From Gratitude to Grace by Gail Isabell Klein

From Gratitude to Grace

Evolved people give thanks for life, for the intelligence within the body temple, within nature, for what most people don’t even notice as they navigate through their day.

Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith

First, we are taught to list what we are grateful for with specificity and detail: Sipping herbal tea by a hot fire on a cold night.  My cat curled in my lap.  Sunset at the ocean on a slightly cloudy day, bursting with color.

To start in gratitude shifts our focus out of any sense of lack or hurt into appreciation, which expands our hearts, opens and softens us to our own inner spacious loving aware sense of self.

Gradually, we expand on the journey—listening more deeply and opening to whatever is happening now—this here is what I am grateful for.  This pain in my side, that causes me to do stretches, breathe more deeply, sit with myself, eat more healthily, take a walk.  This feeling I have: sad, hurt, angry, scared.  I am grateful for this deepening, expanding, growing, for where I was closed is asking for more awareness.

In those moments when what is appearing is not at all what we want from our personal self sense —resisting  and demanding things be different—means we are closing off some part of life and saying this is not worthy of love. When truly, love is the essence and first cause of all that is.

As the shift to accepting what is happens, even what we don’t prefer, all becomes grace. Because the power and the presence and the love that is our true nature is unlimited.  When we embrace everything with our loving gaze—even our resistance to what is, we open to the spaciousness of an open loving heart that preexists the outside situations needing to change at all.

Here is the true heart.  Here is the advanced gratitude training.   Grace takes over.  Grace—in which we are grateful for everything exactly as it is.

Affirmation:

Today I am grateful for my life exactly as it is.  I see all the beauty, all the love, all the wonder in everything.  My growth becomes my flow in grace.

Gail Isabelle Klein

Bring on the Light by Rev. Karen Wylie

Bring on the Light!
This morning I awoke to these words and wrote them down on the tablet beside my bed.  I knew it was a message from God. Bring on the light my Beloveds!  Do not, for a moment, think that you and your light and love make no difference in this worry weary world.  We must continue to do our work as never before no matter what it looks like on the outside.
Our work is deep now because we are in these times of great change and transformation.  It may take some time to see the effect of the inner work you are doing in this current reality because everything is inside out and upside down.
Know this…you make a difference when you stay anchored in the truth of your being.  You make a difference when you choose the light and cast your love out into the world.  You have come for times exactly like these.  Look to God for your inspiration and joy.  Look for the beauty everywhere in everything.  That which is eternal never changes.  Stay faithful to your spiritual practice and look to God for the answers you seek no matter the circumstance.  Surrender your need to know.  Be willing to live in the unknown, trusting constantly that God will see you through in all circumstances.  Look up Beloveds!  Remember your source!  Everything you need is here now!  Look up!

Sweet Gifts in Overflow by Rev. Kim Stanwood Terranova

We live in an abundant Universe and this abundance is forever rushing to us.  Our job is to cultivate a heart that is open and available to be good receivers of the gifts of Spirit.

Ernest Holmes expresses it this way, “It is natural that we should wish for the more abundant life.  It is right that we are to accept it.  God has already made the gift, it is up to us to receive it.”  Yes, it is up to us to receive it!   Our availability to be good receivers of the riches of Spirit is the key!  Many of us may scream out, “but I am ready to receive it all!”  Yet, if we look within our deep-seated beliefs, or listen closely to any limiting language that we may use, there may be signs of where we are not truly preparing to receive.  If we have been experiencing lack, it may benefit us to clean our inner house to accept that we are worthy and willing to receive the unlimited abundance of Spirit!

To cultivate a field of massive receptivity, we must live a life of daily spiritual practice.  Every practice we embody, every prayer, gratitude, acknowledgment, intention, prepares us to receive the riches of the divine.  Every time we say yes, and thank you, we are honing our consciousness to receive.  Every time we are willing to accept a kind word, a hug, a meal, or a gift, it nurtures the field of receptivity in accepting more good than we ever imagined.

Today, I invite you to open your heart, open your arms, and be willing to receive!  Catch a warm smile from someone, truly receive it.  Say thank you when you are offered a gift, or a treasure from nature, simply say THANK YOU!  Be willing to see and accept the overflow of Spirit everywhere you look!

Sweet gifts of Spirit are ours in overflow.  Let us cultivate the consciousness for them to land upon!

Affirmations:

I am willing to cultivate open receptivity to all the good that Spirit continues to shower upon me.
Rev. Kim Stanwood Terranova

The Universe is infinitely abundant.  As a child of the Universe, I am entitled to the miracles that flow forth from it freely. 
Marianne Williamson, A Year of Miracles

Soul Center SunRise

Agape Affirmation September 5th

Soul Center SunRiseThe essence of my Being burns bright with love, peace and joy!
I am charged with divine ideas shot from the mind of God!
My life is a blessing! I have multiple gifts to give!
Infinite, invisible good manifests as all my needs met!
Radiant health and wholeness express as my body temple!
I am a walking, talking, living, loving expression of God`s grace!
In all things I am grateful! And so be it! Amen!

‘The Soaring Soul’s Song’ by Rev. Jason Mitchell

Spiritual beings having a human incarnation. This is the description that I embrace about us all as we take this journey on earth. I know that I am more than my body, that there is more to us than our physiology. There are connections that go beyond the functions of the brain or heart when limited to their biology. I know that there is so much more to us and yet at times our body temples can feel like cages, even prisons.

Perhaps it is the lies that we accepted from mass media marketing of what beauty is or what makes someone a real man or woman; at times we can live the lie that we are not enough. It could be shame or abuse we encountered on our journey that tells us we cannot do or be something because of our height, weight, skin color, hair texture, ethnicity, sexuality or something else. The cage many reside in is made up of their own thoughts. When one realizes this, the opportunity for transformation is at hand. Liberty does not require a key, for a mind aligned with the Truth of one’s being dissolves the illusion of the cage completely.

You are perfect. You are beauty. You are love. You are creativity, sourced and resourced by the Infinite. You are supported continually by the presence of the almighty, all-loving, living Presence that makes no mistakes and knows Its own. There are no limitations to one who realizes the Truth of their being. The only challenge you face is awakening to the illusion that somehow you’ve been caged in or had your wings clipped, preventing you from soaring. The lie that is revealed to you is that cages don’t determine a soul’s liberty, nor do physical conditions prevent one from soaring.

Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith

From Wayward to Way Forward by Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith

Rev. Michael Bernard BeckwithEvery breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Reeling. Barely coping. Mourning. Taking a stand. These are just some of the more printable comments I’m receiving from countless individuals about the times our world is currently facing. And I am no exception to standing in what is unchartered territory, in not knowing what’s next.  But there is one thing I absolutely do know:  Spirit is now and ever shall be in charge. Now, in the precise moment you are reading these words, I invite you to also know that with me; to know that while the current appearance is wayward, the way forward is about walking hand-in-hand with Spirit.

The call to our collective heart and soul is this:  to let go of reactive habit patterns and ground ourselves in trusting the fundamental goodness of the universe, the same goodness that lives within each one of us. Then, if our heart feels called to protest injustice, let it begin with prayer.  If our mind feels called to take action by signing petitions, to marching in support of our world family, let us do that also, beginning with prayer. Prayer detoxes the heart of worry, fear, anxiety, and restores equanimity, leading to wisdom-guided, impactful action. It is prayer that speaks most meaningfully and clearly to the dilemmas and questions with which our world family is now dealing.

Use this time to deepen your spiritual practice for it is then, as Thich Hnat Hanh informs us, “Love will enter our thoughts, our words, and our actions.”  Affirmative prayer, meditation—these are especially contributory to developing limitless love, goodwill, compassion and discernment.  Through prayer, the tendency to set anger and retaliation loose gives way to patience, forgiveness, loving-kindness.  Then, whether the winds that begin to blow are revolutionary or evolutionary, we will stand in them with a healing peace radiating out from our being into the world.

Peace and Richest Blessings,
Rev. Michael
Agape International Spiritual Center

Be Longing in One by Gail Klein

Gail Isabelle Klein

From the Agape International Spiritual Center daily Inner Visions guide.

The first month of the new year 2021 and I am contemplating Being One.  Many of us found ourselves basically alone amidst the circumstances at the end of 2020 – curiously the zero… transitioning into the One!

We have been going back to zero: sit, be still and know.  Because we can’t go out and get busy as much – distracting ourselves with events and other people.  The invitation of the zero is to go back to nothing.

And now we enter the One.  Being all one… in the One.  How do we feel at one, when we sit with ourselves day after day – many of us physically alone aside from an occasional zoom?

Here is the rub – we are all ways alone and all one in God.  What does this mean? It is one of those paradoxes of the ultimate truth.  We are never alone in Spirit – the Oneness of God – because God is everywhere.  That includes within our own cells.  Even within the space between our thoughts!  We are the One!  To be all one, is to let go of our thingness – hence we dissolve from zero – no-thing into Oneness.

To be alone amidst the longing for One is to be in that gap – between who I am and who the Beloved is.  This beloved could be a cat, a child a friend, a lover… and ultimately this Beloved is each of us.  You and I are the beloved of God – as we behold ourselves from space and open into a glimpse of a timeless ultimate state of who we are.

So this 1-2021 – let’s lean into that space of all One regardless of any situation.  And the belonging that we long for is right here in that field of the Infinite I am.  Now and always.

Gail Isabelle Klein
Agape International Spiritual Center
Daily Inspiration Guide –
Inner Visions

 

Agape Affirmation January 31st.

I am here to deliver my gifts and follow my bliss!
Today I simply and joyfully present myself for the good of God to express!
Divine love is made visible through my presence in my work place!
The prospering energy of pure Spirit blesses every aspect of my being!
Sincerity and earnestness give me wings on my Spiritual journey!
I believe, I receive and I am grateful for it!
And so it is! Amen!

A Promise Etched in Forever by Michael Bernard Beckwith

A Promise Etched in Forever

What appears separated from its Essence longs to return to its Source for reunion.
Rumi

The uttermost truth of your existence has been encapsulated by Jesus the Christ in these six words: “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30).  From his birth in a humble manger visited by kings to his crucifixion thirty-three years later with a few loyal disciples at his feet, his truth teaching and his living example of it never waivered.

Through Jesus’s conscious union and communion with Spirit, he received a revelation of a promise etched in forever:  there is nothing, absolutely nothing that can separate us from our Creator Source and its unconditional love for each and every one of us.  This is our eternal, divine inheritance in spite of any and all appearances.  This mystical union between the soul and Spirit is the supreme love we are all seeking.  We taste an appetizer of it in all forms of human love until the day comes that we feast upon the formless entrée of Divine Love itself.

When we meditate and pray we are following in the footsteps of the Master Teacher and all true lovers of Spirit who fully realized their unbreakable oneness with Spirit.  Reading in the writings of mystics across all traditions about the rapturous energies that consumed them while communing with Spirit, we are transported into a realm of Divine Love that sets our souls on fire, that awakens within us a hunger for the Divine Beloved to sit at our table and sup with us.  To hand feed us the truth of our eternal union.

This is the longing that exists at the core of our being.  And it is fulfilled by Spirit’s promise that is etched in forever:  “Thou and I, never apart.”  Live, move, and have your being in this ultimate reality that is the manifestation beyond all other manifestations.  It is the absolute evidence of our divine origin, the purest reflection of our original face.

Excerpted from Agape International Spiritual Center’s daily inspiration guide ‘Inner Visions’, December 6, 2020

Try It On by Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith

Try It On. By Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith.
Agape’s Inner Visions Daily Inspiration Guide, September 9, 2020
When it comes to evolving one’s fundamental life structures, most individuals go through life experiencing an “it’s good enough” mindset.  Fearing that a shift in consciousness equals an unguaranteed outcome, they remain willing to settle for what they perceive to be the safety and security of predictability. More directly stated, it’s about living in the illusion that life’s outcomes can be controlled. Bottom line: A life philosophy of “It’s good enough” is a fear-based agreement with mediocrity.Break free from the “it’s good enough” paradigm!  Dare to have the courage to trust in yourself, in life itself.  Try on a state of consciousness that allows you to discover that there is so much good, love, joy, peace, prosperity, and creativity yearning to manifest in your life once you give it permission to do so. Because when you do, there will be an energetic opening that will usher you into a whole new recognition of limitless possibilities, into an unconditional “yes” to this great adventure called Life.

What does this take?  Courage.  The courage to disrupt your comfort zone, to live beyond your coping mechanisms, justifications, rationalizations, manipulations, well-worn excuses that hold you back simply because you fear stirring up your life or what others will think about you. Trust that your life, just as it is, is a trustworthy path to evolving a deeper confidence in the truth that you live in a friendly universe that supports you in every way. Let your reliance be on the reliability of Reality, of Spirit, which are constantly offering you opportunities for enlightened action.

Go ahead—try it all on, even if you don’t know where it will lead you, what Teutonic shakeups will take place in your life, because when you do, you will gladden your heart with the realization that it’s all working together for your good with the full support of the Universe.

Affirmation:

As I free myself from mediocrity and try on my highest potential, I realize that it is a perfect, custom-made fit.

Osho Quote
:
Courage is the spiritual art of living dangerously.

Michael Bernard Beckwith