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Sunday Message for September 24, 2023

Child of God

Today we are talking about the awareness of being a Child of God. The term 'Child of God' is used all the time in metaphysical circles, but do you know the full implication of being a child of God? Do you know what that means in your life?

In the Quest class, the book has a really good story that I would like to tell you.
Picture it: The shrill whistle of the River Queen pierced the stillness as the majestic paddleboat rounded a bend in the Mississippi. A handful of fishermen along with a small boy waved from the levee in excitement and awe.

"Let me ride! Let me ride!" yelled the boy, waving wildly and jumping up and down as the boat was about to slip by. One of the fishermen tried to calm the child, explaining that the River Queen was a large and important boat and could not stop to give rides to little boys. Yet the boy persisted, and all the more animatedly waved and shouted, "Let me ride!"

Imagine the stares of disbelief when the great boat edged its way to the levee and a gangplank was lowered so that one small boy could scamper onto the large deck.

Then all at once the captain appeared, arms out-stretched toward the child, "Daddy, Daddy!" called the boy, as he jumped into his father's loving arms.a

This is the relationship that we can have with our Father/God. He's willing, are you?

YOUR REAL PARENT
In Jesus' parables, he talks about the relationship of earthly fathers and sons. He points out that fathers want to give their sons only the best. Then he compares it to the even greater love of God and his desire to give us everything. It says in (Luke 12:32) "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." As a child of God, your heavenly Father denies youb nothing. He will pull the boat over just for you.

And, yes, I realize that not all earthly fathers live up to the image that Jesus was talking about. But then, who of us is always operating from that divinity within?

So, let's say that generally it is natural for fathers to want to protect and nurture their young. But even the most perfect of earthly fathers is unable to know exactly what is best for his child or is capable of endlessly giving unlimited good to that child. Yet God is.

In a very real sense, God is the true parent of us all. We were created to be the vehicles through which God can best express. So you can imagine how much love and care God invested in each of us.

In the book Mysteries of John, Charles Fillmore writes, "Those who think of themselves as descended from human ancestors are in bondage to all the limitations of those ancestors, regardless of their claims to the contrary."c We fall short of our full potentiality when we regard ourselves as being only descended from the human family. This is a sin that keeps the majority of people in bondage to sense consciousness. We think we are only human.

The Jews were proud of their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. If you read the Bible, you will see them over and over again referring to their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But these three men did things that in our day would make them candidates for the penitentiary. Polygamy is just one example.

You see the worship of ancestors in our own day by those who eagerly search the records of royalty for a family coat of arms or trace their ancestry back to William the Conqueror. The one and only way to get free of this burden of race heredity is to proclaim your divine right as a child of God. If you believe that God is your Father, acknowledge Him, and He will acknowledge you.

Fillmore writes, "A short definition of sin is ignorance." If you knew your spiritual origin and all the purity and power that it includes, you wouldn't be subject to the race tendencies that sway the mind of the flesh. This is the freedom of the Child of God; the shackles of false thoughts are loosed, and there is the open light of heaven instead of the darkness of sense consciousness.

Let me give you an affirmation. I will say it first then I'll have you repeat it with me.

I am the beloved child in whom the Father is well pleased.

Of a truth I am the child of God.

OUR FATHER
It is easy to say, "I am a child of God." Many of us learned to say it in Sunday school when we were small: "I am a child of God. I am a child of God." It rolls off the tongue so easily, yet how many of us know what we are saying? How many of us understand what those words imply? How many of us, when we say it, internalize it and feel the far-reaching impact of those words?

Jesus often referred to God as "Father." The prayer which He taught us began with "Our Father." Those two words alone contain just about everything we have to know about ourselves and our relationship to God and to each other.

This one small phrase tells us we are all created by and loved by the Creator. This makes the entire human race brothers and sisters in the truest sense of the words. Each of us has an equal claim to all that the Father has.

(1 John 3:1) "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are."d We are not simply reflections or images of God, but expressions, hence a forcing out of God, the All-Good, the all-perfect. We are projections of the invisible presence into visibility. God made man one with the Father, even as Jesus was, and just in proportion as we recognize this fact and claim our birthright, the Father in us will be manifested to the world.

Let me give you an affirmation. I will say it first then I'll have you repeat it with me.

All that the Father has is mine.

ACCESS TO ALL THAT GOD IS
To be a child of God is the ultimate gift the universe can bestow. We are told, we are made in the image and likeness of God. Just as humanly we carry the genes of our parents, so we also bear the characteristics of our cosmic parent. The difference is that we may not carry all of the characteristics of our human parents. One parents eyes may be brown and the other's blue. They may be short and we may be tall. Hair color may vary and personalities too.

But in the case of our divine inheritance, we inherit everything. God is love, and so we, too, are love. God is wholeness, so also are we. God is absolute abundance, and that is our nature as well. Whatever God is we are part of, because we are part of God. Any attribute of God must automatically reflect itself in each of us. How could it be otherwise?

Regrettably, we don't always realize who and what we are, and that leads to all kinds of unnecessary detours in the journey. In our frenzy to find what we already have; we search for something that was never lost.

Why is it that we often refuse to claim what is ours by divine inheritance? Rather than take advantage of all that is ours, we too often settle for so much less.

Being a child of God means we have complete access to all that God is. Wow! It means we lack nothing, that each of us is special and crucially important to the Creator. All that "the Father" has is ours. What an incredible endowment! It's as if we have a bank account that can never be depleted, no matter what.

The Christ in us has been there all the time, but we have not known it. So, we have stumbled through life in sickness and poverty and distrust until we have seemed to be almost lost.

I, the true spiritual self of me, am one with the Christ. You, the true spiritual self of you, are one with the Christ. The true self of every person is the child of God, made in His image. (1 John 3:2) "Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him."e

Now, already, we are sons and daughters. This doesn't mean that sometime after we die some great glorious Being shall burst into our view. But when we have learned to still the mortal part of us, and let the Father manifest Himself at our surface, through the indwelling Christ - then we shall be like Him, for He only will be visible through us.

Let me give you an affirmation. I will say it first then I'll have you repeat it with me.

I am the image and likeness of God, in whom is my perfection.

WE BECOME WHAT WE THINK
You all know the story of the ugly duckling. He could never be more than a duck until he realized that he was a graceful swan. A duck is all that he thought he was. What we believe about ourselves determines our lives.

When we know, really know, that we are children of God, we will begin acting as if that were true. Children of God! Offspring of the Creator of the universe! Inheritors of all that God has!

It is God's good pleasure to give us the riches of the kingdom. A feast has been prepared for us. If we haven't begun to claim this absolute good, it is not too late. It is never too late. No matter how far we might have drifted, that unlimited good is always waiting quietly in the wings for us to accept it. Everything is there for us: peace, joy, health, prosperity, and love. Whatever the Father has is ours.

It is yours, today, because you are a child of God. Take your place at the banquet table.

Let me give you an affirmation. I will say it first then I'll have you repeat it with me.

I am the child of God, and the Spirit of the Most High dwells in me.

HEIRS TO THE KINGDOM
Someone once said, "Our liberty comes from an understanding of the mind and the thoughts of God toward us." Do you think God sees us as His servant, or as His child? So many people have believed that they are slaves of circumstances and, at the best, the servants of the Most High.

Neither belief is true. It is time for us to wake up to right thinking, to know that we are not servants, but children (Romans 8:17) "and if children, then heirs."f Emilie Cady writes in Lessons in Truth, "Heirs to all wisdom, so that we need not, through any lack of wisdom make mistakes; heirs to all love, so that we need know no fear or envy or jealousy; heirs to all strength, all life, all power, all good."g

Our minds are so accustomed to the sound of words heard from childhood that often they convey to it no real meaning. Do you stop to think and really comprehend what it means to be (Romans 8:17) "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ."h It means that that each of us is an inlet and may become an outlet of all there is in God. It means that all that God is and has is in reality for us, His only heirs, if we only knew how to claim our inheritance.

This claiming of our rightful inheritance, the inheritance that God wants us to have in our daily life, is what we need to learn to do. Paul said: (Galatians 4:1-7)
"My point is this: heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than slaves, though they are the owners of all the property; but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father.

So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental spirits of the world.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son,.. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God."
i

It is through the indwelling Christ that we are to receive all that God has and is, as much or as little as we can or dare to claim.

No matter with what goal you first started to seek Truth, it was in reality because it was God's "fullness of time" for you to arise and begin to claim your inheritance. You were no longer to be satisfied with or under bondage to the elements of the world. Think of it! God's "fullness of time" now for you to be free, to have dominion over all things material, to be no longer bond servant, but a child in possession of your inheritance!

(John 15:16) "You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him."j

Let me give you an affirmation. I will say it first then I'll have you repeat it with me.

I am the only begotten son, dwelling in the bosom of the Father.

God may be having second thoughts, but at the time, to have created man seemed wise to infinite wisdom. So, the one object in this life should be for us as it must be in the mind of God, to make manifest this son of God.

(Ephesians 4:7) "But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift."k We were given power, love, life, wisdom, and substance. Not that God's giving is with partiality. Make no mistake here. The Creator of the universe is no respecter of persons. There are no favorites in His creation. All the 'fullness of the Godhead' is embodied in His Son, this indwelling Christ. But this power, life, wisdom, this "all" that makes up the 'fullness of the Godhead,' is manifested only in proportion as we recognize this Christ as the Source of the good that we desire, look to Him for it, acknowledge Him as All, and affirm persistently in the face of all opposition that the Son of God is now made visible through us.



aThe Quest Richard & Mary-Alice Jafolla
bLuke 12:32
cMysteries of John, Charles Fillmore
d1 John 3:1
e1 John 3:2
fRomans 8:17
gEmilie Cady Lessons in Truth
hRomans 8:17
iGalatians 4:1-7
jJohn 15:16
kEphesians 4:7



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