The Art and Science of Revision
Have you ever thought, as I have, that it would be grand if we could rewind the tape recording of our life to erase some things that we have done to others or experiences that have happened to us?
I suppose that many of us have entertained these thoughts but dismissed them as idle foolishness, after all no one can do that-can they? If we could erase the hurtful or shameful parts of our past, should we? Don't we learn by our past mistakes and isn't guilt a valuable and necessary thing?
My answer might surprise you if you are new to this blog. If you are a regular, then you already know that I believe that shame, guilt and their cousins, self hatred and fear, are the true definitions of the "enemy" (some call it the Devil but as you know I don't believe that God plays deadly games with his children). As Jesus The Christ put it aptly so long ago,
"You fathers, hear me, would you put a snake into the bed of your children or feed them a stone when they hunger? What man would do that to his own flesh? Neither would your Heavenly Father. So it is your Good Father's pleasure to bring you the abundant life, The Kingdom of Heaven right here and right now."
There is one presence and one power in this Universe and that is God, the one indwelling, omnipresent and omniscient God; one and the same. There is no duality in this Universe, there is Unity and Oneness. However, mankind cannot conceive of a Being so loving, so pure and so without thought of anger, revenge or punishment, that we had to create an Evil One. God is not and never has been in the punishment business; no need for God to punish us, we do such a good job ourselves!
If we have the God given power to create our lives using The Word, do we not have the power to turn the creative wheel backwards and create a new past? May we not re-write or edit our past, as long as we do not hurt, deceive or defraud? We cannot erase events that have happened but we can erase their impact and their effects on us. Some people might reply: Rev. Dore', that sounds like denial to me and don't we have to face up to reality, to live in the "real" world? The question I would ask is: Whose reality is the "real" world? We all live in a world of our own making. If we make our world (our personal reality), can we not remake it?
In Science of Mind, we do not advocate denying what is happening in our lives right here and right now. You have to deal with what is in front of you but how you do it makes all the difference. If the IRS sends you a tax bill you may wish to remember Jesus telling us to "render unto Caesar"and be sure that you render unto the IRS. Denying the existence of the tax bill will lead to a very bad chapter in your life. However, you can go into this IRS experience knowing that it will be painless and easily resolved to the satisfaction of both parties. Expect this and that will be your reality. Or, you can go in to the IRS examiner with a chip on your shoulder and an attitude and your reality will be that he or she will throw the "book" at you. You will then almost certainly feel like a victim of the "heartless tax man".
Who created that reality? You did, with your choice of behavior, attitude and expectations of being treated unfairly. You get what you expect in life and not one bit more or less. Expect the good and experience the good. The reverse is also true. Remember what I have said over and over: God does not say yes or no; God says right you are. What you expect, what you focus on, what you speak of and what you choose are your requests to the Father. It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom; Father always gives what you really desire and expect.
So many of those I counsel are haunted by the ghosts of childhood abuse, either real or imagined, family breakups, hurtful words spoken by parents. They are haunted by guilt for something they have done and can never seem to feel clean, new and lovable again. They live in a permanent state of unworthiness. No one should live this way!
God never intended his children to wander in a wasteland of shame, regret and self loathing. God sent his messenger, Jesus, to teach us to accept the abundant life, the life lived in the full knowledge that we are of royal blood; that we are the sons and daughters of the Most High God. Jesus came to show us that we may triumph over anything, even death itself - that we are literally invincible, if we believe.
How then, do we rid ourselves of the ghosts of past guilt and shame? By Revision. Revision is a technique whereby we write a new story of a past event in our lives, replacing the one that causes us so much pain. Oh, we know it happened, we are not delusional. What we change is how we feel about what happened. We acknowledge the event, re-write the script the way it should have happened and then move on; learning the lesson that needed to be learned. We never look at the old script again.
You cannot pilot a boat by staring at the wake! There is nothing redemptive in constantly beating yourself up for something in the dead past that cannot be changed. You cannot deny the present but you certainly may re-write the past. Caution here! I do not mean to give a license to falsify your resume or lie. The re-writing is done in your mind and heart and is never to be done to defraud, deceive or to hurt others.
Here is the major point in this message: God is all about forgiveness but God cannot give what you will not accept. Until you forgive yourself; you cannot receive God's forgiveness. You must love and approve of yourself for God to send his Grace and Favor. You are a creation of God, you are created to be just who you are - you are not a cosmic mistake! Who are you to loathe a creation of God? Who are you to feel unworthy and shameful? You are what God intended you to be. You are made of the very substance of God the Father.
You can never enter that state of peace, joy and abundance that we all long for; the place that Jesus called The Kingdom of Heaven, until you can be in love with you! To fail to love yourself is to fail to love God.
You are as much the Son or Daughter of God as was Jesus The Christ. God did not have one Son, he makes millions every day. Do not confuse procreation with Creation. God is the ONLY Creator in this Universe. Humans procreate somewhere in the world every second but humans only serve as vessels and vehicles for the Creator; by themselves they create nothing.
Your Good God is always ready to offer you the balm of His Grace, to heal your spirit and your body; if you will open your heart, mind and soul and let Him in. Infuse yourself with the Spirit and become once again One with God, as you were at the hour of your birth. Learn from your past; then forget it. It is dead and gone; the future is your creation and you haven't completed it yet. Put your focus on NOW - that is the point of power. It is where the future begins and the past ends.
Be kind to yourself, be easy on yourself. Decide what you want your life to be NOW and pursue it with focused tenacity. See it done long before it appears in form in your life. Hold on to your faith in God. Trust in your Divine Best Friend - your loving God. Trust in God's Law, that wonderful tool of life creation that works the same for kings, peasants, moguls and fools. It is your anchor and your staff - depend on it. May God bless and keep you and yours!
And So It Is!
I suppose that many of us have entertained these thoughts but dismissed them as idle foolishness, after all no one can do that-can they? If we could erase the hurtful or shameful parts of our past, should we? Don't we learn by our past mistakes and isn't guilt a valuable and necessary thing?
My answer might surprise you if you are new to this blog. If you are a regular, then you already know that I believe that shame, guilt and their cousins, self hatred and fear, are the true definitions of the "enemy" (some call it the Devil but as you know I don't believe that God plays deadly games with his children). As Jesus The Christ put it aptly so long ago,
"You fathers, hear me, would you put a snake into the bed of your children or feed them a stone when they hunger? What man would do that to his own flesh? Neither would your Heavenly Father. So it is your Good Father's pleasure to bring you the abundant life, The Kingdom of Heaven right here and right now."
There is one presence and one power in this Universe and that is God, the one indwelling, omnipresent and omniscient God; one and the same. There is no duality in this Universe, there is Unity and Oneness. However, mankind cannot conceive of a Being so loving, so pure and so without thought of anger, revenge or punishment, that we had to create an Evil One. God is not and never has been in the punishment business; no need for God to punish us, we do such a good job ourselves!
If we have the God given power to create our lives using The Word, do we not have the power to turn the creative wheel backwards and create a new past? May we not re-write or edit our past, as long as we do not hurt, deceive or defraud? We cannot erase events that have happened but we can erase their impact and their effects on us. Some people might reply: Rev. Dore', that sounds like denial to me and don't we have to face up to reality, to live in the "real" world? The question I would ask is: Whose reality is the "real" world? We all live in a world of our own making. If we make our world (our personal reality), can we not remake it?
In Science of Mind, we do not advocate denying what is happening in our lives right here and right now. You have to deal with what is in front of you but how you do it makes all the difference. If the IRS sends you a tax bill you may wish to remember Jesus telling us to "render unto Caesar"and be sure that you render unto the IRS. Denying the existence of the tax bill will lead to a very bad chapter in your life. However, you can go into this IRS experience knowing that it will be painless and easily resolved to the satisfaction of both parties. Expect this and that will be your reality. Or, you can go in to the IRS examiner with a chip on your shoulder and an attitude and your reality will be that he or she will throw the "book" at you. You will then almost certainly feel like a victim of the "heartless tax man".
Who created that reality? You did, with your choice of behavior, attitude and expectations of being treated unfairly. You get what you expect in life and not one bit more or less. Expect the good and experience the good. The reverse is also true. Remember what I have said over and over: God does not say yes or no; God says right you are. What you expect, what you focus on, what you speak of and what you choose are your requests to the Father. It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom; Father always gives what you really desire and expect.
So many of those I counsel are haunted by the ghosts of childhood abuse, either real or imagined, family breakups, hurtful words spoken by parents. They are haunted by guilt for something they have done and can never seem to feel clean, new and lovable again. They live in a permanent state of unworthiness. No one should live this way!
God never intended his children to wander in a wasteland of shame, regret and self loathing. God sent his messenger, Jesus, to teach us to accept the abundant life, the life lived in the full knowledge that we are of royal blood; that we are the sons and daughters of the Most High God. Jesus came to show us that we may triumph over anything, even death itself - that we are literally invincible, if we believe.
How then, do we rid ourselves of the ghosts of past guilt and shame? By Revision. Revision is a technique whereby we write a new story of a past event in our lives, replacing the one that causes us so much pain. Oh, we know it happened, we are not delusional. What we change is how we feel about what happened. We acknowledge the event, re-write the script the way it should have happened and then move on; learning the lesson that needed to be learned. We never look at the old script again.
You cannot pilot a boat by staring at the wake! There is nothing redemptive in constantly beating yourself up for something in the dead past that cannot be changed. You cannot deny the present but you certainly may re-write the past. Caution here! I do not mean to give a license to falsify your resume or lie. The re-writing is done in your mind and heart and is never to be done to defraud, deceive or to hurt others.
Here is the major point in this message: God is all about forgiveness but God cannot give what you will not accept. Until you forgive yourself; you cannot receive God's forgiveness. You must love and approve of yourself for God to send his Grace and Favor. You are a creation of God, you are created to be just who you are - you are not a cosmic mistake! Who are you to loathe a creation of God? Who are you to feel unworthy and shameful? You are what God intended you to be. You are made of the very substance of God the Father.
You can never enter that state of peace, joy and abundance that we all long for; the place that Jesus called The Kingdom of Heaven, until you can be in love with you! To fail to love yourself is to fail to love God.
You are as much the Son or Daughter of God as was Jesus The Christ. God did not have one Son, he makes millions every day. Do not confuse procreation with Creation. God is the ONLY Creator in this Universe. Humans procreate somewhere in the world every second but humans only serve as vessels and vehicles for the Creator; by themselves they create nothing.
Your Good God is always ready to offer you the balm of His Grace, to heal your spirit and your body; if you will open your heart, mind and soul and let Him in. Infuse yourself with the Spirit and become once again One with God, as you were at the hour of your birth. Learn from your past; then forget it. It is dead and gone; the future is your creation and you haven't completed it yet. Put your focus on NOW - that is the point of power. It is where the future begins and the past ends.
Be kind to yourself, be easy on yourself. Decide what you want your life to be NOW and pursue it with focused tenacity. See it done long before it appears in form in your life. Hold on to your faith in God. Trust in your Divine Best Friend - your loving God. Trust in God's Law, that wonderful tool of life creation that works the same for kings, peasants, moguls and fools. It is your anchor and your staff - depend on it. May God bless and keep you and yours!
And So It Is!
posted by Rev. Dore' Jacques Patlian at
5:08 PM
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