A DRAMATIC SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE
By Meredith Sprunger
Many people have dramatic experiences which change their whole lives. My 88-year-old uncle, for instance, told me of such an experience in his middle thirties. He underwent a serious operation and the surgeon concluded he would die. One night, two angel-like persons approached his bed and asked him if he wanted to live. He answered, “Yes”’ They countered, “Why?” He told them he wanted to pay his debts – he had a heavy debt on his farm. They told him they would grant his wish. From that moment he recovered dramatically, and this experience has influenced his entire life.
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Our Father Sits …
By Kaye Cooper
Our Father sits in His place
at the center of all creation.
His reach stretches outward
beyond the farthest reach of any mind,
of any imagination.
He holds in Himself
all of what is known
and all of what might be
and all of what might be thought
or dreamt
or one day reached.
Our Father sits.
He sees, hears and knows.
He knows each and every being
in His creation.
And He knows the route of each electron. He feels the movement of every star.
He lives through every life in this universe,
takes joy at every sunrise
and weeps with every pain.
Our Father shares all of
this.
He feels with us
and learns the life that we lead
because we share with Him.
In all of time and space
there is not one experience
which He does not share
not one which He cannot find
a way to use.
In all the patterns He has set for us
all the children He has sent
and all that we have shared with Him, the
thread runs through:
The Father’s love is being expressed His
beauty learned anew.
He shares in our adventure and
listens while we learn
And smiles with a warm and
loving smile
as we learn the lessons He has planned.
He lifts us up
not even step by step but smaller yet:
atom by atom
replacing us
with a new divinity a
new being
as shining as He.
Age upon age we live through this journey
becoming that which He knows we can.
And He waits very
patiently
at the center of the Universe to
greet us
when at last we find Him, to
welcome the being
that we have become.
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Developing Spiritual
Relationship with God
and the Cosmic Family
by William Cooper
Talking Things Over with God
Jesus in his prayers as a youngster would just talk to his heavenly Father in the fashion he used with Joseph, who was a very attentive and caring mortal Father. He would talk, ask questions, “listen”, discuss, and interpret his impressions. It was embarrassing to Jesus’ parents that Jesus did not observe the forms and fashions of prayer for their religious culture and he was open and obvious about it. Like us, Jesus was often not certain exactly what God’s response was, but he was sure that God was responding.
As Jesus matured and began to understand who he was, he continued to relate to the I Am in informal discussion mode. He was using this mode of prayer when he prayed repeatedly in Gethsemene. Talking things over with God makes God very real and near, which he is. God will respond to even the faintest indication of faith. I think that attempting to intuit God’s responses to us is more than a faint flicker of faith. To attempt such is an extremely appropriate application of faith. God would never fail to respond to such an act of faith. Seriously, try it. This prayer practice promotes a rich and constant relationship with God, Spirit and our cosmic family.
Commitment to Spiritual Family
Jesus tried to teach his followers that he was here to establish the Family of God on earth. They were too much caught up in the concept that the Messiah would come and found a material kingdom. So, Jesus altered his approach to talk in terms of a kingdom. He taught that the kingdom he came to found was not an earthly kingdom but rather it was/is a kingdom in the hearts of people who follow the leading of the spirit within each person. This inner kingdom he described as presided over by a loving and patriarchal king. And this is true, but it is not his preferred concept. He wanted us to see the spiritual reality, that engulfs our material reality, as a family that has our personal and collective welfare as a central and constant concern. To Jesus, family was not merely a kinship, it included a purpose of taking care of the family enterprise of pursuing God’s plan. God’s plan is to knit together the cosmos by the attraction of the love and goodness of God. This plan includes high adventure of our being a growing and serving part in expanding the inhabited and unified cosmos. It includes participating actively in our deity parent’s plans and thereby advancing in becoming like God, deity ourselves.
Jesus said if you believe that God loves you with an infinite love and follow the leading of the spirit within your heart, then you are in the family of God. That sounds kind of cool but what are the consequences, expectations and opportunities?
Let’s stop just a minute and consider the difference in the way we feel first when we see our eternal destiny to be a loyal servant of God the good king. (Pause) Is that exciting to you? Now, second, feel what it is like to look at yourself as a beloved and privileged child of God and of the vast, loving family of God, whose destiny is to choose a personal path to grow up to be like his / her parent. Now, is that exciting to you? (Pause) I hope you can feel the difference. I certainly can. Now back to the expectations, opportunities and consequences of this status.
One consequence is the opportunity for an eternal life of service to God’s ongoing adventure with love. I call God’s adventure of fostering and proving the truth of the effectiveness of love via experience,” the family business”. This is what God and all creation are currently doing. This has been going on for trillions of years and will continue into eternity, will never end. We will never run out of important things to do. Ours is not a static job or a bit role to play as a servant at a king’s court. The family of God provides progressively more and more responsible roles for all of its members. As recipients of Adjusters and of personality, there is no known limit to how far we may progress in eternity. Our progress entails study, service, mastery of power, responsibility, loyalty to God’s will and all of these with the love, graciousness and generosity of our divine parents.
The Family of God is so vast that we lack words for the number of its members but everyone in the family who is pursuing the family business is devoted to achievement of God’s good, gracious, generous and merciful goals –infinite love permeating everyone, everything and every action. In committing to God’s family business, we are committing to join all other family members in humble efforts to achieve love, to enthusiastically pursue the way of love and to institutionalize it as a living, enlarging practice for all. Joinder in this family and its business is God’s plan for us all.
There is a great deal more that can be said about spiritual family. It can be, after all, the core around which each of us can form our philosophy of living. But the last observation I want to make in closing is that all of the members of the spiritual family want all of its members to succeed in doing and fostering God’s way of love and will help each other achieve that goal in any way consistent with God’s will. Just ask and then listen and follow expectantly.
Exercise
Letter to and From Mom and Dad
Now let’s take about 5min to write a quick note to Mom and Dad about their spiritual family. You might want to be grateful. You might want to explore with them what spiritual family means to you. How do you feel about being a member of such a vast, purposeful and mutually supportive spiritual family? Examine the extent of your desire to participate. [Allow 5 min.]
Time is up.
But don’t put your pen down. Now take 5 min to write what seems to you to be the response Mom and Dad would make to you.
Exercise
Developing Relationship by Conversation
Ask key and/or immediately relevant questions. Use a form of question and answer dialog. You ask the question and you imagine an appropriate answer from the Spirit Within and you make notes.
In circumstances usually of quiet contemplation I ask how to take known macro principles of God’s will and interpret them to fit my immediate micro needs. Some examples are:
- How can I be loving to this person or even this thing?
- How can I truly forgive disloyalty or betrayal?
- Contempt and anger must go or at least be diminished. How can I do this?
- How can I contribute love, mercy, truth, beauty and goodness to improve this situation?
- What higher value do I need to apply here to adjust my attitude or that of another?
- How would applying acceptance, inclusion and respect help this situation?
- How can I be courteous, generous, trusting and charming in anticipated difficult circumstances?
- From where I am right now, how can I make good come from this?
- In the face of apparent failure, what can I learn from this?
You may say, ”But Bill I already ask myself these things.” And I reply, “That is wonderful, but do you ask these as questions to your human experience and wisdom alone or as questions explicitly directed to your spiritual guides and tutors, of which there are many.” There is a strong spiritual quality, even an urge to action, when you address your spiritual helpers and seek to be sensitive to their responses. This ask, listen, interpret and act/respond process builds relationship that becomes very real, very revealing of truth, beauty, goodness and Love.
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Back to Top
Experiencing the Holy Spirit
Kaye and Bill Cooper 6-9-20
The Infinite Mother Spirit is the perfect expression if the nurturing character of God. She is superbly endowed with the attributes of empathy, compassion, patience, mercy, and love. These qualities are exquisitely revealed in her spiritual ministry. She ministers love and overshadows justice with mercy. She possesses supernal kindness and merciful affection. (Adapted from UB 9:1.8.)
The presence of the Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of Deity, we may know even during our mortal lives, for material creatures can actually experience her beneficence (her active goodness, big-hearted generosity, and kindheartedness), because she is in elaborate contact with each of us and everything material, mindal or spiritual. (Adapted from UB 9:2.5.)
We are promised that we can “actually experience” the beneficence of the Holy Spirit—her gracious generosity. Why bother to seek this experience? Because it is important to know about God. On this planet we don’t know much at all about a very significant aspect of God—the Infinite Spirit. The Infinite Mother Spirit functions as the Mother Spirit of each local universe. But knowing as a fact that she is here is only a first step. It is much more important to move beyond knowledge, to increasingly grow in the ability to feel the presense of God. (see UB 155:6.12.) So what we are going to do today is to open ourselves to experience the presence of God as expressed in the Holy Spirit. We are going to do that by focusing on particular values which are characteristic of our Mother. Here is the process we would like to use:
- We will relax together into contact with spirit and maintain that connection throughout our time together. Feel free to write in your journal at any time during this activity if you wish.
- We will lead you through a worshipful group exploration of each of the five values on the list we give you in a moment. You are invited to focus with appreciation and gratitude on each of the five qualities on the list as an avenue to experience the Holy Spirit who is constantly with us. You will be invited to share aloud at various times during this part of the activity.
- Then we will have a quiet time of individual meditation and imagination.
- Last, each of us will share whatever we want with the group and continue with comments and reflections.
We especially suggest that you approach these values with a combination of thinking and feeling. Think with the highest spirit levels of the mind our Mother has given you. And feel each value with your soul. Feel your thoughts. Think about your feelings. Flow back and forth between thought and feeling, between meaning and value. Allow them to flow and intermingle within you like a beautiful melody.
Do you have any questions about these concepts or about what we are going to do?
Holy Spirit Values:
Active Goodness
Gracious Generosity
Steadfast Patience
Unfailing Kindheartedness
Merciful Affection
- Let’s start by relaxing. Get comfortable and balanced where you are sitting. Close your eyes if you wish. Breathe deeply and relax more…and again. Breathe fully but comfortably. Begin by thinking of someone you love and appreciate. Imagine being with them, safe in each other’s presence. Think of how much you appreciate that person, how thankful you are for their being in your life. Imagine the gratitude you feel. Let gratitude bloom inside your heart and grow stronger…deeper…richer. Allow this wonderful feeling of gratitude to fill your body with spirit. Now spirit fills the space around you…the room in which you sit. Enjoy being absorbed in appreciation and thanksgiving. Maintain this attitude as we move into our worshipful group exploration of the characteristics of our Holy Spirit.
- Exploring the Spirit’s characteristics. We begin with the first characteristic: Active Goodness. Recall the goodness with which we are blessed: friendships, challenges, surprises, empathy, compassion, sincerity, purpose. Our lives are filled with beautiful spiritual values nurtured by the Holy Spirit. Enjoy reflecting on these values for a moment. Share aloud the values that come to your attention.
[Wait 1 min.]
- Next contemplate the second characteristic: The Gracious Generosity of the Holy Spirit. All things physical and intellectual are provided by our Mother Spirit. She provides our very existence and consciousness. Day-by-day the Spirit works incessantly to improve us individually…and to improve our civilization. She touches all areas—health, government, education, industry, reversion, and, of course, family and religion. Reflect in gratitude for these gifts of the Spirit. I invite you to express aloud your appreciation to the gracious generosity of our Mother Spirit and her Spirit presence.
[Wait 1min.}
- Let’s turn our attention to the third Motherly value: Steadfast Patience. Like a human mother, the Holy Spirit of our Mother needs to have lots of patience. We children must try her daily with our self-centered thinking and our ease-seeking, and spiritual task avoidance. But she works loyally to provide us with opportunities to grow. Her guardian seraphim manage our lives moment-to-moment. Sometimes the lessons of life are hard…but they always bring us far more than we expect. Other seraphim teach us the truths of life: spiritual wisdom, racial justice, optimism, compassion, integrity, loyalty, and so much more. Consider something you have learned and allow your gratitude to pour silently outward to the seraphim, the patient Mother-ministers of our daily lives.
[Wait 1 min.]
- Fourth, our Mother is not only patient, she is Unfailingly Kindhearted. Her kindness is described as ‘supernal’—far beyond any kindness we can imagine. What magnificent safety there is in being taught, guided, protected, and encouraged by a parent who has never felt or expressed frustration, disappointment, irritation, or any number of other self-centered human emotions! She is the original pattern for kindness—and the ultimate example, as well. Imagine her hands patting your shoulders, her lips kissing the top of your head fondly. Share aloud how she makes you feel.
[Wait 1 min.]
- She moves face-to-face with each of us. Recognize the way she feels about us—her Merciful Affection for each of us—the fifth characteristic of our Mother. She has not one ounce of blame in her. She forgives us as a matter of course because she knows our spiritual longings and purposes. Imagine her smile, her glowing motherly face, the joy in her eyes. She loves each one of us as if we were the only child she has! Feel her affection.
[Wait 1 min.]
- Move into your own private time with the Holy Spirit of our Mother. Open yourself to her wisdom and loving ministry. Enjoy her as a person—your spiritual mother. She is real. She is close with us.
I will give you ten minutes of silence with the presence of our Mother. I will let you know when time is up.
Allow 10 minutes.
- Sharing and Discussion. Now it is time to return our attention to our group. Bring our Mother back with you. You are invited to share whatever you want from this experience. Choosing to share provides the opportunity that your experience may bless others in the group as much or more than it blessed you! Always respect that each person’s experience is unique and valid for them.
Our spiritual destiny is conditioned only by our spiritual longings and purposes. (see UB156:5.9)
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Why We Should Proclaim Jesus’ Message
By William Cooper
Jesus taught his apostles that there are five cardinal features of his core message. (Paper 170 Section 4 Paragraphs 8 -13 / Page 1863 Paragraphs 6-11)
- Preeminence of the individual. God is concerned with each woman or man personally and directly. There is no involvement of tribe or priest required. Nor is apprenticeship in low orders of spiritual hierarchy required before we have personal and instantaneous access to God. You are a beloved direct spiritual child of God and he protects, educates, and supports you and is always present with you.
- The will as the determinative factor in human experience. You will succeed in progressing if you choose righteousness. Progress will not be withheld nor will it be imposed. It is your sacred right and responsibility to choose what you are becoming.
- Spiritual fellowship with God the father. You and the father are close personal associates. You have a parent-child relationship – intimate and familiar – unless you neglect or refuse to choose to have it.
- The Supreme satisfactions of the loving service of humanity. Loving service is the way of joy, satisfaction, and eternal progress in attaining God likeness. It is all yours for the wanting and the doing. It is your choice again.
- The transcendence of the spiritual over the material in human personality. As you choose to live the loving and serving life in all circumstances, you will create a spiritual self of God-like and eternal potential even while the physical origins of you melt into the material past.
So according to Jesus that is what his message was and is.
The Spirit of Truth resides in this message. (Paper 178 Section 1 Paragraph 6 / Page 1930 Paragraph 3). Our loving service is the mighty social lever to uplift the races of darkness and the Spirit of Truth is our power multiplying fulcrum. Our loving service and the Spirit of Truth are supposed to work in partnership to achieve God’s goal of revealing truth to humanity.
(Paper 34 Section 5 Paragraph 5 / page 379 Paragraph 5)
The Spirit of Truth is poured out on all people but it is almost wholly limited in function and power by the individual’s personal reception of that which constitutes the sum and substance of the mission of the bestowal son.
(Paper 128 Section 7 Paragraph 6 / Page 1417 Paragraph 5)
The prime purpose of the bestowal mission was to provide God the experience of human life from the viewpoint of the human creature. This was required for Michael to achieve sovereignty over his universe. A second purpose of the bestowal mission was to make the supreme revelation of God to humanity. Accepting Jesus’ message constitutes the personal reception of the substance of the mission of the bestowal son to reveal God to man. In the process of his bestowal mission Jesus decided to teach a new religion – the religion of being led by the Inner Spirit into the doing of loving service. (This is the will of God for us.)
In proclaiming Jesus’ message, human proclaimers are serving the John the Baptist herald function for the ministry of the Spirit of Truth to the souls of humanity. This herald function of declaring the good news puts those who accept it in a position to make meaningful choices to progress or not. It starts the person considering real and meaningful choices. It liberates the Spirit of Truth ministry to that person.
Just to remind you of the consequences the Spirit of Truth can have if liberated by people accepting Jesus’ core message. (Paper 194 Section 2 / Page 2060 Paragraphs 2-7)
- The Spirit of Truth works to foster and personalize truth. (The truth is that all reality works to advance the Father’s will to unite all persons and things by the magnetic attraction of love. What advances God’s will is real. What does not, is not real.) Truth reveals what is real and how reality works.
- The Spirit of Truth works to destroy the believers feeling of orphanhood.
- The Spirit of Truth helps people recall and understand the words of Jesus.
- The Spirit of Truth helps to illuminate and reinterpret Jesus’s life on earth.
- The Spirit of Truth helps believers witness to the reality of Jesus’ teachings and his life as he lived it. It provides a fresh interpretation for each believer and each generation.
- The Spirit of Truth leads all believers “into all truth, into the expanding knowledge of the experience of the living and growing spiritual consciousness of the reality of eternal and ascending sonship with God.”
So why proclaim Jesus’ message? Because it is something that God trusts you to do and something of immense value to humanity and the spiritual family. It is partnering with God in achieving one of God’s spiritual purposes and it will be an exciting and entirely meaningful adventure. Without the proclamation of the good news, the mighty Spirit of Truth is almost powerless. The herald function is an essential part of the plan.
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Life Is Just a School
Life is just a school.
Your loving spirit Father is your school master.
When you do not follow his suggestions
All sorts of bad things can happen.
But he did not cause them.
He simply did not prevent them.
And why not?
Because life is just a school
And the wisdom of following your master’s guidance
Is the most important lesson.
Bill Cooper 2009
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