Be Sure!

When I was a child my mother saw to it that attending Sunday school and church was part and parcel of my religious upbringing. To tell the truth, it made a very large impact on my life. One of the sayings my mother said to me when she sensed that I had done something wrong came from a verse in the old testament book of Numbers the 32nd chapter and the 23rd verse. The words she quoted to me caused feelings of fear as though God was going to punish me for whatever I had done wrong. The words she spoke? “Be sure your sins will find you out.” 

When I became aware that the God that had been described to me from my upbringing was not the notorious punishing and judging god that looks down his nose ready to cast me away from His presence if I mess up, became the day of my spiritual awakening and liberation. As I consider the words my mother spoke to me pertaining to the passage mentioned earlier in light of my spiritual awakening, please consider the following.

“Sin” became the first word that I needed to be clear about. The Greek word for  “sin” is hamartia, which means ‘to be without share, to err, to be mistaken, to miss the mark, an error of understanding. It is through ignorance of the unity that we have with God the Father that we err, and instead of expressing and living the ‘fruit of the Spirit’, such as love, joy, peace, happiness, kindness, goodness, and faith, (Gal. 5:22) through our ignorance we express the ‘works of the flesh’ (Gal. 5:19-21) such as discord, disagreements, conflicts, enmities, greed, disputes, jealousy, envy, etc., which are the result of our identification with the ‘false self’ or ego as expressed by Iris Lohrengel in her book “Born From Above What Jesus Really Said.”

Once a manifestation of our spiritual reality becomes overwhelmingly clear, then the darkness of our ignorance dissipates and the scales that covered our spiritual eyes falls away revealing the LIGHT. When we make the light of understanding our own, we become transformed in the consciousness of who we really are. It is a coming to ourselves and a change of mind and heart that makes the real difference. And that difference places us on a new path. It is becoming aware of our surroundings and our behaviors that before such an awakening reflects the works of the flesh, as mentioned earlier. It is the knowledge of the light that destroys ‘sin.’ 

So what is it that our sins will find us out about? In the garden of Eden story recorded in the old testament book of Genesis, once the couple believed the lie that they had to do something in order to be in right relationship with God, not realizing they were already in such a relationship, they became aware of their nakedness and therefore sought to hide themselves from God. When we believe lies about who we really are then we seek to hide ourselves and our actions thinking that we are somehow disconnected from God, ourselves and others and in so doing we begin manifesting the works of the flesh. Once that becomes our modus operandi then our ego reenforces our ignorance giving ourselves permission to practice all kinds of negative behaviors that affect others and ourselves.

Once again, this God-Light is already within you but if you don’t go looking for it you will never discover it. Often those who have not awakened to this inner treasure are so caught up in their pursuits of worldly treasures that they continue to be distracted. Sometimes these travelers have to experience a painful situation that causes them to become awakened to their true selves. These earthly distractions are very difficult to navigate due to the reinforcement of our fellow travelers  who are also experiencing the same distractions. The key to the discovery of our true identity is found in the Light of God’s exaltation of each of us and that exaltation is discovered in humility. Until that awakening has come to pass one can be sure that our ignorance, or sins will indeed find us out. In other words, don’t give in order to get. God has already given us Love so give that Love away to everyone and everything!