Power

“Believe me when I tell you that with every movement of your mind and heart, that is, of what you really are, you impact everything.  Nothing in you is without effect; nothing in you is futile.  You are eternal creators of your own experience.”  Choose Only Love bk.3, 8:I

By “everything” in this quotation, I think Jesus means literally the universe as a whole, not just our own little part of it.  That is just how powerful we are.  That is just how much we need to be cognizant of what a difference we can make.

We know that we influence our circle of friends and family, and if we postulate that our influence reaches out farther, to this world, we can also postulate that our world impacts others—others about which we know nothing.  It behooves us to be careful with our days.  Reverent in our doings.  Peaceful in our approach to life.

What a difference it makes if we are really this powerful!  The slightest movement creates ripples that spread throughout the cosmos.  We are not powerless, but very powerful indeed.

Let us walk carefully through our world today, aware that what we say and do influences realms far greater than we know.

Empowerment

“[Y]ou have chosen to awaken from the uselessness of separation, the uselessness of victimhood, and the uselessness of weakness.  And you have chosen to accept the empowerment of becoming responsible for this dimension of creation, the empowerment of deciding to walk the Earth as the arisen Christ.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 15, Page 184)

When we accept the peace of God, we are joining forces with the Almighty to walk the world as a risen Christ.  This is not an egoic thing; when we have relinquished the ego, we are ready to walk ever more certainly on the pathway back to God.  And we will enjoy Christ-consciousness/Awakening.

God knows us better than we know ourselves.  He will grant Christ-consciousness to us when He knows that this blessing will only bless.

Sometimes there are impediments in the way of His granting that we don’t recognize.  But we can pray that we know what these impediments are, and we can pray to know how to remove them.  Fear and judgment are the main impediments, according to A Course of Love.

We give up our weaknesses when we walk into the sunlight.  The main way that we can attain a new power is to spend time communing with God, time in prayer.  Books help, of course, but the main thing is to turn inward and see what is still a problem for us.  Then we are empowered to change things. 

Change is possible for all of us.

Nobody is outside the Kingdom when we choose a closer walk, a walk aided by the Divine.

Living the Movie of Our Lives

“As you look upon each segment, each scene, and each minute in your movie, begin to cultivate the deliberate practice of recognizing that you are in a field of energy that is your perfect servant.  Within that moment, you are the one with the power to make that moment be whatever you wish it to be.  It can be filled with Christ consciousness.  Or it can be filled with temporary insanity.  The choice is always yours.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 15, Page 183)

We are in a movie, the movie of our lives.  We wrote the script.

Of course, we can’t understand this, but this is what Jesus is saying in this quotation for today.

We can be blessed by our moments, or we can find fault with what we see.  We have this choice.  We also have the choice of making changes if we don’t like what we see.  This choice is always ours as well.

If we begin our day well, then we are in line for the best that we can create.  If we begin our day in sadness, then this self-fulfilling prophecy will move forward throughout the day.

We have more power than we realize.  God grants this power to us.  But we need to ask Him for direction.  Access His guidance and see if we don’t start having good days, every day.

The choice is ours, because God wills us only good.

Change of Mind

“Therefore, The Way of Transformation does not require you to change your circumstances.  It merely requires that you change your attitude toward them by recognizing that they are harmless, by recognizing that you have called all things to yourself.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” WOM, Chapter 14, Page 170)

It is very reassuring to me to realize that I have called all things to myself.  If I like what I have called, then all is well.  If I don’t, then I have the means to change it.  We really do have that power.

Attitudinal shifts can be easy.  It just requires that we make up our minds for a change.  When we pray, we get inklings of the things that need to change in our lives.  And then we make the tiny effort required to turn things around to something better—if we are not satisfied with what we have.  But often, the only thing that needs to change is our attitude.  We need to realize that God’s way is right and good, and when we follow the best and highest that we know, all is well.

Our circumstances may not seem harmless to us, but when we change our attitude toward what transpires, we can see the benefit in what we have been through.  We know more now, we love more now—and so attitudinal change is inevitable as we progress along life’s highway.

Make up our mind to alter what we don’t like.  We will be helped.

Beloved of God

“Understand well, The Way of the Heart requires that you allow yourself to rest in the simplicity of this truth:
“I am pure Spirit, undefiled and unaffected by anything or anyone. I am given full power to choose and therefore, to create my experience as I would have it be.” (“The Way of the Heart,” WOM, Chapter 2, Page 10 – 11)

We are, of course, both human and divine—but the Spirit rules, and that is what Jesus means in this quotation. Our essence is Spirit, energy, and the energy has only coalesced into a slower form that we call “matter.” It is still pure Energy, without form and spread out upon the cosmos in a way that we cannot discern. Our Spirit is like a hologram, where each Part is cognizant of the Whole, Who is God. We just don’t know it when we are encased in bodies. Intuition is our only link with the Divine.

Yet we retain power, and part of that power is the wherewithal to create what we will in our everyday life. Of course, there is a delay in what we create, for matter is slowed down energy, and since we are caught in time and space, it takes time and space to create something out of whole cloth.

We CAN create our own experience, though we are bade not to “blame the victim” if it seems that someone has created a bad situation. The personality did not do that creating; it was on the soul level, and the soul knows the essence of suffering in a way that we do not. We can never, in this world, understand the “way” of suffering. We can, though, turn our pain (inescapable for everyone) into something that blesses us.

Rest in the knowledge that by our thoughts and feelings, our focus, we create what is ahead for us in time.

This truth gives us great power. Let us use that power today.

Power

“Being is power. Relationship is powerful. In other words, relationship is the expression of power—all the different expressions of power. In the time of Jesus, the powerful were seen as being blessed by God and the powerless as not being so blessed. This way of seeing has gone much unchanged. All are powerful. But, since all are powerful only in relationship, your relation¬ship to power must be realized. Those who are powerful have realized their relationship to power. Those who see themselves as powerless have not real¬ized their relationship to power. They have not made it real and so it has not served them.” (ACOL, D:Day33.12)

“Power” got a bad rap when we were all in the egoic state of mind. Power was thought to be more insane than not by people on the spiritual path. But now we see a new interpretation of power, an enhanced power for those who have felt themselves beaten down. This power is not insane, not a bad thing, but a way of being that works best in relationship when both individuals are living in their power.

We don’t need victims in a new world, the new world that we will be creating. And a powerless person sees himself/herself as victimized and downtrodden. When we engage with good power in relationship, we stand up for our rights, but not in a combative way. Combative ways are perversions of real power.

Ask God for an understanding of this new way of viewing power. And He will answer. (He always answers.) Contemplate the difference between egoic power and true power that is representative of the best Self whom we can be. We will not have long to wait for this new realization to come over us. A problem always has the solution given at the point of need, and so there are no needs.

Power allows us to be “empowered.” We don’t let ourselves be treated badly; we just assume the presence that God has given us, and the perpetrator of attack will back down. This is all that anger/attack needs to be undone.

Dear God,

Be with me today as I contemplate the definition of power given in A Course of Love. My benign use of power will take me to new heights. It will be a good thing. Let me leave behind all interpretations that partake of the ego.

Thank You for giving me the reassurance that You will direct me in this nitty-gritty part of life. I would drop egoic ways of manipulating people, and assume my true, God-given, power.

Amen.

Return of Heaven

“If you cannot claim at least a small amount of love for your own Self, then neither can you claim your power, for they go hand-in-hand.  There is no ‘common good’ as you perceive of it, and you are not here to assure the continuance of society.  The worries that would occupy you can be let go if you but work instead for the return of heaven and the return of your own Self.  (A Course of Love, 16.26)”

Affirmation:  “May I claim some of my love personally.”

Reflections:

1 – Power

“Power” is not a negative word as Jesus uses it.  We need to claim our power, and in this claim do we regain heaven and our Self.  This Self, as we have mentioned repeatedly, is the Christ within.  And when we work in tandem with our unseen helpers, we will know this Self sooner rather than later.

2 – Don’t Proselytize

We are not to proselytize.  We are here to offer help and sustenance to those who look to us for some small bit of guidance.  But we are not to reach out to those who are not asking and/or are not ready for the message of salvation as we teach it.  Nor are we told to do great things in society.  This is a personal gospel, in that when we have accepted the tenets of  A Course of Love, we will naturally reach out into our various parts of society and make a difference.  But we will not seek to evangelize.  Everyone learns at his/her own rate and in his/her own time.  It is not up to us to say who is ready for only a smile.  We will be guided what to say and what to do.  We need not fear to overstep.

3 – We Fret

So many of us are worriers.  We think that God is somehow great enough to be our Creator, but not to take in  hand the problems that engulf us, and to lead us to solutions.  And so we fret.

4 – Worry

This fretting is a false doctrine.  It is the “pound of flesh” (from William Shakespeare) that we all seek to sacrifice to ensure a happy ending.  We somehow think that if we worry enough, we will have done our part, and then we will ensure that the ending will be positive for us.  This reasoning is the height of insanity.  God created us, and He knows our needs.  He will answer all our needs, though not all of our wants–for many of our wants are misguided wishes.  Genuine need is met, and often by miraculous means.  Let us turn aside from our fears, for fear it is, and let the love of others and ourselves prepare us to receive God’s revelations.  He will reach down to us (metaphorically) and answer us with heartfelt knowledge that solves the problems and eliminates the fears.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would let God solve any and all problems that I have, but not by my own abdication.  He will give me the power to know how to act, what to say or do.  It is only when I stay close to God that my days go well.  And I, like everybody else, would like a good day.

Be with me as I seek to welcome out the Self within.  This in itself will move me closer to heaven on earth.  Be with me as I seek to do Your will, which is also my own true will.  Help me to help others who need me also.

Amen.