Some people wonder what forces lie behind, or under, the world around them...others experience them! More than the obvious explanations of molecules, atoms, and quarks, are the unknown substances that give existence to the world's sub-microscopic realm. The most important undetected substance is the substance of spirit.
How to Strengthen
Your Spirit
Partaking of God’s Spirit
Allan Brian White
Victory Press
2967 N. Meadowlark Drive
Prescott Valley, Arizona 86314
Copyright © 2011 by Allan Brian White
All rights reserved. Selected parts of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in usual forms with the written permission of the Publisher.
ISBN: 0-9633181-2-8
Printed in the United States of America
August 2011
Victory Press
All Scripture references are from the King James Authorized Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.
Key to noted versions:
BBE – Bible in Basic English
CEV – Contemporary English Version
GW – God’s Word
MKJV – Modern King James Bible
YLT – Young’s Literal Translation
CONTENTS
PAGE
1 - What Spirit Is 10
2 - A Taste of Spirit 39
3 - The Glory of Spirit Substance 48
4 - One way to Spirit’s Glory 58 5 - Our Father’s Reservoir of Spirit Substance 64
6 - Scientific and Religious Menus 71 7 - Sweetened Souls 85 8 - What Distracts Us from Spirit Food? 100 9 - The Sustenance of Spirit 110
10 - Believers Without Spirit 118
11 - Spiritless Einsteins 127 12 - Portions of Truth on Both Sides 132 13 - Are We What We Eat? 150 14 - More Than a Chemical Being 173 15 - Spirit Clarified 176 16 - The Substance of Spirit 180 17 – Is Invisible Spirit Visible? 188 18 - Aligning Your Spirit to Discern 197 19 - Seeing What Spirit Is 206 20 - Spirit’s Substructure 214 21 - Expanding Spirits 222 22 - Understanding Spirit-Man 226 23 - The Image and Likeness in Man 228 24 - Spirit Consumes Spirit 242 25 - From Water to Spirit 247
Acknowledgements
I want to thank my wife, Ella, for her months of helping edit and revise this book. Her suggestions and questions helped keep me focused.
I want to thank our son Matthew for providing computers and programs; our son Scott and his wife Misty for providing a printer; and our daughter Kellie and her husband David for providing a computer and printer which helped in the compiling process of this book.
I also want to thank Warren and Peggy Small Bear for providing a printer which contributed to the process.
I appreciate the members of our home fellowship group who made suggestions to improve early drafts of the book: Don and Elaine Hardt, Gerry Card, Joyce Vandenacre, Cindy Lee, and Beverly Lyall.
Great thanks to Barbara and Barry Spangler for their proofreading and suggestions.
Preface
I was drawn from the tarnished city of Baltimore, in Maryland, to the pristine city of Prescott, in Arizona, by a dream to make my way into a spiritual life. At the time, I had been reading two of Carlos Castaneda’s books, A Separate Reality [1971] and Journey to Ixtland [1972]. The mystical themes of the books revealed a new world to me, the world of spirits. My idea of spirits at the time consisted of ghost stories and Casper, the friendly ghost. My concept of the word “spirit” had little connection with reality.
I had no idea of the wonderful history and etymology of the words spirit and breath. Webster’s Dictionary defines the word etymology as the origin of words. The words spirit and breath can be traced back to several antiquated root word forms. For example, the French word espirit, the Latin word spiritus, the Greek word pneuma, and the Hebrew word ruwack. Interestingly, the words breath, breathe, or spirit all symbolize moving energy. They also denote the power to move and life itself. Our English word respire, to breathe successively, came from a French word form.
The word ghost is derived from the Old Norse usage of geispa, meaning to yawn. One familiar English form of ghost is when a person is aghast, or gasps. This means they are without a breath. The Anglo-Saxons similarly used the word “gast” when they were talking about the breath. From these usages, it’s easy to see how the word ghost eventually became the popular form by the 15th Century, the time known as the Middle English period.
But this book is not going to be about words, but about the substance of spirit. Even though spirit is a rather broad topic, here it will be broken down into fresh descriptions, which hopefully will enlighten the reader. Most of the books written about spirit approach it from a vague perspective. Rarely does a book break down the multiple aspects of spirit, especially the many facets of man’s spirit. While, the book is meant to supersede a person’s existing religious beliefs concerning spirit, it also is meant to stir up belief in those who have had no exposure to spiritual things.
Moreover, this book is intended to help the reader find an effective means of making a transformation from the world’s customary religious inclinations to spiritual ones. There is a difference. All readers should benefit from this difference, but those who decide to get serious will gain even more through a new respect of spirit. The humanistic ideals most of us hold can truly be changed if we focus more on the spirit realm and less on the natural realm. Come with me into the heavily populated realm of spirits.
For those
spiritually abused
and misled.
For those
willing to be
taught truths beyond
traditional teachings.
For those
who hunger and thirst
for more of God,
Jesus Christ,
and the Holy Spirit.
And especially
For those
Questioning my premise.
Chapter One
What Spirit Is
Did you ever wonder what spirit is? Oprah Winfrey did. She ran several episodes on her show focusing on spirit. She asked her viewing audience to send their ideas of what spirit is to her show. As the responses came in, she read an assortment of them on the air.
Some viewers thought spirit was merely a creation of man’s imagination, while others said it was real and they depend heavily on spirit guides for their lives. What then is spirit? Is it imaginary or is it real? What is it that people have tried to define through the ages by telling stories of unusual occurrences, by writing books about something they experienced, or by experimentation through science? What they have attempted to define is so illusive and diverse that many seekers have given up in their attempts.
John Wesley wondered what Spirit is. Even though Wesley at first emphasized the personal work of the Spirit in salvation (how one becomes a Christian), he searched for the role of the Spirit of reassurance, focusing on the fruit of the Spirit (how one knows they are a Christian). But later, Wesley focused on the living Spirit.
Emmanuel Swedenborg also wondered what spirit is. Swedenborg was an academic genius, accomplished in physics, mathematics, physiology, psychology, cosmology, and theology, who attempted to unite science and spiritual concepts. He left all his esteemed degreed positions to pursue spiritual concepts.1
Walt Disney was nearly consumed by spirit stories. His extensive fame and success as an American entrepreneur came from making use of fairy tales. Fairy tales are spirit based stories. When Disney made the movie, Darby O’Gill and the Little People, an idea which he probably barrowed from Celtic folklore, he perceived the “little people” in all their materializations as imaginary figures from folktales. I don’t know how deeply he searched for the origin of the old-world story, but he had considerable spiritual interests underlying his search. His extreme immersion into the mystical and magical world goes beyond the mere joy of movie characters. Beyond his depiction of lively “little people” in Darby O’Gill, Disney and his staff delved into the archives of strange, unnatural, and evil behavior of many peculiar beings who reportedly dwelt in the countryside of Ireland.2
In similar stories, as those collected by two brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, which were taken directly from the oral narrations of peasant folks in German villages, strange creatures were revealed. The locals called them fairies, which disguised their true identity. They were really mischievous spirits cloaked in abnormal human forms. For example, Rumpelstiltskins, Spirit in a Bottle, and Rapunsel are three of the collected stories. In each of these fairy-tales the locals portray imps as tricky little men. Some called the spirits leprechauns, which were a major part of the Irish custom and lifestyle. Then there were elves, which were prevalent enough that it was common to speak as if all the tales of them were true.
Many European children of that day grew up believing fairy-like characters were real. Endless stories of wonder and enchantment that were told around the open hearth were about the antics of dwarfs, leprechauns, and trolls. These were often tricky old men who if caught would reveal where treasures were hidden. Since they were not in the end helpful imps, it is likely that they were evil spirits?
From English and Scottish folklore, tales of brownies were very common. These accounts were stories of spirits reported to inhabit households. These were tiny helpful fairy-like imps who aided with domestic chores but would seek revenge on residents if they didn’t leave a snack out at night. Then, there were pixie spirits, especially from English folklore. They were known as mischievous trolls or sprites fabled to dwell under bridges in the surrounding hills and caves.
Of course, it is only assumed that these spirits disguised themselves in human-like forms, created havoc, and even helped to establish their own legends. However, if these spirits were not really there, why do we find separate sets of information about them spread throughout the world? This is a hard question that needs to be considered. Another such question is, “Why are the characteristics of an elf in Hungary a match of those of an elf in Peru?” Remember, most of these provincial people never communicated even to a single neighboring town or tribe.
In order to fully answer this, we must study as many firsthand spirit accounts as we can, especially those that became formative of man's traditions and lifestyles. Then, we need to trace them back to their origins. It makes little difference whether their origins are religious or secular here, because spirits have no boundaries, they are equally distributed across the human spectrum. My investigation here will be to disclose an array of spirit origins. While a search as this may seem a little spooky, it’s necessary if we are to gain the needed information of spirits’ origins.
Before we embark, it may help to compare this search for the origins of spirits to a search for the origins of diamonds.
Imagine standing in an assayer’s office at the Kimberly Diamond Mines in Africa. You ask the expert to evaluate several diamonds you own. The assayer tells you the value of your diamonds depends on their place of origin. Not knowing offhand what to say you take a step back and think of how to find that information. You assume this information will make a difference in their worth, so you begin to dig for the facts. But before tracing your diamonds to their place of being created, you begin to assess their present properties, some of which are obvious and some of which are not. You hope they can be evaluated just as they are. But as gemologist, Paul E. Desautels, explains in his book, The Gem Kingdom, it is a diamond's underlying characteristics which reveal the most valuable clues to its formation. In particular, the diamond’s characteristics of clarity, chemical composition, and internal foreign substances must be known. Determining these three factors will reveal a lot about our diamond’s derivation. But, Desautels adds that the one most important attribute is its origin.
Knowing now that you have your work cut out for you, the second step in the search for the origin of the diamonds is to trace them back to the formative stages of their development, especially their birth places. One of the birth places of diamonds is the well-known diamond mine deep inside the Kalahari Desert in Africa. There, you can watch as the miners remove carloads of mineral ore from the mines. You can watch as they move the ore through several stages of processing. All this done, you have only accomplished the external part of your search. You will still need to delve deeper into its composition. You still need to enter into its unseen world and get to know it thoroughly.
Just as diamonds can be traced to their origins, spirits, in a similar manner, can be traced to theirs. The first step in tracing spirits is to learn information of their composition as they exist now; but keeping in mind the importance of where they originated. The most common spirit information we have today is from legendary ghost stories and historical information from the Scriptures; those of the living-dead and those of dead ancestors. The next cache of information is the way members refer to spirits within their religions; for example, some religious adherents pray to angels and cast out demons. The head-hunting Dayaks of Borneo, who call on spirits to bring about good luck or sickness, are another example. Then, there are several Afro-American cults practicing Voodoo in Haiti, in which the spirits of nature are summoned for group and personal empowerment. Three of the less common Voodooists are the Macumba in Brazil, the Shango in Trinidad, the Santeria in Cuba, and the Kumina in Jamaica.
There are two peculiar Spiritualist groups closely related to those above, but they have a smaller following. These two groups mix Christianity (or Buddhism) with their eccentric spiritualistic practices. One group is the Karo Batak of North Sumatra and the other is the Bisayan of the Philippines; both still practice ancestral and environmental spirit contact. In addition to these, the Pueblo and Hopi Indians of Arizona and New Mexico continue belief in the kachina, which is an ancestral spirit. In particular, Hopi Indians contact dead people’s ghosts and offer them up to the realm of the deceased ancestors for them to metamorphose into an ancestor spirit; eventually they can become one of more than 250 kachina doll types (idols). This is believed to empower the deceased to live eternally.
One rapidly growing religious movement, Scientology, teaches that human beings are immortal spirits, which they have named thetans. They also believe that members who are troubled with past behavior can use the E-meter to locate precise areas of a person’s spirit where the difficulty lies. An E-meter is a devise for measuring changes in electrical resistance. Today, there are nearly eight million practicing members in more than 70 countries. According to Multimedia Encyclopedia, Version 1.5, all the practices above continue just as they were in ancient times.
The next step in tracing spirits to their origins includes studying the development of different spirit-believing groups under important circumstances. To do this, we must look at some important conditions that surrounded them. Many were separated by vast bodies of water and impassable mountains. Nevertheless, they reported similar spiritual experiences even though they didn’t communicate with one another over great distances. Since there was no contact between distant groups of people, it must be assumed that there was actual spirit activity underlying their stories rather than simply their imagination. Man’s imagination alone is not substantial enough to transmit all the details showing up in other lands. This can be admitted as significant evidence for the existence of spirits. When each of these various groups told their stories, identical character traits and activities of the spirits were found. This is at variance with those who hold that imagined stories of spirits were carried by word of mouth across the miles or handed down in one of any number forms; and, that this would take place generation after generation. In nearly all occurrences, mere storytelling could not be the courier; it had to be multiple emerging forms of spirit.
India is a good example of a country from which distinct forms of spirits have arisen. From this land of Mahatma Gandhi, we learn that many Hindus believe in a god who emanates a spirit to make a soul. Hindus also believe in the transmigration of souls from the past lives of animals and humans; it’s called reincarnation, meaning that their spirit-animated souls are repeatedly reborn into various life forms. This cycle of rebirthing continues until a soul is perfected, which breaks the cycle. Simply put, the cycle breaks when the believer realizes the truth about his soul and about the Absolute (the Brahma). This process meanders through many births and deaths. In the course of it, the believer must work out good and bad done in previous lives so that the results can be applied to the next life. In other words, a Hindu could have previously lived as a human in one lifetime, and then spiritually transmigrated and degenerated into a goat in another lifetime. When he breaks the reincarnation cycle of life on earth he ascends to a higher, divine stage of development. Somehow, within their complex system, they correctly believe the basic substance of a soul is spirit.
Hindus think Brahma, the ultimate reality, is the animating force of life. It is not a personality, but is a nebulous spirit recorded in some of the writings of the Upanishads. They believe also in a series of lesser gods, numbering in the thousands, who are believed to be of the same reality as Brahma. To Hindus, the idea of spirit takes on a larger meaning through the Atman, the soul. But this is not as clear cut as one would think. Each Hindu society has its own definition of spirit and soul, making it even harder to mine for the origin of spirit. The Atman can also be the spirit of man responsible for the changes (Karma) on the journey through reincarnation.
It is well known that the native people of North, Central, and South America have related to a god they call the Great Spirit. But somewhere along the way, they seem to have lost sight of their main god in the midst of a growing number of lesser gods or spirits. It’s hard to determine which group has the greater number of lesser gods. For most of these western hemisphere Indians, the lesser spirits control the elements of nature, such as making the earth's soil, maintaining the shapes of mountains, forming clouds, carving courses of streams, and bringing misfortune; and that’s just a few in a long list. Transmigration of the soul is practiced by most of these groups as well.
Along with these, there are a number of groups in Africa, Madagascar, Oceana, and South America that believe in the transmigration of the soul. In the practice of this belief the person leaves his body and enters another body, or travels out of his body to another place. He believes that once he leaves his body, he may enter another human, animal, or inanimate object. This differs somewhat from that of the Hindus who believe transmigration only happens within their particular well-defined cycle of death and rebirth called Samsara.
From China, we learn that most of the Buddhists, Taoists, and Confucians believe, experience, and obey the spirits of their dead ancestors. For centuries, people in these cultures have maintained ancestral halls where the spirits of dead relatives gather, and where devoted family members worship them. This ancient, but still practiced, ritual is often thought to have issued forth from animism. Animism is the belief that a divinity or spirit resides within every object.
People adhering to doctrines of these primitive religious societies seemed to have a significant spiritual advantage over modern man. The primitives didn’t have the many visual distractions and therefore could concentrate at length on invisible spirits.
Necessarily included in the list of groups experiencing spirits are those who have practiced worshipping the spirit of Satan along with demon spirits. Apart from the Bible’s explanation of the origin of Satan, and the worship of him, one of the first cultures thought to have actually practiced it was found in the peninsular area between Europe and Asia, where Bulgaria and Turkey intersect. This satanic religious sect, known as the Bogomils allowed strong evil forces to occupy a position of equal power with their Creator. This came about after the Bogomil’s failed in their efforts to ascend to an equal position with their Creator. Consequently, they honored a spirit known as the “Evil One” who maintained an equal position of influence over their lives. As a result of allowing this evil influence into their lives, a dreadful foundation for future satanic systems of religion throughout the world was laid. Anyone who tried to oppose their efforts was hexed and/or cursed and the cult grew. 3
In contrast to this, Christians around the world have practiced worshipping a good Spirit Creator, Who essentially is a good Spirit. Christians, among other acts, have gathered for church services for about two thousand years, through which they have read and maintained the Holy Scriptures, followed the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and attended holy meetings of like-minded believers.
Along with this, the practice of praying to, and calling on angels has been standardized. Angels are believed to be spirits performing messenger and ministering services for God. They are not lesser gods, nor are they worshipped. It's not unusual to hear a Christian pray for God to place his holy angels around a loved-one traveling, or to possess a sacred metal of a saint, such as Saint Christopher. There is also the Christian practice of casting out evil spirits, which some believe delivers the person from their evil influences. These are only a few of the many practices involving spirits held by Christians.
If we could travel back into the past and trace spirits further, we could observe more of the influences spirits had on people across the ancient world. For instance, we might cross paths with the ahuras (pastoral lords of the upper class) and daevas (evil powers) of the Iranian Zoroastrians in the 7th and 6th centuries; or we could watch the rituals of totemism, or ceremonious dreaming of the Aborigines of Asia (now found mostly in Australia). We might see healing by the African or Eskimo shaman, or observe meditation on the Sanskrit word by the Zen Buddhist from India, China or Japan; or we could learn about spirit illumination from the Book of Kells which flourished during the Golden Age of the Gaels of Ireland in 600 to 100 BC, or finally, see the Burmese Mon people of Southeast Asia dance in the spirit of the supernatural at a Kalok ceremony.
Those who question these practices involving spirits must answer the question which asks, “If there were no such beings as spirits, why have people of nearly every culture and religion witnessed, participated, and reported them?” The answer one must consider is that spirits really do exist. Other than the groups mentioned above there are numerous personal experiences which could be noted. But since there are so many of these experiences, I cannot include them all in this work. Readers may want to do further research of personal spiritual experiences through the Internet or the library.
In any case, it's noteworthy that most documented evidence of spiritual experiences, including folklore and mythology, speak of a Creator in the form of a spirit. Therefore, from known information the possibility exists that the good spirit they worshipped is the same as the Creator other faiths worshipped and may still worship today. What most of these religious groups came to realize at some point was that without a Spirit Creator there would be no material universe. The world we know must have been created by something other than matter and the best candidate is a Spirit. Thus, there must have been a pre-creation period in which a Spirit Creator existed. In other words, the Spirit Creator must have existed before anything else was created.
For the best information about the pre-creation God, we must go to the Bible. One particular incident comes from the Book of Job, where God asks Job where he was when He (the Spirit of God) laid the foundation of the earth.
From out of a storm, the LORD said to Job: “Why do you talk so much when you know so little? Now get ready to face me! Can you answer the questions I ask?
How did I lay the foundation for the earth? Were you there? Doubtless you know who decided its length and width. What supports the foundation? Who placed the cornerstone?” (Job 38:1-6 CEV)
This Scripture record strongly suggests a Spirit Creator existed before the material world was formed. It’s not unusual that most Bible believers have no problem with this, but when it comes to scientists accepting it, they find it difficult to conceive; even though some scientists are now theorizing that there was a form of pre-matter activity before the universe was made. The ones who believe this tend to call it the Big Bang Theory. They believe fluctuating waves of energy somehow concentrated themselves into a single dense bundle of energy which exploded. However, there is neither scientific nor biblical evidence to confirm the so called Fluctuating Wave Theory. To the contrary, the Book of Genesis says God created the heavens and the earth, but says nothing of fluctuating waves or a Big Bang event. The Spirit’s creative acts, more than likely, happened through multiple, rather quiet, expansions. The biblical account of creation, if one chooses to consider it, declares more of a step-by-step production, beginning with His spoken Word, and progressing through His creations, which reproduced their species. I think God's style of creating is more like a person speaking out loud into outer space. The speaker creates his ideas, speaks them, and his words come together as a concept. Then, a certain amount of power applied to that concept determines what becomes of it. Little power applied, little power results. Great power applied means great power results. But the Bible does not say there was a loud creation. No big bang, only God’s spoken word and power.
If we trace spirits back through time, even to a point before the creation of the material universe, we will most assuredly be led to the existence of a spirit universe. If we consider what was there before the material world was created, it should not be too large a step for us to accept a Spirit Creator existing to perform it. Along with this, those, who believe creation was caused by an unseen “Force,” are in good company, for many modern physicists and Bible believers also accept as true that there were active unseen forces before creation. As well as those merely believing in unseen forces, some have gone a step further by using new methods specifically designed to search for unseen forces.
As part of their search, some scientists utilize computers to interpret photographs of the unseen, which theoretically gives them implicit images of invisible atomic particles. This is surprising to me, since their initial claim to fame declared all knowledge is based on the observation of an occurrence. Although, there are some scientists currently considering the concept of “reasoning,” along with observation to be a valid and equal parts of the knowledge of all things. However, most of them are still locked into the theory which states that an occurrence should be observable and reproducible.
Ironically, in one of the most promising branches of science, that of quantum physics, scientists now follow methods by which they make attempts to prove the existence of unobservable events. This approach is so unlike them, since the quantum method greatly deviates from the well-known rules of the scientific method, and even circumvents it. However, the new method does have evidence, the neutron bomb. The unseen physical reaction of the bomb truly verifies the power and existence of the invisible. This parallels the belief that an unseen Creator can possess power and direct unobservable forces from a spirit realm. This led me to think of a personal principle: There are things that are seen that not everyone can see and there are things not seen that everybody can see under the right circumstances.
As an example, I will share a personal illustration. Recently, as I watched an evening news broadcast, I heard a reporter say, “Watch for the shower of stars tonight!” He continued, “The display can best be seen between two and four o’clock in the morning.” The interesting way it was presented captivated me. So, around two o'clock on a February morning, I got up, bundled myself in warm clothing, grabbed a lawn chair, and headed outside for the best vantage point I could find. Admittedly, I was blurry-eyed and not fully awake, but I was determined to see the announcer's predicted “shower of stars” anyhow. As I looked up into the sky, there were only a few bright stars here and there. I muttered to myself, “Where is the shower of stars?” Since I had anticipated much more than I was seeing, the experience left me disappointed. Not wanting to admit defeat, I made a second attempt and tried to convince myself I could somehow make my vision sharper. So I squinted and concentrated for all I was worth. I even tried binoculars, but that made it worse. At that point, I couldn't even see the stars I had seen in the first place.
I thought to myself, “There’s no such thing as a real shower of stars that I can see.” Little did I know there were reasons for not being able to see it. Unknown to me, but nevertheless simultaneously occurring were three atmospheric veils which separated me from those heavenly bodies. The first veil was the glare of the city lights surrounding me, in particular, a bright street light several houses away. The second veil was a haze covering our area. This was caused by wind-blown dust particles and smoke in the air, both of which tended to absorb and obscure most of the light coming from stars. And third, there was the veil of light produced by a very bright moon. Even though I did see a few falling stars that night, it was nothing like the shower the reporter announced. Next year I’ll sleep in!
The very next evening, there was another report on the same news show declaring the event to be one of the best in history. Whatever millions of other people saw, I somehow had missed. The shower of falling stars was there, but those three veils practically screened it from my eyes.
This experience taught me a lesson. There is a lot more going on around me than I may realize. It also taught me that much of the information given by prophets, and physicists as well is available for me to see if only I would observe it from a correct vantage point. This lesson became even more important when I considered what would happen if I took a correct point of view of the promises God made in the Bible. I came to the conclusion all things could be understood if only I would observe them correctly. Some of those Bible promises amazingly include hearing God, seeing spirit activity, and getting to know God personally. Unfortunately many people have hesitated to accept this because they think they must believe a religious doctrine before they experience it. But from their point of view, they’d be aligning with strange doctrines, which to them would be trying to experience God from an incorrect point of view.
So, the truth is that one needs to believe from a correct vantage point in order to find spirit. One example is the Christian vantage point, and that is seeing God's promises through Christ’s mind and purpose. But not all Christians are alike. Some take the vantage point that it’s what one reads in the Bible that brings them understanding and experience. These are the same people who believe that the Bible only promises, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8 KJV) However, this too has more than one vantage point, which is, “Listen for the voice of God,” as did the prophets. (Acts 22:14; Isaiah 6:8) There are a reasonable number of Christians who do this and are rewarded by finding spirit.
There is an important additional vantage point; that is, the one that is through Jesus. This means that if a person would know Jesus he would know the Father. This vantage point was expressed by the Apostle John. His belief was, if one relates to the “seen” godly person, one will know the “unseen” godly person. To know Jesus and through Him know the Father is to have a special closeness with both of them, not simply to have knowledge about them. What is interesting about this is that each of these vantage points describes an individual’s particular way, as opposed to everyone following a religion’s way.
But if a person who is not a Christian positions himself to perceive from a correct vantage point, he will find it is possible to encounter the spirit realm as well. By positioning, he will come to know the origin of spirit, which is found in his Maker. The good news of this is, when successful, this realm holds many spirit experiences for him as well.
There are some who believe materialism is the correct vantage point. But if they would study and find the missing parts of the puzzle of truth and align from a correct vantage point, it would become clear that the Spirit of God was the cause of creation, recorded in Genesis 1:2. Surprisingly compatible with the vantage point of God being the Creator is an ancient vantage point discovered by archeologists east of the Mediterranean. It is taken from the wall drawings of Mesolithic cave dwellers who performed ritual burial ceremonies. Some of the wall drawings show in detail the afterlife of man's spirit. The drawings also show that the cave dwellers were pointing to a spirit realm existing beyond this world.
One may ask the question, “From where did their ideas arise and why were they parallel with others throughout the world?” For in many countries, archeologists have found other drawings by primitive shaman (people believed to be resurrected teachers), practicing their trade of spirits. These are likely the first known records of man's knowledge of spirit.
Another bit of information related to these drawings is from the writings of Wilhelm Schmidt, an Austrian Roman Catholic priest, who described ancient sky-god-creators. According to Wilhelm's research, the sky-gods were spirit gods in early civilization presumed to create things out of nothing.4 His findings, also from primitive caves, point, once again, to Spirit being the Creator. In addition, there are the writings found in the Ebla Text tablets, dating 2500 years before Christ, discovered by an Italian Archeological Mission team. When these cuneiform inscriptions were deciphered, it was found they paralleled several Old Testament prophets’ writings referring to spirits.5 The conclusion of these findings seems to indicate spirits have been experienced and have been playing a major role in humanity from the beginning of time.
Considering this, it is wrong to conceive of primitive man as less intelligent than modern man. Proof of this is based on writings found in ancient Hebrew Scriptures. There we find God giving man the task of naming all the animals, specifically Adam. This seems like an easy undertaking, until we realize he had no language from which to acquire the names, and there were probably several hundred different animals to name. So, it surely can't be said, that primitive man believed in spirits because he was less intelligent than modern man. Tentatively, it is more likely primitive man utilized more of his brain than modern man does. It is even possible that primitive man was more intelligent than man is now. One reason may be he had more of the likeness of the Creator than likeness of the world, as can be read in Genesis 1:26.
The Bible says of man's creation that Adam was created in the Image and Likeness of God, that would have to be a spirit since God was (and is) a spirit. Since God is a Spirit and man was created in the Image and Likeness of His Spirit, man had to have been created a spirit. In that case, man was truly created after his kind, and only a spirit being is truly God’s kind.
“And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” (Genesis 1:25, 26 KJV)
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7 KJV)
Technically, this means man was spiritual before he was natural, and created in God's Spirit Image and Likeness before he was formed from the natural dust of the ground. How long the first man lived in this privileged state before he became flesh and went against his Maker is not known. But during this time, he surely must have partaken of God's Divine Spirit in many ways, and on a regular basis. However, once he went his own way, he placed himself in a position predisposed to independence from God’s Spirit. Remaining in this position his spirit deteriorated, but his soul thrived. From this state of spiritual demise, he would now need a new spirit before he could ever hope to partake of God's Spirit again. If Adam ever received a new spirit after he chose to be independent from God, the Bible does not reveal it. It is apparent, however, that before Adam's spirit deteriorated he partook and tasted of the glories of God's Spirit for a brief period in history. Despite Adam's disobedient tendencies toward independence, God mercifully gave the rest of mankind the promise that he would enable them to partake of His Spirit, but it would be their choice. God made this possible through grace, mercy, and forgiveness, each of which was greater than the disobedience of Adam.
“For as by one man's disobedience (Adam's) many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one (Christ) shall many be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19 KJV)
So, if the origin of spirits ends with the Spirit Creator at a point just before creation began, so also does our search end there. The point just before creation is the place where only God’s Spirit can be found, and the same Spirit is the Creator of all things. This same Spirit of God, Who many people of various faiths believe is the Creator, is also the Loving Producer (Father) of all spirits. The belief that the Creator God is a Spirit has been held by many faiths besides the Christian one. The Mbuti pygmies of the Ituri Forest in Zaire also have a Spirit Creator God who they address as Father. In addition, the largest worldwide society, that of the Freemasons, is based on the Fatherhood of God Who is Spirit. In general, we could say, those who believe God to be their heavenly Father, also believe He is a Spirit. If they believe the latter they are not far from believing the Father can have spirit sons and believing they too can be born-again and be spirit sons.
“That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
(John 3:6 KJV, abbreviated verse)
In this chapter, we have traced spirits to their origin. The origin of spirits is the Spirit of God. The next quest is for us to know more details of what your spirit is.
“He has given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, so that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 1:4 MKJV)
1. Swedenborg, Emmanuel; The Software Toolworks Multimedia Encyclopedia – Grolier, Inc.; 1992 Edition.
2. Disney, Walt; Webster’s New Biographical Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Inc.; 1988 Edition.
3. The Software Toolworks Multimedia Encyclopedia.
4. Ibid.,
Schmidt, Wilhelm; Primitive Religion, Divine Beings; Paragraph two.
5. Ibid.,
Italian Literature
Hebrew Language; Ebla Text Tablets.