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Heaven’s Coin: Belief Shapes Reality – Rev. Roderick Norton
DESCRIPTION
If you change your inner conversations to match your desired reality, your outer world must change to reflect that inner, mental arrangement. The true currency of heaven is not money, but belief—what you consistently accept as true in consciousness. Come and examine what you’ve been believing and consider how consciousness becomes your lived experience.
SUMMARY
In this talk, Rev. Roderick Norton focused on the concept that belief shapes reality, drawing from Neville Goddard’s book “Awaken Imagination” and its chapter “Coins of Heaven”. He emphasized that the true currency of heaven is not material wealth but the inner conversations we hold, which influence our consciousness and life experiences. Norton encouraged the audience to reflect on whether they have lived a life they would want to repeat and to change their “heavenly coin” if not. He explained that our thoughts, feelings, and attention shape the universal substance, likening imagination to a cookie cutter that molds this substance into our desired reality. Rev. Rod urged listeners to align their inner conversations with their higher selves and divine patterns to manifest their desired reality. He introduced the practice of “revision,” suggesting that rewriting and replaying unlovely experiences in the mind can lead to positive future outcomes. The sermon concluded with a call to use the gifts of mind and speech creatively, in alignment with divine intentions, to ensure that inner conversations reflect goodness and align with one’s highest self.
TRANSCRIPTION
This transcription was auto-generated, please excuse typos, errors and omissions.
Rev. Roderick Norton:
What a beautiful musical team. Such a blessing. Such a blessing. It’s good to be here this morning, Cityside. How are you doing this morning? Wonderful. Like Rev. Judy said, you probably came here today with some flip-flops on plus your winter coat. But that’s Chicago this time of year, right? So we embrace it, we embrace it, we embrace it. It’s all good. It’s all good. I want to talk to you this morning, Cityside. On the topic, heaven’s coin, belief, shapes reality. Belief shapes reality. I know you’ve been working with the concepts in Neville Gard’s book, Awaken Imagination this month.
There’s a particular chapter in the book that is titled Coins of Heaven, Coins of Heaven, that I want to sort of dev into on this particular morning. The Coins of Heaven has nothing to do with gold, has nothing to do with silver, or any other kind of amount of money that you might have in your checking account or savings account or any other kind of bank account. But it has everything to do with your thoughts, your feelings and your attention, all of which influences what Neville calls your inner conversations. Did you know you have inner conversations? Say something you say. Oh yeah. You probably have some conversations going on right now, right? But we all have these inner conversations. So I want to begin my talk on this morning with the question the novel actually raises towards the beginning of this chapter in the book.
He raises this question. He says, “Have you lived your life in such a way that you would like to live it over again?” I’m going to repeat that. “Have you lived your life in such a way that you would like to live it over again? “In other words, he’s saying,” Have you lived your life in such a way where it’s just so wonderful that I just simply want to experience this thing again?
“What’d you think? Someone say,” No the same way. “Good, because we’re going somewhere with that. I find that to be such a profound question that he wants to lay it out at the very beginning of that chapter. I’m like, ” Neville, you’re throwing this out so early, you’re really making me think right now, what kind of life have I lived? “So it makes us think about the life that we’re currently living or that we have lived. Many people would say,” If I could do it all over again, I would do this or would change that or I would do this or something different.
“Some of us would like to have what we call a do- over. The Neville says,” If you have not lived a life you want to repeat, “he says,” Start changing your heavenly coin today. If you have not lived a life that you want to repeat, start changing your heavenly coin today. “So when he talks about heavenly coins, our heavenly coins are the inner conversations that we all have within ourselves, and these conversation produce effects that show up in our life, world and affairs. They become part of our consciousness and Joe Goldsmith says,” Consciousness is what I am. “Consciousness is what I am. We can only produce, we can only live out, we can only play out that which our consciousness is.
So Neville says,” We are forever standing in the presence of an infinite and eternal energy from which all things proceed according to a pattern which you determine so nobody else can determine this pattern of life that I’m living. “There’s an energy that’s out there and this energy from this energy, all things proceed according to the pattern that I have determined. That means there’s some responsibility I have for the life that I’m living. There’s some things that I have produced according to the pattern that I have determined. I’m going to tell you, that’s some good news though, because if I can determine how I’m going to live based upon me working with this eternal energy, if there’s something that I don’t like, that I have been experiencing or that I have been going through, the good news is this. I have the power to make a different determination and change my life by beginning to think a new thought and beginning to develop what?
A new pattern.
So another name for this energy that Neville talks about, this infinite and eternal energy, another name for it is universal substance. This universal substance is invisible, it’s formless, but it is alive and waiting for us to make an impression on it. It is the same energy that was used to create us and the world. We make impressions in this particular energy or substance with our thoughts, our words, our feelings, and with what we give our attention to. Another way of looking at this is the power of our imagination. The imagination is the cookie cutter of the mind.
We talked about universal substance. It is through our imagination. It’s been the cookie cutter of the mind where we have this big piece, this universal substance of this energy. It’s like what my minister used to say is like this big piece of dough. For those that bake or like to cook and you use dough and you want to put something in a particular shape, you begin to do what? You begin to find a cookie cutter. You begin to find something that you can press into to make what? An impression on that substance, on that dough, so that it will turn out the way you want it to turn out. That’s the same way our imagination works. We begin to hold a vision, we begin to hold a pattern in our mind, and when we hold that pattern in our mind, what we are doing is that we are now making an impression on this eternal energy that Neville talks about.
We’re making an impression on the substance, on this big universal piece of dough, and we’re telling the universe that this is what I want to create, because this is what I am holding in mind. This is what my thoughts, my feelings, and my attention have formed as part of my imagination.
So we’re always holding images in mind, and guess what? We are responsible for the images that we hold. I’m responsible for every image that I hold, because nobody else can hold this image for me. Nobody else can hold the image for you. So I’m responsible for every image that I hold in mine, and those images that we are holding are the patrons that we have created, which becomes the blueprint for our lives. So sometimes we have to ask ourselves this question, what image am I holding in mind? Or sometimes if things begin to appear in our lives, we have to begin to really ask ourselves this question.
This thing that’s appearing in my life right now is not there by accident, but there was something within my consciousness that created this thing. And because there was something that was in my consciousness that created this thing, this circumstance, this condition, I also have the power to begin to create something different in my consciousness to replace that which is currently appearing. That which is currently appearing does not have to stay. It does not have to stay.That’s one of the empowering principles is that it does not have to stay. I can change this thing. I can change this thing.
There’s a biblical scripture where God commands Moses to build the tabernacle and is furnishing exactly according to the design shown to him on Mount Sinai. The design or pattern shown to him is considered heaven reality and he was to replicate or copy that on earth. I want you to get the full effect, the full picture of this. He’s on the mountain. Spirit, God, source, is giving him a message and is showing him how to do it. This was his divine assignment. This is in reality what happens with us. We are given a divine assignment and when you go on the mount, as Moses had to go on the mount, when you go on the mount metaphysically, that means going to a high state of consciousness. So when you go on the mount, you receive that which the divine, the spirit God wants you to have.
So when you allow yourself to enter into that higher state of consciousness, you open yourselves up to receive the divine pattern and ideally you are to live your life based off of that divine pattern and your life, your earthly experience should replicate that divine pattern.
So in other words, our inner conversations should really be in alignment with the patterns from our higher selves. Our inner conversations should be influenced by our higher self, by our God self. Question: What is your desired reality and how do you begin to manifest it? What is your desired reality? And how do you begin to manifest it? If your inner conversations do not measure up to the divine, then you need to make a change. If my inner talk, if my inner words, if my inner beliefs, if they do not measure up to the divine, then I know right then that I need to make a change if I want to experience my divine reality. You must change your inner conversation so that they will match your desired reality. Your outer world must change to reflect the intermental arrangements. We say, so within, so without. So my words, my feelings, my attention should be in harmony with the divine pattern.
The pattern I present to the universe should be in harmony with the universal good. So as I am holding a pattern in my mind, it should be in harmony. It should be in alignment with the universal good.
Once again, the true currency of heaven is not money, but belief, which you consistently accept as true in consciousness. So the power of my imagination says, let me image my good. Let me image my perfect relationships. Let me image my abundance. Let me image my prosperity. Let me bring my imagination. Let me bring my thoughts up to the level of the divine so that I can begin to make an impression so that which I am holding in mind is in perfect alignment with absolute good. So if I can hold in mind that which is in perfect alignment with absolute good, then I can expect an expression in my life to look like the divine.
So understand that as we are talking about beliefs, and once again, beliefs is what you consistently accept as true in consciousness. I want to tell you this, everything we are told is not necessarily true. Have you ever experienced that? Everything you’re told is not necessarily true, but too often we accept them consciously and unconsciously as being true and we move forward in our lives based on something that doesn’t measure up to the divine standard, but we have accepted that as truth. And as long as we have accepted that as true, even though it does not measure up to the divine standard, it becomes what? A belief. It becomes a belief. But all because your mother and all because your grandmother told you something, it doesn’t mean that it is true. No matter how much you love them, they understand their intention that they mean well, but all because they told you something doesn’t mean that it’s true.
They are only speaking from their level of consciousness or awareness or from their lived experience, which is not necessarily your lived experience. A person’s lived experience, a person’s awareness or conscious back in the 30s or 40s are going to be different than your lived experiences and what your level of consciousness is now. Things have changed. People added, people think differently, people act differently. So once again, all because someone told you one thing, they just told you that from their level of awareness, their level of understanding, they met well.
But what is the truth? What’s the truth that supports that belief? If there’s no spiritual truth that supports that belief, then maybe I should consider making a change because I’ve been living a life based on something that I thought was true. I have developed a belief system on things that I thought were true, but there’s something inside of me that says, this just does not measure up to the divine. And I want to have a belief system that measures up to the divine. I want to walk lockstep. I want to walk arm and arm with the divine.
So sometimes we have to go ahead and just check our conversations within. We may not say it out loud, but we’re always saying something within. Has someone ever told you, “I can read your mind.” Or, “Have you ever told somebody else? I can read your mind.” Without that person or without you even saying anything, someone says, “I can read your mind.” Because they can see something going on with you. They can see that something’s happened with you in that moment. There’s something that the wheels of your mind are turning right now and they know that you are having an inner conversation. They don’t know what the conversation is, but they know that you are having an inner conversation. So according to Neville, he says, “Your inner conversations are the coins you spend most consistently.” They’re the arguments you keep on replaying. The fear you keep on rehearsing, the doubt you keep on repeating.
He says, “Those are investments that you’re making when you have those type of inner conversations.” He said, “Those are investments you are making.” So whatever you keep saying within, life will eventually play it back to you. So if my inner conversation is always about, there’s always this argument that’s going on in my mind that life will continue to replay that argument in my life world and affairs. So if this inner conversation is about me rehearsing fear over and over and over, then guess what? Fear will continue to show up in my experience. This is all part of my inner conversation. If it’s doubt that keeps on repeating itself, then guess what? I will continue to experience experiences that looks like doubt. That’s the manifestation of doubt. So the conversations we entertain internally will become the situations we experience externally. So we have to do what?
We have to watch our inner conversations. Sometimes you just have to catch yourself. Sometimes I just have to catch myself. Why am I thinking that thought? Why am I keep replaying that situation in my mind? Sometimes you just have to catch yourself. Have you ever simply had to catch yourself and sit down with yourself and say, “Why am I continuing to think that? Why am I continuing to entertain that? I thought I moved past that. Let me put a stop sign up right now because this thing has gone on too long. We must have new internal conversations so we can have better returns on our investments.” You got to begin to hear doors opening for you instead of hearing doors closed for you. You got to stop rehearsing failure and begin rehearsing success. This is all part of the inner conversation. Let me not continue to think about how many rejection letters I’m going to receive this week, but let me begin to think about how many doors are being open to me this week.
How many job opportunities are being made available to me this week?
So don’t imagine rejection, but imagine yourself being celebrated. Imagine yourself being celebrated. Begin to intentionally construct inner dialogues that match your desired outcomes. So that means we have to talk to ourselves sometimes and begin to change our language. And remember the language that we’re talking about is not necessarily audible or verbal, but the language that’s going on in our mind, the talks in our mind, the conversations that’s in our mind. But never gives us something to help us. He says, “We need to practice the art of revision.” And I love this aspect, Reverend Linda. When he talk about we have to practice the art of revision, he says, “If you had an unlovely experience, do not allow it to repeat itself.” He says, “But rewrite the scene and replay the new version in your imagination. This new version will advance it into your future.” So if you had a unlovely situation, if you had a challenging situation, he says, “Stop repeating that in your mind.
Stop repeating that argument. Stop repeating that confrontation that you had. Stop repeating whatever that situation was that has become so unsettling to you. Stop repeating that in your mind, but begin to write a new scene in your mind and begin to replay that new version in your mind because what you are doing is you are now putting forth a revision to what happened, to that what you want to now experience. Because if you keep on replaying that unlovely experience or situation in your mind, you know what happens? You’re just setting yourself up for future experiences that look like the one that you continue to replay in your mind. It might come with different clothing, different characters, but the same type of situation. So I said, instead of me replaying that, let me write a revision to this, to how I want it to now play out in my mind.
It was a growing experience for me.
It was an experience that helped me. I am now bigger and better because of that experience. I’m able to love more people now. I’m able to see God in all types of situations now. I’m able to now look beyond appearances and see the truth in every situation, to see God in every situation. We’re talking about revising, making a revision. I used to tell people all the time that one of the things that I try to practice is this one simple statement. It never happened. It never happened. See, some people want to remind you of past events. Some people want to remind you of how you used to be. Some people want to remind you of unpleasant situations. Some people want to remind you of darkness.
It never happened. It never happened. It never happened because I’m not holding onto the past like that. I’m not holding onto darkness like that. I’m not holding onto unloving situations like that. I am not holding on to pain like that. It never happened. The only thing that is happening is this now moment. And in this now moment, I am love. In this now moment, I am peace. In this now moment, I am prospered. In this now moment, I am experiencing all of the good that the universe desires me to have in this now moment. All that other stuff. It never happened.
You not liking me? It never happened. You trying to trick me? It never happened. Me not showing up as my best self. It never happened. Me not showing up as a true expression of the divine, it never happened. That’s part of the art of revision for me. As I close, Neville says,” We have two gifts. “He said,” We’ve been given two gifts. “He said,” Before the world was, God created you and made you perfect. He then sent you into this world for an educative purpose with two gifts. He gave you his mind and his speech. The very same mind and speech he used to create the world.
My only question for you as I close is, are you using the mind and the speech in creative ways like God? Are you using them in destructive ways? This is all part of your coin of heaven. This is all part of your inner conversation. How am I using the mind that God has given me? How am I using the speech that God has given me? In my mind, am I holding on to the good? Am I holding on to that which is lovely? Am I holding on to that which is right? Am I holding on to that which is noble? In my mind, am I using my mind the same way that God used God’s mind? Am I using my speech the same way that God used God’s speech? Speaking forth the good. Speaking forth the creative energy. Speaking forth that which God wanted to create.
We have been given those same two gifts, the gift of the mind and the gift of speech. How are you using the gifts that you have been given? It’s all part of the currency or the coins of heaven, which we all have. Choose this day, your inner conversations and make sure that your inner conversations from this point on, replicate the good. It’s an alignment with your highest self. Go to your own mouth and receive the pattern that God has for you. And the pattern that God has for you is for you, and it is to make your life better, more prosperous, more happy, and more loving. Let’s turn within right now.
And just relax right now. God, we do give thanks right now for the divine pattern that you have given each of us. A pattern of joy, a pattern of love, a pattern of prosperity, a pattern of peace. We give thanks right now for that divine pattern that you have given us. We bring our thoughts, we bring our feelings, we bring our attention right now to that which is good, to that which is right, to that which is divine. And we hold on to it, understanding that as we hold on to this divine pattern in our mind, it must replicate itself in our life, world and affairs. We give thanks, God, and we touch and agree with this mind. For the same mind is in each and every one of us. One mind, one power, one presence, one God. Thank you, God, for your mind. Thank you, God, for our ability to speak after you.
Thank you, God, for the coins of heaven. And so it is Amen.