THE SCHOOL OF TRUTH
LECTURE

OUR FATHER

© The School of Truth
Source p. 207, Aug / Sep 2008 - The Path of Truth

Christ said, "Call no man your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, which is in heaven." This indicates the reverence with which we should approach our Heavenly Father. Fatherhood has a special place in our lives and stands for protection, guidance, and the provision of our needs. The Master also said, "If ye know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?" So we say, with all reverence and sincerity, "Our Father which art in heaven."

Heaven is not a place, but a divine state of consciousness. In the human sense, we are working on a low level of consciousness, at what we might call a low vibration. We have to bring ourselves up mentally to the divine state by realising our oneness with this all embracing divine consciousness, for "in Him we live and move and have our being."

When we say "hallowed be thy name" we must recognise the name of God as I AM and keep it holy within us and never associate it with anything unlike God. His name is hallowed - holy, sacred - and as we honour it, our consciousness is lifted up in the realisation of God's might and majesty.

"Thy kingdom come" is prayed, not just for ourselves, but for all the world, and we ask that the Christ return to reign over the earth and all its inhabitants. The Christ, one of the Holy Trinity, is present, in truth, and has not left the earth, but most of us are far from realising it. We must "seek first the Kingdom", which is the peace and harmony of God's presence within us.

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven" is asking that God's love and guidance be expressed through us, as us, on this physical plane as it is in the spiritual plane. These planes cannot really be separate, for there is no separation from God. We must always seek to do what is God's will every hour of every day, for successful living. We are one with love and goodness and the wisdom to know what to do and how to do it. To the degree that we open ourselves to receive God's will do we make ourselves channels through which that will can work, and no disharmony can exist in the body where God's will freely flows.

"Give us this day our daily bread" covers all our needs, our food, clothing, housing, occupation and supply, as well as our spiritual food - enlightenment, love, understanding, joy, wisdom, and all the spiritual attributes we can think of. This spiritual food nourishes and sustains us as we struggle to raise ourselves to higher levels. We shall awake to the knowledge of the powers that are lying dormant within us, to be recognised and used in His service.

To receive forgiveness for our debts, we first must forgive our debtors. To whom are we indebted? We are indebted to everyone who comes within our orbit because they are, in reality, children of God; therefore we love God within them. We have lessons to learn from each other - debts to pay and to receive - and even though there appears to be disharmony, these are opportunities to express the God within. Pray for our so-called enemies and try to understand them, and we shall see the situation in a different and better light.

"Lead us not into temptation" can be understood as "Thou leadest us not into temptation." Nevertheless, we cannot undergo inner evolution and growth in understanding without temptation. For example, we are tempted to misunderstand and have doubts about the teaching of Truth, and to lose faith. We are tempted to give up the struggle and to despair; or to criticise and condemn. We are tempted to cease loving our neighbour as ourselves. Remember that Christ Himself was tempted.

"But deliver us from evil" acknowledges that we need protection, and guidance to understand that there really is no evil. We ask to receive the understanding of what God has told us, namely, "I am God and there is none else." There is only one Power - good, omnipotent God, the all-powerful and all-mighty.

-  A Student.

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