Silver Springs Retreat By William Cooper
Following his resurrection, Jesus made 19 appearances to groups of his followers. His message to all of them was that they should go into all the world teaching and preaching to everyone the good news that God is our Father and we are therefore family. Jesus instructed us to follow the leading of the spirit of God within us to do unselfish good in everything. That is the highly condensed or compacted good news. The good news in its fullness is extensive and perhaps infinitely extensive. The following is a first step in decompacting Jesus’s highly compacted good news message.
- You are a spiritual person who inhabits a physical body. They are both you, but the spiritual you is eternal. Your personality, character, and loving memories are part of the spiritual you and survive.
- God is your loving spiritual parent. God the Father is your spiritual father and loves you and cares for you as an excellent father. God the Spirit is your spiritual mother and loves you and cares for you as your mother. Both are very deeply, personally and constantly involved in your welfare and rearing. They are interested foremost in your spiritual rearing, welfare and education. You are a first generation offspring of these two aspects of the one God who is the originator and creator of all that is. You are not a slave, a distant grandchild, an adopted child nor merely analogous to a child of God. You are the real thing and you are loved, forgiven and enjoyed as a unique person.
- All people everywhere are children of God and therefore are entitled to the respect due to the immediate family of the most gracious, generous and powerful person in all of creation. Since all people are children of God, they are all brothers and sisters and should behave with love, compassion and mutual support for one another.
- All children of God have a fabulous, exciting and unique destiny which is important to them and to God and should be encouraged and cooperated with by all persons.
- God’s domain operates as a loving family, not an arbitrary kingdom of servants. The family needs every child. You have an important part to play.
- An immediate two way personal relationship between God and each of his children (through prayer, worship, meditation and ethical living) is available to each child simply for the striving to have such a relationship. The benefits of this relationship are immense, awesome and eternal. (But many of the benefits come through growth, insight and education over time.)
- Each child of God can experience the fatherhood of God and the motherhood of God. For each child, God as father has in mind an eternal career of growing knowledge and wisdom and progressive service to the family. As father, God will give power and authority to each child as soon as he/she is sufficiently educated to exercise power and authority responsibly. (Necessarily limited power in this mortal lifetime.) God as mother comforts, encourages and nurtures each child both physically and spiritually. From physical conception and forever thereafter, God as mother supports, cherishes and comforts every child without preference or qualification.
By paying attention to these parental ministrations, the children of God can get to know their spiritual parents.