by Dr Rachel Hall, Brisbane, Holistic Dentist
When I was a child, other families had or did religion. They went to church on Sunday, wore a cross or had a bible. They belonged to a certain community or had been christened, they believed in God and that Jesus had died for our sins and came to save us. But not my family; we had no religion.
My Dad was raised a Catholic but fell out with God when my grandma died when I was around 4, and from then on he hated the church. My Mom, well she had been raised under the Church of England, but when asked about God she always told me she didn’t really know one way or the other. She too despised church, and when I was around 12 and wanted to go to the local church sermon just to see what it was like, she forbade it.
Both my brother and I were never christened and we only went to church for weddings and funerals. Yes, we celebrated Christmas but we were not religious. I had no religion.
At school, which was apparently non-denominational, we sang hymns in assembly, recited the Lord’s Prayer and listened to gospel stories. I quite liked them and some hymns really resonated with me, whilst others didn’t – so I simply mouthed the words rather than sing, so as not to get into trouble.
From these teachings, I began to view God as something bigger and better than me — something out there, ever watching and ready to reward or punish me. And, if I was a really good girl, if I prayed long and hard enough, He might just might talk to me or send me an angel or messenger, so I knew I was one of the chosen ones.
So, knowing deep inside that God was real but not knowing how to be with Him, I became a very good girl. I would pray long and hard, often bargaining with God in a futile attempt to get Him to contact me, to show me a sign, prove his existence – and yet I still had no religion.
By the time I became a teenager my knowingness of God wavered to an uncertain belief, and then waned to my claiming I didn’t believe at all – after all, I wasn’t even religious.
I found it easier to deny His existence than consider He had deserted me, left me out in the cold, or that I hadn’t been good enough, or prayed properly – and that’s why He never showed Himself to me.
My atheism continued for years. I would ferociously declare that God didn’t exist and religion was merely a crutch used by the weak and feeble to prop them up and excuse their behaviour.
Yet, when I was 20 and I received news that I needed to travel from Leeds to Birmingham because my Dad was seriously ill, I prayed and pleaded with God the whole journey to let him live long enough for me to say goodbye – even though I had no religion.
My Dad had actually died of a sudden heart attack, aged 47, and I never got to say goodbye in the flesh. However, when I visited the chapel of rest I was overcome with the unshakable feeling of my Dad standing next to me with his arm around my shoulder. I felt at peace knowing we didn’t need to say goodbye and that he was OK.
I started to question God’s existence again, so much so that I started to explore the religions. No one religion actually spoke to me and I was surprised to see so many similarities running through them, yet couldn’t fathom why they all seemed to be fighting one another. To me, if God was an all loving being there could be no chosen ones, punishment, judgment, hell or eternal damnation. So once again I had no religion.
That is, up until a few years ago, where I came to understand through attending Universal Medicine workshops and exploring the concept for myself, that God is about love. By allowing myself to feel and connect to God, and know love, I came to understand that organised religion was about reinterpreted scriptures and man-made doctrines which had very little love in them.
When taken back to its earliest definition, the word religion essentially means relationship. A loving relationship with self, nature, others and God.
I realised that if I were in fact from God, then I too was love. And that by being loving with myself, my fellow man and nature, that I was deeply religious. I also understood that each individual’s way of being religious was very personal to them, yet carried a common thread of union, love and equalness: that our religion comes from a way of living that is known inside of us and not from a book or a preacher in a church.
By being able to experience religion in its true sense, I know God as something I feel within and around me. I understand that being religious is a natural way for us all to be.
Now I can say, “yes, I have a religion” – a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God. My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of the Livingness.
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
I love how you went to a non-religious school but it was full of the rituals! But how often do we turn away from God because there is no ‘saving’ as and when we want it.
Rachel I enjoyed your sense of integrity throughout your journey, that you would not accept anything that didn’t feel true to you. We are told so many stories about God and what religion is, yet we have that naturally living within us, and through our own connection to our inner heart we can feel what God and religion is for ourselves.
Fact, beautiful and true what you share here, I completely am with you on the same length: ” I also understood that each individual’s way of being religious was very personal to them, yet carried a common thread of union, love and equalness: that our religion comes from a way of living that is known inside of us and not from a book or a preacher in a church.”
It shows us that the bastardisation of following a book or preacher in a church, without living truth ourselves, is actually an act of irresponsibility of our individuality. As we can know and feel : as there is no unity in that. Hence, where love is, no separation can enter.
I can’t say I’ve tried lots of different religions because I was brought up as a Catholic and left the Church when I was 18 and became ‘Agnostic’. I was not an out and out Atheist, perhaps because I had such a strong image of God I didn’t want to believe there was nothing. So, when Serge Benhayon mentioned God in any of his presentations I listened and it all made sense. I still don’t feel God strongly in my body but I accept the existence of God as a fact. That’s a start.
What I am feeling from this is the evil of the bastardisation of words. When we find ourselves not belonging to a church or not actively engaged in what they preach, we say we have no religion. That is so evil. I used to say that myself, but now I know that by saying that we deny ourselves a fact that we are never without God.
“Now I can say, “yes, I have a religion” – a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God. My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of the Livingness.” Yes. So many are put off rellgion on account of the organised religions and their manipulations over the centuries. Rediscovering a true religion – and its true definition – has been very meaningful for me.
Agreed, it is through my livingness and the reflection is very clear in nature. My loving relationship with self, others and nature is a forever deepening experience.
We are all naturally deeply religious yet we have strayed so far from this truth and fight it, when we connect to this truth and claim it then we get to feel the grand love and joy this can offer us.
The Way of The Livingness is a very practical and highly qualitative way of living that brings multidimensionality to our every day life and so our energetic responsibility. It asks us to deepen our connection to what we call God and what is actually being asked from us to bring to society. Connecting to the joy of being One.
Thank you its so beautiful to read about the truth of religion.
It is good to claim we are from god and therefore equal to him as that will help to establish The Way of The Livingness that once again will unite us all.
I too always new God, from a feeling that I had deep inside, but grew up with no real Religion. In a way I feel blessed for this as I had little direct religious doctrine in my life. As I have lived, grown and evolved though, this doctrine I have discovered has been in my body from past lives and also from the reality that it is constantly circulating in our world and so affects us. That is until we begin our own path of return to our soul, where we start the process of letting go of the doctorine and again living as is shared above, connected to all.
No one and nothing can truly confirm us except us feeling our own love through the daily choices in our life and being confirmed back by our own love.
This is such a great blog Rachel and it actually seems crazy how there are so many religions all with the view that God is Love. If God is love then why is there so much of what is not love in religion today and throughout history?
It’s so great to be able to get to a place, after a long, confusing time spent in religion-wilderness, that is rich, well-populated and requires no travel to get there. I know I’m enjoying it!
It is freeing and empowering to know that we can live religion 24/7 simply through the connection to self as it is only then that we are in communication with God and the multidimensionality within.
I love that you could feel your dad standing beside you, that you could feel how the body is not ‘everything’ and I wonder if in that, you got to feel and experience God.
Likewise Rachel, for a long time I had the same puzzle that the religions all seemed to be talking about the same thing, to generally have the same root underlying truths and yet there was so much friction that it was difficult to align to one or the other. That was until I was introduced by Universal Medicine to the relationship I have inside, and there is no contradiction in there.
We all know that God is pure Love and not an ounce of anything else. This means there is no judgement in God and hence how can war ever be in His name as He would never ask any of His children (us all) to war against each other!
So many of us, myself included, will have been disillusioned by the smorgasbord of religions on offer that would simply never draw me in – damnation, judgement and retribution, rules and customs that you had to abide by or be outcast, never made sense to what I knew God to be. So disillusioned I did become at one point and was willing to throw God out with the bathwater, and have religion left splattered on the floor… .
But I always knew that God was not separate to me or outside of me or anyone else for that matter, and that religion was not a doctrine of rules and retributions, but a way of living which when chosen, offers an ever-steady communion with the grander whole we are actually apart of.
The Way of The Livingness is the religion I have always known – the religion of the inner-heart, very practical, real and simple in the activity of daily life.
“My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of the Livingness” So simple and a way of living with love in every moment that is available to all equally.
Reading this reminded me of my own struggle with what I felt God was or is, and what was being told to me as a child. I have always felt like I have been searching for the truth since my Sunday school days, and finally found the answers after attending a Universal Medicine presentation.
How is it that religion has strayed so far from representing the truth about God and love? No wonder so many people have turned their backs on God and religion because it was hard to accept the lies that have been fed by the authorities of the church. Being introduced to The Way of The Livingness was a true blessing and for me healed many past hurts from religion that had stopped my relationship with God. To now re-connect back to the truth of God has been possible with this true religion, and I appreciate being a part of this religion as it brings a way of living that is deeply healing, not only for a chosen few but for everyone equally.
When we consider the fact that we are part of the grand whole, the universe, it strikes me as somewhat curious that we, here on earth, make decisions about our religiousness, whether we are religious or not and what kind of religion suits us. Nobody else does it. The stars, the sun(s), the planets they all abide to the rhythm of the whole, so do the plant and animal kingdoms; they do not question their place and rhythm in the cycles of the universe, they simply are.
Beautiful Rachel. There is a depth of knowing of God within us all. Without question even in the aethiest person there is still a knowing that there must be something grander to life, they simply see it through science. What if we all know that there are fragmented answers of what this grandness is available to us to subscribe to in the world but we are simply not willing to see what its truth would reveal to us about the way we have chosen to live?
Religion is a true way of how we live with ourselves and with each other. Understanding who you are and who others are is equally important. The understanding therefore offered is absolute space, to enfold in the way we all choose to be.
I can feel through what you share here that it is a knowingness or a stillness which has no action but cannot be kept without expression. It has to be shared!
A simple version of what religion is “And that by being loving with myself, my fellow man and nature, that I was deeply religious.” God is love, so are we. If we not act, move and think love then what are we representing? If we are not being love we are having a relationship with the reinterpretation of love.
I too grew up with no religion but what I find interesting looking back is that in my own non-Christian way, I would pray to God on occasion. Or you could say I would speak to something that was not of this realm but yet I knew was there. I did not believe in God in the Christian sense, but who I spoke to I never questioned.
Here, you have qualified why and how you are Religious and so it makes so much sense but I still hold reservation to claim my Religiousness without an in-depth explanation like this. I love the freedom I feel in the way you express on this subject too. There is still a small part of me that feels like I have to explain because all though there are truths in all Religions, there is also judgments and bastardisation and I fear I will be associated with THEM if I publicly proclaim my Religion.
“By being able to experience religion in its true sense, I know God as something I feel within and around me” – bringing back the true meaning of religion is so important. Don’t we call people who would follow the religious doctrine and all the protocols so faithfully, blindly, without questioning religious? And that is so far away from the truth.
As I deepen the relationship to myself and gently get to know the true meaning of the word ‘religion’ I also get to feel more deeply the lie so many of us including myself fell for, put simply that if you went to church you were religions. This belief so far from the truth is what is being played out in society and although I gradually turned away from institutionalised religion before I was introduced to Universal Medicine it was Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine that supported me to re-awaken to the fact that my religion was in the way I lived with myself, others and the universe through the connection to my inner heart.
God immanent, rather than transcendent… This changes the world as we know it today, where so much of our life-force, power and indeed will is given over to that which is outside of us, in search of a connection with the divine.
We must then ask, who or what is actually feeding off such a tremendous give-away on our (humanity’s) part? And why the truth of God being within us all has been so obscured from our view…
“…our religion comes from a way of living that is known inside of us…”
Then there can be no temple nor church, and no mount upon which it sits that is any greater than that which lives within – our integral and innate living relationship with God.
Thank-you for this sharing Rachel. There is a coming home in this for us all.
Eventually the world’s religions will show themselves in a way that is undeniable to be empty of the love they profess to represent. Unfortunately we still attribute many things to the word ‘love’ that are not true representations of the word, as we do many things to the word God that are equally false.
There are many ideals, beliefs and pictures presented about God and how our relationship with him should be according to different religions that are false in my experience and only serve to hinder our true connection with him. The Way of The Livingness presents no such false images and in fact assists us to let go of these if we have taken them on and to re-discover the depths of love within us and to bring this to our everyday life and relationships.
I was brought up as a Christian but found the whole experience of ‘church a truly dry and boring experience. I learned to enjoy the social aspect of it, meeting other 15yr old people at Church Fellowship that was fun getting to know others on a more social platform.
It’s funny and I may have even said this before but to not have a religion you would first have to know what religion is. I mean you can’t say you haven’t got something unless you clearly know what it is so then you know you don’t have it. This may sound confusing but consider the possibility that when you are saying you don’t have something or you aren’t something then you would first have to know that something to know you don’t have it. It maybe a spin on things but it’s also with respect a simple fact, you can’t say no or you haven’t got anything unless first you clearly know what it is, otherwise how can this be?
How different would the world be if all religion had at its core that God is about love, true love, and nothing but love.
Until now hadn’t fully appreciated the irony that so many people in the world of today consider themselves non-religious, atheist or agnostic, and yet still celebrate Christmas day which represents the birth of Jesus Christ.
The notion of a judgmental God who dishes out punishment is hard to accord with the awareness that God is Love. Impossible in fact. If we know love then we know that a truly loving being does not judge nor mete out punishment. This major contradiction troubled me during my youth, raised as I was to attend church. The Way of The Livingness addresses all these contradictions within me, knowing that love is a beholding light, present for us all equally, honouring our absolute right to choose through free-will – and our responsibility for whatever we choose as reflected back to us all in the harmony, or disharmony we create. The Way of The Livingness is my religion too.
“… a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God. My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of The Livingness.” So simply expressed, yet it is all there. No church building, no preacher required. Each of us can thus have a personal relationship with God through reconnecting (aka religion), which original definition means to re-bind, to reconnect (Latin – religare).
‘…our religion comes from a way of living that is known inside of us and not from a book or a preacher in a church.’ And it’s this that makes me consider that perhaps there is a religion that is true. How many of us are left confused by the competition in beliefs and gods? No wonder so many of us don’t want to talk about religion, because it feels corrupt, like so many other things in our world. But when we break it down and it bring it back to the simplicity of something that unites us all – and that isn’t a person so much as an energy that is holding us, then it all makes sense.
I love to read this blog today Rachel and I love when truth is simply delivered: ‘When taken back to its earliest definition, the word religion essentially means relationship. A loving relationship with self, nature, others and God’.
It’s great to break some boundaries or walls around God and religion. For me growing up I had no idea, it was all very confusing. I was told somethings, tried to question them and was made more confused or felt more silly with the answers that were given. I walked away from all this to embarrassed and self conscious to tell people I didn’t really know what God was because nothing I saw made sense and frankly it made me uncomfortable when people tried to explain it. I would find myself praying and talking to God at different times and then wondering again what I was doing. It was all very confusing until one day Serge Benhayon made sense to it all. He didn’t introduce anything new or shocking but just straightened out and simplified what I already knew. God and religion are much simpler now and both truly make sense.
If we truly understood the complete and absolute way we are supported and guided by God every day, it would blow us away. There’s something in us that likes to see life as a struggle and our path as hindered and difficult one. We talk about the huge amounts of alcohol, coffee and drug consumption in this world, but surely our greatest addiction of all is to the idea that we are ‘alone’ somehow. As you so beautifully show Rachel, nothing could be further away from the truth of God and Religion in this world.
I would agree Joseph that our greatest addiction of all is to the idea that we are ‘alone’… I bought into this for years, this feeling alone, feeling unsupported and yet unable to receive support or love, and actually I bought into the belief I was ‘safer’ being on my own, it was this belief that kept me living in isolation and protection and so life was a constant struggle and battle…. But once I took responsibility for my life and my choices my life changed and this old belief no longer has a hold over me. I have learned to trust myself, let people in and share so much more of myself. Lot to appreciate, me thinks!
‘So, knowing deep inside that God was real but not knowing how to be with Him, I became a very good girl.’
I feel like this is the crux of man-made religion. To make God so superior and etheric that we have no idea how to be with Him unless we follow the rules. This, to me, is ultimate control over humanity to take away the empowerment of feeling and knowing God as equal from within.
I was christened as a baby, went to chapel regularly, wore a cross around my neck, belonged to a community and was baptised at 18 years of age yet I did not ask myself once was it true to me. I did it because I looked the part, ‘those around me were doing it so it must be the right thing to do’ I thought but in my late teens things began to change when I started to realise that there were other things I wanted to do on a Sunday afternoon and my relationship with chapel began to slowly fade declaring that I felt it wasn’t true for me to part of the choir, which reunited last year to celebrate an anniversary of the chapel. It felt so liberating to speak up for the first time in over forty years what I felt was true to me; that being a part of institutionalised religion was not for me. Thanks to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine who confirmed what I have always known and felt true religion to be within that through the way I choose to live in connection to my soul, God, with fellow brothers and sisters and everything that is a part of my life is now my religion and that in every moment it is a choice to live religiously or not.
I don’t yet know who God is but I do get a sense of his presence in my daily life and interactions with others. I do know that God is not someone reserved for a privileged few but available to all and within all.
I thought God would only love me if I was a good girl! This image I was placing on myself to live up to was impossible to live by so it as no wonder I was always feeling I was never good enough no matter what or how much I did. Making mistakes I have come to understand and accept is part of my evolution. I am not perfect by any means and neither is anybody else. It feels such a relief to let go of the image of being a good girl.
So true Rachael, I concur. I can also say I now am on the path of return to love with a rebinding, reconnecting and having a relationship with myself, God and nature. The word religious now feel true in my body, and as for other religions with their doctrines and preachings, I would have to admit that I am an atheist as far as they are concerned.
An atheist who is a skeptical non-believer and who is very cynical about the energy these religions are aligned to.
Thank you for your sharing Rachel. I have always known there is a God, but I could not understand the way we went to war and persecuted others in the name of religion. It wasn’t until I came into connection with Universal Medicine and the Presentations of Serge Benhayon of The Way of The Livingness that I came to fully appreciate what true Religion is all about.
I think many of us have felt like we’ve been ‘let down by god’, or rather, let down by the illusion we have been fed in our very impressionable years. I certainly came to the conclusion that I had no religion growing up because of the multitude of stories/theories that simple didn’t up. The Way of The Livingness presents something far more tangible and makes the most sense of anything I’ve heard before, and from that I have started to open up to the idea that possibly religion can be of service to all, when it’s true.
I relate, Rachel, to this cycle of natural resonance with God and universality as a child, then the shift to atheism/agnosticism for much of my adult life, then the final ‘coming home’ to the practical, lived religion/philosophy way of being that is The Way of The Livingness. And you know what? It was right there all along.
I like how you say people had or did religion and how you knew God was real as a child but struggled how to be with him. This is exactly what we have made religion to be, something we have to do instead of trusting this inner knowing and simply being with God, as by our nature we are with God in our everyday and every move.
Our relationship with God is a personal connection within, and it’s in our livingness in every moment, which is so different to the all the notions of religions I witnessed, with idols, wafers and wine, churches on the best bit of real estate in every town, it all had a flavour of disconnection from the very people they were there to support and has never made sense to me and I could feel the contradictions.
I too grew up with a non-religious family – people who had been stung by the appropriation of religion and therefore had cut it out completely. But I have like you, been presented with the fact that God is love and God is within and God is equal – things I would never have associated with religion in the past. What a blessing to be able to reconstruct my relationship with religion and understand that I have been religious all along.
‘When taken back to its earliest definition, the word religion essentially means relationship. A loving relationship with self, nature, others and God’ Love this simple and clear definition of the word religion Rachel, it is like you have just ghost busted all the loaded and negative connotations attached and clinging to this word.
I really appreciated the simplicity of what religion is about in this line; “A loving relationship with self, nature, others and God. “We don’t need complicated theories, huge tomes, or debates to understand religion, it’s all there very simply in the word love.
This is a beautiful summary Rachel of what a true religion is – ‘that each individual’s way of being religious was very personal to them, yet carried a common thread of union, love and equalness: that our religion comes from a way of living that is known inside of us and not from a book or a preacher in a church. ‘It wasn’t until I was introduced to ‘The Way of the Livingness’ that I felt completely at home with religion and that I could claim that I was actually a deeply religious person.
“I understand that being religious is a natural way for us all to be.”
Reading these words I pondered on just how in built this is in our bodies. So much so that we all have religious behaviors, whether that be with our connection with God, or with behaviors and ideals we choose. Yet many, I include myself in times past here, will say they are not religious, could this be a great lie that we are not willing to see, as it exposes our own choices and behaviors that are detrimental to our health and to our communities.
I love your understanding of religion: “…a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God.” It captures the simplicity and the grandness that true religion is as we forever deepen our relationship with the all.
And what an awesome religion that is!
Awesome indeed, you get the real deal!
It took me by surprise when I discovered what true religion was, what surprised me was that I was a religious person. I grew up with many of the same views of God but with a knowing that there was something else greater than what my eyes could see. Religions is far more beautiful than I had ever thought.
Such a simple and relatable understanding Rachel of what it means to be religious…. “that by being loving with myself, my fellow man and nature, that I was deeply religious.” I can relate very much to what you’ve shared, holding similar beliefs around God and religion for much of my early adult life. When I met Serge Benhayon however and had my first session with him, I was introduced to a feeling in my body that was unmistakably ‘other worldly’. From that point on I was open to God and to what true religion actually meant.
I have no doubt whatsoever that there is a God. God is felt within and around me and what is interesting is that because of this absolute knowingness I have not one ounce of imposing this knowing onto another. It is there, inside me, a knowingness that is lived so there is not a need to preach or voice it as I know it is felt by everyone and everything.
I would love a dollar for everytime someone in the world has called upon God to help them when the chips were down regardless of whether they believed in God or not. I would be loaded!
Thank you Rachel for your blog, I grew up in the Catholic Religion and took on all that was said about God, so to save my self from God’s displeasure I became good and prayed a lot. Some times I felt God with me and other times felt deserted by him. There was always this feeling of what I did was never enough I was never enough. Many years down the track I can say I have at last found true religion The Way of The Livingness, the way to God, myself, humanity and nature all by simply connecting to my own inner heart , and living the love that I have always been.
‘Now I can say, “yes, I have a religion” – a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God. My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of The Livingness.’ Simple and true! Reading your blog an image came up about being religious; nuns and priests were religious and the example I had in my upbringing as the ultimate form of being religious, great to let that go and to feel how I live everyday in connection with God, not perfect, but learning and growing.
There is this stigma around minority Religions, one that says, the big ones are okay, even if we went to war over them, harboured homophobic ideals in them, hide sexual abuse in dark corners of them and disagree with there beliefs but at least they are popular and known, right?
So we prefer to say that we are not Religions or we are from one of the big ones then to say your apart of a small unknown Religion as it can bring up a feeling of separatism. Whats crazy about this is that The Way of The Livingness is about equality and union and you can feel that in the lived way of its dedicated students. So who cares if its not very socially accepted to be in a small Religion, I would prefer to be apart of something that encompasses all and makes sense then to do what everyone else accepts or feels more comfortable with. I eat very healthy food but the most popular restaurant in the world is McDonalds, that does not mean that it is the way to eat, I will not just go with the what everyone is doing but set up a restaurant that offers real food right next door and let people choose.
I personally grew up in a home where we also had no religion, I now see this as a gift from heaven, as I always knew God was true and I never had the strong religious teachings and ceremonies mould and conform me. What I did have was a strong inner knowing of God, something I now live in deep connection with. Serge Benhayon has brought back to humanity that which we all know, and by my choice to live my life in a loving, tender way, I know without doubt God is and always has been love.
I had a very similar experience with Religion growing up, I didn’t have one in other words. Through having an “alternative up bringing” I did develop a more hippi trippy, ‘the universe will provide for me’ approach though. I thought God was like Santa Clause, a made up thing to make people feel better. I never thought God existed let alone could speak to you.
What I have now discovered through true connection and relationship is God is everywhere and God does speak to you, not in words but in messages in nature and family and strangers, God is fun, he’s a crack up, and the fact that I was ignoring him for so long and he held nothing against me proves he is a totally accepting dude too!
I really didn’t have a relationship with God for most of my life but what I have begun to be more aware of over the last few years is that meant I did not have a strong relationship with myself, as God resides within me. Now I feel and know the love of God because I know and love myself more and he is held within us all constantly.
I love how you describe how you experienced religion to be when growing up. No wonder that so many turn away from religion or doubt the love of God when it simply does not make sense how it is lived and what we have made of it.
Hello Rachel and I will join you in this sermon, “Now I can say, “yes, I have a religion” – a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God. My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of the Livingness.” So many stories, so many so called ‘religions’, so many stories that made no sense, and all along God and religion were right in front of me, or more correctly, right inside me. Have a look around and if you can honestly make sense of the current climate of religion, well then I think you may be telling a tall tail. Serge Benhayon cut through the rot around religion and delivered a simple and yet profound message, my take is religion is simply about you, your relationship with everything.
“When taken back to its earliest definition, the word religion essentially means relationship. A loving relationship with self, nature, others and God.” This was a defining moment for me too, I never understood why different institutionalised religions warred against each other when they all had the same God. Understanding that the word religion had been bastardised by men then made sense of it all.
Religion as it is commonly known is about denying we are equally Divine as God is. This is what I feel they are set up to do, as so many other things in life are. But the way of the livingness is very different, and showing us that we are in essence equal to God’s love. And living religiously is being in connection with this love in relationship with all.
I used to cringe when I heard the word religion, all of incidents of institutional abuse would come to mind and just the fact that much of what I heard did just not feel right. Being a student of The Way of The Livingness is my way forth and deeply blessed am I to say so.
“When taken back to its earliest definition, the word religion essentially means relationship. A loving relationship with self, nature, others and God.” Beautiful comment Rachael that certainly takes the complication out of the word Religion. I now understand that I am religious and my religion is The Way of the Livingness and I have my own personal loving relationship with myself, nature, others and God that is non imposing while offering unity love and equalness with humanity.
I love what you have shared about our religion coming from a way of living that is known and felt inside and not something that can be dictated from a book or preacher… a religion that can be truly embraced and lived from the inside out.
Absolutely beautiful Rachel. I feel my journey with religion was similar to yours and now by the grace of the love that we all are, and with the deepest gratitude to Serge Benhayon, I too know myself to be religious in the true meaning of the word. My religion is The Way of the Livingness.
Beautifully and simply summed up Rachael, thank you, “Now I can say, “yes, I have a religion” – a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God. My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of the Livingness.”
Now I can also stand up and say, “. . . “yes, I have a religion” – a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God. My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of the Livingness” Thank you Rachel. for restoring the word ‘religion’ back to it’s original meaning
‘And that by being loving with myself, my fellow man and nature, that I was deeply religious.’ So simple and beautifully expressed Rachel, I would never have considered myself a religious person as this word has been misused for eons and images of people playing the role of being religious were very far from living the true meaning of this word. Now I have re-connected back to religion ‘The Way of the Livingness’ I can also say I am a deeply religious person and my life has changed beautifully since claiming this truth.
The presence of God is not more commonly known, not because he is not there, but because we are looking in all the wrong places for confirmation of his existence. The presence of God is not something mysterious or majestic beyond wonder. It is very simple…VERY simple. It is no great revelation, more just a feeling of coming home.
“Each individual’s way of being religious was very personal to them, yet carried a common thread of union, love and equalness: that our religion comes from a way of living that is known inside of us and not from a book or a preacher in a church” – absolutely, and this is precisely why the word ‘religion’ got completely bastardised so that humanity wouldn’t relate or awaken to its true power, and many still do not. The Way of the Livingness is bringing a new Renaissance.
There’s a massive resistance to God and to religion due to the way both are portrayed and used in our current society – but what if God doesn’t mean a dictatorial being – but the ultimate form of love in the universe and what if religion doesn’t mean a cult you join or belong to but simply a connection with everything around you – that changes everything.
Beautiful Rachel, we are all deeply religious as we have our own unique ways to reconnect to the love that we are and appreciating the constant reflections of the universe that confirm God within.
True religion is “A loving relationship with self, nature, others and God.” So simple and simply Divine. So sad that man works so hard to misinterpret, complicate and cause division and separation by imposing rules and dogma to create religions that are missing out on the simple Divine re-connection to true love of The Way of The Livingness that brings all together rather than drive apart.
I find this a great rundown on all kinds of relationships with god we can have, even if we were born without a ‘religion’. From the believe in god being something much larger and one who is ruling over us to not god not existing at all. This shows so clearly the falseness of many religions that bring a dogma onto people, even if your atheist. While I also got to learn trough Universal Medicine, that god in truth is nothing more than love, and that I am from this love in equality. It is great knowing this, and get to feel that I have a religion, The Way of the Livingness.
Rachel what you have shared makes absolutely sense! Deep within us all we are all religious – but I am not alluding here to the most commonly available religions that are around. When I say that we are all religious deep within, I am saying that on some level, when we allow ourselves to drop into our vulnerability and fragility, it is a natural thing to pray or to turn to the grandness that actually lies within us all. And so this is a religion in itself to develop that relationship with ourselves and the grandness. Your sharing highlights the fact that we don’t have to be religious to be religious! Yes you read correctly! We don’t have to fall into the current definition of religion and belong to a somewhat twisted version of God, but we can allow the religion of ourselves as the loving beings that we all naturally are, to be a part of our lives and embrace this.
“I realised that if I were in fact from God, then I too was love. And that by being loving with myself, my fellow man and nature, that I was deeply religious.” Gorgeous blog Rachel I love hearing about your life. I too have denied God yet listening to the presentations by Universal Medicine I have reconnected to what is true again and re developing this eternal loving relationship I have. Being religious is actually our natural state of being.
The Way of The Livingness has been the only thing that has felt like true religion to me.
I left the Catholic Religion when I was a teenager, I could no longer stand the lies we were being told about God. I knew that God was absolute love but never felt this truth with any Religion. Discovering The Way of the Livingness has been the most beautiful experience, finally a Religion that is about true love, true support, true brotherhood and a true connection with God.
I agree elanalight, when crisis or absolute despair comes into their life people can tend to reach inside and question life and open themselves up to the fact that maybe there is more to life than just what meets the eye. Your observation is truly beautiful as just like you it indicates to me that when it comes down to it we all know that we have a divine connection to God within that is just waiting to be re-connected to and expressed.
Thanks Rachel for sharing your story. Religion was a big part of my upbringing but it always seemed that I was praying to a God in the hope that I would pass some invisible measure of goodness. This left me feeling that I was at the mercy of this undefined deity and therefore everything depended on whether I was judged to have been good or bad. One thing that I learned through this was that while I had control over my actions, I had to constantly worry about how God would view it and if there would be punishment or approval. There wasn’t any sense of joy in living this way – it was all a constant subtle pressure and source of ongoing anxiety. Nowadays I am re-learning what it is like to live and know God from a place of deep harmony with myself and everything surrounding me and is, as you say, The Way of the Livingness.
How awesome you felt the presence of your father once he passed and that prompted you to look further for your religion Rachel. My family had no religion either and like you when I was younger I went searching outside of myself for it. The Way of The Livingness has showed me the way home, it is my religion and the way I live my life in connection with the All – forever grateful to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for showing me how to deepen what I could feel as a child.
Rachel I smiled when you wrote about about praying for a sign so you’d know you were one of the chosen ones. I can recall reading about chosen ones who always seemed to be sooo perfect, and much as tried at times, I couldn’t quite cut it and so gave up … religion as I absorbed it as a child made no sense at all – but when you say it’s about how we live, that resonates as commonsense.
I agree Anne, institutionalised religion as it is makes little sense to me as it is seems to have so much conflicting information; that we are all Gods children yet Jesus was his only Son; that we are made in Gods image yet we are so much less and sinners; that God is love yet he apparently watches our every move waiting for a slip up so we can be punished; etc, etc. Religion is also not something we “do” but something that is lived from the inside out. Bringing it back to a loving way of life knowing we are all equal Sons of God is very simple.
I enjoy your writng Rachel and can so relate to what you have written, its only since being exposed to Universal Medicine that I have developed a greater relationship with myself and also with god
God is always there waiting for us to connect to the love He is and we are all equally so.
‘To me, if God was an all loving being there could be no chosen ones, punishment, judgment, hell or eternal damnation’. I love what you have shared here Rachel. I too feel that the religious reinterpretations and perspectives that we have seen in our own lives and what the world around us has shown us over the past few thousand years has tormented and fed the fear of persecution from God in so many dastardly ways. It has completely shattered the truth that we are all equal sons of God, all here to learn via the lessons and cycles of life how to get back to the divine love that we all equally are.
Besides, if we are all innately equal how can practicing any particular religion make anyone better than another??
My old belief that religion was all about hell or paradise has been replaced by the knowing that The Way of the Livingness and its message of love is the true religion.
Mine too Patricia.
‘My religion is the way I live.’ Such an exquisite description of the Way of the Livingness. Gone are the pomp and circumstance, the doctrines, dogma, dress codes and rituals. Instead, just a very personal approach to life based on ‘a way of living that is known inside of us’. That way is ‘a loving relationship with self, nature, others and God.’
Thank you Rachel for your insights into religion which has clarified my experiences growing up by exposing the lack of love in organised religion which turned me away from it. I described myself as agnostic because I always had a strong feeling of the presence of God but could not relate to any of the numerous interpretations I explored. Great definition of religion as ‘A loving relationship with self, nature, others and God’ something I am establishing more every day and I am now happy to describe myself as religious.
Reading your comment Helen was a really big “aha’ moment for me as to why I used to describe myself as an agnostic. I had always struggled to say the word “God” but I also felt that I was lying to myself if I ever considered myself as an atheist, realising as I read what you wrote, that I still had an inner knowing of God, but one that was buried deeply. To ever say that I was an atheist did not sit well in my body. I was a true fence sitter as far as religion was concerned, a very uncomfortable place to be. These days I am well and truly off the fence and slowly re-connecting to the God I always knew, and I’m loving this renewed relationship.
The knowing of god is so confirming of my own love, I have always said I am not in a religion, and have never been christened, but also always said that I knew there was something more to life that just this existence. And that there should be something. So it was an enormous blessing to truly feel that god is there and is equal to the love I feel inside me.
So true for me too Rachel..”And, if I was a really good girl, if I prayed long and hard enough, He might just talk to me or send me an angel or messenger, so I knew I was one of the chosen ones.” I remember wanting to be one of the chosen ones. I wanted the recognition and confirmation from someone higher and greater than me. It wasn’t until Universal Medicine that I realised I could appreciate myself and meet myself and give all that confirmation to myself. Now I feel so much more joy available to me in my life and God is everywhere within and without.
I had tended to react to religion in the past, or being asked if I was religious, but that was because it was coming from a knowing that what I had been told was the re-interpretation of the word religious, and it felt so wrong for me. Understanding the true meaning of the word, thanks to Serge Benhayon, I can claim undoubtedly I am religious.
Beautiful Rachel. I always knew and felt deeply that God was there but like you was waiting for him to prove it. Tonight is Full Moon but it is cloudy so I cannot see the moon but I know it is there hidden by the clouds but I can feel its presence. Just because I cannot see something in physicality does not mean it is not there. God is love and I can feel his presence when I am present with myself and connect to the love in my inner-heart. As you so eloquently say “Now I can say, “yes, I have a religion” – a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God. My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of the Livingness.”
Beautiful Rachel. The Way of The Livingness is all about connection, love, relationships and the way we live. God loves all of us equally, without judgement and with absolute joy. It’s so beautiful that there is that natural knowing of this because it’s where we all come from.
A very powerful personal experience shared – thank you. I was not brought up with a religion, and also took on the image of God that was shared by friends, society and religious studies teachers in school, one of a very forbidding, big figure in the sky, something separate. I now feel that I am God and God is me, so to speak we are all one of the same, God is love and we are in essence love.
If religion is relationship – then how clearly this exposes how the world we are currently living in, despite it’s many religions is not actually living true religion, and instead is in complete disharmony by virtue of the separation it/we have created.
Spot on Elodie.
” … than consider He had deserted me, left me out in the cold, or that I hadn’t been good enough, or prayed properly – and that’s why He never showed Himself to me.”
I really relate to these rational explanations as to why God was not real, especially the ‘not good enough’ reason, that we didn’t deserve/weren’t worthy enough to be considered by God – all fabrications of course. And so in reaction to that … trying to do more, be more and generally over-compensate for not being enough. Hmmm, time to drop that one, I feel!
It is really beautiful to find a religion that not only makes sense and is truly all-encompassing but is very personal and forever evolving with the depth of love you choose to live.
I always had a religion, a strong relationship to a loving God. Although I was educated as a protestant child I disagreed with many parts of this so called religion, its ceremonies, its hymns, its seriousness, its separative ideals – yet I chose to take part in all of that. I thought, I can take out the good bits about the protestant church and not get affected by the parts, that are harmful. At a certain point this approach didn’t feel true anymore and in my early 20s I resigned. It was only when I found Universal Medicine, that I felt being presented with a religion, that felt true in all its aspects, I now don’t have to protect myself from any aspect of it, I feel home and safe.
Religion, a loving relationship with yourself, how very beautiful and so very simple.
Awesome blog Rachel, I too have never followed a religion. All the religions out there just didn’t make sense to me for the same reason as you’ve mentioned. Now, I see that religion is the way we live, my connection to people, nature and God from absolute love. I am not slowly building a true understanding of the word ‘religion’. I am learning to let go of what I had thought religion to be and what it meant. I am now experiencing religion in a way that is true, that is of love and the whole truth, I am experiencing it through The Way of The Livingness.
God can only be found within our innermost heart and the way to that connection is in living from this place to the best our ability. I have found that on this path I am returning, returning to me and thus returning to god.
“I know God as something I feel within and around me. I understand that being religious is a natural way for us all to be” – this is beautiful, and takes away all the complexities and intricacies presented in different forms of institutionalised religions.
I too love this part. I feel my connection with God is without words or rituals, it is a feeling.
I agree Lisa, religion as a deeply joyful feeling of connection to all that is. Imagine if children were given these words, to confirm what they feel, how much more empowering and loving than rules and beliefs.
I had a similar experience with organised religion as I was growing up, no idea really what it was all about and no desire to know. But recently I have come to realize that I know religion deeply and intimately, just not in the way that it is taught and lived by most. There is a deeply joyful feeling of connection to all that is. This is my religion.
Love this Rachel, I too have a religion and it is “The way of the Livingness”. I love how when you go back to the true meaning of religion it has at it’s core “relationship with self, others, nature and God”. Now that is how I am choosing to live my life and the shift in me as a person is huge as I claim back the truth that we are all equal in the eyes of love.
I love the simple clarity with which you have reminded us that religion is “..a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God.”
This blog is an awesome reminder for me too, to connect to myself, people, nature and God.
Religion from the mind has never made sense to me, but then nor did the science versions of creation completely win me over. What Serge Benhayon through The Way of the Livingness has presented is something that brings with it a whole feeling of ‘That makes sense’ without questioning just as if someone had just told me 2+2=4. I can and do resist at times what is presented but the cool thing about this religion is that it doesn’t force anything onto you as if to say ‘you must believe/follow this way otherwise you are less/not special’. It allows everyone to be where they are without any fanfare but what it does show in abundance is the joy that can be lived when one chooses not to resist.
Rachael I could relate deeply to your blog and how you felt about Religion and God. My upbringing practically mirrored yours, as did my feelings of God. I can say now that I always new there was a God, but confused as to why I couldn’t find a religion that lived in a way that I new God to be. It has taken me a while to accept that what I always hope for on earth exist, a one unified religion where God is felt from within and is all the love I have known God to be. A living way that confirms what I have always known, a living way that confirms the love we all are.
Hi Rachel your way to explain religion is simply wunderbar – thanks for showing that there is also an other way of being religious.
Thank you Rachel for sharing how you have come to be religious and how it can be pure and simple. Not morally pure but pure of bastardization, purely about the relationship between God, ourselves, other people and nature. The truth of God is natural to me so I struggle to accept atheism and find the ideas propagated by Richard Dawkins devastating. Whilst humanity has a lot to answer for the abominable acts committed under the guise of ‘religion’ and there is much falsity to dismantle I find it reassuring Serge Benhayon is restoring the true meaning, way of life and etymology of religion for humanity.
As a young adult I was interested in the common threads running through religions, especially as the origin of each religion felt like it had come from truth and the prophets associated with them like Buddha, Jesus and Muhamed etc. At university the religious studies class made more sense to me than philosophy and psychology. The less divine or as Rachel said it man made inventions of religious rituals and rules that came later can be understood historically and as part of the politics and power mongering of the day. This has tainted religion to such an extent that atheism and the catch cry of atheists was nailed by Rachel perfectly – ” I would ferociously declare that God didn’t exist and religion was merely a crutch used by the weak and feeble to prop them up and excuse their behaviour.”. Atheists often say they prefer a scientific view yet the magic and wonder of science at worst should lend itself to an agnostic perspective. I find atheism akin to saying there is nothing more intelligent than human beings, that God can’t exist as an intelligence greater than our own cannot exist.
I was brought up with religion, I never questioned God, I just knew that he was true, but I did question how all those people who hadn’t heard about Jesus wouldn’t be saved and end up in hell, as would those of different religions. How could that be? It just didn’t seem fair and certainly not loving. I looked into other religions including the new age ones but there was always something that just didn’t feel right. Then by attending Universal Medicine presentations I knew at long last here it was, true religion The Way of the Livingness based on love and equality for all – seeing every single person as equal, no matter in what way they chose to live.
Rachel, even though I have always felt there was a God and that I am religious, I truly loved the simple clarity that being religious is about a loving relationship with ourselves, others, nature and God. This is the understanding that all people could relate to.
I also had given up on God and was strongly against the hypocrisy I saw in Man made religions, I felt ‘deadness’ and the lies. It has been an amazing and worthwhile journey to reconnect to myself and realise I have a strong connection to God and the divine. Thank you Rachel for sharing your experience
Rachel thank you for explaining that from a non religious background, you knew that there was more than what you had been given. It seems that we all have this deeper knowing. Now I too can say, “yes, I have a religion” – a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God. My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of the Livingness.” And yes Kate, it feels like coming home.
Thanks Rachel. I too had no religion as a child and felt a strong feeling of distain for all things religious from others in my family. But I got a strong feeling that there was more to this world, a deeper meaning and understanding I was yet to fathom, and so begun my spiritual search. After a pretty empty and ultimately fruitless search I discovered Universal Medicine. I immediately felt something very real and very familiar, like coming home, and that’s what my journey has now been about coming home to a connection with God within my own heart, a knowing, an unconditional love and reverence for nature. This continues to deepen with every passing day.
‘I realised that if I were in fact from God, then I too was love. And that by being loving with myself, my fellow man and nature, that I was deeply religious’: beautifully expressed Rachel. For me this absolutely sums up the true meaning of Religion
So true. All the ‘rules’ seem to invite in a complexity that serves only to mask the great and simple truth that we are love and need only to live it.
Rachel, you paint a perfect picture of true religion: re-turning to the love we are. A love that never left us, we left it.
That is exactly it, Liane: God/love never left us, we left God/love and we can return to the love we are by choice.
Absolutely a great example of true religion, returning to the love we naturally are… Connecting to a relationship with ourselves and by default a true living relationship with God. Rachel summed this up perfectly for me… “Now I can say, “yes, I have a religion” – a loving relationship with myself, others, nature and God. My religion is the way I live. It is called The Way of the Livingness.” This is also my religion.
Spot on Liane – Rachel does explain things in such real and wonderful terms. True religion is returning to the love that we already are. That simple. No need to try or to make up things, rather it is about surrendering to what we already know, but turned away from. Time to turn back now, to return to what we know to be true, I say…
Thanks Rachel! You have totally simplified Religion for me here especially in this line: ‘When taken back to its earliest definition, the word religion essentially means relationship. A loving relationship with self, nature, others and God.’
I’m still coming to terms with the acceptance of the word God and using it myself. There’s so much ‘stuff’ around the word that whilst articles like yours make so much more sense than what I’ve previously been taught, I still cringe around the subject of god and religion.
It’s amazing to see your journey through religion and trying out the different religions. I love how simple and straightforward this is. Thank you for sharing it Rachel
I completely agree Rachel. It seems that it is easier for most people to worship Jesus, Buddha or Mohammed and see them as special or chosen than to follow their example and be loving with all others and see ourselves as equal.
Thank you Rachel. Likewise, I have found that the worlds religions don’t seem to quite add up in their views of God. I am discovering my connection to God through self love and the knowing that we are all from God and have a connection with God. That God lies within us all and is not some external being there to punish the evil and save the chosen few.
My family attended church every Sunday when I was young. The only thing I looked forward to was the 5c piece we were given to buy lollies on the way home from Sunday school. Over the years I use to try and understand religion and god but it never made any sense to me and I couldn’t connect with what the priest was saying in church. I loved when you said Rachel that religion is about relationship with self, nature, others and god. So simple and easy to live by. I too can now say I’m religious.
Rachel,I too can relate to the conventional religious ideals and God, outside of me. Until through Universal Medicine, showed me different and I am divine. That God and love is within me
I loved reading this blog Rachel, and can relate to so much of it. I was never attracted to any religion as I always felt they did not really relate to me – the stories or sermons always seemed to be a million years away from the life that I led; I didn’t connect to it at all. The Way of the Livingness is also my religion now and the only one that has ever made sense. Thank you sharing how true religion can be.
Having been raised a Catholic and in my twenties became a born again Christian, I noticed that the people in these two types of churches were no different to those who did not attend any church. They were sick, unhappy, depressed, struggled with money, guilt and life itself. The Way of the Livingness has offered me a way to come back to a foundation of love and joy and harmony, where every aspect of life is considered and there is a brotherhood with all humanity.
So true Karen, I have a similar memory from attending church when I was young. Church, religion and god were all very stern! There wasn’t much fun to be had in religious ways, in fact that was enough to have your hands clapped for being naughty. Not so with the Way of the Livingness, a truly religious way where joy, love and harmony are the foundational elements, and there is no ‘rule’ or curfew on the amount of joy, fun and glorious giggles that can be had.
I grew up with no religion also, and now that I start feel the truth of what it is for me, from my own being, it is completely different to what I have been lead to believe it is anyway.
Love the simplicity Rachel, Religion indeed feels like and is a very Loving relationship with god and everything around us. A forever present love which supports us in everything we do and makes these things about love as well. Such a difference than the known meaning of the word religion, what takes such an enormous loveless and separating stance in the relationship with god.
Wow Rachel, you’ve said it all in a nutshell.
Thank you Rachel for sharing the true meaning of the word religion. I was christened but was never raised in a religious way. I can relate to what you shared that not one religion actually spoke to me and I just picked out of the several religions the things that I felt to be true. And when the subject of religion was brought up my answer would always be ‘I have a religion of my own, I pick all the things that I can relate to from the various religions.” It wasn’t till the presentations of Universal Medicine that I came to understand the real meaning of religion. Now religion for me is a loving relationship with self, nature, others and God.
Reading this, especially the end, and your definition of religion made me tingle – ‘…a common thread of union, love and equalness…’.
Thank you Rachel for sharing your story , to reconnect to the love we are and allowing that to expand and to feel we are all equal in that, and to see we all live together in a body of love we call God, then I must be God. To be connected to everything through the divinity I know and feel I am is to live in an equality where my part is no more or less than any other part and all parts are equal to everything . All people in essence are points of the same light and equally so are all particles that make up our bodies. This living connection to everything is The Way of the Livingness, this is true religion, my religion.
Gorgeous Rachel. I had gown up in the Catholic Church and often, even as a child questioned a lot of what I saw. I honestly felt that God was love, but rarely saw this playing out within the Church. I found this very confusing and left when I was 15. My parents response to this was purely loving. They accepted my decision and said that “we still love you because you are our daughter”. This love inspired a very long search, much like yourself, into religion. But it wasn’t until I came across Universal Medicine that the penny dropped for me too. I have a whole new relationship with religion, but there has been much to work through from earlier beliefs that I have had, for it hurts a great deal to see the pain that is caused in the name of institutionalised religion. But I know it starts with me and my relationship with myself and travels outwards from me. It’s truly beautiful to feel that I can live intimately with God in my life in every moment.
Beautiful sharing Jennifer. Like you true religion to me is how we live our every moment of our everyday. It’s the process of how we develop and expand our connection and the understanding of ourselves and all others equally 24/7, not just what you do or say in church or when someone else is looking.
I had a similar experience growing up, with no religion, even though I searched. I too have now discovered the Way of the Livingness, and the connection that I feel with myself and nature now extends out to humanity. I never knew this true feeling of belonging existed, and I know for sure, that I am never alone.
Thank you Rachel for sharing your experience. When growing up I knew God was real but not in the way religion has portrayed. The presentation of the way of the livingness feels like a true connection to god.
Love your sharing Rachel, so beautifully written. I was brought up within a Protestant Religion but was very much disillusioned in my teens and finally my twenties felt that I no longer could relate to the dogma, restrictions and lack of true love I felt . There has always been a part of me that knew God to be Loving but my lack of self worth was entrenched from the teachings of the Church of England. It wasn’t until I came across Serge Benhayon and The Way of The Livingness presentations that I felt that Love.
I too was given freedom by not being raised with any specific religious dogma. Yet, the inner search has always been strong. How wonderfully simple to finally come to the understanding that “religion comes from a way of living that is known inside of us”.
I was on the exact same boat Rachel. I always had an inkling that there was some sort of truth about god, yet wouldn’t call myself religious or have a religion. I would try and talk to something I knew was out there (I wouldn’t refer to what I was talking to as god all the time though). I did ask for good things to happen or some sort of signs. I remember my friend taught me how to pray once, she actually just shared how to talk to god now I think back to it. Like you, I could feel something was off about organised religion, but did use to get an interesting feeling when going to churches etc. The way of the livingness and the fact that religion means having a relationship with myself, others and god feels easy and more like home to me…
Me to Rachel. I never called myself religious, but now, understanding truly the word religion and feeling the connection to the magic that is all around, I now know and feel what religion actually is and the fact that it is always beside me and within.
Like you Rachel I too was very curious and open to the idea of God when I was younger. My family were not religious at all (lapsed anglicans) but our neighbours were Irish Catholics. I would often go with them to Sunday Mass to watch the ceremonies and rituals. They fascinated me & I so wanted to be able to have that wafer and wine if that gave me a relationship with God. I convinced my parents to let me get confirmed in the anglican church. I had to attend classes and got to be an altar girl. I worked very earnestly to do it all right so that I would finally be able to know God. It was a total let down to discover that being part of the ceremonies and rituals changed nothing for me in relation to God. I felt no closer nor experienced anything different that before. I promptly stopped going to church and that was the end of my religious days. Through Universal Medicine, I too have come to know what true religion is and have an ever deepening relationship with God through the ever deepening relationship with myself and others.
I agree, Helen. When I grew up my only connection to religion was that I had more free time during school hours – no religious instructions and I didn’t want to have anything to do with religions. Funny that I now lead a life that I would describe as religious.
Love what you have shared here Rachel, that religion is simply about connecting to all the relationships in our life – it really is so simple!
Wow Rachel that’s awesome! I had similar uncertainties about God because he would not show me obvious signs that he existed even though I continued to pray and ask for one. I’ve grown up in a Christian family but now that we as a family have found Universal Medicine we feel more religious than we ever had! It’s the Way of the Livingness that helps me feel connected truly to God, nature, people and myself.
The journey back to God for me has been a long one. The first chapters were difficult. Tempting as opting out was, it was necessary to opt out of opting out. It is funny since opting out (being an Atheist) feels confronting, but in truth it is pure comfort of following up on a decision of not feeling anything. Once I knew that God is here and I can feel his beautiful presence caressing me, opting out ceased to be an option and I am back again in the journey.