#divine indwelling

[thinkingonscripture]

The Apostle Paul: A NT Example of Submission to God

A New Testament person who exemplifies living in submission to God is the Apostle Paul. Despite his weaknesses and failures, Paul’s life demonstrates steady submission to God’s will. His transformation from a persecutor of Christians to a devoted apostle of Christ illustrates this submission. Unlike most Christians, Paul surrendered to the Lord very shortly after his conversion on the road to…

[catholicdailyreflections]

Reflection 105: The Effects of God’s Indwelling

Reflection 105: The Effects of God’s Indwelling - Daily Reflections on Divine Mercy: 365 Days with Saint Faustina

What would you experience if God were to fully dwell in the depths of your soul?  Peace, joy and amazement!  And from these gifts, and from the indwelling of the Trinity, you would have courage in the face of hardship, strength to cast out fear and an impenetrable defense against the evil one, against his lies and his snares.  You will not be free from temptation and suffering, but you…

[winged-thinged]

I lived for a while bending over backwards to try to justify how my liberal beliefs fit into my Catholicism, cherrypicking scripture and arguing with tradition. It's definitely possible. But you know what? It's exhausting, constantly fighting for a place in a community that ultimately does not want you and isn't interested in changing.

When I was a theology student, I snarled at people who suggested that what I was really doing was asserting my beliefs and then assigning them to God (because I knew that gay people were natural and good, and God was good, so God must think so too, right?). I talked a lot about "ongoing revelation." About "indwelling" and human reason. I had to justify it to myself, because I wasn't willing to question the foundation that I had built myself on.

Because so little of my belief was actually built on what the Church and the Bible said, many of the traditional debunking arguments just didn't work on me. I didn't think that. I was sure that I was right and those other Christians were wrong.

But all that work eventually begs the question. Is it worth it? Why call yourself a Christian at all, when you have already traveled so far away from the foundations of Christianity?

And so I took a good hard look at what most of the Christians around me actually believed and how they acted. I finally let myself ask the question: what if I do them the courtesy of taking them at their word? What if I take their claims seriously, instead of imposing my own ideas about right and wrong onto the god that they believe in?

And what I immediately felt was revulsion. If God was actually like what the Church teaches, and not like the image I had been building up in my head all these years, then I wanted nothing to do with him. I remember, shortly after asking myself this question, I took communion for what would turn out to be the last time. I couldn't swallow. I wanted to vomit. The idea of taking a deity who believed and acted like my community said he did into my body, letting him touch my soul, was despicable. I decided then and there that, if God was real, I'd rather go to hell than worship him. I walked away, and I have never looked back.

I am so much lighter, now, not having to twist myself into knots justifying how my beliefs fit into a Catholic structure. I cut out the middle man. It is enough to simply use my mind and my heart to observe the world decide what's right for me. I'm perfectly capable of philosophical and moral reasoning on my own. No divine revelations required.

[achyutapriya]

Obeisance to Lord Krishna, who is both the abode and the indweller of all beings! Though reputed as born of Devaki, he is really the eternal and ancient one. Surrounded by the attendants of the Yadu clan, he destroyed the forces of adharma by the prowess of his arms. He redeemed all beings, animate and inanimate, from their sins. By his benign and smiling countenance, he inspired divine love in the hearts of the gopis and gopas of Vraja and Mathura.

Srimad Bhagavatam, Skanda 10: chapter 90, verse 48

[walkswithmyfather]

Matthew 1:18-25 (NIV). [18] “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. [19] Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. [20] But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. [21] She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” [22] All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: [23] “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). [24] When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. [25] But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.”

“Good News of Great Joy” By In Touch Ministries:

“Through Jesus, we receive eternal life—and divine joy.”

“When an angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds, he gave them good news of great joy for all people: The long-awaited Savior was born! Then the angel was suddenly “joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God” (Luke 2:13 NLT).

The good news they proclaimed that day had to do with more than just Jesus’ birth. It anticipated His sinless life, which qualified Him to be God’s sacrificial lamb. It looked ahead to His crucifixion and resurrection, which signaled the Father’s acceptance of Christ’s payment for our sins. It also encompassed His future ascension into heaven (Mark 16:19). And it envisioned Pentecost, when the Spirit would indwell believers (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17), as well as the time Jesus would return as King. The angels rejoiced because salvation was here (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Jesus spoke about joy because He wanted us to experience the satisfaction that comes from a relationship with Him. Such profound contentment isn’t dependent upon outward circumstances; rather, it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in you.

The angels in heaven rejoiced at the announcement of Jesus’ birth, and the shepherds praised God. Are you experiencing the divine joy that overflows from a Spirit-filled life?”

[talonabraxas]

"As above, so below. The microcosm corresponds to the macrocosm, and we must therefore seek in man the Kether above the head which shines with a pure white brilliance in Adam Kadmon, the Heavenly Man.

The rabbis call it the Yechidah, the Divine Spark; the Egyptians call it the Sab; the Hindus call it the Thousand-petalled Lotus. But under all these names we have the same idea-the nucleus of pure spirit which emanates but does not indwell its many manifestations upon the planes of form."

"The Spiritual Experience assigned to Kether is said to be Union with God. This is the end and aim of all mystical experience, and if we look for any other goal we are as those who build a house in the world of illusion.

Anything that holds him back from the straight path to this goal is felt by the mystic to be a bond that binds, and as such to be broken All that holds consciousness to form, all desires other than the one desire-these are to him evils, and from the standpoint of his philosophy he is right, and to act otherwise would invalidate his technique."

"The virtue assigned to Kether is that of Attainment, the Completion of the Great Work, to use a term borrowed from the alchemists. Without completion there can be no attainment, and without attainment no completion. Good intentions weigh light in the scale of cosmic justice; it is by our completed work that we are known. True, we have all eternity in which to complete it, but complete it we must, even to the final Yod. There is no mercy in perfect justice save that which gives us leave to try again."

"Kether, viewed from the standpoint of form, is the crown of the kingdom of oblivion. Unless we have realisation of the nature of the life of the pure white light we shall have little temptation to strive for the Crown which is not of this order of being at all; and if we have this realisation, then are we free from the bondage of manifestation and can speak to all forms as one having authority."

— Dion Fortune - "The Mystical Qabala"

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Music For the Soul by Alexander MacLaren

The Divine Indweller

"He abideth with you, and shall be in you." – John 14:17

The Divine strength has its seat in, and is intended to influence the whole of, the inner life. "Strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man." That, I suppose, does not mean the new creation through faith in Jesus Christ - what the Apostle calls "the new man" - but it means simply what another Apostle calls "the hidden man of the heart," and only refers to the distinction which we all draw between the outward, visible, material frame, and the unseen self that animates and informs it. It is this inner self, then, in which the Spirit of God is to dwell, and into which it is to breathe strength. The leaven is hid deep in three measures of meal until the whole be leavened.

And the point to mark is, that the whole inward region which makes up the true man is the field upon which this Divine Spirit is to work. It is not a bit of your inward life that is to be hallowed; it is not any one aspect of it that is to be strengthened, - but it is the whole intellect, affections, desires, tastes, powers of attention, combination, memory, will. The whole inner man in all its corners is to be filled, and to come under the influence of this power, " until there be no part dark, as when the bright shining of a candle giveth thee light."

So for this Divine Indweller there is no part of my life that is not patent to His tread. There are no rooms of the house of my spirit into which He is not to go. Let Him come with the master-key in His hand into all the dim chambers of your feeble nature; and as life is light in the eye, and colour in the cheek, and deftness in the fingers, and strength in the arm, and pulsation in the heart, so He will come and strengthen your understandings, and make you able for loftier tasks of intellect and of reason, than you can face in your unaided strength; and He will dwell in your affections, and make them vigorous to lay hold upon the holy things that are above their natural inclination, and will make it certain that " their reach shall not be beyond their grasp," as, alas! it so often is in the sadness and disappointments of human loves. And He will come into that feeble, vacillating, wayward will of yours, that is only obstinate in its adherence to the low and the evil, as some foul creature, that one may try to wrench away, digs its claws into corruption and holds on by that; He will lift your will, and make it fix upon the good and abominate the evil, and through the whole being He will pour a great tide of strength which shall cover all the weakness. He will be like some subtle elixir which, taken into the lips, steals through a pallid and wasted frame, and brings back a glow to the cheek and a lustre to the eye and a swiftness to the brain, and power to the whole nature. Or as some plant, drooping and flagging beneath the hot rays of the sun, when it has the scent of water given to it, will, in all its parts, stiffen and erect itself, so this Divine Spirit will go searching every corner of the inner man, illuminating and invigorating all.

[blushlillyyy]

• Prajnānam Brahma : divine consciousness is the supreme reality (brahman) (aitareya : 5.3)

• Aham Brahmāsmi : I am brahman ( brihadāranyaka : 1.4.10)

• Tat tvam asi : you are that (brahman) (chāndogya: 6.8.7)

• Ayam ātmā Brahma : this indwelling self is brahman ( Māndukya :2)

[eyeoftheheart]

The Orange Seller painting by Enrique Serra y Auque

“She is the eternal muse, the goddess who whispers the mysteries of the universe into the hearts of poets and prophets, saints and sages, mystics and musicians, philosophers and spiritual seekers alike. In her, all things find their origin and return. She is Sophia, the wisdom that weaves the cosmos into harmony. She is the Shekinah, the indwelling presence of the divine. She is the Muse, whose timeless song inspires art, poetry, and the sacred quest for meaning. Her essence flows through every star and every flower, through the stillness of the forest and the roar of the sea, calling us to remember the unity from which we came.

In her embrace, we rediscover the sacred within ourselves. She reveals that life itself is a poem and divine dance, a song and a prayer, each moment a verse sung to the rhythm of eternity. She is the eternal circle—alpha and omega—where all creation begins, ends, and is born anew.”

— from The Secret of Awakening

[michaelofnebadon]

The Truest Religious Way

The divine nature may be perceived only with the eyes of the mind. But the mind that really discerns God, hears the indwelling Adjuster, is the pure mind.

“Without holiness no man may see the Lord.” All such inner and spiritual communion is termed spiritual insight. Such religious experiences result from the impress made upon the mind of man by the combined operations of the Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth as they function amid and upon the ideas, ideals, insights, and spirit strivings of the evolving sons of God.

Religion lives and prospers, then, not by sight and feeling, but rather by faith and insight. It consists not in the discovery of new facts or in the finding of a unique experience, but rather in the discovery of new and spiritual meanings in facts already well known to mankind.

The highest religious experience is not dependent on prior acts of belief, tradition, and authority; neither is religion the offspring of sublime feelings and purely mystical emotions. It is, rather, a profoundly deep and actual experience of spiritual communion with the spirit influences resident within the human mind, and as far as such an experience is definable in terms of psychology, it is simply the experience of experiencing the reality of believing in God as the reality of such a purely personal experience.

True religion is not a system of philosophic belief which can be reasoned out and substantiated by natural proofs, neither is it a fantastic and mystic experience of indescribable feelings of ecstasy which can be enjoyed only by the romantic devotees of mysticism. Religion is not the product of reason, but viewed from within, it is altogether reasonable. Religion is not derived from the logic of human philosophy, but as a mortal experience it is altogether logical. Religion is the experiencing of divinity in the consciousness of a moral being of evolutionary origin; it represents true experience with eternal realities in time, the realization of spiritual satisfactions while yet in the flesh.

The Thought Adjuster has no special mechanism through which to gain self-expression; there is no mystic religious faculty for the reception or expression of religious emotions. These experiences are made available through the naturally ordained mechanism of mortal mind. And therein lies one explanation of the Adjuster’s difficulty in engaging in direct communication with the material mind of its constant indwelling. Urantia Papers The Sevenfold Revelation of Michael

[newlyfaithfulhumanity]

The Sovrnty Foundation

fides spes caritas

Faith, Hope, and Charity in the rehabilitation and restoration and reordering of the Universal Planetary Government.

The United Ministry of the Paradise Sons of the Original Mother Son of Paradise dedicated to guiding the individual evolutionary experience of the individual and the planetary sphere.

The Michael Revelation is a sevenfold revelation and teaching which includes:

1. Jesus Michael's personal writings and discourses given to the apostles of the 1st century.

2. The Michael Of Nebadon Archival Library of the 21st Century.

3. The Urantia Book text given by the Divine Personalities coming from Uversa with a commission to enlighten the race and who serve to exalt and elevate and ennoble all lives.

4. The Golden Scripts of Christ Michael.

5. A Course in Miracles text.

6. The Pathwork Lectures of the Host of Nebadon Administration who are ascended and free.

7. The Association of Sananda and Sanat Kumara with the Sons and Daughters of Nebadon present a unique and expansive teaching array and a narrative of the Royal Road of Transformation Ascendancy.

The Sevenfold Cosmic Viewpoint of the Paradise Trinity to Enhance all Meanings, Values, and Vision:

1. The Universal Father:

   - The Michael Revelation describes God as the Universal Father, emphasizing a personal relationship with each individual.

   - God's love is unconditional, and He is accessible to all through the indwelling presence of the Thought Adjuster (a fragment of God within each person).

2. Eternal Progression:

   - The Michael Revelation and its teachings emphasize that life is a journey of eternal progression.

   - Mortals evolve spiritually through experiences, choices, and growth.

   - The goal is to attain perfection through alignment with divine will.

  3. The Supreme Being:

   - The revelatory cosmology introduces the concept of the Supreme Being, an evolving deity.

   - The Supreme is the sum total of all finite experiences and the unifying force in the grand universe.

   - Mortals contribute to the Supreme's growth through their decisions and actions.

4. Spiritual Realities:

   - The Sevenfold Michael Revelation discusses various spiritual realities, including angels, celestial beings, and the afterlife.

   - Angels serve as ministering spirits, guiding and assisting humans.

   - The soul survives physical death and continues its journey in the morontia realms.

5. Cosmic Citizenship:

   - The Michael of Nebadon teachings emphasize that we are citizens of a vast cosmic family.

   - Our spiritual growth contributes to the harmony of the universe.

   - We participate in the cosmic brotherhood of beings from diverse worlds.

6. Jesus Christ Michael:

   - The Michael Revelation presents an expanded narrative of Jesus' life and teachings, as well as, revealing the 21st century bestowal mission and ministry of Michael.

   - Jesus Michael is portrayed as both divine (the Son of God) and human (the Son of Man).

   - His mission, was and still is, to reveal the Father's love and show the way to eternal life.

7. Personal Religious Experience:

   - The Michael Revelatory Perspective encourages personal religious experience.

   - It values inner communion, worship, and the pursuit of truth.

   - Each person's spiritual journey is unique and significant.

2025. The Sovrnty Foundation

[comparativetarot]

The High Priestess. Art by ​Robert Riedel, from Darkness, Earth, and Light.

Wears a crescent horned diadem, a symbol of the moon reflected in the sky. The large cross on her breast represents the balance between the four elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. The scroll in her hands are the memories of the past, present and future.  She is the female indwelling presence of the divine. She is secrets, mystery, and the future as yet unrevealed.

[madamlaydebug]

In Kamit, if it is said that a woman is as beautiful as a rose, it is because her actions are reflective of the divine indwelling intelligence behind the birth, maturation, decay, death and rebirth cycle of that rose, not merely its aesthetic appeal and alluring fragrance.

So in the eyes of the beholder, he holds her in the light of divinity that he may see god in all her brilliance.

Ra Amma Aresh Bakau

(stta)

[silmandstuff]

Soooo.....

I kinda like eldritch, biblically accurate angbang, but like really their floofy for each other. Their really soft ancient terrors.

The Ainur function similarly to Aeons in Gnosticism, kinda. Their all manifestations of a specific aspect of Eru's will, and often, as with the Valar, are born in complementary pairs, as equals and opposites. Because I can, I see Mairon as the other end of Melkor's syzygy. Order and Chaos. Anyhow, I view the Ainur as more metaphysical beings, and as such, their relationships. I don't mean this as an absence of sexuality, but I mean the underlying nature of their mind, to me, would work differently, them being divine beings. They are primordial incarnations of specific divine attributes.

I think the intensity of emotions in their relationships would be well beyond mortal feeling, and the connection involved between the members of a syzygy would be akin to the divine union talked about in regards to Gnostic Aeons, or nearly any other divine dyad.

Melkor and Mairon would enable the existence of and complete each other. They literally coexist and indwell.

So, like the soul mates trope up to an eleven or something.

Also, the Idea of Tolkein's eternal flame is reminiscent of the progenitive nous in Christian, Greco-roman and Gnostic tradition. It's god's genitive, or creative capacity. All life is endowed with a bit of it, it is the quality of god's love and desire. Anyhow, each syzygy cocreates from eachother. Interestingly, in Gnosticism the fall happens when one Aeon tries to create outside her syzygy.

Melkor is the destructive and chaotic aspect of Eru's will, and Sauron is the aspect concerned with order, preservation and control. They fit together prefectly despite being opposites.

I imagine them as quite loving, particularly Melkor.

I know some people write Mairon as the devoted one, but for me it's the opposite. Melkor is very doting and caring, while Mairon is quite dreadful. Mairon has an innate comprehension of the innerworkings of nearly everything, save Eru himself. He has the gift of foresight, to a degree, and so is a great strategist. Melkor has what Mairon lacks in power, and with Mairon's direction, can get shit done. The absence of one would imbalance the other. So oof, the whole void ordeal.

Also, I see the roles the Valar play in the Silm as heavily symbolic, as with most divine figures in religious texts. Death/destruction is very much a symbol of transformation, and Melkor, being endowed with a share in the powers of all Valar, seems to mediate the relationship between each idea, destroying the state of one thing so it can pass into the next.

Of course, Tolkien wrote Melkor in a way as so his goal was the world's destruction, but in many religions the world's destruction is the most ultimate and conclusive sign of reunification with god, or the coming of heaven, and the apocalypse itself is seen as a holy act.

Basically I see Melkor as a representation of death and transformation. He is the final destruction of the world in order for the souls return to Eru. Anything mortal that follows him is 'destroyed' in it's mortality, and would surely 'die'.

anyhow, back to basic headcanons.

They both took many different forms, sometimes daily, before they lost that ability. When Melkor was confined to a damaged, finite form it aided in driving him mad.

To me, Melkor wouldn't lash out at Mairon as he was going insane, but would instead overly rely on him, entrusting him with more and more tasks he couldn't accomplish. To me the Anu are like paragons of whatever idea they represent, and rely heavily on connection. As Melkor becomes more and more isolated, he is driven further into madness, as he is a being made of connection, even if his function is to wreck shit. Mairon has always been his only true connection, being his syzygy, but now he would fully rely on Mairon for all his interaction. He can't go blow up mountains or yell at orcs anymore. He just sits and lays in Mairons lap, while Mai sings to him.

.....That was long.

[azspot]

I believe that the world was created and approved by love, that it subsists, coheres, and endures by love, and that, insofar as it is redeemable, it can be redeemed only by love. I believe that divine love, incarnate and indwelling in the world, summons the world always toward wholeness, which ultimately is reconciliation and atonement with God.

Wendell Berry

[walkswithmyfather]

2 Peter 1:12-21 (GNT). [12] “And so I will always remind you of these matters, even though you already know them and are firmly grounded in the truth you have received. [13] I think it only right for me to stir up your memory of these matters as long as I am still alive. [14] I know that I shall soon put off this mortal body, as our Lord Jesus Christ plainly told me. [15] I will do my best, then, to provide a way for you to remember these matters at all times after my death. [16] We have not depended on made-up stories in making known to you the mighty coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. With our own eyes we saw his greatness. [17] We were there when he was given honor and glory by God the Father, when the voice came to him from the Supreme Glory, saying, “This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased!” [18] We ourselves heard this voice coming from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain. [19] So we are even more confident of the message proclaimed by the prophets. You will do well to pay attention to it, because it is like a lamp shining in a dark place until the Day dawns and the light of the morning star shines in your hearts. [20] Above all else, however, remember that none of us can explain by ourselves a prophecy in the Scriptures. [21] For no prophetic message ever came just from the human will, but people were under the control of the Holy Spirit as they spoke the message that came from God.

John 17:17 (NLT). [17] “Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.”

“Know Your God” By In Touch Ministries:

“Every day we have the privilege of drawing closer to God through His Word.”

“Throughout the world, and even within the church, there’s a wide range of beliefs about the Lord. It’s important for believers to recognize that the Bible is without error and that it reveals the truth we need to understand about our triune God (John 17:17).

The inerrancy of the Bible. Without a firm belief in this doctrine, all of a person’s ideas about the Lord will be subjective. Scripture is the compilation of God’s thoughts written without error by men who were governed by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:20-21).

An accurate understanding of the Lord. God is one divine being expressed in three eternal persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are equal in every way, but their jobs differ. All three were involved in creation as well as in the plan of salvation.

The Son came to earth through a virgin birth. He lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death for our sins, rose from the grave, and ascended to the Father in heaven. The Holy Spirit is our source of power. He indwells every believer in Christ, transforming character, revealing truth, and enabling obedience to God.

Our Creator wants us to know Him. Isn’t that amazing? He invites us to enjoy an intimate relationship with Him. Every day we have the privilege of opening His Word and having a heart-to-heart conversation with our triune God.”

[Photo thanks to Priscilla Du Preez at Unsplash]