A 'Secret" About The Kingdom Of God
Today on my walk I overheard a woman ask a man if he'd ever heard of the Secret.
I had walked past them when they stopped to watch dogs frolicking in a recently built dog park.
My mind was flooded with memories of that video program derived from the book of the same name.
As I continued my walk, I remembered how I too had become enthralled with that content's message.
The 'secret' being that there somehow exists a law of attraction.
The effort being that if one concentrated their thoughts well enough, they could attract to themselves any and every thing they desired in life.
When I had come across the 'secret', I had left communicating with the Church (and ceased communing with God)... and my mind and heart were more focused on earthly matters than things Above.
It could be said that the 'secret' was attracted to me by what I had set in my mind to desire.
The same could be said about how certain personalities and characters find association with one another.
Do we not see this with criminals being usually found among other criminals?
The same with people focused and expressing wealth.
When I left church activities, it wasn't that I had forgotten completely about God but was purposefully ignoring my conscience in many ways.
It could be said that the 'secret' was attracted to me by what I had set in my mind to desire.
The same could be said about how certain personalities and characters find association with one another.
Do we not see this with criminals being usually found among other criminals?
The same with people focused and expressing wealth.
When I left church activities, it wasn't that I had forgotten completely about God but was purposefully ignoring my conscience in many ways.
I had previously been focused on others while in church, my life previously revolving around any church activity mentioned and the people therein and less on myself and my needs or wants.
These are good things... but certain focuses can become myopic and hinder growth.
These are good things... but certain focuses can become myopic and hinder growth.
In due time, a dog did return to its vomit... and the wallowing in the mud was even dirtier this time around for a pig... and my lesson was that I had to do what was right regardless of who I associated with.
Church is a physical and spiritual sanctuary, but is not a substitute for one's choices.
Associations can surely influence one's behavior, and in this God-fearing churches who abide clearly with what is moral and lawful is an obvious good.
Now looking back, I see how deep God's grace and patience is when I had battled the adjustment of walking with His Spirit regardless of church affliliation.
Church is a physical and spiritual sanctuary, but is not a substitute for one's choices.
Associations can surely influence one's behavior, and in this God-fearing churches who abide clearly with what is moral and lawful is an obvious good.
Now looking back, I see how deep God's grace and patience is when I had battled the adjustment of walking with His Spirit regardless of church affliliation.
My focus had gone from God and doing His will, to money and figuring out how to bring more money to me.
When the Secret came across my desk, I was lured in by its similarity to a familiar thinking: positivity and faithfulness... yet the difference was an inward focus on myself and what benefitted me most, instead of what God's will was for me.
The differences were subtle at first but became stark and clear as I began to really think about it.
It wasn't until long after I had made copies of the video and mailed it to some relatives in the hope of helping them and encouraging them, that I realized how far I had fallen.
Previously, I had invited my relatives to church and praised the church as life's solution.
Their reluctance bothered me, and they had their evident reasons; any given church group has its weirdness and human frailty, its apparent sub-culture built upon dogmas and doctrinal differences.
Having left the culture of churchianity, I was now somehow expressing shame for a previously held narrow-mindedness.
The mindset of: you are either inside the church or are outside the church.
Being taught to define the church narrowly like most others - according to what I see with my eyes but less at what God is always expressing.
It seems like I was showing remorse and desired to share with them something immediately viable to them in the here and now; material wealth.
Their reluctance bothered me, and they had their evident reasons; any given church group has its weirdness and human frailty, its apparent sub-culture built upon dogmas and doctrinal differences.
Having left the culture of churchianity, I was now somehow expressing shame for a previously held narrow-mindedness.
The mindset of: you are either inside the church or are outside the church.
Being taught to define the church narrowly like most others - according to what I see with my eyes but less at what God is always expressing.
It seems like I was showing remorse and desired to share with them something immediately viable to them in the here and now; material wealth.
Quite shameful to realize that I, in some way, became ashamed at who God had turned me into while in church.
Before becoming very active in a dynamic and serious church, I was someone who had been impressed since childhood with thoughts of God and my heart consistently acknowledging what was right from wrong despite my humanity: the conscience God gifts to His children.
I, like all other human beings, had my faults and sins of omission and commission.
I went from someone who was reflective of the world around them (the world with its evidence of God's grace yet its pervasive fallen state), to someone who was fearful and suspicious of anything not church-sanctioned or church-related.
With my return to more secular matters and walking away from a culture of strict accountability (and dependability on human efforts), I thought I had to somehow leave the journey God had initiated in me... but this was poor thinking on my part.
I was believing the 'here or there' argument and failed to see beyond this poor perspective.
I was taught leaving church (or that particular church) was leaving God... but this simply is not so.
I, like all other human beings, had my faults and sins of omission and commission.
I went from someone who was reflective of the world around them (the world with its evidence of God's grace yet its pervasive fallen state), to someone who was fearful and suspicious of anything not church-sanctioned or church-related.
With my return to more secular matters and walking away from a culture of strict accountability (and dependability on human efforts), I thought I had to somehow leave the journey God had initiated in me... but this was poor thinking on my part.
I was believing the 'here or there' argument and failed to see beyond this poor perspective.
I was taught leaving church (or that particular church) was leaving God... but this simply is not so.
This is why:
I Am the Gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.
- John 10: 9
As I've stated in several previous articles, the Word of God can largely be interpreted literally, but not every understanding is cognitively literal.
The human being can't help but initially perceive physically-based concepts and ideas when reading or thinking about anything, even the Word of God since it uses human terms in describing things unearthly.
So this verse in John 10 always seemed to me like it was telling me there was a place on either side of the Gate... yet recently I noticed that it is talking about entering, coming in, then going out and finding pasture.
Notice that once someone enters the Gate, they are saved.
Again, had been taught that if I left the church, I would have also left God... but is this so?
Notice that once someone enters the Gate, they are saved.
Again, had been taught that if I left the church, I would have also left God... but is this so?
Often times a believer associates community activity (church) with their salvation, and although this can be argued back and forth quite viciously, I think the point is this: the kingdom of God is within you.
It also says that God will never forsake us, and elsewhere that He will disown us only if / when we disown Him.
It also says that God will never forsake us, and elsewhere that He will disown us only if / when we disown Him.
Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Yeshua, with eternal glory. Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with Him,
we will also live with Him;
if we endure,
we will also reign with Him.
If we disown Him,
He will also disown us;
if we are faithless,
He remains faithful,
for He cannot disown Himself.
- 2 Timothy 2: 10-13
So it isn't that a person physically enters the kingdom of God and thus can find themselves physically outside of it, but rather that the kingdom of God enters them (gift of the Holy Spirit)... and thus wherever the believer goes, the kingdom also arrives wherever that believer journeys.
Notice how it is always a matter of faith, and God continues to be faithful despite our doubts and momentary struggles.
So when entering the kingdom via the Gate, the mind shouldn't perceive a certain border like one does political lines dividing nations... and thinking they find themselves outside the kingdom if they find challenge with certain church groups, because again God does not forsake His children.
Perhaps a better concept would be entering the Gate and finding one's self beneath a surreal and expansive tent canopy.
The edges or where the ten may 'end' is unseen, because you are already 'inside' since you've passed through the Gate.
And since the earth is the Lord's, David's realization makes all the more sense:
Notice how it is always a matter of faith, and God continues to be faithful despite our doubts and momentary struggles.
So when entering the kingdom via the Gate, the mind shouldn't perceive a certain border like one does political lines dividing nations... and thinking they find themselves outside the kingdom if they find challenge with certain church groups, because again God does not forsake His children.
Perhaps a better concept would be entering the Gate and finding one's self beneath a surreal and expansive tent canopy.
The edges or where the ten may 'end' is unseen, because you are already 'inside' since you've passed through the Gate.
And since the earth is the Lord's, David's realization makes all the more sense:
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Where can I flee from Your Presence?
If I go up to the heavens, You are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, You are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there Your Hand will guide me,
Your Right Hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to You;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to You.
- Psalm 139: 7-12
For some believing minds, they only sense safety among their church group... and view all things, activities, places, and even persons outside this save group as 'secular' or somehow adverse to what God has established.
This is fine if that is the limit of their faith, for surely we are all sheep and have our place among the family of God... the strong protecting the weak according to their allotment of faith.
This is fine if that is the limit of their faith, for surely we are all sheep and have our place among the family of God... the strong protecting the weak according to their allotment of faith.
But is this so?
I perceive the kingdom of God having saturated the entire world / earth, and not being 'found' only in places physically acknowledged by human beings (church buildings or certain individuals).
To me, God has surely established His kingdom on earth a very long time ago and in a such a way that its full understanding is humanly possible.
So when human arguments or earthly ideas are promoted as 'secret' or an answer to the struggles of this world, even among ideas quite heretical or ridiculous (as the 'secret' that a person can easily conjure a certain lifestyle into existence by constantly thinking about it), even within such ideas there is found a bit of truth according to the Word of God... yet still a bit askew regarding God's will and the teaching from Above.
So when human arguments or earthly ideas are promoted as 'secret' or an answer to the struggles of this world, even among ideas quite heretical or ridiculous (as the 'secret' that a person can easily conjure a certain lifestyle into existence by constantly thinking about it), even within such ideas there is found a bit of truth according to the Word of God... yet still a bit askew regarding God's will and the teaching from Above.
Understand, God is Love and He often grants any individual the desires of their heart.
The key is for such desires to align with God's will.
Some people have been plagued after receiving exactly what they desired, and it was not a matter of them not being very precise or specific about their desires, but that not all things desirable in this world are actually good for you... or within God's will for you specifically.
This goes hand in had with the manners of this world, the buying and selling consumption and less about things unseen and heart-based (what God is about).
The Secret attempted to describe a form of godliness (power to create), yet avoided mentioning God and also denying the very teachings that define godliness... instead furthering a 'create your own reality' scenario... but dying as mere mortals being the sobering correction for those puffed up with incorrect knowledge.
I noticed the Secret mentioned how the 'universe' (a term substituting or denying the acknowledgment of God) interacts with mankind, but this is actually no 'secret' to those who have sought God in their lives and have realized how He works, even being gracious and kind to the wicked.
I noticed how that program revised terms and concepts to better fit modern tastes about God and religions derived from concepts of God.
This was most evident when listening to the proponents of the Secret and how they would come very close to mentioning Messiah and His teachings, but being careful to downplay His divinity and impact on earth - Him being the Author of Life revealed from Above.
To acknowledge God in Messiah would be counterproductive to this world's spirit of bring glory to things earth-bound.
This is nothing new... it is evidenced in so many religions of the world, popular or obscure, and philosophies that argue about something unique but always regurgitating similar anti-Christ themes and subtle denials.
Some people have been plagued after receiving exactly what they desired, and it was not a matter of them not being very precise or specific about their desires, but that not all things desirable in this world are actually good for you... or within God's will for you specifically.
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
- 1 Timothy 6: 6-10The approach of the Secret was primarily out of selfishness and greed for things materially manifested.
This goes hand in had with the manners of this world, the buying and selling consumption and less about things unseen and heart-based (what God is about).
The Secret attempted to describe a form of godliness (power to create), yet avoided mentioning God and also denying the very teachings that define godliness... instead furthering a 'create your own reality' scenario... but dying as mere mortals being the sobering correction for those puffed up with incorrect knowledge.
I noticed the Secret mentioned how the 'universe' (a term substituting or denying the acknowledgment of God) interacts with mankind, but this is actually no 'secret' to those who have sought God in their lives and have realized how He works, even being gracious and kind to the wicked.
I noticed how that program revised terms and concepts to better fit modern tastes about God and religions derived from concepts of God.
This was most evident when listening to the proponents of the Secret and how they would come very close to mentioning Messiah and His teachings, but being careful to downplay His divinity and impact on earth - Him being the Author of Life revealed from Above.
To acknowledge God in Messiah would be counterproductive to this world's spirit of bring glory to things earth-bound.
This is nothing new... it is evidenced in so many religions of the world, popular or obscure, and philosophies that argue about something unique but always regurgitating similar anti-Christ themes and subtle denials.
The first verse that passed across my heart after hearing that young woman mention the Secret to her mate was this:
“The ‘gods’ know nothing, they understand nothing.
They walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
“I said, ‘You are “gods”;
you are all sons of the Most High.’
But you will die like mere mortals;
you will fall like every other ruler.”
- Psalm 82: 5-7
The human being is made in the image of God, having eternity sown within their physical vessel - namely a soul and a spirit... things created by Him yet bound for an eternal existence.
This is what makes mankind such an impressive creature, because although man has physical qualities reflected in nature (animals, plants), only the human has qualities exponentially higher and revealing divine qualities as derived from God.
Only the human being is capable of altering their surroundings to an extreme degree... and only humans have God-blessed knowledge of tings unseen.
But to think that a man or woman can 'create' is to err in the use and understanding of that term.
Instead of being humbled by God's gift of life and what He has provided us all, some people are apt to take pride in their godly qualities as being self-evidence of things not stemming from a Holy Father.
They instead give glory to one another, praise one another, and think so highly of themselves they go as far as to make up for themselves odd suggestions in thinking they are somehow wise.
No man has ever 'created' anything, but simply 'made' some thing out of previous things already existing.
Yes, mankind can be said to be 'creative' in the metaphorical sense of that word, but not creative as to actually bringing forth something out of nothing, or what the term 'create' means.
Since God is Love, it is God who allows mankind to realize the desires of their hearts.
And as my personal experience has taught me, I have received nearly all things my heart has ever desired... both things arguably good and also things not so good.
It was only when my heart's desires were subject to God's will did I see clearly the motivation behind certain desires of mine... and realized that not everything I desired was for my betterment, but some things becoming snags and snares.
Even desires previously conceived and perceived as 'good' in my mind were later revealed to simply be derived from greed and selfishness and self-serving comforts... exactly what the Secret promised... but God has been more gracious and patient in teaching the heart right from wrong.
So when that programming speaks of an ability to bring forth things into one's life... they are partially right.
The 'right' part of that claim is according to how God had created mankind (as 'gods'), in His image... and how God usually gives people exactly what they want in life because of His love for people.
Mankind has dominion over the earth and can manipulate things in the world to 'make' for themselves many things.
But where such things have been claimed, like the claim that a man can create and manifest any single thing and way they conceive, there we see evidence of a mindset adverse to God's will... and things argued as light but actually derived in darkness.
There we see man attempting to be God, or like God... yet it is God who turns sinners into saints... and men desire to do this for themselves without submitting to God.
With the reception of things desired there is usually a train of thought to justify what is factually detrimental.
According to the Secret, abundance is guaranteed and wealth is at-hand for all who pursue it.
But the challenges to how wealth can easily deceive the heart is absent, as are the foundations of morality contrasted with the pursuit of things desired.
The good evidenced in that production is thinking positively.
The bad derived is that simply thinking positively or fostering a focus on physical things to manifest is feeding into the very issues that harms mankind (putting themselves before God, instead of God before themselves).
This is what makes mankind such an impressive creature, because although man has physical qualities reflected in nature (animals, plants), only the human has qualities exponentially higher and revealing divine qualities as derived from God.
Only the human being is capable of altering their surroundings to an extreme degree... and only humans have God-blessed knowledge of tings unseen.
But to think that a man or woman can 'create' is to err in the use and understanding of that term.
Instead of being humbled by God's gift of life and what He has provided us all, some people are apt to take pride in their godly qualities as being self-evidence of things not stemming from a Holy Father.
They instead give glory to one another, praise one another, and think so highly of themselves they go as far as to make up for themselves odd suggestions in thinking they are somehow wise.
No man has ever 'created' anything, but simply 'made' some thing out of previous things already existing.
Yes, mankind can be said to be 'creative' in the metaphorical sense of that word, but not creative as to actually bringing forth something out of nothing, or what the term 'create' means.
Since God is Love, it is God who allows mankind to realize the desires of their hearts.
And as my personal experience has taught me, I have received nearly all things my heart has ever desired... both things arguably good and also things not so good.
It was only when my heart's desires were subject to God's will did I see clearly the motivation behind certain desires of mine... and realized that not everything I desired was for my betterment, but some things becoming snags and snares.
Even desires previously conceived and perceived as 'good' in my mind were later revealed to simply be derived from greed and selfishness and self-serving comforts... exactly what the Secret promised... but God has been more gracious and patient in teaching the heart right from wrong.
So when that programming speaks of an ability to bring forth things into one's life... they are partially right.
The 'right' part of that claim is according to how God had created mankind (as 'gods'), in His image... and how God usually gives people exactly what they want in life because of His love for people.
Mankind has dominion over the earth and can manipulate things in the world to 'make' for themselves many things.
But where such things have been claimed, like the claim that a man can create and manifest any single thing and way they conceive, there we see evidence of a mindset adverse to God's will... and things argued as light but actually derived in darkness.
There we see man attempting to be God, or like God... yet it is God who turns sinners into saints... and men desire to do this for themselves without submitting to God.
With the reception of things desired there is usually a train of thought to justify what is factually detrimental.
According to the Secret, abundance is guaranteed and wealth is at-hand for all who pursue it.
But the challenges to how wealth can easily deceive the heart is absent, as are the foundations of morality contrasted with the pursuit of things desired.
The good evidenced in that production is thinking positively.
The bad derived is that simply thinking positively or fostering a focus on physical things to manifest is feeding into the very issues that harms mankind (putting themselves before God, instead of God before themselves).
Comments