2005-09-26-Recognizing & Evaluating Spirit

Session

Opening

Dear Mother Spirit and Michael, Once again we are gathering in to invite You to join us. Come be with us. Help us be aware of Your presence here in our midst. Mother Nebadonia, we want You to know that in no way whatsoever are we confusing You with Mother Nature in some of her more tempestuous moods. Rather we know it is Your spirit, Your Mind Adjuncts that have been here all along helping people--find the courage to survive, find the compassion to be good and helpful neighbors, find the Spirit of Worship so that no matter what is happening, they can truly thank God for their life, and finally, your Adjunct of Wisdom which will be so necessary once the rebuilding begins. Stay with them and continue to sustain them. This is our prayer. Amen.

Good evening, My sons, this is your Mother, Nebadonia. I look around the room and wonder, where are My daughters? So I want you all to go out there and start bringing them in; bring My daughters in to Me. But I appreciate all the more your steadfastness, your loyalty to Michael and I, your loyalty to yourselves, your willingness to be open with the courage to acknowledge something new in your lives, something strange, something that has never happened before.

Lesson

• Discernment (Recognizing and evaluating spirit)

A little bit ago as you were talking, you mentioned how We do welcome your skepticism, your questioning, for We realize you would not have come to Us, you would not have not gotten this far in your spiritual journey and curiosity without tuning in to My Spirit of Wisdom and indeed, the depth of your own souls--your life’s experience by which you evaluate the spiritual value of any new thing. But to be able to detect Our presence within you, this takes a certain maturity and a great deal of self-knowledge to recognize pure spirit when it begins to happen.

In your prayer last week you realized the realm of spirit is not something entirely new for any of you. You have been immersed in it since the day you were born. Rather it’s being able to single it out, to feel within yourself how Spirit differs from the material and the mental aspects of your life. Once you are able to focus in on it like this, you begin to feel it and see its affects everywhere. This is truly what you might call spiritualizing your life--to appreciate the influence that Spirit is having on you and on those around you. In those cases where Spirit seems sorely lacking in some peoples’ lives--that is, the awareness of Spirit, the appreciation of Spirit—this can lead directly to a kind of dis-ease, a lack of trust, not feeling truly at home right within their own skin. These folks are those We reach out to, and sometimes something so simple as a good definition of what Spirit is, enables some to realize it in their lives.

• Spirituality (Spiritualizing mind and body)

Over and over We have put things to you in terms of physical, mental, and spiritual delineation’s, so that once you begin to consider Spirit as the source of life, it begins to spiritualize both the physical and the mental realms. You literally begin to imbue your physical bodies with Spirit. Consider the viewpoint that before this time you are somewhat abandoning your own physical bodies by seeing them as a kind of crude material manifestation. But once you sense the infinity within your own physical form, this living vehicle you inhabit still far beyond your comprehension, once you begin to sense it as a living, continuing pattern of energy, you can begin to wonder. What is the source of this pattern, this evolving pattern? And what once felt so fragile, you realize is supremely tenacious, clinging to life, your life.

And so it is with your mind that correlates and associates so much for you automatically--an enormous storehouse of memories, and from these, meanings. What does your life mean to you, to others? You can begin to see that this is rather inseparable from the spiritual realm of value, and so your own personal mind, though depending at your stage of existence on your physical brain for consciousness; your can see how this too is imbued with spirit. It is not so much that your body and mind have a spirit, it is rather your personality, innately imbued with spirit, is using you current mind and body. This points you more directly at the source of your life, and how you can have more life by seeing spirit everywhere.

There are no limits to this, My children, no limits whatsoever. The entire physical cosmos can rightly be seen as a living organism, of which you are a small and integral, yet relatively autonomous part. True enough, you are swept along within gigantic events no human being, not even a whole planet of human beings controls, and your recent weather disturbances were a grim reminder of this. Yet within these sweeping events, you have your own freedom; you are a creature of will dignity.

• Free will (The dignity of will)

This works both ways. If you would increase your dignity as a human being, if you would reach for your full potential, then it lies in the direction of exercising choice, exercising your will. This is where your wisdom comes in and suggests that aligning your will with the greatest will you can conceive, that of your Father, is a way of voluntary and with all your might, throwing all your wisdom and power behind God’s—right in your own life.

This is the Source. This is the Source that calls to you saying, " My child, come be like Me. Grow into My estate. Perfection can be yours someday far, far beyond the furthest imaginable quality that you as a finite being can anticipate. We can meet someday, you and I, face to face." This is your potential, My children. You have it right now. This is what potential is--the real possibility that something like this can happen. You find it by letting go, letting your body and your mind subside comfortably in stillness so that your spirit can swell forth, and fill you, and point the way home.

If you have any comments or questions this evening, let’s get into them.

Dialogue

Student: Mother, I just want to thank You for being here, and I’m very excited to be here. At the beginning You said You’d like to see more daughters here. I would like to see more daughters and sons. I went out among my Bible-thumping friends, old ex-friends, and what a disaster that was!--in sharing the Urantia revelation. So I think I’ve learned from that and I’d like to know--and this is all new to me--but I do want to help things come into the age of Light and Life, and I want to know what I can do in my community in Sacramento. There’s so many directions to go and there are so many ways to reach out. I was wondering it You could kind-of speak on that?

NEBADONIA: Ah yes, R, My son. You are discovering it takes a very light touch. Delicately, delicately is how you must proceed. We understand that for those of you who have had an immediate recognition of the Urantia book, and what a delight it is, how it forces you to live in two worlds. For as much as the book rings true deep in your being, and your whole understanding of the cosmos begins to swell forth and multiply; to this very degree you are removing yourself from what you might call a normative or average comprehension of the world and the universe.

• Evangelism (Spreading the good word)

Since you are somewhat forced to live in two worlds at the same time, We encourage that, as much as is possible, My son, you stay in contact with your former friends. Stay in contact with those who think the Urantia book is just some delightful science fiction, or maybe something a few college professors whipped up one summer for a prank. Be aware of how much it has already changed you. Keep in mind how strange these new concepts you have, already so familiar to you, how strange they appear to those who have no familiarity at all, to whom The Urantia book is just another book like so many millions of others.

I think you can understand that if they do not immerse themselves in it--themselves, there is no way they can appreciate the uniqueness of it. And so, lightly, lightly is how you go. Listen more than you express. Don’t forget to tease, tease them out of themselves. If they have some science or science fiction interests, bring it out that way, tell them about the cosmology. If they have religious inclinations, you can talk about the nature of God as it’s revealed; or history, or psychology, or philosophy, or geology, or the evolution of life.

Does this make sense to you, My son, how you ever so lightly and delicately tease them into being open?

Student: Yes, very much. Thank You.

NEBADONIA: You’re welcome. We really appreciate the love you have beneath this desire to share something that is so delightful to you. So keep it all on that level of being something delightful. This is what truly convinces. This is your soul speaking to theirs, right around their possibly recalcitrant egos. And be in My love.

Student: Thank You.

Student: Dear, Nebadonia, I’d appreciate any comment on the thrill of ethics. I know the Melchizedeks teach it, and Welmek hinted at the gift it’s given us. The thrill of group duty…I know…people take a long time to get really thrilled in service. They say it’s well up in the Mansion Worlds. But I know in my heart of hearts that there’s a real thrill in ethics. Any comment would be appreciated.

• Ethics, Unit (Ethics as spiritual unity)

NEBADONIA: Yes, My son, I think you are pointing at what’s called a group-multiplier-effect, and this is very much a spiritual quality. This is that occasion where a number of people are able to achieve a kind of spiritual unity that in no way hinders or obstructs their individual uniqueness. Psychologically speaking, this is rather difficult for humans at your stage.

All through history there has been attempts to establish ethics pretty much by force, from the point of being burned at the stake if you did not agree with the group, all the way to the most subtle kinds of psychological arm twisting--threats of being excommunicated, which in some cases meant almost certain death. But keep in mind that true ethics springs voluntarily from a generosity of spirit, a delight in discovering spiritual unity.

We speak of material facts, mental meanings, and spiritual goodness. This goodness, and the ways that lead to it are essentially what ethics are. What a delight when a number of people begin to spontaneously, as individuals, arrive at the same agreement as to what works, what leads to goodness happening here on the earth. Once again, remember the source and keep in mind how each individual has to find that source for himself or herself, and how the unity is nothing forced but rather a discovery of something vast and pre-existent. Does this help you, My son?

Student: Yes, it does, Nebadonia, and I look forward to endless years of advanced lessons in this, right on up to Salvington. I feel that it’s a thrill when it becomes all the more real. Thank You. NEBADONIA: You are welcome, My son. You can understand now why it is so thrilling. Because if it can emerge from so many separate individuals, it can almost seem to be spontaneously arising by itself. And indeed, Our presence—Michael’s and Mine, is so much a part of it. How We thrill when you recognize the unity we all share, so be in My love.

Student: Thank You.

Student: Mother Nebadonia, earlier I believe You were teasing us with the statement that even now we have the potential to see You face to face. I look forward to that moment, whenever it may be; and I tease You back because I’d like that moment to be very, very soon. And I’ll think back on this time of being teased that I can have the potential to see You face to face--when that moment does arrive. I look forward to it with great anticipation.

NEBADONIA: Yes, My son, so do I. But I was referring more to that day when you will have undergone a transformation into perfection that is so enormously inconceivable for you now. I know you trust that this is not in any way, shape, or form a put-down to say: you cannot begin to imagine the kind of beings you will become when you have not thousands, but millions of years of experience behind you, on thousands of different worlds--architectural spheres, and natural planets at every stage of development. Someday you will be on Paradise, face to face with your Father.

• Potentials (Possibility and the fullness of time)

But think not so much of this being an unfathomable distance of time away, but try to consider how full the time will be. Think of all that your soul has already accumulated in such a short span of years here on Urantia. See if you can imagine the future being everywhere as full, the events of your coming life everywhere as gripping and demanding of your full attention; and then the immediate, moment-to-moment rewards in that, so that there is no hurry to get there.

You are already complete, and as you move towards perfection, you, like our Father himself, Who is perfect, are simply becoming ever more replete--on into eternity. Such is the nature of your personality that, as We have you taught before, you are not exactly in time and space. You are already part of the Deity Absolute in the mere fact of your existence as a personal being.

It’s hard to put into English words based so much on normative notions of time and space, but this is how the future exists within the present as possibility. As you go through time, as time happens, not only is possibility becoming actuality, but also as you grow, so grows this possibility along with your increasing abilities: more is possible for you. This is your potential. It exists right now, and We are merely assuring you of what you are capable of doing, and becoming. But it does take time, My son. And because it takes time, you have time. Time is not something squirming away like trying to pick up mercury. It is always here. You have as much of it as you need, because before you stand face to face with your Father, you will need a lot of it.

I hope I’m not just talking in riddles, My son. Does this make sense to you?

Student: Yes, Mother, it all makes sense to me. I feel it in my heart. If I try to intellectualize, I’ll get lost, but I can feel Your words in my heart, and in that respect, yes, it resonates very strongly. I look forward each moment to the new relationships, and the old relationships that continue to happen and continue to grow. This is what really, truly brings me joy and service in these relationships. This is how I get to know the Father; and that, in and of itself, is absolutely wonderful.

NEBADONIA: Yes, My son, you truly have the heart of it. Be in My love.

Student: Yes, Mother… If I could describe how I’ve been feeling the past week or so within my being, the word that comes up is conflicted. And I feel it strongly within my stomach. I’m feeling it right now--conflicted with the direction I am to undertake, the decisions I am to make, but also the resistances to the potential that I feel within myself and other people around me. And it’s hard to be in this place, and at times even to function in this place. Could You shed some light, some understanding, some solace? (heavy sigh, and a very long pause…)

NEBADONIA: That’s it, My son, just rest in Me awhile. (another long pause)

Can you recall last week with Michael, and how at that time you seemed to be pretty much one with the current of life--free and splashing around and watching how things developed; being able to see how things were developing in yourself and in your compatriots? And so We cautioned you. The week before that I cautioned you about not associating any particular emotion with being in accord with God. For to do so, you are limiting both you and Him, and that can have a very fearsome component.

• Emotion (Emotions and being in accord with God: decisiveness)

These last several weeks we have been looking at the more difficult aspects of human life, realizing the reality of pain and suffering, fear, separation, the loss of those you love, physical injuries where you may loose part of your own physical being, or even the loss of mental facilities and abilities. These are all part of life. And even though you may not be suffering any particular one at the moment, they are here in potential, recommending caution--not fearfulness, but rather avoiding foolhardiness.

But now, My son, I feel you are caught up in uncertainty. You’re feeling more and more the necessity to take another step. More and more these decisions you feel you need to take are pressing in on you.

Student: It’s like I am going to the core of what I truly want--when You asked that question--for us to ask that question of ourselves: what do I truly want! And I am so tired of the familiar…the sameness of my life.

NEBADONIA: My son, you notice that it is not only necessary for you to ask yourself this question, and try to resolve it as extensively as you can, but it is also something that others require of you. Think about this a moment. This is also what others are asking you, sometimes just with their eyes: what do you want? How do you truly want this to go? From this viewpoint, this is a supreme gift you give others. This is being as complete a person as you can, not only for yourself, but for others. Decisiveness is yet a further step. It points at those irreversible decisions where lives are changed, and there’s simply no denying the need for this. This is what I spoke of earlier this evening, that since you are a creature of will dignity, you express this and determine in part who and what you will be. This is the gift of autonomy that God gives you in potential, but which you yourself must choose to manifest.

Student: Then why am I so conflicted? Why am I unable to make a decision to take that next step? What is the fear that is holding me back from this potential--from manifesting this potential?

NEBADONIA: My son, it is the very opaqueness of the future! There is no way you can foresee all the consequences of your decision.

Student: But that seems such a lot of responsibility placed upon my shoulders.

NEBADONIA: Yes, this something that you yourself have asked for and accepted. This is part of your situation, and it’s your freedom of spirit that allows you to recognize it.

A new Student offers: Just take it day by day, and deal with it as it comes. And in time, when you’re ready to let go, you have a new formality, of a new perception of your own intuition of your inward journey. Then do that; you will receive the abundance that you are asking for… (D: Thank you…)

• Humanity (The inevitabilities of the human condition)

NEBADONIA: D, I would like you to read once again, if you haven’t before, those words in your text--the Urantia book--beginning on page fifty-one, which are designated: the inevitabilities of the human condition. One of them is precisely this, that you are ever in a position of having to make decisions on less than full knowledge and understanding. For you are still a tadpole; you are still just starting out. And you’ve only had so few years here of human life, compared to all the eternity you are looking forward to.

So once again, I can only suggest you take all the others concerned in these decisions as much into your confidence as you can, and share the load. Help these other individuals concerned grow their own self-reliance, so they are not relying so much on you. And realize that your decisions are not, in this sense, so determining on their life. You make your decisions, and they, in their potential autonomy, will respond as best they can, as best as they see fit.

So there are limits to your responsibility. You can take too much on your own shoulders. I thank you for your sensitivity, and your willingness to accept responsibility. I just remind you there are limits to it. You can even have an over-exaggerated sense of your own importance in this situation, and inadvertently be robbing these others of their need to stand up for themselves. It’s a balancing act, My son. So read those passages in the Urantia Book again to calm your heart about being in this very primal human situation. (Thank You, Mother.) And be in My love.

NEBADONIA: S, My son, we welcome you to our group. Do you have any questions or comments this evening?

Student: Actually, I would just like to thank my Creator for allowing You to come and fill the gaps within my heart, and having me grow this past week with Your insights of my being caught-up in my egotistical world--as it came from You in a teasing matter, just to have been--as a lesson--just for wisdom and knowledge for the next occurrence. And I feel that I came into that, like something developed within me to force that, and to come…in events--as I grow day by day, moment from moment, being in the stillness with Your essence of ubiquitous love surrounding You. And I thank You.

• Joy (Michael’s and Mother Spirit’s joy)

NEBADONIA: My son, you’re certainly welcome. It’s such a joy that We share when you can feel Me so directly in your heart.

Michael and I know such a glory in being parents when our children just suddenly start beaming their delight back to Us. So We thank you very much. Michael sends you His peace, which you seem to be finding wonderfully. And I send you My love to support and sustain you, and encourage you.

As I told your brother R, when you start out on the spiritual path like this and it rings evermore true and genuine, you do have to become accustomed to living somewhat in two worlds in order to stay in contact--loving and generous contact--with your other brothers and sisters who may have only a big hollow spot inside; for the contact is good for you both. So I bid you welcome the stretch that is to come. Student: Thank You for nourishing my soul for what I lack.

NEBADONIA: Thank you, My son, for being open to that nourishment, and recognizing it. I might say, welcome the stretch that Spirit does demand of you to keep growing. It is not always easy, but it is truly rewarding. This is your inner compass that ever points the way. And be in My love.

Are you still with us C?

Student: Yes, Mother. (laughter) I thank You for my very patient teacher who is always there when I can get myself out of the way enough to contact him; and for all the insights he’s given me.

And I do have one question though. Both You and Father Michael have said at times that the Heavenly Father puts us back together again in the morning. Is that a literal interpretation, or just a colorful expression? It has been going on for seventy-one years, and here I am, so it must be working very well.

NEBADONIA: Yes My son. I think that was answered rather fully last week. Was there some part of that, that you didn’t understand? As was said, it’s a bit of both. It’s literal in the sense that God is sustaining your life, and helps bring your self-consciousness back together. Michael and I have pointed out that the deeper you can relinquish yourself both in your rest at night, and in prayer--the depth of your stillness, being still of yourself--the more your Father and Michael and I can heal you. Do you remember that phrase: " …knit up the raveled sleeve of care." (Yes.)

This is where you let all your cares and your uncertainty--all those pressing needs to decide, you just let them go. Give them to your Father and I.

Student: Mother, I have done that in the past, and either I’m looking for the wrong thing, or else haven’t done it correctly; and I’m kind of wondering, what does it mean "Give it over to the Father? Or, give it over to you and Michael," or to let myself go?

• Surrender (Giving your worries to God)

NEBADONIA: It means realizing a limit to the demands you’re putting upon yourself. It means saying: enough is enough. It’s maintaining a real tough-minded balance between yourself and what you call life. It’s like saying, OK--life, I’ve had enough for one day. Now I need my rest. I need to forget about all of this for awhile. I need to enjoy some stillness, some of this spiritually-dense vast space within me--to take a break. I need this for myself. I need to rest in the arms of my Divine Parents. I need to drink the cool water at the Source. I need to reaffirm to myself, there is a God. And I’m in His hands, and His hands alone! I’m not even keeping my own heart beating. I’m inhabiting the gift of a living vehicle that the entire human race does not yet understand. I’m a little speck in the middle of a gigantic cosmos. All of it is real. And all this is real now. And I need to relinquish it all, and just be alone with my Father.

This is what is meant by giving it all to your Father, putting it all back in His hands, where it was all along. Realize the limitations of what you should demand of yourself without relief. Does this help you my son?

Student: Yes, Mother, indeed it does! Put that way, I can understand it, and it resonates in my heart. I can understand it, is the best way to put it. Thank You.

NEBADONIA: You’re welcome, My son. You have a righteous fear of the extreme opposite---- which you might consider being too lazy, (Yes!), or too self-indulgent. And these are real possibilities best to be avoided. But you can also be too hard on yourself, to where you are abrading yourself to no purpose. So here comes that tough-mindedness to say to life itself: I am the Father’s. He and I alone are sufficient. We are complete in each other. And right now I need to take a break! (laughter) So be in My love.

Student: Thank You, Mother. And once again, right on the mark.

NEBADONIA: Well My sons, what joy! What pure joy this is--whatever heartache it also contains!

• Turbulence (Life as a roller-coaster)

Closing

This is life. And when you seek Spirit, this is what you’re in for. At times you may feel that God loves nothing so much as a roller-coaster. But I assure you this is just your own demands on yourself. For actually God is the gravity holding the roller-coaster on the rails.

Michael and I mentioned one time that as you get to know God and His ways, He responds to you. And you can experience this as God’s immutable ways bending. The whole universe is bending to you. And this is subjectively true! It is also not so much God bending His immutable wisdom, and absoluteness, and finality of action. It is just)you discovering His love. It is just you—more deeply experiencing the living, responsive aspect of His reality.

So take heart. Welcome the adventure. There is so much that you cannot know until you try, for life demands all that you have. And for this reason you can truly have your life. This is not, as some philosophies and religions have postulated, some "shadow-show," some "illusion." You absolutely are! And through your spirit you can realize it.

Remain undaunted, My children. And be in My love.

Good evening. (Good evening Mother.)