“If the flesh came into being because of the Spirit, it is a marvel, but if spirit came into being because of the body, it is a marvel of marvels. Yet I marvel at how this great wealth has come to dwell in this poverty.” This quote from Jesus can be found in the Gospel of Thomas, Nag Hammadi Codex (NHC) II, 2 in the International Edition The Nag Hammadi Scriptures, which were considered to be Sacred Scriptures from the time of Jesus to about 400 AD.
Why does Jesus refer to the physical body as poverty?
There is more to what religion has handed down to you. Truth has been hijacked, in some cases, leaving you to believe that only the rabbi, priest, nun, minister, monk, church elder, deacon, cleric of some kind has been trained in your version of spirituality. You might think they know more than you if you have only been trained in the belief system of your church.
Realize that although they have been trained in this knowledge, and while they may have dabbled in attempting to understand other belief systems, (with a bias against all other information), they were not trained in the gnosis, the esoteric knowledge which Jesus himself taught. Otherwise, these religious leaders would be teaching all that he taught, not what some of his words were misinterpreted to say.
I am an interfaith Universal Life Church minister, with a Master’s Degree in Chaplaincy, and a Doctorate Degree in Spiritual Awareness, and a Second Doctorate in Universal Order. I have studied those 18 missing years of the life of Jesus and what he taught, not only studying the last three years of his life which religions have manipulated his mission to be, most of which are the compilation of Paul, who was trained as a Jewish Pharisee.
When you learn all the words that Jesus taught, a different picture emerges within your mind other than what got altered for less than holy purposes. I am an interfaith minister because words of different faiths are merely semantics, different words which describing the same reality.
Let’s speak about the mind, the human, physical mind for a moment. Our brain is physical, amazing, but still physical. With our brains we learn and understand as best we can. We begin as young children taking in what was taught to us by our parents, guardians, and teachers. Perhaps they were spiritual, religious, or atheist, agnostic, or scientifically, technologically, or medically minded. We learn what we learn. Learning continues, unless we have been threatened with the loss of our eternal Spirit/Soul with hellfire and damnation should we dare to learn anything else, or unless our pride is too big, sliding off the limited range of knowledge we allow in for consideration.
Know it is a gigantic mistake to dismiss knowledge without first investigating that which you deny. Semantics can play a big part in misunderstanding terminology. Seek to understand more.
Indoctrination, even secular indoctrination, can hold quite a grip and can even shut down individuals either by such tormenting fear that they dare not walk outside of the line drawn in the sand by the religious and even political control freaks at the helm, or by ridicule from an equally ignorant peer pressure group dismissing Jesus without an honest effort to learn. It takes strong character development to stand as the lone individual stepping outside those lines in the sand.
This is part of the mind poverty of which Jesus speaks.
Then comes the day when a new wind is blowing, erasing that line drawn in the sand. Where did the line to learn or not learn go? How will you ever get your firm footing without all those stifling rules, regulations, peer pressure, and some other religious and/or political group telling you what to believe?
Physical maladies appear more obvious. We take chances. We make mistakes (what some call sins). We have accidents. Things fall apart. How does an individual learn except by making mistakes and learning to correct them? Cause and effect, otherwise known as Karma, is an exceptional teacher. We only know what we know when we know it, right?
Life is so tempting to try new things, creating havoc in some cases when we continue on with too much of a good thing, like drug, alcohol, food, gambling, and sex addictions, among others. Still, this is all a learning curve. Everyone has something with which they are not perfect and wish they were better. That is what this life is all about.
This is the poverty of the physical body.
Yet, in the Book of Thomas, Jesus highlights the miracle of miracles, that our God-given Spirit/Soul is generated by our DNA to be born into and sheltered by our physical mind and body. We truly are made up of mind, body, AND SPIRIT.
THIS IS OUR I AM PRESENCE, that thread of life that animates us, is the LIGHT within us.
“If your leaders say to you, ‘Look, the kingdom is in heaven,’ then the birds of heaven will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside you and it is outside you.” Jesus says in the prologue of the Gospel of Thomas:
“These are the hidden sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Judas Thomas the Twin recorded.
“And he said, ‘Whoever discovers the interpretations of these sayings will not taste death.’
“Jesus said, ‘Let one who seeks not stop seeking until one finds. When one finds, one will be troubled. When one is troubled, one will marvel and will reign over all …’
“If your leaders say to you, ‘Look, the kingdom is in heaven,’ then the birds of heaven will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside you and it is outside you.
“Jesus said, ‘When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty, and you are poverty.'”
This statement by Jesus also echoes his words in Luke 17:20-21, that the Kingdom of God is WITHIN YOU. All new bibles are reverting back to the original words of Jesus, changing the scribe changes of ‘the kingdom of God is among you,’ to ‘the Kingdom of God is WITHIN YOU.’ Check the modern Interlinear Bible of Hebrew-Greek-English translation.
Now why would anyone be troubled at these words of Jesus?
Religious and Roman political leaders jumped on the chance to manipulate the words and 18 missing years of Jesus in order to subjugate their audiences for unholy purposes at the Council of Laodicea in the year 364 AD. From the time of Jesus until 364 AD and this council, the faithful had been following the words of Jesus, completely, with women priests, and teaching that the LIGHT of God dwells inside all people, the I AM Presence WITHIN THEM.
If you have spent your life being told you are a constant sinner, especially if you happen to be a woman, who was blamed entirely for Original Sin according to modern bibles and most all writings since 364 AD, then you will be more than troubled to discover that Jesus said much more than what was manipulated and preserved in modern religious teachings.
The Original Sin was that of the fallen angels mating with the beautiful daughters of humanity, as Genesis 6:1-5 describes. But that reality was changed in 364 AD. If you do not study and learn about what happened, you remain willfully ignorant of the truth.
Know that THAT is the poverty mentality!
In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus is shining the LIGHT on the LIGHT WITHIN YOU. He is also shining a LIGHT in the world around you. We all have free will to build up or to tear down. This truly is a beautiful world. There are dark forces, those remnants of the Nephilim, whose souls cannot die and WHO CANNOT RETURN TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST HEAVEN, who roam the Earth seeking the ruin of the Spirits/Souls of humankind.
But LIGHT is stronger than the dark.
God Bless Everyone Everywhere
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