The Process of Inner Development

I’m going to read this to you and you can see it on the screen, I think. And then I’d like you to really listen to this and see if there’s anything about it that speaks to you especially. You don’t have to make anything important here. It’s just if something really calls to you or speaks to you in a deep way, I’d like you to take note of it and, if you can, write it down [reads]:

You must allow the Revelation to reveal to you both your strengths and your weaknesses, which it will do naturally. You must allow the Revelation to give you a pathway to follow, a long pathway with many steps, for you will need time to sort things out so that you can find the true voice within yourself and learn how to follow it wisely and correctly.

So just take a moment and just be with this passage, and see if there’s anything in it that speaks to you in a powerful way. See if it answers any questions that you have had. See if there’s anything in this passage that you will need to remember.

Okay, let’s go on to the next passage [reads]:

You must work with God using your intellect and your abilities, for these will all be needed to build a new and greater life in the world. Here there is no running away into spiritual practice, retreating endlessly from the world, for God is seeking to bring you into the world as a contributor to life. But only God knows the nature of your true contribution, the real gifts that you were sent into the world to give. It is not what you think or assume to be true at this moment.

So once again, look at this passage and see if there’s anything important in there that you need to remember or that you need to consider further, whether it may answer a question that you have had for some time. If you see something like this, be sure to write it down—the basic idea that you think it is giving you or the understanding that you think it is giving you.

Okay, we’ll go to the third passage [reads]:

Therefore, accept this challenge. It is the greatest opportunity of your life. It is a blessing that you are amongst the first to respond. Come to this with your eyes open. Bring your questions. Bring your doubts. But listen and learn, and allow your heart and your soul to respond, for this is the deeper part of you that the New Message is here to reveal.

Again, see if there’s anything in this passage that speaks to you particularly, something you would need to remember or something that answers a question you have had for some time. If there is something there, write it down. If you do not see this, then do not write anything down.

Good. The New Message is very vast. It has tremendous repetition but it offers many things. Not all of those things are important to you at this moment, but a few of them really are. It is those few things that you need to stay with because otherwise you’ll forget; you won’t remember.

Everything the New Message gives you is important, but there are some things that speak to your condition at this moment, your need at this moment and where you are at this moment in your journey—a few things that require a lot of time to consider, to be with. These are the things that you need now.

But if you don’t remember, if you forget, if you move on to other things, if you’re fascinated with the Revelation—impressed—but you do not stay with those few things that speak to you at this very moment, then you’re not responding—not yet.

I would also say particularly things that really confuse you or they’re very different than what you have thought—that perplex and confuse you—those can be very important also. But it will take time—your time, your focus—to be able to go beneath the surface and to see what these things mean and what they call forth from you.

I chose these three passages because they really illustrate what you’re doing, Steps to Knowledge. If I was to boil down all the reasons why you’re participating or what is speaking to you, what is keeping you engaged, what your engagement is about, what it’s for—to simplify and simplify everything down—probably come up with something like this, which is enough.

Now, it’s a lot I could say about every sentence in here, but I want you to do this work, beginning with the things that really strike you. And you must capture them and you must be with them and stay with them, even as you continue to take the Steps to Knowledge—the things you kind of live with, the things that really bother you or generate inspiration within you, the things that confuse or trouble you—these are all striking points, you see.

So I must ask: Will you do this? Will you do this?

It’s wonderful to be together. I enjoy it; it’s uplifting; it’s inspiring; it’s confirming. But it’s what happens to you each day within yourself, within your life, within your experience of the world and what practice you bring to that that really matters. It is what you do each day, how far you go that really matters. Without this, Knowledge will remain a mystery, very uncertain. You experience it sometimes. You can’t rely on it. You don’t know if it will be there when you really need it. You don’t know why you resist it. You don’t know that you still have ambition regarding it, or what that might be. So many things are yet unknown.

It will not be known really until you begin to go deeper with the things that are speaking to you especially. Not something to be discussed with others; this is not a discussion. It’s not a debate. You don’t need other people’s views. This is for you to work with: no easy answers, but more problems to explore, to resolve.

And there are many passages like this throughout the Revelation. So if one doesn’t hit the mark, another will. (chuckles) It’s like Cupid shooting many arrows and one finally hits the mark. But I think you’ve been hit already—maybe repeatedly—you’ve been struck by many things. But how long do you spend with these things is the question. And my question is: Will you do this? I invite you to go beneath the surface. This is the work you do alone. This is the work you do with your mind. This is the work you do with your experience, both past and present.

It says in the first passage that, “…you were given a long pathway with many steps, for you will need time to sort things out…” You have a huge pile of experience unexplored, unexplained, things you’re not aware of that you’ve accumulated; it’s been part of your whole life so far. You have to make a place for Knowledge within that. It’s like creating an opening in the forest to build your place of receptivity. How will you do that? You are going to have to figure that out because I don’t live inside your mind. This is for you to do. The Revelation gives you many, many tools and clues in how to do that. But you still must do that, or we’re still up at the surface at the level of ideas and beliefs and assumptions.

In listening to the Steps titles being given, I was really struck the other night by how they’re happening at so many different levels. It’s not just one pure thread of thought from one to another. It’s like one strikes you here and another strikes you there. One is affirming something great within you. The others are showing you your weakness. One of the ways that Steps shows you your weakness is by asking you to do things you just can’t do. “Give yourself to Knowledge today.” You can’t do it. And it’s doing this for a purpose, because you need to know where you are. But you also need to know your strengths and your weaknesses. It will reveal to you both your strengths and weaknesses. And it does this in a very respectful way. But it keeps giving you things to do you can’t do, really…so often.

And then it builds you up. Then it affirms that which is true within you. It’s building what must be built. It’s beginning to deconstruct what must be deconstructed. But you have to get below the surface to really see this. This is what I’m encouraging tonight. You can’t go deep with many things. But you can go deep with a few things. Even as you pass through Steps to Knowledge, there are certain mysteries that are there for you to explore deeply, not for power, but because you really need them.

Before you can know your higher purpose or other great things, your calling, this work has to be done. You don’t even know what your experience is or where it came from or what it’s doing to you at this moment. And Knowledge is like a phantom in the night. It comes mysteriously and then you don’t know where it is. So this is the work you do each day. And I’m giving you tonight some things to focus on that have already struck you, whatever they may be.

I think a lot of my development was the product of staying with things for a long time that struck me, but also confused me. And some of them just were inflaming; they were so different. Sometimes I’ve given examples of these. For example: “The pursuit of happiness is the root of all evil.” That was completely outside the box for me when I first came across that. And it took a couple of decades to really see the absolute truth of that. It took the Revelation to show that to me in many ways. It took my own life experience to show that to me in many ways. Those who were most invested in seeking for happiness are the most lost in the world, furthest from their true nature, furthest from their honesty, furthest from their willingness to face themselves, or life itself.

And so the New Message gives us these unique opportunities in Steps to Knowledge and throughout the Revelation to engage ourselves with things that strike us. And those are the things that probably are the most important to focus on.

May the Presence be with you.

1:12:13