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Helen is in the hospital. (The name has been changed in this story, but it has happened in just this way.)

Helen is lying in bed, and a church person comes to visit her. Helen says, “Why am I here? What have I done to deserve this?”

A businessperson is having a terrible year in business. This person calls the minister and says, “Why is this happening to me? What have I done to deserve this?”

Today I’m going to talk about cause and effect. I want to explain cause and effect.

Have you ever heard the saying, “Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind”?

This is water and this is a silk plant. The water represents our thoughts; the silk plant represents the outer world. If I pour the water down, it produces an effect – a wet silk plant. When we have thoughts in our own minds, we have an effect on the outer world.

For example, Helen’s doctor comes in and says, “Helen, with the effects you have in your physical body, it is going to take you six months to heal.” Helen holds that in her mind. If she believes it, her body will take exactly six months to heal. This is cause and effect. I ask you, are you locked into this?

There is a wonderful old movie that was released some years ago called “Groundhog Day.” It stars Bill Murray.

It is a story of cause and effect. Bill Murray visits this town and relieves the same day every day (Groundhog Day).

Bill Murray gets up in the morning and goes through the day not being very loving Since he is not very loving (the cause), he had many incidences of people not being very loving to him (the effect). He goes to bed not being very happy with what those 24 hours brought to him. When the alarm rings in the morning, he gets up and realizes that he is reliving the same day again. But this time he does things slightly differently.

This is the whole story of this movie. He lives it, and keeps reliving it, until finally he is loving. And when he is loving, his whole life, and everything happening to him changes. It is cause and effect.

Let me read from the Bible, “As far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us” Psalms 103:2.

That seems to talk against cause and effect. That says that if you do something you are not happy with, God can lift you out of the old pattern to a higher level.

Levels of spiritual development can be transcended by Divine Grace in a split second. There are many levels of development. One is the level of hard knocks. A lot of us have been on that level for the major part of our lives. If I bend down and hit my head on the piano, it hurts. I cut my head, and I experience pain. After many times of doing this, I come to the conclusion that it hurts to bend over and hit my head on the piano. I learn how to avoid that in my life.

If I go home, get angry with my family and yell at them (the cause), they will be angry with me for days, weeks, months, or even years (the effect). Soon I learn it is better to be loving. If I am loving, I do not have that negative effect come to me. That is the hard knocks level of spiritual growth.

But there is a higher level. There is a level where, in a split second, we go to God for Divine Grace. In that split second we are no longer locked into the cause and effect cycle; we are literally lifted above it. This occurs, not through our own actions, but through God’s actions working in us.

God’s desire is to express through you in such a complete way – through you, as you – that you never completely reap the harvest of error you sow in your life, and that you always reap more good than you sow. This is God’s Grace. It is a wonderful facet of the love of God. It is not something that we work to achieve. We do not have to work for this type of love, because it simply exists in our lives.

Ephesians 2:5. “Even when we were dead through our trespasses” … This says because of the way we have been acting, we have created a hole for ourselves, and we are stuck in that hole. We may have created a mess in our families, our businesses, and our lives.

“Even though we were dead through our trespasses, we are made alive together again in Christ – by grace you have been saved” Ephesians 2:5, paraphrased.

You are saved by the grace of God – the gift of lifting you out of where you might have gotten yourself. It’s not something you do or earn.

It is a gift freely given.

Luke 15:11-32 is the parable of the prodigal and his brother. “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me” so he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.'” So he set off and went to his father.

But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father said to his slaves, “Quickly, bring out a robe – the best one – and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate.

Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.”

Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property, you killed the fatted calf for him!” Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found. This is talking about God’s Grace in our lives. It is talking about how we simply need to turn to God. We may have been far off from God for a long time. Because of the ways in which we have been living, we deserved much worse. Yet, the love of God comes through freely and easily to us. This is the way of God’s love. It always comes. Thank God that we do not have a God who says to you, “Because of what you did back in 1959, you will pay for the rest of your life.” That is a human way; not the way of our God. God IS love. God is NOT made in our image, we are made in God’s image.

We need to accept God as God; not God as we think God should be. If we accept God as we think God should be, we will hold ourselves accountable just as we do in human mind. No one in the world criticizes you more than yourself. You are your greatest critic and judge. God thinks you are wonderful and loves you unconditionally.

God is a God of love and Grace. God does not say, “Tsk, tsk [shaking head] … I’m judging you. You have not been good enough or loving enough, so today you cannot have My grace.” God gives to you freely and easily. If in the moment you feel trapped in some situation, say to God: “God I accept your grace. God I am ready.” And it will come through.

At any time we can supersede the law of cause and effect. We can go higher. We are not locked into an endless cycle of our own human mind cause and effect. We can have the full Grace of God come through. And, like wonder, it will; everything will be changed in a split second of time.

God’s time is not our time. We think in terms of linear time in our human mind. We judge. We say, “Now, to heal this body it will take this much time” or “To take care of this terrible business that I am locked into, it will take so much time.” But in God Mind there is no time or space. Twisted mazes can be straightened out in a split second. I have seen it happen, and you have too.

Cause and effect would say that as a farmer if I sowed ten seeds I would get ten plants. But you know the Truth. If I sow ten seeds, I am going to get back many plants which will produce thousands of seeds. This is the way Divine law works. It works that way in your own life, too.

In a split second you can have what you desire. God, will always meet you more than half way. By becoming receptive to the Grace of God, we receive the measure of God’s provision which exceeds any of our imaginings.

Human mind will say, “This good I am seeking is far off.” But here is what far means to me: Freewill Accept Receive. That brings the far – close. In your free will, you have the choice to accept God’s good, and it will come to you – beyond what you ask, seek, earn, or even deserve. God is more than willing to give to you.

I repeat, Grace has nothing to do with anything that anyone else has ever done, or any outward activity on your part. Grace is an inner realization that you are already one with God. You always have been, and you always will be. The only separation is a false belief in our own minds.

A great spiritual teacher once said to his ministerial students, “Congratulations. You have now all superseded the law of cause and effect. You will live your lives on a new plane.” You, too, can supersede the law of cause of effect. You, too, can live in that realm.In the Bible, John 1:16-17 it says: “From His fullness we have all received, Grace upon Grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”. Cause and effect is law. However, there is a higher level, and that is the Grace of God. Does that take away from the statement I started this lesson with? Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind. No. Not at all. It is the type of thinking that you are holding in mind.

Let’s say in this split second in time that God Mind totally took over your human mind. Right now you are being infilled with God Mind. God Mind is infilling your every thought. At the core nucleus, there is no more fear or anxiety. You are being filled with the power of God thinking. This is higher than any of my words can verbalize.

Now, through the power of God, you are infilled with God Mind. Through your human motivation and willingness to accept, you agree to hold this in mind. And thoughts held in mind will produce after their kind. It works the same way, but it’s a higher working of the law. It’s a higher outworking that can work at any time for you.

There are times of emergency when you have or you will call upon God in the moment, and you can’t wait. You need God, and you need God now. You consent with your human mind and say,

“God this is the moment.
This is the time.
I give You my human mind.
I ask You to infill me with Your light and wisdom.”

With this, something comes to you higher than you have ever earned. It is an immediate intervention of God Mind. It is so complete and thorough, and yet it is so quiet and gentle. God does not come to you in a thunderbolt. God comes to you in the stillness.

The immediate intervention of God’s Grace is not reserved for human emergencies only. Grace is omnipresent.

You are literally being bathed in the Grace of God now as you sit here in this room. It is instant love. In human situations – on the job, in the home – Grace is always present. There is not one person of any religion who is not surrounded and infilled with God’s Grace. But each person has free-will on whether to accept it.

“I will open the windows of heaven for you until you say it is enough.” When do we say it is enough? Do we say, “Okay, God, by my human standards I say it’s enough, so I will accept just a little of my good. I have been bad. I’ve been in the far country. I’ve squandered my father’s money. My brother has been so good all long. He stayed with my father. He has been surrounded in his good all along, but I was too dumb. I don’t deserve any better.” In the quietness, God says to you: “Please, please accept more of My good. Please take it. Please ask for it. Please, through your free-will, take it. It’s yours. I give to you freely. I want to give it. It gives me great joy to give to you.” And you say, “No, no. I’ll take only this much.” How much better it is to supersede our own mind, and go completely into a state of Grace.

There are more forms of Grace than there are leaves on the trees. Grace is attuning with the law and its perfect working.

Let me share a story. Last winter there was a woman driving on a hilly road. It was very icy and she was driving fast. She was very concerned about something that was going on with her family, and was not paying attention to how fast she was going.

At one point, her car started to go into a spin at a tremendous speed. The car kept spinning in the middle of the road. She looked up and realized that traffic was coming toward her from both directions. She simply let go of the wheel and closed her eyes, because she knew she was out of control.

That is a beautiful place to be – when you know you are out of control. You know you can’t control it anymore, so you call upon God’s Grace. When you do, within a split second you attune yourself in that place where there is no time or space, and everything corrects itself.

This was the biggest miracle this woman had ever had in her life. Not only did she not get into an accident, but her car straightened itself, and somehow pulled to the side of the road, out of harm’s way. This was something she could not have done in a moment, or even in a few moments. But God did it through her consenting.

If I was to look up the word “intervention,” I would find the following words to describe it: interference, interruption, arbitration. In football we think of an interference as a tackling of somebody to keep him from his good. But there is another form of interference: when the little boy is running out into a traffic-filled street to get his football. The cause shows that the little boy will run one way, and the effect would be that the little boy is in danger. But someone sees this in advance, runs interference, and keeps him from harm’s way.

Or someone driving on a busy street is told in a moment of prayer to step on the brake, but he/she doesn’t know why. After coming to a complete stop, they see a little boy run in front of the car that he/she would have hit. This (in both situations) happens every day. It is immediate intervention, and it can happen to us in our lives.

An arbitration occurs in a business situation between union and management where jobs are going to be saved. There can be Divine, immediate help.

“Humans are prone to feel that the outer, or sense world is the source of his/her good. But in order to fully realize our sonship, daughtership, and Divine heritage, we must hold fast to God. We must see God as the only cause.

We must keep our vision high. We must hold steadfastly to the realization that God is the one source of all; that in God and in Truth is where all our good is. That’s why we are here today in church.

Do you have to win God over? No. Can you ever get to the point in your spirituality where you have immunity from effects? Yes, in part. In human development, when your motive is pure, you have a degree of immunity from the effects of ignorant transgression of Divine law.

Let us pray:

Dear God, I realize that Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ, that is the real saving, redeeming, and transforming power that comes to me through the work Jesus did, establishing, for the race, a new and higher consciousness in the earth.

I now enter into that awareness of faith in Him by means of an inner spirit of the law that He taught and practiced. Dear God, I affirm: Through the grace of God I am forgiven and healed.

In this moment, we lift above the law of cause and effect. In this moment, we transcend that law to the higher law of the law of God’s Grace. In a split second, a Divine intervention occurs in your life. God knows where it needs to occur. The Divine intervention of the Divine law of grace happens in and through your life and the lives of those you love now.

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

PRAYER/MEDITATION_________________________________

(This includes a lot of silence with soft music background)

In this prayer time, we say to our physical minds: Peace, be still. Peace, be still. Quiet thoughts are preparing the way, and a quiet light glows within you.

This God light is growing brighter and brighter.
The light and love of God is surrounding you and indwelling you.
The love of God permeates your being.

The quietness and healing power of God flows through you now. Peace be still … .

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Dear God, I consent to You and Your ways of thinking.
I give my mind and body over to You during this prayer time.
I feel Your sweet gentleness.
I do not strive or want for anything.

I simply consent.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God, I call forth Your Divine Grace to bypass my human thinking; to overcome any fears and anxieties that may arise. I now call forth Your action in and through my physical body.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God’s Grace is manifested through you now. It’s wonder works in and through you.

Rest in the silence, and accept the Grace of God as part of your life …

Rest in the silence of prayer …

How serene and at one with You we feel, dear God.

As we close this prayer time, we prepare to open a brand new day and a new awareness inside of us.

We are willing; we consent.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

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