Personal freedom – and I mean at a deeply personal and individual level – demands tremendous spiritual and mental empowerment. By sharing experiences from my own personal spiritual journey, I hope to challenge you to boldly embrace your God-given personal freedom to go for what you really want.

Turning around, Jesus saw them following and and asked, “What do you want?” ~John 1:38

By confronting His first two disciples with the question, “What do you want?” Jesus affirmed their personal freedom to go for what they really wanted. He challenged them to define it with unambiguous clarity.

Recently, God gave me the opportunity to take some time off to ponder on several aspects of my spiritual journey. He challenged me to dig deep into my own heart; to clarify to myself what exactly I wanted in life.

The more I gained clarity regarding my deepest aspirations, the more it also dawned on me that most people actually do not know what they want. Well, either they do not know what they really want, or they are too timid to admit it and go for it. And I felt that this was particularly the case with those that have become prisoners of organized religions.

During this time, I felt a heightened antipathy to the systemic disempowerment of the individual that is going on around me in the name of religion. Consequently, I decided to reinforce my commitment to certain key ideals of The Wildfire Message: personal freedom, self-discovery, personal metamorphosis, and personal success. If you look at my most recent posts you will easily notice that emphasis:

• Fellowship with the Holy Spirit
• One with God
• Dare to Discover and Walk in Your Personal Truth
• I shouldn’t tell You how to Worship Your God, and You shouldn’t tell me how to Worship Mine
• Do not let yourself be enslaved again
• The Cursed Fig Tree
• Why did the Manna Stop?

Do you blame your own foolishness on God?

Inner clarity regarding what you really want, plus the courage to go for it, can only come from being one with God through fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, most temple bench-warmers are too lost to spend even a second alone with themselves, talk less of spending it with God.

I see that people have substituted cheap and empty religious routines for the more arduous development of a personal and vital relationship with the invisible God.

Church folks tend to be so busy these days attending dis-empowering religious programs that end up enriching those who profit from organized religion. They have no time for personal mental and spiritual development.

I see that most people have taken to religion as a means of escape from the harsh and demanding challenges of living. Life is complex. Things are not easily reduced to right and wrong, or black and white. Piously irresponsible folks, however, choose to hide their heads in the sand and pretend otherwise.

I see many putting the blame for their own gross foolishness on God.

“A man’s own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the LORD.” ~Proverbs 19:3

If you think that the absolute formula for success is to go to church, read your bible, pray every day, give your tithes and offerings, and then wait for the ravens to bring you breakfast in bed, you have swallowed somebody’s cool aid!

Did God tell you not to work hard? Did God tell you life is all about singing songs in church, praying, and giving your money? Did God ask you not to discover yourself? Not to profitably harness your gifts and talents? Not to compete shrewdly in the marketplace to create your own personal success?

But I also see that religious leaders have become cheats and dupes

The pews today are filled with manipulative and skilled charismatic charlatans ripping the masses bare, reducing men to slaves. Someone recently told me how he was taught that ‘saving for a rainy day’ means that he didn’t trust God! Can you beat that?

Charismatic charlatanism is alive and well in our day.

At one time I founded what was – and hopefully, is no more – a conventional Church: Citizens Family. And for a while it could be called a religious denomination. Thankfully, though, today’s Citizens Family is a rapidly expanding global movement of freethinking individuals, moving into inspiring and caring home churches.

Today in our Global Network of Home churches, freethinking individuals who have discovered themselves can think their own thoughts, reach their own conclusions, go for what they really want in their own ways, and ultimately create their own personal successes to inspire their worlds and glorify their God.

Yes, you could call me a religious leader, a pastor, the head of a denomination; and yes, I’ve been all that. So I write from the vantage point of having experienced the challenges of those positions; and from that experience, I discovered a horrifying reality: it is easier for a carmel to go through the eye of a needle than for a religious leader – particularly heads of church congregations and denominations – to into life!

Recently, I wondered out to my dad and mum at how God has kept me from the power plays, the tricks, the manipulations. My goodness! Trust me, it’s not a good place for a genuine light bearer to be in.

The need for money, human worship, control, influence, popularity, and fame has enslaved and bound most preachers to the lowest and basest elemental forces of this material plane. How else would you explain the lies, the deceptions, the stage-crafted but wickedly fake miracles, the abuse and rape of the weakest and most gullible among us all in the name of religion?

Yes, the Holy Spirit inspired me to pursue my highest ideals. But I’m also driven by my utter disgust for the sham and mediocrity of the prevailing religious fervour around me. I Just can’t be a part of it.

Actually, I’ve never been. I’ve always been labelled a rebel and non-conformist by the religious order I grew up in. Now I’m taking it all to a whole new level. And this is why I am passionately committed to promoting the idea of Home Churches around the world.

Embrace your own personal freedom

Of course, my renewed commitment to the core dimensions of the Wildfire Message given to me by the Lord has involved several complex and tough choices. My resolve, however, has remained clear: I vow to embrace and protect my personal freedom. I pledge to never ever hold another soul captive through charismatic gimmicks.

Not surprisingly, the choices I’ve made are being being attended by painful consequences: misunderstanding, rejection, loneliness, and more. That’s fine with me; it comes with the territory.

As I journey along this very lonely and difficult path, I am being guided, helped, and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. I have never before felt His presence, wisdom, peace, and strength as I’m doing during this time.

But I think I am also being immensely helped by a rare clarity regarding what I want for my own personal life; what I want from God. I want the freedom to think my own thoughts, reach my own conclusions, and never have to worry about what anyone thinks of me: to be free! I think this is my God-given right; I think it’s yours too. This clarity has helped me a great deal. It has enabled me to weigh my options with a keen sense of value and objectivity.

Personal metamorphosis: confusing, but exhilarating

I know I’m in one of those seasons of life that personal metamorphosis happen so fast it can be confusing and disorienting. Though God sent a special presence of His Spirit, such that He’s been speaking constantly to me, guiding and comforting me, and though I’ve had tremendous conviction and focus, I often find myself wondering about what I’m doing. It’s no longer as intense as it used to be; but every now and then, I can still feel the pain of parting with what I was used to, what I had already mastered, what was working, what was comfortable.

Along the way, I came to realize that sometimes it takes more strength to let go than to hang on. And further down, it slowly dawned on me that I was basically pursuing my highest ideals! That was a revelation. I never saw it that way at first. I realized this was like climbing a high and difficult mountain. I was being driven by the promise of a rare view at the summit that only very few would ever be privileged to see.

It also dawned on me that God had set me on this course and had given me tremendous courage by His Spirit to dare to be different, break old moulds, and express myself without inhibitions.

It feels so free; so liberating.