Jesus is a revealer.  He's revealing God is all love. God loves you so much. God never gave up on you. Even when you fell asleep, and you believed you turned your back on God, God didn't turn away from you. That's what the whole prodigal son parable is about; that Jesus loves so much and taught that over and over. Even if you've squandered your inheritance, you covered over the light, you're still welcome to return to the light. No penalty. That's right. No consequences. That's a big love.

Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son, where one son left after asking for his inheritance. Off he went and used his entire inheritance for riotous living until he had nothing, until he was hungry, until his only job was feeding the pigs and he was eating the husks. And after some time, he said, “Even my father’s servants have more than me. Maybe I should go back.” And he went back in shame; he went back in guilt. He went back with his head bowed low.

But before he even got close to home, his father came running down the road, running to welcome, running to celebrate. In the same way, our shame, guilt, and believed wrongdoings are met with open arms. The father can only see the son’s innocence, so he celebrates with a party, by killing a fatted calf. And then the other son, the dutiful son, the son that tried to play it safe and do all the right things, sees the condemned brother come back. He says, “What is happening here? A party? I have stayed here dutifully by your side all along and not once have you killed a calf for me. This wanderer, this betrayer, this weak one who blew it all, you welcome him back and have a party?” The dutiful one is angry. And the father says to him, “Dear son, all that I have is yours; it has always been yours. But your brother, my son, he was lost, and now he is found.” There is nothing more important than to be found, to find our true inheritance again, regardless of what seemed to happen when we were lost.

This second chance is the olive branch that is there for all of us. God is saying, “Just take the olive branch, just take the branch of peace.” This realization is what the second coming of the Christ means. It’s our Self-realization. When the awareness of our true Self dawns—the knowledge that all is forgiven and that we are one in God where we have always been—we know that we are nothing but mind. This mind is whole and complete. It never dreamed of fear, loss, and separation. It is free and happy in God. It is guiltless—innocent!

You might remember back from the Bible where Jesus said, "Why do you call me good?" This is Jesus Christ speaking, "Why do you call me good? God is good." He always was going back to the author, he was always pointing to the author, he was never going back to a personal sense of self, he was always pointing back at the Creator and that is humble, that is appropriate. Jesus even says, "Awe is not an appropriate emotion with me, awe should be reserved only for God."

Jesus is with us, he is like us in every way except for one and that is time. He has transcended time, but he is equal with us in every way. And when we transcend time we say, "Ahh, you are me! I have been the Christ all along, but I was simply sleeping and I forgot who I was and who authored me."

The belief that you can separate from God comes down to a question of authorship. The question is this, am I the author of myself or was I authored by God? If God is the author, I am Spirit because God is Spirit and God authors in Spirit. If I am the author of myself, it is like saying to God, hold on there, I want to make myself up any way I want to be. I want to try out being male/female, masculine/feminine, I want to try out being this culture, that culture; it is called reincarnation. What is reincarnation but the belief that I can be the author of myself. I keep remaking myself and reinventing myself, over and over again in form. You see, that is the core issue, who is my author?

As a human being, it seems like we have physical parents, but we have a divine parent who authors us in spirit. We cannot be both. We cannot be both physical and spiritual; one is temporary and one is eternal. You see, that is the core issue in the mind, who is my author, who is my creator, who is my source?

When it gets confused on the horizontal level, like with mom and dad, there is going to be guilt. Who among us have not had grievances with our parents? We think of teenagers sometime saying to their parents, "Why was I born, why did you even have me and bring me into such a crazy world?" The guilt gets projected in terms of the flesh, but the solution goes much deeper, way down into the mind. The core issue is really an identity issue. Every time you have an upset of any kind it really is still, am I the author of myself or was I authored by God?

When I was in graduate school, I would take long walks in the woods. During these walks, I’d ask myself, “What am I doing this for? Is there a purpose for studying at university?” And the ego would rattle off, “Yes, you need to have a degree because you need to have a good job. Because if you want to have a relationship, you can’t be broke. This is why you are here, and this is why you have been here for ten years. Just keep at it, and we’ll get through this phase.” All of my reasons for being there were fearful, based on my fear of consequences.

Becoming aware of this poor motivation for my life got me in touch with a deep desire to open up to the guidance of Holy Spirit. I would ask, “Why am I here? Am I afraid of something? Is there something driving me to get all this education? Is there something pushing me from underneath? Am I afraid of something besides what the world would call a ‘fully engaged life?’” The more I took the questions inward, the more Jesus was able to show me that it was freedom, peace, happiness, joy, love, and intimacy that I wanted. He showed me that I had many beliefs about what one has to do in this world to get those things. And it was those beliefs that were driving me. He said: “If you listen to Me, I will show you how to experience the things you want, through Me. In other words, through listening and then following Me, it will come from the inside of your mind. It won’t come from any event or outcome in the world.”

This turned me in the right direction. In the beginning, I was astounded to see what a huge percentage of my actions were motivated by the fear of consequences. It could have been tempting to judge myself at that point, but I was determined not to do that. I was happy to discover how plugged in to the fear of consequences I was. I was happy to begin to unplug with Jesus and the Holy Spirit’s help. I found that to be very practical. It was something I could contemplate and ponder. I knew it was going to be a big job. I knew I wasn’t going to take a pill and wake up the next day free of fear. I knew it would take contemplation and mind training.

Jesus Christ is a symbol of God's eternal love and a loving guide to the remembrance of God's perfect Oneness. For the first 28 or 29 years of his life, Jesus had to go through the same trials and temptations that all human beings go through. But by following the Holy Spirit's guidance, Jesus was able to see the Face of Christ in everyone, thus recognizing the universal nature of God's love and awakening from the dream of the world. That makes him a pretty good learning model.

Jesus the Christ (Spirit) is our identity, created by God, which is eternally shared. Humans are in potential what Christ is in actuality. Jesus the man was an illusion, for a body can but symbolize what is far beyond this world: the Christ. Much can be learned by the demonstration and example of a learning model. And then, when you are ready and willing, you transcend the need for a "model" and fully accept One Self as the Living Christ.

Beloveds,

You too may enjoy this writing about the beginning movement away from 'the Empire' towards God, and towards simplicity as a state of mind. This fits beautifully with the purpose of mystical community. Abundant simplicity is the spiritual reward of forgiveness.

With love,
Kirsten ❤️

Devotion is love. To be devoted to God is to simply love God. In this love, our true Identity is found. We are that Love. We are one with the Love that we desire to know, that we give our full heart and mind to.
 
It is purely in the desire to know this love, to have this love and only this love fill our mind, that our very being merges with it, into it, and our heart is filled to overflowing. It is simply a Giving… a pure desire to know, to be one with, to serve in the truest sense, the Love that we are. Which simply means there is no desire to get or serve something else.
 
To be devoted does not involve proving oneself, or efforting. God simply is. Abiding, ever present light ‘waiting’ for us to relinquish efforting and simply fall back into being with Him.
 
It is simply a singular state of mind, a direction of one’s heart, mind and prayer.
 
This devotion is very different to loyalty to a person, a religion, or a concept of spirituality. In this sense, loyalty or devotion can be personal and can become a block to knowing God. If it originates from personal desire for achievement, or devotion to something external, it will contain its opposite - as all things of a dualistic cosmos do. Loyalty to something of this world can mask the belief in disloyalty, or betrayal, or a deep sense of wrongness.
 
Whereas true devotion, of the Heart, from and for the Heart of God - has nothing to do with the ego personality or even the subtlest of spiritual goals. If there is something to heal, the devotion is towards healing. This is the pathway back into remembrance of God - through the miracle which unites us with the light within our brother and our own mind once again.
 
Devotion to awakening to God contains it all. Within this Direction and Care, what is not of God is laid aside, and we awaken to the Love we have always been and will forever be. Here we find our greatest Joy.

Thank You.

With Love,
Kirsten ✨❤️✨

Written by Frances Xu.

I see the cloud mist floating like the ocean from afar. Jesus’ name lingers in my mind, day and night. All of a sudden, his name alone becomes the answer to everything. All of a sudden, all the answers boil down to only one. My purpose, my function, and my message become single. Any unworthiness and self-doubt become part of the answer and not the problem anymore. I accept fully that I can’t do anything without Him. But He is with me. So I can do anything now.

“Human nature” makes it seem like there will always be temptations to separate, attack, and fight for personal gain in this world. But maybe, just maybe, we can unite in the single focus and purpose regardless. Maybe we cannot and will not ever fix all of the issues among people and a higher purpose is our only way out. Jesus is my higher purpose and the only purpose. If I hold onto the belief of being a separate human body, this life will continue to be a battle. But with you, Jesus, I can and will fulfill the function you have assigned me.