If it seems we get off the subject occasionally that is merely an illusion. No matter how many different angles we use to approach it, there is only One subject, and that One subject is YOU/ME. There is only One of us here, so there is only One purpose, to know Truth.
We began looking at the end chapters of 1 Corinthians. Chapter 15 devotes itself to “the fourth and final earthly phase of the path of truth with Me.” (3-11)5
The first three phases are described in Acts chapters 19-21.
BRIEF SUMMARY
1)The Search please read/reread all of Chapter 19
A key here is willingness
Much of the work here is performed by the Holy Spirit within our unconscious through our willingness. The work is the loosening of our mind from false beliefs/attachments.
2)Loosening/Letting Go Please read/reread Chapter 20&21
Now we have willingness combined with choice
At this stage as the Holy Spirit’s work continues, we are now more consciously involved in the process, making guided choices on what thoughts we no longer want to keep or hold onto.
We are continually reminded during this process that we are not doing this work alone. We are always being lovingly guided. This is especially true, since as we cleanse and heal, some of our supposed negativity will seem to feel worse instead of better. See Chapter 20(13-24) 12-16; (25-31); (32-38); Chapter 21(1-6) 5-7.
In this stage we are challenged to embrace our experiences as our own creation, allow ourselves to learn whatever it is we intended to learn, and then release them and let them go.
Know that you create and have an experience, but that is not who you are.
See John 8(48-59) 9-10 “You experience that which you ask. Does that not tell you that you are beyond your experience?” And Galatians 5 (1) 1-6.
3)Guidance or Service Chapter 23
Willingness, choice and action
From this stage emerges the willingness to see, to put self-will aside, knowing always that the answers are within. (I think this stage would be similar to what spiritual teachers call The Practice of the Presence of God. Truly seeing God in all things and being open to God’s loving guidance always. Notice what is happening here. I give up my will in order to flow with God’s Will, and as my little will is ignored, there becomes only One Will, God’s/Mine.)
The fourth stage described in 1 Corinthians 15.
And Chapter 15 begins with “Let me remind you of the simplicity of what I request….I ask you to lay down willingly everything but your trust.”
To be honest when I read over phase four it seemed to be so out of my reach, so beyond my usual experience of life that I thought I was reading a fairy story. I heard myself saying to myself, “Yeah, right” and although I knew that was the ego talking I was still aware of how far away I felt from the reality described in Chapter 15.
The kind of thinking I fell into is a trap, a trap of judgment, comparison, unworthiness, and belief in my own false limited perception of myself.
Although NTI describes these aspects of the path as “stages or phases” in our development, they are more a statement of our “unlearning” or our letting go of the ideas of what we are not, so that we can see and know who we truly are.
We go through these stages, or we think we have to go through these stages because we still perceive ourselves in a limited way.
(But the stages are necessary within our limited perception see Acts Chapter 7
My limited vision is described in Acts 4(1-22) 1-5:
“I have told you before that you will be tempted to deny your guidance. And I have told you where this temptation will come from. It is resistance born of a sense of unworthiness. I have also told you where this sense of unworthiness comes from. It is born of guilt, born of the belief that you have stolen yourself from God.”
Just read over the fourth earthly phase in 1 Corinthians 15(12-19).
Instead of dismissing it as being impossible or saying to yourself, “I am so far away from that” stop for a moment, and as you read that passage, listen to the yearning of your heart, listen to your heart as it reminds you of the truth of this passage. Know that the yearning of your heart is not a wish for something, but a reminder of what is True.
How could you yearn for this fourth phase unless you already knew the truth of it?
We yearn to be free because we know we already are.
IT IS EASY TO COMMIT OURSELVES TO THE HEALING OF THE WORLD,
BUT
the task we are asked to take on today is, “Are you willing to be 100% responsible for the healing of the One Son of God?”
