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:
- What is spiritual power?
- What does it enable us to do?
- 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.
End
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)
End
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:
- Commit to give up your viewpoint.
- Ask for God’s help.
- 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.
End
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.
End
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
End
We All Need Love…Now!
Kaye Cooper 2020
In times of uncertainty, confusion, and even fear, we all need the comfort and reassurance of love more than ever. Parents and children, friends and strangers, leaders and victims—everyone needs more love. How do we squeeze out more love for those around us, especially our families, when we desperately need to be loved, ourselves?
An answer? Find more sources of love to give. Stick with me now! That may sound impossible, but I want to share with you where I have found the love to give. You have probably already tapped this well of love within you without realizing its source and what an endless supply is available for the asking. Receiving love is important but giving love refreshes one’s soul too. You get a love benefit from having love flow through you. Have you ever heard a baby cry when you are really tired? If you put aside your own need and discover the compassion to comfort the child, you have connected with the Source of love.
What is it that makes us able to overlook our own weariness and need? You may already have an opinion. I believe that our connection with Spirit gives us the capacity to forget our own needs to help another. Mixed in with all our emotions, thoughts, and physical bodies, we are spiritual beings, as well—children in a spiritual family. And we are connected to the universal source of all selfless love. When we see others (such as that distraught baby) with our spiritual eyes, we can draw to us the love we need—and the strength, wisdom, and courage. So there is a spiritual source of love that we can tap into in order to pass it on to others.
Try it now.
Let’s shift to an exercise of tapping-in and passing-on love. Think of someone you care for and appreciate—someone you know personally. Relax for a moment. Close your eyes if you wish. Imagine this person close to you. Open your heart to appreciate him or her. Focus on the things you appreciate about your loved one. Allow a grateful feeling to expand in your chest. Feel gratitude growing stronger and stronger. See them as the best they can be. This is seeing them as Spirit sees them.
As you progress toward seeing with more spiritual vision, notice your understanding gradually begin to change. Your spiritual eyes see people more like a loving parent sees a precious young child, as full of potential for goodness, as growing, maturing, and as having a marvelous destiny—you view them with gentleness and understanding, without anger or blame.
None of us will be perfect at spiritual vision because, after all, we are all very immature spiritual beings. Nevertheless, seeing with spiritual eyes can change the way we feel. The more loving we feel, the more empowered we are to express our concern and appreciation to another. The more we make the effort to use our spiritual eyes, the stronger our connection to the Source of all love. Continue to explore what you see and feel for a few more moments.
In your everyday life, allow new spiritual love to flow through you to others. Spiritual love is appreciation, kindness, gentleness, trust, graciousness, respect, desire to benefit the other person, and much more high, ethical, unselfish treatment of others. Use this method frequently and you will grow deeper in your spiritual connection, clearer in your spiritual vision, and stronger in your capacity to give your family and friends love in all circumstances!
Peace be with you!
End
Developing Spiritual
Relationship with God
and the Cosmic Family
by William Cooper
Talking Things Over with God
Jesus in his prayers as a youngster would just talk to his heavenly Father in the fashion he used with Joseph, who was a very attentive and caring mortal Father. He would talk, ask questions, “listen”, discuss, and interpret his impressions. It was embarrassing to Jesus’ parents that Jesus did not observe the forms and fashions of prayer for their religious culture and he was open and obvious about it. Like us, Jesus was often not certain exactly what God’s response was, but he was sure that God was responding.
As Jesus matured and began to understand who he was, he continued to relate to the I Am in informal discussion mode. He was using this mode of prayer when he prayed repeatedly in Gethsemene. Talking things over with God makes God very real and near, which he is. God will respond to even the faintest indication of faith. I think that attempting to intuit God’s responses to us is more than a faint flicker of faith. To attempt such is an extremely appropriate application of faith. God would never fail to respond to such an act of faith. Seriously, try it. This prayer practice promotes a rich and constant relationship with God, Spirit and our cosmic family.
Commitment to Spiritual Family
Jesus tried to teach his followers that he was here to establish the Family of God on earth. They were too much caught up in the concept that the Messiah would come and found a material kingdom. So, Jesus altered his approach to talk in terms of a kingdom. He taught that the kingdom he came to found was not an earthly kingdom but rather it was/is a kingdom in the hearts of people who follow the leading of the spirit within each person. This inner kingdom he described as presided over by a loving and patriarchal king. And this is true, but it is not his preferred concept. He wanted us to see the spiritual reality, that engulfs our material reality, as a family that has our personal and collective welfare as a central and constant concern. To Jesus, family was not merely a kinship, it included a purpose of taking care of the family enterprise of pursuing God’s plan. God’s plan is to knit together the cosmos by the attraction of the love and goodness of God. This plan includes high adventure of our being a growing and serving part in expanding the inhabited and unified cosmos. It includes participating actively in our deity parent’s plans and thereby advancing in becoming like God, deity ourselves.
Jesus said if you believe that God loves you with an infinite love and follow the leading of the spirit within your heart, then you are in the family of God. That sounds kind of cool but what are the consequences, expectations and opportunities?
Let’s stop just a minute and consider the difference in the way we feel first when we see our eternal destiny to be a loyal servant of God the good king. (Pause) Is that exciting to you? Now, second, feel what it is like to look at yourself as a beloved and privileged child of God and of the vast, loving family of God, whose destiny is to choose a personal path to grow up to be like his / her parent. Now, is that exciting to you? (Pause) I hope you can feel the difference. I certainly can. Now back to the expectations, opportunities and consequences of this status.
One consequence is the opportunity for an eternal life of service to God’s ongoing adventure with love. I call God’s adventure of fostering and proving the truth of the effectiveness of love via experience,” the family business”. This is what God and all creation are currently doing. This has been going on for trillions of years and will continue into eternity, will never end. We will never run out of important things to do. Ours is not a static job or a bit role to play as a servant at a king’s court. The family of God provides progressively more and more responsible roles for all of its members. As recipients of Adjusters and of personality, there is no known limit to how far we may progress in eternity. Our progress entails study, service, mastery of power, responsibility, loyalty to God’s will and all of these with the love, graciousness and generosity of our divine parents.
The Family of God is so vast that we lack words for the number of its members but everyone in the family who is pursuing the family business is devoted to achievement of God’s good, gracious, generous and merciful goals –infinite love permeating everyone, everything and every action. In committing to God’s family business, we are committing to join all other family members in humble efforts to achieve love, to enthusiastically pursue the way of love and to institutionalize it as a living, enlarging practice for all. Joinder in this family and its business is God’s plan for us all.
There is a great deal more that can be said about spiritual family. It can be, after all, the core around which each of us can form our philosophy of living. But the last observation I want to make in closing is that all of the members of the spiritual family want all of its members to succeed in doing and fostering God’s way of love and will help each other achieve that goal in any way consistent with God’s will. Just ask and then listen and follow expectantly.
Exercise
Letter to and From Mom and Dad
Now let’s take about 5min to write a quick note to Mom and Dad about their spiritual family. You might want to be grateful. You might want to explore with them what spiritual family means to you. How do you feel about being a member of such a vast, purposeful and mutually supportive spiritual family? Examine the extent of your desire to participate. [Allow 5 min.]
Time is up.
But don’t put your pen down. Now take 5 min to write what seems to you to be the response Mom and Dad would make to you.
Exercise
Developing Relationship by Conversation
Ask key and/or immediately relevant questions. Use a form of question and answer dialog. You ask the question and you imagine an appropriate answer from the Spirit Within and you make notes.
In circumstances usually of quiet contemplation I ask how to take known macro principles of God’s will and interpret them to fit my immediate micro needs. Some examples are:
- How can I be loving to this person or even this thing?
- How can I truly forgive disloyalty or betrayal?
- Contempt and anger must go or at least be diminished. How can I do this?
- How can I contribute love, mercy, truth, beauty and goodness to improve this situation?
- What higher value do I need to apply here to adjust my attitude or that of another?
- How would applying acceptance, inclusion and respect help this situation?
- How can I be courteous, generous, trusting and charming in anticipated difficult circumstances?
- From where I am right now, how can I make good come from this?
- In the face of apparent failure, what can I learn from this?
You may say, ”But Bill I already ask myself these things.” And I reply, “That is wonderful, but do you ask these as questions to your human experience and wisdom alone or as questions explicitly directed to your spiritual guides and tutors, of which there are many.” There is a strong spiritual quality, even an urge to action, when you address your spiritual helpers and seek to be sensitive to their responses. This ask, listen, interpret and act/respond process builds relationship that becomes very real, very revealing of truth, beauty, goodness and Love.
End
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.
End
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)
End
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.”
- What is truth? A truth-seeker would be seeking what?
- What is truth coordination?
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- Use the Peacemaker’s Checklist.
- Try to calm down before you react.
- Do your best to avoid physical fighting.
- Avoid arousing anger or fear in your adversary.
- Avoid using put-downs, cursing, calling names or using profanity.
- Say what is on your mind but do it respectfully.
- Really listen (with an open heart) to what your adversary has to say.
- Try to see how you are responsible. Don’t just blame the other person.
- Try to put yourself in the other person’s place to understand where they are coming from.
- Look for ways to solve the problem, not just win the argument.
- Be willing to compromise.
- 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.
- Practice Nonviolent Communication. Be gentle and respectful with others.
- Don’t fear failure. Take reasonable risks. Failure is an especially good learning opportunity leading eventually to success.
- 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:
- We will relax together into contact with spirit and maintain that connection throughout our time together. Feel free to write in your journal at any time during this activity if you wish.
- We will lead you through a worshipful group exploration of each of the five values on the list we give you in a moment. You are invited to focus with appreciation and gratitude on each of the five qualities on the list as an avenue to experience the Holy Spirit who is constantly with us. You will be invited to share aloud at various times during this part of the activity.
- Then we will have a quiet time of individual meditation and imagination.
- Last, each of us will share whatever we want with the group and continue with comments and reflections.
We especially suggest that you approach these values with a combination of thinking and feeling. Think with the highest spirit levels of the mind our Mother has given you. And feel each value with your soul. Feel your thoughts. Think about your feelings. Flow back and forth between thought and feeling, between meaning and value. Allow them to flow and intermingle within you like a beautiful melody.
Do you have any questions about these concepts or about what we are going to do?
Holy Spirit Values:
Active Goodness
Gracious Generosity
Steadfast Patience
Unfailing Kindheartedness
Merciful Affection
- Let’s start by relaxing. Get comfortable and balanced where you are sitting. Close your eyes if you wish. Breathe deeply and relax more…and again. Breathe fully but comfortably. Begin by thinking of someone you love and appreciate. Imagine being with them, safe in each other’s presence. Think of how much you appreciate that person, how thankful you are for their being in your life. Imagine the gratitude you feel. Let gratitude bloom inside your heart and grow stronger…deeper…richer. Allow this wonderful feeling of gratitude to fill your body with spirit. Now spirit fills the space around you…the room in which you sit. Enjoy being absorbed in appreciation and thanksgiving. Maintain this attitude as we move into our worshipful group exploration of the characteristics of our Holy Spirit.
- Exploring the Spirit’s characteristics.
- We begin with the first characteristic: Active Goodness. Recall the goodness with which we are blessed: friendships, challenges, surprises, empathy, compassion, sincerity, purpose. Our lives are filled with beautiful spiritual values nurtured by the Holy Spirit. Enjoy reflecting on these values for a moment. Share aloud the values that come to your attention.
[Wait 1 min.]
- 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.
- Next contemplate the second characteristic: The Gracious Generosity of the Holy Spirit. All things physical and intellectual are provided by our Mother Spirit. She provides our very existence and consciousness. Day-by-day the Spirit works incessantly to improve us individually…and to improve our civilization. She touches all areas—health, government, education, industry, reversion, and, of course, family and religion. Reflect in gratitude for these gifts of the Spirit. I invite you to express aloud your appreciation to the gracious generosity of our Mother Spirit and her Spirit presence.
[Wait 1min.} - Let’s turn our attention to the third Motherly value: Steadfast Patience. Like a human mother, the Holy Spirit of our Mother needs to have lots of patience. We children must try her daily with our self-centered thinking and our ease-seeking, and spiritual task avoidance. But she works loyally to provide us with opportunities to grow. Her guardian seraphim manage our lives moment-to-moment. Sometimes the lessons of life are hard…but they always bring us far more than we expect. Other seraphim teach us the truths of life: spiritual wisdom, racial justice, optimism, compassion, integrity, loyalty, and so much more. Consider something you have learned and allow your gratitude to pour silently outward to the seraphim, the patient Mother-ministers of our daily lives.
[Wait 1 min.] - Fourth, our Mother is not only patient, she is Unfailingly Kindhearted. Her kindness is described as ‘supernal’—far beyond any kindness we can imagine. What magnificent safety there is in being taught, guided, protected, and encouraged by a parent who has never felt or expressed frustration, disappointment, irritation, or any number of other self-centered human emotions! She is the original pattern for kindness—and the ultimate example, as well. Imagine her hands patting your shoulders, her lips kissing the top of your head fondly. Share aloud how she makes you feel.
[Wait 1 min.] - She moves face-to-face with each of us. Recognize the way she feels about us—her Merciful Affection for each of us—the fifth characteristic of our Mother. She has not one ounce of blame in her. She forgives us as a matter of course because she knows our spiritual longings and purposes. Imagine her smile, her glowing motherly face, the joy in her eyes. She loves each one of us as if we were the only child she has! Feel her affection.
[Wait 1 min.] - Move into your own private time with the Holy Spirit of our Mother. Open yourself to her wisdom and loving ministry. Enjoy her as a person—your spiritual mother. She is real. She is close with us.
I will give you ten minutes of silence with the presence of our Mother. I will let you know when time is up.Allow 10 minutes.
- Sharing and Discussion. Now it is time to return our attention to our group. Bring our Mother back with you. You are invited to share whatever you want from this experience. Choosing to share provides the opportunity that your experience may bless others in the group as much or more than it blessed you! Always respect that each person’s experience is unique and valid for them.
Our spiritual destiny is conditioned only by our spiritual longings and purposes. (see UB156:5.9)
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