God

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

God

"What you call God is the sum of all consciousnesses, and yet the whole is more than the sum of Its parts. God is more than the sum of all personalities [souls], and yet all personalities are what He is."
~ Jane Roberts
The Seth Material
We will never be able to define or fully comprehend all that God is. Our Source is simply too vast, too enormous an intelligence, and much too infinite in makeup and design for our limited minds to take in and understand.
As you will see in the coming pages, describing God is impossible and always will be. Why? Because All That Is is constantly evolving and becoming a greater and grander version of Itself, just as we are. What God was the moment you started reading this sentence is different than what Father/Mother has become by the time you've finished it.
What we can do, by divine design, is get a "feel" for our Creator, a sense of who our Source is and what role our all-loving God plays in our existence. In fact, it is easier and far more rewarding and exhilarating to experience and feel God than to define All That Is. A good analogy for this would be to first read the definition of love in a dictionary, and then compare that experience to the profound feelings one has when actually falling in love.
Allow me to begin by describing what I believe God is not. That's a lot easier place to start from.
I was born into Catholicism in 1941. Within days of my first breath, I was quickly baptized to remove the stigma of original sin that my "impure" physical form and soul brought forth into this world.
Like so many other loving parents who meant well for their children, I grew up in typical Christian fashion. My parents were balanced about it, but the "Catholic system" I entered was not. Parochial school, Catechism classes, Confirmation,
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Sunday mass, mortal sins, venial sins, countless confessions, meatless Fridays, fasting, communion, an unyielding "God" who judges us, and eternal damnation in hell for practicing birth control, missing mass on Sunday, divorce, sins of the flesh, and a host of others too numerous to mention. In spite of all these do's and don'ts, I was far from saintly. And as I matured into an adult, my religious mind-set was one of guilt, confusion and disbelief that was not brought on by my parents, but the religious institutions that were part of my formative years.
The older I got the more I began to think for myself. This led to more questions. It really crystallized for me one day while attending undergraduate courses at a Jesuit University in the Midwest. At one point I decided to ask the priest who was teaching a theology class the following question: "Would I be sent to hell for going to mass every Monday of the week instead of every Sunday?" I never received a straight-forward answer to that question and my doubts and suspicions continued to multiply.
From that point forward, the religious dogmas and practices that had conditioned my innocent mind at an early age made less and less sense to me. The only thing that felt right was Jesus, and His words of wisdom, compassion, love, and forgiveness.
Jesus' father, our supposed "God," was a stern and often-times angry and fearful old man sitting on a throne judging what to do with all the Earthly souls who had taken their final breaths. Those who passed his test would go to paradise, while others less fortunate would burn in hell for eternity. In-betweeners were sent to mysterious places such as purgatory and limbo. The Church would gladly intercede and reduce the amount of time a departed soul would spend in these dubious places of purification after receiving donations from their parishioners. And where was God's home? Somewhere in the heavens far away and very separate from me.
In Biblical teachings, God was also someone who got angry, started wars, was jealous, singled out the Jews as his Chosen People, brought floods, famine, plagues of gnats, reptiles, locusts, hail, and other hardships on his children. He also demanded that living things such as baby lambs and doves be killed and offered as blind sacrifices of worship and faith to him. And on and on.
Incredibly, the Torah, which is the most important document in Judaism, actually describes how God went through Egypt killing the firstborn children of the Egyptians because the Pharaoh would not free Israeli slaves in his possession. At the same time, he passed over the houses of faithful Israelites and spared their children the same kind of death. This is the origin of the Passover feast, which is celebrated to this day.
And how did these godly misconceptions begin? Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, the Old Testament of the Bible was first put into written form. It was based
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upon word-of-mouth teachings that had existed among the ancient Hebrews for many generations. Up through modern times it has always been steadfastly believed and dogmatically enforced that the origin, inspiration and words for the Bible came directly from God. For many believers it is the infallible truth and should not be questioned.
This is exactly where it comes apart and breaks down for me. The fear-based descriptions of God described above can be found in any Bible, which is the cornerstone for Christian religion. When I bring them to the heart, my ultimate source for filtering and measuring truth, something is seriously wrong. It doesn't feel right nor does it resonate with the highest thought I can have, which is love. On the contrary, it smacks of agenda, control, and the use of fear-based, patriarchal manipulation with a self-serving agenda at its core.
Historically, we have cast our idea of a cruel and judgmental god in our own image and personalized him. Over the centuries those who self-proclaim infallibility in the Vatican built a worldwide religion around this core belief. It has been this way for several thousand years. All of that is changing rapidly, and will continue to do so in dramatic fashion.
Although the fearful dogmas and doctrines of these self-serving, religious organizations will eventually die out, our belief in God will not. Blind faith in what God is and does will no longer work for many disappointed followers who find themselves in organized religions. Rather, these disillusioned souls will seek to know God by searching for the truth. And they will discover it in their hearts.
For years, I was lost in this maize of religious contradiction and confusion. I had no alternative explanations of God to turn to until I began to read the New Age, spiritual books that came into my life in 1991. That's when it all started to make sense for me.
I first began to develop an entirely new awareness of God in 1995. It happened when someone gifted me with a newly published book called Conversations with God, Book I. After the first few chapters it felt as though the "wisdom of the ages" had fallen into my hands. More importantly, while reading this book I fell deeply in love with God, and I consider this the highest and most meaningful experience in my life.
Conversations with God ultimately grew into a series of three books. They went on to sell millions of copies worldwide, could be found on the New York Times best seller list for years, and have been changing the perceptions and lives of their readers for more than a decade.
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The simple yet extraordinarily powerful teachings and revelations in these books touched something deep in many people starving for credible explanations of life's meaning and purpose. Clearly, they were hungry and ready for the answers that God provided about their origins, creation, religion, death, reincarnation, heaven, hell, relationships, sex, how Spirit interacts and communicates with us, and many other mystical concepts and teachings that not only made sense to them but also felt right at the soul level.
How did Conversations with God, Book I and the two others in this trilogy begin to change my feelings and perspectives about God? First and foremost it helps a great deal if one is truly searching for the truth of things as part of an inner journey of Self-discovery. In many instances, a serious life crisis, complete with pain and suffering, serves as the starting point for such a journey. It sets the stage and sensitizes the seeking soul for the most powerful realization of all: that God is not only within each and every one of us, but that we are actually a part or portion of God. Once we accept this we then want to know more about that God because it is the ultimate starting point for waking up to who we really are.
For me the most compelling aspect of these books was an awakened sense of who God was and how our Source interacts with us all the time, if only we would pay attention and learn to listen. As I read the words in these books, it was like rediscovering the best and most caring friend I ever had.
Sometimes God's words were so full of wisdom, common sense, humor, and ease of understanding that I wanted to punch the air and shout with joy. Then there would be times when God would say things in such a powerful yet non-threatening way that I was genuinely humbled by it. I was truly in awe of my Creator, and so thankful that it was this way.
Other times there was so much tenderness and love in God's words that tears filled my eyes. What touched me the most was Spirit's expression of compassion, unconditional love and forgiveness for us no matter what we do. The wisdom given by God for this purest form of love was easy to understand and accept. It was a very comforting and humbling realization for me.
Page after page of experiencing and feeling Father/Mother this way began to add up and create a very powerful rush for me. Feelings of incredibly deep love began to stir and awaken inside of me I never knew existed. It was as though that love was always there but had been lost and forgotten over the ages. The emotional charge behind this realization was so intense that I often found myself sobbing and crying during moments of silence and contemplation. And I would wonder where I had been and what I had done over the ages to lose this divine connection.
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At the same time, I could see how God truly began to help me after crying out for it four years before the first of these books journeyed into my life. I also understood that all the pain and suffering that was driving my inner journey of "rebirth" and transformation was serving a much Higher purpose than I anticipated or could fully appreciate at the time. All of it came together in a moment of intense realization and set the stage for my falling deeply in love with God. Why? Because I knew that God truly cared for and loved me.
Here is one of the passages in the early part of Conversations with God, Book I that touched me very deeply. It was such a contrast to what I was taught during the early years of my life.
God speaking:
"What do you think brought you to this material? How does it come to pass that you are holding it in your hands? Do you think I know not what I'm doing?
There are no coincidences in the universe.
I have heard the crying of your heart. I have seen the searching of your soul. I know how deeply you have desired the Truth. In pain have you called out for it, and in joy. Unendingly have you beseeched Me. Show Myself. Explain Myself. Reveal Myself.
I am doing so here, in terms so plain you cannot misunderstand. In language so simple, you cannot be confused. In vocabulary so common, you cannot get lost in the verbiage.
I will speak to you if you will listen. I will come to you if you will invite Me. I will show you then that I have always been there. All ways."
This is the God that feels right to me, and my heart instantly identifies with it. This is the Creator that makes sense to me, and my soul continues to provide reassurance that it is so. This is the Source I want to connect with and never separate from again. And there is something deep inside me which unerringly knows that this is Truth.
Words from the spirit, Seth, offer us some additional insights about the nature and makeup of All That Is that we can contemplate:
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"God, therefore, is first of all a creator, not of one physical universe but of an infinite variety of probable existences…
Now: God is more than the sum of all the probable systems of reality He has created, and yet He is within each one of these, without exception. He is therefore within each man and woman. He is also within each spider, shadow, and frog, and this is what man does not like to admit."
"All portions of All That Is are constantly changing, unfolding and enfolding. All That Is, seeking to know Itself, constantly creates new versions of Itself. For this seeking Itself is a creative activity and is the core of all action."
There is a lot to wonder about here. First and foremost we are told that God is a powerful creator who uses free will when doing so. This revelation is consistent with virtually all religious, spiritual, and metaphysical teachings that we are aware of.
What is different with these thoughts and others I came across in the alternative-minded books I've read, is that God is far from being a static, motionless force. Nor is He finished with us and all else that exists. On the contrary, God desires Self-expression, is still very much a highly energized creative force, will never stop being so, and neither will we. Recall, we were made in God's image. Another way to say this is that we are a miniature version or extension of Father/Mother God much like a child that is created by, and a reflection of, a man and woman.
We are also told that God is everything that exists be it the smallest subatomic particle of an atom, a bird, the book you're holding in your hands, you, a star, a mighty galaxy, all the universes and dimensions that exist, and all that is contained within them. In fact, God is bigger and far more infinite than this.
How can anyone attempt to define and comprehend such a Supreme Being and know what It is? Is it any wonder that the ancient mystics, and all the great teachers who have come to this planet to help us find our way, simplified it all by saying that, "All is ONE."
If that isn't enough, this incomprehensibly infinite intelligence and energy we refer to as God is constantly becoming a greater and grander version of Itself. In the book, The Seth Material, we are told that God passed through human stages so long ago that it is impossible to define that period of time. Furthermore, God does not know if He is the only "Primary" in existence, and is constantly seeking to know whether
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others like Himself exist. What All That Is does know is that something else existed before It existed.
It is this constant searching to know what's "out there," and the innate desire to create and know Itself, that drives the divine nature and actions of God. We do the same thing on an infinitesimally smaller scale because we are children of God.
Insignificant as we may seem in the eyes of God that is far from the case. You will see in the pages to come that Spirit's dependence on us for His/Her own awareness, knowingness and evolution is intimately connected to each and every one of us, so much so that the next time you smell a rose, Mother/Father God smells a rose.
Seth's words also reveal that in some mysterious way God is more than everything that has been created. This suggests that everything which exists came from the mind of a Supreme Being who has the ability to project into existence anything It wants to, and whenever the desire presents itself. It also implies that It can withdraw from existence that which has been created when the time is right and its purpose has been served. Eastern mystical teachings call this outflow and inflow of divine creation "the in and out breath of God."
Another one of my favorite books was written by Ken Carey. It's called Vision, A Personal Call to Create a New World. Like Conversations with God it is one of a series of books that contain information from otherworldly sources. Once again, the wisdom in this book resonated with a part of me that says, "This is Truth." This is what was said about God:
"In the beginning of all worlds, long ago, yet still, the Eternal One Is. Beyond temporal distinction, above location, behind all manifestation, is the All, the Totality, the Holy Source and Creator of all that later came.
One face of the Eternal One is ever formless and beyond definition, but the other face of the Eternal One appears as Two. These Two, between them, are the source of all created things."
Interestingly, the words, "These Two, between them" highlights the interplay that took place between two primary creator beings who were responsible for all that is now in physical existence. The words in this book go on to explain that the "Two" are called "Holy Mother" and "Holy Father."
Much has been written about the gender of God. It can be found in the metaphysical books I've read, the mystical teachings from the Far East, and the mythological
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wisdom of ancient civilizations. In them one finds the consistent notion that God is neither male nor female, but both. And why shouldn't it be that way?
In the Eastern world, the Bhagavad-Gita is considered to be one of the oldest and most spiritual books the world has ever known. It contains revelations given to mankind more than five-thousand years ago by Lord Krishna, the Supreme Lord of all creation. Interestingly, Lord Krishna is a loving, caring deity Who gives humanity the teachings needed to establish their eternal relationship with God.
The wisdom in the Bhagavad-Gita has influenced the thoughts of some of the world's greatest minds: Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Carl Jung, Albert Schweitzer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sri Aurobindo, Aldous Huxley, Paramahamsa Yogananda, and many other highly respected thinkers. One could say that the insights found in this sacred body of spiritual knowledge do not side with any religious affiliation or belief system. On the contrary, it is loving, compassionate, balanced, and wisely avoids the separatist notion that "my God and my religion are the only way to salvation."
The concept of God in the Bhagavad-Gita, when blended together with other important sources of Eastern mystical wisdom such as the Upanishads and the Vedas, is very similar to what I've read in New Age books. That is, God, the Absolute, the Supreme Lord, is unknowable, beyond description, is all that exists, and is in the heart of everyone. Each man and woman is divine in nature because they are a part of their Creator. As such mankind has the potential for infinite evolution just as their Source does. The Earth and all of its living things are divine in nature and God is within all of it.
Hinduism, a diverse mixture of religious beliefs and traditions, is the world's oldest religion with over one billion followers. Not surprisingly, their most important sources of spiritual teachings are the Bhagavad-Gita, the Vedas and the Upanishads. Amongst other things, they believe that God contains both male and female qualities and consider God a Father, Mother, friend, and savior. In the Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna says, "I am the Father of this Universe. I am the Mother of this Universe, and Creator of all. I am the Highest to be known, the Purifier, the holy OM…"
This same Father/Mother description of God can be found in the sacred knowledge of the Kabbalah. We are told that the mystical Hebrew doctrines that form this body of spiritual wisdom originated from angelic sources. The teachings it contains were passed on orally, generation to generation, beginning with Adam, until put into written form during early Christianity.
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The Kabbalah describes the Mother aspect of God, which is responsible for production or bringing things into physical existence. The masculine side of God, the Father, is responsible for the maintenance and continuance of what the Mother has birthed. Both the Father and the Mother are conjoined in a bond of eternal love for one another and Their sacred work of creation will never end.
When we look back into the distant past to a time of more than five thousand years ago, human history gets sketchy and murky. Historians have to depend on old relics and bones, decayed statues and carvings, primitive paintings, incomplete writings needing translation, legends, and mythological teachings from diverse ancient civilizations. Nevertheless, within this maize of information, one can connect dots and discover that there apparently was a time when God was considered a woman, and only a woman. It was the Age of the Goddess.
During those ancient times, the real power belonged to a human goddess who would rule a particular community, nation or civilization. That feminine supremacy extended well beyond the ruling level and infiltrated all of society. Because of it, women presided over families as wives, and were worshipped as mothers who bore and nurtured children. Men accepted their role as being subservient to their female counterparts.
In a more heavenly direction, the concept of Goddess went beyond women to include Earth Mother and her powers of fertility. Then there was the most supreme being of all: Mother God, the Goddess of Goddesses.
All of this began to change approximately three- to four-thousand years ago. Men had somehow managed to slowly wrest power and control from the women. Over time the masculine energy gradually became the dominant force. This was especially apparent in Mid-Eastern societies and cultures where brute strength and aggression were considered necessary to protect the women and children from other warring factions and nations.
Out of this shift in the balance of power, the oral traditions of the Bible emerged and a God of Wrath, entirely masculine, was born. Under this form of religious and cultural dogma, women slowly became subservient to man.
Over the past several thousand years the nature of God was shaped by man's need for physical survival. War, aggression, and separation forced much of mankind to be cruel and powerful in order to survive and dominate. The needs behind such actions prompted man to define God in the same way. Through this day, this vengeful type of god continues to be worshiped by many Christians, Jews and Islamic people.
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There is a powerful and unexpected shift of energy taking place on planet Earth these days. It seems to have come out of nowhere. However, nothing happens by accident in God's universe. The power of the divine feminine is returning. And it will forever change the nature of humanity.
During the past century, women have begun to reclaim what is rightfully theirs and they are gradually becoming equal to their male counterparts. There is still much to balance and right here, but it will happen. And it will not go away.
As the feminine rises, in women and in men, humanity will come to accept that God is a sacred and magical blend of the yin and the yang, the feminine and the masculine, that reflects the divine attributes of Mother/Father God. And during the coming times, partners in loving union will seek the same makeup and balance within their relationships because it will feel right in their hearts.
It is plain to see that over the ages there have been many different ways to define the nature of God. Interestingly, knowing whether God does or doesn't exist, and what this God is or is not about, are the most important questions we can ask ourselves. And yet, for some divinely perfect reason while we are here on Earth, God's definition and existence remains mysterious yet tangible, unresolved but knowable to some degree. It's as though we are trying to grab at the wind while at the same time trying to hold on to it. There must be good reason and purpose for this. And there is.
Advanced souls such as Mother Teresa, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Sai Baba, and the like cannot prove the existence of God to you or anyone else. Nor can they fully define the nature of All That Is. For divine reason, it will always be this way.
All of us here in physical body are left with one choice: to search, experience and feel God on an individual level. Then, if we choose to, we can try to put it into words. But those words will not be adequate to describe the profound inner experience it was meant to be. Nor will they be fully understandable to those who read them.
It seems that each and every created soul has his or her own idea of what God is and isn't. As we evolve through eternity with our Creator, each of us will be revising and expanding our definition of All That Is on an ongoing basis. That image will change with new information, experiences, and the feelings that derive from them. And that is okay in God's eyes. In fact, it was meant to be that way. But, one thing will not change through it all: God's unconditional love for us.
Once again, the reader should take all of this to her or his heart and see what feels right.
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"I am the Presence where there is no time but the eternal now. I am Alpha and Omega, the source of all beginnings and the completion of all cycles… I love because I AM"
~ Given to Ken Carey by God
Vision