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Maximize 2024: Unleash the Power of Your Mind! with Rev. Darrell Jones
OVERVIEW
One of the biggest challenges to living a life of our desires, is thinking we must fully understand something first in order to realize or express it. The concepts and principles of Science of Mind, for many, are contrary to what we may have been taught in our childhood or early learning years of life. However, more than perfect understanding, application of these spiritual principles is what brings them to light. Where would you like to apply the principle of “‘change your thinking, change your life” this year? You don’t need to understand “how” it will work, you’ve just got to start working the change. Join us Sunday and see what changes we can bring to your life!
TRANSCRIPTION
This transcription was auto-generated, please excuse typos, errors and omissions.
Rev. Darrell Jones (00:02):
Keep the hands going. Don’t stop clapping. Give it up.
(00:08):
I think that should be the name of the Cityside band. It’s love. It’d be a good name. Good morning everybody. Good morning. For those of you online, I always make the reminder, but it’s easy to do this. This is not an opportunity for you to multitask. So there’s one thing I’m going to ask everyone to do right now before you let go of multitasking. I am holding a vision for this community this year in expansion. We are not in any space of need or lack of needing to expand, but there is something that happens in this community that is so brilliant that more people need to be aware of it. So before I move forward in my talk today, for those of you online, it’ll be easier to do because you’re already with your device. If you want to pull out your phone right now, tag somebody.
(00:55):
We’re at the beginning of this year and people need to hear messages of inspiration. They need to hear messages of power and empowerment, and I want you to invite someone to that message. Whether you do it right now or you do it later today, the brilliance of this digital age, we can send someone the recording afterwards, but share this. Don’t keep this for yourself. Share your wisdom. Share your community with your community. So someone who’s not been here before, someone you think is like, ah, maybe they’re not into that whole spirituality thing. Forget about the whole spirituality thing. Everyone on this planet as far as I know is trying to live a better life. Would you agree? This is something that would help them with it? They can make the choice in the decision if they like it or not. Don’t make that decision for them. Invite them to it. Yes. Okay, got that out of the way.
(01:48):
Maximize 2024. That’s what we’re all about this year. That’s the talk title. Unleash the power of your mind. So in the larger movement that we are a part of called the Centers for Spiritual Living somewhat on some level, the same thing is happening. The same conversation is taking place this Sunday in this entire month of January. We go back to this book called The Science of Mind in the first four chapters, and look at these general headings, the basic ideas, the fundamental principles, the teachings that give way to everything in the work that we do around the year. I feel really honored, privileged, humbled, and it doesn’t feel heavy, but I know that there’s weight here. It’s the first Sunday of the new year, and I feel like I am the setter in a volleyball match. Like I’m setting up a lob for the rest of the year, right? For you to come in and smash it. Who’s ready to smash it in 2024? Come on now. Give me some noise. Okay? The principle that is in the science of mind, the principle that is existent in any new thought tradition, whether you have studied unity, whether you’ve looked at divine science, whether you read Joe Dispenza, whether you have read Ralph Waldo Emerson, any of these big thinkers,
(03:16):
Is that there is a life of cause and effect. But that’s the simplistic version. That’s Newtonian thinking. We’re going to get into some deep science of Einstein thinking. This is to those of you who follow Joe Dispenza to use some of his language. It’s not about cause and effect. We are causing the effect. If you want to maximize your 2024 and unleash the power of your mind, embrace that simple statement, I am causing the effect of my life. If you were to wake up every day and declare that to yourself, I guarantee something’s going to shift. Alright, I’m way, way off my notes here. Bringing it back home. So the blurb that I wrote for the general topic for today reads, one of the biggest challenges to living a life of our desires is thinking we must fully understand something in order to realize it or express it. Does that resonate for anyone? It’s like, oh, I just don’t quite understand it yet. I don’t get it. And so we think there’s something we need to intellectualize in order for us to realize in our life the concepts and the principles of religious science, of science, of mind, of many of these new thought teachings. A lot of them are actually contrary to what we learned in our childhood and what we learned in our early formative years.
(05:03):
However, more than any sort of perfect understanding, what is most important is the application of the principle that we are causing the effect, applying that as opposed to sitting on our couch and thinking about it. How many of you sat a lot of time on the couch in 2023 thinking about what you should or shouldn’t do or what could or couldn’t work or what you could know or not know? We’re getting off the couch this year, y’all
(05:40):
We’re opening up the door and we are engaging back into our lives and applying this very fundamental principle that you are causing the effect of your experience in your life. Where would you like to apply this idea? Whether you’ve heard it from Wayne Dyer or you read it from Earnest Holmes, change your thinking, change your life. Where would you like to change your thinking about your life this year? Long list? Well, here’s one of the things, one of my words we are sharing at the beginning of this is focus. I’ve spent the majority of my life chasing shiny things. I love shiny things and they’re not bad. But one thing that I realized is that it keeps me off of my purpose. Most of the shiny things that I chase are not my purpose. It’s someone else’s.
(06:39):
So let’s focus this year. Your list isn’t too long. The principle is the principle. So if you want to apply it in your health, if you want to apply it in your finances, if you want to apply it in your relationships, whether it be romantic, friendship, family, the principle is still the same. You are causing the effect of your life. You don’t need to understand how it will work. This is where most of us get caught up. You just got to start working the change, working the change, start working the change in many areas of your life, you do work the change, health maybe in your family, maybe in other relationships, in your work, maybe in your community, somewhere in your life things are working more or less. Would you agree somewhere, somewhere in your life, even if it’s like, I know how to make scrambled eggs. I’m working it. I know how to scramble an egg. The process, the cause and the effect is a plate full of deliciousness somewhere in your life, more or less, there is something working, and this isn’t because change isn’t happening. A lot of us think, oh, I just need things to stop changing. I just need things to be normal. Whatever that means.
(08:10):
The reason that you are succeeding in areas of your life is because you have built a habit or a pattern in your mind, in your consciousness that allows you to have a healthy relationship with change in this area of your life. Does this make sense? This is an area that is important for you to look at and investigate. It’s not going to be the bulk of the homework that I give you at the end of this talk. However, to recognize that you don’t have to exude in this area is simply because you have cultivated a habit and a pattern in your mind in relationship to this thing and the same habit or pattern that you’ve created in this area of your life. You only need to replicate it in the area. That’s of challenge. So now let’s flip to the other side. Now, turn your awareness to that area where you aren’t working the change, you know it. You know the areas where you’re not working the change, right? This is not an exploration in trying to shame yourself, guilt yourself, blame yourself, make yourself feel bad just to get sober and somber for a moment and realize there’s areas in your life where you would like things to be different.
(09:42):
This oftentimes is the area in your life where you feel like you’re a victim to the circumstances of what’s going on. Oh, I can’t really do much about it. That’s what they said. They can be the government, your partner, your friend, your family member, even your own mind, anyone ever a victim to their own mind. I am every day. Again, check the major areas of your life, your health, your family relationship, money work, friend the area, and just name an area where you’re not working. The change so well, where the change is working you, this area of your life deserves your greatest attention this month, in this year, the greatest of your attention. This area deserves your reflection and study. This is the area of your life that I would like to challenge you to unleash the power of your mind this year to maximize your 2024. Are you ready?
(10:56):
The thing itself, that’s the first section of the science of mind book, the thing itself. That’s what I’m talking about today. The other four sections are the way it works, what it does and how to use it. Now, I don’t think you can only talk about one aspect of this science of mind. If we’re going to talk about the thing itself, we got to talk about how to use it. You can’t just sit on the couch and think about it. You’ve got to apply it, right? But we’re focusing on the thing itself and the reading that Gordon gave. I’m going to read again from the science of mind book, the Study of the Science of Mind. So the study of this law of mind, the study of maximizing your 2024 is the study of first cause. Remember we talked about causing the effect. So the first cause, spirit, mind or the invisible essence, the ultimate stuff of intelligence, which everything comes from the power back behind before the manifestation of creation. The thing itself, the thing itself is your mind, not something out there, not something in the cosmos. The thing itself that causes your life
(12:18):
Is right here. The mind. Whatever the nature of any principle may be, in so far as it is understood by anyone, it may be understood by all, listen to this who take the time to investigate to maximize your life in 2024 this year. The only thing you need to do is take some time to investigate what’s going on in your dome. Forget about, I just did a whole visioning and I’m grateful for that, and I’m not saying don’t do it, but you can have the greatest vision for your life and if the thinking and the belief system that you dwell upon doesn’t resonate with that vision, it’s not going to come to pass. It’s just not, and I’m not here to be a pessimist. I’m here to be a realist. If you want to maximize your 2024, get in here, get inside, take some time to investigate what is going on in your thinking and in your belief system. This does not, and thank you for saying this, Gordon. This does not require an unusual degree of intelligence. A lot of people think, oh, I can’t quite do that. I can’t do the spiritual thing. That’s not really my thing. Bull
(13:37):
Hahaha.
(13:39):
If you think you are not spiritual, you are so disconnected from yourself, you cannot not be spiritual. Even if you don’t, I’m not telling you, you have to believe in God. I’m saying you need to believe in yourself and your spirit. The thing you can’t quite touch, taste, and feel. It doesn’t require great intelligence. Just a willingness to tap into who you are and apply whatever’s happening in your mind. That is where the increased will come from. Alright, I’m a nerd. You’ve heard me say that over and over again. I studied this in school. I first came to this teaching because my life wasn’t working. I was going through a divorce. I was very confused about why that was happening
(14:36):
And I started to come into relationship that some of the thoughts I held about myself were not really great thoughts.
(14:47):
Some of the beliefs that I had about how I needed to show up in relationship, and it wasn’t just romantic relationship, it was friendship. It was with my friends, it was with my family. It was in my work environment. The fundamental stinking thinking that existed within Daryl was this idea that there’s no value within inside of me. I only know my value when someone acknowledges it in some way outside of me, whether they say, you look good, you sounded good. Thank you for doing that, and I did everything that I could to manipulate myself in order to get that little ego emotional hit. You know what I’m talking about? It’s called codependency. I was dependent upon what other people thought, and actually to tell you the truth, it didn’t have anything to do with what they thought it was. I was dependent upon my perception of what I thought they thought about me. So half the time, it didn’t matter what people said, people could say, Daryl, I love you. You’re the sweetest thing in the world. And if for some reason in my mind I was like, well, they’re just saying that because they’re being nice. I couldn’t receive it.
(15:56):
I could not maximize my life. I could not maximize the love that had been professed to me in a marriage because I couldn’t receive it. So I got about the work of looking inside. I started meditating. I found my way to this community that studied this stuff, and all of a sudden I started to peel back some of the layers and understand I got to let everybody else go for a minute and understand the one common denominator that moves through my life is me. The one common denominator and thinker in my life is my mind. So I can go, oh, but they didn’t. Oh, but she didn’t. Oh, but he didn’t. Oh yes, maybe they did or they didn’t, but my mind is the one that made it happen.
(16:45):
You don’t have to go back to school like I did. I just wanted to make a life out of this work. So I became a spiritual practitioner like some of the people in this room. I took classes and workshops and it wasn’t enough. I had to go to grad school. But you don’t have to do that because this law that we are studying, it’s working whether or not you have a degree or not right now, everyone in this room, the experience that you’re having is not because of what I’m saying. The experience that you’re having is the result of your own beliefs about you sitting in this room and what you’re hearing. Take a deep breath. One of my favorite quotes, favorite quotes from Ernest Holmes is this, we are chemists in the laboratory of consciousness. What then shall we produce? Did you know that you’re a chemist?
(17:42):
Maybe the last time you were in a lab, last time you picked up a beaker, put on some goggles, was in high school but are still a mighty chemist. The thoughts that you think, the decisions that you make impact not only the chemistry of your beliefs, but literally the chemistry in your body, your nervous system, the stress hormones that get released are the result of the thoughts and the beliefs that you hold. Sure, they may be stimulated by something outside of you, but ultimately you are the one who can manage what’s happening in the laboratory of your life.
(18:23):
The book or books that we’re looking at this month are both from Earnest Holmes Life is what You Make it, which is kind of like this power, these short little vignette essays that summarizes the bigger tome, the bigger text, the science of mind, and the two chapters that I’m focusing on is the one called the fundamental principle. What’s coming out of life is what you make it and out of the science of mind text the thing itself. This is the fundamental principle. If you hear nothing else today, if you write nothing else today, three words be do and for the people online have, be, do have.
(19:10):
This is the order of success. This is the order of manifestation. This is the order of living in right relationship to our world. First we be, then we do, and then we have an experience. But most of us have it flipped backwards and we think we have to have something in order to do something and therefore be the person we want to be. Can I get an amen on that? I don’t have enough money, so therefore I can’t do this thing and I’ll never be here. I’m living that challenge. I’m not up here speaking to you as someone who’s high and mighty and not having that experience. This is the fundamental challenge of humanity.
(20:01):
We think we have to have something in order to do something and therefore be the person we want to be. We must be the person that we want to be, and from that consciousness, from that mindset, then we do our life, whatever the doing is, and as we continue to be and do and be and do, lo and behold, we will have the life that we desire. Let me illustrate this for you. I got a couple of perplexed looks on people’s faces. How many of you are wanting romantic love in your life right now? Okay, so in order to have romance, have romance, you think you can’t be a romantic partner until you have someone in your life, but what does it take for you to be first and you step out into your day, you walk down the street attractive. You walk into a room in every single conversation doing and being the very thing that’s going to draw love and romance into your life. You don’t just go, oh, well, let me scroll through this app. Oh no, I can’t be romantic with that person. I can’t be romantic with that person. So you are stopping yourself from being the very thing that’s going to draw the thing into your life that you desire. Are you following this? Are you tracking with me? We be, then we do and we will have.
(21:48):
Let’s take it out of the area of romance and let’s take it to work. I’m assured that all of us that are working, and this still includes you, Reverend Judy, even though you’re retired girl, you’re still working something in life so you don’t get off the hook here. Let’s use the example. If you want to be a manager and you’re an assistant, you don’t try and wait for a manager job to pop open that you apply for to start behaving like a manager. No. What if you were to walk into work tomorrow regardless of your title and say, I’m going to own some stuff today like I’m a manager to use the more colloquial things. I’m going to be a baller today. To be in the mindset of a manager requires no title to be in the mindset and to take ownership and to behave and do things like a manager would. You don’t need approval from anybody for that. If you start being and doing that, what’s going to happen? People are start looking and coming to you like you’re a manager. They may even come to you instead of the actual titled manager in your office and your manager are going to be like, what’s going on here? They’re asking them for help and direction. Who am I?
(23:20):
Is anyone tired of working for someone else and they want to be an entrepreneur? I’m raising my hand because that’s me to be an entrepreneur. You don’t start doing that once you’ve lost your job. Once you’ve quit your job, you start to be in the mindset and the vibration and the frequency and the choosing of an entrepreneur, and if you do that, then when you start interacting in your job of employment, you’re not showing up like someone who’s going to be there for another 20 years. You’re showing up like someone who’s doing what they got to do to make the money and pay their bills, but they are headed in the direction of having their own business. Three illustrations. You got it ish.
(24:14):
Take time to investigate. This is one of the biggest quotes from our reading today that I want you to take with you. Take time to investigate. This isn’t necessarily about reading more. I’m not telling you to go read more books. I’m not telling you to take more classes and workshops, although that’s where you can specifically get down into the nitty and gritty of things, but the laboratory is your life. The classroom is your current living. When I asked you to take a look at the areas of your life where things are working, that’s a good thing to take note of. Why are they working? What do you believe about yourself in life, in the areas that are working? And then to go, let me investigate where things are not working. What do I believe about myself? What do I believe about others in life, in the areas that are not working?
(25:02):
This gives us great, great data, information and insight on where we can bring our spiritual practice into our living. This is where you know how to mix things up in the laboratory of your life. If things are working, don’t forget about it. Let that be an affirmation, but where you need to spend some energy in 2024 are the areas that are not working for you and to step into it with as much kindness and compassion for yourself. The fact that something is not working in your life is not an indicator that you are not working. It’s simply an indicator that there’s an opportunity for you to consciously work the change. You’ve been asleep at the wheel in this life, in this area, and you’ve been letting the external conditions impact your internal experience you’ve been trying to have before you be. This is where you can be, do and then have you are the common denominator, the most common denominator. So if you want to maximize your life this year, I’m not saying you stop talking to other people, but you let everybody else go and figure their crap out and you figure your stuff out.
(26:27):
There is nothing. There is nothing that anyone else needs to do in order for you to take greater responsibility for your mind, unleash the power of your mind. Let go of disempowering yourself by waiting for someone else to say something or do something. You are the one that holds that power. Some quotes from the life is what you make it. The premise, the principle that he’s talking about here, the premise is that our outer scene life is an exact duplication of our inner unseen thought. So this is where the investigation is good. We say that we need to be first and then, but we can get some information. If we look at the outer circumstances and something happening there is not to our liking, then we don’t stay there for very long. We just go, oops, something’s not working. Let me trace it back. Has anyone ever tried to max or not maximize to realize a goal?
(27:31):
Say like, okay, by the end of June I am going to do X. If you want to do X by the end of June, you’ve got to back out of June 30th and go, what am I doing the week before June 30th? What am I doing the week before June 20th or whatever the number is, but you go week by week, month by month, back to the current date and you kind of lay out your plans that will get you to June 30th. So if there’s something happening in your life that is not to your liking again, it is not indicative that you are wrong. You just need to stop for a minute, investigate it and go, okay, that’s not what I want to happen. What is it that I do want to happen? Sometimes we don’t even know what we want. Anyone ever say, anyone ever ask you What do you want? And you go, I don’t know. Come on, investigate. What do you want? Be courageous. Who said courageous? I saw that online. A couple of people said, courage is the word this year for themselves. Be courageous to declare what you want.
(28:36):
Own the responsibility of that investigate. We are bound by nothing except belief. Juicy words from Ernie Holmes. You aren’t bound by your circumstances. You are bound by your belief in your circumstances and what they mean. The outer change never fails to come when the inner thought is intelligently changed. The outer change that you desire in your life never fails to come to pass. If the inner thought of your mind is intelligently changed. What does that mean? Does it mean you have to read more books? No. It means you investigate and you intelligently make choices as opposed to passively making choices, reacting to the external circumstance. Most of the time we are in reaction to life what other people do and what they don’t do.
(29:38):
You may say, well, Darryl, I can’t ignore my bank account. It’s too low. There isn’t a partner in my life. I’m not telling you to ignore those things. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be responsible for them, but right now most of us are playing a game of catch up. We’re trying to catch up to the life that we want by the life that we’re in. Stop for a minute, step back, be then do. Then half the thing itself is your mind. It is the most powerful thing on the planet. Your mind is the most powerful thing on the planet for you.
(30:25):
How much responsibility are you taking for the most powerful thing on the planet? It is only yours to own the definition of prayer, affirmation, spiritual mind treatment in the science of mind. Text says the time, process and method and necessary to change our thought, the time, the process and methods. So those of you in prac training pay attention necessary to changing our thought. Treatment is clearing the thought of negation, of doubt and of fear and causing. This is what we’re causing. We’re causing ourselves to perceive the ever presence of God. That’s it right here. In the midst of the crap of my life, I deny the power of that crap. It may stink, but the presence of the all great essence is still within me To affirm that over and over and over again. It takes time. That is the process of treatment. This isn’t magic that you say something once and then everything changes.
(31:41):
We have been living on this planet for however many biological years you’ve been here. You’ve been practicing being you for that long and a lot of that practicing has been unconscious. Now you can consciously practice being you, maximize this year. Harness the power of your thinking. Alright, I got to wrap it up one more time. We are bound by nothing except belief, not other people’s belief, not the beliefs that are posted by someone on Instagram, not even the beliefs of our governmental leaders. You are bound by the beliefs of your mind, so take responsibility for those beliefs. We are chemists in the laboratory of the infinite. What then shall we produce? At the end of the chapter, there is something that Ernest Holmes calls a meditation. I’m going to read it to you now. Some may call it a prayer.
(32:38):
Take a deep breath in and close your eyes. Turn within. Let go of the external and embrace the internal and imagine that as I read these words out loud, this is your spirit. This is your intelligence. This is your mind speaking to itself. Today I make a new venture in the realm of thoughts. I am determined to use my mind consciously and constructively to improve my health and my condition. I resolve to banish every thought of anxiety and fear. I believe that there is a power in the universe that is available and trustworthy. I will entertain no angry or envious thoughts. I will dwell only on that which is true. What is worthy, what is right, what is pure, what is amiable? What is kindly on everything that is excellent or praiseworthy? I believe that these attitudes of mind persisted in will bring to me greater peace, health, and happiness. I believe that with an inflow of peace and health, my conditions will be improved. I am ready to prove this in my life. I am ready to prove this in my life and I resolve to persist until my outer experiences are a duplication of my thought.
(34:12):
I am here to be. I do and then have and so it is. Happy 2024, everybody maximize this year. I look forward to hearing how things go. Peace and blessings to you all.