In the Christian world, today is the feast of Pentecost, which celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the early followers of Jesus. To appreciate the significance of this event for them and for us, it is helpful to understand that behind the events in our world there is always a mass of invisible forces at work which are most often beyond our awareness. However, the more spiritually evolved we become, the more conscious we are of their presence. We can learn to work with the positive forces to positively impact the world around us.
Listen as Jesus describes the force of the Spirit as a flow of living water in John 7:37-38: On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. As scripture says: ‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.’” He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive.
As we consider the invisible forces at work in our world, we must start by remembering that not all forces are benign. By contrast, the Spirit of which Jesus speaks is both the most benign and powerful of forces because it is nothing other than the love of God in motion, which fills us with life and moves us toward our most evolved possibilities. The Spirit directs us as a lovingly intelligent force acting on a very complex nexus of forces that are influencing our lives, often displacing and dissolving those forces that are not serving us in a positive way. For example, addiction to alcohol is a malignant force; sobriety occurs when the alcoholic avails himself or herself of a Higher Power, that is, the Spirit.
It is important to note that those forces already in possession of our imagination, thoughts, and will often exert great resistance to the heavenly force that seeks to enliven our lives with truth, beauty and goodness. To overcome this resistance four factors are needed. The first is the sheer force of God’s love acting within our lives, often through the grace of the Guru. For this reason, it is important to stay connected to the Guru. Secondly, grounding ourselves in prayerful, meditative silence creates a space for the force to operate within our interior depths. Thirdly, acting on the inspirations that come to us and allowing love to be the primal motivation for all that we do is the way that the Spirit’s influence grows in our lives. Lastly, Jesus refers to this force as the Spirit of Truth. Again, Spirit is the force of God’s love moving within creation, and love and truth are always flip sides of the same coin. It is always truth that guides the Spirit’s movements. By honoring truth, we avail ourselves of the loving force that seeks to serve our highest evolution.
Saint Paul tells us how to know when we are in the flow of God’s Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” And Yogananda teaches us, “The vibratory force emanating from Spirit is the Holy Spirit: Cosmic Vibration, the Word, Aum (Om) or Amen. All things, all created planets and living beings in the Holy Spirit, or Holy Vibration, are nothing but the frozen imagination of God. This Holy Spirit in the Hindu scriptures is called the Aum or Maha-Prakriti (Great Nature, the COSMIC MOTHER that gives birth to all creation…) The holy Cosmic Sound of Aum or Amen is the witness of the manifested Divine Presence in all creation.”
Beloved God,
Thank you for the invisible force, your Spirit
Which sustains, guides, and inspires me
And all the world.
