Most of humanity believes that God decides which humans are included in the word “us.” We then form groups or clusters around what God has decided, and we call them religions or faiths. God then assure “us” that God will be bringing “us” back to God, by telling “us” what is “best” for “us.”
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NOTE: Saturday is Prose & Poetry Day here on the blog, a time to take a moment once a week to relax the mind, open the heart, and access the soul through the gift of prose from one of the many books of The New Spirituality, and through the poetry of m. Claire, author of the forthcoming volume, Silent Sacred Holy Deeply: Heart.
For this week’s prose we offer…the second in a series of excerpts from Tomorrow’s God…
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Chapter Two, part 1
GOODBYE TO YESTERDAY’S GOD
Those humans who are not included in your definition of “us” will not return to you under any circumstances, nor will those who are included if they do not do what is “best” for them. People in these two categories will be condemned. They will suffer in the eternal fires of Hell.

Is that what you believe? Truly? Is that how it is for you?

No. Not really. No, it is not. At least, not any more. Not after experiencing and understanding all of my conversations with God. But it is still the belief of most of humanity, and I come to this dialogue now to speak for most of humanity.

You do? Why? Why are you doing that?

I want to ask the questions that I think most of humanity asks, to say the things that I hear most of humanity saying.

Why?

So that humanity’s question may be answered. So that humanity’s voice may be heard. So that humanity’s experience may be enlarged, enhanced, expanded, even as mine has been. So that joy may abound and peace may prevail upon the earth, even as joy abounds and peace prevails in my soul when I am in my highest place.

You want to give to humanity the gift that you have been given.

Yes.

Why?

Because I want to continue to receive the gift that I have been given, and the best way I know how to do that is to give it away.

Giving your gift away causes you to continue having it?

Yes. The gift that I give is the gift that I experience.

How so?

Because only through the expression of Who I Am can I have the experience of Who I Am. Withholding my expression withholds my experience. Because “that which flows through me sticks to me.” Because there is really only One of us, and I am a part of that One, and so, what I cause another to experience, I experience, and what I cause myself to experience, another experiences.
Because what I cause another to know, I know, and what I cause myself to know, another knows. Because what I cause another to receive, I receive, and what I cause myself to receive, another receives.
Similarly, what I withhold from another is withheld from me, and what I withhold from myself is withheld from another, for I cannot give what I do not have, and I cannot have what I do not give. Only through the giving of something can I experience the having of it. Without the giving, the having is not experienceable.
Giving transforms Having into Being.
I can imagine myself as “having” creativity, but only through the giving of my creativity to others can I experience being creative.
I can imagine myself as “having” abundance, but only through the giving of my abundance to others can I experience being abundant.
I can imagine myself as “having” love, but only through the giving of my love to others can I experience myself as being love.
Giving transforms Having into Being, and the miracle of giving is that we are giving only to ourselves. This is always the case, and this is the great secret of Life. It is the unfolded mystery of every spiritual tradition.
This is the Universal Law, and it cannot be avoided, nor can it be bypassed, sidestepped or ignored. It will play its effect in our lives sooner or later. Thus it has been taught: “As you sow, so shall you reap.” And, “do unto others as you would have it done unto you.” And, “What goes around, comes around.”
What I know is that the fastest way to experience myself as having answers to my questions is to cause others to experience themselves as having answers to theirs.
So now I speak for most of humanity, asking the questions of most of humanity, and making the statements of most of humanity, so that more of humanity may have and know God’s responses to these questions and statements, even as I do, so that I may continue to know that I know.

You have learned well. You have understood, and you have caused others to understand, and now you seek to cause even more to understand, so that you may understand more.
And so, a circle completes itself in you, and a prophecy is fulfilled through you. For I have said to all of humanity, unto you will I send my messengers, and among you will they walk. Not only one, but many, not only in ancient times, but through all the ages, bringing you the knowing of the truth of your being, even as that truth emerges in and through them, AS them.
And they will say to you, listen. Listen to this invitation:
There is another way. There is another way to experience God. There is another way to live life. Your differences do not have to create divisions. Your contrasts do not have to produce conflicts. The variations in your beliefs do not have to bring violence to your lives. THERE IS ANOTHER WAY.
Yet you will not find that way by searching for it. You will only find it by creating it. And you will not create it by remaining stuck in old beliefs, but only by opening yourself to new ideas. New ideas about God and about Life that can truly light the world.

I want to help to bring those new ideas to humanity, even as they were given to me.

So continue, now, this dialogue, if that is what serves you, even as you serve humanity through this experience. For in this dialogue I will speak to you of Tomorrow’s God, who will be different from the God of your yesterdays in many important ways.
I will also speak to you of a New Spirituality. A kind of spirituality that will allow humans to express their natural impulse to seek and to experience the Divine without making each other wrong for the way in which they are doing it, and without killing each other in the name of it.
I will describe how this New Spirituality will play its effect when overlaid upon the experiences and constructions of your human society, specifically in the areas of religion, politics, economics, business and commerce, education, relationships, sexuality, and parenting.
There is much to explore in our conversation, so yes, let us continue.

Yet, as I do continue this dialogue I want to repeat that I can no longer speak only for myself in every instance, with every comment, as the asker of every question. The truth is that I already have my answers to many of the questions I will be asking.

Yet many humans do not. Or, they do have answers, but those answers do not work. They do not function to bring humanity the experience it says it seeks, or take humanity where it says it wants to go.
Still, these humans are trying to make the answers work. They are trying to be faithful to the answers they have been given, and they are miserable in the trying, they are tired and saddened in the effort, they are confused and angered by the process. And so, you have a miserable and tired and saddened world. A world that is confused and angry.
This is evidenced all around you. You can see this, announce it and declare it, or you can deny it.

I choose to see it, announce it, and declare it. I think it is time to say what is “so.” I think it is time to talk about it. In very real terms. Very openly and directly. To look at the issues and to look at the problems and to look, most important, at the solutions.

Good. Then we will proceed with the awareness that you are allowing yourself to ask rhetorical questions and to make rhetorical statements for the purpose of presenting the perceptions of many people, not just your own.

Thank you..
(Next Saturday, installment #3 from Tomorrow’s God.)
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This week’s gift of poetry
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I am preparing for a Grief.
I know I shouldn’t think that way
but most of us who notice
a darkening sky
first feel it
in our Soulbody.
It’s not that I want
to sit down
set aside the Chalice
and
find such words
for such a thing.
The day breaks glorious
across my earth

and yet
there…in the distance…
that far-off rumble.
(I Am Preparing for A Grief – m. claire – copyright 2007 – all rights reserved)
For more of the work of this new poetic voice you are invited to visit www.mclairepoet.com.
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