A universal assembly for true discernment
Topic: “The Goal of Meditation”
Description: Rev. Regina Dawn Akers looked at the goal of meditation, specific mediation recommendations and the question, “Is meditation necessary?”
Topic: “Surrender”
Description: Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert discussed what it means to surrender, why we should surrender and how to practice surrender.
Reading: Rev. Rebecca Gibson read selected quotes from Michael Singer, Eckhart Tolle and Ramana Maharshi.
Topic: “Forgiveness is Love”
Rev. Rubye Nasser discusses her personal forgiveness practice she developed from the teachings in NTI Matthew 18. Her six-step process guides us from a place of maintaining self-identity and control to a heart full of only love – – all through self-forgiveness.
Topic: “No permission slip required”
Rev. Gloria Wells discussed that when we stay focused upon our spiritual aspiration, follow through with commitment and presence, competing interests and distractions in life cannot gain a foothold. We then never need a “Permission Slip” from the ego-mind and all its false beliefs to be Love and Truth
Topic: “Teach Us To Pray”
Description: Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert shared her plans to investigate how Holy Spirit’s direction regarding prayer reveals key components of spiritual unfoldment.
Reading: Rev. Jay McCormick read selected excerpts from The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of The New Testament. (see below for a copy of the excerpts)
1 Your prayers of the Heart encourage you.
2 They pull you into the state of awakening.
3 They are a power that echoes the desire of the Heart, so desire may reverberate and bring itself back to you. 4Spend time in prayer, and you practice the practice of awakening. 5Spend time in prayer, and you jostle yourself unto your own state of awakening. (Heb 5 v 7-10, 1-5)
(v 5 – 8)1Your time with your Father is precious and holy, so seek for this time in quiet.
2 Search your heart for what you would say to Him or for what you would ask.
3 Be not afraid of what you find there.
4 Your Father knows your Heart, my Son, and He leads you according to your Heart.
5 But you may not know your own Heart, so it is useful to seek there in quiet as you pray.
6 For if you do not know the prayers of your Heart, you may not recognize that they are answered.
7 But when you seek out your prayers in quiet and ask of the Father based on what you find, you will see that your prayers are answered quickly.
8 For the Father does not delay in answering the prayers of his Son’s Heart. 9 The Father knows that it is the Heart that leads His Son to Him.
(v 9 – 13) 1 Pray like this according to what you find in your Heart:
2 “Father, let me know You.
3 Let your kingdom dawn upon my mind, that I may be led by Your Will and become as one with it.
4 Let me hear Your Word within my mind.
5 Let my lessons be given me, that I may be closer to You through the actions of my day.
6 Let me forgive myself, as I know You have.
7 Let me see my brothers as innocent, as they truly are.
8 Let us watch our minds for evil thoughts that would trick and blind us to the Light within. 9And let us let those thoughts go, so they may not cloud our minds from knowing the truth. 10Amen.” (Matthew 6)
(v 7, 8)1Seek out the prayers of your Heart.
2 Ask your Father to make it whole again, for your Father knows that your heart seeks to be made whole, and he awaits only your willingness to give what you ask. (v 9 – 11)1Trust your Father to give as you ask truly, but know it is the healthy Heart He listens to.
2 If your heart is sick and it asks the Father to grant it its sickness, the Father does not listen.
3 He waits until His Son asks that he be healed, and then the Father reveals His gifts, that they may be used for the purpose they were intended.
4 For the Father will not assist the son in maintaining his sickness, but the Father will point the willing son in the direction of his health, that he may be made whole through his own willingness. (Matthew 7)
(v 1 – 13)1How shall you pray?
2 Prayer is the unceasing act of thought.
3 With every thought, you pray for everything or for nothing at all.
4 How, then, shall you think?
5 I have already asked you to think with Me by accepting My thoughts and laying your own thoughts aside.
6 My thoughts are these:
7 They are thoughts of forgiveness, love, acceptance, gratitude and rejoicing. 8 Whenever you are not listening to My thoughts, you will know, because you will not be at peace and you will not be happy.
9This is not a time to chastise yourself, for chastisement is not among the thoughts that I give.
10If you are tempted to chastise yourself for forgetting Me, you must again be listening to your own thoughts and praying for nothing.
11This is the time that you should ask for your daily bread.
12This is a time of forgiving your own thoughts by laying them aside and again opening your heart to Me.
13Ask and it will be given you.
14Seek and you will find.
15Knock and the door will be opened to you.
16For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11).
(v 12 – 14)1When you approach Me within the current moment and share your prayers, do not pray about the problems you perceive within the world expecting Me to provide answers to you. 2 Instead, think about your reactions to the problems you have perceived. 3 What thoughts did you notice in your mind? 4What judgments are you making? 5 Think of prayer as an opportunity to empty your mind of guilt, fear, distractions, resistance and judgment by bringing them to Me. 6 Think of prayer as an opportunity to renew your willingness and revitalize your faith. 7 Then when this has been done, and without specific expectations, ask Me what you are to do. 8 You will be rewarded with the guidance that is perfect for your healing in that moment. 9 But know that My reward is not given because you have prayed as I asked. 10 Instead, because you have prayed as I asked, you have readied yourself to receive the reward that I have been waiting to give. (Luke 14).
(v 12 – 26) 1 The first step to listening within for the guidance of the Holy Spirit is prayer. 2 But to hear Him truly, you must pray in a way that opens to Him. 3 Prayer is not a time of asking for what you want. 4 Prayer is a time of putting aside that which you want and opening to any guidance that He would give. 5 Prayer is a time of gratitude for His love and wisdom. 6 Prayer is a time of surrender because you seek nothing less than His love, wisdom and guidance for you. 7 Therefore, pray in this way: 8 Father, I do not know what is best for me now, in this time and this place, that I may be led back to You. 9 Because I cannot see the path I am ready to walk, take my hand and send me your Voice to guide me. 10 I shall go where it asks me to go, and I shall do as it asks me to do in joy and peace and certainty.(Acts 1)
(v 23 – 33) 1 Pray then, for your own end. 2 Pray to your Father with willingness to let go of thy illusory self. 3 It is nothing to you, and it keeps you from the realization of your truth. 4 Do not fear the passing of this self you call home. 5 It is not your home. 6 And you do not belong there within your awareness. 7 Your awareness belongs with Me. 8 I see your true Self, and I am waiting here with you to share your Self with you. 9 Blessings in your prayers for willingness. 10 Do not take your prayers lightly. 11 They are your energy, which feeds your strength. 12 Through them, your truth shall be known. (Romans 15, v 23-33).
(v 1 – 7) 1 Pray for your Self. 2 Pray that you may know only truth and that all blinders and distractions may be lifted, so that the pure Light that you are may be all that you see. 3 This Light, which you are, extends beyond your physical sight and encompasses all that you may see, so that all that is is of this Light, and this Light is the only truth to all that is. (1 Timothy).
(v 17 – 19) 1 By faith in what is beyond perception, let go of the dreams that are perceived. 2 Do not ask in your heart for rewards given in perception. 3 Ask only that you may be led away from dreams. 4 And perception shall answer in a way that is helpful, so that you may welcome and realize an increase in faith. (Hebrews 11).
(v 18, 19) 1 Pray only that the knowledge of your truth may be restored to you. 2 Let all things within dreams be just as they may. (Hebrews 13).
Topic: “Is Reincarnation So?”
Description: Rev. Regina Dawn Akers will expound on the wisdom shared through A Course in Miracles regarding reincarnation. The wisdom on this topic transcends the topic itself and offers clarity and guidance for all of us, regardless of whether we believe in reincarnation or not.
Topic: “The Snake and the Rope”
Rev. Helen Avery talked about the simplicity of “laying down everything but your trust” (NTI 1st Corinthians Chapter 15 and 16) and how this prepares you to enter the “fourth and final earthly phase of the path of truth”.
Topic: “Who walks with me?”
Rev. Gloria Wells discussed how A Course In Miracles Workbook Lesson 156 (I Walk With God in Perfect Holiness) clearly points out the truth of who we are and what we are. Her question for us to contemplate is “Who Walks With Me?”
Topic: Recognizing The Selves We Make.
Description: Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert shared her thoughts about how we develop and sustain a multiplicity of false selves, including a spiritual self, and how recognizing these selves and our tendency to make them can help free us from prisons of our own making.
Reading: Rev. Rubye Nasser read selected excerpts from a talk given by Amoda Maa Jevan, “Seeing Through the Eyes of Wholeness.”
Topic: “The Special and Holy Relationships”
Description: Rev. Regina Dawn Akers looked at the special and holy relationships from a point of view other than A Course in Miracles.
