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Welcome to OneLife Ministries. This site is designed to lead you prayerfully into a heart experience of Divine Presence, Who is Love. While it focuses on Christian teaching, I hope persons of varied faiths will find inspiration here. Indeed, "God" can be whatever image helps us trust in the Sacred, by whatever means Grace touches us each. Please share this ministry with others, and please return soon. There is a new offering daily. And to be placed on the daily OneLife email list, to request notifications of new writings or submit prayer requests, write to briankwilcox@yahoo.com .
Blessings,
Brian Kenneth Wilcox MDiv, MFT, PhD
Interspiritual Pastor-Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader, Spiritual Counselor, and Chaplain.
You are invited to join Brian at his fellowship group on Facebook. The group is called OneLife Ministries – An Interspiritual Contemplative Fellowship. Hope to see you there. Blessings.
Scripture
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Philippians 2.3, KJV
Quote
The impetus for me is the unfolding process itself and a basic sense of inspiration. All I have to do is sense into my own transformation to be filled with wonderment at the incredible potential that resides within us all. How far can we go given the gifts and limits of our natures to cultivate new aliveness?
*Richard Moss. The I that is We: Awakening the Higher Energies of Unconditional Love.
Spiritual Teaching
This writing is about opening more to what Moss terms “new aliveness.” This is about energy, about God. As Moss speaks of “to cultivate” this “aliveness,” we are reminded the Spirit has gifted us with many means toward the experience of a more vital connection with God and others, indeed, all Creation.
God wants us more alive; our desire for God is our desire for more of all God is. We can have it, even within the limitations we live under, as creations. This is the Will of God for us.
Consider this. You have a paper bag. You open it into the Wind. You, then, close it. The Wind is inside and outside the bag. This is the same Wind - in essence. You and I are containers of the Spirit. We are recepients and means of Grace. As we cultivate a closeness to the Spirit - the Wind - we are able to receive and share more of Godness - the Fruit of the Spirit. This is not only about our personal transforamtion, but about our being part of co-creating a more kind, loving, and just world - social transformation.
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I learned our Scripture for today many years ago from the King James Version of the Bible. I quote it from that version, for it fits well my purpose today.
St. Paul often refers to energy. Yet, this is lost in translation. Let us take the above passage to exemplify. The passage reads: “For God is the One energizing (energon) in (and among) you, both to will and to energize (energein) for God's good pleasure.”
The reading “worketh” and “to do” derive from the Western readings being influenced by the Latin Vulgate. While the English “energy” is transliterated from the Greek, Latin did not have a like term for the Greek. So, Jerome (347-420) rendered operare, “to operate, work.” So, our English renditions refer to “working, operating” and “to do,” not “energizing” and “to energize.”
In our times the concept of energy is taking on major importance in the social consciousness. This is largely due to physics. We now have a model of the Universe as a fullness of Mind-Spirit-Energy. That is, the Universe is not inert matter, but is a living, pulsating, mindful, and relational Being. The Universe reflects and mediates the Mind-Being of God. This includes you and me, as part of the Universe.
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One intent, then, of spiritual practice is to have a conscious relationship with God and the Universe, including other creatures and persons about us. Spiritual practice provides a conduit to God, to Grace – Grace is seen in the Eastern Church as the Energy of God manifesting through the Universe, through matter. The Infinite, in Energy, connects with us, to the extent we are receptive.
This is where sacraments, mysteries, ritual, and rites come in. In the Catholic tradition, and other Western groups, sacraments refer to material means of Grace. The Eastern Church calls these mysteries, not sacraments.
As I have written before, sacraments, or mysteries, are indicators of many means we can access to open to Grace. The Catholic Church calls each of these a sacramental, to distinguish these from the sacraments.
My purpose here is not to defend any tradition, but to amplify the signification of this sacramental thought. Being an ecumenical and interspiritual chaplain, I do not think any one tradition has a market on Grace. Yet, my purpose is to help a person to connect with the sacramental means available within his or her faith.
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Now, I connect this to the Philippians passage. Let us look at this together, and I offer you an urging to link it to your faith, and how it might apply.
St. Paul speaks of “God.” God is the Omnipotent. This is a word in classical Christian theology. “God” signifies the ultimate of Power, by whatever name. This is All-Power; we could say, “All-The-Power.” That is, there is no power, no energy, in the Universe not arising from God, for God is the only Infinite. While there are energies opposing Good, these still find their source in God, though misused to bring harm. This is one reason persons who get close to God can hurt others with their misuse of power. We could say the demonic is the misuse of the angelic, or evil is the absence of good - good meaning the just use of energy, of power.
Then, this All-Potency is “energizing in you.” The Greek includes both “in you each” and “among you.” Spiritual community is a collective of this energizing, and just and beneficial use of the Power relies on members openness to receive the Divine One – the All-Potency. Many groups are spiritually impotent, for they fail to engage the sacramental means, or mysteries, of the tradition to be receptive of Grace.
What is the Purpose of this energizing? To “will” and “to do” of His, or Her, “good pleasure.” The Presence of God addresses our willing capacity, transforming our will from willfulness to surrender.
When aligned with God, Grace transforms the direction of our desire, consecrating our will – what brings pleasure to us. For example, I used to find immense pleasure in television. Now, I do not. I am not saying one should not enjoy television. I am saying that drawing near to God will mean a change in your desires. Some desires that are alright – that is, not morally errant - will be left behind, for you will find a desire for the better, even the best.
Again, you do not have to be willful. That is, we are not talking about gritting the teeth to force another will. Such is only another willfulness. Simply by engaging spiritual practices drawing one closer to Grace, or opening one more to Grace, a new will emerges, slowly. You do not make this happen; you dispose yourself for it to happen.
“To do” is “to energize.” Drawing close to All-Potency, we, by organic osmosis, are energized toward what is Good, True, and Beautiful. We refer to disposing for this Inflow, or Inspiration. We do not try to breathe. We are created to breathe, and the air is all about us. Likewise, Grace is natural. All we have to do is breathe – engage our practice, our sacramental means. Grace is always available, and with it comes energy, vitality, fresh aliveness.
“His good pleasure” speaks of the Mind-Heart of God. You and I are not God. We are of God. Being of God, we are designed to find sustainable, spiritual pleasure in only one thing: doing the will of God. Unlike in much religion, this does not mean God imposing a will on us, or us acting against our nature to say “Yes” to God. Look deep enough and you will discover the most natural thing to do is to say “Yes” to God. To say that “Yes” is to say “Yes” to our essential being as arising from God and for God and to God.
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Remember the Jesus saying: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness [or rightness], and all these things will be added to you” (ESV). Jesus is appealing to a natural principle, embedded in the Consciousness of the Universe, as reflecting the Mind of our Creator. This natural law is the Divine Order. Jesus is saying, “Do this, and you align with the Divine Order.” We place first God, as we best understand – and not understand – God. This entails wanting above all the right to be done: righteousness. Then, “and” implies the result. What we most need arises. Jesus is saying, “Your priority on God, and right within the context of relationships with other persons, disposes you to receive God's blessing.” This is not merely a moral matter: as though God gives out rewards and withholds them. Rather, your choice either disposes you to the infinite expression of Grace, or blocks that. Every thought, word, or act either disposes or not to Grace.
Now, this image of energy, with its biblical roots, can help us expand our concept and experience of “God.” For our God-image and our experience of God are mutually affirmative. In the Christian tradition, and others, this “seeing” of Divine Energy, in contrast to a static, over-personified image of God, has already been done. Yet, the majority of religious adherents have not seen the Divine in this way.
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Yes, to see God as Energy and Energizing, though not merely energy as we understand it, is to open up possibilities of a new experience of Intimacy with God. Likewise, we see more into the power of sacramental means to open us to being a conduit of Grace. We become, in Christ, mediators of the Way, Truth, and Life. We become participants in healing, both ourselves and others - and the Earth.
For our responding, I will offer an exercise in energy meditation. I will utilize the Fruit of the Spirit, from Galatians in the New Testament.
Responding
Meditation on the Energies of Grace
The following is a suggestion. Adapt it as best fits your needs. Persons of varied faiths, for example, might choose different aspects, or energies, of God to meditate on. The key is to open to the Divine Presence, not details about the means or words to use.
1)Get into a place and position for meditation. Affirm your intent to be fully present to God and your consent to surrender to the work of God within you. This intent and consent will guide your meditation, without your having to recollect it.
2)Invoke verbally or inwardly the Presence of God, and breathe deeply several times.
3)Now, let yourself relax. Use whatever technique you want to. When you are calm and centered, you are ready to proceed.
4)Take the first Fruit of the Spirit – Love. On the out-breath or in-breath, whichever you choose, repeat it silently and mindfully. Open to not only the word, but the energy Love evokes within you. Feel Love. Feel it bodily. Do not try to manipulate this, simply let your openness to Love manifests the feeling of divine Love.
5)Do the previous with each aspect, or energy, of God – called the Fruit of the Spirit : these include Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity (Goodness), Faithfulness, Gentleness, Temperance (Self-Control, Moderation). You can remain as long as you wish on any one energy. You do not even have to go through all of the Fruit. You may, indeed, find yourself wanting to meditate only on one at this session.
6)When ready, you can enter fully into Silence, discontinuing the meditation on the Fruit. Enjoy relaxing in a gentle, reverential openness to the Divine.
7)At coming out of this exercise, allow yourself time to re-adjust to normal, waking consciousness. Slowly get up, and take the inspiration from this exercise into your work and relationships.
Recommendation: Affirm one intention to put into practice what you have gained from this meditation. Remember, your intent to use the gifts of Prayer in practical ways, to bless others. Amen.
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*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian Kenneth Wilcox, SW Florida. Brian lives a vowed life and with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, with friends and under a vow of simplicity. Brian is an ecumenical-interspiritual leader, who chooses not to identify with any group, and renounces all titles of sacredness that some would apply to him, but seeks to be open to how Christ manifests in the diversity of Christian denominations and varied religious-spiritual traditions. He affirms that all spiritual paths lead ultimately back to Jesus Christ. He is Senior Chaplain for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, Punta Gorda, FL.
*Brian welcomes responses to his writings or submission of prayer requests at briankwilcox@yahoo.com . Also, Brian is on Facebook: search Brian Kenneth Wilcox.
*Contact the above email to book Brian for preaching, Spiritual Direction, retreats, workshops, animal blessing services, house blessings, or other spiritual requests. You can order his book An Ache for Union from major booksellers.
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