A Conscious Transition
Good afternoon. There is a message that has been trying to come forth for about a week, and it all started with an inner realization, and it was this. “Your conscious awareness of truth IS the kingdom of heaven.” And what does that mean. We thought the kingdom of heaven was a place. It is not. The consciousness awareness of truthIS the kingdom of heaven. What does that mean?
I’m going to tell you a story, and some of you have heard it before and I apologize if you have, but it points out this principle better than anything I know right now, so here it is again. A few years ago we moved up here to North Carolina from Florida. And we had a trusty carthat worked pretty good in the flatlands, but winter was coming and I knew we would need something more when the snows came. So we looked around, and asked people, and did some research, and pretty soon it became apparent we would need an automobile with four-wheel drive, or all wheel drive, so we went down and we got one. We test drove it and it seemed pretty nice, and so we bought it. Well sure enough the snows came and we drove it through the snow and it worked quite well. We ended up going to town and getting groceries for people that didn’t have an all wheel drive vehicle, and the point of the story is this, that I had never seen one before, until the day I went to look at them and actually test drove it and brought it home. I had never seen one. A week after I brought it home I was driving down the street towards town and there, coming the opposite direction, is another one, and when I got to town and I parked the car in the parking lot of the grocery store, I looked in the parking lot and there was another one, and that weekend I was driving towards the next town over, and there’s another one, and another one.
I had never seen that model before, but now that I had one, now that it was a living experience, I saw them everywhere. And so it is the same with truth.
Any statement of truth that you read in scripture, or that you hear on a tape or in a talk, has to become a living experience. It has to become alive in your consciousness. And when it does, you will demonstrate it everywhere. The consciousness awareness of truth IS the kingdom of heaven.
Now, we can take just about any truth, but let’s take one that many years ago was one of the first ones I had an inner realization about, and it is“in a moment you think not, I am come.” Of course, growing up they taught me that that means you better be on your best behavior because you never know when Jesus Christ is going to come back again, and if you’re not on your best behavior when he comes, he may catch you doing something you might not ought to be doing, and that certainly helped add a sense of guilt and a feeling of inadequacy, because as a human being, I couldn’t live up to that. Who can be good all the time? Didn’t the Master say himself there is one good, and that one is God. So that truth did not help me the way it was explained when I was a child. However, when I reached the age of 17 or 18 I found a bible in a store and I bought it, and I took it home, and I began to read it. I had already learned a little bit about prayer and meditation, so that was one of the very first scriptures that I took into my closet and contemplated, and it came out, the truth behind that scripture, came out with an entirely different meaning when Spirit revealed what it meant.
It came out this way: “In a moment ye think not, I am come.” In a moment you don’t think, I come. What is it he said about that, what is it the Master said? Take no thought for the morrow or for your life what ye shall put on and all that?
Take no thought. In a moment ye think not. And so suddenly it made sense. Suddenly I saw it, I saw. I had an inner realization. “Oh! that’s what that means.” When we reach a place inside where we take no thought, I, God happens. In taking no thought, I, God happens. When we are still inside, when we reach the Silence, there is an opening and God happens, and of course, that correlatedwith another scripture. “Be still and know that I am God.” Be still and have the actual conscious awareness of the truth that I am God.
And so you see the one had the scripture placed external, and the other had it placed internal. And so I came to see that I had the conscious awareness of that principle. All I had to do was take no thought. And then I would begin to function. God would begin to function. And so in that one simple scripture was the secret to prayer. Because, of course, we all know by now that a human being can’t pray. Prayer is something that the Spirit does within you when you take no thought. And once I had the conscious awareness of that truth, anywhere that I went, anywhere that I have gone, in this world,and even in some other worlds, that principle is mine, because I have the conscious awareness of it.
If I am walking down the street and someone comes up to me, maybe possibly a friend or an acquaintance, and says have you heard the news? Well the plant in town is closing down, half of the people are sick, there’s such a flu epidemic all over town. They say its’ the Asian variety lets say. And it’s an epidemic. Right then I can take that principle which I’ve had an inner realization of, and rather than engaging in a lot of thought, denying that this epidemic is real, or affirming that only God exists, or any of that. Right there, right when I’m confronted with it, I can drop it, and I can take no thought. I can remind myself that the “I” functions in the stillness. If I do that, if I create that opening right there, through my conscious awareness of that principle, through my conscious awareness that I functions, guess what?“I” functions! God functions for me.
Now, it may not happen for my neighbor standing there telling me about the epidemic, because 10,000 will fall on thy right hand and 1,000 at thy left, but for me, God functions, and in some strange way when I’m asked a month later, “were you part of that epidemic, did you catch that thing?” I can turn and say, “well no, I didn’t,”and leave it at that, because most people don’t want to know how that came about.
So, you see the conscious awareness of that principle, the conscious awareness that when I take no thought God functions, becomes a living experience for me, and I use it again, and I use it again, and I use it again and I practice that principle that was revealed within me, and it becomes a part of my consciousness until it takes over my Consciousness. Now I don’t have to consciously practice that principle, that principle pops into mind and goes into motion and it’s automatic. Just like riding a bicycle. Just like playing the guitar. I don’t have to think where my fingers go, they just go. They just work from having done it so often. And so it’s the same, you’re driving down the street and you hear something on the radio and wham, right there, you’re practicing the Presence, you’re creating an opening, and God is happening. And you’re not doing it consciously. It has become you.
So we can see how it is necessary to take a spiritual principle that we’ve read, that we’ve heard and take it into our inner closet until the truth of that principle is revealed, and then, furthermore it is necessary to take that principle and practice it in our daily living, in this way we make it a living reality. And now, lets’ return to the original truth.
“Your conscious awareness of truth IS the kingdom of heaven.” You see the kingdom of heaven is not something that is going to happen some day. The kingdom of heaven is not a tomorrow experience. The kingdom of heaven is not something that is going to happen when you drop your body, the kingdom of heaven is an actual living experience, an actual dimension that is here now.
Ah, you might ask, “why don’t I see it, why don’t I feel it, why am I not walking in it?” “I’ve read these books for ten years, fifteen years. I’ve been to classes. I’ve thought about these things for a long time, I’ve discussed them with my friends, why am I not living in the kingdom?” And the answer is because the kingdom of heaven is the conscious awareness, the kingdom of heaven is your conscious awareness, and if you do not have a conscious awareness of it, for you, it does not exist. But that does not mean that it does not exist. It means for you it does not exists.
There are two people sitting side by side, and one person understands through the conscious awareness, through the feeling, and the sensing and the knowing and having practiced, they understand that God’s grace is their sufficiency. And the one sitting next to them has read it,“Oh yes that sounds really nice, but I’m not experiencing it.” In fact, I have had people come up to me and say, very kind of angrily, well, that’s all nice and dandy, but God’s has never got me a job. And, I can only smile and say, well you know, God has appeared as work for me. And so, those two people sitting side by side have read the same books, but one knows and experiences harmony of God’s grace as a living experience, as a today thing, and the other one has read some pretty words, but it hasn’t penetrated, it’s an intellectual understanding, and so they’re experiencing lack, they’re experiencing an appearance of lack. These are two people sitting side by side, a foot apart, living in two different worlds. How is that possible? “And two shall be standing in a field and one shall be lifted up, one shall remain.” Because it’s not the kingdom of heaven, that exists and always has existed. What did Christ say? “For now is my kingdom.” The kingdom of heaven is within you, now. The kingdom of heaven is at hand, now. And so this is not dependent on the kingdom of heaven. It’s dependent on your conscious awareness of the kingdom of heaven. And your conscious awareness ISyour kingdom of heaven. It’s not your neighbor’s kingdom of heaven, it’s yours.
It’s necessary to take each truth that rings a bell inside of you, and there are a lot of them, you know. You’re reading along, you’re listening and it just hits you. You hear it and something rings. There’s a, what’s that word my good friend Allen uses, oh yes, it resonates. It resonates within you. Thanks, Allen. So, you know when the truth resonates within you. You can feel it. There’s this inner quickening. That truth is for you. It’s for you right now. And so take that truth into your meditation, into your contemplation. Mull it over, look at it, feel it, sense it, ask God what it means, ask Spirit to reveal the inner meaning, and then be quiet. Be still. Create an opening so God can happen in your meditation, and then you will know. It will be revealed to you, what that truth means. When you get up from your meditation, and go out into your daily activities, practice what was revealed to you, don’t practice what was revealed to Joel. Don’t practice what was revealed to Allen, or Bill or Virginia, or Herb, or anybody else. Practice what was revealed to you in your meditation, because that was for you. Then when you’ve practiced that truth, and you have practiced it for a little while, sometimes for a long while, that truth will become your awareness. And your awareness of that truth is the kingdom of heaven that you’re going to be walking in.
You build your awareness of what already is. The kingdom of heaven already is, but you build your awareness of it through conscious realization and practicing. Not through reading, although that’s important, or you never would come up with one of these truths that resonates within you. But, not through reading alone. Not through hearing alone, but through the practice. You commune with that word within you, and you live that word in your daily life and it becomes a living part of your Consciousness.
Now, you, your Consciousness and the kingdom of heaven are One, and you’re walking in it. The person living next door has no idea that you’re living in a different world. Your address in on the same street, but you’re residence is in a different dimension. And this comes about by practicing these principles.
So, what I’m trying to say is it is very, very important to have the conscious awareness of truth, and not just the letter of truth. And that’s what we’re talking about, really, isn’t it? The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. So the letter, an intellectual understanding, is not worth very much, but the Spirit, that is the conscious awareness of truth, is life everlasting. Is an eternal kingdom, here now.
I can remember reading that Joel Goldsmith said that some of these truths would stay with him for months, remember that? Months and months, and I myself have had the same experience. Something about a particular truth stays with me, it just stays with me, sometimes for a year or two, and I seem to have constant realizations of different facets of that same truth. And sometimes it can take awhile for the inner meaning to be revealed and for us to practice it enough to where it becomes a part of us, but there’s no other way into the kingdom of heaven. Oh yes, there’s grace.
Grace can touch you on the shoulder and awaken you in a moment, in a second, that’s how we have instantaneous enlightenment. However, for most of us we haven’t done the preparation, we haven’t had the preparation that is necessary sometimes for thousands of years to get to that point where we can have an instantaneous awakening. For most of us, we’re still walking the path. And so it takes what appears to be time.
For myself, I am practicing these principles today and even though I have been practicing them for almost 34 years, I am still finding new things and new facets and still practicing, through the exact same method that I just told you. Through taking it within, and practicing until it becomes bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
So, the conscious awareness of truth IS the kingdom of heaven. Do you see? We need to make the transition from material, worldly consciousness to the consciousness of the kingdom of heaven here and now, and we need to make that transition here, right here. Wherever you are, listening to this, we are going to make a conscious transition, from one state of consciousness to another. From one dimension to another.
This is the fantastic part about being here right now, on this planet, in this age. And that is, the amount of work that has come before us, we are benefiting from, and there is no one hearing this message that can’t make this transition. And so, I’m really expecting you to be, if you’re not already, to be hard at work on making the transition from mortal man to immortal Christ being, and that’s what it is. Because when the transformation is complete, you will be walking in the kingdom of heaven.
Let’s put it this way, when the transformation is complete, you will be walking in the conscious awareness of the kingdom of heaven everywhere, all the time, as a continuous spiritual experience.
Now there’s no reason why any of us can’t make that transition in the next few months or years, we can do this, but it is vitally important that we understand it’s not going to just happen. There are things that we need to do. And thank God for the people that went before us because, in this present time, can you feel it? I know you can feel it. There’s a quickening. Things are moving faster. We can make progress now in ten years that might have taken ten lifetimes, and the reason for this is Grace, the Grace right now that surrounds us. And if you are able to tune in by creating this opening within, oh, there are so many blessing, so many blessings.
I guess the message that needed to come through is this, “this is a conscious activity,” my friends, this is something that we consciously do, it doesn’t just happen, its’ not an accident. A master doesn’t come along for most of us and bestow grace on us and move us to this next level, no. “This is a conscious activity,” and it is work that we do within ourselves.
There does come a point where more and more, or lets put it this way, there comes a point where less and less are we striving and struggling with these inner things, these inner truths, because we reach a point where Spirit takes over and the flow is the other way. Sometimes these inner realizations they can just come right out of the blue and they start happening faster and faster, and we find that whereas before we were just able to take something and read it and come back to it and back to it, now we are instruments and that Something is working through us; that Something has begun to get Its message through that opening which we created.