Getting the Most Out of Our God-Given Abilities

[HKHaugan]

Awareness is the experience of immediately conceptualizing what you perceive. You hear a sound, observe an event, touch an object, smell a fragrance, taste a food, sense emotions and attitudes and then make a conclusion. If it carries a newness about it there is that ‘aha!’ moment. If it is a repetition of an experience it is catalogued as something to anticipate in order to avoid or accept like a sunburn or a suntan, an enemy’s insult or a friend’s smile, rejection or acceptance.

Awareness registers perceptive definition of some kind. For some people awareness is simply experiencing for the sake of experiencing. Every moment is relish on the sandwich of life. For others it becomes a project of expansion in which the ability to be aware is the end in itself. It’s the blanking out, the erasing, of concepts until there is nothing left but absorption into the kind of existence that does not exist. That is, it has no definition, concept or idea to encase it.

Awareness is a kind of perception. Actually what has just been described above can be ascribed to perception as well. However perception inevitably takes that next step. Perception leads to a conclusion of what has been perceived. Perception is totally dependent on the personality of the perceiver. If one’s need is acceptance the immediate perception in a discussion will be read in terms of that need. Attitude as well shapes perception. We have perceived needs that many times override real needs as when one’s impulsiveness refuses the real need for caution.

Awareness is also a kind of intuition. It is the ability to have a sense of understanding that supersedes the appearance of reality. It is that sense of knowing ‘what’s really going on’ emotionally and attitudinally. ‘We just know these things.’

In essence what has happened is that man has made a religion out of awareness, perception and intuition as though they were deities, gods, perfect beings when in fact they are simply abilities in the human makeup. They are inner senses designed to work along with our physical senses. When they become objects of personal immersion, that immersion is worship, a religious belief system with liturgies, gatherings, belief manuals and prayer like exercises. The same is done when we take any physical ability and devote our time and energy in its demands. Sexuality in our age, for example, has become a religious pursuit much like it was in prior civilizations as in Ephesus where a Diana temple was built in which sex was practiced in worship. The belief was she could secure fertility for livestock, crops and people. Hollywood producers and actors believe in it sufficiently to produce movies that are distributed to low lighted dark temples that provide entertainment for those who believe not so much in the fertility aspect as in its vicarious experience.

First, the real human condition

There is a primary consideration we need to face with awareness, perception and intuition, a major problem exists, a built-in block, a barrier to achieving the hoped-for goal of their fulfillment. Accompanying every in-born human capacity and ability is a flaw. No one is perfect. Imperfection greets us in every next moment. The thought that these inner abilities are inherently achievable assumes a perfection and an accuracy that no human being possesses.

There are four proofs that this flaw not only exists but it needs outside help---death, searching, repetition and teachers.

The first proof of imperfection is death and its companions, disease and conflict, both internal and external. Everyone dies because their receiving mechanisms are flawed. No one has disease-free, conflict-free guarantees. Everyone born dies. No mind has all knowledge. No heart and its behavior are balanced.

The second proof is searching. The very fact that we have to search, experiment and solve the whole question of existence is another verification of our real need, to deal with the flaw. The search for meaning and purpose is not accomplished by what we have within but what we discover from without. It is the ‘why’ of the search that shows a built-in real need, to deal with the flaw.  It is beyond a perceived need.  It's a real need.  It's the need to believe. Believing takes us beyond the flaw which we will define in a minute.  Denial of belief denies reality.  Believing in not believing is a belief. Believing that belief is a block to awareness is a belief. Human beings cannot not believe. It’s built in. Searching for a way to believe, a truth to believe and life to believe in is basic to human behavior.

There is no question that the pursuit of developing awareness, perception and intuitiveness is noble and necessary. The results can be helpful in the areas of meditation, concentration and conceptualization as we develop our minds, hearts and spirits. There is a temporary calmness, restfulness, peace and wisdom in contemplation by which anyone can benefit. But when they become ends, goals and life defining projects the real result is ultimate conscious aloneness, isolation and alienation. It’s the denial of imperfection and its cause that ‘stubbornizes’ the human mind and heart. Stubborn refusal is both a conscious and unconscious force, a passive as well as aggressive attitude, a compulsive motivation that in itself exposes the flaw. It is based on pride that refuses to face the reality of flawed thought, attitude and behavior. Not facing the fact of this inner condition only accelerates its reality which finally destroys who and what we really are as individuals with unique minds, hearts and spirits.

The third proof is repetition. Repetition itself proves the flaw is present. We have to repeat the methods that involve overcoming the blocks. Anything that requires repetition means it is not in our nature to begin with. It needs to be learned. The imperfection keeps emerging. We have to repeat to ourselves that we need to satisfy what our goals are, what our methods of repetition are and we need others to do that with us.  It's a shared flaw common to all humans.

The fourth proof of our imperfection is the need for help from outside. That immediately cancels the logic that intuition is trustworthy. To prove we need help from outside ourselves we go to teachers, experts, those who have experienced these qualities on an extended level to help our search. Now the reality of outside teachers is that they are flawed as well. They may have more experience in the fields they represent but their perception, awareness, intuition can never achieve perfection. What they might do is to share their imperfection but that in itself would further prove that they are in as much need of outside help as anyone.

To deny imperfection is to deny reality.

It’s when we really delve into the mystery of our humanity and start with the reality of our flawedness we can do no other than look outside, beyond the self, to an intelligence that nullifies our imperfection, defuses our flawedness and face the confrontation that in fact I am flawed. I need help.  It is the flaw that drives us.

The real flaw is spiritual. It’s called sin. Sin doesn’t deny belief, it relocates it in one’s own ability to perceive, to be aware and to redefine life’s meaning and purpose. Sin centers belief in the ability of the self to intuit and solve its condition. One expression is in atheism where sin burrows deep within getting people to believe in not believing but belief is as real as breathing. You can’t escape it. Existing and surviving demand thought, conclusion and action, all of which utilize belief to stay alive and functional.

Sin’s real productivity is self-denial, God-denial and relational denial. It results in conscious personal isolation. It denies the need for relational transparency, the development of our mental, emotional and social capacities and capabilities especially in terms of confidence, love, compassion and our built-in human purpose---to take part in the reclamation of broken humanity.  Even if we experiment with others in not believing that in itself is a belief but the result is ultimately devastating, sheer and utter aloneness and conscious aloneness.

Accepting the reality of belief on the other hand opens us to facing the spiritual darkness of desensitizing sin and its cure. Belief is the gateway to reality because real reality is the perfection seen in the revelation of a perfect person, a person who is fully and perfectly aware, fully and perfectly perceptive and fully and perfectly intuitive, namely Jesus, the Christ. He is the perfect cure for debilitating sin.  He is the only person who has ever qualified to be a teacher, a perfect teacher, with perfect awareness, perfect perception and perfect intuition. His life was lived by belief, trust and faith in His Father, His Father’s will and His Scripture. When He died and rose from the dead it verified that His mind, heart and Spirit were perfect in every way. Thus His miracles, His teachings, His relationships point to His purposes, which become the means by which we in mind, heart and spirit, are redefined in a conscious relationship with Him.  He eradicated the power of sin  when He rose from the dead.  It is awareness of Jesus that brings our awareness alive spiritually, personally and relationally.

Let’s look at some examples of Jesus’ perfect awareness and perception. Note Jesus’ perception and awareness here: “ When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”  Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”  Jesus said, “You believe[a] because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.”  He then added, “Very truly I tell you,[b] you[c] will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’[d] the Son of Man (Jn.1:47-51).”

“On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them (Jn.7:37-38).” He is declaring that when He gives them the Holy Spirit they will be discerning, perceiving and aware in a new and spiritual way that recovers personal balance and enables honest open relationships that become the means to healing mankind’s misery and lostness.

“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (Jn.8:12).” Light is the insight Jesus provides when the Holy Spirit brings His teachings into the mind and heart producing wisdom.

He goes on to say, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.  All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you (Jn.16:12-15).” It is the Holy Spirit that brings real awareness, perception and intuition (insight). There is a sense of enlightenment, light He brings us within.

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was, I am (Jn.8:58).” He is consummate being in every detail. He is the aware One, the perceptive One, the intuitive One, the insightful One and the perfect One.

Jesus’ close friend Lazarus had died but before Jesus leaves Jerusalem to visit the tomb He says, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe (Jn.11:14)…” from here He goes and raises Lazarus from the dead (Jn.11:43-44). Lazarus represents all those who are dead and lost in their self-centeredness, their broken humanity, their unfulfilled love and their need for completeness. Jesus raises them through faith in Him and they become human again through the Spirit’s light that brings the opening of the inner eyes of the mind, heart and spirit.  In Him they are free, really free, to be open and honest with whom and wherever they are.

When Jesus predicts His death He tells His disciples, "I am the light of the world (Jn.8:12). He tells them again “Put your trust in the light while you have it that you might become sons of light (Jn.12:36).” He is that light that exposes and forgives the blocks we choose to try to be perfect without Him, so that we might be the agents of His light for others.

For Scriptural events we can see Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection as the proof that His awareness of all suffering, death and our future resurrection over them are confirmed His accurate perception of the Pharisees, Sadducees and other enemies conspiring against Him are not only true but He forgave them too.. We see His awareness in His faith in His Father’s will that He heal, perform miracles, drive out evil spirits and actually alter physical reality in calming a storm, changing water into wine and multiplying the loaves and fishes. His teachings are designed to encourage and develop perception through belief, trust and faith in Him. He promotes belief to develop the mind, trust to strengthen the heart and faith for the spirit to motivate love for God and one another. As we open to the person of Jesus He brings awareness of what it means to be a person in detail as it appears in Him, awareness of beauty as His designed physical existence reveals it and the depth of relational experience as it opens through Him.

The most elaborate refurbishing of man’s awareness and perception occurs in His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. There He establishes a framework of thought and behavior wherein He specifies in great detail how that refurbishing takes place for mind, heart and spirit. He details how to recognize and confront attitudes that hinder us from facing reality. These displace the block, the barrier to true awareness--- sin--- which keeps us from using the full complement of mind, heart and spirit working together in balance. When we place our belief and trust in Him He exercises His Spirit through us to restore an awareness that is spiritual, personal and interpersonal.

His death on the Cross was a perfect sacrifice for sin because He was perfect. So He died not because He was a sinner but because we were and by bearing the results of our sins, conflict and death, He died, a perfect sacrifice, in our place to show His forgiveness so that we could receive the gift of perfection, the Holy Spirit, to help perfect us. Here are His words about the Spirit He sent to build our perception, awareness and intuitive abilities, “…but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment,: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned (Jn.16:5-15).”

So if we can accept the abilities we were born with and let the Lord Jesus open them up with His Holy Spirit we have the manual for opening our awareness, developing our perception, replacing our flawed intuition with discerning intuition and the gift of the Bible, to detail the way it’s all done.