THE ERA OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Many clergy and biblical scholars are busy researching the cultural context of the four Gospels and the source material used. We even have reports, based on serious scholarship, of what Jesus probably did and did not say. Eager readers seem to want to know what is fact and what is fiction in the four accounts of the life of Jesus.

What seems to be ignored is this new era of holiness. Our individual and collective level of conscious awareness has risen to the point where we are ready for something more. Our inner Self yearns for a new manifestation of the Sacred—a personal revelation.

We have moved into the era of the Holy Spirit. An era to complete the other two. An era in which we are not consumed with research into the written word. An era in which the energy and spirit of the universe is available and eager to move in and through us if we but will it. This energy can reveal to us a truth stronger than words, a new reality that cannot be denied, and potential that is eager to be realized.

Let us consciously invite this amazing phenomenon to come to us, abide with us, and use us as instruments of peace, creativity, and joy.

WELL BEING

I recently read or heard, though I cannot find the source in Exodus (the story is worthwhile nevertheless), that before Moses went up the mountain to receive the law, the people brought to the Lord sacrifices of well-being. No explanation given. Perhaps that is what God wants most from us. Well-being. The sense that all is well in our deepest being.

Would God want us to sacrifice that well-being in the sense of giving it up to be destroyed—as an offering to be burned? I think not. What God wants is to experience our well-being—and for it to be obvious and experienced by others. The prophet says a humble and contrite spirit is what God requires as a proper sacrifice. Not to be destroyed on an altar, but rather given away. We give away our well-being as we give away ourselves in simply being in relationship to others. Our well-being, given to us by God, allows us to give ourselves to God as well in relationship.

We cannot achieve the kind of spirit God requires/desires in order to be at one with his Spirit until we have given up our egos—given permission for all that is false in our ego to be destroyed. The ego is what must be burned on the funeral pyre in order for true well-being to rise like a beautiful phoenix from the ashes. The choice is ours. Always. Our free will is never compromiseds