Reality, Truth and the True God!

We live in a world where absolutes have no meaning or substance in people's minds. Does the word "absolute" mean anything to you? Have you ever given any thought to what an "absolute" is? Nowadays, people need to connect to something greater than themselves, however, what many are utilizing to fill this need is far from an absolute.

We are coming to a point in the world where people are basically creating their own realities for themselves. Reality, people believe, is what you "think" it is. "Reality is different for different people," some conclude. Is this true? Understanding this concept may be more personal than you might at first believe or imagine.

From the moment we begin to think, we begin to form a personal reality which eventually dictates how we live our lives. It governs our successes and failures and it affects those around us in many ways. What we must more fully realize is just how deceitful and misleading our personal reality really is. If we don't, we have no chance of ever conforming to the ultimate reality, the TRUE reality that governs all that is.

Before we launch into what this reality is, let's first touch on what it ISN'T. Technically speaking, it ISN'T everything else that exists in people's minds. Every human being who has ever lived, lives now or ever will live, must base their lives on a "reality" they perceive in their minds. For instance, regardless of how we were brought up, educated, or how our experiences affected us, we create a "reality" that we assume is true and we live by that reality.

The big question we need to ask is; "Is my reality the TRUE reality?" Here's an analogy to begin with. Imagine you don't believe in the law of gravity. You have never heard of it, or understand what it is or how it even affects your life on a daily basis. Because of this, you live your life as if gravity doesn't exist.

Because you are unaware of gravity, you believe you can act a certain way and you have no concept of any problems because of this. You are happy in your ignorance of gravity and you happily move ahead. Your life consists of a simple jump out of a plane extremely high in the air, with no parachute. As part of this analogy, your fall occurs over a lifetime. A 70 year free fall. You are really enjoying the trip, love the sensation of flying, the view is beautiful and you have the "proof" that this way of life is just fine because you are still living and doing well as you free fall.

This may seem like a stupid analogy but there is a point to all of this. If you were a betting person, would you put your money on this person's success, or their failure? Anyone who is aware of the law of gravity KNOWS that this person's end will not be pleasant. We all know that if 10 of us in a room pick up a pencil and lets it go, that it will drop to the ground, right? Every time, every pencil. No exceptions, save for outside forces acting on that pencil. Why?

Reality, the ultimate reality of physical life, includes gravity. We can't escape it. Even if someone believes with every fiber of their being that gravity doesn't exist, or that "their" reality is good for them and they are satisfied in their comfort zone, THIS DOES NOT SOMEHOW CHANGE REALITY. Regardless of what someone believes about life, the earth, God, marriage, relationships, stealing, lying, sex, and many more topics that we deal with every day, reality is STILL reality.

It is easy to point to examples in the world where people are obviously living according to their own created or absorbed reality. God's truth makes that quite plain to us. We understand that God is the "Ultimate Reality" and there is no other. God upholds the reality we call physical existence. He maintains the universe as we see and experience it. He upholds the laws of causes and affects.

Hebrews 1:3 Speaking about the Word who became flesh, "Who (Christ) being the brightness of [His] glory and the express image of His (God) person, and upholding all things by the word of His power."

God created this entire reality for a purpose. He is very involved with a plan to bring mankind from the personal, human reality we exist in, to the ultimate reality of his own creation. He has to re-create us in the spiritual image of His son, Jesus, the Christ.

Romans 8:29 "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined [to be] conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among MANY brethren."

THAT is the only reality that we can finally exist as after it is all over with. Anything else, regardless of how tightly we hang on to it, fight for it, argue for it, believe it, and thought we had "proven" to our own satisfaction and comfort, unless it IS reality, will fail in the end.

Every human being has a nature within them that is not in tune with the ultimate nature of God:

Romans 8:7 "Because the carnal mind [is] enmity (hostility, opposition, hatred) against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be."

That means that natural human minds are not capable of seeing or understanding this ultimate reality by itself. We are creatures with 5 physical senses for experiencing this physical reality. That's it. The reality most people create or absorb is a result of the 5 basic senses, and all the personal experiences involving these senses.

This being who claims to be God, tells us that He exists outside the only reality we can possibly know, which, again, is based on our 5 senses. Many of the 'New Age" religious beliefs and practices focus on what we can achieve THROUGH the five senses. If you take a good look at many of the world's religions, you will see a 5-sensed basis for this belief. From statues, candles, relics, vain repetitions and other "experiences," to meditation, channeling, tree and animal spirits, crystal powers and more. All of these sincerely believed "realities" ground us to the physical world we are made of.

God exists beyond the 5 senses. He is spirit, and He tells us plainly that we must Worship Him, "IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH:"

John 4:23-24 "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 "God [is] Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

This isn't a 5-sensed relationship. If that were important to God, wouldn't He routinely use such things as visions, obvious miracles, and other supernatural events to convince people? Is God's real motive simply to build a relationship with our 5 senses? We are to be "raised a spiritual body:"

1 Corinthians 15:44 "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body."

That isn't a physical thing. It is a spiritual creation. We are being molded and shaped by the ultimate reality, which is God, but only IF we are willing to put our personal concepts of reality aside and allow God to place His reality within us.

The carnal old man we've heard so much about, and which Christ tells us plainly must die, is all we exist as in the beginning of our contact with God. This personally created reality cannot exist beyond the grave or these physical lives. (More on the so-called "immortal soul"). Our only hope of living beyond the aging of our bodies or premature death is to have an intimate contact with this ultimate reality, better known as Almighty God.

CONTACT WITH GOD IS NOT ENOUGH

Having contact with God is our only way to begin to be shaped by His reality, however, contact alone isn't enough. The Bible makes plain that God expects us to have a hand in this process:

Philippians 2:12 "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;"

Christ tells us to walk the straight and narrow, to endure, to overcome, etc. One of the hardest things in life to do is to deny the self... this personal flesh we exist as. But that is exactly what we have to do or we are fighting God and denying the true reality:

Luke 9:23 "Then He said to [them] all, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, (his personal reality) and take up his cross (struggle to overcome this reality) daily, and follow Me."

The carnal, human mind can't do anything else BUT deny God and the ultimate reality, (Rom. 8:7) so what is our hope of changing? Our ONLY hope of changing is to submit to God's work in our lives, and to conform to His guidelines within the pages of the Bible. We have no other choice. As we do this, as we drive ourselves toward God, trusting His word and instructions, and His handling of our lives, THEN, and ONLY then will God give us the power of His spirit to go beyond the 5 physical senses. He gives understanding:

Luke 24:45 "And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures;"

Zechariah 4:6 So he answered and said to me. . . Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the LORD of hosts."

The key, though, is that God must have our free-willed decision if He actually "calls" us in order to achieve the spiritual creation necessary for His plan. We don't go to God, He first calls us to Him. (John 6:44 & 65). Unless we have submitted our free wills to Him, completely and unconditionally, we are simply living on a false reality of our own making.

God pleads with us throughout the Bible to take the steps necessary to make it to the end. Life is a contest between our two natures once God places His nature (spirit) within us. (Romans 7:14-25) No matter how badly we might believe something, have an opinion, a way of life, or whatever, unless it is REAL, and comes from the true living God, we are deceiving ourselves. That is the danger of hanging on to OUR reality so much that we are actually resisting God's leading. We actually believe that what we "believe" is good and true. We justify our position, our attitude or practices, because it is within our carnal natures to do so.

How are we dealing with our mates? Are we practicing God's reality within our marriages, or are we practicing our own realities? Are we maintaining our own comfort zone, even fighting for it so much that we are willing to lose our marriages?

How are we dealing with our everyday life? Every minute of every day, we are either practicing God's way of life, or our own. Satan, our enemy, seeks to instill false personal realities as deeply as he can. He encourages every step toward these realities. He knows the results. He encourages distractions to become more important than our relationship with God. The "cares of this world" draw us away from a regular contact with God. Despite how much we like our job, our hobbies, our "mission" in life, if they are taking up our time with God, then we ARE being weighted down with the cares of this life:

Luke 8:14 "Now the ones [that] fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity."

Luke 21:34 "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come on you unexpectedly."

We will naturally justify everything we do. We HAVE to in order to make it fit our personal reality. Here's the bottom line. Unless we take every day to connect to God, with every fiber of our being...

Jeremiah 29:13 And you will seek Me and find [Me,] when you search for Me with all your heart.

... ask God for the correction we need and be sincerely meaning it, we will not grow. Period. God knows our hearts. He knows if we really want to change. He knows our deepest, darkest thoughts and attitudes...

Job 42:2 "I know that You can do everything, And that no thought can be withheld from You."

... We can't fool Him. Coming to Him in prayer while we struggle to maintain our position doesn't work. We need to ask ourselves this: "Am I truly willing to be corrected, even if it means I have to change my reality? Am I willing to go to God, ask for help in changing AND be willing to accept His shaping of my reality, even to the point of discomfort?"

You see, nothing else matters except the truth...

2 Corinthians 13:8 "For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth."

Unless we are conforming to the ultimate reality, we can't possibly make it into God's kingdom and existence. No matter how pleasant our realities may be, or how difficult it becomes to go through the process, we absolutely must trust God through it all, and "just do it." We have nothing to gain by hanging on to our petty little opinions, ideas, positions and attitudes. If they are wrong, what good is it? Shouldn't we be desperately seeking God's truth in every aspect of our lives? Will we gain anything from resisting God? Isn't the end worth any amount of suffering we may go through:?

Romans 8:18 "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

Of course it isn't easy. Christ told us it wouldn't be. He understood the human realities very well. He had to deal with His human reality that was trying to get Him to depart from the God, the ultimate reality.

Hebrews 4:15 "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all [points] tempted as [we are, yet] without sin."

He led the way and is available for us today. His spiritual nature can be in us and leading us if we allow it.

John 16:13 "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own [authority,] but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come." ("He" is used as a grammatical tool and doesn't mean a third person trinity.

It is an amazing thing how powerful our free will really is. It is so powerful that it can resist Almighty God Himself and persist in the way of death. That is scary and should be sobering to all of us. Being deceived is a blind "experience." We don't know that blindness is a "truth" in our lives. The only way we can know this is to go to God, practice His reality and to never give up in striving against sin, the self or Satan's lies and stirrings of our personal reality. God will then be able to reach the ultimate part of our existence. When He has contact with our deepest reality, and we let Him in, only THEN can He build the eternal spiritual existence we must become to live forever.

Don't be deceived by your personal reality. If it doesn't support God's word and way of life, then you are living a lie and doing damage to yourself and those around you. Do it too long, without the right heart before God, and you may have to be corrected in very unpleasant ways. God has no other choice. Remember, some of God's own people, His children, WILL be in the Tribulation.

Revelation 3:18-19 "I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, [that] the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent."

It doesn't have to be YOU. You have the choice to simply respond to God"s word. Christ stands at the door, and he KNOCKS;

Revelation 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."

That means there is a very real "something" that occurs at a level of actual perception. That something may be short lived, because, as Christ tells us, "Many are called, but few are chosen."

Young people need to think about this, not just adults. God can work with people at many different ages. If we hear the "knock," experience that "something" that catches our eye or ear regarding the things of God, and we ignore it or avoid it, we could be actually turning our backs on an incredible opportunity to understand the ultimate reality, and to connect to "it" for eternity as a firstfruit to God's family. What is your choice?

If we go to God, and sincerely ask for the help and direction we need, and are willing to step out and act against our own personal realities, THEN we can achieve the impossible!

Back to Article Page!

The God Kind Webpages created and material written by Jeffrey T. Maehr. Common Law Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Reproduction allowed if credit to this website is listed with material. Off site material and some articles authored as stated.