Author: billsbooksnbeyon

You Are a Child of God

You are a child of God.

It is your task and destiny to grow to be like God.

Your Father will lead you if you will follow.

Love and serve God. Love and serve your fellows.

This is the way of truth, the way of goodness. There is no other way.

Salvation is by faith in goodness.

Faith is belief so full and sincere that it motivates action, motivates life.

Liberty is through living the truth God within you reveals to you.

When you follow God within, you follow the true shepherd.

Bill Cooper

End

Back to Top

Celebrate

Often, very often,

Life’s most valuable lessons

Derive from our failures,

Not our successes.

So strive to achieve valued and worthwhile goals.

If you succeed, then you succeed.

But if you fail, celebrate

Because you have set something really meaningful in motion for your soul.

Bill Cooper 2006

End

Back to Top

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

End

Back to Top

David Zebedee

William Cooper

Jesus spent his twenty-sixth year preparing to leave home.  He spent a lot of time with each family member.  His oldest brother, James, married Esta.  His oldest sister, Meriam, married his good friend Jacob, the son of the stone mason.

Then one rainy Sunday morning in January of his twenty-seventh year he said his good-byes to his family, explained that he was going to Tiberius and other cities around the Sea of Galilee.  With that he left home, never again to be a regular member of the household.

Jesus spent only a week in Tiberius.  Then he traveled through Magdala and Bethsaida to Capernaum where he stopped to visit with his father’s friend, Zebedee the boat builder.  Zebedee’s three sons, James, David and John were fishermen.

Jesus was expert at designing and building and he was a master at working with wood.  Zebedee had long known of Jesus’ skill.  For a long time, Zebedee had contemplated making improved boats.  He laid his plans before Jesus and invited him to join in the enterprise.  Jesus readily consented.

So, from this commercial transaction arose the extraordinary friendships between Jesus, Zebedee, Salome – Zebedee’s wife, and their sons James, David and John.  Jesus lived in the Zebedee home for a little over a year.  He created a new type of boat as well as the entirely new methods to build it.  The boat was far safer than earlier designs and within five years nearly all the boats on the Sea of Galilee had been built in Zebedee’s shop.  Jesus greatly enjoyed working with Zebedee.  They worked together like very compatible father and son.

Zebedee’s four daughters looked upon Jesus as an elder brother.  Jesus often went fishing with James, John and David.  The Zebedee family almost worshipped Jesus.  Zebedee was moderately wealthy, not rich, but what he had was at Jesus’ disposal throughout Jesus’ life.  Zebedee’s home was Jesus’ home.  Several of the healings, sermons and teachings recounted in the scriptures took place in the Zebedee back yard at Bethsaida.  The training of the apostles took place at Zebedee’s home.

James and John Zebedee were attracted to Jesus’ philosophy and religion.  David admired and respected Jesus for his carpentry skills.  All three loved him more than life itself.  James and John became apostles.  David too became fully involved in Jesus’ ministry but as an administrator rather than as a preacher or teacher.

David ran the Evangelist training camp at Bethsaida following the apostle’s first preaching tour.  Simon Peter saw to the teaching and training of evangelists but David ran the camp and it was large.  For five months there were between 500 and 1500 people in residence.  David saw to the tents, food, security, sanitation, etc. and made the camp self-supporting.

When Jesus and the apostles decided to move on, it was David who closed-down the camp, sold the tents and other assets and turned the proceeds over to the apostolic treasury.  He assumed a lot of responsibility for a twenty something year old fisherman.  But the sons of Zebedee were intelligent, courageous, and versatile people.

The first preaching tour when the apostles went out by twos into the countryside probably suggested the need for a messenger service to David.  David’s principal service to Jesus and the building of Jesus’ new kingdom was the intelligence service including secret agents and the messenger service.  The messenger service consisted of more than 25 runners who carried messages and funds among centers of believers, evangelists, and Jesus’ camp.  David was the organizer and dispatcher of the messengers.  They were bound to David and to each other by solemn oath.  They delivered messages as far away as Alexandria in Egypt and established an overnight messenger service between Bethsaida and Jerusalem.  This could not have been either safe or comfortable for these young men.

David was often in Jesus’ camp and in his personal presence. He was a trusted and loved friend of Jesus and rightly so.  David was present in Jerusalem for the crucifixion Passover.  He learned from his secret agents in Jerusalem of the plot to capture and kill Jesus and of Judas’ involvement, but he never revealed this to the apostles.  David took Jesus aside after the noon meal on last supper Thursday to ask him if Jesus knew and Jesus replied “Yes David, I know all about it, and I know that you know, but see to it that you tell no one.  But be assured in your own heart that the will of God will prevail in the end.”

Thursday evening was full of Jesus’ final admonitions to the apostles, his final discourse, the last supper, the foot washing, the new commandment, the vine and the branches and it was near midnight when Jesus and his exhausted apostles returned to their camp on Mount Olivet.  And David was there.  Of the seventy followers of Jesus encamped there, only David and John Mark and Jesus himself knew that Judas and the Sanhedrin guards would come to arrest Jesus that night.  The others expected trouble on Friday morning.  Jesus sent his apostles and other followers to their tents to sleep except James, John, and Peter whom he requested to go with him to pray.

Jesus asked David to send him his fastest and most trustworthy messenger.  David brought Jacob, a former runner in the overnight messenger service between Bethsaida and Jerusalem.  Jesus sent Jacob to Abner in Philadelphia with this message.  “The Master sends greetings of peace to you and says that the hour has come when he will be delivered into the hands of his enemies who will put him to death, but he will rise from the dead and appear to you shortly, before he goes to the Father, and that he will then give you guidance to the time when the new teacher will come to live in your hearts.”  As Jacob was departing, Jesus said to him “Fear not what any man may do to you, Jacob, for this night an unseen messenger will run by your side.”

Jesus’ camp probably did not ordinarily have sentries, but this evening it would.  David had arranged personally to take sentry outpost duty on the upper trail to the camp but before he departed, he spoke his farewell to Jesus.  “Master I have had great joy in my service with you.  My brothers are your apostles, but I have delighted to do the lesser things as they should be done, and I shall miss you with all my heart when you are gone.”  And then Jesus said to David, “David, my son, others have done what they were directed to do, but this service have you done of your own heart, and I have not been unmindful of your devotion.  You, too, shall someday serve with me in the eternal kingdom.”  As he prepared to go on watch by the upper trail, David said to Jesus, “You know, Master, I sent for your family, and I have word by a messenger that they are tonight in Jericho.  They will be here early tomorrow forenoon since it would be dangerous for them to come up the bloody way by night.” And Jesus looking down on David only said, “Let it be so, David.”  David then departed the camp to take up his post as sentry at the upper trail and Jesus went apart to pray.

When David heard the commotion in the camp upon Jesus’ arrest, he rushed back and began to set up a center for the messenger service to gather and disseminate information regarding Jesus’ capture, trial, and crucifixion.  John stayed with Jesus throughout the hours of his trial.  David quickly established a rotation of messengers who contacted John about each half hour to find out what was happening.  Then David dispatched this news to Jesus’ followers in hiding around Jerusalem and elsewhere, even as far away as Philadelphia, Sidon, Damascus, and Alexandria in Egypt.  David acted very quickly to get information in and out and he always seemed to have sufficient messengers on hand.  Only when Jesus was laid in Joseph of Aramathea’s tomb did David dismiss his messengers for Passover; but he instructed all of them to report to him Sunday morning at Nichodemus’ house where he would spend the Passover with other believers in hiding. David was the only one of Jesus’ leading disciples who took a literal and matter of fact view of Jesus’ assertion that he would die and rise again on the third day.  Therefore, David directed his messengers to be present Sunday morning to carry the news.

Jesus was resurrected at 3:02 am Sunday morning.  His first appearance was to Mary Magdalene and four other women at the tomb at 3:30 and the second one was 15 minutes later at the tomb and again to Mary.  The third was to his brother James at Bethany at noon.  So, at 9:30 when the last of the messengers reported to David, the only report of seeing Jesus was from Mary Magdalene.  The despondent and depressed followers of Jesus discounted her report as seeing things that weren’t there.  They believed Jesus would return someday but not so soon.  They thought that his body had been taken and hidden by the Jewish officials.  David believed otherwise and he was encouraged by the fact that Jesus’ grave clothes remained in the tomb as though his body had disappeared without disturbing them.  This was too tidy and too difficult for Sanhedrin body thieves.

When the messengers gathered at Nicodemus’ house and were receiving their message, most of the believers present urged David not to send messages advising Jesus had risen.  David would not be dissuaded.  At 9:30 David assembled his 26 messengers in the courtyard of Nicodemus’ home and addressed them as follows: “Men and brethren, all this time you have served me in accordance with your oath to me and to one another, and I call you to witness that I have never yet sent out false information at your hands.  I am about to send you on your last mission as volunteer messengers of the kingdom, and in so doing I release you from your oaths and thereby disband the messenger corps.  Men, I declare to you that we have finished our work.  No more does the Master have need of mortal messengers; he has risen from the dead.  He told us before they arrested him that he would die and rise again on the third day.  I have seen the tomb—it is empty.  I have talked with Mary Magdalene and four other women, who have talked with Jesus.  I now disband you, bid you farewell, and send you on your respective assignments, and the message which you shall bear to the believers is: ‘Jesus has risen from the dead; the tomb is empty.’”

David remained at Bethany with Lazarus’ sisters, Martha and Mary and helped them dispose of their possessions so that they could Join Lazarus at Philadelphia.  David married Jesus’ youngest sister, Ruth, in early June and the following day he, Ruth, Martha and Mary went to Philadelphia to live and where he became the administrator and financial steward of the early church at Philadelphia.

Conclusions:

The new teacher Jesus promised to Abner is the spirit of Jesus which has come to live in our hearts and who will lead and guide our actions.

• Praise God, Jesus is still a person.  He lives.
• Praise God, there is life after this life.
• Praise God, evil cannot defeat good.

The story of David charms me each time I hear it.  David’s love for Jesus and his gift of himself to serving Jesus move me every time I go over this story.  David is my friend now and I hope he is
Peace be unto you.

End

Back to Top

LIFE AFTER “DEATH”

Where We Go When We Die

Based on information in the Urantia Book
By Jackson Allen

THE CREATOR SON (Jesus), when on Urantia(Spirit name of our planet), spoke of the “many mansions in the Father’s universe.” In a certain sense, all fifty-six of the encircling worlds of Jerusem are devoted to the transitional culture of ascending mortals, but the seven satellites of world number one are more specifically known as the mansion worlds.

THE FIRST MANSION WORLD

47:3.1 On the mansion worlds, the resurrected mortal survivors resume their lives just where they left off when overtaken by death. When you go from Urantia to the first mansion world, you will notice considerable change, but if you had come from a more normal and progressive sphere of time, you would hardly notice the difference except for the fact that you were in possession of a different body; the tabernacle of flesh and blood has been left behind on the world of nativity.

47:3.2 The very center of all activities on the first mansion world is the resurrection hall, the enormous temple of personality assembly. This gigantic structure consists of the central rendezvous of the seraphic destiny guardians, the Thought Adjusters, and the archangels of the resurrection. The Life Carriers also function with these celestial beings in the resurrection of the dead.

47:3.3 The mortal-mind transcripts and the active creature-memory patterns as transformed from the material levels to the spiritual are the individual possession of the detached Thought Adjusters; these spiritized factors of mind, memory, and creature personality are forever a part of such Adjusters. The creature mind-matrix and the passive potentials of identity are present in the morontia soul intrusted to the keeping of the seraphic destiny guardians. And it is the reuniting of the morontia-soul trust of the seraphim and the spirit-mind trust of the Adjuster that reassembles creature personality and constitutes resurrection of a sleeping survivor.

47:3.4 If a transitory personality of mortal origin should never be thus reassembled, the spirit elements of the nonsurviving mortal creature would forever continue as an integral part of the individual experiential endowment of the onetime indwelling Adjuster.

47:3.5 From the Temple of New Life, there extend seven radial wings, the resurrection halls of the mortal races. Each of these structures is devoted to the assembly of one of the seven races of time. There are one hundred thousand personal resurrection chambers in each of these seven wings terminating in the circular class

assembly halls, which serve as the awakening chambers for as many as one million individuals. These halls are surrounded by the personality assembly chambers of the blended races of the normal post-Adamic worlds. Regardless of the technique which may be employed on the individual worlds of time in connection with special or dispensational resurrections, the real and conscious reassembly of actual and complete personality takes place in the resurrection halls of mansonia number one. Throughout all eternity you will recall the profound memory impressions of your first witnessing of these resurrection mornings.

47:3.6 From the resurrection halls you proceed to the Melchizedek sector, where you are assigned permanent residence. Then you enter upon ten days of personal liberty. You are free to explore the immediate vicinity of your new home and to familiarize yourself with the program which lies immediately ahead. You also have time to gratify your desire to consult the registry and call upon your loved ones and other earth friends who may have preceded you to these worlds. At the end of your ten-day period of leisure you begin the second step in the Paradise journey, for the mansion worlds are actual training spheres, not merely detention planets.

47:3.7 On mansion world number one (or another in case of advanced status), you will resume your intellectual training and spiritual development at the exact level whereon they were interrupted by death. Between the time of planetary death or translation and resurrection on the mansion world, mortal man gains absolutely nothing aside from experiencing the fact of survival. You begin over there right where you leave off down here.

47:3.8 Almost the entire experience of mansion world number one pertains to deficiency ministry. Survivors arriving on this first of the detention spheres present so many and such varied defects of creature character and deficiencies of mortal experience that the major activities of the realm are occupied with the correction and cure of these manifold legacies of the life in the flesh on the material evolutionary worlds of time and space.

47:3.9 The sojourn on mansion world number one is designed to develop mortal survivors at least up to the status of the post-Adamic dispensation on the normal evolutionary worlds. Spiritually, of course, the mansion world students are far in advance of such a state of mere human development.

47:3.10 If you are not to be detained on mansion world number one, at the end of ten days you will enter the translation sleep and proceed to world number two, and every ten days thereafter you will thus advance until you arrive on the world of your assignment.

47:3.11 The center of the seven major circles of the first mansion world administration is occupied by the temple of the Morontia Companions, the personal guides assigned to ascending mortals. These companions are the offspring of the local universe Mother Spirit, and there are several million of them on the morontia worlds of Satania. Aside from those assigned as group companions, you will have much to do with the interpreters and translators, the building custodians, and the excursion supervisors. And all of these companions are most co-operative with those who have to do with developing your personality factors of mind and spirit within the morontia body.

47:3.12 As you start out on the first mansion world, one Morontia Companion is assigned to each company of one thousand ascending mortals, but you will encounter larger numbers as you progress through the seven mansion spheres. These beautiful and versatile beings are companionable associates and charming guides. They are free to accompany individuals or selected groups to any of the transition-culture spheres, including their satellite worlds. They are the excursion guides and leisure associates of all ascending mortals. They often accompany survivor groups on periodic visits to Jerusem, and on any day you are there, you can go to the registry sector of the system capital and meet ascending mortals from all seven of the mansion worlds since they freely journey back and forth between their residential abodes and the system headquarters…………………………..
Urantia Paper #47

End

Back to Top

Spirit Assisted Thinking and Living

By: Bill Cooper
May 2006

Spiritual living is living incorporating the assistance of the Spirit Within us. Our Thought Adjusters are the Spirit Within us and will lead us according to God’s will for our lives. Loyally following the leading of our Thought Adjusters is religion of the Spirit. It is the religion Jesus practiced and the religion he taught and modeled for his Urantia followers and for his universe. To be “religious” about anything is to be loyal, sincere, trustworthy, active, and enthusiastically committed. Reliably and intentionally following the leading of the Spirit constitutes religion of the Spirit and it is spiritual living. Religion of the Spirit is a unique path for each individual and it requires no priest, no church, no theology nor any rules made or interpreted by other humans.

Spirit Assisted Thinking

Spirit assisted thinking should be an integral part of spiritual living and religion of the Spirit. It is a method for accessing and implementing our Thought Adjuster’s leading. Spirit assisted thinking is thinking aided by the Adjuster. It is a product of communion with one’s Thought Adjuster. It also includes attuning to the truth instincts of the cosmic mind. Spirit assisted thinking involves establishing habits and training and disciplining our minds to receive and use these spiritual / mindal instincts and leadings. The leadings and teachings of our Thought Adjusters need to be brought into our conscious minds in some way in order for us to make decisions and take action on them. Spirit assisted thinking is how we invite these superconscious leadings into our conscious minds. It is precisely the kind of thinking that a child of God who is trying to follow the Spirit’s leading should do. It is talking with and listening to the Spirit to get the Spirit’s suggestions. The kingdom (family) of God is within and that is where the Spirit of God resides and teaches the soul of each human. Spirit assisted thinking incorporates the Spirit of God into our thinking process and allows the inner kingdom to flow into our conscious mind.

Spiritual living is living your life by sincerely trying to follow the leading of your Thought Adjuster in everything you do and think. This connotes communion with your own Inner Spirit and loyalty to the way of love and service which the Spirit will suggest. Your Thought Adjuster is your source and authority regarding the will of God for your life.

This focus on “Spirit assisted thinking” was suggested by two references in The Urantia Book. One of these is found at UB 1213:1 /110:7.6. It says that few mortals are real thinkers and this is a great handicap in reception of the Thought Adjuster’s spiritual pleas translated from the universal broadcasts of love proceeding from the Father. Spirit assisted thinking requires us to spiritually develop and discipline our minds to the point of favorable connection with our Thought Adjuster. Our animal mind is almost completely dominated by chemical and electrical forces inherent in our physical natures. Therefore, we must train our minds to control these forces in order to be receptive to Thought Adjuster leading. Adjusters are constantly communicating to us. It is our failure to connect consciously which prevents real thinking. Our Adjusters long to make direct contact with our conscious, choice making mortal mind and they rejoice when they are successful.

Reality Response

The second key reference is found at UB pp. 191-192 / 16:6. It says there is inherent in cosmic mind a quality which can be called the “reality responses”. It is what saves will creatures from being helpless victims of the assumptions of science, philosophy and religion. Cosmic mind unfailingly responds on three levels of universe reality.

1. Reality domain of the physical senses – differentiation of the factual and the nonfactual – reflective conclusions based on cosmic response.
2. Reality domain of morals in the philosophical realm – the recognition of relative right and wrong.
3. Reality domain of religious experience – personal realization of divine fellowship – recognition of spirit values – awareness of sonship with God.

These cosmic responses are innate in cosmic mind and the experience of living never fails to develop these cosmic intuitions. It is sad however that so few persons on Urantia enjoy cultivating these qualities of courageous and independent cosmic thinking incorporating reality responses into their thinking processes.

Spirit assisted thinking consciously subjects thoughts to these reality tests by sensing for reality or nonreality.

Religion of Jesus

High gear spiritual performances await the new revelation of the religious life of Jesus and the more general acceptance of the real religion of Jesus. UB 2086:3 / 195:10.4. I presume the new revelation of Jesus’ religious life is delivered by the Urantia Book. The UB says Jesus’ personal religion was religiously following the leading of his Thought Adjuster.

We can look to Jesus’ practices as our model for spirit assisted thinking and for spiritual living. We have two good descriptions of Jesus’ technique of spirit assisted thinking. At UB 2089:0 /196:0.10 there is a list of what prayer was to Jesus. That list tells us how Jesus used prayer to work out answers to his life problems. At UB 1774-1777 / 160:1-2 the philosopher, Rodan, describes how Jesus used his contact with his Inner Spirit to do real thinking. Rodan was a Greek philosopher from Alexandria, Egypt who spent weeks carefully observing Jesus and learning his practices and his teachings from Jesus’ apostles. He was truly a great intellect. His writings have been lost but the Urantia Book recovers his observations about Jesus from the celestial records of our spiritual family.

At UB 1774-1777 / 160:1-2 Rodan says he learned the greatest of all methods of problem solving from Jesus. That method was Jesus’ practice of the isolation of worshipful meditation which was done as follows: Jesus went off by himself. He communed with the Father. He appropriated spiritual energy for the solution of the higher problems of a moral and spiritual nature. He thereby gathered strength and wisdom for the ordinary conflicts of living. Rodan observed that this worshipful problem-solving practice brings:

Relaxation that renews the mind.

Illumination (spiritual insight) which inspires the soul.

Courage to face your problems bravely.

Self-understanding which obliterates debilitating fear.

Consciousness of union with divinity which equips you with the assurance enabling you to dare to be like God. [Consciousness of union sounds a lot more intimate and a lot more permanent than just consciousness of contact.]

Rodan also observed that the relaxation of this practice of spiritual communion has wonderful consequences:

1. Relief of tension.
2. Removal of conflicts.
3. Augmentation of the resources of personality [The resources of personality unify spirit, mind and body and enable us to make value choices.]

As Rodan analyzed it, Jesus’ style of meditation combines meditation and relaxation. Meditation makes the contact of mind with spirit. Relaxation determines the capacity for spiritual receptivity. From the philosopher’s point of view, the meditative interchange of strength for weakness, courage for fear, the will of God for the mind of self – constitutes worship.

It becomes more urgent as society becomes more complex for God-knowing individuals to form protective habitual practices to conserve and augment their spiritual energies. Jesus’ style of prayer / meditation / worship is a good model of how to do this.

In his prayer time Jesus engaged in solitary surveys of the problems of living and sought new stores of wisdom and energy for meeting the many demands of social service. Jesus’ prayer practice quickens and deepens the supreme purpose of living by subjecting the total personality [everything you are] to the consequences of contacting divinity. In his prayer / meditation / worship practice, Jesus grasped for new and better methods of adjusting himself to the ever-changing situations of living existence. He effected those vital reconstructions and readjustments of his personal attitudes which are essential to enhanced insight into everything worthwhile and real and he did all this with an eye to consistency with God’s will. Rodan was really impressed.

Jesus’ Use of Prayer as a Spirit Assisted Thinking Mechanism

The following is the list from UB 2089 /196:.0.10 of what prayer was to Jesus. It pretty clearly identifies what topics Jesus was communing about and suggests what he was saying in his prayers. His prayer life was the highest of spirit assisted thinking. These are at the upper edge of what I am able to grasp but if I read them slowly, repeatedly and reflectively, with intent to really understand and participate in each statement, I find I can understand them and can even create and enjoy examples of that application of prayer. But, I have to ask the Spirit a lot of clarifying questions in the process.

To Jesus Prayer Could be Any or All of These:

Sincere expression of spiritual attitude

Declaration of soul loyalty

Recital of personal devotion

Expression of thanksgiving

Avoidance of emotional tension

Prevention of conflict

Exaltation of intellection

Ennoblement of desire

Vindication of moral decision

Enrichment of thought

Invigoration of higher inclinations

Consecration of impulse

Clarification of viewpoint

Declaration of faith

Transcendental surrender of will

Sublime assertion of confidence

Revelation of courage

Proclamation of discovery

Confession of supreme devotion

Validation of consecration

Technique for adjustment of difficulties

Mighty mobilization of soul powers to withstand all human tendencies toward selfishness, evil, and sin

Jesus’ style of worship / communion eliminates prejudice by completely opening to spirit and God’s way and by applying the virtues of God to his considerations. Prejudice is having your mind made up about someone or something before hearing the evidence and even regardless of the evidence. Eliminating or at least avoiding prejudice is important to spiritual thinking because prejudice blinds the soul to the recognition of truth. The only way to eliminate your prejudice is by sincere devotion of the soul to the adoration of a cause that is all embracing and all inclusive of one’s fellows. The kingdom / family of God is where the spirit of God leads the soul of man. It is the will of God in action and experience. It is service, love, forgiveness, tolerance, forbearance and much more. Extending the family of God is the worthy cause that is all inclusive. Extending and empowering the family of God is the adventure God invites us to join. It is God’s fond desire for us to be part of his adventure.

Avoidance is a temporary patch on prejudice. One method of avoidance of prejudice is to admit that it might be involved and resolve to guard against its effects.

Exercises to Experience and Practice Spirit Assisted Thinking

Relaxation and meditation technique used by Jesus and observed and recommended by Rodan.

1. Relax by being mindful of your breathing. As you inhale medium sized breaths, imagine that you are breathing in spiritual strength, vitality and optimism. As you breathe out, imagine that you are exhaling preoccupation, pessimism and physical exhaustion. When your mind is calm and focused, proceed.
2. Identify the joy or concern you wish to visit with Father about. Describe for Father the significance of the choices involved in the matter you are considering.
3. Carry out both sides of an imaginary conversation with Father.
4. The objectives in this are to make it easier for your Adjuster to register ideas in your conscious mind and for you to recognize reality responses and to use them both in making decisions.

Remember that the voice of the Adjuster is still, small, suggestive, and not powerful or demanding. So, permit the silence to linger and listen into it for your Adjuster’s quiet responses. These are likely to be questions which call for decisions based on values, meanings, and truth. Drift back and forth between prayer / discussion and worship / admiration.

Contemplation of What Prayer Was to Jesus

Relax, as in the preceeding exercise, and leisurely contemplate the individual statements of what prayer was to Jesus. Ask for understanding of how to use prayer in each of the ways Jesus used it. Ask for insights. Talk to Father. Ask him questions. Restate whatever relevant thoughts come to you. Be sure to listen. Thank Jesus for revealing each purpose, use and value of prayer. Thank him for his bestowal and constant present ministry. Discuss, adore, and pursue. Drift back and forth between prayer / discussion and worship / admiration. Meditate on what prayer was to Jesus and how prayer can serve you in that way.

The term “Worshipful Problem Solving” is descriptive of this process. It means drifting back and forth between high prayer of sincere conversation with our Father about things that concern us and contemplation of the wonderful qualities and behavior of our loving, merciful, generous, forgiving, gracious, tolerant, faithful, and constant Father. The result is a mixture of thanksgiving and prayer for spiritual consequences mixed with worshipful adoration of God’s goodness.

Direct Approach to Adjuster Communication

Thinking assisted by one’s thought Adjuster is probably less likely to be conscious because we need a fairly high level of spiritual achievement and personality balance to be able to handle such contact. So, the spirit shelters us until we are mature enough to maintain our balance during such conscious Thought Adjuster contact. But you might be ready and not know it. So here is a suggestion for direct approach to your Adjuster. At UB 1213:5 / 110:7.10 we can see part of what an Adjuster said to his human associate about their relationship. It seems safe to assume that your Adjuster would say similar things to you. Your Adjuster voluntarily assumed the task of leading you into realization and understanding of God’s love, mercy, tolerance, inclusiveness, generosity and other noble virtues. In short, to make God known to you. So here is what the Adjuster said, broken down into discrete comments for ease of consideration:

1. You are the subject of my solicitous devotion.
2. I would never intend to over chastise or discourage you.
3. I plead that you more faithfully give me your sincere cooperation.
4. Please more cheerfully endure the tasks of my emplacement.
5. More faithfully carry out the program of my arrangement.
6. More patiently go through the trials of my selection.
7. More persistently and cheerfully tread the path of my choosing.
8. I ask you more humbly to receive credit accruing as a result of my ceaseless endeavors.
9. I bestow on you the supreme devotion and affection of a divine spirit.
10. I will function with wisdom and power until the very end, until the last earth struggle is over.
11. I will be true to my personality trust.
12. I exhort you to survive. Do not disappoint me. Do not deprive me of the reward of my patient and intense struggle.
13. On the human will my achievement of personality depends.

Now here is the exercise. Assume that what the Thought Adjuster said above was said to you. I want you to proceed through all the Adjuster’s comments one by one. Relax and meditate on each statement and request for cooperation. Are you ready to make a commitment to your Adjuster regarding his requests? If that is not comfortable, reflect on why not. Ask your mind and your Adjuster to provide insights and help to remedy your withholds and enable your commitments. Remember, your Adjuster and Father’s entire Universe are interested in helping you master your resistances to spiritual thinking and spiritual living. They know you have resistances and do not judge you for them. You can be absolutely honest with Father. There is no punishment for your imperfections.

Exchange Your Mind for the Mind of Jesus

At UB 553:7 / 48:6.16 “Even on Urantia…” we are told “The angels teach the everlasting truth: ‘If your own mind does not serve you well, you can exchange it for the mind of Jesus of Nazareth, who always serves you well’.” How you do that, what happens, and whether you notice a change are all interesting questions to me. I am sorry to say that my experience with this approach is limited and very recent. I am “sorry to say” because my limited and very recent experience of asking for and opening to the mind of Jesus has had surprisingly positive results. Invocation of this change in thinking required nothing special, just a straight-forward and sincere statement of “Yes, I would like to experience exchanging for the mind of Jesus.” The result was immediate and noticeable. It was less like new thoughts and more like the experience of being joined by a beloved companion. It was feeling rather than thought. I am not transformed by having the foreign thoughts of another mind. Instead, what seems to be my own thinking took on a notable advance in optimism and cheerfulness. My trust in the success of God’s will was enhanced. When I think about other people, my attitude is positive and generous. I care for them and I am interested in looking for the goodness in them. This feels like, in cooperation with spirit, there are real possibilities to be achieved. I feel calm, patient, and tolerant. I feel an absence of irritation. “If your mind doesn’t serve you well” doesn’t really require a completely faulty ability to reason. It includes your mind failing to experience truths. It includes even spotty failures among startling achievements. There is a lot which even a capable mind fails or even respectfully refuses to experience. That too is mind not serving you well and can be remedied by exchanging your mind for the mind of Jesus.

These changes have persisted now for a few days and they are reinforced each time I affirm that I want my conscious mind to benefit from the mind of Jesus. Wow! This exchanging my mind for the mind of Jesus is a wonderful, worshipful experience. It could be transforming if allowed to run continuously. It moves in and puts down its own connections quickly.

End

Back to Top

Philosophy of Living Principles

Prepared 2007 by William Cooper

In The Urantia Book (UB 1098:4 / 100:5.1) a high spiritual personality comments: “Too few have learned how to install a philosophy of living in the place of religious authority.”  This is recommending that we abandon religious authority as a guide to living our lives and instead develop and follow a philosophy of living that promotes a noble character.

As one of our activities at the July 27-29, 2007 Spiritual Living Conference at Belton, Texas we undertook to start defining a philosophy of living which would guide our lives.

The dictionary definition of philosophy is a beginning point.

Philosophy is a system for guiding life, as a body of principles of conduct, religious beliefs or traditions.

This definition could include inflexible theology, dogma and religious laws and rules.  Since The Urantia Book advocates a personal religion of following the leading of the fragment of God who inhabits our soul, we can be certain that fossilized rules of righteousness are not part of the philosophy of living recommended.

Our personal philosophy of living can draw upon any source of wisdom.  The Urantia Book is a good source but it is not the only source of truth.  Ultimately the best sources of truth for your philosophy of living are the sources which the Spirit Within can use to enlighten your mind and soul.

A philosophy of living includes such things as:

How do you see the world and your place in it?

frightening, exciting, threatening, growing, dying, a contest, a school, a marvelous adventure a pointless game, material/emotional, spiritual?

How do you view difficulties and challenges?

to be avoided whenever possible?  To be faced with graciousness,

goodness and charm? As opportunities to learn good spiritual habits?

How and what do you think of other people and even of yourself?  Is it Godlike

to forgive and to be tolerant, just and even merciful? Do you evaluate

people in terms of the best they are capable of or of the worst? Do You

relate to other people for the purpose of benefiting yourself or do you

seek to serve their real spiritual, emotional and material needs?

What place do wealth, power and prestige have in your philosophy? Is that as it should be?

Where privilege, advantage, and power for change are concerned, what is fair?

Conference participants undertook to explore several Urantia Book passages and to extract philosophy of living principles as best we could; then we added some principles from unidentified sources.  You could look at these principles and say these are just sayings or facts or maybe even truths.  This is correct because they do not become part of your philosophy of living until you give them that high status and allow them to guide your thoughts and behavior.  Would you like for these to be part of your system for guiding your life?

The following children of God were attending and contributing to this effort.

Matt & Peter Callac,  Sharon Porter & Ted Lanier,   Carol & Skip Weatherford, Mitzie & Michael Dentler, Jean-Pierre & Nickla Heudier, Nancy Johnson. Kaye & Bill Cooper, Jeannie & Brad Wall, Diana Drake and Mary Huggins

Thanks to Carol Weatherford for very promptly typing up our hand-written principles.

This is the report of what we came up with.  No sources are specifically referenced because the authority for one’s philosophy of living should be the Spirit of Truth which ministers to each of us, the Inner Spirit (the spark of God within each of us) and the truth instinct of human mind.  The list of potential principles got long.  Feel free to approach it in pieces to prevent your mind from wandering away from the material. It is worth your time and attention.

Exercise One:

Ask yourself what would be the consequences in your life if you really believed and practiced these principles?  In doing this I was brought face-to-face with some spiritual deficiencies.  I think that is healthy.

Choose any three of these principles randomly by number (1-281), Note the numbers so you have them available for reference in your reflection, and then think deeply about having those three as part of your philosophy of living, your personal guiding principles. How would that affect your attitude toward life? How would it affect your interactions with others? How would it affect your role in the cosmic family? Would you be a better, happier person?

In reflecting on these principles, think deeply on their meanings and their consequences. Don’t just read quickly and pass on. The numbers are for reference only. They do not indicate importance or hierarchy of principles.

Exercise Two:

Engage in a cooperative game with your Inner Spirit The way this game works is that you choose one principle to consider meditatively and in depth (not hurriedly). You remain alert to thoughts or impressions that come to you. Consider whether you agree with the statement and the ways the principle is true. The object is to have fun discovering new insights into the possible meanings and applications of the passage. Things that a quick reading would miss. Expect to discover values embedded in the passage. Expect to be surprised by new meanings, new truth, new beauty, and new goodness. My Inner Spirit and I really enjoy playing this game together.

Love,  Bill Cooper 2-8-2008

End

Back to Top

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:

1. Distinguishing the Forms of Religious Devotion
2. Freedom*, Liberty*, Heroes* and Prophets*
3. Unifying Effect of Religion of the Spirit
4. All Things Are Sacred
5. Proof You Are God Knowing
6. Reassurance of Salvation
7. 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:

1. Primitive religion. The semi natural and instinctive urge to fear mysterious energies and worship* superior forces.  It is chiefly a religion of fear.
2. 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.
3. 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.

1. Ethics* and morals* progress
2. Sublime* trust in the goodness of God
3. Profound courage* and confidence
4. Inexplicable poise* and sustaining tranquility
5. Mysterious poise* and composure of personality
6. Divine trust in ultimate victory
7. Unswerving belief in God
8. Undaunted faith in the soul’s survival
9. Living and triumphing despite hardships
10. Altruism* continues to survive
11. Sublime* belief in universe unity & divine guidance
12. 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

Back to Top

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

Back to Top

Adventures in Spiritual Living
Prayer Project

Written by William H. Cooper at Arlington, Texas. Included in Bill’s Book on Prayer

Introduction:

I have spent considerable time debating with myself whether I should tell you only what you need to know about prayer or what I want you to know about prayer.  There is a difference.  I want you to know much more about prayer than you need to know.  Prayer will do its work (if you pray) even when you know very little about it.  So what you need to know is very little.  There are risks in my saying too much.  Some of the things I want you to know may conflict with what you believe about prayer and may disappoint you and even discourage you from praying if you do not value what prayer really does.  The last thing I want to do is discourage you from praying because every serious and sincere prayer has spiritual benefits for the person praying.

On the other hand, I am concerned that popular concepts of what we can pray for and expect the Spirit to grant are so misguided and so corrupted with expectations of material rewards and miracles that they will have the effect of ultimately discouraging prayer because of disappointed expectations.  Wrong expectations will not be met.  Disappointment will lead many to lose faith in prayer and even in the Spirit.  Your prayers are heard and prayer does work but most often in unexpected and unrecognized ways.  My conviction and my experience is that if we know how to pray, what to pray for and what to expect; then we will recognize the answers to our prayers and our faith and our desire to pray will grow.  I am further encouraged to tell you more rather than less about prayer because I am concerned that if you do not know how to pray, what to pray for and what to expect, then you may conclude that your prayers are not heard or answered, that no one cares and even that the Spirit does not exist.  None of these possible conclusions is true.  You are heard.  You are loved.  All of your prayers are answered – with spiritual blessings.

Objective:

What follows is a fairly lengthy essay on prayer. It is intended to do more than tell you the facts about prayer.  It is my fervent hope that as you read and contemplate, you will experience confirmation of the truth in what I am saying.  Much of what I have written, you can confirm in your soul and embrace.  In affirming, you will actually be participating in a prayer for these qualities.  Sensing the truth in anything makes it relevant, real and alive.  I want you to have prayer experiences while reading this essay which will leave you wanting more contact with your spirit Parent through prayer.  It is your experience of the spiritual consequences of prayer that is important.  The spiritual consequences of prayer are joyful urges to be helpful, tolerant, unselfish, forgiving, encouraging, optimistic, generous, empathetic, etc.  The extent of your knowledge about prayer matters very little unless you use that knowledge to encourage yourself and others to pray for spiritual consequences.

I want you to recognize, appreciate and enjoy truth and pursue it in prayer.  Truth is not mere fact.  Truth is the way all things fit together according to the spiritual laws of love and mutual unselfish service.  The experience of brotherly love is the core of all reality and it is the proof of the Spirit’s truth.  Many experiences harmonize with love and therefore with the Spirit’s truth.  Mercy, forgiveness, service, tolerance, justice, beauty, goodness and fairness are only a few of these love related values which resonate harmonically with love in your soul.  You can sense this resonance if you try.  I sometimes sense it as a calm conviction of the Spirit’s will.  At other times I sense it as a pleasant lightness or flutter just below my heart.  It brings a sense of being treasured, of being included and of being connected.  It is a bit like the joyful feeling of being in love.  As you read what I have written, I hope you will feel for the truth of what is being said.  Open your heart and feel the harmonies in your soul.  Emotions, feelings about events, circumstances and thoughts are where we experience life.  I hope what I write will tune you into your own higher emotions of love, trust, faith, forgiveness, tolerance, generosity, hope, unselfishness, loyalty, etc.

About Prayer:

Jesus wanted his followers to pray, especially for others.  Why pray?  Who benefits from our prayers?  We benefit physically because prayer is a tonic for health.  We benefit psychologically because prayer focuses our attention on finding solutions to the matters we pray about.  We benefit spiritually because prayer deepens the channels of our receptivity to spiritual blessings.  (Spiritual blessings include capacities and desires for loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance and enduring peace.  These blessings all relate to righteous behavior because the Spirit’s will for each of us is that we lead a life of action motivated by our personal attunement with the Spirit who indwells each of us personally.) True prayers are dispatched in faith that they are heard and answered, so the independent and substantial power of faith is involved with the consequences of prayer.  These are all benefits to the one who prays.

Benefit to others prayed for:

When we pray for others, what benefit do they receive if they do not know they are being prayed for?  Praying for another person expresses love for that person.  There is spiritual power in parental/brotherly love which flows to the soul, mind and / or physical energy of the one prayed for.  This spiritual power creates a spiritual blessing available to the one prayed for if they are willing and receptive.  Our prayers for another enhance their capacity to receive spiritual blessings.

Spiritual power manifests as energy and motivation to love and serve others and to love the Spirit and become like it.  Spiritual power motivates us and gives us faith and energy to live according to what has meaning and value to us.  It does this by influencing our emotions and our process of thinking.  It has the ability to transform a person from within by confirming rightness and by bestowing warm spiritual pleasure as a consequence of righteous desires and behavior.  It works in at least three circumstances:

1. When a person chooses to do unselfish good for others, that opens a channel from spiritual sources that empowers the person to express spiritual blessings such as tolerance, faith, forgiveness, service, etc.  These behaviors and attitudes simply seem more appropriate and become easier.
2. When a person is present where another is expressing spiritual blessings, spiritual power causes an attraction or lure for the observer to live that way too.
3. When one person prays for spiritual blessings for another, spiritual power touches the mind and soul of the other person and causes these blessings to become more easily available to the other person and the other person is helped to realize that they have choices to live more spiritually, more fully and more joyously.

Love for others, unselfish attitudes and behavior, has attractive and motivating power associated with it which is a reliable lure to more unselfish behavior.  Potentially, it attracts and motivates anyone exposed to it.  Spiritual power comes from spiritual sources and is experienced as a joyous and affirming emotion.  This power of spiritual attraction spreads like a benign virus which infects the souls of all observers thereby encouraging them to be of service to others and this spreads the virus again by example and experience.

As children of the Spirit, we are given modest spiritual power so that we can learn to use and to appreciate it.  We are given the spiritual power associated with dependability, loyalty, fairness, love, doing the Spirit’s will, righteous living, loving service and faith.  The power that flows from these attitudes and actions is deity power we are given to exercise because we are growing children of  the Spirit.  It is given to be used, not merely preserved.  As we learn to manipulate spiritual power, more will be given until in the far distant future, all will be given.

Prayer is a spiritually powerful technique for self transformation of the one who prays and then those inner consequences have social and cosmic consequences through our attitudes, actions and service to others.

Prayer energizes the spirit life. Prayer is like recharging the spiritual batteries of the soul.  Worship is like tuning the soul into the universal broadcasts of our spiritual Parent.

Prayer is a technique of detachment from daily routine.  It is an avenue of approach to spiritualized self-realization and individuality of intellectual and religious attainment.

Prayer is an antidote for harmful introspection and this is a beneficial ministry to the soul.  There is benefit to praying for one’s fellows.  Jesus usually prayed in the plural, not in the singular and he almost never prayed for himself.

Prayer is:

• *The sincere and longing look of the child to its spirit Parent
• *A psychologic process of exchanging the human will for the divine will
• *Part of the divine plan for making over that which is into that which might be

Inner Teacher:
Children of the Spirit have a spiritual teacher to be listened to and followed.  The teacher is one’s personal inner spiritual mentor.  We must learn how to listen for the Spirit’s leading and how to assess the truth of what we “hear” or sense.  Do our insights bring us to the Spirit and the Spirit to us?  Do they portray the love and the mercy of our spiritual Parent?  Do they enhance our understanding of truth, beauty and goodness?  Relationship with the inner Spirit is the most important thing we can achieve in this life and prayer is the best technique for pursuing relationship with the Spirit within.

What to Expect:

Genuine prayer is a spontaneous outburst of Spirit-consciousness.  It adds to spiritual growth, modifies attitudes and yields that satisfaction which comes from communion with divinity.

One who prays can effectively and immediately approach the threshold of the realm of contact with their inner Spirit.  Meditation often favors contact with the Spirit within but wholehearted and loving service is even more favorable to such contact.

Prayer is the most potent spiritual growth stimulus. The Spirit answers human prayers by giving an increased revelation of truth, an enhanced appreciation of beauty and an augmented concept of goodness.  The deity response to all prayer is the gift of enhanced ability to bear (express) fruits of the spirit and then there are many beneficial consequences of bearing fruits of the spirit including better health, more energy, joy in living, optimism, charm, dependability and trust.  All of these generate positive power for success in all aspects of life.

All sincere praying done in faith makes the praying person more and more receptive to spiritual blessings which in turn manifest spiritual power.   Prayer gradually enables us to exercise more and more spiritual power (spiritual lure and attraction) arising from our characteristic attitudes and behaviors of loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance and enduring peace.  These are fruits of our connection with the Spirit within.  They are the consequences Jesus told his followers to expect as a result of maintaining an inner communion with the Spirit indwelling the soul of each person.  Prayer is the technique for maintaining that inner communion.  Prayer digs deeper channels of receptivity for these spiritual gifts.

The Spirit is almost never going to fix things for us.  It will help us get through anything and everything that comes our way for whatever reason, even if our burdens are our own fault.  We should recognize and accept that sincere prayer has many benefits other than getting our spiritual Parent to fix things for us.  It is the most potent spiritual growth stimulus.  It does a lot to help us solve our own problems.   It has very valuable health and social benefits.  Prayer enables the human ego to look both to self and to spirit for help.  For material help it initiates receptivity to the subconscious reservoir of mortal experience, memory and wisdom. For inspiration and guidance, prayer encourages receptivity to contact with spiritual intelligence.

Some prayers can be unethical, morally wrong.  A prayer is unethical when the petitioner seeks for selfish advantage over his fellows.  Selfish praying transgresses the spirit of all ethics founded on loving justice.  Be fair in all your praying.  Do not expect our spiritual Parent to love you more than his other children.  When a prayer seeks nothing for one’s self or for others, then such an expression of the soul’s attitude tends toward true worship.  Egoistic prayers involve confessions and petitions and often consist in requests for material favors.  Prayer is somewhat more ethical when it deals with forgiveness and seeks wisdom for enhanced self control.
Prayer must never be a substitute for action.  All ethical prayer is a stimulus to action and a guide for the progressive striving for idealistic goals.

The unselfish type of prayer is strengthening and comforting but materialistic praying is destined to bring disappointment and disillusionment because humanity lives in a physical universe of law and order which the Spirit will not violate.  Primitive, selfish and materialistic praying is childish.  Such prayers are beneficial only to the extent that they lead to human efforts and exertions that contribute to achieving the goals of those prayers.  But the real prayer of faith always contributes to augmentation of the technique of living even if the petitions are not worthy of spiritual recognition.  Therefore it is important to be cautious in discouraging unworthy prayer.

Prayer does not change the Spirit but it often effects great and lasting changes in the one who prays in faith and confident expectation.  Prayer is the ancestor of much peace of mind, cheerfulness, calmness, courage, self-mastery and fair-mindedness.
Only under very rare circumstances does prayer have any direct effect on one’s physical circumstances.  The zone of effectiveness of prayer requests is very limited and relates most directly to the spiritual and psychological attitudes of the person praying, but this is not equally true of the faith of those who pray.  Faith has spiritual power of its own.

Prayer will not cure real and organic diseases but it contributes enormously to the enjoyment of abundant health and to the cure of numerous mental, emotional and nervous ailments.  Even in bacterial disease prayer often adds to the efficacy of other remedies. Expectant and faith dominated persons who are under the immediate and inspirational influence of a strong, positive and beneficent personality whose ministry banishes fear and destroys anxiety, may experience transformations of mind and spirit which cure illness in apparent miracles.

The sincere prayer of faith is a mighty force for promotion of personal happiness, individual self-control, social harmony, moral progress and spiritual attainment.
Prayer is an efficient technique for approach to the realization of the reserve powers of human nature stored and conserved in the unconscious realms of the human mind. These include insight, experience, custom, education and wisdom.  Prayer is a sound psychologic practice even aside from its religious implications and its spiritual significance.

Don’t ask the Spirit to solve your difficulties but don’t hesitate to ask for wisdom and spiritual strength to guide and sustain you while you resolutely and courageously attack your problems.    Problems are learning opportunities our spiritual Parent intends to use for our benefit. The Spirit is not absent, passive, overburdened or distracted.  He is actively and constantly involved in every aspect of every person’s life.  He uses the problems we face as opportunities for our character development.  While it is not appropriate to ask the Spirit to make your problems disappear, it is appropriate to pray for help in learning the available lessons and for calm and reassurance in the midst of the turmoil.

Words, Posture and Attitudes:

Prayer is intentional communication with the Spirit.  Most people use words silently or out loud most of the time, but words are not really necessary.  You can pray in feelings or images or music so long as you are communicating from your soul/heart your sincere longings, goals and desires for good, your love of truth or your appreciation of beauty.

Jesus prayed silently and in the spirit – in the mind and in the spirit.  In the mind probably involves words.  In the spirit is probably wordless.  In the spirit might be feelings or love related emotions such as acceptance, inclusion, empathy, forgiveness, patience, peace, harmony, appreciation…

Praying with faith, hope and trust brings expectations of divine assistance which encourages personal effort and thereby makes the desired result more likely.  One who steps out in faith and takes the risks is sometimes successful even in the absence of divine intervention.  One who does not act has no opportunity to succeed.
Pray in spirit and in truth – sincerely and in accordance with your enlightenment – wholeheartedly and intelligently – earnestly and steadfastly.

Neither ornate repetitions, eloquent phrases, fasting, penance nor sacrifice add effectiveness to prayer.  Jesus counseled his followers that there was too little thanksgiving in their prayer and worship.  Jesus did not consider recitation of set prayers to be real praying.

Prayer to Jesus was the personal and spontaneous expression of the soul toward the Spirit.  He taught that prayer should be a communion of the child with the spiritual Parent and the expression of fellowship.  Prayer, when from the spirit, leads to personal cooperation in the spiritual progress of one’s self and others.  The ideal prayer is a form of spiritual communion (intimate spiritual sharing of thoughts and feelings) which leads to intelligent worship.  True praying is the sincere attitude of reaching heavenward for the inspiration and attainment of your ideals.

Prayer is the way we make contact with our souls. This benefit of bringing the contents of our souls to our conscious attention should motivate us to be persistent in our prayerful attempt to ascertain the Spirit’s will.  The answers to our questions about spiritual reality are in our souls.  The Spirit is a willing and generous giver of spiritual blessings and spiritual power. Persistence is not to change our spiritual Parent’s attitude but to change our preconceptions and prejudices so that our conscious minds may be receptive to the Spirit’s blessings.  Persistence gives spiritual insights repeated opportunities to drop into place.

Jesus observed to his apostles that when they prayed they exercised so little faith.  Faith is more than belief.  It is trust in the Spirit to do its part in achieving its goals.  Genuine faith will remove mountains of material difficulty which may be in the path of soul expansion and spiritual progress.
Pray as Jesus taught his disciples – honestly, unselfishly, with fairness and without doubting.

No prayer can hope for an answer unless it is born of the spirit and nurtured by faith.  Pray prayers of spirit longing.
Just talk things over with your spiritual Parent in a purely personal way. Do it often and regularly. Don’t be afraid to talk to the Spirit, but don’t undertake to persuade or change your spiritual Parent.

Words are irrelevant to prayer. The Spirit answers the soul’s attitude, not the words.  Words can have benefit because they are self-suggestive in private devotions and they are socio-suggestive in group devotions.  Therefore, words lead to solutions from human sources.
Jesus liked to pray in nature among the small creatures, so I expect he often prayed with his eyes open.  Jesus prayed in Gethsemane lying prostrate.  In other circumstances he sat.  Posture probably doesn’t matter unless it matters symbolically to you.  Attitude does matter.  Our attitude should be faith filled and trusting.  We should sincerely believe in the Spirit’s good and loving wisdom in answering our prayers.  We should have no withholds in truly wanting our spiritual Parent’s will, not our own, to be done.  His will is the best of all possible outcomes.

Jesus often went apart by himself to pray and commune.  He could be seen praying long and often but his prayers were silent.  He would spend entire nights in prayer and worship.  His apostles sometimes could see rapid changes in his face indicating inner experience and they were very curious about the nature of his prayers.  When Jesus spent whole nights in prayer, it was mainly for his disciples and particularly for the twelve.  Jesus rarely prayed for himself but he engaged in a lot of worship of the nature of understanding communion with his spiritual Parent.

Jesus taught the twelve always to pray their personal prayers in secret in the quiet of nature or in their rooms.  Jesus gave his followers the Lord’s Prayer because his apostles petitioned him for a prayer to teach the multitudes.  John the Baptist had a simple prayer that his apostles taught the crowds.  The Lord’s Prayer was for group prayers and was intended as a form or guide rather than as a set prayer to be recited.

Jesus taught that to be effective, prayer must be:

• Unselfish – not for oneself alone
• Believing – according to faith
• Sincere – honest of heart
• Intelligent – according to one’s light
• Trustful – in submission to our spiritual Parent’s all wise will

Jesus taught that the earnest and longing repletion of any petition when sincere and uttered in faith, no matter how ill-advised or impossible of direct answer, nevertheless always expands the soul’s capacity for spiritual receptivity. The soul’s spiritual capacity for receptivity determines the quantity of heavenly blessings (fruits of the Spirit, consciousness of the Spirit’s presence, peace, joy, etc.) which can be personally appropriated and consciously realized as an answer to prayer.

Prayers are Heard and Answered:

Opening the human end of Spirit-man communication makes the ever flowing stream of divine ministry immediately available.

Our sins are forgiven by our spiritual Parent even before we ask but our experience of having our sins forgiven is conditioned on first forgiving our fellows of their transgressions.  It is a basic law of justice that the unselfish glories of Paradise are not possible of reception by a thoroughly selfish creature of the realms of time and space.  It is another basic law that you cannot have more respect for yourself than you have for others.  [1740:1]

The sincerity of any prayer is the assurance of its being heard.  The spiritual wisdom and universe consistency of any petition is the determiner of the time, manner and degree of the answer.  The Spirit will not give us the requests of our foolish prayers.  Prayers in accordance with the will of the Spirit are answered.  While prayer does not change the divine attitude, it does change our attitude toward our spiritual Parent.  The unselfish motive of a prayer gives it right of way to the divine ear.
Sincere prayers of the longing of the heart are always answered.  Sometimes the answer is greatly delayed while the spirit world devises a better answer to meet the needs of the spirit of man.  Sometimes prayers are so vast they can only be answered later in our progressive spiritual growth; sometimes only when we reach Paradise.

Prayers are addressed to spiritual beings and must be answered in spiritual terms and all such answers must consist in spiritual realities.  Spirit beings cannot bestow material answers to the spirit petitions of even material beings.  Material beings can pray effectively only when they pray in the spirit.
All spirit born petitions are certain of an answer.  Full personal reception of the answer may be time delayed.  The answer is seldom exactly what you asked for but the answer is never “No!”  The answer will bring comfort, calm and reassurance of personal spiritual safety.  It will be something spiritually and emotionally beneficial.

What to Pray For:

Guard against the great danger of becoming self-centered in your prayers.  Avoid much praying for your self.  Pray more for the spiritual progress of your brethren.  Avoid materialistic praying.  Pray in the spirit and for the abundance of gifts of the spirit.  Pray for the sick and afflicted but don’t expect this to replace the benefit of loving and intelligent ministry to their needs.
A prayer from Psalms which Jesus liked was “Create in me a clean heart. Renew a right spirit in me.  Purge me from secret sins and restrain me from presumptuous transgression.”  He also liked “Prevent my careless and offending speech.  Help me speak with tolerance and mercy.”
The most important prayer is for knowledge of the will of the Spirit.  The next most important prayer is for guidance over the pathway of earthly life.  This in reality is a prayer for divine wisdom.
Material things are not the province of prayer.
The truest prayer is in reality a communion between man and the Spirit within.
True prayer always stands for man’s communion with a personal and superior being.
Prayer is not a technique of escape from conflict but rather a stimulus to growth even in the face of conflict.  Pray for values, not things; for growth, not for gratification.
Pray for the welfare of family and friends and others but especially pray for those who curse you and make loving petitions for those who persecute you. It is easy to pray even for those who misuse you to bear fruits of the spirit.  After all, what you are praying for is for the desire to do good for others to take hold in their lives and to transform them.  This feels right and good for either a friend or an enemy.

When and Where to Pray:

When should you pray?  Pray whenever the indwelling Spirit moves you to express your inner relationship with our spirit Parent.  Any time or any circumstance is appropriate.  Pray when in trouble but not just then.  Pray also when all is well.
Your real petitions, your personal prayers, should be in secret. Prayers of thanksgiving are appropriate both in personal prayers and group prayers.  Prayers of the soul are a personal matter (secret).  All believers should pray sincerely for extension of the kingdom of heaven.  The kingdom of heaven exists when and where the believer encourages and allows the spirit within to lead the believer in doing the will of the heavenly Parent.

What prayer was to Jesus and can be to you:

Jesus never prayed as a religious duty; never because he ought to or because it was prayer time.  His prayer/communion was frequent and lengthy, essentially constant because he employed it to lead his unified material, emotional and spiritual life.  Prayer/communion was the way Jesus managed his emotions, his decisions and his life of unselfish service.
Prayer to him was his sincere expression of spiritual attitude.
He committed his soul loyally to service of his heavenly Parent’s goals.
He reaffirmed his personal devotion to the Spirit.
He expressed his thanksgiving.
He applied prayer to relax and to avoid emotional tension.
He used prayer to prevent and resolve inner and outer conflict.
He enlisted prayer to elevate his thinking to the highest spiritual meanings and values level.
He used prayer to align his desires with truth, beauty and goodness. (To ennoble his desires)
He used prayer to test and confirm the rightness and reasonableness of his moral decisions.  (Morality is your rules for how you treat other individuals.  ”Love one another and do good to everyone in all circumstances” is the ultimate moral rule.  But applying the rule wisely benefits from a lot of prayer.)
He used the inspiration received from prayer to enrich his thoughts.
He employed prayer to add strength and energy to his higher inclinations.
He used it to convert his worthy impulses into worthy spiritual purposes and objectives.
He used prayer to achieve clarification of his viewpoint.
In prayer, he declared and molded his faith in the Spirit and man to expand it and to make it wiser.
In prayer he surrendered his will on a spiritual level to adopt the Spirit’s will.
He used prayer to assert his confidence in truth, beauty and goodness at the highest spiritual level.
He used prayer to discover and reveal courage.
He would tell his inner Spirit about his discoveries.
In prayer he would admit and describe his complete devotion.
In prayer he would feel the rightness of his consecration and draw power from this.
He used prayer to sort thru and adjust difficulties.
He used prayer to mobilize his combined soul powers to withstand all human tendencies toward selfishness, evil and sin.
He did all these repeatedly and repetitiously.
The secret of Jesus’ unparalleled religious life was his consciousness of the presence of the Spirit.  He achieved this consciousness by intelligent prayer and sincere worship – unbroken communion with his spiritual Parent.

Laws of Prevailing Petitions

1.  Sincerely and courageously face the problem.
2. Industriously exhaust human capacity to adjust.
3. Surrender everything to the transforming embrace of spiritual growth.  (Expect insights into truth, beauty, goodness, meanings and values.)
4. Wholeheartedly desire the Spirit’s will.
5. Dedicate yourself to action to do the Spirit’s will.
6. Pray only for divine wisdom to solve specific human problems in the Paradise assent.
7. Have Faith that your prayers will be answered.

There is quite a variety of types of prayer including:

Prayers expressing pure gratitude and thanksgiving
Petitions for help
Communion – intimate spiritual sharing of thoughts and feelings with the Spirit
Consecration of self to the Spirit’s way
Consultation with the Spirit – thinking with the Spirit
Praying to elevate thoughts to a higher and more spiritual level
Praying for clarification of view point
Praying for faith, optimism, hope, courage
Praying for healing of mood, attitude or body
Praying to make spiritual goals and means more vivid
Prayer for inspiration and guidance to resolve the matters you are praying about
Prayer for wise leadership
There are many good reasons why we pray including:
We pray for the comfort, reassurance and courage prayer brings to face life and to fight the battles against evil and doubt.
We pray to feel like we have done something.
We pray because it elevates our mood.
We pray because we feel the comforting love of our spiritual Parent.
We pray because it reduces a burden or shares a joy.

Prayer Project Assumption:
If we fail to pray, we forfeit the substantial spiritual, psychological and physical benefits our spiritual Parent has arranged to flow from our sincere praying in faith for spiritual blessings for others.

Bill’s personal conclusions

Prayer is an all-important practice.  It stimulates greater receptivity to spiritual gifts and it is the most potent spiritual growth stimulus.
Since we are encouraged to pray unselfishly in secret for groups of others, there must be benefit for them in our prayers.  I like to think there is some influence on the people lovingly prayed for that will help them to be of good cheer or good character and loving in attitude and behavior.  I think of this like electrical inductance where electricity flowing in one wire causes there to be potential for flow in an adjacent wire.  In the case of prayer for others, the inductance might take place through mind circuits or spirit circuits which we all share.  But even if this is not so, prayer in faith for others has tremendous beneficial results in the life of the praying person.  Better physical, psychological and emotional health as well as spiritual growth and maturity are essentially guaranteed to the praying person.  The Spirit has so designed us that it is spiritually beneficial for us to pray even when our prayers are primitive, selfish or material.

There is a lot of material praying we develop in our childhood and youth which is not going to be answered in the terms requested. But there are also many consequences of prayer which are highly beneficial and are insufficiently appreciated as answers to our prayers.

These include:
Prayer relieves stress.
Prayer elevates your mood and attitude.
Prayer brings inner peace.
Prayer clarifies and corrects confusion about meanings and values.
Prayer focuses your talents and mental and material assets on your problems, enabling you to answer your own prayers.
Prayer brings comfort, reconciliation and acceptance of what cannot be changed.
Prayer relieves loneliness.
Prayer reinforces optimism, steadfastness and dependability.
Prayer helps you reach for anything you value.
Prayer enhances self-control.
Prayer helps you value and love others.
Prayer helps you feel valued and loved.
Prayer improves your decision making ability.
Prayer and faith together cure many emotional and psychological illnesses.
Prayer often makes medical remedies more effective.
Prayer builds hope, confidence, expectation and trust.
Prayer supports action and achievement.
Prayer stimulates spiritual growth.
The ideal form of prayer is a personal communion of fellowship with our spiritual Parent.  Communion with the Spirit is simply an event of intimate spiritual sharing of our inner life of aspirations, hopes, fears, loves and feelings.  Imagine the Spirit’s presence.  Imagine the Spirit’s responses.  Expect it to suggest in all circumstances how you can express loving and unselfish motivations.  Actually what you are imagining is true.  Your spiritual Parent is in fact present and hearing and responding to your prayers in a guiding, nondirective way.

Ultimately, it is a colossal spiritual mistake not to pray and commune with the Spirit frequently.  The benefits are too great.
Appendix of Qualities and Attitudes to Pray About

Rodan’s List:

Rodan, the Greek philosopher of Alexandria, who was an early follower of Jesus, noted many qualities in Jesus which he identified as qualities of a spiritually mature person.  These qualities make an excellent list of spiritual growth opportunities to pray for to benefit ourselves or others.  As you read these, ask your inner Spirit to help you really understand them and to affirm in your heart that you want these qualities.  In this way you will be praying for them.  Since this list is long, I have divided it into parts so that you may study it in manageable pieces.

Rodan A

1. Talk to the Spirit about wisdom of mind and charm of personality to deal lovingly with life.
2. Ask to develop talent for persuasiveness with your fellows.
3. Talk to your spiritual Parent about tact and tolerance.
4. Pray for strength, energy, interest and enthusiasm to solve the higher problems of a moral and spiritual nature.
5. Pray to recognize and to seek to satisfy your hunger and thirst for true righteousness.
6. Pray for insight regarding the problems of living.
7. Pray for wisdom and energy to spend in service to others.
8. Talk to the Spirit about your desire for consciousness of contact with divinity.

Rodan B

1. Talk to the Spirit about new and better methods of adjusting to the ever-changing situations of living existence.
2. Ask for reconstruction and readjustment of personal attitudes.
3. Pray for enhanced insight into everything worthwhile and real.
4. Pray for the Spirit’s will to be done.
5. Pray for relaxation and mind renewal.
6. Pray for illumination and soul inspiration.
7. Pray for courage to face problems.
8. Pray for self-understanding to cope with overpowering emotions (such as sadness, guilt, fear, hate, revenge, jealousy, envy, lust or greed.)

Rodan C

1. Talk to the Spirit about experiencing consciousness of union with divinity.
2. Pray to achieve inner assurance of kinship with our spiritual Parent.
3. Pray for courage/confidence to dare to be like the Spirit.
4. Pray for more constant communion with the Spirit within.
5. Pray to relieve tension.
6. Pray to remove conflict.
7. Pray for augmentation of the total resources of personality.
8. Pray to remove prejudice.

Rodan D

1. Pray to recognize truth wherever it is found.
2. Pray to experience unselfish thoughts and actions.
3. Pray for dedication to the service of a worthy cause/goal.
4. Pray for abandonment of self-seeking.
5. Pray for joy in the search to discover and experience the nature of our spiritual Parent.
6. Pray for pleasure in the progressive attainment of divinity.
7. Pray for realization of values that are the highest and most real.
8. Pray for acceptance/awareness that the goals of destiny grow and progress.

Rodan E

1. Pray for stability of personality.
2. Pray for eternal, Paradise and divine goals.
3. Pray for spiritual guidance and to be an intelligent follower of spiritual guidance.
4. Pray to grow a personal religion of spiritual experience in your soul.
5. Pray for enhancement of insights.
6. Pray for elevation of ideals.
7. Pray for eternal adventures in service.
8. Pray to have friendships and associations of mutual affection.

Rodan F

1. Pray to have friends with whom to share noble thoughts.
2. Pray for modest recognition and appreciation.
3. Pray for character development – loyalty to living expression of fruits of the spirit.
4. Pray for the love of a home.
5. Pray for a good friend to share life with.
6. Pray to augment spiritual values from the shared insights of others.
7. Pray for respect for others to avoid distortion of vision, prejudice of viewpoint and narrowness of judgment.
8. Pray for avoidance of fear, envy and conceit.

Rodan G

1. Pray for contact with other minds.
2. Pray for enthusiasm for living.
3. Pray for courage to fight the battles (with spiritual weapons of love, forgiveness, tolerance, service) necessary to ascend to higher levels of human living.
4. Pray for enhancement of the joys and triumphs of life.
5. Pray to suffer, if necessary, without sorrow.
6. Pray to endure hardship without bitterness.
7. Pray to enhance beauty.
8. Pray to exalt goodness.

Rodan H

1. Pray to quicken and enlarge appreciative capacities.  Give thanks.
2. Pray for stimulation of imagination.
3. Pray to have friends and associates who are conscious of wholehearted devotion to the common cause of loyalty to the Spirit.
4. Pray for righteous exercise of spiritual power.
5. Pray to live for the welfare of others.
6. Pray for a glimpse of the circle of eternity.
7. Pray for inspiration to achieve one’s best and utmost.
8. Pray for a glorified social structure.

Rodan I

1. Pray for civilization based on mortal maturity.
2. Pray for peace on earth.
3. Pray for goodwill among all mankind.
4. Pray for strength giving and worshipful habits.
5. Pray for spiritual maturity.
6. Pray for humility and readiness to learn.
7. Pray for avoidance of fanaticism.
8. Pray for adaptability to change.

Rodan J

1. Pray for good physical and emotional health.
2. Pray for clear and clean thinking.
3. Pray for skill in doing something well.
4. Pray for ability to withstand defeat.
5. Pray for spiritual enlightenment, meaningful experience and wisdom.
6. Pray for sufficient wealth.
7. Pray for wi
8. Pray for honest achievement.

Rodan K

1. Pray to produce something useful.
2. Pray to remember worthwhile episodes of life.
3. Pray to fail gracefully and lose cheerfully.
4. Pray not to fear disappointment.
5. Pray to admit failure freely.
6. Pray to face failure and adjust to defeat.
7. Pray for experience with spiritual realities.
8. Pray to do something excellently/expertly.

Jesus’ Teachings about Prayer
Here are some suggestions from Jesus about what to pray for.
Jesus A

1. Pray for faith in the love and goodness of the Spirit and their ultimate success in transforming everyone.
2. Pray for love for one’s fellows.
3. Pray for skill at revealing goodness.
4. Pray to be an evangel of true inner religion of communion with the Spirit.
5. Pray to balance the ideal with the practical.
6. Pray to resist holding grudges.

Jesus B

1. Pray to withstand brooding when confronted with deep sorrow.  [Brooding is thinking deeply about something that makes you unhappy.]
2. Pray for righteous thinking and righteous doing in the face of defeat, mistreatment or danger.
3. Pray for avoidance of unnecessary social misunderstandings.
4. Pray for emotional adjustment.
5. Pray to accept love freely and to give love freely.
6. Pray for brave endurance.

Jesus C

1. Pray to be unafraid of life.
2. Pray to be uncomplaining of inescapable hardship.
3. Pray not to weary of well doing because of being thwarted.
4. Pray to be undaunted.
5. Pray that difficulty will whet your ardor.
6. Pray to feast, fatten and enthuse on the spiritual growth opportunities of adversity.

Jesus D

1. Pray to be taught by the Spirit.
2. Pray for the spiritual progress of yourself and your fellows.
3. Pray for knowledge of our spiritual Parent’s will.
4. Pray to have attention and energies directed away from temptations.
5. Pray for a growing love of truth – the Spirit’s way of love, forgiveness, mercy, etc.
6. Pray to overcome evil with good.

Jesus E

1. Pray for growth in faith, love and devotion to truth.
2. Pray for a wholehearted desire to find our spiritual Parent and be like him.
3. Pray to forget one’s mistakes.
4. Pray for a long distance view of destiny.
5. Pray for your spiritual longings and purposes.
6. Pray for moral power and spiritual energy to be an advocate for good.

Jesus F

1. Pray to demonstrate an endless, unselfish, outgoing bestowal of love.
2. Pray to increase a whole soul belief in the triumph of righteousness.
3. Pray to be undoubting of eternal salvation.
4. Pray to engage in frequent worshipful communion.
5. Pray to discover, adopt and master a positive and constructive technique of meeting all vicissitudes and harassments of mortal living.
6. Pray to enjoy living your life spiritually.
7. Pray consistent with your knowledge of the established laws of spirit, mind and matter.

End

Back to Top

Truth About Prayer

Written by William H. Cooper at Arlington, Texas. Completed 8-10-10.  Last revised 8-26-10

Introduction:

Every sincere prayer has spiritual benefits for the person praying.

Popular concepts of what we can pray for and expect the Spirit to grant are so misdirected, with expectations of material rewards and miracles (essentially magic), that they may have the ultimate effect of discouraging prayer because of disappointed expectations and disbelief in magic.
It is experience of the spiritual consequences of prayer that is important.  The spiritual consequences of prayer are joyful urges to be helpful, tolerant, unselfish, forgiving, encouraging, optimistic, generous, empathetic, etc.

Prayer is a tonic for health, focuses our attention on finding solutions to the matters we pray about and deepens the channels of our receptivity to spiritual blessings.  Sincere prayers are dispatched in faith that they are heard and answered, so the independent and substantial power of faith is involved with the consequences of prayer.  These are all benefits to the one who prays.

Praying for another person expresses love for that person.  There is spiritual power in parental/brotherly love which flows to the soul, mind and / or physical energy of the one prayed for.  This spiritual power creates a spiritual blessing available to the one prayed for if they are willing and receptive.

Children of the Spirit have a spiritual teacher to be listened to and followed.  The teacher is your personal inner spiritual mentor.    Close friendship with the inner Spirit is the most important thing we can achieve in this life and prayer is the best technique for pursuing relationship with the Spirit within.

Prayer is the most potent spiritual growth stimulus. The Spirit answers our prayers by giving an increased revelation of truth, an enhanced appreciation of beauty and an augmented concept of goodness.  The deity response to all prayer is the gift of enhanced ability to bear (express) fruits of the spirit and then there are many beneficial consequences of bearing fruits of the spirit including better health, more energy, joy in living, optimism, charm, dependability and trust.  All of these generate positive power for success in all aspects of life.

Prayer gradually enables us to exercise more and more spiritual power (spiritual lure and attraction) arising from our characteristic attitudes and behaviors of loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance and enduring peace.  These are fruits of our connection with the Spirit within.  They are the consequences we can expect as a result of maintaining an inner communion with the Spirit indwelling the soul of each of us.  Prayer is the technique for maintaining that inner communion.  Prayer establishes and matures the channels of receptivity to these spiritual gifts.

The Spirit is almost never going to fix things for us.  It will help us get through anything and everything that comes our way for whatever reason, even if our burdens are our own fault.  We should recognize and accept that sincere prayer has many benefits other than getting our spiritual Parent to fix things for us.  It is thought which helps us solve our own problems.   It has very valuable health and social benefits.  Prayer enables the human ego to look both to self and to spirit for help.  For material help it initiates receptivity to the subconscious reservoir of mortal experience, memory and wisdom. For inspiration and guidance, prayer encourages receptivity to contact with spiritual intelligence.

Some prayers can be unethical, morally wrong.  A prayer is unethical when the petitioner seeks for selfish advantage over his fellows.  Be fair in all your praying.  Do not expect our spiritual Parent to love you more than his other children.

Prayer must never be a substitute for action.  All ethical prayer is a stimulus to action and a guide for the progressive striving for idealistic goals.

Materialistic praying is destined to bring disappointment and disillusionment because humanity lives in a physical universe of law and order which the Spirit will not violate.  Selfish and materialistic prayers are beneficial only to the extent that they lead to human efforts and exertions that contribute to achieving the goals of those prayers.  Prayer does not change the Spirit but it often effects great and lasting changes in the one who prays in faith and confident expectation.  Prayer is the ancestor of much peace of mind, cheerfulness, calmness, courage, self mastery and fair-mindedness.

Only under very rare circumstances does prayer have any direct effect on one’s physical circumstances.  The zone of effectiveness of prayer requests relates most directly to the spiritual and psychological attitudes of the person praying.

Prayer will not cure real and organic diseases but it contributes enormously to the enjoyment of abundant health and to the cure of numerous mental, emotional and nervous ailments.  Even in bacterial disease prayer often adds to other remedies. The sincere prayer of faith is a mighty force for promotion of personal happiness, individual self-control, social harmony, moral progress and spiritual attainment.

Prayer is an efficient technique for approach to the realization of the reserve powers of human nature stored and conserved in the unconscious realms of the human mind. These include insight, experience, custom, education and wisdom.  Prayer is a sound psychologic practice even aside from its religious implications and its spiritual significance.

Problems are learning opportunities our spiritual Parent will use for our benefit. The Spirit is not absent, passive, overburdened or distracted.  He is actively and constantly involved in every aspect of every person’s life.  He uses the problems we face as opportunities for our character development.  While it is not appropriate to ask the Spirit to make your problems disappear, it is appropriate to pray for help in learning the available lessons and for calm and reassurance in the midst of the turmoil.

Words, Posture and Attitudes:

Prayer is intentional communication with the Spirit.  Most people use words silently or out loud most of the time, but words are not really necessary.  You can pray in feelings or images or music so long as you are communicating from your soul/heart your sincere longings, goals and desires for good, your love of truth or your appreciation of beauty.
Praying with faith, hope and trust brings expectations of divine assistance which encourages personal effort and thereby makes the desired result more likely.  One who steps out in faith and takes the risks is sometimes successful even in the absence of divine intervention.  One who does not act has no opportunity to succeed.
Prayer to Jesus was the personal and spontaneous expression of his soul toward the Spirit.  He taught that prayer should be a communion of the child with the spiritual Parent and the expression of fellowship.  Prayer, when from the soul, leads to personal cooperation in the spiritual progress of one’s self and others.  The ideal prayer is a form of spiritual communion (intimate spiritual sharing of thoughts and feelings) which leads to intelligent worship.  True praying is the sincere attitude of reaching heavenward for the inspiration and attainment of your ideals.

Prayer is the way we make contact with our souls. This benefit of bringing the content of our souls to our conscious attention should motivate us to be persistent in our prayerful attempt to ascertain the Spirit’s will.  The answers to our questions about spiritual reality are in our souls.  The Spirit is a willing and generous giver of spiritual blessings and spiritual power. Persistence is not to change our spiritual Parent’s attitude but to change our preconceptions and prejudices so that our conscious minds may be receptive to the Spirit’s blessings.  Persistence gives spiritual insights repeated opportunities to drop into place.

Jesus observed to his apostles that when they prayed they exercised so little faith.  Faith is more than belief.  It is trust in the Spirit to do its part in achieving its goals.  Genuine faith will remove mountains of material difficulty which may be in the path of soul expansion and spiritual progress.
Pray as Jesus taught his disciples – honestly, unselfishly, with fairness and without doubting.

Just talk things over with your spiritual Parent in a purely personal way. Do it often and regularly. Don’t be afraid to talk to the Spirit, but don’t undertake to persuade or change your spiritual Parent.

Words are irrelevant to prayer. The Spirit answers the soul’s attitude, not the words.  Words can have benefit because they are self suggestive in private devotions and they are socio-suggestive in group devotions.  Therefore, words lead to solutions from human sources.

Jesus liked to pray in nature among the small creatures, so I expect he often prayed with his eyes open.  Jesus prayed in Gethsemane lying prostrate.  In other circumstances he sat.  Posture probably doesn’t matter unless it matters symbolically to you.  Attitude does matter.  Our attitude should be faith filled and trusting.  We should sincerely believe in the Spirit’s good and loving wisdom in answering our prayers.  We should have no withholds in truly wanting our spiritual Parent’s will, not our own, to be done.  His will is the best of all possible outcomes.

Jesus often went apart by himself to pray and commune.  He could be seen praying long and often but his prayers were silent.  He would spend entire nights in prayer and worship.  His apostles sometimes could see rapid changes in his face indicating inner experience and they were very curious about the nature of his prayers.  When Jesus spent whole nights in prayer, it was mainly for his disciples and particularly for the twelve.  Jesus rarely prayed for himself but he engaged in a lot of worship of the nature of understanding communion with his spiritual Parent.

Jesus taught the twelve always to pray their personal prayers in secret in the quiet of nature or in their rooms.  Jesus gave his followers the Lord’s Prayer because his apostles petitioned him for a prayer to teach the multitudes.  John the Baptist had a simple prayer that his apostles taught the crowds.  The Lord’s Prayer was for group prayers and was intended as a form or guide rather than as a set prayer to be recited.

Jesus taught that the earnest and longing repletion of any petition when sincere and uttered in faith, no matter how ill advised or impossible of direct answer, nevertheless always expands the soul’s capacity for spiritual receptivity. The soul’s spiritual capacity for receptivity determines the quantity of heavenly blessings (fruits of the Spirit, consciousness of the Spirit’s presence, peace, joy, etc.) which can be personally appropriated and consciously realized as an answer to prayer.

Prayers are Heard and Answered:

Opening the human end of Spirit-man communication makes the ever flowing stream of divine ministry immediately available.

Our sins are forgiven by our spiritual Parent even before we ask but our experience of having our sins forgiven is conditioned on first forgiving our fellows of their transgressions.

The sincerity of any prayer is the assurance of its being heard.  The spiritual wisdom and universe consistency of any petition is the determiner of the time, manner and degree of the answer.  The Spirit will not give us the requests of our foolish prayers.  While prayer does not change the divine attitude, it does change our attitude toward our spiritual Parent.  The unselfish motive of a prayer gives it right of way to the divine ear.

Sincere prayers of the longing of the heart are always answered.  Sometimes the answer is greatly delayed while the spirit world devises a better answer to meet the needs of the spirit of man.  Sometimes prayers are so vast they can only be answered later in our progressive spiritual growth; sometimes only when we reach Paradise.

Prayers are addressed to spiritual beings and must be answered in spiritual terms and all such answers must consist in spiritual realities.  Spirit beings cannot bestow material answers to the spirit petitions of even material beings.  Material beings can pray effectively only when they pray in the spirit.
All spirit born petitions are certain of an answer.  Full personal reception of the answer may be time delayed.  The answer is seldom exactly what you asked for but the answer is never “No!”  The answer will bring comfort, calm and reassurance of personal spiritual safety.  It will be something spiritually and emotionally beneficial.

What to Pray For:

Guard against the great danger of becoming self centered in your prayers.  Avoid much praying for your self.  Pray more for the spiritual progress of your brethren.  Avoid materialistic praying.  Pray in the spirit and for the abundance of gifts of the spirit.  Pray for the sick and afflicted but don’t expect this to replace the benefit of loving and intelligent ministry to their needs.
The most important prayer is for knowledge of the will of the Spirit.  The next most important prayer is for guidance over the pathway of earthly life.  This in reality is a prayer for divine wisdom.
Material things are not the province of prayer.
The truest prayer is in reality a communion (intimate spiritual sharing) between man and the Spirit within.
Prayer is not a technique of escape from conflict but rather a stimulus to growth even in the face of conflict.  Pray for values, not things; for growth, not for gratification.

Pray for the welfare of family and friends and others but especially pray for those who curse you and make loving petitions for those who persecute you. It is easy to pray even for those who misuse you to bear fruits of the spirit.  After all, what you are praying for is for the desire to do good for others to take hold in their lives and to transform them.  This feels right and good for either a friend or an enemy.

When and Where to Pray:

When should you pray?  Pray whenever the indwelling Spirit moves you to express your inner relationship with our spirit Parent.  Any time or any circumstance is appropriate.  Pray when in trouble but not just then.  Pray also when all is well.

Your real petitions, your personal prayers, should be in secret. Prayers of thanksgiving are appropriate both in personal prayers and group prayers.  Prayers of the soul are a personal matter (secret).  All believers should pray sincerely for extension of the kingdom of heaven.  The kingdom of heaven exists when and where the believer encourages and allows the spirit within to lead the believer in doing the will of the heavenly Parent.

The secret of Jesus’ unparalleled religious life was his consciousness of the presence of the Spirit.  He achieved this consciousness by intelligent prayer and sincere worship – unbroken communion with his spiritual Parent.

Laws of Prevailing Petitions

1.  Sincerely and courageously face the problem.
2. Industriously exhaust human capacity to adjust.
3. Surrender everything to the transforming embrace of spiritual growth.  (Expect insights into truth, beauty, goodness, meanings and values.)
4. Wholeheartedly desire the Spirit’s will.
5. Dedicate yourself to action to do the Spirit’s will.
6. Pray only for divine wisdom to solve specific human problems in the Paradise assent.
7. Have Faith that your prayers will be answered.

There is quite a variety of types of prayer including:

Prayers expressing pure gratitude and thanksgiving
Petitions for help
Communion – intimate spiritual sharing of thoughts and feelings with the Spirit
Consecration of self to the Spirit’s way
Consultation with the Spirit – thinking (inner dialog) with the Spirit
Praying to elevate thoughts to a higher and more spiritual level
Praying for clarification of view point
Praying for faith, optimism, hope, courage
Praying for healing of mood, attitude or body
Praying to make spiritual goals and means more vivid
Prayer for inspiration and guidance to resolve the matters you are praying about
Prayer for wise leadership

There are many good reasons why we pray including:

We pray for the comfort, reassurance and courage prayer brings to face life and to fight the battles against evil and doubt.
We pray to feel like we have done something.
We pray because it elevates our mood.
We pray because we feel the comforting love of our spiritual Parent.
We pray because it reduces a burden or shares a joy.
Prayer is an all important practice.  It stimulates greater receptivity to spiritual gifts and it is the most potent spiritual growth stimulus.
There is a lot of material praying we develop in our childhood and youth which is not going to be answered in the terms requested. But there are also many consequences of prayer which are highly beneficial and are insufficiently appreciated as answers to our prayers.  These include:
Prayer relieves stress.
Prayer elevates your mood and attitude.
Prayer brings inner peace.
Prayer clarifies and corrects confusion about meanings and values.
Prayer focuses your talents and mental and material assets on your problems, enabling you to answer your own prayers.
Prayer brings comfort, reconciliation and acceptance of what can not be changed.
Prayer relieves loneliness.
Prayer reinforces optimism, steadfastness and dependability.
Prayer helps you reach for anything you value.
Prayer enhances self-control.
Prayer helps you value and love others.
Prayer helps you feel valued and loved.
Prayer improves your decision making ability.
Prayer and faith together cure many emotional and psychological illnesses.
Prayer often makes medical remedies more effective.
Prayer builds hope, confidence, expectation and trust.
Prayer supports action and achievement.
Prayer stimulates spiritual growth.
The ideal form of prayer is a personal communion of fellowship with our spiritual Parent.  Communion with the Spirit is simply an event of intimate spiritual sharing of our inner life of aspirations, hopes, fears, loves and feelings.  Imagine the Spirit’s presence.  Imagine the Spirit’s responses.  Expect it to suggest in all circumstances how you can express loving and unselfish motivations.  Actually what you are imagining is true.  Your spiritual Parent is in fact present and hearing and responding to your prayers in a guiding, nondirective way.

End

Back to Top

How I Love

Life is too short to keep my heart closed.
All that matters all along,
All that matters when I’m gone,
All that I have that carries on
Is how I love.
Kaye Cooper

End

Back to Top

Jesus on How to Pray

Your prayers should not be set and formal petitions.  Prayer is entirely a personal and spontaneous expression of the attitude of the soul toward the spirit.  Prayer should be the communion of sonship and the expression of fellowship.  The ideal prayer is a form of spiritual communion which leads to intelligent worship.  True praying is the sincere attitude of reaching heavenward for the attainment of your ideals.

[Dictionary definition of “commune” is to talk intimately.  Communion is an exchange of thoughts and feelings.  It involves a close spiritual relationship.]
Prayer is the breath of the soul and you should apply it persistently to ascertain the Father’s will.  Your persistence is not to win favor with God but to change your earth attitude and to enlarge your soul’s capacity for spirit receptivity.

But when you pray, you exercise so little faith.  Genuine faith will remove mountains of material difficulty which may chance to lie in the path of soul expansion and spiritual progress.

Jesus was particularly averse to praying in public. The apostles saw Jesus spending entire nights in prayer and worship but they did not hear him pray because he prayed silently, ”in the spirit and in the heart.”  Jesus taught the twelve always to pray in secret; to go off by themselves amidst the quiet surroundings of nature or to go into their rooms and shut the doors when they engaged in prayer.

He never taught a formal personal prayer, only group, family or social petitions.  And he never volunteered to do that.

Jesus taught that effective prayer must be:

Unselfish       Believing       Sincere          Intelligent     Trustful

When Jesus prayed all night, it was mainly for his disciples, particularly the twelve.  He prayed very little for himself.  He engaged in a lot of worship of the nature of understanding communion with his Paradise Father.

The earnest and longing repetition of any sincere prayer uttered in faith never fails to expand the soul’s capacity for receptivity.  The soul’s spiritual capacity for receptivity determines the quantity of heavenly blessings which can be personally appropriated and consciously realized as an answer to prayer.
Prayer and its associated worship is a technique of detachment from the daily routine of life, from the monotonous grind of material existence.  It is an avenue of approach to spiritualized self-realization and individuality of intellectual and religious attainment.

Prayer, as Jesus taught it, is an antidote for harmful introspection.  Jesus consistently employed the beneficial influence of praying for one’s fellows.  Jesus usually prayed in the plural, not in the singular.  Only in the great crises of his earth life did he ever pray for himself.

• Prayer may be likened to recharging the spiritual batteries of the soul and worship is like tuning in the soul to catch the universe broadcasts of the infinite spirit of the Universal Father.
• Why do you pray?
• Alert God to needs he is overlooking
• Change God’s mind about resolving a difficulty or hurry him up
• Ask God to relieve others and self of stress, conflict and discomfort
• Put a burden back on God where it belongs
• Why should you pray?
• To commune with the Father
• To increase your capacity to receive spiritual blessings
• To recharge your spiritual batteries
• To receive ability to display fruits of the spirit
• To receive insight to truth
• To receive and manifest spiritual power
• To make prayer become for you what it was to Jesus [2089:0]
• Rodan’s observation of Jesus’ use of prayer 160.1.10-11: 1774:3-4

Jesus’ practice of the isolation of worshipful meditation is the greatest of all methods of problem solving.  This technique of his going off frequently by himself to commune with the Father accumulates strength and wisdom for the ordinary conflicts of living and also appropriates the energy for the solution of the higher problems of a moral and spiritual nature.

Jesus uses his prayer time to seek for new stores of wisdom and energy for meeting the manifold demands of social service.  He uses his prayer experience to quicken and deepen his supreme purpose of living by actually subjecting his total personality to the consciousness of contacting with divinity.  He uses his prayer/worship experience to grasp for possession of new and better methods of adjusting himself to the ever-changing situations of living existence.  He applies prayer to effect vital reconstructions and readjustments of his personal attitudes which are so essential to enhanced insight into everything worthwhile and real.
Jesus’ practice of the relaxation of worship renews the mind; inspires the soul; obliterates debilitating fear, brings courage to face one’s problems bravely; enables humans to dare to be Godlike.  It relieves tension, removes conflicts and mightily augments the total resources of the personality.  [These sound very much like the spiritual power brought to us as a gift by the Spirit of Truth.]

Prayer Assignment

Now I want you to go apart by yourself and pray as Jesus instructed.  I want you to spend your first ten minutes thinking deeply about the prayer process.  The balance of your time, I want you to pray as Jesus prayed.

End

Back to Top

First Letter from Eric  first written 1989

Introduction

First let me tell you about Eric.  The team that developed the Adventures in Spiritual Living program to foster spiritual experience often felt assisted by unseen spiritual friends in discovering what activities would work.  Eric represents those unseen friends.  On a few occasions he has written us letters of encouragement and advice which are of value for anyone who sets out on the quest to personally experience spiritual reality.  Eric is, above all, interested in pursuing thrilling spiritual adventures.

Our image of him is as a young captain of a Viking long boat.  He is happy, enthusiastic, optimistic and joyous.  He is absolutely certain that we are all beloved children of God and consequently he is totally fearless in pursuing truth.  When he talks about the great adventure he means the adventure of pursuing truth wherever the spirit leads him.

Eric defines truth as the powerful attraction of participating in loving relations with spiritual sisters and brothers.  His truth can’t be merely known as fact.  It has to be lived as an experience of love in your soul.  Well that is enough about Eric for you to understand why we look forward to his infrequent letters and why we share them.  The first letter from Eric came in late 1989.

First Letter from Eric

Dearest Fellow Adventurers:

Our Father invites us into an endlessly thrilling adventure of living spiritually in his very presence.  And he does not delay the advent or the intensity of the experience one moment longer then we require.  Let us not delay?

The only barrier to our adventure is our own fear.  Fear of the spiritual unknown.  Fear that we will make fools of ourselves.  Fear that we might lose control of our lives.  But there is no cause for fear. Spiritually we are indestructible.  Both our Father and our brother Jesus guarantee our spiritual safety and indestructability and our personal sovereignty.  They have designed their domains so that we in our immature judgment can do no lasting damage either to ourselves or to our universe.  The only real danger to ourselves lies in not pursuing the spiritual adventure — because it leads to eternal growth in spirit and nothing else does.  The entire grand universe is designed so that we can do no harm by leading a sincere, boisterous, youthful, exuberant and joyful life.  No, there is no reason to fear.

The loyal and courageous child of God, living in his immediate presence is free to go absolutely anywhere the spirit leads him in pursuit of the work of his Father.  That work can be as calm as a mother’s soothing lullaby to her young child or as adventurously exciting as the Viking captain lashed to the prow of his ship while peering into the crashing sea for new reality to explore.  As his ship runs full sail in a tempest, he has no fear because he knows he is immortal and this sets him free for the total adventure.  No need for restraint.

We are like that.  We are immortal, and we are invited to a thrilling adventure.  Our personal, inner relationship with God prepares us for both the breathtaking, spine-tingling excitement and the unprecedented intimacy and personal tenderness of this adventure.

When you are ready and when you want it, the adventure of spiritual living is your birthright as a child of God.  And the first step to the tenderness and to the robustness is the step within.  So step within the higher reaches of your mind.  Open the doors and unshutter the windows. You have nothing to fear.  You are here to experience love, mercy and service.  You are not here to hide out and protect yourself in this life.  You are here to gather the experience of loving and being loved and of being transformed spiritually by love.  You are a beloved and immortal child of God, right now.  Open and let the light shine into the once dim rooms of your spiritual abode.  Open and invite our Father to show you the way home to him.

With astonishing love for you,  I am Off.
Eric

End

Back to Top

Second Letter from Eric first written March 1990

Greetings and Love Abundant:

You should know by now that your adventure of ever new discoveries of the experience of friendship with you Father, God, Will never end.  You should also know by now that the whole-hearted pursuit of your friendship with God takes courage and faith.  I link courage and faith because the less of one you have the more of the other you need.  It takes courage and faith to pursue your friendship wherever the spirit of God leads you because no one can tell you exactly what to do or exactly what your experience will be.  But you can be sure of two things at least:

1. Your sincere effort to know God will be successful and
2. Your unique adventure of discovering God will excite you, enliven you and thrill you beyond anything else this life has to offer.

You are in pursuit of the experience of being loved by God.  Think of it.  God himself wants to spend the rest of eternity as your intimate, understanding best friend.

What an adventure.

While no person can tell you exactly how to experience this relationship with God, some who are on this adventure can help you improve your contact with the spirit of God within you, who will unerringly lead you step by step, as fast as you are able, into the fullness of this relationship.  And they can encourage you to trust this indwelling spirit of God.

When once you begin to feel God’s presence, his friendship and his loving mercy and forgiveness, you will know that this inner relationship is without any doubt, the pearl of great price, and you will be willing to restate all earthly priorities as subordinate and subservient to the pursuit of this relationship.  This discovery of God and the remaking of self in his image by the mechanism of personal choice is the very purpose of life.

So I urge you to dispose of anything material in your life which truly stands in the way of this life of discovery.  Free yourself sufficiently of the untrue materialistic and selfish philosophies and values systems of men and set sail with me on this adventure of discovery.  You are free, absolutely free, to discover God for yourself.  God does not promise that the sea will always be tranquil or the sky blue or the breezes gentle and to our backs.  But he does promise us success in our quest if we continue to pursue him in faith.  The only way we can fail is by choosing not to try.

God is with you even now.  Can you feel the tingling excitement of being with Him?  That’s what life can be—when it is lived as an adventure with God.
Bon Voyage.  Adventure calls me.  I am off.

Love always
Eric

End

Back to Top

Third Letter from Eric  first written 1991

Dear Ones

God is not like your father—he is your Father and he recognizes and joyfully accepts the responsibility of personally rearing you to spiritual maturity.  And then he will continue to be your Father-friend, encourager, adviser, sustainer and more.

Even right now your Father has plans to share his kingdom and his power with you and these are not plans only for the far distant future.  They are plans for now and more for next year and much, much more as eternity unfolds.

You are God’s child.  He loves you, he forgives you and he longs to share all that he has and knows with you.  You are his child and you can be like him and you can exercise his power for the benefit only of others—just as he does.

Do you want his love?  Do you want his personal attention and teaching?  If you do and if you believe and if you live like your Father is real and important to you and his way is important, then you have accepted God as your Father.  All that remains is for you to talk to him, share everything and imagine his replies for he will speak to you in your imagination.

And if you are God’s child and I am God’s child, then we are brothers and sisters and have family ties one to the other.  While we may be unlike in many ways, we bear the cosmic nobility of our Father which longs to be expressed.  I pledge to help you express our Father according to your understanding of him, and I pray your support as I seek to express him in my way.

Welcome to our family and all honor to our noble Father.

Eric

End

Back to Top

Fourth Letter from Eric

October 25, 2011

Greetings My Beloved,

Our Father, who seems so remote, is in fact immediately accessible to us.  It is a fact, not a metaphor, that he resides in your heart / soul and relates to you as one person to one person.  When you listen to him and begin to follow his leading, you become his eternal spirit child.  This business of being a child of God has a destiny attached to it.  You are destined to grow to be like our Father.  And what is he like?  I have only begun to discover him but astonishing love always flows from his will and his way.  As we grow to be more like him, astonishing love will also flow from our every action.  I say action because our Father expects us to actually do what we believe is right.  Thinking about living a life of loving service, wanting to do it someday and believing in doing it is awesome but it is not enough.  We are not just to believe in righteousness.  We are to do it.  We all believe we are too weak and the world is too strong and hostile for us to change.  But the spirit of God is within us.  The kingdom of heaven is within us.  The power to change ourselves is within us and then the world will change as we go forth being and doing what the spirit within leads us to be and do.

The spirit of God residing in your soul wants intentional relationship with you and will lead and teach you how to grow to be like God.  This eternal life and this almost boundless universe provide an experiential school for your benefit.  The only grades are pass and fail and you can fail only by refusing to try.  All effort to be like our Father is honored and rewarded.

Consult the spirit within you right now for verification of these truths I am about to state for you.  He will verify with calmness felt near your heart.

1. You are a spiritual child of God.
2. Your destiny is more than you can imagine.
3. The power to live a noble life of character, purpose and loving service is even now within you.
4. Your life as a spirit being has already begun.
5. Once the spirit life begins, it will never end unless you intentionally refuse it.
6. Survival is not in question.  You are safe, secure and free.
7. The spirit within is worthy of your absolute trust.  He will lead you neither too fast nor too slow.  Therefore be neither impatient nor timid in your pace.
8. Live courageously.  Your animal life will end but your spiritual life is eternal.

There are many, many, many other truths the spirit within will share with you as soon as you are ready to understand them and to remain balanced in your spirit control of mind and mood.

Love always
Eric

End

Back to Top

Religion of the Spirit

Taos 11-12-2011

Religion of the spirit arises from following the leading of the spirit within each of us.  It maintains that we are all beloved children of the creator of everything and that our creator parent wants to have an on-going relationship with us right now.  Through this relationship, our parent will reveal his values, his meanings and his truth, which all revolve around the power and effect of love.  Religion of the spirit transforms us through the attractiveness of our Father’s loving values and methods.  This transformation causes us to become progressively more like our Father.  As children of God we will grow to be like him and will have appropriate responsibilities and authority entrusted to us.

Our growth toward god-likeness begins as soon as we begin to respond to the leading of the spirit within us and our growth continues forever.  Love, tolerance, forgiveness and service are the attitudes and actions our parent wants us to have.

Why is this Religion?

Your religion is your heartfelt loyalty to your highest and truest convictions.  It is what you know is of highest value and has meaning for everyone.  Religion as we are talking about it is individual and unique.  Your religion is what you personally believe and treat as your highest and truest convictions.  When your highest and truest convictions are given to you and confirmed to you by the spirit within you, then your religion is religion of the spirit.

Why is this “of the Spirit?”

We mortals are simultaneously living two lives.  One of our lives is material much like other animals.  Our other life is spiritual and it goes largely overlooked, denied or deferred until the end of our material life.  In fact we are both material and spiritual right now.  The substance of spiritual things revolves around love, compassion, trust, mercy, forgiveness and service – all generously and unselfishly given to everyone.  These are values which your inner spirit will readily confirm for you as valid and true.  Spirit looks for meanings and values in our experience and confirms them to us as being true through a feeling of rightness.  Spirit is not material but it is real.  It is here.  It is now and always with us.  It is almost not materially tangible but it is spiritually tangible through this feeling of rightness and you can train yourself to sense it.

Spirit functions within you in several ways.  Your growing soul is the center of the spiritual you.  As you mature, you migrate your center of identity from your material mind to your soul, thereby firmly becoming your spiritual self.  Also within you is your Thought Adjuster which is your individual presence of your spiritual Father, the creator of everything that is.  Also within you is the spirit of truth which is your individual presence of Jesus of Nazareth.  Also within you and providing the mind that you presently function with is the universe Mother Spirit who is everywhere in this universe.

These four spirits are functioning in you right now.  Normally you are not aware of them because they inhabit your mind just outside your consciousness.  In religion of the spirit you invite these spirits to lead and guide you by presenting you with insights/realizations of highest and truest values. Religion of the spirit is concerned only with things spiritual.  It is not a set of doctrines, creeds or dogmas.  It is your living, growing, adapting and always improving philosophy of the highest and best way of living which is revealed to you by the inner spirit.

Religion of the spirit says that if you will encourage them, the spirits indwelling you will lead and teach you what is of the highest importance, value, and meaning.  It involves opening your awareness, exploring, living, experiencing and evaluating.  The only rule is to seek the experience of living according to your highest values of love, mercy, forgiveness and service.  This can get complex but the desire to be righteous and the sincere effort to act accordingly are what make you OK.  Progress is guaranteed and progress at any speed is sufficient.  Religion of the spirit is unlike any other form of religion because what it discloses to you is true and transformative.  It brings with it spiritual power to live life saturated with love and dedicated to service.

Religion of the spirit puts you in touch with the spirit teacher who will teach you everything you need to become righteous like God.  It puts you in the family of God, brings life everlasting and assures that your present life is advancing the spiritual you.  Someday your animal life will end but your life as a spirit will continue.  Religion of the spirit advances your spiritual growth even while the animal you still lives.

Religion that is motivated entirely out of love, tolerance, mercy, service, etc. makes all life more worthwhile, filling it with high purpose, dignifying it with transcendent values, inspiring it with superb motives and comforting the soul with highest sustaining hope that the gap between what should be and what is can eventually be closed .  True religion releases faith and courage from the spiritually reinforced soul for daily living and unselfish service.

Kaye asked me to comment on what it feels like to trust the spirit to lead us to truth and our Father.  It is easy to have trust issues in this world so at the beginning of this path it felt risky to trust my eternal future to what might be self-deception.  But Jesus was/is the great advocate of religion of the spirit and the life Jesus lived to portray the nature of our Father was so charming and persuasive that I was willing to discount the risk.  Once you enter on this path, even cautiously, you begin to experience promised consequences and to feel your faith in the goodness of our Father increasing within your heart.  These experiences move you noticeably in the direction of being convinced of the validity of the path.  The promised results of inner peace and calmness do come and you recognize these as arising from your spiritual self.  More and more, your motivation arises from love and your desire to help and be of service rather than from some desire for personal profit or satisfaction and these spiritual motivations feel right.  You become more aware and alert for insights into the will of God and opportunities to do it.  A sense of spiritual healthiness and vitality often fills you.

You begin taking a long distance view if life.  The wonderful things you can imagine no longer seem so urgent because they are not limited to a material lifetime but are unbounded by the scope of eternity.  In eternity all good things are possible and even probable.

At an early point on this path of trusting the spirit to lead, you begin to recognize a comfortable connectedness with other people, animals, plants and even nonliving things.  Then there is the very special feeling of connectedness with others motivated by spirit.  This is a strong feeling of attraction.  It brings excitement, a heightened sense of possibilities and opportunities, optimism and enthusiasm.  Things are spiritually awesome when you are with these special people.  On this path your respect and caring for everyone increases but your affection for others striving to follow the spirit is extraordinary.  You come to have a special spiritual love and connectedness for them.  You have a sense of belonging and fitting in.

On this path you will have insights into the will of God and how to do it.  These feel great.  It is like being an insider discovering wonderful, meaningful mysteries and partial solutions to them. This path is an experiential school where you are taught by the headmaster how to succeed. These insights feel real and significant and related to an unrevealed and magnificent destiny.  This path is more than enough to keep an active and curious person busy unwinding and discovering truth.
Well, that is about all I can say right now about the feeling of trusting the spirit, except it is my conviction that when you trust the spirit to lead, it will never fail you.

End

Back to Top

Spiritual Power

Belton, Texas Spiritual Living Conference July 21-23, 2006
By William Cooper

Spiritual power is the attractive lure of loving behavior – goodness.  It exists and works because our minds are designed that way.  It is inherent and instinctive that goodness begets goodness.  Goodness is extremely powerful and transformative for both the person portraying this Godlike behavior and the persons witnessing and benefiting.  It is so powerful that it will change those in its presence even if they resist, deny or fight it.  But it will change them more quickly and more thoroughly if they cooperate with it.

Spiritual power is available to us as a gift from God.  It derives from certain attitudes and the behavior we exhibit as a result of those attitudes.  Because spiritual power is nonviolent and nonresistive to evil and even proactive in doing good in all circumstances, it takes considerable courage and faith to live a life of spiritual power.  Even so, everyone is capable of claiming the gift of spiritual power if they will only choose the behavior of loving goodness, especially in the difficult and frightening times of life.

Spiritual power is the power over self to live a life of love, forgiveness, justice, mercy and gentleness.  Spiritual power is the secret of real achievement in life.  The attitudes which bring spiritual power color everything else going on in your mind and every action you take.  They also influence other people’s attitudes and behavior through verbal and nonverbal communication and through spirit as well as intellect. These attitudes and behaviors communicate soul to soul.  If persisted in, they will transform lives, society and eventually our entire planet.  These attitudes are simple enough for everyone to participate.  But they are unnatural enough to seem impractical, unrealistic and even foolish unless you know their origin and their powerful consequences.

These are common religious attitudes and modes of behavior but too few people have persisted in them sufficiently to experience the reliable manifestation of spiritual power.  Far too often when we reach the trying and threatening circumstances of life, we abandon our high concepts and resort to social, political, economic, physical or intellectual power if we have it.  Among persons of good will, we may believe in these attitudes but among our enemies or those who would abuse or misuse us, we do not trust them – we lack faith in them.  But if great things are to be achieved with spiritual power, it must be applied in circumstances where great and surprising consequences are possible.  Spiritual power must be challenged so that it can prove itself.  Apparent risks must be taken, at least until spiritual power shows itself so unmistakably that we realize how reliable it is.

It is ironic that we consider such attitudes and behavior to be impractical and yet they are the foundation of highly successful human life when success is measured by spiritual standards.  Our culture may be more focused on success in the form of wealth, power and fame but when you leave here, spiritual success is the only success you take with you. So which is more real and worth the effort?

These unnatural but highly successful and powerful attitudes and behaviors are part of the new spiritual gifts brought by the spirit of the resurrected Jesus when he returned at Pentecost to reside permanently among us.  All of these gift abilities relate to the awesome truth revealed by Jesus that goodness has the power to overcome evil, and nothing else does.

So here are the attitudes and behaviors which bring spiritual power.  Study them, meditate on them and pray earnestly about them and for them.  Then, when you are ready, go out and live consistent with them and watch the awesome spiritual power destroy all the evils of this world.

Spiritual Power from Unfailing Forgiveness

The unqualified, inexhaustible, ever willing ability to forgive — to release hurt feelings, resentment and anger.  Forgiveness is a generosity of spirit which extends the opportunity for a fresh start to the forgiven and frees the forgiver from having to judge, punish or discipline.  It is liberating.  It is Godlike and it is powerful.
Relax and focus your attention on feeling the calm and liberation of forgiveness.  Feel forgiveness flow into you and over you, washing away all resentment, anger and fear.  Accept the feeling of letting go, forgive. The experience of forgiving enables you to experience being forgiven.  Think deeply about how you would feel to be forgiven of every hurt you had ever caused anyone.  Not forgiven if…but…provisionally…or conditionally, but forgiven fully and finally, forever.  It is yours in fact and in experience when you learn to forgive.

And how do you learn to forgive?  Want to forgive sincerely.  Discuss it with God and God will teach you how to forgive.  Accept God’s lessons with gratitude.  They will of necessity involve some hurts which you must practice your forgiveness skills on.  The talent of forgiveness is far too valuable to reject because of the pains of learning.

Spiritual Power from Matchless Goodwill

Cheerful, open, helpful, tolerant, patient, faith-filled, optimism toward all people and the problems and shortcomings in their lives.  Be of good cheer.  God has a plan for every person and for our world.  It is in progress.  It will not fail.

Matchless goodwill derives from optimistic expectation of the high possibilities inherent in people as a consequence of their spiritual endowment.  It incorporates a generous tolerance and cheerful patience for people (including yourself) to grow at their own pace and at their own choosing.  It applies a trusting faith that, in due time, God’s plan will result in truth, beauty, goodness, peace and gentleness beyond our capacity to imagine.  Goodwill is friendliness.  It is the willingness to encourage everyone in achieving their worthy goals and to assist and support them.  It is the willingness to do more for others than duty requires.  It is helping even those who misuse or abuse you.  It is even returning good for evil because the power to cause change is in acting with good will.  Failing to actively display goodwill at every opportunity either gives the victory of the moment to evil…or at least fails to confront it with spiritual power.  And someday spiritual power will defeat and vanquish all evil and ugliness.

Relax and ask to feel goodwill flow into you.  Feel cheerfulness and wellbeing flow into you.  Continue to feel this inflow until you are energized with optimism, buoyancy and enthusiasm.  Draw on this power to renew your goodwill as often as you need it, and go forth expending goodwill lavishly on our Father’s other children.

Spiritual Power from Abounding Love

Love abundantly, joyously, and fearlessly.

Love is the desire to do good to others.  It is friendship.  It is eagerness to help others achieve their worthy goals in life.  It is giving of self generously and freely.  It is protecting the victim.  It is restraining the aggressor without judging or punishing.  It is counseling, befriending, comforting and sharing.  Love is unselfish, giving of oneself for the benefit of others.

Imagine God’s love or Jesus’ love growing and expanding in your heart.  Feel God’s serving friendliness toward you and all God’s children growing stronger within you and expanding until it fills you completely.  Let it expand beyond your body so everyone who comes close is engulfed in God’s love.

When you are feeling God’s love, imagine the face of hate before you but you are not afraid.  Reach out your hand.  Ask and expect that the Father’s love will flow through you, through your hand and transform the face of hate.  Now with this love empowered hand gently smooth away the hate from this face and transform it to smiles and joy.  See it change from hate to amazed disbelief to hope and finally to relief.  See the power of love transform hate to love.  This power is real and effective to transform lives if we will sincerely love others without conditions.

Spiritual Power from Persistent Goodness

Proactive Goodness in all situations.  Goodness responding to goodness.  Goodness in the face of evil.  Goodness when you are misused.  Goodness when you are unfairly and treacherously attacked.  Goodness in all situations because there is spiritual power in goodness to transform evil.  Goodness is the only effective response to evil.  And it is the only possible response which augments the goal of behaving as God would have the sons and daughters of God to behave.  Responding with goodness in the face of meanness and unfairness, violence and brutishness is unnatural, but it is God’s way and it is loaded with spiritual power to transform those who witness it.  It must be always sincere and never suggest sarcastic confrontation or any other bad attitude.

The best demonstration and proof of the power of goodness I can think of is Jesus’ behavior on the day of his crucifixion.  He remained gentle and good throughout this horrible ordeal of unjust trial, scourging, taunting, mockery, being nailed on a cross and exposed publicly as a criminal.  And yet, he acted with such goodness that one of his executioners and one of the thieves were both converted by the experience of observing him.  There is great spiritual power even in less extreme tests of one’s ability to demonstrate goodness.

Spiritual Power from Living Faith

Faith is trust.  It is confidence and reliance.  Faith is a gift of the indwelling spirit of God.  Faith can grow and becomes one of the pillars of our lives.  Faith pushed, tested and prayed for earnestly is sure to grow.  Faith is the antidote for fear, so faith is a valuable attribute both now and in eternity.  There are, after all, so many unknown and frightening things.  A robust faith is needed to eliminate our fears.

Faith in the watch care of God’s spiritual protection.  Faith that God has a plan which is in progress.  Faith that God’s plan cannot fail, but will see to the spiritual welfare of each and every person.  Faith liberates us from our fear of God and from our fear of falling victim to the evil one.  Armed with mature and reasoned faith in God, we can live courageously.  By calling on the spiritual power resident in faith, we have the ability even to remain unmoved in the face of appalling danger.  You have the right to claim the courage God offers through the gift of faith.  Ask sincerely, and it is yours.

Spiritual Power from Positive Action

Never passive.  Never negative.  Always positive, affirmative and actively doing good as you pass by.  Positive action showcases goodness and enhances the power of goodness to change lives.  Goodness can and will transform lives and cultures if it is actively lived so that others come in contact with it.  The active, happy, positive behavior of those who love God and live lives of spiritual power attract attention to the right way of living…and then spiritual power flows freely.
The spiritual power of goodness in all circumstances has the strength to destroy evil and solve this planet’s problems and nothing else does.
Love, Bill Cooper

End

Back to Top

More Good News From Jesus

By William Cooper 11-8-2015

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 his good news message that God is our Father and that we are therefore family.  That is the highly condensed or compacted good news.  Jesus’ good news delivered in its fullness. The good news in its fullness is extensive and perhaps infinitely extensive.  The following is a first step in decompacting Jesus’s sufficient but highly compacted good news by stating some of the logical corollaries involved in the statement.

1. You are a spiritual person who inhabits a physical body.  They are both you but the spiritual you is eternal.
2. God is your loving spiritual parent.  God the Father is your spiritual father and loves you and cares for you as your 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.  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 adoptee nor merely analogous to a child of God.  You are the real thing.
3. 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 affection and compassion for one another.
4. All children of God have a fabulous, exciting and awesome destiny which is important to God and should be fostered and cooperated with by all persons.
5. God’s domain operates as a loving family, not an arbitrary kingdom of servants.
6. Immediate two way personal relationship between God and each of his children is available to each child simply for the striving to have such a relationship.  The benefits of this relationship are immense, awesome and eternal.
7. Each child of God can experience the fatherhood of God and the motherhood of God.  For each child, God as father has in mind a career of growing knowledge, wisdom and progressive service to the family.  As father, God will give power and authority to each child as soon as he/she is capable of exercising it responsibly.  God as mother comforts, encourages and nurtures each child both physically and spiritually.  From physical conception and ever after, 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 experience and get to know their spiritual parents.

End

Back to Top