Unity Church of Castro Valley
Sunday Message for September 30, 2007
A Personal Ecstatic Experience of God
So, did you enjoy Lygia Byrd as your speaker last Sunday? Isn't she great? I wasn't here because 6 of us were at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove for our 52nd annual student retreat. The retreat was called, "A Personal Ecstatic Experience of God".
We each had our own personal experience while we were there and I would like for you to have an opportunity to hear them. So I'm going to invite Linda, Lori, Lisa, Bethanne, and Joyce forward to relate their experience:
A CONSCIOUSNESS OF ONENESS
The whole retreat was so amazing for everyone. The intent of the retreat was to open a place for everyone, who was willing, to have a personal experience. In the flyer it said, "You are invited to allow Unity to support you in your personal ecstatic experience of the presence of God."
There is an amazing thing that happens in groups - which is why we come to church to be with others of like mind. Things can happen within us at church when we are surrounded by a supporting consciousness. Let me give you an example.
A friend of mine went to Mexico to work with the Shamans there. She was there on the Day of the Dead, when people take food out to the cemetery for their dead relatives. They believe that their relatives show up on that day - and they actually see the spirits.
My friend actually saw the spirits of the dead people. She would describe what she saw to the locals and they would tell her who it was. It was because she was there within that belief system that she was able to see spirits. When she came back home, she could no longer see them because we don't have that same belief system here.
The Asilomar Conference center hosts many, many spiritual groups. So it is a perfect place to go to open up a space for a new experience of God. Plus everyone there from Unity believes that this is a possibility. This group belief that permeated the area made it possible for people to step into an experience that they hadn't been able to before. It's as if we were spiritually holding hands and supporting each other.
I know that I feel it the minute I enter the Asilomar grounds. I feel like taking a big breath of incredibly fresh air. It is like breathing in a bigger portion of spirit. I feel lifted, spiritually, as if I stepped into the flow of God in a larger way. My consciousness just shifts to a higher vibrational level and I feel connected to everyone past and present that have set foot on these grounds.
I know that the speakers feel it, because they somehow seem more dynamic at Asilomar. Everything that happens is amplified by the belief system that exists there. You step into this higher vibrational energy and it resonates with something deep inside of you.
ECSTATIC EXPERIENCE
The interesting thing about having a personal ecstatic experience of God is that it seldom happens how you expected it to happen. I know that a lot of people went to this retreat thinking that they would be enlightened by a speaker and have this ecstatic experience right there in the middle of the talk.
But it instead hits them while they are taking their shower the next morning, or while they are sitting looking at the trees, or as they watch a deer walking by. It can happen in unexpected ways and in unexpected times.
Mary Anne Harris, in her talk, pointed out that actually the experience of God is with us at all times in all experiences. It is in our joy and it is in our grief. It is in our play and it is in our work. We just need to start opening to be aware of the presence of God in our whole life at all times.
THE FOUR POINTS
James Trapp, the President and CEO of the Association of Unity Churches, was one of our keynote speakers. He talked about four levels that we experience in our lives. They are (1) From God, (2) To God, (3) God working through us, and (4) Living AS God.
At level one we see our good as coming from God. We ask and we receive. God grants our wishes.
At level two we give praise and thanksgiving to God, the God we go to for all good things.
At level three we open to allow God to work through us. To reach this level we have to surrender to God.
But all three of these levels are operating from seeing God as outside of us. They are still at a consciousness of separation.
At level four we start living AS God, from knowing our oneness with God. But to reach this level we have to surrender all control of our lives over to God and allow God's will to be done. Jesus was at this level. He knew and said, (John 10:30) "The Father and I are one." (John 14:9) "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."
MYSTIC'S PATH
Next year's student retreat will be held October 3rd through the 5th. It will be A Unity Interfaith Exploration of the Mystic's Path. The keynote speakers will be Rev. Michael Moran from the Spiritual Life Center in Sacramento, Rev. Sky St. John from Unity Church of Hawaii, and Rev. Richard Maraj from Unity of Phoenix.
I OF THE STORM
After the talk today I am going to start an 8 week class based on a book by Gary Simmons. I am also teaching this class on Wednesday evenings at 7:00PM at the Unity Church in Walnut Creek.
Gary Simmons is an ordained Unity minister and is the director of Peacemaking Services International of the Association of Unity Churches. He coordinates all conflict transformation activities and peace worker training for the worldwide Unity movement. His book is titled The I of the Storm, Embracing Conflict, Creating Peace.
Dr Carol Woman developed a guided imagery that Gary Simmons has in the forward of his book and I would like to read it to you.
Imagine for a moment a time before your birth when you were wandering the heavens as a disincarnate soul. You were immersed in the beauty and peaceful harmony of paradise when a call went out for volunteers to incarnate in bodily, human form. A small blue planet in the far reaches of the Milky Way galaxy was experiencing a crisis and was in need of souls who were willing to incarnate in the human body to help out in Earth's time of need.
You made the decision to volunteer. You next met with the Incarnation Committee to discuss with its members the part you wanted to play and the work you wanted to do. You made a covenant at that time to do the work you agreed to do. But there was a catch: Not only were you to serve, you were also required to grow. It was your job to increase the intensity of your light and to grow in wisdom and in stature as well as to serve. You next had to make a series of decisions that would perfectly situate you to be a maximum service and to develop a custom-designed learning curriculum for your soul to assure its maximum learning potential.
You had to decide what particular set of gifts, talents, and abilities you wished to bring with you to contribute to life on Earth and to the human family; the dreams and aspirations that would lead you to your destiny to fulfill your earthly covenant; a date of birth determining an astrological configuration that would give you clues to your soul's earthly purpose and destiny; a place on Earth, a climatic zone, a region in which to reside; a racial and ethnic form that would enable you to best express yourself; a socioeconomic class that would provide you with the challenges and benefits you need in order to learn and serve; a spiritual tradition with its particular set of rituals and practices that would support you; a gender with its attendant opportunities and challenges; a particular set of parents that would provide you with their particular strengths, with qualities that you could draw upon and with a designed set of difficulties that you would experience with them in order to learn, grow, and to prepare you for the service that you are to perform; your siblings and your relationship to them in age, plus the companionship and the conflicts with them that would provide you with important lessons and resources; and, finally, a name for yourself.
Once these decisions were made, you were free to incarnate and begin your earthly mission, forgetting all that went on before, but with time, you would slowly but surely begin to rediscover why you are here and how wisely you chose because every factor in your life has perfectly positioned you for the service you are to perform and has maximized your potential for learning and growing.
This is a good guided imagery if you want to begin to reflect on your life and find answers to the meaning and purpose for which you came here.
So join me after the service and we will explore managing the conflict in our lives by embracing it. Learn a process that leads to peacemaking in yourselves, in your relationships, and in your outside circumstances.
SCRIPTURE: John 10:30; John 14:9
REFERENCE: The I of the Storm by Gary Simmons
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Last updated
October 8, 2007
