January 21, 2007

Martin Luther King, Jr., in being asked to publish some of his sermons, wrote in the preface to his book, “. . . a sermon is directed toward the listening ear rather than the reading eye. . . I offer these discourses in the hope that a message may come to life for readers of the printed words.” This is my hope for you, dear reader. ——Rev. Linda

January 21, 2007

EXPERIENCE HEAVEN IN 2007:

For Heaven’s Sake

“We believe that Heaven is within us and that we experience it to the degree that we become conscious of it.” “We believe in the eternal Goodness, the eternal Loving-kindness, and the eternal Givingness of Life to all.” These are two of the statements from our “We Believe” declaration.

Well, do we really believe it? Does your life feel like heaven? Is it really possible to have that heavenly experience here on Earth?

I want to look at that question this morning as we continue our exploration of the basics of the Science of Mind, and focus particularly on What It Does, the third part of the introduction in our textbook, or as some of you like to call it “The Big Book.”

So just what does It do? Well, what It does is act as a Principle or a Law for us so that what we focus on, we attract. In other words It’s a Law of Attraction. It’s a Power, and we can use It. But, remember what we just heard Ernest say, “We can use only what flows through us.”

Core Concept Six of our Science of Mind teaching, says “This is a Universe of infinite abundance, spiritual, mental, and physical. This Bounty of Spirit, this Allness of Good, is limitless and can never be exhausted or depleted. . . The infinite bounty of Spirit is the birthright of every human. I am a child of God, created as a finite expression of God. Thus, I am heir to all the Good there is simply because of WHO I AM.”

And Core Concept Seven says, “This is a reciprocal Universe. For every visible form, there is an invisible counterpart. Everything in nature tends to equalize itself, to keep its balance true. . . Human life demonstrates the reciprocal nature of the Universe in the laws of attraction, giving and receiving, mental equivalents, doing and being done by, and other such principles.”

So what does all that mean? If we can only receive what comes through us, then how do we get more good to come through us? Ernest just told us that “The act of giving is the action of flow through us.” So it is in the act of giving that we open the floodgates for good to flow.

Now this is a total contradiction to what the world would tell us. And that’s why it can be so difficult for us to truly grasp. But it’s the truth, and it is the way It works. We know the talent that isn’t used, disappears. He said we all possess all of God. But we can refuse to give it. And when we refuse to give it, we stagnate it, so it can’t flow through us. It gets all stopped up in us, clogged up. We stuff it, and then it comes out in ways we don’t’ want to look at. We only “have” what we use. Do you see?

If you want more joy in your life, you can’t keep all the joy that you are hidden within you. You can’t refuse to be joyful. We are joy, you know. Joy is God. So if we’re going around in sadness and gloom and morose or morbidity, then what we’re doing is holding inside our joy and not giving it away, not letting it out. And it turns sour in us and causes all kinds of problems.

If you want more love in your life, you can’t keep all the love that you are locked behind some wall you’ve built up inside you. Ernest said, “Love only knows love.” We have to get ourselves into alignment with love—think about love, focus on love, set our intention on love in all it’s ways of being. If we only think about all the ways we’ve been hurt or betrayed or abandoned by people, guess what we’re going to get more of. The Law of Attraction always draws to us whatever we put our attention on, and especially when we have intense feelings attached to it.

The fastest way for us to bring anything into our lives is to think about it with intense feelings. Like a magnet we are attracting into our atmospheres right now whatever we’re thinking about intensely. And that includes things we intensely don’t want. Because, remember, there is no such thing as “No.” In The Law of Attraction: The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham it says, “When you see something that you do not want to experience and you shout, ‘No, no, I do not want that!’ through your attention to it you invite it into your experience. In this attraction-based Universe, there is no such thing as exclusion. Your attention to it includes it in your vibration, and if you hold it in your attention or awareness long enough, the Law of Attraction will bring it into your experience, for there is no such thing as ‘No.’. . . Your attention to it says, ‘Yes, come to me this thing I do not want!”

And this is why Ernest tells us that the more we keep our God in our thoughts, the better we shall work. Always, always, always think on what you do want. And what do we want? We always want what brings us joy.

Now Ernest was a very practical man, a typical Yankee, wouldn’t you say? And he was very clear that the Science of Mind is not a get-rich-quick scheme or a teaching that says we can get whatever we want, whenever we want it. This is not an instant-gratification racket. And he says it’s a good thing because we don’t have enough sense. I do believe the human race will someday so demonstrate the wisdom we do possess that we will be able to manifest more quickly. But for now, just imagine the chaos we’d create just in our own personal lives if every thought we “thunk” manifested immediately!

Not that we have to worry about it. As those of us who’ve been practicing this philosophy for a while know, it takes focus and real intention.

Recently I was brought to think about why we spend so much time talking about the Law of God and not so much about the Love of God? I thought about this a great deal. And what I’ve came to see is that if we don’t understand how the Law works and that God is Consciousness, then when we talk about God as Love we begin to get the picture of a God-Person, a Super Human-type god that we feel very separate from, that lives outside us somewhere in some location out yonder we call heaven.

We can’t truly appreciate something we don’t understand. We come to a deeper understanding and closeness to God as Love as we experience It as the Law. The Law works through Love. God is Love and God is Law.

In Ideas for Living Ernest Holmes wrote, “The Kingdom of God . . . in each of us . . . is an awakening, . . . to things as they are.” (p. 60)

“We are in heaven now. The kingdom of heaven is within us. No condition, no place, no person except oneself can cheat one out of the kingdom of heaven. It is a state of mind.” (It’s Up to You!, p. 78.1)

And it is done unto us as we think. So, for heaven’s sake!, think only on good.