a spectacular array of light
Timothy Sutter
God has not appeared to people in
a spectacular array of light and such,
when some say that God has not been
'proven' to exist, they mean they have
no referrence to mechanical measuring
devices which detect God;
what physical measurement?
what machine apparatus have you
designed that will measure
such a phenomenon?
what, exactly, is the nature of
the phenomenon for which you
seek physical measurement?
in lieu of appropriate answers to these,
your problem is simply one of disbelief
in a thing that you have not
directly experienced.
will you suggest that the flavor chemist
and the perfume chemist are not involved
in scientific discovery?
of course not, as these are two very
important branches of chemistry,
a "hard science."
so anyway, generally, in flavor chemistry,
they run chemical samples from known natural
products thru a machine apparatus like a mass
spectrometer or an infra red or nuclear magnetic
resonance spectrometer to determine the chemical
make-up of a given flavor, say bananas.
they determoine that one of the main
components of the flavor of bananas
is ethyl acetate;
CH3-C[O]O-CH2CH3
now, they synthesize this chemical
from available sources and then,
*they ask people to taste the stuff
to see if it tastes like bananas*
why?
because there's no machine apparatus
that can tell you if that stuff
tastes like anything.
just don't talk about "science"
and "measurement" when you mean,
mechanical detection.
when you develop the mechanical device
that can detect God, and it doesn't
detect God, then you can speak.
you'll simply have to rely, in part,
on the descriptions of human beings
for your "measurements" in much the
same way as the flavor chemist must
rely on human beings to tell [him]
if [his] compounds taste "good" or not.
but, a given experiment designed to allow
you to ascertain the experience of God
is possible and plausible.
and if you don't gain an audiance with the
Holy Spirit the first time, you'll have to
do the experiment over and over till
you get it right.
and central to this, is greeting
the words of Faith with faith.
no faith, no experience.
no experience, no knowledge.
no knowledge, keep silent.
if God's Holy Spirit is detectable
in and by human beings, then this
represents a phenomenon and
physical measurement.
to say otherwise is blind assumption that
the human entity is incapable of divulging
proper 'scientific' data.
which is nonsense, as most real discovery
is taken and delineated and accepted by
none other than the human entity.
go drop a stone from the tower of Pisa,
who is taking a measurement? get a sophisticated
listening device to do the same thing,
now who is taking the data? still the
human being, as the machine apparatus
is merely a device to extend
our capabilities.
now, if you cannot design an appropriate device
to extend your mechanical capabilitues in the
area of God detection, then you are simply at
a primitive stage in your machine designing
abilities and need further study before you
can ever make some blanket statement to the
effect that God is not physically detectable
because God is most certainly detectable
by the human entity.
what you have to realize is that God has
placed something -like- a "terminate and
stay resident" program in your being that
behaves -like- an "analog to digital converter."
there is some sort of 'spirit' in man that
remains in the background, that is 'resident'
but not running until activated by
the 'words of faith'
-then- this 'spirit' becomes active
and converts the 'analog' signal from
God, thru the Holy Spirit, into a 'digital'
signal that your cortical brain structure
can interpret as a meaningful presence.
you don't even know it is there
until it becomes activated.
now see, i cannot personally switch on
your 'spirit' and pour the Holy Spirit
into your life, but i can present
statements which can trigger your
TSR programs to activate the
A-to-D converter.
here's someone, with whom i find
agreement, describing a phenomenon
like this "TSR--A-to-D converter"
of which i speak.
----------------
1 Corinthians 13:1 and 14:3-4,13
Though I speak with the unknown
spiritual languages of men and
of angels....
He who speaks in unknown spiritual languages
does not speak to men but to God, in the spirit
he speaks mysteries, for no one understands him;
He who speaks in an unknown spiritual language
teaches himself, if I pray in an unknown
spiritual language, my spirit prays, but
my understanding is unfruitful.
Therefore let him who speaks in an unknown
spiritual language pray that he may interpret.
What is the conclusion then? I will pray with
the spirit, and I will also pray with
the understanding.
----------------
notice that Paul describes a distinction
between the "spirit" and the "understanding"
also notice that you can edify
your "self" in a manner which
your "understanding" is unaware.
hold on a minute, now look at this.
same passage different portion;
----------------
1 Corinthians 14:1-3,12,39
since you are zealous for spiritual gifts,
let it be for the teaching of the faithful
that you seek to excel. Let all things be
done for such edification;
Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but
especially that you may speak an understanding
of God which comes from God. He who utters such
divine revelations speaks comfort, encourages
and edifies the faithful.
desire earnestly to understand and speak
divine revelations, and do not forbid to
speak with unknown spiritual languages.
----------------
now he's suggesting that comprehending
spiritual knowledge of God with your
corporeal "understanding" is of
primary importance.
that is, understanding God
with your "understanding"
but look, he's also suggesting that
you may find yourself speaking with
God in a language that is unknown
to your conscious understanding
but -not- unknown to your background
"TSR" program which behaves as
an A-to-D converter.
a trivial example can be found in a
very general description of the manner
in which your computer operates.
your computer operates programs that are
written in a so-called "high level language"
and these high level languages translates
that into a machine code assembly language
and finally into machine code ones and zeroes.
the machine only "understands"
"yes" and "no" which is fed to it
in the form of a "one" and a "zero"
but the machine is able to interpret
the "high level language" of the
computer programmer by use
of compiler programs.
within details.
in a similar manner, there is an intimate
connection between your "spirit" and your
corporeal "understanding," even if the
'two' are non-identical, and both see
growth and aligniment with God's
own Personal Presence.
and now, what would be nice, would be
for that "spirit" part of -you- to relay
the message to what amounts to your
'corporeal' understanding, and reform
-that- thing of -you- in the
image of Christ.
as this should relieve any conflict
which your corporeal "understanding"
may place on your "spirit" inhibitting
your spiritual growth.
a spiritual growth that will further
cleanse the conscience of "dead works"
bringing your -actions- into a greater
conformity with your understandable
"intentions".
understandable intentions which more
and more closely align with a Spirit
who knows no -want-
so, it's like your understandable intentions
are the nexus point between this "spirit"
and your corporeal "understanding".
like, your 'spirit' shows
itself in your -intentions-
and your corporeal understanding
shows itself in your actions.
and you'd like to align a purity of
intentions to blameless actions.
each feeding off the other feeding
from the root of the vine which is God.
----------------
1 Corinthians 14:33
For God is not the author
of confusion but of peace
----------------
and that's what Jesus -was-
by a peculiarity of birth, Jesus' "spirit"
-was- The Holy Spirit and Jesus' corporeal
understanding became perfectly
aligned with -that-.
# as this should relieve any conflict
# which your corporeal "understanding"
# may place on your "spirit" inhibitting
# your spiritual growth.
right, a "conflict" very much -like- a
"yes = no" statement in a computer program.
if you tell a machine "yes = no" it won't operate.
in similar manner, your personal conflict
inhibits growth and, in effect, shuts down
your 'spirit' processors.
personal conflict which has "yes = no"
statements as an underpinning.
like i said before,
this sort of situation arises when
you operate under the idea that "good"
is getting what you want and "bad"
is not getting what you want.
this enables you to seek a "good" for
your self at the expense of carrying
out an action which you would consider
"bad" if it was done -to- you.
"good = bad"
"yes = no"
system failure
----------------
1 Corinthians 14:39
desire earnestly to understand and speak
divine revelations, and do not forbid to
speak with unknown spiritual languages.
----------------
ok, so, there still is a definite
benefit to having your 'spirit' edified
in an unvarnished manner where you may
have blood in your eyes and so, you
wouldn't want to immediately sully
an understanding of a thing before
that thing had a chance to work within
your 'spirit' and seep into your
knowledgeable understanding more
slowly removing the blood from your
eyes so that you can see more clearly.
like that 'spirit' "TSR" program had
been dormant in you and when it was
awakened by the words of Faith it needed
refreshement and enlivening with waters
from the fountain of God's own Presence.
and so, that 'spirit' is living and growing too.
so, don't -discourage- the utterrance
in other unknown spiritual languages
as this can be viewed as a direct
sampling from God to you without your
own personal viewpoint getting in
the way of a clear understanding.
which also suggests that you should be
on the lookout for virulent doctrines
taking up residence and corrupting
your understanding of God.
corruptions which display themselves
in a variety of "yes = no" statements.
make no room for this sort of thing.
it is truly for your own good.
thank you for listening.
--
http://timothysutter.usafreespace.com/