Invitation

'God's will' is a principle. It can even be a principle that people experience as an interiour invitation of personal love. But even as such it remains only a principle.

The real invitation is an encounter, not a principle, even when that principle induces excitement through love.

The basis of both Judaism and Christianity is founded not on principle(s), no matter how noble they may be. The foundation of Judaism and Christianity is founded and rests today fully on the actual encounter with the living God, the creator of the world, the one who interacted with people in person throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the one who was manifest in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and the one who has continued to manifest themselves to apostles, disciples, and followers ever since in a personal and tangible way ever since.

Anyone who wants to come to God must trust that there is a God and that God rewards those who sincerely search for God. - Hebrews 11

This requires setting one's own expectations aside, fully surrender of what you want in life, throwing your ego to the wind, waiting for God, expecting God to act, and learning to pay careful attention to God when God does so. This has nothing to do with modern Charismatic doctrines or manifestations; it is wholly other.

In reality the church does none of this; a testament to its own infidelity. That is because doing so is far too dangerous to people's demands that they get their own way. It is confusing and disconcerting to those who attend church and who have never experienced this. And it is dangerous for those who have...