I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord

It was Paul who exclaimed when I am weak then I am strong. Paul had discovered the great secret which has the inherent power to alter every new creation’s view of himself and thus move into the full reality of the cross. Far too often we are victims of the flood of occurrences that come against us. Humanly speaking many of the things we face are too big for us. A sense of defeat, depression and impotence can hold us in a tight grip. Some of those seasons are merely the Spirit teaching us that He comes perfectly through us whether we are sparkling or are down, which is an important lesson to learn for many of us.

But the majority of our defeats are a result of us trying to find the resources to face our challenges by human means. Paul had visited that place of nothingness and thus been persuaded to look somewhere else to find the strength to be an overcomer. Christ in Paul was his strength. He had thoroughly learned that he could reckon on the indwelling Christ in every circumstance. This doesn’t mean that whenever he faced opposition or difficult circumstances he would always fall on his knees in prayer. No, to the contrary, he would face whatever he met as Paul knowing that he was Christ in his form with every resource in the universe to his disposal in order to bring redemption to his world.

"And the Lord said to Moses, 'Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it; and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea'" (Exodus 14:15,16). In effect God is saying to Moses: “Why do you want me to do it? Do it yourself. I have given you a new self, a new identity. That rod of old is cleansed. The snake is dispelled. You are new through and through. Stretch out your rod (express your new self) and divide the sea.” Moses had said to God, “You do it”, but God said: “You do it.”

Every one of us starts our walk on the highway of faith with much of the old grave cloths from the Fall still upon us. Separation from God has been our blatant reality. We know the weakness of the flesh and its inclinations. We are more used to visible lack and need than the bounty of supply in the invisible. But when the new word comes which objective is to undress the grave cloths a question arises; do we have ears to hear? The prophet had and hence cried: “But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD.” (Micah 3:8) In effect the prophet is saying: I am God’s mouthpiece and I am to call into existence things that do not yet exist.

Norman Grubb wrote: “You feel weak, you don't sense the presence of Christ, you feel loveless, and of little faith, and all the rest of it, because you still live in the devil's lies of the have-not life. But you have all things. All is within, if Christ the Savior is within. Burst through those bonds of feelings. Say, 'Though all men and devils say I have not, I say I have, on the authority of God's word.”

It is the personal, intimate and deeply private revelation that we are one with God which empowers us to go against the grain and boldly recognize every stirring within as a safe desire which first originated in the heart of our Father. Oneness finds no other explanation to those stirrings and as a consequence affirms the prophet’s words; “I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord.” We finally have the key to Mark 11:24: "Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." Our faith focus isn’t arbitrary any more when Oneness is our outlook since we then are not governed by condemnation. Condemnation makes us see need everywhere even where there is no need. It brings confusion and we always fall short of its demands. The truth is that God has given each and every one of us a sphere of influence which we swiftly recognize when we operate in the freedom of the Spirit. No man can tell us what to do when our sole motivation is those joyful inner promptings which are an interwoven part of our makeup as new creations.

So, You Need to Be Changed?

A saying which we frequently encounter in Christian circles goes like this: “God loves you like you are, but He loves you too much to keep you like you are.” I wonder from where this saying originates. I cannot find any scriptural basis for it. Jesus never prayed such a prayer for us. What was His main concern? Wasn’t it that every believer should be one with God in the same manner as He was one with His Father? Evidently this prayer has been answered, because Paul’s prayer to the Ephesians revolves around eyes being opened to what is already accomplished. Paul never prayed that God in His love should change anyone. Why? Paul saw perhaps clearer than most that those who had entered God’s kingdom were forever perfected (Hebr 10:14, Col 2:10).

If you are one of those who feel that God needs to change you I am afraid I have to ask: Who has told you that you are naked? To the Romans Paul spoke about a process he called the renewal of the mind. What was he speaking about? If we are forever perfected, which we are, there must be a Spirit led process going on in each and every one of us which end is to unfold everything accomplished through Jesus Christ. We are talking about a gradually unfolding of His consciousness in us because we are one with Christ and have His mind. Every barrier, every impediment, every inconsistency is removed in Him. As our eyes are increasingly opened we go from faith to faith. It is never a question about what we should be or any striving on our part. It is forever finished. The light which shines upon us unfolds what already is. Its purpose is not to reveal any bad spots in us, but to unearth who we truly are viz. Christ in our forms.

The battleground is our souls as they are drawn to and fro on account of the circumstances we encounter in our daily lives. Many of us drag with us this utopian notion that when God has finished His work in us we will become super-Christians, whatever that is. Every day we are tempted to think due to our reactions, emotions and actions that Christ isn’t our life, that we somehow are separate selves always erring. But it is in the midst of those storms that faith is operative and we confess the truth until it one day is a settled fact. To become a teacher took me four years of higher education. Then I began working as a teacher. It took me two years in the profession before what I had taken took me and I and teacher became one in my consciousness. In no way could I advance the process. It had to run its course in the midst of sensations of stress, failure and insufficiency. However, I was a teacher every second of those two years. Those around me regarded me as a teacher, but this truth of what already was had to be settled in my consciousness. I don’t know exactly when that took place but suddenly one day I effortlessly practiced my profession.

“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” This is Paul’s word to the Romans. Is he speaking about a process or is this an already accomplished fact? Do you or God have to turn every stone in your life so that you can be conformed to the image of His Son, or have this already taken place so that when you open your eyes this is what you see? The first alternative excludes faith whilst the other depends wholly on faith. Are we called to walk by sight or by faith?

Jesus on Lilies

When Jesus wanted to teach the disciples about faith He spoke about lilies. One of the most potent parables concerning faith is found in Matt 6:28; “See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin." Jesus is offering us a preposterous idea. Something can grow without putting any labor or sweat into it. How can this be? Those lilies are created with a couple of amazing faculties. Its seed is planted in an environment of soil and air. It didn’t plant itself, but everything it will become is in that seed. How does it germinate and grow? Simply by receiving water and light! And Jesus likens that receiving with faith (v. 30). By a mystic process which still leaves scientists flabbergasted those lilies absorb everything they receive and become stunning beauties.

Imagine that you are a flower in the midst of a beautiful meadow. You cannot do anything except receive sunlight, water and air. As a flower you have not the power to change either yourself or your circumstances. That would have been like uprooting yourself and moving yourself to another part of the meadow and replanting yourself there. We know that flowers cannot do stuff like that, only the Gardener can.You cannot prune yourself either. After Jesus has introduced the disciples to this magnificent image of faith He tells His listeners: Are not you more worth than any of these flowers!

Where does the light emanate from? The sun! And the sun can do nothing but give light. By that same token God is the eternal giver of light. In the similitude of God the sun is a giver. We are the recipients of every good thing from above. Receiving is faith and is Jesus’startling message to a world which is caught up in labor by the sweat of their brow. Can the flowers create their own light? Nope! They do not even try. They merely rest in the hands of their Maker.

Two Ways

One day we come to a crossroad. We are hard pressed from all sides. Current circumstances almost overwhelm us and we do not understand everything which takes place inside of us or around us. The crossroad forks into two roads. One says faith. The other says unbelief. To choose the faith road means that we accept ourselves as we are accepted. It means that we choose ourselves like we are chosen. Daring to go the faith way also means that we finally can relax because in the instant we go that way we acknowledge we are taken over in totality by God. Everything we are is He expressing Himself in our beautiful humanity. Every step we take on the faith road creates an echo which shouts in our awareness:  God can nothing but reproduce Himself in every now as us.

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true” (Søren Kierkegaard). “We live by faith and not sight” (St Paul).

The Art of Receiving

God doesn’t sow sparingly. That would to be to contradict His nature, and He who can nothing but give abundantly will therefore never reap sparingly. He gives as He has decided in His heart, never reluctantly or under any compulsion. God is a cheerful giver, and thus He is able to make all grace abound to us, so that we at all times have sufficiency in all things. He is the one who supplies seed to the sower and who will multiply our seed to increase the harvest of our righteousness (2 Cor 6:9-11).

He requires from us nothing but Himself so that the seed He has lavished upon us we cheerfully disperse and when we as His image give abundantly, from what we already plentifully have been given, more will be given us. He gives richly so that we are provisioned to supply copiously in all things. We can never outgive God, and we can never give anything apart from what we have received. That is the nature of giving. We first receive and then we give. Our inner teacher thus works mightily in us to teach us how to receive and how to recognize what we already are given.

Giving isn’t confined to the realm of money only. It covers every area of our existence, since all things originate in God. “That is why the primary function of all creation, animate and inanimate, is receptivity. Your basic function, and mine, is the same – simply to receive” (Norman Grubb). Every day we behold this principle demonstrated in nature. All things in nature spring to life because what nature receives it utilizes to spontaneously and naturally produce fruit, colors, fragrances etc each according to its own unique kind.

Two Laws

Co-authored with Andrea Garzon

The most “radical” message we hear nowadays sounds something like: “we are not perfect, BUT God is so merciful that He relates to us ‘in spite of' us." One of the most important topics in order to grasp the fullness of the redemptive work of Jesus is the “sin” question. Sin and righteousness represent two persons, Satan and Jesus, the spirit of error and the spirit of truth. Thinking otherwise, unavoidably makes us face a host of incongruences.

These are Jesus’ words on sin:

“If you were blind, you would have no sin; but because you now claim to have sight, your sin remains. [If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but because you insist: ‘We do see clearly’ you are unable to escape your guilt.]” John 9:41

“Then, the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked…” Genesis 3:7

Adam’s transgression opened our eyes to a dimension of separation, dragged us from resting in all-sufficiency to the anxiety of perpetual lack. We fell into a world of externalism and strife. We were made in the image of the One who is Love and love expresses itself in freedom. It is imperative to understand there are two laws: "the Law of God" (the law of love) and "the law of commandments" (the law men). In Colossians 2:20 God Himself refers to the Ten Commandments as "commandments of men". We may think this was the Law of God because He gave it to Moses, but all these regulations were nothing more than a mean to expose Satan's seed in man, that is, the illusion of independence.

“By the law came the knowledge of sin” Which sin? Self-righteousness, which plainly means we think we can become like God by our own powers. The "law of men" alludes to that God was talking to His offspring in their own language: "You want commandments? You think you can produce anything apart from me? Here they are!" That external approach to God that we inherited through Adam refers to the law, flesh and sin. Paul said 'sin' deceived him through the law. Which sin? Covetousness? No! The sin of “trying to be good" (self-righteousness).

We could say the outer law is for those who live by the outer and the inner law for those who live by the inner (law of love). The inner consciousness regard the outer law as something inner already fulfilled in Christ, and since He is our life we are that law of love, something we spontaneously fulfill every now in righteousness because we are love. Thus we do not regard the law in outer terms, that is, judging by appearances. Outer people, however, only see a list of ordinances they have to fulfill.

By the Spirit's mighty work in us we learn to see through everything to the core of things and acknowledge that we are beautifully made, and those "warts" we all have are a part of God's wisdom so that His glory can be manifested in everything. As we penetrate further and further into the Promised Land we do not see the outer law anymore. It is erased from our consciousness. Everything is inner and we are only accountable to our personal inner reality, which is God. Thus, those still seeing sin in relation to outer laws basically lack the faith to move on across the river.

Sin basically is a person, Satan. When we were indwelt by him we did his works and we were sin. Now, indwelt by God, we are righteousness and it is His deeds we now do, more and more so as we move past should's and ought to's (Romans 7). But, on a deeper sense we are still doing righteous works even when under the law, because we are still God's and He is using our outer failures to condition us to take that leap of faith and go from outer to inner where we find rest from our works.

The Pillars

The types, shadows and parables which abound in the Old Testament all points to Jesus Christ, who is All in all and the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the earth. We cannot escape the fact that we are inextricably united to Him so that many of the processes we are taken through in the temporal have a clear and distinct goal, namely to expand our consciousnesses so that we in increasing measure can come to terms with His “allness” in everything, including us.

God led the Israelites out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and He led them through the desert by His Spirit who appeared as a pillar of clouds during day and a pillar of light during night. The pillars are a parable of how God in the desert appeared to the Israelites as in a separate visible form, as if He was another person apart from them. This is how we all begin our faith journey. We see God as a celestial power separate from ourselves. He is in heaven somewhere, whereas we are stuck in the temporal with all its apparent limitations.

However, when the Israelites crossed Jordan this separation gap had been bridged and it was no longer God external, but God internal, because in the instant they entered the Promised Land the pillars were gone. This is the exact same transformation or transition which takes place in us when we take that leap of faith Kierkegaard referred to. This leap of faith aligns our consciousnesses with what is and not what seems to be. This is a bold and daring maneuver on our part since we have to leave behind everything we know, that is, self-effort, and start a process of possessing or conquering a land of promises.  It is here that we finally find out that Christ ultimately is All in all.

It can be no other way. A land of promises is governed by faith, and excludes any effort on our part. By faith we take what is ours to possess and lay hold on our inheritance among the saints. How can this be? When our ears are opened we hear “It is finished” reverberating through the ages. Christ has done it all and by us His word of reconciliation is dissipated to the ends of the world. It is by that same faith we recognize that God is the sustainer and upholder of everything. It is by faith we joyfully see that our nothingness is filled and is running over with His abundant life.

This renewing of our minds, or transformation of our consciousnesses, as it were, relocates heaven from the sphere of abstractions to a tangible reality, viz. in you and me. We have by a mighty work of the Spirit internalized the cloud and the fire. This further connotes that we no longer operate from a state of mind where we think we are led by a God apart from us, but we rest in the faith reality that God expresses Himself spontaneously and naturally as us. The pillars have in a sense reappeared to us in a new form. In our minds they manifest themselves as human beings like you and me.

Let There Be Light

Let there be light God proclaimed as recorded in that first chapter of Genesis. John has told us that God is love so letting light burst forth is love in action. As we all know God is an eternal being outside time and thus found in every now. In our spirits we hear Him say let there be light in every now manifested in us as desires, wants and willing.

Praying is responding to His love-drive and cooperating with Him in manifesting His love-will in everything. Prayer is not us calling Him into action as He somehow needs to be persuaded to intervene on our behalf. No, prayer is simply moving in harmony with His initiative to let light dispel darkness. In faith we recognize God pressing us through in love and perfection towards His gracious ends concerning His creation.

When that inner urge drives us towards praying for a person we, from our position, 'randomly' meet on a street it often seems to us that we are persuading God into revealing Himself to that person. Our prayer will then lack the convincing and sure faith that what we prayed will actually happen. But when we recognize that we are merely responding to God's love-drive in us we can pray with conviction.

Our greatest challenge is perhaps that we do not perceive ourselves as reliable and trustworthy sons in regards to our desires and willings. Both our prayer life and those actions we a desire towards will suffer when that is our outlook. The thing is that we cannot by our own powers become reliable sons. God has made us reliable sons in Christ owing to the fact that He is our life.

To make righteous judgments is to see beyond appearances and trust our spirit union with God and that everything in us is an outworking of His self-for-others love nature. We are made joint heirs with His Son. This is not something we will become, but already are. A co-heir is a reliable and responsible person. This is something we progressively come to know as we go from glory to glory.

A crucial aim for God in His dealings with us is to reveal this tremendous fact to us. How does He do that? It is by letting our own attempts at becoming something we already are fail miserably. It is by taking us through a season where our vanity is made into nothing and our imagined self-reliance is exposed as an illusion. At the bottom utterly helpless we are finally in a position to acknowledge what He has already done for us in Christ.

Far too often we pray with a conviction that our prayers merely are meeting some selfish ends, and as a consequence our prayers do not accomplish much. However, the branch-vine relationship means that we are conduits manifesting God in our daily living. He takes the initiative and we respond. Faith is receiving and faith is recognizing what we have received. Let us make righteous judgments concerning ourselves and trust ourselves as God trusts us.

Jesus final word to us in this context is: You can do nothing without me. That gives us a platform to pray boldly and with conviction in all matters expecting to see our prayers answered in glory. To step out of our mistaken identity as selfish and that we are not reliable sons is another facet of that obedience of faith to which Paul refers.

The Treasure Hunters

Being a son of God means standing in the frontline of human liberation. It also means to be persecuted and ridiculed in the midst of peace. Each son is assigned different missions so that the body is whole and lacking in nothing. The commission each and every one of us is given is in perfect harmony with our inner consciousness of who we are and our drives and whatever we are geared towards.

Some in the body are given the task of leading their sisters and brothers into a larger understanding of who they are in Christ and have a special drive towards exploring the mystery, that is, Christ in you. They are willing to take great risks in their undertaking and are willing to stretch God’s grace beyond what is commonly recognized in the community of believers. Thus they will invariably face opposition from various holds on account of that their findings often challenge people’s inclination towards self preservation.

However, they cannot but speak about what they have seen and heard, and if they have gone to the extremes, which they often do, they are confident that the Spirit will correct their understanding if they have taken it too far. They are also well aware of that some of the things they are granted to see will perhaps in an early stage come out somewhat immature, but that is no problem to them since they acknowledge that an expansion of the consciousness will sometimes lead to slight misunderstandings. But, what they one day saw as in a glimpse will one day come out as fully matured knowledge edifying those who are in a position to and willing to receive.

To be taken beyond the letters of the Bible is what they desire and when God who is more than willing to share His secrets opens up their minds they become like small kids eagerly sharing the treasures from above hoping that someone will receive and eat the fresh manna from above.

The Truth

Standing before Pilate Jesus said he had come to bear witness to the truth. Then Pilate posed the obvious question: What is truth? Jesus never answered him because there are no answers to that question. It was and still is the wrong question. Ever since the fall the question Pilate posed has haunted mankind. We have tried to answer it in every possible way from sex to complex theology. The answer continues to evade us until we pose the right question: Who is truth? Jesus came to bear witness to himself. He is the truth. He said: I am the way and the truth and the life. The startling fact is that every new creation is truth. You are truth. It doesn't matter if our knowledge is wrong. We are still the truth. If our confession is contrary to who we are we are still the truth. In every now the Father recognizes us as the truth. It is an inescapable fact that every son is the truth on account of that the Father is truth. You want to know the truth? Behold yourself. You are it! And as we all know it is the truth that sets us free. There is nothing more freeing than recognizing Christ as us.

Called to Freedom

Total freedom can only exist is an environment of no condemnation and no fear. Perfect love thus casts our fear so that we can trust our hearts, souls, emotions and desires in all things even though we not always understand their inclinations. Every moment God encourages us to walk in faith and not by what we see because in trusting ourselves we trust Him. Condemnation will always threaten our freedom and make us doubt our choices and ways, which in reality are His choices and ways. God never wondered whether He was in sin or not when He crucified His own Son or when He made the devil aware of Job’s perfection which led to Job’s sufferings. When God asks us to trust Him and ourselves in seemingly hopeless and contradictory circumstances it is because He is God and knows all things, whilst we are not God, merely His means of expression in glory, and thus we are inhibited by a limited sight and therefore faith is our means of seeing through to God only.

I Am Not the Head

By Andrea Garzon

The head’s function is to master the body. Jesus is the head and we are the body (Colossians 1:18). Acknowledging this fact does not make Him the Head, for He is, whether you reckon it or not, just as the law of gravity works whether you believe in it or not. Living by any form of restriction or self-government states: "I am the head" (for the head runs the body). This completely negates my condition of dependence upon Christ as the source of my wisdom and illusory establishes my humanity as such. Satan deceived Adam with the same lie he deceived himself: “You can be like (a) God”. What ‘a god’ is? A god is a source, a creator, a separate self-sufficient being. Obviously Satan's proposition was a bluff, a mere illusion because we were not created to be something of our own, except from expressers, vessels, tabernacles, branches and containers of the one and only true Deity.

I am sure God's desire is that we live a life of adequacy, but that is solely achievable after going through the acknowledging process of “I no longer live”. This is certainly a stage we cannot omit or overleap. Which part of us no longer lives? That which was bound to the obligations and demands of the law. We died to considering ourselves as heads (self-controlled beings), although this is a mere illusion because there is only one Source in the universe.

Walking after the flesh (under the Law) can be defined as living by any source apart from the Head, although this “independence” is nothing but a deception because a body cannot walk without a head. The Spirit takes us through seasons of “trying to run our lives” in order to expose that illusion of separation, and settle us in the reality of Christ living our lives as us, which brings a sense of competence.

Our sufficiency rests entirely on our dependency upon Christ as the Head, but do not approach this dependency as, "I must depend more on God" or "I must consecrate my life more". Forget it! There is no such thing as “I” apart from Christ; this is still part of the deception, as if this union reality with God was something external. This dependency I am talking about here goes beyond the mere concept of reliance; it is a life or death matter, as the tree is to the branch. You can still be deceived believing you are the head (your own source), although this does not diminish a single bit the truth that you are not.

The true ‘denial of self’ is actually renouncing to that illusion of independence (false self). The term ‘flesh’ has nothing to do with ‘wrong doing’, but with wrong ‘seeing’. This detachment, falling away from grace, or alienation from Christ that the Bible often talks about, is of the consciousness (seeing/focus). The Word does not say God was our enemy, Colossians 1:21 says we were enemies of God ‘in our minds’ (consciousness).

Jesus said: “Take up your cross and follow me”. I believe the ‘cross’ he was referring to, is the realization deep down inside our inner consciousness, that we are not running our lives anymore, and this is a process that unquestionably involves agony (no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful). Of course, it is not when you reckon yourself as dead that you die, that is a fact, but the reckoning allows you to experience and enjoy your new resurrected identity. We do not need to 'know what to do' because that is the role of the head. Colossians 2:10 says: "And you are now complete in him, who is the head of all rule and authority..." That is why there is now no condemnation; if the head cannot be condemned, the body cannot be condemned either. Forgiveness and acceptance is a quite inferior description of what the good news are all about. The gospel is about an exchange of owner. We were once containers of the spirit of error (vessels of wrath), now the Spirit of truth indwells us (vessels of mercy).

Although it takes a while to be established in the reality of Christ as the Head, once we are settled in this glorious truth, we are able to experience that peace that surpasses all understanding and enjoy His sufficiency as our own. Now we can shout "I can do all things...".

The Wind Blows Wherever It Wishes

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8).  We can only speak about what we know and bear witness to what we have seen. Only that which is born of the Spirit is spirit and can behold the heavenly things and testify to their glory. Reason and our senses can only testify to what we hear and behold in the temporal. Spirit truth must therefore circumvent our senses and enlighten our minds by other means. We are alluding to the Spirit’s expansion of our minds as far as we are willing to receive His teachings.

The realization of the reality of which Jesus draws an outline can’t be found within the limitations of what we encounter in the natural and it must far surpass outer laws and regulations. To be a wind that blows wherever it wishes denotes an inner awareness that merely carries vague memories of concepts such as sin, guilt, moral, ethics and duty. To be bound by nothing and accountable to nothing but one’s inner reality of freedom, which is heaven as so far we belong to Christ, is that wind which no man can control, but merely observe in either astonishment or annoyance.

The Real Thing

By Andrea Garzon & Ole Henrik Skjelstad

Almost all of Christianity is obsessed with this idea that we have to change. In the church this quest for becoming more holy and righteous is characterized by self-effort. The emphasis is on you and what you have to do in order to improve and become a better person. In grace circles the stress is put upon correct teaching. If you just get to learn how much God loves you and how righteous and holy you are that change in your life you long for will quite effortlessly come to pass.

Let us for a moment speak about geography: Would you call a mountain an imperfection or a flaw because it's not flat? Or a valley an imperfection because it's hollow? God’s view on beauty and perfection as displayed in nature is fascinating. And this applies to our personalities too! His creation might seem “crazy” and from a human perspective marred when we only focus on outer things like mountaintops that are not flat and erupting volcanoes.

Let us also be pragmatic for a moment. I can't change? Can you? Why do we encounter this emphasis on change when God lives His life as me? Can God change? No! How can the immutable God change? If He wants my valleys to be deep then let them be deep. If He wants my mountaintops to be ragged, well, let them be so. May our inner eyes be opened so that we can embrace ourselves in our stunning and amazing perfection!

The fact is that those who preach a gospel of change are opposing themselves. To put it bluntly, they look like a bunch of clones trying to "be more like Jesus". We are not supposed to be clones. God’s idea is that we are supposed to be “more like ourselves”. There’s no need to be afraid of ourselves, because it is Love that drives us. When we have tasted the Real thing, we cannot go back to a gospel that put all its emphasis on that we are not whole and need to be changed.

Behind all these "doctrines", no matter the label, unbelief reigns. To enter the gate of Gal 2:20 is scary because that in a sense implies zero control for man, but the paradox is that in the instant we enter that heavenly entrance we find ourselves in Christ with all His resources at our disposal. It is when we recognize the PERSON, the Real Thing, as us confusion must end. When we learn what a person is, that is, a person is a person containing a PERSON, and recognize this person in work in us as us that quest for change becomes void and nothing.

To be depraved of the knowledge that God is the one acting and working in us is, however, a necessary preludium to possessing our heritage as free sons. It is most necessary that we learn that change is impossible by either this or that, so that the Son can emerge in us. But, this is not either our full heritage. True freedom is attained when we “forget”, that is, “not knowing or perceiving” that it is God acting in us as us. We are just ourselves in true freedom.

Thou Shalt Love The Lord With All Thy Heart

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, the lawyer answered Jesus when Jesus challenged him concerning what must be done to inherit eternal life. I assume the lawyer soon enough found out that he hadn’t it in him to love like this. Since there is only One who is love in this universe the reality is that no human can love like this. It is beyond our capacities. God only requires himself so we can only love God with His own love. But, a most crucial question is how is this love expressed in our relation to God? Is it a matter of emotions? Is it related to how much we do for God? Has it something to do with obedience? Or is it expressed in faith?

In what ways did Jesus express His love towards His Father? It is true that they often spent time together, but not that often. Jesus spent most of His time with friends and His disciples. He was even accused of being a glutton and drunkard. The question thus still remains unanswered. How did Jesus love His Father? We are so accustomed to gauge, think and assess in terms of outer realities and appearances that we assume to love God is something outer, for instance, like good works.

If that is the case we have fallen for one of the enemy’s tricks, because love is something inner. It is simply saying yes to God and trust His reality when He opens up our awareness to things far beyond the scope of our natural minds and which shake the foundations of which our reason is secured. It is to dare to jump into the river and get soaked in whatever the Spirit shows us concerning our identity in Christ. To love God is to dare entering the reality in which He moves lives and has His being, that is, total freedom to be being accountable to no one save our personal inner reality. This is what Kierkegaard called existentialism. It was Eckhart who said that when the Father begets the Son, He gives Him all His nature and essence! We are that son in our unique expressions of Him. If we are still caught up in a sin-consciousness, questions about the law and things that pertain to our temporal earthly abode we haven’t yet dared penetrate the infinite abyss in which God dwells and by that expressed our love and trust in Him.

Love Cannot Go Wrong

Co-authored with Andrea Garzon

“As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the LORD is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him” (Psalm 18:30). What does it mean that His ways are perfect? We find in the scriptures several instances where God speaks about His ways. He says that He will cause us to walk in His ways. We also learn that His thoughts are not our thoughts, and that His ways are not our ways.

What we now are going to share is based on two revelations which make the foundation for our exposition: “Contrary to common belief, God’s goal is not to improve us. The new creation is perfect, how could you fix perfection? There is nothing more spiritual than being yourself and enjoy it” (Andrea). “‎"Freedom is the ultimate form of life because it is God's kind of life" (Ole Henrik).

"God's kind of life" implies that we are free to choose and that ALL choices are okay! All of them are righteous and holy because they are born out of freedom. We often think there is one specific plan God had for us and this is what we call "His ways" for our lives. However, "His ways" really means "His ways of doing things" and "His kind of life", and both are perfect because He is love. God is free, therefore we are free and whatever we chose is perfect! That completely takes off from our shoulders that heavy burden of "what if I mess up?" The quoted verse from the psalms confirms how God is free and how He shields our choices in freedom! To trust ourselves and our choices means that we trust God and the quality of the new life we have been granted!

In Genesis 20 we find a most curious story. Abimelech, King of Gerar, took Sarah because Abraham lied and told everyone she was his sister. When God intervenes all blame is put on Abimelech, and Abraham goes free. In fact Abraham’s riches are increased in the course of everything that transpires. We never find that God rebuked Abraham for his actions. On the contrary, Abraham is commissioned to pray for Abimelech so that God saves the king’s life. This account is a most startling testimony on God’s faithfulness and how He treats His own. Abraham acted out of his freedom to choose and God shielded his freedom to be himself in whatever form that would appear. To our natural minds it seems quite unfair that God blamed the king for everything. What to us appears as apparent unrighteousness (Abraham lying) isn't so to God, because Abraham was righteous, that is, in a New Testament understanding indwelt by God.

Whatever deed we did under the influence of the spirit of error was evil. WHATEVER deed we do now is righteous. There are plenty of things that look really "unfair" due to our conception of "right living", but according to God's perspective EVERYTHING we chose is okay, and this is His will for our lives; that we can chose. We have often believed that God's perfect will is like a target and if we miss the target we would have to conform to His "second will" (or plan B or back-up plan if we somehow mess up.) There is no plan B, everything is plan A.

It demands a huge leap of faith to dare to enter the reality of His ways, that is, to act and live in total freedom which is His ways. Do we dare to trust that He is our shield no matter what, and that everything works together for good for those who love God? And isn’t it so that the greatest love we can show God is to trust His reality when it opens up to us and boldly enter into it? We often think God is saying: "Ok, you are free, BUT if you chose wrongly, assume the consequences!" Well, yes, in a sense there are consequences due to our choices but they are all God's will.

Holiness Restored

The Trinity is not a new concept invented by modern theologians in an attempt to describe the union between Father, Son and Spirit as the Bible translates their fellowship. From before the foundation of the earth there was a Triune relationship which is characterized by love, adoration, joy and acceptance. Into this amazing fellowship we are now adopted so that we can share in the blessings of being part of an eternal outflow of love, benevolence and approval.


Paul very distinctively writes: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. (Eph 1: 3-5)


Chosen before the foundation of the earth we were predestined to take part in this union which heavenly places pertains to. As members of the Trinity we are considered holy and blameless. Holiness hence refers to our new position in the heavenly realm. Moreover, holiness can be understood as a state of eternal joy, love, acceptance and mutual admiration. This potent word is pregnant with the wonder and the beauty, the passion and the sheer togetherness of the Trinitarian life.


When Christianity arrived in Rome holiness by and by lost its original meaning. Interpreted in the Roman judicial system holiness was transferred into the legal realm. In this world of pure law holiness came to mean legal perfection or moral rectitude. This metamorphosis heavily influenced the church so that holiness became a matter of conduct and behavior and hence made it possible for legalistic conceptions about holiness to prevail in the institution. This influence has gravely distorted the true meaning of holiness, and furthermore turned holiness into something man has to attain in order to prove his devotion to God.


Holiness is the effect of Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. However, the Adamic race wouldn’t have benefitted from Jesus finished work if those defiled by the fall, that is, every man, wasn’t included in everything Jesus accomplished. Therefore, we are crucified with Him, we are resurrected with Him and we have ascended with Him. This mystical transference which took place when Christ became us is our guarantee that we are included in everything He accomplished.


Holiness understood from a legal perspective irretrievably reverse the whole act of reconciliation, to such a degree that this understanding purports that Jesus came to save us from God. Changing God has become the object of Christ's sacrifice. He came to convert God so that God's wrath could be emptied upon Him and not us. However, Paul insists that Jesus came to save us from ourselves and the consequences of the fall. While we were utterly helpless Jesus came to save us from bondage and the spirit of error's evil domain.


To too many Christians the word holy denotes alienation, fear and estrangement, when its proper meaning has all the opposite connotations. Its true and original meaning can only be properly acknowledged in concepts such as inclusion, peace and fellowship. In short, our holiness pertains to the undisputable fact that we are reconciled to God and that our original design, that is, that we are created in His likeness, is restored.

Before You Call He Will Answer

It is written, ”And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer” (Isa 65:24). In our daily struggles and adversities we might find this verse a bit hazy. God claims that before we call He will answer. Try that in a phone call! Anyway, in our daily lives we often wonder where that answer is, notably when the wind blows really hard. Despite everything which seems to contradict this amazing promise I find that there are at least two applications of this verse.


Firstly, as long as we dwell in the temporal realm we are subjected to some severe impediments regarding our general overview. We really have no means to find out if God saved us from a hideous car accident because we were delayed a minute. We don’t know in what ways He has arranged everything so that in most instances we do not have to call, because everything is already taken care of. Faith is the only mean with which we are furnished to acknowledge His activity in our lives when there are no other evidences. Sometimes, however, we can say, "That was God!"


Paul wrote, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” (Eph 3:20-21) The realization of this verse has nothing to do with your abilities or devotion. It only hinges on which power that works in you. In Christ God has taken possession of you and hence He is that power. He is constantly active in our lives. We are always in His thoughts. Our Father neither sleeps nor slumbers in regard to His precious sons! The promise in this verse is constantly and perpetually a reality in our lives whether we recognize it or not.


Secondly, ”And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer” means that to whatever circumstance we encounter God has an answer. God has called us to be co-workers and co-operators of His universe. To this end He trains us. We hence face a variety of challenges in our walk, and therefore He says, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” (Eph 5:14) By default our attitude is one of submission to appearances – a heritage from the fall when we saw everything in fragments, and separation embossed every thought we had. In order to become proficient co-workers He teaches us to see beyond appearances and hence in increasing measure trust Him and as we become more and more settled in the union reality, ourselves.


Awake you who sleep, and receive the light which empowers you to see God in everything. Awake to the desires in you. Awake to what you want in this situation. Dare to trust your desires in any circumstance, and speak to God the solution you so very much want to see manifested. It is His desires which well up in you and those exact desires are His answer to your situation. Be bold in your requests! Know that the answer is a reality in the spiritual realm, and in His time it will become a reality in the material realm. My friend, you are never abandoned. He is always active in your life so that everything you encounter is in reality an opportunity for your Father to bless you in ways you had never imagined.

Rest in Work

We all know that life is work. It is action. We are always on the move, both on the outside and on the inside. When the author of the epistle to the Hebrews says we ought to enter God’s rest he evidently isn’t talking about idleness. This is by the way the only “ought to” left in our lives after we became God’s. So what is this rest we are to enter into?


“God’s rest isn’t rest from work….. it is rest in work”, Norman Grubb so masterly put it. We are resting when we have the sufficiency to do the work. Unrest or strain is to do something from a position of insufficiency. In this not so insignificant difference lies the freedom to be who we are created to be!


Our God is a God of action. Joyfully He runs the universe. He has the sufficiency to do so. In us God also is a God of action. Life is action, movement, change of seasons. We are caught in the middle of this creative life force. When we are caught by God there is no escape. He won’t let us go. He has stuck Himself to us. Isn’t that wonderful!


A state of insufficiency or unrest occurs when we become self-centered in our outlook. My life, my status, my position, my money and so on – we can make the list endlessly long. That really wears us out. However, God won’t let us be there forever. Only until we have learned our lesson. Our greatest problem is perhaps all those expectations laid upon us by others. It is impossible to live out our life from the inside when we are burdened down by faulty expectations on how to run our life and what to do.


To work from sufficiency is to have more than enough to do the job. There is an undertow of joy in everything you undertake. Your special gifts and talents are in action. Your dreams are being realized to such an extent that you have to rub your eyes in utter amazement. That is rest! That is God in action in your life. Take heed of yourself; respect your desires and dreams. Let everything God has put on your inside have leeway. Allow your uniqueness to shine!


Norman Grubb concluded, “So ‘rest’ is adequacy in action….it’s inside action.”


(Both quotes by Norman Grubb are from The Meaning of Life, pages 50-51)

They Have Been Satisfied By the Truth

One of the most heartrending episodes in Jesus’ life was when He at the cross cried out: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?


Our Savior came out of the womb of the fallen Israel to join the ranks of a fallen humanity. If He was to be a savior of all mankind His identification with man had to be absolute. He became like one of us in order to live our life in the flesh. We are not exaggerating when we assert that one of the most astounding events in all history took place when one member of the Triune fellowship became flesh.


He came down to share in our fallen condition so that we could share in His fellowship in the Heavenly realms. The Triune fellowship is characterized by an unspeakable joy. The three members’ desires are in total harmony and they are completely devoted to each other. The camaraderie and love which flows unimpeded between the Divine persons is so pure and beautiful and radiates with such a light that the fallen man cannot approach its presence without being devoured by its fire.


Jesus descended so that we could ascend into the Heavenly realms and be partakers of the unspeakable joy and love of the Trinity. He identified Himself with us so that we could identify with the Triune fellowship. Perfected through what He suffered He blazed a trail which we could follow when He after the resurrection ascended to where He now sits by the right hand of the Father.


What seems as the pinnacle of Jesus’ identification with a fallen mankind was when He at the cross cried out those famous words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That is our cry. Ever since the fall our insides have cringed under the burden of a penetrating sensation of abandonment. As an attempt to alleviate the pain we have created gods in our image. Remote and aloof those gods have mirrored our perception of the living God.


Psalm 22 answers our cry which Jesus articulated: “He has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.” Paul elaborates in this manner: “He is actually not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being”. The Temple’s veil which tore apart revealed God’s presence in every man. Concealed behind the veil God, the sustainer of all life, dwelled in the Holiest of Holies. From now on every man could find God. Not lo here or lo there, but inside every man God has erected a temple not made by hands.


Whereas large numbers of new creations are still groping in darkness and perpetuate the cry of abandonment there are those whose hunger and thirst for righteousness has driven them into the mystery where they have been satisfied by the truth, that is, they have found that Christ is their life. They have discovered that they are irrefutably intertwined with the Trinity and joined as one with the Godhead.

Let There Be Light

Paul discloses a profound secret to the saints in Rome when he asserts, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Rom 5:4-5)


There have been times when I have read this and thought; really? I am the first to admit that I am like an averse little kid when these seasons of suffering occur. I don’t like it the least. An inevitable question is why do I react in this fashion? I believe it is because those sufferings reveal something about my faith, notably the fact that sometimes I resemble that wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. In other words I am not completely convinced that God is in full control and that He is love and love only. Moreover, I am not totally persuaded that everything that befalls me is His perfect plan for me in any circumstance.


I assume this was what Peter had to learn when he was sifted and as a consequence denied Jesus three times. After the revelation where he saw that Jesus was the Messiah he must have thought that now he was the initiated one and hence knew everything. His testimony from that moment onwards must have been that God is love. Peter was convinced that he loved Him back and on account of that not so small fact would never ever deny Him. However, there must have been a slight doubt in his mind regarding those things he took for granted. The only way Peter could become aware of his delusion was through testing.


Now we have come to the core of the matter. Our reason to rejoice is that God’s prime concern is to make us safe in His love. A most fascinating evolvement or perhaps it is more correct to say fascinating unveiling of our new heart takes place when we become settled in His love. Unimpeded by doubts regarding our Father’s character our new heart begins to produce what Paul calls character. This is a recognition of who we really are, that His love is poured into our hearts and that that is the eternal source from which our life flows.


Even though we have received a new heart it seems like it needs reassurance and love in order to blossom and mature. In a matter of speaking it is softened when we understand that God is love and that He is for us. I find that this law is operative in me: The more I recognize God’s love towards me the more loving and understanding I am towards others. This is definitely a fascinating aspect of the new life. It displays my humanity and that I am created for meaningful relations shrouded in love.


Most importantly, though, is the fact that love is the most significant characteristic of the Triune relationship of which we now are invited to be partakers. Hence, we are trained in love. We are not responsible to become more loving. God is the one who through our different experiences in this life see to that our new life is manifested in love. Norman Grubb said, “I am not a maintaining self. I am a maintained self.” God is my keeper and maintainer!


From this perspective we realize that those periods of testing also involve a subversion or erosion of our self-sufficient-self. A process which is absolutely necessary if we are to grasp the enormity of God’s grace and how comprehensive Jesus’ finished work is. After the incident outside the high priest’s courtyard Peter’s self confidence was in disarray. He must have doubted God’s love since He allowed this calamity to come his way. Perhaps worst of all, Peter must have felt his nothingness as a devouring darkness.


Into this vacuum God’s light and love flows unobstructed and fills Peter with a new understanding of who he is in an eternal perspective. It is the kind of emptiness the Genesis account alludes to into which God commanded: Let there be light!

Which is Born of the Spirit is Spirit

One of the most fascinating conversations ever recorded is found in John 3. Jesus is giving Nicodemus a lecture in the principles of the Kingdom. As the rest of the Jews Nicodemus believed that Messiah would establish Israel again as a prominent nation. They thought that God would install Israel at the helm of world affairs. That His Kingdom would be a literal kingdom. To Nicodemus Jesus established that the Kingdom would be an invisible Kingdom inhabited by those who were born again by the Spirit.


Ezekiel prophesized, “I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land.“ The Kingdom of heaven is our own land. We are merely sojourners in this temporal realm. We belong to another dimension – unseen by the natural eye. There we live, move and have our being.


A few sentences later Jesus says a most stunning thing to Nicodemus: “…that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”. When Jesus meets the Samaritan woman He informs her that God is spirit. A spirit is invisible if it hasn’t any means of manifesting itself. The universe is thus a manifestation of God. He who is all in all can be found in everything for those who have eyes to see. In the same manner we express our true self – our spirit - through our body and soul. Those who have eyes to see can the glory we have from our Father. We manifest our spirits in a lesser scale than God, hence He calls us gods.


The Kingdom of God isn’t referring to a future bliss. It is here and now populated by those who are born again by the Spirit. About those who haven’t accepted Christ John writes: “Whoever does not love abides in death” and “…whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” We pray and hope to see them join our ranks of born again spirits. Paul states clearly that every man is reconciled to God, but evidently not everyone has the life. Man is reconciled to God, but only those who are spirits and born again have life.


Do you believe that you are a lover? John says you are if you have the Son of God. You can’t help yourself; you love people and you love everything God loves. Remember you are a spirit. You are a partaker of God’s life. You are an other-lover no matter how you feel or how you perceive yourself. As spirits we function on a quite different level. We do not live by sight, but by faith. And by faith we call into existence the things that do not exist. Be patient with yourself and do not judge according to appearances. As spiritual persons we make spiritual judgments.


When the full extent of the fact that we are spirits sinks in a most glorious thing happens in our consciousnesses. A wave of relief and freedom wash in over us. We recognize that the abundant life isn’t something into a dim future. It is here and now. We clearly understand that as spirits born by God we are not limited by any law. We are driven by His love which far supersedes any law.

Who are You, O Great Mountain

I ask you my friend to never think disparaging thoughts about yourself and what you consider as failings or warts in your personality while in this temporal realm. I have been in that place where I always fought what I perceived as flaws in my personhood. I have begged God to improve me - to make me more loving, more caring, a better listener, more energetic etc. I have tried with all my might to become a better person. The measuring stick was the law and manmade codes of ethics.


My seemingly flaws seemed as mountains to me which I had to conquer and flatten. Listen what God said to Zerubbabel: “Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain.” How is that possible? There is only one answer: “He shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of 'Grace, grace to it!” The shout of grace is reverberating through the universe and when your ears hear its call you know the answer. From the top of your consciousness the truth about who you are will reach every corner of your being. Can you hear the shout?


When the truth settles you will see that what you perceived as flaws and shortcomings are plains from God’s point of view. In His time He will make them your biggest assets. Yes, we are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are His works, and we are a work of His hand. When that spirit of error was kicked out of the temple and God’s Spirit filled it God declared over us: You are perfect! Do you believe it?


In Noah’s days it continued to rain until all the mountains were covered by water. God’s work will always cover our mountains of self effort and our erroneous notions about who we are. The water from above will make everything level. Can you see it?


Well, who are you, O great mountain? You are the lie from the Garden of Eden. You said we had to become like God. We have disclosed your lie. We are like God. How can it be any different when we are created in His likeness? It is a magnificent work of His righteous right hand. My work is to believe that He has done what is impossible for man. So, let’s go to work with a light heart.

The Refreshing Taste of Freedom

The following constitutes a part of Paul’s greeting to the Galatians: “For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Paul is referring to the Gospel when he utters those indeed bold words. The gospel he was sharing was not given him by any man; it came as a revelation of Jesus Christ. It should then be clear that the good news that Paul preached was something quite different from what he previously had been taught by the men of the law.


In verse 16 Paul makes a most astounding observation: “God revealed His Son in me”. Some translations have made this into; “….revealed His Son to me”, which is something quite different. The Greek preposition used in this context is “in”. What we can infer from this and what also align with our own experiences as Christ is formed in us is that Paul and we go from outer reality to inner reality and we realize that we are inner people.


The inner life is governed by utterly different principles than the outer life. Contrary to attempting to follow outer ordinances and regulations the inner life endows us with the opportunity to be whole persons and not least true to ourselves and those around us. Following outer principles is a sure path to dishonesty and hypocrisy. We are a sick and tired of being pretenders, and as the outer pressures mount the cry in our hearts is: “I want to be real! There must be someone out there who loves me and accepts me as I am!”


That was Paul’s prime discovery! This was the foundation for his gospel. God is love and He loves you beyond your wildest imaginations. In fact you cannot imagine His love. You can, however, under those limitations we now are subject to to a certain degree experience His love, but more importantly you can by faith be fixed in your consciousness that He is love, and hence in everything you can count on this fact. In weakness, in darkness, in misery, in confusion, in affliction you can count on one thing: God is for you!


As this amazing fact begins to settle in our minds outer circumstances begin to lose their power in how we perceive ourselves and life in general. No matter what happens we are safe in Him. Of course, this unfetters those inner potentials we a period believed were against His will and good pleasure. For some it means that they can play card with their friends, for others they are now free to exercise the music someone told them was from the devil.


You have your history, and I have mine. What we have in common is this: We suddenly blossom in the light and love of our Father and can finally be who we were created to be without any inhibiting outer fences. Our motivation comes from within, from Christ in us and He was as you perhaps remember accused of being a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!

Serving God

The cry in most churches and denominations is that we must serve God. Well, then, how do we serve God? When Jesus came into the world he said: “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body has you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.”


This is plain and straight forward. God is not interested in man’s attempt at pleasing Him by making sacrifices and offerings which often is at the core of the message in regards to serving God. “You have to offer more of your money, time etc.” “You have to make some sacrifices for God, you know.” To be honest with you: God is not interested!


Asking for forgiveness and punishing ourselves mentally when we have failed is nothing else than burnt offerings and sin offerings. God takes no pleasure in our attempts to atone for our misdeeds. Jesus’ sacrifice was once and for all. There is nothing we can add to His finished work. Forget it!


However, what we know is this: God has prepared a body for us through which He who is Spirit manifests Himself. Secondly, we have come to do His will. How? We are conduits through which His life flows. That is serving God. We serve Him with our bodies so He can make Himself known to the world. This is the reason why Jesus said: Those who have seen me have seen the Father. Remember, we have the same oneness with God as Jesus had.


Those who attempt to serve God by their good works are nothing more than servants and their self-perception will be accordingly. However, those who by faith have entered a more elevated level in their consciousnesses do not regard themselves as servants. Jesus calls His brothers and sisters friends, and that is what we are -friends with the creator of the universe. To see this truth and hence enter into it is indeed a wonderful thing.


Those who know who they are have given up any effort towards serving God with their own means. They just are. Through those God’s life and light flow unimpeded. Since they know this precious fact they are unperturbed by appearances. They live by faith. They have moved into the New Jerusalem where everything is clean and covered with gold. To the pure everything is pure, Paul wrote.