Episode:Jesus Goes Public—Preparation and Preaching (Part 15)

From Symmetry of Soul


Jesus said: “You can experience spirit unity in the joy of your united dedication to the wholehearted doing of the will of my Father in heaven. You do not have to see alike or feel alike or even think alike in order spiritually to be alike. Spiritual unity is derived from the consciousness that each of you is indwelt, and increasingly dominated, by the spirit gift of the heavenly Father.”

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Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, Spiritual Unity, The Father’s Will, Born of the Spirit

Opening thought: The Lord speaking to Job out of the whirlwind: Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—while the morning stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for glory? —Job 38:4

Closing thought: Spend some time reflecting and discovering the substance—the foundation—of the real inner life.

Note: Justin Armstrong filled in for Andrea Barnes this week. David Tucker called in to ask a question—he co-hosted with us a couple of times some years ago (10/13/2015 and 10/20/2015)

Summary by Kermit

Commentary after Review

The question (mystery of mysteries) of how the pure and perfect indwelling Father presence can function in the partial and imperfect human mind came up for discussion. The inner life into which Jesus is attempting to move his followers is characterized by unity. The spiritual Father’s unity presence connects to the creature through the truths of eternity even in the presence of the individualities of the creature nature. Thus instead of the uniformity of individuality serving as a standard of purity, is it the quality of unity that so serves.

The distinction between error and evil is important to grasp and maintain. Whereas error is disruptive to one’s connection with fact, it does not disrupt one’s cosmic individuality. However, evil marks entrance on a dangerous path of disruption of one’s connection to goodness (unity). Proper engagement with both fact and goodness are prerequisites to the engagement of truth.

Listen to the archive for further discussion of error and evil, involving the Divine Minister and her super-absolute function by virtue of her 3rd source personality wherein she is able to confer personal influence on creature energy systems prior to observable personality function.

141:5 Spiritual Unity

James Zebedee inquired of Jesus how the apostles might learn to see alike and thereby enjoy greater harmony among themselves. Jesus’ most energetically and emphatically asserted that uniformity of belief and viewpoint was never part of his teaching. It is spirit unity Jesus requires of those who would serve in establishing his Father’s kingdom. Herein lies one of the greatest dangers in the religious life of today’s professed religionists. This danger is the substitution of outer life uniformity of conduct for the personal religious experience in the inner life. The secret of apostolic harmony Jesus declares is found in recognition that the spirit hope of the Father’s indwelling is identical in origin, nature, and destiny.

Uniformity of religious practice results in a moralism, whereas unity of religious experience is concerned only with learning and doing the will of the Father. Doing the Father’s will is not a prescribed outer life conduct, but requires transcending the natural individuality of the mind’s material nature, the world of things. It is above this world of things one can find the realization of divine fellowship, which leads to the desire to do good to others, the divine ideal of love.

Mutual consciousness of the literal presence of the spirit fragment is the secret of the experience of unity of spirit purpose while coexisting with a diversity of attitudes, thinking, feeling and conduct. Spirit unity implies a common motive for service and a common goal to find God and become like him.

The Master repeatedly counseled his believers to avoid creating dogma and standardized interpretations about him. But alas we have the Christian Church as evidence of the early followers’ failure to follow his counsel.

141:6 Last Week at Amathus

Jesus utilized Simon Zelotes’ initial failure to bring the Persian (Zoroastrian) Teherma into the kingdom to present the progressive steps to be followed in shepherding seekers into the kingdom. Simon’s attempts to persuade Teherma to give up his religious symbolism in coming to the kingdom met with failure. Jesus reminded Simon their purpose was to give seekers spiritual food for the soul as opposed to the removal of error. Simon, following Jesus’ directions, successfully welcomed Teherma into the kingdom. Jesus further instructed the apostles: first introduce men to God as sons. Upon their acceptance of sonship (born of the spirit), then can further instruction regarding advancement within the kingdom be undertaken.

141:7.1-5 At Bethany Beyond Jordan

The choice of itinerary of Jesus, the twelve, and a large group of followers underscores the continuity of Jesus’ public ministry with that of the Baptist, revisiting the ford of the Jordan where John first proclaimed the new kingdom.

During their four-week sojourn Jesus took Peter, James, and John for a three days’ rest for special instruction. Jesus desired that his apostles by their lives would attract men and women to inquire concerning the ways of the kingdom and seek entrance thereto. Their only job was to reveal God as the Father to the individual man, and then present him to God as a faith son. And as rewards for entering the kingdom they would find spiritual joy and divine communion in this world and in the next, eternal life in progress of the divine realities of the Paradise Father.

Notes by Brad

  • You can still grapple with error and obtain spiritual unity.
    • Error is unavoidable by immature beings. Even a Melchizedek entertains error (problems of fact).
    • But if evil is in your inner life? Not so much. Evil disrupts unity.
    • Evil doesn't ruin your by-grace innate connection to goodness. But evil is still a problem.
  • This author was reminded of Zeal is not God—ZING, as a common misconception that throws us off the trail from the genuine inner life.
    • A clever species of self-deception for sure.
    • But not as problematic as the secular ideas he allowed graduate school to poison him with.
      • But by the grace of God, he got better.
  • These are dark, secular times in the outer life. All the more our inner life light can shine.
    • "Man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips." —V. Frankl
    • The inner life require another substance to so shine: spirit substance. And you must have the ability to wield that substance on your mind
    • You have no control over how matter affects your mind, but you have complete control over what happens in the upper domain in the hourglass analogy of mind.


  • Note spirit unity, not spiritual unity. A rare time they use the phrase "spirit unity," to emphasize the literalness of this.
    • In the outer life we see individuality for what it is. My body is me, not you, for example.
    • Spirit substance is different. No dimples, no holes, rock solid. Continuum-ness. And it's a reality.
    • Spirit is a substance, and value is a property of that substance.
      • See [7:1.3] for the literal reality of spirit substance. "Spirit is the soul of creation, matter is a shadow"
    • Unity is continuum-ness.


  • Centering prayer can be a technique for cultivating the inner life.
    • But stay focused. Don't fuzz out per the [100:5.9] stern warning: "The characteristics of the mystical state are diffusion of consciousness with vivid islands of focal attention operating on a comparatively passive intellect. All of this gravitates consciousness toward the subconscious..."
    • The inner life is a whole new world you add to your living. And you can be really living by exploring the tension between these two worlds.



  • The only proper proselytyzing introduction: "Did you know God exists, and you are a son of God?" Everything else follows from this.
    • This author sighs heavily thinking about (a) how many doors would slam in your face these days with this introduciton, nad (b) how many earnest proselytizers don't start with this simple intro, but instead start with deep doctrinal stuff (c.g., Jehaovah's Witnesses)


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