Beliefs Connect Our Experiences – Rev. Roderick Norton
This video features the Sunday “talk” only. Watch the full service on our Facebook page.
DESCRIPTION
Our outer world reflects our inner beliefs. Belief is not just passive thinking; it is an active force that shapes reality. Our beliefs act as a bridge between our thoughts and reality. Do you need to explore some of your beliefs and possibly make some shifts? Join us this Sunday as we connect our beliefs to our experiences.
SUMMARY
The speaker addresses these key points:
- Our beliefs shape our experiences and the world around us. The universe acts as a mirror, reflecting back what we believe at our core.
- Limiting beliefs can create barriers to the experiences we desire. Examples of limiting beliefs include: love requires struggle, all the good ones are taken, money is hard to get, and I’m not good enough.
- To change our experiences, we must shift our limiting beliefs and align them with what we want to create. This involves consciously reprogramming our subconscious mind.
- By taking responsibility for our beliefs and thoughts, we can elevate our consciousness and draw more positive experiences and opportunities into our lives.
TRANSCRIPTION
This transcription was auto-generated, please excuse typos, errors and omissions.
Rev. Roderick Norton (00:01):
Good morning, Cityside. You guys have everything up here. Beautiful music, a beautiful, loving spiritual community, a beautiful space. I mean, you guys are really blessed. You guys are doing something, you guys are doing something. And believe me, the universe knows that you guys are doing something and the universe, I believe, is responding and kind to you. So keep on doing what you’re doing, keep on doing what you’re doing. It’s good to be here. This morning. I popped in last Sunday and sat in the back over there and heard Mark Anthony Lord speak and really enjoyed his message. And I had been saying for a while that I’m going to pop in when I had a free Sunday and where I didn’t have to speak or where I would just pop in. So I’m like, you know what? Last Sunday, it was a free Sunday, so I’m going to go up north to Cityside and just be a part of the spiritual community. And so thank you for that experience last Sunday. It is good to be here on this Sunday and you’re in a new series and you’re working with the book, the Divine Matrix, and I find this book to be a fascinating book. If you have it, I’m sure you are a bit enlightened. If you don’t have it, you might want to consider getting the book and exploring it a little bit.
Rev. Roderick Norton (01:37):
One of the things about the Divine Matrix is this, the divine matrix is the bridge between the scene and the unseen. And Mark talked a little bit about that last week. He said is the bridge between the scene and the unseen where human conscience interacts with the quantum. The universe is not just a collection of separate objects, but an interconnected web where energy and information flows seamlessly. So Mark talked a little bit about that last week that pretty much the universe isn’t just put together haphazardly. There’s this interconnection and there’s law and order in the universe.
Rev. Roderick Norton (02:36):
There’s a process by which everything is brought about. It’s just things just simply don’t happen. And this is bringing me into my topic this morning about Belize. Belize connects our experiences. Things just simply don’t happen. We are not just simply here in this room by accident. This spiritual community was not just simply formed by accident. You guys just aren’t together on a weekly basis just by accident, just because you love one another, which is a good reason to be together. But you’re together. We’re together. We’re connected by this thing we call by right of consciousness.
Rev. Roderick Norton (03:27):
We’re in each other’s lives for a reason. I don’t know fully the reason I’m in your life and you don’t know fully the reason you’re in my life, but we’re in each other’s lives. Otherwise I would not be here and you would not be here, right? So the Divine Matrix serves as the mirror in our world of the relationships that we create in our beliefs. From a spiritual and personal perspective, the interconnected quantum field in the Divine Matrix suggests that we are not separate from the universe but deeply woven into its fabric. This means our thoughts, emotions and intentions have a direct influence on the world around us. So we influence the universe, we influence the things that are happening in the universe. We influence the things that are happening in our lives. Once again, the universe just simply does not sit there not doing something. The universe is always doing something and something that the universe is always doing is this. The universe is always responding to us.
Rev. Roderick Norton (04:42):
So since the universe is always responding to us, one of the things we must ask ourselves is what am I putting out there in the universe? What are some of my thoughts? What are some of my emotions? What are some of the intentions that I have put out there? In other words, life just simply doesn’t show up and happen to us, but we are active participants in the things that happen to us in life, whether good, bad, or indifferent. I am an active participant in the things that happen to me in life, whether good, bad or indifferent, things that simply don’t show up at my doorstep. And I say, where did that come from?
Rev. Roderick Norton (05:22):
Now at that moment, I might not necessarily know where that thing came from or where that situation came from or where that person came from, but things simply do not show up at my doorstep by themselves. Now, I might have to go and step aside for a moment or go into another room or sit down somewhere and begin to process some stuff. But no, this has shown up at my doorstep, has shown at my doorstep through an invitation, through an invitation and get this. Sometimes we don’t even know that we are putting out invitations. Has anyone ever showed up at a party that you had and you know, did not send them an invitation or even vice versa? Have you ever shown at somebody else’s party and you did not receive an invitation? I remember some years back, I used to have some holiday parties years ago and my house became, my house became so packed for this Christmas party and people were showing up and I began to ask some of the people who showed up and someone got mad at me. I’m like, who are you?
Rev. Roderick Norton (06:46):
Why are you here? Who invited you? So sometimes I got to ask myself those questions when things show up because I had placed the invitation out there and somehow other folks word got the vibration of that invitation and they knew, I guess somewhere in the vibration. They knew that I won a lot of people at the party, but it became a little overwhelming for me. I’m going somewhere with this. Have you ever put an invitation out there into the universe and things showed up and you didn’t know it was going to show up the way it showed up, but it showed up because there was a certain emotion, there was a certain intention out there that you had placed it. You didn’t, didn’t necessarily know how it was going to show up, but the universe allowed it to show up. And then the universe, when it showed up and you looked at it and might not necessarily look the way you want it to look, or it showed up the way you want to show up, but it showed. But it showed up because there was an invitation that was extended and the universe says, well, how did I do?
Rev. Roderick Norton (08:26):
You put it out there. How did I do? So I want to continue to talk this morning on our beliefs and how our beliefs connects our experiences. See, beliefs are more than just thoughts for beliefs. They carry in energetic frequency that interacts with the fabric of reality. So our beliefs provide a blueprint for how we want to experience life, our beliefs, my beliefs, that which I believe provides a blueprint for how I want to experience life. I need to maybe go and look at my blueprint again. If I am not experiencing life the way that I want to experience life, I might need to go and look at my blueprint again. I might need to go and explore my beliefs. You see, beliefs are deeply held perceptions or assumptions about reality that shape how we see the world ourselves and our experiences. What we believe at our core level tends to be reflected in our external experiences because our perception and focus shaped what we notice, attract and create. What are some of your beliefs? At the core level?
Rev. Roderick Norton (09:47):
Our beliefs, they act as mental filters. They influence our thoughts, emotions, and actions often without us even realizing it. If we carry beliefs of abundance, love, and possibility, we tend to attract experiences that align with those frequencies. You see, we’re all putting out frequencies. We’re all putting out a certain level of energy. So conversely, limiting beliefs may create barriers to what we desire. What are some of the limiting beliefs? Limiting beliefs are subconscious thoughts that hold you back from experiencing love, financial success or personal growth. Sometimes we don’t know what we believe. Did you know that? Sometimes we don’t really know what we believe, but something happens, life shows up and when life shows up, it’s a reflection. And as I talk about in a few minutes, as Greg Braden said, it is a mirror of your belief system. Sometimes we have to begin to identify limiting beliefs and what are some limiting beliefs? Do you believe that love requires a struggle? That if I’m going to experience love, there has to be some struggle involved in it? See, one of the things about that is this.
Rev. Roderick Norton (11:23):
In the spiritual community we say, and we say we believe that we are love, that we are expressions of love. So if I am an expression of love, why does that have to be a struggle for me? It is who I am. But somewhere along the line, I have set up this belief, this other belief, this counter belief that is a struggle or maybe another limiting belief is all the good ones are taken, all the good ones are taken. Another limiting belief is do you believe that money is hard to get? If you believe money is hard to get, then guess what? It will be hard to get because this is the belief that you have set up for yourself. You don’t believe that money can come to you easily.
Rev. Roderick Norton (12:21):
You don’t believe that the universe wants to supply you with everything that you need. You believe that you have to work hard for everything. You don’t have to work hard for everything. But if that is the belief that you have set up for yourself, and guess what? You’re going to have to work hard for everything. Another limited belief that we might have to identify for ourselves. Do you believe that you’re good enough? Sometimes people just don’t feel believe that that they’re good enough. I’ve been working with someone actually for a couple of years and not really working with a person any longer, but there’s this person who has stayed on a job and continues to stay on the job for a long time. And even right now when I talk to this person, this, this person is not very happy being on the job, but the person has built up a belief that this is all that she can do. There is no alternative for her that I’m staying here. I’m not happy here, but this is it.
Rev. Roderick Norton (13:46):
Have you ever found yourself maybe in a position like that you stay on a job longer than you really want to stay on a job or you stayed in a relationship longer than you want, stay in a relationship because you felt as though or are you believed as though there was no one else out there for you? So I’m going to stay or I’m going to maintain this relationship. And the relationship could be a friendship, it could be any kind of relationship, but sometimes we stay longer because, oh, this is my friend for 30 years and if I leave my friend for 30 years, then what? These are all limiting beliefs.
Rev. Roderick Norton (14:41):
Beliefs are something that we all have though. You can’t stop someone from having a belief and you can’t stop yourself from having a belief. But what you can do is if there’s a belief that you have that is limiting your potential, that is limiting you from expressing the divine within you, if there’s a belief that you have, one of the things you can do is this. You can shift your thoughts, you can shift how you think about something. You can shift how you look at something and you can begin to do this. You can begin to create a new belief. Nobody said that you ever have to die or make a transition with the same belief that you had when you were born. You can change. I can change, repeat after me, I can change,
Rev. Roderick Norton (15:30):
I can change.
Rev. Roderick Norton (15:32):
Say change is possible,
Rev. Roderick Norton (15:33):
change is possible.
Rev. Roderick Norton (15:35):
I can believe something new.
Rev. Roderick Norton (15:37):
I can believe something new.
Rev. Roderick Norton (15:43):
So Braden suggests that the universe functions as a mirror reflecting back to us the beliefs we hold at the deepest level. Oftentimes, we are unaware of some of the beliefs that we hold. So life is our greatest teacher and we’re always in a classroom. We’re always in a classroom. Life will always show us what we believe, and instead of fighting what life is showing us, we should take notes and begin exploring our belief systems and see if there are things I need to either reinforce or completely change. So let me not just simply fight life and say, this is not who I am.
Rev. Roderick Norton (16:26):
This might be who you are, and it might not be bad, might not be good, it might be, but let’s not continue to fight life and say, this is not who I am for. There might be an aspect of you that you just simply don’t know about yourself because I’m always exploring myself. I mean, there’s things that I have encountered and a thought will come up in my head about a certain thing and I’m like, oh, where did that thought come from? Believe that about that person. Do I really believe that about that group? Do I really believe? Do I really believe that? So sometimes you have to question yourself because sometimes the beliefs we have are so woven into us, are so deep in our subconscious that we don’t even know it, and this might not necessarily be the place.
Rev. Roderick Norton (17:35):
So I won’t hit on it too much here, but it just popped into me. There are things, remember, we are eternal. There are things that our soul carries that we might not necessarily have picked up in this particular lifetime in this particular incarnation. I don’t want to get too deep into that, but I think some of you understand what I’m talking about here. So sometimes when life shows up and things show up in our life, one of my mentors, one of my spiritual teachers told me that one of the things you need to do is just simply when things show up, simply put it on the table. You deal with it when it shows up from the subconscious phase of your soul to put it on the table and deal with it. You might not because you might not even know, knew that it was even there, but since it came up, since it’s showing up in your life, let me deal with this thing right now because if I don’t deal with it right now and I try to press it back down in my subconscious, then guess what? All I’m doing is saving it for another day.
Rev. Roderick Norton (18:56):
One of my favorite teachers, Joel Goldsmith, has a book called Consciousness is What I Am. The whole premise of the book is whatever, whoever I believe myself to be, that is who I am by right of consciousness. Who do I believe myself to be? Who do I believe myself to be because and can I bring myself to the point where I’m showing up in life like this consciousness. Consciousness is what I am. The wonderful thing about beliefs is that they are not fixed. In other words, they can be shifted, they can be reprogrammed to align with the experience that you want to create. What experience do you want to create?
Rev. Roderick Norton (19:55):
You don’t have to be fixed. I don’t have to be fixed with a particular belief. What experience do I want to create? Because the universe is waiting for me to determine that experience. And once I determine that experience, by creating that belief, the universe is ready to respond immediately for me. Do I want to create an experience where I experience love all the time? If I’m looking to create that experience, then as I work with myself, I work with myself, I continue to affirm to myself that I am love and I am love. I must be the one to express this love says I am love. I must be the one to continue to express this love. And as I express this love, because I am now building up this new belief system for myself, and it might take me more than a day to do this, but let me continue to work on myself and as I continue to work on myself, then one of the things that will happen is that I will find myself drawing to me more loving experiences, more loving relationships, and more good into my life.
Rev. Roderick Norton (21:28):
Because one of the things that love does is that love is like a magnet. It draws to me the good that the universe has for me. But I must first express this and as I express it that the universe simply says, okay, since this is who you are, because consciousness who you are, you have now developed a consciousness of love. You have now developed a consciousness of sameness with the divine because the divine is love. So you got to get yourself to the point where you are elevating yourself to the point where I am now being elevated to the consciousness of the divine, and as I’m been elevated to the consciousness of the divine, it is now my responsibility to express from this level of consciousness. And when I express from this level of consciousness, then everything that the divine is I am. And I draw that into my experience.
Rev. Roderick Norton (22:31):
Ernest Holmes says, life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it. My minister, Johnny Coleman says, I am the thinker who thinks the thoughts that makes the things all Ernest Holmes is saying. All Johnny Coleman is saying, all Braden is saying is that I am responsible for the beliefs that I hold. So as I work with my own thoughts, as I work with my own emotions, as I work with everything that influences and that sets up my beliefs, then I am now participating in the change or the shift of beliefs. I am now participating in the change or the shift of the things that begin, I begin to experience in my life. Life. I’m so happy that I can be in control of the things that enter into my life and sometimes that something enters into my life I do not like or do not care for. I am still in control at that moment. I’m still in control of how I respond to it.
Rev. Roderick Norton (24:06):
So we are constantly programming our reality. The subconscious mind where our core beliefs resides, operates like a software program that runs automatically. So to change our experiences, we must shift limiting beliefs and align them with what we desire. So since the subconscious mind where our core beliefs resides, operates like a software program that’s always running automatically, then I must make sure that I am programmed the subconscious mind with the thoughts, the feelings, the emotions that I want the subconscious mind to run. I just don’t want to leave it up to lemme think. I don’t want to leave it up to you to play stuff in my subconscious mind, I want to make sure that, see, I am the gatekeeper. You are the gatekeeper. You want to make sure that the things that are a place in the subconscious mind, you want to make sure that the things that are a place, that are things that are love, that things are uplifting, that things that are motivated
Rev. Roderick Norton (26:02):
Have aligned with the divine. Let’s take a few moments right now for prayer. Just turn within right now and as the music plays softly, know that you are one with the divine Father, mother God, we give thanks right now for this opportunity to turn within and touch the divine, come to a conscious awareness of our oneness with the divine. You are one with love. You are one with wisdom. You are one with strength. You are one with power. You are one with the presence. There’s just one power, one presence, one love. There’s just one. Allow yourself to flow from that one. You are not separate from your good, but you are one with your good flows in and through you, and your good also flows to you and your good flows around you. Your good is God and God is your good.
Rev. Roderick Norton (28:35):
We give thanks right now. God, for this time right now that we can commune with you knowing that communion is nothing but common union with you, acknowledging our oneness with you. Feed us however it is you need to feed us, speak to us. However it is, you need to speak to us, guide us wherever it is we need to go for ourselves. We can do nothing but with you. We know that all things are possible. So we release any belief of separation. We release any belief of struggle. We release any belief of not having enough. We release any belief that is not in alignment with our true nature. And right now we are empowered by the divine to be all that we are. Thank you God. Thank you God. Thank you God. And so it is. Amen.