We each enjoy the same divine spiritual presence of the Universal God and we may each experience intimate, personal communion with this presence, we may all equally accept the spiritual guidance offered by this presence. God's relation to the individual is such that he is personally concerned with your ability to approach him. So concerned is he that he has placed a forever present fragment of himself, his divine spiritual presence, with you.
When we close our hearts and lose our desire to know and be like God, then and only then, does man lose his power to choose, thus sealing his fate. Likewise, when man chooses of his own free will to know and be like God is his eternal destiny proclaimed throughout the universe.
It's difficult not to speak about God in majestic language, perhaps people would be more accepting of these truths if it didn't sound so lofty, but truth be told – God and our relationship to God is truly awesome and majestic!
The degree to which people understand is directly related to their attention to the doing of divine will. Divine will suggests progress, progress toward perfection.
We do not merely exist to survive in some form of cloud level consciousness, harp and all; we exist by the will of the Universal Creator for the purpose of living dynamically and experientially, and with a plan for our future.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jer 29:11 (NIV)
All predicated on the divine and human will and action. God has done his part; it's up to you to do yours. Service to humanity creates the experience necessary to bring about progress toward perfection. Perfection, obtained at some future point, releases us to begin a new adventure. Being created in the image of God, we are already perfect, it's on the realization of this that needs developing.
Human existence is a test. Our task is to handle ourselves well in situations that require a developed sense of understanding and knowledge; situations that entail ethics, morality, reason and spirituality. This is our religion. The life lived by Jesus is our example! Our response to our humanity is the purpose of our humanity. Whether we pass or fail is our choice. We already have the tools and the talent to pass. Your unique personality is a gift of God, it is cared for by God, and its destiny is the bosom of God.
The psychology of religion attempts to understand religious experience, but material mind cannot fully understand that which is totally spiritual. We know that if we play a certain sequence of notes together on a musical instrument, it can be harmonious and beautiful, but we do not know why that is so.
Our religious experiences, beautiful as they may seem, are subject to intelligent criticism and reasonable philosophic analysis. The same divine uniform message is shared with everyone; it is our interpretations that tend to divide or differentiate us. Let us practice our interpretations, like one practices playing an instrument, until we hear beautiful and harmonious music. Too much intellect, education, culture and social status will not interfere with your ability to make this beautiful and harmonious music!
You can experience God now, God is a presence in your life, a presence you can feel every day and every moment. You are indwelt with the presence of God. God is spirit, he is in everything.
From the Urantia Book:
Our Father is not in hiding; he is not in arbitrary seclusion. He has mobilized the resources of divine wisdom in a never-ending effort to reveal himself to the children of his universal domains. There is an infinite grandeur and an inexpressible generosity connected with the majesty of his love which causes him to yearn for the association of every created being who can comprehend, love, or approach him; and it is, therefore, the limitations inherent in you, inseparable from your finite personality and material existence, that determine the time and place and circumstances in which you may achieve the goal of the journey of mortal ascension and stand in the presence of the Father at the center of all things. Paper 5.1.2
Action:
Meditation on God's Relation to the Individual - from the Urantia Book
The universe of universes is the work of God and the dwelling place of his diverse creatures. God is everywhere present; the Universal Father rules the circle of eternity.
God is not the mere invention of man's idealism; he is the very source of all such super-animal insights and values. The existence of God can never be proved by scientific experiment or by the pure reason of logical deduction. God can be realized only in the realms of human experience…
God is not only the determiner of destiny; he is man's eternal destination.
Jesus said: "The world is filled with hungry souls who famish in the very presence of the bread of life…." "...men die searching for the very God who lives within them." "Man goes forth searching for a friend while that very friend lives within his own heart." "The true God is not afar off; he is a part of us; his spirit speaks from within us."
When man walks in partnership with God, great things may, and do, happen. God is inherently kind, naturally compassionate, and everlastingly merciful. And never is it necessary that any influence by brought to bear upon the Father to call forth his loving-kindness.
….the love of God is an intelligent and farseeing parental affection. The brotherhood of men is founded on the fatherhood of God. The family of God is derived from the love of God. God is love. God the Father divinely loves his children, all of them. God loves each individual as an individual child in the heavenly family.
All true love is from God, and man receives the divine affection as he himself bestows this love upon his fellows.
Men all too often forget that God is the greatest experience in human existence.
Of God, the most inescapable of all presences, the most real of all facts, the most living of all truths, the most loving of all friends and the most divine of all values, we have the right to be the most certain of all universe experiences.
Even so, may it be….Amen
References:
Sources used for this presentation
The Bible (NIV) and the Urantia Book - Paper 5 and assorted quotations throughout
If you could create love in your life simply by choosing right actions, would you? If you knew that your negative actions and reactions were the cause of your pain and misery, would you stop?
