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How does faith arrive and arise and strengthen on such a world of those who believe without seeing? What kind of power does the Son’s Spirit of Truth really have? Immeasurable I think. Unimaginable even.
Don’t forget the Holy Spirit:
103:0.1 All of man’s truly religious reactions are sponsored by the early ministry of the adjutant of worship and are censored by the adjutant of wisdom. Man’s first supermind endowment is that of personality encircuitment in the Holy Spirit of the Universe Creative Spirit; and long before either the bestowals of the divine Sons or the universal bestowal of the Adjusters, this influence functions to enlarge man’s viewpoint of ethics, religion, and spirituality. Subsequent to the bestowals of the Paradise Sons the liberated Spirit of Truth makes mighty contributions to the enlargement of the human capacity to perceive religious truths. As evolution advances on an inhabited world, the Thought Adjusters increasingly participate in the development of the higher types of human religious insight. The Thought Adjuster is the cosmic window through which the finite creature may faith-glimpse the certainties and divinities of limitless Deity, the Universal Father.
Another thing about faith that is interesting is its ability to connect human morality to the reality of spiritual values. It’s the bridge within the gateway (spirits of worship and wisdom) from lower mind to the soul.
101:9.8-9 2. Religion creates for the human mind a spiritualized consciousness of divine reality based on, and by faith derived from, antecedent concepts of moral values and co-ordinated with superimposed concepts of spiritual values. Religion thereby becomes a censor of mortal affairs, a form of glorified moral trust and confidence in reality, the enhanced realities of time and the more enduring realities of eternity. Faith becomes the connection between moral consciousness and the spiritual concept of enduring reality.
102:0.3 This saving faith has its birth in the human heart when the moral consciousness of man realizes that human values may be translated in mortal experience from the material to the spiritual, from the human to the divine, from time to eternity.
A point I tried very hard to make in my treatise on the Holy Spirit is that it is her personal presence as this Spirit which early on fosters faith. This is because faith is married to trust and we are built to trust persons. At least that is the divine inheritance we have. Our animal heritage is not so trusting, but that is part of the process of moving from human to divine.
101:9.8-9 2. Religion creates for the human mind a spiritualized consciousness of divine reality based on, and by faith derived from, antecedent concepts of moral values and co-ordinated with superimposed concepts of spiritual values.
This is an enlightening citation, Bonita. What does it mean to derive a spiritualized consciousness by faith and superimpose it upon the moral concepts held by the intellectual consciousness? What is the relationship between the spiritual values discerned by faith and the moral values in which we believe? Is it possible to have faith in God without first believing in some idea of God? Is it possible to believe in some idea of God without first having some measure of faith in him? Is the spiritual insight of faith the seed of belief or is the intellectual concept of belief the seed of faith?
TUB explains in the quote below that growth in consciousness of the presence of God within our souls has three different levels of realization. It begins with the idea of God, which is a material level intellectual event occurring within the material mind with the assistance of the two highest adjutant mind spirits, worship and wisdom. As I’ve explained in the past, when these two adjutants are working, there is a simultaneous uplift by the spirit of wisdom which provides the gateway to the soul, and a down reach by the Holy Spirit which provides the bridge from the gateway of the material mind into the morontia soul. At this point there develops the second event leading to God-consciousness, which is an embryonic soul-consciousness. This level of consciousness reveals ideal concepts of God (God of love vs. God of fear for instance). Lastly, after a wholehearted effort to reach the borderland where soul consciousness abuts the superconscious, it is possible to experience the actual presence of God . . . consciousness of the spirit reality of God.
5:5.11 God-consciousness, as it is experienced by an evolving mortal of the realms, must consist of three varying factors, three differential levels of reality realization. There is first the mind consciousness — the comprehension of the idea of God. Then follows the soul consciousness — the realization of the ideal of God. Last, dawns the spirit consciousness — the realization of the spirit reality of God. By the unification of these factors of the divine realization, no matter how incomplete, the mortal personality at all times overspreads all conscious levels with a realization of the personality of God.
So the question, I think, is what role does faith play in this. We all know that the only thing required of us is faith, yet faith is a gift from God . . . so how does that work exactly? The first thing to do is to separate the idea of belief from the idea of faith. They are not the same thing. Belief is often produced by that first step of intellectual response to inner stirrings from the spirit of worship. But once the spirit of wisdom kicks in, once we began to ask ourselves moral questions and seek higher answers to our moral problems, and if there is any sincerity at all, the spirit of wisdom will work to build its gateway and the Holy Spirit will strive to form the bridge to the soul. All this is a gift of mind ministry. Accepting this gift and allowing our thoughts to walk through that gateway and cross the invisible bridge is called faith. And that too is a gift in response to a plea (prayer) for answers; ask and you receive, it’s one of those universal laws.
The personal presence of the Holy Spirit is a new level of intellect, a higher form of thinking with a personal helping hand (bridge) for the searching personality. This is called insight. You get through the gateway by allowing wisdom to guide your material mind; then, if motivated by a sincere desire to discover truth, you take a faith-step on the invisible bridge. That’s all we really can do . . . strive to discover. Then, once we cross the faith-bridge to the soul, we learn to recognize what is in there. It’s whole new upper floor in the house of the mind. It has many rooms and many discoveries . . . lots of treasures there. We are guided through those rooms with light provided by the Adjuster, our source of spiritual luminosity.
What we “see” or feel with this new insight is interpreted for us by the Spirit of Truth (spirit philosopher) while recognition and understanding is supplied by the superintellect of the Holy Spirit, who provides the mind ministry for the soul. Then it is up to us to act on what we discover and recognize there. If we allow the Spirit of Truth to deal with our material mind’s grasp on this new ideal (the mind of Christ), and allow him to direct the flow of these fruits, we are certainly doing all we can to do God’s will. We’re sharing our inner life with God, allowing our will to produce his fruit, and permitting the Spirit of Truth to do his own work in the name of the Father.
Faith is a gift of cooperation between the seeking mind and spirit who is striving to provide for all its needs. Of course, the mind is directed by personality, so it’s really a seeking personality who is striving for perfection . . . and that’s the beauty of it all . . . personality to personality . . . creature personality seeking Creator personality. Faith is God’s gift to the seeker. It’s his way of establishing our trust in him. He already has trust in us. Faith is the trust-link, the bridge to the living vine . . . and that’s why it’s the only thing we really need in order to keep the ball rolling.
Does this help at all? I keep trying to find new ways to describe all of this, but sometimes I’m afraid I succeed more in muddling things up than clearing things up.
“Does this help at all? I keep trying to find new ways to describe all of this, but sometimes I’m afraid I succeed more in muddling things up than clearing things up.”
Yes, to put it simply.
I have read these words so many times but you have taken the time to put it all together so I can visualize a process that is complex and without TUB revelation would happen and has been for a long time but with little understanding of what was really happening. Obviously the authors have a reason for giving us these details and it seems appropriate to me that it would come out the way that Bonita has so graciously articulated, in a thread about Agondonters.
dont you think it would be cool if our si-fi guy would follow up with a story about how interacting with visible deity could impact this process.
This is really good commentary on all of the many spiritual factors and influences impinging upon the growth of religious consciousness. The citation on God-consciousness has long been one of my favorites.
We all know that the only thing required of us is faith, yet faith is a gift from God . . . so how does that work exactly? The first thing to do is to separate the idea of belief from the idea of faith.
It is necessary to distinguish the idea of faith from the idea of belief, as you point out. My questions were really directed at the difficulties involved in realizing the difference between belief in the intellectual idea of God and faith in our spiritual insight into the reality of God, because they are so inter-associated in personal experience.
103:2.1 Religion is functional in the human mind and has been realized in experience prior to its appearance in human consciousness. A child has been in existence about nine months before it experiences birth. But the “birth” of religion is not sudden; it is rather a gradual emergence. Nevertheless, sooner or later there is a “birth day.” You do not enter the kingdom of heaven unless you have been “born again”—born of the Spirit.
112:2.6 In all concepts of selfhood it should be recognized that the fact of life comes first, its evaluation or interpretation later. The human child first lives and subsequently thinks about his living. In the cosmic economy insight precedes foresight.
We have a religious consciousness before we ever self-consciously realize the fact of its presence. We first live religiously by insight before we subsequently think and conclude that we are living religiously by faith. The insight of faith comes before the foresight of reason or the forecasts of wisdom. The gift of faith is present in experience long before we recognize the reality of its presence, before we ever self-consciously accept this insight from the Father and are born of the Spirit. To find faith is realize the presence of the divine Spirit, who came to be with us when we were very young children and has never since left us.
Ultimately, the religious experience of faith is the greatest of all mysteries.
1:4.1.The infinity of the perfection of God is such that it eternally constitutes him mystery. And the greatest of all the unfathomable mysteries of God is the phenomenon of the divine indwelling of mortal minds. The manner in which the Universal Father sojourns with the creatures of time is the most profound of all universe mysteries; the divine presence in the mind of man is the mystery of mysteries.
Nice discussion
59:3.8[Part IV]The world is filled with hungry souls who famish in the very presence of the bread of life; men die searching for the very God who lives within them. Men seek for the treasures of the kingdom with yearning hearts and weary feet when they are all within the immediate grasp of living faith. Faith is to religion what sails are to a ship; it is an addition of power, not an added burden of life. There is but one struggle for those who enter the kingdom, and that is to fight the good fight of faith. The believer has only one battle, and that is against doubt — unbeliefIt is interesting to me that the *believer* has only one battle – the battle against doubt, unbelief. This indicates to me the role of mind in the process – which I think is multilayered and dynamic, rather than A + B + C + D = the treasures of the kingdom. Living faith is an addition of power not a drag in navigation. Mind is the arena of choice where one can set the sails or furl them. Even when one’s sails are set, one can always change one’s mind, doubt. Maybe that’s why they tell us so many grow weary in progression (32:3.6).109:5.4[Part III]The great problem of life is the adjustment of the ancestral tendencies of living to the demands of the spiritual urges initiated by the divine presence of the Mystery Monitor. While in the universe and superuniverse careers no man can serve two masters, in the life you now live on Urantia every man must perforce serve two masters. He must become adept in the art of a continuous human temporal compromise while he yields spiritual allegiance to but one master; and this is why so many falter and fail, grow weary and succumb to the stress of the evolutionary struggle.Jesus said to Thomas, “. . .Thomas, you must cease doubting; you must grow in faith and the knowledge of truth. Believe in God like a child but cease to act so childishly. Have courage; be strong in faith and mighty in the kingdom of God.” (192:2.9) Doubt seems to be a big stumbling block.My questions were really directed at the difficulties involved in realizing the difference between belief in the intellectual idea of God and faith in our spiritual insight into the reality of God, because they are so inter-associated in personal experience.
Only if beliefs motivate and shape all manner of one’s life:
101:8.1 Belief has attained the level of faith when it motivates life and shapes the mode of living. The acceptance of a teaching as true is not faith; that is mere belief. Neither is certainty nor conviction faith. A state of mind attains to faith levels only when it actually dominates the mode of living. Faith is a living attribute of genuine personal religious experience. One believes truth, admires beauty, and reverences goodness, but does not worship them; such an attitude of saving faith is centered on God alone, who is all of these personified and infinitely more.
101:8.2 Belief is always limiting and binding; faith is expanding and releasing. Belief fixates, faith liberates. But living religious faith is more than the association of noble beliefs; it is more than an exalted system of philosophy; it is a living experience concerned with spiritual meanings, divine ideals, and supreme values; it is God-knowing and man-serving. Beliefs may become group possessions, but faith must be personal. Theologic beliefs can be suggested to a group, but faith can rise up only in the heart of the individual religionist.
I was going to pull out only the inevitability of faith, but I so much enjoyed reading all of them, I wanted you to get a chance to read or reread them too.
3:5.5 The uncertainties of life and the vicissitudes of existence do not in any manner contradict the concept of the universal sovereignty of God. All evolutionary creature life is beset by certain inevitabilities. Consider the following:
(51.5)3:5.6 1. Is courage — strength of character — desirable? Then must man be reared in an environment which necessitates grappling with hardships and reacting to disappointments.
(51.6)3:5.7 2. Is altruism — service of one’s fellows — desirable? Then must life experience provide for encountering situations of social inequality.
(51.7)3:5.8 3. Is hope — the grandeur of trust — desirable? Then human existence must constantly be confronted with insecurities and recurrent uncertainties.
(51.8)3:5.94. Is faith — the supreme assertion of human thought — desirable? Then must the mind of man find itself in that troublesome predicament where it ever knows less than it can believe.
(51.9)3:5.10 5. Is the love of truth and the willingness to go wherever it leads, desirable? Then must man grow up in a world where error is present and falsehood always possible.
(51.10)3:5.11 6. Is idealism — the approaching concept of the divine — desirable? Then must man struggle in an environment of relative goodness and beauty, surroundings stimulative of the irrepressible reach for better things.
(51.11)3:5.12 7. Is loyalty — devotion to highest duty — desirable? Then must man carry on amid the possibilities of betrayal and desertion. The valor of devotion to duty consists in the implied danger of default.
(51.12)3:5.13 8. Is unselfishness — the spirit of self-forgetfulness — desirable? Then must mortal man live face to face with the incessant clamoring of an inescapable self for recognition and honor. Man could not dynamically choose the divine life if there were no self-life to forsake. Man could never lay saving hold on righteousness if there were no potential evil to exalt and differentiate the good by contrast.
(51.13)3:5.14 9. Is pleasure — the satisfaction of happiness — desirable? Then must man live in a world where the alternative of pain and the likelihood of suffering are ever-present experiential possibilities.
Why are they inevitable?
Hi Bonita — your description of the process (in post 24417 above) is the best I’ve seen!
If ever you get “that book” to the publisher, a condensate of those thoughts would make a fine blurb for the back cover.
with thanks,
NigelHey Nigel! Thanks. But I doubt any publisher would ever want to publish such a book . . . Just sayin’
I wanted to add something to my last paragraph in that post. I described the mind phenomenon and then added the bit about personality in that last paragraph. Personality is a critical participant in faith and should not be minimized. I think this is where many people fail to grasp the reality of living faith. Many people deny the existence of God as a personality, yet they are willing to accept the idea that there is a little voice in their head that tries to illuminate the difference between right or wrong. Most of those people attribute that voice to their own conscience and think it’s their own mind, thereby giving all credit to themselves for coming up with humane solutions to moral problems. Now, we know that the moral conscience is one’s own mind talking to itself, but occasionally the moral solutions arrived at in a sincerely seeking mind get spiritized with soul content. So, in a sense, these people are indeed talking to themselves inside their own heads, but sometimes it is their “higher self” they’re talking to without realizing it. We know that true altruism comes from only one source.
This is why I think TUB is such a huge break-through in that it introduces the concept of mind ministry and the spiritual forces at play within our own minds. I haven’t discovered a way to introduce this to people who deny the personality of God, but I’m given hope in that the authors of TUB provided us with two whole papers on how the apostles convinced Rodan that God is a person. Somewhere in those chapters is the secret to the success of the philosophical approach to this problem.
But I often wonder, is it really necessary to correct these people who deny the existence of God as a person inside their heads? I know from personal experience that embracing this reality is transforming and transfiguring, something I wish every person could or would experience. But is it best to allow this awareness to grow on its own, or should it be nudged along by those who have had the experience? I personally have chosen to allow people to grow on their own unless they seek me out on the subject. I testify to the reality of God the Father, a person, in my own experience whenever I think there might be a “listening ear” . . . and then do my best to otherwise walk the talk.
I have noticed that Jesus always seemed to find ways to engage other minds by finding those ideals held in common more than concepts of contrast and he often did this in asking questions in a form of comfort and sincerity that almost forces the mind’s upward thrust beyond concepts. He truly seemed more interested in the discovery of someone’s highest thoughts and feelings and hopes and values rather than convincing anyone of anything.
His questions could be gently leading, or compelling and perplexing, or quickly expose insincerity and hypocrisy. All sincerity was uplifted and all insincerity was exposed….and with charm, wit, and soft touch that was experienced very personally by all and each.
Just re-read the Rodan Papers. He decided eventually that God could never be less than creation and reality but must be all of that and more. So since mortals have mind and personality, the creator of mind and personality had to have both or could create neither.
I am beginning to appreciate the relationship between love and faith and the power of our inherent dual nature to reveal the inner light which naturally leads the mind to a basic recognition of THAT which is greater and may deliver us to the WHO that is greatest. The study of Andon and Fonta and how they had faith, a faith which could not derive from any knowledge but did arrive from the inner experience which occurs no matter the context or the concepts related to that experience within. I would think then that the love-response which leads us to love others over self is a natural urge that arises from this internal/mindal recognition of our other and spirit nature.
Indeed, the most pagan and primitive religions and beliefs are transferring this other nature of ourselves onto the natural, material world which is already well known and physically experiential. The mind appears to always and naturally overlay the material with the spiritual nature to explain the experience with the material world. From the first inhabitant of our world, the mind is perfectly aware of the dual-fold realities and attempts to unify and harmonize those.
It is unfortunate that material distractions and escapes and other forms of attachment so often dims this inner light of our dual natures and that ideals, values, hopes, and faith suffer from simple inattention. A voluntary form of a fading effect.
I think Jesus always looked for and most often found the light or even the flicker of light within others and found some way to fuel and fan that flame from inside the mind of others without imposing anything from outside and without inserting beliefs or contradictions to beliefs directly or oppositionally. He only added that which was sought after with the personal idealism of the seeker.
Nothing can be given to those who do not seek. And nothing true or real or of value and meaning in mind is truly found by any seeker which does not then change our motivation to live, our intentions at the intersections of time, the priorities which drive our very choices….faith changes choice and the destiny determined by those choices. And as the fruits of the spirit arise and grow, faith strengthens our source of resolve and future choices to come. We are designed and built to recognize our dual nature and to yearn for an understanding and unifying of ALL of reality into a singular experience which harmonizes ALL experience. Even the most primitive minds are not primitive at all in this function of mind and personality to seek meaning and value in our experience….which delivers faith regardless of the error and accuracies of knowledge and belief.
We can prevent this natural function or diminish its power…but it does take an effort to silence the voice within and cloak the light of the spirit nature.
Quote 100:7.18 says that Jesus coordinated the faith in his soul with the wisdom of his mind. This is how it’s done . . . gateway and bridge.
100:7.18 The Son of Man was a splendidly unified human personality; he was a perfectly endowed divine being; he was also magnificently co-ordinated as a combined human and divine being functioning on earth as a single personality. Always did the Master co-ordinate the faith of the soul with the wisdom-appraisals of seasoned experience. Personal faith, spiritual hope, and moral devotion were always correlated in a matchless religious unity of harmonious association with the keen realization of the reality and sacredness of all human loyalties–personal honor, family love, religious obligation, social duty, and economic necessity.
Quote 100:7.18 says that Jesus coordinated the faith in his soul with the wisdom of his mind. This is how it’s done . . . gateway and bridge.
I wonder how this coordination of faith and wisdom might differ for agondonters? Meredith Sprunger relayed to me many years ago that Dr. Sadler told him that the revelatory commission said that Urantia is the only world in Nebadon where an epochal revelation has appeared in the form of a book; on every other planet, such tasks are always entrusted to superhuman personalities. This is third-hand information from what I personally consider a sincere source, but there is no way to verify or validate it. Faith inclined me to immediately believe it, but wisdom raised many questions and concerns which took a long time to address.
The Urantia Book is just a material thing, like anything else we might pick up and hold in our hands. But Meredith’s comment made me wonder if this visible thing has actually been sent as a stand-in, an actual replacement, for the visible superhuman teachers on normal worlds. If this is so, how might this change wisdom’s appraisal of this Book in which we have faith?
Those are some very interesting comments George. I’d like to add that Urantia is also the only world in all of Nebadon to have hosted its incarnated Creator Son, where he was rejected and put to death instead of being honored, getting behind and following him. Perhaps as a move of diplomatic caution of sorts, there may be a temporary hold on entrusting us with superhuman teachers.
I once heard from what is likely a dubious source back in the nineties, that during one of those “communications” someone was told that the celestials thought this way about us. It went something like this, that if the people of Urantia would be regarded as pets, they wouldn’t think to put their hands in our mouths.
Enno
George Park wrote: The Urantia Book is just a material thing, like anything else we might pick up and hold in our hands. But Meredith’s comment made me wonder if this visible thing has actually been sent as a stand-in, an actual replacement, for the visible superhuman teachers on normal worlds. If this is so, how might this change wisdom’s appraisal of this Book in which we have faith?First of all, there’s no such thing as faith in a book. That’s not possible as I understand it. Faith is something you have in another personality, human or divine. Faith is personal. Incidentally, I also don’t think you can have faith in the brakes of your car. You can have intellectual knowledge of the facts of how brakes work and believe that they will work unless they give you warning signs that they are beginning to wear out. But I digress.
Faith comes from being connected to the Source (a person), the living vine, the living truth. But the stuff in TUB is not living. What TUB does is stimulate the mind and steer it towards what is living, the living truth within the soul. This is where faith-trust comes in. Meanings and values are explored in the soul, not in the book. The book is not a person, as you say yourself. The book guides the seeking mind toward the soul where other persons live besides yourself. (And no, I’m not talking about schizophrenia . . . ) TUB has arrived to remind us how to think in line with mind ministry. I believe it is an assistant to mind ministry, an adjunct to the adjutants who must be having difficulty with their work in the modern mind.
I think that what TUB does is redirect minds and souls wandering in the wilderness, directionless due to the lack of material teachers of truth. It is designed to bring the truth-seeking reader to utilize mind ministry as it is meant to be utilized. It’s nothing more than a pointer, a direction-corrector. The words in TUB are meaningless without the help of the Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth and Adjuster. Spiritual insight is the only way to glean the truth from its words, and spiritual insight is a combined gift of the cosmic mind and the Adjuster. TUB is for those tired of wandering in the wilderness of ‘isms. It’s a real road map to the wisdom gateway and faith-bridge.
And by the way, prayer is the only way I know to keep the bridge open at all times. Keep communication constant and it stays open so wisdom is always seeking new meanings and values from the Meaning Maker (Spirit of Truth) and the Value Sorter (Thought Adjuster). The faith-bridge is the Holy Spirit, and when the bridge is open we are praying in the Spirit, born of the Spirit and living in the Spirit. TUB’s goal is to direct us toward that faith-bridge and help us to keep it open . . . to keep living truth alive.
Melchizedek arrived because the flame of living truth was dying out on this planet. I don’t think that is the case in this generation because most folks have the living truth (Spirit of Truth) working hard within their own heads. It is the case however, that many people are confused and frustrated, the gateway of wisdom is not always functioning. I think it needs help. And isn’t it odd how often confused and frustrated sincere truth-seekers mysteriously have the book find them? Isn’t it also odd how many falter over its words due to doubt, the stumbling block to the faith-bridge? They never cross over into the soul, so true meanings escape them. It’s sad to see it happen. It’s sad to see the gateway slam shut.
0:12.13 We are fully cognizant of the difficulties of our assignment; we recognize the impossibility of fully translating the language of the concepts of divinity and eternity into the symbols of the language of the finite concepts of the mortal mind. But we know that there dwells within the human mind a fragment of God, and that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit of Truth; and we further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable material man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that these spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the spiritual appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement of the ever-progressing reality of personal religious experience — God-consciousness.
This is how it works. Without these spiritual forces, we could not assimilate the meanings and values suggested to us by the words in TUB. Words are powerful, but only when they have meaning, and true meanings are spiritual in nature. They require faith which provides personal interpretation by the personal presence of Michael himself, the Spirit of Truth. Personal revelation is a personal thing, faith is personal, which is how it becomes love-saturated.
Eh, again I ramble and I ramble . . .
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