Opening ourselves up to the Lord’s life flowing in
Luke 6:38.
Give, and it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.
There is a saying that some people subscribe to because – obviously enough – it helps them to make sense of life that, and I quote,
What goes round comes round.
From time to time I have heard people state this, as their conviction, and you may have done as well. ‘What goes round come around’. In other words, if you give out goodness or kindness, or whatever, goodness and kindness will one day return to you. If one the other hand you give out badness or hurtfulness, badness and hurtfulness will one day return to you.
Another way of putting this might be that ‘we reap what we sow’. In essence, we will eventually attract back to ourselves what we give out.
There seems little doubt that there is some truth in this. Just as a simple and straightforward example, neighborliness and goodwill usually attracts neighborliness and goodwill in return.
Approach life with in sullen and complaining way and, usually, it will be what you attract back to yourself.
But not always, of course. It’s not 100% guaranteed.
If we were to stop and think about it, it is almost certain that we could all come up with examples of where, and when, what goes out hasn’t come round; where what has been given out hasn’t been returned.
Examples of this are in the Psalms where again and again the question of the prosperity of the wicked, how what they did and how they lived didn’t seem to return on them, is an issue of anguish.
Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. (Palm 73:1 to 3)
But still, something very important is touched on here. Indeed, a truth is enshrined here. But what we need to do is to shift our focus from the outer world, as such; and our external life; to our inner world. For here is where the truth of the matter emerges, and it is what the Lord is bringing to our attention in these words from Luke’s Gospel.
Give, and will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.
What is highlighted in these words is a fundamental truth about human life, that what we say and do and set out hearts on and give out has repercussions or consequences for us, and those repercussions or consequences are within.
Instead of saying, we attract back to ourselves what we give out, what we are being told here, and taught, is that we attract into ourselves what we give out.
Let’s just note this now, that this has far reaching implications. It changes the way we see ourselves. It clarifies things. It frees us, even, from anxieties and guilt feelings we sometimes unnecessarily have, and it is amazingly encouraging when we are running low; don’t feel we have much left to give; and are finding it extremely difficult to give what we’ve got.
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.
So, what is the Lord saying to us here? What is He getting at?
For one thing, He is challenging the notion that we start our adult lives with a store of love, trust, care, tolerance, loyalty, faithfulness and wisdom which, over the years slowly runs down and can even run out. It’s not the case and He wants us to know this.
Coupled with this, and following on from it, He is opening up here a fundamental truth about our existence, that we live our lives, every day and every moment, in the midst of influences- both positive and negative – reaching us - and impacting on us - from the spiritual world.
When we reflect on it we all know how it is. Feelings can rise up in us, sometimes out of nowhere; feelings we didn’t know we were capable of or possessed. In an emergency people will make super human sacrifices. In the face of a disaster a wave of sympathy and care sweeps over us. Then again, and a different example as this is, show a hardened, tattooed, bearded “bikie” his new born child and feelings will rise up reducing him to tears.
And it’s the same with thoughts and insights. Thoughts also come to the surface from, apparently nowhere; thoughts that uplift us; ideas; insights; as well as thoughts that shame us and cause us to shudder.
“All life inflows”, is a key teaching of The Heavenly Doctrines: the good of life- or, all that is wholesome and good and uplifting and thoughtful of others – from heaven, and the evil of life – or, what is dark and degrading and self-promoting and self-absorbed – from hell.
As in “Secrets of Heaven”, paragraph 4151:
Life in its entirety is something which inflow…Good and truth are things that flow in, so too are evil and falsity, and as a consequence every thought of evil or willing of it flows in too.
And this is going on continuously. Random thoughts pop unto our minds – from where? Random feelings are awakened, sometimes in one situation but not in another – from where? But here is what is important.
Firstly, the Lord has the most detailed awareness of what is happening and monitors the situation so that we are in freewill. These influences that reach us and impact on us from the spiritual world, either from heaven or from hell, reach us in roughly equal measure and strength.
Secondly, we are not responsible for what comes to us, as such. So it is not a matter of congratulating ourselves on good thoughts and feelings nor is it a matter of feeling guilt, or making ourselves guilty, because of dark thoughts and feelings. We become responsible only for what we choose of these contrasting thoughts and feelings to make our own.
This, we need to note, is exactly what the Lord taught when He said,
Not that which goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man…whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated. But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. (Matthew Chapter 11: 17 to 19)
There is so much we hear and see and all kinds of promptings that come to us from hell (the devil ceaselessly trying to influence us).
This is something we all experience. We hear about things we don’t want to know about or we see on television things which we wish we had never seen. All of these are the things that goes into the mouth but which do not defile us.
However, if we start to favour, and then cherish and then will to do, similar things or to act on what some evil spirit is suggesting to us, then this is what defiles us.
Thirdly, and so importantly, we become what we choose of these contrasting influences. As children and within the context of personality traits and inherited talents we start out as a clean slate. But we become the sort of person that over the years, and in adulthood, we choose to become or have chosen to become.
As in the Writings,
everyone takes with him into the next life that which has been fixed on his heart by his life in the world, that is to say. Evil in the case of the evil people and good in the case of good ones. (Arcana Caelestia 9049:2)
We noted the point earlier that we attract into ourselves what we give out. We attract into ourselves, from the spiritual world what we give out. And this is both wonderfully encouraging, but it is also quite sobering.
Let’s listen to the words of the text once more:
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.
The following is from the reading from The Heavenly Doctrines which you will hear in full following this sermon:
With someone who does good with all his heart good is flowing in from heaven on every side into his heart and soul and inspiring him greatly to act as he does. At the same time love and affection for the neighbour to whom he does the good is increasing, and with this love and affection a heavenly delight, beyond description. The reason why all this happens is that the good of life from the Lord reigns everywhere in heaven, flowing in unceasingly in the same measure that it is given out to another. (Conversely) with someone evil who does evil to another with all his heart, evil on every side is flowing in from hell into his heart and spurring him on greatly to act as he does.” (Arcana Caelestia 9049)
What, then, of the implications here? Earlier, mention was made of times when we feel we are running low, if not drying up. Give what you have got and you will discover the very thing you are being called to give out is amazingly replenished.
The effort will attract replenishment. You will and cannot but attract into yourself what you are being called to give out however difficult it may seem; however big the task.
Late one afternoon, and Jesus having been teaching a multitude of people throughout the day,”His disciples came to Him, saying, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves food.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.’ And they said to Him,’ We have here only five loaves and two fish.’ He said to them, ‘Bring them here to me.’ Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and two fish, and looking up to heaven He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples and the disciples to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those that had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. (Matthew 14:15 to 21)
So little became so very much. This is the Lord teaching us that if we use in His service what little we seem to have it will be infilled and multiplied beyond our wildest dreams.
But be warned, that as we give out what is ugly and self-promoting so this – too – attracts reinforcement from the spiritual world, from hell. It can’t but do so.
We all know that if we take a negative, complaining, attitude into a situation it attracts reinforcement. We only see further things to criticize, complain about and be negative about.
There is a most wonderful and hugely encouraging Scripture in the prophecy of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, from Chapter 3, verse 1:
Test me now in this says the LORD of hosts, If I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.
Please, please, note what the lord is doing here! He is challenging us! Think of it, He is challenging us to put him to the test. ‘Try it out’. ‘See if it is not so’.
He knows that we can be resistant and reluctant when it comes to
- Thinking the best of people
- Putting the best possible interpretation of something amiss they have said or done
- Looking on the bright side
- Being positive in the face of disappointment and adversity
- Praising and encouraging those around us instead of finding fault
- Genuinely applauding another person’s efforts when it outshines ours.
But give it a go! See if it is not so! Take the risk! And what you will find is that heaven, with all its influences, comes flooding in, in even greater strength and measure.
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.
Amen.
Readings:
Luke Chapter 6: verses 27 to 38. Arcana Caelestia 9049: (With reference of the Old testament law, “You shall pay soul for soul”,Exodus 22:23)
The reason why this law was given to the children of Israel was that a similar law exists in the spiritual world. Anyone there who does good to another with all his heart receives good in like measure; and therefore one who does evil to another with all his heart receives evil in like measure. For good done with all one’s heart carries its own reward together with it, and evil done with all one’s heart carries its own punishment with it. So it is that heaven is the reward for good people, and hell the punishment for evil ones. Considerable experience has allowed me to know that this is so. The situation with both groups is as follows. With someone who does good with all his heart good is flowing in from heaven on every side into his heart and soul and inspiring him greatly to act as he does. At the same time love and affection for the neighbour to whom he does the good is increasing, and with this love and affection a delight that is a heavenly delight, beyond description. The reason why all this happens is that the good of love from the Lord reigns everywhere in heaven, flowing in unceasingly in the same measure that it is being given out to another.Similarly with someone evil who does evil to another with all his heart. Evil on every side is flowing in from hell into his heart and spurring him on greatly to act as he does. At the same time selfish love and affection is increasing, and with them the delight born of hatred and vengeance against those unsubmissive to him. The reason why all this happens is that the evil of self-love reigns everywhere in hell, flowing in unceasingly the same measure that it is given out to another.
The End.