In the beginning was the Word,
John 1:1.14
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
I suppose that most Christians agree that these verses talk about Jesus. He was with God in the beginning – the bible tells us that there was a master builder that created the earth with God – and he became flesh and lived among people.
But this has major implications.
We call the bible “the word of God”. The definite article “the” is one of exclusivity. If the bible is “the” word of God, nothing else is.
And Luther in his understanding would say Amen to that. Sola Scriptura – only the word, only scripture.
But then we believe in the Rhema, which we lightheartedly translate as “the now word of God”. And by that we mean the Holy Spirit talking to us.
It is kind of easy to explain this dilemma when we only call the exhortation and highlighting of bible verses Rhema.
But what about prophecy?
We say that prophecy has to align with the confines of the bible, and then it is true word of God.
And now we have made the bible part of the word of God, as there are other forms.
What about inspired music? What about art? What about creative things as a whole?
Let me spark some thoughts that might frame this question of what is word of God a bit differently.
The verses above tell us that in the beginning there was the word. A thought of God sparked a word that became flesh.
Before the foundation of the earth, God thought about me. I became a word and then flesh, and now I live among us all.
I am word of God.
But from the verses above I can deduct then even further. In the beginning there was a word, and the word was with God and the word was God.
I am God’s child. Nobody argues with that. God’s son is God. I am one with him, and one with his father. He is the first among the firstborns. We are equal.
I am God.
In German, we have a saying: The father of a thought. It expresses the origin of a behaviour or idea. If I am a thought of God uttered and manifested, what about my thoughts and actions?
Whenever the father of my thoughts is God, when they become words, and manifest, they are godly, and God is in them. That is, God is the essence of all things, either created through his words or through mine.
All things are God.
I know that in a mindset of right and wrong, good and bad, correct and false, in a mindset of any duality, this is hard to fathom.
In such a mindset of duality, many things do not see themselves as or want to be God.
In such a mindset, saying that you are God provokes thoughts of duality: he thinks he is better than others, he wants others to worship himself.
No. I just want to acknowledge how much the father and me are one.
My problem? It’s not that I think too highly of myself. It’s that I do not believe what I am saying most of the time.
I fall back into a duality mindset too easily. If I get frustrated with another, I am saying that we are not one. If I get angry at myself, I am back in dual thinking. I think that I have done something wrong.
I have been imprinted with duality and plurality for decades. It was necessary. I had to learn to love, which is only possible when there are at least three. One to love, one to be loved, and another to show that love is impartial.
I had to learn to make decisions. And for that, I need duality. I have to decide for or against something.
I had to learn how to belong. Again, duality is needed. To belong or not to belong, to follow the rules or not to follow the rules.
I had to learn to discover and research. You guessed it: duality. The found and the hidden.
And I had to learn to accept. Accept those that are different. The epiphany of duality.
And then, I learned how all those things work together beautifully for humanity as a whole.
Now, I learn that there is but love, no hate. There is but yes, no no. There is but belong, no others, There is no hidden, because I am all. And there is only acceptance, no intolerance.
And together with Jesus I can say:
I am.