Equality with God is NOT to be grasped!
One thing I do like about the inquisitive atheist or person desiring to believe is their challenge to push me to express what I really believe, and it is where some of my best NOTES/writings/blogs come from.
I was asked to “PROVE GOD” in the group “Bible Study” over at Google Plus - https://plus.google.com/u/0/+GeorgeBratcherIII/posts/igVh292bHUB?fscid=z124hl2oxnvfyrabt04cfzj4xlaac1bqeng0k.1538722568625311
You can follow the conversation of statement, question, answer, more questions, answers, till we arrive at:
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AdamSmasher's Time
+George Bratcher The Big Bang is scientifically proven, a god is not.
And so we end up at my REPLY which is TOO LONG for a comment in Google Plus in Bible Study and so the LINK to this reply will be left there, but here is the REPLY I composed in response:
+AdamSmasher's Time The Big Bang is still a theory because no one was there to see it, but we believe by deductive reasoning it is so.
Basically, nothing would change for you beyond sharing what you already know is true about the Shroud of Turin - How did NASA’s trip to Mars with the Mariner 9 satellite in 1971 lead to the formation of the Shroud of Turin Research Project? - https://haqodeshim.blogspot.com/2020/11/how-did-nasas-trip-to-mars-with-mariner.html
Basically, mankind in wanting a proof of God is mankind wanting control over the creator, and the first Star Trek: The Motion Picture addressed this concept when the modified Voyager Probe wanted to become ONE with the creator - man.
In the Garden of Eden was set up a testing of this newly created intelligence called Man or translated from the Hebrew "The Earthling" - masculine for Adam, feminine for Eve. Neither one, but the two together were an "image of God."
The mistake they made in the garden was first doubting God when Lucifer tempted them to, next was assuming they could be equal with God, which even Paul addresses:
'In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. '
Philippians 2:5-11
https://my.bible.com/bible/111/PHP.2.5-11
'So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being” ; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.
I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.'
1 Corinthians 15:45-58
https://my.bible.com/bible/111/1CO.15.45-58
The last mistake of Adam and Eve was actually going through with the temptation to doubt and partake of the knowledge of the tree of good and evil:
Myself, I believe that when Adam and Eve sinned, and their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked, it was more than just childish shame or embarrassment. I think for the first time, they saw what it was to see their existence with them at the Center of it instead of God. Inadequate was the great cry that came forth.
When I see people today, smoking to relieve stress, chasing after every sinful vice to relieve stress. When I see a world that is sold on its insecurities and markets them to others, then I see the children of Adam and Eve. They may wear clothes, but they don't realize that they still comprehend their nakedness - their existence without God at the Center, and instead of peace, all one finds is fear. Too often I find it in the Church too, when people are focused on their selfish needs, instead of having a servants heart that goes out into the Highways and Byways of life, to seek the lost. The Greek for the Church literally means "The Called Out Ones" and yet for too many people it has become a place of fortification instead of rescue and Sabbath (Hebrew for rest)!
For me, at times, that peace seems hard to come by. Too many times, I am standing in the Center of my Life, instead of allowing God to be Front and Center. However, in times, of prayer and meditation, it seems as though I could face anything and not be afraid. But in a world that demands so much of my time, the challenge is to let God be God in other people as well, and to avoid the temptation to try to play Messiah, and be everything when I cannot.
I've seen too many a well-meaning Christian and Minister make that mistake, and soon they are tired, they are worn out, they are stressed out, they are feeling naked, and soon they are falling right back into the very sin they were cursed with at birth.
Being born again is a daily ritual. Every day I have to die out, and Christ has to live anew. If not, soon, I am running around naked and powerless and wanting to find some way to hide from it!
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." - John 15:5
https://haqodeshim.blogspot.com/2020/11/re-reinterpretation-of-original-sin.html
In Star Trek, not only do you have the V'yger analogy from the Motion Picture, but by Star Trek: TNG you are introduced to "Q" and in an episode where "Q" tempts William Riker to join the "Q" William Riker finds out he lacks the wisdom to wield the power of the "Q" and gives it up.
When I was 10 years old I came into a salvation experience with God, and life was wonderful. I didn't see why anyone did not want to get saved and walk and talk with God and worship Him daily. Then at age 11, I began to be bullied in the public school system and was told unwisely by my Mother to "not fight back" which made things worse, because instead of having to confront one bully, now every one of them in the school shows up to bully and beat up on you, and on top of that a nearby strip mining company began using 10X the legal amount of dynamite endangering my family's life on several occasions. One day a siren went off before they set off a blast within 100 yards of our property, and the blast went off, and a mushroom cloud of dirt and debris went into the sky and rocks and chunks of earth the size of a laundry basket began to fall from the sky and bury themselves in our front yard. We had just stepped onto the porch and were lucky none hit the house.
So not only did I have the normal stresses of adolescence of having to deal with a child's body maturing into a young adult's body in puberty, I had bullying and now I had to fear for my own life and wonder if I came home if my home and parents would still be there with the reckless behavior at the hands of the coal company, and no one cared. My parents called the Sheriff's office and asked if anyone was hurt, and when they said no, they said they could do nothing about it. When my parents called about my being bullied in school, they asked if I had been killed, and when my parents said no, they said they could do nothing about it.
So by age 12, the spirit of doubt, Lucifer himself, comes to me and puts the thought into my head that maybe God isn't real, maybe God is just an idea in my head. For the first time in my life after thinking that thought and giving into it, that night when I go to bed I am attacked by demons in my sleep trying to suffocate me, and I struggle to say while being choked, "GOD!" crying out for help and then they are gone, with the Holy Spirit showing up and pushing them away as though they are feathers and dust, whereas before I cannot move them and am being suffocated by them.
Now I had no doubt God was real because I just experienced an attack by demons, and I had only heard about them in the Bible, it is not like I went out seeking them or behaving badly enough to attract them. However, since I knew they were real, I could not doubt God, but I would struggle to believe that God really loved me when all these bad things were happening, until at age 15 I was in a car wreck, and realized had I died, I was so far from God I would end up in Hell, so two weeks later at a youth revival, I gave my whole heart back to God in repentance as a prodigal and never looked back, never thought about continuing the journey without God, but there would be times where when exposed to liberal scholastic theology, my mind would come into doubt about God, and guess who showed back up, demonic attacks in my sleep at night.
What the TWEEN minor I was did not realize, is DOUBT is what enabled Satan to attack Adam and Eve after sin entered the picture, because before that he had no authority over them, because God was at the center.
I never realized it was doubt that gave them the power to attack me at various times in my life when I suffered from it. The Pentecostal Christians had taught me to learn to say in my visions in my dreams when it happened, or when I felt Satan's evil presence when awake, "I rebuke you in the name of Jesus and by the power of his blood!" And it worked everytime provided I had repented of sin in my life first.
Then 10 years ago my cousin who grew up with me kills himself. He went into the US Army for 4 years and after leaving for the next 11 years he would call me 3 times a week just to talk. My siblings only call when they need something having a half-brother and half-sister through my Vietnam Veteran step-Father who married Mom when I was 1.5 years old after my Father was killed by a drunk driver in Alaska the same day his orders came for him in the mail to leave for Vietnam.
My cousin was abandoned at age 8 along with his 6-year-old sister and 3-year-old brother, left at our home in KY after an eviction in NC, with the promise one of the parents would return to get them but neither did.
The reason he called all the time is he missed the fellowship he had with our family growing up, something he had not had before arriving.
When he died, it sent me into a great depression, being devastated that the voice that spoke to me three times a week on the phone just wanting fellowship, never asking for anything, was now gone. Also at age 12 when all hell was breaking loose in my life, I had considered taking my own life, and only my love for my parents stopped me, because I knew it would hurt them.
Now I am 40 when he died in 2008 and it's not just him killing himself, but so many other things going wrong in life from jobs and careers being robbed from me from corrupt management, to a failed 7 year relationship with a woman I loved and wanted to marry and who left me, to being set back financially, to a worsening economy which made everything more expenses, jobs paying less, and not able to get on top of debt because of it. It wasn't just his death, but it was the ONE final pile of metaphorical dirt and misery that was just too much and sent me into a 5-year depression that I had to pray my way out of.
During that time, I had the same spirit of depression that came against me at age 12, come back, and this time with 7 more unclean spirits worse than itself, and one day it is telling me that my life is over and to just kill myself.
I had studied the stages of grief in regards to the critically ill and dealing with the loss of a loved one, but I had also studied ministering to people who suffered a suicide within the family while in Pastoral Ministries in College. So I knew it was common after a suicide for members of the immediate family member and even close friends to also commit suicide in response, but now I wasn't just reading about it, I was experiencing it and seeing what the books of learning missed, the spiritual aspect that would drive one to it.
So I say out loud, so I can hear myself say it, "I am not going to kill myself, because YOU want me to and YOU are NOT GOD!"
A year into that depression I am attending Church and a group Bible Study and in both the sermon and the study we are reading ACTS 4- https://my.bible.com/bible/111/ACT.4.NIV where after being persecuted the disciples pray for a greater infilling of the Holy Spirit and the place where they were meeting was shaken.
So I come home that night, and pray the same prayer and go to bed.
I am asleep and in a vision, I am walking down this old cobblestone road like one might see in Eastern Europe or Russia where modern farming does not exist, and the fields are weathered as though winter has come but no snow yet. As I am walking I come to a fork in the cobblestone road which seems to be composed of almost limestone-like stones almost desert sand in color. I walk towards an outdoor fireplace, like one might use in a public park like at Percy Warner Park in Nashville, but instead of red brick it is composed of the same desert sand color and with no insert for a fireplace or flue, but with a mantle on the bottom and a backing with no chimney flue.
On the mantle sits three decorative elves or gnomes dressed in almost blood-red uniforms and grey beards and pale desert sand skin, but when I look into the coal-black eyes of these doll-like creatures, they begin to move and I realize in the vision I have run into 3 demons because you feel the evil within in them and their hatred for you and God and they have lured me into a corner at the crossroads, and I begin to say what the Pentecostals taught me, but as I begin to speak, instead of my own voice, out comes a voice as of many rivers and it also has light/energy coming out of my mouth and it is full of righteous anger and wrath and then it strikes the three demons erasing them from existence.
I am instantly not afraid in deep reverence and awe. I am 41 when this happens in 2009 and so from the time demons first attacked me in my sleep at age 12 in 1980, for 29 years this has never happened. In my early visions they appeared as creatures with the body of a bear and the head of a man, almost big-foot like, and in later visions, Satan himself showed up with light wrapped around him, like the creatures in the Predator movies who could cloak themselves, and over time I realize they are shapeshifters, so they can appear in many forms, even had one of a bull with a body like a man speaks to me and it made me sick. The next day I go to meet with a friend to meet his in-laws who are from India and who are practicing Hindus in 1997, and when he introduces me as his Christian friend who is a preacher, his Mother-in-law begins screaming and she and her husband and son all leave my presence physically ill and sick and go outside and refuse to come back inside near me, the very opposite of my experience in the vision. When the demons in their lives encountered the Holy Spirit in mine, it made them sick, not me sick like in the vision. They kept a good distance of even 20 feet from me when I left, because they would not go back into my friend’s home as long as I was there. His wife had become a Christian and we had all attended college together and graduated Trevecca together some 5 years prior, and while his wife never behaved this way around me, her parents and brother did. It is one of those experiences I would not believe if I had not experienced it myself. These are not primitive backwards people from India, but the in-laws of my friend as husband and wife teach at Universities in Eastern Tennesse and their son is just a smart with advanced degrees, but they are all practicing Hindus at the same time, and yet they could not stand to be in my presence when my friend told them who I was.
So going back to this vision in 2009, the demons show up as elf-gnome like doll creatures, but no matter what form they make you feel their evil and their hatred of you and God. But then God shows up in me in the vision and speaks through me and they are gone, destroyed, no more.
When I awoke from the vision where the heavenly tongue came out of my mouth and destroyed the demons, I realized this was just not a heavenly tongue as Paul speaks of in his epistles, but I realized it was not ME who was speaking, because I could never replicate those sounds when awake nor cause light/energy to come out of my mouth like a widespread of lightning, but that this was the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ within me, the WORD that was "in the beginning" that created everything in Genesis, and I realized the same voice that could create the universe could also destroy.
I realized this was God's power, and that while God could use it through me, it was not mine to use as I please. I realized why equality with God is not something to be grasped, because I can't even comprehend how to use such power if I was given the ability to possess it.
Shoot, I realize what a poor god I make when I accidentally have burned myself on freshly welded metal I have mishandled on the assembly line, or one time when we were without a tap to fix nuts that bolts could not go through, I found a tool and cut the tap welded to it off, so I could have it re-welded to a socket piece to use in the power drill and after cutting it off with the grinding stone wheel, I made the mistake of picking it up at the end I had just grinded and burned my fingers and dropped it immediately.
I can barely handle human technology without hurting myself, I don't know what I would do with Godly Spiritual Technology and Power I do NOT even understand or comprehend.
So I see why God cannot let a sinful man into heaven apart from imparting the Holy Spirit to man in salvation after repentance of desiring to be one's own god and being willing to walk and learn with the Eternal God as was the original design before Satan brought doubt and sin into the picture.
So beyond the evidence presented in the Shroud of Turin which Jesus left us, there will never be a point in your life where you will grasp and prove God and hence get access to wield Mjolnir or WHY you can't wield the fire as Nietzsche would have you believe. or anything else that is of God's purview when it comes to His power:
'Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.
When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”
Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”
After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages. ' Acts 8:9-25 https://my.bible.com/bible/111/ACT.8.9-25
Original NOTE/BLOG from October 5, 2018, along with comments can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/notes/10224341745320317/?comment_id=10220095191519126 I have migrated over here to Google Blogger since Facebook has removed NOTES in a list from Profiles & who knows when they shall outright just delete them.
