Episode:Jesus in Galilee—Early Public Work (Part 3)

From Symmetry of Soul


Many resort to prayer only when in trouble. True, you do well to pray when harassed, but you should also be mindful to speak as a son to your Father even when all goes well with your soul. Let your real petitions always be in secret. Do not let men hear your personal prayers. Prayers of thanksgiving are appropriate for groups of worshipers, but the prayer of the soul is a personal matter.

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Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, Prayer, Thanksgiving, Worship

Summary by Kermit

Commentary on the Review

A caller inquired concerning the term “gifts of the spirit” in item #9 of the summary of Jesus’ teachings about prayer, thanksgiving, and worship. I Corinthians 12 enumerates the gifts of the spirit which in addition to wisdom, knowledge, and faith include outer life demonstrations of various spiritual powers and capabilities. Until the advent of the 5th ER mankind had almost no comprehension of spirit. Fancy mind phenomena were and still are routinely misinterpreted as spirit facts. Our following discussion went on to attempt to elucidate the threefoldness of cosmic reality and the role of mind energy and activity in its interplay with the substances of matter and spirit under the aegis of personality (free will). As always the archive contains the details. Note Jesus’ emphasis on praying in the spirit and not fixated on our external life in the material environment.

146:2.12

Item #11. Jesus characterizes praying only when in trouble as thoughtless and misleading. Our discussion as to the why and how of this is worth listening to again and demonstrates the often unrecognized depth of meanings contained in the 5th ER.

In light of our understanding that the Universal Father is purely existential, how can we possibly speak to the Father as a son? Deeper deliberation led us to consider that the gifts of personality and Thought Adjusters, each of which actually represents an existential gift of His Deity, and enable us to attempt synchronization with existential Deity, our connection with eternity and spirit (true religion). For it is this existential connection which gives meaning to things temporal. And it is in time that we work out the details of living with experiential Mother Deity.

Item #12. The revelators use two parallel passages from different Psalms to emphasize the salutary effect of seeking divine help in purifying the higher mind. Jesus suggests that seeking divine aid (indwelling spirit) in the mastery of the self concerning careless and offending speech is surely more efficacious than internal repressive recriminations.

Item #13. Here we find more parallel construction elucidating the meanings in his teachings. Praying in the spirit is explained as praying sincerely, wholeheartedly, and earnestly. Praying in truth equivilates according to one’s enlightenment, intelligently, and steadfastly.

Item #14. Jesus exhorted his believers to employ prayer as a means of leading up through thanksgiving to true worship. In our discussion we noted that worship involves synchronizing with Deity, not communicating with a being. Jesus warned that the efficacy of prayer has nothing to do with ornate repetitions, eloquent phraseology, and outward demonstrations of self-abasement, and self-denial.

Item #15. Concerning the common needs of our earthly life, Jesus recommended spreading out your needs before your Father in Heaven, and in the spirit of thanksgiving, adoration, and praise abandon any anxiety concerning them. Our discussion centered around the idea that praying for material gifts is hardly recommended, yet the process of giving thanks and praise can lead to previously unrecognized insights that can in turn lead to finding solutions for earthly problems.

Item #16. The culmination of genuine prayer is attained in true worship (synchronizing with Deity), which is transcendent of the finite, ultimately attaining the presence of the infinite.

Jesus’ teachings concerning man’s communion with God were beyond the full comprehension of his apostles. In like manner are the truths of the 5th ER advanced beyond man’s current capacity for full appreciation.

Notes by Brad

  • What are gifts of the spirit, anyway?
    • Well, start by recognizing most humans have only ever at best been dualistic. We are body, mind, and spirit.
    • Aim higher. Don't set the bar too low. Don't call something spirit that is only some special form of fancy mind. We talk about this often.
      • Feelings are in the mind, for example. They are forms, shapes, in the mind energy system.
    • The 5th ER asks us to make a break with the past, with those old wineskins.
    • So, given that, what could a gift of the spirit possibly be?
    • Matter and spirit both impose a stimulus on your mind. Your personality and sovereign free will can affect how spirit imposes itself on your mind.
      • You do not of course have sovereignty over the matter affecting your mind--the outer life. Though mind can somewhat dominate matter.
    • We have the potential to wield our mind with spirit. A gift of many-faceted potentials.
      • But creativity and destructivity paired in equal measure always.
    • But we aren't in the universe alone with spirit energy. Many other personalities work with it.
  • So, again, what might gifts of the spirit be?
    • Well, common sense, the 1st cosmic intuition, is a gift of the spirit.
    • It's something that liberates you from being a helpless victim of antecedent causation.
    • It's imposing something unnatural on your mind.
    • It isn't the list of fancy-outer-life doings in 1 Corinthians. It is not a list of things I display to the outer life.
    • It's a gift to your mind, not a gift from you to the world at large.
    • But take care: an unnatural form can be a negative form instead of a positive form. That's evil: badness formed in the mind.
      • You're not naturally humble. You're not naturally prideful. Humility and pride are spiritual impositions (not just animal arrogance). Pride is very dangerous.



  • As in depth as we are going into prayer, try to avoid scientific analysis of prayer. Genuine prayer is a genuine religious phenomenon.
  • A genuine prayer must be purely spiritual in nature in order to be "caught up" by spirit gravity.


  • Thanksgiving is not about wonderful food or parking spots. Genuine thanksgiving is borne of a purely spiritual prayer.
    • "Thank you God that I'm not a helpless victim of antecedent causation."


  • Praying when only in trouble? Thoughtless. Misleading. Ouch.
    • Why thoughtless? Because the Life Carriers design makes you "execute" that essentially as a fancy machine.
      • "There are no atheists in a foxhole" as they say. This is why.
    • Why misleading? The mis- prefix is not a gentle prefix. It means wrong--a spirit word.
    • But praying when in trouble, while automatic, is not inherently evil (otherwise it would not have been designed into us). Being mindful is key.


  • Why should one speak as a son to the Father, when the Father is existential and absolutely changeless?
    • Well, it helps you to discover that existential nucleus within yourself--your personality.
    • It helps you to stop bobbing about in the stream of temporal events.


  • Doing the Father's will... well, if he and his will are not related to time, what does that mean his will is?
    • So what job, spouse, etc should I have? "Go ask your mother," says God the Father!
    • So why not "pray to God the mother?" Because you must find your existential nucleus first. Predicate yourself on eternity.
      • Seek first your existential foundation.
      • And you must fear not. Because fear will break your hold on the existential nucleus.
      • "I cannot turn off my fear, my other master." No, but you can CHOOSE to plant your feet on the cosmos, not fear.
      • And do that, fear will become focus.
      • This takes courage. And independence. Lots of people will think you're out of your mind. And in a sense, your feet are outside of the lower domain of your mind.


  • "Create in me a clean heart"--yes, the upper domain of mind int eh hourglass analogy. It's not innately clean. You're sovereign there. You can pollute it.
  • Can you reflect on a classic Psalm instead of just rattling it off like a platitude?
  • "Secret sins". What? Unconscious choices? You bet. Those are in the heart--the upper domain--if it's polluted through your free will.


  • There isn't anything that naturally comes out of your mouth (or your social-media feed) that the world really needs to hear.
    • Only what you can bring in that is unnatural--absolutely unique--that is helpful.
    • It's prideful to think otherwise.
  • You cannot have a relationship with the cosmos using only body and mind. It is a triunity. You need body, mind, and spirit.
    • Mind and matter are there naturally. Focus on what is not so natural for a material identity to connect with... spirit.
    • Allow a quest for spirit to be a part of your life.
    • Don't short circuit (as we so often say here) by setting the bar too low. Don't falsely exalt mind to the level of spirit.
    • Even if you don't know what spirit is, stay humble and confess you know what it isn't.
    • Don't be satisfied with outward feeling-ful manifestations. Seek what's at the core.


  • Magnificent music is one thing, but it isn't everything. A person's music isn't an eternal fact you should really want to get to know.
    • Pianos will pass away. Can you get to know the artist behind the music?


  • Common needs? Don't throw out material needs whole cloth. Try to abstract the spiritual from them. And pray in spirit at that abstracted level.
    • Ask for right spirit within you, so that you can rearrange your outer life molecules as you need.
    • Very often you don't need anything material. You need to only properly (reflectively) use what already has been given to you.