[tmtranscripts] Ham on opening the inner self to God

[David Schlundt]

Ham 09-28-2003

Greetings, children, I am Ham and I am happy to be with you this 
evening. Often we have spoken concerning the life of the spirit, and 
again we wish to speak of this broad and profound topic.

Many people spend their lives within the realms of mind and matter 
without often venturing into the spiritual realm of life. The venturing 
forward sometimes can involve many steps forward and many steps back 
before you may be comfortable functioning in the spiritual dimension, in 
the realm where you and exposed completely to the benevolent scrutiny of 
higher mind and higher soul. This consciousness of exposure can be 
frightening and difficult to adjust to. Most human beings continue for 
long periods with a kind of secret compartment where things are not 
exposed or shared with God, but this state of affairs cannot continue 
indefinitely and one must make the decision to open everything, to share 
everything, to confide everything to God, that loving, understanding, 
friendly and respectful spirit who stands ever ready to share everything 
He has with you.

When you share your life with God, when you open the inner compartments 
of your heart, when you stand exposed to the high beam of the Father's 
gaze, you will find that you have nothing there that is so shameful, 
nothing that is so frightening that the Father will not understand and 
begin to allow you to understand. Most human beings have parts of 
themselves that have remained locked away for a long time, so that the 
person himself does not understand what lies within. But usually, it is 
a wonderful part of yourself that is hidden, it is something that the 
Father wishes to nurture and grow that has been stunted and held back by 
some secret shame of fear. Once this guilt of guilt-syndrom of shame and 
fear is removed, that part of you can being to grow again, can begin to 
seek the Father's light and love and can become a mighty branch on the 
tree of your life.

Human beings pretty much invariably feel more guilt, feel themselves to 
be less worthy and feel that everyone else is ahead of them somehow. You 
feel that you have more to feel guilty about than other people, more to 
be ashamed of, more to hide away and not let anyone see it - you push it 
back into your mind where it is forgotten. But, all things must come to 
the Father's light. There is nothing that is hidden that will not be 
revealed, nothing that is unworthy of His love, if it is part of you. 
The Father's love reaches all human beings eventually. The Father's 
reach extends completely through you. There is nothing that is truly 
hidden, nothing that can remain so.

Leading a life of the spirit is not an easy road. It is a road that 
requires much, it is a road that does not allow you to take any 
short-cuts or to re-route your path, for the Father gives everything. 
Once you have made the decision to know God and become increasingly 
filled with Him and therefore to become like Him, each obstacle must be 
gradually pared off, and like Jonah, you may run from place to place, 
cross the seas, change jobs, spouses, towns, and you will find at each 
new place the same sets of problems, the same repeating cycles of 
behavior until you open those inner boxes and reveal the things that are 
hidden to your self and to God. The Psalmist wrote, "create in me a 
clean heart, Oh Lord," and this sincere longing must be true for every 
person who desires to know God completely and without reservation.

The Psalmist of long ago, asked God to come into his heart, to open up 
the hidden places and to purify and cleanse those things which are 
impure, those things which are like a secret sin that has been locked 
away from God. "Come into my heart, clean away all those things which 
require cleansing, change my feelings, my attitude, my ideas, my life. 
Create in me that which reflects Your spirit." This is truly the way of 
the spirit, these are truly the steps along the pathway. To truly enter 
the Kingdom of God as the Master put it, you must allow all cleansing, 
you must allow all that serves you not to be left outside, you must be 
willing to be born again, to see life with new eyes and to live life 
thereafter with a clean and pure heart. Now, this is not to say that the 
cleansing process itself is instant, or that you will not find need of 
periodic cleansing after your first experience, but you are willing to 
allow this, you are willing to stand naked before God with nothing 
hidden, nothing set aside that will be brought back. The delight in 
righteousness that we often speak of, comes with this process. Your 
moral sense will be deepened and broadened, your love for others will be 
limitless, you patience and understanding will expand and you will 
delight in finding yourself a human being on a small planet, on the 
outer edges of the universe, just beginning a great and eternal life. 
The spirit itself will instruct you. It is not enough to follow moral 
laws themselves, but rather to expand your own moral sense in ways that 
the Father will show you, in new ways, in exciting chapters of your 
life. Be willing my friends to open your hearts completely everyday and 
ask the Father to create a clean heart within you. Are there questions 
at this time?

Q: Do you have any counsel for me tonight?

A: Yes my son, you are doing very well. Many new and exciting chapters 
are opening for you. Your life will undergo some changes, some 
restructuring, and you must have faith in yourself, and that the Father 
has placed these responsibilities on you for a purpose. So when you 
discharge your responsibilities to others, you will be discharging your 
responsibilities the Father himself and to the Master himself. The work 
that you have completed during this process of opening and cleansing has 
been extremely valuable. You are coming to have love and compassion for 
yourself, where before there was guilt, shame and feelings of 
unworthiness, feelings of being unworthy of the Father's love and His 
gentle guidance, but now you are past his, you are becoming attuned to 
His guidance and attuned to your teacher's gentle prodding. All of this 
will be a great benefit as time goes on and your stature in the world 
gradually comes to reflect this knowledge of worthiness and the 
cleansing of the past, with its associated feelings continues. Remember 
that each day, your life is new and each day you can make new decisions 
that effect the days to come. Be unafraid of all these things, for this 
is part of the godly life. Is this helping?

Q: I would also like to know if you have anything for me.

A: Yes, my son, you are also doing well. Likewise, your life has been 
changing and you also have been going through a cleansing process. You 
have always had a great urge to be self-expressive, to rebel against the 
tried and true and to strike out in new ways, some of which have been 
good for you and some, of course, have not been good for you. But these 
things are simply the path of your life and so have been necessary for 
your learning. All of you have had difficulties, hard roads and 
difficulties making adjustments and changes necessary, but my son, you 
have been ever more willing to make those changes, to adjust yourself to 
change the old thinking and become new, to become re-born. When the 
Master used this phrase, this re-birth, he meant it to be taken very 
seriously because going through this process can be tumultuous, like a 
stormy birth, but thereafter, your life changes, your focus changes, 
your values change and what you want out of life is altered. This is 
what you have been experiencing the last few years, a re-directing of 
your will, so to speak, an aligning of your will with the divine will, 
the Father's will for you in life. This is not to say that every little 
thing will reflect the Father's great desire for you, all of life is a 
mixture. For within life there are things which are the Father's will 
and things which are not necessarily the Father's will because of His 
allowing each human being freedom, freedom of will. So don't get caught 
up in the details, but keep your eyes focused on where you're going, and 
let the details take care of themselves. Focus on the grand scheme, 
focus on Eternal life and you will find the way here will straighten and 
become more certain.

Q: inaudible

A: Yes, my daughter, you are doing very well, and you are coming through 
into a new era of your life. The struggles you have had with 
understanding God over the past year have been profound, and have 
created within you a much deeper thought process concerning the nature 
of reality and life; why we are here and so forth. Life is brief, much 
too brief for most human beings, but during this life, you must come to 
a kind of peace with God and as yet you have declared a truce, but have 
not as yet partaken of His peace completely. The profound sadness still 
wells up, but it does not prevent your spiritual growth, does not change 
the direction of your growth, it does not limit your growth. Sometimes 
people get caught in a cycle of thought that seems to go nowhere, but in 
reality, it is more like a spiral, and as time goes on, that thought 
expands and encompasses more and more. This is what you are 
experiencing, this expanding of that cycle. It's still okay to think of 
yourself, to think of your own healing. It's alright to put that first 
and to go through what is required. All is well, my dear, be at peace.

Q: May I ask for a message for Jim?

A; Of course, my son you do very well. This lesson in many ways, is very 
pertinent for you this week. You are always considering the past as well 
as the present and this process continues as you grow and change and 
develop. The old answers don't always satisfy anymore, the old way of 
seeing and being does not always work when so much change is required, 
so much adjustment. So continue to create an open heart and to follow 
the Father's leading, wherever this may take you, intellectually and 
emotionally as well as physically. Be unafraid of change.

Q: inaudible

A: Of course my daughter. Yes, you are continually rearranging the 
furniture within yourself to always be pleasing to God, but real change 
is upon you, real spiritual movement is occurring. And so the old room 
no longer suffices when all things are new. Go ahead and embrace this 
inner change, this realignment and allow this leading, this spiritual 
impetus to rearrange the past, to sort through it, without your having 
to do so yourself - if this makes sense to you. Some things are best 
left to their own unconscious devices. Allow the Father to rearrange and 
sort through and make sense of for you, and then allow these 
realizations to come to you, rather than trying to wrench them before 
they are completely flowering in your consciousness. So be at ease, my 
daughter, for you do very well.

Q: Anything for Rebecca?

A: Yes, my daughter you are doing very well. Many things are opening in 
your soul, many new growth is occurring, many new flowers are beginning 
to bud and to bloom. Find that assurance that will ground you in this 
process so that your roots go deep and have a firmness, a deep, solid 
grounding in life and in thought.

My son, you must not worry concerning these changes in your partner. 
These things will bring you closer, these life-levels that you each must 
traverse together, will bring you great joy and great happiness. You, my 
son, are doing very well. You have consistently fulfilled all 
requirements. You have generously and completely tackled all effort 
required. You have held nothing back in your search for God. Your 
achievements have been greater than you know. Your impact in the world 
has been much greater than you understand and your work is still in its 
infancy. All of you must understand that your lives are just at the very 
beginning, whatever your age in years, however long your lives extend in 
the physical plane, is tiny, and when you awaken in the new life, in the 
new world, then the real work begins. Most of what you do here is 
preparation, it is the initial tilling of the soil and sowing of the 
seed. The harvest is in the next life. This life is too short for you to 
see the fruition of all that you do and all you have done. Be at ease, 
therefore my son, in all things. Everything goes very well. Be assured.

Q: Charlie Beyer asks: Ham, In several weekly progress reports to me, 
you noted quite correctly that I have to move beyond certain "thought 
patterns" which have become obstacles that I must deal with in order for 
me to move ahead. To be honest with you, Ham, one big problem I've been 
trying to deal with as I am growing older is the realization of my 
mortal frailties....I realize we all age, and often we don't all age 
very well....Yet, I also realize that our world experienced the default 
of Adam and Eve and we Urantians have been deprived the biological 
upliftment of our race which would have occurred if we had received the 
adamic blood. My "obstacle" is that I feel the heavenly powers who 
control and administer our world continue to deprive us of these 
biological upliftments, and I can't get over the fact that they don't 
offer us more hope and help in this area. For instance....On a normal 
world, which was not deprived of the adamic blood, the people often live 
to be 500 years old, which gives them plenty of time to commune and 
eventually fuse with their adjuster during their normal lifetime...Yet, 
here on urantia, our short lifespans do not afford us that same 
opportunity....Plus we are plagued with a host of diseases that often 
cut our lives off even more prematurely. Anyway.... In a recently posted 
transcript, which noted the graduation of mission member Bill Kelly, 
Monjoronson (our world's magesterial son) revealed that a 
"morontial/material blending process" is in the works which is intended 
to biologically uplift those of us living on Urantia. Monjoronson said: 
"The blending of the Morontial/Material process is truly a gift that 
will help lead Urantians into a more spiritual awareness and growth 
beyond your present understanding.....I look forward to answering your 
questions in-group form or individual through you circuit connection. 
Understand that anyone who wishes for greater spiritual understanding 
with their Thought Adjuster and the upliftment of Urantia are welcome to 
this process." My questions to you, Ham are: Is this transcript from 
Monjoronson accurate?

(Other questions followed, but were not read aloud)

A: My son, let me help your understanding. All spiritual growth, all 
spiritual growth, involves the blending of the spiritual and the 
material and helps to create the morontia soul. This soul, this blending 
of the two, does have some repercussion with the physical. The Master 
said, "the well of health will spring up within you. This is what he 
spoke of, this blending of that which has perfection, the spirit, with 
that which is imperfect: matter. This is not to say that your lives will 
be dramatically extended or that you will avoid disease or that the 
aging process will not continue. All these things are part of life, all 
these things will happen. The physical body is wrought with problems 
because it is a material construct. You cannot expect, no matter how 
much spiritual growth you have achieved in life, to avoid the problems 
associated with bodily aging. These physical problems, these things 
which enforce a change of lifestyle, that perhaps force a slowing down, 
a reassessment of life, these things are not necessarily bad for the 
spirit. Going from being robust and seemingly indestructible in the body 
to limited physical activities and frailties; these things are humbling, 
these things are spiritually valuable and so it perhaps is not wise that 
they be avoided entirely. Each person must strive to come to a place 
where every day is a gift, every step in life is valued and treasured 
and aging confers these gifts on humankind, confers wisdom and a sense 
of fragility in life, which makes it more precious. All these things are 
part of a growing in wisdom, they are becoming now a part of your 
spiritual growth. Welcome them, then, make the necessary adjustments, 
strive for the spirit and gradually relinquish the material. Anything 
left undone in this life, can be done in the next. You do not lose 
anything by death, but you rather gain that next step, gain the very 
valuable consciousness of death, a ver valuable understanding of your 
life as a whole after your death, and your life as it shall extend. Do 
not worry concerning whether this or that transcript is accurate or not. 
Take from each what is valuable to you. Take from each what speaks to 
you, what deepens your sense of the spirit, but do not make the mistake 
of expecting magical solutions or miraculous healings, for as an 
agondonter, you must live entirely by faith.

Q: Message for Norbert, please.

A: My son, be at peace. Life is not as complicated as you sometimes tend 
to make it. Some things simply are, without too much complex 
origination. Learn to be accepting of that which is, without being 
resentful against that which was. The day is now. The time is yours to 
change what you can, to grow as best you can and to deepen your 
understanding as best you can each day. Rest in complete assurance that 
no man carries more than he is able. The Father gives you that which you 
can carry, not more and not less, so be grateful for what is, and be 
grateful for what you can learn.

Are there any further questions at this time? In that case, my children, 
go in peace. My love and prayers go with you each. Farewell.


-- 
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David G. Schlundt, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
Vanderbilt University
301 Wilson Hall
Nashville, TN  37203

Phone: (615)322-7800
Fax: (615) 343-8449
Email: David.Schlundt at Vanderbilt.edu
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Beauty is that which attracts the soul,
and that which loves to give and not
to receive

Kahlil Gibran
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