2016-07-21-Finding-Following Gods Will
Lightline #491
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: Finding and Following God’s Will
o 1.2 Group: Lightline TeaM
• 2 Facilitators
o 2.1 Teacher: Michael
o 2.2 TR: JL
• 3 Session
o 3.1 Opening
o 3.2 Lesson
o 3.3 Dialogue
o 3.4 Closing
Topic: Finding and Following God’s Will
Group: Lightline TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Michael
TR: JL
Session
Opening
Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, here we are again! While it is always a joy to be able to hear your lessons and actually carry on a conversation with you, you remind us that this is something we can do right on our own, any time we want to meditate and still our minds and then ask you questions. You even encourage us to write these down, or record these, because the very next thought in our mind can be your response, even the response of our mutual Father. Now I’ll turn the time over to you and, again, thank you so much for making yourselves available this way. Amen.
Lesson
MICHAEL: My dear children, this is Michael. Mother Spirit and I are once again delighted to be able to address you in this way. It seems like a rare opportunity to actually talk to you through a human voice, but we are part of you. We do have our influence within you and all about you. It’s so nice when you can recognize this and more or less ascertain our part in your life, even if this is only a thousandth part–we must admit in our humility—of what part our Father plays in all of our lives.
Finding and following God’s will with an open mind
It is his will that we wish be done on earth, and on all of our physical worlds, as well as in heaven. The Lord’s Prayer is a wonderful one to orient yourself toward his will. Yet as the Urantia Book cautions you–very rightly so–as you try to ascertain and then do God’s will, it requires a further and continuing humility to be open-minded, not only to what you think is God’s will, but then as you do these things, to continue to be open-minded to the results.
It is so often the case that the amount of courage it takes to carry out what you feel is God’s will–that focus, that very determination can lead you enormously astray to where you do not stay open-minded. You are committed–as you say–to whatever course of action you have decided. Yet sometimes the results should tell you that this is not the will of a merciful, loving God who sees all of his children, every single human being, as equal, and equally deserving of love and care.
Fanaticism, fundamentalism, terrorism–and humility*
This very humility alone would cut out so much fanaticism, so much of what you call terrorism done in the name of God. We have had so many lessons on what we call, and you yourselves call, fundamentalism. It is an arrogance that you have achieved some kind of absolute fundamental reality that requires no further question, only a determination to carry out what you perceive. So the most obscene acts are done in the name of this, in the name of God. Yet this justification is one of your greatest gifts to give away, to refuse yourselves this kind of arrogant assurance that what you are doing is absolutely God’s will.
This is especially true once you have done something, to be blinded then, to refuse to acknowledge what you have just done to another human being. Always bear in mind the truth that God is no respecter of persons. He sees everyone on an equal basis right through all of what you yourselves are often wrapped up in–in terms of prejudice, in terms of race, or sex, or religious beliefs. These, along with nationalities and national fervor, are the greatest reasons for the most inhumane treatment of one person of another.
These prejudices are all the more pernicious because they are part of a person’s culture and perceptions. People literally see persons of another race, or the opposite sex, or another nationality or belief system, as some kind of inferior, less-than-human being to be subjugated. Not only do they do obscene things to eliminate others, but more, the physical and mental torture that you call terrorism, deliberately introducing terror in others in order to get their way.
This is why a thorough understanding of God’s will enables you to relinquish your prejudice, even although on a superficial level it seems to put you at a disadvantage to all the fundamentalists of whom you do have to be careful. You do have to protect yourself from them. But you avoid becoming one of them yourself and literally losing your soul. This is the most important thing to be cautious against. Yet how do you do this? How do you stay open-minded when you may be surrounded by prejudice, even having been raised this way by your own loving parents? How do you become and stay open-minded?
To see through prejudice
The secret is in seeing individuals. It is a mark of maturity that you let go of what we sometimes call the “galloping generalities”–the prejudices of your adolescence. See through the race, the sex, the age, the belief of another person. See everyone as an individual. It requires an enormous expansion of consciousness to do this because you are giving up all these generalities, all these too-easy handles by which you get a hold on someone else. It’s not what race are they, or even what sex are they. It’s who they are as a creature of God, as a unique personality.
This is that expansion of consciousness that fills your soul, my dear ones. After a long life, those with whom you have shared yours are what you have in your soul; not generalities of racism or sexism, or culture, but individuals–every single one! Here you are attuned to God’s greatest gift, this uniqueness of every single one of you. This can be your perception, and we’ve teased you with the idea of walking down a busy city sidewalk and seeing individuals coming towards you; and relating this way. Think of that little instantaneous spark of recognition you can share with so many, even with total strangers, which in a split second can make your day. It can be the most beautiful thing you can experience–eyes meeting eyes—by filling yourself with this attitude, this orientation.
Orienting to the Spirit of Truth
This orientation is my Spirit of Truth, by which you can begin to actually perceive this truth of individuals. It was one of my greatest teachings when I was among you, when then, as is still today, everybody was separated even more into small tribes and cultures. So often in our travels, when we would be encountering these different tribes of people, my followers were amazed and even a little shocked that I could address them as friends, even though the morays at the time were that I should treat them as enemies. This was especially true with those of the opposite sex, with whom we men were to have nothing to do at all.
This is the wealth of unique personality right before you. This is God’s will. This is his Creation, this whole realm of personal beings and dimensions of personality. To see this in others helps you feel it in yourself, that you too are unique. We have talked about how this can lead to a loneliness–the feeling there is so much unique to your life–that you can never express or share, with even your closest loved ones.
Creative spirit in yourself and others
That is partly why we are here with you, Mother Spirit and I, and our Father too, right within you and part of you. We are all three someone with whom you can share everything you experience. Then to recognize and to appreciate our creative spirit in others leads to so much that you can share of your own life with them. My dear ones, these are very strenuous times when truly your news is correct. In the last few years there have been hundreds of thousands of lives horribly taken, and tens of millions of people displaced, turned into refugees from their homes by deliberate terror.
This is how you yourself can avoid that essential mistake, that essential arrogance of fundamentalism: see and experience the wealth of God’s creation in every single one you meet! And what a joy. What fun. What a real solid ground to stand on, and exchange your self with others. Now if you have any questions or comments this evening, this is my delight—to exchange ideas with each one of you.
Dialogue
Student: I don’t really have a question; just a comment: what a great lesson! That is the key–the individual as opposed to the stereotype.
The individual and stereotypes
MICHAEL:: Yes, my son, that is the essence of it. It is such a reward to get beyond prejudice, which is your own projection in a sense. Prejudice is like a screen out there, a hazy blur covering personality, kind-of like squinting your eyes trying to see things the way you were brought up and taught. There’s a kind of ego attachment, a sense of who you are by contrast. But to see through stereotype, to let their more objective full reality come through to you; and yet not make the objective fallacy to assume you already have it.
It is being open to all points of view as you get your news to stay in touch with what is happening around the world. Through all your mass media now, you can probably feel within yourself your own orientation–whether you are liberal, or conservative, or whatever. Certain programming strikes a chord and you say it is right, while with the opposite programming you find yourself arguing with everything that comes across. This is being sensitive to your own prejudices and your own orientation. Always have the humility to admit and then welcome it is such an enormous universe out there. So thank you, my son. You definitely have the essence of it.
Student #1: Thank you. Now if we could just explain that to a lot of other people.
The courage to wonder, to question
MICHAEL:: Well, this is why I wish to acknowledge that for so many folks clinging tightly to what they have been raised in, or been terrorized into accepting; it seems like it is too much to ask. It seems like an immediate vulnerability to give up their absolute assurance that they are right in what they are doing. Think of all the focus and motivation, the desire and intention and deliberation–all that it takes to get moving. To give up so much of that and be unsure, to be wondering, to question what they are being told? That takes great courage.
Student #1: And faith.
MICHAEL:: Yes, and faith–that outreach, that willingness to act on what you aren’t quite sure of; and still keep that uncertainty. Keep that open-mindedness to avoid the fundamentalism. It helps to see that clearly.
Student #1: Yes. You can see why a lot of people are afraid of such a thing.
Censorship V.S. trust
MICHAEL:: Sometimes alternate viewpoints are not even presented in those countries or nation-states which have the most strict kind of censorship. Different points of view aren’t presented at all. This has been the typical case throughout the history of the human race. Yet in some of your modern democracies now there is a whole range from the most liberal to the most conservative, and from the most nationalistic to the most world-wide view presented.
It takes an enormous trust in other folks to not demand that they believe as you do. We kind-of tease folks into all the delight they can experience in really encountering others by opening themselves so that experience becomes part of their soul. There’s not just their own projections and prejudices, but they have actually touched something and some others in their life.
Student #1: Yes.
Thousands of little mini-cultures
MICHAEL:: This is where Mother Spirit and I are delighted to point out the fact that your modern electronic communications are a great force against censorship, especially between generations. The younger generations are constantly being attuned to how to get around censorship, tune into the world, and be aware of everyone’s different viewpoints in all the thousands of little mini-cultures everywhere. Again: thank you, my son, for your input. Are there any more comments or questions this evening?
Closing
If not, I will wrap up this session by teasing you all the more. Mother Spirit and I believe that if you love someone, you will tease them–tease in the sense of dangling something out in front of them that they can actually get ahold of. Your teasing is all through love, not tormenting someone with something that is beyond their reach.
You are part of everything you perceive and experience
I remind you that so much of what you perceive is your very reaching. You are so much a part of everything you perceive–that whole reality of projection. Yet how do you get beyond it? This is the orientation that my Spirit of Truth gives you. It is you constantly reminding yourself that beyond your current belief–what you awoke with today–is the possibility of growing, constantly growing forever and ever and ever; growing as you come in contact with greater and greater realities.
It is a challenge that our Father—God–puts before us all for our own good: that we constantly let go. We constantly let go even what has cost us so much to achieve–all our experience of life–to be open for more experience. To never say, ”Dear God, let me stop. Let me experience no more.”
Sleep, and rest, a new day, and a renewed you
This is what sleep and rest are all about. You become full-up to the brim and running over, and so you relinquish yourself. You let yourself totally go into his hands almost every night, to await, refreshed, a new day with, hopefully, a slightly new you. Be ready to see that aspect of reality which is not only continuing and can be anticipated, but also that each and every moment hasn’t happened before, and will never happen again. It’s the enormity of God’s living creativity that you are involved in. So perceive that freshness!
The infinity of spontaneity
We thank our Father for his imagination to come up with such a reality, both for you and for our order of being. We too–Mother Spirit and I–we too enjoy what you can only conceive of as some kind of pure spontaneity!–as is our Father’s–as is yours with all the potential you wish to reach for. Keep that open mind. So, my little ones, this is your Father and your Mother saying: good evening. Mother Spirit sends you her love. I bid you be in my peace. Good Night. Students: Thank you so much. Thank you very much. It certainly speaks to the times.
