divine design, God is in us. But this is true only to the extent that we
fully follow the divine design in the way we live. When we do not follow
that design in the way we live, God is still in us, but is only in the highest
parts of us, making it possible for us to understand what is true and
intend what is good. That is, he gives us a capacity to understand and an
inclination to love. The more we go against the divine design in the way
we live, however, the more we bar the lower levels of our minds or spirits
and prevent God from descending into them and filling them with his
presence. As a result, God is in us but we are not in God.
There is a common saying in heaven: God is in all of us, the evil as
well as the good, but we are not in God unless we follow the divine
design in the way we live. The Lord says that he wants us to be in him
and him to be in us (John 15 : 4 ).
[ 2 ] When we follow the divine design in the way we live we are in
God, because God is omnipresent in the universe and in everything
within it at the inmost level,since things on the inmost level are in the
divine design. Things that go against the divine design are all outside that
inmost level. On the outer levels God’s omnipresence takes the form of
an ongoing struggle with things that are against the divine design, and a
constant effort to restore them to the divine design. The more we allow
ourselves to be restored to the divine design, the more thoroughly pres-
ent God is in each of us; consequently to a greater extent God is in us
and we are in God.
It is no more possible for God to be absent from us than it is for the
sun (through its heat and light) to be absent from our earth. The living
things on earth, however, do not always feel the sun’s power. To feel it,
they have to receive both the heat and the light that radiate from the sun,
as they do in spring and summer. [ 3 ] This situation is applicable to God’s
omnipresence as well. The more we are in harmony with the divine
design, the more spiritual heat and light, or to put it another way, the
more of love’s goodness and wisdom’s true perspective we have.
Spiritual heat and light are not, however, like physical heat and
light. During the winters, the amount of physical heat available to the
world and the objects in it diminishes. During the nights, the amount of
light diminishes. This happens because the earth makes units of time
with its rotations and its orbit. Spiritual heat and light do not behave
the same way. Through his sun and its heat and light God is always pres-
ent and does not go through changes the way the sun of our solar system
appears to do. We ourselves turn away from God much the way the
§70 god the creator & creation 91