7. The Scripture

7.1: Faith

The first fundamental question which the man asks himself is that whether God does exist. For that everyone can acknowledge that this universe does exist, while it is a matter of debate whether it was created by anyone and ‘who’ that creator is supposed to be. There are good and valid reasons why God has hitherto not revealed Himself to the whole world, why He has not given supernatural signs to those that demand it (as a prerequisite for believing). It is not because God is being unaware of such claims, or that He does not hear prayers in general. For the matter is more complicated than that. God in His pure and sincere love created the human race for mutual love. The man has been given free will to make his own choices, to the end that he might love God willingly, truly believe in His goodness, and obey Him with perfect understanding. The human race has really nothing to offer God, except its continual goodwill and gratitude. Even that the offering is found lacking then the thought behind it is what counts. Everything was originally created good, and the man was supposed to have the best life possible. But the rebellion of Adam exposed him to another nature. First Adam was being tempted on the outside into desiring/coveting forbidden thing, and after Adam sinned in such way then fear became part of him and he would again sin through fear, by not straightforwardly confessing the truth before God. When the evil nature became part of Adam then he would also think of and feel evil things. The Enemy was never being courageous and powerful enough to challenge God directly. But the Enemy did all of this indirectly, by indirectly encouraging Eve to desire something which the Enemy was really desiring to happen, and by indirectly tempting Adam through Eve. The Enemy managed to tempt them into doing something against their own wellbeing, while deflecting their attention from himself, since they did not originally stop to question his presence and motives. Adam willingly went over to the Enemy and chose to give the latter a power over his will, although indirectly, since Adam preferred self-conceit and selfishness over the ways of God. Such corruption would be passed on to the human descendants, so that Adam’s rebellion restricted the potential of the human race and exalted the Enemy at its expense.
               It all comes down to that which side the man will choose and stay loyal to. But before any of that can happen then the man must first believe in such possibility in advance. It does not only reach to that in believing in God formally, by calling Him by the right name and approaching God through the religious aspects ascribed to Him. It is also about believing in the truth and the goodness, which defines God and belongs to Him. The man of integrity is indirectly choosing God by practicing the very same things which the faith promotes. It is not enough to flatter God or by verbally agreeing with His ways, while the man is at the same time following the selfish and covetous side in himself. The faith in God can correspond to ideology to some extant. It must first be believed in lofty ideals before it can be worked hard to promote them, in making such ideals come true at last. The man cannot actually see or touch these ideals, but he does still acknowledge them and he believes in that what it does stand for. A similar thing applies to the faith in God. We are not merely acknowledging that God does exist, but we do truly believe that God is being truthful and trustworthy/reliable, concerning every one of His promises and moral principles. If we have faith in God then we will also have faith in everything which can come from Him, what God can speak of and do on our behalf. Hence when we turn to God and obey His commandments; then it is because we acknowledge that He is the best person there is, where His goodness is greater than our own perception of it and His ways deliver greater results than our ways. The faith in God helps us to approach Him in a proper way. God knows it best what pleases Him and what He requires from us. Hence we consult with the testimony which God has given of Himself. The faith in God points us to His testimonies, and the other way around. Once we have believed and abided by the testimony of God then we will know of more things to be reached out for. It can be said that there do not exist many virtues, but there does only exist one virtue, and that virtue does consist in heeding the voice of God from within today (now, at this very moment). That to heed and obey the voice of God will lead to every virtue there is.
               It should be considered the alternative, if God would reveal Himself to the whole world, that it might be better understood why such option would never work out in the long run. Human beings would then become fearful of their lives and only pretend to obey God while He would be watching. It would never involve any genuine reasons, why people are supposed to act in such way. It has more to do about covetousness for reward and fear of punishment, like when a selfish kid seems to behave in front of the authority while he is never being obedient in his attitude. Once nobody higher-up is watching then such selfish kid reveals his true character and bullies those down-below. Faith involves that in believing in something which cannot be seen and touched, and which has yet to happen in the future. If God could already be seen by everyone and it could be seen Him making immediate effects/repercussions to everything; then it would not involve faith. It would remind of the saying ‘Might makes right’, where it is obeyed God for the sole reason that He possesses the most power in the universe. People would still continue to covet evil things in their heart and wish for it to happen. People would commit a crime if it seemed like they could get away with it, if the crime would not be discovered, if there would be no repercussions. This is why it would not solve anything if God revealed Himself to the whole world. But it makes much more sense that God does deliberately conceal His presence, that every person might reveal its true colours, what the person truly wants in its heart and what it does when an opportunity presents itself. It does all come down to that in believing in the rightful claim of the choice and what value it does hold, rather than by being swayed/controlled by irrelevant outside factors. It can be a good thing in a bad thing when we no longer experience a time of prosperity and experience a time of adversity instead. For such vicissitudes will reveal which persons are being true and reliable friends, and which persons prove to be false and treacherous, when it seems that there is no longer any advantage to be gained from us. The false people will no longer flatter us and pretend to be friendly, but they will reveal their true colours and turn against us openly. But the true and reliable friends will continue to be there for us and help us rise up from the ground. When we overcome the time of adversity and obtain a new time of prosperity; then we choose to share it with them. People who are not there for us in our time of adversity, do not deserve to have any share in our time of prosperity. It can be a good thing in a bad thing when we seem to reveal apparent weakness in the eyes of other people, like when we show ignorance in worldly matters, commit casual mistakes, are incompetent, or are clumsy. For that if the people involved prove to be proud and superficial then they will immediately become contemptuous and arrogant in their bearing, as if we were stupid and useless, having nothing to offer them. But the sincere and decent people will rather show us understanding and tolerate us. They choose to overlook our faults and not hold anything against us. Hence we seek their company over the other. It is through such kind of tests and temptations that it is separated the good from the bad, based on their reactions to the same incident. Even so God makes use of difficult circumstances to determine whether our faith in Him is being genuine or not. We should neither slacken our resolve and indulge our self during our time of prosperity, nor become resentful and complain during our time of adversity. Whatever happens then our personal conviction remains ever the same. We humbly receive a time of prosperity when it happens, and we humbly receive a time of adversity when it happens. Humility is something which should have priority, something which we should never forsake for any external change. It would not make any sense if God would be doing supernatural signs for the people that demand it, as if God was a mere clown or an entertainer for the unworthy. No decent man would act in such way, by advertising himself what most shamefully in order to become popular, by craving the approval of hypocritical people and by doing cheap tricks in order to appease their whims. But all such things belong to the hypocrisy of the world, its foolishness and vainglory. Where there is truth and goodness there is also modesty and discretion. For these virtues are kindred to each other, belong to the same source, and work to the same end. God does seek to convince us about His ways through fair and honest means, by appealing to our sense of decency and reason, when it comes to believe in and do the right thing for its own sake.
               The darkness is nothing more than an absence of light, even as cold is an absence of heat. The evilness is merely an absence of goodness. Evilness is a mere distraction. Evilness contradicts goodness. Evilness digresses from the goodness. The Enemy encourages human beings to do either evil things or no good things. That to do an evil thing is to do nothing good. That to do nothing good is an evil thing in itself. It does lead to the same destination as all the evil things. The evilness does not have any independent existence. It cannot survive on its own unless God does allow it to survive for a time being. And the evilness is unable to affect good things in a bad way unless God does allow it to have access to the good things (that to go over to the other side). The evilness has hitherto been allowed to tempt the human race. Temptations are necessary to test the spiritual allegiance of every man. Without temptations there would be no test. God will tolerate the earth and spare the many for the sake of the few, so long as the earth continues to produce decent men. Jesus Christ has already conquered the Enemy and all the fallen angels, and thereby everything which they stand for and have invented, belonging to the evilness. The devils (fallen angels) are already condemned and doomed to eternal punishment. It is now a question about the human race, the choice belonging to each individual. If the man does not acknowledge the rightful king then he will thereby acknowledge the usurper, and he will become an accomplice in the rebellion by agreeing to its rebellious terms. That can be said when the individual does deliberately reject Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour, even that the man has come to know about His truth and justice, contrasting his own selfish inclinations. By keep siding with his selfish inclinations the man prefers the selfish ways of the world above God’s authority. The world tends to exalt the unworthy and bestow power to the incompetent. The Enemy has been chosen leader of the world by spiritual slaves. The evilness thrives on the ignorance of the human race. The Enemy does not make the man become powerful (in true and lasting things of worth), but the man chooses to make the Enemy become powerful in his own life. The man does so every time he inclines to his lesser side/nature and does that of lesser worth, which makes him become a lesser man. The man does so at his own expense, since the Enemy has everything to gain by parasitizing his life and the man has everything to lose by it. It is like God continues to tolerate the man, while the man continues to tolerate the Enemy in his own life. But it does not mean that God is tolerating the Enemy. The world does belong to the Enemy, with all its erroneous doctrines and inventions. It does not mean that the human race does belong to the Enemy, but it is rather about the ‘image’ of this world, its combined influence working against the truth and the goodness. Human beings are more important than anything which belongs to the world. They are more important than that which comes out of them. The person is more important than its misspoken words and mistakes. God is more important than our self-image, and that to do His will is more important than our self-interest.
               When the man considers himself to be already perfect then it can be likened to that if a man has always been sitting on a comfortable couch. While the man is sitting comfortably on the couch then he thinks that everything is all right with his life, that he is in good health and strong for everything. But once the man needs to stand up from the couch and exert himself in bodily exercises; then the man immediately becomes tired and falls short of the requirements to finish the exercises. A similar thing applies when we have to go out into the world and undergo difficult challenges. Even that we lack certain bad qualities then it does still not mean that we possess all the good qualities in the world. It does not mean that we will be able to accomplish things when circumstances test our resolve and existing qualities. We did not become incompetent when doing things, because we were already being incompetent from the very outset. All this time we lacked good qualities and power to accomplish things. The only difference lies in that we have now become aware about it, that out knowledge and ability fails to live up to standard. All this time we were never being perfect and having a perfect human lot, but our own weaknesses were being hid/concealed from us, or God showed us grace by covering our weaknesses from our own sight and from the sight of other people. No bad things came up because God kept them checked underneath. It should not be said that the man is able to become perfect and blameless, but only that the man is able to become blameless. The man can avoid bad things (corruption, bad qualities), and yet he does still have his restrictions in regard to good things (good qualities, capability). These good things are beyond the man’s reach, unless God allows the man to become partaker in them. The man can at most approach God with all his heart and ask God to ‘loan’ him good quality for the matter involved for a time being. For example, it should not be said that the man is being courageous (personally, permanently), but that the man is being courageous while God shares His courage with the man. Let’s say that the man has hitherto been blameless in everything. Because the man possesses pure intentions then he sees God in a pure way, and he acknowledges God’s goodness and mercy in all things. When the man notices people that live in weakness then he only wishes them well and does not hold anything against them. He asks God to be gracious and merciful and generous to them, that things might brighten up in their lives and they be shown a way out of their difficulties. Now let’s say that the same man fails to be on his spiritual guard, and he yields to sinful desire, and he possesses the will to sin, and he seeks opportunity to make it come true. When the man becomes aware of his blame in that matter then it does not mean that God is being transformed by it into an angry and harsh tyrant, someone who is eager to condemn and punish the man in everything. God is not some kind of spiritual idol which is being shaped/reshaped by the man’s own righteousness or lack of it. When the man finds himself imperfect and frail like other people, and as equally much in need of forgiveness from God; then the man is also meant to acknowledge God’s goodness and mercy in all things. That God is an independent being able to act independently of the man’s own will/mindset. That God is still being motivated by love for us, and that He still does things based upon love, and that His love is still working inside us and between us. God is being calm and mild when bearing with us (being patient with us), and He is being calm and mild when correcting us, and He is being calm and mild when blowing/swaying our hearts into the right direction during our experienced circumstances, that things might turn out differently/better than we had originally purposed. What can be said about that when we experience an ongoing prosperity. We should become grateful that the ‘sun’ keeps shining on us, but we should not stop and claim that we are being the ‘sun’ itself (cause of prosperity). And when God manages to create a lucky/favourable turn of event which saves us from dangers (there would otherwise have befallen a great misfortune); then we should not stop and claim that God saved us because of our righteousness (as if we had deserved it). But we should rather acknowledge that God saved us because He is good and He cares about us.

The faith in God is a matter of mutual trust or relationship in good faith. We trust that God loves us and is doing everything in His power to help us, even that we cannot actually see God, cannot see what is happening behind the scene, or what is taking place in the meantime before help arrives. God can be slandered by His enemies in our eyes, where He can be accused of being untruthful and selfish, corrupt and powerless, and coming up with false promises and threats. But we do not need to rely upon the testimony of such intercessors, when an enemy claims that God had said this or done that while we cannot see God for ourselves. For that we can just as well head straight to the primary source, the testimony which God gives of Himself, that we might know it for ourselves what kind of person He is and what He is being capable of. We can see God through the personal example which Jesus Christ has left us. It is not God whom changes, but it is rather us whom change and our vision of God with it. God is already perfect and at the top. A change would otherwise only lead downhill. God is indeed all-powerful, but it does not mean that God would abuse His power in some way. God could foresee the fate of everyone and spy upon everyone if He wanted to do so, but it is not the same thing as if God would make such choice. A wise man does not need to possess godly powers in order to know whether specific people prove to be sincere or false, honest or selfish, reliable or treacherous. If the person proves to be so in the present time then it will also be so in the future. Hence God will deal accordingly, whether that person is a friend, fickle, or an enemy. But God must surely abide by a principle, when it comes to trust the person further, which has hitherto proven trustworthy, and bestow that person with more responsibility. There must be some kind of discretion, which prevents obtrusion upon the man’s privacy, although God is still able to watch over us and help us when needed. This is why the Lord takes His leave and returns at an indefinite date.
               The faith is the supreme means in following God at all times, toward every spiritual victory and progress, regardless that what kind of circumstances the man can find himself in and what kind of personal experience seems to follow him. Human beings have been born at different times and places, involving different possibilities and restrictions, human abilities and skills, education and technology. But the faith in God is still always as equally valid and relevant to the human lot, making up for any human restrictions and able to make the best of the situation. A good education might seem to work out for a person that is born into a rich country, while such education is being denied/excluded to a person that is born into a poor country. It should be looked upon this in context of the human history, because education has not been made accessible to everyone. But faith does originate within the man, regardless of his external circumstances. It is always open and available for the man to have faith, that he might obtain good sense and become virtuous. A good education might seem to have all the right words on paper, but it does still not guarantee morality in the person, a wisdom and insight into the human nature. The man can become educated, and yet he is still fundamentally the same person, as if the education had merely confirmed his abilities or appealed to and boosted them, already existent in him from the beginning. The man might come up with a different vocabulary, but he is still being unaltered in his heart, still being accustomed to the same desires and presumptions, impulses and habits. This is why the faith is superior to philosophy and ideological systems, since only faith is able to bring actual change from within the man and make him bear good spiritual fruit. The faith is so efficient because it is so simple, unlike human systems that tend to overcomplicate things. It is simply believed in God and asked Him for help, and then waited for it with patience. God can overcome any odds, any uncertainty, any problem, any personal experience. God can always help us in a new and unexpected way. A new problem can emerge, but it will still be solved as well. There can appear forth a new threat and a new enemy, but it will only become another victory to us. The faith in God is meant to reach to every factor/aspect in our human existence, that God might help us through it, regardless of our internal condition and restrictions. Personal implications do not matter, what kind of person we have become and what we have hitherto done, so long as we will to heed God now and henceforth. It is only sufficient to confess the truth and ask God for help. Our petition does not need to be cleverly phrased or have a ‘perfect’ form, as if it would increase chances for reception. For that God knows us, what kind of position we find ourselves in, and what we really want. It is only required that we should get to the point and state the humble truth. God can do whatever He wishes, whenever He wishes, wherever, and however He wants. It is not our human effort which guarantees reception. It was not because we first tried to become free of flaws (perfectionism) which determined why God decided to help us and deliver us from our troubles. It had everything to do with God’s goodness, His love and kindness in caring for us, even that Jesus Christ would need to go through a lot of troubles and afflictions to redeem us. Let it thereby be duly noted that God would either way have heard our prayer, and either way shown us grace, even that we had done nothing whatsoever prior to it. That to be pure in our intentions does help us to approach God in the right way and ask Him for the right things. If the heart is not right then it is made an improper request from God. But that to confess the truth can help set our heart right and purify our intentions. Hence it is only sufficient to make a confession so that other things will follow as well.
               What can be said about the difference between faith and absence of faith. At first it might seem so little and insignificant, and yet later on it turns out to be so great and significant. The man has hitherto been selfish and short-sighted in his life. The man has hitherto been experiencing all these selfish and short-sighted thoughts. When the man converts to a genuine faith in God then it might at first seem like nothing has changed within. The man is still experiencing all these selfish and short-sighted thoughts as he had before. And yet the man is still somehow able to take one step back (away from his mind) and discern that these thoughts are being wrong. It is like the man does now notice these thoughts in front of him, instead of these thoughts being actually part of him and hiding underneath his eyes (further inside, where if the eyes are tainted then the man fails to know that his very eyes are seeing things in a distorted way). The man had once been immediately swayed by these wrong thoughts and he had deliberately justified their wrong influence in his life. But now the believing man does experience more space within himself when it comes to consider the matter and take his time in making a choice. Now the believing man is somehow able to recognize that these thoughts are being wrong, and to confess the truth about it, and refuse to comply with these thoughts regarding his choices. Hence the believing man is able to become internally detached from the old selfish mindset. The selfish mindset has now become a mere mask or worn out clothes, which can at most be on the man’s body and not in it. The man does carry this selfish mindset on his soul, without it being part of his soul. The selfish mindset is still there, and yet that selfish mindset is being nullified by something else within. Something does somehow happen within which gently blows the man into the right direction. The Spirit of God working in the man’s heart is able to accomplish this in a smooth and discreet way. The man does somehow find it in himself to stop and step aside from the selfish course in his mind, to calm down and quiet down within himself, and to keep his attention open for the better course. In the beginning the faith might seem to involve a little change, and yet later on one is able to approach God about one’s attitude in all things and ask Him for help to change one’s attitude for the better. Even that these (obsessive) thoughts have been hard in the beginning and/or during the former part of the path; then it has still somehow turned out differently during the latter part of the path and in the end. In the end, even after all these considerations, when it finally came to that in making a choice; then we have still not taken things too personally, and we have still not had any angry outburst, and we have still not complained, and we have still not come up with any personal attacks against other people.
               God can indeed help anyone, if the person is being willing enough to receive help and to ask for it. God abides by a principle when doing a good act. God is indeed ready to help us and He possesses the ability to do so. But God does not want to force it upon us, against our consent. It is not like our faith is able to make God powerful or powerless. But it can rather be said that God is concerned about our freedom of choice, in approaching Him willingly and with a right understanding. Our faith help us to know what God is capable of, and what we can hope from Him if we do things His way. We can do nothing but confirm God’s power. There should not exist any uncertainty which god should be invoked and get all the credit. It would never work out if the man invoked all the ‘gods’ at the same time, since the man would then not know which one of them had been helping him. It would correspond to that in applying many remedies from many physicians against the same sickness/disease. But the patient should rather have tested one physician at a time, and the remedies belonging to the same physician, so it could be determined the best physician of them all. The benefits can only be established if the healed person knows its true Benefactor, in giving God the rightful glory which He deserves, in being grateful and loyal to Him, and in serving the greater good henceforth. And there should not be made any half-hearted effort, like when it is constantly changed one’s mind and each undertaking only lasts for a brief time. But it is all about approaching God with our whole heart, fully devoted to all His teachings. Then we can experience it for ourselves, whether it really works out in our life. We cannot forgive ourselves. Only God is able to forgive us and purify/heal our soul. It is something which can only be felt from within. Spiritual means are required to heal spiritual wounds. But without God’s presence then no benefit would happen, even if we forgave everyone and everyone forgave us. That which happens outside us is outside our soul. God teaches us to forgive each other if He is going to forgive us all our sins. By being forgiving we are merely confirming His grace in all things, and allowing God to work uninterrupted in us. First we need to forgive one another if we are going to be forgiven within. We come up a gesture in good faith, and then God responds by benefiting our soul.
               If we ask the Heavenly Father for anything in the name of Jesus Christ then it will be granted us. It does not mean that it is enough to implicate the name of the Lord to our request, while the actual request proves to be selfish and foolish. It can rather be said that the name of the Lord is about confirming His truth and justice. This is what the Lord is known for and what belongs to His side (heavenly). It is asked for good things as the Lord Himself had done and would do in our position. It is about acknowledging the leadership of Jesus Christ in all things, especially in that what we need to undergo from within ourselves. It is successfully prayed while we stay even in the will of God, by keeping to that what is being noble and altruistic, generous and discreet, charitable and merciful. And when we pray to God then it is not because we need to remind Him of that in being good, nor are we attempting to change God’s mind. A prayer can be called the minimum effort for the most benefit. We reveal our concerns for others. We pray because our own human means are found lacking. We cannot always see the person we care about and we do not know what it is going through in its life. And we are often powerless in doing anything about it, when it comes to help the person to know the truth, to be able to improve its own life, and overcome temptations from within. This is why the prayer to God makes much sense, as the supreme means in helping the person we care about, even that we are not present with it, even that our human ability is found lacking. It is not like we do first need to say or do something ‘ultimate’ for that person before the person can be well once and for all. (The person does not become permanently well, because there will be another day after this day and the person will again be in need of something good to make it well.) But it is only sufficient that God can bless the person and change it from within. It did not involve any human confrontation with clever speeches and heroics feats, but God gave benefits directly to the person, as if such blessings had come out from nothing. We pray because we turn to God for that in helping the person we are unable to help. Our only virtue consists in that in knowing whom to turn to and in making our wish known.
               God is not being a biased and partial judge. Let’s say that there is a competition between two teams in sport. One does favour one team over the other because one’s relative is playing for it. It does still not mean that one should take the name of God in vain and ask God to become a partial judge in the game. It does still not mean that one should pray to God that He should give that team victory at the expense of the other team. What if there is another believer having a relative in the other team, and that believer is also asking God for victory at the expense of the team that one favours? How is God supposed to grant both petitions of those two believers of opposite sides! What if the competitors of both teams are being ordinary and decent people that are simply trying to do the right thing and they are equally deserving of fair verdicts? Hence the truly good thing is to pray to God that He should bless both teams, and help both teams to play well, and help both teams to have a good game to be enjoyed. Whatever the result of the game (winning and losing) then there will be a good spirit/atmosphere and the people involved can be contented with their performance. A corresponding thing can apply to war between two countries. Even that one does belong to one side then it does still not mean that one should ask God for help in destroying the other side. One should rather ask God to both bless one’s side and the other side. That it is asked God to help us be merciful to our enemies and to help our enemies to be merciful to us. That it asked God to both save us and our human enemies. That both sides will become victorious in regard to integrity and humane dealings. That neither side will lose in that regard. If God is blessing both sides at the same time then the people involved will become reasonable and decent enough in repenting of all this fighting, and soon find themselves willing to make peace on fair terms. If there are good people involved on both sides then they will become disgusted with the notion of killing people that are being good like themselves, and their good treatment of their enemies will deny their enemies any reason of hating them.

The faith in God is the same as faith in the possibilities of the goodness. The man believes in the truth and he keeps seeking the truth until he finds it. Even that the man does still not know the truth about something then he does still confirm that the truth does exist, and that the truth only waits to be discovered. Something similar applies when the man is being open for the possibilities of the goodness and he reaches out for them. It is turned to God for the will, the understanding, and the ability to do good. The faith reaches to the man’s attitude, the way he sees/notices everything, the way he understands everything, the way he responds to everything, and the way he endures everything. God can achieve anything and conquer anything within us. God can make our attitude conform to His will. God can draw us nearer to His attitude. The prayer prepares the man’s heart for God. The prayer prepares the man for that in doing the right thing. The man confesses the truth about his situation. The man describes what is being experienced at that moment. If the man has a hard time doing something then he simply confesses that it is so and he asks God to help change it. The prayer can also reach to the inability in praying. It can happen that the man experience himself ‘lukewarm’, where he does not feel himself being wholehearted in the faith and he lacks motivation, and he does not know what to say at that moment. But the man can still tell God all about it. The man is being aware about his restrictions and he is being open for a change. Instead of pretending to be perfect and coming up with beautiful words which he does not mean in his heart; then the man confesses it to God that he is not experiencing himself in a fit condition to pray. That his heart/attitude is not being right at that moment and that he needs help from God if he is going to approach God in a proper way. It is prayed for that in praying well. After having told God all about it then it is waited until God intervenes. Even if something does not happen immediately then the matter still gets resolved in the long run. The prayer can reach to the man’s will, willingness, interest, motivation, concern for other people, energy, and fortitude. The prayer can sharpen these things and make the man fit for the matters at hand. It can help give the man the will to do things. The man discovers the power in himself to do what is needed. The prayer worked, because the man is now already saying and doing the right thing. Something has somehow happened to make it so. Before the man knew it then he was already inclining to it. The man managed to stay long enough to say all the things that he needed to say and remain true about it. God has put His words into the man’s mouth and made the man capable of saying these good things in prayer. God has made the man able to be sincere and mean every word at that moment. God has made the man able to wish well and turn to God for help. Otherwise it would never have happened. Otherwise the man would still have found himself closed within, either unwilling or unable to do so. Hence the prayer can open the man’s heart for the right possibilities and help him reach out for them.
               First it is believed in the good possibility, and next it is confirmed it by holding one’s peace. By confirming God’s power in getting things done then it is ceased from one’s own human effort in forcing it. When we are being at peace then we let the matter rest (mention it no further and intervene no further). We allow God to do things from His end. We wait until something will somehow resolve the matter. It is God who does all the work. We can at most receive that which God has in store for us. We can at most hold our peace, and keep ourselves silent and still within, and wait with patience until good change happens within us. Before we knew it then the good state came over to us and we were already feeling better, knowing better, doing better, and faring better. Before we knew it then the subjective problems had already vanished and we are now being free from its awareness. There is a time that we forget all about our problems and we have our attention on the matters at hand. And when some time has passed then the problems reappear and try again to steal our attention. But later on something happens somehow which makes us again feel better and forget all about our problems. That can be called God’s intervention. That can be called the gift of God. Hence we should acknowledge that we cannot do anything about our internal condition until God will intervene again and change things. We should cease from our own mental effort and simply do nothing within while we are waiting. It can happen that we experience bad mental state, where delusions keep harassing us and symptoms keep reappearing. God’s interventions can describe itself in this. All of a sudden we begin to meditate on something, as if mental experience was passing through us. And when it is finished then we find ourselves in a different situation. Now everything it quiet and the bad things are nowhere to be found. It can be said that God as a clever healer shifted our attention temporarily elsewhere while He was fighting our battles behind the scene. We should have faith that in due time the good state will come over to us and drive away the bad state.
               There is a day before and after the night, and there is a night before and after the day. During the day the time is bright and the man is able to see well enough to go about his business, while during the night the time is dark and the man sees too little ahead to be travelling outside (This applies to the original time, or the time before human beings began to make use of electricity to lighten up things.) The bright time and the dark time take their turns, where each of them get their own half as separate domain and they rule/prevail within that time frame. This is a natural law which always applies and cannot be changed. So that during the night (dark time) then the man should stay at the same place and rest from his labour, until a new day begins and everything becomes visible again. But during the night the man should not pretend like that it is still a day (bright time), where he should not tell himself that there is something bright to be seen about this darkness. The man should not go outside and spend much effort in trying to find his way in the dark, which would otherwise make him get lost and too tired when a new day finally begins. The man should acknowledge that the time is always dark during the night and that there is nothing that he can do to change it, so he needs to wait it out. Even so applies to our internal activity, when there is experienced a good state for some time and a bad state for some time, when we forget all about our subjective problems for some time and when they reappear for some time. It is not like we should keep telling ourselves something ‘positive’ about our mind and pretend like the mind meant something differently with its wrong thoughts. We should not try to sort out the wrong thoughts during the mind’s deliberate persecution of our soul. We should not try to invent/lie something ‘good’ in order to rouse something good within ourselves, as if we were pretending that there was something bright to be found in this time of darkness. But we should rather acknowledge that now is a dark time within ourselves and we need to wait it out until there will rise a bright time within ourselves. We should keep to the good things which we stored up during the bright time (prosperity), and make use of them during the dark time (adversity). We should keep to the good experience and conviction that we had during the good time, and wait patiently during the evil time without adding or changing anything, without being swayed into something contrary to it. For example, we originally had a good time with another person. We should keep to that experience, and wait until we meet that person again as a continuation of it. In the meantime we let the original experience remain still and undisturbed. We do now feel the same way about the person that we felt about the person back then. We do now possess the same goodwill toward the person that we possessed toward it back then. We should not allow the mind to sway us from it when it is looked back, as if there was something less good or something more bad to be seen about it. We should not allow the mind to change our perception of the person in the meantime. But we rather stay faithful to the original experience (bright time) as a silent counter to the conflicting thoughts which can be had in the meantime (dark time). The time of darkness can also be likened to that when a boat is being driven by a storm or when it is abstained from food in the desert. There is nothing good to be found in that place and it should not be sought to see something good about it. We need to wait until the evil things pass away, and that we be led by the divinity to a different place. If the man finds himself in a middle of darkness, where there is darkness all around him and he cannot see anything on all sides; then the man should simply stay still on the same spot and wait until things will brighten up. The man should not deceive/fool himself into believing that he can make correct guesses and find his way in this darkness, since that it will only make him even more confused which way/direction is what and make him further away from the exit/deliverance. Even so when we experience obsessive thoughts accompanied by internal instability; then we should not hurry ourselves doing something and/or making changes to something. For example, we had already been doing something right, but these obsessive thoughts make us see something wrong about it, so that we try to fix the right thing with something wrong which ends up being its wrong replacement. It is made a needless change which is being erroneous, and we later have to spend further time in reverting it. If we lack certainty/conviction about that what is being true and we do not really understand that what we are trying to force through; then it is a sign that we need to stop and wait the matter out with patience. Hence in the beginning we should simply acknowledge that we do now not know what we are doing, and that we are now in no condition to make sound decisions.
               When God is with us then we see the environment as it is and we see other people as they are. But when the devil comes then he throws a dark veil over our head, so that it makes us see the environment in a dark way and we see other people in a dark way. The external things in question are not really dark. It does only seem so in our eyes while the dark veil is between our eyes and the external things in question. And some time later then God takes away this dark veil from our head, so that we will again be able to see the environment as it is and see other people as they are. We do not know the timing of these things. We do not know when this dark veil will be cast over our head, and we do not know how long we will have this dark veil over our head. We do not know when God will come back and take this dark veil away from our head. The timing is never the same. One time God came back after ‘this’ length of time, and another time God came back after ‘that’ length of time, and so forth. It is a matter of faith in waiting patiently for as long time as possible, since we never know when God will come back. When it happens that we have a dark veil over our head then we only need to wait it out, since God will either way come back and take this dark veil away. It is a matter of principle, something which God does for free because of His goodness. When it happens that we have a dark veil over our head (bad experience of everyone and everything) then we should not presume that we did something to call for this dark veil and explain something as its underlying cause (past incidents, past choices). And we should not try to say and do something in order to remove this dark veil over our head, since that dark veil is like a sticky material which will either way not come off. But we should acknowledge the natural laws which God has set and wait until things have come full circle in general. This bad experience we are having can also be likened to many walls which try to narrow us down in our mind. One wall comes from this side, and when we seek to escape from it then another wall comes from another side, and so forth, until something has managed to narrow us down into a specific wrong assumption and reaction. These illusionary walls seek to confuse us in regard to causality of things. It can seem like we are being punished for seeking to do the right thing, while we are being rewarded for seeking to do the wrong thing. These walls continue to chase us while we seek to do the right thing, and these walls seem to stop and give us respite when we change our mind (no longer seek to do the right thing). But all of this is being one great illusion. We are still being able to do the right thing and avoid the wrong things, regardless of all this activity in our mind. Even if our head is being sick and we are unable to think clearly; then we are still able to sense things in our heart and make use of the rest of the body (healthy parts). God is still capable of the ultimate decision through His Spirit in our heart. It can also be mentioned when an infant is not feeling well and it cries. The infant is having bad experience even that nothing bad is happening in the circumstances. This bad experience is something which comes and goes within. The infant does still not know how to talk, and it does still not understand that which is being said to it. This bad experience involves bad feelings without words. Adults know how to speak and they know what is being said to them. When the devil does cast a bad experience over an adult person then the devil also says something at the same time (thoughts), which makes it look like this bad experience is being caused by the words or the external matter which the words are supposed to reflect/involve. But that is being an illusion, because it is the devil himself which causes this bad experience through/with his presence. This bad experience would have happened either way, whether it would have involved words or not.
               The evilness strikes from the dark and not from the light. The evil spirit behind thoughts seeks to hide/conceal its own personal involvement from the man, while diverting the man’s attention to everything and everyone else. The man is being receptive to thoughts while he considers them to be his own, while he is being used/accustomed to hearing them, and while he considers them something casual or harmless in itself. The evil spirit which is whispering these thoughts to the man seeks refuge in the man’s ignorance (darkness) of the cause/maker of these thoughts. But if the man could actually see how monstrous and deformed that evil spirit looks like; then the man would become alarmed and be on his guard, and question the validity of that thought, and have serious doubts of having dealings with such dubious creature. Let’s say that the man is being depressed because some misfortune has befallen his beloved one, or the man is having worries over a person that he cares about and he cannot stop thinking about it in a bad way. When the man experiences thoughts which remind him of this then he can consider himself obligated to dwell on these thoughts and torment himself for the sake of another person. But the evil spirit which is behind these thoughts is being false and hypocritical, where the evil spirit does not care about the person which he mentions, and he is only mentioning that person in order to attack the man and to drag the man down with this. Hence the man should become aware of the ugly character behind these thoughts and what is the true motivation behind them, that the man might stand firm in rejecting every indecent mention of his beloved one, when it is made use of that person’s name as some kind of tool. A similar thing applies when the man is being conflicted about a person close to him in the past (parent), since that something good had been lacking in the person and it had neglected to do something good back then (guidance and support in the upbringing). The man is being divided what to feel about the person, because even that it can be acknowledged the faults of the person then it cannot be denied the decency it possessed, and even that it can be acknowledged the decency of the person then it cannot be denied the faults it possessed. When it is thought about the person then the man becomes immediately entangled with dissatisfaction over the past (lack of preventive measures early on which led to great and many troubles later on), and the man swings back and forth in either seeing something too bad or too good about the person. The very beginning of these thoughts lures the man into internal instability, during which he cannot think clearly/straight. If we would witness a wicked person deliberately mention bad incidents from the past in order to get to the man, or deliberately mention his beloved ones in a bad way in order to get to the man; then we would consider it indeed an ugly and despicable thing, and we would abhor such person and shun dealings with it. Even so we should treat the invisible mind every time the mind mentions something bad from our past, whether it involves misfortune we have experienced or misfortune of those that we care about.

7.2: Peace Within

When God makes His presence known to us then it does not consist in some kind of overwhelming sensations (as if it would be expected an ecstasy alike that had from an illegal drug). It can rather be said that the presence of God is able to benefit us in a discreet way. It might seem that everything is being just as silent and still/unmoving as before, unless that we have already received a benefit in our spirit and felt a change for the better. We can experience a peace come over us and some kind of purifying effects in our spirit, which makes us hold our peace and be silent, and enjoy the moment and be contented with our lot. And the presence of God can quiet down all activity in our mind, which makes us forget all about our personal problems and be eased of all our burdens. It had nothing to do with our human effort prior to God’s presence. But it was because we cast all our burdens upon God and allowed Him to take care of them on our behalf. After having continuously relied upon God then all these temptations and problems vanished all of a sudden, and we would no longer become aware about their existence. Everything seems to happen naturally of its own accord, and the blessings are already upon us before we know of it. It is not something which we can produce by our human effort, like by first saying this or that and then something is supposed to be immediately evoked in us. It is rather like the good state solely decides to come over to us and overwhelm us in benefits. There is experienced a good atmosphere, or felt a good spirit in the air. It can be felt a heat in the air, a gentle breeze, or like it is entered into a peaceful sphere. We have not seen the blessings of God, nor touched them like some material object, but our life has still taken a turn for the better, with its good sense and stable condition. But there are many men that demand signs from God, and expect some kind of momentary sensation. When that does not happen then it does not mean that God does not exist or that He is being powerless. But such men have already presumed everything in a foolish way, and looked for God in all the wrong places. When we need something within ourselves then we pray for it. It was previously had a hard time resisting temptation, but now something manages to restrain oneself from it or make one determined enough to reject it. Now it is felt the little strength needed to do the right thing and abstain from corruption. Everything might seem to be the same, and yet something has changed within to resolve the matter just enough. It was neither more nor less than what was precisely needed in the situation. It is prayed that one might have a right motive, a right intention, and a right attitude, in what way is noticed all things and met with them. That one might look upon every person with a pure and sincere eyes, and that one might only wish it well, and be concerned for its welfare, and bear with the person in its weakness. That one might appear outwardly to other people as one is inwardly, being free of contempt and covetousness, having nothing to hide or be ashamed of revealing. That one might not possess the will to sin, neither fantasise about sinful things, nor seek out opportunities to make it come true. The greatest blessings in life are free, and we can be blessed without even realizing it. It is something that we have taken for granted in being ‘ordinary’ and common. That to experience equanimity is not nothing but it is actually a good thing, because one is being free of the two extremes and thereby not having any self-delusional mood swings. It can again be mentioned that when we have difficulty resisting temptation, which thereby becomes a problem to us, so that we confess our frailty before God. It can happen that it is forgotten all about the subjective problem for many days or weeks in a row, until the problem begins to resurface and again tries to steal one’s attention. It is like one has hitherto been carried by an angel of God over all the obstacles on the ground. Now one has been put down on a ground and a devil is again tempting one with the same subjective problem, so that one does need to approach God again and again have a ‘free spiritual ride’.
               It is confirmed that God can make all His promises come true, and it is only a matter of time when it will happen. It can be superfluous thing to know about the process involved, what is happening in an invisible way behind the scene, what kind of power God is using in order to help us, or which of His emissary is being sent to us. It does not matter so long as we are able to receive God’s help and be relieved. The only thing required was that we should ask for a benefit and patiently wait for it in the meantime. There are good and valid reasons why the divine aid happens in an invisible way. For such information would either way be beyond our control, where even that we knew about it then it would still not speed up the process in any way. We are meant to believe that God will hear our prayers and make good things come to pass, according to His initiative and in His own time. But we do not actually control ‘how’ God’s power will manifest itself, or ‘when’ it will happen, since it does belong to the jurisdiction of God. It is thereby like we can only reveal ‘what’ we want from God, and perhaps ‘why’ we consider ourselves in need of it, like how it is supposed to benefit us and/or other people in the situation. But we should avoid all needless expectations, like when it is has already been imagined what kind of signs or miracles are supposed to happen. For example, we should ask God to heal our heart and soul. But it does not mean that we should expect to witness an angel, an earthquake, or a thunder at the same time. It is because such things are nothing more than superfluous ornaments, completely irrelevant to the actual healing, which could just as well reach us in a simple and discreet way. We would otherwise be creating our own restrictions and only get disappointed. It does not mean that God could or would not bestow benefits to our life, but we do only have ourselves to blame, for not having bothered to keep our eyes open for the real miracle. When we hope for good things then it is superfluous to imagine what is precisely supposed to happen in the circumstances and/or during human relations. We do not need to trouble ourselves about minor details. It is only sufficient to hope that the situation will change for the better, that things will turn out well in the end and that we will fare well, regarding the bigger picture or what is deemed most important. Like that we can remain on spiritual guard, the continual wellbeing of our beloved ones, and that to finish noble and constructive goals. So we can hope for good things to happen, while we allow God to determine ‘when’ and ‘how’ and ‘through which persons’ it will come to pass. It should not matter where the help will externally come from or by which person, so long as help will arrive. God is good and His goodness is being shared to us all. We draw good things from the same good source and make use of these good things for one another.
               It can apply in the situation that we do not need to ask God for this or that, as if we were really in need of such desirable things and they were able to benefit our life in some way. For that we can very well become healthy and happy and at peace without all such external things (wealth, expensive material possessions, outward beauty, popularity, success in sexual pursuits, failure of our enemies). These desirable things would either way have led to another kind of troubles and needless cares. This is why it can sometimes only be sufficient to ask God to bless us, according to that what God considers best for our welfare, although we do not know what it is. It is because God knows us more than we do know ourselves, and He knows it more than us what is able to benefit us most. We do not know if the desirable thing in question will really appeal to us, or if we are really being ready and worthy enough to receive it, since that something unexpected can happen later and change our life for the worse. It is thereby more prudent to ask God to do good things to us. We do not know what our true needs are and we are being unsure what we really want. But God knows it, and we know that God knows it. So we put our trust in God, that He knows what He is doing. The prayer is the wish, and God hears our prayer by giving us direct beneficial effects. The very means can be of secondary importance. It is not like something must first happen or be done by someone, and then afterwards will something else happen that we really want (what we are really after). When we pray to God then it can be skipped this (anticipated procedure) and gone directly to that what we really want. It would otherwise be a foolish thing if we were being very picky about the supposed means, while we would utterly fail to obtain any benefits, the end in sight. The means are only important if they are able to lead to a good outcome, but it should not be preferred foolish means above the outcome, the very reason behind everything. The faith is about adapting to God and His ways, but we should not attempt to make God adapt to our foolish presumptions and whims. God can bless us as if He would head directly for the outcome, since that God Himself is the means. God did not need to change everyone and everything around us. God only needed to change us; change our attitude about everyone and everything, change our understanding about everyone and everything, change our responsiveness to everyone and everything. That to become a new and better person will lead to a new and better approach. We will make better choices and fare better in our lives.
               It is a spiritual idolatry when the man worships his own prosperity, and becomes like a slave to pleasures and luxury, unwilling to say ‘no’ to his need for self-gratification. The man no longer makes decisions according to truth and morality, what is deemed to be right or wrong in general, what is being dignified and becoming him as a human being. But the man is only concerned about pursuit for pleasure and an avoidance of pain, regardless of the actual means (no matter how degrading to him). It can be mentioned when the man is already being healthy, free, sober, stable, at peace, light-hearted, happy, and untroubled. And yet the man begins to crave sinful means like debauchery. It would correspond to that if the man would crave food, even that he is not being hungry, when there is no hard/difficult experience within compelling him to seek food. Hence a spiritually filled (happy) man craves sinful pleasures, when he does not really need such things in addition. Selfish people do already experience inner emptiness and restlessness, so they rely upon debauchery in order to forget all about their selfish problems. Alcohol and sex is supposed to be the means that promotes happiness as the intended end/effects. But if the man is already being happy then he does not need to rely upon such means in the first place, since he does already experience good end/effects without the means. Selfish people are never able to become happy from within, even that they are constantly repeating sinful means. They become obsessive over the sinful means, even that these means do not lead to any lasting beneficial effects, so it is preferred the useless means above the end/goal in sight. The faith in God makes us able to head directly to the beneficial end/effects, like happiness and peace, even that we have done nothing and used nothing at all. We do not need any intercessors, like human means or earthly items in order to produce it. It is not like we do first need to own this or that, or do this or that, before we can finally become happy. It is something which is freely given to us by God. We can simply receive happiness at the very outset.

It can be discoursed on inner peace. Peace is obtained by making peace with God. Peace is obtained by making peace with one’s conscience. Once one is on God’s good side then it is experienced peace as its consequence. The heart is fixed, unmoved by the distractions of the mind. The mind can still meddle and interfere. But one does still not receive it into oneself. One does still not allow anything to disrupt one’s internal stability. It is like the head can at most be unquiet and restless while the rest of the body is being quiet and at rest. Peace does consist of calmness, silence, and stillness. First it is maintained calmness, by allowing everything within to pass through oneself. It is loosened up and ceased from all further effort/resistance. It is yielded to peace within. It is opened oneself for the good internal state and received it. Next it is maintained silence, by quieting down among everything which is happening within. It is ceased from having opinion by/of the things within. Even that it cannot be controlled the activity of the thoughts (automatic voice); then one can at least say nothing on one’s behalf (manual voice). It is come up with no further reactions and allowed things to wear out with the time. Thirdly, it is maintained stillness, by keeping to the same internal stance in the long run. No matter what happens then it is remained at the same internal spot, without wandering to the right or to the left. It is looked straight ahead, through all the thoughts getting in front of one’s attention. Finally, it is abstained from all thoughts which keep appearing and reappearing. Once becoming aware that one is beginning to wander in the mind then one does shift the attention back to nothingness. It is kept one’s distance from thoughts. It is not picked up the thread where it was last left off. Even that one does blunder and gets temporarily absorbed in thoughts; then one can still keep trying to stay away from it, repeatedly, little by little, until it has finally been obtained tranquility of mind. The mind can be likened to the sea. The thoughts of the mind are like the waves of the sea, driving us back and forth, to an inner place not of our choosing. The thoughts of the mind are like spiritual animals passing through, bumping into us here and there. The thoughts of the mind are like giants, constantly moving in front of us and blocking our view. Instead of gazing upon that what the thoughts say (and agree with them) then we should rather notice that thoughts are involved and do our best to avoid them. We should with a detached attitude notice the motions in our mind, in what kind of form the thoughts appear to us. All these unpleasant thoughts have to appear to us in a specific way. Every man should find his own description of his mental activity. We should cease to be credulous to the first contact with thoughts. We should rather get familiar with their structure and allow our familiarity to breed contempt of them.
               The Spirit of God in one’s heart is the true shelter, the true hiding place, the true anchor of the soul. The Spirit of God is located in one’s heart, but it is not located in one’s head/mind. One should have the ‘focus-point’ relaxed downward to the middle point (where the heart and the breathing is), away from the head. It should be spiritually detached the head from the rest of the body. One has to learn to live without the mind. It is like one would be constantly moving on with one’s life and doing one’s daily business, without it being in any connection with that what is happening in the mind at the same time. It is lived amidst thoughts, alongside thoughts, without being part of these thoughts, without agreeing with them, without yielding to them. It is like one’s head is being possessed by an evil spirit, when an uncontrollable obsession (spiritual giant) is taking place, which might seem to be irresistible. And yet one can flee to the heart as a hiding place and stay there until all of this will pass over. When there is a conflict in the head, where unwanted thoughts keep coming and it cannot be stopped thinking something bad; then it should be simply left the head and not intervened there. It is acknowledged that this part of the body is expendable to the rest of the body, and that the rest of the body can continue its function without it. It is kept to that what is sensed in the heart and followed its personal conviction. It is kept to the understanding which one is given at the moment it is called for, which God has put into one’s heart. It is waited for the inspiration (moving breath) to appear and gotten blown with it while it does last. That to be selfless is to be spiritually untouchable. It is like one’s invisible and silent ‘focus-point’ is being spirited away from the body, so there is nothing within the body which the mind can notice and grab and squeeze/narrow (attachments, concerns, cares). It is like one’s body becomes dead/stony and motionless to all evil influence. It is like one’s body becomes something of a ghost, being clear like a glass which can be seen through and having no spots in between, and being air-like so that all things can pass through it without hitting anything, and being so light in weight that it can easily be blown to a safe side and not get stuck. Or that to be spiritually pure and innocent is like being a stuffed toy in the form of an animal (teddy bear), which is being so soft that when a strongest giant does repeatedly hit it with a sledgehammer then nothing harmful ever happens to it. Or that one’s soul becomes streaming water-like that it can bypass or run smoothly along any rough gripping/handling of the giant. Noah’s flood can be likened to a dark tainted water flowing upwardly in our spiritual body (soul), beginning at our feet and finally reaching to the top of our head. It is like we are having bad experience of everyone and everything, both when it is thought about someone or something (whatever the mind gives its attention to), and when our body feels like a shadowy prison or in captivity of death (emptiness). And yet our invisible and silent faith is like a boat which manages to stay above all this bad personal experience, where it manages to reach beyond our mind and body. All this bad experience is happening within us, and yet somehow our ‘focus-point’ is being spirited away from it. Or our invisible and silent conviction is being so tiny/little in itself that our mind and body is unable to grab/catch it and squeeze it. It is true that the man’s head can temporarily shake when he experiences unpleasant/shameful memories, and yet it involves uncontrollable reaction which comes and goes. The man’s heart and soul is still not being hit by it, since he keeps moving on and doing that what he is doing, without stopping and trying to save himself from the unpleasant experience. When it is participated in something constructive and gotten involved in its experience; then it is forgotten all about oneself, as if one’s self/ego had ceased to exist. It corresponds to that when we cast all our burdens upon the divinity and allow it to take care of them, so that we are being freed from our own self while we are experiencing things and we can make the most of the present moment. When it is cast one’s burdens upon on the divinity then it is like the divinity does temporarily lend one a life with good experience, where it is had natural ‘flow’ within, and where seemingly hard things become easy once it has been begun doing them, and before one knows it then it has already been made progress. When it is entered the rest of God and ceased from one’s human effort; then that inner peace becomes the greatest preventive measure against temptations. The inner peace excludes the mind from interfering in the first place. It is not like the matter is first about overcoming temptation and then afterwards experience an inner peace as a reward. The inner peace in itself does overcome temptation on our behalf (automatically).
               The peace is a gift from God. God is our means to that in obtaining peace. And if we are able to maintain peace then it is because God maintains the peace on our behalf. The Sabbath (day) is about ceasing all inner effort and to rest through all inner burdens, that the man might become aware of the uncontrollable thoughts passing in his mind. And this continual waiting in peace helps the man to discern the voice of God in his heart, since the man is being spiritually alert enough in noticing the tiny change/movement within himself which blows him into the right direction (moving-breath). Sabbath is the same thing as if it would be spent one day per week upon meditation. A true meditation is about keeping one’s spiritual body still and fixed in its place, while the actual physical body does not need to be still and fixed in its place at the same time. One does not have to wait idly for a long time before obtaining inner peace and maintaining it. One does not have to be in some kind of preparatory position and make use of techniques (focus on breathing or parts of the body). It can be treaded a moderate middle path by possessing peace within while the body is being industrious on the outside. When the man is under the grace of God then he is being blessed with inner peace for free, so that there is already a good state over him preventing the bad state from getting his further/whole attention. That to be free of selfish desires makes the man spiritually sober for the most part, most of the time, and in the greater matters, which makes it acceptable and bearable enough. Even that the man not does experience complete peace in everything; then he is still being free of all the bad things which could have disrupted his heart and soul (uncertainty, obsession, craving, fear, anger, restlessness). Figuratively, if the man is already being about 95 percent at peace then why bother to spend many hours (or multiple amount of time) upon meditation for meagre 5 percent to reach 100 percent? That would be to do something too much at the expense of something else; for some measly increase that is being negligible in itself. The internal condition is already set right and finished by God’s intervention. It falls under God’s jurisdiction and He is the one who takes care of it. So the man can just as well have his eyes on a noble goal and become so involved in it that he forgets all about himself, without trying to change anything in regard to his internal activity. It is a contradiction/hypocrisy when people seek to escape from distractions by relying on meditation techniques, while they still cling to selfish desires and cares of the mind. It does only offer them temporarily relief from distractions while leaving its very cause intact. It is both wanted to do the right thing and the wrong thing at the same time, so that it is experienced inner conflict in the process. It is an unworthy thing when it is sought for inner peace only so that the man might become more focused in selfish pursuits and more likely to obtain success in it. The man must be willing to deny the wrong things for the sake of the right things, and stick with the same conviction in the long run before finally reaping benefits from it. It can also be spoken against that of coming with beautiful lies or fictional descriptions in order to arouse something good within during meditation. True spiritual benefits can only come through the truth. We need to wait patiently until the Spirit of God intervenes in our heart. We need to stay even in the truth when making a morally right choice, which includes that in denying all false and luring arousals bound to our ego, and then the truth will work out for us. If we abide by the truth and live for the truth then the truth will set us free. It is had an invisible and unhearable movement/change within. Something manages to further open and soften our heart to the truth, instead of something closing and hardening our heart. Something manages to ease and lighten our heart, instead of something troubling and burdening our heart. Something manages to still and stabilize our heart, instead of something driving/wandering our heart out of its place. In a moment (as in a blink of an eye) our experience is changed into a good one. The man’s soul can be likened to a spiritual house which has many rooms (qualities, factors). If the man has a specific vice/weakness then it is like he will become troubled every time he enters that specific room (chaos). Every time the man thinks about that factor or show attention to it then he will experience inner conflict. If the man manages to replace a specific vice/weakness with a virtue then it is like that specific room will get filled with peace. Now that part/factor is being resolved. Henceforth the man will remain calm regarding that part/factor in his life, and he is able to move on with his life without looking back. The man is on a spiritual journey his entire life. When it is managed to show faith in the divinity during a spiritual hindrance/opposition then the divinity will overcome it on our behalf, and then we will be blessed with inner rest/peace in that matter. The intended end is to become calm (or at rest) in every matter and every experience. When we are being tempted then it is like an evil spirit does carry us and flies with us into a bad room (bad inner place). When something brings us spiritual relief then it is like an angel of God does carry us and flies with us into a good room (good inner place). When we manage to overcome temptation then that bad room will stay locked and we will not enter it again. We will not again be troubled by the same problems. When we manage to show faith in the divinity then the good room will stay open and we can enter it again. We will be able to maintain the good things in our lives and approach the divinity again for the same good things.
               It can again be spoken against that of sitting idly for a long time during meditation. It is outside our control when the mind does decide to arouse thoughts in us and how often it happens. It is outside our control when all these obsessions and distractions take place in our mind. It makes no sense that we should stop our lives and sit idly for a long time every time the mind chooses to intervene in us in a bad way. If some person was following us and saying all kinds of bad things to us; then we should not sit down and wait idly until we cease to hear anything, since it is entirely depended upon that person alone in choosing to stop speaking to us. Even so we should not presume that we can do something to make these thoughts stop appearing to us and change that what is happening within us. We rather need to keep moving on with our lives and focus upon a constructive goal, while at the same time we are being still/motionless within and waiting within. We should symbolically sit idly within during the mind’s interference (as if we were downing our will to the same relaxed stance), instead of us literally sitting idly with our physical body. If we are having difficulty withstanding distractions in our mind then it is only sufficient to approach the divinity in a prayer and get straight to the point. We simply let the divinity know that we are having difficulty withstanding distractions in our mind and that we ask it for help in freeing us from its influence. It is preferable to that in sitting idly for a long time while it is tried to do this or that in order to obtain a peace of mind. If we want a peace of mind then we simply ask the divinity for a peace of mind. We do not first need go at great length in resisting countless thoughts and try to change that what is happening within us. The mind will either way lie something new instead of the old thoughts, so it is like this process will continue endlessly and still nothing good will happen within. It is only the divinity which can arouse good things in our heart and soul. We cannot force the divinity to arouse good things in us when it suits us. Even that we focus upon it in our willpower and make use of worldly methods/techniques then we only end up on deceiving ourselves or being deceived by our mind. Even that the devil ceases to tempt us for some limited time then his inactivity is not the same thing as God was now doing a miracle and rewarding us for current effort. Let’s say that the devil has hitherto been attacking us from all sides in our mind, and nothing that we invent and say regarding it manages to make the devil stop his attacks. But the devil can fool us by deliberately stopping his attacks for a short time, to make it seem like our last argument and method were now finally working, and that these inventions of ours could really save us from the attacks. So that we obtain false confidence in things that are being just as vain and transient as all the other things that we have resorted to in our human might. After a short time the devil decides to resume his activity in attacking us from all sides, and when we rely again on these seemingly life-saving things then they fail to do anything. These vain and transient things never worked out in the first place. The divinity did never reward us for making use of these vain and transient things. All of this was being one great illusion. A corresponding thing applies to all these tricks and methods during meditation. A non-intervention of the devil is not the same thing as if we had found God (enlightenment). Let’s say that the man is being disturbed by unwanted bad thoughts which keep coming over to him and which he is unable to prevent/control. The man does stop his life and he begins to reason with himself what is calling for such bad thoughts, as if he had done something to deserve them. The man keeps inventing these and those reasons in order to explain it, and he invents these and those remedies which are supposed to appease the mind. But this bad process in the mind has really nothing to do with the man himself and what is now his current attitude, and what is now his current choices and experienced circumstances. This is happening solely because of the mind’s malice toward the man. The mind is persecuting the man’s soul. The mind is making use of wrong things in order to steal the man’s attention from the right things. When the man does experience temporary respite from the mind then it does not mean that one of these invented reasons is being a true explanation, nor that one of these invented remedies is being a true solution in appeasing the mind. Just like this opposition was really being uncalled for and undeserving; then its presumed explanation and appeasement is being needless. It should not be participated in the mind’s game in chasing for ‘good’ consequences in the mind and to flee from ‘bad’ consequences in the mind. The mind is an unjust judge which makes it seem like a right attitude and right choices do call for bad consequences in the mind, while a wrong attitude and wrong choices do call for ‘good’ consequences in the mind. The mind did never do anything good. The mind makes it seem like good things are happening when the mind deliberately makes a short pause in its persecution. If the man stays sincere/true and consistent in his conviction then he will keep experiencing opposition from the mind, all the time. If the man keeps changing his answers and making guesses, and coming up with a temporary pretentious show in order to appease the mind; then the mind can for a short time seem to reward him for it through fleeting sensations and misleading bodily signs. But it will only happen for a short time and the insincere/false man soon finds himself back in the same position. All of this is about the man undergoing a spiritual test in his life, whether he will stand fast in his conviction and keep doing the right things he had been intent upon doing before the test, no matter what can change within him.
               It can be mentioned when a selfish man is now feeling miserable, and he does look to the past and how everything was supposed to be better back then (nostalgia). But during that time in the past that man was also being selfish and doing the wrong thing. The difference between the present and the past is that in the divinity had previously been encouraging the man to repent and to do the right thing, which that man was never willing to consider and act upon. Now the man is experiencing the bad consequences from his previous wrong choices. The divinity is now punishing the man for his failure to repent and improve. During that ‘time for repentance’ the divinity chose to hold back the wrath stored up and delay/postpone retribution, while being patient with the man and bearing with him and offering him further chances in being redeemed from his selfish way of life. This ‘good old time’ (time of prosperity, golden age) was not being caused by the man’s attitude and choices. Despite all these good experiences or good turn of events; the man never allowed it to change him in a good way. If the man does now find himself punished by the divinity for his failure to repent back then; then it does not mean that all hope is lost and that the man has become permanently irredeemable. Even now the man can humble himself and assume responsibility for the repercussions of his actions, and become willing enough to endure these repercussions for as long time as possible, until the divinity deems/decides otherwise. It is a gesture in good faith, where the man is not trying to escape the repercussions from his previous failure to repent, but the man is now repenting and improving himself that it might be prepared a time of prosperity when these repercussions have ended. Metaphorically, although the divinity has burned down all these selfish things the man had previously built, and the man is now sitting astonished in the ashes; then it is still being open for the man to start from nothing and build a new decent life for himself. ‘Nostalgia’ can be likened to that if the man was now having a hangover and feeling miserable, and the man tries to comfort himself by thinking back to the night before when he had been intoxicated and having a good time. This hangover would never have happened if the man had not been intoxicated prior to it. The ‘good time had back then’ did never involve a healthy living in the first place. The man had been so vainglorious and self-indulgent back then that it seemed like a good experience. And yet it was really his ego which was being raised by something false and unjustified, only to later drop down and shatter by something true and justified. The time that the selfish man experienced as ‘heaven’ was being a ‘hell’ to others (the outcasts). For example, the selfish man had once been popular in his youth, but during that time he had been treating his weak brethren as ‘trash’ and ‘pushing them out of the way’ (excluding) and exalting himself at their expense. A time of prosperity is not only about being free of problems and having a comfortable life. It is also about improving as a person and obtaining a spiritual progress. We should not consider our present time to be bad when we are being free of blame and doing the right thing, even that we are having bad experience within and without. Despite all these bad consequences in our mind and body, and despite all these bad consequences in circumstances and among other people; then we did still never do anything to deserve it and call for it. And we should not consider our present time to be good when we are full of blame and doing the wrong thing, even that we are having seemingly good/positive experience within and without. All these good things were really being caused by the good attitude and choices of someone else. We only happened to be near when the divinity was blessing someone else, without us having contributed anything good in the situation.

The Gospel of Christ is like an inner constitution for the individual. The same spiritual laws (morality) continue to apply to the human soul, regardless of time and place. The human body is nothing without the soul. The soul controls the body and determines it’s potential, for better or worse. That to be human means that we will experience love versus desires, inspiration versus delusions, and peace versus impulses. Such things are indeed impalpable, something which cannot be seen and touched, and yet it can still be experienced from within. The faith in God is about unlocking His spiritual values, like charity, courage, wisdom, humility, temperance, and patience. And where there are spiritual values there are also benefits, like inner purity, sobriety, stability, peace, equanimity, light-heartedness, alertness, and responsiveness. The spiritual values are the source of everything else. It drives the man from within and determines whether he will obtain success in his undertakings. The faith is not the same thing as perfectionism, as if we would first need to do this or that before obtaining grace from God. It is rather about acknowledging our human frailty, that we are unable to overcome ourselves and become virtuous unless we do first receive God into our lives. The only thing required is to believe that God is capable of helping us, that He is concerned for us and is willing to redeem us from our sins, even that we are being imperfect and we cannot accomplish something on our own. First did God show us grace and became a part of our life, and next were we able to become a decent person, led by our conscience and only wishing well. This means that God’s presence is the cause, and our personal improvement is the consequence. First God showed us grace and then everything else came by itself, with all its spiritual progress. All the good things are originated from God, and shared with us as free gifts. But we did never have anything to offer in the first place. It is us whom are in need of God, but He does not need us in a sense, since God is already perfect and owns everything. It is not good works which are the cause of divine grace. It is not like the man does first need to do something to prove himself and deserve divine grace, and then afterwards feel himself saved by God. A self-righteous man forces it upon himself to do good deeds, when he is really unwilling to do so and it is not done with a right understanding. That man does still cling to his self/ego, either fearing or expecting something else when doing something (ulterior motives). Good works are rather meant to be the consequence of divine grace. Because the man is already saved by God then he is willing to do good works for free. The man simply believes in the value of the good choice, and he feels like doing it, and he is thankful for the opportunity. It is done the right thing because it is the right thing to do. Because God has changed the man and made him into a good person then the man is being drawn to good things, and he inclines to them, and he aspires for them. Divine grace motivates and encourages good works. It does merely reflect and confirm that what has already happened from within. When it is given alms to the poor or donated to a charity then it is not because we expect to feel good about it afterwards. Because we already feel good and have all our spiritual needs taken care of; then we are being grateful enough that we freely choose to help other people. The good work is being straightforward in itself, that it might benefit the wellbeing of other people and bring them relief in their difficult circumstances (distress). We are being freed from the need to seek expensive pleasures/luxuries or remedies/therapy, and we do not need to travel somewhere else to find something good or to escape something bad. There was never any spiritual lack in us in the first place to call for such search. The faith does reach to the man’s love for God and the man’s love for his neighbour. The former is internal, while the latter is external. If we love God with all our heart and soul then the intended end/outcome of that faith is peace within. If we love our neighbour as ourselves then the intended end/outcome of that faith is mercy toward the poor and the needy.
               When we invest in the wellbeing of the poor and the needy then it makes us invest in a spiritual/heavenly treasure. That spiritual treasure does manifest itself in a divine luck. There will always happen something good in time to bring us relief in our time of distress. The divinity is capable of creating favourable changes in the situation. The divinity is capable of making a right person be there at the right moment and right place in helping/delivering us, which might have seem to be a happy coincidence to us, and yet it was deliberately planned by the divinity long before it. That to become lucky in a critical situation or regarding our most important needs, that indeed is priceless. It is something which no money can buy, and which no material object can be used to trade/exchange for, and which no worldly worth can be equalled to. That to help the weak for free makes the divinity help us for free in our weakness. Also, charity toward the poor and the needy is in itself being a preventive measure against thieves and frauds/scammers. It cannot be robbed the generous man of his wealth if he has already given away all or most of his wealth to the poor/needy. (It does of course apply that the generous man does first satisfy his general needs and spends a little something on entertainments, and then afterwards he gives away all the surplus to the poor and the needy.) It cannot be robbed someone who does not have anything to be robbed of. Because the generous man is free of covetousness then he cannot be defrauded by those that appeal to the covetousness of their targets/victims and deceive them with promise of imaginary things (of acquiring more wealth). Finally, a generous man can be blessed with good taste. He does not waste his money upon expensive junk or dull/boring entertainments. Somehow he is able to find the best material in each category (the few things of the best quality), instead of going through everything belonging to one category (which includes all those of poor quality and mediocre quality). The man with good taste manages to make good use of the time, so that he is able to refreshen himself between hard work.
               The essence of the faith consists in Jesus Christ Himself, and how He lived among us in this world. The Lord is the living example of the faith, with its principles, accomplishments, and victories. It did not only reach to the activity among men, but also to the activity of the soul. The Lord obeyed God in every matter, and He conquered temptation in every matter. The life of Christ was perfect and nothing more needed to be added. The man must become like the Lord if he is ever going to do the same things. And that can only happen if the man receives the Lord into his life and is remade in His spirit. First the man must become pure from within before he can speak and act in a pure way. There must come pure intentions from a pure heart. The man will otherwise not be able to have pure intentions while his heart is impure. The deeds can only become good if the intentions are good. The deeds can otherwise never become good if the attitude behind it is false and selfish. This is why Jesus Christ is the centre of the faith, the very foundation of everything. For that only His presence is able to change our heart and our soul and our spirit, and keep our mind and body in check. It should not only be looked upon that what the Lord preached and practiced, but also what He never preached nor practiced. The true believers are meant to behave after His good example, even as the Son proved to be noble and altruistic like the Father. The followers can prove to be frail, prone to error of judgment and mistakes. But the Lord Himself can never be blamed for anything. The Lord would have done the perfect thing in our position. And we can also become blameless in everything, if we will only heed His teachings in our heart and apply it to our life. It is a good rule of thumb to ask ourselves what Jesus Christ would have done in our position, and what He would never have done in our position. We can be imperfect and guilty of faults, but we do still always believe that the Lord is perfect and blameless. This is justification by faith, to believe that the Lord is true and just and able to save us; regardless of that what we have hitherto become and done in our life, and where we are now at.
               When Jesus Christ carried our sins to/on the cross then it did not only reach to the external behaviour. The Lord has underwent every bad internal experience of human beings. He has already confronted and overcome every desire of the heart there is, every delusion of the mind there is, and every impulse of the flesh there is. All these bad things passed through the Lord without ever corrupting Him. All these bad internal experiences can be likened to dark clothes which the Lord wore, without ever being part of His own body. These bad things were like a sticky matter on the soul, but not of the soul and not in the soul. The Lord maintained an innocent life amidst all these thoughts and mental symptoms. Hence the Lord has the rightful position to intervene and save us from every bad internal experience there is. The Lord has already done it, and He can do it again in us all, as many times as He wants. By overcoming all these temptations then the Lord collected every spiritual victory there is. The Lord unlocked every good possibility in his life. All this good sense, good qualities, and benefits are contained in one man. And through that same one man are all things made accessible to everyone. The faith of Abraham reveals the faith of the Lord. The meekness of Moses reveals the meekness of the Lord. The mercy of David reveals the mercy of the Lord. All these Biblical figures from Abel to Zechariah reveal the good qualities which would be gathered together in the child of promise. The Lord does possess the power to share His spiritual victory with us, so that we will reap all the benefits from His victory. It does not only reach to a right answer and an inner strength in order to overcome temptation, but also what happens after it has been overcome it, the final destination. It can be headed directly to that in experiencing the effects of that in being victorious (feeling good).
               That to be under the grace of God can be likened to the relationship between an infant and its parents. The parents take care of all the needs of the child, and that child does not have to do anything except to receive good things from them. Even so the divinity does freely choose to share all good things with us, even that we are being so imperfect and restricted, ignorant and incapable. The infant is being breastfed by its mother, where the infant receives nourishment (milk) from the middle-part (torso) of her body. The lungs (the main breathing part) are underneath the breasts, and the heart is stationed in between them. Even so we are being nourished by the inspiration from the Spirit of God in our heart. An infant is in ideal condition to watch and listen and learn from its parents, because the infant is like a blank page in its heart and soul. Since the infant has only recently come into the world then there is no old/dry knowledge (or accumulated wrong opinions) getting in the way of the new/fresh knowledge being taught by its parents. And every time that the infant has a bad experience (unrest) then it cries to its parents, where it makes use of the one and the same thing to let it’s parents know about it, and then the parents immediately seek to comfort and soothe it. A similar thing applies when we are having difficulty resisting temptation and we experience ourselves weak, which we thereby consider to become a problem in our eyes. The only thing required is that we approach the divinity for help and confess the truth about our position. Then the divinity will do something within us to calm us down. It can be said that during our whole lifetime, regarding every experience we have within and without; then we are again and again being tested, whether we will continue to have faith in the divinity to calm us down and make us be at rest. No matter how difficult and unpleasant experience we can be having, whether it stems from seemingly great matter or trivial matter (since we can know it with ourselves that we should not be so troubled by such trivial incident, and yet we cannot stop experiencing awkwardness and restlessness about it); then it is only sufficient to believe that God can lead us through this bad experience. There can be many bad things going on in the world, and yet the infant does not understand what is happening and is not being aware of it. The infant only looks to its parents for comfort. They are the centre of its existence. Even so we should not become troubled about all the wrong things happening in the world, these things which are beyond our control, but instead look up to God and have faith that He is over all these things and able to make things turn out good. Abraham sojourned (had a temporary stay) in many places, without settling permanently in each one. Abraham had faith in that what God promised, and he was willing to travel to the unknown. He kept waiting for further command from God, and while he waited then he was at peace. It does correspond to the spiritual journey within ourselves. When we are being led into a bad inner place, which involves a bad personal experience, then we are not supposed to stop on a temptation and justify it being a permanent (settled) part of ourselves (corruption). We are not supposed to stay long on a temptation, like when it is prolonged its bad influence through our own compliance or needless effort in trying to save ourselves from it. We are rather meant to keep enduring this bad experience long enough that God deems it timely to save us from it and take us away from it. Hence we stay for a short time on this bad inner place, and God helps us to keep moving on with our lives, until we come across another bad inner place, and so forth. We stay/remain calm and wait long enough for God to intervene within us. In our lifetime we travel through all these inner places of the world (image of the world, under the power of the Enemy), without us belonging to any one. We keep looking up to Zion, the kingdom of God, which is not of this world. The moral principles of God are our spiritual map, guiding us closer to His spiritual kingdom.

7.3: Being a Believer

It can be mentioned a common beginner’s mistake when reading the Scripture. The man spends much time reading the Scripture, and he seemingly knows much about of what has been said and done in the Scripture. And yet the man has still not laid a single thing to his heart. He has still not opened his heart to the meaning, and still not sought to understand it further, and still not allowed the faith in God to reach within him. His general attitude and conduct remains unchanged, just as before he began reading the Scripture. When reading the Scripture the man keeps jumping from one place to another, randomly and hastily, without ever stopping at a single place and applying it to his life. The man has managed to read about thousand moral principles, and yet he jumps over each and every one. It would be more prudent if the man would learn few moral principle at a time, and only focus upon these few until the man has managed to accustom himself to it with the time, whether it will take a couple of weeks or months. It would be more prudent to apply a single moral principle to his life before the man can deem himself ready to know about another principle. This does at least apply to the fundamental moral principles, and/or moral principles that are near/related to one another. Other principles can wait, like those which are seemingly hard to grasp and apply to his life, or regarding lesser matters which are not being as important as the first principles, or which are depended upon the first principles to succeed and are really meant to smoothen/refine their edges. The Lord is our shepherd and we are the sheep of His pasture. Let’s allow our shepherd to take us out to the pasture and give us our mouthful of grass when we are hungry. As if we were taking baby-steps and only focusing upon one thing at a time. We should not hoard up a hill/mountain of rotten grass (too late) and never bother to follow the Lord anywhere. For example, it can be mentioned three moral principles which would be a good start in believing in God. First, that the man should worship God in spirit and in truth. This applies to sincerity and truthfulness of heart, that in approaching God with genuine awe and humbly bowing before God in our heart, and calmly and patiently waiting until the Spirit of God will touch the hidden string of our soul. Second, that if the man seeks to save his life then he will lose it, but if the man loses his life for Christ’s sake then the man will find it. This means that we should cease to selfishly try to save ourselves from the mind, and internally cease to be driven back and forth by the two extremes, and instead become crucified/still within. Third, that the man should not throw his pearls before swine. That we should cease to waste time and effort upon trying to convince or change false and hypocritical people. That includes the devils which are arousing all these bad uncontrollable thoughts in us.
               The ‘unbelievers’ can be led by God by being led by their conscience, even that they do not believe formally in Jesus Christ, even that they are not being ‘religious’ like those that are being considered ‘religious’. Many of them do still belong to God in their heart, since they heed and obey the good things which are originated from Him. It is thereby believed indirectly in God, through His sense of truth and justice, which is either way meant to be the end of the faith (final destination). Such men are not really ‘unbelievers’. But the term does rather apply to amoral people (spiritually indifferent), whom do not believe in truth and human decency above self-conceit and selfishness. Jesus Christ is the Truth itself, and those who do not reject the truth do not reject Christ. Christ is already working in them through the truth even that they do not know about Christ through the Scripture/Bible. The faithful unbeliever is someone who does not reject Christ, at least not deliberately, although he can reject the religions of the world and belong to none of them. If he does officially reject Christ then it is because he does not know any better. But if he would be led into the truth (and that truth become part of his conscience) then he would officially confess Christ. But there are many people whom openly pretend to believe in Jesus Christ, by seemingly agreeing with Him in their thought and words of their mouth, while they are being utterly faithless in conviction and choices. It is thereby shown faithlessness indirectly, when truth needs to be confessed and moral choices need to be made, so there is no context between that which is being said and that which is being done. A faithful unbeliever is preferable to a faithless believer, while it is preferable to be a faithful believer than a faithful unbeliever. The faithful believer knows about God and how to approach Him, so that God can help him head straight for the right thing in what most efficient way. But the faithful unbeliever relies upon his human understanding and human ability, and has thereby more trouble doing the right thing. He can often get delayed by something in between (distractions in his mind), or spend more time upon something in between (needless additional effort), although he manages to do the right thing in the end. It can be mentioned when something is found missing or not functioning properly in the chain/sequence of attitude and understanding and ability to follow good through. The man can indeed know the right thing and be willing enough to do it, but he still finds himself unable to do it (as if it was being denied him by his own body, or something stiffens up in him and he cannot pass that spiritual wall). The ability itself is still out of reach. Only those can do right whom it has been given by God. That applies both to the believer and the unbeliever. This also applies to the one who is writing this. He is being no exception to such restriction. When most clever and powerful devils persecute the man then he needs divine assistance. Supernatural assistance is required against supernatural enemies. There is need for divine benefits to counter and nullify the bad influence which forces itself upon the man internally. The faith in God helps to restrain the man and hold him even/balanced. The faithful believer can identify the enemies behind temptations and fight spiritual battles in a proper way. Otherwise the man would have a hard time resisting temptations which he fails to understand. Much time and effort can be spent upon needless struggle against needless problems (illusions). One of the purpose of this work is to help people resist the mind in what most efficient way, with a minimum time and effort spent. That does help speed up the process in doing the right thing.
               God knows what truly dwells within each man and understands his position. The Lord does already understand how we feel, what we are in need of, what we are thinking about, and what we are about to say to Him. He does already know everything there is about our attitude, our motives, our intentions, our premises, our expectations, and our fears/worries. The Lord does already know why we are doing this, for what and/or for whom. He already knows what we are trying to do, what we hope to attain, and what we intend to do after having attained the same. It can apply that the man would have believed in Jesus Christ if he only knew better and ‘how’ to do it (in contrast to the wrong means which follow Christian religions). The man might deny Christian religions and organizations, but it does still not mean that he has denied Jesus Christ in his heart. Religion is the man’s version of the faith. Religion is the man’s interpretation of the Scripture/Bible. There exist many different versions and interpretations. Even that religions can be a failure and disappointment then it does still not undermine the Scripture in any way. What the man can touch and make, that same can be corrupted. But the spiritual values of the faith continue to exist pure in heaven, being safely stored and made accessible at any time to those that believe. It is believed in and received spiritual things, beyond the man’s physical reach. Hence the man can lose faith in the religions of the world and reject their teachings, at the same time that he continues to be open for God and His words, waiting for it to be revealed. And the man might deny religious delusions, self-righteous interpretations of the Scripture, but it does still not mean that he has denied the Scripture. Many people have given up on the Scripture, not because of the original meaning or the moral value of the teachings, but it was rather because the Enemy tempted them with wrong assumptions. Remember when the Enemy tried to tempt the Lord into casting Himself down from the temple, by quoting a specific place in the Scripture, unless it was put into a wrong context. It can thereby apply that people hate such religious delusions and do not want to become like the false/phony believers, but they mistake the Scripture for being the cause of it. However, if that people really knew God then they would follow Him, because they do still believe in His truth and goodness, and have not betrayed God in their heart.
               In our times the Law of Moses is considered to be too harsh. Still, these are the kinds of punishments all of us would deserve for breaking the law. And yet the justice does never stand lonesome. Justice can be accompanied with the mercy of God. This means that we are indeed guilty of transgressions and deserve to be punished, and yet it is still within the power of God to pardon us and redeem us from it. It is not like God is cheating and breaking His own law, but God has offered His Son to take the punishment instead, as the only lawful thing to be done to even things out. The Law is still in full effect, what is deemed to be a crime and that it should be punished accordingly, unless that the Lord has directed it to Himself, as if hostages were being exchanged. The Lord goes from the good side over to the bad side, where He willingly offers Himself to be taken instead of us, that we might safely go from the bad side over to the good side. In our times people consider the Law of Moses to be controversial. It is not because the law does somehow encourage iniquity, but rather because the punishments for iniquity seem too harsh. It is generally agreed among men what is considered to be unlawful, a crime, a transgression, an iniquity, an offence. It can be mentioned crimes like murder, theft, and false witness. It must of course be upheld law and order, where it is made an example of the transgressor in order to enforce discipline upon the rest, to prevent similar crimes and similar attitude behind it in the future. A truthful and decent person should beware of presuming that everyone else are being just as truthful and decent. There is entirely different nature at work in the wicked person. A wicked person is never willing to confess anything and nothing is able to arouse a sense of decency in it. The Law of Moses does not seem to make sense if one presumes that everyone are being truthful and decent, while the Law of Moses makes sense when it comes to punish those that are being insolent and despicable in their dealings. In our times it can be mentioned gangs of young people which attack innocent persons for no reason, and organized crime which systematically undermines the society. People can be so insolent and despicable that they cannot be restrained from anything insolent and despicable, and they remain unrepentant and stubborn about everything. When we live in a society where most of the people are being truthful and decent then the Law of Moses might seem too harsh, because it does seem unfair that people should get to so harsh punishment when they are being decent enough to humbly confess the truth and be decent enough to assume responsibility. Why should a truthful and decent person be punished in such a cruel way, for a slight fault in comparison to the faults of those that are wicked? But the punishments of the Law of Moses are not really being meant for people which are being truthful and decent. These harsh punishments are rather meant for the wicked people, when the times have become so lawless and organized crimes has thrived so much that it calls for harsh measures against those that are being harsh. The Law of Moses was not being made for the righteous, but the Law of Moses was rather made for the wicked. We should make use of the New Testament for those that are either being righteous or a sincere and humble sinner, while we should make use of the Old Testament for those that are wicked.
               The Father and the Son are exactly the same. It can be said that they share the same heart and would have done the same thing in any situation. But many people presume that the Heavenly Father is being selfish and harsh while the Son is being noble and humane, because of supposable difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. It is failed to realize that Jesus Christ would have said and done the same thing as the Father, and the Father would have said and done the same thing as the Son. The Lord could just as well have fulfilled the role of the Father in the Old Testament, and the Father could just as well have fulfilled the role of the Son in the New Testament. Both of them are basically the same person, except the differences consist in their roles, and who came before the other. Christ is of course the Lord, and the Lord is often quoted in the Old Testament. So the supposed controversies do also reach to Jesus Christ we know, but not only to the Father. It does not mean that Jesus Christ is guilty of unfair and harsh dealings toward the human race, but it is rather us who are to blame for not fully understanding the matter. We do not know all the reasons behind God’s decisions, why God acted in the way He did, and what end He had in sight, regarding the overall picture. This is why we should first understand what kind of person God is, what belongs to His good nature, and what His love is capable of, before it can be explained His intervention in all things. If God is good then His intervention must also be good. God did hard/tough things through love, because it needed to be done. A ‘tough love’ is being one side of the same coin which love is, when a ‘soft love’ is no longer working out in encouraging and convincing the person to repent of its errors. There is a need for rebuke and disciplinary action against an erring and subversive attitude of those involved, when those involved think they can get away with their errors and resume them indefinitely. This ‘tough love’, which might at first seem too harsh, does yet help and benefit that person in the long run. In the Gospels Jesus Christ did mostly rebuke and condemn the Pharisees for being hypocrites, when they claimed and practiced something against the spirit of the law. That was being relevant to the faith and the Scripture, because it teaches us to avoid the extreme of self-righteousness when trying to follow God and His teachings. Jesus said that we should not cast pearls before swine and dogs. Jesus did not need to waste His time and effort upon that in trying to convince the wicked and the ungodly, because they were either way being unreceptive to everything which He could say and do. Such people do not read the Scripture in the first place. For example, Jesus did not attend to those that were in the middle of debauchery and/or committing despicable crimes against other people. The New Testament involves a testimony meant for those who can be reasoned with and convinced of the truth. Even that the Gospels mentions people which failed to follow Jesus Christ because of their fear of the Pharisees and that they could be excluded from the Synagogues; then these people were still being receptive to the truth which Christ taught and they could be reasoned with. There was being a good side in them which could be appealed to and drawn out from their mouth (confession). The wicked and the ungodly are mostly omitted in the Gospels, because they are either way considered irredeemable. When God does rebuke His people for presuming and doing something wrong; then it is because they are being capable of heeding such rebuke and do something about it. God does rebuke His own people, while those outside are not being worthy of a rebuke. If Jesus Christ had back then been asked about all these wicked and ungodly people which He did not attend to; then He would have answered something similar to that being testified of in the Old Testament. He would also have predicted a harsh punishment in store for them.
               Jesus Christ proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was near. It was not the same thing as the end of this world, or that sinners were about to be punished with hell. The Kingdom of God is made possible through the Spirit of God inside the believer. It is a spiritual state where the truth and the justice prevails. The end of the world does not only reach to the destruction of the earth. It can also mean the end of the world’s evil influence, which had once troubled the man from within. There will no longer be any uncertainty and selfish problems afflicting the man. The man will instead become confident, light-hearted, sober, calm, stable, and at peace. It does not make any sense when fanatics claim that God wants us to suffer for our sins. It does contradict the mutual love between persons. That love between persons is originated from God, where He loves us and He wants us to love one another in the same way. Fanatics presume that everyone will go to hell except they, but such uncaring and arrogant attitude would never exist unless God was already absent from their life. This means that the fanatics are already spiritually dead, and it is like they see death in all things, since they have rejected God in spirit and the inner life from His presence. God does love us more than we do love ourselves, and more than we do love the fellow man. His kindness and generosity does always surpass our best expectations. Therefore can we obtain comfort in misfortune, since we are in the good hands of God and He treats us better than we deserve. It is only God who is able to justify us and grant us eternal life. But it is not something which we can deserve by our merit, or work hard for with many good deeds. This does not mean that God will condemn everyone and send them to hell, but it does rather explain why God does redeem us from our sins. It is because of God’s goodness alone, and for no other reason. He loves us with His whole heart and whole effort. It is not like we can assert anything in advance and demand eternal life from God, but we are rather meant to acknowledge the obvious truth and submit to Him. The everlasting Paradise is of greater worth than this transient earth, and the perfect body of Christ is greater than our imperfect body. It would not make any sense if the imperfect things could deserve the perfect things, or be traded as objects of equal value. So the grace of God is much greater than anything which we can offer to Him. But God does still choose to give it freely to us, as a testimony about His own greatness.

It has already been described the voice of God from within the individual, in what way it does manifest itself. That helps us to know the truth by recognizing its origin. It might seem that we are listening to our heart, but it is really the Spirit of God in our heart. Our heart has already been purified and revived by the Spirit of God. Our heart would otherwise have remained spiritually barren, dictated by self-centred desires and too much personal attachment. That to follow the heart without the Spirit of God is to prefer self-seeking inclinations over self-restraining inclinations. Jesus Christ is the very personification of the Truth. This means that the truth is being humble, temperate, and discreet, just like the Lord Himself behaved while He was among us. It is in the nature of the truth to comfort us, solve our problems, dispel our worries, raise our spirit back to hope, rebuke our folly and errors, and reassure us that God will always be there to watch over us. It is not like the truth would treat us in a superficial and rough way, by dwelling on our past faults and accusing us of everything. But that can only belong to the Enemy. This is why the man is not supposed to be afraid of the truth, that the truth will reveal something from the past and cause him harm (pain, shame, or loss). For that Jesus Christ is the Truth itself, able to forgive us our sins and make us forget all about the past evils. The truth is meant to deliver us from all evil, so that we can repent, learn from our mistakes, improve our life, and regenerate every wound in our soul. But it is the Enemy that seeks to exploit the past against us and make us dwell on our weaknesses, since that he is ugly in his soul. It is not the truth that does hurt us, but it is rather our thoughts about it. We fail to notice the truth in its own right while we are being concerned about our self-image, a mere illusion and a vanity. It is true that the truth can reveal our faults, but it is also true that the truth is able to pardon us of the same things. So there is always more truth behind every matter, made accessible to us and capable of our deliverance, if we will only believe in its value. The Life moves on, because the Lord is the Life, ever helping us to make the best of the situation, to live in the present time, to let go of our problems, and let the matter rest. The Life itself is being beautiful and forgiving, while the world (or the image of the world) is being ugly and cruel. Since Jesus Christ is the Life itself then the Life is being gracious and merciful.
               It can be mentioned when we are afraid of doing something wrong, and we are worried that something bad might happen to our beloved ones. However, the Life itself proves to be tolerant and patient toward us in our unintended mistakes and negligence. Even that we can unintentionally do something amiss then our worst fears do still not come true. It is like the Life chooses to overlook this and pardon this this time. The Life had already anticipated this, and thereby created favourable coincidences in averting bad consequences (no contact, no recipient). The Life is quick to make us realize our mistakes, and help us not repeat them, and to take a necessary precaution for next time and from now on. These mistakes and negligence will only lead to bad consequence if we deliberately keep repeating them, if we are abusing the grace of the divinity and recklessly ‘tempting fate’. We can be grateful that all these fears and worries do only seem to exist in our head. The reality is far more gracious and merciful than the mind’s version of the reality. We can be grateful that all this bad experience is only happening within us, without being in any connection with that what is happening outside us. It is not like we first need to have a good internal experience (feel good and have ‘good’ thoughts) that we might obtain some kind of guarantee that our beloved ones are having it good and that we should not be worried over them. It can apply that when we have a bad experience within us, and good things are being denied to us, and we cannot see past this darkness that shrouds us; then the divinity is at the same time being gracious to everyone else in everything. Because we experience all these bad things then the divinity makes up for it by making the opposite thing apply to the people in our life. We cannot see it happening when we are all alone or other people are distant from us, and yet this invisible faith leads to all kinds of invisible benefits and lucky coincidences (as preventive measures), when the invisible Spirit of God and His angels are working behind the scene. It might seem like we have already done something wrong, and that the matter has already finished/concluded in a bad way, and that ‘all is lost’ (an impossible or hopeless situation). And yet it is a question whether we take God into account/consideration, that God is still able to do something about this, that God is still able to have the final say in the matter and to a create an unexpected change/movement for the better. We can still acknowledge/confirm that God is able to free us from this bad experience (forgetfulness, no awareness of its existence) or make this bad experience bearable enough for us, that we are at least not being overwhelmed by it and able to maintain ‘good posture’. We acknowledge/confirm that God has already anticipated everything, and that He already has a solution in store for everything, and that He can still show us a way out of this darkness. Also, because the mind always lies then we can receive consolation from that knowledge. All these bad things which the mind mentions are not going to happen. All these bad possibilities (fears and worries) can be excluded.
               Temptations manifest themselves in the selfish desires of the heart, the delusions of the mind, and the impulses of the flesh. It is only delusions which tempt us with speech, while desires function as stimulus before/behind the speech and impulses function as effects after it has been complied with the speech. All temptations are originated from the mind, although our mind is not being alive or evil in itself. It is rather because the Enemy can insert/implant his thoughts into our mind. The Enemy is capable of sending us thoughts and imaginations, as if it were telepathically. There can befall a storm at the sea. Something disruptive can happen at the sea and threaten human beings. The sea is quiet and still, until the wind blows upon it and disturbs it. The human mind is quiet and still, until the Enemy inserts his own thoughts and imaginations into it. It is not really the human mind which is evil in itself. It only seems to be so while the Enemy is tempting the man and making everything seem bad in his eyes. The Enemy possess the deliberate will to tempt human beings, to oppose them, and to distract them. It should not be blamed the scene where the crimes happened. It should rather be blamed the wicked person that committed the crime at the scene. Once the Enemy has been cast out then the mind will become quiet and still again. That to be tempted is not the same thing as compliance, in having already yielded within. That to be tempted by the Enemy is not the same thing as if we had already sinned, or that we had been guilty of selfish desires in our heart. It does not mean that we did something prior to it to draw the Enemy to us (something to call for it and deserve it). Jesus Christ was indeed sinless in this world, but the Enemy did tempt Him all the same, in every possible way, both directly and indirectly, in his person (in the desert) and through human beings. This is why we should not become troubled when the mind seems to haunt us, involving unpleasant or aggressive thoughts. Such process would have happened either way. It is nothing personal, like what we have hitherto become and done with our life, since that temptations can be something which could not have been prevented in our mind. Only God is able to prevent temptations, and drive the Enemy away from our life. Our human effort would otherwise not have made any difference, in silencing the mind. When we are being led by a selfish desire then we wish for or expect selfish things to happen. It is coveted and craved sinful things. It is felt the need for it. Next will we experience delusions, arguments that encourage us to make our selfish desires come true out in the world. It is contemplated ‘how’ we should speak and behave, that we might obtain success in our pursuit and gratify our self/ego. Finally it will be experienced impulses, illusionary effects in our flesh/body, involving obsession and restlessness and self-constraint. Impulses make it seem hard/harder for us to resist the urge to commit these selfish things all over again. We are no longer being spiritually sober and able to maintain distance from the things we know to be wrong. But we are being swayed by misleading signs and false alarms in our body, where we allow it to convince us into following through the wrong thing above the rightful reasons in following through the right thing. These three types of temptations point to one another and sustain one another. Impulses like fear and anger seem to add weight to and confirm the presumptions which is being had. It does create a vicious cycle. The Enemy is able to tempt us in our mind, even that we are free of selfish desires and we have not been inclining to anything wrong (not deliberately, not further by our attention). We experience selfish thoughts in our mind, and yet it is like mere words, unable to make any impression on us and which is easy for us to reject. We are already pure and at peace, stationed at the right foundation. These thoughts come over to us, uninvited. But we are already closed in our heart. Every time the temptation tries to infiltrate then we turn our attention away from it or see past it.
               When the man does believe in Jesus Christ for the first time then he can experience all kinds of aggressive and unpleasant thoughts, which has never before been experienced in his life. The man tries to rationalize why he does experience such aggressive thoughts, constantly harassing him. The man assumes he had been doing something wrong and reaped its consequences from within. It is assumed this to be a sign of ‘repression’ and that the man is being too hard on himself, and that thereby should he return back to the self-indulgence of his selfish way. It might seem to be the logical thing to blame the faith because of the bad things that have been experienced at the same time, concerning the man’s mindset and internal stability. But does it not seem incredibly coincidental that the man did never experience such opposition while he was being selfish! The man did not meet such opposition when he was already being compliant with corruption. It did happen afterwards, when the man finally attempted to become virtuous, by doing the right thing and abstaining from corruption. Is this not a transparent sign that the evilness is persecuting the man for following the goodness, rather than that the goodness would be punishing the man for being no longer selfish! It can be compared the opposition of the mind to the methods of Pavlov, regarding classical conditioning and involuntary reflex actions. The devil does ‘grab’ the man while something is happening at the same time, or while the man is doing something at the same time, to make the man think that he is either being ‘rewarded’ or ‘punished’ for it, to make the man think that he should follow the ‘good consequence’ and avoid the ‘bad consequence’. The indirect signs/touches/arousals in the man’s mind and body seem to give such impression. The opposition of the mind is being incidental, instead of being the direct consequence of following the goodness. That to follow the goodness has yet to lead to good consequence. The man has to remain patient while he keeps making good choices, until it has reached full cycle, until these good things have reached full grow with the time and can be finally reaped. The man will experience adversity in his mind while he does believe in God and tries to follow Him. The man should acknowledge that the mind is at fault, rather than by blaming the faith. A pursuit of pleasure and an avoidance of pain does not make the decision right in itself. It should rather be based on personal conviction, freedom, understanding, and morality. The adversity does not really prove or disprove anything when it is evaluated the goodness by its own merit. The faith can still work out in the man’s life. The man can still make use of the good things which belong to the good side. Even that it is thought about God then it does still not mean that God is being involved, since that thoughts belong to the mind and it distorts our vision of all things. There is the will of God, and then there is us implicating our own will to the will of God and mistaking our own will for being the will of God. The Spirit of God is in our heart, and His voice does manifest itself in a silent sense. It can only be obeyed the will of God by heeding His voice. But we should not implicate thoughts to His will, since we will otherwise rely on wrong means, offered by the Enemy. The man should not blame God for his own failure and disappointment, because it was never originated from the Spirit of God.
               Let’s say that the man undergoes the spiritual test of being always haunted/harassed by the same type of thoughts. If the man has faith in God then the man will continue to deny these temptations, each and every time, no matter how often these thoughts appear and for how long time, even that the man does not possess any certainty about that when these thoughts will finally cease, and he does not possess any certainty in his own ability/power to keep denying these thought to the very end. If the man lacks faith in God then he will only resist these thoughts for a limited time, where he will soon become angry and complain that all of this is being unfair, as if God was not doing anything for him and that God was being totally useless and no longer to be relied upon for anything. To the faithless man then it is like he is being stuck upon the same single devil, where that devil keeps tempting him countless times no matter how many temptations that man has managed to resist, so it might seem like there is no victory to be had over that single devil and God has failed the man. But what if it would be revealed to the man what has really been happening in the spiritual realm behind the scene. That these countless thoughts were not being bound to the same single devil, but that thousand devils were being involved which kept getting destroyed by God, one by one, as if all these devils had been waiting in a long row/line and replacing the foremost devil which was getting destroyed. It only seemed like involving the same single devil because these thousand devils kept pretending to be the same single evil, by making use of the same type of thoughts over and over again against the man (since it is being more efficient to keep exploiting the same weakness against the man than by coming up with random attacks in random matters). The faith in God is a preventive measure against all such first impressions which would otherwise have deceived the man. God is indeed being dreadful to His enemies and powerful in destroying them in what most efficient way. God is like a consuming fire which devours every devil which comes close enough, when a devil obtrudes into the life of the believer and tries to convince him to abandon this consuming fire. This is happening in a bright way in the spiritual realm behind the scene, while the believer is being in the dark about it during his human existence, and yet through the faith the believers knows about this and he confirms it even that he cannot actually see and hear it happening.
               A sin is the same thing as unbelief in God and His goodness. The unbelieving man is not open for the possibilities of the goodness, so that he will neither consider them nor reach out for them. It is like the man has already given up on the goodness in advance, before actually experiencing and knowing the goodness for himself. Unbelief does begin in the man’s attitude. The man has already chosen the evil possibility and yielded to it from within, long before he has spoken and behaved in such way. This is why unbelief in God is the original cause, which drives forth the man’s weakness and corruption. The external behaviour is merely the consequence of the internal attitude. If there is no unbelief then there will also be no iniquity. The external factors are determined by the internal factors, what kind of reception and response will be shown to the external factors. A principled and harmonious kingdom will easily drive off the invader, while a corrupt and divided kingdom will easily fall to the invader, since the latter is already defeated from within even before any invader appeared on the scene. Let’s consider the human body and the environment. The external influence (sound) does always first need to go through the sense organs (hearing of the ear), and next be analyzed by the spiritual capability (understanding of the spirit or that of the mind). A pure man and an impure man can hear the same things being spoken to them, but they interpret it differently and respond to it differently, based upon the analyzis of the spiritual capability which they side with. Because the pure man is already being pure then he heeds the pure part in himself (the Spirit). Because the impure man is already being corrupt then he heeds the corrupt part in himself (the mind). This part in the man, whether pure or impure, functions as the intercessor of all information. Every sin and iniquity is as equally wrong in its nature. Every temptation is originated from the same evil nature. It can be a misleading thing to speak of a ‘little’ temptation and a ‘big’ temptation, or a ‘lesser’ evil and a ‘greater’ evil. It is because it does involve different arguments from the same person, the Enemy himself, whom is being pure evil and altogether evil and most evil of all. The Enemy does everything through pure malice. There is not the slightest degree of decency to be found in his motives and intentions, even that his speech to us might seem to involve a degree of decency to be taken into account. The matter is not about that what the Enemy can say differently to us, whether it is deemed to be a ‘harmless’ and ‘casual’ temptation or a serious and disturbing temptation. It should rather be noticed that what he is trying to promote through it. All these temptations have it in common that the tempter is deliberately trying to deceive, manipulate, undermine, corrupt, enslave, degrade/humiliate, oppress, afflict, and destroy human beings. All of this does work against their wellbeing. The worst crimes are directed against the person, while lesser crimes only involve material possessions outside the person. All crimes are still originated from a corresponding attitude, like covetousness, lack of charity, or hatred. A criminal behaviour can seem different to one another (in what way it was executed and the scene of the crime), but the selfish desires behind it remain the same. God is capable of forgiving us all our sins and iniquity, so that our soul will be purified of all corruption, healed of all spiritual sickness, and guided by the Spirit of God henceforth. Therefore will all our sins and iniquity become insignificant in the eyes of God, as something no longer being taken into consideration. It does not mean that such sins and iniquity are being trivial/little in general, as if it would be belittled the suffering of the person we sinned against. It is acknowledged that nothing is being too hard for God to accomplish, even that everything is being too hard for us to accomplish. That these things are not being a little matter in our eyes, and that we cannot do anything great to make up for it, and yet we acknowledge that these things are being trivial/little when the great power of God is involved in doing the impossible.

There is a difference between faith and religion. Faith confirms the original teachings of the divinity, what the divinity has testified of itself and in what way it should be approached. We have God’s testimony to us, found in the Scripture. That is the primary source, the original meaning. But then there is the human interpretations of the same testimony, or human thoughts about it, which tends to digress to entirely different meaning. The religions of the world are more like secondary or tertiary (third-rate) source, since there can be many human interpreters in between. It is like an interpretation of an interpretation, while it is neglected the original testimony. The Scripture tells us what kind of person God is, what He is capable of in our life, what kind of moral principles belong to Him, and what is our position in His eyes. The faith does help the man adapt to God and His goodness, while religions try to make God adapt to human presumptions and errors. It is taken the name of God in vain, as if the name of God was a mere tool or propaganda, something to serve the self-interest of the worldly rulers (self-justifications, pretexts). People ascribe their own foolish opinions to God, and attempt to shape God into their own image, as if God would become a mere reflection of their ego. It corresponds to that when it is worshipped a golden calf under the same name as God. People have preferred their subjective image of God above God Himself, and their interpretations of the Scripture above the Scripture itself. It does not longer involve the same principles which define God’s person, since God is known by His truth and goodness. It can be likened to that if we would make a statue of our friend, and then prefer that statue above our friend, even that there is nothing identical to the friend except the outward shape. A selfish man tells himself ‘I want to do this selfish thing’. And when that man becomes a phony believer (through selfish reasons) then he instead tells himself ‘God wants me to do this selfish thing’. Nothing has really changed in regard to the attitude and the behaviour. The name of God is being taken in vain and used as an excuse for the very same selfish things inclined to. A self-righteous man is still being bound to his self/ego deep down in his heart. He has still not opened his heart to God and allowed God to change it. All this lip service involves empty words. It is mentioned the word ‘God’ while everything implicated/attached to it has nothing to do with God. A self-righteous man does deep down desire the same selfish things as the selfish people, but he tries to guise it with ‘beautiful’ words/vocabulary when speaking to other people. He makes something ‘high’ and ‘mighty’ from something trivial, or he tries to decorate and overblow something which could have been said plainly. He does seem to say all the right things in order to get other people to do what he wants. It is like a specific man would pretend to be spiritual in order to impress a woman enough that she would have sexual relations with him. All this ‘spiritual talk’ turned out to be carnally minded all along. It ended up being a contradiction, something opposite that which was originally claimed to be.
               The religions of the world are irrelevant, a mere digression. A religion is not the same thing as God. A religion is separate from God, made by people separate from God. That to criticize religions is not the same thing as if the man was criticizing God. This means that we do not need to defend religions and their doctrines. God has existed from the very beginning. God is the Creator of the universe and He created the human race. The human race did then create religions, with all their errors and crimes. This means that a religion merely came afterwards. It would be foolish thing to blame God for their faults, since it never involved God directly. It is the men themselves that showed error of judgment, and committed crimes against each other. But God did never do so in His own person, nor did He encourage them to do it. In every religion there are all kinds of scandals, and crimes committed in secret. It was never the true believers whom became guilty of such wickedness, nor did God help them do it. It is a sign that the wicked offenders never belonged to God in the first place, since the divine grace would otherwise have purified their heart from all wicked inclinations. When a wicked choice is being so far from God and totally devoid of God; then it has been aroused by a wicked heart being so far from God and totally devoid of God. It can also be mentioned when the leaders of such religions attempt to cover up the crimes of others, since they are afraid that the scandal will otherwise harm their own position. It is a sign that God never gave His approval of such religion, nor was it founded upon His goodness. That religion was merely invented for the sake of its leaders. It is like that religion is merely a pretext, that men might create titles in order to feel important about themselves, receive honour from each other, and convince each other about their own delusions.
               In our times it has been marketized the faith as any other product on the market. First there was faith, and next faith became replaced by Christian culture, and then Christian culture became replaced by Christian marketing. A ‘Christian marketing’ with all its inventions and merchandise, like Christian TV stations, Christian radio stations, Christian self-help books, Christian music, and Christian objects (crosses, pictures, statues). (It is like someone would tell us that we were being a Christian by buying a ‘Christian’ coffee cup and that we should drink the same coffee which other Christians are drinking, when these things are being irrelevant to spiritual matters and we can just as well make use of general/ordinary objects like everyone else to satisfy our needs.) All of this is nothing more than mass produced clichés and junk, which gets in the way of God’s original testimony and steals the attention from it. It does correspond to that when it was made a golden calf which was called by the same name as the Lord, and when faithless merchants at the temple in Jerusalem sold animals which could be sacrificed. It is seemingly done something for the sake of the Lord without having first been consulted with Him. What does Jesus Christ feel and think about all of this? What did Jesus Christ make use of or avoid making use of? What did Jesus Christ approve of for being important or condemn for being trivial? Do the true believers really need to make use of these external things when the faith is originated within them and the voice of God is originated within them? How are these external things supposed to speed up the process of something which already existed before these things, and which can just as well be followed through without these things (in addition)? The very source/essence of everything does originate within and it can be concluded within. The Scripture speaks against demand for signs. It is like people would first expect to notice fireworks exploding in the sky before they could be convinced by something which is being transparently true and morally right. And people would keep expecting to notice such fireworks exploding in the sky every time before making an important choice, as if such fireworks were confirming something totally irrelevant to the fireworks. People can just as well watch a movie or play a video game if they want to notice striking ‘special effects’, rather than by expecting such vanity from God. Something seemingly spectacular happens, and then it is over. The man finds himself still stuck on the same selfish needs and selfish problems. He remains just as ignorant and selfish as before he experienced this (spectacular sighting) in the first place. There is still no belief in the goodness, still no personal improvement, still no understanding of moral principles, still no firm conviction behind the choices, and still no analysis or discernment of spiritual matters. Supernatural signs and magic tricks are altogether irrelevant to that in feeling better, knowing better, and doing better. True miracles are about healing and restoration within. That the bad things might go away and good things enter instead, which surpass current restrictions (spiritual walls), in regard to the person’s internal condition, will/willingness, understanding, and capability. It can even be questioned the value of future predictions (prophecies). The prophecies in the Scripture make sense because they function as parables about something fundamental in spiritual matters and which spiritual lessons can be derived from. But all prophecies outside the Scripture, which have been made by men and added by men, are utterly pointless. It includes that when foolish men presume themselves capable of interpreting the prophecies of the Scripture, where they implicate something foolish to them and comment something foolish on them, which thereby replaces the original prophecy with a foolish prophecy. Even that it could be accurately predicted very distant future event in the world; then it does still not help deal with the underlying cause which makes people think and act the way they do. For example, what is the point of predicting a single bad event in the future and manage to stop it from happening, when that bad event is being motivated by pride and pride will continue to motivate countless bad events. It is more important that human beings can be free of pride to prevent such bad events from happening, and one does not need to be some kind of prophet to predict the beneficial effects of something which makes sense and is being practical in the situation. It is being prudent to offer spiritual guidance which can apply to each and every individual, in what way he copes with various matters on a daily basis and what essence to hold unto.
               The one writing this confesses that he was once a phony believer. One was constantly trying to save oneself from unwanted thoughts, and one was constantly seeking a supernatural sign from God to make one certain that one was being saved. At that time then one attended to a Christian cult which was being led by a self-righteous preacher. During that time then one was being so absorbed by personal problems that one was not really looking around, when it came to discern the value of that what people said and did, and what kind of people they were. But once one began to truly open one’s heart to God and approach God in faith and become fully determined to abide by moral principles; then one also began to open one’s eyes and notice how phony and hypocritical such Christian cult proved to be. It is like a needy and troubled person (mentally ill) goes to a place which is supposed to offer spiritual support, and yet that person passes unnoticed by everyone and nobody bothers to check on it. Nobody bothers to inquire why that person is coming to this place, what that person is really seeking for or trying to escape from. Even before one became mentally sick then one had been guilty within of all kinds of heresies, like by afterward ascribing one’s salvation/redemption to something else than the faith in Jesus Christ (which had happened originally), and by wanting to rely upon the means of the devil against the devil (crafty and clever tricks), and by wanting to make compromises with the world in order to convert more people to the ‘faith’ (a hypocritical faith, or a faith which is spiritually empty and thereby no faith at all). One had inwardly been despising the role of Jesus Christ in one’s life and despising the testimony of the Scripture/Bible, as if it was not being enough and needed a ‘help/support’ from inventions of the world. And when one turned mentally sick then one was being so distracted by unwanted thoughts and by one’s own improper effort in trying to save oneself from it; that in this weak/poor state one was easily being convinced to attend to a phony Christian cult. If one is being a phony believer and a ‘wannabe false prophet’ (being insincere within toward God, being insincere in regard to the motive and the means in furthering the faith); then God does rebuke one for it by making one drawn to a phony Christian cult, since its superficial dealings or none-helping dealings makes one realize how fruitless such path is. If one had become a successful false prophet then one would also have neglected all the needy and troubled persons attending one’s cult. God managed to rebuke one for this wrong attitude back then by making one experience what it is like to be a spiritually stagnant follower of a false prophet. False prophets are truly the worst of the worst, because they seek to exploit the weak/poor state of those that are too weak/poor to know otherwise. They convince distracted and desperate people to donate money to them in exchange for false promises of a miracle, which these people would never have done if they were really ‘being themselves’ (mentally sane and stable and spacious enough to make right decisions for themselves). People are being so afflicted by the mind that the mind narrows everything down into a most improper assumption, what can be resorted to in order to save themselves from it. True miracles come for free, because God is so good that He gives/shares everything for free.
               A false prophet can be likened to an ordinary man in which there is nothing special about. He is being selfish and short-sighted, no different from all the other selfish and short-sighted people in the world. That man presumes that he is being favoured by God, because he is not being mentally/spiritually handicapped like the persons which live in distress and are seeking relief from it. It can apply that something is not functioning properly within the person, where that the person is unable to know/realize or accomplish something because an inner part of that person is missing. When something bad happens within then there does not seem to happen anything good within to counter it, whether to correct or restrain that person from the bad thing. It is like that ordinary man (false prophet) would try to to tell blind people how to see, or tell deaf people how to hear, or tell lame people how to walk, because he only looks to his own life and fails to put himself into the position of other people. A sick person experiences everything in a sick way. Because the person is already sick then it makes every experience heavy and hard to bear. (When a man is already being healthy then all bad experience seems so distant from his soul and body. But when the man becomes sick then all bad experience seems so near his soul and body, as if every moment was being unbearable and the man knows he cannot do anything to alleviate it.) That foolish false prophet is not experiencing this spiritual sickness, where he does not know anything about that how hard and narrowing and pressing it can be, and yet he tries to tell/guide other people how to overcome it. It is like that ordinary man would say to a sick person that these circumstances are being easy to handle and the person should not be troubled by them, because that man is not experiencing a sickness at the same time and he presumes it is the same with the other person. It was not really the circumstances that made the person sick. The sickness of the person was already there and it affected its experience of the circumstances. People which attend to cults or false prophets are people which are already being disturbed and afflicted by something within, which are already being restricted or disabled in their understanding and capability, which are already being narrowed and pressed hard by the mind. The false prophet does not experience these bad things within. He thinks that these ordinary things in his life can apply to the people he pretends to help. He only looks to outward things, without putting the same things in context of the inward things. People can be so afflicted by the mind that they consider themselves being forsaken by God and they are utterly at loss what to do about this. Hence they attend to someone whom is supposed to be more favoured by God and whom is supposed to know more about that what they should do. Because people lack faith in God within themselves then they are not being convinced by their own confessed truth meant for themselves. They are all ready and eager in being convinced by ‘comforting’ things uttered by the mouth of someone else. They seek answers from everyone but themselves.
               It is a question what will happen after a person has been converted to the faith in Jesus Christ. Many people spend minimum time and effort upon the faith, as if it was nothing more than a dull/boring routine, or something which does not reach beyond the activity within religious buildings. The faith in God does not actually reach to their heart and all factors in general, what kind of choices need to be made from within and when encountering things most of the time. People only implicate the faith to worldly affairs and mix them together. This ‘hybrid’ proves to be lukewarm and half-hearted in itself. It should not only be converted new people, but also maintained them as true believers, so they will continue to believe sincerely in God and abide by His teachings. It would otherwise be overreached oneself, where it would be gazed so much on that in converting new people that the previous converts would be neglected. By the time that new people would be converted then the old ones would already be gone, having lost their faith and given up. A false prophet is only concerned about increasing his worldly standing and luxury. In order to do so he needs more followers, whom can support him financially. His followers are not without blame. They follow a selfish leader for a selfish reasons of their own. A false prophet tries to get/convert as many people as possible, by appealing to their vanity and selfishness, and by making compromises with the world. It has been preferred quantity over quality. It is betrayed every principle in order to obtain more followers, while it is neglected each individual by himself. As more people come together to worship God then their faith becomes the more superficial and impersonal, like it is merely for the sake of nearby spectators. It is sought to cast the crowd into the same mould, so that everyone will become as easily exploited by propaganda and tricks. A whole-reaching faith of one true believer is being worth more than the none-reaching faith of countless phony believers. A mere quantity of people means nothing if they ascribe wrong things to God and they approach God in a wrong way and they ask wrong things from God.
               It can be mentioned when seemingly ‘healthy’ and ‘ordinary’ people show prejudices against mentally ill people. The former people are not being troubled by the thoughts in their own lives, and thereby they consider mentally ill people to be ‘pathetic’ for being troubled by the thoughts in their lives. All of this is being so shallow and self-centred. The former people are already being self-indulgent slaves to the selfish thoughts in their mind. These people are already despising God in their heart and not believing that He is capable of anything in their lives. These people are already despising and discriminating those that are not being corrupt like them. These people are already being dictated by pride, contempt, hatred, covetousness, and envy, in the greater matters and most of the time. Instead of confronting the bad thoughts of their mind then they choose to make a compromise and be bribed into compliance, namely by diverting these bad thoughts toward someone else (scapegoat) and say these bad things about him and treat him like a bad person (as if all these false claims were true about him). They seek to save themselves from the mind by sacrificing someone else to the mind (prejudices). The mind does not need to try to force these people into compliance (convince through persecution); because they are already bowing down to the mind in their heart and soul. The mind does not persecute these people because they never wanted/dared to act contrary to the mind in the first place. They never wanted to become virtuous. They never wanted to cease to be selfish and to resist the selfish thoughts in their lives. Hence these people experience ‘soft’ and ‘indirect’ thoughts, or thoughts that are not being ‘hard’ and directed against them, thoughts that do not ‘grab’ them and ‘disturb’ them. But the mentally ill people keep experiencing aggressive and unpleasant thoughts again and again, and these thoughts are being accompanied by disruptive effects in the body. When a person is being sick then it experiences everything in a sick/bad way. A healthy person does not experience the circumstances in a bad way because it is already being healthy. A ‘healthy’ person presumes that a sick person is being pathetic for feeling bad in the same circumstances, as if these ‘ordinary’ circumstances were causing the bad condition, when it really had all to do with the sickness of that person prior to it. The mind is being discriminating in what way it does treat the righteous persons and the wicked persons. The mind accuses/slanders and persecutes the righteous persons for doing the right thing, while the mind does flatter and bribe/support the wicked persons for doing the wrong thing. The mind does fool the wicked persons by pretending to be easy to bear and that its imaginary problems are easy to be solved, as if the wicked persons were in full control of their own mind and masters of it. But all this time the wicked persons were living inside a self-deception (illusion). They are like a caged bird which presumes that it has always been free, since that bird has never tried to move outside the cage and make use of its wings to fly up to heaven. But if that bird would try to move outside the cage then it would quickly discover that it is unable to do so. A corresponding thing applies to people which have had a selfish attitude their whole lives, and which have never tried to become virtuous in their lives. What can be said about that when an ‘ordinary’ person despises a mentally ill person for not being able to overcome the thoughts that are haunting it. A sunny and good weather is not of our own making. A storm is not of our own making. We cannot prevent a storm from happening when it happens. We cannot make the weather become sunny and good again when it suits us. The ‘ordinary’ person is still experiencing a sunny and good weather in its mind. When the ‘ordinary’ person comes up with selfish arguments and tricks in order to make bad thoughts go away then it might seem to work out. But that is because that person is still experiencing a sunny and good weather. These selfish arguments and tricks did not cause the sunny and good weather because there already was a sunny and good weather. It would be a foolish thing to claim that such selfish arguments and tricks do work out when there is finally a storm, because these things were invented and used during a sunny and good weather, and they cannot stand the test of time (during time of adversity). A mentally ill person is already experiencing storm in its mind. All this experience is being hard for the person and what that person can attempt to do about it does not make the storm go away. It cannot be controlled or changed the storm, and that which is being worn during a sunny and good weather is not suited to be worn when there is much wind and rain and cold. Hence it is a hypocritical thing when an ‘ordinary’ person despises a mentally ill person. That ‘ordinary’ person has yet to experience a storm in its mind in its full force/adversity.

7.4: Controversial Issues

Many people agree with the moral teachings of Jesus Christ, while they tend to deny the faith in Him. It is because the supernatural aspects of the Scripture are deemed controversial. All these miracles do not seem to happen in our time. It is like the moral teachings of the Scripture have been dragged down by this. Many people would otherwise have continued to have faith in the moral teachings, if the Scripture had been bound to them alone. And yet the faith in God and His moral principles are intertwined, because the believing man is being internally all set following things through. A believing heart is being straightened by it, and a straight heart heads straight for the right thing in the situation. Belief is the motivation behind the moral principles. It can be acknowledged the earth is bound to natural laws and there is nothing supernatural about it, unless God chooses to reveal Himself to us and manifest His wondrous power. A miracle is supposed to be an exception/anomaly, and thereby not a common thing to happen and to be expected. The Scripture/Bible covers thousands of years, and over seventy generations of men. When we read the Scripture then it contains so many accounts of miracles that we might presume that miracles were happening every day in the lifetime of every individual. It can take us a very short time to read about the lifetime of one individual in the Scripture, when that individual lived all these years/decades without experiencing any miracle in his own time. Most miracles happened in the lifetime of Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah, Elisha, Jesus Christ, and the apostles of Christ. Otherwise miracles happened very seldom in lifetime of other individuals mentioned in the Bible. Let’s consider the life of Abraham. Was not Abraham about 75 years old when God first revealed Himself to Abraham? This means that Abraham had not experienced any miracles in all those years between. And yet Abraham had continued to have faith in God all these years/decades without wavering. It can be asked why God would ever bother to promise something which He does not intend to keep. It can be acknowledged that God is an all-powerful being, where He is capable of making miracles if He wants to, but God has still the same not chosen to do it every time it is asked for. Would it not have been better if God had said nothing about miracles and promised nothing, so that none of us would become disappointed and hold it against Him? I speak now as a man, according to that what applies most of the time, and how the world has hitherto been. For it is better to pursue a small advantage and obtain it, rather than by expecting too much and only end up getting nothing. God makes miracles. But these miracles are being done in a discreet way. Some miracles are preventive. We do not know about them because we did not fall into the accidents they prevented. Other miracles might seem like ordinary events, unless they took an unexpected turn for the better. It should not have happened. Yet it happened and things ended well. Like when we hear news about someone having fallen into a danger and yet by some lucky coincidence he somehow managed to come unscathed out of it, and some person on the scene call its a miracle that that someone survived this danger.
               The New Testament states that Jesus Christ made persons whole from their sickness, that He gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, that He made the dumb able to speak and the lame able to walk, and that He raised persons from the dead. It can be acknowledged that these miracles happened in that time, and during the time of the apostles, and yet for some reason God has not made such miracles since that time. God is of course at work when people heal in general, although it is something which people take for granted and which they do not consider to be miraculous. As the time passes then people get better and are no longer affected by the same problems (outgrowing it), where it seems to happen by itself when life resumes its natural course and it is a common thing that everyone can relate to. And yet God is the force of change behind these seemingly little things that decide/resolve the issue. And God is at work when people are able to discover remedies in medical science and guiding their hand when they skillfully treat patients. These good things come from God. True progress is had from doing things on God terms, when it comes to do things based on facts, when it is kept to that which works out and sought for more efficient methods, and possessed the right feeling in the body. When Jesus Christ healed a person’s physical body during His time then it was really being a parable about that in healing a person’s spiritual body at all times. It can be treaded the moderate middle path by acknowledging that God makes miracles in the spiritual aspect, but not in the physical aspect. God does not make people physically whole, but God can rather make people whole in their heart and soul and spirit, that they become wholly determined opening their inner being to God and following Him in humility. Once the person is all/whole for God then the person is willing to repent and confess the truth, to cease from sinful things and be willing to pursue good things instead. And God does not raise deceased bodies in our times, but God does rather raise the man’s soul from the spiritual death of sin, that the man might become a new and better person within, having a new and better attitude, and constantly making improvements in moral choices and experienced circumstances. And God does not open the physical eyes of the blind or the physical ears of the deaf, but God does rather open the eyes and ears of the soul. This means that God does open the man’s understanding within, and makes him open for that in hearing instruction and rebuke, and makes him willing to notice and consider the right possibility in the situation. And God does not make the physically lame able to walk or the physically dumb able to speak, but God does rather make the man’s soul able to aspire for good things and reach out for them, to possess the inner strength to reject temptations and keep to the same right conviction in the long run. And that the man’s mouth opens for that in mentioning the truthful thing which God has put into his heart, and it is asked God for help in improving things that need to be improved. The man is made spiritually free to travel to any spiritual progress within himself. This is a teaching which can apply at all times and in any situation.
               It has been said that it is a mad thing to keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different results. Why should we keep expecting the same miraculous things and keep telling ourselves that it will be different this time; when nothing ever changes in regard to that aspect (the physical body)! If something is not working out and not leading to any beneficial effects; then it should be sought for a different approach. If something only leads to disappointment and resentment then it should be ceased from it, that our internal condition might ever remain sound and stable, involving self-sustaining conviction and adaptability, without being stuck at the same hindrance and wasting needless effort upon it. Jesus Christ is the Truth itself, and we honour Jesus Christ by confessing the truth. We do not honour Jesus Christ by lying something in His name and by pretending that such miracles are happening in our times. If we have to choose between that in stating the humble truth and that in glorifying God by lying something beautiful about Him; then we should always choose the humble truth over it. Although we believe in God and acknowledge His power in all things; then we are still being plainspoken about that how God has hitherto worked in our lives. We are simply responding to that what God has hitherto chosen to do. It is better to be honest about it and confirm the little things than to lie something beautiful and grandiose in the name of God. Why should it matter whether something good is provided through ordinary or miraculous means, so long as something good is provided to the same end! It should not matter whether a rich man could buy enough bread to feed thousand people, or that God Himself would rain bread from heaven for these people, so long as it can be fed these people with food. Even so it does not matter whether remedies for healing and recovery are to be had through medical science instead of miraculous promises of the Bible, so long as people get well in the end. Since God does not make miracles in the physical aspect then it means that God points us into different direction and wants us to make use of different means. God wants us to abide by principle and make good use of our understanding. God helps us within to help ourselves and that we might help one another. The technology of our times would be considered miraculous or magical in the eyes of those that lived in the Biblical times, even that it is not being supernatural in itself. But why expect something supernatural when ordinary means can get the same things done! We should avoid both extremes, where it is neither done too little by asserting that God cannot do something, nor done too much by asserting that God will surely do something (not implicated our wishful thinking to the will of God). It can rather be said that God can do anything and He does whatever pleases Him. Whether God does something or not then it is because He chose to do it. If God wishes to do it then He does it, but if not then we will respect his decision and abide by the same.
               The man can find himself compelled to obey the orders of a higher human authority, even that he does not agree with it and he does so reluctantly. Such obedience does tend to lack all conviction and devotion. The man deliberately holds himself back, obeys the orders poorly, and drags out the issue. But it is otherwise most efficient to appeal to the man’s sense of decency and reason, so that he will willingly obey the orders and through a right understanding. The man must first believe in the order and then he will make his best possible effort to carry it out. It is kept up the same resolve, no matter what can change in the situation. God wants us to approach Him through faith because that brings the most fruit in our spiritual life. We are meant to obey God because He does always speak the truth and He is always being right about everything, where His goodness is able to promote most progress and benefits to us. It is a contradictory thing when the man refuses to obey God, unless God will first make some kind of supernatural sign to validate His claim. It should of course be evaluated the moral principle according to its merit, because it is the decent thing to do, fair and dignified to those involved. When the unbelievers demand a sign from God then it is never through any sincere/genuine concern for the truth. The true believers are already being convinced by God without needing any signs. They would either way have heeded and obeyed Him to the best of their knowledge and ability. But the unbelievers are endlessly demanding signs from God. They are not already convinced by anything, and nothing will be able to do so in the future. That to demand signs from God is not the cause of the unbelief, but rather its consequence. It is come up with a pretext to confirm a decision which has already been made. It was first rejected God and next it was loudly demanded signs from Him. Even if some sign would have happened then it would not have made any difference. The faith is meant to make us virtuous like God Himself, when it comes to wish well and do well. First there is compassion and understanding, and next willingness to help the person, and then finally it is used available power in order to make it come true. The power to make miracles is supposed to reflect the goodness of God, as the supreme means in helping the person. That is of course far more effective than any human words and effort. God does not make signs and miracles at random, as if God was only showing off. The miracles are always consistent with His good nature and principles. God possesses the most power in the universe because He alone is worthy of such responsibility. It is not like the saying applies that ‘Might makes right’; that because of his power the supreme god would be allowed to be foolish and unfair and abusive. It cannot be expected that God will make miracles and signs when the actual conditions prove to be trivial, superfluous, and vain. So even that God is all-powerful then it does still not mean that we should believe all kinds of foolish things, as if a brute force could replace all freedom and reason. And if we are going to make miracles then we need to do so on God’s terms. We need to have the same considerations and make good use of that which is good. The goodness of God should have the most priority, and then everything else will follow. The faith should first make us virtuous, and next bestow to us the power to work miracles.
               Many people presume that God’s miracles are only bound to the physical body and the environment. But it is much more important that God can make miracles in spiritual matters. Once possessing good sense and inner stability then our approach improves. Once our approach improves then it is fared better. The faith does free us from all doubts and worries and stress, which would otherwise have disrupted the activity of our body, resulting in ailments and accidents. If our soul is burdened with many cares and troubles then it will weaken the body, and make it more vulnerable toward external influence. Even that God does not immediately heal our body of its sickness and injuries; then He can still bless us with a sound attitude, a stoical mind in enduring all adversity. It can still be felt pain, but that pain is somehow made bearable to us and we do not complain about it. It is like the faith in God is all about healing and reviving our spiritual body, so that we can have the right attitude in all matters, the right spirit in confronting the challenge. The faith in God is the greatest preventive measure, because it makes us already focused and sober, observant of the environment and capable of adapting to its demands. We would otherwise be absorbed in thought and neglecting that which is happening in front of us, so we would be more likely to fall into some unforeseen accident. The faith is also able to save us from troubles that we had failed to prevent. We can escape unscathed from it in time, or at least avoid all permanent harm. It has either been nullified the harm, or lessened it to the point of making the harm trivial. It often happens that our body lies to us, when the enemies of God create false alarms in the flesh. The outward symptoms can be mere illusions, a fleeting sensation. There is no actual disease underneath. And we might seem to experience bad things. But we do still the same continue to be alive and well, which makes the bad things inconsequential. We can experience sleep deprivation, but we are still not tired throughout the day. We can lack food and drink, but we are still full of energy, working to our fullest potential. It is thereby like we can experience bad means, but not bad consequences. And God is always able to save us in time, before it becomes too much for us to bear and handle. It is a horrible thing when the man believes in miracles regarding the physical aspect, while the man is at the same time despairing in regard to the spiritual aspect, since he has been misinterpreting the Scripture and expecting worst possible treatment by God. A faith to salvation becomes an anti-faith to perdition, where this very despair of the man drains all energy from him and makes him spiritually sick at all times, which later results in his body failing and collapsing as well. The spiritual wellbeing of the man is being more important than all the supernatural signs and miracles out in the world, and hence if needed these latter things should be skipped for the former.
               The grace of God works in the complete opposite way to human expectation. The man presumes that he will first need to do this or that BEFORE he can obtain a divine help, or a deliverance from the problems that are afflicting him. But the true believer confirms that he receives everything, because the faith in Jesus Christ does justify him in advance, forgives him everything in advance, and makes every benefit available to him in advance. It is all about confirming that God can help us, that He wants to help us, and that He will help us. It is only a matter of time when we will receive a blessing from God, where God has already chosen to give it to us and even given the order, through the intercession of Jesus Christ. We must believe that we can receive it. It does not only apply to the possibility of receiving it, but also that God can help us wait patiently for that in receiving it. The enemies of God can appear all of a sudden and tempt us. But then God will appear all of a sudden and vanquish them on our behalf, even that we have not actually done anything. The goodness does automatically cancel the evilness. An adversity will become something which vanishes as suddenly as it had appeared. The blessings of God overtake us even before we are aware of it. The means can be optional, so long as God’s intervention does lead to the same outcome. It is enough that we can be healed and our problems solved, even that we do not see any angel, even that we do not experience any vision or sign at the same time. The Holy Spirit does of course continue to do its work in an invisible way behind the scene. And a similar thing applies to the angels of God, for we may perhaps not see them, and yet the emissaries of God are present and attending to our spiritual needs. That to witness supernatural things can be superfluous, especially if we do already believe in God and obey His moral principles, thereby behaving to the very same effect as if we had seen His miracles.

Philosophical questions are usually bound to matters that are beyond the man’s reach, which he is still not capable of discovering, or the things in question are still not accessible to him. But even that he man could acquire truthful answers to such lofty questions then it would still not change anything, what is the man’s current position and what he can do about it. For the answer does not have any practical use, where is not relevant to the man’s internal condition or the challenges ahead, so it does not make its process easier to endure. The man is still in the same position, just as before he came up with such question in the first place, since he does not know in what way he can make a proper use of the answer. The divinity will still continue to function in the same way, and the truth will always continue to be the truth, even that the man does not know it or recognizes it not. It is only sufficient to know that the divinity knows the truth and is in position to do something about it, while it is not as important that we can know it, frail and incapable as we are. It does not matter whether we can be ‘right’ and ‘win’ an argument against another person, for the truth should be cherished for its own sake, and have priority over our selfish inclinations. The meaning of life is not difficult to discover, if the man knows what it is to love and be loved. Is not the divinity our supreme parent, having created us in order to love us unconditionally! Did not the divinity create us so it could share everything with us, even its own heart and spirit! True parents love their child with pure and sincere heart, where their only concern is that their child can be healthy and happy, at peace and enjoying every moment. It is also about teaching the child to be a decent person and in living well, all in good conscience. It is not like the child came into the world in order to offer selfish advantage to its parents, where the child would first need to do this or that before it could deserve love. For the parents already loved the child even before it was born, and it has everything to do with that what the parents want to do for their child, what is deemed best for its welfare. This is the grace of the divinity, in having loved us first, even before we loved it in turn. The man has nothing to offer to the divinity, which the divinity does not already possess. It is only sufficient to love the divinity in good faith, before the man can be able to love himself and other people, when seeing himself and others through the eyes of the divinity. The man is given a free will so he can acknowledge this love by his willing consent. It is about following the divinity with a perfect freedom and understanding, because it is truly believed in its goodness, what it is capable of in our life. In the Scripture it is written that God created all things, and that for His pleasure they are and were created. God is love, and those that love know God, and those that know God do the same thing as Him, and those that to do the same thing as God will fare as God had always intended for them, and all of this pleases God.
               The faith is not only about that in believing that God does exist. It must also be had faith in God as a person, what He testifies to us, and what He is capable of in our lives. But it is indeed a foolish thing to lose faith in God because of some petty issue, an unanswered question or a criticism, which is either way irrelevant to our life in general. Our faith would otherwise only reach to the next doubt which cannot be solved right away, so it is something which cannot work in the long run, in being self-sustaining. Everyone seems to appreciate philosophical questions that are still unanswered, like when it comes to explain our human existence or something beyond our reach. However, when a conclusive answer is finally discovered then nobody seems to care about it. It is not appreciated the answer, not bothered to inquire further into it, and not made any good use of it. Everyone will instead gaze upon the next unanswered question, until it will be solved, and so forth. It is preferred the question above the actual answer. It is because of such attitude that many men are unworthy to discover truthful answers, since they only want to exalt themselves and to become famous and boast about it to other people. It should be put this in context of the faith in God, why we should not make our resolve centred upon the need for answers to every silly question or that to disprove every criticism. We are not in need of logical answers according to the human standard. But we are rather in need of Jesus Christ, since that He is the Truth and the Life from within us all. The faith in God does unlock a higher truth, a heavenly wisdom above a carnal wisdom, a moral insight which can apply within us in any situation and last in the long run. But what does it profit us to know this or that, which we are unable to apply to our life? Or what is supposed to happen after we know the answer, regarding our current situation? It is like we are hoarding up questions and answers that have no practical use, since we continue to be just as restricted in our internal condition, intellects, and capability.
               The Lord is the Truth, and the Truth is the Lord. The truth is originated from God, and the truth belongs to Him, and the truth confirms His glory. This means that truthful knowledge is always being consistent with itself, working in harmony with each other, and for the same purpose. But it is not like the enemies of God can make use of the truth against Him. God does not work against His own truth and goodness. The enemies of God can at most pretend that they have gotten the better of Him in our eyes. First it is spoken something wrong and foolish on God’s behalf, and then it is attacked the same thing for being obviously wrong and foolish. It is criticized and disproved things which are really originated from the critic himself. The enemies of God ascribe their own delusions to God, and they see their own corruption in Him. It is blamed God for the thought (opinion) which is had about Him, as if He had thought of and done that thing. The thought itself was being wrong and foolish, making everything seem wrong and foolish upon contact. It can be mentioned when the man does feel the need to question God about everything, like why there are bad things in this world or why God ‘allows’ them to happen. The problem about such approach does not consist in the actual question, but rather in our own position. We are being frail and faulty persons, unable to judge correctly in our own affairs, let alone in the affairs of others. And we are now demanding that God should give account of Himself before us, as if we were in a justifiable position to judge Him. God is not obligated to explain, defend, or justify Himself in our eyes. Jesus Christ gave the best possible example to us. He did never contribute any evils to this world. Christ finished the works of God and there were no loose ends left unresolved (to be criticized by us). The man tends to be indifferent toward people that he does not know, and indifferent toward troubles of others that he has no personal experience of. When the man does finally undergo the same things then he presumes himself to be in position to question God about it, as if that man was the only one suffering in the world.
               The faith in God is superior to human logic. It is not like we would first become troubled by this or that argument, and next try to find a right answer to it (either to prove our point or disprove that criticism), and then finally could we regain our peace of mind and move on with our life. The faith in God is rather about approaching the matter in a complete opposite way. We will continue to remain confident, calm, and at peace with ourselves, even that we do not know any answer, nor went through the trouble in searching for answer. It is because God is right either way, and He would either way have disproved every criticism, once making the truth known to us. This is why we can just as well be contented with the fact that God knows the truth, even that we do not yet know the answer. Our faith in God remains the same. It is begun at the end, by being calm as when knowing the right answer, even before we have sought it out and known what it might actual be. We remain calm while seeking for the right answer. We remain calm while we wait for God to reveal the answer to us. Whatever happens then we remain calm about it. Even that we can experience distractions from within and all around us then it can still only cast doubt upon the truth, but it can never disprove the truth. So the truth does always continue to be the truth, and even now we can choose to live under its beneficial effects. Every time we hear the constructive truth then we are comforted and reassured. This means that we can now be assured and be of good cheer. That is our stance while faithfully waiting for the return of the Truth. Hence even that we do not yet know the right answer to a subjective problem then we will still not become dismayed, no matter how convincing such argument seems to be and how it seems to affect us. Jesus Christ is the Truth itself, and we only expect good things from Him. Every time the Lord returns to us and tells us the truth then it confirms that God is being true and just, and that His ways are being true and just, and that through His ways we can do that which is being true and just. And that truth does split/separate the Enemy’s influence from our heart and soul, and we come to realize what makes the ways of God different from the ways of the Enemy.
               The human race has become proud over its technological advancement, as if it had made the man into an expert in everything else, so that he can thereby come up with haughty assertions against the faith. But intelligence is not the same thing as wisdom. The man can change the environment around himself, while the man himself remains just as unaltered in his heart and soul. Progress in earthly matters is only bound to earthly matters. It is irrelevant to spiritual matters. The Scripture says next to nothing about specific topics while others are brief and to the point. The Book of Genesis speaks briefly about that in what order everything was created. God created things out of nothing, where just by saying it it became so (made directly to happen), unlike the human science as we know it, which can only make use of existing things. The Book of Genesis does neither say more nor less than what is needed, while the account is being relevant/symbolic to spiritual matters. It is a matter of controversy whether the Scripture should be considered a valid source or not; when it comes to explain the physical reality in a scientific way. But the Scripture was never meant to fulfil such purpose to begin with. The Scripture is more about the spiritual aspect, like human nature, morality, wisdom, self-control, moderation, altruism, and redemption. God has deliberately left specific matters unanswered so we will need to rely upon faith in order to discover it. The faith is the internal source which can unlock every secret and mystery. Hence the Scripture emphasis upon one thing which all others are depended upon and which leads to them. It would not make any sense if God would reveal everything in the Scripture, like by coming up with scientific explanations of the universe and its function. The people of that time were in the early stage of human civilization and not ready to receive such knowledge. There was a need for simple explanations for those with simple understanding. This is why it can be ridiculed criticism of the Scripture in that regard, because it is begun at the wrong end, by coming up with anachronistic attacks on its significance. It is written in the Scripture that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It can thereby happen that we are tempted with things that can be seen and touched, while we believe in things that reach beyond our own life. It is confirmed that God does exist and what He is capable of, and that it will continue to apply in the reality, even that all kinds of things can happen to us. This means that our person can change, our state of mind can change, and our lot in this world can change, but the truth will continue to be the truth and we are still under its jurisdiction. There is now a common belief among men that there is no truth, or no ultimate truth. Everything is supposed to be relative according to culture. The problem about such claims is that it does not really disprove the right things, but only the wrong things. All the wrong things are originated from the mind, being manifested in subjective opinions and transient customs and human folly. But the truth continues to be equally valid, when it comes to testify about the value of every choice. It can be claimed that atheism is an idolatry in itself, and yet another digression made by the devil, since it is still not believed in God and the goodness He stands for. It is true that that the atheist does not also believe in false gods, but his unbelief is still originated from the enemies of God, the same devils behind the false religions. The atheist has already turned his back on God, and yet the atheist wonders why he cannot see God at all. It does not mean that God does not exist, but rather that the atheist does not have God in his life.
               It can be ridiculed that when atheists are overconfident in science, where they both seek to disprove the faith in God through science and to replace it with science. Science is only bound to material matters. Let’s say that the man would give up on the faith in God. But what then? How are mathematical lessons or discoveries supposed to help the man in spiritual matters? How are these and those earthly methods supposed to help the man in moral matters? All these material things are utterly useless in regard to guilt and redemption, what is going on within the man and how the man’s good side can prevail over his bad side. The faith makes the man believe in a supreme being which is greater than the man, which the man compares all things to and seeks to model his life after. The higher standard of the faith makes the man aspire to become a better person, and to restrain himself from things that would make him a worse person. The faith in God offers the awareness and motivation behind it. That to develop a sense of decency involves a faith, whether that faith is being direct (belief in God) or indirect (belief in the morality of God). Otherwise the man would senselessly indulge his self in all things, without holding himself in check, and without even realizing it within himself. It can happen that the believer forgets his resolve and he shows negligence in a time of temptation. When he experiences a temptation which he has a weak spot for then he can be quick to yield to it, without having first stopped to remind himself about God and what kind of moral principle would have held it in check. So that before the believer has come to realize it then he has already sinned and he is guilty of a fault. However, since the believer has the Spirit of God in his life then he is quick to realize that he has sinned and that it had been wrong to do such thing. The believer is quick to repent of it, and to confess everything to God, and to ask God for help in overcoming this weakness and that he might do right next time. Hence the believer will not sin any further and he will now do right for the rest of the day, and remain consistent in doing so for many days in a row. It is not like the man must first manage to be perfect in everything before approaching God, but it is rather the perfect thing to approach God regarding everything. The faith in God involves a ‘fail-safe’ in regard to weakness and sin. Something within the man manages to restrain him from further sin and escalation, so that he is quick to get back on his feet and resume the right course he had been on. This endeavour in wanting to do the right thing and in heading in the right direction would not have been made possible if the Spirit of God was absent from the man’s life.
               Why should our faith become shaken when the unbelievers attempt to discredit or disprove the Scripture through recent scientific discoveries? God has already made a miracle in our heart and spirit, as a much more reliable testimony to us, since it is something which we are constantly experiencing from within. It is still being undeniable that God is who He says He is and that Jesus Christ was the best person that ever lived among us. It was said of Jesus that nobody ever spoke like that. Nobody had ever done such miracles before. Nobody could have done more good things than Christ. That to read about the life of Jesus Christ does surpass our own expectations/imaginations of an ideal and perfect person. There was something other-worldly about that how Christ spoke and what He did in the situation. The Scripture might seem to be like any other book in the eyes of a selfish and superficial reader, having still neither believed its testimony nor acted upon it. But as the man has become more virtuous then he will more come to see the Scripture as it is, and acknowledge the purity of its text, since he is already pure from within. It is because the text is inspirational and impartial, the style is sober in presenting forth facts, and every word is carefully organized to its proper place. It is not like one would notice a stupid assertion here or there, a personal bias and self-conceit, or some kind of corruption, which does generally follow frail works from frail authors. But the Scripture has been written with a good sense, a right feeling for the words, when it is looked upon the sentence in whole, and each part in context of another. The Scripture can be likened to a chain mail, where many rings of the same size do fit with one another and make up that body-armour in whole. Every verse is being consistent with a verse elsewhere, and every principle is being consistent with a principle elsewhere. All these sayings are being smooth, like a circle being smooth all around or a complete knowledge able to reach full cycle. The Scripture is holy because it is spiritually pure, involving pure truth and pure goodness. It does merely reflect the Spirit of God, which drove forth the writers from within. The men who wrote the Scripture did so through pure intentions, to the best of their conscience. God had already deemed these men to be faithful or made them so, prior to it.
               The human science can explain ‘how’ the universe came into being, what kind of process took place, what kinds of matters/materials were involved and the interplay between them. It explains ‘how’ the universe was made, while it does not explain ‘who’ made the universe and ‘why’. Someone possessed the will to create life from his own life-source and made all of these things come to pass, rather than that the universe and all these life-forms would spring out from nothing. Science is only explaining the execution or the means, but not the actual cause. Let’s say that a scientist would be making an experiment, so that he will describe its process in every detail. That scientist can mention the tools he will be using, and the available chemicals which he will be mixing together, so it will lead to some kind of fusion or explosion. But these things would never have come to pass without the scientist himself. The scientist possesses the required intellects and capability to make the experiment, to collect and arrange things in such way, which none of these material could do from their end. None of things things possessed a will of their own to move on their own and do things on their own. There is always a creator behind all creations, a soul or head that governs the activity of the body, instead of soulless or headless body moving on its own. And only a living being can give life from its own life-essence (procreation), or a new life is always originated from a life preceding it. A speech and deeds must be originated from a living person, and intelligent life-forms must be originated from an intelligent founder. At first then everything might seem to happen at random in the universe. But it does only apply to the small matters, which are really part of the greater matters, governed by laws. It is like a chaos in small matters will promote order in the greater matters, where the combined influence of all the small matters will keep up the cycle.
               Scientific theories are something which is not permanent, because there will always be more discoveries in the future, which can disprove or adjust/improve current theories. The account in the Book of Genesis has been attacked, undermined, and ridiculed, mainly because of the supposable age of the universe, the earth, and the mankind. The Scripture does never state directly when exactly these things came to exist, but it is something which is indirectly implied, interpreted, or assumed by people reading the Scripture. The correct age is something that the human race will be able to discover. And it is something that will confirm the account in Genesis, and vice versa, since that God created the universe and He is always truthful about everything. The account in Genesis is the primary source, while the theory that human beings have existed for about six thousand years is merely an interpretation. It should not be sought to defend that human theory contrary to transparent facts, nor should it be sought to adapt things to that human theory. Since the Scripture has still not been accurately translated then there is still some element missing which can connect the facts. Until then the Scripture cannot be understood further in that aspect. Some people have attempted to come up with an outlandish interpretation of the Scripture, so that it can adapt to scientific theories. Such compromise does tend to digress from the original meaning, and it appeases neither side, of those that are either completely with the Scripture or completely against it. It proves to be counterproductive when people seek to change the Scripture, only so they can defend it better in the eyes of the unbelievers. It has already been betrayed God in spirit, since it does no longer involve the same Scripture. It would make a victory in the debate irrelevant to the actual cause of the debate. We should never ascribe our foolish opinions to God, while it is attempted to answer everything and justify everything, since it will otherwise contradict His truth and goodness. It would be better to remain silent and patiently endure the slander of the unbelievers, rather than by taking the name of God in vain and manage to obtain a wrong victory over them.
               When the Scripture/Bible contains something seemingly contradictory and erroneous then it has all to do with the human translation of the Scripture than the actual source material. It can be acknowledged that such contradictions and errors exist, not because God is being guilty of contradiction and error, but because men have been guilty of making half-baked guesses in translation of root words which they do not fully comprehend. It involves an approximate translation, not a precise one. It is like someone would be using a sledgehammer to get things done when a surgical scalpel is rather required. Hitherto the Scripture has not been translated in a way that the one same root word is always translated in the one same way. The one same root word has often been translated into many separate words of similar meaning, like when we go through many synonyms and each word is being near to the meaning of another word. (And yet the meaning switches places, as when it is made a ‘google’ translation of Icelandic word into an English word and then made a ‘google’ translation of that English word back into an Icelandic word, and it ends up being nothing like the first Icelandic word.) And translators have often deliberately changed the translation of such root word to an entirely different meaning; in order to make a sentence here and there seem more comprehensible to the reader. Otherwise the general/common translation of such root word would seem to be odd and out of place with all the other words in the sentence. That to have different translations of the same root word is the same thing as to change the testimony of God. When it is made use of complicated technical words then such words can in a limited way apply to few places. But when it is made use of simple self-explaining words then such words can in a widening way apply to many places. Let’s consider the word ‘salvation’. It is being such a complicated word that the person hearing it for the first time has to ask ‘What is salvation?’. It has to be explained in simple words to the person. Salvation is that to ‘be/being safe’. But why not make use of such simple words when translating the root word! There is also another root word which has been translated as salvation in the Scripture. Its meaning is being near to the previous meaning mentioned. It can be explained to be freed from that which is troubling us. The word ‘troubling’ can be further widened to the word ‘disturbing’, and ‘disturbing’ can be further widened to the word ‘bothering’. (The word ‘bothering’ is being more universal word and has thereby more widening reach.) And it can be used the word ‘freeing’ instead of ‘that to be freed from something’. Hence it can be used ‘bother-freeing’ as a fresh and simple translation, instead of the alternate ‘salvation’. Translators have been experiencing difficulty in translating root words because there is no such equivalent word in their own language. And even the language of the source material has been little better in comparison, because words and their meaning have transformed through the human history. This means that new unorthodox words need to be invented in order to do justice to the Scripture. The translators of various versions of the Scripture have been guilty of that in not letting the believing reader know about all these things mentioned above (in a preface or foreword). The believing reader has been sincere in trying to heed and obey everything in the Scripture, when the very premise behind the translation of the Scripture has been faulty.