2004-08-15-Art of Receiving God’s Word and Guidance
Nashville #206
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: Art of Receiving God’s Word and Guidance
o 1.2 Group: Nashville TeaM
• 2 Facilitators
o 2.1 Teacher: Ham
o 2.2 TR: Rebecca
• 3 Session
o 3.1 Opening
o 3.2 Lesson
o 3.3 Personal Counsel
o 3.4 Closing
Topic: Art of Receiving God’s Word and Guidance
Group: Nashville TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Ham
TR: Rebecca
Session
Opening
HAM: Greetings, children, I am Ham and I am very happy having this time with you tonight. Let us discuss further the art of receiving God’s word and God’s guidance. We use the term spiritual guidance to denote the input from your indwelling monitor or from the Spirit of Truth or even occasionally from your guardian seraphim because this guidance is unified in your experience and you will not necessarily understand from whom your spiritual communication originates nor is it necessary to do so.
Lesson
HAM: Experience of the spirit is always in accordance with the Father’s will. You will never have conflicts or errors to be concerned with. Your indwelling spirit is simply concerned with spiritualizing your thinking. He is concerned with opening your mind always to greater options, greater perspective and deeper insight. Your indwelling spirit unifies all your spiritual experience. Ever will this unified experience lead into levels of expanded moral choice, deeper insight into your human heart, and elevated vision concerning your place in the world and the path which lies ahead.
The Master often took little breaks apart from his friends so that he might ask for the Father’s guidance, wisdom, expansion, and deepening insight. The Master continually demonstrated how human beings might spiritually recharge through prayer and meditation after the depletion from long periods of social intercourse. It is important for you to use your human understanding all the way to its limits, but then to recognize those limits and begin utilizing the Master’s technique in expanding the mind levels. Each of you functions routinely on about three levels of mind comprising normal consciousness.
The lowest conscious level impinges on the unconscious and is the source of impulsive and compulsive behavior doing things which are not the product of the fully conscious mind but also the product of repressed unconscious desires or fears, things of that nature. The main level of consciousness is also multi-leveled, but for our purposes it involves everything of which the conscious mind is aware, both sensory and mindal. The levels of consciousness which impinge upon the superconscious mind is that level where your indwelling spirit organizes streams of consciousness.
By the time thoughts are fully formed at the conscious level, they have undergone a sorting and organizational process which is the function of the superconsciousness. When you speak your thoughts are not fully formed and organized consciously before hand, they are formed and organized superconsciously beforehand. Part of the functioning of the indwelling spirit is to expand your thinking by pulling together knowledge, insight, meaning, and values in such a way that the conscious mind seems to be continuously harmonious and streams of consciousness are unified on a high level. As you begin to consciously cooperate more and more with the indwelling spirit, you are also allowing him to expand, deepen, and broaden his powers of thought organization.
The indwelling spirit is constantly introducing slightly higher and more profound concepts to the mind in very small increments. But as you come to trust this good spirit ever more deeply, and as you come to increasingly banish fear from the mind, this good spirit can introduce higher concepts in larger doses or more completely unified pieces.
Always, the spirit is subordinate to your own human will and so it is very useful to consciously request guidance and insight. It is very important that you signal your receptivity to the spirit’s suggestions and options. Thus, the Master would excuse himself from meetings, from discussions, in order that he might pray for the Father’s guidance for his own human mind. The Master was always conscious that his human will acted like a gate keeper and that the Father’s spirit, even for him, be asked to enter.
There is no coercion of the mind, no coercion of the spirit at any level of this process. All spiritual progress is entirely voluntary. The Father in heaven – with all his vast power, all his vast wisdom, all his infinite awareness – does not for an instant trespass upon the prerogatives of his creatures. The Father’s plan has never included the concept of forced love or involuntary servitude. The Father’s plan is one of allowing. He allows all his creatures the greatest freedom possible and for his ascending sons and daughters, there is increasing freedom at each level of advancement.
Free will is central to the Father’s plan and when the Father allows free will to have reign, even over the limited material sphere, there is bound to be a lot of chaos, a lot of sin, a lot or error, even among the well meaning. But this is a temporary condition. Always is humanity moving slowly forward in the acceptance of human responsibility and human freedom.
Each of you has been called into greater spiritual service and thus each of you has increased responsibility to always seek for higher guidance and more profound wisdom than you are capable of on your own. The pathway to Paradise is very long, practically eternal from you earthly standpoint. Each level of growth contains new freedom, but also new responsibility as well. Therefore, as you grow in your spiritual capacity, so also must you grow in wisdom and wisdom is found in the seeking after the Father’s will, seeking after the highest spiritual choice.
Your lives are made up of choice. You have, stretching before you, a well nigh unlimited array of choices. Each one has the ability to bring you closer to God or further from him. You may accept or reject each choice the Father lays before you. Your path may be all kinds of different combinations of all the various choices you have made and all the choices you will make. So, always my friends, it is wise to imitate the Master and to seek spiritual input at each juncture no matter how seemingly small.
The small choices are sometimes the most profound: the choice to be gentle where you once may have been harsh, the choice to be loving and considerate where once you may have been indifferent, the choice to be open and responsive where once you may have been closed and set upon a certain path. All these choices are part of finding the Father’s will which is always hovering above and guiding your will. The immature human being thinks of doing God’s will in great heroic terms, spectacular acts of wonder and amazement will be undertaken it is thought. But my friends, the Father’s path is all of your life and all of your mind. The Father’s path is small decisions as well as great life changing moves.
The Master’s profound, intelligent, and kind character was not created full blown, but was rather the result of many years of prayer, many years of talking things over with God until the best attitude was arrived at. The Master always had time for children, for animals, for the neglected in society, the people who had given up hope. He had time for the laborers. He had time for prostitutes. He had time for all. His love for each human being was so profound and complete that each human being who came into his presence could not help but be profoundly changed and moved by that love. The Father knew of the Master’s difficult path and the Father’s good spirit ministered to his human mind at every juncture. But still the human mind of Jesus, just as your human minds must do, opened the door to the Father’s spirit continually and constantly.
Think of it, the creator of the Universe, millions of worlds under his direct management and control, untold legions of angels ready and waiting to carry out his wishes, and yet the Master followed the human pathway, the pathway of admitting his human mind did not know the answer, the pathway of asking for divine guidance. And you, my children, how much more in need are you for divine help? How much more must you acknowledge that need and open that door?
The Master certainly fought through temptations of the ego self which said, “I know enough, I am enough, I can do all things on my own”. The ego temptation is always present, always wanting to assert independence and claim independent victory. You my children must also fight the temptation to revert toward self-assertion and self-aggrandizement just as the Master did and you must rely instead upon greater spiritual wisdom, greater spiritual guidance that sees into the eternal past and the eternal future.
Certainly you can propose what would be most advantageous to you now for the immediate future, but you cannot know what lies in the far future, or what the far future will require. Thus, the Master subordinated his human longings and human desires for the Father’s far-seeing plan. The Master, in subordinating his will to the will of man demonstrated the eternal truth that the Father will always allow human will to play out. He will always suggest but never will he force.
Yes my friends, you are indeed growing in the spirit, you are indeed accepting the responsibilities of the spirit and you are indeed demonstrating through your own lives the power of the spirit. Learn as you do how to allow guidance, how to seek after the higher way so that your will is glorified by expressing the Father’s will. Resist ego temptations for self glorification and focus instead upon glorifying the Father who has sent his spirit to dwell within you. Allow the purpose of your lives to be part of the greater purpose of the Father, just as the Master did so must you also go through the same process, the same decisions. Gradually then you will come to rely upon the Father’s good spirit and you will rest your concerns and all your problems in the Father’s hands.
You cannot do this without acknowledging that you need it. Therefore, freely acknowledge your need for guidance, freely seek it. Be uninhibited in your prayers. Be open to all that is coming into your mind through the Father’s spiritual auspices. But above all, love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. Then, will you come to know him and as you come to know him you will come to increasingly rely on him. This is the ultimate aim of your spiritual path, complete dependence and yet my friends in that dependence you will also find unparalleled levels of freedom and the thrill of ever greater spiritual discovery even while your heart is comforted by ever greater levels of love experience.
Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Trust all levels of the mind into the Father’s hands and you will be rewarded with that peace which passes all understanding and you will see no longer as through a glass darkly but with spiritual clarity and certainty of insight.
Personal Counsel
HAM: What are your questions?
Q: Ham, may I have a personal message please?
HAM: : Yes of course. My son, you are doing very well. Do not avoid pain for pain is part of healing, pain is part of growth. You are gradually coming into increased levels of self-awareness and are verging on increasing self-acceptance. You must past through many levels of self-acceptance before you will truly find levels of love for yourself. You won’t be able to skip steps, you won’t be able to avoid the pain which is part of growth and part of self-realization. Give yourself time for simple relaxed contemplation without pressure.
Your physical healing is progressing slowly but surely just as your spiritual healing progresses. You are doing ever better. Do not worry that you will lose spiritual progress, for you cannot. Personality unification is always a permanent feature once it is completed. Levels cannot be lost, but you may have realizations about not being as far as long as you might have thought. This is human and part of the process. Be easy with yourself.
Q: Do you have anything for Rebecca?
HAM: : Certainly my dear. You must grow in the habit of continually turning over responsibility. You are a person who take on responsibility readily and you must understand there comes a point when you must relinquish that responsibility and trust instead that the Father’s good spirit will guide you and give you everything needful. Grow in the habit of turning to him, not simply now and then, not simply during times of pressure, but continually. Lean not upon your own understanding, but rather lean upon the Master’s arm and allow him to enlighten your mind and allow him to organize those thought processes and ideas which he desires to be brought forward. You are beginning to utilize the power of prayer ever more effectively. Work toward expanding this but most of all go in peace and allow the Master to give you courage. Lean on him and all will be well.
Q: Jarad?
HAM: : Yes my son, you must also place your trust and confidence in ever greater measure in the Father’s gentle spirit. You must release everything else, all things human which you have held onto all your life. The claim the Father makes upon his children is total. Transformation is not half way. The Father’s spirit must guide and inform everything. Each old thought pattern, each outworn attitude that is relinquished is replaced immediately by that which is greater, that which is more real. Have courage then in your letting go as well as in your grasping of the spirit and all that is new. Pray that you might withhold nothing even you might actively pray for helplessness, actively pray for the realization of your human helplessness so that the Father might fill your soul completely and create anew your life continually. Do not be in any way concerned. For you will fulfill all that is required one step at a time just as you have done. Always remember in each new circumstance to claim your sonship first and foremost, all else will be added.
Q: Can I have a message please Ham?
HAM: : Certainly my son. My son, as each day goes by slowly you are strengthening your spiritual legs and your faith muscles. Faith is not something that can be acquired without being used. Faith must be used to be acquired. Therefore my son, reach out in faith and be aware that each time you do, you strengthen your faith and you grow in spiritual purpose and direction. Do not doubt that your life, your mind, your personality and all that you are is firmly in the Master’s arms. Slowly it is dawning upon you that you are indeed a son of God and the implications of all that this realization entails is coming slowly but surely into your consciousness.
My son, this world was created for you. You belong here. You are not some outsider looking for a place to belong. You are in the midst of belonging profoundly and completely where you are as you are. When you are tempted to be pulled by the ego into anxiety or uncertainty, banish those thoughts by remembering who you are in this world and who you are in the next. Remember, your place as the Father’s son in the Father’s universe is secure. You have a place on earth as you have a place in heaven. Relax in this knowledge. Allow this knowledge to give you perspective as to the ups and downs of your earthly life. Seek only to understand those lessons the Father gives you. See you life from this perspective and the victories and defeats of living will be easier to take.
Love your fellows but be understanding with their weaknesses. Remember all human beings are children. You are all taking your first steps so you must be gentle with each other and understanding. Let this knowledge temper the disappointments with people you may face. Live each day to its full. Don’t try to live in the future and release the past as well. For what does the Father require of you but that you should grow in love? Seek this and all else will be added unto you. You are doing just fine.
Q: I love you Ham.
HAM: : My son, I have a great and abiding love for you as well. You may always rely on that love for my devotion to you is equal to my devotion to the Father. Doubt not the truth of this.
Q; Can I have a message Ham?
HAM: : Of course my son. Your spiritual progress has been steady and quite consistent throughout your life. Your early disappointments and disillusionments have been part of your steady grounding in the spirit. You have been consistent in your truth seeking, not one to run here and there after this or that new spiritual fad or changing cultural devices of the spirit. No, rather you have kept the Master’s love alive in your heart from early childhood and you have measured spiritual wisdom of the world by that measure.
Thus, you have been quietly about your search and this search has brought you now here to me this evening. It is my profound gratitude to your seraphim now that must be expressed for I have been aware of your search many years and have been watching your progress unbeknownst to you. Don’t worry for you are finding your way as you should and your decisions from this point will always be respected. Understand, however, that by virtue of truth seeking you bring yourself into spheres of consciousness and spheres of influence that your seraphim desire to direct. Trust then that your inner truth will bear witness to the truth that is brought to you.
Trust your own truth guidance and really search your heart for your deepest understandings at this time. Do not be afraid of the path of self-honesty, the path of complete openness for this is part of the path of truth. Trust yourself my son, for the Father in heaven, the Universal Father of all things and being calls you his son. He has no requirements but that you grow in his love and grow in your reflection of his goodness. Trust that you can do this. Have outrageous faith for you will find all that is necessary on your journey. Be at peace for you are doing just fine.
Q: Yes, Ham I would like to know if you have a message for me please?
HAM: : Of course my son. Your life is continuing to open and you are finding new realms of understanding along with spiritual growth. Do not be concerned about second guessing yourself or your feelings. Trust your own spiritual guidance. Trust your developing wisdom as you make progress and embrace greater levels of spiritual action and choice. Do not worry that you are doing enough or that your efforts are stalled or anything like that for spiritual progress is largely in the realm of the unconscious mind. It cannot be limited by the conscious mind but must only be accepted by the conscious mind. Therefore be at ease for all things are becoming new. Rejoice that you can experience ever greater levels of love, ever deeper knowledge of truth and ever greater levels of beauty appreciation. Rejoice for all is well.
Q: I feel all of this happening to me now, slowly but surely. Thanks.
HAM: : You are welcome my son, go in peace.
Q: Zura: Do you have a message for me Ham?
HAM: : Yes my daughter. Your spiritual progress is unimpeded by the health difficulties of the body. The spirit continues to grow and expand and as this occurs, your loving nature will also expand and your loving acceptance of others will deepen. The little irritations of life should not be allowed to throw you off your spiritual bearings. Remember to always see your life in its broader context of eternal life and have complete faith that everything that happens in this life is preparing you for your greater life ahead. Rejoice in the Father’s love. Rejoice that you are his daughter. Rejoice and be glad for expanding levels of love and the loving awareness of the Father’s presence within you awaits. You are doing very well. Be at peace my dear.
Q: Julia: personal message
HAM: : Yes my dear, this adventure has been very expanding in the spirit for you. You are truly growing in the spirit and you are radiating the Father’s love and his joy. Certainly, you have come through a major spiritual awakening and this will continue to grow and to expand. Trust in yourself, my dear. You have the ability to be yourself. You have the ability to love yourself as you are. You have the ability to accept the Father’s love for you and you have the ability to allow this love to run over into the rest of your life as you love others as you are loved. Rejoice my dear. Be happy, joyful, and always mindful of the Father’s great love.
Q: Do you have a personal message for Charlie B?
HAM: : My son, be at peace. Seek after spiritual guidance with renewed energy. Do not be content, at any level, with your own decisions, attitudes, and knowledge. Seek always the Father’s higher calling, the Father’s greater option and all will be well.
Q: Do you have any feedback for me this week Ham?
HAM: : Of course my son. My son, you are doing very well. You are also coming to realize that you can actually claim your sonship. For much of your life the concept of sonship was clear but its experiential realization was incomplete. Gradually now you are unifying the conceptual world with the experiential world and this unifying process will continue on ever deeper and higher levels of your soul. Each day that goes by, you become increasingly comfortable with who you are as you are in the now. And this comfort in your life will only increase, giving you increased self-assurance and grounding in a balanced confidence as you move forward. Have complete assurance my son of the Father’s eternal and infinite love for you, not eternal and infinite love in the abstract, but love for you. Accept this and be at peace.
Closing
HAM: Very well then may I express once more my gratitude for your service. Your efforts in all areas do not go unnoticed. Let it be known that Melchizedek himself sends his commendation. Until the week after next week when we shall meet again. My love and prayers go with you farewell.
