<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"><FONT SIZE=2>And then Five. The fifth phase of the kingdom as Jesus taught, "the kingdom
<BR>in its fullness. The future estate of light and life on earth." And since I
<BR>think grandly, I think about the ultimate light and life not only for our
<BR>planet but for our system, our constellation, our local universe, our
<BR>super-universe, and the ages beyond which we are in training for already!
<BR>What's in store for us in terms of eternity.
<BR>
<BR>So the kingdom, "embracing spiritual reality with practical arms," really
<BR>gives us a wonderful plethora of opportunities to do something. Something
<BR>practical. In terms of building this kingdom. Jesus said – well, not Jesus
<BR>– whoever wrote this Paper said, "This world has never seriously or sincerely
<BR>or honestly tried out these dynamic ideas and divine ideals of Jesus'
<BR>doctrine of the kingdom of heaven."
<BR>
<BR>We're really – you know, they talk about the animal mind, the "slothful
<BR>animal mind". We are [I feel myself wheezing, for crying out loud. (Water
<BR>offered) Yeah. How tacky! (Thank you.)] Oh, here we are. Here's the
<BR>Teachers. "By the process of gradually changing mans will and thus affecting
<BR>human decisions (Thank you, Calvin) Michael and his associates are likewise
<BR>gradually but certainly changing the entire course of evolution, social and
<BR>otherwise."
<BR>
<BR>So right off, right off we're getting some practical knowledge from the
<BR>Teachers. Here's five practical keys: "The preeminence of the individual."
<BR>I AM. Not just me I AM, but YOU AM, too! You are important! I can't just
<BR>willy-nilly be walking around without regard for you. You count! Jesus was
<BR>always respectful of the personality of others, and we're very self oriented.
<BR> And we only think about ourselves. Consistently! This is the way it's
<BR>been, and you can't blame us for our conditioning.
<BR>
<BR>Here I want to jump to introduce you to one of my invisible friends. This is
<BR>What-About-Bob. When he showed up we said, "What'll we call you?" and he
<BR>said, "What-About-Bob?" so we said, "Okay, What-About-Bob is good." So even
<BR>today he calls himself What-About-Bob. Not just Bob. He's a seraphim,
<BR>beyond midwayers, so he says,
<BR>
<BR>"I have observed and I have, along with my peers, been astounded at the many
<BR>ways in which you divert yourself, as pleasure seekers. Your propensity to
<BR>enjoy pain is an immediate result of your planetary handicaps. You have had
<BR>to learn to enjoy yourselves in the face of discomfort. You have had to
<BR>learn to justify pleasure in the face of such dreadful conditions as have
<BR>prevailed, and this is not only physical but emotional and psychic as well.
<BR>"In order to endure the thoughtlessness of your selfish fellows, you have
<BR>learned sardonic humor. You have built crusts upon yourself, for without
<BR>these crusts you would cry, and it's not manly to cry, nor is it womanly to
<BR>cry incessantly ... (much laughter). And so you toughen yourself up. You
<BR>create a bar against the pain. But sometimes the crusts shackle you to the
<BR>point where you are inflicting your own pain, even when the source of
<BR>distress is absent. You have habitually sought comfort in the distortion,
<BR>and so when the attack is not being made upon you, you make it upon yourself
<BR>in order to continue to feel comfortable."
<BR>
<BR>I mean, is this ...? It's true! We do this!
<BR>
<BR>"It's a serious challenge then for me and for us to assist you to learn new
<BR>ways of responding to the vagaries of life so that you can change your
<BR>responses, your physical reactions, your defense mechanisms, so that you are
<BR>not buried behind your own denial of what is, in order for you to see what is
<BR>not, and can thus can begin to build what is meant to be."
<BR>
<BR>He talks about the ego here because, he says:
<BR>
<BR>"It's difficult particularly in the ego area because that's the one thing you
<BR>have determined belongs to you. It's your body, your lungs, your feet, your
<BR>back, your face, your presentation of who you are and you have charge of it.
<BR>One thing you insist upon is your individuality, your freedom to be your own
<BR>person. Well, this is a lot of whistling in the dark, but it gives rise to a
<BR>tremendous mental defense system that you each and all have created inside,
<BR>which you life with – your rationale, your dreams, your ambitions, your
<BR>guilt, your shame and your attempts to creatively present the picture of what
<BR>you would have mankind see when they observe you. Much of who you think you
<BR>are is based upon what you have talked yourself into being, and how
<BR>tenaciously you hold onto that perception of yourself. You have created this
<BR>in order to find a certain degree of freedom and ability to function in this
<BR>world and as such it's not anything you are willing to relinquish lightly."
<BR>
<BR>Now the thing I love about these Teacher messages is, if they're talking to
<BR>me, they are talking to everybody. And that means that you are also hiding.
<BR>That you're saying "I'm fine" and it's not fine! You know, I'll know. I'll
<BR>know if it's really fine. I'll feel it! I'll feel the presence of God in
<BR>you because for ten years I've been practicing. I've been sitting in
<BR>Stillness to recognize what that feels like, and I can feel it. I can feel
<BR>it when I walk in a room if He's there or not, if He's trying to make a
<BR>presentation or a point. You can feel this kind of stuff.
<BR>You get familiar with spiritual reality, it becomes the bigger reality, it
<BR>becomes your life blood, and then you go, "That was not real! That was a
<BR>smokescreen. That was something you've talked yourself into believing." So
<BR>that's part of the practical approach to the Kingdom. If you realize that if
<BR>people aren't with the Father, they're lying to themselves, then you've got
<BR>all kinds of opportunities to ... pull their covers, call their bluff, plant
<BR>a different seed, tell them who they Really are.
<BR>
<BR>And when I say "tell them who they really are" it's like What-About- Bob
<BR>says, "In the alternative, if you allow yourself to feel good – not through
<BR>your defense devices but through honesty and submission to that which is the
<BR>Real you, the elegant and ennobled and childlike and free child of God."
<BR>
<BR>Well, that simple reality is really frightening until you've practiced it
<BR>because you have to let go of your control. It's that thing about free fall,
<BR>faith being the free fall, and if you're not acting in faith then you're
<BR>acting in fear, which we've been doing for centuries, and so everybody's
<BR>grasping really hard to who they think they are and they don't want to let go
<BR>of that because if they let go they're out of control, and nobody wants to
<BR>feel out of control.
<BR>
<BR>("Love you!" – a friend had to leave to catch his flight)
<BR>
<BR>This reminds me – this little snippet here – of what we are up against.
<BR>Here's an example, in talking about what Bob was talking about. This is an
<BR>excerpt from the Urantia Book, I don't know what page.
<BR>
<BR>"At the conclusion of the service Jesus looked down before him upon an
<BR>elderly woman who wore a downcast expression and who was much bent in form.
<BR>This woman had long been fear-ridden and all joy had passed out of her life."
<BR> (How many of those people do you know?) "As Jesus stepped down from the
<BR>pulpit he went over to her, and touching her bowed-over form on the shoulder,
<BR>said, ‘Woman, if you would only believe, you could be wholly loosed from your
<BR>spirit of infirmity'." (What a great phrase!) "And this woman who had been
<BR>bowed down and bound up by the depression of fear for more than 18 years
<BR>believed the words of the Master and by faith straightened up immediately.
<BR>When this woman saw that she had been made straight, she lifted up her voice
<BR>and glorified God. Notwithstanding that this woman's affliction was wholly
<BR>mental, her bowed-over form being the result of her depressed mind, the
<BR>people thought that Jesus had healed a real physical disorder."
<BR>
<BR>That might be where Jesus was talking about we'll be able to do even more
<BR>interesting things than he did. Because look at the backlog of stuff we have
<BR>to operate with! And we know that now everybody of healthy mind – more or
<BR>less healthy mind – normal mind! Is indwelt. There are no ... no rebel
<BR>midwayers or ... there's nothing bad out there anymore, so if there is --
<BR>somebody doesn't feel good, it's because they've got a bad habit, and the
<BR>only thing that's going to break that habit is an appreciation of the fact
<BR>that – the will! Is the determining factor. And you can feel good if you
<BR>want to. I'm not going to rub your nose in it if you don't feel good.
<BR>
<BR>As a matter of fact, that reminds me. This phrase, "Get over it!" Can you
<BR>just picture Jesus walking up to somebody and saying, "Get over it!" That
<BR>totally lacks compassion.
<BR>
<BR>I want to talk a bit about ... about forgiveness, because they're making a
<BR>big deal about this thing about forgiveness in the Kingdom of heaven. It
<BR>must be that we're going to have to encounter forgiveness somehow in building
<BR>the kingdom. Okay. Here we are. We know who we are, we love ourselves, we
<BR>know what makes us feel better, and now we reach out to others, these people
<BR>in this room, the immediate siblings and learn how to get along and, man, I
<BR>know that it comes up and bites your butt before you know what happened.
<BR>It's like (hiss) "What was that? That's Caligastia in disguise. Oh, man.
<BR>And I thought they were my friend."
<BR>
<BR>This is a result of conditioning that goes way, way back and it's fairly
<BR>unhealthy conditioning, in the main. So a lot of us – I don't even want to
<BR>say unhealthy conditioning, although certainly it would be in perspective,
<BR>but, like – I myself have gotten really, really ticked at at least two people
<BR>in this mission. And I mean really ticked. I mean fatally ticked. And I
<BR>have seen – I have seen it happen among other people, and the Holy Spirit in
<BR>me just weeps when I see this happen. I mean, not just when I see it happen
<BR>in other – out there! I mean ... (static on the microphone) ... I love you
<BR>so much ... and I love YOU so much ... (loud static) and what's with this
<BR>thing? Am I doing that? (Looking up) Did you want to have something to say?
<BR> (Microphone exchanged for a headset.)
<BR>
<BR>Oh, man, I feel like myself! (I can't hear.) Isn't it amazing how we love
<BR>to hear ourselves talk. I can't hear myself talk? This isn't going to work.
<BR> It's the only way it can balance it on my head. I have to plug ‘em in
<BR>there. As a transcriber, it only feels natural that I have my earphones on.
<BR>Are you sure this okay? Higher? Well, I don't want you to hear me
<BR>breathing, that's so gross! (Laughter)
<BR>Oh, God, where are we. We're forgiving. (Laughter)
<BR>
<BR>(Audience input as to where we were, including "you're ticked!") Oh, no, I'm
<BR>not ticked. No. I'm giving my Keynote Address. (Laughter) I'm having fun
<BR>now!
<BR>
<BR>No, when I see my loved ones do battle, it just pains me. It just wrenches
<BR>my stomach, I go into a state of abject prostration because I have idea what
<BR>to do. And it affects me! "This is my kingdom! What are you doing to my
<BR>kingdom? ‘And the lion shall lie down with the lamb.' Which one of you guys
<BR>are being the lion here? Get it together!"
<BR>
<BR>I feel like Nebadonia must be a little bit like my mum, and like your mum,
<BR>too, who would walk into the room and see the kids fighting and say, "What's
<BR>the meaning of this?" And this is sometimes what I want to say when I see my
<BR>siblings in the Teaching Mission at each other's throat. "What's the meaning
<BR>of this?" And yet I've been there. You know? And so I spend all my time
<BR>trying to figure out what's going on because I can't stand it. I can't stand
<BR>the fact that my kingdom is disrupted. It takes everything I have then, to
<BR>apply myself to bring back that harmony. I mean, it's a job I've taken on,
<BR>you know? And I know that I can't do anything about your fight, but - I give
<BR>a lot of prayer energy, that's pretty practical.
<BR>
<BR>When it happens to me, though, I have to look further, and when I say I have
<BR>to do these things, I'm implying, I'm inferring, that you have to do this,
<BR>too. Because as I mentioned, or somebody mentioned here, we have "not
<BR>seriously or sincerely or honestly tried out these dynamic ideas and divine
<BR>ideals of Jesus' doctrine of the kingdom of heaven." We are his new
<BR>apostles, children. This is our job. This is what we have commissioned and
<BR>assigned ourselves and consecrated ourselves to do, is bring about the
<BR>reality of the Master in our world. How can we not approach it as
<BR>practically and pragmatically as possible? We don't have time to fight, and
<BR>if we got a problem, we gotta get in there and fix it.
<BR>
<BR>It is remarkable, however, with our conditioning, how we are so accustomed to
<BR>pain we just laugh it off and say, "I'll deal with it. You know, in terms of
<BR>eternity. It's not like I have to do it tomorrow." Yes, you do. Yes, you
<BR>do. We can't afford these leftovers and hangovers. We need to fix these
<BR>wounds. I mean that's what we've been given the opportunity to do. Look at
<BR>the tools that we've been given. We just have all these wonderful tools and
<BR>Teachers and forgiveness is the big one.
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