The Two Kinds of Submission

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

Galatians 5:1

  You must learn to distinguish between the two kinds of submission. There is submission to superior force, and there is submission to superior truth. The former is a demonstration of weakness, while the latter is proof of strength. The first exists by compulsion, while the second exists by choice. Submission to superior force is the definition of slavery, while submission to superior truth is the definition of freedom.

   If you were raised in a strict religious home, you were probably indoctrinated with the quiescent notion that it was wrong to question God, and it was right to accept your lot in life as the will of God. This false teaching—even after you grow out of and away from it—still affects the way you see the world. However, when you consider the circumstances of the masses of Black People, you cannot believe that what we have endured under Eurocentric racism for nearly 400 years could possibly be the will of God.

   Your mantra related to submission must be one of freedom  and not of slavery. You cannot be a free moral agent who rules the mini-universe where you are the center, and be in submission to domination by another at the same time. 

   Your submission to superior truth calls you to revolutionary struggle—i.e., manifesting thoughts of liberty, social justice, and fullness of life for Black People of the I AM.

   Jesus never calls disciples and tells them to submit to Him. He asks them to abide, stay with, be closely-associated with Him if—and only if—they decide to become disciples. The relationship is one of equality that is built upon free choice and abiding, not submitting. It is easier for most people to remain slaves than to struggle to be free. Freedom requires personal responsibility and Thought—too much work for most people.

   The secret to your progress of transformation, expansion, and evolution is premised on your developing a habit of submission; but submission to superior truth, not to superior force.

   When you gain access to a higher truth, you will be required to rearrange the lower truths you already possess. You do not abandon lower truths, you just take them off the top shelf of your thinking and place them on a lower shelf. Truth is truth, but higher truth takes precedence over lower truth.

   The process of letting go the lower for the higher truth will cause you some discomfort. It may seem that just when you get comfortable with a truth that is higher than what you held previously, another higher truth comes into your life requiring that you acknowledge its higher value and internal placement. This is called growth. Failure to grow is the cause of arrested development—a malady that you want to avoid at all cost.

   The Universal Principle related to this state of affairs is that the lesser degree of life must be swallowed up by the greater. You must accept that the smaller or lesser degree was only a partial and limited aspect of that which is more universal.

   Submission, in this context, means your intelligent recognition of the true nature of your own internal forces and of the laws by which your robust constitution must be built. Thus, your submission is no longer to limitations which drain you of your “aliveness” and against which you instinctively rebel.

   Instead, your submission is to the law of your own evolution which manifests itself in continually increasing degrees of life and strength. In the end, submission is the price you pay to expand. Your own growth requires that you submit to yourself. 

The I AM IS ONE!

 "Very truly I tell you," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" 

John 8:58

  Just what does the “I AM IS ONE” mean? This means that there are not two Spirits, one that is yourself and one that is another. It means that there is not some great unknown power external to you which is motivated by an agenda inimical to your own, and who is poised to oppose you with overwhelming force, determined to crush you.

   There is only One Mind, One Motive, One Power. Your conscious mind in all its movements is only the One Mind expressing itself as your own particular individuality. There are not two I AMs, but just ONE I AM.

   Whatever you can conceive the Great Universal Life Principle to be, that YOU ARE. You could never conceive the Great Original Originating and Sustaining Life Principle as poor, weak, sordid, miserable, jealous, angry, anxious, uncertain, or in any other way limited. You know this to be impossible.

   Because the I AM IS ONE, then what applies to the I AM equally applies to you, because you are in individual microcosm precisely what the Universal I AM is in Macrocosm.

   In order to fully grasp the magnitude of the I AM in yourself, you must first learn to distinguish your true self from the mental and physical processes which you are able to physically observe as the instruments you use whenever you express yourself.

 Then you must learn that your true self controls these mental and physical instrumentalities. As you advance in this self-knowledge you will know that you are unlimited, and that in your microcosmic world where you are the center, you are the very same overflowing “aliveness” that the Great Life Spirit is in the Universal Macrocosm. The I AM IS ONE!

   As the “I AM” who starts the series—“I AM, therefore, I can, therefore I will”—you have your head in heaven and your feet planted firmly on the ground. Operating from this Divine Perspective, you are a perfect Unity, having a range of ideas that far exceeds and transcends the tiny “Lilliputian” ideas which are limited by the requirements of day-to-day living.

   The requirements of each day are real while they last. So, since your manifested life can only be lived in the present moment, your task is to harmonize and synchronize your life of expression with your life of purpose. Thus, realizing this in yourself, you will live a life of highest purposes and fullest expression.

   This approach to living your highest and fullest life is the ultimate meaning of prayer. Prayer is not some foolish practice of attempting to change the Mind of Supreme Wisdom, but an intelligent seeking to embody that wisdom in your thoughts. The end of such true prayer is to more perfectly express that Supreme Wisdom when you express yourself.

   As you slowly grow into the habit of finding this Inspiring Presence within yourself, you will realize its forward motion in all your truly healthful mental actions. If you persist in your realization of this Inspiring Presence within you, it will become your second nature to have all your plans, including their most trivial details, to be washed in the “water” of Universal Intelligence.

   A great sense of peace and harmony—"at-oneness”—will overflow into your life, every dissonant chord of “noise” will be silenced, and you will find yourself controlling all things into the forms you desire. You can do this because you are One in Spirit, changed in your thinking, and aware of the deep knowledge of yourself.

Think Yourself Free!

 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will  know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  John 8:32

   You are a reproduction in individuality of the same Spirit which produces all things. Your own Thought in individuality has exactly the same quality as the Divine Thought in Universality. Accordingly, your Thought has first cause creative power—not just second cause constructive power.

   You may argue: “This is not my true experience. I am surrounded by circumstances that I do not want.” Yes, absolutely! You are always deploring your circumstances, and by so doing, they become worse. Your Thought Power is focused negatively, rather than positively. You focus on your current circumstances, instead of creating in your Thought the circumstances you desire, and in doing so you are constantly exercising your Divine prerogative of creation by Thought. However, because you are unaware of your power of Thought, you are using it in its inverted, negative (sinful) form. That is why you worry, are fearful, and are always waiting for the other proverbial “shoe” to drop.

   That is why the Bible constantly repeats, “Fear not, doubt not,” because you can never divest your Thought of its inherent creative quality. The only issue now is whether you will use your creative power in the ignorance of unawareness to your own detriment, or in the wisdom of truth to your own benefit.

   Jesus summed up his teaching in the aphorism that knowledge of the truth would make you free. He made no pronouncement of anything else that you have to do, or of anything that anyone else has to do for you in order for you to be made free. Jesus’ statement was not future, but in the present Eternal Now.

   Truth is what is now and not what is promised hereafter. In essence, Jesus said, “Know what truth is now, and you will find that the truth about yourself is that you are free now.” If knowing truth makes you free, it can only be because you are free in truth now, but you are simply unaware of it. 

   In practical terms, you are free to reproduce on the scale of your individuality the creative power of Thought that first brought the world into existence. Take a flying leap of faith. Confidently claim your birthright of creative Thought power fearlessly, and dare to think yourself free!

Your Time to Grow Up

 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  Philippians 4:8

    Your thought determines the quality of your actions. Consequently, it is free to direct itself to the highest principles that reproduce themselves in your outward acts. Such highly principled thinking and acting are in harmony with the great universal laws. Your principled alignment with these laws becomes one in purpose with the Universal Mind of the All-Originating Spirit of God.

   You will then begin to realize that you are no longer in bondage to the consequences of your former deeds, done in the time of your ignorance of your own creative power and of your relationship to the All-Originating Spirit of God.

   You will come to see the truth that you are the expression of the Universal Undifferentiated Spirit in differentiated individual personality. You are a free “partaker of the Divine nature.” As such, you are becoming more and more fully yourself with the potential to move toward greater expansion. This greater expansion will lead you to ever-widening perfection on an evolutionary trajectory of infinite possibilities.

   This knowledge is hidden to most people by design. Only those who desire to know the secrets of the kingdom of God get to know them. It is their desire that drives them forward. That is why Jesus spoke in parables and not in plain, understandable language.

   Remember your own development to this point. If you believed in God at all, you viewed God as external to you, who was opposed to you, and needed to be propitiated. Or you may have taken the view that God was neither for or against you, but required you to use your begging or cajoling skills in order to get God to give you whatever you needed.

   Now is the time for you to grow up. Your infantile beliefs about God, carried over from your childhood, are due for a complete overhaul. Advance in your growth by thinking yourself to be emancipated from bondage and freed to live free of fear and full of hope.

   Your freedom rests on a firmer foundation than the conventional interpretation of traditional religious dogmas. Rather, its roots are in the great laws of nature, which are sure and predictable.

   Further, your freedom is rooted in the unchangeable laws of Mind. That is why you must be presented with ideas that you can grasp and internalize. Only then can you have a personally satisfying basis to change your mental attitude from infantile to adult, from fear to faith, and from hate to love.