Beyond fairytales and misconceptions

For most of us the transformation from being a de jure member of a religious organization, though we were free spirit or traditionally religious person in de facto, to being a faithful follower of the lord is about leaving fairytales and misconceptions, in which we grow up, behind us and marching to the faith of the lord, where the lord is worshiped in truth and spirit. Yet, slowly we are welcomed with new fairytales and misconceptions, not written in Geez but written in English. We desire to learn the pure bible, yet we are lectured with useless, at best, and deceiving, at worst, supplementary material.

 

This is a symptom of the problem, yet a solution is to be found in the cause of the problem. The cause of this problem is to be found in our misconception about who we are and what our role is in the kingdom of heaven. What is our role as an army of the lord? In heaven the formula is the superior serve and the inferior is served. You are superior to your newborn child in everything. When your love is pure, what you do is serve and the kid is allowed to live like a king in your home. This is the way of true love, superiority is the foundation for service, not dominance. With their increasing maturity, however, more guidance of yours and more demand for their participation in housework follows, to lead them to maturity. As they mature they are given more and more burden and they will be forced to serve their newborn siblings. It is a call of service. If angels are serving you, this is because they are mature brothers and you are still pooping in your diaper. Nobody trusts you to watch for yourself, so you have big brothers watching you. Looking at reality from this angle, I want to ask you: Who do you think can fight devils better? You or heaven? I am not asking you to stop fighting devils but to know your place in the kingdom of heaven and in the spiritual welfare of the lord.

 

You are born again children of the lord, but angels are always children of God. Better, they grow up in heaven being children of light and learning from God all their lives. They know better, they are smarter, they are more informed and they are guided by God himself. They do not have a pastor as “leader”, they have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as their God and leader. Lord of Armies is their leader and their God. Yet, angels by themselves are worthless because no created being is perfect and the way of the lord is the way of perfection not trial and error. They need intensive supervision and guidance from the lord in their work to be perfect all the time. The Father told Jesus "Sit on my right side until I put all your enemies under your feet." The Father himself, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit with their countless army are leading the war. The Father is working to honor Jesus day and night, the Holy Spirit is witnessing for Jesus day and night, and the Angels of light, who are children of God, are working day and night for the same goal. You, however, are still pooping in your diaper all day, all the time, and for that you have angels of the lord changing your diaper. Because you are casting devils out, do not think you have the ability to lead spiritual welfare as a general.

 

See you, what do you know? What is your skill? You want to fight spirits “who rule Ethiopia”, whatever that means, what do you know about them? Who knows better, Angel Michal or you? Who is always led by God in his fight against devils, Angel Gabriel or you? Lord is Lord of Armies and they follow a strict military style of governance. In this setting, even lower-ranking angels do not know much in some lines and they have to ask their superiors for knowledge. Lower-ranking angels are inadequate in many lines of work, worst for you, what do you know? Changing your diaper, washing you, and dressing you is hard work for heaven day in and day out. Even if you are mature in spirit human, you are nothing in heaven and you are still nothing but incompetent being. At best you are solder of the lord, so obey your superiors, if they come in the name of the lord. 

 

Lord told to Daniel, Angel Michal is with me to fight the Persians. Lord did not say to Daniel, you Daniel my help. What does Daniel know? How much more do Angel Gabriel know? Your role in heaven is obedience to the guidance of the lord, not leadership. If you understand this, the rest is simple to follow. If you are sure that you are led by the Holy Spirit, your role is simple, obedience. Go where the lord tells you to go, say what the lord told you to say, sleep when the lord says sleep, and wake up when you are told to wake up. Simply obey. When Moses was conquering the Promised Land, the lord told him I will send my angel before you to clear the way for you. Lord with his armies are doing the real fight, you are an actor showing your face as doing the stunt, while lord does the real stunt. Our role is simple to live a life of the lord through a spiritual growth process (this takes time), to preach the gospel, and to work for the spiritual growth of our fellow brothers, and sisters. Besides, in whatever we do, we have to be led by God, because we do not know much. The good book says do not depend on your wisdom but on the lord. Be sheep of the lord who follows not a general who wants to lead him/herself to inevitable hell.

 

If we see most supplementary material written in the traditional Christian religions, it is about history, achievement, and ways of people they consider holy. This process continues over generations, until nowadays what all those traditional churches teach is nothing but this supplementary material. I do not accept those churches in totality and it is not for me to choose what is a good book for them either. If I reject their temple, I also reject their altar, as it is written.

 

Unfortunately, what is happening among the faithful is caused by the same sickness that caused the problem in traditional churches. The respect and admiration of those who suffer and die for the lord under prosecution of the world, the martyrs of the faith, is transformed into a kind of worship until they overtake the worship of the lord, itself. Slowly only God knows what kind of martyrs they end up having. The same thing is happening in this age among the faithful. What is happening among the faithful is that the teachings and doctrines of some people who are considered to be “generals” of the lord are invading the landscape. And, only God knows what kind of books and generals are being preached in churches. 

 

The source of the problem is a misconception about who we are and what is our role in Heaven’s kingdom. If we learn to be obedient to the Holy Spirit rather than trying to lead, how far could we march by now? Yet what we are doing is playing on our poop, on some assumed to be “general’s” poop, to be precise.

 

Now from this angel, I want to ask you: What is there that you can teach the world that others cannot? To teach the world the same thing they have been listening to for decades is nothing but a waste of time. You are a bad photocopy of bad material, and to send them your photocopy, though they have the original copy of their bad material is a waste of time. Another option is to teach them Ethiopian theology borrowed from the Orthodox Church with a protestant flavor. You can say we are blessed people, and so and so. I think this dress looks good for Orthodox Ethiopians not the faithful. If a faithful person dresses it, it looks on him/her like the cloth of a prostitute. I think we should teach the world how the original faithful in Ethiopia preach the gospel. We should bring Paul plus Jesus to the world. This was the way of the faithful in Ethiopia and they used to ignore piety domination differences in doing so. If we must improve the old wine, because they are not perfect either, it must be to make it more like Jesus not more like the world. The most critical point is: it cannot be done without the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Unless the lord himself says: I am calling X, Y, and Z for this task and do this, and the lord himself starts leading it all the way forward it cannot be done.