Elyon110898Healing_Teaching

Coeur d'ALene Teaching Mission Group

Teachers: Michael, Jessona, Elyon, Malvantra

Topics:

My Voice and Help,

Healing, Teaching,

Faith Muscles

November 8, 1998

Michael (Ginnie TR): My beloved children, it is refreshing to see you so firm in your own beliefs and yet so willing to admit others who have a different path. There are many paths to God; there are many ways to enter the kingdom. It is love that unites you all, not the particular characteristic of your service. If one's heart is open to my voice and earnestly seeks to respond to that voice, then indeed it is done in my name and in the Father's name no matter the particular from form of that service.

I have come into your hearts and I came to your planet for one reason only, and that is to open your minds and hearts to the awareness of the love that our Father has for you and continues to dwell within you. It is my legacy to you to have this input, to have this intimate connection. There are many, many others who are, indeed, ready to speak and share their convictions and their beliefs if you but open the door and open your hearts and open your minds.

May your energy and your enthusiasm continue, and may you be convinced and take to heart that I am with you when you interact with your friends. Remember to ask for my assistance, and I will help you. But when you speak to another in love, you are speaking to me, and we can have a fine conversation. Be not anxious about temporal vicissitudes that may weaken your enthusiasm now and then, for indeed the body and the mind and the spirit lag now and then. I am immensely pleased at all your efforts at reaching out and being willing to release the stranglehold on your own beliefs and to allow others to express and share. You have my blessings, and you have my assistance and my great love. I bless you all. Peace.

Jessona (Jonathan): This is Jessona and I say hi to you all. I would like to address the topic of healing for a moment.

You have all done your studies and realize that healing is coupled intimately with faith. I would like to elaborate upon this faith. There are two aspects to faith, one is hope, the other is help. You know when the sky is cloudy that the sun is still present. This is because of your faith in its constancy in spite of the appearance to your senses of its lack. You may hope that the clouds part to reveal the sun, however, this hope must be coupled with a desire to help. Though the extent to which you are capable of helping is far less than the ability to part the clouds, you are capable of turning on a light in the room to bring illumination. Hope is an extension of prayer. Your help is the extension of your faith in healing and in the powers that exist beyond your control. In the course of lengthy illness or injury, hope and help are the greatest supports for your faith. Hope places your trust in the divine; help alleviates your sense of hopelessness, powerlessness, to accomplish some ministry for another.

These are my words for you to reflect upon. I thank you for receiving me today.

Ginnie: Do any of the teachers have any advice for us on ways we could be better teachers?

Elyon: This is Elyon, and I am willing to address this question of yours. I begin by reminding you that we teachers have taken effort to make ourselves common to you, in a sense, familiar. We have sought your recognition of us as associates, as pals, my friends. This was deliberate, for we have been cautious about the human tendency towards veneration and, through this veneration, to remove from the student the sense of the ability to attain the abilities of the teacher. You have responded well even while you do realize that we are quite different in status and standing in the universe ascent. In your role as teachers this is my advice: that you befriend the student, that you take one another's hand and go together into the lesson. You know full well the end from the beginning. However, it is the partnership that bears upon the soul of the hungry truth seeker, it is that brotherhood that infuses one with the spirit qualities of the lesson to be gained. Association speaks louder than verbosity.

The master taught us all that, when you seek the Father, you must seek friendship with God. His absolute qualities are unfathomable; I doubt we ever will really understand Him, but we each are coming to know Him continually.

So, I guess in summary I would say to approach your teaching as a peer. This removes a sense of a gulf between the teacher and the student which the student may react to wrongly as unattainable. Bridge that gap first and they will readily cross the gap to the level that the teacher hopes to convey.

Does this help?

Ginnie: Oh, yes, thank you, those were beautiful words. Is it our job to correct what we think may be wrong, or is that open for discussion, too?

Elyon: I will illustrate for you. You instruct young aspiring musicians regarding piano playing. In a particular song there are appropriate notes which must be played to execute the piece properly. In the course of training you need at times to show where the wrong note is and what the right notes are. You do this without condemning the individual attempting to play that piece. It is well to point out errors if you can remove from the correction a sense of fault in the receiver personally. But you also know that simply pointing out all the wrong notes is a far greater task than to show which ones are right. It is a case of discernment which tack to take based upon which personality type you are working with. This applies to spiritual teaching, as well.

Ginnie: Thank you. That is a very good analogy because when I am teaching is it really worth it if this kid plays the right note or not? Sometimes for the sake of another quality I respect, I don't dwell on the wrong notes but focus on the right ones.

Elyon: Yes, you illustrate another principle and that is that one can be technically right and yet remain wrong in the execution, for a dimension of learning is the attempt to attain which, of nature, requires that one fail periodically in the striving. There is great pleasure to be derived from performing a piece even with its errors, for the enjoyment of the practice sweetens the time when the execution is flawless. There is no experiential happiness gained from executing rightly the first time. There is far deeper pleasure to be received from the struggle to accomplish repeatedly. I know for all of us mortal origin creatures that this is not often a well received truth, for impatience coupled with a hunger to be perfect causes the desire to get there and be there instantly. But you have enough years behind you in your unfoldment to realize how much more rewarding the incremental process to attainment is.

Ginnie: It is also a hard concept in our society to perceive that the qualities of spirit, happiness, and enjoyment are just as important as correct timing and notes. Thank you.

Elyon: You are welcome, and again thank you for bringing this topic up for discussion.

Malvantra (Mark): This is Malvantra and I would take a different approach this morning. I would borrow an analogy and some conceptual framework from my students to offer to the group here today as it pertains to the lesson delivered.

I would encourage you all to see this world, this existence, as one giant gymnasium in which your purpose here as individuals is to exercise your faith muscles. This gymnasium is equipped with many and varied opportunities which provide the necessary tools for you to exercise these faith muscles and to grow them in your lives. You all are aware, albeit partially, of the significance of the development of this faith. It is a significant aspect of your challenge as teachers to bring those around you into the recognition of the significance of faith in their own lives. Many suffer from self-demotion and are unfamiliar with their own ability to exercise this faith muscle. Many are unaware of the use of this muscle, and yet most individuals possess this muscle; they even use it, although infrequently. It is important to point out to these individuals that they do indeed possess faith in their lives. It may not be directed in a spiritual nature, but they are familiar with this muscle and its uses in common everyday occurrences.

When an individual states that they are not sure that they possess faith or that they use faith, it is incumbent upon you to point out that they have faith about many different things in their lives. They have faith that each day the sun will rise. They have faith that they will make it through another day, another week. They have faith in the goodness that they perceive around them. The yearning for this goodness around them is their faith propelling them forward. Point this out to them in their lives, that this is their exercising of this muscle. When they strive for something better in their lives, when they seek and reach out for that which is more than they are, they are exercising faith. If you point out to them that this is, indeed, what they are doing, they will come to recognize not only the existence of this force but the method whereby to strengthen it, to exercise it.

This I offer you as another tool as missionaries of this new mission and hope that this tool comes in handy from time to time when you befriend individuals and determine what their motivations are and what propels them forward. You can then point out how faith is responsible for their yearnings and their leadings and help them to identify this aspect of their being, for you have developed strong faith muscles. Share your personal techniques for having developed these muscles to the strength that they now possess. Relate your individual stories to them, as this is more potent teaching force than simply expressing the truths.

That is all I have to offer today in coordination with the daily lesson. I thank you for your time.

Ginnie: It reminds me of that line in The Urantia Book that if we truly understood people's motivations we would love them.

Malvantra: I would point out you would have far greater insight into how to be of assistance to these individuals as well.
Tom: We discussed the triangle of worship being faith, feelings, and focus. Could you review the elements that we might consider when developing exercises concerning our faith muscle?

Malvantra: When exercising these faith muscles avail yourselves of any and all of the tools available in this vast gymnasium. The very purpose of this existence is to provide you with this gymnasium in which you may exercise these muscles. The effective qualities will be different for every individual just as every individual would be drawn toward different tools within the gymnasium. Some may feel it important to work on tools which strengthen the upper body, so to speak. Some may choose to develop the lower body. All aspects are significant in contribution to the whole, and none is more necessary than any others. It is largely a matter of personal interest as to what exercises you perform. Once you determine your area of interest, then focus on this area and concentrate on deriving maximum benefit from the particular exercise. You may determine that you tire of a given exercise and desire a change and move to exercise a different set of muscles in this group. Be alert and aware of the effect these exercises have on the various aspects of your faith and seek to accept and embrace the changes brought on by your efforts. There is no energy wasted or lost in this process.

For those who have learned the use of these tools and developed significant muscle mass, is it your job and, indeed, privilege, to instruct those who are just discovering the gymnasium as to the use of the tools and the effect the tools have on the muscles. As an instructor you realize the value of strengthening the group, the whole set of muscles, not just one single aspect. Therefore, you would be of assistance to others in expressing as many facets and aspects of this process as you are capable so that those around you can pick and choose what is most acceptable to them. But within the gymnasium there are no tools that are useless. All have a particular benefit and are worthy of their use in the benefit to be derived.

Does this enlarge the picture for you?

Tom: Yes, it does. The word faith is still huge. We've strayed away from the triangles due to the literal interpretation. Jessona mentioned that faith involves health, healing. I can see how hope would be a set of instructions. If I were lifting weights I wouldn't want to put too much weight, so I would have a guideline of hope, say. Then we have health. I see a pyramid here. I never got the faith pyramid clearly. What is the faith triangle? What are the elements as would be instructed on a morontia school?

Malvantra: I would ask you first for your definition.

Tom: Hope and desire would be in there.

Jonathan: Maybe trust.

Tom: Belief.

Jonathan: Seems like action would be a factor of faith.

Ginnie: Knowledge. I get the image of a crystal. One thing with many facets; each facet may be a triangle. Depending on how you look at it you see different aspects.

Malvantra: I would say exactly, precisely, correct. Each and every aspect correct. We do not have a simple triangle. The image of a many-faceted prism is far more accurate, and you would come to see that all the above mentioned are indeed aspects of this prism. I would encourage you to adopt the idea of not limiting yourself to a simple triangular relationship. As you have been discovering about these triangles, the one fits next to the other one, which fits next to the one from before, which all seem to somehow tie together. This is in a more multi-dimensional fashion than you have been comfortable to see this model to this time, but it is more appropriately pictured in these multi-dimensions. It is not possible except for the purposes of brief illustration to separate these relationships the one from the other. It is as seen the one surface of the marble as flat and complete. You know this to be inaccurate, as when you rotate the marble you see the larger picture, but at no time do you see the entire marble, as it is not turned to your view. Much the same is true of these pattern relationships. At any given time you may be squarely looking at a pattern which could be defined as having a certain few aspects, but the slight tip of the prism immediately illuminates many other facets all of which are touching your single face. So, I would spur you on to see in your mind's eye the back side and to link the unseen aspects to the seen, as you know they should be, and to not limit yourself to simply the appearance of things on the surface.

Has this been sufficiently confusing?

Tom: Any gifts you can throw our way regarding faith we gladly accept.

Mary: I'm getting a few insights on faith. Faith has been spoken of as something that can be weak of strong, that its range can be developed. You might think of faith in its beginning phases as belief in something. You usually have faith about things that are intangible, unprovable in a logical way. You can start with belief and as you develop faith moves from a mere belief to something that is strong enough to elicit commitment. Further development can bring not only commitment to this belief but action in the real world based on your belief and your commitment to the belief.

END