I think the words of Stephanie’s song, No Other Way, speak of the abundance that’s readily available to a soul that says “Yes!”

In David Karchere’s “Thinking God’s Thoughts,” he speaks about repentance, of things we’ve done that we think get in our way and they don’t have to. He says:

“The kingdom to be built is not just up there someplace, but it is right here where we are. It is built out of what has yet to become visible. No matter how much that opportunity has been sullied by human beings at any time or place—people we do not know or people we do know—and no matter how much that opportunity may have been squandered by us, or taken advantage of, it’s present now in this moment and in every moment.” In every moment, there’s abundance available.

When Charlene Hunter was speaking about planting just enough, I realized that people often do that, or live that way, for fear of waste. There’s something honorable about that, not wanting things to go to waste. But when I think about a marigold or a milkweed, do you think they spend a lot of time fearing that the seeds that they release won’t get used? I know we know that’s not true.

So do we think about the love that’s pouring through us, freely, abundantly, and wonder who’s going to abuse it, who’s going to misuse it; is it going to fall on fallow ground? I have in the past felt that way. I have felt concern for being vulnerable and loving, for fear of a repeated pattern of being hurt or not being seen, or someone taking advantage. And I am feeling in this moment the number of times I’ve held back my radiance and my love, based on those conditions of fear. In this moment, in the beauty of that song you just sang, Stephanie, I feel it necessary to be repentant about that—that I trusted my own fear more than I did myself; that I trusted my limitation more than I did the coming of the kingdom, more than I did my true nature.

I love the spirit of abundance, and I know it well. When that spirit is denied, people hoard things or claim them for their own. Repeatedly abundance and blessing are spoken about in the Bible. “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” How will that happen in a hoarding state? How does that happen when one feels that the abundance that is ready to be given belongs to you, or belongs to me? It won’t—it will not happen. And if you think the kingdom will come and be delivered unto you as a spectator, forget about it. It will not happen.

No one has ever seen the kingdom of heaven coming down from God, external to himself. There is this tendency in the human attitude to assume that one can stand on the sidelines and watch it arrive.

We had a meeting to prepare for this service, and Michael Puharich spoke about the illusion of having to go someplace to know the truth; you have to keep working at this to finally be revealing who you are, or you have to be continually reminded to stay awake after you have had an experience of profound awakening. If you are awake, is it not natural to be revealing the kingdom, bringing the holy city, bringing abundance? It is natural, but it has been forgotten. Most people think, “It will be a miracle when it happens and I can’t wait to see it.” They don’t say, “I can’t wait to DO it”; they want you to prove it. Show me—show me something that proves this is real.

In the story of Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego entering the fiery furnace, it is said that when they were in the furnace heated seven times hotter than normal, Nebuchadnezzar saw a fourth man: “and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” (Daniel 3:25)

We will only know the presence of the likeness unto the Son of God, the kingdom of heaven, when we’re in a fiery furnace, the passionate fire of life and love, not hellfire and suffering. That’s not what this is about. The passionate release of who you are is the fiery furnace, and through that the likeness of the Son of God appears.

Whenever you’ve had that experience, or seen that presence in another person’s face, were you just an observer of that? No. You can’t see the presence of God; you can’t see the kingdom outside yourself without participating in it yourself. It’s impossible to know the fullness, the richness of this earth without releasing it from yourself. This is not a spectator sport. You can’t be solely a cheerleader and root it on.

The abundance, the repentance that Stephanie’s song spoke of, the pouring out of that, pours YOU out. It pours out your creative thinking; it pours out the splendid way in which you uniquely love. It pours out an opportunity for others to know themselves. There aren’t many people who come awake on their own. I give thanks for those who created enough substance for me to wake up and see myself as being an intricate part of the world. So when we release abundance, when we release generosity, who is doing the releasing? Is it something separate from you?

I once gave somebody five dollars because they said they were broke, and I made it a big secret so they could have the experience of “Somewhere in the universe, someone gave me five dollars.” And to this day, which is thirty years later, the person doesn’t know that I did that. But who was that exercise for? Was it for the person to feel that they had been blessed? Or was it for me to know I was capable of giving more than I ever thought? I was a poor student at the time and five dollars meant a lot to me back then. But I gave it, knowing something more was happening.

In Stephanie’s song, she says: “All the pain and suffering just melt away / and you’ll learn to love more and more, each and every day / and you’ll find all the right things and words to say.” When we release pain and suffering, and stop letting that be the place from which we live, that’s called repentance. And then what happens? All the right things are right in place to be done by you. The accurate things that are yours to bring are there and you pour out a blessing. It only happens when YOU do it YOUR way, because no one else can do it your way.

I’m sure we already feel richly blessed. Just imagine if anything you were holding on to out of fear, if every concept in your head about how the world is supposed to go, were let go of, if every relationship you had already pegged were freed up—if all that happened, then what kind of blessing would you know? All the blessing you know now is held in the space of the way you think, the way you feel. As you free that up and give it to whom it belongs, and receive what is rightfully yours, you live in a new place. You bring the kingdom, and the world is in your hands because you are really present in it, and all that is necessary to move through you creates miracles. Those who lived in that place with you would know it was life—not a miracle or extraordinary event—and they’d know that they were crucial for it happening.

We welcome the world to know this when we bring it ourselves. Never hold it back, and the world will be set free in you.