Posted by Roberta Grimes • January 30, 2021 • 32 Comments
Human Nature, Jesus, The Teachings of Jesus
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
– Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), “How Do I Love Thee?” (1850)
The central purpose of Jesus’s ministry was His effort to teach us how to elevate the vibrations of human consciousness enough to bring the kingdom of God on earth. Christians since the age of Constantine have altogether missed this point that is so obvious to anyone who reads the Lord’s words without reference to later Christian dogmas! But most of the people who have been taught to see Jesus as a human sacrifice really don’t care what He might have said. They just want that get-out-of-hell-free card. And this, despite the fact that Jesus Himself insists that we focus on His words! He says, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (JN 8:31-32).
Jesus uses the phrases “kingdom of God” or “kingdom of Heaven” some fifty times through all four Gospels. And the more closely you read Him, the more you see that almost everything He says is tied to His effort to raise the personal consciousness vibrations of all of humankind! He wants to elevate us spiritually to the point where life on earth will begin to mirror the love and joy that pervade the afterlife levels. He cannot be any more explicit about it. And a full two thousand years ago He gave us the template and tools to succeed! So now, if we only will follow Him, that much better world for which we yearn can begin.
We have just begun to learn enough that we can imagine some details of that better world. A surprising number of people have mastered the trick of raising their own consciousness vibrations, so we can now better grasp the obvious signs of spiritual elevation. And what is more, Jesus Himself gave us the central markers of spiritual advancement! No matter where they live or what language they speak or whether they even have a religion, spiritually elevated people are:
afraid, little flock, because your Father has chosen to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor does a moth destroy” (LK 12:32-33). “Do not worry … but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (MT 6:25-33).
These five characteristics are not arrived at with deliberate effort. Spiritually elevated people don’t need to struggle to be calm or humble, and they don’t wrestle down and smother their anger or force themselves to be kind to evil people. No, instead the five characteristics listed above simply emanate from the core of who they are. Strictly following the teachings of Jesus can begin to very rapidly transform your mind, too.
What is more, as you raise your consciousness vibration you can feel these changes happening! For the past ten years I have been a guinea pig for the teachings of Jesus, which is how I know how well they work. I still recall what it was like to be outraged, resentful, sullen, prideful, bitter, and obsessed with money. Ten years ago I was already in my sixties! So with all those clear and recent memories of how it felt to have overwhelmingly negative emotions rising and be powerless to stop them, I am astonished to tell you that I haven’t felt any significant negative emotion for almost a decade. At most, perhaps, I have wished that events were different when some setback occurred that complicated my life; and I did feel a bit of sadness when my mother mercifully died in her nineties.
Keep these five attributes in mind! They are so consistent among the spiritually advanced that as a set of characteristics they pretty much define this group of special people. Watching for them will help us to better support the spiritual growth of others while we also foster further spiritual growth in ourselves.
The fact that all our minds are inextricably part of the Mind that
continuously manifests this universe is crucial! That wonderful fact means that when even a single mind follows the Lord’s teachings and thereby elevates its vibratory rate, that positive change will minutely raise the spiritual vibrations of all of humankind. It has been estimated that when as few as five percent of the people on earth have elevated their spiritual vibrations to the point where they will no longer need to reincarnate, just that small boost will start the benevolent process of raising the vibrations of even the most deeply fear- and hatred-filled people on earth. You and I have the power to begin to raise the spiritual vibrations of everyone, everywhere, beginning today.
The spiritually advanced are peacemakers. As Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (MT 5:9). They are solution-seekers. They tend to gravitate toward others like themselves, but they are patient and respectful even of those who behave in much less loving ways. As Jesus says, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned” (LK 6:37). The spiritually advanced deeply live the Gospel teachings, even if they never have heard of Jesus!
It is impossible to know for certain how different everything is going to be when most people are vibrating in love rather than in fear. But keeping in mind the five characteristics of spiritually advanced people given above, we now can happily begin to guess. Here are a few thorny issues that have long been the cause of stresses, rage, and counterproductive battling. How might a more spiritually elevated society address them? Let’s think about that:
* Abortion. Killing the pre-born affects at least two lives, so abortion is an issue tailor-made to be addressed from the perspective of minds steeped in love. I would think that a 
more spiritually advanced society would come down on the side of allowing abortions in the first few months but banning them thereafter, and also lovingly counseling the mothers and focusing on ensuring that each child whose mother doesn’t want to rear it will have parents waiting to adopt it at birth.
* Poverty. A more spiritually advanced society would not simply throw money at the poor, which further humiliates them and reinforces their current poverty status. I assume that such a better and more just society would meet the living needs of the disadvantaged, and beyond that it would be eager to teach people living in poverty the skills and attitudes they are going to need to become self-supporting, and then to thrive.
* Criminal Justice. Ninety-seven percent of the people now in federal prisons in the United States were bullied by prosecutors into pleading guilty. They never had a trial. People vibrating in love would find this situation intolerable! I think a love-based criminal justice system would favor community service over time in jail. It might decree prison terms beyond two years just for violent offenders who pose a threat to others, and it would not allow imprisonment for terms longer than a year except after a jury trial.
* Warfare. There have always been restive societies whose leaders saw some potential for gain in poking at the leaders of other societies. Sometimes these issues have been amicably resolved, but often they have led to little wars; and on a few occasions, those little wars have become conflagrations over much of the earth. Here is where a love-based humanity living in the kingdom of God on earth is really going to shine! Since there is just one human Mind in which every mind influences every other mind, once a sufficient number of people are vibrating in the divine love that Jesus taught, there will never be another war.
Until now, every system of morality has been fear-based. We have had to obey rules rooted in human thinking or else suffer human-made consequences, so living the love that Jesus taught will naturally foster a whole new morality. In fact, the shape of 
that better way of governing our personal lives is plain to see in the Lord’s Gospel teachings. Here again, we cannot know for certain how that new morality will look, but we can begin to glimpse beyond our present confusion a glorious new life based in love and joy….
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
– Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), “How Do I Love Thee?” (1850)
Roberta, I wish that I knew about these 5 characteristics to living a love based life when I was in my 20’s and not 60’s. But I have found a silver lining. One of my grandkids is the antithesis of some of the characteristics you have mentioned and with this new found knowledge, I can try and help influence him to seeing and living a love based life!
Dear David, I really hope that you can help your grandson! It is so difficult to reach the young with these basic, non-religious truths; I have the same problem with my own grandchildren, as wonderful as they are. People our age have a grounding in traditional Christianity that we have grown beyond, but it makes these truths at least comfortable and familiar. But the religion is so foreign now to so many young people! I wish you well with this, my dear 😉
Hi Roberta,
I am wondering about abortion I don’t understand how taking the life of an unborn child is ever a loving action, even in the first few months of pregnancy.
Dear Dawn, I agree with you! But there also is a mother involved, and our love can’t encompass only the child. If it were up to me alone, I would say that since contraception is readily available, of course there should be no abortion! But accidents are possible, and no contraceptive is 100% effective. And a desperate mother with a coat-hanger in hand is a victim, too! So I have come to believe that where the American people are on abortion is probably the most loving approach: abortion allowed only in the first three or four months, and after that intensive support for the inadvertent mother and fostering the adoption option. It’s a tough and tragic line to walk.
Hi Roberta,
I’m not happy with your message these days. Why is everything based on the bible, when we know that Jesus never wrote a bloody thing. Why do we believe what some “ancient reporters” wrote about what he supposedly said years after his death. I still don’t understand that concept. How did they know what he said, who told them, in such precise terms. Such a far fetched story.
What happens to people believing in other major religions like Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism ??? They’re out of the club ? They don’t care about the bible.
Why isn’t the afterlife of even Jesus himself provide us with that wisdom nowadays. I find that very suspicious. Why this archaic manner of always referring to that good old bible. It’s so old thinking. To me the bible means religion, and I HATE religions. It such a cancer to our society.
The qualities a person should adhere to, in order to live a life that is one with God are great. I have no problem with them, it’s obviously the best way to go. But why do we need to be convinced by some old scriptures.
Francois, I will try to answer because my own guidance these days comes from sources other than Christian scripture, so I can relate to your question.
There are infinite experiences revealing the infinite.
Folks in a Christian tradition need to make a leap from ancient cultural artifacts that spirit sources (however you want to identify them) confirm are outmoded—however, that leap for some may be too great emotionally. Starting with teachings that are at least familiar is a good point of departure for those needing to make initial moves.
Many do not need to start this way and for those folks, there is a great deal other evidence independent of any religious tradition.
The point is for everyone to begin where they are. I hope this helps.
I understand, I just haven’t heard these other evidences on this forum
Indeed, dear Mike, we each come from the unique place of our own learning and our own experiences, so there are many of us who need studies now that are at least somewhat tailored to our special needs. I know from the many questions I receive just how important it is that we create easier ways for people to learn uniquely, at their own pace and on their own time! And we are working on it….
Dear Francois, it is clear from the tenor and the substance of your questions that you haven’t read much of what I have written. I am sorry that I can’t summarize every prior blog post written over the past six years before I write each new blog post that builds upon all that came before it, but I simply don’t have the time! Nor do most people want to have to read it. The answers to all your questions are there, however. If you put key words into this website’s search bar, you can readily find them.
Meanwhile, I’ll give you some quick answers here:
1) The historical Jesus has nothing whatsoever to do with any religion. In fact, He teaches us to put religions aside and learn to relate to the Godhead directly. The fact that He told us things 2000 years ago that we could not have confirmed until the 20th century is, however, pretty remarkable!
2) I trust what Jesus says in the Gospels because those that we used to think were dead tell us that He came from the highest aspect of the Godhead and they further say that what He taught us is true. He came quite literally as God on earth, both to learn more about us and to teach us the truth. And this seems to be the only time in history that such a thing has happened.
3) Jesus Himself told us to replace the entire Old Testament with God’s law of love, and He has nothing to do with the balance of the New Testament. Even some of what is in the Gospels didn’t come from Him, as you would discover if you read Liberating Jesus. So the only part of the Bible that we use at all is the front portions of the four Gospels. Cut the rest out and throw it away.
4) I don’t understand your gripe about Jesus not referring to the afterlife? Indeed He did refer to it, and quite accurately.
5) Jesus Himself said that there are a number of ways to raise our spiritual vibrations, so His teachings are not unique. They are just the easiest for Westerners to use, and they are rapidly effective.
I hope this helps! But if you are so averse to an old teaching, then there are some Eastern teachings that also work well. Good luck!
The majority of people associate Jesus with the gospels and this causes great confusion. Instead, I think he wanted to eliminate the teachings of the Old Testament, but he had to do that in a way that wouldn’t cause the ones who were watching him to be aware of his motives. This was very hard to do, and he was very brave to even attempt it. Therefore, it is a matter of forgetting about the Old Testament and paying attention only to his teachings. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that what he told us way back then can be so much easier to confirm now.
Dear Lola, People do associate Jesus with the Gospels, and quite legitimately, since they are four accounts of His life and teachings. But the problem is that Christians also call their dogmas about God’s judgment and Jesus’s sacrificial death “the Gospel,” even though none of that came from Him and it didn’t even exist during His lifetime.
You are right in saying that it is clear from His words that Jesus wanted to do away with religions that come between us and God and instead teach us to relate to God individually; and you are certainly right in saying that He couldn’t come right out and say that!
And no, it is no coincidence that what the Lord said two thousand years ago was so obscure that we likely could not have understood it then; but now, with the veil between worlds thinning and in the fullness of the Lord’s own perfect time, it is all becoming plain.
The characteristics mentioned here of a spiritually advanced person are such a perfect description of Martin Luther King that it is downright eerie, especially the one about being “slow to anger.”
Oh yes, dear Lola, precisely so! I have had the same thought myself. That sweet and beautiful man had all the characteristics of a spiritually elevated being, and he left us a beautiful example of living God’s love, the love that Jesus taught, that makes his status grow ever greater the more time passes since his death. He was indeed the greatest American of the twentieth century. He will shine for all time!
Yes and that’s the way it should be. He should shine forever. I don’t know if you are aware of this, but years before he was killed, he was in Harlem NY where he was stabbed by a mentally ill woman, and the doctors at the hospital later told him that if he had sneezed, he would have died due to the extreme closeness of the wound to his aorta. Of all the mail he received during that time. his favorite was from a 12 year old girl who wrote to him and told him how happy she was that he didn’t sneeze. It was short but sincere, and he really revered that letter.
Dear Lola, I had forgotten that story! I grew up in a small New England town so far removed from the life he led that I never saw a black person beyond the television screen until I was college-age. But I revered Dr. King from the fifties on! From the first time I heard just a clip of his voice. I thought then that there was greatness in him – you could hear it! – and I realize now that what I was gravitating to was the fact that he was probably the first very spiritually advanced person I ever encountered. And the more time goes by, the more he shines his light as I become ever more able to see it.
I was always touched by the way he reacted to this simple statement (“I’m so glad that you didn’t sneeze.”) It proves that we can touch someone’s heart without a lot of fanfare. I’m so glad that she wrote the letter, as he was so impressed with it that he read it to the masses when he received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Abortion: I was offered that choice and opted to give my daughter up for adoption. I choose not to judge those women that decide to abort. I made a choice based on my situation. I’m sure they are doing the same.
Poverty: My mother was forced to apply for welfare and I had only a small idea of what that meant until bags of groceries appeared on our front steps. The food was appreciated, but after a week we were back to where we started. “Teach a man to fish…”.
Criminal Justice: All I would like to see is for justice to be handed out equally. That hasn’t been the case in a very long time.
Wars: to quote Edwin Starr “War, what is it good for. Absolutely nothing.”
Dear AC, thank you for all of this! And of course I agree. Abortion, especially, is a thorny problem because a pregnancy impacts the mother’s life as well; but if it were up to me, we would put a tremendous educational effort into preventing unwanted pregnancies, and a lot of community support into helping pregnant mothers and the mothers of infants.
Watching so many people justifying easy abortions today feels a lot like the way it must have felt to watch the slave-culture in the antebellum southern US justifying their treating some Americans as just subhuman property. There is indeed a reckoning coming! Within perhaps another century, as the veil continues to thin, the day will come when everyone knows that human life is eternal, and one piece of fallout will be the fact that everyone comes to see that people are people even before they are conceived. And the backlash against these benighted times and our present pro-abortion leaders will be akin to the revulsion most of us feel now about those who championed slavery. You can see it coming….
Since death doesn’t really exist, why can’t the aborted fetus’ soul go back to the spirit world and come back to earth in someone else’s body if it so desires. In fact, I had heard that this does happen, and it makes sense.
Dear Lola, I understand that thinking the fetus can always just come back in a different body is a comfort to those who want the right to choose abortion. It feels comforting. But please, for a moment, may I share a somewhat different perspective?
Every human mind is eternal, and every mind is “born again” repeatedly until it reaches the vibratory rate of the fifth level of the afterlife, after which it ceases incarnating because it can then grow spiritually without the added negativity that is needed in spiritual growth’s earlier stages. All true!
But what about any of that makes it any less tragic, less selfish, and less spiritually debasing for the aborting mother to deliberately take the life of her unborn child?
Every infant before it enters the womb has a precious earth-life planned out in detail with others who will be part of that life, and with guides in place for each of those people. Every human life is a big, important deal from even well before birth! There was never a moment in that fetus’s existence when it was of no value. So casually killing it cannot ever be as “so what?” as you suggest here that it might be.
And furthermore, recent studies show that fetuses can feel pain as early as twelve weeks of gestation. Yet all the common abortion methods are painful! Is chemical-burning the fetus to death or cutting it to pieces while it is still alive somehow okay, just because we cannot hear it screaming?
Genesis 2:7 – Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
This makes me think that a fetus doesn’t become a human living being until it breaths on its own.
Jason. I also have taken the same meaning from that passage.
Dear Ray, I understand. I think that most of us who were raised as Christians have this sort of instinctive, reflexive sense that the Bible is somehow God’s word and it can be taken literally. Even with all my decades of studying the afterlife evidence and all the related sciences, it still was hard for me to give up that comforting notion! But indeed the Bible is not and cannot be all God’s work, even though it is clear that parts of it were channeled and are indeed of Spirit. But we don’t need the Bible to find truth now, since we are being given abundant truth in many ways, all there just waiting for us to study it!
Dear Jason, please understand that the Bible story of creation cannot be taken literally! It is poetic and lovely, but it is human-made; and furthermore, it was first told this way so long ago that those who told it had less than no understanding or awareness of either science or the genuine greater reality.
In fact, the part of the fetus that matters is the mind (or the soul, if you prefer), which is eternal and which began working on this lifetime even before its conception. The body of the fetus is just the mind’s next earth-vehicle. It cannot breathe until it has functioning lungs, true enough, but that doesn’t make its pre-lungs life any less valuable to all the minds involved in its next lifetime!
Hey Roberta,
I’ve always loved Thomas’ and your own take on Jesus the Christ. Always. It feels right at a very deep level; in that place which cannot adequately be articulated.
If you’ve ever seen pearl fishers on the go, this reminds me of how I see Jesus who appeared quite suddenly in our world: In Australia’s far north and north west there is a long established practice of diving for pearls at significant depth. Traditionally this was done by breath control and without the use of aqua lung equipment. The pearl fishers filter through all sorts of coral and barnacle encrusted rocks on the sea floor which is weed strewn and sheeted in sharp, moving and obscuring sands.
Somehow they pull battered shells from unlikely places and bring them to the surface far above. Inside are some of the most generous and lustrous pearls on earth –
It is as if all the scriptures that have gone before Our Jesus is that broken rock, detritus, faded algae, shattered barnacles and tattered weeds. Then a pearl of otherworldly beauty is found in the most unlikely place and is lifted high for all to see its rare perfection. Jesus’ appearance is frankly, wonderful and He is of a level of wholeness and perfection unparalleled by anything in this world. 🙂
This is a perfect analogy, Efrem, and I can only say that the pearl fishers likely perfected their skill over time with a considerable amount of practice. Just like practicing perfect love. We will need to work on it. If we aren’t willing to exert the effort to practice it, then it likely won’t happen. (I had heard of pearl fishers, but didn’t know they were in Australia).
🙂❣️🙏🏼
Dear Efrem, this is lovely! Oh my dear, I’ve got to say that for me, the most wonderful part of this work has been not even the discovery that it is impossible for the afterlife and the true Godhead and our astonishingly elevated natures not to be real. The certainty of who and what we truly are! No, the truly greatest thing has been my coming to know the genuine Jesus. A pearl of great price, indeed!
On Criminal Justice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkxSyv5R1sg&feature=emb_logo&fbclid=IwAR2ELo4_EKLPPnRCX8BzkpinsCPS4ktUXhFoNEqyor43xoDmmjuDaPbj8Pk
Dear Adri, this is a terrific and inspiring video – thank you for sharing it! We know that there are many ways to raise our personal consciousness vibrations, and the teachings of Jesus are just perhaps the easiest and most effective for people reared in Christianity. This alternative is absolutely beautiful, and so powerful!
Hi Roberta. This idea of the five characteristics is a great one. It also reminds me of what Victor and Wendy Zammit have written about spiritually mature people in their wonderful weekly Afterlife Report, which I recommend to everyone here, but your take is beautfully concise. It seems like the five characteristics could be the basis for a nice little mantra of some sort, similar to the prevenient forgiveness one. I’ve been doing something along those lines for a few years now. Repeating the mantra occasionally, while not able to force things, as you pointed out, encourages watchfulness for those “whoopsies” when one misses the mark, and to look for and contemplate the spiritual lessons being taught. The change seeps in gradually – sneaks in the back door. I still have a looong way to go ☺, but can say the technique has helped me a lot.
Dear Scott, it’s not surprising that the wonderful Zammits have talked about the characteristics of spiritually advanced people, since I think now that many teachers in this field have made the same observations that I have. It’s pretty obvious! And no, I agree that you really can’t fake it. You can, though, give in to those better impulses and act on them as you see them developing in yourself!