Quote:
Originally Posted by ameizhere
I'm not sure about that. I think better phrasing would be that "I want the closeness to God that I once had before." However, that closeness has returned now. I think there is a very good reason why God puts a distance between us when we sin; He puts that separation there to discipline us. But I do agree that "self" - in terms of whether we are in the flesh or the Spirit - depends on how close we are to God. We live more in the Spirit when we have closer fellowship to God. It is about renewing our minds and changing our thoughts from our own opinions to God's way instead. His way is better than our own, and as a believer you know this. Therefore starting to go your own way when you are familiar with God's way feels hopeless and miserable. I thank God that He has mercy on those who come to Him, even those who may wander for a while.
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I think about it like this, and I have said this somewhere else here, before, from the point of view of what it must be to be a consciousness. I think we need to understand that not only is the central observer the consciousness, but that everything we observe is consciousness, as well. It is that the part of our consciousness that we can observe, is beholden to reality. It straddles the line between what is us, and what is not us. And, you know, there are processes that take place among cells that do the observing where information is dealt with before it gets to us. These things can be as basic as which way is up? They can also be more complicated, and cause us trouble with making too many assumptions.
But, then, also, the central observer is subject to emotion, just as the observer part of us is subject to reality, and evolution. And that each one of these aspects of ourselves can exist at any time in relation either solely, or in groups, with all of the other parts. It's crazy what we can become.
Jesus said that people slept when they died. That implies something like dreaming. That also means that after death we have to endure a consciousness that doesn't have the input of the world anymore. That's a bad place to be, if you don't understand what love is. If it is all about possession, then you eat yourself when you die.
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