In the desert, Jesus was offered the chance to be the sole human heir to rule the world (by the Deceiver). This was the temptation of Jesus, and He flatly refused.
Jesus often told His disciples and followers that the kingdom of heaven was within and at hand ( in other words, it’s right here). In John 10:34. “Jesus answered them, ‘Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?’” When challenged to heal others, in 3 different passages of scripture, Jesus was quoted as telling people their own faith was the source of their healing. Jesus employed a constant hoisting of personal responsibility for healing, for personal empowerment and for creative endeavors back on to the individuals to whom He spoke throughout His teaching.
Now, one may read through other books of the Bible that seem to contradict this. It is a common inclination to cite scriptures that contradict personal empowerment as literal and take what Jesus said, in light of those passages as figurative. However, Jesus is supposed to be The Light, in which case, the other passages should be seen as figurative in the literal Light of Jesus. People use the other scriptures that return all power to Jesus-incarnate to rectify their understanding of what Jesus said. I really believe it should be the other way around. Again, this is in Light of the teachings of Jesus.
Take Jesus at His word in Light of the context in which He used parables. It’s quite obvious the parables are figurative. The moments wherein Jesus told parables were clearly “story time” moments. These are obviously distinguishable from the direct statements of personal empowerment such as the unmistakable, “Ye are gods.”
When Jesus says things directly empowering mankind, most people want to wishy-wash that personal power and by virtue of that, their personal responsibility and integrity down the drain. This is common among people who defer their rights, their safety, their education and their livelihoods to the state. These are people who are not ready to step into the power and their integrity as described by Jesus.
Often, people misquote scriptures by saying such things as “all things through Jesus”- incarnate- the MAN -as if separate from themselves. The Scripture says, “all things through Christ.” Christ is a term indicating enlightenment. All things in Light of scripture are brought to us through enlightenment- not an incarnate person. Many people use the rest of the scripture to attempt to make Jesus (the Christ or the enlightened) wrong or water down Jesus’s meaning. When you invest in your enlightenment and allow yourself to be enlightened, you, too, are acting as a Christ. Those who wrote scriptures after Jesus acted as “a” Christ. But if you are holding up Jesus as the authority on enlightenment, shouldn’t “a” Christ inspired person writing the later passages of scripture be beholden to Jesus and not the other way around?
“Jesus Christ,” as a name is also parroted in the same vein, ascribing a value to Jesus as the soul heir to enlightenment. Ironically this elevation of Jesus above the rest of incarnate humanity belittles what Jesus said about us, calling us all “children of God” and even saying “ye are gods.” Self-described “Christians” use the terms “Christ” and “Jesus” interchangeably as if they meant the same thing, as if Jesus were the only enlightened person. They imagine it’s the same as calling Dan Cooper “Dan” or “Cooper.” Now, once upon a time, your last name did indicate your profession, career or calling. But just because my last name isn’t Christ, doesn’t mean I wasn’t called to this profession. In light of the quote, “behold, I stand at the door and knock” we could say, everyone has the Christ calling.
All this being said, Jesus apparently wanted people to use the example He lived and the lessons He taught to figure out how to rule themselves. But what most have done instead is to wear crosses and to worship Jesus as their separate and invisible king. They see Jesus as a savior outside themselves acting without their conscious involvement or in other words, without their enlightenment, upon their lives through some sort of hocus pocus which they refer to as “faith.” This idea of faith is inactive. It should be interpreted as irresponsible, wishful thinking. The scriptures say, “Faith without works is DEAD.” Moreover, the king of the world is a role Jesus vehemently denied and adamantly refused many times throughout scripture, yet most “Christians” still refuse to display any inclination toward the self-dominion or self-government which He instructed.
When challenged with the seemingly insurmountable issues that contradict their man-made religion of government such as the Israeli government’s involvement in provoking nuclear war, most “Christians” defer to ideals conflating the concept of Israel (as quoted in scripture) with a recently created, intelligent agency dominated, deep state outpost given the name “Israel.” “Christians” in America never considered the nation state of Israel was given this title merely to invoke just this kind of blindly indoctrinated allegiance. Once they conflate the two, their answer to the problems of the world (which they helped create through unenlightened, disempowered thinking) are in deference to unintelligent and incongruent interpretations of Revelations. Their misguided interpretations depict Jesus (historically speaking- a man of peace) as a warlord tyrant and an authoritarian dictator returning to earth to bring justice to the earth through global annihilation and destruction- with the exception of the laughably, self-proclaimed “faithful.”
Imagining the violent powers they voted to use against others as too great to revoke and too complicated to sort from their religious prerogatives without (dare I say?) *thinking* (of what this conflated and misaligned understanding of what Israel is and what the Israeli government does), “Christians” tend to say, “If nuclear war should come, Jesus will save us from the rapture.” In their minds, the nuclear war they are helping perpetuate is the rapture. “Nuclear war” and “rapture” are synonymous to them. They almost want nuclear devastation to happen to fulfill their idiotically misinterpreted prophecy, so they can furthermore be removed (swept up to heaven as if it were elsewhere and not “at hand”) from their personal responsibility as gods here on earth (according to Jesus, for what that’s worth).
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Imagine if the past generations had reacted in the same way toward the injustices of communism, socialism and all the other horrible, tribalistic and barbaric atrocities throughout history where good people only survived through brave defensive actions and speaking out in the face of danger. The bravest heroes throughout time spoke out and defied illegitimate authority despite perceived limitations, threats and unpopularity. Jesus behaved in brutal defense of the House of God being defiled by unwarranted capitalism therein by tossing over tables and in many depictions, throwing a whip. He saw the merchants as trespassers misusing a place of worship as a place of business. So we know how He felt about trespassing, anyway. Ironically, many of the aforementioned, so-called “good Christian” people go to church to network and market their products and services.
What have the “people of Christ” come to? They are mostly depraved, immoral and worse: weak, using their perceived limitations as excuses to “sit and wait on God.” Everything in the Bible seems to have been distorted, perverted, turned inside out and backwards by these cowards and dead-faith duds. I often marvel at how the spelling of the words in the English language used for the concepts of the “devil” and of “evil” are the exact reverse of “live” and to have “lived.” “I Am the way, the truth and the life.” I Am and so are you. “I Am that I Am.” So are you.
Still, “Christians” will often say, “Let’s depend entirely upon Jesus, the King of the world to take us away to our salvation.” Jesus threw over tables of merchants. The place in which you are standing is Holy ground. I doubt Jesus would endorse drones, mass surveillance, any governments or their agencies, people dominating one another violently, trespassing, theft or murder. The only charge upon which Jesus could be brought to trial and ultimately crucified according to Roman law that was found to be legitimate was that Jesus defied the state. Jesus literally died for speaking against the government of Rome. If you would ignore murderers and authoritarian dictators under far less duress, you will not be following the example of Jesus, but you will eventually be taken away from this earth. It will not be in a rapture. You won’t be remembered as a person of undaunted faith. If you are remembered at all, which is unlikely, you will be seen as a statistic of tyrannical government trusting fools, like those who marched onto trains to be deported to their deaths. You will be remembered only as part of a collective of fools and cowards, fearfully obedient to tyrants. How is that for a “Christian” legacy?
You tell me.
The kingdom of heaven is at hand. It’s also yours and mine. What are we going to do about it?
Prayer About Integrity. April 11th, 2022
The Universe is integral. It is solid and sound. The fabric of It is indestructible. It works as a unified whole beyond the concepts of space and time. It is Integrity Itself. That All in All is in me. It is in you. It is in all creation. All are in Integrity. Integrity is in all. Inseparable, indivisible and as they say, “based” or certain.
My love comes from this Integrity. My love is certain. I live in Integrity, and It in me. I know what I must do. I know what steps to take to accomplish what is mine to do. I act in all things in Integrity. As I know this is the truth of who I Am and what I do, I know this is true for all. Living in this Integrity, this Divine inheritance of life, open to Integrity happening in me, as me and through me, I am blessed. Everything I put my hand to is blessed. My faithfulness is honored in grace, goodness and mercy in all things. I take this enlightenment seriously, never doubting that God lives in me, the Spirit works as me and Christ affects life on earth through me. I Am that which I am called to be, enlightened, integral to the plan. I am not some nobody, worthless nothing made better through some magic being living outside of me. I deny power to this undermining and errant belief. From my conception in the mind of God at the beginning of that which has no beginning and no end, I have been an inextricable part of the indivisible whole of the Integrity of the Universe. I take this role most seriously. I will live as if there is no other choice, and I will share this knowledge of the truth of all to others, as did Jesus. I will look upon others knowing the truth of who they are and what they can do with knowledge of this truth.
I am grateful for the presence and power of God bestowed upon me and upon all who wish to conceive of it and live through it enlightened to this undeniable truth. I welcome all the blessings that come with this knowledge and my faith in it forthwith.
I release this Word. The Word of Truth and Integrity also an inextricable part of the plan and the power of God obviously predestined to come through me today and through all who become conscious of the veracity of this Word in this very moment. I allow it to be and to expand as it is the infinite nature of the Universe to expand. I rest in this knowing, fully surrendering to doing what I need to do in full strength and support. It will be done as Thy will be done.
And so it is.
Amen.