9/26/16

With power comes responsibility. Step 270 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices


Greetings All –

With power comes responsibility. Step 270 (MP3)  [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

With power comes responsibility. Step 270
WITH POWER COMES RESPONSIBILITY. Knowledge will empower you, and you must be responsible to Knowledge. That is why you must become a follower. By becoming a follower you become a leader, for you are able to receive and you are able to be guided. Thus, you will teach others to receive and provide guidance for them. This is a natural extension of the gift that you are now receiving, which in time will find expression through you in your life.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU RECOGNIZE the relationship between power and responsibility. Responsibility requires self-discipline, self-restraint and self-control. It requires an objectivity about your own life which very few have yet attained in this world. Responsibility is a burden until it is recognized as a source of protection. It is the guarantee and the assurance that your gift will find a wholesome and welcome expression within you and that you will be advanced and accomplished by the rendering of your contribution.

IT IS VERY COMMON IN THE WORLD THAT PEOPLE want power without responsibility, for their idea of freedom is that they are not beholden to anything. This is utterly counter-productive and has very dangerous consequences for those who persist in attempting it. You who are a student of Knowledge must learn to accept the responsibilities that are given to you, for they provide the protection and the guidance that you need so that you may develop appropriately, positively and completely. They are the assurance that your preparation will yield the great result that it is meant to yield.

THINK OF THIS IDEA UPON THE HOUR and do not forget it today. In your deeper practices, think very carefully about what this statement means. Think of your ideas about power and recognize how much they need responsibility to a Greater Source in order to be utilized and expressed appropriately. These two practice periods will be times of mental activity and application. Think very carefully of all your ideas surrounding the lesson for today. It is quite essential that you examine your own thinking and beliefs, for you must understand your current mental make-up in order to realize its impact upon your outer life. Today’s lesson may seem sobering at first, but in time it will give you the confidence and the assurance that you will need to progress wholeheartedly.

PRACTICE 270: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Picture:  Courtyard statue, Pavia, Italy.


Plan B - If the MP3 doesn’t work, here’s the link to the folder:  New Message - Student Spoken Steps Recordings - Steps to Knowledge - Working file
If this is your first time seeing one of the “Steps to Knowledge”, then welcome. There are 365 Steps, daily spiritual practices if one seeks to complete them in a year, but that is not necessary. They can be used by people of any religious tradition or no religious tradition. They will help one to become mindful in the world.

The Step today is from the book: Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing. The practices were brought to the world through Marshall Vian Summers, The Messenger for The New Message From God. Important background for the Steps is in: “Greater Community Spiritualityand the “Wisdom Books - I and II”. Hard copies are available from the New Knowledge Library Store. The Society for the New Message from God also has a Free Book Project. If you need the books now, PDF files can be found here: http://goo.gl/RJuuGP

Keeping a journal is recommended. If you have a Steps book, write your reactions and comments, highlight or underline points that strike you, and date the note. In this way, your Steps book can be a partial journal.

Using the PDF, you can print out pages as you need them, or use the software to maintain a digital copy where you can enter notes and highlight text that stands out.

Other modern methods of keeping a journal include having a document on your PC or phone to keep notes. You could send yourself an email or use the voice recorder function. It is important to capture insights and reactions because it is by this means that you can understand change. Sometimes it may just be a word or short phrase, an image or a scene.

To end this post I again offer the blessing: "May the presence of the Teachers be with you." In the invocative language of Knowledge this blessing is: "Nasi Novare Coram" (pronounced NAH-see no-VAHR-ay co-RAHM)

The short form of Nasi Novare Coram used by students is NNC.

NNC

P.S. Often it takes 18 months to get through the Steps once. For this blog, the pace is one-a-day, but it really makes no difference how fast you do it, only that you begin, persist and repeat. Posts linked below provide a trail that may let you have a virtual companion when and if you want one. One may have to study alone, as I did in the beginning. There are other Steps students blogging their experience and you might find a person more like you as a companion, or use a number of such Steps journeys.
Doing Steps with only the texts, messages and your life experience, including what you may have studied and practiced is your journey. I’m showing Step comments after the Step, so as not to influence anyone in advance. It is a wilderness trek to be left to your own wits, but then you can also listen more closely for guides, angels and teachers, always first saying: “I surround and protect myself with the Love and the Grace of God.” Thankfully, I was taught this practice in 1989.