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Born of God – Really?
By John Gavazzoni
John Gavazzoni is a non-denominational theologian, evangelist, writer and speaker,
and former pastor. He served on the CUA Board of Directors in 2007. This article is
published online at http://www.christianuniversalist.org/articles/bornofgod.html
For many, many years, during the period when I was quite conventionally-oriented in my
theology, I fully, without question -- and to be honest, unwilling to entertain anything to
the contrary -- thought that the substance of humanity came forth out of nothing.
I believed, of course, that we originated by the creative act of God, but certainly did not
believe that our substance was eternal in nature, that God had shared with us His very
substance in bringing us into being, or that, by us, in/with Christ, Deity had increased
Itself as Family. Now, by the grace of God which is mightily able to effect the deepest
change of mind in any of us, and that, when He chooses, I now stand firmly in the
conviction which I once deemed, a most deviant heresy.
I have always been a committed preacher of the new birth, of spiritual rebirth from
above, but I previously thought that being born from above was identical to being born of
God. That the two are very essentially related, of course, there can be no doubt. But I see
now that being born of God is the larger context in which being born again, or born from
above must be understood. It would certainly seem that there is some distinction between
born and being reborn.
It was my former conviction that I, by inclusion in Adam, had my origination as a person
by the creative act of God whereby He brought all creation into existence out of nothing
(Theo.: the doctrine of creation ex nihilo), and, having received the Lord Jesus as my
personal Lord and Savior, been born of the Spirit by the act of God by which He, by the
Holy Spirit, gave me His life in Christ. There was certainly a wonderful vein of truth
within that understanding, but nevertheless also, substantial and significant elements of
ignorance and misunderstanding.
The conviction that we possess eternal being and personhood in God is usually referred to
as belief in pre-existence. It does not really require too much thought to realize that the
term pre-existence, used in this way, is a misnomer, for eternity does not have to do with
pre-existence, or for that matter, a bye-and-bye-someday existence, because eternity is
not a dimension that was before time and will once again be after time is over, but rather
eternity is now, the NOW which is God Himself, the NOW that encompasses,
circumscribes and permeates space-time as He immanently plays hide and seek with His
creation yet, all the while, transcending it.
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We are all, at this very moment, living in time within eternity--time being a temporal dimension WITHIN eternity, not interrupting eternity--somewhat accurately, yet crudely illustrated by Plato's idea that our present
existence is like that of a man living in the darkness of a cave with a little light
filtering in from the outside world, while he is largely ignorant of that world that
gives larger meaning to his cave-existence.
But when we are enlightened to affirm that "I AM" is the ultimate Ground of
all Being, our own included,
our cave-dwelling days shall have come to an end in the brightness of the
eternal Day,
which is Christ, Himself.
Our being and personhood is a matter of eternal birthing--Creaturehood, in time, proceeds out from Being,
the Being in whom we have our being--and God is the One who does the birthing.
I'm really talking about God giving birth.
I'm really talking about really being "born of God."
The conventional evangelical idea of being born of God falls short of the truth that God
giving birth to us is, wouldn't you know, first and foremost God's experience. Do we
realize that the experience of being born of God is first God's experience within Him/Her
Self before it becomes our experience? (when I say, "before," I do not mean as on a timeline, but "before," as in the Ground from which all things proceed.)
Honestly, really, we've all been conceived in and birthed out of God. Rebirth, or being
born again, or born from above in our creaturely, time-oriented existence and experience,
is about being reconnected to, remembering, being awakened to, and realizing in time the
truth that we have been, in and from eternity, born of God.
We re-member, that is, we return in creaturely experience to being members of Christ's
eternal Body, that Body born of the conjugal uniting of the complementary gendercompleteness of the reproductive love attraction within God. Christ, and we, in Him,
have been conceived and born by God's Self-knowing from which proceeded the Son of
His love. You, with your elder brother, THE Son of God, are God's love-child.
Do you realize that you were born by a passionate attraction that occurred, and is still
occurring in God? What triggered your divine birth was when the twinkle in Deity's eye
met It's own come-hither look.
You are a love-child, a passion-fire-child. You had to experience creaturely separation
from that Love-family, so that in re-membering, in the gathering together, the recollection of all things in Christ, you might fully know the glory of your Being.
"Beloved, now are we the children of God..." (1 John 3:2)
The Destiny of the Race of Man: An
Orthodox Christian Understanding
By Dr. George Zgourides
Dr. George Zgourides is an Eastern Orthodox Christian author, clinical
psychologist, family physician, volunteer hospital chaplain, and former priest. He
has served on the CUA Board of Directors since July 2007. This article is published
online at http://www.christianuniversalist.org/articles/destinyofman.html
According to Meyendorff's Byzantine Theology, at the heart of the Byzantine
understanding of humanity's destiny is the doctrine of participation in God, termed
deification, or theosis (163). Along these lines, Meyendorff quotes Maximus the
Confessor as follows:
In the same way in which the soul and the body are united, God should become
accessible for participation by the soul and, through the soul's intermediary, by
the body, in order that the soul might receive an unchangeable character, and the
body, immortality; and finally that the whole man should become God, deified by
the grace of God become man, becoming whole man, soul and body, by nature,
and becoming whole God, soul and body, by grace. (164)
In other words, man is called to participate and share in the deified humanity of Christ,
not merely in imitation of Jesus' moral and virtuous acts, but to actual life in Christ,
particularly through the sacraments (164). The whole person, then, participates fully in
the divine nature of the whole God (164). Ware, in his The Orthodox Church, adds that
humans, created in the image of God, fully acquire God's likeness and in the process
become deified (219). Because God became human that we might be made god (21,
quoting St. Athanasius), humans become a created god, a god by grace or by status (232;
c.f. John 10: 34-35). And as the three members of the Trinity dwell one in another, so are
humans called to dwell in the God-head (231). Hence, theosis enables Christians to
become by grace what God is by nature (21). For the Orthodox faithful, then, to be saved
and redeemed is to be deified (231).
The doctrinal foundation of deification rests in the hypostatic union between the human
and divine natures of Christ (Meyendorff 164). This human-divine hypostasis belongs to
Christ alone (164), while the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are said to be three persons
[hypostasis] in one essence [ousia] (Ware 23). There is, however, communication
between the energies of Christ's hypostatic natures, and those who are in Christ also share
in this communication (Meyendorff 164).
Union with God is union with His divine energy (actions, operations, power) but not His
divine essence (nature, inner being). In The Orthodox Way, Ware quotes St. Basil as
affirming, No one has ever seen the essence of God, but we believe in the essence
because we experience the energy (22). The human finite mind cannot comprehend the
infinite mind of God, which remains a mystery to man. To experience such
comprehension would be to know God as He knows Himself, which is impossible for
created beings (22). However, man is able to experience directly God's energies in the
form of grace, love, and life, to mention only a few (22). And, of course, man is never
deified through his own works or efforts; the human energy must become obedient to the
divine energy. Nor are human and divine natures ever confused or fused: The created can
never be the same as the Creator (23).
In The Orthodox Way, Ware notes that through theosis humans do not lose their personal
identity, integrity, or sense of self (23). Instead, they remain distinct (but not separated)
from God, and they always maintain an I-Thou relationship with God (23). In the end,
humans become more fully who they were meant to be. By freely conforming to God's
will, they achieve the supreme goal for which they were created (Meyendorff 165).
The notion of man's eventual deification leads to certain conclusions regarding humanity
and creation. The Christian concepts of fall (sin and separation) and restoration (salvation
and deification) are based on the idea that man is created in both the image of God
(iconos, with the ability to exercise reason and free will) and the likeness of God (the
ability to choose and live morally). The first humans were created as perfect beings in a
potential sense, and they were called to use their image to acquire the likeness of God -with God's help (Ware, The Orthodox Church 220-221). Through rebellion, however,
man did fall, and his sinfulness placed a wall between God and humanity that man could
never tear down on his own (225). In turn, God came to man because man could no
longer come to Him (225).
The constant theme in the deification of man is that of redemption through the
Incarnation of the Word -- the Logos (Meyendorff 159). Indeed, the redemptive death of
Christ restores humanity's fallen and broken state to one of participation in the divine
nature (c.f., II Peter 1:4). Humankind is destined for union with God. So when men freely
choose to respond to God's love and call, they are deified by being assimilated to God
through virtue (219, quoting John Damascene). And not only will the human body be
deified. At the appointed hour, the entirety of creation will be saved, glorified, and
transformed from corruption into a new heaven and a new earth (234; Revelation 21:1).
On the topic of freely choosing God's will, the term synergia refers to humanity's
cooperation with God in attaining full fellowship with Him (221). On the one hand, full
communion with the Creator cannot occur without God's grace and assistance. On the
other hand, man must do his part, too (221). The two work together, although God's part
in the process is always incalculably greater than man's part (221). Still, while God may
call sinners to repentance, He never interferes with man's free will-his ability to choose
between good and evil (222). God always respects man's decisions, even if the result is
disobedience and sin. As God works in man, and humanity's will is conformed to God's
Will, union with Him becomes more complete as man develops into His likeness. The
Orthodox hold that the Mother of God -- the Theotokos who perfectly cooperated with
God-is humanity's best example of synergia in action (222). Ware, in The Orthodox
Church, summarizes the key concepts of deification and theosis in the following several
points:
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Theosis is the ultimate goal of all Christians, and the process begins in the present
life (236).
Theosis prompts continued repentance (236).
Theosis requires following God's commandments and walking daily with Him by
praying, fasting, receiving the sacraments, reading the Scriptures and Church
Fathers, and so forth (236).
Theosis is a social process that embraces the commandment to love neighbor as
self, for example, by feeding the hungry and visiting the sick (237).
Theosis is a practical process that encourages both prayer and love in action
(237).
Theosis presupposes a common life in the Church and sacraments (237-238).
To conclude, theosis is the process whereby man becomes what God originally meant
him to be. Man and God must work synergistically to bring about man's redemption
through the Incarnation and subsequent death of our Lord and Savior. And, in the end,
deified man will fully commune with God, and participate in His divine energies.
Works Cited:
 Meyendorff, John. Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes.
New York: Fordharn University Press, 1979.
 Ware, Timothy. The Orthodox Church. New Edition. London: Penguin, 1997.
 Ware, Timothy. The Orthodox Way. Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary
Press.
Theosis: The Fusion of Man/Woman and
God?
By Ángel F. Sánchez Escobar
Ángel F. Sánchez Escobar is a member of the Roman Catholic clergy.
This article is published online at
http://www.christianuniversalist.org/connection/theosis-fusion.html
According to Orthodoxy and the Eastern Fathers of the Church, there are two main ideas
to the complex concept of theosis or deification as the salvation of man/woman: on the
one hand, that God, as a deed of His Infinite, ecstatic love, comes out of Himself,
bestows Himself on man/woman, inhabits man/woman, and seeks to unite with him/her;
on the other hand, that man/woman is given the command to be perfect in the Father’s
likeness, literally to become god. Deification, the restoration of man/woman as a true son
of God, occurs by means of God’s grace or uncreated energies through His Spirit and in
Christ. In contrast with the Western Church, God is not only essence, He is also energy.
If God were only essence man/woman could not unite or commune with Him. In the
deification process, both our soul – residing in the mind according to Macarius the Great
(Homily 15,20) and the abode of the indwelling Spirit – and our body experience a
transformation (Irenaeus, Book V, Chapter 6, 1). It is the whole man/woman who
glorifies in Christ as he acquires the grace of the Holy Spirit.
For the Church Fathers, Jesus’ incarnation is the key to salvation and deification. The
Logos of God having taken a human body makes mankind partakers of the divine nature.
Palamas says that in the process of deification there is a hypostatic union of human nature
with the incarnate Logos of God. But is there an ontological transformation of the soul of
man/woman, and, thus, of the whole person as he/she is deified? Is there a real
participation of man/woman in intra-divine relationship, a real fusion with the Spirit,
granting the body even on earth incorruptibility and glorification or just a moral
development, a communication of the divine attributes to the perfecting human being, a
vision of God when the person approaches the knowledge of the Truth?
What is true is that it must be a personal or pre-personal union, not an impersonal one.
The uncreated energies, coming directly from God, are of personal origin as He is a
Divine Person – as well as God the Son and God the Spirit – and the center and source of
all personalities. It is through these uncreated energies that man/woman is able to divinize
as he/she acquires a new, transformed soul-personality at his unification with the Spirit of
God. For Palamas the union between man and the Divine Energies is enhypostatic, that
is, personal: it cannot exist apart from the divine hypostases.
One wonders if the Spirit of God, the Divine Presence, as Florovsky calls it, indwelling
man/woman, is the infinite God the Spirit (also called the Holy Spirit and the Infinite
Third Person of the Trinity). Most Church Fathers must have had difficulties
contemplating a union of the soul with this Third Person as this divine Person is absolute
and in essence similar to the Father. A union with this Infinite Being would be close to
pantheism and a woman/man could lose his/her personal identity, instead of becoming
individuated. Perhaps the great problem of the Fathers was considering the Spirit of God
the Third Person of the Trinity instead of just as a part of God, but still not a personal
one. Being so, man/woman could be embraced in the personality circuit of energy
(uncreated energies) coming from and going to the Father through the action of the Spirit
of God inhabiting man/woman. This part would personalize as the soul of the man/
woman deifies and fuses with it, thus becoming a new, transformed being without losing
its personal identity, without being absorbed into the essence of God. The Bible refers
many times to the Spirit of God, without reference to the Third Person of the Trinity, the
latter idea being a later theological development. This Spirit, according to Paul, is the
same that raised Christ from the dead (Romans 8:11).
But when does this process of transformation begin and when does it end? When does the
pre-personal part of God become personal as man/woman fuses with it? I believe that
deification is an eternal ongoing process that may start in this world and, very
exceptionally, can be accelerated in this world, as in the case of Jesus or John the Baptist,
who according to Palamas would not have died if he did not die by martyrdom (Homily
40).
For Hieromonk Damascene, “the theme of transformation points to the purpose of our
life. That purpose is unending union with God – deification, theosis. But deification is not
a static condition: it is a never-ending growth, a process, an ascent toward God. We do
not reach the end in this life, nor even in the life to come” (“The Way of Spiritual
Transformation”). Damascene also quotes the words of St. Symeon the New Theologian,
who he believes attained what might be called the highest possible degree of union with
God in this life: “Over the ages the progress will be endless, for a cessation of this
growing toward the end without ending would be nothing but a grasping at the
ungraspable.” Thus our union with God is a continual transformation into the likeness of
God, which is the likeness of Christ. We should also remember Enoch and Elijah whose
dedication to God caused them not to taste death in life, as the Scriptures say and the
Orthodox tradition confirms:
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found,
because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony,
that he pleased God. (Hebrews 11:5)
And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared
a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah
went up by a whirlwind into heaven. (II Kings 2:12)
It is plausible to think that both prophets might have attained deification on earth.
Moreover, we see that the fire mentioned in the Book of Kings about Elijah is reflected in
Symeon’s work, in which he compares our soul with a lamp kindled by divine fire: “God
is fire and He is so called by all the inspired Scripture (cf. Heb. 12:29). The soul of each
of us is a lamp. Now a lamp is wholly in darkness, even though it be filled with oil or tow
or other combustible matter, until it receives fire and is kindled” (Ethical Discourses
339).
Perhaps light is the image we can retain in our still earthly eyes to grasp this mystery of
the Grace of God being bestowed upon us and our eternal deification and ascent to the
Father. Symeon, this great teacher on the human experience of theosis, describes this
mystical light as follows:
By grace I have received grace (cf. John 1:16), by doing well I have received
[His] kindness, by fire I have been requited with fire, by flame with flame. As I
ascended I was given other ascents, at the end of the ascent I was given light, and
by the light an even clearer light. In the midst thereof a sun shone brightly and
from it a ray shone forth that filled all things. The object of my thought remained
beyond understanding, and in this state I remained while I wept most sweetly and
marvelled at the ineffable. (Ethical Discourses 205)
He also says: “That human being who is inwardly illumined by the light of the Holy
Spirit cannot endure the vision of it, but falls face down on the ground and cries out in
great fear and wonder, because he has seen and experienced something that is beyond
nature, thought, or conception.” How can we experience something beyond nature and
not be wholly transformed by it?
The Russian holy staretz (or “elder”) of the eighteenth century, St. Seraphim of Sarov
also addresses this light: “The grace of the Holy Spirit is the light which enlightens man.
The whole of Sacred Scripture speaks about this” (Conversation with Nicholas Motovilov
III). We also hear him saying:
Then Father Seraphim took me very firmly by the shoulders and said: ‘My son, we
are both at this moment in the Spirit of God. Why don’t you look at me?’ ‘I cannot
look, Father,’ I replied, ‘because your eyes are flashing like lightning. Your face
has become brighter than the sun, and it hurts my eyes to look at you.’ ‘Don’t be
afraid,’ he said. ‘At this very moment you yourself have become as bright as I am.
You yourself are now in the fullness of the Spirit of God; otherwise you would not
be able to see me as you do.’
This saint also points to a cosmic salvation of humanity: “Learn to be peaceful, and
thousands around you will find salvation.” He also says, “Prayer, fasting, works of mercy
– all this is very good, but it represents only the means, not the end of the Christian life.
The true end is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.” Indeed, the deification process, in
which Spirit of God indwells man’s soul and mysteriously unites with him leads man to
unceasing prayer, to hesychasm (conscious resting in God). This is what Isaac the Syrian,
Bishop of Nineveh, in the seventh century, writes:
When the Spirit establishes his indwelling in man, the latter can no longer stop
praying, for the Spirit never ceases praying in him. Whether he sleeps or stays
awake, prayer is not separated from his soul. While he eats, while he drinks, while
he lies in bed or in working, while he is plunged into sleep, the perfume of prayer
spontaneously exhales from his soul. Henceforth he masters prayers not during
determined periods of time, but at all times. (Treatises)
Unceasing, perfumed prayer naturally flows from our soul as it breathes its union with
the Spirit of God and worships the Father in heaven. Deification should be the aim of all
personalities in a spiritualizing cosmos. In this process, I dare say, the non-spiritualized
soul would be as though it would have never existed, would be no reality as the only
reality would be a spiritual one; perhaps it might enter a pantheistic state.
The Divine Incarnation
By Jabez T. Sunderland
Jabez T. Sunderland (1842-1936) was an American minister and missionary who
opposed the drift of the Unitarian Church from its Christian roots into secular
humanism. This essay appeared as a pamphlet in 1901 as the first in the “Twentieth
Century Sermon” Series, put out by the Unitarian Club in Toronto. It is published
online at http://www.americanunitarian.org/sunderlandincarnation.htm
"God was in Christ" (2 Cor. 5:19).
"If we love one another, God dwelleth in us" (1 John 4:12).
The doctrine of the Divine Incarnation is of great importance in religious thought,
whatever form of faith we may hold.
There are in the Christian world today two widely and in some respects radically different
forms of this doctrine. Let us inquire what they are, study them as candidly and carefully
as we can, compare them with each other, and try earnestly to find out where lies the
truth.
In inquiring what the two forms are, we quickly get an answer from the two texts which I
have cited.
The Apostle Paul says: "God was in Christ." One view of the incarnation bases itself
upon this text and stops here, saying, This is the doctrine, the whole doctrine—"God was
in Christ"—only in Christ—the incarnation of God is confined to one person,
supernaturally born, who lived and died in Palestine, some nineteen hundred years ago.
The other view does not deny this one, except as to its limitation. It says with Paul, ''Yes,
God was in Christ." But it goes on from this and adds, with John, the very important
declaration, "If we love one another, God dwelleth also in us." In other words, it affirms
the divine incarnation not only in Christ but also in all humanity.
Nor does this latter and larger view of the Incarnation really array John against Paul. For,
when we look further, we find that the larger thought is just what Paul also teaches, if we
take his teaching as a whole. Turning over to Ephesians 4:6, we read the following
declaration, as strong and unequivocal as words can make it: "There is one God and
Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." Paul's real teaching, then,
as well as that of John, is, that God was not in Christ alone, but that he is also "in you
all."
In thus teaching, both Paul and John agree with Jesus, who taught, it is true, his own
unity with God, but also just as strongly the unity of all men with God. If he said, "I and
my Father are one" [John 10:30], he did not stop there, as so many teachers of
Christianity today so strangely do, but, going on, he added the other half of the truth:
"That they may be one, even as we are one" [John 17:21].1
One of our poet preachers has well expressed, in the form of a prayer, this union of all
with God which Jesus taught.
"O Thou Infinite One!
Let me Know myself as one with Thee;
Let me feel in my soul the vibrations of Thy Life.
Fill me, O God, with Thyself;
Let the Law that is in Thee
Come as truth into my soul.
Let the order that shapes Universes
Become the conscious Law within me.
Let my deeds and words
Take form from Thee as the stars do.
Let my actions be of Thy Law
As are the motions of the planets.
O God, fill, permeate, inform me,
That I may be one with Thee
Even as was Christ of old."
We have now the two views of the Divine Incarnation before us.
One view limits the incarnation; the other does not.
One view sees God incarnate in Christ alone. This is the teaching of the so-called
"orthodox" creeds, and of all the churches founded on those creeds.
The other sees God incarnate not only in Christ, but also in all Christ's brethren—in all
the rest of the children of the common Father. This is the view, not only of the Liberal
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Jesus draws no line separating himself from humanity. Instead, he most unequivocally classes himself
with humanity, making his relation to God the same as that of other men. He calls his disciples his
"brethren" (Matt. 28:10, John 20:17). Paul calls him "the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29). In 2
Peter (1:4) we, as well as Christ, are declared to be "partakers of the divine nature." If he is called the "son
of God," so again and again, both in the Old Testament and the New, are we also called "sons of God" and
"children of God;" and God is declared to be "our Father" as well as the Father of Jesus. On this point Jesus
himself uses the strongest possible language, speaking of God to his followers as "my Father and your
Father, my God and your God" (John 20:17). Thus we are taught most explicitly that in whatever sense
God was in him, in the same sense God is in us. "Beloved now are we the sons of God" (1 John 3:2).
"Every one that loveth is begotten of God" (1 John 4:7); "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and
God dwelleth in him" (1 John 4:16); "Even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in
us" (John 17:21).
Christian churches, but of a steadily growing number of the broader and freer minds in all
the creedal churches, in spite of their creeds.
Nor is it strange that this larger view finds increasing favor, for biblical scholarship is
making it more and more clear that this was the teaching of Jesus and his immediate
disciples, and historic study that this was the doctrine of the early Christian churches. I
believe also that philosophic and scientific study is making it increasingly clear that this
view has its foundation in fact and reason as the narrower view does not.
Let us examine the commonly received doctrine of a limited incarnation in Christ alone,
and see to what extent it stands the text of investigation.
The first thing to be observed concerning it is that it was born late—long after Christ—
and in a very dark age, when a majority of men believed that God was to be seen only in
the unusual, the limited, the exceptional, the irregular, the supposed miraculous—before
it was understood that all things are governed according to law.
Since we have learned that we live in a law-ordered universe, we are fast attaining to a
larger view of God and of his ways of manifesting himself. We are learning to see him in
the steady on-going of nature. We are discovering that the regular displays him far better
than the irregular, the normal far more clearly than the abnormal, the orderly far more
surely than the erratic, the universal better than the limited. Indeed we are learning that
order and law are themselves the clearest of all possible illustrations, the most irrefutable
of all possible proofs of him. For what are law and order in the universe except the
Universe-Power working intelligently, and therefore beneficently? And that is just what
we must mean by God—the Infinite Power at the heart of the universe, operating in all,
and through all, and forever intelligently and to worthy ends. Order therefore is simply
his symbol; law is simply his sign his path of light as he pursues his majestic way. This is
the manner in which men are learning to think of God in our age of growing knowledge
and reason.
What then is to be presumed as antecedently probable regarding an incarnation? If God is
to incarnate himself, will it be likely to take place in manner different from anything else
in nature—in a corner, in some one special age, in some single special land, in a little
special town in that land, in some one human being born in an unusual and exceptional
way? Is that according to the manner of God's great works and ways? I think we must say
that at least the presumption is against an incarnation in such a special, limited, and
unnatural manner.
The case may be illustrated, I think, in some such way as this: Suppose some person
should go away to some great mountain valley in Asia or Africa or Australia, and there
find a single tree—perhaps the largest tree in the world—but one single tree among
millions, hidden away in that one remote valley—and should say to you, "There, in that
tree, and in that tree alone, God manifests himself, so far as trees are concerned." Would
you believe him? He might urge that the tree was the largest and finest known. That
would make no difference to you. He might even bring you reports, believed by
multitudes, that the tree had been planted by an angel from heaven, or by inhabitants of
another planet, or by God himself in a manner different from that of any other tree that
ever grew; but all the same you would say, "No, I cannot accept your claim. Not any one
tree can monopolize the manifestation of God. Do you say God planted this tree? The
God that I believe in and worship planted all trees—and not by the poor expedient of
special miracle either, but by his great, wise, perpetually operative and unfailing naturemethods. So far from this tree being the only manifestation of God, I believe that God is
the creator and the very life of all the trees in all the lands of earth, and that every one of
all their millions is busy day and night, in every leaf and bud and blossom and rootlet and
fiber, in showing his handiwork, and manifesting his power and wisdom." I think this is
essentially the reply you would make to one who should attempt to convince you that
God's sole manifestation in the trees of earth is in some one single, special miracle-tree.
Turn now to the Divine Incarnation—God's manifestation of himself in humanity—and
must we not say essentially the same thing? When men come to us attempting to confine
God's incarnation to a single generation of humanity's long history, and to a single land
and province and village in the midst of earth's vast continents, and to a single life in that
little village do we not see at once that they are thinking not according to twentieth
century methods, but methods of a darker past, and that the conception of God involved
is the conception of the centuries before law in nature was known, and when the whole
universe was limited in men's thought not only to this earth but to a few countries around
the Mediterranean Sea?
How are we to account for this strange idea that God's incarnation or manifestation of
himself in humanity is confined to one man?
I suppose we may say that this astonishing limitation is based upon the story of the
miraculous birth of Jesus. We are told that Jesus was born of a virgin. He had no human
father. God was his Father. This is cited as proof that he was a special incarnation of God
—different from anybody else.
Well, let us briefly examine this story of the miraculous birth and see whether it really
belongs in the Bible—whether it is any part of the real gospel, or is only a later
addition—a legendary after-growth—and therefore whether it affords any basis for the
belief that God's incarnation was different in kind in Jesus from what it is in humanity as
a whole.
It should be noted that two of the four gospels, or biographical accounts which we have
of Jesus, say nothing about any miraculous birth. These two are Mark and John; and
Mark is pretty generally conceded now by the best critics to be the earliest of all the
Gospels. But now here is something very strange. If Jesus was really born differently
from anybody else, and if this was the primary proof that he was God, it seems
unaccountable that two of his biographers, and one of them the earliest of all, and
therefore the one nearest to Jesus in time, should have omitted this crucial fact, this fact
upon which everything else depended. Yet neither one gives any hint of a supernatural
birth.
Nor is this all. Turn to the Acts of the Apostles—the book giving an account of the things
which the "early disciples preached, as they went forth to lay the foundations of
Christianity. What do we find here? Any account of the great teacher, whose word they
proclaimed, having been miraculously born?—born differently from others, and therefore
not really a man? Not a word. Peter begins his great sermon on the day of Pentecost: "Ye
men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you."
No hint is given here or elsewhere in the whole book that Jesus was born otherwise than
as all men are.
Turn over still further, to the Epistles of Paul. If Paul knows of Jesus being born
miraculously, with God as his father, and himself God, we shall of course find his epistles
all aglow and ablaze with the great the unparalleled fact. What do we find? In all of Paul's
writings not one word of anything of the kind. It is plain that Paul does not know any
such fact concerning Jesus.
Turn back now to the Gospels, and let us examine a little more carefully what we can find
there. Matthew and Luke give the story of the miraculous birth. But there is reason to
believe that it is a late legendary accretion—something which formed no part of the
earlier and more reliable biography. That it is a late addition is indicated by the fact that it
is contrary to so many things in the Gospel narratives. For example, we read in Matthew
that the friends and acquaintances of Jesus said of him, "Is not this the carpenter's son?"
Evidently they had never heard but that he was the son of Joseph. Luke represents them
as saying, "Is not this the son of Joseph?" John makes their question still more explicit,
"Is not this Jesus, Joseph's son, whose father and mother we know?" Several times we
read, in different places, of Jesus' "father" and "parents." His disciple Philip calls him
"the son of Joseph."
Mary, his own mother, declares that Joseph is his father, saying to him, of Joseph and
herself, when he was a boy, "thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." Surely this
should settle the matter.
But even these things are not all. We have two separate genealogical tables given us in
the Gospels both tracing the ancestry of Jesus through Joseph—something not only in the
highest degree absurd, but positively misleading and dishonest, if Joseph was not his
father.
True, the different New Testament writers greatly exalt Jesus in many ways, but never,
with the exception of the two passages already referred to in Matthew and Luke, in a way
to teach or to imply that he was miraculously born—much less that he was God. The
Gospels represent him as working miracles, but the working of miracles was believed to
be common; not only men, but even bad men, are represented as workers of miracles. The
Gospels call Jesus lord, but that was an appellation given to many besides him, as in
England today men are called lords. The Gospels speak of him as the Jewish messiah.
But to the Jews the messiah was not to be God, but simply a man having exalted power
given him of God. The Gospels represent Jesus as dying and then rising from the dead.
But others too are declared to have risen from the dead. If Jesus ascended into heaven, so
had Elijah; and if his disciples expected him to return again, so had Elijah long been
expected to return again. And Elijah was not God, but a man like other men. If Jesus is
called "son of God" and "begotten of God," so are others spoken of as "sons of God,"
"children of God," "begotten of God," as we have already seen.
None of these declarations or representations imply an unnatural or supernatual birth, or
that he was God. Nowhere save in the opening chapters of Matthew and Luke does the
New Testament anywhere hint at such a birth. And even this is contradicted and corrected
again and again, by the genealogies and by the utterances of those who knew him best.
Everything indicates that Jesus himself claimed no supernatural birth, and that nobody
claimed it for him while he lived, or for more than a generation after his death. Even forty
years or so after his decease, when Mark, the earliest of the Gospels was written, the
story of such a birth seems not yet to have been in existence, or else was not credited. For
if it had been known and generally believed, surely it would have found a place in Mark.
How then did it arise? Let us see.
A full generation of time had gone since the crucifixion. Those who knew Jesus
personally were fast passing away. He had left nothing behind him in writing. The
recollections of those who remained were growing a little dimmed with the lapse of
years. It was natural and inevitable that legends about him should begin to spring up. In a
little while there was a multitude of such. Indeed a whole volume of them, called the
"Apocryphal Gospels," has come down to us. What could be more natural than that some
of these numerous legends which time and distance wove about him, and especially about
his birth and childhood, should make their way into the Gospels which we have in our
New Testament? What was there to keep them out? We do not know certainly the writer
of a single one of these Gospels, or its editor in the form in which it comes to us. It is
well nigh certain that each Gospel passed through several re-adaptations before it reached
the form in which we now have it. By the time Matthew and Luke received their final
revisions, twenty years or more after the writing of Mark, the legend of the miraculous
birth had come into existence; and as such a story seemed to add to the luster of Jesus's
fame and name, it became in some way incorporated into these two Gospels. Once in,
there was not in that age the careful scholarly criticism to cast it out. And so we have it
today as a part of the New Testament.
This seems to be the explanation of the fact that we find at the beginning of Matthew and
Luke the story of the birth of Jesus without a human father,—a story similar you know to
what we have in connection with the birth of Buddha, and a number of other oriental
characters.
Thus do all lines of testimony seem to unite to make it clear that the story of the
supernatural birth of Jesus was a late and legendary accretion, and no part of the original
and real history of the life of the great Teacher of Nazareth.
What, then, follows from all this? Does it follow that God was not in Christ? By no
means. Does it follow that Christ was not divine? Far from that. What follows is that
Christ's divineness of nature was not different in kind, but only in degree, from yours and
mine. God was in him, but also God is in all humanity. Jesus was simply the tallest soul
among his brethren, one in whom the divine spirit rose to an unwonted fullness and
power of manifestation, a man of rare genius, nobleness and strength, but whose
crowning spiritual quality lay in his seemingly perfect union in mind and will with the
mind and will of God, so that he was able to say with a deeper and loftier meaning than
had ever been given to the words before, "I and my Father are one."
If Jesus was "Son of God," in this he was not exceptional. His sonship lay not in any such
questionable claim as that of being born of a virgin, and therefore differently from his
brethren, but in the deep and essential divineness of the nature of man. It lay not in his
being less a man than others, but more a man than others. He called himself "Son of God"
and "Son of Man"—shall we not say he was preeminent as Son of God because he was
preeminent as Son of Man?
What is incarnation? As the word signifies, it is God manifesting himself in the flesh, that
is, in the highest form of his creation. But is there any part of his creation in which he
does not manifest himself? Surely not; for creation is just God—the Infinite Power and
Life and Goodness that is behind all nature—objectifying himself, coming forth into
manifestation. Thus the sun shines by his light, Saturn and Uranus pull by his strength,
the flower smiles by his beauty. If we "live and move and have our being in him" [Acts
17:28], so do the birds, so do the planets, so do the constellations.
Emerson puts it well in his Wood Notes:
"Ever fresh the broad creation,
A divine improvisation,
From the heart of God proceeds,
A single will, a million deeds.
Once slept the world an egg of stone,
And pulse, and sound, and light was none;
And God said "Throb," and there was motion,
And the vast mass became vast ocean.
Maker and original,
The world is the ring of his spells,
And the play of his miracles.
As he giveth to all to drink,
Thus or thus they are and think.
With one drop sheds form and feature;
With the next a special nature;
The third adds heat's indulgent spark;
The fourth gives light which eats the dark;
Into the fifth himself he flings,
And conscious Law is King of kings.
Thou seek'st in globe and galaxy,
He hides in pure transparency;
Thou askest in fountains and in fires—
He is the essence that inquires.
He is the axis of the star,
He is the sparkle of the spar,
He is the heart of every creature,
He is the meaning of each feature;
And his mind is the sky,
Than all it holds more deep, more high."
Do you ask, How is God in all things? I think we must answer: In the lowest objects, that
is, in the whole inorganic world, he is present as simply Force or Energy. In objects
higher, that is, in the organic world, he is present as Force or Energy and Life. In man his
manifestation is still more complete and on still higher planes. That is to say, in man God
is present as Energy, as Life, and also as Self-Consciousness, Will, Moral Nature, and
highest of all, Love. Thus while God is no more truly in a human being than in a stone,
his manifestation in the human being is far more full and in far higher ways than it can be
in a stone. A man does not manifest God any more really than does a flower. But a man
manifests God on a higher plane than the most beautiful and perfect flower can do. A
flower is only a thing. It cannot think, it cannot know, it cannot will, it cannot love. But
man can do all these things. Hence man partakes of the moral and spiritual nature of God,
as the flower does not. As we rise from the lower to the higher objects of nature we rise
from lower to higher manifestations of God—the highest of all being man.
But in man himself there is also gradation. In the man who is groveling and selfish, and
who lives in material things, God's manifestation is down on a plane only a few steps
higher than that in which he manifests himself in the brute animal; whereas in the moral
and spiritual man it is up almost on the plane of the angel. In other words, as we rise in
intelligence, in virtue, in love and moral attainment, the incarnation of God in us becomes
more full and complete.
It follows that God's incarnation in the world is perpetual and growing. This is what
Evolution means. God did not come into the world once and then retire. He did not create
the world in six days and then retreat back into some far away heaven to rest. His creation
is eternal. It was going on further back than our thought can reach. It is going on still. Not
only are new worlds being created in the skies, but this world on which we live is being
all the while created anew—recreated to higher and higher ends. Especially is God's
creation on the earth going on in the realm of the intellectual, the moral, and the spiritual.
Here its progress is more rapid than ever before, as seen in the constant rise of man.
There never was a time when God was not in his world, the very life of all its life. But his
manifestation grows in splendor—especially it grows in splendor with the progress of the
human race. So that God's incarnation was never so glorious as now. And as the ages go
on, and the race advances, and man rises to still greater heights of moral and spiritual
attainment, what will that be except the fuller and more perfect manifestation or
incarnation of God in humanity?
How much higher and more full of meaning does this view of the incarnation make
everything! In the light of it, all nature and all human nature become manifestations of
the divine, each in its degree. The sunshine which wraps the world in its warm embrace,
is a manifestation of God's loving and gracious presence. All exhibitions of power are his
power. All life is his life. All beauty is his beauty. All right and goodness on earth are
finite manifestations of Eternal realities, whose fountain and whose fullness are in God.
Especially what glory does this view of the Divine Incarnation shed upon human nature,
and how does it fill all man's future with hope! Christ was not a strange, solitary,
abnormal manifestation of God in human form, once in all the ages, with nothing in any
way like it before or after. He was a type of our humanity. He was a foretaste of what
waits for the race. The sleeping possibilities which are in your soul and mine came to full
blossom in him. He is a prophecy of what God holds in store for all humanity, sometime,
somewhere.
This, friends, is the new, the larger, doctrine of the Divine Incarnation which is coming to
our modern age.
Am I not right in claiming that this doctrine is in harmony with science, in harmony with
philosophy, in harmony with the thought of evolution and a law-governed universe, in
harmony with the real teaching of Jesus and his disciples? May we not justly claim that it
is the teaching of the New Testament restored to the world?
And does it not meet the needs of the human soul as the old doctrine does not? It removes
the distance between us and God. It lifts the human up to the divine. It makes our very
life the life of God in us. And thus it teaches us to say with Jesus, "I and my Father are
one."
And how much nearer it brings Jesus to us! Now, with this view, he is no longer the
strange, the far off being that we have been taught—incomprehensible, foreign to all our
experience, half man, half God! Now he is our brother—true, real, human, with nature
like ours, with joys and sorrows like ours, with battles to fight like ours—our strong
brother, clear-headed, great hearted, noble, brave, gentle, waiting to take our weak hands
in his strong hand, and lead us up to hope, to trust, to peace, to the loving heart of his
Father and our Father, his God and our God.
Yes, "God was in Christ." That is a great and precious truth. We cannot prize it too
highly. But there is another even better that crowns it, that completes it, that gives it full
significance and glory, and especially that brings it into practical touch with our lives.
That other truth is, "Every one that loveth is begotten of God" [1 John 4:7]; "If we love,
God dwelleth in us" [1 John 4:12]. Thus our limitations, finiteness and poverty become
reinforced from the Infinite and Eternal Fountain of all Power, Wisdom and Love.
It is much to recognize God in nature; it is more to recognize him in human nature. It is
much to see him in Christ; but it is most to see him in ourselves.
Said Channing: "All minds are of one family."
Wrote Emerson: "If a man is at heart just, then in so far he is God: the safety of God, the
immortality of God, the majesty of God, do enter into that man with justice."
William Blake, England's mystical and strangely gifted artist-poet of the eighteenth
century, wrote a poem entitled "The Divine Image," which contains these profoundly
suggestive lines:
"Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love,
Is God our Father dear;
And Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love
Is man, his child and care.
For Mercy has a human heart;
Pity the human face;
And Love, the human form divine;
And Peace the human dress."
Two great illuminating and inspiring thoughts are rising like morning stars in the sky of
Christianity in our time. One is the Humanness of God, the other the Divineness of
Humanity.
Said the dying Baron Bunsen as he looked up in the face of his wife bending in love over
him: "In thy face have I seen the Eternal."
In the First Epistle of John [3:2] we read: "Beloved, now are we children of God, and it
hath not yet been manifested what we shall be. But we know that when it shall be
manifested, we shall be like Him."
Thus we see the barriers fall away which have seemed to separate the human from the
divine; more and more clearly the vision draws that all is divine.
In the book of Revelation [3:20] it is written: "Behold I stand at the door and knock; and
if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him,
and he with me."
Oh friends, let us know, that whenever truth or duty, or pity or tenderness, or justice or
aspiration, or any high thought or pure desire, knocks at the door of our hearts—but
especially when love stands knocking there—it is God asking to be let in. And if we open
the door he will enter, and become more and more fully incarnate in us. Thus our
darkness will pass away; a rainbow of hope will illuminate every storm, our tears will be
dried, our weakness will turn to strength, the peace of the Eternal will be ours, and we
shall know what it means to dwell in heaven while yet we are pilgrims of earth, even as
Jesus did, because God, whose Presence is Heaven, has taken up his abode within us, the
Life of all our life.
The Body of Christ: A Universalist
Perspective on Divine Manifestation and
Human Destiny
By Eric Stetson
Eric Stetson is a non-denominational Christian author, evangelist, and church
planter from Northern Virginia. He has a background in the Baha’i Faith and the
Assemblies of God. He is the founding Executive Director of the CUA. This article is
published online at http://www.christianuniversalist.org/articles/bodyofchrist.html
Introduction
Who or what is God? What is the relationship between God and the universe? Is there a
special relationship between God and intelligent beings such as humans, which is
different from the relationship between God and other beings or things that exist? Is
Jesus Christ ontologically different from other human beings, or are the evident
differences between him and us simply differences of degree or developmental stage in
time rather than of kind?
These are profound questions that have sparked discussion and debate among Christians
as well as non-Christians for many centuries. Various answers have been advanced, and
they can generally be classified into five categories: (1) God is a singular entity and
ontologically separate from the universe and human beings; (2) God is a plural entity and
ontologically separate from the universe and human beings except in one specific case,
the man Jesus Christ; (3) God is singular and ontologically separate from the universe
and human beings except as revealed in a special category of human beings, including
Jesus Christ and some other prophets or avatars; (4) God is plural and ontologically
includes all human beings but is ontologically separate from the universe in general; (5)
God is plural and ontologically includes everything that exists.
View 1 is taught by orthodox forms of Islam, most forms of Rabbinical Judaism, and
classical Unitarian Christians. View 2 is taught by orthodox Trinitarian forms of
Christianity which became dominant after the takeover of the church by Rome. View 3 is
taught by Baha’ism, an offshoot of Shi’ite and Sufi Islam that originated in Iran in the
1800s, and may also find expression in some forms of Hinduism. View 4 was taught by
many early Christians, especially the Alexandrian school of Christianity. View 5 has
been taught by many Hindus, theistic Buddhists, Pagans, and mystics from various
religious traditions including some Christians.
Delving deeper into specifically Christian views, we find various ideas ranging from
orthodox and traditional to heterodox and radical. Christianity has traditionally been
based on a Trinitarian view of God, in which the Deity is envisioned as a plural entity
(“three persons”) consisting of a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that together act as one. In
this view, God the Father is the Creator of the universe; God the Son is the preexistent
human being who was born into this world as Jesus of Nazareth, and no one else; and the
Holy Spirit is seen as a distinct “person” of the Trinity who reveals God to human beings,
rather than simply an aspect or mode of God’s manifestation. Though this is seen as the
orthodox Christian view of God in most churches, it is doubtful that the majority of
Christians today hold strictly to this perspective.
Three other views, which have been minority positions within Christian theological
history but which seem to have the implicit support of a large number of Christians of the
modern era, are Modalism, Unitarianism, and Panentheism. Modalism asserts that God is
a singular entity manifesting Itself in multiple modes or forms, typically identified as the
same as the three persons of the Trinity (but in theory could include other forms as well).
Many Christians today seem to view the concept of Trinity in a way that is closer to
Modalism than to traditional Trinitarianism – this may in fact be the predominant
perspective that is currently referred to by the name “Trinitarianism.” Modalism cannot
be easily classified into any of the five general categories mentioned above, and may
include aspects of any or all of them, depending on how it is precisely interpreted.
Unitarianism (in its classical Christian form, not the non-theistic “Unitarianism” that is
shorthand for the Unitarian Universalist Association) asserts that God is a singular entity
beyond this world, and that attributes of God – but not God’s own Self – may be present
in creation, including in human beings such as Jesus. This seems to be a popular view
among a significant number of contemporary liberal Christians.
Another view of God, which has always tended to find support among mystics both
within and outside the Christian church, is Panentheism, the idea that God is present in
some way in all things. Christians today who have been influenced by the New Age
movement are often sympathetic to this idea. Panentheism is distinct from Pantheism,
which is the idea that God is identical to the physical universe and does not transcend it.
One more view that must be mentioned is the belief of many Christians during the first
few centuries of church history – a view that was especially common among those who
followed St. Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and other theologians associated with the
Egyptian branch of Christianity. This was the idea called Theosis (“divinization” or
“deification”), that all human beings were created in divine perfection like Christ, have
fallen into a state of rebellion, and may be restored to perfection and conformed to the
image of Christ in the fullness of time. This view was revived by the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) in the 1800s. The Theosis teaching has been
revived again by some Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians in the latter half of the 20th
century through the present day, going by the term “Sonship” or “Manifested Sons of
God.” According to this perspective, Jesus is the divine Son of God, but so are all other
humans. What makes Jesus unique is that he is the firstborn Son, the Elder Brother or
example for all humanity to follow, the one who enables others to rise into our station of
sons and heirs of God – but Jesus is not the only son as traditional orthodoxy claims.
Therefore, the Second Person of the Trinity, the “Son of God” or “God the Son,” is a
body of humans, the “body of Christ.” Depending on the specific interpretation of the
Theosis/Sonship view, this body may include all human beings (“Universal Sonship”) or
may only include those who have been fully conformed to the image of Christ.
All of these views of God’s ontological nature and the relationship between God and
creation are attempts at envisioning a Being who, as the ultimate Source of All Being,
transcends the powers of the limited human intellect to fully conceive or explain.
However, I believe that the teaching of Universal Sonship and Theosis and the teaching
of Panentheism together with a Modalistic and nontraditional modification of the concept
of Trinity can form a synthesis that would be a highly accurate way of understanding
important aspects of God’s nature and relationship with the universe and with human
beings especially. In this essay I will discuss several key points as I present an overall
perspective on God’s being in Itself, God’s being in relation to the universe, the meaning
of Christ, and the divine origin and destiny of human beings.
Divine Oneness and Plurality
To construct a theory of God and God’s relationship with creation that is both Christian
and Universalist, I believe we need to explain the implications of God’s own nature on
the nature of Jesus Christ, human beings in general, and God’s plan for humanity and the
role of Christ in this plan. First of all, we need to explore the concepts of singularity and
plurality and what these concepts could mean in regard to God and how God creates and
manifests.
If God is strictly singular, then all creation is by definition separate from God, since God
could not create by extending Godself into other forms. On the other hand, if God is in
some sense plural, then creation could in fact be manifestation or even reproduction of
Godself.
Is it possible that God could be both one and many at the same time? This would enable
God to be distinct from creation and transcending it, while also in some ways to be
manifested in it. This is the essence of both Trinitarian and Modalist forms of divine
ontology. The Trinitarian view asserts that God consists of multiple beings which
together form a oneness. The Modalist view asserts that God is a oneness which
manifests Itself into multiple forms. In a sense, these views are mirror images of each
other. Is God one out of many, or many out of one? Perhaps God is One who becomes
many and the many return back into One. The Panentheistic and Theosis/Sonship views
could together portray a God who expands Godself outward by creation and regathers Its
manifestations in creation back into the Divine Oneness.
We cannot plumb the depths of God’s innermost essence. But at the root level, totally
inaccessible to human perception, I believe God is One. Once God becomes perceived,
that by definition means that God is plural, because there is both God’s own Self as well
as the perception of God from an external perspective. The very fact of there being an
“inside” and “outside” of God means that God has become divided by the creation of
perspective and is no longer strictly one. It would seem that the first act of creation is the
manifestation or projection of God into duality, a state of mutual Self-reflection – and the
natural analogue for this in human experience is the existence of two genders, male and
female. This is the Taoist view of the Divine Reality as duality: yin (female, dark, cold,
internal/inward drawing) and yang (male, light, heat, external/outward projecting).
The Bible confirms this basic idea by naming God with both a male and a female name.
According to the Hebrew scriptures, God is both Yahweh (male) and El Shaddai (female).
Yahweh is described as a Lord with masculine characteristics. In contrast, the term El
Shaddai means “breasted one” or “many breasted Goddess.” So there are at least two
persons or aspects of the Divine Being: God and Goddess. Further confirmation of this
idea comes from the story of the creation of Man, in which both male and female human
beings are created in God’s own image and likeness (Gen. 1:26-27). This means that
God must be a dual being, both male and female.
In the Book of Proverbs, the female aspect of God is described as the personified Spirit of
Wisdom who emerged from Yahweh – much as Eve is said to have been formed from
Adam’s rib – and together They created the world. Yahweh and the female Spirit are
described as eternal lovers and co-workers in the plan of creation:
“The LORD [Yahweh] brought Me forth as the first of His works,
before His deeds of old;
I was appointed from eternity,
from the beginning, before the world began.
When there were no oceans, I was given birth,
when there were no springs abounding with water;
before the mountains were settled in place,
before the hills, I was given birth,
before He made the earth or its fields
or any of the dust of the world.
I was there when He set the heavens in place,
when He marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
when He established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
when He gave the sea its boundary
so the waters would not overstep His command,
and when He marked out the foundations of the earth.
Then I was the craftsman at His side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in His presence,
rejoicing in His whole world
and delighting in mankind.” (Prov. 8:22-31).
It is worth noting that in Hebrew, the term for Holy Spirit is Ruach HaKodesh, which is
grammatically female. Also of note is that the Spirit speaks of mankind as Her delight,
much as a mother might speak of her children. She continues, directly addressing
humanity as “My sons” and speaking to them in a gentle but authoritative motherly voice
in Prov. 8:32-35:
“Now then, My sons, listen to Me;
blessed are those who keep My ways.
Listen to My instruction and be wise;
do not ignore it.
Blessed is the man who listens to Me,
watching daily at My doors,
waiting at My doorway.
For whoever finds Me finds life
and receives favor from the LORD.”
With the introduction of the concept of human beings as the sons or children of God, we
have a third aspect of divinity. Not only is God male and female, but God is a Father and
a Mother who have Children. Children are just as much part of a family unit as the
husband and wife, and thus the Divine Being may be regarded as a plural entity
containing within Itself all three normative parts of family structure. The Christian idea
of Trinity should be envisioned as a natural triad formed by a Father, a Mother (the “Holy
Spirit”), and a Child (“God the Son”). Traditional forms of Christianity have not
considered the Holy Spirit to be a feminine-gendered being, probably because of the
patriarchal nature of the church throughout most of Christian history, but in fact the Bible
teaches that She is the female aspect of the Deity – an aspect which God must logically
have in order to be a God who produces a spiritual child.
The Collective Son of God
Traditionally, Christianity has taught that Jesus Christ was the Son of God because he
was begotten by the Heavenly Father, but that his mother was the earthly woman Mary.
However, this could only be the case for Jesus’ physical body which was born from the
womb of Mary, not his preexistent spirit which was an aspect of the Deity from before
the creation of the world. The preexistent spirit of Christ must have been begotten by
God the Father and birthed by God the Mother long before the body of Jesus ever came
into being in the womb of a physical human woman.
Likewise, the same can be said for all human beings. Our spirits, the part of us that
transcends the physical world, are the children of God. Our bodies are children of the
dust. Inasmuch as our physical bodies come from the dust of the ground and are destined
to return to the dust (Gen. 3:19), the spiritual essence of each one of us came out from
God’s own being and shall one day return back into God (Rom. 11:36). God is “the
Father of our spirits” (Heb. 12:9). “For in Him we live and move and have our being. …
We are His offspring.” (Acts 17:28).
As these verses of the Bible show, humanity collectively is the “Son” aspect of the
Trinity, because all people are the children of God. This includes all people, both males
and females, and sinners and saints. Jesus may be the archetypal example of the Child or
Son of God, but he is not the only human being who is a son of God. Jesus taught people
to pray to “our Father in heaven” (Mat. 6:9) and did not claim exclusive sonship for
himself alone, instead defending his claim to be the Son of God by referring to the
Hebrew scriptures, which describe human beings in general as “gods” who “are all sons
of the Most High” (Ps. 82:6, quoted by Jesus in John 10:34).
Indeed, God is plural according to the Hebrew scriptures. One of the names used for God
in many passages of the Old Testament is Elohim, which literally means “the gods.”
Angels, who were part of a divine council or assembly in heaven and were believed to be
able to manifest themselves in human form on earth, are referred to as “sons of God”
(e.g. Gen. 6:4). Judaism developed gradually from the primordial polytheism which was
found among ancient peoples throughout the world into the strictly monotheistic faith it is
today. Jesus made it clear that he opposed the rigidly Unitarian view of God held by
many rabbis of his time which became the dominant view in Rabbinical Judaism.
Instead, he affirmed the concept of a plural or corporate Deity who is in some way
manifested in intelligent beings within the created universe such as humans.
The idea that God reproduces Him/Herself by creating children – whether humans on
earth or angels in heaven – who are literally divine beings and are in a sense
manifestations of God, may seem like a very radical idea to many Christians today.
However, this idea is Biblical and is also logical, if we believe that God is both male and
female as the Bible also teaches. After all, reproduction is what naturally happens when
male and female energies interact and combine with one another!
The implications of this view of God are profound. If God is a being who reproduces,
then this means that God is not static and monolithic but complex and growing. Through
the “Son of God” or Child aspect of the triune divine family-nature, God is continually
manifesting and expanding divinity into a potentially infinite number of unique
expressions as various intelligent spiritual beings in the universe. All of these beings,
whether human or extraterrestrial or in non-physical dimensions of reality, are each in
their own individual way like holographic copies of the essential attributes of Deity. In
this way, God enriches Godself and lives through innumerable forms. The teleological
aspect of the creation of Man comes into clear focus according to such a view, for if all
souls emanate outward from the Divine Source in a reproductive act taking place within
God’s own Being, then our existence has its origin in love and is part of a glorious plan
of divine multiplication.
Adam Returned in Christ
How does Jesus Christ fit into the divine plan? Is he a man who has attained the
perfection of godhood before others and shows us the way? If so, why did he need to
attain it – in fact, why aren’t all human beings already perfectly divine? If all people are
the children of God, why should an exemplar like Jesus even be necessary?
To answer these questions, we must explore the deeper significance of the story of Christ
and how it relates to the human condition in general. First of all, if the human condition
is that of a child in relationship to God, our Parents, then this means that human beings –
both individually and collectively – are in a process of growing up from infancy to
maturity. Christ, as the firstborn son of God, would be the one who sets the example for
his younger spiritual siblings to follow and assists in their training and development,
much like the eldest brother in a traditional family. Also like the oldest child of a family,
Christ would be the first one to make mistakes and to go through the process of facing the
consequences and learning from those mistakes.
The Bible tells us that long before the man Jesus walked the earth, there was another man
who was also called “the son of God” (Luke 3:38), was perfect and sinless, was given
authority and glory over all things in the earth, and enjoyed intimate fellowship with his
heavenly Father/Mother. This man was Adam, described in the Bible as the first human
being ever created! Could it be that Adam and Christ are the same person?
I believe this is the clear implication of the story of Christ when juxtaposed with the story
of Adam. Adam represents the fallen human soul and was the father of a fallen race of
men. Christ is the transformed Adam, the firstborn son of God who comes back to defeat
the sin he originally introduced into this world. All human beings were fallen in Adam
but will overcome in Christ, because Christ is the new pattern or archetype for all
humanity.
Consider the details of the stories: Adam fell from perfection into sin, and Christ
overcame sin and ascended into perfection. Adam faced the consequences of sin in the
form of decay and death of the physical body; and Christ suffered death without decay, to
defeat the power of sin and death through the crucifixion of the physical body and
resurrection of the spiritual body. Most importantly, Adam’s fall into sin, rebellion, and
separation from God became the pattern for all humans, a fallen race of spiritual beings
encased in flesh upon the earth; and Christ’s suffering on the cross, death to the things of
flesh and new life and glorification in the spirit is prophesied to be the pattern for all
humans to become a restored race of spiritual beings made perfect, again in harmony and
reunited with God in heaven.
The Apostle Paul speaks of Christ as “the last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45) and “the second
man” (vs. 47). He is the last Adam in the sense that he represents the end of the Adamic
state of being, the corrupted or fallen state. Jesus was fully human and was subject to all
the things of the flesh, including temptations, sicknesses, pain, and even death.
Nevertheless, he is also the second man in the sense that he is the second archetype for
humanity to follow. Even as all humanity followed Adam into the sinful nature of earthly
life, all humanity shall eventually follow Christ into reconciliation with God in the
spiritual realm. Each individual is destined to be transformed from Adam to Christ, even
as Jesus already was. As Paul said, “just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man
[Adam], so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven [Christ].” (vs. 49).
Indeed, Adam and Christ are universal human archetypes and are two sides of the same
coin. Adam is the archetype of the spiritually immature and corruptible man, who fell
from divinity into sin and separation in the realm of flesh. The return of Adam, Christ, is
the archetype of the spiritually mature and victorious man who overcomes sin, ascends
into glory and returns to God. In the transformation from the old man (Adam) to the new
man (Christ), we see the evidence of spiritual evolution as a basic principle of God’s plan
for humanity. The Son of God progresses from the cradle of Eden (pristine state of
infancy) through the learning process of childhood and adolescence – with its laws and
rules, rebellion, discipline and punishments (as illustrated by the Jews collectively and in
the person of King David, who like Jesus was referred to as the “begotten” son of God
[Ps. 2:7]) – and finally into the maturity of spiritual adulthood with its powers and
privileges (the fully Christed state). Eve and Mary are female analogues of Adam and
Christ: Mary, the saintly mother of Jesus, can be regarded as the return of the sinful Eve,
much as Jesus is the return of Adam.
According to the Biblical creation story, Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden – which
can be considered God’s nursery – and went out into the world of earth. This was the
beginning of Man’s difficult process of learning how to face temptation, overcome
corruption, and return to harmony in the divine spirit, often by experiencing suffering in
the process as a consequence of sinful behavior. The fallen Adamic human condition
was summed up, expressed, and carried by Christ as the archetypal representative of all
humankind – the one who, though inwardly perfect, nevertheless was “a man of sorrows,
and familiar with suffering” (Isa. 53:3) – when he hung on the cross and cried out, “My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mat. 27:46). The sinful, Adamic man feels
forsaken by God and condemned to punishment because of his karmic burden. It is
highly significant that Christ said “it is finished” as his last words before physical death
(John 19:30). This can be interpreted in a cosmic sense as a proclamation of the ultimate
ending of the fallen condition. Truly, Christ is the last Adam, the end of the Adamic state
of sin, suffering, and separation from God.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is evidence showing that Man returns to the Garden of
Paradise after sin has been overcome and all karmic debt paid for. Similarly, the
miraculous assumption of Mary into heaven (a belief of the Eastern Orthodox and Roman
Catholic traditions) could be considered as a symbolic demonstration of the redemption
of the archetypal Eve, the divinized and ascended female. Mary bore the “second man,”
the perfect ascended master Jesus, in her womb, much as Eve was first the mother of the
fallen human race. For both the male and the female of humankind, the sinful state is
overcome by the ascension into deified glory. We come full circle, originating in
perfection, falling, and then rising back into harmony with God.
But Man does not return to the nursery of Eden; we enter the paradise of reunion with
God, our Origin, in a new and far more glorious way – as mature, fully divinized beings
conformed to the perfect image of our heavenly Father/Mother. Stepping off the spinning
hamster-wheel of this earthly world of birth, decay, and rebirth of the flesh, we are finally
reborn into our true and enduring spiritual identity in Christ. In the resurrection of the
spirit, we attain Christhood as Jesus of Nazareth showed us is possible even for a
suffering and rejected human being, demonstrating that God’s plan is not one of
exclusion but an all-inclusive salvation of the sons and daughters of Adam. For we are
not only the children of Adam but the children of God! The spiritual journey of humanity
is a journey from the condition of sin, separation, suffering, and death towards perfection,
reunion, paradise, and eternal life. This is the journey of humankind collectively and of
each individual human spirit.
Christ as the Body of Saints
The word “Christ” is often used interchangeably with the name Jesus, because Jesus is
Christ. But this equation of “Jesus” with “Christ” can be used by traditional Christians to
imply that only Jesus is Christ. In one sense, that is true: The word Christ comes from the
Greek Christos, which is a translation of the Hebrew word Meshiach, meaning Messiah.
Only Jesus was the Messiah of the Jewish people, at least according to Christianity. But
the word Christ also has a broader meaning for humanity as a whole, as we have been
discussing. Christ means the Perfected Human. In this sense of the word, all human
beings – not just the historical man Jesus of Nazareth – are destined to become Christ as
well. Let’s explore this theme in greater detail.
First of all, it is worth noting there are analogues of the name “Jesus Christ” as it is used
by Christians. For example, Mohandas Gandhi is often called “Mahatma Gandhi.”
Mahatma is a title meaning “Great Soul.” Gandhi is generally considered to be a saintly,
Christlike figure. Therefore, in Christian parlance, Gandhi could perhaps be called
“Gandhi Christ.”
Sound shocking? The fact that this may shock the sensibilities of many Christians only
goes to show how far Christianity has drifted from the true Biblical understanding of the
concept of Christ. In purveying the narrow view that only Jesus is Christ and no other
human being may ever be described in this way, traditional Christians are ignoring the
idea – expressed by Jesus himself in the Bible – that saints are one with Christ. They are
also ignoring Paul’s teaching that Christ is a corporate body of the faithful with Jesus as
its head, not its only member.
Consider this prayer of Jesus for those who believe in him: “[T]hat all of them may be
one, Father, just as You are in me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the
world may believe that You have sent me. I have given them the glory that You gave me,
that they may be one as We are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to
complete unity to let the world know that You sent me and have loved them even as You
have loved me.” (John 17:21-23). In this moving prayer, Jesus asks God, our Father, to
make the believers one in Christ – glorified like Christ and filled with divine Christ-ness.
He asks this for the purpose of bringing the whole world into the knowledge of God’s
Fatherly love for all souls.
Like Jesus who said that he has given his disciples the glory that God gave him, Paul
taught that all people will grow up into the full spiritual stature of Christ, beginning with
those who believe in him. He says that the disciples of Christ must “prepare God’s
people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach
unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to
the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants… Instead,
speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is,
Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting
ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Eph. 4:12-16).
In other words, the purpose of becoming glorified in Christ – being a true Christian – is to
do the work of sharing the truth with others, to bring the whole body of the Son of God,
all humanity, into divine oneness as the Body of Christ.
This truth we are commissioned to share is not some phony “truth” of dogmatic
traditional Christianity, but simply the all-embracing, all-transforming truth of God’s
universal love, forgiveness, and the reconciliation of all. As Paul puts it, “if anyone is in
Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God,
who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against
them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore
Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us…” (2 Cor.
5:17-20).
So it is clear that to be a Christian, to be part of the Body of Christ, means to be a worker
in this world to bring about the salvation of all. God accomplishes the plan of universal
reconciliation and transformation of humankind from the Adamic to the Christed state of
being through the work of divine ambassadorship and discipleship. Jesus Christ served
as God’s ambassador in the earth and made disciples to raise other humans up into the
glorified state of mature Sonship and Christhood. We as his disciples are called to do the
same things, until eventually the whole world will become one spiritual body, one
corporate Christ, one mature Son of God or “God the Son.” Truly, we are to be the
ambassadors of Christ here on earth – a light in the darkness for lost souls, a healing balm
for the sick, a helping hand for the weary. This is true discipleship and sainthood. This
is the manifestation of oneness with Christ. While we are here on earth, we are called to
be the manifestations of God on earth!
If we are becoming transformed from being part of the body of Adam to the body of
Christ, rediscovering our true inner nature and destiny as divine spiritual beings, then we
must live accordingly, or else we are still in Adam. If we live according to the earthly
spirit of separation from God, then we are not living as a member of the body of Christ
because we are cutting ourselves off from this exalted purpose and condition. To be part
of the body of Christ means to be a disciple of Christ, a follower in the path that Jesus
showed the world; and this means we must be willing to deny the selfish ego, “take up
our cross daily” and actually follow the path of the spirit (see Mat. 16:24-25, Luke 9:2324), not just talk about theological beliefs and doctrines. Discipleship is what leads to
sainthood and Christhood. Excessive focus on doctrine and “rhetorical Christianity” –
the religion of churchy-sounding words without actions – often leads to egotism and
separation from other human beings and from the true purpose of God.
Each individual must find his or her own place in the collective, organic body of the Son
of God. The concept of “church” can be a useful way of understanding the need for
disciples of Christ to come together and work together for the salvation of all humanity –
as long as we are willing to admit that there are many, many people who do not belong to
physical churches who are nevertheless important members in the invisible church, the
mystical body of Christ or body of the saints.
Paul suggests several types of roles that Christians can play in this exalted body: Some
people are “to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be
pastors and teachers.” (Eph. 4:11). There are “workers of miracles, also those having
gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those
speaking in different kinds of tongues” – categories which in modern terminology would
include doctors of mind and body, charitable workers, entrepreneurs, office workers, and
those skilled in foreign languages to spread the Gospel and reach souls in all lands. I
would also add to Paul’s list a couple more possibilities for working as a disciple of
Christ that I think are important: artists using various media to challenge and uplift the
spirits, and responsible parents and homemakers training the next generation of human
beings in love and service to one another.
In fact, no matter what a person’s vocational calling is in this life, we can all find ways of
fulfilling our God-given calling to strive to live as saints for Christ, in Christ, to bring
others into Christedness. “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part
of it.” (1 Cor. 12:27). “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these
members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one
body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to
the grace given us.” (Rom. 12:4-6).
Salvation as Reunion with the Godhead
We have seen that the concept of “Christ” goes far beyond merely the historical man
Jesus of Nazareth, because Christ is an organic body that grows and expands as more and
more human beings are divinized and begin working as active members of God the Son
to bring those still in darkness into the Divine Light. Thus all humanity will ultimately
be restored to harmony with God and perfected in God’s likeness as we were originally
created to reflect and manifest. To bring this discussion back to the overall subject of the
relationship between God and creation, let’s consider the meaning of the Christian
concept of “salvation” in a broad sense, both as it applies to human beings and to the
universe as a whole.
First of all, I believe that most Christians have grievously misunderstood the meaning of
salvation. Blindly following “orthodox” religious traditions, they equate salvation with
escape from the possibility of being condemned to a never-ending hell. But this was
never the teaching of Jesus or the Apostles or the earliest Church Fathers. Salvation was
originally understood as restoration of one’s human nature to the divine nature in which
we were created, and furthermore, transformation into a higher spiritual condition of
godhood as Jesus demonstrated. The concept of “hell,” when understood correctly, is
simply the recognition of the fact that the fallen Adamic state of being is a state of
suffering. As long as a soul is “in Adam,” that soul is in a sense in hell. In other words,
earth itself can be thought of as something of a hell realm. Are there even worse hells
than earth? Perhaps. But whether or not that is the case, human beings could remain in
hell simply by returning to earth over and over again, for life after life in the flesh. Christ
was resurrected in an eternal spirit-body and will never again be subject to the suffering
of a fleshly life, because he has transcended the need to live in this dark and cruel world.
That is because Christ has overcome sin and therefore no longer shall suffer its
consequences.
So Jesus Christ is “saved.” Have any other human beings also been fully saved yet, or is
Jesus the only one so far? That is an open question, but I suspect there are a relatively
small number of others who have already reached the state of godhood, the state of true
salvation – souls that will never again walk this earth in the vessel of a normal human
body, but have made their permanent abode with God in the heavenly realms. Perhaps
these deified, ascended souls number only in the thousands or even merely the hundreds
– God only knows. But what we do know is that we are here on earth right now because
we have not yet reached this state of full and total salvation, the perfection of Christ. We
are in the process of striving for it, yes, working towards it as students of the Master.
James, the brother of Jesus, said that “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith
without deeds is dead.” (Jas. 2:26). Truer words have never been spoken. Jesus was a
man of great deeds, and it was the quality of his deeds that made him spiritually alive
while others were dead. Believing good things about Jesus – that he is Lord and Savior,
that he died for our sins, and all the other Christian buzzwords and catch phrases – is
utterly meaningless unless these beliefs are understood according to their true meaning
and purpose, and then applied in real life. The purpose of beliefs is to drive our actions.
The point is, salvation for human beings is not about what we believe; it’s about what we
do, which enables us to become who we really are. Christians who think they are
“saved” because they profess Jesus as Lord have really only taken the first step toward
salvation. It’s like a man who is planning to walk to Jerusalem and takes one step outside
his doorstep, and pompously proclaims, “I have arrived!” Unless his abode is right next
to the city gate, such a statement is foolishness. Jesus was able to say “my yoke is easy
and my burden is light” (Mat. 11:30) because he was right on the threshold of the
transformation from Adam to Christ. But for most of us, we still have a long, hard road
to travel before we reach the Goal.
We can make the journey of salvation much easier and faster by having the kind of
beliefs that inspire us to greater heights of consciousness and action. That is why true
spiritual faith is important. Religion can either hold people back from salvation – as
Jesus himself pointed out (see Mat. 23:15) – or it can propel us forward and upward
toward that eternal City of God. It all depends on the nature of the beliefs taught by
religion. Fundamentalist religions that denigrate the human condition as inherently
wicked and separated from God, denying our divine origin and divine potential, close the
doors of heaven in the faces of humanity and provide only an ephemeral and illusory
salvation like a mirage in the desert – a brief feeling of self-righteousness that is no
salvation at all.
The ego is the adversary of God, what keeps us separated from the Source of All Being.
The ego – the voice inside us that is ever whispering “I am saved and that other person is
not,” “I am loved by God but some others are not,” “I am worthy and the other is not” –
this is the meaning of Satan, the devil! In Hebrew, the word HaSatan literally means “the
Adversary.” Indeed, this inner demon of ego that speaks to us of separation from others
and division of the world into “the saved/loved/worthy” and “the
damned/loathsome/worthless” is what keeps us in the fallen Adamic condition and
prevents us from reaching true salvation. How ironic!
You see, the real meaning of salvation is reunion with the Godhead. And ultimately, all
people and all things will be brought back into oneness with the Divine. The satanic ego
tries to compartmentalize God as being distantly “up there” and we humans as being
mere animals “down here” – but the Holy Spirit proclaims that “all things” are “from”
God, “through” God and “to” God (Rom. 11:36), and that God is becoming “all in all” (1
Cor. 15:28). The satanic ego tries to keep a person focused on one’s separation from that
which seems to be other or external to oneself – but the Holy Spirit reminds us that we
are all one and “if one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every
part rejoices with it.” (1 Cor. 12:26). Salvation is when we overcome the ego, when we
firmly take command of the rebellious self, saying, “get behind me, Satan!” (Mat. 16:23),
and move beyond this stumbling block once and for all as Jesus did when he accepted the
cross. Through a cross – the defeat and death of the carnal man, the ego – we attain an
eternal life and glory that comes only by extinguishing the part of us that is incompatible
with God.
The Buddhists call the state of the extinguished ego nirvana, which literally means the
condition in which a being extinguishes the fires of self and separation and attains
oneness with the Universal Reality. The Hindus speak of the Highest Deity as Brahman,
a word which comes from the root “to breathe.” God breathed out the creation and is
breathing it back into Oneself. To be in Christ means to pour the divine waters of life on
the fires of hell that burn within one’s Adamic being, and thus to enter reunion with the
Godhead as a cell in the Divine Body – joining the Elohim, the council of the gods or the
heavenly host – and ultimately, after ages and ages of time, to surrender completely to the
All-in-All, the mystical Oneness of Being as a droplet, a photon of spiritual light, dancing
and merging with the Ocean of Eternity.
All of created reality came from God’s own Being and reflects some aspects of divinity.
Intelligent souls in the universe play a special role in God’s plan for the divinization and
perfection of all creation, with Jesus Christ as the head exemplar of the body of God the
Son. As Paul declared, “to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.
… ‘When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.’ … He
who descended [from heaven to earth] is the very one who ascended higher than all the
heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.” (Eph. 4:7-8,10).
Imagine that: the whole universe will become filled with Christ! The spirit of separation,
of death, decay and destruction will be conquered by the spirit of Christ, the spirit of
divine life, beauty, and interconnected meaning and purpose. All the Universe – all
realms whether earthly or heavenly or hellish – have a teleological function leading to
reunion with Deity.
Conclusion
We have seen an amazing and wonderful vision of God, of creation, of human nature and
destiny, and of Christ. What a glorious reality! Our lives on earth and in other realms of
existence provide us with an opportunity first to develop an ego-self as we proceed
outward from God, and then to overcome this ego-self and subordinate/subsume it to the
One True Self as we proceed back into God. The Divine Breath projects Itself outward in
the “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3); manifests itself in innumerable forms in creation;
culminates in the perfected Son of God, the Body of Christ, the ascended intelligence and
power of divine humanity (including any other sapient spiritual beings there may be); and
draws Itself back inward in the process of “the Son himself will be made subject to [God]
who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.” (1 Cor. 15:28).
In conclusion, let us be clear about one thing which is perhaps more important than
anything else: Although salvation, the return of humanity to the Godhead, shall be
universal, this does not happen automatically without our participation. Because God is
in us, it is we who, as the Body of Christ, enable God to accomplish the goal of universal
salvation.
If Christ had not come to earth and taught his message, people would not have learned
the truth and become disciples. If we do not act as the Body of Christ – as sincere
disciples sharing spiritual truth as Jesus did, both through words and deeds – those who
are currently walking in the darkness of falsehood, sin and separation from God, burning
in the hell of ego, will not escape from the chains of the earthly, Adamic life/death.
Bound to a world of flesh, a world currently ruled by the Satan of ego-separation from
God, they will remain confined within themselves and this fallen world until liberated by
those who are themselves being liberated and brought into Christ. It is our responsibility
as Christians striving for maturity in the Body of Christ to manifest our destiny of
divinity and to help bring others into the ever-growing Manifestation of God, that all the
world may be transformed from Adam into Christ and the divine attributes may shine
resplendent in all things.
Born of the Spirit: The Offspring and
Heirs of God
By Brad Edwards
Brad Edwards is a non-denominational Christian writer and meteorologist from
Des Moines, Iowa. He is a founding member of the CUA Board of Directors. This
essay is published online at his website at
http://www.savioroftheworld.net/Born%20of%20the%20Spirit.htm
John 3:5
Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God
unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit
gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, `You must be
born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you
cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of
the Spirit."
This quote from Jesus may be the most enlightening passage in Christianity from the
most enlightened teacher in the world! And yet, it also seems to be one of the most
misunderstood among those who read it. In this particular encounter, Jesus is speaking to
Nicodemus about entering into God’s Kingdom, but this religious leader just couldn’t
fathom the spiritual depth of the Rabbi‘s words. Imagine that! This apparent “man of
God” from a group that is called the “chosen of God” didn’t know how to enter the
Kingdom of God! I am not surprised, but Jesus seemed to be a little bewildered
concerning his lack of spiritual understanding. Do you understand what Jesus is saying?
Do you understand that flesh gives birth to flesh, but spirit gives birth to spirit? While
Jesus taught that being born of the spirit is a prerequisite to entering God’s Kingdom, he
also said that we must be born of water. So what does it mean to be “born of water?” And
more importantly, what does in mean to be “born of the spirit?”
Nicodemus and many still today are confused about how we enter God’s Kingdom. Let
us keep in mind that God’s Kingdom is not the one of flesh. So everyone must be born as
SPIRIT here on earth before entering God’s Kingdom in heaven. This is a conundrum for
the natural man who perceives himself as flesh and the Kingdom as an actual city with
streets paved with gold. Heaven isn’t a place above the clouds with pearly gates; heaven
is a higher state (closer to God) in consciousness and spirit. The only way to reach
heaven (and God for that matter) is by being SPIRIT. Only by being spirit will we be able
to fly as angels fly. Jewish leaders then and certainly some of our Christian clergy today
have missed the spiritual meaning of Jesus’ teachings. But this is nothing new because
traditional Christian doctrines are riddled with error. You see, there are many proclaiming
to be “born again” Christians, but I don’t think they really know what this divine birth
entails.
Depending on which “born again Christian” you ask this commonly used phrase means
something a little different, but then again, isn’t this always the case? If Peter and Paul
couldn’t agree about circumcision, what makes us think we can agree on what being born
of spirit means? Now, some may use the phrase “born of the spirit” to describe the time
after a religious ceremony (baptism, confirmation, etc.) while others may have had an
actual spiritual experience that dramatically changed their life. They say this new lifestyle
and dedication means they are “born again.” Perhaps God helped them overcome
alcoholism or set them free from some other problem. While there is no doubt that these
moments can change us, we do not suddenly BECOME spirit as the causation or result of
this. Rather, these moments are times of spiritual growth when we notice the power God
working in our spirit. Even after the resurrection when Jesus was said to have “breathed”
on the disciples, this event didn’t change them into spirit. While it certainly helped to
strengthen them, they were still very natural men. Then later at Pentecost the Holy Spirit
filled them again, but this was another experience, not an actual birth of their spirit. We
should understand that spirit can never die, so the question really is can spirit ever be
born? From a certain perspective, the answer is yes.
Let me ask you this. Do you believe that you are spirit or flesh? Some might say they are
both. Jesus taught that whoever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whoever is born of the
spirit is spirit. Does this mean we are TWO people? Again, from a certain perspective,
the answer is yes. What we should first realize is that everything has been “born of” or
"come from" God, who is SPIRIT. Who could deny that all that is real has come from
God? So then the reality and the life of all things is spirit. Without spirit from God
there is nothing- no earth, no sun, no man and no manifestation of any kind. God is all in
all, but we cannot fully realized this YET. This is the key! So the truth is we have always
been and always will be spirit! Understand that long before our body came into
existence in this world our spirit was alive in God. So the purpose of this article is to
show that there isn’t a single moment we become spirit in this world, but instead, each of
us is spirit that is maturing to the level high enough to know God and enter the Kingdom
of God. So when Jesus says we must be born of the spirit, I believe he is saying we must
come to REALIZE that we are indeed spirit. This revelation of who we truly are certainly
can change how we live and think. Surprisingly, many Christians still do not fully accept
that they are indeed spirit from God. They may call Him their “Father,” but they still live
and think as flesh.
Nicodemus and other religious minds like him thoroughly know their doctrines, but have
trouble thinking outside their ideological boxes. Most of humanity is programmed by the
world with a particular philosophy, religion or culture then typically stay within those
worldly bounds. When they are given a higher spiritual truth that they believe contradicts
their ideology it is usually rejected. This is certainly apparent regarding the truth that we
are spirit and not flesh. Jesus was trying to explain that there are two different ways we
can be “born” and then “live” in this world. We can be born and live as flesh, or we can
be born and live as spirit. One birth leads to death and the other way leads us to life. One
birth places us in the family of Satan, the other in the family of God. Even so, each of us
must experience BOTH kinds of births, natural and then spiritual, to prepare us before
entering the Kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 15:44
It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural
body, there is also a spiritual body.
45
So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a
life-giving spirit.
The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47
The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48 As
was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from
heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.
46
49
And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear
the likeness of the man from heaven.
Yes, God’s Seed is in you and all. This Seed will bear the likeness of Christ Jesus. So
there is a reason why Jesus taught that being born of water and then of spirit are the
prerequisites to enter the Kingdom of God. As Paul explains in 1 Corinthians, we (spirit)
have come into this world- to be born in a natural way, and then in a spiritual way. It
should be obvious that being born of flesh and spirit are two completely different births.
In one sense of the word, everyone born as a human into this world has been born of
"water," which is to say the flesh. This is a natural birth resulting from our natural parents
union, which happens with no effort on our part. Because our natural world shadows a
higher spiritual world, this lower world can teach us about the higher life in God’s
Kingdom. A baby comes into this world by the will of its parents, so those born of the
spirit come to life by the will of God.
John 1:12
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right
to become children of God-- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human
decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
We are all children of God, but most haven’t been living like it! For those ready to live
according to the spirit and not the flesh, you are given the right to be called “children of
God.” God chose you before you chose Him. God gave you His life before you give Him
yours. God is in control of your salvation. So as Jesus taught, the wind blows as it wills,
so it is with everyone born of the spirit. We should think of being born of the spirit as a
rather free-flowing process that is the inevitable result of our divine nature maturing. Like
infants coming from our mother’s womb into the world, we have no awareness of being
born. If Spirit begets spirit and we are from God, then we too are spirit! So then being
“born of the spirit” isn’t something we must strive to do, but rather a truth we must
REALIZE. Truly after tasting death over and over again, we will eventually come to our
spiritual senses! It will happen to all! In the same way, birds must eventually realize that
they can fly. They break free from a shell and come into this world as flightless creatures.
Once they mature they do not strive to fly, but just need a little practice! Flying comes to
them naturally because this is who they are. Who are you? Who is your Father? What is
your true nature? You know the answers to these questions, but you may be afraid to
jump out of the nest, right? Know this- spirit never dies. You are and always will be spirit
from God. You are alive in Christ and need only to come to this realization. Accepting
this truth will, from that moment on, change the way you live in this world.
Even today many that call themselves “born again” live as creatures of flesh instead of
spirit born of God. Much of their time and effort are spent attending to the needs of the
their carnal self. While it is true that at this moment, we (spirit) are living IN bodies of
flesh, our minds must come to realize that it is our spirit giving us life. If our body stops
breathing, we do not die. Many live with the fear of death because their mind is married
to their body. Let your mind commune with your spirit and you will know the truth and
will not fear death. Death loses its sting when we realize we are spirit. What shall you
fear if you are spirit? Well, most children fear an angry Father, and we should too! We
are spirit from God, yet Christianity traditionally teaches that our natural bodies will be
raised from the graves and then taken into heaven. This is not actually true. As Jesus
clearly teaches, flesh gives birth to flesh, but it means nothing. The human body is not the
image of God, but is simply the image of our natural parents flesh. God is not black or
white, male or female! These are natural distinctions of the flesh. Jesus said that the flesh
means nothing because the spirit gives life. In the same way, Paul taught that flesh and
blood (natural body) couldn’t enter the Kingdom of God. It should be clear then that we
must be SPIRIT to enter into a spiritual kingdom.
As Jesus alludes to there is an order of birth that must be followed to enter God’s
Kingdom. First we are born of water then of spirit. This is according to God’s design
because the latter is dependent upon the former. We come into this world as flesh again
and again for one purpose- to learn about God and our self. By living as creatures of flesh
we have come to know death, sin and suffering. Yet this is also leading to come to know
our Creator (Spirit) and our true self (spirit) better. Our trials and tribulations here allow
us to gain the experience and wisdom necessary to realize we are spirit from God.
This is a true epiphany that changes everything! Our spirit’s innate desire is to be like
God while returning to God.
We have come into the world to grow spiritually but this goes hand-in-hand with the
increase in knowledge. We have been eating from THAT knowledge tree for millions of
years now. And as Jesus said, the “fields are ripe for the harvest.” Many are ready to
picked out by God! So in another, higher sense, this “knowledge” we are born from can
also seen as being “born of water.” It is not unusual for Jesus’ teachings to be true on
several different levels of understanding. He had some “food” for every level of
comprehension. What truth seekers will find is that “truth” is relative to our level of faith
and understanding. Again like that bird that decides to fly, when we ready and decide to
live in the Spirit of Christ a whole new reality opens before us! Some say that Jesus
walking on the water was a symbol that he was above the rest of humanity because the
sea (water) represented humanity. While others say it was showing that his spiritual
understanding and wisdom were supporting him. I believe both interpretations have an
element of truth in them, but there is no doubt that Jesus came to teach us the knowledge
of salvation. The knowledge of the truth will set us free.
Luke 7:33
For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say,
`He has a demon.' 34 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say,
`Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' 35 But
wisdom is proved right by all her children."
If God is the Father of our spirit then let wisdom be the mother of our soul! Wisdom is
the living water that flowed from Jesus’ mouth providing a new life for thirsty souls.
Once the soul has been born of this wisdom, then the reality of our spirit can come to life!
It is written that Jesus grew in wisdom and understanding while walking the earth. Well,
we are here to do the same if we are to follow him. If we do this, we shall find our
salvation. Of this I am sure. But how do we follow Jesus?
Obviously Jesus was a man born of spirit (born of God), but are we born in the same way
he was? Well according to the rather questionable Gospel of Matthew, Jesus was not only
born of the spirit, but also is said to have been “conceived” by the Holy Spirit. Then in
Luke’s Gospel we also read that he was “filled with the Holy Spirit” before entering the
trials of the desert. Yet, John the Baptist was also a man apparently born miraculously
and filled with the Holy Spirit from birth. So what or who is the Holy Spirit? Keep in
mind that all spirit must be from God. So the Holy Spirit is the original spirit of this
world that has been QUALIFIED by doing God’s will. We know that there are "unclean"
spirits in this world that cause all sorts of problems, so we can think of the Holy Spirit as
that Spirit of the world which obeys God's will. Even though all spirit is from God, only
that spirit that has come back into alignment with His PERFECT will is deemed holy.
Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's
will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
God’s “perfect will” is a higher will that can only be known by going higher in
consciousness. In this lower, physical plane of creation every single atom contains the
life (spirit) of God. Every cell of our body contains the life of God. When life organizes
and carries out God’s higher will this life (spirit) is called holy. This world is full of
spirit, but not all is holy. This is by God’s design. Though because of the Holy Spirit’s
presence here, God can reach us in tangible ways. He can speak to us, heal us and guide
us to a higher life in Christ. So when we read about the Holy Spirit filling or coming
upon someone it is by the will of the LORD God. In many ways, the Holy Spirit was first
like our father by creating the building blocks of life while the earth was our mother. But
then the Holy Spirit acts as our mother because our spirit has passed through the Holy
Spirit and our LORD God (Christ, Son and Word of God) acts as our father. So all of
humanity is here as a result of the Holy Spirit being on and in the earth. For this reason,
God is present at every level of our development. Even if we make our bed in hell, His
Holy Spirit helps to lead us out of the darkness so we can see the light of Christ. While
God guides our spirit, our spirit then guides our soul. While each spirit is free to choose
his own path, there is one thing that is never a matter of choice- who we are. We are
God’s offspring destined to become the fullness of our Father. While Jesus was the first
of his kind to make this transformation, any who follow will reveal the same glory!
“just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the
likeness of the man from heaven.”
This is the truth! We will be exactly like Jesus. However, long ago, Christendom did
everything in their power to separate Jesus from us. They wanted the power and control
over their subjects. They would say, “You are not like Jesus, and you cannot reach God
without us.“ They taught that the man Jesus came into this world without an earthly
father. This supernatural event is said to separate him and make him different than the
rest of humanity. As I have written many times before, I do not accept this teaching of
men as truth. I believe that “virgin birth story” is an added fabrication created in the
minds of over-zealous leaders aimed at bolstering the Christian movement. Jesus didn’t
teach this about a virgin birth nor did any of his apostles including Paul. It either
didn’t happen, or it doesn’t matter. Paul was full of zeal, yet not one word about such an
incredible even. For those who can accept it, this fictitious tenet of Christianity was
added long after the disciples had passed away. What I explained in Jesus the Chosen
Man is that Jesus was exactly like us and we shall be exactly like him. This is what Jesus
taught and Paul preached. So, like it or not, I strongly believe that Jesus came into this
world in a very natural way, which is to say his body was conceived by a natural father
probably Joseph. His spirit, however, is a whole different story!
In a very real sense, EVERY child of God has been conceived of the Holy Spirit. All has
come from God, which means from the Father through the Son and then through the Holy
Spirit. All is spirit, and when you have come into alignment with God’s perfect will, you
are holy. Through His Holy Spirit, God has created the fabric of the universe from which
all life has emerged and then evolves. Since we have all come from God, Jesus’
uniqueness was not that the Holy Spirit gave him life, but that he was the FIRST to
overcome sin, death and the devil. Like us, he is and always had been SPIRIT from God,
but he became our leader and Lord because he was more mature (spiritually) than any
who had ever walked the earth before him. Jesus brought the Spirit of Christ into this
world thereby becoming the first man to overcome the works and world of Satan.
Because of his love, maturity and obedience to God, Jesus the Christ is our Savior! Jesus
is now the Spirit of Christ living in us and leading ALL back to God! So seek Him, hear
Him and follow Him. Someday your spirit will take flight to be with Him!
In God Is- Everything Else Isn’t, I detailed how everything and everyone is spirit from
God. Our spirit gives us life and connects us eternally to God as we move through the
fabric of time and matter. Because of this connectedness to the Source of all life, we can
never actually die, but we can only believe we are dead through deviance and deception.
When we move out of that spiritual alignment with God, we move into the darkness. This
is the key! We must come to know to see the Light of TRUTH that we are alive in God!
So do not think that being “born of the spirit” means that you BECOME spirit. Again,
you have always been and always will be SPIRIT! Jesus knew this and, I believe, used
the phrase “born of the spirit” to mean the time when we REALIZE that we are spirit.
Through acceptance of this truth and obedience to God’s will, Jesus’ spirit revealed
himself as God’s mature and qualified Son; in whom, God was well pleased. Jesus
accepted the undeniable truth that all of must accept- Christ is our life and the reason for
life. This divine key opens the door to heaven, which has been kept hidden from man.
Yet now it is given to those mature enough to accept it.
Colossians 1:26
The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now
disclosed to the saints. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the
Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of
glory.
Who do you suppose are the “saints” that God is revealing His higher truths to? The
saints are those that have realized they are spirit and are ready to follow Christ Jesus into
the reality of sonship with God. God is our Father- the Father of our spirit! The saints are
truly God’s Sons because they have the Spirit of Christ and are God’s anointed! They are
the anointed souls ready to live for God. They have grown in wisdom and in spiritual
stature to the level where they know His perfect will. We all began like newborns in our
relationship with God, but will end just as Jesus- mature and holy. Long ago, mankind
was born in complete ignorance of God. As man’s spiritual eyes opened, his first sense
was to fear God, but, in time, this feeling eventually turned to awe. Mankind is moving
past awe to a sincere respect for God, but, in the end, it will all turn to love. It should
clear that the spiritually mature LOVE God as their only Father. This is why we do God’s
will because we love Him. It is for this reason we have come into this world as human
beings-- to be led by faith into the knowledge of truth until we emerge as the mature
offspring of God. The purpose of life is our spiritual maturation.
The Maturation
2 Corinthians 3:17 (NASB)
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are
being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the
Lord, the Spirit.
Much wisdom can be gleaned from this passage written by Paul to the Corinthians. First
understand that “the Lord” is the spirit of Jesus, who is Christ, who is the Son and Word
of God. Jesus is the Word made flesh. Jesus found liberty in the Spirit of Christ, so he
was free from the laws of religion and of men. We too have the Spirit of Christ and are
beginning to see God’s glory shining from us. From life to life, we increase to a higher
level of glory until we are transformed into the same image as Jesus, which is the
image of God. As man measures time, this process of spiritual maturation happens very
slowly. Science indicates that humans have been evolving for millions of years in natural
ways, but Jesus showed us that we also progressing in spiritually. For many, many ages
each of us has been returning here to be refined and transformed or as Paul says, from
“glory to glory.” Whether we can see it now or not, we are going to be perfect like our
Father is perfect. For this purpose, God continues to send us back again and again to learn
more lessons, grow in faith, and move closer to our home with Him. We are on a journey
back to God, but we don’t find our way home in a single lifetime. How could we? Some
are only in this world for a few seconds while others never make it out of their mother’s
womb! It should be obvious to serious truth seekers that God is using reincarnation of our
spirit as the way to bring us to His perfection.
Jesus often times used parables about nature to teach about God and His Kingdom
because our earthly world shadows the heavenly one. Consider then the amazing process
of being born. In the natural, a child is conceived in the darkness, not by it’s own will, but
by the will of its parents. In the same way, we (spirit) are conceived by the will of God in
a womb of spiritual darkness, which is the spiritual ignorance of this world. As discussed
in The Meaning of Life, the reason for “life” is to gain full consciousness of the Truth. So
in this eternal cycle of life the spirit does not grow in height and weight, but in awareness
and love! We are maturing into the image of our Father! Nothing can keep this from
happening because God is God, and we, His children, have His spiritual DNA. So
everyone his beginning as a single spark of life from God in the womb of darkness called
the void. It is here where our journey for life began.
THE CONCEPTIONJeremiah 1:5
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you
apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
Have you ever wondered where were you before there was time? Where did you live
before the earth and sun were created? Some believe they didn’t exist at all until the
moment of their natural conception. They believe that the same moment when a new
body was formed in their mother’s womb, so were they. I wonder if these also believe
that the spirit depends on the flesh for life! Apparently these also have no earthly idea
that they are spirit. Jeremiah, however, seemed to know that he was a spirit being that
existed before his natural birth. I wouldn’t say that coming into this world of death and
darkness is coming to life. Rather everyone that is born of flesh will die because the flesh
is part of the manifested, temporary world. However, those born of the spirit are not flesh
and will never die.
John 11:25
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will
live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?"
The “one” who LIVES and BELIEVES and will never die is your SPIRIT! Your
spirit is your true self born in God‘s image. But if you are not living through your spirit,
then God doesn’t recognize you. When God says, “I never knew you,“ He is speaking to
that false, natural self, which doesn‘t believe and will most certainly die. Yet, even
though your false natural self dies, your true self will live. We should understand that our
spirit from God has never been actually dead; this is impossible, but spirit can lose
consciousness. As a consequence of this, our souls have been deceived into accepting this
world in the flesh as reality. We have accepted these bodies we live in as our life, so the
illusions pain and death seem very real in this world. As Jeremiah alluded to, we all were
with God before we were placed into creation. So our true life doesn’t begin with a
natural conception or natural birth. Our true conception wasn’t when a sperm joined with
an egg. But our true life is realized when spirit joins with consciousness! Our life is from
God and is God! The Father gives us life and the Son leads us to realize it!
So if there is a place in time we could call our true CONCEPTION it would be that
moment of creation when we (spirit), being led by the Word of God, went into the void.
God spoke (breathed) His Word into the darkness, and we, the LIGHT, entered it. You
could say that we went into the womb of creation to begin our development, each of us
like a seed of God beginning a period of gestation. For billions of years, every spirit has
been moving through this physical plane taking on higher and higher forms of life until
evolving to our present form. Of course traditional Christianity teaches creationism not
evolution. What they don’t understand is that God created evolution to bring about
higher and higher forms of life to build His Kingdom. Do you remember what Paul
said? We are moving from one form of glory to a higher form of glory. So it is true that
we are spirit beings on a human journey, not human beings on a spiritual journey. Our
true life is not defined by the form we take because we are spirit always growing in
consciousness. We have passed through the spectrum of life being qualified along the
way. Because we have been qualified by world, we are all the children of God. This is
why we can say that all been conceived and born through the Holy Spirit because God,
who is holy, is our Father.
So our life in this physical universe began with the “Big Bang” when God’s Light went
into the void. Yet surely what came from God must also return to God? This is the
beginning of our journey of consciousness powered the spirit, which is always connected
to God. Think of spirit as energy because energy makes things move and gives them life.
Jesus, the enlightened and anointed one, said that we are the light (or energy) of the
world. Each of us is a ray of Light from God that went into spiritual darkness. Consider
the multitude of stars in the night sky. They are perhaps trillions of miles away, but we
can still see their light! God’s light in us is no different. We entered the void as just a
spark of light, but by the grace and will of God, we are transforming into the likeness of
God.
Where there was darkness, God made light. Where there was nothing, God created the
heavens and the earth. He placed us, His seeds, in the womb of creation, so that His glory
would be all in all. There in the womb of creation, faith would become our umbilical
cord. Through this divine conduit of faith, God has nourished his spirit children with His
life and love. In the natural world, a fetus remains in the womb until it is mature enough
to be born, and so it is in the spiritual. Creation became our womb where our spirit has
been maturing for ages and ages. Like every unborn child, our spirit was surrounded by
our mother’s womb (Mother Nature) where we continued to grow in consciousness. Yet
like every unborn child, we were completely unaware of the world we were about to
enter. Our Father God had given us His life and now our mother earth was ready to give
birth to human beings.
THE INFANT SPIRITGenesis 2:7
The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
If one is looking for an actual moment that mankind was “born of the spirit,” then this
passage from Genesis marks it. I believe this because this is the point when man reached
self-awareness; man became a living soul- a sentient being of the highest order in nature.
God, through evolution, created more and more advanced creatures, and then separated
humans from the ape family. This is when we became self-conscious. This quantum leap
in consciousness was necessary for us to prepare to become Christ-conscious. All humans
are spirit that has been born into this present form to become God’s Image. Perhaps about
four billion years ago, God set the spirit of man apart from the rest of creation and
making him king of the jungle, as it were. With this heightened level of awareness and
intelligence, the mind of man was (and is) driven to know. Like a newborn, all of our
senses began to soak up information.
As infant spirits, we were placed in a crib, which the Bible calls Eden. There in our
infancy, God took care of us and made sure that man prospered thereby filling the earth
with more “vessels” for God’s offspring to use. As our LORD God cared for us giving us
all that we needed, this was really a time of bliss for the spirit of man. Yet, there came
that fateful time when we made our first choice. Although mere infants in spirit, we
thought we needed more than what God was offering. From the moment our spirit went
into the void, we have been seeking knowledge through experience. This God-given
desire is insatiable and will lead us back to God; however, it also led us to taste that tree
of death. We were innocent until this first choice to eat of the duality tree. Before this we
did not know good from evil. We lived like animals with no real sense of what is right or
wrong. Also by eating of this tree, we became aware of our flesh to the point we believed
we were flesh. For the first time, our infant spirits were deceived by the carnal mind into
believing we were merely flesh. Believing ourselves to be flesh, we also believed we died
when the body died. In other words, our self-awareness told us that our self died when the
body expired. This deception of death came upon the newborn spirit and soul of man long
ago by the will of God, as we read in the story of Adam and Eve.
Adam and Eve are one being who represent the human SPIRIT and SOUL respectively.
Because Adam and Eve were one when Eve ate of the tree of knowledge so did Adam.
The soul (Eve) of mankind led the spirit (Adam) of mankind into sin and this kind of
spiritual death (sleep). We read that before Eve (soul) was taken out of Adam (spirit),
Adam (spirit) was put into a deep sleep. We know that infants spend much of their time
sleeping, so I see that this was also true of our infant spirits in a sense. As infants, not
only were we napping much of the time, we also had very little experience or wisdom
yet. There was humanity, the infant spirits of God, in the cradle of creation being fed in
body by the earth and in spirit by God. There we were babbling, being unable to speak.
There we were lying in our crib unable to walk. However, little by little we grew out of
our infancy and all of this was about to change!
THE TODDLER SPIRIT1 Corinthians 14:20
Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your
thinking be adults.
A toddler is somewhere between being an infant and a child. As Paul claims, there are
certain qualities about infants that are desirable concerning evil. The toddler spirit is
innocent with regards to evil because of his lack of knowledge. Sin infected the soul of
man pulling the spirit down with her. Since sin is a state of deception, it must also be
eradicated through the soul. The infant spirit of man did not know what sin was, but the
toddler spirit is beginning to understand. When Cain killed Abel, this “toddler spirit”
surely had a sense that he had done something wrong. Yes, the spirit of man was starting
to grow up.
At this stage in our development, the toddler spirit is babbling in a kind of incoherent
language, which the soul really doesn’t understand. So during this time, the soul, who is
the companion of the spirit, mostly eats from that tree of knowledge. This “tree” is the
one filled with the fruit of the world, which she eats using her natural senses and digest
using her natural mind. In this way, the soul is still a “carnivore” because of her carnal
appetite. During this “toddler” era, mankind would be considered still fairly primitive like
cavemen in all facets of life including that of religion. To this immature spirit, God is still
very much a mystery. And while that “babbling” of the spirit is starting to be heard by the
soul of man, it is mostly disregarded.
One thing is true of toddlers; they like to put things in their mouths that they shouldn’t!
Man was no different during this stage of our spiritual development. We tried everythingtasting the different experiences that the world had to offer be they good or bad. Even so,
this toddler was still considered innocent because he was mostly unaware of what is good
or bad behavior. During this time, our LORD God is watching over us like a father and
keeps us from getting into to much trouble. He even holds us up when we first try and
walk on our own.
Psalms 37:23
If the LORD delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm; 24 though he
stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.
Yes, every toddler must toddle, and often times they stumble! But God is always there to
protect us from any real harm. In truth, it is the soul that will feel the bumps and bruises
of our falls. The first goal every toddler has is to escape from his crib! The toddler spirit
of man was always curious and looking for something new. At some point in our early
civilization, mankind left his “crib” to see what was out in the rest of the world. This
curiosity to know all things is driven by the spirit of man by the Son of God. This is all
part of learning who we are. Eventually, our spirit begins to walk and talk a little better
then a much bigger and brighter world opens to us.
THE CHILD SPIRITActs 17:29
"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine
being (our true self) is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's
design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he
commands all people everywhere to repent.
Yes, we are God’s offspring; and yes, we used to live in ignorance and deception. In the
past, God overlooked our “bad” behavior because we were still young- you know kids
will be kids! During our childhood stage, God allowed us to “play” freely on the earth’s
playground. While God had still not laid down the law for mankind, we certainly were
increasing our knowledge of what was considered good and evil. Mostly we were
learning from our mistakes more than from God. God was watching over us, but we were
still too young to really be taught His higher truths. This is the age when our child spirit
really came to acknowledge God more personally. Our relationship with God began with
a sense of fear. The thought that an all-powerful Force was watching over us was a little
unnerving. Yet as all parents know, obedience begins with the fear of discipline.
Psalms 34:11
Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
The Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and so it is. For
young children, fear is usually the most effective motivator. “Eat your broccoli, or you
will get no desert. Clean your room, our you cannot have friends come over.” Every
parent knows what works. If children fear they are going to lose something, they usually
make the right choice. God has treated us like children through the ages using both the
fear of punishment and the reward for good behavior as His modus operandi. During the
child stage of the human spirit those who followed their spirit were blessed by the LORD
God with mostly earthly blessings. This makes sense because although we were adult in
the natural we were children in spirit. Kids don’t want jobs; they want to play. Kids don’t
want tools; they want toys. So God provided those “good children” with earthly blessings
like bountiful harvests, wives, health, fertility and so on. We see this being displayed in
the more ancient writings of the Old Testament.
During this “child stage” this spirit of man was beginning to really communicate with
God on a meaningful level. As a result of this higher level of spiritual communication and
awareness, the world’s religions began to emerge. Some looked outwardly at nature that
is always speaking of God while others looked within into their own spirit to learn from
God. Either way, man was beginning to really speak to God, spirit to Spirit. This period
in our spiritual development is significant not only because of ability to communicate
with God, but also our ability to remember the wisdom of past lives. We know that in the
natural, our earliest memories begin around age four or five, and this is seen in the
spiritual too.
Mark 10:13
People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the
disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to
them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom
of God belongs to such as these. 15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not
receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." 16 And he took the
children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.
God loves His children! After every life here in this world, our spirit returns to God.
Once we have become somewhat developed we can truly appreciate and even recall this
return to God. Many of God’s children have told of near-death experiences in which they
were aware of the peace, joy and light they entered. I believe this is what Jesus was
speaking about here when he says we must be like a little child. Our first memories
(stored consciousness) of God begin when we are little spirit children.
During this era, mankind began to really grow especially in all area of knowledge. This
increased knowledge was also apparent by types of civilizations and social fabric that
were created. Popular religions, powerful empires and wondrous inventions were
becoming commonplace across the earth. This seemed to be mankind’s heyday, or should
we say, “play day?” But recess time was just about over. God had watched us playing in
the “dirt” of the world for long enough. It was time for a bath in the way of a flood! So
God took most of his kids back into heaven and washed them with grace. Soon after
repopulating the earth again, our Father decided it was time for some rules to be set for
His children. Yes, the spirit of man was coming upon the age of accountability!
THE ADOLESCENT SPIRITHebrews 12:7
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not
disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes
discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9 Moreover, we
have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How
much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!
If you feel that God is disciplining you, rejoice because God is saying you are a
legitimate son! In Judaism, a boy becomes a “man” at the age of thirteen. Regarding our
spiritual development, this is the period when the spirit of man reaches a kind of
“puberty.” Our inner “voice” changes as our spirit becomes louder and more
authoritative. This is the time when man’s spirit is really now starting to take more of a
leadership role over the soul. Along with this new spiritual prowess given from above,
more responsibility also is handed down from God. This is age of human history when
God handed down the Law, and man became accountable for his sins. The Jews, of
course, have officially documented this, but every spirit passing through his adolescence
has been shown what God expects of them. In other words, we know what is right and
wrong, so we had better make good choices.
As we read in Hebrews, God disciplines those He loves. These are the ones mature
enough to handle the coming trials and tribulations. Jesus was tested and qualified by
such trials. Jesus is Lord because he PASSED the test! If we claim to be his followers,
then shouldn’t we also be put through these tests of our spirit? Jesus endured the lures
and traps of Satan who worked through Jesus’ natural mind. His spirit was strong, pure
and ready to reveal God’s Son to the world! This is why God expected so much from
Jesus. This is why Jesus said, “If much if given to you (from God), then MUCH is also
expected.” A father demands much more quality and effort from a 16 year old than a 6
year old. The same is true of God with us, His maturing sons.
Like every good Father, God disciplines us children according to our level of maturity.
During this adolescent age of humanity, our spirits were no longer children, but neither
were we adults yet. This means that even though our spirit had grown stronger and wiser,
we were still “of the world” being led by the soul. For this reason, the Law is for the
natural man who hasn’t come to the full realization of who he is. God’s discipline is not
necessarily to punish us, but rather to teach us His ways. Whatever courses our lives take,
trust that God is doing what is best for our spiritual development. In the same way, the
Law and effects of sin were not given to burden us, but to lead us into a higher life in
Christ. Even honest teenagers will admit that they need boundaries from their parents to
help edify and demonstrate their parent’s love for them. As any parent of an adolescent
knows without set boundaries from a parent confusion and conflict can become the
guiding principles. This is why God made clear His commandments to govern our
behavior. They are simply designed to keep us out of trouble here in the devil’s
playground (the world) until we have matured in Christ. The maturing spirit is powering
the mind to higher and higher levels of learning and understanding, which is certainly
apparent in the past 2,000 years. This increased receptiveness and perceptiveness is also
manifested in man’s religions. During this time, our religions became more enlighten by
the Truth of God.
Like in the natural, the “teen spirit” is torn between two worlds. In this case though, the
battle is between the natural world of the senses and the spiritual Kingdom of God. For
ages upon ages, we (spirit) have entered this world, lived in a body of flesh and been
companioned with a soul. It is in the soul (mind) where the battle takes place. Does the
soul choose the worldly food that she has grown accustom to or the spiritual food that is
harder to reach? Then does the spirit believe the soul and take the worldly delights she
offers him? This saga is as old as man himself; it is the sequel to the Adam and Eve
story! Apparently some were still having trouble understanding this, as Paul explains.
Hebrews 5:11
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to
learn. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone
to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk,
not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted
with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who
by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
We start with milk, but in time, we must eat that solid food- the meat of the truth. This is
the truth that will set us free from deception. So apparently eating from that tree of the
knowledge of good and evil is exactly what we needed! God didn’t make a mistake by
placing that “tree” in our reach, and we had to eat of it to advance the plan of life and
salvation. In Thy Kingdom Come, I showed how mankind has a higher sense of what is
right and wrong than ever before in our history. Two hundred years ago, Christians
thought it was right to own slaves. Do they still feel this is “right?” Yes, it seems
unthinkable, but that just goes to show you how we must continue to advance in the
knowledge of the truth. Now, whether Paul realized it or not, he was attempting to teach
Kindergartners calculus. Many were entering Christianity, but very few were chosen to
carry the Truth. We know that Jesus had the same problem even with even his closest
disciples. Many that lacked spiritual understand or faith simply turned away when his
teachings became too difficult to accept. So being able to understand and accept the deep
mysteries is a sign of a more mature spirit. Above all else, the mature spirit acknowledges
that God is his Father.
Because the mature have trained themselves to distinguish between what is good and
what is evil, they are without an excuse. If we know the difference between good and
evil, God expects us to follow that code of conduct written on our hearts and minds. Of
course, the choice is ours. Even today we see some adolescent spirits that continue to
make the wrong choice being led still by the deceived soul. Yes, the devil is still doing
his work on the earth. And who is the devil? The devil is the enemy of God, the carnal
mind of man and ego that loves acting as a god. No one can BE God in this world; we
can only be His image, as Jesus was. This divine irony of the truth will help lead the
prodigal sons to repentance. What we all will find is that God’s peace only comes by
DOING what we SEE our Father doing. We can only BE the image of God! The image
(man) is a reflection in a mirror and can only do what the Subject (God) does. Jesus
realized this truth. The effect (man) IS only because the Cause (God) IS. Straying from
this truth brings us pain. Have you ever strayed from God? Have you ever knowingly
rejected God’s will in your life? Have you ever been an “evil” spirit? You might be
surprised who are the ones called evil.
THE EVIL SPIRITLuke 11:11
"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are
evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your
Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
Here, Jesus is speaking to his closest followers. Did you know that the men that Jesus
chose to be his disciples were evil? Are you also then evil? What is an “evil” spirit? As
discussed in Hell Revisited, Satan Revealed, every spirit is from God even the so-called
evil ones. So we must accept that God is the Father of all spirit and life. There is no
exception. Because of this truth we must also acknowledge that God created what we call
evil, but evil may not be what you think it is. “Evil” is part of the plan of perfection.
There can be no good without evil just as there can be no knowledge of life without
knowing death first. We all must be lost before we can be found, right? I believe God
feels the same way because He has led us into disobedience.
Romans 11:30
Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received
mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now become
disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's
mercy to you. 32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he
may have mercy on them all.
Do you believe what Paul says here? God has made us all disobedient, so we would learn
from it. Wasn’t it God who planted the tree of death in our midst? Wasn’t God who
created the devil that tempted us? I, like Paul, hold God completely accountable for what
is called “the original sin.” We only did exactly what God knew we would. Does a parent
place poison that looks like candy in the reach of their child and tell them not to eat it?
Certainly not! Yet, this is what those of Judea-Christian tradition are taught! What
foolishness to think that God did something so reckless! I, like Paul, also trust that God
knows exactly what He is doing! We had to eat of that tree of knowledge to become like
God- knowing good from evil.
Many self-righteous, religious souls are quick to label others as bad, sinful or evil when
these souls don’t believe or live as they do. They will say that these evil people are going
to an eternal hell when they die. Again, this is foolishness! However, Paul humbled
himself and others because he knew better. Paul realized that we ALL have been “evil”
and said that he was once the worst of sinners. He said that we ALL used to follow the
devil and ways of the world. This is our natural condition before we come to Christ. The
word “evil” which is used to describe spirits in many passages of the New Testament is a
translation of the Greek words “poneros” and “akathartos.” These words can mean vile or
wicked, but "akathartos" is many times translated as "unclean" or "impure." In other
words, these are UNholy spirits that have not yet be qualified and purified. We can think
of these evil spirits as God’s “naughty” offspring that need to be taught a lesson. We all
need lessons from time to time!
Ephesians 5:8
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as
children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness
and truth). 10 and find out what pleases the Lord.
We used to be the spirits of darkness (evil, wayward, bad), but now we know and have
the light of Christ! Yes, none is righteous, so we are the disobedient spirits whom Jesus
came to save! Can you accept that you were a lost spirit and Christ Jesus is your Savior?
Each of us has lost our way and need some help; otherwise we wouldn’t be stuck in this
(lower) state of life. We are called dead in our sin though we walk in Hades, which is the
place of dead. The Spirit of Christ is our only hope to be resurrected from this condition.
And evil or not, we are all God’s children that are destined to take on the image of our
Father. God knows what it will take to save us, and in the dispensation of time, God will
bring us all to salvation through Christ, His Son. So, God is not worried about His plan of
perfection. Evil is not a problem. Satan is not a problem. They are necessary devices used
to help us to realize who we are!
Understand then that light and darkness are the same to God. This means from that
highest perspective in Truth there is no such thing as good or evil. In the Holy of Holies
where God’s peace reigns eternal, God is all in all. We say that God has a right hand and
left hand. We see that one is for love the other for judgment. One is for forgiveness, the
other for vengeance. Good and evil are then like a left and a right. We need two hands to
climb the ladder into heaven and two legs to walk with God. As we mature, we learn
through our trials and errors. Every lifetime lived in the flesh is like another day for the
spirit to learn. As our spirit matures, his voice becomes stronger.
John 5:28
"Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves
will hear his voice 29 and come out--those who have done good will rise to live,
and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.
The Voice is the Spirit of Christ, and the grave is life in the flesh. After each lifetime we
are judged according to what we have done. Our spirit is held accountable for our
previous life, so that when we are reincarnated we reap what we have sown. Those who
hear His Voice and remain defiant will rise to taste suffering and death again in this
world. Those who hear and accept His Voice as their own are the mature Sons of God.
They will rise into Christ-consciousness and live for God.
THE MATURE SPIRIT1 Corinthians 2:6
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the
wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No,
we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God
destined for our glory before time began.
Are you ready to enroll at that place of higher learning? You know, “K of G,” the
Kingdom of God! There you will be taught the secret wisdom of God. No, you don’t need
books or to go up into the clouds, but your soul will certainly be lifted higher! Heaven is
a higher state of consciousness and spirit. As your true self (spirit) matures, you will lift
your soul (consciousness) into the Kingdom for a holy marriage consecrated and
confirmed by God. This is how our soul is saved- by being united with our spirit in
Christ.
Being strong, mature and filled with wisdom, the spirit gains the respect and control of
the soul. A spiritual synchronicity develops that brings the soul to perfection and the
spirit back to God. The spirit and soul need each other for salvation to be realized. Just as
Adam needed Eve so he wouldn‘t be alone in the world, so does the spirit need the soul
to know. More than this, God needs you. Yes, God needs each of us to return to Him so
that He can be all in all. You are part of God’s life, plan and purpose! Have we not read
that it is not good that the spirit be alone? For this reason the soul is the partner for the
spirit on our journey into the knowledge of the Truth. The soul, or mind, is where
consciousness is planted, cultivated and harvested. We (spirit) reap what we sow. Each
life in this world is another growing season for consciousness. With the help of a loving,
submissive soul, the spirit of man has grown stronger and closer to God. When your soul
perfectly expresses who you are and you perfectly express God, then you know salvation.
Simply put, this is the secret wisdom of God that has been hidden from us.
For those spiritually mature enough, the mystery has been solved. Christ is our true life
and self. Accepting this pivotal and essential truth is an indication that you have matured.
This is the point where the spirit has been through life (many lives) enough to know that
spirit is life and God is life! We only have true life when we surrender our life to God.
Just as Jesus Christ came to realize this, so does every mature, qualified Son of God. You
may have heard of that “brother” God gave us who was an example of a mature Son of
God.
Hebrews 2:17
For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that
he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he
might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered
when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
There is a reason that Jesus is called our eldest brother. It is because we are all of the
same family! Yes, he is called the “firstborn” of God, but he is certainly not the last! He
is leading all of his siblings (humanity) into perfection and back to God. Thanks be to
God that Jesus IS his brother’s keeper! While walking the earth in the flesh, Jesus helped
all that he came into contact with, but now, as a SPIRIT in God’s Kingdom, he has access
to the universe! He is in His Kingdom, which is in you and all! In this way, Christ Jesus
will guide us back home to our Father’s house. The mature spirit is the Spirit of Christ
that knows and loves God as Father.
Romans 8:14
Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are Sons of God. 15 For you
did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the
Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies
with our spirit that we are God's children.
Some of my Christian friends have tried to tell me that we are not “actually” God’s
children, but we are creatures that have been created from the dust. Well, the flesh has
been created, so they must see themselves as flesh. But I am spirit! While Paul does
speak of being “adopted” into God’s family, he was speaking of the Gentiles coming into
the family of the Jews. So if you are flesh, then God have mercy on your soul, but if you
are spirit, then hear what your spirit cries out! “Abba, Father!” Clearly, as we read in
Romans 8:14, God is the Father of our spirit, and we are the Sons of God!
Romans 8:18
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that
will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of
God to be revealed.
The Sons of God will be revealed just as Jesus was revealed. Now understand that being
called a “son” doesn’t mean you are a man, but rather it means that you are SPIRIT!
More than this, we are becoming God’s likeness and fullness- heirs of God! Certainly
you have read the many lofty proclamations that Paul wrote about those who truly had
the Spirit of Christ, but do Christians really believe they will attain the fullness of our
Lord? I certainly do! This is our purpose on earth- to do God’s will and be God’s image.
Ephesians 4:12
…so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith
and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the
whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Little by little and life by life, we are moving closer to this glorious goal. The mature
Sons (spirits) of God will live on earth even though they are in heaven. In other words, in
Christ they have the freedom from fear, from sin and from death. And they bring God’s
love and power to earth. As we prove our love and faithfulness, God gives us more
responsibility and authority. Most parents would not let their 8 year old child drive their
car, but they might let their 18 year old (I did say might!). When God deems us ready to
handle it, we are given the keys to the Kingdom. The apostles were given an opportunity
to take this divine power on a little test drive. While they only got a sampling of what it
was like to be a perfected Son like Jesus, the time is coming when miracles will be
commonplace. The Sons of God will bring God’s love and will into this world! God’s
Kingdom is coming to a spirit near you, or more accurately to the spirit IN you!
The Miracles
John 10:38
But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you
may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."
Thank God for miracles! Have you ever consider what would have become of the
teachings of Jesus without His miracles? Jesus and God knew that our natural minds need
some persuading. So it seems unlikely that Christianity would have ever gotten off the
ground without God bending a few of nature’s rules. There is no doubt that miracles get
our attention, and this seemed to be the main reason why Jesus used them. Even his
disciples seemed to be greatly influenced by them. I believe His miracles were designed
to draw the crowds so that he would have an audience for his teachings. It should be
obvious that most who sought out Jesus then were not seeking the knowledge of the
Kingdom, but were after a miracle cure for the flesh. While Jesus did heal many ailing
bodies, the miracles Jesus showed this world were like strong medicine for ailing,
unbelieving souls. They were divine antibiotics that could quickly reverse the effects that
infectious disease of the devil, which is doubt. Miracles can remove our doubt, and Jesus
knew this. So not only was Jesus a healer of the body, but he was also the great physician
of the soul! Whether a soul was in the lowest hell or knocking at heaven‘s door, he met
each follower where they were spiritually. Still it should be obvious that Jesus more
interested in healing souls than bodies. In other words, he wanted to teach us the truth
that could set us free.
While there are some miracles throughout the Bible, nobody has ever topped Jesus who
was the master miracle maker! This is because no one had ever reached the status of Son
of God! This is the key to miracles. We are told that the first miracle Jesus performed in
his ministry was turning water into wine at the wedding. Every natural miracle he
manifested had a spiritual meaning. Jesus cured some of blindness, but Christ enables us
to see God! Jesus turned water into wine, but Christ changes our life from the flesh to the
spirit! By the way, have you noticed that potent forms of alcohol are called “spirits?”
Have you also noticed that those who drink seem to let their inner feelings show? If you
are angry on the inside, this will show through when you drink alcohol. Most of us have
seen the “happy drunk” and the “angry drunk,” but now take this into a spiritual context.
If we live on SPIRIT, then we shall see our true self revealed. If we drink the blood and
eat the flesh of Christ, then we shall have His life! So the purpose of miracles is much
more than just to improve the health of an ailing body. They are to teach us the higher
way and to glorify the Highest One!
Luke 19:37
When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives,
the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for
all the miracles they had seen:
38 "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Peace in heaven
and glory in the highest!" 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus,
"Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" 40 "I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the
stones will cry out."
Everyone loves a winner! But put that winner on a humiliating cross to die, and then see
who his true friends are. Miracles happen every day, and in varying degrees, we have all
witnessed or experienced miracles in our lives. Yet, do we fully understand the physics
behind these miracles? I believe there is a spiritual science to why and how miracles can
happen. In simple terms, miracles are gifts from God, which could come as a spiritual,
mental or even a carnal healing. Even what we think are tragedies sometimes turn out to
be miracles in disguise. While I am sure that miracles happen every day, many times we
do not fully perceive them.
Miracles can certainly be blessings in our lives, but their main purpose is to glorify God
and increase our faith. Still, how and what exactly is a miracle? The dictionary says that a
miracle is “an inexplicable event by the laws of nature so is held to have supernatural or
divine origin.” There are documented cases in the medical field of “miraculous” cures
from cancer and other terminal diseases. One man has been struck by lightning seven
times! It surely is a miracle that he is still alive. There are some who might have missed
their flight on the plane that crashed killing all aboard. Sometimes the birth of a child is
considered a miracle, and why not? It may not be supernatural, but it is still very amazing
how life begins. Still, what about those supernatural events?
First, we should understand that our physical world is the home of the Holy Spirit, who
represents God here in this lowest realm. The Holy Spirit is called the Helper and our
Comforter because He brings down God’s truth, love and will into Hades. God is
omnipresent in our world because of the Holy Spirit. So through this Holy Helper, the
Spirit of God resides within every atom of the universe. We can think of the Holy Spirit
as God in an elemental form. In the movie, Star Wars, the “Force” was this mysterious
power generated by all things that the Jedi Knights used to gain supernatural abilities. To
tap into this “Force” required FAITH and stillness on their part. Does this sound familiar?
I wrote about how faith unlocks supernatural power in Bringing God to Life- A Matter of
Faith.
Jesus showed us that the “Force” of this world is able to bend natural laws and extend
beyond the bounds of what we thought was reality. Life can be measured by vibration, so
when your spirit is in step with God, then the Force will be with you! It is like a harmonic
convergence of the spiritual kind. Certainly we have all had those days walking in step
with God’s Spirit and everything seemed effortless, perfect. Those are the moments when
we say and do the right thing without giving any of it a second thought. God, like the
Force, is everywhere and in everything. The reality of all things is spirit from God, so
when our focus is on the unseen, spiritual life then miraculous things will happen in our
present life.
When Jesus became the catalyst to heal a sick body he always reminded the one being
healed that THEIR faith had made them well. Our bodies have the ability to heal because
God lives in every cell and every atom. There the Holy Spirit can cure any disease, but
we must to have faith. Where do we get the faith? Where else? God. If one empties his
heart of doubt, pride and hate then God will surely fill it with faith, hope and love.
Miracles are the result of faith and desire, which is God’s faith and God’s desire. If our
faith was the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains. Hard to believe that isn’t
it? That is why it hard to move mountains!
So in actuality, miracles are the release of God’s spiritual energy that exists in all things.
This “energy” can be tapped into by aligning our will with God’s perfect will. The Red
Sea parted for Moses because it was God’s will; Moses just happened to be in the right
place at the right time because he followed his faith. It all comes back to faith. Jesus said,
“Your faith has healed you.“ Faith, like the oil in the virgins’ lamps, is something we
must maintain and use wisely. You could think of it as your own spiritual bank account
where you make deposits and withdrawals. This bank is open 24/7 and is called
KARMA. Some Christians may have trouble accepting this “Eastern” word, but this
universal truth is found in every major religion including Christianity. Jesus, Paul and
God have told us that man will reap what he sows. This is our karmic account. Some
have a debt to pay while others have started “saving” riches in heaven. Some naively
believe that they must leave this world to have access to what they have secured in God’s
Kingdom. They apparently don’t believe Jesus when he said that the Kingdom of God is
within us. Heaven and hell are states of mind and spirit. By doing God’s will both spirit
and soul are lifted closer to heaven where our inheritance of divine riches is kept.
We are here in this lower state of life to learn to love as God loves. Every time we love as
God loves, we make a deposit into our savings. Every time we trust in God’s way, we
earn interest on our faith. Every time we do God’s will in our lives, we are increasing our
heavenly wealth, which no man can take away. God gives everyone the gifts of faith,
hope and love, but what we do with these is our decision. Like the Prodigal son we can
squander everything and become desolate. Yet, we are always able to come back to God
in the end. Still, the truth remains; for those with no faith in their bank, they will see no
miracles. For those with no love in their heart, they will have no forgiveness. These had
better return to God for a loan! He has a monopoly in those particular commodities!
Understand that by using our faith, we don’t necessarily deplete this divine resource. Like
money, faith used wisely makes more faith!
John 14:12
I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He
will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13
And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to
the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
In the Spirit of Christ, we can do and have all things; but without Christ, we can do
nothing! Jesus taught that when TWO or more come together in his name (spirit)
whatever is asked would be given to them. The key is being in His SPIRIT because Jesus
had the Spirit of Christ, which is the mature and perfected Son of God. In Christ, we are
all one; so by joining this union we have access the fullness of God. Jesus walked on the
water, but those who follow in Christ will glide through the air! The higher the octane of
the spirit, the more power that is available to the soul and body. There are documented
accounts of possessed individual levitating during an exorcism. Their body was the home
to many spirits that caused it to rise. If this be true, then what shall we expect when the
fullness of the Christ’s Spirit resides in us! I tell you the truth; mankind has only just
begun to unlock his spiritual potential. Mental telepathy, levitation and healings of all
kinds will become actualities when the Sons of God are revealed to the world!
Even today, when souls believe and spirits join in Christ, a spiritual fusion of faith takes
place releasing the unlimited power of God. Because Jesus believed, only one other with
faith was needed to create the miracle equation. However, there were no miracles where
there was no faith, no maturity and no relationship with God. Only the more mature
children of God have the faith necessary to unlock this energy from on high. A million
years ago when man‘s spirit was an infant, those cavemen could not tap this divine power
because they did not know God. Even the miracles from the great prophets of the Old
Testament are very few, but this will change as the qualified Sons (spirits) of God are
revealed! These spiritually mature prodigies of God walk the earth today waiting for the
moment when the Spirit of Christ is fully manifested in them.
The Manifestation
Galatians 5:22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no
law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its
passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the
Spirit.
The fruit of the spirit is a very healthy diet for the soul! Understanding that we are spirit
and should live by the spirit is the key that opens heaven’s door. Spirit is at the center of
everything and is the reality of everything. Whether it is an atom or an Adam, the heart of
life itself begins with the spirit. Surrounding the spirit is the soul where consciousness is
known and expressed. It is in the soul where the spirit finds his purpose. For the soul, it is
in the spirit where she finds her peace. The human psyche (soul) is a complex entity
where emotion, will, knowledge, and imagination come together like instruments of a
symphony. When every part of our being is keeping time with God, then the music we
produce is divine and joyous. When the children of God are in harmony we are the Body
of Christ! Our spirit is our life, and the spirit is what is empowering us back to God.
Because of our spirit we have obtained existence and consciousness of self. Yet for ages
and ages the spirit of man was barely heard. That “still small voice” was like that of a
young child, and so he was. But what began as a seemingly insignificant spark of God’s
life has matured into a new man called Christ! As we mature into an anointed Son of
God, we no longer live being led by our natural senses. The new man develops spiritual
senses that give him NEW sensations and perceptions of a Kingdom hidden from natural
eyes.
Even though Jesus walked upon the earth, he LIVED in the Kingdom of God. Do you
understand what I am saying here? Jesus’ body was here, but his mind and spirit were in
the Kingdom of God. So his spirit lit up this dark world with the light of Christ, yet this is
the same light that should light every man. We are the light of the world sent here on holy
mission to shine as Jesus did. Jesus said that we should uncover our “light” and then the
world would be a brighter place. While Jesus was the brightest star that had ever shined
from heaven to earth, each of us will also shine God’s glory. Some stars are brighter than
others, but we are all God’s children nonetheless. All light works to destroy the darkness.
The more we seek God and His will the more we will shine and produce the good fruit of
the Spirit of Christ. We continue to accumulate wisdom, love and faith through our lives
until that divine light of Christ comes shining through our whole being- body, soul and
spirit.
THE PERSONALITY1 Peter 1:13
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully
on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient
children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.
15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written:
"Be holy, because I am holy."
The main topic I addressed in The Revelation (The End of the World as We Know It) was
how Christ returns to this world through His Spirit being revealed in us. In the above
passage, Peter just causally slips this idea in, but I wonder how many Christians have
taken note. Yes, every eye will see Christ because Christ is in everyone; he only needs to
mature and be revealed. Dear child of God, who do you think you are growing up to be?
Who are you going to look like when your spirit has fully matured? You will be just as
Jesus was- a perfect Son and Image of God!
Peter goes on to write that we are called to holiness, but what does it really mean to be
holy? We know that Jesus also told us to be perfect like our Father; however, many
Christians do not strive for perfection because they are deceived about salvation. They
say, “I am not perfect, but at least I am saved.” I say what Jesus says, “Only those who do
the Father’s will shall enter the Kingdom of God. So, wake up! And be what God says
you are!” All mature Sons of God strive to be perfect, which is accomplished by being
aligned in spirit with God’s perfect will. Of course, to do God’s will we must first know
God’s will. The mature in Christ are able to effectively communicate with God, spirit to
Spirit. In ancient times, what made a prophet and prophet? It was his ability to
communicate with God. If we receive the Word of God and are obedient to the Word of
God, then we become the Word of God manifested. So understand that this “perfection”
is an inner quality of the spirit and not necessarily what the world may deem as perfect.
A good example of this discrepancy would be our perfect brother, Jesus, who the world
didn’t find so flawless. As Jesus proved, the actions of the mature spirit tends to be a little
eccentric as compared to the society at large. At times they may even overindulge in what
is considered a sinful activity, but their first and greatest love is always God. They live by
only one law- the spirit of the law of life. As a result of the freedom found in the Spirit of
Christ, the Sons of God do not necessarily follow the rules of men. They live to express
God’s love that pumps through their whole being. Jesus gave his love to everyone.
Because of his divine love, he rebuked the Pharisees. Because of his divine love, he
partied with sinners. Because of his divine love, he worked on the Sabbath. Jesus didn’t
live by the religious rules men had placed in his mind, but was led by his mature spirit
within his soul. The mature know that the only food that satisfies them is doing God’s
will. The only one that can know God’s will for you is YOU! Yet, if one cannot hear God
then they must have these rules that are intended to lead them closer to God. This is why
most religious zealots are led by their soul and not their spirit.
Many use the word “soul” to mean their spiritual self, but I call this our spirit. I use the
word soul, as it is used in the New Testament writings, to mean that intangible (female)
entity, which is akin to our psyche. In fact, the Greek word for soul is “PSUCHE” and is
where we get the word psyche. The Greek word translated spirit is “PNEUMA,” which
means breath, current of air, ethereal or life unseen. So an angel can be a pneuma and is
certainly a living, thinking being though not of this world. Then clearly, we should
understand that the spirit and the soul are not the same entity, which is proven whereby
the Word of God is able to divide them like marrow from bone. Yes, they are closely
linked, but the spirit and soul are as different as a man is from a woman.
When our natural self dies in this world and the breath (spirit) leaves the body, our spirit
returns to God in heaven. This is when the soul can be divided from the spirit. This is
done to remove everything that is not holy before entering heaven. This is why Jesus and
Paul both taught that many souls are utterly destroyed (in hell) because they were joined
to the flesh and not the spirit. Yet any “part” of the soul that was found worthy becomes
the platform to form a new soul. This “part” would include any memories, wisdom or
knowledge from a previous life. Then when the spirit reenters this world, a virgin soul
emerges from and then wraps herself around the spirit, her source of life. She now
becomes the medium between the spirit and the flesh. She is a conglomeration of the
mind including emotion, will, personality and ego. So think of the soul coming out of the
spirit like Eve came out of Adam. She does this to be his helper in the world. While she
enters the world naked and pure, she soon finds herself dressed with the “clothes” the
world gives her. As I have said before, you are not who the world says you are; you are
who God says you are. Many have trouble accepting reincarnation because of this
identity crisis created by the deception of the ego. They believe the lie that they are flesh
and are of this world. Is this what you believe? They believe they are male, female, black,
white, American, Chinese and so on. Is this what you believe? This is not who you truly
are. These characteristics are like the clothes we have put on after entering this world.
The soul may adorn herself with these coverings, but only the glory of Christ will suit the
spirit.
While we may be a different “personality” every time we reenter this world, we are
always the same “person.” And that person is spirit maturing into the life of Christ.
Understand that the ego, which is closely related to the personality, is really the most
superficial part of our being. This outer shell is a projection of who the natural mind
thinks we are. The ego is our image of our self, which is a false image sustained by the
world. So the personality then becomes the outerwear that our ego says we must put on to
hide our otherwise “naked” self. To some degree we inherit a portion of our NATURAL
personality from our natural parents and the rest is conditioned by the ambient
experiences of the world. Our likes, dislikes, nuances and temperament are mostly
programmed in this way. Why do you like fishing? Why do you like pancakes? If you
were raised in a different home and setting, you may dislike these things. In some
cultures, they would sooner eat the worms than go fishing! So I hope you understand that
this is all superficial hoax. Until the spirit realizes that the glory of God is his true
covering, the soul leads us to believe that we must hide behind a personality and ego.
The human personality (and ego for that matter) came as a result of our spiritual and
mental evolution. As our minds (souls) grew stronger (more mature), the ego began to
really take over our being. This is the throne of the devil, where the false self says he is
God. While the ego is a human condition, man is not the only species expressing
emotions and even a personality. Anyone that has a dog as a pet knows this to be true
through firsthand experience. Dogs show personality because they have a spirit and yes, a
soul too. In truth, all is spirit. The form we have “put on” in this world is simply a
medium we are using to advance to where God is leading us. Every creature from God is
expressing the life of its spirit in some way, and the personality is just an evolved form of
this. However, in the case of man, the “world” has become more and more influential
while the ego has become his god and a false image of himself. The devil works through
the egos of men to divide us, but Christ uses the love between our spirits to unite us. The
devil is legion, but God is one. This is why mankind suffers as he does because too many
are letting the ego control their soul instead of God. The ego lives in the world to gain the
world. The ego is the throne of the devil and must be dismantled before Christ can reign.
In the spiritually mature, the ego has been put down and overcome, so then God's nature
can shine through our being. Every expression of God is a form of Love. In fact, John
wrote a very simple definition to help us discern who is "born of God."
1 John 4:7
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Yes, if you know and have Love you know and have God! As we more take on His
likeness, the more we express perfect love toward others and our self. Love cannot be
extinguished! Even the darker, natural tendencies of human nature will not stop divine
Love from shining. Our spirit will grow brighter and eventually penetrate the natural self
so that light of Love fills our whole being! We read that during the transfiguration, Jesus
was seen in his true glory, which is LIGHT! While the world may not be able to see this
aura yet, they will see God’s love flow from our spirit to our soul and into our good
works. And even though the devil may try to dim our light, nothing can stop this from
happening. Why? Because God says Christ has overcome the devil, the darkness and the
deception! Some may feel naked without a worldly personality, but the spiritually mature
know better. They know that Christ is our true personality, our true persona revealed.
These in Christ are not concerned with the superficial labels of the world, but seek to
bring their spiritual self to the surface. This is not for their glory, but for God’s glory!
This is how the spiritual Body of Christ is resurrected in us. The spiritually mature know
this is the only body that truly matters.
THE BODY2 Corinthians 5:1
Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building
from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile
we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when
we are clothed, we will not be found naked.
Adam and Eve were also “found naked,” but this had little to do with their bare skin.
They were embarrassed of what they thought they were. For the first time they identified
themselves as creatures of flesh instead of spirit of light. We are the only animals on the
face of the earth that FEEL the need to cover our skin because of embarrassment, but this
condition is more than skin deep! Our whole being went into hiding from God. This is
what eating of the knowledge tree will do for you.
So, is your body your self-image? When you look in a mirror do you see a natural body
or a spiritual self? The spiritual student lives in his body, but he knows that he isn’t his
body. Because he doesn’t associate his true identity with his body, his body does not
embarrass him. He could stand naked in front of strangers and not feel uncomfortable at
all. Do we judge others by the appearance of the flesh? We do if we look through our
natural eyes. When the world labels a person as fat, ugly or sexy, this person is more
likely to attach that identity to their self. While this labeling can turn into a distraction for
the strong, it can be a trapping for the weak because it encourages the connection
between the body and our self image. The world wants you to believe that being rich,
famous and sexy is the way to happiness, but these things by themselves lead to the
destruction of the soul in that state of Hades.
So understand that we are not our bodies anymore than we are the automobiles we drive
to work. Our bodies are simply the vehicles we use to move about in this world. So the
spiritual student respects and cares for the body in this way. For this reason, the
spiritually mature avoid harmful activities like smoking, excessive drinking and
overeating. They understand they are free to do as choose, BUT they also fully realize
that the only way to God’s peace is by following God’s will.
Romans 12:1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as
living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.
If you do God’s will with your body, then it is truly a temple of God and a living sacrifice
to God. You are NOT your body. And the body is NOT yours. God created a body
suitable for you in this world through billions of years of evolution. You are not that
body; you are spirit that is just renting out the space for awhile. In many ways, the body
is like a garden that we must take care of. No gardener is fed eating the soil of his garden,
but he certainly can enjoy the crop that is produced by the fruit of his labors. So the
mature Sons of God do not worry about their physiques, which is to say they would not
try to look like super models or body builders. They keep their body in good health
because their spirit and soul are in good health. The spiritual exercise of the spirit must
always come before the body. Instead of toning the flesh, they rather push up their faith,
do some love crunches or run with their “Trainer” farther than they thought they could
go. There is no doubt that Christ Jesus will “push us” to be in perfect spiritual shape.
When we live according to the spirit, everything else falls into prefect place. Put the spirit
first and the body and soul well be taken care of wonderfully. Our overall health starts
with the spirit and works through the soul and then to the body. Positive vibes from the
spirit translate into positive thoughts of the soul, which can have an incredibly positive
affect on the body. When the spirit feeds and leads the soul, then the body will be of good
health. It has even been scientifically proven that spiritual health directly affects our
physical health. Those who pray or create positive thoughts heal must faster and have
better overall health than those who don’t. This is because our spirit is our true life
(energy), and when we are tapped into Christ, we have the power of God to heal and to be
healthy.
While human beings are living longer than ever, they are also picking up some unhealthy
lifestyles. Obesity has become epidemic in the United States just in the last century.
Some blame fast food, but there are likely some “spiritual” influences are work here too.
It has been documented that some of those who are obese in this current life have lived a
past life where they starved to death. The spirit learns only through experience. If one has
starved to death in a previous life then he may eat himself into a grave state of obesity in
the next. This karmic cause and effect relationship is likely the root of many of our social
ills and weaknesses. Eventually wisdom comes to the rescue and a balance is found that
leads to good health. Life is about choices, and choices lead to consequences. Once we
have matured in Christ, we are fully aware of what is right and wrong in the wisdom of
the spirit. This is how we learn in this lower world of shadows- through duality. And this
is why God made us male and female.
SEXUALITY1 Thessalonians 4:3
It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual
immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way
that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not
know God.
Are you the master of your domain? Through the Spirit of Christ, the mature have self
control over their mind and therefore also their body. No one could argue that the flesh
has needs that must be met, but these desires should not control us. I think most men
would have an easier time fasting from food than fasting from sex. This is really not their
fault because the male body is designed to desire sex. In other words, the utmost desire of
the flesh is to make more flesh. The spirit of our flesh gives rise to the desire, which is
then translated to the brain. The natural mind is the brain’s activity, but the spiritual mind
operates from the wisdom of the spirit. We should also understand that reproduction of
“self” is quite natural because it is perhaps the strongest, most rudimentary desire of
nature and all life for that matter. Everything seeks to reproduce life, which is a divine
desire from on High. Isn’t it God’s utmost desire to reproduce His Son’s life through us?
So the body isn’t evil for wanting food or sex, but the body must made submissive to the
hierarchy of our true self. The body should serve the soul that should serve the spirit. In
this way, a spiritual harmony is achieved within our personal domain.
Long ago ancient man, who was young in spirit, was only concerned with the needs of
the body. Food, shelter and sex were pretty much the only concerns of early man. After
only a few million years, this carnal focus started to shift. As the spirit matured, the soul
began to focus less on the body and more on the “heavenly things.” Abstract thoughts
about self, life and God began to be asked by that still, small voice within man‘s being.
Through the ages, this inner power has been taming the beastly nature of man. Jesus and
Paul, to a lesser degree, are good examples of men that didn’t need sex in their lives. Paul
wrote quite frankly about sex and desire, which he basically said that if your desire for
sex is too strong to control get married. So gradually humans are losing their animal
desires as we mature in Christ. This includes sex, but also even food and sleep will often
be pushed aside when the spirit it at work in us. Fasting was a common practice in Jesus’
day, but while some “practiced” this sacrifice, other had mastered it! Jesus wasn’t
worried about filling his belly with food, but rather his sustenance was doing the will of
God. Again, when we do THIS everything else will take care of itself.
As I wrote about in Drugs, Sex and the ROCK that Rolls Them Over, sex shouldn’t be
viewed as a bad or evil thing. While some do certainly pervert it, sex is a necessary and
beneficial act of intimacy between a man and woman. The spiritual student understands
that sex is not just intercourse of two bodies, but also the union of two souls. Therefore
sex for the mature is not a casual event such as animals have, but is symbol of a sacred
bond. While having sex isn’t really “making love,” it can be expressing one’s love. God
designed sex to act as a kind of glue that would hold many relationships together when
other (higher) bonds have become undone. So the spiritual student views sex from a
higher perspective. It is not about satisfying natural, primitive desires, but it is seen as a
way to express their love and bring pleasure to their life partner.
What is truly interesting is that revelation that there is no male or female in Christ. Of
course, we don‘t have to leave this world to live in Christ, so the spiritually mature have
this strong sense that they are not sexual beings right now. So entering this world with a
male or female body doesn’t have nearly as much influence on the mature as on others. In
other words, these spirit led souls will behave in a more “neutral” way than others. Their
actions, emotions and thinking will not be stereotypical of natural men or women of the
world because they are spirit! Whether they live in a male body or a female body, the
Sons of God bring forth the fruit of the spirit. This is their highest desire- to glorify God!
MATERIALISMColossians 3:1
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things
above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with
Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will
appear with him in glory.
What a wonderful passage! Christ is your life! That says it all! Now, is there any question
how the spiritually mature feels about those “earthly things?” The mature have the mind
of Christ, which means they desire the intangible gifts from God over the things of this
world. They see material possessions as temporary, so they seek what they know is
permanent. Peace, joy, holiness, love, faith and justice are the “things” we should all
desire. When these are our only possessions, then nothing in this world can possess us!
And what about food and shelter, surely we need these things, right? No, we really don’t.
The body does, but WE don’t. The only necessity of life is the spirit.
While wealth is certainly not a goal, the spiritually mature are usually successful in
whatever endeavor they have been led to undertake including their vocation. I am sure
Jesus was an excellent carpenter before he became a full-time Christ! It is even possible
that the mature in Christ possess great worldly wealth, but they control their money. Even
today, I am impressed and encouraged to see such great charity coming from the rich and
powerful. Oprah, the very successful talk show host, is a great example of this. She is not
controlled by greed, but is led by her wonderfully mature spirit. The Sons of God are
everywhere and are taking over the world in the name of Love! They give generously and
do not ask to be paid back. Because of the Spirit of Christ coming of age today, there is
more charity in the world today than ever before. Yes, God’s Kingdom is coming! So
understand that being rich is neither a sin nor a condemnation. Jesus told the rich man
that he must give everything away because the rich man was controlled by his money and
not God. If God has you, then everything you have is at God’s disposal.
Rich or poor, it doesn’t matter to the spiritually mature because they give still give freely
to those in that come into their lives. They give the gifts that are much more valuable than
money. Because they usually choose a practical lifestyle, their wealth may not even be
apparent. Clothes for warmth and cars for transportation means they would not typically
wear lavish clothes or drive expensive cars. As one brother showed us, the Sons of God
ride on lowly donkeys and not noble steeds. They are not influenced by the trends of
society like so many others. Too many souls of this world medicate themselves by
providing the ego all its worldly desires. This only serves to inflate that false image with
a sense of pride. “Look at all of my stuff!” Then soul will tout, “I am rich!” But in reality,
she is poor and dressed in filthy rags. As we should know, wealth is not the only costume
the ego uses to keep man a character of this dream world. The guise of holiness has also
proven to be a very effective deception that keeps many souls tied down with the weight
of the law.
LEGALISMGalatians 5:16
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is
contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do
not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under
law.
17
Every Christian soul should meditate on what this passage really means. If you are being
led by the Spirit of Christ, you are not under the law! If you are IN Christ, you are above
the law because Christ supersedes the law. Why then does Christianity keep teaching the
law in the form of the Ten Commandments? I will tell you why. It is because most are
not led by the SPIRIT, but instead are led by the soul. The mature in spirit know what is
right in their own heart (spirit) whereas those that are still living naturally must be taught
or think what is right. In Catholicism, children memorize prayers that they will repeat
when it is “appropriate.” Then as matter of ritual or etiquette they will recite the words
exactly as they have learned them. Without the sincerity and power of the spirit, such
prayers are meaningless and even harmful because they deceive many into believing they
are profitable. Prayers, laws, rituals nor rules will ever save us from sin and death.
Colossians 2:20
Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as
though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21 "Do not handle! Do
not taste! Do not touch!"? 22 These are all destined to perish with use, because
they are based on human commands and teachings.
It is true that laws help keep order in this lower world, and some definitely need this to
control their behavior. Yet, there will come a time when rules of men must be broken to
achieve the will of God. Even today most of mankind still needs the laws of the prophets
that helped define God’s will. Yet what the prophet knew long ago should be common
knowledge of all God’s children today. How mature are you? Are you a Son of God that
can feel God speaking to you through your spirit? Suppose you hear or read something
that you KNOW it is true, but it contradicts that which you have been taught? What do
you do? Are you going to believe what you were taught by men or accept what is ringing
so true in your heart? Have you felt such a ringing? This “sound” is your spirit expressing
the joy and excitement of receiving the Truth from God. Truth can be found and come to
us in many ways, but God always confirms the knowledge of the truth in our spirit.
Conversely, the devil deceives us through the soul (mind) using the things of this world.
Paul taught that the woman (soul, mind which is female relative to the spirit) should be
quiet and still, so our spirit can know and teach the truth. The spiritual student knows that
God’s will and truth cannot be found in any book. There is only way to know God’s will
and that is through direct contact, spirit to Spirit. And in the spirit there is freedom from
the law.
1 Corinthians 6:12
"Everything is permissible for me"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is
permissible for me"--but I will not be mastered by anything.
“Everything is permissible…but not everything is beneficial” is an actuality that the
spiritually mature know very well. The sins of the flesh are seen more as a misuse of time
and energy, but not as chains of death. Those who are not flesh cannot commit sins of the
flesh. Those living with the Spirit of Christ are no longer chained by the Law or the guilt
accompanying it. They have truly been set free to do anything, BUT being mature, they
also understand what is the right and profitable choice. This is where wisdom really
comes into play. The spiritually mature, filled with lifetimes of knowledge, will not keep
making the same mistakes and bad choices that lead the soul into suffering, sorrow and
even death. The mature Sons of God seek to please their Father, so they do what they
know is right despite what the world may think.
We should realize then that the Law of Moses is a shadow of the truth. It is the way the
natural man (who is also a shadow of his true self) must live in this world to please our
LORD God. But as I explained earlier, the law is not for the mature sons in Christ. Still
many religious souls attempt to follow the law because of the fear of punishment. (They
might be sent into an eternal hell if they don’t). Others try are hooked on the law like
drug so that they can get that “fix” of pride. Either way, the law can never save us, but
only lead us to the one who does save- Christ! Now those in Christ uphold the law
because of their love for God. God’s will becomes their will and this is the law of the
spirit of life. Jesus confounded and enraged the religious leaders by living in this way. He
didn’t follow their rules. In fact, when he preached in Chapter 5 of Matthew his rewrote
those old laws with higher ones. You have been taught to hate you enemies, but I say to
love your enemies. You have been taught to take an eye for an eye, but I say turn the
other cheek. Jesus raised the standard of the law! Jesus was trying to take humanity into
the higher life of Christ where there is only one command- love each other as God loves.
If you do just this, you have fulfilled all the Law.
RELIGIONJohn 4:23
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship
the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father
seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
Many today are leaving organized religion because they see its shortcomings. Many of
my friends tend to label me a “religious” man, but this is really not accurate. I would say
that I am spiritual, not religious. More than this, I am SPIRIT! And yes, in my mind there
is a big difference between spiritual and religious. The spiritual soul is more open to
spiritual truths whereas the religious soul is governed by a specific doctrine. The spiritual
soul is free to move outside the lines, but the religious soul is stagnated in the box of his
religion. While the spiritually minded may begin in a particular religion, they will
eventually go beyond the teachings of men. They seek the truth from God. Jesus is a great
example of this. He went beyond what he had been taught. Moses did the same. Truth
comes from God as pure revelation, but then it finds its way into the hands of men and
becomes a religion. Jesus was given pure Truth; those who followed built a religion.
Religion is generally good for the souls of this world, but it is inadequate for the Sons of
the Kingdom. Many times the mature will not feel they are being “fed” by going to
church. If your pastor or priest doesn’t inspire or teach you, then what purpose does he
serve? Many are still being fed the “milk” at church, and this is as it should be. Meat is a
little harder to come by, but more and more religions are being refined by the Truth. I am
blessed every time I hear a minister sharing some real meat of the truth! Yes, we are all
looking to be fed, and some do this by being very involved at their church. The average
person might think about God on Sunday mornings and maybe Wednesday nights, but the
spiritually mature seem to always have God on their mind- a continuous prayer. Many
have told me that going to church helps them focus on God and life, which is a good
thing if that is what it takes. This is like when some people require a personal trainer to
get or stay physically fit. Some people need that person or group to help them stay on
course, but the spiritually mature are supported directly by God.
For many ages now, man’s religions tend to be more soul-based than spirit-based.
Consider the religious zealots that Jesus confronted. They were mostly led by the soul
and deception (which is what got us in trouble in the Garden). Whereas, those who
worship in spirit and truth are led by their mature and willing spirit. Our spirit gains
knowledge by experience through the soul, so the soul can have a direct impact on the
spirit in this way. She can lead him astray as Eve did Adam, but she can also be helpful
and holy. Suppose a person with a young rebellious spirit is placed into a strong Christian
environment. This religious and “soul-based” experience would most likely have a
positive effect on that undeveloped spirit. So religion can certainly be helpful for those
still maturing in Christ, but as Jesus said there will come a time when we worship is a
higher way. It is important to understand that a follower of Christ need not be a
“Christian” because Christ goes far beyond Christianity. The Word of God has permeated
and certainly transcended every major religion ever conceived by man.
Again, we must see that all sincere religions have some measure of the light of Truth
within them. We know that the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west and then there is
darkness. The light of Truth has moved across the horizon of humanity in the same way.
The Truth rose in the Eastern religions first with the birth of Hinduism and Buddhism.
These are said to be the oldest religions of the world still being practiced. Then as time
marched forward during humanity’s development the light of Truth shone on the Jews of
the Middle East. By this time, the Sun was high in the sky. So, the knowledge of God was
the highest it had ever been. It was at this brightest moment of the “day” when Christ
came into the world through the man, Jesus. As the Sun moved west, Christianity was
born and flourished. It started in abundant sunshine, but then grew dimmer as the Sun
moved westward toward the horizon. Before the setting of the Sun, one last religion
sprung up out of humanity- Islam, which today is called the fasted growing religion on
earth. This will be the last prominent religion to come from man because the age (day) of
religion has passed. A New Day is coming! As the Sun returns to the eastern horizon,
every religion is shall see His Glory! Every religion of man will see the Truth in every
other religion because the Truth will shine brighter than ever in what will be the Day of
the Lord!
THE TRUTH1 Timothy 2:3
This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved
and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a
ransom for all men--the testimony given in its proper time.
Jesus and Paul put the highest of premiums on seeking and accepting the knowledge of
the truth. For the spiritually mature this is their prime directive- to know the Truth. Some
may ask, “What is truth?” Yet the Sons of God know truth when they hear it. Conversely,
they also know delusive dogma when they see it. The perfected souls in Christ will not
accept mankind’s reprehensible religious teachings even though these “tenets of faith”
have been taught for hundreds of years. With spiritual eyes they question and scrutinize
everything to see if it passes the tests of Love and Truth. They can then see right through
the foolishness of an eternal hell where the lost children of God are tortured. This picture
was not conceived in the mind of our God, but rather in the devil mind of man! Evil men
created an image of God from their own sinful self, but those born of God know Christ is
the true Image of God. Those in Christ express God’s Love and Truth. So fervently they
seek the knowledge of the truth and then freely give it in love. They only want to know
God and God’s will. They want to learn to love as God loves. Just as those who love are
born of God, so are all truth seekers led back to God, who is Truth.
So then when any truth from any facet of life is discovered by the mature Sons of God it
will be accepted. When science proved the earth was not the center of the solar system,
they let go of those false notions held for so long. When science proved that the universe
was not created in six days, they let go of unenlightened ideas founded in ignorance.
When science shows us that animals have evolved over millions of years leading to the
emergence of man, they accept it as God’s way of creating life. Knowledge replaces
faith. What was once unseen faith carrying the offspring of God is now being
transformed into a platform of knowledge upon which we stand. All truths support The
Truth. We are not only growing in the knowledge of the world around us, but also in
knowledge of the Kingdom within us! If we listen and look closely, the outside world is
preaching and teaching us about the inner world of God’s Kingdom. Everything we see,
hear and touch are shadows of a higher reality. This higher reality is the Kingdom of God
where the Son of God is King. His Kingdom is not one of castles floating on the clouds;
His Kingdom is a life in a higher state of consciousness where anything is possible! By
the grace of God mankind continues to evolve physically, psychologically and spiritually
toward this goal. Mankind is reaching higher and higher levels of knowledge and
awareness, which is leading us face to face with God. Consider the child prodigies that
come into this world with extraordinary talents. They have built this knowledge and skill
in a previous life. Spiritually, we do the same! Long ago, very few could understand what
the prophets were trying to convey about God, but today this knowledge is becoming
common among all mankind. Today more than ever before, God is tearing down the false
teachings found in man’s religions and replacing them with His Truth. God is showing us
that our only salvation is in the Spirit of Christ, which Jesus has sacrificed for us.
For example, many Christians believe that no matter how imperfect or “evil” a person is,
if they accept Jesus as their personal savior before their last breath, they will enter the
Kingdom of God. This is a lie concocted in the mind of the devil! Do you believe Jesus is
Christ? Good! Then also believe every word and the one command that he gave! Love
each other as God loves you. Yes, believing that Jesus is Christ is the easy part, but
taking up our cross and following is a whole other matter. Believing in Jesus is just the
beginning of your faith in Christ; do Christians not know where it will take them in the
end? If you follow Christ Jesus, you too will die on the cross, so that Christ lives in you.
God demands perfection and holiness! This is what happens to those truly following
Christ.
Now, on the other hand, there are also those that believe that all “good” people go to
heaven and all “bad” people go to hell. This teaching is actually closer to the truth! If we
do evil things, we shall reap more suffering in the next life. If we do good, we shall reap
more blessings from God. But understand all have fallen short of God’s glory. This is
why we need saved! Good children or bad children, they are all God’s children. God is
taking care of the situation. Of this, I am sure! God will save all no matter what condition
they are in right now- no matter how deep their hell has become. Why can some not see
the BIG picture here! Are these the same kind of souls that look at an acorn and say that
will never be a huge tree? Do they not see the Seed of God in everyone? Can they not see
that life is a process of perfection for the children of God? Yes, the wind blows wherever
it pleases, but can you see it? Then how will you see those born of God? You will see the
effects of the spirit!
The mature Sons of God are bright in every sense of the word! Their spirit shines, but so
does their soul. In other words, they are of high intellect, but not necessarily well
educated by the world’s standards. So they may be illiterate and living in a poor village in
a Third World country, but this doesn’t matter at all. Even without a sophisticated
vocabulary, his ability to understand esoteric, abstract ideas is exceptional. Though his
words may be small, his wisdom spans across the epochs of time. After passing through
this world many, many times, the mature spirit has the gained the wisdom from God and
is leading the soul to perfection. This is her salvation and together they will return to the
Kingdom of God.
Philippians 3:12
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect,
but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on
toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in
Christ Jesus.
You know Paul believed in Jesus, but this wasn’t enough for him. He strived, worked and
pressed on toward the goal. What is the goal? Perfection in Christ is the goal! Our inner
calling and divine desire is to be perfect like our Father is perfect. Our perfection is
realized in the higher consciousness of Christ and is powered by Spirit of Christ. Being in
Christ is living in a higher reality above this world‘s worries and rules. Through this
fullness and maturity of our spirit, we are able to return to our Father’s house and into our
loving Father’s arms. You are not of this world nor are a child of flesh. Expose the lie of
Satan and realize that you are the offspring of the Most High! Being God’s Son you
should know who you are growing up to be! What son does not mature to become the
likeness of his Father? What son does not watch and imitate his father? Yes, of course!
Because of their love for God, the mature Sons of God do what they see their Father
doing and thereby become God’s Word made flesh!
Romans 8:17
Now if we are children, then we are heirs-- heirs of God and co-heirs with
Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his
glory.
If you are ready to accept who you are then also accept your inheritance! Embrace Christ
as your life and God as your Father! Yes, God is your Father, and wisdom must be the
mother of your soul. Where spirit and truth meet God is revealed. A man and woman
make one flesh, but living in the spirit and truth will make us a Son of God. We are here
to reveal the glory of God through Christ, who is our life! God is raising mankind out of
Hades and into His Kingdom! Yes, now is the time and here is the place for the Sons of
God to live and be revealed! Here is where we are born of water and then realize we are
spirit. All have been born of God and will take on His likeness to show the world the
glorious face of God!
The Spirit of Christ is yours!