Please read the contemplations The Kingdom of God Is Within and Listening from Within when you read this one.
For some time now, since it was revealed to me that I was being motivated by my ego (see “Understanding”), I have been meditating on who I would be without my ego. There is a scene in a movie, “Peaceful Warrior,” where the main character is on the top of a tower contemplating suicide, and his ego asks him that question, “Who would you be without me?”
Of course we know that the ego is our false identity, the “old man,” (flesh, material sense of life, humanity, natural man)—that which I have believed to be me but which Scripture says was crucified and that I must reckon to be “dead” if I wish to be alive unto God and live out of my true identity, which is the Christ consciousness:
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Without my ego, I would be as Jesus was when He walked this earth, being in the world but not “of” it, constantly aware of my Father “within” “doing the works” or living His life through me, knowing that “of myself I can do nothing” but that “I can do all things through Christ” since it is not the ego but rather the Christ walking and talking in me. I would be standing still and seeing the salvation of the Lord, just “lifting my eyes to heaven” (to the kingdom of God within) and saying “Thank you, Father. I know that my prayer is answered before I ask. Whatever is needed (food, wine, tax money, ‘healing,’) is already here and needs only the recognition of that to be manifested in the visible world.”
I have already written much about Jesus going away as a man that He might “come again” as the Life-giving Spirit dwelling in each of us, empowering us to do the works that He did when we live in that “place” He said he was going away to “prepare” for us that “where I am there ye may be also.” That “place” is the “secret place of the Most High” described in Psalm 91, the “place” where nothing can harm us, where God wipes away the tears of sorrow and takes the pain away (Revelation 21:4), the place where nothing can enter that “defiles or makes a lie,” (Revelation 21:27) the place referred to in Scripture by many names—the Garden of Eden, the Paradise of God, the New Jerusalem, the temple of God, the mountain of the Lord—the place of righteousness, peace and joy that is the kingdom of heaven (Romans 14:17) which Jesus said is “within you” (Luke 17:21).
Everyone longs to be in this “place” and many believe that they will be there when they die. Countless songs, stories, movies and every other means by which man gives expression to his deepest longings have this desire and the quest for its fulfillment as its central theme. Above all other desires, man wants to go back to the bosom of the Father (the kingdom of heaven) from whence he came.
Time and time again Jesus intimated that He descended from heaven that we might enter therein through the “narrow gate” (Matthew 7:14) and that we must become “as a little child” to do so (Matthew 18:2-4). He said it was very “hard” for a “rich” man to enter (Matthew 19:24) but that “nothing is impossible with God” (v 26).
What we are “rich” with is our “natural man,” our ego—that humanity that (as we see with Jesus in the wilderness—(see “The Temptations of Jesus”)) is always trying to do something to show itself to be something. That is what we must be rid of in order to enter that “narrow gate” that leads to life eternal.
Matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
None of this makes sense to the “natural man”: it CANNOT make sense because
1Corinthians 2:14 . . . 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.
1Corinthians 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
Corinthians 1:25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
As the above Scriptures indicate, what seems to be true to human logic, wisdom, and science is not true in the Spirit realm. We have thought that what we discern with our senses is reality, but Jesus taught us that reality is to be found in the invisible realm, not in the world of appearances.
John 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
When we draw conclusions from what we see, they are incorrect; for the visible realm is not reality. It is our false concept of that which is reality. In other words, we are indeed God’s creations living in the world created by God, but we don’t see it with our physical eyes; we see only our false concepts because we have become blinded to the real and don’t know it. It is only when we recognize that we are blinded to the real that the real can be revealed to us:
John 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. 40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? 41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.
The visible realm is always “passing away”; it begins to disintegrate as soon as it appears. It is not “eternal.”That’s why Paul admonishes us to put our attention on the invisible, the realm that is real, the realm that is eternal and never passes away.
(2Corinthians 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.)
It is the realm created by God in the beginning, that which was “very good” and remains so. It is the realm referred to by John in the beginning of his Gospel:
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
In short, “every thing” that God “made” was “very good.”
Genesis 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
Since “all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made,” it follows that what appears as evil was not made at all. It is merely our false concepts of that which was made and is therefore “passing away.” That which God made is “eternal” but invisible to the human eye. It can only be discerned by the Spirit—just as Paul says:
1Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
Hence Paul’s exhortation as to where we should “set our affections,” also reminding us that the physical life that we think is our life is no life at all. Jesus took that so-called “life” to the cross that we might have “eternal life,” the life that is “hid with Christ in God.”
(Colossians 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.)
Both James and Peter also remind us of the transitory nature of what we look upon and think is “life.”
James 4:14 . . . . For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
1Peter 1:24 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: 25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever.
And what is the “word of the Lord”? It is that which we just read from John—that which was “in the beginning” and which “was God” and which made everything that was made.
And that includes us, both “in the beginning”:
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion . . . .
And again when we are “born again”—or come again into the awareness of our true identity as “sons of God” who have dominion over all the rest of creation.
1Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
So how can we, like Jesus, be “in” this world of appearances and yet remain aloof from it, not be fooled into thinking that it is reality? We’ve already gotten some instructions from Jesus and from Paul. And Paul gives us others—about what to think on, about renewing our minds and “walking by the spirit” (Galatians 5:16). It all comes down to whether we live from the “within” (the realm of Spirit which is invisible) or from the “without” (the realm of flesh which is visible), whether we walk by “faith” or by “sight” (1Corinthians 5:7), whether or not we are willing to be “absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (v 8).
We see Jesus going off by Himself repeatedly to “pray,” to commune with His Father, getting quiet inside so that He could take His attention off the appearance world and “see” the reality of the Spirit realm in which there is only harmony and perfection, not any disease, death, lack of any sort or any other limitation, where there is only “life abundant.” Here in prayer He was “absent from the body” and “present with the Lord.” His being able to “see” by the Spirit the reality of being was what enabled Him to do that which was called “healing.” The blind man wasn’t “healed.” When his eyes were opened, what was true about him in the Spirit realm just became manifested on the physical plane. The true identity of that man could never be blind. God made all things, and anything that appeared to be blind was never made at all. Blindness is but an “appearance,” a temporary manifestation of a false belief about God—the belief that He made something that is not perfect. In order to “heal,” Jesus had to be “absent from the bodies” of those He “healed” and “present with the Lord”—with the truth of being. He had to consider the wisdom of this world as foolishness to even think that a man blind from birth could regain his sight or that a man in the grave four days could come out of that grave alive and well. And he also had to be willing to be laughed to scorn (be considered “foolish” by the world’s wisdom) when He dared say and believe that a young girl could be raised from the dead (Matthew 9:24).
We too will be scorned and ridiculed when we dare to believe that which is contrary to all the logic and reason of this world. But if this world that we observe with our senses is not our reality, what does it matter? Jesus indicates that we cannot believe the truth when we are seeking the approval of man:
John 5:44 How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?
The admonition to keep our eyes on God (the realm of the unseen) and to seek not the glory that comes from pleasing man is reiterated throughout all of Scripture (Gal 1:10; IThess 2:4; Pr 29:25; Jn 12:43; Col 3:23; Acts 5:29; Is 2:22; 2Cor 5:9; Jer 17:5—only a few of the many).
Yet we have the promise:
Proverbs 16:7 When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
In other words, the harmony and perfection we perceive when looking into the realm of the unseen will be manifested in the outer realm. We see this in the life of Jesus, and we will also see it in our lives. It is called doing the works that Jesus did by letting
Philippians 2:5 . . . this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation
In that realm of the unseen, we find our true selves (Spirit being) one with our Father while at the same time recognizing the “no reputation” of our personality selves—or ego. We no longer try to do or be anything. We just observe God living His Life through this temple-body, bringing the harmony of the invisible into manifestation on the visible plane. We don’t try to “make” things happen, “serve” God, or any any way attempt to win God’s approval. We “let” the Life of God be manifested in any way He chooses, knowing that it is good and only good. We find rest for our souls, knowing that it is God and God alone who is doing the work, bringing into the situation whatever is needed to accomplish his good and perfect will. The ego doesn’t like being of no “use” to God; it wants credit and glory for whatever work of God is manifested in the temple-body, but it has to “die daily”.
I think perhaps I have made this more complicated that it actually is. It has to be simple enough for a child to accomplish, for we must all become as little children to enter this “place” that Jesus has prepared for us. As I was receiving this revelation, I recalled a children’s book that we are all familiar with—”The Little Princess.” What an extraordinarily beautiful parable (though almost certainly unintentional) of living in that place and then seeing it manifested in the physical realm. The little girl is reduced to living in horrible circumstances but continues to see herself as a “princess” all the while. And, in the end, what she has seen on the inside, by her continual looking on the unseen realm rather than what was before her physical eyes, is made manifest on the outside.
This is the fulfillment of that proverb that we ordinarily see working to bring about the experiences that we don’t want:
Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.
But it works just as surely to bring about the results of believing the truth in the face of appearances which contradict that truth. Like the little girl, in truth we are sons of God, joint heirs with Christ, temples of the living God, heir to all that God has. But it doesn’t “appear” to be so from what we are observing with our senses. Dare we look not at that which is seen, go within and perceive by the Spirit that which is reality, and then stand still and see God’s salvation manifested on the visible plane?
This world would call what the little girl did “imagination,” meaning that there was no reality in what she was seeing within. But God defines “imaginations” as whatever is not true in God, that which is seen and temporary and passing away; the reality is that which is unseen and eternal, that which God made.
2Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
We know from our experience watching movies and night dreams and nightmares that we can get so caught up in that which we know is not real that it can affect us physically, emotionally, mentally and even spiritually. We have to awaken from the nightmare and stop watching the movie to realize or recognize its unreality. We do that by focusing our attention on what we “know” to be real, but of course “really” isn’t—from the perspective of what we are discussing now. What we are observing with our senses is no more real than the dream or movie. But it “appears” to be and affects us as if it were. That’s why Paul states so emphatically:
Ephesians 5:14 . . . Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
and
1Corinthians 15:34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
It is our lack of knowledge of God that has lulled us into this “sleep” from which we must awaken. When we recognize that God has made a very good and perfect creation and that that is the only reality, we’ll stop being hypnotized by what we are “seeing” without, go within, allow God to reveal to us that perfect creation and by becoming aware of it bring it into manifestation in the same way we have heretofore brought into manifestation our false concepts of that perfect creation and made ourselves subject to those concepts.
It is only the recognition of the truth that brings truth into manifestation on the visible plane, the only place we can enjoy the fruit of that recognition.
This is not at all complicated, but it does require quiet contemplation, meditation and listening to the still small voice within. Otherwise, the truth is drowned out by the “many kinds of voices in the world” (1Corinthians 14:10), all voices of the “natural man” (which is the “father of lies” that “never abode in the truth’), not the voice of Spirit, the “Spirit of truth.”
Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
1Kings 19:11 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: 12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
Exodus 14:13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.
Once we do manage to “stand still” and God shows us His salvation, the lies that have kept us in bondage (the “Egyptians”), that have made us slaves to the ego, begin to dissolve and we “see them again no more for ever.” In the words of so many fairy tales which give expression to man’s longing to return to the kingdom of heaven, we can “live happily ever after” because we have at last, like the prodigal son, returned to “Father’s house” (the Christ consciousness) where there is only righteousness, peace and joy.