2002-08-11-Working As Groups

Session

Opening

Elyon (Jonathan TR): Dear friends, this is Elyon. I greet you with love. I am here to encourage, to provide support. I wish to say a few words on the subject of strength. It is a necessary component in life.

Strength, Exercise

Without strength no work, no force, can be exercised. Life continually challenges all organisms by the contrast of ease and difficulty. Were it not for resistance no organism would struggle, no gains would be made in the building of character and the accumulation of wisdom or even in the health and strength of body. Heaven is a concept in the human mind of a realm of bliss, peace, and joy. It is true you will experience these elements of the heavenly state, but you will soon discover that struggle continues, not as an apparent force to thwart your ambitions, but as a counter support to the attainment of your goals, to the development and maturation of your personality. When you mix flour with water you have a mess. As you knead the two together at first it appears to be quite a jumble, a distortion, a wrenching and tearing. At first the beauty is not seen, yet the struggle yields the necessary combinations and extractions needed to bring about that wonderful loaf of bread.

Life, not only biologically but morontially, is full of kneading that yields the spiritual gluten which strengthens you, maintains your composure, your composition, when the fire of testing arrives and when the realities of hardships confront you.

You have been in the exercise gym of Michael's teachings for many years. You have developed strength. There is no finish, no final stage wherein you may say, "I am strong", for it is a continual process. Strength is lost if not worked. However, through your studies, through your application of truth as you live, you have developed a spiritual muscle mass, and it is through this mass that you are able to climb, to lift, to ascend.

It is our purpose to encourage you to be bold, enduring, and strong. It is likewise our purpose to encourage you to enjoy rest, to worship, to reinvigorate yourselves with that frictionless sense of the Father's presence. No athlete can endure continual exertion. Periods of repose are required to renew, to build energy sources, stores. This cycle brings about endurance and strength, exertion and rest. So it is with your spiritual pursuits. Life will provide numerous opportunities for exertion; you as a spiritual athlete must also provide opportunities for stillness, for worship, for refreshment. That will develop your character, the strength that the Master exhibited when he stood before Pilate, when he was confronted by the thoughtless soldiers, when he hung from a cross.

I extend my compassion, my care and love to each of you and to your loved ones.

Dialogue

Mark: Thank you. And thank you for your communication about my parents and my role in any spiritual growth that may happen. I have backed off my expectations. I'm open to suggestions as to how to be of service. My heart seeks for a more active role than a mere familial part. I welcome any insights you may offer.

Elyon: I admire your aspirations and your extension of love to your loved ones. Your value placed upon the relationship with God is one that you know is worthy for all to experience. This world needs more like yourself... for . .. to reach to another soul to bring light to touch bases, to sense areas of need that may be ministered to.

Your current instructions may be likened to the resting time of bread as it rises wherein you may let it sit. Let the yeast, the leaven of truth, work on its own. This can establish a deeper bond, as you say, through a familial trusting, a casualness, that can dispel any guardedness. Before long the dough will have risen, and a new moment arrives for you to infuse the relationship with truths you have come to know and can share.

Mark: Thank you for your role in this experience as well as the role you and the others play in our lives. They are so much richer for having your perspectives and advice.

Elyon: Your gratitude is acknowledged and received.

Courage

Machiventa: Greetings, this is Machiventa. I am going to draw into this meeting Harold's description of the rock climbers, for I am attracted to that form of bravery. It is profound on your part to have made the connections between this physical sport and spiritual effort.

The rock that is truth is a spectacular object to climb, and you who have undertaken this ascent to the summit of Michael have learned how to use tools bestowed upon you -- even invented by you -- to gain a firm grip to lock yourself to this rock. Not all are confident enough to ascend alone or to ascend beyond the heights that others have taken. It takes courage; it takes trust, and that is what I am attracted to, for you to be energized even when the situation is perilous. It is good for your growth. It is good for the advancement of the Supreme. You reflect Michael who boldly went forth into space and began the creation of Nebadon.

I will close my comments by saying that this rock climbing of a spiritual nature does not need to be descended from. You will reach the Paradise summit and enjoy the spectacular, breathtaking exhilaration of being in the Father's presence. I take my leave.

Harold: I remember some of the problems expressed with the disciples concerned ultra individualistic characteristics. I'm assuming they found it difficult to work with others. If that's correct, what part does individuality continue to have as we progress?

Dialogue

Socialization

Elyon: Yes, indeed. The difficulty of self importance or more specifically that an individual's idea is better when applied as solution than another's brought much conflict. Teamwork is a valuable lesson that will be continually learned and relearned and reapplied for many ages for all of you. Individuality and cooperation are complements in the process of Supreme unfoldment. Light and Life is a settled age of cooperation, but it is also the final stage of individual attainment. Always will the two contribute and conflict.

Michael has always encouraged every individual to have a personal and direct experience with the Father. But he also strongly emphasized the importance of brotherhood, of socializing the religious experience. Each apostle believed his assertion of the best way was right, and as they conflicted each one was granted an opportunity to refine his method, to adopt methods of others, and to coordinate each single idea into an effective group plan. This is the nature of the Supreme, individual discovery synergized with totality attainment.

Has this been helpful?

Harold: Yes, I think so. Is our task to be individuals but also be capable of working with a group?

Elyon: Yes, for it is a requirement to discover the potentials of self, and each must do so. However, if each one did so at the expense of others, it would be chaos. As each one turns over their own rock to find their own treasure and brings that treasure into the collective, then the great castle is built out of the many jewels.

Michael was expert in his wisdom when, as Jesus, he would allow the apostles to wrestle it out for themselves. For his own contribution, though he be the Creator Son, was yet only one of the group. In his position his apostles would have backed down and allowed his individual assertion to be the one accepted. So each human being can learn to let another's assertion come forward for entertainment and to be reminded of your own worth as you present your ideas, that each one must be expressed for the synergizing of a group direction. For the record, this is Elyon.

Inquiry

Harold: Something I've been meaning to ask, what are some of the questions that you wish we would ask that we aren't thinking of?

Elyon: I am always open to any inquiry, and I express this in the effort to prevent any questioner feeling that their question perchance may be beside the point or unimportant or distracting. I welcome all questions. However, I am most engaged when you inquire probingly into your betterment as a spiritual being, when you seek to wrest new insights that can be applied to your daily life, for, though the theoretical confers upon the mind a great vision of the grand scheme of things, your true successes and failures are met in each passing moment in apparently mundane events. These episodes bring growth. These are the questions that I am drawn to carefully address and to support. As an example, the question, "Does God exist?", though of tantamount importance to the mind, is not as directly applicable as the question, "What must I do to be saved?", for this entails a personal search. Both questions will be asked, answered, during the process.

Closing

If there be no other questions I withdraw my contact with you today. You are my fellows, and you are my good students. Farewell.