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In Astrology, the planet Venus stands for our sense of
aesthetics, the arts (especially music) and how we interact in
our intimate relationships. Venus is often in the same sign as
the Sun since it can never be more than 45 degrees from our
natal sun sign.

When your Venus is in the same sign as your Sun sign there is a
consistency in how you relate in your romantic relationships as
well as in your day to day relationships. When the Sun and Venus
are in two different signs, there may be a marked difference in
how you relate to your significant other, showing them a
different side of you than is usually revealed to the outside
world. Venus is associated with the signs of Libra and Taurus.
Venus in Aires

With Venus in Aires you are likely to be an exciting,
flirtatious and fun person to be around. You throw yourself into
your relationships and it is not unusual for people with this
placement to fall in love quickly. Marriages at a young age are
also not uncommon.

You are extremely demonstrative in your love and both sexes
thrive on the thrill of the chase. To live is to love to you and
when your romantic landscape is barren you may become rather
moody and irritable.

Aires is an impulsive sign and as such you will need to make
extra effort to maintain long term relationships past their
first infatuated stage.

Venus in Taurus

With Venus in Taurus you will be attracted to the finer things
in life. You may have a tendency to overindulge your appetite
for fine food, wine, luxurious surroundings and clothing, as
well as the more earthy aspects of your nature.

You are a sensual person and nothing gives you more delight than
reveling in all your senses. You are a consistent and constant
lover, although you may have trouble in dealing with your
feelings of jealousy and possessiveness if you find yourself
feeling insecure within relationships. Having said that though,
you are incredibly loyal and dependable with your loved ones,
and often extremely fun to be around.

Venus in Gemini

Venus in Gemini leads to a need for excitement in all aspects of
life. In a romantic relationship you seek a partner who can
stimulate you intellectually as well as physically, and who will
not cling too closely to you.

Your need for independence is strong and you react badly to
possessive and demanding partners. With your wit, charm and keen
flirting skills you have no trouble attracting people to you.

Even in a serious relationship you are not likely to alienate
yourself from your friends to create a special world inhabited
by just you and that special someone. You may appear fickle to
others at times, flitting from relationship to relationship but
you are seeking someone who can not only keep up with you but
someone with whom your need for social interaction is not seen
as a threat.

Venus in Cancer

With Venus in Cancer emotional stability is very important to
you. Cancer is an extremely sensitive sign and at times a
sometimes moody one.

You need to feel secure in your relationships and need a partner
who will express and show you how much you mean to them. Without
this demonstration of love and commitment you are likely to
suffer immensely and to make matters worse, may even adopt a
martyrs stance and pretend that the hurt that you feel does not
matter. It does matter and you need a partner that will reassure
you and treasure you.

Until you find a partner that can and will provide this for you,
you will not feel fulfilled within your relationship. With your
kind and sympathetic nature you should have no trouble finding
another with whom to make a cozy and comfortable home. When you
have this security within your love relationship you will dote
on and cherish the object of your affection.

Venus in Leo

Venus in Leo is a theatrical and fun loving sign. Leos love
attention and have an appreciation of the finer things in life.
Leo thrives in love relationships and adores being pampered and
the centre of their partners universe. Leos themselves are
generous and charming in return and will lavish unstintingly of
their time, money and of themselves to show their partner just
how valued they are.

Unfortunately when a serious relationship does disintegrate, Leo
in Venus will take this extremely hard and may become rather
bitter over it. Although they attract a lot of attention and
enjoy basking in the glow of other peoples admiration they are a
loyal and faithful partner.

Venus in Virgo

Venus in Virgo produces a tendency to over-analyze your
emotions. You need to feel incredibly secure before giving
yourself within a relationship and are likely to come across as
cool and shy until you do receive this feeling of assuredness.
You don’t like to take risks romantically and want to know that
when you do take the plunge in affairs of the heart, that your
partner has the same commitment to being faithful and constant
in your relationship.

You want a partner that you can be truly proud of and one that
will never embarrass you or show you up. Your ideals and
expectations are high but you return these qualities in kind.
Self sufficient, you would rather be single than settle for
second best.

Venus in Libra

With Venus in Libra we find a charming and sociable personality
that loves to be in love. Libra has an innate appreciation for
beauty and harmony, and often has no problem attracting partners
with their alluring and seductive charm.

A peaceful and harmonious environment is essential to people
with this placement in their chart, as discord in relationships
upset them greatly and could lead to nervous problems. You are
an old fashioned romantic who loves to woo and be wooed and are
apt to fall in and out of love rather quickly especially when
younger.

You are a kind, and at times intuitive partner; able to
empathize with your loved ones and willing to do all that you
can to help and nurture your partner when necessary. Although
your feelings are at times easily hurt you rarely hold any
rancor as you instinctively realize that this will only bring
more upset to your finely balanced need for harmony.

Venus in Scorpio

Venus in Scorpio brings an extreme intensity to romantic
relationships. You are an all or nothing person. You demand and
expect deep and total commitment from your partner, but return
this in kind. You may have problems with feelings of jealousy
and possessiveness. You may also find that a lot of partners
will have problems in dealing with your need to feel in control.

Although you have a tendency to throw yourself wholeheartedly
into your romantic affairs, you are always aware of your need to
project yourself as being in control and of maintaining your
dignity. Scorpio is often referred to as the ruler of sex and
you are sure to have a personal magnetism that draws others to
you.

Venus in Sagittarius

Venus in Sagittarius shows itself in a friendly, outgoing and
freedom loving nature. You need your space, and relationships
that move forward too quickly and intensely make you feel
nervous and hemmed in.

You can come across as being rather carefree and disinterested
in serious relationships. This is more likely to be a case of
your not having yet met someone with whom you feel you can share
your ideals and heart with but allows you the freedom to come
and go as you please. Sagittarius is an honest and open sign and
deep friendship is often the basis of any serious relationship
that does develop.

Venus in Capricorn

Venus in Capricorn brings a solid, dependable and reliable
nature when it comes to romance. You may be afraid of showing
your true feelings and are unlikely to be overly demonstrative
in public. This does not mean that you do not feel deeply or get
emotional when the occasion warrants it. It is just in your
nature to keep such things to yourself or to only share them
with those that have earned your respect and trust. Capricorns
are often extremely career orientated and it may be that they
find true love somehow connected through their work. You seek a
partner that you can respect and that has the same high
ambitions and ideals as you yourself do.

Venus in Aquarius

With Venus in Aquarius you are likely to be extremely reluctant
to tie yourself down to a committed relationship. You have a
need for personal freedom and the idea of having to take another
persons opinions and point of view into consideration is not
something that sits very comfortably with you.

You are highly individualistic and may even have what others
consider extreme or unusual ideas on relationships and what
makes them work. Aquarius is a sociable and friendly sign and in
any romance it will be necessary for your partner to be your
friend, first and foremost.

Venus in Pisces

Venus in Pisces shows itself in a personality that is
compassionate and empathetic. You have an affinity and need to
help those that are less fortunate than you. Unfortunately this
can at times lead to your being taken advantage of by less
scrupulous people.

Romance is very important to you and you are a hopeless romantic
at heart. When you do form a relationship with someone you are
likely to fall for him or her quickly and to become emotionally
dependent and reliant on them. You are searching for your soul
mate and will not feel satisfied within yourself until you have
found your other, the one that you feel you can share yourself
totally with. This placement also gives you a deep appreciation
for art music and other aesthetic values; you may even be quite
talented yourself.

About the author:
Lynda Filer lies in sunny Brisbane, Australia and is the owner
and webmaster of Astrological Knowledge
(http://www.astrologicalknowledge.com) and Scullywag Design and
Hosting (http://www.scullywag.com).

Author : Lynda Filer
Site : www.goarticles.com

This excerpt from a fictional and futuristic book of mine
addresses a little of what Damanhur might be involved with.

It was a beautiful spring day and the tulips were starting to
bloom on University Avenue, as Sean walked to meet Tony at a
Thai restaurant of renown near Toronto’s first of many
Chinatowns. The walk had been about two miles and his feet were
sore but he enjoyed seeing people look at his new clothes and
fine-trimmed beard. He had worried that seven years of being a
slob and not exercising might have taken too much away from his
otherwise handsome exterior. So far Tony and his associates had
done all that could reasonably be expected, almost too much he
thought to himself as the seduction of material world things
began to sweep over him while he fought it back. The gathering
of a team of like-minded people crossed his mind more than once
as he thought about what his on-line friend Laurent had written.
The words seemed to fit with Tesla’s non-force info packets very
well as he wondered if he should get Tony to initiate a contact
with this physicist whose words he had committed to memory.
“Inherent to wave mechanics are the mechanisms of wave
superposition and parallel and non-linear information
processing. And these mechanisms, which are also affected and
regulated by the laws of thermodynamics, are responsible for
information growth and the evolution of biological matter.
Information begets information.”

As they sat testing each other’s ability to ingest hot chilies
and frequent trips to the washroom ensured they tripped the
light fantastic, they were both in ‘hog heaven’. The
conversation ranged over the whole field of philosophy and they
enjoyed each others interests immensely. They had both studied
Carlos and the Toltec or Nagual’s way.

“The word impeccable means ‘without sin’. Sin is defined as a
‘transgression against God.’ As God is unknowable we are left
with our nagual aspect. I would define sin as a ‘transgression
against our nagual aspect.’ To be impeccable means to be without
sin or to be in alignment with our nagual.” Tony commented.

“That is a far better explanation for sin and how to find
purpose than the mainstream religions will allow.”

“You know the Corpus Hermeticum that Cosmo De Medicis had
translated by Ficilio was titled De Brix?” Tony asked.

“Yes and I am supposedly related to The Bruce by an
illegitimate liaison. Robert the Bruce was in charge of North
American trade for the Templar continuum and he made a Baird
into a Baron. The Bairds were in charge of Nova Scotia or the
Bank at the time of Bonnie Prince Charlie. One of these Barons
died at Culloden. The House of Bruce and de Bruges or the
Bruttii who founded Britain are ‘tres important’. Other Kelts
going back to the Veneti of Cisalpine Gaul and Hallstatt in the
Genoese area of the Legurians and others are where those De
Medicis and later Rothschilds get a lot of the info St. Germain
more recently codified or set into the occult schools.”

“Your books are more than the whole Corpus Hermeticum.”

“Is that the opinion of Derek and the others at Damanhur?”

“I think so.”

“There are many ‘experts’ who say that light speed is still not
transcendable or that time is linear and it is not possible to
do many things that I posit in these pages, I know. I offer up
this site to these people and say that the whole truth of what
Black Ops and other agents of real knowledge pursue is not under
the control of NASA or The Smithsonian and other public or
relatively transparent structure of academia and government.
Here is a site worth looking into that discusses some of the
things that many have known for a long time. It does not include
the Catholic scholar/physicist who reportedly has developed a
chronovisor in conjunction with Werner von Braun and Fermi’s
inputs that would be similar to one thing the Philosopher’s
Stone could achieve
(http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/WWW/bpp/TM-107289.htm).

‘Father Pellegrino Maria Ernetti (1925-1994) was a Benedictine
priest, scientist, and world-class authority on “archaic” music
(pre-Christian to 10th century A.D.). He claimed to have yoked
quantum physics to the occult arts to construct a time-machine–
the chronovisor. Father Ernetti said he had traveled to Rome in
169 B.C. to witness a performance of the now-lost tragedy,
Thyestes, by the father of Latin poetry, Quintus Ennius. He
claimed to have used the chronovisor to watch Christ dying on
the cross. Why would so distinguished a churchman have felt the
need to confabulate such a story? Is the Vatican suppressing the
full truth of Father Ernetti’s life and achievements?’ (5)”

It was clear to Sean that he would have to take a taxi home as
the wine flowed and his body began to succumb to its cumulative
effect.

“Pessimism has depths of feeling and this ideology as prophetic
or simply reported as it may be – is worse than any mere
pessimism. I prefer to think there are at least some members of
our race who have a part to play in all of this. I prefer a
‘conspiracy’ to a technological determinism. But Martin
Heidegger does identify an argument for acting before it is too
late. Are there any moral players left in philosophy? Certainly
there are, but it is entirely possible they won’t be found
teaching philosophy in schools. Why assume any Platonic or
reversal of same, attitudes with games to control others? Why
engage energy in destructive morality? The essence he should
have studied is in the beauty of each child and on the ripples
of the waves that signal the passing of what carries us towards
our potential. Let all people know the truth which he defines as
‘disclosure and unconcealment’. We are of the opinion this kind
of truth is a necessity for change and creativity. It is often
bandied about as ‘transparency’ in financial circles. If all
mankind were able to know these truths then there might be a
revival of humanity and an end to cybernetics!” Sean almost
croaked as his wits crescendoed into blather and they parted
company.

About the author:
Columnist for The ES Press Author of Diverse Druids Guest
‘expert’ at
World-Mysteries.com,http://www.lulu.com/gaianinstituteofarcanekno
wledge

Author : Robert Bruce Baird
Site : www.goarticles.com

When does consciousness exist? Will the sentient robots being
created with nanotechnology and the dumping of human memory such
as was done to a computer chip by Stanford in 1999 have a soul
of their own? I do not believe our soul is dumped in this
process. But the issue of soul can be debated until the cows
come home by observers of natural phenomena. Modern science has
no greater insight than the ancient observers. In fact the
ancients spent more time attuning with consciousness or soul in
all things – elemental and spiritual. Most nature worshippers
are able to see an element of soul in rocks and trees and the
recent fact that science provides about the white pine eating
insects or the changing colour of leaves not being for the first
frost add to the possibility as I see it. I love the saying of
the Mayans – ‘Do not put your self in front of your SELF.’

Our chakras may be conscious collectives of our solar bodies
which have atoms and molecules inside us coalescing their
consciousness. By acting as a creative agent in this coalescence
we create or manifest reality. Part of the matter of Free Will
is involved in these considerations that man can choose to avoid
or to act upon. It is LIFE and growth, rather than some weird
obsession with sins, fears and guilt which has been foisted upon
us by theocracies focussed on power. Spiritual avoidance has
lead to theologic tribal mud-slinging by ‘Chosen Ones’ whose
prejudices cause war, and other hell fires and damnation against
the PURPOSE of Divine Providence.

The female (passive vs. dynamic) or left side of the Tree of
Life (Yggdrasil) as developed from rock representations of man
and his vital egress and power entry points such as the Third
Eye were known so long ago that I dare not type all the zeroes.
I know many ‘zeroes’ of the non-mathematical variety would
assail my naiveté or sense of who man is. These people are as
‘sinister’ as those who made the left-handed witches or heretics
prove themselves as worthy in the ‘autos da fe’ or other vile
acts of the heinous Church the Pope apologized for in 1999.
‘Sinister’ means left-handed and my older brother had teachers
rap his knuckles to try to beat it out of him. My father had had
this happen to him and he made them stop their evil behaviour.
There are so many ‘sinister’ ways the paradigm programs us into
being their sheep.

On a personal level you can close your eyes and focus your
thoughts as you move your eyes to the eight points equidistant
from each other in a circle. Spend 15 seconds or so at each
point and breathe with conscious centering effect. The final
point is where your look into the Third Eye inside your skull
behind your forehead. Stay there and feel the ‘buzz. – you have
balanced the energy flowing to all lobes in the brain. This
system known as the Mudras or Mutras in India and Greece can
help Schizophrenics or other disassociative stress better than
the ‘pharmacological lobotomies’ (term used by Drs. Breggin and
Cohen) of our medical model, or social management of ‘money
trees’. Why is our brain structured the way it is – or how did
the ancients know a chakra system that mirrors modern
neurophysiological mapping of our nervous system. The same can
be noted in the correlation of the psychic points chart,
acupuncture chart and lymph system. Is this a case of ‘As Above,
So Below’ or Intelligent Design?

About the author:
Author of many books, Available at

http://www.lulu.com/gaianinstituteofarcaneknowledge,

World-Mysteries.com

Author : Robert Bruce Baird
Site : www.goarticles.com

Animation…

Terry Dashner…..Faith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken
Arrow, OK 74013

Animation is giving life or motion to something. Think about
this: running, motion, and being planted. What do these three
states of being have in common? Listen up, please.

There are only two things that will make a person run. The first
thing is a desire to condition one’s body, either for health
reasons or competitive sports. The other thing is this: fear.
People—you and I—usually run away from scary situations rather
than face them. Is that a bad thing? Well, you tell me.

What are you running away from? What event, situation,
relationship, or commitment has you running away because you
fear it? May I share a simple truth that I’ve learned over the
years? You will never succeed and become what you are designed
to become by God’s grace unless you stop running away from your
fears and start facing them. That’s a fact.

So, does fear have you running and exhausted? Would you like to
change the running regiment to benefit you? You can. Here’s how.
Listen up.

Tell me, is it possible to collect one pound of fear and wrap it
up to go? No, of course not; it’s impossible. As a matter of
fact, fear doesn’t exist outside your mind. Your perception of
things will impact your life, either positively or negatively.

So to overcome fear you must change your perception. Is that
possible? Yes, knowledge with a greater understanding of God is
powerful.

I want to share another thing about motion. The difference
between a landscape painting and the viewing of the real thing
is motion. I looked at a huge tree this morning from my living
room window. It looked out of “sync” because there was no
movement of its large, green canopy. I sensed something simple,
yet profound. From my view and perception the fact that the tree
leaves had no motion gave it the illusion of a serene,
landscape-painting.

And then this came to mind. There is no movement of its canopy
because there is no wind blowing against it. The wind moves the
green canopy in a swaying motion. Interesting. No wind, no
movement. But something else is needed for the swaying motion.
It needs to be planted. Crazy you say? Unless the tree is rooted
in the soil by its root system, there can be no resistance
against the heavy winds which cause its canopy to sway back and
forth.

If you are animated today, it’s because God is moving upon you
by His Holy Spirit. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit is like the
wind. If you are animated today, it’s because you are rooted in
something. You see if you are not rooted, grounded, or standing
for justice you only resemble what life could be.

If you do not anchor to God, you may eventually give way to the
wind’s push and find yourself helplessly askew and forever lost.
However, if you stand planted in the confidence of God, His wind
will give you living motion. Think about this, and then ask God
to plant you in His promises and to breathe upon you daily by
His Spirit….Keep the faith. Stay the course. Jesus is coming
soon. We are moving toward that day. Pastor T.

About the author:
Pastors a small church of one hundred beautiful souls in Broken
Arrow, OK. U.S. Navy veteran of the Viet Nam era and retired
from the City of Tulsa as a municipal police officer. Father of
three grown children and grandfather of two; one rests in the
arms of Jesus in heaven above.

Author : Terry Dashner
Site : www.goarticles.com

The hills and valleys of Mt. Tabor on a summer day can be a
wonderful respite from city life in Bethany near Jerusalem. The
parents had serious matters to attend to as they contemplated
the aspirations of certain Roman agents including the Sanhedrin
and Herod Antipas. Even the Temple priests had sold out to
Caesar and his paladins. Time and politics weaved its magic over
their lives but they had relatives and connections in other
parts of the world including Rome. Joseph of Arimathaea was
wealthy beyond belief but his corporate partners included some
whose wealth was even greater than Solomon. He knew full well
the nature of the Temple priests or Sanhedrin. He was on their
Council. They often intermarried and had genetic and esoteric
programs and rituals that went by many names in different lands.

The caves near Mt. Carmel and Mt. Tabor as well as many other
spiritual places were not just the kinds of things that kids
enjoyed. They had been important in the same way that cenotes
and other caves have been all over the world for as long as man
has been an animal.

“So what should we call you two guys in order not to have to say
your whole names all the time?” Mary asked.

“J. A. will do for me.” Joseph of Arimathaea smiled at the women
whose genes were the most desired in all their elite society
that some call Pendragons or Dragons for short. He knew as well
as anyone how important the Virgin Earth of her womb was.

“You honor me by taking the familiar rather than your respected
name. It is you who have invited us to your fabulous estate and
I who should take the less respectful name.”

“Your family is the most respected name in our whole big world.
Just because you have less wealth in this generation does not
change that fact. And besides when you hear the nature of why I
respectfully wanted to ask you here, I think you will know it is
I who am beholden to you both.”

“My Joseph is quite adept in ‘seeing’ the nature of things. He
has already told me some things he thinks will be your purpose
in these matters. I have prepared young Yeshua; though I have
not been specific with him about it.” Mary noted with pride
borne of having to defend her decision to marry a man whose
wealth was far beneath her station.

“Unlike the fools in some circles; I have the greatest respect
for the wisdom and adeptness of Joseph; I assure you dear lady.
I am a student of the same system that the Greeks call
Thoth/Hermes or what is called Imhotep/Asklepios. I would not
have sent my daughter Mary to Alexandria for this schooling if
that was not my inclination. I have not discouraged the
attraction my daughter feels towards Yeshua despite the fact
that she is a little older and one of the smartest and desirable
women in all the land, for the reasons you note.”

“But we are preparing him to change the nature of the hegemony
that includes the very rich. Yes, I know Seneca and others who
are rich, also see that the elite can share their knowledge and
position or power and the world can be a better place for it.
Indeed I believe the elite would have more wealth if there were
not so many Empires and intrigues. I had not heard you referred
to with the likes of those Cynics Seneca is involved with.”
Joseph remarked inquisitively.

“Lucius Annaeus Seneca is a young man whose renown is certainly
growing in Rome. In fact I would love to introduce Yeshua to
him. They are close to the same age. In my business operations I
am seen as a shrewd bargainer but in my real life I am very much
the kin of the Cynics you will find. I agree with you too. The
rich need not be stripped of their wealth and they will have far
more wealth if we could creatively utilize the fantastic
opportunities and knowledge mankind has garnered over these many
millennia. As we spend time together this summer I think you
will see me for what I am.”

“We appreciate you letting all of our children come here. The
burden of taking care of Joseph’s dead brother’s children makes
it a little difficult to manage at times. We are very proud of
James and his studies at Qumran are you aware of them too?” Mary
asked respectfully. “It was also a great relief to us that Jesus
was allowed to stay in your home in Marmorica when he was in
Egypt on his travels there.”

“Yes, I am an occasional visitor there and to their other
meeting places.” Joseph spoke with admiration evident. “You know
we have taught Jesus more than just what the schools have
knowledge about. My expertise in the code in Hebrew which
relates to our ancestors sacerdotal knowledge is something he
has a real penchant for.”

“Yes, it is obvious that his Hebrew has made his ability to
‘Unsheath his Soul’ better than any his age. So can I offer you
some of the wine from our vineyard’s best harvest?”

“It is a little early in the afternoon for wine… But, sure… that
would be nice on this occasion don’t you think Mary?”

“I think I’ll just have a citrus drink if you men are going to
get drunk.” Mary chuckled. “You both know Jesus turns seventeen
in a few months and he has been hanging out with the Zealots or
Zadokites who are giving Rome something to worry about since he
came back from Alexandria and his studies there. He tells me
Mary is going to continue studying there with the Therapeutae
and might take a look into the Pythagorean approaches and he
wants to be near her. I think they should not be thinking of
having a family or getting married yet but I don’t necessarily
think they should be apart. Do we have some way of making it so
they won’t have a child if they do what comes naturally?”

“Yes, there are herbs as well as astrological methods to make
sure of that which I know work.” J. A. remarked. “I have made
these things fully known to Mary so you need not be concerned my
dear.”

“His involvement with what some call bandits or zealots is
totally OK with me, except I would not want him to take any
risks which might end his life.” Joseph thoughtfully commented.
“I think we need to listen to what J. A. has to say about why he
called us here.”

“Yes, I see you both are pretty much up to speed on what I am
concerned about too. I want to fund the remainder of Jesus’
learning and I want to take them both to Cornwall with me at the
end of the summer so they can learn in my favorite Celtic area
where I do a lot of business. I have not raised this suggestion
with Mary my daughter as yet.”

“I hear they have the best bards and orators. I am sure Jesus
would love to spend a winter there with Mary and yourself. That
would be wonderful!” Mary enthused. “It certainly will take him
out of harm’s way. That is not to suggest that Empire builders
aren’t at work in the Blessed Isles. Will they get to go to Eire
and see Tara as well as Stonehenge? What about Carnac, he has
already seen Karnac.”

Joseph stood and walked onto the porch with his wine while J. A.
and his wife continued to plan how to make the kids aware of
their plans. He felt very relieved that Jesus was to have such
an excellent wife too. It was his greatest joy in life to have
had someone who really shared what he knew was important. He
wondered if Jesus and Mary were in the caves and whether or not
it would be OK to just share his sense of completion or
fulfillment with them. He also wondered what rituals he, Mary
and J. A. might end up doing in those caves or elsewhere during
the time they were going to have together. It was obvious they
were to become more than just friends.

He saw them coming a long way off. He saw Jesus start running
all of a sudden and Mary chasing after him. It was a glorious
time in all their lives. He suspected that both these kids had
made plans just like their parents were doing a long time ago
and watched to make sure they were running to come and join
their parents. Maybe they had been ritually ‘listening in’
through the astral arts. When he was sure they were coming home
Joseph went back inside.

“The kids will be here shortly. What are we going to do to avoid
the use of the name Mary for both of you?”

“I guess we could call my Mary by the name Magdalene. There are
lots of Marys and she has been called that by other kids who
include many named Mary.” J. A. said as he rose to hug his
daughter as she came running into the house a little winded.
“Since when do young ladies run after boys?” He kidded.

“Oh, he thinks he is such a smart guy just cause he was able to
summon an angel through the Gematria or Hebrew alphabet even
while I watched. I had to show him I can still run as fast as he
can.”

“I beat you.”

“Yes, and you got a head start too.” The Magdalene said as she
pushed him lovingly.

“After Ruth serves us our dinner why don’t you show me how you
summon angels, Jesus? Or should I call you Yeshua?”

“You can call me Jesus if you want. There are some of my friends
like Judas who insist I am even The Chriost. I have a hard time
with that but I can accept Iesa or Jesus because I am all for
promoting ‘The Brotherhood of Man’. But I’d rather not do the
summoning thing twice in one day. Maybe I can do that in a
couple of days and make it really special. If I fast for a day
and have a bath just before doing it and there is some music
while I am lingering in the water I find it is more powerful.”

“I too summon angels or the ‘One’. I know most people who are
learned are adept at this but Magdalene tells me you are the
best. I know what you mean about fasting first too. We shall
wait until you feel moved to do your best.”

“It won’t be more than a couple of days. I shall fast tomorrow.
I am very good at it and I don’t need to fast for a week like
James does to get his best result. But I don’t want to be seen
as showing off so I’d like it to be just you guys if you don’t
mind.”

Later that week as the sun went down after dinner and some
friends went home after a little music they had gathered to play
was over, Jesus, Magdalene and their parents gathered in the
garden courtyard to watch Jesus. A modern scholar by the name of
Daniel Matt provides us with this description of the process.
There are forms of meditation in every culture and concept of
man and his relationship with the soul. Many of them have little
to do with symbols or intellectual processes such as Mr. Matt
provides in what follows. This particular ritual is contentious
to some because it mentions the feminine aspect that is
incorporated into the ancient knowledge of the Sphinx and was
obliterated for many millennia by the Jehovah promoters who
wanted men to dominate. The Shekhinah were once female goddesses
in the Judaic religious complex. Our ‘feminine’ soul, can open
doors to major insights beyond the intellectual or social
conventions.

“UNSHEATHING THE SOUL PREPARE to meet your God. Prepare to
devote your heart. Purify your body and select a special place
where no one else in the world can hear your voice. Be totally
alone. Sit in one spot in the room or the loft, and do not
reveal your secret to anyone. If you can, do this by day, even
for a little while, but the best way is to do it at night
{Melatonin production increases at night-thus ‘night-worker’ is
the meaning of melatonin.}. As you prepare to speak with your
Creator, to seek the revelation of his power, be careful to
empty your mind of all mundane vanities. Wrap yourself in your
‘tallit’ and put ‘tefillin’ on your head so that you will be
filled with the awe of Shekhinah, who is with you at this
moment. Wear clean garments, all white if you can. All this
helps immensely in focussing your awe and love. If it is night,
light many candles until your eyes shine brightly.

Then take hold of ink, pen and tablet. Realize that you are
about to serve your God in joy. Begin to combine letters, a few
or many, permuting and revolving them {This would be good
training for people early in life and getting to know new
languages.} rapidly until your mind warms up. Delight in how
they move and in what you generate by revolving them. When you
feel within that your mind is very, very warm from combining the
letters and that through the combination you understand new
things that you have not attained by human tradition nor
discovered on your own through mental reflection, then you are
ready to receive the abundant flow, and the abundance flows upon
you, arousing you again and again.

Now turn your thoughts to visualizing the Name and its supernal
angels, imagining them as if they were human beings standing or
sitting around you, with you in the middle like a messenger
about to be sent on a royal mission, waiting to hear about it
from their lips, either from the king himself or from one of his
ministers. Having imagined {N.B.} this vividly, prepare your
mind and heart to understand the many things about to be
conveyed to you by the letters being contemplated within you.
Meditate on them as a whole and in all their detail, like one to
whom a parable, a riddle, or a dream is being told, or like one
perusing a book of wisdom, pondering a passage beyond his grasp.
Interpret what you hear in an uplifting manner, approximating it
as best you can {Chant}. Based on what you understand of it,
evaluate yourself and others. All this will happen after you
fling the tablet from your hands and the pen from your fingers,
or after they fall by themselves due to the intensity of your
thoughts.

Realize that the stronger the mental flow, the weaker become
your limbs and organs. Your entire body will begin to tremble
violently. You will think that you are about to die because your
soul, overjoyed at what she {N.B.} has attained, will depart
from your body. Consciously choose death over life, knowing that
such death affects only the body and that thereby the soul lives
eternally. Then you will know that you are capable of receiving
the flow. If you then wish to honor the glorious NAME by serving
it with the life of body and soul, hide your face, fear to gaze
at God, and come no closer, like Moses at the burning bush.
Return to the physical dimension, rise, eat and drink a little,
inhale a fragrant aroma. Return your spirit to its sheath until
another time. Rejoice in what you have, and know that God loves
you.” (1)

Visualizing the colours of the light and breathing from Yogic
disciplines is a much more commonly thought of meditation. There
are as many ways to meditate as there are trees in the forest.
Each one is different if only by the fact of each person being
different.

When Jesus was through with amazing them all it was J. A. who
spoke first. “That was better than any I have witnessed or heard
about. I felt the presence of the ‘One’. Are you absolutely sure
you are not The Chriost?”

About the author:
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Author : Peter M K Chan
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Walk into any home today and you are almost certain to find
something which has been purchased from a New Age outlet.
Crystals are of course everywhere. The Buddha himself may appear
in the home office, looking well-fed and smiling as he does duty
as a paperweight or mantelpiece decoration. Wind chimes may mark
the entrance to a room or may be heard jangling merrily in the
garden. The design of either the house or garden may well have
been inspired by the supposed minimalist principles of Zen
Buddhism. You won’t have to sniff too hard to catch the heady
aroma of incense from the mysterious Orient. And if you look
carefully you might even find a crystal ball or two. In one
well-known UK charity shop I have even seen crystal balls
stacked up next to the cash register in much the same way as
supermarkets display shelves of sweets and chewing gum in the
area where you line up to pay for your groceries, cleverly
taking advantage of those last minute impulse buys (“Oh, I’ll
just take one of those crystal balls before I leave!).

Never Fear! ***********

Look through the phone directory and you will see hordes of
jobbing alternative practitioners. Aromatherapists, Reiki
experts, Shiatsu (no, it isn’t a little dog!) and any number of
other self-certificated experts all clamouring to have a go at
curing your bad back or saving your rocky relationship.

Should you lose your appointment book, never fear! Find out what
the future has in store by consulting someone who will (for a
fee) read your Tarot cards, your palms, tea leaves or probably
with a little persuasion (or an extra fee!) the contents of your
trash can.

Doctors are yesterday’s news. Better to call a hypnotherapist,
colour therapist, graphologist or numerologist who can at one
and the same time (for a fee) tell you all about your past, your
future – and whether you even have a future.

Expensive *********

When you wish to relax at the end of a hard day you can play
special relaxation tapes of whales, waves breaking on the shore
or Australian aborigine didgeridoo music. Your home will of
course have been designed down to the smallest detail by a
knowledgeable, highly-trained and very expensive Feng Shui
consultant who probably charges more than your lawyer! Has the
world gone mad???

All of the aforementioned distractions and more fit neatly into
the loose category of New Age. A lot of people are very serious
about New Age interests and contrary to what you may think, I
would be the last to want to trivialise their beliefs. Whatever
works for them is fine by me. Except for one thing. New Age
practices have become so heavily commercialized that the
original spiritual components have pretty well lost their
integrity by now and, in the West at least, are little more than
products and services in a very competitive market.

Ever since Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophists (the
forerunners of the modern New Age Movement) signed their
exclusive channeling deal with the so-called Ascended Masters
back in the nineteenth century, religious and spiritual beliefs
have been borrowed haphazardly from any number of world
religions. Beliefs have been ripped out of their natural
environmental and historical context. Ever since, those beliefs
have been blatantly sold to a spiritually vulnerable public that
has a big fat disposable income and could not wait to spend it.

And if you still think New Age isn’t over-commercialized,
consider the case of the trance channeler who trademarked her
spirit guide!

Native American ***************

What the New Age movement has managed to do is turn Tarot cards
(which have a history going back hundreds of years) into a
divinatory version of Happy Families. Feng Shui has been turned
into a fashionably expensive way of choosing the wallpaper. And
the highly respected Jewish Kabala has become the latest trendy
esoteric religion. All the difficult bits have of course been
neatly stripped away in order to make it more easily digestible
by the New Age fraternity. Meanwhile, generations of Native
American wisdom has been repackaged and is now sold as “The
Inspirational Thought for the Day”. Many Native American tribes
are of course no longer to be found.

The dream has gone. All that is left is the dreamcatcher.

There is nothing particularly wrong with getting in touch with
your own spiritual roots. Similarly, there is nothing wrong with
having a symbiotic connection with the spiritual roots of other
people and cultures.

As far as I am aware, there is no artificial New Age movement in
the poor villages of Africa. But maybe there is no readily
available market for it. Maybe there is no money waiting to
welcome it in. Doubtless there is lots of money to be made
(probably already being made) not from selling to less affluent
countries, but rather in buying artefacts from them (at an
advantageous rate of course) and reselling them at a good profit
to New Age adherents in the West, thereby perpetuating the myth
of the relevance of the New Age movement today.

Mythology *********

It’s time to take a bold step. Leave behind the artificial
trappings of the New Age Movement. Find out about the mythology
of your own part of the world. Construct your own beliefs or
belief system that is relevant to here and now. Do not fool
yourself into thinking that you have a valid belief system, when
all you have is either a credo that cost you $5.95 or a Feng
Shui bill that will turn the neighbours green with envy and make
your accountant go white with fear.

If that is all you have, admit it. If it’s badges you want why
not say so? If it’s beliefs you seek, then look elsewhere.

What we really need to do is to stop worshipping at shop windows
and to get away from the notion that the ring of a cash register
equals divine revelation. And above all we need to learn to
trust ourselves again rather than always feeling a need to
follow other people’s paths. Our belief systems ought to evolve
organically and naturally rather than having to be constructed,
like Frankenstein’s monster, from the leftover bits and pieces
of everybody else’s.

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Division of Attention. Gurdjieff encouraged his students to
cultivate the ability to divide their attention, that is, the
ability to remain fully focussed on two or more things at the
same time. One might, for instance, let half of one’s attention
dwell in one’s little finger, while the other half is devoted to
an intellectual discussion. In the division of attention, it is
not a matter of going back and forth between one thing and
another, but experiencing them both fully simultaneously. Beyond
the division of attention lies “remembering oneself” – a frame
of mind, permanent in the hypothetical perfected person,
fleeting and temporary in the rest of us, in which we see what
is seen without ever losing sight of ourselves seeing.
Ordinarily, when concentrating on something, we lose our sense
of “I,” although we may as it were passively react to the
stimulus we are concentrating on. In self-remembering the “I” is
not lost, and only when we maintain that sense of “I,” according
to Gurdjieff, are we really awake. Like mastery on a musical
instrument, such forms of heightened self-awareness can be
developed only with years of practice.

Hands, Head, and Heart. With many variations and complications
over the years, Gurdjieff’s theoretical picture of the human
organism boils down to a tripartite model consisting of three
“centers”: the moving, the emotional, and the thinking. Becoming
a genuine person involves coordinating the three centers and
becoming capable of conscious labor and intentional suffering.

Abstract Symbolism. Gurdjieff was fond of elaborate theorizing
- the construction of intricate symbolic systems embodying or
representing the relationships between phenomena at all levels
of existence from the atom to the universe. Ouspensky devotes
pages and pages to Gurdjieff’s concept of “octaves” {Thus one
must study the Pythagorean connection with Abaris the Druid.}-
the musical scale do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do taken as a sort of
universal yardstick for determining the measurements and
proportions of all of nature’s parts. (The theory of octaves had
a tremendous impact on pianist Keith Jarrett, who read about
them in Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, Gurdjieff’s longest,
most allegorical, and most difficult book.) Some Gurdjieff
students and groups gloss over the octaves or dispense with them
entirely. My own feeling is that the theory of octaves has a lot
in common with medieval Western musical theorists’ preoccupation
with theo-numerological speculation based on interval integer
ratios and their symbolic significance. In point of fact,
Gurdjieff had studied the medieval alchemists and on occasion
was prone to speak of the human organism as a sort of alchemical
factory for the transformation of various material and psychic
substances.

It seems that where there is music, and where there are people
who philosophize about it, there will be some form of numerology
and arcane quasi-mathematics. Since both musical pitch and
musical rhythm are readily represented in numerical forms, the
urge to find primal mathematical significance in music is almost
impossible to resist. A contemporary example of this perennially
seductive train of thought is Peter Michael Hamel’s book
Through Music to the Self.

Another symbolic thought-form Gurdjieff worked with was the
enneagram, a circle with nine points around its circumference.
Said Gurdjieff, ‘The enneagram is a universal symbol. All
knowledge can be included in the enneagram and with the help of
the enneagram it can be interpreted … A man may be quite alone
in the desert and he can trace the enneagram in the sand and in
it read the eternal laws of the universe. And every time he can
learn something new, something he did not know before.’ {The
fabulously successful book The Celestine Prophecy uses the
knowledge of the Enneagram and takes people to the point of
Enlightenment which can include dematerialization.}

Through the elaboration of the law of octaves and the meaning
of the enneagram, Gurdjieff offered his students alternative
means of conceptualizing the world and their place in it. When I
say “alternative,” I am suggesting that Gurdjieff sought
alternatives to rational, linear, language-oriented exposition
and rhetoric (though he was by all accounts also a spellbinding
speaker). In other words, Gurdjieff’s ideas could be only
partially expounded in ordinary words and sentences; to go
beyond language he drew on music (he played several instruments
and Bennett tells of him improvising unearthly melodies on a
small organ late at night), dance, and visual symbols such as
the enneagram.

Furthermore, it is my impression that Gurdjieff was happy to
talk theoretically with students who were theoretically
inclined, but that the theory itself is not an indispensable
part of his overall teaching. Or, to put it slightly
differently, Gurdjieff used, for instance, the complicated
machinery of the law of octaves in order to teach his students
to think. And in some respects the process of thinking was more
important than the theoretical content of what was thought.

Conditions. Gurdjieff laid emphasis on the idea that the seeker
must conduct his or her own search – and that the teacher cannot
do the student’s work for the student, but is more of a guide on
the path to self-discovery. As a teacher, Gurdjieff specialized
in creating conditions for students – conditions in which growth
was possible, in which efficient progress could be made by the
willing. To find oneself in a set of conditions a gifted teacher
has arranged has another benefit. As Gurdjieff put it, ‘You must
realize that each man has a definite repertoire of roles which
he plays in ordinary circumstances … but put him into even
only slightly different circumstances and he is unable to find a
suitable role and for a short time he becomes himself.’

In 1918 the turmoil of the Russian revolution forced Gurdjieff
and a small group of devoted followers out of Moscow to
Essentuki in the Caucasus. For the next four years the core
group moved from place to place, from Tiflis in Georgia to
Constantinople to Germany. In 1922 Gurdjieff finally managed to
establish a more or less stable base of operations, which he
dubbed the “Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man,” at
the Château de Prieuré in Fontainbleau, near Paris. The
Institute’s varied activities attracted many new people to
Gurdjieff’s ideas, and in 1924 he went on a short visit to
America where he stirred up much interest and started a group in
New York. He returned to France. At this moment of the
beginnings of success on a larger scale, Gurdjieff was nearly
killed in an automobile accident. During his long recuperation
his teaching activities came to an almost complete halt, but
from this time to 1935 he did manage to write his three primary
works, Beelzebub’s Tales, Meetings with Remarkable
Men, and Life Is Real Only Then, When “I Am.”

If Beelzebub’s Tales is an elaborate modern mythological
tapestry and Meetings is a spiritual travelogue, then
Life Is Real Only Then is a portrait of the creative process in
fluid motion. Gurdjieff’s most self-revealing book, it takes the
reader into Gurdjieff’s own associative thought-processes, for
instance in those passages where he writes about writing itself,
the trains of thought that led him, when still a young man, to
renounce all use of his exceptional psychic powers, the somewhat
brutal methods he used to whip his New York followers into
shape, and his superhuman, insomniacal efforts to keep his
Institute functioning and together on a sound financial footing
in the Fontainbleau days. Life Is Real was never finished – it
ends poignantly with a colon.

In the 1930s and 1940s Gurdjieff worked with small groups in
Paris, where he lived, and New York. Gurdjieff himself was
ultimately an enigma to Westerners, even to those who knew him
best. It is doubtful that we will ever know the “person” behind
the tremendous force of personality he exerted upon all who
worked with him. In times of the greatest personal crisis, he
would withdraw into the circle of his family. He placed extreme
demands on his students, but seemed to demand infinitely more of
himself. Teacher or prophet, rogue or saint, wily man or
gracious servant of God, Gurdjieff today is gone, and among some
of his followers there lingers an eschatological atmosphere, a
memory-afterglow of a not-so-distant time past when the infinite
was concretely embodied in time.” (1)

“KL: Yes, he was in Paris from the early 20’s. When he began
his work in Moscow (and in St. Petersburg very shortly), things
were going rather well, and then they had a little thing called
the Russian revolution. It was necessary for Gurdjieff and many
of his pupils to leave Russia in a hurry. Many of them were from
a stratum of society that was rather too closely associated with
the Czar, and it in any case conditions had become very bad,
very difficult, for anyone in Russia at that time. So Gurdjieff
escaped with a small group of followers and established the
center of his activities next in Constantinople, following which
there was a brief period in Berlin, and finally he settled just
outside of Paris, at the Chateau de Prieure at Fontainebleau,
and he worked with pupils there very intensively for the next
few years. That period was cut short by an automobile accident
which was very severe; it nearly killed him. Later on, he worked
in Paris itself, with, at any given time, a fairly small circle
of pupils.

Q.: Who was funding him?

KL: That’s a very interesting question. There were certainly
people interested in his work who provided funds.” (2)

There is good reason to believe that people who worked in Mind
Control associated with Tavistock, Yale and Baruch would have
funneled money and clients to Gurdjieff.

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Existential?

Terry Dashner………….Faith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken
Arrow, OK 74013

Are you an existentialist? Yes, it’s possible to be one and not
even know it. But more than likely if you are one, you know the
philosophy well. Here’s what you know.

Existentialism is a philosophical movement stressing individual
existence and holding that human beings are totally free and
responsible for their acts—according to Webster’s New World
Dictionary (Wiley Publishing, Inc. 2003). But for those who are
unfamiliar with the movement, have I given you sufficient
information? If not, listen up.

I picked up again an old text book that was assigned to me in
graduate school many years ago. I blew the dust off the covers
and read parts of it again. Why? I did so because, in my
opinion, there is too much bad philosophy attaching itself to
modern day Christianity. For example, my son came home recently
from Oklahoma State University where he is a freshman, studying
business. He is finishing the year with final exams and shows me
his philosophy papers. He is studying Friedrich Nietzsche’s
philosophy. You may recall that Nietzsche told us in the late
1800’s that God is dead and that we killed Him. This is bad
philosophy. I ache that a school like OSU focuses a major part
of a philosophy course on Nietzsche’s failed teachings. History
proved him wrong—Communism, Nazism, and the Jewish Holocaust—are
all products of Nietzsche’s philosophy.

Because I ached, I went back to my old philosophy books to
reread some of the terrible philosophies. Believe it or not,
some of these bad philosophies are still circulating today and
being touted as good Christian doctrine. I want to advise you
regarding some of the subtle teachings of Existentialism and let
you decide whether or not it is good doctrine for the Church.
Here goes.

The book I’m borrowing from is entitled, Existentialism and
Christian Belief—A Frank Appraisal of a Modern-Day Philosophy,
by Milton D. Hunnex (Moody Press 1969). I want to quote from his
first chapter entitled, “A New Reformation or a New Religion?”
In this chapter he critiques Bishop John A. T. Robinson’s book,
Honest to God, a 1963 book that led a revolt against traditional
Christianity. Robinson compares the movement of Existentialism
to the powerful forces triggered by Martin Luther during the
Reformation. This is hogwash. And I think you will agree.

Robinson advocates that the new movement will replace
traditional Christianity in a matter of time. Hunnex responds,
“What is developing before our eyes today could be finally more
significant than the revolt in the sixteenth century. That
revolt sought to restore New Testament Christianity on its own
terms. The revolt today seeks instead to restate Christianity in
nonsupernatural, secular terms. It is a revolt against the God
of authority and the Bible, against the God of traditional
Christianity. ‘That God must die,’ Robinson writes, ‘If man is
to live.’ He is ‘intellectually superfluous, emotionally
dispensable, and morally intolerable.’ The new Christian looks
to a post-Christian faith for the future based on existentialism
and universalism as the basic philosophical moods. Christian
belief has no part of it. Christian belief is an anachronism. It
must be abandoned together with the rest of the past, Robinson
contends.”

Hunnex continues, “Historically theologians have almost always
borrowed the methods and models of philosophy to help them in
their work. While this is to a certain extent necessary, it has
also subjected Christian faith to the influence and fate of the
philosophy. When the philosophy in question is abandoned, the
theology that leaned on it is threatened if not abandoned too.
Platonism in its many forms was the first philosophy of the
Christian theologians, but its dualism and otherworldliness gave
way to the more monistic and naturalistic philosophy of
Aristotle in the thirteenth century. It was partly the
distortions of biblical Christianity introduced by Aristotelian
philosophy that prompted the Reformers to revolt in the
sixteenth century.

“Unable to assimilate either the naturalism or Aristotle or that
of the scientific revolution, Protestant theology eventually
turned to idealism as the modern philosophy best adapted to
Christian belief. Modern liberalism made its home among the
idealists during the nineteenth century. After World War I it
became apparent that idealism was ill suited to the twentieth
century, and theologians as well as philosophers abandoned it.
They turned instead to existentialism as the kind of philosophy
that did appear to fit the mood and needs of the twentieth
century. Existentialism seemed to be the best philosophy for
getting at the problems of men caught up in swift-moving change.”

I could continue but I’ll suffice in saying this: “Harry Emerson
Fosdick once noted that it was not a question of a new or an old
theology but a question of a new theology or none at all. On the
contrary I shall contend, says Hunnex, “that it is not a
question of a new or an old theology but a question of the same
gospel or no gospel at all.” I concur. How about you?

Keep the faith. Stay the course. Jesus is coming again because
He said He was.

Pastor T.Dash

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Author : Terry Dashner
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More than a good head…

Terry Dashner…………….Faith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken
Arrow, OK 74013

You’ll need more than just a good head on your shoulders to
receive this. In fact, you’ll need a heart. And you will need
something else.

Someone once said that human reason must follow faith, not the
reverse. What does that mean? It means that reason can carry you
so far with God. Then you must take a leap of faith. Faith soars
far above the mind of man. Allow me to explain myself, please.

Our system of democracy is indebted to the ancient Greeks. Our
system of civil law is indebted to the Romans who borrowed
heavily from the Greeks. In Greek history a witness testified in
a court of law what he saw with his own eyes. His facts (facts
of the witness) became the facts of the court. Through the eyes
of the witness the court became the observer. But the word
witness came to mean something in addition to the observer. To
witness meant to persuade the court that the facts were true
facts. Not only were the facts presented but the witness worked
to persuade the court that what he saw was indeed true.

Here’s the something else you need to help you receive the
things of God. You need the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit
can witness to what the Father and Son are doing in Redemption.
The Holy Spirit also persuades us that it is true. The Holy
Spirit is the Divine Persuader, and He persuades only in the
context of truth. He witnesses to the believer that the Word of
God (Bible) is true. I believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ
because I’ve had supernatural help believing it. I didn’t wake
up one morning and determine to believe God’s Word. The Holy
Spirit did a work in my life that brought me to truth, and then
He persuaded me that it was true. That’s why I really believe
that Jesus is the Son of God because the Holy Spirit persuades
me.

All Christians have the witness of the Holy Spirit. That’s why a
believer knows what she knows, what she knows, without a degree
in Theology. The Holy Spirit brought forth the truth of the
Gospel and persuaded her that it was truth for her. The Bible is
credible, believable, within itself—not needing the help of
externals to testify to its truth—because the Holy Spirit of God
testifies to it.

Moreover, the Holy Spirit is the illuminator. The work of the
Spirit of God as witness and as persuader is an analogy taken
from juridical procedures. But there is another model of the
witness of the Spirit which comes from what might be called the
realm of the intellectual or of knowledge or of learning. In
this model the witness of the Spirit is illumination according
to Bernard L. Ramm, author of the book entitled, A Christian
Appeal to Reason (Word Books Publisher 1972). Illumination is
seeing the truth of God as the truth of God. It does not
necessarily mean new information. A person may know all the
facts and still overlook God.

Those who are of a pure heart will see God, according to Matthew
5:8. This means that the vision of God is possible only on
spiritual grounds, not rational or philosophical grounds.
Illumination is then something that happens with saving faith in
which there is forgiveness of sins which is in turn the
purification of the heart. Then the sinner sees God. Seeing is a
visual term, an intuitional term. It means a direct grasp or
apprehension of something in contrast to knowing something
through logical processes such as induction or deduction (Ramm,
page 42).

Think about this. When you reach the limits of your
understanding, don’t stop. Kick in faith. Ask God to help you
believe. The Holy Spirit is glad to witness to the saving grace
of the Father through Jesus Christ the Son. He is overjoyed to
persuade you of this truth. He will help you see God where
others see only doubt and confusion. The Spirit of God is not a
Ghost who scares the believer. He is Spirit. And the Bible says
that those who worship God must worship Him in Spirit and Truth.

Keep the faith. Stay the course. Jesus is on His way. T.dash…

About the author:
Pastors a small church in Broken Arrow, OK

Author : Terry Dashner
Site : www.goarticles.com