Upgrade Your Image of God
Changing our lives begins by changing our thoughts. We can do this by means of creative imagination and worshipful meditation, but also by training our minds to revere and exalt divine values. By doing so, it’s possible to integrate and embed these spiritual values into our own characters. This is how we recreate ourselves in the image of God.
Whenever we idolize and adore the essential nature of God, we begin to transform ourselves. By venerating the ideals of divinity, we identify with these ideals. It is a psychological process of actualizing our highest values, thereby making them a reality. This process entails adopting, integrating, and permanently embedding divine ideals into our character in order to make permanent changes (for more on this topic, see Worship – How It Works).
But before we can begin, it’s necessary to have a clear concept about the divine nature, at least as much is humanly possible. This does not mean we need to envision God with any form, like an old man in the sky, but rather that we imagine the personal nature of God as well as the ideals of divinity. These may be intangible realities to strive for, but they give us something tangible to attain—positive spiritual growth.
While it’s impossible to fully comprehend the infinite and eternal nature of God, stretch your imagination to the fullest extent possible in order to contemplate your highest ideals of an infinite and eternal Creator.
This section serves as a summary of another post, God Consciousness. Replace the term God with whatever name or gender you like, and then take some time to explore and contemplate each of these characteristics in your creative imagination.
- God is the First Cause of all things—the one and only uncaused reality.
- God is primal and infinite reality—without God there would be no reality.
- God is eternal—always was and always will be.
- God is alive and active in the present moment.
- God is life and the source of all life.
- God is perfect, positive, and dependable.
- God is the Universal Father at the center of all creation.
- God is the Universal Mother of all creatures.
- God is the First Personality—the creator of all personalities.
- God is love and the source of all love.
- God is all-wise and the ultimate source of all wisdom.
- God is truth and the divine source of all truth.
- God is beautiful and the divine source of all beauty.
- God is good and the ultimate source of all goodness.
- God is divinely compassionate.
- God is your intimate friend.
- God is your final destiny.
No matter how much success you have creating an image of the perfect God, there actually does exist a true, infinite, eternal, and loving Universal Spirit behind and beyond all your imaginations.
What you are attempting to do is come as close as you can to realizing the truth about the nature of God and then to align with this truth by becoming more Godlike. Much depends on your willingness and readiness to receive this wisdom, as well as your wholehearted belief that God can and will reveal truth to you.
Your Relationship with God
Whenever you consider your spiritual possessions, such as personality, mind, and soul, as well as the fact that your soul is created through your joint venture with God (see Your Soul – What Is It?), it all points to the truth that you are a creature of a creator God.
God is the Divine Parent of all freewill beings. And anyone who has been a parent or who can identify with the love and care of children is keenly aware of the depth and scope of this unselfish and unconditional love. It is a divine love we can easily cherish.
In an ordinary world, a child doesn’t need to do anything to make their parents love them. Similarly, we do not have to do anything to make God love us since his love shines on all of us at every moment. True, we can destroy ourselves by our own choices and we can reject his infinite love if we so wish, as any child can. But it is always there whenever we are ready and willing to receive it.
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
– Paul of Tarsus
Prepare yourself for a spiritual experience unlike any other when you wholeheartedly come to believe that you are, in truth, a child of an eternal Creator. It is a truth that will transform you, bringing you peace of mind and inner happiness. Indeed, the very first step in your divine journey is to imagine, accept, and believe this truth. It is an essential belief that leads you to the very gateway of an amazing and eternal spiritual adventure.
By accepting you are a spiritual child of God, you come to understand the nature of your relationship with such a magnificent and almighty Power. Only the trusting and humble can ever hope to approach the infinite, eternal, and majestic presence of the Universal Father.
Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
– Jesus of Nazareth
When Jesus tells us to become like little children in order to enter the spiritual realm, he’s not suggesting we should be childish in our approach to spirituality, but rather that we recognize and accept our true child-parent relationship with God. It is a relationship of love and understanding, one that combines an adult’s resolute courage and determination with a child’s wholehearted faith and trust in the good and wise guidance of a Divine Parent.
A Life in the Spirit
Meditation, contemplation, prayer, and worship are spiritual exercises, as are all other intellectual efforts to attain extraordinary states of consciousness by means of spiritual communion—a superconscious state associated with super-thinking.
But it is possible for equally powerful experiences to occur in the course of your everyday life, such as a sudden epiphany, a profound realization, or any flash of spiritual insight. This is especially the case when all your powers of personality, mind, and soul are focused on the nature of God and your true motivation is to live a life wholly dedicated to the spirit way.
You achieve these sublime states of spirit consciousness, as well as an understanding of cosmic values, through your intellectual efforts. And, once again, you further enhance your spiritual experience whenever you act out (actualize) these values in the material world. By helping others, you contribute to the good in the world, and no goodness is ever lost in the angelic records.
A life not lived for others, is not a life.
– Mother Teresa
You can contribute to your spiritual progress and improve your experience of living by cultivating good spiritual habits, by identifying with spirit, and by reaching more discerning levels of self-realization.
Cultivate Spiritual Habits
When we first attempt to develop spiritual habits, such as living in the presence of God, communing with God, or admiring the beauty and power of God, it can feel a little awkward and, at times, insincere. But this is a common experience when starting out.
It is much like starting a new job in which you may not feel fully qualified, or you are just not sure how everything works. But as you persist in your duties and learn the ropes, you eventually become more confident and relaxed. Spiritual habits develop the same way.
It is easier to nurture good habits than to try to change bad habits, so don’t focus your mind on overcoming the bad. Instead, imagine the good, and imagine it growing and dominating your mind and all your decisions. In this way, poor habits are simply crowded out and forgotten. Keep your mind on the positive, the good, the beautiful, and the true.
Some good spiritual habits to practice:
- Learn to re-evaluate the important things in your life by cultivating a sensitivity to divine values. Think about those things that have true value in terms of spiritual improvement and eternal destinies.
- Learn to recognize spiritual living in others. See the spiritual side of others. Be less critical by learning to empathize with their difficulties and aspirations. We cannot expect everyone to live up to our expectations, especially when most of the time we do not live up to our own.
- Learn to share your spiritual life with others. If you feel there is no one around who thinks like you do, search out others who do. Find people who think about spiritual things and are eager to hear about your experiences, challenges, and accomplishments.
- Learn to be sefless. Become aware of what you do and why you do it. What is your true motivation in life? Is it entirely self-centered? What do you do to help others? These are questions only you can answer honestly.
- Learn to live in the presence of God. Begin by using your creative imagination to conjure up a positive image of God. It doesn’t really matter what this image looks like as long as you conceive of God being friendly, loving, good, wise, and helpful. The more you dwell on the true nature and attributes of God and the more vivid your imagination, the more real he becomes to you.
- Learn to talk to God as if you were talking to a loving and wise friend. But also learn to admire and adore this great friend. Realize who you are talking to—the Almighty Creator of All Reality.
More is said about spiritual habits in Spiritual Habits for the Soul.
Spirit Identification
When we live according to the way of God, we begin a personal transformation that is genuinely real. It is not an act of religious conversion but rather an act of spiritual becoming. We are, in essence, recreating ourselves in the image of God.
Granted, it may be a long journey, but it begins here and now. And although it may appear to be an unattainable goal of perfection, rest assured there is a relative level of perfection attainable in this life. It is an achievable goal that begins with our simple faith in the power of spirit to transform us.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
– Jesus of Nazareth
As we evolve in spirit nature, we wean ourselves from our animal natures. It is a shift of identity from body and mind to spirit. In the process, we learn to master our animal instincts and emotions, overcoming selfishness, anger, and vengeance. We do this by replacing our animal drives and base emotions with more praiseworthy aspirations, such as selflessness, love, respect, compassion, and forgiveness.
There is no clear-cut transition from one level of spiritual growth to the next. Instead, it is a slow transformation over time—often an unconscious one. We may crave a glorious and brilliant epiphany, but it is unlikely to occur for most of us. Nonetheless, as we come to know God, we become more assured that a real and vital spiritual transformation is occurring within us. All it takes is patience, trust, and faith in the process.
The man who moves a mountain, begins by carrying away small stones.
– Confucius
God gives each of us an invaluable gift—a fragment of himself to live within our minds. This inner Divine Spark is our spiritual guide who, if we choose, will inspire us to make the right decisions in life, thereby becoming more like this spirit. The God experience is no more than this daily process of identifying with the indwelling presence of divinity.
Spiritual Maturity
Spiritual maturity is the result of this ongoing process of progressive spirit identification, a feat achieved by maintaining a conscious and living spiritual connection with true spiritual forces. Begin the process by having faith that these forces are with you and all around you (because they are) and then believe they hear you, see you, and help you (because they do).
God and the angels know everything about you, but your spiritual awareness relies on your willingness to share your thoughts, desires, and aspirations with these celestial beings. It is the process of learning to live in the presence of God and his spiritual aides. See the section Live in the Presence of God.
Spiritual maturity begins with your inner quest. But the proof of your identification with spirit is the degree to which you manifest spiritual qualities and attitudes in your outer life. You know you are maturing and progressing in the spirit when you begin to manifest a living and loving spiritual connection in all outward dealings with the people around you.
Self-Realization
Self-realization, also called self-actualization, is an integral part of a spiritual life. It is a popular term in both Eastern philosophies and Western psychology and is often associated with self-improvement.
A common understanding of to realize is to become fully aware of something—to understand it clearly, or to form a clear concept of it. But the word is also used to cause something to happen, to bring something into existence, to real-ize it. In this sense, realization is the act of making something real, whether it is a mental creation or a physical one.
Self-realization is, therefore, the process of making your personal potential a reality. Whenever we consider a person’s potential, we often think about their physical abilities, intelligence, or learned skills, and we think about ways for them to realize these potentials through careers and other endeavors in life. These are valid interpretations of self-realization.
But in the God experience, we put the emphasis on becoming more spiritually real because spirit reality is the ultimate personal reality. From this perspective, the most important act of self-realization is to make your spiritual potential a reality. And, once again, this comes about by identifying with your inner Spirit.
The goal of human self-realization should be spiritual, not material. 100:2.6
– The Urantia Book
The idea that self-realization is equivalent to self-identification is similar in concept to some schools of thought in Hinduism, wherein Atman (soul or a greater Self) is the self-existent essence of being; it is our true nature, eternal and unchanging, something beyond the mind and personality. The ultimate goal is to transcend ego to either realize or identify with this true nature (Self), a task accomplished by attaining self-knowledge, the knowledge of a greater Self that leads to moksha, or liberation.
In the God experience, Atman would be the inner Spirit, your God connector, while self-knowledge is equivalent to knowing God, and self-realization is the act of identifying with the nature of God—becoming more Godlike.
Cosmic Self-Realization
Cosmic self-realization is realizing your potential as a cosmic citizen. It begins with the recognition that you truly are a spiritual child of an eternal, loving Creator—a personal discovery that inevitably leads to the conclusion we are all spiritual sisters and brothers. This is the first step in broadening your worldview beyond the limits of community or nation. The whole world becomes your home—the club of humanity.
The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.
– Baha’u’llah
As a member of this Earth Club, you acknowledge the world’s problems as our problems, the world’s challenges as our challenges, and the world’s solutions as our solutions.
Deeper realizations can be reached when you begin to enlarge your worldview to a universal field of vision by acknowledging there is an even greater club than planet Earth, and that is the Universe Club—a universal spirit club open to all who wish to join.
By signing up, you become a cosmic citizen with all the privileges and responsibilities that come with membership. You join as one who brings a unique perspective and unique contributions. The only price of membership is your full commitment and abiding loyalty to the way of God.
All members of this cosmic circle are life-long students enrolled in a magnificent universe school, one in which they pursue divine perfection, greater knowledge, and superior skills.
Your Mission in Life
God has a plan for each of us, and you can choose to accept it or reject it. Your mission in life doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with your career, so don’t be overly anxious about whether you should become a teacher, electrician, or doctor. Your occupation is not as important as how you perform your duties and how you live your life.
Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.
– Buddha
In every honest walk of life, no matter what your occupation, you can walk the spirit path. You can do good, help others, participate in your community, and build a better civilization, all while progressing inwardly in your very own spiritual quest.
Your personal plan is unique because you are unique. We all have distinct and individual experiences, different skills, and different abilities. We all have something good to contribute. If you allow it, God expresses himself through you in everything that you do, although it is your unique expression of being Godlike. This is God’s plan for you. Discovering your mission in life is not an esoteric secret available only to a privileged few. To know what your plan is, listen to your inner Spirit.
There are several ways to do this, and much of it depends on being spiritually receptive through spirit communion and by living out your spiritual ideals in daily life. For the methods used to contact, or commune with, Spirit see Spirit Contact.
