"And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." (Isaiah 30:21, King James Bible). "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." (Psalm 139: 6-10, King James Bible). "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all." (Psalm 34: 19, New King James Bible).
I've mentioned before, the story of the little boy who was alone in a psychiatrist's observation room, when a voice came over the speaker, calling to him. The boy responded, "What do you want, Wall?" To which a doctor who was speaking to him from another room responded, "It's all right; you can't see me, but I'm here with you." To which the boy answered, "Well, I want someone with skin on!" Really, isn't that the way we sometimes feel about God? Don't we want the Almighty to be someone physically tangible whom we can see with our human eyes? How does one really know that an invisible presence is really present? Christ Jesus once told a woman of Samaria "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4: 23-24, New King James Bible). Now, a 'Spirit' is clearly not a physical entity. Invisibility to our material vision is likely to be a characteristic of Spirit. Thus, to realize that God is Spirit, our acceptance of God is to accept this characteristic of non-corporeality, and not expect someone 'with skin on.' To recognize that someone can be present, (without being seen or detected by the physical senses) requires the need for faith—faith in the unseen. And as this world shows us, this faith in the infinite unseen is not an easy commodity to come by. From the moment we're born into this material universe, we learn to depend upon our five, physical senses to perceive our external environment. Soon, all of reality seems to belong to this outer world of form and substance. There doesn't appear (to these physical senses) to be any other reality, even though, from early times, there has been talk of a "sixth sense" that goes beyond physical-sense perception. Most people have experienced this sixth sense, on various occasions, in fragments of a 'knowing' or emotional feeling that isn't apparent in the physical scene before them. So, for many, this incorporeal sensing remains in the mystical realm of things, even though it has often revealed to us its presence in the human condition. Thus, the spiritual realm (although gaining much ground in these last few years) can seem to be irrelevant to our material-based life experiences. We want to believe in the invisible world of Spirit, or the Kingdom of God, but we don't understand it. We especially can't find our God-connection when the myths, legends and beliefs of past civilizations still muddy the waters of our modern-day thoughts So, just how does communication work from a physical dimension to the spiritual realm? The key, of course, is consciousness. When we 'feel' we're hearing the voice of God, we don't mean that we hear a physical voice. We really mean that helpful thoughts or impressions are coming forth in our human consciousness that weren't there, just moments before our prayer, or turning to God for guidance. Our link, or connection, to God has always been within consciousness. It has always been a telepathic connection, that reaches from Spirit, into this material experience. Why? Because we've never been separated from God, our spiritual Source of being, at any time. We're never really alone. We are at one with the infinite Spirit that has created all things. Our conscious being actually lives within Spirit's allness. We live in Spirit, right where we seem to dwell only in a material environment because God (who is Spirit) created an everlasting spiritual creation, and life—not a finite, physical realm. Instead of viewing the physical universe as the substance and the spiritual realm as the shadow, we can reverse this perception. We can consider the possibility that it is the spiritual realm that is the true and everlasting substance of all things, (including all life and identities) and the physical universe of form is but Its shadow, or symbolism of the real, spiritual reality of things, at best. In this human experience, hundreds of thoughts come into consciousness, every day; and this is quite logical, when we realize that these two conflicting views of reality are battling for our acceptance every moment. The physical, finite concept of substance and life, versus the spiritual concept of everlasting substance and life, compete for our attention every day. The fleshly view of identity, for example, is the result of entertaining the carnal mentality in consciousness. All thoughts of lack come from this collective, carnal mentality, which draws our attention daily—lack of health, lack of supply, lack of companionship, lack of safety, the list goes on. But all beliefs of lack (or any other evil) have the mortal belief of materiality at their base. Thus, these born-to-die concepts of all things, including people. represent the exact opposite of the spiritual concept of existence. On the other hand, everlastingness, or immortality, characterize the divine thoughts of spiritual being (which compete with widely accepted worldly beliefs of material existence). These spiritual thoughts speak of the kingdom of God, Spirit, where all things, and all of God's off-spring, are eternally healthy, abundant, and harmonious, due to God's eternal presence with us. When we listen and identify with the spiritual truths we hear from this divine consciousness within us, our seeming material existence is healed of whatever problems we're entertaining about ourselves at the time.. Healing in the material realm occurs because the 'evils' of materiality are produced by carnal beliefs, in the first place; therefore, they can disappear as we consciously replace them with the spiritual realization of what is actually true, in the second place. Thus, these spiritual intuitions of reality are with us on any level of existence we seem to be believing in and manifesting at the time. Since we are actually spiritual beings, (right where we've previously accepted our identities as children of the flesh) we begin to manifest the higher realm of spirit, and life, even while we're still in material form. Since all life proceeds from Spirit (God) then we are ever-lasting spiritual beings, who never actually die, even despite the physical death experience of the flesh. Both physical life, and death, are illusions of the flesh. These illusion, and sensations, have never touched our ever-lasting spiritual selves, at all. In other words, spiritual thoughts direct our consciousness to behold the actual creation of God's creating. They direct us to realize that we always have our God-ordained health, abundance, and place in God's eternal family and purpose, even when we seem to be in a material realm, separated from Spirit. Paying attention to these thoughts of health, rather than sickness, of God's invisible supply of all good, rather than times of poverty, and the presence of God-ordained safety (in the face of physical danger) will proceed to lead us out of all the evils that the material scene presents to us as evidence of evils. So, when turning our view away from the way things physically appear, and turning, within consciousness, to the invisible reality of Spirit's eternal care, then trusting the spiritual truths we perceive, we are delivered, or healed, of all forms of human suffering. So, let's look a bit closer at just what these two belief systems declare. Let's view this human experience as a school, which is a battleground for these two competing belief systems. On the one hand, there is the belief that the physical universe is reality, with material laws that govern all things. In this physical environment, there is no God. And even if there was, we were cast away from Him, a long time ago, and abandoned to all the evils of this place. We are taught to believe that when we break any of the so-called physical laws, something bad will happen to us, because we are mortal material beings, who are born to die, anyway. On the other hand, to the spiritual view, all Law is spiritual and belongs to God, and all Life belongs to God. Spirit is all-in-all, which includes the divine Intelligence and spiritual perception that dwells within the Christ Consciousness—our true, higher mentality, forever present within each of us. In God's invisibly present spiritual creation (kingdom) Spirit is our only Source of supply and health, which flows to us from the divine consciousness within. All good belongs to God, and we are at one with all good for eternity. And God, Spirit, is very much alive, running Its spiritual creation in perfection, harmony and love. There is no beginning or end to God's spiritual creation, nor anything in it. There is no evil in God's spiritual creation, nor anyone in it. Furthermore (this spiritual view declares) as everlasting spiritual beings, we have no real need to lie, cheat, steal or kill. We do no harm to anyone nor anything. No one, as the image and likeness of God, has any desire, or need, to do harm. Even the ferocious and seemingly deadly beasts (such as lions) when mentally identified correctly, are loving creatures only. (Check out the biblical story of Daniel in the lions' den.) Thus, just as the carnal mentality denies the reality of the invisible-to-the-senses spiritual universe, the spiritual view denies the reality of the physical universe of identity and form. It is viewed only as a limited, illusory state of self-deception, evidenced and perceived only by the five, physical senses, and nothing of intelligence or consciousness is honored as instruments of perception in such an imperfect place. Fleshly beliefs and spiritual beliefs are never real partners, no matter how much humanity tries to mix the two belief systems; for as the spiritual transformation of human consciousness begins to become more real to individuals, the fleshly 'laws' and rules began to fade away in consciousness, creating a 'new creature' of our identities. We begin to identity our selves as God's own children, never abandoned nor left in any unloving condition.—and even in the illusion of materiality that has overtaken our consciousness at any given time, we are still God's children, still mentally sleeping in the dream that we are not. When we fully awaken spiritually, all illusions of material reality, and the troublesome, suffering conditions our false beliefs manifest, will be gone—and we shall behold, with clear vision, the kingdom of God, which has never left us at all. It is we, who had left it, in thought and belief. So, how do we materialize, or manifest the human good we need while still in this false, material identity and seeming fleshly state of being? In the very simplest way possible—by simply turning to God, within our own conscious link, and trusting the divine love of God to show us the way, or thing to do, or bring us that 'someone' we may need at the time. Since God has eternally given us all good on a spiritual level, we only need to ask, and the human need will be filled—and quite quickly, I should add. Finding the way out of a bad situation, or bodily condition, or poverty, comes quickly when we remember that God is our true, and everlasting Source of all good in Its kingdom. If our deliverance takes a while, there's a good reason that we may not see, at the time; so we must continue to trust God's timing, not our own. After trustingly turning to God, sometimes our human need is met by others who suddenly contact us in some way, and sometimes a new idea springs to mind that leads us out of our difficulties. Whatever the need, it is met by the divine Intelligence within, who sometimes works through the consciousness of others when we don't perceive the way ourselves. When we begin to abandon the many thoughts and fears of mortal, material existence, and claim our true circumstances in Spirit, we begin to feel, more often, God's invisible presence with us, though we see it not with physical sight. The way out of suffering conditions comes to the forefront of our thoughts, or to the thoughts of someone sent to help us; and we are delivered from any and all human troubles. Therefore, when we begin to rely upon our spiritual, rather than fleshly identity, we are actually bringing forth in human consciousness the Christ identity, which Jesus the Christ came to reveal to humanity—the identity that is never sick or dead, never poor or abandoned by God, never out of the reach of God's saving hand. The Christ identity is universal, yet individualized in all people. It is our link to God and our true inheritance. By mentally claiming our true inheritance (our Sonship and Daughtership to God) and completely trusting in God's power, we are delivered from the afflictions of the flesh. Here is a biblical promise from God: "Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." (John 8:36, New King James Bible). I believe this means that if we mentally claim our Sonship (or Daughtership) to God, our salvation, always invisibly at hand, comes into the material scene—due to our recognition of our true, spiritual identity. Here's another promise from the Bible that I love to remember: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all." (Psalm 34:19, New King James Bible). This is confirmation that God is relevant to our human trials and afflictions, and can heal them, even though the divine Creator never created them. (I believe that the term 'righteous' in this psalm refers to one who trusts God's love and care but asks for nothing that might harm another. Thus, we are 'righteous' when we trust God with our human needs and desires, and seek only good from God.) God's hand is always present to deliver us from the evils of this illusory existence, because these evils are only real to the false, material sense of ourselves. To God, only health and eternal life are real for all God's children (off-spring) because our true body, soul, and mind are, and always were, spiritual, not material. God doesn't have to 'heal' anything. The divine presence just reverses our erroneous sense of things. If the reader doubts that even physical death cannot touch our real spiritual selves, you might find these words from Paul the Apostle relevant on this point: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." (1st Corinthians 15:53, 54; New King James Bible). To 'put on' immortality is to attach it to ourselves. Wrap it around us, as a garment and realize that immortality actually belongs to us, even when we believe we are physical mortals. Then consider this: we cannot die to become immortal one day. That's completely illogical. The very word 'immortal' means, without beginning or end. Thus, if we are ever to be immortal beings, we must actually be immortal now, even though we don't comprehend this spiritual fact. Now, this does not mean that we are immortal physical beings—it means that we are immortal spiritual beings, who currently believe themselves to be in finite, fleshly identities. Yet, before we entered this human experience (localized ourselves in a material form) we must have existed somewhere else—and even when we leave here (through the physical death process) we'll still be going on with our eternal, spiritual lives, somewhere else…and, even then, I don't believe that God, our forever-loving Source and Parent, will ever be very far away.
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