Excerpt
Chapter 1

Understanding

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned
like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me, I
Corinthians 13:11.
Let the wonderful kindness and the understanding that
come from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ help you to keep on growing, II
Peter 3:18.
Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth
words from their understanding? Job 8:10
The Lord looks down from heaven
on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God,
Psalms 14:2.


What is understanding? Is it the same as wisdom? Can you know a thing fundamentally
without understanding it? How do we gain understanding and
knowledge? Once we increase our understanding, how is it put to practical use?

These are valid questions that have led you to pick up this very book.
We are told in Isaiah 28:10 that we learn and understand little by little. As we go
through the steps of life we first learn to crawl, and then walk, and finally we run. As
babies experiencing language, we first learn small syllables—baa-baa and dada—and it
takes nearly two years for most to master making a complete sentence.

Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line
upon line; here a little, and there a little.
—Isaiah 28:10




Do you remember how you felt in first grade when you began to learn to add
and subtract single-digit numbers? Then how you felt when you were first shown
two or three columns of numbers to work with? It looked impossible, didn’t it?
But it wasn’t.

Do you recall when you thought you had aced the math, you could add, subtract,
multiply and divide, then along came algebra, geometry, and trig? In the
beginning when you were commencing your education, it may have felt as if you
were studying a foreign language. Perhaps it seemed difficult and you thought
you would never master the rules. As time went on, little by little, you gained
understanding and the problems became easier. You felt prepared for something
even greater in high school and college.

After years of studying and completing assignments, you had finished all the
requirements for graduation; but were you fully equipped for the future? Was there
more to learn? You felt ready for your first job, for marriage, and for what lay ahead.
But when you entered life as an adult, you may have begun to realize that you knew
the math, English, sciences, and social studies, but the real issues of life, the subjects
you needed to know to live life fully, were not part of the curriculum.

As time progresses, you take a survey of your life, looking at your successes and
failures. You look at all aspects of your existence even your spiritual life, or lack
of, and wonder what you are doing wrong. In Psalms 128:2 we are promised that
we will live well and prosper. You may wonder when your prosperity and wellness
is coming.

You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.
—Psalms 128:2

As you examine your life, you may feel that you have been a good person. You
may have been fair and honest. You feel that you have followed most of the rules
but you are not where you desire to be. You feel as if something is absent and you
may even ask, “Is this all there is?”




Life is much like math. Concepts are added step-by-step and line-by-line. For
example, you must first know basic math before you can measure and cut wood
to build a bookcase or center a picture on a wall. When faced with emotional or
spiritual situations you may feel as if traditional education has not prepared you
for everyday life. Perhaps you have even studied philosophy and psychology texts
in hopes of getting a better handle on your life. You may have what is called
“head knowledge.” Head knowledge knows a thing fundamentally but it has not
become part of your way of living. You understand how something works, but
you have yet to put it to practical use.

You may have read your Bible, listened to the master’s teach, and diligently
studied the most recent ideas of religion and theology. Then one day you hear a
message that you have never heard before. It nudges your soul causing a stir in the
deepest part of you. This message may come from any source; from a paragraph
in a book, a line spoken in a movie or play, or even a television commercial. The
stirring spreads into your heart and you want to discover more about the message.

As the message resonates within your being, you may feel joy, but you could
possibly feel fear or anxiety, even anger, because the message is so different from
the familiar teachings of the past. It may even seem difficult to accept at first. You
can’t help but wonder, if there is truth to this message, why you have not heard it
before now or why you did not hear it years ago.

Man knows much more than he understands.
—Alfred Adler (1870–1937)

For example, consider the story of the woman who was very beautiful and
appealing; she was often desired by the men in her town. She had done a great
many things she was not proud of doing. She had caused several broken marriages
and she was living with a man at the time who was someone else’s husband.
One day she heard a message that changed her heart and mind about her current
circumstances. A hope welled up inside her and a yearning that she wasn’t
sure she understood. All she knew was that she wanted to hear more about it so
she found the teacher who was spreading the message. Having a great compassion
for the predicaments in the lives that good people create for themselves, this great
teacher told her that she could change. He told her that she could start right
where she was beginning that day.

She listened to what the teacher said and took it to heart; her life was changed
forever. She allowed the message that she received to become “heart knowledge.”
With heart knowledge she had the true ability to change her life, not just the
“head knowledge” that it was possible.

As you may have guessed, this story is one version of the life of Mary of
Magdalene. What Jesus taught her was that she could live the life of her dreams
rather than the life that others dreamed for her to live. What a wonderful lesson
and message indeed! Would he do any less for you?

After all, life is really simple; we ourselves create the circumstances that complicate
it.
—Unknown





It has been said that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
As adults we often find ourselves wondering: Does God know me? If He does
know me, does He love me? Does He care what happens to me? Does He have a
plan for my life? How can I find out what God wants from me? Why am I here?
Do I have a purpose? What am I supposed to do to find my purpose?
In this atomic age we live in, knowledge abounds. We have countless great
books and teachers; the internet is filled with resources as well. Like many others,
you may have read and studied for some time looking for solutions to your every
day problems. You now have a great deal of information, but still you feel that
none of it is working for you. You may feel trapped in a dead end job, relationship,
or lifestyle. More importantly, you don’t feel happiness inside where it
counts.

You want to know why other people seem to be living the life of their dreams
while life seems to pass you by. You may have even searched for God’s plan for
your life by making career changes or attempting marriage and/or divorce. You
may have made endeavors to free yourself from some type of addiction only to
find yourself lost and confused with little apparent success. Your desires remain
unfulfilled and you long for a better life. You wonder why God seems to bless
others, but you may sometimes feel forsaken. You could possibly even feel resentment
toward those who seem to have it all and you wonder, “Why not me?”

Although it can seem fearsome to question what your purpose is and how you
will find it, the answer is not as complicated as it might seem. If you have been
asking these questions and others about your purpose in life and what God
expects from you, then you may be relieved to learn that you are not alone. These
questions have been asked since the beginning of time. Great men of all ages have
asked similar questions, Socrates, Plato, Seneca, Abraham, Moses, David,
Solomon, Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, and so many, many others...

An unexamined life is not worth living.
—Socrates (469BC–399BC)




Why am I here? What does God want from me?

Genesis 1:27 tell us, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of
God he created him; male and female he created them.” If we are created in
God’s own image, then we must surely be divine beings of light having an earthly
experience! Our being-ness consists of mind, body, and soul, or spirit. In John
10:30-34, Christ states that he is one with the Father and that we are all gods.
With that in mind, it is too far a stretch to believe that God is that part of us that
is pure divinity?

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit
lives in you?
—I Corinthians 3:16.

Since God lives in each of us, consider that the desires we feel are also His
desires; the love we feel, His love; and the experiences we have are His experiences.
From your earliest education and indoctrination, you may be astonished
by those thoughts. But contemplate this question: Is it possible that we have pictured
God all wrong?

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
—Romans 8:16

To understand what another is feeling, we must “walk a mile in their shoes.” To
know a thing, we must experience it. To understand the love and care of God, we
must look through the eyes of God; that divine God-part that lives in each of us.

Look now at your own children or grandchildren—the love you feel cannot be
measured. You want them to have everything that they need as long as it is not
harmful to them. It is the natural response as parents to want your children to
have great friends, a nice family, a beautiful home, and a wonderful job that pays
them well. You desire for your children to have all the desires of their heart without
limits. This is your desire for yourself as well. These desires are healthy and
natural. Is our heavenly Father any different when He looks at His own children?
Would He place any limits on your happiness?




For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks,
the door will be opened.
—Matthew 7:8

Ask so that you may receive.
Sometimes we do not ask because we do not believe that God loves and cares
about us. We sometimes confuse Him with memories of an earthly father who
may have seemed harsh, indifferent, unsupportive, or even cruel. We may have
even been reared in some type of fellowship where we were often told that God
would send us to hellfire or that He would rain fire and brimstone down upon us
for some infraction. However, God is all that is good and there is not a single
harmful intention in your heavenly Father.

We sometimes forget that, as children of God, we are blessed with the richest
of inheritances. Our father is The King of all Kings! He is Lord of all people. His
home has many mansions. There is simply nothing that our Father cannot and
will not provide for us. In that way, and in every other way, there are no limits in
the mind of God when it comes to His children.

For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is
received with thanksgiving.
—I Timothy 4:4

Obtaining the desires of your heart is not a course that is taught in the traditional
or theological education system. There are no accredited classes on life,
love, and happiness although there should be as this is what everyone seeks. We
can have what we seek; we must simply ask and believe. Do you have faith in
that? The “faith-problem” for most of us is that we act as if we are paupers when
we are really princes and princesses.

• Do you desire to have more knowledge and discernment?
• Do you desire to have more love, honesty, peace, financial freedom, and
happiness?

Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. It is your inheritance!
For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
—Philippians 2:13