extend the earth by myself ” (Isaiah 44 : 24 ); and he alone is God, and there
is no God except him (Isaiah 45 : 14 , 21 ; see also Hosea 13 : 4 ).
God is not only the intrinsic underlying reality but is also an intrinsic
capacity to become manifest. For unless the underlying reality is capable
of manifesting, it is nothing. It is equally true that the capacity to
become manifest is nothing without the underlying reality. Neither one
can exist without the other. The same is true for substance unless it takes
a form. A substance without a form has no properties or attributes, and
something that has no quality is in fact nothing.
I speak specifically here of underlying reality and capacity to become
manifest, not of essence and actual manifestation, because the relation-
ship between underlying reality and essence is the relationship between
something that comes before and something that comes afterward; the
same goes for the capacity to become manifest and actual manifestation.
What comes before is more universal than what comes afterward. The
underlying divine reality has the attributes of infinity and eternity, but
the divine essence and manifestation have the attributes of divine love
and divine wisdom, and through them, omnipotence and omnipres-
ence, which I will get to when it is their turn.22 Using its own reasoning, the earthly self has no way of knowing that
God is the Absolute and the first and only thing that is called the intrin-
sic underlying reality and the intrinsic capacity to become manifest from
which come all things that exist and take form. Under its own power of
reasoning the earthly self cannot draw on anything other than what
belongs to nature. Earthly things fit with the earthly self ’s essence because
from our infancy and childhood onward nothing but what is earthly
comes into the self. Nevertheless, we were created to be spiritual as well as
earthly, since we are going to live after death and will then be among spir-
itual people in their world. Therefore God has provided the Word.
In the Word God has revealed not only himself but also the existence
of heaven and hell, and the fact that every single one of us is going to live
in one or the other realm to eternity, each of us according to our life as
well as our faith. God has also revealed in the Word that he is “I Am” or
the underlying reality, and is the Absolute and the only one to exist in
and of himself; he revealed therefore that he is the First or the Beginning
from which all things come.
[ 2 ] This revelation makes it possible for the earthly self to rise above
nature, even above itself, and see what belongs in the realm of God. It
appears to be far away. Yet God is actually close to each of us, for God is in