1995-04-14-Key To A New Life

Session

Opening

Opening prayer

DANIEL: Greetings my friends, I am Daniel, your guide and teacher. As always it is the pleasure of the teachers to be of loving service to our fellow ascenders, so Tomas and I greet you on this day of solemnity not with sorrow but with joy and love and with the knowledge of a new beginning. As part of this Teaching Mission it has been decreed by Christ Michael to bring forth to the inhabitants of this local universe a greater understanding, a firmer grounding in the reality of the First Source and Center.

In the time span that has elapsed since the bringing forth of the Fifth Epochal Revelation much has transpired that has resulted in greater encircuitment, and as you are all witnessing in your own lives this encircuitment is bringing forth greater guidance to a world so long cut off. We work with you on a weekly basis. The writings from the Urantia Book are brought into a practical receptivity by yourselves and action stemming from these writings is reflected in your lives.

We are impressed by your wanderings through the desert. We are impressed that you no longer see sand but envision always the desert in full bloom in the newness of a new year. Your wanderings have brought you to greater heights. You envision a planet of Light and Life. No longer are you ready to give up and reduce the land to barrenness and drought. The wellspring from which you drink is, indeed, bringing forth life. Tomas and I this day, that is celebrated on this planet as the day of the crucifixion of Christ Michael, wish to address you not from the perspective of death but from the perspective of rebirth, new beginnings. For the first part of this lesson Tomas will speak. My friend is already anxious to communicate with you.

Lesson

Renewal

TOMAS: Greetings students and friends, spirit family. I am Tomas and as you have heard I am indeed eager to address your listening ears. The resurrection, the rebirth is the key to new life, the new life of spirit reality which we pour into your vessels as you thirst for greater spirit reality. We ask you, as has been asked before, about your understanding of rebirth. I call upon you to be born again. What does this mean to you, and how does it reflect in your lives on those who have yet to breathe the Spirit of God, the living presence of Divinity?

To be born of the Spirit is to be a newly hatched egg, to be a blank slate, a channel for spirit reality to work through, to be in control of, to mold and protect you. The individual who has given him or herself over to the Spirit has simply made a decision to give up to the Creator without Whom the creature has no existence. In coming into existence in the mortal life there is much pain and anguish, and in the rebirth of the Spirit there is also often anguish and pain, for when one finds the strength of the egg too confining the egg must be broken out of in order to stretch the limbs of the new being. Such is the way of the reborn individual who has lost interest in material reality and seeks greater comprehension of his or her origin.

When one emerges as a newly born entity who seeks to congeal, to merge with his greater Self, the entity then says, 'I am new. I am naked. I am nothing. Create me. Breathe into me that which You would have me be. You are my Parent. I am Your child. Raise me up. Teach me what You would have me know. Teach me those values which You would have me carry for You. Teach me not only what it means to be Godlike but to be human and pleasing to You and Your other children. How may I be of greatest service to You Who has brought me into existence? How may I best show Your beneficence and generosity to those who find scarcity in life? How may I bring Your great love and mercy into a reality which is so contagious as to whet the appetites of Your lost children for soul companionship?'

In rebirth, in making old things new you must begin from a point of humility that your Creator is your Creator and nothing less. Your ascension now depends upon your willingness and cooperation in those lessons which are set out for you, those opportunities that are selected for you, those challenges which are custom made for your particular qualifications of personality and heritage. The uniqueness of a life which is Spirit born and Spirit led is the infinite joy of all those who experienced it and the dream/hope of all those who yet search. My dear friends I have delivered a portion of our words to you this evening. I return the platform to teacher Daniel.

Resurrection

DANIEL: Thank you Tomas. Indeed have you all from the dark recesses of your soul, the quiet longing of your inquisitive nature, and from the curiosity of the human spirit often heard the call. Often have you turned your attention toward the call seeking to answer all of Tomas' questions. Certainly there have been opportunities in which the spiritual pressure could not arouse the sleeping aspects of your nature but in the experience of ascension there is always an opportunity, always another road to explore, and another area in which the call is heard.

And so let us not dwell on that which has transpired. Let us not grieve and bemoan the death of unchallenged calls, rather seek the newness and the rebirth of the call of the present and realize that the future lies ahead with many opportunities to move forward, to progress, to be the tool through which the First Source and Center is able to reach others. Be always mindful/conscious of your being, your presence, that in just being, there is opportunity for growth by others.

Each day is a new beginning. Each portion of the day can be subdivided into another beginning and so forth and so on down to hours, minutes and to that which is now. In the scheme of reality it is this 'now' which is of prime importance for it is in the 'now' that decisions and choices are made. It is in this 'now' that you are beckoning to that new beginning. It is in this 'now' that you move forward into the future.

Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will live again in each of you. Do not be one that continues to roll the stone back over the grave. Instead allow the boulder to be released and the light of day enter into the sepulcher of your soul. It is an aphorism that Christ lives and continues to bring forth those opportunities for new beginnings. Indeed Tomas' analogy of the egg cracking open and revealing a new entity is what we see in each of you! It is a day that has been mourned in great solemnity and in due respect. It is also the day from which the true meaning of the Kingdom would be known. As the time of resurrection approaches 'prepare ye the way' for your own new beginning and resurrecting into a higher realm, a higher form of consciousness. It is now. It is a new beginning.

Are there questions?

Dialogue

Growth

Isaac: Good evening, Daniel and Tomas, this is Isaac. I have with me a friend, G.W., who I would like to introduce to you at this time. G.W. is spending the weekend with us. We are very happy to have him with us and also to meet you. Thank you.

DANIEL: Indeed, G.W, are we most pleased to have your presence with us today. The ability to see and realize that learning, growing, understanding, and becoming is part of the physical realm and also part of the spiritual and infinite realm, as you have been in knowledge of, that growth does not ever reach total completion but rather is there always more to be gleaned, more to bring forth from various and different levels, and your willingness to explore and allow new beginnings to take place is evident in your present life. Indeed, retiring from one job and looking forward to something greater is a time of personal searching and growth on the material level. It can also be a great time for spiritual upliftment and revelation. Continue to be open to all possibilities and to greater knowledge. Welcome my friend.

PamElla: Daniel and Tomas, I have no questions. I just wanted to tell you, particularly Tomas, how moving I found tonight's addresses, and to take this opportunity to thank the two of you and all of the personal teachers and all of the help, including Christ Michael, for the enormous help and progress. I really related, Tomas, to your analogy of a chicken breaking out of the egg. Thank you for that analogy.

TOMAS: Of course you are welcome. It is one of the simpler analogies but one which is easily appreciated.

Leetah: Good evening, Daniel and Tomas. I sat here tonight listening and I had double thoughts going on in my mind, almost a paradox of feelings and ideas in the sense that there were a lot of words used by both of you tonight that I haven't heard you use that were kind of 'red flags' to me: 'rebirth', for one, even though it is a very good word when I analyze it and 'born again' was the other. And I appreciate very much both of you referring to the fact that it is to be a new beginning at any point and that it is an alignment with the Spirit. My question is this. 'If, indeed, it is alignment with the Spirit and of hatching from the egg is a symbol, that is somewhat full of anguish and pain, what would you say the shell was in our life? Or am I carrying this too far. Would you like to speak on that?

TOMAS: The shell is the constraints of any given perception of reality. And once you have outgrown your current reality, your appreciation for where you are now and have reached a point of attainment in spiritual growth which pushes forward into yet a new and greater reality, therein is the eggshell, the continuing evolutionary progressive experience of ascension and rebirth into newer and greater comprehension of the One True Living Reality.

Process

DANIEL: Do not misconstrue Tomas' words to mean, however, that the shell has served no purpose, for it is that from which we spring forth from one level to another that has brought us to that point. The experiences of yesterday have molded you into the person of today.

Leetah: Thank you very much, both of you. That was very well answered and it did fit exactly into that which would be a continual rebirthing process. And to follow up with a bit of lightening up... I couldn't help but visualize me and everyone else as a little featherless fowl that needs help! (laughing)

DANIEL: Even the featherless fowl has a soft coating of fluff which is found to be adorable and is the covering that protects, immunizes, if you will in a new analogy, the new entity at this time of new awakening. The process of great growth spurts is often cushioned by a plateau of rest and quiet. The fluff on the fowl is that which will then be replaced by the experiences that unfold as this new life proceeds minute by minute.

The nature of new beginnings is not seen as ugly or undesirable by the First Source and Center and the Mother and Father of this local universe. Rather it is seen as an entity of beauty capable of great potential.

Leetah: Thank you very much for that answer too, Daniel. In a different direction now I did write down a thought. I wondered if the resurrection of Christ Michael on this planet really is the basis for the new year as far as our local universe is concerned? I know it is a curiosity question but the resurrection certainly means a great deal to all of us.

DANIEL: This question is immaterial. However in your conception the newness and new beginning must be realized in the Fifth Epochal Revelation as bringing forth the concepts that Christ Michael brought to this planet. The new awareness should not be from the old concept of a religion about Jesus of Nazareth but rather that it should be a religion about the principles that were brought forth during His stay, His bestowal upon Urantia. Truly in that reference, then, is this the new beginning, the new year, a new time. Henceforth you have been called upon to bring forth this revelation concerning your universal citizenship, your Urantian brotherhood and sisterhood, the love of the Father, the mercy of the Son.

Leetah: Thank you.

Isaac: This is Isaac speaking again. As you were discussing new birth with Leetah or else in the lesson, I'm not sure which, my mind was thinking of the word you used, 'ascension'. That is what triggered these thoughts, that it appears that there is a series of major periods in the ascension career where there would almost seem to be new birth occurring as contrasted with the idea of every moment being a chance for new birth, new experience, and new growth. And I am thinking particularly of the morontia career with the keying of the morontia form to higher and more spiritual levels, transition to Spirit status, and then transition to Havona residency and finally the transition to Paradise. All of these thoughts came to me. I decided to share. Thank you.

DANIEL: Indeed is the understanding viewed both as a microcosm of moment by moment to the macrocosm of infinity future destiny and that which awaits you in Paradise and beyond. Each aspect is certainly a time of renewal, of growth, of greater enlightenment, of progress.

TOMAS: Make no mistake, however, that rebirth, which you have been called to experience, is real. It is of the Spirit. There are many new awakenings which occur to the ascendant being: emotional, mental, philosophical, self revelatory, and etc.; but the initial rebirth of the individual who delivers himself/herself to God for eternal keeping is now dependent upon the reality of its Parent and the Parent breathes into the child the knowledge of Its reality. This shimmering reality impresses the soul forever more and it is in this experience that one knows that he knows.

Isaac: I am glad that you added to that, Tomas, because I also was afraid my remarks left the impression that I merely thought that new birth was synonymous with progress and growth. Let me see if I understand what you are saying. Would new birth be that moment when a person becomes aware of a personal caring God that he or she then turns their life over to, in a sense. It is like that first initial moment of betrothal with their Divine Indwelling Adjuster? Is that correct or close?

TOMAS: Yes. It is a commitment to your Adjuster in so far as it is an acknowledgement that without your Adjuster you have no reality, you are dust without that eternal Fragment. Your immortality rests upon your yearning to merge with that which is Eternal. Yes.

Isaac: Okay, thank you.

DANIEL: My friends, as we conclude this evening let me remind you of the admonition given by Christ Michael to 'fear not, be not afraid, have courage'. New awakenings call for courage and boldness. Be mindful, however, that new beginnings tempered with stillness, desire, and willingness will hold little or no fear for you. Go this week as courageous citizens awaiting the newness, the dawn of the moments. Tomas and I send you our love. We have a visitor that will conclude this evening.

Closing

ABRAHAM: I am Abraham. I have asked to address you this evening because of the nature of this lesson. As a mortal from Urantia, as one of this planetary ancestry I know from where I speak that in my moments on this plane there were many instances where a voice in the desert was heard, a beckoning to follow. There stirred within my bosom an emotional and fearful outburst. Within my mind there was resistance. Within my body there was a clamoring, yet an avoidance. However, as you have come to know, the still small voice of the Indwelling Spirit does move and calm all of those fears to him, to her, that is willing. And so to you my brothers and sisters in cosmic citizenship and in Urantia brotherhood and sisterhood, I say to you to hear within these hostile, frightening, clamorings the words 'Fear not. You are not alone. You are supported'. Gather strength from within.

Shalom.

Group: Good evening.