OVERVIEW
Our beliefs, thoughts, and emotions with the most conviction will manifest the most powerfully in our lives. Are you choosing to consciously create from love or allowing fear to run the show? Join us this Sunday as we continue to explore “Living Without Fear”.
TRANSCRIPTION
The transcription is automated. Please excuse any typos or grammatical errors.
Love is the anecdote to fear and fear is what we’re talking about this month, right? Our theme is freedom from fear, and I don’t know about you, but it’s a good one for me. It’s in recent years, I have realized how much fear was running in the background of my life. Not like big fear, but the little insidious fear in our book, living without fear by Ernest Holmes and on the back of the book, they summarize, let go of the fear of having what you don’t want, the fear of not getting what you do want. And I’m adding the fear of what happens when you do get what you want.
And y’all heard that Maryanne Williamson quote, the greatest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure and it goes on. But the gist of the quote is that when we hide our light and hold ourselves back, we aren’t fulfilling our responsibility to be the full expression of life. The full expression of love, the full expression of God that we’re here to be. And she says, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. So what if I create something I don’t want? Well, Ernest wants us to be free from all those limiting thoughts, right? He wants us to have greater health, greater relationships, abundance to be the full expression of ourselves.
How many of you feel like you’re the full expression of yourself? Anybody, right, right, right. Okay. So as I was preparing for this talk, I had fun going down the rabbit hole about fear because this topic really speaks to me. As I approach this fourth quarter of my life. There’s a lot of talk about being old today. What’s up with that. <laugh> but talk about fear. So anyway, as I approach this part of my life, it all depends on how long I live, whether I’m in the fourth quarter or not. Right. But as I approach this part of my life, I, I want to live to the fullest expression. I wanna make sure that I am taking advantage of these opportunities. And I say, no matter what your age don’t wait, don’t wait for later.
We don’t know what later we’ll bring. So it feels right that I should live my fullest now that we should live our fullest. Now the fullest expression of light love creativity, God, whatever word works for you. But sometimes I’m just kind of fair to Midland. If I tell the truth, right? Holding myself back in some kind of comfort zone, sometimes we’re more comfortable with the discomfort that is familiar and we fear the possibility of a different discomfort. Anybody relate to that? Come on, give me something <laugh> right. Anybody else holding back or sort of coasting along in life? I mean, I kind of hate to admit it, but so down the rabbit hole, I go into the fear, maybe more of a labyrinth, but if you’re willing to, to follow me along for a moment, we’ve all heard. All we have to fear is fear itself.
Think Franklin D Roosevelt said it, but it was based on something. Thoreau said nothing to be feared, but fear itself. And it points to the idea that fear begets fear, right? That if fear goes unchecked, it can keep us looping and deeper into the rabbit hole. I go like, what is fear? We know that universally fear is like a chemical response and it is also an individual response, right? So we have the universal chemical reaction, but we also have our own personal reaction. That’s based on our beliefs, our thoughts, the filter of our past experience. We sense a, a danger or thread. It could be physical or psychological. And the, the fear response is triggered. It’s triggered in the, the amygdala in the reptilian part of the brain. And it activates us to prepare for fight or flight or freeze.
And when it’s left, unchecked fear can also interfere with the processes in our brain that allow us to regulate our emotions, the processes that help us to reflect before acting and to choose to act ethically and responsibly. As we see in the news and social media, we are prone to more intense and impulsive reactions, right? So it would follow that unethical and actions stem from fear. So in that way, I can have a little more compassion when I see these things happening in the world. They’re afraid. So we’re wired with a fear response for a reason, right? We need to be alerted when we need to get away from something that is threatening our safety and the universal chemical response, the flight or fight, but our personal response, the reaction that’s based on our personal beliefs, emotions, past experiences. This is often unconscious.
The 15 commitments of conscious leadership looks at conscious fear versus unconscious fear and conscious fear is something new that needs to be known. The fear helps bring you present and aware maybe for your own safety or someone else’s safety, sort of like driving a car. They use that example in the book, when you’re learning to drive a car, a little bit of fear brings you present makes you more aware. It’s a good thing, right? And a little fear is certainly natural and helpful when we’re stepping into something unknown. We’ve all heard. You know, if the, if it’s not a little scary, the vision’s not big enough, right? We need a little bit of that to stretch us. But the key is with conscious fear, we are present. We are in our bodies and they say that UN unconscious fear with unhealthy fear, if you will, it’s usually about a made up future event or experience.
So when I think about resistance to change or even resistance to what is feeling blocked or thinking I’m stuck, these are all examples of being afraid of something that I’ve imagined. Something I’ve made up. I’m disconnected from the present moment. So the, the opportunity here, and I’m sure it’s not a surprise to you. I’m always talking about this unraveling, the current experience, unraveling the discomfort of the trigger and, and see where it takes us. So what we can learn about ourselves, and when we unravel our fear, we may find thoughts. Like I don’t deserve, I don’t deserve to have more good. I can’t allow myself to have more good or love or joy or money. And as upper as gay Hendricks would call it an upper limit, right. Or sort of ceiling for how much good we allow ourselves to have. So we pull ourselves back. We shrink to a, a smaller, more familiar version of ourselves. And I love the, the quote, how much freedom can you stand? Am I really willing and open to receive to be more free, to have more good, to have more love. We talked about this in the essential earners homes class, the other night, where some of us acknowledged, sometimes we can even struggle to receive prayer. What do we put up within us that blocks us from our good, so he talks about fear of what you don’t want. Fear of getting what you do want. And we’ve added what happens if you do get what you want.
Like Maryanne Williamson said, who am I to receive more good money, love joy, freedom. So what do you really believe? I’m not good enough. I’ll mess this up. It will be too much work. Someone else won’t like it. I won’t be able to hold onto my old story. We humans are so interesting.
So what are you really afraid of? As I circled around this, I came back to the idea that fear comes from a belief that we are separate a belief in duality. There’s me and something else. There’s good and bad. A sort of capricious Santa Claus, like God out there somewhere who may or may not answer my prayer, but oneness is a core tenant of our teaching. Do I really believe I’m one with God is a pretty seductive illusion in our lives, right? My life, my work, my house, my family. That’s pretty separating. Isn’t it. And we teach God is love. So if I’m one with God, I’m one with love. Then love is my very nature. And my whole purpose really do I believe that? Do you believe that?
So not long ago in my work, cuz I’m always doing that unraveling thing and looking back at what’s really going on underneath. I discovered a little part of me. That’s resisting making God my primary relationship. And I know it’s strange to hear that from a minister <laugh> I’m just being real, right? So I have this part of me that struggles making God and not God out there. The God of my being, making that my primary relationship try putting minister as your profession on your dating app. Maybe you can <laugh> so a little spoiler alert. There aren’t any kids in the room, but in case anybody has a child in the room online, I don’t wanna to sort of squash anybody’s dreams here and I’m gonna, uh, go down this rabbit hole again, a story that unravels the thread around the part of me that resists making God my primary relationship. The part of me that believes I’m separate. So this took me back to being little, like, really little like about six. And my dad would come into my room at night and tuck me in. And it’s one of my sweetest memories of my childhood. Really? It was this really special connection. And this one night I was struggling cause I’d been hearing some things and had me wondering about something. And I said, dad, I wanna ask you a question, but I need you to promise. You will tell me the truth.
Now keep in mind. There are six in my family. I was the youngest of four kids. So I already feel like everybody else knows more than I do. They’re all smarter than me. Right? So dad promise you’ll tell me the truth long pause. He says, yes, I’ll tell you the truth. And I asked is Santa Claus real? He promised and I felt the heaviness of his sigh. I mean, there’s no good way to answer that question for a six year old. Right? But he had promised, so he told me the truth and it was like, somebody let the air out of my balloon. The word that comes to me is bamboozled. I felt like a complete fool. All of them knew they were all putting on this charade. They were all tricking me.
Everyone knew about me. I had been tricked. I would never trust anyone again. I would never allow that to happen. Fast forward to being adult, getting interested in this teaching, really beginning to develop some new ideas about God. This was really something maybe I could believe. And I was sharing with a friend that, that I’m close to somewhat important to me. And they sarcastically asked me, oh, so do you believe in Santa Claus too? Oh boom. There I go. Right back right back. How do I trust it activates the part of me who doesn’t want to be a fool? What if it’s not real?
It activates the part of me who is afraid of what people will think and not superficially what people think of me. I’m talking about like at my depth, at the core of who I am, it like threatens my identity or something who knew. So that early decision was I can’t trust and I can’t believe so. Those are my limiting beliefs. I can’t trust. And I can’t believe this set me up for lots of relationships where I didn’t trust, set me up up for that sort of coasting along. Right. Don’t wanna go too far. Might not be real. It also showed up with not trusting myself. It shows up with not trusting God. And I’ve really had to do my work around this. So don’t worry. I’ve done my work. <laugh> the invitation is to ask yourself, what do you really believe? And what are you really afraid of?
Am I choosing love or fear? The beautiful thing is that love overcomes fear. If we believe we are one with God, one with love, one with infinite possibility, then why would we be afraid of anything? And love has room for fear. We can be open and present with our fear, but fear shuts out love. We’re closed defensive disconnected. When we’re in fear, love, welcomes, fear makes room for it and it dissipates. So through our spiritual practice, we can move from fear to love and in love we can trust what is occurring. We say it all the time. Meditation develops our awareness and sometimes you feel like you go somewhere else in meditation and I’m not making that wrong, but let’s also practice using meditation to become present, to notice how we’re being, to be present with what is even with our fear. Am I present to what is here now? Or am I in some imagined fear state?
And in that awareness, as we develop that observer consciousness, we have the power to create something different awareness is always the first step. And then from love, we build that muscle of faith so that we can trust or believe the truth is the truth. We can believe that something else is possible. We get our mind, right? And we keep our mind right through affirmative prayer. Ernest says, you have to have true thought chapter eight in this living without fear book. He, he talks about thinking constructively. We recognize we are one with God. And as we commune with the divine, we transcend our human experience. We lift ourselves out of it. We become present to the love. That is the truth of our being the infinite possibility. And from that place, from that love, we can use the power of our word. We can see and know and experience the truth, something new and in the book. And I’m paraphrasing. He says about prayer. In addition to being an expression of God, we become co-partners with the infinite because as we lift ourselves out of our circumstances and tap into the infinite, anything is possible. And we create from those infinite possibilities.
Also paraphrasing, there is nothing wrong with desire. As long as desire is in harmony with truth. And how do we ask for what we want? We ask by knowing in our own minds, we ask by knowing in our own minds that we already have, what we are asking for. And this image that we create of our desire establishes a pattern that attracts the necessary conditions for the fulfillment of that desire in our life. And in the science of mind, Ernest Holmes says, we must continue in faith until our whole mental life, both conscious and subjective responses. He goes on, I’m skipping part of it. Spirit can only give us what we take. And since the taking is a mental act, we must train the mind to believe and to accept. This is the secret of the power of prayer. We train the mind to accept through meditation and prayer. And according to our beliefs, our receptivity, our acceptance, it will be done. So it’s our responsibility to not impress the subconscious with our doubts and our fears. It’s our responsibility to unravel those threads, to see what’s operating in the background. And when we connect with those doubts and fears, rise up into the ideas of the divine to tap into the infinite possibilities, to tap into the love,
Love creates the space for something new to occur. So I’m gonna invite us just into a, a few moments of practice in whatever way is comfortable for you. If you turn your attention inward, we must lift ourselves into high consciousness, commune with love with the divine. To remember you are love to be love. Roomy says your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it and embrace them. You don’t need to seek love because it’s who and what you are. The barriers are the limiting beliefs and the self protections that you have built against your fears. And when we connect with the truth, when we connect with the love that we really are the love transmutes, the fear it dissolves and makes room for something new in this moment. I recognize God, I recognize spirit as unconditional love. I am in it. I am of it. It expresses through me. It expresses through every one of us. And in this knowing we transcend our human experience. We lift ourselves up into the high consciousness commune with infinite possibilities, commune with that love nature.
And within that love, we embrace what is, as we embrace ourselves as love. I’m imagining wrapping my arms around the scared little child and that fear dissipating, all the barriers, all the limiting beliefs, all the fears dissipate. Now I create from love. Let us be clear about our desires. So take a moment now and just allow a desire to rise up within you and hold that desire in the high consciousness of love, the high vibration. Feel it fully a clear pattern is created now. And we are attracting all that is necessary into our conditions, into our experience to bring this into manifestation. Now I am so grateful. I am so grateful to remember the truth that we are love to remember the truth that love dissipates fear. To remember that in high consciousness, a pattern is created. That brings our desires into form. Our desires are already made already done already complete in God. And we have just aligned and said yes to them. I know it is done. I let it go into the law. That always says yes, I call it good. And so it is I amen. Thank you.