1997-08-17-Hamilton, Ontario

Session

Opening

This congregation of believers from Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Toronto, Indianapolis and Hamilton, met to fellowship and partake of the Remembrance Supper in honor of the birthday anniversary of Jesus. The Teacher Session was begun with this reading from [the transmission of] August 11:

JESUS: I am Jesus. I would like to visit with you for a moment. I know that this is a surprise to you, that you were expecting your teachers, but I am your Teacher also, and I am not reluctant to bring My presence into your environment when I feel you would benefit from My personal embrace.

You have been discussing among yourselves the practice of speaking with one another and divulging yourself to one another. I ask you, how do you feel I can inspire nations of peoples except that they know Me in the spirit? It invokes no love to recognize that I was a man among men who lived many years ago in a far distant land in a different race of people, who had great affect on people and who taught certain teachings. You may read about me in your books but that does not tell you who I am; that does not open the door between us, that we can know each other.

And so the same is true for you, My children, My brothers and sisters. To know that you come from a certain village of certain parentage, that you do such and such for a living, that you have so many children or so many hobbies, that you are a certain age or a certain race, does not tell me about you, does not tell others about you, in the sense that I would have you know your brothers and sisters.

I have asked you to love one another, as I love you. You cannot know this until you open your heart and allow Me to come in, unless your life is affected by knowing Me. And I have spoken of this in terms of being born of the spirit, for although you may admire the works of Myself and other prophets and other heroes, you cannot know us except through the spirit. This is the true family. This is the gospel.

My Father and your Father is the great Parent, the living God, and you are His offspring in the spirit. It is the spirit that has the life and the recognition that I urge you to embrace. Only that can change the world. Only that can bring you happiness. Only that can open the doors to eternal life, and to a richer, fuller life here in the flesh, in service to this living God.

I am the Way and I ask you to know Me by opening your heart, that the love of the Father may come in.

[And the following Teachers visited:]

BERTRAM: Greetings, my family. I am Bertram, your teacher. It is a true thrill to be in your presence, to welcome you this day to your gathering of celebration and mirth in honor of our Creator Michael and in honor also of His fellowship. The family of myriad believers is always a thrill to behold. Your many, many differences are converged today in your loyalty to those ideals that are held in the heart of the spirit.

There are many here today who also embrace you. I am lucky to have been asked to be first in line to say hello. I feel identified with you and I am your assigned teacher, as well as Muriel who flanks me and even now walks among you touching you with her divine presence. It is an honor for us to have this opportunity, this gateway, to commune with you and to encourage you in your understanding of your association with the great family of God.

Lesson

Teaching Mission

MURIEL: Yes, my little ones, I am Muriel, and it makes my heart swell with song to embrace you this day, to feel your joy in opening to our being here with you. You have all undergone great challenges in this past timeframe. The introduction of such a concept into your revered sphere of spirit understanding has required great courage on your part and great faith, and your faith has been expanded and ennobled by your grasp of our reality.

As you walk in faith, as you are brought into greater awareness of your true reality and your true belonging in spirit reality, your faith is made even greater, your trust is expanded; indeed, all the barriers and boundaries of traditional teachings are expanded to allow for a greater comprehension of truth, beauty, and goodness.

Fear not the spirit realms. There are no evil spirits to affect you. There are no devils or dervishes in your universe. That era is ended. You are right to celebrate the victory of Michael over Lucifer. The adjudication is complete and we forge ahead now in aligning you and all of Michael's sons and daughters with His spirit way of life.

Be patient with yourselves and your fellows as you undergo these expanding processes, these days of testing and great illumination. The light of spirit is shining brightly on you each. Your hearts open in response to our Master, Jesus of Nazareth, and He embraces you in the spirit and shows you the way into the brotherhood of man that eventually we will see light and life prevail in your arena and on Urantia and even into eternity. The adventure is ours!

ANDREA: I am Andrea. I am also in attendance, as you might imagine. We eagerly look forward to these occasions when we are invited by your willingness to interchange and so we are having a great party today! Angelic choirs are singing and the sun is shining. (That's spelled S-o-n!)

We are all very glad of your community development, of your own personal growth and of the growth of our Mission. Our Mission is to live the gospel and to recognize that God resides within each of His children, that the destiny of you each is to come to know the Father and to walk in faith and trust of His divine overcare. What a joyous venture! What an honor to be soldiers of the circles. We are glad for your growth steps, you who are the vanguard of our efforts into light and life.

ANDREW: I am Andrew. I am also here. It is like old home week and I am in association often with Andrea. We have been teaming up. This concept of male and female teachers seems to have taken hold in this area. Perhaps it is in respect for companionship and the truth of the matter that men and women shall need each other and assist each other, stimulate and encourage each other throughout eternity.

It provides a human touch, don't you think, that your teachers are like you in so many ways? Even though we are somewhat advanced in experience, we are, as you, advancing in understanding of the Father's nature and in the desire to do His will.

TOMAS: I am Tomas. I am a long-standing old friend of many of you. Those of you who know me through the written word, how glad I am to be in your presence and to say, "How do you do?" I am glad for your patience with us and your insight into the process whereby we attempt to work with you in order to enliven and stimulate your spirit thought and action.

It has been such a challenge! Those of us who work with you in this Teaching Mission, who are devoted to those precepts as set out in The Urantia Book, have our work cut out for us. It would not take much imagination to understand all of the political ramifications of that remark!

It is also wonderful to observe and to some extent participate in the wonderful flowering of aspects of Correcting Time that are not focused on or limited to the Teaching Mission. The wonderful outpouring, the spirit renaissance that is taking place as a result of the circuits opening, has been like attending a Renaissance Fair, with the flowers strewn around, the pipes playing and the children laughing and dancing. What a joy to behold, from our standpoint. Rejoice with your brothers and sisters in the unfolding of the new dispensation.

MERIUM: And I am Merium. I am also here to embrace you and to welcome you together. We have spent much time of late working on the concept of community and it is so gratifying to behold a community gathering in love of Michael. It is interesting: all of you individualists who can merge and conjoin by allowing the love of the Father to unite you. What a victory!

All we need now do is enable and assist the rest of humanity to abide by such a philosophy and way of life and we will have accomplished our purpose. It is, even so, a great joy to see it actualize. The excitement of awareness of 'potential becoming actual' is the greatest thrill, the greatest thrill, to not just know the Father and love Him, and know that He loves us, but to actually assist in co-creation of His living reality here in your sphere.

We encourage your noble efforts in socializing your understanding of the Father. The Father is love, and as you love the Father, you will be directed in how to love yourself and you will the better understand then how to love your neighbor.

TOMAS: I am Tomas, and as a more familiar presence for this transmitter, I will ask if there are questions. It is not our intent to have a relationship and have it be entirely one-sided. We were all eager to greet you but are aware, too, that in an environment where you are not in constant contact with a teacher by way of an active transmitter, you may have amassed a question or two and we would pause here for receipt of your heart's desires.

Dialogue

Rebellion, Evil

Elyssia: Tomas, I have a question based on a statement that I think Muriel said today, which was that there is no evil spirit out there that's going to affect us. I tell my daughters that and they say there's a least a very effective strong shadow of sin out there. They think that it may not be real in the sense that it was before Lucifer was adjudicated, but it's very - I think they say - able to implement unfortunate things in this experiential plane. Could you comment on that?

TOMAS: Yes. Fear has been your legacy. Some embrace fear as a friend. It is indeed imperative for some timid souls to continue to embrace fear, and that, unfortunately, will be with you for a long time. That there are no evil spirits is only known by embracing the light of truth. In stillness, in companionship with your indwelling spirit, the Father, you know there is nothing to fear; but your legacy has drummed it into your minds for so long, it will be hard to let that go.

Now, the shadow is very apparent in your material world, for the effects of the Lucifer Rebellion are firmly entrenched in your values. (I speak of "you" here as "you as an evolving race of people" not "you individually".) There is still much darkness, much devastation, and only as the spirit prevails will that residue shadow fall away.

This is one of the purposes of our Mission, to uphold the truth of the light of the Father and the mercy of the Son. Good is more powerful than bad; love is more effective than hate; and as those of you who love and understand love gain strength, your light will eventually illumine so strongly that the shadows will be blown away like a fog in the sunshine.

There are, indeed, residual effects of the Lucifer Rebellion, truly great and deep-seated effects. It is perhaps understandable that your daughters and others would recognize that as an actuality in the spirit realms, that it is a shadow of the greater reality. Indeed the fear that the animal being has had to have in order to survive as an animal is part of your heritage and can be used as necessary and as wanted, but if you are walking in light and life, it is true that you are guided and protected and there is no need for fear.

Be understanding of those who still embrace fear as a way of life, for that is a guidepost to you that they have not yet spent sufficient time in the grandeur of Paradise that the concept of a friendly universe is clear to them.

Elyssia: Thank you very much because my experience is that when we aren't listening to people who are talking about the shadow, we sound as if we're ignoring the fact that it has an influence in our society. Some of the people in my family are living with alcoholism and it's affect on children and sometimes I'm sure it seems very real.

TOMAS: I do not want you to make the mistake of thinking that my philosophy denies human suffering. I am not saying that the effects and miseries of humanity are not real. Indeed they are very real, in particular for those of you who are in the human condition. It is still true, however, that the spirit is the answer to all these ills, and yet, unless and until the individual turns wholeheartedly to the Lord of Hosts for his salvation, he will remain a victim of his own will and, in some aspects, the victim of that by-gone era of Lucifer's reign.

There are many, many people who have [suffered] and continue to suffer on Urantia. It is not for you to portray yourself as a Pollyanna that denies that these things exist. Remember that the Master's association with those who suffer never robbed him of his compassion for them. It is very real to those in it.

DNA

Elyssia: Recently we heard that our DNA is being changed, according to one of Allene Vick's printing of the message, and I wanted to ask more questions about it. Is it possible that our genetic pre-dispositions to things like alcoholism could be changed?

TOMAS: Over a course of time, but let me say that when the DNA and so forth are a subject of discussion, you cannot incorporate that, again, without a comprehension of greater reality. As you change, all of you changes. As you make your decisions to become more God-like, then all of your vibrations, all of your energy systems, all aspects of your existence alter accordingly. And only as you aspire to become Godlike, to align yourself with the Father and His will for you, will you be enabled to make those changes that will bring you into greater health and greater happiness.

All things stem from the spirit. All creation is an offshoot of the Creator. You may create your own unreality and your own "hell" and enjoy being there in your suffering as long as you like. It is when you decide you want to align yourself with Him that these changes will begin to come into effect.

Elyssia: Thank you very much.

Lowell: I have a question.

TOMAS: Yes.

Correcting Time, Urantia Book

Lowell: Whereas the Teaching Mission seems to be specific to this Correcting Time frame, does it bear a relationship to the part in the Urantia Book named the Planetary Mortal Epochs, page 596, and line 7 to 9, "The mortal passion of this dispensation is the penetration of cosmic reality and communion with spiritual reality." (52:5.3)

TOMAS: On point. Certainly. The Fifth Epochal Revelation has come at a time that was right for it to come, as all things in the Father's plan come at the right time, and as a result of the revelation to your world, there are many, many effects. All of this period of time of realigning -- reverberating to the truth -- realigning yourselves to the truth, to the light, is a natural effect of revelation.

Remember that after Jesus lived here there was a tremendous flowering, an expansion of nation life, of art and philosophy and religion. The same will take place now, having been the recipient of yet another revelation, and so all of these marvelous activities of advancement in the spirit are a natural reverberation of revelation. The Teaching Mission is specific to its understanding of the cosmology and the philosophy of The Urantia Book, lest the truths of the revelation become lost in the Renaissance Fair.

Has that answered?

Lowell: Yes, thank you.

Transmitting, Discernment

TOMAS: I would like to say, off-hand, that just because you have heard it through a transmitter does not make it true. Even when you hear words having come from a devoted proponent of the Teaching Mission, do not assume that it is perfect revelation, for we speak through human entities and there are opportunities for error.

It is fair to say -- fair to those who have the courage to open their mouths -- that error that is within time and space is transient and confined to time and space. If serious error were to come to pass, it would be contained by and through the Master Architects and clarified by the Melchizedeks. And so weigh what you hear from all sources, and allow the Spirit of Truth to speak to you.

The Spirit of Truth is infallible, but even it is subject to your understanding of it, your interpretation of it. The human being is a very complex creation. The mind is an absolute mystery in many respects. But if you have faith, and if you trust, and if you assume the status of sonship, you will be guided, you will be directed, you will find the path open for you that is right for you. Always seek your answer ultimately from within and from your own spirit comprehension.

All of these "phenomenon" of this "new age" are truly fascinating, and, yes, feeding a hungry people -- hungry for spirit, for truth, beauty, and goodness, hungry for connection and all these marvelous things that we have gathered for here today. Your world has been hungry for a long time and it is a true joy to see how hungrily and eagerly you lap up all of the hors d'oeuvres that are presented to you. In time, my children, you will recognize the value of a well-balanced meal and eat hearty.

Closing

Indeed, perhaps I am reflecting a community concern here. It is a picnic. It is for your fellowshipping in the spirit and in the flesh that we are here to engage in, and so we will not stay long today in this fashion. You may rest assured that we will mingle with you throughout the day, in truth, but in time, the tape recorder will close and you will return to your pattern of living, including lunch. So, one more question perhaps?

Judy: May I say thank you for this marvelous opportunity that's happening for all of us. It is a great privilege and we may not be able to comprehend the significance of the occasion. Thank you very much for coming.

TOMAS: We also love you very deeply and very much appreciate your heart that is open to the love of the universe. We embrace you and rejoice with you in having found the God who has found you. Michael will also be here this afternoon. You may even see him as you pass by.

Dear ones, until we speak again, farewell.

Group: Thank you.