The Seven Keys to the Kingdom | Rev. John Riley

Good morning. Well, last week we were in the process of discovering and becoming aware of this idea of abundance, becoming aware of the idea that you are innately abundant, that that abundance is just a part of who you are, and it is an ongoing process.

We had the affirmation, “I am a child of the Most High, I am meant to have life abundantly”. I’m going to repeat that and invite you to affirm it with me.

I am a child of the Most High. I am meant to have life abundantly.

Together:

I am a child of the Most High. I am meant to have life abundantly.

Okay, we got pretty good there. We’ll work on that, because this awakening is an ongoing process. Awakening isn’t an all of a sudden, “Oh, I’ve transcended. Isn’t this nice?” Because no one’s ever seen someone transcend. At least, if they have you can tell me about it but I come back everyday. So it’s a process. It’s an ongoing realization of that oneness that we have with Spirit, with the allness of life, love and wisdom, with our prosperity. That’s just the natural experience.

Seek First the Kingdom of God

And the lesson was, of course, the grand lesson that we learned was to seek first that kingdom. Seek first that consciousness of God. Seek first living in the consciousness of Spirit, allowing that energy to flow in and through us, accepting it. And that, too, is an ongoing process as we move through. To seek the first kingdom is to seek the spiritual reality that surrounds you and endwells you. To seek that, that idea of the realm of pure ultimate possibilities of potential that is already within you and already yours, as we awaken to it, and as we open up to it, as we extend and allow it to be a part of who we are.

So, that was really our talk last week, was awakening to that awareness, and today we’re going to talk about the idea of expressing your abundance, of bringing it into manifestation, of bringing it into life every moment of the day.

Living in the Flow of Life

Now, I’m teaching a class in about a week and a half called the Keys to the Kingdom and the creator of the class, David Owen Ritz, talks about this as living in the flow, living in the flow of life. And one of the key challenges to living in the flow is very simple. It’s something that we do every day. Anybody? Anybody worry about what they’re supposed to do every day? Worrying, worrying. If you’re thinking about abundance, what’s natural, when you are thinking about everything that’s not there? We’re talking, we’re thinking about our lack. When we think about abundance, we immediately go to, “Well, do I have enough money to pay the rent, to pay my mortgage? Do I have enough money to eat? How am I going to afford, this is a big trip I’m going on, am I going to be able to manage it?” We start to worry about all of the things that we don’t have when you start to think about abundance. Or is that just me? Don’t raise your hands. It’s okay. That’s a natural human tendency, right, is to have that, “Okay, I want a more abundant life. I want to experience more in my life.” And yet, here’s where I’m coming from — a sense of lack and limitation.

One of the great lessons that David Owen Ritz likes to refer to is the lesson from Jesus, Jesus’ great prosperity message which was part of the Sermon on the Mount. It was a great abundance lesson. That’s what he was teaching, is that you are it. You are the light of the world. Shine.

So, what he did was when he talked about this idea, this great challenge of worrying, he said this, “Therefore I tell you do not worry about life. What you will eat, or about your body or what you will wear for life is more than food and the body, more than clothes. Consider the ravens. They do not sow or weep, yet they have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them and how much more valuable are you than birds? Who of you can by worrying add a single hour to your life?” I don’t see any hands. “Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the flowers grow. They do not labor or spin yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all of his splendor was dressed like one of these. That is how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire. How much more will he clothe you, ye of little faith.”

And David Owen Ritz — this is where I got that phrase “spiritual knuckleheads” — this is where he says, “Oh you knuckleheads, listen to me. Look, listen to what I’m saying here and do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink. Do not worry about it for the human world runs after all of such things and your father knows what you need, and your father knows that you need them but seek first his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid little flock for your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell all your possessions, give them to the poor, provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, treasures in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys, where your treasure is your heart will also be.”

The idea here is that we’re seeking first that understanding, your spiritual unity with God, with the isness, with the allness, with the universe with all that is, your unity with all of that because we’re all one in that grand creation. As Jho talked about, God isn’t out there. You know, the scripture talks about it as pronouns and father which we tend not to do here in Unity. Instead, I call it the isness, or the allness is my favorite part of it, the allness of God because God is everywhere present, within all creation. Spirit is the energy of God flowing in, through and as us. Divine love is the harmony of God that we talk about that keeps us in balance, that creates the harmony in the universe.

And so, all of those different words to say, seek first that consciousness. Seek first that understanding and then from there all of those other things will be added unto you. Now when he says, “sell all of your possessions”, what he’s really talking about is letting go of your hold, your attachment to all of those things because they come and go, those things in the world that we can see. As Paul said, don’t look to those for answers, look to that which cannot be seen. Look to that divine essence that’s within you. For the things that can be seen are temporary and they’ll be gone but the things that cannot be seen, that divine flow of life, love and wisdom is eternal and always there.

So, seek first that consciousness. Seek first that awareness and strive to live from that consciousness. And then as we do that on a daily basis, as we put that into action in our life, that’s how we are, that’s when we draw upon our abundance. That’s when we start to live in the flow. That’s when that energy and essence starts to live through us and express through us.

The Natural State of the Universe

So, what he is saying is abundance is the natural state of the universe and the rest of creation seems to know it. It’s our humanness that gets in the way because not only do we have consciousness but we’re aware that we have consciousness. And so, with that powerful idea of the mind being aware that we have this very powerful way of creating a life. When Jho called the Law of Mind Action, that those things that we think about and give great attention to manifest in our life. It’s the lens through which we see our world. So, when we give that awareness, we have a conscious awareness of how we’re expressing that, then we have a choice in how we show up.

But we’re also very good at denying all of it. We’re also very good at saying well, you know, shaming ourselves and putting ourselves down and saying you know, “I’m not worth it.” “Well, yes I’ve got this good thing but …” — you know, the yeah-buts. They live next to the Flintstones. No, that was someone else. I don’t remember. — The yeah-buts in our life. “I have good in my life yeah but, here’s everything else that’s bad.” So, where’s our focus? So, our focus needs to come back to that idea and that awareness that you are a child of the Most High and that you’re meant to have a life rich and abundant. You’re meant to express and experience and be a part and live in that flow.

Keys to the Kingdom

Now, there are five key components, seven key components that David Owen Ritz talks about in his class Keys to the Kingdom and any one of these, any one of those will be of benefit to you. Any one of those will create a greater sense of joy and abundance in your life. When we start to master all seven of them and put them into practice in our lives that’s when we begin to experience it, that idea of consciousness of God, the consciousness of abundance every day in our life.

Commitment

The first and most challenging key is commitment, is commitment, is being willing to commit to your own consciousness, your own awareness, your own spiritual growth, being willing to commit to these ideas of abundance and then practicing them. You know, if you’re on the fence, “Well, I’m about forty percent committed.” Committed is kind of a black and white thing. Now, I’m all about shades of gray in many different areas but commitment is one of those things where I’m committed or I’m not. Sometimes I’m committed for twenty percent of my time and then another eighty percent of my time, I’m not.

So, how committed are you to living a life worth living? How committed are you to experiencing and expressing good in your life, to being filled up with love, to being filled up with grace and being willing to walk, being able to walk through whatever challenge you have centered and poised in that, in the core of your being in that divine essence, the I AM consciousness within you? Are you committed? I mean the benefits are pretty cool, don’t you think? I haven’t pitched it well enough. I’ll keep working on it.

Your level of commitment reflects your level of acceptance, so as committed as you are to your spiritual growth, to expressing that God consciousness, that divine consciousness, to being one with Spirit, to allowing that love to flow, as committed you are to that, reflects the amount that you believe you should receive.

So, when you’re thinking about that, think about what you are willing to receive and then make a commitment to every day live a little bit more into it. There’s no perfection in it. It’s an ongoing process of living a little bit more into it, being committed each day to try another step, to give it a little bit more.

Vision

The second key is vision. Learning how to hold a vision of your highest possibility, learning how to hold a vision of your highest possibility, your highest good, your infinite potential, learning to see that every day, learning to wake up in the morning.

And you might have a goal sheet. You might have a treasure map. You might have, you know, something that reminds you, a post-it note on the mirror that reminds you, “Here’s who I’ve come here to be. Here’s my vision for my life. Here are the goals that I have for my life” and being willing to look at that every day and hold that vision because your vision directly affects your experience of life. Your vision directly affects your experience of life.

So, there are times when we hold a vision, when we get frustrated, when we get sad, when we get self-conscious. There are some visions of ourselves that we hold that are not very healthy. Some visions of, you know, “I’m not good enough”, some visions of, you know, “my clothes are fitting too tight”, some visions of, you know, “I’m not good enough to pass this test or to change careers or to live more fully in my retirement or to be that amazing artist that everyone else is looking up to”. Realize that’s your vision in the moment that you’re holding. So, let go of that vision and hold a vision of the ultimate possibility for yourself in every moment of the day as you go through life.

Awareness of Truth

The third key is truth, an awareness of truth of you as a child of the Most High, an awareness of truth of your spiritual unity with the allness of life. That’s really all you need. That’s what we call T with a capital T, Truth with a capital T, just that one principle that we’re all one with the universe, we’re all one in this amazing tapestry of life, that the things I experience you experience and the things that we experience together we experience at one, at onement with the allness of life, that oneness, oneness, onement with Spirit.

All of the lowercase t’s are our stories that we believe about it. All of those lowercase t’s, those lowercase truths are not real for the most part. They’re stories. They’re beliefs that can be changing, can be erroneous. So, go back to that one truth that we’re all one in the universe and as one, we’re the ultimate experience and expression of abundance. That’s who we are and that’s what we are capable of when we allow ourselves to return to that truth.

Your awareness and expression, and acceptance of your spiritual nature will determine what you will accept in your life. So, the degree to which you accept that allness, that oneness within you, that expression, is the degree to which you will accept your good. It’s pretty straightforward.

Circulation

The fourth law is circulation, living in the flow of life as source, as we give and as we receive. So often we think about it as, I’m one or the other. I’m either giving or I’m receiving, and we’re receiving from out there. But instead of focusing on what you’re getting or not getting, focus on how you are giving to life, how you are expressing as source and are you giving to life as source because that’s what the truth is, your spiritual unity with that allness of life.

It’s all here for you to give, and are you giving it with a vision of love? Are you giving it with the commitment to express and experience goodness, to give goodness to the world? The key point is, your expression to life is a reflection of your own belief — take a deep breath — in what you deserve. Your expression and how you’re giving to life is a reflection of what you believe you deserve.

So, when we’re paying our bills with anger, frustration, with fear, with anxiety, that’s what we think we deserve. When we’re giving gifts to our friends, you know, with love and joy and harmony, that’s what we believe we deserve. That’s what we’ll accept.

So, when you’re looking at what you’re thinking about, whenever you’re giving to the world, you could be giving in emotional support. You could be giving simply by listening. But are you giving that from a standpoint of, you know, the scorecard? “I gave twice to you this week. I listened once, deeply and intently. In fact, here is what you said. Now it’s your turn”. Or are you giving from that state of, “I’m just here to hold and support and to express that love for you” without worrying about the scorecard because the universe will give back to you. It may not always come from the same place.

I had a friend when I was in college. We were driving down to Santa Barbara to meet with our respective girlfriends at the time and as we’re driving down there, it’s like, “I don’t know about my friends, man. I’m always there for them. They call me, they need me to get up in the morning, get up late at night. I’ll go driving. I’ll go pick them up. But when I need them, they never show up.” I said, “How did you get home?” “Oh, someone else got me.” “Oh, okay. The universe took care of you. You were just upset because it didn’t come in the way you thought it should.” So, just knowing that that circulation begins with you giving to the world without the scorecard.

Gratitude

The fifth key to the kingdom is gratitude, blessing and praising the good in your life, blessing and praising the good in your life. Let’s talk about that word praise. Raise your hands if ever in your lifetime you’ve said grace at the table. There’s no judgment here. If you didn’t that’s totally fine. Now, was it one of those things like as a kid, it’s like you know, “Thank you, Father, for the food that we have to eat” and as you’re — I remember as a kid, you know, this was my attitude – “Thank you, yeah. Are we done yet? We’re not done. Yeah okay.” And then there was the real gratitude. “Thank God we’re done. And now I can eat.” Wrong kind of praise.

Praise is that enthusiasm that you give to life. Praise is that sense of zeal, and to be grateful from that sense of zeal, be so amazed at the good that you have in your life. Another word for good is God. Be so amazed at the God in your life. Be so amazed at how Spirit moves in your life. Be so amazed at how much joy that you have and then start to seek it. Just look outside and see the beautiful flowers, the beautiful trees, that little red tree that’s out there in the pot that’s next to the giant bell. To me it’s just fantastic. I sit out there and meditate every once in a while. No one’s around, I ring the bell. Hee hee. Just saying. It is. Joyously, with praise. So, give thanks for the good in your life with enthusiasm because the key is your expression to life is a reflection of what you – oh, that was the last one. What did I say, gratitude we’re on? Your joyful expression of your good attracts more joy, more good. It makes you open. This is what I’m ready to receive. Bring it on. So those are the six keys.

Forgiveness

Did I talk about forgiveness? Did I skip forgiveness? Jho, did I skip forgiveness? I skipped forgiveness. I wonder why that is. Huh. Number five, that was number six. Number five is forgiveness, letting go of your own self-imposed limitations and blocks. Unforgiveness is what will prevent you from experiencing joy, period, in anything that you do, in anything that you receive because you’re so caught up in the story, the trauma, whatever it is that’s in your life. It’s not to say that those things won’t happen or that we have to stuff them or ignore them. We’re so caught up in this idea that we need to learn to let go.

All unforgiveness, as Wayne Dyer once said, all unforgiveness or all forgiveness is self-forgiveness because it frees you. It frees you from the worry and the fear and the anxiety because you’re the one carrying it all around. Unforgiveness blocks you of experiencing any good thing, at least for long time periods, for a really, deep experience of it. You may feel happy once in a while but then you go right back to your unforgiveness.

Your willingness to release creates the flow in your life. The willingness to release creates the flow in your life. That’s what forgiveness is all about. It’s about letting go of the hold that the story has on you. It doesn’t mean I think you all are okay. I think you all are okay, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to agree with whatever is happening, but it’s a letting go of the hold it has on you so that you can live in the flow and allow the flow to go.

So those first six commitments, ah keys — commitment, vision, truth, circulation, forgiveness and gratitude — those are all about getting us into that part. It helps us get into the flow. It helps us raise our consciousness. All of those things help us raise our consciousness and get into that consciousness of the divine essence of life, the allness, get into that kingdom of heaven. That’s how we get into there.

Living in the Flow

The seventh key then is being, is simply being it. And that’s what David Owen Ritz calls living in the flow. Living it, being it and allowing it to express. When you live in the flow, you become part of the natural order of things. Abundance and infinite possibility, growth and opportunity, that’s the natural order of life. We are all here to evolve and grow and when you live into that consciousness that’s what you do. You find new ways to express it. You find new avenues for good. You find new channels through which you can give to the world. You find it easier to let go and when you’re in a situation it’s so much easier to be in it and be the calm center while the storm is swirling around you.

We become, as David Owen says, we become part of God’s rich abundance. We become that abundance. You are that abundance. There’s no separation. There’s nothing that you need to do other than opening up to it and then expressing it into your life, of allowing it to be who you are. And those other keys will help us bring us back to that beingness and allowing us to express it through love and compassion and kindness., allowing it to express through our creativity, through our amazing analytical thinking, through our hands, through our feet, by walking and living and just living life fully, all from that presence of knowing that you are one with that divine essence of life.

It changes us from the intellectual knowing of I AM abundance to the heart knowing I AM abundance. That is the principle. It’s another principle for the allness of life. Life is here abundantly. The universe is here to give it to you abundantly. There’s enough for everything that we can imagine and you are that. If God is everywhere present, God is within all of you. God is the essence of who you are, the I AM consciousness. That allness of abundance is right where you are, ready to be expressed. I AM abundance. I AM infinite possibility.

I’m going to say that one more time and then invite you to affirm it. I AM abundance and I AM infinite possibility. Together:

I am abundance and I am infinite possibility.

That was a little better than at the beginning of the service. Now we’re going to … let’s see, we’re going to add some gratitude. What was gratitude? Grateful. Praising. I’m going to become a Baptist minister I think in a moment.

I am abundance. I am infinite possibility.

Together:

I am abundance and I am infinite possibility.

It’s getting a little better, don’t you think? I think we can do better. Together:

I am abundance. I am infinite possibility.

What you tie to that I AM statement is how you see the world and how you see yourself. I am abundance. You are abundance and you are here to live that life and have it abundantly.

I’ll end with two things. The first one is, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus was done, as told in Mark, chapter seven, verses twenty four through twenty six, here’s what he said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who builds his house on the rock. The rain will come down. The streams will rise, the winds blew and beat against the house, yet it did not fall because he had a foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t put them into practice is like a foolish man who builds his house on sand and the rain came down and the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against the house and it fell with a great crash.”

You thought our fifth principle was just Unity. Put the words into practice. That’s it. Make a commitment to put this lesson into practice, to put God first in your life, put Spirit, to allow Spirit to move you. And it moves in every facet of your life, every facet, if you just come to it with that growing awareness that increased awareness.