FEAR

( Part 1 of 2 )

I trust everyone had a good week and that we all learned a little something from our last message.  Hopefully we have ingrained this humble perspective into our minds and released any of the natural human arrogance we may have, we are now ready to continue on our journey. To ‘walk our spiritual journey’ means first and foremost that we must become familiar with our ‘Self.’ 

Our Self-Awareness is the seed that blossoms into final liberation. Once we become familiar with our own selves and understand not only how we operate in this physical world (or dimension) but in the spiritual world as well, then we can objectively look at our lives and see where we need to change. Once we understand where we need to change, we can then develop the burning desire to change in the areas we have identified. The last step of this process of self-discovery is to actually CHANGE.

In starting this process it is important we understand our greatest stumbling block. So today I want to talk about fear.  I cannot stress enough that FEARis a very important subject in our Spiritual growth because it is the very "thing" that will interfere with and block our spiritual path ahead.  We all must overcome our fears so that we can proceed along our journey unhindered and be able to move as fast as possible.  WE, each of us, are the only ones who can determine how fast our spiritual journey will unfold.  No one else can do that for us. It is ONLY fear that will put on our spiritual brakes, or grind us to a halt. Learning about fear, intimately, is also part of our becoming self-aware, and figuring out WHY it is that we do the things we do... or not do. 

In this week's message I will talk about fear in GENERAL, how to help us become aware of what fear truly is, how it works and how it affects our lives. Today’s message should lay the foundation for next week’s message when we discuss our fear in the Spiritual sense and how it has crippled our SPIRITUAL growth and continues to do so.  

Let’s try to understand fear and maybe learn to overcome a few this week. Knowing about fear will be vital to us in our spiritual journeybecause we will come face to face with several fears as we continue to study and learn spiritually. If we are not equipped to handle fear, then either we will grind to a halt in our spiritual growth, or we will revert to a previous state of denial.  There’s no way to know for sure, but we may not have another opportunity to liberate our SPIRITUAL nature like we do now.

So what is fear?  Is it friend or foe... or maybe both?

Today, fear still serves a few good purposes in rare instances but it is in fact our ultimate enemy who has imprisoned us. It is fear that keeps us in shackles. It is fear that stands between us and our spiritual liberation. It is fear that separates us from the truth and it is fear that causes us so much pain and strife here on earth. It is also fear that builds the separation in the personal relationship between our Creator and ourselves.  

Here in the physical realm, or rather... while our consciousness is focused in the physical realm, our true spiritual nature and our connection to God can lay deeply buried and locked inside. Fear is the gatekeeper, it is the very door of the cell where our true spiritual nature lays hidden or imprisoned.

Once we learn to understand fear, with God’s help we can overcome it. Once we overcome fear, we truly set our spiritual divine nature free to rise to the surface and blossom like a delicate flower. (I like to think of a rose.  How each of us is ‘Becoming a Rose’, the title of the book I am writing.) Before this can happen though, we will have to start overcoming fears, we will have to break through many doors and walls to this prison cell.  Once we start breaking out of this cell we and our society, our tribe, have put us in and get past the first fear, the rest will happen automatically. We simply repeat the "overcoming" process at every block we encounter, until we are finally free.

Let’s imagine for a moment that we are the spiritual part of ourselves and shift our consciousness and our vision from our physical bodies to our spiritual bodies. (Remember we are spiritual beings having a temporary physical experience.)  Now let’s imagine our spiritual selves locked away in a prison cell, deep inside our physical selves. We have been here far too long and the time has come to set our spiritual selves free. This prison no longer serves us. It is no longer a convenient hiding place. The time has come to walk our spiritual path and do our work. So there we are a veteran of this place and we find in our hand several pieces of wire. We start picking at the lock of this cell door. We are tired of being imprisoned.  We want to be free. We want to soar through God's glorious creation, not be stuck here in this dark and damp little cell. We ask for help from God and His many helpers and they come to our aid instantly. The lock on the cell door goes "click". The door.... is open!!!

From this first success we have learned how to open a lock.  So when we get to the next locked door we simply repeat the process, as it is all the same. We will repeat the process at every locked door until we are finally free from this "fear" prison. Once free, our Spirit can soar and again be its true nature.

So how do we learn to open these locks?

The concept is fairly simple. Each locked door in this prison is made of fear. To unlock the door we must overcome that fear. All we need to do now is learn "how" to overcome the fear that represents our imaginary prison cell. If we overcome one fear, we can do it again. Once we learn the technique of overcoming fear, then it is a simple process to repeat it until we have overcome all our fears.

Naturally there are some fears that might serve a good purpose. But by far most of our fears are destructive and they must be overcome if we want to be spiritually free. We cannot let our Spirit be trapped by fear if it is to ‘soar’?

As an example, many people seem to have a fear of dying. Why is that?

It is because they don’t know for sure or understand what happens when a person ‘dies’.  Just because most people in this world fear death does NOT make the fear of death natural, normal or right. Dying is a natural process of life. (I haven’t heard of any escaping it yet.) Death is the completion of one experience and the start of a different experience. Death is not the end of a life.  It is simply passing from one spiritual phase of life to another.  It is a lot like any other passage in life from baby to child, child to teen, teen to adult, adult to senior and so on.  We are in a temporary physical existence.  We are here to learn to experience and then to move on to the next lesson.   Death is the end of this ‘physical’ illusion. It is the re-awakening to the real nature of our existence, our spirit selves. It is a liberation of the spirit and as such a joyous occasion celebration of life.

Have you ever heard the saying that we should celebrate the ‘passing on’ of someone instead of mourning their loss. When you think about it, too much mourning is a bit selfish. Yes, we must honor our emotions and feelings of loss but there should be a limit, and we must notforget about their liberation. I tell my family if we mourn someone too long we are refusing to let them go and we prevent them from continuing on their spiritual journey. We keep them trapped here with us and essentially they can become trapped and not go to the light or they can become trapped between worlds. “So when it is time, you must let me go,” I say.

Why do we have any fears at all? What purpose does fear serve?

Well, let's look at this for a second...

We humans live by a simple rule...   If you don't know it and you don’t understand it, then fear it.

It would have been better if the rule said: If you don't know it, be careful and proceed with caution and for heaven's sake, learn from other people's mistakes. Such a rule would have made things so much simpler today. 

Human arrogance and greed played a great role in manifesting fear as part of modern day consciousness, and it started way back in history. As a society we learned to fear what we do not know... and then we proceeded to outdo ourselves: 

    >> We learned to fear what we do not understand << 

and then we outdid ourselves again: 

    >> We learned to fear everything that is not familiar <<

Arrogance and greed entered into the picture when people realized they could enslave nations using fear.  Fear became a powerful tool used to force millions of people to the will of only a few. Let’s face it traditional religions are the worst culprits in this regard. Even in Caesar's time religion dictated policy and governments and throughout many ages executed the will of the high priests and the monastic orders.  

Visa Versa, governments also used religion to manipulate the masses, scaring people to death with their punishments and damnation. Torturing people for perceived evil, or in many cases, simply because they did not comply with the ruler's will, they were declared to be evil and so death by torture or fire was ordered.  The Bible discussions we’ve been having come to mind.  It is God’s law (not man’s law) that defines what ‘sin’ is.  Sin is the transgression fo God’s law.  Man’s law can be in accordance with God’s law but as witness many times in the past it was not.  In many cases man’s law was crated out of greed and power hunger.

What a powerful image by which to force the masses to submit to their will. All those who dare speak against them were said to be evil, just by their word and would be burned alive or stoned or tortured. These are powerful motivators and people had no choice but to submit. People had to accept fear as part of their every day existence. In the names of religion and government, humanity has committed more crime and violence than any other aspect of humanity. You’ve heard the old expression “so much harm and hurt done in the name of God.

Have we learned anything good from history?  Have we at least learnedWHAT NOT TO DO?

People learned that they could manipulate others with this amazing device/emotion called fear. They could bend other people to their will by exposing them to fear and making fear part of their daily lives. The ultimate control was of course: "Abide by my will and you have nothing to fear but... cross me and I will be your worst nightmare."  Fear has been ingrained in our minds. Society has taught fear for as long as we can trace history. No one seems to know any better and so parents have taught fear to their children over hundreds of generations. Fear has become part of our limited consciousness.  

It is so ingrained that we experience it as an automatic response... 

We have come to fear almost everything by default. We fear everything we do not understand, at least until it becomes familiar. This is the general fear, the instinctive fear we must overcome. For the sake of our own growth, we MUST overcome it. 

This fear we have of everything we do not understand does nothing for us but slows us down, or grinds us to a screeching halt. Then it simply anchors us to the closest rock. Our Spirit is meant to soar, to fly, not be chained to a rock.  

We live in a modern world where we have countless choices.  We no longer need to fear lions unless we choose to hunt them and pull on their tails. See... we do have a choice. Another example: How many of us fear becoming a victim of crime? Well we can pray and we can protect ourselves.  We can even get up and  move somewhere else where it is safer. Again, choices... 

In today's modern world we can finally rewrite the old belief and turn it into common wisdom. Let's decide to NOT fear everything we do not understand. Let us rather proceed with caution, a healthy respect for something we are unfamiliar with and just use common sense.

But still, deep inside we all have the fear of the unknown, the fear of that which we do not understand.  How can we overcome such fear?  

    It is easy.  Learn to understand it. 

Again, let's repeat what we have just read and understand what we have just read, for it is the key that opens the cell door. 

   We fear everything that we do not understand. More correctly...
   We fear everything we have not grown used to.
   If something is unfamiliar to us, we fear it... 

So how do we deal with fear? 

Once we face up to this "something" which we fear, then we "deal with it". We get through it no matter how hard it is to do so. Overcoming fear is seldom a pleasant experience, but we get through it. Once we get through it, we know what that something we feared is all about. We have learned to understand it. We understand because we have been through it, we experienced it first hand, face to face.  

So we have confronted a fear and it was not too nice, but now we know what it is about. We have been through it once. We can understand it better. The second time we go through this process of facing our fear, we will know it even more. It won’t seem as threatening as it once was. We’ll do it again, a third time. The third time will be even easier and faster, as we are now becoming familiar with this one fear. Do this thing we fear 20 times and it becomes ordinary. Something we understand well, something we know how to deal with. It becomes second nature and guess what...

    WE NO LONGER FEAR IT !!!!

I remember the first time I lost a job.  It was scary and fear played a factor because I didn’t know what was going to happen and I feared what might happen.  I prayed about it, God teach me to not fear this way.  (You know what they say: be careful what you pray.)  I went through losing a job about 11 times in the next four years.  I didn’t fear it any more.  I knew all the ends and outs and I also knew God was taking care of everything.

Once we understand fear and know how it works, we can overcome any fear just by going through the above process. Some fears we do not have to overcome by facing them head-on, like the fear of prison for example. We do not need to commit a crime to in fact go to prison, just because we want to overcome that fear. We have to be sensible too. We are referring to other fears of a more general nature. These fears can be overcome and will add much richness to our life because it opens doors to so many experiences that can be fun and fulfilling. 

Here are a few examples: 

1) The first time each of us tried to swim, we had a fear of water and the fear that we might drown. It was unfamiliar territory but billions of other people had overcome this fear and now they delight in the fact that they can be like a fish in water. Have we?

2) How about the first time one of us learned to ride a bicycle or the first time we drove a car? Or the first time we tried on roller skates or ice skates? Try to remember the environment in which we learned these skills. Was it a trusting and supportive environment? Did someone we trust help us with it? What was it that supported us as we conquered that fear?  How did we manage to overcome certain fears like this in our lives and what feelings did we have at the time. The process is the same for all fear. It is a tough world but it is also an amazing experience... if we let it be.  

To most people these few basic examples were overcome long ago. Since then we have done them a thousand times and now they are second nature to us. We don’t even think about it.

Next week I’ll do a part TWO of "Fear" we will examine what role fear plays in our spiritual development, or the lack thereof.

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 Our Mission This Week
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1) TODAY: In your Spirit journal, write one sentence about EACH of your fears no matter what they are. Yes, all of them. One word is not enough. You need to write at least one sentence or even better, one paragraph about each of your fears. Write only about one fear on one page. Use a new page for the 2nd fear and so on. Also, leave quite a bit of empty space below each fear because you will be adding notes to each during the week. 

2) Now that you have identified your fears and put each to paper, they are in the spotlight for examination. During the week, re-read this message in view of the fears you have written down.  In this way you learn to understand the nature of fear and how to overcome it.

3) Re-read your list of fears and think about them. How do they make you feel? Why do you have them? Are they rational? Why is it that so many other people, maybe even billions have overcome "this" fear and yet you have not? Make a few notes about your thoughts below each one of your fears. 

4) Now try to imagine what you are missing out on because you have this fear. Look at the richness of the human experience, of life, and try to see what so many other people have learned to enjoy and even depend on, because they no longer have this fear. Look at each of your fears and write a short paragraph about what you may be missing out on. "Nothing" is NOT an answer. It must be something positive. Imagine what other people enjoy because they do not have this fear. If there is very little positive about it, then write down how it would make you feel to overcome this fear and what would life be like to live without this nagging fear. As long as it is something positive write it all down and re-read it often.  

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We will become intimately close to our fears while we go through the above process. We should not try to do it all in one night, but remember it is a process. We should do it each day. We may have new revelations on the fifth day that we did not have on the first. This is because we will have had so much time to process our feelings and thoughts in our sub conscious minds. So let’s do a little on each fear every day. Let’s at least re-read the notes we have written. Some new thoughts may come to us even months from now. When it does, let’s just write it down below each fear. 

We want come to understand our fears objectively and maybe even develop a desire to overcome some of our fears when we think about what we are missing out on. Let’s think of the joy of swimming and playing in water like a deliriously happy little fish, compared to the fear of water for example. Let’s imagine it... live it in our minds. Just maybe we will feel compelled to try it in the real world, in a safe environment of course. 

There are certain ways to overcome each fear, to come face to face with it in a "safe" environment. We might talk to a psychologist before we act on any of our fears. We should always have someone we trust present that can help us overcome our fear.  Using swimming as an example again... We need a shallow pool and someone that knows how to swim very well to help us. We need someone who will be patient and understanding of our fears. Someone we can trust to help us. 

Then it will be up to us alone to take that first step and face up to our fear. We can even choose before hand that it will be a pleasant experience to do so. Let’s allow ourselves to step through the fear and then overcome it once and for all with regular repetition. We must do it slowly the first few times. Then do it 50 times in a short time, not just once. Doing it once now and then again in 6 months will not help us overcome a fear, it will only re-enforce it. We need to do it over and over again in one session, as it will be easier to overcome it NOW than if we wait 3 months in between our attempts.  

If we do it until it becomes familiar, it will soon enough become second nature. Above all... WE MUST BE SAFE !!!

There are some fears in each of us that may seem to be totally irrational and inexplicable. We don't know why we have them or where they come from and no one seems able to tell us. Sometimes fears relate to traumatic incidents that happened long ago and the memory could simply be blocked out by the mind. A big sign that says: "DON'T GO THERE, I am not ready to deal with that as it was too traumatic".  Someone else, like family members are usually aware of most traumatic incidents, so there are explanations for some fears. 

But we do have some fears that cannot be explained. Not by an incident our family remembers and not by a psychologist. It would be but a guess. The fact that we have such inexplicable fears is not a license for us to NOT take this assignment seriously. Let’s not defer dealing with a fear because we don't feel like it.

Like with swimming... Water & swimming are both neutral. Billions LOVE to swim and yet others fear it. It is not that swimming is unpleasant, quite the contrary. Instead it is how WE RELATE to this thing we fear that determines what the experience will be like. If we cannot get ourselves to choose for it to be a pleasant experience when we face a fear, then we should remember that most things we fear are NEUTRAL. It is up to us to make the choice. Will facing this fear be awful, neutral or dare we say it... even pleasant? We know it is easier said than done and overcoming fears are always uncomfortable at best, until we overcome them. How long it takes to overcome a fear is also a choice. Think about it... 

Next week we will look at fear and our spiritual journey.

Fear hasn’t helped us any in that department. In fact it is fear that has kept this planet in darkness and once we learn to NOT fear that which we do not know, or that which we do not understand YET, our spiritual journey is free to take off.  

All that we need is to be open minded enough to listen to new information and then to PROCESS IT WITHOUT FEAR. We can still make our own decisions with our own free will. But now we will make those decisions based on a new measuring stick called the Heart (some say ‘gut’.  No longer will we shut down to new information because we fear it, because it is unknown and we do not understand it. We will listen to it, we will explore it, we will toy with it and then once we know it we can objectively choose to make it part of our own knowledge or to discard it. 

We must all learn to listen to our HEART. For in the Heart all truth rings true. It is our only reliable source of discernment and should guide every step of our journey. 

Don't forget to ask for help... God has bazillions of helpers everywhere ready to help. All we have to do is ask for it. Angels may not violate our free will, so they often have to stand by and watch us make mistakes. But when we ask our creator for help, it WILL be there.... Guaranteed! 

A simple prayer to use for fear: 

I call upon you, God most high and ask for grace and divine intervention with my fears of _______________ (be specific). I ask that you will send your most powerful healing angels to me right now and have them lift these fears from my Heart and Soul once and for all. Please guide me and protect me as I stand here bravely facing these fears, knowing in my heart that You want me to be free of these bonds that keep my Spirit from freedom. I am now surrounded by Your most glorious angels and I feel these fears being dissolved from my entire being right now. I give humble and joyous thanks to You my Creator for relieving me of these burdens today. So be it! 

You can repeat this healing prayer as often as you feel a need to and it may take some time for your fears to dissolve. You have started the process. In this healing process your fear will dissolve over time and eventually you might have the courage to face the fear in reality and go through it once, then again and again till it is no longer on your list of fears. Healing takes place in layers so as we heal one level, a new level becomes exposed which requires more healing. It is wonderful that we can ask for such healings don't you think? Ask for HELP... it is ALWAYS there for us if we but only ASK...

Until next time when we walk a few more steps, I wish you a wonderful week ahead.

God bless and be strong.

Reverend Sharra