How to Prevent the Bombings From a Spiritual Point of View

We were shocked last Tuesday afternoon, January 25, 2011 when we heard the news that a bus was bombed in Makati City, Philippines. Five were killed in that incident and 13 were injured.

Increasing Frequency of Bombings

Bombs are becoming more frequent these days. In the Philippines alone in the space of 11 years 21 bombs have been recorded, the worst one being the bombing on February 27, 2004 of the passenger boat Superferry 14 sinking this vessel and killing 116 people and injuring hundreds more. This was described as the deadliest terrorist attack in the Philippines and the world’s deadliest terrorist attack at sea. The 21 bombs in the space of 11 years killed on record 254 persons and injured hundreds more.

In 2009 there was a report from a military official that within a year 56 bombs had exploded or had been discovered in central Mindanao, the biggest island in southern Philippines. This is only in one part of the country.

If you add to these the bombs that have exploded or have been discovered to nearly explode all over the world, we realize that bomb explosions to hurt people are indeed becoming more common.

In the face of this tragic and very sad phenomenon, what can we do?

How To Prevent These Bombings

The reasonable thing to do is to prevent the explosion of these bombs. But how? Is there a way to prevent the explosion of such bombs.

There are people who say that we cannot prevent such man-made disasters from occurring. They have been prophesied long ago and will continue to do so until the end of this world.

But such a view is too pessimistic. It is like saying, “We are going to die anyway, so let’s die anyway we want, the earlier, the better.”

The realistic view is that while we cannot prevent all such bombings, there are measures which we can take that will prevent some, if not most, of these bombings. The prevention of some of these bombings is reward enough for the effort to prevent their fatal explosions.

3 Practical Suggestions from a Spiritual Point of View

I will give here 3 practical suggestions to prevent these bombs from being made and from exploding. Two of these suggestions can be done by individual persons immediately. The third is done better in institutions of learning and worshipping after the leaders of these institutions realize the efficacy of this method. They are all from a spiritual perspective. They are not from a military or police perspective which is to monitor the activities of suspicious individuals and prevent them from carrying their intended terroristic activities.

The first suggestion is very simple and yet it has been known to do many things, some of them impossible by human standards. This is prayer. “More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of,” said Alfred Lord Tennyson. Prayer can effectively prevent these bombings.

But by prayer here I do not mean the mumbling of prayer formulas from a prayer book or a sheet of paper. There is a parish here which ends the Mass everyday with a prayer using Psalm 91. It is a prayer for protection against harm of all kinds. The people recite this prayer. But this kind of prayer is not effective against bombings. For most of the parishioners it is just a ritualistic mumbling of prayers. It has not prevented the kidnappings and murders in the city.

Nor do I mean prayer here as going to a silent place and thinking about one’s self, about the values he needs to cultivate in his life, how he can overcome his faults, and then making a resolution to overcome these faults. Many are doing this in convents and monasteries, but this kind of prayer only cultivates the ego of the ones who pray.

By prayer I do not mean the loud, spontaneous but formalistic prayers of ministers before their congregation during their services or of prayer leaders before sessions or meetings.

By prayer I simply mean “conversation with God”, not mumbling a set formula of words, not thinking about oneself, not publicly showing religiosity. That is actually how Rosalind Rinker defined prayer, “conversing with God” and that is also the gist of Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada’s definition of mental prayer.

This kind of prayer, a sincere and real conversation with God can prevent the explosion of bombs because God in that conversation can share with the one who prays how to prevent these bombs from exploding or from being made, since many of these bombs have been labeled as improvised explosive device or IED. In other words they were made by improvising some gadgets to make a bomb explode.

The more people do this kind of prayer the more will there be possibility that God will teach us how to prevent these bombs from being made and set to explosion.

The second suggestion I have for the prevention of the making and explosion of these bombs is to avail of the services of the guardian angels. Each one of us has a guardian angel. But let us get a clearer picture of this being because most of us have a rather hazy picture of him.

Most of us think that a guardian angel is a winged human like being who is at our back. This is how artists have depicted the guardian angel. But actually this angel is a spirit. And because he is a spirit he has neither body nor wings. He cannot be seen by our physical eyes but we can feel his presence just as we can feel the blowing of the wind.

Guardian angels are spirits who accompany us from the time we were born. They are assigned to protect us from danger and from untimely death. But we have to follow their instruction. That is where the problem lies. Most of us are not distinctly aware of their presence with us. Maybe we have heard about them in our catechism class or Sunday school, memorized the prayer, “Angels of God, our guardian dear”, but we do not have a personal relationship with them. Because of this we do not talk with them, much less listen to their warnings. And because they are spirits their warnings can only be perceived spiritually. We cannot hear these warnings through our physical ears.

These guardian angels can tell us when we are going to a place where bombs can explode. If those policemen looking for these bombs have a personal relationship with their guardian angels and listen to them, the angels can tell them where those bombs are located.

I myself have availed of the services of these guardian angels. I was saved from a hold-upper by their help. My fellow passengers and I were saved from an explosion in a van by them. No one was hurt even in the least. Miracles still do happen. Persons sent to kill me and my father were dissuaded in their plans by these angels.

Why do we not avail of their help? They are just there for the asking.

And the third suggestion I have for the prevention of the making and exploding of these bombs is to invite more and more people to undergo spiritual development. We do not have this kind of development in our schools and churches. But let it not be another subject, like Religious Education or Theology. Do not call it a course or subject. Maybe the educators and ministers can call it a Journey. Instead of asking the students and parishioners who would like to take a course in Spiritual Development, ask them “Who would like to take a lifetime journey in spiritual development?”

When people are developed spiritually, they are more sensitive to the spiritual forces around them and they can sense the manipulations of these evil spiritual forces behind these bombs. In a newspaper here which published the reaction of the Bishops in the Philippines about the bombing last June 25, one bishop said “We have to examine its roots”. This implied that he does not know yet the root cause of the bombing. Spiritually developed persons know already the root cause: the deep-seated hatred of evil spirits against human beings.

Effective prayer, getting the help of our guardian angels, and leading more and more people on the path of spiritual development are my three suggestions in order to prevent the making and exploding of bombs that kill and hurt human beings.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

How the Spirit Leads Us to a Deeper Experience of Prayer

The Spirit of God is the one in charge of our spiritual development. He does this to form the real Christ in us. He forms the real Christ in us by leading us to a deeper experience of prayer, to a personal, profound understanding of the written word of God, and to an attentive and obedient listening to vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching.

How the Spirit leads us to a deeper experience of prayer is the topic of this blog.

Paradoxically the Spirit leads us to a deeper experience of prayer by allowing us to be ourselves and to do what we want. After a while we are no longer able to do what we want and we cry to God to help us do what we want. That is when we really pray.

Shallow Experiences of Prayer

You may ask me why do I write of a deeper experience of prayer. Is there a not so deep an experience of prayer? Is there a shallow experience of prayer? Unfortunately we go through lots of shallow experiences, and not so deep experiences, of prayer. This kind of prayer is not only useless but even harmful, deceiving. We think we are praying when we are not. We are just mumbling words or we are just reciting as we would recite a poem or another form of literature.

In Christian homes when we were children we were taught to pray, so they said. We were led to pronounce the text of the Our Father and memorize it. And then we used the text to pray. This is a very shallow experience of prayer. We were actually not praying. We recited a formula of prayer, not prayed.

In Sunday schools or catechism classes and in Bible study sessions we were led to make spontaneous prayer. And so we did pray spontaneously, so they said. We prayed for our needs, for our wants, for guidance, etc. This is prayer of some sort, if we really were serious. This is deep prayer, but not deeper experience of prayer. But if we did it because we were told to lead the prayer, or because it was expected of us to say something which began with “God” and ended with “in the name of Jesus”, then it was not praying. It was speaking in public about what we wanted to pray, but we did not really pray.

Deeper Experience of Prayer

Deeper experience of prayer is prayer from the heart, from the depths of our being. That is why it is called deeper, because it comes from our depths, not just from our lips, our tongue or our minds. It comes from where things matter most in our lives, from our inner selves.

How the Spirit Leads Us to Deeper Prayer

And the way the Spirit leads us to this kind of prayer is by allowing us to be ourselves and to do things our own way, until we are lost and get to the dead end. Then and only then do we turn up to him and ask for guidance to get us out of where we cannot get out by our own effort.

You see, all of us human beings are born with certain capacities: the capacity to move, to think, to speak, to write, to invent, to plan, etc. But all these capacities have limitations. We cannot move anywhere we want at the same time. We cannot think of all the ideas in the world at the same time. Most of the time we are not aware of these limitations. We are only aware of our capabilities.

And when we grow we undertake to actualize these capabilities. We move to school, we think of our lessons in class, we speak a distinct language, etc.

Then comes the big thing. We want to make something big in our life. Some of us want to be engineers, others want to be lawyers, still others want to be actors and actresses. Some of us succeed, others do not. In fact, most fail. Then they try and try again.

It is when we fail that some of us are led to prayer. It may be failure in the home, our parents separate and we are left alone as children. It may be failure in business when we file bankruptcy. It may be failure in love when we are rejected by the one who we thought loved us.

Not all failures lead us to prayer. Some failures lead us to try and try again. Some failures lead to suicide. The failure which the Spirit uses to lead us to prayer is the failure in which we see no more exit, no more way out of this failure, a dead end, no more alternative. There is only one way to go, the way up and within, the way of prayer. Where some people choose suicide as the way out, the Spirit gives prayer as the way in.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

The Fifth Stage of Spiritual Development

We come now to the fifth stage in spiritual development, the stage of maturity.

Maturation: The Ability to Take Care of Oneself

As an organism grows normally, it matures. It comes to the stage when it becomes able to take care of itself. The trunk of the plant becomes stronger, its roots grow deeper and its leaves multiply to transform light into its energy to grow still more.
The animal is now able to look for food by itself, adapts to its environment and gathers what is needed by its family or group of animals, such as food in the case of ants.

As the human being matures he/she learns a necessary profession, a trade or work so that he/she can feed himself/herself, and his/her family later on.

So also in the spiritual life, the spirit matures. It learns the necessary activities so that he/she no longer relies on preachers, ministers, priests, and teachers for his/her spiritual life. He/she now gets his/her spiritual nourishment by himself/herself from God and from him alone.

Duration of Maturation Varies

Reaching maturity in the spiritual life takes time, just like in spiritual conception. Again, as in spiritual conception, the length of time varies. Some will take a longer time to mature than others. A few or rather very few reach maturity quickly, even just within a year. Most will take years, even decades to mature.

The length of the period of maturing also usually depends on what physical age the spirit enters this stage. An older person may possibly reach maturity faster than one who enters at a younger age, although this is not always the case.

There are documented cases of young persons who reach spiritual maturity very quickly, even faster than those of older age.

Maturation in Prayer

The process of spiritually maturing usually starts with an improvement in the way one prays. When a person starts to pray he/she normally uses words, either spontaneous or formulated. It is spontaneous prayer if the person just uses words he/she finds by himself/herself to express his/her feelings or needs. It is formulated prayer when he/she uses an already written prayer like the Our Father in Christianity or the Surah Al-Fatihah in Islam.

As a person matures in the spiritual life he/she transcends or goes beyond praying by words, either spontaneous or formulated. He/she gives more and more intense attention to what he/she is praying. He/she now prays with his/her mind, not just with his/her lips, with greater consciousness of what he/she is praying about.

Still progressing in the way of praying, he/she transcends or goes beyond thinking of what he/she is praying about. Instead the focus now of his/her prayer is on the person he/she is praying to: God. He/she thinks more and more of God, learns more of him and grows in affection towards him.

Through this process of praying, the spirit reaches maturity. He/she begins to have his/her own spiritual resources because he/she is now more and more united to the source of all resources, God himself. As he/she thinks more of his/her spiritual parent, God, and draws closer and closer to him by affection, he/she actually becomes more and more like him, God. He/she becomes more and more godly.

The topic of spiritual maturation is a very rich one and volume upon volume of books has been written on this. Let me just briefly discuss the three surest signs by which we know that a spirit has matured.

Indications of Spiritual Maturity

The first indication of spiritual maturity is that the person is becoming more and more conscious of his/her dependence on God for everything that happens in his/her life, whether this pertains to his/her body or his/her mind. He/she becomes more and more conscious that his/her physical health and well being, his/her food, medicines, etc., depend on God and God alone.

We are all dependent on God, but most of us are not aware of this. We think we can do things by our own. The spiritually mature person on the other hand is more and more conscious of total dependence on God in everything in his/her life.

The second indication is a gradual detachment from everything that is not God, whether this is material, physical, intellectual, or aesthetic, in oneself and in others.

He/she is no longer attached to his/her material wealth if he/she has this, nor does he/she complain of poverty if this is his/her lot.

He/she is no longer attached to his/her good looks if he/she is physically handsome or beautiful. Nor does he/she complain of physical ugliness or disability if this is his/her lot.

He/she is no longer attached to his/her ideas about anything, about others, about himself/herself, or about anything. If he/she has attained high educational attainment, he/she no longer relies on this to produce ideas or manage things.

The third indication of spiritual maturity is a critical stance or attitude to the way religion is practiced by himself/herself and by others. He/she now criticizes himself/herself on his/her religious practices. He/she realizes that these are not enough. He/she has no self-satisfaction in his/her religious practices, in his/her following God's commandments. He/she realizes that he/she is always deficient in obeying what God requires of him/her.

There are other signs of spiritual maturity, but these three are the surest signs that a person has entered into the period of spiritual maturity.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them

The Fourth Stage of Spiritual Development

After birth, the Spirit grows within us. This is now the fourth stage of spiritual development: the growth of God's spirit in us. Just as among human beings, after they are born they naturally grow, so also among the spirits in us, after they are born, they grow.

Growth: Becoming Like the Parent

As organisms grow they gradually show themselves to be like their parent or their species. When the seeds of different kinds of grain begin to germinate they look similar to one another, blades of grass. But as they continue to grow they become distinguishable from one another. One grows to be wheat, another grows to be rice, another grows to be barley, etc.

In a similar way the zygotes or fertilized eggs of mammals appear to be the same among different mammals. But as they grow into fetuses they soon become distinguishable. One is the fetus of a cow, another of a dog, another of a human being.

Spiritual Growth: Becoming Like the Parent Spirit

So also when spirits are born, the persons in whom the spirit is born still looks like other human beings, those in whom the spirit has not yet been born. Physically, they look like the same: Both have two hands, 2 feet, 2 ears, etc. But in reality they are completely different from each other, they are worlds apart.

One has only a material, physical life. The other has spiritual life in addition to having a material, physical life. One is merely a human being, even a very good, talented human being. The other is a growing divine being. One is an earthly creature, the other is a heavenly being, being born from the Spirit above. One belongs to the human race; the other belongs also to the divine race.

As the spirit in us grows he/she becomes more and more, and manifests himself/herself more and more like his/her parent, the Spirit God.

As human beings we inherited the characteristics of the first human parent, Adam. The seed of Adam has been passed from generation to generation producing human beings like Adam, the first human being. As we grow as human beings, these characteristics become more and more visible.

As spirit or divine beings we inherit the characteristics of our divine parent, God himself. The seed of God which is His Word is passed on to us from generation to generation also producing divine beings like Jesus, the new human being, the human being with a divine nature. As we grow in the divine life, these characteristics become more and more visible.

Growing Has Its Inner Dynamism

There is a dynamism in the spirit to grow by himself/herself. You do not tell him/her to grow. He/she grows naturally. But like other living organisms, he/she needs the proper nutrients. The first is good food. We already saw that the food of the spirit is the Word of God.

Four Kinds of Food in the Word of God

The Word of God as food can be classified into four kinds: starting food or milk, growing food or solid food, strengthening food or very nutritious food, and reinvigorating food or dainty food.

The milk or starting food in the Word of God consists of the many stories we find in the Bible. These are simple stories which children naturally like to listen. The Bible is filled with these stories, from creation to the end of the world.

The solid or growing food in the Word of God consists of the exhortations we read, like what we find in the text on the Ten Commandments and the various injunctions in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Proverbs also has many of this solid or growing food.

The very nutritious or strengthening food consists of the doctrines or teachings we find in the various books of the Bible. A very good example of this is the Letter of Paul to the Romans. It is filled with heavy teaching.

The dainty food or delicious food consists of the mystical and apocalyptic literature in the Bible. Curious people are very much interested in this. A very good example of this is the last book of the Bible, Revelation.

The spirit takes his/her pick, what is most suitable to him/her. Of course, it would be of very much help if there is somebody who can guide the spirit what food to eat in the various stages of his/her growth.

Spiritual Movement Is Outcome of Growth

Not only does the spirit need food, he/she also needs to move around his/her house. This he/she does by doing the things his/her family of spirits does in the Church, like cleaning the place of worship, inviting people to listen to the preaching and teaching of God's Word, learning Christian songs, etc.

Rest Is Needed in Growing

Thirdly, the spirit also needs rest. He/she needs periods of doing nothing but just resting and being alone.

The Need for Discipline

Then he/she also needs to be disciplined by his/her Father Spirit God. This means that he/she avoids what can harm himself/herself, such as going with people who have no concern for spiritual matters.

Fellowship in Growth

And he/she needs to relate harmoniously with his/her spirit brothers and sisters and his/her parent God the Spirit. He/she has fellowship with his/her spirit brothers and sisters. And he/she devotes more and more time to conversing with his/her parent God. This is prayer.

In this way the spirit grows within us.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

A Primer on Spiritual Development (Part 11)

Yesterday in our primer on spiritual development we saw how the seed of the spirit is sown in us, how it is conceived and born in us. Today our topic is how the spirit in us grows and matures.

25. After the spirit is born in us how does it grow and mature?

Like all other living organisms the spirit has an inner dynamism to grow. Like a child it will long for milk. So Peter says, “Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation” (1 Peter 2:2).

So also Paul said to the Corinthian Christians, “I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it” (1 Corinthians 3:2). These Corinthian Christians who were born as spirits were fed with the milk of the spirit. Hebrews 5:12 tells us what this milk is. It is “the first principles of God's word.”

After milk, of course, it takes solid food. Hebrews 5:14 says, “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.” Solid food refers to the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Hebrews, chapter 6 onwards is an example of this solid food.

But the best food is Jesus himself, as he said, “For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed” (John 6:55). And he is found best in the Gospels. That is why Teresa of Avila has this to say of the Gospels: “I have always been fond of the words of the Gospels and have found more recollection in them than in the most carefully planned books” (WAY OF PERFECTION, chapter 21).

The child grows and matures also by doing the things that its family does. It learns the work or trade of the family. So also the spiritual child grows and matures by learning the work of the kingdom of God. Jesus considered this also as food, since working in the family makes the child grow and mature. In John 4:32-34 he says to his disciples, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has any one brought him food?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.” So, doing the work of Jesus is also food for the spirit. It enables this spirit to grow and mature.

Secondly, just like the physical child, the spiritual child needs a lot of sleep. When a physical child sleeps it is left alone to rest. In a similar way the spiritual child needs a lot of time just to be with itself. It needs solitude, aloneness, to build up its strength.

Thirdly, again like a physical child, the spiritual child needs discipline. It needs to be directed by its parent, the God Father of spirits, along the proper path.

Hebrews 12:5-11 has an extensive discussion on this discipline. “And have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons? – ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by him. For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.’ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Fourthly, like a physical child, the spiritual child learns to talk to its parents, its brothers and sisters. Talking to our heavenly parent is called prayer. Talking with our brothers and sisters in the spirit is called fellowship.

But all these things are not imposed on the spirit. He just grows with this food, rest or solitude, discipline, work, prayer and fellowship. A physical baby naturally obtains these things with the help of its parents, brothers and sisters. So also the spiritual baby naturally obtains these things for its growth from God its parent and from its brothers and sisters who are also spirits.

Tomorrow we rest. When we resume on Sunday our topic will be how the spirit bears fruit and multiplies.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.