Spiritual Solutions

Many of us have had great dreams for ourselves and then let them die. They were dreams that started within us and then perhaps we let them get caught up in outer things and we’ve lost our direction and motivation for their accomplishment.

There’s a great analogy I find in the book of Ezekiel about the valley of dry bones. It says, “The hand of the Lord was upon me and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me round among them; and behold, there were very many upon the valley; and lo, they were very dry. And he said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered ‘O, Lord God, thou knowest.’

Again, he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

Of course, this wasn’t really about bones at all. It was about lost dreams. He was talking to the Israelites, who had started off with great dreams of God’s presence and the things that with God they could achieve. Then they got caught up in creating idols and so on.

But he is speaking not only to the Israelites; he is also speaking to us. We have started off sometimes with great dreams, guided from within, and then we’ve let them die. We’ve let them get caught up with outer things, outer concerns, outer circumstances, outer situations that have caused our dreams to shrivel up and die. And we end up with a valley of dry bones.

But he says it’s not all over yet, because you can prophesy to these bones that the Lord God will come and clothe them with muscle and skin and sinew, and will breathe into them and make them live.

So the prophet prophesies to them, and the bones begin to come together, and the muscle comes on them, and the skin comes on them, and they stand up. But there’s no life in them. It’s like us, we sometimes look like living beings but we’re not; there’s no life in us, there’s something missing. And what was it? It was the breath of God.

So God says to Ezekiel, “Breath on them, speak to them again, prophesy again and say to them that the Lord God will breath on you, and the breath will be in you.” So when the breath comes in they live, the dreams live again.

Our dreams live when the breath of God moves in us. This is what makes us uniquely human and uniquely divine; the breath of God is that which moves us to our highest good. If we align ourselves with that awareness, then we find that our world has changed. The outer things are still there, but we’re not so caught up in them; they are transformed because of our inner perception of them as we put God first in our lives.

No matter what is happening, no matter what challenges come along, we are centered in God’s presence and live in a conscious realization of our oneness with God. We really know for ourselves that there is only one presence and one power; we are centered in that knowing and able to move out into all situations with confidence.

When we are not living according to the Truth of our being, not living God’s purpose, we’re not living our wholeness and we feel divided, separated from God and separated from the Truth within ourselves. In order to come together, it takes the breath of God. We only find real life when we are moving with that breath of God.

You may remember some of the last words that Jesus said to the disciples before his ascension. He said, “Wait for the presence of God and the Holy Spirit will bring the power to you.” The “breath of God” and the “Holy Spirit” are the same. The Holy Spirit is the movement of God; it’s the whole Spirit of God in action through you. We can identify it with the wind or breath; we cannot see the wind and in the same way we cannot see God’s movement, but we can see what the wind does and we can see what God does in our lives.

We may think of ourselves as being like sailboats, only moving in the right direction when we open our sails to the breath of God. In that way, we become more malleable to the movement of Spirit within us instead of thinking that we have to force the pace. We become still, and listen more in order to open ourselves to the Spirit of God.

Remember, in the story of Pentecost, it said they were all together in one place. That means they were in integrity, they were united in prayer in one place or one consciousness. And it said it was as though there was a mighty rush of wind that came to them and filled the house, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

They were all changed after that experience. They began to speak and to understand one another even though there were different races; in other words, they spoke with the language of Spirit. And they were permanently changed.

So we know that change is possible within us and for us, as it was with the disciples; when we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit or the “wholeness” of potential within ourselves, our dreams can live again.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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Several years ago, I had time to be with my grandson, Rowan, who was visiting from England. He was eleven at the time and came over by himself. We went to Disney, the Magic Kingdom, and then Universal Studios. We went on all the rides, Space Mountain, Back to the Future, Terminator 2, Alien Encounter, Jaws, Twist, and all those kind of things. Then we spent a day at home to recover, and planned to go to Adventure Island in Tampa on the Friday.
 
Kathryn and I had a cat we had adopted after a friend of ours who owned her died a couple of months previous. Tanya was a calico, about three years old, and skittish; she hid under the bed at the slightest provocation and with our grandson being there she spent a lot of time under the bed.

On the Thursday we hadn’t seen much of her, but I knew she’d been out from under the bed because the food had been eaten. Then when we got up Friday morning, the food hadn’t been eaten and I wondered where she was. I asked Kathryn if she’d seen Tanya last night and she said she hadn’t. So I thought well maybe she’s still under the bed; I looked under the bed and she wasn’t there. We looked everywhere in the house, in all the closets and everywhere around – no cat! She was gone; she was out of the house somewhere.

She must have sneaked sometime on Thursday, so she’d been out all night. So what did we do? We started to worry, right? We hoped she hadn’t gone too far; we hoped we could get her back, we hoped she hadn’t been hit by a car, all those kind of things. And we all had places to go, Rowan and I to Adventure Island and Kathryn had some appointments. So Rowan and I looked all around the neighborhood, we went on the roof and looked all around the roof; there was no sign of her. All around the house, nothing there, and to different gardens down the road, but nothing. She was nowhere in sight.

We called the SPCA, Friends of Strays, and the animal shelter; we put a “lost calico cat” sign on a tree, and then went on our separate ways. The animal shelter people said we should come there between 4:30 and 5 pm to check on the “found” book, so we thought we’d call there on the way home from Tampa. But we got stuck in traffic in Tampa and realized they would be closed by the time we got there, so we went straight home.

As soon as we got home, I asked Kathryn, “Is Tanya here?” She said, “Well, I have a story to tell you.” She said she got home about three o’clock and she felt moved to go out in the back yard and sit there in a chair and pray. She said, “I felt that I really needed to get deeply still and pray. I prayed out loud, ‘in the name of Jesus Christ.’”

When you pray “in the name of Jesus Christ” you are praying in the nature of Jesus Christ, and you are praying in the nature of God within you. When you pray in that consciousness you are accessing all of the wisdom and power of the living God.

So Kathryn said she got really, really still, and then she opened her eyes and made a move to go into the back yard next door. She looked back at our roof, and there was the cat!

There was a small deck on the roof of the house we lived in at that time. So Kathryn went up the spiral staircase which led to the deck. Tanya was way over on the roof, and so Kathryn sat down with her back to the cat and just murmured her name, “Good girl, Tanya.” Finally the cat came up to her and started nudging her and loving her. Tanya was a big heavy cat and Kathryn couldn’t get hold of her and she still had to get back down the steps. So she went down and got some food and water and brought it back up for her.

We came home around 5:30 pm and Tanya had come down from the roof and gone into hiding again. Finally she scooted around and came in the back door which we had left open.

The important lesson here is that we found her because Kathryn prayed; she took time to be still and to pray instead of hurrying around doing the busy work. When she did, she looked up and there was the cat.

How often we tend to do things the hard way, instead of the easy way! It’s prayer that brings about right action and positive results. When you bring things together in prayer then good things begin to happen for you.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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ZEAL

14th Day, Thursday. Read Luke 10:30-42; 11:1-4.

Zeal is the affirmative impulse of existence; its command is, “Go forward!” Zeal is the mighty force that incites all things to action; the eternal urge behind all things. To be without zeal is to be without the zest of living. Zeal and enthusiasm incite to glorious achievement in every ideal that the mind conceives.

Zeal should be tempered with wisdom. Some persons get so fired with zeal when they first tackle a job, that they quickly grow tired, and fail to carry it through to completion. The need is for control, equalization.

Watch the pull of a giant locomotive; note how it slowly but steadily moves forward, almost by inches at first but gradually increasing until its mile-long train swiftly disappears in the distance.

“The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up” means that the zeal faculty has become so active intellectually that it has consumed the vitality and left nothing for spiritual growth. Excessive zeal in religious forms of worship eats up the purely spiritual. When we become very zealous in observing the rites of the church we are prone to forget the church itself, which is Christ.

The divine command is, “Take time to be holy.” I am quick to do the bidding of Spirit and use a portion of my zeal in establishing God’s kingdom within me. I do not put all my enthusiasm into helping others; my own unfoldment is of great importance to me. I love to aid my brother, but I do not allow that idea to rob me of the power to demonstrate Truth for myself.

I affirm: “My zeal is tempered with wisdom, and I maintain a perfect balance within and without.”

Questions:

1. Define “zeal.”

2. What part does zeal play in achievement?

3. Can zeal become excessive? Explain.

4. For what purpose should a portion of zeal be used?

Father-God, I pray for zeal to motivate me to achievement, and for wisdom to keep me steady, strong, and true to divine principle.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

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 Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

 If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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IMAGINATION

2nd Sunday. Read Acts 10:9-35.

The imagination is that faculty of mind which images and forms. Everything that is manifest was first a mental picture and was brought into expression by this forming power. We accumulate a mass of ideas about substance and life, and with our imagination we molds them into shape.

Those who look to the Holy Spirit for guidance find that its instruction is given to all who believe in Christ, and the command is to make all things after the pattern shown Moses on the Mount as found in Exodus 25:40.

The Spirit of truth projects into the chamber of imagery pictures that, rightly understood, will be a sure guide for all people who believe in the omnipresence of mind. The imagination will carry out any idea or set of ideas that the I AM reflects into it, hence theories are not to be trusted. There must be evidence in works. This is accomplished by the working power of the world.

With my imagination I lay hold of perfect ideas and clothe them with substance. My body is the product of my mind. In my communication with God, the imagining power of my mind is playing an important part. It receives divine ideas, and in dreams and visions reflects their character in the consciousness. According to the Scriptures this is the opening of the heavens and the seeing the “angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”

With my imagination fixed on Spirit, I affirm: “In the quietness and confidence of Spirit, I see myself as God sees me, His perfect image and likeness.”

Questions:

1. Define “imagination.”

2. How was everything that exists brought into expression?

3. How do we lay hold of ideas?

4. What part does the imagining power of the mind play in our communication with God?

I allow my mind to run to positive imagery. I see my life as it is meant to be–good and beautiful.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

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 Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

 If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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Beginning in the twelfth chapter of Genesis, we read how Abraham was guided by Spirit to leave where he lived to journey to a land which God would show him. He set off, taking with him his wife and his nephew, Lot, and they ended up in the land of Canaan.

Along the way they had prospered greatly, but then the herdsmen of Abraham and Lot quarreled and since they now had so many herds the land couldn’t support them. So Abraham suggested they go their separate ways, and being a generous man he gave the fertile Jordan valley to Lot, and Abraham went up into the hilly country.

It was there that God spoke to Abraham, with these words: “Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants for ever.”

This is a great message for us all today, for we tend to be limited in our ability to see a greater horizon and all its possibilities. So, “lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are.”

In a sense, this is what we do in inner prayer and meditation. We climb to the heights of spiritual consciousness, get a larger perspective, a cosmic vision, see ourselves and the world around us with a wider sense of what we might call far horizons. We are lifted up out of an illusion of separateness, consciousness has a direct perception of awareness and we experience what the scriptures call the “grace of God.”

Charles Fillmore, co-founder of the Unity movement, once said, “Man can never discern more than a segment of the circle in which he moves, although his powers and capacities are susceptible to infinite expansion. He discovers a faculty in himself and cultivates it until it opens out into a universe of co-related faculties. The farther he goes into mind, the wider its horizons until he is forced to acknowledge that he is not the personal, limited thing he appears, but the focus of an infinite idea.”

In other words, it is not man’s geographical or material horizons that have held him in chains through the centuries, but the limited horizons of his mind. He has looked out to a limited horizon and has beheld a picture of evil and limitation and frustration, old age, certainty of death.

The great message of Truth which Jesus brought changed all this. He said, “Know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.” You shall see with a wider viewpoint, and you shall see more broadly. You shall see with a loftier insight from a cosmic perspective of Truth. We need to extend our horizons, add to our faith with the positive knowledge that there is more good for us, that there is more good within us. So how do we push back the boundaries and extend our horizons? Long ago the instruction was given. Isaiah put it this way, “A highway shall be there and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness.”

Jesus was a pioneer in the way of holiness. And in the early days of Christianity, the followers of Jesus were called “followers of the Way.” It is the way of wholeness; it is the way of Truth; it is the way of the cosmic perspective. Jesus went on ahead so we could follow the path, showing us how we too can deal with certain fundamental spiritual laws. He went over the obstacles, meeting the challenges in the midst of life, so that the way could be clear for us, the way of holiness, the way of demonstration, the way of going beyond the horizon to an expanded life. “Abundant living,” he called it.

So, resolve today that you will constantly lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, that you will cultivate a sense of far horizons and expanded vision, that you will see reality in spite of appearances. And the way will open before you.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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There may be many times in our lives when we become discouraged and disheartened, but there is a way out of every limitation that never fails and an infallible method of achieving personal happiness and harmony.

Whatever you might want or need from life, you can find the solution in the midst of any conflict that is holding you back. You can be confident and secure as you participate in all that each day holds in store for you. You can be fearless in the face of seeming obstacles or challenges.

As a starting point, we might understand the universal availability of the answers that we seek. For ages on end human beings have let themselves be frightened or awed or confused by what has been called a mystery, the mystery being the universe. We have chosen to view the universe as a vast, unknown system.

This basic mystery has given rise to the belief that most of our questions are unanswerable, that the right answer in most instances is something that people are not supposed to be able to discover. From this idea has sprung the kind of thought that our destiny is in the hands of a mysterious, unknowable deity whose purpose and ways are naturally unfathomable.

Of course, there is a force, a universal creative energy. We generally call this force God, but it‘s up to you what you call it. I think of God as Spirit or Universal Mind, a vast, unending sea of awareness in which I live and move and have my being. God is my ever-present help, my source of strength and comfort in every situation.

There is no greater power than the power of God at work on my behalf; therefore, I need not be afraid of any person, circumstance, or condition. God’s law of order prevails, and I am confident that I will see it at work in my life and in the world.

The right answer to any problem does exist because this is an ordered and orderly universe, not a haphazard system governed by chance and whim. It is not a cold, disinterested universe. One of the finest, most encouraging truths you can know is that the answer you seek is seeking you. It is meant that we should find the right answer to our problems. God, the force that moves this orderly universe, wants us to find the right answer. Remember well these words of Jesus: “it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

There are, I believe, four basic steps to finding the right answer to any problem: Willing, Allowing, Trust, and Surrender.

First, get still in mind and body and be willing to experience that state of being you desire. Just the willingness will bring the experience to you. Try it for a moment by being willing to experience a state of peace and serenity. Immediately the Divine Flow will bring that experience to you through your intention and your willingness.

Eric Butterworth called this step the invitation, making yourself open and receptive, believing the answer already exists for you.

Second, allow yourself to experience the outcome or state of being you desire. This cements your willingness in place, in consciousness. To use the analogy of a telephone call, willingness makes the call and allowing picks up and answers the phone.

This second step Eric Butterworth called inspiration, something that comes to you, often just a quiet reassuring kind of knowing in some indefinite form, a feeling that you are approaching a solution.

The third step, trust, contains within it several elements: your ability to open yourself to all possibilities, the earnestness to take the steps to bring about any needed change, courage to move beyond what you previously thought, certainty that everything is all right even if you do not have proof, and a sense of safety underlying everything.

Eric Butterworth called this third step ideation, an idea or series of ideas that flow into awareness from Divine Mind that are yours to work with to put into use or expression. You may have to choose and sort the ideas, to link them together in such a way as to work toward your right answer.

The fourth step, surrender, means letting go of imaginary boundaries and allowing greater flow, which creates greater clarity of who we really are. This step, Eric Butterworth identified as an incubation period which calls for patience, wisdom, and confidence in the right outcome.

If the solution does not develop in your affairs immediately, remember it is already done. What you need is ready for you. Its complete manifestation in your life and affairs may be delayed a bit for various reasons, but there is no need to despair or become despondent. Of course, you must not expect delay; very often a solution appears quickly. But if the answer does not come at once, then be wise enough to accept the incubation period, for such times often give rise to good in even greater measure than when ideas come full blown.

You can be confident that you will see God’s law of order at work in your life and in the world. With God’s power and strength supporting you, you will be successful in all your endeavors. Know right now that you are opening the door to greater good.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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My wife and fellow Unity minister, Kathryn, counseling a woman who was upset, frustrated and unhappy with her partner, told her gently, “Just be kind!” And truly, this is the key to happiness.

Moment by moment, as we go about our daily tasks, the answer comes. “Just be kind!” life whispers. Be kind. We do not understand. It is too simple. Yet life, considering that every individual in the world is unique, repeats again and again, “Just be kind!” There is a great hunger in the world today for simple kindness, as there has been for many years. It is brought home to us in so many ways.

Some time ago, a sensitive and highly gifted woman in this country found herself suddenly thrown amid circumstances where she had almost no privacy. As a result, she began to dislike people; she shrank from contact with them, wishing she might never have to see them. Her dominant desire was to escape to some desert solitude, where she could feel the freedom of space and the healing balm of silence.

That being impossible, she decided she would play a game with life. She would pretend that she was “Mother of the Universe,” and that all beings in it were her children. If they misbehaved, it was because they had not been brought up properly. She would have to tolerate their short-comings, and see what she could do to re-educate them.

Sometimes she knew the people well enough to make some constructive suggestions. If a person was cruel or critical or unkind to some other person in her home, she would tactfully try to awaken in him or her a truer sense of values, either through speech or through example. If someone was greedy, she would be generous. If someone was afraid, she would be calm and serene, and either explain to him or show her that there was nothing to fear.

If she was among strangers, as on a bus for example, and people eager for seats trampled over others to get them, she would imagine that they were her own errant children whom she loved in spite of their waywardness, misbehaving in surroundings where she could not easily correct them. Then she would visualize them as considerate, instead.

In any event, her game of pretending that she was “Mother of the Universe” promoted understanding, sympathy and tolerance, and she found herself loving people again instead of hating them, welcoming people instead of avoiding them, performing acts of kindness instead of being critical, enjoying harmony instead of feeling discord.

Friends, life is made up of simple situations; if we can learn to handle little tasks with love, they will become great, and so will we. Kindness is more than a virtue; it is a power in the up building and restoration of prosperity. It is the antidote for unkindness, the only cure for the aftereffects of unkindness.

Kindness may be administered by the least as well as the greatest. It will restore confidence, spread good will, enrich the consciousness as well as the coffers of the individual, business firm, and government.

Yes, the eternal cry of life is “Just be kind!” Be kind in little things. Handle little things with love, and you will be happy, unworried, even more prosperous and healthy.

Practice the spirit of mothering, of loving, of being kind and understanding, patient and tolerant. Not only will your individual world become harmonious and peaceful and happy, but the world in general will have just that more weight on the constructive side.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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This morning, when I went outside to pick up the newspaper at 5:30, the night sky was clear and filled with stars. I was reminded of when I served in the British Royal Navy many years ago and I was on night watch while we sailed the Indian Ocean; the night sky was filled with stars that looked like huge jewels in the far reaches of space.

It must have been on such a night when the psalmist looked up in the sky and spoke the words recorded in Psalms 8: “When I look at thy heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him? Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor. Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.” (Ps. 8:3-6)

As I read those words again, my heart is filled with inspiration, gratitude and wonder at the Divine Order in which we live, move and have our being. In this month of November, the month of giving thanks, there is perhaps no better time to recognize and give thanks for the divine order that permeates every area of our lives.

Even when we are not aware of it, order is here, because God is here. Divine order is the very essence of God which brings to us the experiences that help us learn and grow. Its presence in our lives assures us that all is well, that everything will work out for the best.

Divine order is not something we earn or achieve. We do not have to search for order, because it was there all along. To know this is true, we need only perceive it with the faith of spiritual vision and spiritual understanding.

The former Unity minister and author Eric Butterworth once told of being involved in an experience of square dancing. He said that he was never very good at it, but he remembered the caller giving instructions. Eric was having a difficult time, running into people and generally disrupting the entire group. The caller finally came over and said quietly to him, “You gotta keep in step or you’ll bump into the person next to you. In dancing you either cooperate or collide.” Cooperate or collide . . . Eric said he always remembered that.

Certainly we must keep in step with divine order, the divine plan within ourselves, or we shall find ourselves bumping into people and things all about us. When we fail to operate in accord with the laws of God, we are sure to collide with people or situations or things sooner or later.

And what is cooperation? It is love. It is the attitude of mind wherein we do not work alone. We do not operate, we cooperate. We work with God. We work with people. The same law that guides the planets in their courses is in control right here on earth for those who accept the law. In the scriptures we are told, “Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.” Cooperate or collide is a good law of life.

Our success, our well-being and indirectly our prosperity are very much dependent upon how well we get along with other people. We are told in Romans 13:10 that “love is the fulfilling of the law.” Love is the expression of the natural law of divine order in the universe as the strongest single force in existence. No other human force is so thoroughly impregnated by the power of God.

“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (I John 3:1) There is no element of trying to change or make or shape things into a new pattern. Open your eyes and see; recognize something that actually exists. For example, a man in a dark room feeling his way about suddenly touches the light switch. He doesn’t alter anything in the room, he doesn’t make anything, and he doesn’t add anything or take anything away. Yet, suddenly, everything is changed. The things that acted as stumbling blocks in the darkness are found to be the most useful and beautiful. Everything is in harmony which seemed before to be naught but evil to his darkened vision.

The electric switch that transforms and transmutes the miracle before our eyes in the relationships of life is our right use of divine love. It changes our whole perspective. Think of yourself not as a worker, but as a co-worker with God, with the divine law, and a partner with those who work with you. The spirit of love will lead you into the ways of cooperation, and into giving from the abundance and benevolence of divine order. For, as Amy Carmichael said, “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”

Begin right where you are to turn on the light of love. Love will make you non-resistant, cooperative, and helpful. Love will lead you to a greater spirit of service and a keener sense of fair-play. Love will enable you to have greater drive and more enthusiasm. Love will make you creative and successful.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev.  Alan A.  Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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Just a few weeks ago my wife and fellow Unity minister, Kathryn, and I were in Roanoke, Virginia, to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Unity of Roanoke Valley, the ministry we founded and developed there. At the Sunday service, we were privileged to share some of the memories from the early days of our experiences in establishing that precious work and some of the challenges and joys in bringing it about.

Kathryn was the original founder of that church and I joined her a few weeks later, leaving my position as associate minister in Akron, Ohio, where I had served for just a short while. We were married in front of the budding congregation after a Sunday service that Kathryn presented on October 24, 1971.

Kathryn’s first Sunday message to the initial congregation was “The Nourishing of an Idea,” an appropriate title for what was to become a highly successful Unity ministry. The anniversary provided an opportunity for us to share some of the steps we took in those early days, weeks, months and years of the ministry to follow through and nourish the idea that is Unity, both within the individual and as a church. Let me just say it takes daring to step out with a deep inner desire and to follow through on an inner guidance as to what to do next. It most often seems that one step must be taken before the next step is revealed, and the outcome is not always certain.

I recall a top salesman talking about people asking him how he learned to sell, and I could readily identify with his response. He said: “I hardly know what to say. I have no formal education, or at least very little. I am far from being a smooth talker. But, I remember I wanted to sell so much I could taste it. And despite my seeming lack of qualifications, I kept daring to knock on doors daily. I read everything I could find about selling. I went to lectures and sales clinics. At first, I barely made enough to get by, but gradually I developed something like a sixth sense. The words I needed at a given time somehow seemed to flow into my mind seconds before I required them. Somehow from within I know how to present my product to different types of people in order to arouse their enthusiasm. Suddenly, instead of dreading my work, I came to look forward to it. Sales became more regular and I have to say it, and I say it without any idea of ego, I became one of the top men on the company’s list with the pay to match for many years.”

He put it very clearly when he said he developed a sixth sense. That’s what you and I need to develop. Can you imagine how different our lives could be if the words we needed at any given time, or the ideas, or guidance would flow into our minds seconds before we required them? I’m here to tell you that you can develop such a sense, call it what you will. Developing this sense is what the whole process of Truth is all about. There is a creative process that is within us all; this process when challenged by our daring efforts promptly reveals the answers we need.

 It is possible to live and work with such perfect accord with spiritual law that inspiration goes beyond present knowledge. However, the Infinite can do no more for you than it can do through you. A kind of preconditioning of your mind is required in order that the divine ideas may flow. Inspiration comes only to those who are thoroughly prepared. The impulse of inspiration is perfect at its source, but without preparation its appearance in the human mind into manifestation may be distorted and, therefore, valueless.

Charles Dickens explained that often his interior consciousness would tell him a story piece by piece like a serial, and all the time keep him ignorant of the ending. This happened only after Dickens had prepared himself through years of conscious story-plotting. Even after he received his inspiration, Dickens’ smooth writing was the result of hard, conscious work, rearranging scenes, rewriting phrases, and eliminating unimportant material. Inspiration was of value to Dickens only because he had prepared himself to make use of it.

The cultivation of the inner genius within us is a logical, intensive preparation for success. There is a great, all-encompassing, intelligence in the Infinite which surrounds and penetrates; this intelligence is not only around us, but it is our own higher potential. It is our privilege to employ as much of this intelligence as we can successfully channel through our own minds. We study, not to acquire knowledge, but to condition our minds to perceive and use knowledge. What is required of us is a continual endeavor of its expression, and finally a readiness to learn from experience.

There is no way of knowing for sure when we may be blessed with fulfilling inspiration, but we do know that there is only one real creator. To succeed in the fullest we must dare to express the innate perfection of the Infinite. It is up to us to follow through on our desires, on the inspirations that come to us in regard to them. We must do everything within our power to prepare ourselves for the fulfillment of our desire. If we appear to fail, we must not give up, but must try again and again. The power to fulfill our heart’s desire is always present, but its activation is dependent upon sincere effort.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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Labor Day was a good reminder for us to take a little time to recondition the state of mind that colors every hour of our working days throughout the year. You may remember that Labor Day was set forth in 1882 to direct attention to the importance and dignity of work. It began as a holiday and in a sense a holy day.

When many are out of work at this time, but you are gainfully employed you might ask yourself the question, “Why do I work?” Because you have to? To earn a living? To provide food, rent, clothing for your family? If all you get out of your work is your pay and various fringe benefits, you are short-changing yourself.

We should work, not just to make a living, but to make a life, to release our creative potential, to fulfill some of the most basic needs of life. As Friedrich Froebel put it, “To embody outside oneself the divine and spiritual element within us.” The person who knows this is meticulous in putting his or her very best into what he or she does, in going the second mile, and in seeking to constantly improve the kind of service he or she renders.

It is significant that when the disciples James and John, whom the other disciples referred to as “sons of thunder” because of their energetic disposition, came to Jesus seeking to make sure of their future status, Jesus said to them, “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be servant of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve.” (Mark 10:43-45)

For many years this statement seemed a paradox, even absurd. Then business made a great discovery, that the key to success is service. Look around you, examine successful enterprises, and you will find they are in the main not those who are interested in quick profits but rather those who are ever striving to give greater value, more worth, more genuinely helpful assistance.

A doctor recently observed that in all his long years of practice he had found that those who are the healthiest and happiest are people who were habitually aware of the needs of others and tried to aid and support and give to them in every way that came to their mind.

The schooling of children should include the idea of service to others. Most children are concerned mainly with their physical well-being, but wise and responsible parents and teachers try to develop unselfishness and a spirit of service to others in them, which is the key to lasting happiness and success in this basically cooperative world. As Albert Schweitzer once said, that the person who would be really happy would be the one who has sought and discovered a way to serve. Their early years are the time to instill in young people the desire to “be about their Father’s business,” to make a positive contribution to the world and to the betterment of their fellows.

In the Gospel story, we find only a thumbnail sketch of Jesus’ years between age 12 and 30: “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52) This has led to much controversy over what Jesus did, but whatever he did we can assume that it was a time of great commitment to “the Father’s business.”

We know that Jesus’ father Joseph was a carpenter and it is most likely that Jesus worked as an apprentice to him, learning how to use a plane, a hammer and a saw. One has the feeling that he would be taught by his father to be satisfied with nothing less than excellence in work.

Does it seem strange to think of Jesus in this way? It could be that on many a day for nearly twenty years, Jesus’ chief contribution to the Kingdom of Heaven was to make a door that would close softly or a window that would not jam, a plow that was sturdy and a yoke that would not fret the necks of oxen. Years later, Jesus used this very image while looking into the faces of those who were weary and heavy-laden, saying, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me . . .  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:29, 30)

We can be sure that Jesus did not suddenly develop a high consciousness the instant of his launching out to be a teacher. We can be sure that he spent long hours of study and meditation, “waiting upon the Lord” on the hillsides of Nazareth, after his work was done and his shop was closed.

This phrase, “waiting upon the Lord,” is used throughout the Bible but almost universally misunderstood. To “wait upon the Lord” means to integrate yourself with the power and potential of your spiritual nature. Waiting is not a matter of time, but of consciousness. We don’t wait for God to tap us on the shoulder, but for us to stay our mind on God, to become a channel for creative activity. We can do this by “waiting” upon the Lord every morning, getting the inner vision and power to move into the day’s work with eagerness.

You can become a relaxed worker, a humble, effective and prosperous worker. Try to capture the importance of the rhythm of waiting and working, waiting for the inner vision and the creative impulse and working with quality and creative drive that give definition and purpose to your life. As Emerson says, “Let what you are doing be organic in your bones, and you open the door by which the affluence of Heaven shall stream into your life.”

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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