[tmtranscripts] Poccatello Transcript 12-3-99

[Bill Kelly]

POCATELLO TEAM
December 3, 1999

Abraham (Bill): Greetings.  I am Abraham, your friend, your mortal companion
of former days, and your staunch admirer.  I wish to discuss and comment on
the role of being a servant, a servant of God and a servant of each other.
While it is true that your basic status is that of sonship, daughership,
your work, your mission entails the joining of servanthood and friendship.
Servanthood is a state of mind which reminds you that in the family of God
in the kingdom of heaven, you each ought to serve one another.  To have the
mind of a servant is not to be servile.  Please do not misunderstand.  To
have the mind of a servant is to have a self-forgetfulness, a departure from
ego aggrandizement, so that you are able to be in tune with the needs and
wants of all God's children that you contact in the course of any day.  That
great heroine Mother Theresa exemplified what I am trying to illustrate
probably better than anyone has for a long time.  Her secret of service was
to assume that she was serving the Master in every individual that she
encountered.  She was able to look past their outward appearance and see
into their soul, and there she recognized the spirit of Christ Michael, the
Spirit of Truth.  There is always danger when someone is offered of the
chance of spiritual leadership of taking that service and changing it into
aggrandizement.  Remember our Lord himself said that he came to be as a
servant and as a friend of the socially disrepute, the morally disaffected,
the lonely and troubled and fearful human being.  In order for Michael to
become universe souvenir he had to bestow himself in the likeness of his
creatures from the highest to lowest order, the mortal will creature.  In
order to have earned his leadership he had to serve.  While I as a mortal
was interested in leadership my natural proclivity was to rule over others
by force, and I was pretty successful at this.  From my great teacher
Melchizadek, I began to understand that my leadership was in error, and
while I didn't fully understand this in my mortal life, now I have made it
my own.  We are asking you all to assume leadership on your planet,
spiritual leadership, which will manifest itself by serving one another.  By
that I mean every other mortal with whom you have contact.  Freely have you
received, therefor freely must you give.  As this time of year in
Christendom, at least partially  remembers that great condescension of God
to be incarnate in human form as a helpless babe, so may this season find
your hearts lifted with gratitude and willing to take up the true cross,
self responsibility resulting in loving service.
	I appreciate your effort to listen to my words and I thank this TR for
struggling with this message.  Finally I would leave you with a familiar
parable of mine.  The tree that grows on the side of the cliff will not
break under the heaviest winds, because it has deep roots and has survived
the onslaughts of its development.  And so likewise let your roots grow deep
into the soil of God's love so that you may be able to withstand the
difficulties, the challenges, the difficult times, the boring times, all
manner of what you term adversity.  Without adversity you would not be able
to test your faith, your hope, your courage.  My friends you all do very
well.  I am pleased to be allowed this opportunity to speak to you.  Shalom.

Daniel (Bob S): I am Daniel.  I too greet you this evening, my brothers and
sisters, with open arms reaching out to embrace you all, in the spirit of
him who created us all.  Rise above the coldness of this night to see the
warmth of him who made us all, for if you can and you can, you will, each of
you, will find in your own lives that encouragement, that warmth, that love
which will lift you up and allow to deal with those problems of mortal
existence.  Well, I wasn't planning on giving a sermon, but on occasion I
get carried away.
	My friends, I welcome you to tonight's gathering.  There are so, so many of
us. I wish at times you could see us, but that is against the rules.  So you
will have to take my word for it.  There are many more of us than there are
of you here gathered this evening.  We are going to change the format for
tonight's meeting, and allow you to be the teachers.  No, don't worry.  This
will be something you will enjoy.  I now turn the time over to Aaron.

Aaron (Bill): Greetings, and hello my good friends.  What Daniel meant by
'you are going to be the teachers this evening' was not that you are all
going to be asked for an off-the-cuff lesson with no preparation.  But
rather that you are going to teach us, who come to this planet from many
different places, the things that you have learned and we have not yet
experienced.  Because most teachers have come from societies more advanced
than the state of affairs on this planet, we have not personally witnessed
some of the tragedies, some of the difficulties and some of the adversities
that are part and partial of Urantians.  What I would like to know this
evening, that you could teach me and my fellows, is what part of the lessons
that we have imparted over these many years do you find to be the most
valuable?  What topics, what approaches, what in our teaching has worked for
you?  And we desire this information not just out of idle curiosity, my
friends, but in order that we may have feedback in order to refine and
improve our teaching skills.  I will therefore request, but not require of
course, that each you of speak as you desire to.  You certainly are not
required to respond to the question, but the more of you that can enter into
this feedback process, the greater will be the benefit to we teachers.
Before we start are there any questions regarding what it is I desire you to
do?  (No response.)  Very well, let us start.  I will offer an opportunity
to the person on the left of this TR.  (Laughter.)  Pat, what gems of wisdom
can you enlighten me with this evening?

Pat: Oh, I don't know, Aaron.  For me personally it was very hard for me in
the beginning.  I was in awe and discomfort as well in the beginning, and
the phenomenon of the whole thing that I would get lost in one sense.  But I
have learned to relax a little more and hopefully concentrate sometimes more
in what you're bringing forth.  I of course really enjoy your lecture part,
because I am not a great participator, but I know that with all of your
teachers urging to bring us out more and participate brings more growth.  So
I can't say one thing or the other.  I think all the things you have been
doing have been good for me.  And some are more uncomfortable, (Laughter.)
but I am so very thankful that you are here, and deeply appreciate all the
teaching for it is here to help us.

Aaron (Bill): Thank you, Pat, and you have certainly underlined a critical
problem to many people in this, what appears to be channeling process.  I am
glad that you have grown accustomed to our face, as it is known, through
this medium, so that you are more comfortable and can focus more on the
material and the process of education.  There is a place always for the
imparting of information in what is termed the lecture.  Although you may
fantasize, that you may have to top of your skull removed and information
just poured in, as it were, from a teapot (Laughter.), it is not possible
nor desirable for you to be merely the hard drive.  (More laughter.)  You
have to be the operating system as well, to use the feeble analogy of your
machinery.  And it is a struggle to understand, although you may understand
intellectually, the real understanding occurs only when there has been
experience with the material presented.  Therefor we have to do more than
lecture.  You have to experience.  I appreciate you being willing to teach
me, and I want you to know that we all truly love each one of you.
	Kenneth, if you have ought to speak, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Ken: I agree with my wife and her comments and her reply.  I appreciate
Daniel's comment this evening on the diversity of the adversity that we must
experience to grow.  And we definitely have had that since we have entered
into the teaching mission.  What has been presented I have learned from and
I have admired; and I have tried to emulate the way that you teach.  To take
your lessons and not only to know them, but to understand them.

Aaron (Bill): Well spoken.

Ken: I am slowly learning to love myself more and more.  One of the big
things that I get from the teaching mission is the patience that you
exhibit, that you share, that you give, that you love us.  To pick out one
lesson that you had, I really enjoyed the lesson on the mortal ego.  I
thought that was outstanding.

Aaron (Bill): Because all of you know that persona well since you have
mortal ego.

Ken: Big mortal egos.  (Laughter.)

Daniel (Bill): Ken I thank you for your dedication, you sincerity, and your
love.

Ken: I do give you my love.

Aaron (Bill): Which serves as a role model for others.  Loyalty and
dedication are powerful characteristic which have the greatest influence on
others because they display your understanding of the most important things.
I will pass to the next person at this time.  Barbara, do you care to
comment?  (Laughter.)

Barbara: You just caught me off guard.  

Aaron (Bill): We will get back to Marty.  Remember it is not required that
you reply.

Barbara: No, I will reply.  I was trying to think of another way to put it.
(More laughter.)  I was sitting here thinking that I am not, internally,
anything like the person I was before I began with this group, before I
became involved with the teachers, before I began to hear.  So, playing off
of what you said before, I feel that my hard drive has been reformatted or
partitioned I'm not sure which.  (Laughter.)  I don't know that there is a
particular lesson, but I think there have been multiple lessons over the
three years, (I don't know how long it has been.  Three, I think.) I have
been able to grow from those lessons.  They have been lessons that have
connected somewhere important, and allowed me to think about things for the
ensuing weeks or months.  I doesn't happen every time, but it happens very
frequently, and those are times that I really cherish.

Aaron (Bill): I thank you, Barbara, for pointing out that not every student
that every student will benefit equally from the lessons, that the lessons
only have real force when they connect with something, some experience that
is upper most in your mind.  And I thank you for your analogy of the
reformatted hard drive, for indeed one of the difficulties that you all had
to struggle with was changing your point-of-view.  For some of you this
began with the information from the Fifth Epochal Revelation itself, and for
some of you it began with teacher contact.  Of course our goal, as you know,
is to reformat everyone's hard drive on this planet, to bring everyone to
the place of conscious awareness of their status as sons and daughters, and
therefore their sibling responsibilities.  It is quite a joy for us to
observe you people undergoing such dramatic change in such a short time
almost in fact equal to that famous Dickens story of Scourge, not perhaps in
the rapidity of change, but certainly in the profundity of it. And now
Marty, you have a chance to answer my question.

Marty: You were supposed to go on around.  (Laughter.)

Aaron (Bill): But it you don't desire to, that is OK too.

Marty: I don't think I can pick out one lesson in particular, in that to me
it is kind of like reading the Urantia Book.  The longer I have been in it,
other things make more sense than they did at the beginning.  And I think
the teaching mission's been the same way.  A lot of it I might not be ready
for at that point in time, but in another six months or so down the road,
then it may come into importance for me.  And so I just kind of try to take
in what I can at that point in time, and know that the rest of it will be
there in my development along the way.

Aaron (Bill): And you are very wise in this approach, my friend, for no one
can truly understand more than they have the capacity or the desire to
absorb.  And you will, as you say, put it on the back burner of your
unconscious mind where you do store many more memories than you think you
do, and they function in that manner in the unconscious reservoir of the
mind where they correlate and connect and then burst forth into
consciousness as insight.  I am willing to continue this circular pattern or
you may offer to speak as you wish.

Bob D: I think the lessons for me that were the most impacting were the ones
where we had to react to some adversity.  When I was in Spokane-Coeur
d'Alene to here I was in several situations where there have been challenges
to face for myself or members of the group as a whole.  And it seems like
our relationship to you offered us the opportunity to have like wise
counselors while we went through these things.  And it seems like, more so
than anything--like I have never (been helped) by the long, drawn out
sermons, so to speak, or the big long lessons.  They have always been better
when you read them on paper.  Then you get something out of them.  But it is
hard to interact or relate to at the moment.  Whereas if we are interfacing
with you, about some issue or some topic, it seems like it always has more
direct relevance.  And so I would say that for myself, it is actually more,
maybe a recognition of your relationship in our challenges.  And I do highly
respect just having you around and recognizing your mannerisms, how you deal
with things and how you are very patient, and enduring.  I know we all made
a lot of errors in the last 10 years of our lives in different things, and
none of those gave you reason or pause to dismiss any of us.  It is like you
have a very patient demeanor with us, a very friendly demeanor, and it
doesn't matter what we do, whether it is right or wrong, you seen to love us
anyway.  So, I don't know, maybe it is just recognizing how you are helps me
in my life.  It makes me want to be more like that when I deal with other
people.

Aaron (Bill): Thank you, Bob, for pointing out another important aspect of
this teaching mission, as you have stated its value to yourself.  The
greatest teacher this world has ever known was also addressed as Master,
because Jesus was such a fine friend of every human being that he ever came
into contact with.  Therefor his teaching could be considered counseling as
you use that word today.  He did offer advice when it was requested, but his
interaction, the process itself, the flavor of it, was maybe the most
important part of his servanthood to his brothers and sisters.  And while I
appreciate you compliments to us who are a little above you from thousands
of years of experience, we also consider ourselves a long way from
perfection, which Christ Michael achieved in one short life on this planet.
However, we teach what we learned even as do you, even as do all people, and
therefor part of our teaching is, as you said, the way in which we react to
you and with you.  The Father nurtures his children with as much sensitivity
as a mother nurses her baby.  He knows your needs before you ask.  He knows
exactly what is best for you.  If you can turn your soul toward his breast,
there you will find succor and nurturance.  
	Virginia or Lori or anyone else who wants to add further comment?

Virginia: Aaron I think that the most significant thing that the teaching
mission has done for me is to encourage me to experience diversity and not
die.  (Laughter.)  And the constant support that you have given to us, words
that come from the spirit within or from the voices that I hear in my head,
or something else, I am just very, very grateful that I've had this
experience.  You know, I look at my life and I am just very grateful for the
path it's taken even though there's been some tough times.  I'm not sure it
has to be continued.  (Laughter.)  But I'm very grateful that the book has
come and the teaching mission has been a natural outgrowth of the huge
information that was given to this planet.  I guess I've said enough.

Aaron (Bill): Thank you.  And once again you have touched upon an important
aspect.  All of you are saying that your contact with us has lifted you up
in one way or another.  No effect can be greater than its cause.  No water
can rise higher than its source.  If this was coming from your egos, as they
used to operate in your minds, you would not be hearing the encouraging word
that you hear.  And that is because we are speaking from above you in terms
of our spiritual progress.  Even so our final goal for each of you is that
you will find within yourself the source of wisdom and truth, for each of
you has within you that source, that fragment God, that portion of Michael's
spirit of truth.
	I realize, Virginia, that adversity is unpleasant.  The Havana natives are
perfect, but they have never achieved perfection.  The are kind naturally,
but they have never experienced the triumph of kindness over the conquering
of a belligerent ego.  As you grow more spiritual you will see the great
value of struggle in this mortal life, for you will progress so much more
quickly and effectively than someone who has a relative life of ease.
	Lori, my dear friend, do you wish to answer my question?

Lori: There's not a lot of originality that I can add to what has been said.
I agree with all of it.  But I would like to thank you and all the teachers
for all the lessons and exercises and experiences, and all my friends here
for all their support, because all of it together has enriched my life more
than I can ever say.  It has changed me and my methods.  I enjoy it all, the
good times especially and then looking back on the bad, how much I have
learned and grown.  So thank you.  

Aaron (Bill): Thank you, Lori.  And you have touched upon another important
aspect which is that our teaching is both individual and group.  And you
have in the group a greater potential for understand than you do by
yourselves.  When you are together as you are tonight, you potentiate
yourselves, you increase your potentials as you share.  You see, my friends,
while you did not do your usual sharing, you have all just shared
tremendously, not only with us, but also with each other.  And not merely
what you would call lightweight material, but indeed the most important
things in your life.
	This concludes our meeting together.  The hour is striking.  (Laughter as a
clock chimes on the hour.)  And indeed have you been effective teachers for
each other and for we, your elder brothers and sisters.  
	Please join hands now and let us conclude in prayer.  Dear Michael, on this
season of the year when the world turns briefly to consider your marvelous
love in coming to share mortality, may we as your self-conscious messengers
and representatives portray to others this marvelous spirit of yours, that
you came to serve and not to be served.  May we truly discover anew the joy
of giving, and may that giving go beyond mere material exchange to that most
sincere and complete love relationship with all our brothers and sisters.  I
thank you for these, my younger brothers and sisters.  I thank you for
privilege of working with them and learning from them.  And I look forward
to that day when we will all see each other as we are.  And finally I
rejoice to be among those who ascend to your presence, oh great Trinity of
Paradise, hand in hand with all my brothers and sisters.  And now may the
grace, the mercy, the love, the peace and the strength of God be with us
all.  Amen.

(Editor's note.  The two TRs asked to include their responses to Aaron's
question.)

Bob S: I find myself looking in the teachings for those major announcements,
those of great significance, so I sometimes miss gems with potential impact
on me personally in my emphasis on those that seem to have more obvious
significance.  Thank goodness my teachers do not miss these gems.  They
usually find ways to bring them to my attention.  I know this emphasis on
major announcements is a weakness of mine.  I am working on it, along with
trying to become more patient.
	There have been so many lessons which have moved me, I cannot possibly
remember them all.  Generally those that have caught my immediate attention
were those that spoke to me personally.  They addressed a problem that was
one on which I was currently dealing, or a personal growth topic I was
consciously working on at that time.  Here too I must thank you and the
other teachers for many times you have found ways to help me discover issues
important to my development which I missed initially.
	I cannot imagine how empty my life would now be without the teaching
mission.  I thought it was OK before, but I now see how much I have grown,
and how much more I have to learn.  But that doesn't overwhelm me.  I seem
to have faith that it will all come to pass in due time according to the
Father's plan.  I am truly excited to be a part of Christ Michael's plan.