Unity Church of Castro Valley
Sunday Message for April 20, 2008
God's Will
Today we are going to talk about God's Will and what that means to each of us, what that means in our lives. Often we have trouble surrendering completely to God's Will. But I think it is because we don't fully understand what God's Will means.
First, you have to know that God's Will for you is absolute good. God would never want for you anything hurtful or mean.
Second, when you let God's will be done; all things in your life become good. Think about that for a minute. All things in your life become good. Surely we all want that.
Third, all problems reflect your inability or unwillingness to let God's divine plan unfold through you. So when you come up against problems in your life, ask yourself, "What is God's Will in this instance?" Because God's Will is not that you have problems - but that the highest and best good be done for all involved.
Fourth, when God shapes your life, the changes are appropriate and automatic. So we don't have to go into fear about letting God's Will be done. It will never be at the wrong time, or the wrong place. You can trust God to know what it is doing.
And fifth, if you are unsure about what is God's Will for you; here is a good measuring stick. Chances are it is God's will if (1) Everyone wins, (2) Things go effortlessly, and (3) There are green lights and open doors.
THE TRUE CHARACTER OF GOD & MAN
(Job 33:4) "The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life." We need to strive to develop the spiritual realm of our consciousness so that the 'breath of the Almighty' will give us a higher understanding. It isn't difficult to receive the 'breath' or inspiration of Spirit. We are all inspired by Spirit in certain states of consciousness.
We need to first realize who and what we are in relation to God. God created everything and therefore also created us. Since we are the offspring of God, then we have the characteristics of God, our parent. The truth that God is the Father of mankind does away with the presumption that we can't understand the Infinite. God is in his Universe as intelligent power. God is in the universe as its constant 'breath' or inspiration. So all we have to do is to find the point of contact in order to understand God in whom we all (Acts 17:28) "live and move and have our being".
So when we get into confusion from contemplating the material world of good and evil, we tend to get skeptical in our thinking. The solution is to go to your spiritual perception and let it clear up your mind. Dismiss your prejudices based on this mixed perception, and make your mind receptive to the clearer understanding of God. Always look to Spirit for the solution to your problems. Your spiritual side or your superconscious mind is your true guide to life. By opening to this side of our life, we open ourselves to the inspiration of God; we open ourselves to the goodness and the truth of Being.
God within you, as revealed by Jesus, is not at a distance, far away in a place called 'heaven.' His abode is in the spiritual realms that underlie all creative forces. Jesus taught us that the kingdom of God is within us. Spirit is the seat of power and it lives within us.
God created us and He sustains us. So for eons we have tried to understand this power that is our Father. We have tried to come into a harmonious relation with Him. But we are making it too difficult. We don't have to seek God (2 Corinthians 6:16) "For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." God is within us. God creates and moves creation through the power within us. It is through our own thoughts that we will find God and do His will.
Divine ideas are our inheritance and they are they foundation and cause of all that we desire. Divine ideas that are given to us are pregnant with all possibility. So we can see why it says in (John 17:10) "All mine are yours." All the ideas in the Father-Mind are at the mental command of its offspring.
There is only One Mind. That mind is God-Mind and that mind is our mind. We seek a perfect union between our mind and this perfect mind of God. The point of contact is a willingness to be open on our part. Jesus said, (Matthew 7:7) "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you."
So you will know God's Will for you when you actively seek it, when you look for it within your very being, when you take the time to just sit with God and open to His ideas for your life.
GOD'S PERFECT IDEA
In the book, Christian Healing, Charles Fillmore writes, "Every man asks the question at some time, "What am I?" God answers: "Spiritually you are My idea of Myself as I see Myself in the ideal; physically you are the law of My mind executing that idea.""
God-Mind expresses its thoughts so perfectly that there is no need to change them, so all of our prayers and requests to change God's Will to conform to our human desires are useless. God does not change His mind to meet the conflicting opinions of mankind. When we understand the perfection of God's thoughts, we then learn to conform to them. And when we conform to God's thoughts, we discover that there is never any need to change the will of God.
IMAGE - I-AM-AGE
Within us is that which needs to be opened so that we will be in direct contact with universal knowledge. Then we can get anything that we might wish to know. God is our direct line to knowledge and he is our source of supply. Jesus told us this in (John 5:30) "I can do nothing on my own. ... I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me."
When we turn our will over to God then Divine Mind thinks through us. God's mind holds us at its center and expresses its possibilities through us.
In Genesis it says that man is formed in the image and after the likeness of God. We are the image or the I-am-age, or the identical I AM of God-Mind in expression. God looks in the mirror of the universe and sees Himself as us; He gives Himself to us. We are God, manifest as us.
WILL & UNDERSTANDING
I think the thing that scares us the most is that we think that we have to give up our own will, to accept God's will. But will and understanding are two faculties that were given to us by God. We are to use both of these.
The will should never be held back in its development, but should always be strengthened. There are those that think you should break the will of children and this is wholly erroneous. The perfect man is produced by rounding out the will and joining it to the understanding.
The idea of giving up the will to God's will should not include the thought of weakening it, or causing it to become in any way less. What it means is that the will is being instructed how to act for the best. Don't act until you know how to act. Or "look before you leap."
As we learn to trust God's Will we will strengthen our own understanding and our own will. We can strengthen and discipline our will along the right lines by using understanding. When we balance will and understanding we will always do the right thing at the right time.
Nearly every mistake is the result of our will acting without the co-operation of its brother, understanding. When the will is permitted to act on its own account, we become emotional and willful. This will lead to all kinds of bodily discord. Willfullness makes us tense and a tense mind ties knots in the nerves, muscles, and tendons of the whole organism.
So we need to relax the will and relax our whole system. The universal treatment for this condition given by Jesus Christ is, (Luke 22:42) "not my will but yours be done." This surrender causes personal will to "let go," and a unification of man's will with God's will takes place. When this is accomplished, all goes well.
Every organ in our bodies is affected by the action of our will. So when our will becomes fixed in a certain attitude, it holds the whole body hostage. If we are determined to have our own way, it will affect the free action of our heart and our stomach. People like this seldom realize that they have a set way as to how things should be done in their lives. So they are sometimes slow in accepting the higher understanding that is necessary to change the mistakes made by ignorant will. Contrariness is another name for perverted will. An exaggerated idea of self and its needs takes precedent, and the will is used to carry out this short-sighted attitude. People who are contentious for their personal rights place themselves in bondage to material conditions and stop their spiritual growth. In all of these instances we need to bring the divine into the equation. We need understanding, by bringing in universal wisdom. We need to affirm, "not my will but yours be done." God is potential, unformed will. We are manifest God will, or good will. When we link our will with the principle of divine force we bring it all into alignment.
So, first, you have to know that God's Will for you is absolute good.
Second, when you let God's will be done; all things in your life become good.
Third, all problems reflect your inability or unwillingness to let God's divine plan unfold through you.
Fourth, when God shapes your life, the changes are appropriate and automatic.
And fifth, chances are it is God's will if (1) Everyone wins, (2) Things go effortlessly, and (3) There are green lights and open doors.
(Hebrews 13:20-21) "Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen."
SCRIPTURE: Job 33:4; Acts 17:28; 2 Corinthians 6:16; John 17:10; Matthew 7:7; John 5:30; Hebrews 13:20-21; Luke 22:42
REFERENCE: Christian Healing Charles Fillmore; The Quest Richard & Mary-Alice Jafolla
--------------------
Last updated
April 24, 2008
