The Kingdom Within
Excerpted from
Choices and Illusions by Eldon Taylor
What if the world truly is magical? What if we were created
to be co-creators with all the power to manifest miraculous lives if we but
believed so? What if we were our own cheerleaders, full of encouragement and
rah-rah support? A friend of mine, Terri Marie, wrote a marvelous little book
all about being our own cheerleaders. The book, entitled Be the Hero of Your
Dream, suggests that we are usually good at encouraging others but then tell
ourselves all the reasons why we cannot succeed. What if we believed that we
were created with every good possibility in our hands to be the very best of
ourselves, to use our unique talents and abilities in ways that might astound
many, to have happiness, peace, balance, and harmony in every day in everything
we do? What if our Father in Heaven looked upon us with the love and blessings
that human parents have when they behold their newborn child and with His
all-good, all-powerful, and all knowing best offered all that He had to us?
I believe that God, or whatever term you are comfortable
with for the Creator, has done just that. Remember Mark Twain’s story in his
book Letters to Earth? The point of the story was, hide God where mankind will
never look. Hide Him within man—the last place he will ever look!
While I was lecturing abroad, a wonderful man approached me
with some questions. He had resigned his priesthood two years earlier because
he felt inadequate. He recognized that he had provided help to many but was
disturbed that he himself was not worthy to give good advice. His thoughts were
not all pure, and besides, he too was born a sinner.
We spoke for some time. I asked him several questions. In
the end, he admitted that no one could be worthy according to that which he had
been taught. Like many, he had been trained to believe that the Grand
Organizing Designer had created him imperfectly. He was born a sinner, here to
endure with courage and faith the suffering that he would experience. Further,
this very suffering was necessary for him to prove his devotion and love for
God. Since he had been a Christian priest, training for twelve years as such, I
asked him about some of the words of Jesus. According to Jesus, “The kingdom of
heaven is within.” Further, “My Father has many mansions. Why would you use my
words and not do my deeds? All that I do, you will do and more. If you had
faith but as tiny as a mustard seed.” All of these quotations in context
clearly suggest that God dwells within all of us. They also suggest that Christ
consciousness is what we should all seek to achieve. Indeed, Jesus states very
clearly that we are all his brothers and sisters. Nowhere does Christ suggest
that we are poor pitiful creatures created to suffer. The message of Christ is
love!
From here our conversation entered the domain of Christian
mysticism and this led to the “I AM” presence. “I am that I am,” spoken by God
to Moses. The Great I AM presence is the kingdom of heaven, or God/Christ
consciousness within. (This is a study worth undertaking but one that is beyond
the scope of this work, so I suggest “The I AM Discourses” published by St.
Germain Press if you wish to pursue this further.) I was then asked, “Is this
the reason that all of your affirmations on InnerTalk programs begin with ‘I
am?’”
My mind flashed back to a small bookstore in Reno, Nevada,
where nearly 20 years before I was asked the same question. “Actually,” I
answered, “the research shows this is the best way to state the affirmations. I
do find it interesting that it is the declarative, ‘I am.’” We then spoke of
prayer. The ancient texts were often interpreted incorrectly. The word ask,
when translated correctly, should read declare. Declaring is creating, not
petitioning. At length we had traveled around the world and examined many
religious systems. We agreed, whether Christ consciousness or Buddha
consciousness, whether from the Upanishads or the Bible, whether Lao Tse or
Zoroaster, all the great living religions taught love at their core. Suffering
as some creation made imperfectly and therefore unable to avoid sin, begging
for salvation and so forth, was not the teaching. No—to the contrary, the GOD
within created all with the ability to manifest miracles, if they but had faith
the size of a tiny mustard seed.
It was then that the lights went on in the mind of my new
friend. “Oh, I get it. When you teach people to suffer, even indirectly, you
claim suffering for them and yourself. How could I have missed that? No wonder
I always felt guilty and ashamed.”
This gentleman has since made some remarkable changes in his
life. He still helps people, but now he empowers them to help themselves.
Through forgiveness, releasing guilt and blame and therefore shame, today he
teaches the unlimited power within. All of this begins by taking responsibility
for everything in our own life.
Earlier I suggested an acronym for fear. Let me suggest a
couple more: False Evidence Appearing Real and Forget Everything And Run. You
were not created imperfectly to fear the world or anything else for that
matter. You are, as Dyer puts it, “A God experience walking.”
1 comment:
I enjoyedd reading your post
Post a Comment