Are we vigilant in discerning God’s will for us?

Choosing through the Holy Spirit will lead you to the Kingdom. You create by your true being, but what you are you must learn to remember. The way to remember it is inherent in the third step, which brings together the lessons implied in the others, and goes beyond them towards real integration. If you allow yourself to have in your mind only what God put there, you are acknowledging your mind as God created it. Therefore, you are accepting it as it is. Since it is whole, you are teaching peace because you believe in it. The final step will still be taken for you by God, but by the third step the Holy Spirit has prepared you for God. He is getting you ready for the translation of having into being by the very nature of the steps you must take with Him. T-6.V.C.5:1-8

A Course in Miracles (p. 240). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

The third step taught by the Holy Spirit is “Be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom.” Jesus said that a good prayer to pray is what we now call the Our Father which in part is “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. They Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What is God’s will for us? Are we vigilant in discerning God’s will or do we rely on our devices, our ego?

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This search is for God’s will for us.

Today it is suggested that as we go about your daily activities, that we be vigilant about discerning and doing what we believe is God’s will for us.

Experience the presence of the unconditional love of God.

As long as you must be vigilant against anything, however, you are not recognizing this mutual exclusiveness, and still believe that you can choose either one. By teaching what to choose, the Holy Spirit will ultimately teach you that you need not choose at all. This will finally liberate your mind from choice, and direct it towards creation within the Kingdom. T-6.V.C.4:8-10

A Course in Miracles (p. 240). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

In the section of ACIM on the lessons of the Holy Spirit, the third step “Be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom,” we are told that we really have no choice at all but we have the illusion of a choice between the world of the ego and the Kingdom of God. Since the world of the ego isn’t real but an illusion that we have simply made up, all that is left is the Kingdom of God which always was, is now, and will always be. In the introduction to the Course it is written, “The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance.” And so, in a sense, we don’t have to choose at all but discard the attachment to the things of the ego and our awareness of love’s presence will emerge.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning which is to be found under the veil of the illusions we have created.

Today it is suggested that we look within beneath the ego and experience the presence of unconditional love of God.

UU offers hope of a spiritual journey with no tools to do it with.

 

Unitarian Universalism offers the promise of guidance for a spiritual journey and then devolves into affinity groups which sometimes provide somewhat of a path but not a path based on perennial wisdom. The biggest contribution to this failure is the seminary training which lacks appropriate theological training for UU professional leadership.

Be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom.

The Holy Spirit does not teach you to judge others, because He does not want you to teach error and learn it yourself. He would hardly be consistent if He allowed you to strengthen what you must learn to avoid. In the mind of the thinker, then, He is judgmental, but only in order to unify the mind so it can perceive without judgment. This enables the mind to teach without judgment, and therefore to learn to be without judgment. The undoing is necessary only in your mind, so that you will not project, instead of extend. God Himself has established what you can extend with perfect safety. Therefore, the Holy Spirit’s third lesson is: Be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom. T-6.V.C.2:1-8

A Course in Miracles (p. 239). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

We are told to be non judgmental. “Judge not so that you will not be judged.” It is not the person we are judging but the thoughts and behavior. There is right mindedness and wrong mindedness. As we mature we become more discerning of the difference. Right mindedness has to do with the things of God which are of unconditional love while wrong mindedness has to do with the things of the ego which are of separation and division.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This search ultimately will take us on the path of right mindedness and we learn to eschew wrong mindedness.

Today it is suggested that we continually ask “What would love have me do?” This question is based on the Holy Spirit’s third lesson which is “Be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom.”

UU has lost its way.

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Unitarian Universalism is badly in need of a revival so that it can clarify its vision, its mission, its goals, its processes and bring salvation to human kind.

Knocking on heaven’s door.

We said before that the Holy Spirit is evaluative, and must be. He sorts out the true from the false in your mind, and teaches you to judge every thought you allow to enter it in the light of what God put there. Whatever is in accord with this light He retains, to strengthen the Kingdom in you. What is partly in accord with it He accepts and purifies. But what is out of accord entirely He rejects by judging against. This is how He keeps the Kingdom perfectly consistent and perfectly unified. Remember, however, that what the Holy Spirit rejects the ego accepts. This is because they are in fundamental disagreement about everything, being in fundamental disagreement about what you are. The ego’s beliefs on this crucial issue vary, and that is why it promotes different moods. The Holy Spirit never varies on this point, and so the one mood He engenders is joy. He protects it by rejecting everything that does not foster joy, and so He alone can keep you wholly joyous. T-6.V.C.1:1-11

A Course in Miracles (pp. 238-239). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

The challenge in living a good life is discerning God’s will for us. Who is it that God wants us to become, and what is it that God wants us to do with our life? How do we know if we are discerning God’s will correctly? The litmus test is does our choice give us peace and joy or fear and guilt?

In Unitarian Universalism some of us covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This search for truth and meaning is discerning God’s will. What would Love have us do? If we are unsure we can ask the Holy Spirit for guidance. Jesus told us, “Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Today it is suggested that we knock on the door of the Kingdom of God.

The Judeo-Christian mistake

Human exceptionalism, the idea that humanity has the right to rule over nature, has brought us to the brink of environmental disaster in the form of climate change. Clearly, it is time for the world to reject the arrogant and mistaken belief that the Earth’s resources can be consumed and exploited without consequence. Roger Santodomingo, UU World, Fall, 2022

The idea from the Book of Genesis (1:28) that God gave the earth to homo sapiens to dominate,  subjugate and exploit is a pernicious and misguided teaching. This idea has led to genocide, speciescide, exploitation, degradation, harm, and extinction. 

With disastrous consequences of this false teaching becoming ever more apparent, it is time for homo sapiens to wise up, acknowledge wrongdoing, repent, and repair the harm that has been done. But first hearts and minds must change their thought system. The earth is not ours to exploit but to protect and nurture.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote a respect for the interdependent web of existence of which we are a part. Let us lift up, teach, and be creative in ways of applying this principle in our lives personally, community, and societally. We might begin with challenging the idea that homo sapiens have the right to exploit and dominate other living things. Rather, we are here to nurture, enhance, and facilitate evolutionary processes.