Most people don’t like to think about death. Many people in an odd sort of way act as if their impending death will never be a reality. Yet everyone knows they will die.

Why do we die? Without a doubt the most momentous occurrence in your life is the event of the death of someone you deeply love or, obviously, your own death. It is noteworthy because, I believe that no one wants to die. No one wants to see their love extinguished.

Is the death of the physical body our complete and final obliteration? If so, then life for each of us is not that much different than for a convict on death row. We both have been sentenced.

Physical Body and Spiritual Body

In 1 Corinthians 15:44, Paul reveals, “it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.”

God gives us two bodies, one temporary and the other lasts forever. The body that lasts forever is your spiritual body and is the one that contains your inner nature of love manifesting through mind, emotion and will. The other body, the natural body, contains your outer nature of physical structure and form.

Just as the vast physical universe envelops your physical form, likewise, there is an even greater world of spirit that is the enveloping container of your eternal spirit:

The spirit world does actually exist. It is not a world that has been fantasized or imagined into existence. We do not have the right of choice concerning it. It is not a world we can go to if we please or refuse to go to if we would rather not. Just as God is eternal and unchanging, the spirit world He created is also eternal and unchanging.. Whether you are bound for heaven or for hell is determined by your thoughts, speech and behavior in each moment.” (Message of Peace, Universal Peace Federation)

For an interim period, our two bodies are integrated around a common objective. Once that objective has been realized, the outer, temporal body is shed and a new status of life, beyond the flesh, is to begin. This moment is what we commonly call “death.” In fact, it is really more accurately described as your second birth.

Stages of Life

“Death” may appear to you to be so dreaded and unwelcoming because you are not clear in your understanding of what the purpose is for this interim period of integration between our body of flesh with our body of spirit. When you can understand, you will see that the moment the physical body dies, life will go on. More importantly, you have to understand the purpose of this interim period and how you can fulfill it.

Let’s compare it to the life you experienced inside your mother’s womb. That, too, was an interim period of personal development in preparation to assume a new status of life “on the other side.” Inside the womb you are developing faculties that you will only need after the transition from the womb. You develop lungs, a digestive system, a circulatory system; all in preparation for an unimaginable new life in a bright world unseen.

Likewise, this life within our bodies of flesh is a second womb of sorts. Just as in the first womb where we developed faculties needed for physical life, in the second womb we are to develop faculties that will be vital in the spiritual life to come.

Certainly those needed faculties in the world to come are not lungs to breath or a stomach to churn our food. Do you remember our presentation previous to this one? We talked about spiritual maturity; achieving the capacity of heart toward God and toward others. This is truly life’s main goal. These are the faculties, those of love, that lead us to where God dwells.

In this world, we accomplish our relationship of love with God. That relationship is intensified by committing physical actions of love and kindness toward others. In this way, our capacity to give love grows. This growth is the essence of spiritual maturity. When such a spiritually mature man and woman join together, under God, in a committed relationship of love, they are able to become parents, form a family and magnify the intensity of love greater still.

Such a family would be selected by God to be the original schoolroom where all the realms of love would be achieved and multiplied. When you have achieved those dimensions of love then you can look toward the death of the body with hope and expectation; much in the same way you would wait expectantly for the arrival of a newborn child.

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