The Spirit Said: "Read It All Joe!"

I think it is time that I relate my story… specifically, the way that I arrived at my paradigm shift. This blog post may be a little longer than usual but I will try to confine the number of words and paragraphs in the interest of brevity. I was raised in fundamental Christianity beginning in the 1950’s. I spent much of my life in church. In those days I was there two times on Sunday, once on Wednesday and every other Friday. In addition there were special church outings and programs. I made a public confession of Jesus as my Savior in 1957 at the age of 11 but had faith in Jesus at a much younger age. I memorized scripture and heard thousands of sermons and Sunday School lessons.

At the age of 19 I began my education in the public university, and little by little I left my faith. There was so much that my religious upbringing taught me that just didn’t square with common sense and scientific fact. I left Christianity but I never left my faith in a benevolent God. I never left my quest for the purpose of existence. I always had a sense that we were here for a greater purpose. In leaving Christianity I left all of the legalistic trappings, and even ventured from time to time into moral laxity… well, actually quite often :). Over time I made questionable choices that resulted in painful experiences. It was in my mid-forties that I became depressed and continually anxious. This triggered a moment of truth. I remember going out on my back porch in Hayward California and looking up to the sky with a prayer in mind.

I prayed, “God I know that you are up there and that you are in charge. I also realize that I am not in charge really. Everybody and their aunt Suzy claims to know you and to know the truth about you and to know truth. They all disagree. They all have books that they claim are inspired and yet there is little or no agreement. Here is what I am saying, I want to serve you and know you so could you please teach me the truth?” That was the extent of the prayer. I had no expectations on what the answer would be but I was confident that an answer would come.

The next day I was driving to San Francisco on business. As I got on 880 I began to preach myself a sermon. A verse that I had memorized as a child came into my mind and I spoke it… the verse was 2Cor 5:17 “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things have passed away and behold all things have become new.” I had memorized it from the King James Version in the fifties. As soon as I finished the words of the verse the sun got much brighter and a most amazing peace flooded my being. The anxiety was gone. None of the problems that had been the cause of the anxiety were gone. They were still there but now I had a peace that surpassed all understanding. I can honestly say that the peace has never left me since that day.

I immediately thought that I had received the answer and ran out to buy me a bible. I began to read it and as I would find passages that caused condemnation in my mind, a sweet soft voice would whisper ever so tenderly… "read it all Joe." I would always have the sense that the meaning of this was that I did not yet see the big picture, and was not interpreting it correctly. So, I continued to be obedient to the voice and I continued to read and read.

One morning shortly after the back porch prayer I was listening to Inez Andrews sing about the handwriting on the wall. As I sat there I opened the scripture. The place where it opened was Daniel Chapter nine. The first part of the passage that caught my eye at the top of the page was this… (Dan 9:21-23)  “yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering.  (22)  And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, "O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand.  (23)  At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision:” I knew that this was a special message to me. I did not then understand the total significance… that came much later. I was filled with the Holy Spirit and I focused on the words to Daniel, “you are greatly beloved.” I had the sense that Father was saying this directly to me. I knew that I was greatly beloved. It was only years later that with reflection I realized that this had been the answer to the back porch prayer. From the time I prayed a decree had gone forth to teach me truth.

So what was the truth I was taught? The short answer is that God is much bigger than the boxes that religion has created to house "THE SOURCE." The creative source is not limited to a specific religious understanding. Jesus however, is the Logos incarnate. He came directly from the quantum source to be a mediator between us and the source. It took the "Read it All" message to get me to the place to see it. While this is not true for everyone, it took theological study, historical study to begin to see the real message of the scripture. I read John 5:39-40, Luke 24:27; 44-45, and realized that Jesus taught that the purpose of the scripture was to point to him. Then, I began to see that the writers of the New Testament meant gospel or Jesus the incarnate gospel when they used the phrase "word of God." It was then that I began to see that Jesus overthrew the legal-constitutional reading of the scripture and instead replaced it with a solely redemptive purpose. He taught what it means to love and how one should love. He taught that one should only do to others what they would want to have others do to them. He taught that we as children of our Father in heaven should care for one another and help to meet the needs of those oppressed and poor. 

He then through mystical means revealed to the Apostle Paul that the world was reconciled to the Father. He revealed the definition of love. He went on to mystically reveal that Father is Love, and that we need not fear death because we were eternal children that were/are the apple of God's eye. This is the revelation that changed my paradigm. It is the revelation that came from being obedient to the Spirit saying "Read it All Joe, Read it All. I now know that the meaning of those words read it all, was study it, study the culture, allow me the Spirit to let you get between the lines and see a glimpse of the occasion and circumstances of the writing. And further, it allowed me to see that much of it was simply cultural, of a different time and it gave me three ways to measure the authoritative message. 1) Was it about Jesus and did it focus on his teachings of love? 2) Was it redemptive and did it explain that ALL are reconciled? 3) Did it promote, display, or encourage, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and did it explain that self control would be the off-shoot of the love of the Father, the joy from knowing the peace we have with the Father, and knowing the patience, kindness and gentleness of the Father? 

Whether or not one believes in the possibility of current revelation, almost all believe in illumination from the Holy Spirit. I believe that this is what I received as an answer to my prayer. It was illumination of the scripture. Over the course of time, some twenty plus years now in all, I believe with all my being, that The Lord has answered my back porch prayer. The answer is the paradigm shift that is found in the many posts on this blog and hopefully will soon be put into a book.

Giovanni: God is Gracious

Act 20:24  But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

I have spent the last thirty years of my life, studying and proclaiming the gospel (good news) of God's grace. In that time I have found that most of what is taught by evangelical Christianity and orthodoxy for that matter is in gross error. First, let me briefly explain my beginnings here on planet earth. I was born into a family that was fundamentalist Christians in the mid 1940's. I was raised in the church and in fact one could take that quite literally. I was in two to three services on Sunday, two during the mid week, and often there was a youth meeting or activity on either Friday or Saturday. So, yes, you can conclude that I was indoctrinated in fundamentalist evangelical dogma. However, early in my twenties, I left the church, deconstructed my belief and explored many other forms of spirituality. This changed my world view definitively. It changed many of my former beliefs that I inherited from my evangelical upbringing. However, in my mid forties, I circled back to faith is Jesus, albeit with a completely different paradigm. In the beginning it was difficult bringing the two disparate world views together but over time, I was able to meld them quite nicely.

This brings me to the story of Giovanni. In the late 70's early 80's I lived in Phoenix AZ. During that time I was introduced to Yolantha. She was a Dutch woman that had a Dutch accent to her English and hosted spiritual walks. The way that these walks worked was a group of us would sit around a candle lit table. We were instructed to close our eyes. Yolantha would then talk us into a deeper state of consciousness by having us breathe and relax to her instruction. She would then give us assignments to accomplish while meditating. I believe this is called guided meditation. This was a very spiritually productive time for me and the walks accomplished many things including ridding me of my fear of water. I went from fearing being in water over my head to being able to dive to the bottom of the deep end of the pool and lay on my back floating for hours at a time.

It was on one such walk that she asked us to find and communicate with our spiritual guides. I discovered a man that looked middle eastern, had deep reddish curly hair with a full thick beard and an irrepressible smile. Yolantha told me that his name was Giovanni. At the time, I did not really think about his name or pay any great attention to it. I do know that the input that I had with him over the course of a couple of years was extremely productive and beneficial. In fact, I had not thought of Giovanni for years. This morning I was surfing the internet and on my home page of the Microsoft Edge I saw a photo of an Israeli man being arrested by two police officers for protesting near the Prime Minister's home. While he was not smiling irrepressibly, it was the face of Giovanni as I remembered it so vividly after all those years. In fact, the image of Giovanni is a fresh as the first time I saw it. So we are fastforwarding from 1980 at the latest, to 2020 today. Still after forty years though my memory has dimmed to most things from that period, it is still vivid as I recall Giovanni.

That prompted me to look up the meaning of the name Giovanni. I did and I was completely blown away. It means God is gracious! Wow! As I returned to my faith in Jesus in the early 1990's, my focus from the beginning has been the "gospel of grace." Early on, as I was pastoring a small church, I decided to use my carpentry skills to make a small pulpit. I got out my router to write Jesus Saves on the front of the wood, and the Spirit said write "God is Love." If you read my paradigm shift blog you will find that over the last ten years I have focused on grace and love. That is certainly the theme that I am carrying on with this "Freedom Blog."

My point in this trip down memory lane is that even when I had completely deconstructed Christian beliefs, the Spirit of Christ never left me, and did not forsake me, and actually made an appearance in my guided walk meditation, and the facilitator was inspired to tell me his name was Giovanni. Giovanni, God is gracious... yes indeed! This just proves to me that God is SO MUCH BIGGER than the small box we have tried to put him in. God, Christ, the Spirit are beyond any religion. 

The Mystical Paul

2Co 12:2-4  I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows.  (3)  And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows—  (4)  was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.

Gal 1:11-12  For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin;  (12)  for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

There are increasingly more "red letter Christians" these days. What I mean is there are increasing numbers of Christians that downplay the revelation of Paul in favor of emphasizing Jesus words in the gospels. I understand why they are that way. They are reacting to evangelical dogma that has elevated the teachings of Paul above Jesus, especially the Sermon on the Mount. However, in many cases I believe that they are over-reacting.

I also realize that Paul is problematic on a lot of levels. For example his stance on slaves and slavery, and his apparent beliefs about women being subservient to men bring justified criticism and concern. However, for me it is not practical to dismiss someone on the basis of the culture and time they lived in. It is impossible to know what Paul would think if he lived today and what part of our culture he would gravitate toward.

But whatever the case, he had some very important revelations given to him. They were revelations that he had to explain in view of the culture he lived in with the language and development in science, philosophy and religion that was available at the time of his life and location. Given that, the revelation he received was profoundly timeless. His redemptive decrees were astonishing given his upbringing and culture. It is apparent to me that the verses that I have shared from him at the beginning of this article were true. I believe that these things actually happened. He was taken away in a mystical experience. He describes it as the third heaven and paradise. It must have been dreamlike because he was not sure if he was transported there in the body or out of the body. Whatever the case I am certain it was an existential experience.

I can imagine that the experience was similar to a computer download. He saw the revelation unfold and was told things that he was told not to repeat. Why was that do you suppose? I believe that it was similar to when the Spirit reveals something to us and then admonishes us not to share as it was only for us. No doubt it was information that other people were not equipped to hear experientially. A crude example would be if he were to get a glimpse of an automobile or an airplane he would have no frame of reference with which to describe it so if he saw it or it was revealed to him it would be better left unmentioned. I am not insinuating that is what he was shown, and am merely using it as an example. No doubt it could have been the nature of quantum reality which he simply stated in this way. 2Co 4:18  "because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal." Another thing that Paul the Mystic saw or heard about in this mystical experience was something that the author of Hebrews wrote about. While I personally doubt that Paul actually wrote Hebrews, it seems undeniable that whoever the author, they were a student of Paul, and intimately familiar with his teaching. What did that author write? Heb 11:3  By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. This could easily be the understanding of things that he was not permitted to tell others beyond these statements.

Perhaps he was given a vision of how people could be living in the material universe and simultaneously be seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This would mean that he was given instruction and revelation on the fact that the material universe is simply a construct of conscious energy, and illusion or dream of sorts. A dream that we lock ourselves into for a span of a life. There are many now that are trying to discount Paul's theology, claim that it wasn't even Christian, and focus solely on Jesus and the gospels. That in my view is a mistake. I understand their reasons, but none the less I think they are misguided and misinformed. The reasons no doubt is because of what Reformation theology has made of Paul. This does not take into account audience relevance and progressive revelation. Jesus audience was Jews. It is questionable that the creator of the universe would create the vast expanse of material reality for only Jews. The more reasonable stance would be that the Jews were made special to bring Jesus Christ into the world and set in motion an expansion of spiritual knowledge about the nature and purpose of the creator in the creation. Without Paul, Christianity is woefully wanting in that regard.

I suspect that the gospel of John was written so late in the first century to help synthesize Jesus and Paul. This is true also of the Acts of the Apostles. To remove Paul from the Christian experience would negate the writings of Luke. John's gospel, along with the book of Acts, gives credence to the spiritual and mystical aspect of Christianity. Without Paul, one would not have the knowledge that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Without Paul, one would not have the understanding that redemption was God's purpose in creation. Most of all, without Paul one would not realize that faith in a loving God is the real mark of righteousness.

Let me reiterate, I am not a fan of Paul's stance on slavery. I am not a fan of Paul's writings about the role of women in the church. I also realize that Paul was a product of his environment and culture. And when considering that, much of his writing and teaching made him a progressive for the time. What is undeniable in my view is his mysticism, and the benefit that brought about.

Binarual Beats and Meditation

I find meditative prayer and contemplative prayer beneficial. I even find that regular prayer is beneficial when one is in a meditative state. Meditation is simply quieting the mind. If you are like me you find it difficult to quiet your mind. Mine races all day long. Meditation is healthy as well. It lowers blood pressure and reduces stress and anxiety. However one of the benefits of meditation for me is being able to listen to the Holy Spirit. In a meditative state one can tap into a vast wealth of knowledge. Aldous Huxley called it the mind at large, Edgar Casey called it the Akashic records, and I like to call it the mind of Christ. You may be put off by my use of the term as you may consider it religious. On the other hand, I am on a mission to take back some important terms from religion and the religious world as they most clearly belong to the spiritual realm.

As I stated earlier, I find meditation difficult when it comes to quieting my over active mind. This is where binaural beats come into the equation. Binaural Beats can produce a state of meditation automatically. What on earth are binaural beats you may be asking? Well, the word binaural means two ears. So it begins with sounds being heard in both ears by ear phones or ear buds. The unique thing about binaural beats is that one ear hears sound waves at one hertz level and the other ear hears sound waves of a slightly different wave link. What happens then is the brain synthesizes the two differing wave lengths into one wave link in the middle of the two. If you want a more scientific explanation you can find this article on the Psychology Today Blog.

I have found a source online that offers different binaural beats at what I consider a very reasonable price. It is called Binaural Beats Meditation. They have all kinds of various meditation forms available. I use binaural beats every day to meditate and quiet my mind. It makes it easy to hear from the spirit. The meditation brings clarity to situations that otherwise seem overwhelming. It helps me get in touch with the source and experience presence. I realize that there are a lot of Christians that shun meditation but that is totally unnecessary. It does not hinder my relationship with Jesus rather it enhances it.

I often use binaural beats when I am writing. It increases creativity and augments understanding. It helps me to remember things that otherwise have been forgotten. It is likewise helpful when reading and contemplating scripture. It often provides additional illumination from the Spirit. And, as I mentioned earlier it is helpful with all aspects of prayer. For me it is the most effective way to tap into the source. When the apostle Paul says that we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, I believe that meditation via binaural beats helps me to actually be aware of the connection that we all have in the source. Paul is correct, there is literally a part of us that is seated in heavenly places in Christ. What Paul called heavenly places is actually being in the creative source at the most basic quantum level of the universe. It is a place of energy and thought. Conscious energy and thought produces all of the material world and it is continually generated from this place. Yes, there is a part of us that is present there participating in the creative process.

Once one realizes that one is a spiritual being having a natural experience, it is important to be able to explore and understand the spiritual world all the more. Meditation can help facilitate that and again, if you are like me and find meditation difficult because of a racing mind, then binaural beats is an excellent way to create that meditative brain state of awareness. And don't let anyone intimidate you. You can meditate and participate in various metaphysical practices and still have a vibrant relationship with Jesus and be a Christ follower free from fear.