Spiritual Exercises II

Contents

Enlisting Spiritual Power to

Transform Yourself and Others 

by Kaye Cooper

When you are born of the spirit, your only purpose in living will be to do the will of our Heavenly Father.  God’s plan for knitting the grand universe together by the power of love is so intriguing and so alluring and such a joy that it becomes a consuming adventure for the spirit-led person.

Discussion points and Urantia Book references 

Consider these questions:

  1. What is spiritual power?
  2. What does it enable us to do?
  3. How do we invoke spiritual power?

The following statements may clarify and enlarge your answers.

Because you are willing to be led by the spirit which indwells you, very soon you will begin to see with the eyes of the spirit [understanding, tolerant, forgiving and loving], and when you wholeheartedly choose to be guided by the spirit, you will be born of the spirit—i.e. your only purpose in living will be to do the will of your Father who is in heaven.  Ref. UB 1602:6 / 142:6.7

As a result of your sincere desire to be like God and because of your faith and trust in your Heavenly Father, you will be transformed by the Spirit of Truth and thereby strengthened in your inner soul by the constant spiritual renewing of your mind—and in this way you are endowed with the power to do the will of God.  Ref. UB 1609:5 / 143:2.3

You must come to that place of spiritual advantage where you fall in love with those higher and more idealistic forms of conduct that your mind desires.  You will in this way be delivered through spiritual transformation.  Beauty is always triumphant over ugliness in the hearts of all who are illuminated by the love of truth.  There is a mighty power in the expulsive energy of a new and sincere spiritual affection.  Don’t be overcome by evil but rather overcome evil with good, especially within yourself.  Ref. UB 1739:0 / 156:5.5

How to help others find their path to spirit.

Never should a righteous cause be promoted by force; spiritual victories can be won only by spiritual power.  Do not use psychic force—overpowering arguments, mental superiority, logic, or shrewd eloquence.  Do not use emotion—fear, pity, or mere sentiment.  Do not attack using condemnation, sarcasm, or cynicism.  Instead use faith encouragement – introduce people to the God who lives within them.  Teach friendship with God.  Exude the joy, good will, and good humor that comes from knowing God.  Extend sympathy to the brave and courageous as they meet the trials of living.  Above all, proclaim a message of good news that is infectious in its transforming power.  Ref. UB 1765: 3 / 159:3

Spiritual power is the attraction, allure, magnetism, gravity-pull of love, truth, beauty, and goodness.  Depending on the circumstances, you can be either the beneficiary of spiritual power or its catalyst for others experience of it.  

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Love One Another

By Kaye Cooper

Note to readers: References are to THE URANTIA BOOK in two forms. 1. page: paragraph for books printed according to the format of the original printing and 2. paper: section. paragraph for translations and books formatted differently from the original.

Jesus said, “You shall love one another with a new and startling affection.”

What does it mean to love one another? Define love.

Unselfishness. (1950:5/180:5.10)

The desire to do good to others. (648:4/56:10.21)

Who are we to love?

Unbelievers: The love call of the spiritual family should prove to be the effective destroyer of the hate urge of the unbelieving and war-minded citizens of the earthly kingdoms. (1930:1/178:1.4)

Believers: You are all the children of light; therefore, stumble not into the misunderstanding entanglements of mortal suspicion and human intolerance. If you are ennobled by the grace of faith to love unbelievers, should you not also equally love those who are your fellow believers in the far-spreading household of faith? (2042:0/191:4.4)

What does it mean to love “with a new and startling affection?”

Spontaneous, generous, and sincere friendliness. (1951:1/180:5.12)

Genuine compassion for your fellows. (1951:1/180:5.12)

Relate to others so they receive the highest possible good as a result of your contact with them. (1950:2/180:5.7)

Serve for their benefit with a wholehearted affection. (1945:2-3/180:1.5-6)

Have faith in one another. (2040:2/191:2.1)

Trust and confide in one another. (2055:2/193:3.2)

I want you all to be one, even as the Father and I are one. (1964:3/182:1.6)

Why should we love one another?

“And so I give you this new commandment: That you love one another even as I have loved you. And by this will all men know that you are my disciples if you thus love one another.” (1944:4/180:1.1) ” And when people see you so love them, and when they behold how fervently you serve them, they will perceive that you have become faith-fellows of the family of God, and they will follow after the Spirit of Truth which they see in your lives.” (2044:3/191:6.2)

The Father and I will be “able to live in the souls of each one of you and also in the hearts of all other men who love us and make that love real in their experiences by loving one another, even as I am now loving you.” (1949:1/180:4.5)

How do we learn to love?

Through the “living interpretation of the Spirit of Truth, who directs the loving contact of one human being with another.” (1951:0/180:5.1)

“This new teacher is the Spirit of Truth who will live with each one of you, in your hearts and so will all the children of light be made one and be drawn toward one another.” (1949:1/180:4.5)

If you love your fellow men, you must have discovered their values. You can best discover values in your associates by discovering their motivation. If someone irritates you, causes feelings of resentment, you should sympathetically seek to discern his viewpoint, his reasons for such objectionable conduct. If once you understand your neighbor, you will become tolerant, and this tolerance will grow into friendship and ripen into love. You cannot truly love your fellows by a mere act of the will. Love is only born of thoroughgoing understanding of your neighbor’s motives and sentiments. It is not so important to love all men today as it is that each day you learn to love one more human being.” (1098:1&3/100:4.4&6)

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Seeing With God’s Eyes 

By Kaye Cooper

Let me share with you a moment of transformation from the life of Jesus. Imagine for just a minute the scene at the ship dock where Jesus waits to board a ship with Ganid and Gonod. They witness a man angrily attacking his wife. Jesus steps forward and taps the man on the shoulder. Look into that man’s face as he wheels around. See the anger, the clinched teeth, the fiery eyes. And then see his surprise and confusion when Jesus courteously invites him aside. And if that was not startling enough, Jesus then does an even more amazing thing. He tells the man what a fine person he is. Listen to some of what he says: “I am sure you must feel you have some good reason for this assault. I think I discern in your face a love of justice. I venture to say that, if you found me attacked by robbers, you would unhesitatingly rush to my rescue. Now, my friend, tell me what is the matter?” 

Look into the face of Jesus; see his kind look and sympathetic smile. He really means what he is saying. Jesus is seeing the man with the eyes of God – not the way you and I would ordinarily see the man at all. This is not flattery. It is the way God sees the man. Imagine the look on the man’s face in this moment of transformation, because he suddenly believes Jesus. He believes he is a better man than his behavior would indicate. In that transforming moment, he becomes a better man. His family life is changed. His wife and children are deeply affected. Even Gonod is profoundly changed by some of Jesus’ words to the man a few minutes later. Truly this was a transforming moment! And it happened because Jesus was able to see the man with God’s eyes.

We too can see with God’s eyes and it is important to see with God’s eyes. You can tell what a dramatic difference seeing the man’s behavior and the good within him with god’s eyes made in the encounter Jesus had with this man. It turned an ugly, even dangerous situation into an open door. This was truly an amazing transformation.

Seeing with God’s Eyes is basically a prayer to see more nearly as God sees, to the extent that we are able. Obviously, we cannot see all that God sees. After all, God is the creator and upholder of the universe. But by asking for God’s assistance to see as God sees and by being open to guidance, we find that our perspective changes. We see more wisely, more unselfishly, and with better understanding of our fellows. We see their potential goodness instead of only their faults. We see people’s motives, their potential, their reality (instead of our fears and prejudices). We take on attitudes more like our Heavenly Parent’s, attitudes that are more loving, sincere, and giving. We become more willing to forgive. We see ourselves and others as beloved children who are still learning and growing.

When we ask to “See with God’s Eyes,” God seems to answer our prayer by uplifting our perspective and adjusting our attitudes. Seeing with God’s eyes is one of our goals as followers of the religion of Jesus.

Exercise

Let’s try it now. Choose a situation or a person to see with God’s eyes. Choose a situation at work, home, church, or with friends which you need to see differently. Or choose a person in your life you need a fresh perspective on. He may have an annoying habit. She may be a problem in your work life. It may be someone you have fallen into the habit of criticizing.

You need to select a person or situation that you are prepared to see differently. We are not always willing to let go of our perspective, you know. In fact, that is the hardest part of this process. We want to continue our own viewpoint and attitudes. Often, we prefer to wallow in a little self-righteous pool of anger. We would rather be right than solve our problem.

Sometimes simply realizing that we have a choice about how we see, and feel can immediately free us to let go of our own perspective. There are other times when we just have to allow ourselves the time to grow into letting go. When the emotions are involved, we can’t necessarily force ourselves to let go. If we rely on persistent, ongoing, sincere prayer, then over time our Mother/Father God will soften the soil. So select something that you think you are ready and willing to let go of. 

Take a moment now and choose what you will focus on. (Pause) 

The steps in this process are simple:

  1. Commit to give up your viewpoint. 
  2. Ask for God’s help. 
  3. Imagine how God would see. Apply your understanding of God’s nature and values. 

Having decided that you are ready to let go of your viewpoint, your next step is to make a commitment to give up your viewpoint and see the person with God’s eyes. 

Once you have made the commitment to see differently, the asking is easy. You will simply ask God for help and trust fully that God will supply what you need. 

The final step is to imagine. This is where you encourage the process and become a partner with God: use your imagination. Ask God, “How would you see this?” Then imagine how God would see the situation or the person. You will find that as you use your imagination, God will help you to see more as God sees. You may want to repeat “How would you see this?” at intervals during the exercise. 

Let’s do step one together right now. Take a moment of silence to ask yourself: “Am I willing to see and feel more as God would?” Make a commitment to let go of your viewpoint and see with God’s eyes. 

(pause)  

I will give you about ten minutes to ask for God’s help and then to imagine how God sees the situation or person. During your quiet time, I encourage you to journal or take notes.  Sometimes ideas get away from you if you don’t jot them down. 

Afterward, you will have an opportunity to share whatever you want from this exercise. Of course, sharing is always voluntary. 

Please begin when you are ready.

(allow ten minutes) 

Time is almost up. Finish your thought. 

(pause) 

Discussion 

Did you notice any difficulty making the commitment to be willing to see things God’s way? 

What difference did you notice in the way you saw the person or situation? 

How do you feel differently about the person or situation now? 

Nail Down

Seeing with God’s eyes is one of those spiritual habits which is very beneficial to your spiritual growth. It is a way of inviting God to be an active partner in your life. It can be used as a prayer in the moment to transform a situation on the spot. It can be used in private to help you find a way to cope with your life. If a particular situation or person is a real challenge, persistence, sincerity, and determination will eventually bring success. 

Seeing with God’s eyes is our destiny. If you ask to see with God’s eyes persistently and honestly, over time you will find that you are not only seeing God’s will for you – more and more you will be doing God’s will for you. 

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A Few Words on Worshipful Problem Solving

By William Cooper

Worship is admiring and being grateful for all the wonderful qualities of God and longing to be like that yourself.

Worshipful meditation is the greatest of all methods of problem solving.  It is part thought, part inspiration, and part creative imagination of dialogue with God.  You describe your problem.  Then you think about and feel the values and qualities of God which might influence your choice.

Worship brings relaxation, illumination, courage, self-understanding, consciousness of union with divinity, relieves tension, removes conflict and very significantly augments the total resources of the personality.

Worship-communion augments energy to do spiritual work.  It transforms weakness to strength, fear to courage, mind of self to the will of God.  Communion with God is an experience of intimate sharing of being together in warm personal relationship of affection and acceptance. 

Worshipful practices, when persisted in, become habits. 
Habits become character. 
Character becomes spiritual maturity.

Try this:

Pick 3 higher values such as parental love, mercy, forgiveness, tolerance, patience, etc. and meditate reflectively on what they mean, how you feel as you experience them, and how they are interrelated.  See lists of higher values in Bill’s Book of Values at BillsBooks”N”Beyond.com.

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Entering the Kingdom

With suggested questions to discuss
By Kaye Cooper

For our material lifetimes, the Kingdom of heaven is not a place, a government or an organization.  It is connection and relationship.  It is the spirit of God teaching and leading the soul of man.  It is spiritual and it is real but it is not material. 
UB 1536:6 /.137:8.9  

How does the process of entering the kingdom begin?  What is the prerequisite to entering the kingdom?

You initiate this process of living in the kingdom by wanting to be like your Heavenly Parent.  Wanting the values that express God’s goodness.  Seeking to know what is spiritually real.  Yearning for loving relationships.  Delighting in the beautiful and the good.  UB 1536:5 / 137:8.8

Jesus said that our striving to be like God must be done with the faith and trusting dependence of a little child.  What is the faith of a little child?  

Simply trusting, without the doubts that experience and adulthood in the material world tend to develop in us.  The complete trust that all that you need will be provided lovingly.  You will be cared for.  UB 1536:5./ 137:8.8  

What does it feel like to have the trusting dependence of a little child in your Daddy God? 
(your Mother God, your friend God)

Secure.  Filled with assurance that comes not from the mind but from a place at the center of my chest.  A strength that holds me and won’t let in the fear that waits just outside that strength.

Jesus said, “If you would but believe that my Father loves you with an infinite love, then you are in the kingdom of God.”  How do you know your Heavenly Mother-Father-Friend loves you with an infinite love?  What is it within you that makes you believe this? 
UB 1537:4 / 137:8.17

That feeling of being loved.  An affirmation from that place at the center of my chest.  Sometimes it is in words, but more often it is in a feeling (for want of a better word) that my mind interprets into words.

What effect does this love have on you?

Stabilizes, strengthens, uplifts, calms, reassures, and affirms me.  My desire to be like God constantly grows stronger and deeper as a result.  God’s love pours through me and to others – changing the way I see them, changing the way I feel about them, changing the way I treat them.

Once we faith-discover ourselves as cherished children of our Heavenly Parent (Friend), we will desire to be taught and led by the spirit of God.  It happens naturally as a result of the experience of being loved.  How are you taught and led by the spirit of God?  What do you experience?  

Feelings, confirmations, words, pictures, the voices or examples of other people, media articles, books, coincidences, surprises, unconscious direction, changes of mind during sleep. All of these teach me.  The experience is mostly experience of insights and meanings falling into place.

What are you taught?  What are you led to do?

What I am taught:  how to see through the superficial to the real person or the real situation, how to see people as weak rather than wicked, compassion, objectivity, strength of character, patience, interest in people rather than what they can do for me, to laugh rather than get upset, to be aware of the people around me, to think in terms of needs. These are all lessons in being more loving.

What I am led to do:  to listen, to watch for needs, to give with joy.

What we are led to, expressed in one word, is “service.”  We are attracted to it, not coerced by guilt.  It is not a test we have to pass.  To be led to service is a spiritually natural outcome of the changes within us.  Jesus said it this way, “And when the feelings of service for your fellow men arise within your soul, do not stifle them; when the emotions of love for your neighbor well up within your heart, give expression to such urges of affection in intelligent ministry to the real needs of your fellows.”   UB 1745:1 / 157:2.2 

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We All Need Love…Now! 

Kaye Cooper 2020

In times of uncertainty, confusion, and even fear, we all need the comfort and reassurance of love more than ever. Parents and children, friends and strangers, leaders and victims—everyone needs more love. How do we squeeze out more love for those around us, especially our families, when we desperately need to be loved, ourselves?

An answer? Find more sources of love to give. Stick with me now! That may sound impossible, but I want to share with you where I have found the love to give. You have probably already tapped this well of love within you without realizing its source and what an endless supply is available for the asking.  Receiving love is important but giving love refreshes one’s soul too.  You get a love benefit from having love flow through you. Have you ever heard a baby cry when you are really tired? If you put aside your own need and discover the compassion to comfort the child, you have connected with the Source of love.  

What is it that makes us able to overlook our own weariness and need? You may already have an opinion. I believe that our connection with Spirit gives us the capacity to forget our own needs to help another. Mixed in with all our emotions, thoughts, and physical bodies, we are spiritual beings, as well—children in a spiritual family. And we are connected to the universal source of all selfless love. When we see others (such as that distraught baby) with our spiritual eyes, we can draw to us the love we need—and the strength, wisdom, and courage.  So there is a spiritual source of love that we can tap into in order to pass it on to others.

Try it now.

Let’s shift to an exercise of tapping-in and passing-on love.  Think of someone you care for and appreciate—someone you know personally. Relax for a moment. Close your eyes if you wish. Imagine this person close to you. Open your heart to appreciate him or her.  Focus on the things you appreciate about your loved one. Allow a grateful feeling to expand in your chest. Feel gratitude growing stronger and stronger.  See them as the best they can be.  This is seeing them as Spirit sees them.

As you progress toward seeing with more spiritual vision, notice your understanding gradually begin to change. Your spiritual eyes see people more like a loving parent sees a precious young child, as full of potential for goodness, as growing, maturing, and as having a marvelous destiny—you view them with gentleness and understanding, without anger or blame.  

None of us will be perfect at spiritual vision because, after all, we are all very immature spiritual beings. Nevertheless, seeing with spiritual eyes can change the way we feel.  The more loving we feel, the more empowered we are to express our concern and appreciation to another. The more we make the effort to use our spiritual eyes, the stronger our connection to the Source of all love. Continue to explore what you see and feel for a few more moments.

In your everyday life, allow new spiritual love to flow through you to others.  Spiritual love is appreciation, kindness, gentleness, trust, graciousness, respect, desire to benefit the other person, and much more high, ethical, unselfish treatment of others. Use this method frequently and you will grow deeper in your spiritual connection, clearer in your spiritual vision, and stronger in your capacity to give your family and friends love in all circumstances!

Peace be with you!

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Developing Spiritual

Relationship with God

and the Cosmic Family

by William Cooper

Talking Things Over with God 

Jesus in his prayers as a youngster would just talk to his heavenly Father in the fashion he used with Joseph, who was a very attentive and caring mortal Father.  He would talk, ask questions, “listen”, discuss, and interpret his impressions.   It was embarrassing to Jesus’ parents that Jesus did not observe the forms and fashions of prayer for their religious culture and he was open and obvious about it.  Like us, Jesus was often not certain exactly what God’s response was, but he was sure that God was responding.

As Jesus matured and began to understand who he was, he continued to relate to the I Am in informal discussion mode.  He was using this mode of prayer when he prayed repeatedly in Gethsemene.  Talking things over with God makes God very real and near, which he is.  God will respond to even the faintest indication of faith.  I think that attempting to intuit God’s responses to us is more than a faint flicker of faith.  To attempt such is an extremely appropriate application of faith.  God would never fail to respond to such an act of faith.  Seriously, try it.  This prayer practice promotes a rich and constant relationship with God, Spirit and our cosmic family.

Commitment to Spiritual Family

Jesus tried to teach his followers that he was here to establish the Family of God on earth.  They were too much caught up in the concept that the Messiah would come and found a material kingdom.  So, Jesus altered his approach to talk in terms of a kingdom.  He taught that the kingdom he came to found was not an earthly kingdom but rather it was/is a kingdom in the hearts of people who follow the leading of the spirit within each person.  This inner kingdom he described as presided over by a loving and patriarchal king.  And this is true, but it is not his preferred concept.  He wanted us to see the spiritual reality, that engulfs our material reality, as a family that has our personal and collective welfare as a central and constant concern.  To Jesus, family was not merely a kinship, it included a purpose of taking care of the family enterprise of pursuing God’s plan.  God’s plan is to knit together the cosmos by the attraction of the love and goodness of God.  This plan includes high adventure of our being a growing and serving part in expanding the inhabited and unified cosmos.  It includes participating actively in our deity parent’s plans and thereby advancing in becoming like God, deity ourselves.

Jesus said if you believe that God loves you with an infinite love and follow the leading of the spirit within your heart, then you are in the family of God.  That sounds kind of cool but what are the consequences, expectations and opportunities?  

Let’s stop just a minute and consider the difference in the way we feel first when we see our eternal destiny to be a loyal servant of God the good king. (Pause) Is that exciting to you? Now, second, feel what it is like to look at yourself as a beloved and privileged child of God and of the vast, loving family of God, whose destiny is to choose a personal path to grow up to be like his / her parent.  Now, is that exciting to you? (Pause)  I hope you can feel the difference.  I certainly can.  Now back to the expectations, opportunities and consequences of this status.

One consequence is the opportunity for an eternal life of service to God’s ongoing adventure with love.  I call God’s adventure of fostering and proving the truth of the effectiveness of love via experience,” the family business”.  This is what God and all creation are currently doing.  This has been going on for trillions of years and will continue into eternity, will never end.  We will never run out of important things to do.  Ours is not a static job or a bit role to play as a servant at a king’s court.  The family of God provides progressively more and more responsible roles for all of its members.  As recipients of Adjusters and of personality, there is no known limit to how far we may progress in eternity.  Our progress entails study, service, mastery of power, responsibility, loyalty to God’s will and all of these with the love, graciousness and generosity of our divine parents.

The Family of God is so vast that we lack words for the number of its members but everyone in the family who is pursuing the family business is devoted to achievement of God’s good, gracious, generous and merciful goals –infinite love permeating everyone, everything and every action.  In committing to God’s family business, we are committing to join all other family members in humble efforts to achieve love, to enthusiastically pursue the way of love and to institutionalize it as a living, enlarging practice for all.  Joinder in this family and its business is God’s plan for us all.

There is a great deal more that can be said about spiritual family.  It can be, after all, the core around which each of us can form our philosophy of living.  But the last observation I want to make in closing is that all of the members of the spiritual family want all of its members to succeed in doing and fostering God’s way of love and will help each other achieve that goal in any way consistent with God’s will.  Just ask and then listen and follow expectantly.

Exercise

Letter to and From Mom and Dad

Now let’s take about 5min to write a quick note to Mom and Dad about their spiritual family.  You might want to be grateful.  You might want to explore with them what spiritual family means to you.  How do you feel about being a member of such a vast, purposeful and mutually supportive spiritual family?  Examine the extent of your desire to participate. [Allow 5 min.]

Time is up.

But don’t put your pen down.  Now take 5 min to write what seems to you to be the response Mom and Dad would make to you.

Exercise

Developing Relationship by Conversation

Ask key and/or immediately relevant questions.  Use a form of question and answer dialog. You ask the question and you imagine an appropriate answer from the Spirit Within and you make notes. 

In circumstances usually of quiet contemplation I ask how to take known macro principles of God’s will and interpret them to fit my immediate micro needs.  Some examples are:

  • How can I be loving to this person or even this thing?
  • How can I truly forgive disloyalty or betrayal? 
  • Contempt and anger must go or at least be diminished.  How can I do this?
  • How can I contribute love, mercy, truth, beauty and goodness to improve this situation?
  • What higher value do I need to apply here to adjust my attitude or that of another?
  • How would applying acceptance, inclusion and respect help this situation?
  • How can I be courteous, generous, trusting and charming in anticipated difficult circumstances?
  • From where I am right now, how can I make good come from this?
  • In the face of apparent failure, what can I learn from this?

You may say, ”But Bill I already ask myself these things.”  And I reply, “That is wonderful, but do you ask these as questions to your human experience and wisdom alone or as questions explicitly directed to your spiritual guides and tutors, of which there are many.”  There is a strong spiritual quality, even an urge to action, when you address your spiritual helpers and seek to be sensitive to their responses.  This ask, listen, interpret and act/respond process builds relationship that becomes very real, very revealing of truth, beauty, goodness and Love.

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About Spiritual Power

An Exercise

William Cooper 2020

I would like for you to make a journey into your soul to converse with your Inner Spirit about spiritual power.  Spiritual power is the ability to ignite or activate spiritual consequences in one’s self or others principally through the energy of attraction, charm, and delight.  We need not, and should not, seek spiritual power.  It will arise of its own accord when you make yourself into a loving, caring, compassionate and serving person.  It is good if you recognize these powers for what they are and cooperate with them. 

Spiritual fruits arise naturally as one of the consequences of our communion with the Spirit of God residing in our souls.  They have a power from the Spirit to lure and attract other people into trust, cooperation, kindness, respect, and helpfulness. 

Some spiritual fruits are:

Loving service  |  Unselfish devotion  |   Courageous loyalty 

Sincere fairness  |  Enlightened honesty  |  Undying hope

Confiding trust  |  Merciful ministry  |   Unfailing goodness

Forgiving tolerance  |  Enduring peace

Spiritual weapons are gifts of the spirit of Jesus which also inhabits our souls.  These are the weapons Jesus wants his followers to use to establish the kingdom of God’s love and mercy in the hearts of men.  The spiritual weapons are:

Unfailing forgiveness  | Matchless goodwill  | Abounding love

These weapons are to be applied to overcome evil with good, to vanquish hate and anger by love and to destroy fear with a courageous and living faith in truth.  Always are Jesus’ followers to be active and positive in their ministry of mercy and in their manifestations of love.  The enemies to be banished with these weapons are evil, hate, anger, suspicion, and fear.  The warriors are to display consistent goodness, love, and courageous trust in the truth that God’s love and kindness will transform all creation into God’s ideal of loving connectedness and cooperation.

Faith is trust in God to do God’s part in making truth, beauty, and goodness victorious over evil.

Righteous living is living loyal to the meanings and values God stands for.  It is goodness.

Try this: I want you to visit with your Inner Spirit about developing your skill at manifesting spiritual power through spiritual fruits, spiritual weapons, faith, and righteous living.  Think, ask, dialog, and/or hot pen (spiritual stream of consciousness writing).  Your objective is to develop graciousness and charm in exercising these powers.

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Parable of Fatherly Service

A visualization and worship experience.
By Kaye Cooper

One way that worship is defined is this: Looking to the nature of God for the inspiration of service to the many.  Out of worship comes our own growth in the family of God—the enrichment of our desire to serve, our energy for service, and our effectiveness at service.  I want to share a short visualization with you.  It is called “The Parable of Fatherly Service.”  At the end of the visualization, I will give you a time of silence to worship as you wish.  I will close the worship time with a piece of music.  Are there any questions before I begin?

The Parable of Fatherly Service

Let me first set the stage for you.  On Thursday night, only hours before he was arrested, Jesus took his apostles to the safety of an upper room to enjoy an uninterrupted time with them.  He wanted to share with his apostles some last words of caution and encouragement before he departed his mortal life.  There they celebrated Passover and Jesus instigated the new sacrament of communion.

Because Jesus wanted privacy with his close associates, no servant was provided that night to wash the dust of the roadway from their feet.  Each of the apostles avoided taking the role of servant upon himself, and so their feet remained unwashed as the supper began.  Jesus took advantage of this situation to enact a parable for his apostles.  To demonstrate for them one last time the nature of his life of loving service, to encourage them to follow his example.

And now relax in your chair.  Close your eyes if you wish.  And imagine that you are one of those apostles, sharing a last precious evening with your beloved Master.  You and the other apostles have been seated around the Passover table with Jesus for some time.  Then, without explanation he rises and walks to the door where basins, towels and pitchers of water have been provided for the washing of feet.  He removes his outer robe and wraps a long, slender towel around the waist of his tunic.  He pours water into a bowl and walks over to kneel at the feet of one of your fellow apostles.  All of you are horrified when it becomes evident that Jesus intends to take upon himself the role of servant and wash the feet of the apostle before whom he has knelt.  But Jesus insists despite objections.

You watch as he washes the feet of an apostle and gently dries them, then another and another.  And now he kneels before you.  He removes your sandals and washes your dusty feet in the clean water from the pitcher.  He dries them gently.

Then he looks up directly into your eyes, and you see love and understanding…and insight into your life.  And with a final, gentle smile he says, “I enact this parable of service so you will remember that he who would be great in my family must become the server of all.  If you would follow me, serve my children.”

(allow 4 minutes of meditative music or silence)

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The Correct and Effective Strategy:

Taking the Kingdom by Spiritual Assault

UB 1725:4 and 1726:2/155:1.3 and 5
Bill and Kaye Cooper

Jesus said to the 12 apostles and 12 evangelists who were fleeing through northern Galilee: “You who have professed entrance into the kingdom of heaven are altogether too vacillating and indefinite in your teaching conduct. You are guilty of too much chronic yearning.  If you desire to enter the kingdom, why do you not take it by spiritual assault? You are hardly worthy of the kingdom when your service consists so largely in an attitude of regretting the past, whining over the present, and vainly hoping for the future.  …Cease your useless yearning and go forth bravely doing that which concerns the establishment of the kingdom.” [Social service and sharing the gospel.]

What does it mean to take the kingdom by spiritual assault?  What weapons are to be used?  

What are we to do which concerns the establishment of the kingdom?  Why does that require bravery?

He continued, “Let me emphatically state this eternal truth:  If you, by truth coordination, learn to exemplify in your lives this beautiful wholeness of righteousness, others will then seek after you that they may gain what you have so acquired [Character development, Happiness and Joy].  The measure wherewith truth seekers are drawn to you represents the measure of your truth endowment, your righteousness.  The extent to which you have to go with your message to the people is, in a way, the measure of your failure to live the whole or righteous life, the truth-coordinated life.”

    1. What is truth?  A truth-seeker would be seeking what?
    2. What is truth coordination?
    3. What is this beautiful wholeness of righteousness?

What does this paragraph tell us about how we are to go forth doing that which concerns the establishment of the kingdom?  What is our plan?  What do we need to do to set that plan in motion?

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Toolbox for The Inner Life

Collected by William Cooper
  1. Intentionally Foster a Strong Spiritual Inner Life.  Focus your efforts on attending to your spiritual inner life.  Your inner life is where your values and meanings in life reside.  It is also where you have the most control over your life.  Your inner life interacts with the Spirit Within which can be relied upon always to favor what is truly in your best interests.  Your outer life interacts with people, things and institutions that frequently are not in your favor and may even unfairly oppose you.  Your outer life is subject to bad judgment, accidents, betrayal, disloyalty, selfishness, envy, affairs and many other disturbing and destructive events and emotions.
  2. Use Relaxation and Meditation.  Relaxation and meditation help you access your inner life where you can choose to affirm what you personally believe to be important and meaningful.  Relaxation and meditation will help you reconcile your outer life to your inner life.  Do not compromise the values and meanings of your inner life to fit your outer life.  That leads to dissatisfaction and unhappiness even in the presence of apparent material success.
  3. Go to Your Heart Place.  Your heart place is a place of calm refuge and beauty where you are safe and comforted. Remember the process: Relax; drift gently into the special place of calm you have mentally prepared; Experience the presence of the persons, pets, plants and things you have chosen to be there; enjoy; return when you are refreshed.
  4. Consult with Your Inner Spirit.  You have within your heart a reliable spirit counselor.  If you will consult this spirit especially regarding meanings and values and morals and ethics you will receive high quality advice on attitudes and behaviors that will benefit you with a happier and more productive life.  The process is simple.  In calm circumstances if possible, ask for help as specifically as possible.  Wait in silent receptivity for a few minutes to see if any impressions present themselves immediately.  Remain receptive and expectant as you go about your life for relevant impressions and insights.
  5. Optimism, Expectation and Cooperative Attitude.  These are your allies in achieving anything.  Believing you can achieve something is the starting place of success.  What you believe is possible, you may attempt.  What you attempt, you might achieve.  What you do not try, has no chance.
  6. See with New Eyes. Seeing a situation with new eyes is a useful process in many circumstances, especially as preparation for forgiveness.  This process applies imagination to explain an offense as understandable and forgivable behavior.  You do this because bearing a grudge, resentment or fear is so damaging to you spiritually that you should risk forgiving even in the absence of apology or expressions of regret.  The forgiver benefits even if the forgiven does not.  Seeing with new eyes intentionally seeks an alternative understanding of events from a higher spiritual perspective of compassion, empathy, error, generosity of spirit, etc.
  7. Cool Down and Open to Spirit.  Your capacities are measurably improved when your interactions with others (and self ) are as free of anger, fear and suspicion as possible.  That is the cool-down benefit of this process.  Opening to the spirit intends to access the rich inner source of caring for the other person’s needs as much as your own.  When you do this, compromises to everyone’s satisfaction are often possible and peaceful interaction is to be expected.  The spirit will always lead you to treat the other person as you would like to be treated.
  8. Focus on what is ideal and Right.   Your inner life is where you are free to define what is ideal and right.  What is ideal and right is what you want to support and advocate in your outer life.  Life may force compromises but betrayals or intentional hypocrisy are to be avoided.  They will certainly lead to unhappiness.
  9. Respect your feelings.  Your feelings mean something.  They are not necessarily answers or even indications of truth but they should be considered.  They certainly affect your behavior.  If you understand them, they can have a rational and appropriate effect.  If you do not, they will have an effect that is haphazard and often not beneficial.  Ignore your feelings or surrender to them at your risk.
  10.  Forgive.  Forgiving frees the forgiving person from the burden of spiteful thinking and scheming.  Most of the benefits of forgiving flow to the forgiving person.  So it is to the forgiver’s benefit to be generous, even lavish in letting go of hurt feelings from all causes.  Forgive as much as you can as quick as you can even when the offender is unworthy of forgiveness and unrepentant.  Forgiveness is that important to your spiritual growth.
  11.  Imagine.  You have the gift of imagination.  Use it to imagine a good and rewarding path through life.  It is better to be optimistic without fantastic or miraculous events.  It is OK to strive to dream / imagine realistically but avoid applying your imagination cynically.  Imagining can be like mentally preparing yourself to succeed in future opportunities.  It has been proved repeatedly to work in sports and other skilled activities.
  12.  Communicate Calmly. Expressing anger, fear, violence or agitation motivates others to get away from you.  Calmly confide and trust in others and observe how this builds relationships.  Relationships are real, eternal and worth the effort.
  13.  Be Thankful.  Counting your blessings elevates your mood, relieves depression and helps you define what is important to you and what you should do to foster your own happiness.
  14.  Stacked in Your Favor.  The universe is stacked in your favor.  No, really it is, when you are pursuing what you believe is right.  If you will presume that and act accordingly many wonderful consequences will follow.  You will undoubtedly suffer a lot of failure.  You will grow a lot in character.  You will also succeed a lot too, if you define success broadly.
  15.  Lavish Gift Giving.  There are more than these three valuable gifts you can afford to give lavishly to everyone.  In fact, You will profit by giving them.  You can count on an endless supply and widespread appreciation.
    • Forgiveness
    • Respect
    • Caring about all people 
  16.  Positive Self Talk.  Tell yourself good things.  What you tell yourself, good or bad, confident or doubting will influence your behavior and your friends.  What you tell yourself, and believe, is more likely to manifest in your experience.
  17.  Use the Peacemaker’s Checklist.
    1. Try to calm down before you react.
    2. Do your best to avoid physical fighting.
    3. Avoid arousing anger or fear in your adversary.
    4. Avoid using put-downs, cursing, calling names or using profanity.
    5. Say what is on your mind but do it respectfully.
    6. Really listen (with an open heart) to what your adversary has to say.
    7. Try to see how you are responsible.  Don’t just blame the other person.
    8. Try to put yourself in the other person’s place to understand where they are coming from.
    9. Look for ways to solve the problem, not just win the argument.
    10. Be willing to compromise.
  18.  Golden Rule. You have heard it all your life but it really is the most reliable spiritual rule.  Treat others as you would like to be treated if your roles were reversed.
  19.  Practice Nonviolent Communication.  Be gentle and respectful with others.
  20.  Don’t fear failure.  Take reasonable risks.  Failure is an especially good learning opportunity leading eventually to success.
  21.  Live your values.  Live your life as loyally as you are able to the truth you have discovered.

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About Spiritual Power

An Exercise

William Cooper 2020 

I would like for you to make a journey into your soul to converse with your Inner Spirit about spiritual power.  Spiritual power is the ability to ignite or activate spiritual consequences in one’s self or others principally through the energy of attraction, charm, and delight.  We need not, and should not, seek spiritual power.  It will arise of its own accord when you make yourself into a loving, caring, compassionate and serving person.  It is good if you recognize these powers for what they are and cooperate with them. 

Spiritual fruits arise naturally as one of the consequences of our communion with the Spirit of God residing in our souls.  They have a power from the Spirit to lure and attract other people into trust, cooperation, kindness, respect, and helpfulness. 

Some spiritual fruits are:

Loving service  |  Unselfish devotion  |  Courageous loyalty 

Sincere fairness |  Enlightened honesty |  Undying hope

Confiding trust |  Merciful ministry |  Unfailing goodness

Forgiving tolerance Enduring peace

Spiritual weapons are gifts of the spirit of Jesus which also inhabits our souls.  These are the weapons Jesus wants his followers to use to establish the kingdom of God’s love and mercy in the hearts of men.  The spiritual weapons are:

Unfailing forgiveness Matchless goodwill Abounding love

These weapons are to be applied to overcome evil with good, to vanquish hate and anger by love and to destroy fear with a courageous and living faith in truth.  Always are Jesus’ followers to be active and positive in their ministry of mercy and in their manifestations of love.  The enemies to be banished with these weapons are evil, hate, anger, suspicion, and fear.  The warriors are to display consistent goodness, love, and courageous trust in the truth that God’s love and kindness will transform all creation into God’s ideal of loving connectedness and cooperation.

Faith is trust in God to do God’s part in making truth, beauty, and goodness victorious over evil.

Righteous living is living loyal to the meanings and values God stands for.  It is goodness.

Try this: I want you to visit with your Inner Spirit about developing your skill at manifesting spiritual power through spiritual fruits, spiritual weapons, faith, and righteous living.  Think, ask, dialog, and/or hot pen (spiritual stream of consciousness writing).  Your objective is to develop graciousness and charm in exercising these powers.

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Experiencing the Holy Spirit

Kaye and Bill Cooper 6-9-20

The Infinite Mother Spirit is the perfect expression if the nurturing character of God. She is superbly endowed with the attributes of empathy, compassion, patience, mercy, and love. These qualities are exquisitely revealed in her spiritual ministry. She ministers love and overshadows justice with mercy. She possesses supernal kindness and merciful affection. (Adapted from UB 9:1.8.)

The presence of the Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of Deity, we may know even during our mortal lives, for material creatures can actually experience her beneficence (her active goodness, big-hearted generosity, and kindheartedness), because she is in elaborate contact with each of us and everything material, mindal or spiritual.  (Adapted from UB 9:2.5.)

We are promised that we can “actually experience” the beneficence of the Holy Spirit—her gracious generosity. Why bother to seek this experience? Because it is important to know about God. On this planet we don’t know much at all about a very significant aspect of God—the Infinite Spirit. The Infinite Mother Spirit functions as the Mother Spirit of each local universe. But knowing as a fact that she is here is only a first step. It is much more important to move beyond knowledge, to increasingly grow in the ability to feel the presense of God. (see UB 155:6.12.) So what we are going to do today is to open ourselves to experience the presence of God as expressed in the Holy Spirit. We are going to do that by focusing on particular values which are characteristic of our Mother.  Here is the process we would like to use:  

  1. We will relax together into contact with spirit and maintain that connection throughout our time together.  Feel free to write in your journal at any time during this activity if you wish.  
  2. We will lead you through a worshipful group exploration of each of the five values on the list we give you in a moment. You are invited to focus with appreciation and gratitude on each of the five qualities on the list as an avenue to experience the Holy Spirit who is constantly with us.  You will be invited to share aloud at various times during this part of the activity. 
  3. Then we will have a quiet time of individual meditation and imagination.  
  4. Last, each of us will share whatever we want with the group and continue with comments and reflections. 

We especially suggest that you approach these values with a combination of thinking and feeling.  Think with the highest spirit levels of the mind our Mother has given you.  And feel each value with your soul.  Feel your thoughts.  Think about your feelings.  Flow back and forth between thought and feeling, between meaning and value.  Allow them to flow and intermingle within you like a beautiful melody.  

Do you have any questions about these concepts or about what we are going to do?

Holy Spirit Values:

Active Goodness

Gracious Generosity

Steadfast Patience

Unfailing Kindheartedness

Merciful Affection

  1. Let’s start by relaxing. Get comfortable and balanced where you are sitting. Close your eyes if you wish. Breathe deeply and relax more…and again. Breathe fully but comfortably.  Begin by thinking of someone you love and appreciate.  Imagine being with them, safe in each other’s presence.  Think of how much you appreciate that person, how thankful you are for their being in your life.  Imagine the gratitude you feel.  Let gratitude bloom inside your heart and grow stronger…deeper…richer.  Allow this wonderful feeling of gratitude to fill your body with spirit.  Now spirit fills the space around you…the room in which you sit.  Enjoy being absorbed in appreciation and thanksgiving.  Maintain this attitude as we move into our worshipful group exploration of the characteristics of our Holy Spirit.

     

  2. Exploring the Spirit’s characteristics.  
    1. We begin with the first characteristic:  Active Goodness.  Recall the goodness with which we are blessed: friendships, challenges, surprises, empathy, compassion, sincerity, purpose.  Our lives are filled with beautiful spiritual values nurtured by the Holy Spirit.  Enjoy reflecting on these values for a moment.  Share aloud the values that come to your attention.

       

      [Wait 1 min.]
  3. Next contemplate the second characteristic: The Gracious Generosity of the Holy Spirit.  All things physical and intellectual are provided by our Mother Spirit.  She provides our very existence and consciousness.  Day-by-day the Spirit works incessantly to improve us individually…and to improve our civilization.  She touches all areas—health, government, education, industry, reversion, and, of course, family and religion.  Reflect in gratitude for these gifts of the Spirit.  I invite you to express aloud your appreciation to the gracious generosity of our Mother Spirit and her Spirit presence.

     

    [Wait 1min.}
  4. Let’s turn our attention to the third Motherly value:  Steadfast Patience.  Like a human mother, the Holy Spirit of our Mother needs to have lots of patience.  We children must try her daily with our self-centered thinking and our ease-seeking, and spiritual task avoidance.  But she works loyally to provide us with opportunities to grow.  Her guardian seraphim manage our lives moment-to-moment.  Sometimes the lessons of life are hard…but they always bring us far more than we expect.  Other seraphim teach us the truths of life:  spiritual wisdom, racial justice, optimism, compassion, integrity, loyalty, and so much more.  Consider something you have learned and allow your gratitude to pour silently outward to the seraphim, the patient Mother-ministers of our daily lives.  

    [Wait 1 min.]
  5. Fourth, our Mother is not only patient, she is Unfailingly Kindhearted.  Her kindness is described as ‘supernal’—far beyond any kindness we can imagine.  What magnificent safety there is in being taught, guided, protected, and encouraged by a parent who has never felt or expressed frustration, disappointment, irritation, or any number of other self-centered human emotions!  She is the original pattern for kindness—and the ultimate example, as well.  Imagine her hands patting your shoulders, her lips kissing the top of your head fondly.  Share aloud how she makes you feel.  

    [Wait 1 min.]
  6. She moves face-to-face with each of us. Recognize the way she feels about us—her Merciful Affection for each of us—the fifth characteristic of our Mother.  She has not one ounce of blame in her.  She forgives us as a matter of course because she knows our spiritual longings and purposes.  Imagine her smile, her glowing motherly face, the joy in her eyes. She loves each one of us as if we were the only child she has!  Feel her affection.  

    [Wait 1 min.]
  7. Move into your own private time with the Holy Spirit of our Mother.  Open yourself to her wisdom and loving ministry.  Enjoy her as a person—your spiritual mother. She is real. She is close with us.  

    I will give you ten minutes of silence with the presence of our Mother. I will let you know when time is up.

    Allow 10 minutes.

  8. Sharing and Discussion. Now it is time to return our attention to our group.  Bring our Mother back with you.  You are invited to share whatever you want from this experience.  Choosing to share provides the opportunity that your experience may bless others in the group as much or more than it blessed you!  Always respect that each person’s experience is unique and valid for them.  

Our spiritual destiny is conditioned only by our spiritual longings and purposes. (see UB156:5.9)

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Spiritual Exercises I

Contents

The Gift of Faith

By Kaye Cooper
Arlington, Texas

I have had a hard time understanding just what it means to have faith in my brothers and sisters. I am not a particularly naive person. I learn from experience, and that includes learning who I can trust and who has failed to exhibit himself worthy of trust. As an adult with these valuable lessons under my belt, I came face to face two or three years ago with the fact that Jesus urged his followers to have faith in one another. (1574:5) It stopped me in my tracks, and I began to ponder what he could mean. Was I supposed to allow unscrupulous people to take advantage of me repeatedly in fulfillment of a rule of conduct? Was I to ignore the obvious evidence of human behavior and become naive? Was I supposed to disregard a person’s apparent bad habits and unreliability and trust him to be and do things that are apparently not a part of his behavior pattern?

As these questions plagued me, I did what I have found to be the most effective thing in such circumstances. I prayed. Not so much the traditional and specific request in a designated prayer time (although I did that too), but more the investment of my soul’s desire in an intense longing for an answer. When I ask in that way, I do indeed receive. Over the years, insights have occurred, some small, some more outstanding. It is only now that I feel enough of a start on understanding to be able to share some thoughts in writing.

A Change of Attitude 

To begin with, having faith in someone is not a rule of conduct that one can adhere to. Faith comes from one’s sincere feelings. It cannot be “play-acted.” We can’t force ourselves to have faith in our brothers because we know Jesus said we should. We have to behave out of whatever level of faith we are capable of at the moment. It is very comforting to understand that our ideals of faith are always going to outstrip our current level of faith. Any change in us toward having more faith is a change in attitude. That sincere attitude change results in a change in our actions. Rather than attempt to force ourselves to change behavior, we can more profitably contribute to this growth by praying for a change of attitude, an enlargement of understanding, and an enhancement of faith-power. We can read, think about, and discuss with friends what it means to have faith in others. We can attempt to perceive what it would be for the individual situation we are in at the moment. We can want with all our heart and soul to grow in our trust and faith of others.

Jesus was not naive. He extended his faith in Judas with full knowledge of the danger he was courting and the odds against success. Naivete would have said, “Everything will work out as I want it to. I just know Judas won’t betray my trust.” But I think Jesus said, “I know that there is a great likelihood that Judas is incapable of responding to my teaching and my relationship with him, but he is worth the risk. I will trust him to respond and grow.”

Much of Jesus’ expenditure of faith in men resulted in salvaged mortals. As an example, very few would have expected the tax collector Matthew to be interested in or to respond to Jesus, yet Jesus’ faith in him was very successful. Jesus stretched his faith to the limit of reasonability in Judas, and Judas failed to live up to Jesus’ faith in him. (But perhaps that was not the end of the story. Perhaps Judas did respond and grow. Perhaps Judas too has been saved). Faith Is Active.

At any rate, faith in others is not simply a trusting naivete. It involves seeking to understand the motives of others and consistently looking for and commenting on the best in them. Jesus saw the possibilities in the two prostitutes who propositioned him at Corinth. He saw that their motives were not low, that desperation had driven them to that life. He had faith that they had the capacity and soul desire for growth. The result was two redeemed lives. (pp. 1472-3) Faith in our brothers involves a trust in their ability to grow. We tend to look at people and situations as static. If we project change, it is on the basis of the characteristics which people are displaying at the moment. When one is surrounded by stagnant people, perhaps that is a reasonable expectation.

Now that my life has become filled with alive and growing people, I am constantly amazed. Situations are always turning out better than I expect. My experience with spiritually growing people justifies relatively optimistic faith in what they can be and become. People repeatedly grow beyond reasonable predictions – before my very eyes! My faith can’t seem to keep up with reality-or maybe my faith in them even causes some of the growth that surprises me. If we think back on situations in which others have had faith in us, we can recognize the effect of one person’s faith in another. Faith in us causes us to want to live up to that faith, inspires in us a belief that we can be more than we are, spurs us to do our best by a sense of responsibility (In the best meaning of that word). Jesus valued people so much and had so much faith in their ability to grow and their sincere desire to do so, that he spent himself in serving them. As a result, people all around him became more than they were, more than they had ever hoped to be.

Faith Errors 

Some of the confusion about having faith in others may stem from two easy-to-make errors. One of these errors is to confuse faith in growth with expectations. To have faith in another’s capacity and desire for growth is a different matter from expecting that a person will behave in a specific way in a particular situation at a definite time. Someone may on occasion fulfill such defined expectations, but more often the behavior of another person does not fit our specified demands. The temptation then is to view that as a failure-even to assume that having faith in people does not do any good (does not have the desired results of getting them to act as we wish).

Even growing people are not going to grow according to our expectations for their growth. Our faith has to expand beyond those limitations. This type of situation also involves a second misunderstanding about faith. When we have expended faith in our brothers, perhaps time, and again we may eventually come to feel that our faith was wasted or that we were a fool for having faith in that person. Neither of those is true. Our faith is never wasted, nor are we a fool for having it. We may, because of our immature status in the universe, bestow faith in unwise ways; but, after all, everything we do is less than perfect. We can expend our faith and learn and grow from our experiences. Or we can withhold our faith for fear of making an error – and stagnate. We are responsible for acting as wisely, sincerely, and lovingly as we are capable of, and we can leave the out working of those acts to God.

There are many possibilities for success in giving faith where one’s expectations are not met and one’s faith seems to have been in vain. Some examples:

  • There may be benefits for our brother which we cannot see.
  • There may be benefits to someone else.
  • The positive results may be delayed.
  • This may be one in a series of similar events which will eventually bear fruit.
  • We may have been too ambitious, too specific, or inaccurate in our expectations.
  • We may be the primary beneficiaries of the situation.

Faith Wisdom 

While accepting·that our application of faith is going to be less than perfect, we will want to seek ways to make it as wise as possible. Wisdom indicates that allowing unscrupulous people to take advantage of us or anyone else is in no one’s highest interest. Jesus seemed to distinguish between those who were malicious and those who were making sincere errors. The money changers in the temple are an example of the malicious and sinful. Jesus used force against the money changers to drive them out. The man beating his wife is an example of someone in sincere error. Jesus approached the man to ascertain his motives and what events had led up to this extreme action. He uplifted the man’s understanding of his relationship with his wife and left the man in the faith that he would grow beyond his violent reactions. (pp. 1888-91; 1470-71)

Even when the situation involves error and not maliciousness, we are not supposed to disregard a person’s apparent bad habits and unreliability and trust him to be and do things that are apparently not part of his behavior patterns. It is our desire that the faith we have in him will empower him to grow. We hope he will live up to a trust placed in him or that failure to do so will stimulate his growth. To have faith that a person be or do something too far beyond his present reach dooms him to failure without even the benefit of learning from that failure. For example, delegation of responsibility involves faith, but it must be dispensed wisely. It is a pattern of the universe to delegate responsibility as soon as maturity warrants. We can more nearly follow this pattern if we watch for the signs of readiness for the responsibility. It is the fourteen-year-old we trust with the lawn mower, not the four year old. Observing the signs of readiness is a wise thing to do. It does not mean one lacks faith in one’s brother.

We can benefit in our faith-wisdom by recognizing that faith is undermined by fear. It is our animal nature to fear the unknown (and faith always includes the unknown). We have the difficult job of balancing our judgment of readiness with our instinctive fear of the results of taking a faith step. Knowing that we have spiritual help in making our decisions is an extremely important remedy for the dilemma of choosing wisely while being pulled by fear on one side and desire to live by faith on the other.

The Source of the Faith Gift

It occurs to me that faith in our brothers is also faith in our Father. We can be absolutely confident that he has a plan for each of us, that we can and will grow. We can be certain that we all have helpers on every side and in every situation whose primary aim is to help us grow. We can depend upon him not only to safeguard us spiritually but to guide us constantly. We can step out over the chasm of the unknown, utterly supported by God’s promises: that we can and will grow to be like him, that all things work together for the good of those who love him. It is these assurances – our faith in our Father – which enables us to extend the gift of faith to our brothers.

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Prepare the Path

 Kaye Cooper

Story of Kaye, Mom and compassion:  About 3 years before my mother’s death, she was hospitalized with an electrolyte imbalance and when she got out of the hospital, all of a sudden, she was showing signs of dementia. I really had trouble with this turn of events.  I hated the way I was responding to the onset of my Mother’s dementia.  I was frustrated, exasperated, exhausted, overwhelmed by the responsibility, and most of all, fearful that all of my goals and ambitions were going to fall by the wayside with the increased demands on my time and energy.

Using what Sharon Porter had taught me about cultivating values, I realized that what I needed was to remember the wonderful person my mother had been to me all those years of my life.  I could use that loving memory to call up compassion for the problems she was having.  I cultivated compassion and put it in my path into the hall that led toward her room at the facility where she lived.  The next time I walked down that hall, I opened myself to the compassion I had put there.  And my negative, dreading feelings were transformed into compassion (concern for mother’s suffering and desire to help).

Preparing the Path:  Preparing the Path involves selecting values that you will need in the coming day or for a specific event that is approaching and then projecting those values into the future place and time. Preparing the Path is done when you have time alone to prepare for the day or for the event.  It involves setting your intentions and projecting those intentions into your own future.  Preparing the Path puts your own mind, body and spirit on alert.  It is a commitment to Spirit that you will be especially receptive to spiritual guidance and support at the time you are planning for.  It is almost a physical thing you place in your day at a certain point.  You make a commitment and dedicate yourself to your intention.  This allows you to enter the situation with poise and ease.

You may already have a good idea of what value will be most important at that time.  But as you are Preparing the Path, you may also discover values that will benefit you. New values may just float in like feathers settling to the ground.  If you will open to Spirit, you will be guided.

Preparing the Path for our work:  In fact, when Sharon and I are going to meet to work on our retreats, one or both of us will Prepare the Path repeatedly in the days before we meet.  We are especially vigilant about asking for receptivity to spirit.  We always want to be led.

Here is what I wrote in my journal before one meeting:  “Receptive:  Open to Spirit.  Open to each other.  Trusting in our inner leading.  Trusting in the beauty we create together.  No fear.  Resting in trusting expectation.  Imbued with faith.  Living in faith.  Following in faith.”

Choose an event to prepare for:  We are going to try Preparing the Path, so right now please think over the next week or so of your life.  Is there an event, a problem you anticipate, a challenge you will face that you can Prepare the Path for?

Pause 

 I’m going to explain how to Prepare the Path and then I will lead you through it.

Ways to Prepare the Path:

Projecting a value into a future time involves first of all cultivating the value—getting a really good sense of what the value is, allowing the value to fill you vividly.  Then you imagine what it will be like when you are living the value. Do not see yourself from the outside, but be in the situation.   Experience yourself expressing that value. How will you behave?  And very important, how will you feel when you are living your value?  Get a really good feeling of experiencing your value.

The final touch in Prepare the Path is to send the value you want to place in the situation on a stream of your spiritual energy to the point in your future where you will need it.  You beam it into the time and place where you will need it.

Get your journal and pen.  Think of the situation you chose earlier. Jot that down very briefly in your journal or on your paper.

Exercise

RELAX AND LET’S BEGIN

Slip into Spirit….Breathe and rest in your heart…Feel your gratitude begin to grow.  Feel your appreciation grow and grow….

Allow 30 sec.

Now, think about the value you chose.  Get a really good sense of what the value is.  What does it mean to you?  Now, breathe the value in; allow it to fill you vividly; feel that value in yourself.  Become that value.   Next, in your imagination, live the value.  Imagine yourself in the situation you chose, expressing the value you chose.  How are you behaving?  What are you saying?  And very important, how are you feeling as you live your value?  Get a really good feeling of experiencing your value.  Feel it grow strong and sure.  Take a little time here to feel the satisfaction of living your value.

***Allow 1 min.

Project:  Now from your heart send a stream of your spiritual energy; send that value on your stream of spiritual energy to the point in your life where you will need it.  Beam the value (what it means and how it feels) into the time and place you need it.

Allow 1 min.

  1. LET’S COME BACK TO THE GROUP

Share:  any comments or questions?  Do you see places in your life where you can use Prepare the Path?

Allow sharing.

***Receptivity:  In some cases you may not be able to discern what value you need.  In that case, the value you project or rehearse is receptivity—openness to Spirit.  It could actually become a standard beginning to your day, unless you have identified a specific need.

How It Works

Intellectual Effects:  Prepare the Path is a type of Pre-Event Visualization, similar to what is commonly used in sports.  Pre-Event Visualization involves visualizing yourself successfully practicing your sport.  Studies of it show that visualizing successful practice can be more effective at improving your ability to play the sport than physical practice.  So when you imagine yourself living your values, you are using a highly effective technique.  Remember to imagine yourself from the inside, as if you are experiencing the event and living the values.  That element of experiencing from the inside was crucial in the sports studies.

Physical Effects:  You get a physical trail in the brain that makes you more likely to live the value.  Except that with Prepare the Path you are expending more time and energy on the process than if you were physically rehearsing or practicing.

Spiritual Effects:  Spiritually, Prepare the Path seems to have a multiplier effect because you are focusing on the specific place, time and people that can be your cues to shift into the value.

Review:  Prepare the Path is a phenomenal method of infusing your life with true values.  As you begin to actually live out some of the values you have been cultivating, their beauty, their practicality, and their power will make you fall further in love with them.

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Soaking in Values Visualization

2011 William Cooper

This is an activity based on a spiritual growth technique given to us by Sharon Porter and Kaye Cooper in their Joyful Living Program.  Following an exploration of higher values at a retreat at Belton, Texas in the spring of 2011, Sharon related a dreamlike insight she had during the night.  Her insight was that values are alive and vibrant.  They are full of spiritual energy.  They are not just words.  They have an ability to move about among people, to grow, to express themselves.  

“ Alive” means values grow, mature, act and adapt.    Here’s an analogy that helps me understand what “alive” means.  Compare a photograph of a puppy to the actual presence of an active and friendly puppy.  The picture is fixed, cute and unchanging, not alive.  It is a pretty piece of paper but you can’t have much of a relationship with a picture.  The puppy itself is affectionate, interactive and full of activity, surprise and joy.  It is alive in an extremely good way.  So in my analogy, values are alive, charged with energy and interactive like the puppy only they are alive in mind and in spiritual experience, not material experience.

Sharon led us in a brief activity in which we visualized ourselves soaking in a warm tub full of the value “gratitude.”  What follows is my effort to make a longer visualization out of Sharon’s exercise.  The intent is to allow the spirit within to make the value gratitude more real, alive and vivid while we are immersed (soaking) in its energy.  While we soak, we will think about and feel the spiritual power of gratitude.  We are using our imagination to open our awareness but the mind/spirit energy is real, not imaginary. 

[Pause 5 sec.]

Relax.  Breathe normally but deeply.  Breathe out tension.   Breathe in relaxation.  Feel your body relax. Breathe again and again.  You are now present and attentive on three real levels.  Your relaxed body is present.  Your mind is here.  You are spiritually present because you choose to be.    You are now relaxed in body, attentive in mind and alert in your spirit to engage in contact with the spirit of everything that is.

You are in a beautiful room carved entirely out of one huge piece of translucent, warm white crystal.  There is soft light suffusing everything.  In the middle of the room is a small bathing pool carved out of the same stone and decorated on its edges with carvings of vines and flowers.  On the wall on one side of the pool is a list of available values and spiritual practices you may select.  You reach for the list and touch the word “gratitude” and instantly the pool is full of pale lavender colored light which is transparent and sparkling with flashes of white and silver.  You place your finger in the pool. You are faintly aware of feelings of calm, peace, gentleness and fullness.  The pool is entirely safe and totally inviting.  Your urge is to immerse yourself completely in this energy of gratitude.  You are alone, you are safe. 

Quickly you slip into the pool.  As your body touches the light in the pool, the light melts into you.  You absorb it.  The light is pure spiritual energy filtering into the spaces between the electrons in your body.  You feel thankful and generously blessed.   Your sense of self becomes positive and you grasp that Spirit regards you as worthy of her love and her nurture.  You are treasured, cherished and adored.  Now soak and 

  • Feel grateful that Spirit has faith in you to progress in nobility of character and how she loves you.  
  • Feel thankful for the many unearned gifts you have been immersed in.  
  • Feel generously blessed.  
  • Feel cherished, treasured and adored.  
  • Soak in the love, blessing and generosity of spirit.  

[Pause 15 sec]

The ennobling energy of gratitude is yours to use forever.  It will lead you to be more gracious, generous and forgiving.  This power, along with life and all that life involves for eternity, are Spirt’s gifts to you.  Enjoy and use the spirit energy that continues to resonate clearly in your soul.  Live fully in spirit.  Soak eternally in the living, changing, growing power of gratitude.

Bill’s Book of Values at BillsBooks”N”Beyond.com provides lists of higher values you might soak in.  Meantime here is a short list of values to soak in.  Enjoy!

Generosity, Love, Service, Forgiveness, Tolerance, Patience, Loyalty, Courage, Trustworthiness, Mercy, Honesty

End

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Spiritual Practices 

Sharon Porter at 2nd Joyful Living Retreat Belton, TX  2011

Spiritual practices are anything you do intentionally to help you grow spiritually.  The following list of useful spiritual practices was generated at a Joyful Living retreat at Belton, Texas in 2011.  These practices are useful for contemplation.  Also, you can pick one and “test” it for a day or a week to see what experience it brings.  

  1. Enjoy spiritual poetry.  Read, write, or memorize and recite.
  2. Enjoy inspirational music.  Listen, play, or sing. 
  3. Pray for spiritual progress for yourself and others.  Imagine how that progress would change motives and actions.
  4. Adore God’s qualities.  Desire them deeply for yourself and others.
  5. Meditate and encourage receptivity to spirit.
  6. Read spiritual teachings and think deeply about them.
  7. Memorize sayings or “scripture”.
  8. Schedule time for spiritual focus and keep the appointment.
  9. Journal (write) your inner feelings and thoughts.
  10. Nature walk to observe and reflect.
  11. Commune with nature.  Feel more than think.  Appreciate.
  12. Make a habit of looking for good in others.
  13. Pray silent, brief prayers in the moment of need or gratefulness.
  14. Clear bad feelings and lift spirits by counting blessings.
  15. Apply creativity to imagine what would be best.
  16. Produce inspirational art or music.
  17. Garden as cooperation with the spirit of life.
  18. Commune with your Spirit Within.
  19. Engage frequently in conversations with your Inner Spirit.
  20. Think of spirit as unseen but real, and contactable.
  21. Treat everything as sacred and entitled to respect.
  22. Contemplate the spiritual impact of what you do.
  23. Spend some “porch time” daydreaming and letting ideas drift in freely.
  24. Think deeply on the meaning/purpose of life and its activities.  What is it for?  What are we supposed to learn from it?
  25. Cultivate values.
  26. Contemplate values for the meaning they add to life.  Why does it matter to you if you care about others?
  27. Prepare the path with spiritual values to be used in the future.  (See BillsBooks”N”Beyond.com Activities – “Prepare the Path”.)
  28. Listen and respond with spiritual motivation (kindness.)
  29. Go about giving mental love hugs.  Be gentle.
  30. Serve others unselfishly.
  31. Physically dance while imagining the spirit to be your partner.
  32. Move with music while communing with spirit.
  33. Practice intentional empathy. (Empathy is understanding how another is feeling.)
  34. Practice intentional compassion.  (Compassion is sympathy for the suffering of another and a desire to help.)
  35. Greet your new day with joy and optimism.  Expect new insights.
  36. Acknowledge the involvement of celestial persons in your life.
  37. Explore spiritual living by thought, feeling and action.
  38. Express your gratitude to spirit for life’s gifts and opportunities.
  39. Make a commitment each day on awakening to find and express goodness in that day’s events.
  40. Enjoy gentle and polite humor.
  41. Visualize spiritual reality.
  42. Trust and have faith in spirit.
  43. Engage in spiritual speculation.  Why would God do it that way?
  44. Love, respect, and appreciate yourself and others.
  45. Let God love you.  Feel God’s presence.
  46. “Soak” in values.
  47. Engage in intentional forgiving.
  48. Predict spiritual consequences.
  49. Act on your service urges.
  50. Seek spiritual guidance, listen and respond.
  51. Contemplate the immensity and the miracle of the cosmos.
  52. Spend some time in rapt attention to what you are experiencing.  Mindfulness of what you feel physically and spiritually.
  53. Let go of what is bothering you, especially guilt.
  54. Review and contemplate a list of spiritual practices.
  55. Surrender control to spirit.
  56. Celebrate spiritual success and insight.
  57. Look for and plan service opportunities.
  58. Contemplate the meaning of love repeatedly.
  59. Play with spirit.
  60. Soak in spiritual practices.
  61. Trust and confide in others.
  62. Feel your soul and the Spirit Within.
  63. Share your goals and sense of purpose with your Inner Spirit as well as with other people.
  64. Remind yourself and others “Everything you do in this world matters”, even though it may not have the result you expect or want.
  65. Contemplate how love would behave in various situations.

End

Soak in Service 

 William Cooper 2011

This activity is based on an exercise from the Joyful Living program created by Sharon Porter and Kaye Cooper.  Soaking your whole body is comforting and therapeutic.  Let’s see what happens when you actively imagine yourself soaking in a bath of comfortably warm water infused with the concentrated salt of loving service.  This salt of service will infuse you with the comfort and satisfaction which comes from being of assistance to others.  Service is the raw material of the chemistry of forming friendships and community.  Service is the giving of your effort, assets or influence for the benefit of others unselfishly.  It is done to give, not to get.  It does not create obligation.  When recognized, it is appreciated by its recipients.

You are in a private, well lighted and warm bath chamber.  There is a large bath tub filled with hot water in the room.  You are in your bathing attire.  On a shelf in front of you is a large jar of Service Salts.  Pour out a double hand full of the salt and spread it in the water.  Stir it with your hand.  Feel how soothing and warm the water is.  Now step into the tub.  Feel the heat of the water and the soothing calm of the salts on your feet and legs.  Sit down and notice the slight tingle in your body.  Imagine this is your soul’s response to the love energy of service in the salts.  Ease yourself down until the water covers your whole body.  The salts begin to provide you with thoughts and feelings of serving and being served.  Feel how wonderful it is when someone does something for you that you want done.  Remember the feeling of receiving a massage or of having someone come to your assistance in lifting a heavy load or of having someone help you care for an ailing parent.  Recall that special feeling you get when you realize someone has done something specifically to benefit you.  Let this feeling expand.  Feel the friendliness, the attractiveness of this.  Feel your appreciation for this gift of service and for the person giving it.

[Pause 10 sec.]

Now shift your imagination just slightly to feel what it is like to serve and to have your service appreciated.  This giving side of service is a wonderful, magical experience too.  The experience of service is a joy to both the giver and the receiver.

Smell the fragrance of service.  What is it like?.  Is it sweet, fresh, clean?.  Taste a drop of the water. What does it taste like?.  Does it taste salty or is it sweet like fruit?.  Soak in the smell, the taste, the warmth and the pleasure.  Soak up the pleasure of serving and being served.  Feel the urge to serve others arise in you and gently release any hesitation you may feel.

Now shift slightly again to imagine being service – not the server or the one served – but service itself.  As service, you effectively link people together in friendship for one another and in gratitude.  Soak for a moment, feeling the magical power of service to cause people to be connected and appreciative of each other.

Allow the service motivation to soak into you.  Fill all the spaces within and around the atoms of your body with the desire to serve and with gratitude for being served.  Now soak.

[Pause 30 sec.]

Thank you.  That is an experience of soaking in the value “service”, a Joyful Living exercise, and I hope you will choose to continue to soak in service for the remainder of eternity.

End

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Cultivate a Value – Adventure

10-25-11 Taos Retreat Bill Cooper

“Cultivating a Value” is a Joyful Living exercise for personal spiritual growth. It was developed by Sharon Porter and Kaye Cooper.  This is an example of what following the instructions for Cultivating a Value might produce.  This exercise was done on the value of “adventure” but the pattern is applicable to any value.  The person who did this was impressed with the apparent responsiveness of spirit and with the benefits to him of the insights.  The effect was to make him more enthusiastic about adventure and more likely to pursue it (with the spirit).  Keep in mind that the objective here is not to teach about adventure.  It is to teach how to cultivate a spiritual value and how to conduct an inner dialog which intentionally invites spiritual input.

Instructions:

Choose a Value to Cultivate: Adventure

Go to your heart:  Relax, breathe, and feel gratitude.  Focus your attention on your heart area and on the feelings of love, compassion, and gratitude.

Open to love and feel your heart respond.

Let your soul fill with the feeling of affection for everything.

Ask spirit to give you understanding of “adventure.”

Imagine yourself experiencing this inner dialog:

Your Question: What is the meaning of “adventure?”

Spirit’s answer: Ultimately the great adventure is self-mastery.  Each increment of self-mastery is itself an adventure of discovery, excitement and commitment to good habits and good character.  Self-mastery is creating one’s self by one’s own choices.  It is indeed a great adventure.   Adventure has elements of risk, courage, fear, faith, and optimism.  Adventure involves being attracted sufficiently by the opportunity for discovery to make the effort, take the risk, and explore the experience and its value and meaning.  The adventurer loves action and trusts change and progress sufficiently to pursue a string of events or impressions with enthusiasm and expectation.

Q: What does “adventure” look like?

A: It looks like curiosity, action, risking failure but most often only risking looking and feeling silly.  But persisted in, adventure eventually brings maturity and wisdom.

Q: How does it feel to be having an “adventure?”

A: It can be frightening at first, like a roller coaster ride.  Eventually though, you realize the roller coaster is safe and the ride becomes thrilling and even sought after for the thrill.  The thrill of adventure is a plus but the victory to be achieved is the discovery of new truth and that discovery can be blocked or bypassed by your avoidance response to fear, if you permit it.

Q: What insights should I take from this cultivation of the value “adventure”?

A: Your comfort with adventure should grow because adventure will deliver new truth regarding self-mastery, sense of cosmic safety, sense of worth, love, trust, and service destiny.

Q: Does spirit really relate to me in my inner life?

A: Have faith that I am active in your inner life.  Allow me to lead you into adventure.  Spiritually all roads lead home to me.  Often-times apparent failure gets you where you didn’t know you wanted to be and faster than success would have.  Adventure and grow.  Trust me.  Follow me.

Bill’s Book of Values at BillsBooks”N”Beyond.com has lengthy lists of values you can cultivate.

End

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Spiritual Practices 

Sharon Porter at 2nd Joyful Living Retreat Belton, TX  2011

Spiritual practices are anything you do intentionally to help you grow spiritually.  The following list of useful spiritual practices was generated at a Joyful Living retreat at Belton, Texas in 2011.  These practices are useful for contemplation.  Also, you can pick one and “test” it for a day or a week to see what experience it brings.  

  1. Enjoy spiritual poetry.  Read, write, or memorize and recite.
  2. Enjoy inspirational music.  Listen, play, or sing. 
  3. Pray for spiritual progress for yourself and others.  Imagine how that progress would change motives and actions.
  4. Adore God’s qualities.  Desire them deeply for yourself and others.
  5. Meditate and encourage receptivity to spirit.
  6. Read spiritual teachings and think deeply about them.
  7. Memorize sayings or “scripture”.
  8. Schedule time for spiritual focus and keep the appointment.
  9. Journal (write) your inner feelings and thoughts.
  10. Nature walk to observe and reflect.
  11. Commune with nature.  Feel more than think.  Appreciate.
  12. Make a habit of looking for good in others.
  13. Pray silent, brief prayers in the moment of need or gratefulness.
  14. Clear bad feelings and lift spirits by counting blessings.
  15. Apply creativity to imagine what would be best.
  16. Produce inspirational art or music.
  17. Garden as cooperation with the spirit of life.
  18. Commune with your Spirit Within.
  19. Engage frequently in conversations with your Inner Spirit.
  20. Think of spirit as unseen but real, and contactable.
  21. Treat everything as sacred and entitled to respect.
  22. Contemplate the spiritual impact of what you do.
  23. Spend some “porch time” daydreaming and letting ideas drift in freely.
  24. Think deeply on the meaning/purpose of life and its activities.  What is it for?  What are we supposed to learn from it?
  25. Cultivate values.
  26. Contemplate values for the meaning they add to life.  Why does it matter to you if you care about others?
  27. Prepare the path with spiritual values to be used in the future.  (See BillsBooks”N”Beyond.com Activities – “Prepare the Path”.)
  28. Listen and respond with spiritual motivation (kindness.)
  29. Go about giving mental love hugs.  Be gentle.
  30. Serve others unselfishly.
  31. Physically dance while imagining the spirit to be your partner.
  32. Move with music while communing with spirit.
  33. Practice intentional empathy. (Empathy is understanding how another is feeling.)
  34. Practice intentional compassion.  (Compassion is sympathy for the suffering of another and a desire to help.)
  35. Greet your new day with joy and optimism.  Expect new insights.
  36. Acknowledge the involvement of celestial persons in your life.
  37. Explore spiritual living by thought, feeling and action.
  38. Express your gratitude to spirit for life’s gifts and opportunities.
  39. Make a commitment each day on awakening to find and express goodness in that day’s events.
  40. Enjoy gentle and polite humor.
  41. Visualize spiritual reality.
  42. Trust and have faith in spirit.
  43. Engage in spiritual speculation.  Why would God do it that way?
  44. Love, respect, and appreciate yourself and others.
  45. Let God love you.  Feel God’s presence.
  46. “Soak” in values.
  47. Engage in intentional forgiving.
  48. Predict spiritual consequences.
  49. Act on your service urges.
  50. Seek spiritual guidance, listen and respond.
  51. Contemplate the immensity and the miracle of the cosmos.
  52. Spend some time in rapt attention to what you are experiencing.  Mindfulness of what you feel physically and spiritually.
  53. Let go of what is bothering you, especially guilt.
  54. Review and contemplate a list of spiritual practices.
  55. Surrender control to spirit.
  56. Celebrate spiritual success and insight.
  57. Look for and plan service opportunities.
  58. Contemplate the meaning of love repeatedly.
  59. Play with spirit.
  60. Soak in spiritual practices.
  61. Trust and confide in others.
  62. Feel your soul and the Spirit Within.
  63. Share your goals and sense of purpose with your Inner Spirit as well as with other people.
  64. Remind yourself and others “Everything you do in this world matters”, even though it may not have the result you expect or want.
  65. Contemplate how love would behave in various situations.

End

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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

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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*

III. Unifying Effect of Religion of the Spirit

  1. All Things Are Sacred
  2. Proof You Are God Knowing
  3. Reassurance of Salvation

VII. 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 insightinto 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 fruitsof 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 revelationand 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 idealsin 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 haveon 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 spiritare: [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 Jesuswhen 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 divinityare 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 performanceswhich 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 leadingindicates 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.

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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.

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Water Your Soul

By Kaye Cooper

Jesus said, “Water your soul.” What do you think that means? How do you water your soul? How is that different from feeding your soul? 

Watering your soul is encouraging and allowing inspiration of mind and soul by spirit. Feeding your soul is prayerful contemplation of goodness, of higher values. It is a process of thinking about and choosing elevated concepts of morality and behavior. You water with spiritual inspiration. You feed with moral thinking applied to reflection on your experience.

Guided by the ideas, let’s ask the spirit to water our souls.

Get comfortable, relax and sit back.  Breathe deeply and comfortably from your abdomen.  Now, go to your soul.  Raise your hand to your chin and as you lower it to your heart area, slip onto your soul. Continue to breathe from your abdomen and sense your morontia mind, the place where your Adjuster has recorded every good decision you have ever made, every good thought you have had, every truth you have recognized, every beautiful image you have seen, all the love you have given and all the love you have received. It’s all there in your soul. Your soul is a beautiful garden and filled with spirit, joy, light, and color. When you feel like smiling, let that smile bloom naturally on your face and in your soul.

Now water the garden of your soul. Not with a watering can or a hose, not with rain, but with a mist. Feel the mist of spirit gently falling on the garden of your soul. Feel the spirit’s mist gently kiss your soul’s garden. Feel the mist on petals and leaves, running down stems into the soil, to the very roots of spirit life. Spirit inspires you and revives your delight in the marvelous goodness of life. It satisfies your thirst.

I will stop the music when the time is up.

[Use Land of Merlin by Jon Mark]

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Sense Your Soul 

and Engage It

By Kaye Cooper

Show me where you sense the difference between right and wrong.

Now where do you feel love?

Most often people when asked these questions will tend to indicate the center of their chest. We often refer to the chest when we speak of an action being “wholehearted,” or a statement being “from my heart.” We are not really talking about our physical hearts, but something else that we feel vaguely in the area of our physical hearts. I think this is a sensing of our souls.

It is our soul that “feels values.” Our language serves us poorly here, because we have no unique word to describe the sensing of values. We speak of feeling emotions, but the feeling of values is not an emotional feeling similar to anger, loneliness, sadness, relief, or even happiness. Alternatively, we say that we know a particular decision is the right one for us. But this is not primarily a logical choice; we often just know it is right – we feel it right here (in our chest). What is your experience when you know something is important, when you feel that one alternative is the right one? What do you experience at those times? [sharing]

THE URANTIA BOOK says, “every morally conscious mortal knows of the existence of his soul as a real and actual personal experience.” [1479:0/133:6.7] You can experience moral consciousness without being aware that you are experiencing your soul. I think we have established one of the ways we are aware of our souls – the experience of feeling values in the center of our chests. So let’s build on this awareness. Let’s experiment to help us increase our awareness of our souls. 

Let’s start with a little exercise in breathing. First, tense and pull the muscles of your abdomen in toward your backbone. Hold them tight and breathe with the top of your chest. OK, a couple of breaths will do. That’s not a very comfortable way to breathe, is it? It is very shallow breathing. Now let’s contrast deep breathing from your abdomen. Relax the muscles of your abdomen and breathe from there. Breathe deeply, but comfortably, allowing your abdomen to pull air into your lungs. Be sure not to strain, breathe deeply, but comfortably. Put your hand on your abdomen. As you breathe, you should see your hand rise and fall a bit. Breathe slowly and evenly; feel your body relax as you focus on your breathing.

OK, so that is the way I want you to continue to breath – deeply and comfortably. Now focus your attention on your brain. This is where we sense our thoughts and reasoning. Our mind uses the material brain to connect with us and function. I want you to leave your thoughts there in your brain and move your attention down your body through you neck area to the center of your chest, the place where you sense values. Keep your attention there in the area where you perceive your soul. Allow a sense of spiritual depth to build in the center of your chest. Feel the presence of all your wisdom and all your desires for God. 

This area is the gateway to your soul, the place where your Adjuster has recreated every good decision you have ever made, every good thought you have had, every truth you have recognized, every beautiful image you have seen, all the love you have given and all the love you have received. It is all there in your soul. Your soul is beautiful and filled with spirit. If you feel like smiling, let that smile bloom naturally on your face and in your soul. 

Take a few minutes to enjoy your beautiful soul and feel thankful for its presence. I will stop the music when our time is up. 

[Use Land of Merlin by Jon Mark]

Qualities (See the list of Jesus’ qualities.)

Choose one of these qualities to meditate on in your soul. Once again put your attention on the thoughts in your head. Then gently leave those thoughts and move your attention down to the center of your chest. Slip into your soul and feel the quality you have chosen. Allow this quality to fill your soul. And then to fill your whole body. Become the personification of the beautiful quality you have chosen. Spend a few minutes with this quality. I will stop the music when our time is up. 

[Use Land of Merlin by Jon Mark]

Ask your soul for wisdom. Engage it at a conscious level.

Take a moment now to make a commitment to yourself that when conflicts arise in your daily life, you will remember to ask your soul to give you a higher way to respond. Take the next few minutes to make that promise with sincerity and devotion. I will stop the music when the time is up. 

[Use Land of Merlin by Jon Mark]

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Feeling God Hunger

By Kaye Cooper

Our souls are filled with all the truth, beauty and goodness that our Adjusters have been able to deposit there. What the Adjusters are able to do in our souls depends on our own choices, our yearnings, our determination, our dedication to doing the Father’s will. Of course, God provides all that we really need in this life journey. THE URANTIA BOOK says, “The indwelling Thought Adjuster unfailingly arouses in man’s soul a true and searching hunger for perfection together with a far-reaching curiosity which can be adequately satisfied only by communion with God”. Let’s go to our souls and experience that true and searching hunger and curiosity that can only be satisfied by communion with God. 

Get comfortable, relax and sit back. Breathe deeply and comfortably from your abdomen. Now, go to your soul. Raise your hand to your chin and as you lower it, move your consciousness into your soul. Continue to breathe from your abdomen and sense your morontia mind, the place where your Adjuster has recreated every good decision you have ever made, every good thought you have had, every truth you have recognized, every beautiful image you have seen, all the love you have given and all the love you have received. It is all there in your soul. Your soul is beautiful and filled with spirit. When you feel like smiling, let that smile bloom naturally on your face and in your soul. 

Now feel the God hunger in your soul. How you want to be wrapped in God’s arms, to feel God’s love for you beating like a strong heart! Feel your desire to be with our heavenly Mother-Father. And feel God’s response – God’s love for you. Take time here. I will stop the music when our time is up. 

[Use Land of Merlin by Jon Mark]

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Feed Your Soul

By Kaye Cooper

Jesus said, “Feed your soul.? What do you think that means? How do you feed your soul?” 

Feeding your soul is prayerful contemplation of beauty goodness and truth. Contemplation of higher values such as loyalty, friendship, forgiveness, patience, tolerance, etc. all qualify. It is a process of thinking about and choosing elevated concepts of morality (what is right or wrong) and moral behavior. You water your soul by opening it to inspiration from spirit. You feed it with moral processing of experience.

As I pondered the injunction to feed your soul, it occurred to me that Jesus was the bread of life. What nourishes our souls is seeing the goodness of God lived out in our world. The ultimate revelation of God was Jesus. So, recalling the way Jesus revealed the goodness of God in his life would feed our souls. I think meditating on the qualities that Jesus displayed when he walked this earth would also feed our souls. So let’s try that now. Here is a list of some of the qualities that Jesus displayed. You may think of others. Choose one from this list or one of your own to use in this activity. 

Consider the list of “Jesus’ Qualities”. 

Get comfortable, relax and sit back. Breathe deeply and comfortably from your abdomen. Now, go to your soul. Raise your hand to your chin and as you lower it, slip onto your soul. Continue to breathe from your abdomen and sense your morontia mind, the place where your Adjuster has recreated every good decision you have ever made, every good thought you have had, every truth you have recognized, every beautiful image you have seen, all the love you have given and all the love you have received. It is all there in your soul.  Your soul is beautiful and filled with spirit. When you feel like smiling, let that smile bloom naturally on your face and in your soul.

Now meditate on the Jesus quality you have chosen. Allow the feeling of that quality to blossom in your soul and spread throughout your body. Be open to understanding, insight, and illumination about the quality that fills your body and soul. You may want to have a dialogue with spirit about this quality. You may want to ask periodically during this time for more enlightenment on this quality.

I will give you time to meditate on your chosen characteristic.  I will stop the music when the time is up.

[Use Land of Merlin by Jon Mark] 

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Soaking in Values Visualization

2011 William Cooper

This is an activity based on a spiritual growth technique given to us by Sharon Porter and Kaye Cooper in their Joyful Living Program.  Following an exploration of higher values at a retreat at Belton, Texas in the spring of 2011, Sharon related a dreamlike insight she had during the night.  Her insight was that values are alive and vibrant.  They are full of spiritual energy.  They are not just words.  They have an ability to move about among people, to grow, to express themselves.  

“ Alive” means values grow, mature, act and adapt.    Here’s an analogy that helps me understand what “alive” means.  Compare a photograph of a puppy to the actual presence of an active and friendly puppy.  The picture is fixed, cute and unchanging, not alive.  It is a pretty piece of paper but you can’t have much of a relationship with a picture.  The puppy itself is affectionate, interactive and full of activity, surprise and joy.  It is alive in an extremely good way.  So in my analogy, values are alive, charged with energy and interactive like the puppy only they are alive in mind and in spiritual experience, not material experience.

Sharon led us in a brief activity in which we visualized ourselves soaking in a warm tub full of the value “gratitude.”  What follows is my effort to make a longer visualization out of Sharon’s exercise.  The intent is to allow the spirit within to make the value gratitude more real, alive and vivid while we are immersed (soaking) in its energy.  While we soak, we will think about and feel the spiritual power of gratitude.  We are using our imagination to open our awareness but the mind/spirit energy is real, not imaginary. 

[Pause 5 sec.]

Relax.  Breathe normally but deeply.  Breathe out tension.   Breathe in relaxation.  Feel your body relax. Breathe again and again.  You are now present and attentive on three real levels.  Your relaxed body is present.  Your mind is here.  You are spiritually present because you choose to be.    You are now relaxed in body, attentive in mind and alert in your spirit to engage in contact with the spirit of everything that is.

You are in a beautiful room carved entirely out of one huge piece of translucent, warm white crystal.  There is soft light suffusing everything.  In the middle of the room is a small bathing pool carved out of the same stone and decorated on its edges with carvings of vines and flowers.  On the wall on one side of the pool is a list of available values and spiritual practices you may select.  You reach for the list and touch the word “gratitude” and instantly the pool is full of pale lavender colored light which is transparent and sparkling with flashes of white and silver.  You place your finger in the pool. You are faintly aware of feelings of calm, peace, gentleness and fullness.  The pool is entirely safe and totally inviting.  Your urge is to immerse yourself completely in this energy of gratitude.  You are alone, you are safe. 

Quickly you slip into the pool.  As your body touches the light in the pool, the light melts into you.  You absorb it.  The light is pure spiritual energy filtering into the spaces between the electrons in your body.  You feel thankful and generously blessed.   Your sense of self becomes positive and you grasp that Spirit regards you as worthy of her love and her nurture.  You are treasured, cherished and adored.  Now soak and 

  • Feel grateful that Spirit has faith in you to progress in nobility of character and how she loves you.  
  • Feel thankful for the many unearned gifts you have been immersed in.  
  • Feel generously blessed.  
  • Feel cherished, treasured and adored.  
  • Soak in the love, blessing and generosity of spirit.  

[Pause 15 sec]

The ennobling energy of gratitude is yours to use forever.  It will lead you to be more gracious, generous and forgiving.  This power, along with life and all that life involves for eternity, are Spirt’s gifts to you.  Enjoy and use the spirit energy that continues to resonate clearly in your soul.  Live fully in spirit.  Soak eternally in the living, changing, growing power of gratitude.

Bill’s Book of Values at BillsBooks”N”Beyond.com provides lists of higher values you might soak in.  Meantime here is a short list of values to soak in.  Enjoy!

Generosity, Love, Service, Forgiveness, Tolerance, Patience, Loyalty, Courage, Trustworthiness, Mercy, Honesty

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SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE

By Kaye Cooper
Arlington, Texas

This article is based on material in THE URANTIA BOOK, on a survey of individual religionists, including both readers of THE URANTIA BOOK and non-readers, conducted in 1980, and on conversations with other individuals since that time. All page and paragraph citations are references to THE URANTIA BOOK. Page and paragraph references are according to the original Book format. Each citation is also referenced by paper, section, and  paragraph to accommodate translations and formats which do not follow the original Book format. Thank you to all those who so generously shared their experiences.

If we are to do the Father’s will, then presumably there is some way for us to ascertain what that will is. We can apply logic; we can look to the example of good lives; we can consult the opinions of other people personally or through their writings; we can consult epochal revelations, and more. All these methods are helpful. However, we have available to us personal sources of our Father’s guidance.

THE URANTIA BOOK tells us that personal revelation is continuous (P 1107:2 / UB 101:2.12) Jesus; speaking of the Spirit of Truth, promised that, “Every earth child who follows the leading of this spirit shall eventually know the will of God.” The way by which we will know his will is faith. Jesus told his apostles and twelve of the evangelists, “Your religion shall change from the mere intellectual belief in traditional authority to the actual experience of that living faith which is able to grasp the reality of God and all that relates to the divine spirit of the Father …. the religion of the spirit consists in progressive revelation … ” (P 1731:2 / UB 155:6.3)

SOURCES

We have three primary sources of spiritual guidance: (1) the Thought Adjuster, (2) the Spirit of Truth, and (3) the Universe Mother Spirit (P 381:3 & P 1681:2 / UB 34:6.9 & UB 150:3.7 )

The Thought Adjuster comes to us with a specific plan for intellectual and spiritual development. (P 1204:5 / UB 110:2.1) He is primarily concerned with preparing us for the future life beyond this one. (P 1192:1 & P 1204:2 / UB 108:5.6 & UB 110:1.4) Most of his work is done on the superconscious level. (P 1204:3 / UB 110:5) We are unable to receive direct communication with our Thought Adjuster (with rare exceptions) until we have attained the second or first psychic circle of self-mastery. (P 1210:10 / UB 110:6.15)

The Spirit of Truth is more concerned with now. He is the teacher of truth and the comforter. (P 1948:3 / UB 180:4.3) He is our personal tutor on accurate understanding of the message of Jesus. (P 2060:6 / UB 194:2.1) The influence of the Spirit of Truth is perceptible. On the day of Pentecost the apostles and other believers felt the arrival of the Spirit of Truth. They were filled with a “new and profound sense of spiritual joy, security, and confidence immediately followed by a strong urge to go out and publicly proclaim the gospel…” (P 2059:1 / UB 194:0.1)

The Mother-Spirit makes it possible for the Thought Adjuster and Spirit of Truth to function and she works with them. (P 379:4 / UB 34:5.4&5) She also gives us the services of at least three orders of her children: the adjutant mind spirits, the guardian seraphim and the master seraphim of planetary supervision. Through the ministry of the Mother Spirit and her children, we receive the urge to worship (P 1245:4 / UB 113:4.4), the urge to pray (P 1245:4 / UB 113:4.4), the development of evolutionary religion (P 1003:5 & P 1110:13 / UB 92:0.5 & UB 101:5.10), the circumstancing of our lives toward growth (P 1245:3 / UB 113:4.3) and the fostering of the growth and development of our civilization. (P 1255:6 / UB 114:6.7) The Book is talking primarily about the Mother Spirit and her children when it makes the statement, “…work out the details of your earthly sojourn in connection with the intelligences of the infinite spirit…” (P 66:1 / UB 5:.3.5)

Perhaps at this point it would be helpful to describe a variety of types of guidance. We know that a great deal of the leading we receive, especially from the Thought Adjuster, is not on a conscious level. (P 1207:2 / UB 110:4.1). The following types of guidance are ones of which we may to some degree be conscious.

CIRCUMSTANTIAL GUIDANCE

Reading THE URANTIA BOOK was probably the first time most of us had given serious thought to angels and certainly the first time we had read a description in detail of their teaching efforts on our behalf. Yet many of us had already felt their influence in our lives without having a unifying concept by which we could understand and discuss what was happening. Life is full of seeming coincidences which teach us lessons – lessons small and large, many times the same lessons over and over again. Many lives have taken significant turns because of physical or social circumstances which redirect the person’s thinking. These experiences are very probably a result of seraphic work.

Once they have read about the work of seraphim in THE URANTIA BOOK, many people take great delight in actively watching for the circumstances of life which might lead to growth. Events which might have been considered disasters, or at least misfortunes, become opportunities to grow. Many seek celestial assistance and open themselves to a better knowledge of the Father’s will by such active observation. Having prayed about a particular difficulty, one individual may find a relevant comment in a book he happens to read. A friend may call and, without knowing the problem, say the very thing which unlocks the puzzle. A newspaper headline, a piece of artwork, a song on the radio – the variety of sources is enormous so long as a person is open to the possibility. Being alert to the possible influence of the seraphim in our lives has brought much growth, joy and satisfaction to many lives.

VOICES AND VISIONS 

A much more controversial method by which some people feel that they receive guidance is that of hearing voices and seeing visions. First let us deal with voices which are perceived by the physical ear and visions which are seen with the physical eye. Evidently, from THE URANTIA BOOK reports of Gabriel appearing to Mary and John’s mother, Elizabeth, and of midwayers letting Peter out of prison, these types of events are possible. They appear, however, to be very rare.

Experiences of voices heard by the mind’s ear and visions seen by the mind’s eye are not so rare. Internal visualizations have been relatively common. Visualizations are frequently symbolic of concepts and events. Sometimes these have been in answer to prayer, sometimes apparently unsolicited. Such visions have occurred in the midst of crises, during rest, at prayer or worship, etc. Sometimes, as one might expect, these visual experiences are combined with the voice or other sound experience. 

Many people have brief voice experiences throughout their lives which help them through difficult situations with succinct advice or words of support and encouragement. Perhaps this voice is simply higher levels of our unconscious or our humanly acquired conscience. It may be the Spirit of Truth (P 1286:7 / UB 117:5.9) or possibly on rare occasions even our Thought Adjuster. (P 1192:4 / UB 108:5.9) 

Quite a few individuals have described hearing with their mind’s ear words, sentences, paragraphs, even entire compositions which form in their minds in ways which feel different from their ordinary thought processes. In most cases reported, the material received in this way was gentle, inspiring, and uplifting, often including humor appropriate to the receiving person. In some instances where advice was sought from the voices, answers seemed to have been carefully given so as to avoid imposing on the will of the receiving person – in fact, they are sometimes said to be downright frustratingly unhelpful. A number of persons experiencing this type of voices indicate that the voices claim to be angels, many of whom give their names. 

The claim to be conversing with angels is probably the most controversial aspect of these experiences, especially since THE URANTIA BOOK says that seraphim making actual contact with humans is “very unusual.” (P 1246:4 / UB 113:5.5) Perhaps these voices are the “sudden emergence into consciousness of ideas which have been grouping themselves together in the submerged mental levels … ” (P 1207:3 / UB 110:4.3) Perhaps they are exactly what they purport to be. Any individual having such an experience will find assistance in the Book (especially P 1244-6 & P 1254-8 / UB 113:3-5 & UB 114:5-7) but no concrete answers. The results of voice and visual experiences frequently have been enhanced, fruitful and happy lives.

FEELING OR KNOWING 

This next category of guidance is a difficult one to even put a name to. We tend to say, “I feel that I should” do this or that. Almost everyone responding to our survey referred to intuitions or feelings. Yet these feelings have little to do with emotions and still less to do with our physical senses. Perhaps they are the influence of the soul in its functioning to feel values. (P 1219:5 / UB 111:3.6) In some cases they may be simple conscience or the product of our “sub-merged mental levels.” (P 1207:7 / UB 110:4.3) Perhaps they are what is termed “spiritual insight,” the “inner and spiritual communion” which results “from the impress made upon the mind of man by the combined operations of the Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth … (P 1105:0 / UB 101:1.3)Perhaps they are not really feelings but the parent of thoughts – a thought emerging so slowly that we perceive it before its clear emergence into consciousness. Probably each of these (and other things too) is experienced as a “feeling” or “knowing” at one time or another. 

Whatever the origin, people experience feelings about the truth of a situation or the rightness of their own actions. In fact, these feelings are probably the ultimate arbiter of their guidance. Frequently their first reaction to a new idea is, “How does it feel?” And after having prayed, counseled with friends, consulted THE URANTIA BOOK (or their memory of it), using their humanly acquired facts and logic, applying their common sense, and whatever else they may do, the final thought is often, “Now, how do I feel about it?” Those who receive guidance in some other fashion, such as circumstances, voices, or visions, tend to accept or reject that guidance based on these feelings.

Many individuals find that they are not at peace with themselves when their thoughts, words, or actions are not in keeping with this inner feeling. Sometimes they spend days feeling uncomfortable about their lives until they recognize that they must do some praying and serious thinking about some aspect of their lives. Once their thoughts, words and actions are harmonious with this knowing inside them, they are at peace once again. Sometimes the conflict is caused by their bowing to the influence or persuasion of someone else and they behave in a way not consistent with their inner selves. Sometimes they may have made selfish decisions which this true self recognizes and rejects. Whatever the cause, peace is restored when they respond to the truth within themselves.

PARTNERSHIP 

Some people report an experience which they consider to be guidance, but which varies quite a bit from the other forms described. It occurs when the individuals are actively engaged in serving their fellows (consciously or unconsciously). In such a circumstance the serving individual involved silently expresses desire for God’s help in the situation. Then frequently he seems to say just the right thing to the person with whom he is talking, with the result that the other person’s spiritual needs are met. The serving individuals are unconscious of specific leading. They report simply feeling in partnership with spirit or feeling that God’s love is flowing through them. 

These occurrences seem to take place when the serving individuals are relating to others in a non-directing, loving way. There is no attempt to tell the person what he ought to do. The servers are not concerned with their own cleverness or goodness but are concentrating on a simple, loving communion with the other person. It is possible that this is what Jesus described as making “your appeals directly to the divine spirit that dwells within the minds of men.” (P 1765:4 / UB 159:3.3) 

Such experiences may be the influence of the Spirit of Truth since we are told that he “directs the loving contact of one human being with another.” (P 1951:0 / UB 180:5.11) These occurrences of partnership with spirit are certainly high points of fulfillment and satisfaction in the life of the server.

VALIDITY 

A major concern which some people have about spiritual guidance is, “How does one judge its validity?”, Our minds are quite capable of fooling us, and we are warned that genuine guidance may be distorted and even result in fanaticism. (P 1208:4-5 & P 1209:4 / UB 110:5.5&6 & UB 110:6.4) 

Validation of experience may be attempted by going to accepted religious authority for approval. But Jesus gave us his method, a better method of religious validation. 

The Book describes Jesus’ approach to religion as if It were analogous to the technique of experiment used in modern science (Develop a theory, experiment, observe results and test replicability). Jesus followed the method of experience. (P 2076:5 / UB 195:5.14) We may perceive an insight or intuition or in some other way we believe that we have received guidance. But we’ll not know whether what we perceive is truth unless we act upon it – unless we try it in our lives and look at the results. Those results tell us if we have something worthwhile or not. This is one way in which we can use the method of experience. It is also the method of faith in that we act upon our trust that we are guided. 

Our faith is small at first, but it draws strength from the experience which we have as a result of acting upon our guidance. Each time we act and observe the results, our faith grows until it approaches that mature faith which is defined as religious assurance. 

Jesus urges his followers to become their own prophets (P 1731:5 / UB 154:6.7); to depend not on someone else’s words but upon their own religious experience. He said: “The religion of the spirit leaves you forever free to follow the truth wherever the leadings of the spirit may take you. And who can judge, perhaps this spirit may have something to impart to this generation which other generations have refused to hear?” (P 1731:3/ UB 154:6.5) He wasn’t talking just to the apostles and evangelists, but to each person who hears his words and follows them in any generation. 

Ultimately then, the validity of our guidance depends upon our trying it in our lives. There are many ways in which THE URANTIA BOOK can assist in this process. It can provide some criteria by which to judge the consequences of acting on our guidance.

As one example, the, Book provides a test of the validity of mystical experiences. (P 1000-1 / UB 91:7.5-12) The test can be applied to any experience in one’s life. Experience is worthwhile if it improves life on seven levels.

  1. Does it improve one’s physical health? 
  2. Does it improve one’s mental functioning? 
  3. Does it socialize one’s religious life? 
  4. Does it spiritualize one’s every-day life? 
  5. Does it enhance one’s appreciation for truth, beauty and goodness? 
  6. Does it conserve one’s current level of values? 
  7. Does it increase one’s God consciousness? 

This test provides a practical means of judging any guidance experience which we have had. 

The primary validity concern is that we do not exalt our own ideas to the level of the words of God. (P 1094:3 & 1208:4 / UB 100:1.1 & UB 110:5.5) We are cautioned many times in THE URANTIA BOOK of the dangers of assuming that our intuitions, urges or feelings originate with the Thought Adjuster. (P 1199:4, P 1207:2-4, P 1208:4-5 & P 1213:1&4 / UB 109:5.3, UB 110:4.2-4, UB 110:5.5-6 & UB 110:7.6&9) We can avoid that problem by taking all of our guidance, in whatever form it might appear, and labeling it “source unknown” and “quality unknown.” If it passes our tests of logical evaluation and intuitive truth response, then we can test it in our lives to determine its quality. If the quality is good, the source hardly matters.

So, what about the situation in which our guidance does not seem to satisfy the tests we apply? We will have those situations, especially at first when we are just starting out. At times, our subconscious fears may appear to be guidance. Personally, I toss out any intuitions that have the fear emotion associated with them. Time after time these have proved to be inaccurate. Evidently, they arise out of my subconscious fears. Certainly, we may misinterpret our guidance. It is important to remember that we will always be subject to errors of reception or interpretation, just as a baby at first struggles to understand its parent. Like the baby, we will improve in our ability to discern and interpret the wisdom given us. Yet even as we mature, the possibility of error is always with us. While Jesus admonished the apostles and evangelists not to discount truth “because the channel of its bestowal is apparently human” (P 1733:0 / UB 155:6.12), he also made it clear to Nathaniel that divine truth from human sources is always subject to error. (P 1768:4 / UB 159:4.8) 

My own approach varies from situation to situation, but at one time or another I use some or all of the following: When I recognize something which I think may be guidance, I first “feel” for an inner sense about its truth. Then I check it out against such logical criteria as its own internal logic and its consistency with God’s nature and qualities, my highest values, and my knowledge of universe law. I pray for wisdom and clarity of perception, sometimes over a length of time. If I continue to feel right about it, I take a faith leap and act upon that guidance. Then I observe the results on myself, on the people around me, and on the situation. I apply what I call Jesus’ test: “Does it bring God to man? Does it bring man to God?” (P 1388:5 / UB 126:2.5) I always try to keep in mind that any guidance is filtered through my mind and is therefore subject to imperfections. In the long run I look at those seven levels of my life to see if things are progressing satisfactorily. And finally, there are times when I have to take on faith that I have chosen God’s will because I have done so to the best of my ability. If I have done that, what more can I do unless I receive further illumination?

TECHNIQUES

Now I would like to share with you the techniques which I have gleaned from THE URANTIA BOOK and from the responses we received from our survey. 

With regard to the external circumstances of guidance reception, the Book states and our survey certainly supports that there are no limitations. (P 2064:2 / UB 194:3.10) Guidance may be received any place, at any time. 

The techniques which facilitate guidance can be stated with this brief formula. 

(1) Pray and worship (both talk to God and listen). 

(2) Actively grapple with life (make decisions and serve your fellows). 

(3) Want (need, yearn) to do the Father’s will more than anything else in the world. 

Prayer and worship are essential elements, in spiritual guidance. Prayer enlarges our spiritual receptivity (P 2065:8 / UB 194:3.20) and worship is the best time for the Thought Adjuster to communicate with our souls. (P 1641:1 / UB 146:2.17)

There are seven attitudes which we should carry to prayer. 

(1) Prayer ”should be done as unselfishly as we are able. (P 999:9 / UB 91:6.6) 

(2) We should maintain a joyful feeling of thanksgiving. (P 1640:4 / UB 146:2.15) We can even be thankful for the hard places in life if we recognize that they are opportunities to grow and learn. 

(3) We must pray in faith (P 1620:7 / UB 144:3.14), believing that our prayers will be answered. That does not mean believing in the childish manner that we will receive exactly what we ask for but knowing that the father will supply what we need for the situation. 

(4) Prayer goes nowhere if we are not sincere in it. God answers the soul’s attitude (P 1002:4 / UB 91:8.12), so if the words don’t match the attitude, the words simply aren’t heard. 

(5) We are advised to pray intelligently, according to our light. (P 1620:9 / UB 144:3.16) We shouldn’t ask for that which we know the Father won’t give, such as preferential treatment or requests which violate God’s laws as we understand them. (P 1638:3 / UB 146:2.3)

(6) We should be trustful. (P 1620:19 / UB 144:3.17) Once we recognize that the Father’s will would be the best possible outcome of our prayer, we can actively and sincerely seek that. We can say, in effect “this is what I have figured out for this situation. It’s the best I can come up with, but what I’d really like is for your will to emerge.” Then we let the situation go, release our willful hold on it and become receptive to God’s will.

(7) The last step is to go a bit further and open ourselves to change. That’s what prayer is really about anyway – to change ourselves. (P 1639:3 / UB 146:2.8) We can magnify the effects if we take the attitude, “Here am I; use me; reconstruct me.”

THE URANTIA BOOK gives us some indications of what to pray for. The number one prayer in importance is the prayer for the knowledge of the Fathers will. (P 1640:3 / UB 146:2.14) Number two is the prayer for guidance over the pathway of earthly life. (P 1640:3 / UB 146:2.14) A corollary to this second one is not to ask God to solve problems, but to ask for wisdom and spiritual strength while we get busy working on our problems in partnership with spirit. (P 999:8 / UB 91:6.5) We are advised to pray for others: for the welfare of our families and friends, for the extension of the kingdom of heaven, and most difficult, to pray for those who ill-use us. (P 1639:6 & P 1640:2 / UB 146:2.11 & UB 146:2.13) 

As to the methods we use in prayer, Jesus advised that one’s real petitions be made in private (P 1640:1 / UB 146:2.12) but also warned against becoming too isolated. He made it a practice to take three apostles to be near him while he prayed (P 2055:2 / UB 193:3.2) and at times sent all the apostles away to pray in pairs. (P 1544:1 / UB 138:7.2) 

Rodan stated that relaxation enhances our spiritual receptivity. (P 1777:2 / UB 160:3.1) One of our respondents expanded on this concept. He said: “It appears certain to me that guidance cannot be effective when the seeker is under intense pressure and cannot pay attention to the receipt of subtle and often instantaneous images in the preverbal layers of mind.” However, if circumstances do not permit relaxation, seek spiritual counsel anyway. 

Dialogue is recommended in THE URANTIA BOOK as the best prayer technique for us to follow. (P 997:5 / UB 91:3.7) Several of our respondents mentioned a dialogue. One commented, “Sometimes I just ‘talk it over’ with Jesus or my Thought Adjuster. Sometimes I write it down in dialogue form … ” Another person described his technique this way: “Sometimes while sitting on a bus or driving in my car I talk (in my head) to God as if he were sitting in the car with me. I discuss my concerns, ideas, etc. If I ask a question, I try to listen for an answer however it might come. After a moment or more of listening, I return to sharing my experience of the moment with God.” 

The technique which enables prayer to enlarge our channels of spiritual receptivity is persistency. Repeating a prayer-even a spiritually unsound prayer, if it is prayed earnestly and longingly and is a sincere expression uttered in faith, will expand the soul’s capacity for spiritual receptivity. (P 1621:1 / UB 144:4.2) When I first read several years ago that I should be persistent in my prayer, it didn’t make much sense to me. Surely God didn’t need me to repeat things. It took a while to dawn on me that God didn’t need them repeated, I did. Furthermore, repeating them in a meaningless fashion wouldn’t have the desired effect. It is the soul’s attitude which one is practicing. Of course, I benefit from praying earnestly and longingly in faith and sincerity. This keeps reminding me that I am cooperating with spirit in finding the answer to my prayer. 

To me one of the most fascinating bits of information in the Book has always been that the Thought Adjuster is able to teach the human mind when it “flows freely in the liberated but controlled channels of creative imagination.” (P 1199:2 / UB 109:5.1) I conjecture that several different activities would come under this heading: delightful sessions of speculation and brainstorming in worshipful problem-solving. 

One of the aspects of prayer which is easy to overlook is the listening part. It’s hard to communicate with someone who is always chattering. I suspect our spiritual guides feel that way about us. Jesus taught his followers to “remain for a time in silent receptivity to afford the indwelling spirit the better opportunity to speak to the listening soul. The spirit of the Father speaks best to man when the human mind is in an attitude of true worship.” (P 1641:1 / UB 146:2.17) One of our respondents gave a very simple formula for prayer: “Be still, listen, ask, listen.” 

There are two places in the book which I wish to recommend to you for prayerful study, because they have so much to teach about prayer. The laws of prevailing petitions on page 1002 (P 1002 / UB 91:9) gives a step-by-step method of achieving an effective prayer life. On page 2089 (P 2089/ UB 196:0.10-13) can be found the beautiful and powerful description of what prayer was to Jesus. As I studied it again and again over time, this paragraph made me recognize that I had placed entirely too many limitations on what prayer is. 

The door was opened to a whole new realm of ways to relate to deity through prayer. 

The second category of helpful techniques is “Action: decision-making and service.” Two of our respondents expressed an urge to action so beautifully. One described it this way: “Our Adjuster, together with any other spiritual influences on us, must have something to work with… we must be spiritually active, sincerely making decisions, being of service – doing what we believe is right in every situation that arises… I believe that the ‘spiritual guidance’ that is most productive comes when I am actively trying to do what I believe is something of worth, when I give my adjuster something to adjust”. Another commented: “Cause your mind to want to be receptive to spiritual guidance all of the time… Pray for guidance, try to determine what you should do, assume that you have been given such guidance (whether you are certain of this or not) then embark. Step forward and act. Don’t be so self-critical if you don’t like the results. Try to learn from the experience.”

One of our respondents noticed in her life that no further guidance on a topic seemed forthcoming until some action had been taken on the guidance already given. 

The action on which Jesus placed so much stress was service. One respondent expressed the connection between service and communion this way: “I utterly desire continuous communion, but I think that I grow toward that by losing myself in service, finding the traces of God in the real around me, and letting the sense of the Father’s presence grow as I continue to seek and find and choose and do his will.”

Our spiritual association with others provides mutual stimulation to growth. (P 1094:2 / UB 100:0.2) One person commented: “The biggest contributors for me in growing to the point of perceiving guidance have been the many wonderful friends I’ve known who read the Book and are living proof that it works.”

We are told we don’t discipline our minds enough. (P 1213:1/ UB 110:7.6) One aspect of discipline is that of allowing enough time to make decisions. It requires both patience and stamina to continue to grapple with a problem for any great length of time. Nevertheless, time is frequently necessary to allow us to receive whatever guidance might be forthcoming. One person commented, “… if instead of rushing in impulsively into a situation, deciding on the spur of the moment, I wait a while; then, most of the time, after asking for guidance, I will be given a new insight into the situation, a higher view of it, a greater perspective … ” 

An important pattern is brought out in the Book: it is necessary to make many small decisions to firmly establish a habit. One builds up to the critical decisions with this method. (P 1708:1&2 / UB 153:1.2&3) One respondent applies the principle in this way: “I find that with practice, guidance becomes much easier to recognize. So, I ask for guidance all the time, not just for large decisions… I develop the habit of using guidance all the time with a Unity concept: ‘Every thought is a prayer.’ It really made me stop and consider and eliminate the garbage.” 

We can help ourselves to maintain a constantly receptive attitude by a vigilant questioning of the environment. One respondent reported his questions: “Can I learn something important here? Is there something I can do for someone here? Has this occurred before? Maybe it’s a lesson I didn’t learn the first time.” We can also work in partnership with spirit by seeking help at the moment we need it. Even in the midst of a conversation we can express a quick, silent prayer and then relax, knowing that the spirit will work in partnership with us. 

The communion of prayer and worship and the action of decision-making and service are both conducive to the reception of spiritual guidance, but we must maintain an appropriate balance between the two. Jesus’ plan was to provide short retreats from life for his apostles but mainly to keep them in active service. (P 1000:3 / UB 91:7.2) 

The final consideration in receiving spiritual guidance is the most important: a desire to do the will of God. Choosing to do the Father’s will is a little like being a traveler who enters what he thought was uncharted wilderness only to discover that an explorer has gone before. Not only that, but the explorer has blazed the best possible trail through the wilderness. The traveler has a choice: he can determine to express his uniqueness and originality and strike out to blaze some lesser trail, or he can gratefully accept the excellent path left by the explorer and eventually arrive safe and triumphant on the far side of the wilderness. 

The best way I know of to overcome our desire to express our own wills is by becoming so close to the Father’s infinite goodness that we are overcome with the desire to become that beautiful. All other motives pale before our yearning to be and do anything the Father asks. Our reward is a greater and greater capacity to enjoy the pleasure of his presence. 

I said earlier that there were three basic techniques which facilitate the reception of guidance:

(1) Pray and worship.

(2) Make decisions and serve.

(3) Want to do the Father’s will.  

In the final analysis the first and second are meaningless without the third. In the list on page 1206 (P 1206 / UB 110:3.7-10) of four things by which we can consciously enhance Adjuster harmony, three of the four are simply various aspects of wanting to do the Father’s will. 

Certainly, seeking to do the Father’s will is the core of our religious experience. A steadfast desire to do his will becomes an active and all-pervasive motivator in our lives, the drive around which all other considerations center. Such a whole-hearted dedication to the beauty and excellence of the Father’s way will surely facilitate our growing perception of his will for our lives. 

CONCLUSIONS 

While we must exercise caution and wisdom to avoid the dangers of elevating our own ideas to the level of commands from on high, we should also be sure not to miss the real experience of a living religion. It is our opportunity to move beyond belief in God’s watch care and guidance to true faith to actively seek his will and do what we understand that will to be. And in those moments of success, we will indeed be sharing our lives with God.

End

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