Growing up under the shadow of a distant, judgmental deity, I couldn't help but feel that something was amiss. It was a profound turning point when I challenged these old narratives and embraced a divine connection that was much closer to home—a journey I am excited to share with you. This episode is a heartfelt exploration into the realization of God's presence within us and how this discovery can redefine our lives, offering a personal connection with the divine that is both enriching and empowering.
Unpacking the idea that we are created in God's image, this talk is not about the likeness of our physical beings but rather our spiritual essence. We delve into how this concept reshapes our relationship with the divine and the power it unlocks within our souls. We discuss the possible misdirection in religious teachings and how a deeper understanding of our spiritual identity can lead to a richer, more profound experience of God's presence. It's an eye-opening discussion that may just alter your perception of your own spirituality.
Finally, my personal epiphany during a study of the Bible with the Holy Spirit as my guide serves as a catalyst for reinterpreting the story of Adam and Eve. This episode challenges traditional views on sin, obedience, and knowledge, prompting us to consider that maybe, just maybe, the true sin is our reluctance to accept the divine power and love that's been offered to us. Join us as we reflect on Christ's redemption, the power of God within us, and the abundance and fulfillment that can come from embracing this transformative perspective.
Growing up under the shadow of a distant, judgmental deity, I couldn't help but feel that something was amiss. It was a profound turning point when I challenged these old narratives and embraced a divine connection that was much closer to home—a journey I am excited to share with you. This episode is a heartfelt exploration into the realization of God's presence within us and how this discovery can redefine our lives, offering a personal connection with the divine that is both enriching and empowering.
Unpacking the idea that we are created in God's image, this talk is not about the likeness of our physical beings but rather our spiritual essence. We delve into how this concept reshapes our relationship with the divine and the power it unlocks within our souls. We discuss the possible misdirection in religious teachings and how a deeper understanding of our spiritual identity can lead to a richer, more profound experience of God's presence. It's an eye-opening discussion that may just alter your perception of your own spirituality.
Finally, my personal epiphany during a study of the Bible with the Holy Spirit as my guide serves as a catalyst for reinterpreting the story of Adam and Eve. This episode challenges traditional views on sin, obedience, and knowledge, prompting us to consider that maybe, just maybe, the true sin is our reluctance to accept the divine power and love that's been offered to us. Join us as we reflect on Christ's redemption, the power of God within us, and the abundance and fulfillment that can come from embracing this transformative perspective.
Hey friends, welcome to another episode of this Sovereign Life where we inspire you to escape the mediocrity that we've been conditioned to see a success in this society and instead pursue a life of purpose and desire and peace. In this episode, I need some music for my podcast intros, just throwing that out there. If anyone wants to help out with that, message me, because I just haven't figured that aspect out yet, but I do think it would be cooler. Anyways, back to the topic at hand. In this episode I want to talk about something that I've been trying to figure out how to articulate, because to me it's honestly the most impactful discovery I've ever made in my life.
Speaker 1:This particular aspect of life has literally changed my entire life experience. Up until a few years ago, I went my entire life not understanding this and therefore not accessing the power of it, because the fact of life is that until we are aware of something, can understand it and actually know how to implement it in our own lives, we don't understand the power of that particular thing. You see it everywhere, right. Knowledge is power, understanding is power. It's not until you know about something and then know how to do it that it opens up a whole new world for you, whether it's learning how to ski right, you could be someone that never even thought that was possible for you, so you don't know anything about it. You don't know what it's like. And then you learn how to ski, become a pro skier, get a bunch of deals, and it changes your life. That one just came off the top of my head. But anything in life right, having an epiphany and being able to access a new truth can literally change your life. This one has changed mine and I think it has changed many lives, and I think this is a universal truth that has the power to change every single human's life on the entire planet, and that's why I like to talk about it and that's why I will talk about it until I figure out how to articulate it.
Speaker 1:Because I was raised in an environment that kept this truth from me, and I don't think it was intentionally kept from me. I know my parents didn't intentionally keep it from me. It was just a lack of knowing and having access to it. Because I was raised in a religious environment, my parents found God and a church that felt okay for them when I was very young, and so I was raised in a certain belief system, and I know many people that were raised in the same, but also almost every variation of Western religion that I come across, of so-called Christian religions, has this aspect of what they call truth wrong, in my opinion. I know very few religious circles that understand this fundamental truth. In fact, I believe that most religions have been engineered to hide this specific truth and therefore make us much more powerless and pathetic and essentially a really bad look for God, because of this lack of knowing this truth and understanding it.
Speaker 1:Now, you're probably curious by now, and I'm going to keep you wondering for a few more seconds, because the thing is that over all of history, there's always been religion, there's always been spirituality, there's always been this knowledge. Throughout any history that we can find traces of, there's always been this knowledge of something greater than just our human physical existence, something greater than just this planet Earth. There's always been this acknowledgement of a higher power. It's acknowledged in many different ways, but throughout history and across religions, that is the common denominator there is something higher that created this and that ultimately has the eternal outcome of all of this in their hands. Right, god? For many, it is named God. For others, it's named other things, but we all acknowledge this omniscient power. No, I was raised on the Bible and religious views on the Bible, and to me, god is the name of of this omniscient being. I do believe in God. I believe not only in God but in Jesus Christ, and I believe that this power that I speak of is God right, and I think many of my listeners probably do as well. But so we know, we know God exists right, and if you're raised in a religion or if you've been around religions or pretty much anywhere in the world, we all have similar views on God.
Speaker 1:But one thing the religion has done it has given God a pretty bad reputation, and I think this is pathetic on all parts, because I think that there's a big deficit in how religion understands and portrays God, and there's also a big deficit from anyone else in the world attempting to understand God and not everyone, because there are people that do this, but you know, a lot of people come from opposite sides. Either they have this religious view on God and they try to push it on people and perpetuate it, and then there's the other side that's like well, hell, no, that God sounds really lame and I don't want anything to do with that, but they're still allowing their perspective on God to be confined by the religious perspective on God. So really, both sides are having their perception of God defined by the same boundaries and they're not. Anyone that just buys into and perpetuates those narratives is not doing any individual searching or thinking on their own or understanding of God, but they're rather allowing their views on God to be shaped by somebody else's outlook, somebody else's interpretation. Right, and that has never really sat well with me.
Speaker 1:So what is this thing that I'm saying is universal truth that can change your life. Well, to me it is the difference between seeing God as this outside of you, far away entity that is somewhere up in the sky, looks like a man and is constantly aware of what you're doing and judging it to either be right or wrong, but somehow still loves you and, you know, redeemed you so you're saved. But also you better make sure you do all the right things and you pray to him. But you know you don't know for sure if he hears you or what he's going to do, but you can throw your prayers up there and help for mercy and grace, and it's just very like outside of you, far away. It keeps God so far away. And then there is the truth, as I now know it, that God is not only our creator, not only the creator of the entire universe, but God is also in the very fabric of everything that God created, including the universe, including nature, including us, which means that God is within as well as without.
Speaker 1:Now, people in religion have a really hard time with this, especially in Christian circles like the one I grew up with, because they immediately default to thinking that this truth means that you think that you're God and now you're going to look within and find yourself to be God. Right, and that couldn't be further from the truth. But when this is your foundational belief and you see God as some man outside of you and you were just created in his physical image, this is often very hard to reconcile, right? So this is what I want to address next. Right, because I believe that part of this distortion of this truth and this lack of understanding this very powerful and fundamental existence of God within us is the way that we misinterpret the book of Genesis. So I grew up my entire life reading the Bible and hearing the Bible, and for the first probably 40 years of my life I thought that God, when God created man as an image in the first chapter of Genesis, for some reason it always seemed to me that and I believe this was actually taught to me that man, the physical form of man, was created in the physical form of God and that was the extent of being created in God's image. Now, it never really resonated or made sense to me, but I'm pretty sure this is actually how it's taught in a lot of religions and I've confirmed this by asking some of my friends who've been raised in similar religions or the same religion, and they all acknowledge that, yes, their idea of God and us being created in God's image was that God must be a physical man because we were created in the physical image of God. Right, so many people go most of their life believing this and this is very much explains a lot of why we separate ourselves physically from God. Right, like we're here in this human plane and we look around and we're like, yeah, if you're reading someone's image, like you're still, you're a separate person and they're a person and you know, a person can't be in the sight of another person that way, or whatever you're thinking, it still creates this distance, right, like okay, here's God. He created us in this physical image and then left us here on this earth, etc.
Speaker 1:But let me read you the first mention of the creation of man in Genesis. This will blow your mind, hopefully, like it did mine. And God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him male and female, created he them, and God blessed them. And God said unto them be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowls of the air and over every living thing that moveeth upon the earth. And it goes on. But it is not, my friends. First of all notice the language there. Right In that very first mention of God creating man, he created male and female. And it says in our image, after our likeness. It doesn't say mine, there's obviously a plural there. But also he created male and female at that time.
Speaker 1:And it is not until the next chapter that God formed man of the dust of the ground, and it seems to me to be two very separate and specific events. Now, this makes a huge difference. Right, and I'll read you that. It's in chapter two and verse seven, where it says okay, so let's go even back even further. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth. When they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens and every plant of the field before it was in the earth and every herb of the field before it grew, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth and there was not a man to till the ground. So this is after he's already created man in his image, and now it's saying there was not a man to till the ground. Are you getting the contrast here? Are you understanding the picture here and how different it looks to know that when man was created, originally created in God's image, there was both male and female created at that time, and they did not seem to be in the physical form, because after that was done, there was still not a man to till the ground. Okay, let's continue, but there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. This is a completely different event that took place. So this is when man came into the physical form and became a living soul.
Speaker 1:But what I take from this whole story and this whole chain of events is that when God was created, or when man was created in God's image, man was created as a soul, a spirit that had the ability to create, not in a physical form. It wasn't until later that man became a physical form and then, later on in the story, woman who there's already male and female created. Let's remember that it wasn't until even later in the story that woman, the woman, was formed by taking a rib out of Adam right. So the thing that changes here, first of all, is the realization that when we were created in God's image, we weren't just created in God's image as a physical form. I believe that it was our soul, our spirit, our creative consciousness, awareness, that was created in God's image and by in God's image. I also believe that was still created as part of God. We were created as individual souls, but within God's image, with the same creative abilities, not in a physical image.
Speaker 1:That changes everything. That is such a big difference in how we perceive ourselves in relation to God and how we perceive our purpose in this world and our abilities in this world, or even our connection to God. It changes everything, literally everything. Because now we not only see that it's not just about like, hey, there's this physical image of God that we were created in and there's no other way that we're like God. Right, but we were created in the image of God before we ever took physical form, before any man ever took physical form. And not only does that seem to me that like we were created as souls, maybe all of us at the same time. I don't know. I'm not.
Speaker 1:I'm not claiming to have all of the understanding of this, but what I do, what it really changed for me is this changing this feeling of separation from God to understanding oneness with God and understanding that the physical body was not what was created in the image of God, but the physical body is like the vessel for the part of us that is created in the image of God and that part of us, that everlasting, eternal part of us, is what really truly matters, even in this earthly experience. And to me that is huge. To me it has changed everything to understand oneness with God and, of course and Christians will say, well, yeah, but then the fall and blah, blah, blah. Well, I have a lot to say on that as well, and that's going to be part two of this. But right then and there, if you really understand that, it shifts the focus from all of this physical, material world where we're all worried about everyone else's sexual behaviors and whether or not that's going to keep them out of heaven, or what they do here, what they're doing here and there in their physical life, and even our own focus, right being all in this physical world and our accomplishments here and what we're occupied with here. It shifts that to the realization that the part of us that really trust me, I believe that the body, I believe that the whole of us matters, this physical body and everything. But there is an eternal part of us, a soul that to me now seems much more relevant than any physical aspect and the development of that soul seems more relevant and the connection that that soul and that spirit has with God, our own Creator, to me seems very relevant and it changes everything. And I think this is the biggest difference.
Speaker 1:And I was talking to my friend the other night, and you know we're talking about like what better Trojan horse could an enemy come up with then to Get within something like religion that's supposed to represent God and be the testimony to God and Make God look as weak and powerless and pathetic as possible and make it look like, make all of these people follow, go down the wrong path, a path towards just powerlessness and towards fear and towards insisting on staying in their own fleshly Model because they are too scared to call themselves part of God. What better way to disempower the gospel, as many call it, than that right, and I truly see it now, because the shift in believing and thinking is so powerful and when you understand it, when you realize it, it changes your life. Because when you realize that God is right there within you, ready to empower you, loving you, guiding you, when you choose to activate that relationship with God, that's when you really start to fill like the tangible power of God in your life. And it's undeniable and and I can say this with so much confidence because I have experienced both sides of this coin. I've experienced both sides of living.
Speaker 1:I experienced believing I was a Christian all my life and thinking I was living a Christian life and thinking that I was, you know, saved by grace and going to heaven and all these things. And I'm not saying, not saying I know any like factual. You know right and wrong about that but I Never, ever during that portion of my life, felt the power of God in my life. I never felt God's love in a real way and I never felt a true connection and relationship with Christ until I Was able to make this shift and to understand that God truly is within me and offering me the power of his Holy Spirit every single day. And that's that, it just is. That's just us there, that's just there for us when we want it. That that's how simple, it is right.
Speaker 1:And then we make it so complicated with all of these gateways and gatekeepers and barriers to entry and Mostly, just by insisting on being wretched, insisting on being making sure there's no way that we could say God is within. I mean, how Absolutely ridiculous to refuse that Power and that grace and that love if it's presented to you. That's exactly what this idea is, that separates us from God, that says no. You cannot say God was is within you, because that's some kind of arrogance, as some kind of you know Self-proclaiming that you are God. No, it's absolutely. It's absolutely naive and ignorant and almost a rejection to insist on being wretched and powerless and pathetic and fearful and living out this life believing that, you know, in the next one, somehow you'll be a completely different person With a completely different access to God. And yet you have none of that here. It just it's. It's not true, my friends. I know this okay, and I say this was so much conviction because I have experienced it. Amen.
Speaker 1:Now, moving on to part two, I want to address this whole idea of Sin right, because to me, that was another one that was really misportrait in the church that I grew up in, and that is the story of the temptation of Eve, where Eve was tempted to eat the fruit and then, in turn, tempted Adam, which caused their fall from grace and caused them to be kicked out of the Garden of Eden, of Eden, with the stamp of doom upon them, you know God telling them that they would surely die and Cutting them off from eating from the tree of life. It's this very dramatic story and it was always portrayed to me in this way. Of that, the, the idea I got around it is that Godhead, he just put this one tree in the garden to, you know, test their obedience, so to speak. This tree of the knowledge of good and evil was never really explained to me. Why was this particular tree? And it never really made sense, like what what's so Bad about the knowledge of good and evil? And nobody could really explain that. Right, it's just like, well, they disobeyed God. God told them not to eat this tree, and it almost always came across like God was just testing him, almost like he just chose this tree and he was like, yeah, you know what, I'm gonna say no to that tree, and if they obey me they're good and they get to live, but if they disobey me, then they're gonna die. And and inevitably they disobeyed. And of course God knew that was coming. But you know, I guess he was disappointed or something and he caught them. They confessed they were guilty as soon as they ate of the knowledge of tree, of the tree of good and evil. They knew that they were naked, right, it was all very Just kind of like.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you, if any of you, ever heard that story of like, this man and his wife who were working in the fields, or maybe it was just the man, and he was working hard under the hot sun, toiling away. Right he's muttering to himself oh, eve Fulney, you hadn't eaten of that fruit. And you know he was. He was blaming Eve for his, his need to toil in the fields. And Along comes the, the boss, I guess the Lord of the land. Right, and here's, he overhears this guy moaning, the moaning and blaming Eve. So he asks him you know, like, what would you've done different? And I don't know if I'm remembering this story verbatim, but yes, what would you've done different? And the man is like, of course I wouldn't have eaten of that fruit. Like idiot, you know.
Speaker 1:So this, this Lord of the land, invites this man and his wife Over for dinner, I guess that week or that night, or whatever, right, he invites them to his mansion, to this just incredible feast of dinner, and he, you know, they're all sitting down at the table. There's just so many plates Food, just an abundance of food, and it's all delicious looking and smelling. And a few minutes into the meal, this Lord of the land, I don't know what else to call him the boss. He says to the man and his wife hey, like I have to step out for a minute, take a phone call or maybe there wasn't phones in the story I need to take care of some business, but help yourself to anything and everything on the table, just don't don't open that dish. He points to this one dish that's got a lid on it, right? So the man and his wife are like, yeah, sure, cool, cool, no problem.
Speaker 1:And the man leaves and they start to eat and they're enjoying all the food, but, of course, sure enough, before long, what they've got is not enough and they have to. They start wondering about this dish. What's in it? Why can't they touch it, etc. Etc. Right, and so this goes on for quite some time and they keep wondering, they keep asking themselves and they, you know, finally decided well, just one peek wouldn't hurt, right? Like he'll never know. And of course, inevitably, they can't help themselves and they have to look in the dish. They open the lid and outruns a mouse and, to make a long story sort of short, the master of the house comes back in to them chasing this mouse around trying to get it back in the dish. So of course he knows that they lived in the dish, right, they couldn't get away with it. And then he points out to them that, like you, would have done the same thing as Adam and Eve.
Speaker 1:So the reason I tell this story, this long story, is to kind of illustrate the point of how this story is told in general and how it's portrayed in that this was just a matter of curiosity and disobedience, right, there was not really any other premise underneath it. That was told and it was just kind of like told as like, of course you're gonna send, man is going to sin and disobey God regardless. It's inevitable, it's just the nature of man, right? Well, that's how I grew up understanding the story. And then of course, the serpent is the one that tempts Eve and of course Eve is the one that gets tempted. So the woman is always to blame for this first temptation, etc. There's all these different, you know, perspectives around it, but overall it just always came across that man was disobedient to God and that was the sin. So let me say that again, man woman, of course, not a woman the woman and ultimately the man were disobedient to God and that was the sin, and that's how I grew up and always understood it right.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't until recently again that I started reading this passage of the Bible from a completely different perspective, and to me it's absolutely mind-blowing what I discovered, what I believe to be true, and so I want to read to you the verses in the Bible that and I believe that when I say I read it, read it from a different perspective what I know is that my perspective on the Bible now is coupled with guidance from the Holy Spirit, not just a perspective I read in a book or that I came up with my intellect. There's a big difference and I can feel the difference because you know, going back to what I was talking about earlier and thinking that you're God and the danger of that. There is no danger of that when you actually invite God to have a relationship within you, because what you start to understand very quickly is that you would have never had the wisdom or the superior, like knowledge and understanding of the universe and everything within it, to come up with the things that God inspires within you, that God shows you, that the Holy Spirit can show you. Even in reading the Bible, you understand very quickly the difference between divine wisdom and your own intellect, and it's a very stark contrast. And there's no way you could ever take credit for the divine wisdom of God within you and there's no way your own intellect can compare to that. And it becomes very obvious that your flesh and your flesh's ability and propensity to do things a certain way are drastically different than God's way. But also, god has given you access to God's way and that's the most amazing part.
Speaker 1:Anyway, back to the story. Okay, so let's read where God told them not to eat of the tree. And this is before Eve, in chronological order in the book of Genesis. This is before Eve ever existed. And the Lord God commanded, and the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. So God doesn't say, hey, there's this tree, and then he's just kind of mysterious about why you shouldn't eat it.
Speaker 1:God here is just stating facts, saying don't eat of that tree because in the day that you eat it you shall surely die. And I think a lot of people think, oh, god was just saying I'll kill you if you eat it. I mean, you know the way it was portrayed in my growing up experience was it felt more like God was just saying, hey, if you disobey me and eat this tree, you will surely die. But what I see now when I read it, what I understand now, is that God was just stating the facts. If you eat of that tree that tree just like if you were to tell somebody not to eat of a poisonous mushroom or a plant that would kill them you're not saying hey, don't disobey me, or you're gonna lose your life. You're saying no, literally don't eat of that tree right there or that plant, that mushroom, or it's going to take your life. So just don't, because I want you to live right. And to me that's more what is happening here, when God is saying it, because and I think this is really relevant, because I think what's also relevant is exactly what tree this was, and it's going back to you know the question like why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Because, as Satan points out later on, when he's tempting Eve or I guess, doesn't even say Satan, it says the serpent. That's another thing to you know, dive into sometime. But Satan says and the serpent, after you know, asks. And she ends. I'll just read it Now.
Speaker 1:The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman yea hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said unto the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, god hath said ye shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open and ye shall be as God's knowing good and evil. Now, that, right, there is the key to this story.
Speaker 1:Right, because you're like okay, so yeah, I mean, I guess what's so bad about knowing the difference between good and evil? Because in our awareness, in our life experience, it seems necessary that we should know the difference between good and evil. Right, seems like that's a good knowledge to have. How are we gonna, how are we gonna know how to do what's good if we don't, you know, know the difference? But think of an awareness, a life without any knowledge of evil, or the knowledge of good and evil. Right, say, you have no awareness outside of God's awareness, which is purely good. You literally have no awareness beyond being one with God, and actually one of my friends is the one who initially inspired this thought process with him. He's a shout out to you, jess.
Speaker 1:But the and the way she put it is, before they ate of that tree, right, there seemed to be a wholeness, a wholeness with God, where their awareness could not deviate from God's awareness. And then, when they ate of the tree, which is what God said not to do, was eat of this tree of knowledge of good and evil, that To me seems as if the fruit itself, the eating, the active eating of the tree, was what opened up awareness that could now not only have the capacity to know good from evil, but to focus on evil, to deviate from oneness with God, and Therefore the result could be death. And that, my friends to me is so huge, because the truth is not just about God being Some man that created a kid, so to speak, some some man and his image and said, hey, you know, don't disobey me, I have a pretty big ego over here. So you know, I'm just gonna test you and see if you disobey me. No, it was that we were created in God's image, at one with God's own awareness, consciousness of pure Righteousness and good. And the active eating that tree was not just an act of disobedience that made God mad, made him kick him out of the garden, but a literally an act that opened up an awareness that could cut us off from God. That is such a big difference and to me it makes so much more sense than Then this idea that you know it's just about obedience and God being a man and telling us what we shouldn't, shouldn't do, but the realization that it's that deviation from God, deviation from being one with God and God's consciousness and God's, god's awareness, gods Frequency, so to speak. And that was the spiral, and as Joe just spends opposite, we are not punished for our sins, we were punished by our sins, and to me that is much resonates as much more true than sin, just being this active disobedience from God that gets us punishment by God, because God doesn't like to be disobeyed.
Speaker 1:To me, this understanding of the story and realization that you know, the the punishment is not that we diso for disobeying. The punishment is that now we have the the ability to be separated from God, to separate ourselves from God, and that Separation from God it could only be darkness and evil and pain and suffering, because the opposite of God could only be that right. Because within God is all good, all blessing, everything. There's life giving and Loving and beautiful, and any other awareness that gives us the ability to focus on something that is separate from God, something that is opposed to God, could only be the opposite of that. And so, when it comes to, you know, accessing the power of this understanding and how this changes your life, it's so different to go through life thinking that your purpose here is to pass some test for God and Be some obedient child that gets a treat when you get to heaven, because you did good To go from that perspective, in that way of thinking and believing, to realizing that you were created at one with God and that by God's grace, by Christ's work, and this is really what it meant.
Speaker 1:We now get to the opportunity to experience that again, because that that initial sin of eating of that tree was what spiraled us out of oneness and out of connection with God, and it was the redemption of Christ that gave us the ability to be brought back into that oneness. And that that is a beautiful thing and a beautiful experience, and it changes everything. It has for me, and I don't. I can't pack all of the details of it into this podcast and, like I said at the beginning, I don't even know how I can articulate it fully, because it really is something that you experience. It's something that I believe is truly divine and within us, an individual, and it's an awakening, so to speak, that God is fully responsible for God's self, and that is also one of the most beautiful things about it is that like if God wants to show you and awaken this within you, if, if you want that right it says, seeking you shall find askin it shall be given unto you. So if you want that, it's available to you, and nobody can, nobody can take that away, nobody can stop that from happening, nobody can darken that understanding and awareness that you get to have when you seek it, when you ask for it and when God comes to you and you come to God and you, you experience that oneness again.
Speaker 1:And I do think that in this earthly life, right, this fleshly life, I think that one of the things that may have happened in that garden story, when the aid of the fruit, is that this physical existence took on a life of its own that was separate from God. And that is why we struggle between the flesh and between being in the new life, being in the new version of ourselves, which is aligned to God. And so I know I've talked about these things before and again. My microphone died, so sorry for the last portion of this podcast sounding different, but I will never cease to be amazed by these topics and the effect and impact they've had on my life, and so I will probably never cease to want to share that and also have that shared with me, because it's such a contrast to go from what I call a dead faith to one that is alive and active and actually so powerful in your life that you see results, you see, you see thriving from it.
Speaker 1:And I think that the truth, you know, there's a verse in scripture that says by your fruits you shall know them. There's several verses that talk about how a you know a tree cannot produce the wrong fruit and I think when you look at your life right and you look at the people's lives and maybe who you're admiring or you're seeking perspective on God from, it's important to see what the fruits are, because one thing that I've noticed that is dramatically different between people that have this idea of God being an outside entity that they will never truly connect with until heaven is, I see a lot of fear in their lives, a lot of decay, a lot of disease, a lot of just detrimental impacts. I don't see, I don't see the power of God manifested in their lives and I don't see it being impactful and powerful in the world, especially not with today's kind of teachings on this topic. And the, the people that I know that believe that God is within that God, that the Holy Spirit is a true resource for their lives and that they, they have accepted this opportunity to be at one with Christ, with God within, and allow that to be the guiding, the guiding force in their lives. The result is really different. The result is power and abundance and peace and joy and often rejuvenation and thriving when it doesn't look like they should be, and much more.
Speaker 1:But really I don't think it's a fruit of somebody trying to do their own good deeds. I think that can only be the fruit of the power and God the power of God in one's life, and yielding to that and allowing that to be what manifests and creates your life, rather than trying so hard, efforting so hard to be a good Christian, to do things right and somehow gain a more favorable position in heaven by what you do or don't do here on earth. It's just a, it's a different experience and I think that it's available to all of us and it's life changing and it's world-changing. So I will keep talking about it as long as I live and I hope that at some point it's inspiring to somebody listening to to look more deeply into that and to allow yourself to see things differently, to open up Pandora's box of what you could really experience in this life. That's it for today's episode, my friends, I'll see you in the next one and I raise my proverbial glass to peace and freedom.