1993-01-17-Freedom

Session

Opening

Daniel: "Good evening my friends. I am Daniel your teacher, your guide. It is my great pleasure to be here tonight, to sit amongst you and to know that the teachings that have been going on now with this group for the past year have indeed taken root. Your lives in the outer realm have seen changes by you in your own awarenesses. Inwardly you have all begun to come to the realization of God's love, the realization of your daughtership and sonship with the First Source and Center, and your realization of your connectedness to each other, to all of the brothers and sisters that you have on this plane. And it does not stop here, it goes on throughout the universes. This is a very important understanding. You have all begun to understand it intellectually. Spiritually you are embracing it and it is building that soul foundation so necessary for survival. While you are on this plane you are beginning to willingly turn yourselves over to the Father. You have already begun to lay firm steps while others must wait for further signs to help in their ascent.

Lesson

Freedom

My friends, as you develop a more open channel to the Father the path you walk becomes more full and resolute in the actions that are more Christlike. As I have been putting forth to you over the many months, in order for that path to be firm one must take the time to sit with the Father. How else can you know Him? How else can you understand His will? How else can you know proper action to take and proper course to chart for yourself if you do not know the Father? Time and again the course for you to set will always rest upon that important time you spend with Him.

Last week we worked on spiritual strength. You were asked to give your understanding of this concept which you did beautifully. This week we will take time for some words regarding freedom. The freedom that I will speak of tonight means freedom for yourself, freedom which you cannot experience or know if you harbor certain characteristics. These characteristics are ones that you would deem on a negative side. I will ask you what characteristics you feel would hamper your freedom. And conversely, then, the opposite would give you liberty and freedom. Let us leave the recorder on and please put forth some thoughts you have in this regard. How can I best know freedom for myself in a spiritual light, in a human light? For this is your wholeness that we are speaking of. Please volunteer."

Dialogue

B6: "I think Jesus said in response to one of the questions in His papers that we are most limited by pride and fear."

N1: " I think my freedom becomes limited when I start to feel responsible for other people's behaviors and feelings. Then that seems to hamper my freedom, humanly. And when I think about the spiritual part (and with this microphone on I am a little more nervous talking to you guys) somehow I know it has to do with the self will verses doing God's will. And I am struggling with this. And somehow intellectually I realize that being open and desirous of nothing but God's will would be incredible, ultimate freedom. And that somehow the things that I feel are in struggle with God's will, or I am not sure they are God's will, they limit my freedom. They make me feel real small and contained compared to that feeling of what it would be like to desire nothing but God's will. But I am still struggling in that concept somewhere."

L2: "I think it is interesting that you request us to talk about this freedom because this was part of my prayer this morning. I listed five things specific for myself beginning with fear, anxiety, guilt, depression, and anger. I asked God to help me rid those five things that I am experiencing frequently. And I must add to it the lack of confidence. And all these characteristics hamper my spiritual growth and my human potential. And so I still pray for those to be lifted from me."

V1: "It seem that most of us have mentioned fear. And that was the big thing that crept up in my life again this weekend. I think the opposite of fear is the ability to trust, first of all trust God that, indeed, this planet is going to reach Light and Life. Sometimes as you look around....the newspaper today was very discouraging...and to be able to trust God and not be afraid for this planet. And to trust other people around me and not to be afraid of anything their behavior is, I think is a spiritual characteristic rather than a human characteristic. And so I would say that the opposite of fear is to trust."

B3: "For me it was too much 'I', 'me' stuff. I was going to control my life; not my family, not my friends, and surely not God. When I finally figured out that wasn't working that was the start of improvement for me."

N2: "I have also experienced the desire to..one of the hamperings of freedom is the desire to be in control that is coupled up with a fear of what would happen if you allow control to be in God's hands instead of your own. The other hampering to freedom is cherishing anger and resentment. The longer it is held tight the more freedom is restricted."

N1: "Just a quick takeoff on what mom said. I think the biggest hampering to my freedom is trusting God which you all know is my biggest issue. As I shared last week, I am starting to have a little more trust for God, especially as I get more evidence that maybe God really does care about this forsaken planet with all its individuals in it, and we are not in fact forsaken. But that ability to trust God is probably my greatest hampering to freedom."

B1: "As somebody who has had to deal with substance abuse in my own life, denial of reality has been a hampering of my freedom. To not accept what really is has for many years kept me from being the free person that I could have been and am now becoming."

K3: "Good evening Daniel. And happy one year birthday. Freedom. To go back to one of your early lessons, probably your first one, and that is on loving yourself. If you can love yourself you can overcome your fear. That's very hard to do. I thank you for your lessons and the time you have spent with us."

Daniel: "So noted. Thank you also. I thank all of you. Indeed, you are teachers, you are students. What you share with one another helps you to learn and to grow yourself, helps you so that you can be a teacher when the time is right. There is always going to be times in your lives when you will feel the chains of all that you have said around your necks. You will feel shackled yet each of you now knows how to break forth from these limiting ways, to be able to find the key that will unlock the chain that is keeping you in your own little prison. The Father has, by His very nature, given each of you a part of Him. This Indwelling Monitor is the key for you to experience freedom. A key is not valuable, means nothing unless it is picked up and put into the lock. The Father has given you that choice through your will. He has given you the key and the choice and you must do the action. When you pick up the key you will find that those barriers that hamper your freedom will begin to dissolve. You all know the key is through your prayer, quiet time, worship, and in your willingness to truly look at the situation, to be able to let go and not harbor anger, not harbor resentment, not harbor fear or guilt. Yes, to allow your faith to work that you may trust the Father in all aspects of your life.

When the winds of discontent have you in their embrace, utilize the keys given to you, that you, through your will, may be able to take up and reach to the Father as He reaches back to you. This world is in a state of much confusion. There is much personal oppression as well as oppression inflicted on others, by those who hold or seem to think they hold more power. Freedom can be felt even by those who are in oppressive situations on a personal level if they understand their spiritual self. For whatever happens in the outer will make no difference if the spiritual is whole. That is why weekly I have asked you to build that inner life, to make it strong, to allow freedom to be the resting pad for you to build your life upon. Yes, when you can love yourself; when you can let go of fear, when you can trust; when anger, resentment, guilt, denial and the desire to control are not the framework from which you work, then freedom will be yours. Real freedom does not mean holding power over another. Real freedom means the ability to allow your spirit to embrace the Father, allow yourselves time with the Father so that the Indwelling Spirit, the Gift from Him, can support you in your life.

Think this week upon freedom. Begin again to work to allow yourselves to be free spirits. Whenever a situation pulls you down, you will stay down with it if your harbor any kind of anger, doubts, or fear. That is your choice. If you release it, you will be free.

My students, you are doing well in this type of format. The format that we have had prior to the meetings where you share has been one that has helped you to grow in so many ways and is very important to continue as well. I will now accept questions."

N1: "Good evening Daniel."

Daniel: "Hello."

Prayer

N1: "I have a question that has been bothering me a little this week and then your reference to us having a Thought Adjuster to help us stimulated the question. And that is..I guess I feel like there are certain things or I felt like there are certain things that are OK to pray to God about...praying to change myself over, also praying for other people. And a lot of my little material concerns that come and go were things that I thought I should take care of on my own. But I'm really torn because somehow I feel like I shouldn't save any part and keep it away from God, but in my whole life I should be asking help for from God. And yet I feel wrong in asking for help in some of my material concerns and my material questions of how to sort through things. Could you address that for me please? Is the question understood?"

Daniel: "Yes. The Father already knows your needs, of course, before you address them with Him. In addressing your needs with the Father, however, you, yourself..., you help yourself in coming into a firmer understanding and clarity of the problem which you have addressed to the Father. As you become more solid in your spiritualness, as you grow more in your knowledge, understanding, and service with the Father, those things which are in your material life are not as important as they once seemed to be, and hence your prayers in that regard will reflect less and less of the material sense. To pray to the Father to help you in solving your human problems and dilemmas is not error. In seeking help and in praying to the Father to help you to be led in a more righteous direction or decision in your material needs is beneficial for you. To pray and then feel guilty about what you pray about is very defeating, is it not?"

N1: "Very much so. That's why I brought the question up."(laughter)

Daniel: "And so, my dear, realize that part of the prayers that you are putting forth is also in the spiritual realm of asking for guidance that you will know His will. And as you continue to pray for spiritual awarenesses and to be spiritually enhanced, then that which is in the material life will also be answered more readily, more easily. I would say to you that whenever you ask for material guidance that you preface it with the desire that the path you take in your human endeavors be spiritually guided and directed by the Indwelling Monitor and your angels. Does this help?"

N1: "That helps very much. Thank you."

Vision

B6: "Daniel. I would like to return to the lesson of last week on spiritual strength. And one of the questions I didn't get answered that I thought was exciting was when we were talking about it and in building our spiritual foundation and acquiring more spiritual strength. Is it possible for corporal beings to begin to perceive the spiritual entities that are around us if we develop far enough along?"

Daniel: "You ask if you can visualize and see beings?"

B6: "Yes."

Daniel: "The vision range of mortals is quite limited. However, as you do grow in more spiritual awareness, as you become more in the spiritual thought patterning then in material, you do develop greater potentials to perceive. As you develop these potentials, then as anything which is built upon itself, you achieve higher frequencies. And these higher frequencies are in more morontial type activity. Hence many on this plane have developed to the point where they have been able to perceive less material, more spiritual beings. Because of your limited vision you would not, of course, be able to see many. But as you grow these awarenesses become more a part of your patterning. It is possible to perceive, to feel, to know and to visualize those who are, perhaps, closer to your level. Many are experiencing now the awareness of a teacher and are receiving messages as D3 is now, which is not possible if you do not work to develop those awarenesses for receiving. Does this help?"

B6: "Yes, I think I understand."

V1: Daniel. I was reading about that very thing this morning in the morontia papers. To make a very long story short it said that every stage of our ascent we will be able to see prior spiritual beings than where we are, but it will take a gradual growth in order to continue to change and become more spirit so we can see these beings. Did I understand that correctly? All through our ascent that's going to be true?"

Daniel: "Exactly. Thank you for stating this. D3 was having much difficulty in the picture representations I was giving her. Your statement is very consistent and is concise and is true, yes. That is why the reception and the final grand finale, so to speak, to be able to be with the Father, takes so long. For there is much one must do to be able to understand and fully perceive the grandness of the First Source and Center."

N2: "Daniel, this is N2. When you first perceived us, as a being from another world, were we frightening to you?"(laughter)

Daniel: "I laugh too. One is always able to perceive those below the level they are, and your likeness is very much in line with the beings on my sphere. I found you to be very beautiful."

N2: "Thank you Daniel."

Daniel: "The males included, please understand I see you as handsome."(more laughter)

V1: "Along that line Daniel, I don't know, do I understand it correctly that you have gone as far as Jerusem or were you at Edentia?"

Daniel: "Jerusem."

V1: "So then you can see all the spirit beings that were described, and I can't begin to name them, or all the helpers on the Morontia worlds surrounding Jerusem. What is it, fifty, I believe, spheres. You were able to see all of those?"

Daniel: "In more or less degrees. I am in an understanding and perception field of all those who are below the level of experience and so forth that I have traversed. And I am growing in more awareness of beings as you will in your ascent. It is like travelling to different countries and meeting those of different cultures and origins. It is very exciting and is very faith promoting, so to speak, to realize the Father's overcare sees to all of the details, and how wonderfully and perfectly everything is synchronized and comes together. While, of course, there are problems as there have been with planet 606, there is still, even in these problem areas, a certain atmosphere or environment of knowledge that everything in time will be rectified. I cannot even begin to describe to you the wonders that lie ahead! To begin to even grasp it in your highest moments is but a fraction of the wonders of the spirit world! Your knowing of the Father is very much on that level of knowing. As you grow in more God-consciousness you begin to grasp more and more and you are given over to desiring to continue to follow His will because as you do so you see the more wondrous aspects of it all. I am pleased that so many are growing past the God knowing, that is being able to intellectualize a God, to the deeper personal experience of Him."

V1: "Thank you Daniel. I think that if there's any attribute that would describe the difference between me before the Urantia Book, the Teaching Mission and now, is the hope that I have of the overcare that God has. And I appreciate very much what you have said. Earlier when you were talking about what is freedom I immediately thought of play defined in the book as freedom from assignment. That was such a nice thought as you were asking us what freedom was. And maybe freedom is also that element where work is truly play and it is not assignment as such but is truly a desire to that which is fulfilling, not only for me, but for the planet or for others around. So I like that definition of play as freedom from assignment."

Daniel: "Very well stated. Indeed, as you grow there are many levels of freedom which you attain. And many of you realize that true freedom is your desire to do that which brings you pleasure. And when the pleasure is doing the Father's will, you are truly experiencing liberty."

Change

V1: "Daniel, I have one other question. I can't help but think about the Foundation for Global Community. It is really a very secular group but we are having a workshop and the thrust of that workshop is 'personal change'. It's going to reach a lot of people across the country, but again, it is on a secular level. I can't help but think that that is part of the Teaching Mission, too, as far as changing this planet is concerned. Would you care to comment on that?"

Daniel: "The individual's personal growth, personal awareness, and personal change are important for there to be any kind of change within the whole global community. Organizations such as this are, in fact, working to bring about those changes within the individual that are positive, that help the individual to come into more awareness. There are choices that you as an ascending mortal are able to make. The first is that of your own free will choice. The second is that of the choice you make for society. And the third is the choice you make for following the Father's will. All three are important aspects of choice, of your growing and ascension. You must be able to do work in all of these areas in order to be whole. And so work on personal change will bring about global change. And whenever you work to help another, you are in the service of the Father. It is gratifying on our part to see that there is growing consciousness in regard to personal and global change which will quicken the spiritual growth as well. Does this help?"

V1: "Thank you very much, Daniel. Yes."

B3: "Daniel, this is B3. Just a quick personal question. I received a name of my teacher this week. Could you confirm that I got that right, please?"

Daniel: "I ask you, B3, how else could such a strange name come about?"(laughter)

B3: "Thank you Daniel."

Daniel: "You are definitely hearing correctly. Continue, my friend, your growth. And your happiness is evident, not only to us, but to your friends as well. Indeed!"

Teaching Mission

B1: "Hi Daniel. Since it has been a year since we started I had thoughts about the overall Teaching Mission and the amazing amount of progress that has occurred since a year ago in terms of numbers of groups and things like this. Do you care to comment about the progress of the Teaching Mission overall, how you people on your side are feeling about things so far, not just our group, but the overall mission? I also wish to send my greetings to Ham wherever he might be at this time, as well."

Daniel: "So noted. Ham is with us tonight. The teachers are very pleased with the progress and with the growth that their students are showing. The teaching mission is taking root, is growing. The will of Christ Michael will prevail! You who have been open have been wondrous assets for this mission, for not only are you becoming lights within your own personal life, but you are becoming lights for many and you have been the foundation core from which will be built the Kingdom that Christ Michael has brought to Urantia many years ago and is now rebuilding. One moment."

Ham: "Greetings, I am Ham. I wish to address this group this evening briefly on this occasion of your one year anniversary. Indeed has this group been one that has cemented and grown in many regards. Your foundations are strong. You have withstood the winds of change from which you started last year. Your faith has increased. Your faith will be your ally in the times to come. What you have done within your own beings, you can help your brothers and sisters to do, as you continue in your apostleship with Christ Michael. The Teaching Mission is well at (in?) hand. I personally wish to thank this group as one of those beginning ones that has been so willing to help others across the country by distributing these teachings and by being of high faith in what has transpired.

I am well aware of the happenings in this group, and Daniel has been very fortunate to work with such fine individuals. Your mission is to continue on yourselves, that you can grow strong, so that when the time is called upon for you to be of service, you will be ready. I have missed teaching regularly, however my duties have been widespread and I have been fortunate to be amongst so many more. The work you will do and continue to do with Woods Cross is important. We are very happy with you all. I send you my love. Christ Michael personally today sends you His love."

Daniel: "I am thankful for Ham speaking with you here tonight. I will leave you my dear friends with this prayer. Please hold hands.

Closing

Christ Michael. I present to You this humble group who have over the past year been courageous and faithful to You, who have worked to come into the reality that the Teaching Mission is valid, that they are in fact Your Apostles. I pray that the needs of this group are so met that they can carry on Your will; that they can be loving and serving to You and their fellow men; that they can find those things that they need to build themselves; that they can go out in confidence as your Apostles; that the trials of the earthly life do not hamper the spiritual progress that they are working to attain. I pray that the group we have here will grow in strength; that they will be true representatives of You and Your Kingdom; that they will come into knowledge of the Father. As we have met for this last year, so may our time in the future be that which will help us all to grow in love, service, and humility. We ask this in Your name, Christ Michael, Whom we serve.

Until we meet again next week, my love and peace go with you all. Remember that the key to freedom is in your hands. Good evening."