Are You Experiencing The Presence of God or Do You Simply Follow a Narrative About What You Think It Means to Be a Christian?
God is in you
Where are you on your spiritual journey?
Have you had an awakening or are you following a set of rules?
How do you experience God daily?
Are you at peace in your mind?
Hi guys!
I really want to put it to death — my old Self.
What about you?
Do you get tired of slipping into the ego?
I don’t like that person. I’m ready to shed it all. “Take it away, Lord. I don’t want it anymore and I don’t need it either.”
I’m practicing being less. More of Him and less of me. That’s my goal.
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
John 3:30 (ESV)
One of the hardest things about teaching and sharing the spiritual pathway is trying to find out if people are actually experiencing God in their lives daily.
They read this book and that book, the Bible, they listen to this preacher and that pastor and they read deep philosophical books, but do they experience the presence of God? And, is God able to work through them?
I’ve decided it’s time for me to teach on this.
Most people in the world have no peace whatsoever.
Many are miserable. They have no joy and don’t even like themselves.
Recently, I was led to reconnect with someone from my past.
It was to make amends. God had directed me. I wasn’t too keen about doing it, but the outcome was insightful.
My relationship with that person never ran smooth and no matter how hard I tried, it would always end in hostility.
This person has not become a Christian and while engaging in conversation with them, I could see that there was a constant need to be superior to me.
There was a veneer of kindness, but behind it was aggression.
This person has no peace.
Not long into our discussion, I could see that he was operating practically ninety percent from his ego.
In spiritual terms, we might call this the false self. It’s a construct of the mind.
An image created from the lower self. A persona.
The Cambridge definition of ego is..
“Your idea or opinion of yourself, especially your feeling of your own importance and ability.”
To reach the inner core of this person was virtually impossible. They had lived in this false self for so long that they believed it was them.
Because I had known this person when they were much younger, I was able to point out to them how sweet they had been at times in the past.
The ego is never sweet. It’s always about being better or the best.
He couldn’t understand that I was seeing two people in him - this construct of the mind and the real self.
However, without an awakening (born-again experience) there can be no spiritual growth.
And the sad part is that they can’t love because the ego can’t be loving.
They can’t appreciate or care about the essence of another human being.
It’s dangerous to be in a relationship with a person like this because they do not have your best interests at heart.
You become a tool to assist them in life and if you challenge them (the persona) in any way, they become highly defensive, protecting this image they have created.
The whole thing is fake.
And guess what? A lot of people are living like this today.
Many years ago before I was saved, I struggled in my mind too. I didn’t know who I was but I was aware that I had disconnected from my inner core.
I had reached the end of my self. I could no longer live in that way. I was doing everything the way the world likes us to operate, but my soul was dying inside. I cried out to God. “If this is life, I don’t want it.”
“If this is why you created me, I don’t want it. This is hell.”
And it was hell. To live separated from the presence of God is to live in hell.
In my recovery, I did a course called “Who Am I?” I was so drawn to the title of that course. I didn’t know myself, but I was ready to find out who I was.
My awakening had happened and I was on the road to finding peace of mind.
That person I mentioned above took no such path in life and to see how entrenched he has become in that false self is frightening, to say the least.
Everything is a battle or a competition. I was exhausted by our conversation and was glad to complete the process with him.
We can’t change others, we can only change ourselves
Where are you on your spiritual path?
Are you living in the mind that is keeping you disconnected from God?
What does it mean in reality to be born again?
Being born again is about dying to the false self. By asking Jesus to save you, you are asking him to save you from yourself.
You will kill yourself with the ego who thinks it is you.
The ego worries, judges, criticizes, complains, and competes. It’s always chasing after something. When I……. I will be happy and fulfilled, etc.
We chase these things but then time catches up with us. We think I’ll be happy when…. but then we get older, and there is no big happy ever after story because life is always presenting some challenges that will ultimately make us look within and eventually surrender a little more of the false self.
St Paul wrote in the book of Philippians, “Do everything without complaining and arguing so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.” (Philippians 2:14–15)
The spiritual journey is about the death of the old self. The old self is often referred to as the false self, or the old man in Christian terms, or the old sinful nature. It is painful to put this part of us to death.
Dying to Self
The world’s philosophy says LIVE FOR SELF but The Bible says DIE TO SELF.
Many people came to Jesus and asked to be His disciples, but most of them turned away because they were not willing to surrender the self life.
Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)
Who am I? What gives me my identity?
Spiritual transformation means restoring the truth into our lives that was lost in the beginning during the Fall of Adam.
“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
— Genesis 3:5
We are all like the first man (Adam), full of pride, and wanting to be like God. Because we are proud, we chase after things to please ourselves and not God.
This is what’s known as idolatry.
“Idolatry takes many forms — a relationship we value more than God; the desire for material wealth that is greater than our love for God; the desire to draw attention to ourselves rather than directing the attention of others toward God. The world is full of idols that dethrone God from our hearts. Anything that causes one to have a “self-focus” rather than a “God-focus” is a form of pride and is abhorrent to God.”
—Dr. D. W. Ekstrand (www.thetransformedsoul.com)
Deny Yourself
God is trying to save us from our selfishness because self-obsession leads to death. It’s amazing how many Christians choose to ignore this important command.
Many people wanted to follow Jesus during his ministry, they were excited, and they could see that He was a great person. They listened to His teachings and felt inspired and moved by his sacrificial life.
But, when it came to denying themselves, they couldn’t push through. They didn’t want to give up their self-life. Nobody wants to give up the self-life, but it’s the only thing that will save you from a life of misery.
The two things that keep us from God are:
1. Pride (Self) — the false belief that you are better than others
2. Idolatry (Desires) — the worship of a physical object as a god
Jesus said:
“Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”
— Matthew 10:39
Identity In Him
When someone decides to follow The Lord, they are essentially saying, I am dying to my Self. My self-life is no longer the reason for my existence. I am exchanging my old life for a new life. It is a supernatural exchange.
This change will be seen more and more in your decisions and actions when you have gone through a process of transformation.
It is in surrendering that you receive power. It’s not your power, but the power of God dwelling in your regenerated soul.
The Lord wants you to be happy. Dying to Self sets you free. It is in dying to yourself that you find yourself (when you lose your life, you find it). This is the paradox of the gospel.
Jesus explained to his disciples that dying to self is actually a positive thing that would bring them abundant life. For without death, there can be no resurrection.
“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”
— John 12:24; Galatians 5:22–23
Have you given your life to Christ?
Are you born again?
If you are not sure, maybe you could read the article below. It will act as a checklist for you to see if you have been born again.
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
Thank you for reading.
Have a blessed week In Christ Jesus!
Love & peace,
Órla
Good and solid teaching!
Well crafted and clear description of a fundamental part of the true Christian life. 👍🏻🙏