Some time ago I felt most honored to be featured in a profile published by Panay News. During the interview I was asked about my views on life, and it was whilst answering this question that I pointed out that better than simply to believe in God is to meet Him face to face.
A colleague recently took me up on this and asked me to explain. I told him that since God is infinite he does not have a face, nor does He have a body, and nor does he possess all of the human qualities which we invariably attribute to Him.
Since God is infinite He is everywhere and exists within all things, in a blade of grass, in the smallest insect, and at the center of every atom. So how could God have a face?
We cannot create an image of God or attempt to create him in our own image any more than we can fit the ocean into a coffee mug. God is simply too vast. As such He is far beyond our ability to conceive. There is no way that we can understand or even imagine God with our limited mental ability.
In the same way ‘The Kingdom of Heaven’ is not a physical place. If God is indeed infinite then the Kingdom of Heaven must be infinite too and must exist within all things, including each one of us. Was it not Jesus himself who said ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is within’?
So many of us have an image of God as an old man with a long white beard, but this is not God. This is simply a god that we ourselves have created in our own image.
Many think that Heaven is somewhere up in the sky, but no satellite, no space rocket, and no high resolution telescope have yet discovered it. Nor will they discover it, because the Kingdom of Heaven can only be found within. The Kingdom of Heaven exists everywhere, but it is only when we go deep within that we have the potential to experience The Kingdom of Heaven for ourselves.
Every human being on the face of this Earth, regardless of religion or circumstance, has the potential to realize this Heaven within, not when they die, but now, within their lifetime.
Only then can an individual realize the divinity that resides within. Only then can an individual become aware of his or her own true identity. We are not who we think we are. We are so much more. It is my belief that only when each of us comes to realize our true identity can peace finally reign throughout the Earth so that wars will be no more.
Only then can the vast amount of money currently spent on weapons and armament be spent on feeding the hungry, and upon alleviating the suffering of those less fortunate than ourselves.
Changing this world does not begin with governments but rather it begins with you and I, and it begins with finding contentment within. The reason that wars are waged in this world is because there is a war going on within each one of us. The world is simply a reflection of how we are as individuals.
I cannot claim that I have seen God face to face. “Face to face’ is just an expression. I consider myself extremely fortunate however to have encountered a teacher who showed me a means whereby I might access the experience to which I refer.
This world can become a very crazy place at times, and it provides me with great solace to know that there is a safe place within where I can shelter from the storm.
For me, God is not a question of belief, or of what religion I follow, or of listening to other people’s descriptions of God or their perception of what they consider God to be. For me God is an actuality. It has to be this way.
A thirsty person could never be satisfied simply by somebody offering them a description of water. A thirsty person needs to drink. How much more so when it comes to God? Any person possessing even an ounce of common sense will be able to appreciate this.
With Christmas fast approaching, many of us will be looking forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus. I feel that it would be a far greater tribute to him if we were firstly to make an effort to understand what it was that he tried to so hard to communicate to us, but more importantly to investigate how we might experience for ourselves the experience of which he spoke./TE
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