I was a bit confused about a profound spiritual matter recently and to be honest, I’m not absolutely sure I’ve arrived at the answer – at least in it’s entirety at this point, but the gears are still turning, and I think it’s to a point now where I can share some of it. I keep going back to the commandment Jesus gave us about our absolute need to love our Father in Heaven, [Matthew 22:37]: “Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.” and if the truth was known, and if we were truly willing to admit it, we might not all be comfortable with the level of dedication we have in obeying this greatest of commandments. In another place, we’re told we must love Him in spirit [John 4:24]: “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” But we are beings made of flesh, our minds of flesh think earthly thoughts, and to worship in spirit is in itself an impossibility if we try to worship Him on our own – using whatever mental and emotional tools with which we are endowed as human beings. In order to properly and completely love God we need the help of His Holy Spirit – we cannot possibly love God in spirit and in truth without His Spirit dwelling within our hearts. We cannot have HIs Spirit in our hearts without a spiritual connection which only comes from Jesus Christ [John 14:6]: “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Do you get the drift? The ONLY way we can obey the first and greatest commandment, that is, to love God with all our being, is to have the Spirit of Jesus Christ within us. If a person claims to love God without having Jesus Christ in his heart, he is deceiving himself.

Now for this to make sense, we need to consider that God made us in His image [Genesis 1:27]: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” I used to think that meant only God’s physical image, but now I’m pretty sure that’s not at all what He meant, and we probably don’t look like Him at all. He was talking about His Spiritual image, and that covers a lot of territory. If we stop and think about this, considering that God IS spirit, a totally spiritual relationship is the only way to possibly know God. That means if we wish to worship Him in Spirit, we must get to know His Spirit – only through Christ.

Remember the verse from the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus said [Matthew 5:8]: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” He is referring to seeing God with the eyes of our hearts. When we totally and unconditionally repent of our wrongdoings and give our hearts over to Jesus Christ, we begin to “see” God – dimly at first, but as we grow in our faith, His presence is seen, or felt, or however it might be understood, more plainly each day and we reach that point that Peter refers to [1 Peter 1:9]: “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” This is the inflection point where faith becomes truth for the believer, and the point in your spiritual maturity for which it’s well worth being patient, for this is where we understand that we are “seeing” God – and reach the understanding that we can only see Him if we love Him.

When we love Him in Spirit and in Truth as we should, as can only be achieved with a pure heart – no self-deception (and certainly no attempting to deceive God), though we might still be in that dark place looking for a light, as the morning star begins to manifest itself, we find a higher level of understanding, a place in our Spiritual experience in which we are assured of His Divine presence in our lives. If I have this right, I believe it’s where our faith in Him becomes replaced with absolute and irrefutable knowledge of Him. We no longer fear the events of this world, for our love is accepted, our faith is as complete as can be achieved in this iteration, or chapter, of our lives (the part of our journey – in which we must deal with the imperfection we experience in the flesh) and we can experience full confidence in our well-being, for we will achieve perfect love which eliminates fear. [1 John 4:18]: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” We can, therefore, determine whether we are in compliance with that great commandment, that is to worship the Father completely and in Spirit, simply be acknowledging whether or not we have fear in our hearts. Any fear – especially that fear of human events of this world. If we harbor fear in our hearts, we need to come closer to our Father and pray for His Spirit to teach us how to love Him spiritually and completely.

Another angle on our fear is the admonition from Jesus not to fear people, but to fear God. [Matthew 10:28]: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” This “fear” of God is the acknowledgement that He is supreme and is able to determine our ultimate fate, but by no means should be interpreted to fear Him as opposed to loving Him. Remember that perfect love casts out fear – when we love Him as we should, there’s no need to harbor any fear other than what could happen to us if we were to depart from His Divine grace in our lives.

For anyone reading this who has not come to know Jesus Christ, I cannot stress with human words the importance of learning of Him. If you watch the news, you already know how imperiled the world is – our time here is growing short and there’s nothing in the world you can do that is more imperative to your eternal future than to accept Jesus’ offer of salvation while there’s still time. Get your family and friends involved with Jesus. Pray for understanding and the gift of spiritual love for God. You’ll begin to reap great rewards from the very day you decide to repent of your past wrongdoings and start living for Jesus. Emotional rewards which can only bring peace into your life in these troubled times will replace all the fear and apprehension you experience daily. Learn to love the Father and experience the joy of that morning star which can never fade – forever.

May the blessings of the Almighty Father find and keep us.

MK