1998-12-06-Conversion

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Topic: Conversion

Group: N. Idaho TeaM

Facilitators

Teacher: Lantarnek, Elyon

TR: Jonathan

Session

Opening

Lantarnek (Jonathan TR): Greetings to you. This is Lantarnek returning again to further my discourse that I began last week with you on renewal. This time I will focus on conversion.

Lesson

Conversion, Ascension

You recall that I spoke of renewal as a flight of stairs and how at the nose of every tread you can see the ones ahead, yet in the deep of the tread it is hard to perceive the next level.

Conversion often is perceived as a singular event where renewal is perceived as a continuing, recurring process. In light of our stairway I emphasize to you that conversion is also a recurring process and, itself, is two-phased. The first phase is like your traversing the stairway tread and reaching the riser where you need to climb again following the plateau of attainment. Here is the critical moment of decision where you encounter reluctance, willingness to remain secure, unwillingness to face new doubts. The ease of not having to struggle is a temptation to avoid the climb.

However, subsequent to your decision and following the climb to the new level, there is one extremely difficult phase in the conversion to overcome. If you will picture the nose of your tread with overhang, it is that backward climb around that edge where you can see back down, and your grip is difficult. In order to make the distance you must continue round and on top of the next. This point is where you further foster your prior abilities and skills for the continued ascent by applying a strong-minded diligence. This is the critical decision point of actually accepting the new level. It differs from the prior decision of accepting the climb to the new level. Being able to look backward at the comfort zones behind you and being willing to forsake them fosters your faith in the assurance that you will reach another level of comfort.

Elyon mentioned the handrail of the Spirit of Truth that is with you at every step. I also point out to you the side boards that help guide you forward and resist your straying laterally. This gives you insight into the Master's statement that the way is narrow. It is not narrow in the limitation of who is accepted. It is narrow in that the pathway is defined; the guidance is established, and that you must choose to convert yourself every time. These are the narrow factors of the ascent.

The beauty of the ascension of a mortal creature to Paradise is, to us, the revelation of how you each finish your stairway. Your physical stairs often have carpets, sometimes wood, sometimes they have no-slip strips on every step. The personality types of mortal beings in a way fall into these varieties. Some ascenders leave behind them a trail of comfort, of assurance for others of the softness and beauty of the climb. Others leave behind marked indicators of fundamental principles that should not be violated, of essential truths that must be recognized, the sure grip of making progress with the least amount of danger. You have wide range of creative allowance from the Father as to how you finish your ascent, how you dress the stairway in your climb.

Confusion over what to do, what to accomplish, in personality attainment can be alleviated by recalling the handrail, the side boards, and to honestly and sincerely face the fact that you will at times require renewal, and repeatedly you require to undergo conversion.

The secret to pursuing without faltering is to understand this cyclical process, to not become disturbed at any single point in your journey, but to always hold in your mind that the important element at any point is your understanding of the overall process, for the particular event that you are involved in is part of this continuum. The continuum, the ascent to Paradise, is the important macro-event.

You are educated to the fact that the ascent to Paradise, the Father's house, is the path of perfection attainment, yet it will become evident as the ages roll on that you will leave behind you many squeaky steps. This is acceptable to the Father. Be not concerned if treads you have left behind are not perfect. They are steps upward, not the final landing.

Even the Supreme itself will ascend its own enormous stairway, not only a composite of all your treads and rises, but an overarching series of steps which illuminate to the perfect Father that even imperfect steps can create a beautiful, continuous ascent to Himself and result in attainment of perfection with imperfection.

So, when you will, as you will, encounter new difficulties in your life, couple your effort to perceive truly, to grasp what is real spiritually as well as physically with the important element that, not only do you have a problem to overcome, you have your own being to convert. As you convert yourself you become increasingly able to manifest truth, beauty, and goodness.

Renewal reinvigorates you from your prior attainments. Conversion stimulates you to higher levels. They go hand-in-hand, one following the other ever onward.

These are my words. I thank you for listening.

Brotherhood, Spirit

Elyon: Hello, my friends, I am Elyon, your almost always ever-present teacher. I do take my vacations. Today I would like to illustrate a principle of brotherhood and fatherhood that may help you to understand your relationship to one another in light of your common Parent.

You are all discrete personalities with your own boundaries. You are all -- and I really should add myself -- we are all together like grains of sand. We do not blend with each other as you might picture clay doing so. Yet we can be united one body of children of God through the infusion of His spiritual presence among us all, and you are trained to understand this principle through the presence of the Supreme, the Spirit of Truth; the omniscient, omnipresent Infinite Spirit, and the Eternal Son. They are like the water, the ocean, that penetrates all the grains of sand, all lifted up and, in fluidity, moving together. Without this spirit influence you would all lie dormant. But with this infusion of divinity you all are mobile.

You are continually rearranged, re-associated, creating new patterns simply through this displacement of personalities throughout the universe. So, when you do run into each other, crash into each other, bump into each other, realize that it is the fluid spirit that has given you motion. This fluidity will help you to approach forgiveness, for, even though another may not have accomplished the spiritual tasks of attainment you have, they are nonetheless swept up in the same current of spirit. It is the spirit that is moving them as it is the spirit that is moving you, and your directions happen to collide. The difficulty you encounter is due to the awareness of your discrete individuality and your inability to blend. But the blend is nonetheless real in your common spiritual hydrodynamics.

To forgive does not mean you must invalidate your own standards, your own beliefs, in order to allow another theirs and their behavior. It is rather to understand that all the children that the Father has created are being moved by Him. If the decisions you make bring you closer to Him, He is pleased. If the decisions you make thwart His efforts, He simply rearranges so that you, once again, have the chance to choose.

In difficulties, simply rearranging yourself with them can solve problems. Not the aggressive overcome and conquer, not the negative turn away and avoid, but the creative re-association.

As always I am willing to dialogue with you to address any questions.

Dialogue

Evelyn: (After a long pause) You said it all, Elyon.

Mary: It's good to have some labels, creative repositioning, rather than the negative turning away or the aggressive, dominating approach. I think that is going to be helpful. Thanks.

Elyon: You are welcome. You will note that the revelation dealing with the various administrative levels throughout the universe tells you about the reassignment of even rulers of the various levels. This reassignment is, like the repositioning and like the renewals and conversions, creating new potential.

Mary: It makes me think of the jigsaw puzzle and how we find pieces that look alike. Since you don't know how they fit together you group them over here. Then you realize this piece fits better with this group than with that group. I like your metaphors.

Elyon: Thank you, and that was an excellent association, for you know how sometimes two pieces seem to click together, but when you observe more closely either the patterns don't match or the curvature is not quite right. It is perfectly fine and acceptable to detach them and associate them where it is appropriate. This does not mean you ought to condemn the relationship; it means that your relationship will be associated through other linkages, other appropriate hookups in the greater association. You can love one another even though you do not get along because of this very pattern.

Mary: It's helpful to keep in mind when you are having an abrasive encounter to know that we may not fit well but somewhere in the whole of reality we can harmoniously coexist.

Elyon: If we continue this metaphor, imagine being a corner piece where at the most three pieces connect to you. It is the understanding that you are part of the entire puzzle that brings your connectivity to all. Where it would appear that one centrally located piece has more around it, in reality it likewise has only a few that can actually touch.

This day you are all in contact with a few puzzle pieces, that is, the mortals of Urantia. You are beginning to realize the closeness, the proximity, of your celestial puzzle pieces. In time your puzzle will three-dimensionalize and stack very deep and connect up and down as well as crosswise in a planar sense. Therefore, the effort you make to deepen the relationship that you have with your closest associates will translate themselves far and wide as your life unfolds world after world.

Closing

I perceive a contentment this day. Evelyn, we have less work before us this evening(transcribing). I would withdraw by encouraging you all to swim in the Father's ocean and to enjoy every moment that you are doing this, aware that you are swimming with Him. Farewell.

Evelyn: If you think of us as grains of sand with sharp edges no wonder we abrade each other.

Mary: And I was thinking how all this fluidity sands us down, smooths us so we might fit in with each other better. Tumble those puzzle pieces.