An interesting scene from the Bible talking about the nature of spiritual power:
Mark 9
17 And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;
18 And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.
19 He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me.
[...]
23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
[...]
28 And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?
29 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.
To rehash what happened here, Jesus rebukes the disciples for not being able to cast out the demon. He tells them that this should be possible (and anything should be possible) but they lack faith. When asked how to gain that power, the tells them, prayer and fasting.
In Catholic school, as a little boy, I had the rather childish idea once that Jesus' life wasn't very impressive given his Divine nature. My logic? If he was God, and controlled all reality, then of course everything he did would be stupidly easy. Heck, he could even just activate his Jesus superpowers and numb out all his pain on the cross, and trivialize the whole experience, right?
Well, if Jesus is fully God and fully Man, then this implies that, as a Man, Jesus did not do anything which, at least in theory, a Man could not do. If any man were perfect, he could also perform miracles as Jesus did. In fact, Jesus occasionally seems astounded that other people can't do the things he does. It just seems natural to him to do what He does. Jesus' divine nature was in other words, purely a matter of divine and sinless willpower, not the product of a superhuman nature.
Mark 11:23
For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
Mark 6:6
And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.
A certain thought struck me a while ago, that words have a lot of power. The universe was created in just a few words. The words of an honest and wise man have a lot of weight and are listened to by everyone. A man who says a lot of foolish or deceitful things, is often ignored. So the authority of your words, depends on just what kind of words you are prone to utter. Do you tell lies? If you are a liar, you are telling yourself that your own words have no power, you do not even believe the things you say, so why should the entire universe heed and act upon them?
If you love comfort and pleasure, the things of this world, then how would you ever command the world, the thing you love most, to change? To perform a miracle one must recognize that the material is an illusion. But if you love the dream, why would you ever want to prove to yourself that it isn't real? You would prefer to remain immersed in the lie, so there is a part of you that will never allow yourself to witness a miracle. You may want to walk on water but even more, you want your foot to sink because you crave that familiarity.
Jesus was often able to perceive the thoughts of others. How can a man think with the mind of another? He must first remove his own personal judgements and preconceived notions of what that other person is like, and then he will see them as they are. We are all one in the unity of the Holy Spirit; however, we convince ourselves that we are not, when we do not treat other humans as the face of God. In such a way, we convince ourselves we have no unity with the universe, and lose power. Whatsoever a man sows, that will a man reap, so to reap all the universe has to offer, we must give all that we have of ourselves to the universe. Jesus was a servant to all in order to be made ruler of all. Jesus understood that Jesus was not who he really was, but that He was Elohim, and lived without sin, and that is what gave Him His power.
Mark 9
17 And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;
18 And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.
19 He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me.
[...]
23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
[...]
28 And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?
29 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.
To rehash what happened here, Jesus rebukes the disciples for not being able to cast out the demon. He tells them that this should be possible (and anything should be possible) but they lack faith. When asked how to gain that power, the tells them, prayer and fasting.
In Catholic school, as a little boy, I had the rather childish idea once that Jesus' life wasn't very impressive given his Divine nature. My logic? If he was God, and controlled all reality, then of course everything he did would be stupidly easy. Heck, he could even just activate his Jesus superpowers and numb out all his pain on the cross, and trivialize the whole experience, right?
Well, if Jesus is fully God and fully Man, then this implies that, as a Man, Jesus did not do anything which, at least in theory, a Man could not do. If any man were perfect, he could also perform miracles as Jesus did. In fact, Jesus occasionally seems astounded that other people can't do the things he does. It just seems natural to him to do what He does. Jesus' divine nature was in other words, purely a matter of divine and sinless willpower, not the product of a superhuman nature.
Mark 11:23
For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
Mark 6:6
And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.
A certain thought struck me a while ago, that words have a lot of power. The universe was created in just a few words. The words of an honest and wise man have a lot of weight and are listened to by everyone. A man who says a lot of foolish or deceitful things, is often ignored. So the authority of your words, depends on just what kind of words you are prone to utter. Do you tell lies? If you are a liar, you are telling yourself that your own words have no power, you do not even believe the things you say, so why should the entire universe heed and act upon them?
If you love comfort and pleasure, the things of this world, then how would you ever command the world, the thing you love most, to change? To perform a miracle one must recognize that the material is an illusion. But if you love the dream, why would you ever want to prove to yourself that it isn't real? You would prefer to remain immersed in the lie, so there is a part of you that will never allow yourself to witness a miracle. You may want to walk on water but even more, you want your foot to sink because you crave that familiarity.
Jesus was often able to perceive the thoughts of others. How can a man think with the mind of another? He must first remove his own personal judgements and preconceived notions of what that other person is like, and then he will see them as they are. We are all one in the unity of the Holy Spirit; however, we convince ourselves that we are not, when we do not treat other humans as the face of God. In such a way, we convince ourselves we have no unity with the universe, and lose power. Whatsoever a man sows, that will a man reap, so to reap all the universe has to offer, we must give all that we have of ourselves to the universe. Jesus was a servant to all in order to be made ruler of all. Jesus understood that Jesus was not who he really was, but that He was Elohim, and lived without sin, and that is what gave Him His power.
