The word God is one I openly affirm and refer to often in my conversations but it's often received as a curse word!
"I don't like that word," is what people will say to me, as if I had said the C word.
"That word doesn't resonate with me," I hear.
"Maybe you shouldn't use that word because it turns people off."
Fortunately I don't choose my words based on what other people think.
I used to say God then quickly follow with, "You know source, the infinite, the universe, whatever you believe in." To water it down a little and make sure I didn't offend people or that people didn't think I was still a Christian.
But it got to the point where it felt wishy washy and airy fairy. Those terms, to me felt like God wasn't an embodied state of being. I was sick of saying "the universe" to cover up what I believe.
The truth is that the universe is pretty freak'n small so if you want to pray to a small universe by all means go ahead.
I talk to GOD, you know the source that created millions of universes!
To be honest I was embarrassed to use the word God especially in Australia, a country that doesn't have much to do with any form of God, so I was often looked at like an idiot or a fundamentalist. I also wanted to disassociate myself from my Christian past because I didn't fit that mould.
But at some stage I dropped the need to please others. I dropped the identity of giving a f*** about what people think and I reclaimed the title "God."
After all it's just a word. The name itself is irrelevant but the word GOD was the most embodied grounded, affirming word I knew to describe the magnitude of not just what I believed in, but what I felt in my daily experiences.
I want people to be free to use whatever word they choose to describe what they believe in and not try to disassociate with something because of past experiences tied to that name.
I want people to know that you don't have to subscribe to any ideology to believe in God or use the word!
God doesn't have to be an institution, there doesn't have to be a gateway other than your heart. The moment you connect to your heart, you connect to God.
So what does God look like outside of religion? I have had people stare at me with raised eyebrows when I talk about God outside of the religious idolatry of God.
I understand that they are so burnt by their experiences with people who falsely use the term God to justify their behavior.
I spoke to a woman whose parents and their friends performed an exorcism on her as a teenager when she was doing nothing but minding her own business, listening to music and being a typical teenager. The memory stayed with her throughout her adult life and she had a belief that there was something wrong with her. It is no coincidence that her body manifested years of illness because of this conditioning and belief.
I know gay people who really desire a deep connection with God and would like to express this but feel hurt by the perceptions of the church. I have had Christian friends try to convince me that their church welcomes all people, but they still believe that sexuality is a choice just like committing adultery is a choice (both seen as the same level of sin).
Each account makes my heart break because in all instances the people that are sharing their heart to me about these matters are deeply seeking a connection with God and cutting it off based off their experiences with people. Their unexpressed desires then go on to create a lot of disharmony in their life and they seek this connection in other ways.
I don't feel that everyone needs to believe or have faith in God, but if you have a sense of source energy and a desire to explore it further, there is a way to really tap into it without religion.
God, to me is omnipresent. It is all that is. It is the energetic force that connects humanity with every living thing. It is pure consciousness and pure love.
God cannot exist in the space of judgement. It is not in human form so it doesn't have human traits. Humans created a God in the image of man when it was supposed to be the opposite. We are created in the image of God!
Shifting from seeing the God that religion created to the God that is a fundamental energy of love that resides in everything and everyone is what has opened my heart to the power of my infinite self.
Knowing that I have been created from the same energy that is God gives me access to the power of the infinite. I have the power to heal, the power to lift the veil between the spiritual world and the physical world, so that I can experience heaven on earth. I know that through God I have the power to shift my reality and the power to shift other people from fear to love.
Whatever word you choose to use to describe source energy, embody it, feel it, have conviction in what you believe and stand firm in this energy because you are that! Open your heart to new depths and you will open up to the infinite source. It's as simple as that.
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