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Enjoy another wonderful text by Rev. Phil Smedsted, minister Emeritus of Oasis Rising Center

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Phil Smedstad's texts are one of the ways Oasis Rising Center supports members.

A Positive Path for Spiritual Living

Oasis Rising Center Spiritual Center
Oasis Rising Center 8125 West Sahara Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89125
(702) 804-8189
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“Opening to the Holy Spirit”                               By Rev. Phillip Smedstad

Who or What is the Holy Spirit, and why would we want to open to It?  Traditional Christianity talks about the “Trinity,” which some of us learned is the “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” 

This concept was a fourth century addition.  Jesus never heard of the Trinity.  However, he was completely open to the Holy Spirit being in charge of his life.

One reason for speaking of “God in 3 parts” is that the concept of God is so large, it can be helpful to look at Spirit’s aspects. 

Here’s the way I think is the most helpful to view the Trinity:

• God the Father/Mother is our Creator, everywhere evenly present Spirit.
• God the Son/Daughter is the real divine self of all of us together, as well as the real divine self of each one of us (the Christ in us).
• God the Holy Spirit is the aspect of God (in us) which sees our mistakes and small self as well as our divine self, and constantly draws us higher, toward the Light that we are, in the same way that the sun draws the flowers to itself.

If we’re open to it, the Holy Spirit can literally speak to us through anyone or anything.  Our job is to be as open as possible to this Voice (which often speaks without words).

When Lura and I had our school in Minneapolis, we began every school year by gathering in a circle and saying, one at a time, “I give my relationships with each of you to the Holy Spirit.”  Now I do that here.  After each Board election we all give our relationships to the Holy Spirit.

Most of us grew up believing that the purpose of relationships is to provide us with comfort, to keep us from being lonely, and to protect us from the outer world.  However, that isn’t the Holy Spirit’s purpose for relationships.  It’s the view of our ego or small self.

The divine purpose of relationships is to heal our sense of separation from God.  When we realize that the true purpose of relationships is healing, they become one of the most potent tools we have to support us in our transformation.

When we give our relationships to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit accepts the offer – quite literally – and the purpose of the relationship changes.  It is no longer about comfort and protection.  It’s about healing and empowerment, and things in the relationship begin to happen which reflect that.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Peace Skills Training at the headquarters of Unity Worldwide Ministries.  Each of us participants shared our “paradigm for ministry.”  When it was my turn, I said, “What if church or spiritual community is not a place where everyone is supposed to be peaceful all the time and all get along?  What if it’s a place to experience healing?”

If we’re open to it, whenever we attend services at a spiritual community like Unity of the Keys, everyone we need for our healing is here – our mom, our dad, our brothers and sisters, our exes, former bosses, and anyone else from the past with whom we have ever had issues.  They’re all here to support us in our healing.

One day at Theophilus Divinity School in Minneapolis, someone asked Lura, “Why do these classes produce so much healing?  Which of the techniques you use are the most powerful?”  Lura responded, “It’s not the techniques.  It’s the love.  We marinate people in love for six months at a time.”
“Then, as people are willing to accept responsibility for their own experience, release blame, and see everyone as their mirror, the Holy Spirit provides the healing and the empowerment.”

There’s a chapter in the book The Untethered Soul called “Removing the Inner Thorn.”  It asks, “What if we had a thorn in our arm and the thorn was touching a nerve?  We would have two choices, and the choice we make will determine our entire future.”  I then added, “What if this inner thorn is in our heart?”  (It is.)

One choice is to protect ourselves and make sure that nothing and no one gets too close.  The other is to remove the thorn.  This latter choice is the choice for the Holy Spirit, and it is the choice for transformation.

For many of us, the problem is that we have gotten very used to not letting anyone get too close.  It seems normal for us to keep love away.  Also, that thorn has often been there since childhood and now is covered by layers and layers of repression.  The result is that we have actually forgotten we even have a thorn.  We’ve gotten used to living with a dull ache.

However, if we once again start letting people get close; if we once again practice intimacy (into-me-see), the thorn will begin to come to the surface so we can actually release it.  One axiom in transformational work is that love brings to the surface anything which needs to be healed.

As I’ve said before, personal transformation is not for the feint of heart.  To be transformed, we have to allow the Holy Spirit to remove the thorns from our heart.  It isn’t always comfortable, but it is so worth it.

Jesus, when asked when the Kingdom of God was going to come, said, “It will not come through observation.”  (That is, is isn’t an outer phenomenon.)  He then said, “The Kingdom of God is within you.”  However, the word we translate as “within” can just as easily be translated as “among.”

This would jibe perfectly with the concepts of Hell and Heaven from A Course in Miracles, where it says that Hell is feeling separate and alone, and Heaven is being joined with others and with God, freely giving and receiving love.
The very best thing I ever did for myself was to give my life and my will to the Holy Spirit.  I invite you to do the same.  You deserve the joy of healing your sense of separation from God.  You deserve to live in Heaven now.