LESSON 3: Man's Gift to the Father — Doing of the will of God

The upreach of man to God

The topic of doing the will of God is such an extensive subject that we simply cannot do it justice in this short lesson. Entire books can easily be dedicated to merely a single aspect of this vast study. And so, in the spirit of keeping this lesson down to a reasonable length, we have chosen to highlight some major points through the use of simple lists. We leave it as an exercise for the reader to dig deeper into his/her specific areas of interest.

Personal religious experience

Every different culture of humanity has its own unique religious perspective on human existence, and these religions can never come to intellectual unification. Human unity can only be achieved through the religion of the Spirit. Human minds may differ, but all humanity is indwelt by the same Spirit. The hope of human unity can only be realized when the divergent religions become transformed by the unifying and ennobling religion of the Spirit — the religion of personal spiritual experience.

The religion of the spirit means effort, struggle, conflict, faith, determination, love, loyalty, and progress. The religion of the mind — the theology of authority — requires little or none of these exertions from its believers. Tradition is a safe refuge and an easy path for those fearful and halfhearted souls who instinctively shun the spirit struggles and mental uncertainties associated with those faith voyages of daring adventure out upon the high seas of unexplored truth in search for the farther shores of spiritual realities as they may be discovered by the progressive mind and experienced by the evolving soul.

The philosophic elimination of religious fear and the steady progress of science add greatly to the end of false gods and to the eventual destruction of that ignorance and superstition which so long obscured the living Creator of eternal love. The relation between the creature and the Creator is a living experience, a dynamic religious faith, which is not subject to precise definition. To isolate part of life and call it religion is to disintegrate life and to distort religion. Religious convictions may be arrived at through wise reasoning, but the individual becomes certain only through personal experience.

Marks of religious living
    1. Causes ethics and morals to progress despite inherent animalistic tendencies.
    2. Produces sublime trust in the goodness of God in the face of bitter disappointment and crushing defeat.
    3. Generates profound courage and confidence despite natural adversity and physical calamity.
    4. Exhibits inexplicable poise and sustaining tranquility notwithstanding baffling diseases and acute physical suffering.
    5. Maintains a mysterious composure of personality in the face of maltreatment and the rankest injustice.
    6. Maintains a divine trust in ultimate victory in spite of the cruelties of seemingly blind fate and the apparent utter indifference of natural forces to human welfare.
    7. Persists in the unswerving belief in God despite all contrary demonstrations of logic and successfully withstands all other intellectual sophistries.
    8. Exhibits undaunted faith in the soul’s survival regardless of the deceptive teachings of false science and the persuasive delusions of unsound philosophy.
    9. Lives and triumphs irrespective of the crushing overload of the complex and partial civilizations of modern times.
    10. Contributes to the survival of altruism in spite of human selfishness, social antagonisms, industrial greeds, and political maladjustments.
    11. Steadfastly adheres to a sublime belief in universe unity and divine guidance regardless of the perplexing presence of evil and sin.
    12. Goes right on worshipping God in spite of anything and everything. Declares: “Even though he slay me, yet will I serve him.”
      ~ All references are from the Urantia Book.
Religion in relation to social institutions
Characteristics of true religion
What of faith and belief
Religious insight
Religious experience
Science and religion
Philosophy and religion
21 Steps to a spiritual awakening
  1. Recognizing our need
  2. Believing in God
  3. Accepting God's grace
  4. Admitting our shortcomings
  5. Forgiving others
  6. Asking others' forgiveness
  7. Accepting God's forgiveness
  8. Living new lives
  9. Committing ourselves
  10. Praying
  11. Balancing physical with spiritual
  12. Persisting in our search
  13. Gaining perspective
  14. Gaining faith
  15. Experiencing assurance
  16. Deepening fellowship
  17. Serving others
  18. Sharing our spiritual experience
  19. Loving each other
  20. Loving Jesus
  21. Loving God
Conditions of effective prayer — The laws of prevailing petitions


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Revision #3
Created 12 November 2024 19:44:13 by Bee
Updated 20 January 2025 00:56:34 by Bee