The Lord's Prayer & The 10 Promises (Part 3)

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil"
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.


"Thou shalt not kill."
"Thou shalt not commit adultery."


This verse of our Lord's Prayer seems especially relevant to these two commandments - or promises - about our relationship with God, and therefore with each other.


God never tempts us to "kill" the pure - unadulterated - sense of ourselves or of others any more than He would tempt us to literally kill ourselves or someone else.

God is Life. His assurance to us is: "I am come that [you] might have life, and that [you] might have it more abundantly." And this abundant Life includes no adulteration and no murder.

Why? because God is Life itself - and you are God's image and likeness.

Think of it:

* God made you inately and completely pure, like Him. God never leads you to be tempted into adulterating that purity.

* And God made you to live and live abundantly, like Him. You are not made to be tempted into murdering that joyous Life, whether with harsh words or a bullet - either yours or anyone else's.

God feeds your famished affections - not your famished lusts - and He feeds you with grace, abundant grace, for today.

God forgives your debts, your mistakes, your willfulness, as you live your practice, as you live His Love and share it with others.

God leads you into "paths of righteousness for His name's sake" and delivers you from sin, disease, and death - because God is love. And "when we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's."

God leads you - not into trials - but delivers you from the trial of sin, the trial of sickness, the trial of death - and even from the temptation to believe those "trials" are any part of His will or His reality for you. Because they aren't.

Jesus knew this. And Jesus repeatedly proved that God doesn't send us evil by healing everyone he encountered of sin, disease, or even death! And his prayer affirms this: God never leads you into trials and tempations, but always delivers you from every belief of evil, every tempting sense of separation from your true authentic healthy whole and holy being.

Every time you pray the Lord's Prayer, you are praying the spiritual Truth that Jesus actually thought and understood. You are dwelling with the Mind of Christ. You are living at the point of Truth, Life, and Love. You are experiencing God's reality: home & heaven. Here. Now.

And as Jesus' Prayer shows you, you are already purely whole, holy, and safe.

What exactly are we being saved and delivered from anyway?

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.

Temptation sounds kinda fun. But a lot of Bible translations use the word "trial" where the King James version uses "temptation." "Trial" doesn't sound like much fun. That's because what Jesus is talking about here in this verse of the Lord's prayer is very pointedly exposing evil for what it is: NOT fun. In fact, just the opposite. Evil is what would - if it could - suck the life and love and joy right out of you. It would love for you to think that "temptation" is kinda fun, because then you'd voluntarily give up your life to it. But Jesus tells us evil is a "liar and the father of it". Don't buy the lie.

And what exactly is the lie?

Sin = is thinking you want to be separated from God, that you are better off being separated from God;
Sickness = is thinking that you must be separated from God because of contagion, heredity, circumstances, "world beliefs."
Death = is thinking you are finally separated from God because sin and sickness cause death - the ultimate lie of separation from Life, God.

Fortunately for us, Jesus gave us his prayer that proves God never leads us into evil, never leads us into these evil lies, but delivers us into holiness, health, and wholeness of life.

So what is this wholeness / holiness thing then? Is it some "better than you" goodie-goodie human perfection? Does it require you to become some ascetic mystic wrapped in self-denial and a vow of poverty? Is it being morally pure and always "doing the right thing"?

No.

It is the opposite of such human ego-trips and moralism.

Does that shock you?

It shouldn't. Human moralism puts "what is right" ahead of what is spiritually true. It judges by the letter of the law instead of the spirit. It is all about appearances instead of substance.

What Jesus taught is God's reality being made manifest. Jesus always put spirituality first. He constantly broke human "moral" law - often to prove the point that living the letter but not the spirit was a phony, and dangerous and usually hypocritical way of living.

Jesus always acted from what is true about God. And he always acted from what is true about us as His image and likeness. He always lived and acted from the point of God as Spirit, of God as Love.

Here's how Jesus categorically shut down human "moralism":

Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

And then he silenced moralism for all time by saying:

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Right and wrong are not based on following dietary codes, religious traditions, tribal or national customs, or even things your parents told you.

There are only these 2 commandments.

And - if you are able to live your life from these two points, you will have fullfilled "all the law and the prophets" - all other ethical and moral standards.

Why?

Because you will be living out from the Christ, from the truth about who God is, and about who you are, and about who your neighbor (which includes the world) is as His creation, His reflection. You will be living out from a fundamental spiritual Truth: God actually is Love. And you and everyone you encounter actually are His image and likeness.

So love God - be utterly grateful that God is good, is Love itself. And then recognize His image and likeness - love His image and likeness - in every one you meet. And you will be fulfilling your own identity - living out from your core purpose - as His image and likeness - the living breathing acting image and likeness of Divine Love itself. Because that is who you really are.

None of this has anything to do with your national culture, your upbringing, your heredity, human character, what you've been taught, or human "morality" good bad or indifferent. You can't "make" yourself holy (which is what moralism claims). But you can awake to it - since it is already your everpresent natural state of being.

Huh?

Yes. If God is good (and He is), and if you are made in His image and likeness (and you are), then yes, holiness is your natural state of being. It is your God-given Christliness. It is the fulfillment of "Be ye holy; for I am holy." It is the opposite of moralism. It is living out from the Holy Spirit always.

Jesus lived his divine holiness - even though he was repeatedly accused of being immoral. And according to the literal understanding of the Law, he was. He routinely broke the sabbath by healing people. He and his disciples ate with unwashed hands. He spoke to Samaritans. He touched lepers. The world's "morality" is a dim shadow of the spiritual Truth of being that Jesus lived, taught, and demonstrated. In fact, it was that worldly "morality" that crucified him. But he proved that literal morality to be false and powerless with his resurrection and ascension.

Jesus' entire life proved the spiritual truth found in the 1st chapter of Genesis, the 10 Commandments, and the Sermon on the Mount. His morality was always an outgrowth of his spiritual understanding. His actions were always the expression of his deepest conviction that God is Love. And he summed up "all the law and the prophets" in those two short commandments:

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.... And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

This is also your natural state of being here and now. Jesus proved it so you may live it. His holiness - His salvation - is this spiritual awakening made manifest in your life. This spirituality lived is the true morality Jesus expects of us.

God never leads us into temptation, into firery trials and torturous self-denials, into sin, disease, and death, but always only delivers us into Love, Truth, and Life as His living likeness!

Hallelujah!

Being delivered by recognizing Christ

To recognize a song, you have to have heard it before.

To recognize a face, you have to have seen it before.

To recognize Christ, means you already have a relationship to the Christ. Christ in already your heart.

And what is amazing, is that everyone is already capable of recognizing the Christ, no matter who they are, or what kind of life they've led. Everyone has an intuitive sense that awakens when you recognize something spiritually good. And that can only happen because the Christ is already within you, already known in your heart-of-hearts.

When Mary Magdalene (see Luke 7) barged univited into Simon the Pharisee's house to wash Jesus feet with her tears, dry them with her hair, and anoint them with perfumed ointment, she was proving this very thing. She recognized the Christ because that Christliness was already within her. Had that not been the case, she would have never acted like she did. Fear or shame or ignorance would have kept her out. But her impulsive actions acknowledged something that even the priestly Simon couldn't: that Jesus was the Christ. Mary knew it.

Her devotion and love of Christ was "Love being reflected in love" - her debts, her sins, being forgiven - forsaken - in the awakening of her native state, her original Christliness, her natural likeness to God. The tears she shed were her painful past being released in the joy of her awakening to her true relation to God. And she received the blessing that Simon missed, because "she loved much" because much was forgiven her. While Simon clung to his pride and position, Mary dropped her mistaken sense of self (ego) in her love for the Christ.

She entered that house - not as the prostitute (though that is all Simon saw) - but as the daughter of God. And to paraphrase Mrs. Eddy: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect [woman], who appeared to him where sinning mortal [woman] appeared to [Simon]. In this perfect [woman] the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct [Christly] view of [her healed and sealed her own Christly awakening].

Mary Magdalene continued to sit at Jesus feet the rest of her life. That was her true life purpose. She recognized the Christ because it was already within her, and she went on to live and to learn and to love much.

This Christ is also already within you. Right this moment. May you seek"...Truth, Christ ... like Mary Magdalene, from the summit of devout consecration, with the oil of gladness and the perfume of gratitude, with tears of repentance and with those hairs all numbered by the Father.

And may you recognize your own Christliness, be awakened by it, redeemed by it, changed by it, impelled by it, and in so doing, awaken that Christly recognition in everyone you meet.