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Sunday Message for January 23, 2022

ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH IT IS DONE UNTO YOU

The book of Genesis describes Adam's body as created "in the image of God."a The message in this phrase is both literal and symbolic. It means that people are energy duplicates of a Divine power - a system of primary energies whose truths we are meant to explore and develop through this experience called life.

Our spiritual task in this lifetime is to learn to balance the energies of body and soul, of thought and action, of physical and mental power.

Energy is power, and our bodies require energy; therefore, our bodies require power. The chakras, the sefirot, the sacraments, and the twelve powers all speak of interacting with power and of taking control of our own power in gradually more intense processes. What drains your spirit drains your body. What fuels your spirit fuels your body. The power that fuels our bodies, our minds, and our hearts has roots in Divinity itself.

This month we are learning how to develop our power of faith, not just as a "religious" act but also as a basis for all we are demonstrating and attracting in life.

ASK AND IT SHALL HAPPEN
Ask and it shall happen.
Jesus has said,
(Matthew 7:7) "Ask, and it will be given you; ...."b
(Matthew 9:29) "...According to your faith let it be done to you."c
(Matthew 8:13) "... let it be done for you according to your faith..."d

It is clear that Jesus was conscious of, taught, and demonstrated for us a law of faith (perception ability). As I think, so I become and attract in my life experience.

But to do this we have to live in the present moment. Because we are essentially spiritual creatures, our spiritual needs are as crucial to our well-being as our physical needs, maybe even more so.

When we know that we are more than our physical bodies, we have tapped into a truth that can comfort us during the many closures of life that are part of the human experience. It is unnatural to our Divine design to let our thoughts live for too long in the past; such an imbalance creates time warps that interfere with our ability to live in the present and receive spiritual guidance each day. That guidance will make no sense to us if we focus only on unraveling the mysteries of yesterday. If we live fully in the present moment, the mysteries of yesterday will gradually be unraveled for us.

WHAT DO I ACTUALLY HAVE "FAITH" IN?
What do I actually have "Faith" in? That is, what do I think about the most, focus my attention on, spend most of my money and time on? What do I expect, talk about, wish for, want to see happen, center my life around, set myself up for? Now that's where my faith is!

There are various points in life where we need to call back our spirit, to finish our unfinished business, let it go, and don't give it any more energy. We need to have the ability to release our past experiences in order not to "carry the dead with us."

This is the true meaning of Matthew 8:21-22 where it says: "Another of his disciples said to him, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead."e"

The next time you find yourself dredging up the past - just imagine carrying around a dead person who is decomposing.

We need to bring all things to closure. After any painful and traumatic experience, we always receive internal guidance that can help us release the past and move on with our lives. When we choose to keep the past more alive than the present, we interfere with the flow of the life force. We distort the "present" because we begin to view everything happening "today" through the past, thereby weakening our bodies and spirits. We become diseased from "carrying the dead" with us for too long.

Through our power of Faith we are connected to the world of the infinite.

USE YOUR FAITH POWER
Use your Faith power. Jesus gives positive instructions on the use of our faith power ("the perceiving power of our mind") as recorded in (Matthew 7:7-11)

Ask is an acronym. A. S. K. Ask, Search, Knock.,
"Ask, and it will be given you;
Search, and you will find;
Knock, and the door will be opened for you.
For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"f

HOW DO WE ASK?
How do we ask? By our thoughts, feelings, reactions, and behavior patterns. And we receive according to what we are "asking for." Have you ever had someone say to you, "Well, you asked for it and you got it?" If I'm going 50 miles per hour in a 25 mile per hour zone, am I "asking" to get a ticket? We ask by how we think and act, not by "asking" God for this and that and the other thing. God expresses according to the principle of mind action. Remember that God is not a person to whom we send appeals. God is Love. God is Life. God is Power.

Fillmore said that the Faith faculty is the basis for all the other faculties. It is interesting that it is located at the same place on the body as the seventh chakra.

The crown chakra is our connection to our spiritual nature and our capacity to allow our spirituality to become an integral part of our physical lives and guide us. The seventh chakra is directly aligned to seek an intimate relationship with the Divine. It is the chakra of prayer. It is also our "grace bank account," the warehouse for the energy we amass through kind thoughts and action, and through acts of faith and prayer. This chakra represents our connection to the transcendent dimension of life.

The seventh chakra is the entry point for the human life-force, which pours endlessly into the human energy system, from the greater universe, from God or the Tao. This force nourishes the body, the mind, and the spirit. It distributes itself throughout the physical body and the lower six chakras, connecting the entire physical body to the seventh chakra.

This is why Faith is so important. It is the connection between our spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and physical bodies; as well as being the connection to all our other powers. Our Faith is our connection to a relationship with the Divine through prayer. Through Faith we open ourselves to the life-force which keeps our bodies healthy.

The seventh chakra contains the energy that generates devotion, inspirational and prophetic thoughts, transcendent ideas, and mystical connections. It contains the purest form of the energy of grace or prana. This chakra warehouses the energy generated by prayer and meditation. It is the energy center for the spiritual insight, vision, and intuition far beyond ordinary human consciousness. It is the mystical realm, a dimension of a conscious rapport with the Divine.

The sephirah connected to the seventh chakra is Keter, which represents "nothingness." This is the energy from which physical manifestation begins. It is thought to be eternal, with no beginning or end.

The Christian Sacrament related to the 7th Chakra is Extreme Unction (or Last Rites), the sacrament administered to the dying. Symbolically, this represents the process of retrieving one's spirit from the various "corners" of one's life that still hold "unfinished business," or releasing regrets that continue to pull at one's consciousness, such as words that should have been spoken but were not, or words that should not have been spoken. Unfinished business would also include relationships we wish we had ended differently or paths we wished we had taken but did not. At the closure of our lives, we consciously draw these memories to a final point, accepting the choices we made at the time and releasing the feeling that things could have or should have been otherwise. This is what it means to "call one's spirit back" in order to leave this world and return to the spiritual dimension complete.

From a different symbolic perspective, this ritual should be a regular part of human life. At many points during our lives, we face a crossroads where we need to let a previous phase of life "die." The less we hold on to the physical world, the more we position ourselves to access consciously the energy of Keter, or the crown chakra, our transcendent link to the Divine.

SEVEN STEPS TO DEMONSTRATION OF GOOD THROUGH POSITIVE FAITH
In W. Hausmann's book, Your God-Given Potential, he writes about the Seven steps to Demonstration of good through positive Faith.

1. RECEPTIVITY. We listen, open our mind, look within, learn, grow in understanding of spiritual truths, and are receptive to God ideas. Peter, who represents Faith, was first called Simon, which means hearing. Peter was receptive to Truth. He left a successful fishing business and followed Jesus.

2. ASSENT. Going beyond being interested and receptive, we give assent. Assent says, "I'll think about it," or "I'll see about using this in my life." Peter invited Jesus to stay at his house and people came there to be healed. So, Peter not only recognized the truth, but he brought it home with him - into his life.

3. BELIEF. Belief is a mental acknowledgment of God (Good Possibilities), which comes as an outgrowth of the first two steps. When the parents brought the little boy to Jesus to cure his convulsions, Jesus said that all things are possible to those who believe. (Mark 9:24) "Immediately the father of the child cried out, "I believe; help my unbelief!"g

4. TRUST. Here we begin to make the all-important step from the intellectual acceptance of spiritual ideas and help - to the actual inner realization. Mat 16:15-16. He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."h At this point Peter is beginning to trust his intuition, his inner knowing. And so, he is the only one who really recognizes who Jesus is.

5. ACT AS IF. Now we actualize this faith process as we actually "step out on faith" and start to experience the good results. "This stuff works!" Mat 14: 29. He said, "Come."i So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. Peter was willing to risk; to increase his Faith. And he made a lot of human errors along the way, but he was the only one who stepped out of that boat and walked on the water.

6. CONVICTION. Conviction comes from two Latin words: "vincere" means to conquer, and "con" which serves to intensify its meaning. Here we conquer self-doubts, fears, seeing only the outer appearance. We are convinced. (Psalms 27:13) "I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."j After Jesus' resurrection, Peter stepped out with conviction. He was the one to take the lead, after the Holy Spirit had touched them, and talked to the crowd that had gathered.

7. REALIZATION. For each of the faculties we will study and develop more spiritually, there is a step of realization that clicks over into the automatic mobilization of this power in a harmonious and highly creative mode. Then, we just "naturally" focus from the God perspective, like an automatic focus camera.k

Peter had this realization and stepped out in Faith to teach what Jesus had taught them. He was thrown into prison at one point - but through Faith, he walked out of his cell and to freedom.
So, why do we want to develop our Faith faculty? Well, in light of the recent happenings in our country and our world - I would like to close with what Charles Fillmore wrote over a half century ago:

"People everywhere on earth are now realizing as never before that the well-being of this world rests with its inhabitants...

"The dominion and authority God gave to His image-and-likeness man has assumed such reality that even the most trivial person can understand it and tremble at the prospect of what might come to pass if that dominion were used by vicious men...

"The moral and spiritual standard of the race must be raised the world over as the one and only ultimate source of safety. This means that every person must begin on himself and, as it dawns, let the light shine by imparting it to others...This work is to be done... right here on this planet."l



aGenesis 1:27
bMatthew 7:7
cMatthew 9:29
dMatthew 8:13
eMatthew 8:21-22
fMatthew 7:7-11
gMark 9:24
hMat 16:15-16
iMat 14: 29
jPsalms 27:13
kW. Hausmann Your God-Given Potential
lCharles Fillmore



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