The Great Reflection

Table of Content Book One: The Great Reflection 1. Introduction 2. Images 3. God With Man 4. Patterns and Shadows 5. The Classic Pattern: Fiery Serpents 6. The Two-Sided Existence 7. Mirror Image 8. Facing the Mirror 9. Through the Interface 10. Elusive Reality 11. USMs: Universal Spiritual Mechanics Laws and Theories 12. Rhyme and Reason Book Two: The Spiritual / Corporeal Handshake 1. Dualities 2. Following Suit 3. Actions Initiated From the Other Side 4. Does the Spiritual Require the Corporeal?

5. Ups and Downs 6. More Toward the Spirit 7. Working the Lines 8. Man / Son of Man Part One Book Three: The Upper Room 1. Man / Son of Man Part Two 2. Man / Son of Man Part Three 3. Ingestion 4. The Holy Ghost

5. Holy Communication 6. Spirit and Truth: a Two-Sided Coin 7. Man and God: a Two-Sided Coin 8. The Power of the Mind 9. A New Focus Book Four What Exactly is Spiritual?

1. The Effort to See 2. Our New Mind 3. Crook’d Staff in Hand 4. Am I a Rock, Am I an Island?

(Are your thoughts really your own?)

5. What Exactly is Spiritual?

6. Perception 7. Practicing the God-Mind 8. Mapping Out Your New Mind 9. The Purpose of the New Mind 10. Every Man is a Letter 11. Realization 12. Embracing Spirituality 13. Discerning Spirits 14. Heart and Mind 15. Discerning Evil Spirits 16. Levels and Types Emotional Levels Lost Levels Social Levels Aggregate Levels The Mindful Type The Spiritual Archetype Three Bonus Studies BOOK ONE The Great Reflection

Introduction I am entering a study that chases shadows; that pursues phantoms. It will be a study that will stalk secrets and clutch clues. I will conclude with a greater understanding of the relationship between what is corporeal and what is spiritual. I will look at the interface between the two; a looking glass not unlike Alice’s, where secret transactions occur, and the stirrings of enlightenment are broadcast.

We are familiar with the concept that the earthly temple is a reflection of the Heavenly, a shadow of things to be. This study, then, will deal with ‘mirror images’; and of all reflections, I will begin with man, for man was created in the ‘likeness’ or ‘mirror image’ of his creator; and while the flesh may be a secondary issue, we may see that, of our nature, we have inherited certain family traits. If we, then, derive what we call human nature from God, it should be no surprise that God displays some of those same traits.

Micah 1:8 gives us an image of God in His own words, “Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.”

We, as a race, struggle with our search for a concept of God. It is a real issue for us because we ‘feel’ connected, but are hardly sure how. Accordingly, many cling to a fragmented concept: the group on the right will say God is love; the group on the left will say God is a man of war – both concepts are scripturally based. Both, however, are examples of people seeking a single, simple answer. I might be jumping ahead of myself, to introduce the meat of the word of God to those not yet weaned from the milk, but quite frankly, a stronger constitution is needful to bear up under the weight of the ‘bigger picture’.

Isaiah 45:7 gives us that bigger picture thusly, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”

This may not sit well with those who believe that God ‘cannot’ look upon evil. It may not sit well with those who believe that God ‘cannot’ lie. As for me, I think it wise not to place limitations on God. He can do whatever He wants to do. He’s God. I don’t have a problem with that concept of God; to me, He is still Holy and Reverend. The point I wish to stress in regard to Isaiah 45:7 is that if we are made in the likeness of God, we should not whitewash His or our nature. I think we must simply trust that He has a plan. Some people, and not a few, get caught up in that whole ‘how can God allow bad things to happen to good people’ thing.

Hosea 6:1-3 gives us a better mental approach to the issue, “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.”

An interesting note about this particular verse is its reference to ‘cyclic’ occurrences such as rain, such as the rising sun. The word ‘prepared’ is significant, as will be seen later. Note, too, that the ‘cyclic’ reference is but a small part of a larger reference, or ‘a shadow’: and that is our salvation in Christ through His resurrection - He being lifted, or raised up, draws all men up with Him. It bears repeating that this study will deal with shadows and reflections. If you are desirous of truth, as am

I, then what we want out of all this is an understanding. We just want to know. By and by, we will know, that is if we do not trip ourselves up on old preconceptions. It would not do if our best reasoning only led us back to incomplete first thoughts.

If God’s word is, as the scripture states and I believe, a treasure chest containing both old and new treasure, should we ignore the new? Take for example the concept bodied forth in Isaiah 43:10. As concepts go, this will seem foreign to many staunch advocates of God’s God-ness. So many times have I heard from them that God has no beginning and no end, even though they will completely accept that Christ is the Alpha and Omega (beginning and end).

Here is what Isaiah 43:10 says: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He: before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me.” And here is my paraphrased version of that verse: “You are My witness and My chosen servant, says God, that you may both know and believe that I am actually God. There was no god formed before Me, and there shall be no god formed after Me.” If we truly believe the verity of God’s written word, then what we see here is God, Himself, indicating how He came into being: by some process (here unstated) of formation or realization. In all of our experience, the process of formation requires an external power or agency to form the thing that is formed. In the absence of another power, God was the agency that formed himself.

In a closed loop of serial recurrences, the Trinity may be the diagram of that process.

So then, what of man: that we are formed in His image? Is not a reflection an image of something that we believe to be real? If we look into a mirror, our reflection reenacts our every posture, and the image appears just as real.

TWO Images Let’s talk about images, then. In the early history of the Hebrews, the ‘graven image’ was a big deal. I think most of us have at least a passing familiarity with this: God really had a thing about graven images. The Hebrews lived among nations that regularly crafted images for worship, and they were sometimes drawn in. Aaron’s golden calf is a good example. Such things, back then, were the norm.

But God had called the Hebrews apart from the norm; He sought to make a nation better than all the others, and a people peculiar unto Himself, a treasure. God wanted a people that lived closer to the truth. With that in mind, one can see that the Lord’s commands were more than just arbitrary restrictions.

Exodus 20:4 shows such a command, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”

We today have images all around us; we have fine art and we have cheesy home interior. They are things to look at, and so we wonder: ‘what was the big deal about images?’ Deuteronomy 16:22 shows us God’s very human opinion toward them, “Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the Lord thy God hateth.”

The next question, necessarily, is why does God hate the image? Surely, they’re no threat to God - they are inanimate objects, but the next verse will give us several important clues in this regard. They are important because they lead us beyond the obvious.

Deuteronomy 5:8-9 says, “Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me.” This is actually quite a famous verse. It is famous for its use by nonbelievers. They use it to point to what they see as cruel and arbitrary in God - that the children must pay for the sins of the fathers. The word ‘sin’ is of a different flavor than the word ‘iniquity’. ‘Iniquity’ points more toward double-dealing than toward simply breaking the law, as implied in the word ‘sin’. This comes from the Spirit.

Therefore, the word ‘iniquity’ speaks of agreements and covenants. To answer the nonbeliever, the iniquity perpetrated by the fathers is not an isolated thing, but a thing taught and perpetuated down through the generations. The children are actually punished for their own iniquity.

When the father makes and worships a graven image, more goes on than meets the eye. First, the Hebrew, having entered an agreement with God, breaks it fully knowing that God will take it as a hostile act ( . . . Them that hate Me . . . ). Second, by the very act of worshiping a corporeal object, a man turns his back on his spiritual God. With all the effort God invested in the Hebrews to lead them from slavery, and take them as His own, such an act may be viewed as theft ( . . . for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God . . . ). One can only be jealous of what truly is in His possession.

Third, on top of the iniquity of covenant breaking; on top of the sins of rebellion and theft, to teach your own children to be the enemies of God is simply ignorant and uncaring of the good of others. The above verse gives us a beginning clue of how directly related the corporeal is to the spiritual. We can see then that there is a connection, from our actions, that crosses over into the spiritual realm. It anchors into something: does scripture give a clue as to what?

See Revelation 19:20, “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” The 'false prophet' is a flesh and blood image of a spiritual 'beast'.

I had mentioned a covenant. The Hebrews made an agreement with God; promises were made on both sides. Terms were set. This was the agreement by which the Hebrews were exalted above all other nations; they belonged to God and would bask in His favor so long as they kept their end of the bargain. For the Hebrews, there were only two places to be: with God as God’s own, or with the other nations, who were at that time out of favor with God for such things as idol worship.

God warned His possession, His “peculiar treasure,” in Deuteronomy 4:23-24 “Take heed unto

yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee.

For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.” A ‘consuming fire’ is a thing that spreads in direct relation to the fuel offered to it. If you put a fire in a field of brush, it will consume everything that is dry and dead.

This study is currently exploring ‘images’, both corporeal and spiritual. It has looked at the corporeal image; taken note of God’s stand on the issue, and examined some of the reasons involved. We have gained an understanding of man’s relation to a spiritual God - that God has attempted to lead His people toward a proper relationship. We have seen that idol worship is a relationship toward the other end of the spectrum. Now we need to place our gains in a framework. When we put our previously studied ‘reasons’ within the framework of a higher reason, a new level is attained. It is like knowing where you live by way of daily familiarity, but then to stand on a hilltop and see where you live within a more concise context and from the vantage of an overview.

Leviticus 26:1 reminds me that man is the image of God, “Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God.” Man is the image of God; perhaps that is why Christ said that seeing Him was seeing the Father.

Perhaps that is why scripture called men gods (John 10:34-35). However, the artisan took rocks and trees and carved things that looked like corporeal flesh, and bowed to that.

Now, the next verse to be cited may seem to cast an unrelenting barrier between God and His image on earth, but it does not. Those who might try to assert that it does are comparing apples to oranges. No, the verse merely contrasts the corporeal with the spiritual.

Romans 1:23 says, “And(the workman) changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.”

Man, not man’s image, is the image of God: the ‘likeness’, to put it in another familiar term. Yes, to see a man is to see God - but not so much the flesh (and here I add another level to our vantage point) as the part that can be communicated with: the mind: (. . . If He called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture can not be broken . . . ).

That is why God has such disdain for the crafted image, as we see in Hosea 8:6, “The workman made it; therefore it is not God.” We know that God did not prohibit all graven images. 2 Chronicles 3:10 says, “And in the most holy house he made two cherubims of image work, and overlaid them with gold.”

Only those images that will, through ignorance, cause a man to turn away from God are proscribed.

Why would God ever want or need us to craft images of God? He did that, Himself, when He made man. Romans 1:23, above, spoke of the ‘glory’ of God. With the next verse, I add again a level to our comprehension of man’s relation to an invisible and uncorruptible God. 1 Corinthians 11:7 says plainly, “man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God.”

In being the ‘image and glory’ of God, man is still, nevertheless, corporeal (a shadow of what he can be). On this issue the Christian faith, though prominent, is not the only faith to hinge upon an aspiration for spiritual evolution. Man, as a being, has studied his spiritual nature since time immemorial. That the corporeal is a mere marker along our way has never been a ‘what if’ scenario.

1 Corinthians 15:49 puts it thusly, “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also

bear the image of the heavenly.”

The Christian hope for this is a lively hope; it is a well-defined concept upon which millennia of serious thought has been dedicated, and a topic of interest voluminously recorded. The pivot on which our understanding of these matters swings is the life and death of God as a man.

Romans 6:5 states, “If we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.”

We have seen that man is the ‘image and glory’ of God. Pre-eminent of all men is God as a man: Jesus Christ. After all, when one looks into a mirror, the reflection is one’s own. In putting such things together within a framework, as this study attempts to do, a higher vantage point for perception is attained.

Things may now be seen in a new light; as part of a bigger picture, and sweet as that is, greater discoveries are still to come. We look into the mirror for a glimpse of God; we find that the reflection is not God but us. Then the realization hits home that the mirror, and all else as well, is God. Colossians 1:15-17 astounds us, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.”

We consist of God. We are made of God particles. Both the spiritual and the corporeal consist of God. We, ourselves, are a level (powers) in the cosmic order created by Christ. Strong meat, indeed! But here, we must stop and take a step back. In order that all may realize the truth, a reasonable effort must be applied to the gradual transition upward, building level upon level.

THREE God with Man I wrote earlier that certain corporeal acts amounted to ‘turning away’ from God: rebellions which God took seriously; acts through which early man delivered himself over to perils, calamities, and plagues.

Remember: God also creates evil. Perhaps these outcomes may be viewed as boundaries, beyond which man is not able to extend his will. And, mankind is definitely a rebellious lot; he seeks to extend his will. But God is willing, it seems, to work with us when some acts of ‘turning away’ are needful.

Witness Exodus 30:11-12, “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of

the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.”

Early concepts of man’s connection to God placed a division between God and man. Such primitive concepts still abound. It is like saying the island is separate and different from the ocean floor that surrounds it. The Hebrew view of God set Him at a distance (in the heavens), watching. God was big and scary; He could sneak up on you, and was just as apt to drop the hammer as do a favor. As they saw Him, God was either for you or against you; He was either with you or with the other guy. The Hebrew psyche revolved around a responsive life style meant (hopefully) to keep God on their side.

Numbers 14:9 points to this, “Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not.”

Deuteronomy 1:42 also points to this, “And the Lord said unto me, Say unto them. Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies.”

Likewise Judges 6:16, “And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.”

Between man and God there is an interface: it is, if you will, a mirror. God stands on the one side while man stands on the other. Each looks through to their reflection. Man looks at God and sees himself; God looks at man and sees Himself. The next verse shows that God is not as far away as man has placed Him. Numbers 17:5 shows us how close God really is, “And it shall come to pass, that the man's rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom: and I will make to cease from Me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you.”

To most it was, and still is, enough to hope that God was with man; it was enough to know that God was with certain special individuals. These individuals exemplified the general consensus of the greater qualities of God. Not only was greater power seen in the lives of these individuals, but they seemed to be in possession of the very nature of God. Great characters of the Bible (Moses, David, Samuel, etc.) were often and highly praised for ‘higher’ attributes usually associated with God. 1 Samuel 16:17-18 points to some attributes praised in David, “And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me. Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the Lord is with him.”

More follows in 1 Samuel 18:14, “And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the Lord was with him.”

These attributes, usually of a mental nature and having a relationship to ‘communication’, will later be seen in abundance. It must be said that the relationship of God and man has never been static. There has always been communication; in fact, that is one of the most visible hallmarks of the relationship. There was, of course, communication from man to God, usually a formal or ritualized prayer. There was also

communication from God to man. The most normal and acceptable to the mind set of the time was a pronouncement from a priest. Certain individuals, however, could be seen speaking to God. These men were rare and spooky, for God’s answer could be seen. Moses was such a man; Elijah was such a man; and Samuel was such a man.

1 Samuel 12:18 shows this, “So Samuel called unto the Lord; and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.”

Communication is the issue here, and the image of God is that part of a man that can be communicated with. This is the reasoning: if an invisible God looks into the mirror at man and sees Himself, is the reflection corporeal or spiritual? It will be asserted that our cognitive abilities are spiritual; that ‘spiritual’ and ‘communication’ go hand in hand; that there is no action without communication.

Numbers 14:20 states, “And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word.”

Take a close look at 1 Samuel 3:19. “And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of His words fall to the ground.” Such a verse as this one indicates the personal nature of the relationship of God and mankind. To what do I draw your attention but the phrase “fall to the ground?”

The reference in this verse is to a seed, but how are we to interpret it? Of references that involve seeds, the mind might go toward sayings of Jesus, such as mustard seeds that grow big in a good way, or wheat seeds that fall to the ground and die (a reference to Christ’s work). However, in regard to a personal relationship, one’s attention should be drawn to the childless widow of the Old Testament. The brother was responsible for taking her to himself. He was called upon to have a relationship with her, to communicate seed to her, that she could produce heirs in her husband’s name.

In a similar manner, God has taken man to Himself. Indeed, our relationship with God is often couched in intimate terms: for instance, Christ referred to Himself as the ‘bridegroom’. What is the point of this study? It is to investigate the ‘mirror’: that interface between God and man. Man looks into that mirror, yet struggles to make sense of it. Man’s language struggles too, for how does one describe an invisibility? Such a burden! - and yet, volumes have been written. Man’s approach to the invisible has normally been by way of comparison. Among man’s many writings on what he cannot see, two words stand forth to bear the weight of his attempts.

FOUR Patterns & Shadows In the evolution of communication, man first had to work through what he saw and what he knew. With that level attained, he then went on to express the more abstract by way of comparison to the familiar.

Matters of a higher order had to be bodied forth using low end language. Spiritual issues were described by words heretofore used for the corporeal. Thus, examples and indications, hints and clues, became ‘patterns’ and ‘shadows’. Shadow came first, I think: it was a part of their reality, like the shadow of a high rock, or a tent: as in Isaiah 32:2 for example, “the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”

Whereas a shadow originally might reference an object able to cast that shadow (as something needful or useful), the language soon associated the shadow with the expectation of it, as in whatever gave relief, refreshing, or revival. Job 7:2 says this, “As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow.”

Man then was able to use the fact symbolically as an example (a pattern) of higher forms of relief, refreshing, and revival. Even the saving of one’s life could be used as a pattern for something higher. If a great rock may cast a saving shadow, it is easy to step up to the next level: thus, symbolically, the great rock in a weary land becomes a savior; the shadow becomes a spiritual salvation. A ‘shadow’ now speaks of heavenly things, as says Hebrews 8:5, “Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.”

It is in the same manner that Isaiah 4:6 becomes a reference to our Lord, “And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat.”

It is familiar to the well read that spiritual patterns are realized in the corporeal world. The Tabernacle that was carried for so long by the tribes of Israel is a prime example. Exodus 25:40 speaks of this, “And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.”

There is a spiritual, or heavenly, alter. God gave a blueprint to Moses in the mount. Joshua 22:28 says, “Behold the pattern of the altar of the Lord.” That altar was the mirror image of something that really existed in Heaven, a reflection of a spiritual object that was composed of God particles: a reality.

Not only the Tabernacle is a reflection, but all the lesser objects as well. Numbers 8:4 speaks of a candlestick that existed spiritually, “According unto the pattern which the Lord had shewed Moses, so he made the candlestick.” All the accouterments were included. Exodus 25:9 says, “According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.”

As to whether or not the spiritual objects still exist in Heaven while there is no corporeal reflection, I will not venture to guess.

The word ‘shadow’ came to use as an indication of the unseen ‘ghost’ or ‘spirit’. This may be seen to stem from such application as is found in Job 17:7, “And all my members are as a shadow.” Job’s application is of what ‘is not there’, for he had withered away as a corporeal being. While the language still struggled, man was getting ever better at abstract thought. By way of comparative symbolisms, man could point to the spiritual. Man gave words to the invisible, and expanded the scope of his reality.

Symbols such as ‘fire’ and ‘light’ sprang to the lead position, indicating that of the highest order. God is light, and in Him is no darkness; His only begotten son is the light of the world. Words may at any point be symbols. If the Holy Spirit speaks through the written word, then it behooves us to pay closer attention to such words. Is Jesus a spiritual pattern realized in a single man?

Matthew 4:16 says this, “And to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.”

Here, ‘shadow of death’ is used in the same manner as ‘shadow of a great rock’. One initially imagines that a shadow is cast due to a light source from behind it. It could well be that God is the light that

causes both shadows, for God claimed that He also creates evil. Else, shadow may here be used simply to identify a ‘region’ without light. Could be the world. If a light is sprung up in the world, it must be the light of the world.

To continue in this vein, James 1:17 tells us, “Every good gift and every perfect gift (light) is from above, and cometh down (to the region and shadow of death) from the Father of lights (individuals like Jesus), with whom is no variableness, neither shadow (indication) of turning.”

Psalms 91:1 continues, “He that dwelleth in the secret (unseen or spiritual) place of the most High shall abide under the shadow (protection or authority) of the Almighty.”

I get ‘shadow’ as authority from Judges 9:15 “Then come and put your trust in my shadow.” This, of course was the Old Testament parable of the trees seeking a king (albeit, their heads were already in Heaven).

Christ, then, may be seen in a pattern. The pattern of His work in our lives may also be seen. To which pattern do I refer? I refer to the corn of wheat that must fall into the ground and die. The pattern is of bearing fruit as shown us in 1 Timothy 1:16, “Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting.”

Likewise in Titus 2:7, “In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works.” This, unlike prior patterns, works in reverse. The former pattern worked from the spiritual to the corporeal, the latter pattern works from the corporeal to the spiritual - as an extension of the former. The whole work, thus being finished, may be called perfect.

God looks through the mirror to man and sees Himself; He gives man a gift (the pattern working from spiritual to corporeal). That perfect gift: that light, being planted, bears fruit and is given to God, the pattern now working from corporeal to spiritual. Now, God, His image and glory being man, is magnified. This theme will receive more attention later; suffice it to say, it is one of the truths that the writer of the book of Hebrews saw and wrote of. Hebrews 10:1 explains, “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.”

Shadows may be things that are, or things hoped for. Faith has no color; faith has no texture. One may not hold the certainty of their faith in the palm of their hand to test its weight. Everything that is exists within God, made of the stuff that God is made of. Within that framework is a river of communication.

The head of that river is Christ. Anything that is in us, first passed through the head, by way of communication, to the ocean that is us. We are not separate from the river, for the communication continues in circuit. Everything we are given, we return again, as the pattern of communication turns around upon itself.

Colossians 2:16-17 puts it before our eyes, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”

FIVE

The Classic Pattern: Fiery Serpents A pattern is a representation of a reality. If that reality must be built, the pattern is a representation of something in the future. The classic pattern is that of the ‘fiery serpent’. Normally, we associate ‘serpent’ with the devil. Yet, our aspiration is to view the ‘bigger picture’. We deal with shadows. This is a pattern that represents Christ.

It is a physical healing that indicates a spiritual healing, and it is by no means chance that a snake on a pole is the physician’s symbol.

Numbers 21:6-9 begins thusly: “And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.”

Now, of course, many things must be taken into account. First, however, let me forestall the conclusion that Christ and Satan are somehow one and the same. This serpent, in no wise, represented the enemy in its foreshadowing of Christ.

It represented the sins of the people.

The people had set themselves up for calamity; God delivered.

The brass snake on a pole was a pattern for sin crucified. The serpent does not represent Christ, but the sin He became on our behalf. The Hebrews had to look upon the serpent to live: they had to look upon their own sin. An interesting undertone to that scenario is that the thing they ran afoul of was the thing that saved them.

This may also be applied to our spiritual salvation. John 3:14-15 says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

It is a step forward to go from recognition to belief. But, here we are. A man must do more than simply see Christ on the cross.

Man must learn not to downplay the communications God sends our way. Today, we are very much like the men in Christ’s day. We look at the Bible and say, oh, that’s just written by man. Our backs are turned on God. Should we, like the men of old, ever turn back around and look into the mirror, we would see God in man.

I have written that the image in a mirror reenacts our every posture. Christ communicated that His actions were the reflection of God’s actions. John 8:28 shows that. “Then said Jesus unto them,

When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things.”

Christ pointed to connections between God and man. Man would not see. Likewise, modern Christians reject the deeper connections between Christ and Man. (“In the third day He will raise us up.”)

This study is not about simple directions a man may go in, but more aptly about transitions of the nature of man. We are the image and glory of God, but we have turned away. If we should turn back, the underlying formational transition implied in the word “unto” from the next scripture reference makes perfect sense. John 12:32 tells us, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”

Just what if: this is not the directional up to heaven ‘unto’, but a spiritual upgrade in present man, so that each of us can be a Jesus. Check out Psalms 68:18, “Thou hast ascended on high (attained a spiritual state), thou hast led captivity captive (a dead end no more): thou hast received gifts (light) for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.”

SIX The Two-Sided Existence I need to turn in here to reemphasize that we indeed live in a two-sided existence. It is both corporeal and spiritual. It is wise to often remind ourselves of this. It is a strain on our attention to even recognize another human; we look then we look away. If we look at a man and say to ourselves, oh, it’s a man, we’ve recognized no more than the corporeal. How often do we actually attend the spiritual half of our existence? Our twofold existence is an issue that spans religions, philosophies, cultures, and eons.

Christianity is not central to the issue, merely one satellite in orbit of its influence.

But Christian thinkers, have invested much thought in this important theme. Hebrews 11:3 says, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Man recognizes that the spiritual is the greater aspect of our two-sided existence. It is a lazy tendency to ascribe reality to the more solid. It is erroneous to think of the more ethereal as the sole reflection. We look and feel real by way of our solidity, but science points to the ethereal spaces between our atoms and asks, what is the real power that keeps us from flying apart?

When we consider the spiritual side of our existence, the prevalent concept is of a fullfledged ‘world’ at least on a par with our own. Matthew 12:32 puts it this way, “Neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” Not only are we made up of God particles, but Christian thought ascribes ownership of both sides to God. Innately, by way of comparison, I think that all of us, choosing between our brain and our body, will ascribe ownership to the brain. That ownership walks a fine line, and must necessarily enjoin that symbiosis through concession.

If the brain makes the hand pass through a flame, the brain suffers with the body. 1 Corinthians 6:20 informs us, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” God makes certain sacrifices to maintain the relationship. The greatest, of

course, was the sacrifice of His Son. God making regular sacrifice is not an alien concept when one remembers that the pattern for the Israeli temple altar came from the altar that was real in Heaven. It is not so burdensome, then, to think that sacrifice on our part is necessary to the maintenance of our relationship to the other side of existence, indeed, to the other side of our nature. 1 Corinthians 15:19 says this about sacrifice, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”

We are told that we may know and understand the spiritual side of existence, and even God, Himself, through things commonly known and understood here on the corporeal side. It is upon this that parables, as straight gates to the truth, are based. (Side note: ‘parable’ seems strikingly similar to ‘parallel’). Parables make comparisons that lead the mind from the corporeal illustration to the spiritual parallel. It is a device that will keep many out, and yet, those who are most interested, those who ‘strive to enter in’ will discover the key.

It seems fitting that the key to all parables is another parable. Mark 4:13 points to such a key, “Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?” It has been placed within our own powers that we can see these things for ourselves. Luke 21:29-31, “And He spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.”

SEVEN Mirror Image So, when we see, we know, if we take it upon ourselves to inquire. We can look through the looking glass into that other realm. Some, no doubt, will look right at it and say, Ah! I don’t see a thing! But, we see through a glass, darkly. I was once instructed on how to see things in the dark, when you look right at them but can’t see them. The trick is to look a little to the right or left; slightly above it, or slightly below it. I employ that technique in my studies; the Holy Spirit may drop truth in my lap, but I still need a means to focus on it.

We study the great reflection; the mirror, an interface not unlike the rule of thumb for equations: ‘both sides must be equal'. And, as in patterns that must yet be built, not all reflections are immediate.

Proverbs 27:19 speaks of reflections both corporeal and spiritual, “As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.”

Think ‘communication’.

The image and glory of God in the corporeal world is that part of man that may be communicated with.

Communication is essential. Even in such a lengthy process as a seed growing from the ground to become like the tree it fell from, communication is key. Matthew 5:48 is a beautiful expression of that process, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” There are three ways in which the equality may be seen on both sides of the mirror. There are the immediate reflection, the future result, and the equality of a scale (the fulcrum theory) which demonstrates the rule of ‘equal but opposite’.

This latter will be developed more fully in due course, but for now Matthew 6:2-6 will give an indication, “Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret Himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”

Bonus verse: 2 Corinthians 12:10 is also an example of the fulcrum theory, “When I am weak, then am I strong.”

1 Peter 5:6 is an example of the future result, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” Remembering the process of the seed becoming like the tree it fell from, 2 Corinthians 3:18 is another example of the future result. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass (mirror) the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by (communication from) the Spirit of the Lord.”

Many examples of immediate reflection press the inquirer. Why they are immediate is due to the ingredient of ‘choice’. We may choose to turn our backs on the spiritual half of our existence; we may employ all the worldly excuses, thinking that the Bible was written by primitive men, or thinking that those who assail us with spiritual urgings are all whacked, but once we really investigate through reason we see that the spirit is not on the side lines, but in the game.

After reasonably assessing the value of communications that others discard, we may look into the mirror and choose the brighter appearance. We, as a people, cannot deny that we constantly adopt what we like in others: postures, attire, pithy expressions, catchy one-liners, etc. If we look through the mirror, but see ourselves rather than God, we may attire ourselves as God: the more we choose to put on, the more we look like Him, as in Luke 6:36, “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”

There was a time when God’s words from the Old Testament made no sense. Like most other people, my eyes glazed briefly, then I moved on - without understanding. It was like playing poker without the face cards. Now, however, I understand that both halves of existence are in a state of flux, striving for equilibrium. Both halves of the equation must be equal. That is why we see God saying, in Leviticus 11:44, such things as, “For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy.”

I submit this paraphrased version for clarity, speaking to His image and glory, God said, “You will be holy if you dedicate yourselves; you can be like Me.” We see in Leviticus 11:45 that it was God’s express purpose that His image and glory be a true reflection, “For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for (the reason that) I am holy.” That leads us to the divine nature we have mistakenly set at a distance: Leviticus 20:7, “Sanctify (hallow) yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for (the reason that) I am the Lord your God.”

When we continue to read ‘I am the Lord your God’ in this context, it begins to mean substantially more than just ‘I am your superior’. Leviticus 21:8 reminds us that the reflection reenacts reality’s every posture: “Thou shalt sanctify (hallow) him therefore; for (the reason that) he offereth the bread of thy God: he shall be holy (absolute) unto thee: for I the Lord, which sanctify (absolve) you, am holy (absolute).”

I know, I parenthesize a lot, but these thesaurus words that I insert add to our vantage a broader scope.

We need to remind ourselves, at this point, that we are the image and glory of an invisible, spiritual God. That part of us that can be communicated with looks like Him. Some of us want to look more Like Him; this is a place we have come to because of His communications. If He is righteous, we look more like Him when we put on righteousness.

If He takes time to be refreshed, we also look refreshed when we take the time. God made the Sabbath, being a time for joy, a marker of His relationship to His own. It was a point in the contract that God made with His peculiar treasure that they take time to be refreshed (to unwind) with Him. Exodus 31:12-17 points to that covenant, “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify (hallow) you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy (spiritual) unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul (the part of us that exists on the other side) shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest (balance), holy (special) to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed (renewed).”

There is a little something going on when we look into the mirror, and God looks back. It is like a spiritual step-up converter. The next verse works like this: J is the reflection of G; J is elevated with a concomitant elevation in G: G is the elevation in J, and J is the elevation in G. When one becomes greater with the greatness of the other in himself, the other makes the one greater within himself and by doing so, may increase greatness.

John 13:31-32 puts it like this, “Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified (magnified), and God is glorified (magnified) in Him. If God be glorified (made greater) in Him, God shall also glorify (magnify) Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify (make) Him (greater).”

The same mechanics may be seen to work between Christ and His disciples. When they become more than they are, Christ is magnified, then God is magnified (with the infusion indicated in the verse above). Now, God is more like Christ, who is more like God, whose infusion is turned to the disciples, who are more like Christ.

Galatians 4:6 says it well, “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts (minds), crying, Abba, Father.”

The investigator wishes to investigate invisibilities. Where does he begin? Is there a methodology for such an investigation? How close is the first clue? Here is a really wild concept: everyone knows the truth, even the nonbelievers, and believers in whatever else. They twist the truth; misuse and abuse it, but they know it.

They demand that God be proven to them, and some will set barbed wire around their challenge: ‘prove that God exists using only non-Biblical sources.’ I say to them, ‘prove that God does not exist using only the Bible.’

One may only prove the existence of God in the existence of the challenger. The truth is there, inside them. There is no good excuse not to believe. Romans 1:19-20 says, “That which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” They do not see God because they wish not to; they have turned away from the mirror.

While we are involved in a study of shadows and indications, in a study of symbols and clues and representations, we are not merely concerned with hypotheses. We are sleuthing out reality. We sniff tracks like a seasoned hound hot on the heels of truth. We know the tricks of our prey; we have some tricks of our own. We will keep our nose to the ground. Our quarry is yet to be seen, ah, but the tracks they are real.

Notice that when something occurs in the spiritual realm, something occurs in the corporeal. Realizing that both sides of the equation must be equal, we know that the reverse is also true. This is not new to our pallet, but we will discover new recipes. We will sample and sample until our taste is quite refined.

Matt. 16:19 offers new cuisine: a dish with meat, “I will give unto thee the keys of (what opens and closes) the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

I can do that?

Let me point out that this verse indicates things that are ‘bound’ in heaven. They are bound there because of our actions here. Our actions here may also loose them from their bonds. In other words, it is possible to lock and unlock certain spiritual doors.

There is a place in the book of Revelation where and angel flies by and shouts about the fall of Babylon. Its inhabitants are replaced with devils and spirits and birds: things of the air. Here it is, Revelation 18:2, “He cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” Note that two words are particularly prison-like: ‘hold’ and ‘cage’.

Also note that the message ‘is fallen’ is twice said. What I ask is this: is there a heavenly, or spiritual Babylon? Was the fall of ours just one of two? Will the Babylon of the other half of our existence be ‘bound’ or ‘locked’?

If we think at all, we don’t often think of God being in the thick of it - where He is affected by mortal affairs; we don’t often think that our spiritual counterparts might cause Him pain. This is what Ezekiel 6:9 says, “I am broken with their whorish heart (mind).”

Is it so hard to imagine that the part of us that can be communicated with can answer back? Can we imagine that our communications to God are hurtful? Ezekiel 14:5, quite frankly, says yes, “That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart (mind), because they are all estranged from Me

through their idols.” We must face God, else our backs are to Him. Ezekiel 20:16 shows His pain, “Because they despised My judgments, and walked not in My statutes, but polluted My sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.” Our divided heart is God’s broken heart.

EIGHT Facing the Mirror There are only two directions associated with a mirror; one looks toward the mirror or one looks away from the mirror. There may be, therefore, only one of two images in a mirror: a face or a back. If you stood on one side of a two-way mirror, and you had to read the lips of the person whose face you saw, once he should turn away, all communication would be lost. Your communication might then be ‘turn back around’ - oh, but wait! He can’t hear you. You bang your fist against the mirror: perhaps, you reason, he may feel the movement. When that fails, there is still recourse. It is simple: send someone around and through the door, into the room with the message to turn back around. Did I say simple?

Well, you see that there are only two working directions.

Judges 5:9 shows one of them, “My heart (my mind) is toward . . . ” Now, if that person on the other side of the two-way mirror knew he was supposed to face the mirror to communicate, his turning deliberately away might eventually get under your skin. 1 Kings 14:9 paints the picture, “But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke Me to anger, and hast cast Me behind thy back.”

How do we communicate with each other? We face the people we talk to. Sometimes, I multitask, turning to what I am doing while I talk. They usually find their way back into my face. However, what would happen if my habit was to turn my communication away from them? They might wonder why I stopped talking before I reached the end of the sentence. They might misunderstand what I said. They might even take offense.

Communication is key.

What if I asked a question and that other person chose not to answer. “Honey, do you love me?” (Long pause.)

Deuteronomy 30:17 puts it, “But if thine heart (your mind) turn away.”

Okay. So you understand the concept, but, you are still a little vague on the particulars. You say, I go to church; I don’t hurt anybody; I . . . and then your voice trails as you imagine yourself as a Jew in Jesus’ day. You say, I go to synagogue; I don’t hurt anybody; I . . . and then your voice trails as you imagine yourself as a Hebrew in Moses’ day. You say, I sacrifice at the temple; I don’t hurt anybody; I . . .

(Excuses through the ages: they all sound alike). What about that idol beneath the pillow in your tent?

But, what’s that you’re saying, “Crucify Him?” And, what about that Sunday after-church glow? “Yeah, let’s go shopping at J. C. Penny.”

We find in Jeremiah 17:5, “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart (whose mind) departeth from the Lord.”

There are many ways to turn away from the mirror. Without the ingredient of personal tragedy, many people simply don’t seem that interested. What is happening when a person turns from the mirror?

What are the mechanics involved?

Ezekiel 14:3 gives us a clue, “Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart (their mind), and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them?”

What are they paying the most attention to in this example? So what if they don’t bow to graven images - there is something that smacks of importance in their estimation; something that is raised in opposition to communication with God. Now, I know that man constantly slips up. You know that.

What is more important, God knows that.

King David lived a violent life as a warrior. He killed people. God wouldn’t let him build the temple because of the blood on his hands, but God forgave him, loved and blessed him, called him a man after His own heart.

David slipped up; he had an affair with a married woman; he had her husband murdered. God killed his first son by that woman, but He forgave David, loved and blessed him, called him a man after His own heart.

David made mistakes but always turned back to the mirror, craving communication with God. Now, Solomon also had a relationship with God. God blessed Solomon with wisdom, riches, and peace.

But Solomon turned away, stopped communicating.

1 Kings 11:4 points to the difference between David and his son, “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart (his mind) after other gods: and his heart (his mind) was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart (the mind) of David his father.”

As has already been pointed out, false gods and graven images are not the only things people turn away to. But, whatever they turn to, communication with God is sacrificed: is accounted and esteemed of lesser value. Choices are made.

See 2 Chronicles 16:7, “Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand.”

By turning away, people set in motion spiritual laws (Universal Spiritual Mechanics, or USMs) that have results on the corporeal plane.

Proverbs 1:31-32 shows that you reap what you sow, “Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.”

I’ll say it again, communication is key.

King Saul chose communication with a familiar spirit over communication with God. He had communication with God but failed to retain it.

1 Chronicles 10:13-14 tells it, “So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; And inquired not of the Lord: therefore He slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.”

Why was Saul a ‘transgressor’? Saul had entered into a contract with God. A covenant with God may be seen as a peace treaty. With every covenant, with every contract, terms and conditions are set up as the boundaries of the agreement. A ‘term’ that provides a consequence for a type of action is called a law - it governs the covenant. Saul did not act in ignorance.

Generally speaking, even when we turn away, There is a remedy: just turn back. It is not a game that God should put on His sniper camouflage and pick us off one at a time. The whole point is communication. You have to ask yourself, ‘why has God invested such an effort in calling us back’?

Does it seem that God’s ultimate goal, after all that, is to destroy us anyway? I say God never really wanted to destroy anyone. Just look at the lengths to which God is willing to go to have us back.

Just look, for instance, at Jeremiah 26:13, “Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will repent Him of the evil that He hath pronounced against you.”

God is not unchanging, but willing to change in a heartbeat to have us back again. That may, in fact, be seen as God’s major campaign. See the two Kings.

1 Kings 12:27 says, “Then shall the heart (the mind) of this people turn again unto their lord,” and 1 Kings 18:37 says, “Thou hast turned their heart (their mind) back again.”

So, let us ask the question. What is ‘turning away’, exactly? Is it a total, even aggressive, rejection? I don’t think so - that would put them squarely in the enemy camp: no, we are talking about God’s chosen, His elect; we are talking about God’s peculiar treasure. So then, what is ‘turning away’? If it is not total, quite frankly, it is partial. If we go back to the example of the two-way mirror, does that other person stop talking when he turns away?

That can be accomplished while still facing the mirror. More likely, he is still talking. He just doesn’t want you to be able to read his lips. He knows that the terms have been set that he must face the mirror, and here is where free will comes in, he wants to say ‘this little bit is just about me’. That is where a conversation becomes a monologue.

Divided attention is like the steam lost from a tea kettle. It is dissipation. Even so, God holds out for our return. He wants our focus on Him. There is a work in progress that requires it. In the case of King Saul, it was put forward that he had transgressed against the ‘word’ of God. God did not stand at Saul’s elbow and tug at his sleeve, saying, “No! No! Don’t deal with familiars!” But, there was the covenant; there was the law. Saul was as versed in the word of God as any other of his day. There were, also, the prophets. In fact, it was Samuel that Saul sought out, and that tells us one important, but overlooked fact.

Samuel spoke the word of God, but Saul gave more credence to the messenger. Saul had ‘made flesh his arm’. Refer back to Jeremiah 17:5, also refer back to 2 Chronicles 16:7. Some people stand waiting, longing to hear the voice of the Lord, but the voice is already there.

See Deuteronomy 30:10, “If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the Lord thy God with all thine heart (your mind), and with all thy soul.”

And let me just quickly add that God’s communications to us have been greatly misunderstood. God has never said, “So, you’ve dissed Me again!” (ZAPPP!!!)

He says things more like this: Jeremiah 44:7, “Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls.”

Our existence began within the framework of a relationship (that means communication) with God. How, I ask, could turning away not be a serious issue? Any man or woman that knows what it feels like to suddenly find out their spouse has been cheating on them can understand, and even sympathize, with the next verse: James 4:4, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” It has been said that there are two ways to learn: one, you are truly interested; two, it is hammered into your head by repetition. So, I’ll say it again. Communication is the issue. You can turn toward the mirror and communicate with God, or you can turn to the world and talk to it. If you talk to God, people will see the proof of it. If you talk to the world, people will see the proof of it.

1 John 4:5 points to the evidence, “They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.”

We all know people out of whom we never hear a spiritual word, neither truth or righteousness, nor mention of God or Jesus. They speak exclusively and ‘offensively’ of the world. They speak of eating and drinking, or sport and entertainment, or their individual right to do and say whatever they choose.

They are preachers of the world, seeking converts. They have only hatred for anything higher than themselves. They speak to their own, and their company is legion.

2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us, “In whom the god of this world (the spirit of worldliness) hath blinded the minds (spiritual eyes) of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

It always begins as divided attention. One first forsakes belief (or focus), by turning away. Then one’s spiritual eyes (their minds) become blind to what is behind them. It is a truth expressed in a common saying: “out of sight, out of mind.”

It is not possible that we should behold both God and the world. We are reminded of the scripture that tells us we cannot serve both God and Mammon. It is just not possible. In our reality, we see one thing at the exclusion of something else; we think or say one thing at the exclusion of something else; we can believe in and serve the one only by exclusion of the other. This is called the universal law of displacement. Our corporeal law of displacement is a reflection of this: fill a glass with water; drop a rock in the glass; water spills out of the glass. The two may not occupy the same space.

See the law at work in Hosea 2:5 & 8, “She said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. For she did not know that I gave her

corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.”

God is working a work that must be accomplished in circuit. Electricians know that there are both exclusive and inclusive circuits. In certain circuits, to cut off one light is to cut off every light that follows it. In God’s circuit, every light is required to be lit. To look beneath the surface of the laws that God gave to Israel is to see a circuit that is intended to pass through each light, returning to the source what was sent from the source. The laws and sacrifices had an underlying purpose.

See Hosea 6:6-7, “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like men (but maybe not like the ‘sons of men’) have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.”

Men made the circuit exclusive. It became about the doing of the deed rather than the relationship. Men sought to retain willfulness, power and advantage over other men. A relationship with others is part of the relationship with God, for the circuit must be complete and whole. What we freely receive must be freely passed on: there can be no bottlenecking.

See the circuit in Deuteronomy 10:19, “Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

God was prodding man in the right direction. In regard of that ‘right’ direction, it must be said that all attempts were made to get man to face the mirror again; to turn back to God and resume the relationship. We may view, therefore, certain of life’s evils in a new light.

1 Corinthians 11:32 is an example, “But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”

Imagine for a moment that you are a commander in a war; your ground troops have engaged the enemy.

The battle is bitter, some of your troops have deserted to the enemy side. To give your remaining troops an advantage, you call to your troops to retreat to your position: you are going to bomb the enemy. But your troops move closer to the enemy, closer to the influence that has already caused desertions. The jets are almost over the target; the bombs will be dropped at the predetermined time - so you call again to your troops, but minds have been blinded; they are in communication with the doomed: seeds have been planted and they must reap what they have sown.

And what of those men who led those troops with a will opposed to yours, who told their men, “Oh, it’ll be alright.”? When destruction comes, they will be hated by the men below them, and from above: there will be no sympathy.

The following verse speaks of religious leaders of the past but speaks as well of modern church administrators. The verse may be applied to those who covet donations of estates; those administrators who put much effort and time into appeals for trusts and wills, who make long-winded stock prayers, and yet are out of communication with God. Matthew 23:14 says, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”

There is a big difference between an occupation with the spiritual and an occupation with the corporeal.

Saul was destroyed because he was occupied more with the messenger than he was with the message

sender. The troops in my little illustration trusted their immediate superiors more than the commander.

We like to say that we are aligned with God, but does the evidence speak on our behalf? We take on the name of God (i.e., ‘godly’); we take on the name of Christ (i.e., ‘Christian’), but have we not taken those names in vain when our occupation is clearly with the things of the world? A child at the dinner table takes his eyes off of his mother, and thus attempts to choose on his own between the green peas and the cake - he reaches for the cake. Mom slaps his little hand and tells him that he can’t have cake until he eats his peas. Like that child, our face must turn back. There is a way that seems right to a child, but the end thereof is a slapped hand.

Matthew 6:32 directs, “(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”

NINE Through the Interface Now it is time to relinquish our ‘step back’, and it is time to step forward again. We have laid the foundation of simple associations; by that I mean associations that are easy to swallow, easy to digest.

Meat is only beneficial if one is able to assimilate it. Without the strength to assimilate higher truths, these truths will be vomited back out. Not only will they not have been a benefit, not only will they have done no more than leave a bad taste upon the pallet, but by the rejection of them, they will be less recommendable to the next in line.

For example, a man that is not prepared for the concept of God creating evil will vomit it back up. But we are prepared. By prepared, I mean we have the constitution of a billy goat; or, we have progressed from the tit to the tin can.

Let me remind you. Man is the image and glory of God. By that I mean, that part of man which may be communicated with. Communication is key. Of course, I speak of an interface between the spiritual and the corporeal: something reflective yet permeable, allowing communication in two directions. I have alluded to this interface as a mirror, and also in mathematical terms: ‘both sides of the equation must be equal’. Face answers face, I have pointed out. Man looks in the mirror at God and sees man - but, both sides of the equation are equal. God looks into the mirror at man and sees God - both sides being equal.

Now, this ‘equality’ is meat indeed. It is not the warm, comforting milk of the word. We expect some things to be the same, to possess trans-interfacial equality. Other things, we must assume, need to be maintained. The corporeal temple was equal to the spiritual temple. Man, however, does not exactly present the picture of equality to God. The relationship, the communication, is in flux. They must be maintained.

What I wish to focus on here is anything that might be said to have an equality on the opposing side of an interface. Some may conclude that I am really reaching to make such comparisons. However, I will present each, not per se as a truth in and of itself, but rather, as a framework within which we may assemble earlier frameworks. We have been to the hilltop of higher perspective. We are now familiar

with the vantage of our overview. But to reach across the void to the next higher peak requires a bridge that can only be built one stone at a time.

I lift stones to that task. They may at first seem fantastic, but as stones in our new bridge, they are not the destination, but that upon which we travel in our trek to ever higher heights. Our first stone, attached to the bedrock of earnest inquiry, seeks only a mental image of things equal on both sides. We may begin without application, as application will find a place on its own.

Genesis 2:9 presents the ‘ground’ as an interface on a par with the ‘mirror’; trees are presented, aptly enough, as symbolic of the images on either side of the mirror. Indeed, limbs and branches mirror the roots beneath the ground: “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

In regard of the mirroring of the spiritual in the corporeal, application may take root. Our life is a reflection of the greater spiritual life, our knowledge but a dark emulation. Now, here is the part that will seem fantastic (and I’m just running this by you); what if the tree in the middle of the garden did not grow up out of the ground like common trees. The verse states that the trees of life and knowledge were in the midst of the garden but does not per se iterate that they grew from the ground. What if they billowed downward out of mid-air. They would have been spectacular trees among the ordinary.

Moreover, there were two trees in the midst of the garden, and two is the number we now associate with mirrors. Perhaps the two trees mirrored one another: were an equality while not tampered with: the serpent being a part of that stasis until Eve made that stasis more corporeal than spiritual. This all may smack of wild speculation, but here are some things to keep in mind.

God told Adam about the tree before the creation of Eve: Adam told Eve about the tree. The serpent was in the tree of knowledge of good and evil, not the tree of life. Genesis 3:6 indicates that this particular tree, while possibly seen many times, was not viewed the same way as the other trees were viewed. The fruit may not even have been recognized as fruit. There was already knowledge in the garden. Adam named the animals; Eve evinced the ability to reason. There was already a knowledge of good and evil in the garden. Both man and woman regularly communicated with God (did He enter the garden through the tree of life, as the serpent entered the garden through the tree of knowledge of good and evil?)

Both Adam and Eve were aware that eating the fruit had an evil consequence, in that they knew death wasn’t the same thing as life. See Genesis 2:17, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

Knowledge is an intimate thing. When a man knows his wife, that knowledge is intimate. A relationship with, and communication with, God is intimate. The relationship turned from God: so, might we not better call that tree the tree of choices?

There is an interesting verse in regard to choosing, and I would like to add it to this exploration of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It is Isaiah 7:15, “Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.” It is a verse that places two choices in absolute contrast. Butter and honey, being things already made, represent things that are provided by God, which stands in stark opposition to providing for oneself. Perhaps we may visualize the tree of life at an end of the garden opposite the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Every day, in the cool of the evening, the man and woman would go to that end of the garden to refresh themselves in communion with God: He would appear and walk in the garden, coming from the spiritual to the corporeal. Along the way, they were free to pick and eat anything that God had provided for them. But one day, the woman (and the man) chose to eat a fruit that God did not provide - we always assume that God made the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. What if He did not make that fruit?

We know that bad fruit is not the fault of the tree on this side of the ‘ground’, but is due to the roots being somewhere that is bad. God as much as told Adam that the fruit was evil: that there would be an evil outcome. Adam was placed in the garden (Genesis 2:15) as a gardener: he knew trees. He knew the date came from the date palm and the apple from the apple tree. He knew that the fruit of life was found not on the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

We must consider the possibility that the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a wolf in sheep’s clothing; that the ‘good’ part was perhaps all window dressing. Consider this next verse in relation to the tree of knowledge (intimacy) of good (discounted as window dressing) and evil.

Matthew 7:15-20, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”

Consider also the difference between ‘being rooted’ in God, and in ‘being rooted’ in the devil, or the world. To be rooted in God would produce the fruit of life. What I see in the garden is a tree of life and a tree of death, both exclusive of the other. Both were spiritual trees that bore spiritual fruit. Before the incident, Adam and Eve walked before God naked and without shame. After the incident, shame was the immediate result. They went from a pure state to a tarnished mixture.

You can’t mix death with life: tainted life is not life.

Check out Matthew 12:33, “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.”

It is easily seen what sort of ‘fruit’ a man brings forth, just as easy to determine, from that, just what he is rooted in - good or evil. Understand the fruit that Joseph was known by in Genesis 41:15-16, “And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it: and I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it. And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”

So let me ask, If the things we do and say are the fruit that shows others whether we are rooted in good or evil, aren’t the evil things that God brings upon us our own doing?

Jeremiah 6:19 puts it this way, “Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts.”

I think I have thoroughly hinted at the concept of our ‘roots’ being spiritual. I have said that what we do and say indicates whether we are rooted in good or evil: God or Mammon. If all action proceeds from thought, then action may be viewed as ‘fruit’ while thought may be viewed as ‘roots’. If the fruit is in the corporeal, then the roots are in the spiritual. Therefore, “the fruit of their thoughts” may be considered the corporeal outcome of their spiritual behavior.

Such reasoning opens our eyes to verses like Proverbs 24:12, “If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart (our roots) consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul (our spiritual otherself), doth not He know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his (the man's)works?”

Hopefully, I’ve raised more questions than eyebrows. But, it just keeps getting better. The question must be set forth -- if you are rooted in the spiritual side of a two-sided existence, and thoughts are spiritual, are your thoughts always your own? This will be a topic for later exploration, but allow this hint to peak your interest. Daniel 5:23, titillates thusly, “The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways.”

In closing this segment, I wish to point to the truly fantastic. It has been asserted that the interface between corporeal and spiritual is a medium of communication, and here we think of that ‘still small voice’. But, I have here an instance of the interface producing noise (if the corporeal tabernacle is what Job alludes to). Job 36:29, “Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of His tabernacle?”

I am reminded of God speaking to Moses in the tabernacle, but since Job is touted as the oldest book in the Bible, it may simply refer to the vault of heaven as God’s tabernacle. Even so . . .

TEN Elusive Reality In asserting a concept of spirituality, as the one I have thus far merely sketched, one may be thrown into confusion about one’s true place within reality. I should more precisely say that one’s sense of ‘corporeality’ stands at risk. It is certainly true that man is more grounded (not necessarily rooted, but definitely more at home) in a ‘worldly’ concept of reality. Until now, it all seemed rather solid and stable. All this about a spiritual side has made reality a bit - elusive.

Now we must ask ourselves, ‘what constitutes reality?’ Finding out will not be an easy task, seeing that the spiritual and the corporeal seem so much like oil and water. Rather, we speak expressly of ‘light’ and ‘dark’.

John 9:41 gives a little surface iridescence, “Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.” (This is another bit of the ‘fulcrum theory’). Of course, He meant ‘blind’ to their worldly preconceptions.

We have studied the spiritual side of our two-sided existence and deduced that it is the partner that leads in this dance of reality. What will be studied here is the preeminence of ‘light’ in application to

both the individual and the ‘greater body of individuals’. We will endeavor to sleuth out the constitution of reality. We will employ terms such as ‘the body’ and ‘light’. We will embrace the higher concept of ‘purity’. Bottom line: our puzzle has two pieces. They are ‘corporeality’ and ‘spirituality’.

Our minds will labor under the strain of shifting between the concepts of ‘one’ and ‘two’, but we will exercise sweaty thoughts until our minds are buff.

The ‘individual’ concerns us: as we consider ourselves primarily individuals. We have a sense of ourselves apart and separate from others. Even highly gregarious people are aware of their individuality. So, wherein lies spiritual truth for us ‘solid’ types? How do we begin to see ourselves for what we are?

John 11:9-11 says this, “Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.”

Read that again.

Light does not originate in the corporeal. All that a man possesses, in the way of judgment discernment and the making of good decisions, comes from the spiritual side of our being. It has already been determined that Christ is the ‘light of the world’. We, therefore, are given to understand that ‘day’ and ‘night’ are representative of ‘spiritual’ and ‘corporeal’.

In a more homogenous sense, the verse presented above points to our better nature, and to our less than better nature by way of contrast. If we are to praise something about ourselves, it should be the better part: the higher nature. Sadly, there are many on this plane who are artlessly contrary. They call ‘good’ ‘bad’ and ‘bad’ ‘good’. The things they lift up about themselves are the darker elements of their thoughts.

They exalt their own advancement at another’s expense: the ‘dog-eat-dog’ worldly principle; or, ‘you have to break some eggs to make an omelet’. They propose to stumble on their own rather than be instructed: the worldly concept of ‘my will: free will’. We have read already that everyone has the truth within, but some hold the truth in unrighteousness. I call this the ‘Reversal Syndrome’.

Christ warned against such when He said in Luke 11:35, “Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.”

It is an easy state to fall into. Those who espouse such doctrines can be as persuasive as the dark nature that guides them. They have put themselves in subjection to “the Prince of the power of the air.” I need not tell you that communication can be both good and bad, but I will repeat it nonetheless: ‘communication is key’.

If you enter a group that espouses a shared doctrine, and you buy into it, the group grows by one.

Groups are always in flux, either growing or diminishing through communication. That process becomes exponentially greater through mass communication. The world communicates worldliness through mass communication, through the Prince of the power of the ‘air waves’.

Dark groups, like tumors, grow wherever they are left alone to flourish. Without a controlling or countering action, weeds will soon overtake a garden. We see the news on TV: prayer taken from

schools, the Ten Commandments (the basis of our legal system) shamefully put away, ‘In God We Trust’ attacked. We see darkness in our government growing because soldiers of the light have not yet rallied.

See Habakkuk 1:4, “Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.”

Light does not originate in corporeal man, but light may be seen and employed. There is an entrance from the spiritual into the corporeal; light gets in. It may be seen with a spiritual eye, just as the corporeal eye sees the light from the sun. The spiritual eye, turned toward the mirror, sees the light from the Son. The purpose of an eye is to bring light into focus. Focused light is an image; and what are we exploring but the communication of an image?

In our eye, the image of an upright figure is upside down. We have determined that we are the image and glory of God - it’s just that we are not exactly in sync, and again, I must stress that I am speaking of that part of us (the image) that may be communicated with.

Next higher vantage point: the mind is the image that exists on the corporeal plane, mirroring our spiritual body. Our minds reenact every posture of our spiritual bodies, as our minds are merely reflections of our true selves. If the true body has an eye, then it follows that the reflection has an eye.

If the spiritual eye is singularly trained upon the light, the reflected eye follows suit. Since both sides of the equation must be equal, if the reflected eye looks away to behold darkness, the purity of the spiritual vision becomes muddled.

The concept of singularity, or purity, may be explained by a clear glass filled with cool spring water.

There is but a single thing in the glass, and that is the water. Another word for pure is ‘one’. However, when a drop of ink is placed into the water, not only is the singularity immediately lost, but the ink spreads until every bit of the water is dark.

See Luke 11:34, “The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.”

The word ‘single’ is here used in contrast with the word ‘evil’. The combination has always intrigued me. I have come to see it like this: there is ‘single’ (pure; one), and there is ‘evil’ (multiplicity). That gives the constitution of reality a handle that we may grasp: it is either pure or mixed.

If we return for a moment to the issue of the two trees in the garden, we may now see the one as pure and the other as mixed. The tree of life was singular; the tree of knowledge mixed good and evil. I wish also to add that a single eye is an eye that is in agreement on both sides of the interface.

Luke 11:36 points to the reality of that agreement thusly, “If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.”

That candle is the spirit. The flame that burns upon it is God. The light that our reflected eye sees is Christ. The “whole body” is our physically housed mind in covenant with our spirit. Each of us is a spiritual person. On the other side of the mirror, we are inhabited by God. The true reflection of that spiritual person must also be inhabited by God.

See Acts 17:24, “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.”

Many people of a dark nature will communicate that spirituality runs counter to life as they know it. It is repressive, restrictive, a state that exists in denial of all things natural. But, of course, they seek the natural by way of excluding God. Reality is not some amputated thing; reality is composed of God. With that in mind, 1 Corinthians 10:31 instructs us, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” In the true constitution of reality, There is no leveling up apart from God. Neither the universe nor mankind as a whole; neither the church nor the individual may grow without the concomitant growth of the spirit. The church, as a body, depends on God; the corporeal body, linked to the spirit through the mind, depends on God. Colossians 2:19 points to that symbiotic relationship between the corporeal and the spiritual, “From which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.” It may be said that our increase is a reflection of God’s increase. There are a lot of overlapping concepts here, and each one demands our attention. We are composed of God particles. Yes, the reflection is composed of light because Christ is the light.

As we see in Colossians 3:11, there is really only one formula for the constitution of reality: “Christ is all, and in all.”

ELEVEN USMs: Universal Spiritual Mechanics Laws and Theories Just as with our corporeal gravity and inertia, there are at work principles; processes; and laws on the spiritual plane. They affect the corporeal plane either directly or indirectly. I call them USMs, or, ‘Universal Spiritual Mechanics’. I have always been intrigued by them; I have always wondered: ‘just how, exactly, do those spiritual things work?’

Often a spiritual law will seem familiar. This should come as no surprise, as our physical laws parallel or mirror the spiritual. Take for example the law of displacement, mentioned in section eight. That law provides that two objects may not occupy the same space at the same time.

Now look at 1 John 2:15, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

That gives us a different spin on the actions and reactions of God. As I have indicated, a pure state is called for; admixtures are prohibited. Why? Our actions affect our spiritual counterparts. Read this next

USM and try to imagine what is happening on the spiritual plane.

Joshua 7:11-12, “Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.”

We often hear ourselves asking, why does this keep happening to me? Dare we ever stop to think that by our actions we set in motion spiritual processes that bear directly on our lives? What is the USM that finds its counterpart in lions?

See the response of God in 2 Kings 17:25, “And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the Lord: therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them.”

These people, by their own actions, set in motion a chain of events, but those events were but reflections of events that transpired in Heaven. I like to think in terms of Universal Spiritual Laws; it presents the mind with a standard: something we may expect to be the same under similar circumstances. Such a system of ‘Universal Spiritual Governance’ may be learned. I may place my hand in the fire once, but after I have learned from it, I keep my fingers put.

When I say I fear the flame, I mean only that I have a healthy respect for what it can do. That last may be the Universal Law: ‘You reap what you sow’.

As to naming these, I confess to floundering, but what does this next one say about intercession and prayer?

Exodus 32:9-10, “And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them.”

We are presently studying ‘how things work’. It is an issue that may be approached from either end.

One may ask, “I wonder what will happen if I push this button,” or one may ask, “What do I need to do to achieve my desired goal?” In the verse above, to step aside would be Moses pushing the button that cut on the green light. Moses’ usual intercession and prayer for the tribes of Israel pressed the button that turned on the red stop light that impeded the natural consequence of God’s reaction to enemy activity.

We may envision an Old West gunfight with a man standing in the breach to intercede for one party.

The other party is ready to draw and fire; he tells the intercessor to step aside and let events unfold. If it was a game of checkers, we would naturally assume that the player, according to the rules, had to take his jump.

A bad action elicits a bad response. A good action elicits a good response.

For good, see Ephesians 6:8, “Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord.”

What do we mean by ‘universal law’? We mean anything that will be the same every time; we mean something that may be predicted. A scientist, once he has run the numbers, will perform his experiment again and again - and again. When the results have been determined to be verifiable, then and only then will he deem the results a constant. If it seems to be something other than a constant, he will try to determine if it is acting under a different set of laws.

In this regard, early man was at a loss when the constancy of God’s presence was lost. It’s like, “God said He’d be here; where is He?” Humanity has not yet learned to shoot from the hip.

For the unforeseen, see Psalms 78:60, “So that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men.”

The seeming inconsistency of God may be attributable to the application of universal law. Many people argue that God randomly or arbitrarily smote the children of Israel, for they being naive and idealistic, are disturbed by all the smiting that comes from a ‘God of love’.

See 1 Chronicles 21:7, “And God was displeased with this thing; therefore He smote Israel.”

An idealistic person usually is one who concentrates on one aspect of an issue at the expense of all other concomitant aspects. Grass needs sunshine to grow, that is a single aspect, too much sunshine will kill the grass. Imagine the idealistic gardener who covers his lawn so the sun will not kill it. The gardener kills his lawn through deprivation. Imagine the idealistic gardener who only believes in the beneficial aspects of the sun, who kills his lawn through blindness. But there were other, less idealistic, people who warned the gardener; who predicted what would happen.

Covenants are not entered into lightly. Lot’s family entered into a covenant when the angels said ‘you will be spared; only look forward’. Lot’s wife looked back and perished.

Christ said in Luke 9:62, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.” God, who created the universe of His own substance, and having set everything in order, may be more clearly understood through the study of universal laws. Any law that we may know, being of and defining our corporeal plane, is but a shadow of some universal spiritual law.

2 Kings 22:17 says, “Because they have forsaken Me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore My wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.”

We are reminded of the child that was warned not to do something and did it anyway. Something bad was the result, but the child’s complaint was that he did not mean for that to happen. The man on the street cries, ‘it was an accident’ but he has no answer for why he ran the red light: the accident was not an accident at all, but rather the bad result of someone’s actions, someone who ignored traffic laws.

We have a saying, ‘what goes around, comes around’. The scripture has similar sayings: ‘reap what you sow’, ‘live by the sword/die by the sword’. We are familiar with cause and effect. Perhaps now we may at least see why some pronouncements of doom were worded as they were.

See Jeremiah 30:16, “Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.”

Let me take a moment to finger the map - as it were - to indicate the little arrow that bears the tag: “You Are Here.” USMs, or Universal Spiritual Mechanics, are simply a way to get a better handle on elusive reality. I have only theories. If you should ask what is a theory, I, not being a scientist, would have to confess that it is only my opinion. It is my best guess at a studied, intellectual level. On a deeper, spiritual level, it is what the Holy Spirit gives me to understand.

One of my so-called ‘theories’ is the ‘Fulcrum Theory’. The fulcrum theory holds the interface between spiritual and corporeal as the fulcrum of a scale. One side is up when the other side is down - but the purpose is to find balance.

It often seems that we are at odds with spirituality; that everything we are and do is opposed by the spirit. Part of the problem, I guess. If we are the reflection, then it is we who are in opposition. Let us say that pride is on our plate, that we have lifted it up, that we esteem the mentality of individual and team pride.

The mechanics would follow thusly: one, If the corporeal plate is high, the spiritual plate is low. Two, the weightier plate rests at bottom while the plate at the top holds nothing of weight. The resting plate is so weighted from the corporeal pride. When the plate on the spiritual side is furthest from God, the plate on the corporeal side is closest to the world.

For how the scripture employs the fulcrum theory see Luke 16:15, “Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.” Plainly stated.

See also James 4:4, “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” In these verses, the scales are tipped. Balance is called for. When equilibrium is obtained, one may begin to weigh down the corporeal plate with spiritual weights. When our plate is at rest, the plate on the other side of the fulcrum is at its highest point. That ‘highest point’ is always reflected in the weights found in our plate. Never foolishly think that it is in our power to set the standards; God has already set the weights and measures.

See Proverbs 16:2, “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits.”

Two verses are key to show the upside and downside of this universal law.

The downside may be seen in Revelation 3:17, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”

The upside may be seen in Matthew 18:4, “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little

child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

These are instances where ‘more is less’ and ‘less is more’.

We seek to increase spiritually (we face the mirror), but we keep looking away to the world, and this must be a lesson in ‘how to make it work’, for we are instructed, in Luke 12:31, to “Rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

If we know we need something, God knows it better: He knows our mind. For our part, if what we want is on the other side, we need a clearer sense of focus. We must approach life ‘by the numbers’, remembering to cross every spiritual ‘T’ and dot every spiritual ‘I’.

Peter walked on water only while he faced the mirror; when he looked away he began to sink.

Spiritual principles find place, and are practiced in this corporeal world. Challenges are faced and lessons are learned - we must realize this, for we are but a shadow of something more real.

See Luke 16:11, “If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?”

There is a spirit that underlies action, and for every gain, there is a prerequisite that must first come to completion. We think we can just hope, or simply pray, as those of earlier ages placed their gifts on similar but solid altars. We are told, though, if something needs fixing, leave the gift and go right the wrong first. Prerequisite action is not a new concept. ‘One’ always came before ‘Two’. And this, it seems, must occur concomitantly with the plate on our corporeal side of the fulcrum being weighted with spiritual weights. When our plate is fully weighted, the plate on the spiritual side is lifted up. A straight line then exists between the high God on the spiritual plane and the humble man on the corporeal plane. That is an alignment that produces results.

See Mark 11:23-24, “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”

Does that give us encouragement to press forward? Yes. 1 Corinthians 15:58 commends us to this course, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

We have spoken of our present spiritual counterparts on the spiritual plane. If we consider ourselves as standing in our weighted plates and, our counterparts in their spiritual plates, then what we do, here and now, affects our counterparts in no uncertain terms.

See John 12:26, “If any man serve Me, him will My Father honour” and “If any man serve Me, let him follow Me” (as, perhaps, in following the news); “and where I am, there shall also My servant be.”

Each of us wants to be that person. We want to enter His presence. How is it, then, that we continue to fall back through the door? Do you remember that part about the ‘light of the body’? If the whole body is full of light, it ‘entered’ through the eye. When we look that way, we are filled with light. But, we keep looking back. We lose what we were filled with, and are filled with something else. We are in a loser’s rut. ‘Round and ‘round we go. Of course you know, the only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.

Christ knows we are losers. He knows we want in but keep falling back out. We want to abide (remain), but so far, only He remains. We know that only He can free us from the vicious cycle we are in. If we serve and follow Him, we can be where He is. We can be abiders like Him: He has already done the thing that makes it possible.

See John 8:36, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

There is goodness and we have a taste for it, but we keep pigging out on worldliness. We have something in us that leaves no room for that which we really want. So what should we do?

Returning to the issue of prerequisites, 2 Timothy 2:21 says, “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work.”

All we have to do is dump the refuse.

‘Spiritual Mechanics’ is an issue I am keenly interested in. I have but lightly touched on it. I have introduced USMs, and I have elaborated on spiritual laws. In all, I have shown that the spiritual and corporeal are not separate, but indivisibly one. We’ve all heard the expression: ‘getting in touch with one’s feminine side’. Unsavory to some, yes, but we are all, corporeally, composed of ‘Xs’ and ‘Ys’.

Spiritually speaking, we are all composed of both spiritual and corporeal. It is a symbiosis - not to liken us to Lichen, but the spirit draws from the corporeal as surely as the corporeal must draw from the spirit.

See Luke 4:4, “Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” It must be pointed out that Christ may not have been referring to man in general, but to Himself, as He was being singularly tempted. In that case, “that man” may specifically point to Jesus. Otherwise, I must view this to mean that the corporeal cannot exist on corporealness alone, but requires every spiritual communication from God. In that regard, the connectedness of corporeal to spiritual may be viewed as a three-tiered fountain, and this is more an explanation (in terms of the known) than theory (in terms of the unknown). Christ is the middle tier, pouring spirituality into corporeality, and thus, becoming the impetus by which corporeality rises back up to the head of the fountain.

John 10:28-29 puts it this way, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand.”

Of theories, I have put forth a few. Not the least important of these is the Equation Theory; which holds that both sides of an equation must be equal. In our present equation, both sides draw and both sides give again in return. It could never be that Christ (the Life) was translated to this side only to become death, or to be overcome by death. In being raised from the dead, Christ became life equally in the spiritual and the corporeal.

The worldly do not believe in resurrection, but Christians (those who are guided spiritually) do simply because, as Acts 2:24 puts it, “It was not possible that He should be holden of it (death).”

It cannot go without repeating that our actions, here, bear directly on our spiritually based consequences. If our actions are at first based in the spirit, our plate will be weighted so that our corporeal reality will register a lowly state in some regard. I mean lowly as in poor or humble; I may even mean destitute, as in the cases of Job and the Lazarus of parable.

Remember where the plate is on the other side: up at the top, with God. We want to be there, even if we do not yet fully comprehend our duality. And we seek forgiveness, for we already know forgiveness to be one of the prerequisites. But let me say that forgiveness is a spiritual consequence of one of our most common corporeal (though spiritually initiated) traits, a weight that bears our counterpart closer to God. Let Luke 7:47 say it, “Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.”

TWELVE Rhyme and Reason All of us know the term. If we had a puzzle in which not a single piece fit together with another, we would suspect something is not right. Life is a puzzle of sorts. We use our sense of continuity to navigate. We prefer to sail the calmer sea; we steer clear of rock and reef. All of us have the ability to reason, but how, and to what degree we employ our abilities is never the same between individuals. In fact, some biases are so predominant that they might almost be called different types of reasoning.

Perhaps you’ve heard the anecdote of the man taking the Rorschach test in which every card the Doctor held up reminded him of a woman. Just because an individual has the equipment is no guarantee it will be used correctly.

I will group reasoning between the worldly and the spiritual. I will assert that worldly reasoning is reasoning under self-imposed limitations. I will further assert that those of us who employ spiritual reasoning are just now breaking free of our shackles; that we are climbing up to ever higher vantage points - not that we wish to dissociate ourselves from the valley below, but that we may know it more completely.

To speak of spiritual reasoning places us between the worldly reasoners and those who rely more on faith than any form of reason. That is to say: we are between a rock and a hard place. The one can be as blind as the other, for in the case of faith, it is more often than not seen to be just another brand of self-

imposed limitation. I tell you the truth: agnostics and atheists have faith as much as Christians. The Christian will say, “The Bible says it is so, and that’s good enough for me.” The worldly will say, “This or that man said it, that’s good enough for me,” or, “If the scientists agree, it must be so,” or, “He’s rich, he ought to know what he’s talking about,” or even, “I heard it on the news.”

You and I, in our quest for truth, must set ourselves on a higher level. If the worldly reasoner is like a butcher, we wish not to be found like them - minus fingers or thumbs. Spiritual reasoning can be a very sharp blade; it behooves us, then, to ‘rightly divide’. We do not have to rely on blind faith. Even doubting Thomas, though reprimanded, was given evidence for his reasoning mind. He wanted to believe, but he wanted to see for himself. He was given the proof his mind required. Does that make him less than the other apostles?

Christ first came to the others; He showed them His wounds, just as He showed Thomas a week later.

Thomas is the only one recorded as saying, “My Lord and My God.” There is nothing wrong with reason if one uses it correctly. Did not God say, “Come, let us reason together.”? Remember the mirror?

We do not reason alone. When we reason, we are “together” with God, and by that we may define worldly reasoning, for worldly reasoning is such that has turned away from the mirror. All the essential mechanics and equipment of reason are present, but one vital element is missing.

I cannot conceive of a river without the ‘head of the river’. I cannot conceive of rain without rain clouds. The glove could never move except for the hand inside it. Without the unseen skeleton, the body could not stand. Every down has an up, and every out has an in. Worldly reasoning is a maimed and halting creature, having cut its own legs out from under itself. So, we say that worldly men judge by what they see only. They see a poor, dirty man; they do not see his soul. They walk around him and continue on their way. To navigate through life, judgment is needful, but worldly judgment is Godless.

Christ contrasted worldly reasoning with spiritual reasoning this way, John 8:15-16, “Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man. And yet if I judge, My judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent Me.” If man will not live by bread (corporeality) alone, he must see the spiritual as well. Christ said that He did not judge, did not reason alone, but God was ever present.

The duality of reason, and the duality of all things. In this section, I lift up proper reason as spiritual.

Men of the world have an understanding. It is functional, but it is neither whole nor complete. What is an eye without light, but blind? That a man with eyes must grope in the dark seems senseless - but we have all stumbled through the dark. If grope we must, let us grope for the light switch. We will practice reason. We will give ourselves ample opportunity to see the light.

Ephesians 1:18, “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened.”

Reasoning has layers, just as grade school has grades. We may understand a thing perfectly, and then wonder why the other guy has trouble with the concept. Layered reasoning - that is the mountain we climb seeking higher vantage points. We strive to enter that small, select group that is in the know.

Mark 4:11 says, “And He said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without (on the outside), all these things are done in parables.”

This verse seems to suggest an inner circle or those in the know. The whole thing is just given to them.

That is not the case for the people in the outer circle. They have been given a story of buried treasure.

The story directs them to the beach, even shows them the big ‘X’, but they have not been given shovels. The shovels are spiritual, and the worldly view just doesn’t allow for that. They suspect that there is no worldly treasure in the treasure chest, that is: if they have taken the story seriously enough to consider it more than a tale.

There may be some who say, “Hey, a treasure is a treasure!” Therein lies the spade - that any should have such an inclination. We are so inclined. However, the worldly just don’t dig. Their understanding is divorced from the secret spiritual things, and they will never admit that the spiritual hand moves within the corporeal glove.

See Luke 8:10 & 17, “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.”

Layered reasoning. What layer are you on? Are you looking right at it but failing to see it? Have you had it explained to you but you still fail to understand? Try a different layer. Climb up at least to the level where you don’t sleepily take everything at face value. Understand that there are messages behind messages, words below the print, and truths above truths.

Again, Matthew 10:26, “There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.”

Ultimately, all secrets will come out. Is there something you don’t know? Are there secrets withheld from you? Is there a secret about you that other people are unaware of?

Are you seeking the chest of secret treasures? Well, you were told where the beach is; you were even shown the big ‘X’ that marks the spot. Are you telling me that you just might be giving credence to the spiritual? If there is about you some secret, say, a thought or an intent - it is in God’s domain. It is not separate from your corporeal being, but very connected.

See Matthew 6:3-4, “When thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret Himself shall reward thee openly.”

We exercise reason. Shadowy thoughts become clear. We realize that our unseen part lies within the realm of God, who knows all secrets. That is to say, our secrets really exist on the other side of the mirror. Our moments, both kind and cruel, are there with Him. How will He deal with them? How will His actions there affect our lives here? Do such new musings on spiritual issues (secrets) help us to understand our God any better?

We have allowed the strength of practiced reason to bring us to this present point in our progress. Now, use your stronger reasoning skill on this, Deuteronomy 27:15, “Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.”

Can you feel your shovel heating up? What if you were able to drop all your cruel thoughts and intents, like rocks, on this side of the mirror, so that there was no possibility of bad things happening to you?

Even on this corporeal plane, men may see what is building, and thus know what to expect. Rising storm clouds mean stormy weather. What if we were smart enough to leave our worldliness on this side and not grieve God? God does not want what belongs to the world; He wants what is His, and we should know by now that God is a spirit. He is interested in spiritual things. The good things hidden in our hearts belong to Him. Luke 20:25, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's.”

I have asserted that mentality is spiritual. Therefore, all of our invisible and secret thoughts; our hopes, intents, and whatever lies within our hearts is spiritual tribute. Reason, too, is spiritual. Those things that may only be understood spiritually are accessible through the exercise of reason.

The stronger the eye becomes through exercise, the longer it may remain open to the light. So let us exercise reason. Let us do the reps until we are past the ‘burn’. Let us bench press the truth, working toward a greater capacity for truth.

Judges 9:8-15 is a good place to work out. (This is my paraphrased version).

“The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them.

They said to the olive tree, Reign thou over us.

They said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us.

They said to the vine, Come thou, and reign over us.

They said to the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us.

The olive tree said, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

The fig tree said, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?

The vine said, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

The bramble said, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.”

Here is my take on it, and I’ll not say overmuch for I wish others also to think. Each potential candidate for king, in this parable, was closer to the earth than the trees; the bramble was closest of all. The cedars, mentioned in the final sentence, were famed for their greatness. Their heads were in the heavens and it might be said that Heaven was their crown. How low, then, would they have to stoop to place their trust in the shadow of the bramble?

The first three candidates; olive, fig, and vine, knew their place and were not ashamed of it. There are two notes of interest here. One is the thought of the bramble as a ‘burning bush’. Two is the order of wording in the first three candidates for king over the trees. That wording is this: “God and man,” “sweetness,” “God and man.”

Trees, as I have noted previously, may be seen as representative of the interfacial relationship. There are the two sides. There is the ‘here’ and the ‘over there’. There is, as the next scripture indicates, the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’.

John 10:9, “I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

Which side is which depends on one’s point of view. If we begin on the outside an ‘enter in’, we will return to the outside. If we begin inside and ‘enter in’, we will return inside. On which side of the door is the pasture? Whether our side is the inside or the outside is a matter for later debate. Two points in John 10:9 are worthy of retention. One is that Jesus claims to be the interface. Two is that there seems to be unrestricted travel in both directions. The door swings both ways. I suppose a door can be viewed as a narrow path and a straight way.

John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” So if we ‘enter in’ and are saved, and ‘the way’ brings us “unto the Father,” is the spiritual the inside? Is the corporeal that good “pasture” we are to find? Sheep might like to be inside - but aren’t pastures usually on hillsides; out in the rain, wind, and lightning; out among wolves and lions? We, as His sheep, must similarly brave our individual problems (and no doubt many will cry, “why me?”), but as a whole, it is in those troubling elements that we find our sustenance and our strength.

In looking at a mirror and considering the two sides, we must be careful not to divide them in our thinking. As long as there is a connection between the two, they are not separate, but they are one in truth. Consider the Gulf of Mexico: on one ‘side’ there is Florida, and on the opposing ‘side’ there is Texas. But, they are not wholly separate, for we may follow the coast, crossing arbitrary state lines, realizing that the landmass is one.

Can we view the word ‘gulf’ as a symbol of complete separation? Even if the coast is a road less traveled, and we have no boat to sail across on, the geography still presents us with a very real ‘oneness’. I say this in regard to the next scripture, for it speaks of two sides within the context of wholeness.

Luke 16:26, “And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.”

Still, if the highway between Texas and Florida was to suddenly disappear, people would stand around saying, “I can’t get there.” If Jesus is the door, and there is traffic in two directions, then could Jesus be the missing element that makes for separation. But, I think that in speaking of hell, we should more correctly think of a spiritual place rather than a corporeal place.

I might automatically think of all spiritual geography as an amorphous singularity, hell included. How can one part of it be separate from the rest, I ask? Jesus is the key, or rather, Jesus has the keys. He has the keys to death and hell. He alone can close off that area within Himself (for everything consists of Him).

Still, we speak of two sides. We can think of existence as two-sided; we are aware of the spiritual geography that connects them. Being among those that seek such, we are not unmindful that the interface, while allowing two-way traffic, is a door that can be closed and locked. My higher vantage point affords a greater view of the whole. After all, beneath the icing on the cake, there are only layers.

We are still in the layers. Does the duality of existence find expression inside of us? If you said it was all in my head, I would answer that the brain has two sides. Something in our being; something in our nature is the reflection of God: we are His image and glory. So I come to the question if we fight against God are we only punching out our own lights?

In the sense of pointing inward, Acts 5:39 has this to say, “But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.” This scripture shows me that the ‘two sides’ of the interface may be viewed as two points of focus, just as nature shows me that the single force of magnetism, having two polarities, may seem to be selfopposing.

For some reason, we see duality everywhere we look. There is light and dark; there is up and down.

There is in and out, left and right, right and wrong. The bodies we inhabit have two eyes, two ears, two arms, two legs, two hands, two feet, two nostrils, and two rows of teeth: upper and lower. Our brains are duality engines. We have two types of consciousness: waking and dreaming. We have two lungs for the single task of breathing. Comparison, or thinking by contrast, is a process of duality: holding the one up against the other. In our emotions, the default is that love is the opposite of hate. In our relationships, opposites attract. And for those who think that spiritual beings are androgynous, beings that could well be our counterparts, God created us ‘man’ and ‘woman’.

Now, what I wish to forward at this point is the concept of ‘type duality’. By type, I mean a character trait that identifies the individual, or the individual’s alignment or propensity. Is there a God-type? Is there, for that matter, a ‘non-God-type’? This might simply fall under comparative thinking. We know the one as opposed to the other. There is a type comparison in the following scripture verse.

2 Peter 2:9, “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.”

Two types are set in contrast to one another. My question is this: if you define ‘godly’ as being like God, how do you define the contrasting term of ‘unjust’?

There is yet another way to view the two sides of the interface. We’ve already noted the in and out; the here and there. Now I submit that, of the two sides, there is a ‘higher’ level and a ‘lower’ level. We are all familiar with the term ‘on high’, but who has paused long enough to see that “on high” means a ‘higher’ level?

Luke 1:78-79 uses these words, “Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high (higher level) hath visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way (the way = Jesus) of peace (as in a peace treaty).”

I look in corners and find small things that others overlook. A thing not missed in the above verse is the keyword “Dayspring.” It is a reference to our Lord, but lest we simply sit around and say, “Jesus is the dayspring; how wonderful!”, the smaller implications need to be examined. See here.

I pulled from a reference work: Strong's Ref. # 395 Romanized Anatole Pronounced an-at-ol-ay from GSN0393; a rising of light, i.e. dawn (figuratively); by implication, the east (also in plural): KJV-dayspring, east, rising.

From ‘dayspring’ we get the sense of a thing that occurs at a particular time, and from that, by extension, a thing that happens at the right time. In the evolution of symbolic thought and abstract application, the shift up to ‘dawn of a new day’ was a small easy step. It was something that happened at a particular, and dependable, time. To take a step further in that evolution would bring us to the term ‘dawn of a new age’ - a thing that, for all intents and purposes, happens at the ‘right time’. The rising of light may point to an internalized process, whereby ingesting light, we become more and more like Christ.

The plurality of ‘east’ is a bit confusing, even for those of us well versed in duality. I am reminded, however, that an old prophecy calls for the three brothers to reunite. They are Israel, Egypt, and one other Eastern people.

I gave this section the title, Rhyme and Reason for a reason. I have sought to find the sense in the odd verse. Some may ask what trees and brambles have to do with anything, or, how does a dawn figure into the theme of an interface between flesh and spirit. I submit that to understand anything on this side is to attain some further knowledge of the other side.

We understand the spiritual in the same fashion that primitive man understood: by way of comparison to the corporeal. But, no coin has only one side. I assume, therefore, that to understand a spiritual issue is to gain a greater understanding of the corporeal. The Old Testament, for example, helps me understand the New Testament. It is also the case that the New Testament helps me understand the Old Testament. It is after all, at least to me, a single book.

Jesus was both spirit and man, and while to some these seem self-opposing, the combination of the two became one Lord, one Christ. If it was but a rare and happy alignment that Jesus the man was so suffused with spirit, then, definitely, a higher level was attained. Since we have thought of ourselves as rising through the levels (receiving light into ourselves to become light), let us take a moment to see Jesus as rising through the levels.

It doesn’t matter if we came from a well-to-do family, if we start on the bottom rung of the corporate ladder, we are the newbie. However, when we get a pay raise or a promotion, we are not only on that higher level, we are better equipped to reach for the next level.

Hebrews 1:3, may be seen as the ultimate pay raise and final promotion, “Who being the brightness of His glory (the top rung on the spiritual ladder), and the express image of His person (the glove that best fit the hand of God), and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

There are levels on a ladder; there are levels in a process. There are also levels in a chain of command.

In all, there is a beginning, a middle, and an end: or, a ‘from, through, and to’. It is the same with the interface, or door, if we go through, we are moving from our side, level, or focus to the other. We should not be alarmed to think of salvation as a process of ascendancy. A gain in our spiritual understanding may not place us on high, per se, but we can at least say that we are ‘on higher’ than we used to be.

Becoming is the work, but ascendancy, as with all other processes, requires prerequisite steps. ‘From, through, and to’ is expressed in 1 Peter 1:2, “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.”

This speaks of a baptism on a level higher than baptism by water. The prerequisite process of sanctification of things spiritual is a must. Obedience cannot be reached otherwise. This obedience is not an obedience to the flesh, else the flesh should be sanctified. It is not an obedience to the world, else the world should be sanctified. What is sanctification, anyway? It is, simply stated, to set something up on a pedestal; to set something aside as special. To sanctify something is to give it honor and approval.

Since we are at present looking into the process of ‘becoming’, it may be of interest to note that the word sanctify is a ‘transitive’ verb. Now, on top of sanctifying the spirit, one must realize that the vessel it is housed in cannot go unaffected, for both sides of the equation must be equal.

See 1 Thessalonians 4:4, “That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour.”

I said that I wanted to make sense of the odd verse. In winding down, I will bring forth the ‘loaded’ verse or two. Be warned: I may put forth some fanciful speculation on things I have no way of knowing in this lifetime, and you may be startled into asking, “what’s up with this?”, but bear with me.

There was a time in science when those in the know rejected the notion of rocks falling from the sky. In the process of becoming believers, they had to be bombarded with the impossible, and Jules Verne wrote of impossible ships that sailed underwater, but we are not afraid of the impossible becoming possible.

Case in point: just who was that extra man at Jesus’ arrest; the one that ran away naked? When you stop and give it any thought at all, it gets really strange. Of course, Gethsemane was a popular place. We would expect others to retreat there overnight. He was not one of the disciples, but he was close enough to the action that the guards took hold of him. And why did they try to apprehend this one unnamed man and not the disciples?

Read Mark 14:51 and 52. This man was not Peter; Peter followed afar off. In some versions, the disciples flee, in one, Jesus convinces the multitude to focus on Him alone. But who was this young man? More often than not, when men slept out that way, they had coats to wrap in or to use for pillows. But here is the weird part, the young man was naked; he had no clothing. It was as if a linen cloth (a sheet) was all he could find to wrap himself in.

Now for the fanciful speculation: could this man have been a time traveler? I am reminded of movies where the time traveler can go back in time but has to go naked; has to find something to wear when he gets there. Of course, it could have been some young man engaged in intercourse, who wanted to see what all the noise was about. It could have been the young rich man, who decided to give away all his goods and follow Jesus: he might have kept a fine linen cloth to sleep in. But, what of the nature of this man?

People back then were very self-conscious. To expose one’s nakedness was to expose one’s ‘shame’.

Did he not share that deeply embedded Jewish concept? Was he a coward? Turns out that the incident was prophesied in Amos 2:16, “And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the Lord.”

Okay, tell me that chapter of Amos concerns something else, and I will point to Amos 2:6, “they sold the righteous for silver.”

What is interesting about Amos 2:16 is the character reference. Did the man simply drop his expensive linen cloth and run whimpering into the night? The man was described pretty specifically as “courageous among the mighty.” Could he have been a Roman soldier who had cast off his armor; who could not afford to be identified? There’s a best seller in that somewhere. But, to move on to another ‘loaded’ scripture, let’s turn to the New Testament; to the book of John, to be exact.

The verse ahead presents us with a sort of ‘mini-smorgasbord’ for our refined palette. Did New Testament people hear the voice of God like those who followed Moses in the Old Testament? Does this verse point an accusing finger at the more scientifically inclined? Does this verse present a picture of Jesus as an individual who has risen above the limitations of linear time? What does this verse bring up about the nature of the title ‘son of man’, and indeed, about the nature of spiritual childhood?

Here is the verse. John 12:28 through 31 and 34 through 36 “Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, an angel spake to Him. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of Me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. The people answered Him, We have heard out of the law (the Old Testament) that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man? Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.”

It seems to be implied that some, at least, heard a voice speak actual words. It is recorded that some of those who were actually there thought they heard thunder, and others that they heard an angel. Does the inclusion of that variant opinion indicate that a storm raged at that particular time?

Actually, Jesus was out in the open, riding a donkey to Jerusalem from Bethany. Those who had witnessed the raising of Lazarus were going ahead of Him broadcasting what they had witnessed.

Because of that, many came out to meet Him. The religious leaders were also present. There were even Greek Jews who had come up for the feast; Jews who had only heard (shows how news travels when something big happens), and they wanted to meet the man. They asked Philip, who went to Andrew. They brought the matter to Jesus, likely with the Greeks in tow. Then Jesus spoke, and the voice came from heaven.

Nothing was mentioned about rain. Still, some insisted it was thunder, which smacks of scientific denial. Then Jesus spoke of the Prince of this world being cast down, using the word “now.” He had earlier told His disciples, in Luke 10:18, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” Historically, that joker fell either before mankind or in the garden when he was cursed. Unless . . . linear time has no bearing on the issue. More later on that.

And finally, it seems that the common people had a little understanding in regard to Christ’s appellation ‘Son of man’. More on that, and childhood (adoption), later too.

Man’s godhood is not a new concept, but Psalms 82:6-7 presents us with something more to chew on; “I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.”

We are grouped with the fallen. But, more specifically, “one of the princes” is the key illustration.

Now, I may be as simple as the next man, but the only ‘prince’ that I have read about, who falls, is Satan. He was just ‘one’ of the princes. Dying like men is bad enough. Perhaps falling like a prince is that proverbial ‘fate worse than death’.

I think that if we embrace our ‘godhood’, we must do so with humility. We must realize the real connection between spiritual and corporeal. We can ill-afford to continue placing God at a distance, thinking that somehow we are not a part of the bigger picture. The ‘stand alone’ mentality is simply prideful resistance. We are a level, a ‘power’ in the cosmic order created by Christ; a link in His chain of command.

If ruling princes may be cast down, how much more we? We will be so much better equipped for our quest, as Daniel 4:26 says, “After that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule.”

We will never clearly see our Great reflection until, as Daniel 4:25 instructs us, we realize “that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men.”

Book Two The Spiritual / Corporeal Handshake ONE Dualities Mirror Images - our world reflects the spiritual realm. If our world is a satellite of the spiritual realm, then we who seek the truth must learn to reason in reverse. In the analogy of a hand, ring upon the third finger, inserted into a white glove, the solid hand cannot represent the corporeal world as we know it, nor can the seemingly more ethereal glove be emblematic of the spiritual realm; the hand must count as the more substantial spiritual realm while the glove is seen to be the corporeal veneer. The shape of the hand as seen through the glove, as well as the indication of the ring, points to what we may know of spiritual matters through physical, empirical research. The Bible tells us that we may know of spiritual things by what we see in our ‘real’ world. Just as the ‘Tabernacle’ is a shadow, or reflection, of the heavenly, so too are there many more ‘mirror images’ to be studied in the scriptures.

If one wished to put forth that God has a great desire, as a spiritual being, to be known by physical man, to what might he turn for support of his assertion? Familiarity with the Old Testament points to a multitude of instances where God says He will do a thing that is toward a singular end: “that they may

know that I am the Lord.” There are also multitudes of: “and you will know that I am the Lord.”

There was the 'knowing' that it was God who did or said a particular thing - for a particular cause.

There was, for example, the Exodus: its purpose being that Israel should know that it was God the Lord who brought them out with a “strong hand and a stretched out arm.”

Therefore, I must necessarily begin the second book of this study with a question. What kind of ‘knowing’ do we investigate? There are many kinds, from simple and casual recognition to the 'knowing' of a familial relationship - as with a husband and wife, or, between friends. In light of the fact that this study investigates concomitant states between the corporeal and spiritual realms, one may well put a name to that interface that connects them: knowledge is that interface.

A duality exists; it is life as we know it. It might be said that the human body best represents duality; the arms and legs are on opposing sides, yet they mirror one another: they are similar. One cannot have a duality without similarities. But we seekers must confess: we’ve yet to find our right hand. By that, I mean that there is much of the other side we just can’t see. Like a Helen Keller feeling the face of an unseen friend, we must use those tools we have at our disposal.

We have our minds; we have comparative thought. Great as these tools are, however, they are meager when held up against the task at hand. The mind’s eye stares out into a moonless night. Invisibilities move unseen upon larger invisibilities; mysteries move within other mysteries. Ignorance is the impenetrable blackness our mind’s eye must somehow pierce. What we need are night vision goggles, a way to delineate one mystery from the other.

Those goggles will be a ‘spiritual understanding’, for things spiritual may only be understood spiritually. When I try to understand the Latin languages through the filter of my English-speaking mind, it is all gibberish and rapid machine gun fire. When man looks at spiritual issues through the filter of his corporeal understanding, to him it is all only foolishness. What regimen, what discipline do we require, then, to see the invisible, to know the unknowable, to achieve the impossible? We must for the time being resort to our primitive tools, such as comparison, but we trust that someday we will trade in stone for polished steel.

So, we begin. We make connections; we make inroads; we make comparisons. We focus on similarities such as Romans 8:5, “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”

Here, the word ‘after’ is roughly equal to the word ‘like’. Our primitive stone tool defines this simply as: if you are like the spiritual you are like the spiritual; but if you are like the corporeal you are like the corporeal. A left hand has left fingers and a right hand has right fingers, but both are satellites of the mind that moves them. Am I comparing apples to oranges? No. The above verse, in the strictest sense, contrasts spiritual and worldly as one might contrast his left from his right. But, while our two hands may work independently of each other, the final result is that they have worked in unanimity.

We have compared the spiritual with the spiritual, and the corporeal with the corporeal. Our conclusion is that the two may work as one. In opening a bottle, one hand will twist in one direction while the other twists in the opposing direction. In my case, being right-handed, I hold the bottle with my left hand for that is the subservient task. My mind gives the commanding action to the right hand. In comparing spiritual to corporeal, having once stated that the spiritual half leads in the dance of existence, we find that the two may be in accord when the corporeal follows suit with the spiritual. Just

as when my right hand reached out to open a bottle and the left hand followed suit, the spiritual may say to the corporeal, ‘do this because I do it’.

Case in point: Exodus 13:6, “Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord.” In Sabbaths and feasts, God instructs, “thou shalt.” Why? Perhaps it is a joint task, an activity in concert with God.

TWO Following Suit I think there are already actions and states of being in which the corporeal follows suit with the spiritual. We walk a fine line, we seekers; on the one hand, we are instructed that to know spiritual issues, we must understand them spiritually; but, on the other hand, for the sake of our limitations, we must look to the corporeal or natural world and make comparisons. In the natural world, in a multitude of instances, we see the process of ‘following suit’. A child grows up to look like one or both parents (sometimes that is unfortunate for the child), a nation will answer aggression with aggression, a preacher will sound like the preacher he learned from. Dominos will fall one after the other upon receiving the impetus of a similar action. When we reason in reverse, we can see that a son looking like a father on this plane is but an action in accord with a spiritual impetus.

Genesis 5:3 says that man looks like God (A very cool similarity), “And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth.”

How, you ask, do you get ‘man looking like God’ from Seth looking like Adam? By adding this next verse, I reply.

Genesis 5:1, “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him.”

Like father like son.

What does Psalms 17:15 say about following suit? “As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.”

In any instance involving similarities, is it ever the case that they simply sprang up together? No. The more likely scenario is that one follows the other: as son follows father; as reaction follows action; as effect follows cause.

In Exodus 25:9, all corporeal similarities are ‘mirror images’ of things preexistent, “According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.”

Things were made like things that already existed.

See also Exodus 26:30, “And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount.”

And, we are not the first to see this. Man of old knew that the tabernacle was a replica.

The writer in Hebrews 8:2, knew it, “A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.”

He knew that the things we do here simply follow suit. He asserted that the corporeal follows the spiritual.

See Hebrews 8:5, “Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.”

Whether through dreams, or visions, or the powerful tool of imagination, the spiritual original has been recognized. More than similarity has been understood. Witness the two revelations.

Revelation 15:5, “And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.” And again, Revelation 21:1-3, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down (to a new earth) from God out of (a new) heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of (the new) heaven saying, Behold, the (original) tabernacle of God is (finally) with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” This last introduces a meatier concept of realization. Imagine for a moment that you are a time traveler.

You have no whirling time machine to make your travels easy. You must get to your destination by a more laborious mode. You must mentally project a simulacrum across the void to sort of ‘hold your place’. Then must follow the process of realization. Let us say that you projected to an older version of your existence: your simulacrum stood upon an older earth, beneath an older sky. To make the transfer complete; to solidify and actually exist at your destination, you would have to make the older reality new.

But now, you really stand on a new earth, beneath a new sky - and you are no simulacrum: you are real.

We notice similarities, but we understand that one must lead and the other follow. We have transported ourselves to yet a higher zenith, and we realize that the lead similarity communicated to the other an instruction. In a dance, the lead is constantly communicating to the partner, and they appear to be in sync - they are similar. But how does that communication occur, and by what medium?

In the illustration of the dance, subtle pressures are exerted in anticipation of the required steps. There is nothing communicated so grossly as verbal instructions or counting aloud. Yet, merely by the pressures, instructions are passed mentally. We may say that the spirit of the dance is realized by communication through that partner with greater knowledge and experience. In like fashion, there is communication, or an avenue of instruction, between spirituality and corporeality.

See 1 Chronicles 28:12, “And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things.”

Returning to the process of realization, upon looking around, we now see it everywhere and in everything. It is a march from the lesser to the greater. It is the tumbling of a snowball down a hill.

The snowball gains mass and velocity. That we seekers are snowballs: we have our gains as well.

We realize. We see the process within the snowball. In schooling, the completion of grade one is the realization, or attainment, of grade two. In life, learning to walk is a process whereby learning to run is realized. I think all the things in our corporeal existence are a realization of something spiritual.

Hebrews 9:23 points to the spiritual by way of its corporeal simulacrum, “It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.”

And now it sometimes seems that the ‘becoming’ is not the driving force behind realization, but rather that the thing that ‘will be’ is the force that coordinates the process. Moses was not the impetus, merely the conduit of becoming. Moses’ dreams, visions, imaginations were real communications from the spiritual to the corporeal that were a part of an ongoing realization; a realization that later generations understood they were a part of still.

See Acts 7:44, “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.”

The process of realization. Some call it perfection. The concept, as part of the process, found its way into the very language of the people. Like the realization it spoke of, the concept, too, underwent change, refinement, growth. That language is hope. It is the language of choice between ‘arriving’ and ‘arrived’. One does not, after all, go to the trouble and expense of legal training, not to mention the anxiety over the bar, unless one hopes to be an attorney. One does not go to all the effort and expense of learning to drive unless one hopes to operate a vehicle.

What is the hope in spiritual realization? To what end is man prepared to bend his efforts? All in all, what we do is a similarity. All in all, we are only following suit.

Read 2 Corinthians 7:1, “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting (realizing) holiness in the fear of God.” There are similarities. Our concrete corporeality mirrors spiritual reality. Still, we are sometimes confused. Still, we ask, ‘why?’.

We read a verse like Exodus 4:17, “Thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs,” and we ask, 'Why does God need some man with a stick to do signs?' Doesn’t that fly in the face of omnipotence? It was because of such issues that my mind was drawn far enough in to see that something more was going on.

God can, and has, performed great things with no seeming worldly parallels. Corporeal man has a limited view; all he ever sees is the man with a stick in his hand. To most, when Moses stretches out his hand over the Red Sea, it is only an action of Moses.

But take note of concomitance found in Exodus 6:6, “Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments.”

We have looked at a verse that indicates a corporeal action. We have looked at a separate verse that indicates a spiritual action. Now, let us view a scripture reference that indicates the interaction of the two.

View Exodus 7:5, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 17, 19 & 20, “And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent. And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go. Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river's brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand. Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone. And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.”

So, now we’ve seen the similarity. We’ve seen the ‘spiritual/corporeal handshake’. Spiritual actions and corporeal actions work in unison. Some people will still only see the stick. They will see the action of the man but will argue that God was away off in heaven, clicking His fingers or twitching His nose.

They will contend that if He was doing the doing of it, He could have done it without the stick-wielding human. Two conclusions come to the corporeal mind. One: God did not need man to be all powerful.

Two: if God had to use man, He is not omnipotent.

Yet, that is not implied in the wording. The gist of the matter is that a spiritual action is causing something to occur in heaven while the concomitant corporeal action is causing something to occur on earth.

Examine Exodus 8:5, 6, 16 & 17, “And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, AND CAUSE frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, THAT it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.”

In a sense, it may be seen as a straight line between two points. Man lifts his hand toward heaven while God stretches His hand toward earth. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. We

may view this as a real connection whereby man is able to accomplish corporeality-affecting spiritual feats. It comes from God, but man performs it.

See Exodus 9:8, 9 & 22-24, “And the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, THAT there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.”

See that connection again in Exodus 10:12, 13 & 21-23, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, THAT they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left. And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.”

We have examined spiritual power in man; that a man may affect things corporeal with the very might of God. Then again, that’s just what we say. That might convince no one, but, what if God expressed the same sentiment?

I think God does just that in Exodus 14:15-16, 21-22 & 26-27, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, (use My power that is in you) and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.”

The next reference shows us two things. One: that while it was God that showed him where the tree was, it was Moses that threw it in the water. Could God have sweetened the water without Moses? To answer that, let’s recall that man is the mirror image of God; that the corporeal is the mirror image of the spiritual. Let’s recall that the reflection reenacts every posture of reality. Having said that, we better realize that the ‘spiritual/corporeal handshake’ is a trans-interfacial equality of action. When it is said that the corporeal follows suit, it is meant that an interfacial communication has imparted the spiritual ability to reflect the spiritual within the corporeal. Two: the process of realization, or ‘becoming’, is

indicated. As in the illustration of the time traveler, God is injecting His real presence into ours; a process that requires the continual remaking of our reality.

See Exodus 15:25-26, “And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.”

We are studying the ‘spiritual/corporeal handshake’. Our reality, like a mirror, reflects those things that are real in heaven. Not only in our thoughts do we reflect the spiritual reality, but, in our words, in our actions, even in our fleshly presence, we reflect both actions and power that are spiritually extant. Our reality is a simulacrum of spiritual reality. Power exhibited on the corporeal plane is a simulacrum of real power extant on the spiritual plane. When Moses used the power of God on this plane, it was but a reflection, a shadow of something more substantial.

In consideration of the ‘rod of God’ that Moses wielded, how may it be viewed? In the next reference, we will see something more. For openers, we recognize that Moses did not hold the rod vertically as in the Hollywood movies. He lifted it toward heaven using both hands. In that regard, it is rather like the line of the horizon; a dividing line between heaven and earth. It is, also, emblematic of the interface: it may well have been the actual point of spiritual intrusion. Using our simple stone implement of comparative thought, what comes to mind is a door - a way for the interfacial communication of power to enter. But is that enough?

When the shuttle docks with the space station, two doors must be simultaneously opened to permit traffic. If Moses is holding up a rod, what is God holding toward the earth?

Here is Moses holding up the stick in Exodus 17:8-13, “Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.”

In closing, I wish to call to mind my wild rants about trees being like mirrors. In doing so, I had embellished on the argument of ‘equal but opposite’. I had put forth, actually, that the ground was representative of the interface, and that the opposite ‘limbs’ and ‘roots’ were like the opposites of spiritual and corporeal. I had likened the trees of ‘life’ and ‘knowledge of good and evil’ to spiritual intrusions whereby God and Satan entered this plane. I hazarded that for the fruit to be on this plane, the roots must be on the other. Mentally, I pictured the trees as sort of hanging upside down from the sky. That image presented the limbs as skyward, and the roots invisible beyond the interface. Now my mind is making connections to Moses’ rod held horizontally aloft, or skyward. Just another wild thought, but, if Moses held what grew above the ground, did God hold a root? Did God’s reality, which was mirrored by Moses' reality, include something that grew above the sky?

THREE Actions initiated from the Other Side We’ve pretty much traded in our stone implements for implements of bronze. Now instead of using stone, we are using our more highly evolved tools to make little marks in stone – something formerly accomplished with finger paint. At this point in the study, the concept of acts being initiated from ‘the other side’ is pretty much etched in stone. But, we want to ask, “How?” The concept of a spiritual/corporeal handshake has been painted in the simple ochers of a dance in which one partner leads and the other follows. Since the partner that leads is invisible, we must assume that when the visible partner spins it is because the invisible partner spun her.

Still, though, we are left with only our guessing. It is like radar that may or may not return a ‘ping’. In the illustration of the dance above, the spinning partner, while following suit, is not precisely mirroring the spinner’s movements, but is more like an extension of them. What we want to know, then, is how does this play out between the spiritual and the corporeal.

Consider Deuteronomy 4:34, “Or hath God assayed to go and take Him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?”

In all these terrors, temptations, and wonders that we may fully understand, being things that occur on this plane, what exactly is going on over there? Are there nations in turmoil on the other side? Or, is something else going on? Are the things that happen here merely ‘spin-offs’ of very different actions that take place on the other plane? I think perhaps there is a little of each going on: exact mirroring and spin-offs.

A movement and a rest. Look at Deuteronomy 5:15, “And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.”

Are there slaves in Heaven? We have broached the concept of realization, whereby the medium that receives the intrusion must be continuously reworked. For God to be realized on this corporeal plane, it must be reverse-engineered until it is spiritual. You can’t just throw a fish into a bowl: you have to first add the proper medium for it to exist in. So, then, this constant reworking may be viewed either mechanically (as in a two-stroke engine), or else biologically.

If we view the human body as a living machine, we may say that the lungs are a sort of two-stroke engine. The act of breathing in is work; exhaling, on the other hand, is a state of rest. Let’s call it the ‘in/out handshake’. The cycle repeats over a broad expanse of time only to facilitate a larger process of becoming. We know that there is a spiritually repeating cycle; we assume it is intended to facilitate a larger process of realization.

See Deuteronomy 7:19, “The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out: so shall the Lord thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.”

Two contending scenarios present themselves to our attention. They must be worked through to determine the various degrees of exactitude and spin-off that we may understand. Heaven is a place; spiritual beings called angels are its inhabitants. Yet, it is our Christian assumption that we will be like the angels. Are there angel slaves in a spiritual Egypt? Are we their exact counterpart? Are they the roots, and we the fruit-bearing branches? Is the bearing of fruit the end result of a process of realization? If the actions on this plane are more spin-off than exactitude, then our turbulent history may easily be seen as the process of the realization of God on the corporeal plane by means of reverseengineering the corporeal into the spiritual.

Of course, this suggests that the garden over in Eden was a spiritual intrusion. A grand new thing had been introduced: an angel with a corporeal body, able to exist on this plane. Certain elements rebelled, causing the prototypes to fall completely into corporeality. That great experiment did not fail, for the power that had originally sustained it could salvage it. Now, this may only be more of my imaginative ranting, but has anyone else noticed the application of ‘power’? Can anyone else see that for God to walk again among us as our God, Eden must be realized? Not only that but for men to become angels we must be thoroughly convinced to move forward.

Check out that motivating power in Deuteronomy 9:29 & Deuteronomy 26:8, “Yet they are Thy people and Thine inheritance, which Thou broughtest out by Thy mighty power and by Thy stretched out arm. And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders.”

FOUR Does the Spiritual require the Corporeal?

In a previous section, we saw man lift a staff toward heaven with a similar stretching forth of the staff in God’s hand. We also saw man stretching forth his staff, and God performing. See as a further example Joshua 8:18, “And the Lord said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city.”

Of all the mechanics and concepts that have been put forth; of all that we are attempting to juggle competently, we need to keep the fulcrum theory at the forefront of our thinking. And, what exactly are we thinking? We are thinking that the high in the spiritual realm is the low in the corporeal. We are thinking of the shortest distance between two points. Our primitive bronze tool is not that much advanced over the old stone tool, but it does make a better cut. We don’t just compare, we imagine. Our thoughts turn spiritual eyes to spiritual possibilities. When, on earth, things are at their worst, we expect the most from God; but, that is simply more of the fulcrum theory. See Psalms 94:2 “Lift up Thyself, Thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud.”

Imagine for a moment that you are trapped in a cage. You have been there for days, and you ache with

thirst. To make matters worse, just outside your cage, on the other side of the iron mesh and out of reach, is a small pool of water. Your head hangs in despair, then you are thrown a straw. You struggle to get the straw to the pool and you prevail; you sip the water and are refreshed. Leaning back in your cage, you lift your face to heaven. Here is another: you follow a path that should lead you to the mountains. Beyond the mountains is a river overflowing with cool clean water. However, you have had to go through the desert to reach the mountains. Your journey has wearied you and the heat of the day has drained you. But, that is past and you are glad as you cross over the mountain into the valley. You put your faith in the river; all your hope and expectation, but the path you follow seems to go on forever. Then you stumble across a small brook and gladly drink the icy waters that issue from the river’s source. Or: you labor six days and are allowed to rest on the seventh.

The three illustrations of the previous paragraph are meant to highlight the shortest distance between two points. Have you kept the fulcrum theory at the forefront of your thoughts? See Psalms 110:7, “He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.”

The Sabbath was meant as a brook of sorts, as a place to be refreshed and so lift the head. As a type, the Sabbath represents the relationship between the corporeal and the spiritual. We may understand the ‘brook’ to be something that is right and good on our side; the lifting of the ‘head’ is a spiritual response. We have previously noted that when something on the spiritual side is high, or lifted up, something on the corporeal plane is low, or lowly. Note, now, that ‘brook’ as opposed to ‘river’ is, in a representative sense, more humble.

Christ, Himself, illustrated the fulcrum theory when He said in Matthew 11:29, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart (mind): and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

He spoke of the humility of Jesus the man, but He said that the ‘learning of’ by being guided along the same corporeal path would produce an exalted spiritual response. That is the shortest distance between two points. That is the fulcrum effect. Impoverishment here is exaltation there; exaltation here is lowliness there.

I began this section by posing the question: ‘Does the spiritual require the corporeal?’. Does God require man? I think the very nature of the relationship answers that. Yes. A father requires a child to be a father. A wife requires a husband to be a wife. The actual state of any relationship, I think, defines the parameters of its requirements. A mirror only reflects because there is something there to be reflected.

Perhaps, every success in the realization of a spiritual God in a corporeal existence may be viewed as a burst of spiritual energy that fuels the process. Who is to say that God does not draw from His successes on this plane? Who is to say that His successes do not increase His ability to make even more successes next time?

If we take a moment to examine intent, we may see that the remaking of our plane into a suitable habitat is a thing accomplished by the exaltation and magnification of everything spiritual; or, in other words, the humbling of all things corporeal. The spiritual plate is up when the corporeal plate is down; the spiritual plate is down when the corporeal plate is up. So why do we keep getting smacked?

See Daniel 5:23, “But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven.”

As to the extent of the plan, see Isaiah 14:26, “This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.”

As to the cause for all the temptations, signs, wonders, terrors, and war, see Jeremiah 15:6, “Thou hast forsaken Me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out My hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.”

As to the ongoing process of remaking the corporeal plane; the urgency to remake it; the reason why it must be remade, see Isaiah 9:17, Isaiah 5:25, and Isaiah 9:12, “The Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against His people, and He hath stretched forth His hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.”

I have no doubt that it is a spiritual cause and a corporeal effect. But these interminable wars and terrors! They are a remedy to exaltation on the corporeal plane; the process of fueling the realization of God on the corporeal plane; a throwing down and a lifting up.

See Amos 9:5, “And the Lord God of hosts is He that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood (water is a symbol of the people; the masses, for each individual is a corporeality in which the spirit, to some degree, is at work); and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.”

This reference says, basically, that the one thing will rise up and overwhelm itself. If the verse spoke of one thing flooding some other thing, that would be easy enough to see. But, water is always a symbol for people: coursing rivers, raging seas, even the brook in the way. The verse cited above says pretty much the same thing as Zechariah 2:9, “For, behold, I (the second angel) will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye (the first angel or Zechariah) shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me.”

Perhaps the cause and the effect are one and the same: a process of serial realization; a cyclic event that builds upon itself by the removal of impediments; or the hammering away at a large mass of stone to reveal the Michelangelo within. The cause is responsive. For the up to be up, all else must be put down.

But, is down so bad? If our lowliness facilitates the magnification of God, can God’s exaltation be without effect in our reality? Aren’t we exalted by the exaltation of God? Does not the fulcrum effect lift us up?

See Mark 9:27, “But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.”

FIVE Ups and Downs We are familiar with dualities in our physical realm; indeed, we are familiar with the duality that each of us is, in ourselves. For we know that the condition of the body affects the condition of the mind, and

in no less degree or fashion, the condition of the mind affects the condition of the body. Similarly, the mind and body taken as a whole are affected by the soul, and vice versa. I have often thought of the mind as a two-way street. The physical/emotional traffic passes from the brain to the mind. The spiritual/creative traffic passes from the mind to the brain. There is an interaction between our brains and our minds that we would be hard-pressed to do without.

In all of our physical world, we find ‘sets of three’. Such a set consists of two equalities, and the interaction, or unanimity, that connects them. Examples: legs, arms, feet, hands, eyes, seeds, directions, the brain itself. If we are appended to a spiritual counterpart, then the mind may be the brain within our angelic other.

The investigation of spirituality must necessarily examine the nature of things mental. The question must be asked: does mentality rightfully fall within the corporeal or the spiritual realm? My investigations into the word of God have shown a marked affinity between spiritual and mental mechanisms.

See, for example, Joel 2:28, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.”

The saturation of the corporeal with the spiritual, as mentioned in Joel, may well speak of a better connection between the brain and the mind, for all the activities listed above employ some degree of conscious or unconscious mentality. In such activities, the mind leads and the brain follows suit.

Furthermore, these activities are not the result of our natural state but are the result of augmentation.

See John 20:22, “And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”

Presently, corporeal proof of spiritual connections is, at best, a mixed bag. People identify themselves with solid flesh; the workings of both thought and emotion seem a real extension of a real body.

Evidence that does not fall within the boundaries of preconception does not always count for proof. We notice, for instance, that even when looking directly at a spiritual event, the Hebrews still had to be ‘sold’ on the experience. Much of the Old Testament is like having to explain the punch line of a joke.

The Hebrews just didn’t get it. Evidence being explained is seen in Deuteronomy 11:2, “And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God, His greatness, His mighty hand, and His stretched out arm.”

Now notice the things that people will notice, and this may explain God’s salesmanship, in Isaiah 26:11, “Lord, when Thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of Thine enemies shall devour them.”

In personal relations between two individuals, spiritual events are often a cause for misunderstanding.

A person will do or say something totally off the wall; he or she will take our sense of the natural order of things and just toss it out the window. We will ask ourselves: “Where’d that come from?”

Spirit is invisible; proofs of it are meager. It takes a trained eye to discern it.

Jesus gave this explanation in John 3:8, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”

It is much like hearing a foreign language: you hear the man speak, but you don’t know where he’s coming from, and you certainly don’t know where he’s going with all his jabber. To you, it is only a noise; and while the net result is irritability, a connection of a mental order has been made. You recognized the noise as a language, an attempt at communication.

I have set forth a model of the fulcrum theory, but I have done so mainly from the mechanical point of view. I have added the extra dimension of the ‘fulcrum effect’ in that the gain in one is a loss in the other. I have reiterated that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The representation is of the crossbar of a scale: a line that can be either even, or up on one end and down on the other. In the image of a scale, the plates, or weight trays are opposing. The connection between them is a simple pivot, or fulcrum, that allows mobility. There is a mobility of the scale upon which ‘mind’ and ‘brain’ are weighted trays.

Perhaps you’ve heard the expression, “he’s got a lot on his plate.” Perhaps you’ve heard the expression, “heavy traffic.” In our total make-up, the brain (our corporeal identity) is a plate hanging on one end of a scale. On the opposing end hangs the plate of the mind (our spiritual identity). The crossbar is the two-way traffic.

See Psalms 147:6, “The Lord lifteth up the meek: He casteth the wicked down to the ground.”

When I look at this verse, I see the mind of the meek and the brain of the wicked. I take note of the heavy traffic on either end. When the brain of the proud man is exalted, the mind of the meek man is low over on the spiritual side. When this occurs, God makes a correction that exalts the mind of the meek. The result is that the proud and the lofty on this plane come crashing down. It is an adjustment; it is an action initiated on the spiritual plane that has an effect on corporeality.

See Isaiah 2:12, “For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low.”

The application of the brain in corporeal man is never without the concomitant issuance of mentality in the spiritual counterpart. But corporeal man may aggressively acquire and manipulate the spiritual mind, without understanding, and call it his own. He may use spirituality blindly, calling it a function of the brain. In doing so the man says, “By the chemical reactions and the firing of synapses in my brain, I and I alone have done such and such.” The spiritual/corporeal handshake becomes a thing out of balance wherein the mind is held captive to the will of corporeal man, who, in his richly exalted state, has cast his higher self into the dust of a Lazarus.

See Ezekiel 28:5, “By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart (will) is lifted up because of thy riches.”

In the above-cited verse, we see the corporeal identity (the ‘heart’) exalted through limited, though lucrative, application. It is like the man who learns Kung Fu only for violence, wholly disregarding the deeper disciplines. He may call himself a master, but he has only usurped the title. Likewise in corporeal man, there are states of exaltation that attempt to usurp God’s place. Corporeal man, even when not directly making the claim, nonetheless claims indirectly that he is ‘equal to or greater than’. I

am of course contrasting the corporeal ‘brain’ with the spiritual ‘mind’, the use of either term being equal to the use of the older term ‘heart’.

In the next verse, one initially sees the use of two separate and distinct terms. That was something we just had to accept and deal with when our tools were more primitive. But now we know that in the old usage, heart and mind were interchangeable. Replace ‘heart’ with ‘mind’ in the next reference, and it becomes clear that the writing style simply followed the poetic style of repetition as found in Psalms.

Daniel 5:20, “But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him.”

It is the same identity, but the second phrase simply further explains the first phrase. When God created man, it is said that a “living soul” was created. That may well reference the connection between corporeal and spiritual. Man started with a body and a brain, then spirituality was added.

See back to John 20:22 for the receiving of spirituality by breath. If it may be asserted that man’s body houses his brain, what then may we assert to be the spiritual counterpart housing the mind? Might not that spiritual body be the soul? Our corporeal identity, you may be sure, is much more than the brain; that identity includes the body into a more or less whole sense of self. However, any sense of spiritual self (as being whole) must necessarily come through the sense of a higher corporeal self: the corporeal identity plus. In the next reference, the sense of a spiritual wholeness is viewed as more the ‘blade’ than the ‘full corn in the ear’. Even so, we may see that a wrongness on our plane incurs a concomitant wrongness on the other plane.

Habakkuk 2:4, “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.”

By that, we more easily understand our spiritual condition.

See James 4:10, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.”

I have put forth that the fall of man is an adjustment whereby God exalts our spiritual identity.

However, when we, as corporeal beings, have been taken behind the woodshed to be punished for our grandiose usurpations, seeing our lowered state, we may only be aware of the smarting of our newly boxed ears. At that point, a reciprocal adjustment may be indicated. For, if a wrongness on our plane incurs a concomitant wrongness on the other plane, then also, a righting or a correction on that other plane should incur a righting on our plane.

See Job 22:29, “When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and He shall save the humble person.”

The spiritual/corporeal handshake may then be seen as the reciprocal adjustments that are made when the corporeal brain follows suit with the spiritual mind. If, when looking into the mirror, you frown, you get a frown back; but when you smile, you get a smile back.

Note reciprocity in Zechariah 1:3, “Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Turn ye unto Me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.”

Of mental states and spiritual states, there is a definite connection. When I think of connections, I think of transit terminals that provide ‘connections to’. I can think of the mezzanine in a department store with escalator connections to the first and second floors. But a clearer image for me is of two lava lamps. One is on the corporeal plane and one is on the spiritual plane. The connection is a linear orientation of the one to the other: on at least one level, our rising is their settling. However, it may well be that we could not be raised up at all but for the power within the opposing exalted state. If you place a large resting pillar between two upright pillars, the reclining pillar may then be winched upright.

For an indication of such, see James 5:15, “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.”

Of course, we are looking at the opposing sides of the interface: the spiritual and corporeal.

For that, see John 3:6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

But, we are also looking at a real link between the physical and the spiritual.

For that, see James 2:20, “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?”

No verse states more clearly spirituality’s need for corporeality, or corporeality’s need for spirituality than James 2:20. The handshake is a union; it is a marriage. We may imagine ‘mind’ as the groom, and ‘brain’ as the bride. The fruit of that union will draw from the best of both. If the handshake should turn into a kiss; if the connection between spirit and flesh be toward a relational union, then the mind must be up and the brain must be submissive.

SIX More toward the Spirit Man, whether he likes it or not, is a hybrid. God took man from the dust, a wholly corporeal being, and made an angel/man hybrid (a living soul). Why? I believe that it is through this hybrid that a spiritual God will realize Himself into a corporeal plane. This section will explore that which is more toward the spirit, for we have to ask the greater question: what, exactly, is being reworked? I will consider all of corporeality as the context.

Within those boundaries, I seek the elements to be altered. I seek the building blocks of the new, improved habitat. I’ve said, ‘you can’t just throw a fish in a bowl’. Let us say that God is the big fish. If He must realize Himself into a new habitat by way of reverse-engineering the present element, that prerequisite, for example, becomes the realization of earth into water. As He gouges out a new ocean, all earth must become the element most acquiescent to that transition.

Think of all the symbolism involved in this concept. For one, a fish was the symbol of the apostle’s office. It was water that was used to represent cleansing of the earthly man and his elevation into

‘something more’. Also, ‘ocean’ and ‘sea’ are symbols for the inhabitants of earth. To consider the transition presupposes the transitional. In other words, there is a mechanism by which transition occurs, and therefore a common ground and point of comparison. For instance, can spiritual be compared to corporeal? Can man be compared to God? See Genesis 6:3, “And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.”

Does this verse only say that man is a physical/spiritual hybrid, or does it say more? Does it suggest that God, Who is a spirit, has some kind of a body? I have suggested that a spiritual God will make for Himself a real presence in the reality we already know and understand. For the purposes of this study, we will set the common ground for transition and realization as a ‘proper mix of ingredients’. Not just the one or the other, but a combination of both by a particular recipe. I say ‘recipe’ because too many eggs turn a custard into an omelet.

See the recipe at work in Matthew 10:20, “For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.”

See the transitional recipe in Mark 4:41, “And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” We assume that God, and therefore spirit, is in a state of ‘arriving’. Spirit, a recorded constituent element in the overall make-up of man, is in a state of ‘becoming’. From that, we have the sure assumption that the spirit in man is in a state of flux; that the spirit in man alternates between growth and attrition, between, let us say, a category five and a category four.

That the spirit in man is not always the same: see Luke 9:55, “But He turned, and rebuked them, and said, ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.”

In the overall scheme of things, what shall befall the man or the woman of spiritual inclination? While it may not be unequivocally asserted that the ‘seeker’ always ‘finds’, I dare say that in the final analysis the ‘seeker’ will be ‘found’. I base that on one of man’s corporeal constants: that both sides of an equation will be equal.

I confirm that with Matthew 10:32, “Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven.”

Lest we forget the focus of this present study, allow me the small luxury of reminding you about the ‘spiritual/corporeal handshake’. Something is happening in Heaven, and it bears directly on what is happening here.

We saw that in the above-cited verse, and we see it again, and more plainly I think, in Matthew 18:18, “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.”

See also Matthew 16:19, “I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.”

Please note the word “keys” in the verse above. The word of God is filled to the brim with keys. It only takes common sense to know that physical keys open physical doors and that spiritual keys open spiritual doors. Mental keys open doors of the mind. What kind of keys open the doors of possibility?

When you look closely at the Bible, you see more than authority telling you what to do - you see that you are being told how things work. You are being given a glimpse into Universal Spiritual Mechanics: USMs. Consider Mark 11:25, “When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

Note that the word “also” speaks of similarities. Something is happening in Heaven that is similar to something happening in your mental endeavors. See, too, that the word “may” strongly indicates cause and effect, in other words, the process won’t work unless you make it work. Matthew 10:32 has already been cited. The main message of the verse was Christ’s confession of believers before the Father. We have previously considered the notion of a body for God. We consider that again, here, in Luke 12:8 & 9, “Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: But he that denieth Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.” We see that the main message of this verse is Christ’s confession of believers before, not the Father so much as the angels of the Father. Can this be more than a simple difference of the writer’s choice in wording? Can this be more than a mere discrepancy? I want to ask you to consider this - that the two verses are identical; that “the angels of God” and “My Father” are one and the same. God works through many vehicles. The seeker looks at a car but knows that man is the driver. A seeker looks at the body but knows that the brain is the pilot.

We look at the corporeal brain and determine that the mind steers it; we look at man and determine that the angelic other leads the dance. Why not consider, then, that each angel’s mind is an intrusion of God into a vehicle - that through all, and all down the line, God works all in all? Yes, God works through many vehicles, and angels can be hands: or, in other words, A rose by any other name.

See Psalms 37:24, “Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand.”

Compare to Psalms 91:11 & 12, “For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.”

It stands to reason that if we may be attached to an angelic counterpart, we may sometimes be found in their office, for if God may call on angels to be His hands, He may most certainly draft a man into service.

See 2 Corinthians 7:6, “Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus.”

It might be that while God is working through our angelic others, those angels are working through us.

Since both sides of the coin are spun at once, we know that our own works travel a reverse path. How much, then, and how real an effect do our actions have on our counterparts?

Proverbs 6:32, may give a frightening indication, “But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.”

Are we killing our Heavenly counterparts?

Read Luke 16:23, “And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.”

I want to ask at this point are “in hell” and “in torments” poetic equalities? In other words, are they the same thing? Here, I return to the fulcrum theory. Had the rich man’s angelic other been well off at one point? Did the actions of the rich man, on this plane, cause attrition on the other? Are the actions we take for granted in our lives the tools by which a great gulf is formed and made impassable? One thing stands out in this story: that is that the final state of both men is the opposite of their worldly state.

Since we know that the crossbar on a scale can tilt in only two orientations, it becomes easy to trace a direct line from the corporeal state of the rich man to the spiritual state of the rich man.

Likewise, with Lazarus, there is a straight line from humility to glory. This parable suggests a spiritual hell rather than a physical hell. Our general concept of hell involves a physical body, with a soul in tow, tormented by flame. Indeed, the rich man’s lament is of flames - but, what if we have misunderstood; what if the ‘flame’ is the torment of separation? The rich man had strangled his angelic other, and so had nothing to carry into the spiritual realm but his corporeality, the structures, and foundations of which were all left on the previous plane. Is there an indication that corporeal man is, or at least should be, aware of the direct line touched upon in the last paragraph? I think so.

Read Luke 18:13, “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.”

SEVEN Working the Lines What is a handshake? Used for greetings and farewells or to seal an agreement, in human relations the handshake is a signal acknowledging that communication or the transfer of information can take place.

That is about all that the encyclopedia says on the topic. A handshake may also presuppose acceptance and/or common ground. As in most other things, there is a scope to handshaking that implies many levels between the extremes. A weak and listless handshake may come from a person of bohemian inclinations; a person to whom little matters; a person to whom everything is pretty much the same. On the other hand, may be found the firm grip of someone with a cause; someone who is out to prove himself in some way; and you can pretty much guess that he is about to try and sell you something.

People rarely find themselves accidentally clasping hands; one has to either reach out and take the other hand, or reach out and accept the other hand.

Handshakes occur most between friends. They occur also between friendly people, as well as those who use friendliness to achieve goals. Sometimes they occur between enemies, as when a bargain of peace is struck. However, as in a dance, one of the two will play the prominent role. That is as it should be: in terms of the fulcrum, one up and one down. We think of a handshake as a means whereby a

balance is struck between two differing forces. It is a thing that works. A handshake done wrongly tells a different story. Two bohemians quickly exchange a limp, cold handshake, and whereas normally it’s all pretty much the same, now they repel one another. Two salesmen stand locked in a monumental handshake, trying to out-squeeze the other’s grip. A proper balance must include both a dominant and a subservient element, else the purpose is lost.

To witness the handshake done wrongly, see Numbers 20:11-12, “Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed Me not, to sanctify (bless) Me in the eyes of the children of Israel (rather than yourself), therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”

Moses, after being instructed to do a thing in a particular way, let his feelings get in the way of obedience. In doing so, he sought to temporarily assume the dominant position, and the balance was lost. After a long and exemplary career, Moses was fired on the spot. God turned away from a gainsaying Moses, and the mantle of leadership was transferred to a more subservient host.

For gainsaying see Romans 10:20-21, “But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought Me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after Me. But to Israel He saith, All day long I have stretched forth My hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.”

Here, I would like to list four synonyms for the word ‘gainsaying’ - they are: contradictory, dismissive, contentious, and antagonistic. A balance between man and God is not equality. We must never adopt a familiar attitude with God. What good is it to see or hear or know if we do not act on it? The proper balance is the dominance of superiority and the submission of subservience. Both the fulcrum and the mirror agree: if God reaches out to you - reach back.

Man’s trouble is clearly seen in Proverbs 1:24, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded.”

Luke 18:13, cited earlier, provided us with the ‘body language’ of balance. Compare the case of Moses’ self-promotion with the case of Ezra found in Nehemiah 8:6, “Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.”

This is the handshake done rightly. Notice men reaching back toward God; notice the straight-line balance between man humbled and God exalted. If God reaches down to you - reach up. This is no isolated theme, but one returned to often.

See Psalms 134:2, “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord.”

Bless the Lord. It is not simply an empty ritual of physical posturing: lifting hands mirrors your own spiritual willingness; your open-mindedness, for it is your mind that spirit communicates with.

For open-mindedness see Job 11:13, “If thou prepare (open) thine heart (mind), and stretch out thine hands toward Him.”

Your physical act of lifting up your hands completes the straight line of balance between man humbled and God exalted. It is the turning of the part of you that may be communicated with back to the mirror.

The physical act mirrors the spiritual response.

For just what lifting your hands actually is see Psalms 25:1, “Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.”

And our willful humility just may be the exaltation of our angelic other: see Psalms 86:4, “Rejoice the soul of Thy servant: for unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.”

Now, therefore, we ask this: if lifting up hands is the same as lifting up the soul, what are the mechanics involved? I have previously suggested that as our corporeal sense of self includes the brain housed in the body, our spiritual sense of self includes the mind housed in the soul. That the spiritual identity is a concept that must necessarily be filtered through our corporeal identity, we have reviewed and accepted. The result of the filtering is an augmented corporeal identity (actually the corporeal identity plus the mind): just a little thing we like to call our ‘soul’. But if, in a higher reality, the soul is a spiritual body inhabited by a portion of God (the mind), then our turning back to the mirror assumes a wholeness and a balance that is seen upon a straight line between a dominant and a subservient.

The subservient follows suit: is the mirror image of the dominant. If then we are crying out to God, Who is communicated through our angelic other, does the soul likewise cry out to the corporeal self?

Might it be along the lines of two shipwrecked men adrift on the sea? The fog has dropped a solid curtain between them so that they must cry out to one another: “Here!” “Here!” They swim toward the voice. Ask yourself if the next verse depicts a mirror image of something spiritual.

Psalms 88:9, “Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Lord, I have called daily upon Thee, I have stretched out my hands unto Thee.”

Those things we connect to God, we call holy; in other words: ‘special’ maxed out.

I want to study the wording of 1 Timothy 2:8, “I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.”

Men are called upon to lift their hands. Those hands are called holy. Is it the restraint upon wrath and doubting (a more conductive state of mind) that makes raised hands holy? Are raised hands special? Is it because they are raised in relation to the communication of prayer? I have asserted that raised hands are equal to lifting the soul. In lifting the soul, man is actually lifting up his corporeal identity augmented by the addition of the mind.

But according to the fulcrum theory, a corporeal ‘up’ would be associated with a spiritual ‘down’.

Don’t be confused. Lifting up the soul is just that: exaltation of the angelic other. The lifting of hands, thus the lifting of the soul is, for our part, a humbled state: returning to the mirror, and with lowered face, calling out for the help we’ve finally realized we cannot do without. Our angelic other has called to us; we swim toward the voice. Raised hands is a picture of subservience; of a proper, or holy handshake.

If our desire is to achieve the exaltation of our spiritual identity, to raise our future wholeness closer to God, then we must willingly work the lines of balance. To close out this section, let me draw your

attention to a couple of corporeal illustrations of balance. Christ was once asked if a particular man was in a bad state because of his parent’s, or his own, sins. The answer given was that neither case was the cause, but that the reality of God could be seen in the healing. Of course, it was immediately of benefit to the healed man, but in a broader scope, the healing was accomplished as an illustration of balance.

See Matthew 12:13, “Then saith He to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.”

See also Mark 3:5, “And when He had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts (closed-mindedness), He saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand.

And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.”

EIGHT Man/Son of man Part One In this section I wish to contrast the levels of mankind (as formative) with the hoped for, but less than alacritous result of man’s march into his fulfillment. We will look at three types of man. They are, first, ‘man’ (the worldly); second, ‘the children of men’ (the transitional); and third, ‘the son of mankind’ (the hoped-for outcome).

The first type of man is worldly. He is of the earth; of the world, his center is in the corporeal. There is an indication that his sole justification lies in the production of a better type, and as such may be considered little more than a tool in God’s hand. God uses him, but has given him his place in the world and sustains him from that alone.

See Psalms 17:13-14, “Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is Thy sword: From men which are Thy hand, O Lord, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with Thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.”

That it was known in early times that man was the first in a series, see Ecclesiastes 6:10, “That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.”

That early man knew of types by placement, see Revelation 5:3, “And no man in Heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.”

Man, as a type, it is written, may not contend with the superior type. We may here be tempted to think that the word “mightier” was meant to convey the angelic, but then, perhaps we would be correct.

Angels often were called men. I wonder if the mighty and the angels of old might simply have been man upgraded, or, the children of men. If men were tools in the hand of God, then the children of men would have been advanced instruments. We have seen that types of man may be found in station from the pillars of the world all the way to Heaven itself.

God begins to work with the upgraded man. They receive the appellation ‘children of men’, a term that derives from the common notion that a son is the strength of his father.

See Genesis 49:3, “Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power.”

Like a spark sputtering into a flame, mankind begins to produce its transitional descendants. They are the less worldly. They are men centered in the spirit; men to whom God may communicate.

See Psalms 11:4, “The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in Heaven: His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men.”

Note the word ‘try’. Another word for "try" is ‘prove’. We may see such in our own time. Carmakers ‘prove’ their vehicles with batteries of tests. They strap in the dummies and crash them again and again.

The end result is an improved product. Not every model makes the grade. If we looked at early man as a model that did not make the grade, we might say that Noah’s generation was ‘recalled’.

The product, moreover, is reworked from within.

Notice that God is in His Holy Temple. Is that not the body inhabited by spirit? It is interesting to note the connotation of Psalms 11:4 - that God seems to have left the throne (but has He really?), that the throne’s Heavenly location is referenced in regard to God’s presence in the temple. Note, too, that ‘eyes’ and ‘eyelids’ are plurals, whereas earlier concepts of God give Him only a single eye. The temple is the child of man: the new improved model - with God at the wheel.

The new and improved man was not a common occurrence. When one was found, it was as noteworthy as finding a nugget of gold in a stream bed of ordinary rocks. Just men were given mention in early writings simply because they shined brighter than those around them. John the Baptist was mentioned as a just man. He was a man of spirit and virtue whose life was like a well-honed scalpel rather than the commonly filed knife. As a tool in God’s hand, everything about John: his words, his thoughts, the mere glance of the eye, made a difference or had an effect in the lives of those about him.

See Mark 6:20, “Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.”

In mankind’s attempt to pull itself up by its bootstraps, the ‘children-of-men-mentality’ must apply pressure against the older state of mind. Why is mankind attempting all? It is the new and improved mankind: it is the ‘children-of-men-mind set’; it is the intrusion of the mind of God. The new message is this: we no longer want to be the old worldly man; we want to rid ourselves of the old trappings. The old man was corporeal, carnal, centered in this present world.

See the transition begin in 1 Corinthians 3:3, “For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”

Once begun, the process of reverse engineering sweeps forward exponentially. Many pressures are brought to bear. Seeds take root where they had never grown before.

See the sprout in Daniel 6:26, “I make a decree, that in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for He is the living God, (inhabiting the temple) and stedfast for ever, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall be even unto the end.”

For the beginnings of exponentiality, see Matthew 4:19, “He saith unto them, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

That is a message at once both given to men and the children of men. The former goes out to the children of men.

For man, the message is Mark 1:17, “Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.”

There are real differences between men and the children of men. The new became a subculture vying for dominance. Man thought his place in the world was assured. When threatened, he lashed out.

Religious differences: there are two mindsets, and therefore two intrusions. If the mindset of the children of men clearly states the nature of God via reflection and spin-off, then the mindset of worldly man must represent the nature of God’s competitor and antagonist.

See Mark 8:33, “When He had turned about and looked on His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind Me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.”

So again, what are the things of men? They are ‘envying’, ‘strife’, and ‘divisions’. Those are what the enemy savors. As well, those may typify the nature of very early civilization: the civilization of man.

The mind set of the children of men is inclusive. Yet, the mind of worldly man, when not included into the spiritual, becomes useful for little other than kindling. They are the men beneath the earth. The children of men obtain the additional function of torching the old and useless.

In that may be seen an allusion to angels: John 15:6, “If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”

It may be said of the human nature that it has a dual nature. The dual function of the children of men (to place the good fish in vessels, and cast the fuel into the furnace) may well stem from that dual nature.

See the dual nature in 1 Corinthians 7:34, “The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit.”

See it again in 1 Corinthians 6:20, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”

The spirit in the children of men is that which may be communicated with; it is the image and glory of God: it is the mind. When a scriptural verse says ‘body and spirit’, we may interpret that to mean ‘body and mind’. In the broader language of this study, of course, we mean ‘corporeal and spiritual’.

In that the dual nature concerns the body and the mind, see Romans 7:23 and 25, “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”

Mankind is a spastic creature in the throes of self-defeat. By self-defeat, I mean the transition from corporeal to spiritual. The newer model will replace the older model. The spiritually centered mindset will recruit from the corporeally centered mindset. What is left over will be used to stoke the furnace on the engine of transition.

We have examined the differences between ‘men’ and ‘children of men’. The two may, as a single entity, be placed over against the third type for comparison. In doing so, we compare ‘man’ to ‘the son of man’. We will see in future study that the manhood of the son of God is often referred to. To get to the truth of that matter, we will have to wade through opinion and general consensus.

We have our hip waders standing by.

For now, suffice it that a simple, brief comparison be put forth. Man is type one. Children of men (as in society) is type two. The example, or type, of the firstborn (under the common notion that the son was the strength of the father), is set forth in the ‘son of man’ as the design by which it will be judged that the children of men have progressed. It is the mark that mankind must aim for.

See the comparison in 1 Samuel 15:29, “And also the Strength of Israel (that has ‘son’ written all over it) will not lie nor repent: for He is not (like) a man (envying, strife, and divisions), that He should (needs to) repent (turn back from a corrupt state).”

See also Numbers 23:19, “God is not (like) a man, that He should (needs to) lie (coax, cajole, or wheedle); neither (is) the son of man (like a man), that He should (needs to) repent (turn back from a corrupt state).”

Book Three The Upper Room ONE: Man/Son of Man Part Two I have had dreams of an upper room at the top of winding stairs. The stairwell became more difficult to navigate until, at the top, it was quite narrow and the entrance straight. Invariably, that upper room was the representation of my mind and the attainment of higher mentality. As I approach a more thorough study of spirituality, it will become increasingly clear that mentality and spirituality share common attributes. I have asserted that our cognitive abilities are spiritual, that ‘spiritual’ and ‘communication’

go hand in hand, that there is no action without communication. In this third book, we will zero in on those cognitive abilities.

The road we walk, as ever, will twist upon itself in serpentine fashion, and lest we be continually dazed, we must remember that we climb an upward path from man, through children of men, to the son of man. If we are temples, then Christ is the pattern shewed us on the mount. I think that when we reach our zenith, that pattern will be realized.

Marching men and marching angels; we march toward the union. The history of the children of men is a forward momentum of mentality. The spiritual strides that we will see in the children of men are meant for nothing less than an uphill struggle, and the trained eye will see this one intriguing fact: that we are, at once, both pushing and pulling ourselves forward.

We are men and children of men. We do cry out to our blind eyes that we see. Open your eyes to Psalms 107:8, “Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!”

This is a trait of the children of men: we think about, we focus on the Lord. We rise above our earthly limits as we reach for the morning star of our inner man.

See Psalms 115:16, “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's: but the earth hath He given to the children of men.”

There is a definite connection between God and the children of men: if you will, we are God’s work in progress.

God is keenly interested in us; He is keeping an eye on us, as recorded in Psalms 33:13, “The Lord looketh from heaven; He beholdeth all the sons of men.”

Note the hopeful allusion to ‘son of man’ as seen in the plural ‘sons of men’. Our attraction to the spiritual accomplishes within us that which is more nearly spiritual, as when gold is laid upon silver. A transmigration of molecules takes place so that the silver is infused with the nature of gold. As we become more aware of the spiritual by way of infusion, we become more at ease with, and more trusting of, those truths unseen by the naked eye.

The shared nature produces the confidence that is seen in Psalms 36:7, “How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.”

Some of us know what it is to be brought up with a childhood friend that carries over into maturity, or even a brother or sister that becomes a friend. Such relationships guide lives. I know that in some of my relationships, the other person was like a lighthouse to a wayward ship. Such an influence they had on me that I took on many of their defining traits. I may still be somewhat of a wayward ship, but now I have my own spotlight - and sometimes I shine it on others.

I want to take a close look at a verse from the book of Proverbs. It is like a cupcake with sprinkles. We seekers love our sprinkles; they are the unexpected treats on top of something already dear to us. Count the sprinkles on Proverbs 8:30-31, “Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was

daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.”

First of all, to whom does this verse refer? It refers to Wisdom. Who is Wisdom with? Wisdom is with the Lord. Actually, this entire chapter is a necessary read, and I recommend it to all earnest seekers of truth. Wisdom is here presented as a feminine companion or sibling to the Lord as if they were raised together the way children are raised.

It is interesting that the term “brought up with Him” is used. It takes my mind back to a previously cited verse where God claimed that no God was ‘formed’ before Him. When we think of children being brought up, one of the expressions we resort to is ‘formative years’.

Secondly, a relationship is described. It is sweet and impassioned: the Lord ‘delighted’; Wisdom ‘rejoiced’. The word ‘delight’ implies choice: wisdom was the Lord’s chosen favorite: she was His delight. Wisdom, then, rejoiced in that state of favor. This is the beginning of a tiered design. I say that for the fact that wisdom’s rejoicing “before” was a location that just happened to be in the inhabited climes of earth.

Moreover, Wisdom’s “delights” (chosen favorites) were the “sons of men” (there’s that hopeful allusion to the son of man, again).

It follows that the children of men will rejoice in that state of favor. How can we rejoice in things unseen? We are, after all, infused with those invisible glories. Finally, there are two thoughts arising from this verse: they may be no more than interesting asides, but, one is the word ‘always’: if it speaks of completeness, as in eternity, and we have yet to reach the end of the linear timeline, then it is worthy of further investigation. It may only mean ‘at every opportunity’, otherwise, it may reference a nonlinear timeline.

The second thought is of the expression ‘habitable part of His earth’. To my mind, that sounds experimental, as in a colony: His part being an intrusion into an established hierarchy. What a nature we have! - that we are both ‘men’ and ‘children of men’ - that within us is not only the loam of the beast but the tended seed of Christlikeness.

That may seem, at once, both downbeat, and a very good reason to yearn upward.

See the sons of man in Ecclesiastes 3:18, “I said in mine heart concerning the estate (gift, endowment, inheritance, birthright, legacy) of the sons of men, that God might manifest them (the sons of man), and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.”

Of that dual nature, Psalms 53:2-3 has this to say, “God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back (to the loam of the beast): they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

Dare we call man two-faced? I ask, is ‘beast’ anything more than hollow invective? Is it primitive name calling, or is there any substance to the primal nature in ‘man’?

Check out Daniel 5:21 for a reversal of nature, “And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart (his thinking) was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed

him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that He appointeth over it whomsoever He will.”

We see contemporary reversals of nature each time a man or woman returns to an addiction or a destructive lifestyle. We see the beast in violence; we see the beast in ignorance. Beyond individuals, we see the forfeiture of our better nature each time society engages in war or terrorism. Within our dual nature, the thoughts of the beast may be found each time we imagine revenge: someone put the eye on the little lady; someone violated the turf; someone showed disrespect.

Our son-of man-ness is hard won, and easily lost! Nature reversal is, moreover, a cycle that may quickly spiral out of control. It is an un-state that negatively affects all things around us. Its origin may be found in the departure from rejoicing in the delights of Wisdom.

See Joel 1:12, “The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.”

Anyone who has been in prison or boot camp knows that while these institutions are extensions of the societies they are linked to, they are nothing like them. They are more like worlds unto themselves; they are as different from surrounding society as oil is from water. Why do we yearn upward? It may be that we all innately sense that life, this present world, indeed, all of corporeality is a confinement.

It seems a part of our very nature from childhood to test limitations, to push the envelop, to seek and strive to move beyond ourselves. That may well be our initial introduction to spiritual infusion, for they are, after all, mental qualities. There are many less than upbeat opinions about this world we live in, but there are also scriptural indications that life is less than rosy. Are the children of men prisoners of this planet? Is earth a prison?

See Lamentations 3:32-34, “But though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men, to crush under His feet all the prisoners of the earth.”

Imagine that! - God causing grief to the children of men. If He does not do it willingly, as it is said (that is, capriciously), then there must be a reason for all the really bad stuff that goes on. Prison is only one type of confinement. Another type is boot camp. I’ve been there, and I can attest to the fact that some very bad things are deliberately done to those who happen to be stuck there. I think the worst of all is that one has absolutely no autonomy. But, hey! They say it makes good soldiers.

See them run the obstacle course in Ecclesiastes 3:10, “I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.”

“The seed of men.” On the surface, this seems no different from the sons of men. Ah, but underneath that matte exterior! - a subdivision of the sons of men. They are set to one side as if they are not men at all. They certainly look and act like the ‘sons of men’, but perhaps their looks deceive us. Whatever they are, they are intrinsically nested deep within the worldly powers and stand highlighted as different from the rest of us poor earthly prisoners. They are platoon leaders; they are prison bulls.

They are mentioned in Daniel 2:38-44, “And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over

them all. Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.

And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”

It is just too interesting to pass over. They walk among us, being alien, and call themselves by our names. Yet, their faces are only imitations of our own. They sit in seats of power, yet they count themselves among the common seed. There are plenty of so-called secret societies, but their manner of dress is easily spotted; their language, too - well, that may be secretive, but we know that it is not about the potatoes in the back garden. If we have angelic others, perhaps our taskmasters also have angelic others: fallen angelic others. In closing, let me just point out that another walked among us. He, too, was very different. And just like all the rest of us, He was called man.

TWO Man/Son of man Part Three There is a natural progression from men to the children of men. It lies in the fact that the children are an upgrade of what came before them. Men see their children as a brighter future, but that future may be a little daunting; it might be better if the past did not have to linger. There is, along with the natural progression, a natural antagonism between the old school and the new school.

I say ‘school’ because the bone of contention is not found in the basic functions of life: earning a living, providing for one’s dependents, or any of the other pillars of normal existence. The bone of contention lies within the higher mental areas of politics, philosophy, personal/national faith, and spiritual interpretation.

If the old school could cease to exist once it engendered the new, all would be well. But all is not well: it is made to linger, made to maintain its place in all things, made to defend its strength and its power.

The new school is nothing less than a threat.

All of that may be seen in the next verse, but there is even more than that to be seen in Mark 9:31, “For He taught His disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill Him; and after that He is killed, He shall rise the third day.”

This may well reference Hosea 6:2, but please note Christ’s own words. He aligns Himself with the camp of the children of men, in opposition to the camp of men. He assigns Himself as the upgrade: the son of mankind. Our thoughts place Christ as the son of God. This section showcases the other side of that coin. He was also called the son of man, and men often called Him a man. Christ’s own reference of Himself was as ‘man’ and ‘son of man’.

My thoughts, here, are that Jesus had taken on the mantle of ‘leading by example’. In being an example, the epithet of ‘son of man’ was more a reference of those to whom he was a leader. The language takes a forward step: ‘children of men’ becomes ‘sons of men’. In that context, when Christ says the son of man will be delivered, He is also saying the sons of men will be delivered.

Note the connection in Luke 9:44, “Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men.”

Let us look sideways at the language of the Bible. Try this exercise in the following verse: replace ‘firstborn’ with ‘example’ and replace ‘spirits’ with ‘minds’. Hebrews 12:23, “To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.”

Let us remember two things for later: one, the term ‘just men’, for Jesus was called a just man, and two, John 3:27, “John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.”

We have broached the topic of the children of men, the son of mankind being the upgraded version of man. The two extremes, of course, are these: that the first is corporeal and the second is spiritual. It is as if we walk a fence. When it is shaken, which side will you fall on? It is that dual nature thing again.

It is that God realizing Himself by reverse engineering thing again.

But I am putting forth nothing new. Men of old (or should I say, the children of men of old?) have considered these very things. See 1 Corinthians 15:47, “The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.”

The difference between version 1.01 and version 1.02 is this: just a bit more unction. There are grades within grades; there are levels within levels. One may look down, and note with glee, that he stands on the shoulders of former giants; and then he looks up to realize that the one standing on his shoulders makes him feel somewhat smaller.

Tell me where you stand in Psalms 31:19, “Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee; which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men!”

There can be stars even in a white sky. Trust is neither a physical action nor an emotional inclination. It is a choice: an action of mentality that falls within the category of understanding. The same teacher that taught our ‘firstborn’ speaks to us as well.

Listen to Proverbs 8:4-5, “Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man. O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart (mind).”

We may say that Christ was an example of a spiritual God realized in a corporeal man. God, in order that He may inhabit man, must first reverse engineer the corporeal to achieve a compatible habitat.

Jesus is the pattern for future habitats. There were two coexistent states, and in the person of Jesus, the spiritual and the corporeal were no longer mutually exclusive. However, friends, neighbors, family, and disciples only saw the physical man. They saw Him glow; they saw Him walk on water; they saw Him ascend and many other things as well, but it was the man they saw. They were men, and Christ strove to reach their higher natures: to get them to open their minds to higher possibilities.

See John 3:3 & 5, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God . . . Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Did Jesus align Himself with the born again?

In speaking to Nicodemus, Jesus was telling him things that he was already supposed to know. That point is all too easily seen, but Jesus went on to say in verse 11, “We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.”

Indeed, it seems that Jesus did include Himself with the born again. Perhaps such meat will cause discomfort to some, but I ask this - is not the divinity of Jesus the Spirit inhabiting the flesh?

He told Nicodemus in verse 6, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.”

Yet, He stood before Nicodemus as both; as one firstborn “of water and of the spirit.” It follows that if we, being born again, are remade after the example of Jesus, then Jesus could have been that first star in a sky of white - or: ‘son of man’ version 1.02.

Jesus was a man the people knew. They knew His family, His history, His hometown. They considered, spoke to, and spoke about Him both before and during His ministry. The man was His appearance.

Some people judged Him to be only a man (for the question had been raised), but one has to ignore certain facts, or align oneself with philosophies of some other camp, to judge only by the appearance.

See John 7:24-27, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this He, whom they seek to kill? But, lo, He speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto Him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ?

Howbeit we know this man whence He is: but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence He is.”

Isn’t it the spirit’s coming and going that cannot be determined? That is, at least, what Jesus told Nicodemus. There was, it seems, a general misunderstanding about the coming of Christ that even believers had a hard time getting around. And all the while, Christ remained a man in their eyes.

Look at John 7:28-31, “But I know Him: for I am from Him, and He hath sent Me. Then they sought to take Him: but no man laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet come. And many of the people believed on Him, and said, When Christ cometh, will He do more miracles than these which this man hath done?”

So Jesus was thought of as a man. Many of the people in His day were unaware of His history, or else they lumped all His past into the current locality of Galilee. The movement stemmed from that region.

Anyone who reasoned beyond the basic nuts and bolts of accepted argumentation was considered a case for either pride or insanity. But, even in the concession that Jesus might be a prophet, He was still considered only a man.

See John 7:50-52, “Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,) Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth? They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.”

The problem is that there has never been one standard interpretation of Christhood or divinity. Both involve the person of corporeal man. To men, the children of men seem no more than themselves. It is a historical certainty that men saw Christ as a man. Even the higher thoughts of the divinity of Jesus were usually colored by the fact that He was a man.

See Acts 10:38 and 1 Timothy 2:5, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

In the verse from Acts, the ‘anointing’ seems similar to that of the apostles. Read Luke 24:49 and John 20:22. “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”

Even as He died on the cross for the sins of the world, humanity thought of Him as a man. Matthew 27:47 puts it this way, “Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.”

As I said earlier, even believers have a hard time getting their heads around deeply ingrained dogma. Is Jesus the son of man or the son of God? Scripture indicates that early writers had little difficulty with the integrated concept of a man being the son of God. For shades of grey see Mark 15:39, “And when the centurion, which stood over against Him, saw that He so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.” A canon of our faith is that God created through the agency of His Son: see Colossians 1:13-17, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. ” He is the potter, we are the clay. He is the builder, we each a house. That tenet is plainly displayed in Hebrews 3:3, “For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.”

Still, in all, the writer of this pivotal book counts Jesus a man comparable to Moses. Why do I point to such texts? I point to an underlying truth that contemporary thought must digest. It is not the easy milk

of established dogma, it is the actual meat and gristle of the word. A hard truth disturbs the smooth skin of acceptable Christian preconception. That underlying truth is that corporeality and spirituality are not mutually exclusive.

Man is a beast with a keen interest in the spiritual. Man examines his spirit, but his eyes see only flesh.

The issue has never been if there is spirituality in man, but where, precisely, the connection lies. That connection is mentality. I assert that the human brain is a corporeal engine that facilitates the spiritual intrusion of thought. We think, we dream, we hope. If these things were flesh, we would see them, but they are invisible; they are spiritual intrusions.

Remember the earlier assertion that the two trees in Eden were points of spiritual intrusion? Here is another of my wild rants - which, as it turns out, is a vague and very tame connection: the human brain, along with the spinal column, and its tree-likeness.

Note the rustling of mental branches in the following verse; a rustling that seemed all too real to the one being swayed. Note that Jesus is again called a man. Matthew 27:19, “When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of Him.” Just as the wife of the Governor suffered a spiritual event in her sleeping body, the ‘centurion’ had a spiritual response to an event that was all too physical. The writers of the New Testament may seem a bit slow in their deification of the man Jesus: they retain Him in the writings as a ‘man’, as a ‘just man’, as a ‘righteous man’. Would they retain the flesh of the Son of God if the flesh was a real obstacle to His deity?

Luke 23:47, “Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.”

Again, note the writers of the New Testament portraying Jesus as a man, albeit a man of spiritual capability, in Acts 2:22, “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know.”

I point to the spiritual within the body of a man. Above, the centurion glorified God. If God is glorified merely in the recognition of a “righteous man,” I ask, does that lessen Christ or elevate His adherents?

The faithful look to the deity of Christ, thinking that only by the piety and absolute sinlessness of the Son of God may the blood offered be effectual in the remission of sins. But the early writers must not have thought that spirituality and corporeality were mutually exclusive.

Our Redeemer was portrayed as a man: THE MAN through Whom forgiveness of sins was offered. See Acts 13:38, “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.”

It is the case that, over the span of centuries, certain romanticized notions have sprung up and taken root. The early writings, however, painted reality with fewer rose-colored tints. They, in fact, offer an image the contemporary Christian finds offensive. They show us a corporeal man whose miracles flowed from an internal spring: the spirit.

They painted a portrait that did not diminish the physical nature of the Son of God. This picture of Christ, furthermore, received the endorsement of some early scholars and experts.

Nicodemus said this in John 3:2, “The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto Him, Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, except God be with Him.” Is it possible to recognize God in a man? Of course, it is. When men are aware of a godly man, does that man’s corporeality cease? No. Many people looked right at the flesh of Jesus, recognized His divinity, and still called Him a man. One centurion compared Jesus to himself, suggesting that the position of Christ was neither at the top nor the bottom of the chain of command, but that His power and authority were both above and below.

For Christ as a man set under authority see Luke 7:6-8, “Then Jesus went with them. And when He was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying unto Him, Lord, trouble not Thyself: for I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof: Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto Thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.”

The word sent by the centurion was the opinion of a working stiff; the opinion of a regular guy. He was not a great thinker, an expert in laws of religion, or an especially learned man. He was not even of the Hebrew persuasion or mindset. His interpretations were based in the things he already knew. But he recognized the power and authority in the man he had sent for. He was, in all likelihood, the type of man that ‘called a spade a spade’. But, if the witness of experts and common men is not good enough, let us turn to the witness of Jesus, Himself.

See John 9:4, “I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”

If this verse does not convince you that the very Christ considered Himself a man, then we resort to a verse where He actually says ‘I am a man’. See John 8:40, “But now ye seek to kill Me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God.” Christ associated Himself with the human condition. That is what lay behind the expression ‘Son of man’. It referred to the better man; it referred to the spiritually inclined man. The expression not only pointed a finger in the direction of Ezekiel but by extension, it pointed toward the children of men as potential Ezekiels: corporeal men filled with the spirit of God, in communication with God, dedicated in service to the will of God. The Son of man offered Himself as example of all that the children of men could be. When Christ used the term ‘Son of man’, the sons of men were referenced inclusively. With that in mind, read Mark 2:2728, “And He said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.”

You may have noticed the tremendous amount of conceptual overlap. In all, it is a process of realization. ‘B’ is changing ‘A’ into ‘B’ while ‘C’ is changing ‘B’ into ‘C’. We might properly say that we are exploring an entity with many faces. I put this thought forward only in the spirit of preparation

for further thinking: ‘man’ is ‘children of men’ is ‘sons of men’ is ‘son of man’ is ‘angel’ is ‘son of God’.

I have asserted that man may indeed be attached to an angelic other. If we can consider that man may have within himself the makings of a more nearly spiritual being, might we not also be able to ask this question: can a ‘Son of Man’ be an ‘angel’?

In our language, a word is associated with another word. Two examples: we associate ‘Messiah’ with ‘Son of Man’; we associate ‘Prince’ with ‘angel’, or perhaps more precisely with ‘archangel’. The progressions are easy and comfortable due to familiarity. Jesus is the ‘son of man’, the ‘son of God’, the ‘savior’, the ‘Christ’, the ‘messiah’. But, how is it that angels are called Princes? Where is it? We find angelic appellations such as the ‘prince of the host’ (of heaven), ‘Michael one of the chief princes’, ‘Michael your prince’, ‘Michael the great prince’, in the book of Daniel.

Angels have a hierarchy as do men. Perhaps we learned it from the angels. ‘Principalities and powers’.

The fallen angel, Lucifer, is also called a prince. Princes, traditionally, have been the elite, just under kings. Rulers come from the ranks of princes. Joseph was one of the twelve princes of Israel. He ruled in Egypt. Daniel was a prince of Judah; he was set up to rule just under the king of the Medes and Persians. ‘Prince of princes’ is found in the book of Daniel; ‘prince of peace’, in the book of Isaiah.

Jesus, the son of man is called the ‘prince of the kings of the earth’ in the New Testament.

Could Christ have been an angel? It is possible. Could the spirit of God within the physical Jesus have been His angelic other? The connection is quick and painless. Daniel 9:25, “Messiah the Prince.”

If we, the children of men, are to become like our example, Christ, then what are we to become? What is the nature of Christ? Was Christ’s work bent toward the rejection of corporeality, or the formation of a ‘spiritual corporeality’? Is our Lord a man, a spirit, or both?

Read Ephesians 4:13, “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto ( a formative verb ) a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

What is the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ? Is it the ‘perfect man’? These are not light and frivolous questions we ask. If our ‘savior’ is a perfect man (and I must add for the contemporary Christians: ‘only a perfect man’), what does that say about God? Read Hosea 13:4, “Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but Me: for there is no saviour beside Me.” We know that the ‘Son of God’ was a man of flesh and blood. Nothing new there. We know it was intentional that He was corporeal. Again, nothing new. But the mind wants to see that purpose and immediately pop back to the spiritual deity of Christ, rejecting the connection to His body. When one really stops on this point for any length of time, the realization begins to sink in that the purpose was not about a dissociated spirit inhabiting a body for the duration of the work, and then taking a cab home, but as part of the work, the purpose insisted that a spiritual savior be a flesh and blood man.

If otherwise, the death would not have been death but only the appearance of death; the resurrection would not have been resurrection but only the appearance of resurrection. A dissociated spirit inhabiting a body would have suffered nothing, would have sacrificed nothing. One must believe that

the existence of a spiritual/corporeal sacrifice was intended for nothing short of a spiritual/corporeal salvation.

See Romans 8:3, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.”

Let us return to the great reflection, that Alice in Wonderland Mirror we’ve been studying. Man, we have determined, is the image and glory of God, and no one more so than His own son, Jesus. We tend to see the body as a thing in and of itself. When people mourn the dead, they mourn the spiritless body.

Indeed, it is dead for that singular reason. Our living existence is a physical and spiritual collaboration.

When we look at a physical (that is, a visible) man, there is a whole half to him we cannot see, but that unseen half is comprehended in and by those parts we do see, for that half that is visible to the eye is the mirror image of the invisible. Christ, Himself, fell into this category. The Jesus that walked this earth was a reflection of the Son of God. See that reflection in Romans 8:29, “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He (the image) might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

This points very clearly to a plan where the many should become like the first. That was the mindset of the New Testament authors: that man should become more angelic in nature - corporeal beings fully reflecting the spirit within. Like us, Jesus was a man attached to His angelic other, though more perfectly aligned.

That reflection is not so much a physical one, rather it is seen in the unseen things to do with each of us: If God is the mind of an angel, and that mind was fully realized in Christ, then it was by His mentality that He communicated the image to others. Within those others were the stirrings of a dual nature in balance: the spirit filled man. The New Testament authors wrote of common knowledge.

See Matthew 9:8, “But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.”

Now, we know the players, but we seek to peer behind the masks. We look for new ways to understand.

Thus, we climb ever higher, seeking a zenith from which we may have the broadest overview. We chisel away at the old stone dogmas. But, that we blunt our bronze blades: we shall soon trade them in for iron, and we shall make dull the keen edges of many more such tools.

Yet, in our dawning iron age of spiritual investigation, we may learn a tactic tailor-made for the seekers of truth, and that is from Proverbs 27:17 “Iron sharpeneth iron.”

Mark 8:38 says, “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My words (spiritual/mental communications) in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father (the spirit within) with the holy angels (sons of men, perhaps?).”

THREE

Ingestion When speaking of intrusions, one may think of Yin and Yang, or Ouroboros, the snake that consumes itself beginning at the tail. I put forth the concept of ‘ingestion’. Unlike the snake and his tail, this may prove a bit much for the contemporary Christian to swallow. I recall the old adage: 'you are what you eat.' A bulb receives or ingests electricity in order that it might produce light. The electricity, in effect, becomes part of the bulb’s overall makeup, that is why men call a lamp an electrical appliance. It is no less true that the bulb becomes part of the electricity by way of extension.

We can say that a merger has occurred, that two separate entities have joined for the purpose that the union suggests. It is no longer a bulb and electricity: it is a light bulb. The electricity does not make light without the bulb, and the bulb cannot make light without the electricity.

You are what you ingest. If you are a cup, and you ingest water, you are no longer just a cup. You are a cup of water. If a man ingests knowledge, he is a man of learning. A man of learning will display his nature in his choice of wording. Now imagine: if you had ingested the elements of both past and future into your present being, would you not sometimes sound like an anomaly of time?

Examine the choice of words in John 3:13, “And no man hath ascended up to heaven (future), but He that came down from heaven (past), even the Son of man which is in heaven (present).”

Like the illustrations of the light bulb and the cup of water, John 3:13 is a model of the concept of ingestion. In any model of ingestion, there is both a host to take elements into itself and elements that enter into the host.

Notice both a host and intrusive elements in John 14:20, “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.”

If a light bulb said that a bigger light bulb was inside of him, we might pause to scratch our heads and raise our eyebrows. On the other hand, if a light bulb told us he had electricity inside of him, we might respond, 'Yeah, that I can understand.' When Christ states that the Father is inside of Him, He is speaking of an ingested element of the Father, or in other words: something spiritual. To ingest a thing is roughly equal to having a thing communicated. A ballot box may either ingest a ballot or, it may be otherwise stated that a ballot was placed inside of it.

I speak of spiritual communications. And here, I will repeat the assertion: our cognitive abilities are spiritual, spiritual and communication go hand in hand, there is no action without communication.

This must be kept in mind when one reads John 14:10, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.”

I used to wonder at the underlying purpose of eating the flesh of Jesus, and of drinking His blood. The concept of ingestion offers a higher level of insight into this mystery. Do we, or can we, actually eat flesh and blood? No. Do crackers and grape juice, as a ceremonial reminder, fit the bill? No. If you have ever met an older married couple and noted how alike they are, you have seen the

outcome of ingestion. What is it that they have ingested? It is the communicated nature of the partner that has been ingested. That is why they seem to be on the same page. Sometimes, and this seems spooky, one will finish a sentence the other began. Now, they may have kissed daily throughout the length of their union, but they have not ingested corporeality: they do not look alike. But they act alike.

Spiritual elements are communicated; spiritual elements are ingested. Remembering that our language has evolved into a ‘symbol generating machine’, let us read of the bread of life as a communicated spiritual quality that upon ingestion imparts that spiritual quality to the host.

See John 6:48-51, “I am that bread of life (a spiritual quality). Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness (a corporeal quality), and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven (a spiritual realm), that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread (you are what you eat), he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

Yes! Eat life and live.

The mind does not always absorb what the eye reads. Sometimes we must go back and read a thing often - until it makes sense. When we read a thing that is not easily or readily understandable, the eyes glaze momentarily, and we move on. Read this next verse; let your eyes glaze over; then go back and read it again.

Colossians 1:27, “which is Christ in you.”

No, not the physical person. A spiritual quality has been communicated. You have ingested the spirit of Christ: a thing that is imparted mentally through thought and reason. What is inside you? The nature of Christ, the character of Christ, Christ-likeness as an adopted quality. You are a bulb ingesting the power to make light.

Ingestion is a bona fide theme within scripture. It is a concept that New Testament authors often took up.

See 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.

Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you?”

The theme of ingestion is brought up time after time and is presented as central to the goal of spiritual attainment. It is put forth in no uncertain terms in John 6:53, “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.”

‘Sons of man’ may here be referenced inclusively. That is, to take upon oneself the very corporeal entity of a son of man: to be a Jesus, to have the very blood of a Christ flowing through your veins. In earlier paragraphs, I spoke of returning to face the mirror. Is that not a condition of open receptiveness?

It never hurts to repeat scripture, and although this has been given to other applications, read it now, not with the interface in mind, but rather with ingestion in mind.

Read 2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

The water of baptism and the wine of redemption. The miracle of turning water into the blood of the vine that we are grafted into. Read 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”

Having the spirit in our middle puts us in the middle of the spirit. One must imbibe the spiritual liquor.

To drink the physical blood puts us in the physical. Likewise, to partake of a physical Eucharist places us, again, in the corporeal. In other words, it takes spirit to make spirit.

Take Romans 8:9-10, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you (the spirit), the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit (inside of you) is life because of righteousness.”

A spiritual indwelling - and, by spiritual I mean a ‘new mind’. We ingest spiritual communications. If godliness is communicated, we ingest and incorporate godliness. If Christ-likeness is communicated, we incorporate Christ into our nature. It is an upgrade. Spiritual communications pass from the mind to the brain; therefore, they are embodied in thoughts and words. Words are leaves that rustle from an invisible wind. Yet, for all intents and purposes, they are a means of incorporating the wind.

Incorporate John 14:23, “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep (incorporate) My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with (inside of) him.”

A spiritual indwelling: a new mind; a new nature. See 1 John 4:13, “Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.”

To have a thought or to make a choice is equal to having the spirit of it communicated into our nature.

No man can think the thought or make the choice to turn to Jesus unless we have turned, open and receptive, to the interface. There, the communication is sent.

Receive John 6:44, 45, & 65, “No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw (a communication to) him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught (communication; learning; mentality) of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned (ingested) of the Father, cometh unto Me. And He said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it were given unto (into) him of my Father.”

The spirit is communicated via the mind. Thoughts and words are internalized. John 8:51, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep My saying, he shall never see death.”

The bar of mentality is raised through spiritual communication. The mind of Christ is communicated. It is a Holy mind. The will of God is communicated. It is a Holy will. The spirit itself is Holy for it is the spirit of God.

FOUR

The Holy Ghost ‘Spirit’ and ‘ghost’ – and, what a large witness the Bible offers for something that can’t even be seen. The recorded witnesses could not see ‘spirit’, yet we are instructed that truth may be verified in the mouth of two or three witnesses.

Here’s a list: ‘Gave up’ (three times) and, ‘yielded up the Ghost’ (once) can be found in Genesis.

‘Given up the ghost’ is found in Jeremiah.

‘Gave up the ghost’ is found in Lamentations.

‘Give’, ‘given’, ‘giveth’, & ‘giving up the Ghost’ all occur (collectively, five times) in the book of Job. ‘Gave up the ghost’ is mentioned about two times in the book of Mark, one time in the book of Luke, and one time in the book of John. ‘Yielded up the ghost’ is mentioned one time in the book of Matthew.

These statistics are not intended as a complete and thorough count but are presented only to point out that two or three has been greatly surpassed. The Holy Ghost is mentioned four times in the book of Mark, four times in the book of John, seven times in the book of Matthew, and 11 times in the book of Luke. The Holy Ghost is written of in Jude, Romans, Hebrews, 1 Thessalonians, and 1 and 2 Corinthians.

The Holy Ghost is mentioned in the book of Acts more than thirty-eight times. Yet, of witnesses, it is not this great cloud that teaches us any one thing spiritual, but what the witnesses, themselves, knew of the invisible. In Acts, the writer speaks of being “baptized with the Holy Ghost” (as, perhaps, in immersion - the Spirit being compared to water, or something fluid in nature); he also speaks of one being “full of the Holy Ghost” (as in a cup immersed and coming up filled: again the comparison to water: to a fluid nature).

This study asks, what exactly is ‘spiritual?’ How do beings steeped in the corporeal ever hope to understand - to grasp, if you will, things which are not solid? How may one prove an invisibility?

Some will say, no doubt, that we can’t see the air we breathe, yet it exists. I say, in some cities, you can see the air you breathe. We cannot compare apples to oranges and get a true picture?

1 Corinthians 2:13 clearly states, “the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” Furthermore, we are shown the difficulty of coming to an understanding of spiritual matters in 1 Corinthians 2:14: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Anyone that has a burning desire to know what ‘spiritual’ is all about, really has his work cut out for him. He must look into the ‘mirror’. He must seek an understanding of the water by the cup that holds it. No person will undertake a study of the spirit unless he is compelled. That person must first be convinced that the spirit has a bearing on the corporeal.

That person must be convinced, as Romans 15:13 puts it, of the “power of the Holy Ghost.” These latter sections are a preparation for the final book of this study, which appropriately will be named: “What exactly is Spiritual?” God is a spirit, Jesus claimed, whose name is Holy. The Holy Ghost is a spirit named Holy. Make the connection. Many things are written of the Holy Ghost; let us review just a few of them.

1 Peter 1:12 tells us that the Holy Ghost was “sent down from heaven”: a higher realm; a spiritual realm.

1 Corinthians 6:19 explains that our body is the “temple of the Holy Ghost”, a communicated spiritual quality, and 2 Timothy 1:14 corroborates that the Holy Ghost “dwelleth in us.”

1 Corinthians 3:16 explains just how Holy the Holy Ghost is when it asks, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

Ingestion is indicated when Hebrews 6:4 uses the expression: “partakers of the Holy Ghost” - also when 2 Corinthians 13:14 uses the expression: “communion of the Holy Ghost.”

Furthermore, we are instructed that this ingestion, this possession of a communicated spiritual quality, imparts the divine nature.

Romans 15:16 puts it this way: “sanctified by the Holy Ghost.”

Ephesians 1:13 tells us that we are “sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.”

Titus 3:5 lays these surprising words before us: “the washing of regeneration (re-creation), and renewing (recommencement) of the Holy Ghost.”

And while we are given to the opinion that the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God inside of common man, is a New Testament thing, by such passages as John 7:39, “(But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)”, the Holy Ghost was actually a concept understood by men of old: Psalms 51:11, “take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.”

In the beginning, concepts of spirituality were concepts of separate entities. These entities were considered autonomous and distant. God was not originally considered to be a part of the human condition. That consideration would come much later. It was enough that man could acknowledge a spiritual presence.

See Genesis 31:3, “the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.” That spiritual presence was often interpreted as fortuitous. See Genesis 39:2, “the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man . . . in the house of his master the Egyptian.”

In the evolution of concepts, the ‘presence’ of God soon was understood to impart general aspects to life in general, generally speaking, and these aspects became predictable enough that men could take them up as a practice that affected the quality of their behavior.

See Psalms 143:10, “Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God: Thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.”

Generalization set in. A connection appeared between corporeal man and spiritual God. The inner man was acknowledged. See Proverbs 15:4, “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.” It was seen that an improvement in the nature of corporeal man had

its roots in the spirit. Recall my illustration of the tree, its branches and its roots being on opposite sides of the interface.

But, spirit was still a catch-all phrase that had many and varied subtleties of interpretation.

For spirit as strength and vigor see Judges 15:19, “But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.”

A more homogeneous view of spirit had developed by New Testament times, but it still placed spirit apart from man as an affecting agent only.

See Acts 23:9, “And there arose a great cry: and the scribes that were of the Pharisees' part arose, and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man: but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God.” Even before New Testament times, homogenous spirituality began to take on the form of detectable purpose and recognizable character. See the free spirit of salvation in Psalms 51:12, “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free spirit.”

But man was and still is, easily spooked. Along with mankind’s most profound advances in the understanding of the spirit, there gamboled myth, superstition, and ignorant fear.

See Luke 24:37 & 39, “But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself: handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have.” See also Matthew 14:26, “And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.”

What one should note in these verses is that spirit took on many manifestations in the mind of man.

That is to say: what man did not understand received a stock interpretation. Spirits, angels, or ghosts were all pretty much the same to them. Man feared them because he had no control over them. Man’s very nature had subdued the world, but over things spiritual, man could not exert his will. It may be assumed, therefore, that what really frightened man was the call for submission.

Man’s constant complaint has been, “why must I suffer evil?” Yet, Christ, our example, submitted to the suffering of evil - was, in fact, turned over to the devil by the Spirit of God. Rather than exert His will, rather than bemoan His fate, He submitted to the Spirit. Why do bad things happen to good people?

See for yourself in Matthew 4:1, “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”

Submission is a hard topic for mankind, but it is, I think, part of the process of reverse engineering. The Holy Ghost will lead a man; the Holy Ghost will make a man ‘lead-able’.

See Luke 4:1, “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.”

There are, however, many more spirits abounding than just those of man’s imagination. It behooves the seeker to be aware of all of them.

See other spirits in Luke 4:33, “And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice.”

We see man, then, in various states of possession. That is to say: we see man in states of mentality which are not wholly his own. The unclean spirit may impart unclean thinking and behavior, just as the Holy Ghost may impart Holy thinking and behavior. And it is never solely about the imposition of the host. There is to be remembered that the spirit obtains some advantage through the intrusion. What does the spirit get from its connection to the flesh?

Jesus explained part of it in Luke 11:24, “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out.”

Temples within temples. Or, even a house may be a temple. We get the sense that it is the spirit’s business to indwell something and that it is our place in the order of things to be possessed by some kind of spirit, or mentality. The verse above, in showing that an unclean spirit derives a benefit from indwelling corporeality, by extension of the argument, indicates that the Spirit of God also derives benefit from indwelling.

That we are a battleground: it may be said that a war of numbers is waged for corporeal real estate. Two superpowers vie for our pound of flesh, and yet, that is, as they say, just the tip of the iceberg. Another way to look at it may be the ‘Ponderosa approach’. There is one owner, and he will leave his spread to his sons only. He rides the range, therefore, deposing arrogant squatters.

See Mark 7:25, “For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of Him, and came and fell at His feet.”

Uncleanness had been imparted to the woman’s daughter. It was a matter of communication of the nature of the unclean devil that imparted the same to the host. Our cognitive abilities are spiritual, spiritual and communication go hand in hand, there is no action without communication.

The nature of the possessed is the communicated nature of the possessor.

The writer of the next verse called the possessor a “foul spirit.” The afflicted person was in such a visible state as to offend the beholder, which contention is borne out in the fact that the “running together” of the people was a most definite indication that the affliction was considered so severe that the people wondered if this might be the one that the miracle worker could not handle.

What can you deduce of the spirit in Mark 9:25? “When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.”

FIVE

Holy Communication Man believes that God can be inside. Now, while primitive man was, shall we say: primitive, we may not think him so ignorant as to consider that a universal entity could fit inside himself. That would be the bulb claiming a bigger bulb was within. Like as with that bulb, we would be forced to consider the primitive to be ‘cracked’. But, primitive man knew that something of the nature of God had been placed inside of him. Let us assume, then, that primitive man knew that ‘spirit’ had been communicated. That is, of course, without regard to whether or not he actually understood the nature of the communicated spirit.

We, ourselves, are pretty much in that same boat. I wonder sometimes if the ‘spirit communicated’ might not be the ‘spirit of communication’. We are, after all, called upon to freely give what we have freely gotten. Man knows that the nature of God is inside, and the very language that couches that understanding is the language of ‘impartation’.

See Job 27:3, “All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils.”

God created a living soul by impartation; that is, the breathing of life into clay. Similarly, Jesus imparted the Holy Ghost by breathing onto His disciples. Breathing is a matter of communication. It would appear that communication, like spirit, requires a vessel to contain it.

See vessels of communication in 2 Samuel 23:2, “The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was in my tongue.”

Let us consider, for a moment, the spirit as communication. See man possessed of communication in Job 32:8, “There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.”

See man’s understanding of the difference between the communicated, and uncommunicated mind in Proverbs 14:29, “He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.”

It appears very plainly in the writing of the Bible, that primitive man had a clear conceptualization of spirituality, mentality, and the communication between them.

Read Proverbs 17:27, “He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.”

Spirit is pointedly identified with mentality in Isaiah 11:2, “The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him (be plainly understood by the beholder), the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”

In the verse just cited, three sets of mental attributes are offered. They are ‘wisdom and understanding’, ‘counsel and might’, and ‘knowledge and fear’. These sets are paired correctly, so I wish only to elaborate on the third set: knowledge and fear. The concept of fear, shown here, is not the one-

dimensional concept of the world. That concept provides only terror. The concept of fear as provided in Isaiah is a three-dimensional concept.

To be afraid of a thing is but one dimension of the whole. Also, inherent in this word are the connotations of ‘respect’ and ‘appreciation’. When one builds one’s first fire, in all likelihood, the hand has come close to the flame. Fear to be burned is the corporeal dimension. But, the mind goes a step further in realizing that one is only just in control. Should the fire jump its boundaries, much loss would be incurred: respect of the fire’s wrath is an intermediary dimension of moral decision making. When one makes a fire, it is in the course of self-maintenance. One wants to be warm; one wants to cook food. Dependence on the fire is realized with gratitude, for one is smart enough to know these advantages are not within one’s natural abilities. These advantages are given. Appreciation is the communicated mental dimension. We take it to mean therefore that the ‘knowing and appreciating’, mentioned in the verse of Isaiah, are of the things of God. What are those things of God, that through the communication of the spirit, we come to know and appreciate?

Jeremiah 9:24 states it plainly, “Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”

Mankind has grappled with the issue of how to deal with his brothers and sisters. Many times we have failed utterly, but the very traits we reach for, in our ‘quest to be’, are the very things that our spiritual God exercises in this corporeal world. When He imparts these things into our minds, that we may use them, that is His exercise, and by that, He is magnified; that is, made greater thereby.

When these spiritual, or mental, qualities are communicated to us, we can say, as does Colossians 1:9, that we are “filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.”

The authors of the Bible wrestled with these real issues. They put them forth as an argument against the false beliefs of all misguided people. The ceremonial washing of the early Jew, spiritual-upgrade-wise, is as much an absolute zero as the bead counting of the modern Catholic. The exercise of the physical never elevates the spiritual. If one’s religion is no more than ceremonial physical motion, there can be no spiritual momentum.

The New Testament authors argued against the laws of the Old Testament Jews thusly: Galatians 3:5, “He therefore that ministereth (communicates) to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works (ceremonial hand waving) of the law, or by the hearing of faith? (communication of the new mind).”

When man first began to clearly see that the nature of God could exist within man, that spirit of God, that Holy Spirit, was ever couched in terms of mentality. Communication is key. It was by the communicated word of God that the worlds were framed. It is seen in black and white, from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation, that the communication of the Holy Spirit of God is a dispatch to the mind of man. In the following verse, words denoting mentality are liberally in use. Rightfully, a colon belongs where the coma is placed behind the expression “spirit of God.”

It’s a little thing I do; you might try it yourself: when I read “wisdom,” I replace it with “spirit of God”; when I read “understanding”, I replace it with “spirit of God”; when I read “knowledge”, I replace it with “spirit of God.” Go ahead, try it on for size.

Exodus 31:3, “And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship.”

Contemporary Christians are such a dyspeptic lot. I offer no seltzer, only more meat. God is in my head, as Job put it, my 'spirit of God' causes me to answer.

Job 20:3, “The spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.”

But, I am somewhat of a literalist: if I speak by the spirit of God, the spirit of God is communication.

See 1 Corinthians 12:3, “Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.”

No bitter indictment here, but I think that the contemporary Christian believes more in ‘being the Christian’ than he believes in Christ, Himself: It’s fine that the Holy Ghost lives within, as long as the voice can remain their own.

In reality, however, if we speak by the Holy Ghost, it is His work and not our own. If we are speaking by the spirit of God, we are the vessels of that communication. Does that mean we are nothing? Not at all. By extension, we are “filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” We are not the electricity, but we are no longer merely the bulb. We are not the light, but we are the light bulb.

When to our minds is communicated the Holy Spirit of God, should the Holiness be dropped to maintain the distance from God that contemporary Christians insist upon? New Testament authors would answer a resounding ‘No!’ See Ephesians 3:5, “Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His Holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit.”

Again, see men made Holy by the communication of the new mind in 2 Peter 1:21, “The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

It is an open eye, indeed, that sees the spirit as communication. When we, ourselves, communicate - in speaking and in writing - we write or we say the things we know and believe. The things we know and believe were, themselves, communicated. In this, I hold in common with the seeker on the other side of the world, who is wholly unknown to me, the very same communicated spiritual quality.

See that shared quality in 2 Corinthians 4:13, “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.”

Not all of our actions spring from the continuous input of physical information; some, necessarily, must come from the communicated mind. As we walk, we note the road ahead of us is smooth. We adjust our

actions according to the input. If we trip on that smooth road, as many of us do daily, we are surprised.

If physical input indicates that the road rises, we lift our feet a little higher. If upon our next step, our senses show us that there is nothing under our feet, we jerk to a halt, seeking things previously sensed.

Then comes the embarrassed laugh of realization that we stand on a glass bridge. We mentally give ourselves a kick for not comporting ourselves with a bit more faith. In other words, we failed ourselves because we could have done better. There is a real difference between the old uncommunicated mind and the new communicated mind.

See 2 Corinthians 5:7, “(For we walk by faith, not by sight:).”

The spirit is communication. Communication is spirit. It is communication that imbues with life, as John 6:63 says, “It is the spirit that quickeneth (enlivens); the flesh profiteth nothing (does not have such power): the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

The spirit gives life; the spirit is life. But, there is a type of communication that is of corporeality. It is a formula; it is of the brain, but not of the mind. The formula allows for one thing: sameness. It allows that the acceptable is that which has been previously sensed, known, and performed. It is the law of rote: The law of the rut. And, it has been said that the difference between a rut and a grave is merely the depth. It is the unchanging letter of the law that allows not for movement; for growth; for life. If we recall that the communication imparts the nature of the communicator, then it becomes all too easy to see where the law fails.

See 2 Corinthians 3:6, “Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”

Man struggles to understand the nature of the new mind. The new mind contains the communicated nature of the communicator. Our new mind is so much more than the functional brain: an organ whose purpose is to process input and respond with decisions. Formerly, all input was of the senses. Over time, man derived emotional states, which were gestalts of the myriad sensory I/O functions. But now, the brain receives input from the mind, the spiritual counterpart, and this input is changing the brain with every communication: making the brain more mind-like. Formerly, man traveled the smooth highway of rote. Everyone that washed his hands was good; everyone that did not wash his hands was bad. That was the outer man, and his momentum was smooth and comforting - that is until he hit the speed bump of progress.

Feel the jolt of Romans 2:28-29, “He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart (mind), in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” If the heart is the new mind, then circumcision is the removal of all old and static hindrances. The struggle of man with the spirit is a struggle to overcome preconceptions. The former man walked in darkness; therefore, he had a formula rather than a flashlight. Counting two steps forward, then three steps to the right, then another five steps forward was how he navigated the dark back alleys of existence. If he encountered a man walking at cross currents to him, that man was considered to be going in the wrong direction. The new sons of men are very much different. It’s not that they have replaced the formula with a flashlight: that is just seeing the steps you are still counting off, but, the sun has risen on the sons of men. Everything is bathed in new light.

Now they see that the formula only got the blind from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’. The sons of men need not count steps; the light exposes not just the point, but the surrounding landscape. The new sons of men may now be guided by something so much bigger than a formula: the new nature is their guide. Yet, even in such a verse as the next, we see man holding the flashlight just in case.

See Galatians 5:16-17, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

Man sees spirituality and corporeality as ‘contrary’, but are they really? Let me ask a simple, but browraising question: If the power struggle was gone, would there be contrariness? Put another way, if man’s will submitted to God’s will, would the spirit and the flesh be complimentary instead of contrary?

If the flesh profiteth nothing, then what does this next verse really say about a fleshy communication of the nature of the living God? See 2 Corinthians 3:3, “Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart (mind).”

SIX Spirit and truth: a two-sided coin There is a special relationship between the spiritual and the corporeal that most people simply don’t understand. The spirit exists in relation to the corporeal. The mind of God exists in relation to man’s physical state. We must (though most do not) keep in mind that the relationship between spirit and truth is mutually inclusive and non-static. Even in matters of salvation, it must be noted, not all Christians are ‘current’. We should, perhaps, take the next step and admit that we all stand somewhere in the middle: having something yet to be communicated. It’s not ignorance, so much, nor is ‘need’ the best name for it. It is simply the looming of our next great leap. We stand upon a peak, but the zenith rises up and up.

Witness the uncommunicated Christian in Acts 19:2, “He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.”

We exist in a two-sided reality: spiritual reality, and corporeality. To most, these seem to be at odds.

Yet, both are traveling in a direction that will bring them into perfect amalgamation. The future union of the seeming opposites is a thing predicted, and an issue that we must come to terms with. What hinders an individual’s ability to assimilate the new mind is our old language: a thing that places

spirituality and corporeality at a distance. Even when we think of them as the two sides of a single coin, our language calls those sides opposite.

But we seekers fight language with language. We like to say that those two opposite sides are joined in the middle. Language is the seeker’s ally, and here is some of the science of it. One name for Christ is ‘the Truth’; you can look that up for yourselves, but then, that is no news to the seasoned seeker. To continue, all of creation was made by the Truth. It was created by and for Truth. Truth is before all things, and by Truth, all things consist. We may say, then, that Christ made all things, and that all things consist of Christ, and that one of Christ’s names is Truth.

Conclusion: truth is everything that is.

To the natural man (which includes some people who call themselves Christian) this is foolishness, but to the seeker, this is a way of spiritually understanding the spiritual. When Christ used the expression “spirit and truth,” He was, I believe, indicating the two complementary sides of existence. Let me ask this, if God calls man, who is corporeal, to worship only spiritually, what hope does he have? God is a spirit, but man is not. However, everything that is, consists of Truth - is truth.

Read John 4:23-24, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

This meant, of course, an upgrade from the purely ceremonial. We will call that ceremony ‘truth’, for it was the corporeal half of the issue. When a man lifts his hands to God; or when a man makes a sacrifice; lights a candle; marches in procession; fasts; counts beads, or any other such thing - it’s all cool with God, but it is only half of the matter. These are only corporeal movements; God wants the spiritual added to all such worship. That, we have found, is mentality. That is when the human organ of thought is in concert with the angelic other’s organ of thought. In other words, God desires that we put ‘heart’ and ‘soul’ into worship.

We already acknowledge that each side is affected by the other side, but for our part, we ask, which side shoulders the lion’s share of the burden?

Proverbs 18:14, gives us an indication. “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?”

This work does not propose to convince; we already believe. In fact, we merely build upon the works of our predecessors. Seekers who have gone before us have discovered that our very nature as man has a spiritual component that is exposed to the spiritual eye.

Just look at 1 Samuel 16:7, “The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart (mind).”

The ‘heart’ references human mentality, and thoughts are spiritual. God is a mind reader. It cannot be helped; the very act of having a thought is to parade that thought before God. Think about Ezekiel 11:5, “The Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the Lord; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.”

Therefore God has called for the addition of the spiritual mind to His worship, for as Nahum 1:7 says, “He knoweth them that trust in Him.” One cannot climb a mountain by taking the downward path. One cannot climb to greater heights by crossing the valley floor. A man may walk the length and breadth of the valley, but in doing so, he remains on the same level. The valley dweller can tell you anything you want to know about the valley: he is a valley expert, but none of his expertise can explain the loftier climes. We seekers come with spiked boots and roped shoulders. It has been pointed out to man that only a new mind can grasp new thoughts.

See 1 Corinthians 2:11 & 14, “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save (but by) the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but (by) the Spirit of God. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Certain thoughts may only be thought by the mind of God, but the mind of God is only obtained by the thinking of such thoughts. Sounds like a conundrum, but valley preconception and dogma have limitations beyond which one must simply start climbing. Some Christians will ever preach salvation to the saved, and never rise up to meet the mind of God. Preconception and dogma. Misunderstanding and misinterpretation.

If truth is placed just out of man’s reach, it was intended all along that he climb up and grab it. The mountain climber finds a suitable peek from which to proclaim: “This rare and lofty zenith is one with the valley floor.” The valley dweller finds a suitable spot from which to preach: “This is the mountaintop; it is flat and green.” Following is an example of a concept that must be held in the present tense to be of any application, yet contemporary Christian thinking has not climbed above the physical past. Read this until it sinks in, then you will know that the communication imparts the nature of the communicator.

Read and know 1 John 4:2, “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.” This next submission is my own paraphrase: this is me climbing and reaching. “This is how we obtain the mind of God: every mind that confesses that Jesus Christ is now in the flesh is of God.” Toward a more fluid approach, I submit that the word ‘spirit’ may be of more personal edification when read as the word ‘mind’. Men have sought the fountain of youth, but I present a fountain of a different magnitude. To drink from this fountain will turn your brain into a fountain. Imagine that you suddenly had greater mental powers. Not only could you see the invisible; know the unknowable, but you could simply ‘breathe’ on your friends and they could have the same powers. Let us call this fountain the ‘mind of God’. To have that mind would mean that you could know what is in the minds of other people as per Ezekiel 11:5. You could instantly recognize your peers as per Nahum 1:7. Your existence would be a balance between spirit and truth. We would no longer be alone in our heads for we would be of one and the same mind.

Check out 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”

I, having written so much in these studies, might give the impression that I am the type to just say anything; that I sit and spew out whatever comes to mind, like a fool, or, like a child with an active imagination. I am not that type. I have communicated recently that God intends to work in each of us one and the same mind: the mind of God. I have indicated that this new spirit is a present tense combination of Jesus Christ and us: “is come.” But, what does God communicate of His intention? I turn to His own word.

Ezekiel 11:19, “I will give them one heart (one mind), and I will put a new spirit (new mind) within you; and I will take the stony heart (tablets of formula and preconception) out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh (spirit and truth).”

In our coin of existence, there are two sides. There is the physical, and there is the spiritual. The spiritual involves mental capabilities; written and verbal communication. The heart is the mind of man.

The law is a communicated quality. The law of the Hebrews was communicated in stone. I believe that I speak from a heart of flesh.

In contemporary thought, the spirit thwarts the flesh. Contemporary belief holds spirit and flesh at a distance and sets spiritual growth at the expense of corporeality. But, the preceding verse plainly states that God’s intention is to combine flesh with the new mind. It is necessary that God remove legalistic thinking, “the stony heart,” in order to transplant into man the “heart of flesh,” which is the “new spirit.” Just as with the old mind, the new mind is communicated through the spoken and written word, for the spirit is communication imparting communication.

Even the belief systems of other cultures recognized that spiritual attributes were manifested in man in the qualities of mental attributes.

See Daniel 4:9, “O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no secret troubleth thee, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and the interpretation thereof.”

Admittedly, the statement of faith in that verse is a generalization. Be that as it may, the ambiguity of 'the spirit of the holy gods' is given the crisp outline of mentality in Daniel 5:12, “Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and shewing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be called, and he will shew the interpretation.”

We speak of the mind, of mental qualities. We call this list of mental attributes ‘spirit’. It might be argued still that we speak of spirit vaguely, as of some incidental property. But, we think not, we seekers of truth and spirit. We have replaced our stone, bronze, and iron implements with the very best of cutting tools. Our new implements cut with surgical precision. When we speak of mentality, we speak of the spirit of God. Of course, we are not yet brain surgeons. Our claim is the claim of God. For the list in God’s own words, read Exodus 31:2-3, “See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship.”

And for those who will argue against anything that is Old Testament, let’s just add the communicated mind of the New Testament authors. See Ephesians 1:17-18, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the

knowledge of Him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”

It bears repeating that the spirit of God; the mind of God, is a communicated quality that is passed from the one to the other to the next. Our cognitive abilities are spiritual. Scripture abounds with reference after reference to that effect.

Read these: Deuteronomy 34:9, “Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him.”

Exodus 31:3, “I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship.”

Hebrews 10:15-16, “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us . . . This is the covenant that I will make with them . . . I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.”

Exodus 28:3, “Thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom.”

When God pours out His spirit, He communicates His mind.

See Proverbs 1:23, “Turn you at My reproof: behold, I will pour out My spirit unto you, I will make known My words unto you.”

Then, like a tiered fountain, we communicate the same to others. Remembering 1 Corinthians 2:11, we know that man has a mind that knows the things of man. It is the corporeal mind. God is combining His spirit with ours in harmonious agreement. Only by the mind of God may we know that we are of God. See Romans 8:16, “The Spirit Itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” See also 1 Corinthians 2:12, “Now we have received, not the spirit (mind) of the world, but the spirit (mind) which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” God freely and liberally communicates His mind into ours: the communicator communicating His own nature of communication. We in turn, through and like Christ, also communicate.

See John 3:34, “For (H)he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto (H)him.”

When a man, near death, finds and drinks from a well, much goes on. He takes in water, yes, but also refreshment. More than refreshment is communicated; life is communicated. When a man takes refreshment into himself, he speaks praise rather than curse, for he speaks from that refreshing.

Read 1 Corinthians 12:3, “No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and . . . no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.”

I will say it again, our cognitive abilities are spiritual. What does the spirit communicate but the spirit?

The spirit is communication; the communication is life.

John 6:63, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

When I say that the truth is everything that is, am I asking you to only see the birds and the bees; the trees and cornfields; the physical world? Absolutely not. I am asking you to step out and be big, bold, and brave. I am asking you to see everything physical in its proper relationship to everything spiritual.

Look not at the truth without the spirit; see not the spirit without truth. See neither as static. In a circuit, when a communication reaches its conclusion, it recommences its journey in a bigger way. Whatever goes around, comes back around. The mind that has seen the end can, on its trip back around, seem to impart the future. Yet, the mind communicates only the mind.

See John 16:13, “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself (on His own); but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak (communicate): and He will shew you things to come.”

It could be that Christ’s statement on the cross was based on the template of David’s statement in Psalms 31:5, “Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed (transformed) me, O Lord God of truth.”

On the other hand, Christ’s passage through, and triumph over, His crucifixion could have been the true template upon which the un-salvaged David was recovered upon the next circuit. The new mind imparted might well have expressed redemption through the spirit of Him that is all in all; His mind being the communication of everything that is.

Accordingly, this fledgling theory of the ‘circuit’ is under pressure to shed new light on some old, dark abstractions. Our old saying is this: ‘what goes around comes around’. The mind of God has gone from the beginning to the end and has come back around again. How many times? Who knows? But, it should come as no surprise that the mind that knows all languages will communicate those same mental abilities.

See Acts 2:4, “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Along with language of any kind is the mind that language issues from. The things we think are the things we communicate. We daily demonstrate our thinking in our talk, and in our walk. What we say and do are communications of what we believe. The old mind can be seen in how we walk and talk: our conversation: our face. The new mind can be seen not only in the new things we say, but also in the new things we do.

See the fruit we bear in Ezekiel 36:27, “I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them.”

According to another of our rather proliferous sayings, the individual with the new mind will ‘walk the talk’. The following verse not only shows us that the mind that has seen the end can communicate the same through our mentality; it also shows by exact wording that the new mind (the spirit) has a real relationship with our physical being.

That verse is Joel 2:28, “I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.”

The book of Proverbs is excellent reading. It deals with the new mind; it also deals with the old mind.

In it, we see contrasts between ‘men’ and the ‘sons of men’. In it, we see the differences between the wise man and the fool. One may note, in reading the book of Proverbs, the abundance of expressions dealing with mentality and communication. One should see that such terms as ‘understanding’, ‘knowledge’, ‘wisdom’, as well the ability to communicate such, as found in such terms as ‘law’, ‘instruction’, and ‘words’ are always presented in their relationship to the ‘spirit’.

See Proverbs 17:27, “He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.” Recall, if you will, the excellent spirit found in the prophet Daniel.

Job 32:8, tells us that “There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.”

This verse suggests that, along with the communication, there is a medium that may be communicated to. It suggests that the union of the spirit in man and the spirit of God produces the offspring of ‘knowledge’.

No such union would be possible if the spirit of man was totally alien to God. The insemination of inspiration would not occur unless some part of our nature opened to receive it. Let us remember that we were created in God’s image. The mind of man was made to receive the mind of God. See the romance in Proverbs 20:27, “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.”

That the union of the two natures cannot be a union of mutual exclusion - we look at concepts that have been around the block. The things communicated by men of old came from the mind of God. Of old, the Holy Ghost has been recognized as above and beyond Testament divisions.

See 2 Peter 1:21, “The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

These communications will not seem antiquated to the seeker. The seeker knows that the mind of God has been to the future; that it was that mind from which the men of old communicated. Those qualities that are imparted to us come from the mind that has seen the future; a mind that has gone to the very limit, having been magnified by all. When that mind shall return again to rest upon us, we shall be known by the attributes of that mind.

See Isaiah 11:2, “The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”

Communication imparts communication; receptivity enables receptivity. The two are joined at the hip.

The relationship is dynamic; living; growing.

See the ongoing process in Colossians 1:9, “Filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.”

If water is communicated to us, shall we, in turn, communicate sand? I think not. Our old minds are consumed, as a candle is consumed by the flame. But the old is replaced by the new - such as will bear up under a brighter, hotter fire. We are receptive to the hot intrusions of the spirit; those communications impart the nature of the communicator.

We speak not of ourselves anymore, as Exodus 4:12 informs us, “Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.”

If we, in turn, communicate what we have taken in of the mind of God (a communication that has reworked our old mind after the pattern of the new), what are we passing on but the inspiration (the inspirited mind) of the Almighty; the pattern of our recreated mentality?

See 1 Chronicles 28:11-12, “Then David gave to Solomon his son . . . the pattern of all that he had by the spirit.”

Furthermore, if God is a consuming fire, and His communication imparts to us His nature, is it any wonder that we may use incendiary words? Our minds are set on fire; nay, our minds are fire. Let our speech, then, be fiery; let our words burn and brand; let us never return to a cooler flame.

See the new, hot mind in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, “Quench not the Spirit.”

SEVEN Man and God: a two-sided coin As I said at the beginning of the previous section, there is a special relationship between the spiritual and the corporeal. The spirit exists in relation to the corporeal. The mind of God exists in relation to man’s physical state. This is the mind of God: He said, ‘I think, therefore I Am’.

We explore the mystery of the Trinity.

What is the relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost? We have seen that the word ‘spirit’ may be interchangeable with the word ‘mind’. We have seen that the ‘Holy Ghost’ has been called the ‘Holy Spirit of God’. Jesus told us that God is a ‘spirit’. We have read that one of God’s names is ‘Holy and Reverend’. God is a spirit named Holy and Reverend. The ‘Spirit’ is never simply called ‘Ghost’, but is always named ‘Holy’. If the Holy Ghost is the mind of God in man, then God is that mind. How is that mind communicated to man? It is communicated by the ‘Word’: another name for Jesus. God communicates His nature and mind to Jesus, Who in turn, communicates the Holy Spirit to men.

It’s all the same, as you can see in 1 John 5:7, “There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”

On the low-end, quantity ensures success. On the high-end quality ensures success. Many millions of single cells overcome the odds, and a few survive to carry on. Many cells combine into organs: a tactic of higher level survival. Many organs perish to bring about the survivor-organ. These further ensure success when competition ceases, and they team together to work as one. It’s called a body.

In our natural world, we see the low-end in salmon. Thousands of thousands perish to ensure success.

In these low-end organisms, we see the gestalt mind. Flocks of sheep bolt as one; clouds of birds wheel as if a single entity. We also see, in the low-end, agreement, solidarity, oneness. But what is the thing about man? Where does man fit into such a scheme? In the low-end, all the instincts in a flock of sheep are the same; their working in unison gives the appearance of single-mindedness. In man, our thoughts are similar, yet diverse.

Only those things held in common may be considered the ‘glue’ of oneness. There is oneness, for example, in speaking the same language. There is oneness in a common faith. The analogy already given by Christ is the analogy of the grape. In a cluster of grapes, any one grape is like all other grapes.

They are not alike, or one, for any quality of the grape as an individual. They are one because they all draw their oneness from the same vine.

See the great grape matter in 1 Corinthians 6:17, “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.”

We draw, all of us, from the same vine. We must come to see that the things we draw into ourselves are the same things that others draw into themselves. We cannot say to the next grape over, one just as plump and purple as ourselves: hey, you’re bad. If we’ve drawn goodness, the other has also drawn goodness.

See 1 Thessalonians 4:8, “He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, Who hath also given unto us His Holy Spirit.”

We behold mankind in the light of God’s special relationship with them. It is indeed special, but not as many have appointed it to be: a thing of rarity and distance.

See Genesis 41:38, “Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?”

It is all too easy to note the heroes of scripture in possession of the spirit of God. Note Numbers 27:18, “Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit.”

Also note Luke 23:46, “When Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost.”

It is all too easy to forget that the very life and mind are shared in common with those more recorded than ourselves. See Ephesians 2:22, “In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”

Moses was a temple of God, Joshua was too. Joseph was a temple of God, and, who can doubt that Christ had the mind of God? But, the mind of God also dwells in the common man.

See 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

Right here, right now: God is in my head.

Some individuals prefer to cling to their individuality. They see themselves as singular and apart. They see themselves, under their own volition, as able to navigate any wave or waterway. Some, under their own volition, have traveled to the cluster. They say to themselves, ‘here I am in the body of grapes; therefore, I must be a grape’. I doubt you’ll ever find a Muscadine in a cluster of grapes: only the vine can make a grape.

See 1 Corinthians 6:15 & 19, “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”

It is only the mind of the vine that dictates the reality of the cluster. The mind of the grape is the mind of the vine. It is a process of development by which the grapes, being infused, reach maturity.

Read Romans 8:11, “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.”

That spirit, that mind that dwells in us, as this scripture indicates, is the very same spirit that dwelled in Jesus. The formula is this: Christ was a two-sided coin. He was physical man on the one side, and Spirit of God on the other. More than just identification, Christ’s name is a reputation of high-end quality. When I shop for the very best in jeans, I look for the name ‘Levi Strauss’. When we are “in the name” of Jesus, it is no mere expression for verbal repetitions: it is an ambassadorship. While not being the genuine article, we are as much the two-sided coin as our present level allows. We have drunk into the same spirit, or mind. It can be said then, being more than the symbolic ceremony of baptism, that our old mind is awash with new fluids. The clutter is washed away; the holy nature of the new mind shines forth. Our drawing from the ‘vine’ is supported by all others who draw from the same mind.

See 1 Corinthians 6:11, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” I know I’m going on and on about the grape, but, Hey! - I wouldn’t welch on you.

I am pointing to a direction. We do not initiate the process: it is not from man to God, but from God to man. There is no muscle we can flex that will cause the mind of God to develop from the flesh. The mind of God is A Priori, and as previously surmised, God is manifesting the spiritual into the corporeal.

You’ve heard of the pearl of great price: that is the mind of God in man.

See Zechariah 4:6, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit.”

The process runs from thought to action; from spiritual to corporeal. Remember, it’s a dance in which God leads. I have asserted that our cognitive abilities are spiritual; that ‘spiritual’ and ‘communication’

go hand in hand; that there is no action without communication. Remember that? First is the spirit; then communication; finally comes action. From the highest and biggest to the smallest and lowest, mind truly is over matter.

See Job 26:13, “By His spirit He hath garnished the heavens; His hand hath formed the crooked serpent.”

EIGHT The power of the mind Now we, being small and immature, may look at someone in an advanced state and say, ‘Wow! Signs and wonders!’, but, those signs and wonders come from the mind of God - the same mind He has placed in all of us. When we mature to that higher level, it is certain that there will be greater familiarity, but, I think there will be just as many ‘wows’. It will always be ‘signs and wonders’: it will always be the ‘power of the mind of God’.

See Romans 15:19, “Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.” Let us remember, here, that most of our reality is cyclic: that (perhaps) the mind of God is cyclic communication imparting the cyclic nature of the communicator.

For this, see Psalms 104:29-30, “Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy spirit, they are created: and Thou renewest (restart) the face of the earth.”

That being said . . .

There is more strength in spirituality than there is in corporeality. Many an individual has had an inclination to do thus and thus, but as Acts 16:7 says, “The Spirit suffered them not.”

The spirit is mightier than the flesh. I’ve no doubt that such strength is the true root of our expression ‘mind over matter.’

See how the spiritual can affect the corporeal in Ezekiel 3:14, “So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away.”

It was a matter of resignation in early man. He knew that the spirit, or mind, of God, was like the wind, changing direction without notice. Early man placed God at a distance.

See early man’s trouble with the mind of God in 1 Kings 18:12, “The Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not . . . but I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth.”

Men not only believed that the mind of God had power over the flesh, but actual records of the occurrence of such events made their way into scripture via eyewitness accounts.

See Acts 8:39, “And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.”

Men placed God at great distances from themselves. The sons of men began to see that the works of God could issue out from their own communicated minds. The power within was there because the mind of God had been imparted through communication.

See 1 Corinthians 2:4, “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power.”

The sons of men began to understand.

See communication imparting the nature of the communicator in 1 Corinthians 2:10, “God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” Read that again, but now replace the word ‘spirit’ with the word ‘mind’. What does that do? It brings forth that God placed His mind in man so that with the mind we might search out the deep things of God. The culmination of the shared mind of God came by way of a very long process from the rare individual to the general population.

See the rare individual in Micah 3:8, “Truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might.”

We see a process akin to that of a scientist laboriously bringing about the seed of the ‘super-grape’; a process that is meant to guarantee a predictable result.

See the culmination of such labors in Luke 1:17, “He (John) shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts (minds) of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

We speak of a new breed; we speak of the sons of mankind. We assert that to these sons of mankind is communicated the mind of God. What a power within! It is a matter of the mind, seen clearly in the attributes of mentality - such as wisdom.

See Luke 2:40, “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.”

Also, we speak of something quite noticeable: the power of the mind – the very imprint of God. People will run to see such a thing and will remember it when other things have been forgotten.

See the imprint of the powerful mind of God in Luke 4:14, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about.”

A new and powerful mind cannot be found by looking in the same old places. One must necessarily turn his eyes in a new direction. You cannot fill a cup that is upside-down. Turn it up. At that point an action is possible.

See such a point of ‘activation’ in Numbers 24:2, “Balaam lifted up his eyes . . . and the spirit of God came upon him.”

See another point of ‘activation’ in Judges 6:34, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.”

See yet another point of ‘activation’ in Judges 11:29, “Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.”

Most of us have occasions where something just comes ‘all over us’. A chill runs up the spine, for instance, we laugh or cry without reason, or a sense of foreboding overcharges us with adrenaline. If you are such a person, then you can easily understand the word “upon” in these verses. The use of the word points to that moment of ‘activation’; the moment when something is evidenced as having come upon or changed the individual. It is the spirit; the mind that we receive of God. See it again in 2 Kings 2:9, “Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.”

‘Upon’ may also be viewed as a ‘one-up’, a term borrowed from the video game industry.

See the son of Kish one-up in 1 Samuel 10:6 & 10-11, “The Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man. And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them. And it came to pass, when all that knew him beforetime saw that, behold, he prophesied among the prophets, then the people said one to another, What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?”

One-ups, in the sense that I here put them forth, are temporary. Moreover, they are general and may speak of the elemental nature that lies dormant in man. It may have been a quick fix that a hero flew into a rage and slew thousands single-handedly, or it may be a matter of interpretation on man’s part or the fact that history seems to romanticize certain individuals.

Othniel seemed a young man of great determination; hailed as a deliverer, he was obviously the right man for that time. But Judges 3:10 may only be speaking of the ferocity of a warrior when it states, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war: and the Lord delivered Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed against Chushanrishathaim.”

On the other hand, God may have elevated Othniel to that level to address that single issue. On the third hand, however, if it was the ‘mind’ of God that came upon Othniel - well, God is also considered a man of war. We consider also the ‘might’ of a person that is not always evident, the skill and prowess that are evidenced in times of dire need, even the boldness to act as being of the communicated nature of God. Sometimes it is there for the present need, as in Judges 14:5-6, “Behold, a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid.”

See also Judges 14:19, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men.”

At other times, what we see is a more permanent change in the individual’s nature or character, as in 1 Samuel 16:13, “Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.”

When men became greater than their everyday self, or when they seemed bigger than life, the ‘spirit of the Lord’ may have been used generically to reference traits such as bold action, focus, or zeal.

See Judges 13:25, “The Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.”

And then - there is the romance of the berserker. Flying into a rage has often been romanticized. It is romanticized even in our present day by those who follow such sports as wrestling and boxing. In the old day, though, rage was a part of the ‘warrior persona’.

Why people think that flying into a rage has something to do with God I have yet to piece together, but see rage romanticized in 1 Samuel 11:6, “And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly.”

It may be that people respect a decisive solution; as when God deals with man in no uncertain terms.

See romanticized rage multiplied in Judges 15:14-15, “When he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.

And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.”

What if - the mind of God, at least in Moses, was a quality that grew? Do we see the ‘harvesting’ and replanting of God’s mind in our next reference?

Glean Numbers 11:25 & 29, “The Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease. Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!”

Those seventy elders were not always prophets. They were ordinary elders right up until the action was taken. When I say action, I mean a charge to commence; a beginning of some kind. I speak of a thing often called an ‘anointing’, as when Samuel anointed David: it was only afterward that the spirit was upon him.

It is interesting to view this next verse in that light. Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

It is a thing of the mind of God that we may see what is said. Christ did not say that He was sent to deliver, but that He was sent to ‘preach’ deliverance'. That, of course, is the communication that imparts the nature of the communicator - and Christ, after all, is deliverance.

NINE A New Focus I have called Jesus our example. As a man, I think, He was a model of how we ought to be. He walked the same road we do; He was baptized like any one of us is. We believe our Lord, so when He said what He said in John 3:6, we assume that He referred to Himself and to His followers as those who were ‘born of the spirit’.

We assume that Jesus was neither all flesh, nor all spirit, but He said in John 3:6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

I ask a rather separatist question, then. Being the first fruits, was Jesus the first to be ‘born again’?

Formerly, our eyes have glazed over at the hard sayings of scripture. Now, we train upon the truth a steelier eye. We take a new focus on the things that once eluded us. Things like the relationship between spiritual and corporeal. To be born of the spirit; to be the children of God – we wish to know just how that works. Is being born of the spirit (being spirit), as Jesus said in John 3:6, the same thing as being a child of God? Let’s see what the early writers thought.

Let’s see Romans 8:14, “For as many as are led by the Spirit (mind) of God, they are the sons of God.” That is a very straightforward statement. To be led by the spirit is to be born of the spirit. It isn’t hard to spot those born of the flesh: we’ve all been there. The focus of that type is on the flesh, and on what affects the flesh. They go on and on about bodily functions, about materials that affect the body. In their thinking, the final good is the physical good. Mentality and attitude in that type bear the brand of the flesh.

Romans 8:5 gives us the distinction between those born of (led by) the flesh, and those born of (led by) the spirit: “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”

Please recall that we have adopted the word ‘mind’ as an edifying substitute for the word ‘spirit’. It’s a matter of focus. Throughout this study, the general focus has been that our cognitive abilities are spiritual.

We sort of have a mantra to that effect: our cognitive abilities are spiritual; spiritual and communication go hand in hand; there is no action without communication.

How does one tell another that he is not in the visible flesh, but in the invisible spirit - and get away with the absurdity of the claim? It’s a matter of focus. The spirit filled are still real flesh and blood people; they have simply shifted the focus (the center of their whole being) from the flesh to the mind.

Focus for a moment on Romans 8:9, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit (mind), if so be that the Spirit (mind) of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit (mind) of Christ, he is none of His.” To have a new center of being; to have shifted the focus up, requires a changed inclination, a changed attitude. The things that once were important have been supplanted by newer, more vital issues.

See Romans 15:30, “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit (mind).”

The followers of Jesus were given a new focus. When they compared themselves to their predecessors, they saw that their focus had shifted up from the flesh. Their forefathers were the physical circumcision: that was their relationship to God. They lived by a formula that had them counting steps in the dark. That former connection in the flesh was replaced by one in the mind. They considered that the taking away of the caul from the mind was a spiritual circumcision.

Cut to Philippians 3:3, “We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit (mind), and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”

Why no confidence in the flesh? It was a dead end; no more than signs and tokens. If larger preparations led one to an ability to live largely, those preparations could not be found in ritual motions of the body. No matter what the body did, the body died. Ritual washing and other physical gesticulations became mute when one was empowered to prepare the mind for a new world.

See Galatians 6:8, “He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit (mind) shall of the Spirit (mind) reap life everlasting.”

In fact, a new kind of ‘washing’ had dawned in baptism. It was the washing of regeneration. The thesaurus gives us some enlightening alternatives to the word ‘regeneration’. Try these on for size: ‘better’, ‘improve’, ‘uplift’, ‘replace’, ‘re-create’.

Baptism, it seems, is the crossover point from the purely ritual to the spiritual. See the words of Christ in Mark 11:30, “The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? answer Me.” It’s mind over matter. Formerly, God’s loving-kindness toward men was ensured through compliance with a formula. Every early society had its rituals. God took a people to Himself and pointed their ritual inclinations away from the rest of the world. In doing so, man was given time to develop. When the early mind reached a critical alignment, it was given an example to follow. What was lost through Adam’s fall had to be renewed.

See the renewing of the Holy Ghost in Titus 3:4, “But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared.”

A spiritual ear. What do we pick up on?

So we built on former successes! The top rung of a ladder is not there for itself. It is there that we might reach a higher place. There is a place of change, and man simply must climb off that top rung. A new beginning must necessarily leave the old in its dust.

The sons of mankind moved into a spiritual dispensation, begun by Christ communicating the mind of God into men. It is the dispensation of the communicated mind.

See Galatians 3:2, 3 & 5, “Received ye the Spirit (mind) by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit (mind), are ye now made perfect by the flesh? He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit (mind), and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”

Man was made a living soul by a communication from God. The Holy Ghost was then, for the most part, lost. However, man still had access to the spirit; the mind of God. Man had to begin an ascent from the very clay of his corporeal nature. I speak of an evolution of the spiritual that dragged physical man along behind. Man began as natural: that is on a par with the animals. As natural, man could progress but so far. Then came the point of crossover. When Christ is referred to as the last Adam, it is said that He was ‘made’, or turned into, a ‘quickening spirit’. But Jesus was a flesh and blood man, protests the mind. How could He be an invisibility? My, how the old mind clings! Time to check out the thesaurus.

Enlivening psyche or mind.

A communicator of the living mind. See 1 Corinthians 15:45-47, “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.”

The second man, by extension, must include all of us who are changed into the image of Christ. Those of us who have the communicated mind of God: the Holy Ghost. Are we, then, Lords from heaven also?

Communication is key. Spiritual issues are passed back and forth like currency. It is the norm that a father will share his substance with his child. An allowance, if you will. Fathers give such to their young, without regard to their level of understanding, degree of righteousness, or spiritual inclination.

Back in the day, the allowance might have been in sheep or goats, granted; the point of the communication is that the children follow in the steps of the father. The family business, and the nature and skills of the father, like a mantle, would pass to the children.

See the good gift in Luke 11:13, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” So God, through Jesus (the word), communicates the mind of God, the Holy Ghost, into man. It races forward like a spiritual chain letter. Everyone who gets a letter passes it on. Everyone that is ministered to becomes a minister. We are all emissaries of the mind of God. A sick person depends on others for help. A well person is at liberty. If you took the blood of Christ, made a vaccine with it and inoculated the next person in line; then, made a vaccine from that person’s blood and repeated the process, by the time everyone was inoculated, not only would everyone share

immunity, they would share the same substance. If the mind of God is our immunization, we share the mind of God and are fit to live in self-governance.

Roll up your sleeve for an injection of 2 Corinthians 3:8 & 17, “How shall not the ministration of the spirit (mind) be rather glorious? Now the Lord is that Spirit (mind): and where the (Holy) Spirit (mind) of the Lord is, there is liberty (immunity and self-government).”

A single mind indwells, but not just the mechanics of thought. A real personality comes with the Holy Mind of God. A Christ-like personality is ours, and an active personality that doesn’t simply wait to be called on. It also functions independently of our faculty of choice. Our new mind does things we can only guess about.

See Romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit (mind) also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit (mind) itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

The very nature of that new mind, like the indication of a finger ring beneath a glove, can be plainly seen in us. Manifestations of the invisible are detectable in the corporeal plain and are therefore proof of spirituality.

See the detectable invisibility in 1 Corinthians 12:4, “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.”

It is the same mind, but not the same in every man.

See also 1 Corinthians 12:7, 8 & 11, “The manifestation of the Spirit (mind) is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit (mind) the word of wisdom (communication); to another the word of knowledge (communication) by the same Spirit (mind); To another faith by the same Spirit (mind); to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit (mind); To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy (communication); to another discerning of spirits (minds); to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit (mind), dividing to every man severally as He will.”

Two questions come to my (mind) regarding faith. Why doesn’t everyone have faith, and how is faith communicated?

Can a shift up; a new focus, help us see the invisible? Some people call our ‘point of activation’ an epiphany. But, ‘epiphany’ is a word that casts a shadow on itself. Such words fall into the hands of the contrary, and through their usage receive an improper connotation. But, the mind in man may be activated. Even the worldly share in that. A new focus may have, as part of its overall package, a new direction. To see the invisible, one opens the eyes where others look not.

Look at Matthew 3:16, “And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him.” Did Jesus speak from that new focus?

He said in John 4:24, “God is a Spirit (mind): and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit (mind) and in truth.”

Does a mind require mental?

Does spirit demand spiritual?

The world says that ‘seeing is believing’. That is a concept that may be worked two ways. The one way would be to prepare for seeing: to strive and practice. You begin with a thought that there may be something you don’t see on the far horizon. Do you disclaim its existence? No. You get binoculars. Lo! And behold, there it is. The other way would be to reject every unseen thing out of hand.

There is the seeing eye, and there is the unseeing eye. The former is accompanied by the mind and thus may see things the unseeing eye cannot.

See the difference in John 14:17, “Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you.”

To see and to know can be the same. The world wants to hunt for floating lights and spooky noises.

That is just looking for physical manifestations. We seekers believe that to know the invisible is to see the invisible. The world wants the eye alone to see a proof: that is self-defeating. Once an invisibility is known (seen with the mind), it is no longer invisible.

In the end, the world seeks only self-justification.

We practice a different skill.

See Jeremiah 22:16, “He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know Me? saith the Lord.”

Book Four What Exactly Is Spiritual?

ONE The Effort to See An expression of sight. We use it in our communications daily. It is this: “I see.” Our expression is not used to suggest the seeing of physical objects so much as to say ‘I agree’, ‘I know’, ‘I understand’. I have said that knowing can be the same as seeing - seems others have said the same thing. To know (or to see) spiritually, by which I mean ‘mentally’, takes a deliberate effort. One has either wide open spiritual eyes or sleepy little spiritual eyes with heavy lids. People try but a little, then tire; the eyelids droop. They say, “I just don’t see it”. This type is the un-exercised type: soft and flabby, mentally

speaking. We seekers, on the other hand, exercise those mental muscles; we stretch our spiritual sinews: we are a buff new breed.

When it comes to the exercise of understanding, it must be said that knowledge is like x-ray vision.

Case in point: since we know that our physical world is ‘built’ around function and intent, we may look at the outside of a barn and see the bales of hay stacked behind the walls. In an earlier analogy, I put forth the ‘gloved hand’. Now, obviously, we cannot see the hand for the glove, but, we can see the glove. And what is the glove exactly? It is a thing built around the hand, made to fit the form and function of the hand. The hand is hand-shaped, therefore, the glove is hand-shaped. Though we may not see the hand for the glove, we may know the hand by seeing the glove. Crude work gloves may give but an indication of the underlying hand, while refined silk gloves may give up the added information of a ring on one of the fingers. Then again, a form-fitting pair of surgeons’ gloves can offer the clear imprint of knuckles, creases in the skin, and even manicured fingernails.

It should be no wonder that Christ said, in John 12:45, “He that seeth Me seeth Him that sent Me.” Look closely, please. Christ said that we can look upon His physical, visible body and see the invisible God inside. Of course, since the physical eye will only see the glove, man must wake up his sleeping spiritual eye. Are you spiritually awake, or spiritually asleep? Are you spiritually (mentally) alert and watchful in regard to higher issues?

See the spiritually asleep in Proverbs 4:19, “The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.”

See the call to be spiritually awake in Mark 13:35-37, “Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.”

The spiritually asleep, mentioned in Mark 13, reference individuals stumbling through life with no regard for higher issues.

A spiritual issue cannot sneak past you unless you are negligent of spiritual issues. Now, the world is notorious for its gross negligence of things spiritual. They deny the light and stumble in the dark.

They imagine that the things they stumble at are of their choice. But how would they know? They think they tripped on a rock, when, without light to see by, it could have been God tying their shoelaces together. This is the bottom line: blind ignorance is a rope stretched across every man’s path. One cannot step high enough to avoid it by stepping blindly. The only step that can avoid it is the step of opening one’s spiritual eye to the light.

See another admonition to wakefulness in 1 Thessalonians 5:6, “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.”

In this fourth book, I ask, ‘what exactly is spiritual’? I have said that spiritual is mental, but here, we begin with spiritual states as recorded by the early writers of scripture. Spirit has been called many things by many writers. Numerous individual attributes have been ascribed to spirit, and these individualities are like milling sheep, each one seeking its own mouthful of turf. Here, we will attempt to lead these individualities into the stable, and see if, together, they constitute a flock. We see the ‘generalized’ spirit, and we note the ‘spirit of’. We understand that early writers used the word ‘spirit’

to identify natural and common states of the human condition. Something of the nature of man is also of the nature of spirit.

See Ecclesiastes 2:17, “Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.”

Everyone has felt ‘vexed’ at some point in their life. Is this verse in Ecclesiastes an affirmation that every human has a spiritual component? Is that component ‘mental’, as I have asserted?

See the ‘spirit of’ that component in 2 Timothy 1:7, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

The question must be asked, is a ‘sound mind’ a spiritual quality? The effort to know, that is, to see the spiritual, is like knowing the invisible wind by the movement of trees. Sometimes a tree will move but slightly. Other times it is uprooted. Thus, the wind may be ‘seen’ in its levels of strength. Above that, there are levels in the whole spectrum of matter. One may look at the lower level of water, and learn much about the higher level of wind. In man, there are spiritual levels: from the babe to the adept, from the nature of man to the nature of God. Our next reference contrasts the two obvious levels of physical and mental. More important, it shows us which one God prefers.

Romans 2:29, “But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit (that is: the mind), and not in the letter (a set formula); whose praise is not of men, but of God.” In other words, God respects the inner man of the mind; the true people of God are those who have deliberately cut away the gross caul of worldly thought to reveal the true mind. That newly exposed mind is man’s ‘God-mind’.

See the lower and the higher mind plainly in 1 Corinthians 2:11, “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit (or mind) of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit (or mind) of God.” Our present topic: mental levels between the mind of man and the mind of God. These two extremes, as our next reference suggests, are like oil and water.

See 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit (or mind) of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (by the mind of God).”

Now, obviously, none of the early writers were experts on the mind of man. Some approached a measure of expertise. The psychiatrists and psychologists of our day and age are no closer. If all modern psychological knowledge is based in the premise of our cognition being the neural firings of a corporeal brain, I must confess that modern professionals are less the experts than early writers. No wonder man has so much trouble approaching God: he has reduced mentality to a formula that he may control. Such an amputated creature will never stand.

But, we can begin to find our legs in Ecclesiastes 11:5, “As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit (mind), even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.”

If we do not understand God, it is that we do not understand the God that is in us. If we act against God, it is that we act against the God that is our own higher nature. The next reference shows Ananias acting against God. Was he acting against the God of other men, or the God that ruled from within?

See the higher quality of man in Acts 5:3-5, “Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.”

We speak of the Holy mind of God. It is an implant, a thing grafted into man. As such, we now have a nature higher than our former selves. The Holy Spirit inside of us gives to us an added dimension. The Holy Spirit of God is now our higher nature. As the ‘children of men’, we have reached a point where the ‘oil and water’ has become ‘milk and honey’ - that we may know the good and avoid the evil. It is only by the ‘God-mind’ that we may know the good and evil.

See Ecclesiastes 9:1, “No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.”

What is before the natural man but the corporeal world? The children of men have received a higher mind, and it is that better nature alone that may justify or condemn a son of man.

See Matthew 12:31, “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.”

TWO Our New Mind God’s spirit, God’s very mind, has been placed inside of us. God does not entrust such a treasure to us lightly. He has, in fact, entrusted Himself to our keeping. How will you treat such an endowment? Will the hungry speak ill of free food? Will the thirsty scorn a cool drink? Yes, one might – if worldly ignorance is a caul so burdensome that one never sees a thing for what it truly is. In the previous segment, Ananias blasphemed the Holy Ghost with a lie. We should now better understand the nature of blasphemy.

In case we do not, see the extended definition of blasphemy in Mark 3:28-30, “Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation: Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.”

God has placed in us something truly wonderful; how dare we call it base?

God is in my head, and I’m thrilled. Now I can begin to know the works of God. I can begin to piece together just how the spirit affects the flesh.

‘Mind over matter’ seems somewhat a musty phrase; and yet – see Romans 8:27, “He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” He knows it because it is His own. Just think, every human that either performed or witnessed a miracle; that is: those who were in some connection to the spirit, had a heart-searching, mind knowing God in their heads. Every person that ever prayed the best they could, and afterward rested in hope, was helped along by intercessions according to the will of God. Every individual that was turned down a wrong road, or turned up a right road; every human being that fell or stood back up, that wandered into the arms of friends or into the nests of enemies: every one of them was affected by the mind. Wars have been won by manipulations upon a single mind. A Godless mind will lead an individual to great pains; a ‘God-mind’ will lead an individual through great pains. Similarly, it must be said that one’s choices and willful actions can also affect the mind. A simple misinterpretation can lead to a domino cascade of bad decisions.

Be warned by Malachi 2:16, “Therefore take heed to your spirit (mind), that ye deal not treacherously.”

Our identities are tied into a mental focus. The corporeal brain interacts with and reacts to the physical condition and the affectations of most immediate consequence. Naturally, the natural man pays attention to the natural world. That is his primary focus. A spiritual focus, on the other hand, will place the corporeal impulse on a back burner. The following reference puts me in mind of the fall of Adam and Eve. See Romans 8:13, “If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

This admonition is somewhat similar to the one given Adam in the garden: ‘if you eat the forbidden fruit, you will die’. Adam and Eve were of two contrasting mindsets. Whereas their focus had formerly gone in another direction, they came to a turning point: a point where they turned away from the previous mental focus, a point where they followed an impulse.

As contrasting mindsets go, identity can be known by its identifying markers. The identification process can be summed up in an equation where both sides are equal. The logic involved can be simple and straightforward: ‘B’ is ‘B’ because it falls between ‘A’ and ‘C’. We use this type of logic as second nature; without really ever giving it a thought: ‘up’ is ‘up’ because it is not ‘down’; ‘high’ or ‘right’ or ‘spiritual’ are what they are because they are not ‘low’ or ‘wrong’ or ‘worldly’.

See John 3:31-34, “He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth; and no man receiveth His testimony. He that hath received His testimony (the sons of men) hath set to his seal that God is true. For He(/he) whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit (His mind) by measure unto Him(/him).”

Heaven is a roof that is over the whole house. In a house, there may be a couch in the living room, and a stove in the kitchen. The roof covers both; both are thus made equal. In a house, the attic is above the second floor, and the basement is below the first floor. There are levels, yet the roof covers all equally.

The roof is above all in the sense that all parts of the house are connected and affected by it. The focus here is shifting from that which holds the house up to that which holds the house together. God knows

the mind of the spirit because it is His own. And God is a spirit – yet, the Holy Spirit of God is referenced as if it is a separate and distinct quality. It is referenced as if the changes within it affect God to the extent that He takes on a different mindset, or focus; even a different personality.

See God recognizing His changed nature in Isaiah 63:10 & 11, “But they rebelled, and vexed His Holy Spirit: therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them. Then He remembered the days of old, Moses, and His people, saying, Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? where is He that put His Holy Spirit within him (Moses)?”

God is a spirit, said His only begotten. So, why do we see early writers writing “grieve not the Holy Spirit of God” instead of “grieve not God”? This style of writing seems to separate a spiritual God from His spirit. A conundrum – unless you recall that all along, I have suggested that the word ‘spirit’ is interchangeable with the word ‘mind’. If you were to grieve me, you would, in fact, be making yourself an annoyance to my mind. My mind would recognize the offense; my mind would convince my identity to enact a response to the affront. If you hoped to borrow from me, and then annoyed me, your hope would stand on shifting sands because your action changed more than our relationship: it changed me. Formerly a friend, presently an enemy: the surety of the loan has now evaporated.

See Ephesians 4:30, “Grieve not the Holy Spirit (the Holy Mind) of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”

We move from valleys of verity to coastlands of confusion. Early writers placed ‘spirit’ as commonly attributable to human nature. They also used the word for God. They wrote of invisibilities, no wonder they had difficulty remaining zeroed in. One would say, it’s a chair in the study; another would say, it’s a bed in the master bedroom. I say it is the whole house. The early writers wrote of the Holy Ghost from myriad points of view, all colored by highly localized ideologies. We are not engaged in woolgathering, but we are still intent on gathering sheep. We will round up the individualities, or they will flock together. Our new mind is prepared for spiritual discernment. God is in our heads; we know that He will show us what He wants us to see.

THREE Crook’d Staff in Hand As I said, we gather individual sheep into a flock. What are these individualities, exactly? They are the various points of view held by the early writers; they are the myriad personalized notions, differing from one another in certain respects, but all built beneath the same roof. The sons of men have invested a great deal of time and effort in the attempt to ‘figure things out’. We point to some of those early efforts in the interpretation of invisibilities. We have heard that there is one God, and His name is One. We are assured that God is a spirit: Jesus said so. We have argued that ‘spirit’ and ‘mind’ are interchangeable. But - does God have more than one mind? Is the Holy Ghost (or spirit, or mind) but one of many?

See Revelation 4:5, “And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits (minds) of God.” Sevens abound in the book of Revelation. One point of reference to this profundity of sevens might be the seven stars of Orion. But, Revelation, the book, is laid out in this order: Jesus makes the revelation to His angel, then His angel conveys the message to John who, in turn, records the matter.

The very fact that Jesus has an angel suggests that spirit requires a vehicle, but we will leave that for now. Here, I merely wish to put forth the testimony of the Son of God. I wish to point out that the message of seven spirits, along with its reference to Orion, comes from the Only Begotten.

See Revelation 3:1, “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits (minds) of God, and the seven stars.”

Since Jesus is the keeper of the seven spirits of God, it follows that they each will confess that Jesus is the genuine article. This supposition places good and evil spirits in opposition.

See 1 John 4:2, “Hereby know ye the Spirit (or spirits) of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.” That notion is corroborated in 1 Corinthians 12:3, “Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit (mind) of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.”

The idea of seven minds is intriguing. Are they satellites circling the greater God-Mind, or are they constituents in the makeup of the God-Mind? I am not certain if the many different icons of the spirits; I.E.: ‘lamps’, ‘horns’, ‘eyes’, etc., are simply other colorful ways to describe the invisible, or wholly separate references, as in ‘stars’.

Nevertheless, any one of the seven minds is like a lamp; is like an eye (as in going to and fro in the earth); is like a horn, but, does this latter descriptor mean ‘trumpet’, or does it reference an ‘alter’?

I think the point to pay attention to in our next scriptural reference is that they were ‘sent’ into the world.

See Revelation 5:6, “And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits (minds) of God sent forth into all the (corporeal) earth.”

In reading the verse, I am made to wonder if the slaying of ‘the Lamb’ was not the impetus that caused the seven spirits of God to be sent forth: in that regard, recall Christ’s own words about a seed falling into the ground and dying.

We can, at this juncture, only guess, but such verses as these do give us valuable new insights into these topics. While many paths of investigation may follow the declaration of seven minds, I wish to address but one. I ask this: is there a hierarchy within the seven spirits? Our next scripture suggests a base for a hierarchy, or if you will, the four corners of the roof.

See four of the seven minds in Zechariah 6:5, “And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth.”

I get the sense that they do not leave the Lord’s presence so much as issue, or radiate outward from Him. They are like the four winds or the four directions. Nevertheless, they are the four heavenly minds of God, and they have issued forth into the corporeal world; into the heads of men.

Are there four distinctly recognizable types of the spiritual individual? Or, does the spiritual type evince all four heavenly minds? And there is another jewel of information to be found in this verse: it is that our spiritual God is the Lord of all the earth. The connection is plain. Spiritual and corporeal are bound together: God may no longer be placed at inaccessible distances; He is right here beside us.

So, we move on to the remaining three spirits. Dare we hope that they have names? Well, one has a very familiar appellation.

See John 14:17, “Even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”

Truth is everything that is; spirit is mind. The knowledge of everything that is (the knowledge of Jesus) is an eye-opening onto the spiritual realm. Men do not have such eyes; the sons of men do. So, one of the three remaining spirits is named ‘Spirit of Truth’.

Note from the verse that the world neither sees nor knows Him. Knowing is seeing. We don’t even have to ask who the Spirit of Truth is; He is the Comforter; He is the Holy Ghost; the mind of God. It was Jesus that declared the Holy Ghost to be the Spirit of Truth - that is, the mind of truth. He also said that spirit, or mind, issues or radiates out from the presence of the Lord of all the earth. As you read about that mind in the next verse, recall that one of Christ’s other names is ‘the Truth’.

Read about the mind of Truth in John 15:26, “When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me.” In the book of Revelation, Jesus speaks to the seven angels of the seven churches. It might be that Jesus is the angel that houses the Mind of Truth. Conceivably, that housing of the Mind of Truth is what makes the angel ‘Truth’. The angel, as a glove, is built to fit the form and function of what it houses.

Perhaps the Mind of Truth is the central mind, leaving three minds on the left and three minds on the right. The innermost two minds on either side of the mind of Truth constitute the four spirits (minds)of the heavens. What the outermost two minds are remain to be seen. Just a thought.

There is some vague connection between the angel of the church (a group of people) and the mind of the angel. The message went out to the angel of the church. Was it then not intended for the church? Is the conglomerate mind of the body of believers the form that houses the form and function of the angel? Some synonyms for the word conglomerate are fusion, composite, amalgamation, union, and marriage.

Are we just talking levels, here? At any rate, to know is to see. Equally true: to know is to hear.

There is an expression that Jesus repeats in the book of Revelation, thus ascribing importance to it. Do you have a spiritual ear? What do you pick up on?

Hear Revelation 2:11, “He that hath an (spiritual) ear, let him hear what the Spirit (mind) saith unto the churches.”

Two unnamed spirits remain to be discovered. Let us hope that our ears are cocked in the right direction when those names are uttered.

FOUR Am I a rock, Am I an Island?

(Are your thoughts really your own?)

Paraphrase: ‘Whoever has a spiritual ear, let him hear what the mind says to the people (congregation)’.

Many believe in their own isolation, in the independence of their existence, will, and thought. What if such an attitude amounts to turning a blind eye to, or wearing blinders so you just don’t see what kind of mind you actually have? ‘I am a rock, I am an island’ may be a lie.

Would you know if your mind was overpowered by a greater mind? You may not have enough practice to discern one mind from the other. It may be that all mentality feels the same. I assert that your mind may not be your own. If God is a spirit, and spirit is mind, then every brain built to fit that form and function will house that form and function. To any who deny it, the influence of that form and function will be sporadic and forced, but you may not feel a thing: the thought will seem your own. To any who will open to that form and function, strong feelings and energetic displays will be misleading: actually, the thought will seem your own.

Let’s review some recorded instances from scripture. You may draw your own conclusions, that is, if you still think they are your own. Check out these references for higher influences.

Ezra 6:22, “(God) turned the heart (mind) of the king of Assyria unto them.”

Proverbs 21:1, “The king's heart (mind) is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will.”

Ezra 7:27, “The Lord God . . . hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart (mind).”

Job 12:24-25, “He taketh away the heart (mind) of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. They grope in the dark without light, and He maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.”

Refer back to watching and being sober. Here are more of the same.

2 Kings 19:27-28, “But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against Me. Because thy rage against Me and thy tumult is come up into Mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and My bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.”

2 Chronicles 18:31, “Therefore they compassed about him to fight: but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him; and God moved them to depart from him.”

Job 5:17, “Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty.”

I have plenty more.

We see that people normally wear blinders from such verses as Romans 1:28-32, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate (libertine) mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

That says quite a lot. Finally, the sons of men recognize that something has been added to the mix.

Add Jeremiah 10:23 to this list, “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.”

Where do thoughts come from? Like gears in a clock, neural firings are but one aspect of the whole.

Let us for a moment return to an early illustration. Nature teaches us the connection of ‘twos’.

A man cannot walk by putting only one leg forward. That would be hopping. A man walks by alternating two legs.

A man cannot breathe by only inhaling. A man cannot breathe by exhaling only. Either of those is a recipe for a red face. A man breathes by alternating between the two.

Nutritional maintenance is not just a matter of intake, but also a matter of purging. We see function in sets.

Likewise, traffic on a highway goes in two directions.

Now, some will prick their ears forward at my last statement; they will sit up and say, ‘there are oneway highways and one-way streets’. Of course, there are. I lived on a one-way street, but just one block over, traffic turned in the opposite direction. Sets. There are one-way highways, but look around: somewhere close by is another one-way highway going in the opposite direction. Sets. The brain is such a highway. Traffic goes in two directions.

See the oncoming headlights in Nehemiah 2:12, “What my God had put in my heart (mind).”

If thoughts were only worldly neural firings, there would be no thoughts of God: not a suspicion, much less a belief.

Again, Nehemiah 7:5, “My God put into mine heart (mind).”

Had man never risen above the level of the animal, we would presently be functioning on instinctual experience. But, we have been given knowledge: a communicated spiritual quality. And, what is communicated but the nature of the communicator?

See Psalms 94:10, “He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not He know?”

Yes, man is able to teach man. That is one of the usual arguments - the one, in fact, that brandishes the ‘a priori mind of man’. Yet, our very experience answers that no man is able to teach what he has not learned. Where do thoughts come from? I assert that thoughts are spiritual communications.

See Isaiah 51:16, “I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.”

Now that’s an interesting phrase: ‘plant the heavens’. The Mormons might say we each get our own planet to rule, but we’ll leave that for later. We study the spiritual quality called mentality. How do the heavens get planted, and by what seed? Some will automatically make the connection.

See, for example, Matthew 13:23, “But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit.”

Jesus also said that heaven was like a field that a man sowed with mustard seed.

Again, see Matthew 13:37, “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man (and by extension, the sons of men).”

And again, Mark 4:32, “But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all.”

Luke 8:11, “The seed is the word of God.” And finally, John 12:24, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

Yes, heaven is all about the mind of God communicated to us through Christ; about Christ being planted and bringing forth identical seeds to be planted; about the exponential magnification of God.

FIVE What exactly is spiritual?

Weights and counterweights.

Most of us have seen the novelties that spin on department store shelves. They are like wheels within wheels, and they spin like gyros in several directions at once. They go on and on with seemingly impossible longevity. But, if just one weight is wrong or falls out of sync, the entire gizmo grinds to a halt. Our minds, with their concomitant emotional states, are like those novelties. We might also liken our minds to suns, (and this seems apt) with our emotions as orbiting planets, our affectations as orbiting moons, and our passions as meteors that swing by ever so often on their elliptical journeys.

The obvious part is that the sun’s gravitational force affects the paths of the planets. What isn’t as obvious to most is that the planets and moons, and even the meteors, exert an influence on the sun. Our minds affect our emotions, affectations, and passions. Likewise, our emotions, affectations, and passions influence our minds.

We have sorrow, but we would rather laugh. We have pain where we would rather feel nothing. We suffer the loss of loved ones. It seems like everything and everyone, except ourselves, is allowed to exert control over our lives. When we bemoan our woes, we like to ask, “why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?”

See the age-old complaint in Job 21:17, “God distributeth sorrows in His anger.”

And it’s all true; God allows bad things to happen to good people. But, here’s the kicker: many complainers are bad people who just claim to be good. To look past our noses, we must admit to a truth of broader scope: God allows bad things to happen to good people, good things to happen to good people, bad things to happen to bad people, and good things to happen to bad people. The old complaint is just so much sterile argument.

Recently, a mudslide in the Philippines killed nearly 2,000 people. Whether they were good or bad; whether they were Christian or non-Christian is pointless to debate. There were survivors. It now falls to them to make some sense of their losses. They will struggle; they will find a way to cope.

As I have said, a Godless mind will lead an individual to great pains; a ‘God-mind’ will lead an individual through great pains.

See why in Ecclesiastes 7:3, “Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart (the mind) is made better.”

Life’s hardships have, at least once, been referred to as the act of pruning a fruitless tree: a remedial act intended as an alternative to destruction. Mankind has often been referenced as a sort of crop that produces something of value to God. Sometimes we are sheep; sometimes we are fruit trees; sometimes we are clusters of grapes. As to the fecundity of grape clusters, that all depends on the vine. If we are sheep, the harvest is our wool: a thing we naturally produce. If we are trees that should bear fruit but do not, the owner has two choices. He can destroy the non-productive tree, or he can work with it in the attempt to turn things around.

So God prunes the tree - is there only one way to interpret being trimmed? No. But, many only see in a one-dimensional way: that is that God is allowing bad things to happen to good people.

Another interpretation is found in Deuteronomy 30:6, “The Lord thy God will circumcise (trim) thine heart (mind), and the heart (mind) of thy seed, to (so that you can) love the Lord thy God

with all thine heart (mind), and with all thy soul (the mind of your angelic other), that thou mayest live.”

Yeah, we like to imagine it’s about us, but it’s not. God is working His own work, for His own purpose.

As for us, we either will or will not allow ourselves to be brought into harmony with God’s plan. We are here to benefit God. If all He wants is my wool, that’s fine with me. If He likes my fruit so much that He prunes me to produce more of it, that’s cool. I am aware that those things in my life that are for my good, even answered prayers, are of more benefit to God. See it for yourself in 1 Kings 9:3, “The Lord said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before Me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put My name there for ever; and Mine eyes and Mine heart (mind) shall be there perpetually.”

A spiritual being affecting corporeality for spiritual ends.

What would be the benefit achieved in 1 Kings 17:22? “The Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.”

Is it for the body alone, or might it also be for the soul?

God’s reasons are His own, His purposes spiritual. Remember ‘ingestion’? Remember the 'communicated nature of the communicator'? If you remember those pieces of the puzzle, then try putting them together with the ‘fruit’ we are called on to bear.

Puzzle over Jeremiah 3:15, “I will give you pastors according to Mine heart (mind), which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.”

You may ask, “Just what is God after?” If He has planted fields of wisdom, should it come as any surprise that wisdom is the harvest?

Glean Luke 16:8, “And the Lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.”

I have read somewhere that there are two ways to learn a thing. The first way to learn comes through being truly interested in the subject. The second way to learn is to have the material hammered into our thinking time after time after time. Most of us subscribe to the latter method. Such repetitions drive a nail home. So let me hammer you once more with the fact that spiritual and corporeal are not mutually exclusive. Receive the blow one more time that a spiritual God is realizing Himself into a corporeal host - you. Where do you look to find God? 1Corinthians 6:13, “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.”

I have stated that a man cannot teach what he has not learned. And, isn’t learning to receive the communications of one who communicates? What exactly is spiritual? By that question I mean, what exactly is spiritual from our perspective? God, a spiritual being, imparts spirituality into corporeal hosts. He communicates His nature, His mind, His will. If we can recognize any of that within ourselves, what we come to understand is exactly spiritual.

In passing the word ‘doctrine’ through the filter of a thesaurus, I found that every alternative word could be associated with the transmission and the reception of mentality.

What is Jesus really saying in John 7:14-17? “Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me. If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself.”

There has ever been a spiritual component to the sons of men. It is that spiritual side to us (our inner man) that runs afoul of the law. It is that part of us that chooses, rather than reacting instinctively, that leads us contrary to the utilitarian nature of God. If that were not so, we should be no more at fault than the lion that kills to eat. God communicates God to man; man, therefore, must, in turn, communicate God to man; that is man in the image of God. What happens if we turn away our faces, and communicate other matters? Communication of spirituality, or non-spirituality, is intrinsically linked to basic issues of mankind’s justification for continuance, to all issues of worth and judgment.

See just how closely communication is tied to judgment in Matthew 12:36, “But I say unto you, That every idle word (those things that we communicate) that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”

If we stand in the image of God and communicate what we have learned, we communicate the nature of God. If we turn away our faces from the interface, the great reflection is lost. We, then, communicate everything but the nature of God. See Mark 7:21-23, “For from within, out of the heart (the mind) of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”

As an experiment, assume that the mind of the man in the verse cited above has just been replaced by the God-mind. Go through the list and write down the opposite of each item. Then, read your list. You will note that the things of God, which have been imparted to the mind of the man, have replaced the old issues. If therefore, the mind of the man is identifiable by those things that issue forth from it, then the new issues from that same man would be the identifiers of whose mind? The brain has not changed; what has changed is the orientation, the perspective, the nature and quality of the mind within the brain.

When a farmer goes into the field, digs out all the old beans and re-plants with corn, it is no longer a field of beans. Even though the field of beans and the field of corn are both ‘fields’, something wholly different now issues from that new field. My simple illustration deals with a basic principle: something must be removed for something to be added. It is the principle of ‘displacement’. In construction, we see that never is a new building built on the lot of an older building until the older building has been removed.

See Deuteronomy 10:16, “Circumcise (remove) therefore the (old and unnecessary) foreskin of your heart (mind), and be no more stiffnecked.”

God has called for a new mind in man; it has long been the work of the Lord to cut away the old and create the new.

See also 2 Chronicles 16:9, “For the eyes of the (spiritual) Lord run to and fro throughout the whole (corporeal) earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart (mind) is (made) perfect toward Him.” Our next reference shows God being strong on the behalf of one whose mind has been made perfect toward God. The individual is described with certain attributes that elicit a favorable response from God. In other words, God proposes to both deliver and honor the individual as a result of those things we see in the verse that identify the nature of the individual.

See Psalms 91:14, “Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known My name.”

So, what are those things that describe this individual? I like to view these not so much as mere actions, but as states of being. These identifiers constitute such states of being that God responds favorably.

Remember, it is a spiritual God working His own work for His own reasons. By that, I am suggesting that there is a ‘resonance’ between God and the individual because of such states of being. We may assume that these states were not always in place: the end of a journey is an attained state that is reached through the journey. In the scripture, two reasons are given for the response of God; I begin with the latter.

To know God’s name.

It is an attained state. Knowledge is the attained state of having learned; having sought out. Now, of course, to know the name of God involves something more substantial than a merely vocalized sound or written figure. To learn the name of God is to know His very nature. Hebrew names run along those lines: the names ascribed to God reference, in every case, who He is and what He is all about. To have the name or nature of God imparted is to receive from the communicator the communicated mind.

Therein lies the resonance. One does not learn in a stasis; the process is active. If one has not subscribed to the ‘hammer it in’ method, then he has subscribed to the ‘truly interested’ method of learning.

The former reason, which is given in the above-cited scripture, for the response of God is: “He hath set his love upon Me.” The individual was truly interested, to the point where his primary focus was ‘set’ on the mind of God: he was a seeker. Of course, in all, I am still dealing with cognition and mentality.

See Psalms 119:104, “Through Thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.”

In speaking of spiritually inclined people and spiritual lifestyles, we always return to cognitive abilities - in this verse, ‘understanding’. Understanding is a spiritual quality of the mind of God. It is a constituent component of the nature of the communicator. What we see in such an addition is a ‘lifechanging’ mindset. The tenets of God’s will: the addition of a godly focus leads the individual to an attained state of understanding. Understanding leads to an inclination against falsity, and thus, by extension, to a personal quest for verity; for every good and honest thing.

The God-mind in man is the realization of God in man. More and more, the seeker’s mind is God. Even so, one must remain vigilant not to misuse the gift. One must not, for instance, be an Ananias.

Good advice about one’s attitude toward one’s new mind is found in Ecclesiastes 5:2, “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart (mind) be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven (over all; the roof), and thou upon earth (like a chair in one small room): therefore let thy words be few.”

This is excellent prayer advice: preachers beware! Long-winded people may not be winning God’s favor. Less is more.

In the issue of ‘resonance’, one either has or is attaining the God-mind, or one is just not resonating with the Lord.

See the ‘un-mind’ in Isaiah 5:13, “Therefore My people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge.”

We need to ask, why does a parent refuse to give the answer to a child’s homework question? Why does a teacher make the student work a math problem without a calculator? The answer is simple: the easy way is not the way to go. What good would there be in a man learning the moves of Kung Fu without the discipline? What good would come from giving the power to wield nuclear weapons to primitive warring cultures?

Sure: God could just hand us all the answers - but, what would happen? The critical would still criticize; the scoffers would go on scoffing; the unbelievers would not become seekers. The attained state of knowledge may only be realized after man has learned all the hard lessons.

Matthew 13:13, “Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.”

SIX Perception There are times in all our lives when we simply do not perceive the things around us. For myself, locking a door behind me is a thing I do so automatically that I don’t remember doing it. I have walked halfway to where I was going, then could not recall having locked my front door. I walked all the way back to check and be sure. When non-perception is not the case, preconception often is. I cannot count the times I’ve said to another, “if it had been a snake, it would have bitten you.” The usual answer: “Oh, I didn’t think it would be there.” Sometimes people simply don’t pay attention; other times preconception acts like a blinder. Perhaps we all know someone with a ‘blind spot’. In the currency of spiritual perception, one may either have enough to make a purchase or else one is bankrupt. We are all aware that money in a savings account draws interest. In other words, it takes something to make something. On the other hand, envision a man with a maxed-out credit card. He is sitting on empty, yet the creditors still demand payment.

See Luke 8:18, “Take heed therefore how (not ‘what’) ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.”

Christ called on any of us that have a ‘spiritual’ ear to take heed to spiritual issues. It would seem from the above-cited verse that there are only two processes and they affect spirituality as well as corporeality: they are addition and attrition. These are easy to spot in the physical world. Put a bodybuilder beside a weakling and there will be no mistaking who has what. If you utilize the means to attain knowledge, you increase knowledge. Much more than an ‘addition’ path, we may call this the ‘whosoever hath to him shall be given’ highway.

See Isaiah 50:4, “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.”

There is a way to go about things, evinced in the expression: ‘how ye hear’ (as opposed to ‘what ye hear’). One might at first think it strange that God would give wisdom to the wise: they already have it - give some to those in need! Right? But, that is not how it works. Giving wisdom to the wise is on a par with giving muscles to the bodybuilder. In the ‘what’ category, the same opportunities present themselves to all participants. It is the ‘how’ that counts. The bodybuilder has sought out, has made use of, has practiced whereas the weakling has availed himself of nothing. Weakness breeds weaker-ness. I am going to list six more scripture references that each point to the principle advocated in Luke 8:18.

(1.) Daniel 2:20-22, “Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are His: And He changeth the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings: He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: He revealeth the deep and secret things: He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him.” (2.) 2 Corinthians 8:11, “Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have.”

(3.) Matthew 13:11, “He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.”

(4.) Ecclesiastes 7:12, “For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.”

(5.) Proverbs 14:6, “A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.”

(6.) Proverbs 24:5, “A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.”

What exactly is spiritual? We see it everywhere we look. Mankind asked to fly far back in the timeline.

In his impatience, he took up feathers. It was only recently that God answered by giving us the Wright brothers. The nature of man begs for the nature of God just as surely as the child can’t wait to grow up.

God promised: ask and you shall receive. But, can we work methodically and patiently enough to see that promise of spirituality realized? Our preconceptions take us way off course. We preconceive that what we ask is what we ask; we preconceive that God is far, far away; we preconceive that if an answer does not assuage our impatient nature, it is just not coming. We are wrong on all counts.

See Hebrews 10:35-36, “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.”

I strike the nail again.

God, a spirit, is realizing Himself in a corporeal realm by a process of reverse engineering: He is making man more spiritual.

I strike the nail again.

Those things we call spiritual are things we might also call cognitive. Communication is key.

I strike the nail again.

Christ is the Word; by that, I mean communication. God is communication communicating the nature of the communicator. God delivers, but God is the only source: He only gives of Himself.

See Luke 21:15, “I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.”

Now, I’ve gone on and on about cognitive abilities. I have much belabored the issue of mentality. I keep hitting the nail, but, when - (when?) - will I drive it home? I am not alone in this, for in a sense, I am only elaborating on themes put forth by the early writers. The mind angle cannot be stressed enough. Spiritual is mental is spiritual.

See Romans 12:2, “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” We are not being transformed physically. The transformation, the reverse engineering, is in our minds.

To become spiritual, the mind is changed. The mind angle, therefore, cannot be over-stressed. Mental is spiritual is mental. And, of course: communication is key. However, for communication to work, there must, I repeat: ‘must’, be something held in common. God could not communicate His nature to us if we had nothing in common with Him. See 1 Corinthians 14:11, “Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.”

But, from the beginning, we were something like Him: He made us that way. An upgrade was intended from the get-go. That upgrade will never be comic book superpowers, but the change we will see in ourselves will be that we begin to think and act just like God. See Colossians 3:10, “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.”

The difference between what you perceive and what I perceive cannot be an issue. Both you and I perceive the same thing. How we each perceive that same thing is very much the issue. A person of limited hearing may only hear the lower notes when you speak. A corrective measure, such as a hearing aid, will allow that person to hear the higher elements of your speech. In the Old Testament, certain

individuals received things ‘by the spirit’. Contemporary perception may hold that such occurred only with rare individuals, and by some amorphous means not common to every individual.

How do we perceive the communications of God? A godly man is known to have a godlike nature. If he is a rare individual, why is he rare? Could it be that he is among the few who care enough about those higher issues to actively seek them out?

How do we perceive the communications of God? In earlier times, the perception was that God communicated with the Pope, who in turn communicated with man. But then, it was perceived that God communicated with the elders, and preachers, and deacons of the church. Seems perception was perceiving more and more ‘rare’ individuals.

By extension, the ‘means’ is becoming less and less amorphous. We see in our day and age that God does not lift the odd skull and drop in a load of godliness; we see that very many studied individuals become godly through their studies. How do you perceive the communications of God? I see ‘by the spirit’ as ‘by the mind’.

See 1Chronicles 28:12, “And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit.”

God communicates to man’s mind. God communicates His mind into man’s mind. That should raise levels of perception. God communicates to man mentally. Perception is, after all, a mental attribute.

What means does God choose to affect our thinking? Sometimes God has spoken directly to an individual: as with Moses, as with Jesus. Sometimes God has used the written word: as with the writing on the wall that made a king’s knees knock, as with the Ten Commandments. A proper perception of this will convince us that the writings of old are not merely the writings of men. If God speaks to men to impart knowledge, and men write what they know, God communicates the same knowledge to different men through the writing of those He has previously instructed.

Now, here is an odd question. Does God communicate to a man through writing that comes neither from His own finger, as in the writing on the wall, nor yet again from the hands of other individuals? In other words, is automatic writing indicated in scripture?

Judge for yourselves when you read 1Chronicles 28:19, “All this, said David, the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern.”

Yes, we are still engaged in the study of cognitive abilities. How do you perceive that any one of us gets anything at all from God? Where does it enter the individual? There is the physical, and there is the nonphysical. If I kicked you under the table, would you get my message? You might smart, but you’d be none the wiser. You would demand to know why to know what I was trying to convey. If my level of communication was no higher than the corporeal, I could only explain by kicking you a second time. Mental is aligned with the nonphysical. Mental belongs under the heading of things spiritual. So, let’s try communicating under the table once more. This time around, spirituality has imparted new perception to my brain. I now understand that while the spiritual uses the physical to communicate, the mouth would be a more effective instrument than the foot. I cannot communicate very well with a kick because God did not impart wisdom and understanding to my toes; He put all that mental stuff in the mind.

See Exodus 36:1, “Every wise hearted (minded) man, in whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding.”

The heart, of course, is the organ of thought; what we now perceive to be the brain - and not just the brain, but the brain plus. We understand that our understanding is something more than the throbbing of internal organs. The mind, the ‘inner man’, is an alignment of our physical brain to something of equal value on the spiritual plain. Please recall Proverbs 14:6. The scorner sought wisdom and found it not.

Had he sought scorning, he would have found that. The scorner did not have a wise mind; he did not exercise the mind with wisdom. His true quest was not for wisdom, therefore, but he sought fodder for his scorning mind. The one to whom finding wisdom was easy, was the one who exercised his mind for, sought out, and desired wisdom.

See 1Kings 3:9, “Give therefore Thy servant an understanding heart (mind) to judge Thy people, that I may discern (discriminate) between good and bad.”

Mental is spiritual is mental. Mentality and cognition are spiritual in nature. God has communicated His nature in these. This nature is an active, forward-moving nature: a purpose-driven nature.

See 1Kings 3:11, “Understanding to discern judgment.”

Now, check all of the four words above against the thesaurus. You will get something like this: “Understanding (savvy) to (for the purpose of) discern (perceiving) judgment (reason).” While I go to great lengths to communicate plainly and simply, some people will just not get it. Some other people, however, are receptive to the truth. Got Truth?

Get 1Kings 3:12, “I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart (mind).”

The Bible is filled with individuals to whom God imparted something mental. Some got a little. Some got a lot. What is spiritual? Well, what is perception? To perceive is to have a sense of something. The eye perceives light; the ear perceives sound; the brain perceives chemical/electrical impulses. Using cognitive abilities, I have a sense of the room in which I sit. I have a sense of the community in which I live. I have a sense of the nation and era in which I was born. For me to graduate to a broader sense, to a higher overview, addition takes place. I am ‘added to’. A first grader’s mind will neither receive nor perceive things belonging to the third grade. However, the preparations and practices of the second grade will enlarge the mind sufficiently to graduate to that next level. That largeness does not mean that the kid is second grade smart so much as third grade ready.

See 1Kings 4:29, “God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart (mind), even as the sand that is on the sea shore.”

There is an erroneous tendency to think of intelligence as an end or goal. And yet, Solomon’s largeness of mind was measured by a quality that ‘continued’. The beach goes on and on; just around that distant stand of palms, there is another stretch of sandy shoreline.

Even in the historical placement of a single individual, such as Solomon, God imparts a ‘rightness’ for that day and age. We have an expression: ‘man of the hour’, that is, someone who seems tailor-made for the time he lives in. Did God impart to Isaac Newton the cognitive abilities he needed for his time?

Did the apple fall or did God toss it?

Did God communicate a nuclear mind to Von Braun? Is God the ‘E’ in M C squared?

See 1Chronicles 12:32, “Men that had understanding of the times.”

God imparts His mind and nature to those we call men of understanding, but it is for those men to use it, to exercise what they have been given. We have all been given muscles. What is an un-exercised muscle? It is a wattle. God gives what He gives for a purpose. What is an exercised muscle? A bigger muscle.

See 1Chronicles 22:12, “Only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding . . . that thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God.” If God gave you a hammer, I’d say it was a safe bet He expected you to use it on a nail. First, there is knowledge; second, there is understanding; third, there is wisdom. What is the difference between the three? Nothing. They are levels of the God-mind. What is the continuity between the three? Exercise.

The exercise of knowledge brings one to understanding. Likewise, wisdom is understanding in practice.

Cognitive abilities, perception, a sense of - and, familiarity through contact.

A heart, a mind; a heart and thought.

See 1Chronicles 28:9, “Know thou the God of thy father, and serve Him with a perfect heart (mind) and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth (hunts) all hearts (minds), and understandeth (digests) all the imaginations (creativity) of the thoughts (reflections).”

We have, therefore we receive, and we have more. God has, therefore He receives and has more. We draw from each other. We may know the visions of God by a mechanism similar to that of God understanding the imaginations of our thoughts. There is familiarity in close contact.

See 2 Chronicles 26:5, “Who had understanding (knowledge practiced) in the visions of God.” He that hath an ear, let him hear but take heed ‘how’ you hear. Certainly, if you have an ear that is predisposed to hearing spiritually, you will be given something spiritual to hear, which will both exercise and enlarge your ability to hear spiritually. You learn; you practice what you know. To practice receiving the communications of God makes you an active participant in the process.

Read Nehemiah 8:2, “All that could hear with understanding.”

SEVEN Practicing the God-Mind If the practice of knowledge brings us to understanding, where is the place of understanding?

The question is asked in Job 28:12, “But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?”

It should be obvious that if understanding is practiced knowledge, understanding may be found at the end of knowledge: in the ‘result’ slot. That is the place of understanding. Is it any stretch, then, for us to know the answer to ‘whence cometh wisdom’?

See also Job 28:20, “Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?”

We learn in steps. What is your level? Public education levels up by grade. But, in scripture, there is a sort of ‘trailing’ logic. I have learned that it is sometimes quite useful to think in reverse. Of the two verses noted in the previous paragraph, the greater issue is mentioned first, and the issues that lead up to it follow. In other words, the natural steps from lesser to greater are often overlooked in scripture.

That represents a difference in thinking as fundamental as that between one language and another. In English, the noun is dominant and the verb is supportive: “The dog bit me,”is an example. For that reason, the sentence structures of other languages seem backward to English speaking people. One, then, would do well to approach scripture with this in mind.

Try reading things from back to front. Try it on Job 28:28, “And unto man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.”

Let us view the verse as a kind of algebra, an equation that puts forth such a formula as if A=C then B=C. In this way, we see that A and B are equal. The verse gives us B; we simply need to discover A. The verse tells us that understanding is found in the result slot of ‘departing from evil’. We practice what we are taught. The exercise of knowledge, therefore, is A. We are taught to depart from evil: that is, not to steal; not to murder; not to lie, etc.

Through the regular practice of this knowledge, we develop an overall understanding. That understanding is like a warrior with an immense arsenal at his disposal and so seasoned as to know when to use what. When that warrior is employed full time, one develops an army of warriors that is called wisdom. If the exercise of understanding is wisdom, and both A and B are equal to C, the regular practice of understanding is equal to ‘the fear of the Lord’. You might think that, with a little discipline, man can rise to miraculous heights - but recall, man was elevated by the impartation of the mind of God. This ‘son of man’ was able to know the thoughts of God, but only by that quality that had been implanted.

See Job 38:36, “Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart (mind)?”

Now, let us take one step forward. I have said that if God gave you a hammer, it would be a safe bet He wanted you to strike the nail. God implants a hammer in the minds of men. We are now elevated; we are the sons of mankind. We practice with our hammers. We become attuned to nails; we know that without the hammer there would be no nail. (I say that because the nail exists for the hammer; its purpose is to be struck by the hammer, and without the hammer, the nail does not have the purpose of a nail.) Over time, we become quite adept at what we do; we love our shiny new tools - but now, we have come to a special place: we are able to see past our tools to the house that is being built, and it is at that exact point that we utter the motto of the universal union of seekers - “Cool!”

Now groove on Psalms 14:2, “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.”

Now that we understand the exercise of understanding, let’s do some reps. We look at the many verses whose explanations of truth are no longer hidden from us. They do much more than simply teach, they lift up the voice and proclaim. These voices, at first a trickle here and there, run together and form a mighty torrent. That torrent, while but a still small voice, nevertheless, sweeps us along.

There is the trickle of Psalms 111:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments.”

We are told that not just an understanding, but, a ‘good’ understanding is constituted from the practice of a certain level of knowledge. An earlier scripture said that the fear of the Lord is wisdom (being the exercise of a certain level of knowledge), but here, we find the addendum that it is only the ‘beginning’ of wisdom. Yes, we have rounded that distant stand of palms; before our eye is a vista of virgin sand.

Then there is the trickle of Psalms 119:104, “Through Thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.”

This tells us that the practice of understanding leads to taking a stand; in choosing, with extreme prejudice, against what is wrong and for what is right.

There is the trickle of Psalms 119:130, “The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.”

This informs us of the real source of the commandments and precepts that some say are only the writings of men.

There is the trickle of Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart (mind); and lean not unto thine own understanding.”

This speaks of a road apart; not the commonly trodden path but a highway.

There is the trickling of a stream in Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.”

This rates the knowledge we practice and tells of the mind employed in that practice. Lo, do we hear the babbling of a brook? Do we understand where the stronger current leads?

There is the susurrus of a river, powerful with the weight of its burden; there is Proverbs 28:5, “They that seek the Lord understand all things.”

And so, God’s mind is in our heads; it is there for a purpose. We seem to think, in this day and age, that the scientists are the peak of human mentality and many set the scientific mind in opposition to the mind of the faithful. After all, the scientific mind seems so rigorously ‘practiced’.

Science has filled in the gaps of history, trounced upon myth and superstition, named the unknown, and given us the comfortable underpinnings of technology. They took the facts at hand, exercised them to produce understanding, and now, they seem wiser than a white mustache. Are these superintelligent people merely hammering away at the nails? Have they seen, yet, the house they are helping to build?

You know, the faithful that we have read about in the Bible fully utilized that same imparted mind; they just didn’t limit themselves to the empirical.

See Daniel 1:4, “Skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science.”

When read from back to front, this verse shows the steps from lesser to greater: science, knowledge, wisdom. To reach understanding one must practice what one knows; one must use it or lose it. There are many students that wish they could obtain a skill in ‘learning’, and they will: the harder they try to learn, the easier it becomes. Some people reach a point where learning is second nature, even automatic. But, to reach understanding, one must be taught; one must receive, then one must use and exercise and practice what has been imparted.

Daniel did dreams. He was not an autistic individual who could do one strange thing; he was not a child prodigy. Daniel, before the captivity, was a young man in training at the temple. He was a bright child culled from the masses and taught the disciplines known by others. We would not be wrong to call it a craft (dream craft), for it was a thing regularly practiced. One arrives at understanding by the practice of knowledge.

See Daniel 1:17, “As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.”

Why did the scorner seek wisdom and find it not? I believe in ‘ask and you shall receive’, but if I knew a man wanted to stab me, you can bank on the fact that I would think long and hard about his request for a knife. (Then, I would say no).

Wisdom is wasted on a scorner; to give wisdom to a scorner is like casting pearls before swine: they will turn and rend you. Just as knowledge must be exercised, so, too, must the desire be exercised. How foolish is it for a runt to say: “Boy, I sure wish I had big muscles?” He likely only wants to kick sand in someone’s face and get the babe.

On the other hand, if his desire has developed any substance, he will exercise his muscles like he exercised his desire; he will do the reps for himself; he will feel the burn. Jesus deliberately left many in the dark. Could that be why?

See Matthew 13:15, “Lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart (mind).”

Take it from an old hitchhiker, to get a ride to where you want to go, you need to be faced in the right direction, you need to be not only on the right road but also, on the right side of the road.

Take it from 2 Timothy 2:7, “And (then), the Lord give thee understanding in all things.”

Heaven is an exclusive club: invitations only. There is also a dress code in effect. Going on that alone, you would expect the common man to get bounced, or to be turned away at the door with the shame of all others witnessing his failed bravado. But, there is another scenario. It goes like this: the bouncer owns the club; he has given you a free invitation, and he even has a tux in your size.

Remember, God has a purpose. Why would He want just any scorner or ne’er do well on the inside?

Recall that there is familiarity in close contact. To know good is to practice the knowledge of good; to know evil is to exercise the knowledge of evil, and some of us are way too buff when it comes to evil.

See Genesis 3:22, “The Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know (to practice the knowledge of) good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever . . .”

It may seem competitive on their part; it may seem like they are holding back on us, but, our getting in on our own terms is just not in the contract. There is a type that will make it in. Among all those who have received of the mind of God (the called), there will only be a small percentage who practice, who exercise, who seek God with full desire. God will make Himself known to those practiced seekers (the chosen).

This ‘known’, this new knowledge, is yet one more upgrade in the nature of man. It is a knowledge exceeding that which brought the individual to understanding; it is an understanding far greater than that which brought the individual to wisdom. It will be a true spiritual/corporeal intercourse.

Graduate to a higher grade in Numbers 12:6, “I the Lord will make Myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.”

That individual will be intimately familiar with the certainty of Deuteronomy 4:39, “Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart (mind), that the Lord He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.”

That invitation had the owner’s name on it. That tux - it was the shirt off His own back. There is familiarity in close contact.

Deuteronomy 31:21, “I know their imagination which they go about.”

The practice of knowledge leads to understanding. There is familiarity in close contact.

Joshua 4:24, “That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the Lord your God for ever.”

The regular practice of understanding is equal to ‘the fear of the Lord’. Moving the hand is an action that we come by through the practice of knowledge: or what to do and when, and how it works. We come to a point where this practice becomes like second nature. We have an understanding; we no longer go over each individual point in an action, but before we move our hand, the mind decides, simply, on that course.

1 Samuel 2:3, “The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.”

What could we possibly hope to hide from Him? To employ a thought is an action that comes by and through Him who imparted to us our skills in knowledge. There is, after all, familiarity in close contact.

2 Samuel 7:20, “Thou, Lord God, knowest Thy servant.”

Yes, there is familiarity in close contact, and while there may not end up, so much, ‘cause’ and ‘effect’, there is interaction.

See it in 1 Kings 8:39, “Then hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart (mind) Thou knowest; (for Thou, even Thou only, knowest the hearts (minds) of all the children of men).”

Now, here’s an interesting question. If God is a ‘God of knowledge’, where is His dwelling place?

It is not hard for man to practice the God-mind; God has given us both the hammer and the nail. It is easy to practice the God-mind because God is there; if we are unsure about how to drive the nail home, or even if we are interested in the design of the house we are helping to build, we have only to ask, and our tutor will explain. The help is right there inside us. But, never let it be thought that we are locked into some mindless, will-less robotic loop. Free will is ever at hand. But, since we already have help in going the right way, it might be assumed that employing the free will is merely an act of willfulness.

See Job 24:13, “They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not (or forsake) the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths (or the practice) thereof.”

In other words, if you are already in a good place, where will moving bring you to? If you already stand in the light, what is there left to choose by the employment of free will? Practicing the God-mind is never a mindless thing. It is an act of our own will, it is a practice that we choose freely. If you are in a bad place, where will moving bring you to? If you stand in the dark, what is there left to choose by the employment of free will?

Any individual who, by the practice of knowledge, sees the good in higher levels of practice will fervently desire to obtain those higher levels.

See Job 34:4, “Let us choose to us judgment: let us know among ourselves what is good.”

Maybe concepts would be clearer if we did not have to use so many words to present them. Maybe the day will come - until then, we must remind ourselves of covered ground. In practicing the God-mind, we are practicing the mind of God which God, Himself, has shared with us. The states we achieve, such as understanding and wisdom, are the culmination of practices. And of course, there is familiarity in close contact. A key is made to unlock a particular type of lock.

See the verse above as the key that perfectly fits Psalms 9:16, “The Lord is known by the judgment which He executeth.”

We may, therefore, choose to ourselves the practices of God; we may choose to ourselves the culminated nature of God and be seen to bear the personality traits of the Highest. We may think of it as ‘drawing to ourselves’, but, if we have used the loaned mind of God, then in truth it is we who are drawn. Our language and thinking may see the matter as actions on our part, but upon close inspection, one notes that the higher actions, the thoughts we now think, even the words we use are but reflections.

Muse on Psalms 19:1-3, “The heavens declare the glory of God (the culmination of); and the firmament sheweth His handywork (the practice of). Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.”

The key, and the reflected key. I have a mental image of God as a key, finding His way into the familiar lock of man’s mind – or man’s augmented mind. I see that augmented mind, in turn, as the reflection of a key entering the familiar heights of secrets formerly locked away from us. Man finds himself ever in the middle ground between what was and what will be: given a boost by his past, and a hand up from

his future. The mind finds itself being given a boost by the desire to learn, and a hand up by the answer.

Both yearning and goal are the mind of God. See your God-mind in Psalms 44:21, “Shall not God search this out? for He knoweth the secrets of the heart (mind).”

See your yearning, and your achieved goal in Psalms 51:6, “Behold, Thou (thou) desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part Thou (thou) shalt make me to know wisdom.”

The agenda: Psalms 67:2, “That Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations.”

Now, the sons of men have had glimpses past their hammers and nails to the house being built; they have understood that they were open to God and they knew this because they knew it with the Godmind.

See Psalms 69:5, “O God, Thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from Thee.”

And, they knew that the sons of men had been called apart from regular men by the same God-mind.

See Psalms 92:6, “A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.”

In saying this, we have acknowledged man’s transparency before God, and the rebellion all too easily seen in those who practice the ways that are not of God: an act of turning away from the implanted mind.

See Psalms 94:11, “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man.”

How? Because God is a God of knowledge.

See also Psalms 95:10, “It is a people that do err in their heart (mind), and they have not known (the familiar practices of) My ways.”

What does it convey: that the acquisition of knowledge brings us into closer contact with a God of knowledge? And His kingdom, His dwelling place (called Heaven): where is it? What is it?

It is, as Luke 17:21 says, inside of you.

What kind of ‘inside’ do the scriptures bring up time and time again?

See Psalms 119:66, “Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed Thy commandments.”

See Psalms 119:125, “Give me understanding, that I may know Thy testimonies.”

See Proverbs 2:6, “For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.”

Remember that internalized warrior named ‘understanding’? Under the right circumstances, he will draw ‘discretion’ from his arsenal, and guard you. Likewise, under the right circumstances, ‘the Lord giveth wisdom’. What are those circumstances?

See Proverbs 2:10-11, “When (the desire for) wisdom entereth into thine heart (mind), and (the practice of) knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; ((something a scorner cannot achieve)) discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee.”

The mind is a spiritual quality that, while not set apart from the flesh, is wholly unaffected by the machinations of the flesh. When you are sad, no other person can truly share it or help you bear the load. When you are in the zone, the usual annoyances no longer aggravate you.

See Proverbs 14:10, “The heart (mind) knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.”

The mind, especially the mind of God, is a quality that cannot be denied or held back. Dissemination is the God-mind’s middle name. Sharing is a given: teaching, preaching, passing it on - the mind of God is meant to spill forth, ignore boundaries of stubborn willfulness, and overflow, and flood. The new spiritual mind of knowledge, of understanding and wisdom, is where God lives. It is His dwelling place and kingdom, and it is growing exponentially.

Proverbs 15:7, “The lips of the wise disperse knowledge.”

One man shares what he has learned; another preaches it from a soapbox; another records it in a book.

Still not sure it’s not just man?

See Proverbs 20:11, “Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.”

Identification is a simple matter of common knowledge, and there is quite a lot of common knowledge.

So, who is taking notes, and, can we trust those who receive, record, and pass on the knowledge? Well, it might be said that God left a little bit of Himself in us.

Proverbs 22:12, “The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge.”

It is like the mind of God teaching the mind of God to the mind of God. For our part, we simply have to turn it on: then it runs on automatic. We know what it is; we know where it comes from, and we know what to do with it - none of which is possible without the implanted God-mind.

Proverbs 22:21, “That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee.”

EIGHT Mapping Out Your New Mind

This and that about this and that.

Or, there are things you need to realize about your own mind. First: it’s not really yours. Second: there is resonance - that is, a sort of cause and effect that exists between your thoughts and will and God’s thoughts and will. When the child matures, he discovers all the laws, forms, licenses, restrictions, schedules, and responsibilities he was formerly unaware of. Of course, there is always the option to continue seeing existence through childish eyes (and many travel that path, for games and toys and recess are the high points in a child’s mind), but to be an adult - ah! - what a difference.

See the adults-only version in Ecclesiastes 1:18, “For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.”

The childish mind will flee from such, back to the fun and games, back to happy company.

Patterns.

As a babe is taken off soft foods and put on solids, a child yearns to graduate school, escape the parental yoke, and be out on his own. When he gets there, he finds that it is much harder than he ever imagined. To adapt, to grow as an adult, he must embrace and practice new, hard truths. So it is to become a seeker, to obtain spiritual maturity and to take spiritual growth seriously: one must embrace and practice new, hard truths.

See Isaiah 28:9, “Whom shall He teach knowledge? And whom shall He make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.”

How do we compare the new spiritual adult to the pimple-faced kid with a driver’s license and a job at the local fast food? Those conventional staples that existed in the child’s life: the schooling and chores, the socialization, the group and one-on-one interactions, the truths that were appropriate to a child’s existence: those are all inadequate now. It was good for then, and it brought him to where he is, but it is no longer appropriate. New rules apply. A childish mindset and the actions of a child will only get the young adult fired. ‘Job gone’ means no gas for the car - means failed independence. For the new adult, it all means ‘crash and burn’.

Therefore the individual adapts: he drops the childishness and does what other adults do to grow and survive. So, what are the staples in the life of the spiritual child, and how must he rise above? Those things that got him to where he is, no longer apply. Conventional standards, knowledge, interpretations, the mindset, the actions and reactions of the immature spiritual being must give way to the harder truths of adult spirituality. He must be weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts. It’s tough, it’s chewy, but the spiritual adult must accept the sustenance of meat.

Ingest, if you will, Jeremiah 3:15, “I will give you pastors according to mine heart (mind), which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.”

The young adult who has graduated from high school and now looks ahead to college realizes that the learning is nowhere near being done; it just goes on. Also realized is the fact that all of the old accomplishments were only good up to the here and now. They will no longer fly. They now are only the base for higher knowledge. The spiritual adult, likewise, must embrace higher knowledge.

Christians unable to move forward are trapped in a loop where salvation is preached to the saved,

where growth beyond salvation dwindles toward inevitable extinction. The young adult can easily convince himself that he has reached a goal; now that he has a job and a car, a little clowning on the job won’t hurt, or a little more for that matter. But, how does that resonate with the employer? How will the employer reward the childish employee?

See Jeremiah 17:9-10, “The heart (the mind) is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart (the mind), I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”

Almost all of us are taught right from wrong, the Golden Rule. Still - one must, over time, settle into a proper habit of doing and saying what is right. It never happens overnight. The mature individual is seen as one who is, at last, finding the right road. The young are seen as those who must be taught, as those who must practice, as those who still have a ways to go. Though many of the young are seen by the mature individual as wastrels and delinquents, most of them will eventually become mature individuals.

They will reach a point in their personal development, and in the relationship they have with God, where they may say, as does the prophet in Jeremiah 17:16, “Thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before Thee.”

In almost every case, the individual rebels and turns from the right things he was taught as a child. That seems to be the thing about the teens. Freedom, self-discovery, self-expression - all are part and parcel with rebellion. But, that era in one’s life is temporary - or, at least, should be. That time may be viewed as a preparatory stage before one is led to turn back. One must, after all, mature from a lesser state, and between the rebellious years and the years of return, let it be known that the work is the Lord’s.

See Jeremiah 24:7, “I will give them an heart (a mind) to know Me, that I am the Lord: and (then) they shall be My people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto Me with their whole heart (mind).”

We must realize that Christianity, as it stands, is still immature. It is primed to take the leap into maturity, it just needs to be given the cue. We must realize that Christianity, as it stands, cannot remain the same. It must, and will, change. It must, and will, grow. We can know the verity of this by God’s own words.

See Jeremiah 31:33-34, “This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts (minds); and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

We do not know everything, but we would like to. We are seekers. Much of the human mind, much of the God/man connection is still shrouded in secrecy. But as I say, we are seekers; we are undaunted, for we know and believe Daniel 2:28, “There is a God in Heaven that revealeth secrets.”

We have never left the topic of mentality: God is a God of knowledge - find knowledge, and you find where God dwells. His kingdom is within and without. There is resonance, that is: familiarity in close contact. God is in our heads. Those who reject that, suffer from a lack of proper resonance; one might

even say they suffer from reverse-resonance. When you strike a tuning fork against a hard surface, you get a clear tone. When you strike that same tuning fork against the soft flesh of your hand, what you get is anything but clear. Imagine a musical band that did everything in such a way that failed to attract an audience. No top ten for them. If I had a tuning fork, I think I would hide my hand and strike my head for I can call my head a hard surface.

How does Hosea 4:6 strike you? “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee.”

The sons of Abraham: the faithful - but more importantly - the sons of men (renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him) will be like the sands in number. As an entity, we will be like the shore of a great sea. That sea is the God of knowledge in His kingdom.

See Habakkuk 2:14, “The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

Certainly, the preceding verse can be taken to mean ‘an awareness of God’s glory’, but I claim that it may be taken to mean ‘God in His glory’ - as in “know thyself.”

Recall 1 Corinthians 11:7, that man is both the image and glory of the Lord. Knowledge of the glory of the Lord is no less than familiarity with the God-mind in man. People of knowledge, having obtained the God-mind, in turn, impart the God-mind, becoming, in effect, messengers and priests and caretakers of that grand treasure.

See Malachi 2:7, “For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they (the un-imparted) should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts (great numbers).”

How many of us remember when we were very young and our Dads were our heroes? We tried to be just like them and were, in effect, miniature copies because of the emulations we practiced. It is important to bear in mind, as concerns the acquisition of the God-mind, that God calls us children, that we call God Father. It is not an arrogant claim, but the reasoning follows that we are little gods, scampering about like children in the happy practice of mirroring our Father’s words and deeds.

Now, God is a spiritual (mental) being, realizing Himself in corporeal man. God, a God of knowledge, is fully aware of physical need. God and physical need are not mutually exclusive. The attainment of spirituality does not resolve physical need - as if it was a problem. Ask and you shall receive. Ask for bread: God will not give you a stone. God is familiar with physical need: He is immersed in it.

Matthew 6:8, “Your Father knoweth (familiarity by immersion) what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him.” He has never made it ‘go away’, and He will not, for it is part of the package. God is realizing Himself into our physical need, He is not attempting to avoid it, or do away with it. There is familiarity in close contact.

See the communication between spiritual and physical in Exodus 3:7, “And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know (I am familiar with) their sorrows.”

That ‘whole package’ was communicated to the people as experience: both their’s and God’s. The experience had to belong to both equally, for there can be no dialog unless something is held in common. When God reminded Israel that they knew the mind of the stranger, it was knowledge that could not be imparted separate from God’s experience, and it was knowledge that could not be received separate from Israel’s experience.

See Exodus 23:9, “Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart (mind) of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

It behooves the seeker to map out his mind; to know the demarcations and lines of distinction. It is to the seeker’s advantage to realize that his mind is not his own, but God’s overlaid upon his, and interacting with his. It is important to see that this work that God is working, while for God’s own personal ends, is our advancement in spirituality. So we look at the map of our mind. We see our hometown; we also see neighboring towns. We note the lines that divide county from county.

We even see the bigger picture where lines of demarcation divide state from state. We see all of this, but the most important thing that we see is the communication. We see all the major highways that connect city to city; we see all the little roads and trails that are like capillaries branching from arteries. We see rivers and reservoirs; we see streams and creeks, bringing life, refreshing, and change our way. We look hard at the complexity of the map, realizing that it is not lines of demarcation, but lines of communication that make our new mind viable.

See the connecting lines of communication in Job 37:7 and 2 Kings 5:15, “He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know His work. Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.”

Communication. God has been paving highways and making inroads from the very beginning.

See Psalms 98:2, “The Lord hath made known His salvation: His righteousness hath He openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.”

Those lines of connection must, too, include bridges.

See Psalms 103:7, “He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.”

NINE The Purpose of the New Mind How many times must a child be spanked before he learns not to run out in the street but take the adult’s hand of guidance? So it is with the developing spiritual mind in man. We suffer in small ways and we suffer greatly as well but we also learn. The young adult no longer takes the parental hand but will stop and look both ways all on his own. He does that because through training, through spankings and scoldings and gentle reminders, he has come to understand at last; he has reached the desired point where he is able to choose what is right and good. I paint a picture of spanked bottoms because that is

how life, in general, proceeds. That is how the immature spiritual individual reaches the desired point of understanding whereby he is at last able to choose good without being guided or forced.

For being able to choose good rather than bad, see Matthew 12:35, “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart (the mind) bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth (chooses) evil things.”

The desired goal is a spiritual state. The God-mind makes godly choices. Communication of the nature of the communicator levels a man up to a point where, through understanding (that is: practiced knowledge), he is both able and willing to make the same choices God would make. That God is more the mind, and making the choices, does not diminish the man, but exalts him to heights of wisdom.

See the spiritual man (the God-minded man) in Luke 6:43-45, “For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit (choices/actions). For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart (mind) bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart (mind) bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart (mind) his mouth speaketh (communicates).”

I have already said it: God communicates the God-mind to man. Man, in turn, communicates the Godmind to man. Mentality is spirituality when it comes from God. However, to reject spiritual instruction, to turn away, by no means negates communication. Man still communicates, but he has chosen to communicate things devoid of spirituality, things bereft of higher thought, understanding, wisdom.

Worldly, fleshly man is a preacher who preaches physical contact and force against obstacles; he preaches gratification and exalts the image of a man with an amputated future. He is a preacher who magnifies diminishment, a preacher who lifts up pulling down. Just as a street runs in two directions, so does mentality run. There are minds that choose good; there are minds that choose bad and call it good.

Both minds communicate.

See Matthew 15:18, “Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart (the mind).”

I ask ‘what exactly is spiritual?’ and then I go on and on about mentality. Am I just another man with an off-center take on old writings? No. If you get anything out of this writing, does that make you a seeker? Yes. Every time I note a scripture that deals with spirituality, it is padded with words such as ‘knowledge’, ‘known’, and ‘know’. Spirituality, and the attainment of spirituality, is always couched in terms of impartation, communication, receptivity, and close familiarity.

What exactly is spiritual? See Luke 2:15, “And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see (confirm) this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.”

What is the purpose of the new mind? See Luke 1:77, “To give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins.”

Are there methods of giving knowledge? Yes. By the remission of their sins is one method.

See John 10:38 for another, “Believe the works: that ye may know.”

Ever heard the expression ‘rubbing off on’? Ever read the verse that states “Iron sharpeneth iron?”

Remember the theme of ‘familiarity through close contact’?

See John 10:14, “I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine.”

Reciprocity. Is it, as the expression goes, ‘all in our heads? Yes. See Acts 1:24, “Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts (the minds) of all men.”

Knowledge is the key building block in spiritual development. I wish to stress that point. Men of knowledge practice what they know; they teach what they know. The practice of knowledge brings them to a state called understanding; the practice of understanding brings them to a state called wisdom. The trend, the direction, the overall development is spiritual. However, that avenue is not open to those who are not open to that particular avenue.

See John 7:24, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”

Those who judge only by the appearance, are unreceptive to the invisible matters of spirituality.

See John 3:11-12, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?”

It is always a shame that those who judge by appearance find their way into positions of authority where they may adversely affect the impartation of knowledge.

See Luke 11:52, “Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.”

I ask, then, what is the ‘key’ of knowledge? Actually, this expression may be taken two ways. One: ‘key of knowledge’ may simply indicate that knowledge is the key to spiritual advancement, and two: ‘key of knowledge’ may point more precisely to knowledge as a door or lock that is accessed by something other than the knowledge indicated. An example of the former might be the practice of the old Catholic church. They made demands on the people without sharing the source material of the scriptures. I have no example for the latter, but I have some notions; two allusions to scripture that I hope will prove somewhat enlightening. In the previous verse, please note the Lord’s reference to entering in.

I say reference because I was immediately reminded of Christ’s self-description as the ‘way’, also as the ‘door’. It might well be supposed that something as basic as a decision could be the ‘key’ to knowledge. Then again, Christ once asked His disciples ‘don’t you know what this parable means? If you don’t know this one, how will you know the others?’ In saying this, I point to a ‘key’ embedded in all the words imparted by God, including those of His only begotten Son. When Christ said that to His disciples, I was impressed with the possibility that one parable could unlock all the others.

I do not propose that there is a ‘code’ of any sort in the scriptures; while there might be a system of clues in the written word, I do not here insist upon it, but there seems to be a ‘way’ of hearing something that everyone else is equally exposed to, yet coming away with something more. Two roads may lead to the same physical location, but the path chosen makes a big difference in what one may get

out of the trip. A lower road may lead through mires that muddy the feet, may lead through brambles that tear our best apparel, but the high road can offer a thrilling overview of the entire trip whereby we are afforded somewhat of an advance warning of the terrain ahead, even a broad and pleasing view of the destination.

We move from knowledge to understanding to wisdom. Is knowledge the key? Worldly, fleshly man is a preacher who preaches physical contact and force against obstacles; he preaches gratification and exalts the image of a man with an amputated future. He is a preacher who magnifies diminishment, a preacher who lifts up pulling down. Yet, he will claim equality with the spiritually inclined. He will say: ‘I’m educated; I know this and that’. But, he does not share the same familiar practice of knowledge as the seeker, he turned away from that, or as scripture says, he preferred the darkness rather than light. He has chosen a kind of knowledge that is devoid of light and life, a knowledge that pulls down rather than builds up.

See where a choice may lead in John 17:3, “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.”

Read it often and ask yourself, ‘how could knowing be eternal life?’. The purpose of the new mind becomes a bit clearer. In Jesus’ day, the Jewish authorities took the law that was given to all and used it exclusively to maintain the advantage of power over the general populace. Matters of law such as the Sabbath (which was meant to be a celebration of God’s satisfaction) were turned into legalisms that bound the people under grievous weights of restrictions meant to appease the taskmasters - a knowledgeable group, by the way; well versed in magnifying diminishment.

Kinda reminds me of those deconstructionists in our own time who pulled down prayer from schools and the ten commandments from courts. I do not doubt that many have rued their laws and lawmakers.

But the seeker walks the high road, his attitude is unaffected by muddy feet.

See 1 Timothy 1:8, “But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.”

As a standard, could the law be the key of knowledge - that is, if used lawfully? Could the law fit our second assumption of a key? In the historical overview, the value of faith was preceded by the practice of the law. Many, of course, see the law as ineffectual against the advent of faith. Paul associated the law with death and faith with life. Yet, in a particular light, the law is seen as a level of development leading into faith. Did faith open to the world through the agency of the law as a ‘key’?

See Romans 7:14, “For we know that the law is spiritual.”

Now that seems strange; dogmatically, the law and spirituality are presented on opposite ends of the spectrum. But think: the law is a communication; by it, knowledge is imparted for man to practice. To what extent might we see the practice of the law leading to the attained state of faith? The allusion is to the practice of knowledge leading to the attained state of understanding. If we ask ‘what is the purpose of the new mind?’ we must also ask ‘what is the purpose of faith?’, ‘what is the purpose of knowledge?’, ‘what is the purpose of the law?’, for, like pearls on a necklace, they are all connected.

Developmentally speaking, if all the right choices are made, there is a single linear progression from the valley floor to the lofty peak.

See Ephesians 3:10, “To the intent that now unto (developmental progression) the principalities and powers in heavenly places (where the God of knowledge resides) might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.” Recall, please, that every tree is known by his own fruit; recall that those words of Christ set at odds the right mind from the wrong mind; recall that all action flows from the headwaters of mentality.

See the good tree and the corrupt tree in Titus 1:15-16, “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience (the headwaters) is defiled. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny Him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.”

They would have us believe that they have gathered figs with the best of them, but our eyes are open to the thorns they lift up.

TEN Every Man is a Letter The purpose of the new mind resides in the process of God realizing Himself in corporeal man. The same process that presents the seeker with the newer concept of ‘God among us’, also presents us with the new and improved son of mankind: the godly man. The older, contemporary take on man’s exact relationship with God, places God at inaccessible heights. Unfortunately for those believers, it also places the divine nature in man at inaccessible heights. The older, contemporary take on spiritual issues has settled on the social and emotional levels. The exaltation of these levels has a dire side effect for all those that hold to them; namely, that mentality, in their way of thinking, is aligned with worldly ‘head knowledge’ that is set in opposition to ‘true faith’. Such thinking is prominent for both a lack of interpretation and a propensity for clinging tenaciously to tradition.

A preacher will stand before his or her congregation and speak the word ‘love’ with a special 'preacherly' inflection. If you just heard that word pronounced, with your eyes closed, you would immediately know, by the inflection alone, that it was spoken by a preacher. Never once have I heard a preacher attempt a real definition of love - and I’m guessing that is because they exalt the emotional over the cognitive. They will stand and shout the word at their congregation, drawing out the pronunciation in a long, tortured manner, as if the loud inflection is enough.

Yet, the word of God places love in a mutually inclusive relationship with knowledge, as seen in Philippians 1:9-10, “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.”

We have seen the scriptures speak of the ‘spirit of love’, and we seekers associate spirituality with mentality. Ephesians 4:30 tells us that we are ‘sealed’ unto the day of redemption. The language associates that seal with the Holy Ghost: that is, the Holy Mind of God, which God has imparted to the sons of men. Back in the day, when a king sent a letter, he set on it his own peculiar seal – a dollop of hot wax impressed by his unique signet.

Our similarity to such a letter is twofold: firstly, we have a unique seal that identifies the seeker as being sent by the sender; secondly, like the letter, our content is all that the sender placed inside us. Our mark – our seal – is the very mind of God. Our seal is both known and familiar. The more we know of God, the more like God we become. Christ said more than, simply, he knew the sheep that belonged to him. He added that his sheep knew Him. Read 2 Timothy 2:19, “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His.” The sons of men are letters to future sons of men. Each of us bears the seal of familiar knowledge that marks us as his; each of us contains the thoughts of God. We need but be opened and God is communicated. It behooves us, then, to study both content and seal. Two things will become clear: what sets us apart from the un-sealed, or the 'otherly-sealed', and how our content can make the uncommunicated one with us.

We willing participants in the realized mind of God serve the purposes of our Lord – and it was no accident that Christ was named the ‘Word’. Our communications of the God-mind add bone and sinew to the body of Christ. That legacy, that endowment, is not ours alone but belongs to each and every son of man. We know that serving our Lord in the communication of the realization of the mind of God in corporeal man will reward us, each and all, with the God-mind. What an inheritance!

Read of the coming advent of spiritual man in Colossians 3:24, “Knowing that of the Lord (the Word) ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ (the Word).”

It is not possible to avoid the issues of cognitive communications in this study. When we speak of the invisible things of the inner man, we speak of mentality. Many contemporaries cling to the social/emotional aspects of our relationship with God – and I would not belittle them. Before the first-grade teacher begins to fashion the child’s mind, the kindergarten teacher shows that child how to interact with others. Some contemporary Christians are at the first-grade level; some still hop, skip, and jump.

We seekers have attained a higher level. We understand that the communication of the God-mind is not preoccupied with social standards that are based in the satellite emotions. Our new standards are standards of cognitive communication.

See James 3:13, “Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.”

And too, we know that what we receive of the Holy Ghost, of the Holy mind of God, is cognitive rather than emotional. Words that speak to seekers have little effect on non-seekers. The contemporary mindset clings to primary basics such as ‘sinner-saved-by-grace’, such as ‘for-God-so-loved’, such as the preaching of salvation, the attendance of church, and tithing. These standards are all good and have their place in the order of things.

Sadly, the contemporary mindset never seeks beyond its laurels. Ask yourself, where do the saved go beyond salvation? Does the church ever build beyond salvation? No – they just go on preaching salvation to the saved, perpetuating the social customs and emotional ruts that keep the church standing. The contemporary Christian view has a built-in aversion to things mental, they are almost immediately labeled ‘gnostic’.

And yet . . . Read 1 John 2:20, “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.”

Imagine a board containing an endless array of dominoes, always falling, each always affecting the next in line. So it is in our day-to-day reality. We affect one another. Seekers are letters to seekers. We are a small group now, and that leaves a whole lot of junk mail floating around out there – affecting people – infecting people. The contemporary Christian mindset holds that we need a lot of work in order to be what we need to be. Perhaps an entire overhaul. How does that mindset, traditionally, approach the issue?

Well, when unstructured interpersonal relations are the issue, abstinence is their answer. The absence of something, as Christ taught, only leaves a hole. The displaced spirit will return with seven of his buddies. Contemporaries do admit they need something to fit the hole – but what? Over the years, we have seen them plug holes with the same old plugs. When those plugs come out, as they regularly do, they put the same ones back in. You’d figure that after so much of that, they would look around for a plug that would do the job; you’d figure they would try something new. Even God, when He saw that yearly sacrifices did not do the job, tried something new – a sacrifice that only had to be applied once.

Our thoughts can accomplish little or much. What are you affected by? What are you building on? If a man leaned a ladder against his house but did not climb, would he reach the roof? When God comes to evaluates our performance, what do you think He will find?

See Genesis 6:5, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart (mind) was only evil continually.”

A popular song once asked: “Will it go ‘round in circles, or will it climb high like a bird up in the sky?”

Mankind goes around in circles: circles of emotion, circles of social standards and comfortable customs.

Genesis 6:6, “And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart (mind).”

In one sense, the Bible is a history of God’s communications to man. God was always giving man those things he needed to move forward. Man did not always move forward. Man developed customs, reworked what he had been given to make it comfortable. Man created false gods out of laziness. Man was more interested in what other men said – and he could always put in his own two cents worth with a push or a shove. Worldly, fleshly man is a preacher who preaches physical contact and force against obstacles; he preaches gratification and exalts the image of a man with an amputated future. He is a preacher who magnifies diminishment, a preacher who lifts up pulling down.

Little by little, the communications began to take root. People built upon what they were given by seeking more of the same. What they knew, they practiced and they developed the muscle of understanding. For the sons of men, from the beginning, it was a knowledge and a desire to know. That was the platform on which they built higher customs and laws. And, as men, they began to pull themselves away from the purely corporeal. It was spiritual.

See Exodus 35:21, “They came, every one whose heart (mind) stirred him up, and every one whom His spirit (mind) made willing.”

A man’s mind, his thoughts, will stir him up. A man’s thoughts will lead to action. A man may think about a matter and will make a decision based in all of that which he has been persuaded. Those people who had been persuaded by spiritual knowledge and understanding willingly made spiritual decisions.

See Exodus 35:29, “The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the Lord.”

Over and over, we see the main attribute of our relationship to God – we see the augmented mind working spiritually in the corporeal realm.

We see Exodus 35:35, “Them hath He filled with wisdom of heart (mind), to work all manner of work . . . and of those that devise cunning work.”

That wisdom of mind was the mind of God, for the natural mind of man went in other directions.

Always has God given His chosen learning aids to keep their attention focused forward, for without certain reminders our attention follows the paths of least resistance.

See Numbers 15:39, “And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them, and that ye seek not after your own heart (mind) and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring.”

Mankind resists the spiritual. He draws lines; he places God above and man below. While God seems to him to be at inaccessible heights, maybe (just maybe), he thinks, God will not see. No: the sun did not just slip behind a cloud, but that is a true and recognizable darkness in man’s thinking. However, God exists both in heaven and in earth; He is there, but He is also here. The inaccessible heights of God, as a theory, is self-delusional. To view God as some distant, white-bearded sky Daddy in no way negates His real presence here among us. He is the same God here on earth as He is in heaven: He is a God of knowledge.

Turn your lights on and read Deuteronomy 4:39, “Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart (mind), that the Lord He is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.”

There is not a heaven God and an earth God; there is one God for both.

The sons of men, imbued with the mind of God, have been conveying God’s message for a very long time: ‘take off your blinders; walk in the light; remove from your thinking all things that get in the way of understanding: that come between you and the God of knowledge’.

See Deuteronomy 10:16, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart (mind).”

As I have stated, two things will become clear: what sets us apart from the un-sealed, or the otherlysealed, and how our content can make the uncommunicated one with us. Many people have aligned themselves with the church and have professed faith and allegiance to God. They have received Christ as their personal savior and they gather with like-minded people every Sunday. They meet the social and emotional requirements that have been placed upon them.

And yet . . . understand Deuteronomy 29:4, “The Lord hath not given you an heart (mind) to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.”

If God gives us an exercise program, and we never feel the burn, should we blame God that we are not buff? God has given us the tools we need; the language is simple.

Deuteronomy 30:14, “The word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth (communication), and in thy heart (mind), that thou mayest do it.”

ELEVEN Realization This book puts forward the question: “What exactly is spiritual?” It is the seeker’s point of view that ‘spiritual’ and ‘cognitive’ are concepts that may be used interchangeably. Our premise is that a spiritual God (the God of knowledge) is realizing Himself into corporeal man by the process of replacing our minds with His. See 1 Samuel 13:14, “The Lord hath sought Him a man after His own heart (mind).”

Our studies have shown us that some people evince that transition, as denoted in Judges 5:15, “There were great thoughts of heart (mind),” and also in Judges 5:16, “There were great searchings of heart (mind).”

Now, everyone thinks, everyone searches and ponders and meditates, but not everyone goes to that next level. Natural man thinks natural thoughts. Spiritual man has been given something that places him in a higher bracket. That ‘something’, I think, is available to all; it is out in the open for any to freely take.

However, to take it, one must use it.

See 1 Kings 3:12, “I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart (mind).”

What God offers is starkly different from the comfortable traditions of the natural man, which are basically reactionary. It’s not like watching TV, or going to a party, or hanging at the beach; it is rather like a grand piano at the bottom of a long flight of stairs. One must not only go down and shoulder the burden, one must be willing to go higher with it: up to the top. In that sense, the gift of a wise and understanding mind is directional in nature.

There are two directions: going up and going down. Standing still is not the same as going down, but neither is it anything on a par with going up. We think of the natural mind as going down (declining), or standing still (static). We think of the spiritual mind as inclined or ascending.

Joshua 24:23, “Incline your heart (mind).”

One of the defining traits of the natural mind is a little thing almost everyone has heard of: ‘situation ethics’. The fickle mind, the double mind, chaff before the wind, torn and divided allegiance is the state of which I speak. Some people are constantly surprised at how others mistreat them; others know the signs and adjust their alliances accordingly. Yet, even among the double-minded, a man who stands behind his word is seen as a man of virtue, and a man who can be trusted.

So - how does a man arrive at the place where his word can be ‘taken to the bank’? It is highly likely that he did not learn it from one who could not be trusted to honor his word. If, for instance, a man learned it from his Dad, what the Dad communicated to his son was more than sterile information: it was his very nature that he imparted. Such a mind is learned from God. The more we are like God, the more singular is our intent.

See 1 Chronicles 12:33, “They were not of double heart (mind).”

The natural mind can, in a certain light, seem to be singular. Some people exalt resistance to instruction. They think they know as much as the next man, so they are offended at the first indication of instruction. They simply do not wish to be ‘told’; they complain of those who try to ‘force’ thoughts, ideas, and opinions down their throats. These are of the ‘hardhearted’ type, and not likely to embrace a thought that does not already suit them. The opposite type are they with an inclination toward dialog: such would be one whose mind is malleable but not gullible, one whose mind is impressionable, approachable, yet analytical.

See 2 Kings 22:19, “Because thine heart (mind) was tender.”

This type is more predisposed to know not only the possibilities of the mind but also the limitations.

See 1 Kings 8:38, “Which shall know every man the plague of his own heart (mind).”

In the course of exercising the gift of the God-mind, knowledge increases and is known as understanding. Understanding increases and is known as wisdom. Inherent in this process is a thing most of us come to appreciate. It is called experience. When I go to get a haircut, I look for the professional with understanding over those who are still practicing. We all seek the best in our daily lives. We look for an accomplished attorney rather than some kid with a freshly printed diploma. We seek an experienced surgeon rather than some hack. In every case where it truly matters to us, we seek the man with a well-developed mind, a man of experience, and of expertise.

See 1 Kings 10:24, “And all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart (mind).”

God is not always instantly realized, as in the mind of Solomon. With most, it is a process that involves the length of our lives, not to mention disciplined study.

See 1 Kings 8:61, “Let your heart (mind) therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes, and to keep His commandments, as at this day.”

Of course, the natural mind is predisposed to view study as so much lugubrious labor: dull and boring to the point of tears. Such a mind will always find it more desirable to party, or hang with friends anything! Seekers, however, do not find seeking dull; they are quite pleased with every new gem they discover.

1 Chronicles 16:10, “Glory ye in His Holy name: let the heart (mind) of them rejoice that seek the Lord.”

Down through the centuries, men have sacrificed to God: 1 Chronicles 29:9, “With perfect heart (mind) they offered willingly to the Lord.”

They brought to altars beasts for bloodshed. They brought to coffers coins for causes. They placed their presents at the pulpit. Compared with our template, these activities do not seem especially spiritual.

Yet, it does not take an architect to see that something has, over time, been built up. We may wonder how killing an animal can lead to cognitive skills; the two seem less than complimentary. Yet, everyone must crawl before they can walk.

Early religious practice does not seem particularly aligned with knowledge, understanding, or wisdom; but it does represent the ‘baby steps’ of conformity. Through all of its fundamental ceremony, early religion did sharpen the mind through regular practice. In every life circumstance, including trials and temptations, the mind returned to a single clarion issue: one’s relationship to God. Though not always thought of, foundations are vital to any building project.

See 1 Chronicles 29:17, “I know also, my God, that Thou triest the heart (mind), and hast pleasure in uprightness.”

In an early illustration, I likened the realization of God in corporeal man to a large fish materializing in a fishbowl. I mentioned that one of the important preliminary preparations in that process would necessarily be the modification of the environment inside the fishbowl. The fish could not just ‘pop in’.

Since I am calling our heads fishbowls, it is our minds that must be prepared to accommodate the insertion.

See 1 Chronicles 29:18, “O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart (mind) of Thy people, and prepare their heart (mind) unto Thee.”

That preparation of the mind is shown as crucial in contrasting verses such as 2 Chronicles 12:14, “And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart (mind) to seek the Lord.”

‘Preparation’, ‘understanding’, and ‘covenant’ are, for the seeker’s purpose, related terms. ‘Blend’, ‘cognizance’, and ‘bond’ are alternate words found in the thesaurus. Our thoughts, by these terms, are directed toward the intent of ‘oneness’. Realization is a process. To think of this process, we must consider the individual’s connectedness, and our concern is for which direction the mind takes. There are people who do many good works - but that is the limiting factor: they are just works.

See 2 Chronicles 25:2, “And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart (mind).”

On the other hand, any of us who are, as we say, ‘wayward’ may draw close again to God and win new approval.

Take a look at 2 Chronicles 19:3, “Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart (mind) to seek God.” In all of this, the mind either faces God or turns away. A seeker must, by his very nature, face God. The seeker, in receiving the communicated nature of God, seeks more of the same communication.

2 Chronicles 30:18-19, “The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart (mind) to seek God.” God pardons and assists for it is the work of a spiritual God unto spiritual ends.

See 2 Chronicles 30:12, “The hand (the work) of God . . . to give them one heart (one mind) . . . by the word (the communication) of the Lord.”

Throughout the process that leads to one mind, the individual mind may be seen in its various stages.

2 Chronicles 17:6, “And his heart (mind) was lifted up in the ways of the Lord.”

2 Chronicles 29:31, “As many as were of a free heart (mind).”

As stated earlier, preparation is a blending of spiritual and corporeal, a practice aimed at achieving a bond. We are they that recognize and embrace those communications; we seek. We march inexorably toward that bonding of flesh and mind.

See 2 Chronicles 31:21, “To seek his God, he did it with all his heart (mind), and prospered.”

To prepare one’s mind to seek leads one to actually seek, and the word does say, ‘seek and you will find’. You must understand that the seeker does not receive idly. The seeker receives in order to practice; the seeker fully expects to exercise what he is given, fully expects the exercise to give abundance.

See Ezra 7:10, “For Ezra had prepared his heart (mind) to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.”

What came first, the chicken or the egg? What came first, the grape or the seed? The second question answers the first. (What came first, the question or the answer?) Just as the grape enlarges around the seed, so the sons of mankind develop around the given mind. Man did not invent it but is an extension of it. God gave the God-mind to man. God prepared mankind to seek it. First and foremost, the Godmind is a spiritual work in a corporeal plane bent on lifting the corporeal to spiritual heights.

If we ask, will God listen? Of course, He will: it is His work.

See Psalms 10:17, “Lord, Thou hast heard the desire of the humble: Thou wilt prepare their heart (mind), Thou wilt cause Thine ear to hear.”

The process. To what may we compare it? It is like an engine of perpetual motion that continuously feeds upon, and builds upon its own increase.

See Psalms 22:26, “The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek Him: Your heart (God’s mind) shall live for ever.”

I’ll say it once more: a spiritual God is working a spiritual work in a corporeal plane for His own spiritual ends.

Read Proverbs 16:1 closely, “The preparations of the heart (the mind) in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord.”

Most of us are familiar with the A. S. K. verse: Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.”

The A. S. K. verse presents three distinct, though related, concepts. The central concept is ‘seek’. When one seeks, one is in actuality ‘looking’ for something. The word ‘looking’ denotes direction, and in that regard, we are reminded of The Great Reflection. If you have forgotten, The Great Reflection is the interface between God and man, man, of course, being the reflection (or, the corporeal extension) of his spiritual creator. Face does indeed answer to face.

See Psalms 27:8, “When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart (my mind) said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”

It is real: the more we behold the face of God, the more we look just like Him. Psalms 105:3, “Glory ye in His holy name: let the heart (the mind) of them rejoice that seek the Lord.”

Despite the weight of the argument, there is still an ingrained disposition to place all results in a far and distant future rather than in the here and now. Allow me to refute that with a timeline from Daniel 10:12, “Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart (mind) to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for (because of) thy words.”

Both the preparation of the mind in man, and the answer of the tongue come from an invisible spiritual God. That is not to say we are puppets. We have a major role to play. Just as we are given muscles and must, therefore, exercise them to grow, the gift of the God-mind must be exercised. That exercise is growth, is health, is life.

See Proverbs 15:28, “The heart (mind) of the righteous studieth to (toward an) answer.”

It is a spiritual work unto a spiritual end. Our studied opinion: spiritual is mental is spiritual. Ask yourselves this question: what does our spiritual God promise more than anything else? The answer to that one is ‘Life’.

See Psalms 69:32, “The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart (mind) shall live that seek God.” Chapter thirty of Jeremiah paints a vivid picture of the return of God’s chosen people from captivity, where their lords and nobles were foreigners, where no one had their good in mind, but only their usefulness. The chapter puts forth God’s claim that it was He that deliberately brought the evil upon His people because they had displeased Him. It also presents the reader with a picture of God’s desire toward His people: that He will make a full end to other nations but not to Israel.

It shows clearly that His intent is to heal and restore. Why? Because the people were thoroughly humbled, and throughout their distress, their minds returned to God. The picture is of a spiritual connection that God responds to. Just as in the day of Moses, the day of David, the day of Solomon,

God’s intent is to establish and build upon the personal relationship of those who, by the exercise of what they have been given, willingly seek His face. It is a vivid picture of both the corporeal Israel and the spiritual Israel’s spiritual progress.

See Jeremiah 30:21, “And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto Me: for who is this (what kind or what type of individual was it) that (purposefully) engaged his heart (mind) to approach unto Me? saith the Lord.”

Who will that governor be? None other than a seeker of the spiritual - and not a seeker who seeks ineffectively. The seeker that seeks the spiritual must seek it spiritually, must use all his spiritual tools.

See Jeremiah 29:13, “Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart (mind).”

It is no accidental role we play in the process of our spiritualization but a role we deliberately choose and embrace. Any seeker may use the willing words found in Ecclesiastes 1:13, “I gave (dedicated) my heart (mind) to seek and search.”

The seeker may adopt the spiritual determination of the preacher in Ecclesiastes 7:25, “I applied mine heart (mind) to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things.”

When God speaks of the nobles of a restored Israel, what would be His definition of the term?

Mankind’s definition of a noble is based in the arbitrary: nobles rise to wield power over others; bloodline and ancestry are the determining factors. God sees nobility in a wholly different light.

See spiritual nobility in Acts 17:11, “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word (spiritual communication) with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”

We must, as a body of seekers, mind the things of the mind. In the communication of nobility, we lift our brothers and sisters along with ourselves. In so doing, the one body approaches the one mind.

Philippians 3:16, “Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.”

That is the seeker building upon the gift of the God-mind, minding mind matters, becoming better, heading higher, leaning toward life.

Consider the fate of the non-seeker in Philippians 3:19, “Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.”

I do not express mind over matter, but I clearly iterate that it is a matter of the mind. Our mind is central to this study of things spiritual. It is important that the seeker make the connection between things spiritual and the mind.

Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”

With the mind of Christ in our heads, we speak like Christ; we reason like Christ. We are little miniChrists, becoming more and more of what He is: the way for others, light, truth, and life. We are the cluster of grapes forming on the vine.

Philippians 4:2, “Be of the same mind in the Lord.”

In the formation of the cluster of grapes on the vine, we see a process that we may compare to the formation of the God-mind in the individual and the development of the one mind. An opposite process, like a domino effect, occurs in those who mind earthly things. First, a blind eye is turned to the spiritual: the mind is set to reject the invisible. Second, the culmination of that self-imposed ignorance creates an ever-widening gap between that individual and God for the simple reason that they chose familiar darkness over illumination.

See Ephesians 4:18, “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart (mind).”

The seeker truly walks a fine line. He is different from the worldly-minded, and yet, it is the seal of the seeker, and his content, that is God’s communication to the world of baser men. The seeker by his nature and by the exhortation of scripture is called to ‘mind’ higher matters, and yet, unless he deliberately plants himself among those he has risen above, he has no purpose, no meaning, no justification.

We see this clearly in Romans 12:16, “Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.”

TWELVE Embracing Spirituality We march singly. We march two and two.

Yes: hand in hand, we make our march around the contemporary church, and apart from the social and emotional restrictions that have rendered it static. We gladly, and hungrily seize the meat of the word, and we chew with delight. We follow a line of meaty treats: higher and higher. We embrace spirituality.

To many, no doubt, this work will be viewed as nothing more than a modern rewrite of Gnosticism. But we offer no candles, and if we chant, our chant is of a higher choice.

God blessed Solomon and granted his desire for cognitive skills. Solomon could have chosen worldly things; he could have made natural choices - but he did not. He did not, for example, choose physical wealth. He did not choose social honor. He did not, on an emotional level, ask revenge on his enemies.

Solomon could have chosen to circumvent God’s natural order by asking for long life, but Solomon had a taste for meat: he asked for cognitive skills - and he did so for a specific reason: so that he might properly care for the people God had made him responsible for.

Solomon’s choice was actually God’s choice; in other words, Solomon wanted what God wanted, and God honored that.

See 2 Chronicles 1:11-12, “God said to Solomon, Because this was in thine heart (mind), and thou hast not asked riches, wealth, or honour, nor the life of thine enemies, neither yet hast asked long life; but hast asked wisdom and knowledge for thyself, that thou mayest judge My people, over whom I have made thee king: Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee.”

We embrace spirituality - the true spirituality of the God-mind. We do not burn candles; you will not see us in parades or engaged in long and mournful contemplations. Our place is not found in pompous ceremony, nor in ridiculous gesticulations. We will, however, joyfully embrace the communicated nature of Him in whose image we daily walk.

2 Chronicles 7:10, “Glad and merry in heart (mind) for the goodness that the Lord had shewed (communicated).”

We were granted a taste and we hungered for more. What we received, we exercised. Through that exercise, we obtained abundance, by which abundance we are now empowered to receive even more. It is not our work, but God’s.

See 2 Chronicles 16:9, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart (mind) is perfect (enhanced) toward Him.” However, it is inadequate to simply embrace a thing. What we choose, we must choose for a reason.

Solomon had a reason - it was not just smarts for the sake of smarts. Again, it was not a bad or nonproductive reason. We saw, in the book of Daniel, a king turned into an animal by the removal of the mind he had received from God. It is only reasonable to assume, therefore, that anything God can give us, He can also take back.

What is an unexercised muscle? It is a wattle. What is unexercised spirituality?

See 2 Chronicles 32:25-26, “Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart (mind) was lifted up (but not in the ways of the Lord): therefore there was wrath upon him . . . (then) Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart (mind) . . . so that the wrath of the Lord came not.”

Cause and effect. If our brain is impressionable, God will imprint His mind upon it. If we exercise the thing given us, it becomes greater and greater. As our ability to receive and respond to the God-mind grows, God, in like fashion, responds more and more to what He finds within us. In the next verse, I interpret a ‘tender heart’ as a mind that is attuned to the communications from God; as a mind that may be impressed, imprinted; as a mind that will sit up and pay attention – then respond. A tender heart (an impressionable mind) embraces spirituality.

See 2 Chronicles 34:27, “Because thine heart (mind) was tender (impressionable), and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest His words (communications) against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before Me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before Me; I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord.”

We have already seen that God is actively seeking a ‘man after His own heart’. We have already seen that God makes every effort to show Himself strong on the behalf of those whose minds have been enhanced. And as to mirroring, we understand that God’s favorable responses to what He sees in us are proportional to our favorable responses to what we see in Him. We note, in the next verse, the word ‘before’ - a word that, in my estimation at least, carries the connotation of ‘facing’ what one is standing before. When I face myself in a mirror, I prefer that the image be exact and true.

See Nehemiah 9:8, “And foundest his heart (mind) faithful (conscientious, true) before Thee.”

I embrace the fact that God actually thinks about me, that I matter to Him. There is a force between my God and me, like lines of magnetism, that keeps us aligned. When God looks into the mirror and sees my face, it is a comfort to me that He sees something of Himself in me. I am God’s work. I am fully persuaded that I am His choice, and not some random event or mistake. I embrace the connection I have with God; I embrace God’s choosing, therefore, I embrace my choices.

See Job 7:17, “What is man, that Thou shouldest magnify (enhance) him? and that Thou shouldest set Thine heart (mind) upon him?”

I, like so many others, have received the God-mind. Like my brothers and sisters, I seek to impart to others what has been imparted to me. I imagine myself in a circle of mirrors, where I angle my shard to capture and redirect the image of God within, and as that image goes around, I realize that the ‘individual’ is also the ‘shared’: I realize that ‘God within us’ is also ‘God among us’. The key element in this circuit is the desire of the individual to communicate. It is the trickle of many streams that combine to achieve the force of a mighty torrent. To understand that force, one must humbly realize that what an individual communicates, was first communicated to him; one must realize that the individual is not the source, but the medium: that the work of communication is owned by God. Many people doubt and reject the communications of God because they reach them through other people. They ask, how do we know that man did not alter or make up the communication? God communicates God to man, man, therefore, cannot help but communicate God to man.

See Job 8:10, “Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart (mind)?”

We are not the first to understand why we know such things, or where our glad secrets come from.

See how far back it goes in Job 10:10-13, “Hast Thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.

Thou hast granted me life (the God-mind) and favour, and Thy visitation hath preserved my spirit. And these things (secrets) hast Thou hid in Thine heart (God’s own mind).”

Communication is the issue and is directly connected to our relationship with God. Where the eye turns, and what delights it are two matters that are highly visible in the words we choose to speak. Our very nature, our spirit, whether we face the mirror or look away are issues of extreme spiritual import.

Job 15:12-13, “Why doth thine heart (mind) carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at, That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest (choose) such words go out of thy mouth?”

What do you embrace?

Of course, those inclined to doubt the communications simply because they come from other humans, are they who have turned their spirit from God. After all, those who have rejected spiritual abilities have no tools with which to approach spirituality. They have stepped out of the circuit, and have dropped their shards. When an individual faces the Great Reflection, God faces the individual. When the individual turns away from the mirror, God turns away from the individual. Once touted, twice compounded - God responds by doubling: if the individual turns his eyes from the light, God gives him the blackness of night.

See Job 17:4, “For Thou hast hid their heart (mind) from understanding.”

What do you embrace?

What are your purpose and justification? What gives your life meaning? If the answer to these questions is ‘spirituality’, then know that even the righteous and the upright in mind enjoy no security other than their committed desire.

Job 17:11, “My purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart (mind).”

A man may stand alone only so long. We were meant to stand together, to strengthen one another: to receive and bear the communications of other men. Even though the arguments of Eliphaz, the Temanite were flawed, we know that one may not communicate spiritually what one has not received spiritually.

See Job 22:22, “Receive, I pray thee, the law from His mouth, and lay up His words in thine heart (mind).”

We must not forget that an invisible God works invisibly in the invisible parts of the inner man.

Sometimes we struggle to comprehend just what good our trials can possibly accomplish. Simply because the work of God may not be seen, that is no reason to assume that it may not be felt. No one ever claimed that the imprinting of God’s mind would be comfortable: even a small tattoo stings a little.

See Job 23:16-17, “God maketh my heart (mind) soft (easily offended), and the almighty troubleth me: Because I was not cut off before (facing) the darkness, neither hath He covered the darkness from my face.”

This verse reminds me of how God set me free from the potential bondage of strong drink: He made my stomach easily offended. A good conscience is much more than most people realize. A good conscience is actually a milestone in our spiritual progression. A good conscience is a hallmark of the upright in mind. It may be said of the upright that they attempt to sanctify their uprightness by keeping it pure, by which I mean: the upright will not tolerate admixture. Good behavior is not mixed with bad behavior; good conversation is not mixed with bad conversation. In other words, the upright will rigorously uphold each spiritual gain, will guard it against pollution, will embrace the greater and abandon the lesser within the inner man.

See Job 27:6, “My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart (mind) shall not reproach me so long as I live.”

And I must add that the good conscience of a good man is not an arbitrary, or subjective concept: there is a test that may be applied to the conscience to determine its state of admixture or purity.

See Job 31:7, “If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart (mind) walked after mine eyes.”

So I ask again: what do you embrace?

I must add this inquiry, also: what do you communicate?

The seeker embraces the communication of an upright God: a God of knowledge. That communication is what we, in turn, communicate: the very nature of our spiritual Father.

See Job 33:3, “My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart (mind): and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly.”

We communicate strongly: we communicate strength. We do not force, and yet, if we strive, it is in the hope we will not lose a brother or a sister. We sincerely desire that in our condescension to men of lesser estate, some will obey the call, face the mirror, and see just who they really are.

Sadly, we too often receive ridicule for our hopes and are accused of adopting ancient texts to rationalize our own personal agendas. But we do not communicate ourselves, we communicate God, and we know that God responds to good with good, to evil with evil.

See Job 36:12-14, “But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge. But the hypocrites in heart (mental habits) heap up wrath: they cry not (attempting to seem tough) when He bindeth them. They die in youth, and their life is among the unclean.”

When we communicate, it is really God who communicates. Yes, we have within us all that God has imparted, but it is still not we, per se, that work the work.

Job 38:36, “Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart (mind)?”

We but hold another shard in the circuit: the image and the communication of the image are of God. We embrace our place in the circuit. What is given us, becomes us - and yet - there is a quality about the augmented mind that is separate and unique; it is a quality that may be engaged in conversation. Do you know someone who talks to himself? Perhaps that person is you.

But, if we have received the God-mind, is it really ourselves to whom we speak? And does that not raise the question of how close God is to each of us?

See Psalms 4:4, “Commune with your own (or God’s own) heart (mind).”

See also Psalms 7:10, “My defence (like a shield: something held close) is of God, which saveth the upright in heart (mind).”

THIRTEEN

Discerning Spirits We recall our Lord’s identification of types: a good tree brings forth good fruit, and a bad tree brings forth bad fruit. Also, a good man out of the good treasure of his heart (mind) brings forth that which is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart (mind) brings forth that which is evil. And to tell the truth, it all seems rather simplistic - that is until we come to the amendment: for out of the abundance of the heart (mind) a man communicates.

We daily deal with myriad spirits.

If we are to distinguish between them, spiritual tools are called for. When one wants to see the moon, one looks through a telescope. When one wants to see a microbe, one looks through a microscope.

What, then, do seekers require? Seekers seek a ‘spiriscope’.

Of course, by spiriscope, I mean a tool or application that is spiritual. By spiritual, I mean mental or cognitive. We are scouts approaching new frontiers, but it is not as if we have no idea what we are searching for. When Lewis and Clark stumbled into a valley - how did they know it was a valley? They compared with previous experience; they applied the knowledge and wisdom of those who had gone before. They expected, long before they had their bags packed, to find hills and trees and rivers and valleys.

We seekers, we new frontiersmen, also know what we seek: we seek the mind in all its many hues, tints, and shades. I speak of degrees when I reference tints and shades. And I might as well assign ‘tint’ to the seeker’s mind and ‘shade’ to the corporeal mind.

So, a beginning test for discerning spirituality is, therefore, the degree to which the mind is either tinted with the God-mind, or shaded with the world-mind. We see, then, no matter the hue, the degrees have but two directions, and two ends. White or black. To reach either end is to achieve saturation or fullness. One might call either state, in regard to its attainment, ‘whole’.

See Psalms 9:1, “My whole heart (mind).”

With our eyes focused through the lens of the spiriscope, we see all too clearly that an individual’s mouth will communicate whatever the mind is filled with. What one naturally and frequently communicates to others is an indicator of spiritual content. When a man speaks often, and zealously, about sexual matters, when he turns every comment into a sexual reference, you can be sure that is the thing that occupies his thoughts and dreams.

See Psalms 10:3, “The wicked boasteth of his heart's (his mind’s) desire.”

In recognizing this, the author of Psalm 10 is, in actuality, discerning spirits. And really, this is not something that takes a rocket scientist to achieve. The outward manifestations will always follow the spiritual content of the mind. If the mind is filled with thoughts of money, that is what the individual will speak - and each opportunity will see that individual acting toward that end, I.E.: those who ruthlessly climb the corporate ladder, thieves, and looters, even simple cheaters. These may definitely be discerned, but take note - they will do all that is in their power to remain undetected, to appear ‘normal’ and credulous.

See Psalms 12:2, “They speak vanity (emptiness) every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart (a double mind (forked tongue)) do they speak.”

What about the upright? If it is true that the wicked will speak the content of their mind, it is just as true that the righteous will do the same.

See Psalms 15:2, “He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart (in his mind).”

The same test should be applied to either case. We take it for granted that an individual will stand behind what he or she truly believes, regardless of whether it is right or wrong. Let’s take a look at an upright individual standing behind what he believes. The first thing we note, in reading the following verse, is that the individual is not ‘full of himself’, rather, he humbly ascribes the source of his beliefs to a higher plane.

Psalms 17:2-3, “Let my sentence come forth from Thy presence (a word that in no way places God at a distance); let Thine eyes behold the things that are equal (refer back to the fulcrum theory).

Thou hast proved mine heart (mind); Thou hast visited me in the night; Thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.”

Is the word of God, such as is found in the Bible, a spirit detecting tool? Is the word of God a spiriscope? I once saw an image that seemed nothing more than black spots. After taking a moment to really look at it, the true image became apparent. It was a black and white photo of a Dalmatian on a cobbled street after a rain: I had progressed from general spots to three distinct facts. When one takes a moment, the truth comes out. To many, the word of God is like an image of black spots on a white background. To use the word as a tool for discerning spirits is to study the spots until they become facts.

Take Psalms 19:8, for example: “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart (mind).”

If an individual reads the word, and it fills him - what will he talk about, what future actions will he take?

We note in the verse that it was the mind that was rejoiced. The mind was enhanced, was filled with spiritual content, was made more nearly whole: tinted, if you will - and it is only human nature to communicate those things that impress us. That individual will find somebody, somewhere, and speak about the thing that rejoiced his mind.

Communication is key.

As for future actions, it is reasonable to assume that the individual will return to the thing that lifted him up. He will be impressed all over again, and he will look to see if there is more. For the spiritually inclined, the word of God (even meditation on the word of God) is all that’s cool. The saturation that is experienced will include not only the reception of the word, but the thinking and rethinking of it, and of course, sharing it with others.

See Psalms 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart (mind), be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.”

Is scripture a spiriscope? Read the verse above for what it says. Read it for what it does not say. Read it one section at a time, asking the appropriate questions.

When I speak of spiritual, I speak of the thoughts of the mind and the words of the mouth: which are matters that are rooted in their purpose and function. If an airplane does not fly, it is no more than a huge ugly car, and a road-hog. Spiritual thoughts and spiritual communications will not be found to exist separately from their purpose and function. The same may be said of non-spiritual thoughts and communications. The spirit discerned in the righteous is the spirit of God. That is to say, the mind discerned in the righteous is the mind of God. It is the baseline, the standard by which all else is judged. In all of the known universe, a thing either grows or diminishes, waxes or wanes, lives or dies. Nothing is static, not even the dirt beneath our feet.

So for the righteous, who derive from the God-mind, and practice the God-mind, the gain we realize in regard to knowledge and wisdom is seen as the work of God Himself. We may expect, therefore, that He will also support our communications to others.

See Psalms 20:1-4, “The Lord . . . Grant thee according to thine own heart (mind), and fulfil all thy counsel.”

That is precisely why the overall cognitive character of mankind is so dynamic. It is nonstatic in nature: living - unless it is forced into attrition. Just to look at the righteous, we see that there is turmoil within.

There are ups and downs. Judge the next verse against the one following it.

See Psalms 21:2, “Thou hast given him his heart's (his mind’s) desire.”

See also Psalms 22:14, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart (mind) is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.”

Types. Stereotypes.

In discerning spirits, one may refer to previous models. Comparison is, after all, one of the tools of thought. The mind assigns attributes from types already known. There is a church hymn, for example, that is titled: “Dare to be a Daniel.” We look at character traits in an individual, and we compare them to traits we have seen in others, or have learned of indirectly. This has been the case even in scripture.

And, if we accept that the minds of the sons of men derive from the mind of God, we see also that God employs comparisons no less than men.

See Psalms 24:3-4, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord (who shall become a Moses)? or who shall stand (remove his sandals) in His holy place? He that hath clean hands (the things we do), and a pure (single or unadulterated) heart (mind); who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.”

Let us, then, review spiritual types. As we proceed, bear in mind that you know someone, somewhere, with comparable traits. How do we discern the righteous spirit, the upright in mind?

The upright in mind will turn to God for help: Psalms 25:17, “The troubles of my heart (mind) are enlarged: O bring Thou me out of my distresses.”

Also, Psalms 61:2, “From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when my heart (mind) is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” The upright in mind will open himself to spiritual inspection: Psalms 26:2, “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins (conscience) and my heart (mind).”

Also, Psalms 139:23, “Search me, O God, and know my heart (mind): try me, and know my thoughts.”

The upright in mind will place his courage and confidence in God: Psalms 27:3, “Though an host should encamp against me, my heart (mind) shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.”

The upright in mind will display courageous patience in the face of life’s trials: Psalms 27:14, “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart (mind): wait, I say, on the Lord.”

Also, 2 Thessalonians 2:2, “That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.”

The upright in mind will trust God, and rejoice in God’s real responses: Psalms 28:7, “My heart (mind) trusted in Him, and I am helped: therefore my heart (mind) greatly rejoiceth.”

The upright in mind will hope in God: Psalms 31:24, “Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart (mind), all ye that hope in the Lord.”

Also, Acts 2:26, “Therefore did my heart (mind) rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope.”

The upright in mind will display a jubilant character: Psalms 32:11, “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart (mind).”

Also, Psalms 64:10, “The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in Him; and all the upright in heart (mind) shall glory.”

Also, Psalms 97:11-12, “Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart (mind). Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.”

Also, Proverbs 15:13 & 15, “A merry heart (mind) maketh a cheerful countenance . . . he that is of a merry heart (mind) hath a continual feast.”

The upright in mind will be constant: Psalms 33:21, “For our heart (our mind) shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name.”

Also, Psalms 57:7, “My heart (mind) is fixed, O God, my heart (mind) is fixed: I will sing and give praise.”

The upright in mind will both delight in and receive the gifts God gives, in other words, he practices his relationship with God: Psalms 37:4, “Delight thyself also in the Lord: and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart (mind).”

The upright in mind will center his thoughts on the communications of God: Psalms 37:31, “The law of his God is in his heart (mind).”

Also, Psalms 40:8, “I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart (mind).”

The upright in mind will gladly share those good things that God imparts: Psalms 45:1, “My heart (mind) is inditing (communicating) a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.”

The upright in mind will concern himself with, and communicate higher matters: Psalms 49:3, “My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart (mind) shall be of understanding.”

The upright in mind will know where his higher nature comes from: Psalms 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart (mind), O God; and renew (regenerate) a right spirit within me.”

The upright in mind will concern himself less with form and ceremony, and more with true worship: Lamentations 3:41, “Let us lift up our heart (mind) with our (and not just our) hands (actions) unto God in the heavens.”

The upright in mind will take God with him wherever he goes: Jeremiah 51:50, “Remember the Lord afar off.”

The upright in mind will recognize the lines of demarcation: Numbers 24:13, “I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; but what the Lord saith, that will I speak?”

The upright in mind will be in concord with God: Isaiah 26:3, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.”

The upright in mind will take the high road: 1 Peter 1:22, “Seeing ye have purified (distilled) your souls (angelic counterparts) in obeying the truth through the spirit (mind) unto (to accomplish) unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart (single mind) fervently (genuinely).”

The upright in mind will treasure those things that are of value to God: 1 Peter 3:4, “But let it be the hidden (invisible) man of the heart (mind), in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”

The upright in mind will know what is good for them: Jeremiah 32:39, “And I will give them one heart (mind), and one way, that they may fear Me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them.”

The upright in mind will know God intimately enough to trust Him: Psalms 62:8, “Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart (mind) before Him: God is a refuge for us.”

The upright in mind will be a seeker: Psalms 77:6, “I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own (owned by God) heart (mind): and my spirit made diligent search.”

The upright in mind will not be politically correct: Psalms 94:15, “But judgment (discrimination) shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart (mind) shall follow it.”

(Explanation of discrimination: There are water and dust, and they cannot be the same for they are different. Should they meet halfway, they are neither water nor dust, but mud. It is the worldly mind that desires mud.)

The upright in mind will display a higher code of conduct: Psalms 101:2, “I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way . . . I will walk within my house with a perfect heart (mind).”

Also, Proverbs 3:3, “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart (mind).”

The upright in mind will be open to instruction from those recognized as more knowledgeable: Proverbs 4:20-21, “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart (mind).”

Also Proverbs 22:17, “Bow down (humble) thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart (mind)unto my knowledge.”

The upright in mind will feast on the smarts of God; will learn only from those who have the mind of God: Jeremiah 3:15, “I will give you pastors according to Mine heart (mind), which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.”

The upright in mind will practice effective faith: Mark 11:23, “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart (mind), but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.”

The upright in mind will be responsive to the communications of God: Jeremiah 23:9, “Mine heart (mind) within me is broken (opened like a seal) because of the prophets . . . because of the Lord, and because of the words of His holiness.”

Also, Ezekiel 3:10, “Son of man, all My words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart (mind), and hear with thine ears.”

The upright in mind will be like Jesus: Matthew 11:29, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart (mind): and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

The upright in mind will choose God: Mark 12:30, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart (mind), and with all thy soul (attained self), and with all thy mind (core self), and with all thy strength (soul): this is the first commandment.”

The upright in mind will remember: Luke 2:50-51, “And they understood not the saying which He spake unto them. And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but His mother kept all these sayings in her heart (mind).”

Also, Luke 2:19, “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart (mind).”

The upright in mind will be practitioners of God’s truths: Luke 8:15, “But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart (the spirit of a sound mind), having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.”

The upright in mind will consider his fellow man: Luke 10:27, “And he answering said, 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; and thy neighbour as thyself.”

Also, Lamentations 2:11, “Mine eyes do fail with tears . . . for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.”

The upright in mind will support and strengthen one another: Acts 2:46, “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart (mind).”

Also, Philippians 2:1, “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies.”

The upright in mind will display thoughts and intentions similar to those of God: Acts 13:22, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after Mine own heart (mind), which shall fulfil all My will.”

Also, Ephesians 6:6, “Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart (mind).”

Also, Isaiah 58:6, “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?”

Also, Colossians 3:12, “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering.”

The upright in mind will be open-minded and hear God speak even when through the agency of another human: Acts 16:14, “And a certain woman named Lydia . . . which worshiped God, heard us: whose heart (mind) the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.”

The upright in mind will be adamant in what they know is true: Revelation 20:4, “I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God.” Also, Romans 6:17, “Ye have obeyed from the heart (mind) that form of doctrine which was delivered you.”

The upright in mind will know where to find God: Ephesians 5:19, “Speaking to yourselves . . . in your heart (mind) to the Lord.”

The upright in mind will be compassionate and capable, powerful but not brutal: 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

The upright in mind will be honest: Psalms 32:2, “Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not (accuses of) iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile (duplicity).”

The upright in mind will be eternal: 2 Corinthians 4:16, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man (spiritual persona) is renewed day by day.”

The upright in mind will be true to his or her word: Numbers 30:2, “If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.”

The upright in mind will be the willing servants of mankind: 1 Peter 5:2, “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.”

Also, Philemon 1:7, “We have great joy and consolation in thy love, because . . . the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.”

The upright in mind will be the spiritual Israel: Hebrews 8:10, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people.”

The upright in mind will take life on the chin: 1 Peter 4:1, “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.”

The upright in mind will exhibit a zeal that inspires others: 2 Corinthians 9:2, “I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal hath provoked very many.”

The upright in mind will reflect the God that indwells them: 2 Corinthians 13:11, “Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.”

The upright in mind will advance and promote the truths spoken by Christ: Philippians 1:27, “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ . . . that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith (certainty) of the gospel.”

The upright in mind will work together: Philippians 2:2, “Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”

Also, 1 Corinthians 1:10, “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

The upright in mind will be problem solvers, not finger pointers: Philippians 2:3, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”

The upright in mind will allow the smaller issues to work themselves out: Luke 12:29, “And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.”

The upright in mind will evince a change in thinking, not merely a rehashing of worldly tenets: Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” The upright in mind will evince the unquenchable Spirit: Jeremiah 20:9, “His word was in mine heart (mind) as a burning fire shut up in my bones.”

The upright in mind will constantly show progress and forward momentum: Psalms 44:18, “Our heart (mind) is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from Thy way.”

The upright in mind will have a better sense of priorities: Psalms 62:10, “If riches increase, set not your heart (mind) upon them.”

The upright in mind will know a true relationship with God: Psalms 73:1, “Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart (clear mind).”

The upright in mind will wrestle with spiritual issues: 2 Corinthians 2:4, “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart (mind) I wrote unto you with many tears.”

The upright in mind will practice skills the worldly decry: Ecclesiastes 8:5, “A wise man's heart (mind) discerneth both time and judgment.”

The upright in mind will rise above social and emotional dogmas: Proverbs 4:23, “Keep (maintain) thy heart (mind) with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

Also, Isaiah 51:7, “Ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart (mind) is My law.”

Also, Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart (mind); and lean not unto thine own (worldly) understanding.”

The upright in mind will exercise mental abilities: Proverbs 14:33, “Wisdom resteth in the heart (mind) of him that hath understanding.”

Also, Proverbs 16:23, “The heart (mind) of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips.”

Also, Proverbs 2:2, “So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart (mind) to understanding.”

The upright in mind will be a living, growing power: Isaiah 60:5, “Then thou shalt see (understand), and flow together, and thine heart (mind) shall fear (revere), and be enlarged (augmented).”

Also, Psalms 119:32, “I will run (follow) the way of Thy commandments, when Thou shalt enlarge my heart (augment my mind).”

The upright in mind will communicate matters of value: Matthew 12:35, “A good man out of the good treasure of the heart (mind) bringeth forth good things.”

Also, Genesis 49:21, “Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.”

The upright in mind will help others drop all weights that limit and constrain: 2 Corinthians 6:12, “Ye are not straitened in (hindered by) us, but ye are straitened in (hindered by) your own bowels (emotions).”

The upright in mind will be a link in a strong chain-of-command: Proverbs 3:1, “My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart (mind) keep (continue) my commandments.”

Also, Ephesians 3:16, “To be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.”

The upright in mind are able to connect the dots: John 14:1, “Let not your heart (mind) be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.”

FOURTEEN Heart and Mind “Oh, what pretty lights” - or, a married couple strolls by a house one evening, and they view the Christmas lights. There are reds and blues, yellows and greens. The man thinks of the labor involved in setting so many lights around the house. He thinks of the risk involved in climbing a ladder. He might even admire the talent and foresight it took to place the lights so creatively. The woman, I think, misses the creative combination of yellows and blues and reds and greens - they are all equally bright and colorful. They are impressive to see. They are ‘pretty’.

Each light is an energy that is activated by another energy. It is a case of energy reflecting energy. They come in different colors, but each separate light is powered by the same electricity. Likewise, the mind is a light powered by the spirit. The difference seen from one mind to another is not based in differing spirits so much as in how the spirit is filtered. Where a clear bulb will reflect the purest representation of the power that lights it, another bulb will filter away all but a specific color. The mind comes in many colors, all reflections of the power that is not obvious to the naked eye.

If a mind is white, it cannot be black at the same time. A man’s front may never be his back, no matter how many times he turns around. In that sense, the mind of man mirrors the mind of God - or the lack of the mind of God. See Psalms 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart (mind), the Lord will not hear me.”

This chapter is somewhat of a smaller list but the list remains true to the topic. The mind of the godly man is the mind of God. Spiritual is mental is spiritual. The more we explore and exercise the invisible inner man, the bigger, stronger, and more noticeable our spiritual muscles become.

Early scriptural writers promoted the underlying power of the mind in man: the inner man. The definitive spiritual core within the human nature was called the heart. This study has deeply explored the interconnectedness of the heart and mind. The seeker’s take on the matter is that the heart and mind are the same. In its centuries of use, the heart has been applied to every aspect of human nature, whether of emotion, or of character, or of the invisible ‘divine’ nature. Of a mighty character, the heart of a warrior, or a lion was often referenced to indicate strength and resolve.

See Psalms 112:8, “His heart (mind) is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies.”

What lifts the man above the animal level? It is not a feeling or a state of emotion. Animals have those in common with man. It is not character, for animals also have character. It is the mind. It is a man’s thought – and second thought. We think. We rethink. Our second thoughts may rightly be called our conscience. The conscience is the spiritual mechanism of guidance. Without conscience, thought would be random and idle. Just as the reins on a horse guides the power of it left or right, so the conscience guides the power of the human nature to right or to wrong (by the lack thereof). Our reins, the ‘reins’ written of in early scripture, are equal to the ability to sense the spiritual landscape and guide the thoughts, with the resulting decisions and actions, in some purposeful direction.

See Psalms 73:21, “Thus my heart (mind) was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins (conscience).”

The state of our inner man has, from early times, been seen to affect our outward condition.

See Proverbs 14:30, “A sound heart (mind) is the life of the flesh.”

Proverbs 13:12 referenced that state in such terms as a tree of life, that being: a developmental path that leads to firmness of life, and by extension, life itself. When we read this verse, we must know that more is being referenced than the satellite emotions or getting what one wants. From early times, man saw the importance of communication and instruction. The thoughts within are the headwaters of all action.

One may be anybody; one may begin anywhere: we are all strung together like Christmas lights. If we begin with something, if we exercise what we possess, then more will be given.

See Acts 18:25-26, “This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.

And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.”

We call the mind a spiritual state. A spiritual state is like a Christmas light: it may be one color or it may be another color, but the truth is that a thing cannot be what it is except by not being something else. As already stated, a man’s front may never be his back: when he looks behind himself, that direction automatically becomes what is in front of him. Each mind, then, is a spirit that is a spirit at the expense of being anything other.

See 1 John 4:1, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God.” According to what I have put forth, may we see a conscience at work in an unrighteous person? Yes, it is there. When a person is caught in wrongdoing, the inner man will burn.

See Acts 2:37, “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart (mind).”

In certain cases, this is accompanied by the physical system being flooded with adrenaline. It is the same thing that happens when the rethinking of a righteous person leads to conviction. What, then, is the difference between the righteous and the unrighteous? It is the choice the individual makes. When the heart, or the spirit, is spoken of, it is the mind that is referenced. The conscience seems to be a subordinate function of the mind.

These terms may be used interchangeably. But, what about the soul? I have suggested an angelic other but here is another thought – that the soul is a sort of gestalt mental (by which, I mean spiritual) identity.

See the inner man in Matthew 22:37, “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”

Now, of course, the seeker will place those three words on the same level, as equals. Man is raised above the animal level and becomes the son of man. He finds something marvelous, although invisible, inside of himself. He seeks it, he exercises it and receives more. He communicates that grand invisibility and when he sees it in others, takes of it readily.

At first, there is only the knowledge of it, but as that knowledge is applied to life, experience and understanding are accumulated. Understanding is applied to life, and wisdom is obtained.

Communications have evolved throughout this process and have reached a higher, more effective level.

It is the process of God realizing Himself in man. Man reaches a communicative level where he no longer merely speaks words but transmits the very essence of the God-mind.

See Acts 6:10, “And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.”

Now, I have gone on and on about the mind of man and the communication of the mind of God. Our augmented mind and higher nature come to us through both the spoken and the written word. The divine nature and better character in others rub off on us. A sort of spiritual ‘Brownian Movement’ is in effect. It is a process that shall lift every willing individual.

We may discern the spirit of Christ in the common man, in ourselves, by applying the knowledge imparted to us through scripture. We may understand our ‘spiritual evolution’ by the exercise of that knowledge. The upright in mind may certainly be seen in the actions and decisions that stream from the headwaters of the augmented mind.

The upright in mind will be known by the thoughts of the mind: Proverbs 23:7, “As he thinketh in his heart (mind), so is he.”

Also, Daniel 2:30, “Know the thoughts of thy heart (mind).”

The upright in mind will seek, study, and memorize the words of God: Proverbs 7:3, “Write them upon the table of thine heart (mind).”

Also, Proverbs 4:4, “Let thine heart (mind) retain my words.”

Also, Romans 7:22, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man.”

The upright in mind will exercise the mind: Proverbs 8:5, “Be ye of an understanding heart (mind).”

Also, Isaiah 6:10, “Understand with their heart (mind).”

The upright in mind will conduct themselves in a deliberate and adamant manner: 1 Corinthians 7:37, “Standing steadfast in one’s heart (mind).”

Also, Daniel 1:8, “Purposed in his heart (mind).”

Also, Acts 11:23, “With purpose of heart (mind).”

The upright in mind will be known for their single-mindedness: Psalms 86:11, “Unite my heart (mind) to fear Thy name.”

The upright in mind will be individuals of conscience: Luke 24:32, “Did not our heart (mind) burn within us.”

The upright in mind will think authoritatively: 2 Corinthians 7:7, “Your fervent mind.”

The upright in mind will not complicate the issues: Jeremiah 4:4, “Take away the foreskins of your heart (mind).”

The upright in mind will boldly press forward: John 14:27, “Let not your heart (mind) be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Also, 2 Corinthians 8:19, “Of your ready mind.”

The upright in mind will exhibit stability: Luke 8:35, “In his right mind.”

The upright in mind will not act like a know-it-all: Acts 20:19, “Serving the Lord with all humility of mind.”

The upright in mind will be known for their solidarity: Ephesians 6:5, “Singleness of your heart (mind).”

Also, 2 Corinthians 4:13, “We having the same spirit (mind) of faith.”

Also, Romans 15:6, “With one mind and one mouth glorify God.” Also, 1 Peter 3:8, “Be ye all of one mind.”

Also, Revelation 17:12-13, “These have one mind.”

The upright in mind will have what others need and seek: Revelation 17:9, “Here is the mind which hath wisdom.”

The upright in mind will be the new and improved model: Ephesians 4:23, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”

The upright in mind will have vision: Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure (angelic) in heart (mind): for they shall see (the invisible) God.”

FIFTEEN Discerning Evil Spirits The difference seen from one mind to another is not based in differing spirits so much as in how the spirit is filtered. Customarily, evil spirits are interpreted as distinct entities that are separate from their hosts. We seekers, however, travel the high road. We see things from a different point of view. I have put forward that mind and spirit are interchangeable terms and may be used to reference like matters. I have asserted that to exercise the mind is to develop spiritual muscles and that the opposite end of that spectrum is attrition and atrophy.

Our premise is that the godly mind is a mind possessed by God. A mind possessed by an evil spirit is a mind that is occupied by all that is other than God. Moreover, that evil mind is as it is because it has failed to exercise the godly. We know that minds may change. We know that even a godly mind can suffer atrophy.

See Ecclesiastes 7:7, “Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift (bribe) destroyeth the heart (mind).”

What occupies a mind will define a mind. We know of a scriptural instance in which Christ put a madman in his right mind. Circumstance, then, is a factor in any state of mind. When one wishes to understand and recognize evil spirits, or more precisely, when one wishes to identify the atrophied and ungodly mind, one merely searches for those who exalt the baser nature of man.

See Jeremiah 5:23, “But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart (mind).”

Denial is a reverse exercise of the mind, a sort of anti-action, a state of erosion that may seem to loom larger than life. Just as darkness is the absence of light, as death is the absence of life, so evil is the absence of good. We may take this as a general formula. An evil spirit (that is to say, an evil mind) is the absence of a godly mind.

See Psalms 36:1, “The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart (mind), that there is no fear (respect, reverence) of God before his eyes.”

Just as there are many levels of a God-possessed mind, so too are there many levels of a mind that is possessed by an evil spirit. The evil spirit is not an entity outside the host, but an identity of the host. It boils down to the choices that an individual deliberately makes.

See Psalms 101:5, “Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour . . . him that hath an high look and a proud heart.”

There are many telltale signs of an evil spirit in man. They are not always extreme, but the mind of God, in the writers of scripture, has made sure that we are ‘clued in’. To see the evil mind, we simply seek the man that denies anything above himself.

The evil mind will promote the individual: Proverbs 18:2, “A fool hath no delight in understanding, but (only) that his heart (mind) may publish itself.”

Also, Proverbs 16:5, “Every one that is proud (boastful) in heart (mind) is an abomination to the Lord.”

Also, Romans 1:21-22, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart (mind) was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”

Also, Ezekiel 14:3, “These men have set up their idols in their heart (mind).”

The evil mind will be presumptuous: Proverbs 18:12, “Before destruction the heart (mind) of man is haughty.”

Also, Daniel 5:20, “But when his heart (mind) was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him.”

Also, Ezekiel 28:2, “Thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart (mind) as the heart (mind) of God.” The evil mind will be feral: Daniel 4:16, “Let his heart (mind) be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart (mind) be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him.”

The evil mind will be worldly-oriented: Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He hath set the world in their heart (mind), so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.”

Also, Psalms 73:7, “Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart (mind) could wish.”

Also, Hosea 13:6, “According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart (mind) was exalted; therefore have they forgotten Me.” The evil mind will be rash: Psalms 39:3, “My heart (mind) was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue.”

Also, Matthew 12:34, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart (mind) the mouth speaketh.”

The evil mind will use fair words as weapons: Psalms 55:21, “The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart (mind): his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.”

Also, Matthew 15:8, “This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart (mind) is far from Me.” The evil mind will deny God: Psalms 78:8, “ . . . As their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart (mind) aright, and whose spirit (mind) was not stedfast with (not a reflection of) God.” Also, Psalms 78:37, “For their heart (mind) was not right with Him, neither were they stedfast in His covenant.”

Also, Matthew 13:15, “This people's heart (mind) is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart (mind), and should be converted, and I should heal them.”

Also, Acts 7:51, “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart (mind) and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.”

Also, Hebrews 3:12, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart (mind) of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” Also, Proverbs 11:20, “They that are of a froward heart (a mind of opposition) are abomination to the Lord.”

The evil mind will be static and will display little or no progress: Psalms 95:10, “Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart (mind), and they have not known My ways.”

Also, Hebrews 3:10, “They do alway err (digress) in their heart (mind); and they have not known My ways.”

Also, Matthew 13:19, “When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart (mind).”

Also, Luke 24:25, “O fools, and slow of heart (mind) to believe.”

The evil mind will be desensitized: Psalms 119:70, “Their heart (mind) is as fat as grease.”

Also, Hosea 4:11, “Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the (right) heart (mind).”

The evil mind will deliberately and creatively generate misconduct: Psalms 140:2, “Which imagine mischiefs in their heart (mind).”

Also, Proverbs 6:14, “Frowardness (opposition) is in his heart (mind), he deviseth (formulates) mischief continually; he soweth discord.”

Also, Proverbs 6:18, “An heart (mind) that deviseth wicked imaginations.”

The evil mind will live in its own little world: Proverbs 12:20, “Deceit (pretense) is in the heart (mind) of them that imagine (fantasize) evil.”

Also, Obadiah 1:3, “The pride of thine heart (mind) hath deceived thee.”

The evil mind will be clever: Isaiah 32:4, “The heart (mind) also of the rash shall understand knowledge.”

Also, Colossians 2:18, “Let no man beguile you of (lead you away from) your reward in (by) a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly (narcissistically) puffed up by his fleshly (corporeal) mind.”

The evil mind will be malicious, vindictive, and motivated by spite: Ezekiel 25:15, “With a despiteful heart (mind).”

Also, Acts 5:33, “When they heard that, they . . . took counsel to slay them.”

Also, Acts 7:54, “When they heard these things, they were cut to (wounded in) the heart (mind), and they gnashed on him with their teeth.”

The evil mind will never be satisfied with proof: Mark 6:52, “They considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart (mind) was hardened.”

Also, Daniel 5:22, “And thou . . . hast not humbled thine heart (mind), though thou knewest all this.”

Also, Malachi 2:2, “Ye will not lay it to heart (mind).”

The evil mind is an affliction: Luke 7:21, “And in that same hour He cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits (unholy minds); and unto many that were blind He gave sight.”

The evil mind will be characterized by its desires: 2 Peter 2:14, “An heart (mind) they have exercised with covetous (envious and materialistic) practices.”

Also, Mark 7:18-23, “He saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? For from within, out of the heart (mind) of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”

Also, Ephesians 2:3, “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath.”

The evil mind will make unreasonable demands: Matthew 23:4, “They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne.”

The evil mind will perform actions not in its own best interest: Romans 1:28, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.”

Also, Romans 2:5, “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart (unrepentant mind) treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” Also, Jeremiah 32:35, “And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into My mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.”

Also, Jeremiah 19:5, “They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into My mind.”

The evil mind will intrude where it does not belong: Acts 8:21-22, “Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart (mind) is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart (mind) may be forgiven thee.”

The evil mind will sport a very large blind spot: 2 Corinthians 3:14-15, “But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail (blindfold) untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail (blindfold) is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail (blindfold) is upon their heart (mind).”

Also, 2 Corinthians 6:11-12, “O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart (mind) is enlarged. Ye are not straitened (limited) in us, but ye are straitened (limited) in your own bowels (emotions).”

Also, Ephesians 4:17-18, “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity (could this be the blindfold?) of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness (self-limitation) of their heart (mind).”

The evil mind will often have a thin religious veneer: James 1:26, “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart (mind), this man's religion is vain (empty).”

Also, Luke 9:55, “But He turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit (mind) ye are of.”

The evil mind will be open to contamination: Ezekiel 38:10, “Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought.”

Also, Ezekiel 13:3, “Thus saith the Lord God; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit (mind), and have seen nothing!”

The evil mind will not be inclined toward sympathy or empathy: 1 John 3:17, “But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?”

The evil mind will be moved by violence and irresistible force: Jeremiah 17:1, “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart (mind).”

The evil mind lives to lie: Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart (mind) is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”

We must recall that in the majority of scriptural references, the evil spirit was inside a human host.

Detection of loose demons, whether visible or invisible, is negligible. The discerning of spirits is a matter that is always connected to physical man. Look closely at this next verse to see two spirits, or two minds, in opposition.

Acts 5:3-4, “Why hath Satan filled thine heart (mind) to lie to the Holy Ghost? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart (mind)?”

How does one explain the correlation between the instigation of this act by Satan and the instigation of this act by the man’s own will? I think that a man’s free will is a tiny thing: halt and limited; not the grand creature man has called it. One is free to choose either Satan or God only. Clearly, by the words above, Ananias conceived the act in his own mind, and yet that bit of free will is attributed to Satan.

This is not a case, therefore, of possession by such a notable character (he would send his flunkies for such tasks), rather, it is a reference to the admittance, by free will, of another mindset. It is simply the case of frowardness on the part of Ananias. It was most likely something that developed over time.

No one, I think, looks up and notices a fully possessed individual - out of the blue, so to speak.

Changes, whether bad or good, occur naturally and are matters of gradual increments in time, process, or development such as either addition or attrition.

See the developmental attrition of Christ’s own apostles in Mark 16:9-14, “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with Him, as they mourned and wept.

And they, when they had heard that He was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. After that He appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country.

And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them. Afterward He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart (mind), because they believed not them which had seen Him after He was risen.”

As to Ananias, he may have subscribed to a satanic (or worldly) mindset before he joined the circle of believers. If so, he might have been permitted entrance (by God) for the sole purpose of the display of God’s power and reality - a little something to inspire and encourage the true believers. That gift by Ananias might have been doomed to rejection from the beginning because of his innately wicked nature, but doubly-doomed because of the deliberate connivance on his part. In the story about Ananias, I see a connection to the story of Cain and Abel.

See Proverbs 21:27, “The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?”

This is the evil spirit or evil mindset, that is rejected by God. This is the mind that is open to the Satan way of thinking rather than the God way of thinking. Each individual is exposed to both, and each individual must choose between the two. When Christ went up to be tempted ‘by the spirit’, no one went with Him. No one was there to report that Satan, in person, tempted Christ. The story came through Jesus in His communication to His disciples. What Jesus resisted was temptation. It could well have been that what, exactly, He had to face was the internalized temptation to think like Satan. Many succumb to that mindset, and for many reasons, not the least of which being that thinking that way is so easy and has such widespread support.

You will find these evil spirits everywhere. You will find them in every stage of development, from the full-fledged bad guy in a black hat to the worldly-oriented everyday working stiff, to the sleepy-eyed disciple exposed to common temptations.

See John 12:40, “He (God) hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart (mind); that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart (mind), and be converted (another Ananias in the camp), and I should heal them.”

Also, see Mark 8:17, “Perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart (mind) yet hardened?”

Know that the hardened heart, whether it belongs to a man or a son of man, can neither perceive nor understand spiritual issues. To turn one’s back on the God-mind is to have a huge blind spot in one’s perception. To face God, however, is not the same thing as having a blind spot toward, or ignorance of the worldly or satanic elements of existence - for God also created evil. To face God is equivalent to both knowledge of, and empowerment over evil.

If you face God, the mindset that opposes God cannot sneak up on you because you are both warned and empowered, but if you turn your back on the spiritual (which necessarily presupposes avoidance of the tools that perceive the invisible), God can most certainly sneak up on you.

See Ezekiel 23:28, “For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated.”

Imagine that someone threatens to stab you. The smart response is to take a prepared stance and to increase vigilance. But, let it not be assumed that everyone will do the smart thing. One who is offended by such talk may, as I have seen in real life, turn up the nose or turn the back in an attempt to boycott the offense. Now let me ask this: will not the stab-happy offender see this as an opportunity? If you’re not skilled in body language, you’d do well to be fleet of foot.

An evil spirit is a mental calcification brought on by the incessant outpouring of worldly jisms. Another epithet for ‘evil spirit’ is ‘unclean spirit’. This describes a contaminated mind. When the body is contaminated, we notice worsening symptoms. The open spiritual eye may also notice worsening symptoms in connection to a contaminated, poisoned, or an infected mind. If just anyone can notice an evil spirit (as in a possession), it must have been building for quite a while. At the point where an evil mindset is bad enough to be noticed by those who normally pay no attention, it is usually given a name, associated with something that easily symbolizes the affliction.

Someone in an advanced state of physical illness may be symbolized as ‘the walking dead’, for example.

See a symbol in the communicating orifice of each of these three: Revelation 16:13, “And I saw three unclean spirits (minds) like frogs come out of the mouth of (spoken by) the dragon, and out of the mouth of (spoken by) the beast, and out of the mouth of (spoken by) the false prophet.”

These are three extremely contaminated individuals whose progressed states are easily symbolized by frogs. A frog can be seen as a symbol of transformation, and as an incarnation of something. It can be seen as something that wallows in mud, something unclean like a plague.

Now, pay attention. A Coat-of-Arms is attributed to Satan by the Holy Roman Empire. The crest bears three frogs. (I found that Internet search both surprising and informative.) But, mainly the frog is associated with water, which in itself is a symbol of the masses.

As a fruit tree is pruned rather than destroyed outright, God has in times past been persuaded to change his mind about evil men. Individuals like Moses have stood in the breach between man and God to beg for mercies. Yet, God will reject evil thinking. In the process of God’s realization into man, the Godmind will necessarily destroy the world-mind.

See Jeremiah 15:1, “Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth.”

SIXTEEN Levels and Types Emotional Levels Here is the model. A mire-coated man, waist-high in a pit of mud, is surrounded on three sides by steep and slippery rocks that are overgrown with thorny vines. On one side only is there ground that is level and unobstructed. We shall return to the model in a while.

In all of human experience, in all of spiritual evolution, there are levels. Man’s journey takes him from the primitive, embryonic end of that spectrum to his fulfillment at the other end of the same. Mankind began his sojourn with utter ignorance and feral longing.

The mind of God was, to man, more distant and less attainable than space travel: Romans 11:34, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord?”

Yet, mankind never existed in a vacuum; that is to say, apart from God. Man’s genesis is from the spiritual. His spiritual counterpart, though high and exalted, was bestial after a certain fashion, and so man, being the reflection, began in an extremely low estate. Therefore, changes became necessary on the spiritual side.

See Daniel 7:4, “The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart (mind) was given to it.”

Ever wonder why angels, as described in the Bible, looked like wingless men? Man began low, like a salmon at the mouth of a river. Just as the salmon faces a long, mostly uphill, and frequently dangerous journey, so the journey of mankind and the evolution of spirituality has had to face seemingly insurmountable odds. Man has always had to grapple with his brutish nature, and by that, I do not only point to mankind’s propensity toward violence, but to all of man’s more emotional inclinations.

See John 16:6, “But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart (mind).”

Just as a wolf can, in a moment, go from docile to ferocious, so a man will careen between lofty elation and bottomless sorrow. Why? Man has always wrestled with the spiritual. He has sought to alleviate sorrow by the application of elation. Man has sought continuing and ever-increasing gratification.

Lamentations 3:51, “Mine eye affecteth mine heart (mind).”

Unfortunately for mankind, that has always worked against his spiritual nature. The end result of mankind’s fight against his spiritual nature has always seemed rather automatic.

See Deuteronomy 28:65, “Among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind.”

To say ‘man shall not live by bread alone’ is equal to saying ‘there is more to man than meets the eye’.

Yet, man’s sorrow, and by extension, his search for happiness via gratification, is inexorably entangled in corporeal issues.

See a short list of corporeal happy-makers in Psalms 104:15, “And wine that maketh glad the heart (mind) of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart (mind).”

Now, back to our model. Man in a mud pit. Man’s face caked with mire. The pit is his world; he identifies with it - cannot distinguish himself from the mud. His sustenance, his gratification, is the mud.

Man’s spiritual journey has fallout: lives first settle on emotional levels. Mankind’s first spiritual stirrings are emotional levels of sorrow, need, desire, anger, joy, hate, love . . . and anyone who tries to sell man on something more than the pit must reach him through his emotions.

See an emotional appeal in 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart (mind), so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”

See an emotional appeal in Romans 9:1-2, “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart (mind).”

See an emotional appeal in John 16:22, “And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart (mind) shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.”

The first spiritual levels, therefore, must be seen as levels of identification. The man in the pit must come to a new assessment. He must see that he really is not one with the pit, and despite the fact that mud covers him, he is not the mud, but a man in the mud. Enter the prophet: an ordinary Joe, except for the fact that knowledge helped him identify himself as not-the-mud. He pulled himself from former gratifications to find a higher happiness. He stands on the level ground and offers the man in the mud an alternative.

Philemon 1:20, “Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in the Lord.”

There is, then, a new way to deal with sorrow.

Psalms 102:4, “My heart (mind) is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.”

Suddenly, there is new direction: another rather than self.

See Daniel 6:14, “Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart (mind) on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him.”

Man learns that there is something more than the pit; it is himself. Man learns that there is something more than the man he is able to see; it is a whole new man inside himself. It is a man of great potential – already, in the identification of his inner existence, he has recognized someone aside from himself; someone named ‘(br)other’.

A dialog has commenced. Along with the concession that he is not the mud he wallows in, is the evidence that his brother has found a strength that is not of the mud. Since his brother has a non-mud strength that can lift him to higher ground (also newly discovered), maybe there is something in all of this for him.

See Job 34:33, “Should it be according to thy mind? He will recompense it, whether thou refuse, or whether thou choose; and not I: therefore speak what thou knowest.”

So, the man in the mud has changed. Through his emotions, man has managed to reach a broader scope of view. He has guessed that there is more than the mud; now he sees more than the mud. His former happy seeking no longer gratifies. His sorrows loom once again, and his desires reach beyond the pit.

To this, add the new and bizarre: there is someone like him, only ‘not him’; a fact that demands due consideration. Not only is the other man on a higher plane, neither in this pit nor another, but he offers to share the found strength that lifted him to higher ground. The stranger points to known facts - facts that the man in the mud can all too clearly see in himself.

See Psalms 109:22, “My heart (mind) is wounded within me.”

See also Psalms 143:4, “Therefore is my spirit (mind) overwhelmed within me; my heart (mind) within me is desolate.”

And, the man on the higher ground continues his attempts to render aid. He knows that like as he used to be, the reasoning of the man in the mud is (if you will permit the pun) grounded in the mud. All the man’s ups and downs are in the pit, like sticks and stones on the surface. Surely, every time he reaches for one of them he sinks a little deeper. The man on the higher ground must present his arguments on the level of the other man’s emotions. The man in the pit must be shown the sorrows of the pit and the joys of higher ground. Comparisons and contrasts are cataloged.

See Proverbs 17:22, “A merry heart (mind) doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”

See also Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred maketh the heart (mind) sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.”

The man in the mud is drawn to the level side, where the emotional appeals are seamlessly integrated into a proper reasoning. He puts his elbows on the bank and listens more and more to the man on higher ground. He is shown his own ‘higher ground’ strengths and the gratifications of ‘higher ground’ bonds.

See Isaiah 63:15, “Where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me?”

After both have identified that the man in the mud desires the higher ground, it is explained to him that when he chooses any part of the pit, the mud, or his former habits, he is actually choosing against the higher ground. If he wants ‘up’, he will never get it by choosing ‘down’.

See Matthew 5:28, “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart (mind).”

That man is drawn slowly to higher ground, where a continuing education may be found in the social levels. Now, the man in the mud has two basic choices. He can accept the proffered hand of the stranger, or, he can reason: “If that man can do it, so can I.” If he chooses the latter course, he grabs hold on the vines and receives thorns in his flesh; he climbs the slippery rocks only to fall back again and again. He has moved past the entrance to social levels and has made a choice for ‘lost levels’.

According to his reasoning, the path that leads to the level ground is blocked by the extended hand of a stranger. On the emotional levels of identification, there are always ‘self’ and ‘other’. A ‘brother’ is just an ‘other’ with a couple of letters in front.

The man in the mud hears what the stranger has to say, understands that the hand will draw him up to higher ground - but, herein lies the problem for the man in the mud: there is no mud on the higher ground. He may tell the man with the extended hand, “Oh, that’s just your opinion!” The man in the mud may, indeed, exercise his freedom of choice all day long, but freedom of choice and freedom from the pit are never the same. The man offering help will counter, “You are free to choose.”

See Romans 14:5, “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.”

Lost levels:

We do not have the ability to dismiss God. Some people comfort themselves by taking the name of atheist or agnostic. By such a choice they delay the realization of their personal responsibility but, they have in no wise negated the forces that affect their lives. It is like the lemmings who cry out, “I am my own, no one tells me what to think!” - as each, in turn, throws himself into the void. He wishes to be unique and separate, but never shall his willfulness undo his bonds.

Some people chafe at the authority or the urgency in others and so seek to separate or distance themselves. They claim that fallible man, speaking for God, negates all authority by the presence of his fallibility and, by extension, negates the power and authority of God. Yet, God has more than one option. He may act directly upon the mind that is in denial, or He may act through the agency of fallible men.

Minds in denial, no less than believers, have people they will listen to. Believers have chosen to hear men who speak for God but nonbelievers and those who claim to believe otherwise have also chosen their prophets. These men of science, literature, and secular persuasion are often quoted by them, just as believers quote scripture.

The alliances of the rebellious, however, seldom work in their favor, as we see in 2 Chronicles 18:22, “Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit (communication) in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil against thee.”

The thought of a ‘sweet-natured’ and forgiving God: the notion of a limited and ineffectual God is to the believer a comfort and to the nonbeliever a font of individual empowerment. I am saying here that all people, those on both sides of the issue, struggle with their concept of God. The believers are assured that a Holy and Righteous God cannot look upon sin or evil. They are in error. The nonbelievers are assured that a God of love and forgiveness will not condemn the soul He has formed and instructed to the torments of hell. They are in error.

God is a spiritual God: a God of knowledge. He is less interested in the sinner’s fleshly comforts than in His own spiritual agenda. He is working a spiritual work more toward His own clearly formed will than toward the romanticized misconceptions of His children. It is not beyond God to exercise the full range of His power and authority.

See Judges 9:23, “Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech.”

God can, does, and will work against an individual, both directly and indirectly, but that is not to say that it is all about the individual. God may act against an individual because of established plans. The individual stands in the way of progress and that explains the tire track across his face.

God may act against an individual responsively because the individual has turned his back on God and has disregarded the terms of his covenant with God. God may act against lands, or times, or societies - all of which include individuals.

I have listed three scenarios.

Of the first scenario, whether of short or long-range plans, we see an indication of God acting against individuals in 1 Chronicles 5:26, “And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria,

and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day.”

God may act responsively against single individuals for many reasons. Usually, the individual has disregarded the terms of his agreement with God. That was the case with king Saul, but we also see that God had plans to set up another as king so that Saul was in the way. But, consider the power of God to do exactly as He chooses.

Consider 1 Samuel 16:14, 15 & 16, “But the (good) Spirit (mind) of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit (mind) from the Lord troubled him. And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit (mind) from God troubleth thee. Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit (mind) from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well.”

Consider also 1 Samuel 16:23, “And it came to pass, when the evil spirit (mind) from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand.”

God may act against any individual, and He is not limited by those who believe that He cannot lie.

Consider that God’s angels, whom He may send anywhere at any time as a lying spirit, are beings who are of the mind of God. Read the very words of the Bible and see for yourself that such lying spirits never act apart from God’s authorization.

2 Chronicles 18:20-21 & 1 Kings 22:21-22, “And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And He said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.”

God may act against any individual, and He is not limited by those who do not believe that He will punish them.

See Matthew 22:13, “Bind him hand and foot, and take him away.”

See also Matthew 13:30, “And bind them in bundles to burn them.”

God may do as He chooses. God does all that He does for His own reasons and for His own purposes.

Neither the misconceptions of believers nor the complaints of nonbelievers affect the facts. God may also act against times, and societies, and entire nations. He may send forth His angels not only to lie but to destroy. He has done so in the past and, according to the final book of the Bible, will do so again in the future.

See Revelation 9:14, “Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.”

These four spirits (or, minds of God) will, by themselves, destroy one-third of the earth’s population in a period of time described as a little more than one year. Some people employ thoughts of a sweet, forgiving, and ineffectual God to rationalize their willfulness, or strengthen themselves against underlying fears. They complain against the concept of a God that has authority over both good and evil because that bursts the bubble of their fantasy.

What is their fantasy? It is that they are unique, special, the center of the known universe.

It is for the reason of such a fantasy that they complain – because the agreement with God and the communications involved come to them through ‘fallible man’. Should they be led by their (br)other?

That flies in the face of all their ‘unique’ independence and free will. It is much easier to think that the other is playing the know-it-all. It is much more appealing to think that they know at least as much as their (br)other. It is more empowering to believe that God should be sweet-natured and concerned only with their well-being.

But, God has His own personality and His own character. He is not limited by either belief or nonbelief. Man’s justifications and rationalizations of his romanticized misconceptions and desires for selfwill without consequences matter not in the least. God has, through chosen avenues of communication, described His intent and will, has offered the covenant of His choice - and we have only two paths before us: acquiescence or rebellion.

See Jeremiah 30:24, “The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until He have done it, and until He have performed the intents of His heart (mind): in the latter days ye shall consider it.”

See also Jeremiah 23:20, “The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He have executed, and till He have performed the thoughts of his heart (mind): in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.”

What are the lost levels? They are the willfulness that separates us from the mind of God; they are the unqualified pride that leads to rebellion; they are the romantic notions that impede the advance of knowledge. It is not about man. God will never be your personal genie. It is not about God apart from man but it is about the state of man that allows the mind of God to be a real part of our complete makeup. Then the spiritual God of knowledge may truly dwell among us, and abide within. God began with a physical Israel but works toward a spiritual Israel.

See Jeremiah 9:26, “For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart (minds).”

God has his own agenda. God may either work for or against any culture, people, society, place, time, and, yes - any individual. The reasons and purposes belong to God, not man. That being said, we must realize that in all of His work, God’s relationship with and actions toward man are basically responsive.

I think that describes ‘judgement’ in a nutshell.

If you ask of Him, He will give. If you seek His truth, you will find it. If you knock on the door that is Christ, it will be opened to you. If you take a stand against God, He will take a stand against you.

Knowing that ‘what goes around comes around’, I have this to say: before you do anything that might be construed as a choice or an action against the goodness and truth of God within yourself, consider the nature of judgment explained in Proverbs 24:12, “If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart (mind) consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his works?”

Social levels: The man on the level ground helps the other man up from the confining limitations of his pit. Now there are two men to find and help the third. In a room full of candles, one or two lit candles is quite dim. However, as one candle is used to light another, and that one yet another, the light grows by the number of candles in current use. The mind of God abides first in one man, then in two. The numbers increase: God is magnified by every life that allows the God-mind to inhabit and lead. 'Lead where,' you ask? Out of the pit: out of the limiting prison that describes an individual whose every action and reaction only leads him down the dusty trail of demise.

See 1 Peter 3:19, “By which also He went and preached unto the spirits (minds) in prison.”

If, therefore, Christ, having been crucified and placed in hell for three days, did preach to all minds imprisoned since the time of the flood, shall not that same Holy Mind of God shine as effectively in us?

If a day is a thousand years to the Lord, and Christ preached for three days to minds in prison of darkness that leads to death, is Christ presently preaching to you the light of life?

After one has been lifted from his former earthliness to stand on level ground, his present course will be set toward social intercourse with other individuals. Some, he will convince to take his hand; others he must grab by the hair and snatch to freedom. On the social levels, men form unions. Some go ‘round and ‘round pulling the imprisoned free from their muddy lives. In doing so, they must deal with the emotional levels, learning to reason in emotional tirades that move the confined.

The social levels are the formation of organs that will become the body. Within the process, bones must develop to support the growing weight. While an individual gives to another, that same individual is in need - and draws from those who are superior. In other words, ministry is never a one-way street.

See Philemon 1:10-13, “I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds: Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me: Whom I have sent again: thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels: Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel.”

It takes some doing to get fully past the attraction of the mud. Even when some climb free, they fall back. The social levels are a primary education. Individuals must learn that the pit must always be separate from the level ground. The advancement of this primary education is an extension of emotional rhetoric. Inevitably, formulas are set, codes calcify into laws. The basic theme throughout is, of course, the differentiation between the muddy pit and higher ground.

See Romans 8:7, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”

The unfortunate thing about this primary education is that it develops as an institution whose foundations are built in the mud. As differentiation is practiced, differentiation takes on a life of its own. Those who regularly see differences will soon see them sitting in corners and creeping through shadows. While it serves a limited function, differentiation between two people will grow beyond control. Consider the good and bad uses a single belief may foreshadow.

Consider Proverbs 11:13, “A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit (mind) concealeth the matter.”

Consider also Proverbs 29:11, “A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.”

When does a fool become a dog? When does a dog become the enemy? When does an enemy become a threat, and deserve to be annihilated? It is all still that same base distinction: ‘self’ and ‘other’. A ‘brother’ is just an ‘other’ with a couple of letters in front. We find, then, that good may be a tool or a weapon.

See Ecclesiastes 10:2, “A wise man's heart (mind) is at his right hand (strength); but a fool's heart (mind)at his left.”

Once pulled from the mud, an individual needs support. You can’t just say, “You’re free! Go and be free.” Everyone struggles with freedom: ‘now that I have it, what do I do with it?’ Support and direction have been markedly lacking. We scrutinize our orthodox formulas, our entrenched dogmas, and we find meager comfort.

See Job 30:26-27, “When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.”

If the emotional levels are levels of identification, then the social levels are levels of repetitive practice.

Just what gets practiced? Well, for want of anything better, identification is practiced - repeatedly. So far, they’ve only been told to come up out of the mud. They practice the identification of the low estate and assistance to those who seem to be like they used to be. But the nearness to the pit, not to mention the fact that the foundations remain moored in mire, tugs at them. In the end, it is still about the alleviation of sorrow by the application of elation. They are not as elevated as their PR would have them believe. There is still the emotional beast to feed.

See Ezekiel 7:19, “They shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.”

The school of the social levels is the church. The teacher is a vague concept at best. The teacher is all, gives all. If we can present enough shiny apples to our teacher, we can come to where the teacher is.

Where is the teacher? So far as evidence constrains, the teacher is on level ground and in the church.

We never really see or hear the teacher, only the (br)other. While we form suspicions about all our moon-eyed (br)others, our teacher sits buried behind a wall of apples - lonely, desiring a relationship with those who would truly be students.

Having only the moon-eyed to communicate through might seem like a very limiting factor, but the teacher is able to shout loudly. In the muffled messages that the moon-eyed pick up on and propagate, there are hints for the rest of us. As we all sit in class reciting and practicing over and over, the little muscle within our spiritual ear grows ever more keen to the muffled cries that issue from behind the shiny wall.

Listen to the reps in Jeremiah 44:21, “The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye, and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them, and came it not into His mind?”

God knows where the repetitions will lead. I use the image of a school because that is where multiple minds develop in a common setting. ABCs and apples. While the reps continue, the apples pile higher.

There are so many apples that walls form in the aisles between our seats. Some students are totally encased in such a tightly fitting wall of apples that they seem to wear apple skin. They are like walking talking Golden Delicious apple people. But even so, we all develop together. We still inhabit only the level ground – but God can work with that. The moon-eyed hear a muffled sound. They wave their arms about and proclaim the ambiguity. Upon that ambiguity, they build (with their emotional rhetoric) entire institutions without once approaching clarity.

But some of us are not clothed in apples, we naked ones; we discern the stirrings of an internal voice. It is like ours, only stronger. It is small and sometimes hard to distinguish from our own inner voice. It is calm and quiet, oh, but how inescapable the power of it! We find a union and harmony that neither pit nor level ground suggested. Our first real gain in the social levels is a mental graduation to a higher grade.

Colossians 1:21, “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled.”

And yet, we sit in the same classroom with the apples: they totally encased, we exposed. The social levels are those of intermingling, of growing up together – they are people levels. They are also the ‘get-a-clue’ levels. The successfully obtained and practiced knowledge within these levels will be the beginning (for some) of a trek into the foothills of understanding.

1 Corinthians 14:24-25, “He (the unlearned) is convinced of all, he is judged of all: And thus are the secrets of his heart (by communication of the God-mind) made manifest.”

On the level ground is the church. The apples promote the level ground and the church as goals. The promotion itself has become institutionalized. The level ground, the first level, is a broad plain. Finding a direction, taking a stand, making a commitment is of the character of primary development. One simply must choose.

See Titus 1:15, “Unto the pure (singular) all things are pure (one): but unto them that are defiled (legion: “for we are many”) and unbelieving is nothing pure (absolute); but even their mind and conscience is defiled.”

The social levels are also levels of influence. The apple-skinned have practiced and institutionalized differentiation. They have formed their moon-eyed unions and seek to proselytize every (br)other. The church of the level ground is the Holy goal that they proclaim, for that is where their practice of differentiation has placed advantage and justification. The maintenance of their advantage and justification is the institution they have built, through calcified emotional rhetoric, upon those distant muffled cries they never bothered to investigate or define. And remember, the foundations of their institution are grounded in the pit. It would appear that they are only going in circles. They promote the same old message to the same tired people in the course of maintaining their advantage and justification. Those of us less clad in apples hear the message anew from within.

Hear the inner voice speaking from Jeremiah 4:14 “Wash thine heart (mind) from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved.”

The shouting heard from behind the wall of apples troubles those who wear the wall, for it threatens to shake off their clothing and leave them naked. Elation is no longer an answer to their sorrows, but elevation is, and they reach their heights through institutionalized supplication and humility.

Even when it is a genuine and sincere response, after the manner of the true spirit of supplication and humility, as found in, Lamentations 1:20, “Behold, O Lord; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart (thinking) is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.”, even then, it is only a last-ditch effort to maintain advantage and justification in the face of jarring adversity and fear.

Ultimately, it is inevitable that two opposing camps should form. They are ‘establishment’ and ‘antiestablishment’. Historically, they have manifested in many guises. Sometimes, their separate arguments can share the same source. Establishment, on the one hand, seeks the security of the status quo. Antiestablishment, on the other hand, may use the same source message to indicate new spiritual advances.

Consider the separate uses of Hebrews 13:9, “Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart (mind) be established with grace; not with meats (sacrifices, ceremonies), which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.”

We are aware that the emotions and passions are the forces that drive our lives. Some of us are driven toward something, but of the whole, some is a small percentage. The winds wail; leaves are ripped from trees and sent in all directions. As they fall from the trees along the banks into the river of progress, only a fraction fall into the center where they may advance forward. The majority fall along the banks where the eddies keep them turning in small, confined circles. The passions drive us but passions are of the mind (what we used to call the heart).

See Deuteronomy 18:6, “With all the desire of his mind.”

The mind, then, might represent the chalkboard in our school. On that chalkboard are written the problems we must solve. We are called forward individually to take chalk in hand and write down the solution. Now, at this point, we are not speaking of absolute right and wrong. We are developing: we are learning. Doubtless, we often get the answer wrong, but as we learn and grow, so grows our percentage of correctly answered problems.

The classroom is a mess. It is in a state of chaos. It is a free-for-all classroom where one advances only in accordance with his desires. If you want to learn, you will learn. Many simply think they already know it all, and they speak as if they think they are the teacher but they exist in stasis (or, could I mean that they exist in the status quo?), and the few of us that are placed with our noses in the corner, beneath an ill-fitting dunce cap, are placed there by our (br)others. Doubtless, many more would be in the corner if the teacher was set free. In our present, mixed-up state, all of us have our ‘rights’ and our ‘wrongs’ - and plenty of each.

Our scores are posted on the chalkboard. Some of us know that the teacher is really not trapped behind the wall. Our teacher is not so far removed; our teacher is inside our minds, where the presence or absence of a wall is critical.

See 2 Corinthians 8:12, “For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that (what) a man hath, and not according to that (what) he hath not.”

Of the walls that may be found inside our minds, let it be known that the broad and fertile plains of the level ground are no more than a beginning. They are not, nor can they be, the end that some people make them out to be. Social levels cannot be a goal in themselves. This is where people develop, where people make decisions, and choose directions. When there is no more room in the classroom for walls of apples, other walls may be built within our thinking. The foundation for such walls is pride, preconceptions, calcified emotions and passions like so many stalactites and stalagmites filling the vast, echoing vaults of the inner man - where God is building His kingdom.

Many people build walls in their minds to match the walls of their actions. That may be the end result of such well-practiced differentiation. Their thinking is action-oriented: that is their nature. They are wall builders. Realistically, there is some of that in all of us. Then again, some of us heed the call to break down those inner walls. That call is our new inner man. We have practiced him on the sly because the Apple-people might view such things as a threat to their advantage and justification.

We secretly break down our secret walls; we listen to the voice of our inner man – and what a voice! It sounds somewhat like the teacher.

See Psalms 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken (exposed) spirit (mind): a broken (exposed) and a contrite (conscientious) heart (mind), O God, Thou wilt not despise.”

See also Psalms 34:18, “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken (exposed) heart (mind); and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit (a mind open to God).”

Still, these are the social levels. These are the levels of interpersonal intercourse, of positioning, of getting one’s head around, and practicing, knowledge – of learning the difference between the advantages of the higher ground, and the disadvantages of the pit. It must be said, therefore, that the social levels are levels of salvation. That single word characterizes our present dispensation like no other word can.

See our present dispensation in Romans 10:1, “Brethren, my heart's (mind’s) desire and prayer (communication) to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.”

See our present dispensation in Romans 10:10, “For with the heart (mind) man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth (communication) confession is made unto salvation.”

But as I say, these are the social levels, where custom and tradition are binding restrictions of differentiation and allegiance. The actions of people weigh heavily; established ceremonies weigh heavily; even the enlightenment of some is based in common, stock concepts that place God far away and treat the mind with an emotional standard while treating the flesh with a standard of subservience to the advantage and justification of the church of the level ground.

Presently, power and influence belong to those leaves trapped in small eddies along the banks and near the roots. At the same time, however, some few leaves do fall further from those foundations that are moored in mire; they reach as far as the currents that can sweep them forward personally. They progress beyond the mere social and emotional merry-go-round of baptism, tithing, and blind obedience to church administrators. The church of the level ground has penned its flock, whereby they gather their wool.

They have settled on the emotional laurels of social interaction.

See Romans 10:9, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart (mind) that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Even in such restrictive conditions, some individuals have climbed to the foothills of understanding, where no corrals may be found; where they are not regularly sheered, and where the voice of their new shepherd sounds from their inner man. This climb to understanding is not an act that comes without sacrifice. The sorrows of knowledge may no longer be avoided or balmed into nonexistence. They must be clearly and intimately realized. They must be held with ungloved hands.

See the severe new realization in 1 Corinthians 5:5, “To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit (mind) may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

Such a realization may yet feel the comfortable tug of the social and emotional standards not far below them. The ointment that once was applied to their fears and sorrows may be found still in the corral of the church. The laurels of custom and tradition are warm and comfortable; they subscribe to the wellbeing of the corporeal individual. They stipulate that the body must be now, and separate from the spirit, which they hold will come into play after death. They bend all argument back to the status quo.

And yet, the same source material that is used to maintain stasis may also be newly interpreted.

See both the old and new in Hebrews 10:22-23, “Let us draw near with a true heart (an authoritative mind) in full assurance of faith, having our hearts (thinking) sprinkled from an evil conscience (a practice of wrong standards), and our bodies washed (infused) with pure water (spirituality). Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful that promised).”

How many read into this the exclusivity of body and soul? How many read into this the inclusion of spirit into flesh? The school year is nearly done. In such a chaotic class, many will fail, and may not be allowed to advance. Some few will actually graduate to the next higher level. If they at all think, speak and act unlike the apple-skinned people, they will be cast out as anathema; they will perhaps be labeled as oranges. But, that orangeness will not be an outward wall, nor will it be an inner wall.

The difference that makes for orangeness will be a sensitivity to higher communications, an exposure to the true teacher, a relationship between the inner man and God, a new mind within the present flesh.

These free sheep will never wander far from their shepherd, for all progress is toward Him. They will seek and find the true path that leads them to pasture. They will climb yet higher and further from the level ground. These milling, seeking sheep are moving out of the social levels and moving upward into aggregate levels. They will read beneath the lines; they will seek brothers and sisters who are infused with the God-mind; they will amass, coalesce, and become the new, spiritual Israel.

See Deuteronomy 10:12, “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart (mind) and with all thy soul (combined spiritual/corporeal identity).”

It is a wonder that we have spent so much time and labor in the low lands of the level ground. We are now aware that much of our former righteousness was actually transgression. When we should have reasoned with God, we, instead, fondled our emotions. When we should have been about the business of opening to the infusion of the God-mind, we wasted time with routine, custom, tradition, ceremony, and the tight, mindless circles of affectation.

See Ezekiel 18:31, “Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit (a new mind).”

Former standards will pass away. Former concepts and interpretations will be undone. The God-mind will expose to our newly opened eyes grand vistas of conception. New and beautiful truths about heaven and earth will dawn upon our tender understanding.

See Isaiah 65:17, “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”

Aggregate levels: As more and more minds open to the power of God within, and reject the concept of God as ‘long ago and far away’, higher unions will form. Not only does cream float to the top, but, warm air rises.

Mountain climbers seek higher heights. And you, you may at times feel that you are getting ‘warmer’ in your personal investigations into truth and where you fit in. Here is what you can expect: like iron filings within the influence of a magnet, we shall be drawn together.

See Acts 4:32, “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart (mind) and of one soul (higher identity).”

We will be drawn together to form the body of Christ (who is the Word of God: an attribute of mental communication), and yet at first, we will seem to be divided. We are yet in development. As in the formation of the physical body, where single cells align themselves in small clusters that must yet develop into organs, so it is with us - we will be small at first. The direction of our development encourages us while we are in our smaller states. While we are small and weak, we are vulnerable to attacks from the ‘establishment’ camp. They are a discontent bunch, and give themselves a liberal license to think and act for others, but, we are not without developmental defenses.

See 2 Corinthians 5:12, “That ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance (corporeality), and not in heart (mind).”

The aggregate levels are levels of transition, migration, and correction. They are levels of personal inquiry into the exact nature of who we are. They are levels of consolidation and growth. We are individuals, each with a burning fire within, each seeking truth personally. Yet, we are drawn together, noting that others also have experienced the new revelations that we have so far borne alone. We see a highly personal, yet amazingly common, work in progress. It is a work that is neither distant nor impending, but a work that is taking place here and now within our present condition.

See Ezekiel 11:19, “And I will give them one heart (a single mind), and I will put a new spirit (a new mind) within you; and I will take the stony heart (disconnected mind) out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh (a spirit that is integrated with their flesh).”

Lead toads and iron moths.

We left the toads on the moist level ground near the pit. They hop in and out at will. They have always a chorus of irritating voices wherever they land. We moths have risen ever higher, ever focused on a single bright light. We will surround it like a living cloud of white beating wings, but this living cloud might never have come together as such a host had not the light drawn it. We have chosen our direction and our direction has chosen us but we have yet to arrive. It would be well, at this point, to ask ourselves why we were separated out and drawn – and not the toads. Might it be that moths have wings and toads do not? The answer may possibly be found in our very inclination to rise up and fly.

See an iron filing take wing in Matthew 22:32, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

We have corrected our courses; we have amended our paths. We have made those corrections most befitting our fluttering: no toad-like thoughts enter here. And yet, not only have we made corrections but we have been corrected.

See Hebrews 12:9, “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits (minds), and live?”

Whether singly or two by two, we flutter and we fly. We seek and ask and knock. Our small coalitions align with others so inclined as we. Our numbers grow ever larger; the God-mind is magnified. The more we look into the light, the more we have only light in our thinking.

2 Timothy 2:22, “Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart (a brightly lit mind).”

Moth eyes see differently than toad eyes. A toad surfaces; croaks cacophonously; shoots out the tongue and devours something with wings. The toad’s thoughts follow patterns of toad action. The toad moves through a dark, dank world, and so also does its thoughts. We ‘wingy’ things must stay out of reach; toad tongues are slick and lethal. We are drawn higher and we seek higher, because (if you will permit the pun) we see in a different light. That which we see is invisible to toads.

I use the word ‘invisible’ in the sense that even though they see it (they must perceive the light to see us flying through it and to it), it is useless to them and therefore meaningless. For the toad, to discern its own mind is only to see the tool by which its actions have delivered something warm and wiggly into its belly. The toad may or may not acknowledge God - if it does, it is not a personal God; it is not a God within, but some personal derivation of the ‘long ago and far away’ formula.

On the other hand, let's just take a moth’s-eye view.

See Numbers 16:22 and Numbers 27:16, “The God of the spirits (minds) of (within) all flesh (corporeality).”

Growing, we grow. Coming together, the diverse are more nearly one. Knowledge is not an end in itself; knowledge is the practice of learning. We are aware that a wagon follows the horse only because the horse pulls it. We are aware that when thoughts fall into our heads, they must drop from higher climes. Our greater knowledge is like the practice of having a head open and ready for such manna. We have seen from scripture that we normally ascribe our better nature to one who gives, or implants.

Open up to 2 Corinthians 8:16, “But thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart (mind) of Titus for you.”

We commonly attribute a shared bond to our interactions. We perceive that the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that we communicate between our members come to characterize all of us: individually and collectively. What we share identifies us. After all, one may define an organ as a body of cells that share the same traits, functions, and goals. Each cell in that organ partakes of the collective character of the whole.

See Philippians 1:7, “Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart (mind); inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.”

The heart, or mind, must be broken and rewritten, like Moses’ tables. The upward path is never easy or static. Change and growth involve not only building up but tearing down and rebuilding. Eventually, the messenger becomes iconic. We do not think of Moses unless we think of the Ten Commandments; we do not think of Paul unless we think of the gospel message spreading across ancient boundaries, filling the pages of the New Testament, transcending time. We think of Moses’ conversations with God, his forty years and death in the wilderness. We think of Paul’s traumatic conversion and his beatings.

The messenger, thus, is characterized by the nature of the message.

See 2 Corinthians 3:2-3, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts (minds), known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit (mind) of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart (mind).”

We are aware of the transient nature of our minds – that they are constantly in a state of flux, both affecting and being affected. We know that when a new thought comes into the mind, that is a changed state. We know that the things that change the mind are many. We know that change is actually the practice of change.

See Daniel 2:29 and Habakkuk 1:11; see Daniel 5:20, “Thy thoughts came into thy mind.” “Then shall his mind change.” “His mind hardened in pride.”

Also, we now know that practiced change is like physical exercise – if you exercise the good, the good will grow strong.

See Zechariah 10:7, “They of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart (mind) shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; (and then) their heart (mind) shall rejoice in the Lord.”

Clearly, this references practiced change that is communicated via the nature, character or outward manifestations of the individual(s) that experienced the change. We see, in the messenger, the message that attracts and builds an organ of shared character and shared purpose.

What do you mean when you say that a person is mindful? Do you think of a process? Do you think that a mindful person is one who has had the mind filled? Let us, for a moment, think of that mindful person as a ‘gas-full’ car. A mental image comes to mind. The car parks by the pump, the driver gets

out and performs a process. The tank is first opened, then the nozzle is inserted, the trigger is squeezed – and voila! – the tank is ‘filled’.

See man parked at the ‘gas-pump’ of knowledge in Hebrews 12:23, “To the general assembly and church of the Firstborn, which are written (communicated) in heaven (where the God of knowledge dwells), and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits (minds) of just (pure, single-minded) men made perfect (whole, complete, full).”

The God of knowledge tells us in Ezekiel 11:5, “I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.”

As a seeker, I am convinced that is true because the God of knowledge sits upon His throne – within our minds. Heaven is a spiritual state or location, and as we say: spiritual is mental is spiritual. Our thoughts parade before His throne. He is exposed to all of them. Our thoughts are like a picture puzzle on a table in front of God. If He so chooses, He may remove any of our thoughts and replace them with His own. While we naturally assume that our will is our own, the seeker must be aware that the will is an aggregate of individual thoughts.

The God-mind is a process.

An individual’s thoughts and will are but half of the mental map. See Proverbs 16:9, “A man's heart (mind) deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.”

The aggregate levels are levels of transition, migration, and correction. They are levels of personal inquiry into the exact nature of who we are. They are levels of consolidation and growth. We may consider these levels as the pumps at which we park during the process of becoming ‘mindful’. Heaven is the state or location where the God of knowledge dwells and deals with the machinery of our whole identity. We have on this side the brain; we have on the other side the mind.

That is the machinery of our whole identity: our spiritual, or ‘mindful’ solidarity that we sometimes call our soul. Notions of the isolated human will must fall away. Our thoughts within us are affected by the spiritual strategies of God. Since God-thoughts happen without regard to our will, all that we may do is open our will to them. Then we may rejoice as a mighty man, with other mighty men, as one mighty body with a single mighty voice.

See Mark 13:11, “But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost (the God-mind).”

Those of lesser inclinations will resist this concept for the reason being they resist the implication of another’s will imposed upon their own. And isn’t that the mind of rebellion? Yet, it matters not how hard the rebellious resist; they are rank amateurs pitted against a pro.

See them vainly struggle against a superior will in Job 23:13. “But He is in one mind, and who can turn Him? and what His soul desireth, even that He doeth.”

Any who resist will be overthrown as in a flood. The dam breaks from the sheer weight and force of the water. Well-rooted trees are ripped from the ground. Large rocks are thrown forward like straw. Who can stand before the onslaught?

See the spiritual fury of God in Hosea 13:8, “I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul (obstruction) of their heart (mind), and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.”

We seekers seek not to resist, but to open our heads like bowls that God may pour Himself in. We seek to be mindful. We seek to be ‘God-mindful’. We are in long lines at the pump. Each vehicle is a different color; each driver dresses differently, each horn sounds individually. What brings us together, what we cannot move forward without, is that filled tank. We may roll down the window and call to one another, but the seeker is mindful of the true communication.

See Luke 10:20, “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits (minds) are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names (character, nature, outward manifestation of inner growth) are written (communicated) in heaven (where the God of knowledge reigns).”

Our aggregate levels have been a preparation for a type. We shall become a type both individually and collectively. Quite a few have failed, remained vile toads in the quagmire of mismanaged genesis.

Some few of us have taken white fluttering wings and sailed up toward the light. For the toad, a slimecovered rock and a belly filled with wiggling prey are satisfactory prizes but the real treasure for the toad is the practice of its craft and the pride of its solitary fulfillment. The white moth seeks the bright light within himself and the camaraderie of the congregation of God-minded brothers and sisters. Will you be the mindful type?

‘X’ marks the spot in Matt. 6:20-21, “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven (where the God of knowledge lives) . . . for where your treasure is, there will your heart (mind) be also.”

The mindful type: The mindful type is one whose mind has been filled, one whose eyes have been opened, and whose senses have been alerted. We might call it the ‘interested’ type, for such individuals now actively seek the answers that, previously, were only hinted at. This type has arrived. While they understand that there is nothing new under the sun, they burn with the newness of a changed spiritual identity. Still firmly rooted in their corporeal reality, they are keenly aware of the reality their eyes cannot see.

Job 4:15, “Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up.”

There is power and force and energy in the invisible. God is invisible. God’s thoughts are invisible.

Few will deny the power of God; few will deny His energy. The force of His will is evident throughout the ages.

See Psalms 33:11, “The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart (mind) to all generations.”

As seekers, we feel quite at home with such a concept. Having practiced spiritual vision, we see the strength of God in His thoughts toward us. We are comfortably aware that God is strong in ways that man is not.

Consider Job 38:31, “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?”

In all honesty, we must admit that we can no more gather the best of Pleiades into a bundle than we can undo whatever holds Orion in place.

The seeker has arrived. Seekers do not cringe at the bigger picture of God. Truth does not trouble us; we have an appetite for it. Truth is a sandwich for the hungering seeker. Not only do we find it filling, but we ingest reality with each new bite. We take a bite, relish the savor of it, look along each plane for exactly where we next wish to sink our teeth. While we chew, we turn the sandwich over in our hands and see the other side. Like the sandwich, our reality has two sides.

Both of those sides are here and now. We reject that the spiritual is in an inaccessible plane, far away.

We reject that the spiritual side of our reality may be realized only in some vague and far-flung future.

The spiritual half of us, the mind of God, is being realized here and now. The seeker stipulates that the spirit is meant for the flesh, as the flesh is meant for the spirit.

See Joshua 5:15, “And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.”

Consider that the place, so invested with spiritual reality as to be ‘Holy’, would have been insignificant without the real, flesh and blood foot of a faithful seeker standing upon it.

Now, please take note of who it was that spoke to Joshua. It was a high-ranking angel, a spokesman for God. When Moses received the same message, it was, again, a messenger of God speaking for God. In noting how angels, and other messengers of God, speak to man in the scriptures, I find the similarity in their manner striking.

They speak with the authority of God. That gives us the impression that one of two things is at work. One: the messenger believes he is God, and so speaks with authority. Two: God actually speaks through the messenger, and the messenger, in fact, is only reciting what he hears verbatim. As to the latter, what exactly is the angel picking up on, his inner angel? Does he hear a voice transmitted over distances, from realms inconceivable? Or, does the messenger simply recite the words that ‘come to mind’, words that both originate in and are received by the God-mind in the messenger?

The seeker accepts that a man may be not only a prophet (messenger) but also an angel (messenger).

The seeker seeks the God-mind and respects the God-mind in others.

See Colossians 3:22, “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart (singlemindedly), fearing (respecting) God (the God-mind in others).”

The seeker sees the angel in his fellow man, an ongoing process that will make man more and more attuned to the growing God-mind within.

See Colossians 3:23, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily (conscientiously), as to the Lord, and not unto men.”

When man is not inclined to reach above himself, when he is just not up to the challenge, he reaches around for something familiar, something already done, something he knows he can do again. Perhaps that is why God gave the Israelites a definite time restriction (one day) in which they were not permitted to reach around for the familiar and easy things to do. It was His way of insisting that the challenge be met.

As for the modern day, I must admit we are a terribly backslidden lot. We give God only an hour a week instead of a day. Seems a few of us are not up to the challenge. We do the hour, then we reach back to things familiar and comforting (corporeally). We go shopping, eat out, or work around the house; we listen to music, watch TV, or engage in a host of other small distractions and busy work. If God is a God of knowledge who inhabits our heads, and if God is life, then isn’t anything that detracts from or limits the exercise of the God-mind a form of death?

Isn’t the occupation of our minds by the God of knowledge also the occupation of life?

See the purpose of such occupation in Psalms 102:20, “To loose those that are appointed to death.”

The prevalent concept of God as some white-bearded distant sky daddy will cause many to struggle with the thought that God could actually be in their heads - right here, right now. Our language is a barren rocky field strewn with signposts pointing down roads that lead nowhere.

Consider where the expression “God above” leads. Even the seeker may find it difficult, when in prayer, not to look toward the sky. God is right here and right now; He is realizing Himself within us.

And listen up, we have it on good authority that God (where He actually lives) does not live there alone.

Hear God, Himself, describe His neighbors in Isaiah 57:15, “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit (mind), to revive the spirit (mind) of the humble, and to revive the heart (mind) of the contrite ones.”

He dwells in the high and holy place . . . with us.

Now, the seeker realizes that ‘the challenge’ is not the same as those comfortable and familiar things we reach for. No one ever honestly said it would be easy. We know from history, even from our own personal life experiences, that the path of progress is rife with pain and danger and sorrows galore. The realization of the God-mind may leave a few rope burns.

See God at work in us in Mark 3:27, “No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.”

And you never saw Him coming. You heard no footfall to warn you. But you found yourself bound hand and foot; you struggled; you complained. You never saw your captor, but, what you did see were the events in your life that said to you ‘thus far and no further’. You saw the results of your decisions to try this or that path. You never suspected you were being led.

See Ecclesiastes 9:1, “For all this I considered in my heart (mind) even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.”

Our thoughts are the workbench of God. He sits tinkering with wheels and cogs; they are strewn upon the workbench in no particular order, but they make perfect sense to Him. With nimble fingers, deft and practiced, He puts them together like the large pieces of an easy puzzle. Then He takes them apart and puts them together another way. Our thoughts, our will, our motives, and feelings are but cogs that may become a pocket watch or a grandfather clock. God is not limited in what He may do with the parts.

Inhabiting flesh, making the mind, turning us as if by bit and rein – well, that’s just what He does.

That's his field of expertise.

See Psalms 44:21, “Shall not God search this out? for He knoweth the secrets of the heart (mind).”

Even for those of us that know, it still feels like we are thinking our own thoughts, making our own decisions. If I have told you to ‘repent’ or to ‘get your act together’, is my concern for the improved spiritual state of one solitary individual, or for the improved spiritual state that exists and grows in both of us?

I am, as Isaiah 59:13 says, “Conceiving and uttering from the heart (mind) words.”

But, the expert is building something better within. It cannot help but be communicated. And, you may complain that I am a pest, and doing nothing more than offering my own subjective take on the matter.

But, you have only subdued certain cogs within yourself. You only tick differently. Fact is, all of your wheels and cogs are interchangeable with mine. That is why the communication is so inevitable. God is building both of us together. The very fact that you are exposed to the communication, that you are open to the cause, speaks confidently of the effect. My wheel spins, your wheel turns. Until each of your cogs snap firmly in place, you may find yourself under pressure.

Jeremiah 17:10, “I the Lord search the heart (mind), I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”

The free flow, between individuals, of thoughts and ideas, is not a footprint of the 21st century only but has marched openly through the ages. It has ever been a platform upon which societies have come together, upon which universities have been founded, upon which sciences have developed. And, while men of the modern day exalt science over the religious beliefs of early cultures, there is no evidence that the primitive religious societies were nonscientific. Science shares in common with religion the free flow of thoughts and ideas. One caveman in a vacuum does not a wheel make. One man with fire is not easily hidden from the rest of the tribe. Even if begrudgingly, modern man must admit to the science of primitive people.

We must admit the science involved in the construction of pyramids by ancient religious people. We must admit the science involved in the formulation of ancient calendars and predictions of future events postulated on the basis of past events. The ancient peoples were both scientific and religious. The one thing clear to all of us is this: from the beginning of recorded history, and even before, mind has communicated with mind.

Is it anything more than raw willfulness that some people wish to separate science from faith? Is it anything less than evident that some people reject the prophets of religion only to accept the prophets

of science? Should we put away the disciplines that do not deal with empirical evidence? There is no Moses or Samuel of science who can prove empirically that anything at all turns over in their heads.

But all of us, in fact, accept the reality of invisible thought. We accept that in communication between two separate corporeal individuals something clicks; something connects; something passes from the one to the other. In the communication between the communicator and the communicated, there is a sameness and a similarity that speaks, in the very least, of a square hole in readiness for a square peg. It is not empirical, but how could communication work otherwise?

A wall is built with brick and mortar. The mortar fits between and binds brick to brick no less than bricks fit around the mortar and hold it in articulate definition. The mortar has familiar knowledge of the brick, and the brick cannot deny the mortar.

Jeremiah 20:12, “O Lord of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart (mind).”

North is intangible, yet every map marks it; every compass includes it. Purpose is invisible, but, we accept that it has direction. Purpose moves from what has been to what will be. We may call purpose, indeed, we may call direction by yet another name. That name is of another intangible. It is an intangible that works in both the corporeal and spiritual, and being invisible, still finds wide acceptance among the scientifically inclined. That name is evolution.

Physical beings have evolved. Societies and languages have evolved. Spirituality and mentality, also, have evolved. When I speak of the spiritual, or mental evolution across societies, I am reminded of the development within an egg. Some parts develop while certain neighboring parts do not. Then, in their time, they develop while developed areas around them take a break. However, on the level of the whole, the whole egg moves in one direction and sees a single purpose.

The mind has evolved. Perception has evolved. We know that our brain is capable of much more. It has evolved with the God-mind, has kept pace with the forward direction. The brain, I believe, will match the purpose of the God-mind, and will take us beyond the isolated individual.

See Jeremiah 24:7, “I will give them an heart (mind) to know Me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be My people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto Me with their whole heart (mind).”

The ever-present question in this work is: ‘what exactly is spiritual?’. This work has evolved to the point where we now examine the evolved ‘type’. We call this type the ‘mindful type’. And we have not yet reached an end. As direction and purpose go, the mind of this type is only just jumping past the bears. Once we get up and over these falls, we still have a long way to go before we reach the breeding grounds. In our present exertions, we hold that spiritual is mental is spiritual. We assert that our known, or perceived, reality is but a reflection. Our highly honed seeker senses practice perception. We look into the mirror, not to see the spiritual by corporeal standards, but to see the corporeal as part of the spiritual standard.

We are the mindful type because the mind of God has evolved within us to the point where it has taken control of the eyes and ears. The God-mind now flexes the perceptual pectorals of articulate definition.

We now perceive the direction, the evolution, the purpose. We see the God-mind not only in our beginning, not only in our development but in every pattern of the great tapestry of being. We see levels; we see stages. We see the pieces of the puzzle in place, and at this point, we wonder if the

puzzle is not, itself, one immense piece of yet a larger puzzle. Here, now, is a loaded verse worthy of closer scrutiny. Now that the God-mind controls perception, what great treasures will be uncovered?

See Revelation 1:4, “John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits (minds) which are (and which are streaming into the past and future) before His throne (seat of power).”

Now, let us look closely at this verse from the book of Revelation. God and/or Christ is described as positioned in His seat of power and authority. From that seat, God and/or Christ rules absolutely: it is therefore called a throne. That throne is said to exist equally in the past, present, and future. A nonlinear timeline is indicated. The power and authority of the work occur cooperatively in each time frame; the work, therefore, must occur simultaneously. The throne may be viewed as at the center of time, reaching out and affecting all time at once. Lastly, the agency of that communication is found in seven spirits (or minds) that are before, or that surround the seat of power. They stream outward; they radiate from the seat of power toward everything else.

That there are seven minds or mindsets, may be viewed in many ways, but I will put forth just one for consideration. The seven minds affecting all time (nonlinear) may suggest that serial time has seven ages.

That man derives his nature from the nature of God has already been set forth. We expect to reach the divine nature, developmentally, through the disciplines of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

What we have now is also a reflection; it is something shared in common with God. It is not that we ascribe to God the anthropomorphic terms of human nature, no: exactly the reverse. If we rejoice, it is because joy is in the nature of God. The traits of God’s nature rub shoulders with the traits of human nature. There is a real connection; there is a connection between realities. The wings of a butterfly are equal: they are exactly the same – and a butterfly with one wing just cannot fly.

See God and man and the nature of their equality in Jeremiah 32:41, “Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with My whole heart (mind) and with My whole soul (complete spiritual identity).”

When God asks us to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul, it is because that is how He loves us. Those of us that hope, do so without the full benefit of a clear understanding of the future.

We look for the good even though we have absolutely no knowledge of what that good might be.

But, hey! - cheer up. The invisible, spiritual God ( the same God who is realizing Himself inside of us) knows all the good that He has prepared for those of us who love Him as He loves us. Now, I should not have to say it, but I will - those of us who have the God-mind, if we don’t already share that knowledge, we soon will.

Wrap your budding God-mind around 1 Corinthians 2:9, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart (mind) of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” Shall we not become more and more like Christ, more and more like God? The mindful type is an intermediate type, and I have said of this type that we have arrived – but, we still have places to go.

What will be the next higher type? How much further may we evolve spiritually? If I may hazard a guess, I think the next type will be that of a seasoned vet: one who has practiced to the point of total confidence.

See 1 John 3:20-21, “For if our heart (mind) condemn (oppose) us, God is greater than our heart (mind), and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart (mind) condemn us not (be in full rapport), then have we confidence toward God.”

The spiritual archetype: Finding new treasures in the word of God does not negate the old treasures. Man never had to wait for the final realization to be of service to God. The early ministers of God were like prototypes of the archetype. They were one with God. They rose above the institutions of their times and proved the God-mind within. Those prototypes usually worked beyond the established borders of religious jurisdiction, often at odds with institutional authority. Not only was a work being worked within them

by God, but the whole matter was something those individuals actively sought and practiced. It was a matter of the mind.

See 1 Corinthians 14:32, “The spirits (minds) of the prophets are subject to the prophets.”

When the mind of man is fully compatible with the God-mind, man will peak spiritually. Man will have no more doubts; he will walk in absolute confidence. He will no longer be divided between the two identities: there will be only the God-mind. Man will have reached a spiritual archetype. Therefore, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that is: the Holy Mind, ordinary men have taught, and performed miracles. They did not have to wait for the realization to be complete. These individuals of faith had a connection through obedience. They followed instructions. This went on while the realization took place in such people as Peter, who denied Jesus three times; in Paul, who formerly had been a zealot for the persecution of the church. The individuals had their ups and downs, without a doubt - for even Judas was among those who went out two by two to cast out demons and heal the sick.

See Matthew 10:1, “When He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits (minds), to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.”

But, upon the people as a whole, an end result was in the offing.

Compare yourself to Peter and Paul in 1 Timothy 1:5, “Now the end of the commandment is charity (magnanimity) out of a pure (absolute) heart (mind), and of a good conscience (praiseworthy compunction), and of faith unfeigned (genuine confidence).”

Can you say as much about yourself?

The first chapter of Hebrews speaks of God’s communications to man through the agency of prophets, angels, and even Christ Himself. It is said of the angels in Hebrews 1:14, “Are they not all ministering spirits (minds), sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”

The same communication, however, came through the prophets, that is: through men. The mind of God and the work of God are clearly seen in man and angel equally. Could it be that angels are men who have reached the level of archetype? Can we see both as indivisible?

Christ shines forth as the communication of the mind and will and power of God for a single reason: Christ is our example of a just man made perfect. Christ is both corporeal and spiritual; He is God in man; He is man and angel. And we, the heirs of what Christ offers, may also minister in like fashion as the prophets and angels.

We are speaking, here, of a common denominator that may, at the very least, be guessed by even the most outside of outsiders. Here is the test: if a person who worships statues and idols of many arbitrary gods can look at someone and determine that the individual has the appearance of the Son of God, then the wall between mortal and angelic becomes less insurmountable.

See Daniel 3:25, “He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” The communicated mind of God comes to man through man no less than through angel, and Christ is said to be much better than angels, for He is the premier example of a man preaching and teaching the mind of God. Man, in his spiritual evolution, is an apprentice angel, and communicates the mind of God in like fashion as Christ and the angels.

See the God-mind communicated in Leviticus 24:12, “And they put him in ward, that the mind of the Lord might be shewed them.”

See also Numbers 16:28, “And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind.”

God makes His angels ministers of men, who will inherit salvation. But, God also makes His prophets ministers of men for the same purpose, and the connection of such prophets to the greater example of Christ cannot be denied.

See 1 Samuel 2:35, “And I will raise Me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in Mine heart (mind) and in My mind (heart): and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before Mine anointed for ever.”

Man lives enclosed in a high wall. God would have us tear down the wall so that we may see who, exactly, is on the other side. And, just who is on the other side? Is it man or angel? Or both?

See Revelation 19:10, “And I fell at his feet to worship him (the angel). And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony (proof) of Jesus, worship God: for the testimony (proof) of Jesus is the spirit (mind) of prophecy (that which is to come).”

The dividing wall will come down, then, all walls will follow suit. In the upcoming verse, we can read about a division between fathers and children. That wall may be seen as more than a single, twodimensional reference. We add a new dimension when we view the verse in a historical frame. The minds of our forefathers are turned toward us, here and now, by the communication of the God-mind.

Our minds are turned to our forefathers, their zealous faith, devotion, and virtue (which must necessarily develop in us as well) by the communication of the God-mind.

See the communicated God-mind in your trans-generational fathers in Malachi 4:6, “And he shall turn the heart (mind) of the fathers to the children, and the heart (mind) of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”

We are becoming angelic; the wall between us and our forefathers is breaking down, and that exposes us to the power of their faith and convictions. Through their communications to us, we become like them, like prophets, like ministers, like angels. Moreover, we are becoming more and more like Christ, who is our greatest example of God in man. Christ taught His disciples to use what He had to do what He did. He imparted virtue; He communicated His very nature and power.

These days people like to call it a ‘life force’, but formerly it was known as virtue. People, these days, have a poor impression of virtue. They think of it as, perhaps, a sweet nature. They likely see it as a propensity to follow the golden rule or to be law-abiding. The one view of virtue that is lacking is the view of virtue as power. Real power. A known quality, and a controlled quantity.

See Mark 5:30-34, “And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that virtue had gone out of Him, turned Him about in the press, and said, Who touched My clothes? And His disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me? And He looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before Him, and told Him all the truth. And He said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.”

Now, let us take a close look at what is said about virtue in Strong's Ref. # 1411: Romanized dunamis (more shall be given and he shall have abundance) Pronounced doo'-nam-is from GSN1410; force (literally or figuratively); especially, miraculous power (usually by implication, a miracle itself): KJV-ability, abundance, meaning, might(-ily, -y, -y deed), (worker of) miracle(-s), power, strength, violence, mighty (wonderful) work.

(He knew that faith was at work).

The disciples were taught to use virtue when they healed, but obviously, it is a thing that is not sensed by all. One must be especially attuned to it. And yet, it is at work even though we are not aware of how it feels to pass through us. Everything that peaks does so by practice and exercise. Everything that is of a higher limit is there through a series of steps or accomplishments, each adding to the last. As for the exercise, or practice, of virtue by Christ, we see that He quite regularly healed the sick; He quite often cast out evil spirits.

See Him ‘pumping virtue’ in Matthew 8:16, “When the even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils: and He cast out the spirits (evil minds) with His word (the exercise of spiritual communication), and healed all that were sick.”

How may we compare our spiritual evolution to the desired goal of Christlikeness? We are not the arrived; we are the sojourners. We look at where we are, and we know where we will be. Each step in the right direction is an addition toward our goal. We may view each step as a twofold practice of virtue. Each step adds virtue to virtue, adds spirit to spirit, but at the same time, each step is a reduction of distance between our present state and our expected goal. Each item of accomplished righteousness within our lives removes an item of non-rightness. The progress of the God-mind is the usurpation of the corporeal mind. All along the way, the learning and the final exam are one and the same.

Jeremiah 11:20, “O Lord of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest (tests) the reins (conscience) and the heart (mind).”

We hope to be like Jesus. We view being like Jesus as a successful state. We realize that the success of many believers will result in a body of Christlike individuals: we will have traits in common; we will share virtue; we will be like each other in our Christ-ness. As I have indicated all along, communication is key. The road we travel is from mind to mind. We have seen in this study that the great issue is our ‘changed’ mind. The arena in which we so vigorously exercise is the spiritual arena of thought. The communication and exercise of the God-mind is the conquest and banishment of the world-mind. We want to be, and we will be like Jesus. Walking on water and raising the dead are not key to the issue of the communicated mind of Christ. To seek the physical aspect of the matter is to seek the world. One must seek and find the spiritual first, then all the issues of our surrounding reality will fall into their rightful places. We will be like Jesus in the inner man.

See Luke 9:47, “And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart (mind).”

Communication is key: that is, the communicated mind of God, the communicated mind of Christ communicated to the mind of man through Christ, through angels, and through prophets: that is, through other men. The mind of God and the mind of Christ come to us through preachers and teachers of spirituality: that is, mentality. That word of sublime communication reverberates within us - it strikes a chord, and we are not led blindly, but with eyes wide open: testing each issue for ourselves so that we may truly know. If our teachers teach worldly emotionalism, we will find them out. If our preachers preach socialistic mammon, we will put them away from us and seek those filled with the Holy Mind.

That Holy Word must be communicated and received equally, for it is the Holy Nature of God, in all truth, that is passed from one to the other. If we receive the word, the word is in us; the word is part of who we are.

See Romans 10:8, “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart (mind).”

That is the spiritual archetype. The spiritual archetype is like a free beach comer. We are free. We have always wandered but we have ever been on the right beach. We have filled our lungs with a fresh wind.

First, we were amazed at the shells we found, then we were amazed at the starfish. The treasures we found grew larger and larger until they were larger than life. Now we find that having traveled so long upon this right beach is also a treasure. As archetypes go, have we arrived? Will we end our journey and begin to prove ourselves to the unbelieving with miracles and explanations of miracles? I think not!

In our long journey, we have at last reached that distant stand of swaying palms at the bend of the horizon. We are moving around and beyond, and what do our eyes behold but a whole new vista of virgin sand. Each shell and starfish, small in themselves, are the exercise of the great treasure of the word. We practice that word within ourselves; that word is Jesus.

See Hebrews 4:12, “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit (spiritual identity and mind), and of the joints and marrow (strength and life of the body), and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (mind).”

Our lungs are filled with a fresh, new wind. We practice Jesus to become Jesus. We will walk and talk like Christ. We will look into the Great Reflection and each face will be the face of Christ, and our eyes

will look into the eyes of Christ – as John said, “We shall see Him as He is.” Of course, He is not now revealed, but we live in hope, believing the word that is in us. When the spiritual archetype looks into the mirror, Christ will appear. We work toward that day. We seek, having faith that the object of our desire will be given to us. Our daily acceptance and practice of the God-mind is a plea for Christlikeness. Someday we will knock on the door to the inner man and Christ will open to us. In the meanwhile, even the spiritual archetype must work and walk – and practice.

See 1 Peter 1:13, “Wherefore gird up (encircle, surround, support, sustain, maintain) the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Now, this study must conclude. We end it on a high note. The Great Reflection is a shared reflection.

We know that when Christ shall appear, we shall be like Him. If we can rejoice in Christ, we can rejoice in the Christ that is to be revealed in our brothers and sisters. Are you a seeker? You will find what is already there, for even now, as 1 Corinthians 2:16 says, “We have the mind of Christ.”

Three Bonus Studies Bonus Study One Earth The theme of this Bible study: ‘Elements’. My search for references of the elements garnered twentyone printed pages. God willing, and with the help of the Holy Ghost, I think this study will afford a more complete view of the circuit of life: from the dust of creation to the fire of destruction. It is not a study I had planned; rather, it came about when I read one of those verses (in Acts, I think) about being baptized with ‘water’ and ‘the spirit’. What occurred to me on that reading was the comparison, that Christ had earlier made for Nicodemus, between the ‘born of the spirit’ & the ‘wind’. I saw, then, a partial glimpse of the four basic elements: earth, water, wind, & fire.

Mention was made in a single scripture reference, John 3:5 through 8, of the elements of water and wind. Now I, like most others, am used to hearing the ‘born of water and spirit’, verses presented as if water is the beginning (the birth of physical man), and wind is the end result (or, the second birth). I had to ask: what then of the other two elements? To place the order of elements as earth, water, wind, and fire, to me, seemed at once to make more sense, and to be more complete.

It is ‘earth’ that I believe to be the first birth; it may be that all the elements are representative of a level of birth. Since the beginning, since Adam, man has been associated with the dust of creation, or clay, or earth. Our lowest estate is dust and ashes, in fact, many funeral services include the words ‘dust to dust’ and ‘ashes to ashes’.

The preacher, in Ecclesiastes 3:19-20, tells us: “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; all go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.”

A long time before the preacher lived, the writer of the book of Genesis quoted God thus (vs. 3:19), “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

Did the writers of the Bible, when inspired to write about the physical nature of man, intend for the rest of us to understand the word ‘dust’ to mean the same thing as ‘earth’ or ‘clay’?

Job 38:38 says, “When the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?”

Job 4:19 refers to the human body in this manner, “How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?”

Abraham said, in Genesis 18:27, “Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes.”

Jumping ahead historically, we see the Psalmist write this, in Psalms 103:14, “For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.”

We should all remember the account of Adam. Genesis 2:7 puts it this way: “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

There is a connection here between the element of earth and the element of wind (the breath of life). I will address this and other connections as this study progresses, and I will record what the spirit teaches, but for now, I wish to bring up an association to the element of earth that should be kept in mind. That association comes from the name Adam, which translates as ‘red’. That word was the generic name given to man; it was Babylonian in origin but had the same meaning in the Hebrew language. ‘Red’ is also the color of blood, and that is the association to be mindful of. Man was taken from dust, mixed with water, quickened by the spirit, and called red.

Blood is the first association to the element of ‘earth’ which points to a connection to the element of ‘water’: it represents the half-way mark between earth and water. The channels of blood that course through the human body, in their most fundamental symbolism, are like rivers of watery earth.

Allusions to the Nile being turned to blood should not be passed over. Men in those early days made an instant connection between earth, water, and wind. The blood of the body, equally with the breath in the nostrils, was considered the life of the body. The association was unmistakable when a man-child came forth in a shower of blood and water.

Job 14:1 says, “Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.”

Job also says, in 15:14 and in 25:4, “What is man, that he should be clean? And he which is born of woman, that he should be righteous? How then can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of woman?”

The association here is through blood back to the element of earth. Jesus spoke of a man that was born of woman, in Matthew 11:11, “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.”

But Christ, Himself, apart from being born of the spirit, was also a man born of a woman. For that reason, the writers of the scriptures were compelled to say of Jesus, in 1 John 5:6, that His relationship to man could not simply be based in a spiritual awakening, as in His baptism by water. While that is a necessary step, it could have no validity apart from Christ’s physical birth.

The verse says, “This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.”

1 John 5:8 continues, “There are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.”

That verse seems to show a ‘forward progression’ by counting back from the Truth in sets: spirit/water, water/blood, blood/earth - the former being the affecting catalyst upon the latter to bring each forward.

Not only the Hebrews, but all early cultures had religious ceremonial rites, believing in a real connection between physical objects, physical actions, spoken words, and spiritual ends. The Hebrews had regular rituals that reflected their beliefs concerning the earth and blood. They believed that the life of the body (which was made from dust) was in the blood. They had a ceremonial restriction against eating blood.

See Deut. 12:16, “Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water” In effect, they were returning life to the dust from which all came. Notice the symbolic admixture of earth and water.

In Exodus 4:9, God tells Moses, “And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.”

And blood speaks to God from the earth, as when Abel’s blood cried out.

There was a difference between blood in the ground, and blood left exposed on an altar. Note Ezekiel 24:7 and 8, “For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the top of a rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust; that it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance; I have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that it should not be covered.”

Man continues in his relationship to dust. It is man’s humble beginning, his low estate. In all of mankind’s striving to be lifted up from the shame of dirt, it still clings to him and is reflected in his thinking.

Isaiah 29:4, “And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and as one that hath a familiar spirit, thy voice shall be out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.”

The earth, in regard to man’s inability to escape his return to it, has connotations of shame and reproach. The early Hebrew, in his daily sacrificing of animals, pouring their life back into the earth, had an inbred belief against man’s blood being poured out in similar fashion – thus the absolute horror of murder, thus God’s response to Abel’s blood and to the suffering of His people in Egypt.

We note man’s belief that the life of men moved onward and upward after death, while the life of animals went back into the earth by reading the next scripture reference: Ecclesiastes 3:20 & 21. “All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?”

Since physical man cannot know spiritual matters, this verse is doubtless based on man’s assumptions.

If, as man believes, God breathed life into every living creature, then the spirit of the animal is no less of God than the spirit of man. The same writer also states, in Ecclesiastes 12:7, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”

There is no denying that man seeks to be better than the animal but that is only because man sees the animal in his own nature. In both of the verses just cited, a clear connection can be seen between the element of earth and the element of air, which symbolically points to the breath of life, the spirit given

by God. In the writings of early man, there is a clear connection between the dust of man’s creation, the dust of death, and man’s low estate before a Holy God. Psalms 22:15 associates the element of earth with the grave thusly, “My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and Thou hast brought me into the dust of death.”

Note, in the reference to the dust of the Psalmist’s demise, the drying up of his moisture, or, a loss of water. The connection in early thinking between water and earth is irrepressible.

Also, take a look at Psalms 44:25, “For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly (heart, or, inner man) cleaveth unto the earth.” We have always felt helpless in the face of death; quite frankly, we are helpless. Life and death are simply beyond our jurisdiction. They belong to God. And we lament, as in Psalms 30:9, “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise Thee? Shall it declare Thy truth?”

Even though, as in Psalms 22:29, we evince an adequate understanding: “All they that be fat upon the earth shall eat and worship; all they that go down to the dust shall bow before Him: and none (but neither) can keep alive his own soul.”

Now, perhaps we can get a better grasp on that whole deal about lamenting, or fasting in sackcloth and ashes. It was a representation of a people’s low estate and humility before the God that brought them from and sent them back to the dust. It was a ceremonial act that connected their physical state to their spiritual desires.

Joshua 7:6, “And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the Ark of the Lord until the eventide, (a watery reference to a new beginning, as the Jewish day ran from the evening to the morning) he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.”

The element of earth, or dust, is used as a symbol of man’s low estate in the writing of 1 Samuel 2:8, “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust . . . to make them inherit the throne of glory.”

Also, read 1Kings 16:2, “Forasmuch as I exalted thee out of the dust, and made thee prince over my people Israel.”

When man was convinced of his low estate, he would repent in dust and ashes; witness Job 42:5 and 6, “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Could it have been an attempt to bury one’s base nature, or sins; did they think that was possible? Read Job 20:11, “His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which lie down with him in the dust.”

All words and deeds have a progressive direction. They are not static. We need to keep in mind that a man can fling his body into the dust and catapult his spirit into heaven.

Job 2:12, “And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.”

Just as ‘earth’ has a connection to ‘water’ through ‘blood’, so too does ‘water’ have a connection to ‘wind’ through ‘vapor’, or ‘cloud’, and by allusion, the dust can be compared to the cloud.

Nahum 1:3 speaks of the lower end of higher levels when the writer states that “The clouds are the dust of His (God’s) feet.”

Man’s highest reach: the sky, with all its billowing fleets of clouds, is still beneath God, is where we begin to get a glimpse (order-of-element-wise). The earth is God’s footstool; clouds would be where His lowest aspect touches our highest, where spiritual touches physical. Or is it just so much poetry?

Let us read some dust of the feet verses with this in mind.

In Matthew 10:14, Jesus, the only begotten son of God, said to His disciples, “And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.”

Why shake off the dust? Mark 6:11 puts it this way: “And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony.”

What is a testimony in this case but an attestation, or indictment, and who would that be against?

Read Luke 9:5, “And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.”

Is that like saying, ‘since you love your low estate so much, keep it’?

Luke 10:11 seems to say just that, “Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.”

The elements show an equal division in the purpose of God, and in the instruments of His fulfillment.

Earth and water are the first half; air and fire are the second half, with the ‘cross-over’ set being water and air.

The number of the triune is evident in a progressions chart: (1) earth/water; (2) water/air; and (3) air/fire. The half-way mark is water (the end of the old), and air (the beginning of the new). John the

Baptist, in this regard, is representative of mankind, who progressed from their beginning in the earth, to their preparatory cleansing or spiritual washing in water.

Water Our Lord marks the commencement of fruition and ingathering. An analogy may be taken from the planting cycle: the seed is planted in earth, the plant arises by watering, the fan gathers grain and the wind causes fruit to fall, finally, fields are burned and a new cycle begins.

Let us recall what Jesus said. Matthew 11:11, “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.”

Matthew 11:13, “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John (water).”

Luke 16:16, “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.”

John 3:3, “Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:5, “Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water (John and baptism) and of the spirit (Christ and born again) he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” John 3:6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; (ending with John, the greatest of those born of women) and that which is born of the spirit is spirit (beginning with Jesus, greater than John because of the spirit).”

Let’s try this next one without parentheses. John 1:33, “And I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.”

How was he to recognize the spirit, had he seen the spirit previously? Whatever the case may be, this is what went down: Mark 1:10, “And straightway coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opened, and the spirit like a dove descending upon Him.” That is what Jesus was shown.

Luke 7:44, “John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.”

John 3:8, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the spirit.”

Christ makes clear the symbolic use of the word ‘wind’. Clearly, He has moved past the washing of water. Christ is the beginning of the second half of the process, no matter what level that process is applied to.

Acts 11:16, “Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that He said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost (wind).”

It is evident, therefore, in verses such as Mark 1:8, where it is said, “I indeed have baptized you with water: but He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost”, that a break from the old has occurred, and that the process has graduated to something higher.

I think that among the elemental connections (sets of two), one element affects the other unto change.

That is easily seen in Job 14:19, “The waters wear the stones: Thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and Thou destroyest the hope of man.”

Water affects earth; wind affects water.

Read in Matthew 14:25-29 how spirit affects water. Jesus, in the fourth watch, walked from dry land out to the boat where the disciples were. The disciples saw a figure on the water, defying the laws of nature as they knew them. They thought it was a spirit. Jesus identified Himself but Peter put Him to the test, saying, if you really are a solid man walking on water, let me also do the same. And for a while, filled with the spirit, Peter actually did walk on the water: the spirit affected the water.

Genesis 8:1 also shows how the wind affects the water: “And God remembered Noah . . . and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged.”

Compare that last verse, where wind affected water, to the incident at the red sea.

2 Peter 3:5-7 shows earth affected by water: “. . . whereby the world that was then, being overflowed with water, perished . . .”

Whether physically or spiritually applied, ‘wind’ has a greater effect on water than ‘water’ has on wind.

That is the image in Christ stilling the waves of a raging sea, but do not forget that it was the wind that caused the sea to rage. Both water and wind, symbolically, speak of salvation, but the wind is always the higher state, the greater power, while water is more a path to the other side. As with Noah, to be on top of, or above, the water is rather like the wind: Noah is an image of spirituality.

1 Peter 3:20, “. . . when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” The eight souls, like a wind, passed over the waters to the mount of salvation.

In Exodus 14:21 we are given an image of wind affecting water in such a way as to reveal the way to salvation: “And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.”

I have already addressed ‘dust and ashes’ in the ceremonies of early man; blood, also, had its place in ceremonial activities. Now, I wish to touch on ceremonial water. To the early Hebrews, water was a life symbol. In hostile and inhospitable lands, wells were dug and fiercely protected. Water kept alive the living; water soothed and refreshed; water washed away the dirt that clung to a man; water purified and sanctified a wife. It is no wonder that the physical and social importance of water carried over into religious ceremony. The application of water lifted early man up from the dust that held him in common with the beast.

The symbolism of water grew up out of two main sources: the social use of water and the ceremonial use of water. There is a progression from the social use of water through the ceremonial, and to its use in spiritual cleansing by baptism. The social use I refer to is the washing of feet. An Old Testament custom presents itself to us in Genesis 18:4 and 43:24, “Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet” and “The man brought the men into Joseph’s house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet.”

The custom was still extant in Jesus’ day, as we see from the reading of Luke 7:44, “And He turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest Me no water for My feet: but she hath washed My feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.”

Christ also washed feet in John 13:5, “After that He poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded.”

The social courtesy of washing from the feet the dust of one’s sojourn, by Jesus’ day, had gained the symbolic significance of lifting a man from the world, of separating him from the earth, and from worldliness. It is this perception of separation that is the core meaning in the washing of baptism. If, as the contemporary Christian is led to believe, baptism was intended to represent resurrection after death, then the element of earth would be more appropriate than the element of water. Water points to the removal of dust, whereas dust points to the corporeal existence between creation and the grave. I think that, rather than death and resurrection, the full intent of what water had evolved into, symbolically, is summed up in the next two verses.

Hebrews 10:22 and Ephesians 5:26, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled (washed, baptized) from an evil conscience (the dust of worldliness), and our bodies washed with pure water” and “That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word (the Holy Ghost).”

In the ceremonial sense, everything and everyone that approached the Holiness of God had to be washed. Exodus 29:4 and 40:12 show us the washing of persons, “And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water,” also “And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water.”

Exodus 30:20 shows a little more of the reason why, “When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near the alter to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord.”

God told them to wash with water; Leviticus 8:6 shows obedience, “And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water.”

The washing by water had early on taken upon itself the spiritual significance of separation from lesser and unwanted matters. See Ezekiel 36:25, “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.”

Even Rome, in the hour of Christ’s trial, used the washing of water to suggest separation. Matthew 27:24, “When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he

took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.”

Symbolically, water was used in broadcast application. Water has been used to differentiate between good and evil. James 3:11, “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?”

Water has been used to illustrate the fullness or completeness of an action: Hosea 5:10, “The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out My wrath upon them like water.” Here, the pouring out of water has several attributes: it runs out full throttle; it spatters, reaching far; and it is fully absorbed, nothing being lost or wasted.

Water has been used to describe that upon which there is no constraint or control. Genesis 49:4, “Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel.”

Water has been used to speak of the flood, but in a higher sense, water’s power over earth to deprive it of the breath (wind or spirit) of life. Genesis 6:17, “And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.”

Water has been used to speak of the general multitudes of people: Revelation 12:15 and 16, “And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth open her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.” A similar event occurred in the camp of Moses when the earth opened up and swallowed many people (refer to Numbers 16:32).

Now, why would I suggest that the serpent would spew ‘people’ out of his mouth rather than words?

Do I refer to the enemy’s prowess in communicated deceptions and snares? No, I refer to something really wild. In order for me to explain my thoughts, I must turn back, and speak again of ‘dust’.

Firstly, there was a curse on the serpent in the story of Adam and Eve: Genesis 3:14, “And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.” Never mind that all cattle and beasts of the field were cursed to walk on all fours and eat things growing out of the dust; never mind that the serpent was, by that reference, also a kind of grazing animal, but the thing to see is that the serpent lost all his arms and legs (didn’t have a leg to stand on), had to crawl on his belly, and eat dust. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a worm to me.

Somewhere in the subconscious, the worm is just as relatable to the forbidden fruit as Eve is. But wait, you say! We were talking about a serpent. If memory serves, the word ‘worm’ comes from a spelling for dragon or serpent in some older European or nomadic cultures. But, does scripture make a connection between the worm and the serpent? Let’s take a look.

Micah 7:17, “They shall lick the dust like a serpent; they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth.”

Now, I realize that primitive man, upon seeing the tongue action of a snake or large lizard, would have considered, in his scientific ignorance, that dust was being licked. But there are levels to everything. As I have probably written in another study, I believe that our understanding has come down to us in terms

and words that are right for our time, that is regardless of the intent of original writers, or missing text.

We have what God has brought to us. A connection between the serpent and the worm is viable. The serpent was cursed to eat dust.

Isaiah 65:25, “And dust shall be the serpent’s meat.”

So let’s talk a moment about dust. Who returns to and becomes a part of dust? Man Does.

Daniel 12:2, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth . . .”

Isaiah 26:19, “Ye that dwell in dust.”

So then, the thought goes: man turns to dust; the worm eats the dust (but don’t forget about levels) - the clouds are the dust under God’s feet, and the original serpent is thought by some to be a spiritual being.

These are sideline thoughts to the present study: we were looking at water.

Water points to the spirit and is in some cases used interchangeably with air. When we speak of the spirit, being on the human plane, we speak of a quality that we may only understand by its effect upon this plane (refer back to Christ’s illustration of the wind in John 3:8). We hear the sound of the wind in the trees, and the trees are greatly affected by the wind; they are bowed down by the wind. They are humbled; sometimes they are uprooted and destroyed. Where the invisible touches the visible, the unseen may be proven by its footprint.

A connection is seen between air and water – that connection varies in how the earth is affected. Using my own comparison of air and water via the wind in the trees, we can see the tree as a representative expression of man. The early writer of scripture saw the same connection.

Job 8:11, “Can the rush grow up without mire? Can the flag grow without water?”

Psalms 1:3, “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.”

Isaiah 44:4, “And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.”

The tree as a symbol of mankind: his roots are in the dust; he draws from the water that is life on this plane; the blood of the tree (sap), the life within the tree, is drawn upward. I think the early writers understood the spiritual nuances better than most of us do. Their language was rife with an understanding of spirituality housed in common symbolism.

Psalms 107:35, “He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.”

Psalms 65:9, “Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water.”

Psalms 63:1, “O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee: my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.”

Psalms 42:1, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, (and is it any mystery that the spirit brought us the word hart, which seems so much like the word heart?) so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.” Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: (twisty, everchanging: fluid) He turneth it whithersoever He will.”

Proverbs 27:19, “As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.”

We should learn to see double: there is a lower and a higher in all things. Christ said that He was from above, and we were from beneath; the Tabernacle was designed from spiritual specs. This physical plane is an image, in a dark glass, of a higher plane. Our souls are in earthen vessels, but they long to be new wine in new bottles.

Proverbs 20:5, “Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.”

Isaiah 12:3, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”

Our thinking, and thus our writing, from earliest times, is shaped not by earthly, but by spiritual standards. It is no wonder to me that such emphasis was placed on water, that it came to symbolize life itself, that the higher plane of air (Life) has such an effect on the lower plane of water (life).

Exodus 7:17, “Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I Am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in Mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.”

In case any fail to understand, this verse is about the rod that is in God’s hand and the action that God takes. The things which Moses did with his staff were a mirror image of the actions of God - but that’s another study. Suffice it to say that there is a real correlation between the things that occur in Heaven and the things that accrue on earth.

Air affects water.

Isaiah 63:12, “That led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name?”

Joshua 2:10, “For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the red sea for you.”

Acts 10:47, “Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have (already) received the Holy Ghost as well as we?”

John 5:4, “For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water.”

Air affects water.

Those same spiritual standards point to the predispositions of God and the Hebrews toward the importance of water unto life.

Deuteronomy 8:7, “For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of the valleys and hills.”

John 4:14, “But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

John 7:38, “He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly (inner man) shall flow rivers of living water.”

John 4:10, “Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.”

Revelation 21:6, “And He said unto me, It is done. I Am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of Life freely.”

Revelation 22:17, “And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come.

And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of Life freely.”

Revelation 22:1, “And he shewed me a pure river of water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”

Jeremiah 2:13, “For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewn them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”

How should we diagram the four elements? Should we draw a straight line; put earth first and fire last?

Should we draw a circle? Christ’s claim is that He is both the beginning and the end; in that regard, a circle might be the better diagram, but if we put earth at the top, fire must go on the side, not the bottom. There are two remedies. First is to take the circle and twist it into a figure 8 (the symbol of eternity); we could place water and air at the top, fire and earth at the bottom. Second is to use the pyramid, making air and water the cradle for earth, and fire the pinnacle. The pinnacle can represent the “beginning and the end”; considerably more than just destruction, it must include the re-molding of a new earth: completing a living circuit. Fire may be both pinnacle and core. It may be difficult to understand such a circuit unless one sees the course running in sets. This pyramid may be but one slice of the cosmic pizza.

Air I now turn to the element of ‘air’. While it may seem to some that the early writers of scripture may have anthropomorphized just a bit, we of the present still ended up with what God wanted us to work with. There is little doubt that early man tackled the mysteries of nature, the physical and invisible realms, with comfortable concepts and terms that worked for them. Their grasping capabilities might rather seem like mittens than gloves, but they held on. We, too, must get some kind of hold on these issues. God brought them to us as He wanted us to have them. It would be a mistake to assume that the writers of scripture were ignorant of spiritual fine points, though zealous and somewhat poetic. It is never so much that man discovers, as it is that God reveals.

If ‘water’ was cement steps, ‘air’ is a marble staircase.

As with water, air had more than one symbolic significance. Though the divergent meanings, like startled swallows, flew to the four winds – over time, a transition of meanings coalesced into the kernel of our present study, which is best summed up in Christ’s reference to the invisible wind. That is where this study is going, but a proper study demands a close inspection, first, of those earlier divergent meanings. Higher meanings normally develop upward through common applications of understanding.

Man’s understanding of the wind comes from his relationship with something powerful though unseen.

Sometimes the wind was good, sometimes the wind was bad. Even today, all of us are inclined toward a healthy respect of the wind for the things it can do. In researching this topic, I found that the early writers attributed unique qualities to each of the four winds as if each had a personality of its own.

What was the East wind? The East wind was a bane and a sorrow. It was a hot dry wind that brought destruction of crops on land, and ships on water. It brought plagues and sucked up wells. It has been described as both ‘strong’ and ‘vehement’; as the ‘wind of the Lord’. Men associated the East wind with the might of the invisible God, which could either terribly destroy life or miraculously spare it.

Witness the following verses.

Genesis 41:6, “. . . blasted with the east wind . . .”, Genesis 41:23, “. . . blasted with the east wind . . .”, Genesis 41:27, “. . . blasted with the east wind . . .”

On the other hand, the east wind can be a two-edged sword. God fought for Israel; He fought against Egypt.

Exodus 14:21, “And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.”

Exodus 15:10, “Thou didst blow with Thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.”

Isaiah 11:15, “And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with His mighty wind shall He shake His hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.”

God also used the east wind to bring plagues.

Exodus 10:13, “And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.”

It was the opposite, or west, wind that drove the locust plague into the red sea (where the Egyptians would also drown). They knew that the east wind both spared Israel and spoiled Egypt. The east wind came to be associated with God’s corrective retribution. God has rough winds at His disposal, but when He wants to accomplish something special, He calls out the east wind.

Isaiah 27:8, “In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: He stayeth His rough wind in the day of the east wind.”

This next verse from Ezekiel points to the fact that ‘air’ is a preparation for ‘fire’. While the last two verses may border on higher meaning, they point, however, to the power of air over water and earth.

Ezekiel 19:12, “But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.”

Ezekiel 27:26, “Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas.”

Ezekiel 17:10, “Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? It shall wither in the furrows where it grew.”

By extension, the east wind was used to signify man’s inclination toward destruction by way of his own folly.

Job 15:2, “Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?”

Job 21:17 and 18, “How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! And how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in His anger. They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.”

Note the connection between air and water by way of the storm.

Job 27:21, “The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth: and as a storm hurleth him out of his place.”

Man tries to understand the connection between God and the forces of nature that they attribute to Him. Psalms 48:7, “Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.”

Psalms 78:26, “He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by His power He brought in the south wind.”

Job 38:24, “By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?”

I have often noticed that a breeze is brought forth from a still morning when the sun comes up.

Ecclesiastes 1:6, “The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.”

Hosea 13:15, “Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: He shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.”

Jonah 4:8, “And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, it is better for me to die than to live.”

Acts 27:14, “But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon.”

Thoughts of the mysteries of wind enlarged to include man’s transience in general, meaninglessness, and destructions that fall upon the enemies of a Holy God. Psalms 78:39, “For He remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.”

Psalms 103:16, “For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; the place thereof shall know it no more.”

Job 6:26, “Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?”

Job 7:7 - “O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good.”

Job 30:15, “Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.”

Job 30:22, “Thou liftest me up to the wind; Thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance.”

Psalms 1:4, “The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.”

Ecclesiastes 3:19 - “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they all have one breath.”

Isaiah 11:4, “And He shall smite the earth: with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked.”

Man believed that God owned and controlled the wind; that it was the breath of God. It was not a long jump for man, also, to associate the wind with God’s spiritual nature, or by extension to believe that winds and clouds were angelic beings, donned for different occasions, like clothing worn by men. By the same wind or spiritual breath, God could give life and take it back again.

Amos 4:13, “For, Lo, He that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is His thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, the Lord, the God of hosts, is His name.”

Isaiah 42:5, “Thus saith God the Lord, He that created the heavens, and stretched them out; He that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein . . .”

Proverbs 30:4, “Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in His fists? Who hath bound the waters in a garment? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, if thou canst tell?”

Ezekiel 37:9, “Then said He unto me, prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God; come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”

Ezekiel 37:6, “And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I Am the Lord.”

Daniel 5:23, “But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.”

Just a quick note for all the people who like to distance themselves from God: according to the preceding verse, even the wicked and the non-believer share their nature in common with God, they just prefer to live a lie.

Job 4:9, “By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of His nostrils are they consumed.”

2 Samuel 22:16, “And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils.”

Job 12:10, “In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.”

Job 27:3, “All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils.”

Job 33:4, “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.”

Job 34:14 and 15, “If He set His heart upon man, if He gather unto Himself His spirit and His breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.”

Genesis 7:15, “And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.”

Genesis 7:22, “All in whose nostrils was the breath of life . . .”

Psalms 104:29, “Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.”

Psalms 146:4, “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” (Our mental attributes depend upon spiritual attributes.)

Psalms 33:6, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.”

It is amazing that both man and angel live by the same breath. Speaking of angels, they minister in curious ways. Some, clothed in the invisible wind, chase sinners; some, like airplanes, are transportation for God. Here are some verses.

2 Samuel 22:11, “And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and He was seen upon the wings of the wind.”

Psalms 35:5, “Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the Lord chase them.”

And here is one of the truly rare instances where angels are described as women rather than men.

Zechariah 5:9, “Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.”

I have been racing along without mentioning in each instance the connections that are embedded: for they appear easily to me. A reader should keep in mind, however, that any verse that contains two points, must necessarily include some kind of connection between those points. So it is with this study of the elements: two or three of them may be in a verse – air and water or air and earth; water and earth or air and fire; fire and earth or even water, air, and fire. The elements of this study are not intended to infuse cult concepts into Christian thinking; they are simply four reference points by which the broader issues may be simplified for digestion.

For instance, a man may read about the red sea being divided, but totally overlook the part about the east wind. That man is thus deprived of a clear sense of connection between the act and the action, the doing and the accomplishment, not to mention the more subtle levels of understanding required for enlightenment. One may see in black and white, or one may see in color. Noah had to see in color, else he would have missed the rainbow.

The east wind seems most associated with God, in regard of it being mentioned more often but the east wind is but a single wind in a suite of four winds and I wonder if, like the circuit of the four elements, the four winds have an order of their own. The west wind, for example, can be seen as following the east, as it was responsible for driving off the locust that the east wind brought.

Exodus 10:19, “And the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.”

Now, it was an east wind blowing all night that dried up the red sea for the children of Israel. Was it, therefore, a west wind that drowned the Egyptian soldiers like so many locusts? If the east wind is destruction, the west wind may well be deliverance.

What about the north and south winds?

The north and south winds seem to be intermediary between the extremes of retribution and deliverance. They are the pleasant and sustaining winds; they are the smaller winds that apply most to smaller lives. They are also transitional winds.

Song of Solomon 4:16, “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.”

Proverbs 25:23, “The north wind driveth away rain.”

Job 37:22, “Fair weather cometh out of the north.”

Job 37:10, “By the breath of God frost is given.”

Job 37:17, “How thy garments are warm, when He quieteth the earth by the south wind?”

Luke 12:55, “And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, there will be heat; and it cometh to pass.”

It is known that the early Hebrew included the element of water within his temple rites, that water played an important role. What is not clear is the part wind played in ceremony, if any. However, just as water was thought to cleanse, so also was the wind thought to cleanse.

Job 37:21, “And now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds: but the wind passeth, and cleanseth them.”

I think it possible that the wind was represented by the smoke of incense, which seems cloud-like. I say this because clouds are a half-way point between water and air, just as blood may be considered a halfway point between earth and water.

Concepts of wind take a decidedly spiritual inclination. Anything spiritual can be related in terms of the wind. Angels are wind; God is wind; the Son of man is wind; spiritual purposes and ends, good or bad, are wind, and God owns all of it.

Psalms 104:3, “Who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: (cherub?) who walketh upon the wings of the wind.”

Psalms 135:7, “He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; He maketh lightnings for the rain; He bringeth the wind out of His treasuries.”

He controls all four elements, but – are they more than physical elements?

Psalms 148:8, “Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling His word.”

Can we see or know such things on the next higher plain? Consider the next verse; if water has been used to symbolize the masses, and waves have symbolized nations and governments, what kind of ‘stormy wind’ will lift up those waves?

Psalms 107:25, “For He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.”

Christ our Lord is spoken of both as a protection from wind (tribulation; evil), and as the wind in our make-up (the breath of life itself).

Isaiah 32:2, “And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; (stormy wind) as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”

Lamentations 4:20, “The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of Whom we said, under His shadow we shall live among the heathen.”

Things evil and contrary, in a spiritual sense, were portrayed by the wind.

Ephesians 4:14, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.”

We are painted as little children adrift in a storm, tossed from wave to wave, having many directions but no path. We find in this study that wind is a mover and a shaker – it accomplishes the will of God. Numbers 11:31, “And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.”

That was one colossal accomplishment. God does great things. He owns everything, is in everything, but most truly He is not the vehicle so much as the operator.

1 Kings 19:11 and 12, “And He said, go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”

In this study we see the good wind push against the bad wind. We are molded by these forces.

Revelation 6:13, “And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.”

Revelation 7:1, “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.”

As the mightier wind blows against all lesser winds, it gathers them into its train. They become a part of that mighty wind; they magnify that mighty wind. To be taken from the lesser and included into the greater is considered a birth of sorts. To be born of the spirit (the wind) is to be born all over again into something greater. We become a part of the greatness, taking on the nature of greatness, and the greatness is thus magnified. We see this connection clearly in the New Testament verses about being born again. The elemental concept of air is now everything God, everything Jesus, every enhancement of man that leads him toward and includes him within the greatness that Jesus, the Son of man, was the model of.

I’ll take just a moment to point out the concept of a son. The general thought was that the son was the strength and glory of the father – he was an enhancement of all that came before. In leading mankind forward by example, Christ took on the appellation ‘Son of man’, which may be understood to mean ‘Son of mankind’: an application of ‘Son of God’.

Luke 1:35, “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Let’s do a little interconnective tracing. The Holy Ghost is the power of the Highest; two other names for the Holy Ghost are ‘Holy Spirit’, and ‘Holy Spirit of Truth’. Spirit is wind, as in the ‘breath of God’ or the ‘breath of life’. Jesus is both truth and life. Truth, the word of God, is a light: a lamp unto our feet. Jesus is also the light. Being of God (the still small voice), and being brought about by the Holy Spirit (air), Christ is, therefore, that core wind that, in pushing against opposing winds, turns them into His own. Around Him are the apostles and disciples, and then those of the rest of us who are all gathered in.

It is no wonder Jesus said in John 3:8, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the spirit.”

To be born of the spirit, to become part of the greater wind, is to be born of Christ, to be born of God, to be born of the word, to be born of love, to be molded by the ‘stormy wind’.

1 John 2:29, “If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him.” 1 John 4:7 and 8, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

Let us recall that similar things were written of Christ: in that, in the beginning, He was with God, of God; and was and still is God. If God is love, love is Christ.

1 Peter 1:23 through 25, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. (Jesus Christ is the word) For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”

1 John 3:9 and 10, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”

1 John 5:18, “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.”

1 John 5:1 and 2, 4 and 5, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth Him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments. For whosoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” Matthew 3:11, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: (water) but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, (air) whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, (air, which is a preparation for) and with fire.”

I’ve already stated that the element of air prepares for the next element in the cycle, which is fire, and I take this from a highly reputable source: Luke 12:49, “I am come to send fire on earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?”

Fire Fire is the last element of the four, though not a finality for the born again: it is merely step two of the process. The water baptism prepared the way for rebirth; the spiritual (air) rebirth prepared the way for what will come next. Fire is many things, on a symbolic level, and was a major feature of the rites performed in God’s Temple. Man first knew fire as a destructive force, and to have control of it made one feel special and empowered. Soon, fire was known for its victory over the everlasting hills. Man could use fire against the indomitable stone, and refine it into pliable metal. A natural mystery on a par with wind, fire soon enough found its way into religious ceremony. Fire was often used to describe God. Hebrews 12:29, “For our God is a consuming fire.”

Deuteronomy 4:24, “For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.” Exodus 24:17, “And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.”

Exodus 19:18, “And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.”

Revelation 4:5, “And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.” Moreover, God was known by the actions of fire, as we see in such verses as Revelation 20:9, “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”

Leviticus 10:2, “And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.”

Numbers 11:1, “And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord: and the Lord heard it; and His anger was kindled; and the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.”

Numbers 16:35, “And there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.”

The fact that fire was employed to destroy those who were guilty before God, may afford us some added measure of clarification as to the utter iniquity of the destruction of the innocent by fire.

Leviticus 18:21, “And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord.” Just a note: ‘profane’ simply meant to make common, or to mingle.

God was seen daily in the creation of Israel the people. The Lord labored daily on their behalf.

Exodus 40:38, “For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.”

Numbers 9:15 and 16, “And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony: and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning. So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.”

Exodus 13:21 and 22, “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.”

Exodus 14:24, “And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians.”

Fire was also used in descriptions of Christ Jesus. Both He and the Father, using singular as well as multiple manifestations, were painted in fiery hues. I should point out, here, that when I say manifestation, I mean the word used in scripture: angel.

Psalms 104:4, “Who maketh His angels spirits; (this is the element of air, of wind, and should be seen as representative of the breath of life which God breathes into His creations and makes living beings) His ministers a flaming fire.”

Ezekiel 8:2, “Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of His loins even downward, fire; and from His loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber.”

Daniel 10:6, “His body also was like the Beryl, and His face as the appearance of lightning, and His eyes as lamps of fire, and His arms and His feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of His words like the voice of a multitude.”

The reference to ‘lamps of fire’ put me in mind of a previously cited verse that explained seven lamps of fire before the throne of God as the seven Spirits of God. As to the reference of the angel’s voice

being like a multitude, could that possibly mean the church? One may recall that each of the seven churches mentioned in the book of Revelation had its own angel (a manifestation or spiritual counterpart of Christ), and Christ’s arguments were more with the angels than with the individuals in the congregation.

Revelation 2:18, “And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; these things saith the Son of God, Who hath His eyes like unto a flame of fire, and His feet are like fine brass.”

It would seem by this, then, that angels were also created in the image of their creator.

Revelation 1:14, “His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire.”

2 Thessalonians 1:7 and 8, “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Our basic association with fire is the destruction of, and end of, all things, which we find revealed in the final book of the Bible. However, before we move on to that, let us go back to the youth of mankind, to a time not so far removed from creation.

Acts 7:30, “And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.”

And, don’t think that is simply some New Testament times interpretation of earlier scriptures. The earlier scriptures said the same thing.

Exodus 3:2, “And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.”

Fire is closely related to the Holy presence of God. Perhaps because fire is so knit with the Holiness of God, we find in that link a possible reason for the next verse.

Exodus 35:3, “Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath day.”

Another possible reason may be the association that fire has with recreation. Early man did not miss the connection between fire and God; indeed, many were the response from God that took the form of fire.

1 Chronicles 21:26, “And David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord; and He answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.”

2 Chronicles 7:1, “Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house.”

There is a real connection between God and Jesus and angels being all fiery and doing fiery things of note, and the ceremonies that adopted burning as a constituent facet.

Judges 6:21, “Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.”

Leviticus 9:24, “And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.”

So here it is: God is a consuming fire, and offerings on the altar are consumed by fire. Christ has eyes like fire, and angels are not only fiery but dole out fires by the occasion. In the first recorded offering, the one that God accepted from Abel, no fire is mentioned directly, but “fat” is mentioned. It all came down to a ceremony in which flesh and fat are burned by fire. When God, therefore, accepts a burnt offering, is it the physical material offered to a spirit that counts, or is it the application of fire, indicating complete submission to God, that most pleases a 'consuming fire?'

Exodus 29:18, “And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt offering unto the Lord: it is a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the Lord.”

Leviticus 1:9, “ . . . and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord.”

Washing with water was a part of the sacrifice (symbolic, I think, of baptism), and the Passover lamb (the preimage of Christ’s sacrifice for the world (I.E., the shed blood)) was roasted with fire, whereas the other ceremonial meats were boiled.

2 Chronicles 35:13, “And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance: but the other holy offerings sod they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and divided them speedily among all the people.”

There is also a philosophical aspect to fire evident in some verses of scripture. Man’s control over fire is tentative; at any moment it may rage out of control and consume man along with his hard-won increase. It is this aspect of something so quickly out of control, of something that can become so widespread in the blink of an eye that lends itself to the following philosophical conclusions.

James 3:5 through 6 and Matthew 5:22 conclude, “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.”

In regard to the verses from the book of James, many people are already in that ‘fire of hell’.

Jude 1:22 and 23 says this, “And of some have compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”

That might be reworded: ‘save them with a swift kick’. Christians are too often thought of as sweetnatured and ineffectual, as fundamentally non-confrontational – the average song-singing, Biblethumping, church-building-attending, onward-going Christian soldier. This passage from the book of

Jude, however, introduces us to the Christian Marine: a front line, difference-making, sinner-thumping Christian – someone who actually does something. The passage from Jude paints a vivid image of the Christian grabbing his sizzling brother or sister, perhaps by the collar, and yanking them brutally from the flames of self-induced consumption. The vivid image no less indicates how far removed from sexual iniquity the Christian is; and too, it shows us an acceptable hatred. These Christian Marines are no sexually timid, sterile bunch; but they have settled on the standards given by God. If we jump back, for a moment, to James and re-read the latter verse, one is forced to admit that ‘the tongue among our members’ carries an underlying and secondary indication of sexual impropriety, in that the ‘course of nature’ is set on fire; in that the whole ‘body’ is defiled. Yes! The author may well be speaking only of the body of the church. But then again, he may be speaking of a body that usually wears a ‘garment’. It is not just our words that may quickly burn out of our control; it is not just our desires that may go from a simple flame to a raging inferno; it is also our habitual physical actions that get whipped into a blazing wall of self-consumption.

Man is a bold and impetuous vessel whose sail is filled by his own desire, and his course is set by the rudder of violent self-will. Man embraces much that he should not.

Proverbs 6:27 asks the question, “Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?”

This question requires no answer; all that we say and do will manifest in the end; the consequences of what we place in our hearts is all-encompassing. From the good treasure of a good man’s heart comes preservation; from the dark treasure of a bad man’s heart comes destruction. Finally, let it be said that a fire will burn until the fuel is completely spent – if there is more to be devoured, the fire will swallow it up.

Proverbs 30:15 and 16, “The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, it is enough: the grave; the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, it is enough.”

Christ said that He came to send fire on the earth: we must realize, all of us, what the end is about. By now, we are just getting used to the symbols of air and storm. Christ was the bridge between the ‘washing of water’ and ‘the renewal of the spirit’. We have examined the fiery aspects of angels and Christ and God but we are far from crispy. Is it the same watery and windy spirit that brings down the house in a blaze of rectification?

Look at Nahum 1:3, “The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.”

Is there a connection, then, between the storm (air, water) and fire?

2 Samuel 22:8 through10, “Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because He was wroth. There went up a smoke out of His nostrils, and fire out of His mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under His feet.”

Here is pictured a fire-breathing God having His way in the whirlwind and standing in the dark stormy clouds.

Psalms 50:3 and 2 Kings 2:11, “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”

First, note that if God is not silent, the reference is to His spoken word. Second, note that the chariot and horses of fire came between Elijah and Elisha, knocking them apart. For some reason, when I read of being parted asunder, I am put in mind of the word of God; the ‘twoedged sword’, that parts, or divides, asunder. Third, note that Elijah went to heaven, not in the chariot ( symbolic of destruction ), but in the whirlwind ( symbolic of being born again ). The connection to see in this is the ‘Word of God’.

It is quite possible that the fire that Christ is determined to send upon the earth is the word of God – a raging fire that sweeps through the people, unquenched and unquenchable.

Jeremiah 23:29, “Is not My Word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?”

God’s spoken word has a direct association to fire; this is clearly seen in the next verse. Psalms 29:7, “The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire.”

Let me put forth that this is a solid reference to the Holy Ghost, as seen in Acts 2:3, “And there appeared unto them cloven (divided) tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.”

As blood over the lintel was God’s mark in the Exodus, could the cloven tongues be a latter-day mark of God? In regard to God’s word being like as a fire, perhaps it cycles elementally. Perhaps it runs the gamut from earth to water to air to fire. The next three verses contrast the word of God between water and fire.

2 Peter 3:5 through 7, “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men.”

Well, I began this paragraph by asking if there was a connection between the storm and the fire. It is easy to see that man connects tribulation to both fire and water.

Psalms 66:12, “Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water . . .”

In Egypt, God mixed normal meteorological events with something not so normal.

Exodus 9:23 and 24, “And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land

of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.”

Compare that to this next verse.

Genesis 19:24, “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.”

In the end, the fire comes from the sky: there is no terrestrial source.

2 Peter 3:12, “Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?”

We see something familiar in the next two verses: it reminds us of Egypt when so many souls were departing for the promised land.

Revelation 8:7 and 8, “The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood.”

Meteorologically speaking, I can see a clearly plausible scenario here. A giant planet-killing comet strikes the earth, accompanied by the flaming debris that arrived with it. Perhaps the world tries a solution right out of the movies: sending a nuclear missile to destroy it. They succeed only in breaking the rock into pieces – does that sound a little like a previously cited verse? Read back and find where God is a hammer breaking the ‘rock’ into pieces. Hail comes from a very tall cloud where levels of cold are stacked. I can see the smaller burning pieces knocking hail loose. Perhaps a cloud looms so high it creates a floating sheet of ice. Perhaps the smaller pieces of the planet killer are of a composition that when they enter the frozen upper atmosphere, there explode like kernels of popping corn: that might be a way to disseminate material for turning rain into a red liquid. Finally, perhaps, the burning mountain may be ejected material from a massive solar eruption.

The previously cited verses from the book of Revelation may also be viewed somewhat less than literally. A ‘mountain’ has already been viewed symbolically as a government; and that it burns with fire may be an association to the righteousness of God: it may speak of the government of Christ. Since the sea is symbolic of the masses, and if being turned into blood here carries a bad connotation, then I must conclude that there is some pretty gruesome mass carnage at the end. But, what if being turned into blood carries a good connotation - say, a mixing of earth and water, or an indication of those who are washed clean. It seems plausible, at least to me, that the majority are taken out of the equation, and those left are, through the birth pangs of tribulation, ‘brought forth’. This speaks to the prevalent notion that the believers will be ‘taken’, or removed, before the tribulation.

Zechariah 13:8 & 9, “And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; (taken) but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, (tribulation) and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on My Name, and I will hear them: I will say, it is My people: and they shall say, the Lord is my God.” Such a verse trains the eye of the truth seeker on the ‘WHY’ issue.

Jude 1:5 through 8 says, “I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.”

Now, since God is a Spirit, and therefore concerned with spiritual matters, what gets the more under God’s spiritual skin? Is it the flesh, physical movements of a particular type, any sort of bodily function or exercise? I think what the preceding verse speaks of since physical action follows after spiritual being, is the ‘spirit of turning away’. When Israel turned to other nations for help against enemies, God’s prophets wrote of it in terms of prostitution. Likewise, the actions of witchcraft carry with them the inherent spiritual nature of rebellion. We are explicitly told that any individual that is unfaithful in the least is also unfaithful in larger matters. Therefore, fornication and going after strange flesh has a spiritual counterpart: rebellion; prostitution; turning away; unfaithfulness. Also, we are aware that the end result is separation of what God wants for Himself from that intended for another course.

There is about the preceding verse another point which demands attention. It is the expression “vengeance of eternal fire”. It is commonly held that the latter day, or the end of the world, is a day wherein the sinner and all wicked souls suffer the vengeance and wrath of God. An expression such as the one I am now highlighting, on the surface appears to be about the element which God uses to exact His vengeance, and that’s true enough, but I get a very strong impression that there is a deeper level to be understood. I get the sense that ‘eternal fire’ may actually be an application of God’s Holy Name so that saying “vengeance of eternal fire” is equal to saying “vengeance of God”.

For the greater part of my adult life, I have believed that everything that exists, exists inside of God. Therefore, it might be plausible to consider hell, or the lake of fire, which will soon come into the study, as the belly of God. Just so you’ll understand where I’m coming from. The contemporary, or the orthodox, Christian believes that the Christians will be ‘raptured’ away from tribulation. However, I tend to take God at His word. It is said so often in scripture that we must be tried, that we must pass through the fire – why isn’t that preached in the church, rather than the rapture? It is a fiery end that we must look forward to. The fire fulfills God’s purpose and plan. I, as an unorthodox Christian, find it hard to dismiss what the Bible says again and again.

Revelation 3:18, “I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”

It is a call to acceptance. Contemporary Christians already fully accept the part about the white raiment; they sort of accept the part about eyesalve, but they let lie the part about gold (their own souls) being tried by fire. If one accepts that we must dress in the righteousness of Christ, and if one accepts that we must see with spiritual eyes (through the Word of God), then why won’t that same individual see that we (the gold that God seeks) must be refined by fire (tribulation)? To believe only the parts that we like makes for a lopsided faith: a faith that is no faith at all. One rotten apple can ruin the whole barrel, and yes, we are known by the fruit we bear.

Matthew 7:21 through 23 should absolutely scare the contemporary Christian. “Not every one that saith unto Me, (Jesus) Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in Heaven. Many will say to Me (Jesus) in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy (Jesus’) name? And in Thy (Jesus’) name have cast out devils? And in Thy (Jesus’) name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.”

It is an obvious contrast between ‘the works of Christians’ and ‘the will of God’: the two are not always the same. Obvious, also, is that these verses speak not of the atheist or the Buddhist; nor of the adherents of any faith other than Christianity. These verses speak of a group of people who are crying out because they are not saved as they supposed they were. There was a fundamental flaw in their thinking, and in their faith, that adversely affected everything they did in the name of Jesus. To continue forward, let us read more about being tried.

1 Corinthians 3:13 and 15, “Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire (the word of God and/or tribulation); and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”

1 Peter 1:7, “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”

Scripture states that men and women of true faith must also go through the fire of tribulation. That fire will try their faith ( refine it like gold ) so that the dross is removed, and that which is left is pure.

When Christ appears at the end, these refined souls shall be found to the praise, honor, and glory of God. But, what of the others that go through the tribulation? They shall be seen to respond to tribulation in an opposite manner.

Revelation 16:8 and 9, “And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the Name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.”

Here, tribulation can be seen as a process of winnowing; a dividing of the good from the bad by way of their different responses to the same tribulation. Some will repent and give glory to God, others will not repent to give glory to God. And all this is the will of God. Souls will be sorted. The ‘fruitful’ tree will be set apart to yield more fruit, the barren tree (only wood) will become the fuel that drives the engine of re-creation. On a spiritual level, God is dividing the other from the One; in our physical realm, events ride upon the currents of the spiritual tide. To see that, one has to look past the individual screams of torment to the spasmodic writhing of the masses. The devil and his followers are going down: on earth, whole sections of the world’s billions will be aligned along the same downward slope.

God, as a fire, will burn completely.

Deuteronomy 32:22, “For a fire is kindled in Mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.”

The deepest grave is no protection from the fire of God’s anger; being long dead just makes one less able to run. Of the tribulation of the living, the fire shall be seen to spring up in the people themselves: in actions that mount up as a fire racing over forested hills. The near approach of the fire dries the next tree in line, preparing it for the actual burning. We know from news about massive forest fires, that the counter-measures of the firefighters are tragically ineffective. The next verse speaks nationally (for I believe America to be the flower on the stem of Joseph).

Amos 5:6, “Seek the Lord, and ye shall live; lest He break out like a fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel (the church).”

Isaiah 9:19, “Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.”

Isaiah 9:5, “For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.”

Matthew 13:40, “As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.”

Luke 3:9, “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”

Matthew 7:19, “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”

Matthew 13:41 and 42, “The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity (refer back to Matthew 7:21 through 23); and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

John 15:6, “If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”

Certain, also, among the elect will have that fire inside them. All around, nations burn and smolder; the fabric of human interrelation is ripped; society is divided between the God-oriented people and the beast-oriented people. The fire burns wherever there is fuel. When I say that the fire is also in certain people, I am not speaking metaphysically.

Revelation 11:5, “And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.”

Isaiah 66:24, “And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against Me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.”

Is there any doubt about the will of God in this context?

Habakkuk 2:13, “Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?”

There is in progress a total makeover. God, as His own surgeon, is cutting away the cancer of darkness, with all its sin and iniquity. Everything that is not light shall be fuel for the furnace. Now, what is a furnace? It has been my belief that the Word of God has come down to modern man in the exact form that God wants us to understand His will by. So, let the truth seeker ask not how man used to perceive a furnace to be, but what we know it as today. My association, like many others, is courtesy of the industrial revolution. To me, a furnace is part of a mechanism or engine. Fuel goes in; it chugs, it churns; something is produced.

Since we may understand the invisible by way of the corporeal, we compare apples to oranges; we make analogies. Not only may we compare an industrial furnace to some aspect of the overall functional being of God, but we may also make the analogy between the organic stomach, the furnace of the body, and the ‘eternal fire’, ‘furnace’, the ‘lake of fire’.

Revelation 20:14 and 15, “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire (or might that be the content thereof?). This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Revelation 9:15 through 18, “And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.”

It is at this point that I wish to return thoughts to the four elements. We are studying fire, but it must be noted that at this junction of the study, fire is seen to introduce its connection back to the element of earth by way of ‘brimstone’ – a solid natural element. I have noticed a circuit through the four elements in sets of two: earth and water; water and air; air and fire; fire and earth. I have noticed that between the four elements are three halfway, or connecting, elements: blood between earth and water; the rainbow/cloud between water and air; cloud/smoke between air and fire; and brimstone between fire and earth. That totals seven, just another of many sevens associated with the end.

We come to verses that specifically mention fire and brimstone. We come to verses that present a ‘lake of fire’ – which offers to us the image of a cauldron where something is cooked up; a stew of lost souls, but also flesh (where their worm dieth not). It is an image also of a melting pot in that the elements shall melt with fervent heat. To me, by way of simple comparison, it is also the image of a stomach. All of these images are images of furnaces – a furnace uses fuel; combines; refines; extracts; produces an end product. With these thoughts in mind, one studies the following verses.

Revelation 20:10, “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”

I Notice two curious associations to this verse: one is the expression “for ever and ever” as it is played against the preceding expression “day and night” which, in pointing to the end of all things, solidly indicates the cyclic continuation of serial time by way of time’s most notable landmarks. I ask then, does the expression “for ever and ever” mean ‘over and over again’? That is exactly the sense of it that I am given. Lastly, just look at the word ‘cast’. I do not mean to imply that it means, here, anything

other than ‘to throw’, yet, this lake of fire is the second death (think of the word ‘die’). Now, ‘cast’ also can mean ‘to mold’ - something that is done in a furnace where the elements are melted. Something that is ‘die-cast’ can be re-melted and re-cast over and over again, or forever and ever.

Revelation 19:20, “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.”

Understand that brimstone is a naturally occurring element. More can be found about brimstone in an earlier study on the topic of ‘Hell’. Not only are the devil and the beast and the false prophet thrown into the lake of fire, but also the people that worshiped the image and the people that received the mark – and that woman. The woman is a city; a commercial dynasty that is the instrument by which the ‘mark’ is imparted. The woman’s influence is in every nation on the earth.

Revelation 17:16 through 18 and 18:8, “And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.”

Revelation 14:9 through 11, “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, if any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”

There is much to consider in the verse just cited. Firstly, we see that all the ‘torment’ is conducted in the “presence of” Jesus and the holy angels. What I want to ask is this: are they watching something, or are they tending something. Reading the verses under scrutiny, I was struck by the bold similarity between the smoke ascending up from torment, and smoke that ascended up from the sacrifices burned in the temple (which were a sweet savor). The priests performed those burnt offerings over and over again (forever and ever).

The Lamb, or the ultimate priest, may well be similarly tending the flames rather than simply watching the flames. This verse contains an expression that may be vital to man’s understanding of the mark of the beast. I’ve heard many treat the mark as a number; I’ve heard others treat it as a solid object such as a computer chip. I’ve considered what these other people have had to say, but when I read, in this verse, the expression “mark of his name”, I am left with another impression. “Name” must be factored in.

While I am dealing with the issue of the mark, it may be well to broaden the scope, for just a moment, to include the issue of signs. Just as both God and the beast have marks for their own, so too, they have signs that shall be evinced in the sight of men. I just want to take a moment to show the difference between God’s end-time signs, and the end time signs of the beast and false prophet.

Revelation 13:11 through 13, “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.”

Bringing down fire from the sky is all he does. On the other hand, God delivers something substantially greater, in the ‘signs and wonders’ department.

Joel 2:30, “And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.”

The fire of the final day points where? It is less work to simply imagine that by the time fire is reached, the earth and water and air are elements of the past. I am, in fact, studying a thing that is cyclical rather than linear. All the elements are interwoven. Each, in due process, returns to its place of prominence.

The linear view would require that the final day be a day of destruction; the cyclical view of the final day suspects that destruction is but a part of the work of re-creation. In that context, there is no problem in understanding that formerly prominent elements now take on a supportive role. I see, for example, that the earth and the water are brought into the context of the final destruction – which by the content of the next verse is shown to be other than final (in a linear sense).

Isaiah 26:19, “Thy dead men shall live, together with My (Christ’s) dead body shall they arise.

Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew (the call of Christ) is as the dew of herbs (early morning, or, completely covering), and the earth shall cast out her dead.”

Water is transitional. The connection to earth is blood. The spilling of blood is associated both with the redemption of man through Christ’s sacrifice of blood and with the wrath of God evident in the spilled blood of man. The reference of blood to water is in the washing away of earth (baptism) and the transition toward air.

The symbolic act of pouring water on the earth (the act of non-accomplishment in the area of cleansing) is evident in Psalms 79:3, “Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.”

Symbolically, if blood is seen as the mixture of earth and water, then water must be seen as such a removal of earth as to produce purity. The symbolism of the separation of the earthly vessel from the purer, transcended self is shown in the sacrifice of our Lord on the cross.

John 19:34, “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.”

There is symbolism to the truth that the introduction of a small quantity of something can drastically, and dramatically alter the whole. We have read of the yeast mixed into three measures of dough; we know that the flu virus is fought off by the introduction of the flu virus; we know also that venom is altered by venom, and that antibodies and cures are accomplished by the infusion of blood from another person. With that in mind, it is good to re-read the word that said ‘take, drink, this is My blood.’ One thing that the redemptive blood of Christ has in common with the blood mentioned in association to the wrath of God is that both are couched in the symbolic application of ‘wine’.

Blood and water; wine and water - both are symbolic. Whereas the wine of God’s wrath (the spilled blood of man) is poured out without mixture, Christ’s spilled blood is a special wine poured out with mixture, as the spiced wine of the Passover is indicative of the preparation for burial.

John 19:39 and 40, “And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.”

References abound to the connection between water and blood (by which Jesus came), and the spirit.

Following are verses which point to water and wine; the blood of the grape and the winepress. Not only are redemption and destruction indicated, but they are spiritually applied to issues of birth and death.

John 2:7 through 9, “Jesus saith unto them, fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And He saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom.”

Revelation 14:14 through 20, “And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.”

In the time when fire is the major actor, earth, water, and air have supporting roles. I find it interesting that the angel on the cloud, the one with the sharp sickle, is described as “like unto the son of man”.

The likeness is a being of light, and the following description shows a connection between fire, air, and water.

Revelation 10:1, “And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a white cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.”

While the sunny face speaks of a being who exists in a higher ‘image’ of God, clouds and rainbows are associated with water and air. Fire, on the other hand, (feet being associated to earth) takes the form of ‘pillars’: pretty solid wording, indicative of something foundational, like mountains; like the very framework of our corporeal world. It is our own familiar planet that is expected to be melted with fervent heat and it is the foundations of the mountains that we expect God to set on fire.

It has been rehashed over the centuries that the world will be destroyed by fire. Destruction is covered, but creation has received little treatment, except that everything was created by the ‘Word of God’.

Christ is the Word of God; He created the world – or did he re-create it? In the Biblical account of creation and the creation of Adam and Eve, God tells the man and woman to ‘be fruitful, multiply, and

replenish the earth’. Doesn’t replenish mean a return to previous numbers? If we had before us a description of the returning, destroying Christ, could we see a connection to the creating Christ?

Revelation 19:12 and 13, “His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; (could that be a crown for each time through the cycle?) and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And He was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called the Word of God.” I see the connection. He is the first and last; He is described in fire with an association to blood (earth and water); He has a secret name, but we call His name creation. And about that secret name: no man knows it but Christ Himself: (recall that Christ ascended into heaven bodily, as a man.) Re-creation is still the focus: is the earth, therefore, completely obliterated, or merely re-worked? Almost everyone will know the answer to my next question. What occurs when a fervent heat touches sand? Of course, the answer is ‘glass’.

Revelation 15:2 speaks of a re-made earth, where fire might touch any one of the great deserts on this planet, turning it into a sea of glass; and of the saved emerging into the aftermath, “And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.” Remember that all who are saved have the mark of God. Could God’s mark be a harp? I see indications of re-creation. I see a connection to the four elements. Each element may well have its own spirit, or angel, just as the churches have angels. Much of what we are able to surmise may be mere shadows: tenuous physical evidence of what transpires between the four elemental angels on the spiritual plain.

For those of us, here, some will be the inheritors of a reworked earth, while all the rest will be fuel for the spiritual engine that powers the work of cyclic re-creation. There may even be a sad middle area of individuals who have lost hands and eyes to the everlasting fire of that furnace. Read Matthew 18:8 or Mark 9:43.

This is just conjecture on my part, but it may be that when God first made the physical world, it was intended for the angelic beings but their interaction with the world, as we know it, was limited. They could bear this plain for a while but could never derive the full benefit. It may well be that in the creation of man, God was aiming for a physical angel, a type of angel that could dwell on this plain permanently. It may well be that certain jealous or resentful angels caused the death of the glory of Adam and Eve, setting the foundations of the earth off course.

Psalms 82:5 through 7, “They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course. I have said, ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.”

We are like the waterpots Jesus filled with water. We are earthen vessels for god-like souls. Will the water of cleansing turn into the wine of redemption, or will it mix with the earth, becoming the blood of the vine of the earth? There seem to be four elements, or aspects, to existence: earth is where we are: half of what we should be; water is the transition, through our faith, to a place where something new can be added; air is the spiritual nature of our being, which when added, makes us what God had intended: physical angels, brothers and sisters of Christ, being like Him; and fire is at the heart of it all, the core of the earth, the center of the sun: the driving power and spirit of re-creation: the Word of God.

Fire might be said to be the primary, from which, like rays beaming down from the sun, air and water find their place, holding the earth between them: an image of the pyramid. Destruction will have its time and place, but after that, re-creation, and man will walk upon the coals.

Job 5:6 and 7, “Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.”

Bonus Study Two: Part One This is a study about “Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth”. It began with all of five scripture references.

Jesus is the only source of the expression ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’. It goes without saying, therefore, that these are all New Testament verses: Mat. 8:11-12, 22:12-14, 24:50-51, 25:30, and Luke 13:25-28. There are no Old Testament parallels. But, this New Testament time, in which Our Lord spoke these words, was a transitional time in which the Christian church was breaking away, and becoming distinct, from the Jewish synagogue. The people to which Jesus directed these words were both Jewish, and future Christians. I had to ask myself who, exactly, was the intended target for this communication of doom.

When I began a more thorough scrutiny of the wording, I had to begin including more reference sources. I had to include such terms as ‘servant’, ‘hypocrite’, ‘hell’, and ‘friend’. I ended up with eight typed pages of resource notes. Historically, we tend to think of the children of Israel as God’s servant; (and here, we might consider the Jewish religious belief structure (the synagogue) as a type of face for the national body) however, contemporary Christianity likes to place the church in the role of the servant of God. Understanding the uses of the word ‘servant’ is key to this study. So then, whether a synagogue (as a body of one type of believers) or a church (as a body of another type of believers), we must determine if a body of believers constitutes a ‘servant’, and we must determine what exactly is the nature of a servant. I have many telling scriptures to work from.

Let us begin with the most generalized meaning of the word, as found in the book of Revelation, the third verse in chapter 22: “His servants shall serve Him.” That is a simple statement which leaves no room for deviation - God’s servant will serve God. The concepts of allegiance and servitude go hand in hand. When given a choice, or when a choice is thrust upon one, the natural mechanics of allegiance will spin into life to settle any nagging doubt about actual position. In America, we have a pledge of allegiance; I learned it as a child; most of us know it by heart. Americans who pledge their allegiance to America, but serve the will of foreign interests, are usually tried as spies and traitors.

Scripture has two things to say about such divided allegiance. We find just how easy one may switch sides in John 8:34, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”

It happens just that fast and it is most often the regularity of our deeds that place us on the one side or the other. We end up, if not with positive and negative feelings, at least with positive and negative inclinations.

Luke 16:13 says this, “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.”

I should mention, here, that the word ‘despise’ is not used as an active emotion but, rather, as the consequence of a choice – as when Esau chose a bowl of meal over his birthright: and therefore it is said that he despised his birthright.

In any body of believers, there is a division, at least in common knowledge, between good and bad, right and wrong, light and dark, up and down, true follower and hypocrite. The ‘servant’, then, must take sides between those who truly serve, and those who do not ‘truly’ serve. I have notes on the attributes both of ‘servants’ and ‘hypocrites’. I want to begin with the attributes of a servant.

I began with a preconception of what a servant was – it was that of a slave; beaten, abused, in want of basic necessities. That preconception evaporated when I read how important people came to Jesus desperately begging for the life and health of a servant. It was as if the servant held the place of a relative or dear friend. It seems, then, that a servant can hold a high rank, a place of favor – a servant can be a confidant. There is trust involved, respect and even love. Also, servants were paid; they had possessions all their own.

Luke 15:17 has the prodigal son making this statement, “How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”

As for trust, Matthew 25:14 shows us this, “For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.”

So, a servant can be a trusted confidant. What else can a servant be? A servant is positioned, if not authorized, to deal with matters gone awry.

In Matthew 13:28, we find the servant represented as such, “He said unto them, an enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?”

Having managed workers, I know from experience that a man will settle in a routine. Oft times, when something had gone wrong and I asked that it be ameliorated, I was told to my face, ‘It’s not my mess, I didn’t make it. Why do I have to clean it up?’ The servants in the parable said nothing like that, their first response was allegiance to their master, no matter what the job.

In Mark 13:34 we see servants given authority, “For the son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.”

So, a servant can be authorized to achieve a certain end. Firstly, on my part, I would have to be able to trust the man I sent to do the job. Secondly, I would not want to send the wrong man out, but rather the man most qualified to do the work. I would not send a cook to do a soldier’s job. Servants may also be authorized to use force.

Luke 14:23, “And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”

Yes, ‘compel’ may also mean very strong persuasion, but masters use servants to enforce their will, and sometimes that means force.

Read John 18:36, “Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My kingdom not from hence.”

I actually want to study three types of servant; the nation of Israel, the modern contemporary Christian church, and the individual who might be a constituent member of either body. Of Israel, these things are written down in the New Testament.

Luke 1:54 and 69, “He hath holpen His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy; and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David.”

The Christian church, in this study, has associations to Old Testament Prophets in regard to the concept of what a servant is. So far, I have touched on ‘the closest, most trusted, and most capable’ in the rendering of this definition.

The book of Revelation says about the ‘church’ in 7:3, “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.”

This verse is commonly held to refer to the martyrs and saints of the latter-day Christian Church.

Before I move on to the church’s connection to saints, martyrs, and prophets, I wish to give a verse that should make certain all is not well simply because you call yourself a church. You can call yourself a church, and be all the wrong things.

Revelation 2:20 says, “Because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”

Now, a church, if it is a servant of God, is so because it is made up of individuals whose allegiance is to the Most High. Servants come in all degrees, from the best right down to the hypocrite. There is the profitable servant and there is the unprofitable servant. Let’s take a standard by which to judge.

Revelation 15:3 says, “And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.”

Moses is the archetype saint, a servant of high caliber.

Revelation 19:2 states, “For true and righteous are His judgments: For He hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand.”

That pretty much describes a martyr. So, servants, too, are authorized to die.

Revelation 6:11 says, “And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”

Zero in on the word ‘fellowservant’, I will come back to it shortly. Add to the current definition: a high caliber of commitment. We do not, at all, have to guess who the servants are; the Bible names them for us.

Revelation 19:5 says, “A voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great.”

Again, Revelation 11:18 says it this way, “The nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.”

And once again, Revelation 10:7 says to us, “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to His servants the prophets.”

This study, while mentioning prophets, is still engaged in latter-day topics as brought forth in the book of Revelation. A prophet is not simply mentioned in passing but is mentioned as having a real connection to the modern church.

Acts 2:18 says this, “And on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My spirit; and they shall prophesy.”

Now we begin to see a connection between the Christian and the prophet. Christians are ‘ambassadors’ for Christ; prophets of old were also ambassadors.

Witness Luke 20:10 through 12, “And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent another servant: and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. And again he sent a third: and they wounded him also, and cast him out.”

It is easy enough for anyone to see that Christ’s parable is about the prophets of God. They came as ambassadors, or in other words, they came ‘in the name of’ their master, or in his ‘stead’.

In that regard, read Luke 19:13, “He called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, occupy till I come.”

That puts me in mind of an embassy; its occupants are there instead of, or in the name of their government. The one true church is Christ’s embassy on earth and we are Christ’s ambassadors, like as were the prophets to God. We have been told to occupy till He returns.

As already mentioned, there is the profitable (or ‘good’) servant, and there is the unprofitable servant.

The thing to see in this is that they both serve, they are all members of the body of service, or so they say. Let’s read of the profitable servant, and here, let’s see it as a church.

Luke 19:17, “And he said unto him, well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.”

Of course, the key word in this is ‘faithful’, but that is only one word in a key phrase (faithful in a very little). Why is “a very little” used? It is all too easy to border on mediocrity, which itself borders on unprofitability.

Read Luke 17:9 and 10. “Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do.”

Remember Moses, the servant of God? There are, unmistakably, ‘levels of service’. Moses went above and beyond the call of duty: he took it up as his own. He took it personally. So where does the profitable servant stand?

John 12:26 tells us, “If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I Am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honor.”

The profitable servant has a place; his level of faithful commitment has brought him up nearer the master, but he must always remember that he is only the messenger.

John 13:16 and 17 advise us, “The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.”

Is there an upper limit of service beyond which we may not go? Yes. One can only be so faithful and loyal as a servant. Remember the important people that begged Jesus for the life and health of their servants? They begged for friendship’ sake.

John 15:15 opens our eyes to that, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you.”

Now, do you recall the word fellowservant? Here is where the study returns to that word. This study has explored the servant as a martyr, as a saint, even as a prophet. Now I want to bring in a strange twist to the concept of the servant – that of the servant being an angel. I read Revelation 1:1 and the thought came to me, what if the verse mentions angels, not as apart from, but as a link in the ‘chain-ofcommand’ (speaking-of-servants-wise).

The verse is this, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to shew unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John.”

On the surface, angels seem to be outside the servant issue. But, angels were servants, after all the first seven mentioned in this book each had authority over a church. This verse breaks down to me in this manner: Christ served God by passing on the revelation that God gave, the angel served Christ by passing the revelation from Christ to John, and John, in turn, was a servant by the same standard. I am not saying John was a servant to the angel but, rather, that John was a fellowservant with the angels.

Revelation 18:21 through 24 added to Revelation 19:1 through 10 is a long section of scripture that speaks of servants, and our connection to angels in that regard. I’ll break it down as follows: John heard a “Mighty Angel” speak (naming servants in verse 24: ‘prophets’, ‘saints’, and ‘all that were slain upon the earth’). Next, he heard many voices praising God, then the voices of the twenty-four elders. After that, a voice came out of the throne, followed by an even greater multitude of voices praising God. Finally, the “mighty angel” spoke again, telling John to write something, whereupon, John recorded that he fell down and worshiped the “mighty angel” The angel told him not to do that, and he explained it to John this way: he said, “I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Was the mighty angel one of John’s old acquaintances? Was it Stephen in an exalted state of service?

I said that I wanted to study Israel as a servant but the study was short: God remembered Israel, not because of service but because of God’s mercy. I said that I wanted to study the modern church as a servant but I have left the last part for last. When the study swings back toward the original topic, ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’, then I will bring in the last part, the unprofitable servant, the hypocrite.

For now, attention should be turned to the individual, and God’s spin on the issue. Just as the body is made up of organs, which in turn are composed of cells; so is the body of Christ constituted of churches, which in turn are comprised of individual believers. The body of Christ is an organic structure, a living thing based on the building blocks of individual believers.

Similar to a grouping of cells that are the same, or serve the same purpose, so the alignment, or allegiance, of the individual believers, constitutes an organ in the body of Christ: a church. I have normally seen the seven churches mentioned in the book of Revelation as a sort of historical treatment of the body’s growth through the ages, as stages in the life of the church. I see that these seven churches may also be viewed as seven organs within the one body. However that is, the starting point in all of this is the individual; we want to understand the individual as a servant.

Luke 2:25 through 29 profiles an individual servant. “And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same was just and devout, waiting (watching) for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him after the custom of the law, then took he Him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word.”

This is a clearly etched image of a servant, someone who did not go into the temple for mere duty, or custom; but was compelled by his truer nature: he wanted to go to the temple, to be nearer God, or in other words: “he came by the Spirit”. Also, by the reading of the verses above, we can see that Simeon was a man that waited for God; he watched; he kept his attentions trained.

Let me add to that the corroboration of Luke 12:37, “Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.”

This study is presently looking at what God sees as important in a servant. I hope that anyone who might read this study will note that Christ speaks of Himself coming forth to serve the servants. A little further down in that same scripture the tenet of the above-cited verse can be found repeated: “Blessed

is that servant, whom his Lord when He cometh shall find so doing.” That speaks not only of watching and waiting but persevering in service. Jesus is the Most High, yet He comes forth and serves.

The Master/servant concept should not confuse if one understands that spiritual concepts are sometimes the reverse of worldly concepts.

The next verse, Matthew 24:45 and 46, may blur the lines a bit between individual and group; it may even be prophetic of either individual or church in the last day but it mirrors the last two scriptures. “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over His household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when He cometh shall find so doing.”

I want to digress just a bit and look at something before I forget. The meat in due season is worthy of notice. Jesus said to Peter, “Lovest thou me?” – “Feed My sheep.” approximately three times. In that, I see the church. But there is to be a season that goes beyond the ‘milk’ to the ‘meat’. In that, I see doctrinal upgrades somewhere by someone. I don’t see mainstream contemporary Christianity ever getting past there cherished customs – all of which revolve around the milk of the Word. It will be some rogue upsetting the church’s apple cart, much as Jesus did with the religious petrification of His day.

The spiritual concept is, in many cases, opposite the worldly concept. Jesus tells us numerous times, Mark 10:44, Mark 9:35, Matthew 23:11, and Matthew 20:27, the same message, “Whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all”; “If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all”; “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant”; and “Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.”

Part Two Now I must turn my attention to the ‘unprofitable servant’; the mediocre servant who only does what he is supposed to do but does not take it any further than that. I want to note, in this next reference: Luke 12:46, that the unprofitable servant is mentioned in contrast to another type of person: the unbeliever. I want to note that the unprofitable servant, while cast in with the unbeliever, is nevertheless referred to as a servant.

“The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for Him, (the servant is not waiting and watching) and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.”

That ‘portion’ may be a reference to ‘hell’. Someday there may be enough of these studies to fill a book. If I should get published, and be read, I hope that the reader, as he or she follows this particular part where I look into the ‘hypocrite’, will constantly drape this tapestry on the framework of the church as well as the individual. The hypocrite is a member of the current religious structure. That was, in Jesus’ day, the Scribes and Pharisees and experts in the letter of the law. They were the upper echelons; they dressed and acted accordingly. In our day and age, we must look at the contemporary Christian church; we must look for similarities to those that Jesus cut down. I turn first to the nature of the hypocrite.

Read Matthew 16:2 and 3, “He answered and said unto them, when it is evening, ye say, it will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?”

Note that Jesus called them hypocrites, rather than ignorant. They could have, in fact, discerned the signs of the times – had they ever bothered to investigate. Scripture tells us that if we seek, we will find. This passage shows that the hypocrite has a set way of doing; a limit to his knowing. In Jesus day there were men who looked into the Holy word and saw Jesus. The hypocrite had access to those same scrolls but they closed their eyes to anything which they had not ‘set’ for themselves. This puts me in mind of those that jailed Leonardo De Vinci. Narrow-mindedness can help a man stay focused but closed-mindedness simply puts one out of the loop. In the modern contemporary Christian church, there are many book-smart scholars. They wear their suits and jewelry; they jet with the scholarly crowd; they proudly display their credentials in ornate frames on the walls of their offices. Their speeches are long-winded and are usually structured to support ‘things as they are’: such as tithing, winning souls, and preaching deliverance from sin.

Of course, that is pretty much a closed circuit; the preaching of deliverance garners souls, which keep the church buildings full and the tithes flowing. They have treated faith like a hermit crab treats old seashells on the ocean floor, for the hermit crab will encase itself until it is forced to seek a larger shell.

But Jesus said, in Matthew 15:7 through 9, “Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophecy of you, saying, this people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

I see this occur in the contemporary Christian church every time they observe Easter, lading upon the souls of children the fertility symbols of Ishtar. I think the nature of the hypocrite is self-exaltation; they fit rather snugly in the shell of anything that spotlights their involvement in an event that lifts them up above others.

Matthew 7:5, “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”

Even in acts of benevolence, lifting oneself up only exposes one’s error. Hypocrites really got our Lord worked up. He never had a good word for them. He told His followers not to be like them. And, too, there is one thing in the equation of being a hypocrite which the hypocrite has not ‘set’ for himself, that is the reward of a hypocrite.

In Matthew 6:2, 5, and 16, Jesus describes the hypocrite for the edification of His followers.

1. They ‘sound a trumpet’ before them (a lot of fanfare) both in their congregational meetings and out in the streets.

2. They seek praises from other men.

3. They pray in a fashion that is intended for the hearing of other men.

4. They put on airs so that others will notice them.

Jesus said that is all they will get out of it. What is the difference in making broad their phylacteries; enlarging the borders of their garments; (Matt. 23:5) and wearing a fancy suit, Florshiems, and a

Rolex? Honestly, I can’t see a difference.

Jesus did not try to hide His dislike of hypocrites. He was not one to pull His punches. In Jesus’ day, it seemed never to be the little man, but always the Scribe and Pharisee (I should also note: never the Sadducee). Today’s equivalent might be the Doctor of Divinities or any other such pompous title. The Scribes and Pharisees were always the ones trying to catch Jesus in some slip or omission. They must have thought of themselves as word specialists. We have our share of those, too. They drop this or that word; they harp on imagined subtleties; they publish book after book. They pick things to pieces to better build their own constructs.

Matthew 22:18, “But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, why tempt ye Me, ye hypocrites?”

In Matthew 23:13 through 29, and in Luke 11:44 and 13:15, Jesus floored the reigning champ with these blows: “Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites!”

1. They close the kingdom of Heaven to men. They won’t go in themselves, and those who desire to enter, they block.

2. They eat up widow’s houses, & make long prayers (a pretense for which they shall receive the greater damnation).

3. They search the world to make converts, and when they do, those souls are the more likely to be damned.

4. They tithe of their best, but for show only; in their customs, they omit the more important matters of law, judgment, mercy, and faith.

5. They place much effort into projecting a good image, but that is only a cover for their crimes against others, self-abuses, murders, and unclean things.

6. They build monuments, lay wreaths, and hang garlands for the prophets, and righteous slain, but they prove themselves aligned to the ones who killed the prophets and all else who belong to God. 7. They hide their own pollution so that others are unknowingly tainted.

8. They know what good is; they do it for themselves, but they use the law against others to maintain power and control.

So then, I return to the main theme of this study: ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’. There shall be a particular group of people who shall ‘weep & gnash their teeth’ – so says Jesus. Just on face value, we may surmise that the reference is toward very intense suffering. These lamentable souls are those who are placed in ‘hell’. Now, there are many uses of the word ‘hell’. I want to point out some of the common inferences.

1. Hell is a place, state, or condition where the “whole body” may be cast. (Matthew 5:29 and 30) 2. Hell is a place, state, or condition where “both soul and body” may be cast for their destruction.

(Matthew 10:28) 3. Hell is a place, state, or condition that is on a lower level than our current place, state, or condition.

(Matthew 11:23) 4. Hell is a place, state, or condition where there is a form of consumption. (Matthew 5:22 and 18:9) 5. Hell is a place, state, or condition that is reserved for the most despicable. (Matthew 23:33) 6. Hell is a place, state, or condition that comes after death. (Luke 12:5 and Revelation 6:8) 7. Hell is a place, state, or condition that Christ controls. (Revelation 1:18) 8. Hell is a place, state, or condition where the individual remains conscious. (Luke 16:23)

9. Hell is a place, state, or condition that already exists; where the fallen angels are bound in “chains of darkness”; a keep for those “reserved unto judgement”. (II Peter 2:4) Hell has been, and still is, used to refer to the grave: a place where dead bodies may be found. It is a place of corruption and decay.

1. Dead bodies are returned from the “sea” and “death and hell”. (Revelation 20:13) 2. Dead bodies arise from “graves” where they were held in a reserved state. (Matthew 27:52) 3. Dead bodies are able to hear Christ calling to them from their “graves”. (John 5:28) 4. Dead bodies are sealed into caves. (John 11:17, 38, 44, and John 12:17) 5. Dead bodies are withheld from the grave as a punishment in the course of revenge. (Revelation 11:9) Hell, or the grave has been seen as the delineation, or gate, between the corruptible and incorruption, between the mortal and immortality, which can be clearly understood in the reading of I Corinthians 15:54 and 55. Hell is seen, in Acts 2:27, as a force that may even corrupt the soul, and in Matthew 16:18, as a force that is in opposition to Christ’s church, but it is a force that, ultimately, will itself be cast into the final destruction that is the lake of fire, Revelation 20:14.

In Mark 9:43 through 48, our Lord speaks of hell, using a set phrase three times within His discourse.

The words are graphic and, while they may be symbolic to a point, I can’t help but read them literally.

There is a singular expression: “the fire”, and there is a plural expression: “their worm”. In speaking of graves and dead bodies in relation to the expanse of eternity, such ongoing states can be downright scary. However, I wish to recall that the grave is a temporary keep (II Peter 2:4) between death and judgment. The lake of fire: now, that’s eternal.

We must not jump to the conclusion that just because normal worms do die, this statement from our Lord is symbolic. A spiritual worm may actually not die for all we know – and we know so very little about the spiritual realm. But, in a sense, ‘worm’ is symbolic of corruption or decay, in general. Having already determined that consciousness is retained in the grave, the perpetual gnawing of that worm is a horribly unthinkable thought. As for the fire of hell or the fire of the grave, consider this: fire is a consumption. I read once in an encyclopedia that ‘rotting’ or decay, (since heat is a by-product) is considered to be a very slow form of combustion.

Bible scholars have the following things to say about hell and the grave. Hell is derived from the Saxon word: ‘helan’, which meant ‘to cover’ and so was used for ‘the covered’ or ‘the invisible place’. The word: ‘sheol’ occurs in the Old Testament 65 times, and basically means ‘insatiable’ and is rendered as ‘grave’ 31 times. It is rendered in the Authorized Version 31 times as ‘hell’ or the ‘place of disembodied spirits’.

The citizens of sheol, according to Proverbs 21:16, are “the congregation of the dead”. Various scriptures have sheol both as the abode of the wicked, and of the good. Sheol is described variously in scripture as “deep”, “dark”, having “bars”, and in a position where the dead must “go down”. In the New Testament, the Greek word: ‘hades’ means much the same thing. It is a prison with gates, bars, and locks. The word: ‘gehenna’ designates ‘the place of the lost’. The Greek contraction of the Hinnom, Gehenna was not used except to denote the future place of punishment. All the associations are Jewish. Hinnom was a deep, narrow ravine separating Mount Zion from the ‘Hill of evil counsel’. It took its name from the son of Hinnom, an ancient hero.

In Joshua 15:8, it was the place where idolatrous Jews burned their children alive to Moloch and Baal.

A particular part of the valley was called ‘Tophet’, or ‘fire-stove’, where the children were burned.

After the exile, to show their abhorrence of the locality, Jews made that valley the receptacle for the offal of the city, which was kept constantly burning. There are two basic associations (ideas) about that valley: (1) the suffering of the victims sacrificed there, and (2) filth and corruption: which in turn engendered the popular symbolism of ‘the abode of the wicked hereafter’. These facts were culled from a Bible dictionary.

Now, there is an erroneous Catholic belief, on a par with ‘purgatory’ and ‘limbo’, that hell is divided between the good and bad. They believe that the parable about Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom places both Lazarus and Abraham in a sort of West Wing of hell. They cite scripture in defense of their stand.

Let me just show what that scripture says. That scripture is Matthew 16:19 through 26. The short of it is this: the rich man died and was buried; in contrast to the fate of the rich man, Lazarus died and was transported by Heavenly beings into the bosom of Abraham. The rich man called out to Abraham, who was “afar off”; whereupon, Abraham answered that between him and the rich man was a “great gulf fixed”. That could have been equally rendered as between ‘us’ and ‘you’ (two separate entities), or, between us and you in torments (two separate states), or, between us, and you in hell (two separate places). The word: ‘gulf’, if taken something like the gulf that divides Texas from Florida, could conceivably be considered, at least in a sense, as a great gulf fixed. And yet, one must consider that if it is the gulf itself that separates, then of necessity, there must be absolutely no access by following the coast.

The Bible presents the reader with ‘either-or’ situations: light and dark, good and evil, Heaven and hell. We may be looking at a singular position (the grave) with two separate and distinct forms of consciousness, one wide awake, one sleeping (Matthew 27:52). Awakening someone who would rather be asleep gives rise to ire, for example, when Saul had the spirit of Samuel raised from the earth, Samuel responded something like: ‘why troublest thou me, to bring me up?’. That is not to say the reward of the righteous, or the position of Heaven, per se, is to be found in the earth. And yet, there is the paradox of Christ’s location after His crucifixion. Christ, for the sins of man, was slated to die on the cross, descend into the realm of Satan for three days and wrestle from the enemy the keys to death and hell. Like Jonah in the big fish, Jesus was supposed to be held in the bowels of the earth for three days.

On the cross, Christ calls out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me” as if God had turned His back on His son as if Christ already felt the searing torments of hell as it insatiably licked at His feet. When Christ said to the repentant thief that he would join Christ, that very day, in ‘paradise’, could He have possibly meant that paradise had anything to do with torment? I think not. But then, Christ is the beginning and the end; He is both before and after; in our beginning, and also in the promise of our forever. He once said that where He ‘Is’, there is His servant also.

I believe that our Lord has never been bound by linear time but may be anywhere and everywhere all at once. Therefore, the thief’s translation to paradise may well have been to that glorious future we have yet to taste. In none of our Lord’s discourses about hell did He ever mention it as a paradise but, rather, as a terrible place. It is a place where dues are collected, where stripes are dispensed. The servant, not the outsider, is judged according to preset standards.

Read Luke 12:47 and 48, “And that servant, which knew his Lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.”

Here’s the kicker: the preset standard, “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”

God has given much to His servant the church; He has given considerably less to the unbeliever. Be very clear on that one point: it is the servant that has the most to lose; it is the servant who will weep and gnash his teeth.

Hell is associated with darkness; fallen angels are bound in chains of darkness but Christ named hell not merely darkness – He called it “outer darkness”. Christ experienced outer darkness, Himself when He was forsaken of God the Father for three days. Here, Christ is speaking of the worst kind of hell: separation from God. I began this study with five scripture references to ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’, or in other words, writhing in abject torment. Of whom, then, does our Lord speak? Is it the outsider, the atheist or believer in other gods? Is it the hypocrite within the body of the church, the ones who deliberately do wrong, or is it the servant, the one who thinks he or she is on the straight and narrow, but really is not?

It is the latter, the unprofitable servant, the one who did what he was supposed to do – but failed to take his or her spiritual connection seriously enough to ask, seek, or knock. They preached salvation to the saved and they thought that was all they had to do; they never took anything new out of the treasure chest of God’s word. Like the Jews who thought that obedience to the law was an end in itself and, thus, rejected change, so the modern contemporary church has viewed itself through rose-colored glasses and, thus, rejected growth.

Those with the most to lose and those who will cry the loudest are the self-deceived, both Jewish and Christian. The Christian will awake some morning and discover that he was not ‘raptured’; he will cry to the Lord, “we healed and prophesied in your name,” and Christ will answer, “I know not whence you are.”

To the Jew Christ says, “When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: then shall ye begin to say, we have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I know not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.” (Luke 13:25 - 28) Again, to the Jew Christ says, “And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of Heaven. But the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:11 – 12) To the contemporary Christian, as well as to the church, Christ says, in Matthew 22:12 through 14, 25:30 and 24:50 and 51, “And He saith unto him, friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the King to the servants, bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for Him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him

asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

In regard to this message to the modern church, Christ told his disciples in John 15:15, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”

What exactly is the failure on the part of the unprofitable servant? It is a failure of friendship with God. Having been let in on the closest thoughts and intents of the Highest and having been brought into such confidence, the profitable friend is without excuse and condemns himself with evidence of unprofitability.

Bonus Study Three:

I have heard many sermons about the tribulation; heard many differing opinions regarding the number ‘666'; have understood multiple scenarios concerning the suffering of the righteous meek at the hands of those in power who espouse their own, unobstructed, version of the separation of church and state. I must admit that the contemporary church deserves every bit of it, though I would not see it, if they, to the least individual, are too ignorant about, or too unwilling to fight the evil that is apparent all around them. This Bible study began as the notion to study more closely the “number of a man,” but then expanded to include ‘separation of church and state’ - which led me unerringly to the laws of man. This study must, then, necessarily include sources, not from the scriptures.

It is commonly held that our secular laws have their beginnings in spirit-filled Christians who fled Europe’s political tyranny over the Christian way of life. By extension, it is plainly seen that the laws embodied in our Constitution have for their origin the beliefs and hopes of righteous people. So firstly, I point to what the encyclopedia notes about our Constitution.

Constitution of the United States: A constitution, ratified in 1787, founded upon the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and based on the concepts of limited and responsible government . . . I hope that you see as plainly as I do that a ‘limited and responsible government’, created from principles already in existence – principles that came down from spiritual people that fled governmental tyranny over them, would be created to enhance and protect, rather than inhibit or detract from the spiritual lives of those who desired the change. So, let us look closely at the more telling points of the Declaration; let us see what those people fought against, and what those people hoped for.

Notice the spirituality of the Declaration. Our very first legal document not only lifted God above man but set as the true authority of any nation or government, not the government, but the “good people.”

'Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of these colonies, and for the support of this declaration, with a

firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.'

Did any of this find its way into our present law (by which I mean the Constitution), or were these isolated and fading sentiments? Remembering that our constitution was founded on the spiritual principles of the Declaration of Independence, let us look keenly into our present law.

Constitutional Amendments: Article I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Article IX. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Article X. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Please read and note that Congress does not have the constitutional authority to pass any law to separate the exercise of spiritual freedom from any aspect of daily life – which includes not only the schooling of children but also offices of government; which should be filled only with God-fearing men and women that represent and serve the “good people.”

Note also that any power not delegated by the Constitution ultimately reverts back to the true national authority: its people. Read these amendments (our law) very carefully – look at the order and wording.

Especially read the 9th amendment – anything that is not specifically covered in the rest of the law is protected by the 9th amendment. The rights of the people (even the unspoken rights of the people) shall never be denied or disparaged. Would not this also include the protection and everlasting affirmation of the unspecified privileges and immunities mentioned above?

So then, let us now return to the Declaration and discover the tyrannies that our forefathers fought against. As we understand that they spoke specifically against their King in England, let us also see that King as a precursory image of our general governmental representative of the “good people.” Let us weigh our elected representatives in this light. Do they truly represent us? let Facts be submitted to a candid world. refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. invasions on the rights of the people. erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

pretended offences establishing an Arbitrary government, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. destroyed the lives of our people. works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy constrained our fellow Citizens to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a Free people. unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here.

Remember where we have come from and think closely on those we have elected to represent us. How hard have we fought to put godly men and women in office? If we want prayer in school, but don’t have it, have our representatives truly represented us? I think not!

And so it is at this day; the unfit are allowed to have their way unopposed; those who do not represent the “good people” hold sway over policy. The unfit march forward relentlessly but the “good people,” with every fearful inaction, tighten their future noose just a little tighter on their collective neck. all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

That statement is shocking, even frightening. Is there no hope? I must cling all the more, then, to the hope that an informed people will do what is right. How can we look straight at a thing and not see it?

There are none so blind as the ignorant and, yet, the blind will take the hand of the one who sees. We, then, though blind, can see by the sight of others. We, then, can understand – and act. What did our forefathers see?

1). Governments are instituted among Men, 2). deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, 3). whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, 4). laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

5). it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

I have belabored the political end of this Bible study in order to more clearly visualize the future plight of a people that had ample opportunity and forewarning enough to act in their own best interest. Who are the people of the saints that will fight the righteous fight against evil?

Daniel 7:25-27:

25. And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

26. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.

27. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. Freedom wears no armor. How can it be a shield? In the United States of America, freedom is offered equally to all. The evil have used it for their evil ends; they have marched forward like a swarm of termites, devouring from the foundation up. They have twisted the intent of our founding fathers to limit government. The evil infiltrators within our government would limit the people.

Now, many have considered that the mark of the beast has something to do with computers. While it has a bearing on daily commerce, I contest that the real mark is a spiritual mark – one that spiritual beings can see. The ‘hand’ represents our works; the ‘head’ or ‘forehead’ represents the stand we take, whether of God or of the world.

Christ said, “Get thee behind me, Satan; for thou savourest not the things that be of God.” What is a beast but a soulless, totally disconnected man, whose inner man lifts up only those lesser things of man and worldliness? To whom, then, belongs the greater woe – the beast or the Christian that did not take his Christianity far enough?

According to the book of Revelation, The ‘mark’ is described in several ways. Revelation 13:17, “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

Many think of computer chips when they think of the mark, but what if the mark turns out to be a sort of dynastic ‘brand’, that is, affiliation to a ‘ruling family’? Forget parties – the family is in. Why would I suggest a ‘family’ or a ‘family name’? Let us remember that John came from a people with different definitions than our own. What is ‘the number of a man’ in terms of old world definitions? How did they number a man? For one, they numbered a man by his genealogical pedigree or the line of his ancestry. Such thinking was still evident in the New Testament when Matthew numbered Jesus at fourteen generations. For another, men were numbered by their sons and grandsons and the whole long list of men that made up that clan within the tribe.

For a closing point, I will point to one man that was so numbered in the Old Testament. Might his name be somehow relevant?

Ezra 2:13, “The children of Adonikam, six hundred sixty six.”

End.