SAY HELLO TO YOUR SPIRIT
October 15th, 2009
Many would call me a Motivational Speaker, and in some respects, I am. But I learned long ago that no one can motivate anyone beyond the time it takes to hear a lecture or seminar. When it is over, most people walk away excited and uplifted, until they get home or they go back to work the next day. That is because what they heard touched them at some emotional level, but not at the spiritual level. I realize that many people ignore their spiritual side, although they might think they don't.
I don't consider going to church being spiritual, and before anyone gets upset, realize that I am not against going to church. In fact, more power to you. But let's not fool ourselves, going to church alone is not being spiritual. Being spiritual is not just something to do because we call ourselves 'Christians'. Being spiritual means involving and using our minds, our intellect and our spirit. Notice that I didn't mention emotions. Going to church is supposed to help us to deal with the rest of the week, day by day. It is not just to give us something to do on Sunday and then forgetting about it until the following Sunday. It is supposed to be food for the spirit to help us deal with daily living. Most people use go into an emotional state even while they are in church, supposedly there to feed their spirit. When we allow our emotions to lead in front of our spirits, we are not hearing what the spirit needs to hear. It is because most people use their emotions more than any thing else, that we find people living in fear, in depression, and feeling isolated. And by the way, being a Christian has nothing to do with whether or not you are religious. Whether you consider yourself a Christian or not, you still have a spirit. Your denomination, or lack of one, is irrelevant. Think of all the serial killers you have heard about, and think on this; they had a spirit too. Hitler had a spirit. So if you feel you are already spiritual, I hope this puts it in prospective. This is about how much you allow your spirit to override the mental, emotional and physical, and to be main guide of how you make decisions and how you live your life. If the spirit takes a 2nd, 3rd, or no place in your life, then all you are navigating with is your mind, and your emotions. None of which has the ability to make wish choices. Neither has wisdom. Only the spirit does. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you will be on your way to wisdom. Wisdom is the true knowledge that you are headed in the right direction, armed with the right information. This information comes to us, not from us. This is the most difficult part for us to accept. We think that if we go to college and get enough degrees, we will know what to do in all situations. Well, as we have all found out, this is not enough. We have seen people that are highly educated and even in high places, make wrong and shameful decisions. This, even though they know better. Decisions made due to emotions they are feeling. Emotions always mask, drown out whatever wisdom we have. And, make no mistake, we do have a certain amount of wisdom we are born with. But as we get older we tend to lean more and more towards making decisions based on emotions because we are told, over and over again, we are just human. Such a handy excuse, and we repeat to ourselves, over and over, until we stop thinking about why we are making the wrong decisions.
Rage, jealousy, revenge, control, greed, envy, anger, fear, desperation, depression; these are all emotions. There are more, but we are guided by these more than anything else. People are unfaithful, they rob, murder, steal, cheat, and do many other things because they are driven by one or more of these emotions. While allowing these emotions to control them, people think they are in control, but they are not. One think emotions don't have is 'wisdom', and they all have one thing in common; they want to be able to be expressed, freely. This is because it allows us to feel 'satisfied', if only temporarily. We are a species that wants instant gratification, even if it doesn't gain us what we ultimately want out of the situation. This is how we fall into the pit of disgrace, the lack of grace. Grace: 'the divine influence upon the heart' that only our spirit can produce. Our mind tells us that we have a right to get revenge against someone. Grace tells us that it will get us nothing but more pain, and inflict pain on others. This is what the spirit does, if the spirit can override the mind and emotions. Unfortunately, between Monday morning and Saturday night, we ignore our spirit, and allow the mind to rule and reign. Being spiritual, I will say it again, has nothing to do with religion. It has to do with being wise enough to recognize and give precedence to your spirit self. Whether we want to believe it or not, our spirit is supposed to be the strongest aspect of who and what we are. So, no, I am not speaking here as a motivational speaker. As I said before, no one can motivate anyone else. All any of us can do is hope that by what we say and do, we can help someone else to tap into who they are as spirit, and the importance it has in their life.
I can say, like many other speakers and writers have said, 'you can do anything you set your mind to do'. Here is the problem, you mind has no power to get you to that place because the mind, like the drunken monkey we spoke about earlier, can tell you one thing to day and another tomorrow. Mind is anchored in information, not wisdom. This is why one day you are full of self confidence, and the next day you feel like you can't do anything right, or do what you want to do. It will tell you that you don't know enough, you are not smart enough and so forth and so on. So we end up confused, and the more confused we get, the more we doubt what we know. That is when emotions come into play. Now you feel helpless, depressed, and even angry at yourself because you can't move forward. You become immobilized, not just mentally but physically as well. The worst thing then happens; you feel hopeless. Hopelessness is a feeling that destroys dreams, kills energy, and dis-ease can, and does set in. This is why so many people suffer from stress, and stress affects our immune system.
Though we need to keep our emotions from being the only guide to our actions, emotions are important too. We have them for a reason. Emotions help us to feel empathy, sympathy, pity, laughter, compassion, love, caring and nurturing. We are also not robots. It is through these emotions and feelings, that we have the ability to love and nurture others, to help and care for others. It is also these emotions that prompt us to help even people we don't know, sometimes across the country, the world, and also do volunteer work. It is what causes many people to run to a car on fire and attempt to help strangers, or run into a burning building to do the same. These are all good things but it is your wisdom, your spirit side that will tell you, 'I know you want to go into that burning building to help, but it is now too late to go in. Stay outside, there is nothing that you can do now. There is no point in losing another life, yours, because you can't save anyone anymore.' This is no different than a person who is feeling 'good' after 5 drinks and thinks he can drive without crashing somewhere. The 'good' feeling has no wisdom, it is going according to the feeling. Wisdom say, 'You know you shouldn't drive now. You know you should call a taxi or someone to pick you up.' But, it is at this point that something takes precedence, either the emotion or wisdom.
Since we all have some wisdom and emotions, then it is important to find out which is predominant in you, emotions or wisdom. Yes, you may want to go out and have a good time. Nothing wrong with that. But if your spirit has predominance over you, then you will say, 'I do want to have a good time, but I need to take a taxi there and back, and not drive.' That is wisdom. But not if your spirit is not in control of the decisions you make. I can just hear a lot of you, thinking that you have to go into prayer every time you decide to do something. First of all, the word prayer in its original form means to meditate, which means to THINK! And I don't mean to think with just your conscious mind. That is what gets most of us in trouble.
Our conscious mind is the one that shouts the loudest, trust me. It is here that all our good and not so good emotions are stored. The subconscious mind is where our spirit, and its voice reside. Again, this has nothing to do with your religious preference. Your spirit has no religious preference. It is where your well of wisdom is stored. But unlike the mind, it will not intrude. Your spirit must be courted, paid attention to, and awakened by being addressed by you. This you do by finding out what being a spiritual being means. Why we are called spirit, and what it is supposed to do, and how it is supposed to interact with you in your daily life. When asked where their spirit is, most people say it is in their heart. Your heart is an organ, no more, no less. The heart of what you are, on the other hand, is your spirit. Here is the priority of what we are supposed to be: Spirit, Soul (emotions are here), mind, and physical. When our spirit is in control, it also controls our emotions, which educates, or inputs information into our mind, and all of this is reflected, or manifested, in our physical life and world.
I have listened to several motivational speakers, read some of their books, and I will be honest with you. They tell you the state of mind others should have. They talk about 'positive' thinking, making lists, and making time to visualize whatever they want to see happen in their lives. It doesn't work. This is all mental work and the mind is a not only unable to make sound judgments, it is like a drunken monkey going willy nilly from one thing to another. So what is heard in these motivational seminars is quickly forgotten and most often, never acted upon. All the mind does is store information. It doesn't change who you are on the inside. The change must occur on a much deeper level. This is what most speakers don't tell you. Is it because, one, they don't know, or two, they are just not talking about it. Many speakers do not mention the 'spiritual' side of who and what we are because they are afraid that they might offend someone. I don't have that problem. In fact, if I don't mention it, I will be guilty of negligence, and I don't believe in living in guilt. I am also tired of skirting around the subject because it might offend someone. Those who would be offended, I recommend you stop reading now and don't waste your time. However, if you are offended, then I can tell you exactly why you do have that problem, but I won't. That is something you have to find out for yourself. Until then, no amount of talking, or writing from me or anyone like me, will do you any good.
I do not believe I casting pearls before the swine, or wasting my breath. You are either ready to make a massive change or you are not. If you think that no one can teach you anything, then you are right. Change is a choice, a personal choice, and learning involves having an open mind, not a mental decision, but allowing information to be stored and then acting on it. The mind cannot do that. Change happens when you involve all of who you are, not just part of who you are. If your emotions are more important to you than seeing a change, then you will learn nothing, and you will continue to repeat the past, with the same results you have had so far. I know you are aware that you are looking for change, or you would not be reading this. If I offend you with that, then that's to the good because I am not writing this to make you comfortable, but to irritate you out of your comfort. I think that as a nation, we have had enough of being too gentle with ourselves. If we don't make excuses for ourselves, it appears that there are enough people willing to make excuses for us. Consequently, we have just slid along and found many reasons why we don't do what we know we should do. These people who give you more excuses to remain as you are, are not helping you, they are keeping you from moving ahead. Bottom line, no one should know you better than you do! If you think they do, then you have made a decision to allow others to make decisions for you because they gave you an excuse to stay 'comfortable.' I will not do that.
There are many speakers, writers and even talk show hosts that are more than willing to say, 'Oh, you poor thing,' and as far as I can tell, I have never seen where 'misplaced' compassion has ever done any good. Misplaced compassion is when you tell someone who robbed a bank, 'I am sorry you are going to prison', instead of saying, 'I am sorry you made the wrong choice to rob a bank and now you have to pay for your choice'. Or, when you tell someone, 'I am sorry that you are 140 overweight', instead of saying, 'I am sorry that you chose to eat all the wrong things and didn't exercise and find yourself in this condition'. You get my point. If you must have compassion, have it for the wrong choices they made, not the consequences. Consequences are the result of actions. Actions are the result of information or lack of it. We seem to have compassion for the results when we should look at the actions that got us, or someone else, there. It became clear to me that we have misplaced compassion, or self pity, which is worse, only when we see the results of our actions, but not the actions that got us the results that brought on this self pity.
When we leave our 'spirit' self out of the equation, it is like cutting a third of your body off, and wondering why we can't walk properly. Like cutting off 3 fingers and wondering why we can't do what other 10 fingered people can do. It is like cutting off a third of our senses. We can be mute, dumb, deaf, numb or unable to smell. Which would you choose to lose? No one wants to lose any of their senses, and yet they are the superficial things. Leaving your spirit self out of the equation is worse than losing all senses. When you leave your spirit self out of the equation of living your life, it is like getting rid of all the blood in your body. You won't survive. Leaving your spiritual self out of the equation is like that, but worse because you continue to keep on living, but have no wisdom to live life right. Due to the fact that we don't 'see' our spirit, we ignore it and therefore we are walking around with a major portion of who we are, ignored and absent.
It is obvious that we humans have placed more importance on our bodies, our minds, and our education, and in that order, than we do in what we truly are; spirit. Yes, SPIRIT. That is because we don't yet realize, or accept and believe that our minds, and bodies are a result of Spirit. We only believe what we can see with our eyes. And therein lies our problem. I look at my body and realize that this is just the shell in which my spirit resides. Most people look at their bodies and think and believe that this is who they are. This is why they work out, jog, run, exercise, lift weights, and diet. To keep their body in 'good condition', while their spirit is withered and starving to come out. Everyone is obsessed with how they 'look' to themselves and others. None of this has to do with how spiritual you are. It is how aware you are as a body. Your spirit cannot be exercised by how often you go to the gym, or how many pounds you lose. Your spirit is so far beyond that, and so much more aware of what you are supposed to be, but spirit will not intrude. It waits for us to acknowledge it. We, as a self indulgent society, are so busy making sure that our bodies are looking good, that we completely ignore, not consciously, that we are also spirit. Wait. Not that we are 'also' spirit. We don't know that we are primarily spirit. Yes, we are primarily spirit. But you would never know it the way we pay more attention to our physical being. That is where we spend more time trying to keep it in shape. More money to dress it, buff it, applying cosmetics, creams lotions, and all the other things just to make it look good. The spirit is given either too little attention, or none at all. This is why we see beautiful and handsome people who are ugly on the inside.
Are there people who are spiritually dead? No, they are spiritually asleep. The spirit is the only part of us that never dies. That should tell everyone the importance of spirit. When the body dies, it takes our emotions and our minds with it. We can tell our minds what we want all day long, but it cannot accomplish anything on its own. That is not its job, shall we say. It is to store information, like a computer. Garbage in, garbage out. On the other hand, in order for us to use our spirit properly, we must first 'study' what spirit is and why we have to give it ascendancy in our life. We don't just suddenly become aware of spirit, or just mentally accept that we have one. I think that I can safely say that all of us will say we have a spirit, but what it means exactly is where the problem is.
The first question is obviously, 'why do we have spirit?' And the second one is the one that many of you will balk at because you are still thinking 'religion'. 'Where did spirit originate.' I can tell you that if this is a problem, then, again, don't go any further because you will be wasting your time. I make no excuses for what I am writing because given an opportunity, and decide to check it out for yourself that what I am saying is true, then you will find out for yourself. I am not writing to convince anyone of anything. No one can convince us of anything. We have to convince ourselves and it nearly always happens only after we have done the study and the research ourselves. That is the way it should be because none of us are really responsible for anyone else's life and how we live it but ourselves. This does not apply to children, of course, but it does apply to all adults. Someone can tell you which book to seek out, but it's not up to anyone else to read it to you. Most people want to be spoon fed because they don't want to take the trouble or time to study on their own. Not even if it means living a better quality life. Laziness is not a new malady in our society. Many will read hundreds of mystery or romance novels a year, or watch hundreds of hours of sports, but will not spend an hour a week to find out who and what they are. It is estimated that in America most people will not spend more than 45 cents a year to improve their minds and lives. But look at what is spend on DVDs, CDs, iPods, iPhones, and many other gadgets. Mostly for entertainment.
So, I am not going to tell what you should do. Merely going to tell you that if you truly want to find out who and what you are and how you can live a better quality life, then you have to do the work. Because it doesn't matter what I say, until you uncover it for yourself, it will mean little to you. I say 'uncover' because it isn't a discovery. There is nothing new under the sun, so what I am telling you is as old as time. Gravity was not discovered. Its existence was merely 'uncovered', it was always there. The same is true of your spirit.
Many so called motivational speakers call the place where spirit came, 'the source', some call it other things, such as God, Mother God, or whatever helps them to accept something they have a difficult time accepting. The Native Americans call it 'the Great Spirit'. Some accept terms that will allow them to feel that they are 'politically correct, or socially correct'. Whatever the reason, it is your reason, and if it was selected just to be accepted, then you have not yet uncovered your own path, or did your own personal searching. No matter how you believe or what you believe, almost everyone knows and believes that there is a source, spirit, God or whatever. You can't get away from it.
I find it ironic that many people are willing to pray to the Virgin Mary, St. Thomas, to St. Jude, or whomever, but are unwilling to accept that there is a God. Why is that? I believe that it is because all these saints they pray to, and I am not saying they are saints, because I don't know, used to be alive and people with bodies and were 'seen' by others.
One of the main reasons that people don't want to accept God, or believe there is a God is because they haven't 'seen' him/her with their own eyes. They didn't see the Virgin Mary either, but because she used to be a person, a physical being, they believe in her. Think about that for a moment. Jesus was a person, a physical being. Then why is it so difficult to believe in him? It's simple. They have a difficult time believing in Him because it was proclaimed that he was the son of God. That is the only reason. So , of course you can't believe that you are the son or daughter of God too. This is the main reason that we have a difficult time saying we believe in a God who is spirit.
Many of you have college degrees, and you, I am sure, have not forgotten how many hours you spent studying, and the effort it took. I am merely saying this so you are not misguided into believing that living a life where your spirit has ascendancy, is going to be a walk in the park. But think about this, you spent a minimum of 4 years, some of you longer. You did this so you could find a good paying job, and some so you could do what you love. Nothing wrong with that.
But now we are talking about living a quality life, regardless of jobs, money, breeding, or sex. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with having a good job and money. Only those who have no money vow that money doesn't buy happiness, or that it is unimportant. Neither of those things are true. Money can buy happiness, and the reason I say this is because happiness is 'temporary'. And a temporary happiness can be being able to buy someone a meal, or paying for medication, or buying someone a winter coat. However, having money alone doesn't bring self satisfaction. Because people with good educations and money make wrong decisions all the time. We see it everyday, and many of those wrong decisions cannot be corrected no matter how much money is thrown at it. You can think of enough examples, I am sure. The point is to be in a quality life whether you have a lot of money or not.
THE MAIN POINT? To be in a state of ease, even repose, no matter what is going on in the world. To know without a doubt that no matter what happens around us, we are in a place where we will survive and even thrive wherever we are. Does this means that we won't encounter problems? No one is exempt from that. If we could uncover a pill, a book, anything, that would assure us that we would never encounter problems, everyone would be a believer, and I wouldn't be writing this. Many people go into 'religion', or try to escape into it because they believe that if they follow God, they will have smooth sailing. That is far from the truth. We are told that we will be seen 'through' situations, not that we will avoid them. This is what causes many to lose their faith, and many to doubt that there is a God. I know because I went through that myself. I had believed the same thing, and I was bitterly disappointed. However, I found nothing to tell me that what I had believed was true. Quite the opposite. I felt disheartened and even angry. Like so many of us, I believed that if I was good enough and did all the right things, nothing bad would come into my life. I knew very little about my spiritual walk, and I just made assumptions. We all want to find something or someone to run to when we have a problem. This is understandable, and of course all of us want to do the same. However, there are times when we have no one to run to except ourselves and what we know. This is when our spiritual strength is needed. This is when we must know what to do. Of our own, we can come up with some answers, but often, not the right ones. Our emotions get in the way, as they often do, and we move too fast in the wrong direction. Being spiritually strong, we can receive the proper advise if we listen closely and do as directed. And we will be directed. This has nothing to do with religion, and I will repeat this over and over. The Bible is not about religion, it is a manual on how to live our lives. Einstein said, 'No man is truly educated until he has studied the Bible.' He is but one of many world renowned 'geniuses' who study/read the Bible on a daily basis. I read once, and I don't recall who wrote it, 'When men of science arrive at the top of the mountain, they will find God waiting for them.'
Many scientists have found the existence of God because they studied science in an effort to disprove the existence of God. In their attempts, they found the opposite to be true. All of this is well documented. They found things in their research that could not be explained by science. Even though they could not explain certain things with their scientific methods, the events existed, and without being able to explain it scientifically, they had to assume that something 'supernatural' had occurred, or had created what they found. They don't really have to go far. No one has yet to explain the way our minds and bodies work. Little by little, doctors and scientists have figured out how our bodies work, what causes certain diseases, and so forth. But the mind, the brain, still remains mostly a mystery. There is no need to go off into space to find out what is out there. We have enough here still yet to learn. The more men of science attempt to reach out to see if there is a way to explain away God, or the existence of another explanation, the more they find out that there is another power but can't quite name it, or refuse to name it.
The word God has become so 'politically incorrect' that it has become a stumbling block to many. They dare not mention the name lest they be laughed at, ridiculed and even blocked from doing what they are supposed to be doing. Even when they profess to believe in God, they will sell out to keep their jobs, and positions. It is during this time, with the high rate of unemployment, that those who truly believe and know God, will see how God will intervene on their behalf. Even those who don't believe will see it, because this is the right time for them to see it. They will look in wonder at the things that are going to happen around the world and in particular, in this country that has professed for hundreds of years, 'In God We Trust', but no longer do. They have listened to the new agers, the scientists, the doctors, and so many others who have laid aside any beliefs they have had in the existence of God because they believe that they are so advanced in education and science that they no longer need 'A' God. But we are seeing that more and more people are seeking a source of hope, a source of help, and a way to deal with the depression they find themselves in, and the fear. There is no doubt that many, even the employed, are in fear. They know that it could be a matter of days, or even hours and they too could be unemployed.
Walking in the spiritual realm is so difficult for some to understand or accept, that it is like talking about voodoo, or some hocus pocus that only wackos can believe. But in the midst of problems that are overwhelming to people, they are ready to not just listen to the 'unbelievable', but to hope that maybe there is something out there, some power that will deliver them. And there is, but who will believe it if they don't seek it out on their own? That is the issue and the reason I am writing this. There is nothing that could convince me at this point, that there is no God. Even if I wanted to deny it, I would not be able to because I have seen too much of His presence in my life, and in the life of others. To deny the existence of my spirit, and it's connection to God would be like denying the existence of my eyes, or legs. Yes, there was a time when I wasn't sure that He did exist. But that was before I did my own studies, my own reading and research. Then I couldn't deny it even to myself. Too many things have happened in my life that I have no other explanation for. No other human was involved, and I had nothing to do with them. Yet, my situation was resolved and things taken care of.
So, I went into the study of what my spirit was, if it was, and what part it was supposed to play in my life. Surprisingly, it was a lady who was running for Senator that came to give a motivational talk where I worked that awakened me to that side of who I was. She didn't speak to us about God or religion. She never mentioned the Bible or anything remotely associated with a church, or belief in God. What she did, or her words did, was to awakened something in me, but I didn't know what had happened until much later. All I knew was that I was not the same once I left the luncheon where she had spoken to us. Nothing inside of me was to be the same after that. What had she said to do this to me? I couldn't tell you because I don't remember a word, but I knew that something in me had changed. For the first time in my life I was excited about me, although I didn't know why. But one thing was certain, my life had turned a corner so sharply that I felt as if my past, the me of the past, no longer existed. Due to this, I don't discount what motivational speakers do, rather, I wish they would speak about why they believe that we can 'do anything', accomplish whatever we want and how to get there. But I realized that many do no know themselves where they got this belief that we are more than we think or believe.
I was somewhat confused because I had no name for what or how I felt. But it was obvious to me that I had to find out if I were to resume my life without further frustration, because I was very frustrated. It is difficult to know what is going on in your life when you can't name what is bothering you. I was more than bothered, I was also excited but still didn't know why. I was on pins and needles and felt as if I had come across a map to a treasure but didn't know how to find it, or where to start. I didn't know who to speak to, nor where to look it up because I had no name for what I was looking for. You can understand my dilemma, and I was stumped as to what I needed to do. As it happens, whenever we attempt to find out who and what we are, as the saying goes, 'the universe will bend over backwards to accommodate us.' That is something else that I had a problem believing. The universe had no clue that I even existed, or at least, I thought so.
I don't remember how long after that, I attended a church that was not my normal choice. But again, this, I realized later, was the way in which the universe does bend over backwards to accommodate us when we start to 'seek'. It makes sure that we find.
The minister at this church announced one Sunday that a lady missionary was coming to give a Bible class the following week. It would be an hour long every day for 5 days. I decided to attend. Again, something else I would not have normally done. I attended the Bible class and the lady missionary had already written a verse on the blackboard at the front of the room. It was from Matthew, 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all His righteousness and all these things shall be added on to you.' Funny part about it was that she never referred to it, just left it on the blackboard all week long. It was burned into my memory. The next thing that happened that to this day I don't know where it came from, but I realized that the minister never mentioned Jesus in his sermons, if you could call them that. He spoke more like a new ager, and later I found out that he was, but not as blatant as others I have since met. I never returned to that church after the missionary left. But that scripture never left me. But being as dense, or asleep as I was, I didn't connect this scripture to what I had heard from the Senator. Still, I thought about this scripture off and on for quite sometime. It seemed to taunt me, and it kept creeping into my mind very often. Finally........
I decided to find out what that verse was really talking about. It wasn't easy, and I didn't know where to start. But again, the universe attempted to help. I talked to a friend of mine and she said, 'What you need is to understand that words in the Bible have meanings that you won't understand unless you look them up in the original Hebrew and Greek.' Great, how was I supposed to do that? She went into her den and came out with a big book. She said, 'This is a concordance, it will tell you the meaning of the words in the Bible and all you have to do is find the verse and it will tell you where to find the meaning in this book.' She showed me how to use it, it was easy. I had to go out and buy my own right away. I was on a hunt now. I felt as if I didn't get to it right away, I would go crazy.
The first word I went looking for was 'kingdom'. It meant the 'territory of God,' but where was the territory of God? I called my friend and asked her. She was a lady of few words. She said, 'the territory of God is the spiritual realm. God is spirit, and that is why we have a spirit too. So we can communicate with Him through our spirit.' She made it sound simple, but yet it was complicated to me. How do I communicate with God? Prayer? But prayer, to me was a one way street. I spoke, when and if I did, and He listened, or not. But speak back to me? No way. I will not take you through all the byways and highways of my travels through the Bible. I made copious notes, mediated on different words for days on end. I was determined to find out what I was chasing after. A lot of us have said, 'I feel like something is nagging me, but I don't know what it is.' It's like a niggling in the back of our mind, but we can't put our finger on it. I felt like that every day, for days and weeks on end. I knew that I was after something, but still couldn't name it.
Then one day as I was reading the Bible, and by this time, I realized that it was not about religion, but a manual on how to live life, I came across another verse. 'Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.' I stopped and asked out loud to myself, 'why is hearing in that verse twice?' Suddenly, as if by magic, I heard the answer in my head. 'The first hearing is meant to say that you have to first hear the word of God with your natural ears. The second one means that when you do hear the word, your 'spiritual' hearing will open up and you will be able to hear God.' I was stunned, not because of what I had heard, but because I had started to hear with my spirit! I knew that as surely as I knew my name. I had no doubt, none. I called my friend again, and she laughed and said, 'Of course you heard. You were looking for that, and you know the Bible says, 'seek and you shall find'. Today you heard God, the Holy Spirit, speak to you. He is our teacher. That is what the Holy Spirit is here to do; teach us how to find and hear God.' She was so sure of herself, and to her it seemed like a natural procession of things. To me it was like I had found a treasure trove. I was so excited. I couldn't stay out of the Bible. I lost 20 pounds because I couldn't stop reading.
Finding the way to hear in our spirit is a lot easier than we think. All we have to do is 'want to', and the rest falls into place. This is what we have available to all of us, if we want to hear the voice of God. However, the Bible says, 'first you must believe that He is.' If we don't believe that He exists, we won't be able to hear. We won't be able to get wisdom because God is wisdom. We know that wisdom doesn't come with age. We see enough older people with no wisdom to assure us of that. Then we find young people who do have it, and curiously, many young children. The reason for is that they are not yet walking in disbelieve and doubt that there is a God. We learn that when we are adults by listening to others who have already been convinced by others who don't believe and they have been convinced by yet others. It is not so difficult to realize why people are more willing to disbelieve than to believe. It is an excuse to continue on the same path as before, even if it is the very thing blocking them from hearing God.
I found that the majority of people who say they don't believe there is a God, don't really believe that and if they do, they wished they could believe. This is why when someone tells me they don't believe there is a God, I simply understand that something happened in their past that caused them to doubt. Sometimes it happens when they lose someone they love, or they lose their homes, or someone they loved dearly was hurt in some way. Then there are those who are so angry that they profess to be atheists. I ask them, if you don't believe there is a God, who are you so angry at? You can't be angry at a God who doesn't exist. They have no answer for that and of course they hadn't thought it out. But I have found a few who claimed to be atheists who did have a lot of anger and it went back to a time when as children or very young people, suffered a loss and blamed God for it. Which means that at one time, they had had some faith. Faith created by God, never dies because He is the one who creates it in us.
I went through the same thing, and until I did, I had no idea why I was so angry. But it did come to me finally. Well, I was finally able to put my anger aside to hear the truth. And when God tells you a truth, you know that you know that you know. There is not a shred of doubt, and that is when you know that God has spoken to you. I was angry for 3 years because I believed, like most, that I had been 'good', faithful to pray, go to church and on and on. Then something happened that robbed me of someone I had loved with all my heart and I blamed God for not intervening. I hated Him. I swore never to speak to Him again. I even cursed Him and tore up many a Bible. He was silent as well, because as I said before, He will not intrude, or lower Himself to my level, and will not force Himself on anyone. After 3 years, as I was out gardening, I heard it very clearly, 'will you ever trust me again?' I said, ' No! Never!' There was silence for a while. And before I go any further, let me assure you that He is that clear to us when we have learned to hear and recognize His voice. He is constantly speaking to us, but when we are still deaf, we can't discern His voice. 'My sheep hear my voice, and they know me'. This from Jesus in the New Testament. This is very true. Sometimes we don't hear words, but we get a 'knowing' in our spirit, not our minds, but in our spirit, and we know that what we heard is true and will come to pass. After a short period of silence, I heard, 'You are angry because you felt you had done all you were supposed to do, and you were good, and this should not have happened to you because of how good you were. I told you that you could not earn anything I had to give you. Because then it would not be a gift from me. And this is why you are angry.' This was true but I wasn't about to admit it. I was too angry, and too hurt. I did feel exactly that way. I had done MY PART, hadn't I? I felt betrayed and felt like I had been lied to! Imagine, lied to by God!
I realized that I had expected God to keep trouble away from me simply because I was doing my part. I also realized that this was why so many had walked away from God. They too felt betrayed, because they had believed like I had; that we could earn what God has for us by being 'good', and yet, it was Jesus had said, 'there is none good but my Father who is in heaven'. Even he didn't consider himself good, and whom of us can say we are like Jesus? I was so angry, but I recognized that I had heard the truth, but I was too proud to say it to Him. As if He didn't know. All of this I wrote about in 'You Must Be Like a Child To Enter' blog: http://berdie-youmustbelikeachildtoenter.blogspotcom/. I came to realize that I had even tried to build my own faith, a strong faith in God, and when I got angry, I felt that I had lost all my faith, and that was such a great loss to me that it was intolerable. But I was not about to allow my anger to dissipate, I wanted to remain angry rather than repent, or ask forgiveness. Much later, I was to realize that God was dealing with more than my silence, but with my pride as well. He is a two edged sword. He doesn't do only one thing at a time. He dealt with my anger, my pride and my false belief that I had been 'good' enough and was betrayed. It was at this time that I also heard, 'I am the author and the finisher of your faith', not you. This is why faith doesn't die. We can ignore it, we can deny it, and even be angry at God, but when God builds His faith in us, it is not within our ability to destroy it. And because we can't destroy it, we get angry and proclaim ourselves to be atheists, and even proclaim to all that He doesn't exist. But He does, and all creatures great and small, know it too.
I truly understand those who are angry at God. Many people tell me that they 'would never get angry at God', and my response is always the same, 'You will when you get to know Him.' I say that because He doesn't leave any stone unturned to show us what is in our hearts and minds, and He shows us what we don't want others, or even ourselves, to know. We are so used to hiding from ourselves that we think we can hide from Him. He doesn't allow that. It is through the spirit that we get to know who and what we are because the truth of it all comes from Him. Why does He do that? So that we can let go of what would keep us from walking close to Him. There are groups that call this 'becoming clear.' Unfortunately, these groups cannot see us any more clearly than we do ourselves. We all know which groups we are talking about, and though I am not judging, I am not going to gloss it over. Flesh cannot deal with the spirit, and the spirit in us is the very spirit of God Himself. This is why only He can deal with our spirit and to make it 'clear' to us what is in us that must be dealt with.
The great news is that we don't have to clean up our act on our own. He will and does it Himself, 'lest anyone glory in what He has done' and give ourselves credit for it. Yes, even that is not allowed. It is only through His work in us that we can be cleaned up, not to be good enough for Him, but to make our lives better, for our sakes. He already accepts us as we are, otherwise none of us could hope to walk closely with Him. He knows the dust He made us from, and He loves us anyway. Everything He does in and for us, is for our sake, not His. This is why we are asked to learn to ask forgiveness and to give it. When we miss the mark, sin in Greek, we harm ourselves and others, not God. Can we hurt God? Yes, when we hurt ourselves or others, we do just that because we are His children. When our own children do something to hurt themselves, we too suffer the hurt because we love them. God is a better Father than we are as parents. This is why asking God forgiveness while it is something we should do because there is no doubt that we hurt Him when we hurt others and ourselves. But we are to ask forgiveness from those we hurt because that is a healing process that takes place in their spirit when we do so. When people hurt, it isn't their minds or emotions that are hurt, it is their spirit, and that is why God is hurt when we harm others. His spirit and ours are united, intertwined, as one spirit when we hurt, He hurts. This is why we were created to be parents, so we would get an idea of how He hurts when we are hurt, just as we do when our children are hurt.
Whether we want to believe it or not, much of what and who we are is a reflection of who and what God is. We are an extension of who He is, we are after all, made in His image. Not only are we made in His image, we are also the carriers of His very spirit. This is the simplest way to explain why we must not ignore our spirit. In doing so, we are ignoring the best part of what God is, and leaving Him out of our lives. He is not flesh, He is spirit. As flesh, we manifest His spirit in the physical. That is so simple that it makes us wonder 'can it be that simple?' God made things a lot simpler than we know because He already knew what we would do. He knew that as humans, we would have a difficult time wrapping our minds around this very thing. We are a reflection of God? We are the physical manifestation of God Himself? Yes! Think about this, 'we are the carriers of His spirit.' When the word says, 'don't hide your light under a bushel', it is talking about HIS LIGHT in us! We carry His light because we carry His spirit! The reason we don't believe it is simply because we don't think we are good enough to carry His light. But He thought we were good enough! So what we think or believe about this is not the issue! He thought we were good enough when He created us. He didn't say, 'I will create mankind and when they are good enough, I will give them my spirit'. No! He created us with His spirit in us before we ever got here! Why? Because being good enough was not a condition He made. That was our idea, not His. We are the ones who have been lied to by ourselves and by others, though we don't think we are doing that. This is an insidious lie we tell ourselves and we once again block our path with God. The saying, 'misery loves company' is what comes to my mind. If we can believe that we are not good enough to receive what God has in store for us, we can then wallow in our own misery. And if we can believe that we will never be good enough, then there is no point in trying, right? Do people dismiss it this simply? Yes, they do.
One of the reasons they do is because they feel overwhelmed. They feel overwhelmed because they are trying to do it all themselves, and of course they see so much wrong in themselves, how can they possibly get it all done? You see where I am going with this. We are constantly trying to do what is not for us to do. Not because we mean to do what only God can do. It is because we are lacking in knowledge of God. 'My people perish for lack of knowledge.' Knowledge of what? Knowledge about God, what and who He is and what He wants to do, what He has set aside for us, His creation, His children. When we don't know God, our spirit is in actuality, malnourished. Spirit uplifts and feeds the flesh, not the other way around. Spirit is to control and guide the mind, not the other way around. God is like the muscles in our body. Muscles hold our skeleton upright, not the other way around. Without muscles functioning properly, our skeleton would collapse. You will find that people who have aches and pains in their body, it is often because they have poor muscles tone, and posture. So the skeleton has a difficult time staying upright and we try to force it to stay upright.
Our minds, bodies and emotions are supposed to be uplifted by our spirit, therefore our spirits need to be fed, and only God can feed our spirit. We can't do it on our own. We can read and study to find out about our spirit, but only God can, through His spirit, strengthen and mature our spirit. He can even heal our minds, our bodies and our emotions, but He does it through our spirit and the faith He authors in us. This is why I wrote 'You Must Be Like A Child to Enter', because it is the hardest thing for us to do. We see ourselves as mature adults who should do what we do in the world; be responsible, take control of our lives, and do all we are 'supposed' to do, but this is exactly the opposite of what God us to do when it comes to growing in the spirit with Him. Can you imagine how arrogant we would be if we believed that we were the ones who did everything to be able to hear God and walk with Him? We would be intolerable not just to others, but God would not tolerate it. He can't tolerate it because it minimizes the death of His son on the cross. He is the one who paid for us to have what God has for us, and when we attempt to pay for everything, we are saying that what Jesus did had no value, or not enough. Put yourself in God's place after seeing His own son suffer as He did, for us, and then we slap Him in the face. We don't mean to, it is just ignorance on our part. But our ignorance is our choice. We can choose to remain ignorant, or not. That is our decision. 'Study to show yourself approved', not acceptable, but approved not in the common sense, but to prove to yourself that what you are reading is true, to find out for yourself. (2nd Tim. 2:15). In other words, don't take my word, or anyone else's, find out for yourself. That means that you read, study, and ask questions. Of whom? 'You need for no man to teach you, The Holy Spirit, He will bring you onto all truth'. That is why the Holy Spirit is made available to us. He is the teacher, and His only reason for being available to us is to direct us to God.
Why read for yourself? Because the Word of God is a double edged sword that cuts between flesh and spirit. The Word of God is what feeds your spirit. Listening to someone else teach on the Word is good, but when we study it on our own, it becomes personal to us. God deals with all of us personally. What He may do with me, may be different than what He wants to do with you. There are over 8000 promises in the Bible, but not all of them are for all of us. He may have promises that apply to you but not to me, and conversely, some may apply to me but not to you. These do not include healing, peace, faith and love. Those apply to all of us because that is what Jesus died for us to have. Abundance? Yes. Wealth? No. Why not? Because God will not give us wealth unless we allow Him to teach us how to handle wealth. 'I am the Lord thy God who causes you to have wealth and bring you no sorrow.' This means that if we are not properly prepared by God hand wealth, it will bring us sorrow. If He has chosen you to give wealth to, He will give it to you. But if you don't allow Him to prepare you to handle it, then anything could happen. So, He might want to bring you wealth, but if you are unwilling to allow Him to do a work in you so you can handle wealth well, you will get it, but the consequences of how you handle that wealth, will be on your head. He will give us wealth but if we are not willing to allow Him to prepare us for that wealth, then whatever we do with it will be our responsibility.
This is why reading the promises and standing on them is not going to bring those promises to us. You can read that God wants to heal you, but if you don't believe it, then it won't happen. 'You will have what you believe'. I have laid hands on myself and believed for my healing and I have seen it happen. This is the interesting part. If 8 people believe you can be healed and pray for you, but you don't, you won't be healed. But if those 8 people pray for you and don't really believe you can be healed, but you do, you will be. It is your faith, not theirs, that reaches God. We are all responsible for our walk with God. It is meant to be a personal walk. As I have told many people, God has no grandchildren, so just because your mother prays for you, doesn't mean that your walk with God just fine. It isn't. And going to church to hear a pastor, minister or Bible teacher, does not mean that you are doing what you are supposed to do. They are sharing what they know, what they have received through study. We are expected to walk with God according to what we 'study' on our own, for obvious reasons. We are not expected to be spoon fed like little children once we know what we are supposed to do.
I have met many people who think that all there is to walking with God is to go to church, pray before a meal and tithe. We go to church and say, 'let's elevate His name', and I have wondered, what is it we can do to elevate the Creator of the Universe? Nothing. We say we go to church to 'worship' God, but most don't know that worship in the Greek means 'obedience'. This is why He says, 'do not take the Lord's name in vain'. Meaning that Jesus, or Christ, is His name, and if we are going to call ourselves 'Christ-ians' and we are not walking Christ like, not to call ourselves by His name. I know of no one that walks Christ like. There may be some who do, but I don't any. That is why when someone asks me if I am a Christian, I say to them, 'I am a work in progress'. I know my weaknesses and my nature pretty well, and no, I am not walking Christ like, but that doesn't mean that I am not going to continue to walk on the path the best way I can and leave the rest to God. All I can do is allow Him to do a work in me, and allow Him to do His will in me. There are times when this is difficult, I know that. I am a human with all the weaknesses that come with that. But growing me up is none of my business. My only responsibility is to agree to allow His will to be done in my life. That is all He is looking for because He will not go against my will. I have gone my way before and it didn't work out that well. How is it working for you? I don't know if I have mentioned, but I wrote 'Are You A Mary?' http://berdie-areyouamary.blogspot.com/ about the work God does in us if we let Him.
I have found that many do not want to walk with God because they are afraid of what they have to give up. Normally, the things they think they have to give up are small things. Some like to drink beer, or wine or a drink once in a while. Maybe they smoke, or enjoy other things that are considered 'unexceptable' to our 'religious' system. I know nothing about drugs because I have never taken any. But no matter what you take, if that product causes you to harm others, then it is best to let them go. However, the Bible says, that 'it is not what a man puts in his mouth that condemns the man, but what comes out of his mouth.' Meaning that if you have a few beers and due to that you cause harm to others, then it is best that you don't do it. God doesn't ask us to be perfect, but you must realize that the word perfect in Greek means to 'be mature.' We would expect that we are mature, but some of us are not. And yes, I have mouthed off to God, had arguments with God, and done worse than that. But as God, He can handle my tirades. But humans cannot. We can't hurt God, but we can hurt other humans, and when we do, then is when we do hurt God. I know one thing, very well, and that is that, if I want to vent, if I am angry, or full of venom, only God can handle my rage. That is why I vent with God. He can not only handle it, but He also forgives me. I know that or I would not be able to vent the way I do. But if I take my anger out on someone else, God looks very dimly on that because then I am hurting another person. Then I am hurting another one of His children. He doesn't take kindly to that, but He also knows why we are doing it. This is why in our rage and anger, He is the only one we can go to and vent. So long as we don't hurt another one of His children, God can handle whatever we deal out to Him. He is a very forgiving Father and He is always willing to listen to us, regardless of why we are angry. We, as human parents, will do anything we can to forgive and love our children. But compared to Him, we have no love for our children. By the way I quit tearing up Bibles when I was about to tear another and I heard Him say, 'No! No more. You need to grow up.' Ooops! I carefully straightened the pages I had already crumpled in my fist. And it has been a while since I vented! Now I either talk to Him or I journal Him. I have a journal where I talk to Him nearly everyday. Try it, it works and it gives you peace, and give Him a break to listen to someone else. Just kidding.
I have done things that I should say I should be ashamed of. But I am not because it taught me something. When I was venting all my rage and anger at Him, I found out that no matter what I did, or said, and yes, yelled at Him, He looked at my heart. And I want to believe that in my heart He saw my fear that I might lose Him, that I might lose my faith in Him, that I might lose Him. It took a while, but I finally realized that He would never give up on me. He would never leave me, nor forsake me. I had heard that I was precious to Him, but I could not believe it. I couldn't believe it because I was looking at myself through my eyes, not His. I had to get to the point where I could ask, 'Father, let me see myself through your eyes,' and you know what? I am still waiting for that to happen. Why? Because try as I might, I can't see myself the way He sees me. All I have is how I see my son. I would die for him. I would kill for him. I would do anything I had to do for him. Anything! And I am just a human being. What would God do for me? He already did it. He sacrificed His son for me! Not us! Me! That is the only way we can see and understand His sacrifice for us. It has to be personal. Jesus died for me. What I think of me is irrelevant. It is what He thought of me that matters. He looked at me and said, 'She is worth dying for'. That is what I can't wrap my mind around. But it is true. HE DIED FOR ME! That is what I have to believe and know in my spirit. He died for you too. No matter who unworthy we think we are, if He died for me, then I must be worth something to Him. And it is not my place to question His sacrifice. Just accept it and thank Him for it. Our minds and emotions cannot accept this, but our spirit can because it identifies with God's own Spirit.
I don't know if I will ever understand the whole implication of His sacrifice for me. Probably not, because I would never be able to sacrifice my own son for anyone. Not even myself. I would die for my son. There are many things I would do for my son to make sure he was not harmed or hurt in any way. I would not hesitate. The idea of my son hurting is intolerable to me. I want the best for my son. I want my son to have the best of everything. I would have no qualms about sacrificing myself for my son. But I could never have my son sacrificed for others. That is why God's gift of His son is so important. God, the Father, did what none of us are willing to do. I remember one time I said, 'How could His mother, Mary, not do something?' I told my son about this and he said, 'Mom, you would have bombed the city!' He is probably right.
And until you are willing to accept that you are not just a physical being, but also a spiritual being, things will not get better for you. You will only be confused.
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In the last two or three decades, many books have been written about how to become more spiritual. Several of them deal with authors who declare that in order for us to be more spiritual, we must find out what the Mystics knew, and that these were secret disciplines. I won't name names, nor go into details, suffice it to say that if indeed God wants us to walk closely with Him, and grow in spiritual maturity and strength, I find it difficult to believe that God would hide these 'secrets' from the rest of us. I believe that God made it as simple as possible so that 'all' would walk closely with Him. This is why Jesus died on the cross. He didn't die so that we would have to go searching for things that were kept secret from the rest of us. Some of these authors go into rituals, ceremonies and other things we must go through in order to walk in the spirit. I for one, do not believe this for one moment. It was not given for just a few to learn how to walk with God, and for our spirit to connect with the Spirit of God.
None of what I have read is Biblical. We are not all Mystics, and for God to tell us in His Word that we can and do have the right, due to the sacrifice of Jesus, to come boldly onto the throne, and not mean all of us, is also not Biblical. He said, whosoever, meaning all of us, could go to the Father, directly, with no need to have a Priest as an intermediary as it used to be before the death and resurrection of Jesus. Otherwise His sacrifice would have been invalid, void, and of no consequence. That is completely against what the Bible says. Very simply put, God made it a choice for us to walk with Him, and for our spiritual growth to be a matter of choice as well. Some of these authors talk about spending quiet time, and using meditation. I can go along with that because it is when we are quiet that we can hear the still small voice. And meditation means 'prayer' in the original Greek. I have found that the less I talk and the more I listen, the stronger my spirit grows, the more I grow in the Spirit. I have not been required to go into 'secret' endeavors, or follow any Mystic. The only one I follow, or hope to follow, is Jesus, and I can't do that on my own. It is God who is the 'author and the finisher of our faith', lest we glory in what only He can accomplish.
One of the authors mentions that 'the pews are full of empty people', and I must agree. This is why I stayed away from churches for a very long time. I was not hearing the words or the Word that changes us on the inside and transforms us. Many people go to church, for years, and never grow in the spirit. Simply stated, there are people who 'do' what they think they are supposed to do, but will not allow God to transform them from within. Worship means 'obedience' in the original Greek. Without obedience, we cannot hope to allow God to transform us spiritually. Without this transformation, we cannot grow in faith, 'without faith, it is impossible to please God.' None of us can change ourselves. God had to do it for us because He will not share His Glory with anyone.
The work He wants to do in our spirit so that we may commune with Him, only He can do. If we could strengthen our spirit on our own, and grow spiritually, there would have been no need for the sacrifice of Jesus. He paid with His blood so that we would have access to the Father, and allow the Father to do a 'work' in us so that we might walk closely with Him, to be able to hear Him through our spirit, not our natural ears.
We must ask ourselves the question; 'why would God make it difficult for us to find Him, to commune with Him, when it was the reason He sacrificed His own Son for us to do so?' I believe that a lot of the so called Mystics, being human, wanted to give the impression, and not just to the rest of us, but believe that only a chosen few would know how to walk in our spirit with God's spirit. That we had to go through rituals, and find the secrets to be able to reach God. None of which is logical considering the life of Jesus. It is through reading the Word of God, by feeding on it, and putting it in our hears and minds, that the Word itself does what only God can and wants to do. There are no secrets, except for the ones mankind has made up because they have a difficult time believing that the Creator of the Universe truly does want us to commune and walk with Him.
Even children learn how to do this when they are very young because they believe. They pray with the total confidence that God has heard their prayers. They have what I call 'unadulterated faith.' If we cannot please God without faith, and He says that He is the 'author and the finisher of our faith,' that means that we cannot do anything to create the kind of faith He has for us. Faith that moves mountains, heals the sick, and makes the blind eyes to see. Only His faith created in us can accomplish these things, and Jesus said, 'and greater things than these shall you do because I go to the Father.' Not because of what we could do. We have too much humanness to accomplish what He wants in us. It must be done by the Spirit of God in us.
How easy did God make it for us to grow in the spirit? Jesus said, 'Let you will be done.' That is all we have to do. Ask God to do His work in us and simply obey what we hear in our spirits to do. Can it be that simple? Yes it is. He knows the dust He made us from, therefore knew that if we were to reach that level of faith and communion with Him, we would take the credit for it. Like so many so called Mystics have. None of us are immune to taking credit for what only God can do. That is why we are not allowed to do that work in us by what we DO, and that is the operative word. 'Of yourself you can do nothing,' is very clear. For this reason I wrote, 'You Must Be Like a Child To Enter.' Enter where? Into the Kingdom of God, His territory. His territory, His Kingdom is the spiritual realm. He who walks with God, must do so in the spirit. Our spirit cannot commune with God's Spirit until He has opened our spiritual ears so that we can hear Him, hear His spirit. All of this is available to all of us and whosoever will. Jesus couldn't have gone to the cross and been resurrected without His free will. 'Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine.' Without that, He would have gone to the cross, in fear, and not been resurrected. But once He gave His free will over to God, regardless of whether or not the Father resurrected Him, it was God who resurrected Him. When we give over our free will, then God will resurrect our spirit that until then has been dead to the spirit of God.
The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, is the Holy Spirit. That spirit is in us, but asleep to God's voice. When I realized that the very spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, was in me, it changed my life forever. This is the power we have been given, but unless God is involved with this power in us, we will surely abuse it. He wants us to have it, surely, and that is why we have to enter into His territory, where He is. He is here with us, and even so, all we have to do is observe what we have done. But in His territory, we leave the realm of the flesh and enter into His realm, His spiritual realm. And anyone can do this, at will, but simply asking God to help them get there. This was not something that was just given to Mystics. In fact, what is a Mystic, and who decides that they are Mystics? If we are all allowed to walk in the spirit with God, then we are all Mystics! I know that when we walk in the spirit with God, we are all Priests, His Priests. That is Biblical.
The Word of God has been perverted since it was written. To call some other human a holy man, or a saint, is not for us to do. We are all given the right to walk with God, to understand what He desires for each of us. For how else can we walk in His plan for us unless we know what it is He has for us? How can we be in agreement with what He wants for us if we don't know what He wants for us? We have no reason to say, 'No one can know the mind of God.' That may sound 'spiritual', and 'humble' but it isn't. We are to know what He desires for and from us, otherwise how could He ask us to be obedient? Those who listen, and hear God's voice, may call themselves Mystics, but in reality, all of us have been given the right and ability to hear God. Jesus made sure of that. In fact, to believe otherwise means that Jesus' work was left undone. The rending of the veil when Jesus died signified that now there was no reason for us not to be able to go 'boldly before the throne of God' individually. This is why the veil was rent from top to bottom. It is said that this veil was a long veil that would have reached as high up as a 40 story building, and it tore from the top to the bottom so no one would say that he rent it, or some other human. Signifying that now we could all go beyond the veil and commune with God. Not because we were Mystics, but whosoever will.
It is absurd to think that God wants to keep His desires for us in the dark and then expect us to follow His plan for us. It is equally absurd, if not worse, for Him to have sacrificed His only Son for us to walk in darkness. Due to the sacrifice on the cross, no other rituals or secret rites are required for us to know and practice in order to walk, talk and commune with God. This is the major reason why so many people are not walking in the spirit with God. They believe that they are not good enough, don't know enough, haven't done enough to be worthy. If we could be worthy on our own, Jesus would not have been required to die on the cross. But one he did do so, there was nothing more for us to do but 'agree' to allow God to do a work in us so that we could. A work that none of us can do on our own, no matter how 'good' we try to be, or how much we pray, go to church and read the word. It is still God's work. I have found that people can believe that God will do a work in someone else, but not in themselves. They will even say it, but they don't believe it.
Most people live with guilt when it comes to their spiritual lives. They feel that even if they pray, go to Church, tithe, and even go to Bible classes, they still don't feel worthy of what God has in store for us. The fact of the matter is that no matter what we do, right or wrong, we can never earn what Jesus paid for. This is why the thief at the cross was to be 'in paradise' when he died. He didn't deserve it, but he had a right to it due to the price Jesus paid. I try to make this point more succinctly by telling people, 'When Hitler died, his spirit returned to God.' God didn't love him any less. No mother has a son on death row she doesn't love as much as she always have. She may not approve or what her son did, but her love never changes. God is the same way, and in fact, there are mothers who fail to love their children, but God is not like us.
This is a good time to talk about the world 'love'. We understand it in a different way than the way God uses it. In the Greek, the word LOVE means, 'to be in harmony or in agreement with something or someone'. Now read the First Commandment, and substitute the word love with that definition. You would we reading totally different than the way we read it if we don't know what the word love means in its original form. 'Though shall be in harmony and in agreement with all your spirit (notice this is mentioned first), soul, mind and body' with God.' Again I want to make the point; how can we do this if we don't know what He wants from and for us? If we say we 'love' God, shouldn't that mean that we are walking in agreement with His plan for us? I wrote more extensively about this 'What Does Love Mean To God?' As humans, we cannot love what we don't see or know. This is why if we don't know God, or are able to commune with Him, how can we say we love Him? Once we do know what He does for us, and what He wants for us, we can say we love Him, not just by being in agreement and in harmony with Him, but also emotionally because we see what He does for us, and what He has set aside for us; peace, abundance, health, and anything we need. This is what He meant when He said, 'I am that I am'. He was saying, 'I am anything you need.' There were no conditions. So being good, perfect, and doing enough has no bearing on what God wants to give us. Being perfect, which means 'mature' in the original Greek, means that we finally get to that point where we know, that we know, that we can't do anything, not one thing, to earn or deserve what God had for them that 'love', are in harmony and in agreement, the Lord. Simply put, all God wants from us is that we be WILLING to walk where He wants us to, and the rest is in His hands, and it is His work. I also wrote 'Are you a Mary?' because it speaks more extensively about this.
It is when people attempt to earn God's blessings, and then something happens, like the loss of a loved one, or a business, or anything else they prize, that they turn against God . This is because they felt that they had 'done' the right things, and this should not have happened to them. But God never promised that we would not suffer loss during our life time, or have pain. He only promised that He would walk with us through all that comes our way. I have said for a long time, that those who call themselves atheists are mostly people who went through this, and got so angry with God that they have since refused to continue their walk with God. But I have also seen a few that in their deepest darkness, when they sense God's touch, that they break down in tears. This is because they had felt it before and have missed it and now they feel it again. Nothing breaks down angry walls like God's touch. I know, I have been there. In one of my angry phases I refused to speak to God, or listen. It took me 3 days to realize that I missed Him so much that I broke down. But this is the way He broke my heart and healed my anger from a very dysfunctional childhood. God will break your heart, not the way other people do, but so that He can put it back together again, whole and healed. No psychologist or psychiatrist can do that for any of us. The best part, once it is done, it is done! God does it right the first time, and it is permanent.
Having read up to here, you might ask, 'then why don't more people just allow God to do a work in them?' Fear. Fear that God will do something that may not like, take away something they like, take away their freedom, take away their fun, etc. But they don't realize that God is not like that at all. I had one man tell me, 'I like to have a beer once in a while....'. I simply said, 'Jesus created wine'. 'I like to dance', my response, 'And David danced before God'. 'When I was teen, I stole some things from the Best Buy where I used to live.' 'Jesus said to the thief on the cross, you will be in paradise with me as of today.' All of this told me the one thing I knew that most of us believe, that we think that we have done such bad things that not even God can cleanse us, and that even the death of Jesus can't pay for. When it comes to murder, God said, 'an eye for an eye', but that didn't mean He didn't forgive. It only meant that we had consequences for it while we are on the earth. Man's laws have nothing to do with God's laws or what He is to us. Man punishes, God forgives but allows us to pay the consequences of our actions. That is the price of free will. God will forgive, but we must pay the consequences of our actions because otherwise we would not learn our lessons. Once having paid the price for our wrong choices we have two options; learn from them and not repeat the same mistakes, or continue to make the wrong choices and suffer the same, or worse consequences. We are to come to God like a 'child', but He expects us to grow up. Otherwise there is no reason to learn and make the right choices. We wouldn't have to grow in wisdom, but God says, 'chase after wisdom,' because when we do that we learn not only what not to do, but also why. When we know 'why,' we will learn how.
This is why it is vital that we grow in spirit. It is our spirit that will 'educate and guide us' through all circumstances. We are not to make decisions based only on our emotions. Therein lies the many wrong choices we make and suffer for them. This is why the spirit will nudge you away from anger, revenge, jealousy, control, hatred, and many other destructive emotions. Our emotions are base in nature, at least the ones that are not felt through love, compassion, kindness and empathy. Earlier I said that the mind does not judge, it merely stores information. Good information, bad information, good emotions and bad emotions are stored by the mind with no value judgment. So when we think, 'I want to get revenge' against a person, your mind will readily give you the proper emotion and even the action to take. If our spirit is not fully engaged, it will not remind you that this was the wrong thing to do. You will know it, of course, but you will ignore it because you want to ride with that emotion. That is walking in the flesh. Walking in the spirit means you ignore your flesh and walk the high road instead. The road of the spirit. This is why it is important the your spirit grow in strength, and take ascendancy over your flesh.
Nothing hurts us more than living with our emotions as the ruling factor. Flesh will say, 'he/she did this and that to you, and they deserved to be punished.' Spirit says, 'What did you contribute to this situation?' And believe me, that spirit will make you recall what you did. Once you admit to how you contributed to your own hurt, you will find that it is more difficult to just cast all the blame on the other person. Of course we always find a way to forgive ourselves first. Having done that, doesn't the other person deserve forgiveness too? Of course if we are not walking in the spirit, we will just allow our emotions to run rampant and once again end up in another cycle of pain. When will we learn? As humans, never. As spirit filled Christians, we will, and that is the only way.
So say 'hello' to your spirit and ask God to infuse you with the Holy Spirit and to help you listen, to help you to hear clearly. That's all you have to do, and it happens quickly because you are now in harmony and in agreement with God's wish for you; to walk with Him. To be connected to Him in all that we do. This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said that he prayed without ceasing. He wasn't praying all the time, no one can do that. What he meant was that his mind was always listening to God's small still voice. He didn't just go out and do anything he wanted, anyway he wanted. He listened and followed the Spirit's voice, then proceeded. That is praying, which means meditating, without ceasing. I find that even when someone is talking to me, I can still hear what my spirit is saying, and gives me the words to say, or the things to do with that person. Now, I wouldn't know how to disconnect from that small still voice. It is always with me no matter what I am doing.
When I write, I feel like I am writing what God wants me to write. So if I want to write for 8 hours a day, I don't have writer's block. I just follow His voice and type it into my PC. One day as I was taking a power walk, I suddenly heard 'Write a paper and call it 'Hope In The Wilderness'. I felt excited and went home. The very next day, a Monday, I went to this grocery store and the Sunday paper was still being displayed. On the front page in letters 2 inches high the headline read, 'HOPE IN THE WILDERNESS.' I love it when I get confirmations that clearly. So I wrote it. And it can be read at the following URL. Http://berdie-hopeinthewilderness.blogspot.com. I also got the titles for my other blogs as well. Http://berdie-areyouamary.blogspot.com and http://berdie-miracletimeishere.blogspot.com. This is one is not on a blog, but it will be soon.
Oh, THERE IT IS NOW!
http://berdie-hopeinthewilderness.blogspot.com/
http://berdie-areyouamary.blogspot.com/
http://berdie-sayhellotoyourspirit.blogspot.com/
http://berdie-youmustbelikeachildtoenter.blogspot.com/
http://berdie-miracletimeishere.blogspot.com/
Please send these blogs to anyone you might think might benefit them. God bless you all and stand strong on HIS Faith!
