Abide In Me - Episode 29

About this time another large crowd had gathered, and the people ran out of food again. Jesus called his disciples and told them, “I feel sorry for these people. They have been here with me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will faint along the way. For some of them have come a long distance.” His disciples replied, “How are we supposed to find enough food to feed them out here in the wilderness?” Jesus asked, “How much bread do you have?” “Seven loaves,” they replied. So Jesus told all the people to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves, thanked God for them, and broke them into pieces. He gave them to his disciples, who distributed the bread to the crowd. A few small fish were found, too, so Jesus also blessed these and told the disciples to distribute them. They ate as much as they wanted. Afterward, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food. There were about 4,000 men in the crowd that day, and Jesus sent them home after they had eaten. Immediately after this, he got into a boat with his disciples and crossed over to the region of Dalmanutha. When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came and started to argue with him. Testing him, they demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority. When he heard this, he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, I will not give this generation any such sign.” So he got back into the boat and left them, and he crossed to the other side of the lake. The expression 'God opens the eyes' describes how God opens interior sight, or a person’s understanding, which opening is accomplished by means of an influx into the spiritual part of their rational. The route taken by this influx is through the soul, that is, the internal route, of which the person is unaware. This influx is their state of enlightenment in which the truths they hear or read about are confirmed for them by a kind of perception existing within, in the understanding part of their mind. The person believes that this enlightenment is innate within themselves and that it springs from their own power of understanding. But they are very wrong. This enlightenment consists of an influx from the Lord by way of heaven into that person's dim, mistaken, and specious sight of things, and by means of the goodness there causes the things which they believe to become imitations of truth. People who are spiritual are blessed with enlightenment in spiritual matters of faith. And this is the meaning of the expression 'God opens the eyes'.  from Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven §2701 Change of being begins with changing the reactions to actual incidents of the day. This is the beginning of taking your life in a real and practical sense in a new way… To get to know yourself, begin with observing your behavior towards the events of a single day in your life. Then try to see how you can change these reactions....A single moment in which one is conscious enough not to behave mechanically, if it is done willingly, can change many future results.” Nicoll, Commentaries I pp. 26,27Dr. Sue Johnson, “Love Sense” www.youtube.com/@DrSueJohnson Emanuel Swedenborg, www.swedenborg.comJohn Clark Echols, www.clarkechols.comSolomon Keal “Affection for Truth” www.solomonkeal.net Tao Te Ching, Lao Tsu. Translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Janet English, Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, NY 1972Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of G.I. Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky, Vincent Stuart, London, 1957Podcast Host: John Clark EcholsMusic Credit: Solomon KealShow Your Support: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/X2NREDETDV6WCYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@abide_in_meSubstack: ⁠⁠@clarkechols⁠⁠I invite you to continue to listen to the next episode. Be well.