WHAT IS FREE WILL WITHOUT CHOICE – CREATING OUR OWN HELL

So as I continue to discover God’s purpose (which I now realize I have always know inside of me, but never really know how to express it as a truth of my own), I am constantly amazed at the human condition, and how we have distorted the basic spiritual truth of God. 

What is our purpose?  Why did God put us here? 

On some level, I have always felt like we were put here for God’s entertainment.  Yes, truly.  The spiritual trinity thought it might be fun to create humans to watch our experiences in our efforts to attain (re-attain) our spiritual identity.  Then we are to guide others, help them to find their way and see the light and experience ultimate peace of reaching that enlightenment. 

Much of the bible’s “wrath and condemnation, they shall not” is to me a complete contradiction to the “I created you, now you have free will”.  How can God  (at least from what my understanding is of most religious teachings) say that we have free will, choice, but if we do not choose him or his way, we will burn in forever hell and damnation.  This doesn’t seem like a choice to me.   This sounds very much more like a threat.

Now very often, people in support of “God’s laws”, liken it to a parent trying to protect a child.  But doesn’t that take away from the experience?  The powerful moral learnt by having our own choice and actions?  Do we want to protect a child from burning their hand on the stove?  Absolutely!  But we all know, that the child is still going to desire to put his/her hand on the stove!  Because regardless of what you tell it, it want’s to experience it for itself, and make it’s own conclusion on the outcome.  The learning experience from getting burnt is so much more impactful than the “but I wonder how badly it really will burn me” thought that will continue to linger out of the “because I told you so”.

God put us here to experience life to the full!  This means the “good” and “bad” choices, “sin”, so we can grow and learn from the consequences.   We have been provided an inner compass, the Holy Spirit, and when we decide to become in tune with it, our choices start to align more with what is beneficial for us in the long run.  This alignment, I believe, ultimately leads us back to where we came from… from God… to the inner peace and awareness of God’s purpose, which then creates heaven for us here, on earth, in this moment.  But none of our choices leading up to our full enlightenment are “sin”.  They are all part of the process. 

In having choice, we leave ourselves open to creating our own hell.  For every action there is reaction.  This reaction is not always equal and opposite.  It depends on how we choose to see the outcome of the consequences of our actions.   If we have a choice, and we pick door number one, which ends up having a perceivably negative consequence for us, this could lead to complete hell as we try to recover from its.  But with the same choice, choosing door number two could have lead to blissful peace on earth.  This constant cycle of events is how we grow from our experiences, and the freedom of will that God has given us in order to progress as spiritual expressions in human form.  Some of us learn quicker than others to start making choices that will give us more eternal peace and “heaven”.

God isn’t contributing to any of our decisions.  Not directly.  He already gave us everything we need in order to navigate through our life.  If at any point he were to “step in” then he has interfered with his desire for giving us “free will”. 

So I am taking responsibility for my life.  God and the devil are a cop out!  Something else for us to hold responsible for our good or bad decisions we have made.  He gave me life, and it’s my responsibility to live it and make the most out of it and to continue to re-discover who he made me to be.  Because amongst all the misguided unenlightened teachings, I almost completely lost myself to the darkness created by these external forces, when I always knew the light was within.  And THAT is a sin!

I thank God for creating me.  For giving me this human body and this Holy Spirit… for allowing me to have this experience in this world, although my soul is not from it… to allow me to experience the rise and the fall… and to mature through the ownership of my choices. 

I have chose to punish myself, continually… making the same hurtful decisions… creating my own hell, getting lost in my own darkness.  Holding on to my hurts, guilt, shame, depression, etc. because of believing the lie that has been told to me.  No!  Not by the devil… but by humans that have chosen to hide God’s spirit deep within them and use “God’s word” to pursue their own selfish desires.  But I have the choice to say “NO!  ENOUGH!” 

So the way I see it, the laws that are apparently God’s… that are ironically used to persecute, condemn, kill and destroy, control, shame and guilt, and support all sorts of ungodly evils… are the laws that are keeping us from fully experiencing his purpose for us and growth toward spiritual maturity.