What Is This Knowledge Like?

What is this Knowledge like?

The New Message uses the word Knowledge in an unconventional sense. It is something much more powerful than information. It is fearless and determined for me to fulfill my purpose, my mission for coming to the world. I can ignore it, I can hide from it, I can bury myself in hobbies, but I can’t extinguish it. But what if I seek it? What if I take the Steps to Knowledge? What if I prepare by practicing awareness, discernment, attentiveness and discretion?

What is this Knowledge like?

There is a certain experience that I feel if I’m not supposed to do something, even if it seems like a good thing at the time. Steps to Knowledge describes it this way:

“Only concern that your Knowledge is being violated will emanate from Knowledge, and then only to indicate that you need to reassess your actions and ideas. Knowledge has a
self-correcting principle. That is why it is your Inner Guidance. If you are going against your Knowledge, you will be ill at ease with yourself, and this will give rise to anxiety. Much of the fear that you experience moment to moment is simply a matter of your own creation, your own negative imagination. But, then, there is fear that is born of the violation of Knowledge. This is more a discomfort than a fear, for it rarely carries with it any kind of imagery at all, though ideas can come into your mind as a form of warning should you be attempting a behavior or a line of thinking that is dangerous or destructive.” (Volume 3, Steps to Knowledge, Step 128, “My Teachers are with me. I need not fear.”)

So sometimes I feel restraint. And if I follow that restraint, the inner ickyness goes away. But other times I feel a prompt. A feeling that something must be done. Not only that, but that something must be done by me. Furthermore, a feeling that something must be done by me by a certain time. It may not be on my personal radar at all. The New Message calls this “the fire of Knowledge.” And in the same way, if I respond to the burning of the fire of Knowledge within me, there is a certain satisfaction, a feeling that when the time comes again, I will respond.

“You cannot be comfortable with comfort alone. You cannot be self-assured with all the trappings of security. You cannot be satisfied with little things because the Fire is there. It is mysterious. You cannot conceptualize it. You cannot use it for your own intentions. You cannot use it to gain wealth or privilege or to win over others. The Fire has its own purpose. It has greater plans for your life.” (Volume 1, The Power of Knowledge, The Spiritual Fire, Verse 6)

But how does one distinguish these prompts and restraints from all the other thoughts? Sometime I doubt. Sometimes I am uncertain. Fortunately, there are certain “signatures.” I experience Knowledge as being relatively terse. “Do this.” “Don’t do that.” “Go here.” “Don’t go there.” “Acquire this.” “Get rid of that.” I consider Knowledge to not talk about the why and the how of something. My mind was made to serve Knowledge, to figure out how to fulfill the prompts of Knowledge. Knowledge lasts much longer than an emotion. One way to distinguish is to internally say “I am absolutely going to do thus-and-such, no matter what” and see what sort of feeling that inner resolve produces. There is usually an inner happiness or an inner discomfort.

Does a restraint or a prompt come every day? It does not. What do I do in the meantime. Practice and prepare. Strengthen my position. Build and balance the Four Pillars of health, relationships, work / providership and spiritual development. I practice to grow strong and competent.

I pray that the power of Knowledge may move through me, and through others, and not be discounted in the face of danger, doubt, uncertainty, difficulty or despair.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

What Does It Mean If I Struggle?

What does it mean if I struggle?

I wish to continue interacting with the Religious Conditioning Self-Test. People of all religions struggle from time to time. They struggle with illness. Struggles with mental health occur from time to time. They experience financial difficulties. But some people compound the struggle by declaring, either openly or privately, that the struggle implies a lack of faith on their part. Therefore, the Religious Conditioning Self-Test asks these questions.

  • If I struggle with illness, does it mean I lack faith?
  • If I struggle with mental health issues, does it mean I lack faith?
  • If I struggle financially, does it mean I lack faith?

What does it mean if I struggle?

The New Message from God encourages its followers to build and balance strength in four particular areas of life. These are known as the Four Pillars, and they are 1) relationships, 2) career and providership, 3) health and 4) spiritual development. The New Message gives further detail as how to strengthen each of these areas.

If I struggle in my health, I believe it says nothing about my faith or the lack thereof. A health difficulty could be due to an error of omission or an error of commission on my part. Perhaps I am neglecting some aspect of self-care, such as hygiene or exercise. I might be eating too much or drinking too much. Maybe I’m eating or drinking things that aren’t good for me. This approach brings the problem much closer to my behavior, instead of anything about my relationship with God.

If I struggle in my finances, I might be living beyond my means. I might be spending money on things I can get along just fine without. I have to weigh my relationships, my activities and my possessions in the balance of my experience. Perhaps some things should be deleted if I am over budget. Maybe I really do need more money to do what I feel I must do. It works both ways. But again, I’m not waiting for God to do anything. I can do something about it.

What does it mean if I struggle? It could mean one or more of my Four Pillars are weak. It could mean I am obsessed with one particular Pillar to the expense of the others. There are countless examples of people who have failed to fully give their gifts, because of imbalance in their Four Pillars. I claim to be working on strength and balance in these areas.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

I Am Starting A Huge Foolish Project

I am starting a huge foolish project

I am not a great fan of New Year’s Resolutions (NYRs). They don’t work for a lot of people. As if the mere act of resolving was enough to make a change. I wrote a blog post on why this is so at the end of 2014. And yet, they work for some people. Taking action in the present seems to help. Inner envisioning of doing the thing one resolved improves the chances of success. Practices and habits consistent with one’s resolution don’t hurt.

I am starting a huge foolish project

Opening sentence of the revelation “Building the Four Pillars of Your Life”

I have NYRs for 2020. I would share them with you, but I don’t believe you would find them particularly interesting. They are mostly things to strengthen my position in the areas of relationships, health, work and spiritual development. Building and balancing the Four Pillars of my life.

But I am starting a huge, foolish project. It is more huge and more foolish than the project of making and fulfilling NYRs. In addition to making NYRs, I am also making New Decade’s Resolutions (NDRs).

I build the foundation to live a greater life

I am starting a huge foolish project. I have written from time to time about the New Message from God revelation, “Building the Four Pillars of Your Life.” I would like to think I have taken a step forward in taking this teaching to heart. There are 17 instances of a sentence beginning with the words, “You must.” The first one is “You must build the foundation to live a greater life.” I got the idea of responding to that by saying to myself “I will build the foundation to live a greater life.” I would later change it to present tense by saying “I build the foundation to live a greater life.”

I build the foundation to fulfill a greater destiny

Declarations inspired by “Building the Four Pillars of Your Life”

I am starting a huge foolish project. I share this because my NDRs are milestones along the path of these 17 declarations.

I build the foundation to live a greater life.
I develop the strength to live a greater life.
I have the humility to do this work.
I break free of other relationships and influences that keep me from attending to these greater matters.
I attend to really building the foundation.
I take the Steps to Knowledge within myself.
I have a great enough Work Pillar to provide for others.
I focus on healing my past relationships, and building true alliances with other people.
I invest myself in true alliances, to build this kind of deeper trust and connection.
I recognize my psychological weaknesses, my unforgiveness of others, and my unresolved conflicts from the past.
I explore how these things can be resolved.
I assess my strengths and weaknesses regarding my physical health.
I exercise every day and find the time to do this.
I have the humility to recognize my own vulnerabilities to life.
I bring forth the strength from the well of Knowledge within myself to meet life’s great challenges and sudden events.
I have the foundation to discover my real higher purpose in life
I have the foundation to fulfill a greater destiny.

I feel like you want to know my New Decade Resolutions

I am starting a huge, foolish project. I feel a little trepidation at sharing my NDRs with you. Who knows, maybe the whole idea is non-well-formed. I’m recalling the Bible verse “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” (Proverbs 27:1, New International Version) I’m well aware that nothing is guaranteed. And yet, it does seem to be well-formed to declare hopes and plans. Therefore, here are some of my New Decade’s Resolutions.

I hope and plan to have all the members of my health care team declare that I have done or am doing all the things they ask of me. I hope and plan to get through the next ten winters without a fall. (I had three in the past decade, resulting in a concussion and a hospital trip.) I hope and plan to shorten and simplify my supply chain. I hope and plan to sell a lot of these t-shirts and related items. I hope and plan to read and/or listen to the New Message from God in its entirety. (That could take a while). I hope and plan to make and share images for each of the revelations of the New Message from God. (I’m already working on that.)

Maybe I shouldn’t care what you think of me

I am starting a huge foolish project
“The Animals Entering Noah’s Ark” by Jacopo Bassano

In his poem “Those Spiritual Windowshoppers,” Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks) writes:

Even if you don’t know what you want,
buy something, to be part of the exchanging flow.

Start a huge, foolish project,
like Noah.
It makes absolutely no difference
what people think of you.

I’m happy to be part of the exchanging flow. I’m happy I am starting a huge foolish project. Will I succeed? I’ll get back to you in ten years.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

I Must Climb This Great Mountain

I must climb this great mountain
Puncak Jaya, Papua, Indonesia

Over the past two years, I have read the revelation “Building the Four Pillars of Your Life” on a semi-regular basis. It was received by Marshall Vian Summers in September of 2008. I wrote a post about this teaching slightly over five years ago, called “An Antidote For Inconsistency.” Repeated readings have yielded encouragement to me. Each time I find a little more of the treasure within.

I must climb this great mountain

In this revelation, living a life of greater purpose is likened to climbing a great mountain. There are many people who relish such an idea. Alas, many of these people fail to consider the preparation necessary for such a life. The necessary preparation is building strength and balance in the areas of relationships, health, career/providership, and spiritual development. You can imagine that this is a great deal of work. Many people want a short cut. There isn’t one.

“It [living a life of greater purpose] is like climbing a great mountain. You start off and you realize it is really steep, and you do not have the right kind of shoes for it, and the things that you are bringing along are not really the things you really need, and you find you do not have the strength to get very far. You do not have the provisions. Your expectations were perhaps too romantic. You thought this was going to be easy.”

I cannot settle for the little mountain

So many people fail for lack of preparation. How do they respond? Many settle for less than their greater purpose in life. Rainer Maria Rilke wrote about this in his poem “The Man Watching:”

What we choose to fight is so tiny! 
What fights with us is so great.  
If only we would let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,  
we would become strong too, and not need names.

When we win it’s with small things, 
and the triumph itself makes us small.  

The knowing that you avoided the engagement of which you dreamed, is a great disappointment. “Building the Four Pillars of Your Life” teaches,

“Or it proves to be hard, and you really do not have the strength to undertake it. So you settle for something much less in life. You tell yourself, “Oh, well. This relationship will be good enough for me,” or “This job will be good enough for me.” And you compromise yourself, and you give your life to things that really have no promise. You give your life to people who are really not going anywhere. And though you might feel more secure or relieved of the challenge, in your heart there is a great depression, a great misgiving.”

Climbing the great mountain is not a dream

People see how much effort is required. People see how many people fail for lack of preparation. People see how many people settle for less. People see how many of those who settle for less have a great depression, a great misgiving. Therefore, many people think that living a life of greater purpose is a dream, an illusion, a fantasy. “Building the Four Pillars of Your Life” heads that off at the pass as well:

“That is why to give you the promise that you have a greater purpose and a greater meaning in life, the essential elements for building the foundation for this must be provided for you. And the education must be provided for you. Otherwise, the idea of living a life of a greater purpose, greater meaning, is only a dream—beyond your reach, beyond your capabilities.

But it is not a dream. It is the fundamental reality of your life. But it requires a very strong foundation, and this foundation must be sustained through time. This will give you strength and confidence. This will free you from dangerous obsessions. This will prevent you from falling into despair or being pulled away by the obsessions and the addictions of others.”

Therefore, I must prepare

Hikers preparing. I must climb this great mountain

If I attempt to climb the great mountain unprepared, I will fail. If I settle for climbing a little mountain, I might succeed, but the triumph will make me smaller. If I call climbing the great mountain a dream, I will be ignoring the reality of my life. Therefore, I must prepare. I’m reconciled with this taking a great deal of work. I must climb this great mountain.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

How Shall I Pray For A Student Of Knowledge?

How shall I pray for a student of Knowledge?

As I studied Steps to Knowledge, the book of spiritual practice of the New Message from God, it first seemed like a relatively solitary practice. There were some people I would correspond with, but the steps were mostly speaking to my life story.

How shall I pray for a student of Knowledge?

As I progressed, the importance of my interactions with other students became clearer. Steps spoke of how every accomplishment is a group effort. The mission I came to the world to accomplish requires the development of others. A hope began to emerge for the success of my fellow students.

How shall I pray for a student of Knowledge? Step 121, “Today I am free to give,” and Step 122, “I give without loss today,” encouraged me to give strength of character and strength of faculty of mind. Something like this emerged:

“I give my fellow students contentment with following the Steps as given. I give them building and balancing the four pillars of their lives [relationships, work, health and spirituality]. I give them trust in their deepest inclinations.

I didn’t notice this the first time I studied Steps to Knowledge, but in the second time through, I noticed this paragraph of Step 342, “I am a student of Knowledge today,” as a prayer for students of Knowledge. It seems to work to pray it for one’s self, or to pray it for someone else.

Today you are a student of Knowledge. You are following your preparation step by step. You are learning to be unburdened of your own judgment and anxiety. You are learning to be confirmed by the presence of Knowledge within you and by the presence of love within your life. You are learning to honor yourself and learning to appreciate your world. You are learning to recognize your responsibility and learning to recognize the world’s need for this responsibility to be carried forth. You are learning to be still within and meaningfully engaged without. You are learning to receive. You are learning to give. You are learning to recognize that your life is being redeemed.

How shall I pray for a student of Knowledge? This is my prayer for you.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

I Have A Small But Necessary Part

horseshoe-nail I have a small but necessary partI freely admit that when I first started studying Steps to Knowledge, it did not occur to me what would be asked of me. It told me I have a mission in my life to fulfill. It told me I have come to work in the world. It told me that the world is emerging into the Greater Community of Worlds and that is why I have come. It told me that the world is facing the greatest threshold it has ever faced. It told me I have a small but necessary part in this transition.

I have a small but necessary part

I am sharing this with you because I wish to share something else I wrote to Marshall Vian Summers as part of my participation in the 2016 Messenger’s Vigil of the New Message from God. I wrote:

“The New Message teaching that rings and sings inside me these days is the part in ‘The Global Emergency’ which says ‘It is a race that must be run.’ On my weaker days, I despair that I will make my contribution. I despair that humanity will avoid the great and precipitous decline it faces. And yet, I must do my small but necessary part. I must take the next step in Steps to Knowledge. I must do something to build up the weak pillar. I must follow the next inclination, the next prompt or restraint of Knowledge. I must poke the next hole and plant the next seed.”

I have a small but necessary part. “The Global Emergency” is a revelation which was received in October of 2015. I have written a number of posts on the revelation “The Race to Save Human Civilization,” which was received in 2009. The Global Emergency elaborates on that teaching in this paragraph:

“It is a race to save human civilization. It is a race that must be run. It is the calling for human cooperation and unity to face a reality never seen here on the Earth before in the time of human civilization.”

I have a small but necessary part. I have come to the world to meet certain people. Am I ready for them? Are they ready for me? I don’t know. Abraham Lincoln said “I will prepare and someday my chance will come.” I seek to follow in his footsteps. I have come to the world to give certain gifts. Will I succeed in giving them? I don’t know. I have a lot of work in front of me to be the strong contributor the world needs. There must be many strong contributors in the world now, or humanity faces a great and precipitous decline. “Pillars” is a reference to the four pillars that support a person’s life, (health, relationships, work/providership, spiritual development). Steps to Knowledge teaches on more than one occasion about trusting one’s deepest inclinations. Planting the next seed is sharing the New Message from God.

I have a small but necessary part. In the greater scheme of things, I consider myself to be about as important as a horseshoe nail. And yet,

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

We’d Like A Second Helping If You Please

Traditional-Family-Meal_large We'd like a second helping if you pleaseIn the month before the 2014 Encampment of the New Message from God, I spent a good bit of time going through my journals, pondering the efforts I made between the 2012 Encampment and the present, and pondering the results of those efforts. Specifically, I had a certain concern as to whether my efforts were adequate.

We’d like a second helping if you please

I feel that there some readers wondering, “What do you mean, Douglas?” For one thing, Steps to Knowledge could be completed in one year. It took me about four years. I was not the most diligent student. For another thing, I don’t claim to be very accomplished in building and balancing what the New Message calls the four pillars (health, relationships, work/providership and spiritual development). For yet another thing, I wonder whether my blogging and advocacy efforts are reaching enough people, or the right people.

I’ve already figured out that Marshall Vian Summers is indifferent to an “I’m sorry” speech from me. I believe he’s more interested in a “This is what happened in the arena” speech. Members of the Society, and other attendees, also expressed kind words of encouragement of my efforts. It is as if my world is requesting more of the efforts I’ve been making over the past two years. It is as if my world is requesting that I deepen my study of Steps to Knowledge. It is as if my world is requesting that I strengthen and balance the four pillars. It is as if my world is requesting that I respond more readily to the prompts and restraints of Knowledge. It is as if my world is requesting that I share more of the New Message with more of the world.

The 20th-century Indian spiritual teacher Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) is reported to have said, “Every sincere effort is registered in the Divine consciousness.” I take comfort in those words. I also take comfort in my world saying to me, “We’d like a second helping if you please.”

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

We Have Some Suggestions For You

Recomended stamp. We have some suggestions for you.I will readily admit that the New Message from God community has a number of big goals for the future. But we also recognize that not everyone will be interested in what we have to share. We recognize that we may encounter, uh, less than enthusiastic responses from time to time. And in the event you don’t respond with interest and resonance, we have some suggestions we would like you to consider. These suggestions for all people were given to the attendees at the 2014 Encampment. I have some comments about these suggestions.

We have some suggestions for you

1. Quiet time each day to consider the wisdom of your thoughts and actions. [Step 9 of Steps to Knowledge teaches “In stillness all things can be known.”]

2. Make no opinions about anything unless you have spent considerable time studying the problem and its many conceived solutions. Ask yourself if you are really certain about something or are only guessing. [Would you bet your life on it?]

3. Do not waste your precious time and energy complaining about something if you are not prepared to take action regarding it. [Time spent complaining might be better spent studying the problem.]

4. Forgive those who seem to err against you or the world. Ask yourself what genuine need they are attempting to express and fulfill by their behavior. [Their errors give birth to their Knowledge.]

5. Make sure that everything you own really serves you. Travel light and create time for more important things. [I consider this to be a short version of the New Message practice/attitude called the Deep Evaluation.]

6. Consider that you have Four Pillars that are upholding your life:

  • The Pillar of Relationships
  • The Pillar of Health
  • The Pillar of Work & Providership
  • The Pillar of Spiritual Development

To be happy and successful, you will need to build each of these Pillars and not sacrifice one for the others. [You may wish to consider the New Message revelation “Building the Four Pillars of Your Life.”]

7. Reduce your energy use by 25-50% to save your community and the world from depletion and ruin. [Resource depletion is one of the big ongoing disruptions known as the Great Waves of Change.]

8. Honor your parents and try to understand the circumstances that determined their decisions and behavior. [I think of this as a special instance of suggestion 4.]

9. Know that there is a New Message from God in the world, and that it is here to uplift a struggling humanity, beginning with the individual. [As in you. As in me.]

We have some suggestions for you. I hope this helps.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

An Antidote For Obsession – 2014 Encampment Day 2

Step165-shoe-tying_wide. An antidote for obsessionI believe you have met people demonstrating a certain obsession with their religion or ideology. My grandparents would describe such a person as being “so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.” They never told me that to my face, but I think they may have thought it once or twice.

An antidote for obsession

I share this with you to share that I take great comfort in the teachings of The New Message from God which emphasize well-being. I have already written about the teaching “Building the Four Pillars of Your Life.”

Four-Pillars-Bunkhouse-Table An antidote for obsession

This teaching offers an antidote for obsession. On the second day of the 2014 Encampment, a gentleman expressed appreciation for this image. He also expressed a desire to meet the person whose four pillars of health, relationships, work/providership, and spirituality were as strong and balanced as this image suggests. I want to be that person, but it may take a bit of work.

Step 165 “My duties are small. My mission is great.” of Steps to Knowledge considers the activities for maintaining one’s well-being as part of the price of admission for engaging with one’s greater mission. Step 165 offers an antidote for obsession.

“Your duties in the world are small. They are meant to secure provisions which you need physically and to maintain those alliances with others that are beneficial for your well-being and for their well-being as well. These duties are important, but your mission is greater. Do not undermine your ability to receive your mission by being in failure concerning your duties. This is only a form of self-avoidance. Carry out your duties specifically this day regarding your employment and your engagement with others. Do not confuse this with your mission, which is something far greater that you are only now beginning to receive and to experience. Thus, your duties will provide a foundation for you as you undertake the preparation for the reclamation and the contribution of Knowledge.”

I share this with you because on the night of the second day of the 2014 Encampment, I had a dream. In this dream, I was driving north from downtown Dallas on Stemmons Freeway (I-35E). I have driven on this stretch of highway many times in the years I lived in the Dallas area. I was pulled over by a policeman in my dream for driving too fast, and driving unsafely. That was the end of my dream. As I pondered over the significance, I got the idea that I needed to work on my preparation. I needed to take the next step in Steps to Knowledge. I needed to work on building up the weakest of my Four Pillars. I needed to follow the next prompt or restraint of Knowledge. I needed to write the next blog post. I needed to take an antidote for obsession.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

An Antidote For Inconsistency

Building the four pillars of your life is an antidote for inconsistencyFor various reasons, I have demonstrated a great deal of inconsistency over the course of my life. Therefore, I was pleased to discover that the New Message from God has some specific, practical counsel for me, an antidote for inconsistency, as it were. It is in the form of the revelation “Building the Four Pillars of Your Life,” which can be reached from the page “Experience the New Message from God.” This revelation was received in September of 2008. A fellow student shared it with me in the summer of 2010. I mentioned this teaching about a year and a half ago in sharing my experience of the 2012 Encampment. I am now feeling an inclination to share this with you in greater detail.

An antidote for inconsistency

Your life has four pillars; health, relationships, work/providership, and spiritual development. You need to build all of them. They need to be balanced with each other.

Most people are preoccupied with one of these pillars. Chances are good you know someone who is falling short of their opportunities in life. Chances are good they are falling short because of neglect of one or more of these pillars. Chances are good you know someone who is experiencing difficulty in life, because of imbalance between these four pillars. Their life is a wobbly, unbalanced table, unready for unexpected change or opportunity.

The weakest pillar has an eroding influence upon the stronger pillars. Thus, a person is as strong as their weakest pillar.

Some people are very interested in the possibility that they have a mission in life to fulfill. Some of these people are unwilling, for whatever reason, to do the necessary preparation to engage with that mission. A lot of the preparation activities are relatively mundane, like exercising, like showing up on time at work, like offering gratitude to someone who is nice to you.

Spiritual teachers who offer you abundance or enlightenment or fulfillment or spiritual powers, without telling you the necessity of building a foundation, are selling knowledge without difficulties, truth without falsehood, attainment without effort, and progress without sacrifice. Chances are good you know such teachers. Chances are good these teachers themselves experience neglect or imbalance in the aforementioned pillars.

This teaching could be considered as an antidote for inconsistency, an antidote for unbalanced, inharmonious action and engagement.

Some people look at this task of building the four pillars in such a way that they are strong, tall and balanced, and think “Whoa! That sounds like a lot of work!” It is indeed, but it is also the price of admission for a successful life of greater purpose. What is the metric of success?

“What is success? Success is the ability to experience and express the greater purpose that has brought you into the world, a greater purpose that will require strong relationships, a greater purpose that will require that you are stable and that you can adapt to changing circumstances in the world, a greater purpose that will require that you have a deep connection to the greater Knowledge that God has placed within you, to guide you and to protect you and to lead you to your greater life.”

It is my aspiration to build the four pillars of my life, strong, tall and balanced. I am pleased to take my medicine. I am pleased that there is an antidote for inconsistency.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.