Message from Executive Director – Life is a Celebration!

LESSON FIFTY
TWELVE POWERS IN YOU
POWER OF LIFE

LIFE DOES NOT
COME AND GO

 

WHAT WE WANT TO LEARN AND PRACTICE: My life is an expression of God-Life, and I choose to affirm more fully that power of life every day. I am not getting “older;” I am getting better!

1. LIFE IS A SPIRITUAL POWER OR ABILITY we have the power of life. Life evolves in its various expressions.  The forms of life change. Our connection with the life power is ageless, forever unfolding. We are living in “eternal life” now. Real life doesn’t “start” after we “die” and go to some other realm called “heaven.” Life doesn’t begin with birth and “end” with “death.” Life is an ageless, continuing, vitalizing power — our twelfth power.

   2. UNDERSTAND YOUR LIFE POWER AND REALIZE LIFE IS FOR LIVING!

Limited View of Our Life Power Life is limited and is measured in years. Life comes from the body. Life gets old and wears out. Sickness is natural. Death is the end of life. Human life is just a preparation for being with God in “eternal life.”	More Constructive View of Our Life Power Life is an infinite endowment of God. The body comes from life. Life is an endless power. Health is natural. Death is a transition from one phase of life expression to another — a change of cosmic address.   Eternal life is always — here and now.

3. YOUTH IS NOT A TIME OF LIFE; IT IS A STATE OF MIND. Our life power is ageless, forever unfolding. Affirm life, celebrate life. The source of our life is God, and God is eternal, almighty good. I am the ever-renewing, ever-unfolding expression of infinite life. We are not just aging, we are saying!

3. JUDAS ISCARIOT REPRESENTS THE POWER OF LIFE. Judas must have demonstrated high qualities, or Jesus would not have chosen him as a disciple. Jesus trusted Judas enough to have him handle the money to provide places for the disciples to sleep and eat on their travels. However, Judas miscalculated the life Jesus was revealing — wanting to force Jesus to use his powers to get rid of the Romans rather than seeing that he was demonstrating a greater love consciousness and life to be applied by all people as individuals and society. When Judas led the authorities to Jesus, Judas may have believed that God would intervene and not let Jesus die. Maybe he hoped Jesus would bring a worldly kingdom that would overthrow Roman rule. Judas hung himself and was replaced by Matthias, who is thought to be in harmony with the others and able to carry forth the work of the indwelling, living, Christ Spirit.          (Portrait by Suné Richards)

 

 

4. LIFE IS CONTINUOUS. There are three realms of life we have the courage and wisdom to explore: Life before birth, life after birth, life after death.
   Ian Stevenson, MD, who was Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia, points out how odd it is that so many people have accepted and argued for a life after death, but so many Westerners never even have considered a life before birth. Life after death has not been proven but certainly has been indicated by the research of Raymond Moody, MD. His study of near-death experiences offers fascinating possibilities that we go forth into a loving, welcoming, light-filled “hereafter.” The most important question for us is: Is there life after birth? How alive are we now! This program of spiritual study and practice helps us to use all our Powers to affirm, believe in, will, image, and embrace life. We declare that life is good. We all have our challenges, but life is worth the effort — worth living.

Our credo here in the Twelve Powers is: I study life! I teach life! I meditate on life! I affirm life! I talk life! I live life! I use all my Twelve Powers to live fully and productively! Life is for living!

SCRIPTURES: Deuteronomy 30: 19, Matthew 22:32, John 10:10

RESOURCES:

1. Twelve Powers In You by David and Gay Lynn Williamson, and Robert Knapp. MD
2. New Thought for a New Millennium, Michael Maday, Editor, Unity Books
3. Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation by Ian Stevenson, MD
4. Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss, MD
5. Life After Life by Raymond Moody, MD
6. The Case for Reincarnation by James Dillet Freeman, Unity Books
7. Be! by James Dillet Freeman, Unity Books

 

LESSON FIFTY-THREE
TWELVE POWERS IN YOU
ALL OF OUR POWERS

A POWERFUL YEAR IN REVIEW

 

WHAT WE WANT TO LEARN AND PRACTICE: To live with, by and through a balanced, positive use of our Twelve Powers under the direction of the Christ within.

1. DEVELOPMENT OF OUR TWELVE POWERS. Jesus presented a new concept of these powers. Here are some of the distinctions he taught.

	POWER		OLD CONCEPTS		NEW CONCEPTS
	FAITH		Be true to the set teachings of the group Be faithful to what you are told Control by fear		Have positive faith in God, yourself, people Find your own faith Be not afraid
	LOVE		Get all you can Law comes first Possess/dominate		Give all you can Love comes first Set free / cooperate
	STRENGTH		Rigidity Force Stubbornness		Flexibility Inner balance & confidence Ability to grow/persist
	WISDOM / JUDGMENT		Blame, retribution, judgmental Look to appearances Punishment works best		Forgiveness/justice Look to intent & background Rehabilitation works best
	POWER		Might makes right Power struggles Violence is necessary Top dog/underdog God is all-powerful		Right makes right Conflict resolution Non-violence is necessary Equality / sharing power We are co-creators with God
	IMAGINATION		Dismiss as fantasy Vain imaginings Dreams are dangerous		Prayerful, healing power Form constructive pictures Dreams are God’s messengers
	UNDERSTANDING		Most things are beyond our ability to understand, are a mystery and are not for us to know		We can have spiritual understanding of what stands under us and all life.
WILL		I must get my own way to be happy. My will be done		What is for the highest good of all Thy will be done
ORDER		Everything must be just so Letter of the law Love is disorderly		First things first, prioritize Spirit of the law Love is highest order
ENTHUSIASM / ZEAL		Everything must be a big deal or it isn’t important Get fired up, then tired out Get carried away with one thing		Small can be important & beautiful Starting & staying power Balanced interest in many things
RELEASE / ELIMINATION		Dualism — reject the world as bad, error Pretend on the outside Hold on to people & things		Cleanse what needs to be forgiven or let go. Be honest & renew from within. Let go and let God.
LIFE		Life is limited — death is the end Sickness is natural Life is to be endured		Life is infinite & ongoing Health is natural Life is to be celebrated

2. REVIEW OF OUR SPIRITUAL POWERS

Faith is my perceiving power of mind. Faith is a spiritual power, but it is not confined to religion. I use my faith faculty all the time when I give mental attention to something. Jesus said, “Have faith in God.” That is, I focus my mental attention on the good, on the limitless flow of renewing energy.

Love is my ability to know oneness with all and to desire that good comes to all. Love is my ability to share, to draw together. Love heals, harmonizes, renews, prospers and unites. I know: “God is love, and I am that love power expressing as me.” The power of love casts out fear, loneliness and selfishness.

Strength is my ability to hold fast, endure, stand firm and stay in integrity. Strength often is seen as physical force (Samson type), but inner strength (Jesus-the-Christ type) is found in quietness, confidence, peacefulness, love of enemies, giving good for evil. Strength is balance between thinking and feeling, logic and emotion, intellect and intuition.

Wisdom/Good Judgment is my ability to discern, evaluate and make decisions. Every day is judgment day. Heaven and hell are not places I go after I die. They are states of mind that I create by the decisions I make in the courtroom of my mind.

Power is my ability to convert an idea into words I speak, actions I take, and things I build. I affirm my oneness with the Higher Power. It is not I, but the Power within that does the work. I express power through my voice and through physical movement. I need to own my power and to be poised and centered in my power.

Imagination is my ability to form thoughts, mental pictures and positive images. This is often called “visualization.” I also have the ability to be aware of the flow of images and inspirations that just come to me. When I say, “The Lord is my shepherd,” I am praying with an image as well as words.

Understanding is my ability to make sense of all my other Powers and life. It allows me to know that Divine Mind stands under all things. It is being aware that what stands under me is the eternal growth process. “With all my getting, give me an understanding heart.” (1 Kings 3:10.)

Will is my ability to be willing toward God. Will is the executive faculty of my mind. I am God’s executive. I am the CEO of my life enterprise. I am the one who can get the job done with God.

Order is my ability to know what is important and to put my life in order. I begin to put “first things first.” I seek first the kingdom of heaven (spiritual consciousness and values) and then I add all things unto this. I put God first. Order helps me to establish and maintain worthy personal and social priorities.

Enthusiasm is my power that fires me with energy. It is my starting power and staying power. It is my urge to stretch, my drive to excel, my desire to improve and contribute. “Entheos” means, on fire with God and filled with God.

Release is my ability to give a “no, thank you” response to the untrue, undesirable, or outworn. It is my ability to forgive, free myself, break bad habits, not be controlled, and let go. The release uses the “vacuum principle” by letting go of mental and physical “stuff” so that God has space and place to be realized. What is released may not be “bad,” but it just needs to be eliminated and replaced with something better.

Life is my power to restore, heal, mend, procreate, regenerate, vitalize, and energize. My life power is always present within me. It does not grow old, wither, or pass away. I honor my sexuality as a sacred and positive life expression. I celebrate life!

3. A TWELVE POWER SELF SURVEY. We have journeyed through our Twelve Powers. You are more empowered and you understand your Powers more fully — how to own them and use them, how to share power in loving ways with others. Let us review the Powers and survey how your Powers are being expressed in a balanced and harmonious way. To help you evaluate, we are going to work with the image of a flower. Your Powers are blossoming in you, and you are like a beautiful flower.

Take the flower diagram on the next page, and inside the central circle, write your name under the I AM. This represents the core of you, your inner or higher Self, your divine Self, which is blossoming beautifully through the expression of your Twelve Powers in your present identity. Now as you review each Power, you can draw one petal at a time to represent the development of each Power in your life. If the Power is well developed, make the petal large. If the Power is underdeveloped, make the petal small. As you are honest with yourself, you will have great insight into your own progress and into areas that may still need some work and attention.

“The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with delight and singing.” (Isaiah 35: 1-2)