© 2019 Santiago Rodríguez
© 2019 Urantia Association of Spain
Presentation Malaga 2019
Investigating the fruits of the spirit has shown me a path I want to share. A path that, to my surprise, instead of being linear with a beginning and an end, has turned out to be circular, so that it feeds back into itself at every stage.
It has led me to recognize my true duality as a human being, to realize how recognizing this duality allows me to be born of the spirit, thus being able to have religious experiences and grow spiritually to do the will of the Father.
It is in my hands to be able to enjoy a full life.
On the birth of the spirit, what it is and how it is achieved
What are religious experiences and how do you get them?
What it means to grow spiritually and how to do it
What is the Father's will and how is it carried out?
¶ PRODUCING THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT IS NECESSARY!!!
It seems that this matter of the fruits of the spirit is serious business: faith, recognition and acceptance of filiation with the Father and of brotherhood among men is the prerequisite for salvation, and this path that begins with the acceptance of this truth compels us, suggests to us, that we have the experience of producing the fruits of spiritual life just as it is lived in the flesh.
So this is something immediate!!! of here and now!! WE CANNOT DELAY IT. UB 176:3.3 UB 193:1.2
Let us see what the path is, the journey to be taken to obtain the fruits of the spirit. I present to you a theory, but it is something eminently practical, based on experience…the practice is up to each one… UB 156:5.2 … Jesus… said: «To produce the fruits of the spirit, you must have been born of the spirit.
It is essential that we be born of the spirit if we would enter the kingdom of God: UB 142:6.5
¶ What is being born of the spirit? How does it happen?
The mind is the mechanism that thinks, perceives, and feels. UB 0:5.8 and we know that mind mediates between spirit and matter, so the true duality of human beings is not reason and emotion, since both are part of the activity of the mind.
The true duality in human beings is established between UB 34:6.9 the material aspect dominated by the material mind and animal tendencies (ego included) versus the elevated impulse of the spiritual gift, the soul, and the consequent spiritualization of the material mind. It is difficult and rare to be able to fully reconcile and harmonize this duality in life on Earth, but we must try; we have no other choice.
We don’t have to be overwhelmed because we are not alone in this endeavor.
Our nature provides that as children, a selfish nature first develops, UB 103:2.9 possibly linked to the animal survival instinct, with the possibility of altruistic choice arriving later in the experience of the human being due to the fact of possessing moral capacity.
Let’s take a quick look at what a typical evolution might look like.
When we observe our thoughts and feelings in adulthood and reflect on them, we can recognize that we have gone through a series of stages or phases over time, which I will try to summarize.
First stage: I think and feel that I need things… I have to get them. The ego is above everything… because that makes me feel strong, capable… powerful… does that feeling sound familiar? Things, people, and circumstances must revolve around my needs. I am the most important thing; the rest of the world is secondary. This is a clearly egocentric stage. Observe children, adolescents, and some adults—even any of us in some circumstances.
Second stage: Selfish acts no longer satisfy me, I accuse myself and feel that society accuses me, therefore I think and feel that I must change course, I surely consider starting with “exchange.”
I’m beginning to think that if I receive, I must also give. I’m even coming to the conviction that it’s better to give than to receive.
I’m starting to think about giving back some of what I have, but be careful! We still think it’s not very smart to give everything and end up with nothing.
The motivating element of this phase is apparently generosity and altruism, but if you look inside yourself you realize that the true motivator could well be fear.
Fear of being rejected, both by yourself and by those around you, as well as the fear of being left with nothing and no friends…
At this stage I give, even generously, but I expect to be reciprocated in some way.
Does that sound familiar to you: “you have disappointed me”?.. but, who is the one who is disappointed, who is the one who expects something in return, who suffers if they do not obtain at least some of the results they have already projected in their mind?.. friends, it is the EGO again.
Our material part still prevails…but with understanding and accepting these dynamics of the mind, emotions, and feelings, we move closer to the point of spiritual birth.
Normally at this point in our life process, I am already an adult, and the experiences I have lived lead me to take a step further, I manage to further refine my emotional reactions so that I am now able to not expect the same thing that I give, but I do expect compensation, whether now in this life or in the next life… for that I have already developed my sense of justice and fairness.
If I do something for others, and I know that there is justice in the universe, I have to receive something in return.
I can confirm that some people who do nothing (or at least I think they don’t deserve it), or who are bad and depraved, receive satisfaction in this life. If there is divine justice, at least I should be compensated in some way. If this hasn’t been possible in this life, I will hope that in the next life I will be given something more or something better than the one who has been “bad” in this world. That would be logical, wouldn’t it?
Third stage: I must go further. I cannot allow the motivating element in my evolutionary process to be fear: fear of what people will say, fear of not being able to please the Father, fear of being criticized and not accepted by my own ego, fear of not achieving a good position in this life or the next life…
I realize, and it is written in the UB, that fear and shame are worthless motivations for the religious life!!! UB 140:4.7
How can one be born of the spirit? Jesus tells us UB 142:6.7: pay attention to the leadings of the spirit (both the Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth and the Holy Spirit), and choose wholeheartedly to follow their guidance.
What is being born of the spirit? UB 160:5.10 It is the destruction of the self and the reconstruction of the soul.
We must “annihilate” the EGO, but let’s not fool ourselves: we cannot make it disappear. Besides, it will not be possible, nor is it convenient for us, since it is a formidable driving force in our progress and in our journey.
It is not a question of disabling selfish impulses, for they are a part of your development, but you must strive to give a slight advantage to altruistic impulses in order to achieve progress and even happiness. UB 103:2.7
Now, it’s key to increase the quality of your thinking, positive thinking, developing your intelligence, including your emotional intelligence, self-knowledge, and then achieving self-understanding will help you understand other human beings.
Do you hear questions like: “I would like to… but…”?
I would like to play sports but in the end I never find the time to do it.
I’d like to go on a diet…but I don’t have the willpower.
I’d like to learn another language… but I don’t have the money.
I would like to collaborate with an NGO… but I don’t have time for it.
Do you really think they are very different from these others?
I would like to be a better person…but my genetic inheritance prevents me from doing so…I was born that way…
I would like to be more spiritual…but Lucifer’s rebellion…the lack of Adam and Eve…plus our planet is decimal…
I would like to have a “religious experience”… but I don’t know what that is exactly, or if it really serves any purpose.
I would like to be “born of the Spirit”… but what is that… and how do I do it?
I would like to do the Father’s will…but I don’t know what it is or how to guess it.
How many times do those answers we give ourselves sound like, “I’d like to have the first thing without doing much,” or “I’d rather have it given to me without doing anything at all?” How many times do those answers hide laziness, a lack of enthusiasm, an unwillingness to compromise, a fear of failure, a lack of confidence?
I’m afraid all of the above questions have something in common… the complaint, the excuse, the delay… and although they are well-founded excuses, they are excuses nonetheless… The Urantia Book offers you the opportunity to clear up doubts and find answers…
Know that we have no excuse for not going in the right direction. UB 5:1.4 // UB 5:1.5 // UB 5:1.6 // UB 5:1.7
We may not be able to change inherited emotional impulses, but we can work on our emotional reaction to them. We can modify that reaction, and we must. UB 140:4.8
But attention is not about “tearing” anything away from our lives.
We are to banish violence UB 143:1.7 even that which we exercise toward ourselves; we are to eradicate the physical poisons UB 110:1.5 that retard the Adjuster’s efforts to elevate the material mind, and we are to combat the mental poisons of fear, anger, envy, jealousy, distrust and intolerance, impatience and wrath. UB 48:7.20
The important thing is to realize that we can do this without violence (remember: evolution yes, revolution no) and in a way that is more in line with the Master’s positive teachings.
We must NOT resist selfish manifestations. UB 180:5.9
Moral courage cannot come from obedience to the command “Thou shalt not” UB 140:4.7
We have to plant seeds and grow them vigorously in the fertile field of our minds, because that is the terrain available to us, from reason and from emotion and feeling.
What are those seeds? UB 34:6.13
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, long-suffering, and temperance [moderation, sobriety, and continence]" and I insist that it must be the growth of these seeds that withers the growth of the other seeds, and not the struggle to eliminate what distances us from spiritual values.
An example of this is the attitude we must take when faced with one of the poisons of the spirit, anger.
We must not fight against that anger; otherwise, not only will we not eradicate it, but after the angry outburst, we will blame ourselves for it.
We will not focus our attention on the angry act and how we feel afterward. This will not weaken our anger, but rather fuel it in the future… We must understand that anger, like other attitudes, is a legacy and an automatic response of our emotional system.
We need to change our behavior; we need to work on generating thoughts and taking actions that inspire us, for example, with “kindness.”
We will not focus, intend, or be interested in “pulling” anger out of our hearts.
On the contrary, we will focus our attention on generating “joy,” generating “peace,” and being “kind” in every moment of our lives, including the moment immediately following the onslaught of anger.
The outbursts of anger will continue to come; our greatest opportunity is to observe them calmly and let them pass. They will not be the focus of our attention…we don’t want to have anything to do with them. They are with us, but we don’t want them to be a part of us.
We know that we need difficulties to develop properly. UB 154:2.5 Let us not lament encountering them; it is a magnificent opportunity to put into practice “longsuffering,” for example.
Where do we find the strength to overcome laziness and any obstacles that will undoubtedly arise in our daily lives? UB 160:3.1 combining meditation and relaxation… worship is the secret.
We need spiritual energy, which is also depleted. The way to obtain it is related to worship… there is no one way to worship; each person must experiment and find their own method. The secret to learning is to practice every day. Don’t use the fact that you don’t know how to do it as an excuse… just the fact of trying already produces the effect we need.
And it must be practiced regularly for it to crystallize into a habit that will later save you time and also give you energy.
Once these seeds begin to grow in our lives (these are the fruits of the spirit), we know we have been reborn in the spirit. But we have to make them grow ourselves; with our own determination and effort, they don’t grow alone.
In short, what is expected of you is self-forgetfulness UB 180:5.12 , self-realization through the union of social service and universe understanding. The old religion seeks your self-denial [sacrifice or relinquishment of desires or interests, usually for religious or altruistic reasons]. The new does not.
What the new religion of Jesus seeks is for you to walk your path with spontaneous, generous, and sincere kindness.
¶ What is a religious experience, and how do you achieve it?
Why is the idea of the possibility of having a religious experience so appealing to us?
For religious experiences unfailingly produce the fruits of the spirit. UB 99:5.6
Because the soul develops according to experience UB 0:5.10
The UB defines what an “experience” is, UB 117:5.13 and although it may not be grammatically correct, from a conceptual point of view experiences are not “had,” but “done.”
“Having” an experience involves making a decision (free will) and consummating it in an action.
We make many decisions every day and we also take many actions… but for them to have the status of “religious” certain conditions are required…381.3 1287.4, there are some requirements to be met.
Before making the decision, worship the Father.
Then, pass that decision through the filter of intelligent love, that is, ask yourself if it’s the best decision you can make, if it will be good for the greatest number of people and for the longest possible time.
Once you have selected the “decision” using these criteria, execute it, do it, carry it out with the intention of making it a fraternal service. UB 103:2.8 // UB 0:11.1
We have to “do” is the consequence of being part of the Supreme UB 115:0.1
And forget about the consequences of this action, of this religious experience, do not enter into the dynamics of the ego that begins to evaluate the result of that action…UB 48:7.13 11. The act is ours, the consequences belong to God.
It is normal for the question to arise as to whether that experience is good or not… you have a way to evaluate it, UB 132:2.5 just observe and answer the following questions:
Does it raise my appreciation of beauty?
Is my moral will increasing?
Do I feel it helps me discern the truth?
Does it allow me to increase my capacity to love and serve other human beings?
¶ What is spiritual growth? How do you do it?
You only have to observe whether the spirit begins to dominate your life, and it’s very easy to notice… Do you remember the seeds we planted in the fertile field of our mind, the fruits of the spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, longsuffering, and temperance—do they grow within you? Do you share them with your fellow human beings?
Remember that prayer increases spiritual growth. UB 91:8.10, it is in fact the most powerful stimulus to spiritual growth. UB 91:8.11
Although spiritual growth is completely unconscious, we can work to increase the speed of this process; to do so, we must develop a conditioned spiritual reflex.
That is, to work in the direction of achieving an automatic response to religious stimuli, one must work consciously on such aspects as cultivating sensitivity to divine values, recognizing the religious life of others, reflective meditation on cosmic meanings, solving problems through worship, sharing one’s spiritual life with one’s fellow men, avoiding selfishness, refusing to abuse divine mercy, and living as if one were in the presence of God. UB 100:1.8
Continuously produces the fruits of the spirit!!!
¶ What is the Father’s will and how is it carried out?
The LU says it in so many ways, and so many times, that it often goes unnoticed…it is quite likely to be part of the “I would like to…but…”
The UB is categorical and devastating: It is not enough to be good, a man who is morally good, loyal, filial, honest and even idealistic, but who denies God intellectually, only produces social fruits but does not produce spiritual fruits, so his life is devoid of survival values… UB 102:7.4
Does the expression “doing the Father’s will” sound familiar to us? It doesn’t say thinking, feeling, or deciding; it says doing (because it implies prior conscious thought and decision). UB 1:1.2
You must produce the fruits of the spirit. UB 140:1.4, UB 140:10.6, UB 142:1.5, UB 142:6.7, the fruits of the spirit are the highest type of pleasing self-control that an earth mortal can attain, UB 143:2.8. And you must do it in an unselfish manner UB 178:1.4.
The Father only asks that we bear much fruit… UB 180:2.1, UB 180:2.5,
We have a threefold obligation: duty to men, duty to God, and service to the brotherhood of believers who know God. UB 178:1.5 // UB 193:1.2 // UB 5:1.11
And it’s all about loving one another as Jesus loved us.
We only have to be attentive to produce the following fruits and we will be doing the Father’s will: UB 193:2.2 If we are not able to produce them we are dead
| loving service | selfless consecration |
| brave loyalty | sincere fairness |
| enlightened honesty | everlasting hope |
| faithful trust | merciful ministry |
| inexhaustible kindness | indulgent tolerance |
| lasting peace |
Have you noticed that all these “fruits of the spirit,” which is what the Father wants each of us to produce in abundance, have a description?
Could it have to do with the need for all these actions not to come from an instinctive, natural act, but rather to have passed through the filter of the voluntary and conscious decision of the person carrying them out?
Voluntary circle of rational and emotional understanding of intelligent and selfless action
¶ Appointments
- Mind. The thinking, perceiving, and feeling mechanism of the human organism. The total conscious and unconscious experience. The intelligence associated with the emotional life reaching upward through worship and wisdom to the spirit level. UB 0:5.8
- Soul. The soul of man is an experiential acquirement. As a mortal creature chooses to “do the will of the Father in heaven,” so the indwelling spirit becomes the father of a new reality in human experience. The mortal and material mind is the mother of this same emerging reality. The substance of this new reality is neither material nor spiritual—it is morontial. This is the emerging and immortal soul which is destined to survive mortal death and begin the Paradise ascension. UB 0:5.10
When the combined thought of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son, functioning in the God of Action, constituted the creation of the divine and central universe, the Father followed the expression of his thought into the word of his Son and the act of their Conjoint Executive by differentiating his Havona presence from the potentials of infinity UB 0:11.1
The Universal Father never imposes any form of arbitrary recognition, formal worship, or slavish service upon the intelligent will creatures of the universes. The evolutionary inhabitants of the worlds of time and space must of themselves—in their own hearts—recognize, love, and voluntarily worship him. The Creator refuses to coerce or compel the submission of the spiritual free wills of his material creatures. The affectionate dedication of the human will to the doing of the Father’s will is man’s choicest gift to God; in fact, such a consecration of creature will constitutes man’s only possible gift of true value to the Paradise Father. UB 1:1.2
The mortals of the realms of time and space may differ greatly in innate abilities and intellectual endowment, they may enjoy environments exceptionally favorable to social advancement and moral progress, or they may suffer from the lack of almost every human aid to culture and supposed advancement in the arts of civilization; but the possibilities for spiritual progress in the ascension career are equal to all; increasing levels of spiritual insight and cosmic meanings are attained quite independently of all such sociomoral differentials of the diversified material environments on the evolutionary worlds. UB 5:1.4
However Urantia mortals may differ in their intellectual, social, economic, and even moral opportunities and endowments, forget not that their spiritual endowment is uniform and unique. They all enjoy the same divine presence of the gift from the Father, and they are all equally privileged to seek intimate personal communion with this indwelling spirit of divine origin, while they may all equally choose to accept the uniform spiritual leading of these Mystery Monitors. UB 5:1.5
If mortal man is wholeheartedly spiritually motivated, unreservedly consecrated to the doing of the Father’s will, then, since he is so certainly and so effectively spiritually endowed by the indwelling and divine Adjuster, there cannot fail to materialize in that individual’s experience the sublime consciousness of knowing God and the supernal assurance of surviving for the purpose of finding God by the progressive experience of becoming more and more like him. UB 5:1.6
Man is spiritually indwelt by a surviving Thought Adjuster. If such a human mind is sincerely and spiritually motivated, if such a human soul desires to know God and become like him, honestly wants to do the Father’s will, there exists no negative influence of mortal deprivation nor positive power of possible interference which can prevent such a divinely motivated soul from securely ascending to the portals of Paradise. UB 5:1.7
Mortal man may draw near God and may repeatedly forsake the divine will so long as the power of choice remains. Man’s final doom is not sealed until he has lost the power to choose the Father’s will. There is never a closure of the Father’s heart to the need and the petition of his children. Only do his offspring close their hearts forever to the Father’s drawing power when they finally and forever lose the desire to do his divine will—to know him and to be like him. UB 5:1.11
In every mortal there exists a dual nature: the inheritance of animal tendencies and the high urge of spirit endowment. During the short life you live on Urantia, these two diverse and opposing urges can seldom be fully reconciled; they can hardly be harmonized and unified; but throughout your lifetime the combined Spirit ever ministers to assist you in subjecting the flesh more and more to the leading of the Spirit. Even though you must live your material life through, even though you cannot escape the body and its necessities, nonetheless, in purpose and ideals you are empowered increasingly to subject the animal nature to the mastery of the Spirit. There truly exists within you a conspiracy of spiritual forces, a confederation of divine powers, whose exclusive purpose is to effect your final deliverance from material bondage and finite handicaps. UB 34:6.9
The consciousness of the spirit domination of a human life is presently attended by an increasing exhibition of the characteristics of the Spirit in the life reactions of such a spirit-led mortal, “for the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.” Such spirit-guided and divinely illuminated mortals, while they yet tread the lowly paths of toil and in human faithfulness perform the duties of their earthly assignments, have already begun to discern the lights of eternal life as they glimmer on the faraway shores of another world; already have they begun to comprehend the reality of that inspiring and comforting truth, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” And throughout every trial and in the presence of every hardship, spirit-born souls are sustained by that hope which transcends all fear because the love of God is shed abroad in all hearts by the presence of the divine Spirit. UB 34:6.13
The mortal-mind transcripts and the active creature-memory patterns as transformed from the material levels to the spiritual are the individual possession of the detached Thought Adjusters; these spiritized factors of mind, memory, and creature personality are forever a part of such Adjusters. The creature mind-matrix and the passive potentials of identity are present in the morontia soul intrusted to the keeping of the seraphic destiny guardians. And it is the reuniting of the morontia-soul trust of the seraphim and the spirit-mind trust of the Adjuster that reassembles creature personality and constitutes resurrection of a sleeping survivor. UB 47:3.3
- The weak indulge in resolutions, but the strong act. Life is but a day’s work—do it well. The act is ours; the consequences God’s. UB 48:7.13
- Impatience is a spirit poison; anger is like a stone hurled into a hornet’s nest. UB 48:7.20
Genuine prayer adds to spiritual growth, modifies attitudes, and yields that satisfaction which comes from communion with divinity. It is a spontaneous outburst of God-consciousness. UB 91:8.10
God answers man’s prayer by giving him an increased revelation of truth, an enhanced appreciation of beauty, and an augmented concept of goodness. Prayer is a subjective gesture, but it contacts with mighty objective realities on the spiritual levels of human experience; it is a meaningful reach by the human for superhuman values. It is the most potent spiritual-growth stimulus. UB 91:8.11
Any religious belief which is effective in spiritualizing the believer is certain to have powerful repercussions in the social life of such a religionist. Religious experience unfailingly yields the “fruits of the spirit” in the daily life of the spirit-led mortal. UB 99:5.6
Religious habits of thinking and acting are contributory to the economy of spiritual growth. One can develop religious predispositions toward favorable reaction to spiritual stimuli, a sort of conditioned spiritual reflex. Habits which favor religious growth embrace cultivated sensitivity to divine values, recognition of religious living in others, reflective meditation on cosmic meanings, worshipful problem solving, sharing one’s spiritual life with one’s fellows, avoidance of selfishness, refusal to presume on divine mercy, living as in the presence of God. The factors of religious growth may be intentional, but the growth itself is unvaryingly unconscious. UB 100:1.8
2. Spiritual growth
Spiritual development depends, first, on the maintenance of a living spiritual connection with true spiritual forces and, second, on the continuous bearing of spiritual fruit: yielding the ministry to one’s fellows of that which has been received from one’s spiritual benefactors. Spiritual progress is predicated on intellectual recognition of spiritual poverty coupled with the self-consciousness of perfection-hunger, the desire to know God and be like him, the wholehearted purpose to do the will of the Father in heaven. UB 100:2.1
Spiritual growth is first an awakening to needs, next a discernment of meanings, and then a discovery of values. The evidence of true spiritual development consists in the exhibition of a human personality motivated by love, activated by unselfish ministry, and dominated by the wholehearted worship of the perfection ideals of divinity. And this entire experience constitutes the reality of religion as contrasted with mere theological beliefs. UB 100:2.2
You cannot truly love your fellows by a mere act of the will. Love is only born of thoroughgoing understanding of your neighbor’s motives and sentiments. It is not so important to love all men today as it is that each day you learn to love one more human being. If each day or each week you achieve an understanding of one more of your fellows, and if this is the limit of your ability, then you are certainly socializing and truly spiritualizing your personality. Love is infectious, and when human devotion is intelligent and wise, love is more catching than hate. But only genuine and unselfish love is truly contagious. If each mortal could only become a focus of dynamic affection, this benign virus of love would soon pervade the sentimental emotion-stream of humanity to such an extent that all civilization would be encompassed by love, and that would be the realization of the brotherhood of man. UB 100:4.6
The self has surrendered to the intriguing drive of an all-encompassing motivation which imposes heightened self-discipline, lessens emotional conflict, and makes mortal life truly worth living. The morbid recognition of human limitations is changed to the natural consciousness of mortal shortcomings, associated with moral determination and spiritual aspiration to attain the highest universe and superuniverse goals. And this intense striving for the attainment of supermortal ideals is always characterized by increasing patience, forbearance, fortitude, and tolerance. UB 100:6.4
But true religion is a living love, a life of service. The religionist’s detachment from much that is purely temporal and trivial never leads to social isolation, and it should not destroy the sense of humor. Genuine religion takes nothing away from human existence, but it does add new meanings to all of life; it generates new types of enthusiasm, zeal, and courage. It may even engender the spirit of the crusader, which is more than dangerous if not controlled by spiritual insight and loyal devotion to the commonplace social obligations of human loyalties. UB 100:6.5
One of the most amazing earmarks of religious living is that dynamic and sublime peace, that peace which passes all human understanding, that cosmic poise which betokens the absence of all doubt and turmoil. Such levels of spiritual stability are immune to disappointment. Such religionists are like the Apostle Paul, who said: “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else shall be able to separate us from the love of God.” UB 100:6.6
There is a sense of security, associated with the realization of triumphing glory, resident in the consciousness of the religionist who has grasped the reality of the Supreme, and who pursues the goal of the Ultimate. UB 100:6.7
… Neither logic (rationalization) nor emotion (feeling) is essentially a part of religious experience, although both may variously be associated with the exercise of faith in the furtherance of spiritual insight into reality, all according to the status and temperamental tendency of the individual mind. UB 101:5.9
Material feelings, human emotions, lead directly to material actions, selfish acts. Religious insights, spiritual motivations, lead directly to religious actions, unselfish acts of social service and altruistic benevolence. UB 102:3.3
True, many apparently religious traits can grow out of nonreligious roots. Man can, intellectually, deny God and yet be morally good, loyal, filial, honest, and even idealistic. Man may graft many purely humanistic branches onto his basic spiritual nature and thus apparently prove his contentions in behalf of a godless religion, but such an experience is devoid of survival values, God-knowingness and God-ascension. In such a mortal experience only social fruits are forthcoming, not spiritual. The graft determines the nature of the fruit, notwithstanding that the living sustenance is drawn from the roots of original divine endowment of both mind and spirit. UB 102:7.4
In the absence of wrong teaching, the mind of the normal child moves positively, in the emergence of religious consciousness, toward moral righteousness and social ministry, rather than negatively, away from sin and guilt. There may or may not be conflict in the development of religious experience, but there are always present the inevitable decisions, effort, and function of the human will. UB 103:2.6
Moral choice is usually accompanied by a greater or lesser moral conflict. This first conflict of the child mind takes place between the keen desires of selfishness and the impulses of altruism. The Thought Adjuster does not despise the values that selfish motives hold for personality, but he labors to give a slight preference to those altruistic impulses that lead to the goal of human happiness and the joys of the kingdom of heaven. UB 103:2.7
When a moral being chooses to be unselfish when confronted by the urge to be selfish, that is primitive religious experience. No animal can make such a choice; such a decision is both human and religious. It embraces the fact of God-consciousness and exhibits the impulse of social service, the basis of the brotherhood of man. When mind chooses a right moral judgment by an act of the free will, such a decision constitutes a religious experience. UB 103:2.8
But before a child has developed sufficiently to acquire moral capacity and therefore to be able to choose altruistic service, he has already developed a strong and well-unified egoistic nature. UB 103:2.9
Human happiness is achieved only when the ego desire of the self and the altruistic urge of the higher self (divine spirit) are co-ordinated and reconciled by the unified will of the integrating and supervising personality. The mind of evolutionary man is ever confronted with the intricate problem of refereeing the contest between the natural expansion of emotional impulses and the moral growth of unselfish urges predicated on spiritual insight—genuine religious reflection. UB 103:5.5
The Adjuster remains with you in all disaster and through every sickness which does not wholly destroy the mentality. But how unkind knowingly to defile or otherwise deliberately to pollute the physical body, which must serve as the earthly tabernacle of this marvelous gift from God. All physical poisons greatly retard the efforts of the Adjuster to exalt the material mind, while the mental poisons of fear, anger, envy, jealousy, suspicion, and intolerance likewise tremendously interfere with the spiritual progress of the evolving soul. UB 110:1.5
WITH God the Father, sonship is the great relationship. With God the Supreme, achievement is the prerequisite to status—one must do something as well as be something. UB 115:0.1
What man himself takes with him as a personality possession are the character consequences of the experience of having used the mind and spirit circuits of the grand universe in his Paradise ascent. When man decides, and when he consummates this decision in action, man experiences, and the meanings and the values of this experience are forever a part of his eternal character on all levels, from the finite to the final. Cosmically moral and divinely spiritual character represents the creature’s capital accumulation of personal decisions which have been illuminated by sincere worship, glorified by intelligent love, and consummated in brotherly service. UB 117:5.13
Goodness is always growing toward new levels of the increasing liberty of moral self-realization and spiritual personality attainment—the discovery of, and identification with, the indwelling Adjuster. An experience is good when it heightens the appreciation of beauty, augments the moral will, enhances the discernment of truth, enlarges the capacity to love and serve one’s fellows, exalts the spiritual ideals, and unifies the supreme human motives of time with the eternal plans of the indwelling Adjuster, all of which lead directly to an increased desire to do the Father’s will, thereby fostering the divine passion to find God and to be more like him. UB 132:2.5
“But for you, my children, and for all others who would follow you into this kingdom, there is set a severe test. Faith alone will pass you through its portals, but you must bring forth the fruits of my Father’s spirit if you would continue to ascend in the progressive life of the divine fellowship. Verily, verily, I say to you, not every one who says, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but rather he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. UB 140:1.4
… Fear and shame are worthless motivations for the religious life… UB 140:4.7
“By their fruits you shall know them.” Personality is basically changeless; that which changes—grows—is the moral character. The major error of modern religions is negativism. The tree which bears no fruit is “hewn down and cast into the fire.” Moral worth cannot be derived from mere repression—obeying the injunction “Thou shalt not.” Fear and shame are unworthy motivations for religious living. Religion is valid only when it reveals the fatherhood of God and enhances the brotherhood of men. UB 140:4.7
An effective philosophy of living is formed by a combination of cosmic insight and the total of one’s emotional reactions to the social and economic environment. Remember: While inherited urges cannot be fundamentally modified, emotional responses to such urges can be changed; therefore the moral nature can be modified, character can be improved. In the strong character emotional responses are integrated and co-ordinated, and thus is produced a unified personality. Deficient unification weakens the moral nature and engenders unhappiness. UB 140:4.8
Education should be a technique of learning (discovering) the better methods of gratifying our natural and inherited urges, and happiness is the resulting total of these enhanced techniques of emotional satisfactions. Happiness is little dependent on environment, though pleasing surroundings may greatly contribute thereto. UB 140:4.10
This new religion of Jesus was not without its practical implications, but whatever of practical political, social, or economic value there is to be found in his teaching is the natural outworking of this inner experience of the soul as it manifests the fruits of the spirit in the spontaneous daily ministry of genuine personal religious experience. UB 140:10.6
- Obedience to the will of the Father, yielding the fruits of the spirit in one’s personal life, is the law of the kingdom. UB 142:1.5
Jesus said: “Nevertheless, I declare to you, except a man be born of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. UB 142:6.5
And Nicodemus said: “But how can I begin to lay hold upon this spirit which is to remake me in preparation for entering into the kingdom?” Jesus answered: “Already does the spirit of the Father in heaven indwell you. If you would be led by this spirit from above, very soon would you begin to see with the eyes of the spirit, and then by the wholehearted choice of spirit guidance would you be born of the spirit since your only purpose in living would be to do the will of your Father who is in heaven. And so finding yourself born of the spirit and happily in the kingdom of God, you would begin to bear in your daily life the abundant fruits of the spirit.” UB 142:6.7
Today, the unbelievers may taunt you with preaching a gospel of nonresistance and with living lives of nonviolence UB 143:1.7
“If, then, my children, you are born of the spirit, you are forever delivered from the self-conscious bondage of a life of self-denial and watchcare over the desires of the flesh, and you are translated into the joyous kingdom of the spirit, whence you spontaneously show forth the fruits of the spirit in your daily lives; and the fruits of the spirit are the essence of the highest type of enjoyable and ennobling self-control, even the heights of terrestrial mortal attainment—true self-mastery.” UB 143:2.8
Universe difficulties must be met and planetary obstacles must be encountered as a part of the experience training provided for the growth and development, the progressive perfection, of the evolving souls of mortal creatures. The spiritualization of the human soul requires intimate experience with the educational solving of a wide range of real universe problems. The animal nature and the lower forms of will creatures do not progress favorably in environmental ease. Problematic situations, coupled with exertion stimuli, conspire to produce those activities of mind, soul, and spirit which contribute mightily to the achievement of worthy goals of mortal progression and to the attainment of higher levels of spirit destiny. UB 154:2.5
…Jesus…said: “In order to yield the fruits of the spirit, you must be born of the spirit…Let every man make sure that the intellectual and moral foundations of character are such as will adequately support the superstructure of the enlarging and ennobling spiritual nature, UB 156:5.2
The effort toward maturity necessitates work, and work requires energy. Whence the power to accomplish all this?.. Whence then comes the energy to do these great things? Look to your Master. Even now he is out in the hills taking in power while we are here giving out energy. The secret of all this problem is wrapped up in spiritual communion, in worship. From the human standpoint it is a question of combined meditation and relaxation. Meditation makes the contact of mind with spirit; relaxation determines the capacity for spiritual receptivity. And this interchange of strength for weakness, courage for fear, the will of God for the mind of self, constitutes worship. At least, that is the way the philosopher views it. UB 160:3.1
When these experiences are frequently repeated, they crystallize into habits, strength-giving and worshipful habits, and such habits eventually formulate themselves into a spiritual character, and such a character is finally recognized by one’s fellows as a mature personality. These practices are difficult and time-consuming at first, but when they become habitual, they are at once restful and timesaving. The more complex society becomes, and the more the lures of civilization multiply, the more urgent will become the necessity for God-knowing individuals to form such protective habitual practices designed to conserve and augment their spiritual energies. UB 160:3.2
I see in the teachings of Jesus, religion at its best. This gospel enables us to seek for the true God and to find him. But are we willing to pay the price of this entrance into the kingdom of heaven? Are we willing to be born again? to be remade? Are we willing to be subject to this terrible and testing process of self-destruction and soul reconstruction? Has not the Master said: “Whoso would save his life must lose it. Think not that I have come to bring peace but rather a soul struggle”? True, after we pay the price of dedication to the Father’s will, we do experience great peace provided we continue to walk in these spiritual paths of consecrated living. UB 160:5.10
… When you have by faith once established yourself as a son of God, nothing else matters as regards the surety of survival. But make no mistake! this survival faith is a living faith, and it increasingly manifests the fruits of that divine spirit which first inspired it in the human heart. That you have once accepted sonship in the heavenly kingdom will not save you in the face of the knowing and persistent rejection of those truths which have to do with the progressive spiritual fruit-bearing of the sons of God in the flesh. UB 176:3.3
Sonship in the kingdom, from the standpoint of advancing civilization, should assist you in becoming the ideal citizens of the kingdoms of this world since brotherhood and service are the cornerstones of the gospel of the kingdom. The love call of the spiritual kingdom should prove to be the effective destroyer of the hate urge of the unbelieving and war-minded citizens of the earthly kingdoms. But these material-minded sons in darkness will never know of your spiritual light of truth unless you draw very near them with that unselfish social service which is the natural outgrowth of the bearing of the fruits of the spirit in the life experience of each individual believer. UB 178:1.4
As mortal and material men, you are indeed citizens of the earthly kingdoms, and you should be good citizens, all the better for having become reborn spirit sons of the heavenly kingdom. As faith-enlightened and spirit-liberated sons of the kingdom of heaven, you face a double responsibility of duty to man and duty to God while you voluntarily assume a third and sacred obligation: service to the brotherhood of God-knowing believers. UB 178:1.5
Then Jesus stood up again and continued teaching his apostles: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. I am the vine, and you are the branches. And the Father requires of me only that you shall bear much fruit. UB 180:2.1
When there exists this living connection between divinity and humanity, if humanity should thoughtlessly and ignorantly pray for selfish ease and vainglorious accomplishments, there could be only one divine answer: more and increased bearing of the fruits of the spirit on the stems of the living branches. When the branch of the vine is alive, there can be only one answer to all its petitions: increased grape bearing. In fact, the branch exists only for, and can do nothing except, fruit bearing, yielding grapes. So does the true believer exist only for the purpose of bearing the fruits of the spirit: to love man as he himself has been loved by God—that we should love one another, even as Jesus has loved us. UB 180:2.5
This same philosophy of the living flexibility and cosmic adaptability of divine truth to the individual requirements and capacity of every son of God, must be perceived before you can hope adequately to understand the Master’s teaching and practice of nonresistance to evil. The Master’s teaching is basically a spiritual pronouncement. Even the material implications of his philosophy cannot be helpfully considered apart from their spiritual correlations. The spirit of the Master’s injunction consists in the nonresistance of all selfish reaction to the universe, coupled with the aggressive and progressive attainment of righteous levels of true spirit values: divine beauty, infinite goodness, and eternal truth—to know God and to become increasingly like him. UB 180:5.9
And all this clearly indicates the difference between the old religion and the new. The old religion taught self-sacrifice; the new religion teaches only self-forgetfulness, enhanced self-realization in conjoined social service and universe comprehension. The old religion was motivated by fear-consciousness; the new gospel of the kingdom is dominated by truth-conviction, the spirit of eternal and universal truth. And no amount of piety or creedal loyalty can compensate for the absence in the life experience of kingdom believers of that spontaneous, generous, and sincere friendliness which characterizes the spirit-born sons of the living God. Neither tradition nor a ceremonial system of formal worship can atone for the lack of genuine compassion for one’s fellows. UB 180:5.12
… “It is your faith that saves your souls. Salvation is the gift of God to all who believe they are his sons. But be not deceived; while salvation is the free gift of God and is bestowed upon all who accept it by faith, there follows the experience of bearing the fruits of this spirit life as it is lived in the flesh. The acceptance of the doctrine of the fatherhood of God implies that you also freely accept the associated truth of the brotherhood of man. And if man is your brother, he is even more than your neighbor, whom the Father requires you to love as yourself. Your brother, being of your own family, you will not only love with a family affection, but you will also serve as you would serve yourself. And you will thus love and serve your brother because you, being my brethren, have been thus loved and served by me. Go, then, into all the world telling this good news to all creatures of every race, tribe, and nation. My spirit shall go before you, and I will be with you always.” UB 193:1.2