If we are DIVINE...
Then we create our present world and circumstance by thinking and speaking and wishing and wanting (each a form of prayer).
If we are DIVINE...
what we TRULY DESIRE is always right, and we can do no wrong.
If we are DIVINE...
there will still be moments or seasons of human frailty showing through... but they do not define us. We can rise again to our best self.
Desire for good is ALWAYS of SPIRIT. So.... the BIG question is, what percent of your time do you spend being Divine? An important component to consider is - Can you tell when the DESIRE is from SPIRIT and when it is from something else inside you that is merely a biological or selfish appetite?
WHAT IF YOU ARE A GOD - LIVING IN A COMMUNITY OF GODS - CREATING YOUR PRESENT SITUATION - ONE DAY AT A TIME? WHAT IF YOU LIVED LIKE YOU WERE A GOD? WHAT IF YOU ALREADY ARE AND JUST DON'T KNOW IT. WHAT IF YOU ARE POINTING ALL THAT POWER IN THE WRONG DIRECTION EVERY TIME YOU HARBOR A SPIRITUAL EVENT SUCH AS A GRUDGE, A RESENTMENT, A DESIRE FOR HARM... OR MAYBE EVEN POINTING AT NOTHING, OR WORSE YET POINTING IT IN A DARK DIRECTION - MERELY BECAUSE YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU HAVE IT?
If we are DIVINE... we can heal ourselves and the world around us by picturing what could be - instead of complaining about what is. This is the act of creation. We manifest what we think about and speak. In so doing, we Co-Create with God.
HAVE I GONE TOO FAR???
The Apostle PAUL on Becoming Divine:
Ephesians 4:13 tells us that followers of Christ are to mature "...to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ". Galatians 4:19, "My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you," shows us that Christ is formed in us. Other verses tell us that as we allow it, our non-deified nature decreases until Paul says, in Galations 2:19 "I no longer live but Christ lives in me..."
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supports and additional references: ( I don't support everything being "SAID" or "SOLD" at any web page I quote, but if they say it well, I may quote some of their writing in support of my own.
The teaching of deification in the Bible
http://www.ucg.org/booklets/WD/god-own-literal-children.asp
This biblical truth will surely come as quite a shock to those who have heard only the traditional view of mainstream Christianity regarding the ultimate reward of the righteous. Yet those who might be quick to assail this teaching will perhaps be even more surprised to learn that many early "church fathers" of mainstream tradition—not so far removed from early apostolic teaching—did understand this incredible truth, at least in part. And hints of this are sometimes seen even today.
Notice paragraphs 398 and 460 of the current Catechism of the Catholic Church (1995), footnoted sources in brackets:
"Created in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully 'divinized' by God in glory [but sinned] . . .
"The Word [Jesus Christ] became flesh to make us 'partakers of the divine nature' [2 Peter 1:4]: 'For this is why the Word [Christ] became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God' [Irenaeus (2nd century),Against Heresies Book 3, chap. 19, sec. 1].
"'For the Son of God became man so that we might become God' [Athanasius (4th century), On the Incarnation of the Word, chap. 54, sec. 3]. 'The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us share in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods' [Thomas Aquinas (13th century), Opusculum 57, lectures 1-4]" (pp. 112, 128-129, emphasis added).
This teaching is even more prevalent in Eastern Orthodox tradition, where it is known by the Greek term theosis,meaning "divinization" or "deification." It is wholly unlike the New Age concept of absorption into universal consciousness or seeing oneself as inherently and presently divine. Notice the remarkable explanation of the early Catholic theologian Tertullian, writing around A.D. 200:
"It would be impossible that another God could be admitted, when it is permitted to no other being to possess anything of God. Well, then, you say, at that rate we ourselves possess nothing of God. But indeed we do, and will continue to do so. Only it is from Him that we receive it, and not from ourselves. For we will be even gods, if we deserve to be among those of whom He declared, 'I have said, "You are gods,"' and 'God stands in the congregation of the gods.' But this comes of His own grace, not from any property in us. For it is He alone who can make gods" (Against Hermogenes, chap. 5, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 480, quoted in "Deification of Man," David Bercot, editor, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, 1998, p. 200).
Indeed, this was the standard view during the early Christian centuries (see "Early Theologians on Becoming Divine").
More recent authors have also glimpsed this biblical truth. C.S. Lewis, perhaps the most popular Christian writer of the last century, wrote:
"The command Be ye perfect [Matthew 5:48] is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were 'gods' and He is going to make good His words.
"If we let Him—for we can prevent Him, if we choose—He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said" (Mere Christianity,1996, p. 176).
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Early Theologians on Becoming Divine
While the biblical concept of deification or divinization—exaltation to godhood—is commonly ignored or dismissed in modern Christian teaching, this doctrine was well established among early theologians of mainstream tradition.
Though the writings of these men are not always biblically accurate, the following quotes from their writings demonstrate that in the first centuries after the New Testament was written many still understood the clear implications of its teachings on this subject:
Justin Martyr (ca. 100-165): "[By Psalm 82] it is demonstrated that all men are deemed worthy of becoming gods, and of having power to become sons of the Highest" (Dialogue With Trypho, chap. 124).
"We have learned that those only are deified who have lived near to God in holiness and virtue" (First Apology, chap. 21).
Theophilus of Antioch (ca. 163-182): "If he [man] would incline to the things of immortality, keeping the commandment of God, he should receive as a reward from Him immortality, and should become God" (To Autolycus, Book 2, chap. 27).
Irenaeus (ca. 130-200): "For we cast blame upon Him [God], because we have not been made gods from the beginning, but at first merely men, then at length gods; although God has adopted this course out of His pure benevolence . . . He declares, I have said, You are gods; and you are all sons of the Highest [Psalm 82:6]" (Against Heresies, Book 4, chap. 38).
"How, then, shall he be a God, who has not as yet been made a man? Or how can he be perfect who was but lately created? How, again, can he be immortal, who in his mortal nature did not obey his Maker? For it must be that you, at the outset, should hold the rank of a man, and then afterwards partake of the glory of God" (Against Heresies, Book 4, chap. 39).
"There is none other called God by the Scriptures except the Father of all, and the Son, and those who possess the adoption [i.e., sonship as God's children]" (Against Heresies, Book 4, preface; compare Book 3, chap. 6).
Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150-215): "Yea, I say, the Word of God [Christ] became man, that you may learn from man how man may become God" (Exhortation to the Heathen, chap. 1).
"But that man with whom the Word dwells . . . his is beauty, the true beauty, for it is God; and that man becomes God, since God so wills. Heraclitus [the ancient Greek poet], then, rightly said, Men are gods, and gods are men " (The Instructor, Book 3, chap. 1).
"It leads us to the endless and perfect end, teaching us beforehand the future life that we shall lead, according to God, and with gods . . . After which redemption the reward and the honours are assigned to those who have become perfect; when they have got done with purification . . . Then become pure in heart, and near to the Lord, there awaits them restoration to everlasting contemplation; and they are called by the appellation of gods, being destined to sit on thrones with the other gods that have been first put in their places by the Saviour [or, some translate, 'with the other gods who are ranked next below the Savior']" (Stromata [Miscellanies], Book 7, chap. 10).
Tertullian (ca. 160-230): "It will be impossible that another god should be admitted, when it is permitted to no other being to possess anything of God. Well, then, you say, we ourselves at that rate possess nothing of God. But indeed we do, and shall continue to do—only it is from Him that we receive it, and not from ourselves. For we shall be even gods, if we shall deserve to be among those of whom He declared, I have said, You are gods [Psalm 82:6], and, God stands in the congregation of the gods [verse 1]. But this comes of His own grace, not from any property in us, because it is He alone who can make gods" (Against Hermogenes, chap. 5).
Hippolytus (ca. 170-236): "And you shall possess an immortal body . . . And you shall be a companion of the Deity, and a co-heir with Christ, no longer enslaved by lusts or passions, and never again wasted by disease. For you have become God . . . These [things] God has promised to bestow upon you, because you have been deified, and begotten unto immortality . . . You shall resemble Him, inasmuch as you shall have honour conferred upon you by Him. For the Deity, (by [this] condescension,) does not diminish anything of the divinity of His divine perfection; having made you even God unto His glory!" (Refutation of All Heresies, Book 10, chap. 30).
Origen (ca. 185-255): "The first-born of all creation [Christ], who is the first to be with God, and to attract to Himself divinity, is a being of more exalted rank than the other gods beside Him, of whom God is the God, as it is written, The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken and called the earth [Psalm 50:1]. It was by the offices of the first-born that they became gods, for He drew from God in generous measure that they should be made gods, and He communicated it to them according to His own bounty. The true God, then, is The God, and those who are formed after Him are gods, images, as it were, of Him the prototype" (Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 2, chap. 2).
Athanasius (ca. 293-373): "For He [Christ] was made man that we might be made God" (On the Incarnation of the Word, chap. 54, sec. 3).
"He [Christ] was God, and then became man, and that to deify us" (Four Discourses Against the Arians, Discourse 1, chapter 11, sec. 39).
Augustine of Hippo (354-430): "But He that justifies does Himself deify, in that by justifying He does make sons of God. 'For He has given them power to become the sons of God' [ John 1:12]. If we have been made sons of God, we have also been made gods" (Expositions on the Psalms, On Psalm 50, sec. 2).
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The Holy Spirit:
Permalink http://www.ucg.org/booklets/WD/god-family.asp
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The Holy Spirit:
Permalink http://www.ucg.org/booklets/WD/god-family.asp
The Holy Spirit... is the power, mind, life and shared essence of God (compare Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8; Romans 15:13; Romans 8:27; 1 Corinthians 2:16; John 4:24; 5:26; 6:63).
More Power To YOU!
Personal Power ~ Spirit Power
Your Spirit Word Coach
www.SpiritWordToday.com
