Adam and Eve could not reach perfection because instead of taking dominion over the world of angels, they were influenced by angels and began to look up to them as if they were God.
It is the task of Adam and Eve to restore themselves to the positions of restored Adam and restored Eve. This can only be accomplished in a process of restoration in which Adam and Eve must win a battle over angels. Adam and Eve through their love for God and their spiritual strength must prove themselves to be stronger than angels. Only after Adam and Eve have done that, they can reach the level that Adam and Eve could not reach.
Because Adam and Eve fell at the top of the second stage of three stages of individual growth to perfection, the restoration of Adam and Eve by being victorious over angels comes also at the top of the growth stage. The completion stage, the third of three stages to individual perfection, only opens after Adam and Eve made this victory. We could call an Adam and Eve who made this victory and who are living in the completion stage: restored Adam and restored Eve.
In the history of God's Providence the name Israel was given to Jacob after he fought with an angel, when Jacob returned to Canaan from his two-decades long exile living with his uncle Laban in Haran. Jacob showed how Canaan should and can be entered in a good way, by first making a victory over the angel.
The nation of Israel grew out of the sons of Jacob or Israel. It was the task of Israel to make a foundation for the Messiah to come. The task to receive the Messiah can only be accomplished by people of Israel, which means people who separated from Satan and who grew to the level of restored Adams and restored Eves and who in their growth to individual perfection surpassed the top of the growth stage.
Jacob who was Israel isn't called Israel anymore. This is because after he lost his position of Israel and had regained it one more time, he lost it again. Still, the 12 tribes of the sons of Jacob grew to a nation over time. In the time of Jesus, most of the tribes had been lost in exile and never returned to Canaan. There were only two remaining tribes, those of Judah and Benjamin in Jesus' time. In addition to that there had remained some factions of the priests, the Levites, who however never had taken the position of one of the 12 original tribes.
We see that people of Israel can lose their qualification to be Israel. The victory of Israel, which is the victory over the world of angels, is one that must be made by each individual, but it can also be inherited from parents. A child who is born from parents who made their victory of Israel, the victory over angels, will be born in a protected environment. Yet, once the child grows up and begins to live a life by him- or herself, that inherited victory must be transformed into a personal one. Each of us, however much we have inherited from our parents, must eventually make such a victory over angels in order to be qualified as a member of Israel. This is important to realize as the first mission of Israel is to make a foundation to receive the Messiah.
When the Messiah comes, he must be received by a people of Israel. This will be a group of people of whom each has been victorious over angels. To be victorious over angels, we must win what is called a spiritual fight. There are many, many types of spiritual fights. This is because angels apply many means and tricks to dominate human beings.
Although the victory of being Israel can be inherited to a certain degree, eventually each individual must qualify by being successful in winning any spiritual fight that is imposed by the angelic world. The first Israel lost their qualification of being Israel because they let evil angels invade their culture. This was the deeper cause of the crucifixion of Jesus. The second Israel, Christianity, has never been a physical Israel. But there is little meaning in the qualification of Israel when there isn't made a victory of Israel in the physical existence. The Messiah must come to bring about an ideal world, not only in the spiritual world but also in the physical world. The foundation to receive the Messiah can only be made by people in the physical world who made their personal victory of Israel.
As long as children are living in the love and under the protection of parents who succeeded to be Israel, these children inherit the same qualification. Still, to inherit a qualification while needing the protection of parents also means that the children are still children. They are not really mature and as soon as they would go out into the world where many evil temptations and attacks will come to them, they might lose in shortest time their qualification of being Israel.
.
December 28, 2009
December 18, 2009
Some methods to test spirits and angels
Most of us come into contact with expressions from the spiritual world, either directly because spirits or angels come to us, or indirectly because we get information from other people who are mediums to spirit world. The spirit world is always around us and always influences us even we may not notice it.
The methods described here are not to be seen as complete or entirely reliable if practiced. These are only some tips that I want to give based on my own experiences with spirit world.
The most important always is that we can only judge the spirits based on our own connection to God. If someone is greedy for fame or money, if somebody has too much curiosity for the expressions from spirit world, chances are near 100 % that he or she is going to be deceived. There are many badly inspired spirits and angels out to jump upon such people and when someone's motivation isn't pure and intentions aren't right, such spirits will find this person and start to work through him or her.
The main method that always and again and again must be applied to judge the spiritual entities is prayer. Of course, when a person has wrong motivation, he or she might still pray but such prayers are no good. The main search always must be if you or somebody else really desires to God's will, not just God's will as expressed through other people, but God's will that you can know because of your serious desire to do God's will.
The second method that always must be applied is to judge the results of a spirit or angel coming to you or helping you. This method alone is not reliable, but it nevertheless is essential to be very critical of each spiritual phenomenon. Sometimes evil spirits betray themselves because of the bad feelings they give to you. Be self-critical and alert for how spiritual experiences affect you and others. Do they grow in understanding of God's principles? Do they remain humble? Do they try to get honor for themselves? Do they try to make money from their work? Do they put themselves above others and begin to think to be some kind of new messiah? Does there come confusion from the revelations that are given?
All such questions must be asked again and again and if you have any doubt, pray about this, meditate and think until you understand what's going on. The latter is very important. Do never let doubts rest unresolved. Whenever there is a doubt, pray and struggle until you know the reason for your doubt. The doubt can be founded in case evil spirits invaded. The doubt could also be in your own lack of faith, or in your being influenced by negative people who don't understand about spirit world.
The third method that also always must be applied is logical examination of all facts that are given. When spirits or angels give you information, it should be true and in accordance with facts that you know to be true. If there is any contradiction, don't let this rest but find out the cause of the contradiction. Specifially, what is being said should be in accordance with the principles you know to be true. If this isn't the case, you need to find out whether your understanding of these principles need correction or whether the spirit has given wrong information.
If information is given about spirit world, it may be difficult to check it. But even so, that information should be logical in itself. Spirit world is not a world of magic and mystery and miracles. Spirit world is an entirely logical world just like the physical world. Each phenomenon can be explained with logical principles.
There are many more methods of testing the spirits but I want to conclude with this one: Always be very attentive for the details. When spirits come to you, ask them many questions that they should be able to answer. If for example Jesus would come to you, he should be able to tell you many details about his own life. Dare to ask the spirits such questions. Do not submit yourself in so-called humble obedience and respect while possibly the spirit coming to you is entirely fake. Any good spirit or angel will understand that you have to ask such questions.
This is just a short note about a topic that deserves volumes of books. I still wish to add some methods of testing spirits that are not reliable:
- You cannot test spirits with formulas such as asking them something in the name of True Parents or Jesus. If a spirit is really faking he laughs about that.
- You cannot secure that good spirits come to you only by making conditions of fasting or bowing or otherwise. None of these conditions guarantee anything. You cannot chase evil spirits away with Holy Salt or Holy Water or whatever. You cannot prevent evil spirits to come by using incense or carrying a cross or putting a picture of True Parents near to you.
Summaring, I described four main ways to test spirits and angels:
1. Sincere and continued prayer
2. Judge the result of their influences
3. Logically examine all facts and revelations given
4. Be alert for any detail and keep asking questions
Finally, beware of the illusion that spirits or angels would be higher or better or more interesting than people in the physical world. All human spirits are just normal people like you and me. And all the angels together, whether they call themselves evil, fallen or sinless, have never managed to make an ideal world.
.
The methods described here are not to be seen as complete or entirely reliable if practiced. These are only some tips that I want to give based on my own experiences with spirit world.
The most important always is that we can only judge the spirits based on our own connection to God. If someone is greedy for fame or money, if somebody has too much curiosity for the expressions from spirit world, chances are near 100 % that he or she is going to be deceived. There are many badly inspired spirits and angels out to jump upon such people and when someone's motivation isn't pure and intentions aren't right, such spirits will find this person and start to work through him or her.
The main method that always and again and again must be applied to judge the spiritual entities is prayer. Of course, when a person has wrong motivation, he or she might still pray but such prayers are no good. The main search always must be if you or somebody else really desires to God's will, not just God's will as expressed through other people, but God's will that you can know because of your serious desire to do God's will.
The second method that always must be applied is to judge the results of a spirit or angel coming to you or helping you. This method alone is not reliable, but it nevertheless is essential to be very critical of each spiritual phenomenon. Sometimes evil spirits betray themselves because of the bad feelings they give to you. Be self-critical and alert for how spiritual experiences affect you and others. Do they grow in understanding of God's principles? Do they remain humble? Do they try to get honor for themselves? Do they try to make money from their work? Do they put themselves above others and begin to think to be some kind of new messiah? Does there come confusion from the revelations that are given?
All such questions must be asked again and again and if you have any doubt, pray about this, meditate and think until you understand what's going on. The latter is very important. Do never let doubts rest unresolved. Whenever there is a doubt, pray and struggle until you know the reason for your doubt. The doubt can be founded in case evil spirits invaded. The doubt could also be in your own lack of faith, or in your being influenced by negative people who don't understand about spirit world.
The third method that also always must be applied is logical examination of all facts that are given. When spirits or angels give you information, it should be true and in accordance with facts that you know to be true. If there is any contradiction, don't let this rest but find out the cause of the contradiction. Specifially, what is being said should be in accordance with the principles you know to be true. If this isn't the case, you need to find out whether your understanding of these principles need correction or whether the spirit has given wrong information.
If information is given about spirit world, it may be difficult to check it. But even so, that information should be logical in itself. Spirit world is not a world of magic and mystery and miracles. Spirit world is an entirely logical world just like the physical world. Each phenomenon can be explained with logical principles.
There are many more methods of testing the spirits but I want to conclude with this one: Always be very attentive for the details. When spirits come to you, ask them many questions that they should be able to answer. If for example Jesus would come to you, he should be able to tell you many details about his own life. Dare to ask the spirits such questions. Do not submit yourself in so-called humble obedience and respect while possibly the spirit coming to you is entirely fake. Any good spirit or angel will understand that you have to ask such questions.
This is just a short note about a topic that deserves volumes of books. I still wish to add some methods of testing spirits that are not reliable:
- You cannot test spirits with formulas such as asking them something in the name of True Parents or Jesus. If a spirit is really faking he laughs about that.
- You cannot secure that good spirits come to you only by making conditions of fasting or bowing or otherwise. None of these conditions guarantee anything. You cannot chase evil spirits away with Holy Salt or Holy Water or whatever. You cannot prevent evil spirits to come by using incense or carrying a cross or putting a picture of True Parents near to you.
Summaring, I described four main ways to test spirits and angels:
1. Sincere and continued prayer
2. Judge the result of their influences
3. Logically examine all facts and revelations given
4. Be alert for any detail and keep asking questions
Finally, beware of the illusion that spirits or angels would be higher or better or more interesting than people in the physical world. All human spirits are just normal people like you and me. And all the angels together, whether they call themselves evil, fallen or sinless, have never managed to make an ideal world.
.
December 17, 2009
The spiritual relationship between husband and wife
Even though a man and a woman may have developed a harmonious relationship during their lives on earth, it may not always mean that they can easily be together in the spirit world. I shall try to explain about this difficulty in general terms.
The main reason for this problem is the reality of the spiritual fall. The spiritual fall must be overcome in different ways. One result of the spiritual fall was that it led to a physical fall, meaning a sexual and love relationship between a man and a woman who were not centered on God, who were not at all meant to have married each other or who had not yet grown to a level of individual maturity to have such a relationship in a God-centered way. Another result of the fall in general was that people fell out from the original blood lineage under God, and that people came to adopt Satan as their father, partly or wholly.
Even when you are sure that your relationship as husband and wife were meant to be so by God, and you accepted God as your parents, and you fulfilled all the conditions required to have a loving relationship as husband and wife, that still doesn't automatically mean that when you come in spirit world, you will be able to live together as husband and wife.
The main reason for this is that the spiritual world has always been controlled mainly by fallen angels. These are the same fallen angels who brought man to fall, who brought to mankind false ideologies, and who put themselves spiritually in-between God and man. Because of this reality, people always have had difficulty to mature spiritually.
A man and a woman may be adults physically, but in order for them to have a gratifying and fruitful spiritual love relationship, they both must have matured spiritually to a degree that they can cope with all possible difficulties such as spiritual attacks and invasions by evil angels and spirits.
To understand what this may mean think in the following way: Suppose that you are alone in a place and you cannot physically contact your spouse. Are you capable then of making some kind of close spiritual connection to your spouse? If you are able to do this, it will be because of love, but it will also be because of both having the ability to overcome certain spiritual barriers that might be put in-between you. Only when you are able to do this and keep this standard in the physical world, you will also be able to do it in spirit world.
Fundamentally, of course, love for God comes first. Love for God makes the basis for love between husband and wife. And the love for God must have grown to a level of individual maturity for each of the partners in order to overcome the many possible spiritual types of invasion that can cause a separation between two spouses.
What is needed, centered on God, is a certain level of spiritual maturity of both husband and wife. Spiritual maturity is not identical to knowledge of God's principles. It is also not always the same as having strong love for each other, because sometimes love is too much physical or too much in being dependent on each other. It is important to understand God's principles and it is necessary to have strong love for God and for each other, but it is also important to be able to deal with the countless of types of spiritual difficulties that are caused by fallen angels and that may split two loving people apart in certain difficult situations.
Spiritual maturity is maturity of the spirit. Even though a child may be pure, it is still a child and can therefore not cope with spiritual attacks brought forth by adult and clever evil spirits and angels. Therefore children need the protection and guidance of their parents and their friends or people in archangel's position, living in a good family in a close and loving relationship.
Original spiritual maturity is always reached in a loving relationship to God. Some people have advanced spiritual abilities but they got it by learning from evil angels. Some of these people in spirit world even manage to have a close relationship to a spouse. That is of course not what we should be aiming for. Love for God comes first.
The main sign of matured spirituality is good intuition and the ability to keep it under all circumstances. Not everyone who matures spiritually needs to be able to see or hear spirits. Most important is to have spiritual intuition for what is good and evil, so that one can always stay on the path of true love centering on God.
.
The main reason for this problem is the reality of the spiritual fall. The spiritual fall must be overcome in different ways. One result of the spiritual fall was that it led to a physical fall, meaning a sexual and love relationship between a man and a woman who were not centered on God, who were not at all meant to have married each other or who had not yet grown to a level of individual maturity to have such a relationship in a God-centered way. Another result of the fall in general was that people fell out from the original blood lineage under God, and that people came to adopt Satan as their father, partly or wholly.
Even when you are sure that your relationship as husband and wife were meant to be so by God, and you accepted God as your parents, and you fulfilled all the conditions required to have a loving relationship as husband and wife, that still doesn't automatically mean that when you come in spirit world, you will be able to live together as husband and wife.
The main reason for this is that the spiritual world has always been controlled mainly by fallen angels. These are the same fallen angels who brought man to fall, who brought to mankind false ideologies, and who put themselves spiritually in-between God and man. Because of this reality, people always have had difficulty to mature spiritually.
A man and a woman may be adults physically, but in order for them to have a gratifying and fruitful spiritual love relationship, they both must have matured spiritually to a degree that they can cope with all possible difficulties such as spiritual attacks and invasions by evil angels and spirits.
To understand what this may mean think in the following way: Suppose that you are alone in a place and you cannot physically contact your spouse. Are you capable then of making some kind of close spiritual connection to your spouse? If you are able to do this, it will be because of love, but it will also be because of both having the ability to overcome certain spiritual barriers that might be put in-between you. Only when you are able to do this and keep this standard in the physical world, you will also be able to do it in spirit world.
Fundamentally, of course, love for God comes first. Love for God makes the basis for love between husband and wife. And the love for God must have grown to a level of individual maturity for each of the partners in order to overcome the many possible spiritual types of invasion that can cause a separation between two spouses.
What is needed, centered on God, is a certain level of spiritual maturity of both husband and wife. Spiritual maturity is not identical to knowledge of God's principles. It is also not always the same as having strong love for each other, because sometimes love is too much physical or too much in being dependent on each other. It is important to understand God's principles and it is necessary to have strong love for God and for each other, but it is also important to be able to deal with the countless of types of spiritual difficulties that are caused by fallen angels and that may split two loving people apart in certain difficult situations.
Spiritual maturity is maturity of the spirit. Even though a child may be pure, it is still a child and can therefore not cope with spiritual attacks brought forth by adult and clever evil spirits and angels. Therefore children need the protection and guidance of their parents and their friends or people in archangel's position, living in a good family in a close and loving relationship.
Original spiritual maturity is always reached in a loving relationship to God. Some people have advanced spiritual abilities but they got it by learning from evil angels. Some of these people in spirit world even manage to have a close relationship to a spouse. That is of course not what we should be aiming for. Love for God comes first.
The main sign of matured spirituality is good intuition and the ability to keep it under all circumstances. Not everyone who matures spiritually needs to be able to see or hear spirits. Most important is to have spiritual intuition for what is good and evil, so that one can always stay on the path of true love centering on God.
.
December 11, 2009
Testimony of Home Church in a school environment
I believe Home Church to be a magical tool, a divine inspiration that being practiced can totally transform our own lives and those of others.
Although Home Church traditionally is done in an environment of 360 homes, because the principles are universal, Home Church can be applied in many situations. This story is about some of my experiences with a school where some of my children went.
The school itself was a kind of private school but under rather much government control. The school was based on principles such as teaching children to be creative and free.
Because I wanted to have some influence over how my children were educated at the school, I decided to make the school situation to a kind of Home Church project. This testimony is about seven years of involvement in which I spent about 20 hours weekly to serve the school, its teachers and students and their parents.
My first activity was to volunteer for work in the school garden. The school had a nice garden that had been rather much neglected for a few years. When i first got to meet the school, a group of parents had just formed to clean up the mess. I decided to participate. Already there was a leader of this parents group and the first day that I helped, I was not allowed to enter the school's premises. Instead i was told to clean up the streets around the school. After I had performed well the task to broom the streets, I was asked to get rid of all the weeds that had filled the school's garden. I graduated also from that task and then was permitted to plant flowers.
As time passed, I gradually was accepted to more inner and supposedly more sacred spaces of the school.
It was one of the principles of the school that children would need to be educated in how to grow vegetables. But alas, there was no teacher available for this particular course. So I came up with a plan that parents would help the teachers to give these classes. Several parents volunteered and teachers became enthusiast. For several years it then became my task to teach children and teachers alike how to grow a nice vegetable and flower garden.
Parents, children and teachers participating in this garden work met several times a week. Because I invested more than others, I was asked to become the leader of the parents' group that took care of the garden. Over the years, my work as a volunteer developed. Together with parents, teachers and children we made a nice playground, we gave a new paint to the inside and outside of the school building, we repaired the leaking roof, etc...
After several years I was asked to become the president of the school board. At that stage something interesting happened. I had come to know all the teachers of the school and many of the parents and the children. But becoming the president of the school board meant that I now had to deal with the government who was supervising and controlling the school's activities.
Over several years of time, the school had become an attraction for more parents to have their children educated. The local government felt they were losing control. National-level government officials were sent in to check and they put on the brake, forcing teachers to do things according to official government rules. This kind of government influence frustrated the parents and teachers who had done their volunteering work with so much zeal. Another group of parents and teachers who supported the government, gradually took over the school.
The level of the situation had clearly advanced from one of a local school to a national-level affair. At that time I decided to focus my efforts on other areas of life and I took my children out of that school. Externally, seen from the viewpoint of how the school ended, this project seemed a failure.
But what I have kept from all this is close friendship to a group of parents and teachers. I also had gotten deeper insight in the schooling system in the western world. I gained very much more from this experience. What I came to learn most of all is how Home Church principles can give us direction and courage to learn and grow in many ways. Home Church is a method that gives us the guidance how to develop our love and friendship. It should be done in prayer and love for God.
When you have made similar experiences in doing Home Church, please comment and tell about it!
.
Although Home Church traditionally is done in an environment of 360 homes, because the principles are universal, Home Church can be applied in many situations. This story is about some of my experiences with a school where some of my children went.
The school itself was a kind of private school but under rather much government control. The school was based on principles such as teaching children to be creative and free.
Because I wanted to have some influence over how my children were educated at the school, I decided to make the school situation to a kind of Home Church project. This testimony is about seven years of involvement in which I spent about 20 hours weekly to serve the school, its teachers and students and their parents.
My first activity was to volunteer for work in the school garden. The school had a nice garden that had been rather much neglected for a few years. When i first got to meet the school, a group of parents had just formed to clean up the mess. I decided to participate. Already there was a leader of this parents group and the first day that I helped, I was not allowed to enter the school's premises. Instead i was told to clean up the streets around the school. After I had performed well the task to broom the streets, I was asked to get rid of all the weeds that had filled the school's garden. I graduated also from that task and then was permitted to plant flowers.
As time passed, I gradually was accepted to more inner and supposedly more sacred spaces of the school.
It was one of the principles of the school that children would need to be educated in how to grow vegetables. But alas, there was no teacher available for this particular course. So I came up with a plan that parents would help the teachers to give these classes. Several parents volunteered and teachers became enthusiast. For several years it then became my task to teach children and teachers alike how to grow a nice vegetable and flower garden.
Parents, children and teachers participating in this garden work met several times a week. Because I invested more than others, I was asked to become the leader of the parents' group that took care of the garden. Over the years, my work as a volunteer developed. Together with parents, teachers and children we made a nice playground, we gave a new paint to the inside and outside of the school building, we repaired the leaking roof, etc...
After several years I was asked to become the president of the school board. At that stage something interesting happened. I had come to know all the teachers of the school and many of the parents and the children. But becoming the president of the school board meant that I now had to deal with the government who was supervising and controlling the school's activities.
Over several years of time, the school had become an attraction for more parents to have their children educated. The local government felt they were losing control. National-level government officials were sent in to check and they put on the brake, forcing teachers to do things according to official government rules. This kind of government influence frustrated the parents and teachers who had done their volunteering work with so much zeal. Another group of parents and teachers who supported the government, gradually took over the school.
The level of the situation had clearly advanced from one of a local school to a national-level affair. At that time I decided to focus my efforts on other areas of life and I took my children out of that school. Externally, seen from the viewpoint of how the school ended, this project seemed a failure.
But what I have kept from all this is close friendship to a group of parents and teachers. I also had gotten deeper insight in the schooling system in the western world. I gained very much more from this experience. What I came to learn most of all is how Home Church principles can give us direction and courage to learn and grow in many ways. Home Church is a method that gives us the guidance how to develop our love and friendship. It should be done in prayer and love for God.
When you have made similar experiences in doing Home Church, please comment and tell about it!
.
December 7, 2009
Balanced development of spiritual abilities
The level of spiritual awareness that we reached during our lives on earth is what we are going to take with us to spirit world after death of the body. If our spiritual senses haven't developed much during physical life, these senses are not suddenly going to work in the afterlife.
True love is the most important in our existence. True love is also what reigns the spiritual world and it is what binds and unites the spiritual reality with the physical world. Ideally, the development of our spiritual abilities and of our good love go hand in hand. There needs to be balance between our growth as a religious person, as a child of God, and the development of our spirituality, our ability to live as a spiritual being.
Because of the fall, Adam and Eve lost not only their good connection to God, they also lost many of their spiritual abilities. It is of paramount importance that in the course of individual restoration each person restores the spiritual abilities, the awareness of the spiritual world. As completed individuals we are to dominate the world with God's love. The world as a whole, that is not only the physical world but also the spiritual world.
Most people are aware of the dangers of relating to the spirit world. When we browse the internet in these days, we can find countless of sites with information that was said to have been channeled from spirit world. The alleged or true sources of these channelings are many, they range from Jesus to the angel Michael, from angels of light to intergalactic rulers, from ancient deities to common ancestors. How are we going to find our way in all this? What should we believe and not believe to be real and valuable?
Eventually this is going to be an individual decision. Even if we trust, for example, True Parents' judgment, it is still our personal decision to do so. How can we learn to rely on our personal good judgment? All these questions are interrelated.
We must develop our spirituality, we also must learn to have good judgment of what goes on around us. More important than anything else is that the development of our spiritual abilities occurs in a balanced way.
There is to be balance in more than one way. Most importantly, our ability to observe and affect the spiritual world should always be centered on God. To be centered on God means to be living in God's love. It means that all that we do serves God and fellow man and all of creation. Also our spiritual abilities should serve God. If the greed to know about the spiritual world surpasses the desire to do good, there is going to be a problem.
In this context it is important to know that when a person has developed certain spiritual abilities, for example if he or she is able to receive messages from the spiritual world, these abilities are connected to the level of society that this person is serving. Some messages from spirit world only have a personal meaning. If a person receiving such revelations thinks that he or she is very special and therefore should take a central position in a group or church, there could come a problem.
Imagine that a spiritual person, for example a medicine man in a native American tribe, would want to offer his abilities to serve the entire nation of America. There doesn't need to be something wrong with this, but it is clear that when you serve a tribe you have to deal with fewer spirits than when you are serving a large nation. At the moment that a person begins to operate on a larger level, becomes some kind of central figure in a greater group, he or she has to deal with the difficulties on that larger level. In other words, more indemnity must be paid when a larger whole is served.
Often people over-estimate their spiritual abilities and they become arrogant in relation to other people. This is an example of unbalanced development of spiritual abilities.
Another field in which balance must be maintained is spiritual life in relation to physical life. Some people get so focused on being spiritual that they forget the importance of physical existence. Also in such a case, the spiritual person tends to become proud and arrogant and thinks that his or her contributions are more important than those of others.
It is important that the development of abilities in the physical world go along with developments in spiritual matters.
Finally, although knowledge about the spiritual world is essential, for example by study of the Divine Principle, knowledge alone won't do. And it also isn't right when a person tries to have contact to the spiritual world without understanding God's principles.
To summarize: Our spiritual development should be balanced in a number of ways. First of all, any development of spiritual abilities that is not centered on God or under God is very dangerous. True spirituality can only be acquired through a good relationship to God. It was because of the fall that man lost the spiritual awareness. It is by overcoming the fall that good spirituality can be gained back.
Second, there needs to be balance between the development of our spiritual and our physical life.
Third, spiritual experiences need to be accompanied by principled understanding, and principled understanding of the spiritual reality needs to be deepened by real spiritual experiences.
.
True love is the most important in our existence. True love is also what reigns the spiritual world and it is what binds and unites the spiritual reality with the physical world. Ideally, the development of our spiritual abilities and of our good love go hand in hand. There needs to be balance between our growth as a religious person, as a child of God, and the development of our spirituality, our ability to live as a spiritual being.
Because of the fall, Adam and Eve lost not only their good connection to God, they also lost many of their spiritual abilities. It is of paramount importance that in the course of individual restoration each person restores the spiritual abilities, the awareness of the spiritual world. As completed individuals we are to dominate the world with God's love. The world as a whole, that is not only the physical world but also the spiritual world.
Most people are aware of the dangers of relating to the spirit world. When we browse the internet in these days, we can find countless of sites with information that was said to have been channeled from spirit world. The alleged or true sources of these channelings are many, they range from Jesus to the angel Michael, from angels of light to intergalactic rulers, from ancient deities to common ancestors. How are we going to find our way in all this? What should we believe and not believe to be real and valuable?
Eventually this is going to be an individual decision. Even if we trust, for example, True Parents' judgment, it is still our personal decision to do so. How can we learn to rely on our personal good judgment? All these questions are interrelated.
We must develop our spirituality, we also must learn to have good judgment of what goes on around us. More important than anything else is that the development of our spiritual abilities occurs in a balanced way.
There is to be balance in more than one way. Most importantly, our ability to observe and affect the spiritual world should always be centered on God. To be centered on God means to be living in God's love. It means that all that we do serves God and fellow man and all of creation. Also our spiritual abilities should serve God. If the greed to know about the spiritual world surpasses the desire to do good, there is going to be a problem.
In this context it is important to know that when a person has developed certain spiritual abilities, for example if he or she is able to receive messages from the spiritual world, these abilities are connected to the level of society that this person is serving. Some messages from spirit world only have a personal meaning. If a person receiving such revelations thinks that he or she is very special and therefore should take a central position in a group or church, there could come a problem.
Imagine that a spiritual person, for example a medicine man in a native American tribe, would want to offer his abilities to serve the entire nation of America. There doesn't need to be something wrong with this, but it is clear that when you serve a tribe you have to deal with fewer spirits than when you are serving a large nation. At the moment that a person begins to operate on a larger level, becomes some kind of central figure in a greater group, he or she has to deal with the difficulties on that larger level. In other words, more indemnity must be paid when a larger whole is served.
Often people over-estimate their spiritual abilities and they become arrogant in relation to other people. This is an example of unbalanced development of spiritual abilities.
Another field in which balance must be maintained is spiritual life in relation to physical life. Some people get so focused on being spiritual that they forget the importance of physical existence. Also in such a case, the spiritual person tends to become proud and arrogant and thinks that his or her contributions are more important than those of others.
It is important that the development of abilities in the physical world go along with developments in spiritual matters.
Finally, although knowledge about the spiritual world is essential, for example by study of the Divine Principle, knowledge alone won't do. And it also isn't right when a person tries to have contact to the spiritual world without understanding God's principles.
To summarize: Our spiritual development should be balanced in a number of ways. First of all, any development of spiritual abilities that is not centered on God or under God is very dangerous. True spirituality can only be acquired through a good relationship to God. It was because of the fall that man lost the spiritual awareness. It is by overcoming the fall that good spirituality can be gained back.
Second, there needs to be balance between the development of our spiritual and our physical life.
Third, spiritual experiences need to be accompanied by principled understanding, and principled understanding of the spiritual reality needs to be deepened by real spiritual experiences.
.
December 3, 2009
Angels above or below us
It's a common phenomenon in the present time to hear about people who draw attention by their extraordinary knowledge of what they call spirituality and by their perceived working for a future of light and peace for all mankind.
When the lives of these people are studied further, they often testify of meaningful spiritual events at the beginning of their missions. Sometimes such people tell of how a medium to spirit world told them about their special missions, or they had experiences in which angels took them out of their bodies and showed them the spiritual world. Furthermore, they often feel to be guided or even commanded by angels of light.
What's happening in our time of New Age? Are all these people workers of light and do they all cooperate to bring about a new age supposedly to start in the 12th month of 2012?
When we look around in today's world we can see countless organizations and individuals who are all working hard for an upcoming world of peace and light and many of them tell us how they are guided by the spiritual world, by angels or aliens or otherwise.
Let me put a little perspective on this all. Whether angels are white or black, allegedly good or evil, it is the position of man to be centered on God, united with God and then to have loving control over the spiritual world, which includes angels and 'aliens' of all sorts.
Fallen history of mankind began with something that is called 'spiritual fall,' meaning a sinful relationship between Eve and then Adam with an evil angel. The correct order in God's world of the Ideal is that man learns to have loving dominion over the angels. The history of Israel began with Jacob making a victory over an angel, based on the training he had acquired during the 20-year period that he served his uncle Laban, who in Jacob's course represented the archangel.
Nothing ideal will ever come from people who are controlled by angels, not even when these angels are calling themselves angels of light or divine angels or whatever. It can't be ideal when people are controlled by angels because it isn't the correct order when angels dominate man. The order needs to be reversed. People with good heart and good love need to go a course in which they learn to have control over the spiritual world including all angels.
Good angels are supposed to serve man. Good angels can give us reports that are useful, they can give us teaching from that we can learn, but no good angel would ever take the position to tell man what to do and what to think.
So what about the idea that in 2012 a New Age will come? Think about it... If it is God's plan to start a new world, wouldn't all those in spirit world who separated from God know about it? And wouldn't they try to build a false ideal copying God's Ideal? This is what the evil side has always attempted to do.
We need to make good distinction between what really comes from God and what is intended to deceive us. Copies of God's ideal do very much resemble the original ideal, yet there are some differences. One of the main differences is that in God's world man is supposed to have loving dominion over angels. It should never be the other way around.
When the lives of these people are studied further, they often testify of meaningful spiritual events at the beginning of their missions. Sometimes such people tell of how a medium to spirit world told them about their special missions, or they had experiences in which angels took them out of their bodies and showed them the spiritual world. Furthermore, they often feel to be guided or even commanded by angels of light.
What's happening in our time of New Age? Are all these people workers of light and do they all cooperate to bring about a new age supposedly to start in the 12th month of 2012?
When we look around in today's world we can see countless organizations and individuals who are all working hard for an upcoming world of peace and light and many of them tell us how they are guided by the spiritual world, by angels or aliens or otherwise.
Let me put a little perspective on this all. Whether angels are white or black, allegedly good or evil, it is the position of man to be centered on God, united with God and then to have loving control over the spiritual world, which includes angels and 'aliens' of all sorts.
Fallen history of mankind began with something that is called 'spiritual fall,' meaning a sinful relationship between Eve and then Adam with an evil angel. The correct order in God's world of the Ideal is that man learns to have loving dominion over the angels. The history of Israel began with Jacob making a victory over an angel, based on the training he had acquired during the 20-year period that he served his uncle Laban, who in Jacob's course represented the archangel.
Nothing ideal will ever come from people who are controlled by angels, not even when these angels are calling themselves angels of light or divine angels or whatever. It can't be ideal when people are controlled by angels because it isn't the correct order when angels dominate man. The order needs to be reversed. People with good heart and good love need to go a course in which they learn to have control over the spiritual world including all angels.
Good angels are supposed to serve man. Good angels can give us reports that are useful, they can give us teaching from that we can learn, but no good angel would ever take the position to tell man what to do and what to think.
So what about the idea that in 2012 a New Age will come? Think about it... If it is God's plan to start a new world, wouldn't all those in spirit world who separated from God know about it? And wouldn't they try to build a false ideal copying God's Ideal? This is what the evil side has always attempted to do.
We need to make good distinction between what really comes from God and what is intended to deceive us. Copies of God's ideal do very much resemble the original ideal, yet there are some differences. One of the main differences is that in God's world man is supposed to have loving dominion over angels. It should never be the other way around.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
