Jesus once taught these four stages in this sequence.
156:5.2 (1738.1) In the course of his admonition to “Build well the foundations for the growth of a noble character of spiritual endowments,” [Jesus] said: “In order to yield the fruits of the spirit, you must be born of the spirit. You must be taught by the spirit and be led by the spirit if you would live the spirit-filled life among your fellows.
Born of the spirit: A moving target, from elementary to advanced
The first quotes are examples of simple entrance into spirit-born living and the next two illustrate the immediate fruits of reborn living.
186:5.9 (2003.3) You mortals are the sons of God, and only one thing is required to make such a truth factual in your personal experience, and that is your spirit-born faith.
34:6.7 (381.1) Those who have received and recognized the indwelling of God have been born of the Spirit.
143:2.6 (1610.1) The Father’s children who have been born of the spirit are ever and always masters of the self and all that pertains to the desires of the flesh.
100:2.8 (1096.5) Spirit-born individuals are so remotivated in life that they can calmly stand by while their fondest ambitions perish and their keenest hopes crash; they positively know that such catastrophes are but the redirecting cataclysms which wreck one’s temporal creations preliminary to the rearing of the more noble and enduring realities of a new and more sublime level of universe attainment.
193:2.2 (2054.3) But such survival is dependent on your having been previously born of the spirit of truth-seeking and God-finding.
193:2.2 (2054.3) The bread of life and the water thereof are given only to those who hunger for truth and thirst for righteousness—for God.
193:0.3 (2052.3) When, by living faith, you become divinely God-conscious, you are then born of the spirit as children of light and life, even the eternal life wherewith you shall ascend the universe of universes and attain the experience of finding God the Father on Paradise.
150:5.5 (1683.2) Salvation is the gift of God, and righteousness is the natural fruit of the spirit-born life of sonship in the kingdom.
180:5.12 (1951.1) And no amount of piety or creedal loyalty can compensate for the absence in the life experience of kingdom believers of that spontaneous, generous, and sincere friendliness which characterizes the spirit-born sons of the living God.
142:5.4 (1601.4) You, then, who hear this message and believe this gospel of the kingdom are the sons of God, and you have life everlasting; and the evidence to all the world that you have been born of the spirit is that you sincerely love one another.”
195:10.1 (2084.1) The world needs to see Jesus living again on earth in the experience of spirit-born mortals who effectively reveal the Master to all men.
193:2.2 (2054.3) “Peace be upon you. You rejoice to know that the Son of Man has risen from the dead because you thereby know that you and your brethren shall also survive mortal death. But such survival is dependent on your having been previously born of the spirit of truth-seeking and God-finding. The bread of life and the water thereof are given only to those who hunger for truth and thirst for righteousness—for God. The fact that the dead rise is not the gospel of the kingdom. These great truths and these universe facts are all related to this gospel in that they are a part of the result of believing the good news and are embraced in the subsequent experience of those who, by faith, become, in deed and in truth, the everlasting sons of the eternal God. My Father sent me into the world to proclaim this salvation of sonship to all men. And so send I you abroad to preach this salvation of sonship. Salvation is the free gift of God, but those who are born of the spirit will immediately begin to show forth the fruits of the spirit in loving service to their fellow creatures. And the fruits of the divine spirit which are yielded in the lives of spirit-born and God-knowing mortals are: loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance, and enduring peace.”
Spirit-taught (beyond intellectual book learning, no matter how enthusiastic)
1:3.7 (26.1) In the inner experience of man, mind is joined to matter. Such material-linked minds cannot survive mortal death. The technique of survival is embraced in those adjustments of the human will and those transformations in the mortal mind whereby such a God-conscious intellect gradually becomes spirit taught and eventually spirit led.
To prepare us for the concept of being spirit taught, I use the concept of living faith, which is both receptive and active; I will dwell no further on this concept now. We also need the concept of living truth.
180:5.2 (1949.4) Divine truth is a spirit-discerned and living reality. Truth exists only on high spiritual levels of the realization of divinity and the consciousness of communion with God. You can know the truth, and you can live the truth; you can experience the growth of truth in the soul and enjoy the liberty of its enlightenment in the mind, but you cannot imprison truth in formulas, codes, creeds, or intellectual patterns of human conduct. When you undertake the human formulation of divine truth, it speedily dies. The post-mortem salvage of imprisoned truth, even at best, can eventuate only in the realization of a peculiar form of intellectualized glorified wisdom. Static truth is dead truth, and only dead truth can be held as a theory. Living truth is dynamic and can enjoy only an experiential existence in the human mind.
When living truth is received by living faith, we have an experience of being spirit-taught.
Now we have our first quote from A Taste of Joy and Liberty: A Philosopher Encounters the Gospel of Jesus.
Living Truth
Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (Jn 8:32). This section gathers some images and thoughts to suggest something of how this happens.
As stated previously, the living God puts down the ladder of living truth that reaches down from heaven to earth. Coming from this high source, truth is eternally dependable. But for all its stability, truth cannot be fixed and frozen. God approaches unique individuals in particular ways that they can understand, so not everyone receives the same expression of a particular truth. In addition, God inspires prophets who address large numbers of people living in their time. To some extent, each generation has its own problems in spiritual growth. This is another reason that ……divine truth is flexible in its expression.
Think of the familiar story of the elephant described differently by people who are blindfolded and touching only the trunk or tail, or only a tusk, ear, or leg. We smile at how limited each description is. Truth sponsors all insights available from every perspective. Truth meets us where we are and takes us further. Often it leads us around to where others are, so that we can look at the elephant from there. Truth is many-sided.
Looking into a kaleidoscope, we see mirrors and pieces of colored glass that give lovely, changing reflections of light and color. In the interwoven aspects of Jesus’s many-sided message, we see the beauty of truth in the way the Master spontaneously taught gems to this individual and that group. And we see the goodness of truth in his way of drawing on his rich message to give his hearers what would best serve them. This beauty and goodness show the life of truth.
Living truth moves like a reel of film on a movie projector. One can pause the movie at a particular frame and take time to think about it. Likewise, we can write down and reflect on particular truths. But we humans cannot formulate and define living truth.
Living truth eventually leads us into all truth, scientific and philosophical as well as spiritual. All truth is God’s truth. When we are willing to follow wherever it leads, and willing to obey the truth, we are spirit-led; and Jesus’s message does its work at a new level. It is not like an abstract idea. In the mind and soul, truth is more a who than a what.
Now we are in a position to understand Jesus’s assurance, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (Jn 8:32). This liberation comes about when living truth meets living faith. Truth works like a time-release vitamin. Jesus usually gave truth in small portions. If one of these “capsules” speaks to a spiritual difficulty that is holding you back, you take notice and pay closer attention. Truth gets started right away, usually in the mind. As you take time to stop and ponder, as you let it sink in, truth moves into your soul. It keeps on releasing its goodness, leading us into the presence of the God whose spirit dwells within. From on high, from close at hand, and from this spiritual center within, divine truth liberates you to enter into, or advance in, the life of faith. (122-24)
This is what I think it means to be spirit-taught.
Spirit-led—actively doing the will of God, motivated by spirit
155:6.11 (1732.4) All things are sacred in the lives of those who are spirit led; that is, subordinated to truth, ennobled by love, dominated by mercy, and restrained by fairness—justice.
170:5.9 (1864.9) A formal and institutional church became the substitute for the individually spirit-led brotherhood of the kingdom.
Let’s focus now on the golden rule.
The Rule of Living (147:4/1650)
“Let me [Jesus] now teach you concerning the differing levels of meaning attached to the interpretation of this rule of living, this admonition to ‘do to others that which you desire others to do to you’ . . . .
Comment. If our motivation is infected by error, ugliness, or evil, then our first task is to move higher. This brings us to the second level of interpretation of the golden rule.
147:4.5 (1650.6) “2. The level of the feelings. This plane is one level higher than that of the flesh and implies that sympathy and pity would enhance one’s interpretation of this rule of living.
Comment. If everyone practiced the golden rule of the feelings beginning in early childhood, then there would be no more selfishness or violence. Note that Jesus felt sympathy and pity, which that any limitations of a humble level of the golden rule can be transformed by higher levels of living.
147:4.6 (1650.7) “3. The level of mind. Now come into action the reason of mind and the intelligence of experience. Good judgment dictates that such a rule of living should be interpreted in consonance with the highest idealism embodied in the nobility of profound self-respect.
Comment. Let’s look closely at the second sentence here. Let’s start with self-respect. Next we move into profound self-respect. What does that imply? Nobility. What is involved in that? The highest idealism. This means that (1) our mind with its reason, experience, and good judgment recognizes high ideals and (2) we have a reasonably decent start on living these ideals. And to interpret the golden rule in this light implies that we have a profound respect for each other person.
147:4.7 (1651.1) “4. The level of brotherly love. Still higher is discovered the level of unselfish devotion to the welfare of one’s fellows. On this higher plane of wholehearted social service growing out of the consciousness of the fatherhood of God and the consequent recognition of the brotherhood of man, there is discovered a new and far more beautiful interpretation of this basic rule of life.
Comment. As we grow step by step, the spirit now leads us to be unselfishly devoted and active in social service–motivated by the realization of the fatherhood of God and the siblinghood of humankind. There are two more levels to go, because people can be spiritually motivated on level 4 and still do things that are wrong and foolish. But even if we are laboring faithfully on level 3 or 4, we may still profit from studying the highest two levels.
147:4.8 (1651.2) “5. The moral level. And then when you attain true philosophic levels of interpretation, when you have real insight into the rightness and wrongness of things, when you perceive the eternal fitness of human relationships, you will begin to view such a problem of interpretation as you would imagine a high-minded, idealistic, wise, and impartial third person would so view and interpret such an injunction as applied to your personal problems of adjustment to your life situations.
Comment. Philosophical levels are a high achievement, to begin with, insight into the rightness and wrongness of things. And to perceive the eternal fitness of human relationships can draw on truths from all Parts of the Urantia Book. Here are a pair of examples. We are:
107:3.4 (1179.7) 1. Always to show adequate respect for the experience and endowments of their seniors and superiors.
107:3.5 (1179.8) 2. Always to be considerate of the limitations and inexperience of their juniors and subordinates.
147:4.9 (1651.3) “6. The spiritual level. And then last, but greatest of all, we attain the level of spirit insight and spiritual interpretation which impels us to recognize in this rule of life the divine command to treat all men as we conceive God would treat them. That is the universe ideal of human relationships. And this is your attitude toward all such problems when your supreme desire is ever to do the Father’s will. I would, therefore, that you should do to all men that which you know I would do to them in like circumstances.”
Comments. First, note that we cannot live on the spiritual level without achieving the growth gained in the previous levels. Second, to treat others as Jesus did includes being ready to lay down our life. Third, when a spirit-led mortal loves someone (180.5/1950), the Spirit of Truth leads them to seek the highest good for each person they meet—in the light of their changing circumstances and the good of all others who may be indirectly affected. Finally, here’s a description of how the spiritual level of the practice of the golden rule unifies all our growth on all levels.
180:5.8 (1950.3) The true cosmic meaning of this rule of universal relationship is revealed only in its spiritual realization, in the interpretation of the law of conduct by the spirit of the Son to the spirit of the Father that indwells the soul of mortal man. And when such spirit-led mortals realize the true meaning of this golden rule, they are filled to overflowing with the assurance of citizenship in a friendly universe, and their ideals of spirit reality are satisfied only when they love their fellows as Jesus loved us all, and that is the reality of the realization of the love of God.
I would add some more from A Taste of Joy and Liberty.
Jesus had doing God’s will on his short list of essentials in the life of faith. He said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Doing God’s will makes us part of Jesus’s new family. “Who are my mother and brothers? . . . Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (Mt 7:21 and 12:48–50).
If doing the will of God is so important, we can be assured from the start that God has a path that enables us to find his will. It must be a path so vast and universal that all persons of faith can find it, a path that contains within itself every other worthy path. (66)
In the game of darts, players take turns trying to throw their darts so that they stick in the center of the dartboard. But most of the time they hit the dartboard somewhere else; sometimes they miss the dartboard altogether. If I were going to create a dartboard, the center would symbolize doing God’s will, and the surrounding circles would represent human approximations to that goal that are less divine.
Here is the solution that I propose to the problem of discerning the will of God. Because divine values are woven together in religious experience, we ideally need to reflect in order to distinguish them in a response to prayer. Our thinking finds truth in it; our feeling finds beauty in it; and we find goodness in its guidance for our decision. When we have been wholehearted in our prayer process (even a quick one when that’s what we have time for), we may rest content with the best that we have been realistically able to find.
In loving mercy, God works with us to help make the best of our decision. The Parent accepts and adopts the child’s best effort. We can relax and rejoice. Discernment doesn’t have to hit the bullseye; it just has to hit the target.
Discernment does not mean intuiting whether the source of an impressive input is human or divine. Discernment means intuiting truth, beauty, and goodness.
It is our choice to explore this frontier. The more we try it out, the more interesting it becomes.
Sometimes I think of God’s will in terms of that, what, and how: God’s will is that we wholeheartedly desire to do it, to discern what he wills, and then to find how to do it in a loving and merciful way. Being wholehearted about God’s will makes the what and the how much easier. (76)
The spirit-filled life
156:5.2 (1738.1) You must be taught by the spirit and be led by the spirit if you would live the spirit-filled life among your fellows.
159:4.7 (1768.3) And even if these holy men of old lived inspired and spirit-filled lives, that does not mean that their words were similarly spiritually inspired.
34:6.10 (381.4) And all this [cooperation with the Spirit in man] represents but the preliminary steps to the final attainment of the perfection of faith and service, that experience wherein you shall be “filled with all the fullness of God . . . .”
194:2.6 (2061.4) Next, the Spirit of Truth came to help the believer to witness to the realities of Jesus’ teachings and his life as he lived it in the flesh, and as he now again lives it anew and afresh in the individual believer of each passing generation of the spirit-filled sons of God.
The Ideals of Spirit-Filled Living
Parts I–IV in A Taste of Joy and Liberty trace a development of spirituality that I believe Jesus completed by his baptism: he had become spirit-born, spirit-taught, spirit-led, and spirit-filled. I assume that there are thousands of persons who have attained this highest level. I also suppose that some of them do not think of themselves as followers of Jesus. So what can it mean to be spirit-filled?
I think that the number-one clue to an answer is that all spirit-filled persons are spirit-born, spirit-taught, and spirit-led. This implies that, at the highest level, most of the qualities that we have highlighted in Parts I–III are taken to higher levels and unified more perfectly.
For example, a strong, well-balanced character centered in God becomes stronger, the balance is wiser, and being centered in God is based on an ever-increasing realization of our Parent. . . . [This growth continues until spirit-led persons] attain a certain indefinable and sustainable human completeness—like the human Jesus did.
The core of what it means to be spirit-filled is that such persons are given advanced tasks and enjoy the exquisite companionship of a more or less continuous spiritual awareness of God and divine values. This does not mean around-the-clock focusing on God. But they are never far from God. They surpass people on the first three spiritual levels in loving God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, and loving each neighbor in a way that is intelligent and wise. . . .
An Agenda of Hope
. . . . Jesus’s abiding Spirit presence and his life and teachings guide us in daily life and in these times of great planetary distress. In general, they help us flourish increasingly as members in our Father’s universal family. . . . They point to a secure long-term framework and a near-term future for which there is great hope.
First, the long-range perspective. From the beginning, our world has been in the hands of the Creator. Also, for two thousand years, Jesus has blessed us through his Spirit of Truth. With God, Jesus is in charge of our planetary destiny, and he gives eternal life to all who will receive it. Having this assurance, we can live more effectively in the present.
Now the near-term picture. It is plausible that each goal of the following agenda will be accomplished sooner or later. The great hope is that the agenda is completed sooner—in this century or the next. So let us envision four imperatives. (1) Help Jesus get his gospel movement back on track by putting his original message front and center in our lives and our spiritual communications with the world. (2) Seek spiritual unity among all groups of Jesus’s followers—East and West, North and South, right and left. (3) Cooperate with persons of other religions as equals in the family of faith. (4) And follow Jesus beyond the present chaos and confusion into a spiritual renaissance that will usher in the next stage of the kingdom of God.
The Master’s revelation is not over. His Spirit of Truth is leading us into all truth. Each of us can pray for the next layer of truth that God knows we are capable of receiving. Every day we can benefit from a new layer. Let’s seek it, expect it for ourselves and each other, and rejoice in advance.
Happy deciding and doing! (260-62)
