Grace Vs Knowledge of Being Blessed
by Shaun
How do you stand on the state of Grace being a gift from God, and is this knowledge of being blessed sufficient to achieve transformation within or do you think sometimes our "will" to remain separate from God unconsciously dismisses the light of His Love in our lives? It is one thing to accept a power beyond us but quite another to practically let go of the limited control over our personal circumstances. Releasing and trusting need confidence in some external agent ~~ which is why your example Katherine has been so important to me. Every time I need guidance I think of the wonderful simple bliss that you are able to draw on through your faith in God to protect and comfort and nourish you beyond human endurance. Your spiritual encouragement has strengthened my belief. Through being prepared to change your mind, substitute ingrained thought patterns from our upbringing for more eternal preparations and visualising a heaven which we deserve and belong to, can we co-create with God a reality which can re-shape the moment we are in? Live in Hope and Glory NOW. This is true Grace - knowing we are always at one with the One-ness which is our inheritance. God Bless Shaun Note from webmaster of a-spiritual-journey-of-healing.com, Katherine T Owen Dear Shaun, Thank you for your inquiry which I can feel being answered in the moment of its asking. You have said that some of my spiritual poems remind you of modern day psalms. I think the same of your question. There is an inquiry, but there is also a reaching out beyond yourself, there is a receiving, an allowing of the answer to flow through you. I find it beautiful. My first answer is that my words will only be an addition to the wisdom you already feel flowing through you. I love the line in the bible: “Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand;” (Proverbs 8:1-2, NIV) (Chapter 25 of It's OK to Believe – I know you have a copy :-)) Wisdom is calling out to you. I pray my answer may serve her calling. Is Grace a Gift from God? Yes, I believe so. It is a free gift. We may do great work to clear our mind of clutter, to expose ourselves to spiritual teachings and spiritual companionship to put ourselves into the moment where grace is most likely to be received. But in every moment of receiving grace we know that we did not earn it, we did not make it happen, we only created a space within which “all that is” could reach us. We prepare a way in the wilderness. God walks down the path in our minds that we prepare and touches our life with grace. Is this knowledge of being blessed sufficient to achieve transformation within? Yes. Though I think of this knowledge as a seed for transformation rather than transformation itself. These moments when we know we are blessed feed us and nourish us spiritually. Feed is a good word to use. We understand that food is something entirely necessary to our existence. By thinking of this experience as “food”, as our “daily bread” we understand that it is as fundamental – more fundamental – than our feeding of the physical body. But just as when we feed ourselves physically, we need to do so again and again, so we need to keep feeding spiritually. There is a seeming paradox. In the moment of the spiritual experience we understand that we don't need to change at all. We rest in God. We are all there is. “I need do nothing except not to interfere.” (ACIM, T-16.I.3) We have not succeeded in separating from God as we thought we had. There is no real change to make at all, no transformation needed. And yet, we return to awareness of our bodies and our lives. And this state of being is so convincing to us that it risks to wash away the knowledge of bliss and our Oneness with God. We are continually feeding on this body experience, so to counter it, we must also feed ourselves spiritually to stay open to the spiritual experience. “Today it will be given you to feel a touch of Heaven, though you will return to paths of learning. Yet you have come far enough along the way to alter time sufficiently to rise above its laws, and walk into eternity a while. This you will learn to do increasingly, as every lesson, faithfully rehearsed, brings you more swiftly to this holy place and leaves you, for a moment, to your Self.” (W-157.3) Or do you think sometimes our "will" to remain separate from God unconsciously dismisses the light of His Love in our lives? Yes! This is always happening both unconsciously and even consciously at times. It can be frightening to our ego to know that we are one with God, that all our striving to be someone counts for nothing. (See article on resistance to God. ) Yet the light of His love is here, always waiting. As we believe this, we realise that our work is to undo the barriers to the awareness of Love’s presence. We do not need to make God love us. “The holy instant is your invitation to love to enter into your bleak and joyless kingdom, and to transform it into a garden of peace and welcome. Love's answer is inevitable. It will come because you came without the body, and interposed no barriers to interfere with its glad coming. In the holy instant, you ask of love only what it offers everyone, neither less nor more. Asking for everything, you will receive it. And your shining Self will lift the tiny aspect that you tried to hide from Heaven straight to Heaven. No part of love calls on the whole in vain. No Son of God remains outside His Fatherhood.” There is another extract from A Course In Miracles that says wonderfully how each time we bring back to the world a little more awareness of our reality in God, but I can't find it right now. Thank you Shaun for a mind open to God’s wisdom. I pray for the Grace of God in our lives and the lives of all who read this. “beloved of God...Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:7, KJV) Amen. With the Love we are, Katherine PS. Thank you so much for your kind words. :-) Click to see praise for Katherine’s book of short inspirational poems on the journey of faith and doubt. Move to Blessing Prayer
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