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"When
you first attempt to turn within you might ask, “But what am I turning
in toward?” Begin to feel
that you are drawing upon a vital force that is within you.
You are attuning yourself to a Power, a dynamic force of
creativity. Like turning on
the faucet and expecting water to come out, when you turn within, you
are expecting the flow of Spirit.
If you press a button on an electric stove, the grill will get
hot. If you turn the gas
jet on, a flame appears. Now,
when you turn within, expect to find something.
Expect to find the vital force of life, the Power that is within
you. Have a consciousness
of expectancy.
If you turn within expecting to sense something, to contact the
Power that is always available, then something will begin to come
through. You will begin to
feel your connection with the flow of life within you."
- Dr.
Frank Richelieu , The Art Of Being Yourself
Whenever I think of
our personal relationship with the Infinite, I recall the words of
Catherine Ponder, "Open your mind to receive," as this is the
state of mind that brings us ever closer to a greater realization of
God's availability. We want to receive the gifts of the Spirit,
and as we turn within, we open ourselves to these gifts that are as
infinite as Life Itself. Our Creator has created us as infinitely
individualized expressions of Itself and so we can, with good reason,
know that God responds to us personally in Spirit and impersonally as
Law, in infinitely unique ways. Unlike religion, in Truth we know
that no one is ever outside the kingdom of God, except by choice ... and
only in our mind is this ever so.
Imagine that the ideas that come to us are
God's ideas for us. Imagine also that along with this idea,
everything necessary to accomplish it, to have it, or to be it ... is
ours as well. However, it is up to us to "connect" with
this infinite flow of giving-ness, this vital force of life that is
within us. As Dr. Richelieu explains to us in his words above, we
must turn within "expecting to contact this Power." In
truth, he is merely restating an eternal truth, "seek and ye shall
find." And each and every one of us can find confidence in
knowing, "that which I am seeking, is seeking me." For
the idea and the mind that becomes aware of it are unified in the One
Mind which is God. We are here to experience the "ideas"
that we can claim as ours, especially our personal relationship with
God, Infinite Spirit.
Far too many of us continue to retain fragments
of a belief in a God out there, somewhere ... that is a God of reward
and punishment, in our consciousness. But the Presence is always
Present ... never in the Past. Whatever I am thinking today is my
truth, no matter what I may have thought yesterday. As we fully
and completely release all ideas of reward and punishment for our past
thoughts and actions, we can know that God is responding to us in the
affirmative, now ... in the Present. As we turn within realizing
that "this is our moment" ... relinquishing all doubt, our
response from the Infinite takes on a greater immediacy and power.
Often, I have found that people fail to turn to
God except in times of crisis or when issues arise in their lives that
seem difficult to solve. But, as we think about this we can
realize that this is part of the "cause" of why we find
ourselves in crisis and with difficult issues. We can read in
scripture, "my God is a jealous God" ... in other words, God
within us, requires our "fidelity" in order to maintain the
good in our lives. The two commandments, "love God and love
your neighbor has yourself" ... calls us to love God first.
If we treated our spouses and significant others as we sometimes treat
God ... we would soon find ourselves being suddenly single! To
love God means to give our attention to God, no different than we can
expect from someone who loves us. As we build a relationship with
God by "recognizing" God as a part of all that concerns us, we
can expect with confidence that "God will perfect that which
concerns us." This is what the Master Mind Jesus meant when
he said, "the Father works, and then I work" ... the Father is
the Power and Presence that surrounds us, presses against us, and flows
through us as Life, as Good, as Love. If we edge God out of our
lives, then we in effect, edge out the very good we seek to experience
more fully and completely. We edge God out by letting the
"stuff" outside of us, distract us from our very personal
relationship with God.
From The Science of Mind: "The
Essence of Reality is invisible, but the substance of the invisible is
seen and heard, and is part of the everyday life of all!"
And
so we can ask ourselves, what is the substance of our thinking? ... how
often are our thoughts turned to God within us for guidance, for
support? ... does God sustain us and maintain us each day or are we
looking for someone else or something else instead? Our personal
relationship with God can be whatever we choose it to be. God has
created us as the "chooser." It can be an
occasional dive into the depths of our soul when times get hard ... or
it can be a life lived daily in the kingdom of God's ever-lasting Love
and Good-ness. It is up to us ... All that we seek, we will find!
AND
SO IT IS!
Keep
the faith!
Rev.
Dr. Henry Lee Bates
Visit Rev. Bates BLOG: Living
the Science of Mind
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