2002-6-5 01:59:00
Invocation and Evocation Part III
Delivered by J.J. Dewey
Friday Evening, May 24, 2002; Wimberly, Texas
We're talking about the steps to create the point of tension; to create a down flow of spiritual energy or attention of lives higher than ourselves. What are additional steps we can take?
Response: I was thinking back to a story you had mentioned one year. You had mentioned that long ago you had a desire to heal a young lady. I don't remember what her handicap was but you believed that through recognition of the Christ you could heal her. I remember you said you raised your hand and reached it out towards her and you mentioned in the name of Christ I will heal you and miraculously you had found several years later that she was healed, you found out the next day that she was healed. Then you saw her like fifteen years later, I remember this post you had written. So we need recognition to a higher power.
JJ: The point of tension in that situation, created there was this. I was sixteen years old and had just been reading in the scriptures about the power of faith and how the prophets of ancient faith were able to do these great miracles. I was thinking to myself, "Why don't we see this in the churches today? We don't see anything today like the ancient prophets did." I was thinking that as I was walking home then saw a friend of mine who had been struck with multiple sclerosis a couple weeks previously. She was about a year younger than I was, about fifteen. I saw her but she didn't see me. I looked in her yard and she was hobbling on these crutches and really struggling to get into her house. I really felt sorry for her.
I was thinking, "The scriptures say that if you ask something in the name of Christ it will be given to you." So I wondered what would stop me right this minute from demanding her to be healed? Why shouldn't I do this? At the time I was just starting to go to the Mormon Church and they were telling me you had to have the priesthood and the authority from God, given from the church to you, before you could heal somebody. You had to be an elder or something like that. I was a priest in the church and priests are not supposed to have any power to heal. Once you're an elder you can have the power to heal. The funny thing is that the elders didn't heal anybody that I could see. So I thought, "What's to prevent me from healing her?"
But then I thought to myself, "But the church says I need to be an elder before I can perform any healing ordinance. I'm just a priest so maybe I better not do anything." But then I thought, "But wait, the scripture says, 'Whatsoever you ask in the name of Christ, will be given.' So what's to prevent me from commanding her in the name of Christ to be healed? What's to prevent me from doing that?" Then I argued back and forth with myself. The church says you have to have the priesthood to heal. But the scriptures say that whatever you ask in the name of Christ will be given. I kept going back and forth in my mind. But the church says I'm just a priest and I'm not supposed to be attempting anything like this.
I kept going back and forth in my mind until finally I said, "I'm going to side with the scriptures. The scriptures say 'whatsoever you ask in the name of Christ will be done.' So I'm going to try it out and see if it works." So I reached forth my hand and I said, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to be healed." At that instant I felt a tremendous surge of power go through me. It was so powerful I almost fell down. I ran home. I was scared to death. I thought, "The church must be right. I must've really offended God. I think He tried to strike me dead or something." So I was really nervous and that energy kept going through me until the next day. The next day I felt okay again and thought that I was never going to try that again! I thought I must've really irritated God.
Two days later when I went to school the gal was there and had no crutches and seemed perfectly well. I went up to her and said, "I thought you were all crippled and everything." She said no, the doctor said she'd gone into remission and seemed to be okay now. I asked her if it would come back. She said the doctor had told her it probably would but sometimes in MS you do go into remission.
We went all through high school and she remained in remission. We graduated from high school without her going out of remission. I didn't see her again for 15-20 years. A couple of years ago Artie and I were having a meal in a restaurant and this lady comes over to me and says, "You're Joe Dewey, are you?" I said yea and asked who she was. She introduced herself and it turned out to be this old schoolmate. I said, "Oh, you had MS back in high school, didn't you? Did that ever come back?" She said no, it had never come back. Her husband was dead but she was still alive. So, that was interesting.
There have been times when I wanted to do that again but felt constrained not to do it. But in that particular case, a point of tension was created. I believe the point of tension was in the argument in my mind between the authorities in the church and the spirit that is within the pure truth of the scriptures; the pure truth that if you have faith you can actually move mountains. I believe that witness gained from the surge of power that went through me from God at that time and caused this to happen was even more important than for this woman to be healed for it taught me a great lesson. It taught me to prepare me for things to come because if I hadn't learned lessons like that I may still be tied down to the simple doctrines of some church somewhere and not be able to move beyond them.
It's important that none of us are tied down. This is part of the point of tension to move beyond authority and the power that be in the world that want to talk us out of following that which is within. It's like Artie and I were looking at the map and I said, "Artie if we go on this back road here we can get where we want to be." She said, "No, let's go on this main road. If we go on the main road it will be a lot better." I said, "In theory you're right, but I'm not sure we can find that road simply." I looked at the map and it wasn't really clear how to get to this main road. She insisted we go on this main road. Something in me told me not to do that. Something in me told me to take the back road but I ignored it because a wife is a very powerful influence. Sometimes if you ignore their advice you get in trouble. So I took her advice and it took us ages to find this main road.
The signs in Texas are really weird. It said East when it really meant West and it said North when it meant East. So we went around in circles several times before we found this main road. I had an instinct that told me to take these side roads. I should've listened. I kick myself for not listening. So this is the way it is in life. We must listen to our instincts and above our instincts we must listen especially to the soul within. This is an extremely important thing for us to listen to.
My soul within was telling me that there was something more powerful than having authority given to you by anybody here upon the earth. And that is your relationship between you and God. If you feel within yourself, from the spirit of God, that you should do something, it doesn't matter who tries to talk you out of it. You should do it. It doesn't matter whether they be prophet, priest, king or even an angel or some kind appearing out of the blue. You must follow the highest you know. None of us do that all the time. All of us are talked out of what we should do once in awhile. I still find myself being talked out of something once in awhile even though I've been trying to correct myself again and again and again. Sometimes I hit it right and other times I don't listen carefully enough.
All of us are in that boat. Sometimes we don't listen to the inner voice carefully enough. The thing that all of us have to learn is to listen to that inner voice when it speaks truly. To recognize that inner voice is important because for some of us that inner voice is really just what we want. When we pray for something our prayers are answered because we get what we want rather than what the Higher-Powers-That-Be want from us. When we yield our will to the will of God, then the inner voice will be strong and will be true and we can try it and test it and find it's reliable. But every time something comes to us, which is true from the spirit of God, it will seem like there is an army trying to gather around us to try to distract us from following that voice. Have you ever had that happen? You get something in you that you know is true and it's like an army of forces begins to gather to try to pull you away from it?
For example, when I received the revelation that I was supposed to marry Artie it was amazing the army that gathered around her to try to talk her out of marrying me. Her daughter thought that I was like Jim Jones. She called everybody she knew. She called her dad, which is Artie's past husband, and convinced him that I was some weirdo with one hand with quirks like Igor; that I was just really weird. She painted the strangest picture. She called her grandma and her grandma flew up here. She immediately got on a plane to save her daughter from this terrible person. Her daughter conjured up this image of me out of the blue and communicated it to everyone we knew. Within days Artie had an army around her to try to talk her out of what she received within herself for we had both received confirmation that we were supposed to be together.
Then one day we were talking on the phone after her mom was coming up and her ex-husband was afraid for her life and her soul and was afraid for her daughter's safety because she was around a mad man. The image built up was amazing. We're talking on the phone and she said, "Maybe we should just lie low for awhile until things calm down then we can continue the relationship." I knew at that point that if I let the point of tension go I would lose her and I knew I had to do something. She didn't think I would lose her but something within me told me that I would. There was this army gathering around to pull her away from what she had received within herself.
As we were talking on the phone she said, "It's just too much to handle. I think I'll lay low." There was a moment of silence where I felt the spirit and I knew she was feeling it during the time of silence. I said, "What do you feel right this instant?" She said, "I feel peaceful. I feel good." I asked, "Do you want to pursue this feeling or do you want to pursue the opposite of this feeling?" She said, "I want this feeling." I said, "So, what are we going to do? Are we going to pursue this feeling or are we going to quit?" She said she wanted to pursue this feeling so I told her then we're not going to give up. We're going to continue this relationship no matter what happens, no matter what your mom thinks, no matter what your daughter thinks, no matter what your ex-husband thinks, no matter who comes pounding on your door demanding that you not see me. We will continue this relationship and this feeling will continue. I asked, "Is this a deal?" She said it was.
To her credit, she didn't go back on her commitment. Most people would. I've seen this happen time and time again. People get close to the presence then an army of negativity comes to take them away from that next step and they yield to that negativity. I've seen it happen time and time again. The negativity is so powerful. Then when you yield to it you have a false sense of peace because you don't have the bedlam around you anymore. You seem to have a peace but it's not the real peace. It's not the peace that Artie felt when I asked her what she was feeling. She decided that she wanted to pursue the real peace. To her credit she withstood all the assailments she got from her mother, her daughter and everybody who came out of the woodwork. It was beyond the imagination. She withstood them all and she stood her ground and we continued the relationship and are still together.
I'm very thankful that she stood her ground that way. Not many people do because when you make a step forward, even with something simple, like say you want to quit smoking. Are there any smokers in the group? Rick is. Rick is good at quitting smoking. He's done it about a hundred times. But when you try to quit smoking doesn't it seem like everyone who smokes comes out of the woodwork offering you cigarettes? It seems like an army comes to you to get you to try to start up again. In any step of progression that you make you will have an army of negativity to try to pull you back to not only where you were before but lower than you were before. It's like the scripture that reads, "When a man casts out one devil, the devil goes forth and finds seven more, more evil than himself. And they come back and they possess the man. And the last state of the man is worse than the first state."
This is what happens. It's dangerous to move ahead. It's actually dangerous; dangerous to be a disciple of Christ. It's dangerous to move ahead. It's dangerous to progress. It's not easy because when you do, an army will surface and this army, coming out of the woodwork, will have the faces of your friends, the faces of your family, your religious leaders, your political leaders, your neighbors, and they will all try to pull you back so your final state will be worse than it was when you tried to make the step forward.
The only way through this is to take the step forward and stand on that step forward no matter what happens. When you take that stand you'll find out that all the winds and the storms that are surrounding you are illusion. They don't really exist. You just thought they were real. You give them power but they have no power. They have no power to pull you back. You just thought they had power. When you really take a stand and make a firm decision, you can stand. There is nothing that can pull you back. There is nothing that can stop you from your onward movement once you attain that faith in yourself and in your relationship to the spirit you can move ahead. Remember you can always move ahead. There is always a way. When you begin to make a step, the more important step it is, the more difficult it will be and the greater will be the illusion that you must take a step backward.
I think the goal of our relationship together is for us to always take a step forward into higher spiritual consciousness, higher relationship between you and your soul, between you and the spirit of God within yourself, and to take that firm step so that you will go where you have not gone before. It will be difficult. When you move forward, taking the step isn't as hard as standing there after you have taken it.
Once you take the step then attempt to stand there and prepare for the next step, you will have a hurricane of force trying to pull you back. Even though when you take the step it may not seem so hard at first, to stand there and keep that communion with the higher parts of yourself and the higher parts of your connection with the spirit of God -- to be able to stand there requires the first key in the book, which is the power of decision, to decide a thing then prepare to stand.
Remember the parable in the story? There were four guys who died. There were two paths. One path led to heaven and one path led to hell. It seemed very strange to be told this by this angel. Two of them were so terrified that they did not even want to take a step. One guy made a firm decision. He didn't know which path led to heaven and which one led to hell but he was supposed to choose one of them. He decided that no matter what happened he would make the best of it and stand on the highest that he knew. This is the way it is in our life. We don't know for sure if the next decision that we make will led us to heaven or to hell.
Say you marry someone. Is anyone getting married in the near future? When you get married you don't know if you're going to heaven or to hell, do you? You don't know that. Half the marriages lead to heaven, well SOME of them lead to heaven, and a good percentage of them lead to hell. So, you don't know for sure, even though the person may seem like a nice person at the moment. You don't know where it's leading. So when you get married you're a little bit like the guy in the parable. But you have to say to yourself. "I'm going to live by the highest I know and make the most of it." That's about all you can do. If you do that one thing, stand by your decision to live by the highest you know and make the most of it and be true to yourself, the highest inner part of yourself, you will come out a winner in the end.
Question: With what you're saying about the forces coming in, what if the forces are your own internal working, like those who have the airplane and the ability to wind the propeller but then they say, "Oh but I'm not worthy." The ego or lower personality gets in the way, even while you're doing it, that feeling of I'm not worthy.
JJ: This feeling is very powerful. Lorraine just talked about the feeling of unworthiness that holds many of us back. This is a real biggie. It's like when I had that experience with that schoolmate and I felt the spiritual energy going through me so powerful I thought I must not be worthy to do anything like this. I actually ran home because I was worried that God was trying to strike me dead because I was just this mischievous little imp that was doing something wrong. I felt that I must not be worthy to do anything like this. I've felt this a number of times in my life as I'm sure all of us have. Every time I have, it has made me go backwards rather than forwards. You have to get over this unworthy feeling.
When the scriptures talk about salvation, what they're really talking about is being saved from this feeling of unworthiness. It's really a first step because to be truly saved as is talked about in the scriptures you have to eliminate guilt. To eliminate guilt you have to establish a relationship with God in such a way that you recognize that you are a son or daughter of God. When you realize this and really understand this knowledge your guilt is swept away. That's what true salvation is. It's to be relieved from guilt. You will not have guilt about anything anymore as long as you live.
The word for 'sin' in the New Testament Greek means to shoot an arrow at a target and to miss. To miss the target is what the original word 'sin' meant. So, when in Bible times they said someone sinned, it means they missed the mark. "Missing the mark" is the literal English translation. It was used by archers back in those days when the Greeks shot an arrow at the target and used this Biblical word. Do you think they shot an arrow at the target and said, "Oh, I feel so guilty. I'm such a bad person I'm not going to shoot an arrow at the target again." We don't think that way.
The original word 'sin' was not meant to convey guilt. It was meant to convey missing the mark. When we really miss the mark is when we let guilt enter in and over ride us so much that we refuse to even try again because guilt makes you feel like you're not worthy. When you feel like you're not worthy you don't try again. You give up trying. I'm not worthy, I'm not good enough. I'm not going to try because God will probably be mad at me if I try.
But if you realize that the original word for 'sin' means merely to miss the mark, then we look at the people who lived in the time of Jesus in a totally different light. When Jesus said, "Sin no more" He meant don't make anymore mistakes or bad judgments. So we must learn to be like the ancient Greek archers who, when they shot an arrow and missed the mark they didn't say they were a terrible person. Instead they took another arrow and tried to shoot again and again. If they missed the bulls eye they tried another one and tried until finally they got it. That's the way we are when we have achieved the salvation that Jesus taught. We keep trying and trying again. Remember the principle of self-correction? Like our bodies keep correcting themselves, we need to keep correcting ourselves until we finally hit the mark.
That is what true salvation is. True salvation is being able to over ride guilt and negate it. When we make a mistake, instead of condemning ourselves and feeling unworthy or feeling like God is angry at us, we merely say, "Give me another arrow and I'm going to shoot again and hit the mark. I'm going to try again to be a good person. I'm going to try again until I become the type of person I want to be and nothing is going to stop me." This is actually the true meaning of salvation. We're saved from guilt (which is the biggest missing of the mark there is.)
Guilt is the biggest missing of the mark which means it is the biggest sin and when you're saved from guilt you're saved from your sins. And when you're saved from guilt you have peace of mind. When you're saved from guilt and make a mistake you no longer feel condemned. You merely think, "I made a mistake. I'll try again." You still have peace. Nothing takes away your peace because you know you're doing the best you can, you know you're human, you no longer have guilt about it and you just try again just like you would if you were shooting an arrow at a target.
So, this is an important thing in the point of tension. If we let guilt enter in, the little propeller we're winding up will end up winding up backwards. The tension begins to be dissipated so that the tension will no longer be there. We must not let guilt enter in no matter how big of mistake we make; no matter how big the mistake, it's just a mistake. You probably don't want to do it again so let's move ahead.
Think. If you have a son or a child and he/she makes a mistake, do you want him to feel guilty about it? If he's willing to pick up and try again aren't you going to nurture him? Aren't you going to help him move ahead and support him? Jesus said, "if we being evil know how to give gifts to our children, will not God, being good know not how to do much more than we know how to do?" Yet we think that we will help our children when they fall down but if we fall down God will throw us in hell where we'll burn forever. We're going to suffer with this tremendous guilt and God will laugh with glee. No, Jesus didn't say that at all. He said God is much better than us. He will give much better gifts and much more to His children than we can to ours because in relationship to God, we're evil. God is much better than us and He will be able to imagine much greater gifts for His children than we can for ours.
Isn't that a wonderful teaching to contemplate? Yet how many of the churches teach it? How many of the churches instead teach, "Boy, God's going to take care of you! All the angles in heaven are going to laugh with glee when they get a hold of you in the next life because you haven't gone to church lately. You haven't done some silly little thing that conforms to what some man here on the earth wants you to do.
Guilt is a tremendous method of control. Every person in this room is worthy of the presence of God. If you don't feel worthy it's because you're deceived. Someone has tricked you to think that you're not. Yea, but I've done some naughty things. Like Rob over here has done some naughty things over the past week, right Rob? (laughter) You've been a very naughty young man! It doesn't matter what you've done. Nothing can stand between you and the presence of God except for you. You're the only one that stands in between. If we are really the children of God and God is capable of going much farther in helping His children than we are in helping ours. How far would you go to help your children? Who has kids here? Somebody with a kid raise your hand. Garrett, how far would you go to help your kid get through college?
Response: Whatever it takes
JJ: Say your kid had a car accident and hurt somebody. He didn't mean it. It was an accident. Would you condemn him? You wouldn't, would you? What would you do for him? Suppose he was crying and feeling terrible. He was guilty. It was a terrible mistake. Would you be happy to see him suffer? Then why do people think that God is happy to see us suffer? Isn't that about the biggest deception you can think of? If Jesus was right when He said, "God will go many more steps and He's much better at giving good gifts to His children than we are to ours." Yet look at how far Garrett will go to help his kid, even though he had an accident and it was his own fault. He didn't mean it but it was a stupid thing that he did. The kid is condemning himself. What does Garrett do?
Response: Help him to realize it was just an accident. To do all he can do to correct it then move on with his life.
JJ: Do you give him a big hug to make him feel better? You do, don't you? And Rob here, even though he's done some naughty things over the week and irritated somebody he's working with, he probably even irritated one of his teachers at school. Rob wants to be embraced by God. Do you think God is going to say you don't deserve a hug? This is the true non-judgmental attitude. It's that of a father or mother or parent accepting their children when they make a step in a forward direction they will accept them no matter what, especially if the child is making a step in a forward direction. Even though he's guilty as all get out, the parent will accept him, even parents of murderers or really dastardly people.
Human parents, no matter what the kid does, are still there to help them. Most loving parents will be. So no matter what we've done there is nothing to remove the barrier between us and the presence of God except for us. We're the ones who condemn us. It's just a natural thing that happens when we ourselves, are deceived.
So perhaps the greatest thing that I could present tonight is that every single person is worthy of your next step. Whatever that next step is, you are worthy of it. But when you take it every force in the world will come and try to convince you that you're not ready, you're not worthy and you shouldn't take it or you've made a mistake in taking it. You need to go backwards, back to where it's safe.
So, to create the point of tension, perhaps the most important thing is to take that step to decide then to focus on that decision and follow the highest you know within yourself. Moving ahead following the highest you know continues to create the point of tension as you wind up the little rubber band engine on the little airplane we're visualizing. As you wind that up by moving ahead and focusing and not retreating, the point of tension is created.
When the point of tension is there, you will sense it and things will begin to happen. If you want to go into the next stage of consciousness where you have communion between you and the spirit of God, when the point of tension is reached, one of the greater lives will say, "Behold the man has moved a step forward. Let us go greet him. Let us go commune with him. Let us sup with him and he will sup with us. Let us share our presence with him. Let us unfold a new energy with him that he has not felt before and see how he handles it."
When you have created that point of tension and you're proceeding along the spiritual path a new energy will unfold within you. It will be something that you've never really felt before. You may have felt things in the past but there are new things. You will feel a new energy, a higher energy and you will eventually adjust to it until this new energy becomes a part of your life. Then there is another step after that. There is always another step as long as you're living here as a mortal being there is always another step in this sphere that we're in. If you are here and you're capable of pinching yourself and feeling something you have another step to take. Don't be deceived into thinking that you've taken all the steps that you need because there is always another step to take.
So I want everyone to put attention on the idea of drawing the attention of the Christ and His associates and Him sending us an endowment of spiritual energies that we can feel the presence of higher spiritual energies. I know a number of people have desired this and haven't reached that point yet and want to reach that point. There is nothing to stop us. If everyone in this room can stay focused and believing and positive in their mindset, not feeling any ill will toward any other person, not letting any negativity circulate, then we as a group can be elevated together to where we have never gone before.
To this end I'd like to end this meeting with a group prayer that we'll all say together. Part of the reason for this is that I've had several people tell me that as soon as they decided to come to this gathering or think about coming to the gathering that all hell seems to have broken loose in their life. It seemed like something didn't want them to come here. I know a number of you have told me about this and probably a number who have not mentioned it have also had this happen. I have felt this energy pulling on the group and it seems like the negative energy gave up a day or two ago because it realized it wasn't going to stop you people from coming. So I'm glad to see everyone here.
Some people here are worried about people at home. So, what I'd like to do is to do a group prayer together and send energies to all of our loved ones so that everyone here can be at peace within themselves, knowing that all of their loved ones are taken care of, wherever they are. I'll say the words then after I say them, everyone repeat them after me.
Our Father/Mother/God, hallowed be thy name
Let your presence be here upon the Earth as it is in heaven
Let our presence be in heaven as it is upon the Earth
May your spirit be one with our spirits
We call upon you with great faith
And send forth love to all mankind
We know that by the power of faith the innocent are protected
And we send this power to all of our loved ones
That they will be protected from harm
That their spirits will be elevated
That the love of God will surface in their hearts
That they will sense a fullness of joy on the horizon
That we all may be comforted in one
Through the One Spirit
Aumen, Aumen, Aaauuummmen
Aaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmenn
Copyright 2002 by J.J. Dewey, All Rights Reserved