2002-08-29-Deepening Your Faith, Part 1

Session

Opening

Welmek: This is your teacher, Welmek. And I wish to extend a special greeting to S. Welcome. It is good to be with you again. I have not been far from you, and I know you have felt my presence at times. And I welcome you as part of this group, and hope you will enjoy tonight's entertainment; for this is what we are hoping to instill within you in these lessons: a sense of joy, a sense of lightheartedness, in growing more beautiful in the love of our Father, and in the unfoldment of your life.

For life can be thrilling, and it can be rewarding, and it is in this vein now that I would like to offer the continuing saga of our Walk in Faith. Tonight I have entitled our lesson 'Deepening your Faith', for this something that all of you have expressed; and it is the natural outgrowth of the Walk in Faith. You sense that something is unfolding now in your life in a new and purposeful direction, and you like it. You identify with it. It speaks to you at a deeper level, and you want to continue to grow in this dynamic.

Lesson

Tonight we will talk about how we will deepen our faith. And while we have talked about faith from various angles and perspectives, I invite more of your participation now in sharing with me some of the struggles that you have been particularly experiencing as you try to deepen your faith. So instead of going into our usual stillness exercise, and speaking to your thought adjusters, let me ask you now where do you feel you are being held back in this deepening sense of staying true on your walk of faith?

Think about this for a moment, and I would like to spend time in addressing each of you at a very personal and involved way that perhaps we have not touched upon in prior lessons. Go within, and when you are ready, please share with me. (pause)

Dialogue

Student: I sure had a strange day today. I learned from a friend of mine that there's a new treatment for Parkinson's, which I'm very excited about. And I had a very good day yesterday, but I woke up this morning and I was paralyzed with fear. I didn't know where it came from. So I wonder how to hold onto faith, and how my faith would help me in that situation.

Welmek: Faith is a matter of perspective. Faith is predicated upon certain ideas that you hold to be true within you. Ask yourself these questions: Do I believe that my Father in Paradise is in absolute perfect control of my life? Number 2: Do I trust that God desires my happiness and well-being? Number 3: Am I willing to live according to how He wishes my life to unfold? Number 4: Do I love the Father enough to let him have his way in my life?

I do not expect you to answer these all at once and do not expect you to respond to me. But I do ask that you think about these questions, and be very honest and forthcoming in your own inner environment about how you feel in response.

Faith is built upon these ideas. Faith grows the more you come to appreciate who the Father is, and what He is trying to create within your life and being. Faith is what you exercise in allowing yourself to be led according to his plans for you. Your faith will grow. Your faith will change. Your faith will actually require that you experience some challenges that you can trust where you are led, and see the hand of the Father out- working in human life. I would say you are in the very grasp of living more in faith and letting your own agenda recede. While you say you see your faith as weak, I see your faith as being exercised. And sometimes there is this momentary period when you feel this exertion, because you are exercising muscles that you have not used for some time. Did you understand my meaning, R?

Student: (comment was too faint to hear)

Welmek: Would you say that you have found a new community of spiritual seekers?

Student: That's been a great asset, and it's the most important group I belong to now. And, so I am hoping that by continued participation it might make my faith deepen.

Welmek: Would you say that you exercised faith in allowing yourself to become involved with these individuals?

Student: Oh, yes!

Welmek: So, would you say that perhaps your faith is working and you have had experiences to lead you?

Student: I guess that is true, and the manifestation of that proof in my life is a manifestation of probably my faith.

Welmek: So you must be very judicious in appreciating from whence comes your health and your spiritual connection. This is where you learn to trust where you are being led. Perhaps you thought you should go here, but the Father turned you around and pointed you in another direction. Whose judgment is greater? Who knows where you will find the true support that you need? Do you understand the distinction I am making here?

Student: Yes.

Welmek: Does this help you?

Student: It's helped me focus, and I need to attend to that focus more and see that it is only because I have some degree of faith do I, have I found this community.

Welmek: My dear friend. You have more faith than you realize, and it is being exercised quite vigorously, I might say. And that is why you are feeling this sense of spiritual exertion in your being. This is well and good, and this is as it should be. Do not spend too much time in trying to overanalyze why you think this process is not working for you. You cannot see the outworking of it yet. You may not fully appreciate the subtle ways in which the Father's hand moves, guides, nudges, and inspires you along in your life. Relax into this exertion, allow yourself to be renewed and replenished in your stillness. When you feel fearful, ask for more faith. Rest in the Father, and all the faith that you need to carry on will come to you. Does this help?

Student: Yes, thank you.

Welmek: Do you have any other comments or needs for elaboration this evening?

Student: Not at the moment.

Welmek: Thank you.

Student: Welmek, the last several years I really felt like I've been growing, mainly in my relationships with people. On the one hand I am, I feel like I am overcoming a lifetime of a certain kind of shyness, and actually looking to see people and missing something, whatever this is, coming down the sidewalk at me, and looking to meet their eye, and just let that experience of them be whatever it is, and hopefully, yet, at the same time, getting over some arrogance and condescension also that was standing between me and other people. So I just feel like I inherited a whole vast array of people around me, people I work with, they seem more individual, more alive. The biggest question I have in terms of my growth of faith is a question of consistency. I seem to be going back and forth, and you suggested the other week that this is a kind of rhythm of life. We talked about it with respect to dancing, where you take a lesson and you try to be as perfect and articulate as possible, and then realize that the moment you go out there and to have a dance partner, you actually step out on the floor, three quarters of it just goes. It is just gone. Yet at the same time that set rhythm I interpreted, that's what you meant by the rhythm. You go back and forth, you don't give up trying to be perfect, even though you know in this application that a lot of it just goes by the wayside, and you just, you don't worry about that kind of inconsistency. You just keep going, You practice to be perfect, knowing that you will lose a lot of it, and at the same time you don't get hung up on being imperfect, where you don't enjoy the party.

Welmek: Becoming perfect is an incremental growth process. When you began to dance, you did have an idea of what it would be like to be on the floor, and be able to move in a graceful and fluid manner, did you not? And you saw those dancers who had that flair on the dance floor. And it was appealing, and enjoyable to watch. Were they not?

Student: Welmek, they were also intimidating, but yet so beautiful, to show you what's possible.

Welmek: Yes, and intimidating because you knew that you were not there, and you perhaps thought, 'I do not have the talent, I do not have the stamina or the discipline to achieve those levels.' But you tried, and you persisted, and you practiced, and in time your awkwardness gave way to more confidence on the dance floor, and your movements became more graceful and easy. And so you see that you have made progress, and you watch those masters on the floor, and how they turn, and glide, and spin, and you know that you will, in time, through more dedicated practice, achieve even higher levels of mastery. Your life is no different than this, my friend, in all of its various manifestations, from relationships to the way you think, to the way you work, and to the way you learn and enjoy life. And so, in order for you to become this proficient, living, breathing manifestation of perfection it is very important to follow the pattern of a master. And you have that in the living conduit of the Spirit of Truth within you that is your direct link to Jesus, the Master of human life on Urantia.

When you fall short in your expectation of how you should perform, you only need to go within and call upon Jesus and ask for his guidance. Ask for Him to show you how He mastered that which you wish to master yourself. There is no aspect of human life that He did not fully understand and bring to heightened levels of symmetry and harmony and balance in the Father's will and in the Father's way. You, too, have access to this experience; and He will most patiently, faithfully, and skillfully instill within your mind, and within your being a higher level of understanding, so that you too can continue to practice that which you wish to master. In time, with more experience, and varied experiences of all different sorts of life's lessons, you will perfect yourself and glide and effortlessly flow through life the way you see those skilled artisans on the dance floor. Do you understand?

Student: Yes, Welmek. I think it's a matter of faith for me not to be too worried about being perfectly consistent. This is a mystery about Michael as he incarnated. Because, but I think I understand the paradox that at one time they say He had this perfectly normal life. Yet at another, I read many, many times now a story that he more abnormal a human being. I don't know that Jesus as a little boy ever even lost his temper even once, and kicked his neighbor in the shins. Something of those 400 billion years of existence was there from the very beginning. So this remains a deep mystery. I wonder how Jesus had any kind of orneriest to overcome.

Welmek: Why don't you ask him?

Student: (Too faint to hear)... the story in his life, as the textbooks trace it, there was a kind of very peculiar perfection right from the very beginning.

Welmek: I would say that this is not so, my friend. He had a high degree of adjuster awareness at a much younger age than the average human on this planet at this time. This is true. But he is fully acquainted with the range and scope of human emotions. And in your stillness time you only need to spend a few moments in making an appeal to the human brother, Jesus, who shared life with you, who shares life with you. And ask Him, 'how did you relate to this circumstance? How do I understand this the way you did? What did you experience that was similar to what I am going through?' He is fully accessible to you, my friend, in your personal experiential being. Use Him more, He is the master teacher. He will show you. He will reveal himself. There is nothing about Himself that He will not share with you, if you come to Him in sincerity and openness.

Reading about the Master's life will give you some ideas about who He is, but not until you go to Him as a brother, or as a son, and ask Him about the intimate aspects of human life, will you come to a greater understanding within your own sense of self of how to master those, you call it, imperfections or inconsistencies that you now experience. This is very fundamental to your continued growth now. And I encourage you to seriously consider as a spiritual practice now, so that you can begin to take the mere intellectual understanding of who He is and how He might have lived His life, based on your understanding, into the realm of a deeper appreciation for how He can help you in your own understanding and mastery of your human life. Do you understand the distinction I am making here?

Student: Oh yes, this is when you say experiential as you are talking, I understand that as a fullness of a contact with Jesus that is direct and living and now, as compared to anything you read, which is always of the past, even only yesterday. You're talking about some real contact now with Michael.

Welmek: I am, and you have every right and every accessibility to this. Let Him inspire and guide you, and you will find within yourself a new sense of liberation from those inconsistencies that seemed to wear upon your soul. Does this clarify?

Student: It points the way, and that's all I need. Thank you.

Welmek: You are most welcome, my friend.

Student: I now feel like I can greet you properly, and tell you how much I love you and am so grateful and honored to be here with you this evening and with the group. I believe that my answer will sound familiar to you. I think the things that keep me from a deeper faith are trust in my self and patience.

Welmek: My dear sister, how I have watched you in the past several years, and marvel at how you grow and yet how you still beat yourself up about your sense of worth and value to the Father. The role of unworthiness runs deep in the human mind. It is as if you have been drinking from a poisoned well all of your life. But you did not know that the well was poisoned until you tasted a different water-the water of the Father's love-and it tasted good. It tasted clear and pure and clean. You felt it within you. But that well of the Father's love was not fully accessible, and so sometimes when you were thirsty for spiritual nourishment you tried to drink from the Father's well. But the water seemed to be empty, so you drank of the well of where you were receiving your nourishment. And even though you did not like the taste of it, and you knew it was not the right well, it was familiar and you received.

I would say to you, my sister, that it is time to no longer drink from this well-turn your back on it, and only find your refreshment within the Father. And by that I mean, no longer to be so concerned about your lack of trust in yourself, but be so trusting in the Father, so extremely imbued with the sense of love that the Father has for you, that there is nothing but goodness and beauty and joy and love that the Father wishes to give to you; and to spend your stillness time drinking deeply from his well. And then know that when you have done this, you taste more and more of this. And so I say to you, focus on this more. You will feel the poisons still within you for some time to come. But if you focus on drinking from the Father's well of love, and continuing to see yourself from His standpoint, in time you will gain those experiences where you can more fully trust in His love for you, and not be concerned about trusting yourself. Become more enthralled with the idea of trusting and seeing yourself from His eyes.

You have struggled with this, and I have seen progress. And I would say good progress has been made in this area. But I do not believe that there has been that environment fully cultivated in your mind to become so involved with the Father and the Father's plans and ideas for you, that you can take that on as your own-that there are still your own ideas within you dominating you. I would like you to think about an idea you may wish to consider now: whose perspective of me do I wish to fully immerse and attach myself to?

Think about this. Reflect upon this in your stillness. The self-doubt that you feel is because you have still some attachment to the old idea, and you are still affected by this poisonous self-image. Come to the Father. Let yourself be overtaken in spirit by the Father's love for you. And in your own mind exchange your ideas for that that the Father has for you. Do you understand?

Student: Oh yes. That was a wonderful, wonderful correction. I so appreciate your perspective and guiding words, always. I actually could see an image in my mind of a loving parent with so much faith and trust in me, that it made me so sure that I was doing what that parent would ask of me. So I see that the guidance that that is in mind of what you were saying I will take this to stillness. Thank you, Welmek.

Welmek: I am so glad that you received an image of this, because this is exactly what I was referring to in my answer. So the more you identify with this, my dear, the greater will your extrication from your sense of self-doubt be.

Always in your growth see what you are attaching yourself to, not what you are divesting yourself of. There is an incredible energy in this, for if you are always trying to let go of something, then that which you are trying to bring into your life cannot come in, for your conscious mind is focused on the lesser, and not the greater. Do you understand the distinction here?

Student: I am so glad that you added this part on, because that is always a wonderful correction for me and much needed. Yes, thank you for these corrections. I feel the depth of this. Thank you.

Welmek: You are most welcome. It has been my pleasure to again offer you this instruction.

Student: Oh my, beloved friend, I am so grateful for you! Thank you.

Note

(Side two was not recorded for some reason, sorry!)