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Get Real

There is a religious philosophy that claims we create our own reality. It is based upon the idea that reality is really not a constant, but is different for each person.

That philosophy does not understand God at all, for it subjects all reality to the shifting sands of man's viewpoints as he attempts to understand his surroundings. Insofar as it is man-based, it is essentially atheistic or agnostic.

In our search for an understanding of reality, the most basic truth to understand is that we are incapable of creating reality. Fundamental reality exists whether we understand it or not, and it will not change to conform to man's viewpoint. God is the ultimate Reality, and because He created all things out of Himself, the universe is also real. Where God is, there is Reality. Where God is denied, there is Illusion.

The structures that appear to us--which we often call "real"--are forms that change through time, though they are built out of particles of reality. We often confuse structure with reality, saying "this object is real," when in fact the only thing real about it is its true Atoms--the smallest particles that cannot be subdivided. It is not its form that is real, but its basic substance. All forms eventually disintegrate in order to be formed into some new structure that is temporarily useful for man's enjoyment and benefit.

When philosophers confuse reality with its manifested forms, they either worship the form (structure) or they deny reality altogether and thus deny the very existence of God.

But when we believe and understand that God is the ultimate Reality, existing in spite of our viewpoints, we are able to function in harmony with God and Reality. Our creative authority as children of God is not to change reality, but to build it, shape it, and make it useful for life's enjoyment. We are to take the reality that is available to us and do something with it.

Our viewpoints are part of that which we shape and build. Viewpoints are forms and structures that change as we mature in our understanding of reality. As such, viewpoints are good. But when we confuse viewpoints with the reality itself, it shows a hardening of the viewpoint, a worship of structure. It becomes an illusion that is a "tradition of men" that makes void the word of God itself.

Wherever a viewpoint is hardened into a tradition of men, there is a lack of love, for it represents a hardness of heart characteristic of the legalistic mindset, which worships form over substance. The laws of God are part of the Word of God. The Word of God is an unchanging reality in its substance, because its origin is the Ultimate Reality. We are given the Word of God, even as we are given the Atoms of God.

These are real and unchanging, but our authority is in the realm of application, not the creation of law. Our place is to shape and structure law (the Word) into useful forms for the betterment of mankind. A great example of this is found in the changes between Old and New Covenants. The law of sacrifice did not change insofar as its reality is concerned. It only changed to a more useful form. Whereas they used to sacrifice a lamb, now we have the Lamb of God as our Sacrifice.

The Book of Hebrews was written to present to us the better form of the Word of God. Changes were made, because creation outgrew the old forms and structures that had been suitable for an earlier time. But none of this nullified the Word in any way, nor did these changes alter reality.

In the first century, Judaism had become hardened through the worship of structure and form, and thus, they denied anyone their inalienable right of men to change their viewpoints. If God had not taken the drastic step of hiring the Romans to destroy Jerusalem (Matt. 22:7), Judaism might still be sacrificing lambs and goats and bulls today. In fact, many Jews and even Christians today believe that God intends to revert to those old structures that He destroyed in favor of the new way. Such is the strong delusion of form-worship.

Knowing the difference between reality and form is the first step toward understanding. The second step is to know that the material universe is made of divine Atoms, which are the unifying point between matter and spirit. These divine Atoms are not the large "atoms" of science today, for such atoms can be split by nuclear fission. The divine Atoms, which have yet to be discovered scientifically, cannot be subdivided. They are God-substance. They are spirit until they are combined into complex substances and shaped into useful forms. At that point, they become material.

These divine Atoms, then, are the link between spirit and matter. They bring heaven and earth into unity. Jesus Christ was born to manifest this unity between heaven and earth. He not only taught it; He WAS this unity as Son of God and Son of Man. Through this unity, the miraculous was normal, because reality was released into the earth.

The reason science cannot comprehend the miraculous is because it has denied God. Thus, they assume that the miraculous is simply based upon a scientific law that is yet unknown. Or they attribute it to a power of mind that is yet unexplored. The scientific viewpoint is often based upon the assumption that there is no God; therefore, there is a perfectly logical, "natural" explanation for all miracles. And they define "natural" in atheistic terms.

Because God cannot be separated from reality, any science premised on the non-existence of God has formed a basic illusion that cannot possibly attain the highest truth. The efforts of such scientific endeavor are devoted toward re-creating reality according to its own illusion and in its own image. But reality does not need to be re-created. It already exists and will never change its basic substance. God is immovable and unchanging.

Whereas science tends to deny the existence of spirit, Christians tend to deny the unity between spirit and matter. This is the result of the dualistic thought process of the carnal mind that drives a wedge between heaven and earth in its attempt to understand and control reality. Jesus, however, was the embodiment of both heaven and earth. Men did not understand Him, because their minds could not comprehend how spirit and matter were one. The best of Greek philosophy was premised on the separation between spirit and matter, for it presumed that matter was evil and spirit was good. Thus, they could not see how the Holy Spirit could taint himself by indwelling human flesh.

The Covenant of Miracles (weblog for Oct. 11, 2006) will be fulfilled as we are able to re-establish the link between heaven and earth. Those who can do this will be the channels through which heaven is manifested in earth. Those called to this ministry will be (and are even now to some extent) the communicators between heaven and earth. At Sinai, the Word was spoken directly from the mountain top to the people--and they ran from it (Ex. 20:18-21). Years later in Jerusalem (in Acts 2) the Word was spoken again directly to the disciples, and then indirectly through them to the rest of the people.

The dispensing of the Word has never ceased, but it has been drowned out by the din and speed of civilization. But I believe that God will speak loudly once more, interrupting the irrelevant conversations of society and normal traffic jams of life. Those of us who desire to be part of that next movement are preparing our hearts to dispense reality at the expense of man's illusions.