Before getting into the weighty implications of the covenant it is necessary to set the stage. This covenant can transform the life on our planet if we fully accept it, totally include it into our moment to moment existence, and courageously follow the guidance each one of us receives.
The covenant must not be undertaken lightly.
First we need to examine our relationship with our Heavenly Father. How can we interact with such a Father? Some traditional religions imagine Him as a wise being in heaven sitting on a throne handing out judgments; we might instead picture Him similar to the one on the Sistine Chapel ceiling giving the spark of life to Adam. Where is this Father? What is He like? How can we interact with Him?
In our secularist society our Father has been largely forgotten, ignored. The mass of society struggles through their daily lives without realizing there is anything beyond this mundane earthly existence; they do not know there are spirit helpers guiding them. Even many who profess faith view our Heavenly Father as somehow trapped within some worthy book or in a beautiful building instead of being within each one of us.
Where is our Father?
There is a spark of God within each one of us; therefore we can have a personal relationship with Him. Our Father is not some far off being overseeing countless trillions of beings at the same time; our Father is within each one of us individually and our relationship with Him can be personal, intimate, and dynamic.
Also, it is a two way communication. While we may not directly perceive our Father’s response, it is there; His ways are not our ways, so the answer we receive may not be what we expect. The answer is affirmed in the certainty of our soul; this reply will not appear as rapidly as we would like because sometimes it cannot be given until we are fully ready. It is sort of two way communication through curtains; we know by faith the response is there and we are aware of it but this is not something written in stone, only in our soul.
The most thrilling part of this communication with deity is that it will continue throughout all future eternity and as we become more like our Father; we will have unending life.
This spark of God within is our Thought Adjuster we have discussed previously. Our Father is a part of us, not out there looking in at us; this has staggering implications. We do not need priests and dogmas to show us the way because we have our Father within; these interactions with our adjuster are the most intimate ones we can possibly experience. All other interactions are with beings out there, someone separate from us; our adjuster is a literal part of us; we can, and should, share our innermost thoughts and desires with this presence within, we should ask for guidance, wisdom, and anything else we might require. In this dialog with our internal Father we need to be totally sincere, when this is the case we will know the way to proceed.
This certainly does not mean we can sit back, snap our fingers and expect some divine servant to come instantly at our call; it does mean if we struggle to fight the good fight against those opposing our Father we will be guided and assisted. We are not alone.
Our adjuster leads us by gradual steps into as much spiritual progress as we are able to assimilate. He knows our capabilities and guides us accordingly; too rapid progress could have severe consequences.
We have internal interactions with our adjuster as we are guided toward greater spiritual progress; as a result of these interactions our potentially eternal soul is brought into existence. The soul is our spirit counterpart and it is augmented or weakened by the nature of our reactions to the adjuster’s spirit leadings. As we cooperate with the spirit guidance we receive, our soul is strengthened; as we accept this spirit leadership we become more aligned with universal reality, we become more spiritually real.
After we graduate from this life on Earth, we will be resurrected in the soul as a semi-spiritual being. We will then resume our climb toward Paradise and the presence of our Father from exactly the same spiritual level we had when we left this planet. When we totally accept the guidance of our Father, we will fuse with our adjuster and become an eternal being; we will have existence into all future eternity. This is our destiny if we cooperate with the spiritual guidance each one of us receives.
As we progress in the spirit we manifest the fruits of the spirit in our daily lives; we feel the peace within, joy and love for our sisters and brothers. These are natural outpourings, not something artificially introduced; our faith will motivate our daily lives and become obvious to others in the way we conduct ourselves. If our faith does not do this, it is lacking something vital.
Part of this personal experience with our Father is the awareness of spiritual energy within. We feel an indefinable power that gives us the ability to keep going when things become difficult; this energy sustains us and allows us to keep up the struggle for righteousness.
This personal experience with our Father means we know He is with us, wanting the best for each one of us, and assisting us; that our Father is always with us is a foundation of our faith.
When we are asked to do something difficult we need to take the leap of faith knowing Father is with us, helping us in every way possible. At the beginning of the process we will have no idea where this leap of faith will take us, we do not know where we will land, but we can be confident loving beings are assisting us at every step along the way. That was certainly the case when I started writing this book. We take this leap of faith knowing we are being lovingly guided.
These experiences may be difficult to describe since they involve spiritual reality. There is an increase in vital energy, an expanded indefinable awareness, and it seems as if there are nonvisible friends assisting us. Difficulties can more easily be dealt with and there is an internal peace.
All our vital religious experiences take place within ourself. These experiences are intensely personal and their inner meaning cannot be effectively shared with others who may have had no such experiences; they are our own experience. Our true nature, our inner reality, is spiritual and since we are observing the universe from within, all creation becomes spiritual in nature.[1]
Belief becomes faith only after it motivates our lives and changes our way of life. This faith is a living and personal religious experience.[2] When we have this personal experience, when we dedicate ourselves to following God’s will in our thoughts, actions and lives, we know God and His love for each of us. In his life among us, Jesus attained the highest realization of this as a human being living on our planet. Jesus was born a mortal struggling to understand his surroundings just as everyone born on this orb or on any other in this local universe. He was on his own and by the strength of his will and his faith, he found God; and so can we if we make his faith our faith.
Jesus personified personal religious experience and this shone forth in his life. The religion of Jesus is all about each believer having an individual relationship with God. It is truly that simple, and that difficult.
There are two parts to a personal religious experience; the first is what the human mind discovers. This experience enables our mind to become aware of truths about God. The other is what the indwelling spirit reveals to us during the experience.[3] These experiences are a real and vital part of our existence. They are the stepping stones from our world of time and space to the portals of eternity; our path from this evolutionary world to the vast creation surrounding us, from our finite mortal experience to the vast creation.
These personal religious experiences may not be flashy; there will probably be no bursts of illumination signifying a closer relationship with God. Rather we attain a quiet assurance God is with us always guiding us, gradually leading us toward spiritual growth. Our personal religious experience is in our daily lives as we go about our activities with the quiet assurance God is with us every step along the way.
It is sometimes possible to have the mind illuminated, to hear the divine voice that continually speaks within you, so that you may become partially conscious of the wisdom, truth, goodness, and beauty of the potential personality constantly indwelling you.[4]
The more sincerely, intensely, and fully we seek to do the will of God, the more likely this possibility becomes.