Episode:Jesus Goes Public—Precaution and Preaching (Part 4)

From Symmetry of Soul


Jesus taught the twelve: “Prayer is entirely a personal and spontaneous expression of the attitude of the soul toward the spirit; prayer should be the communion of sonship and the expression of fellowship. The ideal prayer is a form of spiritual communion which leads to intelligent worship. True praying is the sincere attitude of reaching heavenward for the attainment of your ideals.”

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Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, Discourse on Prayer, The Believer’s Prayer, Effective Prayer

Opening thought: Civilizations are unstable because they are not cosmic; they are not innate in the individuals of the races. They must be nurtured by...science, morality, and religion. Civilizations come and go, but science, morality, and religion always survive the crash. [16:9.5]

Summary by Kermit

Commentary after Review

Speculation as to possible scenarios underlying the midwayer comment about the work of Jesus and the twelve in yielding many souls for the kingdom in their work among the Samaritans led to a profitable discussion about fact and truth. Two scenarios explaining the comments revolved around the intended meaning of the midwayers’ use of the word “soul”. We know they use the word to mean the fact of the morontia object which survives death. They also use soul to designate the spiritualized mind initiated upon encircuitment in the Holy Spirit, a soul in truth if not fact. Listen to the full discussion in the archive for an exploration of the larger implications of an oft’ encountered error of fixation on fact which leads to philosophic materialism and the exclusion of value, thus crippling any possibility of finding truth. Fact and value in harmonious interplay are the essential ingredients to discovering and recognizing truth.

The discussion moved to a consideration of the mental progression essential for the recognition of moral values and the discernment of spiritual meanings—discover, recognize, interpret, and choose. Direct interpretation of a discovered fact without reflective recognition leads to false interpretations. The reflective recognition step involves the consideration of the parts (facts) in their relation to the whole (cosmos). This in turn demands a top down (whole to part) perspective. In other words regard the discovered parts from the vantage point of the whole. Skipping the recognition step is tantamount to embracing Lucifer’s assertion that mind is infallible.

144:1 The Gilboa Encampment

With the passage of time the apostles became more devoted to Jesus, primarily as an expression of their personal loyalty inasmuch as they did not grasp his many-sided teaching, his true nature, nor the significance of his bestowal on earth. Jesus’ force and charm of personality was powerful enough to attract and hold the loyalty if not the comprehension of the twelve. Now the 5th ER being a book, presents us with manifold more sided teachings without a dynamic personality to focus and help bridge the comprehension gap between its teachings and devotees.

These two months of retirement were for the purpose of bolstering their understanding and faith in the gospel of the kingdom, give time for opposition in Judea and Galilee to cool down, and await the fate of the Baptist. The Master used this time for sharing details of his early life, as well as details about the happenings during both his retreat on Mt. Hermon and his post baptismal retreat in the Perean Hills. He enjoined their confidentiality of such matters until his ascension. No doubt this delay in sharing of these matters accounts for the gospel conflation of these two events. Herein we see an example of the revelation serving to coordinate essential knowledge.

The midwayers provide a snapshot of the states of mind of the apostles, testifying to their above-mentioned lack of comprehension of the kingdom of heaven, which they were so soon to go forth proclaiming in earnest.

Jesus spent much of this time alone on the mountain near camp accompanied by the three intimates, or alone to pray or commune. We discussed the nature of Jesus’ communion inasmuch as his being post-human. Neither prayer nor worship accurately describe Jesus’ personal communion with his Father. We turned to [5:2.2] for explanation. Paradise Sons always have access to the presence of God (the right hand of the Father). Creatures have access to the bosom of the Father, the personality circuit. Listen again to the archive for detailed discussion of SoS’s interpretation of the physics of these transactions involving Mother Deity.

With the central theme of the entire first month of their retirement being prayer and worship it is no surprise that Thomas besought the Master to teach them how to pray. The twelve were desirous of having a simple petition to teach the multitude as had the Baptist. Jesus did not fully approve of set and formal prayers.

144:2 The Discourse on Prayer

Jesus made it clear that the prayers taught by John for the multitudes were not intended for the personal spontaneous expressions the soul in prayer. The Master further taught that the ideal prayer leads to intelligent worship. The spiritual path of prayer and thanksgiving leading to worship finds correspondence in the moving up the levels of meaning from the 4th level of meaning to the 6th level of meaning. This represents reaching up for divine, spiritual, and eternal ideals not outward for human, material, and temporal solutions to man’s cosmic problems.

Jesus told two stories illustrating the necessity and value of persistence in prayer. Such persistence is in the attempt to ascertain the Father’s will and not in the hope of persuading God to bend the universe your favor. Persistent prayer seeks to change the prayer’s attitude and increase the soul’s capacity for spiritual receptivity.

144:3 The Believer’s Prayer

The apostles persisted in their request that Jesus teach them a model prayer for the new disciples, and he obliged with the believer’s prayer, which has come down to us today with modifications as the Lord’s Prayer.

Considerable discussion was had around the “Give us this day our bread for tomorrow” line and the strange Greek word which intriguingly shows up for the first time in the language. Here again I ask the eager student to listen to the archive for the details of this discussion.

Jesus taught his own five favorable conditions for effective prayer, that they must be: unselfish, believing, sincere, intelligent and trustful.