Learning to Hear…

“Now faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God”

To “hear” in the Christian Tradition implies not just mental assent, or cognitive knowledge acquired through listening with my ear, but rather to an encounter experienced because my heart heard!

To “hear” is to encounter the One who spoke. It is to be penetrated with the light, thought, and personhood of another. It is a meeting, an exchange, a signing of the others signature in my soul.

To “hear” God, is to be sufficiently awakened so as to be less aware of myself and more of Him. It is when from His centre, the Creator Being, communicates and His communication is received by one who wanted to hear. “I hear you”, implies “I know your voice, your presence, your being sufficiently to identify it. All human hearts know the voice of God. Few human minds are awakened to it. Often it is our belief or chosen non-belief in God which causes our mind to be our greatest hindrance in hearing.

What I believe God is, what I believe the Bible teaches, what I believe God demands or wants, what I believe I am….these are the idols and illusions which must fall before I am ready to “hear”.

All have the grace to “hear” available to them. All may hear. God is forever communicating Himself, everywhere, to everyone, in every time.

Quantum Physics is discovering that all matter, all that we can perceive, is made up of two key components, energy and information. The Divine, God, is the source of all energy which composes the matter I see. He is the source of the information that defines the nature and form of matters manifestation. “ALL THAT IS” is an emanation of His mind and will. The ancient Hebrews called His energy, The Shekinah Glory. Scripture says, “His Glory fills all the Earth”. It fills all that is, and it fills all He is. For the glory mentioned in the ancient Scriptures is His very Presence. There is nowhere therefore where God is not! “He upholds all things by the Word of His command” may be translated into “His Word is the information that gives energy form and mass. He permeates & indwells all His creation, and is at the same time totally other than His creation. The information and energy is a manifestation of God, but it in itself is also sourced in God. God is more than His Word and His glory, yet His Word & Glory is a clear expression of Him.

The very atoms that today compose my physical body were in another form and mass before my conception. But the same Presence (energy) and Word (information) gave them and maintained them in being. The Koran said that God is closer than the vein on my neck. The Hebrew Genesis Scripture says the God breathes life into Adam and he became a living being. He is closer than the air we breath or the blood which flows in our veins, or the thought that aids us to be aware of our own existence. How can we be separate from the very being and substance which upholds so absolutely our very existence?

Separation from God through sin and fall is a cardinal doctrine of most of western Christianity. How separate was Adam after his fall? Who came to him as he hid in the garden in the genesis account? Whom could he hear calling his name? Who led him out? Who conversed with him? Who clothed Adam and Eve? Who covenanted with them, or promised them the Deliverer who would crush the serpents head?

Who was it who related to all and any of fallen humanity who was willing to listen from Adam to Abraham, from Moses to the Prophets? Jesus, Himself, is The WORD made FLESH. The word heard by whom?

Separation…what is it other than the bondage to our own prideful minds who choose to create gods in our own image? Separation is the fruit of our consciousness of sin. Yet sin in itself is the child of the separated heart. Which came first? The concept of separation came first in the genesis account. The tempter in the ancient story lies to Adam concerning the nature and intention of God, implying that God was withholding something. The only thing Adam lacked in Eden was the knowledge of evil. Evil is the void or absence of good, or the manifestation of the polar opposite to good.

Separation is a state of conscious which births it’s own belief systems, thoughts, religions, sin deeds etc. It is a conscious which divides humanity even within the individual self. We perceive we are separate alone, one ego separated from and threatened by others. We live as individualists and pursue the gratification of our ego self. We live our existence in a dream illusion based upon an ancient lie. “Where can I go from your presence? If I go to the heavens, you are there, if I descend into the pit, you are there too”.

The Christian Scriptures speak of a Lamb slain before the beginning of the world, a God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, a plan to awaken mankind devised before the creation of mankind.

The Gospel (Word / information), which is the power (energy) of God for all who believe (hear), is the simple announcement that we ARE reconciled through the cosmic and eternal sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary. The “veil was torn” in time and space, to redeem mankind beyond the realm of time and space. From the first baby to the last baby to enter this Earth, all have the same reconciled relationship provided for them through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. He was not just paying for sin, but through the total kenosis (self-emptying) of God, He was birthing us by His death into Union with the Trinity. The created man and woman now may awaken to total Sonship. To be God’s child, one with Him. Adam and Eve may now enter a greater Paradise, a truer union, a more perfect Creation.

Awakening, is the renunciation of the primordial lie and it’s spawned illusions (repentance – “change of mind, will, & direction”) , and belief (Hearing of the Divine communication) in unity with ourselves, others, and God.

Four qualities that open us to a place of hearing:

1. Awareness.
2. Openness.
3. Humility.
4. Obedience.

AWARENESS

“We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are”. – Anais Nin -

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers”. – M. Scott Peck –

Awareness understands that we have been dreaming. It is to become conscious that there is another true self that lives other than the ego self.

Awareness makes you the Watcher who sees the mind creating its own illusions and projecting them outward onto life and others.

Awareness awakens to the savage reality of its own true human need. We have lived in our many masked personalities and know little of our true self. Who will reveal to us who we really are? Who will free us of our phantom gods to show us the One True God? Who will enable us to see, hear, and respond to others for who they really are instead of simply reacting off them due to our damaged ego self? Who will show us how to prosper, live in harmony, and share life & resources equally with all on the planet? Who will speak the wisdom that will enable us to return to Eden and cohabit in peace with nature?

The awareness of the total sleep state illusion of human knowledge is the first step towards seeking both the right questions and the true answers.

I am aware, that I have not been aware, that I have awakened from a sleep of illusion. I am aware of my absolute need, my absolute “not knowing”, a quest and a hunger now purify all intention leading me back to the source of my true self.

I can only hear if I am listening. I will only truly listen if I need to hear and have come to the end of my own answers. I will only truly hear when I am predisposed to obey. I will only obey when I am convinced of the folly of all ways but God’s.

Openness

Openness refers to openness of mind and heart. It is the Poverty of Spirit of the Beatitudes of Jesus. This openness is the beginners mind in Zen. The teachable spirit of the Disciple in Hinduism. The submitted heart in Islam. It is true Childlikeness. “Unless you become as little children, you shall in no way enter the Kingdom”.

Only an open mind can see, hear, and receive.

Humility

When I listen, what do I expect to hear? When God speaks, His Word is absolute Truth. Humility is the disposition to receive without resistance both the positive and negative from His lips. I am what He says I am. He is what He says He is. Life, meaning and purpose are what He reveals them to be. This is humility. It rests upon the surrender of the will and the death of the false self. It liberates the true self to live consciously united to The Divine Other.

Obedience

Obedience is the wisdom which acts on what is heard. To seek the Word, hear it, and then not obey is pure folly! Obedience is the true asceticism of the Christian. “Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” who enters into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father”. (Jesus)

Following Jesus means relating back into the Trinity as He did. We learn the Way of Jesus through obediently walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

Conclusion

Through Awareness we come to the knowledge of how great our need is to listen and hear.

Through Openness we do not seek to qualify what will be said.

Through Humility we accept what the Other has to say as Truth.

Through Obedience we walk out what we hear and thus manifest the Word in our lives. This is the original purpose of the Word being spoken in the first place.

Two Key Spiritual Values of our Chosen Way of Life.

Christocentrism:

The journey of the Disciple is to become like the Master.

We understand that we are predestined to be conformed to the Image of The Son.

We understand that this will be a journey of personal Transformation.

We commit to using helpful spiritual practices to realise this end.

We understand that the spiritual journey involves three phases.

Phase One:

We understand that we are not just intelligent animals but that we are sourced in a Creator God, The Divine Other.

Phase Two:

We seek to follow and become like the human incarnation of The Other, who is Jesus.

Phase Three:

We discover that there is no Other living on or in some distant place, but that as the Father and Jesus are One, so are we in Him, and He in us.

This is mystical union. It has always been so, but our awareness and belief system could not cope with it, until our religious illusions fall away, and with them all “feelings” of separateness. We are One by grace (God’s self communication to man) and by Divine Intention. We are One by the blood of Christ. We are One by the Spirit of Christ.

The Word is the window that permits us to gaze into the mystery of The Godhead. It is one of the ways God used to communicate Himself. Jesus is the ultimate revelation of the Father’s heart, the Word’s intent or meaning (Word made flesh), and the prototype Son of the New Creation. His Way is in His life and Word. He is the truth that the Father intends and has always intended for each one of us. What we see in Him, is our vocation to become like Him.

“Follow ME”, He invited, so that we might walk as He walked in the Presence of the Father. “Follow Me”, that we might learn from Him how to dwell in and relate to The Father, The Divine Other. “Follow me”, that we might receive the Divine Infilling as consciously as He did at Jordan, and become another Christ, another anointed one walking the Earth in time and space, speaking the words of the Father for we have listened & heard. Doing the works of the Father, for we have seen and believed. Communicating the love and compassion of the Father for it is the very life force, or sap, of the Vine we are dwelling in.

Community.

Community is the journey to become love through practicing love.

Community is the only real obedient response to the teaching of Jesus or Word of the Father.

Community is Incarnational because only in relationship can the Word become flesh. A spirituality of personal salvation which affects and transforms no relationship with God or man is completely delusional. If I will not love and belong to my brother and sister I have no understanding of the love of Jesus for me! The two love commandments of Jesus are totally dependant on the personal experience of the reality of being loved unconditionally by Him. “As I have loved you”…This is the measuring stick and the source of love and compassion in my human life. If I have no understanding of the GRACE of Agape unconditional love, I have no understanding of God who is Love, or my salvation from the absence of communion with Love. To the measure my own life has contact with the love of God, to that measure I will love others. Love lived out toward others, especially toward a Community on the same conversion walk, is the only authentic measure of my spirituality.

A Eucharistic Community is a Community that understands that Christian Relationship is not only sociological but also mystical. How related can I be to Jesus? As a forgiven sinner? As a Child? As a Brother? As a very member of His living manifesting Body on Earth? How far does union go since the veil of separation is eternally torn by merit of His Sacrifice of Himself on the Cross? The answer is there are no limits. St. Paul struggles to articulate the union. Jesus is the Head we are the Body. Jesus is the Bridegroom we are the Bride. We are the living Temple that the Divine Presence now indwells.

A Eucharistic Community is a Community who believes they can be Body, Temple, Bride, Family, of God. We use the revised Passover Seder given us by Jesus where Word and Spirit make His resurrected Presence manifest and where we again are drawn into the conversion experience of becoming One with the Trinity, each other, and our mandate to love with grace, mercy, and compassion. Just as we have been loved! Every Eucharistic celebration is a conversion experience. We expose & transcend the illusion of the ego/false self/ fear dominated life. We are washed again in the mindset of God through the Word, and then having emptied ourselves of falsehood and illusion we enter the mystic rite of re-uniting experientially with God and each other, becoming again the mystical Body of Christ on Earth. Each Eucharist is a journey into wholeness. A mystical healing experience which reunites us to all that is love and compassion.