I remember performing Handel’s Messiah for the first time in high school band over 30 years ago and how moving the words were, taken from Chapter 9 of Isaiah, as the choir sang along:

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

And today, so many years later, it is just as moving. Yet, the words have an entirely different meaning for me when seen through the lens of Unity’s Truth teachings. Interpreted metaphysically, the sacred words from Isaiah make an amazing promise of the potential gifts which are destined to unfold as we awaken to the Divinity within each one of us—the Christ Within.

The kindling of the internal flame which is at the root of all Yuletide celebration represents an important step in the awakening to the level of consciousness by which we can access the spiritual qualities promised to each of us in Isaiah 9. The qualities of wisdom, guidance, power, creativity and peace emerge through the symbolic birthing of the Christ child within our hearts.

It was divinely guided, that we have been studying Jesus and the Awakening to God-Consciousness web series over the past six weeks. Our Sunday talks and our Wednesday night study group have been focusing on the “third Jesus”—Jesus as a wise Sage and Teacher of the path to expanded consciousness. What Deepak Chopra discusses as the awakening to a new awareness called God-Consciousness seems identical to the unfolding of the Christ Within taught in Unity Truth teachings.

So, as we stand at the gateway to the wintery part of our year, our studies having prepared the way, we can receive the gifts of the season by allowing a new and higher realization of our divine-nature to begin to emerge through our consciousness.  What will we do with this new-found insight, vision and inspiration?

Chopra asks the same question in his web series. “What would Jesus do?” Chopra believes, as I do also, that Jesus would not defer to a fixed moral code or Church authority when confronted with the social crisis that Christianity currently faces. What would Jesus do? We can only guess. What we can know is: What We Will Do. Personal growth is achieved by acting according to our own spiritual vision. If Jesus is our model of spiritual greatness, his teachings must lead us to action. The gifts we choose to give the world will be the same gifts that we receive in return.

Seasons Greetings—

Spiritual Leader  Barry Cravens