"Too Good to be True...?"

Y'know, it sounds almost too good to be true ... it sounds implausible ... it sounds like an affront to our rational minds.

We like complexities ... we enjoy conquering them, and congratulating ourselves on our cleverness ... and so that which is simple tends to offend us.

"Childishness!" we retort in our minds.

And yet, did Jesus not say that we enter the Kingdom as a child ...? And how IS a child? Inquisitive, curious, insatiabally hungry, free-from-mind-games, unencumbered by "logic," impulsive, guileless, trusting, receptive, open.

So, here's the simple, offensive-to-my-clever-mind notion that is dawning on me:

If we allow a shift in our understanding about God, it will bring about the ability to see life from a different perspective ... we will then see ourselves in a different way, and this will, as a result, bring about different results in our life-experiences.

Seeing God differently ---> seeing ourselves differently ---> experiencing life differently.

(Unless, of course, you're content with how it's been working for you, thus far...!)

I've heard, over and over, ad nauseam (& it does now incite nausea in me) "Well, we just can't know God - His ways are higher than ours, He's beyond comprehension ... we have to go by faith ... we're not *supposed* to know."

Oh really?

"It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God..." (Mt 13:11 -- that entire passage is well worth reading, with the Spirit)

What if we let God define Himself, and expose Himself, to us ... as He IS, rather than as we've been taught by other groping-in-the-dark humans?

What if we could then come to expect goodness to dominate in our lives, rather than conflict and lack? What if peace and serenity could become our natural state of being, rather than confusion and stress?

It seems that if we have the mistaken notion that we have to "make life work" we will experience inordinate stress and turmoil ... but if we see that there is a divine order continuously in operation in the universe (and within us!), then we need to only align with that reality, and allow it to manifest. If a thought appears in our heart, it will appear in our experiential reality.

HOW we see God is so very crucial -- but only for everything. ;)

Let's look at what scripture says about this ...

2 Samuel 22 -

"With the merciful, You will show yourself merciful, and with the upright you will show yourself upright. With the pure You will show Yourself pure. But with the judgmental and hardness of men's hearts, You will show Yourself unyielding."

Here we have One God, "appearing" as different entities -- dependent on what's in the heart of the observer...! We see only what we can see, depending on our current understanding... and that understanding is largely based on what other limited human beings have taught us. Why have we not gone to the Source? Why do we rely upon the ignorance of others?

If we are experiencing life according to our understanding, then it's critical that our understanding be corrected, to align with Truth. If I'm believing lies, and thus experience the results of those lies, how foolish for me to beg God to change the results...! Instead, my prayers can be for God to change my understanding -- and then the results will take care of themselves!

So - how to pray? Rather than wasting my time dictating to God, how *I* think He should fix whatever is going on (which my thinking, and collective mankind's thinking, has brought about in the first place!), I can pray that I will see only the Mind of God prevailing -- in any and every situation. For any and every person. For myself. We *have* the Mind of Christ ... why not use what we have?

It seems simplistic, perhaps (and thus an offense to our mind!), but it seems to me that every single challenge to mankind, ever "problem" we ever face, really comes down to this basic premise ... are we believing the Truth of the Mind of Christ, or are we believing the lies of our own egoic mind?

We can ask - "who said that?" We don't have to believe everything we think. We can question every single one of our thoughts, rather than blindly acting on them.

Are we not told to have our minds renewed? Are we not told to take every thought captive?

It seems to me that every negative situation we face, comes out of our belief that something other than God's eternal goodness is in operation. Thus, we are thinking of something OTHER than the goodness of God to be more powerful THAN God. Think on that.

Human life improves, and becomes Abundant Life, when our perspective of God improves.

It's that simple.

Religion, including Christianity, has taught us all manner of contradictions and fears ... as humans complicate simple truth. But we can go to our Source - to God - for

"As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him." (1 Jn 2:27)

When I had the "safety and security" of religion ripped out from underneath me, and I was floundering, seemingly foundation-less, I had no choice but to throw myself on God -- to tell Him that I didn't really know Him, had only known of Him, through others ... that I needed to know Him, to understand Him, to experience Him, and to be led by Him. I needed Him to "start me over" ... to show me what's of man, and what's of God ... I could not settle for less than His Truth. This prayer was spontaneous -- no one taught it to me, no one led me, it came out of my depths ... like a hunger I couldn't deny.

Since then (this was just over five years ago), I have found uncanny and startling answers to my questions ... I have been led in quite non-traditional ways, that even come against the traditions of man ... expose` after expose` has unfolded in front of me, unsettling me, and yet compelling me forward. At every turn, God has *been there* to confirm the revelations and understandings with signs, affirmations, confirmations, and "proofs" that I could not have manufactured. He has been utterly lavish in His assurances! Above and beyond what I them thought I "deserved" for my many doubts (I now know that He was putting those doubts within me, so that I could question the traditions of man, so that they would fall to the ground and die, so that real Life could emerge from out of the ashes).

In this process of re-knowing, we will indeed be continuously challenged about that which we've previously learned. We will experience a conflict and struggle in this process ... we will feel pain (as the old dies, it hurts). Even while the Spirit is revealing His Truth, our old thoughts will fight to remain alive, and in operation in our minds.

But, with time and repetition, this transformation process becomes easier ... as it becomes familiar. We can learn to trust the process, and we can learn to see the Spirit operating IN the process.

Five years ago, I had to start with "I don't know what I know". It felt like a place of utter horror and extreme vulnerability, but I now know it was a place of raw humility. God unraveled and dismantled the carefully-woven-yet-confused-and-contrived fabric of my system of belief ... even directly dealing with the fear I had, that sought to keep that system in check! I had feared that in letting go of what I thought I knew (what I had been taught to believe), I was bringing the wrath of God upon myself. But then He showed me that this fear was the *very* thing He wanted to remove from my mind, as it was getting in the way of me seeing Him as He IS...! I honestly used to believe that there's a "special hell" for those who think of God as "too loving." How absurd that seems to me now that I've come to experience the love-heart of God!

I came to trust that He was leading my quest, that He was suggesting the questions, that He was drawing me to scrutinize what I believed. I trusted that He knew that I was coming to Him for Truth -- not for some personal gain, but to KNOW Him as He is. I trusted that this God who had created my body to filter and remove toxins, could also allow my mind to filter and remove erroneous beliefs in my thinking (for I have the Mind of Christ). The physical always reveals a deeper spiritual truth ...

I came to trust Him to do what He promised He'd do: to lead me into all truth.

It's a process ... and at times it seems excruciatingly slow, as there's much within me to dismantle. I've built "high places" of erroneous thinking, and I'm influenced by the erroneous collective consciousness of historic and contemporary humanity as well.

It is absolutely *critical* for us to know God as He is, and to understand how we are made in His image and likeness. There is NOTHING more important to study and understand ... to know and experience. There will be nothing more challenging to study, and yet nothing more rewarding to take on.

THIS is indeed the final frontier ... moving from darkness to Light, from lies to Truth. From ego to God.

Shalom, Dena

Disease: The Story We Tell Ourselves

So what's the story we tell ourselves about disease...?

- We tell ourselves that disease is just a part of the human condition -- that it's unavoidable.

- We tell ourselves that it's powerful - more powerful than our body's ability to resist it.

- We tell ourselves that we must go to great lengths to prevent disease, and then to treat disease, and yet we resign ourselves to suffering from disease.

But what about our bodies being fearfully and wonderfully made? What about our amazing immune system? What about how we have the Mind of Christ?

What if we need to shift from seeing our bodies as weak, and disease as strong -- to seeing our bodies as strong, and disease is fragile...?

All of creation, including the crowning pinnacle of creation - our bodies - declare the glory of God. Read Psalm 19:1-3:

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

3 There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.

And, Romans 2:20 -

20 For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity

And Job 12:7-10 -

7"But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;
And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.
8"Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you;
And let the fish of the sea declare to you.
9"Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the LORD has done this,
10In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
And the breath of all mankind?

Could we not also say, "ask your body and it will tell you - it will teach you of God's glory. As your cells, ask your immune system, ask the endocrine system, ask the circulatory and nervous systems .. and they will define the nature of the infinite God to you."

It seems to me that we, as always, have a choice. We can continue to fear our bodies, to criticize and find fault with them ... we can continue to not trust them. If we make that choice, we are also saying that we do not trust the One who made our bodies.

Christ, Who is the visible expression of the invisible God -- is manifest in our bodies! The wisdom and Presence of God fills all that He has made - He permeates our bodies! God is not separate from that which He has created -- and this includes our bodies (Col 3:4).

Instead, we have chosen to listen to the wisdom of man, the traditions of man, resulting in our fear and ignorance ...

And yet -- we can escape from this collective consciousness of mankind..! More on that next...

Shalom, Dena

Dis-Ease...!

So what is health?

Is it the absence of disease...?

Or is it what we realize and experience when the Spirit of Life is flowing through our minds, our beliefs, our thoughts, our emotions, and our bodies...?

What would that sort of health look like?

If the Spirit of Life were flowing through us, unheeded, we would demonstrate the nature of love - our thoughts would be clear and pure.

Our desires and motivations would demonstrate gentleness and goodness.

Our bodies would demonstrate strength, energy, vitality.

Every cell in our bodies would cooperate with Divine wisdom and purpose.

We would demonstrate order, balance, harmony, in all our ways.

As I see it, disease, or dis-ease, is present whenever the flow of the Spirit of Life is blocked, jammed, or not realized ...

Given this perspective, which is slowly dawning on me (shift takes time!), the notion of taking pills to deal with symptoms looks like pure insanity to me ...! It looks like, "keep taking these pills to deal with surface symptoms, so that you feel better, so that you forget about the root of the problem, so that the problem continues, so that you have to keep taking the pills...!"

So who's THAT working for...?

It seems to me, the more attention I give to disease (labeling it, obsessing over it, treating it), the more POWER I give it ... making a no-thing a some-thing.

Maybe it's time for me to stop defining life, and making allowances for disease, and instead allow Life to define itself to me!

So, disease is an interruption in the normal function of Life. I figure, if my life is not demonstrating abundance, then to that degree, and in that area, I am not seeing the truth about life.

So, disease is not a power in and of itself ... but disease is an absence of the flow of the Life of God.

So if God IS, and if I am made in the image and likeness of God, then the Life of God (the only Life there IS) should be flowing through me. And if it's not, then what's stopping it...?

My awareness...! As a man thinks in his own heart, so is he. As a woman believes within her, so is her experience.

Disease is a nothing, a vacuum ... a gap that forms when the Presence of God/Life is not realized, not "aware-ized".

So what have I been doing, in believing that disease is legitimate...? When I name it, and categorize it, and identifying how it's manifesting, and talking about it, and complaining about it, I'm actually exalting it, honoring it, and even letting my body become a temple to it...!

This is idolatry -- this temple (my body) belongs to God! NOTHING else but God has a right to claim it!

I see God as completely Omnipresent -- He is in, through, and filling all things ... all things are made by Him, sustained by Him - His! He's everywhere, as air is (and pneumo is the same word for breath, spirit and air).

His very nature is intelligence, wisdom, order, harmony, beauty, perfection, balance, and radiant health - wholeness!

So wherever disease is presenting, THAT is where my errant belief, my erroneous thought, my acceptance of a lie, my lack of awareness of His Omnipresence, is manifesting. The disease is a tool -- showing me where I believe wrongly ... showing me where I'm not allowing the Presence and fullness of God to be. Showing me where a "congestion" is preventing the free-flowing Presence of God in and through me.

In the book of Ezekiel, we read of the river of life ... it proceeds out of God, and it heals whatever it touches. There is a warning of swamps, where the river is not flowing, where the water is stagnant. Decay is rampant there. Disease breeds there.

We're told that in order to enter this river of life, we can't just go up to our ankles, nor to the knees, nor to the hips, but to go so deeply that it overtakes us, and we're caught up into the flow of the current -- this is a picture of complete submergence, utter surrender to the Mind of God -- where we die to our own thoughts (including our thoughts about God, about ourselves, about life, about disease)... where we stop trying to scheme and worry and find our solutions. This is where, and how, "all things become new."

The blockages that create the disease-infested swamps are our thoughts, our beliefs -- including our thoughts and beliefs about God, and about disease.

Let's look at our collective thoughts/beliefs about God vs. disease.

We're consumed by our thoughts about disease ... we see it as all-pervasive, and we do all we can to avoid it (which declares that we see it as all-powerful). We fear it, we do what it takes to prevent it ... we talk about it continuously. We give it incredibly awe-inspiring (& impossible to pronounce) names. We study it, dedicate shows to it, and fill ourselves with knowledge about it. We pay doctors huge sums to check us over, to see if it got us yet. It rules us ... it has become like a god to us, and our entire medical system has built an institution, a religion, to serve it.

We hate it, but we serve it.

And then, when we get it (no surprise there -- as a man thinks in his heart, so is he -- what we see is what we get), we turn to God in despair, wondering how He would let us get it, begging Him to take it away, and then blaming Him when He doesn't ...

When will we "get it" that we've created this problem ... we've created the notion of disease, and we perpetuate the appearance of disease? When will we get it that it's illegitimate, with no power except that which we give it? When will we get it that it's not a thing, but the absence of something (Life)?

When will we realize that we, ourselves, have given it reality through our fear, ignorance and idolatry?

When will we see the connection between the god that we've created, and the disease that we've created...?

I have set before you life [truth] and death [lies], the blessing [abundant life and wholeness] and the curse [disease]. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice [which speaks truth within us], and by holding fast to Him [relying on HIS perspective, not our own]; for this is your life and the length of your days [this will affect the experience of our life, including our divine health]...

Shalom, Dena

The Power of Thought

So how powerful are our thoughts, anyway?

How is it that "knowing" something, or "seeing" something, can cause that thing to appear ..?

First, we have to understand just how influenced we are by the "western" thinking, that tells us that cause and effect exist only on the physical plane. We look for the physical cause of every effect we experience.

For instance -- what are we saying when we believe that microorganisms (bacteria, viruses) are able to kidnap our health and vitality, and thus render us UNhealthy, and UNwhole..? Aren't we saying that we believe that they're stronger, more powerful, than God's Life, which we have in us?

In effect, if we are honest, we'll see that our beliefs reveal that we see more power in the creature (that which God has created) than in the Creator (who made everything).

This has led to a culture of fear ... look at the things we fear: nature, the environment, animals, humans, life itself ... and the God we believe has put us in this unsafe predicament.

Our fear, individually and collectively, has created a world that continues to demonstrate fear, and "prove" to us that we really do have much to fear...! Do you see the self-perpetuating cycle of this insane thinking?

We know this works with children ... if a child is told he is stupid, and believes it, that child will grow up to demonstrate stupidity. Criminals are demonstrating what they believe about themselves ... if the child, if the criminal, were to see themselves differently, they would behave differently.

If we see ourselves as we really are, the way God sees us, everything about us would be different.

The really good news here is that God wants our minds renewed -- lies replaced with truth -- He wants us to live the Abundant Life Jesus told us about. We don't have to keep the tainted view we have of Him, of Life, of ourselves. It's not as though God is reluctant to share truth with us ... we don't have to convince Him to do so, or to earn it. We don't need to beg, or perform, or prove to Him that we're somehow deserving.

We just need to desire to see as He sees ... and it happens.

We're told that we have (present tense) the Mind of Christ.

The lies we believe, individually and collectively, are in the way of us experiencing the Mind of Christ that we have -- and living the Abundant Life that's ours.

It all starts, I believe, with our perception of God ...

If we have a faulty image of God, then we'll experience that very sort of God ... until we fire that god, and let the real God emerge from behind our "graven image".

Here's what I know about God ... what He's shown me about Himself, over time, as I've been willing to let go, to "die to," my former image of God:

God is unchangeable and constant ... God is love ... God is goodness ... perpetual goodness ... God does not react - He does not change how He views me, how He deals with me, based on what I do/think/believe ... He changes not ... He is Light and in Him is no darkness at all ... He sees the best in me, no matter what I'm seeing about myself ... He delights in me ... I do not disappoint Him ... for it's not possible for God to have a wrong expectation about me (for He made me, as I am) ...

God is not like a man, though we have continuously projected our own human failings onto Him ... therefore seeing Him as petty, judgmental, angry, vengeful, punishing, reactive, regretful, disappointed.

We're the ones who judge ourselves -- and we imagine that God does too.

But we can leave all of this behind .. all that we think we see and know and believe about God ... all that we fear is true ... we can question what we believe, for if it's true, it will withstand all manner of scrutiny ... and if it falls away, good!

We can, and must, enter the heart and Mind of God... and when we see as HE sees, everything will change, and we, too, will see His creation as "very good" ... including our bodies.

We will see everything as the gift that it is ...

We can pray, ask, for this understanding -- pray that God would reveal and correct all that we believe, which does not align with His truth.

We don't need our circumstances to change ... we need our perspective to change...!

Next time, I want to get a little more into what disease *is*. Want to check it out with me?

Shalom, Dena

To See or Not to See ~ That is the Question...!

What if ... what if we are experiencing life (either as positive or negative) in accordance with our own understanding of God ...? This, I believe, is our foundational premise ... as we see God, so do we see ourselves, and so do we relate to God, and to the rest of the world.

What if we were intended to live free of disease ... and even free of the FEAR of disease...? What if it's possible, right here and now?

What if the fear of disease is what's keeping the manifestation of disease in our lives...?

What if doing certain things, or taking certain things, in order to avoid disease, is actually keeping disease as a reality in our lives?

What if we could come to a place in which we could see ourselves as being beyond the grasp of disease?

What would it take to get there?

It won't happen by anything we do ... it will happen only by what we know ... and knowing differently depends on seeing differently.

We have to start by being open to the possibility that what we currently believe (about God, about ourselves, about disease/health) may not be the truth ... if we insist that what we currently know/believe IS the truth, then that's where we'll stay -- until we change our minds.

Those who know they are blind shall see, but those who profess to see, shall remain blind.

It doesn't work to think a thought that we *want* to believe, trying to force it to move from "the head to the heart" (utterly exhausting -- and totally ineffective). We need an entirely new understanding -- a way of seeing -- that becomes more real to us than what we currently believe.

As I see it, we've made a choice, individually and collectively, to believe in a God who is distant, arbitrary, withholding, capricious, judgmental, angry, wrathful, punishing, and separate. Does it not stand to reason that we could challenge this view, question it, dig into it to see whether it's indeed true ...? And, could we not choose *again*...?

It all starts there ... and once we see God as He is (as He reveals Himself to each of us, as only the Spirit can), would it not follow that our view of ourself would also change, to align with His view? And if we come to the place where we know that we're not separate from God, but are manifestations of the very life of God (for there is no other Source of Life), wouldn't it dawn on us that however God's Life is defined, so too would our own life be defined?

Is God sick, diseased, vulnerable to attack? Or is God whole, healthy, complete?

How then should we, made in His exact image and likeness, BE...?

Let's look at the occasion wherein Jesus washed the feet of His disciples ... when He got to Peter, Peter balked, but Jesus said, "If I do not do this, then you will have no part with me." Peter then wants ALL of him washed (I can so relate with impulsive and passionate Peter!). But don't miss what Jesus says next: "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean."

So why the feet? Literally speaking, and particularly in that day and age, the feet collected much dirt and grime (and assorted unmentionable contaminants!) from walking through daily life ... metaphorically/spiritually speaking, we pick up on the collective "dirt" and contamination that comes from aberrant theology, psychology, and experiences in daily life ... all of this must be washed away, in order for our inherent cleanness/wholeness to come through...!

It's not that the cleansing changes us -- it's that we're then able to see what's always been. Once we are aware of who and why we're here ... there is no disease, no fear of disease that can ever find a place to attach to us again. We will know that NO human effort is needed to fix something "broken" because we have always been "completely whole"!

We are not what we have always believed about ourselves ... what we've been told all our lives. We are not victims, and we do not need to live from the false perceptions of lack, loss, and fear...!

When this occurs, when we make this perception-shift - when we can SEE (& are no longer blinded by the lies of this world), then we will have risen to the level of awareness that transcends all man-made laws and rules and doctrines and pronouncements. For we will then live by the higher law of perpetual life (where disease cannot exist ... wherein disease is illegitimate)...!

Shalom, Dena

KNOWing the Truth that Sets us FREE...!

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

"C'mon, Baby ~ Let's do the Shift!"

Here's the problem: we have a skewy view of God, and therefore a skewy view of ourselves, and all of creation as well.

Here's the solution: we need a correction in our view of God, which will result in a corrected view of ourselves, and all of creation as well.

Sounds simple enough, right...?

But paradigm-shifts rarely come easily, or simply ... not because the Truth is complicated, but because of how our minds cling to what we think we know -- with a life-or-death grip. Our brains want to retain status-quo, and our emotions will send out all manner of "danger! - warning!" messages, that are designed to keep us loyal to what we already believe to be truth.

It takes a great deal of courage, a huge amount of trust, and even a sense of daring recklessness to plunge off the cliff of the unknown, before we discover that God will either catch us or else teach us to fly...!

It takes an inordinate level of self-honesty, to look deeply into what we really believe (as opposed to what we think we *should* believe), about God, about ourselves, about life.

If we see God as distant, separate, out-of-reach, unless and until we manage to please Him through right beliefs and correct actions ... if we believe that we must earn His love, if we believe that sickness is inevitable, if we believe that He is angry, wrathful, exacting in His demands, and certain that He will smite us when we err, that He's disgusted and disappointed with us, because we've thwarted His perfect plan, if we believe He's out to teach us hard lessons, and even to punish us because of our choices, then THAT is the sort of God we will experience.

But ... is it true? Is that who God really is, or is that a god created in our own image, a god who looks/acts/thinks like we do, a god we've projected out of our worst fears, out of our extreme distrust, out of the traditions of man which continue to nullify the word of God...?

Could it be true that God wants us to know Him, as He is, and wants us to discover how He views us, His offspring, we who are made in His exact likeness...?

I see that God is love. Nowhere are we told that God is wrath, or God is anger, or God is punishment, or God is justice. God IS love, and all that comes out of Him is therefore a manifestation of that love (just for fun, and perhaps enlightenment, go read 1 Corinthians, verses 4-7, and replace every instance of "love" with "God" ... for this passage is describing the very nature of God ... let your perspective be challenged and changed, to align with His reality).

I see that God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all. The darkness that we see is a projection of our own egoic/carnal thinking ... it originates in our own minds, and not in the nature of God.

God has made us in His own image and likeness ... like begets like. We are His offspring. We are His beloved children. When He looks at us, He sees Himself ... He sees the completion of Christ.

If we see ourselves as less than that, in any way, then I suggest, no, I declare, that we must have our minds renewed, so that we see as God sees, and think as God thinks. This is our inheritance.

God saw everything that He had made (everything! that includes you, and me, and everyone), and behold it was "very good." Good means (in Hebrew) "perfect, complete, undamaged, uninterrupted, incorruptible."

You and I and everyone are "perfect, complete, undamaged, uninterrupted, incorruptible."

Selah (pause and reflect on that).

THAT is our true nature. Anything else we think, anything else we believe, anything else we experience, is illegitimate, and comes out of the darkness of our own egoic thinking.

The Law of Life says that "each seed reproduces after its own kind." We are made of God-seed ... that is who we really are. And we are not to judge by appearances, but by righteous judgment (right thinking -- God's thinking). We are not to lean to our own (limited/egoic) understanding, but to acknowledge HIS ways as our own.

(this stuff was always there -- right in scripture -- but we've allowed the traditions of man, the "stories we tell ourselves", the human-taught propaganda, to nullify what we read, to nullify the word of God whispered into our very hearts!)

Enough of THAT...!

We are created by God ... we are God-stuff, we have His very Spirit, His very nature, His very life -- and we can learn to *expect* that ONLY that which flows out from God to appear and manifest in our own lives!

We learned the erroneous stuff -- we can certainly learn the Truth stuff! We can UNlearn, and RElearn ... unless, of course, you really *like* the way the old stuff is working for you ...! We do always have that choice ... and we see that the broad road that leads to destruction is the far more popular route ... while the narrow way, the road less-traveled, which leads to LIFE, is, thus far, less populated. Many are called, but few are the ones who choose it.

[Note: this has nothing to do with our "eternal destiny" after we die ... scripture isn't focused on what happens to us after we die -- that outcome is assured -- we come from God and we return to God. Scripture is concerned with how we live this here-and-now life ... this life matters. How we experience God, how we thus live, how we thus influence those around us, how we treat all of creation - matters.]

So, back to disease ... yesterday we explored how disease is illegitimate. It isn't real, except that we make it real (we are co-creators - our thoughts and beliefs have creative powers -- we need to learn this, to know this, and to use this ... otherwise, it's using us). Our collective consciousness (human thinking en-mass), is the manifestation of our hearts which believe that we are inherently unworthy ... that we have massively disappointed God ... that disease and suffering are a direct consequence (& punishment) for having failed God. We do not see ourselves in the beauty of God's creation (in fact, we're taught that all of creation is now deeply flawed and corrupt). We believe that we have, at the core, a "sin nature". This, we believe, and are taught, results in a separation from God... our Source. But sin IS the thought of wrongly believing ourselves separated from God...! Sin has always been "wrong thinking", not (as has been our hyper-focus), wrong-doing.

We have much-maligned the nature of God! Such a god as religion has created has NEVER existed! Only in our twisted egoic-minds, minds which do not know or experience God, could such a distorted image of God be created, believed, and perpetuated...!

And our thoughts of disease come out of that distorted view of God.

As the false thinking is healed, a new vision of God, a new vision of ourselves, a new vision of life itself, will emerge ... for Truth is there, obscured by our insistence in believing the lies.

More and more of us are awakening to see that we've long believed in lies... it no longer works, and we are no longer willing to believe and participate in the collective insanity that has ensued. This awakening is contagious ... for the Truth lies within each one of us, no matter how repressed, no matter how dormant, no matter how forgotten ... things we say, things we do, ways in which we live in awakened-freedom, can spark that slumbering Truth within others, and they, too, will wake up. Truth, Life, the Way, is hibernating in each human heart ... longing for the kiss of true love to arouse them from slumber. The dragon standing guard is a mere illusion ... the threats and curses are mere fluff-concepts, vapors of nothingness ... shadows that are absorbed by the Light. There is no battle, there is no war, there is no struggle ... there is only the awakening to what IS.

And when we know what IS, when we live in what IS, when the Truth of God is our own experienced and spirit-known truth, then the manifestations of God's very nature, truth, wholeness, perfection, completion, fullness, joy, love, balance, peace, goodness, kindness ... & yes, even health ... will be the inevitable and inescapable result.

We ARE made in God's exact image and likeness.

Ponder that.

Believe that.

Trust that.

Manifest that.

Shalom, Dena


P.S. I just put together the slides and commentary from the Presence Zone meeting -- an expose of transformation, in pictures ... if you've already emailed me, saying you'd like a copy, you'll get it -- if you would like to receive it, feel free to let me know, via email: brehmites @ aol . com (remove spaces first). It's pretty cool, if I do say so myself, and I do! ;)