What We "SEE" is What we GET...!

There are so many messages, so many voices, vying for our attention ... and whatever we accept, whatever we focus on, becomes our perspective, and thus, our experience.

So what voices do we, as humanity, hear?

See if any of these sound/feel familiar:

- Go out and take what's yours!

- The early bird catches the worm.

- Survival belongs to the fittest.

- Look out for "number one."

- God helps those who help themselves (from the book of II Hesitations).

- Only the strong survive.


By contrast, what does the Voice of God say to us:

- Give, with no thought to yourself.

- Give, and expect nothing in return.

- Love your enemies.

- Bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who despitefully use you.

- "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but of him who shows the greatest mercy."


In this "upside-down" kingdom, we give to receive, we lose to gain, we go down to raise up.

Here's the difference: human/egoic consciousness has a foundation in the fear of lack, of loss, of limitation. "What might happen?" The future threatens with dire happenings. We *expect* negative happenings to come our way. We plan and save for protecting ourselves from those dire occurrences in the future ... we believe we are meant to suffer, that it's inevitable ... that there's "not enough" of anything we need (be it water, food, air, money, opportunity, health, security, love, God..!). We have become experts in the "art of worry" ... and if we have nothing to worry about, we REALLY get worried, and we fabricate something to worry over...!

Contrast that with the Mind of God: Utter abundance ... pressed down, shaken together, overflowing ... lavish generosity, "more where that came from," more-than-enough of everything (be it love, opportunity, acceptance, joy, resources, understanding, mercy, wisdom, knowledge, joy, LIFE!).

Planning for the future is appropriate, provided that we do it by the leading of the Spirit, by His wisdom ... if we are motivated to plan out of fear, what are we really saying about God? What are we bringing about, through the power of our fear?

We are to seek FIRST the Kingdom of God (His perspective, His awareness, His focus, His Mind, His reign in us, His relationship to us) and ALL these things (everything else!) will be added to us -- with abundance!

We must be willing to let go of what we cling to (that which we think we know), in order to gain what we cannot lose...!

Shalom, Dena

Dying to Live ...

Are you living? I mean REALLY living? Is your life Abundant? Are you dying to live? You can really live you know ... and the way to get there IS by dying.

There are SO very many clues in scripture that the Kingdom is a topsy-turvy experience...! First is last, last is first, serve to lead, weakness is strength, those who self-exalt fall, humility lifts up, down is up, and in dying we live...!

What we cling to we lose ... what we let go of we gain.

And we're all, in various ways, dying to live ... to really live, to abundantly live. What if we're going about it backwards? What if the traditions of man (those collectively-egoic teachings) nullify the word (urgings/promptings/whisperings) of God?

During Jesus' ministry years, two men came to see Him, and here was Jesus' answer to them:

24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Jesus talks in parables ... He teaches us how to see the unseeable, do the undoable, and know the unknowable.

Here's what I'm getting out of that passage:

"Be willing to let go of your present/current understanding of life, of God, of yourself. Let go of the egoic desire to preserve your own status quo life ... be willing to live in such a way that fulfills the purpose for which you have been created: to display the Life of God - the Abundant Life. Be willing to let go of what you think you know, no matter how compelling it may seem to be, appear to be, and let the Author of Life define Life to you ... die to the old ways of thinking, so that the new can emerge and LIVE."

This is not about behaving into a new way of being ... religion does that -- it seeks to control behavior, through shame, through fear, through group-think pressure, as if that actually changes someone on the inside (look at history, and see for yourself whether that actually *works*). This is about changing an awareness, a consciousness, a way of seeing, believing and thinking, that cannot HELP but manifest in a way of behaving.

God doesn't want better-behaving people ... God wants a people who sees with His eyes, thinks with His Mind, and responds out of His heart.

And the way we get there is by dying to what we think we already know.

Let's look at how this message is being announced to us, loud and clear, through nature. We can see a clear pattern, if we look at it ... every day, the night covers the land, and we are plunged into darkness ... flowers fold up, birds cease to sing, all life seems to suspend ... fears increase, crime flourishes, nightmares ensue, shadows are turned into menacing appearances, by our imaginations. Even pain and disease seems to take on a more intense presence, in the dark. And YET - without fail, Light appears each morning ... and night recedes without a bit of resistance or struggle ... it's absorbed by the Light, effortlessly.

Every fall and winter, life seems to cease, as the world goes to sleep ... plants stop production, nothing grows, birds fly away, and animals go into a deep coma ... the entire land seems to go dormant. Days grow short, nights increase, the climate turns violent and harsh. And YET - without fail, Spring appears after winter, days increase, Light floods, life bursts forth from its slumber, without a resistance or struggle. Winter gives way to the power of growth.

Caterpillars appear to die, even being "buried" within the cocoon, and the insect turns to "goo" while it's in there ... but it is reformed within, and emerges as new life.

And so it is with the seed ... the seed falls from the plant, to the ground, encased in a hard protective shell that keeps out light ... that protection has to fall away, to die, and the seed appears to die, to go dormant, to be hidden in the ground, seemingly dead, for a time.

But there is a Life Force within that seed that cannot be denied, and from within, it breaks free from its enslavement, and emerges up, led always up, toward the Light, toward breaking free from all that would keep it down, toward its Source. It does not rest until it appears.

That seed had to let go of what it previously knew (the mother plant), to plunge into the unknown, to fall to the ground ... if it had remained on the plant, it would have whithered uselessly ...

That which appears to be dead, that which falls to the ground, gives way to new life ...!

Do you see...?

Let's look at some scriptural examples of this principle:

- Abraham took years to come to the end of his own attempts to fulfill God's promise of a son ... it wasn't until he quit struggling that the new life came.

- Moses spent four decades in the wilderness (dark thinking) before he received his revelation in the burning bush -- truth from God -- that transformed his life, and gave him purpose.

- David lived in isolation, letting go of what the world defines as success, learning that in God is his power and strength and wisdom.

- Jesus lived for 30 "normal" years, until he was able to say, "by my own self I can do nothing - I do as I hear, as I see the Father doing."

- Paul spent 3 years in isolation after his blinding conversion, letting go of what he'd been taught, having his mind renewed.

There is no "Book of Dena" (though it seems I'm attempting to write one, LOL!), but in my own life, I spent 21 years trying all that medicine and religion told me to do, in order to overcome bulimia ... but when I finally gave up (exhausted!), God met me where I was, changed my perspective with truth, and set me free.

Now, it's interesting to me that when Jesus raised folks from the dead, He told everyone that the dead were "sleeping" (as the night sleeps? as the winter sleeps? as the animals hibernate? as the butterfly and the seed sleep?)...! And it's interesting that Elisha *saw* (spiritually saw) Elijah being taken away "by a chariot" ... it seems to me that we have much to question about what we call death ... if the nature of life is God's life, which is eternal, then what we call death isn't really death -- it's not the end -- it's a transition from one form of life to another (just like the seed doesn't really die, it is transformed).

If we cling to what we think we know, we forfeit the Abundant Life ... if we die to what we think we know, we live the Abundant Life ... for it emerges out of what has died. Out of what appears to be death -- life always comes forth!

Death where is your sting?

There must be a death to our old way of thinking/seeing/believing/behaving, so that real life, God's life manifested in ALL that is, can emerge to our awareness. His life is in and all around us ... but we have to have eyes to see. Our old ways prevent us from seeing.

22`The lamp of the body is the eye [the perspective], if, therefore, thine eye may be perfect, all thy body shall be enlightened,

23but if thine eye [perspective] may be evil, all thy body shall be dark; if, therefore, the light that [is] in thee is darkness -- the darkness, how great!

24`None is able to serve two lords, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one, and despise the other; ye are not able to serve God and Mammon.

(Mammon is defined as the "god of this world" ... or our own egos, and the collective ego of mankind.)

If we see through the evil-perceiving lens of the ego, we will experience evil (including dis-ease, disease). If we see through the lens of Light (God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all), then we experience all that comes with Light: wholeness, harmony, abundance, goodness, peace, joy, love ...

We have a choice.

We need to die to those thoughts/teachings that tell us that God sees us as a failure, as someone who needs suffering and punishment to "fix" us ... if we cling to those, we are the seed clinging to the tree, whithering away. We can take the plunge, fall to the ground and "die" ... so that real Life can emerge and grow.

God is asking us to look, REALLY look at our lives ... at the consequences we're experiencing, at the fruits we're displaying (fear? love?), to take stock of how we're living.

God asks, "Do you WANT this, which you have chosen by your beliefs?"

If the answer is "no," then God says,

"Then choose again."

And THIS is what repentance really means: to choose again.
Shalom, Dena

Is God a man...?

When you think of God, do you see a man, or a male?

And does God have the attributes of a man ... is God really jealous, angry, retributive, demanding the impossible, changing His mind...?

Or is it that the humans, who, albeit inspired by God, yet wrote the scriptures from their own limited and skewed perspective..? Is it that they progressed from darkness into more and more clarity ... or is it that the immutable God changed, over time?

Did God really get saved sometime between Malachi and Matthew ..?!?

Jesus gives us a radically different view of God ... God is Spirit, God is personal, God is Father ... Abba, Daddy.

This was a shockingly too-familiar concept for the religious in Jesus' day ... how does it strike you, today?

Jesus also told us that in the Kingdom there is neither male nor female ... which means that God is neither ... and yet both male and female are made in God's image.

John, in his first epistle, says this about our relationship/connection with God:

4:17By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.

I don't know how I missed it before, except that I believed what I was taught, but I'm now seeing that the Bible is a progressive unfolding of truth ... moving from murky-static understanding into a more Light-infused understanding ... with God continuously correcting our perspective of Him, of ourselves, of others.

Perhaps we will only see ourselves as we are, when we can bear to see Him as He is:

1 John 3:2 beloved, now, children of God are we, and it was not yet manifested what we shall be, and we have known that if he may be manifested, like him we shall be, because we shall see him as he is

Show us, God ... show us Yourself; show us ourselves. Increase our bear-ability...!

Shalom, Dena

The Nature of God ...

What do you envision when you think of "God"...?

What's the first impression that comes to mind...?

Is it something you want to run to and embrace, or something that causes you to hold back?

My previous view of God's nature was skewed at best, and schizophrenic at worst ... it seemed as if God's attitude toward me was dependent upon my current disposition ... my actions, thoughts, achievements. If I were "good" then God was remotely pleased (though, not praising me, as this was *expected* of me). If I were "bad" then God was at least disappointed, if not outright pissed (another word for "wrathful"). God always seemed to be in potential mid-smite mode ... you know, his hand ready with that lightning bolt, just waiting for me to mess up, so that He could send a "lesson" my way, for my own good, of course.

Seriously, this thought was the background music of my life ... the perpetual thought that God was ready to send something bad to me ... for my own good. As a result, it was nearly impossible for me to trust God ... this version of God. I felt I couldn't turn to Him unless I had no choice (when things were dire) ... instead I felt the need to figure things out for myself ... to do the best I can (and yet always aware that my best was woefully inadequate). Talk about a catch-22!

When I prayed, I felt like I had to be meticulously detailed in what I wanted God to do ... that I had to convince Him to do good toward me, that I had to dictate to Him, otherwise, I might get one of those "for your own good" answers...!

And perhaps I should sweeten the deal, and really impress God with my holiness ... perhaps longer prayers, more Bible-reading, more church-attendance, lots of do-gooding, and if I really wanted to get God's attention -- to fast from food, or abstain from a favorite activity...!

Yeah, that'll stack things in my favor!

But, a funny thing happened in the mist of my careful construction of the nature of God ... God dismantled it.

Oh, not all at once ... but there came the day when I turned to God because my foundations were shaking ... only to discover that it was *God* who was shaking them...!

Yikes! Now what?!?

I've learned much about God along the way ... most of which cannot be passed on, second-hand, but must be learned and experienced, rather than "proven."

Still, in sharing some of these things, it helps me to see what I've come to know, and perhaps may affirm that which is in your own heart, that which He is speaking in YOU (& that, I believe, is the essence of the Word of God -- His Voice within).

I've come to see that God is unchangeable ... He is good, and that goodness is consistent, unwavering, immutable. God is not reactive, dependent upon me, His creation, to determine how He will treat me. He is love -- everything about Him comes out of that love -- no exceptions. He is Light, and in Him is NO darkness at all. I cannot earn His love, I cannot deserve His goodness ... His love and goodness are His very nature. He is constant, all the time. Toward me, toward you, toward all.

Now, religion has indeed told us that God changes ... but religion is of man -- truth is of God. We can have our minds renewed ... we can move from religion to relationship.

Nothing that any of us does, or fails to do, will EVER change God, God's nature, or God's perception. I can, and do, suffer from my own false beliefs (lies in my mind), but when I turn to the very Spirit of Truth, to renew my mind, to show me a higher way of thinking, I find that God is unchangeable goodness -- each and every time.

Try it.

I have discovered that the God of reward and punishment is a fabrication of our own confused minds, a fruit of our shame-based and fear-based thinking ... and not the Truth about God...!

We are one with the God of goodness. We can, and must, move from our current erroneous thinking about God, into the Mind of Christ -- Jesus manifested God Himself, and told us, if we've seen Him, we've seen the Father.

May the Mind of Christ enlighten the dark places in our egoic/carnal minds ... may the Light of God absorb all shadows, all darkness, transforming and renewing our minds into His.

Shalom, Dena

In the Beginning ...

In the beginning, man saw himself as innocent, pure, complete, whole, and "very good." He had oneness with God, walking and talking with God, loved and accepted by God.

There was no fear.

He was told to eat "of the tree of life" (having the mindset of seeing life/God everywhere around and in him). For life isn't something we do ... Life is of God - Life IS God (Jesus: "I Am the Life."). From God, through God, and to God are all things" (Rom 11:36).

As long as man continued in this way-of-thought, Life, and all that Life manifests, prevailed.

But there was a caution: do not eat from the tree (mindset) of the knowledge of good and evil. Do not judge things as good or evil -- for in that day, we would die, which is to perceive ourselves as separate from Life/God.

In order to judge as good or evil, we must first separate (in our minds) what we're judging from Life/God, and deny the Life that's flowing through it ... we show that we then believe that this part of creation is separate from the One Life, in order to be "evil" ... and we have thus divided God into two powers, in our minds. We are told to not judge "according to appearances" but look beyond the surface of the thing/person/situation, to see the reality of the substance of that thing: God. This is called "righteous judgment" or seeing as God sees.

We were told, right from the beginning, to see Life when looking at all things/people; to see God when looking at all things/people. If we do this, we will no longer judge things as "good or evil," "right or wrong," healthy or sick." We will no longer judge ourselves, either.

AND, if we see the True Life of each situation, and of each person, we are, in effect, calling it forth into it's true expression, as a manifestation of God. This is how we demonstrate love, and cooperate with God in healing, restoring wholeness, to the world (consider how Jesus called Lazarus forth ... because Jesus saw Lazarus as alive and whole ... He never saw him as dead).

We can come to the place where we see that there is only One Life -- and we're all sharing it.

Back to the Garden ...

Enter the serpent.

Now, it's interesting to me that serpent symbolizes fear for the Hebrew mind ... and it seems that the "crafty beast" (clever carnal mind?) of man starts whispering all manner of doubts about God ... suggesting that God is author of both good and evil, that God is withholding good, withholding wisdom and knowledge, that God cannot be trusted ... and as soon as the humans believed this line of thinking, he partook of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil ... mankind believed the lie, began a life of judgment, and therefore experienced fear. He saw himself as separate from God, and feared Him ... and he saw both good and evil all around him, rather than only seeing good, as before.

He saw himself as "naked" or uncovered, rather than being in the protection of God ... separate, isolated, alone. Abandoned by God. Ashamed. Man now believes that goodness, in any form, can be withheld. He now feels responsible for his own life, and must work and toil to gain back what he believes he's lost. He must earn God's favor. He sees himself as lacking, as there not being "enough" of anything, having to strive to get his needs met.

All this began, for mankind, for each of us, when we believe that God is the author of both good and evil. And we believe that God is the judge of our failures, and the punisher for our failings.

Instead of enjoying the One life, we live as if we have to earn goodness, even while expecting bad to keep happening to us ... because we "deserve" it.

What God knows, what God sees, is what He's made -- that which is very good. He does not see us through the lens of our own misunderstandings, confusion and fears. God knows Himself, and knows us, His offspring. God sees the truth about us ... that we are whole, complete, pure, His. He sees only harmony, order, and balance in all of creation. God is on our side. We don't have to hide behind bushes, trembling in shame, pretending to be good enough with our strivings, hoping we can dazzle God with our performance. We can realize that we're clothed with his goodness, love, worthiness and innocence. We can live a life that demonstrates wholeness... once we *see* that it's God's perspective, and therefore our truest/deepest perspective as well.

We can know that our fears are ego-generated, and utterly illegitimate.

And so is disease.

Once we understand why we don't need to experience disease anymore, we won't experience it anymore. We can learn to be free from this individual and collective mesmerism ... this self-imposed enslavement.

Then the inhabitants of the land ("Zion" -- the new covenant, new understanding) shall no more say, "I am sick." (Isaiah 33:24)

Shalom, Dena

Sowing and Reaping...?

The sum total of the collective consciousness of man seems to declare this: God is constantly judging us, and we keep failing; God's standards ore impossible to attain."

This is another way of saying we're under the law of "cause and effect", or "sowing and reaping".

We get this from scripture, which says:

Gal 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.

[NOTE: This is in the new testament -- after the Atonement.]

So ... what if, rather than seeing this as God punishing us for what we do, it's God telling us that the way we perceive, is the way we'll experience? Whatever we hold as "truth" in our minds, that is what we'll see and experience? What we'll reap...?

What if, rather than seeing God as the one who is giving us the diseases we've earned, He's instead revealing to us the fulfillment of a basic human law? What if we, by our choices, our beliefs and our resulting actions, are bringing about the very disease and suffering we blame on God?

Then we think we have to beg God to remove this affliction He's "caused or allowed" ... or we try to repent and appease Him for our failures. When God doesn't change the results of our own thinking, we figure that He's abandoned us ... He's either unABLE (less than Omnipotent), or unWILLing (less than all loving) or else we figure we're spiritually inept, or have maybe committed the unforgiveable sin ... thus plunging in to the abyss of self-condemnation (and then imagining that it's GOD who's condemning us!). IF we are able, by our extreme self-effort, to adhere to our own standards of correct behavior, then we congratulate ourselves for our self-righteousness ... proud of our ability to be better than the other poor scums, whom we condemn as having failed.

Such ugliness ... and all blamed on God!

Not to mention utterly exhausting and demoralizing!

It seems to me that the entire purpose of the Law was to show us that it's pointless to try to achieve our own goodness ... that it was impossible for us to achieve perfection on our own efforts. Some of us never try, and others of us nearly kill ourselves in trying. Many of us have to give up in utter defeat ... admitting failure.

And God smiles.

He says to us, "Yes, you've come to the end of your own efforts -- I'm so glad you see that this won't work. It was never meant to. But, you had to see it for yourself, in order to believe it. I created you to experience, in order to learn."

And then He begins to show us how HE feels about us, how HE sees us ... we learn, to our absolute amazement, that He LIKES us ... just as we are! Flaws and all. Wow! We come to see how He loves us, not blindly, but with complete knowledge of us, inside and out. It's in that realization, of His love, that we can respond to Him with love of our own (which He puts in us)... we love Him because He first loved us (while we were still "enemies in our own minds" BTW!). We then start to respond to God out of love, rather than out of fear (which never worked, if you were paying attention). We then notice that we begin to change, out of that atmosphere and awareness of how we are loved and accepted -- whereas before we thought we had to change in order to *earn* His love and acceptance! Whew! What relief!

It just takes a shift of understanding ... not effort, not striving, not earning, not even "believing the right doctrine" (such as: God had to sacrifice God in order to appease God) (which is just another "good work") ...

Since this shift started happening in my own understanding, I am shocked to discover how many things have *always* been in scripture ... right under my nose (though it seems as if God keeps sneaking new stuff into my Bible!).

Try this on for size:

Psalm 32:2 Blessed are those
whose sin the LORD does not count against them

And:

Psalm 103:10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor punished us according to our iniquities.

[NOTE: These are in the "old testament" -- prior to the Atonement.]

How have the traditions of man nullified the word of God (which is not the Bible, but that which He is continuously telling us, as He leads us into all truth)...?

Shalom, Dena

Can You Enter the Wilderness...?

God never changes.

Truth never changes.

Our ability to perceive God's Truth certainly changes ...!

Our lives, indeed the account of scripture, reveals a progressive journey of understanding into truth -- AS we can bear it.

Our ability to comprehend incomprehensible Truth must be slowly revealed to us so that we can tolerate the transition. For many of us, the transition is gut-wrenchingly painful.

Perhaps, the more we ache for the Truth, the more painful the process ... the more we swallowed-whole the propaganda of men (cleverly disguised as the truth of God), the more painful the process of letting go ... firing the old god, and allowing the new God to reign in us, is simple, but not always easy.

For me, the deep and dark point of the process occurred when I studied "what the hell is hell" ... I was tormented in my mind, "in hell" in my thinking, for a couple of years. The confusion, the despair, the darkness of my thinking, while in transition, the double-mindedness of going back and forth from the old strongholds to the new possibilities was beyond-stressful, beyond wrenching. But, when I emerged on the other side (not all at once, but in a slow dawning), I grew to be deeply convinced of the truth of what God had revealed to me. The confusion and vacillating between old and new began to lift ... I was ready to embrace that which He'd been showing me ... even if I lost much that went with the old way of life (friends, ministry positions, relationships, reputation).

Because of who I am, or perhaps how I'm led, I've shared this journey every step of the way, transparently ... not holding back. I've opened myself up to much criticism, alarm, and malignment. But I've also opened myself up to being connected with the most marvelous people I never knew were "out there" ...! They were previously hidden from me by the labels I'd put on them: "new-agers," "heretics," "pagans," "mystics," "THEM." I also found myself being a catalyst for others to come out of the shadows of secret-doubting ... as SO very many were suffering as I had been, trying to believe the traditions of man, but no longer able to squelch the Spirit's drawing them into the Light, which they feared was the dreaded slippery slope...! I've come to believe that hearts all over the planet are aching to know more, to experience more, for they've dreamt of more, or even tasted more. I wasn't alone in my "insanity," in my "blasphemy"... people everywhere are coming to the end of the old way of thinking, and were starved for the revelation of the "much more" that Jesus promised ...

Many are called, and few choose to take this path ... this narrow path less-traveled. Most will never leave the security of tradition - the safety of all they think they know (& must strive to maintain). Many prefer the security of the familiar, even if it's choking the life out of them (especially if they believe God *wants* them to thus suffer!). But others cannot resist ... their hearts ache, and their souls are starved, and their hunger will not be squelched.

And so, they are willing to plunge forward, into parts-unknown, into the wilderness, the desert.

Bear in mind, if you have taken this plunge, or if you are being called to do so, that in the desert, the Israelites lived in tents -- temporary shelters (houses symbolize our understanding, our "covering"). Bear in mind that the promised land is symbolic of the fullness of God's truth -- our heaven on earth. New heaven and new earth, wherein God reigns within. Where/when we see as God sees... and are known as we are known.

While in the desert of transition, of transformation, we are to stay open and receptive to the Spirit of Truth who is leading us ... like a pillar of fire by night, and a cloud by day. Our desire, our temptation, is to set up a permanent camp, to put down roots, but if we do so, if we insist on building a monument to what we think we know at any given point (no matter how compelling that revelation of truth may be), we miss the leading of the Spirit. The Spirit of God, within us, will reveal in a progressive way, and it may not make sense along the way ... we must have courage and trust in this process. We hear His Voice, and do not heed the voice of the stranger, nor the wolf, but only the Master within.

It's unsettling, this wilderness experience ... and we may enter it more than once, depending on what must be dismantled. But we can trust that we are there for a good purpose -- to enable us to see God as He is, and ourselves in His image ... and thus learn who we are, why we are here, and what this Abundant Life is really all about ...

Can you imagine anything more important...?

Shalom, Dena