If we think of Jesus as a wayshower, we need to define the way he showed. We find the best insight on a personal statement of his mission in the Gospel of John. As he stood before Pilate, he said, “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.”[1] In terms of getting an understanding of how Jesus thought of himself and his ministry, these two statements are crucial. His use of the word truth is key to his response. When Pilate asked what he meant by the word, Jesus did not answer. Here we have an exchange between a career politician and a mystic. To the politician, truth is whatever narrative currently needs to be pushed to gain political advantage. To the mystic, truth is the changeless nature of reality. It would have been futile for Jesus to try to explain truth as he used the word.  

To bear witness to the truth, as the mystic understands it, is to base one’s life on God as a living presence, to see one’s soul as an expression of this presence, and to know without question that there can never be any separation between God and the soul. The people who had come to know this truth through their own personal experience, would understand what Jesus taught. They would hear his voice. The same is true today. The mainstream Christian theologian will insist the truth Jesus was referring to is more or less that collection of beliefs summarized in a document like the Nicene Creed. Mysticism, however, is not about a list of beliefs that one must subscribe to. It is about knowing from direct experience the nature of underlying reality.

A simple way to illustrate this difference is to imagine looking out a window and seeing sunlight spilling over the landscape. Mainstream religion looks out a window, sees the bright sunshine, and creates a set of beliefs around what the sunshine must be like. In contrast, the mystic steps outside and has direct exposure to the sunlight. Their understanding is not based on a set of beliefs but is grounded in direct knowing.

When Jesus said that knowing the truth will make us free, he was saying the direct exposure to the presence of God not only sets us free from all speculation about God’s nature, it also elevates our inner experience to a place above mental and emotional turmoil sparked by negative appearances. When we go within to our inner room, that secret place of the most high, we experience first-hand exposure to God. We shift from believing there is a God to knowing God directly.

---

[1] John 18:37

Youtube: Understanding Prayer

Next Sunday we will begin our first of four lessons in Advent. As you know, I do not follow the traditional topics but focus instead on the four aspects of God: life, love, power, and intelligence. These attributes also express as the soul and should be thought of as our spiritual resources.

Prayer is our way of directing these resources in ways that are specific to our needs. If we need to breathe the breath of life into some area of our experience—say we’re feeling trapped or stagnated in some negative situation—we first stop giving attention to such feelings. We do not allow ourselves to entertain any feeling that this area of our life is not working. Instead, we vigorously and steadfastly affirm that the life of God is now expressing in beautiful and prospering ways, that there is a perfect flow of new ideas and enlivening enthusiasm that now clears the way for a more wholesome and satisfying experience.

We bring a consciousness of love into our prayer life by knowing that which is not for our highest good is now being dissolved and the greater good we desire is now being established. Love is the very process of denial and affirmation. Affirm that love is doing its perfect work in you and in your life right now.

Spiritual power is spiritual empowerment. Release all feelings of powerlessness and affirm the power of Spirit is now doing its mighty work in you. You are fearless and free to move forward in your thinking, to open your mind to new possibilities now unfolding.

Cease all talk and thought about not knowing what to do. Affirm the very intelligence of God is guiding you in all ways, that you know what to do and you do it. Divine intelligence is a tremendous resource that is always available and ready to respond to your affirmative attitude.

During this Advent season, let us not look back to the past and simply tell the same old story. Let us turn to God now, drawing upon our limitless resources of life, love, power, and intelligence to stir new possibilities.

Youtube: One Step at a Time

“Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets but threw the bad away. Matthew 13:47-48

In the spiritual context, the term enlightenment is often misunderstood. We might think of it as a singular experience, like passing through a door from a dark room to one full of light. There are, of course, cases where this seems to be true, but we don’t always know the facts of a person’s inner life. Their sudden breakthrough may be the result of years of preparation.

Let’s think of enlightenment first as the understanding that we are spiritual beings inhabiting a body in a material environment. To be unenlightened is to live as if we are trapped in a body and material environment. The enlightened approach to life’s events, then, is to consider them from the perspective of a spiritual being with limitless capacity. Rather than feeling trapped, we make mental and emotional choices that are based on the truth of our spiritual capacity.

To live a prayer-centered life is to not only be aware of the choices we are making, but to deliberately make choices that are in keeping with the truth of our spiritual capacity. Prayer is the two-fold process of denial and affirmation: releasing the unwanted reaction and affirming the truth. Jesus compared it to tossing bad fish and keeping the good.

The bad fish is a negative response to an appearance. We do not deny the appearance, but we release the negative energy we give it. We then affirm the truth with a statement something like this: Greater good is now unfolding through this appearance.

This is a spiritually enlightened approach to life’s challenges. We make our mental and emotional choices, not as a reaction to appearances, but based on the truth of our being, one step at a time.  

Youtube: Freedom From Attachments of the Past

As they were going along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” But he said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Luke 9:57-62

This series of statements all point to the same issue: if you want to begin again, you must release your attachments to the past. This is not so much a call to let go of memories, fond or otherwise, but rather to stop using energy to continue to respond to these memories.

The only place we can effectively act is in the now moment. When we feel overburdened, it is because we are expending energy focusing on problems that are impossible to resolve in the present. All we can do is mull them over, dispersing our creative energy. It’s like plowing the same furrow over and over. You can get just as exhausted plowing one furrow a hundred times as plowing a hundred furrows once, and the result is much less satisfying.

Solutions to our challenges have a way of presenting themselves, though not necessarily on demand. We sometimes have to let situations mature to the point where we know exactly what to do. Our energy drains come from speculating on what should be done, before it’s time to do it. Jesus talked about letting the weeds and the crops grow together, refraining from pulling the weeds until they are clearly identifiable. There is a great deal of wisdom in this. How often do we destroy our present peace by focusing on eliminating the weeds?

Today, take a moment to connect with your Source. Know that you have all the intelligence and energy necessary to do what lies before you. If you feel overburdened, like your life is going nowhere, know that you are plowing the same furrow. Let it go and move on.

Youtube: Getting Out of God’s Way

Guest Speaker: Erika Satie

What does following your intuition and joy look like to you? Does it mean that you are dialed in to the Truth of who and what you are and that you are being guided by that inner knowing? Some say that your feelings are indicators of your alignment with Source – do you believe that to be true? What if this was taken more seriously? I do know from experience that the feeling of joy is almost always a clear indication that you on the right path and that you are in the flow of Life itself. On the other hand, when you feel dark and negative it can seem that you are somehow lost and alone and that things will never work out. When this happens, know that you have simply forgotten who and what you are. You have let it slip your mind that you are a powerful and naturally joyful expression of the Divine. Be grateful to know that you no longer must let these dark feelings be predominant in your life, as you always have a choice on what to focus on.

I have found that the more we lean into our spiritual practices, the easier it becomes for us to allow better feelings into our life and experience. Unfortunately, if you look around you most people seem to be in low spirits much of the time, but every once in a while, you meet a person who is upbeat and positive. It’s as if they see the silver lining in everything that has taken place. I don’t think that these people are special or unique, I believe that this mindset is here for all of us. Not as a spiritual bypass, but as a way of training ourselves to go back to God when we happen to find ourselves in a place that feels cut off from the source of Joy that is always flowing to us.

Youtube: I Am The Vine

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5).

Using this simple metaphor, Jesus beautifully illustrates the relationship each individual has with his or her spiritual source. God, our creator/sustainer, is like the vine from which we grow. To abide in God is to live with the awareness of God as the source of our being.

Because we often draw our identity from external sources—job, family, social level, etc.—we may feel overwhelmed when challenges sweep through our lives. These words from John remind us to pause, and to reconnect to our source. In the seventh verse, Jesus makes this promise: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.”

How do we abide in God? Through prayer. In Unity we teach that prayer is a two-fold process. First we are to release the negative energy that appearances stir in us. This is called, denial. Let go your emotional attachments, your fears, your anger, to that which you do not want. Speak words like this: I now release all emotions of fear and doubt. Next, move into the second half of the prayer process by affirming, God is my source, God is my strength. My life is now unfolding in divine order.

Allow yourself to experience the lightness of letting go, and the infilling of assurance that your life is unfolding perfectly, according to the divine blueprint that is being imparted from within your being.

In the same way the fruit of the vine manifests from within the branch, so a spiritually ordered life will manifest through your inner being and through every facet of your life. Abide often in the awareness of God as your source, then ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. 

Youtube: The Dynamics of Challenge

Excerpt from: A Practical Guide to Prosperous Living

It is important to realize that every new enterprise, every decision you make to pursue your passion is going to evoke some level of confrontation between the stronger and the weaker elements of your self-image. You will set your goals based on your strengths, your talents, your interests and your dreams. In the process of manifesting them, however, you will encounter challenges that will summon all your weaknesses as well. Self-doubt, fear of failure, feelings of lack, impatience, anger, lethargy and indifference will all creep in at the most inappropriate times. Like Job, you may find yourself saying, “The thing I feared is upon me and the thing I dreaded is now before me.” Many worthy undertakings have been brought to a grinding halt by these unwelcome thieves of our creative energy.

You need not be taken by surprise when this seemingly negative side of your consciousness arises. While it may not always be comfortable or convenient, the arousal of these stifling elements is both inevitable and necessary. They arise from that limited aspect of your identity which is crying out to be redefined from the basis of your soul.

Because of the discomfort or even pain involved in dealing with them, the temptation is to suppress these unwanted elements. But unless the things you fear most come upon you, unless they are brought into the full light of your awareness, you will never be able to trace them back to their sources and permanently release the negative influence they have on your circumstantial tendencies.

Youtube: Faith in The Greater Good

While we commonly associate faith with a set of religious beliefs, it is much more than this. Faith is one of our most important faculties, one that works closely with the imagination. Consider the overall feeling that you carry about your life. Think about how you imagine it to be. If you find that you carry a feeling of apprehension, and that you often entertain a negative vision for your life, it may be time for a reset.

It is helpful to remember that any feeling of apprehension we carry is simply an accumulation of unprocessed thought and emotion. By unprocessed I mean those things we think about but do not resolve. We leave them hanging. We lay them in the mental inbox thinking we’ll deal with them later. But it doesn’t take long for the inbox to fill up, leaving us with the looming feeling that something ominous is lurking.

We can address this feeling by taking those things we have put on hold and bringing them into the light of our faith in greater good unfolding. When we can’t literally take action to resolve an issue, we can decide to resolve it emotionally. It may be helpful to revisit a book that inspired us, to read again those meaningful passages we have highlighted but forgotten. There is a reason we have stepped upon this path of faith that we travel, and we may rediscover helpful reminders that encouraged us in earlier times.  

Faith in the greater good translates as peace of mind. Faith, accompanied with any action we can take is a stress-dissolving combination. We inventory our inbox with the intention of addressing the items we have tossed in there. The simple decision to do so is an empowering act of faith in the greater good. The simplest step in this direction has a way of opening doors that we may have thought were locked tight.

If you carry any sense of apprehension, make the choice today to revive your faith in the greater good unfolding now. It doesn’t take much to change the way you feel about your life.

Youtube: This Battle is Not Yours

Do not fear or be dismayed at this great multitude; for the battle is not yours but God’s.

2 Chronicles 20:15 

Everyone has moments of uncertainty, of trial, of self doubt, and even despair. In these moments we seek help from all kinds of sources: books, counselors, ministers, doctors, friends, or family members. Any one of these may pass on some level of assurance that things are going to work out, that harmony will be restored in our body or in our affairs. With this bit of assurance, we rest a little better, regain some of our optimism, and turn our attention to more creative endeavors.

  It is a freeing thought to realize that the strength we seem to draw from others is really a process of opening our minds to our own deeper resource. In consciously returning to this inner resource we find the battle is not ours, that the great harmonizing power of God working through us is bringing about a satisfying solution. In quietness and trust in this truth, the flame of new strength is kindled.

When we are consumed with a problem, we have simply relegated our attention to one miniscule aspect of our being. Our entire universe revolves around it. There is nothing that can sever your connection with God, your limitless source of energy and inspiration that lifts you out of even the apparently tightest corners. Regardless of how far you feel you have strayed from your God center, God is still present and still flooding your being with the strength and assurance you need to move beyond this current stretch of uncertainty.

Begin now to know that whatever the challenge, whatever the battle you are involved in it is not your battle but God’s. Enter the peace of letting go your frantic search for answers. Be still and trust that the answers you need are now forthcoming. Turn from the apparent adversity and let new strength and courage rise from the core of your being.

This battle is not yours, friend. Know that God is working through you in beautifully satisfying ways right now.

Youtube: A Prayer of Guidance

“He who hath led me to this way, Still on the way will show.

He who hath taught me of this way, Still more will make me know.”

– Emma Curtis Hopkins

For many years, this has been a favorite verse of mine. In times of confusion and uncertainty it reminds me to pause and put things in a proper spiritual perspective. Life is full of surprises and challenges that at times seem to push us beyond our capacity to roll with the changes. We can become so immersed in the details of appearances that we lose touch with the bigger picture. It’s good to pause, take a few deep breaths, and affirm again that we are being guided and instructed in ways that contribute to our greater good and well-being.

In affirming guidance, it’s important to remember that your unfolding greater good is also the greater good for those whose lives you touch. How this could be true may not always be clear. But if you embrace the truth that you are indeed being shown the best and highest way, you can rest assured that the guiding hand of divine wisdom is directing your steps even through moments of uncertainty.    

And what is this way you were taught? It is the way of spiritual principle. Do not judge by appearances. Believe you have received that which you ask for in prayer. Lift your spiritual eyes to behold the fields ready now for harvest. Your faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. In other words, assume a confident and peaceful attitude that things are unfolding in exactly the right way, that every step you take is the right step.

The greatest fruit of prayer is the peace of mind that inspires in you the freedom to live your life creatively and confidently. The wisdom that brought you to this place in your life knows how to carry you forward. It knows how to impart the light of guidance that lights your path. Be at peace, and trust that your life is now unfolding exactly as it should.