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 otherly-sealed, 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.”
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