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Unity Church of Castro Valley

Sunday Message for July 2, 2006

The Secret of Your Personal Power

Let’s talk about The Secret of Your Personal Power. Life, to many people, is what happens to them while they are making other plans. Think of that. To these people, life is a backwater experience in which they are capriciously buffeted around by whatever comes into their lives. But it doesn’t have to be that way!

Jesus came to reveal (John 14:6) “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” – a way in which we can live directly from the Source; a way in which we can be drawn right into the mainstream of life and placed on the crest of the wave of the infinite creative process that is continually unfolding itself in all the universe.

Now, think again about yourself. Is life something happening to you while you make other plans? Typically, most of our plans, dreams, and expectations are of this world. But Jesus’ message was about another domain, a transcendent realm which He said is not of this world. Jesus came to show us how to live from all our resources, the way God created us to live.

SPIRITUAL KINGDOM

The central theme of His message to us was based on a concept we have translated into English as the kingdom – the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. There is little doubt about the importance of this kingdom to Jesus. He mentioned it 113 times in the short record we have about Him in the Gospels. Yet never once did Jesus define the kingdom literally. Instead, He presented His message in the poetry of parables or precepts, comparing the qualities and activities of the kingdom with seeds, leaven, fishnets, pearls, talents, and weddings. This was because His message is about a spiritual kingdom – the infinite realm of God’s Spirit that is everlastingly within and readily at hand. Jesus knew and often predicated what He taught with the qualification that spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. Spiritual insight provides the breakthrough to understanding the truth of Jesus Christ.

His fellow Jews, including His own disciples thought Jesus was talking about the long-awaited religious-political kingdom (like that of David) that Judaism had grown to expect. This kingdom was to be ushered in by a warrior king who would overthrow the Romans, establishing Israel in its place of sovereign world leadership under God. Later, the Christian theologians formulated the idea (around the term eschatology) that heaven was an after-life reward – a place in the sky that we go to if we belong to the right religion. This was a misconception that Jesus had already corrected when He had been asked by the Pharisee, “When is the kingdom coming?” And He had said, (Luke 17:20-21) “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, "Look, here it is!' or "There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is within you.” And what ingenious ways we have used in our theology to miss the point about that!

The spiritual understanding necessary to discern a spiritual message takes us out of the third dimensional world in which most of us live. It lifts us right out of the realm of time and space into another domain. The kingdom of God is not a physical location; it is the omnipresent, ever-pervading spiritual dimension of life. And for each of us the kingdom of heaven is the indwelling possibility of God’s spiritual nature planted in us when He created us. It is this spark of divinity, the Christ potential in each of us that Paul said is our (Colossians 1:27) “hope of glory.”

ATTRIBUTES OF THE KINGDOM

Jesus used a variety of terms to reveal this inner spiritual dimension to us. He most endearing name for God’s infinite, abiding presence was Father. There were also poetic allusions to different aspects of the kingdom, such as truth, source, cause, and sonship. He illustrated its attributes in terms of its growing possibilities, transforming power, ruling influence, absolute goodness, and unfailing love. He always presented it as the ultimate value and meaning, the priceless divine element in all life. And everything He presented referred to a spiritual influence that can be brought into our own lives at any time, because God’s nature is the essence of our very own being.

Another helpful way to consider the kingdom of heaven is as a state of consciousness – a domain of spiritual consciousness and a higher level of attainment that can be reached within ourselves. Jesus often emphasized the importance of our inner lives – the condition and quality of our minds and hearts. He reiterated the law of mind action (as within, so without) by which our spiritual unfoldment proceeds and grows from our hearts. Therefore, He admonished that our most important job is to establish and maintain high Christlike qualities within ourselves – in our own private, often hidden thoughts and feelings. To be in the kingdom means to be awakened to our spiritual possibilities and reborn into new levels of spiritual consciousness.

We see then that the key to the kingdom is in recognizing the as yet undiscovered spiritual potential that is locked in the very core of our own being and is drawing on and living from those divine possibilities that are always at hand and within.

SPIRITUAL FOOD

Let’s explore the kingdom message around the frequently asked question, “When shall the kingdom come?”

If you remember, Jesus started the drama of His ministry by appearing on the scene at the age of about thirty, announcing that (Mark 1:15) “the kingdom of God is at hand.” Accompanying this were vivid examples of spiritual preparation through the events of His baptism, the temptations, and choosing His disciples. He then performed His first miracle at the wedding of Cana. Next, He talked to a man named Nicodemus. And then He had a conversation with the woman at the well. In this fallen woman, who seemed to be a barren field, He had seen the glory of a spiritual potential that could bloom into a beautiful life. To her, an audience of one person, He revealed one of the greatest Truths in life – the poetic living water of spiritual influence that can bring us truly alive from within ourselves. To this he added the immensely important exhortation that we must learn to worship in spirit and truth.

This story is a spiritual high point in Jesus’ ministry and one of the truly great dramas of the Bible. As a result of her brief encounter with Jesus, the woman who had made a complete mess of her life was miraculously transformed and became a living, joyous, effervescent example of the awesome influence of the well of water springing up into eternal life. At this point in the story, His disciples, who had gone to get something to eat and had given Him the chance to talk to the woman, returned with food. When they found Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman they were chagrined, because such a thing was a definite social taboo in those days. Jesus used this point to teach them a very valuable lesson. As they approached Him they said, (John 4:31-32) “Rabbi, eat something." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." The disciples questioned each other, (John 4:33-35) "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, "Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.” He then reiterated His teaching about sowing and reaping.

This story is found in the Gospel of John, which is a deeply metaphysical (spiritual-oriented) book. And it can only be understood spiritually; it makes no sense otherwise. Jesus’ teachings, His consciousness, His mind, and His life were all on a completely different level from the average human being and the average religion. He had an entirely new interpretation and viewpoint of life – He beheld totally different values, different meanings, and different goals. He knew about a different process by which life is successfully lived; and it was His mission to reveal and exemplify this higher Truth.

THIS SHALL WE TOO DO

When He said, “I have food you do not know about,“ Jesus was revealing how e can enter into and draw upon the infinite, omnipresent spiritual resource and begin to live as He did. It was one more way of saying, “the kingdom of God is within you.” Jesus was stating that the great nourishment in life, the thing that distinguished Him so much and set Him apart, was from drawing on the kingdom within and doing the will of the One who sent Him. In other words, Jesus knew absolutely the great spiritual mission in His life and He allowed it to become His whole life. The only thing He cared about and thought about was to live out this great divine plan – to carry out God’s will, God’s great plan of good in His life.

And in doing this, the Christ nature (the Father in Him) was given full expression and, as Charles Fillmore once said, you couldn’t tell in the life of Jesus where the human left off and the God began. Jesus protracted His personal example of the Christ life with the statement, (John 14:12) “the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”

The tragedy in Christianity so far is that we have not yet understood that Jesus came to reveal the truth about us. He didn’t come as a great exception but as the great exemplification of the spiritual Truth about what is possible for us as the image and likeness of God. He told us about the great divine potential in each of us – the fields that are white for harvest waiting to express themselves.

SEEDS OF POTENTIAL

God works through seeds – by the universal law of growth. Evolution is the great law of life. Everywhere you look, creation is evolving. Nothing stands still, nothing stays the same. Everything comes from an invisible essence within, growing from something small into something larger, unfolding an inherent potential that was designed and placed there by God. This was why Jesus illustrated the kingdom with stories about seeds. For example, all that a rose can ever be is initially in its seed. An acorn is a perfect oak in potential, yet unfulfilled in expression. To be fulfilled, it must grow according to the patterns of the seed. The most wonderful thing about a seed – any seed – is that it always fulfills its own unique role in creation; a rose seed always produces a rose, an acorn always becomes an oak.

The same is true of us. The seed of God is in us – the Christ pattern – and as God’s image and likeness, we are predestined as junior partners in His creation. As with Jesus, there is a plan – a spiritual destiny- and a unique contribution in God’s universal plan of good implanted in us (as latent talents and abilities) which unfolds the potential and grows from our essential nature – Christ in us.

Jesus told each of us that to begin to live the way He did, allowing the Father within to do His works, we need to discover God’s plan for life (His will) and begin to live our entire lives for that plan. And when we do, we will draw, directly from the Source, upon that spiritual nourishment, the food He mentioned to His disciples.

Quite simply, Jesus told us that the way to live – the one way we were designed to live and the only way we can really live – is from center to circumference, by awakening to and unfolding the spiritual seed of our own divinity.

Jesus of course knew the human problems involved in initiating a life of spiritual unfoldment. He knew all the things that hold us back and keep us from entering into life as it was meant to be. To help us, He spoke of the insignificance of worldly rewards, our concern with harvesting what we plant, and He lifted our vision instead toward the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ – the Christ life. The only concern is in doing what is ours to do today and trusting God to supply our daily bread in everything necessary for today’s growth and spiritual welfare. Everything we need physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually, is prepared and waiting in God’s infinite reservoir for the time we need it.

TIMING

Another thing Jesus spoke about that holds us back is our impatience about getting what we want when we want it. The kingdom comes in an orderly sequence of spiritual growth (Mark 4:28) “first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.”

As we move toward the secret of personal power, here is something to remember: anytime we attempt to achieve anything by personal force, we must maintain it by the same force. When we let up, so does it. But conversely, anything that we establish within God’s plan is maintained by the infinite power of the universe. “When is the kingdom coming?” is not a matter so much of time, but of timing.

So, the first part of the secret of your personal power is to understand the importance of timing – not yours but God’s.

From the book Zorba the Greek let’s share an insight into what not to do – especially with our goals and values and concepts of rewards:
“I remember one morning when I discovered a cocoon in the bark of a tree, just as a butterfly was making a hole in its case and preparing to come out. I watched and waited awhile, but it was too long appearing and I was impatient. I bent over it and breathed on it to warm it. I warmed it as quickly as I could and the miracle began to happen before my eyes, faster than life. The case opened, the butterfly started slowly crawling out – and I shall never forget my horror when I saw how its wings were folded back and crumpled; the wretched butterfly tried with its whole trembling body to unfold them. Bending over it, I tried to help it with my breath, in vain. It needed to be hatched out patiently and the unfolding of the wings should be a gradual process in the sun. Now it was too late. My breath had forced the butterfly to appear, all crumpled, before its time. It struggled desperately and, a few seconds later, died in the palm of my hand. That little body is, I believe, the greatest weight I have on my conscience. For I realize that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm.”

When it is time in God’s plan for anything to happen, it will be brought forth the right way under its own power – and nothing can hold it back. It will be maintained by the self-renewing power of the infinite Spirit of God. If you feel you have done things in your life, maybe at least subtly for rewards, if you’ve worked and you think it should come, especially if an answer to prayer seems delayed, then it is probably God’s way of telling you, “Wait! Things aren’t ready yet. Be patient. Have I ever got a plan for you!”

MY UNIQUE PLAN

This then is the second thing to understand about the secret of your personal success – God has a plan for you, and it is built right into your essential being. Know that everything you will ever need to meet, to overcome, and to grow into your next level of creative possibilities is already waiting to serve you at the right time and in the right way. You came into this life with everything you will ever need to live a full and spiritually successful life.

The secret of your personal success is in learning to bring the spiritual dimension of the kingdom of heaven into your everyday life – drawing each day, from the source in you, the spiritual qualities and influences you need that day and letting God’s great plan of good for your life reveal and express itself that day through you. Eternal life is meant to be lived daily.

As you awaken each day, know that today is ripe with opportunities for you to have a God-filled day, a spiritually successful day of learning and growing and becoming more of what God created you to be. Then, lift up your eyes; become alert and aware of the good at hand. See what life brings to you this day and look at it with the eyes of Spirit. Then, see what you can bring to life in this day. Know that even problems, hardships, and tragedies can be met and overcome one day at a time in a way that can change your life. Each day learn to make the best of all that comes and the least of all that goes.

Remember, creative experiences are cumulative, and any experience well-lived today will bring new opportunities and open up new possibilities that will lead you higher and higher in expressing your spiritual potential.

God’s plan for you is unique. Yet, all of us are meant to live and enjoy our lives as daily adventures – to live out today’s good as it comes in whatever form. Learn to enjoy the ecstasy of God’s Spirit in you expressing itself in the midst of your everyday life experiences. Life is full of spiritual possibilities – each day holds unexpected treasures, new thoughts, new insights, new dreams, new joys, and new creative opportunities. Each encounter brings the potential of spiritual vision.

Lift up your eyes and you will discover that every day offers precious moments in which we can experience the presence of God. Learn to live in the joy, the beauty, and the glory that can be found within these priceless eternal moments and you will discover that you have tapped the source of all creation and that you are indeed living in the mainstream and on the crest of the wave of God’s magnificent creative process.

Then you will have all the power you will ever need for every good thing in your life. The secret can be easily remembered in the prayer of an old Scotsman, “Lord, teach me to live every day of my life!”

SCRIPTURE: John 14:12; John 14:6; Luke 17:20-21; Colossians 1:27; Mark 1:15; John 4:31-35; Mark 4:28

REFERENCE: Great Dramas of the Bible William Earle Cameron

Last updated July 2, 2006