The Fifth Principle: Strive daily to put the spiritual above the physical

Previous Lesson | Home | Contents | Next Lesson

LESSON 25: Success through Positive Thinking

A. The influence of the spirit world on our world.

1. Spiritual inspiration.

• Spirit world inspiration and assistance stands behind the creative work of many artists and scientists. Handel, Newton and Pasteur are only three examples.
• Nonetheless, all spiritual inspiration goes for naught without the training and motivation of the earthly man to make use of it.
  • Invention is 5% inspiration, 95% perspiration.
  • Inspiration is to our benefit only if guided by God's heart: life for the sake of others. To practice this is the responsibility of man on earth, not spirit world.

2. Providence guiding our lives.

• Our life on earth is guided by heaven towards a certain destiny.
• Our destiny is determined by ancestry, place and time, education and our given talents.
• But it is our responsibility to seize that destiny, or it will slip by.
• Historians debate whether the great man makes the times, or the times make the great man. Both sides are true. The times are created by God, but the great man is the one who rises to meet the challenge and opportunities presented by the times.

3. Invisible spiritual influences upon the behavior of earthly people. To do so, there must first be a common base between the person on earth and the spirits. Everyone has such common bases:

• We have a common lineage with many ancestors.
• We have a common mission with many spirits.
• We have common interests and personalities with many spirits.
• We share a common religious faith or philosophy with many spirits.

4. We can change the area of spirit world to which we relate by:

• Converting to a different religion.
• Changing our role in public life.
• Coming under the influence of a powerful teacher.
• Practicing an extraordinary act of sacrifice for others.

5. Evil spiritual influences.

• The spirit of an evil ancestor may:
  • Seek to control me and mold me according to his personality, inducing me to repeat his sin.
  • An indulgent ancestor tempts me to self-indulgence
  • A racist ancestor induces racist thoughts
  • A suicidal ancestor induces suicidal thoughts
  • An ancestor who neglected children induces anger in me which leads to me abusing my child
  • An unbelieving ancestor will sow in my heart doubts about God's existence
  • He will try to get revenge for past wrongs through me.
  • Induce me to harm a descendant of one who wronged him.
  • Punish me because my ancestor wronged him.
  • He will punish or torment me in order to make up for his sin.
  • An ancestor who burned someone can cause me to be afflicted with skin lesions.
  • An ancestor who lives with regret that he used his intellect for selfish purpose can cause me to get brain cancer.
  • There is often a correspondence between ancestral sin and one's own afflictions.
• b. We are all assailed by these influences.
  • Our spirit world is likely to be more evil than good.
  • Everyone has, somewhere in his lineage, murderers, rapists, suicides, and other unfortunate people.

B. Be striving constantly. By doing so, we can connect with good spirit world and receive its benefits.

1. Be ever fortifying ourselves by studying God's word.

• Then we can get a proper perspective on life. We can keep the goal toward which we are moving clearly in sight.
• Each person should have a clear understanding of their goals in life, based upon the establishment of a true family and ideal hometown.

2. Pray and meditate constantly.

• Make a base for God's guidance.
• Set up spiritual protection to block out evil desire.
• Make yourself receptive to spiritual help, and be humble to your need for it.
• Never assume that you have an innate goodness or unaided common sense which is strong enough to guide you. Evil spirits can mislead us through our pride. Always seek God's guidance through His words and His representatives (parents, elders, teachers).

3. When confronting evil spiritual influence, endure, maintain gratitude and a comprehensive, positive attitude, and overcome evil with true love.

• By grateful endurance, you maintain subjectivity centered upon the physical world. By a comprehensive attitude (positive thinking), you expand your perspective beyond the base for the evil spirit's torment. By true love, you serve a higher purpose on earth, which brings in greater energy for goodness. This greater energy submerges the lower, evil energy. Then the evil spirit can be liberated, his sin resolved by my atoning love.
• Then I am liberated from the weight of this evil spirit, and I am free to work on a higher level for God.
• Always seek opportunities to serve others. By serving others, we inspire and allow good spirits to help us. These good spirits can gain benefit by assisting us in serving others. Serving others is the best way for the spirits to make restitution for the sins they committed while on earth, and thereby be liberated. Spirits are constantly looking for a channel to work through.
• Then spirit world will shower us with many blessings. This is the power of positive thinking.

4. It is far easier to grow on earth than in spirit world, because one can gain the benefit of one's own physical actions, through which spiritual growth takes place.

• What we do during our physical life has consequences for tens of thousands of years in the spirit world.
• Most people do not know when they will go to spirit world. Therefore we must strive daily, as if each day were our last on earth, and the judgment of our lives hung in the balance of this hour.

The next Principle discusses the way of sharing God's blessing on earth.

Previous Lesson | Page Top | Contents | Next Lesson

MEANINGFULL ENCOUNTERS