If I Were Going to Pray 2

If I were going to pray, I would have to believe (as I said in part 1) that something was there to hear me which was powerful to effect change. What is the point of praying if there isn't? Well, there are a lot of evidences that there is something in the twain, as I was calling it--supernatural occurrences, visitations, psychic phenomena, ESP, synchronicities, etc.. There are testimonies galore. Neville Goddard put forth that this element can be tested, experimented with. "Why not test it?" he asked, "It costs nothing, not one thin dime, to see if it is true."

That said, one then has to consider what it is that is being prayed to, and the respect that is due it. In 1975, I went forward and accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, because I was quite certain that the Bible was true history and that Jesus, whatever he was (and is), was conscious of me and powerful in this dimension. Subsequently, I asked for the gift of tongues. Nothing happened. To make a long, already told story short, I found that I had not so respected God, whatever It be, as to thoroughly submit to It. I had disregarded the natural superiority of "what is in the twain" and had retained self-lordship. Big mistake.

Whatever It is, the medium and power that is God is greater than us. Though I believe that we are It "ignoranced," we are ignoranced and wholly subject to It. I take the verse, "The fear of YHWH (God's action) is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10), to mean exactly that: fear that thing, for that is smart. That "Thing" is capable of rolling not only you and I but also this planet, the solar system, even the entire Milky Way Galaxy between Its fingers like a bugger and flicking us off into oblivion. Were It to want to. You have to respect power like that.

You have to respect, too, that Its power isn’t used that way. There is character expressed in its non-use. It expresses some kind of patience and intent, that we are making progress, and given time we may come around. Come around to what? To that character. Maybe we are supposed to have the twain’s character, supposed to cultivate and adopt Its attitudes: long-suffering (putting up with contradiction), patience, kindness, mercy, grace, forgiveness, faith, hope, love. If I were going to pray, I would want to take this character with me as my character, and I would go in with a lot of respect for the One of Whom this character is Its nature.

If I Were Going to Pray 1

This is a long discussion on a simple point: If I were going to pray, I would have to believe that there was something to hear my request and which could then make an effect.

Ernest Holmes said in Living the Science of Mind (p.130) that Exodus 3:14's "I AM THAT WHICH I AM," means "I am the Eternal Presence of your own self--there is no mediator between you and Myself but your own thought." That is what prayer is: prayer is our own thought mediating between ourselves and our Eternal Presence, whatever that is, toward whatever we shall become.

The Bible says to make our requests known. A leper came and fell before Jesus saying, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." I believe that Jesus is a euphemism for YHWH, "God," the action of the Presence's nature and principles. Its nature is action. And God said, "I am willing, be cleansed." And the leper was healed.

I was at a Charismatic Clinic at Melodyland Christian Center in the 1970's, and Charles Hunter, the speaker that evening, had everyone individually compare the length of their limbs. I found that my right arm was a good half-inch or so longer than my left arm. No wonder my shirt cuffs always rode higher and bound on my right wrist. I had been tugging at my right sleeves for years. Charles asked those with mismatched limbs to hold them out and to hold still. And then he asked Jesus to make them all the correct length. I watched--watched!!--my left arm grow out that half-inch or so. Hunter just asked, made his request known to that which he believed was listening and could make an effect, and my arm grew out (as did many other arms and legs at the same time).

It was a simple request when I hurt my back in 1980, too. After some wonderful chiropractic treatment by the Gregory brothers in Honolulu, Hawaii, I was at least able to walk. I got to my church and the elders laid their hands on my back. I believe it was Vern who said, "Jesus, let our hands be Your hand." And my back was healed at that instant, just as my arm had grown out in the instant Charles Hunter had made his request known.

On a peaceful night a few years ago I was mentally tripping on the fact that everything is a manifestation of the Ineffable's intelligence. I had been learning about double-slit experiments, wherein power enters as wave light and becomes--!!!--particulate light upon observation. I had already heard that in scientific experiments photons and quantum particles exhibited the ability to learn, that they were intelligent. I suddenly realized that all of myself and all around me was the manifestation of Intelligence itself. Lying down to sleep with my mind thoroughly boggled with this realization, I said to the Intelligence regarding my throbbing neck and left shoulder area, "You can heal me." The pain went away that instant. I mean like you turn a light off. It was just gone.

To pray, we must assume that there is something effective in and/or beyond the electromagnetic ether between everything, else how could prayer work? Our thought request has to go beyond the corporal body as a transmitted wave, a power, or a sound. Even if God is within us to hear us, he has to think and exercise power effectually OVER THERE. There has to be something in the twain: spirit, mind, power, electromagnetic force, consciousness, imagination--God. I do not know what It is, but I know--KNOW!!--that It is. To pray, I must believe that it hears me just as my imagination does, and can and will reward my belief in it.

Even if I were an atheist advocate of the Law of Attraction believing that my own psychic soul vibration is going to attract like vibrations with no external director or coordinator, I would have to believe there is something in the twain conveying the vibrations (and, if I saw deliberateness of action, I'd very seriously reconsider my atheism).

I prefer to think of state assumption, that the intelligence which is my assumed world responds to my perceptions of it--mental states manifesting from my assumptions--and that everything that is "manifestly real" in it . . . isn't, except to itself. What is in the "twain" and in the manifestation itself is nothing but the imagination of an Ineffable being. But that is just me.

So, if I were going to pray, I would have to believe that there is something there that is going to have an effect . . . to my affect.

Stephen

One of the oddest turns of events I have ever encountered:

I received a comment from Stephen which appears to have been written more than three and a half years ago. It was perhaps sent now by mistake. I recognized its theology immediately from his comments in 2015:

https://imagicworldview.blogspot.com/2013/02/victor-alexander-and-maryah-controversy.html?showComment=1535046616037#c7613559945279131074

https://imagicworldview.blogspot.com/2012/08/how-to-think-right-biblically.html?showComment=1421054005361#c4283879330539200453

“I have to ask if you've died into the Baptism of His Death and Risen in New Life...to say 'we are all God' would be The Lie of Satan. The Serpent said: "You will not surely die, for God' Knows that if you do you will be as God,Knowing Good and Evil"...And The LORD GOD said: Now they are as Us,Knowing Good and Evil..and cannot eat of the Tree of Life, lest they live forever". We know from Paul that 'we' (In Christ who have been 'born from above' and have been translated into the Kingdom of His Son in Love...make up the Body of Christ..if we ARE God..we would have Always existed in Eternity...that in a sense could be True, but Only IN His Mind..for we had to to come into Being...if we are God, how could we worship Him? We'd be worshiping ourselves. Apart from that, much of the first things you wrote sounded quite relate able.”
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Stephen,

Your comment is wrong in so many ways and on so many levels I cannot spend my retirement trying to answer it. You cannot have been reading my blog for nearly four years and be asking this now. You got Alexander’s New Testament, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. You need to get his Exodus and Genesis. Maybe it is a little late to get his Old Testament Scriptures, which have Isaiah and Jeremiah again and some of the minor prophets. I am not sure it has his Proverbs. You are in for a surprise if you do get them, for you will find that the version you quote above (which does not seem to exist in any version I have ever seen) is a statement of the translators’ theology and has nothing to do with the scriptures themselves! You are not quoting the Bible and your ideas have nothing to do with what it is about.

Your greatest error is in division, the separation of Creation from the Ineffable. I know our philosophy says He created everything ex nihilo. He is the nihilo! Creation is by His imagination.

God Says in Exodus 3:14, "Imagination is My Becoming": Move It to the End

God has an end in mind, with "mind" being the operative word. The Ineffable is becoming. Jethro is Its end.

The Ineffable, whatever it be, is intelligent. It has consciousness. It imagines. It thinks. And Its imagination is, I repeat: is, Its becoming. The Ineffable’s imagination is Its manifestation: the manifestation of the Ineffable is Its imagination. There is nothing else in the universe. The Ineffable we cannot know, but Its imagination we can, for we are that.

We are a point along the way in the development of the Ineffable’s imagination. The Ineffable's imagination is becoming the full manifestation of the Ineffable. It isn't there yet.

Ferrar Fenton translated the Lord's Prayer of Matthew 6 along these lines:

The hallowing of Its nature, the restoration of Its kingdom, and Its will, MUST BE BEING DONE.

That is a standing order. Because It is becoming, pray toward that end. Help It to become.

The end is the full, complete, and probably never-ending manifestation of the Ineffable. That is ever better than the present. This is ever changing, constantly in motion, becoming and expiring, and we are commanded to pray to move it toward the end. To what end? To anything and everything better than this. And we are to do this not for things to be had, but for us to become more like It.

This whole thing is a self-improvement program; it is the Ineffable's self-improvement program. It wants us not just to have things, but to be ever more like It. Every thing that can ever be is in that!

We, the "I" in each of us, are the Ineffable becoming manifest. It becomes manifest in and through us. Pray that It become manifest in and through you and your loved ones as that which you desire. Love everyone, and imagine them (and yourself) as the Ineffable manifest more fully and complete than It is right now. You are that. This is, I believe, the meaning of Exodus 3:14, "Ahiyeh Ashur hiyeh," according to Victor Alexander's translation from the ancient Aramaic. His notes on the verse say:

3:14 Lit. Aramaic: (1) "Ahiyeh": "the One Who Comes in His Coming," the absolute sense of "the One Who Comes." (2) "Ashur": "the Beginning Spark that kindles the Fire" or "the Light." (3) "Hiyeh": "His Coming." (4) "Ahiyeh" and "hiyeh" are related forms of the same word. They mean more than "the Coming." They signify also the "Eternal Presence," "the Ever-Present," and the "Never Ceasing Intent of the Comer to Come." (5) In the same way, "Ashur" signifies "the Uncreated Creator who Creates Everything from Nothing." (6) Also, "Ashur" signifies: "Above-the-Flames."

So, it God who is becoming; imagination by which It is becoming; and Jethro is what it is becoming. I believe this can be stated as: "Imagination is My Becoming,” or perhaps, “My imagination is my manifestation.” And we are charged to so pray. To imagine!

Here is an interesting essay I recently found on the Internet:

Why Pray if God Has Already Decided Everything?
(https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-pray-if-god-has-already-determined-everything/)
MAY 1, 2017 | Paul Rezkalla
Why should we pray if God has fixed the future? If God has predetermined every event, how do we reconcile that fact with the power of prayer to actually change things (James 5:16)?

The answer is found in a right understanding of God’s providential determination.

Determinism ≠ Fatalism
It’s important to distinguish between determinism and fatalism. Most Calvinists believe in a form of determinism—that is, God has determined every single event. At each moment there is only one possible future: the future God has determined. This is not to be confused with fatalism. Fatalism is the view that our choices don’t affect the future. Some Christians, both Calvinists and non-Calvinists, think of God’s providence in this incorrect way: “If God has determined every future event, then my choices don’t affect the future.”

Fatalism is both philosophically and theologically impoverished. It holds that God fixes some, but not all, future events in place.

Suppose God has determined to heal Sally of cancer three months from now; it will happen and cannot fail to happen. The event is fixed. But so is every other event leading up to that moment—including the prayers offered on Sally’s behalf.

God not only ordains ends, he also ordains means. He plans the destination and the entire journey to get there. When God determined that Christ would die on the cross, he also determined the means by which he was killed, the means by which he was delivered to the authorities, and the means by which he was betrayed. God governs all events in his universe—including the “small” ones leading up to the “big” ones.

What happens in the future, then, does depend on what we do and pray in the present.

Prayer Changes the Future
Some things have happened only because they were prayed for; they would not have happened if they were not prayed for.

In both Scripture and our experience, God responds to prayer. Moses prayed for food and water for the Israelites (Exod. 15 and Num. 11), Hannah prayed for a child (1 Sam. 1), and Elijah prayed for drought and then rain (1 Kgs. 18–19). The events God had already determined came to pass. But God also determined that Moses, Hannah, and Elijah would pray for those events, such that the events would not have taken place if they did not pray for them. Sam Storms puts it well: “We must never presume God will grant us apart from prayer what he has ordained to grant us only by means of prayer.”

To say we don’t need to pray because God has determined all outcomes is as ridiculous as saying we don’t need to take medicine, work for a living, or look for a spouse because God has determined all outcomes. It is true God has determined all outcomes, but God has also determined the means by which those outcomes will take place.

If God has determined a woman will be healed of cancer, then he has also determined the prayers on her behalf, not to mention the birth of the oncologists who would operate on her and the opening of a medical school in the region. Prayers are one of the many means God determines.

God Ordains Our Prayers
Similarly, if God has determined that Sally will decide to follow Christ in 2017, then he has also determined the births of the people who will share the gospel with her and the prayers offered on her behalf. As C. S. Lewis explains:

The event [in question] has already been decided—in a sense it was decided “before all worlds.” But one of the things taken into account in deciding it, and therefore one of the things that really cause it to happen, may be this very prayer that we are now offering. . . . My free act [of prayer] contributes to the cosmic shape. That contribution is made in eternity or “before all worlds”; but my consciousness of contributing reaches me at a particular point in the time-series.

Again, God determines both the ends and the means, including the prayers we offer. And he’s ordained his interventions to be in response to faith-fueled petitions.

Put simply, God gives us the privilege of including us in his work.

If your understanding of God’s providence leads you to pray less, then you need to rethink your understanding of God’s providence. There are events that will not happen, souls that will not be saved, and relationships that will not be restored unless we pray for them. Our prayers make things happen.

That insight alone should bring us to our knees.

Paul Rezkalla is pursuing a PhD in philosophy at Florida State University and attends Four Oaks Community Church in Tallahassee. He completed an MA in philosophy and ethics at the University of Birmingham in England and an MA in theology at St. John's University in New York City.
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We are the manifestation of God. Part of Its action, anyway. It is in the process of becoming, and obviously is not done yet. The far side, the “end,” is Jethro. Jethro is "His Excellence." Yes, we are not as excellent as It is yet, but It wants us to become so. Pray to become God's Excellence. He'll take care of the things.

When Abraham offered Isaac, Isaac asked him where the sacrifice was. Abraham indicated that God would provide himself the ram. Abraham passed the test, God provided the ram, and Abraham said the nature of the land was Jehovah Jireh (YHWH Provides). What I am getting at is that in my reading of this passage, God provided himself as Abraham's improvement. "He will provide himself the ram." That is us . . . toward Jethro.

We recently heard from Tom Medwin whose daughter nearly died of appendicitis. Tom and his family prayed for her life. Then they prayed for his father's life. Tom prayed for own his financial life. Not for things, but for changes in them toward Jethro, the life of the end. The theology of It is the technique. When it works, "you have found Him, God, to be your own, wonderful, human imagination.”

Wat’s Books

I am reminded that a seminary student’s main purchases are books on the languages: concordances, lexicons, and commentaries. I mentioned to Wat that I use Bullinger’s Companion Bible (KJV) and Alexander’s translations from the ancient Aramaic. I cross reference these with the Stone Tanach, Young’s Literal Translation of the Bible, and Herb Jahn’s Exegeses Parallel Bible. My shelves of other versions, commentaries, and lexicons generally go unused.

I find more useful now books on the context rather than the language of scripture. Gerald Massey’s Ancient Egypt, Light of the World, Thomas Thompson’s The Mythic Past, Rehnborg’s Jesus and the New Age of Faith, and Freke and Gandy’s The Jesus Mysteries shed light on the people’s minds back then. My favorite books are listed in my blog’s Complete Profile, the button to the right and down a bit. Cooper’s God is a Verb is a must! Take everything with a grain of salt. You can do that, can’t you? Learn the history, learn the context, and then look at the language. Oh my! It is saying something different now, isn’t it? Now you read Neville Goddard and Joseph Murphy and Ernest Holmes, and they all make sense, for the whole Bible isn’t what you thought it was.

The books I use are now pretty expensive and in some cases not even available. I have been blessed to get them, but there are many others which cover the same ground, and now there is the Internet. Just don’t read gullible to what anyone says. My affection for Neville and Rehnborg has to do with personal history—I passed the Drake often while Neville was lecturing there, but never ventured to go inside; and I spent much time in the Whittier, Buena Park area and might have passed Rehnborg on the streets, in the market, at the beach. He looks very familiar. Missed opportunities. Learn what the authors were talking about, then read what they said. They were not talking about the words, but the real life they were in: the Milta. Keep it ever in your mind.

Learning to Read

I entertain Wat’s questions because I had them before. We can skim through reams of written material a mile a minute, scan for key words, speed read through tomes in nothing flat, and yet we plug through theology at maybe four words a minute if we’re lucky. The stuff needs to be read and wrestled with because it does not mean what it says. Well, let me clarify that: the authors of scripture meant what they said, but they did not say what they meant. They were describing psychological and spiritual literals in figurative and symbolic speech. Mix in a half dozen different languages and thousands of years of differing cultural influences, wars, politics, conquests, and slavery--and yeah, you can average maybe four words a minute if you are lucky. Reading theology is wrestling.

I stand corrected on my last post to Wat. I had not bothered to pull out my New Englishman's Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance. Strong’s 974 bachan is translated in several places as prove, try, and examine. 5254 nacah is translated as prove, assay, try, adventure, and tempt. Nacah is the word used in Genesis 22:1 and is translated as 'tempt' in the King James. In Victor Alexander's translation of the ancient Aramaic, it is 'test.' Wat wants to know why it clearly says God tested/tempted Abraham, and James 1:13-15 says God tests/tempts no man. Is there a mistranslation?

The King James New Testament is translated from Greek, so we really cannot infer any mistranslation of the Hebrew into English when an entirely different language was used. The Greek word in James is peirazo, Strong's Greek Dictionary #3985. I'll let you look up the definition and translations of this word on your own. Basically it means to pierce something to check it out. But here is the thing: none of this word study stuff amounts to a hill of beans. The languages are loose enough that you could "prove" anything by them. The actual comparison of Genesis 22:1 and James 1:13-15 is to be made by looking at the contexts of each situation. As there are tests to prove faith by God throughout the Bible--about ten of them involving Abraham in the Book of Genesis alone--let's throw out the idea that God does not test man.

James, on the other hand, is talking to people being carried away with their own desires. It is their own unbridled passions and evil urges which rise within them that tempt them. Such appetites arise from their amnesia-darkened minds--God had nothing to do with it. He was not tempting them. He cannot be tempted like that, nor does he tempt man in this manner. You are desirous? Don't blame God for having put it on you.

The name Abraham means Merciful Father (Av-ra-him: the Father is Merciful, James 2:23 Alexander), and as such we are the fathers of many peoples. Abraham spent years preaching the nature of the covenant God to the Philistines. As a missionary he had integrity which God further tested, for it is one thing to preach it, and another thing to do it. James, which is Greek for Jacob, was preaching to converting Jews who hadn’t the development of integrity yet. They were swayed to and fro by the things which they desired, the things which tempt us. James was pointing out their need to refine their character. Which reminds me of The Great Learning of Confucius. Can you read this?


"The Dao of Great Learning lies in making bright virtue brilliant; in making the people new; in coming to rest at the limit of the good.

"Only after wisdom comes to rest does one possess certainty; only after one possesses certainty can one become tranquil; only after one becomes tranquil can one become secure; only after one becomes secure can one contemplate alternatives; only after one can contemplate alternatives can one comprehend.

"Affairs have their roots and branches, situations have their ends and beginnings. To know what comes first and what comes after is to be near the Dao.

"In ancient times, those who wished to make bright virtue brilliant in the world first ordered their states; those who wished to order their states first aligned their households; those who wished to align their households first refined their persons; those who wished to refine their persons first balanced their minds; those who wished to balance their minds first perfected the genuineness of their intentions; those who wished to perfect the genuineness of their intentions first extended their understanding; extending one’s understanding lies in aligning affairs.

"Only after affairs have been aligned may one’s understanding be fully extended. Only after one’s understanding is fully extended may one’s intentions be perfectly genuine. Only after one’s intentions are perfectly genuine may one’s mind be balanced. Only after one’s mind is balanced may one’s person be refined. Only after one’s person is refined may one’s household be aligned. Only after one’s household is aligned may one’s state be ordered. Only after one’s state is ordered may the world be set at peace.

"From the Son of Heaven to the common person, for all alike, refining the person is the root. That roots should be disordered yet branches ordered is not possible. That what should be thickened is thin yet what is thin becomes thick has never yet been so. [This is the meaning of 'knowing the root.']"


Not bad for a guy born in 551 BC, about 45 years or so into the period of the Captivity. Refine the person. That is what both passages are saying.


I use Bullinger’s Companion Bible, which is King James. Yes, it has thousands of errors and mistranslations and is a horrible translation, but Bullinger deals with so many of its faults in the companion margin that I have gotten used to mentally correcting everything. I have the Stone Tanach, but it is so “aren’t the Jews wonderful” biased I can hardly use it. I far prefer to use Vic Alexander’s translations from the ancient Aramaic. For all their faults and blemishes, they are virtually the only Bible I read anymore. His Old Testament Scriptures are only few of the books, but they are enough for me. And of course, I read the future tense as past and present, as it is in the Hebrew. I pretty much only read Genesis, Exodus, and the New Testament anyway. Happy reading.

A word from John Otvos, who recently left this comment:

“I've been reading a great deal about Neville. I was recently introduced to him through a SuperSoul Sunday between Wayne Dyer and Oprah. None of us can deny someone else's vision or direct experience of reality, whether of this physical world or a metaphysical reality. My own particular philosophy is to be very wary of anyone who has all the answers and is not in awe of the great mystery we know as life. To have all the answers is a soft form of fundamentalism.”
________________________

John,

Thank you for the comment. I clicked on your name and liked your site. I hope others will visit from here to get a taste of your point of view and a dose of your information. Few of us can withdraw to the Canadian wilderness, so take a good, long look at it and say, “Thank you.”

I hope you do not think Neville was not in awe of the Mystery. I think he had just found a way to meld with it and stay conscious. It is, after all, zero distance away. I have like reservation as you mentioned with Wayne Dyer and Oprah, neither of which I have ever been able to watch a full program. Fundamentalism cuts both ways, and I am more on the conservative side. But I hope people will take your advice regarding meat and dairy to heart.


From https://johnotvos.wordpress.com/2018/01/21/prostate-cancer-an-encounter/:
“I wasn’t really afraid of death because I had already experienced a near fatal car crash in Hendersonville, NC in 2003. My apprehension was of not living; of not being able to do all the things that give me enormous joy such as hiking, canoeing, woodworking, reading and the growing of vegetables for sustenance. All of these activities are just being with All That There IS. Communing with people who love deep communication and silence is what the Sufis refer to as sohbet. These personal joys are the direct connection with the natural world, a deep spirituality if you will, that our modern civilization has unconsciously decided to forego in lieu of materialism. The world of ideas is what has sustained me all these years in the aloneness.”

Also, John’s personal manifesto:
https://johnotvos.wordpress.com/2018/05/01/arm/

What Is Meant By Respecting, Honoring, Fearing, Tempting, and Testing the Father

Hi Dan,
Can you please explain a bit more what you mean by respecting and honouring God as Father. I also get confused with what fearing God means and tempting vs testing the Lord. Thanks a lot!

Wat
_______________________

Wat,

Let's start with fearing YHWH, as in "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10a). I always thought that in this case the use of the word 'fear' actually meant fear. Like, "God has an agenda, a goal he is working towards, and if you are a ball off course, he can kick you back on course real hard." But look at Alexander's translation of 9:10a from the ancient Aramaic: "At the head of wisdom is the submission to Maryah." Nothing about punishment or God being vindictive. "Fear" is poor translation of recognition of his existence and submission to his will. It’s respect of God unto submission to him that’s the beginning of wisdom.

Thank you for the question, because you made me look up 'tempt' and 'test.' No form of 'test' is found in the King James Bible. It is 'prove,' and this only in Malachi 3:10 and 15. Bachan in Hebrew, Strong's 974. It does mean to test, as in investigating a metal by trying it, proving its qualities. Like I said, this word occurs only in Malachi (as far as I know), AND MALACHI AT THIS POINT IS COMPLETELY MISTRANSLATED. According to Alexander, as I read him, what God said actually means completely the opposite of what we have in the King James and all its kids. See below.

Tempt (nacah, Strong's 5254), on the other hand, basically means to attempt. You try to get your way around what you know is right and is God's will. I.e., to be a jerk. You do what you should not do to see if God whacks you for it. Or you don't do what you should. Or rig a fleece to go your way. This is certainly not of faith, and I have got news for you, God doesn't whack you for anything. You do that to yourself. But the consequence of tempting YHWH like that is you get to come here again to learn to not do that. Don't do that. If you are going to fear anything, fear being a jerk.

Let's move back to proving YHWH. Thanks again for the question. In Malachi, the King James sounds like God is offering a free trial: "Put me to the test and see if I can do what I say." That is kind of there, but not like that. And here is where Law of Attraction advocates maybe should really fear: God says to the Israelites during the Season of Grace that they are performing the Law by bringing all the tithes into the storehouse, and he is blessing them and protecting them according to his word--it is working--AND YET THEY DO NOT RESPECT HIM OR HONOR HIM AS FATHER.

It isn’t that God is saying they may prove him; it’s that they have proved him—they have all the evidence—and still they do not honor nor respect him. In their hand is their tithe; in their heart is their idol. And God is like, "Are you kidding me? You think I do not know your thoughts and the intents of your hearts? I've got news for you, kids: you're all coming back here, and it won’t be this Season of Grace."
______________________________________________

From Victor Alexander's translation of the Ancient Aramaic (parentheses and bold emphases mine). My main interest is in chapter three:

Malachi 1
1. A vision of the Lord's oracle regarding Israel by Malachi.
2. "I have had mercy on you," said the Lord. And you say, "By what have you had mercy on us?"
"What then, was not Esau the brother of Jacob," said the Lord, "that I had mercy upon Jacob but* denigrated Esau?"
3. "I made his mountains [a place of] toil and his inheritance into abodes of the wilderness."
4. And if the Edomites say that we have become impoverished, 'Let us go back and rebuild the ruins' -- thus said the Lord, "they shall build and I shall destroy." And they shall call them the dynasty of sin and the nation that the Lord shall be angry towards forever.*
5. And your eyes shall see, you then that say that the Lord shall rule* above the territory of Israel.
6. "A son honors his father and a servant his Lord. If I am the Father, how are you honoring me, and if I am the Lord how are you submitting to me? To you, high priests, I say you have usurped my name," said the Almighty Lord. "And if you say through what have we usurped your name?
7. "In that you offered defiled bread on my altar. And if you say, 'Who did we defile?' you shall be saying, 'It is that which bedeviled the surface of the Lord's altar.'
8. "And as you offer the blind* upon the altar, is that not evil? And as you offer the lame or the sick, is that not evil? When they are offered to your authorities, are they not going to look and see the difference?*" said the Almighty Lord.
9. Thus pray [on your knees] that the Lord may have mercy on us; it is in your hands that this happened. "I shall not make differences between you on face value,"* said the Almighty Lord.
10. "Who among you is locking my door, that you should not make offerings on my altar -- which is free? I am not satisfied," said the Almighty Lord, "and I have not accepted the offerings from you."
11. "Because from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name is praised* among the nations,* and in all the countries they consecrate the incense* and offer to my name pure sacrifices, because great is my name among the nations," said the Almighty Lord.
12. "But you who have defiled it say that the offering surface [of the altar] has been defiled and that these foods are bedeviled."
13. And you say that this is on account of our demons and that the Almighty Lord has said he has blown at them, that you shall die on account of the seized offerings that were lame and sick. "I shall not accept them from your hand," said the Almighty Lord.
14. "And cursed is he who has a male in his [domain of] circumcision and [yet] offers as sacrifice that which is sick to the Lord, for I am a great king," said the Almighty Lord, "and my name is feared among the nations."*
________________________________________
*Lit. Aramaic word: "My angel."
*1:2 Lit. Ar. id.: "And."
*1:4 Lit. Ar. id.: "To the end of the universe."
*1:5 Lit. Ar. idiomatic construction: "He shall be Lord."
*1:8 Lit. Ar. id.: "Hypocrisy."
*1:9 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "Take by your faces."
*1:11.1 Lit. Ar. id.: "Magnified."
*1:11.2 NB! Reference to the Jews among all the nations, such as at Nineveh, Capital of Ashur, at the time of Jonah the Prophet.
*1:11.3 Lit. Ar. id.: "Incenses."
*1:14 NB! Again a reference to all the Jewish tribes that had made Judaism a significant religion of the nations of the world a few centuries before Jesus arrived at Jerusalem. Moreover, this reference to the "nations" does not mean that the pagan nations of the time honored the Lord as pagans and made worthy sacrifices or offerings to his name -- as has been implied by all the other translations.


Malachi 2
1. Thus this commandment is meant for you, high priests,
2. "If you do not listen and if you do no put* it in your hearts to honor* my name," said the Almighty Lord, "I shall send against you curses, and there shall be cursed your blessings, for you will not have put it in your hearts to do so." (We do it to ourselves, for the onus is on us.)
3. "Behold, I rebuked the offspring of the earth, and I shall cast dust* upon your faces and ashes* upon your holidays, and carry you with them.*
4. "So* that you shall know that I sent this commandment, so as it shall become my testament for Levi,"* said the Almighty Lord.
5. "My covenant* was with him, I gave him the life everlasting* and peace, as for fear, he did fear me,* and on account* of my name he did tremble.*
6. "The Law of Righteousness* was his on his mouth and no abomination could be found on his lips;* he walked in peace and wholesomeness with me, while many walked with abomination.
7. "Because the lips of the high priest are to protect the knowledge, and they are supposed to ask about the Law from his mouth, for he is the messenger* of the Almighty Lord.
8. "You, however, strayed from the path and misled* many from the Law and twisted Levi's Covenant," said the Almighty Lord.
9. "Also I gave you to be scorned and humbled among every nation, on account you did not [guard and] protect your ways and you made differences between people* in the Law."
10. Why, did we not all have the same Father? Or was it not one God who creates all? Why does a man lie about his brother and defile the covenant of our ancestors?
11. Judah has lied and he has brought defilement into Israel and Jerusalem, because Judah defiled that which was made hallowed for him by the Almighty Lord; [Judah] was kind to and worked for foreign gods.
12. The Lord shall wipe* out the man who does this, his son, and his son's son from the Tabernacle of Jacob, and he shall have no one to offer the sacrifices* to the Almighty Lord.
13. And this offering that you do, covering the house of the Lord with tears, weeping and sighing, because he did not come back for your offerings and did not receive that which was acceptable from your hands.
14. And if you say, "On account of what?" On account of the Lord has testified between you, the wife of your youth, regarding whom you lied, and she was your partaker and the wife of covenant.
15. Why, then, was it not one [person] who gets married? And the rest of the spirits* are his, though he wanted one offspring from God? Therefore, be cognizant in your spirits,* let no man* lie regarding the wife of his youth.
16. Thus has said the Lord, the Almighty God of Israel. "And the abominable cannot be covered up through its own scraping," said the Almighty Lord.
17. You have [aroused] the passion of the Lord through your manifestations and if you say, "How have we [aroused] his passion?" It is by your saying that whoever has done badly,* has done well in the eyes of the Lord, and it is by them that he is satisfied -- and if [it is not so,] where is the God who renders justice?"* (Don't be a jerk.)
________________________________________
*2:2.1 Lit. Ar. id.: "Consecrate."
*2:2.2 Lit. Ar. id.: "To give honor."
*2:3.1 Lit. Ar. id.: "Sawdust," or "ashes."
*2:3.2 Lit. Ar. id.: "Sawdust," or "dust."
*2:3.3 Lit. Ar. idiomatic construction: "... and take you with it."
*2:4.1 Lit. Ar. id.: "And."
*2:4.1 Lit. Ar. id.: Or: "Covenant with Levi."
*2:5.1 Lit. Ar. id.: "Standing."
*2:5.2 Lit. Ar. id.: "Life."
*2:5.3 Lit. Ar. idiomatic construction: "Submission he submitted to me."
*2:5.4 Lit. Ar. id.: "Before."
*2:5.5 Lit. Ar. id.: "Quake," or "move."
*2:6.1 Lit. Ar. id.: "Moral uprightness."
*2:6.2 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "In his mouth."
*2:7 Lit. Ar. id.: Also: "Angel."
*2:8 Lit. Ar. id.: "Made them stumble."
*2:9 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "Put in according to faces."
*2:12.1 Lit. Ar. id.: "[Make] extant."
*2:12.2 Lit. Ar. id.: "Offerings."
*2:15.1 Lit. Ar. idiom retained: "Souls," or the other children born to him.
*2:15.2 Lit. Ar. idiom retained: "Souls."
*2:15.3 Lit. Ar. id.: "Human."
*2:17.1 Lit. Ar. id.: Worldly success.
*2:17.2 Lit. Ar. idiomatic construction: "And if not where is the God that judges the judgment?"


Malachi 3

(Behold, like Robert Young of Young's Literal Translation of the Bible, I prefer to remove the shalls and wills and read like the Hebrew says, without a future tense:)

1. "Behold, I send my angel* and he dries* out (lays out; see Isaiah 40:3-5) the path before me, and out of the calm he comes to the Lord's temple, that which you hold on to and the resurrecting angel* that you yearn for, behold, he comes," said the Almighty Lord.
2. Who can predict* the Day in which he comes?* Or who can reveal it before he actually comes? Because he is like the fire that purifies and like the sulfide that whitens. (My impression is that 'day' refers to brightness, glory of revelation, rather than date.)
3. He then returns to forge and purify* like silver, and he purifies* the sons of Levi, and he chooses them like gold and silver, and they are offering the sacrifices* to the Lord in righteousness.
4. And the offering of Judah and Jerusalem is [once again] acceptable* to the Lord, as of the Days of Eternity* and as the years of old.*
5. "And I bring judgment to bear* against you, and I am a swift witness against sorcerers, adulterers, and those that swear by lies, and those who rob* the wages of the hired hand and the immigrant,* of the orphan and the widow, and they go down against those who turn to me, and they are not afraid of me," said the Almighty Lord.
6. "For it is I* who is the Lord and I do not change, and you are the Children of Jacob that do not cease* their abomination.
7. "From the days of your ancestors* you have strayed from my commandments and you have not heeded them; [therefore,] return to me and I return to you," said the Almighty Lord. "And if you ask, 'How do we return?'"*
8. "Why, does man exploit God as you have exploited me? And if you say, 'How have we exploited you?' In tithing and in first fruits.
9. "By curses you are cursed, and to me you are exploiting.
10. "All the nation brings its tithes into my stores and there is food in my house, and they test (prove!) me with this," said the Almighty Lord, "and I open a window for you in heaven and shower you with blessings until you say, 'this is more than enough.'
11. "And I cry out against the pestilence so as it may not destroy the fruit of the earth, and not one of the earth's vines is ruined," said the Almighty Lord.
12. "And all the nations glorify you, as you become the land of my desire," said the Almighty Lord.
13. "Your words [weigh] heavily on me," said the Lord. "And if you say, 'What did we say against you?'
14. "You said, 'It is in vain working for the Lord, and what wealth did we gain by guarding his treasures* and walking meekly before the Almighty Lord?'

(If I am not mistaken, God stops speaking, and the voice of the submitted, faithful Israelites enjoying God's grace begins:)

15. "'And henceforth are we to give blessings towards the abominable, and the sinners* will restore* us, and we are to tempt* God and he [still] delivers us?'" (I.e., Heavens forbid!)
16. Thus they spoke, those who feared the Lord, each man saying [thus] to his companion; and the Lord listened and heard, and he wrote in the Scrolls of the Offerings* before him, [he wrote] regarding those who feared him and regarding those who glorified his name.*
17. "And they are mine," said the Almighty Lord, "on the Day that I make up the Congregation* and I embrace* them, as the man embraces the son who works for him.
18. "And you turn back and see [the difference] between the righteous and the abominable, between those that worked for God and those that did not."*
________________________________________
*3:1.1 Lit. Ar. id.: Also: "Messenger."
*3:1.2 Lit. Ar. idiom retained: "Rub out," or "lay out."
*3:1.3 Lit. Ar. idiom retained: "Messenger ..." or "Angel of the Covenant."
*3:2.1 Lit. Ar. id.: "[Preach] the Hope."
*3:2.2 NB! Prophecy regarding the Coming of Eashoa (Jesus).
*3:3.1 Lit. Ar. id.: Or: "Cleanse."
*3:3.2 Lit. Ar. id.: Or: "Cleanse."
*3:3.3 Lit. Ar. id.: Or: "Offerings."
*3:4.1 Lit. Ar. id.: "Healing," or "pleasing."
*3:4.2 Lit. Ar. id.: "The days that from the universe."
*3:4.3 Lit. Ar. id.: "From old," or "from before."
*3:5.1 Lit. Ar. id.: "Near."
*3:5.2 Lit. Ar. id.: "Exploit."
*3:5.3 Lit. Ar. id.: "Settler."
*3:6.1 Lit. Ar. idiomatic: "In-nah-nah Mar-yah," or "I am I, the Lord."
*3:6.2 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "Pass from..."
*3:7.1 Lit. Ar. id.: Also: "Parents."
*3:7.2 Lit. Ar. id.: "By what shall we return?" or "how shall we turn back?"
*3:14 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "Guarding his guardeds."
*3:15.1 Lit. Ar. id.: "Performers of sin."
*3:15.2 Lit. Ar. id.: "Build."
*3:15.3 Lit. Ar. id.: "Test."
*3:16.1 Lit. Ar. id.: Or: "Scriptures of Memorial Offerings."
*3:16.2 NB! These are the two types of faith: those who worship out of fear and those who worship by glorifying the Lord out of a desire to honor him and out of love.
*3:17.1 Lit. Ar. id.: Or: "Assembly."
*3:17.2 Lit. Ar. id.: "Stick to."
*3:18 NB! Prophesy regarding those who followed Eashoa (Jesus), like the Disciples, the Apostles, and the early Churches, when Eashoa (Jesus) came to the World.


Malachi 4 (also sans shalls)
1. "Because, behold, there come days and my anger burns like a furnace, and all the workers of abomination and the committers of sin are like stubble which I burn on the following Day," said the Almighty Lord, "and I do not leave them a root or branch.
2. "And there arises for you the sun of righteousness, and the healing [power] is upon your* tongues, and you go out and prance about* like the calves of the herd.
3. "And you trample on the abominable, because they are ashes under the stretch of your feet, on that Day that I bring about,"* said the Almighty Lord.
4. "You recall the Law of Moses my servant, whom I commanded at Khoriv, over all Israel -- the commandments and the judgments.
5. "Behold, I send you Elijah the Prophet before there comes the Day of the Lord, great and awesome as it is;*
6. "And the heart of the parents turns back towards [their] children and [likewise] the heart of the children [towards] their parents [once more] -- until I come to strike the earth forever."**
________________________________________
*4:2.1 Lit. Ar. id.: "Your."
*4:2.2 Lit. Ar. id.: "Be joyous."
*4:3 Lit. Ar. id.: "Make."
*4:5 NB! Eashoa's (Jesus') First Coming.
*4:6 Lit. Ar. id.: "Never-again."
*4:6.2 NB! The Second Coming of Eashoa (Jesus.)
__________________________________________________

Back to me:

I address respecting and honoring God as Father and enjoying his presence as part of a causative imagining prayer technique. These are attitudes you take with you into the silence. Neville and all his cohorts believed in God. They knew God to be something other than the church says he is, but exactly what the Bible says he is. God is consciousness, imagination. That has become us, so that we may become that. We are sent from and of that, so of course we honor and respect our providing and protecting Source and enjoy Its presence, Its love. Go into the silence with warm fuzzies. It's home.

Dad is God, imagination, the action of the Ineffable. It is conscious and has all the characteristics of personhood. The Kingdom of God, i.e. Its powers, has to do with attitudes. Repentance from this world, forgiveness, love, joy, praise, thanksgiving, respect, honor, humility, and faith are all items we take with us into the silence: "Isn't it wonderful!!" We should bleed warm fuzzies and concern for others.

Jesus and the New Age of Faith of C. F. Rehnborg

I am a big fan of C. F. Rehnborg and am much indebted to him. He was marketing in China in the 1920s, and was set upon by the evangelical missionaries working there. He did not accept the nonsense they were selling, but did spend the rest of his life investigating what it was which so turned the world upside down. He read and wrestled, evaluated and analyzed, kicked around ideas, pried at the truth. His lifetime of study was compiled into Jesus and the New Age of Faith after he passed. You can pry my copies out of my cold, lifeless hands after I pass.

I have read the book several times. It hinges on pages 376-382, Peter’s encounter with a non-physical Jesus (Rehnborg outlines Paul’s gospel around p.139). As you may know, Simon means hearing, and Peter means rock. Peter heard something (p.340-341/355-356) which caused great faith. It started a religion. Rehnborg eviserates the Gospel as we have it, except for that one little thing “heard”: Peter and perhaps some others saw Jesus in a psychic vision in Galilee after he (Jesus) had died. The End-Man at the end of the Season of Grace’s recapitulation of human history bet his life, quite literally, that the Anointed one “was not annunciated while he lived as a man.” There must first be his death and transfiguration. He gambled and died. And was transfigured. And Peter saw him alive having conquered death.

That is about it. Like I said, it started a religion. What we want will not come as long as we are holding onto what we do not want. We cannot have transfiguration to the life we want unless we are willing to die to this unwanted life. Jesus went whole hog. Peter saw that it worked.

That is it in a nutshell: there in Peter’s vision was Jesus. He had seen him die. Die die dead dead. He knew what he had taught and believed. And there he was, transfigured. It worked.

It works. What Jesus was (and is) is our destiny: the fulfillment of the Scriptures. ASSUME IT APPLIES TO YOU. “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me,” said Jesus in Matthew 11:29. Then believe you receive transfiguration when you pray. Forgive and let sin pass away. Move into the new age of faith. And say thanks to the Invisible.

Tom Medwin on Imaginal Acts/Neville Goddard’s Techniques

Tom Medwin’s experience and coaching on Neville Goddard’s causative imagining.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=AdmHhNTuD00&t=21s

https://youtube.com/watch?v=MPPbn_AlgZE

In this video we discuss the specific means and techniques by which imagination creates reality. The basic steps as taught by Neville are as follows:

1) Determine your objective
2) Immobilize your physical body and enter the "state akin to sleep."
3) Create a short scene in imagination that implies the fulfillment of your wish.
4) Give it all of the sensory vividness you can, utilizing one or all of your five imaginal senses, until it takes on the tones of reality.
5) After feeling it to be real, rest in the assumption that it is finished!

Part 2 of this lesson will deal with the art of "persisting in the assumption" that it is finished during the interval of time that it takes for your desire to harden into the reality of your physical world. Stay tuned!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=_aZEAFfNzdU

Practice the art of persisting in the assumption of your wish fulfilled. Neville taught it best, so go listen to him and read his books! All of his material is free online and youtube.

In this video I elaborate on some of Neville's techniques for our modern day, specifically what you do after planting your imaginal seed. If you read Neville a lot, you'll notice he gives some of these little insights into his love for music, reading, and meditation. These are vital components for flourishing and actually enjoying the interval of time until the unseen becomes seen!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=MZEzLAjdebw

In this video I discuss three simple exercises you can use to sharpen your imagination and better harness it's power:

1) Ball Exercise - imagine holding familiar objects, start with a baseball. See if you can take 90 seconds to do nothing but focus your attention on holding a baseball. Use all 5 imaginal senses if you can. See the ball, see the red seams, see the off-white leather complete with scuffs and imperfections. Smell the leather. Feel along the seams, squeeze it to feel it's level of hardness. Now switch to a tennis ball for 20 seconds and do the same. Compare the difference between this kind of ball and the baseball. Now take 5 seconds to switch to a golfball and take note of it. Now switch quickly between them all and notice how much more efficiently you can slip into the state of imaginal reality compared to when you began.

2) Rooms Exercise - Do what you did with the ball routine above, but this time instead of objects you're working on spaces. Visit a familiar room in your house, but in imagination only. If you are in the bedroom, then imagine you are walking into your kitchen or living room. Look around imaginaly, sit on the furniture, open the fridge, etc. Pay attention to details and be amazed at how much detail you notice!

3) Playback Exercise - Neville has a great technique where he says to revisit your entire day when you are laying upon your bed at night. Instead of falling right to sleep, playback your entire day starting with the last thing you did at night. See how far you can go to replay your entire day, but in reverse order starting with the last thing you did at night and going all the way back to the first thing you did when you woke. You might only be able to do this for a few seconds before "getting tired." That's OK, keep at it, you were made to operate from an exceptional imagination!

The point of these exercises is to intentionally access and control your imagination instead of letting your imagination run rampant and untamed. This is the means by which you can then begin to imagine more vividly for those things that you want to manifest, accomplish, or achieve for yourself or others. Remember, FEELING IS THE SECRET, so practice using all of your imaginal sense until you develop that unshakeable sense of feeling and KNOWING that it is yours.

Enjoy the Presence of God

If I were writing for a school of prayer, I would say that beyond respecting and honoring God as Father, one must also enjoy his presence. God, of course, is here within us. There is zero distance between ourselves and God, yet our state of consciousness does not usually see that nearness. We have to move our state of consciousness from not recognizing the presence of God to a state enjoying that presence.

In Isaiah 40:3-5 God says, “In the wilderness open up (change) a way for YHWH, and build a path in the valley (crevices) for our God—all the gorges filled and all the mountains and highlands made low, the rugged terrain smoothed over (the particles used as a filler), and the inaccessible (difficult) country made into a plain. Thus the glory of YHWH is revealed and all flesh sees Him, for it is the mouth of YHWH that speaks” (my take on Victor Alexander’s and Robert Young’s translations).

“Enter . . . into his courts with praise” (Psalm 100:4); i.e., with enjoyment of his presence. I remember my friend Janet Gunther who in her private devotions found herself in his courts. In the ecstasy of his presence she heard, “You are healed.” And she was, of tuberculosis.

Asking for the gift of tongues, I was rejected of God. My honor and respect of his Fatherhood at my conversion had been phony baloney. I had accepted God and Jesus mentally, but I did not find true and humble submission to him. When I now did (I really didn’t like rejection), in my bowed mind’s eye I saw his presence as glory above me. Waiting silently enjoying it, I heard, “Remember this, and it is all right.” I was accepted, baptized, and given the gift.

Any evangelistic meeting begins with much singing, praise, thanksgiving, and exhortation to sense the presence of God. Kathryn Kuhlman, T.L. Osborn — any such effort starts with getting everyone to recognize that God is there, ”Right here, right now.” This is to get us to move the highs and lows of our attitude and emotional state into a straight way for God. The onus is on us!

Jacob wrestled all night with the Man—HIMSELF. He wrestled without surrender to make his way straight, and saw the presence of God. Gee, do you think God put any hints about this in scripture? “If my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray AND SEEK MY FACE and turn from their wicked ways, then I hear from heaven, and I forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14). Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel, . . . love YHWH with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”

Goodness, one could go on for hours, days, even weeks pulling verses of love and enjoyment of God out of the scriptures, recounting incidences of our and others’ experiences. All this reminds me of a song:

On the Street Where You Live.

I have often walked down this street before
But the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before
All at once am I several stories high
Knowing I'm on the street where you live

Are there lilac trees in the heart of town?
Can you hear a lark in any other part of town?
Does enchantment pour out of every door?
No, it's just on the street where you live

And oh, the towering feeling just to know somehow you are near
The overpowering feeling that any second you may suddenly appear

People stop and stare, they don't bother me
For there's nowhere else on earth that I would rather be
Let the time go by, I won't care if I
Can be here on the street where you live

Songwriters: Alan Jay Lerner / Frederick Loewe
On the Street Where You Live lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

An interesting note on the scene in the movie: Freddy stops to wait for his beloved, and in the last second of this scene the street lights are dimmed on Freddy because it is morning. See the light now of sunrise on the building. He has waited through the night in that second, for he so enjoys the presence of his Eliza Doolittle. Or so I think. Makes me feel better, anyway.

Symbolic Fiction of Literal Truth is . . .

. . . Confusing. The authors of the Bible wrote about literal, psychological truths in symbolic fictions. They hung the fictional stories on famous, literal ancients. I just posted about the recapitulation the Season of Grace was. It was a recapitulation of this age and of man -- a recapitulation of YOU, of your history as God-as-a-man until the fulfillment of your destiny: man in the consciousness of God, which you are to attain.

Among the search results preparing for my post was the following article: "The Failure of Daniel's Prophecies (2007)" by Chris Sandoval. I thought that was interesting because my neighbor is a Bible teacher named Chris Sandoval (there are hundreds if not thousands of them). Anyway, if you read any of that article you will see that the author picks apart Daniel's prophecy as literal history which he expects to be accurate to the very day. Because it is not, he concludes the Book of Daniel is a work of fiction. Duh. It, like most other prophecy, is a symbolic fiction of literal psychological truth. It's called the Bible, dude. Pull your head out of your you-know-what.

Sandoval assumes that the author of Daniel wrote the first half of the book after the historical events "prophesied" took place, thus its accuracy, and then made up the predicted future which failed literal historical fulfillment. He goes on to say that because of the failures of Daniel's prophecies, he (Daniel) must be a false prophet. I've got news for you, dude: the accuracy of the first half was validation of the second half. The problem is that YOU CAN'T READ. As a recapitulation, the conclusion of the Season of Grace had to be the state of man at the end of the age, just as God has determined. HAD TO BE THEN WHAT IS GOING TO BE IN THE FUTURE!

E.g., I am painting a picture of the history of man. I have to paint man now what man is going to be at the end of the age. What will that man look like? Like any man at the end of the age, though that be long in the future. What do we see of OURSELVES at the end of the age according to the painting? A particular man (men and women) at the end of the Season of Grace two thousand years ago: God in man in Christ consciousness. The historically manifest man was there. He (they?) was renown. Mark wrote a symbolic fiction of the literal historic person(s) WE CAN BE AND ARE DESTINED TO BECOME based upon what he knew of Buddha and MOSES' Judaism. What those people lived are lessons and teachings for us: the incorporation of YHWH in man's life . . . as it will be at the end of the age. It can be had now -- the picture says, "This is for you."

The Man at the End

Isaiah announced the Exile to Babylon and the Season of Grace. Daniel specified when the Season would be. Just as Moses was the prophet of the Law, Jeremiah was the prophet of the Promise which was to come, and did come, at the culmination of the Season.

The Season of Grace was a model, and as such it was a RECAPITULATION of the history and the purpose of the world and of man. The world and its man are recapitulated in the Season and in its Man. There are parallels and one-for-one matches in an umbrella of correlations. The little Season recaps the Whole History.

There was grace, an anointing, upon the Season. The Season was to make a flawless picture. In our history we have screwed up. Recapitulation offers an unscrewed up version, a vision of how it’s supposed to be. So in the recap things were set right. Right things were done. Right choices were made. NOT by everyone, but by those few called. Just like in the world, but in miniature. A micro of the macro. Some few went out to the wilderness to prepare. Fewer still had hearts that were right — the right attitude and openness for YHWH.

The New Testament is about the Season of Grace. From the Season came the church Saul persecuted and the man Jesus Christ. The Season JOINED what is right with our personal histories. It is: “Do you want to be in this group, or do you want to be in that group?” THE SEASON HAD TO CULMINATE IN THE MANIFESTATION OF YHWH. HAD TO (!), ELSE IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A FULL RECAPITULATION.

The Gospel is that it did, and that the Promise is PROVEN. The Manifestation of YHWH appeared among men, the guarantee that man’s destiny is real. Please read and learn about the recapitulation.

http://www.samstorms.com/enjoying-god-blog/post/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-recapitulation-theory-of-the-atonement

https://www.theopedia.com/recapitulation-theory-of-atonement

https://www.gotquestions.org/recapitulation-theory-atonement.html

Breezing through these, I am reminded of Dr. Ray Shelton at Melodyland School of Theology. I had his Romans class. I wrote a very thick three page paper on the doctrine of recapitulation for Church History, but Dr. Shelton made a very important observation, which was that the Bible translators did not translate the ‘o in Romans 5:12. He had written his doctoral dissertation on this. The upshot is that Romans 5:12 has been forever mistranslated. It reads in the King James: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” The untranslated ‘o in Greek has the effect of “because of which.” Death passed upon all men NOT because they sinned, but they were spiritually dead, BECAUSE OF WHICH all have sinned.

Spiritual death is not a punishment; it is the state we are born into due to amnesia. BECAUSE OF THE RECAPITULATION OF THE SEASON OF GRACE, WE CAN OPT OUT OF THE GROUP WE WERE BORN INTO AND JOIN THE OTHER AS THOUGH WE HAD NOT SINNED. That is what we do in assumption properly done.

Nuggets of Pearl in an Imagic World

We are nuggets of consciousness, imagination, the Pearl of Great Price. We "die," but we continue restored to "life" -- this death -- again and again. Until we recognize the Pearl and sell all to obtain it.

This is an imagic world. All reflects something higher. Cells in the body, bees in the hive, coral in colonies, etc., etc. We are nuggets of the Pearl.

'Magination in the Middle: Exodus 3:14

In his translation of Exodus 3:14, Victor Alexander does not offer a word-for-word rendering of the Aramaic words Ahiyeh Ashur hiyeh, commonly expressed in English as "I AM THAT I AM." I notice that in Story of Jesus From His Own Words (p. 23), Alexander does have a word-for-word translation: "The Life-Giver Lighting [the fire of] Life," or in literal Aramaic: "The Creator Kindled Life."

(Alexander's notes on the meaning of Ahiyeh Ashur hiyeh in Exodus: *3:14 Lit. Aramaic: (1) "Ahiyeh": "the One Who Comes in His Coming," the absolute sense of "the One Who Comes." (2) "Ashur": "the Beginning Spark that kindles the Fire" or "the Light." (3) "Hiyeh": "His Coming." (4) "Ahiyeh" and "hiyeh" are related forms of the same word. They mean more than "the Coming." They signify also the "Eternal Presence," "the Ever-Present," and the "Never Ceasing Intent of the Comer to Come." (5) In the same way, "Ashur" signifies "the Uncreated Creator who Creates Everything from Nothing." (6) Also, "Ashur" signifies: "Above-the-Flames.")

In this God is explaining who he is -- what It is -- the Life-giver lighting [the fire of] life. Please note that God does not say that he is the Life-giver per se; he says he is the Life-giver LIGHTING life. He is the verb, the action of the Life-giver lighting life. This action is in the Aramaic Ashur, the Creator God of the Assyrians and of the most ancient Hebrews (Abraham was an Assyrian). I contend that Ashur is in reality what we call imagination, the imagination of the Ineffable.

Imagination is the initiating "spark" that kindles the fire of creation. Nothing comes into being without being imagined first, not by man but by God. This is who or what God is: the Creator kindled Life -- imagination!

A) It is a verb: LIGHTING.

B) Assuming that Lighting refers to imagination, the Life-Giver is imagining, and the resultant Life is imagination. It is imagination from beginning to end!!

C) There is constant transition, as hayah (root of ahiyeh and hiyeh) means becoming.

D) 'God' is not the Life-Giver per se; God is the Life-Giver's ACTION of lighting [the fire of] Life. I.e., Imagination imagining imagination! This is what we are to do below like above.

E) Hiyeh must correspond to Jethro, the question Moses had in mind when he encountered God. Divine Life is the remaining Excellence of the Life-Giver's imagining.

On the Season of Grace

If you are not familiar with the Season of Grace you have not yet read many of my blog posts. I got the name for the event from Victor Alexander, whose translations from the ancient Aramaic I use. I can't remember where he said it, though. In fact, I asked Jewish rabbis the name of the period between the first and second Temple destructions, and they hadn’t a clue as to what I was talking about. In Isaiah 39, Isaiah announced the Exile to Babylon, and Hezekiah accepted it. Isaiah 40 is believed by many to start at the end of the Exile. They overlook the fact that Isaiah must have been shown the whole thing, and I believe that God was asking for support from fellow believers for Hezekiah's faith-full acceptance of the Exile, which found few willing ears. Jeremiah was adamant that the Jews had to accept the Exile in the course of what God was doing: a giant picture thing of his becoming. (It just occured to me that the “giant picture thing” is the Recapitulation. Recapitulation is a doctrine of the church, but it is THE REAL THING which happened in the Season of Grace. More on this later.)

Daniel laid it out: seventy sevens of years determined for the Jews to present a particular and precious picture to us — what it is that is really going on. Thus a special Season of Grace upon the people of Israel until the Anointing — YHWH’s Manifestation — appeared in fullness amongst them. Then that Anointing would be cut off — the special anointing unto the production of the picture, that is. The picture the Season of Grace produced was for all subsequent, so all can still participate in it. The Anointing unto salvation continues as what the picture was about, and I bless God for fitting me into THAT picture. It’s funny - I could pull a hundred books, articles, and tracts off the shelf about Daniel’s Seventieth Week, and not one would mention what the full Seventy Sevens of Years — the Season of Grace — was about, except that the Messiah was coming at the end of it.

What the Church is waiting for, the so-called Seventieth Week of Daniel, is what we are in. They are missing it, the promised Anointing of Jesus Christ, because they are waiting for a specific anointed Person who is supposed to be THEM!!! Got to get the church off their butts and onto their knees imagining how God wants it to be, faith-full-ly.

If you want the Anointing, you simply, respectfully ask God for it and receive it. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done (because I could not easily find full, respectful, and humble submission to God), but well worth it.

Another pastor who is on much the same track as you is Tom, a preacher in Florida:
https://imagicworldview.blogspot.com/2018/03/obsessed-focus-oh-thats-how.html
It sounds like he has entered Neville’s world. I’ll ask him if he would not mind my giving you his e-mail address.

Dan Steele