In this season of giving and receiving, I am sharing some words of wisdom from our founder, Del Anderson. His vision for finding power within ourselves and seeing God in others is a source of inspiration for me.
I am learning, “the great power of prayer is not in asking, but in learning how to receive.” Receiving requires acceptance and willing obedience. It requires us to fasten our gaze on the Christ and let (allow) God to re-make us in God’s image and perfect pattern.
This process of cooperating with God requires us to know ourselves, to appreciate and respect ourselves, and to be true to ourselves.
Nkosi family in Malawi receiving God’s gifts in their tomato field.
We learn to be aware of God’s All-Presence (Lo, I am with you always) to give God our attention, to see things as God sees them, looking through the outer, transient appearances and conditions, and fastening our gaze on the eternal spiritual reality and truth of God’s creation.
We learn to turn to and keep our attention on God and draw our feelings from Infinite Life instead of from outer circumstances. We learn to respond to the Eternal within instead of being hypnotized by the transient without.
Thus, God takes the dimness from our eyes and we hold fast to our oneness in God. We look through the false evidence of separation and look through our false beliefs and attitude of “them and us.” We learn to perceive something of Christ’s potential in everyone. Then the unifying power of Spirit breaks down the barriers of self-centeredness, and Spirit heals the breaches and divisions between us.
God’s presence is constant, continuous activity of Spirit. As God’s co-creators, our cooperation is needed to be aware (see), to make conscious decisions and then act.
Then the Kingdom of God is not dimmed and far off, but the Kingdom of God is actively alive within us.
“Listen, stand still and consider God’s wondrous works.” (Job 37:14)
“The Lord will fight for you, so hold your peace.” (Ex. 14:14)
*We’ll take a break from the blog next week. Merry Christmas to you and yours! With peace, Tanya
