Forsaking Your
Comfort Zone For God
By
Brother Sean
TCOSF
How often have your heard the saying, ‘I’m happy as I am thank you very much?’
Change can be an enormously daunting prospect for those of us who are
vulnerable or maybe feeling the impact of stress in our lives for whatever
reason. Yes, I accept that as we live in a world where many find life a real
challenge for whatever reason, the concept of facing the ‘unknown,’ may trigger
a chain reaction leaving one feeling despondent if not suicidal. Take the young
inexperienced single mums who for whatever reason have been abandoned by their
partners and who are faced with real poverty. Many are desperately trying to
escape the poverty trap of managing a tight budget on income support whilst
appeasing the demands of their young.
A recent TV programme, highlighting the
issues now faced by many young families on benefit who are unable or who cannot
cook a meal for their family and their only resource to a hot meal is the daily
diet of junk food from their local takeaway. I was shocked to discover that in
our midst we have young parents who are trying to do their best for their
families but cannot boil a kettle least of all prepare a healthy meal or manage
their income. Yet, we are faced with the scenario where the parents are crying
out saying that they don’t have sufficient funds to buy fresh food but can pay
up to seventy pounds a week on takeaway meals. The TV presenter gradually
introduced twelve novice cooks who couldn’t cook to undertake a commitment to be
shown basic culinary skills to prepare several basic meals. In exchange, all
each individual was asked to do was to go away teach two of their friends how
to prepare and cook. Initially, there was a great enthusiasm to learn but
things soon came to a halt and several within the group became disillusioned
mainly due to a lack of sufficient monies and the availability of time. Change
was warmly welcomed but when the going got really challenging, the wheat from
the chaff became evident leaving a project struggling for its very survival.
The vision to educate those who couldn’t cook healthy meals for their young
families were now faced with serious blocks, mainly caused by:
·
a lack of confidence in oneself
·
a disbelief that one was worthy of this skill
·
a fear mentality where a victim culture prevailed.
·
a angry and discontented heart causing chaos.
·
a sense of deep loathing that others should offer them help to
better oneself.
A major part of my work as a facilitator
in service to Jesus and the Angelic realms was to go where there was a real
need to bring the beating heart of Jesus with God’s love to Their children. I
can recall several special places one of which was my beloved hometown in
Townhead, Glasgow. I met wonderful teachers who introduced me to reality and
humility and their stories will always remain safe in my heart. However, many
of the places where I was guided to go too were usually places where the ‘well
heeled’ Angel Workers/Teachers would keep well away for fear of being
challenged to their limits. Yes, I say this in love because what these souls
desperately required were not lofty words from humongous egos, but sense a
heart that truly respected each individual as a valued child of God. In trying
to support many who were literally trapped in a poverty mentality or who were
living in what I can only best describe it as, ‘Prozac Valley
Looking back over the past seven years of
doing this work, I cannot thank God sufficiently for the enrichment as well as
the numerous blessings that many souls imparted to my heart. In the everyday
ordinariness of life, I met real people whom I perceive as the ‘Great Giants of
God,’ who truly my very best teachers. When in the company of ordinary people,
I always felt safe and loved as a person. Yes, of the many thousands of souls
that I have guided by Jesus to offer support in my faith journey, it was
plainly evident to my soul that there was a deep longing and a hunger for
spirituality. Many delegates who came to my work out of curiosity but in saying
that, there were a large number who came because they needed closure from their
painful memories.
I was deeply challenged to find that in
parts of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England and Madeira, there were many
thousands of souls who found me challenging to say the very least. Initially,
as rumor has would have it, I was perceived as selling or representing religion.
Thankfully, God works in mysterious ways and by inviting souls to join one of
our healing sessions or workshops, many lives were literally set free by Jesus
and the angelic realms. Yes, closed minds were reopened to ‘change,’ and divine healing was initiated
only because they were humble and respectfully receptive to waking in faith
where there were no guarantees other than trust. It was humbling to see the
hand of God at work in hardened hearts that were vehemently closed to now
showing total abandonment to God’s love. Their faith and receptivity to
positive change was to alter their perception of who they were as a child of
God. In the unfortunate event had we remained in our heads and gave into the
temptation to remain in our beds, and then we would have all been none the
wiser for the spiritual enrichment that was to befall our souls. Again, I
accept that if we are truly sincere and enter our commitment with God with a
sense of respect, humility and reverence showing sincerity of heart, then God
will truly bless our selfless endeavors to embrace Him. Our determination not
to allow our sadness, disappointments, anger, confusion, or even to our
spiritual apathy to gain houseroom, then, I believe, the soul in search of
strength, clarity and wholeness will overcome everything through embracing a
change of heart.
God’s presence in one’s faith journey can
have a positive impact on the minds as well as deep within the hearts of those
who are willing to walk in simplicity and love with the Barefoot Galilean. Those
who came to witness the healing touch of the Master Jesus at work during one of
our events knew intuitively at soul level, that I only represented the True
Jesus who shared only Spirituality, not religion with their hearts! There were
many other delegates who had a real difficulty accepting the name Jesus because
it triggered emotional and physical abuse issues that had not been
satisfactorily healed. Yes, it was painfully obvious that of the delegates whom
I befriended in my work, so many of them had been traumatized by
representatives within the Christian, Islamic and Judaic Groups. I witnessed
souls who were still being abused by religious leaders and their abusive
behavior went unchallenged until I ventured on the scene and challenged them to
revisit their ungodly deeds by affording them a safe place to face their own
personal demons.
Being a Light Bringer is one who
represents change-God’s change. Our role is that of being in service, not the
servant, to walk with God in truth and thereby honour our sacred contract to
face fear head on regardless of criticism from others. Yes, I have been
challenged by representative of various churches for daring to be who I am. I
have even barred from using our local Methodist Church
There is hope for everyone when faced with
change of some sort or another. I believe that the prayer of Saint Francis is
about embracing positive change by transforming negative theology into positive
action that will not only sustain us in our search for God, but I do firmly
believe that this simple yet efficacious prayer of the heart handed down
through the centuries, does actually change lives for the better. Being a
soldier in God’s army as a, ‘Spiritual Olympian,’ we have to go where religion
has left a negative imprint on the minds as well as in the hearts of God’s
people. Yes, we are each called on a daily basis by our personal Guardian Angel
to walk that narrow path to God and deal with whatever is brought to our
attention. Thankfully, we are assured that we are never alone in our faith
journey as we have the presence of Jesus close by. In my work as a therapist and
pastoral counselor, I am so appreciative that many clients have allowed me into
their sacred spaces. Through the sharing of their innermost pain, etc., I was
able to listen and learn more about myself and look at other ways of nurturing change, as essential for my
personal spiritual growth and development as one who is totally committed to
walking with Jesus. Had I refused God’s personal request to deliver the angel
healing day workshops, not always in the most salubrious of hotels, but more of
your ‘Working Men’s Clubs,’ as the
‘Barefoot Angel Man,’ then I would most certainly not have been privileged to
have witnessed the beating heart of Jesus, or seen the God’s face through the
eyes of those who truly love God. When I recall the many situations that God
has led me into in my line of work, I cannot believe that I had the courage to
do what I did, or go to places where I knew, ‘Angels would fear to tread.’ But, despite having to ‘rough it’ on more than one occasion,
from sleeping on very narrow therapy couch where I eventually fell off it, to
sleeping in more than one bathtubs to ease congestion in hostelries. And they
say, ‘God doesn’t have a sense of humor.’
He never ceases to amaze me of the lengths and depths where one can be led in
faith. I recall an incident when I read about how Saint Theresa of Avilla dealt
with a ‘God incident’ when she was thrown from her donkey as she traveled from
one of her convents in Spain
The saints have been projected as all holy
and saintly when in truth, they were just like many of us today. They were no
different to us really as in their live stories we read many had their moments
when they would argue, fall out with one another over little things to
even having a modern day equivalent to a
‘strop.’ What they had in their favor was that they we not bombarded with the
hi tech age of mobile phones or internet access. They lived simple lives devoid
of the many luxuries we all take for granted like hot running water and
lavatories that flush. Instead, they would have to wash using cold water and
eat only when there was food available. Many died of hunger and never
complained unlike many of us today who grumble for the least thing especially
when we have an emergency power cut and cannot see to even prepare a meal. How
fickle we are in comparison to these great men and women who face the
challenges of change in their daily lives. They had a choice to not go there
and stay at home and miss a golden opportunity to experience the Master in a
profound spiritual mystical union. They used their free will to follow God and
instead of giving into the ego, they mortified themselves on a very strict diet
of daily prayer, meditation as well as engaging in a series of excruciating
physical punishments to keep their bodies in regular check. They were strong in
the face of adversity unlike our generation who incessantly groan and moan at
every little set back. How fickle are we as the modern day equivalent of God’s
soldiers.
On the other side of the coin, those who
are capable of adapting to a new series of positive life changes, may well find
this a golden opportunity of self discovery and thereby enhance their status in
society. For the soul seeker in search of God, there is no easy way to achieve
that union or twinning of souls. Jesus has said that, I cannot promise you an
easy life, but I do assure you that I will never abandon or forsake you.’ Why
is it that for change to be effective it has to be palatable or easily
digestible? This is not the way for the spiritual Olympian in service to
Source, or is it? Have we entered a place of complacency within our soul when
we will only accept second best? If we are truly living in our heart center,
then we know that whatever challenges await us to test our metal and empower us
to grow into strong resilient light bringers of peace, and then we are
confident that with God on our side, then who can be against us? It’s as simple
as that. Change is essential for our survival because without positive change,
then we encounter a slow miserable death and dying to self experience. Mother
Earth is mothering her offspring to get ready for the advent of the long
awaited, ‘Spiritual Epiphany,’ or better known as the, New Dawn of Aquarius.’
The entire universe including the animal kingdoms are now in that state of
evolutionary change as they too make their preparations for 2012.
Nature has been in revolt with mankind for
several centuries as witnessed by the deterioration of the global weather
systems primarily caused by man’s total disregard and disrespect for the
universal code of self protection and sustainability. Yes, despite our advances
in modern day technology of communication, we have ignored our closer
relationships with Mother Nature and her family and instead of working together
in partnership exercising a common respect, we have violated and destroyed that
intimate relationship once based on trust. The destruction of our rainforests
because of pure greed is but one example of man’s total lack of respect for
honoring the sacred. Man has pressed all the right buttons for the annihilation
of God’s free gift to our hearts because we exercised an inappropriate choice.
Given the seriousness of this tragic set of events, I believe that we can stop
the deterioration from ultimately destroying mankind by adhering to an ancient
civilization who came to teach us how to make the right choice through
embracing the Divine within everything that lives, that moves and which has its
being from God. The ancient Essenes of 8000 years ago, paid the price for God’s
truth as they were hunted men and women for their knowledge and gifts from God.
instead of abusing these gifts, they set about reestablishing the world’s order
by empowering mankind to reprogramme the head center and bring it into
obedience of the heart center where lies the secret to God’ Divine Truth.
Today, I know from first hand experience that
Jesus, with the help of the Divine Feminine, are inviting a new
generation of spiritual disciples to take up their gauntlet by working closely
with Mother Mary and Mother Earth and by using the Tree of Life as another
sacred tool, they can turn a negative set of events into a series of positive changes that will empower many to
return back to their hearts.
There is another wise old saying, ‘Change can be as good as a rest.’ I can
recall an experience many years ago when I left the nursing order of monks for
a new life in civvy street and the change was so dramatic that it was far from
being a rest as I tried to live life in the ‘fast lane’ catching up for those
eight years of cloistered life that I had missed out on. Suddenly I was living
a completely different lifestyle forsaking the ‘bells and smells of incense’
for freedom to choose what to wear and where to go, etc. The parties and late
night discos were not all that they were cracked up to be. The change was
dramatic in the extreme but nonetheless, a change but not a rest. My newfound
freedom of sorts from living a cloistered life of religious discipline where
the sound of the ‘bell’ dictated one’s daily routines to suddenly being ‘free
of religious restrictions,’ was most certainly a dramatic change. In
retrospect, whist I welcomed the newfound opportunities to explore my freedom,
there was a deep longing for stability and discipline. Yes, it is so easy to
get sucked into another’s exploits and their perception of change is not always
what we envisage changing to be. But change can be exciting as well as
challenging and it all depends on how we perceive change and what we are
searching for. If we are looking for a loophole to avoid facing making a
decision that asks us to embrace change, then we are in for a big
disappointment. Change happens every day and thanks be to God, there are no two
days the same, otherwise, we would be truly boarded with life.
Looking back on my life, I can see that
there has been many times when I was given a ‘blessing in disguise by God,’ but
through my stubbornness and dogged determination that I knew best, I
inadvertently sent out the wrong messages to the universe blocking my spiritual
abundance and prosperity consciousness. Thankfully, as with all of life’s great
mysteries, we eventually come to a place where we know that unless we change
our way of thinking, we run the gauntlet of experiencing disenchantment and at
best, unnecessary pain sensing failure and rejection from within.
I believe that a closed mind leads to an
unhealthy life as it is non productive creating a seedbed of disquiet for the
soul who is searching for God. Where there is non productivity within our mind,
we eventually become disenfranchised from who we are as a person. As a light
worker in service to the Divine, we become in the words of Jesus, ‘neither hot
nor cold,’ and are easy prey to both apathy and a deep spiritual despair that
will eventually rape our soul.
I believe that when we remain firmly in
our head center, then we are restricted from embracing positive change in our
life. Our head center, the ego, has a distinct habit of keeping one locked in a
destructive and negative mindset affording permission for fear to rule our
life. If we continue to live a life that is primarily governed by the dynamics
of fear, then we are left alone and isolated in our life.
Thankfully, God had a plan and in a
strange sort of way, illness was my personal breakthrough from living in ego to
now being more focused in my heart.
Forsaking one’s comfort zone to walk
another path where there are no guarantees can be perceived as taking too many
risks especially today when our personal security is at stake. Respecting that,
there is a need for light bringers to be adventurous and lead not by mere lofty
words but more from a heart that is inspired by the great men and women of
previous generations, like Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Padre Pio, Mother Theresa
of Calcutta, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Princess Diana, Archbishop Tutu, the
Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela are true soldiers who have known rejection,
isolation and faced their biggest challenge to embrace change for the better.
Then again, we have the millions of our unsung heroes from every country in the
world that shed their blood in the concentration camps of Germany to the fields
of Flanders and beyond for our freedom to enjoy God’s healing and liberating
love. So, where does sit within my heart knowing these truths today? Or are we
so complacent that we prefer to forget than recall that whilst many decided to
opt out so we could opt in and enjoy a better life devoid from conflict and
war, that we should remain in our comfort zones oblivious to reality.
In our world today, we have another new
God. I call that God, ‘PAPER.’ The fear that our litigation culture has
generated in our minds has turned us into one ugly specimen of mankind. The
rules, regulations and targets that now govern almost every man, woman and
child is a disease that has got out of control having drained the very essence
of basic common sense from our daily lives. This demi god has a sister that I
refer to as ‘Materialism.’ Surprise, surprise, she even has a brother called
’Media,’ and between them, they exercise an insidious negative influence,
almost evil by nature, that rapes the very essence from the innocent minds and
hearts of all God’s people without their knowing. They are both destructive by
nature and their sole purpose of being among us is that they demand total
servility to broken promises and false assurances that we are safe in their
capable hands. Between them, they will continue to lead many more down the
slippery slope to an uneventful haven where there is no light but only utter
despair. Many have named that place hell! We have a choice to avoid being spoon
fed a diet of unadulterated shameless fear and violence that encourages many to
engage in selfish acts of needless violence where man’s inhumanity towards one’s
fellow man is now a common day occurrence.
The person who is attuned to balance,
harmony and divine connectedness knows deep within their hearts that where
there is an imbalanced view point of historical or current affairs, society is
misguided by distorted facts not truth and here one creates a seed bed of
disquiet that ultimately is more focused on fear, innate restlessness of the
soul. We have to be ever mindful of the wolf disguised in sheep’s clothing and
remain alert to teachers who say one thing but whose heart is more preoccupied
with their egos whilst feeding their insatiable appetite of greed. Many of the
wise prophets have already warned us not to heed those who offer an easy way
out because there is no such way. The only path to nirvana or God is through a
gateway that has many blessings disguised as gifts in the form of tests to free
our hearts from more clutter. To embrace God, our journey must be clutter free
where we have no baggage other than what we stand up in. are you willing to
forsake clutter for joy?
If we remain unchallenged to face change
then that is fine too. But when things do go wrong as they inevitably will,
then we have no excuse to complain. As my Grandmother would say, ‘You made your bed, now lie in it.’ How
wise! However, if we are truly living in our hearts, then we will sense only
pure joy: a joy that comes not from
anything material even from the world itself but only from serving a God of
selfless and unconditional love. This love is infectious and given the right
set of circumstances and events, God’s love will eventually motivate and
inspire our hearts to, ‘Forsake our
comfort zone for God.’
There is no other
joy known to man on earth today than the joy of being found loved by God.
There is no
greater gift than the knowledge that God loves us for who we are despite where
we are in our lives.
There is no
better place to be than resting in the arms of God.
There is no safer
abode for the soul less traveled than being found loved and totally accepted as
a child of God.
There is no love so great than that of our
Loving Father Mother God who desperately seeks the soul and rescues it from
their shadows to find lasting peace.
There is no love
on earth that can equal God’s love for the soul who kneels at the feet of Jesus
who gave His life to set our souls free to experience utter Nirvana in this
incarnation.
There is no
greater gift that to forsake the trappings of materialism and live in the world
but not be of it for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
As herein lies
all truth where silence, the language of Divine love, is bliss and music for
the weary soul who has indeed come home to be in the oneness of the ‘I AM
PRESENCE.’
Why not come and join
me on Livestream where we embrace the healing energies of the Risen Cosmic
Christ and Magdalene to reactivate the soul’s DNA to self heal.
Led by Brother Sean from
12 midnight (GMT );
07.00pm (EST) 4 personal and global
Peace and Insterspiritual Unity.
Namaste
Brother Sean-Barefoot Franciscan Monk
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