2nd FeBrUaRy – "gOoD" or "eViL" ?

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There is a whole spiritual realm we don´t really know much about (if we are honest)...

All I´m going to share is based on personal experience and my own interpretation, I might be wrong, as I realize how little I know on the subject.

It´s sometimes easier to recognize “bad” things in the physical world than it is to recognize “bad” things in the spiritual world. I usually don´t like to classify things as “good” or “bad” as that can be so subjective and fruit of our dualistic mindset...

But I guess most people would agree that killing another person, war, rape, molesting children, torture, or any kind of abuse of the other are not good things... mainly because they are not based in love... Fear, the ego, evil or hate usually can lead people or animals to do such things... and in my opinion, both victim and perpetrator are victims. But that´s a whole other conversation.

What about spiritual things? How can we discern what is “bad” ? Or are we even supposed to discern it?

Many people today are seeking spiritual things... Many seek spiritual or supernatural experiences, some are healthy, but some can be destructive...

There may be many motivations, but I think the main are Love, Ego or Fear.

If Love is our motivation ( or actually, what led us to seek in the first place), then Love will lead us... If our Ego or Fear is the motivation we might end up being trapped or somehow enslaved...

I remember the times when I was living in Angola, back in 1998. There the spiritual world is somehow “visible” and accepted as “normal”... much more than what we experience in Europe... I think here we separated the spiritual and the physical for too long, and in people´s minds these are separated compartments of life... Maybe that´s why there is such a thirst for spiritual things today... People are missing something that should be “normal”.

In Angola, the majority of people (I´m speaking about natives) know or recognize that “good” spirits and “evil” spirits exists...Every little village has at least one witch or wizard to deal with spiritual things,  there are churches every corner, and it´s quite “normal” to speak about spiritual warfare between God and the devil... There is a certain respect and awareness for this things...

For example, in the market, a lot of people who sell have a spell ... the “stronger” your spell is, the more you sell... Interesting, isn´t it ? how money can get so easily involved in this matters ... This spells are often made by witchcraft men or women in exchange of a “party”, usually an offering to a certain spirit, that might include money, alcohol, tobacco or anything else the “spirit” would ask...If it works or not I don´t know, but I heard that someone went to the market in Luanda to buy some batteries and came out with a lot of other stuff... and no batteries... thieves can have spells as well... I heard about a guy who was hiding his money in his shoes and a thief just came and asked him to take off his shoes and give him the money... How did he know? Anyway, I don´t want to go too far here...

I believe there is a spiritual world for what I´ve seen and experienced... There is a battle between “good” and “evil”, or if you prefer, Light and Darkness... and that reflects in our physical world...

At that same time, in Angola, I was getting to know Jesus... Not that I went to look for him, but I realized Jesus has been looking for me J ... I was definitely seeking, that´s true, but I wanted nothing to do with religion... I would much more easily get involved with witchcraft than with the church...

For me at the time,  Jesus was too connected to religion and church for me to get any interest in him...

But soon I realized that Jesus was not fond of religion either... humans made him into a religion, and that is a big difference...

Anyway, I was really interested in spiritual things and I came across this passage on the Bible :

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)

I was already aware and interested about this... then  I came to this other passage

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ... may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know God better.  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know …his incomparably great power… That power is the same as the mighty strength  he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,  far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that can be invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” (Ephesians 1:17-21)

I don´t say Jesus was the only messenger from God to human kind… As Jesus mentioned in one of his parables, many were sent and they were all killed…

But I admit that there is something special and unique about Jesus… He died and came back to life by the power of God… death, the most feared mystery for all human kind and all creation, is there, defeated in front of our eyes…

And not only that, but after staying more than a month among his disciples, he was gone or taken to the spiritual real where God is, but the Spirit that was in him came to the physical realm and manifested in many different ways, unusual ways I would say, and it is still “at work” today…

This I find unique… amongst all the prophets, gurus, xamans, enlightened people, extraordinary people, there was no one else who offered his or her spirit to guide, teach, protect all humanity, to be like he or she was…

But , going back to the spiritual realm… After Jesus was taken, or gone, he was given a specific role … to be above all authorities…

I used to have an issue with the word “authority” and often only nasty images would come to my mind…

But if we think about a person full of love for everyone (enough to give his life in behalf of anyone), a person who does not make distinction of people, a person who befriends the poor and the rejected ones, a person who actually confronts other authorities when they are not acting in love, a person who doesn´t want to be a leader and who says that “the good master is the one who serves”… then such a person should be a good authority we could trust…

The other good thing about all this is that we can invoke this authority, in our own behalf or in behalf of others… some call it prayer…

Some experiences come to my mind… around the same time when I was getting to know Jesus in Angola, I was 24 then…

One of them was a dream…well, a nightmare… I was a child, in the house I grew up in, in my bed, and suddenly a “creature” appeared and held me by my neck… I felt fear all over… I was trying to defend myself but my arms were too short to reach this “creature”… a bit like a cartoon scene, but not funny at all… I was trying to shout for help, but no sound would come out of my mouth… I was somehow conscient and I was trying to wake up, but I was not able… then I called, in my mind, for Jesus to help me… and I kept calling Jesus´name… Suddenly I heard a “Shhhh”, audible, so audible that I was not sure if it came from my dad who was next door… in a second everything was gone… I was dropped and the nightmare was over…and so was the fear… I was feeling safe and secure… I was aware that something powerful happened there…

Next day I found out that my dad heard nothing and said nothing that night… I know Jesus, or his Spirit came to me, and a simple “Shhhh” was enough to stop whatever it was that was tormenting me…

This and other experiences make me say that there is a spiritual world we do not know much about…

This I know, I´m not afraid, for “Greater is the Spirit in me, than the one in the world”