Knowing God, Seeing God

Ephesians 1:15-23

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

[Ephesians 1:17-19]

In recent reflections, we have been focusing on Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1:15-23. After giving thanks for the recipients of his letter, he prays that they would grow in their knowledge of God and his blessings.

In the midst of this prayer, there is a curious phrase in verse 18 that can be translated into English in a variety of ways. The NIV reads, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened." The ESV prefers, "having the eyes of your hearts enlightened." The ESV is closer here, though it doesn't quite convey the sense of the perfect participle in the original Greek. A more accurate translation would read, "...so that you may know him better, the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, in order that you might know..."

To put the matter plainly, though the NIV is right that Paul is asking God to reveal more of himself and his truth to the Ephesians, this translation misses the nuance of the phrase in question. It is not so much a request for enlightenment as it is an acknowledgement of the enlightenment that has already taken place in the lives of believers. Before we knew God through Jesus Christ, we were "darkened in [our] understanding" (4:18). In fact, once we were darkness. But "now [we] are light in the Lord" (5:8). When we first came to faith in Christ, the Spirit of God enlightened our inner being, helping us to see God more clearly than ever before.

We can rejoice over the fact that God has made himself known to us, enlightening the eyes of our heart in our conversion. But this is not the end of the story. Rather, there is still more of God to be known, infinitely more, in fact. Thus, as we consider how God has revealed himself to us, on the one hand, we are thankful for what we have already seen. On the other hand, we persistently pray for even deeper and broader knowledge of God and his grace. Today, however, we remember the gift of revelation and offer thanks for this expression of God's grace.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: Can you remember times in your life when God has enlightened you? Even as you pray for deeper knowledge of God, do you thank God for how he has revealed himself to you?

What Gives Order and Meaning to Your Life?

The LORD said to Moses,  "Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. These are the LORD's appointed festivals, which you are to proclaim as official days for holy assembly."
[Leviticus 23:1-2] 

Leviticus 23 outlines the major festivals that the Israelites are to celebrate every year. They include: the Sabbath (weekly), Passover, the Festival of Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Weeks/Pentecost, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, Shelters (Booths, Tabernacles). (Other familiar festivals, such as Purim and Hanukkah, were added later in Jewish history.) As we would expect, Leviticus emphasizes the sacrifices associated with each of these festivals. They are indeed holidays (holy days). Some involve fasting and repentance (the Day of Atonement). Others include a whole week of celebration (Shelters, see 23:40).

The Sabbath, included in Leviticus 23 as a festival, gave order to the ordinary life of the Israelites: six days of work; one day of rest; six days of work; one day of rest. The annual festivals structured to their year, with focused celebrations of God's grace. In Passover, they remembered how he delivered them from Egypt. The harvest festivals acknowledged God's provision of food. The Day of Atonement signified divine forgiveness. The Festival of Shelters allowed the Israelites to re-enact the experience of the Exodus. The combination of weekly Sabbath plus annual festivals organized and gave meaning to the life of the Jews. It helped them to remember God's mercy and to share together in his goodness.

So what gives order and meaning to your life? How do you think about your year? For some of us, we mark time by certain holidays, such as birthdays, Thanksgiving Days, and Christmases. Others of us think in terms of the school year and summers. Still others structure our lives by annual calendars: the Gregorian calendar (January-December) or even the IRS calendar (April 15).

Because most Christians do not follow the ceremonial/sacrificial laws of Leviticus, we do not, as a rule, structure our time by the Jewish festivals. But we do celebrate Christian holidays which, though they are not established in Scripture, nevertheless help us to remember God's grace. In Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus the Savior, the Word of God made flesh. Easter focuses on the victory of God over sin and death through the cross and resurrection of Jesus. These days are, for many Christians, "official days for holy assembly," in which we gather for worship and feasting, not unlike what is described in Leviticus.

These days, more and more Christians have discovered the power of the so-called Christian calendar, which is also known as the liturgical year or the church year. In addition to Christmas and Easter, the Christian year includes: Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Holy Week, Good Friday, Eastertide, Pentecost, and "ordinary time." Different traditions include other special days or seasons. The Eastern Orthodox year is distinctive in its timing, as well as its feasts and fasts.
 As I have grown in my faith, I have become more attentive to the seasons and holidays of the liturgical year. For me, this isn't a matter of legalism or formalism, but rather a way to experience God and his grace more deeply and variously. Right now, for example, we are in the season of Advent. As I remember the yearning of Israel for a savior, I am made more aware of just how much I need a Savior. Thus my yearning for the Lord increases, as will my joyful celebration of Christmas. I believe that there is freedom in Christ for us to acknowledge the Christian calendar in different ways. But, I would encourage all believers to consider how our experience of time—indeed, our experience of life—can be structured and enriched by intentional, regular, biblically focused celebrations of God's grace.

What gives order and meaning to your experience of time? How do you think about your year? Are there certain annual events or traditions that give significance and structure to your life? How might your life be enriched by intentional times and seasons of remembering God's grace?

Chasing the Wind

For a picture of overwhelming despair, look no further than Ecclesiastes:

So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.

A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? (Eccl. 2:17-25)

So goes the logic of hopelessness. But because of God, despair is not the only option. Jesus was tested. God knows our pain. Struggles abound; they surround us. But the Spirit is with us, and we can choose despair or hope. Our "no" to God leads to despair. We can say "yes" to God and know peace.

So we glory in the words of Jesus:

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

BREAK OUT OF THE LOOP OF STRUGGLE

QUOTE FOR TODAY:

Try not to become a man of success but a man of value.
Albert Einstein

The loop of struggle is voluntary. Whether you stay in it or not depends on the choices you make. If you follow the advice of voluntary strugglers and do what your parents tell you to (if they poorly manage their money and think that life is a struggle), then you will stay in this loop of struggle.

To break out of it means making some unconventional (as it will seem to many) choices in your life so that you would not end up like everyone else. These choices will make some people call you irresponsible and unwilling to grow up, but it’s your life and if you don’t want to end up like the masses, you might as well follow such advice.

So here is the main advice that will help you break out of the loop of struggle no matter how bad your situation might be.

Distance yourself from voluntary strugglers and be with progress makers
If your friends and family are voluntary strugglers, every single day you absorb their limiting views of the world and their false understanding about all important things in life such as money, success and happiness. If you don’t want to have the same life as they do, you should change your friends or at least partially distance yourself from the impact of voluntary strugglers. You should start being with progress makers because they will motivate you, make you believe in yourself and encourage you to achieve your goals.

Read books written by progress makers and study their mindset. You should reach a point where you are more influenced by progress makers than by voluntary strugglers.
Don’t get into any debts until you earn enough to buy things for cash.

Getting into debt is not a sin, but it keeps you in the struggle loop because it gets you out of the flow of effortless abundance. When you borrow from a person or an institution, you lower yourself to them. You as though become a slave to them because you place your security in their hands. That’s not how it’s supposed to be because we are all equal.

To receive more money, you shouldn’t ask for it from someone else. To receive money, you should give money first. I know it seems a strange way of thinking but that’s because we are taught the wrong rules about money which lead to the loss of freedom and debt. To never see the lack of money you have to get into the abundance mindset and leave the scarcity mindset. That means thinking in a completely different way than the majority of people do.

Have as little responsibilities as possible

You shouldn’t take on new responsibilities until you really know that you can handle all of them on your own. This means buying a house when you can really afford it and not when you qualify for the mortgage. This means having kids when you are financially secure and not when you can barely make the ends meet. I know that it feels nice to have your own place, but if you take out the mortgage, you are going to get into debt for life (or most of it anyway). That means loss of freedom until you die or for at least 20 or 30 years. So it’s a big price to pay for a house.

I know it’s much easier to do what most people do – have kids, get mortgage, get married. But if you are not ready, you are just enslaving yourself.

Don’t be like everyone else – break out of this horrible loop. Don’t get a mortgage and don’t have kids if you are not ready for such responsibilities. Create financial freedom first, travel, enjoy the world and see what it has to offer you.

Don’t settle down for less than what you want. Reach for your goals and focus on the achievements of others so that they would motivate you to achieve great things in life. Look away from those that are enslaved by the loop of struggle.

Reduce your expenses to experience freedom.

The less expenses you have, the more free you will feel. There are, however, two schools of thought on this subject. One says (e.g. R. Kiyosaki) that you should not reduce your expenses but focus on building assets. I completely understand this concept and it makes sense, however it can take years for your assets to be able to cover your large expenses. The other way of thinking (e.g. Bob Proctor) worked for me much better. It teaches that you should reduce your expenses as much as possible to create more freedom for yourself.

When you significantly reduce your expenses, more opportunities will show themselves to you and you will have more options. You will see that it’s really possible to start your own business to cover your small expenses and to quit the 9-5 slavery. You will also realise that you don’t have to live in one place all your life – you can move somewhere else if you feel like it because it’s your life and you can do whatever you want with it.

The less expenses you will have, the more in control of your life you will get. So only keep the expenses that are vital. Keep only those that would significantly reduce the quality of your life or would make you miserable.

RAISE YOUR STANDARD (1)

QUOTE FOR TODAY:

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out. Robert Collier

The majority of people have very low standards in life therefore they don’t achieve much. They don’t dream big because they think it’s unrealistic. So they only expect to have an average life and average life they get.

It’s easy to see how much the person will achieve in life by looking at his standards. If the person hopes to someday own a second-hand car, that shows that he has low standards. Such poor standards will never allow him to see any opportunities for buying a new car.

Settling down for the second best should never be anyone’s goal. Everyone can and is entitled to get only the best, yet because most people don’t raise their standards, they keep experiencing average stuff in their lives.

Raising standards means refusing to accept something that is not what you want. That should by no means be interpreted as pushing against that which you don’t want, because that will keep you stuck forever. It only means that you no longer agree to tolerate something that you’re not satisfied with and you focus on and demand better conditions. It means burning bridges to distance yourself from the average life and reaching for the better life.

Raising standards means distancing yourself from the people you no longer resonate with and being open to more enriching relationships.

Raising standards means quitting your job and focusing on building your own business to experience real freedom.

Raising standards means moving out of the environment you never liked and having courage to move into much more pleasant surroundings.

Raising standards means refusing to buy cheap stuff that makes you feel average.
Raising standards means being able to say “no” when you want and not feel guilty about it.

Raising standards means knowing your worth and refusing to settle down for things that don’t appeal to you.

I raised my standards by refusing to work for someone else. I didn’t care if that would mean having no money for some time, I just couldn’t put up with being someone’s slave anymore. To me, working for someone else meant loss of freedom and being used as a tool for someone else to succeed. Life eventually gave me what I was asking for – it always does, just some people don’t wait long enough to receive what they asked for.

I get a lot of emails from people asking me for advice for one particular problem – they do everything right, yet nothing seems to change. They visualise, they think positively and do all the other stuff that is necessary to improve their lives, yet things remain exactly as they were. So here’s my solution to this problem: you need to give some time for everything to change. Nothing can change instantly in your environment when you start thinking positively. Give some time and you will definitely get what you demand.

Anyone who succeeds in whatever they pursue do so because they refuse to accept less than what they want. For example, R. Kiyosaki (self-made millionaire) absolutely refused to work for someone else.

If you haven’t read his first book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, you definitely should, especially if you want to work for yourself.

He and his wife were even on the streets once, yet they still continued to build their own business. Then they lived in the basement of their friend’s house (as far as I remember), but they still refused to work for someone else.
They also tithed and paid themselves first whenever they earned some money. They refused to give all their money to pay bills – they tithed and paid themselves first, and only then paid their bills. It was really tough but they continued to build their own business, tithe and save. And finally both of them became extremely successful.

Here’s what lowers your standards:
Fearing when the next bill arrives.
Giving up when some difficulty presents itself.
Letting other people decide how you live your life.
Accepting your situation and doing nothing to change it if it’s not what you really want.
Being in a relationship with a person who is not worthy of you.
Settling down for the average out of the fear of the unknown.
Accepting the second best.
Allowing others to treat you with disrespect.

Self-Esteem Issue
People who have low standards have low self esteem. If you have low self esteem, you’re not going to naturally demand the best, because you will not feel worthy of it. So to have high standards in life you should firstly have high self esteem.
You develop high self esteem when you stop listening to what others have to say about your life and start making decisions yourself. When you do that, you understand that people are so confused and almost all of them have low self-esteem too.

This happens because when you start making your own decisions, people will start asking you for advice and they will consider you to be a better decision maker than they are. So then you will realise that people don’t really trust their own capabilities in making good decisions because they have poor opinion about themselves.

Most people have the same amount of knowledge as you do. So you shouldn’t think that others know more about life. Yet many people think that others know more and those people think they know more than them. I know this sounds a bit unclear so here’s the picture to illustrate this thought:
I too used to think that others knew more than I did. I used to listen to others no matter if their opinions resonated with me or not – somehow I thought they knew more. How wrong I was!

People with low self esteem lower your self-esteem (if you let them) because they cannot notice your worth if they don’t recognise their own worth. If you didn’t understand the previous sentence straight away, read it again – you will get more insight into the human nature. This understanding should enable you to disregard the remarks and opinions of others about how you should live your life.
When you make your own decisions, you become more and more assured about your abilities and you start appreciating yourself more. And this makes your self-esteem rise. This also develops your leadership skills.

Why We All Need a Coach. http://tiny.ly/0vH

How To Recognize and Get Rid Of Limiting Beliefs

Limiting beliefs serve as filters of your reality. You see the reality in a different way than others because you have different beliefs than other people. The same situation is viewed differently by different people. That's why the situation that you find funny might be completely depressing to others.
We form beliefs because they simplify our lives. If you, for example, got burnt by a hot stove, next time when the stove is hot you won't touch it because you believe that you will get burnt. This is the example of a positive belief that simplifies your life and protects you.

However, when you get a limiting belief, your life loses its richness because you are not able to perceive it correctly. For example, if you got hurt in a relationship and you start believing that all men/women are the same, this belief will not allow you to see men/women that do not fit into your belief system.
Many people mistakenly look at the world and think that what they see is the real world. However limiting beliefs color their lives in the way that is only true to them. It's very hard for such people to understand that the life that they perceive is only so because of their limiting beliefs.

How To Recognize Limiting Beliefs

You can notice your own negative beliefs when you catch yourself saying things such as:
"Life is ..."
"I am a ... person"
"Earning money is ..."
"I cannot do this because ..."

If you find yourself repeating some kind of phrase all the time, you should realise that it's a belief that you have. If the belief is positive, for example, you keep repeating how lucky you are, you should not touch it because it serves you. However, if you find yourself repeating disempowering or negative statements such as “I am a loser”, you should change such belief.

You should also understand that your every opinion and the way you see the world is so because of your beliefs. If you don't like something, it means you have some kind of limiting belief about that thing. If you find something depressing, this is so because of your beliefs.

Some of the beliefs are hard to discover because they were formed at a very young age. Some of your beliefs were taken from your parents and they no longer serve you, however they keep filtering your experiences their own way because you fail to notice and eliminate them.

No matter how long you had some belief for, you can always eliminate it because your active beliefs are in your conscious mind. They can be hidden under so looking innocent thoughts (for example, “He thinks that only because of his fancy car he can show off” is a hidden belief about money), but such beliefs can still be uncovered by analysing thoughts as such.

So to uncover your negative beliefs you have to pay attention to your daily thoughts and if some thought is negative, ask yourself why you think in such a negative way. This will uncover your belief.

Try to also remember what your parents used to say to you in the areas that you are struggling with. If, for example, you have difficulties with money, maybe your parents used to say phrases such as “Money is hard to earn”, “Money doesn't grow on trees” or “I cannot afford this”. It may take some time to uncover your beliefs, but it will be time well spent. The quality of your life depends on it. Spend some time now uncovering and eliminating them and you will improve your life experience to a great extent.

How To Get Rid Of Limiting Beliefs

Once you uncover some of your negative beliefs, write them down and read them aloud. If, whilst reading some statement, you get a negative feeling in your solar plexus (the area above the stomach), it means that you have just uncovered an active limiting belief that is affecting your life experience.

Now you should understand that you are not a child anymore and that you have a free will. You can choose whether to keep such belief or to eliminate it. It is up to you. Simply say to yourself that you no longer choose to belief in this and that from now on you will look for the evidence that would show that the contrary to your belief is true.
Also, you should start affirming and believing in the belief which is opposite to your limiting belief. You should have faith that the opposite belief is true and that it will color your life experience in a much richer way than the previous belief.

For example, if you used to think “It's impossible for me to earn a lot of money”, you should now affirm “I find it easy to earn large amounts of money”. Whenever you earn money, affirm that this is the evidence of your new belief.
Keep in mind that you believe something to be true because of the “facts” that seem to support such belief. For example, if you believe that you are unlucky, you look for the “facts” that prove you to be unlucky. But by doing so you miss out on the facts that show that this is not the case. So if you believe that you are unlucky, you will only see the facts that support this belief. To change your beliefs, open your mind and start searching for the facts that deny them.

If you have some kind of limiting belief that was transferred to you by your parents, you should not blame them for that. Your parents didn't know that their beliefs were limiting and affected your life experience. They did what they thought was best and they shouldn't be held responsible for who you are today.

You have an absolute freedom to choose the way you want to live and you can choose your own beliefs and ways to behave. You should hold responsible only yourself for the person you have become. If you give this responsibility to others, you lose the power to change your life. And that's not a wise choice to make.
When you fully take responsibility for your own self and forgive parents and other people that you used to hold anger/resentment towards, your limiting beliefs that were transferred to you will dissolve. All you will need to do then is keep reaffirming the opposite beliefs and look for their manifestations.
For further information, visit: Six Minutes To Success

HOW TO REACH HIGH LEVEL OF SELF-AWARENESS (2)

The breakthrough

It is impossible to reach higher levels of awareness by searching for the answers outside of yourself. All the answers that you will ever need is inside you. You can become aware of better living and how to achieve better results only by visualisation and by properly using your other mental faculties.
When you visualise some goal that you want to achieve, your whole body moves into the vibration of that goal. Because of the change in your vibration you are able to pick up ideas and thoughts of a higher level of awareness.
That's how inspiration comes to you when you visualise something. It is your unconscious mind making you aware of how to achieve that goal. The ideas that your unconscious mind sends to you are vitally important for the achievement of your goal.

For example, if you are living in a small house in a bad part of the town it means that you are not aware of how to afford a larger house in a better part of the town. For you to be able to live in a better house you need to visualise yourself already living there. If you keep visualising it, your conscious mind will soon transfer this vision into your subconscious mind and the subconscious mind will give you ideas about how to get your desire. You will pick up on those ideas and you will take an appropriate action to achieve your goal.
A rough ride If you expect a smooth transition from where you are to where you want to be I have bad news for you. You must get some (maybe even many) failures along the way. This is because of your comfort zone, and also because you have introduced new vibration into your subconscious mind.

So now you have new and old (your old conditioning) vibration going on in your subconscious mind. That will cause all sorts of confusion for you, it will seem that everything is going wrong. But you should understand that this is happening only because big changes are taking place in your subconscious mind and it is adjusting to the new vibration you introduced.

The bigger the goal you set for yourself, the bigger obstacles you will need to overcome. But never fear any failures, always have faith that you will achieve your goal and that will let you overcome all the obstacles that will appear in front of you.

What happens when you reach higher levels of awareness
When you raise your vibration and reach higher awareness level, you will notice some changes in yourself and the outer world. You will manifest your desires much quicker and you will be more centered. You will react to the outer world in a less dramatic way and you will suffer from no or little mood swings. In general, you will become a much more understanding, happy and peaceful person.

When you manage to reach a higher awareness level, your life will change in many ways. You may start new relationships and end old ones and you may decide to do something different with your life. The quality of your life will improve greatly and that will encourage you to further raise your awareness.

For further information, visit: Six Minutes To Success