone who is a part of any of these groups. I do believe everyone has to choose their own path, and I don’t believe I’m neither wise nor righteous enough to judge anyone about their spiritual or religious preferences as all judgement belongs to Yahuah. 

I grew up in a Christian home with two very devoted Christian parents. It was not until I was eighteen however, that I decided to get baptized and become a born-again Christian. This was not a smooth journey as I backslid more times than I can count, and have had my moments where I questioned my faith and even God. Even with all my doubts I still chose to pursue a path as a Christian pastor, when I entered seminary in 2016. Ironically, it was through these moments however, that I realized many truths about God that lead me to the true path of salvation, peace, consciousness and creativity. 

This post is about my personal encounter and I’m only speaking for myself. My intention is neither to convert or to perform a sermon, but to share a synopsis of my spiritual journey.

Through my quest to reach my highest spiritual self in YHWH The Most High God, I have come to separate Him from religion and have learned to embrace unity with The Divine outside the confinements of a religion. It is my belief today that God exists outside of time and any religion. In fact, God does not have a religion, and even if He did, it would definitely not be any of the dominant ones that exist today. Though I no longer identify as a "Christian", I do see Yahusha Ha' Mashiach (Jesus The Christ) as my ultimate guide and blueprint in becoming the best version of myself in this earthly realm. I try my best to adhere to His lifestyle and teachings of love to the best of my ability, and the way He lived His life which I find most admirable. I follow Christ not out of the fear of hell fire as I myself once condemned so many to, But instead from a place of expanded conciousness.

In the beginning...

The first humans were given no religion. They were only offered one rule to lead them down a path of love through obedience. As Christianity is the world's most dominant religion and the one to which I subscribed to for many years, I will reference from this religion for this post.

Most people are familiar with the creation story in the Bible in the book of Genesis which starts off with these famous words “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen 1:1). The chapter goes on to list all the amazing animals and things that God created but surprisingly a religion was never one of them. Like any responsible parent, God made rules for his creation but He only made one rule for man “Do not eat from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" (Gen. 2:17). This was a measure He put in place to give the most intelligent creatures that He created a choice to choose to love Him through their free will, instead of being forced or programmed to do so. By choosing to follow this one rule meant that man not only chose to obey God, but also chose to love and trust Him as a parent who knew what was best for His children. He gave one main rule,  “to Love Him through obedience”, He never gave a long system of rules or mandated anyone to serve Him. He didn’t build any kind of edifice in the Garden of Eden and assigned a time of day for worship or any special day to go there to worship or pray to Him. He never commanded any special attire to be worn (in fact the humans he created were literally naked), or put a head Spiritual leader who would act in his stead in his absence. He only commanded the man and the woman he placed in the garden to be fruitful and multiply, and to simply not eat the forbidden fruit.

God is Good, Religion is Evil

“Religion is an evil man-made enterprise birthed out of darkness to create a barrier between man and God. Some of the greatest atrocities in history were all done in the name of religion.”

I love God more than the air I breath; even more than my very own children, but I chose to abandon religion. In my bid to understand why the more involved I got into religion the more confused and distant I felt toward God, I decided to step away and listen not to the voice of a religion or any spiritual leader but from God himself, such freedom and wisdom I experienced. I did much necessary research about the concept of religion and it’s origins and the various ones that existed. In reality, most of the world's dominant religions all had similar origins about the creation story and had one central aim— to live a life of love to reach the highest spiritual attainment, and after our earth suits expire, our souls go back from whence it came- back to The Creator. Though all these religions had their own versions of god or gods, I realized that they were all man-made concepts and traditions that people from various cultures adopted from generation to generation as divine. This has been probably the greatest deception for man, created by illusion we call life. God and religion are separate. God exists outside of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and the many other religions practiced globally. The truth is one can have a perfectly meaningful and profound spiritual experience without a religion. God never tied himself to any one or special religion. He is too huge, timeless and complex to be contained in one. Hence He never gave us a religion and He never had any intentions to do so.

Religion is an evil man-made enterprise birthed out of darkness to create a barrier between man and God. Some of the greatest atrocities in history were done all in the name of religion.

Religions were created to control how far one grows spiritually and to brainwash man to judge, condemn and kill in the name of a God that stands for nothing religion endorses. 

The more spiritual one gets the more awakened they become, and the more awakened they become, the more conscious they become of the true God and when this happens, they can never be controlled by man-made traditions and systems ever again. This is where we should all strive to be, unfortunately the yellow tapes in the forms of traditions, dogmas, and doctrines of a religion hinders one's ascension to the highest point of spiritual consciousness and the fear of what others might think of them.

Six reasons why I abandoned religion 

Religions create tribalism and division which breeds hatred and discord among humanity. Religious buildings need to be left empty while its occupants set out on a journey to find God for themselves.

1. Religion endorses negative behavior that is contrary to the nature of God.

We are indoctrinated from a young age to believe in a certain religion as being the ultimate one. For example all Christians believe anyone who is not a Christian is lost and will wind up in hell if they do not accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. But is this really true? So geographic circumstances causing an innocent child to be born in a certain religion such as Hinduism or Islam, makes them hell-bound no matter how moral of a life they would have lived upon till their death? We are taught through religion to judge, condemn, discriminate, ostracize and even kill to promote our religious beliefs as superior to all other. Instead I choose to leave room for God's love, grace and mercy.

2. Religion is responsible for some of the greatest crimes against humanity in history.

Through this man-made enterprise, some of the most heinous crimes committed against humanity was done under the banner of religion. For example the Holocaust where Hitler attempted wiping out the Jewish race holding them responsible for Jesus' death. Then there was African slavery, which was justified by many Christian slaveholders and Christians, who believed God sanctioned slavery using the Bible to do so (Ephesians 6:5). Finally, the Salem witch trials where many innocent people were burned alive at the stake accused and condemned for practicing sorcery all in the name of doing "God's work".

3. Religion makes its leaders wealthy while its followers remain poor.

The lifestyle of today's religious leaders particularly in Christianity, models one of much opulence and flamboyance. From private jets to million dollar mansions, some of these leaders live quite the opposite lifestyle of humility that Jesus Christ lived. While they take the "widow's mite" and fatten their coffers, the congregants in their churches are deceived into thinking that the more they give, the more financial blessings they will get. This is however not the case. These leaders are blatantly robbing from the poor, desperate, and needy, to live their "heaven on earth."

4. Religion is a prison for the sleeping.

Religion was meant to trap us into a specific way of thinking to never question what we were born into, and to accept this to as truth. Had we been born in another part of the world we might have been a Muslim, Buddhist or Rastafarian. Religion locks us into a mental prison to never question why we believe in what we do, causing us to never question the lies we have been fed as the truth. Consequently, for those who dare to question, tje religious is waiting in ambush to ostracize you or condemn you for exercising your God- given intelligence. Religion taught us to not question God; God never taught us this.

5. You lose spiritual understanding.

A giant misconception when it comes to religions is that they will enhance your spirituality.

However, the truth is quite the opposite: by forcing yourself down the throat of a single religion, you inherently prevent yourself from understanding more than one perspective or spiritual philosophy.

Your spiritual understanding immediately loses depth, because you have blocked yourself off from the other theologies and perspectives on life. In order to achieve spiritual growth one has to abandon religion and approach God himself.

6. Religion breeds fear.

The number one way religions market themselves is through fear. They teach us to be afraid of a big man in the sky judging our every action. And like any lesson, fear is the worst way to teach it. Because instead of actually learning the difference between right and wrong, and why evil actions are things we shouldn’t do, we are instead taught to just fear the judgment of our actions. We do not learn why it is bad to hurt or steal from or cheat others, only that we should make sure that we do not get caught doing it.

So, I dared to abandon religion and became the closest to God I have ever been. Only you can choose your path but I pray Yahuah Elohim (God) leads you to the right one as He did for me. Jesus I believe didn't come to start a new religion but to do the complete opposite-- to liberate us from religion through pure self- sacrificial love. I didn't find Jesus in Christianity, I found Him in the core of my soul. I wish you all the best on your journey.

Let's continue to heal together. Shalom-- Dr. Nickie Ann

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