In 2012 I published my first book entitled Grace for Shame. I have often looked upon this book as a manifestation of a move of the Spirit during that time simply because a week before the book went to the printers, I was introduced to the works of Brene Brown and her study which was entitled Men, Women & Worthiness, The Experience of Shame and the Power of Being Enough. Her work was based on 12 years of clinical investigative work into the area of shame and the results she had uncovered in her many interviews with people who had been living with shame their entire life.
My writings were revelations I felt the Spirit had led me through showing the disconnect people have from the kingdom of God because of the shame they have endured or encountered. I’m not going to demean or promote either of our works simply because as I’ve stated I believe we were both being affected by a move of the Spirit in an area which was then, and still is today, a vitally important matter to the children of God.
The Shame-filled Evolution
My purpose today is to add to the message by way of the evolution of insight which I have grown into since I originally wrote the book. I mentioned in my last posting that it has been some time since I have actually attended an official “western” religious service. To the rank-and-file members of this type of community such an admission is “shameful.” Even to mention the readings and teachings which I have completed during this time could be classified as heretical and is a “shame” upon my Christian heritage.
I’m not fazed by such manipulations against me. I know the root cause of shame and thankfully, It has no root in me. What you might ask is the root of shame. Simply, it is the lack of knowing your oneness with the Father. I can assure you that what I am about to unveil is not heard much these days for reasons which will become very clear by the end of this message. But hang on because there is a reward if you can follow my details no matter how farfetched they seem from your orthodoxy.
The Model to Follow
The kingdom of God is. There is nothing else. God is omnipresent. Everywhere, always, forever, eternal, infinite. God is omnipotent. All power resides in and with God. There is no other power, lesser or greater. God is omniscient. All knowledge comes from God now, today, and eternally. Nothing is hidden which God does not already know and revealed to Itself now.
I do not follow the writing of the bible as literal historic writings. Allegories, parables, wisdom writings, and a spattering of history all designed to convey to those who have ears to hear and eyes to see the mystical meaning of the spiritual realm of the kingdom of God. Do I believe Jesus existed? Yes. That is as far as I am willing to go simply because to extend beyond that will take many into the tares of orthodoxy and dogma. Was Jesus the son of God. Yes. So is everyone else. Denying this makes God a liar.
The apostle Paul declared that Jesus was the second Adam. This means that Paul recognized the first Adam as a role model affecting all those who followed in his footsteps until they met the second Adam and then followed in his footsteps. Notice that this is a classification of duality. Duality has no basis in the kingdom of God.
Jesus declared that he and the Father are one, and that he can’t do anything on his own, but he only does those things he sees the Father doing. This truth also applied to the first Adam. As a matter of fact, everything which Jesus declared about his relationship with the Father also applied to Adam and all his descendants. Imagine the fear which runs through the hearts of believers when they picture Adam saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Oneness is the main factor which the church neglects to promote to their congregants. It is the prime item those who leave the confines of organized religion first encounter and greedily covet as the lost coin or lost sheep of a prodigal relationship restored. No minister tied to any denomination is willing to suggest, let alone support, the notion that the story of the prodigal son is really about the redemption of Adam. This is how deep the undercurrents of shame run – not even the first man should be able to be restored much to the disgust of the older brother.
Omni-talk About Life
“Let us make man in our image and likeness…” Gen 1:26
The Ground of All Being determines to make, form, shape, craft, create a being who appears to be just as the Creator is. Into the man God breaths the breath of Life and then later into the woman. Life animates the oneness of creation by and through the spoken word welling up from the Ground of all Being established in the eternal omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience of IS. God is. Man is. Female is. One. Not two. Not three. One and only one. All IS one. All creation is one with its Creator.
At this moment, all of creation is perfect, unadulterated, complete, harmonious, balanced in the unlimited now. This state has never changed! You may respond differently to this claim, however, the Father does not see it the way you do. It is His kingdom after all, not yours.
If it was yours, it would be two or even more realities. It would exhibit the tree of knowledge founded upon senses and beliefs. It would have a standard of conduct which constrains movement, action, words, beliefs, or attire through shaming tactics of reprisal based on arbitrary values of what is righteous for the moment. It would render contrary first-time events as final judgements rather than explore opportunities to learn truthful patterns of kingdom Life. Regrettably, this is the model most religious folks use to control any power of the kingdom in their life.
The Basis of Shame
I stated previously how the lack of oneness with the Father is what causes shame. I am going to expand on this here. The “naked” truth of the matter is that Adam experienced a conscious change in his identity from his creation to what people call his “fall.”
We are told at the end of Genesis 2 how the man and the woman were naked. It doesn’t matter how the person who wrote this passage is not the same person who wrote the creation story of Genesis 1. “Naked” in this description means not clothed with other thoughts, virgin in manifestation and action, newborn.
The next time the word “naked” appears within the text of Genesis is in chapter 3 when Adam confessed to God that he hid from God and made clothing from fig trees to hide their “nakedness.” The difference here with this description is rather telling. “Naked” now means to be viewed as a prostitute in the act of infidelity, unfaithful, compromised and self-indulgent.
Most of you will stop or rest on your laurels here. Adam is a blackguard, a scoundrel. Your spoon-fed doctrines have choked you with disgust for the action which you see has condemned humanity to torment and turmoil by the single action of a neophyte. This is the trouble caused by literal interpretation of scripture according to Hollywood’s standards. Duality – a good guy and bad guy fighting it out for…
“Who said you were naked?” has got to be the single greatest line of scripture ever written. Omniscience speaks. It confronts our innermost thoughts with truth. This is important to understand. Our thoughts typically are not based on truth but on our perceptions derived from the opinions and models projected upon us from our conditions, institutions, and people about us.
These factors will always deem us to be “naked” in their milieu simply because we do not conform to their standard. Once we assume the mental judgment of being “naked” we will desperately attempt to rectify the indiscretion at any cost – but to no avail. Once seen as shameful, the title sticks. Understand this: Shame, and the humility it creates, is purely a personal acceptance to a socially agreed deviation in what is presently considered to be the “norm.”
To put this in kingdom terms, shame is the attempt to create a code of conduct from an “other” which has separated itself from the kingdom of God for the purpose of being promoted into a reigning position which seeks to defy an omnipotent God. Read that again very carefully and meditate upon its ramification.
In the kingdom of an omnipresent God there is no other. All is one in the omnipresence. Anything contrary to this truth is merely a belief. A belief is the recognition that “oneness” is not truth. Duality, multiplicity is acceptable because everyone has the right to their own opinions and “beliefs.” Before you agree to this claim, consider how such a conviction places you outside the realm of God’s kingdom where all is considered as being one with the Creator.
In the next installment I’ll look at the grace factor and its affect on beliefs.
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