Chapter 1 - Lost and Forgotten

I truly wonder if we really know who we are, what we are. IMO we have forgotten. Who and what we are has become so muddled and downplayed over the last few thousand years. It really is no surprise that mankind is so confused and divided.

We have forgotten who and what we are because we have forgotten who our Source is. Our Source is an all powerful, all knowing, being of pure spirit and energy that is the cohesiveness that holds this universe together right down to the smallest organism. There are many names for Source, I choose to call Him God (and yes refer to God as a He –I am male after all).

Religion has taught us that God is an angry, wrathful being of vengeance and destruction. It seems that anytime a natural disaster happens (Katrina and Haiti come to mind) that some religious group blames or credits God for the disaster. Even insurance companies have an “acts of God” clause that seems to imply that forces of nature are somehow attributed to a vengeful act of a ticked off God. It appears that we have re-created God in our image, rather that realizing that we were created in His image.

Perhaps there was a time that God dealt with mankind in this manner. The Old Testament is full of accounts of the wrath and destruction of an angry God. That was a very long time ago and since the 1st coming of Jesus Christ, God or Source deals with mankind in a whole different manner.

John 3:16 – 17 tells us:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

God, Our Source is not out to get us nor to destroy us He loves us. In fact John tells us in I John 4:16 that God IS Love I Cor. 13 4- 7 tells us that Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love does not end.

So why is it we are so wrapped up in our Source being an angry, irritable God? IMO, Fear. Fear is a weapon religion uses to compel people into conforming to their way of thinking or dogma. And what is more fearful than an all powerful, all knowing being of wrath and destruction?

The “fear mongering” is contrary to Scripture; Paul tells the Romans in Ch 5 that we have been saved from the wrath of God, our Source, and that while we were still enemies (disconnected from Source) God showed His Love of us in that Christ reconciled us to Him our Source.

He (Paul) goes on to tell us that this is a FREE gift and that through our Source we all have LIFE. Adam and Eve may have very well been responsible for disconnection mankind from God thus incurring his wrath and condemnation, But Jesus Christ has justified us and has reconciled us to the absolute fullness, essential and ethical, real and genuine, active and vigorous, and blessed LIFE!

IF anything Jesus came to remind us of who and what we are. Paul and the other Apostles, being fully connected to Source also remind us of whom and what we are. We are NOT sinners in the hands of an angry God, but rather fellow Heirs with Christ, children of God, whom no longer have to fear but cry Abba Father! The Spirit (Source) Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (See Romans Ch 8). Our Source abides in us and us in Him.

Remembering Our Source

So Who is this Source to whom we are connected? Early I stated that the Source is the all pervasive force that hold us and the universe together.
In Col 1:15-17 Paul tells us:

15 He(Source) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by [6] him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together

The term Source is a very appropriate description of and for God! This Source formed us out of the dust of the earth and breathed LIFE into us (See Genesis 2)! The very essence of God Himself has been imbued into the very fabric of our being! It is what animates us, without our Source we are the living dead! The living dead have an appearance of Godliness but deny its power (see II Timothy 3:5).

But those of us who are alive in Christ know full well the power of God and abiding in Him.


Consider Col. 2:9-14

9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

What ever condemnation Adam brought into the world Jesus Christ canceled or disregarded! 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, [3] he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you (Romans 8:8 – 10)
Here and in other passages the term Spirit is used to refer to the Source that gives life and animates us. You can see in Col 2:9 the fullness of God dwells in Christ and that we have in turn been filled with Him. IN the passage above we are told the very Spirit of God dwells in those whose mind is set on the things of the Spirit and that this brings LIFE and peace.

We are gods!

John recounts a conversation Jesus was having with the Jews (the living dead or religious of His time) They wanted to know in plain speech if He was the Messiah. He had already told them as much and had even shown them as much through his actions and deeds but they would not believe him. This was because they were disconnected from Source(Jesus): but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. Then He make a shocking and Heretical (to them anyway) statement: I and the Father are one.

Well this really ticked them off, so much so that they wanted to kill Him right then and there by stoning Him to death.

Then He makes another bold statement: “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

The Father in Jesus and Jesus is in Him and they are in us and we in them, WE ARE ONE WITH THE SOURCE! In the words of Christ himself we are gods.

Now before you stone me allow me to remind you the Christ Himself was considered to be “full of the devil” Crazy, insane and a Heretic according to the Jews.

Now I am not talking about the beings depicted as gods in the various myths of mankind, nor am I suggesting we a gods as depicted in modern culture.

Nonetheless there are a few things we need to consider:

1. Psalms 139 Especially this passage:
13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.

2. Psalm 8: Esp this passage:

5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,

Consider that the Hebrew term used for “Heavenly Beings which is elohiym which is to say God this term is akin to theos used in John 10: 34 and 35.

Now carefully consider this Scripture:

2:1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, [1] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

One with Source

When we choose to dwell, abide and set our mind on the things of the Spirit and choose to dwell and Abide in God – Our Source – and allow Him to dwell in us and come to the full knowledge of what Jesus has done for us and that He and God are one and that He dwells in us, then we can understand that we are in, of and One with God, The Divine Source.
Jesus told the Jew in John 10 that he had dome many works in the name of the Father, not just because He was here to do God’s will but because He and God were one and the same.

Folks neither the Jews nor His disciples got this John recount as much in the follow escerpt:

14:1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” ] 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me [5] anything in my name, I will do it.

All the time that Jesus had spent with his Disciples, all the miracles they saw him perform and they still did not understand who He was or who they were through Him. Just as Adam was our disconnect from God – Our Source, Jesus, our Brother, is our reconnect to God –Our Source.

One yet not equal

So you see although we are one and the same with God we are not equal to God. Although we have the ability to do greater things than even Christ did we are not to think of ourselves to highly. We are to walk IN Love (God) we are to bear fruit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We are to clothe ourselves with compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. But above ALL we are to walk in Love, this is what is truly means to be connected to Source, to BE the Source is to BE Love, then and only then are we truly living LIFE as the created image of God – Our Source.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 18.07.2011

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