Jesus on True Religion
Prepared by William Cooper
Jesus’ discourse on true religion (UB p.1728) was delivered ten months before his crucifixion. The Urantia Book describes it as one of the most remarkable addresses which his apostles ever listened to throughout all their years of association with him. I think it is still very remarkable even after 2000 years of Christianity. His comments were prompted by a question from the apostle Thomas, which was “Master, I would really like to know just what is wrong with the religion of our enemies at Jerusalem? What is the real difference between their religion and ours? Why is it we are at such diversity of belief when we all profess to serve the same God?”
I am going to present Jesus’ response in seven sub-topics. I have indicated my comments and questions by presenting them in italics. An asterisk after a word indicates the word is defined at the end of the article.
My seven sub-topics are:
- Distinguishing the Forms of Religious Devotion
- Freedom*, Liberty*, Heroes* and Prophets*
- Unifying Effect of Religion of the Spirit
- All Things Are Sacred
- Proof You Are God Knowing
- Reassurance of Salvation
- Fruits of the Spirit, Consequences of Being Spirit Led*
Distinguishing the Forms of Religious Devotion
At any one time and among any one people there are to be found three distinct and coexisting forms of religious devotion. And these three are:
- Primitive religion. The semi natural and instinctive urge to fear mysterious energies and worship* superior forces. It is chiefly a religion of fear.
- The religion of civilization. This consists of the advancing religious concepts and practices of the civilizing races. It is the religion of the mind – the intellectual theology of established religious tradition. All organized religious traditions are in this category.
- True religion. This is the religion of revelation to your soul [by your personal Spirit Within and the spirit of Jesus]. What these spirits reveal is supernatural* values*, even a partial insight into eternal realities*. This is the religion of the spirit, whose truth* is demonstrated* in human experience*.
What are supernatural* values? (Look at fruits of the spirit, and spiritual weapons, below) What does “demonstrated in human experience” mean? In what forms does such experience come to us? Consider both inner experience and social or outer experience as well as sudden insight versus slow realization. Are the events in other people’s lives part of our experience if we view them with compassion and empathy?
The great difference between the religion of the mind and the religion of the spirit is that, while religion of the mind is upheld by ecclesiastical (churchly) authority, religion of the spirit is wholly based on human experience of spirit inspired insights into supernatural values, eternal realities, and our Heavenly Parent’s character. We must educate ourselves to know that we should accept the spirit’s leading.
[See fruits of the spirit, spiritual weapons, etc. below.] This experience of spirit inspired insights can come suddenly or as slow, accumulated recognition, what we might call the growth of wisdom.
The religion of the spirit means effort, struggle, conflict, faith*, determination, love*, loyalty*, and progress. The religion of the mind –the theology of authority – requires little or none of these exertions from its formal believers.
Why effort, struggle, and conflict? Can’t we avoid that? Maybe it is because this is what meaningful human experience consists of. These efforts, struggles, and conflicts are between higher values and immaturities in one’s self. These deal with our efforts to achieve self-mastery—to deal with life by faith and by trust in goodness. These are efforts and struggles in everyone’s life. These struggles and conflicts are contests within ourselves to establish reliable self-discipline to live according to higher values even when no other human knows the tendencies we struggle to control. The outcomes of these struggles determine our character which in turn has immense consequences in building our souls.
Jesus described his teachings as a new and very different religion that makes its chief appeal* to the divine spirit of our Heavenly Parent which resides in the mind of each person.
Why does religion of the spirit make its chief appeal to the Spirit Within and how? Perhaps it is because we get an attraction response to truth through the Spirit Within. Educating ourselves to identify that nudge gives us a way to recognize truth and God’s way.
This new religion will derive its authority*, it’s proof, from the spiritual fruits of its acceptance* that will so certainly appear in the personal experience* of all who really and truly become believers in the truths of this higher spiritual communion*. [See fruits of the spirit, below.]
Jesus calls upon us to be born again, to be brought into spiritual life by the experience of personal communion with the spirit of God within. [What will the experience of personal communion with God be like? Extraordinary or not?] Jesus has called us out of the darkness of authoritarian and traditional religion into the transcendent* light of the realization of making for ourselves the greatest discovery possible for the human soul to make – the supernal (celestial, heavenly) experience of finding God for* ourselves, in* ourselves, and of* ourselves, and of doing all this as a fact in our own personal experience*. [What do “for, in and of ourselves connote?]
The religion of the mind ties you hopelessly to the past; the religion of the spirit consists in progressive revelation and ever beckons you on toward higher and holier achievements in spiritual ideals* and eternal realities*. [See fruits of the spirit, spiritual weapons, etc. below for an identification of spiritual ideals and eternal realities.]
To summarize Jesus’ remarks on forms of religious devotion: Primitive religion is based on fear. The religion of civilization is founded on intellectual theology, tradition and rules. Religion of the spirit is constantly renewed by inner spirit revelation as clarified by the Spirit of Jesus. All three forms coexist in a culture and probably even in an individual’s spiritual life. The validity of the meanings and values revealed by your Inner Spirit is proved by the fruits of actually living such meanings and values. So, not actually living our meanings and values deprives our world and time of the spiritual fruits which would demonstrate their validity. The fruits flow from the living, not from the mere knowledge of meanings and values. There is power in our living this way because the Inner Spirit of each witness calls this behavior to its subject’s attention with approval and attraction.
II. Freedom, Liberty, Heroes and Prophets
While the religion of authority may impart a present feeling of settled security, you pay for such a temporary satisfaction the price of the loss of your spiritual freedom* and religious liberty*. The religion of the spirit leaves you forever free to follow the truth wherever the leadings of the spirit may take you. And be assured, this spirit has many things to impart to each generation which other generations have refused to hear.
Our Paradise Parent did indeed speak through Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Amos and Hosea, but did not cease to minister words of truth to the world when these prophets of old made an end of their utterances. Our Creator Parent is no respecter of races or generations in that the truth is provided in one age and withheld from another.
Jesus admonishes us to give up the practice of always quoting the prophets of old and of praising historical spiritual heroes, and instead to aspire to become living prophets* of the Most High and spiritual heroes* of the coming kingdom of loving service and mutual encouragement and compassion. [What is a living prophet and what is spiritual heroism?]
We must cease to seek for the word of God only on the pages of the olden records of theological authority. Those who are born of the spirit of God shall discern the word of God regardless of where it appears to take origin. Divine truth* must not be discounted because the channel of its bestowal is apparently human. But all of the ways of knowing about the fact of God are less important than increasingly growing in the ability to feel the presence of God.
What does it mean “fact of God” and “feel the presence of God?” How is feeling the presence of God more revelatory of divine truth than knowing the facts about God? Doesn’t this suggest that one who feels the presence of God and responds, even without knowledge of the fact of God, is practicing religion of the spirit?
Summarizing Sub Section II: Religion of the Spirit liberates us from all restraints including religious traditions, holy books, priests and human teachers and prophets. We are encouraged to become living spokespersons for God and persons of courage and nobility of purpose regarding the coming kingdom of loving service and mutual encouragement.
III. Unifying Effect of Religion of the Spirit
Every race of mankind has its own outlook on human existence; therefore must the religions of the mind ever run true to these various racial viewpoints. Never can the religions of authority come to unification. Human unity and mortal brotherhood can be achieved only through the super endowment of the religion of the spirit. Racial minds differ, but all humanity is indwelt by the same divine and eternal spirit. The hope of human mutual encouragement and compassion can only be realized as the divergent mind religions of authority become impregnated with and overshadowed by the unifying and ennobling religion of the spirit – the religion of direct, personal spiritual experience. [What is spiritual experience as distinguished from nonspiritual experience? Look at fruits of the spirit and consequences of the spirit listed below for insights into spiritual experience.]
The religions of authority can only divide men and set them in conscientious array against each other; the religion of the spirit will progressively draw men together and cause them to become understandingly sympathetic* with one another. The religions of authority crystallize into lifeless creeds*; the religion of the spirit grows into the increasing joy* and liberty* of ennobling* deeds* of loving service and merciful* ministration.
Summarizing Sub section III: Loving unity is God’s goal. There are racial and authoritarian religious outlooks which interfere with unification of humanity into a spiritual family relationship. Substantial participation in religion of the spirit is the only remedy for this. Religion of the spirit promotes unification of purpose among various religionists at the level of doing God’s will even without agreement as to what God’s will is or how to do it. Creeds, theology and dogma attempt to enforce unity at the orthodox creedal level. That is not possible and involves intolerable interference with spiritual freedom which would itself contradict God’s will that we be free to pursue the truth wherever the spirit leads us.
IV. All Things Are Sacred
There is only one adventure which is more satisfying and thrilling than the attempt to discover the will of the living God, and that is the supreme experience of honestly trying to do that divine will. The will of God can be done in any earthly occupation. Some callings are not holy and others secular. All things are sacred in the lives of those who are spirit led; that is, subordinated* to truth*, ennobled by love*, dominated by mercy* and restrained by fairness – justice. [Did Jesus really mean “all things” are sacred?]
When you once begin to find God in your soul, presently you will begin to discover him in other people’s souls and eventually in all the creatures and creations of a mighty universe. But what chance does the Creator have to appear as a God of supreme loyalties and divine ideals in the souls of people who give little or no time to the thoughtful contemplation of such eternal realities.
Summarizing Sub section IV: We should give thoughtful contemplation to discovering supreme loyalties and divine ideals in all creatures and creations and act accordingly, and consequently all things will become sacred to us. We should remember, regardless of what we are doing, everything we do or say or think matters and should exhibit goodness.
V. Proof You Are God Knowing
There are two positive and powerful demonstrations of the fact that you are God-knowing.
First: The fruits of the spirit of God will progressively show forth in your routine daily life. [Spiritual fruits are treated below.]
Second: Your entire life plan will furnish positive proof that you have unreservedly risked everything you are and have on the adventure of survival after death in pursuit of the hope of finding the God of eternity, whose presence you have foretasted in time.
Summarizing Sub section V: We risk everything by acting in accordance with faith (the positive leading of the Spirit Within) that God is our Parent and has a Glorious plan for us in administering God’s universes. Allowing faith to dominate all priorities in our lives, we risk loss of material wealth, power, privilege and influence.
VI. Reassurance of Salvation
Now, make no mistake, our Heavenly Parent will ever respond to the faintest flicker of faith. God takes note of the physical and superstitious emotions of the primitive man. And with those honest but fearful souls whose faith is so weak that it amounts to little more than an intellectual conformity to a passive attitude of assent to religious authority, our Heavenly Parent is ever alert to honor and foster all such feeble attempts to reach out. But you who have been called out of darkness into the light are expected to believe with a whole heart; your faith* shall dominate* the combined attitudes of body, mind and spirit.
What does “attitudes of body, mind, and spirit” mean?
Attitudes of body: The things we apply our physical energies to.
Attitudes of mind: The ideas we apply our intellect to.
Attitudes of Spirit: The goals and values we pursue with our intellect and our physical effort.
VII. Fruits of the Spirit
Jesus said the fruits of the spirit would inevitably manifest and show forth in the lives of those who are born of the spirit and who therefore follow the leading of the spirit. [What does “born of the spirit” mean? It means brought into spiritual existence. Spiritual birth results from recognition of God. Spiritual growth results from appreciating and incorporating the admired qualities of God into our service to others. “Born of the spirit” is a literal, not a figurative, reference.] The Urantia Book provides several lists of the spiritual consequences when you live in cooperation with the spirit. These lists of the consequences of following spiritual leading provide partial answers to some of a religionist’s most basic questions. Such as:
- What thoughts or behaviors are spiritual?
- What is God’s will in this situation?
- What is real and permanent?
- How should I live my life?
- What behavior has power to transform the world?
- What are the benefits of living the spirit led life?
- What are the super mortal ideals I am supposed to strive to achieve?
So let’s take a look at some of these lists of the fruits of living the spirit led life. These originate (are inspired) by spiritual ministrations to us. When you see any of these fruits expressed in your life, or in someone else’s life, you may be sure that person is spiritually alive and is being led by their Spirit Within. It is a holy thing and a privilege to observe and recognize.
Some fruits of the spirit are: [Modifiers here are very important. The modifying words all indicate a second mile of involvement for the benefit of the other person]. These are super mortal* ideals dealing with relationships.
- loving service
- sincere fairness
- confiding trust
- forgiving tolerance
- courageous loyalty
- unfailing goodness
- unselfish devotion
- enlightened honesty
- merciful ministry
- enduring peace
- undying hope
Intense striving is involved in actively living to achieve these super mortal ideals of service to other persons. Conflict with self-centered motivations will arise. Intense striving for the attainment of super mortal* ideals is always characterized by increasing:
- patience
- forbearance
- fortitude
- tolerance.
The joy* of the Spirit of Jesus when consciously experienced in human life is a
- tonic for health
- stimulus for mind
- energy for the soul
You can consciously experience the joy of the Spirit of Jesus by focusing your attention on your delight in the insights given you by the spirit.
Spiritual weapons, [These are an endowment of the arrival of the Spirit of Jesus at Pentecost] They are fruits of the spirit too. Jesus in talking about why the heathen rage said religionists were too timid and should take the spiritual kingdom by spiritual assault. The spiritual weapons are the power to build the kingdom. They are the way to conquer the world and bring it into the kingdom. The enemies of the kingdom to be banished with spiritual weapons are evil, hate, anger, and fear. [Note the superlative modifiers below indicating these qualities are to be demonstrated in superabundant generosity and love.]
Spiritual weapons – Only these spiritual weapons have the power to spiritually conquer and transform the world. They include:
- unfailing forgiveness
- matchless good will
- abounding love
- overwhelming evil with good
- vanquishing hate with love [even for your enemies]
- destroying fear with courageous faith in truth
- goodwill of love and mutual trust
being active and positive in love and mercy [Positive refers to enticing or luring with love rather than demanding or forcing with fear, guilt or obligation.]
Fruits of divinity are fruits of the spirit. As we become more like God, more divine, we exhibit the actions, attitudes and goals of the divine.
As the love comprehension of deity finds spiritual
expression in the lives of God-knowing mortals there are
yielded the fruits of divinity which include:
- intellectual* peace*
- social* progress
- moral* satisfaction
- spiritual* joy*
- cosmic* wisdom*.
- As a spirit led person you will choose to be:
- subordinated* to truth*
- ennobled* by love*
- dominated* by mercy*
- restrained by fairness – justice
Religious unity and understanding sympathy are consequences (fruits) of the religion of following the leading of the Spirit Within.
Twelve spirit-like performances which reveal genuine spiritual faith – genuine active trust in the leadings of the Spirit.
- Ethics* and morals* progress
- Sublime* trust in the goodness of God
- Profound courage* and confidence
- Inexplicable poise* and sustaining tranquility
- Mysterious poise* and composure of personality
- Divine trust in ultimate victory
- Unswerving belief in God
- Undaunted faith in the soul’s survival
- Living and triumphing despite hardships
- Altruism* continues to survive
- Sublime* belief in universe unity & divine guidance
- Goes right on worshiping* God in spite of anything
Jesus on True Religion – Definitions
Acceptance – Undertaking as a responsibility or duty. Taking as true and satisfactory.
Altruism – Unselfish devotion to the interests and welfare of others, especially as a principle of action.
Appeal – To ask for help, sanction or corroboration.
Authority – Rightful influence. Validation. Verification. Reliability.
Communion – A sharing of thoughts or feelings. Intimate talk. Deep sharing.
Cosmic – Of or pertaining to the universe, especially as distinct from earth.
Courage – Commitment to follow higher values and to face danger, fear or challenges without giving in to fear.
Creed – Formal statement of religious belief.
Deed – An act as distinguished from words or thoughts.
Demonstrated – Making evident or proving. Described or illustrated by practical application.
Dominate – To rule over; govern; control. To permeate or characterize.
Ethics – A system of moral principles of right and wrong as applied generally to everyone in a large group.
Ennoble – To make finer or more noble in nature. Dignify. Elevate.
Experience – Active participation in events or activities leading to the accumulation of knowledge, understanding, or skill.
Faith – Dynamic and living trust in the reliability and guidance of God. Faith is beyond intellectual belief. It is belief sufficient that you act accordingly. Your faith becomes part of how you live. Faith is the positive leading of your Adjuster. Positive leading indicates the use of attractions or lures to virtue rather than motivation from fear or guilt (negative).
For – On behalf of.
Freedom – Lack of restraint.
Hero – One noted for courage or nobility of purpose. One who acts to benefit others especially where personal danger or risk is involved.
Ideal – A standard or model of perfection.
In – Identifies where.
Intellectual – Involving the intellect. Mental.
Joy – Feeling of high pleasure or delight. Happiness. Gladness.
Liberty – Right to act in a manner of one’s own choosing.
Love – The desire to do good to others. Friendship. Friendliness. Compassion. Respect. Kindness.
Loyalty – Faithfulness.
Mercy – Kindness beyond what can be claimed or expected and beyond what justice requires. Applied love which sets the guilt of evil doing to one side and forgives. (UB 2018:1)
Moral – Concerned with the judgment of right and wrong in human action or character.
Of – Originating from. Caused by or resulting from.
Peace – Inner freedom from annoyance, distraction or anxiety. Calm. Serenity. Tranquility. Freedom from strife or distress.
Poise – Steadiness, equilibrium, balance, dignity. Self-confident manner. Composure.
Prophet – One who speaks for God by divine inspiration.
Reality – Quality or state of being actual or true.
Social – Living together in communities.
Spirit led – Subordinated to truth, ennobled by love and restrained by fairness – justice.
Spiritual – Concerned with or affecting the soul.
Sublime – The highest degree. Majestic.
Subordinate – Subject to the authority or control of.
Super mortal – Spiritual. Divine.
Supernatural – Above, over or outside the natural.
Sympathetic – Showing kind feelings toward others.
Transcendent – Above and independent of the material universe.
Truth – An understanding of cosmic relationships, universe facts and spiritual values. (UB 1138:6) The living spirit relationship of all things and beings as they are coordinated in the eternal ascent Godward. (UB 647:4)
Value – A principle, quality or standard considered worthwhile or desirable.
Wisdom – Understanding of what is true, right or lasting. Combines insight as to what is real with experience as to how it works.
Worship – Reverent love and allegiance; Ardent, humble devotion. Very deep appreciation and gratitude regarding goodness.
End
Personal Spirituality
By Kaye Cooper From the Joyful living Program
Spirituality is the process we follow to discover our values, grasp meanings and develop good, strong and loyal character. I had better repeat that because I probably took you by surprise. Spirituality is the process we follow to discover our values, grasp meanings and develop good, strong and loyal character. Personal spirituality is the individually directed path each person follows in attending to her own spiritual needs. There lives within each of our minds a perfect spirit who is there to guide us to perfection by enlightening our experience with insights into meaning. It is entirely our choice whether to pay attention or not.
The most exciting adventure of our mortal lives is to explore our inner experience of the spirit within to find the insights of Spirit, and to bring that influence into our lives progressively so that Spirit’s love saturates everything we think, feel or do. As we progress in expressing the spirit’s loving nature, the spirit’s courage, integrity, sincerity, fairness, and compassion are reflected in the way we treat others. This way of life is a self-discovering and self-creating adventure. We begin with no knowledge of the goal, no knowledge of the techniques of discovery and no knowledge of the certainty of success. As we succeed in living the Spirit-reflecting life, we come to recognize that we are becoming the person we have dreamed of being by means of our own decisions and loyal expression of our values. We are fulfilling our own deepest yearnings of what we wish to be.
What does it mean to be spiritual? It is to lead our lives out of a spiritual core—seeking and following inner wisdom. Inner wisdom is not just applied experience. Experience teaches us the rational cause and effect patterns that improve our decision-making. But what we learn from experience is lifted above knowledge of cause and effect into truth, values and meanings by insight. Insight is the sense from within ourselves about what is true and right—not just what is factually accurate, but what is true, what harmonizes with our inmost convictions and what is consistent with reality as we know it should be.
To Be Spiritual
Spiritual living means to encourage growth in ourselves beyond the physical and intellectual. To be spiritual is to move beyond living life to clothe, feed, and shelter ourselves; to move beyond using our intellects to solve problems and direct our material achievements. To be spiritual is to live beyond the goal of understanding the rules of the material world around us and manipulating that world to our benefit.
To be spiritual is to live the adventure of becoming morally the best we can imagine—and then imagining farther to even better and higher selves. Spirituality is to become the ideals and values that we see and admire. It is to discover who we really are and who we can become. To be spiritual is to appreciate beauty—physical and emotional—to recognize truth, that which is God’s will and way, and live it, and to become good—and progressively better.
To grow in spirituality is to let go of the weaknesses, failures and inadequacies we recognize in ourselves so that we may grasp and adopt higher values and meanings. The human condition requires imperfection so that we can choose to improve. We will not destroy our faults. We will outgrow them, leaving our faults behind; discarded, outgrown and eventually forgotten.
Tools to be Used Daily
We call our program Joyful Living. Joyful Living provides you with the tools to pursue your personal spirituality—tools to be used daily. If you put the tools to work, you will evolve and grow toward a very achievable goal.
Joyful Living will help you to reach within yourself to make contact with your Spirit Within. We each have within us a source of spiritual insight and revelation that speaks constantly to us of unselfishness and the urge to help others. This program will provide you with easy techniques to open yourself to awareness of these insights.
The Spiritual Family
All of us who pursue the adventure of seeking the wisdom within us and living the spiritual life form a spiritual family. We are, after all, children of Spirit. This family is based not on our genetics, but on our choices to live out of our spiritual selves. There is a type of magnetism that emanates from a person who has fallen in love with higher values and is on the path of growth. It is more than our recognition of each other. It is a divine mystery we are blessed to experience. The love that develops as the family members recognize each other and grow in relationship is an amazing thing to experience. It is a love that feeds us with spiritual food and nurtures our spiritual growth. The love we give and the love we receive becomes our spiritual life-blood.
Because we are engaged in growing spiritually, all members of the family strive to treat each other well. We encourage and support each other in our efforts. We take great joy in the successes of each other. And each person we encounter is a potential brother or sister in this spiritual family. Each person we meet is full of spiritual potential waiting to be discovered and unleashed. And how gratifying when we are privileged to help someone to discover the spiritual potential within themselves and join the spiritual family.
Sometimes there are vast differences between family members. As brothers and sisters, we can enjoy and appreciate these differences as a part of a master plan to enable each of us to have special gifts we can offer to the family. We brothers and sisters love and value each other despite the differences—sometimes we even appreciate and enjoy the differences.
End
One Central Truth
We are All Children of God
By Kaye Cooper
You began as a twinkle in the eye of God. God wanted a child. God dreamed about this precious little one. And loved you before you were even conceived. (God loves you.) God planned for you and made provisions for you. God provided a nursery and furnished it in beauty. And one day, you were spiritually conceived. (Conception) God sent a living part of Godself to live within your human identity and to conceive a new spirit being. (The Thought Adjuster indwells you.) That is who you are: the spirit baby of God.
Relax for a moment. Close your eyes if you like. Imagine Mother God smiling and gently lifting you out of the cradle. She cuddles you close, slowly rocks you back and forth, and hums a lullaby. And as she rocks you, she dreams of who you will become. It is just that intimate and warm, the way God loves you. You are God’s precious baby.
(pause) You may open your eyes.
This is an essential truth as I understand it: God is your spirit parent, and God loves you – individually.
Your Heavenly Mother/Father loves you with an infinite love (and you can experience that truth personally).
Your parent, God, loves you. This is a central truth in our relationship with God – the one strategic and essential experience. That truth which changes all of life. That primary experience from which all other spiritual experience flows.
Reflect with me on ways you may experience God’s love for you. There are times when you will have “aha!” moments in life when your mind is illuminated with wisdom and understanding. At other times you will feel an intuition which leads you to choose the higher alternative. You feel a rightness and satisfaction when you choose a higher way.
You will more and more feel loved by a warm, parental spirit who lives within you. As you grow, you will recognize the signs in your life that you are spiritually fostered, provided for and taken care of. Because you know about the universe plan for your future, you will begin to recognize in that plan a parent’s loving care. In grief and distress, you will come to feel comforted and supported. I’m sure that you recognize God’s love in the actions of some people in your life already.
Faith is the positive leading of the spiritual part of you: The Thought Adjuster. That urge to believe and trust is an endowment of your Inner Spirit. Any of the experiences I just listed (and many others) could be the Adjuster’s leading. This leading of the Adjuster within you is real. It is not a figment of your imagination. It is not simply a product of your active mind. You are a tiny spirit growing and becoming recognizable as this child of God. But more than that, faith is also your choosing to trust that leading of your spirit self. From your trust in what the Spirit leads you to believe arises action and attitudes on your part that are consistent with the Spirit’s leading.
When you believe that something real is going on in these experiences, you are exercising faith. Appreciating and giving thanks for these experiences is your faith in action, too. When you try to make your choices in keeping with the way you think you are led, that’s faith. Notice that I did not say, “in keeping with the way you are led.” Sometimes we mistake God’s leading. But honest errors get counted as faith, too. When you take the initiative to ask for God’s input into your decisions, that’s a faith-step. When you incorporate the insights of your “aha!” moments into your life, you take that action because of your maturing faith. When you appreciate the love expressed by others and understand God as the source, that’s faith.
The result of this faith-relationship is a growing sense of the reality of God as a loving, reliable parent. You are increasingly convinced that God is real, that God loves you as a child and that you are special to God. (I realize: God loves me as God’s child.)
Folded into that sense of the reality of God are three other effects: First, realizing that God loves you as a child also carries with it the opportunity to accept God’s forgiveness. When you first make the realization that God loves you, there is often an associated pain in remembering some of your thoughts and behavior. God’s love is such that God didn’t hold those things against you in the first place. You are a child in God’s eyes and children are expected to make mistakes. But you may feel a need to be forgiven. So, we speak of accepting God’s forgiveness. (I accept God’s forgiveness.) There is a catch. While God has already forgiven you, you can not experience God’s forgiveness until you forgive your fellows.
A second result of coming to realize God’s love for you is that you come to trust in God’s watch-care and guidance. (I recognize: God watches over me) Think for a moment about trusting in God’s watch-care. Physically this is a dangerous world. Very unpleasant things happen to people all the time. It is not a natural act to trust God to watch over you even in a spiritual sense. It is our faith – our response to the Adjuster’s assurance within us – that convinces us that God watches over us. And as we have that faith, we begin to recognize the results of God’s watch-care in our lives.
The third thing which unfolds from experiencing and accepting God’s love for you is this:
You yearn to be like God (i.e., you wholeheartedly want and honestly seek God’s guidance.) (I yearn to be like God.) You probably anticipated with excitement becoming an adult for the very reason that you could make your own decisions. It’s not a natural act to voluntarily become the child again, to ask for God’s advice, and then to take that advice! But that is what will happen… and must happen.
Faith is not natural. Our material, animal nature has no such characteristic. We have faith because it is the gift of God. It is a spiritual import. This sense inside us comes from that very spark of God which makes us a spirit child. Faith is what brings you to this point of spiritual conception. The Adjuster’s love and your acceptance of it as real gives life to the spirit child. You are born of the spirit, born into the family of God. (Birth)
You are born because you have become God conscious. Becoming God conscious is not an intellectual understanding of the fact that God created you. Becoming God conscious is something for which there is no word in any human language. THE URANTIA BOOK describes it as a sense, a feeling, intuition, or an experience – and says that the phrase “God-consciousness” is the closest the revelators could come in English. (UB 1130:5 / 103:1.6)
This faith experience of realizing your place as a beloved spiritual child of a wonderful spiritual parent is a great mystery. It takes place at the very fringes of your consciousness and eludes your limited language. The UB says when you become conscious of having found God, your soul experiences “an indescribable restlessness of triumph in [that] discovery.” (UB 1121 :6 / 102:3.4)
After being born into the spiritual family, there follows a growing up. (Growing Up) That is a very prosaic way of saying that you are transformed and progressively shaped by spirit from a newborn infant (in a spiritual sense) into a toddler and ultimately into the spiritual adult you are to become.
Let’s look for a moment at this process of growing up spiritually:
- First of all, you come to recognize others as your brothers and sisters. (I recognize brothers & sisters) Intellectually, it is obvious that if you are God’s child and I am God’s child, then we are siblings, children of the same parent, a part of the same family. But you experience this truth through feeling and insight. You come to feel kin to others, first to those who share your understanding of and love for God, but later to those who have not yet discovered their spiritual family. Your insight has to do with how you perceive others. When you look at others you begin to see not an enemy or a nuisance, not someone to take advantage of or to avoid. You see someone with problems and weaknesses like you. And as you grow, you begin to see someone you want to get to know, someone you could learn to care for, someone whose welfare you already care about.
- Another result of God-consciousness is an “indescribable restlessness of triumph in discovery” which impels you to seek loving service. You have a welling-up of eternal goodness within your soul. Service allows that goodness to overflow into the lives of others (Service urges). Urges to be of service to these newly discovered brothers and sisters bubble up within you. When I say, “newly discovered,” I am not just talking about when you first realize that we are all God’s children. I am talking about the discovery each day of another person to love. Loving men and women happens one person at a time. And as you come to love a person, there bubbles up within you a desire to serve them.
- A third outgrowth of your faith-grasp of being a child of God is your love for God. You begin to feel an overflowing love for the spiritual Mother/Father who loves you so much and blesses you so thoroughly. God is so loving, so loyal, so dependable, so constant, that you run out of words. And your appreciation goes beyond words into a realm where your voice is silenced, and your mind is overwhelmed (in the very nicest way). This is worship. (Worship.) The UB describes it as “a natural and spontaneous reaction to the recognition of the Father’s matchless personality and because of his lovable nature and adorable attributes.” (UB 65:5 / 5:3.3)
And eventually worship, recognizing others as brothers and sisters, and service urges have an effect on your behavior. As you worship God, each day you become more devoted, more dedicated, more steadfast in your love and appreciation. And you want to contribute to God’s purposes, God’s goals. Your prayer life becomes focused on seeking God’s will. As you come to understand God’s way, you are able to discern what his way would be in the various moments of your life. You do God’s will as best you understand it. (Do God’s will) And that means that you serve your brothers and sisters. It’s really a pretty spontaneous process. Because you see other people as brothers and sisters, you open yourself to relationship with God’s children. And because you are feeling these urges to serve, you follow through—you serve them. (Serve) You don’t just want good, you do good.
The inevitable result of sharing the inner life with God is action.
You are growing up spiritually. Becoming more and more like the spiritual parent who gave you life, the one who nurtures and teaches you. The one who envisioned who you are and who you will become, in the future. The parent who delights in every new word you learn and each new step you take. When this happy parent sees you acting just like Daddy, he loves it!! What a joy you are to God.
All of this would not be complete if I did not mention the repercussions that flow into your life from growing up in this manner.
- Increasing joy. (Joy) Spiritual joy surprises you. It turns up in the most unexpected places. The first place I recall recognizing this kind of joy was in the beauty of nature. One day I took a good look and realized that colors were clearer, light was brighter, air felt purer, movement made my heart sing. There was joy in every season, not just spring! There is joy in simply living one more day.
- Expansion of your capacity to love. (Love) Feeling loved feeds your ability to love. Loving and serving also enables your love to grow. You find it easier with each day to really see people, to understand them, to come to love them.
- Closer and closer identification with God within. You are less and less the material creature you started this mortal life as. You are becoming the spiritual creature who was born of faith. As a faith child, you have an eternal and limitless future. (Eternal Life) You may once have thought that you were a material creature having a spiritual experience. But more and more, you are a spiritual being having a material experience.
This all flows from acceptance of the one central set of truths: Your spirit Parent, God, loves you—individually, has a grand destiny planned for you and has in place an elaborate education system to train you to assume more and more responsibility in his family.
End
The Father’s Business
By Matthew Rapaport
San Francisco
To my mind, “the Father’s Business” evokes images of two distinct kinds of ministry. The first kind is highly spiritual in orientation, outwardly as well as inwardly. The second is, outwardly, more concerned with the secular affairs of the world, though it too must be, inwardly, spiritual in orientation.
God is spirit and His business, in the strictest sense, must also be spiritual. Here is the business of spiritual ministry which must, in the end, involve the sharing of the Gospel – Fatherhood, Brotherhood, and eternal life through faith whether or not this message is associated with The URANTIA Book, bootlegged material from the Book, or any other information about the spiritual universe and our relationship to it. This ministry may include more than the gospel.
It may include elements of intellectual and material ministry to the needs of individuals, but it must, at least, encompass the Gospel. The Father’s business in this sense is that of introducing people to God. After they have been introduced, it is also appropriate to help them expand their relationship to Him. Our Father may have many “businesses,” but this must be the first, last, and most important of them.
Aside from purely spiritual ministry, most of us have multiple secular responsibilities. We are parents, workers, students, and many other things. Done from the proper motivation, these too are the Father’s business. It is our challenge as His partners in creation to do that which contributes to the growth of the Supreme. Our own souls grow in character, and the Supreme emerges in the super universe as we make holy our secular responsibilities through dedication to God’s will.
Jesus lived this sense of his Father’s business right up to the time of his baptism. He acted as dutiful son, student, father, employee, and volunteer. The way in which he carried out these responsibilities is a perfect illustration of living the Father’s business in this sense, a sense in which most of us must live it through all of our lives.
There are common elements to the Father’s business in whatever sense one considers it. Love for and interest in one’s fellows is always a part of doing God’s will. Becoming more socially useful to one’s fellows is the measure (outwardly) of personal spiritual progress, and of success in doing the Father’s business.
There is, of course, nothing contradictory in combining the two senses of the Father’s business. Jesus did this more and more as he grew up. His transition from dutiful child to full-time spiritual minister was gradual. This would seem to be a natural transition. It is made possible by the need for love and expressions of truth, beauty, and goodness, in any life shared with God.
Yet while all work done in God’s glory is holy, it is only natural that eventually, we should be led to yearn for the courage and ability to brighten the lives of others with the most true, beautiful, and good declaration of the Universes; the individual’s relationship to a real, perfect, and wholly loving Father of Lights.
End
We All Need Love…Now!
Kaye Cooper 2020
In times of uncertainty, confusion, and even fear, we all need the comfort and reassurance of love more than ever. Parents and children, friends and strangers, leaders and victims—everyone needs more love. How do we squeeze out more love for those around us, especially our families, when we desperately need to be loved, ourselves?
An answer? Find more sources of love to give. Stick with me now! That may sound impossible, but I want to share with you where I have found the love to give. You have probably already tapped this well of love within you without realizing its source and what an endless supply is available for the asking.
Receiving love is important but giving love refreshes one’s soul too. You get a love benefit from having love flow through you. Have you ever heard a baby cry when you are really tired? If you put aside your own need and discover the compassion to comfort the child, you have connected with the Source of love.
What is it that makes us able to overlook our own weariness and need? You may already have an opinion. I believe that our connection with Spirit gives us the capacity to forget our own needs to help another. Mixed in with all our emotions, thoughts, and physical bodies, we are spiritual beings, as well—children in a spiritual family. And we are connected to the universal source of all selfless love. When we see others (such as that distraught baby) with our spiritual eyes, we can draw to us the love we need—and the strength, wisdom, and courage. So there is a spiritual source of love that we can tap into in order to pass it on to others.
Try it now.
Let’s shift to an exercise of tapping-in and passing-on love. Think of someone you care for and appreciate—someone you know personally. Relax for a moment. Close your eyes if you wish. Imagine this person close to you. Open your heart to appreciate him or her. Focus on the things you appreciate about your loved one. Allow a grateful feeling to expand in your chest. Feel gratitude growing stronger and stronger. See them as the best they can be. This is seeing them as Spirit sees them.
As you progress toward seeing with more spiritual vision, notice your understanding gradually begin to change. Your spiritual eyes see people more like a loving parent sees a precious young child, as full of potential for goodness, as growing, maturing, and as having a marvelous destiny—you view them with gentleness and understanding, without anger or blame.
None of us will be perfect at spiritual vision because, after all, we are all very immature spiritual beings. Nevertheless, seeing with spiritual eyes can change the way we feel. The more loving we feel, the more empowered we are to express our concern and appreciation to another. The more we make the effort to use our spiritual eyes, the stronger our connection to the Source of all love. Continue to explore what you see and feel for a few more moments.
In your everyday life, allow new spiritual love to flow through you to others. Spiritual love is appreciation, kindness, gentleness, trust, graciousness, respect, desire to benefit the other person, and much more high, ethical, unselfish treatment of others. Use this method frequently and you will grow deeper in your spiritual connection, clearer in your spiritual vision, and stronger in your capacity to give your family and friends love in all circumstances!
Peace be with you!
End
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.
End
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You Are A Child of God, Yes You
WILLIAM Cooper 11-8-2016
Following his resurrection, Jesus made 19 appearances to groups of his followers. His message to all of them was that they should go into all the world teaching and preaching to everyone the good news that God is our Father and we are therefore family. Jesus instructed us to follow the leading of the spirit of God within us to do unselfish good in everything. That is the highly condensed or compacted good news. The good news in its fullness is extensive and perhaps infinitely extensive. The following is a first step in decompacting Jesus’s highly compacted good news message.
- You are a spiritual person who inhabits a physical body. They are both you, but the spiritual you is eternal. Your personality, character, and loving memories are part of the spiritual you and survive.
- God is your loving spiritual parent. God the Father is your spiritual father and loves you and cares for you as an excellent father. God the Spirit is your spiritual mother and loves you and cares for you as your mother. Both are very deeply, personally and constantly involved in your welfare and rearing. They are interested foremost in your spiritual rearing, welfare and education. You are a first generation offspring of these two aspects of the one God who is the originator and creator of all that is. You are not a slave, a distant grandchild, an adopted child nor merely analogous to a child of God. You are the real thing and you are loved, forgiven and enjoyed as a unique person.
- All people everywhere are children of God and therefore are entitled to the respect due to the immediate family of the most gracious, generous and powerful person in all of creation. Since all people are children of God, they are all brothers and sisters and should behave with love, compassion and mutual support for one another.
- All children of God have a fabulous, exciting and unique destiny which is important to them and to God and should be encouraged and cooperated with by all persons.
- God’s domain operates as a loving family, not an arbitrary kingdom of servants. The family needs every child. You have an important part to play.
- An immediate two way personal relationship between God and each of his children (through prayer, worship, meditation and ethical living) is available to each child simply for the striving to have such a relationship. The benefits of this relationship are immense, awesome and eternal. (But many of the benefits come through growth, insight and education over time.)
- Each child of God can experience the fatherhood of God and the motherhood of God. For each child, God as father has in mind an eternal career of growing knowledge and wisdom and progressive service to the family. As father, God will give power and authority to each child as soon as he/she is sufficiently educated to exercise power and authority responsibly. (Necessarily limited power in this mortal lifetime.) God as mother comforts, encourages and nurtures each child both physically and spiritually. From physical conception and forever thereafter, God as mother supports, cherishes and comforts every child without preference or qualification. By paying attention to these parental ministrations, the children of God can get to know their spiritual parents.
End
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)
End
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.
End