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“the real question is who are true believers and who are wolves.”

Everyone goes through the stages of spiritual growth if they seek God. And they can’t find God without first meeting Jesus as the “Two are One.” Keep in mind that if we are One with Jesus through Communion, then the Father that is in Jesus is also in us. (paraphrase of John 17)

I’ve worked with Jews and Buddhists who met and experienced Jesus in their search for God. I’m not talking a public affiliation with a group, but a real experience and vision while they were alone in prayerful meditation that filled them with His Love and changed their lives. If you make the journey toward God you can’t help but meet Jesus no matter what path you start on.

Within any religion you have three stages of development.

First is dependency. Just as a child relies on their parent, many rely on their religious group for their strength and identity. Notice I said religious group and not God for their strength. These people tend to be very legalistic in accordance with their group guidelines. They usually do not think for themselves but always spout the group mind.

Second is “self identity” or self worship. The “I’m in control of my life” group. They seek validation of themselves in their religious group and often seek the intellectual knowledge of their religion without seeking the feeling of Love. They often feel the need to convince others that they are correct as by convincing others it allows them to believe it for themselves. Often they will build a taj mahal self identity that will create great pain in diminishing it in order to move forward.

The third group is the self transcendent group. I joke that these folks can wear plaid paints with striped shirts and care less what others think of them. Their identity does not come from what others think of them, or what they think of themselves. Their identity comes from their relationship with God. They often do not attend church service but very few days will pass without their seeking direct experience with God through prayer and meditation. At this point a person has surrendered to God and lives their life as a servant.

There are two transition phases between the identity stages.

First is teenage transition where a person goes from emotional dependency to an ego identity. I joke that this transition phase is so tumultuous that their is a period of euphoria when a person is through it and places their toe on the threshold of the self identity stage. This is the “Hire the sixteen year old while they still know it all” point. Often people get stuck in this transition and surrender to peer groups, gangs, professional sports, or some other group identity as they cannot move toward a healthy self identity.

The second transition phase is the “Mid Life Crisis” or the diminishing of the ego self identity. It is a very painful process and it leads toward the Dark Night of the Soul” experience. I note that this transition phase is also tumultuous and just as the teenage transition has the sixteen year old euphoria point, this transition has the first God experience euphoria point when they pass through the Dark Night of the Soul and first place their toe on the threshold of the God experience. These people will feel they have made it and found God. They will need to write books and create a following. All this does is send a person back from the self transcendence experience where they return to the second stage of ego identity(now it’s a spiritual ego identity) and feel they are someone special as they “own” their experience as a valued possession. It’s all part of the process of soul growth.