You are utterly encompassed by God. He is in you, around you, beside you, above you, below you. This is the total truth. We have become blinded to such a degree that most of us have lost this sense of His Presence. The eyes of our souls have dimmed to an alarming degree and there are those who have absolutely no sense of God's presence whatsoever.
And yet He is ever there. Always. You could not even take a breath without Him.
Imagine this:
A human person is totally surrounded by and caught up in the love of God and yet completely unaware of this Divine Presence. Why? We are taught as children that God is love and He is everywhere. We are taught about the indwelling of the Trinity. So, why?
What happens to a person that causes them to lose this sense of God's love?
Sin happens. The eyes of the soul darken and grow dim from lack of light. Our spirit dulls. The duller our spirit grows the less aware we become of God and the more aware we become of ourselves. Not a healthy awareness of ourselves as existing in God, for God, and with God, but an unhealthy awareness that has negative effects on both ourselves and others.
Enter the kingdom of "me, myself, and I". This is the name of the kingdom where most of us exist (to lesser or greater degree) these days. Maybe not everyone, but certainly the majority. You can ask how someone can be so certain that this is the truth and my answer will be very simple:
"By their fruits you will know them." (Mt 7:16) I am not being pessimistic. I know God has things well in hand. But the simple truth is that if we look around us we can see that humanity, on the whole, is producing some very bitter fruit indeed. Yes, there are those who are producing good fruit but the majority of us are off kilter in some way that's hard to pinpoint completely. In some aspects, I think part of the problem is that we don't put God first in our lives. We think we do, but we don't really. We think of things from the perspective, "How will this affect me, personally?" We become the center of our own universe and whenever this happens, the result is suffering. Whether upon ourselves or others, if we don't acknowledge the fact that God is the source of all good and the center of existence, well...we bring suffering upon each other. This is part and parcel of living in the kingdom of "me, myself, and I".
In reality, there is only one kingdom. And that is God's. Because we have free will God allows us to live in our pretend kingdoms if we choose to but these kingdoms have no basis in reality. Eventually these kingdoms fall because they have to. In the sentences below I am speaking about a state of being and not necessarily a final destination. I am simply saying that God certainly gives us plenty of hints as to how we are doing. For instance, I know I am in a state of purgation right now and have been for years. Yet, in this state I get tastes of Heaven too. God is good.
If these false worlds we create don't fall? Hell happens. Why? Because it is a refusal of God's Kingdom over our own.
If they partially fall? Purgatory
If they do fall completely?
Heaven reigns in our hearts.
In Him we live and move and have our being. (See Acts17:22-31)
