Further Reading: THE 7 STREAMS OF INTELLIGENCE
There is this story in the Bible, of a man, a leader in the society, who came to Jesus by night, to inquire about ‘the things’ which Jesus did, which no other man had done before Him, or after:
“Master, no man does the things you do except God is with him.”
The gentleman, like most of us, was seeking a formula, a short cut to greatness. He wanted to know the ‘how and what’ of Jesus’ success. He was apparently more interested in the miracles of God than he was in His ways.
The desire of man for ‘miracles’ – supernatural solutions to man’s natural problems – is not new. It is a multi-billion dollar industry today, with spiritualists, merchant ‘pastors’, marabouts and shamans having a field day. Man may deny God in the mind but he discerns spirituality in the heart, and longs for it. And always will, because man is a spirit!!
People have issues to grapple with and they needs answers, as fast as they can get them. Besides, we all have this fascination with the miraculous. It gets our attention.
Unfortunately, many end up with more problems rather. For there are two realities out there, and both demand our attention. The one, God, gently pulls us to His good ways, ‘the way of Truth’, and the other, the devil, pushes us to his evil ways, the ‘way of lies’.
Jesus knew that the gentleman’s problem, our problem, was ‘wrong belief’. So, He gently directed him to Truth, the essence of life and the ultimate solution to every problem!
“You must be born again.”
Who you are is a nature; a state of being rather than doing. The real man, the ‘inward man’ called to be ‘god’ by God, and to rule ‘over all the earth’, ‘died’, vicariously, through Adam’s sin. This ‘god’ is now in hiding. He has become the ‘hidden man’.
The ‘outward man’, the overboard flesh, is now in control. And both are in conflict.
“For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” Gospel
If we must live with fulfillment, we must start by knowing and reclaiming our real nature.
NATURE PRECEDES NURTURE
Man is a spirit, ‘in the image and after… (the) likeness’ of God. That is and should be our essential nature. We were all created in God’s image even before the genders were manifested. Adam and Eve were of the same essence; different physically but of equal spiritual status.
For God “…blessed them and called their name Adam.”
A da ma , ground/earth in Hebrew, reflects the carnal, temporal nature of the ‘outward man’. This ‘outward man’ dies, rots and returns to the earth. It has been corrupted beyond repair by lies, and cannot see the Kingdom of God, according to the Gospel.
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.” Gospel
Fortunately, this body, the ‘outward man’ is not the real you. The real You, the ‘person’, ‘the hidden man of the spirit’, is an eternal being, “in the image of God.”
This person was created in Truth and by Truth, and can be reborn.
No man has seen God, except He, Jesus, the One who came from Him, to ‘bear witness unto Truth’. He has revealed Him to us.
“God is a Spirit”, He said.
Man must be a spirit, if we are ‘created in the image of God’. And we are!
Now we know what God, the ultimate Reality, is like, so, we know what we should be like. Thus, the foundational instruction for personal transformation is:
“Seek first the Kingdom of God…”
Since God is our Maker, then must we acknowledge Him as Sovereign in our life, and relate to Him in the due order. Ours is delegated authority in the earth, for we rule at His pleasure. Therefore:
- We must do it in His name. We subject our will to His, that is, defer in spirit to His Spirit.
- We must do it in His words. We subject our opinions to His Truth.
- And we must do it in His ways. We subject our lusts to His love.
This is the core of personal transformation: to yield our ‘inward man’ to God, the Father/Source.
“For My thoughts (shalom shalom in the Hebrew text) are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
God’s thoughts are “thoughts of peace (shalom shalom; peace within and peace without) and not of evil; to give you a future and a hope’. Torah
And God’s principal way of doing is ‘the way of Truth’, His infallible words:
“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Torah
Therefore, personal transformation must begin with a change of language; in agreement with God.
But man lives on the earth and needs his body/flesh to engage with his environment. So, the whole man; both the ‘inward man’ and the ‘outward man’, must be ‘fed’ for holistic development and to function optimally.
There are 7 Streams (seven is the number for perfection in Hebrew mystics) of life that must be attended to.
The 7 Streams are ultimately spiritual and so we use the word ‘intelligence’ to describe them. They are:
- Spiritual Intelligence
- Emotional Intelligence
- Intellectual Intelligence
- Physical Intelligence
- Occupational Intelligence
- Relational intelligence
- Financial Intelligence
Man has elaborate schemes for education of the mind and training for the body but little, if any, schema for engaging the spirit, the ‘hidden man’.
Religions generally offer a moral compass for the spirit but very little education. Yet, true education, from Latin educere, is a ‘drawing out’ from within, from the human heart/spirit. For the human heart has great store within.
This heart, cor in Latin, is not the blood pumping organ, but the human spirit; the core of man. He is the person, and should be our priority more than any other.
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul/person?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Jesus Christ