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Evil, Devil, Judging

Posted on 30 October 2017, 12:45

In our convesations with the spirit of Stephen the Martyr, in the 1970s, we found him a wonderful spiritual counsellor.

Stephen: Michael, may I, before your questions, answer the question that you would have asked concerning evil, sin and other things which may trouble you from time to time. There is evil, unfortunately, and to tell what is evil is simplicity itself: anything that would put a barrier between yourself and your Lord, your God, is evil. This is evil in the true sense. Temptation to do a thing that you would wish not to do must be evil.

But let me give a word here in caution. Occupy your minds and thoughts with what is good, for that is to think positively. If you wish to find evil it takes less effort than to find good. This you probably recall from your own experience.

Michael: That was on my mind, and I am not surprised you knew it. Now would you confirm for me that I am correct in believing that there is no devil, in the sense of one head being, opposed to God?

Stephen:  This I will confirm, in the sense that you have stated. In reality the “Devil” or “Satan” is a collective state of mind, en masse, and has many manifestations. In groups large and small, devil can manifest. Your term “mob violence” is a manifestation of devil, but the opposite of devil can occur in groups, where there are manifestations of God. Therefore do not discount the devil, even though you should not think of him as an entity - the danger being that you will decide that Stephen is the devil!

Olive: I told someone about you Stephen and that was her immediate reaction. But I myself believe I know differently! Stephen, could you perhaps tell us what is meant by a body being possessed by the devil?

Stephen: Here we are dealing with certain entities. But firstly, at the time of history when this is mentioned mostly, it quite often referred to purely physical phenomena and sickness. But there is indeed possession by evil entities. Remember the guide to recognise evil: it is what would keep you and separate you and put a barrier between you and your God. Therefore, if there were a non-physical entity which possessed your mind, and used your mind and body for purposes of keeping you separate and stopping your development, or delaying your development towards your God, it would be demon-possession indeed.

In the Scriptures you will find that our Lord cast out these demons and even today many are possessed by demons.  Speak not ill of your brothers who cast out demons. Think not that it be their imaginings. Demon possession, which you enquire about, is more common than you would imagine. By their fruits shall you know them.

Section 40. Judging

Stephen: Be quite clear, your duty to God and your fellow man is simplicity in itself:

You should concern yourself only with your own actions towards others, and love sufficiently as did our Lord Jesus.

You will accept with love, as a gift, the actions that they would do unto you.

We must, for our own sakes, never decide for another what they should do to improve themselves.

We must forever be concerned only with what we must do, for we know what is right and what is wrong, that we do ourselves.

Someone speaks words that make us angry.

We would be wrong to think that the anger comes from those words. The words when they came from the other were just words. They were received and turned into anger by us.

If another speaks words that we judge as intolerance those words did not leave the mind or the heart of that other as intolerance; they were turned into intolerance by us.

We must say each time when we speak to another, “I must not sin. I must not judge. I must not anger. I must only love.”

To direct in physical things is not to judge, for the soldier who leads many men must, for the physical, make judgements for the physical by the physical.

Our Lord Jesus has said, “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” but in the judgement of the spiritual, this is the Father’s and we give you the judgement of the Father, for it is His to judge.

Our mind is but physical, therefore it may judge what is needed for the physical; our soul is of the Father and the Father judges the soul. Let not your physical mind judge the soul of another, for in doing so you are attempting to judge the Father.

Do not get confused between physical judgments and spiritual judgments. Separate them in your mind. For the spiritual, only ask through your heart for the Father to guide you yourself in the way that you must act. Never ask that He guide you to judge another in the way that they must act.

All of this that you have spoken tonight moved from one judgment to another judgment. Who was the lesser? Who was the greater? It is folly to ask the question, for you lack the necessary knowledge and judgment in any case gives no satisfaction to your heart.

The Father asks that you do not judge, for He loves you; for when you judge you take away the peace that He has given you. You lose the harmony that is His gift to you and you punish yourselves in your dissatisfaction.  For someone who is hungry cannot be filled by eating wood-dust, for he would not thrive and his throat would become dry.

Take only good grain that comes to you in truth, for this is the food of the Father.

Think of all these things that you have spoken this night, of the dissatisfaction that you have felt, of the confusion that has come to you, of the blindness and the shields that have come across your eyes.

The more that you have spoken the less you could see and the less was your understanding.

Had you instead looked inside yourselves and said, as you had done later in your prayers, “Am I giving love? How best can I love others?” I need not speak any more, for think of the two conversations - your previous one and the conversation of your prayers - what you felt in your heart - and then ask yourselves which was the chaff and which was the good grain? Feed yourselves only with this good grain and may God bless you.

41. More about Judging.

Olive: Perhaps you could go on a little further about judging.

Stephen: To truly judge is to act upon a decision.

Now I ask you this - have you indeed judged or perhaps, like a wise king, have you learned to seek advice before the final judgement is made?

For to judge is to act upon the decision or cause an action upon that decision.

Do not feel that you are guilty of judgement by listening to an opinion from yourself by reckoning the possibilities of what may, or may not, be so.

But once judged the decision is final.

Before the courts there are always two advocates and whilst in your mind the advocate for the defence still speaks then judgement has not been made, even upon you.

Fear not the argument or the case before the court, for each moment you must listen to arguments for and against all things, whether you should eat or not eat, move or stay where you are.
Until judgement is actually made on these things, no action is taken, therefore you have not yet judged. And as Thomas always likes a guideline that he may use, then I say this - you have not judged until you have acted.
Once more, now you think, you will also remember that you know.
 
At times my task is very satisfying in that I cannot be wrong in what I say to you; for these are things which, after I have said them, you know that you have known, and therefore I must always be right!

Olive: It is an enviable position!

Stephen: Have I to do a little more of my task? Call me, perhaps, your memory and you will understand me better and also the things that I must do.

Michael Webb.: Our memory spanning more than this incarnation

Stephen: You say “our memory” and this is the correct term, OUR memory.

Michael Webb: Thank you.

Stephen: At times, it would be confusing for all of our memory to be with us. So I listen to the argument for and against and I do not judge. Often there is neither refusal nor affirmation, but wonderful inaction only; my memory may be refreshed and the judgement passes from me. You are correct, I tease!

Michael Cocks edits the journal, The Ground of Faith.
Afterlife Teaching From Stephen the Martyr by Michael Cocks is published by White Crow Books and available from Amazon and other bookstores.

Paperback               Kindle


For more on Stephen go to www.thegroundoffaith.net/issues/2017-02

 


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Stephen the Martyr’s Prayer the key to enlightenment

Posted on 10 October 2017, 10:22

If we search our hearts, we may find Stephen’s prayer, simple as it is, the key to “enlightnment”, “being born again”, “bodhi” ….

“Lord, let me forget that I am me,
Let me know that I am with thee,
Let me not separate myself from thee,
Because I am me.”

God has been described as “That in whom we live and move and have our being.”  This is what the mystics of all religions have proclaimed, and is implied in the teaching of St John’s Gospel, and the mysticism of St Paul.  In other words there is nothing but “God”.  Quantum mechanics proclaims that the universe is a mental universe, and that the apparent solidity of matter.. is only apparent, atoms being largely composed of nothingness, and massive buildings can have radio passing through them as if they were not there.

The science of ecology reminds us how everything is dependent on everything else. Carbon dioxide released here has effects there.

US culture fosters a belief in rugged individualism, and conceives freedom as denying that we are all dependent on each other and the rest of the world.  That denial would be a good description of sin, or seeing ourselves as separate from, and independent from the whole.

The whole is a little like the Internet, and its cyberspace.  Ask it a question, and an answer comes immediately from millions of computers around the world, from who knows where? And who knows when or why the information was keyed in?

Richard Rohr describes sin as addiction, always denying the fundamental truth that we are “in God”.  It is only when we are in our personal “fox hole” that we “let go and let God”.

But when we do so, inspiration and love gush forth.
32.  Twenty-third psalm.

Stephen: I will not stay long, therefore I will just talk. You will find what I say will answer your questions, even though what I say you have often heard before, and often you have spoken:
     
Where you lead, I will follow:
if it be your will, then I will follow,
for you are my shepherd,
and you do lead me beside green pastures.
you do lead me beside still waters.
you will always lead as you have,
through death and through life,
and I am here because it is your will.
Teach me, O Father, more that I should follow you and not Look either to the right or to the left,
let me be one who would follow and walk in your footsteps.
Let me not be concerned with the fact
that I do not know where your steps lead,
only that I may trust and love you.
For if I do this, I need have no doubt
of the destination being according to your will.
For where else would your steps lead me, other than the path that you yourself travel on my behalf, that I may follow.
If I know this, then surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell with you.
Sometimes on this path I may feel the cold of the wind,
and if I look to the left and see those
that stand by my left hand,
I may wish that I be with them.
Other times I may look at those on my right hand,
and I may wish that I were with them.
But always, Father, my foot is drawn and I must follow.
Let me see that where my feet are drawn,
this is not penance, but my path.
God bless you both.

Jesus: Your fruits are your own integrity, not the action of others. Let us be judged by the Father and not by ourselves.

30. Salvation.       

Michael: Could you talk of Salvation? Could you narrow things to this question, to clarify in my mind the meaning of this word?

Stephen: Salvation, to use the concept which we used earlier:

Salvation is to be saved from being stagnant:
to keep the purity and the clearness.
Do not mistake the word ‘purity’,
For as with sin, purity is a relative matter.
To flow and to progress, to be at the point where you are now and to continue further to the points
where you were or shall be.
To come eventually back to the Source
with the mis-arrangements rearranged,
The Christian message is clear on Salvation.
For Christians, this can be the only concept.
Think of this though.
Before the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus,
the Christ, all will not be Christians,
And yet Christians and non-Christians
Will be saved alike according to their purity,
according to their lack of sin,
according to their love,
for this is the message that even you would understand as   Christians from your own Scriptures.
The Lord himself said:
that even though they may be Gentiles,
if they feel the way of the Light,
and are faithful to this way,
and are pure in their heart,
and they love others as they love themselves,
they shall have a greater call on salvation
than the priests and them that keep the law, but in their hearts sin against their name, and against themselves.
When you have all come to trust me more,
I shall speak further of these things, not just I, but those that you will listen to;
but first be sure in your own hearts that you wish to hear,
and that you understand whence this comes. Bless you all, and pray for me.

Michael Cocks edits the journal, The Ground of Faith.
Afterlife Teaching From Stephen the Martyr by Michael Cocks is published by White Crow Books and available from Amazon and other bookstores.

Paperback               Kindle


For more on Stephen go to www.thegroundoffaith.net/issues/2017-02


Read comments or post one of your own
 
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“Life After Death – The Communicator” by Paul Beard – If the telephone rings, naturally the caller is expected to identify himself. In post-mortem communication, necessitating something far more complex than a telephone, it is not enough to seek the speakers identity. One needs to estimate also as far as is possible his present status and stature. This involves a number of factors, overlapping and hard to keep separate, each bringing its own kind of difficulty. Four such factors can readily be named. Read here
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