CT Step 16 - There are greater forces at work in the world. – Journal – CT Step 15

Today:  CT Step 16 - There are greater forces at work in the world. (MP3)

There are greater forces at work in the world. CT Step 16

There are indeed greater forces at work in the world. You can feel their movement, and you can bear witness to their reality. Here you look beyond yourself into the world. If you can look without prejudice, fear or denial, you will be able to see very far, farther even than you thought you could. The fact is that most people do not look and therefore do not see. And if they do look, they look with so many conditions, prerequisites and requirements that they cannot really grasp what they are seeing.

If you are not dominated by your own mind, then you are free to look and to see. If you are not dominated by your past, then you are able to see things as they are today, in a new way.

Today then is an opportunity to see where you are going and to recognize the greater forces in the world. This puts you into a larger arena of life. You then become a witness to greater things. Perhaps at the beginning you can only see a tiny, tiny bit. But as you practice in your ongoing preparation, you will be able to see more as you proceed. You will develop the eyes to see, the willingness to see and the desire to see.

Beyond your practice in stillness today and your hourly practices in awareness and discernment, spend time just looking at the world. Spend perhaps a moment here or a moment there, considering the greater forces that are at work in the world. It is important here not to have any conclusions but simply to ask the question, "What are the greater forces that are working in the world?" Just keep asking the question, without supplying the answer. It is your experience here that will be the real answer. To have this experience, you must ask the question and you must begin to look.

Practice 16:    One 30-minute stillness practice.

                          Contemplation practice.

                          Hourly practice.

Picture: San Antonio, Texas at night from the Tower of the Americas. October 26, 2007

Plan B - If the MP3 doesn’t work, here’s the link to the folder: New Message - Student Spoken Steps CT Recordings - Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training - Working file

From the journal:  CT Step 15 - Let me look towards the Greater Community to understand where my life is going.

Sunday, September 9, 2001

8:24 a.m. A blue sky, sunny morning for the Shenandoah Valley. Opening my life to Knowledge/Holy Spirit to bring forth my meaning, purpose and direction through spiritual family and the unseen ones is working in my life and asking for, prayer for the emergence of Knowledge in the lives of others for meaning, purpose and direction is working. Making me – letting me be more free and therefore it is truth for only the truth shall make you free.

This entry contains affirmation that is also a prayer. In beginning used of the Continuation Training Steps cards, I noticed also my collection of prayer cards. 

The first is dated August 5, 2001, but it wasn’t recorded in the journal. Often I’ve written prayers in the journal, but the journal could not always be at hand, so I made an index card so I could carry it with me and review as needed.

Here is how the first card read:

My prayers are for Sarah Marie Christoffel, David Thomas Christoffel and Cynthia Selena Cave Christoffel, and those in their lives, Lane, Emily, Jamie, Susan, that their Knowledge emerge more strongly for joy in their lives and that of the earth, as I, Thomas Joseph Christoffel seek to serve the truth that Knowledge is by strengthening my own presence of Knowledge. Nasi Novare Coram

I felt it important to use full names. The format, should you wish to do something similar is:   

My prayers are for … and those in their lives, … that their Knowledge emerge more strongly for joy in their lives and that of the earth, as I, … seek to serve the truth that Knowledge is by strengthening my own presence of Knowledge. Nasi Novare Coram

Ten different cards were done through December 8, 2001 – as more people and situations were added. This is was in 2001, 15 years ago. In Christian churches and organizations, prayer for others is a common thing to seek assistance with and there are groups set up to respond to that need. Being a singular student in the world, this is what I did. The last prayer card I had was lost in 2013 when my card holder was stolen. Today, the New Message Wiki is a place that brings together the various references to prayer in the teachings now.

We continue.

NNC

Note: If you’ve some interest, but this is the first time you’ve seen 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. Begin at the beginning.

If you do know about Steps, but have not done Steps twice completely, read the related materials, and have a sense of the direction of this study, you won’t get the experience. The Introduction begins:

“This is the Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training. It is designed to build upon the Steps that were learned in Steps to Knowledge to enable you to experience the grace, the power and the direction of Knowledge in your life and to become an expression of Knowledge in everything that you do. If you have completed the book, Steps to Knowledge, twice through and have followed the instructions as they were given without altering the curriculum in any way, then you are now ready to begin this more advanced study”.

If you are an independent student, that is certainly an option. 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.