The RevJerryTroyer's Podcast

Keeping Our Fork

What do we expect about what is next? Do we "keep our fork" in joyful anticipation of our greater good, or hang on for dear life in worry about the next disaster? Click on the link below to hear more from my Sunday message from August 22.

Keeping Our Agreements

My book for the month of September has been "Let It Be Easy" by Tolly Burkan.  The book states that one of the ways to let it be easy is by "keeping our agreements."

That makes sense.  If we say we are going to do something, we should do it, also keeping in mind that we have to give ourselves permission to change an agreement that no longer serves us.  Maybe it is Sunday dinner with the in-laws, that you have attended every year for decades.

We also make unconscious "agreements" with Life about how things will be.  We might have agreements about used cars, relationships, money, and our physical bodies.  The agreements could also be called our beliefs.

What happens when the agreements no longer work for us?  We can, and must change them.  Click below to listen to my talk on this subject.

It's Scary Out There

You probably remember December 31, 1999. It was the turn of the century! Very few people had ever lived through one before. What would happen? Would the computers work? There were long lines at the gas station, people stockpiling cash and food, "just in case."

You probably remember what happened. Nothing. Life continued just as it was the day before. But there was a lot of F E A R -- or "False Evidence Appearing Real."

It can be scary "out there" today. Gas prices going up, the economic recovery perhaps slowing down, talk of conflict with Iran. But when we remember the presence of Spirit within, and that we never walk alone, we don't have to spend any time on conditions and appearances.

It Is Written

Is This All There Is?

Consider a football game. It’s third down with 9 yards to go to get a first down. Will the team make it, or will they have to punt it away? Will the quarterback pass it to someone down field, or will they try to run it? And oh, by the way, there are less than 2 minutes to play and no time outs left. Feel the drama and tension?

Now consider what could be called “the money game.” It’s the 20th day of the month. The rent or mortgage is due on the first, and according to your checkbook balance, you are $500 short. What will you do? I expect you would do your prayer work. State the truth that you are abundant and that Spirit is your Source; release the treatment work and let it be so. State and restate your affirmations throughout the days and nights, reminding yourself of your truth, and make a mad dash to the mailbox each day to see if your manifestation comes that way. Or race for the phone whenever it rings to see if that is someone with the way that your good will come to you. Ultimately, Spirit does what Spirit does, you have the money to make the payment, and all is well. Until the 20th of the next month, when you start all over again.

Who made up the rules to these two games that sound suspiciously similar? Football is what football is, but is there some way to change the rules of this adventure that we call “the money game” so we can get off and stay off this roller coaster?

Is That All There Is?

The next time you are at the grocery, take a look at a Tostitos tortilla chip bag. Notice the two guys sharing a tortilla chip (the two T's) and the I between the T's holding a bowl of salsa. Had you seen that before? Me neither.

As spiritual beings having a human experience, we are reminded to not judge by appearances--there is always something more. In the event of a job transition, even though one channel of income has ended, another will begin, when we recognize that the Universe (God, Spirit, our Higher Power) is our source.

In Search Of Strength

As you may know, I’m using Charles Fillmore’s book, The Twelve Powers (of Man) as my book for the year. Our power for March was Strength.

The book, How To Use Your Twelve Gifts from God by William Warch says that “strength has four spiritual aspects: patience, tolerance, steadfastness, and balance.”

Last Sunday, we were luxuriating in the experience of answered prayer and demonstration.

In my personal life, two long-planned birthday surprises came off without a hitch. “Easter Palooza,” an Easter egg hunt and street fair sponsored and produced by Joyful Living Spiritual Center, was more successful than anyone could have imaged. In every experience, there was more than enough—enough time, enough money, enough wisdom.

The road to answered prayer is not always easy. Even though we “know” that it is done unto us as we believe, that Spirit always responds to us, often we allow old beliefs in lack and struggle, and appearances, to get in the way. Staying focused on what we want, rather than what we don’t, requires strength--keeping in mind that we are never talking God into doing anything, but rather changing our belief about the possibility.

If Not For Judas

Mary Manin Morrissey tells the story of a man who found a newspaper classified ad, offering a late-model Jaguar for $50. He called the number listed, and then made a mad dash to the seller's house.

Barely a year old, with 3,500 miles on it, the Jaguar appeared in near perfect condition. The fellow handed the woman the money, and took the signed registration from her without a word.

Finally, he had to ask. "I don't get it. Why are you selling this very valuable car for $50?" The woman responded: "It belonged to my husband, who left me. He didn't tell me face to face; he left me a note saying he was in Jamaica with his girlfriend and that I could have the house, the other car and the bank accounts. All he wanted was that I sell the Jaguar and send him the money."

The truth is that often when someone betrays us, vengeance seems like a perfectly normal response. And yet, is it possible that there is a gift for us in the midst of what has the appearance of hurt, abandonment and even betrayal? In fact, is it possible that whatever it was had to happen to propel us forward on our path?

You remember the story of Judas and the betrayal of Jesus. Historically, Judas has been looked upon as the lowest of the low. But his part in the story was necessary. Click on the link below to go to my blog, and listen to my Easter Sunday talk, "If Not for Judas."

Moving To A New State

We've been using Charles Fillmore's book, The Twelve Powers of Man, for the year.  Our power (or gift) for the month of June is imagination.

Our book for my Wednesday night class is The Neville Reader by Neville Goddard.  He talks about imagination, as well as the feeling behind it.  “To attempt to change circumstances before you change your imaginal activity, is to struggle against the very nature of things.  Imagining the wish fulfilled brings about a union with that state, and during that union you behave in keeping with your imaginal change…Whenever one state grows so stable as to become your constant mood, your habitual attitude, then that habitual state defines your character and is a true transformation.”

In other words, again quoting Neville:  “Whatever state has your attention holds your life.”

In what state do we reside?  Worry, fear, dread, resentment?  Or wonder and absolute certainty that the good we have imagined (and even greater) is coming to us?

How Do You Feel?

Neville Goddard (1905-1972) was one of the great early New Thought writers.  He basically said what everyone else said, but especially in the book The Neville Reader, focused on the importance of feelings in our daily life, and our affirmative prayer (spiritual mind treatment).

If you were with me on Sunday, you remember I quoted from the book, using the example of the mustard seed.  You’ve read in the New Testament about faith as a grain of mustard seed, and if you are like me, interpreted the story as having to do with the size of one’s faith.  But consider a new thought.

Neville wrote, “A mustard seed is conscious of being a mustard seed and a mustard seed alone.  It is not aware of any other seed in the world.  It is sealed in the conviction that it is a mustard seed.  You too must lose yourself in the consciousness of being only the thing desired.  You abide within this sealed state until it bursts itself and reveals your conscious claim.  Faith is feeling or living in the consciousness of being the thing desired.”

Think about “being the thing desired.”  If we are looking for love, we must recognize and affirm that we are the essence and experience of Spirit, expressing as love.  If we want greater abundance, we must recognize and affirm that we are the abundance of the Universe.

So it is with everything in nature, fully present in the moment expressing what it really is.  The mustard seed is not worried if it is growing bigger than the scrub oak across the street, of if there will be enough water next month.

In our prayer work, that really is all we are doing—remembering the truth of who we are.  But after we say “and so it is,” (or “amen,”) how long does it take us to slide back into fear, regret and resentment?