UNDERSTANDING GOD : Everything you need to know about God, soul and man - revised 26/02/2022

WHAT IS GOD? WHO OR WHAT IS GOD'S CHILD?

God and His child do not have a physical form or appearance. They are divine ideas or thoughts.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). This is John's attempt to describe the God and the Spiritual realm as made up of God and God's ideas.

In the physical word there are no words expressed or actions performed without first formulating them in thought. Likewise, in the spiritual realm nothing happens without thought. the Spiritual realm is just divine Thought. Therefore, in the beginning, before the universe was created, only Thought ("The Word") existed and that Thought was God and His ideas, His spiritual children. God, divine Mind, chose to create the physical universe in ‘one big bang’ of creative Thought. Mankind did not exist in the beginning of the world. According to the record in Genesis it was seven days before the lord god ( a Jewish tribal god) formed man from the dust of the earth which must have already been in existence for him to do this. Then he formed woman from man's rib. These two statements confirm the view that God did not create mankind in the first instance. God created the microorganisms and the atmosphere which would allow the evolution of all living things.

“Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth”(James 1:18). James is describing according to his understanding how the spiritual child of God came about. It was a conceptualization of God, divine Thought; ‘begat’ of the word of Truth. Divine Mind begat an idea, a thought, in Its image and likeness. As concepts of God, we reside as spiritual beings in the repository of God's thought: “for in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17: 2). Since God by definition is omniscient He cannot create new ideas since He is already the repository of all ideas. The spiritual man is a body of thoughts in the image and likeness of God's Thoughts. These thoughts are of of Love, Truth, Spirit and Soul. This body of thoughts has its ‘being’ in God; divine Mind. Like God, spiritual man is neither male nor female, black nor white, Christian nor Moslem. It has always existed in divine Mind

As the children of God we should be evolving spirituality, purifying our thoughts and reflecting the divine Thoughts of God. Our human consciousness growing spiritually towards the goal of having "that mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). We should be reflecting the perfect image of our soul which resides eternally in the divine Mind. This endeavor is the very 'justification' for our being here. This spiritual growth must be continued in our eternal life. When we die the image of our soul fade from our human consciousness but it remains undimmed in the divine Mind.

God is divine Mind, the sum of all intelligence, the creator and repository of all divine Thoughts. Those thoughts are good, pure, substantive and express Life, Truth, Love, Spirit, and Soul. Of these, love is the ‘ greatest of these’: unconditional, caring, selfless love. These are the thoughts which are reflected in and comprise the spiritual body of thought, or soul, which is God's child. It is 'the temple of the living God’. It is the sole expression of adoration of God. No man-made temple or ritual is required nor indeed acceptable to God.

We are perfect, loving and lovable reflections of God's thoughts and we 'live' in Him. Prayer is the movement of loving, joyous, and uplifting thoughts passing between God and His ideas and from one receptive idea to another. These ideas uplift the spirituality of the recipient destroying the errors and chaos of mortal mind. They redeems our soul. The collection or body of thoughts which make up 'our being’ are uniquely individual and eternal for each spiritual idea of God. Like God they have no beginning or end. They are the underlying basis of our love for each other in this world and by which we will recognize each other throughout eternity.

The more these spiritual thoughts dominate our consciousness the closer we are to God and the less dependent we are on the physical body and mortal mind.

"Behold the lilies of the field, they toil not,.. yet they are clothed... Seek not what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be of doubtful mind". This advice from Luke has a much clearer meaning when we understand the true nature of God as divine Thought and man as a reflective idea of God. As spiritual beings or ideas we need neither clothes, food, breath, nor water to sustain us. Spiritual thoughts are sustained by God alone. When we have attained ‘that mind which was also in Christ Jesus’ we will not have need of physical sustenance or indeed of our physical body. But until that time we must meet our physical needs as best we can while adhering to Christ's commandments to love God and our fellow man.

Spiritual thoughts are of quite a different nature to those of the human or animal brain which control the functions of the body and day-to-day living; thoughts which encompass the contemplation of God. Spiritual thoughts are eternal and the embodiment of eternal spiritual life. They are the thoughts by which we can understand God. They are what make us who we are. Either here or hereafter we must cleanse our consciousness of all material thoughts, wants and woes. We must deny the power of mortal mind and affirm that of divine Mind. St Paul, in Philippians chapter 4, sets out the human thoughts that are the precursor for divine thoughts and they are: truth, honesty, justice, purity, love, virtue and anything of good report or praise.

As our spiritual understanding evolves we move from these thoughts to the higher plane of thought which was embodied in Jesus during his physical lifetime when he healed the sick and raised the dead. It came to full fruition with his resurrection and ascension when he demonstrated that the child of God is pure eternal divine thought, independent of the physical form.

Our human brain reflects our spiritual consciousness or soul which resides eternally in divine Mind. In computer terminology our brain acts as a mirror site for our soul. We have drawn a veil of materiality over this mirror. Only by praying to understand God can we lift this veil. We might lose consciousness or the body might die according to the human senses but our soul is never lost and never dies. Our spiritual consciousness remains, as ever, secure in divine Mind. This is the eternal life promised by God. Mortal mind would try to keep our thoughts centered on our body and material things. We must daily work to lift our thoughts to the pure and divine level.

The death of all human desires, undesirable thoughts and particularly self-ego, in other words, the death of the belief in mortal mind, is the ‘second death’ which must take place before we can be the perfect idea of God.

Through prayer, our thoughts must become pure, loving and God centered: ‘Everyone that hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself even as He is pure' (I John 1: 3).