Spiritual Eyes

This picture was taken on Fathers day soon after my father died a few weeks shy of his 93rd birthay. It hit me harder than I expected and my children standing with me in the picture and my wife and brother and sisters rallied around me and helped me overcome the despression that I struggled with at the time. I now had lost both parents who I had identified my life with and suddenly that identity was gone. I now realize that the experience of losing a loved one was the catalyst that begin an awakening in me to a new identity. Jesus spoke some powerful words when he said, "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother...Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me" (Matt. 10:34-37). Most people respond, say what! This is a very difficult concept to fathom, but I begin see these words in a different light. The things we identify with most in our life experience, our job, our profession, role as a spouse, father, son or daughter soon becomes our sole identity and as a result we grow to identify less and less with the true Life of God which is our only true life. Anything we begin to identify with other than the Life and Mind of God where we have our true existence is an illusion of self and what Freud, Jung and others have called ego. I believe this is what Jesus meant. When we correctly identify ourselves with the Life of God and the Spirit that creates us and sustains us first and foremost, then the love we have for our parents, siblings, our spouse and children will be greater than before. Henry Blackaby called it a Crisis of Belief, I like to call it a Crisis of Identity.

The time has come to open our inward vision and look out upon a newer and broader horizon. You are at that place in your growth when there is complete certainty before you. You shall continuously expand and experience more and more of that Life that is already perfect. There is no reason why this awakening will not come now, for you are not waiting on God—God is waiting on you. All nature awaits your recognition and the Divine Spirit of God must await your identifying and cooperation with it.

Realizing that you may, in your ignorance, have been using the power of your mind negatively, you are not going to condemn yourself or anyone else for this. If the light has come, the thing to do is to use it, forgetting the darkness. How can darkness have power over light? It cannot.

Affirmation: Today I realize that my good is at hand. In this breath I draw, I enter into a larger concept of life. I now see the rosy hue of a new dawn. The Spirit of God refreshes me. I am covered completely with the pure essence of God’s Life. My body is a vehicle for Its expression, my mind an instrument. My eyes are open to the depth, breadth and height of that Life that is God. Today I will endeavor to feel this Presence as a living reality in my life. I will see It everywhere. As I see by my Spiritual eyes, I ask that only Good and Perfect things be made manifest in my life this day and every day. Love, Joy, Peace, Happiness, Good Health, Wealth, Prosperity, Wisdom and Understanding and I receive these Good and Perfect things with a truly grateful heart.