Watch Over Your Flocks

Watch Over Your Flocks 

J Douglas Bottorff

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

Luke 2:8

In the Christmas story, sheep represent our thoughts. This scene takes place in the night which represents a condition of mind that is disconnected with the light of Spirit. The shepherds, however, represent our ability to keep our thoughts orderly and focused even when we feel separate from our Source. The result of this discipline is that an angel of the Lord appeared before the shepherds announcing the good news of the coming Messiah.

It’s important to remember that even when you feel you are in spiritual darkness, you are still in the presence of Spirit. In one sense, prayer is a practice of tending your flocks. When you pray you are opening your mind to a desired direction, a solution of some sort. It’s easy to begin to doubt that any greater good will come from your act of prayer. This doubt is the act of allowing your flocks, your thoughts, to scatter and dissipate the momentum of forces working together to manifest as your highest good.

When you want to achieve a thing, you bring the force of your whole being to bear on that thing. You see the finished thing, you make plans and you take action in the direction of this desire. If you start in a direction then hesitate and veer to another direction, you will not see the completion of the thing you desire.

Thomas Troward wrote, “The Lord will provide the food, but He won’t cook the meal.” Bits and pieces of the answers you seek in prayer may come into your experience. It is up to you to then take these elements and develop them into desired conditions. The process of doing this opens you to greater possibilities. An angel of the Lord appears, so to speak, announcing even greater good than you had been seeking. It is most important to stay focused in your times of spiritual darkness. Good things are happening that you cannot see.

Conceived From on High

Conceived From on High

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:20)

The Gospel According to Matthew was written for a Jewish audience. The first half of chapter one is devoted to tracing the linage of Joseph clear back to Abraham, a requisite in the Jewish mind for the expected Messiah. However, while the story names Joseph, a descendant of Abraham, as the husband-to-be of Mary, the actual linage connecting Jesus to Abraham is broken. Jesus is presented, not as the son of Joseph but as the son of God. Mary is portrayed as the vehicle through which the divine son of God is brought into the earthly realm.

The author of Matthew is illustrating the need for a change in Jewish thought. While the Messiah will be raised according to Jewish customs, his origin transcends the past and signals the beginning of a higher order. Jesus said he did not come to break the law but to fulfill it.

We see a parallel in this story to our own spiritual evolvement. It’s important for us to remember that our studies do not develop our spiritual nature. This part of our being is already complete. Our studies bring our thought into alignment with our spiritual nature and prepare the mind for the emergence of this higher dimension.

Joseph represents the intellectual side of the mind while Mary represents the intuitive. Our spiritual nature is experienced, not through study, but through intuitive receptivity. Study prepares us to learn intuitively. That Joseph received the announcement of this mysterious conception in a dream rather than in a wakened state indicates the need to set aside intellectual preconceptions and learn to listen intuitively to the emerging Self. This is indeed a mysterious process to most people, and yet it is one that is occurring in us all.

It is, as Paul wrote, the mystery that has been hidden for the ages but is now revealed: Christ in you, your hope of glory. Christ, the spiritual dimension in you, is coming forth. A new order is emerging through you now.

The Receptive Mind

The Receptive Mind

“Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.” (Luke 1:13)

The above statement comes from the angel Gabriel as a promise to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. From a spiritual point of view, John the Baptist represents the illumined intellect, that stage of spiritual development that precedes complete illumination. The mind is receptive to spiritual ideas but these are conceptual only, not fully integrated into the consciousness. Most of us are currently at this stage. We accept that God as our Source and Creator is within our being, but in practice we often lose sight of this truth and fall back on our reliance of senses-based information.

Luke tells a story of Jesus by the lake of Gennesaret. There is a crowd of people pressing in on him and so he asks Simon Peter to take him a little ways out in his boat so Jesus can speak to the crowd. When he is finished he tells Peter to go out into the deep and cast his nets. Peter explains that they have fished all night with no luck but he does as Jesus directs. The result is that he catches so many fish it nearly sinks the boat.

The story illustrates the change that occurs when the mind is receptive to spiritual ideas. Peter was on the same lake where he had fished all night, but with no luck. Now, in the presence of Jesus (spiritual consciousness) he goes through the same motions but this time he fills his net. He is fishing in the daylight of illumination.

You may feel like you are fishing on a lake that has no fish and needs restocking. Everything about your life, you are sure, needs to change. However, your lake (life) is well stocked. You don’t have to learn new things to prosper. Open your mind (cast your net) to the truth that you are already one with your infinite Source of good. It is your receptivity to Spirit combined with your actions that determine the blessings that flow into and through your life. Raise your expectations for greater good and fill your net with blessings.