Preview: a read-only copy of the forum. To post or reply, use the current forum.

The Kingdom of Heaven

255 posts · 11 participants · started May 9, 2017, 12:04 PM

BonitaParticipant
May 9, 2017, 12:04 PM
We are all familiar with the many times Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is LIKE . . . “. He drew many similes to help us embrace the concept. Jesus also mentioned multitudinous times that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But he, and the authors of TUB, have also said what the kingdom of heaven actually is. I’d like to take a look at those statements from TUB.

The kingdom of heaven is:
- an exclusively spiritual brotherhood of God-knowing individuals. (99:3.2)
- a spiritual relationship between God and man. (134:4.2)
- a life of progressive righteousness and increasing joy in the perfecting service of my Father who is in heaven. (137:8.13)
- open to all men and women. (138:4.2)
- the realization and acknowledgment of God’s rule within the hearts of men. (141:2.1)
- the realization of the spiritual joy of the acceptance of divine sonship. (151:3.1)
- man’s personal experience in relation to his fellows on earth and to the Father in heaven. (170:1.13)
- the ideal of the idea of doing the will of God. (170:2.11)
- a personal experience of realizing the higher qualities of spiritual living (170:2.16)
From the list we can ascertain that the kingdom of heaven involves realization and acknowledgement of being part of a growing spiritual family with God as the Father of everyone. It’s more than a single person’s relationship with God in the soul, it’s also the acceptance of sonship and the recognition of the fact that God has a limitless family of sons and daughters to whom we are all related. It’s one huge relationship.

Over Christmas I sent my DNA off to ancestry for analysis and was flabbergasted to find that I’m almost a fifth Italian. My sister and I have been researching the family genealogy for almost 20 years and neither of us have ever uncovered a single Italian. It was even more of a shock to discover that we have just under 100 2nd, 3rd and 4th Italian cousins. How could that be? I discovered that I belong to an enormous family I was totally unaware of. We’ve been exchanging emails and I realize that I’ve been missing out on a huge part of my heritage. Why am I telling you this (I know you’re asking).

Well, the family kingdom of heaven is much like that. Accepting sonship, discovering and recognizing God as our Father and opening our hearts to the idea of not being an only child is like discovering a whole new part of our heritage we didn’t know existed before. New horizons open up and the world seems much different from that point on. It’s that different type of outlook on life, that new view of reality seen from within the kingdom that I’m interested in discussing. There’s a list (170:2.2-8) that describes this new attitude. What makes it so wonderful?

When the kingdom of heaven is described as an “exclusively spiritual brotherhood of God-knowing individuals”, what do you think they mean by “exclusively spiritual brotherhood” and why do you think they include only “God-knowing individuals”? How does this change one’s perspective? Is it an exclusive club or is it an open family which is solely spiritual in nature? Why aren’t people who don’t know God in the kingdom? Who is a God-knowing individual, how would one be identified, and vice versa? Does a God-knowing family member easily recognize another God-knowing family member, because DNA certainly won’t help us here? How does this family relationship work and what are our responsibilities to each other? What are our responsibilities to those who are not God-knowing? Certainly those folks shouldn’t be ostracized but illuminated in some way . . . right? How does belonging to this family enrich us and renew us? We’ve been told that this world has never seriously tried the kingdom of heaven idea . . . where have we gone wrong?

I know I asked a lot of questions . . . don’t feel like you have to answer all of them, or any of them, for that matter. I’m mostly pondering . . .
BradlyParticipant
May 9, 2017, 2:53 PM
YIPPEEEE!

I remember a quote that says the rulers identify creatures as either believers or non-believers? The entry to the kingdom or to all the related kingdoms requires self selection and self identification as a “believer”. In the Agondonter discussion both belief and faith have very generous definitions I think and it has more to do with the personal ‘response’ to the Spirit rather than any particular belief or knowledge set.

4. Jesus’ Teaching About the Kingdom

170:4.1 (1862.9) Jesus never gave a precise definition of the kingdom. At one time he would discourse on one phase of the kingdom, and at another time he would discuss a different aspect of the brotherhood of God’s reign in the hearts of men. In the course of this Sabbath afternoon’s sermon Jesus noted no less than five phases, or epochs, of the kingdom, and they were:

170:4.2 (1862.10) 1. The personal and inward experience of the spiritual life of the fellowship of the individual believer with God the Father.

170:4.3 (1863.1) 2. The enlarging brotherhood of gospel believers, the social aspects of the enhanced morals and quickened ethics resulting from the reign of God’s spirit in the hearts of individual believers.

170:4.4 (1863.2) 3. The supermortal brotherhood of invisible spiritual beings which prevails on earth and in heaven, the superhuman kingdom of God.

170:4.5 (1863.3) 4. The prospect of the more perfect fulfillment of the will of God, the advance toward the dawn of a new social order in connection with improved spiritual living — the next age of man.

170:4.6 (1863.4) 5. The kingdom in its fullness, the future spiritual age of light and life on earth.

170:4.7 (1863.5) Wherefore must we always examine the Master’s teaching to ascertain which of these five phases he may have reference to when he makes use of the term kingdom of heaven. By this process of gradually changing man’s will and thus affecting human decisions, Michael and his associates are likewise gradually but certainly changing the entire course of human evolution, social and otherwise.

170:4.8 (1863.6) The Master on this occasion placed emphasis on the following five points as representing the cardinal features of the gospel of the kingdom:

170:4.9 (1863.7) 1. The pre-eminence of the individual.

170:4.10 (1863.8) 2. The will as the determining factor in man’s experience.

170:4.11 (1863.9) 3. Spiritual fellowship with God the Father.

170:4.12 (1863.10) 4. The supreme satisfactions of the loving service of man.

170:4.13 (1863.11) 5. The transcendency of the spiritual over the material in human personality.

170:4.14 (1863.12) This world has never seriously or sincerely or honestly tried out these dynamic ideas and divine ideals of Jesus’ doctrine of the kingdom of heaven. But you should not become discouraged by the apparently slow progress of the kingdom idea on Urantia. Remember that the order of progressive evolution is subjected to sudden and unexpected periodical changes in both the material and the spiritual worlds. The bestowal of Jesus as an incarnated Son was just such a strange and unexpected event in the spiritual life of the world. Neither make the fatal mistake, in looking for the age manifestation of the kingdom, of failing to effect its establishment within your own souls.

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
BonitaParticipant
May 9, 2017, 3:32 PM

Bradly wrote: I remember a quote that says the rulers identify creatures as either believers or non-believers?

Believers in what? God or the kingdom idea, or both? I personally don’t think belief has much to do with it. Isn’t it more about those willing to do God’s will and those who are not willing or cannot? In regards to self-selection, I think you’re right in that only creatures with personality can enter the kingdom, but that’s because personality carries with it the power of free-will choice, right?

Are you thinking of this quote?

133:0.3 One day while resting at lunch, about halfway to Tarentum, Ganid asked Jesus a direct question as to what he thought of India’s caste system. Said Jesus: “Though human beings differ in many ways, the one from another, before God and in the spiritual world all mortals stand on an equal footing. There are only two groups of mortals in the eyes of God: those who desire to do his will and those who do not. As the universe looks upon an inhabited world, it likewise discerns two great classes: those who know God and those who do not. Those who cannot know God are reckoned among the animals of any given realm. Mankind can appropriately be divided into many classes in accordance with differing qualifications, as they may be viewed physically, mentally, socially, vocationally, or morally, but as these different classes of mortals appear before the judgment bar of God, they stand on an equal footing; God is truly no respecter of persons. Although you cannot escape the recognition of differential human abilities and endowments in matters intellectual, social, and moral, you should make no such distinctions in the spiritual brotherhood of men when assembled for worship in the presence of God.”
BradlyParticipant
May 9, 2017, 3:34 PM
3. MORE PARABLES BY THE SEA

A. TIME: A.D. 29

B. PLACE: Bethsaida—by the seaside

C. OCCASION: Following his presentation of the parable of the sower, Jesus gave a discourse sprinkled with short parables.

D. REFERENCES: (1693.7) 151:4.1 (Matt 13:24-53; Mark 4:26-33; Luke 13:18,19)

E. THE PARABLES: “The next day Jesus again taught the people from the boat, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while he slept, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and hastened away. And so when the young blades sprang up and later were about to bring forth fruit, there appeared also the weeds. Then the servants of this householder came and said to him: “Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Whence then come these weeds?” And he replied to his servants, “An enemy has done this.” The servants then asked their master, “Would you have us go out and pluck up these weeds?” But he answered them and said: “No, lest while you are gathering them up, you uproot the wheat also. Rather let them both grow together until the time of the harvest, when I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn and then gather up the wheat to be stored in my barn.”’

“After the people had asked a few questions, Jesus spoke another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man sowed in his field. Now a mustard seed is the least of seeds, but when it is full grown, it becomes the greatest of all herbs and is like a tree so that the birds of heaven are able to come and rest in the branches thereof.’

“‘The kingdom of heaven is also like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, and in this way it came about that all of the meal was leavened.’

“‘The kingdom of heaven is also like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man discovered. In his joy he went forth to sell all he had that he might have the money to buy the field.’

“‘The kingdom of heaven is also like a merchant seeking goodly pearls; and having found one pearl of great price, he went out and sold everything he possessed that he might be able to buy the extraordinary pearl.’

“‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a sweep net which was cast into the sea, and it gathered up every kind of fish. Now, when the net was filled, the fishermen drew it up on the beach, where they sat down and sorted out the fish, gathering the good into vessels while the bad they threw away.’

“Many other parables spoke Jesus to the multitudes. In fact, from this time forward he seldom taught the masses except by this means. After speaking to a public audience in parables, he would, during the evening classes, more fully and explicitly expound his teachings to the apostles and the evangelists.”

F. THE LESSONS: This group of six parables was designed to illustrate various phases and numerous aspects of the kingdom of heaven.
Each short parable is the nucleus for a profound discourse on the brotherhood of men.

http://www.urantia.org/jesus/part-iii-parables

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
MaraParticipant
May 9, 2017, 4:48 PM
Personally, I do not benefit from or relate to the word “kingdom”. It is an archaic word from the past. I need to use a better word, a more up to date one, though Shakespeare had it right when he put these words in Juliet’s mouth:

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

The kingdom is not a rose, but something could be said about the spiritual fragrance of those who are in the kingdom. Of those who have a spiritual fragrance to their personality, it would stand to reason that the quality of attractiveness of it would be useless were it not associated with and related to other personalities. No man is an island.

112:2.8 Everything nonspiritual in human experience, excepting personality, is a means to an end. Every true relationship of mortal man with other persons — human or divine — is an end in itself.

Here is what Jesus had to say about the kingdom idea.

142:7.4 He next explained that the “kingdom idea” was not the best way to illustrate man’s relation to God; that he employed such figures of speech because the Jewish people were expecting the kingdom, and because John had preached in terms of the coming kingdom. Jesus said: “The people of another age will better understand the gospel of the kingdom when it is presented in terms expressive of the family relationship — when man understands religion as the teaching of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, sonship with God.” Then the Master discoursed at some length on the earthly family as an illustration of the heavenly family, restating the two fundamental laws of living: the first commandment of love for the father, the head of the family, and the second commandment of mutual love among the children, to love your brother as yourself. And then he explained that such a quality of brotherly affection would invariably manifest itself in unselfish and loving social service.
GeneParticipant
May 9, 2017, 5:02 PM
Brings to mind a statement made by Jesus from paper 196:0.12 last sentence.

“Except you become as a little child, you shall not enter the kingdom.” Notwithstanding Jesus’ faith was childlike, it was in no way childish.”

God as our father implies we are his children and is the basis of the concept of the fatherhood of god and the brotherhood of man.

So having faith, becoming like a little child and as mentioned – having personality is how we pass the entrance exam and I could see this as being exclusive.

so there is entrance and then there is the challenge is remaining there: progress.
BonitaParticipant
May 9, 2017, 6:31 PM
I’m not bothered that much by the word kingdom. Maybe because of the Lord’s Prayer, which for me goes way back to when I first learned to talk. Jesus taught his family to say . . . Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven . . . right? God’s kingdom and God’s will go together there, in a way, to bring heaven to earth. It’s like evolving into light and life, I think. If you’re living a heaven on earth, you’re living according to God’s will and it’s a true, good and beautiful place to be. Perhaps the kingdom of heaven could be “God’s will on earth,” the process of perfecting beginning while in the flesh. Which in a way could also be the seven psychic circles of soul growth, the beginning of the morontia career, right here on the planet! Jesus did say that the kingdom is at hand!
Van AmadonParticipant
May 9, 2017, 8:50 PM

Bonita wrote:

If you’re living a heaven on earth, you’re living according to God’s will

Is “doing God’s will” the same thing as living according to God’s will?
Mark KurtzParticipant
May 9, 2017, 8:51 PM
Bonita, Bradly, Mara, Gene

I have an idea about using your comments on this topic at one or more UB related events, with permission and probably without identification. I’d like to have your permission to copy and use when and if the event is scheduled. You all can send me contact info at http://www.southeasturantia.com/contact.html.

This is a very good topic for a gathering.

TNX
BonitaParticipant
May 9, 2017, 9:19 PM

Mark Kurtz wrote:

Bonita, Bradly, Mara, Gene I have an idea about using your comments on this topic at one or more UB related events, with permission and probably without identification. I’d like to have your permission to copy and use when and if the event is scheduled. You all can send me contact info at http://www.southeasturantia.com/contact.html. This is a very good topic for a gathering. TNX

Hi Mark. I’m okay with using my ideas, but if you’re going to copy/paste my actual words, I’d like to be quoted. In other words, if I said it or wrote it, my name should be on it. I should take the credit or the heat for it . . . whatever comes. If you want to use my ideas and your own words to express them, I’m very cool with that. I’d be flattered. Thanks for asking.
BradlyParticipant
May 9, 2017, 9:52 PM

Gene wrote:

Brings to mind a statement made by Jesus from paper 196:0.12 last sentence. “Except you become as a little child, you shall not enter the kingdom.” Notwithstanding Jesus’ faith was childlike, it was in no way childish.” God as our father implies we are his children and is the basis of the concept of the fatherhood of god and the brotherhood of man. So having faith, becoming like a little child and as mentioned – having personality is how we pass the entrance exam and I could see this as being exclusive. so there is entrance and then there is the challenge is remaining there: progress.

The child-like thing is simply trust in God’s purpose, power, plan, love, and the certainty of our personal safety and the joyful confidence such trust and faith delivers naturally as a fruit of the Spirit….if we trust we gain confidence in our standing and our destiny. While this is the best way and the example of the Master, I wonder how many believers are in the Kingdom and yet live anxiously and suspiciously and timidly….a response to uncertainty for the tadpoles who do also have hope and faith that the heavenly shore will come to them.

I think those who find trust, join the Kingdom/Family in all aspects of the definitions of “kingdom” described above as utilized by Jesus – the personal kingdom within; the planetary fellowship of believers; the universe family of the friendly universe; the kingdom of the progressive planetary epochs to come; and the future L&L era of every world – as lived here and now no matter where here or when now may be.

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
MaraParticipant
May 9, 2017, 9:56 PM

Van Amadon wrote:

. . . according to God’s will?

101:8.4 Faith vitalizes religion and constrains the religionist heroically to live the golden rule. The zeal of faith is according to knowledge, and its strivings are the preludes to sublime peace.

101:4.4In the last analysis, religion is to be judged by its fruits, according to the manner and the extent to which it exhibits its own inherent and divine excellence.

140:8.26 Jesus knew men were different, and he so taught his apostles. He constantly exhorted them to refrain from trying to mold the disciples and believers according to some set pattern. He sought to allow each soul to develop in its own way, a perfecting and separate individual before God. In answer to one of Peter’s many questions, the Master said: “I want to set men free so that they can start out afresh as little children upon the new and better life.” Jesus always insisted that true goodness must be unconscious, in bestowing charity not allowing the left hand to know what the right hand does.
GeneParticipant
May 9, 2017, 11:45 PM

Mark Kurtz wrote:

Bonita, Bradly, Mara, Gene I have an idea about using your comments on this topic at one or more UB related events, with permission and probably without identification. I’d like to have your permission to copy and use when and if the event is scheduled. You all can send me contact info at http://www.southeasturantia.com/contact.html. This is a very good topic for a gathering. TNX

no problem

no stone copies allowed
GeneParticipant
May 10, 2017, 12:01 AM
Bonita wrote:

We are all familiar with the many times Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is LIKE . . . “. He drew many similes to help us embrace the concept. Jesus also mentioned multitudinous times that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But he, and the authors of TUB, have also said what the kingdom of heaven actually is. I’d like to take a look at those statements from TUB. The kingdom of heaven is:
- an exclusively spiritual brotherhood of God-knowing individuals. (99:3.2)
- a spiritual relationship between God and man. (134:4.2)
- a life of progressive righteousness and increasing joy in the perfecting service of my Father who is in heaven. (137:8.13)
- open to all men and women. (138:4.2)
- the realization and acknowledgment of God’s rule within the hearts of men. (141:2.1)
- the realization of the spiritual joy of the acceptance of divine sonship. (151:3.1)
- man’s personal experience in relation to his fellows on earth and to the Father in heaven. (170:1.13)
- the ideal of the idea of doing the will of God. (170:2.11)
- a personal experience of realizing the higher qualities of spiritual living (170:2.16)
From the list we can ascertain that the kingdom of heaven involves realization and acknowledgement of being part of a growing spiritual family with God as the Father of everyone. It’s more than a single person’s relationship with God in the soul, it’s also the acceptance of sonship and the recognition of the fact that God has a limitless family of sons and daughters to whom we are all related. It’s one huge relationship. Over Christmas I sent my DNA off to ancestry for analysis and was flabbergasted to find that I’m almost a fifth Italian. My sister and I have been researching the family genealogy for almost 20 years and neither of us have ever uncovered a single Italian. It was even more of a shock to discover that we have just under 100 2nd, 3rd and 4th Italian cousins. How could that be? I discovered that I belong to an enormous family I was totally unaware of. We’ve been exchanging emails and I realize that I’ve been missing out on a huge part of my heritage. Why am I telling you this (I know you’re asking). Well, the family kingdom of heaven is much like that. Accepting sonship, discovering and recognizing God as our Father and opening our hearts to the idea of not being an only child is like discovering a whole new part of our heritage we didn’t know existed before. New horizons open up and the world seems much different from that point on. It’s that different type of outlook on life, that new view of reality seen from within the kingdom that I’m interested in discussing. There’s a list (170:2.2-8) that describes this new attitude. What makes it so wonderful? When the kingdom of heaven is described as an “exclusively spiritual brotherhood of God-knowing individuals”, what do you think they mean by “exclusively spiritual brotherhood” and why do you think they include only “God-knowing individuals”? How does this change one’s perspective? Is it an exclusive club or is it an open family which is solely spiritual in nature? Why aren’t people who don’t know God in the kingdom? Who is a God-knowing individual, how would one be identified, and vice versa? Does a God-knowing family member easily recognize another God-knowing family member, because DNA certainly won’t help us here? How does this family relationship work and what are our responsibilities to each other? What are our responsibilities to those who are not God-knowing? Certainly those folks shouldn’t be ostracized but illuminated in some way . . . right? How does belonging to this family enrich us and renew us? We’ve been told that this world has never seriously tried the kingdom of heaven idea . . . where have we gone wrong? I know I asked a lot of questions . . . don’t feel like you have to answer all of them, or any of them, for that matter. I’m mostly pondering . . .
lots of good quotes and questions

ill be thinking about these for some time

i have been thinking about doing the DNA thing as I was adopted and have no idea who or where blood relatives are or where they are from.

In that context I respond also to your statement that DNA won’t help with God knowing. I wonder what would happen if God knowing people had their DNA analyzed and recorded and plotted for seeing if there is a trend marker that would identify some clear common trait that is not there for a secular atheist type?

Wouldnt that be an interesting science religion link?

just imagining
Van AmadonParticipant
May 10, 2017, 3:57 AM

Is “doing God’s will” the same thing as living according to God’s will?

The answer is no.

Jesus did not live according to his Father’s will.

He devoted his life to the doing of his Father’s will.

(100:7.9) Jesus was an unusually cheerful person, but he was not a blind and unreasoning optimist. His constant word of exhortation was, “Be of good cheer.” He could maintain this confident attitude because of his unswerving trust in God and his unshakable confidence in man. He was always touchingly considerate of all men because he loved them and believed in them. Still he was always true to his convictions and magnificently firm in his devotion to the doing of his Father’s will.

Generally speaking, the Kingdom of Heaven is the doing of the Father’s will.

(180:6.1) “Although this gospel of the kingdom never fails to bring great peace to the soul of the individual believer, it will not bring peace on earth until man is willing to believe my teaching wholeheartedly and to establish the practice of doing the Father’s will as the chief purpose in living the mortal life.”
GeneParticipant
May 10, 2017, 4:57 AM
More Kingdom:

at the end of paper 141:4.8

Jesus had been talking to his apostles about their ministry to the sick: physically, emotionally and possessed by evil spirits or better yet-insane.

he goes on to state that: They shall no more molest men when I shall have poured out my spirit upon all flesh in those times when the Kingdom will come in great power and spiritual glory.

anyone care to analyze that one? A cure for insanity? The Spirit of truth facilitates entering the kingdom more than before? What about the Kingdom coming? Different than us deciding to enter? Another parable directed at apostles slow to grasp his teachings? Preparing them for things to come? Great power and spiritual glory??
BonitaParticipant
May 10, 2017, 12:07 PM

Gene wrote: So having faith, becoming like a little child and as mentioned – having personality is how we pass the entrance exam and I could see this as being exclusive.

This brings to mind the following quote:

103:2.1 You do not enter the kingdom of heaven unless you have been “born again” – born of the Spirit.

So a childlike sincere and honest faith-trust in a paternal Deity also has something to do with being “born again”. I once wrote a little ditty about the Holy Spirit and in it I mentioned the idea that the Holy Spirit is our first person to person encounter with Deity. It happens when we are innocent children with the birth of our embryonic souls . . . is this our first birth? If so, why do we need another one? What happens to people that they aren’t satisfied with their first birth and end up wandering off the family ranch? What is it that makes people loose touch with that child-like innocence which originally gave birth to their souls?

Or does it have more to do with the fact that our first encounter with Deity, our first birth, is so embryonic in nature we are not really conscious of it? Does being “born again” and entering the kingdom of heaven require becoming conscious of our relationship to Deity along with a conscious recognition of sonship (which means discovering we are a children of Deity and realizing Deity’s parental nature toward us individually)? I think it’s a mixture of both, returning to an open-minded attitude which seeks for answers like a child who is first learning, and then interpreting our discoveries with adult eyes, eyes opened by wisdom which begins to understand the parental nature of Deity.

Either way, it’s about the child-parent relationship on a spiritual, or soul, level. I think it’s the spiritual part that is exclusive, meaning uniquely individual, placing great value on the individual personality. I think growth is the mechanism by which we realize that God has an exclusive relationship with every single personality who desires to know him, and all those persons are our brothers and sisters, equally loved and equally valued as individuals . . . not as members of a group-think collective, but as very special and free individuals. If we learn to see each other in that way, the way God the Father sees every person, how wonderful would that be? It would be peace on earth, heaven on earth . . . need I say more. It would be like being “born again” into a whole new dimension of reality!
Van AmadonParticipant
May 10, 2017, 12:15 PM

Bonita wrote:

What is it that makes people loose touch with that child-like innocence which originally gave birth to their souls?

Adulteration.
BonitaParticipant
May 10, 2017, 3:06 PM

152:6.6 Before they left Gennesaret, Jesus instructed them regarding the miraculous feeding of the five thousand, telling them just why he engaged in this extraordinary manifestation of creative power and also assuring them that he did not thus yield to his sympathy for the multitude until he had ascertained that it was “according to the Father’s will.”

Jesus ascertained that a certain decision of his was according to the Father’s will and he did this before acting on his decision, before living it out. It seems to me that living according to God’s will means taking the time to ascertain God’s will before acting, just as Jesus did. I think this is the role of prayer, a mechanism for seeking to know God’s will. When you look at what prayer was for Jesus in the quote below, notice that he used prayer to enrich his thinking, invigorate it toward higher inclinations and clarify viewpoints. It’s obvious that the enriching, invigorating and clarifying comes from contact with God the Father within the higher mind. I think this is why TUB tells us that doing God’s will is simply sharing the inner life with him. The inner life is where we ADJUST our thinking according to his will, and we do it through prayer.

P2088:5, 196:0.10 “To him prayer was a sincere expression of spiritual attitude, a declaration of soul loyalty, a recital of personal devotion, an expression of thanksgiving, an avoidance of emotional tension, a prevention of conflict, an exaltation of intellection, an ennoblement of desire, a vindication of moral decision, an enrichment of thought, an invigoration of higher inclinations, a consecration of impulse, a clarification of viewpoint, a declaration of faith, a transcendental surrender of will, a sublime assertion of confidence, a revelation of courage, the proclamation of discovery, a confession of supreme devotion, the validation of consecration, a technique for the adjustment of difficulties, and the mighty mobilization of the combined soul powers to withstand all human tendencies toward selfishness, evil, and sin. He lived just such a life of prayerful consecration to the doing of his Father’s will and ended his life triumphantly with just such a prayer. The secret of his unparalleled religious life was this consciousness of the presence of God; and he attained it by intelligent prayer and sincere worship — unbroken communion with God — and not by leadings, voices, visions, or extraordinary religious practices.”

And all of this is part of living in the kingdom of heaven, which brings joy and happiness to the mind who craves to know God and be like him. The Adjusters are the kingdom of heaven within us. When we live according to God’s will, their pre-will and our free-will see eye-to-eye, and for that moment we are one . . . we’re making progress within the kingdom of heaven.

108:6.2 No matter what the previous status of the inhabitants of a world, subsequent to the bestowal of a divine Son and after the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth upon all humans, the Adjusters flock to such a world to indwell the minds of all normal will creatures. Following the completion of the mission of a Paradise bestowal Son, these Monitors truly become the “kingdom of heaven within you.” Through the bestowal of the divine gifts the Father makes the closest possible approach to sin and evil, for it is literally true that the Adjuster must coexist in the mortal mind even in the very midst of human unrighteousness. The indwelling Adjusters are particularly tormented by those thoughts which are purely sordid and selfish; they are distressed by irreverence for that which is beautiful and divine, and they are virtually thwarted in their work by many of man’s foolish animal fears and childish anxieties.

But if a mind allows itself to become adulterated by its own sordid, irreverent, foolish, childish and selfish thoughts, there can be no kingdom of heaven within that person. The more people there are like this the worse off the world is. Without the Adjuster civilization would revert to primitive times when man was just crawling out of the trees and learning to speak. I can’t imagine it. It’s too horrific. And it’s even more foolish and childish when people blame the devil for adulterating their minds . . . nothing like scapegoating to identify a non-kingdom dweller!

109:4.4 The indwelling Adjusters have in no small measure co-operated with other spiritual influences in transforming and humanizing the descendants of the primitive men of olden ages. If the Adjusters indwelling the minds of the inhabitants of Urantia were to be withdrawn, the world would slowly return to many of the scenes and practices of the men of primitive times; the divine Monitors are one of the real potentials of advancing civilization.
AnonymousInactive
May 10, 2017, 3:15 PM

Mara wrote:

140:8.26 Jesus knew men were different, and he so taught his apostles. He constantly exhorted them to refrain from trying to mold the disciples and believers according to some set pattern. He sought to allow each soul to develop in its own way, a perfecting and separate individual before God. In answer to one of Peter’s many questions, the Master said: “I want to set men free so that they can start out afresh as little children upon the new and better life.” Jesus always insisted that true goodness must be unconscious, in bestowing charity not allowing the left hand to know what the right hand does.

The UB narrative above describes what a child-like nature, mentioned, should be, in that as a child, their knowledge is limited to what they have learned by their questions and limited experience in life to that point. A child has not yet been indoctrinated or had their understanding corrupted by the teaching of others, or their parents who would normally be their first teachers, answering the child’s questions which they ask for better understanding but, at the same time they also learn from what they see others doing and associate this with what may be right or wrong. Therefore in order to become child-like as adults, one must start anew in what one thinks one knows and throw away that which they have learned, which may be a corruption over years of living, and to start with a new slate. In essence to re-open their minds to new possibilities, or have an open mind as a child, in order to re-learn that which may have been corrupted from false or in accurate teachings. For an adult, this is more difficult, because to unlearn something requires more proof in order to change their thinking.

Reply on the current forum