2000-08-06. Missing Some Spiritual Growth
Nashville #92
Topic: Missing Some Spiritual Growth
Group: Nashville TeaM
Teacher: Ham
TR: Rebecca
Opening
Ham: Greetings, children, I am Ham and I am happy to be with all of you this evening. Over the last few years, we have discussed many things, but our main focus has been on your personal soul growth. Tonight, again, we shall discuss this general topic.
Lesson
The growth of your soul occurs on an unconscious level. You experience its effects but you do not directly experience its growth in your minds. Sometimes, you may feel as if you have a block or something holding you back. These are times when you feel confused or unsure of yourselves. Often this feeling of vague uneasiness is an indication that you are undergoing a growth spurt. It is when you are feeling good and balanced and well that little growth is probably occurring. And your growth will progress this way: times of uneasiness, discomfort, followed by periods of balance and well-being.
Sometimes when you are feeling unbalanced and uneasy, even stillness is difficult and your mind seems to jump around from place to place. And this is also normal. Your stillness practice will reflect your inner life, but I may suggest that when you are feeling this inner restlessness, it is best to reach out to the Father as best you can in stillness. And allow his spirit to comfort you, if you can.
Now, let’s look at the levels of spiritual growth. You begin as a child in the realm of really all potential and not much actual. Your personality is there, and this centralizing force is always unifying all the aspects of yourself so that you grow as a whole. As you grow, you begin to have certain imbalances; sometimes especially in this culture which pushes education, the intellectual self can get out ahead of the emotional and the spiritual self. And this imbalance is the cause of much unhappiness and distress among young people.
Then, after the requisite amount of pain and disaster, you experience an amount of, I would call it, personality crumbling. Where, who you thought you were no longer exists. Sometimes this is extreme, sometimes it’s gradual. But in every person’s life, there usually comes a time when who you thought you were, or who you wanted to be, becomes untenable and you realize you don’t know who you are or what you want to be.
If you are lucky, in this life, this happens more than once, and you are forced to look within, and your intellectual, emotional, and spiritual selves get into synchrony. This immediately helps your physical self as well. What you think of as personality, the core of your being, strives to balance all the sides of yourself so that the spirit may lift you and you will come into a higher level of spiritual living. Each time you undergo this growth phase, there is a bit of fear and discomfort associated, but when all the phases of your being are aligned together, you then can stand on a plateau for a while and enjoy the view.
This is what we call spiritual heights, or times when you feel that ease in balance and your ability to love and accept love is unimpeded. These times are wonderful, and it is well that you have them, for if you were to undergo constant spiritual growth, you could not stand it. When you are on the plateau, your personality is unifying all the parts that have grown and you feel at peace. So, in conclusion, it is wise to give thanks for those stressful periods of growth because you know you will reach a plateau, and experience progressively greater peace. Are there any questions at this time?
Dialogue
Q: Abraham talked to us about accelerated growth, and said that those of us in the mission would experience it. What does that term mean?
Ham: I cannot be entirely sure of his meaning, but you who have dedicated your lives to the service of the Father do undergo a more rapid spiritual growth. It is as though your lives were more concentrated for the experiences that you are undergoing helped to concentrate your minds on the spiritual side of things. Many, perhaps most human beings go through weeks and months without giving their spirituality much of a thought. But I would be surprised if any of you go a day without contemplating the greater realities. Does this answer?
[Transcript abruptly ends due to technical difficulties with computer equipment]
