In Sheep’s Clothing

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“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit.” Matthew 7:15-17.

“Jesus … has given us an utterly simple and universally applicable test for Truth. It is a test that any man or woman of any kind, anywhere, can easily apply for himself. It is as simple and direct as the acid test for gold. It is the simple question—does it work?” Emmet Fox

On many occasions I have had people explain in elaborate detail the wonders of some new teaching they have discovered. I certainly understand the excitement of inspiration and I have a genuine appreciation for those writers and those bodies of teachings that have inspired me. What I have come to know, however, is that there are a handful of basic ideas that you will find repeated in all teachings that are capable of making a difference in one’s life. These ideas are free of charge, they are accessible to all, and they can be applied by anyone. The catch is, if they are to work, they must be applied.

The first of these ideas has to do with God as our infinite resource of wisdom, power, love and life. All that we desire boils down to the need for a greater expression of these qualities. Recognizing God as our Source, we start with the idea that our Source is present and expressing freely through us now.

The second idea is that we are created in the image and likeness of God. Knowing this truth awakens us to the Creative Life Force working in and as us now. Doors begin to open and things change.

The third idea is that we can never be separate from God our Source, that even in low moments of feeling separate we are still one. There are no secrets in this universe, there are only truths waiting discovery. Trust yourself and do not be fooled by anything less than this understanding.

The Narrow Gate

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“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Matthew 7:13-14.

“There is only one way under the sun by which man can attain harmony, that is to say, health, prosperity, peace of mind–salvation, in the true sense of the word–and that is by bringing about a radical and permanent change for the better in his own consciousness.”                 — Emmet Fox

When we come to some understanding of the law of consciousness, we begin to understand the relationship between our beliefs and the way our life unfolds. How we see things in general is influenced tremendously by how we see ourselves. Jesus pointed this out when he said a tree is known by its fruit. The fruit is our conditions in life. Our self-perception is the tree.

When compared to the way we often approach changing our lives, you will observe yourself commonly looking to gather new fruit without giving much consideration to the tree—the self-perception that you hold.

In the past I have raised a question that is worth asking and answering in any acquisitioning endeavor: Am I seeking to evolve a strength or am I attempting to protect a weakness? Sometimes we want more of a thing because we feel inadequate and the acquisition of the thing or condition will make us feel more of a sense of wholeness.

To enter by the narrow gate is to seek to first experience your wholeness, to touch that place within yourself where you know you are fine with or without the thing you pursue. There is nothing wrong with pursuing things. The problem is found more in why you think you need it. You are already whole. The message of the narrow gate is simple: start with your wholeness and go from there.

A Matter of Attention

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“Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you” (Matthew 7:6).

“Most of us have had the experience, when we first realized the Spiritual Idea and what it means, of picking out certain of our friends who, we felt sure, would jump at it, only to find that in most cases they refused to take it at all.” — Emmet Fox

Last week I wrote/spoke of the judgment issue and this week it appears that Jesus is telling us to make a significant judgment call. Emmet Fox offers helpful commentary here, but the implication still involves discernment of those who are worthy of your giving and those who are not.

We best understand the principle conveyed in Jesus’ words when we think of the dogs and swine as negative propositions that are presented to us through external appearances. Giving to dogs what is holy and casting your pearls before swine represents the action of pouring our mental and emotional energy into ideas that have no positive return. Focus on a destructive scenario, for example, leaves you feeling helpless and depleted. You are soon drained of the creative energy that allows you to see other possibilities.

In such a case it is better to turn your attention to ideas that give a positive return. A situation that appears to be hopeless will not improve with our continued affirming that it is hopeless. It will, however, begin to change the moment you give what is holy and cast your pearls to an idea such as, God’s perfect wisdom is now manifesting through this situation. Perfect harmony and perfect balance are brought forth through me and through all concerned with this matter. Thank You God! With this prayerful affirmation you are casting your energy into an idea with productive possibilities.

Stop wasting your divine mental and emotional energy by pouring it in no-win imagery. This is the message Jesus is passing on.

The Judgment Issue

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Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Matthew 7:1-2

“The plain fact is that it is the Law of Life that, as we think, and speak, and act towards others, so will others think, speak and act towards us. Whatever sort of conduct we give out, that we are inevitably bound to get back.”  – Emmet Fox

There are some interesting nuances to consider in this statement of Jesus. Fox points to the most obvious of these with his “like attracts like” statement. The more subtle yet impactful issue has to do with where you go mentally and emotionally when you pass judgment on another. The question you ask yourself is this: Do I like where I go?

Emerson said, “You can only see what you are.” This would indicate that we see in others what we really see in ourselves. If you think of this seeing process as one of setting up a kind of attracting vibration, you can see Fox’s like attracts like connection.

Someone made the interesting observation that we are not punished for our sins; we are punished by them. In other words, God is not looking at a master list of sins, comparing our thoughts and actions to it, and doling out penalties accordingly. The action of falling from a greater state to a lesser state of mind is itself the punishment.

Most of us are in such a habit of passing judgment that we need to take care not to judge ourselves too harshly. We are working toward a new awareness of how we employ our thinking and the possible consequences in both negative and positive ways. Jesus is basically saying that the level and type of your thinking is responsible for the level and type of your experience. Be mindful of how you see others for this is a window into how you see some aspect of yourself.

Who Is My Adversary?

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“Come to terms quickly with your adversary while you are on the way to court with him, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison” (Matthew 5:25).

“It is ever so much easier to overcome a difficulty if you tackle it immediately, at its first appearance, than it will be after the trouble has had some little time to establish itself in your mentality …”   —Emmet Fox

The role of perception is a recurring theme in all spiritual instruction. How you see things has more of an impact on your quality of life than the things themselves. Of course people misbehave and conditions go awry, but the chain of thought and emotion triggered by these is the thing that either empowers you or sends you careening down an experiential path that taints your experience with negativity.

Some, understanding the importance of the perceptions they hold, choose not to acknowledge undesirable conditions or questionable behavior from others. They choose instead to pretend these things do not exist. This is denial in the destructive sense of the word. We have the faculty of judgment and we have the ability to respond (response-ability) to the world around us. However, it is the state of mind from which we respond that is all important.

To “come to terms quickly with your adversary” is to catch your own perceptual responses before they get away from you. Did someone speak an unkind word to you? If so, are you building a case against them or are you grounded in the higher truth of your spiritual integrity? Do appearances of lack have you reeling in fear or are you affirming divine guidance and developing a constructive plan of action that will help you meet the challenge? Does your health depend on every word spoken by your doctor or do you know your limitless spiritual nature of wholeness?

The greatest adversary you will encounter is the perception that begins with a negative thought and cascades out of control.

Leave Your Gift

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“When you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24).

“Under the New Law, or Christian dispensation, our altar is our own consciousness, and our offerings are our prayers and treatments.”   —Emmet Fox

From the spiritual point of view, we understand that the people and conditions in our lives affect us—for good or for ill—according to the way we think of them. Anger, justified or not, blocks the finer levels of spiritual energy. It does not matter to whom or what anger is directed; what matters is that the presence of anger and other negative emotions puts us in a non-receptive disposition. To become receptive to things like spiritual guidance and healing, we must be willing to release the energies that counter the positive flow. If making amends starts this releasing process, then make amends. If you make amends, however, make sure you do so with the understanding that this is primarily an internal process.

If, as Fox suggests, you think of your consciousness as the “altar” you can see how placing mixed, competing energies on this altar create mixed, competing results. Jesus is basically saying to keep your “eye,” your inner visioning faculty, single. Release all negative energies—fear, anger, resentment—and move into a receptive state of surrendering to the higher spiritual power that moves naturally through you.

Far too often we mistake outer actions with the need to make the type of internal shift required to align ourselves with the Divine. Much of the Christian message is a focus on morality, actions and thinking deemed worthy of the divine standard. Morality, however, is an effect of the spiritual awakening, not the cause. We are to “cleanse the inside of the cup,” as Jesus elsewhere pointed out, and the outside will take care of itself.

Fulfilling The Law

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Think not that I have come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I have not come to destroy but to fulfill.

“When you really are no longer spiritually a minor, you will cease to need some of the outer observances that formally seemed indispensable; but your resulting life will be purer, truer, freer, and less selfish than it was before …”   —Emmet Fox

Take a small stone in your hand, extend your arm, and let go of the stone. What happens? It falls to the earth. Yet, at nearly any moment, if you look up into the sky you will see a jetliner weighing thousands of times more than your stone traveling through the air, carrying a few hundred people to their desired destination. Your stone is obeying the law of gravity. Does this mean the jet is breaking the law? No. The jet is not breaking the law of gravity, it is fulfilling the law.

As we live only with the awareness of ourselves as physical beings with a large brain capacity and a spirit stuck somewhere beneath our personality-based identity, we will operate under laws that govern this self-definition. We will continue to look at people like Jesus as great miracle workers given special dispensation and powers transcending those of even the above average human. We will view his statements to the contrary with passing curiosity: “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).

You and I are spiritual beings inhabiting a physical body going through a material experience. Do the same laws that govern our physical bodies govern also our spiritual nature? Of course not. The limitations imposed on the body are unknown to the spirit. On which set of laws do we base our daily thought and action?

We are not here to break material laws but to awaken to our spiritual identity that fulfills these laws and allows us to live above their restrictive parameters.

As A Man Thinketh

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No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house (Matthew 5:15).

“If you truly live your life, then it does not in the least matter you’re your present circumstances may be, or what difficulties you may have to struggle against, you will triumph over them all—you will make your demonstration.”  —Emmet Fox

The principle being brought out in this saying of Jesus is the principle of cause and effect. Lighting a lamp creates a cause. The effect is that it gives light to all in the house. You can light the same lamp but alter the effect by covering it with a bushel basket. You still have light, but it benefits no one.

We often pray for light then cover it with the bushel basket of inaction. The light that we have received does not shine out into our circumstances so we pray for even more light. Yet until we lift the bushel basket of fear and self doubt and truly live our lives from that level of inspiration we experience while alone reading or quietly envisioning the life we truly desire, we’ll have a heart filled with light and a life filled with darkness.

God, the Creative Life Force, is expansive, balancing and prospering in every way. You are the gate that stands between the invisible power of God and its material expressing. You, the gate, are either opened or closed to the expression of this power. Those areas of your life that are working are examples of you acting as the open gate. Those areas of your life that are not working are examples of you acting as a closed gate.

As Fox points out, it doesn’t matter what the circumstances are. Commit to lifting the bushel basket, opening the gate and let the light that you are shine in your world. Start small. Confront each fear as it arises. Take baby steps if necessary. The size of your step is irrelevant, as long as you are moving. The way will open. The light you know within will shine in your life.

Persecuted by Truth?

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Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

We have to understand that the source of all …persecution is none other than our own selves. When we find righteousness or right thinking very difficult—when we are very strongly tempted to hold the wrong thoughts about some situation, or some person, or about ourselves; to give way to fear, or anger, or despondency—then we are being persecuted for righteousness’ sake …” —Emmet Fox

In its original context, this beatitude was, in all likelihood, a reference to the persecutions of the followers of Jesus. He would have understood that even though his teachings were rooted in the Judaism of his day, that his unique interpretation of them would have continued to raise eyebrows. The scribes and Pharisees continuously challenged Jesus and his unorthodox approach.

Emmet Fox’s commentary raises a very interesting issue that is applicable to each of us now. There are those who do not understand what we teach and might be tempted to brand us as “theologically impure.” However, the persecutors that we need to be most aware of are those within our own household. The spiritual awakening results in a new way of seeing and thinking. Through the course of a typical day we find a kind of inner tug-of-war going on between our growing understanding and our old perceptions. We can think of this struggle between old and new as a kind of persecution by the old.

If you were not on the spiritual path, you would not see your thinking, for example, as a significant factor in establishing a higher quality of experience. Knowing that your thinking does play a role can produce a sting of guilt when you let your mind run rampant with fear. You are being persecuted, not by the fear but by the understanding that your out-of-control thinking—stinking thinking—is degrading the quality of your life at that moment. This is an example of being persecuted for righteousness.

The Peace Makers

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Blessed are the peace makers,

for they shall be called the children of God.

The peace makers spoken of in this Beatitude are those who make or bring about this true peace, or serenity, in their own souls, for it is they who surmount limitation and become actually, and not merely potentially, the children of God. This condition of mind is the objective at which Jesus aims in all the instructions which he gives us in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you … let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” —Emmet Fox

Emmet Fox touches on something here of great importance, though we may think he is suggesting something beyond our reach. A peace maker, in the spiritual sense, is one who has touched their inner core of peace, who has come to know their unity with God.

When taken to heart, the teachings of Jesus actually change our level of inner experience, which is reflected in our realm of circumstance. Most of us are trying to create an outer world that ensures our peace. We are learning that as we awaken to the truth that our being flows from God, we bring the peace-centered consciousness we seek into all that we do.

Each one is already a child of God, an expression of the Infinite. The ingrained belief that we are separate from God does not make it so; it only makes it seem so. We are looking for the inner awareness of the truth of our oneness, and that begins at the still center of our being. Find this inner center of peace and you will become a peace maker. This doesn’t mean you will become a negotiator for peace between parties at odds with each other, though you may. It means your own inner “parties,” those conflicting energies of fear and uncertainty, begin to smooth out and express through your thoughts, your emotions, and your actions.