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 non-productive 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).”
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