God Consciousness – What Is It?

Who Is God Anyway?

Concepts of God vary widely—from good to not so good. But in most religions, and especially in Western societies, God is portrayed as a powerful, personal, supernatural being; an ultimate and absolute Being who is the divine Source of all creation.

These characteristics ring true, but they say little about the divine nature of God. According to Pew Research, Americans who believe in God have mixed views about his nature, although most describe him as all-loving, all-wise, and all-powerful.

No doubt, God is loving, wise, and powerful. Nonetheless, in all other respects, we must be careful not to judge the divine nature of an infinite and eternal God solely on the basis of humanity’s minimal knowledge, limited perceptions, or religious doctrines. No matter how much we think we know God, no matter how much we are able to comprehend the supernal nature of the First Great Source and Center—the First Cause of all reality—there will always be so much more to know.

Our ideas about the nature and character of God have evolved and matured over the millennia, but even though our ideas change in time, God does not—God is changeless. All that changes is our perception of the true nature of this Absolute Being—our spiritual insight. Even though we are limited in our ability to fully know God, we can still succeed to some degree. And we can also learn much from the thoughts and experiences of others.

When we examine the many works of spiritual authors, mystics, sages, and prophets appearing throughout the ages, there appears to be some consensus about the inherent attributes of God (as perceived by the human mind). While I could never hope to summarize all these works, it’s good to become familiar with some of the more advanced spiritual concepts they embrace. By contemplating the higher ideas and ideals of God, it’s possible to raise our thoughts to a superconscious level of spiritual insight—to actually re-create ourselves (see Worship is Creative).

God Is Someone

God is someone, not something. One of the most profound realizations we can have, is that God, as the First and Universal Personality, is a personal being. God’s personality along with his gift of personality to us, is what allows us to make an intimate connection with this vibrant, living, and loving Spirit Being.

God is not a person as we might commonly conceive, but he is a person in the sense that we can get to know him in a meaningful way, just as we can get to know our next-door neighbor. God is personal not just because he or she is intelligent and conscious but also because he can know and be known, love and be loved.

As we discovered in another post, possessing a personality is what allows us to recognize and interact with other persons—it’s the ability to have intellectual contact, to communicate. We are conscious beings who can share individual life experiences, discuss personal problems, love each other with unselfish love, and know each other on a profound level of understanding.

Knowing God as a person is not something we can ever discover through reason or logic alone. An eternal and infinite God who is the source of all reality cannot be limited to the confines of human logic or the fetters of human philosophy. Nor can there be any logical limit to the scope of God’s manifestations. Nevertheless, we can realize the truth of this divine Person through our individual religious experiences—spiritual contact and spiritual insight.

As the creator of all things, God embraces the personal, the nonpersonal, the prepersonal, and the superpersonal, or any other state of personality you can imagine. In order to communicate, or commune, with personal beings, God must have a personal side, one that is more than simply being a spiritual force or a universal mind.

God is far more than the thing he/she creates. If we identify God as an energy or force, how does this energy source or energy field express or give love? Love is a personal act, a feeling of devotion between two or more persons. The Divine Spirit is a personality with whom we can converse, a friend to whom we can reveal the innermost desires of our hearts, a being we can love.

God is the First Person, the Universal Person, and the creator of all personalities in the entire universe. Our relationship with God is a cosmic relationship analogous to the Brahman notion of a Supreme Soul from which all other souls derive. The important difference between the two views is that the God experience is more than attempting to contact ethereal spirit forces. It goes one step further by recognizing and believing that you have an intimate personal relationship with God (if you wish). It is this attitude of mind that makes it possible for us to approach, to know, and to love God (see Have Faith—But Faith in What?).

Whenever we speak of contacting God, we are actually contacting the Divine Presence within us, which is our direct connection to the Eternal Personality at the center of all things. And while this Spirit of God is not a person per se, it does fully represent the personality and essence of God—it is of God. While it may be prepersonal in this sense, it exemplifies the personality of an infinite and eternal God.

The divine spark within you exhibits the nature and attributes of God in every way imaginable or possible to a human mind. It is a living, conscious, and thinking spirit entity that embodies the divinity of God—the cosmic window through which you can glimpse the realities of Deity.

God Is a Divine Parent

Without a doubt, many religious views are unreasonable, but this is not to say that all religious ideas are unreasonable. In fairness, we could just as easily say that many current views and stereotypes about God and religion are equally unreasonable.

We could begin with the portrayal of God as a divine father, an image primarily emphasized in Christianity but also in line with Judaism and Islam. To those who lobby for a gender-neutral world, such a view of God can appear unreasonable, if not disagreeable. But keep in mind that the concept of God as a spirit father is both an analogy and a metaphor best understood when viewed within a historical and cultural context.

Long before the time of Jesus, almost all societies in the world were dominated by male authority to the degree that it affected the entire framework of religious and administrative thought. In this long era of male dominance, the supreme God was widely envisioned as a male disciplinary king—as a lord and master, yet with human frailties and susceptible to unchecked emotions, such as anger and jealousy. God was to be feared and obeyed as though he were a fickle but all-powerful sovereign, which is one reason early followers of Jesus referred to God’s spiritual realm as the “kingdom of heaven.”

But Jesus was the first religious teacher to widely advocate God as a compassionate father—a Divine Parent rather than a heartless dictator. Instead of fearing God as king and master, Jesus urged us to love and revere God as the all-loving and all-wise father of all personalities—a divine Creator.

Above all, his revelation of the divine, parental love of God to the people of that time (and this time) was an improved and more accurate vision of the true character of God. It was not only a declaration of God’s affectionate attitude toward us, it also defined the nature of God’s relationship to us. Thus, he portrayed the heavenly Creator as a loving, wise, and caring father—as a loving, wise, and caring parent.

Rather than someone to be slavishly obeyed and feared, Jesus revealed a friendly, loving, and compassionate God—someone to be followed willingly and happily, someone we can love in return. This is the critical analogy—that God loves us with the same deep devotion and unconditional love that all good parents have for their children—not that God is an earthly and paternalistic father figure, but instead that our Creator loves as a perfect father would love.

While Jesus portrayed the love of God in this way, he was aware that the Eternal Source of All Reality is much more than a loving father or mother. But when it comes to any human understanding of our relationship to God, the notion of divine, parental love is the best analogy.

While God loves with a parental love, it is not reasonable to assume that the Divine Source is either a man or a woman, male or female, masculine or feminine. The creature is not the Creator and, as the First Cause of all things, God created gender. God must, therefore, be just as maternal as he is paternal. Nonetheless, terms like God the Father, God the Mother, or sons and daughters of God are powerful family metaphors intended to impart the highest ideals of parental love within a spiritual family.

In truth, God is so far above and beyond the human state that it is impossible for us to grasp his nature in its entirety, although there is much we can understand.

Knowing God

Even though the full character of God is far beyond our grasp, and despite the limitations of our minds, it behooves us to stretch our imaginations to the uttermost limits of comprehension. By doing so, we not only improve our understanding, acceptance, and love of the divine nature, we also improve our reception of the spiritual gifts of God.

Getting to know God begins with the understanding that God is the first Source of all things—the primal source of all reality. Indeed, without this eternal and infinite Being, there would be no such thing as reality. God is the Supernal Ancestor of all things—the limitless power at the center of all creation—beginningless, endless, timeless, and spaceless. And there are many more edifying concepts of God to contemplate (see Upgrade Your Image of God).

• God has purpose and will—he is a creative Being.
• God is self-existent, the only thing in all existence that is not created.
• God is absolute, yet eternally motivated by the perfect ideal of divine love.
• God is limitless and infinite power—controlling, sustaining, and renewing the universe.

There is no spatial limit to God. Even if the size of the universe reached infinity, it would not be a concern to God. Space is merely another creation, all of which is contained in One Being. The Divine is eternal and infinite—the Creator of time and space.

• God is eternal—always was and always will be. As the Source of all creation, time is just another creation.

For an eternal Being, there is no beginning and there is no end. But for time-space creatures such as us, it is almost impossible to imagine things that are outside the movement of time and the boundaries of space. Nonetheless, a useful meditative exercise is to imagine a fictional beginning when only one single entity existed—an eternal and infinite entity. This is the I AM, the absolute, infinite, eternal, volitional, and intelligent Power behind all creation—the Source of all spirit, all life, all love, and a seemingly infinite universe.

This cosmos of the Infinite I AM is therefore endless, limitless, and all-inclusive—timeless, spaceless, and unqualified. 102:3.10

– The Urantia Book

• God is divine and the source of all divinity. All that is holy, sacred, and supernal originates and emanates from the Supreme Being.
• God is the Universal Father at the center of all creation, and she is the Universal Mother of all creatures.
• God is life—without God there would be no life. Life is a divine, evolving creation.
• God is perfect and infallible. Evil, or error, is solely the prerogative of humanity, an inevitable result of bad choices. 
• God is supremely good. One of the most realistic perceptions of God is that he is the very source of all goodness. We see this in the gifts of God—the inner Spirits we all possess, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, and the personal ministry of angels.
• God is our friend. There is no anger or vengeance in God; she is perfect, loving, compassionate, and understanding.
• God is fair. There are no chosen people. There are no favorites in the eyes of God. All notions of ethnic, racial, national, or religious superiority are ill-conceived outbreaks of human arrogance.
• God is impartial. Celestial beings work on everyone’s behalf. There is no favoritism. Anyone who believes that God is on their side at the expense of others, does not understand the parental love of God.

• God is volitional—a spirit being with freewill choice. It is difficult to portray a Creator God who cannot decide to create. God must be considerably more than a metaphysical cosmos perceived to be intelligent and wise but lacking in volition.

God is Truth

A life in the spirit is flexible, good, spontaneous, and moral—it is an eternal search for higher truth, one that constantly adjusts to more progressive and improved visions of truth—and God is the ultimate vision of absolute truth.

God is the source of truth in the mind spheres. 1:2.1

– The Urantia Book

Spiritual beings live truthful lives because truth is a divine reality, one that permeates the entire spiritual universe. A spiritual quest is a constant search for greater truth. It fosters free thinkers, faith in goodness, and a virtuous life, all of which are defined by a wholehearted commitment to the way of God.

But how can we know any truth about spirituality or religion? When it comes to the physical world, we find that fact, reason, and logic are practical ways to assess scientific truth. But when it comes to spiritual truth, we discover that experience, judgment, wisdom, and insight provide the best answers.

The recognition of spiritual truth comes from within us. We can say, for instance, that God is hateful and vengeful, or that God is loving and merciful—but he cannot be both. As to which one is the truth, only you can verify in your own heart.

God is Good Natured

The spiritual domain is cheerful, positive, helpful, and kind. There is absolutely nothing negative in this Eternal Positive Being, and the more you identify with this joyful, creative energy, the more positive, kind, and cheerful you become—the more Godlike you become.

The God of Universal Love is a positive personality, not a merchant of doom threatening to extinguish the human race if it fails to live up to the grim expectations of a fanatical few. Rid your mind of all negative thoughts about God and the destiny of humanity. All research suggests that human life on this world is constantly improving, even though it still has a long way to go (see The Spiritual Power of Thankfulness). Negativity is a direct consequence of not living in the spirit because negativity is not a spiritual reality.

But do not mistake insincerity for positivity. Pretending to be happy or overly optimistic is not a sincere spiritual attitude. Being positive does not mean covering things up or lying to yourself and others about your present situation. It is not a self-deceiving optimism. You only need to acknowledge all things honestly and as they are, while maintaining a positive and cheerful faith that, in time and with a little effort, great things will be achieved.

Visualizing God as a good and loving Divine Parent helps us to comprehend, as much as we can, the positive and helpful spiritual attitude of Divinity, one that we can, in turn, share with others. The positive and unconditional love we offer our children is the same comforting and uplifting love God offers to each of us.

God Is With You Now

God is eternally present—living in the present moment within all of us. This notion is similar to the Eastern concept of an eternal now, an idea often associated with Buddhist philosophy. But the notion was also well established in Western thought 1,600 years ago as evinced in the writings of Augustine of Hippo, a religious philosopher who envisioned “an ever-present eternity.”

Philosophical arguments for an eternal now are cast as presentism, the view that only the present exists—only the present moment is real. This contrasts with eternalism, the view that all existence in time is equally real. But both are true to some degree, despite the logical inconsistency. And no matter which view we take, we take it in the present moment.

Living spontaneously in the present is an objective of the God experience, but this is a useful approach only when we allow ourselves to be directed by the Spirit within. It does not imply that we should be impetuous or unthinking in word or action, but rather that we live an unconstrained life in which our thoughts are open to the guidance of the Spirit—free of stereotypes, cultural conventions, and preconceived notions.   

With some incongruity, a spontaneous, spirit-led life also has the ability to escape the limitations of the present because, although the personality is space-bound, it is not entirely time-bound. Anyone who has had a premonition or dream of the future will attest to this. In fact, a YouGov survey of 2,300 participants in 2015 found that 30 percent of women and 19 percent of men had dreams that anticipated or predicted a future event.

Living spontaneously is being free in spirit and free in thought. Put aside your rambling and troubling thoughts to allow your divine Teacher to instruct you. Allow the Spirit to live through you, thereby freeing yourself from anxieties and worries about what you should say or do. Follow the way of God, here and now, to become truly original, creative, insightful, and sincere.

Even so, living in the present should not compel us to be careless or overly carefree. Too much concentration on an “eternal now” does not mean ignoring the lessons of the past or the possibilities of the future.

To God, who is the creator of time and beyond all time, the past, present, and future must be contemporaneous. But to everyone else in a time-space universe, the present can have meaning and be interpreted only in reference to past events and future plans. You cannot escape the fact that the eternal now is the consequence of an eternal past as well as the beginning of an eternal future.

God and Suffering

In Buddhist philosophy, the first of the Four Noble Truths is that all life is suffering. It is a belief that suffering is an inevitable part of the life cycle, and that it comes about as a consequence of our cravings (desires) and attachments (devotions). But it is important to note that Siddhartha did not try to destroy all human desire and effort as much as to reveal the futility of a purely materialistic existence.

No doubt, there is much suffering on earth, and in the time of Buddha (circa 500 BC), there was probably a lot more of it. Indeed, human life 2,500 years ago was considerably more harsh and barbaric than it is now.

There can be little dispute that our selfish desires lead to disillusionment, disappointment, and suffering, but it is also clear that millions of people suffer because of things beyond their control, such as natural disasters, disease, and the accidents of time. However, none of the grief caused by natural disasters compares to the amount of human misery generated by tyrants, warlords, and bad governments.

The vast majority of humanity suffers, not because of their own desires, but because of the selfish ambitions of those who pursue power and wealth regardless of the cost to others. Nonetheless, no matter how we view the world’s problems and solutions, in the end, they all hinge on the freewill choice of individuals.

Those who expect God to save every innocent victim or to solve the world’s problems by creating an instant utopia—a worldwide garden of Eden—should recall that no spirit being will ever interfere with human freewill. It is a law of the universe—that God will not interfere with our choices, no matter how ill-advised, evil, or disastrous they may be.

Undeniably, acts of violence are never fair to innocent victims, but these are human acts, not divine ones. It is fairly obvious that human suffering would be greatly diminished if everyone on the planet were to live moral and virtuous lives.

This does not mean God is indifferent. But even if he did interfere to create an ideal society, it would not last long before it deteriorated back to the present state. There is no way to successfully speed up social evolution or the progress of civilization. Until humanity learns the lessons of the past, becomes wiser, and strives to be perfect, it will continue to make the same tragic mistakes.

If we truly wish to know God, then we have to accept that she does not always live up to our expectations. We may become extremely frustrated when the Divine Being does not act or intervene in ways we think he should. We ask, if there is a loving God, how can he allow such misery and suffering to continue? Our disappointments can run so deep and become so bitter that, in our mounting frustration and dismay, we are inclined to cast out any notion of a benevolent God, or of any God at all. And in our childish spite, blind ourselves to his greater designs.

It is understandable that people get upset and confused when terrible things happen, especially when they are led to believe that God is compassionate, loving, and kind. However, if we accept that God is an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise Creator of an almost infinite universe, it seems unrealistic and presumptuous of us mere mortals to expect him to conform to our rapidly changing, intellectually limited, and somewhat capricious ideals of divine morality. But none of this should imply that we remain insensitive to suffering.

It is irrational, therefore, to dismiss any belief in a Higher Spirit because he or she refuses to comply with our culturally determined ideals of appropriate behavior, ideals grounded in our very limited understanding of the nature of reality, the cosmos, our spiritual destinies, or life after death.

For the most part, our ongoing and progressive problems, whether individual, social, or national, are important problems that humanity must learn to solve for itself, just as a growing child must learn to solve problems and overcome the challenges of life. Any wise parent knows that doting over their children and protecting them from every mistake does nothing to help them in the long run.

God is Compassionate

In Western culture, as in many other cultures, there is a long history of associating suffering with divine retribution—God’s punishment for the sins of the individual or the nation. But those familiar with the loving and merciful nature of God, know he does not punish or avenge. The truth is that all episodes attributed to God’s vengeance are either a natural event, a physical accident, or the inevitable consequence of misguided human actions.

We all make mistakes, but there is no need to appease a supposedly offended God through sacrifices or penance, nor is it necessary to whip ourselves or to wallow in remorse. It is inconceivable that any loving parent would condone such inhumane practices.

You don’t need to do anything to win the love of God because she loves each and every one of us equally, just as a wise mother would—with no conditions attached. Divine love is lost only when we decide to reject it.

It makes no sense that a perfect, loving God would watch over us with malign suspicion, just waiting for us to make a mistake so he can retaliate with a big stick or curse us with bad luck. It is unthinkable that a wise, loving, compassionate, and divine Parent would take delight in the torment of her children.

Can we honestly believe that a loving and compassionate God would create such a thing as an eternal Hell—a wretched place to punish her erring children with eternal damnation? It is inconsistent that an all-loving and all-wise Father-Mother God would be a cruel and vengeful parent intent on torturing miscreants for all eternity.

Notions about Hell originated in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia and can be traced back to the fearful and superstitious minds of the Bronze Age. Before the domination and influence of Persia in the 6th century BC, early Judaism had little concept of divine retribution or a place called Hell. After death, everyone went to Sheol, the Hebrew underworld. Notably, the word Hell did not appear in the original Greek New Testament, the earliest transcript of the text.

• Bart D. Ehrman – Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife
• Carol and Philip Zaleski – The Book of Heaven: An Anthology of Writings from Ancient to Modern Times

At first, Hell was simply a place where all people were morally judged after death, a notion similar to early Egyptian beliefs about the day of judgment. But early Christians (under strong Greek influence) preferred to emphasize the dark side of the house of Hades, where notorious sinners such as Tantalus were tormented for their crimes. Concepts of torment and eternal damnation were subsequently imported into Christianity and Islam where they proved useful to rulers and religious firebrands, especially as a means to control the populace through fear.

God Awareness

Consciousness is a state of awareness associated with self-consciousness—a subjective experience of self as well as an awareness of something within oneself. It is this awareness of something within you that is the beginning of God consciousness—an awareness of the presence of God.

Any awareness of God indicates an intellectual capacity to know God; a consciousness of divinity that unfolds on increasingly progressive levels of realization. Anyone of average mind has the capacity to be God conscious. It is only our depth of understanding, or our depth of consciousness, that varies.

As an illustration, an infant may be unaware she is living in a room but, as she grows, she not only begins to recognize the room itself but also that there are other rooms, each one with a specific purpose, such as one for sleeping and one for eating. Later, she begins to realize that the rooms form a part of her house and are contained within the house and, later still, that her house is only one house on a street with many houses.

But she also becomes aware, perhaps unconsciously, that the house is more than just a house. It is also a home that carries meaning, a place where she learns to appreciate different values, a dwelling where she learns duty and loyalty to family, and a community where she learns about social interactions and a greater morality. In other words, the house connotes meaning and value in both the intellectual and spiritual phases of consciousness.

At each stage in this venture of consciousness, there is a gradual increase in the understanding, meaning, and value of the house and, therefore, a greater consciousness of the house in the context of the whole. Each stage of consciousness is a more comprehensive level of reality perception, but each level of perception along the way remains relatively true. This is the same process we go through as our perception of God’s nature expands and deepens over time.

Just as the young girl became aware of various levels of house reality, so it is that we become aware of various levels of God reality. We first come to understand the idea of God, a purely intellectual pursuit that any child can grasp. Secondly, we begin to realize the ideal of God—a more advanced recognition of the true nature and attributes of God. And last, through personal experience, we come to realize the spirit reality of God, a consciousness of the actual presence of the Spirit within us.

While knowing God is one path to God awareness, another is recognizing your true relationship to this divine Source. Accepting and believing that you are, in reality, a spiritual child of God is a powerful way to become God aware. Your cheerful acceptance of this transforming truth is always accompanied by an increasing appreciation of divine values, sublime ideals, and extraordinary goals.

To Love Is to Know

It is easy to judge others prematurely because of their inconsiderate actions or rash words, but when we understand the reasons why they act the way they do, and when we consider their circumstances or what they may have endured or suffered in life, we become more compassionate and merciful.

We come to love others by getting to know them and, to some degree, the same can be said of God. By understanding the nature of God, we come to admire and adore this Divine Source. But with some distinction, we can never know God to any greater extent until we first learn to love him with all our heart, mind, and soul. It is a reverent love for the Infinite Power of Eternal Love.

Your growing God consciousness goes hand-in-hand with your increasing ability to know God through love. This love for God is not an artificial feeling of euphoria. The truth is, you can be as certain about the reality of the loving presence of God as you can about the reality of any other person in your life. It’s a very real experience.

But for all that, some of us may have difficulty loving a parental God or giving any kind of adoration to a Creator Spirit. The reasons for this vary but, in some cases, our aversions can be traced to poor parent-child relationships. Children naturally draw strong correlations between their earth parents and an ideal Divine Parent.

The effects of poor parent-child relationships are profound, making it extremely challenging for victims of misguided or abusive parenting to picture a loving, heavenly Guardian. Even much later in life, it is difficult for such wounded souls to dismiss or even discuss their hurtful, formative memories.

But any confounded thoughts about the true nature of God must be resolved if we wish to progress in the spirit. The truth is, the personalities of our earth parents have nothing to do with the personality of God. Family metaphors are used only in reference to a desired ideal, one involving perfect family relationships.

Fortunately, over time, as fathers and mothers become wiser, more caring, and more loving, their children will be better equipped to envision a wise, caring, and loving Divine Parent.

What the Spirit Says

Your inner Spirit is continually attempting to communicate with you. It is attempting to awaken you to spirit realities and to guide you on a path of spiritualized thinking and spiritual behavior. Its divine objective is to transform you into a spiritual being.

Most religions recognize the positive, inner workings of this guiding Spirit, this fragment of God that forever encourages us to walk a spiritual path—to live a virtuous life. And there are many ways to achieve this.

In Hinduism, followers are encouraged to follow the Four Paths to God, which include devotion, work, knowledge, and mind training. In Confucianism, devotees are advised to follow the Five Virtues: benevolence, honesty, knowledge, faithfulness, and correct behavior. And in Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path extols right speech, intention, understanding, conduct, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and meditation.

In Christianity, followers are generally exhorted to live according to the will of God, a path not as clearly defined, but a useful parallel would be the “fruits of the spirit,” which are nine attributes of character observed in those who follow God’s guidance—love, joy, peace, tolerance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (see also What Does the Will of God Actually Mean?).

Underlying all these religious traditions, is our belief that living a dutiful and moral life—following a virtuous path—is what constitutes a spiritual life. We can act out these virtues in a pretentious manner, but they come to us honestly whenever we make a genuine and unequivocal attempt to follow the direction of our inner Spirit. It is always more than doing something—it is being something.

We progress by following the lead of the Spirit because we are not yet spiritual and, therefore, possess no inherent or spontaneous spiritual wisdom. Our task is simply to listen and learn.

God is attempting to spiritualize your thinking, not control it. You may not be entirely conscious of the process because, for the most part, it occurs in the superconscious realms of your mind. But you need to give your personal consent for this Divine Guide to function. With your permission and cooperation, it can achieve considerably more than it could in a stubborn or reluctant mind.

While your spiritualization may be an unconscious process, the proof of this superconscious activity is in your own religious growth—your transformation into a loving, caring, and helpful person who is attuned to the Spirit within, completely dedicated to a life of goodness, beauty, and truth.

By tuning in and harmonizing with divinity, you are refreshed, comforted, and inspired. Everyday challenges, rather than being insurmountable barriers to your progress, become unique opportunities for you to express your spirituality by loving others. Never underestimate the power of the Spirit to adjust your thoughts and transform your character.

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