Spiritual Solutions

Today, Tuesday, April 05, is the twenty-fourth day of Lent. Lent is the period of time during which we can prepare ourselves for the Easter experience.
 
 
Assignment 24
 
Let us remember that it is through our bodies, through this human self, that we truly feel and know God. We feel this Life Presence as our breath, as the beat of our heart, as the faith that moves us with great power to all fulfillment. We go forward, fired with enthusiasm and interest, moved by the buoyancy and resilience of Spirit willing us forward.
 
We are warm and content by an inner flame of love that lifts the shade from the eyes of the soul and lets it glimpse in the loved one the perfection of God. This is why love has been called blind. Love does not see faults or shortcomings. It is not based on beauty of form. Love sees only the perfection of the within, which glows for the one who loves. Love is God’s healing power in the body of man.
 
Love is the greatest power moving through the body. It is the revelation of the perfection of God in man, which is seen clearly through the eyes of love. It is the power that carries man through the darkest night, the longest day or his supreme challenge. It is love of something that gives him all power. It may be love of country, or all humankind, for honor, for family or for one alone. It may be love of an idea, or of self – for we must love self if we are to truly love God!
 
Love is proof supreme of our Oneness with the Power of the Universe, for with love there is no separation! Not time or space or failure or misunderstanding can dim the strength and power of love. Love can release all outer achievement or gain, for love lives on – Love is God! Lack of health is separation.
 
Let us relax and remember and feel love, love of today or yesterday, love that streams through every cell of the body with a clear and crystal light that renews and recreates us. Feel the greatest love that has ever touched your mind and heart, for if it has ever touched you, it is still with you. No matter if the outer mind would convince you that some love is not good. All love is good and given directly from God. We may not direct love well or even share it at all because of our ignorance and fear, but Love is God in Action! Love is life – I feel love for something or someone with my whole being – And I feel God!
 
 
(This series of Lenten messages was first developed by Unity minister Dr. Sue Sikking, founder of Unity-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, California, author of God Always Says Yes and Seed of the New Age.)
 
 
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 subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions, at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com
 
To subscribe for free weekday inspirational quotes, Rich Words, go to www.alanrowbotham.com
 
Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.
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Today, Friday, March 11, is the third day of Lent. Lent is a time of preparation for the Easter experience.

I like to think of the word “Lent” in the form of the acrostics:

“Lessening Every Negative Thought”
and
“Loving Each New Today”

Assignment 3

“God is Spirit.” (Jesus) Spirit means to breathe – which is Life.

I remember years ago, when Kathryn and I were attending a conference at Unity Village, Kathryn became ill and had to stay in her room. One of our Unity ministers brought her some chicken soup, and another of our Unity ministers, John Tant, came to see her and to pray for her. He said for her to affirm over and over, “With every breath I breathe, I breathe the breath of God, I breathe the breath of Life.” It worked, and Kathryn recovered quickly. This is something you can do also to help yourself when you are not feeling well.

God is the life in the body now. Life is an involuntary action. When we interfere with the breathing process or cut off the flow of blood to any part of the body we endanger life. When we give ourselves to Life within we are restored. Whenever we suffer any kind of unpleasant, troublesome, painful feeling, we have ignorantly thwarted Life. Life itself will put it right if we cooperate with this Power and give up our pathetic blunder of trying to live “on our own.”

We try to live life, to force life, to have our way or to do what others expect of us. We cheat ourselves out of life because we are afraid to trust Life! Life is God, the law and power of our being. The inner Life is called the “voice of the Lord.” “Take fast hold of instructions; let her not go; keep her, for she is thy life.” (Proverbs 4:13)

The power within breathes in us, causes the heart to beat and carries forth all functions for the sustaining of the body. We follow the instructions of Life: when we are hungry we eat, when we are tired we sleep. We love and share because we are instructed from within. If we do not follow inner guidance we are sick, poor, and unhappy. Our great sin is to follow what man thinks from outer judgment instead of listening to our own God-given directions. “The wisdom of man is foolishness with God.” (I Corinthians 3:19)

Let us close our eyes, laying aside in our mind all conditions, other people’s opinions, prejudices or beliefs. Let us put aside our own fears, tremblings or beliefs in our own inadequacy. Ask yourself, “What does the inner desire, the longing of my soul insist is mine? Why do I not have it?” Because you do not Feel it as your own! 

You cannot have what you will not Feel. Life is Feeling and feeling is experiencing! Feel as if you held, possessed and were filled with the thing needful. “Ask believing as if you had already received.” We must live every moment with the awareness that God is Life and we are God Living.

(This series of Lenten messages was first developed by Unity minister Dr. Sue Sikking, founder of Unity-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, California, author of God Always Says Yes and Seed of the New Age.)

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 subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions, at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

To subscribe for free weekday inspirational quotes, Rich Words, go to www.alanrowbotham.com.

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.
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Today, Thursday, March 10, is the second day of Lent. Lent is a time of preparation for the Easter experience.

(This series of Lenten messages was first developed by Unity minister Dr. Sue Sikking, founder of Unity-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, California, author of God Always Says Yes and Seed of the New Age.)

Assignment 2

 Life is the movement of Spirit. Spirit is the breath of life. Life is the movement of a ceaseless energy in and through all manifestations. “Life is a vital force lying back of, in, and through all created form,” it states in Webster’s Dictionary. In man, mediating between body and soul, all that appears in contained, retained and sustained by this One vital force. Man calls this One power “God.” (Romans 13:1)

 Man has believed he is a separate entity or being, completely cut off, functioning in the instrument he calls his body. This is man’s “sin.” Sin is man’s separation, his missing the mark, his unawareness of his true being which to know aright, the Scripture tells us, “is life eternal.”

Man’s ignorance of the Life that is the fullness of his being has caused all outer conditions that are adverse to his true unfoldment and expression. His troubles and woes, his sickness, and his wars are the result of his not knowing. “There is none else, there is no God besides me; I girded thee, though thou hast not known me.” (Isaiah 45:5) “You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)

 How shall you know the Truth? Only where God is can you find Him! God is the Life in your body, the Spirit that indwells you. You can find the Source of Life by turning within and thinking and feeling in your own body and mind.

 Life is the Power. Repetition of the word will make your mind aware, but you must dwell on what life is, and what you are. You are Life in Action! All Power is in You! Feeling is knowing.

Your own feeling is the secret. What you feel deeply is yours and will affect you and every part of your life. To Know, You must Feel! We are so near to the Life-giving mystery that we call “God,” that we can feel it in every breath we draw, the beat of our heart, the warmth of love – yet we are far away from it, unless we Feel It in our own body as Life and Know it as God, the Only Power! We affirm, or make firm in our own consciousness, our true self.

 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 subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions, at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

To subscribe for free weekday inspirational quotes, Rich Words, go to www.alanrowbotham.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

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The weather here in Florida has been just beautiful these last few days, and as I took my walk early this morning I thought about the beauty of the dawn and a new day filled with promise. What a joy it is to feel the morning air and envision this new day as an opportunity to be the new person that you hope to be in a new world! What a chance to say “Goodbye” to habits of bondage and Good morning” to a new life, free from all sense of bondage and limitation!

In some mystical way, possibly there is something of our own Spirit abiding in the sun, as it looks at us from the horizon, something that would expect to see us arraying ourselves in high and holy thoughts, clothing ourselves in wisdom, joy, love, courage, and faith.

If we catch the vision of a new day, we are enthused with the day’s promises and opportunities. Persons with laden and clouded vision awaken with the thought of “just another day.” Those who catch the high vision see a new world of rare delight, and behold themselves as both guest and master of the world. Shall we carry into the new day yesterday’s limiting thoughts of yourself and others? Don’t you see that today would be but yesterday to you, if you lived in yesterday’s thoughts and experiences?

There are those who never experience the joy of a new dawn because their minds are so firmly fixed on the unhappiness and the defeat of all their yesterdays. The dawn challenges you to behold yourself in a new day, a new world, and a new life. To meet this challenge, you need to greet the day in the spirit of prayer that has power to purify your thought and regenerate you in mind, body, and soul.

Pray in the spirit of being ushered into a new existence, where you have no desire to speak anything that is limiting or evil, or to identify with unpleasant memories or disappointments. A new world lies before you. In the triumphant Spirit of your own innate Divinity you will find that truly a new and beautiful world is at your feet.

The new day is your time for laying hold of a new consciousness of your body, for a new appreciation of your health and perfection. The happy memories of yesterday have a place in your today only as they have a place in Truth and love and life. Yesterday’s weaknesses must give place to today’s strength. Yesterday’s defeat must be lost sight of, as you anticipate today’s victory.

Today’s dawn proclaims with all its fervor that you begin again. You are born of Spirit, the Spirit of newness, freshness, and vitality. Can you see the possibilities of a new dawn, the opportunities of a new day, the joy of beholding your new world revealed to you at the beginning of a new day?

Take the attitude that this morning you were given a new mind, a renewed consciousness. Possibly yesterday you cluttered your mind with thoughts of darkness, ignorance, evil, fear, hate, disease. Your new-mindedness must be dedicated to that which is of Truth; good, ennobling, and beautiful. You must realize that at dawn, your mind became so charged with Truth that there is no room for any belief that is of darkness or fear or disease. Take the mental attitude that at dawn, your body was charged with new life, new health, and new strength.

At each dawn, a bright and shining path opens before you. It reveals to you new friendships, new occasions to give expression to love, new opportunities to put into practice what your indwelling Spirit of Truth has taught you, and what it bids you to do. There will never be another day just like this, unless you take it so. There will never be another experience that in any way can compare with that which is before you today. Today alone can offer today’s opportunities and today’s joys. Each second of the day will give you a new opportunity to prove to yourself that you have met the challenge of the dawn.

The consciousness of new life calls you to live life anew. Gone forever will be every limiting belief, every thought that you cannot progress and succeed, if only you hold to this vision to the exclusion of all contrary thoughts. So even as in the past you have hobbled yourself to some belief and pattern of despair and failure, so today you must catch the high vision of your Spirit’s victory. You can possess the power to be master of all things if you can catch the meaning of the great secrets of the Spirit of God within, your Master of all the world about you.

Behold yourself in God’s mirror of Truth, and behold there a reflection of what you are in God’s sight. Keep out of mind every thought that would limit or bind you, so that you may go forward and upward into the fullness and the glory of this new day. Hold to the vision of the new day, the new dawning of your soul’s supremacy over things of the world, and you will lose all sense of mental and physical darkness and heaviness. No adverse condition can bind you to it, when you feel the call to go onward and forward. Be faithful to all that inspires and elevates, all that exalts and glorifies.

From this morning’s dawn to this evening’s close, great joys can come to you. Be ready for them. Be aware, though, that to try to live in the future is as wrong as to bind yourself to the past. Keep your vision clear. Count over and over the joys that the day can give you. Take a new lease on life. Keep your face turned toward the light; let the shadows be behind you. And find in today’s promises the fulfillment of whatever joy and blessing you may seek.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
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Rev. Alan 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

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When the apostle Paul was in Athens, he saw that the city was full of idols and he was led to speak to the people of Athens in what has become known as the sermon on Mars Hill:

“. . . as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. . . . Yet he is not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being. . . .  For we are indeed his offspring.” (Acts 17:23-25, 27-28). Think about this in relation to your own self.

Then contemplate the words of Jesus, “God is Spirit.” As Eric Butterworth wrote in his book, Unity: A Quest for Truth, “He is the principle of life and intelligence, everywhere present at all times, and just as accessible as the principle of mathematics. . . . The life in you is God-life, the wisdom in you is God-intelligence, and the love in you is God-love. . . . You are created as a perfect idea in God-Mind, and your true purpose in life is to outpicture this idea in expression. And there is no better way to worship God than to rightly express Him.”

Try to realize that God is greater than anything your human mind can conceive. Remember that if your conception of God is the highest and best that you can form, it is going to be a workable conception for you, and it is right for you at that time. Simply keep your mind open. Maintain your tolerance for the viewpoints of others. Don’t argue about it; what they believe is right for them. What you believe is right for you. It is well to realize that satisfying as your conception of God might be, it does not necessarily mean that it encompasses the whole of God.

Let us take care then that we don’t criticize another because his or her idea of God differs from ours. To him, his God is just as real and just as helpful as our God is to us.

It has been said that no one has ever seen God; yet, certainly countless millions have felt God and known His living presence. Whatever you feel or think abut God, there is one thing I believe is felt and treasured deep in the heart of everyone – that is, God is Spirit and dwells deep within us. This is the most glorious fact in the whole realm of human understanding; we frail, human creatures possess the divine nature of omnipotent God. Suppressed, hidden, ignored, denied perhaps, it is still there, a little spark which a man or woman might desecrate, but never quite lose. Released, acknowledged, it surges through us like a great tide of joy, flooding our whole being with light.

God is here now in us, the God who was in the beginning and will be world without end. We need only accept God, express Him in thought and act, if we wish to share in the divine power and the divine flow in and through and as us.

If only we could realize that we are spiritual beings, children of God, what a great change this realization would make in our lives. We can catch the ideal in short glimpses; we do realize at times something of what it means to be a spiritual being, but we don’t seem able, or perhaps willing, to sustain the ideal. I believe it is important to know that we are children of God and to know it when we face the world with its complications. This is the real key to lasting happiness and success.

There is nothing finer or greater in the universe than God, and a child of God is heir to all that is. “It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs . . .” (Rom. 8:16, 17)

I am a child of God, and you are a child of God. It is a wonderful thought to realize that you are a child of God. You cannot meet a person who is not a child of God. In God’s sight you are equal to every other person, none is greater, none is less, and this is important to know. We are good enough for any blessing in this great universe that we make ourselves wise enough and ready enough to receive. Nothing is too good not to be received. Nothing will work only for the other person but not for us. When we have obtained this realization, we will have nothing to fear from people or situations.

Remember it is said that if God is for us, who shall be against us? With such a realization we have nothing to fear from ourselves either. We needn’t consider ourselves weak or lacking in will power, for we are children of God. We are strong enough to be master of our mind and of our body. Keep this in mind; you are a child of God in the divine flow of Spirit.

Keep in the divine flow, express the divine qualities, and let yourself be loving, kind, wise, courageous, free, understanding, and strong. You are a child of God; may you sustain this realization for all times.

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-eight 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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“Guidance” is a common word in our day. Everyone seeks some kind of guidance: guidance for children, for adolescents, for marriage relationships, for the businessperson, and so forth. Occasionally, someone might suggest the idea of spiritual or “Divine” guidance.

Unfortunately, that suggestion may be looked upon with distrust, simply because the term “Divine guidance” is usually related to the magical, mystical or psychic. Yet there is an almost instinctive feeling in every person that there is a “Something” beyond personal prejudices, different from the mental state of worry and concern, and that this “Something” can be reached.

But this feeling for the “Something” has often been dealt with on the level of superstition. Thus, many persons look for guidance through a sign or leading, all the way from the flipping of a coin to reading the stars or the numbers, the cards, the tea leaves or the crystal ball, and then on to Indian guides and spirit readings. This is not to put down any of these pseudo-sciences, but rather to point up the fact that involvement in them is a subtle form of self put-down.

If any person evidences, even in a brief showing, some kind of inner direction or direct knowing, it is often identified as ESP or psychic phenomenon or spirit guidance. This is to malign our potential as a spiritual being, and to deny the inherent flow of guidance within us that is just as natural as the instinct of animals. Remember this dynamic statement from the book of Job: “There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty gives him understanding.” So why do we refuse to accept this inner knowing?

Maybe it is that religion has not really dealt with the whole of the person. The dictionary defines “religion” as “divine revelation for human guidance.” But most religions have become exteriorly oriented, dealing with God “out there” or “up there.” We may be told in impassioned sermons that our need is “to find God.” But God is not to be found – for God is not lost. 

It is not God’s hiddenness, but our blindness that is the problem. We live in a state of ceaseless guidance, in a field of Infinite knowingness, but we are blind and deaf to the process. Emerson says, “There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening we shall hear the right word.”

To find God, to understand God, we need to expand our thoughts to the realization of the omnipresence of God and then know, in the words of former Unity minister and author Eric Butterworth, “The whole of Spirit is present at every point in space at the same time, and in its entirety.” There is no distance between us and God. There is nowhere to go to get guidance or inspiration or creativity. We are in it, all of it, all the time!

Divine guidance, or spiritual guidance or “direct knowing” is the same as getting an immediate answer to prayer in time of need. It is but another way of explaining the work of intuition. The ancient wise ones called these occurrences “illumination.” The mystics called them “showings.” Many call them “leadings.” But again we lose the real idea if we see these things as some kind of special access to the inner secrets of the Universe, or some kind of psychism or divination.

The term “Voice of God” is purely a poetic expression. It is found all through the Bible.   And it has been terribly misleading for many people. The classic instance is Moses’ experience at the burning bush. “God called to him out of the bush: ‘Moses, Moses!’” This was an experience of direct knowing. The Bible writers used highly symbolic language and overstatement, such as describing locusts as big as giants that jumped from hill to hill. So they are saying in this passage about Moses that it was a knowing so clear that it was as if God was actually talking to him.

Remember, “The Father knows even before you ask Him”; “Before they call, I will answer.” This means that God is present – always and in all ways. God knows. God knows in you, for you. Knowing is, and it is at hand. It is now. The way out (the way to escape the difficulties at hand) is at hand.

But this guidance or direct knowing comes into consciousness most easily through a mind that is uncluttered with the known. If you know about a lot of things, it is difficult to know the Truth, which is to know the Knower. A creative mind, or a mind in a creative experience, is so involved in knowing that it lets go of what others know about, even if they know about things that indicate impossibilities.

Most people have preconceived notions which they bring into their prayer time. They have a strong idea of what they want to have happen, and often, even in seeking guidance they are actually looking for “Divine approval” of something they have already determined to do. To have the mind full of preconceived notions, even images and treasure maps representing outlined goals, is to frustrate the process of direct knowing.

The important thing to remember is that wherever you are, God is. The whole of Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is present in its entirety at every point in space at the same time. Spirit is present, as presence. All-knowing is present. The answer to your dilemma is present – here and now. There is nowhere to go, nothing to reach for, and no one to contact and plead with.

Prayer is communion, oneness, a listening. “Be still and know that I am God.” When you know that I AM is God, you humble yourself to listen; you expect to be guided. In childlike faith, you know the Knower within you that is always present.

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-eight 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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GOD

3d Day, Friday. Read John 15:1-16.

“God is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” We do not see God with our physical eyes excepting as He manifests Himself through His works. His attributes are therefore brought into expression by man who is His son and who is like Him in essence. Jesus was a true expression of God because He was like Him. If we would manifest the divine attributes, we must seek to attain the consciousness and the understanding that characterized Jesus. We must endeavor to raise our thoughts and feelings to God’s level if we would make ourselves channels through which He can come forth into expression and manifestation.

God transcendent suggests God as above and beyond His creation. This idea of God as remote from the practical affairs of man or from man’s own experience is false. God (perfection) is not out of reach of His offspring nor something beyond or above them. Tennyson tells us that “closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.”

I am centered in God because I focus my attention on His ideas and ideals. The Holy Spirit, which is the Word of God in action, leads me into a consciousness of my divine sonship and inheritance. My inheritance from Him is executive ability, abundant supply, faithfulness, joy, all good. “I am thy portion and thine inheritance.”

In the name of Jesus Christ I declare: “God’s perfect plan of bodily perfection is bearing fruit, and I am made whole.”

Questions:

1. How are God’s attributes brought into expression?

2. Why was Jesus a true expression of God? Explain.

3. What must we do to make ourselves channels through which God can come forth into expression?

4. What is our inheritance from God?

Jesus thought, spoke, and acted in accord with His divine Self. I too think, speak, and act in accord with my divine Self.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

—————————————————–             

 Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight 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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It seems that people are constantly searching for something to fill whatever seems to be missing in their lives, whether it be relationships, education, experience, thrills, pleasures, food and drink, or the acquisition of all manner of things.

The basic ingredient that we are really looking for in life is the understanding that we are spiritual beings; that we come into life with the dynamic to unfold, power to release, love to express, a veritable Kingdom of Heaven to outpicture.

On occasion a prophet has appeared telling of the world within, but instead of following him into the deeper experience, man invariably has made a god of the prophet, worshipped him, built monuments to him. Thus he has been trapped in religious practice that contains no within. The missing link in traditional religion has been inner prayer.

Man has built shrines and temples, has orchestrated lavish ceremonies employing ornate accoutrements for worship; however, this has but fulfilled the human longing for pageantry and his prayer has merely satisfied a sense of duty to pray which seems without life and ineffective in healing life’s problems.

Prayer must be an effort to harness the depth potential in man in meeting life’s experiences at the circumference. Prayer should not be simply a formal act that requires a sacred place or a special sacrament.

How free is the person when he realizes that at any time he can get still and find an inner place of quiet and oneness. Charles Fillmore, co-founder of the Unity movement, used to say, “There is a place within us where there is a church service going on all the time; we need but to enter in and listen.” In this place, the still, small voice within comes forth easily.

True prayer is inner power, the true man is the inner man; thus, the true way of prayer is inner prayer. Listen to what Jesus says of this: “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” This is Jesus’ ideal of inner prayer. It is not so much words as it is realization. It might be described as communion, stillness, oneness.

Man can live out his life second-handed, leaning on others for inspiration and creativity, at the mercy of the continuous stream of outer problems, or he can live from within out. He can thereby find his own inner guide, having a first-hand and immediate experience of God. We are told that there is a spirit of man. There is that within you that knows, because there is that in you which knows itself to be the very individualization of the Infinite.

Man must start to realize that spirituality is not something to be acquired by outer search or worship, but something to be released by quiet meditation and soul reflection and self-realization.

Prayer is not an attempt to locate God, to find God; God cannot be found because God is not lost, never has been lost. Prayer is rather an effort on our part to find ourselves consciously in spiritual unity with the allness which God is. This can never be severed because we can never have existence outside of God.

Prayer is the key to realizing and releasing our inner potential; it is the key to finding inner peace and spiritual security. It is a means fo perceiving ourselves as we really are. Thus it may be said to be the key to embarking on the role of acting the part of our divinity. Prayer is listening. Any speaking of words is simply a prelude to prayer.

If we speak words but fail to listen then we are like a student arriving in the classroom, telling the teacher a thing or two, and then departing before the instruction begins. This does not mean that God tells us to do this or to do that; the voice of God is a wordless voice. We receive it through feeling and then we interpret the feeling in the words and thoughts and images of our own consciousness.

Man may have hopes and aspirations; he may have hunches or flashes of insight, but when he knows the dynamics of inner prayer he realizes that these showings reveal the inner power to produce them. The key to inner prayer is that we are not trying to change things or to do anything; we are simply trying to release, to let things be done. So we meditate on the truth, realizing that which is changeless and beyond appearance.

Reflect on your depth potential, on your spiritual reality. Then, use the great formula of divine creation - Let there be! Not there must be, or there shall be, or make there be, dear God, please – but only, Let There Be. No suggestion of effort, no strain, no hurry or force, no anxiety or doubt. Just simply, “Let there be light,” and there was light. “Let the dry land appear,” and it appeared. This is inner prayer in its most effective use.

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Spiritual growth is the process of inner awakening, and becoming conscious our inner being. It means the rising of the consciousness beyond the ordinary existence, and awakening to some Universal truths. It means going beyond the mind and the ego and realizing who you really are.

Spiritual growth is a process of shedding our wrong and unreal conceptions, thoughts, beliefs and ideas, and becoming more and more conscious and aware of our inner being. This process uncovers the inner spirit that is always present, but hidden beyond the ego-personality.

Spiritual growth is of great importance for everyone, not only for people who seek spiritual enlightenment and choose to live in far away or secluded places. Spiritual growth is the basis for a better and more harmonious life for everyone, a life free of tension, fear and anxiety.

By discovering who we really are we take a different approach to life. We learn not to let outer circumstances influence our inner being and state of mind. We manifest composure and detachment, and we develop inner power and strength, all of which are very useful and important tools.

Spiritual growth is not a means for escaping from responsibilities, behaving strangely and becoming an impractical person. It is a method of growing and becoming a stronger, happier and more responsible person.

You can walk on the path of spiritual growth, and at the same time live the same kind of life as everyone else. You do not have to live a secluded life in some far away place. You can raise a family, work or run a business, and yet at the same time engage in practices that lead to inner growth.

A balanced life requires that we take care not only of the necessities of the body, feelings and mind, but also of the spirit, and this is the role of spiritual growth.

10 tips for spiritual growth:

1. Read spiritual and uplifting books. Think about what you read, and find out how you can use the information in your life.

2. Meditate for at least 15 minutes every day. If you do not know how to meditate, it is easy to find books, websites or teachers who can teach you meditation.

3.  Learn to make your mind quiet through concentration exercises and meditation.

4. Acknowledge the fact that you are a spirit with a physical body, not a physical body with a spirit. If you can really accept this idea, it will change your attitude towards many things in your life.

5. Look often into yourself and into your mind, and try to find out what is it that makes you feel conscious and alive.

6. Think positive. If you find yourself thinking negatively, immediately switch to thinking positively. Be in control of what enters your mind. Open the door for the positive and close it for the negative.

7. Develop the happiness habit, by always looking at the bright side of life and endeavoring to be happy. Happiness comes from within. Do not let your outer circumstances decide your happiness for you.

8. Exercise often your will power and decision making ability. This strengthens you and gives you control over your mind.

9. Thank the Universe for everything that you get.

10. Develop tolerance, patience, tact and consideration for others.

Spiritual growth is the birthright of everyone. It is the key to a life of happiness and peace of mind, and the manifesting the enormous power of the inner spirit. This spirit is equally present within the most material person, and within the most spiritual person. The level of the manifestation of spirituality is dependent on how much the inner spirit is close to the surface, and on how much it is covered and hidden, by thoughts, beliefs and negative habits.

Remez Sasson writes and teaches about spiritual growth, meditation, self-improvement, positive thinking, creative visualization, success and mind power. He is the author of several books about success, creative visualization, affirmations and the development of inner strength and power.http://www.SuccessConsciousness.com for articles, quotes and e-books.

Visit his website

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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

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