Spiritual Barrenness
I think one of the greatest dangers mankind faces today is spiritual barrenness. Spiritual barrenness leads to moral decay and then to sin. This has put mankind at the edge of a deep canyon. We are one step away from falling into a pit of everlasting darkness and spiraling down for all eternity. There has to be a way to regain our balance and so that we can step away from the edge and save our selves. This emptiness must be filled with a believe in a God. For the purposes of this essay, I’m going to use Webster’s American Dictionary definition of God; “the all powerful being who made and rules the universe and is perfectly good and just”. I want to further add to this definition by adding that God is a soul not of this world. The difference between God’s soul and ours soul is trapped in a human body so we have to worship God with both our hearts and minds if we want to be saved from falling into the bottomless pit of Hell. Since, Jesus said in John 14:20, NIV “On that day you will realize that I m in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you”. --- NIV So, we all have God with in us! God gave us all a freedom to choose. We must choose to reach down into our souls and allow His spirit to grab a whole of us and fill our minds with His will and thoughts. In John 4:23-24, Jesus tells us “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worships will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth”.—NIV John tells us what God is but nothing to much about how to worship Him.
At the end of the last sentence, there is a clue. The clue is in the word truth. There are 4 components that make up truth. The first is being able to see a clear reality. This is because the Devil is an expert of clouding reality with lies, and temptations. Satin is going to be deceived either a clergy, politic leader or a well know celebrity. He will use his charisma to deceive his followers and gain their confidence. He will use their spiritual barrenness to come into their hearts, minds and souls. It will be his corruption that fills the void (the emptiness) with in them. He will fill this emptiness with greed, lust, hatred and other sin(s). Satin can’t destroy you unless you allow him in. And, if you don’t believe in a God, there is nothing to shield you from his evil. I believe God gave us all a shield that is with in us. This shield is God Himself and it is what John 14:20 talks about. We must learn to activate it though prayer and meditation. It is though prayer and meditation that we will be able to see through the fog that the Devil put in our minds and see reality clearly. Prayer and meditation is going to enable us to see the truth. Once we see the truth, governments, the clergy and celebrities will no longer be able to act as an agent for the biggest deceiver of them all ---- the Devil. The second is devotion. We must pray on a regular basic. This keeps the spiritual door way open to God and allows Him to reinforce our shield. Pray is something that needs to be done on a daily basic. I know it is hard to do because there and so many demands in our daily lives. But, we must make a determined effort to spend at least one hour a day in prayer and meditation with our God. This is not as hard as it may first sounds. Think of it as giving yourself a little homework each day. The third is sincerity. Jesus said in Mark 10:14-15, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and for forbid them not; for of such is the Kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you. Whosever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.” ---KJV Without sincerity, your shield will loose its energy and you will become venerable to attack. I think that it is a shame that so many of today’s clergy are insincere. It is this insincerity that leaves the door wide of for Satin to attack these men of God. Satin attacks them with greed, adultery, lust, arrogance, pride and ambition. They are not happy to have a congregation of 100; they want a congregation of 1000.When they get a 1000; they are still not happy. The same thing goes for the amount of money they get in the collection basket. It’s never enough for them. Negative will only produce more fog and cloud the truth. So, meditate of the positive elements of your life and through away the negative. Thank of each day as a new begin. Don’t carry any of the bad Karma into the new day. Prayer is the only thing I know of that will get rid of bad Karma. So, pray before you go to bed to neutralize all the negative. If you are mad at your boy friend or spouse either make up with then or forgive them. Don’t dwell on that annoying, pasty, rude co-worker that sits next to you. Don’t let yourself loose sleep over the economy or your personal finances. Remember, tomorrow is a new day. All you can do is to get up and go to work and as long as you live with in your means (and not become greedy for money and material wealth) leave it up to God to provide for you and your family. For it is the Meek that well inherit the Earth, the Meek are the ones who will be leaving with in their means. They won’t have 3 cars when one will do. They won’t have servants to fix their meals. They won’t need servants because they will have the skill and the resources to fix their own meals. God will provide all the resources that the Meek need to shelter and feed themselves. Mark 10:14-15 also gives us the fourth and last component of truth and that is trust. Trust is the confidence of known that God is with you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 52 weeks a year. Confidence is knowing in you heart, soul and mind that God it with you in the good time and bad. Yet, so many of us never take the time out from our busy day to thank God for everything that he has done for us “…God is a spirit and His worshipers must worship in spirit…” --- John 4:24 so, remember to say thank you to God in your Prayers. You don’t have to spend all praying just so God will hear you or just to get his attention. God know what is in your heart. He knows your needs even before you do. But, you do need to actively work at keeping the door open to God. So, after you did your meditation and said your prays, leave the rest up to God.
This is something that I am still in the process of learning. The process is important because it reconnects the God with in us to the God that is the spirit and lives in the heavens. Meditation is the way I keep the door way open to God. It is the way I keep the God with in me awake and allow God’s goodness to flow into me. So, at the risk of sounding Pagan, here are the steps I follow to meditate.
First, there is the cleansing process. This process removes the dirt from both the body and mind and helps me to relax. Starting with a warm bath that has Lavender salt in it and lighting a white candle, this is starts the process of relaxing the mind and soul. Then I slip into the warn bath, close my eyes and for a few minutes just enjoy the warm water. With my eyes close, I imagine, myself walking down a forest path. As I am walking down this path, I’m picking up little stones and putting them into a bag. Each stone represents something negative that happen in my life since I meditate the last time. For example, one stone represents anxiety, another one could represent hate and a third could be greed. I know this is going to be controversial but I have been putting my sin(s) into the bag as well. Forgiveness is something between refuses to fire. How can any so called “man” of any denomination or religion call themselves a man of god when they them selves are so dam corrupt!? Do these sinful priests and clergy really except people to follow them? (I have me and my God. Not something between me and some sinful priest(s) that the Vatican gave my answers and opinions to these 2 questions in my other Blogs). There is no limited on the number of stones which go in the bag. Continue on walking down the path. Enjoy the rays of sun light coming down through the trees. Notice the shadows cast by the trees on the ground. Take the time to lesson to the birds sing. Then imagine, yourself coming to a bridge that crosses over flowing water, walk to the center of the bridge and stop by the railing. Now, start to take the stones out of the bag one at a time and through the stone into the water below. Watch them splash into the water and have the cool, clean current carry them away. Feel yourself getting more and more relax as the burden of sin and negative leaves your body. As you get more and more relax, allow your violet Charkha to open up and a connection to be established with the spirit of God. Allow the spirit of God to clean your spirit from sin and negative. When the bag is empty, finish crossing the bridge. Once you reach the other side, find a place (for you spirit) to sit down. You will return here in step two. Now, that your spirit in clean, it is time to clean your body. After you have gotten out of the bath tub, dry yourself off and put on your mediation outfit (if you have one).
The second step is the lesson from God and/or the request for God’s help. For this you will need a Bible, pencil or pen and some writing paper. Get yourself into a comfortable position. Close your eyes and look for your inspirit. It should be where you left it; after you cross the bridge. When you feel the connection, open your eyes and your Bible. A good place to start is either with Psalm 143 or 91. Read through the Psalms carefully and slowly. This is to get a general idea of what the Psalmist is trying to tell the reader. Next, ask yourself the question: What is God asking me to do for Him? God wants our loyalty, worship and praise. So, ask God to send the Holy Spirit into you so that God’s spirit with in you can be awakened. And, God will send the Holy Spirit into you because that is what He promises in John 14:17-18 and John 14:26, “…the Spirit of truth…for he lives with you and will be in you…”---NIV Let your spirit be awakened! Ask the Holy Spirit to help you and teach you. Your prays will be answer because “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”---John 15:7-8, NIV So, tell God what you want. This is to both your advantage and His. It is a life long partnership. And, like any partnership, their must be a trust between the partners. The lines of communication must be open at all times. It is when these lines of communication start to break down that’s when problems start to occur.
This does NOT mean that after you said your prays; you can sit back and do nothing. Quite the opposite! YOU have to make the effort. If there is a skill you want to learn, you have to seek out a teacher to teach you. If there is a habit you want to break, YOU have to seek the medical help out to help you break it. It is also important to remember that the changes won’t happen over night!
Third, and lastly, it is important to give thanks after you receive the gift you ask God for. The two prayers that I use to say “thank you” are found in 1 Samuel 2: 1-10 and Luke 1:46-55. Or, you can praise Him with just one Bible verse like Revelations 7:12, “…Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength to be our God for ever and ever. Amen!”---NIV This is so important that the angles in Heaven are praising God continuously. Psalm’s 150 give us an idea about how we can praise Him:
Praise the Lord.
Praise God in hid sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.
Praise him with the sounding trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord. ---NIV
You can use what ever gifts God has given to you to praise Him. I have found my way to praise God is through my watercolor painting. I will be painting religious icons and putting it on T-shirts. It is so important for our youths (and adults to remember is) to be taught to have a belief in a higher spiritual being. It doesn’t matter what name (it could be Zeus, Allah, Yahweh, Buda, God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit) is given to this higher spirit. What does matter is that they have some sort of spiritual belief in their heart and soul.
At the end of the last sentence, there is a clue. The clue is in the word truth. There are 4 components that make up truth. The first is being able to see a clear reality. This is because the Devil is an expert of clouding reality with lies, and temptations. Satin is going to be deceived either a clergy, politic leader or a well know celebrity. He will use his charisma to deceive his followers and gain their confidence. He will use their spiritual barrenness to come into their hearts, minds and souls. It will be his corruption that fills the void (the emptiness) with in them. He will fill this emptiness with greed, lust, hatred and other sin(s). Satin can’t destroy you unless you allow him in. And, if you don’t believe in a God, there is nothing to shield you from his evil. I believe God gave us all a shield that is with in us. This shield is God Himself and it is what John 14:20 talks about. We must learn to activate it though prayer and meditation. It is though prayer and meditation that we will be able to see through the fog that the Devil put in our minds and see reality clearly. Prayer and meditation is going to enable us to see the truth. Once we see the truth, governments, the clergy and celebrities will no longer be able to act as an agent for the biggest deceiver of them all ---- the Devil. The second is devotion. We must pray on a regular basic. This keeps the spiritual door way open to God and allows Him to reinforce our shield. Pray is something that needs to be done on a daily basic. I know it is hard to do because there and so many demands in our daily lives. But, we must make a determined effort to spend at least one hour a day in prayer and meditation with our God. This is not as hard as it may first sounds. Think of it as giving yourself a little homework each day. The third is sincerity. Jesus said in Mark 10:14-15, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and for forbid them not; for of such is the Kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you. Whosever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.” ---KJV Without sincerity, your shield will loose its energy and you will become venerable to attack. I think that it is a shame that so many of today’s clergy are insincere. It is this insincerity that leaves the door wide of for Satin to attack these men of God. Satin attacks them with greed, adultery, lust, arrogance, pride and ambition. They are not happy to have a congregation of 100; they want a congregation of 1000.When they get a 1000; they are still not happy. The same thing goes for the amount of money they get in the collection basket. It’s never enough for them. Negative will only produce more fog and cloud the truth. So, meditate of the positive elements of your life and through away the negative. Thank of each day as a new begin. Don’t carry any of the bad Karma into the new day. Prayer is the only thing I know of that will get rid of bad Karma. So, pray before you go to bed to neutralize all the negative. If you are mad at your boy friend or spouse either make up with then or forgive them. Don’t dwell on that annoying, pasty, rude co-worker that sits next to you. Don’t let yourself loose sleep over the economy or your personal finances. Remember, tomorrow is a new day. All you can do is to get up and go to work and as long as you live with in your means (and not become greedy for money and material wealth) leave it up to God to provide for you and your family. For it is the Meek that well inherit the Earth, the Meek are the ones who will be leaving with in their means. They won’t have 3 cars when one will do. They won’t have servants to fix their meals. They won’t need servants because they will have the skill and the resources to fix their own meals. God will provide all the resources that the Meek need to shelter and feed themselves. Mark 10:14-15 also gives us the fourth and last component of truth and that is trust. Trust is the confidence of known that God is with you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 52 weeks a year. Confidence is knowing in you heart, soul and mind that God it with you in the good time and bad. Yet, so many of us never take the time out from our busy day to thank God for everything that he has done for us “…God is a spirit and His worshipers must worship in spirit…” --- John 4:24 so, remember to say thank you to God in your Prayers. You don’t have to spend all praying just so God will hear you or just to get his attention. God know what is in your heart. He knows your needs even before you do. But, you do need to actively work at keeping the door open to God. So, after you did your meditation and said your prays, leave the rest up to God.
This is something that I am still in the process of learning. The process is important because it reconnects the God with in us to the God that is the spirit and lives in the heavens. Meditation is the way I keep the door way open to God. It is the way I keep the God with in me awake and allow God’s goodness to flow into me. So, at the risk of sounding Pagan, here are the steps I follow to meditate.
First, there is the cleansing process. This process removes the dirt from both the body and mind and helps me to relax. Starting with a warm bath that has Lavender salt in it and lighting a white candle, this is starts the process of relaxing the mind and soul. Then I slip into the warn bath, close my eyes and for a few minutes just enjoy the warm water. With my eyes close, I imagine, myself walking down a forest path. As I am walking down this path, I’m picking up little stones and putting them into a bag. Each stone represents something negative that happen in my life since I meditate the last time. For example, one stone represents anxiety, another one could represent hate and a third could be greed. I know this is going to be controversial but I have been putting my sin(s) into the bag as well. Forgiveness is something between refuses to fire. How can any so called “man” of any denomination or religion call themselves a man of god when they them selves are so dam corrupt!? Do these sinful priests and clergy really except people to follow them? (I have me and my God. Not something between me and some sinful priest(s) that the Vatican gave my answers and opinions to these 2 questions in my other Blogs). There is no limited on the number of stones which go in the bag. Continue on walking down the path. Enjoy the rays of sun light coming down through the trees. Notice the shadows cast by the trees on the ground. Take the time to lesson to the birds sing. Then imagine, yourself coming to a bridge that crosses over flowing water, walk to the center of the bridge and stop by the railing. Now, start to take the stones out of the bag one at a time and through the stone into the water below. Watch them splash into the water and have the cool, clean current carry them away. Feel yourself getting more and more relax as the burden of sin and negative leaves your body. As you get more and more relax, allow your violet Charkha to open up and a connection to be established with the spirit of God. Allow the spirit of God to clean your spirit from sin and negative. When the bag is empty, finish crossing the bridge. Once you reach the other side, find a place (for you spirit) to sit down. You will return here in step two. Now, that your spirit in clean, it is time to clean your body. After you have gotten out of the bath tub, dry yourself off and put on your mediation outfit (if you have one).
The second step is the lesson from God and/or the request for God’s help. For this you will need a Bible, pencil or pen and some writing paper. Get yourself into a comfortable position. Close your eyes and look for your inspirit. It should be where you left it; after you cross the bridge. When you feel the connection, open your eyes and your Bible. A good place to start is either with Psalm 143 or 91. Read through the Psalms carefully and slowly. This is to get a general idea of what the Psalmist is trying to tell the reader. Next, ask yourself the question: What is God asking me to do for Him? God wants our loyalty, worship and praise. So, ask God to send the Holy Spirit into you so that God’s spirit with in you can be awakened. And, God will send the Holy Spirit into you because that is what He promises in John 14:17-18 and John 14:26, “…the Spirit of truth…for he lives with you and will be in you…”---NIV Let your spirit be awakened! Ask the Holy Spirit to help you and teach you. Your prays will be answer because “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”---John 15:7-8, NIV So, tell God what you want. This is to both your advantage and His. It is a life long partnership. And, like any partnership, their must be a trust between the partners. The lines of communication must be open at all times. It is when these lines of communication start to break down that’s when problems start to occur.
This does NOT mean that after you said your prays; you can sit back and do nothing. Quite the opposite! YOU have to make the effort. If there is a skill you want to learn, you have to seek out a teacher to teach you. If there is a habit you want to break, YOU have to seek the medical help out to help you break it. It is also important to remember that the changes won’t happen over night!
Third, and lastly, it is important to give thanks after you receive the gift you ask God for. The two prayers that I use to say “thank you” are found in 1 Samuel 2: 1-10 and Luke 1:46-55. Or, you can praise Him with just one Bible verse like Revelations 7:12, “…Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength to be our God for ever and ever. Amen!”---NIV This is so important that the angles in Heaven are praising God continuously. Psalm’s 150 give us an idea about how we can praise Him:
Praise the Lord.
Praise God in hid sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.
Praise him with the sounding trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord. ---NIV
You can use what ever gifts God has given to you to praise Him. I have found my way to praise God is through my watercolor painting. I will be painting religious icons and putting it on T-shirts. It is so important for our youths (and adults to remember is) to be taught to have a belief in a higher spiritual being. It doesn’t matter what name (it could be Zeus, Allah, Yahweh, Buda, God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit) is given to this higher spirit. What does matter is that they have some sort of spiritual belief in their heart and soul.
Labels: Bible Lesson
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