Home Our Beliefs Faith Messages Resources Contact

Partaking of the Divine

©2005 The Las Vegas Faith Center
Recorded March 5, 2005

“Partaking of the Divine”
by Tiger Todd

It was my birthday last Tuesday. Although I was born in Las Vegas in 1964, I still consider myself one of the younger generation, since I understood the older generation to be made up of those who lived through world-changing events like the Great Depression and WW II. My good friend Edythe, for example, actually worked helping the wounded from WW II when they returned to the states. At 84 years old, she was honored at a black tie event last weekend for years of service to humanity along with her husband, the spry 86-year-old Gil. Gil was a Federal Court Judge whose motto was “to make the laws of man agree with the laws of God.”

One hundred years before my birth in 1864, a man named James Allen was born in Leicester, England. He lived in a time when men such as Frederich Nietzsche, Charles Darwin, Noah Webster, William James and Henry Gray were all trying to learn more about being human than those who lived before them. His first book was published when he was 38 years old, but it was his next book, “As a man thinketh,” that established his reputation as an inspirational writer. He would ultimately publish twenty-two titles whose words influenced millions in the same manner as those of Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale.

The following is an excerpt from, “As a Man Does.” When I discovered the writings of James Allen, I was delighted to hear such wisdom, but also to know that there was someone else utilizing sentences as long as mine!

“The grace and beauty that were in Jesus can be of no value to you- cannot be understood by you- unless they are also in you, and they can never be in you, until you practice them, for, apart from doing, the qualities which constitute Goodness do not, as far as you are concerned, exist. To adore Jesus for his good qualities is a long step toward Truth, but to practice those qualities is Truth Itself; and he who fully adores the perfection of another will not rest content in his own imperfection, but will fashion his soul after the likeness of that other. Therefore thou who adore Jesus for his divine qualities, practice those qualities thyself, and thou too shalt be divine.” - James Allen

Wow. Half of me was inspired to rise above my circumstances and take advantage of the divine nature of God. The other half of me wanted to criticize Mr. Allen for his heretical beliefs: “Divine Nature, in a human - really! Everyone knows that Jesus was the only human that should ever be called divine... What heresy to even think that humans can become divine, let alone encourage them to do so!” And that kind of childish, defensive tirade is exactly why I don’t do what my “nature” tells me to do, at least not very often. Like when I make some mistake and that voice prompts me to make an excuse such as, “Well, I’m only human.” Only human? Are you kidding? Somehow in our desire to become more spiritual, to discover our connection to God, some other part of us always wants to chime-in, trying to defend our right to be human, as if we are some flawed type of animal that is born to make mistakes, born to underachieve, born to fail, and born to lose. No, I am not only human, and neither is that voice that tries to convince me that I am. It is actually man’s animal nature that wants to deny us our humanness, like our unique abilities to change, to grow, and to overcome the natural world.

“So God created man (humans) in His image…and God said, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion…over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”  Genesis 1:27-28

I wonder what God thinks when he/she/they hear a human mutter, “I’m only human.”  It probably sounds just as retarded as when a homeless man in one of the classes I teach tries to tell another homeless man the right way to invest his money! Picture this, God looking down on me, shaking his head, saying, “Poor thing, such a retard.” You must admit, with all of the amazing things humans have been able to do by just exercising their dominion over nature, from building electrical power stations, nuclear submarines, to designing clothing, sports cars, and the Sigfried and Roy Show, this is no rational argument for blaming being human for any of our personal limitations.

But wait, there’s more! What else does the Bible say about being human? If we were to actually read it, we might discover that humans can “have dominion over the earth,” be “more than conquerors,” and “overcome the world” through Faith. What then makes that old animal part in humans start barking to remind us that all of those words only applied to Jesus? Do we consider ourselves less than human? Are we only advanced animals living by instincts and drives, as Freud and Darwin believed? Not to say that I haven’t seen people become animals. In fact, I was speaking at Juvenile Detention recently when a pack of hardened teenagers came up to me and said, “Yo, whud up, dawg?” I thought, “I’m too late, these kids have already become dogs!” When I left, the guards even had to put these kids in cages at night, just like animals that cannot be trusted. It breaks my heart to see people treated like animals because they have behaved like them, especially when there is a human inside trying to rise to the surface.

But I have also met real humans like Edythe and Gil, and have been changed by the words of great humans from ages past, like David, Isaiah, Jesus, Paul, Nietzsche, Einstein, Frankl, Maslow, and James Allen. There is something uniquely different between these humans and those who act like animals, whether dogs, pigs, chickens, sheep, snakes, wolves, and even jackasses. Looking deeper into what is the same in all of these humans, we find the divine nature:

“To them that have obtained like precious faith with us… Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power has given unto us all thing that pertain unto life and godliness… Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature.” II Peter 1:2-6 abridged

I hope you don’t mind that I shortened the above verses for clarification. The unabridged version has been reprinted at the end of this message, and is also located in the many copies of the world’s best-selling book, The Holy Bible.  It is just too easy for me to get sidetracked on any number of ideas from these scriptures, so for the sake of completing this message before the next millennia, I’ll stay on target.

Look at the scripture again: “His divine power has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness…that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature.” Partakers of the divine nature. It seems that James Allen wasn’t such a heretic after all. And neither was the Apostle Peter, who also understood something about the divine nature that resides in us. Peter’s understanding even came from firsthand experience. But why stop there?

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” I John 3:1

Oh no! The Apostle John was infected with the same crazy idea, that other humans can be called sons of God! While this is hard to believe, it can be proven rationally that- are you ready for this? If the son of say, a horse, is, well, a horse (of course), then the son of a God must be a…god! That’s ridiculous! Find me another scripture!

“But if the Spirit of Him that raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you...For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God...whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” Romans 8:11,14,15.

I’m beginning to see a pattern, and perhaps a very different message from the Holy Bible than the one that was quoted to me. In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, he actually parallels living according to the flesh with a natural- or animal- existence. But if a person wants to have an overcoming spiritual or super-natural existence while living on planet earth, then the very divine nature of God is waiting inside of us to bring us up to that higher plane of living! Think about it this way: it is up to each of us to invite, and then allow, the divine nature of God to live in us and change us into the sons and daughters of God.

Wouldn’t it be great to wake up in the morning and begin a conversation with God as your loving Father, and not as some “boss” who is always judging your failures and constantly have to beg through prayer for the things you require to live? Why not try acting like God’s children instead? Yes, we are the sons and daughters who have been given our responsibilities in the Kingdom, but we are also the kids who get to curl up in His everlasting arms!

“Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1-2

Thanks to the number one son, the rest of the family has been given access in the grace of God. “Dad” is saying to us today, “It’s O.K. to act like we’re related- it was My desire all along for you to be a partaker of My Divine Nature.” Of the many people searching for the missing piece that will fill the void in their lives, so few understand that the missing piece is actually looking for them. People all over the globe want to be fulfilled through a connection to the divine, but what a revelation it is to know that it has been God’s desire all along to have a connection with humanity.

“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Romans 8:32

Spend some time with your Father tonight. Then get up earlier than you have to tomorrow and spend some more time with Him in the morning. Make it a habit to hang out with the Role Model for your divine life, and then begin to imagine what kind of relationship you are developing. Who knows, some of Dad’s good traits might rub off on you. -TT

And now, 2 Peter in its entirety:

“To them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and (through our) Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power has given unto us all thing that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promise: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption of the world through lust.”