1998-11-15-Spiritual Names We Give

Session

Opening

Elyon (Jonathan TR): This is your pal Elyon. Always am I happy to be with you and share with you. I have some words concerning your involvement with this mission and the effects you have upon others.

Lesson

Transformation

You all aspire to serve the Father, seeking in various ways methods whereby you can be a minister of light. The master cautioned his apostles regarding the outward show of the glory of the kingdom, that it is not the same as the inward transformation of the individual before its Maker, that the external demonstration of the family of God on earth and in the workings of the world will become prevalent when the soul of each is transformed and oriented toward the Father. It is almost similar to making the comparison that when you step out into the sun, you can through exposure tan your skin. However, upon withdrawing and over time in shelter this color fades. It is an effect of the outside upon your surface. But the spiritual transformation we all seek may be more closely associated to the ripening of fruit where internally transformation has occurred that has permanently changed the color from its unripe state to its ripe state, and there it will remain. Further shelter from the sun does not reverse its color to its original form. You all are involved in this very process of ripening. Your colors are changing; you are taking on that permanent hue. In the spiritual kingdom we can be assured that our fruit will never rot.

Names

With this I would address your question regarding names. (Mark had asked about the significance of "spiritual" names. Are those who don't use them missing some benefit?) Let us draw from another fruit example, the grape. You have been named by your parents at an age when you were without your Thought Adjuster; your soul had yet to begin its development and growth. Even your personality was passive in the freewill sense. Upon the activation of your will and the initialization of the growth of your soul, you have begun to transform your entire personality from a creature of biological life into a citizen of a spiritual universe. When you receive the atonement, the ordination, the fusion of the Father's Fragment into and with your own personal being, it is as the grape which has become so transformed that it is no longer a grape but a raisin. You refer to the dried fruit of the grape as a raisin, a different name. The names we give to you are transitional. They are our appellations of benevolence, our labels of endearment. You are recognized by us as going from a green grape to a red grape, but the name, though indicating the ripening, is not the same as the raisin. It points toward the inevitable reception of your morontia designation.

I caution you to not become overly attached or involved in a literal meaning for your name, for, as I said, these names we give come from love, from our feelings toward you. They are not the indication of mental reasoning and conclusion which a meaning to a name tends toward. You are not named after a notable figure; we have never refereed to you by name "junior" or "the third"! And we never have been taken aback by your refusal to use this term for you. For that matter, you could all have in your pockets numerous names or titles that would speak well of who you are becoming.

You have indicated in your discussion that it helps with a different name to alter your perspective about yourself. This is one reason why we have undertaken this process of naming. It is not dissimilar to the change in one's mind when one tends a job and has a title: supervisor, manager, cook, waiter. It sets your mind into a mode of function. It screens out erroneous events; it narrows the field of decision-making to certain parameters. Our names are meant to focus you spiritually but in an inverted sense, for it is intended that you break out of the boundaries of your limitations, that you include in your potential for progress more than you may grant yourself the worth of receiving. The new name helps you to make this break. It is not necessary, but it helps.

We will never retard your progress if you do not adopt what we call you; we do not feel it to be that important. Let us say it is a nickname, that term of endearment. Never will we withhold further training because of your decision as to how you will regard yourself by name.

I have said about all I think is necessary on this subject, but I am willing to talk with you about this if you have comments or questions on this topic.

Dialogue

Ginnie: What would be one of my names, one of my terms of endearment?

Elyon: Victoria.

Ginnie: What feeling does that represent for you?

Elyon: One who pursues, one who triumphs, one who is diligent, one unswayed by difficulty.

Ginnie: Thank you.

Evelyn: Could you comment on our names for you, you and all the teachers? I get the impression you accept whatever we have come up with as names for you much as a parent accepts being called Da-Da or whatever their child cares to call them. Does it even come close to an accurate version of your names as we might render them in English?

Elyon: Much of what I have said regarding your names does apply toward ours. They are convenient translations into your time and culture so that you may begin relationship with us. I do not intend to lessen the import of our relationship by saying this, but the time is now when I can make it more plain to you that my name Elyon is more like my career title, my stage name, my pen name as a teacher in this mission. I have my fusion name. I have also a list of names that are snapshots of my history. They encapsulate events of my ascension. I like the name Elyon because it implies several things, in my view. The fragment El means God, and that is who I seek intently. The name means Most High, and I am a constellation being in status, and those, the Most Highs, are my current administrative leaders. It is a word which helps, I hope, for you all to look higher, to seek the Father, to reach beyond yourself, and lift yourself into the realm of the Most Highs.

Presence

Malvantra: This is Malvantra and I have to express to you a very important perspective. I recognize that you have at times held this perspective in your view, and you are doing well at training yourself to more consistently approach your life this way, and that is the recognition and the experience of the close proximity, the engulfment, of Michael and the Mother Spirit in you and around you and working with you. It is good to witness your friendship with our creator parents, your sense of camaraderie. Your willingness to approach and be approached is commendable, for friendship relationship, the exchange of love, is their greatest hope for all of you.

But I would like to remind you of the awesome qualities of these two beings. They are quite unlike any of the rest of us resident here in Nebadon. These two creator personalities are majestic, very powerful, extremely wise, and certain in their abilities. Couple this with your friendship, and it would be my desire that you are enriched in your trust and faith in Michael and Nebadonia, that you are emboldened while yet humbled.

We can attend to you, as I do today, one present and quite similarly to how you each are present today in this room. But Michael and the Mother Spirit are able to attend to you and all others in a way no one of us can. Whether you are feeling close to your associates or distant and alone; in either situation you are heart to heart with the Master and the Mother. I know you recognize this intellectually. I know you have experienced this periodically. I only desire to emphasize this and seek for you to attain this sensibility continuously.

Thank you for hearing me today.

Dialogue

Ginnie: Thank you, that was something I really needed to hear. I appreciate how some of my concerns during the week come out in these meetings with love and attentiveness. It feels good that you, whoever you are, are in attendance when I deal with these things. Thank you.

Turbulence

Malvantra: You are most welcome. We are greatly cheered to witness your difficulties in that it indicates your movement spiritually. No river reaches the sea but that the water contained within the riverbed flows continually thereto. Oftentimes this flow is diverted through blockages, through waterfalls, through ponds detaining or diverting its course. Yet inevitably it reaches its destiny. When we notice you in your rapids we are more than happy to ride the whitewater with you, to help you negotiate the strong currents and to emerge victorious. Having traversed a time of agitation you are not only blessed with a period of calm and rest but you have gained an ability that makes you stronger for the next event.

This world will witness an increased tendency in humankind to relish, to seek the understanding and the execution of life in this manner. Much of it has to do with the, in our view, recent arrival of the Spirit of Truth. With Michael's decree that Urantia be healed of its misfortunes, we are more than willing to be of assistance to you for him.

Ginnie: It reminds me of the line in the UB that there is no growth without conflict. It's hard to remember when you are riding the rapids.

Malvantra: This is quite true, and one of my associates penned that term, and we know that he knows deeply the truth of those words.

Jonathan: It's typical to have mascot names for ball teams, corporate names for a group. Are we as a group referred to by a name?

unidentified (Ginnie): Again, as in individual (names) that denote characteristics of your personality and your function, groups also can have a flavor, a function, a purpose. For you we can assign a name that will more than adequately suggest your purpose. We would like to think of you as ministers of light, many lights, if you choose to use a catch phrase. Again there are many names we can give to you, but we like this one.

Jonathan: I'm glad it's not the divets or the slugs or something.

Tom: I'm getting the light Bubbas.

Closing

Elyon (Jonathan): This is Elyon returning, and I draw your session to a close by encouraging you this week to look toward and recognize your attitude that is implied in a spiritual name. Be not concerned over the actual word itself, but think and act in light of what is implied by any name.

Michael, Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man, Master Son, these are all names of phases of his lifelong career, and they implied a significance at the time. This is what I hope you reflect upon for yourselves in the days ahead, and would thoroughly enjoy you to discuss this, the feelings and the implications you experience over these days next week. I take my leave.