Being

BEING All that We are Created to Be

RON ASH

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BEING Copyright © 2009 by Ronald M. Ash, Jr., Apostle, D.D. ISBN: 978-1-44959-220-2 Published by RMA Associates 228 Putnam Avenue Johnston, RI 02919 Telephone: 1-401-640-4438 www.apostleron.wordpress.com All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any way by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, except as provided

by USA copyright law.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL READER'S VERSION®.Copyright © 1996, 1998 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world.

Used by permission of International Bible Society.

NEW INTERNATIONAL READER'S VERSION® and NIRV® are registered trademarks of International Bible Society. Used by permission of the International Bible Society.

Printed in the United States of America.

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Dedicated to my friend and colleague in spirit, love and light who without her kind words and inspiration I may have never found the true essence of my Being.

This one is for you, Mary-Lou.

When we speak out about what we want the Universe shouts it right back to Us!

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Content INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………...5 CHAPTER ONE: Focus on All ………………………………………..7 CHAPTER TWO: Moving Forward ………………………………….21 CHAPTER THREE: Sin or Symptom ...…………………………….26 CHAPTER FOUR: Curse or Character ………………………………31 CHAPTER FIVE: Circles or Cycles …………………………………36 CHAPTER SIX: More Time …………………………………………43 CHAPTER SEVEN: Who We Are …………………………………..49 CHAPTER EIGHT: Paper Chase ……………………………………67 CHAPTER NINE: When Prayers Manifest …………………………76 CHAPTER TEN: Power Praying ……………………………………79 CHAPTER ELEVEN: Nightmare Machine …………………………86 CHAPTER TWELVE: We are what we do not what we used to …...95 CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Letting Go ………………………………100 CHAPTER FOURTEEN: The Tip of the Wave…………………....105 CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Get Our Hopes Up………………………....110 CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Changing Our Course …………………….119 FINAL THOUGHTS: Knowledge and Wisdom …………………..127

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Introduction So we have taken our next step in this infinite journey of enlightenment. A series of events have taken place that has brought us to where we are right now. This is the most important time of our lives. It is in this very moment which exists prior to a thought that we have the potential to be.

Being exists in this moment in this time and knowing, seeing, feeling and experiencing All that there Is right “NOW.� It really is All that there Is. The Master knew the power of this incredible law.

This is how He created incredible miracles everywhere He went. It is by the power and the intentional manipulation of the now that will determine the outcome and contribute directly to our experiences in the future.

Where do we exert our energies? Do we spend our lives searching for everything we already have? Are we concentrating on the choices we made yesterday rather than the choices we can make right now? If we answer yes to any of these questions it is very important for us to go on. The Universe has brought Us together for one specific reason. We are about to realize All that We are created to be. Here we will experience our being!

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I wrote this book to help us discover who we truly are. So many people I know both young and old struggle with Truth every day. They fail to recognize the obvious from within and instead fixate on the external world around them. It is my wish to dispel the many myths that exist in our shared physical realm of existence. I wish to make us immune to the disease of this illusion. In teaching how to manipulate the thoughts which create our delusions we will in fact begin to intentionally create our own world.

It is important to remember to forget all that we have learned upon entering into the proceeding pages. For it is only with a blank slate and an open mind will we be able to grasp the incredible powers within All. By clearing our minds of our previous perceptions we will be gifted with wisdom.

"Wisdom comes from experience and experience comes from Being." -Rahn

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Chapter One Focus on All “Sometimes we can concentrate so much on the players that we miss the play.”

So much of our lives, up to this point have been based on who we assume we are to be. We easily look to those around us for clues about who we are. Expressions like, “The in crowd, being in style, fitting in, keeping up with the Jones’ have plagued us and bound us in a prison of our own minds.

In this we continually resist being all that we are created to be. That’s right; we are who we are created to be. It is in this very moment that lays all Truth in what we are continually and infinitely being. Not only can we not be someone else, but they cannot be us either. Try as they may or as we may it is not an option to be anything less than the super special and unique individual which is our creation.

The first clue that we are not being whom we are created to be is the feeling of dissatisfaction.

When we concentrate on what we think we should be we miss the beauty in who we are. In this very moment in time, before thought, is the mystery of Truth. Happiness exists in this very moment and It is by our thoughts and the emotions associated with them that the course is

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set for what we will experience in the NOW moments to come.

“We are always best at being who we are.”

You see we are always best at being who we are created to be and when we are being whom we are we are happy. Everything feels right when we accept ourselves for who we are. We have no need to compare ourselves to anyone else.

Then we learn another little secret; we are happy for others who are blessed too. No longer do we have the need to bring people down or make their blessings and accomplishments seem less than they are. Why? Well, it is because today we are the best that we are created to be. All other things no longer concern us because we are now euphoric in our being.

Here is the second clue that we are not being true to ourselves. We are inundated with resentment. The accomplishments of others and the things they posses become a thorn in our side. From this we begin to affirm lies passionately and with our most intense emotions. We emphatically state, “I don’t want a life like that!”

Perhaps we believe, “She must have cheated her way into that position.”

Maybe we adamantly explain, “My life sucks! I would change places with you in an instant.”

There are many examples of this type of negative mind set, but the bottom line is that it all comes down to one thing, “So what!” None

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of these things have anything to do with who we can become in this instant.

Do we believe that we are our souls and our spirits created in the image of God? Are we totally aware of exactly what that means? We are not mistakes! We are not errors! Every One of us is a unique beautiful wonderful creation of infinite possibilities. So why would we only strive to fit in?

“We are only limited by what we think is impossible.”

The greatest people in history, as unique as they were, had no more potential for success than we do right NOW. We decide how far we can go, what we can do and how great we want to be.

We have the power which comes from the Creator and resides in our hearts and souls to create ourselves. It is a matter of choosing who we will be. We must choose the life that we want!

How many times have we said “I don’t have time? Not right now.” How often do we say “Maybe later” when asked to take some time to enjoy right now do we cling to the mundane tasks of the day? Have we forfeited today for what could have been done tomorrow. Do we miss the opportunities to enjoy life now because we have chosen to put ourselves on a rigid schedule of unnecessary and overdone tasks?

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Do we resent others who refuse to fall into the same cycle of never “Being” as we have? Well, if so it is time to break those chains of our self imposed oppression and "Be" now!

You see my friends the grass does not always need to be cut on Saturday. Go some place special with your kids when the sun sits high in the sky and enjoy the gift of a gorgeous day.

Take your daughter to diner and a movie. The laundry can be done anytime. She is available and wanting to spend time with you today.

Don’t sit home and sulk on a rainy day. Take the opportunity to visit family at their home.

There just may be something in all these things that needs to happen in order for us to move on.

In these moments could be the knowledge and wisdom, that comes through the experience, that will launch us forward in our journey to being all that we are created to be.

We have been pondering the signs that tell us we are not being who we are. It is now easier for us to identify everything that we have been unintentionally doing to avoid “Being”. Why? It is because we have never or not recently been told to be what our heart tells us to be. We have accepted the illusion of “get real” and now live our life by default. Only occasionally do we revisit our dreams, contemplate our aspirations and wonder, “Who Am I?” I Am all that I Am created to be.

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God has given us an incredible gift, a unique specialty and a wonderful purpose. Where is it you ask? It is wrapped inside the most beautiful package and seated on the shelf of our living room. It is covered with dust and waiting patiently for us to pick it up, hold it near to our hearts and unravel the mysterious gift within.

“Passion is the soul’s recognition of God’s gifts.”

Here lies the secret which enables us to be the greatest “We” that we are created to be. Many of us have been avoiding what we have already known our entire lives. There is something that we love to do, but someone long ago, possibly well intentioned, told us that we are not worthy of the gift. When we use these gifts hours seem like minutes and we can do them all day everyday and for the rest of our lives. This is what we are passionate about and passion is the soul’s recognition of God’s gifts. When we use these gifts we are guaranteed success. We are happy!

We can choose to be happy today. There is no reason to think that we have to jump through a series of hoops before we can be happy. It is a silly illusion to believe that what will make one person happy will make everyone happy. There exists no cookie cutter program for happiness!

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So why have we conditioned ourselves to settle for less? Well meaning people who loved us felt the need to protect us from failure. They did not believe in us and we began to not believe in ourselves. They had bought into the illusions that were sold to them. In turn we accepted these myths and decided to play it safe.

What were these illusions you ask? There were many basic rules like we will be happy when we have enough money, marry the right spouse, attend the right school or get the right job. Yet, how much is enough money? What is enough for one is not enough for another. What is the right school, right spouse or right job? It is all subjective. This especially holds true when happiness is concerned. What is the biggest untruth of all? We are average. Wow! What an incredible contradiction in thought exists in this statement. Average! How could we look at the most basic principle of creation and believe we are any less than spectacular?

(Genesis 1:26 ) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Never second guess what our heart knows.

There is no ceiling restricting our rise. Our ascension is a limitless infinite journey of

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“Being”. Sometimes we have to close our eyes in order to see; in seeing is our “Being.”

Success What is success really all about? Are you successful? Am I successful? Well, I am that I am. The only answer comes from God and the Spirit within us. Success is really about being All we are created to be.

Many of us have been brainwashed into believing at an early age that success’ come in some very limited forms. Doctor, Lawyer and Stock Broker are the career paths most of our parents would have chosen for us if they could have. Who knows if we would have done any better?

Many of us have dreamed of being a sports hero, singing star or a famous author. The real question is not if these choices would have been right or wrong for us, but why we would choose?

Did we arrive at the decision to become a doctor because of our overwhelming need to solve the negative elements of the human condition?

Perhaps we looked at being a lawyer as a way to solve intolerable social injustice? Maybe we felt that if we could only assist people early enough in their lives to develop a proper portfolio than they would not have to rely on

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their social security and thus thought to become a Stock Broker? These are all very honorable reasons grounded in a passion for doing what is right.

What of the child who aspires to become famous for the sake of fame? Could he/she find a way to use this to the advantage of others?

I’m certain they could. It happens all the time.

Famous athletes, musicians, actors and authors donate huge sums of money and at the very least vast amounts of their time towards many worthy causes. Yet, this is rarely the reason one aspires to delve into these career paths whole heartedly.

The truth of the matter is that much of our choices in following a career path have been initiated by an unquenchable need to be seen as more than we think we are, to yearn for what we think we don’t and to have the things we only think we want. We bought into the advertising and are being seduced by the most deceptive marketing plan of all time. In this we have inadvertently turned from God and towards the idol gods of the day. We have given up success for what we have been shown success to be.

Do I have your attention?

So many of us today continue to follow the mirage and ignore the oasis. We sit by so eloquently sipping the sand instead of dropping our cup deep into the well. We chose what we

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have been taught is the finest of sparkling water over the essence of all the there is. If only we would put down the illusion and realize that only the living water can quench an infinite thirst.

Money, power and fame have sucked us into an unreality. We have been given a key that unlocks no lock. Years, decades and centuries of influence from worldly sources have taught us to poke our paddle deep into the river and make our way to the top as fast as we can.

Guess what, many have struggled their entire lives to get to that place, some have even found their way by doing everything they thought they should do to get there. They struggled, toiled and sold their souls for an empty box adorned with a beautiful ribbon. “There is no guarantee that every box adorned with a pretty ribbon will contain the same gift.�

You see, not everyone is meant to have the same thing. We must look inside ourselves in order to find our own special gift. The secret is in the inner mans ability to recognize ones passion.

This is the system created within us that allows us to be who we are created to be. With this comes joy and timeless endeavors. If that sounds like happiness to you than you now truly understand the nature of success.

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Success cannot be gauged by money, property, cars or clothes. It is a measure of the I Am, that I Am. Within us all is the special talent that will enable us to initiate the first steps in His plan for us. It is here that we begin our journey towards our ultimate destiny.

These other distractions are placed in front of us to slow us down. Absent of sustenance they will never truly be able to hold our attention for more than a few short months. This is the absolute irony which I relate to the sipping of the sand. The more we drink the thirstier we get.

How many times in our lives have we yearned for a material possession? We thought if only I could have this I know I will be happy. Perhaps we sacrifice by saving. Maybe we compromise our ethics in some way. Finally, after all is said and done we hold the idol ever so dearly. “Wait until they see me in this!� Ah ha! What we were looking for was part envy and part pride.

In not truly understanding our relationship with God we chose these idols as our foster parents.

We let things tell us and others that we are as good as they are.

The entire scenario kind of reminds me of fishing with a lure. When I was a kid on the pond I seldom had live bait available to me.

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Periodically my mom would buy me a few new lures as my older ones were wearing out. The thing about a good lure is that you can catch many fish with it cast after cast. The fish just don’t know the difference between the lure and the real thing. They put all their energy into chasing that lure and get nothing in return. One of two things will happen when the fish gets tricked; they get thrown back hungry or get taken back and eaten.

In all fairness I have to say that it is ok to own nice things as long as we don’t allow them to own us. Understand that the happiness derived from them is temporal. I guarantee that the dream car we’re driving today will feel just like the car we traded in within a few short months.

Watch out! We don’t want to get reeled in by another lure.

Last night I mentioned to my wife an incident that took place several years ago. I was in my final years of high school and was working on figuring out what I wanted to study in college. I have always had a talent for being very insightful and as long as I can remember people were always talking to me about the issues which troubled them. Somehow, absent of advice, they always felt better after talking to me. The funny thing is this made me feel elated. I would get people stopping at my table in the cafeteria during lunch, coming by my house after school and more than a few late

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night calls that always started with, “Ron, can we talk?” I remember those nights well; barely awake with the phone hand set as my pillow. I never minded though. Something about it all just filled me up.

One day my dad came to me and asked, “Have you decided what you’re going to be when you grow up?” Although I did not appreciate his choice of words; what teenager would? I told him that I wanted to be a psychologist. “Oh no that’s all we need!” Perhaps he figured he may be subject to constant analysis, so he adamantly rejected my decision. He continued, “Why don’t you go into advertising. I have a friend in Boston who will give you a job right when you get out starting at six figures.”

Be careful parents. You have an incredible power of influence over your children. Use it the right way. Even when my father gives me advice today I take it into serious consideration.

In this case I went for it hook, line and sinker.

His dream became mine, but it never materialized. It was not part of God’s plan.

Parental influence is an incredible tool for manipulating the current of the ocean in which our children swim. I am reminded of an automobile accident I was in as a teen. The memory of a 1974 Chevrolet Impala crossing the yellow line and hitting my tiny sports car head on will be etched in my mind forever.

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Who knew that people drive drunk on Sunday mornings? The most prominent thing was that big chrome grille forcing me closer and closer to the side walk. It was crash, poof, crash and my car catapulted backwards into a telephone poll.

Flames were shooting out of the engine and my door was jammed shut.

Suddenly I gained strength that I never knew I had and forced it open, got out and went to the nearest house for help. My first thought was to get some water to put the fire out, but the closest thing I had was a tea kettle given to me by the old Portuguese women who answered the door.

Talk about being angry with that driver. I just had some major repair work done on my car only the day before. Now it was totaled. Even worse was that the drunk driver had no insurance and it was not even his car. As my mom attempted to explain this all to me I grew even angrier.

“Mom, he better pay for my car!” I exclaimed repeatedly. It just wasn’t right. She then explained to me that she talked to the attorney and was told that the only thing we could do was attach the drivers pay. “Good!” I said. “He deserves it!” That is when my mom responded with a few words that looking back today contributed more to my character than every text book I read in college. “You wouldn’t want someone to do that to you Ronny.”

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Well, let me get back to my point. We all know what we love to do. It is our passion and our gift from God. This is success and we must never let anyone tell us different. This is the true reality of our being. All other things are just going to leave us hungry, thirsty and wanting more. Remember one very important thing. It is never too late to dip our cup into the well.

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Chapter Two Moving Forward It is a physical fact that we were designed for forward movement.

Everything about our anatomy confirms this undeniable truth.

Forward motion is an essential element of our being and plays a predominant role in us being all that we are intended to be.

Everything in our bodies is meant to move ahead. Our feet, legs, knees and torso all contribute to this principle function. As we lean forward we move ahead. It is our eyes position in front of our head that guides us forward. We can turn our neck and body left to right to see where to turn and how far ahead we must go.

The head does not turn three hundred and sixty degrees around. We are built to bend forward and not backwards.

Isn’t it strange that we can move in reverse?

The difficulty is very apparent in every potential action that contradicts our design yet, we can do it. It takes a lot of practice and concentration to walk blindly backwards and the risks can be immense. What types of obstacles are behind us? We could walk into a fire, off a cliff or into the path of a moving vehicle. On top of it all the movement is extremely slow and restrictive.

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Often we wish we had eyes in the back of our heads. Why? Although it would contribute to a tremendous improvement in multi direction versatility this is seldom the reason for the request. Most often it is that we don’t want anyone sneaking up on us. Think about that for a moment. What are the possible effects of being caught off guard, surprised or unsuspecting? Well, fear places highest on the list I’m sure. We may be taken down in a number of ways.

Much loss physically, emotionally or even financially can be had.

Maybe we fear being held back or pulled down; making our efforts fruitless.

The ego also plays an overwhelming roll. Most do not want others to move past them, overtake them or get to the finish before they do. We all want to get there first, but many of us want to coast uphill to achieve our goals. In order to get where we are going we must continually strive in advance. There is a time to climb and a time to coast.

The Truth is that there is no finish line and the only race is being created in our own minds.

We are all on an infinite journey forward.

Everyone has their own pace and their own jobs to do. It is by being all that we are created to be that we travel the path to Purpose. Forward thinking creates forward movement!

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When we think of the things that could have been or should have been we ground ourselves in disappear and anchor ourselves in inaction.

Wadding water will only serve to keep our head above the surface. If we want to see what is on the other side we will need to swim ahead. Our reward is in the crossing!

Forward movement requires forward motion.

As we think of where we want to be the brain signals the body to prepare for movement. We think of where we want to be and our brain says, “Head turn forward, eyes open wide and foot take a step.” Action is always required! So my friends, movement requires motion and motion depends upon emotion. Emotion is the key to our mode of transportation and transformation.

Remember, our emotions play an important role in determining where we are going and how fast we will get there. In The Apostle’s Recipe for Happiness I spoke of how subjective time and distance are. I often mention how passion is the soul’s recognition of God’s gift and how when we are using our gifts hours seem like minutes.

Well, through the mastery of our emotions we can intentionally create the most powerful and energy efficient vehicle to take us to where we want to be. We can move forward quickly and easily by concentrating on where we want to be, seeing what it looks like and feeling the emotions associated with our visions. We are

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the pilot, driver, engineer and captain of the ship we call ourselves.

Spirit, soul, heart and body all contribute to who we are. When we move forward we advance, but when we move backward we retreat. As we stay motionless and hold on so desperately to where we are and what we have we forfeit our future and the Promise that is there. There is an incredible and supernatural power in the “NOW� that must be used to propagate all that we are intended to be.

If we are to use this fact to our advantage we must appreciate with the utmost gratitude all that we have in this moment. This is how we build energy to fuel our vehicle. As we express the emotions associated with gratitude, contentment and appreciation we fill our fuel cells with high octane racing fuel. It all has to do with vibration. The intensity of our vibration is in direct correlation to the positivity we feel.

Likewise, negative emotions are low vibrating attractors that send out a signal to drain the cells of essential energy and slow down, stall or reverse our advancement.

You see if we let our fuel tanks run low we have a greater chance of clogging up our fuel lines and fuel filter. The energy cannot get through to the engine. Sludge has built up in the bottom of the tank over time. All the bad stuff has separated from the fuel, dropped to the bottom

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of the tank and created a haven for dirt and debris. By driving continually on “E” we have sucked up all that junk into our system and rendered it inefficient. We can’t seem to get our motor started or keep it running. It chokes up, sputters and stalls constantly. We have gummed everything up and are desperately in need of some Gum Out! Although, this is an interesting and somewhat humorous analogy, we are not machines. In our humanity there exists one constant factor that separates us from them. We think therefore we are! In order to clear out our systems we need to use a different kind of cleaner. We must top off our energy cells with positive emotions. As we keep our vibrations high we will continually experience efficient forward motion. Next, we must envision our destination, see where we want to be, create a vivid picture in our mind of what that looks like and experience all the emotions associated with it “NOW!”

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Chapter Three Sin or Symptom “Sin can be forgiven and in forgiveness is freedom and in freedom is Truth.�

Sin is often a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself. There always exists an underlying weakness which makes one susceptible to sin. This weakness becomes a magnet for failure in career, relationships and all other aspects of wealth.

The most common practice that I have observed in society today is that of sinning for salvation.

Many times we are drawn to initiate very dangerous and self destructive behaviors as a way of freeing ourselves from the current situation or circumstance. In a total disregard for all things logical we begin to seek sin to replace the pains of the present.

Present is a very interesting word and one we should never take for granted. This instant is our true Gift and all that is real. When we initiate steps to detach ourselves from the now we forfeit our existence and release ourselves from the Promise.

The Promise is in being all that we are created to be. It is what we are supposed to do. In order to be this we must be in the now

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continually. You see, all that we need to fulfill our destiny is in the present time. In the instant before thought is the essence of all that we are.

When we take alternate routes we sidetrack or side step our right to happiness, success and abundance.

What we are missing are the tools we will need to continue our mission. Here are all the things we need to know in order to fulfill what is to be.

There are signs everywhere! If we don’t keep our eye on the ball we will inadvertently continually drop the ball. “We need to take the ball and wait a minute.”

It is our responsibility to be still, pay attention and observe. This is how we are able to access Divine Guidance. Most often the things that we need to continue our journey are right under our nose, but if we become distracted and look sideways we will miss what has been placed right in front of us.

"There is a reason why God put our eyes in the front of our heads.”

Sin is the distraction which causes us to veer off course. It pulls us away from the Source of all things and causes us to spiral downward and away from the Promise. This is the perfect trap to suck us into a perfect storm.

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Time and again I have counseled couples who have unknowingly been the victim of this debilitating disease. In the mist of chaos they start the process of grasping at straws in a futile attempt to take back control of their lives. With finances in turmoil, feelings of emptiness and knee deep in victim stance we take the first step toward everything we never wanted. Now we are more than ready to sacrifice the eighty percent of all that we have for twenty percent of what we perceive we are missing. “Often we turn to sin for simplicity and end up with complications and confusion.�

We begin to rationalize that the people in our lives are responsible for making us happy.

Guess what? They are not! The truth is that happiness comes from within. It must be in our spirit, heart and soul. From the essence of all that we are comes the force which attracts all that we are worthy to behold.

We are responsible for our own happiness. Remember, we will only get what we are willing to give.

Here is the typical scenario. Our partner is not making us happy. We adamantly believe that there is another somewhere out there that will satisfy our every need. So now the hunt begins for the perfect person. Well the fact of the matter is that they do not exist.

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Now the illusion usually begins with the biggest distraction of them all; sex! Yes this physical act can make us believe that we have discovered the answer to all our problems and can now detach ourselves from all that we know and fall freely into the evil we don’t. It is the addiction that draws us away from love and commits our souls to the consequences of lustful desires.

The obsession has begun and we rapidly matriculate towards the end of all things now and into the possibilities of what may or may not be. We have been snagged, snatched and hooked by sin.

What is really going on here? You see, there is a preexisting condition which has caused these symptoms to arise. We have not yet discovered all that we are created to be. Instead we have decided to put a bandage on the problem rather than searching for the cure. We may pluck the dandelion, but if we don’t get at the root we will soon have another to deal with.

Identifying the problem is crucial to formulating the process of recovery. In this scenario the partner is not able to exist as One and therefore is unable to contribute to All. They have failed to identify who they are and why they are here.

They search for the soul’s recognition of God’s gift, but instead find fool’s gold. The passion which they are experiencing is not real. It is not

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the passion experienced by one who is utilizing God’s gift.

As we justify our actions we in fact have grounded ourselves in inaction. Instead of focusing on getting to the top of the tree so that we can see where we are going we continually go off on various branches hoping to catch a glimpse without exerting all the energy that it will take to get to the peek. The only problem is that the further we venture out on the branch the less it will be able to support us. That branch will only bend so far before it breaks!

This is true in all things. If we fail to recognize the cause the symptoms will continually persist.

Whether it is sex, drugs or any other obsession the rule remains the same. We cannot achieve success in life if we fail to admit that the problem exists. Only by addressing the true root of the issue will we be able to succeed in our career, relationships and all other aspects of wealth.

It is very easy to blame others, make ourselves the victim and lie about why we are what we are, but the truth is that we can turn our lives around on a dime. Once we discover what the problem is the solution will soon follow.

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Chapter Four Curse or Character So if sin is a symptom than what is the disease?

Well, in order to answer this question we must first take a very close look at character.

Character is in actuality the essence of all that we are. It is from here that we determine what choices we will make. “Character is one of the attributes or features that make up and distinguish an individual.�

-Merriam Webster What is it that distinguishes us from everyone else around us? Is it the clothes we wear?

Could it be the positions we hold? Perhaps it is the community in which we live? Those would all be good guesses and could in fact be a result of our character. However, they are not and have little to do with the essence of all that we are.

Chances are that we are all presently in the company of people who match the vibration of our character. You see, as we change our thoughts, the way we look at the world, the people around us will change. Old friends and acquaintances will slowly disappear from our daily lives. New people will begin to enter our world. We will often struggle with this. It is very understandable since it is our nature to hold - 31 -

on to what we have, but rest assured, there will always be a place for our soul mates The visits will be less frequent, but they will always be there.

There are certain people who are brought into our lives for a reason. They become an important part of all that we are. They are always here for us as we are here for them. We never hold back our thoughts from one another and speak freely on all topics. When we are on the wrong path they will tell us even if it means they may lose our friendship forever. They know our strengths and our weaknesses, but love and accept us all the same. As our paths fork off in different directions and the times we share grow fewer and far between intimate connections still exist between us. Then the Universe provides us with the wonderful opportunities to come together and laugh, cry and share the past and present with each other.

Whether it be days, weeks, months or years time seems to stand still on the day we come together in the joy of our infinite friendship. It always feels as if we are just picking things up from yesterday. These are our soul mates that have been given to us by the All and the One. (2 Corinthians 6:14) Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

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People have various internal and external characteristics. Some external characteristics are naturally born, indigenous or sociological and others are a reflection of choice. The ones of choice are the near perfect window to the internal characteristics of people. However, it is the tongue which is a far superior tool for the classification of one’s soul. It is the undisputed champion in the battle to distinguish character.

(Matthew 15:11 New International Version) “What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.' " As our character changes so does our language.

We are beginning to change on the inside and this is reflected on the outside too. This is where we begin our rebirth and enlightenment.

(1 Corinthians 14:11) Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.

Again, I spoke earlier of symptoms and this certainly falls into the category of such, but it is the deficiency of righteous character which is the disease.

Our Character is what will determine our choices. It is from character that we chose to sin. You heard me right, “Sin is a choice!”

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In order to make better choices it is imperative for us to build better character!

We all come standard with the internal guidance system which was placed in our hearts by the Creator. When we do wrong deeds an alarm goes off that lets us know. It tells us to hide it from our friends, sneak around, don’t tell anyone and above all “admit nothing!”

Not having a righteous character is not only about doing bad things. It is often about doing good, but having the need to let everyone know about it.

This exhibits a lack of righteous character too. It shows a lack of faith in the power of good deeds. In this there is only the reward of acknowledgement. Therefore, the one thousand fold reward will not be seen. In this we have taken the little prize before us and passed up the dream vacation package behind door number one.

So, where do we find the information necessary to build a righteous character? Well, one of the greatest sources of information on this topic is the Holy Bible. Many religious and secular books have been created from the Word within.

Combined with our guiding conscience we already have a pretty good assortment of tools to build a positive effective character capable of bringing incredible blessings into our lives.

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(Matthew 22:37-39 NIV) “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'”

Everything we have and that we are is composed of the choices we have been making all our lives. When we decide we want to live a better life we must take the necessary steps to improve our character. In every choice we must ask ourselves; is this something that I would do to someone I love? How would I feel if this was done to me?

“You can make life into what you want or life can make you into what it wants. The choice is ours, and even choosing not to choose is a choice.” –Paul Calhoun Choosing not to choose is something many of us do not consider. Many times it is by default that we receive what we do not ask for. The secret really is to ask for what we want and allow it to happen.

Be still and pay attention to the little gifts that cross our path sent by God to facilitate our journey. We must act on the opportunities as miracles materialize from the vibration of our character.

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Chapter Five Circles and Cycles Listen, many times we will find ourselves caught up in a circle within a cycle of continuous repetitive actions. We exist within a plane curve equidistant from a fixed center and become imprisoned in a time interval in which an event occurs repeatedly. Trapped by our own impatience, fears and indecision we continuously forfeit the reward which we seek.

All that we cherish and everything we hold so dear becomes little more than a hopeless unattainable desire which we so adamantly know with the essence of all that we are; we can never achieve. Therefore in the interest of playing it safe we decide it is best to cut our losses and return ourselves to the previous situations and circumstance of which we with only mild motivation decided to aspire to.

Aspiration and motivation are two of the most beautiful words in the English language. Wow! Every time I say those words I actually become absorbed by their presence. It is because of their immediate proximity in time and space that they are just that, presence. These words are in fact an absolute state of being. Often we can be described as having a presence as we move forward in our thoughts, words or actions. We often describe someone as having a certain - 36 -

poise or confidence saying, “He had such a presence as he walked into the room” or “As she walked across the room we all experienced her presence.” These are people who are being real.

They have submitted themselves to all that they are created to be and in doing so vibrate and emit an incredible energy which is felt by all that surround them.

This comes from having the utmost confidence in being who we are. We will move forward without fear when we become or in other words allow ourselves to be the being we truly are.

Then we can be ambitious about striving forward without hesitation towards the fountain of our dreams. We become aspirant in our quest to take all that is ours!

Our motif is clear, but what cost will be associated with the journey we choose? It will be necessary to put our journey into motion.

We will need to build up our internal energies in order to motivate ourselves and those around us in order to facilitate our goals. Believe me, if we do not believe in ourselves few will believe in us.

Both aspiration and motivation are key elements which have ignited the flame of many journeys.

Dreams are nothing without the powers within and the guidance without. Yet, these are only the first steps in the launching of our ship full of hopes which sets its course with sails full of the

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winds of our aspirations. Will we move out straight forward toward what stretches beyond the prominent horizon for the unseen or will we instead relinquish our dreams to fear and continually circle an island?

One of the biggest mistakes I see are the ones in which the aspiring souls cover the facts of their fears with a blanket of unrelated excuses. What I mean is that they find other reasons for the why in an attempt to avoid dealing with the fact of their fears. The Ego wants to be protected and held blameless for the decision to retreat from battle and instead quietly submits to defeat.

We can either face our fears or live in the shadows of them. If we choose to back off and play it safe we will always lose. In this we subject ourselves to a limited existence and in doing so exist within a circle of our own perceived limitations.

How much are we willing to lose in order to have all that is ours? It is easier today to blame others for our decisions to immobilize ourselves and to relinquish our dreams, but if it is unjustly stated to us and others we have sealed ourselves in a circle and submitted ourselves to a cycle of failure. We will only find ourselves where we once were; yearning for advancement, achievement and aspiring once again. When we

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fail to deal with the actual problem we will never discover the corresponding solution.

Trust me, if we do not come clean about the truth in our reasons we will create a false sense of the experience we create. In not dealing with the facts we fall victim to the fabrication. We tell ourselves and others falsities and as we do so repeatedly the lies take on a life of their own and begin to reiterate the lie and prove the falsity of our statements through karma. What we state; will inevitably have to be proven in time.

Most recently a friend of mine who I care for deeply reenters the restrictive circle which I have spoken about today. He has a pattern which continually brings him back to exactly where he does not want to be; far from his dream. Knowing what our passions are is never enough. In order to achieve the realization and use our Gifts as we know that we must we have to have the guts to move forward without fear of the unseen. Four times over the last fifteen years I have seen him do exactly the same thing.

How many times will he drive down the same road and expect a different destination?

When the going gets tough the tough get going!

It is sad for me to see this pattern exhibited repeatedly by my friend. He is always so close to getting everything he wants and then retreats

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back to the place where he has much of what he does not. I think this time will be the hardest time for him. This time he has no one to blame for his self perceived failure. Only now he runs away from the complexities of his circumstance and without knowing the tragedy which waits for him in relation to the reasons that he states for the decisions which he makes. You see, this time he chose to include his daughter in the alternate allegations to the facts conceived. On top of that he was given everything he thought he always wanted.

The business that he dreamed of owning was given to him for free, but when the going got tough he decided it was best to get going and chose to return from whence he came. So close to the Promise yet he walked away from the seed which was planted.

It just needed a little more time and a little more attention. “Dreams are the promise of tomorrow. Give them the attention they deserve and they will reciprocate in kind.�

(James 1:3-4 New International Reader's Version) Your faith will be put to the test. You know that when that happens it will produce in you the strength to continue. The strength to keep going must be allowed to finish its work.

Then you will be all you should be. You will have everything you need.

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Our minds are very powerful and our thoughts create things. As we tell ourselves and others the reasons for our decisions that are only partially true we become subject to these falsities and become conditioned by them.

Overtime we hold the lies as truths. It is here that we may begin to resent others who we have falsely blamed for our inability to move forward in faith when in reality it was our lack of faith that limited us and pushed us back into the all encompassing circle bordered by our fears.

Instead of being propelled into our next cycle in our constant ascension we have chosen to exist once again in a place where we are restricted from being all that we are created to be. “The fire is never really as hot as we think it is, and the water is rarely as cold.�

If we truly want to advance towards the Promise we must travel forward without fear. It is the power from within that will ignite the power from without. If we continually make the same decisions over and again we will undoubtedly achieve the same results. As we concentrate on the possibility of losses we will inevitably create failure in our lives. It is only by trusting that we are able to realize the potential of our being.

(2 Corinthians 4:16, 18) "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. . . . So we fix our eyes not on what is

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seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

Remember, often we are sent to the feast by way of the fire.

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Chapter Six More Time More Time, we always think we have more time than we do. I remember those words as they were spoken to me by an old woman in an antique shop several years ago. They rang true then and today they seem even more so.

On this first day of August I am feeling as if I had just lost my best friend.

He has accomplished all that he was to do here and has ascended. It is a new beginning in a journey which will have no end.

As I think back to that day at the antique shop and remember the old widow I recall the odd experience which followed. You see, several weeks had passed since the day I bought my grey ceramic elephant planter in her shop. On this day I returned to the small Connecticut town to find that the shop was closed. Since I was very captivated by the women and the wisdom which she possessed I looked forward to the visit. I decided to stop at a few neighboring stores to inquire as to when she would return. To my surprise the answers that returned to me were, “that antique shop has not been open for years.�

It would seem that I had been visited by an angel who was letting me know, in her own

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way, that a friendship which I cherished was coming to an end. The time was over and the relationship had accomplished all that it was supposed to. The purpose of that person in my life had run its course. They were an important part of the rebirth of my spirit. It was that person who helped foster the rebirth of all that I Am. It was during that time in my life that my connection to the spiritual realm had been rediscovered.

The little insignificant happenings in my life suddenly made sense.

The mysteries, synchronicities and visitations were explained. In this my insight into the reality of all that there is had been magnified one hundred fold.

When I was eight years old I knew things. My parents and immediate family did not talk about it, but they all knew how very connected I was.

However, as time went on and I grew older this seemed to go into remission. I have to assume it was largely caused by a shift in my consciousness. The concentration came from the spiritual and turned to that of the physical.

Mainstream society had convinced a young man that happiness would be achieved only from the accumulation of possessions and the admiration of man. It was here that I decided to get on board. I would live today for what I thought I wanted tomorrow.

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Six months. In general I found that it would take this short amount of time to get over the perceived joy of having anything that I thought would make me happy. This applied to people, places and things. After six months I would end up exactly where I started, empty and seeking answers. It is funny how many times we will go down the same road time and again expecting something different there.

The coping device would be the same during these in between times. Eat, drink and pretend to be merry. Anything to avoid dealing with the reality of the life which I had continued to create would suffice. I had forfeited the joy of today for what may be tomorrow. It was the action of numbing my being today with hope that relief would come tomorrow.

By religiously using this formula I had anchored myself in inaction. Never allowing myself to be all that I am created to be would rob me of the natural joy of the moment. I would run on a proverbial treadmill and get nowhere fast.

Blessings did not come to me because I was not where I needed to be. My life was on hold and my intended path would wait to be followed.

God’s gifts would remain unwrapped and unused.

One day I decided to step off the treadmill and move forward.

I picked up a college application, filled it out and mailed it away.

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Soon I would find myself on the path which I was intended to follow. It was here that I would find my life and wife. Everything I needed to necessitate my departure from days gone by would be given to me.

The most difficult thing for me at this time was that the friends that I held so dear to my heart would begin to slowly drift away. As our lives change so do the people in them. This is not a matter of choice. The fact is that like attracts like. As our life changes so will the people in it.

Our vibration will be changed as our thoughts and actions do. Those who are stuck in the old way will remain in the old way and those who match our current vibration will be drawn to us.

This is the law of the Universe and is not subject to change.

I would attempt to resist without avail. Doing the same old things as the past became increasingly more difficult for me. It was torture to sit around wasting time in the old redundant ways of the past. The joy that I once perceived in these things was gone forever.

Friendships are friendships and those we love will always be loved by us. With a few friends time can go by, but when we get together after weeks, months or even years it is as if no time has gone by at all. These are our soul mates.

The ones who we confide in and who confide in us and understand the law that governs the level

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of our connectivity as time goes on. Therefore, we eventually give into the law and allow each other to be who we choose to be. Yet, we are always here for each other in times of difficulty and when the timing is right God always brings opportunities forth which allow us to be part of each other’s lives.

Unlike the friendship that had run its course back at the time the women in the antique shop spoke to me this time my eternal friendship would be transformed. His friendship would leap from the physical realm of existence to the spiritual realm in what would be the process of his ascension. Although, in truth what the old women said did still ring true, for me it would merely apply to our temporal existence here on earth.

We always think we have more time than we do.

He was in my thoughts on Saturday at a car show as my sister and I reminisced about his 1966 Impala SS and the times we spent which preceded his ascension, but I only thought to stop by to visit. I drove through the old neighborhood and by his old home with thoughts of the times we spent there in the past, yet did not dial his number and give him a call.

I thought to myself, “maybe latter” and went on with my life.

Well, we all know how this story ends. There was no latter, the time had passed to spend the

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time with my good friend in the physical.

Today my contact with him is in the spiritual realm. His visits touch me as a vibration of energy and I know with the essence of all that I Am that he is free.

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Chapter Seven Who We Are “We are what we do, not what we used to.”

Do you know that we are all that we are created to be? It’s true! There is no man or women on this earth that can define us other than ourselves. Everything we are today is being created day by day. Who we were yesterday is only a memory of what exists within us today.

Although, the past does affect our present we don’t have to allow it to dominate, restrict and predict our future. It is true that our lives are composed of our choices, but we can start right now to create the life that we want. The secret is to begin making better choices.

We all used to this and used to that, but that is the past. That time is gone and the future has not yet been created. Right now, this very instant, the moment before the thought is all that is real. From this place we can co-create our future and live the life of our dreams.

Remember, everything that we have and are, is a compilation of the choices we have made all our lives. Choose carefully!

I have to reiterate a fact of life that often is repeated without fully understanding the disadvantages of the procedure. We can’t

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change the past so don’t reconsider choices after the fact. You know what I mean. All those “should of haves” only serve to take up space in our minds and extract energy from our hearts.

These things cannot be changed. Even if they could be changed; changing them now would only serve to reverse the growth which was a direct result of the experience. In essence we would not be the inner person we are today if we had not made those choices and experienced the affects of them.

Several days ago I began to look back at some choices I made over the past few years. The main thought was, “I should have taken that offer!” You see, several years ago I had an offer on the property that houses our community center. It was more than four times the price that I paid for the building. I thought to myself, “I could have been on easy street!”

However, who would I really be today? What would I have done with that money and my time? Understand this, if I did not go through the struggle which stemmed from the negative experience which led to the offer on the building I would have never accelerated to the level of spirituality and connectivity to the Creator that I enjoy today. From not accepting that offer came, the essence of all that I Am. It was then that I decided to pursue the vision of the Creative Cultural Center. CCC was not

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just a place for me to help others; it was also a place for those others to help me. Unknowingly I was being trained and prepared by the attendees to become the minister of the Word whom I Am today. Not only that, but I was able to do the most important thing any man or women will need to do in order to find the path that we are intended to follow. I would be shown my Gift! It would be through the discovery of my passion that all that I Am would be discovered.

“Passion is the soul’s recognition of God’s gifts.”

The groups began to take place at Creative Cultural Center. I started to share my stories of how Source had enlightened me, provided for me and directed me along my intended path while promoting me from one level to another.

Hours seemed like minutes! People began to thank me for helping them change their lives.

My heart became full as they continually inspired me to inspire others. This led me to other places, people and groups while further expanding the tools necessary for us to continue our journey.

I had written my first book The Apostle’s Recipe for Happiness. It was now in print and available to readers around the world. The second book The Secret of Divine Intervention was already waiting in the wings. With every experience,

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positive or negative, a new chapter was written and more lives were changed. The Gift of breaking things down in a way that people could get the message was birthed from the experiences along the path which was set forth by the Creator. All I needed to do was have faith that everything would always work out for the greatest good. Never give up and never surrender. God will send his angels to give us signs and place checkpoints along the way.

If it were not for a betrayal the book would not exist. Readers would not have been inspired and uplifted by it. I would not have been inspired by their letters and endorsements. My ministry could have fizzled away. I can’t really say where I would or would not be right now, but I know that I would not want to be any different than the soul that I Am today.

Everything is for a purpose. It is all part of our infinite development. We are our souls and our spirits created in the image of God. Some say, “We are the fingers of the hand of God.” It is through us that the Creator creates. As we think forward we move into the future which we create. This is why we must not waste our time by thinking about the “should haves.” It is our job to concentrate on what we have right now with the utmost gratitude and be grateful for what we have asked for as our prayers have already been answered.

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Through the Divine combination of great appreciation and powerful imaginations we constantly evolve ourselves and all which we have been given charge over. It is in Divine Science that man becomes continually and infinitely all that we are created to be. From thought to conception to birth and resurrection we learn, improve and continually develop our potential to achieve God consciousness.

Who are we? We are all that we “are� created to be. Continuous creations moving endlessly from the physical realm to the spiritual realm in our infinite journey are all that we are. As we experience ourselves; in this very moment we are all that we are created to be. No longer are we the frightened child, drug abuser, arrogant know it all, egomaniac or sinful soul. We are who we choose to be today! I Am, I Am, I Am all that I Am created to be.

Perception of Emotion I find it so very interesting how a simple comment can be taken in different ways by different people. There is much to be learned from the reactions to words and phrases and compound scenarios. It is truly our perceptions that dictate what we see. For it is by our reaction, rebuttal and tunneled discord that we relinquish what it is we see in our own eye, in our own heart and by our very soul to others.

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What course of thought have we plotted by our own emotions? Reactions vary greatly to various stimuli, yet it is in what has been preconceived that we react in one way or the other. Do we have the habit of taking the low road or do we adamantly pursue higher reason?

Is the light that we shine on others just a cast reflection of the one which shines on us?

Most recently I experienced two independent incidents which exhibited the possibilities of varied perceptions. Each in which the sender sent forth the vibration which was decoded by the receiver in a way which was not a correct assumption. You see, these assumptions were highly based on the negative view they had of another.

In all fairness I must admit, although my intuition tells me otherwise, that the second incident was presented in a way in which the receiver could have been honestly professing his emotional perceptions. However, it seems more likely that his initial perceptions were indeed favoring or at the very least highly considering the negative rather than the positive intentions of the sender.

The most interesting was the reaction to the man in the first scenario for in this instance he truly was emotionally empathetic to what he perceived as a negative comment about a women who he seems to hold very dear to his

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heart. This is obviously a close friend who he values a great deal and did not want to see hurt in any way. Yet, if we look closely we can see that his reaction was largely based on the perceptions that he presumed she had of herself.

Through their friendship I would assume that there have been a multitude of times where she may have voiced her uneasiness about an aspect of her physical being or perhaps a deeper social stigma which has affected her ego.

As I perused through my friends web site I came across an incredible picture of a mutual friend of ours. The photo was romantically lighted with a soft luminescence. She sat alone at a bar as her spirit emitted a brilliant glow. Her hair was amazing and her outfit was spectacular.

Everything about the image fit perfectly into the scene. What an incredible backdrop for such a flattering photo. I thought to myself, “If seeing a women like that is not enough to break ones concentration than I don’t know what is.”

Highly affected by the photo and happy to see my friend looking so well I decided to post a comment under the photo. “Is she what caused your bike to come out from under you?”

Several days earlier he was in an accident while riding his motorcycle.

Basically, he was distracted, the rear wheel of the bike locked up and he went down. Thankfully he was ok, but the bike was slightly damaged. The response to my comment was a complete surprise, “That

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was a (insert expletive) thing to say.� This is where I could see that a miscommunication had been made.

We all have this little receiver in our heads and hearts. Like a cable television box it decodes and descrambles the signals it receives. It allows us to tune into the channels and programs we wish to see, hear and experience. Some love to view scary movies that ignite emotions like fear and surprise and others like to view comedies that make them laugh and feel happy emotions. Love stories are also another way that viewers experience emotions of happiness, joy and a deeper fulfillment inside.

Did you ever notice laughter during a horror movie, anger and tears during a comedy sketch or frustration and malice from someone viewing a love story? Well I am positive just about everyone has, but why is this the case? We relate emotionally to our own perceptions.

Laughing during a horror movie could be the result of viewing what we perceive as ridiculous or just the way we deal with our darkest fears.

Negative emotions during a comedy sketch could be derived from the experience we have had in the past or present that hit a soft spot and thus enabled our Ego to bring us down the path of negative emotion and create a lesser consciousness. Perhaps we think everyone sees us in this light and the comedian is embarrassing us by his words and actions thus casting the

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light of insult upon us. Adding insult to injury is the most common phrase referring to this scenario. Love stories can make us feel the most wonderful heartfelt emotions of joy, wholeness, togetherness, love, hope and happiness. We shed tears of joy and relate on the highest level of consciousness to the characters in the film. However, if we just experienced a bad breakup or are involved in a relationship which lacks the elements being exhibited our Ego can make us view only the negative aspects of what we see and cause us to be repulsed by what others find attractive. It is our perception and the emotions that govern them that create our consciousness.

In the case of my friends a reality was created based on self consciousness. The women viewed her physical being in a negative light and her friend viewed her in the reflection of that same light. In their combined perceptions they decoded the statement that I made to fit their own preconceived conception or what they continually experience as their reality. To them it was not the positive aspects of the women which caused the accident, but instead it was what they perceived as her negative physical features that they thought I was referring to. As I was seeing through God’s eyes they were seeing through the eyes of their own ego.

(Genesis 16:13) She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: 'You are the God

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who sees me,' for she said, 'I have now seen the One who sees me.’

The second incident was only a few days after. I had been called into a meeting concerning my participation in the development of the social media campaign for a company I have been working with for about five months. It seemed that they had jumped into the world of social media without really considering what affect it would have in regards to conflicting with their current doctrine. The premise of the conversation was “can we truly participate in social media and still maintain the necessary boundaries which are crucial to the success of our organization and to the protection of our clients?’

Well, toward the end of the meeting something which I wrote in a letter to human resources was brought up.

The Vice President of Programs mentioned to me that I should be more careful in how I choose my words. I had stated that I felt a position in the company would be opening up soon and that I was confident in my abilities to accomplish the tasks involved in the position and would be able to greatly increase the efficiency of that program. He said, “If I did not know you I would think that was a dig at the person who currently holds that position.” I answered, “I go a lot on feeling

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and I am very intuitive. There was a time that I would hide that fact, but that time is gone.�

What did I learn from his statement? He does not think highly of the person who currently holds that position. His perception has created this reality for him. All outside stimuli is thus interpreted by him as negative affirmations which all coincided with his experiences which have ignited his emotions and created the reality which he perceives.

In this he has chosen the lower path of consciousness via lesser emotion and disregarded that of the higher consciousness.

The Ego initially had blinded him to the other possibilities which exist. There is more than one way for a position to open in a company.

It just so happened, not so coincidentally, that I went to check my corporate email after the meeting and found this very interesting message from the company CEO.

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Dear Friends and Colleagues: It is with mixed emotions that I announce the retirements today of the Director of Program Planning and Administrative Assistant at this facility. Both of these employees have been with us for more than twenty-five years and during that time have influenced and changed many lives. One helped by designing innovative programs that were responsive to market demands and the other who for many years represented a pathway to recovery for all residents. We will miss all that they do for our company and our community.

One is looking to do some travelling with his wife and the other is looking to spend time in the south with her family. I am sure you join me in wishing them both a healthy and enjoyable retirement.

CEO My intuition spoke out to me once again. It would not take the firing of an employee to open up the position I spoke of. Instead it would take the retirement of two upper level employees, to create a corporate current that would bring everyone up a few more steps in the hierarchy of the organization. I love when I speak out without fear about my Gifts and add to a sea of witness!

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Perhaps it is by our own views and our own actions that we are blinded to the truth within.

As we are created in the image of the most high we are perfect. As we concentrate on the negative and give into Ego we set the stage for our own destruction. We concentrate with all our being on what we perceive as physical flaws while looking outside of ourselves for reassurance and miss the path to a higher consciousness. We settle for only what we can see, feel and touch in place of what exists down deep in our souls. Here lies the Truth of our Being absent of the perceptions of Ego. Blinded by our own misconceptions and false perceptions we become frozen with key in hand unable to unlock the door.

(Genesis 19:11 New International Version) Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

Thoughts of Others It is very common for us to give much more thought into what others think of us than what is healthy for our being. By allowing others to define who we are we choose to manifest their reality over our own. In this we have forfeited all that we are created to be and bought into the illusions of others. Do we really want to exist in their reality?

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We all know the answer to that question? Well, maybe we don’t? Perhaps we find great comfort in the acceptance of others and wish to satisfy their expectations of our being. Sometimes it seems easier just to fit in and blend in with the crowd, but truthfully as long as we are not being ourselves; we will never reach our maximum potential of being.

There is no ceiling on what we can accomplish in this physical realm of existence. Truly, we determine how quickly we travel along the path of destiny. There is no final destination! We are on an infinite journey of enlightenment. We are all Destin for greatness!

This greatness is up to us to seek out. It is far reaching and ever expanding. There exists no final destination final accomplishment or absolute being. We continue to learn, expand and accomplish!

Today we hold a dream in our hearts, contemplate all that it is and visualize it in our minds while feeling all the emotions associated with it. It exists! We just need to take the initial step forward and our path will be illuminated by Spirit. Signs will materialize as checkpoints along the way.

Our dreams, goals and accomplishments will be many. As we reach out and grab hold of one, there will come another one greater on the

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horizon. Swinging from branch to branch is what will move us forward. Again, there is no final destination.

We are not designed for stillness. Stillness is only meant to gather the information which comes from all our senses and allows us to receive the messages of information from the Source of all things. Next we must act on this information and move forward along the path which we are intended to follow.

Everyone’s path is different. We all have been given a special gift and all will experience what we must in order to move on into the waves of our ultimate infinite ever changing destiny. We are created to create, learn and experience.

This is why it is so very important to be ourselves. Worrying about what others think will only serve to diminish our experience while extracting our energies. It will redirect the fuel for manifestations away from where we need it to be.

In this scenario we are wasting energy on what we perceive others want and expect from us. In a matter of sorts, we are in fact attempting to live their dreams and are spending on their illusions. We are who we are and the thoughts of others have nothing to do with that unless we choose to allow them to.

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Our thoughts are very powerful things when we direct them intentionally.

Whether our intentions are towards what we want for us or what we perceive others expect from us makes little difference. Our energies will flow in the direction of our thoughts.

When we let others limit us by telling us who we are and who we are not we become very limited beings. Their thoughts are adopted by our egos and hold us back from being all that we are created to be. We have allowed what they think of us to determine what we will or will never be.

Perceptions are a funny thing. We all have a certain image in our minds of who we are and an idea of what others think of us, but how much weight do we give these perceptions? Do we allow our perceptions to become conceptions? If we do we have chosen to live our experience, our life, by default. In this we have passed on our God given option to realize our potential and unwittingly fallen into a trap.

In being confined to these limited images we will be grounded in disappear. We will not move forward because we have come to believe that we are what we are rather than who we are created to be. Our passion is too good for us so we discount this incredible gift and fail to realize our potential for being.

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So, what do we choose? Is it the reality of those around us or the reality that we create? What is real? Reality is found in our heart, soul and spirit. We feel it all the time. Actually, we even feel it when we suppress the feelings associated with all that we are. This does not feel good.

You see, not using a special gift will not give us joy but sorrow.

This is why we feel negatively charged emotions like sadness, despair and depression.

We are not doing what we are supposed to be doing and are not being all that we are created to be. Our lives have been put in ultimate limbo and we have volunteered to abstain from our dreams. Other’s having told us that they are unrealistic and we have said. “You are right. I need to get real.” How ironic it is that in this statement we are being as far from real as we can get. We have given up reality in order to protect our ego. Fear of failure has grounded us in defeat.

From our heart we pray for truth, but through our ego we praise the lie. For some reason we find a great comfort in giving up on what is real in favor of what is not. We ask without believing we have received and wonder why we remain motionless. Without motion there is no life, no experience and no reward.

As we continually pacify our inactivity with drugs, alcohol, pity and other energy wasting

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time evaporating addictions we forfeit our experience. We stay in a holding pattern and fail to take the first step in reclaiming our lives.

Our gifts remain unused, untouched and sit on the proverbial shelf collecting dust. They are unused and unappreciated. In this we may never be the recipient of these gifts again.

Instead we will continue to sit on the sidelines and wait for what is already here.

Everything we need is right under our noses.

The fact is that no one can see them besides us.

It is up to us to recognize the incredible opportunities that are placed along our path. As we look inside ourselves we will be given the answers we seek.

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Chapter Eight Paper Chase (Psalm 97:6-8 Amplified Bible) The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the peoples see His glory. Let all those be put to shame who serve graven images, who boast in idols. Fall prostrate before Him, all you gods. Zion heard and was glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoiced [in relief] because of Your judgments, O Lord.

I often wonder what fellow Christians would do to Jesus if He were to return today. I am sure head pastors would write him off as trouble.

Perhaps they would encourage him to join a bible study group to help him ascend the hierarchy of the church. I'm sure he would have difficulty presenting His great wisdom to the many famous Christian leaders. His letters would be ignored I'm sure. His warnings would be discarded I bet. Sadly, his help would be rejected. All in all, not much would change.

Perhaps, it would help if He came back, attended seminary, got a degree in divinity, took a job as associate pastor and someday owned His own church? I wouldn't want to be the guy who signed His ordination papers.

(Habakkuk 2:18 Amplified Bible) What profit is the graven image when its maker has formed it?

It is only a molten image and a teacher of lies.

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For the maker trusts in his own creations [as his gods] when he makes dumb idols.

It is so easy to take our eye off the ball and veer off the path of righteousness as we unknowingly begin to seek the admiration of man. In all that we are and in all that we are created to be there is the essence of all that we are. There is nothing of man that can change this fact of our creation.

(Romans 11:29 Amplified Bible) For God's gifts and His call are irrevocable. [He never withdraws them when once they are given, and He does not change His mind about those to whom He gives His grace or to whom He sends His call.]

(1 Peter 4:10 Amplified Bible) As each of you has received a gift (a particular spiritual talent, a gracious divine endowment), employ it for one another as [befits] good trustees of God's manysided grace [faithful stewards of the extremely diverse powers and gifts granted to Christians by unmerited favor].

Many fail to recognize and use God's gifts.

Through the worship of earthly idols and by seeking the admiration of man they miss the mark. The key is passion! Passion is the soul’s recognition of God's gifts. When hours seem like minutes and we can do it all day; we are being all that we are created to be.

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As we conform to the expectations and buy into earthly illusions we fall further from God’s grace. Our egos become the dominant force in our lives and we lose track of who we are. It is in this drifting away from Truth that we begin to put great value in papers which bear the signature of man. Such things as certifications, ordinations and various degrees are now what give us a perception of self worth. No longer is our calling of value to us. We have been clouded by fear and drained of our confidence which once came from Spirit. A need to prove who we are begins to manifest in our hearts as we look to idol gods for verification of our self worth. Insecurity has alienated us from ourselves and the prince of lies, in tiny moves, has begun to slow the advancement of the Kingdom through pride and ego.

If we are to remain steadfast in continuing the mission of Jesus on earth it will be imperative that we are able to guide others in their quest for Truth. We must have no ulterior motives in this grand journey of salvation. There is no signature of man that could trump the one that God has etched on the hearts of His sons and daughters. This is an irrevocable trust!

(1 John 5:21 Amplified Bible) Little children, keep yourselves from idols (false gods)--[from anything and everything that would occupy the place in your heart due to God, from any sort of

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substitute for Him that would take first place in your life]. Amen (so let it be).

I have often wondered what it is about ceremonies, in regards to degrees and certifications that have never captured my interest. For some reason the charge from walking down the aisle to get my reward never held much water for me. This seemed to always be at my parent’s dismay by the way. I just never had the need to go through the motions. I understood my accomplishments, but never could be bothered with all the pomp and circumstance. Now I can see why. All the jumping through hoops and worthless papers were not necessary to be who I Am. This is why I did not even attend my college graduation ceremony. The requirements were superficial and had little to do with who God created me to be. In fact, I could have learned ten times more by sitting in the library reading than I learned in an entire semester of college.

Perhaps this is intentional. How else could the learning process be dragged out and would the maximum corporate profits be received? Who decided on what hoops would have to be jumped through or what maze would need to be followed? It all has very little relevance as I sit here today absorbed with the Truth and knowledge of Spirit. Bottom line is that whether I am called doctor or the village idiot makes no difference in whom I Am. The gift

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that is inside has very little to do with the package in which it is contained.

(Proverbs 29:26 Amplified Bible) Many crave and seek the ruler's favor, but the wise man [waits] for justice from the Lord.

Thirstier Back in my college years I went to my first Greyhound race. Today, the former Lincoln Downs is just short of being a full blown casino.

In fact, I heard that they were thinking of eliminating dog races all together. Last time I drove by there the building was adorned with giant teepees which actually looked more like the sails of tall ships rather than anything else.

I never had a good feeling about the transformation of Lincoln Park to Twin River.

Funny, even the name change reeks of misrepresentation. There were a lot of promises given to the citizens of our state as well as the local government of the Town of Lincoln. Many were honored and even more were not. In fact, the entire operation is constantly on the verge of bankruptcy. Sure, the taxes from the casino did pay for a beautiful middle school, but what is the actual cost of turning to income from gambling to finance the education of our children? What message are we really sending?

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From the beginning I could see the costs to local businesses would be great. Income is limited in the state as well as pretty much everywhere else in the world. There is only so much money out there and when we print more of it what there is becomes worth less. So, if people are spending more money gambling they will spend less money at local restaurants, cinemas and retail stores. To me gaining income from the gambling industry made no sense at all unless somehow the state could increase its year round tourism in order to extract funds from out of state residents. After all, this is how places like Las Vegas and Atlantic City began to thrive shortly after gambling became their primary tourism booster. Yet, even that soon was not enough to draw people in. Today, Las Vegas is becoming more of an amusement park every year. The powers to be have realized the importance of bringing families into the mix and have drifted away from catering to seedy clients of day’s gone buy.

I’m afraid my principle income generating business was one of which was effected by the establishment of the Twin River Casino. Shortly after the reopening of this igniter of false hopes was setting the dreams of Rhode Islanders ablaze I began to notice a sharp decrease in my overall sales figures. Of course we did get one or two winners in over the years that were anxious to waste their winnings, but overall the majority of customers entered the store with a

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great big “BUT!” “I was going to buy these, but I lost all my money at the casino.” This became the most common factor in the decline of my stores sales. Even layaways became a thing of the past as many of the poorer customers would take that money weekly and invest it in what they perceived as a possible fortune waiting to be had at Twin River.

How easy it was for the leaders of the residents of Rhode Island to quickly give in to what seemed to be the answer to all their problems. It is amazing how, for political gains we can so easily put all our ethical beliefs aside in order to make those we should be leading happy with our performance. Is this how we should gain positions of leadership? I know it’s not. Imagine a general leading his troops in this way. By only taking what is perceived by them to be the easiest path, but in actuality is just a path full of false hopes and empty promises. In favoring the bandage instead of the cure our leaders have sealed our fate and signed our death certificates.

There are no easy, painless or miracle cures that come from the compromising of our moral ethics. All these quick fixes come from the worst seed. From bad seed comes bad fruit and bad fruit will only serve one purpose. It will give us all indigestion! This is what has destroyed the orchard of our society and rendered us ineffectual worldwide. We have spoken, acted and dreamed as barbarians.

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No longer do we accept sacrifice for a better life tomorrow. Instead we have chosen to neglect what will guarantee us a greater future in favor of what will soften the inevitable pains of our slow demise. Today we stand without appreciation for all that we have and forfeit the joy of today for what may or may not be tomorrow. Surrounded by luxury we adamantly declare and endlessly protest that it’s not enough. We want the easy way out. The widest, flattest and smoothest path is the one we seek.

In this we are just spinning our wheels and traveling to a destination which ends where we will not want to be.

We are chasing false idols. They will not make us happy in the long run. Our hunger will never be satisfied and our thirst never quenched.

Satisfaction can only be achieved internally.

The real dreams are all fulfilled in our hearts.

These other things are just empty gestures and hollow promises. By giving into the external we fail to nurture the internal.

“The goal of money for happiness is like quenching our thirst with sand. We just get thirstier.”

I remember vividly the first day I skipped class to go to Lincoln Greyhound Park. Funny thing is that the teacher whose class I skipped was there too. I guess he canceled to try his luck with the dogs. Ironically, in the light of that, it

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would be even more difficult to proclaim the value of gambling to support education.

Do you know why the dogs run around the track so desperately to the finish line? The truth is I did not. It looked like they were chasing something, but I could not for the life of me figure out what that was. It turns out that during their training they are made to believe that they are chasing a rabbit around the track. Although it is nothing but a false image they continually chase it time and again. They rarely catch it and even if they did would immediately realize it was not at all what they expected it to be. As a matter of fact, the finish line is not what they thought it would be either. They are stuck on a track and continually going in circles repeatedly chasing after a phony prize. After years of working as hard as they could many are put down and few are adopted, but none ever achieve what they perceived would be their reward.

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Chapter Nine When Prayers Manifest You know, prayers are not always paid out in one lump sum. Sometimes they come to us in a payment plan. Little by little our prayers will continually manifest.

Several weeks back I found myself at Barnes and Noble Booksellers for no apparent reason. I really had no idea how I even came to be inside the store, but I knew that there had to be a reason. There are no coincidences in life; everything is an opportunity waiting to be discovered.

I thought to myself, "Since I'm here I might as well grab a cup of coffee." Then I was inspired to act. I decided to go out to my car and bring in a copy of The Apostle's Recipe for Happiness.

My thought was to take a picture of it on the shelf in order to help with the manifestation process.

I walked over to the Christian section of the bookstore, placed it on the shelf and took two photos. As soon as I took the last photo a women passed in front of me, placed an inventory tag to the left of my book and entered my ISBN: 978-1593524296 into the store’s inventory device. A bit at a loss as to what I

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should do next; I chose to leave the book and exit the store.

About a week later my wife and I stopped at Barnes and Noble to see if the book was still there. I noticed that it was listed on the B&N website as being in stock at the Smithfield branch. It was on hand at the store too so I decided to make the purchase. I figured the realism of purchasing my own book from the store and having a receipt for the purchase would further increase the power of the manifestation. Therefore, I made the purchase and headed home.

A few more weeks had passed since that day. I never really gave it much thought since then until I had another inspired thought. My thought was to post the picture of my book on the shelf and the photo of the receipt on my Word Press blog. I also wrote this, “I could not resist purchasing my own book at Barnes and Noble Booksellers. That is as real as it gets! The power of intention and the strength of manifestation all on one tiny slip of paper.

Thanks Guys! The power of the reader is awesome!�

I then took a ride to take care of some errands.

After I was finished I randomly decided to swing by the office to check the mailbox. This was not in my itinerary. I pulled into the lot, walked to the box and pulled out a letter from

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Barnes and Nobles Booksellers. It stated, “In order to make your title, The Apostle’s Recipe for Happiness, available to any of our customers who ask for it, we want to stock your book in our distribution network.”

God’s hand is blessing us continually. His guidance is pushing us forward and presenting us with many opportunities to facilitate success.

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Chapter Ten Power Praying Often we travel along our life path and hit little stumbling blocks in the road. Many times our biggest issue is nothing more than a small rock wedged in between the tread of our tire. We hear the constant and continuous clicking every time the tire completes a rotation. Either way, life will never dish out more than we can take.

Some of life’s most pressing problems are really nothing more than a small bump in the road.

They only become as big as we make them. As we direct all six senses toward these minor jolts along our life’s journey the more intense our perception of the problem will be. Even that small rock wedged in between our tire will begin to set the tone for our entire journey if we allow it to. Our concentration will be on the click and our minds will begin to play a fatal trick. Energy will flow where our attention goes.

Our mind is a very powerful thing. It can be used to either bring incredible happiness or undesirable situations or circumstance into our lives. This is all determined by what we think of and how intensely we think of these things.

Do we have the tendency to become inundated with the news of the day or can we take the information for what it is worth and move on to

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a better space? This is what will make the difference between living the life we want and living a life we don’t. It is very easy to fall into the trap of world drama and sidestep our spiritual journey.

We must make the right choice if we want to live the life that we want. How do we do this?

The answer is simple! Concentrate on the things that make us happy right now. Gratitude has everything to do with creating an elevated vibration that will attract everything we want into our lives. When we find ourselves in a state of appreciation we become inundated with success, happiness and positive energy. In this state of being we become a magnetic force pulling like elements into our consciousness.

We are connected!

The signal strength is excellent over the Universe’s wireless network. This is the best way of explaining the amazing grid of energy in which we exist. We are smaller fields of energy existing in a larger field of energy. Individual fields of energy vibrate at various frequencies.

Like frequencies attract like frequencies. It is magnetic!

So what is energy exactly? "It's in and through everything, and all that ever was and shall be. It has always existed and it can never be created or destroyed. It's always coming into form, moving through form and out of form." This is a quote

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from James Arthur Ray which sums it up best.

You see, this is how I describe God. God is everywhere and in all things!

Knowing this is a major step in our infinite quest to become increasingly more connected to God’s energy. In optimizing our connectivity incredible miracles will quickly manifest into our lives. It’s the power of prayer personified.

Prayer Baby!

There are three important factors which will determine the effectiveness of prayer. First, we must know exactly what we want and be very careful about how we ask for it. Many people miss the boat on this one. They ask for things in a roundabout way and end up requesting something as far from what they really wanted as they could get. There are laws that even God has subjected Himself to. One of these being, He will not operate outside of free will.

Although He knows exactly what we want before we ask; it is required by law that we ask for these things specifically.

This law was originally enacted as a protection device against the fallen beings. God had to create an operant law to restrict the interference of the beings which inhabit the spiritual realm and those of the physical realm. We were given dominion over this world. Heaven will not get involved in the affairs of the physical realm unless we ask for its assistance.

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(Genesis 1:26 Amplified Bible) God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth.

Creflo Dollar defines prayer as: 1. Us giving God the right to get involved.

2. Us giving heaven the right to influence the physical realm.

3. Us giving license for the heavenly beings to interfere.

4. Us exercising our legal authority in the physical realm to evoke heavenly assistance.

(John 4:24 Amplified Bible) God is a Spirit (a spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (reality).

God who is Spirit made himself subject to this law to ensure there would not be any loopholes in the contract. He needed to make sure that fallen angels would never again be in a position to wreak havoc upon the planet as they did in the circumstances that enabled the creation of giants. This is why Jesus had to be born as a man in order to save us. Any spirit without a physical body is illegal.

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The next step in this process is to believe. We must believe that our prayers have already been answered. This is why I do not believe in praying for the same thing over and again. In this we doubt God without realizing it. Instead of repetitive praying try to continually thank Him for the continued facilitation of our prayers. Do you see the difference?

The way to supercharge this process is through our emotions. It is critical that we feel what it is like to have what we requested. Picturing it in our minds and relishing in all that it is will add rocket fuel to the manifestation of our prayers.

People tend to concentrate on the wanting more than the feelings associated with the reward.

Concentrating on wanting is the best way to get more wanting. Believing with all our hearts that it is already here will bring more of what we want into our lives quickly and efficiently. So by playing a movie in our minds over and again of what we want our lives to be and feeling all the wonderful emotions associated with that movie, we will experience the vision we see.

When we look back at everything we ever wanted or did not want we will find that these elements existed. Whether we were dreading with all our emotions what we did not want or we were adamantly calling into our lives what we did want; the same principle applies. Our feelings launched our manifestations into existence.

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It is a sad fact that we are better at bringing poor circumstances into our lives than wonderful experiences. We so adamantly feel with all that we are the worst possible scenarios to life’s little bumps in the road. It’s not a rock in our tire tread, but the beginning of the worst possible scenario we can imagine. Are we picturing ourselves broken down on the side of the road out of hope and out of commission or do we choose to say, “It’s just a little rock!”

The final thing that we need to do is allow and prepare to receive God’s gifts. We are worthy of everything the Creator bestows on us. As His children He gladly blesses us with everything that lines up with the Word. This is where people often struggle with their worthiness to receive God’s grace. We must, with the utmost gratitude, eagerly and graciously accept what He has saw fit to give. There is nothing worse than giving a gift that will never be used. We are His children and as such He wants the best for us. By making room in our closets, areas in our homes and space in our hearts for all that we ask; we are saying to God, “Thank you for blessing me with infinite abundance.”

(Matthew 21:22 Amplified Bible) And whatever you ask for in prayer, having faith and [really] believing, you will receive.

I would like to add one more thing that has been incredibly effective in achieving the wonderful

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manifestations of my prayers. Asking in the name of Jesus has given my prayers a powerful boost. I have been repeatedly amazed by the speed and accuracy of the blessings that have followed my requests. By asking in the name of Jesus our prayers are sent via the most expedient route to the Father in heaven and in short time brought into existence in this temporal realm called Earth.

(John 14:13 Amplified Bible) And I will do [I Myself will grant] whatever you ask in My Name [as presenting all that I AM], so that the Father may be glorified and extolled in (through) the Son.

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Chapter Eleven Nightmare Machine As we sit and ponder the realities of which we have created we must ask ourselves a very important question. What do we want? Most of us have no idea what we want and therefore continually live our lives by default. Everything in our lives today has been created through thought. Whether we were intentional or not those thoughts have created our realities.

(Genesis 6:5 Amplified Bible) The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually.

Everything from what we think of ourselves to what we believe others think of us plays a powerful roll in what we interpret ourselves and our lives to be. It all has to do with interaction.

We are all fields of energy existing in a larger field of energy. This is what I often refer to as God’s energy.

(John 4:24 Amplified Bible) God is a Spirit (a spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (reality).

God is everywhere and in all things. He is constantly working through us. In fact we are co-creating our lives and everything in it with

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Him. This is done by our thoughts and facilitated with the help of many heavenly beings. Many times we are given incredible gifts of inspiration; ideas which direct us along the path that we are intended to follow. These heavenly beings are our guides.

(Psalm 91:11 Amplified Bible) For He will give His angels [especial] charge over you to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways [of obedience and service].

This is very difficult for some Christians to accept. Over the years the church has purposely festered fear in the hearts of its people for the purpose of protecting the gravy train. As we look back to the early parts of the thirteenth century and examine the events surrounding the horrifying senseless slaughter of non denominational Christians in Europe this fact becomes more apparent.

The crusades stemmed from control. This is why the early governments of the world turned to Christianity. They could see the power that was created through the ministry of Jesus and understood one simple thing. If you can’t beat them join them. Followers of Christ were making powerful statements to support this analogy. They were being tortured and killed, yet many were facing these demonstrable situations fearlessly.

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The power of Christianity’s original purpose had begun to saturate the population of Europe.

Government needed to unify and standardize in order to maintain control. Therefore, they decided to structure Christianity into what they believed would assist them best in controlling the people.

Taxation was the prominent actuator in this crusade to manipulate.

The government would come to use the religion of Christianity to create a standardized tax. This tax was the beginning of what we know today as the tithe. You see, tithing was never meant to be what it has become today. The tithe was created as a way to tax the people and justify it through a manipulation of scripture. There was never supposed to be a standard tax or tithe.

This is why many Christians complain of their tithes not bringing their prayers to volition.

Coerced giving will not bring about results.

Giving must come from the heart. We can’t give expecting to receive. It is by the power of empathy that we are rewarded by the Father. He knows our thoughts and intentions.

When we give from the heart incredible Gifts will come pouring into our lives. One thousand fold is the number I have experienced most often. This type of giving is straight from the heart. It is an emotionally charged giving.

Love for love is the conduit of the manifestation

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of miracles. possible.

Through this all things are

(2 Corinthians 9:7 Amplified Bible) Let each one [give] as he has made up his own mind and purposed in his heart, not reluctantly or sorrowfully or under compulsion, for God loves (He takes pleasure in, prizes above other things, and is unwilling to abandon or to do without) a cheerful (joyous, "prompt to do it") giver [whose heart is in his giving].

This giving of energy, receiving of energy and re-giving of energy boost the power within and without. This creates what was intended. It is what Jesus was teaching us; the greatest commandment. Give love, receive love, give love receive love and the power of love grows and becomes all encompassing.

Darkness cannot survive in the light. This is the light of the world. It is the Kingdom within us.

(1 Corinthians 13:5 Amplified Bible) It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].

This is what the church has feared for centuries upon centuries. If we discover the Kingdom

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within the external will cease to have purpose.

In fact, since love trumps negative charged emotions, fear would fall by the wayside.

Without fear the church would lose power and purpose. God in us would make the hierarchy of the church obsolete. The present age would cease to exist.

(Matthew 13:39 Amplified Bible) And the enemy who sowed it is the devil. The harvest is the close and consummation of the age, and the reapers are angels.

How would we prevent this from happening if we found ourselves in this position? In this new age of enlightenment there would be no need for war. Greed, jealousy and the plethora of other sins would quickly become nonexistent. The only way to preserve the old would be to instill fear in the people about the coming of the new.

Thus the metaphor of the old wine skins was used to exhibit this principle.

Old wine skin refers to the old thoughts and belief system that us and others have created over the years. It was the most ingenious psychological plan of all time. Through fear the people would quickly, without thought, close their minds to any new ideas regarding new thought.

This would turn into the most successful manipulation of all time.

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There were several things done to contribute to this programming. One of the biggest was the editing out of crucial teachings which made up the original context of what we know today as the Holy Bible. The teachings of Jesus would be recreated to suit the needs of the early church and the higher powers that they clung to. The power over the minds (the government) had partnered with the powers over the souls (the church) to create a nightmare machine.

This machine, powered by the fears of the people, would create the wealthiest most powerful people and organizations of all time.

The people would reject the Truth without verification and would disallow proof which was contrary to their beliefs.

To seek verification of fact had been made heretical and blasphemous.

In fact, as I mentioned previously, God’s many assistants in the heavens would become ineffectual by law. It is only by free will that He and All that is Him can spring into action.

We cannot find Truth unless we seek it. It was for our own protection that God made himself and all other beings, heavenly and otherwise, subject to His law.

(Galatians 4:4 Amplified Bible) But when the proper time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born subject to [the regulations of] the Law,

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Thus the church brilliantly labeled all these beings and any connection to them as demonic.

Christians began to believe that any thought or association with the spiritual realm would culminate into their early demise. They would be on the fast track to burning in the fires of hell. Their only way to absolution was through the church which would gladly forgive sins and protect their souls for a nominal fee.

Brilliant! How else could Satan fight against the Promise? How else could he attempt to stall the next stage in the evolution of humanity? Oh yes, evolution is God’s creation. It is not a random rock from outer space that landed in a puddle of silt. Evolution combined with our thoughts and imagination is how God continually creates all that there is. Physical and spiritual reality is continuously expanding and unfolding via evolution.

It is a process of balance, creation and growth.

In the beginning of what we interpret as time we were born of spirit and were transformed to the physical. Then came the flood, a river of knowledge directly from God, and we were predominantly spiritual.

In Exodus we experience a third transformation and returned to an external consciousness.

Thus the wandering in the desert metaphor was used to exhibit this move from the Spiritual. Then there comes Jesus! Thousands of years later we find ourselves where we are today. We are on the

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verge of transformation!

The savior has returned to assist us in our elevation to Christ Consciousness. It has already begun. The physical reality that we have become comfortable with is being replaced by a growing spiritual reality that we are not accustomed to.

Those who are not prepared will be left behind and experience great suffering. Remember, new thought is the new wine and the only way to contain this new wine is in new wineskins.

(Mark 2:22 Amplified Bible) And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the bottles destroyed; but new wine is to be put in new (fresh) wineskins.

All things start with thought, bring us forward in consciousness or hold us back from achieving what is to be. We must be very careful in choosing what we give our attention and must verify our beliefs by scripture. If we earnestly believe what is good is bad than bad will also become good. Knowledge can never pass into a closed mind. Those against God have caused us to reject heaven’s gate. They have posted a “Beware of Demons” sign at the entranceway and successfully blocked the entrance via our own thoughts. By the manipulation of our free will we commit ourselves to wandering in the proverbial desert.

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(Joshua 5:6 Amplified Bible) For the Israelites walked forty years in the wilderness till all who were men of war who came out of Egypt perished, because they did not hearken to the voice of the Lord; to them the Lord swore that He would not let them see the land which the Lord swore to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Ideas are the seed of tomorrows Promise. When we block out the messages we never receive these incredible Gifts of creation. We stall the expansion and evolution of all that we are intended to be. We adopt the horror of ignorance and reject the peace of knowing.

(John 8:32 Amplified Bible) And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.

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Chapter Twelve We are what we do, not what we used to It is so very common for us to get caught up in our past failures or success’. We dwell on the negative and relish in the positive, but through it all end up stalled out and inactive. The questions we ask ourselves create feelings of powerlessness, regret and helplessness.

“I had all that once; the company car, the expense account and all the other luxuries that went along with them, but I will never have that again.” Perhaps we find comfort in a “Been there done that” attitude towards our past accomplishments and in that mask our most recent perceived failure to achieve worldly expectations.

Attempting to convince others that “it doesn’t matter” to us anymore will not change the negative feelings and emotions that we carry around with us throughout the day.

In the most common scenario we continue to adamantly complain about how we have not and never will have anything we desire. This is the most effective way to continue to live a life of lack and disillusion. We complain daily to ourselves and others about how nothing ever works out for us and how nobody cares. This is most commonly referred to as a “Victim Stance” and is one of the most effective ways to get everything we do not want.

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The other major cause of becoming anchored in inactivity is caused by continuously dwelling on our mistakes.

This process causes us to concentrate on undesirable past activities and the negative emotions associated with them.

This again causes us to continually reproduce similar scenarios and will cause us to hold ourselves back and forfeit our future. We tell ourselves, “They wouldn’t want a person like me in their lives” or “I just don’t have the education that is required to do that” or “It’s too late and I’m too old to change.”

Well my friends, when we get honest with ourselves and recognize who we truly are “Right Now” there will be no limits to who we will be tomorrow. Our only limits are what we believe, with the essence of all that we are, to be impossible. Once we consciously make a choice to ask for what we want, believing we are worthy of it and accept that we can be all that we are created to be; we will begin to live a life full of passion.

Passion is the soul’s recognition of God’s gift.

This is the special unique gift that we were conceived with. It was incorporated into His original plan for us long ago. This is the essence of all that we are created to be. Here is the place absent of time where all things joyful continually exist infinitely. We recognize it by all the positive emotions within and without. It

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is when hours seem like minutes and work is like play. This is what we are supposed to do!

When we buy into the self perpetuated illusions that we paint of ourselves, often through the eyes of how we think others perceive us, we avoid, put off and fail to complete the Divine design which we are. In accepting what appears to be the easy path we inevitably avoid the smooth effortless path to our intended destination. We struggle and fight to steer ourselves along the path we chose, driven by ego, and neglect the smooth effortless path that is God’s itinerary.

Recently, I commented to Gail Hyatt on a question Andy Andrews had asked her: “Why do we say something is "out of whack"? What is a whack anyway?” It means that we are out of alignment. Like when we drift away from Truth and begin to feel lost and disconnected.

Negative feelings and emotions become stronger and we no longer feel good. When we are in alignment we feel the best we can feel.

We can also look at it like this. Our car is out of alignment. The steering wheel is pointing in the wrong direction, the car is pulling us off the road, and we experience excessive vibration and tire ware. The journey becomes difficult to travel. After we leave the mechanic shop, all fixed up, we experience smooth and effortless

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travel absent of struggle and anxiety. Our vehicle is setup and acting as it was designed to.

In order to fix ourselves up we need to understand that the past is gone. It no longer exists. What we have done is done, but today we can choose to become what we do. We need to “Act Now!” If we made it a habit of doing things that did not line up with God’s plan than we need to get back on track. As we begin to make righteous choices our experiences will improve. It all starts with what we believe.

Whack is something we don’t want. When we are out of whack we are inefficient and ineffective. People often refer to things as being whack as things that just don’t line up with how they think things are supposed to be. Things that are whack just don’t feel good to them.

“This job is whack! That place is whack! My life is whack!” are commonly expressed.

Bottom line is that we do not want to be “Whack!”

So let’s get out that “Chilton Auto Repair Manual” and get to work. The Bible has everything we need to help us put all the parts back where they are supposed to be as they should be. By following God’s instruction we will find our way along the path we are intended to follow. We are the vehicle and He has the key!

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Remember, we are unique and in so being require very specific instruction or directions to achieve what is meant to be achieved. What works for others may not work for us. Things that make others happy, elated and successful might not do the same for us. Don’t buy into their illusion.

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Chapter Thirteen Letting Go “We will never finish the book if we get stuck on the same chapter.”

Many times we get stuck in the past and concentrate on it so fully that we put the future on hold indefinitely. The energy which we exert on rehearsing or visualizing the past causes us to miss out on the future. In this we choose to forfeit the rest of God’s plan for us and put off our ultimate destiny.

Let us think back to a time when we were consumed by thoughts of vengeance.

Consumed is a very interesting word as applied to these types of situations. You see, it demonstrates with utmost perfection the physical reality as a bi product of our spiritual reality. In us being consumed mentally we become effected physically. The thoughts of revenge are eating us alive physically and emotionally.

In this quandary we become obsessed with the one we detest. We have given incredible power to the person who we are cutting out of our lives. Being non present in our lives they still afflict us by our own will. Often we lose sleep, eat carelessly or delve into counterproductive

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recreational habits. As time passes we begin to disintegrate via the consumption of our souls.

Why in the universe would we be willing to give this power to those we detest? How can we exert so much precious energy on someone who in our minds has hurt us so badly? In actuality we are harming ourselves on both planes of consciousness. We are stalling our progress and regurgitating a meal we did not enjoy.

Again we fail to see Truth, yet it is the Truth that will set us free. In freedom we shall rise to the next level in our journey. By empathizing with who we perceive as our enemy we shall cleanse our spirit and break the chains of our own self imposed oppression.

Absent of ego we shall take our true positions in the scheme of universal consciousness. It is at this point in our growth that the acceleration of our infinitely developing spiritual being explodes into mass consciousness. We are now aware of our existence in all things, of all things and by all things. The energies which we exert from the heart center begin to call the manifestation of all things necessary for our journey into our lives. It is from the spiritual realm in which the physical manifestation of the want or need will come.

Suppose we concentrate solely on the not want rather than the want. This is definitely not the

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best choice in any situation or circumstance, but for experimental sake let’s looks at the possibilities. In this scenario we must consider what we are concentrating our energies on.

Think about someone who you do not like, perhaps this person has hurt you or just constantly tries to make you feel less physically, academically or emotionally.

First, how do you feel as you think about this person? Are you angry or sad? Do you feel frustrated and powerless? Most likely it is a combination of all these things.

Now you are consumed with these negative emotions all of which make you feel terrible. If only you could get them back. What could I do to make them feel worse than I feel? We seem to believe that as we push we will not be pushed on, but in reality as we push against, at least equally, the person will push back. Therefore in this we exert energy to remain in place.

This is a place we do not want to be in, around or about. How do we know that we don’t belong there? It is because it feels bad. Our emotions are telling us that we are drifting away from Spirit. Our connectivity is very low over this wireless network.

How do we improve our connection? We must find the root of those negative emotions. In empathy we will find solstice, peace and power.

Many times those who we allow to hurt us have

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been hurt themselves and are trying to regain self through the degradation of others. In fact they feel powerless and have become consumed with trying to rise above their own victimization.

Instead of us being mad at them we must empathize with their situation. Now we feel bad for them. In the recognition of their weakness we see the truth and are free from the illusion.

Illusion is the projection of the images and sounds of another soul. We must be very careful not to get sucked into the illusions of another. This is especially true of one who does not understand our connection to Spirit.

In Our understanding of the simultaneous existence of our souls on both realms of consciousness we can choose the experiences we wish to experience. Following the most positive emotions will take us to the greatest possible experience. Good feelings will bring us an abundance of goodness.

As we concentrate our energies on positive emotionally charged feelings we quickly find our way back to Source.

It is here that we have purged our hard drive of unnecessary files which clog up our bio computer. We need to free up some space for the information waiting to be downloaded. This is what will propel us forward at light speeds into the ultimate state of spiritual consciousness.

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From this action we will receive an equal or greater positive reaction.

We must look at this with our heart. I hate you!

I love you! You’re ugly! You’re beautiful! I don’t want you! I need you! Talk about being on an emotional roller coaster. As we look with our heart we are feeling with our soul. This is the secret of All. It comes from the One. The greatest and most powerful emotion is that of love. Love brings us to God faster than any other emotion. As you can see from the previous statements above; love brings us up!

Forgiveness is the action of one who knows the love of God. It is in this that we are free to enjoy the incredible gifts that the universe holds for us. In empathy we find forgiveness and in forgiveness we realize love is the eternal and supreme state of being. We must share love, nurture love and be love.

Remember, forgiveness does not have to be accepted. It is enough that we forgive since God knows our hearts.

In this we are guaranteed the benefits of these heartfelt actions. He will reward us somehow and in some way at the best possible time. What we thought was impossible will be made possible.

“We must let go of time for it is but an instant.”

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Chapter Fourteen The Tip of the Wave Here we are at the point of no return. We’re just waiting to see what will happen next. Will we get everything that we want by keeping our balance or will we wipe out completely? Can we ride it all the way in or will we choose to jump off the board far from the shore.

Today I was driving and thought of just that. In life do we have a chance to maximize the potential of the situations we are given into? Is it possible that we may be in a position to hang on tight without fear and receive the maximum reward for our trials and tribulations? Well, the answer came to me with a resounding yes!

The truth of the matter is that this is exactly how our universe works. We are promoted and rewarded in accordance to the strength of our faith. If our faith is strong we will hold on longer and realize the maximum potential of the work being done in our lives. However, if we fear and worry and take matters into our own hands by doing damage control we in effect lessen the rewards we would otherwise had received.

Often this is the exact thing that keeps many of us away from the biggest prize and out of the optimal reception mode. It is this fear and

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worry factor that stops us in our tracks or turns us completely away from everything we ever wanted. In an attempt to keep everything we have we forfeit everything that we want. The funny thing is that once we asked the end result had already begun to form. The seed has germinated! It is at this time that we choose not to receive the dream and let it fade into non existence. We have asked, but not accepted, dreamed without imagination and ran from our reward.

Look at it this way. A man once planted a seed in a garden. Every day he went out to the garden, watered the ground and plucked the weeds. One day he looked at the ground and said, "All this time and effort yet, no plant, no blossom and no fruit." He then decided to walk away believing his efforts had failed. However, what he could not see was the plant just below the surface ready to break through the top soil.

Once untended it dried up and died.

This is how things are in all things. As we impatiently wait for things to happen the way we want them to they are actually being facilitated in ways we may have never considered. Whether it would be what appears to be a non fruitful tithe, actions without apparent appreciation or that seed that was becoming a plant we must consider that things will be when they are meant to be. All things

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will happen at the best possible time in order to benefit the most faithful spirits.

So many times I have seen those closest to me fall into this trap. Could it be fear of the unknown? Would we rather dangle from the ledge than put our feet down on the terrace bellow? Taking security in the material things which we possess will only weigh us down and keep us from our infinite journey. We must let go of the illusion and grasp the truth. In doing so, we will receive the greatest effect of all of our work. The more patient and faithful we are the more positive results we will receive. The blocker is in our fear of lack.

We keep jobs that we hate, live with people we can’t stand and create ourselves as defined by our situation. This is the perfect recipe for having nothing we desire. In submitting to the illusion of our physical being and ignoring the strength of our spiritual existence we fail to be what we are created to be. We chose to grasp what we don’t really want and walk away from that which we do.

Do you know people around you who have fallen, but don’t realize they fell? It is a trap you know. Constant fear of failure will keep us from experiencing success. Success is under our noses most every day, yet when we are not in the now we miss the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of our labor. We chant and thus affirm,

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“Not enough, not enough, not enough, not enough…” Calling into our lives not enough!

What we should be calling into our lives is everything that we are, we have and we hold right now. Everything is supplied to us in abundance. My dad loves to tell me that “you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.” The thing that he fails to realize is that once we run out of toothpaste the universe will supply us with something else to meet the same need. By constantly worrying about how long it will last we fail to appreciate what we have right now!

Be very careful not to get sucked into someone else’s illusion. I did it a while back and found myself making decisions out of fear and worry.

Adopting the illusions of those around us can be very easy to do. “Hmmm, maybe she is right?”

I said. “Maybe I should slow my roll?” I thought, but actually I needed to do the opposite and kick my transmission into high gear. That is the formula that has launched me into a life that others only dream of. This is exactly how I accumulated the wealth and lifestyle my family has become accustomed too. You can’t make dollars by clinging to pennies!

Security, what is that? I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt exactly what it is. Security is the biggest illusion known to man. The only absolute truth of the universe is the Universe itself. All other things are subjective.

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“If I had a million dollars I would be secure” said the mother on government assistance. “If I had one hundred million dollars I would be secure” said the man who is wealthier than most. “Not enough, not enough, not enough…”

Affirmation after affirmation and as if reactions after as if reactions and the seed of lack have been sowed so deep in their hearts that they are now prisoners of a world where there is never enough.

Ride the wave all the way in! Understand that there is another wave coming behind it! Enjoy the ride, take gratitude in the now and let it take you as far as you will go. With faith we can experience all that there is.

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Chapter Fifteen Get Our Hopes Up “The death of a flower is only an illusion. It is this transformation that produces the seed.

Hope is our flower. Faith is our seed. Love is our sustenance�.

Many times in our lives we are tempted to protect ourselves and others from the pain we associate for what we perceive to be our failures or what we perceive as that which could be the failures of others. We so readily go into this protective mode of operandi in order to save ourselves or those we love from the experience of heartache, the grips of misfortune and the bounds of fear.

It is only through the submission to these pangs of nothingness that we can indeed fail to be. You see this is a goal that will only serve to keep us from trying, inhibiting us from moving forward and save us from realizing our potential for being.

We must be proactive in our being! By welcoming the experience we allow transpiration, transition and transformation. Our ascension is a process which requires experience. From doing comes experience and from experience comes wisdom and from wisdom comes fulfillment. This is our purpose, our meaning and the essence of all that we are.

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Sometimes we will trip. There are times when we will fall. These are but simple and honest errors in judgment. In these are the lessons and experiences of life which give us the tools to move on and the understanding to conquer our greatest challenges, to heel our deepest hurts and to forgive the most horrid atrocities. It was at the first trip that taught us to look before we leap. Was it not the first fall that taught us to prepare for impact by putting our hands out in front of us? The first time we chose what was wrong because it felt so right and were thrust into the chaos which was a direct result of the choice which enabled us to reach the ultimate wisdom brought forth from the experience. It is often our failures that teach us the most valuable of life’s lessons.

"If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward� -Thomas Edison So my friends’ failure is not really failure at all.

In error comes enlightenment. Our journey is infinite and many of our greatest achievements will be things that we may have otherwise considered mistakes. Many of the greatest inventions, cures and discoveries of all that we interpret as time have been birthed while searching, experimenting and attempting an unrelated action. An educated man can find

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what he seeks, but a wise man seeks what he finds.

Wisdom is our freedom! Living is motion and motion requires emotion. Sometimes it requires joy, but often it requires pain. Our heart will grow stronger as we exercise our power to choose and our soul will be energized in direct correlation to the power of our experience.

These will expand and contract continually and ever so increasingly in the establishment of our infinitely developing being. It is in these spiritual exercises that we are further prepared for our ascension.

What is to wither away will wither away. This is but a requirement of growth and transformation. Letting go of the past will relinquish the seed of our future. In this seed rests more beauty, greater love and endless possibilities. To attempt to go back to what no longer exists is futile. There is no hope in a flower that has already relinquished its seed.

How many times in our lives have we been told not to get our hopes up? Looking back, has this ever served us well? It may have protected us from hurt and sheltered us from emotion, but it has never gifted us with promise, hope and wisdom. It is a cold hard fact that the non experience has burst our hopes wide open and rendered the seed unsubstantial. In not trying we have ceased the pursuit of the Promise and

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turned our noses up at hope. We have dreamed with hope of an incredibly beautiful flower yet ever so callously walked away from our duties to the seed. To sow without tending is a travesty and a sin against the soil.

Let’s get our hopes up and keep them up! Let’s challenge our perception of who we are and leap forward into our being! Why should we give our power of being to the lived? We can only choose to move forward without fear and in the tongue of Shakespeare scream, “Be gone from me Ego. I choose not to relinquish my sustenance to the one who is but a tool used to defile my seed! I Am that I Am and all that I Am created to be. Not in perceived failure or in self adoring glorification will I give into thee?”

We must persist! Once we master one level it is up to us to accept the challenges that will carry us to the next. Wadding water will never get us anything but tired, bored, depressed and possibly eaten alive. We must have hope, move forward in faith and nourish ourselves with love if we are to experience the joy of being.

Don’t get our hopes up? By every means necessary we must aspire to get our hopes up as high as we can because when we do this hope will guide us. Getting our hopes up is a requirement of success! As we see this shinning city high upon on a hill we will be drawn towards it. Our energies will conspire to

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facilitate our goals! It is from our thinking that our being manifests.

Persistence and Perseverance I recall a day several years ago at my former home in North Providence. At an early age my mother had gotten me interested in bird watching, so much so that even today I am a proud member of the National Autobahn Society. My love of birds was one of those unsuspecting gifts given to me by my mother.

Even today thoughts of her always come to mind whenever I recall the names of the many birds indigenous to the New England region.

She never said, “Look at the bird Ronny.�

Instead she noted the exact species and from that I am today able to recall them all. Funny, I remember her saying that after she ascended she would come back to visit me as a bird.

Well, on that day in my old backyard I had unwittingly engaged myself in a battle against several squirrels who were wreaking havoc on my birdfeeders. I had inserted a hanging post on which to mount my feeders several days earlier.

In my mind it would be nearly impossible for my furry friends to climb the thin metal post and pillage the seed. After all, it was nothing like the textured bark of the oaks and maples which surrounded the rest of the yard and of which made my previous defensive maneuvers ineffective. Hanging a birdfeeder on the branch of a tree is one of the best ways to

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assist a squirrel in breaking and entering a feeder.

One day I received an epiphany. I came up with what I thought was an incredible idea. Why not grease the pole? So I immediately went outside and sprayed the six foot post with non stick cooking spray. I reentered the house with what I am sure was a somewhat smug grin upon my face and prepared to watch my newest scheme foil the attempts of those birdseed bandits.

It was not long before the first thieves arrived on the scene. Sure enough, they jumped up on the pole and slid right down to the bottom. It was the funniest thing that you would ever want to see. Hand over hand they attempted to scale the feeder post, but quickly slid down with every attempt. I began to feel an incredible wave of satisfaction come over me. The battle had been won!

Soon I would discover that my victory would be short lived. You see, those pesky little critters decided they would never give up. Surrender was not an option for hungry squirrels anxious to bust into my storehouse. They knew it could be done. They tried several different ways at first. One decided to climb to the top of a nearby maple and attempted the most stunning aerial attempt I have ever witnessed, but it was to no avail. As he leaped off the towering branches, he hit the top of the feeder and

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plummeted to the ground without abducting a single seed.

It was not long after that that they decided to stick to the game plan. They would indeed scale that pole. One attempt after another they continued to climb. With every attempt they seemed to get closer and closer to achieving their goal. The grease was wearing off the post!

In striving for their goals constantly and continuously they had won!

This reminded me of a picture I have been seeing in my mind over the past few weeks.

The vision consists of several monkeys side by side attempting to reach new heights on what seemed to be some sort of carnival game. So often they would reach a certain level barely reaching their goal before seemingly giving in and falling back. I immediately related this to a very common scenario I see much more often than I’d like to say.

As we attempt to pursue our dreams and goals many of us give up just short of them and slide back down to where we were prior. It is only by constant and continuous persistence and perseverance that we will be able to one day hold the prize in the palm of our hands. Only by continually trying will we be able to continually achieve.

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Back some time ago I volunteered to chaperone a fieldtrip for my son’s school. After an incredibly noisy bus drive we arrived at the Roger Williams Park Zoo. The kids were wonderfully excited and in awe of the many species of animals on display. The ones that stuck in my mind most of all were the gigantic elephants who were barely restrained for their feeding. Attached to their ankles was a thin length of rope tied on to a small stake in the sand. I thought how easy it would be for any of those mammoth creatures to free themselves from that which seemed so successfully to confine them to their current position, keeping them from eating each others’ food. Then I recalled a story I heard many years ago about why this is so.

When elephants are very young they are tied this same way. Early in life they realize that they cannot escape from that which binds them.

In a short time they no longer attempt to free themselves.

They no longer persist or persevere. Although their bodies have changed and grown larger and stronger they still adamantly believe they cannot escape and therefore decide to no longer try.

There is an incredible life lesson in both stories.

By not giving up the squirrel eventually received his reward, but the elephant fell back and accepted his defeat. As in our own lives, we sometimes feel that all the work we do is in vain. We are only going to slide back down the

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pole anyway. Well, maybe we will wear the grease off the pole by continually trying? I believe that life is exactly this way. Through our trials and tribulations we will experience many test and share as much inspiring testimonies. In the course of our travel, as we persevere, no matter how far away we perceive ourselves as being, we most likely are only a few attempts from experiencing our greatest dreams and accomplishing our most sought after goals. “Persistence allows us to continually move forward despite obstacles and perseverance enables us to constantly overcome them.�

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Chapter Sixteen Changing Our Course Often there will be times in our lives when we will get the strong feeling that there is really no remedy for our current situation. We may feel that there is nothing we can do to improve it and we may as well just throw in the towel and admit defeat. To continue on seems to be futile.

In this we favor rolling up in some remote corner of the room in the fetal position and wait to die.

Hey, we tried our hardest. Every day we got up went to work and continued to do what we had to do. It was nothing more and nothing less than what was required to stay right where we are, but we did it. Sometimes we gave a little extra effort, but for the most part we lacked consistency. Now we are exactly where we are and have no one to blame for it besides ourselves. We never built momentum in our quest for success.

How often have we passed on doing the little extra things that got tossed onto our plate? How many times did we fail to make those phone calls, check those want ads or do anything else to possibly improve the lives of which we live in despair? How many times did we fail to act?

Are we constantly exhibiting indecisiveness, laziness or just constantly changing our minds;

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bouncing off walls. Perhaps we would get a little momentum going but just decided to coast without exerting any more energy into the ride.

We are where we are because we made choices that contributed to bringing us here. Sometimes we chose to act and many times we chose not to.

Often we decided to react and other times we rationalized not to. Either way, our lives are a direct result of the choices we have been making all our lives.

So since this is the case in the lives of a good eighty percent of us let’s make a decision to start making better choices right now. The first step is to take an inventory of everything we have to be grateful for. Take out a blank piece of paper and write everything down. Don’t forget to include all the necessities of life as well as the things that we could live without.

Next, on a separate piece of paper write down all the people that we are thankful to have as a part of our lives and why these relationships mean so much to us. On another sheet we must put down all the knowledge, skills and abilities we have been gifted with, have earned or developed.

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Our Gift List Sheet# 1 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

Food Shelter Clothes Water Health Clean air Heat Hot water Plumbing Electricity Car Cable TV Cell phone Microwave Coffee pot Dishwasher

Sheet#2 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

Spouse Children Parent Sister Brother Aunt Uncle Grandparent Coworker Friend Mentor Teacher Friend Pet Counselor Lover

Sheet#3 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

Painting Carpentry Auto repair Draw Sing Instrument Idea man Writer Counselor Director Speaker Cameraman Swimmer Computer Driver Biker

Although these lists are very short they do allow us to get started in taking ourselves in a whole new direction. I am sure that just writing down the few that we have has already elevated our vibrations to some extent.

Getting our vibrations up as high as we can is crucial to us moving forward in our journey to be all that we are created to be. Concentrating wholly on what we have, and, not on what we don’t is the greatest way to accomplish this goal.

Now the energy can more easily flow in the direction we want it to. The next thing we need to figure out is, “Where do we want to be?”

Often it takes knowing what we don’t want to

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find out what we want, but we must be very careful not to concentrate on the things we don’t want. Contrast is good, but if we marry the unwanted experience it will become difficult to break free. As we concentrate on the things that we don’t want in our lives they will begin to manifest as quickly as we assign the corresponding emotions to them.

Taking the time to write down everything that we want and being as specific as possible about our wants will help the most. As we do this we will be better able to paint a picture of exactly what this will look like, but this exercise is so much more than seeing. We must feel all the emotions associated with living the life that we want right now.

Mastering the manipulation of our emotions will be the key in pivoting our direction. We must commune with the higher self, our soul and spirit which are created in the image of God. We do this by impressing our subconscious or lower self with the idea that we already have all that we desire. In doing so, by affirmations and visualization we have caused a rift in the current of energy and have begun to change the course of the river. Picture that in your mind. Can you see the shift?

It is from within us that changes without us occur. We are becoming a magnetic force for change which is attracting like energy. Whether

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we concentrate on the good or the bad, that energy will attract more of the same. The energies we employ correspond directly to the synergies we receive. This is a recipe for abundance! The river is now working for us instead of against us.

I remember buying a small round swimming pool for my kids when they were little. We loved that pool. I paid one hundred and seventy five dollars for the frame, liner, filter and accessories. It lasted for years too. Anyway, we would walk in a circle following each other around the outer walls of the pool. The more we moved in any one direction around the stronger the current would flow.

Our concentration was on going in the same direction. As we continued to move faster the current became faster until eventually it was pulling us around the pool. Once the whirlpool became strong enough we would just lay back and enjoy the ride. Swimming against it was futile for we had already set our course in motion.

If we stood still in the pool or all went off in different directions we would have never experienced the momentum which was built.

We would either waste our time wadding water or just expend our energy without achieving any positive results. A house divided cannot stand and a pool divided will not flow.

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We must increase the strength of our vibration and make it as positive as possible by being grateful for all that we are and all that we have.

It is imperative that we concentrate our energies on a single purpose and set the river’s current in that direction. As the momentum builds our energies will increase and the facilitation of our affirmations and visualizations will beget our manifestation.

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Gratitude is Key Being grateful for all that you have right now is the best way to elevate your vibrations. As I previously mentioned; make a list on paper or in your mind of all that you have to be grateful for.

Do this when you get out of bed in the morning and just before you go to bed at night every day.

Gratitude will increase your positive vibrations and make your affirmations and visualizations more effective. Consistency is a necessary part of building all aspects of your Being. The following are some simple yet powerful programs for achieving success.

Exercises for Success Affirmations I AM, I AM, I AM_______________________ I AM, I AM, I AM_______________________ I AM, I AM, I AM_______________________ And all that it means to be.

Repeat once in the morning and once at night for five minutes.

Visualizations Create a story board of how you want your life to be, feel how wonderful it feels and experience all the emotions associated with living that life NOW. Make a movie in your

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mind of exactly what you want your life to be.

Play it over and again. This is the same concept as a memory only it is a future memory.

Repeat this process twice a day for five to ten minutes per day.

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Final Thoughts Knowledge and Wisdom "Wisdom comes from experience and experience comes from Being."

Knowledge comes from education wisdom comes from experience and experience is furnished by God. You see, everything in our lives, good or bad, has the incredible purpose of teaching us a lesson. As we learn we gain knowledge which soon after becomes applied wisdom. This is the stuff that enables us to make the right choices along our journey.

(Ecclesiastes 7:12-13) For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it. Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?

Our lives here on this physical realm of existence consist of many levels. I see them as steps in our ascension. In reality the steps span infinitely into what will be our constant and continuous ascension. We never stop growing!

(Genesis 1:27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

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(Genesis, 2:7) And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. .(Genesis 2:23) And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. There will come a day when we will no longer need the physical suitcases of our soul.

Remember, we are our souls and our spirits created in the image of God. As we ascend to the next realm of our existence we will become as one with ourselves and others. The duality of existence will cease to exist.

The purpose of our visit is simple. I often wonder why people make it so complex. It is so very obvious, but the question is often asked with a tremendously daunting emphasis on a question that begs to a higher power for its answer. “What is the meaning of life?�

We were created by Spirit as spirit first. Next we became flesh and blood. Why? Well, are you sitting down? We were created to create and experience what we could not experience otherwise. It is our thoughts that create things and it is our words that have the power to propel these thoughts into existence.

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(Genesis 1:3) And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

I can probably very easily go through the book of Genesis or pretty much any other religious text to prove this point, but that is not how wisdom is received. This is why Christ spoke in parables. He knew it would not be enough for the children of God to just be educated in fact; they would need to feel, hold, love and envision Truth in order to own the Word. Through parable the story would enter the soul and plant the seeds of wisdom within the hearts of all who had “ears to hear.”

The biggest issue we all experience today was also given to us in parable by the Master. I’m paraphrasing a bit, but there have been so many translations I’m sure nobody will mind. We don’t put new wine into old wine skins. If we do they will burst and the wine may be spilt or at the very least contaminated by mixing with the old. This is the problem we all have with receiving new knowledge. Problems are created when we continually attempt to mix our new knowledge in with the old. This contaminates the new knowledge and makes it diluted or unproductive. In this the wisdom never comes and the seed which was planted never lives to see the light of day, never sprouts its stalk and branches and will not ever produce its fruit.

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“Wisdom comes from the Lord. The rest is education.”-Bill F. Education plays an important role in gaining knowledge. Without it most will never truly learn how to think. I remember the frustration I felt back in the early nineties upon graduating from college. My dad was the closest receptacle at the time so without hesitation I unloaded. “I don’t know why I even wasted my time and money on this degree.” Many don’t like to hear this and often it hurts to say, but in the majority of the cases a constant does exist. As children of our parents we may get smarter, but they will always be wiser than us. It all stems from life experience. What he said to me that day hardly comforted me or defused my anger, yet it did get me thinking. One day far off in the not so distant future, I revisited his statement and the seed of wisdom was planted in my soul. I vividly remembered Dad looking into my eyes, as though looking into my heart with his and saying, “You know Ronny, nobody can ever take it away from you.”

(Ecclesiastes 7:11) “Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.”

As the years rolled by I began to realize the advantage of being educated. I had some pretty good tools in my box and some fabulous weapons in my arsenal. I learned the value of

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the knowledge I received as I began to experience more of the life I was creating. The most important and essential of all the obvious skills and abilities often alludes the most educated. What is it you ask? The ability to think, imagine and apply the knowledge which is received while maximizing the potential of the opportunities which life presents. This in addition to all the little things we so adamantly stated we would never need to be what we thought we were going to be in our lives. One of my favorite statements was, “Why do I need to learn algebra? I’m never going to use it outside of the classroom.� Well, I ended up using it while running a wheel and tire store everyday for about seventeen years. In fact I was the guy that everyone else went to when they needed to figure out the overall diameter of a custom wheel and tire package.

Sometimes in life the money we make is the money we save. In business we may end up using our abilities gained through education combined with common sense and other practical experience obtained in the real world.

I actually learned basic accounting skills without ever knowing I had. This gave me an incredible advantage in business. I never had to wait for an accountant to let me know how my business was doing. Often the time waiting for that information could end up costing a company thousands. By catching the problem sooner rather than latter I was able to easily plug

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the holes in the dike before pouring my profits out into the storm drain.

Marketing was another example of this. I was very frustrated that I had spent numerous credit hours to obtain a degree in communications. I took advertising, marketing, television production, news writing and so many more related courses only to find little or no jobs in this area for someone with these abilities.

During those seventeen years of business all these skills had been an incredible valuable asset to me. I created my own advertisements, set forth my own marketing plans, produced my own commercials and published my own magazine. As a matter of fact the magazine alone was so successful that I opened a new store every year for the first three years of operation. It turned out to bear more fruit than I could have ever imagined. The funny thing is that it did so much more than I originally intended it to.

"An educated man can find what he seeks, but a wise man seeks what he finds."

What started off as a simple advertising journal turned into an informative and well read magazine shortly after the first issue appeared in the “Take One� baskets of local pharmacies and supermarkets throughout southern New England. Two things created a stir in the market. First, I included an article about a local

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customer in every issue. This created a certain element of competition. Enthusiasts wanted to be included in the magazine.

It became somewhat of a big deal to have a spread of photos and a description of what was done to the vehicle in the magazine. After all, I published ten thousand at a time and never had extras. The next thing was the technical section.

Remember the algebra? Well, I wrote a full article that solved the mystery of plus sizing for everyone. I laid it out in the simplest of terms; algebraic formula and all. This led to a rush of customers who wanted to go from their factory wheel size to the largest they could tuck under their fender well. We offered them fitment without fear! With this knowledge in hand and the wisdom to know what to do with it; we quickly became the largest auto accessories store in the state and the only one to stock custom wheels and performance tires.

As we look back over our lives we all have had experiences similar to this. Some on a smaller scale and others on a higher, but I am positive that this has happened to all of us at sometime and in some way. The key is to never be afraid to learn something new.

"Selective knowledge constrains wisdom."

We must be as adventurous in obtaining knowledge as we are with experiencing life. By reading a book we would not ordinarily read,

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seeing a film we would not usually consider or by listening to music we otherwise would never choose opens the door to the benefits of a vast array of experiences. How do we expect to successfully debate someone on any given topic without totally understanding their platform?

The truth is we can’t.

"Knowledge comes in a case; not a box."

It is a shame that we exert so much time in argument while ignoring and denying the wisdom gained from an open mind. If only we would truly explore the beliefs of others we could quickly accelerate to the next level of our mutual existence. Instead of concentrating on what is different about us we should be relishing in the beauty of what we all have in common with one another. After all, we are the All and the One. "Wisdom is not being afraid to explore information that may be contradictory to our beliefs."

Human Beings are created in the image and likeness of the ultimate Being; God! He does not make mistakes. We are not errors! How could perfection create imperfection? It could not and would not. We are created to create and to experience that which is created. The truth is in our Being. Being is God!

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(Proverbs 23:23) “Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding”.

I encourage All to release ourselves from the bonds of our previous perceptions and truly look into studying the Word with a clean slate. Over the years movies, television and a vast array of other media have painted an abstract picture of all that we are and all that we are created to be.

Let’s face it; much of what we think we know has been obtained from the word of others and not from the Word Itself. Very few have taken the time to truly verify what they have heard.

(Matthew 11:15) He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

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The Author Ron Ash is the chief facilitator of the biggest empowerment community in Southern New England. This spiritually based collaborative, Creative Cultural Center, has inspired and uplifted a community of One. His most viewed titles, The Apostle’s Recipe for Happiness and The Secret of Divine Intervention, have met with incredible success and continue to be favorites worldwide.

Ron is an inspiring spiritual inspirational author.

In addition, he’s a teacher in non denominational and secular organizations. He is ordained by Spirit as a comfort to humanity.

Ron is a gifted clairvoyant, empathic as well as a telepath and as such has the wonderful ability to identify the root of many issues, access problems and formulate an effective approach and resolution.

A celebrated inspirational profit, leader and one of the nation's leading experts on happiness, success, and the principles of ask, believe and receive, Ron has inspired thousands of people around the world, sharing his simple methods - 136 -

for personal spiritual growth and enlightenment.

Apostle and founder of Disciples of Love Ministries, he delivers fantastic messages and seminars on being the best that we are created to be to corporations, professionals, non-profits and religious organizations.

He has been an incredible force for positive change and continually donates his time to help troubled teens realize their potential. As a highly endorsed authority on success and happiness, Ron is often approached by media for his insights and advice.

Ron earned his BA from Rhode Island College and holds an advanced certificate as a pastoral counselor. He recently received an honorary doctorate of divinity in recognition for his life altering inspiring writings and unparalleled works in the community. He is a founding member and on the board of directors of the Creative Cultural Center, a group of inspirational leaders empowering people in the self improvement market.

Through his books and his presentations, Ron's messages have touched the hearts and redirected the spirits of lost souls throughout the world. He is dedicated to fulfilling his life’s purpose of helping people be all that they are created to be.

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OTHER BOOKS BY RON ASH

THE APOSTLE ’ S RECIPE FOR H APPINESS ISBN: 978-1-59352-429-6

$14.95

THE S ECRET OF DIVINE INTERVENTION ISBN: 978-1-44959-995-9

$16.95

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