Fasting and Praying
Fasting and Praying are spoken about in verses fourteen and fifteen of the Gospel of Thomas. Verse fourteen states: “Jesus said to them, ‘If you fast, you will give rise to sin for yourselves; and if you pray, you will be condemned; and if you give alms, you will do harm to your spirits. When you go into any land and walk about in the districts if they receive you, eat what they will set before you and heal the sick among them. For what goes into your mouth will not defile you, but which issues from your mouth – it is that which will defile you.”
The Bible was not written to be easily understood from a secular perspective. However, from a mystical, awakened perspective, this verse means that if you fast, you will become aware of the doubt that arises within you. Sin means to doubt. When we fast, it means to shut off our five senses to the outside world and go within (meditate). Fasting and praying do not mean abstaining from food and praying to an external God. God exists within every man and woman.
When you give alms, you are not truly giving to the spirit because what you do unto others, you do unto yourselves. Go within, commune with your higher self, who is the true God. It is not what you consume that defiles you but what you speak into existence, what you do within your imagination that manifests. So, think and speak lovely things in this world.
The fifteenth verse of the Gospel of Thomas states, “Jesus said, “When you see one who was not born of woman, prostrate yourselves on your faces and worship him. That one is your father.”
Jesus Christ is the personification of the power and wisdom of God. God is who you are, as stated in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image.” The power and wisdom of God are a state of Consciousness. It is a gift when you realize that you are God and that every individual in this world is God. When you realize that you are a divine being and not limited to this garment of flesh that you wear, then you understand that God on the outside does not exist. You begin to serve the higher self. Your higher self is God the father, the source of all that is. Fasting and Praying are essential to connecting with God.