A Voice in the Wilderness
IT IS TRUE WHAT THEY SAY
ABOUT WHAT GOD WANTS?

Editor’s Note: For the next several months this space will be used to explore, one-by-one, the messages, metaphysical principles, and spiritual meaning of the material found in the nearly 3,000 pages of the Conversations with God dialogues. This series of observations and interpretations is offered with my continuing disclaimer: I could be wrong about all of this.

CWG Explored/Installment #13: What God wants.

The idea that there is something that God wants has permeated human religions since the first religion was created. Which means, historians and archeologists tell us, for just about as long as humans have existed. We’ve found evidence of religion in areas populated no less than 10,000 years before the Christian era (BCE). Ideas about a Higher Power (or Powers, in the plural) have been around for probably a great deal longer.

The earliest humans felt that there was something that had to be done to ameliorate the gods. They assumed there must have been gods of some sort (they could not have used the term “god,” but they certainly understood the concept of power greater than they were), because there was so much about their world (hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, shooting stars, droughts, etc., etc.) over which they realized they had no control.

Yet these primitive beings often assumed that if they could amuse or “bribe” these higher powers in the same way they amused or bribed the strongest and meanest among them to get them to not BE so mean, they might be able to at least influence those powerful entities to also not be so mean.

And metaphysics being the science that it is, their belief that bribery, inducement, and subornation could produce favors from the Higher Powers (such as the end of a drought, or a good harvest) in many cases produced such results. Thus, religion (the idea that if you do something for God, God will do something for you) was born.

Primitive as this “I’ll trade you” arrangement may seem, it continues to be the principle and primary doctrine underpinning most of the world’s religions to this very day. It may be a bit of an oversimplification, but at their basis many religions teach that to “earn” an eternal reward (as opposed to condemnation followed by eternal punishment), there are certain things that God wants (read that “demands”) human beings to do.

The question is: Is this true? Do religions have it right?

It is true, for instance, that every Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Jew, and Bahá’í is going straight to hell upon their death? Is this also true for every member of all the other faith communities in the world, except one? Is it true that God will trade your membership in this one religion for entry into Heaven, but if you don’t make the trade, you’re out — no matter how good or wonderful or caring or compassionate or generous or courageous you were in your life?

Is this what God wants?

Is it true that even if you gave up your life to save the life of another — and even if you suffered unbelievable torture in doing so (as a soldier who saved the rest of the members of his platoon by refusing to divulge to the enemy where they’re encamped) — you went straight to hell anyway after you died, so that you can suffer unending, unmitigated, and indescribable torture after death because you belonged to one of those other religions?

Is this what God wants?

Is it true that a 2-day-old baby will be denied entry into heaven and reunion with God if that baby is not baptized?

Is this what God wants?

Is it true that God says women should to be subservient to men, and that wives must obey their husbands?

Is this what God wants?

It is true that God wants people to love each other, but wants people of the same sex who love each other to never marry, or demonstrate their love for each other in a physical or sexual way, and that God will punish with everlasting damnation any person who does?

Is this what God wants?

It is true that God wants us to understand that God’s love can turn to wrath if we do not do what God wants?

Is this what God wants?

Is it possible that we could be wrong about all of this?

What do you think God wants?

Comments

35 responses to “A Voice in the Wilderness
IT IS TRUE WHAT THEY SAY
ABOUT WHAT GOD WANTS?”

  1. Jethro Avatar
    Jethro

    When I was still a very young child, I heard that all religions other than the one I was in was doomed to hell. Other Christians were going to hell. So it applied to other denominations too, not just other religions. One of my first thoughts about people and God was believing that something must be misunderstood. I was a child and thought this. One thought that followed me into adulthood is, how can I be more compassionate than God? I don’t think I am, so there must be something wrong with the information I received. So the question is, “What do I think God wants?”

    Without influence of outside ideas, purely my own Ideas of what God wants. Love, kindness, sharing, caring, For humans to help and care for each other, Not to answer to the wants of humanity but the needs. Food, shelter, and love, the necessities of life. I know that in theory God would actually want nothing because the creator can create anything, but the creator had to create all of what we know to be creation to experience God’s self which means at some point God would have “wanted” to do at least that. How else do we communicate that without saying God has wants. It could be that I want those things I mentioned above and I, am an expression of God… I like that.

  2. Stephen mills Avatar
    Stephen mills

    They never knew so they just made it all up using fear to control and subjugate the masses. The same message of a needy God that wants and demands certain things from human beings has been used by the worlds organised religions for so long now .Its the one thing that’s never really been challenged !!

    However being a keen student of human history one must assume that the more death and destruction killing and plundering done earned you rewards in gods good graces .This is especially true if your religion was the most superior . Winning and being the biggest most affluent richest organisation self reinforced this though that God was on your side and you must be doing gods will on earth .

    My thoughts stem from the thoughts we hold about death. Something which is obviously inevitable and not always under our control . I believe this the greatest conundrum that we face understanding death and what happens when we do die . The thought that we are our bodies has perhaps created the biggest nightmare for humanity. Understanding life as limitless and the truth that there is no punishment after death could free humanity from its shackles and prison like mind set . I see organised religion as the biggest abuser of life and because billions of us are still following blindly it has infiltrated all fields and cultures putting the breaks on natural evolution .

    Neale wrote a book a few years back called What God Wants .

    On opening the book you will read ….

    When was the last time you read a dangerous book ? Be careful .You’re holding one in your hands .This book is dangerous because it explores with startling freshness the most important questions you could ever ask,and offers with breathtaking courage the most extraordinary answers you could ever imagine .That answer is so theologically revolutionary and so spiritually empowering that it could change the course of human history .If embraced ,it most certainly will change your life.

    There are people and institutions in the world long in place long in power, that want neither of these outcomes to occur .They would rather that you put this book down right now. It’s up to you.

    Yeah it’s up to us ! TIME TO GET DANGEROUS anyone interested ?

    1. Jethro Avatar
      Jethro

      Life is the leading cause of death in the universe. The worst part of that disease is trying to figure out what happens after life is over. Every possibility known to humans concerning what happens after life is over, is an assumption, to make us feel better about dying. We would do well to stop thinking about an “afterlife” and concentrate on life, the here and now. Let the dead worry about death. Concentrate on living, after all, that is the goal.

      1. Stephen mills Avatar
        Stephen mills

        Exactly as if life was never in doubt and life is just another word for God .So as you say we can concentrate on living .But we are not living like that as we have a reality dysfunction .

        New advances in medicine will soon give us a much longer possibility of extended lives and then we need to ask and answer some new questions about who we are and who we choose to be.

        1. Jethro Avatar
          Jethro

          There are many ways of thinking that need a second look. Reality dysfunction works for me. The modern way of life is not a good one in reality. It promotes death, maybe that’s why so many are obsessed with death.

      2. Spiritual_Annie Avatar
        Spiritual_Annie

        You sound like a fatalist. I’m not sure that the wonderment of what happens after this physical life is a “disease.” An obsession of humanity’s, for sure, though.

        I don’t have a problem with both contemplating what happens after this physical life and focusing on being who I am, here and now. For me, they’re not mutually exclusive. The way I see it, the realm of the spiritual (nonphysical) is part of what calls me to be more and more of who I am, here and now.

        I don’t need the promise of paradise if I’m “good” or the threat of hell if I’m “not good” like some religions tout. But what Spirituality has added to my here and now is a means to measure how true I’m being to who it is I choose to be, and when it’s time for a change in those choices.

        Love and Blessings Always,
        ~Annie

        1. Jethro Avatar
          Jethro

          Hi Annie, There’s no problem in wondering or contemplating the possibilities of afterlife. I’m talking about those who are wishing for “the coming of the lord” because they feel ready. To me it’s like wanting to die for the purpose of having something better. Isn’t that the purpose of suicide? I referred to life as a disease due to the all the statements about leading causes of death. We have a saying “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”. We are condemned to death at conception, it’s going to happen. We can choose to live life or we can live to prepare to die. We are pretty sure what life offers and our thoughts about it can make it wonderful or miserable. we do not have any facts about the afterlife, If death sounds better than life to someone, they believe in an unknown that they assume it will be better or worse. Since we don’t know for sure, Why not concentrate on life and make life great? we know we have it, without any doubt.

          1. Spiritual_Annie Avatar
            Spiritual_Annie

            I understand what you’re saying about so-called “righteous” people who don’t like the way the world is and are either certain of a reward for following the rules or the 1000 years of peace Jesus is supposed to usher in. I would personally prefer those people help create heaven on Earth, but I guess that’s just not part of their plans.

            In my own personal experience as someone who has tried to commit suicide more times than I can count and worked at a runaway shelter on the suicide hotline, suicide has to do with believing that anything would be better than current circumstances, even nothingness or burning in hell for eternity. It’s about utter hopelessness and seeing no other end to their physical and/or emotional pain.

            I don’t think we’re “condemned” to death, but that it’s merely a part of life. If we accept that, it doesn’t mean we can’t also believe in an afterlife. And believing in an afterlife doesn’t mean we can’t make the best possible life here and now. They’re not mutually exclusive.

            From my own experience, most people feel like they are victims of their circumstances rather than taking responsibility for the lives they have. That’s one of the things I think people need to awaken to. As it says at the top of the page, “when an entire culture refuses to believe that it has anything to do with what is occurring, it cannot do anything about what is occurring.”

            If we so chose, we could create a world of Peace and Joy and Love. Apparently the vast majority of people don’t believe they have the power to do so, much less improve their own personal circumstances.

            Love and Blessings Always,
            ~Annie

          2. Jethro Avatar
            Jethro

            I used the word “condemned” because it is a popular belief that living is better and most recognized when facing death. If I were told tomorrow that I had two days to live, I would immediately feel condemned. I may come to terms with it but I do not wish to die, though I know it can happen in any moment.
            Agreed, humanity needs a wake up call, not that it’s not getting one right now and I also agree that the world could be a better place for sure.

  3. Mateia Andrei (A true friend) Avatar
    Mateia Andrei (A true friend)

    “What do you think God wants?” Even if God wanted something I don’t give 2 cents.
    Let’s get back to business.
    “Everything that occurs in our life occurs in perfect order with perfect timing in the perfect way, allowing the Soul to address its lifetime-to-lifetime agenda”

    Sorry Neale but I don’t do perfection. How does God dare deny my greatness.
    Where are all of my unwritten executive orders made manifest?
    For those concerned that I might want your will rest at ease my plans have nothing to do with you.

  4. Marko Avatar

    If you open to I believe chapter 13 in the “What God Wants” book, it will show you several blank pages of what God wants.

    It is a radical perception & idea to put out there, but it’s time has come & I’m glad. I often tell people God has great self esteem & has no needs, save to express itself in what ever way it chooses.

  5. Stephen mills Avatar
    Stephen mills

    You have to have a laugh at some of the points above I mean a two year old baby not being allowed into heaven because it’s not been baptised .I was at a Catholic baptism a few years back and the priest came right out and said the child was born in sin.I walked out ….

    It’s just pure nonsense and worse insane no wonder young people are not attending so much. To be held in bondage to this type of thinking is to give your power away.

      1. Stephen mills Avatar
        Stephen mills

        This has to be challenged ,all off it in a open dialogue . In a sensible non confrontational manner . I guess this was what Richard Dawkins was trying to do in his writings .

        We need more openness in humanity’s religions and their understandings (belifes) ,they have to be scrutinised and held to account .The negative effect of their teachings has to be realised . And most of all how the belifes about what they believe God wants and needs permeates our culture and guides our evolutionary path.

        1. Marko Avatar

          Ah, youmay have found one of your callings, start your blog or your writing in church bulletins of your dialog group & get going. 🙂

  6. Spiritual_Annie Avatar
    Spiritual_Annie

    For me, it’s pretty simple.

    When Divinity is personified, as it is in so many religions, it makes sense that people relate to it as if it has wants and needs. What human has no wants or needs? Personified as the most powerful, all knowing bully in the sky, it makes sense that this personified Divinity has demands and makes judgements and is responsible for natural disasters. Point a finger and send a thunderbolt. Appease with song and gifts and supplication to the official intermediaries and, of course, your womb or fields or granaries won’t be barren.

    How old are we? Two? I don’t need another demanding parental figure.

    I personally find no need to personify Divinity, which I see as the Divine Energy from which all is created of and by. This energy is itself creative. My personal belief is that Divine Energy chose to experience itself as being all kinds of energy, including the energy that converts to matter. That’s all matter, whether a rock or a tree or a cricket or a person or a thought or an emotion. The more it experiences it gains, the more it evolves into more complex energies and forms.

    So, I don’t believe there’s a God that wants or needs anything. Would it like to express itself as any and every creation it can be, even to the most minute variations? Maybe. Maybe that’s the Divine Energy’s evolutionary impulse.

    Love and Blessings Always,
    ~Annie

    1. Marko Avatar

      So, do you believe in a personal God or an Abstract God i.e. Universal energy?

      1. Spiritual_Annie Avatar
        Spiritual_Annie

        I believe in a Divine (universal) Energy, which I can approach through whatever it is I can best relate to in the moment. Sometimes it’s a stranger’s words, overheard as I exit the bus. Sometimes when I’m looking for comfort, an older female imagery can help. Sometimes I sit in nature and feel the energies of Gaia.

        Since Divine Energy can be any thing, then it can certainly be approached in many ways. I don’t limit it to one. ☺️

        Love and Blessings Always,
        ~Annie

  7. Stephen mills Avatar
    Stephen mills

    News Flash ….Scott Pruitt the head of the EPA environmental Protection Agency has just publicly stated that cO2 does not cause global warming . He tried to sue the agency 14 times in the past.

    I guess we should have expected this from the Republicans and money interests !
    Nice to know what we are up against though . Who cares about your children’s future hell live for today and grow the economy to the max . Burn all the carbon as fast as we can and the scientists don’t know what there talking about anyway ?

    Wait until the methane starts being released …Google the Permian Mass Extinction that’s when 95% of all life on the planet went extinct .

    1. Marko Avatar

      The question is, “what is the spiritual response” to what is a blatant EPA disaster & corrupt pro oligarchy & corporate takeover?

      1. Spiritual_Annie Avatar
        Spiritual_Annie

        Or, possibly, the question is what is the grandest version of the greatest vision you hold about who you are in relation to destruction of the EPA and putting our environment in danger, corrupt power and money that’s pro oligarchy, and the Donald returning us to a corporation rather than people oriented attitude where America comes first at any cost?

        Who do you choose to be? How will you express that? What does being that feel like? Are there colors that go with it? Words? Music? What does being that move you to do? Do you join an org? Write a book? Start a revolution?

        1. Marko Avatar

          It means taking action with others & visualizing what I prefer to see so it can be, eventually.

          If we don’t act, the republicans will rough shod all these policies in while we sleep. The greater energy prevails. Trump & his administration are gaslighting the whole country & world.

          It’s up to us to not use the same energy they use, but also not to let them get away with this sh*t. Sometimes you have to be who you are not, to show who you really are.

          1. Spiritual_Annie Avatar
            Spiritual_Annie

            I’ve been involved with a few org’s. At the Center for Integral Wisdom, the response they’re choosing to a world in outrageous pain is to move into outrageous love. Meditating and creating a field of resonance that’s filled with love for all. At Evolution Revolution, the mission is to awaken people to the idea that there’s something we don’t understand about God, the understanding of which can change everything. It could cause a spiritual revolution where we understand that Divine Energy can be used to create the change we say we’d prefer to see in the world. Humanity’s Team is focusing on a Conscious Business Initiative that focuses not only on what it means to create a business that values all, but on networking with other conscious businesses, to support each other.

            There are a lot of org’s out there that have different approaches. I personally think the time has come to take our spirituality to the next level. Weve gotten good at thought and word. Now it’s time to get good at deed. To be centered and connected, and to act from that as often as we can. Sometimes that involves moving on what we feel is our Soul’s agenda and working alone, and other times it means acting with others.

          2. Marko Avatar

            Thanks Annie, “Weve gotten good at thought and word. Now it’s time to get good at deed.
            To be centered and connected, and to act from that as often as we can.” I like that.

            I often say “find you peace & make your decisions from there.”

      2. Jethro Avatar
        Jethro

        That’s a good question Marko, What IS the best spiritual response? Peace and love are wonderful things, but can it always prevail? Maybe.

        1. Marko Avatar

          See one answer I give right below Annie’s post.

          1. Jethro Avatar
            Jethro

            “”We’ve gotten good at thought and word. Now it’s time to get good at deed.
            To be centered and connected, and to act from that as often as we can.” I like that.

            I often say “find you peace & make your decisions from there.””
            ============
            “The question is, “what is the spiritual response” to what is a blatant EPA disaster & corrupt pro oligarchy & corporate takeover?”
            ============
            I hope you don’t think I’m being a bit nasty here, but you didn’t mention any possible deeds. Only more thoughts and words. We tend to not want to share our true angry thoughts and sometimes our thoughts while not actually feeling angry. Those thoughts don’t always match a positive spiritual response as we understand it because our experience doesn’t allow for many peaceful attacks. Do you have any deeds in mind? Just a note… I do not. It’s ok if you do not.

          2. Marko Avatar

            Deeds for me are doing the visualizations! The other, is being politically involved in an organization you resonate with. I do that too.

      3. Stephen mills Avatar
        Stephen mills

        Defo Marko

    2. Stephen mills Avatar
      Stephen mills

      Henry Wallace in 1944 wrote a editorial for The New York times about American Fascists .

      …..spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest .{Whose} first objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that ,using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously they can keep the common man in eternal subjection .

      Is this not what we are seeing folks ?

      1. mewabe Avatar
        mewabe

        “Right-Wing Billionaires Have a Project Going to Rewrite Our Constitution, and They Are Shockingly Close to Pulling It Off”
        Check out the latest article on Alternet by Thom Hartmann.

        None of these things have anything to do with what anyone might think “God” might want. It has to do with the crudest and basest of human cravings for power and wealth, mostly power (wealth in this case is merely the means to achieve power).

        Don’t waste your time and energy believing that these billionaires have lofty (and erroneous) ideas about God and are directed in their actions by these ideas…they are mentally ill, pathologically driven to achieve total control.

        As far as humanity, it wants and seeks to be controlled, whether by a God and religion or by fascist billionaires, in order to avoid responsibility. The sheep would rather be “safely” led to the slaughterhouse in an “orderly” fashion than stand on its own and be free and responsible.

        This is still humanity basic psychology, which Hitler apparently understood and exploited as well. So it is no surprise that authoritarianism and totalitarianism and resurfacing everywhere, from America to the Middle East.

        1. Stephen mills Avatar
          Stephen mills

          Thanks mewabe I get a lot of my news from Thom’s website been a keen Thom Hartmann reader for many a year now.

          1. mewabe Avatar
            mewabe

            Thom Hartmann is great indeed!
            If you have a chance to read it, I recommend “Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing Out Of Catastrophes” by Antony Loewenstein. It explains a lot about environmental degradation, not acting on global warming, war, etc…it’s all about profits, especially about clean water being the next extremely expensive commodity (“blue gold”)!

          2. Stephen mills Avatar
            Stephen mills

            Thanks I will check it out fine fellow.

  8. Kirsten Avatar
    Kirsten

    Revelation in scripture makes it very clear what God wants…or more whom God will reject. The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those whom practice majic arts, the idolators and all liars will be denied access to God, then in the next stage before people can gain access to The Tree of Life, the impure and whom who do what is shameful or deceitful are blocked as well. Y’shua also said people are to be righteous to reach the real Heaven, plus to be like children since its mainly for children (there goes the crock about unbaptised babies out the window).
    Its there in black and white.
    And to appease God, His new properties of love, joy and the positive aspects of the gemmed walls (symbolism, look them up online or in a dream book).
    No point arguing, as the bible ends with a warning not to change anything in this.
    The Pearly Gates are the position of female principles etc under The Source, so I would assume those not on the list of what God wants will stay under The Source, that Revelation defines as a burning lake of fiery sulphur. That translates to a mental spiritual hell. Look fire, burning, lake and sulphur up as well.
    Just teach the truth Neale, its not that hard to find if you just look it up!
    Unless of course, when you say God, you arent actually referring to the one we call God in English? (Scarcasm obviously!).
    Tske care,
    K
    Xx

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