Some people wonder whether it is possible to create our own reality—and in fact, it is, because it is part of human nature. This condition is inherent to the power of our freedom of decision and will. We create realities every time we reach a resolution, by our own will, in any area of our lives.
A very long time ago, God showed us the path that would lead us to the reality we truly long for. He prepared it before creating us. He created us to be happy—but not on this earth as it is, and certainly not in the condition in which humanity lives today.
The well-known saying that happiness does not exist, only happy moments, reflects a human reality: on Earth, evil exists. For this reason, when someone says they are happy, they are so only for the moment they are living. Nirvana does not exist on this planet as we know it. It never will as long as evil exists. But that was not God’s plan for us. We were not created for evil, nor to know it, nor to practice it. And yet, it is known and practiced in the world.
Being on this earth was the consequence of our first ancestors choosing another path—overlooking the Voice of the Source and believing they could obtain by themselves, as created beings, what belongs to the uncreated God. However, part of God’s plan for us is that we become like Him. He is Power, and we are destined—if we choose—to participate in that Power that comes from Him.
The first couple existed in a spiritual condition—created and immortal. Our ancestors were of a spiritual nature, not physical. But precisely because that condition was created, it depended on remaining in the Voice of God. Only in this way would they preserve immortality in the Light and the authority that had been delegated to them. The Law of the spiritual Kingdom is based on listening to and following the Voice of the Creator so that things may go well for us and for our protection. This listening is part of the commitment of the Covenant between God and man: a conscious and voluntary agreement. Neither forces the other. The same applied to the first couple, because evil already existed.
Normally, all human beings hear. It is the involuntary physical ability we have to perceive sounds. This faculty does not require attention to what is heard. We can hear music while being focused on another activity. However, we also have the ability to listen, which is a voluntary action on our part. This ability requires concentration to focus on the message and mental effort to process it. Therefore, it is a conscious and volitional act that requires intention. And if the difference between simply hearing and truly listening is a voluntary act and a decision, then this latter action resides in our freedom.
From this physical and cognitive reality of the human being comes the voluntary commitment that man must establish in the Agreement with God—to listen to His Voice. This commitment was broken by our first ancestors and by many of the children of Israel. That is what spiritual history tells us. Therefore, the main obstacle we have as humanity is that we do not listen to the Voice of God for our own good—because we do not put our will into it. It is because of this stubborn attitude of ours that we have not been able to escape this cycle of suffering in which the world still lives today. When Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” He meant that not everyone listens to the message attentively, so that it may benefit them—they simply hear it as sounds to which they pay no real attention.
We came from God through the first created couple. He created us from His Spirit. That is why the spirit does not die. In the condition we all live in today, the body dies—but not our spirit.
The account in The Life of Adam and Eve says that, remembering her creation, Eve said that God had created her from the side of Adam. In Genesis, it is translated that she was created from one of Adam’s ribs, but that is an interpretation, not the most literal translation, which would be from his side.
“Rib” fits better with the belief that man was created from the dust of the earth, whereas saying “side” would not reinforce that interpretation. By doing so, we lose sight of the original meaning of the account.
Then she said: “O Lord, he and I and You are one, O Elohim, our Creator.”
With these words, Eve was describing the circle of spiritual unity of her creation through the same Spirit of God.
Her statement indicates spiritual origin and establishes a position of authority. God, who is Spirit, created Adam directly from His Spirit. Then He created Eve from Adam’s spirit, which came from God Himself. The account says that He took the woman from his side. This means that Eve was created from the same Spirit that had created Adam and was placed in a position of equality—at his side—with respect to authority over God’s creation.
Tradition says she was taken from his side to be loved and protected. That reflection is appropriate, but there was something more: a relationship of equality and authority in being taken from his side. Man was not created from clay, but from the Spirit of God, and in that first creation he was a spiritual being. The creation of the first couple was a deeply intimate act and an act of profound love, in which God “brought forth” Adam from Himself and Eve from Adam. That is why the relationship is so intrinsic, even if man ignores it or denies it. What took place was a completely spiritual manifestation.
When man turned away from God by following the voice of the serpent and was altered from a spiritual body to a physical one, the unity changed from being completely spiritual to a physical one—but the spiritual unity still continues. To help them understand that union in some way, God, through the prophets, calls Israel His wife. This is because it is the closest example within human understanding—it is not a mystical union as some believe. That idea developed through Greek philosophy, as well as medieval and Eastern beliefs.
On this earth, because of the material nature of things, man and woman express their unity when they physically join as a couple. However, that union is not only physical—it is also spiritual. That is why Jesus, fully understanding the earthly and spiritual union between a man and a woman, said the following to a Samaritan woman:
“Go, call your husband and come back.”
The woman answered, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’
for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband; in this you have spoken truthfully.”
This passage summarizes, in a real-life episode, what I explained earlier. Unions are not only physical—they are also spiritual. That is why Jesus referred to those men as her husbands. The Master knew they were not her husbands, but He called them that so she would realize what was happening each time she lay with a man. There was an intimate, spiritual union beyond the physical one. They were not casual encounters, even though she and those men saw them that way. And this is a very modern conception of man without God, because it sees in sexual union only something physical.
Jesus did not treat the woman as if she were a prostitute who made a living through sex. Rather, she seemed to be a woman living her life in a very liberal way, unaware of what was happening each time she joined herself to a different man. Jesus tried to show her the reality she was creating in her own life through her actions, saying to her cleverly: “Go and call your husband.” Spiritual realities and their effects are real in this material life, even if they are ignored or not believed.
One of the main characteristics of stubbornness is that it does not listen. That is, in this case, it willingly ignores the Voice of God. But there are other obstacles that affect our ability to listen, such as language. Let us consider words that, in Hebrew—the original language of the Scriptures—had a clear meaning, but over the centuries changed in sense. The problem with this is that when the natural meanings of words are replaced by others, spiritual understanding also changes, and the Voice of God moves farther away.
Correct spiritual understanding is therefore very important, and the words we use also have a great influence on it. For example, over time, fundamental terms such as “to sin” and “to obey” have changed in meaning. And when words change, spiritual understanding changes as well. If we do not return to their original meaning, spiritual reality is interpreted with concepts that do not belong to it, and we once again miss the mark, just as our ancestors did.
Both in the translation of the Hebrew word rendered as “to sin” and in the one rendered as “to obey,” we find a serious problem: the shift from a Hebrew understanding to a Roman conceptual framework. This change was not only linguistic—it was mental. And when the concept changes, theology changes as well.
The word “to sin” does exist in ancient Hebrew. The verb is chata. But it did not mean moral guilt or a legal crime. Its original meaning was “to miss,” “to deviate,” “to go off the path.” In the Hebrew framework, it implied departing from the Way of God by choice. It was not an infraction in a cosmic courtroom, but a deviation from the order of life.
When it passed into Latin, the term adopted was peccare. In its origin, that word meant to make a mistake, to stumble, or to fail. In that initial sense, it still retained some closeness to the Hebrew chata, which also means to deviate from the path or to miss the mark. It did not yet speak of permanent guilt or a defined moral condition, but of an error—a deviation.
Over time, however, within the development of Christian theology in the Roman world, the term began to take on a more legal and religious sense: to transgress the divine will, to violate a rule, to commit an offense against the law. And this conceptual shift transformed the way spiritual reality was understood.
So then: what was the target that was missed—and continues to be missed? It is clear that there was a goal. One cannot speak of “missing the mark” if there is no mark. The Hebrew word we translate today as “sin” implies failing to reach a target. But in order to miss a target, there must first be a clear direction.
The goal was not something low. It was not simply to obey for the sake of obedience. The goal was elevated: to be like God. From the beginning, they were created in His image and likeness. This indicates that the natural direction of their existence pointed toward a real correspondence with the Creator. The desire to resemble Him is not perverse; it is proper to a child who admires his Father.
The problem was not the desire for likeness. The problem was the deception about the path to reach it. The serpent did not destroy the goal—it displaced it. It made them jump to another path—its own, not God’s. It made them believe they could reach that condition while ignoring the Voice that guided them. By jumping paths, they placed themselves under its voice. The deception suggested that deviation would produce elevation—that not listening to God’s counsel, warning, and direction would be the means to achieve what they desired. That was the subtle manipulation that brought confusion.
If the spiritual Law is based on listening in order to grow in likeness, then turning away from that Voice cannot lead to greater fullness. Yet the deception consisted in reversing the order: presenting spiritual independence as a shortcut to divinity.
They missed the mark not because they aimed too high, but because they believed they could reach the goal without remaining in the Source. The goal existed. The target was clear. What changed was the path.
Something similar happened with the word “to obey.” In Hebrew, the central verb is shamá, which means to listen. In the Hebrew mindset, listening implied voluntarily aligning with the Voice. It was not forced submission, but a conscious response to the One who guides toward life. It meant to hear, understand, accept, and act accordingly. That is why, through the prophet Isaiah (1:18), God calls us to reason together with Him. The word translated there as “sin” is chata, which means to miss the mark. In verse 19, the word shamá is translated as obedience: “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.” But a version closer to the Hebrew should say: “If you are willing and listen, you shall eat the good of the land.” God does not force—we are free. The human being can impose, but God does not, because He created us with free will.
In Latin, the word oboedīre is composed of ob, meaning “toward,” and audīre, meaning “to hear.” In its original sense, it meant precisely “to give ear,” “to give credit,” or “to believe.” At that initial etymological level, it still preserved a closeness to the Hebrew concept: listening to the Voice of God. Although it originally denoted attentive listening, it came to mean the fulfillment of the will of an authority. God does not ask us to renounce our freedom, but invites us to listen to the One who knows best.
With the cultural and theological development of the Roman world, the term acquired a more hierarchical nuance: carrying out orders under authority. Thus, what originally meant listening attentively to God became associated with enforced submission.
And when “listening” is transformed into “obedience under imposition,” spiritual understanding changes. The relationship becomes a command structure. The path becomes law. The voluntary response becomes obligation. Freedom is not synonymous with obligation. Although it entails responsibility, freedom is the capacity to act by one’s own will and without imposition.
Thus, two words that in the original Hebrew were linked to path, relationship, and alignment came to be understood in terms of law, offense, and obligation. And this is where the true understanding of the spiritual Law begins to be obscured, and the understanding of the Covenant becomes distorted.
The Covenant is not an imposition. It is a conscious and voluntary Agreement in which man listens to the Voice of the Creator by his own decision, not by obligation. Listening is not submission under coercion, nor blind obedience. In the Covenant, God places the human being at His relational level, even though He has no need to do so. And He is indeed above us in authority—even if we reject Him—but He respects the freedom with which He created us. That act reveals the value God assigns to humanity.
The Covenant is like a balance. On one side is God’s commitment; on the other, the commitment of man. When both fulfill their part, the balance remains in equilibrium. When one breaks it, the balance is lost.
God does not force man to fulfill his part; man must do so voluntarily. Freedom is an essential part of the Agreement. God never breaks His commitment to the Covenant.
Some also wonder whether we have a predestined destiny or whether we make our path as we walk, as the poet Antonio Machado said. And the truth is that both positions can become realities depending on what we decide. Our creation was not random. God conceived it, planned it, imagined what it would be like, and created us. But He did not make us puppets. He made us His children and gave us the same freedom He Himself possesses.
There are people, like me, who listen to the Voice of the Creator and do not reject returning to the condition of children. That fact places us directly on the path of our destiny. We move from the path of illusion to the path of reality—the one He designed for us, where His blessing and the fulfillment of His promises are found. As individuals, we keep the balance in equilibrium when we fulfill our part of the Agreement, and in this way the balance is sustained in our lives.
There are others who, for whatever reasons, ignore the Agreement. They make their path as they go, according to their own criteria. But it is not the path God prepared. And the path we choose carries with it its own realities and consequences.
Humanity lost its direction from its very beginnings and became a great dysfunctional family. And when a family is dysfunctional, the consequences do not take long to appear. Trust is broken. Deception becomes normalized. People learn to live in distrust. Children grow up without clear guidance and repeat patterns of violence, manipulation, or abandonment. Addictions arise to fill inner voids, relationships marked by control or dependency, constant anxiety, and a desperate search for identity.
The entire society reflects that inner rupture: corruption, abuse of power, family fragmentation, isolation, wars, and systems that oppress instead of protect. It is not an external punishment; it is the result of a deep imbalance that began when humanity stopped listening to the Voice that sustained order—and that we continue to make real through our own choices.
Some, within that great family, have chosen reconciliation and, by their own decision, have returned to listening to the Voice and following its guidance. Others continue walking according to their own criteria, not according to God’s spiritual judgment, and the imbalance persists.
We create reality all the time, often without paying attention to it. Within the limited timeline of humanity, the past no longer exists and the future has not yet arrived. We only have the present. And in that present, we decide what reality we are building.
As long as time exists, we should treat it as a passage toward a better life and use it to create a higher life on this planet. That perspective would change the focus of human existence. We would not see time as something that leads us to death, but as a step toward another dimension where God has prepared wonderful things for us. It is the return to the Garden.
However, without the control of evil, we will never live a better life on this earth. God told Adam that if he did not acknowledge his transgression—not having listened to His Voice—he would remain trapped in an endless cycle, unable to return to the Garden of God. And this can be reversed by living an upright life and listening to His Voice.
When our first ancestors chose to listen to another voice, evil, death, and time appeared. If death did not exist, time would not exist either; and if the first couple had paid attention to God’s warning, we would have no contact with evil. Time acts like a clock that marks our mortality. It is a constant call for us to pay attention to how we are living and to accept reconciliation—if we so choose—in order to reach all the good that God has prepared for us.
We were created to be like God, in image and likeness. Time appeared as a consequence of the deviation our ancestors took when they believed they could reach that likeness by another path. It was a trap of the Enemy: to manipulate what God had said in order to lead us away from the only path that truly brings us to be as He is.
Since then, the Creator continues to call His child to return to the path that leads to its destiny and true fullness. God created a path for us to follow. That path is our destiny. It is filled with goodness. When we walk in it, blessings come. But since we have free will, we must always decide which way to go. What we choose will create our reality. There is a path that leads to destiny and another that leads away from it. Will I go this way or that way? The path you choose will create your reality.
When humanity stopped listening to the Voice of God at the gates of the Garden, it created the reality we have been living until today. We are all participants and responsible for that reality. There have been many kings, emperors, and rulers, but they have never truly held the power. That power was given, at the gates of the Garden, by the first created couple—the parents of humanity—to the voice they chose to listen to. There is no other way to recover that power, which belongs to us by birth and by divine right, except by listening to and following the Voice of the Creator.