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SearchDavid recounts an experience of encountering what appeared to be a "demonic possession".
General description: In this video, David recounts an experience of mind training years ago where he was shown the map of his own heart and the fears that needed to be exposed and released. David talks about "demonic possession" and the healing process. Gary adds ACIM teachings on psychic abilities and their usefulness by the Holy Spirit for answers in the discovery that all minds are joined.
Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMxj8aWBRcs
When I have an upsetting experience with someone, does that person see the same "movie"?
Question:
When I have an experience that is upsetting, like an argument or some conflict, it is like a film in my mind. Does the other person see that same "movie"?
Answer:
All judgments are part of a personal, private mind. It seems as if some of these tapes are shared, but that is not the case. It is as if you are looking with blinders and making up everything that you are seeing. It could accurately be said that no two people are seeing the same world. For example, you may have ten eye-witnesses to an auto "accident,” but none will agree on the details. This is profound when you stop to think about it. It's why there is no peace in this world: because there is no universal agreement on perception.
Even if you ask a million people to tell you the color of the sky, you would need only one exception to prove that perception is not universal. Most will say the sky is blue, but several who are colorblind would disagree. The only way there can be peace and harmony is to see the world from the Holy Spirit's perspective. This is the perception that Jesus achieved by aligning his mind with Holy Spirit. In this perception there are no enemies. Everyone is seen as an equal and as one. This perspective makes no distinctions.
So in answer to your original question, when you are looking through the ego lens, you are seeing a private world that is entirely subjective, colored by judgments, and that cannot be shared with anyone else. From the ego's lens, arguments and conflict are inevitable. This is why even in the best human relationships, when two people seem to be dear friends or soul-mates, there will still be differences of opinion. Until the ego is undone completely, the relationship is used by the Holy Spirit to flush up unconscious beliefs so that they can be released to the Holy Spirit.
People usually enter into friendships and marriage to gain a stronger sense of intimacy and connection. The relationships may seem to have a positive goal. For example, the goal of marriage would be union, and the same with friendship. What A Course In Miracles teaches is that the only true union is at the level of the Christ mind, where the Creator and Christ are one. So we can say from this that a more practical goal for a friendship or marriage is the undoing of the ego. This is not usually in one's marriage vows! If you keep the undoing of the ego as the context for all your relationships, this will help your work with "A Course In Miracles." Those who work with the Course and expect all their relationships to improve immediately are often very disappointed. The Course helps take the cover off, exposing expectations and false beliefs, lots of people-pleasing mechanisms that are built into the relationship. So if we use relationships as a topic, this can help us approach a deeper understanding of forgiveness.
Love,
David
To get to this state of Happiness, did you experience much resistance?
Question:
To get to such a happy, peaceful state of mind, did you experience resistance along the way?
Answer:
Yes, much resistance, many tears. Much darkness had to come up. It took many miracles to convince me that it was okay to trust God. The journey into the mind has very intense emotions, and at times it can feel like your world is falling apart. It's just that, being invested into this world, the mind is upside down, and now the Spirit is turning the mind right side up, toward the Light. The only way to have a peaceful world is to be peaceful for yourself. It is totally an inside job.
Love,
David
Is it normal to experience resistance in the form of abdominal anxiety when working with ACIM?
Question:
I have been studying/reading the Course for a fairly long time (about 11 years). While I have made progress, I despair of ever really getting to the quiet, happy state so many students refer to. It took so long to calm the enraged feelings. I appear quiet and loving, but the tempest is so close. Years to stop being a victim. Years to bring jealousy and judgment to a much lesser enemy. I am grateful for this. But my abdominal anxiety increases when I do lessons and read the text. Do most students have this resistance, but whine less? I'm not sure if I'm asking for answers or for "special" support.
Answer:
Thanks for your email and your devotion to awakening. The abdominal anxiety you speak of is indeed resistance, and the fear of love lies deep beneath the surface of consciousness. Many experience this fear as the fear of the unknown. While love has been denied from awareness, a self-concept image has been made, maintained, and accepted as the "known" and "familiar." In this world, the reality of love seems to have been replaced by a "reality" of dualistic perception, and the deceived mind is afraid to let go of that which it is accustomed to and familiar with. The undoing of the ego is what you are experiencing as you read the text and do the lessons, for the ego experiences its own undoing with great anxiety and when you identify with it you experience anxiety. This is a call to faith, a call to allow any upsetting emotion to surface and to move through it instead of attempting to stuff it or distract away from it. It does not matter if the upsetting emotion seems intense or merely irritating, for fear has no degree or direction and is always properly perceived as a call to what it masks: love.
The call to awaken and be glad is the call to leave every scrap of belief in this world behind, and remember what is, our natural state of being. That is the meaning of "I am calling you out of the world." Not one thought of the world is true. And yet our identity given by God is Christ, and Christ is eternally true. To the ego, awakening seems lonely and meaningless and filled with struggle, for there is no personal glory or gain in releasing the belief in separation. But peace is its own reward, and the peace of God is far beyond the personal perspective of the ego.
ACIM is a tool to open the mind to deep meditation. The lessons are designed to help train the mind to be still. Peace and stillness go together and cannot be found apart. As you deepen you will seem to question everything you believe, and as you are drawn into the silence you will approach a surrender point. This is the point of not knowing or understanding anything about the world of appearances, a point of "I do not know what anything is for." And through this point of humility, the truth is made welcome in awareness. In happy laughter is the truth plainly apparent as all there is. Truth is One and "dualistic perception" is laughable, for there is nothing that can be an "opposite" to what is forever One.
Mysticism is emptying the mind of everything it thinks it thinks and thinks it knows. Mysticism is seeing from the dreamer of the dream perspective. Peace and forgiveness are the feeling and perspective of nonjudgment, for what is the same cannot be different and what is one cannot have separate parts. It is impossible to reconcile dualistic perception with God, yet happily remembrance of God's Oneness is inevitable. Let nothing come before you that you would not release, and open to the call to stillness. Divine silence is our heart's state of desirelessness.
Love & Blessings,
David
Is renunciation of the world required to experience the Peace of God?
Question:
I've recently met some people who appear to have fully renounced the world. There is a part of me who would very much like to be like them, I love that sense of not being alone and of having a loving presence caring for and supporting me. Some days I think I can do it; other days I feel I'm not really ready to renounce—am still too caught up in the world's story. I'd be grateful for any advice on this matter. Do you have to renounce this world completely (give it all away) in order to really know the peace of God?
Answer:
The short Answer to your question is yes. Yet it is very important to allow the Holy Spirit to Guide you step by step toward this renunciation experience, because the ego has its own version of "renunciation." Without careful mind training, the Light within will be feared as It is approached. Miracles save time by collapsing time and thus eliminating fear. There is a quote from the Course that sheds light on the ego's versions of renunciation. These errors must be exposed as nothingness in order for authentic Awakening to be experienced:
"Many have chosen to renounce the world while still believing its reality. And they have suffered from a sense of loss, and have not been released accordingly. Others have chosen nothing but the world, and they have suffered from a sense of loss still deeper, which they did not understand.
Between these paths there is another road that leads away from loss of every kind, for sacrifice and deprivation both are quickly left behind. This is the way appointed for you now. You walk this path as others walk, nor do you seem to be distinct from them, although you are indeed. Thus can you serve them while you serve yourself, and set their footsteps on the way that God has opened up to you, and them through you.
Illusion still appears to cling to you, that you may reach them. Yet it has stepped back. And it is not illusion that they hear you speak of, nor illusion that you bring their eyes to look on and their minds to grasp. Nor can the truth, which walks ahead of you, speak to them through illusions, for the road leads past illusion now, while on the way you call to them, that they may follow you.
All roads will lead to this one in the end. For sacrifice and deprivation are paths that lead nowhere, choices for defeat, and aims that will remain impossible. All this steps back as truth comes forth in you, to lead your brothers from the ways of death, and set them on the way to happiness." (W-155.7.2)
To renounce the world is to be free of every scrap of ego thinking. This is an obvious conclusion once it is apparent that there can be no exceptions to truth. Renunciation is a seeming change in thinking, from attempting to think apart from God to thinking in alignment with God. This transformation does not involve joining a group or leaving a society, but it does involve letting go of all concepts of time. The perceived world is built on concepts that God did not create, and thus the mind which has been emptied of all specific time concepts can finally embrace the final all-inclusive concept: Atonement. Atonement can be equated with detachment, for the final Correction has no investment in a dualistic, time bound self-concept which God did not create.
Let the Holy Spirit convince you that there is nothing real that has to be "given up." Miracles light the way. Since God creates Spirit, and Identity is Eternal Spirit, the illusion of "giving up the thinking of the world" cannot be fearful. It is fearful indeed to believe in the reality of the world, for this is the attempt to make a self apart from Spirit. In truth, this is impossible, for there is nothing apart from Spirit. Because Spirit has no opposite, the dawning of Spirit in awareness is simply inevitable.
The Holy Spirit will Guide the mind very specifically while the mind believes in specifics. This is good news, for at every seeming turn in the maze of time, there is the ever-present Comforter available to Guide and Answer and Bless. Trust in the miracles of Joy and be not tempted to compare or contrast persons, groups, places, or things. The Truth of our Being will dawn of ItSelf. God is remembered in the Divine Silence beyond the concepts and images. You are perfect exactly as You are.
"Renounce the world" is just another way of stating "Embrace the Spirit." All Glory to God for creating Spirit as One!
Love,
David
David, if you overlook all error, what would the experience be like for you if you saw two people arguing in front of you?
Description:
This question is asked at 40 minutes and 22 seconds into the following audio, which is part of an interview of David by DavidPaul & Candace Doyle.
Listen to the audio here: http://www.livingmiraclescenter.org/MP3/QandA_audios/DC11.mp3
A Course in Miracles in Las Vegas video: The importance of questioning ALL beliefs.
General description: Here David addresses a group of students in Las Vegas, NV, and goes very deeply into the many beliefs that we take for granted in this world, and how they ALL must be questioned.
Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8nMfNqXNIM
I'm feeling like two people... How can I stay in the experience of Love?
Question:
Recently I have felt my heart open and I am now sometimes receiving divine love. It flows through me when I awaken, as I fall asleep, and I bathe in a feeling of joy and bliss. My mind sometimes battles it though, bringing up past fear and anxiety. This feels like I am two people, and it gets difficult at times. What can I do to stay in the love?
Answer:
Thanks for opening your heart and sharing your experiences. It can seem like a battle and a swinging back and forth in emotions until all investment has been withdrawn from the ego. The ego is a decision, and as long as this decision has been given even the least bit of value or allure, the flip-flopping between love and fear, sanity and insanity, seems to persist in awareness. Realize that the ego is constantly being undone or unraveled, and the ego interprets its undoing as fearful. You, however, are not being undone - for You are Pure Love, Pure Spirit. The ego seems to resist the approach of Light, as if the Light was its death. Yet the ego is the investment in death, and once the clouds of fear have been passed through, there You are - the Oneness of Pure Love! To stay in Love, so to speak, requires only the growing willingness to not hide or protect any fearful thoughts which arise in consciousness. Let the fear arise, for it has long been kept out of awareness and must arise that it may be released forever. The ego wants to offer the bait of a battle, because that is how it perpetuates the illusion of conflict and fear. Yet there is nothing to fight and only an illusion to forgive or look past. Our Spirit is beyond the possibility of a battle, for our Oneness and Love rest in the Heart of God. Truth does not fight against illusion; illusions only seem to battle with illusions. Our Identity in God is no illusion, and Reality needs no defense. With faith all scraps of fear rise into awareness and are looked upon with the Holy Spirit and seen for their nothingness.
In Awakening, the split mind—or the mind which tries to serve two masters— comes up into awareness. As this occurs, it can feel as if one has a "split personality" of love and fear. Divine Love transcends the illusory aspects of the self-concept, or the ego-image that was made to cover over and substitute for the Real Love deep within. The "good" aspects of the mask or persona are as illusory as the "fearful" aspects, because illusions are all just one error: the belief that God's Love can have an "opposite." God and Christ are unopposed, for Love has no "enemy" or "opposition." Be grateful, therefore, when the illusion of fear seems to rise into awareness—and do not attempt to battle or repress or distract away from the fear. See that the fear which had been denied from awareness, the fear that seemed to block the Light of Love, is presenting itself again so it may be forgiven forever. Look at the fear with the Holy Spirit and see the nothingness of the fear. Correctly perceived fear is a Call for Love, and as this is acknowledged you are Answered in Love. Love is knocking at the door of consciousness, asking that all self-imposed barriers to the remembrance of God be released. Be happy that the Awakening is occurring through your willingness and readiness, for nothing more is asked of you. Fear has run out of time and has nowhere to hide. Fear used time to conceal the wish to separate, yet under the Holy Spirit's direction time is neutralized and used for miracles that collapse time and show its meaninglessness.
The unconscious was the belief in fear. Fear made the dream of the world seem real. As unconscious belief is raised to the Light and disappears, the experience which remains is being fully conscious, alert, and aware of dreaming a happy dream of non-judgment. This is the Perspective of the Holy Spirit and awareness of dreaming means you are no longer at the mercy of dream figures or dreams of any kind. You are having the dream; the dream is not having you. You are having the dream and there is nothing outside one whole mind, illuminated by the Light of the Holy Spirit. A happy dream has come to take the place of the dream of judgment, and so the fear has gone and never was. The mirror of mind is clean and clear and reflects the Light of God, for there is nothing to block the Pure Love of Heaven.
I love You forever and ever Precious One, for You are my Self. Our strength is the Love within, and this world can offer nothing to delay the Awakening to Pure Love. I rejoice in our Oneness! All Glory to God for creating All as Pure Oneness and Love!
Blessings always,
David
Does A Course in Miracles need defending?
Question:
I am confused. "A Course in Miracles" talks about forgiveness, and says the whole world is a reflection of my thoughts projected outward. It says I am the dreamer of the dream; that everything that seems to happen to me I ask for, and receive as I have asked.These things are supposed to get me to see that if I defend myself against someone or something that appears separate from me that I am making the separation real.
But if someone tells me to stop publishing quotes from "A Course in Miracles" without permission, shouldn't I resist? In this copyright case about the authorship of the Course, must I not defend the right to use the Course and the words Jesus has given to me? Do I not have to stand up for what is right in my dream and correct illusions by confronting them? Should I not fight against the copyright owners and try to free the Course for the benefit of the rest of the world? I must come back into my dream of illusions in order to take action, but above all I want peace. I am having trouble taking a stance against my brothers for the sake of the use of some words. I want to express the love I feel freely and I guess I have to let the Holy Spirit Guide my mind and thoughts and actions. I would appreciate anything you can share about this.
Answer:
Thanks for pouring out your thoughts and questions. The sincere prayer of the heart is always Answered in illumination, and beyond the words offered is always the deep desire to Know Thy True Self. Ours is the willingness to forgive and be at peace, for lasting peace is our Inheritance as the Christ. This world is a world of symbols, and words are only symbols of symbols twice removed from reality. God Answers the prayer of the heart. Any question or doubt is always about identity, and it is helpful to be reminded that words were made to maintain the belief in separation:
"Strictly speaking, words play no part at all in healing. The motivating factor is prayer, or asking. What you ask for you receive. But this refers to the prayer of the heart, not to the words you use in praying. Sometimes the words and the prayer are contradictory; sometimes they agree. It does not matter. God does not understand words, for they were made by separated minds to keep them in the illusion of separation. Words can be helpful, particularly for the beginner, in helping concentration and facilitating the exclusion, or at least the control, of extraneous thoughts. Let us not forget, however, that words are but symbols of symbols. They are thus twice removed from reality." (M-21.1)
My Answer is always Love, and the Holy Spirit uses words for a Purpose that heals and blesses the mind. Made to isolate and attack and separate, words have been redirected or re-translated for miracles and harmony. Miracles unite you with your brother and render attack meaningless. Miracles show that nothing need ever be defended. Miracles bring peace instantly to the mind that is still an instant. Words can never come between you and your brother, for there is no gap in our Glorious Identity. Words and books and things and events but represent the purpose given them. Would you see the shining symbol of a forgiven world through the Perspective of the Holy Spirit or the fragmented, disunited misperceptions of the ego, for such is the choice you must make? You love your brother with a love so deep that you would weep in Joy at the very Thought, and would you now place "rights" about a book and words before the very Love Which is God? Love makes no demands. Love does not possess. Love is whole and complete and needs nothing. Love recognizes ItSelf. As you experience your brother you experience God.
"When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself. Whenever two Sons of God meet, they are given another chance at salvation. Do not leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I am always there with you, in remembrance of you." (T-8.III.4)
Our mind is united in forgiveness because Mind is indeed singular. Only the belief in a private mind, tiny and separated from the whole, could conceive of defense as meaningful. Being everything, you have no need. Being everything, you extend freely and without limit. The Love of Christ is meant to be given away freely, for such is the beatitude of life and the state of mind the Holy Spirit offers without cost. Yet true generosity is an attitude that accepts everything and asks for nothing. You have the right to perfect peace. Do not confuse our Inheritance with unreal thoughts about words and the use of words. "To have, give all to all" requires simply that you release the concept of expectation. Do you not see that asking a brother to act differently or wishing circumstances to be different than they are is the ego's "plan" of salvation? It is as if you actually believed: "If he/she/they will change, I will be happy." This plan requires that anything except your own mind must change for all to be well and good. Yet I have said that Atonement or complete forgiveness is the sole responsibility of the miracle worker, and this is changing your mind about your mind. Atonement is accepting our Changelessness as Eternal Mind and releasing the belief that there is anything else.
Who are you attempting to follow to Enlightenment, the ego or the Holy Spirit? Whom do you call master, remembering that you cannot serve two masters? If your master is anger you will attempt to deny the Christ and defend an illusion. If your master bids you confront or fight someone who is perceived as not yourself, you are deceived in purpose and remain devoted to an unconscious death wish. Who can judge a brother and hope to Awaken to a Oneness that knows not of judgment? You CAN refuse to take a side, refuse to make a judgment, and refuse to align your mind with thoughts of the past or future - and in vigilance for this Perspective will you abide in the peace that passes the understanding of the world. Anger is a false sense of control, attempting to tell Reality what It must be. You must realize that the control issue or authority problem is not with the copyright holders. To cling to the ego and a tiny self-concept IS the belief that you can author yourself. You are as God created You. Accept the Fact and You are Home in Peace.
In one holy instant the Holy Spirit neutralized the world of judgment, the apparent hierarchy of illusions was Answered, and the Solution to the one belief in separation was Given. In accepting this Atonement it is apparent that the separation never happened. In true forgiveness you forgive or release what never happened. It is impossible to forgive what is believed to have happened and no amount of "evidence" will convince you of what you do NOT want. If you want peace you must relinquish the thought of attack forever. For if you believe attack is possible in any form you will seem to perceive the evidence to justify defense. Defense makes the error of separation real in awareness, for it reinforces the belief that attack is real. Forgiveness and defenselessness are synonymous. Take a stand "against" anybody or anything, and Peace is completely gone from awareness. Stand firm in the Peace of Christ and there is nothing outside to stand against.
Do not confuse non judgment or seeing the neutrality and nothingness of form with passivity or weakness. The Observer or Witness is Above the battleground. Forgiveness looks and watches and judges not. Meekness is Strength, and the Meek Perspective has literally overcome the world with Its Strength. It is Strength Which reminds the mind: "Nothing I see means anything. I do not understand anything I see. My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world. I see only the past." It is the ego that encourages a "fight" and "battle" and "taking a stand for Truth against a brother." To actively align with Jesus is to lay down the sword of judgment. Love does not oppose. To oppose a brother is a sign of weakness.
There are no neutral thoughts. Thoughts are not powerful or weak, good or bad, pleasing or painful; they are either real (Spirit) or unreal (time-space). Judgments of time-space, be they positive or negative, are never neutral and they seem to produce a world of images that is anything but neutral. Images are not Reality. Judgment is the attempt to pull apart from the whole, give it a name, and set it off from the rest. A judgmental thought seems to make a form of that which is forever formless. Non-Judgment, the Holy Spirit's Perspective, sees all form as neutral or nothing. The mind in accord with Jesus, beyond the possibility of judgments of time-space, sees everything of time as neutral:
"My body is a wholly neutral thing." (Lesson 294)
"Money is not evil. It is nothing." (P-3.III.1.5)
"Time is as neutral as the body is, except in terms of what you see it for." (T-26.VIII.3.7)
"...the body is merely neutral. It is not sinful, but neither is it sinless. As nothing, which it is, the body cannot meaningfully be invested with attributes of Christ or of the ego. Either must be an error, for both would place the attributes where they cannot be. And both must be undone for purposes of truth." (T-20.VII.4.4)
"Like every lesson that the Holy Spirit requests you learn, the miracle is clear.... Now are you freed from this much of the dream; the world is neutral, and the bodies that still seem to move about as separate things need not be feared." (T-28.II.10)
Be not concerned with publishing or words or organizations or “getting the message out,” for the Kingdom of Heaven is within. Images mean nothing and cannot be reached. There are no private minds to reach. Mind is One. There is literally no "body" out there. "When you pray go to your closet" means make not a show of outward appearances to display your devotions and prayers. Our state of mind is the witness or demonstration of the miracle, and peace is its own reward. There is nothing outside of you. The transformation of mind is NOT physical, for what is nothing cannot BE transformed. The transformation is a recognition of the wholeness of mind. Extending the "message" in a world of unreality is therefore impossible. Nothing can ever block the extension within (creation), and forgiveness sees there is nothing to fix or change in meaningless images. You are the Kingdom of Heaven and there is nothing outside You:
"What has been given you? The knowledge that you are a mind, in Mind and purely mind, sinless forever, wholly unafraid, because you were created out of love. Nor have you left your Source, remaining as you were created. This was given you as knowledge which you cannot lose." (W-158.1)
"Mind reaches to itself. It is not made up of different parts, which reach each other. It does not go out. Within itself it has no limits, and there is nothing outside it. It encompasses everything. It encompasses you entirely; you within it and it within you. There is nothing else, anywhere or ever." (T-18.VI.8.5)
If you would know that your Lord and Savior Jesus lives, teach that there is no death by demonstrating our invulnerability in Christ. Defense is the sign of vulnerability and weakness and is not the lesson of forgiveness the Holy Spirit offers. Singularity of mind has no exceptions. When you seek to defend a "position" you are attempting to deny singularity. Holding a defense is a denial of the realization that there is no order of difficulty in miracles, for an exception is being attempted. Make no exceptions, transfer the training, for truth has no exceptions and Salvation is no compromise of any kind. One compromise, held apart from Truth, renders Enlightenment a mere concept in awareness. Yet truly Enlightenment is an Experience, and the ego is afraid to go beyond words to the Unspeakable Love of God.
In Christ there are no limits, and you can indeed afford to laugh at the ego's battle over words. Love has nothing to do with form. If you are concerned about the form of expression or the message being blocked by somebody, remember this comforting thought from "A Course in Miracles":
"Whenever any form of special relationship tempts you to seek for love in ritual, remember love is content, and not form of any kind. The special relationship is a ritual of form, aimed at raising the form to take the place of God at the expense of content. There is no meaning in the form, and there will never be."
"A Course in Miracles" is a book which may symbolize, reflect, or point to Divine Love. "A Course in Miracles" is nothing in and of itself. Nothing exists in and of itself apart from the whole. You are the Point of everything. In the recognition of Self are symbols gone forever. Leave the symbol behind and Experience Self. Drop the stance, for it is nowhere to be found. Jesus is a name which symbolizes a Love not of this world. Christ is the Reality. Reality needs no defense. Acceptance of Self is the Point. Do not cling to symbols or words. In the Holy Instant, the Eternal Present, only Christ Is.
Love & Blessings,
David
How does the mechanism of miracles work?
Question:
How does the mechanism of miracles work? Is it the Holy Spirit, or prayer or a personal state of energy that makes you open to receive a miracle?
Answer:
I will give you a helpful quote from "A Course in Miracles": "A miracle is a correction. It does not create, nor really change at all. It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees is false." So the key to miracles is a willingness to suspend the meaning you have given something and look upon it in another way.
Question:
A change in perception—that is the mechanism of the miracle?
Answer:
Yes. You might say that miracles are the means of awakening. They always involve perception. It is possible to have revelatory experiences, experiences of pure light, in which you see beyond the veil of perception, but these experiences are very rare. The mind is afraid of the light because it thinks it will lose the world it sees. Miracles are the gentlest way of returning the mind to the awareness of God. They collapse time, the time that is needed to unlearn the ego. For example, our meeting today will bring illumination and clarity that will save thousands of years for everyone. Miracles bring benefit to everyone.
Question: Are miracles done through prayer?
Answer:
Yes, prayer is the mechanism for receiving miracles. It is the willingness to give your mind to the Holy Spirit to use for miracles. Spirit performs the miracles through you. The only condition required is that there be an absence of fear. Miracles can never be performed in a state of fear. Miracles are really our vocation, no matter what you seem to do in this world. Everyone here has been called as a miracle worker and Jesus does not ask for a resume! The Spirit just asks for the willingness. With willingness miracles begin to occur more and more.
Question:
Do miracles occur simply with faith?
Answer:
The question of faith is one of: What do you have faith in? Faith is not something that is present or absent; it is like prayer. Be careful what you pray for, for prayers are always answered. So it takes attention to see where you have invested your faith.
Question:
Does this mean you can have positive faith or negative faith?
Answer:
I would say you can have faith in the Spirit or faith in the ego.
Question:
What do you mean by prayer?
Answer:
Prayer is the desire of the mind. It is the inner altar. When the mind believes in the ego, this altar seems to be defiled. The altar does not have a singular devotion to God, but has many idols on it. So desire or prayer is splintered. As long as the mind believes in the ego, prayers will involve asking for things and petitions because the mind believes it is lacking. It is impossible to ask for prayers beyond the level that the mind believes. As trust in the Holy Spirit grows, the belief in lack and incompletion is dissolved away. It's like a progression up a ladder in which your trust grows stronger and stronger and the need for things and control falls away. The highest prayer that one can ever ask is: Father, what is Your Will for me? When the altar has been cleared of all idols, this prayer is asked and answered—immediately. God's Will for us is perfect happiness.
Love,
David
Jesus Tells them the New Kingdom is an Inner Experience of Love
Jesus instructed them to take up their regular duties until "the hour of the kingdom comes." And to encourage them, he set an example by going back regularly to work in the boatshop. In explaining that they should spend three hours every evening in study and preparation for their future work, Jesus further said: "We will all remain hereabout until the Father bids me call you. Each of you must now return to his accustomed work just as if nothing had happened. Tell no man about me and remember that my kingdom is not to come with noise and glamour, but rather must it come through the great change which my Father will have wrought in your hearts and in the hearts of those who shall be called to join you in the councils of the kingdom. You are now my friends; I trust you and I love you; you are soon to become my personal associates. Be patient, be gentle. Be ever obedient to the Father‘s will. Make yourselves ready for the call of the kingdom. While you will experience great joy in the service of my Father, you should also be prepared for trouble, for I warn you that it will be only through much tribulation that many will enter the kingdom. But those who have found the kingdom, their joy will be full, and they shall be called the blest of all the earth. But do not entertain false hope; the world will stumble at my words. Even you, my friends, do not fully perceive what I am unfolding to your confused minds. Make no mistake; we go forth to labor for a generation of sign seekers. They will demand wonder-working as the proof that I am sent by my Father, and they will be slow to recognize in the revelation of my Father‘s love the credentials of my mission." That evening, when they had returned to the land, before they went their way, Jesus, standing by the water‘s edge, prayed: "My Father, I thank you for these little ones who, in spite of their doubts, even now believe. And for their sakes have I set myself apart to do your will. And now may they learn to be one, even as we are one."