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There is a great line and a true statement that really you will not feel a sense of belonging in your life until you have the right relationship with God. It doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter what your tradition is, it doesn’t matter what it has been ultimately all of us need to get ourselves in the right relationship with the whole and we have the opportunity and it is not a need it is only our own desire, we have the opportunity to get ourselves in the right relationship with the whole. And ultimately that sense of well being, that sense
 of feeling whole comes out of that relationship and we say how does that work? We would like to have a deeper faith, if we had the faith that would command mountains then we would know that we know and the truth is Ernest Holmes the great metaphysician from the last century one of his definitions of faith and my preferred definition of faith is an attitude so convinced of itself that it knows no opposites. An attitude so convinced of itself that it knows no opposites. And when we really fall into that place so convinced in what we know is so we see that the universe responds to us in a direct correspondence. So we say we would like to have that faith, that absolute knowing that I am born in the image and likeness of wholeness and I would like to have that reflected in my health and I would like to have that reflected in my love, and I would like to have that reflected in all of my relationships and I would like to have that reflected in my wealth. And I would like to have that reflected in my purpose. I would like the wholeness that is the thing that I have been learning about and yearning toward, I would like it to be reflected in all of my life.
But an attitude so convinced of itself that it knows no opposites and so we are yearning for a complete faith but how do we get to the complete faith well most of us being American’s we really think their should be fireworks around big faith. The moment that I have big faith I will know because God will shine a light upon me and the light will move all through me and the place will radiate with light and no one will be able to look upon my face and they will know that I have faith. Has anyone had that experience? Because what we discover is that faith is an accumulative act, its something that happens to us as Paul said be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. And what I say is you have to remember the renewing of your mind is something that you and I can do we can take responsibility. We can begin to learn a principal and it is much different to learn about a principal than it is to practice it, it is a very different reality. To learn about a principal is the beginning and then sooner or later we need to move into the practice and by means of the practice of the principal we get to the place where we know. We know the principal itself because we have learned it, we have studied it and it has become one. So the way that we go to this place of complete faith that was looking for is beginning to find out where do we have faith and what are we doing with that faith. We begin to find out very simply what do I really know.
When our prayer we call affirmative prayer what we say is I know there is one power that power is perfect that power is the perfect life of god that power is my life right here and right now and that power created me in order to express in me and as me and through me as all that I am as all love all joy all wisdom, all peace, all providence, all grace all magnificence, I am that and then we have to pause and say wait a minute. Your opening line was “I know” do you really know? Do you have an attitude so convinced of itself that it knows no opposite? And from any place where you have that complete conviction from any place where you have that complete conviction you can grow. So we learn the high ideal of that conviction and I shared with you that poem. Oh souls you worry to much, you have seen your own strength. You have seen your own beauty; you have seen your golden wings of anything less why do you worry. You are in truth the soul of the soul of the soul. You’re already that thing you have seen it in moments in your life. But you thought those moments were fleeting so you didn’t have absolute faith that that’s who you are. But that moment when you have become greater than your challenge and you got through it, that moment when you thought you wouldn’t make it another inch and you made it. That moment when you thought oh my god my heart is broken and it will never be healed again and you love yet again. We have seen our golden wings spread, and yet we don’t invite ourselves to have faith in the greatness of what I am as the soul of god, I am that I am. And to really allow ourselves to step into that full realization but how do we do that and we begin by discovering what we know. So we go back to the line of Paul and Paul says be yea transformed so we know the ideal that the grand awakening is to know I am one with the golden wings and I am always more than anything that can be in front of me in my life. And we begin to apply the principals and we begin to know I am one with that and so in new thought we have four principals. The four principals are God is all there is, ok we get that. The next principal is since God is all there is I am that, but there is only one thing here how can I be something other than that so yes I get that. God is all there is and I am that. The third one and here is the one where we struggle with which is absolutely critical to our faith because otherwise you do not have dominion and you are isolated from the third principal that I am a co-creator with god. That the sum total of my consciousness reflects into the law and presses the law of creation and the law of creation receives that and gives it back to me as the body of my experience. The body of who I am is the body of my experience. The sum total of everything is happening by my co-created reality with god and that’s the one where we think oh he can co-create, Jesus can co-create. Mother Theresa could co-create, Nelson Mandel can co-create but he needed to sit in a cell for twenty years, we have all these rules about how and when we can create when the moment of creation is always now and the omnipresent reality of god on which you can rely is always now. But my friends it does not announce itself, transformation does not announce itself.
It is the work of the spirit itself, it is the activity of the living god itself that brings about transformation, I in my personal responsibility I can renew my mind, I can begin to think upon god, look upon the principals of god discover where I am in those principals I can work on that and by means of that I am renewing my mind and then the transformation happens and the transformation is the activity of god itself. It is the larger aspect of god responding to you by corresponding to your deeper prayer. But it doesn’t say to you by the way keep your eyes open today because you have been transformed. No usually transformation happens because we move forward in our lives we do not tarry with yesterday and we move forward with our lives and somehow in our moving forward usually in our creative expression usually in the most casual of manners we discover a transformation.
We discover something that we actually know.
So I am going to tell you an example in my own life and then I am going to invite three members of our congregation to stand up and talk to you. Because the way to build a faith is not to expect fireworks the way to build the faith is to find what you know and build on that and then find more that you know and build on that. And then you come to the place where you say no I am a co-creator and I will build on that and we begin to engage the infinite in everything that we do. And this transformation somebody yearning to believe in a presence or a god and we think that god is out there and then we study and we learn and we go through our religious paths, whatever those paths were and then we come to a place where we realize that god is in me and we come to the supreme realization, we come to the supreme realization that God and gods creation are one.
They have never been separate, they have never been apart and no one has ever really gone to the far country except in their imagination. And so you can come home by recognizing in the supreme realization god and gods creation are one which means god is omnipresent, omnipresent meaning every where present and god is right here and right now present.
And we begin to catch that we can begin to live from it and look for it everywhere; we begin to discover its present. So here is an example of something I know that I know.
How many years of prayers and affirmations of I know there is one power and that power is perfect and that power is the perfect life of god, that power is my life right now. How many years have I said that over and over again just like I learned in the Lord’s prayer, our father which art in heaven, hallow it be thy name. I have repeated it over and over again and my new one is I know there is one power and that power is present and yet the master teacher said do not pray in vain repeat ion, no. It is not vain repeat ion because you stop and you go what do I actually know.
So here is what I learned and Tuesday I was talking to my friend Reverend Coleen and we were chatting after the service in my office and she said to me at one point she said I keep trying to explain to people to get unattached and it is the funniest thing when I tell people to get unattached they think it means that I don’t care. That is what happens but no un- attached simple means I don’t know what the highest good is going to be, I don’t know how its going to unfold but I know God is great and unattached has nothing to do with disconnected. Unattached has nothing to do with disconnecting. So I said back to her I said isn’t that funny people think unattached and they think it means disconnected because they don’t know within their being that there is no such thing as disconnected anything. Let me say it again they don’t know within their being that there is no such thing as a disconnected anything. And so when I said that to Reverend I went oh my god look at that I really do know there is no such thing as a disconnected anything. There is no place in me to believe that something is disconnected, that something is happening in my experience that I don’t have a relationship to. There is no space for me to believe that and all of sudden I looked back and I went oh look at that I got transformed within the fiber of my being anything that happens I immediately go to discover the relationship not to believe in a disconnect activity, but to discover the relationship which means I am working from within in whole instead of wondering why the whole is doing this to me. Do you see the difference and it immerges in a moment. Now if you know one thing, that there is no such thing as a disconnected anything and everything that is happening to your experience you have a relationship to all of a sudden you step into another kind of empowerment because you know that one thing. Now what if you knew another thing? What if you really really knew that if you ask the divine from your heart of hearts from the deepest part of yourself if you asked the divine for any kind of help and you would think oh I cannot say help because that means I don’t believe in my own divinity, no when you ask the universe for help you get it. There is no such thing as asking for help from the universe and not getting it and when you ask for help from the universe and it always delivers help you have in no way diminished your capacity to ask for help again. Because in an infinite supply of help if I use up gobs of it, how much is left? All of it and so we begin to orient our lives of one thing of knowing. Our faith is built on just one thing that I know and so I want you to see through other people’s lives how there knowing has led them to see something.
I will ask Ben Jamison to come up and share.
A bit of my background on what I know and how I know it when I was two years old my family moved to Kansas City and they moved there because they had just discovered the Unity principals and it called to them which saved me from a horrible fate of my father planning on moving us to forty acres of wilderness in the middle of the woods and so I know that new thought can save lives. I was raised in Unity principals and I had a good solid foundation of new thought and then I confused spirituality with religion and I began to see all of the wars that religion had caused and see all of the judgment in religion and since I was confusing the two I did not want anything to do with spirituality for a very long time. I ran away from it and didn’t look into it and god was a bad word to me at that time. Then a few years ago life pushed me back here back to explore deeper and the more I started to look into it the more I realized that the presence that I was discovering within myself had been there all along. That even though I wasn’t paying attention to it, it was still paying attention to me, it was still there, it was always there waiting for me and in this new exploration, in this new discovery the beginners mind came and that is a philosophy where ever though you may think that you know something you approach it as if you don’t. That brings about an understanding of instead of saying oh I already know that it comes about as oh yes I know that. In feeling that presence as I begin to study and as I began to look deeper knowing that it was always there what I know is that spiritual progression happens whether or not I choose to participate it is happening. Enlightment happens whether or not I choose to participate but it is only going to happen to me if I choose to participate. I own it is not just about this place, it’s not just about this center it’s about the Christ hood that is in me. I have to own it for that to come out and express in the world so that is what I know.

Just find one thing that you know and until sometime along the way you may connect it to life and you are an attitude so convinced by itself it knows no opposites.
Lynn.
When Harry called me this week and asked Lynn what do you know the first thing that came up was what I know is that God always provides for me, I am always taken care of. Because of this church and I have been coming for 14 years because of the principals and the philosophy and my commitment I have manifested so many amazing things in my life. I have manifested new jobs, new home and a new husband. So this is my home and I am so grateful and I want to share a story. Two years ago Ken and I we wanted to remodel our kitchen and that came alone with a large loan and two weeks ago I put out there gee god it is time to pay down that loan. The very next day Ken called and said you will not believe but a talent scout came to the house and want to do a commercial at our house so that weekend the talent scout came out and fell in love with our kitchen so Jenny Craig did a commercial at our home and paid us a nice chunk of money and so of course we are tithing to the church and that is what I know.
Now you take those two ideas Ben’s realization that the Christ can only be experienced in him if he will open himself up to the presence within him and allow it to find an avenue of expression. Lynn discovers god always provides and from that place of faith and Jenny Craig shows up in her kitchen.
Reverend Ann tells us what you know. My faith was built on maybe I have been coming for 12 years and started coming regularly 10 years ago and when I started on a regular basis I was in the back row and did not know a soul and I had no idea why I was here except that here felt like an ok place to be and no place else did. I just kept saying maybe. Every week the question would cross my mind what about going to church and I would say to myself well maybe and then I would be here. The changes that I was starting to make in my life at that point I had no idea how enormous they were and I just want to mention although some of you know this. People look at ministers and practitioners and think that they all have it going on. You think we have got it made you might think there is never a financial or emotional bridge we have to cross, well I am here to tell you that maybe got me through financial and emotional crossing of bridges because there were what felt like grand canyons in my life along the way. I started to think about taking a class and I said well maybe I will show up for the first one and then see and I got through the first one and there was this Science of Mind day about learning about affirmative prayer and I say ok well maybe so one maybe lead to the next to the next and got me through the first quarter and the second quarter and the third quarter and the fourth quarter of one class after another. So maybe the thought crossed my mind to be a minister and I said no many times more than I said maybe but the maybe’s started linking themselves together more than the no’s and what I realized along that path that maybe was just a shortened version of yes but I couldn’t see it then because I didn’t know. I didn’t know that maybe was building a faith vessel that maybe was an exercise that I felt safe participating in and now that I own what I know I can tell you that it is very safe to stand in your yes.
So ours is to move to move in the direction of our dreams. In order to move in the direction of our dreams we need to start dreaming and since dreaming is something that we interrupt with our thoughts we do that. We go well I could dream this possibility but that could never happen or I could dream that possibility but I don’t see how that would happen and we begin to throw up reasons why we can’t dream. In the program I put something and it says my vision of 2010, why 2010 because I wanted to go way out past what you could see in your known field of probabilities and give yourself permission to dream your freedom your authority as the I AM in your life. The thing about this card much like any other showing up to the maybe or showing up to a possibility is that you have got to show up. The card has no power if you throw it out it becomes not a card it becomes your dream. And when you dream something and believe in your dream you dream will become a reality. This I know because I have dreamed and dreamed again and stepped into my dream and dreamed yet again and stepped into the dream and we are now dreaming something good. We are dreaming along with god, we are dreaming along with President Obama and that dreaming is not about somebody. Its not about some administration its not about some church its about what we can do together, what we can create if we will dream our dreams and support each other in the dreams. There is no limit to what can happen. So we ask well how do I do that well there is birthing forth a new humanity and a new earth and there is a void being created by the destructive energy that is going on right now. By the thing that will not hold they are falling away and we wonder what’s going to happen, what is going to happen is the universe abhors a vacuum, Let me state that differently the universe will not stand for a vacuum and it will fill it and if we let go of this old and we let go of selfishness greed and materialism and being stuck in the old ways of being and power structures and power and pecking orders and we have to let it all go and dream something new and people say well how do I dream the new heaven and the new earth? There are two things to think about this week the dream the new heaven and the new earth by where ever you see destruction, whatever you see instability you bring your vision and version of god there. And you bring that vision and version of god by bringing that which is bringing a reference for all life and all concerned. In every situation you bring the intention that all good happens to all concerned in every circumstance. Even if you don’t know what that looks like you just hold that possibility, all good can happen in this circumstance, do not participate in the fear doubt and worries, stop and think about god and then think about your intention to bring all good to that scenario because that stopping and calling in meditation is essentially your calling for help and when you call on the divine self to reveal itself in its creation through you it will do that. But it cannot do that without you.
So two things, stop think about god and then remind yourself of your intention with the highest good of all concerned. The next thing that will put you in position so that you’re aware and bringing your awareness to your life is to appreciate. So here we are two weeks from thanksgiving and its time to turn up the appreciation. Turn it up everywhere in your life; turn it up on everybody you know. Turn up your appreciation from every number it is to max out. Push it from whatever number it’s at to 10 and lean on the 10 consciously in the next two weeks. Because appreciation can make a day, it can even change a life and it is your willingness to put your words into appreciation is sometimes all that is necessary. Stop think about god bring forth your highest intention for all concerned and appreciate what happening in your life right now. If you practice this this week I guarantee you will be able to come back here and tell somebody something that you know because when you know something, when you know something with such conviction there is no room in your experience for argument you will notice miracles around that thing, because that is faith in action and what you want in your life is to be living faith in action because when you have it right with god your guaranteed to have it right with the world.
I invite you to think on these things and together let us explore all the possibilities of all that we know.
Namaste.............................................