Showing posts with label Desire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Desire. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

"Desire is prayer..."

"Our Father which art in heaven."
"Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious."

Have you ever stopped to think where your yearning for "something better, higher, holier" comes from? Have you ever stopped to realize that it comes from God?

God speaks to us through our intuition, through our yearning, through our desire. "Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds."

God stirs you to yearn, to wake up to your personal inability, to need to trust your desires to Him.

Why? Because no matter what other solutions you try - drugs, sex, rock-and-roll (or whatever other substitute for real fulfillment you choose) - He alone can fulfill your desire. That is because, at its root, all desire is for that "something better, higher, holier," something powerfully good, something lasting, something more than you can get or make or steal on your own. It is your desire for your oneness with God. He is stirring you - right now - to awake in His likeness, to see yourself as He always already sees you, to be what He already "be's" you!

All desire - no matter how good or bad - is a form of prayer. And the outcome of that prayer is completely based on what - or who - you trust your desires to!

Try trusting them to God. God is always stirring you to want to wake up to Him, to seek so you can find Him, to knock so He can open your heart, to ask so He can tell you "My son... you are always with me and everything I have is yours."

Our Father which art in heaven.
Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious

Seek Him. He's as close as your desire.

Friday, March 7, 2008

So what's it like?

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.

So what's it like in heaven? Isn't it paradise? Isn't it where there is no sin, no disease, no evil, no death? Isn't it where the 10 Commandments are perfectly fulfilled? Isn't it where God, divine Love, is in complete control, where only His will is done?

And so what's it like to live somewhere where only God's will is done? What's God's will like? Isn't it going to be a reflection of His character, His nature? And if so, isn't His will then perfect and good? Isn't it, well, heavenly?

And what is heaven anyway? "Have you ever pictured this heaven and earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme wisdom?" Isn't it a place where God has no opposition, where He is the only power there is, where He reigns supreme? And if so, isn't it a beautiful place to be? a harmonious, happy, healthy, holy place to be?

If so, then, yes indeed: enable us to know that just like it is in heaven, so here on earth, this same Father-Mother God All harmonious is already the only real power there is. That earth is heaven - just viewed through that cloudy perspective, that dirty mirror, that "inverted image of Mind and substance with everything turned upside down. "

And when viewed rightside up, earth is heaven. Earth is already where God is omnipotent, supreme.

Huh?? earth is heaven?

Does this shock you? Does this seem impossible? Then you need a change in perspective. You need to see the world from a more spiritual point of view. You need to wake up and see things the way Jesus did. You need to "have the Mind of Christ."

In fact, that is what Jesus is asking us to pray for in this verse: the perspective he had, the perspective of the Mind of Christ, the point of view that sees God's heavenly will being done right here where just the opposite seems to be happening, where the inverted image seems so real, where the upside down perspective seems so permanently wrongside right!

Remember: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God [...of heaven] is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy."

So as you pray this verse, you are letting "this [same] mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." You are letting Jesus' "correct view" heal your earthly perspective and transform it into one like his, one that heals, one that makes whole, one that is heavenly.

And you have every right - and opportunity - to desire this, to live in a more heavenly way right here and right now.

Why? because it is God's loving will, desire, for you.

How? because God is omnipotent, supreme on "earth" just like He is in heaven.

In fact, there is no earthly dream of a mortal life separated from the everpresent heavenly good of our Father-Mother God. You (and the whole world of those around you) really already live with God in heaven.

Don't you have to die to get there? Of course not. Why? Because "Heaven is not a locality, but a divine state of Mind in which all the manifestations of Mind are harmonious and immortal, because sin is not there and man is found having no righteousness of his own, but in possession of "the mind of the Lord," as the Scripture says.

How would you feel if you had this "divine state of Mind"? if you knew you actually live in heaven right here and right now? How would you act? What would change in your life? What's your intuition telling you right now?

Heaven is your natural spiritual perspective, a divine state of Mind - put into practice and acted on. So let that Mind "be in you as it also was in Christ Jesus." Let that Mind be in you. Let it be your will. Let it move you, motivate you, inspire you, enable you, feed you, forgive you, lead you, deliver you. And you will find yourself fulfilling God's will. You will be a light pulled out from under the bushel of dark "earthy" thinking, and instead actively doing the healing holy loving will of your Father, lighting up earth as if it were Heaven (which, spiritually speaking, it already is).

So yes, enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme. Right here. Right now.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Thy will be done & desire (part 3)

From Webster's Second Edition, the definition of Will:

1. The act or process of volition; specifically:
(a) wish; desire; longing
(b) inclination; disposition; pleasure
2. Something wished by a person, especially by one with power or authority; specifically
(a) a request
(b) a command; decree

Stop and consider what this means, in relation to the 4th verse of the Lord's Prayer: "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."

Using the words in the definition, this verse could be rendered:

"Thy desire be done in earth as it is in heaven."

Or perhaps (considering Mrs. Eddy's concept that "desire is prayer") even:

"Thy prayer be done in earth as it is in heaven."

Think of this: if you honestly are praying this verse with all your heart, you are praying to see God's will, His desire to be done right here where you are, to be done right here on earth just like His will is done in heaven.

And what is God's will for you, His desire for you? Isn't it that you be like Him? That you be whole, and holy? That you understand that you are actually the image of Love - loving, lovable, loved? That you live that truth and grow outward and upward with vigor, freshness, and bliss?

God's will for you is always good, because He, by His very nature, is Good. In fact, His will for you, His wish for you, His desire for you, His prayer for you is not just earthly good. It is heavenly Good!

So when you pray this verse, you are opening up your heart to God's prayer for you. You are trusting your desires, your prayers to Him, so that they may lose their "earthiness" and be molded and exalted to reflect His heavenly good will for you. You actually start to pray (and mean it): "Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme."

Trust your desires to God. Let that trust move you to listen to Him. Let Him mold your will to His. Let Him exalt you, awaken you to who you really are: already complete, already like Him, already His perfect spiritual image and likeness.

As you begin to think and act from that standpoint, you begin to understand that His kingdom is already come, His will is already done, that

"...the kingdom of God is within you" - already within you, naturally. Right here. Right now.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Thy will be done & desire (part 2)

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.

"Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds."

Desire itself is a form of prayer. Desire as in that yearning, that longing, that wishfulness, that watchfulness for something better, higher, holier, that dissatisfaction with the status quo, that unwillingness to sit still and stay silent. Where do you suppose that stirring comes from? What makes you want something more real and solid? What impells you to move? What awakens you to push the boundaries, to go above and beyond the life you already know, the hunger already fed, the love you already feel?

It can only come from one place, whether you understand it clearly or not: "The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man."

But the Bible warns you: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God:"

Why would you want to "try (test) the spirit" of your desire? For the same reason you'd want to avoid accepting a counterfeit $100 bill - to avoid being suckered into accepting nothing as something. Would you really want to accept a counterfiet $100 bill? Would you want to go through the hassle of dealing with the reprecussions of that? or of wasting the time straightening out that kind of situation? Could you afford losing something like a real $100 for a fake $100?

No.

So how do you "try (test) the spirit" of your desire to make sure it's not a fake?

Firstly, be honest about it. Mrs. Eddy makes this astute observation: "Honesty is spiritual power. Dishonesty is human weakness." You can lie to others, but don't kid yourself that you can lie to God. You cannot. Be honest with God about your desires. He loves you and His will for you is only good. Trust Him to open your deepest desires in a way that will be perfect for you - and a true reflection of Him.

Secondly, there are at least few ways - and probably many more - that you can "try" your desires to see if they are authentic to your true nature, such as:

1. is the desire persistent?
2. is the desire a little scarey? does it push your comfort zone?
3. does it feel somehow intuitively authentic and real - even if it seems unattainable?
4. does it make you want to grow in new ways?
5. does it make you want to give? and does it also make you want to receive?
6. does it impell you to exercise your talents - the things you love doing, that express your natural abilities and strengths?
7. does it nag at you to learn and live your real life-purpose?

Such desire is the Holy Spirit stirring you, awakening you, driving you forward to fulfill His will "in earth as it is in heaven." God is never content to leave you sleeping and dreaming away your existence. The Holy Spirit insists on movement. It insists on breathing deeply the fresh air of inspiration and growth. The wind blows, the Spirit moves, and things begin to change. Desire is the awakening in your heart of Emmanuel - God-with-us.

Sometimes your desire is clouded over with the debris of your old ways of thinking and old ways of seeing yourself and others. But even so, even if you're not sure if the desire is real or fake, you can still reach down deep and sincerely hand it over to God.

Sometimes you may need to hand it over repeatedly and persistently. Sometimes you can just offer it up in prayer once and you'll feel OK about it. But either way, you can always trust your desires to God.

You will likely find your passing fancies lose their luster. The counterfeit $100 gets exposed for the worthless thing it is. This is a good - even if sometimes painful - sign.

You might also find that your genuine desires start to blossom in unexpected ways. Opportunities will be put in front of you repeatedly that exercise your newly answered prayers. As your thought opens up about your desires, you take a step and then another, and another, and another, and the doubts begin to fade and you begin to realize you have the ability to live your desires - that your prayers are being answered by your living them.

Trusting God to help you, you will find the courage to keep taking those steps. And a new world will open up, and you will find your life more loving and yourself more loved, and your work more blessed and more of a blessing to others. Your life will be glorifying God - making Him and His perfect will, manifest.

So test this out. Be honest about your desires. Treat them as the prayer that they are. Offer them to God. Let the fakes fall away (good riddance) and treasure the true. And you can be sure that God will mold you and exalt you, and answer your desires, your prayers, in a way that fulfills His heavenly will for you, right where you are right now, in ways more wonderful than you ever thought possible or even expected.

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Thy will be done & desire (part 1)

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.

"Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds." - Mary Baker Eddy

Isn't turning your will, your deepest desire - which really is your most sincere prayer - over to God a way of yielding to His will? Isn't it a way of letting His will be done in earth - your current human experience - as it is in heaven - your actual spiritual identity as His perfect image and likeness?

And if so, wouldn't that imply that God's will for you on earth is as beautiful as His will is for you in heaven?

And if so, couldn't you trust your most secret heart-felt even unspoken yearnings over to Him? Especially if you knew that to do so would only mean that they would be molded and exalted for you? So that they would be clarified and purified and beautified for you before you experience them? Wouldn't that be a good thing? Wouldn't that be letting God's will be done in your heart as it is in His?

But, honestly, you're kidding yourself if you think that yielding your desires to God is easy. It often isn't. In fact, how often are you even honest with yourself about your innermost desires? How easy it even to trust yourself with your own deepest feelings and needs and wants?

But here in this verse, Jesus is encouraging you to take that step of trust with God. You can do it. You can let go of your will, your attempts to control your life, your love, lust, your status, talents, paycheck, companionship, family, safety, duties and obligations, your fulfillment, your life, your joy.

And notice something important: Mrs. Eddy said "Desire is prayer." She didn't put qualifiers on it. She didn't say "good desire" or "spiritual desire" or "righteous desire." Mrs. Eddy said "Desire is prayer." Desire itself is a form of prayer. All desire is a form of prayer. In fact, it's probably the most sincere form of prayer there is because, in essence, it's wordless. It's what you feel. It's what you yearn for.

So who are you praying to? who are you trusting your desires to? A bottle? a body? a drug? food? adreneline? solitude? entertainment? ritual? fear? shiny objects? Are you trusting your desire - your prayer - to these "gods"? Then you may be asking amiss.

Do you think you can only bring your nice polite desires to God? Do you think God can't handle your mean selfish lusty passionate crazy desires? that you can't trust Him with those? You can - if you are prepared to be molded and exalted! Because you will be.

Remember Jesus, who companioned with sinners, walked with outcasts, who touched lepers. He "molded and exalted" the desires of anyone who turned to him, who asked him for help, who trusted in him. Molded, how? in the image of God. Exalted, how? He "lifted their lives higher than their poor thought-models would allow" (as Mrs. Eddy states it), and his correct view of God's will in their lives healed every one of them.

And God still does the same thing. For you. Now. Jesus' prayer promises you that.

As the old saying goes, you can let go and let God. You can let God's perfect will for you grow in your heart. Let His perfect purpose for you emerge gently in your life. Let it awaken you to clearer views of what your desires are really telling you. Even let it even "explode in a fury of blossom!" as the poet says.

To trust your desires to God is to connect with Him in the most fundamental way. "...and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires..." Why? Because God is Love itself. God's will for you in earth is exactly the same as His will for you in heaven: it is perfection, wholeness, unity, authenticity, bliss. It is total goodness. As it says in Philippians: "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

And notice that it's God's good pleasure that works in you. Not His burdensome pleasure or His boring pleasure or His unsatisfying pleasure! So take that step. Trust your will, your yearning, your deepest desires to God. Let Him mold and exalt them - purify, clarify, and enthuse you about them. As you do, you'll find His will becomes your will. And you will find that it is a joyful thing. You'll find reflecting God's will is indeed a good pleasure.

Then this verse in Psalms will start ringing true for you:

"As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." Because God enables us to know, as in heaven, so on earth His will is omnipotent, supreme - and supremely good for you, everyone around you, and, in fact, everyone in the universe.