The grace of God simply is. It exists all the time, all around us, penetrating everything that is…Basking in grace means that everything, in the end, will work out for the best…The problem isn’t that we need to draw God’s grace to us; it’s already there in every pore of our being. The problem is our faulty outlook, our limited view of things, our distorted perceptions…The key is to know that when we’re unhappy, fearful, discouraged or in darkness in any way, we’re not in truth…It is our blocks and our faulty vision that separate us from the grace of God, but we think it’s the other way around…
We put effect before cause and get confused, thinking grace is something that must be given to us. We also assume that faith comes to us from the outside, as if one day we might have it, while for now we lack it. Truth is, we lack neither grace nor faith; we’re swimming in both but don’t realize it…Whatever we wish to be just needs to be brought out on this material level…
All religious scriptures of any kind teach the law of giving and receiving. But often we misunderstand it slightly so we put it aside. We think it’s a sanctimonious edict that an arbitrary authority issues forth. That it’s a demand we do something so that we might get rewards in return. It’s like a form of bargaining. Of course we resist this—it offends our human dignity. We distrust a universe that treats us like we’re unruly children…
So then what is the law of giving and receiving really about? Each of us have a built-in mechanism that makes it impossible to receive when we withhold our innate capacity and desire to give…This means that if we let our distrust and fear hold us back, the grace of God can’t flow out…This creates the illusion that we live in a poor and empty universe…That we have nothing to give from and there’s nothing to receive. Ooof…
This erroneous belief then makes us hoard ourselves, holding back our talents, our riches—everything we possess spiritually or materially. We hold in rather than give out… If we give to God in trust and with faith, we release our inner faith and clear up our inner vision. We’ll be able to see the abundance surrounding us and flowing through us, lifting the lever that locked the mechanism…The more we receive, the more we can give, and the more we give, the more we are capable of receiving. That’s when giving and receiving become one…
There’s an obstacle many face…It’s the tendency for people to build on deficit. This is intrinsically linked to this belief in an empty, poor, ungiving world…Whenever we stack positive beliefs on top of negative ones we are only half-aware of, we are building on deficit. So if we secretly believe we are unlovable or unacceptable, despite our surface behaviors to the contrary, we’re building on deficit…
The trouble with building on deficit is that it appears to work, at least for a while. It’s temporarily convincing…With this as the foundation we are standing on, pouring our energy into our mask and our Lower Self, we don’t dare to expose our deficits—the inner bankruptcy that smolders underneath. This is why a path of spiritual purification is about bringing out all of our Lower Self maneuvers. We must stand there poor, no longer covered up with a fake veneer…
Any personal crisis is nothing more than a bankruptcy exposed. We can wait for this to happen on its own, or we can create a controlled fall by working mindfully with a spiritual helper or counselor…Of course our spiritual and emotional “finances” appear on the physical level as well. We often live above our means, coasting on debt and covering one hole with another newly created hole…
The fear that causes us to hold and hoard is in error…Giving through faith—even before we’re convinced that our fear of giving is unfounded—is like pulling out poisonous weeds and planting beautiful seedlings instead…Then we can release the faith that is in us, not as an act of blind belief in wishful thinking but as a new ground rule for life.
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Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #250 Inner Awareness of Grace – Exposing the Deficit
