A life without space and time.
A life without space and time.
About the omnipresence of God. (Catching butterflies).
The Advent season, in which we find ourselves once again, is the ideal time of year to reflect a little on the presence of the Lord in our minds. Thank God , there are still Christians in this world whose hearts are warmed with joyful love, which is kindled in them every year by the birth of the Lord on earth. Our Christian Christmas is the holy nights of God's earthly birth, for our salvation. At the same time, they are a joyful reminder of the indestructible covenant of love between God and humanity, a covenant that transforms man and God into Father and Child, which truly changes everything for the better. These Christians understand that our connection with Christ is the way to true life and glory (John 14:6).
That is why I would like to share with the reader these personal thoughts of mine about the heartfelt desire to see Christ one day—after we have shed our bodies, of course—with much love, not only for this Christmas season, but for every day of our lives. These thoughts will not revolve around the where and when, as the continuation will explain, but around the how. I hope that together we will be able to make a good catch, as Jesus used to say to his disciples (GGJ.- J.Lorber). **
The task is not an easy one and requires the innocent attention of a true child's heart, for in order to give ourselves even a rough answer to this soul's desire and how it can be fulfilled, we must put aside our accustomed adult way of thinking a little in order to grasp the holiness of heaven. It is more fleeting than one might think, which is why we do not want to tackle the matter with the usual tools of our intellect. We want to learn about something that could be attributed to mysticism. But who learns everything with the greatest naturalness? Yes, a child. So let us be free of old assumptions; let us be children again, absorbing everything as if it were the pure truth. I would like to guide us in this, with the Lord's help.
When we think of heaven, or the afterlife, it is almost impossible for us to separate our ideas about that world from time and space. That is why, based on our habitual way of thinking, we ask where heaven might be, how big it is, and how far away from this material world that divine realm might lie. Our entire language, and therefore our thinking, is based on these dimensions, and there is hardly a linguistic expression that allows us to describe something without its spatial and temporal circumstances. Where and when, how long and how far, are deeply woven into our way of thinking. So when it comes to heaven, the spiritual world, and 'there' to the Lord, we quietly ask ourselves: Where and when can a soul in the hereafter see the Lord, Christ? However, as I said, we should rather ask, how can I see the Lord, that is, what state of the soul, of the self, makes this possible? So it is not a question of where one must be to meet Christ, apart from being in His kingdom, but rather how one should be in love. This should be our concern, because that question, i.e., how, points to our innermost being, where we love. Each of us should first examine ourselves seriously in our love before asking ourselves this great question.
This immediately raises an even bigger question, if we think a little 'further': how can the Lord make Himself visible to all the beings of the beyond who are receptive to the divine, and thus able to see God (in Christ), at the same time when the spiritual world so unimaginably surpasses the material universe in 'expansion'?
As I said, this big question is almost impossible to answer with our words, not only because we have already asked it wrongly in our spatial language by thinking of heaven as an unfathomable space, but also because, here on earth, the experience of meeting the Lord seems too beautiful to be true. But this matter is worth searching for light in our hearts, for it holds the key to the mystery of heaven and love as the foundation of everything that may be called heavenly, including the visible appearance of the Lord in the heavenly communities of angels.
We therefore do not despair in our search for enlightenment, because it would be too easy for us to explain the matter of God's omnipresence with the phrase, "With God, everything is possible." Such a universal answer, applicable to everything concerning the Lord, may satisfy most thinkers, but not us, who have now become children who want to know more because we want to love what we know as the pure truth. This pure truth should shine in us as a heavenly light in our love for the Lord. Truth and love are always connected, for what one loves is true for the loving heart. Loving God must therefore be based on clear, unadulterated knowledge, as far as possible, of His true nature. But this nature of God must also be capable of being loved by us, that is, it must not exceed our capacity to love, otherwise there would always be a separation, as before the new covenant that Christ sealed with His arrival in this world. This new covenant is the New Testament. So we no longer want to know anything about the Old Testament, because we want to meet the Lord personally, out of pure love for Him and not out of a religious sense of reverence. Giving glory to God is good; loving Him as our heavenly Father is much better. But this was only made possible by Christ, because God, through His Son, to whom He gave omnipotence, became our Father. God should be close to all of us, and this desire for a close and personal connection to the Lord is not wrong, for can I love God as an almighty, abstract being? That would be too great a task of love for me. The New Age movement tried this and failed dramatically.
I want to love God as Lord, as Christ, as Father and brother of all people on earth and angels in heaven. My desire to see Him, to meet His gaze, to feel His smile deep in my heart, urges me onward on this little journey into His kingdom without time and space, where everything is simple, connected in love and yet free.
Yes, we have received light from the Lord, our minds, to explore the unknown and reveal the mysterious, at least to try, knowing that we will never fully comprehend God, which is the key to our bliss, namely that the Lord always surpasses us in abundance and perfection, but at the same time, , out of His love, He gifts us with new wonders, which we then chase after like children chasing colorful butterflies.
Regarding language, which must always take space and time into account, it can be said here that Emanuel Swedenborg* writes in his mystical works that the language of angels in heaven is completely incomprehensible to humans on earth. Each of us immediately imagines that this is a language with strange sounds and words that we do not know, but which can be learned through simple translation. However, this is not the case, because otherwise the language of angels would simply be comparable to some language or dialect on earth that is still unknown to us, which would be too simplistic. The language of angels, beings who live without time and space, is foreign to us because we, in contrast, are beings in time and space. The language of angels consists of exemplary thoughts about love as the substrate of life. Otherwise, it is impossible for us to describe.
And so we approach the matter that concerns us here, for how can humans, whose communication is based on time and place in order to make themselves understood to one another, comprehend a world and its language that lives completely free of these constraints? How can we even begin to comprehend, not where heaven is, for that question would be unnecessary, but what it is, indeed, how life 'there' unfolds? In doing so, however, we do not want to focus further on the language of angels, of which we cannot reproduce a single sound, let alone a concept in our minds. No, here we are pursuing a very concrete matter that directly concerns the Lord, that is, God, namely, as mentioned above, in his omnipresence. But there are two omnipresences of God! The first, understood as His Holy Spirit, is still relatively conceivable to us as a force or energy, even light that shines and penetrates everywhere. But since Christ was on earth, God has become a loving father and brother to us, a true friend of mankind, and that has brought with it, let's say, duties' for the Creator, who can no longer remain invisible and inscrutable in the background of creation, but wants to be with all his children who love him above all else, so that, like a king, he can be seen as closely as possible by his people, even touched, a God who is close at hand, a Father in Heaven.
But the heavenly folk consists of a countless multitude of angels and spirits in a boundless, because spaceless, heaven! That seems to be exhausting work even for God. However, divine wisdom has made it possible, not as a correction in the heavenly system, but from the beginning, that souls who love Him can also have Him with them, so that not even the last one has to wait a second longer than divine providence deems necessary. Once again, we have missed the mark with our language, which inserts time into our thoughts. For basically, 'both' omnipresences of God are connected with each other. Time is therefore insignificant for God, because God, as that which is, cannot and does not need to move in order to reach any place, which is anyway filled and sustained by Him, that is, by His Spirit. If He, as the creative force, were to travel to a place, the rest of creation would immediately cease to exist, because He, who is, would no longer sustain what is there with His will and presence. But now God has given His omnipresence a face. In other words, through Christ, God can be present in person with billions of spirits in heaven at the same time, smiling at them all, talking to them, strengthening and comforting them, without leaving even one of them behind, as I said.
How exactly does He do that? I don't know. No one knows, but we can, through what it is not, come closer to what it is, in our understanding and love for the Lord, which should also confirm this, which is why we have the freedom to try to understand His ways. As mentioned above: they are colorful butterflies for happy children. So let us joyfully run after these beautiful creatures.
The spiritual world, as has been emphasized several times, is a world without space and not bound by time. What does that mean? It is made of love, not of matter that is presented to the consciousness of the soul as reality that is perceived by the senses from outside, i.e., always with distances that then also need time to be bridged. Time therefore originates from the movement of things in space. Our thinking is thus bound to this unavoidable circumstance. Circumstance is something that surrounds consciousness, the ego, thus forming a kind of court or prison for the spirit. Imprisonment also means separation at all times, and separation is in turn made of time and space, which stand between the soul and its happiness. This happiness can therefore only be where there is no separation through time and space, and that is also wrongly expressed. But that is exactly our life in matter, a circumstance or prison, a separation and an inhibition. Time and space are limits to the freedom of the soul. They represent a test here, which is intended to strengthen us in love and in the divine qualities that arise from a true love of God, such as patience or sincerity. Above all, it should show us that this separation caused by time and space in our lives can only be overcome by God, because His essence abolishes both, for Him and possibly also for us, which is related to our very personal degree of spiritual affinity with God.
Hence the desire, deeply anchored in the soul, to meet the Lord, for in this encounter lies our redemption from all separation, sorrow, and loneliness, which we can trace back to the original sin of the first human couple, that is, as a consequence of disobedience to God. The heartfelt desire to meet the Lord has the profound meaning of a regained harmony between Creator and creature, but this time as Father and Child. This greatest desire slumbers in every soul throughout the universe, for the same good reasons. Therefore, there must be a way to fulfill this desire for all who patiently and humbly cherish it, for they live in this confidence. There is a way that leads to true life, and it is called Christ.
So we are fundamentally separated by time and space and suffer all kinds of separations in this life, so that we seek God as the unifying power. This power lifts us above time and space, which form the framework of the soul's separation from spiritual, eternal life.
Those who understand life here in this way can use time and space to their spiritual advantage, for every shadow serves them in finding the true light. What concerns us here is to understand, by recognizing our existence bound to time and space within its limits wisely set by God for our development, that purely spiritual life in the hereafter proceeds independently of this; that there are no longer any external circumstances, but only internal obstacles to the complete freedom of the soul through its divine spirit, which can 'elevate' it above all limitations. Yes, it should not be that simple. We have said that it is a matter of looking deep within ourselves. The real chains of our captivity are not in the world around us, but in our hearts. And those who bind themselves to the world in love in this life will also enter the hereafter as prisoners.
So is the spirit world not free of limitations after all? Yes, but not for all spirits to the same extent. Full freedom comes from unconditional love for the Lord, like a connection that brings about liberation and empowerment of the soul, which is also called rebirth in the spirit. If the love of a soul is not yet fully directed toward God, it must still experience limitations in its freedom, which means suffering, so that it continues to seek this longed-for freedom, i.e., purifies its love from untruths that it still firmly believed in, i.e., loved. All inner obstacles to freedom in the hereafter thus originate from the individual love of each soul. This should be said so that we can better understand, for that is our goal in this meditation, why God enjoys absolute "freedom of movement," indeed, why freedom is, even for us, which of course is now again misinterpreted by our language. But let us not be intimidated by this, for heaven rejoices in our childlike attempt to grasp the spirit and thus, as the Lord makes it possible, to see Him, which is part of the new covenant that is to be our only religion.
Let us stick with the idea that heaven represents an unimaginable degree of freedom, so unimaginable that space and time are simply suspended. Spiritual reality, when it is pure of false love, that is, love that does not flow to the Lord, completely reverses the conditions of separation known to us here on earth through the connection of the soul to the Spirit of God, where circumstance becomes condition, that is, forms a reality, a life that unfolds for the soul from the inside out, thereby removing the boundaries of matter and placing the soul in a world where space is only an appearance and time can no longer be measured.
And the "higher" the soul is, i.e., the stronger its love for the Lord, the freer it is from time and space, which enables it to "move" at lightning speed. Yes, once again not expressed correctly. Let us say, in other words, that the soul reborn in the Spirit, because it is completely free from matter, can participate in the omnipresence of God, which enables it, almost like Him, to be where its thoughts are, even if not 'everywhere' 'at the same time'.
In God Himself, since the whole creation arose from His thoughts and continues to exist, His Spirit is indeed 'everywhere at once'. Thus, Christ, in His divine authority, can also appear to everyone, purely from the Being who sustains all things as they are and paves the way to boundless glory. For where the Lord would not be, no one could go. Better said, what the Lord is not, no one can be. To be like Christ is the core of true Christianity, but for this, each of us must examine our love and turn to God in it. In this turning, an inner one, lies the key to fulfilling the desire to encounter Christ, for the Lord can only come if one is willing to receive Him with one's whole being. Then God can free the soul, because it wants to be free, in holy union with Him. This also applies to our way of thinking. The language of heaven is a gift from God that still lies unopened within us.
We are still trying to describe what life is like in the realm of spirits using the wrong language. And with this language, we say that there is an above and a below, and that the below is called hell. While the soul in hell still has the impression that it is bound 'there' for eternity, which is actually only its own state of love that still obscures it or makes it material, its life in purer, 'higher' layers becomes increasingly timeless because it is freer. The 'path' in the afterlife is a progressive change of the soul 'towards' the light. Its enlightenment is a liberation from material love, which had plunged it into spiritual darkness, connected with the original fall, where matter represents a judgment for the fallen spirits. This feeling of eternal darkness is given to it by divine wisdom for the purification and humiliation of the soul that has not yet turned to the Lord and his light. Everything that has weakened her through love of matter, including illness and death, should cause her to seek strength from her divine spirit. Thus, she should seek her freedom in God through the suffering caused by separation. To this end, she should recognize that there is no other way than Christ (John 14:6).
This can take centuries or millennia, because the soul must be completely purified of its false passion for the world (matter). From this arises, in the churches, through temporal thinking, the false idea of eternal damnation. This false idea is based on the notion that eternal means forever and ever, i.e., an unimaginably long time. However, true eternity is liberation from time, as we are trying to understand here.
Yes, as I put these words on paper, I struggle with the almost insurmountable mindset and the impossibility of describing the freedom of a time- , and spaceless life with our world language. But we do not give up, because there are still beautiful butterflies to catch.
What the soul experiences in the afterlife, which is not as otherworldly as the word suggests, is its own reality, shaped solely by the nature of its love, that is, what and how it loves. It is thus confronted with the actual power of creation from within itself; with the truth of its love, i.e., that its love is all that it is, because it is what it loves. If it has loved God above all else and against the world, God can appear in its new world, the spiritual world, out of this love. Its state is what makes this possible. And for this encounter with the Lord, she "comes" to heaven, which corresponds to her individual state of love. But if she loved the world above God, her state does not yet make it possible for her to see the Lord. This is not a circumstance, nothing she experiences from outside, but her own inner situation.
There are now no more external circumstances, no time pressure of a fleeting life that she should have made better use of instead of just enjoying life. Her inner state will be her space and her time. If this state of love is hardly connected to God, she suffers from a lack of freedom. If she turns her love more and more toward the Lord, she feels a growing freedom and bliss that takes her "step by step" beyond the limits of time and space. From this point on, our language becomes virtually useless for this meditation.
Boundless is therefore timeless and spaceless, because the world of spirits is made up of states of mind or love, or different degrees of ability to receive God as love. The Lord, as anyone can easily understand, is perfection itself, which means He is the perfect power to be, unlimited by time and space. What is, is, and needs no space for it. Thus, the Holy Spirit of God can fill the entire creation without ever having moved a millimeter. In other words, nothing does not exist, and all that exists is God. We are getting 'closer' to the matter.
Let us return briefly to Earth, where time and space set clear boundaries and give humans the feeling of being nothing in comparison to the vastness of the universe. This intimidation by space and time, that is, by the feeling of the tiny and transitory nature of their lives, is intended to prepare the soul in humility for love of its Creator, a love that then makes it possible to encounter the Creator in spiritual life. This encounter is a coming together in pure being, which is also the greatest bliss, because freedom reigns in this being, for what is, is and cannot be hindered in its being by anything, neither by time nor by space. We are getting closer to the answer, despite the clumsy words.
For at the other end of this existence of every human soul, bound by time and space, God "stands" as the source of unlimited being, which expresses itself in an equally boundless existence. But beware, divine omnipresence is not spatial and has neither beginning nor end. Now we could almost have grasped a beautiful butterfly with our hands.
But, as we are, it slipped away from us again. Nevertheless, here are a few final thoughts that should answer the question of how God manages to show himself as the heavenly father to all his children who love him. Let us stick with love for this.
Only love explains that the Lord can appear to many, indeed countless souls, spirits, and angels at once, and one would be right to say, no matter where and when, because He is timeless and spaceless, for His appearance is directly connected with the capacity for love of the souls blessed by His presence, and not with any location or time. Yes, the Lord does not appear here or there, nor in a million places at once, as if He were dividing Himself boundlessly, which did not happen to Him, but to His fallen brother. We too were there, and now we are back again. This cycle of union, separation, and renewed union with God is a turning point in our love, so simple and so complicated, for love is something tangible that cannot be easily transformed. And so it should be, for our love for the Lord should also become rock-solid, so that nothing and no one can ever separate us from Him again. Everything that does not lead us to the Lord causes separation. Those who understand this know what they must do, and they will become better and better at distinguishing truth from lies. The Lord, in Christ, is union, and this union is not bound by time or space, otherwise it would not be true, but conditionally true, which is as good as false.
God is love, and love for Him brings Him to us. But for this to happen, He must first have been awakened in us, namely through our love for Him in this life!
The fact that the unhappy souls who are still in the so-called "lower" levels of the spirit world never see or feel the Lord has nothing to do with where they are, but simply with their inability or very limited ability to receive God's love within themselves, that is, to "see" His essence, true love, because they do not love Him, which 'removes' them from the divine light, thus bringing separation. Although this separation has transported us into the material world with time and space, we now understand that this distance from God has nothing to do with a spatial distance from God, but with the wavelength or frequency of our love, which is directed toward other things, such as ourselves, and therefore does not resonate with the Lord. so that we cannot receive Him, just like a radio that is tuned to a different wavelength. To elaborate on this little analogy a bit: between a radio station and a receiver, the distance, i.e., the space between them, is not the most important thing for establishing a connection, because they could be only a few meters apart, and the receiver would still not receive the station's signals if they were not vibrating on the same frequency. In our case, it is not about knowledge of God, but about love for Him.
So anyone who wants to "go to heaven" must first understand that even Christ's Ascension was not a journey to a heaven that is somewhere above, but a pure spiritualization of his being, a complete dematerialization that He himself caused in his case, but with us, His Spirit, within us, takes this 'step' for the soul, or rather shows it the way and opens the door to true life, which, however, does not entail a change of location, but solely a change of state of the soul in its love.
The blessed spirits, like the angels of all kinds, meet the Lord precisely to the degree (and not in a moment or a place) that their love for Him vibrates, and this is possible for all inhabitants of the 'upper' spiritual layers at the same time, because the connection to the Lord is one between like-minded beings, and not a spatial one. It is a spiritual connection that is almost like a fusion, in the sense of immediacy and permanence, but without negating the individual. Thus, billions of spirits can receive the Lord without any problem because they are attuned to Him, synchronized with His wavelength, through mutual love. Love is much more than we can understand, which is why the connection to the Lord does not only appear in the form of a feeling, or as a message, sign, or inner voice. It is the complete presence of God, as Christ, that the blessed spirits experience, visible and tangible. In this way, everyone can see the Lord coming toward them and greet Him, because God, through love, is in them and they are in Him. If this were not so, then God would have to travel around like a human king, which would certainly take eons in the Kingdom of Heaven. So God does not travel from here to there; this should be clear to us, to our spiritual eyes, mind you.
As mentioned, God does not divide Himself in the process. He always remains One, one love, one light, and one life that needs neither time nor space to be who He is (2 Exodus 3:14).
So whoever, in His kingdom, which we should strive for, is like HE IS, out of peaceful love, can see God as the holy Father of love, the One and Only, while others, equally like-minded spirits in divine love, and of whom there are countless numbers, can likewise do the same, naturally always according to His holy will, for He knows best 'where' and 'when', above all, how He reveals Himself to us personally.
Who has been able to catch a beautiful butterfly now?
All thanks and love to the Lord. Amen.
René Bijloo. 12-19-2025. renebijloo@fastmail.fm
- On the works of E. Swedenborg:
https://swedenborg.com/emanuel-swedenborg/writings/
**On The Great Gospel of John by Jakob Lorber:
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