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The Jewish Law Covenant of Moses - Trust Of The Mind, Trusting In An External God The Jewish system under the law covenant of Moses was that of trust in God externally. Trusting in the heart would mean the trust of ego, the self outside of God. The heart is treacherous and who can know it,? asked Jeremiah. Trust in God was an external God, who lived solely in the Heavens, bringing his appearance on earth, only through the ark of the covenant, that remained in the "Holy of Holies" in the tabernacle and later in the temple. It was there that God's Spirit dwelled on earth, speaking solely to the High Priest. Yet despite this, many accounts show God's Spirit entering people, but only a select few prophets, warriors, kings and teachers that God specifically anointed at specific times. Trust was always of God and God was in the Heavens. Prayers for wisdom and strength, consolation and comfort, blessings and pleas, all made to the God in the Heavens, all prayers directed to the Heavens, the place of God's dwelling. Trust was never to be given over to oneself to lean upon understanding, for the self was the ego and the ego was against God, selfish and independent from the enlightenment of the peace of God. The heart of man being the sin inherited from the first man Adam, God alone being righteous, "for there is no man righteous on earth, not even one." The mind, the intellect was considered the tool to use to know God. Through knowledge of laws, schedules, rigid codes, rules of conduct and laws of ethics, all persons were dependent on the use of the intellect, which would be the God given use of oneself to find and trust in God. Like the physical world, the intellect is used to solve material problems. God was considered to be a king, a ruling monarchy, one ruling as paternal, authoritative, beneficent and, in many ways, tyrannical, keeping track of all things and knowing precisely what everyone does and when his laws are being broken. All of His people considered to be born with the stain of sin as a part of their nature and are therefore untrustworthy, creating an attitude of separateness from Him. A separateness that does not allow a person to have any trust in his or her intuitive self. Unable to trust in one's own self, as unrighteous inherited sinners, the reliance on the intellect to know the external God, ultimately gravitates to the reliance on the ego, which leads to further separation and estrangement from God, bringing to light, a life and law code in desperate need for a Messiah, one that would end the old covenant based of sacrifices and reliance on the intellect, to an inner trust of one's own self, his heart, the future place of God's inhabitation. The Christian Law Covenant of Love - Trust Of The Heart Two Directions of Thought The first direction of thought among most fundamental Christians is that of God being a separate being living apart from man, in the heavens. Scriptures read of God's inhabitation in a separate realm, a male figure, siting on a throne as a king, Christ beside him as God the king, the same person, yet separate in expression and free will. With this in mind, God has the similarities of a heavenly vending machine. Ask God for what is needed, pray hard, repent and pull the lever, and God's mercy will be shown. Although many confess grace, that of being blessed without works done on our part, the idea of God's separateness brings us the big cop in the sky mentality, we look for God outside of us, in a book considered to be his literal word, inside churches, religious organizations, images and men. The moment we look away from ourselves to find God, is the very moment we exhibit idolatry, looking to other than God alone, as God is not a separate being living apart from our very selves, but dwells in the depths of our silence, the very life force that connects us to all of living creation. On the contrary of the fundamental teaching embedded and conditioned in so many minds today, we are not sinners undeserving of God. We are not unrighteous, unworthy and apart from God. This thought must be removed in order to allow us to find God. Our awareness must bring us to the realization that we are more than worthy of God, as we have him living in our very selves. Did God really need to see his son suffer and die, bleeding to death, to allow himself to live inside us? I hardly think this is the case, but nevertheless, the writers of the New Testament found a different way to relate their Jewish heritage, skillfully learning to re-think, re-define, re-interpret and literally alter the Jewish writings to conform to their new found perceptional views as to what they experienced the Christ to be, their experience and interpretation of God in Christ. No longer sinners under the Mosaic law, they now found themselves under the law of Christ, Christ's blood sacrifice and death on the cross was their release of sins of past, present and future, forgiving men as sinners and bringing them true reconciliation with God. Luke's account of God Spirit being poured out in the hearts of All of mankind at Pentecost 33 CE, was his interpretation of those who put faith in Jesus Christ, bringing God's forgiving power, His wisdom and strength that lives in our very hearts. We can trust in ourselves, not in our egos, but in God's wisdom that lives inside us. (Acts 2) In reality, apart from Luke's account, God has always existed inside all of creation. It is with our awareness of his presence and our trust in him within ourselves that allows us to rely on him, know him, and manifest our spirit, that is, our material representation of spirit that our lives project. Unlike the Mosaic law, when we are told to trust in ourselves, our hearts,
the new covenant
Many Christian circles will put no trust in themselves,
maintaining God as a separate being apart from themselves as they are sinners. Yet the very place God's Spirit
lives and teaches is in the knowing of one's own self. Fundamentalists remain continually
under self condemnation, considering themselves as untrustworthy sinners, never believing in their own God given
strengths, always seeking forgiveness, never realizing that God is yet a part of they and all of creation, all
connected all "one" just as Christ and God are one.
When we trust ourselves, we trust God's Spirit as the life force with us us, we become aware of our divine strength to enable us to live with charity, to have compassion to know the deep interior solitude that can only be found in our silence, where God's silence lives. It is here that we intuitively know the value of charity, compassion and unconditional love. It is here where we discern the spiritual things. Many Christian circles will put no trust in themselves, maintaining God as a separate being and themselves as sinners, yet the very place God's Spirit lives and teaches is in the knowing of one's own self. Fundamentalists remain continually under self condemnation, considering themselves as untrustworthy sinners, never believing in their own God given strengths, always seeking forgiveness, never realizing that God is yet a part of they and all of creation, all connected all "one" just as Christ and God are one. It is with our faith in this divine supernatural teaching that we surrender our intellects, our egos to God that dwells within our hearts and trust in ourselves, in He who lives in us and we in Him. We then use our free wills to walk with His Spirit. It is when we see ourselves and God as one, that we see all others as one with us, as we are all one in spirit. We are all distinct yet part of the same whole. Jesus spoke of "Himself and the Father as one," praying for all those who follow him be also be "one," all being part of a divine inhabitation of God's Spirit, His "Kingdom that is within us."
Trusting in ourselves is trusting in God. We are not gods, however we are inhabited by God, a divinity that exists in all of us, all of us that have faith and use this with agape-charity towards others. We die to our egos, subjecting them to God's Spirit that dwells within us, becoming resurrected as new creatures in Christ, transforming ourselves into agents of God. We pray to God and find Him in our very selves, that we are not separate from this vital force and person, the Spirit of God. We consciously choose to subject our souls, our egos, to God and harmonize with all living things. We must cease to look at ourselves as unforgiven sinners and have the full assurance and confidence that we are in one with God, housing His divine Spirit as a token of our guarantee of inheritance, as we are in union with him, walking according to his still quiet voice within us, that is, our intuitive trust in his voice that lives within our silent interiors.
When we insist on following our egos, our willed thoughts that are to control and dominate nature, we are interfering with nature, the nature of the Spirit, the environment that we are selves are a part of. We must stop the fight to straighten out nature and relax and embrace the infinite variations of the universe that all moves and breaths according to the unseen intelligence of God, embracing the divinity of the flow of energy, tapping into the divine. Persons in Christ are not to be as many churches teach. You are not required to feel inferior, to view yourself as a sinner and to prostrate yourself before idols, dogma, doctrines and religious organizations in order to believe in God. St. Paul's words to the Phillipians tells us otherwise, telling us that our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus,
Jesus, although in the very form of God, did not consider it to robbery to be at "one" with the Father, nor did He consider it robbery for all of his disciples to be at "one" in union with He and His Father, "that all may be one, just as we are one." (John 17:21-22) When St. Paul acknowledged his sinful self in Romans chapter 7, he counter acted his sin in the very next chapter, chapter 8, revealing the forgiveness we have from both our sins and our very selves as sinners, being, here and now, changed with the Spirit, the very Spirit that we live in harmony with, "if God's Spirit truly dwells within you."
We can trust in ourselves, the Spirit inside us that exists in all creation, the Spirit that will raise us, transform us, that aligns with the illumination of God, harmonizes with nature, aligns Himself with peace, joy and love - agape-charity.
The trust of ourselves, the Spirit of God within us, is the Spirit that cannot be reserved for the exclusive use of anyone. It is available to all but does not belong to anyone. The way to make contact is to understand it. To understand it is to have faith in God indwelling within us, recognizing that all of life, including those with and without faith, contain this Spirit, yet it is through our faith, our trust, that allows us to ignore our conditioned teachings, enabling us to walk with God. Just as the physical sun brings light to all and is not anyone's to own in separation, the Spirit, the unseen living energy and life force of God, is a free flowing energy, the person of God, that freely empowers us as we trust our intuitive hearts to guide us, letting go of our egos and our minds, regardless of how highly educated intellectual we may be. The Arminians teaching leaves room to allow the trust of ourselves, as the doctrines embrace the belief that although human nature was seriously affected by the fall, man has not been left in a state of total spiritual helplessness. Seriously inhibiting our connection with God is the fundamental teaching that we are all sinners, but allow the way out for repentance, without interfering with man's freedom. Rather then define our nature as our complete selves, refusing to trust ourselves, our abilities, and God given Spirit that lives inside us, we must acknowledge that our self egos are the negativity, yet our self wills allow us to choose our path. The Paradox of Trust, Love and Knowing God
Christianity, unconditional love, faith, trust and even Christ Himself teach us two sides to ourselves, two angles to which we know God. Thomas Merton describes the paradoxical teaching of salvation through Jesus Christ as this,
The effective answer is supernatural, for we must reach out to embrace both extremes of a contradiction at the same time, we trust not in ourselves but in God, yet we trust not in a God who is separate from ourselves, but trust in God's Spirit that inhabits ourselves. We do not trust in our egos, yet we trust in our hearts. Our hearts are desperate and can lead us astray, yet our intuitive hearts are God in us. Our egos lead us away from God and yet God gives us free wills to decide on ego or Spirit. In the mythological creation story, Adam and Eve chose to abandon their stance of vulnerability in exchange for the quest for power. They were enticed by the hope that they might "be like gods," rather then remaining in their state of vulnerability. This is the climax of the Christian story, the affirmation not of power but of powerlessness, which is nothing other than the willingness to be vulnerable, as St. Paul so put it, "when I am weak, I am strong." This is the story of the cross. The Paradox Remains We let Gods will take place and not our own, yet God lives in us, therefore he is part of our will, our inner knowing of his presence, living beyond our egos. We are vulnerable to God when we give up the power of trusting our selfish desires that lack our compassion to others, yet we must submit to and trust our intuitive strength of our own hearts where God resides. We must use the power of our free wills to be in union with God, yet we are subject to Gods grace, to his inner dwelling that is in one with us. We are godlike in the sense that God Himself inhabits our bodies, as we are "temples that he resides in," having inner sanctuaries of the universal life force where we meet with God, yet our vulnerability to Him inside us, is the rejection of our ego driven selves. We no longer rely on the tent of the Hebrews out in the wilderness or the temple in Israel with the inner room, the "Holy of Holies," where the ark of the covenant was contained, being the only place of God's inhabited Spirit, as we now have God's Spirit inhabiting our hearts, being the inner circumcision where we both find and know Him in ourselves, thus being godlike, yet it is our own desires apart from charity, compassion and the mercy of both ourselves and others that lead us astray. God, the universal spirit, the one life force of energy that supplies life to the whole, connects us as one and resides in us, allowing us to trust our inner realms, the area we are divine, yet our egos, that lack our contentment in simply knowing, is what we cannot trust. We walk not by our selfish wants that violate peace, but that of God is us, in our service of others, thus finding the "peace that excels all thoughts." We can trust our intuitive hearts as they are God's place of inhabitation, yet we cannot be anything less than a life committed to that of unconditional love. Mind To Heart Most of us in the West have been taught that the center of our wisdom is in our heads. If you ask people where their ability to process thoughts and experience is, they will generally respond that is in in the brain. Ask consciously spiritual persons that same question and they will indicate the heart. When the mind seeks corroboration through specific proofs as an aid to spiritual understanding, it is encroaching into an area far more suited to the heart. For this reason, it is necessary to trust what the heart knows. Without total trust, it is impossible to know the miracles of the higher self and become a manifester. (2) This is where we must see our connection and oneness, our union with God. Spiritual life does not grow in the soil of intellectual information gathering. Spirituality needs the fertile ground of feelings, which the unseen dimension provides. Trusting your heart space, Our awareness of God's presence within us, is imperative for the growth of a healthy spiritual life. This means cultivating a harmony between mind and heart, and for most of us this means terminating the intellect's domination. The mind must surrender its role, its ego, as full-time judge and allow the Spirit, the heart, to contribute its wisdom. it is with this surrendering process that trust begins to flourish, replacing doubt. (2) Regarding the wisdom of the East, found in Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism, there is the self-God that lives beyond the ego, the ground of being that is one with God and what Carl Jung called the "collective unconscious. In the Oriental and Eastern cultures, passivity and humility is the culture and way of life, complimenting the known wisdom of the God beyond theism, to that of the self beyond ego. It is the West that misreads the self-God to that of their egos. Allan W. Watts states:
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