" Which Nature Do You Feed The Most"

  

Chapter 14 -------------------------------------------------

WHICH NATURE DO YOU FEED THE MOST

Early on in the series I offered the awareness that we live with two natures.  One is our Spiritual nature which I have referred to as the nature of God, and our human nature which is the nature of our first human ancestor ADAM.   The warfare that the Apostol Paul writes about in Ephesians 6 is not with the world but is between these two natures who want to be the dominant influence in your life.   

You can read about these two natures in the New Testament of the Christian Bible.  They are found in Paul's’ letters to the Galatians starting at chapter 5: verses 16 -26.

At this point in the series I am going to ask you to do a small exercise.  Think of it as a litmus test to see which nature, human or spiritual, is the strongest or dominate one in your life.  I want you to see if you tend to lean towards darkness or light in your daily life.  In order for you to see a true picture, you must be honest with yourself here.  Do not do this with another person it is only for you.  Put a check mark besides the dominate words or feelings that are taking place in your life these days.  

easily angered,------------very accommodative
feel resentment-------------very forgiving
fearful ----------hopeful
obsessive ---------easily let go
jealously ----------satisfied

anxious ---------- content

feel rejected ----------eel acceptable

pessimistic ----------positive

lie often ----------always truthful

cheat ------- honest

addicted -------- addiction free                                             

unworthy ----------worthy

ashamed -------feel good about me    

I am needy------- I am content
feel emptiness ------generally happy                                                         

hatred -------loving

feel lonely -------secure

do things excessively-----do things in moderation

in a hurry --------relaxed

negative -------hopeful

careless ------cautious

do not like change -----open to change  

doubting-------trusting

low self esteem -------healthy self image
like a little chaos -------no need of chaos

                       

The column on the left strengthens darkness.  The column on the right strengthens light. 

Now comes the awareness part, ask yourself this question.  Which words occupy my life more, words of darkness or words of light?

Darkness often begins to invade our lives as we listen to the voice of our human nature that gets its strength through man-made teachings.  For instance let me give you a simple example of how jealously can become like a cancer, meaning something that literally can make you very ill.  A man and his wife are out to a restaurant for dinner.  The waitress is gorgeous and the man just cannot keep himself from glancing at her beauty.  His wife is furious but cannot express herself until she arrives home.  For the rest of the evening and all the way home she is imagining all the other women he has looked at with those lustful eyes.  Now she is imagining that he has cheated on her at some point and begins to recall times when he was late, times he didn't remember her birthday, anniversary etc.  Can you see where this is going, jealously breeds darkness as it consumes your thinking?  The drama just keeps on building.   Anger, resentment, hatred, predigest etc. all begin and build in the same way.   

Often we carry around the burdens of guilt and shame laid upon us by our religious teachings.  Do this and you go to heaven, do this and you are going to hell.  Our human nature love to bathe in this kind of logic that can lead us into darkness.   Our Spiritual nature on the other hand is not subject to man-made religious laws and bathes in the light of God’s unconditional love. Here is a story to illustrate my point. 

A religious mystic teacher and a student were walking along the road side in the early afternoon shortly after a heavy rain.  One of the spiritual teachings told to the student was that you should never physically touch or look directly into the eyes of a woman.  The reasoning was that it can bring upon you sexual passions which could lead you into darkness.  A young lady was stuck in the heavy mud of the ditch calling out in desperation for help.  The spiritual master went to her immediately, physically picked her up in his arms and carried her to dry ground on the other side.   She thanked him and master looking into her eyes nodded with humbleness.  The student and the master continued on their way.  About one half hour into the walk the student could no longer hold his tongue.  “Master” he said, “ the teaching, we are taught never to physically touch or look into the eyes of a women, I don’t understand.”  The Master replied, sometimes you need to think with your heart not your mind, besides, I put the women down one half hour ago why are you still carrying her”. 

Next time:  “Do You Just Following Along”