Upgrade Your Image of God
Changing your life begins by changing your thinking. You can do this in several ways, such as with creative imagination or worshipful meditation, or by training your mind to revere and exalt divine values. By doing so, it’s possible for you to integrate and embed these spiritual values into your own personality. This is how you recreate yourself in the image of God.
One of the great troubles with modern life is that you think you are too busy to find time for spiritual meditation and religious devotion.
– The Urantia Book
Whenever you idolize and adore the essential nature of God, you begin to transform your thinking. Whenever you venerate the ideals of divinity, you identify with those ideals. It’s a psychological process of actualizing your highest values, thereby making them a reality of your life. What happens is that you adopt, integrate, and permanently embed divine ideals into your heart and mind (for more on this topic, see Worship – How It Works).
But before you begin, it helps to have a clear concept about what is meant by divine nature, at least as much as humanly possible. This doesn’t mean we have to envision God with any form, like an old man in the sky, but instead that we imagine the personal nature of God as well as the ideals of divinity. These might appear to be intangible realities, but they are in fact spiritual realities. And they give us something tangible to attain—positive spiritual thoughts.
While it’s impossible for you (or any human) to fully comprehend the infinite and eternal nature of God, it helps to stretch your imagination to the fullest extent possible in an effort to contemplate the highest ideals of an infinite and eternal Creator.
This section is a summary of another post, God Consciousness. You can replace the name God with whatever name or gender you like. The important task is to explore and think about each of these characteristics of God 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 a mental image of the perfect God, have faith that there actually does exist a true, infinite, eternal, and loving Universal Spirit behind and beyond all your thoughts and imaginings.
What you are attempting to do is to come as close as you can to realizing the truth about the nature of God, and then to align your thoughts and actions with this truth. By doing so, you truly become more Godlike. Much of your success depends on your willingness and readiness to receive the wisdom coming from the Spirit within you, 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 indeed 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 ideal 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 spiritual child of a Spirit 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 true 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. One of the most effective ways to unite with your inner Spirit is to help others. You also 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.
The gospel yoke is easy and the burden of truth is light. 159:3.7
– Jesus of Nazareth
As we evolve in spirit nature, we wean ourselves from our animal natures. We shift our 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 piece of himself to live within our minds. This inner Divine Spark is our spiritual guide that will, if we choose, 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 end 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 already know everything about you, but your own spiritual awareness relies on your willingness to share your thoughts, desires, and aspirations with these celestial beings. It’s 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.
