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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">North Idaho Teaching Mission
Group</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">Topics: Conviction</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">Teachers: Elyon</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">March 30, 2003</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">*   Elyon (Jonathan
TR):  Greetings to you, my friends.  This is Elyon
once again.  I am going to continue our discussion from last week by
picking up the topic “conviction”.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    We spoke
about spring cleaning, and that naturally implies removal of
unwanted items and the necessity to reevaluate worth or merit of a
possession, in this context we were addressing conceptions that bear upon
your spiritual being.  There is also another side, and that is the choice
to retain a condition in yourself because you have reevaluated it and deem
it worthwhile that you will continue to possess it.  Your word
“conviction” is interesting, for it in one regard describes loyalty and
yet in another regard indicates a judgment, a form of condemnation.  So, I
will use these two to fill the lesson.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    As I
address you I am aware that many of you have over your years
throughout your spiritual growth boldly altered your concepts of
spirituality and religion, your life philosophy, that it may be updated to
fit with your inner contact and to adjust these viewpoints to better mesh
with reality as you have been experiencing it.  In so doing you have
bravely discarded concepts that have been -- and many that still are --
held by a majority of people.  You have taken the path of the scout who
looks for new opportunity, who is willing to leave the beaten path to
discover what lies beyond in the unknown.  It is therefore unnecessary to
alert you to the peril of arriving at a conviction because it is demanded
from you by an outside authority or even the pressure of peers.  This is
more of a conviction like the convict who must now live life according to
the dictates of others.  True conviction is self possessed.  It is so held
that it is part of you, not something you simply wear or possess, but it
has become you.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    When
differing opinions clash and argument ensues, the tack taken by
either side is to convince the other of the value of the position.  When
each side sees the same, one side is often convinced.  That conviction
changes the viewpoint, and both parties now argue the same perspective.
Party Two, they changed opinion and no longer require Party One to support
their opinion; it is their conviction held by themselves.  So, as I return
to spring cleaning, ask yourself as you look about your inner house what
items you have that are yours and what items you have borrowed and truly
do not possess, that are possessions of others that have remained in your
domicile.  I do not ask you to set aside your busy schedules to pursue
this activity with exclusive attention, rather, to be alert and note when
you may perhaps be acting under a condition of conviction that is not
fully your possession but is bearing upon you by others’ intentions and
desires.  For clarity I must state that these other opinions are not
necessarily wrong simply because they come from another.  What I ask you
to note and settle in yourself is the degree to which you truly believe on
your own for yourself, whether it be originally created within you or
borrowed from another.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    It has
been on your minds lately the degree to which media affect your
individual lives, the state of mind it creates in many from the
information so readily available.  This is not a new phenomenon in the
human culture.  It is merely change in technology of what has been for
eons social pressure or peer pressure, cultural confinements; all these
group conditions play upon the thinking of the individual.  So it is
important to develop the ability to recognize what your true conviction is
in any given situation.  Take a second to stand back and ask yourself when
presented with information.  If perchance you are unable to resolve the
degree of your conviction, then it must be set aside for future study,
further experience.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    I am
aware of an expression on your world that goes, “drawing a line
in the sand”.  It is a curious expression for, while it illustrates the
taking of sides, it also demonstrates the easy removal of barrier between
sides, for sand can easily be changed, and the line disappears.  Likewise
you have this same flexibility with your convictions.  With some
reflection you can note that a belief you held in the past you do not hold
today.  Your convictions shifted.  But without convictions uncertainty
grows, insecurity grows, inability to act definitely sets in.  Conviction
brings motivation to action.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    Michael’s
parting words were, “Go forth and proclaim the gospel of the
kingdom to all the world”.  That is done through conviction.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    I desire
now to receive your input.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    Ginny: 
Sometimes it’s hard to give yourself some breathing room to
consider another side.  We cling so stubbornly to what we believe in, we
don’t put ourselves in another’s place to understand why they believe the
way they do.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">*   Elyon: 
Pride is an issue in this respect, for there is great weight
in conviction, much investment.  To begin to adopt another’s viewpoint
implies that your prior viewpoint was possibly wrong, that you are viewed
as convicted of error.  This fear, pride, response causes one to avoid the
struggle required to refine your beliefs.  Strong personalities are able
to try on the garments of another’s opinion and from that perspective
better perceive the thought patterns that make up the viewpoint and choose
whether to discard those garments as unfitting to their situation or adopt
those items that do fit well.  Also, the reluctance to entertain contrary
viewpoints often touches the sensitive nerve of a deep down feeling that
perhaps your convictions aren’t sound or truly believed by yourself.  In
reality, reflecting upon varied viewpoints strengthens your understanding
and allows you to maintain a rooted connection to truth even while your
mind is shifting in the winds of viewpoint.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    My final
comment to your statement is that love creates curiosity and
the desire to understand another’s convictions.  Love of oneself allows
you to remain firm in your viewpoint even while another believes
differently.  Love for that other individual allows them to continue their
investigation into truth even if it does not align with your perspective.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    Tom: 
>From our discussion today there’s a great deal of evidence both
pro and con this war. From e-mail I grow weary of trying to discern the
correct view.  I’m reminded that Jesus grew up under Roman authority.  The
best way to deal with this is to practice his gospel, not so much to focus
for or against but to see how to apply this gospel to both sides.  That’s
what your lesson was about, wasn’t it?</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">*   Elyon: 
Yes, and you have expressed an important approach for all to
take.  Infusing every perspective with the elements that make up the
gospel of Michael greatly clarifies each perspective, avoids many of the
conflicts, and orients according to value.  Along with Michael’s message
of the gospel he also stated to become like a little child.  Part of being
a little child is curiosity in discovery, the willingness to pass from one
phase to another as the child grows.  So, less conflict would be
experienced by human beings if you all could understand the broad spectrum
of human spiritual awareness, experience, and maturity; that no position
is absolutely right, for in order to be a living creature you must be
always moving physically, mentally, and spiritually.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    Tom: 
One of these childlike qualities is joy.  Humor is a category of
joy.  When you have two opposing factions and you tell a joke, they drop
their guard in order to get it.  That approach favors something
lighthearted, a sub-section of the gospel.  Does that make sense?</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">*   Elyon: 
Yes, for, as the master said, “Be of good cheer.”  This is
illustrative of the difficulty of conviction, for it entails loyalty,
devotion, and these conditions can foster negative outcomes such as
aggression, manipulation.  Humor does break that barrier.  It can cause
opposing parties to lift their heads out of the fray to see the whole
context.  But it must be used wisely, for personality can react against
humor if it is perceived as a barb, as a method to tear down their
stronghold. While the content of humor must be wisely evaluated before
being disseminated,the encouragement of laughter discharges pent-up
aggressions.  Choose your content well, for it is the lighthearted
reaction that heals and creates bonding.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    Tom: 
Hearty laughter would be the conviction, wouldn’t it?</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">*   Elyon: 
Much of the laughter response in a human being is due to a
sense of reality and a sense of what is false, and the juxtaposition in
the context of a joke illustrates the points.  Without conviction there
really is no humor, for you must stand firmly in a position in order to
find humor in comparison.  When a comical situation is presented that
allows laughter, it presents the opportunity for those engaged in laughter
to perceive the other viewpoint without threat.  While it may not convince
in the moment, it may bear upon the mind at later times.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    We who
have different forms that we inhabit than you who inhabit the
human body experience mirth, jubilees, joy.  Our mechanisms do not laugh
as yours do, but the inner response is the same.  It is also quite
difficult to restrain.  This is one of the safeguards built into your
human form by the Life Carriers so that when your mind becomes tied up in
knots, quandaries, aggravations, and the like, laughter can break that all
up, and it can do so virtually without your ability to suppress it.  And
this brings healing.  It allows you to pause for a moment and consider
worth, importance.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    Ginny: 
Is our planet inclined to war for all its history?  I know we
suffered defaults, but is it typical of an evolving planet to go to war,
or are we an anomaly of some kind?</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">*   Elyon: 
It is not unusual on an evolutionary world like yours for
these violent actions to follow disagreement.  The subject matter that
causes war evolves from the possession of territory to the promotion of
ideologies.  What is different about your planet is that, while this
development of the subject of war shifts, you have yet to develop new
methods for your promotion of ideologies.  You may fight over land, but to
fight over ideology destroys the worth of the ideology fought for.  What
is lacking on this world are techniques for conflict that are non-violent.
The tendency for mankind to rally behind a cause is good; even to die for
your cause has spiritual value.  What is lacking is improved techniques to
resolve your differences.  You are still using century old methods for new
and more complex problems.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    One
day on a global level civilization will evolve.  Gone will be the
shouting matches, as they have transitioned from screams to heated
argument and eventually into calm debate.  While you admire that in the
individuals who make up your world, there is much work to do for your
societies en masse to evolve to that same level of dignity in behavior.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    Evelyn: 
You spoke of convictions we may have acquired that don’t
belong to us, ones we have taken on.  I think how I have habits and social
skills I picked up from my parents.  I am often like my mom.  I could
defend these behaviors.  Is that anywhere near what you are talking about?</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">*   Elyon: Yes,
it is.  I will repeat that discerning the source does not
imply that your conviction is no longer valid.  An adopted conviction is
good if you are truly convinced.  If it is adopted  blindly,
unreasoningly, then you stand on fragile ground and may be surprised when
it shatters.  I ask you merely to arrange your understanding of what is
truly a conviction that you have and discern those which are adopted
accidentally, not recognized as your own possession and make a decision if
you wish to add them to your convictions list or wish to discard them,
whether or not they be adopted later or be found worthless for evermore.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    Ginny: 
On a national scale, our tendency is to believe that the world
is mean and we have to stockpile weapons for protection.  On the other
side, believing that the world is a friendly place, that we are all
neighbors, would bring us into another way of thinking and believing.
Conviction is important to change our habits.</span></font></div>
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<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">*   Elyon: 
It can be said that convictions lead to conflict, for opposing
convictions stand unyielding.  So you have your many battles.  What you
speak of steps above that polarity to a conviction held by all, more
appropriately a paradigm, as you speak of that the world is an ugly place,
threatening, dangerous.  If the message of Michael were to be adopted or,
in the spirit of my lesson, truly a conviction of all, the paradigm would
shift, and your conflicts would find smooth resolution, where you would
approach your differences knowing full well that the other party is a
brother or a sister worthy of your love and of equal value in the eyes of
God.  Approaching your differences in this manner would bring peaceful
resolutions.  I guess you know your assignment.</span></font></div>
<div align="left"><font face="Courier New"><span style="font-size:12pt">    I will
depart. I enjoy your engagements with me.  It is a delight to
have souls such as you who seek to discern the thread of spirit through
all peoples of your lives, whether it is the conditions found between you
and friends or the conditions existing between the nations. Even more it
is a delight to witness you discuss conditions between your planet and
others and your relation to the Father of all on Paradise.  Until next
time, farewell.</span></font></div>
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