"Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children." (Genesis 32: 11). "And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men." (Genesis 33:1, first sentence). "And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept." (Genesis 33:4). "And he said, What meanest thou by all this drove which I met? And he said, These are to find grace in the sight of my lord. And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself. And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me." (Genesis 33: 8-10, King James Version).
The above quotations report the harmonious end of the biblical story of Jacob and Esau. Here's a brief summary of the entire episode between the two brothers, as recorded in Genesis, Chapters 27 through 33: Jacob committed two offenses against his older brother, Esau. First, he conned Esau out of his birthright as first son. Then, to add insult to injury, Jacob later deceitfully won the blessing of their father, Isaac, which was meant for Esau. Having done these two acts against his older brother, and having heard that Esau was planning to kill him because of these two offenses, Jacob fled to his mother's people in another land. Many years later, having grown abundantly rich with wives and children, Jacob was told, by the Lord, that he should return to his place of birth and make amends with Esau. Jacob was greatly afraid to do so, but he was a godly man by then, so he obeyed what he perceived God's will to be, taking all his family and flocks with him. The four biblical quotations at the beginning of this article, summarize the reconciliation between the two brothers, with Esau's forgiveness and Jacob's repentance in seeing his brother's face, "as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me." This is a story of two individuals becoming cognizant of each other's true identity. And this is what our whole human experience is all about: Awakening enough spiritually, to see each other as we truly are—not fleshly, material identities, but the spiritual children of the Almighty One, each one an individual face of the Creator…the Infinite God of Spirit. This is our true selves, made in God's image and likeness, where no one is an Adam or an Eve. There is only One Creator, and that One is the infinitely Intelligent Mind of God, whom we know as Spirit, not a finite material form. Spirit creates Its own creatures, in infinite variety, but individual in every way. No two things, in all creation, are exactly alike. No two people (even so-called identical twins) are exactly alike. Everyone knows by now that even snowflakes differ in infinite design, one from another. God fills all creation out of Its own creativity, and we are all part of this creation. But this infinite creation is spiritual in substance and intelligence—it is not material. The material realm is the mental level of thought which perceives the infinite creation to have been re-created in finite, physical forms. It is the Adam dream of creation coming, not from God, but from Adam's dreamlike lower level of thought. Everyone here, in this human dimension, is on this same level of thought. It is a collective level that we all share, or we wouldn't be able to perceive one another. Thus, to this false perception of things, everything physical is mortal and finite, seemingly having good and evil characteristics. Neither matter nor material identities are everlasting. Only God's spiritual creation is everlasting; thus, the outer world of form is a poor substitute for the glory of God's spiritual creation. Yet, the physical dimension of thought projection is all we can perceive with the physical senses. Sometime this level of thought gives us hints at the precision, beauty, and flawless operation of the true and real, invisible kingdom of God, which is always invisibly present and at hand, even though we don't perceive it with our five, physical senses. So, in this shared level of worldly thought, we are going about our daily lives, continuing to 'bear false witness against our neighbors.' We continue to identify friends, human relatives, and strangers as fleshly individuals and see their faces as mortal, material creatures—when in fact, they are all our spiritual brothers and sisters, each one showing a different face of God. That's what it means when we say, God is all-in-all. The Creator is the life, intelligence and substance of everything and everyone It 'creates' and emanates. There is not God and us; there is only God as us. There is not God and a cat, there is only God as a cat. God's creation reflects Its infinite Self. God is all there really is, anywhere and everywhere in creation; and each one of us is part of that creation. We each reflect the glory of God in our true, spiritual identity…but everyone is slightly different that everyone else. This is due to the infinite variety of Spirit. Like the brilliant facets of a diamond, we each reflect the glory of God from a different angle. Looking at it in another way, we are each a work of divine Art. Just as Rembrandt was the creator and source of his entire paintings, so is God the Source of It's entire creation. The paintings of Rembrandt did not create themselves. They existed only in the mind of the one who painted them. God is the Source of each and every identity in creation. And all creation exists as perfect as the Mind that made it. On this material level of thought we don't perceive the spiritual kingdom of God, but It is here, all the same. The reason this is a point to grapple with and realize, is that in doing so, we begin to perceive the perfect balance, harmony and eternal Life in and of God, and the perfect equality of all people throughout the universe. God is in harmony with Its infinite Self. One identity of God does not war with another identity of God. Love is the only relationship that exists among men and beasts in God's forever creation, because Love is the only thing that allows creation to be immortal. Love had no destructive elements in man, beasts, or the leaves on the trees. There is no 'poison' ivy in God's creation to harm us, because God's ivy isn't poison. It's benign and loving to all. God's lions are not carnivorous; Daniel perceived this and walked out of the lions' den, unharmed. The fact that we've been educated to believe in good and evil powers as laws in the material realm does not actually make these beliefs laws in any domain. It only means that we've collectively and individually accepted the belief in good and evil laws over us, so we don't throw them out of consciousness when we seem to be under their universally-believed power. But here's the thing to rejoice over, when it is absorbed in consciousness: It doesn't matter what we believe, because human belief has no power. God is still being God, and we are still God's immortally whole and alive children, even when we believe we are physically sick and dead. God is the only power in the kingdom of heaven, and in the illusion of the kingdom on earth. So, even while we're accepting the world beliefs when they try to attach some bad condition in or upon us, no belief has ever made a dent in God's everlasting kingdom, or anything in it. So, why doesn't this truth seem relevant in this human experience unless one is a Seer of this truth? Material laws do seem to have power over us, because as the infinite children of Creative Mind (God) we have the ability to manifest physically, whatever we believe should be our condition. We bring into form our human beliefs and convictions that we accept from the world. We begin to see what we believe, as much as we believe what we see. Whatever laws we allow to govern us begin to lose their grip upon us as we spiritually begin to awaken to the higher reality of Spirit. But who turns to something they don't recognize or believe in? Each one's mental universe is as individual as one's spiritual identity. No two people have identical belief systems. That's why placebos work in the field of material medicine. The one who believes that the sugar pill is a miracle drug gets well. The sugar didn't cure anyone; the belief in its power did the seemingly 'magic' of the sugar substance. This shows that consciousness is the agent of change, or getting well again. The sick one changed the belief from the power of an ill-health law to the power of a miracle substance. One material belief about sickness was changed to another material belief about health. Neither belief is correct, because we aren't really well until we lose our ability to be sick, from the physical-power beliefs we entertain in consciousness. In the same way, adopted children who do not know they are adopted, often have the same characteristics and inherited diseases as their adopted parents. It's all in what they believe. Christ Jesus once said, "And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." (Matthew 23: 9, King James Version of Bible). By showing that God is our real Parent, our real Source and origin, Jesus directly set aside the universal belief of material genetics. If God is truly our Source and origin of being, we can't inherit good or bad from matter, or a fleshly line of descent. Here's a recent occurrence that shows the importance of seeing the spiritual, rather than material sense of someone's identity. Someone called who was suffering from a diseased condition that applied to women and asked me to pray for her. Reaching inward to the Christ mentality that is within us all (our oneness with the God-Mind) I asked to See the truth about her. Immediately the word, Daughter, came to me. I remembered that in one biblical account, Jesus had used this term, Daughter, when healing a women of something. I mentally saw the word, Daughter, with a capital D. I knew it was a reminder to me to see her as God's divine Daughter, not the daughter of any fleshly identity. I had to See her true face. Once I did that, I didn't need to realize much more. I knew that the truth of her real being was that she belonged to God, and to no one else. As Spirit's Daughter, she had no material condition to be healed of. She did not have a material belief, nor did the material belief have her. Her true mind, the universal Christ Consciousness, knew that she was Spirit's divine Daughter. Her Christ Consciousness within could not be mesmerized by world beliefs. No material belief in this dimension of thought had anything to do with her. I felt a peace about it, so I knew the healing was done. Her physical condition quickly changed back to normalcy. I must make it clear that I did not heal anything. In God's invisible kingdom of heaven (which we have never left, nor has it left us) there is never anything to heal. She was always safe and sound, in Spirit, all along. It's just that, in this human condition, at least one person has to know the truth of spiritual being to bring it into manifestation, because we each contribute to the collective pool of thought. Spiritual seers contribute spiritual Truth to the collective. Everything (whether beliefs of the Spirit, or beliefs in material cause and effect) manifests. It's just so much better when spiritual realities come forth, rather than the terrible unrealities of matter.
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