[tmtranscripts] N. Idaho TeaM 04/27/03

[rickgiles]

North Idaho Teaching Mission Group
Topic: Spiritual Economy
Teacher: Elyon

April 27, 2003

*	Elyon (Jonathan TR):  Greetings, I am Elyon.  It is a 
pleasure to dwell with you in this period of silence.   
Undetected by your ears is a subtle symphony of sound that is a 
consequence of the vibration presence of the Indwelling Spirit.  
It is the positioning of this spirit presence in your soul 
chamber, combined with your willful attention, that creates the 
harmonics that cause the acoustics.  It is a morontia quality.  
When ones like yourselves gather it creates attention by those 
as myself who have morontia senses.  This assembly of yourselves 
is itself a song of beauty.  You will grow to appreciate such 
assemblages as you ascend through the worlds of mansonia.  
	Today I wish to draw upon a rather commonplace human 
experience to indicate the means whereby all of you in concert 
can be effective in promoting spiritual progress on this world 
and also to contribute significantly to your personal growth 
even while the environment you may be engaged in either hinders 
or simply does not contribute to progress, to upliftment.  Many 
factors propel mankind forward; the obvious ones of comfort, 
protection, companionship, of power.  One that has evolved in 
the course of your development is economy.   While once economy 
simply was the trading of item for item based on value, it grew 
more complex, and now on your world not only do you produce for 
sale and purchase for ownership, you also invest; you become a 
participant in a business by way of stock ownership.  In simpler 
times a business flourished if people purchased their goods or 
services.  Now a business may also flourish simply because of 
the faith, the trust, and the hope that a stockholder places in 
that concern.
	When a business is successful stockholders are rewarded.  
You also have sophisticated your activities in this manner by 
developing formulas and techniques through which you may hedge 
your bets, soften the blows, or increase your yields such that 
when the market in general fluctuates adversely to your personal 
goals, you are less likely to be adversely affected.  So is this 
true in the spiritual dimension.
	When Michael dwelled upon this world as Jesus he taught to 
love one another.  He taught to love another as you love 
yourself, to treat each one as your neighbor.  This 
diversification of spiritual perspective protects the soul from 
shifts in culture and civilization and society that could hurt 
one’s spiritual progress.  If you simply spiritually invest only 
in those close to you, then when tragedy strikes or conditions 
merely change, you find a reduction in your spiritual wealth.  
But as you broaden the neighborhood, include in your fellowship 
more souls, you level the risks.  You find even in a passing 
stranger a counselor and a friend.
	It is taught that to buy when your market is down increases 
the likelihood of your success rather than to avoid 
participation because things look grim.  So it is true in 
spiritual ministry.  If you perceive a low point in the hearts 
and minds of those around you, that is the time to buy in, to be 
of service, to minister.  While it may be risky to your own 
happiness to be involved with others when they are down, when 
they are falling into negativity, that is precisely the point of 
need, of the hunger for light and truth and love.
	What makes an economy strong is its flexibility, its ability 
to change, to weather the dips and to leverage the highs.  
Without a dip and without a high the economy stagnates.  In a 
spiritual environment this also holds true.  As an individual 
you may be at a peak in you aspirations, in a project of your 
growth.  Another around you may be at a low, experiencing a 
recession.  This differential stimulates life just as a 
differential in your stock market stimulates investment.
	You may and could have your spiritual experience all by 
yourself, but that would not make you rich, just as you may have 
your own business by yourself.  It is the cross, exchange, of 
other souls just as it requires a number of consumers to support 
your business that you experience vigor, robustness.
	Some are inclined to create standards for behavior, to 
codify these to make them religious doctrine.  These prove 
helpful to one beginning the journey to Paradise, for they train 
and teach skills of moral behavior, ethical conduct, and social 
sensitivity, respect for God and universe values.  Others teach 
flexibility, an expression you use, “going with the flow”.  This 
heightens the sensitivity to the fact that life is ever-
changing, that at no station in your spiritual ascension are you 
complete, that you as an individual may not have developed the 
perception for your advancement, and that life itself can 
provide the clues if you are willing to move along in the stream 
of spiritual advancement of the many souls that are in your life 
and upon your world.
	Just as a good investor will not simply follow the rules of 
investment, and also just as a shrewd investor will not simply 
buy what is popular at the time but canvass the great potentials 
of investment, so do you in your spiritual growth.  Applying the 
rules of religious doctrine may help.  Discerning the flow of 
spirit enthusiasm in others may help, but there may come a time, 
or times repeated, where you must discern when you can and 
should apply yourself contrary to market trends.  In your study 
of the life of the master you have come to witness that he did 
not always follow the trend.  In a social, spiritual sense 
Michael came to your world when the spiritual stockmarket was 
high, when the cultures that he was born into were hungry, 
impactive, engaged in many spiritual and religious pursuits.  
Jesus, however, chose not to engage in those forms of religious 
upliftment.  Yes, he did so individually in attending the 
synagogues and in studying the scriptures, but he did not become 
one of them.  While he applied the precepts of the teachings, he 
also was willing to invest himself in the search for the Father 
independent of trends.  What resulted was an upliftment in the 
spiritual economy of this world.  It created a new marketplace, 
that being the brotherhood of mankind.  While it has been slow 
in its growth, the climb has been upward steadily; the returns 
on the investment will be Light and Life.
	In your personal growth you must seek always to be alert to 
the factors which contribute to your well-being and to discern 
and choose wisely when rules of behavior help and also to note 
when you are threatened by directionless, aimless, wandering.  
In a collective sense, as spiritual religious enthusiasm ebbs 
and flows, rises and wanes, there are times to engage yourself 
aggressively in ministry and service, in outpouring love, in 
strengthening the economy of spiritual beings.  There are other 
times when you, threatened by the collapse of life, must retreat 
to conserve your light, to preserve your life, as Jesus told his 
apostles to lay low following his crucifixion, that you may be 
of better service to your fellows on the rebound.
	I encourage you to continue the development of your ability 
to invest in the well-being of this world, to do so by 
increasing your assets personally and investing those assets 
socially.  Assets grow through risk taking, and the risk you 
take in ministry is the potential of rejection, 
misunderstanding.  While that is a short-term loss, a higher 
risk is not to have encountered another who may teach you in 
return a valuable lesson which will lift you to a higher level 
of function.  That risk is worth taking, for it increases your 
spiritual assets.
	I hope this has given you thoughts to consider.  I am 
willing to receive your feedback at this time.

	Evelyn:  I notice you use the word “soul”.  You don’t say 
“persons” so much as “souls”.  The difference I think is seeing 
another as timeless, eternal, not just a face, just this life, 
and being of equal value to oneself.  How do I apply this in my 
encounters?  I often feel I’m invested in too few other souls.
	This is a vivid image and a useful model, comparing to 
economic situations.

*	Elyon:   I have chosen “soul” in this instance because of 
its correlation to this model.  Anyone can have a business, but 
what makes that business valuable is its net worth.  Every 
personality is in a sense its own business.  It is your soul 
that is your net worth.  As you value one another -- it is a 
given that you are personalities -- it is your net worth, the 
development of your soul, its expansion and growth, that makes 
you a rich personality.  This is why I chose to emphasize the 
soul element of your being.

	Tom:  In a material economy you have to scrimp and save just 
to invest.  In the spiritual economy all the Father has is yours 
for the asking.  Michael said we are the salt of the earth which 
serves in being spent.  All you have is what you give away.  
What comes to mind is the real measure of a man’s wealth is how 
much he would be worth if he lost all his money.  It places more 
value on the spiritual side.  We are so used to the physical 
economy that we aren’t aware of the true wealth everywhere.

*	Elyon:  Yes, and your observations are good, for not always 
do material comparisons equate across the board to spiritual 
principles.  As you have indicated they are at times inverse.  
For a man may hoard wealth and be empty in soul, and another may 
abhor wealth and be rich in soul.  While this may be true, to 
abhor wealth will not make you rich in soul, for you must put 
your energy into soul growth, wealth or not as the economy of 
your current times has revealed to many who have invested and 
grew relatively rich only to watch it evaporate as the economy 
shifted.  The spiritual man knows when to shift his assets.  
Should a country that you perhaps are living in go antagonistic 
toward religion, the sage knows when to shift his assets to 
protect his spiritual wealth.  An investor who has ten dollars 
knows that by spending that ten he may gain to twenty, and this 
is true with spiritual enlightenment.  If you have reached a 
degree of illumination and you give it to another, the other has 
your initial investment when received, and you double your 
return.
	Michael said, “Go forth into the world and proclaim the 
gospel.”  He did not say scrape and hoard what you can gather 
and hide that you may not lose your wealth.  As I said early on 
that the economy must not be stagnant, the spiritual economy is 
the same.  Always will you benefit from giving out, giving away, 
for the truth that it is blessed to give is followed by the 
corollary that as you give so do you receive.

	Kirk:  My daughter is in a dilemma now about moving.  She’s 
a spiritual person and could use some words, if it’s 
appropriate.

*	Elyon:  Could you describe some of this dilemma?

	Kirk:  She wants to move and feels it would be spiritual, 
but she’s raising a family where she is, and she is responsible 
for her mother.  The dilemma is whether to do it or not.  She’s 
been praying a lot about it.  She’s always looking for new 
spiritual ideas.  If I could show her words coming from what we 
receive, maybe it would help.

*	Elyon:  This move you speak of is one on a spiritual level 
or a physical displacement of...?

	Kirk:  Both.

*	Elyon:  I will begin by reminding you of the presentation in 
your Urantia Book of the early adult life of Jesus and his 
parallel goals of serving the Father and ministering to this 
planet while bestowed here, and this second of raising his 
earthly family subsequent to his earth father’s death and 
providing such that the brothers and sisters and his mother 
would be well off and ready and able to meet the demands of life 
when he moved on.  While his life may be seen as unique compared 
to all other human lives, he lived according to the manner that 
all humans do, and that is the balancing act between the 
spiritual aspirations of an individual and the responsibilities 
of a family.  Jesus longed to have his earthly family settle 
down on a nice farm.  That dream of his never fully manifested.  
However, he worked steadily toward that goal and adjusted 
according to the events that took place as the years went by.
	I encourage your daughter to pursue her dream, to treat the 
events of life that come her way each day not as obstacles or 
hindrances but challenges, as sources for revelation wherein she 
may refine her ideal and develop a clearer avenue through which 
she may move.  These conditions will at times appear to hinder 
and at other times advance her desires.  She may be required to 
redefine her goal that it may be realized in this lifetime in a 
different way.
	All personal spiritual advancement can be made regardless of 
the conditions of life, but the depth and richness of that 
advancement are greatly enhanced when confronted by the 
situations of life, people and places.  The desire to grow 
spiritually is the  primary, most important element to any 
being.  The presence of God within is ever drawing the creature 
towards the Creator.  This lure, this attraction, is translated 
into your material life.  This feeling of moving, the desire to 
grow, can be superimposed over your physical location and create 
the desire to move in a physical sense.
	Quiet reflection and spiritual stillness will clarify 
whether there is confusion regarding the impulse to move, that a 
spiritual desire to move is translated into a physical desire to 
move, or whether changing your location will promote your 
spiritual life.  Recall again the story of Jesus when he left 
his family and moved to Capernaum.  He advanced his subsequent 
ministry, for he deeply developed his relationship with two 
soon-to-be apostles.  Yet his move did not cripple his family, 
for it created the conditions in their lives wherein they began 
to take up the roles that he fulfilled.  His move aided his 
ministry in the years that followed, and his move improved the 
personality traits, skills, and talents of his brothers and 
sisters.
	I offer the advice of prayerful reflection and the 
application of patience and the encouragement to discern 
carefully between deep longings in her soul and a wishfulness 
that may result from a desire for ease, for comfort, that may 
help in the short term and hinder in the long term.  This is an 
observation that she must make on her own in partnership with 
the divine presence.  I would not however ask her to avoid 
counsel, for that too clarifies to the human mind in a tangible 
sense what may be the proper orientation of values and her steps 
in the process of realizing her longings.
	I hope this will contribute.

	Kirk:  Thank you, Elyon.  Inspirational words.  Thank you, 
my friend.

*	Elyon:  You are welcome.
	I will draw a close by acknowledging your studies of the 
transmissions provided to your fellows in another state.  These 
lessons will be beneficial to each of you as they are advancing 
each of them.  It expedites my work for you to take into your 
minds and your hearts the lessons of my fellow teachers.  I 
thank you for this effort, and I encourage you to continue in 
this manner.  Take care.