2.3 Defining Lostness

We must have a very clear definition of “lostness” that is in line with our reality and God’s. We are speaking of the condition of all mankind. The specific confusion found among Christians we will address later. Lostness is entirely and only an internal condition, a condition that continues even after physical death. A primary symptom of lostness is externalizing everything, and thus denying any internal contradiction.

Human sin changed absolutely nothing in God’s being or nature or in His desire or purpose. God does not know evil; He has no comprehension of what it is or the purpose behind it. Evil in itself has no effect upon God or His ways.

Your Person Inside. Consider yourself. Think of your person inside. Your heart is at the center of your person, but your mind and your thoughts are at the front. Since you, in your person, your ‘inner man,’ as Paul said, have a center, you also have a boundary. Make note that your body, both physic and spirit, is outside of that boundary that is your person, whereas your emotions, desires, and choices are inside of that boundary.

You are considering all that is called your “soul,” that is, the Greek New Testament word, “psyche.” You are a story of words inside of a spirit self-awareness, words and awareness accompanied by emotions and desires.

Outside of Your Boundary. What, then, is immediately outside of that boundary of your soul, that bubble of self that is you? It is NOT your physic-spirit body, it is not other people, it is not creation as you perceive it.

One thing and only one thing surrounds your bubble of self in all ways, at all times, pressing against you with overwhelming desire. – God. And this God inside of whom alone your soul dwells, is ALL Love, ALL Joy, All Life, All Salvation Now, all Glory, all goodness, all overflowing abundance. As Paul said in Romans 11. You, every part of your soul, come out from this God every moment, you pass only through this God, and you return to Him utterly in every moment.

Only One Place. God is God and there is no other. There is no “place” your soul could be except utterly encased inside of LOVE. In Psalm 134, David said that even those wandering in the lostness of their souls after death are still entirely and only inside of the Spirit of God, for there is no other place.

Let’s think a bit more about the reality of your soul, your existence always inside of Love. Jesus sustains you every moment by His power-filled Word, whether you acknowledge Him or not. Yet that impartation of life is only general, for it cannot be personal without your permission first. God will NEVER force His knowledge upon you, you alone must open the door and invite Him in.

A Condition of Your Soul. Nothing exists outside of the immediate perimeter of your soul except God. Everything else exists only on the other side of this very thick God who is all. You never touch anything or anyone except passing through God first.

LOSTNESS is a condition of your soul. It is found only inside your bubble of self. Lostness is caused by one thing only – the refusal to acknowledge God – the rejection of His desire to be known by you inside of overflowing Joy. Lostness is psychotic delusion. It has no other meaning or existence. Out from that psychotic delusion, you act to hurt other people for your own benefit, and those actions are evil indeed. Yet those actions originate from one cause only – your refusal to acknowledge Jesus as your only life.

The Way Out. We can call our lostness, our psychotic delusion, by one word – INSANITY. We have lost our minds. We have lost our hearts.

God Himself is always the Way out of our mental fantasies. For that reason, once we invite Jesus into our hearts that we might know the Father, God gives us the mind of Christ so that we can think reasonably once again. With this new mind, we are able to see the structures of our lost insanity clearly, for God has shown us all inside His Word. In the remainder of this lesson, I want to show you that structure of your psychotic delusion, how you still continue to treat with God so falsely. You see, I must show you just how lost you are, for only the lost can know God’s Salvation. 

The Structures of Our Insanity. Although this is the topic of the next chapter, I must also give you this hope, if you believe into Jesus. And that is that your escape from insanity is measured by one thing – and that is by how much you KNOW Jesus’ Love for you.

The moment Adam blamed God for his own wickedness, God became desperate. He had to act quickly. You see, God had given all authority to Adam. Adam was well able to seize the life of God, all the power that is God, for himself, to use God for his own wicked purposes. Yet in acting quickly to protect Himself from human assault, God’s Love did not abate, and so His immediate solution was both protection for Himself and mercy for Adam and Eve.

We Went Blind. God clothed us with the skin of a beast. Immediately we lost sight of the heavens – we went blind, and could no longer see the Tree of Life. Think of all the years you read your Bible, never seeing the words of John 14:20, not even knowing they were there, let alone what they might mean. You could not see the Tree of Life because you were eating of the tree of death, even as you studied your Bible. God had to protect Himself from you.

At the same moment, the spirit side of our form became hardened against the knowledge of God and the physic side of our form became more animalistic. Sexual desire, for instance, went from being a blessing to being a driving whip. Everything went wrong, and continues to go wrong to this day.

The Master of Our Delusion. But that spirit deadness and animalistic craving are both part of our form. They are not inside our bubble of self. The master of our delusion is our fake story of self. – I am my own self. I spin my own story. I am my own source. I make it up as I go. I am my own “God.”

Consider yourself again. You know this trauma never ends. Yet your dramatic psycho-trauma exists inside of a larger way of “thinking,” the thinking that everything exists inside a great story-line of GOOD versus EVIL. You’re eating from the wrong tree, but you won’t stop. Why won’t you stop? You need to understand why. It’s because you blame God.

The Drug We Inject. You blame God for making you falsely, for not making you superior, like you ought to be made. You hate the way God made you, always attacking yourself as your enemy. You hate the circumstances God walks with you through, refusing to turn them into goodness. And you especially dislike all these irritating people God seems to have surrounded you with.

What is “the drug you inject into your veins” as you spin your endless story of self? Think about your thoughts. You are always judging others as false (and there is only one other, who is God). And you are always reaching in your mind for POWER, so that you can control your world, to PROVE to everyone that you are RIGHT and they are WRONG.

Three More Things. We must understand three more specific things about our lostness, our mental insanity and psychotic self-delusion. First is this staggering line Jesus spoke. – They hated Me without a cause. You are encased in All-Salvation now, inside the LOVE of God for you, yet you image that LOVE as fiery wrath. Why? For no reason whatsoever.

Then, Paul said that the mind of the wrong tree, of good versus evil, right versus wrong, obey – do not disobey, is a mind always at war against God. But it is the war against God that creates that mind in the first place. Stop accusing God, and the delusion vanishes in wondrous silence.

Externalizing Everything. The final thing of note seems to be the biggest, and that is that inside our game of blame, the worship of demons, and shame, the worship of our sinful self, is that we do what Adam did for the same reason, we externalize everything. It’s not me, it’s them; it’s their fault. The devil made me do it. Lostness is not here, it’s found in a place over there. Lostness is not now, it’s only for sometime in the future, after I die. And by these delirious thoughts, we have defined God, we have defined ourselves, we have defined Christ Jesus, and we have defined salvation.

There is an immediate exit from all this lostness, three little words. – “JESUS, SAVE ME!” Yet these words are preceded by three other little words. – “I AM WRONG!”