Saturday 4 February 2012

Reflections on Faith

Recently I have been doing some very difficult processing and it has left me questioning everything about this path - myself, God, God's Laws and my ability to do this work.  I felt I have very little faith and I was reminded of the reflections that I did on Faith some time back.  It was a timely reminder and I have included this here for you.  You might like to do your own reflections on Faith and what that means for you as well.
I have included the links for the couple of messages from the Padgett Messages but I have not been able to find an archived copy of the Judas messages online.  If you would like a copy of the Judas Messages, either in full or just the articles referenced here feel free to email me and I will pass them on.

Faith is such a corner stone of our progress in Love and Truth and I feel that anything that we can do to grow our faith is worthwhile.

I wish you well with your own journey of growing in Love and Truth and Faith.

Love

Linda

Reflections on Faith

Judas – Faith - Jan 11, 2002

“True happiness comes from inside of the soul” – p113

What does this mean for me? 

The times when I am happiest, when life just seems to flow without impediment are the times when I am living in passion and truth, when I am honoring my soul’s desires.  At these times there is a sense of peace and fulfillment, a sense of purpose and belonging and I can feel that I am closer to God at these times. 

The question is, if I now recognize this, why is it that my whole life is I not lived from passion and desire? 

My only recourse is fear!  False expectations appearing real which keep me from being true to myself and to God.  But if I recognize this why then do I not allow myself to move through these fears when I know what the rewards will be and that they will lead me to a life of bliss? 

I can only feel that the answer is unworthiness, a deep unworthiness to receive anything that is good, a false belief that I do not deserve the kind of bliss that I have at times had a glimpse of.  So this tells me that I, as yet, have little faith.

“People who experience God have faith and this faith attracts love”. (p114)

How have I experienced God?

God is life and if I am willing to open my heart and soul God can be experienced everywhere – in the miracle of birth, the gentle roar of the ocean, the unfurling of a flower, the grace of the eagle as he soars effortlessly amidst the invisible thermals, in the poetic warble of a bird or the bliss of a lovers caress. 

God constantly shows me Her love, Her unique personality and yet so often Her presence goes unnoticed and unappreciated.  I have been guilty of that, of dismissing God in every day life.  At times I have been so caught up in day to day grind of this false life that I lead that I took God for granted.  I didn’t stop to notice Her constant presence in my life, Her patience, Her gentleness, Her Love. And it is at these times, when I dismiss God, that life has been the most difficult, the most challenging, as God gently calls me back.  But I do not always listen. Too often I choose to live in my fears rather than surrender to God’s Love.  I loose faith.


“To possess the Love of God does not automatically mean to lose all false beliefs.” – P114

Beware of arrogance, pray for humility

“Faith belongs to the soul, and like the soul, it is part of the Real … Faith is not formulated in words, you have to experience and live it.” – p114

“Faith is the perception of the soul” – p115

Faith is the activation of that innate part of our souls that longs for God’s love, it is acting upon the desire that we have to know and love God and to be known and loved by Him.

“Faith is knowledge and experience of the Real …. You cannot travel along a way sitting in an armchair, waiting for marvels to happen”. p115

In order to grow in faith I must continue to long for and seek God’s love, I must be active in this process.  No one else can do this for me. I alone can uncover the errors in my soul that prevent God’s love from transforming my soul from the mortal into the immortal and when I actively engage in this process faith grows.


“Faith, my dear friend, can open up the door to worlds undreamed of. The power God has conferred on men is enormous. Think about it. “ p115

Why am I afraid to open the door?  What prevents me from allowing the full experience of God’s Love and Majesty? 

Doubt!

Unworthiness!

At times Fear! 

And yet I know that the only way to overcome these doubts and fears and to release my unworthiness is to have faith and to open the door to my soul and step inside. To experience fully each and every one of the errors lurking there and release these to God so that His love might fill my soul and feed my faith which as yet is so little.  

And so I find myself in somewhat of a quandary – in order for my faith to grow I need to step into the deepest, darkest parts of my soul and face the truth of what lies there, and yet I need faith to do this!.  I need to cultivate a faith that lets me know that that in the experience of these errors God is there with me, supporting me, loving me. 

I need to activate that part of my soul which has already experienced God’s love in order to fully trust that this is once more possible. 

I need to activate whatever faith I already have in order for that faith to grow.

Faith continued – Judas – Jan 15 2002

From the Padgett messages - "Faith is that which when possessed in its real and true meaning makes the aspirations and longings of the soul a real, living existence; and one so certain and palpable that no doubt will arise as to its reality." Jesus - p117

It is the activation of faith that allows me o step into my passions and desires.  Faith carries me through times of doubt. Through faith I can harness the great potential of my soul.

“Faith has to do with Truth. It is our perception of Truth, our window into the Real.
….Only one Truth exists, and only God knows it. But the increase in our faith implies that also our perception of Truth deepens and approaches perfection.” P117

“… with the increase of faith, the range of perception of your vision is increased,…
Each soul has once experienced God at its creation, each soul experienced His Loving Kindness … faith does not disappear, it continues, but it needs effort and will to wake up again.” p117

I realize now that my journey over the past couple of years has intensified this process of ‘waking up’ and at times it has taken great effort and will to break through the barriers to love and truth and this process has been made easier or perhaps made possible only through faith, through some sort of ‘remembering’ God’s loving kindness and in a faith that God will once again bestow His love upon me.

“The difficult part is to start this process, but it is not a process which continues automatically. It requires our effort. But exactly at that moment when prayer stops being an obligation and becomes a desire, a wonderful experience, a moment of peace and happiness, at that moment the soul has won the battle.

Active faith is the continuous, renovated and enlarged experience. Faith is as sweet as honey, it is peace and happiness, and it awakes longings for more, longings of the soul, longings to be under God’s protection, at-one with Him, and partaker of His Love. And His Love comes, changing the very substance of our soul little by little, changing the quality and the range of our perceptions, and expanding our faith.” P117-8

 “…with the increase in our faith, also our understanding increases.” P118

Judas – the Faith of Little children – Jan 22 2002

“Children conceive God to be their Heavenly Father, filled with Love, who always reaches out to them His Hand of support and protection….The image of God disappears with the childlike faith …. That faith which we call childlike, but which is true faith, suffers through our process of maturation that actually is a process of estrangement and alienation, where concepts become supposed realities, where we learn how to open our eyes without seeing. …. The child’s faith wastes away, becoming the embryo of what it once used to be, waiting for the warmth of love to grow again. And it is the Father's Love that incubates it.” P123

For me faith is learning to open my eyes to once more see what the child in me knows.  It is trusting that when I take the steps necessary to activate that part of my soul which has laid dormant for so long that God will once again embrace my soul and I will melt into that embrace knowing that I have finally come home.


Judas – Faith, knowledge, understanding and trust.  Jan 30 2002

“Faith means knowledge, inner knowledge. It is our share of God’s holistic vision. It is a quick, partial glance, that is true, but it is a glance at what really is…. If you have faith in God and in His Love, it does not mean that you understand God or His Love” p128

The possibility of ever understanding God or His Love seems such a remote concept to me in this moment where my doubts and fears often plague me, but I have faith that one day this might be possible.  One day, if I continue to activate my faith and exercise my desires to grow in love and truth, maybe then I will begin to get a glimpse of who God really is and of the beauty and immense power of Her Love.  I have faith that this is possible … one day!

“There is another factor to this process: the soul longings. They are necessary to obtain our Heavenly Father's Love, and they are born of faith…. In moments of despair, the soul longings break through and soar high to God. And God sends His answer, He sends His Love.” p128

Why is it that our longings for God’s love and understanding are strongest when we despair?  How much do we deprive ourselves of God’s love by not recognizing His loving hand in every aspect of our lives, by not turning to Him in times of joy as well as in despair?

“Faith is knowledge, but not only knowledge of God and the universe, but also of ourselves, about our condition. … Faith teaches us our current condition, and it teaches us how we could or should be. Faith creates humility. …However, in order to receive God’s Love, our soul needs some preparation. It needs to open up. But how does it open up? It is hope, which achieves the opening up….Hope is a human attribute, and like all human things, it constantly changes. It grows as faith becomes stronger, until it finally acquires the character of certainty. Then we call it trust. True faith and trust walk hand in hand.” P 128-9

Hope inspires faith and as faith grows it becomes trust. 

I wish I could say that I have reached that point in my progression where I trust God completely, but I have not yet and I often find myself struggling through the process of releasing the errors within me because I do not trust God fully.  But I hope, and I have faith that one day, as I continue to embrace my errors and release them, that faith and hope will become trust.  At this point I know that progression will then become easier because when I reach this point of trusting God fully I will no longer fight the process.  I will embrace it knowing that it is through this journey of discovery and of repentance that I will grow in love and an understanding of truth that will one day allow me to kiss the face of God as I rest securely in Her loving embrace, cradled forever from the shame, pain and grief that now wrack my soul. 

At this point I will be happy to let go of all of my masks and will no longer desire to hide. 

I will be free!

Padgett Messages – Jesus – Oct 10 1915

“Faith is that which when possessed in its real and true meaning makes the aspirations and longings of the soul a real, living experience; and one so certain and palpable that no doubt will arise to its reality….. This faith is not the belief that arises from the mere operation of the mind, but which comes from the opening of the perceptions of the soul, and which enable its possessor to see God in all of His beauty and love …. Such faith comes only from the constant, earnest prayer and the reception into the soul of the Divine Love.” p225

Faith grows through prayer and is activated by the expression of the aspirations, passions and longings of my soul.   

Some part of me knows this. 

I have at times experienced the bliss of a deeper connection with God when I have had the courage to simply live in my passions and desires. And yet, too often I fall into the trap of believing the false expectations that I have. I allow myself to be distracted from my soul longings and aspirations and in so doing I allow myself to be lead away from God. I loose faith. I revert to the old ingrained habits of living in the mind and of trying to please others rather than allowing myself to live in passion and desire and to open more fully to the perceptions of my soul which enable me to see God more fully. 

I forget to pray and as a result I loose faith.

“… faith is a progressive quality or essence of the soul and increases as possession of the divine Love increases and is not dependant on anything else.  Our prayers call from the Father a response that brings with it faith and with this faith comes a knowledge of the existence of this love in our souls.” P 224

Faith grows through prayer and the opening of the soul to the inflowing of the Divine Love. It is the presence of this Great Love in my soul that allows me to have faith in God and in all that is Loving and Truthful; it allows me to have faith in myself.  When I allow myself to open my soul fully to God’s Love and Truth my faith grows.  But what happens when I feel love creeping in, when I find myself doubting God’s Love for me? At these times I have little faith.

Through faith I live confidently in my passions and desires knowing that God is watching over me and confident that my life is unfolding according to God’s grand plan.  A life lived in faith is a grand adventure.  I feel this to be true and yet I still do not allow myself to live a life based on faith, a life directed by passion, desires and my true soul longings.  Why is this? 

Will I ever find the courage to live the kind of life that God desires me to live? The kind of life that my own soul craves? How do I get to this point?  For now all I can do is pray – pray for faith and for the courage to let go of the errors that prevent me from moving towards a life of bliss, a life guided by God and for the inflowing of God’s Great Love which will eventually transform me into a true child of God.

“…. When we pray to the Father to increase our faith it is a prayer for the increase of love.  Faith is based on the possession of this love and without it there can be no faith because it is impossible for the soul to exercise its function when love is absent from it. …. Faith is not a thing that can be obtained by a mere exercise of the mind but has to be sought for with the soul perceptions and when obtained will be enjoyed only by the soul perceptions” p226

Padgett Messages – Jesus – Nov 10 1916

“As the prayers of the sincere earnest soul ascend to the Father, that soul becomes opened up to the inflowing of this Love. … The more earnest the prayer and sincere the longings, the sooner faith comes and with this faith the realization that the Divine Love is permeating the soul.” P427

So faith and love go hand in hand, there can not be one without the other.  As I grow in love so too will my I grow in faith.







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