1993-10-15-Opening Up To Give

Session

Opening

Opening prayer

Daniel: "Greetings my friends. I am Daniel, your teacher and guide. It is always a joy for me to be with you and be a part of this great plan of the Father's. As you are beginning to see, the plan which the First Source and Center has conceived is so much broader than you who are finite can understand at this point. Recall from other lessons my words to you that it will take much experience and many years to begin to fully understand and to be able to conceive the breadth of the First Source and Center.

Lesson

Giving

Life as you know it is organic in nature as opposed to the inorganic. Life has come about because of the First Source and Center desiring to bring love into reality. And so this evening I would like to address you about a concept which you understand, but often need some reminding; life is for giving.

As you look at the First Source and Center you are looking at the greatest example of what giving is all about. In the love that has flowed from the Isle of Paradise, from the First Source and Center; this love has spread throughout the universes into the Local Universes and from there to the planets; and eventually into each individual will creature. As the First Source and Center has laid down this wondrous example so are you asked to liken yourselves, pattern yourselves after this example.

Life is for giving. As you give you are blessed with an ever expanding ability to receive; and therefor as you receive do you provide soul growth and nourishment. For whenever you give, you are, in fact, opening yourself that you can be vehicles through which giving becomes a part of your nature. As you are born in an infant stage you are primarily given into ego centered emotions, thoughts and ideas. As you grow and develop relationships and understandings you are able, if directed and guided correctly, to shed some of these infantile traits and to grow in the virtues of the Spirit. And one of the greatest virtues is that of giving, for it is out of giving that you are able to manifest the other gifts of the Spirit.

It is by the Father giving you His love that you are brought into existence. You cannot fully understand love until you have given it away yourself. And so in order for you to really experience life, to take from life the greatest amount of benefit, it is necessary for you to be able to give; and to be able to give in the many, many areas of life. As a gift of the most tremendous import the First Source and Center has deemed to give to each and every one of His will creatures the presence of Himself, in the form of the Thought Adjuster. This is the greatest gift that could be given to you personally. For it is through this marvelous gift that you are guided daily and urged daily to partake of life to its fullest, to be able to give and as you are giving so shall you receive. Christ Michael has spoken this very pointedly in His life in the flesh when He said, 'Let the greatest among you serve all'.(175:1.10)

How then, my friends, can you not take up this challenge to open yourselves to give? To give means to be able to willingly and wantingly desire to fulfill the Father's will. As this becomes the framework from which you work, then you will, indeed, find that your life becomes joyous by being able to give in many, many areas; whether it is the very easy thing of smiling or whether it is the most difficult of all, that of going and risking for others. Life is full of many opportunities for giving: the physical aspect of giving of yourself and your time; intellectual giving; financial giving; working side by side with one another and giving of yourself spiritually.

And so, my friends, this week I ask that you take another look at this concept of giving. Let your generosity overflow in many areas. Often it is burdensome to give totally. You are asked to give as you are capable. Let me begin with this premise. First of all you must be able to give to yourself. And this is how you do so.

Stillness

If you will take and give yourself five to ten minutes a day where you can sit in quiet and silence with the First Source and Center then you are not only giving yourself the greatest gift possible, but you are also giving back to the First Source and Center that time which is necessary for you to receive nourishment in the form of love, mercy, and guidance. And so, give to yourself this gift of time in silence, for it is through the silence that you know and will be guided in the ways of being able to serve and give to one another. It is not so important that you give haphazardly or carelessly; rather it is important that you open yourself up so that when opportunities arise you will be there ready to meet the challenge. And you will meet it with confidence and have fortification from the time you have spent with the First Source and Center.

Yes, give yourself this gift for in doing so you open yourself up that you can give in all the other many ways of life. And this week I ask that you consider the act of giving; consider how this aspect of your character has grown. Ask, how can I better serve? Ask, how can I better utilize my time, my money, my intellectual gifts, etc., in order that I can be of giving nature? As you take that time, also, to meet in silence, in communication with your Indwelling Spirit, you will find that life will be opened up for you, that you will be given many opportunities to give. And these acts of giving will be done joyously because you will be walking under the guidance of the Indwelling Spirit.

Life is for giving. As you give, shall you also receive many times back. And so let it become second nature for you to be open to all of those possibilities of being able to serve one another, to serve the First Source and Center. I will guarantee you that in making this a priority in your life you will experience greater joy than you can ever imagine. You will be bringing the spiritual aspect of your divinity into greater and greater alignment with the First Source and Center, The Father of us all, the Mother of us all, the One Parent that has given to all of us. And as we strive to grow into that perfection let us take this marvelous example and let it become a part of your lives. This is the greatest thing you can do to help bring about the will of the Father, to open up and ask that you be so directed. And as you do this, so shall you find avenues of being able to give freely and readily. This is what I ask you to think about this week: life is for giving. I will now accept questions."

Dialogue

Abundance

N1: "Daniel, I really appreciate your lesson tonight. It certainly is what I needed to hear although not necessarily what I like to hear. I've been feeling a lot of scarcity lately, not enough time, not enough money, not enough time, not enough money!! Just sort of accelerating. I appreciate having that stopped and being reminded. I feel like you have been very much with me. Obviously you have been with everybody else, too. I'm sure it fits us all. For now I just want to thank you for that."

Daniel: "And my dear friend, and all of you, as you become more open to the life of the Spirit, the scarcity of the temporal life in all its aspects will become less and less a worrisome problem for you. For, you see, through the guidance given from your Indwelling Spirit will you always be led and given those opportunities for making the ends meet of temporal existence in its many facets. Often there are time periods in your life where you will feel quite deficient in certain areas. At those times you need to not think on the negative side, but rather think positively and put forth positive thoughts. And as you do this, and as you seek the guidance, so shall that time that is deficient become nourished and you will see improvement. Most of the fears that you have in these regards are just that, fear. And much time, stress and energy are focused on that fear which could be better put to work in other channels that would then alleviate the problem. Turning over to the Father is the best way to let go of fear. Once fear is let go then proper work can be given to taking away the problem. Does this help?

N1: "Yes, Daniel. It does very much. Thank you. I think since my job has gone full time I'm experiencing old patterns of feeling very trapped. And there is a lot of fear there. And I guess it is an opportunity for me to explore why I feel so trapped and suddenly it scares me when that was what I was wanting, hoping to break through. But, yes, that helped considerably. Thank you.

Daniel: "You are most welcome."

Prosperity, Abundance

C2: Daniel, N1's word scarcity reminded me of a word that I like to use a lot which is abundance. I'm wondering what is the relationship between prosperity and abundance? I like the word abundance better than the word prosperity, but I am having trouble moving, figuring out what to do with those two words. Prosperity sounds so temporal, but abundance isn't."

Daniel: "In all of your life you are given the possibility of always being cared for, always having what is necessary for you to carry on your life. Often the word prosperity in most of the mindset of Urantians deals with the financial aspect of having enough money, having the right house, the right car, this type of thing. It deals a lot with the material aspect of living. And it is necessary, of course, that you in your lives do what is necessary to support yourselves; that you do have the necessities of life in order for you to not be on a complete survival level, but rather on a level where you are able to grow beyond that which sustains your life on a very meager existence in order that you can concentrate and grow in other ways. The word abundance is often associated with a more harmonious term in being abundant in love, abundant in spirit, and abundant in those things that are of the Spirit. And so, in terms of your dual nature then, prosperity could mean that which is given to you to sustain your temporal life and abundance being that which is given to you to sustain your spiritual life.

As you grow in that abundance of the Spirit, you will find that the worries and the troubles that transpire in your temporal life do not take on as much meaning as in a time when you were deficient in the Spirit. So it is important, then, for you to grow abundantly in the Spirit so that you can see beyond the immediate in terms of your personal life, to a grander and broader purpose of life. And this abundance of the Spirit is fortified and refortified daily as you sit in that quiet time with the First Source and Center. Does this help clarify these terms?"

C2: "It really does. And it also helps put into the dimension the popular notion, you know, 'If I just do what I am supposed to do I will become prosperous' with the fallacy that happens sometimes among some persons regarding, 'because I do my spiritual stuff I am going to be prosperous'. And I understand the short cut that leads to that consequence and it is a different one. I can see myself living in more prosperity, not because I am necessarily doing abundance, but because I am letting go of the necessity for the financial, the temporal in the spiritual stuff. Then tying back to an earlier lesson, this frees me in terms of being 'guided' into having the ends meet or having that which then frees me to even give more."

Daniel: "yes, this is correct. One could often state that in terms of living, that you cannot have what you often wish most. For in wishing and desiring and wanting it so badly, it, in effect, has you a prisoner of itself. And if you can realize that and let go, then, often that which you thought you had to have no longer becomes that important. By letting go, however, you have freed yourself so that what is necessary will come to you. And often that is what you have desired. If you desire to know the Father, you must be willing to allow the Father to work through you in order that you can know Him. You must be able to let go and turn yourself over completely. This is stated often in the concept that by dying you are born again. These are true words. You must die in order that you can grow and move on."

C2: "Thank you Daniel. That is very helpful to me personally, but also as I seek to lead and pastor my church."

Daniel: "You are most welcome."

N1: "Daniel, I have a question concerning healing. Is this an appropriate time and place to ask that?"

Daniel: "Yes."

Healing, Barriers

N1: "I was thinking about the two different styles of healing. We tend to just kind of talk a lot and share what's going on, what's been happening while we are doing healings. We have noticed when our emotions get caught up in something, the flow shuts down or at least we stop feeling it; and when we get recentered or reopened it starts up again. So I have been thinking about that the last couple of days. I'm thinking about the other style of healing that some people do where they are meditative and very quiet through the whole healing time. I was wondering, does it matter that we just sort of talk and joke around and stuff during healings? Or would it be more effective if we were more meditative and focusing on opening channels? My question is, can we help the healing along with our mindset? Do we need to be worried about our mindset?"

Daniel: "The healing that is taking place is being done through circuits of a healer who is a conduit to the healing process. And as a conduit you are like a cable, so to speak. And it is helpful, often, for the person being healed for there to be a more serious, quiet, meditative atmosphere. However, this is not always necessary. For certain individuals, in order for them to be able to open up to the healing, they need this quietness. And so, for these individuals, I would say that it is wise to be in a more quiet spiritual setting and mood. However for the general healing as it is understood by those in your group, it is always well to pray as you do before the healing, and then to allow this friendly chatter. The only time that this healing is definitely interfered with is when there is a feeling of negative thoughts and emotions that arise for the healer and the person being healed. In this case you are giving over to your own emotions, thereby blocking the current. Happy laughter and joyous, positive emotions have little effect for the healing to continue. But negative emotions tend to shut down the ability of the person being the conduit to be giving and to be able to allow themselves to the channel for this healing. Also if the person being healed is feeling a lot of negative feelings then there will be this blockage. Does this help?"

N1: "Yes, Daniel, it does. Thank you."

Prayer, Action

M4: "Hi Daniel, this is M4." I'm not sure there is a real cut and dried answer. I have always had a lot of trouble with the...I don't know whether it is the balance or what you want to call it...between turning yourself over to God and yet using your own intellect; when you turn everything over to God or when God expects you to use your own intellect to figure it out. At the church a lot of times I will get somebody that will say, 'Well, we'll just pray on it, and it will work out OK.' And I tend to not go along with that too well, sometimes. I think God gave us a brain to use! Is there any way you can give me any guidelines to follow?"

Daniel: "Certainly. This is an important question. For often those who say that, 'Indeed, God will take care of me, God will provide, God will handle any situation' are in fact making a statement of faith. However, God has also put forth that those who follow His guidance will so be led. And so, you are not to think that because you are praying for a situation and because you have turned it over to the First Source and Center, that it will be miraculously and magically cared for. It is important that as you turn this over to the Father, that you stipulate that you wish that guidance to come so that you know what you need to do to help bring about the situation to its full goodness, and to the right end. You cannot say, 'God will take care of me' and then sit down and do nothing yourself. Yes, you are correct. You have been given an intellect. You have been given free choice. You are correct to pray and ask for guidance. From that, then, you will be able to act and to work upon any given situation. It is necessary that there be this marriage of both, of turning over to God that you can be guided; that you can then carry out the will of the Father. Do you see?"

M4: "Yes. I think that is kind of along the lines that I have been thinking. I do sometimes get the feeling with some people that they kind of feel like they can back out of it if they 'turn it over to God'. I always had a real hard time with that. I couldn't go along with it. Thank you."

Daniel: "It is very important that you work in unison with the First Source and Center, for this is what it means to experience life and to work through life knowing that you have the ability to act and perform. You also have the inner guidance necessary to act wisely and correctly. Indeed, my friend, you are taking the correct path. Your thoughts are very accurate."

M4: "Thanks."

Guidance. Adjustment

V1: Good evening Daniel. Along those lines I guess...I don't know if this is a question or whatever, but I think in terms of one the sayings which says, 'Pray like it all depends on God; work like it all depends on you'. I guess I have to believe that through the many days and the weeks and the times that I am amazed that those words came out of my mouth. But they have been good words and brought about some good results. And so I guess what I am asking is, if we, indeed, commit that day and commit our mouth, (and of course God knows our motive and the Indwelling Spirit is there), but then must we not believe that God is directing our actions and our wills, except for those times where there is a blatant evil on our part?"

Daniel: "Those who choose to commune with the Father and to turn their lives over to Him are given the necessary tools to live life. Indeed, those who follow the Spirit as thus led by the Spirit and are coworkers with the First Source and Center. The will of the Father must always be choice that you choose to follow. The Father is always there with open hands to guide and assist. But it must be, as you say, your hands and your actions that bring forth the unfoldings of life. Those who live in the spirit of love, mercy, tolerance, forgiveness and willingness to give will have a life that generally patterns these ideals. And, of course, there will be errors. But those who know the true path are able to recognize their errors immediately and because they do not feel in balance, do quickly what is necessary to regain that balance. For those who have made that leap to that point where there is this harmony with the First Source and Center are so given into a sense of peace and completeness of purpose that they wish always to remain within that circle. And so, yes, you must be willing to be open that God may work through you."

V1: "Thank you, Daniel. I guess once again it comes down to the motive in our heart and trusting that God is aware of that deep, deep center within us."

Daniel: "Indeed, thus is the First Source and Center ever willing and ready to look at your errors as simply that, an error, and not what you truly desire. And those who have evil desire and intent are those most unfortunate, who must work through much in order to understand the serenity and beauty that there is in turning themselves over to a personal relationship with their Indwelling Spirit. But through that communication and that discovery are they able to find God."

V1: "Thank you Daniel."

Evil, Motive

N1: "Daniel, your last comment brought up a question for me when you spoke of people with evil desire and intent. I think I have been very naive most of my life because I don't think very often of people as having evil desire and intent. I guess I always think that most people have pretty good motives but make stupid mistakes or have bad backgrounds. Perhaps I tend to think of people as molded by circumstances to a great extent rather than making free will evil choices. Is that a lot of people that have evil desires and intent or is there really a very small minority, where most of us just make stupid mistakes? I am not concerned about myself having evil intent. I know my motives are good. I guess I am just wondering a lot about my brothers and sisters, not any in this room.(laughter) Out there!"

Daniel: "Understood. First, my statement was to show the opposite end of the spectrum relative to what V1 was talking about on the motive of individuals. And, of course, most of the errors made are made because of poor judgment, lack of knowledge, and background circumstances. However, there are always those who know the difference between right and wrong and who continually choose a wrong path over a right one. These individuals are not so plentiful. There are enough of them, however, that they continue to perpetuate evil within the world. However, as is the greatest gift of which I spoke of earlier, the Indwelling Spirit, given to each individual, you have spoken correctly in stating that it is through the Indwelling Spirit that there is this spark of hope that there will be change and a choosing of the better path for these individuals. The Indwelling Spirit works through each person, and in time and over time, the work the Indwelling Spirit is to do exactly what V1 has talked about, to help that individual in changing his or her desire and motive. And while there may not be changes readily seen outwardly, it is that inward growth that is most important, that will forever help that individual in making the age long choice of ascension. And so, again, you are asked not to judge another's motive, for that is not always known by you. Rather you are asked to recognize that the Indwelling Spirit is working through all. And, indeed, there is much hope! There is a lot going on unconsciously under the surface that is not recognized. Do not give up on your fellow man. Only know that there is black and white so there is goodness and evil, evil being in the long run diminished as time progresses and as more and more people grow into the grander consciousness of the First Source and Center. Does this help?"

N1: "Yes, Daniel, thank you. That was very beautiful."

Closing

Daniel: "My friends, I will now close this meeting, this session, asking that each of you take time this week and do some searching within yourselves that you can see and find the many and various ways that you do give. Being able to give is a great gift to yourselves, as you have surely recognized. My love and peace go with you. May you find more avenues to be able to spread the joy and the goodness of the First Source and Center. In doing so you will give very much to your brothers and sisters. Good evening."