Click HERE to view Rev. Rogers’ guided meditation during the service.
Okay; you ready?
So I’ve been doing this series about six weeks on “Finding.” Talking about finding beauty; finding peace; finding inner power; finding forgiveness. Last week we focused on finding the sacred
Today I want to talk about finding opportunities.
Because if you’ve ever been frustrated that what you want or what you desire has not materialized the way you wanted it to go … Has everybody had that experience? Whether it’s a job or a relationship, or whatever it is. Right? Where you know what you want, and sometimes we just get ourselves a little ticked off that God just hasn’t done a better job of providing for us. Right? Have you ever been in that place, where you’re like, “Okay, Spirit; I know you’re getting older, but come on!” [Congregation laughs] “What are we doing? Let’s move this thing along a little bit faster!”
So I want to talk about the creative process. And I want to talk about how those things that are the most important … How do we find those opportunities when they are the most important thing to us?
So I want to start tonight by talking about how everything is created three times. Because I think we really need to understand that
And the first creation is the creation in the Mind of God. Everything was created first and foremost in the infinite Mind of God at the moment creation happened. And I really want you to entertain this idea that every possibility — every level of good — was created in that moment. So there are levels of good that have already been envisioned for us — for the world — as a possibility. And that envisioning — that creation; that spiritual creation, if you will — has already happened. And it is firmly available to all of us. So as much as you can imagine in your life, there is a level of good that has already been created spiritually as a possibility for you. That we have not fully even embraced yet as a possibility.
So the first creation is this infinite spiral — this infinite possibility of good — that was created in the Mind of God in the first moment. That every level; every dimension; every possibility was created instantly, and we are in the process of opening our minds to it … opening to the possibility.
And that takes us to the second level of creation. The second level of creation is when we actually entertain a new idea that we’ve never held before. And sometimes we call these “Aha” moments, where we thought, “Wow! I could live with greater peace or greater joy or greater abundance!” But really what’s happening is: Your mind is opening to a greater possibility that God created from the beginning.
Reading from Genesis 1:3:
“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light, and God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light ‘day’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’ And there was evening and there was morning — one day.”
And then from John 1:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”
And so what I want you to see is that our job, first and foremost, is to entertain the Mind of God for the greatest possibilities for your life. And the difficulty is that we get so used to the way our life is that we draw a box around it and say, “These are the possibilities for me. This is the possibility for my family. This is the possibility for my community and my world.” And we think that that’s the limit.
And the challenge for all spiritual people is to not allow the pre-conceived ideas to limit our ability to entertain the Mind of God. That we have been pre-wired for the Mind of God. That we have this ability to access the Mind of God and entertain an idea that we’ve never held before. And, in fact, maybe an idea that nobody has ever held before! There are those original ideas!
See, ideas … Like, if you see somebody living an idea, and you think, “Well, I want that!” Right? That’s a step up. That’s a step forward. But even more amazing than that is somebody who takes an idea that has never been there before and entertains that. And in a real way — changes the consciousness of the planet. Because the possibility that was always available to us, but had never been landed in three-dimensional form … The moment somebody does it — and entertains that idea, and says, “I want to create a life like that” — changes the limitation. Changes the boundaries. Changes the thought pattern. Changes the possibilities.
So tonight I’m going to challenge us to really entertain an idea that would be the highest, the best. Even if no one has ever held that idea before!
So the first level of creation is pure God. The second level of creation is when your mind entertains a possibility that is greater than you’ve ever held before. And the third level of creation is when we actually make it real in our lives.
So the first level is pure Spirit. The second level of creation happens at the level of mind, where you entertain the Mind of God. And the third level of creation happens when it becomes three-dimensional form. And the moment somebody can see it, it becomes easier for everyone else to duplicate it. Once you’ve entertained the Mind of God, and brought it into form, it literally becomes so much easier for everybody else to believe. Because they’ve already seen it! What’s really the challenge is to actually have faith in that which you’ve never physically seen, but you believe that it’s a possibility because your mind has entertained it.
Now, you know when I’m working with my coaching clients, I tend to call these “million-dollar ideas.” And million-dollar ideas are those ideas that God drops into our mind, into our consciousness. And if we have the faith to actually bring those ideas into form, they are game-changers. They’re game-changers!
Now, let me tell you a story. So I grew up in the ’60s and the ’70s, and I grew up a mile from Disneyland. Some of you know that; some of you know how that distorted my mind. That I grew up in the shadow of possibilities! I grew up a mile from Disneyland and a mile from Robert Schuller. And it messed with me! Right? It showed me a world of possibilities.
But growing up a mile from Disneyland in that timeframe, one of the things that began to happen is the whole RV thing started in the late ’60s and ’70s, where people began to have these things. And my mom’s here today, and this story’s a little bit about my mom.
As we’re driving around Disneyland one day trying to get to the freeway from our house — we had to go around Disneyland to get there — my mom said, “You know what they really should have are, like, parks where people could park these RVs.” Because when I was growing up, they’d be parking in neighborhoods; they’d be parking in grocery stores; they’d be parking in vacant lots. I mean, people were parking these things wherever they could find room!
And my mom said, “You know what we really need? They should really have places where they could park these things, and you know, they could have all the benefits of … it would be a park.” And we all said, “Mom! That’s a great idea!”
Guess how many RV parks the Rogers own anywhere in the world? Zero! Goose egg! None! Right? Because: Was it a great idea? Yes! Was it an idea that the Rogers could have used … could have actually capitalize doing it? Could have made it happen? Yes! But what we did was say, “That’s a great idea!” and kept driving. [Congregation laughs] True? [Laughs] True! Right?
Because what happens is: When Spirit drops in a great idea, and you don’t have the faith to hold it — you don’t have the commitment to make it a reality — what happens is that idea gets dropped into somebody else! And it keeps getting dropped into one mind after another after another, because there are those ideas that we say, “Their time has come.”
[Phone rings] See? When God calls, you’d better pick up the phone! [Congregation laughs] Right? You don’t let it go to voicemail; you pick up the phone! Right?
And there are those ideas whose time has come, and we see that all over the world. That when a brilliant idea happens in one part of the globe, oftentimes it happens over and over again throughout the planet. Because an idea is the most powerful thing that we have.
So I want to talk about: How do we find those opportunities. Say you’re looking for a new job; or a new man; or a new business. How do you go about doing that? Because for the last six weeks, we’ve focused on really turning within and finding it within our own soul. Finding peace; finding beaity; finding our inner power; finding forgiveness. And the focus has been looking within.
But when it tends to come to opportunities, most of us are pretty committed to looking outside ourselves. Like, we want to find him; we want to knock him over the head; and we want to drag him home. [Congregation laughs] Right? And when we’re looking for a person or a job or an opportunity, we go “out there.” We go online or we get the paper out, or whatever we do. We go out there and look for it. And oftentimes, we are not accessing the full power of our spiritual nature.
Because every good thing first happens from within. So how do we go about doing that? Like, what’s the first step in creating the life of an opportunity.
The first step, I believe, is to really understand our greatest desire. Right? Say you want a new job. Now, one of the ways that I would challenge you tonight is: If you say you want a new job, I would say to you, “Why?”
And for many of us, it’s like, “Well, I want more money.”
“Okay. So what you really want is more money, not really a job.”
“Well, yes.” [Congregation laughs] “But that’s the only way I can figure out how to get more money, is to get a new job.”
And I’d say, “Well, it’s actually much easier when you actually know what you want. So you don’t really want a new job; you might not want a job at all! What you really want is more money.”
And then I would say to you, “Is that really want you want?”
And you might say to me, “No; not really. I want more money so I can have a different lifestyle.”
“So you don’t really want a job; you don’t really want more money. You want a different lifestyle.”
“Yes, that’s what I want. I want a different lifestyle.”
“Well, is that true? Why do you want a different lifestyle?”
“Well, I want to have more fun.”
“So you don’t really want the job; you don’t really want the money’ you don’t even want a new lifestyle. What you really want is to have more fun!”
And if you know the most important thing — when you get down to the thing that is the most important thing –I want you to see how much easier it is to create that than four steps to get you to more fun.
And the first step in the creative process is really understanding what you want underneath what you’re asking for. Because for most of us, we have a desire underneath a desire underneath a desire.
Like, let’s just say you want a relationship. Let’s just say you really want a relationship. And if I said to you, “Why do you want a relationship?”
“Well, I want more love in my life.”
“Is that what you really want?”
And you might say, “No; what I really want is to feel special.”
And I would say to you, “Have you ever felt special?”
And you might say to me, “Only occasionally.”
And then I would say to you, “What if that person doesn’t always make you feel special? At that point, do we kick them to the curb?”
Because how many of you have ever been in a long-term relationship where one day they didn’t make you feel special? Has everybody had that experience? Well, just one day; like out of 365 days, just one day they didn’t make you feel special.
Now, if they don’t make you feel special, who’s responsible for you feeling special? So when you know what you really want, the second step is that you have to practice that feeling. Because most of us aren’t good at being responsible for our own feelings.
Most of us really want somebody to come into our life and give us the feeling we want, because we’re terrible at creating that feeling for ourselves. So we actually want all the responsibility for us feeling special on someone else. Because we know we don’t do a good job with it, so we hope and we pray that they do a much better job than we’re doing. But what we really want — when we get down to the most important thing — is that we long to feel special!
Now, does every child of God have a right to feel special? Yes! We’re all created in the image and likeness of God. We all have a right to feel special! But it may not always come from outside of you! It may actually have to come from within you. You might actually have to decide: “I want to practice feeling special until I can …” — which takes us to the third step — “until I can actually master that feeling.”
Whatever you long for the most — whatever the opportunity is that you are seeking — I want you first to get down to the most important thing. And for most of us, it’s not a thing at all; it’s a feeling! And when you practice the feeling over and over and over again, you can actually master the feeling so that you can actually bring that feeling into your experience on demand. Because you decide!
And I want you to really think about: What is it that you really long for in your life? Because there’s nothing wrong with any of them! The difficulty comes when you expect something outside of you to bring that to you. Because it doesn’t work that way! But the moment you can actually master the feeling of feeling special; or feeling loved; or feeling abundant; or feeling happy; or feeling successful … Once you can actually master that feeling, then what happens is: The whole universe begins to unload upon you experience after experience after experience that line up with that feeling. When you feel successful on the inside, the universe actually creates more experiences for you to be successful! But if you feel terribly unsuccessful, then we actually have to master the feeling that we want to create the life that we want.
First, we have to know what it is. Then we have to practice it. And then we have to master it.
Now, when you look at your life right now, what is it that you want? What is the opportunity? What is the experience that you want for your life? Can you get down to the most important thing? And again, it will probably be a feeling. Can you get down to the feeling that would change your life?
Do you feel successful? Do you feel happy? Do you feel joyous? Do you feel prosperous? Do you feel fully alive? Do you feel healthy? Do you feel whole? Those are all things that we have to feel first. And then the universe lines up and opens the door to experience after experience after experience to line up with that feeling.
But if you’re terrible at feeling special … Say you’re just literally terrible at feeling special, and the most special person walks into your life. You might feel special for a week. Maybe even a month. But you can’t hold that feeling as long and as deeply as you would like to, because you haven’t mastered it yet! And when you master anything, it becomes yours forever!
So what is it that would change your life? What is it that you’re seeking? What’s the feeling that’s attached to it? And can you master it?
Then once you master it, then I want you to visualize the out picturing of that. So when we master the feeling, then we add the thought. So what is the physical experience that you would like to have that matches that feeling?
You know, Marianne Williamson says:
“Visualize the most amazing life for you. Close your eyes; see it clearly. And more importantly than seeing it clearly is feeling it clearly. Then hold that vision for as long as you can. Now place the vision in God’s hand, and consider it done.”
Abraham Hicks said:
“You are more productive by doing 15 minutes of visualization than you are 16 hours a day of hard labor.”
Victoria Beckham said:
“I believe in creative visualization.”
“To bring …”
This is Richard Bach:
“To bring anything into your life, imagine that it’s already there.”
Denis Waitley said:
“When you visualize, then you materialize.”
But what I want you to see today: Before you even begin to visualize the life that you want, I want you to have mastered the feeling that you’re hoping to create. Because once you’ve mastered the feeling, and then you link a vision to it, you become unstoppable. There is nothing that can keep you from that level of good!
Yogananda said it this way:
“Proper visualization by the exercise of concentration and will power enables us to materialize thought, not only as our dreams and visions in the mental realm, but also to experience in the material world.”
What feeling would change your life? Not what person would change your life … Not what event would change your life … What feeling would change your life? And once you’ve mastered that, then you can visualize anything. Because you now know where you’re going, because you’ve taken care of the most important thing.
And that leads us to step five. Step five is the action step: Once you have the feeling; once you have the vision; then every day take one or two steps toward your desire. But for most of us, for our action step, it’s the first step. That any time we want to change or create anything in our life, we move into action before we’ve done the spiritual work. And the action step always should be at the end of the process, when you’ve already done the inner work to create the life that you want. We go on half-cocked; we don’t do our inner work. And then we get frustrated that we don’t experience the life that we desire.
So step five is take one action. Take two actions every day. But not 30! When you’re doing 30 actions a day for that which you desire, I’m going to challenge you it’s because you don’t have faith that it’s really going to come to you. If you believe the life that you’re visualizing — the life that you feel is really going to work for you, is really coming to you — then you take one or two or maybe three … But you do the simple things that God guides you do every day. But you don’t try to build the whole thing, because that’s God’s job! God’s job is to create it; your job is to take one or two baby steps in that direction.
Step six is: Surrender. Surrender! Because it’s not going to happen the way you think it’s going to happen! It’s going to happen in a way that’s better than that; that’s greater than that; that’s in every way more wonderful.
And step seven … Did I say step six? Step six is surrender.
Step seven is: Give thanks even before you see it. I’m going to do a series of talks next month. And in Jesus’ greatest miracles — the feeding of the 5,000 and the healing of Lazarus from the dead — in both examples, he gave thanks even before anything changes. And that, as we begin to believe that our feelings and our visions are empowering, and the actions we take are actually moving us in the highest direction, we actually surrender, and we begin to give thanks before anything changes.
So here’s the deal. You ready? Here’s your homework for tonight. I want you to get really clear in your life: What is the thing — what is the opportunity; what is the experience; what is the desire — that you want? And I literally do not care if what you want has never been created by anybody on this planet yet. I’m actually more excited about that! Like, if you’re going to create something that no one’s ever seen before, that is fabulous! Because at that moment, you are literally changing the consciousness of this planet. You’re changing the mindset for all of us.
If there’s a higher level of abundance or health or joy or peace that the world has never seen before, but you get in your mind that there’s a higher level that we could all have, I want you to be about that. Because we are in a time where we could use that level of transformation. Because there are those who want to take us backwards. We are not here to go backwards. We’re here to lay hold of a higher level of good than we have ever known before.
And I want you to entertain the Mind of God and allow your mind to be so expanded, so filled, so God-centered that God can drop an idea into your consciousness and you say, “Absolutely! When do you want it by? Thursday? I got it!” Because you are so clear about the spiritual process in your life.
And once you get that level of clarity, there’s nothing that can keep you from your good. [Applause] Thank you!
Will you pray with me?
I want you to a deep breath, and I want you to open your mind all the way. I actually want you to entertain the Mind of God and go beyond the world that you know; the life that you’ve experienced; the things that you’ve seen others do or have or be. And I want you to play in a higher realm: a realm that has not yet been made manifest but is fully available in the Mind of God; that is fully present in the Mind of God. I want you to be about that.
And then really get clear about: What is the feeling that would provide for you? Practice it! Master it! And then hold on to it. And then every day do one or two things to move in that direction. And give thanks that, even before you see anything changing, you know that it’s on its way. And that it won’t come the way you think it’s going to come; it’s going to come the way it comes! And so you just surrender to it. You rejoice; you give thanks. And you know that you’ve unlocked a level of good that no one has witnessed before. And that’s available … not just to you, but to all of us!
So tonight, we open our minds big. We allow our minds to embrace the infinite Mind of God. And we say, “Yes!” In the name and through the power of the Living Christ, we give thanks. And so it is. Amen.