New Age and Critical spirit

New Age thinkers see the image of God created in man and worship the image instead of the Creator. (see Romans 1:20-25) This could be, I suppose, maybe an improvement over worshiping hand-carved images that are greatly demeaning to humans, but still misses connecting to the Source of life. God's plan is to re-implant His perfect image (seed, incarnation) inside of us and grow it into maturity to become like Himself. “In all who will submit themselves to the Holy Spirit a new principle of life is to be implanted; the lost image of God is to be restored in humanity.

“But man can not transform himself by the exercise of his will. He possesses no power by which this change can be effected. The leaven --something wholly from without--must be put into the meal before the desired change can be wrought in it. So the grace of God must be received by the sinner before he can be fitted for the kingdom of glory. All the culture and education which the world can give, will fail of making a degraded child of sin a child of heaven. The renewing energy must come from God. The change can be made only by the Holy Spirit. All who would be saved, high or low, rich or poor, must submit to the working of this power.” (SD 34)

One of the striking differences between New Age philosophy and real truth of reality is pointed out right here. New Age spiritualism observes the inherent image of God within us and believes that along with that image is inherent power like God's. But this was lost to us in the Garden of Eden when we became corrupted by sin. Since that time our only hope is in the redemption by Jesus and an outside power infused into us through a vital and constant connection with Him to salvage us from the destructive effects of sin.

Criticism immediately places me in an adversarial relationship with others. It forms in my mind an image of them as an enemy to be overcome, changed into my image or attacked. The spirit of fault-finding, of focusing on the weaknesses and short-comings of others is an attempt to compare them with myself with the presumption that I will appear better in the outcome. But instead, the result is that those very problems and weaknesses and faults that I look at in them become more and more integrated into my own soul as a result of my prolonged attention on them. And as they do they increasingly distort my vision and bias me to amplify those problems until I have assembled a log in my eye – a petrified log – that biases me to view more and more people with critical assumptions. And in the process I also begin to judge God Himself as having faults and weaknesses like my own. Hence one of our continued methods of creating God in our own image.

This was brought home to me today as I read these words in My Utmost for His Highest this morning. “God has to destroy our determined confidence in our own convictions. 'I know this is what I should do' – and suddenly the voice of God speaks in a way that overwhelms us by revealing the depths of our ignorance. We have shown our ignorance of Him in the very way we determined to serve Him. We serve Jesus in a spirit that is not His, we hurt Him by our advocacy for Him, we push His claims in the spirit of the devil. Our words sound all right, but our spirit is that of an enemy. (MUHH 1/29)

Truths from the New Age

I watched a video that my daughter wanted me to see on quantum physics and our mind. It was purporting to establish the New Age self-god philosophy. I could see a great deal of truth in the presentation, much more than most Christians want to believe. I thought back over the overall plot line and reasoning and realized that they teach that because God is behind good and bad, because of the lies about hell, because of all the lies about God taught in Christian churches (they didn't label them as lies of course) then the solution lies in believing that we are god collectively. There is no good or bad. They contradicted themselves several times but that goes unnoticed by most observers. They said we shouldn't create a god in our own image, inferring a god who is good and evil like ourselves. That statement is true, and unfortunately that is what Christians have indeed done. But then they turn around and create god in their own collective image.

They said they didn't endorse sin, violence and aggression but they offered no cure for it except to say that you can escape it by simply changing your thoughts. They teach that there is no reality outside and separate from us, that all reality is a creation of our brains. They teach that the internal reality is more real than the physical world around us. They demonstrate through the plot line of the story that the evil consequences of falling into sin (in their illustration getting drunk and waking up nearly naked the next morning with all its implications) are just bad emotions and feelings that can easily be eliminated by simply choosing to think differently about yourself thereby changing your reality. They correctly point out that your life unfolds according to the choices you are making and the root problem is how you think and perceive yourself. However, they strongly avoid the existence of sin and of a God distinct from us to whom we have to be accountable. They insist there is no judgment or condemnation, that evil is something to be avoided by simply changing what we believe about ourselves.

This is very strong delusion mingled with very strong truths. A very large part of the reason it is so tremendously attractive and deceptive is that it builds itself on the foundation of many of the lies about God. It sets those out as facts of religion and then presents itself as the only viable alternative to all the negative effects those lies have produced. This is spiritualism in its pure form. And this philosophy is the heart and soul of Babylon, fallen Babylon, the unholy alliance between Catholicism, corrupted Protestantism and New Age spiritualism predicted in Revelation. Protestantism is the compromising link between the legalism and God-lies on which Catholicism is founded and the seemingly best answer promoted by spiritualism. It won't take much adjusting to create an overwhelming magical spell of deception from this lethal mix. The result in the soul is intense attraction but underlying confusion which is the meaning of the word Babylon.

What is our reaction to be if we are to escape the magic and the deception? Certainly not more infusion of intellectual knowledge, though that is usually what is attempted. While it is important to not be ignorant of Satan's schemes, we do not have to dissect them, analyze them and disassemble them to determine what is true and false. Eve tried that and started us on the road to where we are now.

The only hope and safety we have is to know the real truth about God and allow Him to transform us to be spectacular demonstrations of grace that will draw hungry, empty souls to the real source of life. Satan's lies about God had to be accepted and become presumptions before his lies about how we should live could take hold in our souls. That is why it is crucial to first focus on undermining his lies, not by lengthy exposés and dissections of what is wrong with error, but with ever-expanding revelations of the truth of God's beauty, consistency, faithfulness, compassion, justice and the truth about consequences. This cannot have real effect against the enemy if it is only a “religious” activity. It has to be a heart-transforming demonstration of inward power effected by the Spirit of God. The confusion of Babylon will never be overcome by force, by unmasking all the errors and uncovering the conspiracies like so many Christians are addicted to doing. Babylon will fall, will collapse in ruin, when its foundation of lies are exposed by the overwhelming revelation of the beauty and glory of God, not only in the beliefs but in the lives of the people who allow Him to dwell in them richly.

There were many fascinating insights and truths in this video that greatly strengthen the truth about the real God of heaven and how he created the universe and us. Many of these truths are rejected by many Christians for various reasons. Some because of their tenacious clinging to the lies about God deeply rooted in religious traditions, and others because we tend to reject any new insights if they are discovered first by our opponents. This puts us into a seeming quandary. If we study into New Age ideas to extrapolate genuine truths about God we are not immune to becoming infected with subtle deceptions along with them. If we avoid knowing anything about these things because they are promoted by deceivers it appears we will take much longer to discover them for ourselves. But this logic itself smells of a possible subtle deception. It assumes God is not eager to share the truth about Himself with us directly. The real obstacle is not so much our access to information as it is our prejudices and pride that prevent us from integrating new truth and insights into our current beliefs about God and reality.

If we were to release our prejudice but still screen every idea through the objective filters of the Word of God in the Scriptures and the Spirit of God dwelling within us, we would grow much faster in our perceptions of God and reality. Many of our prejudices are rooted in strong opinions about Bible translations or traditional, unchallenged assumptions about what the Bible means by various passages. When we allow the true Spirit of God to unlock our hearts as well as our minds when we study truth from His Word, we will be amazed and delighted to see lie after lie unmasked as truth emerges more and more perfectly interlocked and synchronized with creation and reality. As we focus on connecting our hearts in vital communion with the heart of God – the real and only source of life and truth – we will be filled with not only amazing knowledge about how reality works in the physical, mental and spiritual worlds but will become a living exhibition of the glorious results of that transformational truth. This is my desire and choice. I choose to open myself to the Source and draw heavily on those resources of life. I want to be made an exhibition in the trophy train of Jesus' captives. I want to become a slave of love completely swallowed up in the life of the Lover who stopped at nothing to redeem my life from deception and death. I give my permission for God to do anything and everything He needs or wants to do to bring about this end. Make my life a flaming passion for the glory of God.

Heart Capacity and Writing

The heart that has once tasted the love of Christ, cries out continually for a deeper draught, and as you impart, you will receive in richer and more abundant measure. Every revelation of God to the soul increases the capacity to know and to love. (SD 32)

Only the Holy Spirit of God can quicken the perceptive faculties.

Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who watch for His guidance and grace, is the Spirit given. This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train. It is given according to the riches of the grace of Christ, and He is ready to supply every soul according to the capacity to receive. (SD 33)

As I read these statements over the past few days it occurred to me that what is going to happen at the point in time referred to as the “close of probation” is actually a time when people have so hardened their hearts that they have lost all capacity to receive the Holy Spirit. This loss of capacity is what some refer to as the locked heart syndrome. It can be locked by irreparable damage (by refusing repair) or by suffocation from an overbearing left-brain religion. Hearts of stone have no ability to expand in capacity like hearts of flesh.

On the other hand, God's plan for us is to be continually increasing our capacity by the exercise of joy in community and with Him. The latest brain science has discovered that joy (someone delighted and desiring to be with us) dramatically increases the capacity of the most important part of the brain and is what the brain craves the most. The whole plan of salvation is designed to restore our capacity so we can again mirror the face of God in our lives.

I have also been pondering the very act of writing itself, that is, writing about what one believes in particular. Writing locks ideas to a fixed point in perspective and does not allow for growth in understanding or shift in time and circumstances. In contrast, living in God's presence enables one to always live in the present allowing His wisdom to always be up to date.

Writing by its very nature also reduces the content of the thoughts and feelings of the heart in the very process of being condensed and filtered by the left brain to get the feelings and concepts small enough to express in language familiar to others. The left brain does not have near the capacity that the right brain possesses for expression but the left brain is where our means of language is based – another good reason to live from the heart. The heart – that I currently believe is primarily rooted in the right brain – is the only part of us equipped with large enough capacity to live life as we are designed to live it in vital connection with God's heart.

The right brain is the only soil suited to properly grow the seed of God implanted into us. The left brain is more like the hard ground or rocky ground where seeds are analyzed and displayed, stolen or left to flounder with very little emotion and passion available for the roots to grow into or from which to receive nourishment. The weedy ground person may be living more from a heart orientation but allows many other distractions to consume all its resources so very little is left for the image of God embedded in His word within us to flourish. (see Matt. 13:18-23)

Writing is useful to convey expressions of identity from a fixed point in our experience. But it must be remembered that those descriptions are neither complete or reflective of subsequent growth. To the extent that writing reflects the thoughts inspired by the Holy Spirit it can reveal valuable insights that can inspire others. But one must be careful to listen with the heart while reading someone's writings and focus on discerning the heart of God that inspired that person more than focusing on the agent who expressed those insights that are now frozen in words while their heart continued to move on in expansion of capacity through new experience.

This involves the issue of judging as well. When we make a settled opinion about someone's character based on their expressions without allowing for unknown evidence and growth since that expression, we judge their heart and often attempt to force them into a static mold based on our judgment. This creates an atmosphere conducive to hardening of the heart. This is the concept of judgment that we have typically assumed God will do at the close of probation. We sometimes think He will simply harden everyone's heart at an arbitrary point in time and they will be forever stuck with the character that they were caught in at that moment. That point in time, though never spoken about in this manner, is often assumed to be likely at a time when God finally runs out of patience with us and decides to change tactics with this rebellious planet to get on to the next phase of bringing an end to the Great Controversy. But this is another one of those damning lies about God that keeps us away from Him in our hearts.

Relearning Identity

A realization hit me last night. I guess it sounds sort of obvious when it is stated, but sometimes things feel like a new revelation when a left-brain fact suddenly sinks into the right brain. It is about the principle that you reap what you sow.

When I think and speak critically I create an atmosphere that encourages others to think critically of me. When I feel negatively toward the church and pastor they will tend to feel the same way toward me. That does not lead to unified efforts or reconciliation.

If I want a church to accept changes in their ways of thinking and embrace new ideas and attitudes, then I have to demonstrate those changes in myself by adopting a positive attitude and relating to all of them with grace and forgiveness and compassion no matter how they act or treat me. My spirit in my interactions with those who disagree with me plants the seed that will lead to creating the atmosphere that eventually I will reap. This is so hard to perceive with my spirit. Sure, its easy to outline it intellectually, but when it comes to actual practice I usually default to the natural tendencies of the flesh.

Craig Hill teaches that the most crucial time to plant new seeds is right after a failure. The ideas about yourself that you internalize at that moment are the seeds that are planted to be reaped in the future. For instance, if I berate myself for being so stupid, such an idiot, brainless etc. right after I make a mistake, my soul hears those messages and they become implanted to quickly sprout and bear like fruit the next time I find myself in a similar situation. I will more strongly perceive my identity as a stupid idiot who can't ever do anything right and somehow subconsciously I will more accurately live up to those expectations which will further reinforce those beliefs about myself, seemingly affirming my analysis. This is a most familiar scenario for most of us.

However, the same principle of sowing and reaping works just as effectively if used to plant good seed from the Spirit of God. When we choose to believe in an identity revealed to us about the heart Jesus has implanted in us and speak forth that identity in the face of what appears to be the opposite based on our recent behavior, we plant seeds that also can sprout and take root in our soul and began to crowd out the negative plants so predominant in our lives.

This at first feels like hypocrisy or positive thinking therapy. But it is not hypocrisy. And although positive thinking techniques draw heavily on these basic principles they often don't go far enough to tap into the real power Source of God's revelation of our true identity that we need for transformation. But when we choose, particularly right after a failure where we have once again disappointed ourselves and fallen for some temptation or indulged in some weakness, when we choose at that very moment to take our attention away from the failure and defeat and fix our attention firmly on the qualities of our true heart that God designed within us, we will breath life into those attributes and allow them to begin to flourish and thrive and come into fruition.

How much am I doing this? Very little so far. But it looks like a dynamite way to blow apart much of my old patterns of self-defeating behaviors and habits of failure. Of course it would be nice to have people around me reminding me of who I am in these moments as well. It would be just as wonderful if I would use the eyes of heaven to see the true identity and hearts of those around me and remind them of who they really are and their true value when they can't see themselves that way too. That's what real community is all about – reminding one another of who we really are when we forget to act like ourselves and our people.

Thoughts on Blessing

My wife and I had a discussion with Linda a few days ago about birthdays and how to relate to them. She had written a piece on her blog about it and I expressed some of my misgivings about the traditions and expectations that surround the event.

I have often wondered why we make such a big deal out of birthdays anyway. I'm not saying we should or shouldn't, I just wonder why, what the underlying motives are. It even seems more logical that we should celebrate the day of conception more than the birthday. After all, birth is simple a transition from one environment to another. Conception is when one actually comes into existence. It seems that is far more eventfully important than simple a change of position. Of course, times of conception are not only usually difficult to trace back to but are also surrounded with circumstances that almost no one wants to talk about especially in public. So maybe that is one reason it is more convenient to focus on the day of birth.

Birthdays are also usually much more prominent in the mind of women than they are for men. I suspect that is partly so because mothers are so intimately and painfully involved in the process that culminates nine months of very close companionship. It tends to make a much deeper impression and memory for them than it does for most men. That may be why mothers have little trouble remembering birthdays.

We have been learning that there are at least seven very significant times in a persons life when they need to receive a blessing. A lot of time needs to be spent elaborating and explaining what that word even means. One of the best resources I know right now is Family Foundations (found in my resource page). In short, blessing means empowerment to prosper and an impartation of identity. This identity is the unique one God created for this person and reinforced by important people in their lives. Cursing, the opposite of blessing, is of course the exact opposite. It is imparting a negative identity, messages of worthlessness and shame that discourage, dishearten and disempower one for life.

When this is understood it is clear what God's desire is for every one of us. Jesus stated unequivocally, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy (curse). I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (bless). (John 10:10) Our role as parents, friends and even siblings is to reaffirm and remind each other of the identity that God wants to draw out of us that will reveal His glory. This is how we bless each other. And this is also how we can bless God.

The first time of blessing in life is at conception. When two people come together in harmony with the Spirit of God in themselves and celebrate the intimacy that God designed for them to share in marriage and conceive a child in the image of both God and themselves, the new life is infused with a blessing that will make a radical difference for the rest of life.

The second important time of blessing is at birth. It is at this time that the child joins not only his parents in person but all the community of family and friends. Everyone celebrates the visible addition to the joyful community that makes up families. Each person brings their unique perspective of blessing to the child and to the parents empowering the family to thrive and strengthening them for the struggles ahead. Again, identity is imparted in a powerful way to the child and an unseen energy and strength is imparted into the soul of that individual.

To understand just a little of the effect of blessing, just consider the Jews as a culture. They have been practicing blessing in their families for thousands of years. It is no accident that on the whole Jewish people are generally more prosperous and influential than any other group of people in history. It is because they have followed the ancient principles that God built into human design and they are enjoying the benefits. But blessing is not restricted to Jews anymore than being a fully alive human is restricted to Jews.

In my ponderings about birthdays I have wondered if a person might be better served if they used this day to bless others in various ways. Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive. I guess I haven't come to any hard conclusions or profound insights on this idea. But the traditions of expecting gifts, cake and parties and the total obsession of wanting all the attention certainly has produced a lot of selfishness on the part of many children that is similar to the self-obsession surrounding Christmas. That is a whole other topic that I certainly don't want to get started on right now.

So I sat down this morning and opened the devotional book and was startled to read the scripture for today. “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.” (Isaiah 11:2) It reminded me strongly of the specific blessing given to me both times that I attended an Ancient Paths I seminar. “And the spirit of the Lord will come on you with power, and you will be acting like a prophet with them, and will be changed into another man. And when these signs come to you, see that you take the chance which is offered you; for God is with you.” (1 Samuel 10:6-7 BBE) The Lord impressed me both times that this was His word, His blessing that in some way reveals something about my true identity and my future. When I first glanced at the text in the devotional I had to look again because it was so similar to the second. And what added to the significance was that this is my birthday.

It was like the Lord wanted to give me an affirmation and a reminder of who I really am to counteract the constant assault of lies from the enemy and from the world around me. As I have read further in the book Wild At Heart this struggle is becoming much more exposed. I am receiving many very important insights from this book and recommend it to anyone who wants to perceive more clearly what is really going on within and around us.

So what will my birthday be like today? How will I relate to it? I don't know yet – ask me at the end of the day and I will know better. I think I will choose today to listen carefully for words of blessing from Jesus. I would hope to hear affirmations and positive identity messages from those who can see me from a different perspective than mine – which of course is anyone outside my skin. But I doubt I will go fishing for them. I hope they are more than just words of “happy birthday”, that they are specific reminders of attachments and value and connections. I hope that God will use me as a channel today to impart blessing and life in specific ways and times to others who are dying for lack of blessing. Because I am realizing more and more that when I am a conduit of blessing I myself am blessed and strengthened myself. Today my wish and deep desire is to experience joy (being glad to be together with people who really love me) in community in very tangible ways. Somehow I think that is what we all want. And that is God's desire as well.