Living in the Light

This article appeared in the December 2014 edition of Creative Thought Magazine & was written by Reverend Dr. Christian Sorensen

New Beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.

                                    ~ Lao-Tsu

It’s been a joy bringing you the monthly topics from The Joyous Living Journal this year. As the calendar closes, who would ever have thought at the beginning of this year that December would see the close of an era that has been known as The Creative Thought Magazine.  It has carried a rich history of bright light that has transformed lives for six decades. The holiday season with all of its joy often outplaces the often forgotten fact that the holiday is really about the return of the light after year’s longest and darkest period.. The return of the light has been celebrated from the earliest times in recorded history as a personal metaphor and reminder that no matter how low of ebb you may find yourself in, this too shall pass. Something greater is about to emerge.  I know for Creative Thought what’s next in its evolution is dancing in the light waiting to be revealed.

December is about joyously living in the light even when you cannot see it. The winter solstice has been a magical time of renewal and introspection and offers the opportunity to live from the deep unshakable knowingness that you will be dancing in the light again. The light, laughter and love can live in the brightness of your heart even when it is dark outside. In the embrace of the time of renewal, comes the realization that even the darkness is part of God. There is not Spirit and darkness because that would be twoness not Oneness; and this season is about the light emerging from within the darkest of times. How could you develop a deep knowing of the truth without the experience of calling it forth in those moments of question?  You’ll know through experience that the ebb of difficulty has reached its lowest point and is now returning bringing the potential of the greater. You will no longer be fooled by the illusion of darkness because you will have learned to quiet the doubting mind.  As you learn to lift your consciousness from the cloak of darkness, you discover the light has always been available and healing comes in proportion to your ability to still the distressed mind.

Holidays can be a very hectic and a stressful time of the year.  Lots to do, people to see, places to go, presents to buy.  The holidays tend to be a microcosm of how the rest of your life is going.  Whatever isn’t working, whether you feel lonely, overwhelmed or in lack, can become magnified, if you allow it.  When you get squeezed by the season, what comes out is what is in you.  A vice grip reveals your true character because under pressure what spews forth from you in the intensity of the moment, is coming from within you.  Rumi told us, “The wound is the place where the light enters you.” Spirituality is not about learning all the different religious philosophies of light analogies for the various seasonal celebrations, it’s about living in and being the light.

As one lives with darkness and concern, it seems strange to think holding on to the familiar means holding onto the fear. Yet that is what is so often done because it takes a great deal of courage to let go of the known even if there isn’t any value in holding onto what has lost its significance. There is actually greater traction as you journey onto a fresh path of a new undertaking. With the shift comes a heightened energy, an attentive perception and acute awareness to see much more.  It as if you’ve flipped on the light switch in your life.  When you feel the call of a new challenge it awakens an inner aspect and intensity which enlivens a vibration of your being whose pulse had died.  Ernest Holmes wrote in the Science of Mind that, “God is forever doing new things, and when we conceive new ideas, it is an act of the Divine projecting Itself into creation.” You lose who you were and the identity attached to what was before and become so much more for the world to see in the new light.

It’s as if you have found yourself on a mountaintop watching the sun rise on the valley below you exposing where all the paths lead.  Like a mountain you will have risen above it all and from the elevated perspective you become uplifting to the world around. You as. Yes, they will all lead to the mountaintop but some paths are just tougher than others.  Catherine of Siena said, “All the way to heaven is heaven” it’s just some of the journeys are lighter than others. Knowing you have the ability to step out of the anxiety of the darker times to remember the light is within you and that the higher perspective is always available for the seeing brings comfort in those ebbing times.

When you catch a vison of the first light from the mountaintop, you realize there is no risk in choosing the path you are meant to walk. Just as a river knows it will find its way to the lake or ocean no matter the twist and turns it takes, so the light of your being knows how to illumine your path, even in the darkest of times. Those around you will demand explanation of what you see, and want you to show them how you know for sure the abundant light of good is returning.   You’ll be there with a celestial gaze of peace on your face that you aren’t able to describe, but nor are you able to deny what you saw. You are also very aware if you abdicate the vision for a logical explanation to quiet the skeptical minds, you will have lost the joy of dancing in the light momentarily in lieu of mingling among the doubters.

Living in the light is about listening to the love inside of you more than your fear. Sometimes you must let go of the way it’s been, “a dear friend”, in order for it to become what is possible.  Be careful not to let your good get in the way of your greater good.  You must listen to the light, and as a spiritual being you may be gifted as a seer of the first light which will always be met by resistance by those who are just fine with the way things are.  But greater good is waiting for those like you who will follow the light because you live in a progressive universe that is always looking for the available outlet for what’s next in the emergence of the Divine.   Say yes to the gift of the light this season is offering you!light this season is offering you!

Living a Relaxed Life

This article appeared in the August 2014 edition of Creative Thought Magazine & was written by Reverend Dr. Christian Sorensen

The lazy days of summer are a great reminder to slow down and relax.  The mind gets so busy always wanting to be somewhere else, as if here isn’t good enough. If there’s something else you should be doing go do it, or chill out. Why bother yourself with anxiety as if worrying is really going to change anything anyway. Worse yet, why lose sleep over something you can’t do anything about at 2:00 am?  It’s just not really logical, is it? Don’t live in the “it will be” mode but rather choose to live in the  “I am-ness” of who you are.

Who’s in charge of your mind? If Merriam Webster were to ask me for a definition of needless anxiety, I would say, it’s when your mind hijacks you and possesses you to the point you don’t even know you’re possessed.  The gift of living a relaxed life is that it allows you to detach enough to observe the mind thinking and realize the racing thoughts are not you. You are the one watching your thoughts. In a state of relaxation, you, the observer, have become more conscious with an elevated perspective.

A challenge in your life can get your mind spinning, but remember contrary to your natural reactionary response, you can always choose to relax. In fact, stepping back in those moments can be the best way to move forward. You’ll come to see a crisis is a birth. I’ve always been one who never wanted to waste a good crisis, because it always serves as an opening to the self.  But, if the mind is quick to jump in and take charge to eliminate pain, then your evolutionary impulses will be squelched by the domination of the controlling mind. You must find a quiet space to sit and embrace the matter at hand, not bury or suppress your feelings about it.  The gift that awaits you in the crisis is your ticket to a greater way of being. Your anxiousness and worry is what you bury your treasure with.

It’s tough to achieve greatness without a challenge.  Who would have cared about David if he’d gone up to Goliath and said this isn’t fair?  Who would have cared if Jesus said he could walk on water and then proceeded to drown?  What matters isn’t whether those things happened as much as, are you able to walk on the troubled waters of your crisis' in your life right now?  Are you able to face the giant battles in your life with a relaxed attitude without giving your power away by freaking out? The answers to what you face are always available. A mind running around with a chicken little panic isn’t open to new answers from the subtler realm that can only be accessed through a calm place. When life gets stirred, are you relaxed enough to hear the answers from the Infinite?

Don’t fall into whining prayers for resolution.  Relax enough to know there is always an answer waiting for you. There was a village in Africa where a service project dug a deep well for the village, but had no ongoing means to keep a generator going to bring the water to the surface.  The sponsors of the project put out a crowd sourcing request on the internet for a solution that was usable, affordable and simplistic. Boy oh boy did ideas come back in droves.  The one they chose put a child’s merry-go-round at the well. The children joyously pushed it around and around, playing on it endlessly throughout the day and into the evening, while turning effortlessly pumped the water for all the village. Brilliant resolution all around.

Your true complaint rests on the condition of your world. Is your world filled with stress or are you able to relax in the moment enough to listen to your observing self?  Don’t be like the folks who are always complaining about something.  Rather in your calm meditative time use those points of contention as your spiritual practice to see what’s in you that I need to know and dance with.  What gift is waiting to be born through this expanded awareness. I might add a word of caution to remember that you aren’t here to demonstrate things though. Not that there’s anything wrong with demonstrations because I’m the first one to say it’s fun to be a masterful manifester. The caution comes to ward off any stress that might be hanging around needing to see the demonstration.  Life is more about demonstrating you, not things!

From a relaxed place it’s easier to know when the timing is right.  When it is right, walk in the direction of your prayers, but until that moment arrives live in a peaceful state.  When it’s time, move!  Not moving when it’s your time is a spiritual constipation that doesn’t serve you. Your potential will always exceed your appearances and to know that for sure you must take the action in your life when it’s time and not a minute before. We live in an evolutionary cosmos, where Dr. Ernest Holmes says, “The Infinite is forever seeking to express Itself through you.” A big challenge comes when we want it all to be familiar and secure.  You can’t hold onto what has already been and reach out for what is yet to unfold.

You must learn to live a relaxed life, find peace now,  trust the process and let go. When you live in the unknown it’s very exciting and tough to go back to the placid lifestyle of the status quo. Those who are living their passion and following their call aren’t here to get what they can but to give who they are.  They live to give what they have to share with this world. The artist stays up all night to create; the writer gets up early and stays up late in the effortless effort of what he/she must share with the world.  There’s a drive that gives rise to that which is new.  It’s an ecstatic urgency that comes from a peaceful knowingness.  Your evolutionary impulse is not scared by your personal human experience. 

If you want to make a difference, you’ve got to relax and get over yourself and out of the little controlling mind who thinks it’s in charge. I’ll give you a hint, it gets easier to get over yourself when you give way to your creative impulse.  When you have a bigger purpose for living you’ll always be in touch with the excitement of life.  If you don’t follow your dream it’ll feel as if you are dying inside.  You can’t figure out an inspiration, it’s something you’ve got to let out.  None of us are where we were and yet none are where we are going, so relax and enjoy your life. It’s an ever unfolding journey and your calm state is receptive to the invitation for the greater yet to be, to be known by you.

New Thought for a New World

This article appeared in the October 2012 edition of Science of Mind Magazine & was written by Reverend Dr. Christian Sorensen

Growing up in Hollywood, I used to run around what was once the home office for Ernest Holmes and the Institute for Religious Science and School of Philosophy. The building, which was affectionately called the headquarters building, sat on the corner of 6th Street and New Hampshire in the city block our movement once owned in the heart of Los Angeles, right off Wilshire Boulevard. The walls were decorated with priceless gifts of art that Ernest’s friends had given him. Dr. Holmes’s big desk still sat in his corner office with an elaborately carved wood ceiling. It was a magical experience to give one of my first talks in the 1970s in the upstairs auditorium where Dr. Holmes would often lecture. In those days, everyone seemed to talk about their time with Ernest and how he had influenced their lives. My father, Rev. Paul Sorensen, spoke about the magnetism and charisma that exuded from this legendary man. His legacy, materially and spiritually, speaks volumes of the success of the teaching of the Science of Mind.

The rich heritage of Religious Science comes from the mystical weaving and synthesizing of Truth. Dr. Holmes was inspired from a higher realm in his bringing together of the universal timeless truths that had been concealed in the great religions and philosophies. This ancient wisdom has been passed down through the ages, reemerging with the renaissance of the New Thought movement of the nineteenth century. Ernest was capable of transcending time to enter the timelessness of consciousness and hear what the great thinkers could hear and the mystics could see. He would converse with the brilliant minds of his day, accompanied by enchanting rhetoric and prophetic vision of the greater-yet-to-be.

New Thought’s Turning Point

The Ancient Wisdom teachings were once publicly veiled under the term “High Thought” until the nineteenth century, which is when the new Thought movement began to gain traction among some forward-minded thinkers such as Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau. The New England area was referred to as the New Athens. Something seemed to happen when Religious Science entered the picture – it became the tipping point. Perhaps, it was Ernest Holmes’s ability to draw crowds on the East and West coasts with his clear and logical approach to metaphysics as applied to one’s personal life, or maybe it was his recognition among the Hollywood crowd or the scientific community that was talking the philosophy of “healthy minded” people, as William James had called it. Either way, the concept of our inherent goodness was catching on. It eventually became the liberating concept “change your thinking: change your life.”

What differentiated us from the early ancestors of New Thought was that Ernest made the philosophy more than philosophical, but also intuitive and practical. It was no longer just theoretical and conceptual for the educated elite in secret societies, but was now available and understandable to anyone. Healing was actually taking place through a teachable method. Ernest took the brilliance and logic of the Transcendentalist who brought the wisdom of the ages in to the pubic conversation and made it usable! He was a visionary in his ability to relate and communicate teachable methods, logical approaches in the application of the universal spiritual principles to the needs and aspirations of everyday life of all people. What made Religious Science the tipping point was its capacity to deliver a replicable method for anyone who was serious about creating a life of spiritual freedom.

Religious Science grew into prominence because it was more than words; it evolved into a daily approach for richer living, enabling healing and spiritual renewal. It taught how to create and “demonstrate the Truth.” Freedom was an essential part of the teaching. Ernest Holmes’s book, The Science of Mind, became the teaching text for a growing movement. On the first page, he clearly lays out the mission of this philosophy where he mentions freedom six times: “The Divine Plan is one of Freedom: bondage is not God-ordained. Freedom is the birthright of every living soul. All instinctively feel this. The Truth points to freedom, under Law. Thus, the inherent nature of man is forever seeking to express itself in terms of freedom.” He wanted all to be liberated from the mental and physical pains that constrict the heart and soul with a manipulative fear paralyzing people’s lives.

What made Science of Mind the turning point was that it pointed seekers to their own inherent nature of Wholeness that was found within them. It was not based on dogma or outside intermediaries going to a higher place on one’s behalf. It was about coming back into direct alignment with one’s own Wholeness of Being. It didn’t need to make anyone else’s God or approach to healing wrong for it to work. It took its authority through demonstration, and not he flowery and impressive words and principles it professed. Ernest Holmes emphasized being present for the Divine realization and the Grace of God – awareness that will reveal one’s true mystic nature.

The Legacy Continues

This October marks eighty-five years of continuous monthly publications, during which time this magazine has delivered the soul-stretching, logical teachings for a better life that Ernest Holmes brought to this world. For the first fourteen months of its existence, Science of Mind magazine was published under the name Religious Science and sold for twenty-five cents a copy. The magazine supported the expanding interest in the Religious Science Institute. Dr. Holmes stated in the first magazine in 1927 that its mission was to “seek to promote that universal consciousness of life which binds all together in one great Whole.” He also laid out what he believed, which became the Declaration of Principles for this growing movement. These revolutionary ideas are the same spiritual principles that master teachers and healers have used through the ages, but what was different was that Dr. Ernest said, “You, too, can use them.”

The use of an impersonal principle seems obvious today, but was groundbreaking, if not blasphemous, in its time. Yet, those who could think outside the societal box of religious orthodoxy found this philosophy to be refreshing, exciting, and absolutely liberating for creating a better life. As the demonstrations began to manifest all around those who took a more conscious approach to living, this teaching circulated from the avant-garde crowd into the mainstream. Teaching chapters for the Science of Mind began to spring up all over the country, because healing was no longer dependent on a spiritual leader or guru, but was a proven method of consciousness that was applicable for anyone who used it.

Ernest Holmes was an evolutionary visionary. In 1927, the Institute for Religious Science and School of Philosophy was officially launched. It was not based on an outside authority, but rather upon what could be manifested by those who applied the impersonal universal laws of the universe. Dr. Holmes taught that you could not see these spiritual laws, but you could see their results. It was put to an immediate test, since the Institute just happened to incorporate prior to the Great Depression of 1929. His affirmative approach to living was profoundly empowering and transformative for those who were challenged during those times. The philosophy brought comfort during World War II and other subsequent wars. Science of Mind continued to prove the test of time throughout Ernest Holmes’s life. He knew the importance of remaining open to the evolving understanding and application of the principles of Truth. Rather than a rigid and closed philosophy, he stated that we must remain “open at the top.”

Transformative Power

After Ernest moved on from this world in 1960, his visionary leadership was put to the test of time. Would his organization of the ageless wisdom and spiritual laws remain strong enough to stand on its own without his charismatic influence? Was his mission clear enough for those who were close to Dr. Holmes to carry the torch of the teachings to this next generation? Religious Science now stands on the shoulders of those spiritual giants who came before us and brought forth Ernest’s demonstrable truth of love and the law. Knowing God is omnipresent, multidimensional, and all there is, it would seem logical that there could be no otherness and nothing to overcome – only Spirit to recognize and align with. In this personal experience of God and true realization, all sense of separation dissolves into the nothingness from which it came. What remains is the field of Spirit or the Grace of God.

Ernest was a bridge from a time in history when the consciousness of the United States was not the predominant leader it is in the world today. During his era, he delivered universal spiritual principles that helped people move into their magnificence. He gave us the repeatable approach to personal healing, whether in our bodies or personal affairs. He taught that your inner wisdom always rises to meet whatever challenge is before you and how an understanding of one’s difficulties can be the catalyst for releasing blocks to healing.

This was transformative to the collective cultural consciousness of his time. He helped to bring forth an era of personal empowerment where one claims responsibility for one’s life, spiritually and materially. When we take responsibility for whatever we are going through, we have the power to free ourselves from the apparent negative experiences. Science of Mind helped people move from being victims to becoming conscious creators of their lives. Ernest reminded us that it is all God, it all Good, and there is no large or small to the Mind that is all. Healing is Life’s natural, logical, and necessary unfoldment. The personal approach to healing became our tipping point that returned the power back into the hands of those who would change their thinking; they were the ones who would change their lives. This personal acceptance and new confidence transcends denominations and weaves itself into the lives of the “cultural creative” of today.

We are journeying through time together, ever moving into greater understanding and cooperation with our brothers and sisters across this planet. Dr. Holmes clearly pointed out in his literary masterpiece, The Voice Celestial, that what is being taught is beyond doctrines and creeds and is at the core of the great religions – the Timeless Spiritual Truths for joyous living. Expanding and learning how to apply these spiritual principles of Truth on an ever-larger scale will truly make the borders on our planet irrelevant. Ernest said in his Sermon by the Sea, “There is a Law that backs up the vision, and the Law is immutable. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. There is a Power transcendent beyond our needs, our little wants. Demonstrating a dime is good if one needs it, or healing oneself o f a pain is certainly good if one has it, but beyond that, at the real feast at the tabernacle of the Almighty, in the temple of the living God, in the banquet hall of heaven, there is something beyond anything that you and I have touched.”

We stand at the threshold of the next generation of Ernest’s vision. We are moving from individual to global consciousness. Dr. Holmes clearly taught about the power of collective consciousness and the ability of an individual to impact and influence the larger picture. It’s time for the Centers for Spiritual Living to once again be the tipping point in applying these relevant and applicable teachings of a New Thought, a high thought and a new perspective, to help free those who are being sucked into the trance of hypnotic fears of headlines. Religious Science offers a choice and an answer for a hurting world. It’s time to share resources with those who hunger. It’s time to see peace as a viable option to war. It’s time for cooperation instead of exploitation. It’s time for a conscientious and balanced use of earth’s resources and to honor intelligent ecology. With a new thought, we can create a new world. 

This article appeared in the June 2014 edition of Creative Thought Magazine & was written by Reverend Dr. Christian Sorensen

 

Effort and Courage are not enough without purpose – John F. Kennedy

Without purpose life has no meaning.  Why put out the extra effort to deal with the commotion of this world if you don’t have a greater purpose than just survival?  Asking the deep question, what is my life’s purpose, calls forth the inherent soul’s memory for coming to this world. This kind of inner dialogue moves you from looking at the world of external form to the internal exploration of your personal guidance.  When grace opens that door, it’s private party time with God. When you leave this revelation, because you can’t stay there forever, you’ll no longer be satisfied wandering the same old terrain without deeper purpose. You’ll find continual divine encounters when you follow your call to purpose which can be a far more enjoyable experience of God than through the painful approach of fear.

As the desire to know your soul’s purpose stirs within, the controlling mind assures you don’t go too far in following it.  Control is its safety. As you play untried possibilities and the paths that call you to them. If you say yes, be ready for some aspects of your life to be reduced to ashes, whether it’s starting something altogether new or letting go of some old pains. Joyously living on purpose doesn’t mean you have to abandon your present world. What it does mean, however, is allowing that which is stirring within, beyond your reasoning to be recognized and remembered.  What it means is allowing your inner knowing to take charge.  It’s painful to have your urge to express your inner gift held captive by the so called constraints of your world. Your renaissance is waiting.  Your contribution is needed.

The most joyous people aren’t without issues, but those who know there is something within them  know how to solve them. Going nowhere faster won’t get you there. Do us a favor and let the purpose of your being shine like a diamond. It may take some soul strength to excavate your gifts that have been buried under the responsibilities you’ve accepted for doing life so far. We’ve all experienced moments in life that challenge our courage. Remember to consciously realign with the omnipresent life force because Spirit is seeking to express Itself as you. It calls Itself by your name. Your connection is a power beyond measure. If the issue is too small to take to prayer, then it’s too small to turn into a burden. You can allow a challenge to kill your purpose or unleash a primordial power you didn’t even know you had. There‘s a significant difference between someone who has a big issue and one who makes their issues big.

What’s surprising is at the end of a full and demanding day lived on purpose you don’t feel depleted but instead full; though maybe tired but also energized. When you dance, you let the music take over your soul. Let it not be about remembering your steps, rather, it’s about enjoying each step. When you are living on purpose, there’s a joy in the soul that brings a fulfillment with every step whether those steps are tough or easy. In the dance there is a faith which knows when to move and when to stay put in creating the perfect expression. When living on purpose it helps to have a faith to act and a faith to wait. Divine patience and divine action are two aspects that make up the whole equation.  It takes faith to trust both.  How long have you been living with doubt and not trusting the faith you are practicing?

Living on purpose is about your relationship with God. Living on purpose allows you to be in constant contact to the spirit moving and guiding you on the dance floor of life. It dissolves the incongruities between your desires, actions, words and behavior. When you get out of your head and back to your spirit guidance you stop wondering if this is your creative imagination talking. In that clarity, there comes a deep knowingness because the questioning mind is not in the picture. You just know.  You are given the image from a higher perspective that is not concerned with the logical how-will-I –make-this- happen scenario. Johann Wolfgang on Goeth wrote, “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”

All heart is a bit too emotional to be walking this world all alone, all head doesn’t have the faith to muster up the forces to overcome the big challenges.  It’s the combination of the two that allows your spirit to walk this world supported and fulfilled. It’s from this transcendent state you are charged and energized to bring forth your vision. So stop waiting for God outside of you to do something about it and realize God is waiting for you to do something about it. Call yourself into a greater life by honoring the lure of your soul purpose. Following your soul’s purpose is far more fun than being motivate in life by fear.

You might ask yourself, how do I find my purpose? You don’t choose your life’s purpose, it chooses you. Quiet down all the inner chatter, and spend some time listening. You’ll find what turns you on and you’ll remember what excites your soul. When you honor this urge of the stirring of your spirit, there will be an insatiable ache that won’t be quelled until you say yes to your inner call. You are dreaming big because there is a bigger expression waiting to come through you. You’ll discover more of who you are when you follow the pull from within.  As a visionary, you’ve been entrusted with what others have not yet seen. Every new discovery and creation was first seen by someone before it came into form.

You are walking your path to reach your greatest capacity as you are created to thrive in what you are intended to do. You’ve been requested to join in the co-creative process with Life Itself and you’re a conduit to bring forth the divine expression into form. Be willing to go too far on this explorative journey rather than living the rest of your life regretting not having gone far enough. The more you honor this creative urge, the more evidence you’ll find that it is yours to do. Open the door and let Spirit carry you away and you’ll find the richness and blessings will far exceed your dream.

Personal Practices for Living on Purpose

• What is my life’s purpose?
• Where have you had pain rather than divine encounters realign you to your path?
• How does your controlling mind keep you from playing full out?
• How has your inner urge to express life been held prisoner?
• When has your life been turned to ashes and you rose to a greater experience of living?
• How did you feel when you overcame what appeared to be an insurmountable obstacle?
• What burdens are you forgetting to pray about?
• How does it feel at the end of a full day doing what you love?
• Where are the incongruencies in your life between what you say you want to be doing and what you are actually doing?

Reverend Christian Sorensen D.D. is the spiritual leader of the Seaside Center for Spiritual Living in Encinitas CA., last appointed President and first elected community spiritual leader for United Church of Religious Science. An emeritus member of the Leadership Council of the Association for Global New Thought and council Member of Evolutionary Leaders, Dr. Sorensen has authored 8 books including his most recent title “Joyous Living Journal” which he co-authored alongside Dr. Petra Weldes.

Living from a Higher Vibration

This article appeared in the April 2014 edition of Creative Thought Magazine & was written by Reverend Dr. Christian Sorensen

The whole Jesus story is eerily similar to the tale of Horus the revealer of immortality which is said to have occurred in the times of the Egyptian First Dynasty or Persia ’s Mithras and Zarathustra. The underlying meaning of the epic tale is about living from a higher vibration. This energetic vibration is often referred to as the Christ, Buddha, and or Krishna Consciousness and known to be such an unparalleled sense of oneness that death itself cannot create a sense of separation from it.  Stories, parables, and allegories are effective tools to help us understand that which can’t really be perceived with the five senses no less, described with words by delivering an intuitive impress.  The Easter story or the spring metaphor of rising triumph above the cold dark winter, representing death itself here, is recorded from the beginning of time and celebrated with its various Spring festivals.  All of the historical celebrations work in their own cultural way to help part the veil to the unknown, giving one a peek into the returning power and potential beyond apparent death.

It’s not about living beyond this world; rather, it’s choosing to be fully present and living full out now in this world.  It’s about moving beyond the chatter of human concerns in your head that drown out the sound of God.  Everything you ever wanted is on the other side of fear and babble.  As you court the beloved rather than those earthly concerns, you will see the face of God everywhere and feel the Divine Embrace.

Our allegories and analogies of the after-life and God seem fueled by our cultures highest understanding of the best possible human conditions which can be put into words. But, there‘s so much more beyond imagination. Not understanding your true magnificence will keep you searching outside yourself for something you feel is more significant than you, which goes against the truth of who you are. You are life itself expressing. You are an active expression of God.

As long as you can keep your awareness on the Infinite without having to describe it or direct it, you will keep the channel open to the wonderful flow of life beyond what you ever knew possible.  You’ll find yourself being charged up rather than depleted and exhausted by this world’s demands.  You’ll recognize all experience unfolding in your world is God expressing through you. When you maintain a high level of awareness you will receive intuitive revelations pointing to the next step along a harmonious path for your soul’s continued expression.

No longer will you be satisfied to live a life motivated by low vibration motives.  You won’t duck pain, fear or be shackled by the concerns of pleasing others. Instead, you will resonate with living in the joy vibration.  Laughter and smiles will become more of your daily self expression. Following your heart will benefit others tenfold rather than being a people pleasing person. Living from your natural flow is what fuels your connection to the enriching current of Spirit.  Letting go of your ego’s agenda and emotional attachments is what will open the door for the greater expression of the Infinite to arrive in all of its glory as your life.

When you live in this loving stream, life is not difficult because it was never meant to be a struggle.  The realm of awareness where you are playing in this world is meant to be a good, fun and happy place. In truth, it’s heaven where it’s done to you as you believe. 

A greater question at hand is, who planted the beliefs that have you entombed in the tightness of your conviction that the world is a certain way? The spring analogies remind you, you don’t have to stay there no matter who sealed the grave, you can step out of this tomb of limiting beliefs and internal struggles at any time.  Stop turning the Infinite power against you for personal entrapment; you don’t need your life lessons through pain any longer. Ride the fresh flow of this current spring energy of life seeking to express through you.

There is no separation. You are life itself rising from it’s winter hibernation, You too can live from a higher vibration because you are The Infinite. The more you allow this Life to move through the open door of your being, the more it heals, transforms and enriches you. Suddenly, what’s wrong or isn’t working is insignificant. You’ll be living in a constant state of wholeness and renewal and anything unlike that will naturally fall from your world.

For many, misplaced beliefs and fears that are based on detailed story-telling will close the door to the Infinite Power creating a separation and dualistic approach to living. These disconnects hurt, but slowly we, as humans, adjust to the constriction accepting struggle as a normal state-of- being. New stories and urban myths are built to substantiate this as the new standard. Embracing the distressed state usually comes from a feeling you are less than magnificent, not worthy of living heaven on earth.  I’m telling you now. You are not less than anything or anyone; you are the Divine Rising as you and worthy to experience all your heart desires! You must choose to live in a higher vibration. This rising transcends religion and is available to all who are willing to roll the stone away from their tomb of limited thinking.

It’s a powerful teaching to resist not evil. The moment you are tempted to fight the battle of the persecutors in your life, like sickness, scarcity or fear, they will have already won because you will have just entered the world of your foe and given your power to duality.  When you go to God to take on your battle, you’ve misdirected the mystical power of Oneness by agreeing there is an opponent to fight.  A powerful mystical message can be found in Jesus’ classic line to Pilot, where he says,” You have no power over me.”  You’ve abdicated your Divine Expression when you believe and act as if there could be something outside of you that is not Spirit and it needs to be concurred.

In the Divine field, there is no such thing as truth over error, right over wrong, or health over sickness because duality just doesn’t exist in the higher vibration of God.  There is only the Infinite taking form as you. You must always choose to see as Spirit sees. Or as Ernest Holmes writes in the Science of Mind, “We must trust the Invisible, for It is the sole cause of that which is visible . . . things which are seen were not made of things which do  appear.” (Heb.11:3) 

Too many will tell you this world is an illusion. It’s not an illusion; it’s all Spirit. Rather, it’s that our senses are misinterpreting, misperceiving and not seeing the face of God. The challenges lie in our believing our interpretation of what we see is the Truth.  Your stories can trap you in the limiting beliefs of duality. Remember, it’s all Spirit, which includes form.

  As one grows from infancy, through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, so too, does one mature up the vibrational scale into knowing beyond the descriptive of words to an intuitive realization that emerges with a knowingness from a non linear Divine Impress. No longer will you be seduced into thinking Spirit is not present in particular places in your world. With the wisdom of the Christ Consciousness, the Buddha Consciousness, the Krishna consciousness or just the higher wisdom of the ages, you’ll come to know the Divine as all forms of your life and the revelational gifts they are offering you. There is truly nothing in this world that can deny the Divine.

Personal practices for living in a Higher vibration:

• When, in your life, have you been so down you didn’t feel as if there was any way out of the dark time, but some how you returned to life? Remember how it was to be part of the world of the living again.
• What mind chatter is drowning out the sound of God?  What messages are you not hearing that are attempting to catch your attention?
• What fears and babble are keeping you from coming alive in your dream and making your dream a reality?
• Where are you finding yourself depleted and how can you open up to the revitalizing Infinite Source?
• How has pain avoidance become your motivating driver? Where do you not allow the joy vibration to be your inspired way of being?
• Who placed some entombing beliefs in your thinking and what are they? Are you willing to let them go or are you noticing you’re already defending them in your mind to these questions?
• Where are you giving your power away to “Pilot”, outside concerns?  Remember to enter into the Divine vibration and be led by the Higher Directive.
• What limiting experiences have you believing Spirit is not present?  How can you come to know this experience from a Higher place, through the eyes of God?
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Reverend Christian Sorensen D.D. is the spiritual leader of the Seaside Center for Spiritual Living in Encinitas CA., last appointed President and first elected community spiritual leader for United Church of Religious Science. An emeritus member of the Leadership Council of the Association for Global New Thought and council Member of Evolutionary Leaders, Dr. Sorensen has authored 8 books including his most recent title “Joyous Living Journal” which he co-authored alongside Dr. Petra Weldes.