Virtual Fire

In the human soul, nothing can match the sheer joy and sense of relief that comes from having someone you can trust. Without that, we are dead people walking. It is inherent in God’s image of kinship and covenant. Our human nature is so desperate for it that we place all kinds of trust in folks we should not, including trusting ourselves too much. One of the primary reasons for the rise of AI and virtual reality is that those things appear more trustworthy than any human. This age suffers a deep poverty of loyalty; it’s the final exposure of what is the skeleton of Western Civilization.

This is a time of visitation from God Almighty. He has sent His angels to investigate the state of things in our society, as He sent them to Sodom and Gomorrah before they were destroyed. Our destruction will be no less catastrophic, but His angels also carry the message of redemption for those who can hear it. I sincerely believe the angels have found more than five souls with the mark of His favor, so our destruction will be of a different kind. But you should have no doubt that the bar has been raised; He makes a demand that our society has never known. We had better figure it out quickly, because it is the key to what type and how much destruction we face.

On the one hand, the message of heart-led consciousness as the true path of faith is the key. On the other hand, we should never imagine we are the only ones who have that truth. We aren’t the sole franchise, but we are one that has a distinct mission.

This is the new reality; to some degree we are helping God forge a new one. We are the tools and His Spirit is the fire. Our hearts know this truth: Somewhere, somehow, a critical mass of believers have come to understand the heart-led way in one sense or another, and now there is enough of us — just barely — that God can justly demand it explicitly. It’s not that He never blessed previous generations lacking that truth. They had their good things from His hand. But now His plans include this one factor that, to all appearances, has been missing for quite some time in human existence on this earth (although folks in the New Testament seem to have taken it for granted). At any rate, we need to understand that our mission hangs on this truth, and the establishment of this truth will fundamentally change more than we could possibly know.

At a minimum, you and I can see clearly at this moment that the dire need for trust among humans is frankly nigh impossible without a heart-led consciousness. We can neither offer nor seek even so much genuine loyalty as humans can share without discerning things first in the heart-mind.

All that follows for us from these days hinges on a vision of reality having shifted to a place where heart-led faith is God’s requirement for inclusion as family in His Kingdom. It’s actually a revival of an ancient requirement of the Covenant of the Cross that was long forgotten, but it’s back in play now. Indeed, even for people who don’t yet “get” the Cross, it’s a requirement just to live in some small measure of His shalom.

Perhaps I could offer this parabolic explanation: You and I cannot know at what point Our Creator and Lord decides to include someone in the full privileges of His household. We can be assured only for ourselves. A great many people are in His household as servants but not family, and a great many more are in His flocks and herds. It’s not discrete levels so much as a sliding scale, because not everyone in His family gets the same blessings. At any given moment, we all can be found standing somewhere between morally dead on one end, and the incarnation of His Son at the other end. If you get to fly up to Heaven without dying, you’re pretty close to the high end of that scale. It’s happened a few times that we know of, but short of that, stay humble and know that you’ve got some room to grow.

And the key for us today is the heart-led consciousness. I don’t care what you call it, but that’s the term we use in this virtual parish.

Which brings us to another point: The virtual world will soon take a much greater weight in human affairs. I’m quite frustrated that so many of you live so far away; I can’t sit down and gaze in your eyes or give you a hug. My little slice of human meat-space includes precious few who have the slightest inkling of heart-led living. Part of my eagerness to ride a bicycle is just getting out where Creation itself dominates against the suffocating presence of fallen nature. Nothing in my life can replace being alone on a wind-swept hilltop far from other humans. If I could just cultivate a few heart-led friends, I could stand to share that hilltop with others.

This is not a question of plowing fallow ground, but of removing vast piles of rubble first. We have so very much to overcome just to get started. But whatever it is we do, it must start with walking first in that heart-led shalom, carrying it everywhere with us, and applying the resulting sense of moral consciousness to everything we do. Your heart will make your brain smarter.

I was never half so useful at tech support as when I consciously sought the leadership of my heart-mind. I’m telling you now that learning how to build trust in virtual space is something worth studying. That’s behind a lot of my blather about the Internet and computer technology. As much as you can bear, a major field of opportunity is adept handling of virtual space; God created that, too. This is where our world is headed, and we have to understand how to reach that world.