Jesus, the Son of God
To put it in no uncertain terms, you know Jesus, and thus also God, if and only if you clearly see Jesus as your equal. Only when you are able to proclaim with the same confidence and beyond any doubt, exactly as he did, “I and the Father are one,” you do truly know him. Naturally, because those realizations go hand in hand.
That’s when you realize that you are irrevocably saved and the proverbial Holy Spirit with all the gifts unmistakably descends upon you for he is the realization. That’s also when you enter the kingdom of God and see that the world you always considered fallen and flawed is, in fact, perfect and never was different.
Even as it is written, “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good,” you were always living in Eden. You were always at Home. You were just utterly oblivious to it, blinded by your grievances as you refused to “honor your father and your mother,” rejecting the undeniable reality that brought you where you are, and considered it an error and some kind of mistake.
An average believer is either on the verge of fainting or their anger goes from zero to hundred in a split of a second even by a mere idea of such blasphemy. The fear of breaking the religious dogma and losing their grounding, no matter how deceptive and fragile such safety may be, always gets the best of them when they are confronted with the truth.
Alas, if you read a book or follow a tradition, despite your claims that it makes you know God better and better, all what you get acquainted with is the book, its story, and the tradition you adhere to. Certainly not God in full glory.
Of course, there are people who would wholeheartedly agree with all of the above. And yet, sans few rare exceptions, just see the fruits of their efforts — none indicate a lived reality. Only intellectual understanding of the concepts, their acceptance, but no guts to put the understanding into practice, and thus no actual knowledge.
Which is perhaps even worse than the delusion of a believer, as such individual with mere intellectual grasp, when they compare themselves to utter ignorance of a believer, are convinced that they actually know. Even though they still doubt, which is also why they are compelled to invent elaborate arguments why they don’t walk the talk.
Arguments that are oftentimes clever and tedious to refute, the tediousness being always directly proportional to obstinacy of the excuse in question, nonetheless, still only empty rationalizations of one’s own shortcomings.
But, while faith and understanding are always riddled with doubt, truth is simple and allows no uncertainty. If you know, you know. Period. And that was the case two thousand years ago in Judea exactly as it is today, despite the clear differences in societal structure. Though even today there are places where people would throw stones at me, crucify me, behead me, and perhaps also burn me (just to be sure) for merely uttering these words.
And mind you, there are also places which people try really hard to turn to such creepy spots. Only to assure that their beliefs won’t be challenged by truth and their fragile, unsustainable, false comforts won’t be disturbed by inconvenient pressures to change their unsustainable ways. Ways which are destined to die one way or another. Ways which, nevertheless, still cause harm to Eden, and turn Heaven to Hell.
Do you have any more questions why you have to see Jesus — and not only Jesus, but everyone, from your loved ones as well as your enemies, through all living and non-living forms, to tiniest grains of sand in all corners of the Universe — as your equal and act accordingly? Do you wonder why the truth escapes you, if you are unable to treat the world and yourself equally?
It does not matter where you put yourself in the hierarchy. Aggrandizing is as misguided as is belittling. Striving to rule and reveling in servitude are both expressions of the same self-centered egomania. Which is nothing more than a manifestation of a desire to be indispensable and relevant, because the opposite is fraught with fear of looming (physical) death by (social) exclusion of any kind.
And no, being just a little bit ruling and only a little bit serving does not mean that you are out of the loop. It just means that, on top of it all, you are also a lukewarm hypocrite who’s scared shitless to go full in, someone who tries to “play it safe,” which is the pinnacle of egoistic delusion. After all, no matter how misguided and harmful, the actual zeal and drive of extremists is certainly commendable. But only the zeal and drive as such.
So, don’t tell me you know God or Jesus, if you cannot proclaim with perfect certainty, “Before Abraham was, I am.” If you cannot say that, or fully express it, you don’t know.
And yet, anyone can know. Even a dog, who’s failure to verbalize the truth is not a case of not knowing, just a case of different means of expression. Therefore, know God beyond any doubt and express it. And you will express it, because, once you know, you simply won’t be able to help yourself. Well, you may as well call it love.
The only true love there is.
