What I have to say this morning is really so simple that you would have to find somebody to help you to not understand it. In order for it to be that simple, it must be heard with spiritual ears. This is the only way spiritual things are discerned, or it would seem too difficult to understand.

I have been going out at night after my work to enjoy the beautiful winter sky with its many shining stars. I have been making relatives with the stars. Scientists tell us that our bodies and the earth are made of stardust. This gives us special connection with the stars. While it seems like each star has its own individual light, I perceive that it is actually all one source of light. This goes back to God’s creative command: “Let there be light.” One light!

Yesterday we had a total lunar eclipse. It was a celestial event and the last total eclipse for several years. Centuries ago a lunar eclipse would strike terror in the minds of people. There was a lack of understanding, with ensuing fear due to a sense of helplessness. The moon has been associated with the mind.

We eclipse our own bright light by entertaining destructive vagrant thoughts. These thoughts are idle and wander about aimlessly. Vagrant thoughts trick you into thinking they are your thoughts. So you invite them in to dine with you, but you become the meal and you are eaten up by that vagrant thought. There is dark energy attached to these vagrant thoughts. They are part of the mass subconscious of the hypnosis of learned helplessness. This is the human conditioning due to hypnosis of the unreal—the lie.

In order for there to be a healthy body of God on earth, shining its creative heavenly light, there needs to be individuals who are spiritually healthy that make up that body.

Research has been done with animals. They were placed in a cage and a mild electric current was sent through the cage. When the animals felt the uncomfortable current, they tried to escape the cage but could not find any way out. With repeated conditioning, the animals became traumatized and stopped trying to escape. At that point, the top of the cage was removed. The animals could easily jump out of the cage but did not. They were conditioned into a docile learned helplessness and continued to endure the electric current rather than leap to freedom.

This is what is occurring with vagrant thoughts within the human condition—a learned helplessness. There is a mass subconscious of learned helplessness that must be evicted from each individual consciousness. This is essential so that the light, the individual light that each of us has within us, can shine brightly as a morning star. As recorded in the Book of Matthew in the Bible, Jesus spoke these creative commands: “Ye are the light of the world.” “Let your light so shine.”

We sang the hymn “O Come, All Ye Faithful” this morning. How do we receive faith and therefore become faithful? It was put this way: “Faith [comes] by hearing.” (Romans 10:17) In order to be faithful you must be able to hear. Hear what? The verse goes on to say, “and hearing by the word of God.” Hear the Word of God through His voice of Holy Spirit.

We can also listen for the voice of Holy Spirit speaking through others. When you hear Holy Spirit speak through other people, let them know. This increases the hearing in both of you. Hearing His voice is imprinted in our spiritual DNA and is natural. Holy Spirit is the central coordinating factor in the body of God. There is freedom in knowing that.

My high school class had its forty-fifth reunion recently. I did not attend in person but spoke with a number of people by phone. To my surprise, a couple of the men thanked me for protecting them from school bullies. My past had caught up with me. Forty-five years have passed and I had long forgotten about this. They told me I had provided an example for them to stand up to bullies. One of the men said, “You were always so encouraging. You made us believe we could do anything. You gave the bullies a break by forgiving them and giving them mercy.” I appreciated these two fine men, now in their sixties, remembering me with gratitude.

What about the bully of vagrant thoughts we entertain now, which we think we are helpless to banish? These bullies can spawn from conscious and subconscious memories of traumas, wounds and disappointments. They can also be activated by a feeling that then stimulates a thought. By the way, I am very excited about this!

Our sacred inner landscape, our spiritual body of light, is our true place of habitation. Here is where our spiritual ears are tuned to Holy Spirit broadcasting. It is from this place that we amplify the still small voice and broadcast, as of a trumpet, outward into the world. While defying dimension, I would venture that our spiritual body is immense compared to our physical body. Perhaps our physical bodies are within our spirit—not the other way around. We are therefore much larger on the inside than on the outside. This is a quantum view to take rest in. Holy Spirit is in us and wants out. Shining our light in a multitude of ways is the means of doing this.

Let’s have a look at the power of gratitude for a moment. A couple days ago I had a coaching session with a doctor of chiropractic. He mentioned that he has been speaking with a physician who runs a cancer clinic. The physician told him that his front desk staff could predict with a high degree of accuracy which patients would recover. Their predictions were not based on the healing modality chosen by the patient, but on the attitude displayed. Gratitude and being proactive were paramount as the best approach. Gratitude releases light from within.

When a destructive vagrant thought is entertained, there is a dark energy that comes with it that does not belong. When you believe that those destructive vagrant thoughts are yours and that you are helpless to banish them, your light is being eclipsed. Your power is being drained away and a plethora of problems set in.

What are the bullying thoughts that have been plaguing you? What thoughts are your Goliath to slay? That is your homework. I have been doing my homework as well. Speak back to those thoughts. Take command of your consciousness. Stay on the offensive. God’s people are never on the defensive—always on the offensive. Self-forgiveness is also essential in this.

Here are a few examples of speaking back to those thoughts. You can come up with your own. “Shut up. You don’t belong. Get out. I am not listening. I am listening to Holy Spirit, not you.” Listen to the voice that brings creative light—not destructive darkness. This remains essential at every new level of consciousness you reach. New level—new devil!

This is not fiction! This is the way to take your peace. Take command with an inner resolve. When you turn on a light, it invades the darkness in an instant and dissolves it. In this way, heaven invades our individual earth and the earth at large through us. In my mind I am speaking to at least three thousand people right now—not just to you. I have had the experience of doing that, so it is in my memory and intent.

I will briefly touch on the anatomy of the brain to further clarify what I have been speaking of. When vagrant thoughts are welcomed in and you are disturbed by them, a chain reaction takes place in your physiology. There is a thingamajig in the brain, named the amygdala. This part of the brain is the equivalent of the lever you pull to set off a fire alarm in a public building. It sends an electric impulse through the hippocampus (an emotional center) to several other points, and it finally gets to the hypothalamus, which is near the pituitary and part of the endocrine system.

The hypothalamus is the fire station receiving the alarm. It is responsible to maintain homeostasis (a state of well-being) in the entire body. It is known as the mind-body connection. Fight or flight impulses are sent from the hypothalamus through the pituitary gland to the adrenals (sitting on top of each kidney). The adrenals are charged with the responsibility of handling the perceived emergency by producing and releasing stress hormones. The stress hormones include cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine. While these hormones are useful in a real external emergency, they are destructive when overly produced and released on an ongoing basis in the body.

When you evict vagrant thoughts and listen to no other spirit but Holy Spirit, you take your peace. You might experience a deep natural breath from the diaphragm as part of that peace. That deep breath from the diaphragm sends an impulse from the gut up the vagus nerve and into the brain. The message it gives the brain is “All is well.” The hypothalamus then sends the “All is well” signal to the adrenals to produce and release the hormones of peacefulness, such as serotonin and oxytocin.

Taking your peace, in your sacred inner landscape, in your spiritual body of light, allows the One light to shine out from you. We find that our individual light is part of the one body of God on earth. Having faith to do this comes by hearing. Then you can truthfully say, “I am free at last”—free at last from the hypnosis of learned helplessness. It is natural to hear and to feel the presence of Holy Spirit.

This is a state of grace. We have a road sign here on Sunrise Ranch that reads “Grace Lane.” I looked up the word grace in my very large dictionary. “Grace: the influence or spirit of God operating in man to regenerate or strengthen him.” A second definition: “…the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God.” Each of us has experienced a lot of grace that has been unmerited! It is not about earning it or deserving it. Grace is freely given as we are open to receive it.

Come, all ye faithful. Let your light shine as morning stars shouting for joy.