Problems in Your Life | Rev. John Riley

Have you ever felt like you were climbing a hill only to reach the top and realize you were climbing the wrong mountain?Have you ever felt like there’s this pull within you, that something that lets you know that there’s something greater for you?Have you ever felt that idea that there’s something more, that you could be doing something more, there’s something more out there for you?

Divine Discontent

Well, today we’re going to talk about the idea of divine discontent.Within you, within each one of us, there is a pull.You might call it the pull of Spirit calling us higher, to that higher consciousness.I like to think of it as that radiant energy within, that Christ consciousness that Jesus talked about, that Christ within that’s seeking to express itself more fully, that point within you that is pure, untouched.That is your spark of divinity, your higher consciousness, whatever words you want to wrap around it, there is within you that essence of your true self that’s seeking to express itself, that is seeking to get out.

Now, a lot of times what happens is that we are so stuck in our thinking about how to get out of it, we’re so stuck in our thinking about what that problem is, our ideas and our thoughts become, start to become the problem around it.That discontent portion of it is our human ego, it’s our human consciousness that’s struggling against, that’s resisting that higher consciousness within us that’s seeking to express.That discontent is our ego stuck on the lens of “not enough”, the lens of “I’ve got the problem”.There’s this problem in my life.There may be a problem in my work, there may be a problem in my relationships, a problem in my health.And we’re so busy focusing on the problem that we’re stuck in that sense of disconnect and we don’t ever let that expression to come out.It’s like our “imprisoned splendor”, is a term that Eric Butterworth liked to use, and that idea that within us that consciousness that’s seeking to express the allness as us is imprisoned in our own human consciousness.

That’s really the idea of divine discontent because with us, there is this pull always upward, the upward progressive spiral of life, the pull of the allness of life, love, and wisdom that’s seeking to express itself through us.And yet, here we are trying to figure out how to do it.Now, two weeks ago, we talked about the idea of the allness and you, the allness of life, love, and wisdom.You might call it divine mind, divine wisdom, the universe.You might call it God, you might call it isness.But whatever word you use to encapsulate it for you, that’s a part of who you are because God is everywhere present in all people.And so, you are innately divine.Innately you have that spark within you.And it’s up to us to really understand that and to begin to look at that and express that more.And once you understand that and have that idea that within me, God is, just like the ocean is within a wave.We talked about that idea that enlightenment is the wave realizing that it’s the ocean, realizing that within you there is at every point in your body, every cell within it, is that spark seeking to express itself more clearly.

The Head and the Heart

And then, last week we talked about the head and the heart, balancing the idea of divine wisdom and ideas coming into our brain, going through our filters, going through our lens, balancing that with the heart, that energy, that harmonizing energy of divine love so that we can bring that forward and create from that idea, so that we can receive divine ideas and get creative and express that into the world based on love, based on the harmonizing energy principle and how we can also balance, bring ourselves back into balance through meditation and affirmative prayer.

So, we have this idea, we’ve learned about that truth and we’re starting to experiment with it and we have these tools called meditation and affirmative prayer.So now what?Now what do we do?What else is there?It reminds me of my daughter, Meghan.She’s my youngest, a 7th-grader who has decided to take Japanese as her foreign language in school.And she loves the Japanese culture and so she’s really diving into Japanese.And so, she’s been practicing for about a half a year now in class and learning and practicing.And I think she experiences the culture through Anaman, through different things that she watches online.So, my question to her at this point is, why aren’t you fluent yet?I mean, come on, you’ve been at it for like three months now.I mean, come on, there are only two alphabets that you have to worry about.It should be pretty easy, right?Raise your hand — oh, I can’t see anybody.Nobody’s here.Of course, we all know that that’s ridiculous.There’s no way that anybody can learn a language that quickly and be completely fluent in it.We have to learn, we have to practice, and we have to experience it for it to really become a part of who we are.

Now, I know in my career of speaking a foreign language, I recognize that if I’m not living it, if I’m not experiencing and expressing it every day, I’m losing it.You have to really practice it and put it into your life and make it part of who you are for it to be real for you.And that’s the same with spirituality.Spiritual living is not just learning about it on a Sunday or through your webinars or your YouTubes or your going into church or wherever you’re getting your spiritual nourishment, you can’t just learn about it once and then you’re done.You have to practice it.Learn, practice, and then you have to experience it.And the experience comes out of those other two things. We learn about it, we practice it, and we experience it.We refine our understanding of it.We learn more, we practice, and we experience it.Spiritual living is an everyday thing because if that true nature, if that true nature of you is that divine essence seeking to express itself, that’s who you are and you have to do it every moment of the day, every day.

Perspective

The question is how can we do that more when we’re looking at it from the perspective of living everyday life, or the perspective of our goals, the things that we want to accomplish, or the perspective of our jobs or lack of jobs, our retirement, from our health, from our relationships?One of the biggest challenges that we have as human beings is that we tend to look at the problem rather than looking at where we’re trying to go.We might have a job that we hate and so we’re so stuck on what’s wrong with the job, that becomes our framework.We might be looking at our relationships and a relationship that seems to be stuck, or not having a relationship, or relationships that kind of recycle themselves and you get the same relationship over and over again and I wonder what’s wrong.“Next time, it’ll be better because the next time my relationship will not have this problem.”But, all the time we’re so focused on the problem itself instead of focusing on expressing what we need to express in order to fill, feel fulfilled, in order to release that inner splendor.And that’s our task, is to open ourselves up to release that inner splendor.

The Fundamental Key to an Abundant Life

I’d like to read you a quote by Eric Butterworth in his book Practical Metaphysics.He says, “What we need to understand, then, is to receive the truth, not simply as a problem-solving series of techniques, but as the fundamental key to abundant life.”So, when we’re looking at this from a metaphysical standpoint, a new thought standpoint, we get into that metaphysical hypochondria that he talks about.“Here’s a problem but I can fix it with my thoughts, and my words, and my actions.”Here’s a problem, but I can fix it.” but all the while, we’re focused so much on the problem rather than on releasing our inner splendor.

He continues by saying, “Take your mind off of the idea of making demonstrations in life and begin to assemble your thoughts in a deeper awareness of life.”So, so often we’re looking through that lens of “I’ve got to make this demonstration, I’ve got to make this happen, I’ve got to affirm it into existence.”Or perhaps you’re praying to somebody out there, something out there to make it happen for me.But God can do no more for you than God can do through you.

So, it’s going back to those principles of the allness and you, and knowing that you have within you everything that you need already in order to be that which you are seeking to be, to express that inner splendor.That divine discontent is there for, I think, everybody.And we don’t always know it, we don’t always look at it as a divine discontent.It may just be discontent.“I’m pretty unhappy with things and I see no way out of it.”We’ve given up.We’ve given up hope.We’ve given up our spiritual ideas of who we are.We’ve given up our spirituality altogether.We’re simply going through life.And how is that working for you?There are times when that happens to all of us, I think.We get in that rut.We have to remember that we are spiritual beings.We have to remember that allness and you, that spiritual consciousness within you.And that’s what lifts us up.

So, yea, even though we go through the valley of the spirit of death, the valley, the shadow of death, we come out of it.We don’t make camp there.Things may seem that way, but instead of focusing on the valley of the shadow, we focus on the light that we’re heading toward.We focus on the light that’s emanating from within us.

The I AM Principle

So, instead of focusing, having our lens focused on the problem, we focus on the I AM principle, the I AM idea.I may be experiencing something, I may be experiencing something in my job, in my relationships, in my health, but that’s not the truth of who I am.It’s not the allness of me.It’s simply an experience.And as I move my consciousness to the possibilities, not from the standpoint of “I’ve got this problem and I need to fix it”, but simply from the idea of moving back to that allness within you, that idea, that’s moving in and through you.

Butterworth says, “Get yourself in tune with the dynamic spiritual process that takes care of itself.If you keep yourself in perfect peace, if you keep your mind centered in the light”, then your focussed on that internal peace that is taking care of you.You’re focused on that divinity, that spark, that higher consciousness, that better self, and living from that.Whenever we have this idea, these ideas, we have to put them into practice every day in our lives in everything that we do.And then you will start to see the manifestation happening from that consciousness.

When we start to put ourselves in alignment with those principles, we start to see new ways to create, a new creative way out of it, a new creative way through it, a new idea that will take us to new heights.But we have to seek first that creative process, that creative idea that’s within us.And if you focus on that creative idea, then the creative ideas will flow.If you focus on that divine essence within you, then the solutions will appear, the path will appear.The condition itself will no longer be your driving point, will no longer be that energy that’s driving you.You’ll be living more from that divine essence, even in the midst of whatever’s happening.

The process to learn, to practice, and to experience.“The spiritual counterpart of that which your human consciousness is looking for”, that spiritual counterpart is always present.You know, so often we’re looking at our life and we have these goals that we want to accomplish, and we think once we achieve that or get that, then we’re going to be happy.But once we get there, we realize “Okay, here I am with it” and sooner or later, discontent is going to come in again, because it’s not the thing that you’re looking for, not the achievement per se but it’s the feeling that you have within you.It’s the raising of your consciousness as you go through the process.You may have a goal, and if you don’t make the object of the goal your reason for being, but you make the process of living and expressing and achieving that and going onto ever greater goals, then you’re living in that flow of abundance.And the things that happen, the objects that happen, the conditions that happen in our lives are not the object of our attention but rather the expression of that divine energy and how we move through it, and how we express it.

So, we may say “I need a job”, for example, “I have a job need.”When you think about that, what comes to mind?Whatever your job is and even if it’s retirement, what’s your need there?And often what we’ll come up with is what’s lacking, what’s really hard in that situation, what’s not working in that, where are people frustrated and not doing what I think they should be doing.So instead of looking at the problem when we’re looking at the need, look at the solution, look at where you want to go.Don’t hang glide.Move to where you want to go.

So, if you’re needing, have a job need, what can you do in this present moment, right now, to create that 90-day plan of how you’re going to start that job?What are you going to do in the first 90 days, from this point on?What are you going to do in the next 90 days to help you experience and do the things that you need to do?How are you going to be in that experience of doing the things you need to do?Because, it’s all about being.It’s about being that spiritual presence to everything that you do, and doing it in a way that is uplifting for you.So, what are you going to do from this day and the next 90 days to do that job instead of focusing on the interview that you don’t have yet, or the job description that you haven’t done yet or the fear that goes along with all of that?Yes, you need to create your resume.Yes, you need to apply to other jobs.And that’s the courage it takes, and so often it’s the fear that prevents us, that keeps us stuck in the problem rather than focusing on the solution.

So have the courage to say, “Here’s my 90-day plan and it starts today with my resume”.And it starts today with starting to send that resume out and making the phone calls.And then it starts today with “Here’s my first day on the job” and “Here’s what I’m going to do in the first 90 days to make myself a success”.Without focusing on the object itself or the need itself, we’re focusing on how you’re being and how you’re expressing all of that.

Eric Butterworth says, “The great key to demonstration is not to find something out there in the universe that will give it to you, but to become aware that within yourself you have the allness of universal flow.The key to demonstrating, allowing it to demonstrate itself as you.So then you’re not really trying to make a demonstration but you’re letting the demonstration of life make you.”

Seek first that kingdom within and allow it to release and express your inner splendor.