All that exists is connected through invisible threads. The connections are maintained through love. All creations make part of this. All of creation can be seen as the body of God and so all people, all living beings and also the stars and the planets and the moons are part of God's body of love.
When a soldier engaged in war and rampage tramples a bed of beautiful flowers, he does not only destroy the beauty of these flowers, but he also causes pain in the heart of the person who cultivated them and he causes pain in the heart of God who is the origin of the love that brought forth such beauty.
The earth is the organism largest and closest to us. Many people see the earth as a dead thing, but how could the earth be dead knowing that the earth produces the mountains and the seas, the trees and the flowers and all the beauty of life that lives on and in its surface.
What is the relationship between Heaven and Earth? Heaven means the world of spirit, the world of God in spirit and the world of angels and of our ancestors. Heaven also is the place of our eternal home. Earth is the environment where we grow up. Since oldest times cultures have known the principle that we must keep to friends Heaven and Earth. We are situated between Heaven and Earth and to live a good life we need to maintain a good relationship to either one of these.
Making out our physical environment, the Earth nourishes us and gives life to our physical bodies. No day passes by without us being in total dependency of the Earth and all it gives us. But the Earth also is our main spiritual environment. Our ancestors who are with us in the spiritual world live on the spiritual Earth.
When we maltreat the physical Earth, it cannot but respond to the inflictions brought upon it. When we deplete the soil of the Earth of its fertility, one day the Earth will refuse to give us bread. We are connected with the Earth through invisible connections of love as the Earth and all other creations of God are one body. If one of the organs of the body are ill, the entire body suffers. We cannot speak about love for fellow man if we cannot love the Earth and all living creatures and things on it.
This is not only an external or a physical concept. This idea has deep spiritual meaning. When we mistreat the Earth, it cannot but be in pain because its harmony and beauty are being destroyed. It may sound strange to some to speak about the pain of the Earth, but why would it be abnormal to speak of pain in what makes out part of God's body? It is God who suffers when our Earth is mistreated because God made the Earth for all of us to have good life. Without a healthy and prospering earth there cannot be good life for all people. Because we are children of God, God suffers when God's love as expressed through the Earth is not well understood.
Because the Earth also is our main spiritual habitat, we cannot have a good life in the afterlife when we made a bad relationship to the Earth. When love is missing for the Earth, love is missing for all people who are dependent on the Earth. When love is missing, also true spiritual life will fail.
This is why in our lives of faith we should not be out for power in the world of man, but we should learn to cultivate the Earth well. A profession such as that of farmer can become a deeply religious and spiritual experience. This is when the farmer learns how to relate well to the Earth, if he replenishes the fertility of the Earth, if he comes to understand about how everything is interconnected, if he discovers about the energetic qualities of the Earth and its rivers and mountains, the air and the birds. If however the goal of a person is to acquire power and wealth, whatever his intended religious goals may be, he will fail in the end because he separates himself from the love and beauty and spirituality that God has created in our home that we call Earth.
November 25, 2009
November 13, 2009
What to do when there comes disunity in a heavenly organization?
There are individuals who have gotten central responsibilities in order to make this a better world. These individuals are the center of faith of families and tribes or organizations with a similar responsibility. Because these central individuals, families and tribes are taking responsibility to solve large and historical problems, they get to deal with evils that have been stored in the spiritual world.
How does it work? Angels and human spirits who made mistakes and who instigated evil in the past have gotten control over societies on earth to a certain degree. God picks and raises central figures of faith whose task it is to start a better world. In order to do this externally, in the visible physical world, they must first fight and win a personal battle against such evil spirits.
On the basis of having won such battles, God can give them the Word. Such people get inspirations and guidance on the foundation of having won the spiritual fight. From that moment on these people can pass on what they learned to others around them. At that moment, there is not only a central individual but also a central family of faith and there may come into being a central tribe, organization or nation.
Now, on a family, tribal or national level, the same order applies. That family, tribe, organization or nation must win a spiritual battle on the family, tribal, organizational or national level. Each time that this battle is won at a certain level, new truth will emerge which then must be expressed into the good societies that are being built.
What does it mean when a Cain-Abel problem emerges in such a family, tribe, organization or nation? It simply means that the first stage of spiritual battle has not or not yet been won by that heavenly group. There has been invasion of evil spirits to a certain degree and these spirits have inspired some people with words that aren't true, with feelings that aren't right, and to actions that better aren't performed.
When such a Cain-Abel problem emerges, it isn't always so that the one side is right and the other side is wrong. It could be so, but it can also be that both sides are under influence from evil spirits, to differing degrees and possibly also from different groups as they have formed in the spiritual world. The dividing line between Cain and Abel is not always that between evil and good spirits. In many cases, evil invaded both groups, but in different ways.
Whenever such divisions occur inside heavenly families, tribes, organizations or nations, one thing is clear, and that is that there wasn't made a decisive victory over the evil spiritual world. There may or may not still be central individuals unaffected by that evil and who can still stand in the central heavenly position. Yet, their task will become increasingly difficult as the ones following in their footsteps are not united with them centered on God. This is not a good expansion of the heavenly center, but it is problematic and the problems need to be solved.
It doesn't really matter how great those heavenly figures are in the center. The problems in their connected families and groups, when they occur, still must be solved. Jacob became Israel and as such became the central figure of faith for a tribe and nation that was to be established under God. But Jacob and his descendants had to deal with the historical problems as these had been stored in the spiritual world. The tribe and nation of Israel were attacked by such evil spirits and they had to overcome the difficulties.
What can those people do who are not in the most central positions when problems of disunity occur in the center of their group? Of course, the most obvious is to pray, but more can be done. The evil from spirit world always tries to invade using the outer shells to penetrate into the inner shells. When the central family of such a group is affected in a negative way, it therefore automatically means that the problems are not only in the center but more pervasively in the people that form these outer shells.
It is therefore possible for all people in such a group and organization to engage in deep self-reflection and prayer and to discover what has gone wrong in or around them. In that way, causes of the evil invasion can be found and overcome and the attacks on the center will become less severe and less difficult to handle by those who are in the center.
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How does it work? Angels and human spirits who made mistakes and who instigated evil in the past have gotten control over societies on earth to a certain degree. God picks and raises central figures of faith whose task it is to start a better world. In order to do this externally, in the visible physical world, they must first fight and win a personal battle against such evil spirits.
On the basis of having won such battles, God can give them the Word. Such people get inspirations and guidance on the foundation of having won the spiritual fight. From that moment on these people can pass on what they learned to others around them. At that moment, there is not only a central individual but also a central family of faith and there may come into being a central tribe, organization or nation.
Now, on a family, tribal or national level, the same order applies. That family, tribe, organization or nation must win a spiritual battle on the family, tribal, organizational or national level. Each time that this battle is won at a certain level, new truth will emerge which then must be expressed into the good societies that are being built.
What does it mean when a Cain-Abel problem emerges in such a family, tribe, organization or nation? It simply means that the first stage of spiritual battle has not or not yet been won by that heavenly group. There has been invasion of evil spirits to a certain degree and these spirits have inspired some people with words that aren't true, with feelings that aren't right, and to actions that better aren't performed.
When such a Cain-Abel problem emerges, it isn't always so that the one side is right and the other side is wrong. It could be so, but it can also be that both sides are under influence from evil spirits, to differing degrees and possibly also from different groups as they have formed in the spiritual world. The dividing line between Cain and Abel is not always that between evil and good spirits. In many cases, evil invaded both groups, but in different ways.
Whenever such divisions occur inside heavenly families, tribes, organizations or nations, one thing is clear, and that is that there wasn't made a decisive victory over the evil spiritual world. There may or may not still be central individuals unaffected by that evil and who can still stand in the central heavenly position. Yet, their task will become increasingly difficult as the ones following in their footsteps are not united with them centered on God. This is not a good expansion of the heavenly center, but it is problematic and the problems need to be solved.
It doesn't really matter how great those heavenly figures are in the center. The problems in their connected families and groups, when they occur, still must be solved. Jacob became Israel and as such became the central figure of faith for a tribe and nation that was to be established under God. But Jacob and his descendants had to deal with the historical problems as these had been stored in the spiritual world. The tribe and nation of Israel were attacked by such evil spirits and they had to overcome the difficulties.
What can those people do who are not in the most central positions when problems of disunity occur in the center of their group? Of course, the most obvious is to pray, but more can be done. The evil from spirit world always tries to invade using the outer shells to penetrate into the inner shells. When the central family of such a group is affected in a negative way, it therefore automatically means that the problems are not only in the center but more pervasively in the people that form these outer shells.
It is therefore possible for all people in such a group and organization to engage in deep self-reflection and prayer and to discover what has gone wrong in or around them. In that way, causes of the evil invasion can be found and overcome and the attacks on the center will become less severe and less difficult to handle by those who are in the center.
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November 7, 2009
Three Stages of Spiritual Abilities
As we grow in learning to have good dominion over the spiritual world, we go through three stages. These stages are not exactly the same as the stages of growth to individual maturity in God's love. They specifically refer to spiritual abilities, which we need to develop in some kind of way, but which by themselves are not a guarantee to be on the good side.
There are parallel paths to go for each of us for different facets of our development. For example, if we want to write truth, we go through stages of growth in our command over language, but not all those who write great literature are on God's side and not all those who advanced in growth under God have great language skills.
I am regularly writing about the dangers that can come to us when we explore the spiritual world and are learning to deal with it. Having said this, here are three stages of development of spiritual development. This also reads as a scanty listing of what is possible for us in terms of spiritual experiences. The overview is not complete and I also do not assume that each person will go through exactly these stages. There are individual differences. Some people develop specialist spiritual abilities to a high degree while others may learn to master all of these traits together.
In the stage of awakening of spiritual abilities, the first stage of growth in this field, we begin to develop a better intuition for the meaning of what takes place in the world around. That intuition is our guiding rod and will remain so for however far we advance. This intuition should be connected to God, it should be original and can then safeguard us against many dangers. In this stage people begin to dream dreams with meaningful content. People sometimes are conscious of being inspired by good spirit world and these inspirations enhance their creativity. People develop a beginning awareness of the existence of spirit world and will sometimes see, hear, smell or feel spirits. What also often develops in this stage is to have premonitions of future events and sensitivity to what other people feel and think. A good example is that people think of a person and then the telephone rings and this person is on the line.
In the second stage of spiritual development, people begin to receive revelations from spirit world. Sometimes this takes the form of automatic writing in which a spirit controls the content of what is written.These kinds of revelations can be given in different fields of life, such as religion, art. music or any creative undertaking. People can now develop the ability to consciously converse with spirits and some people learn to be a medium for spirits to a degree that their bodies or voices are used to express information from spirit world. Some people in this stage begin to have occasional visons and the number of meaningful dreams increases. As people develop conscious relations with spirits, there also is an enhanced danger to be fooled by angels. One has to make a victory over these angels and distinguish right from wrong in order to enter the third stage successfully. Some people enter the third stage of spiritual development in a false way, by cooperating with evil spirits.
In a third stage of development, people develop advanced intuition. They will propably have foresight and foreknowledge of more events. Some people in this stage learn to have spiritual communication with other physical people living on earth. This kind of communication can take the form of a conversation that is entirely spiritual but the physical people do not meet. See this as a kind of spiritual telephone communication. In this stage one can develop advanced meaningful dreams and visions and the own creativity becomes gradually more and more immersed with revelations received from spirit world. It is also possible for some people that their spirit leaves their physical body and enters the spiritual world and after this returns to the body.
The third stage of spiritual development is near-endless in its possiblities for further growth. Some people and also angels have abilities of which existence most people have no idea.
Note that the path of spiritual development doesn't automatically mean that people develop several other abilities, such as spiritual healing or the command over seeing energies of chakras and the ability to use spiritual energies in other ways. All this needs additional training based on having inherited more or less talent for this.
Please be again aware that being spiritually developed in the above ways does not automatically mean that this is done under God's dominion. Some people develop spiritual abilities because they are helped to do so by evil angels. There is therefore great danger in seeking spiritual development as a goal in itself. Spiritual abilities should always only serve God and be offered to God.
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There are parallel paths to go for each of us for different facets of our development. For example, if we want to write truth, we go through stages of growth in our command over language, but not all those who write great literature are on God's side and not all those who advanced in growth under God have great language skills.
I am regularly writing about the dangers that can come to us when we explore the spiritual world and are learning to deal with it. Having said this, here are three stages of development of spiritual development. This also reads as a scanty listing of what is possible for us in terms of spiritual experiences. The overview is not complete and I also do not assume that each person will go through exactly these stages. There are individual differences. Some people develop specialist spiritual abilities to a high degree while others may learn to master all of these traits together.
In the stage of awakening of spiritual abilities, the first stage of growth in this field, we begin to develop a better intuition for the meaning of what takes place in the world around. That intuition is our guiding rod and will remain so for however far we advance. This intuition should be connected to God, it should be original and can then safeguard us against many dangers. In this stage people begin to dream dreams with meaningful content. People sometimes are conscious of being inspired by good spirit world and these inspirations enhance their creativity. People develop a beginning awareness of the existence of spirit world and will sometimes see, hear, smell or feel spirits. What also often develops in this stage is to have premonitions of future events and sensitivity to what other people feel and think. A good example is that people think of a person and then the telephone rings and this person is on the line.
In the second stage of spiritual development, people begin to receive revelations from spirit world. Sometimes this takes the form of automatic writing in which a spirit controls the content of what is written.These kinds of revelations can be given in different fields of life, such as religion, art. music or any creative undertaking. People can now develop the ability to consciously converse with spirits and some people learn to be a medium for spirits to a degree that their bodies or voices are used to express information from spirit world. Some people in this stage begin to have occasional visons and the number of meaningful dreams increases. As people develop conscious relations with spirits, there also is an enhanced danger to be fooled by angels. One has to make a victory over these angels and distinguish right from wrong in order to enter the third stage successfully. Some people enter the third stage of spiritual development in a false way, by cooperating with evil spirits.
In a third stage of development, people develop advanced intuition. They will propably have foresight and foreknowledge of more events. Some people in this stage learn to have spiritual communication with other physical people living on earth. This kind of communication can take the form of a conversation that is entirely spiritual but the physical people do not meet. See this as a kind of spiritual telephone communication. In this stage one can develop advanced meaningful dreams and visions and the own creativity becomes gradually more and more immersed with revelations received from spirit world. It is also possible for some people that their spirit leaves their physical body and enters the spiritual world and after this returns to the body.
The third stage of spiritual development is near-endless in its possiblities for further growth. Some people and also angels have abilities of which existence most people have no idea.
Note that the path of spiritual development doesn't automatically mean that people develop several other abilities, such as spiritual healing or the command over seeing energies of chakras and the ability to use spiritual energies in other ways. All this needs additional training based on having inherited more or less talent for this.
Please be again aware that being spiritually developed in the above ways does not automatically mean that this is done under God's dominion. Some people develop spiritual abilities because they are helped to do so by evil angels. There is therefore great danger in seeking spiritual development as a goal in itself. Spiritual abilities should always only serve God and be offered to God.
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November 5, 2009
Before you believe that every angel is good...
Before you believe that every angel is good, consider that there are angels of darkness posing as angels of light and they may have applied one of the following tricks...
One of the schemes used by them is equivalent to a king secretly sending out a troop of crooks to kidnap a nice lady. When the lady is brought to a prison, the king comes to that prison and liberates the lady and wins her heart. Sometimes dark angels may put spiritual prison situations upon you only to later appear as your liberators.
What about this one? Give revelations about upcoming disasters and that few people are going to be saved. At the same time make sure that the predictions come true. Cause those disasters and tempt a few people on earth to believe in a secret and sacred way that is given to them. Cause other groups of people to become evil so the disasters brought upon mankind seem justified, and tempt the elect to believe they are better than the people who don't know about spirituality. Because the prophecies turn out to be true by the own making of these angels, the elect really believe that they are the saved and chosen ones and will accept their angel-heroes without questioning.
Here is another often used temptation. Make a central figure of faith believe that he is very great. Make him also believe that for some reason or another,he made you discover the truth about God's love and about how terrible it is to be evil and that you determined to repent and to stop being evil. Make this central figure believe that he is the only one capable of helping you. In that way he will accept you to come closer to him and you can invade his relatives and followers and make a lot of trouble.
Another often applied trick by evil angels is the following. Organize the spiritual world to give help in all possible ways to a certain person on earth. Make money and power come to him. Give visions and revelations to people that this person is the most special one and make him believe that all the blessings bestowed upon him are the work of God. Chances are that he never finds out that these blessings did not come from God, that the people sent to him are good-willing but misled at the same time. Once he accepts the blessings as if coming from God, he will see your efforts as being initiated by God. Even if this person on earth has much faith in God, he may lose it as he more and more trusts the angels who played this trick on him.
You want to hear another one? Cause an illness in the body of someone loved by a central person whom you wish to get under you. Let this be succeeded by a miraculous recovery and give revelations and visions to people on earth that this recovery came because of the outstanding faith of the central person. In this way, people on earth will gain faith that this group of angels is working for God and so these angels can dominate.
We need to be sharp in our relationship to spirit world and above all, we need to pray and ask God about each phenomenon taking place. Never assume that the most obvious is automatically true. Not all angels are evil and not all spiritual phenomena are meant to deceive, but in order to distinguish, we need a deep relationship to God and we need to grow in experience on our path of faith.
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One of the schemes used by them is equivalent to a king secretly sending out a troop of crooks to kidnap a nice lady. When the lady is brought to a prison, the king comes to that prison and liberates the lady and wins her heart. Sometimes dark angels may put spiritual prison situations upon you only to later appear as your liberators.
What about this one? Give revelations about upcoming disasters and that few people are going to be saved. At the same time make sure that the predictions come true. Cause those disasters and tempt a few people on earth to believe in a secret and sacred way that is given to them. Cause other groups of people to become evil so the disasters brought upon mankind seem justified, and tempt the elect to believe they are better than the people who don't know about spirituality. Because the prophecies turn out to be true by the own making of these angels, the elect really believe that they are the saved and chosen ones and will accept their angel-heroes without questioning.
Here is another often used temptation. Make a central figure of faith believe that he is very great. Make him also believe that for some reason or another,he made you discover the truth about God's love and about how terrible it is to be evil and that you determined to repent and to stop being evil. Make this central figure believe that he is the only one capable of helping you. In that way he will accept you to come closer to him and you can invade his relatives and followers and make a lot of trouble.
Another often applied trick by evil angels is the following. Organize the spiritual world to give help in all possible ways to a certain person on earth. Make money and power come to him. Give visions and revelations to people that this person is the most special one and make him believe that all the blessings bestowed upon him are the work of God. Chances are that he never finds out that these blessings did not come from God, that the people sent to him are good-willing but misled at the same time. Once he accepts the blessings as if coming from God, he will see your efforts as being initiated by God. Even if this person on earth has much faith in God, he may lose it as he more and more trusts the angels who played this trick on him.
You want to hear another one? Cause an illness in the body of someone loved by a central person whom you wish to get under you. Let this be succeeded by a miraculous recovery and give revelations and visions to people on earth that this recovery came because of the outstanding faith of the central person. In this way, people on earth will gain faith that this group of angels is working for God and so these angels can dominate.
We need to be sharp in our relationship to spirit world and above all, we need to pray and ask God about each phenomenon taking place. Never assume that the most obvious is automatically true. Not all angels are evil and not all spiritual phenomena are meant to deceive, but in order to distinguish, we need a deep relationship to God and we need to grow in experience on our path of faith.
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October 31, 2009
Motivating ourselves to live with God
To whatever religion we belong, for most of us it is again and again difficult to motivate ourselves to go our course to live with God. What can be done about it?
First we need to realize that God never wants us to do something unvoluntarily. The reason for this is that we are created to have freedom. The deeper meaning is that God made it such that when we give to God or to others, it also really will be a free gift. Love that is received by demanding it from someone or by tempting someone to give it has no deep meaning. It isn't really love because the person giving that love does it to acquire a certain self-centered benefit.
Therefore, God never asks us to do something that we don't really want to do. How does this relate to our own motivation to live with God? It means that whenever we seriously lack desire to do what we may think we have to do for God, we should not do it. That is my own take on life. Instead, I go in prayer until I found out from where my disliking came. Sometimes in prayer I realize that I did not deeply enough understand God's desire. Sometimes also I realize that what I thought was God's will, wasn't really wanted by God. In the first case, my motivation has deepened and I can do what I know i have to do. In the second case, I was right in not wanting to do it and I can find out what I should do instead.
One big problem can be when God's will is passed on to us by a religious leader. Sometimes a religious leader misunderstands what is God's will. Sometimes a religious leader knows what externally is God's will but he or she does not represent God in terms of love and understanding.
Even when a religious leader knows what is God's will and also has a good relationship to God and love for us, it still is essential that we establish a direct relationship to God about God's will. We all are children of God and God wishes to relate to each of us directly. Furthermore, even if our leader correctly understands God's will, it is not enough for us to blindly follow. We may entirely misunderstand the meaning of what God wants from us and if we have such misunderstanding, it will lead to problems in our life of faith. Even if we can totally trust a central figure, we still need to ask God because we may be lacking in our own comprehension of what he or she tells us.
So we always need to pray to God about all that we do, because it is the right relationship between parents and child and because it is the only way for us to be sure that we have the right understanding of God's will.
Sometimes this can lead to conflicts with the people around us. If a leader or a parental figure has a bad time and isn't connected well to God, we may get problems in our relationship with him or her. If we perceive it to be God's will to do certain things in life, our relatives and friends may have other opinions and find us weird or even openly oppose us.
Also in these cases, the only way to solve it is in prayer. When we pray, God can explain to us the meaning of the problems we have. God always wants to help us with each problem in our lives of faith. We have this assurance because of God's deep love for each of us.
Maybe the most common problem of lacking motivation to do God's will is when we are addicted to a life style that isn't centered on God. It is the nature of sin that it is liked by many people, but sin destroys our heart of love and our desire to do good. Always when our lack of motivation is caused by our own sins, there is only one solution. It is to stop sinning and to go back to God in repentance.
There are still many other ways in which we can motivate ourselves to love God and to live with God. One important method is the study of God's Word. Another gate to God's love is the beauty of creation. Maybe the most effective way to understand God's love and to be motivated in our love for God is by giving out good love ourselves.
But all these roads can be misdirected as well. We could enjoy the beauty of creation in a selfish way. We could be blinded by wrong doctrine to see the real truth in Books of God's Word. We could give love but forget to establish a personal relationship to God and our love may not be the best way of expressing God's love. Therefore, we do absolutely and always need sincere and personal prayer to keep a close relationship to God.
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First we need to realize that God never wants us to do something unvoluntarily. The reason for this is that we are created to have freedom. The deeper meaning is that God made it such that when we give to God or to others, it also really will be a free gift. Love that is received by demanding it from someone or by tempting someone to give it has no deep meaning. It isn't really love because the person giving that love does it to acquire a certain self-centered benefit.
Therefore, God never asks us to do something that we don't really want to do. How does this relate to our own motivation to live with God? It means that whenever we seriously lack desire to do what we may think we have to do for God, we should not do it. That is my own take on life. Instead, I go in prayer until I found out from where my disliking came. Sometimes in prayer I realize that I did not deeply enough understand God's desire. Sometimes also I realize that what I thought was God's will, wasn't really wanted by God. In the first case, my motivation has deepened and I can do what I know i have to do. In the second case, I was right in not wanting to do it and I can find out what I should do instead.
One big problem can be when God's will is passed on to us by a religious leader. Sometimes a religious leader misunderstands what is God's will. Sometimes a religious leader knows what externally is God's will but he or she does not represent God in terms of love and understanding.
Even when a religious leader knows what is God's will and also has a good relationship to God and love for us, it still is essential that we establish a direct relationship to God about God's will. We all are children of God and God wishes to relate to each of us directly. Furthermore, even if our leader correctly understands God's will, it is not enough for us to blindly follow. We may entirely misunderstand the meaning of what God wants from us and if we have such misunderstanding, it will lead to problems in our life of faith. Even if we can totally trust a central figure, we still need to ask God because we may be lacking in our own comprehension of what he or she tells us.
So we always need to pray to God about all that we do, because it is the right relationship between parents and child and because it is the only way for us to be sure that we have the right understanding of God's will.
Sometimes this can lead to conflicts with the people around us. If a leader or a parental figure has a bad time and isn't connected well to God, we may get problems in our relationship with him or her. If we perceive it to be God's will to do certain things in life, our relatives and friends may have other opinions and find us weird or even openly oppose us.
Also in these cases, the only way to solve it is in prayer. When we pray, God can explain to us the meaning of the problems we have. God always wants to help us with each problem in our lives of faith. We have this assurance because of God's deep love for each of us.
Maybe the most common problem of lacking motivation to do God's will is when we are addicted to a life style that isn't centered on God. It is the nature of sin that it is liked by many people, but sin destroys our heart of love and our desire to do good. Always when our lack of motivation is caused by our own sins, there is only one solution. It is to stop sinning and to go back to God in repentance.
There are still many other ways in which we can motivate ourselves to love God and to live with God. One important method is the study of God's Word. Another gate to God's love is the beauty of creation. Maybe the most effective way to understand God's love and to be motivated in our love for God is by giving out good love ourselves.
But all these roads can be misdirected as well. We could enjoy the beauty of creation in a selfish way. We could be blinded by wrong doctrine to see the real truth in Books of God's Word. We could give love but forget to establish a personal relationship to God and our love may not be the best way of expressing God's love. Therefore, we do absolutely and always need sincere and personal prayer to keep a close relationship to God.
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October 27, 2009
Levels of individual spiritual growth and realms in spirit world
It is generally thought that our level of individual spiritual growth relates directly to the realm where we come to live in spirit world. Although this relation does exist, there is more to be said about this.
Let me start with a comparison from the physical world. In society people have enjoyed higher or lower degrees of education and many have specialized in certain fields of science or other realms of life. There exists a group in the world that is formed of those who became professors at universities. Another group is made up by teachers at high schools. Yet another group is that of those who became masters in a guild of a certain craft, such as cabinet making.
The members of each of these groups sometimes meet and when they do, they can relate to each other well as long as they speak about topics of interests they share. But each of these people also are members of other groups. For example, they have relatives, or may belong to a certain church or religion.
Now think of the idea that when you reached a certain spiritual level of growth, you will come to live in a realm in spirit world that corresponds to that realm. The principle for this is true, but at the same time the daily reality for spirits may often look very different.
Is there for example a region in spirit world where all faithful Jews reside? Look at the situation of Jews in the physical world. Even though Jews form groups and associations among themselves, it doesn't mean that they all are united, also not when they would have reached the same spiritual level. The same can be said of Christians. On earth, they divide in thousands of smaller denominations. How would they be able to live united in one realm in spirit world?
Just like it is the case on earth, in spirit world there are many, very many groups and regions that correspond to geographical areas on earth. There are spirits who can enter many of these regions and visit many groups, and there are spirits who got stuck in a certain situation and place in the spiritual world, just like there are people in the physical world who got stuck in their interest for only one hobby or who learned much but only much about the one specialism of their profession.
So what is the meaning of the principle that there exist realms in spirit world that correspond to the levels of individual spiritual growth of individuals? The reality as I have seen in spirit world is that this can be understood similarly to saying that when you have reached a certain degree at college, you can move in the circles of those who also have done this. It doesn't mean that you are bound to a place where all the people reside who have reached the same level of education. Similarly, when you have reached a certain level of spiritual maturity, it doesn't mean that you are bound to live together with all others who also did this.
There is one beautiful exception, and that is for what we can call the Kingdom of Heaven. In the Kingdom of Heaven there are living those who are united in love for God and for one another. The Kingdom of Heaven is the place where love reigns. But does this mean that the Kingdom of Heaven is only a place where all people under God come together?
Think of it. If you are a loving person, would you not want to go out in the world and serve and love other people? Is that not the essence of being a person who found the love of God? So where will you be in spirit world most of the time? You won't be living only with your relatives in the love of God, but you will want to spread on God's love to all those who are in need of this.
Also living in the Kingdom of Heaven are all the children of the parents who love God. These children may sometimes be very young and therefore cannot yet have reached a higher spiritual level of maturity. Still, they also make part of the Kingdom of Heaven, not because of what they have learned in their lives but because of the love they inherited from God and their ancestors and parents.
The Kingdom of Heaven is the place where all people are living who really love God. It is a magical place where we can meet our first and True Parents as well as all the angels under God. We can live there in harmony with our ancestors who lived thousands of years ago and we hear their stories how they lived, across the earth in all cultures. Yet at the same time, it isn't a place where we are going to lock ourselves up. The Kingdom of Heaven could not survive if its inhabitants would do that. The Kingdom of Heaven, by the nature of God's love, will always be expanding and the residents will always be outgoing into all other parts of the spiritual and physical world. Alone for that reason, we should not imagine it to be a place where we can enjoy all imaginable blessings. We receive God's blessings when we are giving out love. Anyone would lose membership of the Kingdom of Heaen who would stop sharing God's love with those who need God's love most, who are living in some kind of dark and miserable hell.
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Let me start with a comparison from the physical world. In society people have enjoyed higher or lower degrees of education and many have specialized in certain fields of science or other realms of life. There exists a group in the world that is formed of those who became professors at universities. Another group is made up by teachers at high schools. Yet another group is that of those who became masters in a guild of a certain craft, such as cabinet making.
The members of each of these groups sometimes meet and when they do, they can relate to each other well as long as they speak about topics of interests they share. But each of these people also are members of other groups. For example, they have relatives, or may belong to a certain church or religion.
Now think of the idea that when you reached a certain spiritual level of growth, you will come to live in a realm in spirit world that corresponds to that realm. The principle for this is true, but at the same time the daily reality for spirits may often look very different.
Is there for example a region in spirit world where all faithful Jews reside? Look at the situation of Jews in the physical world. Even though Jews form groups and associations among themselves, it doesn't mean that they all are united, also not when they would have reached the same spiritual level. The same can be said of Christians. On earth, they divide in thousands of smaller denominations. How would they be able to live united in one realm in spirit world?
Just like it is the case on earth, in spirit world there are many, very many groups and regions that correspond to geographical areas on earth. There are spirits who can enter many of these regions and visit many groups, and there are spirits who got stuck in a certain situation and place in the spiritual world, just like there are people in the physical world who got stuck in their interest for only one hobby or who learned much but only much about the one specialism of their profession.
So what is the meaning of the principle that there exist realms in spirit world that correspond to the levels of individual spiritual growth of individuals? The reality as I have seen in spirit world is that this can be understood similarly to saying that when you have reached a certain degree at college, you can move in the circles of those who also have done this. It doesn't mean that you are bound to a place where all the people reside who have reached the same level of education. Similarly, when you have reached a certain level of spiritual maturity, it doesn't mean that you are bound to live together with all others who also did this.
There is one beautiful exception, and that is for what we can call the Kingdom of Heaven. In the Kingdom of Heaven there are living those who are united in love for God and for one another. The Kingdom of Heaven is the place where love reigns. But does this mean that the Kingdom of Heaven is only a place where all people under God come together?
Think of it. If you are a loving person, would you not want to go out in the world and serve and love other people? Is that not the essence of being a person who found the love of God? So where will you be in spirit world most of the time? You won't be living only with your relatives in the love of God, but you will want to spread on God's love to all those who are in need of this.
Also living in the Kingdom of Heaven are all the children of the parents who love God. These children may sometimes be very young and therefore cannot yet have reached a higher spiritual level of maturity. Still, they also make part of the Kingdom of Heaven, not because of what they have learned in their lives but because of the love they inherited from God and their ancestors and parents.
The Kingdom of Heaven is the place where all people are living who really love God. It is a magical place where we can meet our first and True Parents as well as all the angels under God. We can live there in harmony with our ancestors who lived thousands of years ago and we hear their stories how they lived, across the earth in all cultures. Yet at the same time, it isn't a place where we are going to lock ourselves up. The Kingdom of Heaven could not survive if its inhabitants would do that. The Kingdom of Heaven, by the nature of God's love, will always be expanding and the residents will always be outgoing into all other parts of the spiritual and physical world. Alone for that reason, we should not imagine it to be a place where we can enjoy all imaginable blessings. We receive God's blessings when we are giving out love. Anyone would lose membership of the Kingdom of Heaen who would stop sharing God's love with those who need God's love most, who are living in some kind of dark and miserable hell.
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October 25, 2009
Breathing truth like the fragrance of a flower
We can rely on the truth to lead us to our safe destination. The truth is like the fragrance of a flower. We know that the flower is beautiful when we smell its perfume. Our nose tells us that a flower is graceful and our eyes confirm that realization.
The fragrance of a flower is like the truth of God and the visible flower shows us the love of God expressed in beauty.
Sometimes we are so busy with the occupations of our daily lives that while we speed to our work we don't notice the sweet smell and the beauty of all that is around us. We may miss to see the shining eyes of a child and we may not detect the colors of the dawning of this day's sun. The truth and beauty and love of God are all around us. It is given to us as a free present. We do not need to wait for God's love to come to us. It is already there and all we need to do is to embrace it.
How is it that our senses often become so closed that we miss the greatest gifts around us? There are these disturbing influences everywhere. There is pollution in the world of creation and there is pollution in the world of our hearts and minds. Something has come into our world that we don't like and yet we are destined to live with it and bound to overcome it.
We call it Satan or the work of the devil. We give it a name and then go on with our perceived daily duties.
The truth is given to us on a foundation of our own effort. The truth doesn't just come to us cheap. The truth has a price. That price is first of all that we make a condition to liberate us from what's wrong. It's called separation from Satan or separation from evil. We cannot make a Foundation of Faith without making a separation from what's not of God.
We can study the truth but that could be like a scientist studies the properties of a plant. He may be able to write books about it but at the same time may have missed the experience of the love that God expresses through the flowers. When we only study the truth we can become like those scientists that even though they study God's creation do not really believe in God.
The truth may be learned through study but we cannot experience its beauty and be uplifted by its fragrance unless we live the truth. To live the truth is, in technical terms, called the Foundation of Faith. We make our Foundation of Faith all the time, by each act that we do, by each task we fulfill, as long as we're doing what God is asking us.
In order for us to know what God is asking us, we need to push aside all that attracted us and that now controls us that didn't come from God. We need to see the pure reality through what we may perceive as reality but which is nothing else than the empty entertaining in our worldly daily lives.
And when we liberated ourselves from all the distractions and we simply live the way we have to live, then there are these moments, sudden and unexpected, in which we are intoxicated by the beauty and the fragrance of those beautiful flowers of truth that God has given us.
.
The fragrance of a flower is like the truth of God and the visible flower shows us the love of God expressed in beauty.
Sometimes we are so busy with the occupations of our daily lives that while we speed to our work we don't notice the sweet smell and the beauty of all that is around us. We may miss to see the shining eyes of a child and we may not detect the colors of the dawning of this day's sun. The truth and beauty and love of God are all around us. It is given to us as a free present. We do not need to wait for God's love to come to us. It is already there and all we need to do is to embrace it.
How is it that our senses often become so closed that we miss the greatest gifts around us? There are these disturbing influences everywhere. There is pollution in the world of creation and there is pollution in the world of our hearts and minds. Something has come into our world that we don't like and yet we are destined to live with it and bound to overcome it.
We call it Satan or the work of the devil. We give it a name and then go on with our perceived daily duties.
The truth is given to us on a foundation of our own effort. The truth doesn't just come to us cheap. The truth has a price. That price is first of all that we make a condition to liberate us from what's wrong. It's called separation from Satan or separation from evil. We cannot make a Foundation of Faith without making a separation from what's not of God.
We can study the truth but that could be like a scientist studies the properties of a plant. He may be able to write books about it but at the same time may have missed the experience of the love that God expresses through the flowers. When we only study the truth we can become like those scientists that even though they study God's creation do not really believe in God.
The truth may be learned through study but we cannot experience its beauty and be uplifted by its fragrance unless we live the truth. To live the truth is, in technical terms, called the Foundation of Faith. We make our Foundation of Faith all the time, by each act that we do, by each task we fulfill, as long as we're doing what God is asking us.
In order for us to know what God is asking us, we need to push aside all that attracted us and that now controls us that didn't come from God. We need to see the pure reality through what we may perceive as reality but which is nothing else than the empty entertaining in our worldly daily lives.
And when we liberated ourselves from all the distractions and we simply live the way we have to live, then there are these moments, sudden and unexpected, in which we are intoxicated by the beauty and the fragrance of those beautiful flowers of truth that God has given us.
.
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