6: Be “At Home” in Your World
There is so much more. Really just sink into that. There is so much more. So much more that you were meant to express. So much more. And some of you have lived some amazing lives, some very full lives. And still there is so much more! And we’re going to talk about how to grasp that today.
I wanted to first use an example from Jesus’ life to help us understand how to be at home in our world. And I will tell you what I mean by that: When you are at home in your world, when you are comfortable in your own skin, you operate from a position of pure power.
And my guiding scripture comes from John 18:11. Jesus said to Peter, Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup the Father has given me? In other words, “I’m not running away from this moment.”
So I want to first start with a discussion about true creation. And I don’t know if we’ve ever talked about this before, so I want to make sure you understand what true creation is. True creation is lasting creation.
True creation outlasts you. True creation refers to the things that you do, the things that you create, the things that you say, that live beyond your lifetime.
We are each called to be true creators. You are not meant to be erased from the pages of history.
True creation is what you are called to do. And yet most of us are born, we live, we die. And there is no record on the Earth or in the Earth that we have been here. True creation lasts beyond your lifetime.
So I’m thinking: Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. This song is known in far reaches of the world, and yet it was composed over 250 years ago. True creation lasts beyond your lifetime. True creation. These are the things that you say that stand and people still repeat them. When they’re looking for a quote, they go looking for what it is that you said.
I think about Martin Luther King’s speech. I have a dream. I have a dream that someday my four little children will be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. I have a dream. We repeat these words. Often, true creation lives beyond your lifetime.
And all of us are called to be true creators. But what keeps us from engaging in and producing the true creations of life that we are each called to deliver to this generation, is our response to the stressors of life.
See, the stressors of life are meant to shape your true creations, not stop them. And you know, this is funny thing about stress: Everybody feels like their stress is more stressful than everyone else’s. And I’m not sitting here judging. I’m saying, me too! I feel that way, too.
I was talking to my friend who really knows my schedule is crazy. And we decided we’re going to be accountability buddies; we’re going to hold each other accountable. And so this person is deciding that she wants to get her book out. She’s ready to put her book out. She needs to get it out.
So I said, “Okay, great.” And here’s what I do to find moments to continue to work on this thing that I’m bringing forward into the future, or bringing forward into my life.… even in the middle of this crazy schedule. And this is tough because I’ve got this. I’ve got that. Once I get Jordan in the bed, I’m exhausted. I’m ready to go to sleep. I’ve got Church, I’ve got a job, all of this!
And this person says to me with a straight face, “Well, listen, after you put Jordan to bed, you can just focus on you. I mean, I’m married. I can’t do that.” Basically, you could afford to find those little moments here and there to work on your business. I have more demands on my time.
And here’s the thing. I’m not even offended because I understand that everybody feels like their stress is more stressful than anybody else’s stress. Everybody feels that way! What keeps us from delivering on the true creations that we are each call to live?
You are meant to get that book out. You are meant to get that music produced. You are meant to get that business built. You are meant to do all of that travel that you imagine yourself doing. You are meant to do that! But what keeps us from being able to do that, is how we respond to the stresses of life… whether the stresses of life shape the creations, or stop the creations.
So again, just so we’re clear what is true creation. True creation is a divine activity that is always happening. Something is always being built. Our subtitle for this series is “Your Consciousness Under Construction.” We are building consciousness. Why? Because the consciousness we are building is meant to enable us to deliver the true creations, which only we can deliver.
See, the 5th Symphony, as it was manifested, could only come through Beethoven. If it had come through Bach, it would have sounded different.
Can you imagine Prince singing Michael Jackson’s songs or vice versa? The creations — the true creations — that are meant to come through us, can only come through us. Said differently: Nobody else has your divine assignment. You’re the only one with the divine assignment you got. So those true creations can only come through us.
And so we have to build a consciousness that will allow them to express so we are building the consciousness that can produce the music that lives beyond our lifetime. We’re building a consciousness that can deliver the books that are meant to be read centuries from now. We are building a consciousness that will create the businesses that will live and thrive long after we are gone.
Consciousness. Let’s define it. Consciousness, as defined by the revealing word, is the sense of awareness of knowing. What are you aware of?
Consciousness is the sum total of all of the ideas that have accumulated in us, and are affecting our lives, right now. All of the ideas that have accumulated in us. So this is what Fillmore says… he says, it is very important to understand the importance of our consciousness in spiritual growth. Divine ideas must be incorporated into our consciousness before they can mean anything to us.
What’s he saying? He means that I’ve got to live the idea in order to grow from the idea.
To incorporate an idea into your consciousness means to live it. I must translate the ideas of God into practical steps that I do every day. Consciousness equals your daily habits. To say that we are building consciousness is to say that we are building daily habits.
See, let me explain this a little bit further, because I really want this to stick. Right. Because when we talk about consciousness — that’s a big $10 word — but I want to break it down. Consciousness is what you do every day.
Oral hygiene is the practice of keeping your mouth clean. That’s what oral hygiene is, right? And do you have good oral hygiene, or do you not have good oral hygiene? But it’s the practice of keeping your mouth clean. It’s not simply something you talk about with your dentist. Because if all you did if it stopped there and all you did was talk about it with your dentist, then you have not fully incorporated the idea called “oral hygiene” into your life. So oral hygiene is not something that you just talk about. It is something that you do. And to do it well, you’ve got to do it every day.
Every idea has associated with it. A set of practices. And hear me out because if you get this concept, you’ll never die again a day in your life. If you get this, you’ll never be broke again another day in your life. If you get this, you’ll have the relationship you desire in your life.
Ideas come alive in your life to the degree that you put the associated practices into effect in your life. Every idea has an associated set of practices. You put those practices into effect in your life. You get the consciousness and all the good that comes with it.
Now, the consciousness that creates true creation, right? The consciousness that enables true creation. These are the creations that live beyond our lifetime. It is built through incorporating the ideas of God. Life, love, wisdom, power, and substance. Those ideas — life, love, wisdom, power, and substance — each have a set of practices that makes them come alive.
And so what you’ve been getting over this Lenten period are a set of practices to make the ideas come alive in your life. You are put here to change the Earth. You were put here to create that which will outlive you. Life is short, but the creations that you leave behind, thrive.
Reverend Della had a period of time that she walked the Earth, from 1931 to 2017. But the ideas that she birthed continue on even after her lifetime. True creation is not bound by your destiny. True creation continues long after you are gone. And when you learn to be at home, and be at peace in your own world — when you learn how to operate like that — you sit in that place of pure power. And from you come amazing creations.
When we awaken the ideas of God in us, we become at home in our own world. When you are at home in your own world, you show up differently for life. When you are at home in your own world, you react differently to the stressors of life. When stressful situations arrive, we don’t respond from a place of emotion. I don’t have to come out of my spiritual character in order to respond to the things that are happening in my life.
I’m going to share with you John chapter 18, verses 1–11. I want you to hear and listen and understand what it means to be at home in your own world.
Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley to a place where there was a garden which he and his disciples entered. Now, Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place because Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees. And they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” They answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus replied, “I am he.”
Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they stepped back and fell to the ground. Again, he asked them, “Whom are you looking for?”
And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus answered, “I told you I am he. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.” This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken. “I did not lose a single one of those whom you gave me.”
Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest slave and cut off his right ear. (The slave’s name was Malchus.) Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into his sheath! Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
In other words: I run from nothing. I am not running from anything that life has brought to my front door. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me? Am I not to embrace this moment which the I am of my being has drawn to me? If it’s here, it must be a part of my divine destiny. It must be a part of my divine unfolding.
If it’s here, I can handle it. See, the person who suffers from stress is always uncomfortable. He or she seems to find it impossible to adapt to people and conditions happenings have a way of just becoming irritations for them. Always there are things that are wrong. Consequently, there is a feeling of just not being able to cope with life or to handle all of the demands of life.
And then, on the other hand, there is a person who is at home in his or her world. And this person easily moves through experience after experience with poise and freedom, handling whatever comes up in the perfect right way. Ease and joy are the order of the day. We can all learn to be at home in our world. It is not necessary for us to suffer from stressful feelings and reactions to situations in our lives. Instead, we can become comfortable and easy, free and at peace at all times and under all circumstances at home in our world.
See, when Judas arrived with the officers, it was Jesus who was at ease and in command. Peter lost his stuff and reacted emotionally, cutting off a man’s ear. And Jesus is like, “Put that away. I’m not running from this moment. I’m not putting up my dukes.”
Let’s talk about what made Jesus at home even in this situation, right? First, Jesus was not afraid of losing anything, even his life. Many people are troubled by stress because there is a fear of loss — a fear of a loss of money, loss of things, loss of power, loss of position.
Peter, working on the human plane, was very much afraid of losing his friend, or maybe even his own life. But Jesus was in charge, and he knew it. Jesus was poised because he was in tune with God, listening for inner spiritual guidance. He had all the right answers. Peter, on the other hand, was responding to stress in a human way and ends up harming someone else. And isn’t that usually what happens when we respond to stress in a human way? We usually end up hurting ourselves, someone else… or both.
So I want to talk to you about three practices that enable you to be at home in your own life. And then I’m going to incorporate the tools that we’re focusing on this week: forgiveness and journaling. The first practice I’m going to give you is: adopt a positive attitude and refuse to take things personally. The second practice is: hold people and things with open hands. And finally: let love expand your world.
Adopt a Positive Attitude
Alright, so you have dominion. You have dominion over yourself, but you’ve got to take that dominion over yourself. You don’t have to continue to react emotionally to everything that’s coming up in your world. Something happens and it’s like a butler, and you’re just reacting.
You can learn to be at home in your world. Many people are uncomfortable in their environment because they continually take everything that is said or done in a personal way.
Your tool to help you stop taking things so personally — and I want you to make this a go-to tool — is forgiveness. And forgiveness, in its simplest form, erases the past. Someone may make a remark and you take it as an insult. Or you might think, “Well, I wonder what he meant by that.” Some people look at others and conditions and consider them a threat to their personal safety or well-being, or perhaps to their paycheck or their possessions. Many times, a person is made uncomfortable by a situation that exists in his mind.
Only Peter, in that meeting place, in that garden, was reacting to the fact that Judas brought officers to their private meeting space. It was a betrayal on so many levels. But if you notice Jesus’ reaction, he doesn’t shrink from the moment, he steps forward. Who are you looking for? And when they don’t give him an answer, who are you looking for? I told you I’m him. I’m not running from this moment. I’m not trying to evade authorities. Who are you looking for? And so you want to be that way with the things that are happening in your world.
See, I’m not taking any moment personally, and I’m certainly not taking any moment as a threat. If it’s here, it’s a part of my divine destiny. I am a true creator. I am not meant to be erased from the pages of history. What I came to bring will give life, and that more abundantly. If this circumstance has appeared, then it must — in some way — be a part of my Royal destiny. And so I can step up to the moment. I can have a positive attitude. Everything is working out for my good. Everything is working out for my good.
Keep Your Hands Open
Point number two: Hold people and things with open hands. I learned this technique years ago when I was struggling to rebuild after a divorce. In her book “The Prospering Power of Love,” Catherine Ponder advocates writing to the Christ in another person. And that simple practice helped me forgive what I thought I couldn’t. It helped me rebuild my life in such an amazing way. It helped me let go of people that I thought I would fall apart if they left me. Anyone who clutches others tightly, fearful of losing their love, determined to direct their lives, is — maybe not intentionally, but definitely doing it — filling their own lives with tension, anxiety and stress.
Think about it. A lot of the tension and the anxiety and the stress that you have from family members is because they are making choices that you don’t want them to make, but they are their choices to make. Everybody gets to express. I ain’t got to like it, but everybody gets to express! And here’s the thing. You’re making choices that someone wishes you would make a different choice. And so you hold people with open hands and an open heart. I free you to do life the best way you understand how to do life!
Jesus didn’t hold onto others. He invited the disciples that were closest to him to join him in his personal group. But he never tried to force anyone to follow him or to become one of his followers. He gave his teaching away freely to all who wanted it, and he healed wherever he found a receptor channel. If you are open, follow me. But if you are not open, okay.
See, you creating at the highest level is the goal — you releasing your true creations, the things that last beyond your lifetime is the goal. When you hold onto people so tightly, and don’t forgive them, you compromise.
The good that lies within you is treasure. When you clutch tightly to family, friends, or whomever, you compromise your ability to release the treasure within. When we learn to hold other people with open hands, those who belong in our lives remain. And those who are not to be a part of this life experience, go. Releasing others is going to save us so much tension and strain! Just let them go!
One of the things that I wish we could see but we can’t because it’s not the way life is constructed, is the things that we keep from flowing through us because we won’t forgive so much. Good lies within us and we keep the door closed. In fact, we don’t even know that there’s a door there. And forgiveness is your daily practice to let it go.
Let Love Expand Your World
This brings me to my third point: Let love expand your world. If you will open up and just let love take over — and just expand you, expand you, expand you — there won’t be room to hold on to the hurt.
There is nothing to fear in God’s universe. Nothing. By recognizing God’s love and His presence in our environment at all times, we can learn to be equally at home, at all places, and at all times.
But love is a quality that we have to learn to understand and to cultivate. Remember what I said: Every idea has a set of practices associated with it. So letting love expand in you, and letting love expand you, comes with a set of practices. And this is what these tools that we have been giving you are about. You can sit and begin to journal, to write it out. There’s something so powerful when you will put pen to paper… the clarity that comes.
This is a love that goes way beyond the songs of romantic fantasy, or even family relationships, or friendships. It is the love that is based on a recognition of God everywhere, and a sense of identification with God’s goodness throughout the universe.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King says, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Said differently: This is a friendly universe. I might be going through an unfriendly experience. (Those that lived through the 60s — that marched, that protested — you lived through an unfriendly period.) But the one who led said “the arc of the moral universe” is long and it bends toward justice.
This is one of the most critical decisions that you have to make. Is this universe friendly? Because what you decide it is, is what it becomes for you.
In this understanding of love, our relationship with people expands to a new dimension. See, when I let love expand me, how I show up for you changes. We no longer relate to others in the way of human thinking, but rather we follow the example of Jesus in being a channel of blessing at all times and under all circumstances.
That means I see you as God sees you. Regardless of whether you see yourself that way, I see you as God sees you. When we let love expand our relationships with other people, we enter a new way of living, one that is happier, healthier and free from stress and strain. And when we are free from stress and strain and at home in our world, that’s when the true creations come out of us. That’s when they come out of us when we get to that space of perfect peace. I don’t need anything in the outer to be right in order for me to be right.
I want you to think of yourself as a hot air balloon. And every time you forgive — every time you pick up the pen and journal — your balloon lifts a little bit higher. You don’t know what you cannot see because you hold on to unforgiveness. Sometimes you don’t even know what you’re unclear about until you sit down and start writing and journaling. And the clarity comes. Let love expand you choose to forgive that coworker, that parent, that friend, that child. Choose to free them and see if your balloon goes a little higher. If your life does not get a little better, Dr. Pulley writes, “forgiveness clamps the love in your heart in place and reminds you of your oneness with all of your brothers and sisters in this universe.”
Being At Home in Your World
All right, let’s review! When you are at home in your world, you operate from a space of pure power. What you are here to do is to create lasting creations that live beyond your lifetime. You are here briefly, but what you create is meant to live beyond you.
And so, point number one: you need to adopt a positive attitude and refuse to take things personally. This ain’t about this other person! This is about the unfoldment of my divine destiny. I have a Royal Divinity. I have a Royal destiny. And so if it’s here, I ain’t running from it! If it’s here, I’m going to look at dead in the eye and deal with it.
Point number two: hold people and things with open hands. You don’t have to do it the way that I think that you ought to do it. You don’t have to like the way that I’m doing it. I am holding you with an open heart and an open hand.
And finally, point number three: Let love expand you! Let love open you up! Let love transform you! Let love heal those places that you feel are beyond healing. That envy that you feel like you’ll never be able to get past that hurt for what they did to you — that you feel like I don’t know how to let this go, and it’s consumed you for decades… there’s always a thing in the background and it keeps you from trusting!
Let love expand you!
God is biased toward your success. If you will begin to open up, you will begin to forgive. Forgiveness is literally like an eraser that will begin to erase the past. And you combine it with the journaling and the writing? There’s nothing that you can’t do!
God bless you.
