A Brief Guide To The Spiritual World
As I was thinking about the topic for this week's message, it occurred to me that just about all of us are pretty good at getting around in the physical world. We can understand what we can see, feel, touch, taste, smell as long it is "in the natural" or physical realm. When talk of the spiritual world comes up in conversation people almost always get uneasy, as if a taboo subject has been introduced. We are fairly comfortable with things of the intellect, but talk about the Spirit that created all that exists or the spirit that lives in each of us and we get uneasy and often leave the room!
Why do you think this is? I believe that it might be that people are uncomfortable about spirituality and the discussion of it because it strikes to the heart of who and what we are. It touches the very essence of our being and we feel vulnerable and exposed. It also brings up religious differences and these tend to pit us against our fellow humans. Discussion of religion or spirituality brings our differences into focus rather than bringing us into common ground. Of course, in our "politically correct" society we wouldn't want to offend, now would we?
Let's talk about what I believe is the Truth about the spiritual world. Physicists such as Steven Hawking, estimate that 98% of the entire Universe is non -physical or not yet formed into matter. (I define the spiritual world as all that is not yet in form - void energy)
At the center of this spiritual world is the Cosmic Intelligence we choose to call God. God is not God's name, it is the convenient word we in Western Culture use to refer to that Power that is beyond our intellectual understanding. We know its there, we can see the effects of this Power all around us, the glory of Creation on this planet and billions of others. The sunset, the blue, blue sky, the perfect temperatures for life, the exact chemical composition of the atmosphere that allows us to breathe; the perfect cocktail of amino acids that produced life here on earth - and most awesome of all - the exquisite double helix of DNA - the very building blocks of all life; these can not be the product of luck, fate or random chance.
There is some seriously advanced engineering going on here, far beyond our puny human abilities. Who or what is the cause - the First Cause of all of this? This Cause we label God, for lack of a better term. Some just refer to this great Mind as the Universe, some call it Divine Mind, some say Universal Mind, others call it the life essence of the Universe. Luke Skywalker and Obe Wan Kenobe of Star Wars fame just called it "The Force". That is as good a name as any!
Atheists and agnostics sometimes ridicule people of faith. They laugh at those who believe in a power of Creation greater than the puny human mind. They call us fools and gullible innocents. To me, those who cannot see the hand of a great Mind in the wonderful panorama of Creation all around us; who cannot see the exquisite order that permeates the Universe and all in it - they are the gullible ones.
Even scientists admit that today's scientific fact all too often becomes tomorrow's myth and legend as we advance in our knowledge. In contrast,Universal Truth is true now, 2,000 years from now and for all time. As I often point out to atheists and agnostics who wish to debate me, and they do love to debate; most of the greatest scientific minds of the past 600 years had a strong belief in a Great Power, a Mind beyond human comprehension, that was the Cause of all creation, the Prime Engineer of all that exists, the Great Lawgiver who created the Ordered Universe that we live in. Such men and women as Einstein, Von Braun, Madame Curie, Pasteur, Isaac Newton, Galileo, Copernicus, Darwin, Goddard, even Carl Sagan, the Sage of Modern Astronomy, all believed in a Power, a Mind behind all Creation.
These great men and women of science might not have all been religious church goers but all the true greats of Science reached out and "touched the Face of God" as they looked deeply into the Cosmos and explored its workings. They saw nothing but Order and Design in everything from a snowflake to DNA to the orbit and tracks of the planets and stars. They knew at their deepest core that all Creation cannot have been the result of random chance.
Does this mean that they bought the notion of the Sunday School God, the Old Man in the Sky in the White Robe on his Bench of Judgement writing in his book of Good and Evil Deeds? Of course not, and neither do I or any other Religious Scientist or thinking Christian. God is a Spirit, not a superhuman. God is an Essence of Life, not a capricious and cranky tribal God as envisioned in the Old Testament.
We live under a New Covenant, a new understanding of God as Love personified, of Intelligence that loves us because it IS us. We understand that God and humanity are partners in the sense that God works only through us, for us. If we are not a clear channel through which God can work, we will not experience the Grace of God working in our lives.
Our job is Faith - trust in things not seen - and acting on that Faith with the same certainty that we act on what we see and know in the physical world. Your faith in God and God's Laws should be of the same depth and certainty as your faith in gravity or in the Sun staying in the sky. Physical Laws and Spiritual Laws were made by the same Mind, the same Intelligence and can be depended on equally and trusted implicitly.
All of us understand that there are immutable and dependable laws that run the physical world. We do not expect a sack of cement dropped from a 10 story building to go up, we KNOW better! We do not expect a healthy baby to be born 4 months after conception, we KNOW that it takes nine months! We do not expect the sky to be green tomorrow, we know that it is blue, even if obscured for the moment by clouds. These things are the products of physical law - made by an intelligence.
So then why do so many otherwise intelligent people believe that the Spiritual World is governed by a God of caprice, whim, reward and punishment? Why do we believe in a God that plays favorites, cannot be trusted to act in a predictable manner but seems to blow hot and cold. Many believe that the Spiritual World is different, but it is not! It has been said that humanity cannot conceive of a God unlike itself and I believe that is a true statement. Most of us make an image of God that is like our image of us. Our God cannot grow bigger than what we think of ourselves.
The next time you struggle with visualizing God, think of a warm bright light illuminating from the center of your being. This is the Holy Spirit, the Indwelling God, shining from within you, present in you and present in every place in the Universe at the same time. God just is, always has been, always will be. The day you finally can let go of seeing God as a person and can see God as a loving benevolent Intelligence that operates through you, for you - that is the day that you will understand at last that every human being on this planet and every other we may discover, is God. God and you are ONE. God lives and moves and has its being through you and you receive your life through God. One cannot exist without the other.
Know that you are loved beyond measure, that you are treasured as a pearl beyond any price. You are a thought in the Mind of the Creator of the Universe. Is that not a magnificent notion?
You are never separated from the love of God but you can refuse to see the Truth about who and what you are. You have the power to draw the curtain of disbelief over the face of God within you but know this; God is still there waiting for you to awaken to your magnificence. You are given free will in order that you may choose your life, your way and your Light. This is not a dress rehearsal, choose wisely!
May God bless every moment in your life and may you become a conscious partner with God in the co-creation of Heaven on Earth right here and right now!
And So It Is!
Why do you think this is? I believe that it might be that people are uncomfortable about spirituality and the discussion of it because it strikes to the heart of who and what we are. It touches the very essence of our being and we feel vulnerable and exposed. It also brings up religious differences and these tend to pit us against our fellow humans. Discussion of religion or spirituality brings our differences into focus rather than bringing us into common ground. Of course, in our "politically correct" society we wouldn't want to offend, now would we?
Let's talk about what I believe is the Truth about the spiritual world. Physicists such as Steven Hawking, estimate that 98% of the entire Universe is non -physical or not yet formed into matter. (I define the spiritual world as all that is not yet in form - void energy)
At the center of this spiritual world is the Cosmic Intelligence we choose to call God. God is not God's name, it is the convenient word we in Western Culture use to refer to that Power that is beyond our intellectual understanding. We know its there, we can see the effects of this Power all around us, the glory of Creation on this planet and billions of others. The sunset, the blue, blue sky, the perfect temperatures for life, the exact chemical composition of the atmosphere that allows us to breathe; the perfect cocktail of amino acids that produced life here on earth - and most awesome of all - the exquisite double helix of DNA - the very building blocks of all life; these can not be the product of luck, fate or random chance.
There is some seriously advanced engineering going on here, far beyond our puny human abilities. Who or what is the cause - the First Cause of all of this? This Cause we label God, for lack of a better term. Some just refer to this great Mind as the Universe, some call it Divine Mind, some say Universal Mind, others call it the life essence of the Universe. Luke Skywalker and Obe Wan Kenobe of Star Wars fame just called it "The Force". That is as good a name as any!
Atheists and agnostics sometimes ridicule people of faith. They laugh at those who believe in a power of Creation greater than the puny human mind. They call us fools and gullible innocents. To me, those who cannot see the hand of a great Mind in the wonderful panorama of Creation all around us; who cannot see the exquisite order that permeates the Universe and all in it - they are the gullible ones.
Even scientists admit that today's scientific fact all too often becomes tomorrow's myth and legend as we advance in our knowledge. In contrast,Universal Truth is true now, 2,000 years from now and for all time. As I often point out to atheists and agnostics who wish to debate me, and they do love to debate; most of the greatest scientific minds of the past 600 years had a strong belief in a Great Power, a Mind beyond human comprehension, that was the Cause of all creation, the Prime Engineer of all that exists, the Great Lawgiver who created the Ordered Universe that we live in. Such men and women as Einstein, Von Braun, Madame Curie, Pasteur, Isaac Newton, Galileo, Copernicus, Darwin, Goddard, even Carl Sagan, the Sage of Modern Astronomy, all believed in a Power, a Mind behind all Creation.
These great men and women of science might not have all been religious church goers but all the true greats of Science reached out and "touched the Face of God" as they looked deeply into the Cosmos and explored its workings. They saw nothing but Order and Design in everything from a snowflake to DNA to the orbit and tracks of the planets and stars. They knew at their deepest core that all Creation cannot have been the result of random chance.
Does this mean that they bought the notion of the Sunday School God, the Old Man in the Sky in the White Robe on his Bench of Judgement writing in his book of Good and Evil Deeds? Of course not, and neither do I or any other Religious Scientist or thinking Christian. God is a Spirit, not a superhuman. God is an Essence of Life, not a capricious and cranky tribal God as envisioned in the Old Testament.
We live under a New Covenant, a new understanding of God as Love personified, of Intelligence that loves us because it IS us. We understand that God and humanity are partners in the sense that God works only through us, for us. If we are not a clear channel through which God can work, we will not experience the Grace of God working in our lives.
Our job is Faith - trust in things not seen - and acting on that Faith with the same certainty that we act on what we see and know in the physical world. Your faith in God and God's Laws should be of the same depth and certainty as your faith in gravity or in the Sun staying in the sky. Physical Laws and Spiritual Laws were made by the same Mind, the same Intelligence and can be depended on equally and trusted implicitly.
All of us understand that there are immutable and dependable laws that run the physical world. We do not expect a sack of cement dropped from a 10 story building to go up, we KNOW better! We do not expect a healthy baby to be born 4 months after conception, we KNOW that it takes nine months! We do not expect the sky to be green tomorrow, we know that it is blue, even if obscured for the moment by clouds. These things are the products of physical law - made by an intelligence.
So then why do so many otherwise intelligent people believe that the Spiritual World is governed by a God of caprice, whim, reward and punishment? Why do we believe in a God that plays favorites, cannot be trusted to act in a predictable manner but seems to blow hot and cold. Many believe that the Spiritual World is different, but it is not! It has been said that humanity cannot conceive of a God unlike itself and I believe that is a true statement. Most of us make an image of God that is like our image of us. Our God cannot grow bigger than what we think of ourselves.
The next time you struggle with visualizing God, think of a warm bright light illuminating from the center of your being. This is the Holy Spirit, the Indwelling God, shining from within you, present in you and present in every place in the Universe at the same time. God just is, always has been, always will be. The day you finally can let go of seeing God as a person and can see God as a loving benevolent Intelligence that operates through you, for you - that is the day that you will understand at last that every human being on this planet and every other we may discover, is God. God and you are ONE. God lives and moves and has its being through you and you receive your life through God. One cannot exist without the other.
Know that you are loved beyond measure, that you are treasured as a pearl beyond any price. You are a thought in the Mind of the Creator of the Universe. Is that not a magnificent notion?
You are never separated from the love of God but you can refuse to see the Truth about who and what you are. You have the power to draw the curtain of disbelief over the face of God within you but know this; God is still there waiting for you to awaken to your magnificence. You are given free will in order that you may choose your life, your way and your Light. This is not a dress rehearsal, choose wisely!
May God bless every moment in your life and may you become a conscious partner with God in the co-creation of Heaven on Earth right here and right now!
And So It Is!
Labels: God, Religious Science, The Law, The Universe
posted by Rev. Dore' Jacques Patlian at
7:17 PM
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