Try this on for size: what we belief will define our expectation. What we expect will define our reality ... our reality is what we
experience.
"According to your belief, let it be done unto you."
It would behoove us to
question what we believe ... to
question what we think. Because what we think, and what we believe, is presenting itself as our perceived/experienced reality. We are co-creators of our own "world"...!
We can, and it is our
responsibility, to allow our thoughts about disease/health to be elevated to the perspective of our Creator, so that the lies we believe can be replaced with His Truth -- the very Truth that sets us free.
So, what's keeping us from seeing as God sees...?
Let's check out Isaiah 25:7 & 8:
7And on this mountain ["high places" -- higher understanding/awareness] He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples,
Even the veil [that which blinds us] which is stretched over all nations.
8He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people [which would include disease] from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.
Disease, the fear of disease, the battle against disease, envelops us from the moment we're born, when physicians check us out to see if we have any presenting diseases or malformities. Throughout childhood, immunizations are required, from a motivation of fear, in order to keep us from the "inevitable" diseases that are "out to get us." Diseases are
expected to happen to children -- remember what expectations bring about: experience.
We are taught, and are thus convinced, from an early age, that we are inherently week and vulnerable to the inevitability of disease.
We see our bodies as frail, sitting ducks, and we are afraid that our bodies cannot maintain health without severe interventions. We have no confidence that we are whole, are meant to be whole. We believe that we begin to fall apart as soon as we are born ... and we check our bodies frequently to keep up with the falling-apart-ness. We aren't taught that our bodies are fearfully (awesomely) and wonderfully made - but instead we're taught (and we believe, and we thus create the experience) that we have to rely upon external resources for the maintenance of our bodies ... we thus can't, and won't, trust our bodies (what does this say about our view of God ... what manner of "gift" do we believe He has given us?). "Eventually we'll all get whatever disease we're already programmed to get, plus those we can't overcome from our environment."
We turn to doctors, researchers, pharmaceutical companies -- the wisdom of egoic man -- to tell us the "truth" about our bodies.
The bad news is that we've learned this well. The good news is that whatever we learn, we can
UNlearn.
But "He has made us, and not we ourselves." We are made in the image and likeness of God Himself...! He alone is "our life and the length and strength of our days." He has created us for His glory. We are created in Him, and live through Him, and return to Him.
We have also become afraid of the very planet-gift He's given us ... fearing that which He has made (& which HE declared to be "very good"). We fear the diseases, germs, bacteria, viruses and microbes "out there" lurking around every corner. Look at the panic over the "pandemic" (words are powerful) of the swine flu ... look at where it manifested the worst, and what was believed about it in those locations/cultures. Look at the "solution" proposed by our authorities -- a nearly-mandated immunization that hasn't been tested ... despite what happened the last time such a measure was taken (1974).
We're tossed about by every wind of medical/nutritional doctrine ... we listen to nebulously changing statistics, alternating pronouncements, and the best-guesses-disguised-as-facts from those who declare themselves to be our authorities. We're told that we're responsible for our lives, but the premises keep changing ... eat this, no don't eat that ... take this, no, never mind, that causes cancer. Do this, oops, that will only exacerbate the problem. You must follow this regimen - uh-oh, didn't realize it came with those debilitating side-effects. Take this to counter-act that, and take this other to deal with what the counter-actor caused ... oh, and you'd better take this, even though it will require you to take all of these as well. The instructions we're given by the wisdom of man is far too conflicting and confusing to follow. And it all creates an atmosphere of distrust in our bodies, and a wariness of trusting the One who created our bodies.
Yes, we do well to take care of our bodies, to steward the gift we've been given in this amazing vessel ... but if we do it out of fear, the only fruit we will have is yet-more fear. We have become crippled with fear, double-minded, and even, in some cases (if we're honest), angry with God that He has "created" this situation in the first place...!
Our religions tell us, "Yes, God made us, but we went and blew it, so there's no guarantee that we would stay in the very good condition in which He made us ... it seems that God makes that which is imperfect ... God is perfect, and while we're made in His image, we're clearly imperfect, so we must have done something to have deserved this condition - our sins have caused our diseases. We shall have to earn our way back into His good graces ... whether it's good works, or right beliefs."
And yet, we have millennia of examples of folks who have repented for their sins, over and over and over and over, crying and doing penance, and paying "tithes," and serving, and good-working themselves into exhaustion, and memorizing vast portions of scriptures and creeds, and who STILL find no relief from their suffering. Doing all they can to please God, they still fall short of the relief from the sin-caused-diseases that they experience.
What gives?!?
Let's take a look at what's generally believed to be the oldest book in the Bible -- Job. Job was considered to be righteous - he avoided evil. He had all the benefits of good-living ... a large family, land, wealth, possessions. He followed all the demands of the Law, to cover any sin he had committed -- he even went so far as to continuously sacrifice, in order to appease God for both himself and his children.
And what happened? His crops were destroyed, his animals perished, and all of his children died, too. Then his won health went downhill, and he suffered all manner of excruciating diseases and maladies. His own friends and family turned against him, and blamed him for his own condition -- he was considered to be "cursed by God." When he denied any wrong-doing, he was considered to be self-righteous (yet another sin).
He suffered in both body and mind, as he pondered why all of this had happened to him ... it went against the laws he understood (sowing and reaping) - it went against all religious teaching about good and evil.
Eventually, God revealed His truth to Job ... He revealed His very nature to him. In essence, God opened Job's *eyes*, causing him to see what he'd been blind to previously. And as soon as Job saw afresh, he was forever transformed...! As a result of that inner transformation, all the externals were restored ... his health, his wealth, his possessions, his reputation, and his family.
Job saw something new-to-him.
The veil over his eyes, his blindness, was lifted, and he saw what he'd never been able to see before ... and the very seeing caused a change in him, including in the physical/tangible realm.
Nothing needs to be changed in our circumstances ... we just need eyes to see. Like Job, we need the veil of blindness to be lifted. We need our perspective changed from our own skewed-and-limited one, to God's perspective.
In fact, all of Scripture is a historical story of humanity's progressive seeing ... moving from darkness into light. One step at a time (sometimes with back-ward steps -- OK, *often* with backward steps!), we were collectively introduced to God, to who we really are, and what our life-purpose is. It took years and generations of "progressive unfoldment", each successive new understanding enabling us to have a clear and clearer perspective of God, which replaces our old worn-out & immature perspectives.
Here's what Job had to say about it:
I have spoken of You that which I did not know. I have heard of You by the hearing of my ears, but now I see You."
He went from knowing *about* God (through others) to KNOWing God (for himself). Not a vicarious relationship (which is no relationship at all), but a living experience. That makes ALL the difference.
Yeah, I know, everyone wants to know what it was that Job saw ... so that we can duplicate Job's experience (minus all the boils and destruction, of course!), and thus take the short-cut to KNOWing God.
Doesn't work that way.
That would be yet-another vicarious & second-hand faux-experience of God that we have to maintain with endless and exhausting self-talk, in order to make it seem "real". You know, forcing yourself to see and admire the Emperor's new clothes.
Didn't we get enough of that with religion..?
See, what we need, is to have our very own God-encounter ... we can't duplicate anyone else's ... we can't model anyone else ... there is no formula. There is only the personal following of the Spirit into all truth, as we can bear it. He knows what we can bear, and how to get from "here" to "there" (the journey is within, for the Kingdom is in our midst).
We each have to *want* this ... to want to Know God, as God IS, more than anything else, including our own healing. Seek FIRST the Kingdom of God, and all these things (including healing, health, wholeness, peace, joy, love, understanding, blessings, LIFE) will be added unto you.
That's THE point to life. Right there.
Selah.
Whatever it was that Job saw, it changed his life forever, including his health. Whatever it was, it gagged his critics, and caused him to live without fear of disease, without fear of God, without the drive to please God in order to end suffering.
As Isaiah says, when the veil/blindness is lifted, we will no longer experience suffering/disease. We will be able to trust God, and to trust the bodies that God has created.
We just need to see something different.
It takes what it takes.
And when we
do see afresh, when we are awakened to His reality, His truth, we will
experience the new heaven and new earth that is
here and now, and in our midst. Then we will know that God is not a god of fear and judgment and vengeance and wrath and punishment. We will no longer need to run from, and hide from, and bargain with such a god. Neither will we then fear, loathe, & condemn our bodies, and see them as unworthy. We can dare to see them as fearfully and wonderfully made -- whole, here and now. And that
seeing will indeed manifest in our
experience.
Next, we'll take a look at how that pesky veil can be lifted ...!
Shalom, Dena
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