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September 7, 2014 – Prayer of Connection

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9/7/14 Rev. David McArthur
Prayer of Connection

Early one morning this week I was on the road in redwood country. The beauty of the trees and hills in the fog and then in the dappled morning sun was almost overwhelming. When you’re in the middle of so much beauty, look at how gorgeous our world is and the amazing Presence we find ourselves in. It is easy to touch such beauty. It opens my heart and invites me in. But the blessings that flow through our lives, moment after amazing moment are so much more. There is something else—a connection. We are one with it. Our minds are quite incapable of knowing it, but we feel it—a oneness with the connector.

The mind goes to the most concrete thing; it’s how it works. The mind makes the connection, but the heart experiences the connector. It’s always there. I say, “Thank You God!”, but then the mind says who are you talking to? What are you talking to? At times it’s Jesus or God, or even Mary or Krishna, but it doesn’t matter. Whatever we want to call It, It is there! As long as I allow the connection, it’s just fine. The focus on prayer brings us closer. Pray, Thank You God! Thank You God! Thank You God!

Angela Tucker, in the “Daily Word”, awakened from a coma of six weeks to find herself in a hospital bed, and that her husband had not survived their automobile accident. Her survival, as well, was in question. And then she found her ability to function was in question. So she drew on her love for her family and friends, and theirs for her. It was a couple of years before she returned to her home in New York. There she formed prayer connections with others, particularly a prayer partner. They don’t focus on circumstances, but instead, “We focus on knowing the truth that God is always present, no matter the situation or need.” She began to go beyond the simple awareness of the presence of God to a conscious connection with the Presence in every moment.

I know we all have done it, and I know too how hard it is at times. I do know the more we do it in those times of beauty when it is easier, the easier it is in the times of darkness. So when I wake up in the morning, I say, Thank You God! Thank You God! Thank You God! And then there’s a hot steaming cup of coffee, Thank You God! Thank You God! Thank You God! And there’s a computer crash and I don’t have to check email, Thank You God! Thank You God! Thank You God!

We are in the presence of unlimited goodness, infinite eternal pure love constantly poured into us! It’s morning! There’s coffee! It’s beautiful! It’s pure love!

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August 31, 2014 – Let My Love Flow

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8/31/14 Rev. David McArthur
Let My Love Flow

A number of years ago I sat on the porch of a log cabin in Montana and was looking out over a lovely meadow when I saw four bull elk with huge antlers slowly coming out of the woods. About 30 other elk quietly followed. Grazing and watching, they slowly crossed the meadow. I became aware in my heart of the tremendous connection I had with them. This awareness was such a gift that I still feel it even after seeing many other elk since. As you touch such a memory, feel it in your heart. Do you experience love flowing from your heart to that being? There was a flow of love to those elk that day. I was aware of a bond with this different creature.

Our Unity understanding has come from the experience of Myrtle Fillmore. In the last months of terminal tuberculosis she had a spiritual awakening, a special knowing that as a spiritual being she did not inherit illness. She felt that she could instruct her cells in wholeness. She affirmed life and vitality for every cell. In time the cells began to take on vitality. The affirmative words were vehicles to focus the love that was flowing through her heart to those cells, as I had felt the love in my heart flow to those elk. A connection was created. How simple, yet how powerful!

In Rising From The Abyss, Holly Reese tells about constant, excruciating pain in every part of her body. Such a thing is difficult to comprehend. She felt guided to see the cells in her right hand as “family” which felt angry, inflamed, and alone. “Send your love into the cells in your right hand…You need each other.” So she took a few moments to feel the love for the members of her “family”. It expanded and overflowed her heart. She saw it as a pink ball which flowed on a blue energy to the family in her hand. She drew on an infinite source, the love of her family. At some point she saw all the cells of her hand vibrating a happy pink. When she turned her focus to her left hand, it was still exploding with excruciating pain, but when she turned back to her right hand, she felt no pain there. It felt amazing, peaceful.

This was a first step. She used many things in the process of healing, but this was the point of movement from being powerless over what was taking place in her life to the creation of that which is whole and harmonious.

It is always powerful and transforming to let our love flow. Whether from pain or, as with the elk, for a greater experience of life, it flows to the physical needs of our body and to the emotional needs of our being. Whether in an experience of pain or joy, I let my love flow. I let my love flow. I let my love flow.

Every time that happens it is not only your individual experience that is lifted, but it raises the world that we share, because I know the love that you bring to the planet at this time. Thank you!

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August 24, 2014 – Words Have The Power To Create

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8/24/14 Rev. Blaine Tinsley
Words Have The Power To Create

I always think of this as my “home” church. Culliver Brookman would begin her Sunday lesson when she was minister here by asking “How are you?” and we’d all answer “Great!” and she’d reply “Good choice!” I learned we get to choose how we feel and we get to choose how we think. And here I also learned, “The presence of God is within me.” In Unity we want to do more than know about God, we want to experience the presence of God in everything we do—in everything we think and do and say.

So how can we use our words more effectively? There is a Hawaiian saying which says, “There is life in the mouth and there is death in the mouth.” Jesus put it this way,”You brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Both the Hawaiians and the Buddhists have a proverb that says that a person is born with an axe in his mouth!

But when we speak of good we lift our selves. When we are totally in alignment with our heart then we speak from the heart. What we speak creates. We are the One Presence, the One Power, individual expressions of that Oneness.

The first thing to do is to realize that! Affirm, “I am speaking words of truth and oneness to myself right now.” What we say to ourselves we convince ourselves of and experience it.

Second, my world changed for me when I beheld the presence of God in others. Say,”I behold the presence of God in everyone right now.” The second coming of Christ is the realization of our oneness.

Thirdly, in order for our words and thoughts to have real power, we have to know the truth to speak it. But the powerful way to create is to listen to the heart. What does Spirit want for you? That’s how Spirit works through us. Everything we do is because of a desire within us. “Spirit, what is it You want for me?” “… out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Our words have the power to create. “I listen with my heart and speak words that create a loving world.”

Aloha! God bless you!

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August 17, 2014 – I Hold You In My Heart

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8/17/14 Rev. David McArthur
I Hold You In My Heart

The Spirit of Love keeps asking us to grow and explore the amazing possibilities that we are. One of the forms of daily connection I use is particularly effective with those things that don’t have an off button—like when you are with family or friends and there’s one that always gets to you. After they leave you can’t turn it off, going over what you’ll say or do next time. It’s called the monkey mind, but I call it the snakey mind. It’s snakey because there’s always some fear there—of rejection or I’m not good enough, and so forth.

It’s very difficult to deal with the physical or emotional illness of people very important to us. We can’t control or fix them or the situation. It is one of the great bummers of the spiritual world. We worry. We have anxiety. We don’t feel connected spiritually. We feel powerless even though we know we are one with the only power. We do understand that there is amazing power, intelligence, and guidance in the heart. We have done a lot with HeartMath techniques.

Today we involve the heart in a different way: to take that person and simply hold them in our hearts. We don’t have to choose what we feel, or call forth anything, we simply hold that person or situation in our hearts. For example, I have a particular affection for the people of the Mideast but I can’t do anything about their situation. I can’t fix it. I can’t control it. All I can do is hold them in my heart. It’s connecting to the great power in the heart. And one of my friends is experiencing something I can do nothing about. I don’t know if it does anything for him, but it does for me. This even works for people you don’t like. I say, “I hold you in my heart.” My hand automatically goes to my heart, and I change. How I look at that person changes.

After all the angels and visitors at the scene of the Nativity, the Bible says, “Mary took all these things and pondered them in her heart.” This is an instruction on how to take things in your life that are unfolding. When we take things into our heart, they have been lifted.

Lao Tzu said, “If you want to be given everything, give everything up…Only by being lived by the Tao can you be truly yourself.” It means give up control—give up figuring it all out—give up thinking that worrying is how to love. Bring it to where the Divine Presence lives in our lives. It is so simply delightful to find it in those divinely frustrating times.

“I hold you in my heart.” “I hold you in my heart.” “I hold you in my heart.” For those one’s you care for, and whose struggle you know, or for those parts of you that struggle. Fortunately we get a choice. Bless you!

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August 10, 2014 – Weed Wackers

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8/10/14 Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
Weed Wackers

The Parable of the Tares (Weeds), says to let the weeds grow along with the wheat until the wheat is ready for harvest. Then collect the weeds first and burn them before harvesting the wheat. Traditionally, it is understood as a lesson on good vs. evil. However, with the new Polarity thinking we get an even deeper meaning. Polarity thinking says that right/wrong, good/evil, light/dark, etc., are interdependent with each other. For example, Alaskans have their summer of constant daylight, but they need to create darkness for sleeping. You need right and left, up and down. Polarity thinking says this brings coherence.

Metaphysically, in the parable, the sower is the soul; the seeds are our thoughts or ideas (and they are real things). They are energy. The field is the world as it shows up in our reality (from our thoughts). The weeds choke off the new beliefs. The enemy is anything that comes in, like fear, doubt, feeling “less than”, or that we can never measure up. Just when we think we can grow into the new idea the enemy clicks in automatically. When we are new to learning spiritual truths the weeds crop up. But it is not good to get rid of them too soon because you could pull up the “wheat”, the new ideas, with them too.

Polarity thinking says it is no longer “you’re wrong and I’m right.” We’re both right and wrong, so what is best for our relationship, for our business, or for our community? How can we work together–the light and dark, opposing concepts–to create coherence? Can’t we discontinue bombing and the killing of whole neighborhoods just to be right? I’m right and you’re right–how can we go forward in love to bring peace for all? What can we do together to bring this new quantum leap in consciousness?

Concentrate on your wheat so that it grows strong. To do this and wack the weeds, use first, Prayer. Prayer is creating a relationship with God, our Source. Gratitude is powerful prayer, even having gratitude for our impairments, because we know something greater is there.

Secondly, use Meditation. That’s when God talks to us, and we can align ourselves with God’s guidance. Then there is Forgiveness. It is not so much letting somebody else off the hook for what they did, but letting ourselves off the hook for carrying that around 24/7. Forgiveness is your relief, your gift to you.

The HeartMath tools are the best way to bring coherence into your own life. And lastly there is Compassion. You can view Compassion, too, through Polarity thinking: the one that hurts others is also hurting, too.

As your spiritual evolution is occurring you discover who and whose you are. Don’t be so quick to pull up your weeds. As you get stronger the weeds get weaker and even merge with your “wheat”. Ask yourself, where is my abundance, my harvest? Where are my weeds? Look at them together. Be willing to have the weeds there but not let them choke off your harvest. They will diminish in time as your wheat grows stronger. Concentrate on your wheat.

Affirm, “I remember that I Am a Child of God and the Way is made clear for my Good to Manifest. I Am the Beloved of God!” Feel it. Feel the energy around you. “I Am the Beloved of God!” –And yes you are, my love!
 

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August 3, 2014 – Non-Resistance–Letting Go

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8/3/14 Rev. David McArthur
Non-Resistance–Letting Go

Sometimes you hear “Do not try this at home.” Dennis Nagel, a teacher at my ministerial school, was one of those who is very curious about everything. He wanted to know what would happen if he did complete non-resistance—if he could just be and let the universe support him. So he let his teaching contract run out. He also resigned as minister of his church. He and his wife Kitt even trusted that the universe would provide food and shelter. Things happened to support that. Even the bank kept losing his foreclosure papers. Dennis’ response was passive.
 
Jesus taught, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. …love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (The greater awareness of the one power, the sun, is beyond the consciousness of evil and good.)
 
At the wedding in Cana, Jesus’ mother told him there was no more wine. Jesus resisted his mother and said his time hadn’t come. Ignoring him, she went ahead and instructed the servants. So then Jesus did not resist, but changed the water to wine. His non-resistance took him from passivity to action.
 
As we watch what unfolds we grow in awareness (not necessarily comfort). Lao Tzu put it most beautifully, “The master observes the world but trusts his inner vision. He allows things to come and go”. Practice not doing, “…just stay at the center of the circle and let all things take their course”.
 
Finally Dennis’ bank got the foreclosure papers together. However, someone called and asked if they’d move in with him. In all the time we knew them they were weel fed and comfortable. They had this urge to put to work this practice of non-resistance—basically by staring fear in the face and moving beyond it. 
 
With Dennis and Kitt a new state of consciousness was created—an awareness of the universe’s care. With Jesus and the water and wine, a new state of consciousness was created, to follow Spirit’s guidance with non-resistance. First acknowledge the resistance. Second, let go and let God. And third,  ask for the guidance. It might be to take other action, or to wait and watch with awareness. Remember, Divine goodness fills my life. Divine goodness fills my life. Feel it? It’s there, no matter the discomfort. Divine goodness fills my life!!

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July 27, 2014 – Sleeping Beauty, Part IV: True Love’s Kiss

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7/27/14 Rev. David McArthur
Sleeping Beauty, Part IV: True Love’s Kiss

Central to both “Sleeping Beauty” and “Maleficent” is the point of transition, the point of healing the pain caused by the spinning wheel. It changes at True Love’s Kiss when we awaken and can then walk free.

In “Sleeping Beauty” the Prince (us, knowing we are children of God) heads into the forest to bring awakening to Sleeping Beauty, an unaware peasant. It’s a noble response of the soul to the understanding that we are all one. It’s an opportunity to be in service. It requires giving, facing pain (the fire of the dragons). But there is no heaven in the forest; they have to go to the castle.

In Maleficent the Prince goes through the challenges to get up to the Princess in the castle and he kisses her, but she sleeps on. There was no response to the nature of the divine (we see ourselves as separate). But the Princess awakens from “the mother’s kiss” by Maleficent (as the nurturer). Care and service flowed through Maleficent. We awaken to the change of the flow of spiritual energy.

It’s about giving it away! In the beautiful twelve step path it is not done until the twelfth step is done, which is to take it to another alcoholic. It is not done until it is given away. We step into that presence of divine love through service. Krishna tells Arjuna, “I am the super soul seated in the heart of each of us.” So when you give you are serving the one that lives in each of us. Jesus said, “what ever you did for one of the least … you did for me.”

Jasmina, in Mirror of My Soul, Sanctum of My Heart, recounts that in the state of appreciation she could see her heart energy grow. In a disturbed or traumatic state she would go into seizures. She was keenly aware of her “heart work”, and that she could work with others healing from brain trauma. She gave what she had away to others. And when she gave it away, she healed too. When we touch the true love we step into the divine.

It’s not just “doing”, it’s not just “showing up”. It is the giving of love through what you do. That is the service. Ask, “How can I serve today?” If you are not ready and willing, though, do not ask! Are you one who says,”I have to do everything for everybody all the time”? Ask anyway. You might get, “Leave them alone today. They’ll be ok.”

“How can I serve today?” “How can I serve today?” “How can I serve today?” Just feel yourself opening! Feel what you are calling forth. When you are ready It will say, “I have exactly what you can do today!” And you might just enter into the state known as “Happily Ever After”!

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July 20, 2014 – Sleeping Beauty, Part III: Maleficent

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7/20/14 Rev. David McArthur
Sleeping Beauty, Part III: Maleficent

“Maleficent” is the next chapter which shows our world, that appears to be dualistic, is in the end a kingdom free of pain, where we see only the Presence of the Divine. So where does pain come from?

Maleficent, when a young girl, was a winged beauty who flew to the highest levels of nature’s beauty (the spiritual realm) and displayed the “male” roles of power and protector (the soul). From the human realm came a boy, Stefan, who could still experience the spiritual world (as when we were young). They become best friends. About the age of sixteen, Stefan leaves the spiritual world behind for the “adult” world. The King could never conquer Maleficent’s realm (the spiritual) so had offered to leave his throne to who ever reeks revenge for him upon it. So in a symbol of power over another, Stefan steals Maleficent’s wings for the King—a horrible betrayal of his friendship with her.
Thus the curse from the “evil fairy” Maleficent when Sleeping Beauty is born. Our souls feel betrayed by the high level of pain and difficulty in the human experience. Without the wings, the soul is limited, unable to rise to the highest level of understanding. Maleficent must walk in the world. Yet, like our soul guides us, she watches over Sleeping Beauty as she grows, revealing to her the beauty and care of the spiritual realm. Grateful, Sleeping Beauty calls Maleficent her “fairy god-mother”—the symbol of our caring and protective Divine Mother.
Like the the King, we continue to express our desire for control and power over others. That brings the violence and pain. When we meet the pain and evil that we have created (touch the needle) we fall into the deep sleep, the experience of betrayal the King had given the spiritual world.

Where’s the evil? There is none. It’s a change of consciousness. As Charles Fillmore said, “God, or good, is omnipresent.” The apparent evil is not real. There is no devil, no Satan. There is only power for the good. It is spiritual law. How magnificent that you have made the decision to heal, and so have stepped into the path of the pain you brought! It is one of the highest levels of what we do.

Look at what we accomplish with love. John’s gospel says, “…the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” And in Matthew, “…until heaven and earth pass away, not … one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until the law is fulfilled.” This does not mean we have to go through all the pain and suffering we have given. What comes to us is for us to meet with love. Love is the fulfillment. The kiss of true love awakens Sleeping Beauty. But it is not the Prince’s, it is Maleficent’s (our Divine Mother). Divine Love heals our pain. We awaken. It’s a new world.

The King still attacks Maleficent. Although she does not engage, he falls from the tower and dies. Duality cannot sustain itself. This is what happens when we meet it with non-resistance. Let it go; give it no more power and energy. That which presents against you has no real power over you. You are a child of the most high. All that power is within you. Nothing can stand in the way of your good. There is only one power. Again in Matthew, Jesus said, “Do not resist an evil person; turn the other cheek.” But how? Non resistance is a challenge. Repeat: I am a spiritual being living in a spiritual world governed by spiritual law. I am a spiritual being living in a spiritual world governed by spiritual law. I am a spiritual being living in a spiritual world governed by spiritual law.

Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent both become the queens of their realms (the human and the spiritual), but the barriers between are gone. It is all one kingdom. God is good all the time! God is good all the time! All the time God is good!
 

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July 13, 2014 – Sleeping Beauty, Part II: One Power

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7/13/14 Rev. David McArthur
Sleeping Beauty, Part II: One Power

The “folk scripture” Sleeping Beauty is our story. We have forgotten we are children of God. Like Sleeping Beauty, everyone of us has touched that “spinning wheel” and felt pain, lack, hurt, rejection, and we have fallen asleep to the greater presence and goodness because the pain has numbed us. We need the Prince (our seeking mind) to bring the true love kiss moment. It is the acceptance of our union with the pattern of God within.

But the Prince is captured and put in chains, as we are bound by the chains of our experiences. However, his chains fall away, as do ours, when the focus is put on the truth, the Presence, through the feelings of love. The Prince picks up the Shield of Virtue, which is our capacity of choice to focus on the greater goodness, and heads into the field of thorns and cuts through them. Thorns are all the things we “have” to do, the things that are not true. Our perception makes the difference. The choice is to focus on the good.

But the mind is good at finding why we can’t. Enter the dragon, the great old God-thought of the “fear of God”. Or you feel you have to be a cynic—that’s your dragon. It is only fear.

We also looked at Jasmina Agrillo and her struggle with a brain tumor. From the brain surgery she lost all control of her body. She did discover she could see “…my heart and my brain. I could see my brain go into seizure with emotional stress. And I’d see my heart light up with the song of a bird. I could then see that energy go from my heart up to my brain. What I could see was the power of my healing heart.”

She chose to journey through the thorns up into the tower, the “secret place of the Most high,” according to Emily Cady, that “… is the point of mystical union between man and Spirit (or God in us), wherein we …feel our oneness with the Father, and we manifest this oneness.” Jasmina said, “I learned it is one thing to experience the presence of God. It is the other part of the journey to become love.” She had to reconstruct her life one small step at a time. She had to choose to bring the “true love kiss” to every thing she tried to do. She built a great new life.

Then the tumor returned. This time she chose spiritual healing. But let me be clear, surgery and medicine are equally manifestations of the Presence in healing. She chose to rebuild her goodness one choice at a time. That’s the way it is done. What ever comes up, just choose the goodness, because God is good all the time! God is good all the time! All the time God is good!

If it’s all good, then why the pain and suffering? The story tellers have brought out “Maleficent” to tell us. What is the pain and suffering for? —We’ll answer that next week.
 

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July 6, 2014 – Sleeping Beauty, Part I: Soul Awakening

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7/6/14 Rev. David McArthur
Sleeping Beauty, Part I: Soul Awakening

“Sleeping Beauty” is about the awakening of our soul. In a time long ago the King and Queen celebrated the birth of their princess, but the royal baby was cursed that, on her 16th birthday, she would prick her finger on a spinning wheel and fall into a deep sleep. She would only be awakened by the kiss of true love. The King and Queen burned all the spinning wheels and sent Sleeping Beauty into the woods to be raised without knowing who she was. Many fairy tail characters don’t know who their parents are. We, too, lose awareness that we really are children of God. When we were children we were still in touch with the feeling of something beyond our understanding, of connection with the divine. But we were taught that that is not ok. We feel that everything belongs to God and we have no right to any of it.
 
Jasmina says in her book Mirror of My Soul, Sanctum of My Heart that she saw many parallels between herself and Sleeping Beauty. She wasn’t feeling valued or worthy. Her sense of self was quite limited. Raised by someone whose turmoil was so very hurtful, Jasmina was even afraid of being a mother to her little boy. As in the Sleeping Beauty story, a point of change comes. Sleeping Beauty meets the young Prince, and her feeling world opens to the field of knowledge. The Prince is our “knowing” side, and he knows he is a child of the King and Queen (it’s the awareness that we are heir to the divine). He’s the part of us that seeks guidance, that wants to learn.
 
Even if we don’t understand it, there’s a point where we open to changes that must take place in the soul’s growth. For Jasmina, this came with the growth of a large tumor in her brain. While in surgery, she says, “I entered a tunnel and kept falling, with illuminated hands guiding my fall to a great light. I entered it to meet an assembly of divine light beings whose grace enveloped me. I learned I had to love more. From the highest source of soul discernment, I felt joy at the great opportunity to become more love.” She experienced the knowledge of who she really is (the Prince side). The Prince also has a journey. Our thinking part seeks learning and has to experience the world of feeling (the princess side, Sleeping Beauty). Jasmina continued, “There was an explosion in my heart..I was aware of my soul as a great vibrational wave in the sea of love.”
 
Take in this knowledge so deeply that you really FEEL it. Say, “I am a beloved child of God.” “I am a beloved child of God.” “I am a beloved child of God.” Feel it so deeply that you KNOW it!

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