Praying For Our Enemies

Written: Dec 29, 2023
Last Revised: Jan 6, 2024

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven….

Jesus (Matthew 5:44-45)

The above quote is one of the hardest “commandments,” from Jesus, for us to understand and relate, and it may be “the hardest” to carry out. How can we love our enemies, and even worse, how can we pray for their well-being?

It is no lie that, fundamentally, human beings are self-centered and selfish. From day one of our existence, all we cared about were ourselves. We cried when we were tired, sleepy, cold, hungry, and in some cases, we even cried when we were full. Did you know that we even peed in our mother’s womb while we were inside her? We stole away the nutrients that our mothers did all the digesting, and we graciously came out when we were good and ready, even though our mothers were crying in pain, wishing for us to come out? Talk about no respect :).

So, from very early on, we were, innately, selfish. But, putting aside our selfishness, when we take consideration of our lifestyle, do we even have time to pray for others? We are lucky if we have time to pray for ourselves and our loved ones, right? And, yet, we are commanded to pray for, not just others, but our enemies, when we don’t even have time to pray for ourselves? Seriously?

We Have Plenty of Time For Our Prayers

The truth is that we do have time for our prayers. We have plenty of time, in fact. Why do I say that? The question of whether we have enough time for prayers is dependent on how important we make it and let it be a part of our daily lives. The same is true with the time that we make for God, in general. The two are synonymous.

In our everyday lives, aside from our work, meals, and sleep, there are not that many “things to do” that are absolute musts. Most of us fill our lives with activities that satisfy our entertainment needs, and even when we are not active, we pass the time in front of or in proximity of the television, to pacify our boredom, that is if we are not stuck looking at our phones!

Now, of course, we have other things to do, such as cooking, laundry, cleaning, and taking care of the family. I get that, and I totally understand that. However, to be fair, I also understand that these are the “usual” excuses that a lot of us make, on the fly, regardless of whether the excuses are true or not. If we make a list of all the things that we do throughout the day and assign the amount of time we spend on each thing, we will realize that we have way too many things that take up our time that are not necessities in our lives.

So, the answer is not about whether we spend all of our time in prayer through self-imposed guilt trips, and it, also, is not about doing all the things that we want to do and squeezing in a few minutes before bedtime to take away our guilt of not having had spent any time with God that day. The answer is, 1) how important is prayer in our lives that we set aside a specific time for it, and 2) how important is God to us that we seek him, randomly?” I am talking about how real is God to us that we turn our consciousness toward God during our moments of silence and our little “pauses” of time that we have in-between our duties throughout the day?

Now, what are the little pauses of time? Little pauses of time are, 1) after having spent a hectic day at the office, and as you get in the car to go home, you let out a soft, “Haaa~, thank you lord,” as you deflate away all the tension within your body, 2) you feed your kids their breakfast and get them ready before the school bus come, and as you wave your kids goodbye and turn around, you look up at the sky, reflecting on the blessed life that God had granted you over the years. Then you open up your heart and body as you breathe in the Holy Spirit into your heart in contented bliss, 3) you’ve been struggling with difficult decisions, searching for the right solutions, and you ask, “Dad (God) what is your will? What is your thought on this? What do you want me to learn from this?” 4) you have been in your bed tossing and turning, trying to sleep knowing that you have a long drive to the beach in the next 3 hours. Therefore, you say, “God, help me fall asleep,” Etc. The main driving point of all these examples of “pause moments” is, “How personal is your “personal” relationship with God?”

The greater your relationship is with God, the more personal your relationship with him will be, and depending on how personal you are with God, you will have more of the above, “pause” moments that will allow you to pray for yourself, as well as your enemies!

But can we, really, wholeheartedly pray for our enemies?

Our Enemies are Hurting Too – God’s Natural Law Tarnished

We, as Christians, know that all human beings are not perfect and that we were born with sin. We, also, know the reason for that, the fall of Adam and Eve. But what does sin have to do with our enemies being assholes and all the other negative descriptions that we can use to describe our enemies? Well, we live in a broken world. A world that was and is broken due to the introduction of sin in humanity through Adam and Eve. And in this broken world, sin is an entity that tarnishes the soul of every living being on earth, including the animals. We can think of sin as a disease that affects souls like a virus or bacteria affecting our bodies. Just as viruses or bacteria, when they get into our bodies, may make some of us sick and unwell, sin gets into our souls and predisposes some individuals to be evil, or less than proper toward others.

Notice I used the word “some” to denote that not all will get sick when they get introduced to certain viruses or bacteria, which is true. Some people are born with a more sturdy body immune system, and some are born with a not-so-sturdy body immune system, and the spectrum in between. Then there are some people with better hygiene or health habits that promote better health versus others. The same concept applies to the health of the soul. Some people are innately blessed with healthy souls whereas some are not blessed at all, and the spectrum in between. Then there are some folks who were born in a family that promoted healthier soul upbringing, as compared to others.

This then, brings the question of “Why?” Why are some born with healthier bodies, and why are some born with sturdier souls? Was God biased when he designed us? Was he playing Mad Scientist when he made us? No. God did not play Mad Scientist when he made us. God, mostly, left the procreation process to a natural flow, according to the law that he made, which humans call scientific law. In other words, in the beginning, God made a system (God’s Natural Law) that he set into motion to let it continue indefinitely, and under its umbrella included a law regarding biological self-sufficiency. God hardly ever interfered with his Law unless he had to jump in to interfere with the flow during important points in the history of humanity. However, such interferences were rare and very non-invasive. In other words, he didn’t modify the Law that he set in place because it is perfect.

So, the kind of interference here means suggestions and directives that he told to his servants and his children. Some examples of these are, 1) the calling of Abraham in which he took Abraham to an environment different from where he was born, 2) selling Joseph to the Egyptian merchant where the whole country ended up being the womb of the child known as “A Nation of Israel,” 3) the calling of Moses whom, in a sense, became a nursemaid to a child Israel, 4) Establishment of Israel Kingdom where he specifically told them not to interbreed with those of other nations, thus keeping their biological and spiritual DNA pure, 5) sending children of Israel into exile, as a punishment, where their DNA (biological and spiritual) started to get tarnished through interbreeding with “heathens, 6), etc.

Since the inception of his Natural Law, God only interfered in an invasive manner only few times, 1) the inception of Samson (biological interference), 2) the inception of Samuel (biological interference), 3) the birth of John the Baptist (biological and spiritual interference), 4) the birth of Jesus (biological and spiritual interference), 5) the baptism of the Holy Spirit (spiritual purification of DNA that was tarnished – starting from Israel’s exile, as well as purification of spiritual DNA of gentiles). Of course, there are other interferences that I left out, as I only focused on the important ones.

Long story short, God does not readily interfere with the Natural Law that he initiated, and thus is not a Mad Scientist who was experimenting with “your” DNA that resulted in your predicament that you may or may not complain/whine about to God. Read below.

Our Enemies… – God’s Natural Law Tarnished: Mutation

Nowadays, the scientific community is advanced enough to have a glimpse of God’s Natural Law, as it pertains to biological matters. Scientists, after having discovered God’s Law and thus denying God’s existence, claim they have mapped the human genome. Some companies have commercialized human genome projects to get people to get their genes studied and analyzed for various reasons such as 1) curiosity, 2) entertainment, 3) preventative maintenance of bodily health, 4) etc., Of course, in the future, this (genetic screening) will be used as subtle and hidden genetical discrimination in the workplace, but this is a bit of a tangent. However, changes that are happening in our DNA are not progressive nor degenerative but are mutative.

The geneticists can trace one’s origin to many generations prior, so they say, but the point of this is that we have come to acknowledge that our biological issues resulted from issues that our ancestors had to deal with. Our DNA has mutated over the years. For many individuals, they have come to terms with their “Why’s” because of the genome project, for better or for worse. However, we have not come to terms with our DNA in terms of our “soul” issues, such as 1) Why am I prone to violence, 2) Why am I so impulsive, 3) Why is my sexual orientation this way, 4) Why am I weak to pornography, 5) Why am I weird/different, 6) etc. Sometimes, our “whys” are pointed toward God. Why did you make us like this and punish us for sinning?

Paul answered this kind of question like this, “You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? Romans 9:19-21. What he said is right. However, his answer/view is not exactly correct in that he didn’t have the knowledge that we have, regarding DNA and the genome project. He could only respond in this manner because that was all he had to go on. He had to defend God with what resources and/or knowledge he had in his time. If his knowledge bank was that of the modern person, I believe that he would have answered differently.

We are what we are because of how God’s Natural Law regarding DNA became susceptible to sin with the introduction of Sin. Sin started to tarnish the genetic chain that is responsible for what we are and how we behave, or rather our tendency to behave. The sins of our ancestors made us susceptible to similar issues that our ancestors suffered or had done, and in addition, we have our own set of sins in our lives that we may have developed over the years through our lifetime and thus pass along to our kids and grandkids.

It is written in Exodus 20:5, “You shall not bow down to them (foreign gods) or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,…” According to many (not all) biblical scholars, this was written by Moses regarding how God punishes up to 3rd and 4th generation children of those who sin against him. If we draw a correlation between this statement and our knowledge of DNA’s role in our being who we are, could it be possible to speculate that God was explaining to them about DNA in the way they may understand, instead of explaining to them how DNA works? Would Moses have understood if God explained to him about DNA? If, perchance, Moses understood, would he be able to explain it to the people of Israelites so that they might understand?

Chances are not likely. No, God would have to explain things in a way that is more relevant to Moses, and Moses, in return, had to explain things in a way that is understandable by his people, the uneducated slaves from Egypt. But then, who in the world at Moses’ time, would have understood an explanation about DNA and its relevance? For that matter, would King Solomon, who is known to be the wisest and most intelligent person in the world during his time, have understood it? I doubt it. The knowledge and technological gap between the two eras would be so tremendous that Solomon would never even have considered it on his own.

Our Enemies… – God’s Natural Law Tarnished: Medicine – Godians

Before I get people’s hopes up with the above heading, no medicine on earth will reverse the mutations that our DNA has already gone through. There is only one being that can invasively reverse or undo this mutation and return it to normal. That being is our God, but God will not do that. God will not do such a major editing of the Natural Law that he created since the beginning of time. He will tweak the Law to bring about a change in a person’s life, as in the case of Samuel, Jesus, and others that were mentioned in this article, but he will not initiate a drastic change that alters the Natural Law that he set in place. However, he does make minor changes and stunts further mutation of the DNA in people who are truly Godians!

Godians are Christians who have abandoned this world’s culture and traditions for the culture and traditions of the Kingdom of God. That means Godians are those that are true followers of Jesus who live on this earth, but live as if they are residing in the Kingdom of God. This does not mean that we are saying that heaven is on Earth and that heaven has already had its physical manifestation on Earth. Also, this does not mean that we are living a make-believe and that we have disillusioned ourselves to make us feel better, like a coping mechanism. And finally, all Godians are Christians, but not all Christians are Godians.

By definition, Christians are those who are followers of Jesus Christ, but some Christians are Christians only by a technicality – believing that Jesus is their savior and lord. They don’t really have a relationship with God. Their lives do not consist of “wanting” to follow Jesus’s way of life or his teachings. Many only pray to him in times of need, but when their life is pleasant, they forget about him. Then, some pray regularly, but their Christian lives are only a ritual rather than a relationship. Lastly, there are devout Christians who are more invested in a relationship with God, but they are still worldly or are still trapped in the ways of the world without realizing that they are. Godians, at the minimum, are the latter group of Christians who are aware of the snares of the world and its ways and consciously try to keep a different mindset. They are the true citizens of the Kingdom of God who abandoned the traditions and cultures of humans. Let’s put this into perspective.

I am a biological South Korean who is a citizen of the United States. This is a technical definition. Let’s say that even though I live in the States, I live as if I am still in Korea. I dress like a Korean, I greet people and interact with people in the Korean way, I participate in Korean traditions and adhere to Korean culture, and I only speak Korean with Koreans. Isn’t this description of a man living like a Korean in another country? Technically, in this scenario, I am a United States citizen, but I am not really living like an American, right? I’m, instead, living like a Korean, and therefore, I am still a Korean. This is the reason why I say not all Christians are Godians.

To paraphrase Jesus’s demeanor and character while he was on earth, he said something like, “I am not of this world (meaning earth) and those who follow me (his disciples – the modern Christians) should also live according to the world that I am from.” What world was he talking about? He was talking about the Kingdom of God. In other words, Jesus was implying that he was a Godian! So, when Jesus was on earth, he still lived as if he was in the Kingdom of God. Though he lived on Earth, homeless, he behaved and lived a life of royalty from his father’s Kingdom. Here is an example:

When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?” He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?” And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”

Matthew 17:24-27

“Then the sons (implying himself) are free.” As a royalty Jesus didn’t need to pay taxes, because as God’s son, everything on earth was his possession because God made the earth. However, Jesus did pay the tax not to offend. This is an example of having the mentality but behaving according to what is not offensive. This does not mean that Jesus was submitting according to the human law. He clarified to his disciple, Peter, that he didn’t have to pay because he was a royalty and that he was only paying to be civil. So, we the Christians, as his followers, should also live on this earth as if we are citizens of the Kingdom of God, as Godians.

Our Enemies… – God’s Natural Law Tarnished: Medicine – The Relationship

So, as a reminder, being Godian will not reverse the mutation in our DNA because that would be fundamentally going against the Natural Law of God. However, as Godians, we are protected from further mutation of our DNA, moving forward. But as Godians, we must have firmer standards than regular Christians. I am talking about the dedication that includes a reaffirmation of our mentality of belonging to the Kingdom of God and living it.

This is easy to say, but living a life that reflects a life in the Kingdom of God is not so easy! Because, again, our mentality has to be beyond what normal Christians cultivate. And, how hard is it to live a life that reflects a Christian’s life in a world that is so hectic that it is hard enough to keep our identity as Christians? How many of us lose ourselves in reacting to worldly situations without knowing that we have crossed the line that Christians should not cross? What about worldly worries, after having caught up in the secular system that makes you feel helpless and trapped?

We live in an era where God does not always talk to us audibly. In confession, God only talked to me audibly only twice in my life as a Christian, and those sayings were not that lengthy. Both instances were just a fragment of a sentence at that! The rest was through dreams, inner voice, things that I read and hear, and one vision (It was because of this one-time vision that I am in Chicago and am waiting on God to give me a “GO AHEAD,” on the ministry). And I have made many many mistakes in hearing God’s voice. I still make mistakes! I whine to God a lot, about asking him to speak to me clearly, so that I don’t have to make mistakes in hearing him, but he still has not pacified my whines and complaints thus far.

The reality is that ALL Christians make mistakes when it comes to hearing from God. Some more than others. Actually, hardly any Christians can profess that they have audibly heard from God. Even in my case, out of my two instances of audibly hearing from God, I am only 100% sure about one, and the other was a whisper that I have doubts about from time to time. The point is that even though we Christians say that Christianity is a relationship, this relationship with God is much strained when we have such difficulty having a legitimate conversation with him, as compared to you and I can sit down and have a talk. That said, it is very difficult to keep an ongoing relationship that is satisfying and consistent. That’s why, for many folks, their only interaction with God is when they pray before going to bed or when they wake up in the morning, like a ritual, while the rest of their day is silent. Can you say that such is a satisfying relationship? That’s why I call that a religion rather than a relationship.

So, what are we to do? Yes, God is the medicine who keeps our DNA from further mutating, but how is God administered into our lives? In a secular world, how do we administer medicine into our bodies? We ingest it in, shoot it in, breathe it in, patch it through our skins, or we have it radiated into our bodies. What about God? How does God get into our bodies/lives? It is through a relationship! I’m sure many of the readers figured it out before I said it, but I just got done talking about how difficult it is to have a real relationship with God, above! What gives? It would be irresponsible of me to just say the obvious and tell you all to “start talking to him more…make more time for God,” and be done with this segment of the article and refocus on the “enemy” part without telling you of the most crucial part about what is actually happening when we truly connect with God.

James 4:5 says, “Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?” The spirit that God put in all of mankind is the very source of our lives (For the sake of clarification, whenever there is a chance of confusion between the two, I will call the spirit within us “SS” versus “HS” for the Holy Spirit). This spirit is the guarantor or guardian of our DNA and is the caretaker of our life itself. Without this spirit as the life energy, we wouldn’t be alive today. This life-giving spirit, which carries our soul, was meant to freely commune with God’s Spirit, but that ceased with the Fall of Man (introduction of Sin). What does this mean? The introduction of Sin caused a disconnect between God and his creations.

Simply put, the relationship that sustained the health of our bodies ceased. Human beings became more guarded around God (remember how Adam and Eve covered themselves with leaves after they ate the fruit that God forbade them not to eat), and they drifted apart from God to the point that they even forgot about the real God and started worshiping false gods instead. As far as the history of humans was being recorded, human history is littered with worshiping of false gods. Where did this propensity for human beings to worship higher beings come from?

James 4:5 explains it! God jealously longs for the spirit that he caused to dwell in us (when he breathed his breath of life into Adam). Well, the reverse is also true! Just as God longs for the spirits, the spirits themselves longed for a reunion with God’s Spirit. After all, they were originally a part of God (Of course, by default we were also one with God – before the Sin). So, this longing compelled human beings of every era of human history to worship gods. Their spirit told them of an existence that is much greater than them and must be worshiped! The only problem was that they missed the intended target, which was supposed to be the real God.

Our Enemies… – God’s Natural Law Tarnished: Medicine – Interaction of The Spirits (part 1)

Folks, the relationship that we have with God must be an interaction of the spirits. When we pray to God, most of us pray with our minds/souls rather than with our spirits/hearts. We struggle to say the right things and we worry about not utilizing the correct format of “praying,” as if there is a set mannerism that we must use to talk to God. There is no such mannerism. As I mentioned above, what became disconnected at the introduction of Sin was our spiritual connection with God, and as such, we must make an effort to reconnect that connection. So, it is not about what we say or how we say them. What it is about, however, is how do we connect to God with our spirits and our hearts?!

Jesus told a Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:23-24, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” In this phrase, to make it a bit more relevant, in place of “spirit and truth” we can put “heart” instead. This is because it is through our hearts that we access our spirits and truths. Folks, our hearts can’t lie. Our minds can lie but our hearts can’t lie. I am not saying that we can’t tell a lie from our hearts because we can certainly tell a lie, but our hearts will, definitely, rebel against that lie when we do. Our mind, however, will let us lie all we want and will help us into fooling ourselves. Isn’t that why we point to our hearts when we talk about conscience? It is so because, again, our spirit is tied to our hearts, and spirits do not lie either. And here is what Paul has to say about this topic:

…For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Romans 8:26-27

Now, I apologize for a little tangent, but here is a little lesson in Ancient Greek which the New Testament was written in. In the above quote by Paul, the word “spirit” was designated with a Capital S to signify the Holy Spirit. However, the spirit here is not the Holy Spirit, but the SS. It is the SS that is doing the interceding and it is God who searches our hearts to know the mind of the SS because SS interecedes for the saints according to the will of God.

The reason for the confusion or the error in our bible is that the editors/scholars of our bible are not always right, and they certainly do not share my understanding of SS, and the concept that follows. Contrary to popular understanding, there is a lot of room for misinterpretation and/or errors in translating the Greek Text. Readers have to understand that many languages of our world differ in the usage of grammar. There is no universal grammatical law that governs how they are used in each language, and ancient Greek and its grammar is a nightmare! Below are two copies of Romans 8:26-27 in ancient Greek.

Ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα συναντιλαμβάνεται ⸂τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ⸃ ἡμῶν· τὸ γὰρ τί ⸀προσευξώμεθα καθὸ δεῖ οὐκ οἴδαμεν, ἀλλὰ αὐτὸ τὸ πνεῦμα ⸀ὑπερεντυγχάνει στεναγμοῖς ἀλαλήτοις, ὁ δὲ ἐραυνῶν τὰς καρδίας οἶδεν τί τὸ φρόνημα τοῦ πνεύματος, ὅτι κατὰ θεὸν ἐντυγχάνει ὑπὲρ ἁγίων

Modernized Ancient Greek

ΩΣΑΥΤΩΣΔΕΚΑΙΤΟΠΝΕΥΜΑΣΥΝΑΝΤΙΛΑΜΒΑΝΕΤΑΙΤΝΑΣΘΕΝΕΙΑΥΜΩΝΤΟΥΑΡΤΙΠΡΟΣΕΥΖΩΜΕΘΑΚΑΘΟΔΕΙΟΥΚΟΙΔΑΜΕΝΑΛΛΑΑΥΤΟΤΟΠΝΕΥΜΑΥΠΕΡΕΝΤΥΓΧΑΝΕΙΣΤΕΝΑΓΜΟΙΣΑΛΑΛΝΤΟΙΣΟΔΙΙΡΑΥΝΩΝΤΑΣΚΑΡΔΙΑΣΟΙΔΕΝΤΙΤΟΘΡΟΝΗΜΑΤΟΘΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΟΣΟΤΙΚΑΤΑΘΕΟΝΕΝΤΥΓΧΑΝΕΙΥΠΕΡΑΓΙΩΝ

Ancient Greek as seen in the Original Letters of Paul

Looking at the two copies, you can see that the original version has no punctuation marks, no spaces in between words, no accent markers, and they are all in caps. Can you imagine the difficulty in translating the Pauls letter into a form that we can understand? But the point is that if the original were all in caps, and the modernized ancient Greek didn’t capitalize the “spirit.” However, in our bible, these are capitalized. To, share the disambiguation nightmare, I modified the English version of the scripture as below:

FORWEDONOTKNOWWHATTOPRAYFORASWEOUGHTBUTTHESPIRITHIMSELFINTERCEDESFORUSWITHGROANINGSTOODEEPFORWORDSANDHEWHOSEARCHESHEARTSKNOWSWHATISTHEMINDOFTHESPIRITBECAUSETHESPIRITINTERCEDESFORTHESAINTSACCORDINGTOTHEWILLOFGOD

Romans 8:26-27 all caps, no space, no punctuation

What is this gibberish? Again, if all the letters are capitalized in the original, who decides or what law governs whether “spirits” should be capitalized? There is no such law. The translators and the Biblical scholars are the ones who decide whether certain words should be capitalized based on their beliefs and ideals. That means, if they were wrong, everyone who reads their errored works erroneously believes something that may not be correct! So, if there is a difference of opinion, a whole translated work may have a different meaning!

I apologize for the tangent. Let’s go back to the Interaction of the Spirit.

Our Enemies… – God’s Natural Law Tarnished: Medicine – Interaction of The Spirits (part 2)

So, Jesus said we should interact with God with our spirits and Paul said something similar. I also said, to make it a bit easier to digest Jesus’s saying, that spirit and truth portion can be interchanged with hearts. That is the first step. The reason why I suggested interchanging “spirit and truth” with “hearts” is because not many people can access the spirit within them, not to mention connecting with the Holy Spirit. Many people mistake their spirit for their feelings, that is if they are self-reflective enough to define what feeling is in the first place. Many would say, “Well, feeling is…you know, FEELINGS! You just feel it!” They say it loudly, thinking that saying it louder would get the meaning across. So, how do I explain a spiritual experience when people don’t even know what feeling is, to mistake it with spirit? This problem is similar to analyzing a taste.

Most of us can recognize sweetness, saltiness, sourness, bitterness, etc., but I just listed only the very basic tastes. What if I ask the readers whether they can recognize the sweetness of sugar, honey, maple, mango, melon, etc.? How good are you at recognizing the source of the sweetness? What if I give you the task of breaking down the Big Mac sauce into its components through taste? How many people will know exactly what is in it to make it taste the way it does? We ALL know what the Big Mac sauce tastes like. “You know, the Big Mac sauce!” This statement is not too different from the “feeling” statement above, very vague.

Not many people will know exactly what is in the Big Mac sauce just by tasting it, but depending on the person’s expertise in the realm of cooking, s/he will better satisfy the taste inquiry. Their expertise in either cooking or tasting will determine how well people dissect the taste into little components. It’s as if their taste buds have been trained to distinguish different taste components more readily and they taste those components with more intensity.

Sugar is made with either sugarcane or sugar beets. When tasting sugar, whereas a layman may say, “Oh, this sweetness is from sugar,” a chef may say, “Oh, this sweetness is a combination of sugarcane and sugar beet!” Or, they may say, “Oh, this sweetness is from sugarcane and not from sugar beet!” The detail in which the distinction is clarified is dependent on the experience level.

Sugar beet and sugarcane both produce sugary sweetness, just as a sad spiritual experience and a sad emotional experience may induce you to cry. However, crying from a spiritual experience is different from crying from an emotional experience, just as the sugary sweetness of sugar beet is different from the sugary sweetness of sugarcane. This distinction between spirit and feeling/emotion is important because, even though the two may be, sometimes, meshed together during our interaction with the Holy Spirit, spiritual interaction is honored by God whereas the emotional part is not always honored by God. This is why our hearts are important! Spirit is tied to our hearts whereas our emotions are not always connected to our hearts, as we can fake an emotion.

…the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth…

Folks, this is not easy! You may never have thought to distinguish the difference between spirit and feelings, until today. For that matter, you may not even have considered a distinction between a soul and a spirit! Lastly, even though you have been a Christian for a long time, a devout one at that, you may have never experienced the Holy Spirit in your life. You, certainly, know of the Holy Spirit, and you may even think that you have been baptized by the Holy Spirit, but you have never experienced the Holy Spirit. If that is the case, are you sure you are baptized in the Holy Spirit at all?

Our Enemies… – God’s Natural Law Tarnished: Medicine – Baptism of The Holy Spirit (part 1)

One of the saddest truths in the Christian community is an erroneous assumption that we all are baptized in the Holy Spirit. Many Christians think that because we are Christians we are automatically baptized in the Holy Spirit. That is very far from the truth! Yes, Jesus said that he would send the Holy Spirit to us upon his departure from Earth. He said that a helper will come in his place, and we know that the helper is the Holy Spirit. However, being helped and being baptized are two different things. We all have access to the Holy Spirit, but we all do not get baptized by the Holy Spirit.

There are times when some of us will require extraordinary help from God. I am talking about help from God that borders miracles happening directly to ourselves. Here’s an example of a personal miracle.

Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat….

Judges 14:5-6

What do you think about when you read or hear, “The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him?” I mean this narration is definitely telling us that the Holy Spirit came to Samon’s aid, but what does the word “rushed” suggest? Rushed suggests something like, “Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him,” or “Spirit of the Lord infused him.” Whatever description that I may use, it is very safe to say that the description that is suggested is something overwhelmingly great. The Spirit of God came overwhelmingly great upon Samson. He just had extraordinary help from God that qualified as a personal miracle of God. Couldn’t you say that, at that moment, Samson was baptized in the Spirit of God? Baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a new concept that only came about in the New Testament. God’s people periodically received baptism by the Holy Spirit when the event called for it even in the Old Testament.

The difference between the Old and New Testament as it pertains to the Holy Spirit is that 1) the terminology of the “Holy Spirit” was not used in the Old Testament, but instead, “Spirit of the Lord” was used 2) access to the Holy Spirit became available to ALL of God’s people, but the quality and quantity received is lowered like that of a daily portion of Manna that the people of the Israelites received in the desert – not too much and not too little 3) personal events of “baptism by the Holy Spirit” became more common where the effects of the baptism served as a validation for the congregation of the church and as a means to spreading the Gospel.

Folks, I am not going to tell you that you must be baptized in the Holy Spirit. However, I would be very delighted if you did. And baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a one-time event! It is an event that recharges you of the Holy Spirit and enables you to be more effective in your ministry or influence over non-believers. Personally, it helps you to keep your faith and grow in God, and it is evidence of you having received the medicine of God!

Our Enemies… – God’s Natural Law Tarnished: Medicine – Recognition of the Holy Spirit (part 1)

Folks, I clearly said that the medicine to the continued mutation of our DNA is our relationship with God which involves the interaction of the spirits, between SS and HS. However, I have also said that recognizing the spirit is not an easy feat and that it takes increased experience. Isn’t this a roundabout way of saying that we need to invest our time in this task of being able to recognize a spirit? However, I tend to be an individual who tends to break things down into parts and gain an understanding of each part. I fully recognize that this tendency is highly influenced by my personality type. That means, there are people of other personality types that will connect with God without having to break things down into parts. That means people will make connections differently than what I may say in this article.

In these cases, people will not be able to separate SS from their feelings, but they will recognize the Holy Spirit, nonetheless. They do that in a more instinct-like manner, but the principle of what is happening is the same. What’s important is that the end result, SS interacting with HS, is happening! However, even if you may belong to this group, I encourage you all to learn to recognize the SS part of you. I recommend this because I guarantee you that this will be a means for you to grow in God even more!

Well, that sounds good and all, but how do we get started in this interaction in the first place? Regardless of whether you are an analytic type or an instinctual type, your approach to God is the same. We do that with our sincere hearts, and we do that with perseverence of open hearts. We open our hearts to the suggestions given to us by the spirits (SS or HS). I won’t specify spirits as SS or HS for this stage.

For many of us, we have seen other people worship God with raised hands at a church service. And I know for sure, that all of us have seen people celebrate with two hands raised way above their heads as if they were celebrating Victory! For the latter example, where do you suppose such behavior of raising hands upon excitement came from? Why do we raise our hands in the air at exciting moments? Is that a cognitive moment in which we say, “Oh, this is exciting! To signify my excitement I am going to raise my hands way high!?” Is that how things work? Are we going to mechanically dissect every reason into pieces and initiate an action at such an end? Isn’t that a joy kill, if we actually did that? Or was that something that we told ourselves, very early on, that such behavior would signify excitement and would be carried on in future excitement-worthy moments?

No, such behaviors are the reflection of our spirits. It is our spirits that are initiating such behaviors. Next time you have such moments when you find yourself raising your hands, reflect on what you are feeling. What you will feel is heightened freedom and joy. What you will feel is that the shackles of society that drive us to “behave” properly will no longer confine you. Again, this behavior is a reflection of our spirits, and it is at this moment that our spirits are most connected and our hearts most open to God. Our ego has no place in such development. In other words, it is not our emotion or our soul that is responsible for raising our hands. This is a hint to those who want to learn to distinguish spirit from our feelings!

So, what does the opposite mean? What does it mean when the spirit wants to raise our hands and we don’t comply? Regardless of whether it is for the sake of excitement or for connecting with God, we are denying our spirits from feeling freedom. What do you feel when all around you are raising their hands with excitement while you are the only one who is not joining in? You feel shame and depressed. What about when you are in your church service? If you are honest with yourself, thus listening to your heart, you will also feel shame and depression. Then you tell yourself, “Well, I am still praising God and everyone worships God differently,” and I will tell you to your face that you are in denial and that you have missed the most precious opportunity to connect with God when God chose to visit your church service and be amongst you with a heightened presence than when you are alone, because it is said:

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.

Matthew 18:20

This statement is not a redundancy. God is with us all the time regardless of where we are. So what is he saying above when he is with us all the time anyway? He is saying that he will be with us in power when we are gathered in his name! So, if he says that with only three people, with what kind of power will he be with us when we are more than 30, 60, 100, 200 in number? It would be foolish of me to miss out on connecting with God when he availed himself to us with such strength!

I can tell you in this manner because God blessed me with the ability to feel his presence tactilely. About 4 years ago, I walked down the aisle of a church with a seating capacity of 300 during a service in which I was called by God to walk down to the altar area to help with the intercessory prayer for this woman (As a visitor to a church, I was sitting at the back of the church). I distinctly felt the Holy Spirit that had occupied the space surrounding the altar/podium of the church where the prayer warriors of the church were gathered to pray for her. What I felt as I reached the 6th or 7th row of the church seating arrangement, I experienced walking through an invisible barrier and my body felt the wall of that barrier all across my body in the direction of my heading. And upon entering that barrier-confined space, I felt warmth and I felt the density of the atmosphere. Mind you, I only felt this sensation only after I crossed that invisible barrier. Under normal circumstances, in a wide open and well-ventilated church sanctuary with a high ceiling as that church, the temperature, quality, and density of the air should feel the same wherever I may be, but as soon as I crossed the invisible barrier, I felt the night and day difference!

My senses have been more attuned to God ever since that experience, but the point I am making is that I can make statements or assertions about certain things in the Bible because God was gracious enough to give me experiences that allowed me to better ascertain meanings behind certain scriptures in the Bible, as well as understandings that I have. Also, I am convinced that the main shepherd (God) distributes/sends his sheep to the sub-shepherd (me) according to the gifts and experiences of that sub-shepherd. This means the fact that you have read this far into this long article suggests a compatibility between you the sheep and me the shepherd. Therefore, thank you, and welcome to my ministry!

Our Enemies… – God’s Natural Law Tarnished: Medicine – Recognition of the Holy Spirit (part 2)

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you….

James 4:8

This is a phrase that will be shared repeatedly in my ministry. In fact, I want to say that this phrase is the core concept of the ministry because this is true in ANY kind of relationship. A relationship that is based on self-reliance is not a relationship at all. We must engage those that we love and take an interest in for them to return our love and interest, and in other moments, it will be them that will engage with us, first, with love and interest so that we can return back love and interest, and so goes the relationship. Nothing changes just because our target of interest changes to God. The same rule of engagement applies between God and us. The only difference is that our relationship with God is dependent on our recognition of the Holy Spirit, which is invisible to us.

Folks, the fact that you can’t see God does not mean that you cannot sense God. Perhaps, you may not be able to feel him in a tactile manner, but that does not mean you cannot sense God in another manner, such as with your spirit (SS). God never fails to reciprocate your earnest attempt at reaching God. God WILL make himself known to you. However, the problem is that we don’t always approach him with earnestness, like we think we do. For example, imagine/place yourself in a church service where people are worshiping with their hands raised. If you tell me that you have earnestly reached out to God without raising your arms in the air so that your spirit (SS) can interact with God, I would tell you to your face that I don’t believe you. Let’s say that you have raised your hands in the air, but you are dying of shame because you are too self-conscious about what other people may think about you having raised your hand. Do you think you have allowed your SS to freely access, and thus, interact with the Holy Spirit? No, in such moments your SS is not free at all! Your SS is free only when you raise your hands with confidence and love.

So, in terms of the spirit, our approach to God is not just our body mechanics of raising our hands. Our approach to God is, along with the raising of our hands, we open our hearts to God without shame. And when this has been done, you WILL experience God! Then, with repetition, you will recognize the Holy Spirit in real-time.

Our Enemies are Hurting Too – God’s Natural Law Tarnished: Conclusion

I’ve taken you on a long journey of explanation after explanation. If I were to summarize the journey, it was a journey through a Godian’s relationship with God and how it should be done through a detailed explanation of the components. So, how is Godian’s relationship with God relevant to the topic of, “Our Enemies are Hurting Too?” Just think about the difficulties that I shared in having a relationship with God that counters the Sin’s influence in our lives. If you have to reread through the material to remind yourself of the difficulties that were shared in this article, do so, but imagine what non-believers, who do not have access to the medicine, are going through.

Fundamentally, the dispositions of our enemies are not something they had much choice in. Just as Godians are victims of the Original Sin, our enemies are also victims of the Original Sin. The difference between them and us is that we have access to the medicine that mitigates the effects of Sin. In other words, our enemies are the way they are because of the Sin. They are not only hurting us. They are also hurting themselves as well! Without our intervention of prayer, they will continue living the lives that lead to harm of self and others.

What was the opening scripture?

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven….

Matthew 5:44-45

We are to love our enemies and pray for them so that we may be children of our Father. The above quote was from Matthew 5:44 and a portion of 5:45. And below is the entirety of Matthew 5:45:

…so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Matthew 5:45

“For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Folks, the essence of this statement is compassion!

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

John 3:16-17

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Folks, if God only made sun rise on the good and designed to send rain only on the just, that is no different from condemning the evil and the unjust, but John 3:17 clearly says otherwise. Contrarily, it says, “…in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Folks, I am not praying for Dave, my enemy, who stole from me or raped my wife or killed my son. I am praying for Dave, my fellow victim, who without my prayer, may never experience the love of God that he gave to the whole world, not just exclusively to me or other Godians. I am praying for Dave, a lost soul, so that I may be a Godian and a son of God, just as the scripture says.

It is easier said than done, I know. But the truth of the matter is that if I choose to see Dave the thief, the raper, and the killer, I am choosing to see the sin rather than the person. If said in another way, is it Dave who hurt me, or did the manifestation of the sin in Dave’s life hurt me?

Folks, forgiveness and compassion are not something that we gain in a day. We gain such traits through an earnest desire of the heart that longs to grow in God! It is a process of becoming a Godian!

Thank you!

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