2001-01-28. Forgiveness
Nashville #107
Topic: Forgiveness
Group: Nashville TeaM
Teacher: Ham
TR: Rebecca
Opening
Ham: Greetings, children, I am Ham and I am grateful that you have come this day. Tonight, our lesson shall revolve around forgiveness once more. What does it mean to forgive?
Lesson
Forgiveness
Forgiveness is the act of aligning oneself with God, with abandoning your perspective for the Father’s perspective. Forgiveness means letting go of the old view and adopting something new and greater. When you forgive, you abandon a part of yourself that is not progresing, you let go of feelings of ego injury and expand your awareness from the smaller self to a greater self. You allow God’s vision of yourself or others to become your own.
Acceptance is God-like. Acceptance without judgment is the act of adopting the Father’s viewpoint. The Father’s love condemns no one. The Father’s love accepts repentance and washes away sin. When you come to see your self as the Father sees you – your pure soul, without sin, without regret of sin, and without guilt — it becomes step by step easier to accept others as the Father has accepted you and allowed you to accept yourself.
As you come to know the Father, you come to a place where there is continual forgiveness, where you are continually adapting yourself to the Father’s viewpoint and thus are in constant forgiveness of all others around you. You are human and this state of grace is a ways from you, but knowing that it is there, that it is a destination, will help you to remember always to forgive.
The human self, which becomes offended, is hurt, is injured by the actions of others, that part is the smallest part of you. In reality, you are so much more. The you the Father sees, is far above the petty injuries that the ego self endures or embraces. The real you is unaffected by these things.
Though your personal pride may sustain injury, though your body may suffer and die, there is a greater part of you that is not affected by any of this. That part is immortal, that part is directly gazing upon the Father’s face always. So do not mourn over the smaller problems of life, the injuries and failures that are part of living. Rejoice, rather, in that which is eternal and always remains in a state of loving grace. Seek after that greater part of you all your lives and you will find a great deal of it.
Are there any questions?
Dialogue
Q: When you are conditioned to expect reactions, want to forgive, but it is hard. Suppose someone has hurt you repeatedly. You want to forgiven them, but you are conditioned to react to them as though they are going to hurt you each time.
Ham: Yes. Remember the apostles came to Jesus and asked how many times should my brother sin against me and I forgive him. And in the humanity, they estimated that seven times would be enough and the eighth time would demand the justice of the old testament that they had been taught. But Jesus said the them, you must forgive him seventy times seven times, even an infinite number of times. Forgiveness knows no boundaries and now you in your humanity say. I have been hurt and I carry that into each new interaction in expectation of more hurtful behavior on the part of my brother. And I say to you that you . You must put down the burden of being hurt.
Recognize that what gets hurt is actually just a small part of you and there is a much greater you who observes this and is trying to pull the smaller you into alignment with the greater you. This requires repeated forgiveness and complete forgiveness every time. That way you can align yourself with the Father’s will and not be caught in a place where you are pulling the higher self into the dictates of your lower nature for the lower nature seeks revenge, seeks retribution. The higher self gives forgiveness freely without having to be asked. Often it helps to pray for the other person because then you start to put yourself in his place and see what he needs. Prayer is a mighty force for changing one’s attitude. Is this helping?
Q: Yes. Thank you.
Morontia Mind
Q: Another questions, seeing yourself as God sees you. That strikes me as very difficult to do. Any advice on how to move in that direction?
Ham: Yes, usually it is easier to forgive an erring brother than it is to forgive oneself. Each person somewhere inside feels that the divine forgiveness is undeserved, that they must take it upon themselves to correct themselves and that requires harsh reckoning with one’s own behavior. This is erroneous thinking. One must begin the experience of forgiveness through forgiving oneself and that means to forgiven oneself continually for we are always falling short of the perfect, divine will, are we not?
Perfection does not exist in this world. So you must have that Fatherly affection for yourself as well as having it for others and allow yourself room for human error, allow yourself to forgive that human error. Practice this instead of immediately jumping on yourself for little mistakes that happen. Stop the condemnation before it is fully formed in your mind and say, as though you were talking about another, “This is just an imperfect child of God like any other prone to human weakness and error. I forgive you”, saying this to yourself, “I forgive you”.
Try this and see how you progress. Human beings have really three minds or maybe even four minds. There is consciousness, there is what is termed the subconscious or unconscious, the is the morontia mind, and the mind of the spirit and you can, in your conscious mind, jump up to the morontia mind and regard yourself as you would regard another person. Practice this, going to the morontia mind, it is not as hard as it seems. You do it all the time.
Q: As I was driving home from Atlanta, I was thinking about God’s love and trying to see myself as a small immature child, and I was able for a moment to feel the power of God’s love. What an incredible power.
Ham: Yes, you opened yourself up to experiencing that love just for a moment, but that’s enough for you to know. That is wonderful to hear.
Personal Counsel
Q: I have a list of people who have requested personal messages. Melissa.
Ham: Yes my dear, you are experiencing some growth spurts spiritually which can be a little unsettling and create imbalance. Do not worry, concentrate on maintaining emotional and spiritual balance. When you have this, then you can grow in a stable manner. Grow in love and forgiveness. Above all, forgive yourself. You do very well.
Q: Marija?
Ham: Yes my dear, you are doing very well and we are very happy to see you opening up in courage and especially the courage to love. There are some changes that you are being prepared for. When you embrace change, you can more easily adapt in life and resistance to change often causes unhappiness.
Q: Norbert?
Ham: Certainly, son, you are doing well. You are facing some hard choices in life, some unpleasant decisions and this is part of your growth. Remember to set your priorities, and to set them along spiritual lines. When your first goal is the spirit, the rest of life will fall in place.
Q: Miriam?
Ham: Certainly, dear, you do well. You are also going through some change. There are times when you feel like putting the brakes on because change can be frightening. But, remember that change is a manifestation of growth and that you are going through the process of finding yourself and integrating these new finds into your greater self. All this requires flexibility and a lot of self-forgiveness. You do very well, my dear.
Q: Charlie B?
Ham: Yes, my son, you also are experiencing burst of inner growth which require adjustments in the world. Remember also to allow others space for their own changes and their own growth. Love is a continual act of discovery. When you love someone, you find that there is more and different things to love all the time. Let your love be dynamic and ever growing.
Q: Rebecca?
Ham: Yes, my daughter, you are doing well. You have a lot to learn and to experience coming toward you which will expand your life’s awareness. Remember not to take things too seriously or too much to heart. This is a learning process, not a final exam. So, be open to all suggestions and all viewpoints. Also, I want you to keep writing and not to neglect this process.
Q: Jarad?
Ham: Yes, my son, you are doing very well. Don’t worry about the swift waters ahead. You will be able to negotiate the rocks with the help of those around you. Always maintain the attitude of one who is learning, one who does not know the answers. That is how you enlist the help of others. Keep expanding in love, keep working on new creativity. All is well and as it should be.
Q: Ham do you have feedback for me this week.
Ham: You must also remember to maintain an attitude of humility in all dealings. It is sometimes folly too appear to unwise. When you maintain the attitude of continual inquiry, you avoid arousing the jealousies of others. Never be afraid to say, I don’t know, what do you think for this is truly the attitude of wisdom.
Q: Ham, may I have a message please?
Ham: Of course my daughter, you are coming into a new phase in your life and this newness requires openness to continual change as we have discussed. You have had a long period of time where fear was coming up, fear of change, basically it all comes down to fear of change. Once you get through that and accept whatever God’s will is, without fear, then your life will start to really come together. Pieces that you would never have really imagined will come to you. Remember to get through this process with continuous self-forgiveness, self-acceptance, continually aligning yourself with the Father and his will. Where there is perfect love, there is no fear. Continually strive to find this as you progress through this period. You are doing fine, very well.
Q: May I ask for a message for Jim?
Ham: Son, you do well. You are finding that there is still some pain in spiritual growth, that all is not easy but you are also finding that your capacity for love, for acceptance, for forgiveness are expanding, that you are coming to accept yourself more fully each day and in this acceptance you can accept others.
Know in your hearts, all of you, that you are exactly where the Father wants you to be. This is a profound thought, one that requires full self acceptance and forgiveness to realize. But it is so. You are each where the Father wants you to be. You are handling just what you can in your level of spiritual growth. Put your growth first and you will be given more as you are able to handle it. Truly, you are in the Father’s hands. Let go, accept, and love.
Closing
That is all for this evening. Unless there are other questions, I will take my leave and know that my love and prayers are with you each and I am personally available to you all. Be at peace, farewell.
