Where is God?
God in all things.
It is obvious that there is much good to be found and seen in the lives of many people of every race and religious faith or none. This is because there is, in every person, a spark of the divine put there by God and any good they do is sourced from his presence in their lives. Added to this spark there are varying amounts of goodness that varies in proportion to how open to God the mind and heart of that person is. Such openness, or not, depends very much upon experiences, especially those in Childhood, that have been lived through.
If need be, read the Chapter about the effects of bad childhood experiences by
Clicking here - 'Damaged Goods'
Even when the amount of good is very small, for example, when Adolph Hitler showed affection to his Alsatian dog - God was at work through him. Or whenever any drug addict, who may have no religious convictions at all, is helping an overdosed friend back to life, and the friend is struggling back to consciousness, there God is at work in both of them. These examples are difficult to accept by some religions, including many Second Hand Christians (Click here. if required, to read about ‘First and Second Hand Christianity’), but they are never the less true. Until we can understand this principle that God is the source of all good, wherever it is found, then we will remain in spiritual darkness.
God in the Christian
Some Christian presentations of where God resides falls well short of the Truth, for example. - one of them starts with a truthful statement that 'God is everywhere'. But then goes on to make out a case, without realising its own contradiction, that 'God is actually only with the Christians'
I used to believe this myself at one time and told others the same. The analogy I used was taken from the beginning of verse 4 of the second Chapter of Paul's Second Letter written to those Christians who lived in Corinth at that time - "Satan, who is the god of this evil world....." I read into this that Satan was the ruler of the Earth in our present times and God had retired to a place far away, circling the Earth somewhere in outer space. Then, whenever some sinner prayed the 'sinners prayer', and invited God into their lives, God then descended like some sort of parachutist and entered into their heart.
A more recent revealed truth to me is that, although Satan may be the ruler of this age he is only allowed to do so with God's permission (Click here, if required to read the end of the earlier chapter on
"The Mystery of Suffering". The Truth is that God is, always has been, and always will be, everywhere and in all things.
This statement does not support the long held heresy of 'Pantheism' which suggests that that God and the known Universe are one and the same thing. The Truth is defined in the very similar word, 'Panentheism', that has an essentially different meaning. The first word, Pantheism, proposes that if the Universe ceased to exist, then God would also cease to exist. Panentheism, on the other hand, proposes that God is greater than creation and that if creation did cease to exist then God would still remain. Understanding this is an essential step in any spiritual growth - unless we can see with our minds eye that God is present in all things, both animated and unanimated, then we will remain in spiritual darkness.
God in every person
Rather than the earlier quoted analogy of mine, of God waiting in space for invitations to descend like a parachutist, I now look upon the truth as being more like - There is a spark of the Divine in everybody's heart, put their by God, at the moment of their conception. God's Holy Spirit then remains outside that persons heart until a time, know only to God, when he will enter in and awaked this spark of divinity into a flame.
That person then becomes 'Born Again' of the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus spoke of to Nicodemus in the beginning of Chapter 3 of John's Gospel. The Holy Spirit does not need an invitation, he blows where and when he wants - It’s an important message and well worth a read -
After dark one night a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, a member of the sect of the Pharisees, came for an interview with Jesus. “Sir,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miracles are proof enough of this.”
Jesus replied, “With all the earnestness I possess I tell you this: Unless you are born again, you can never get into the Kingdom of God.”
“Born again!” exclaimed Nicodemus. “What do you mean? How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
Jesus replied, “What I am telling you so earnestly is this: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Men can only reproduce human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven; so don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again! Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it will go next, so it is with the Spirit. We do not know on whom he will next bestow this life from heaven.”
“What do you mean?” Nicodemus asked. Jesus replied, “You, a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? I am telling you what I know and have seen—and yet you won’t believe me. But if you don’t even believe me when I tell you about such things as these that happen here among men, how can you possibly believe if I tell you what is going on in heaven?
From that moment of rebirth the person begins a pilgrim journey to restore their relationship with God, something that mankind lost when Adam and Eve decided that they knew better than the advice and instructions that God had given them.
The person moves on from, only believing what they have learnt from others, to a personal lived experience. They receive a personal spiritual connection with God who gives them an inner assurance that all they have ever hoped for is true. It's called the gift of 'Faith' and only the person themselves, and God who gives it, will know for sure whether or not it has been received.
How God is at work in our world
As written earlier, God resides in the heart of everyone but how much good He is able to manifest into our world is dependant upon how much room people make for him in their lives. Reader, whenever you become conscious that you have done something good or bad you need to remember that it comes from the choice that God has given you - the gift of ‘freewill’ that allows you the freedom be able to chose the good or the bad. God could have programmed every human to always do the ‘good’ instinctively as he has done in many creatures. Such instincts can be seen at work in their natural relationship with their offspring.
However, despite this spark of divine, peoples perception of God varies in many ways with some who will not even acknowledge his existence, never mind this spark of presence in their hearts.
There are others who do believe in God's existence, but feel unworthy. They are seeking reconciliation but have not yet experienced God’s love in a personal way.
There are many who are seeking but have not yet found that Jesus is the answer.
There are also many members of the other World Religions who are genuinely seeking God but have not yet tasted his love in a personal way. Unfortunately, among these, are the Muslim's who are handicapped by an immovable belief that has been handed down through successive generations that - "There is only one God, Allah, and he has no son" They believe that Jesus was only another in the line of great prophets like Moses and Isaiah and that Mohamed, who lived after Jesus, was the last of the great prophets. But we must not make the mistake of believing (as some Second-hand Christians do) that all Muslims are excluded from God's Grace and favour. We must instead remember that whatever good they do, and there is much of it to be seen, is sourced in God's presence in their hearts.
Thankfully, there are those people, of all races, sex, social position and wealth who have become Firsthand Christians and are filled with the Holy Spirit and are now able to discern God's will and follow it.
This is a good point to move. Click here to read 'Who is this Jesus?'
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