instruments

Instruments in God’s Hands

Posted on by Harold Boulette

“What have we to desire in heaven and on earth, only the glory of God? But it is necessary to desire the glory of God as he desires it. He who has absolute power over the heart of men, has a plan of operations; he does all things in their time; he waits until the hour is come. In coming into the world, our Lord could have converted the world at once, and destroyed all its vices; but the economy of his wisdom did not so direct. When I hear our Lord say, ‘mine hour is not yet come,’ and wishing neither to advance or retard, for a moment, the hour that his Father has appointed, I am plunged into my nothingness. We are only instruments in His hands, which he may lay aside, or use according to His good pleasure. … Remain therefore, my dear friend, in the hands of God. Let Him accomplish in you, and by you, His good pleasure, whether to cast down, or build up.” ~Madam Guyon

Glory of God

Some, I’m sure, will argue that they care for things other than the glory of God. Even many who believe in God don’t think that it is their business to worry about what God wants, or doesn’t want. What they miss is that part of what God wants is to their benefit. As the father of our spirits and souls, he wants happiness for us. He wants us to live in reasonable comfort. Not the overdone comforts of the greedy, but enough comfort and success to meet all our needs. So it does us well to desire the glory of God, for what He wants includes what we need and desire. And if it isn’t what we desire, it is at least what we need.

Plan of Operations

Madam Guyon is correct in saying that God has a plan. She doesn’t say what that plan is. One reason for that is there is an individual plan for each of us which is different from others. But there is also a more general plan that we are all to work on. That plan needs to be spoken, needs to be discussed. That plan is simply to return the fallen realm of matter and the beings trapped within it to their original spiritual state. God waits for us to serve as his instruments in that plan because he wants us to learn to be responsible co-creators. He also waits because if He were to transform the world back into spirit while many of us continued to cling to our material self as our real self, we would die. Material beings simply cannot live in a world of spirit. And since we have been given a certain degree of free-choice, God won’t force this on us. He waits, for now anyway, for us to decide that it is what we want.

Instruments in His Hands

It is also true that God uses us as tools (or instruments) to get some of His plan accomplished. Some say this is because He wants us to participate. Others say it is because God will not soil Himself by getting too close to the realm of matter. Perhaps there is some truth to both of those theories. Another reason might be that like our earthly parents, God wants us to learn from our mistakes by having us clean up the mess we made.

Now Gnostics know that it was the false god, the Demiurge, who created the physical universe from part of the spiritual one created by the true God. So you might say we had nothing to do with it. But while we, on the spiritual side, are children of God, on the physical side, we are just as much children of the Demiurge or fallen angels. So the mess of matter is, to some degree, our fault, and it is partly our responsibility to clean it up.

One problem, however, is that we really don’t know how to correct this great error. That is why we must be instruments in God’s hands. We must let him guide us without question or resistance. An instrument that resists doing the job that needs to be done is soon discarded as useless. Don’t be one of those discarded.

Cast Down or Build Up

Some will question the idea that as instruments in God’s hands, we should be willing to “cast down or build-up” as God requires. They might argue that destruction is not the way of God. Only building up is of God. God creates, Satan destroys.

While that is true, we have to look at it differently. When God is creating something new out of nothing, those rules apply. But transforming matter into spirit is different. In this case, something must be destroyed, in a sense, in order to create something else. The caterpillar must be “cast down” if a butterfly is to result. A despotic government may have to be cast down in order for a just government to take its place. So there is some degree of casting down required, but only when it serves the purpose of creating what is part of God’s Plan. And if we are to be proper instruments of God, we must try to think in all things, “what would God want me to do?” and act accordingly.

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affliction and temptations

Affliction and Temptations: How to deal with Them

Posted on by Harold Boulette

“There are things which the Lord so orders that He may not leave Himself without testimony of His divine grace and calling; and there are others which He orders in the way of permissions, that a man may be proved and exercised, that his self-determination may be made plain. Those in affliction and temptations, if they endure, do not fail of the Kingdom of Heaven, therefore Christians in circumstances of distress are not vexed or grieved. If they are tried by poverty or suffering, they ought not to be surprised, but rather to take pleasure in poverty and reckon it as wealth, and fasting as feasting, and dishonor and obscurity as glory. On the other hand, if they should fall into circumstances which in this life are glorious, which incline them to worldly ease, or wealth, or glory, or luxury, they ought not to take pleasure in these things, but to shun them as they would fire.” ~St. Macarius the Egyptian

Affliction and Temptations

There are many reasons why we may end up having to deal with affliction of some sort. Disease, poverty, physical handicap, etc. St. Macarius says this is because God is testing us. He wants to know if we will hold up under pressure. He wants to know if we will change our path when the path gets difficult. That is one reason why such things can happen. It isn’t the most common, however. It is nice to think that we are so important to God that He thinks we are worthy of such attention. It is somewhat egotistical to believe that. And while God isn’t opposed to us having an ego—it is a perfectly natural and useful thing—an overinflated ego is definitely not good. So while there is a slim chance that our problems are due to God testing our mettle, we shouldn’t think that if we don’t have good reason to. Good reason meaning something like an angel appearing to us in a vision and telling us. We should consider other possibilities first.

One other reason for afflictions is simply that we are in the place where they abound. Afflictions and difficulties are the weeds of the material world. They happen everywhere, needed or not. So sometimes they land on us for no particular reason.

The third reason applies only to those engaging in spiritual development methods. There are forces and beings that don’t want us doing that. They are the powers of matter, the demons of materialism. So when you stray from the path they want you to be on, they will smack you down with an illness, financial disaster, or other affliction. Or they will tempt you with material treasures. Affliction and temptations are the primary tools for control of humanity. Sometimes they use affliction and temptations together to get you to behave. This usually makes people unhappy. It shouldn’t. When the dark ones are trying to stop you, you know you are doing what you should be doing. We must be strong and ignore their efforts.

What Doesn’t Kill Us

While God rarely bothers to test the mettle of anyone, it may be other spiritual beings who do so as his agents. They know that affliction and temptations are the tools of the dark beings, so they will use them to test us sometimes. They do this not to prove our faith in God, but to make us stronger. We need to be strong because the closer we get to a complete spiritual awakening, the more desperately the dark ones will try to stop us. We need to be able to resist their attacks. We need to resist the afflictions and temptations. It’s the spiritual version of Wim Hof techniques to strengthen a person’s will-power and physical body by sitting outside nearly nude in very cold weather. It is Mr. Miyagi training the Karate Kid. This may seem harsh, but trying to force you to suddenly lift 200 pounds when you have never before lifted more than 20 is even harsher.

Reject Wealth and Glory

While St. Macarius is correct in saying that we also have to reject the temptations of wealth and glory, that doesn’t mean we have to live in obscure poverty. We can have a nice house, comfortable clothing, and even a little recognition (not too much). We can have it as long as we can avoid getting attached to it. Getting attached to material things is like filling your boat with rocks before heading off on a sail. Even if the boat still floats, it will be slowed down significantly. Yet you can sail over a large rock that weighs a few tons without difficulty because it isn’t in the boat or attached to the boat like an anchor. So we can accept some wealth and glory, just as we accept the affliction and temptations that help us grow stronger, as long as we don’t get attached to the things of the material realm.

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linking Gnosticism

Linking Gnosticism Joins Past to Present

Posted on by Harold Boulette

“If we can find nature’s own coordinate system, we might really be able to bring together the chasm between the humanists and scientists. THAT’S THE VERY ESSENCE OF ALL THE THINGS I’M COMMUNICATING TO YOU ALL HERE. Is there a structure common to both physical and metaphysical reality? … Perhaps there is a structure that is common to both metaphysical and physical reality – Gnosticism. …

“If God were wholly good how could he create a world such as ours?On the other hand, if he were wholly bad then what was the payoff in his creation? It is only when we move away from the idea of religion and get back to the idea of Gnostic thought that we can see how everything ties in together – and how it applies to the present day.

“Briefly, if we look again at the myths of Gnosticism we can remind ourselves that they were tales told to explain certain phenomena. There are many myths, but they all have a central theme: Gnostics believed in the distinction between spirit and matter, the one good, the other evil.They were dualists, although some would reconcile dualism with primitive monism. To all of them, God, pure spirit and supreme good, could have no direct contact with matter and the creation of this present evil world. They provided, therefore, for a succession of emanations from Him. It was thought the Demiurge or creator1, one of the more remote of these emanations, or aeons, that the world came into existence. … Into this world were introduced by a higher aeon sparks of divinity which found lodgment in human beings.” ~Bernard Simon

Linking Gnosticism

While many will, of course, deny it, Gnosticism is the only spiritual and religious philosophy that causes both the realm of matter and the realm of spirit to both exist and both make sense.

I read in spiritual and New Age philosophy groups on social media all the time comments that God cannot be real because the universe—that is, the physical universe—is clearly imperfect. It is full of death, disease, and creatures that must kill each other and eat each other to survive. “How can God have created such a place?”, they ask. There answer is usually that this proves there is no God. Far from it. God is nothing more than the guiding intelligence of the universe in question. If there is no guiding intelligence, then naturally there would be no God. But a total lack of intelligence would mean a completely random world where anything can and will happen. Where if a chicken laid an egg, we would have no idea whatsoever what can of creature may hatch from that egg. (I have gone into this in greater depth in a previous post). But in truth, we can reasonably expect that more than 99% of the time, the egg will hatch a baby chicken. That is not random. And if it isn’t random, it must have intelligence of some sort. That is simple, basic logic. And if there is intelligence in the universe, there must be a top to the pyramid of that intelligence. That top or collective consciousness is what we call God. Yet it should be clear that the physical universe, while intelligent and predictable, is imperfect. It, therefore, must be the product of an imperfect god. That is the one Gnostics call the Demiurge.

Linking to Spiritual Realms

The spiritual realm must be intelligently guided as well. The idea that a random and idiotic realm could be the progenitor of a reasonably intelligent one makes no sense. Especially if we accept that the spiritual worlds are the homes of angels and other higher-level beings than us. But the spiritual world doesn’t have the evil side that the physical world has. It is the creation of the true God, the God of spirit. This is the God that Jesus called father. It is not the angry, jealous god of the Old Testament. Linking Gnosticism helps us link the spiritual to the material world.

Myths of Gnosticism

When Simon talks about the myths of Gnosticism, he doesn’t mean fantasies. Myths can be fantasies, but there are two other types of myths.

One is allegorical stories. These stories may or may not be literally true. That really doesn’t matter. They are not told as history. It is their allegorical meaning that matters. One needs to know the key to the allegory used by a particular school to truly understand it’s writings.

The other kind is stories which are literally true, not intended as an allegory, but are not accepted as truth by the general public. These are labeled as myth by those who don’t accept them. This label is incorrect. Simply because you don’t agree with something doesn’t make it a myth. But the popular churches label much of Gnostic teachings myths, by which they mean lies. They have no proof of that. They label it as such only because it conflicts with their teachings. They have no interest in finding the truth.

Linking Gnosticism Old and New

But the times are definitely changing. More and more people are looking beyond the traditional churches with their dogma to spiritual schools. As a result, Gnosticism is awakening again. So now linking Gnosticism is linking the old mystery schools and Gnostic schools with the spiritual schools of today. Not all of them, of course, but eventually they will all come around.

1 – Creator of the physical world only.

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Father's Light

Father’s Light That Awakens and Illuminates

Posted on by Harold Boulette

Song 1: My Father Evoked Holy Fire

“My father the pleasured light,
the pleasured light, the glory,
my father the pleasured light,
the pleasure, the holy light,
my father the pleasured light,
the pleasure,
the esteemed light.

He summoned the aeons of light,
he chose them to enjoy his greatness.
He summoned the aeons of peace in whom no flaw or loss lives.
He summoned the aeons of light
and his sons in whom he put the aeons.
He summoned the aeons of peace.
He called his wealth,
set it in them.

He summoned the aeons to repose.
He called his angels,
set it in them.
He founded places for life.
He set living icons in them.
He set living icons in them,
which never disappear. …

“I couldn’t see where the son of evil saw them.
I stood up, saying,
I want to be like them.
Where did the son of evil see them?
Did the poor one own nothing?
No diamonds are in his possession,
no eternity in his estate. …

“A son of light looked down from high and saw him.
He said to rich brethren,
O my brethren,
sons of light in whom no flaw or loss lives,
I looked down into the abyss.
I saw the evil one,
the son of evil.
I saw the evil one, the son of evil,
who wanted to get into war.
I saw his seven companions too
and his twelve helpers.
I saw their tent pitched and a roaring fire in it.” ~The Coptic Manichaean Songbook

Father’s Light and Fire

In the ancient world, fire was used to provide light. As a result, when they said fire, they may have meant light. For example, the famous pillar of fire that led Moses was probably a pillar of light.

So the Father’s light is the spiritual light that comes from God. It may come to us through the stars and, primarily, the spiritual sun, but it originates with God. This is not the ordinary light of the physical world, although that light also has benefits on the physical level. It is a higher light, of a higher frequency and a higher level of consciousness.

Aeons of Light

Aeons (or eons) generally refer to a measurement of time. Specifically, a very long period of time, also known as an age. I believe this Manichaean song is using the word to mean something different. I think in this case, it means an arc angel or some similar high-level spiritual being. The song alternates between referencing Aeons of Light and Aeons of Peace. I believe they are the same beings. A being of light is automatically a being of peace. An angry, violent being is never a being of light.

Son of Evil

The singer of the song, whoever that might be, says he couldn’t see where the son of evil say them. It is not clear who he means by “them,” but I think it is the angels or Aeons mentioned previously. The singer says he wants to be like them. This would certainly make sense if he was talking about the angels, or Beings of Light.

But then the singer remarks on the poverty of someone. Poverty in a material sense, anyway. I think the singer is now referring to the Son of Evil. Yet the children of evil do have material possessions and plenty of them. So I think he is speaking in allegorical terms. Saying that he has no diamonds means that he has nothing of any great value. That is because material possessions have little value. Only spirit is permanent, so only spiritual things have true and lasting value. He Son of Evil once shared in the Father’s Light, but having fallen from truth, he could access that light no longer.

Son of Light

The sons of light did, of course, still bath in the Father’s Light. That id the only way to be a son or daughter of light.

The son of light in the song confesses that he has looked down into the abyss where he saw the son of evil. This tells us that the evil ones live in a place that the sons of light consider an abyss. An abyss is usually a deep hole or space. In this case, I think it means a lower dimension. A dimension which may only be one lower than the one the sons of light are in, but as far as they are concerned, it is far below them. Far below because it is mostly made of matter rather than spirit. It is also far below them because the Father’s light barely exists there.

Wanting War

When the son of light looked into the abyss at the son of evil, he saw that the son of evil and his helpers wanted war. Not war with each other, or with the sons of light. They are not foolish enough to fight each other. Nor would they attack the sons of light, knowing that would be a battle they could not possibly win. No, the evil ones plotted to cause wars among men, not each other.

One might assume that the sons of evil loved war and violence among humans simply because they were evil. Or perhaps because they found it great entertainment. While they may certainly have been part of it, there is something even more important.

Since the sons and daughters of darkness do not have access to the Father’s Light, they need another source of energy, another source of life. The source they use is blood, primarily human blood. The fairy tales of vampires and other dark beings that live off human blood are not entirely fantasies. They are based on the true tales of the children of evil who do live on blood.

A New Age

But the times are definitely changing. The Sun of Righteousness shines down upon us now. This spiritual sun brings more of the Father’s Light to us than ever before. It is easier now than ever for us to awaken. The bad news is that if we don’t all awaken soon, we will lose the opportunity. In this case, “soon” might mean ten years, or a hundred. No one on this level knows exactly. But it isn’t forever. So turn to the Father’s Light now.

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