The Gift of Christ

“The message that Jesus brought to us is the message of all eternity. The essence behind that message is the Source of everything. It is the energy by which the very cells of our bodies become energized and renewed.” – John-Roger

This article by John-Roger was first published in the Movement Newspaper, November 1981.

Christmas – the Christ Mass – is a celebration of the Life of Jesus the Christ and the gift of everlasting life He brought to mankind. We celebrate Christmas many ways, and perhaps some of the greater ways we celebrate this season are by focusing on our divine natures, recognizing the gifts we have been given through God’s infinite grace, and giving to others from the loving Spirit inside us.

The Christmas tradition that we celebrate and the message that has been given so many times is that Jesus was born in a manger as the Son of God, became the Messiah, the Savior, and took the sins of the world upon Himself in perfect loving and perfect sacrifice. With His death upon the cross, He released those sins and promised life everlasting to all men. The work I do is based upon His work having taken place.

Some people say the life of Jesus is mythology, and I tell them, “Then what I tell you is a fairy tale because it is based upon that mythology.” They say, “Then why is your fairy tale so practical and why does it work so well?” And the answer is that the Christ action, through Jesus, is not mythology. It was a real, physical, earth experience.

Any woman who has ever had a baby and every man who has ever participated in that experience knows what a real, physical, earth experience is. That’s what I’m talking about when I say that the life of Jesus and the work He did in this world was real. It was not something symbolic, although out of it came a symbolism for all humanity.

The message that Jesus brought to us is the message of all eternity. The essence behind that message is the Source of everything. It is the energy by which the very cells of our bodies become energized and renewed. It is the Source. Behind Jesus was the unseen Source, the unseen energy, the unseen Presence that is God. It was there then, and it is equally present today. It is behind me and activates the work I do. It is behind you, also. To know its Presence, you must turn to it in your heart. That is where it has its life. You don’t find it by hiding or by running away from life. Your life is to be lived, which means being involved in it and remembering you and God are functioning together as co-creators on this planet.

God is your power and your strength. You can corrupt that power if you care to. If you use it for destruction you’ll destroy yourself. Your negative thoughts, your doubting, your attempts to justify positions that are false to begin with will destroy you. The power that you have will turn in upon you and beat you in the head. So take the power and use it to enhance those things that are good, joyful, uplifting, and useful to yourself and others.

Do you know that every great religion and every great civilization that has fallen, fell because they forgot one fundamental principle that underlies everything on this planet? They forgot to remember they were part of God. They forgot to remember they were God’s creation. They lost their thankfulness, their gratefulness. They lost their gratitude. When those qualities are gone, there is little left but envy, greed, malice and other things that aren’t too pleasant.

All religions and civilizations were built by people who had communion with God, contact with God, a relationship of thankfulness with God. That is how things were built, and that is how they are built today. When you do things that increase your communion with God, you find your life picking up. Things get easier. Nice people come around you. Your boss likes the work you do. Your friends want to take you to the movies. Life becomes fun. But when you set yourself up as the ultimate authority on all things and declare that there is none greater than you, not even God, who wants to be around that? You find yourself rather lonely.

Have you ever cheated or lied to people? Deceived people? Tried to manipulate them to get your way? Taken what you want from them and given little or nothing in return? Have you ever done those things because of poor management and misguided emotions? Have you ever done those things purposefully, knowing what you were doing? Those times get to be rough ones to handle. When you get involved in theft or deceptions on any level – financial, physical, emotional, mental or spiritual – you start dying spiritually. You start moving away from the essence of God in you that is called Christ. That’s when it really hurts because you are shutting off your life’s Source. You are denying the Spirit of God that lives in you. You are destroying your Self.

A lot of us have those hurts inside of us, and they can go very, very deep. But let me tell you the good news. There is nothing so deep and nothing so bad that God cannot go in there and get lower and deeper and beyond it all and pull you out of it. So don’t play the hopeless game. You don’t even need to hope. What you need to do is get up and start participating in your life. Why? Because God may be busy, and if you’re lying at the bottom of the pit, not moving or showing any signs of life, He may not seem to have time to reach down that far; but if you stand up and start moving, you’ll be a lot higher, and He’ll be able to see you more easily. He may be able to reach down and scoop you up very quickly. Give yourself a break. You can’t lose. Get up and do the best you can every moment, and you’ll find an awful lot of help coming your way.

The Holy Spirit is being poured across the planet now more than ever before in the spiritual history of this world. It’s everywhere – take advantage of it. Ask Spirit to be with you. Ask for God’s blessing. You are blessed simply because you are here, but you can block your awareness of that blessing if you choose to.

You cannot take advantage of your blessings by running dumbness, stupidity, make-believe or egocentricity on that which is. If you deny and fight against what is true in your life, you will probably not feel God on your side or know His Presence, although He will still be there. If you try to get out of doing those things that are yours to do, you might not experience Spirit’s Presence in your life. But if you sit down and move into a quiet place inside yourself where you can feel your heart, you can ask Spirit what you’re to do. And if there’s no answer, don’t give up on yourself. Ask again later.

There is nothing in your life that God cannot deal with. There is nothing that does not have an answer which will uplift you. There is nothing here designed to hurt you. Does God pay attention when you ask for guidance? When you pay attention to God, He pays attention to you. Then you become one with God, in that positive focus. It’s very, very powerful and dynamic. When you ask God to participate in your life, be ready to accept it. Be ready to do with it. Be ready to give up your puny, personal, physical point of view and see beyond this level into infinity.

When the Holy Spirit touches to you, you’ll see your eyes light up, you’ll feel your skin begin to glow and you’ll know you are radiating Light. Other people will see that Light and will want to be around you. They’ll want more of the Spirit they see present. Neither of you may have the slightest idea what’s going on, and if you try to understand it, you’ll lose; but when the glory of God comes present and shines through you, you’ll experience a joy that has nothing to do with this world.

That’s the Christ Presence. That’s the essence behind Jesus. It’s the unseen essence that resides behind us all. When you are in communion with that essence, you are transformed into the very Spirit which was Jesus the Christ.

At that moment you go to the Father not only as a son, but as a friend. And you go to Jesus, not only as the Lord, but as your friend. That’s the best deal around, my friends. There is nothing to compare with it on any level of existence. It’s a straight path into the Heart of God, and it is your heritage. It has been promised to you. All you have to do is collect.

Blessed Christ Mass. Baruch Bashan.