“Whenever
a prophet speaks out with a voice The
prophets speak out, as the army draws near. Behind
us, beside us, the dead prophets lie,
All because some
don’t yet know that
(written by Jan R. Johnston,
circa 1980’s) Many
years have passed since I wrote that poem; yet, it’s surprising how relevant it
still seems to be. Throughout time, truth always prevails. Despite all efforts to thwart it, truth eventually asserts itself in a way
that heals all the inhumanities and conflicts we, as the human race, still
indulge. Whoever wars against what is
divinely right and true is living in a temporary state of self-deception. But that doesn’t matter; for the end of every
falsity eventually presents itself in a way that cannot be overturned. And although brotherly and sisterly good-will
toward others are more like faded memories of days gone by, the truth, when finally obeyed, is still the
ultimate healer of all wrongs for those who follow it. That’s
why it is so wonderful that there is a place to go when the world outside
our door (and inside our television sets) depresses both our spirits and natural
tendencies toward good. It is a place
that shuts out the outer world of form, in favor of the higher elevation
of the divine Spirit, in which we really live, move, and have the very essence
of our being. Spiritual
reality is our real Home, or environment, and it cannot be touched by the
material senses of whatever chaos is going on ‘out there’ in the universe of
finite form. All negative human activity
is capable of changing in an eye-blink for the simple reason that Divine Truth
is invisibly present wherever we are, despite the material scene. This Truth, (God’s Truth) is capable of
adjusting, for the better, all things in the outer world of form. Our protection exists for anyone who seeks
this healing, harmonious truth and ventures toward it. This protective place of truth is found in
the ever-lasting, ever-present, ever-harmonious Kingdom of God. We
don’t have to hunt for this place, or this kingdom; but there is a secret
connected to it, which the material senses of perception do not perceive. And we only begin to perceive this secret,
ourselves, when we open out mental door to it.
For, this incredible secret is that we already exist in this spiritual kingdom
of God, and we’ve never, really, existed anywhere else…we just believe
we have. Spiritual
prophets, from almost all religions, have tried to tell humanity of our true
home in God, Spirit; but because Spirit’s realm is not detected by our five,
limited material senses, we often think it is non-existent, or at least out
of our reach. Yet, no one and
nothing exists outside of God. “For we
in Him we live, and move, and have our being,” as the Bible says (see Acts 17:28, New King James
Bible (NKJV). This place
of all divine Intelligence, all substance, and all life is the all-inclusive
realm of the Almighty. And we are
already there…we just don’t recognize the place because it is hiding beneath
finite, material form. Now, whatever is hidden still must be
known. This is why Christ Jesus stressed the
importance of knowing the truth of things. One account in the Bible says: “Then Jesus said to those
Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are
My disciples indeed. And you shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free.” They answered him: “We are Abrahams’ descendants and have never
been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You
will be made free’?” Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8: 31-36;
(NKJV). In these words,
I think Jesus was saying that we are all, really, the spiritual sons and
daughters (children) of the infinite Spirit we call, God. So, when we mentally realize (know) this, and understand that we are each the Son or
Daughter (off-spring) of God, and that we live in the very essence of this
infinite Spirit, we are free of any temporary, material identity we formerly
believed ourselves to be. Christ Jesus
is telling us to put on our own Christ-identity, just as he, as our example,
did when he spiritually transferred into the Christ (the spiritual identity)
and left the temporary, earthly Jesus identity behind. In this human
experience, where we seem to be made of both spirit and matter, we live with a
false sense of dualism. We sometimes
think of ourselves as fleshly, finite creatures, and other times recognize that
we are spiritual creatures. But Jesus
was showing us the Christ…the spiritual identity right where a temporary,
material identity seems to be, but is not. We’ve always been immortal, spiritual
identities, even when believing that we are mortal, material beings. So we must awaken from this dualism and
realize our true, spiritual selfhood.
This awakening to our real, sinless selfhood, is a process…not done in a
minute or two. That’s what Christ Jesus
came into this collective dream of materiality to show us; for he knew that the
only permanent way out of this finite, human experience is our spiritual
awakening. We must mentally grow out of
the false sense of fleshly being into our spiritual birthright, which awaits us
all. Paul
the Apostle wrote in his letter to the Corinthians about Jesus: “He died for all, that
those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for
them and rose again.
Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to
the flesh. Even though we have known
Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is
a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2nd
Corinthians 5: 15-17; (NKJV). So, what do we do with the world ‘out
there’ in the material scene, as we’re mentally ‘putting on’ the Christ
identity? Well, we won’t ascend as Jesus
did until we are fully, spiritually awake.
In the meantime, we do as much good as we can to take away whatever
‘bad’ threatens us or anyone else we can help.
If some good is in our hands to do, and we do it, we have just
changed a tiny piece of the ignorance, fear, and conflicts ‘out there’ in the
human scene, making the whole human theatre a touch more harmonious. And we have inched our way a bit more into
the truth of being. Realize that no one person is guilty of
our false sense of being. The collective
beliefs of the carnal mind have deceived humanity throughout eons of time. The carnal mentality is the only creator of
the evils we seem to believe in. And
these evils can be overcome when we mentally turn, within, and allow the
harmony of that invisible Spirit, we call God, to take over. Christ
Jesus came into the dream of material existence to show us the way out. While in this human experience, we are to
‘clean up our act’ the best we can. We
are to follow his example (way) and put on our own sinless, loving, spiritual
identity…our own Christ identity. A tall
order, but it must be possible. The
full-awakening of Christ Jesus was complete, and it was demonstrated by his
awakening from his physical death experience.
This showed that he had transitioned without remaining physically
dead. Nothing in him believed himself to
be finite or material, anymore; so his true, ever-lasting spiritual identity
took its own spiritual form again, just before he ascended out of physical view.
We
need not worry about this world’s ignorance of spiritual truths or our own
place in God’s ever-lasting kingdom.
We’ve all been taught that we are material creatures separated from our
God-Source, which is infinite Spirit.
But material existence is a temporary, collective dream-state from which
we will all awaken, even after the belief called ‘death’ has claimed us. Physical death is just part of the temporary
illusion of material being. We
awaken from the fleshly sense of
death to discover that there is no death, and that we have always existed
within divine Spirit’s harmonious substance and realm (called Heaven). Nothing can ever destroy that which God has
created. And the truth of that will
never be altered. For, like each facet
of a diamond reflects the light from a different angle, each identity of God’s
children reflects a face (identity) of God from a uniquely, different
perspective. We are all part of the
infinite One. That
truth being recognized, our life and identity have always been spiritual, not
material. Our true substance, mind and
soul (our essence and consciousness) forever exist in God. As for death:
We can never actually die out
of material being because we were never, really, born into a material body or
mind, to begin with. Our spiritual body
cannot be contained in a finite shell. Human
existence has been a temporary sojourn of our souls’ journey and possibly has
its importance somewhere; but we know not yet its purpose, under heaven. For as Paul the Apostle said in his letter to
the Corinthians: “For
now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part;
but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (1st
Corinthians 13:12; King James Bible Version (KJV). Let’s
remember then, in part, what we do know:
We know that we are God’s forever children, in body, soul, and mind;
therefore, our souls’ spiritual substance and life are, and always will be,
everlasting. We ‘live, and move, and
have our being’ in God’s spiritual realm and allness, even while still seeming to be material, finite,
mortals. |
