I personally do not believe in ‘religion’. I’m not religious but I am spiritual. There is nothing wrong in itself with the word religion, it’s just that what people have made it to be is dangerous and misleading. So in this teaching when I refer to religion I am referring to man-made efforts to reaching God that produce little or no results.

Religion is based on ritual and not relationship. Religion is just a list of do’s and don’ts you follow the rules because you have to not because you want to. You follow out off fear and not love. Religion controls but true worship is liberating.

There is a difference between being religious and being spiritual.

In this teaching I will make an attempt not to criticise any particular faith. That is not the purpose. Nor I am attempting to convert anyone. I have no religion to convert you to.

Your conscience was given to you to lead you to God. Your conscience will never lie to you. If you follow your conscience it will show you what is wrong and by default what is right. You cannot bribe your conscience. God uses your conscience. We all have a conscience. We all ought to follow our God given conscience.

I personally have a clean conscience, peace in my heart and mind and do not have a sense of guilt that I carry around that condemns me. I have a relationship with the Creator and I feel so free. I don’t walk around with masses of questions and a permanent question mark over my head. I could be described as the happiest person I know!

Intellect and reasoning verses the heart

God cannot be known by human intellect and reasoning, He deals with the heart and that is how He is known.

You know people are taking the intellectual route when they use words like ‘debate’, ‘refute’ ‘convert’

People who want to debate and argue about which religion is right will come to know the conclusion and if they do come to a conclusion it will be a biased view, usually based on which religion they were born into. Obviously they were born into the right one and everyone else was born into the wrong one, so says everyone.

Sometimes you can win an argument and yet still be the loser. You do not have to be a scholar or highly educated to know God. If you did, then what happens to the person who cannot read and write?

Whenever humans are involved, there will be mistakes and errors. Every thing humans do will always have mistakes. Finding errors in other people, religious books and followers is not the way to God. The way to God is to look at your errors and mistakes. The best selling book in the world says, ‘Everyone is right in their own eyes.’

But the person who seeks truth from the heart will come to know Truth if they remain committed. God cannot be found, He is not lost that He needs to be found, people are lost and God finds them. God looks for a heart that wants truth.

To know God or knowing about Him

God doesn’t want you just to know about Him. He wants to know you personally.

Many people know about God but they do not actually know Him. It is like a person who has a famous person they admire and idolise, maybe a movie star. They read a lot about the person and collect posters and copies of the films that movie star has made. Their room is full of items related to that movie star and they adore the movie star. In fact they love the movie start so much, they even know the movie star's date of birth, place of birth and many other facts about them.

Then one day they see that particular movie start down the road and run up to them excited. After explaining excitedly to the movie star how much they love them and have everything about them, the movie star responds, “Who are you? I don’t even know who you are?” And then they call security to remove the obsessive fan.

You see the person knew lots about the movie start but they did not actually know them. They had no relationship with them. It is in this distant way that many follow God. God is not into religion - He is into relationship with His creation. God is not a religion He is a personal being and He can be personally known.

 The things that matter

If you want religion and ritual, then pick from the thousands of religions around. But if you want peace, purpose, a clean conscience and overall life with a sense of wholeness, then only Truth can give that.

I personally have peace. Not natural peace that comes and goes but a deep sense of being worry free. You cannot have faith and worry at the same time.

I have a clean conscience. This means I do not have to carry a heavy load of awareness of my sins on my head. I know I am totally forgiven and I actually experience that forgiveness.

I have purpose. Not only is my life today good but my future looks even better!

I have a sense of wholeness like nothing is missing. I feel complete and am not searching for more.

This is the real result of having Truth. Truth is like a seed, when planted it produces a certain type of fruit. If you are depressed, hopeless, confused and loaded with a sense of guilt and awareness of your sinfulness then what do you have? Truth or just ritualistic religion?

 If God were to write a book

If God were to write a book, what would you expect of it?

1. Our origin and future. Deal with where we came from and where we are going.

2. Explain where sin and evil came from.

3. Contain amazing contents and supernatural events.

4. Teach a high moral standard.

5. Be the best selling book ever.

6. Be available to more people than any other book. (The Bible is a spiritual book that has been translated into over 2,000 languages, at the time of this teaching, work is underway to translate it into 1941 new languages. 2286 other languages are yet to be started on yet. No other books comes even close to being so widely available).

Conclusion

Are you easily offended when people attack your beliefs? This is a sign that you are walking in pride. People get offended when their pride is attacked. Religious people get offended easily.

That is why I am never offended when people attack my beliefs. Even if they burnt the spiritual book I look to or cursed the one I serve as Creator I am not offended. Truth cannot be damaged by being attacked.. Truth does not need defending, it speaks for itself. Truth is embedded in our conscience.

However, many try to do mental gymnastics and force themselves to believe something that their conscience tells them is wrong. Our own minds can reason and convince us in part that we are right when our conscience tells us we are wrong.

Your conscience speaks volumes to you about your sinfulness and the hypocrisy you see around you. Are you after Truth? Are you willing to do anything for the Truth? Or would you rather please people and deceive yourself.

There was a man that lived in Africa that went in search for diamonds. He travelled all over the world searching and digging for diamonds. From age 20 to 75 he searched but did not find any…then he died a poor man. After his death, the land he originally lived on was dug up and they found masses of diamonds. The diamonds were right under his feet yet he searched the world for them.

Which religion should you follow? The answer is none!

Which God should you pray to? The One that created everything. Just ask the Creator to reveal Himself to you and He will. God will direct you to the Truth and this Truth is found in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me . . . then you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free." John 8:32, John 14:6.

Do you ever feel a sense of hopelessness? Does life seem empty? Do you find yourself doing wrong things and the more you try to stop them, the more you do it. Then you need to come to the Eternal Creator and ask for the Truth to be revealed to you.

For more information on Harmit Jandu, please visit Like Jesus website: www.like-jesus.org