Spirit has many ways of communicating with us on the mortal plain - this physical manifestation of Spirit's highest dreaming, thoughts, and aspirations.
The most common way that Spirit speaks to me is through echos. I define echos as recurring messages from various sources over a period of time. The message could be repeated several times in a single day or over a course of several months. The time and frequency varies but the messages remain consistent.
ECHO
ECHO
ECHO
ECHO
Currently, Spirit is pushing me to wrestle with a question I've had for many many years, and hopefully embrace a deeper and higher reality - If mankind is made in the image of God, in the image of Spirit, and is ultimately divine as a baby born to a human parent is human, then how come there has only been a handful of great masters who have truly tapped into the power and "ONENESS" of their divine birthright and divine essence?
This question has plagued me for many many years growing up in Christendom. And although I grew up in the Pentecostal/Charismatic tradition, I still felt a sense of power untapped that permeated our services. Every now again, If I was intent enough, I could lean in and come in contact with a small portion of this power, but it was never enduring.
There is one quote attributed to Jesus that has followed me ever since I first heard/read it years ago as a young boy. The quote is recorded in John 14:12. Jesus is recorded as stating, "I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these because I go to the Father." (AMP)
This scripture has followed me for years, taunting me, urging me, "Please believe, please wake up, please get it'." As I looked throughout the various churches I attended over the years, I have always been overcome by the sheer amount of struggling, addiction, sickness, disease, death, etc. that seemed to run rampant. I couldn't understand why no one (I'm sure there were some, but I rarely met them) tapped into this promise - why no one became one of the masters themselves.
And now?
I'll put it pointedly and succinctly. I desire to become a master. I use this term loosely because a master is only a master when no one else around has achieved mastery (In the land of the blind the one-eyed is King). I desire that we all obtain mastery. I desire not this status for accolades or recognition. I desire this evolution because I believe that I (and all of us) are divine. We all have the divine...we ARE all divine, through and through. I merely want to re-member who and what I truly am and step into that.
A drop in the ocean no longer says, "I am a drop in the ocean." No, it says, "I am ocean." Air that is trapped in our lungs or in a balloon does not say, "I am only air trapped in a tangible vessel and that's all I am." No, instead it says, "I am a part of ALL atmosphere, abounding with ALL the characteristics that makes air, air." In the same way, we, being spirits, should not think of ourselves as "Individual spirits trapped in carbon based vessels," but instead part of the greater Spirit (God) - all that there was, is, and ever shall be, full and complete with all the characteristics that makes Spirit, Spirit - that makes God, God.
This, is why Jesus could say, "I and the Father are one." (John 10:30) He, like masters before Him, had tapped into that oneness. They discovered the truth, the truth that even our fields of quantum physics has discovered - ALL things are connected. ALL things are one. Separation is the ultimate lie. And as we have witnessed, this lie has caused more death, suffering, and pain than countless lives could every fully tell.
The Sage!
Some Conservatives will state that what I am saying is sacrilegious and heresy. And that's fine. In the past I would have said the same. Unfortunately, those claiming "heresy" are the very ones that have neither tapped into their true power nor are living a life of mastery. I shall leave them to the limited life they currently choose. Some people choose to stand in the rain. I have learned to let them!
I WANT MORE!
Several months ago, while visiting a dear Radical Faerie of mine in Portland, OR who has been quickly becoming a mentor, while talking about spiritual issues, I (after having wrestled with the question of who Jesus actually was for several year) finally asked him, "Jim, who is Jesus, really?!" With a smile on his face, he looked at me and said, "You're asking the wrong question. When you figure out the right question, you'll know." He got up to clear the table and immediately I knew the correct question. It seemed to have always been there in the recesses of my mind, waiting to be properly asked, waiting for the perfect time to be asked. When he came back to the table he sat down and I said, "I know the the right question." Jim, looked at me inquisitively while I asked the question."
"Who am I?"
Immediately, the biggest smile flashed across his middle-aged bearded face and his eyes twinkled. A slight laugh erupted from his mouth. "That's the correct question," he stated.
Before he took me back to the train station at the end of my stay, he asked me to grab the printed train ticket from the table near the front door. After picking up the ticket I noticed a small mirror underneath. On it was engraved...
"Ye are God!"*
From Jim I received my first reading assignment and my first echo: Contemplative Prayer by Thomas Merton.
I'm still working on this book, but I'm hopeful for what I will learn.
Next echo, the Minister!
*(John 10:34, Ps. 82:6)