x2 Step 40 – Journal Step 39 - The power of God is with me.

Today: Step 40 - Today I will feel the power of God. (MP3)  

Today I will feel the power of God. Step 40

GOD’S POWER IS SO COMPLETE AND SO INCLUSIVE that it infuses everything. Only those minds that are separated and lost in valuing their own thoughts can possibly be separated from the great benevolence of God. Those who have responded to God become God’s Messengers in time so that they may bestow the gifts of Grace upon those who remain behind in confusion. All the seeming powers of your world—the forces of nature, the inevitability of your death, the ever present threat of illness, loss and destruction and all appearances of conflict—are all temporary movements in the great stillness of God. It is this great stillness that calls you to return to the peace and full enjoyment of God, but you must prepare.

TODAY YOU PREPARE IN YOUR TWO 30-MINUTE PRACTICE PERIODS. In silent meditation, attempt to feel the power of God. You do not need to conjure up magical images, for this power is something that you can feel, for it is everywhere. No matter what your circumstances or condition, whether favorable for your development or not, today you can feel the power of God.

PRACTICE 40: Two 30-minute practice periods.

Picture:  Blue storm clouds, Frederick County, Virginia. This color is as it was recorded by the camera; not modified in any way after the fact.

From the journal Step 39 - The power of God is with me.

1:56 p.m. September 27, 2000 – at work – it gets more & more difficult to be here. Projects will flounder –

Not much recorded this day. Personally, the unburdening remains an ego problem and will do so for quite a long time. Life changes do not go smoothly.

There is a lot in Step 39 for a person like me who at age 24 decided to be a planner, once I learned such a profession existed. That came from reading the 1970 book Future Shock by Alvin Toffler. It seemed then that if the world used more planning, things would turn out better. In reality, there is a lot more to it as everyone has a plan, or the “no plan” plan.

The Step says: “The power of God represents the mystery of your life, for it represents the power that you have brought with you from God to be utilized properly in the world according to the Greater Plan.” Wow, if only I can understand the mystery of my life, it will work with the Greater Plan.

That there is a plan of God was not an entirely new concept. In the The Urantia Book, Paper 3, The Attributes of God

2. God’s Infinite Power

^{(46.5) 3:2.1} All the universes know that “the Lord God omnipotent reigns.” The affairs of this world and other worlds are divinely supervised. “He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.” It is eternally true, “there is no power but of God.”

^{(46.6) 3:2.2} Within the bounds of that which is consistent with the divine nature, it is literally true that “with God all things are possible.” The long-drawn-out evolutionary processes of peoples, planets, and universes are under the perfect control of the universe creators and administrators and unfold in accordance with the eternal purpose of the Universal Father, proceeding in harmony and order and in keeping with the all-wise plan of God. There is only one lawgiver. He upholds the worlds in space and swings the universes around the endless circle of the eternal circuit.

…

While studying The Urantia Book, 1982 to 1989 or so did expand my horizons, ultimately it was not the complete map for me. The many levels of teachers who composed the papers looked like a celestial bureaucracy for the Universal Father, a male identification for the Creator. The History of Urantia section, Urantia being the name of Earth in this revelation, as it turned out, had some human content that related to eugenics. It did not offer a practice.

From this I moved on to A Course in Miracles. That presented yet another view. Everything I studied has contributed to my journey, though the societies of earth plug along seemingly paying little attention to this deeper matter, The Mystery. Let us continue.

NNC

Note: If you’ve some interest due to this or other Steps, you should go to the beginning blog post. From here you will learn about Steps to Knowledge and can begin it on the day that makes sense; then progress as needed. You can use the posts on this blog as a companion if it helps. They will remain in order in the archives - one post per Step.

Often it takes 18 months to get through the Steps once. For this blog, the pace is one-a-day, but it really makes no difference how fast you do it, only that you begin, persist and repeat. Posts here provide a trail that may let you have a virtual companion when and if you want one. One may have to study alone, as I did in the beginning. There are other Steps students blogging their experience and you might find a person more like you as a companion, or use a number of such Steps journeys. There are options as well through the Free School of the New Message.