II. Release the Past
In the book of Numbers there?s a story about when Moses and the Hebrews came to the edge of the Promised Land and were ready to go in there. Moses sent twelve spies ahead to spy out the promised land to see if it was really good land and rich in fruits, and also to see what the defenses were and whether the people were friendly.
The twelve spies came back carrying a big pole with lots of clusters of grapes strung over it and bags of pomegranates and all different kinds of fruit, and they said, ?Look, this is the fruit that is there.? Two of them, Joshua and Caleb, were very excited about what they saw, but ten of the twelve were very negative. They said, ?Although this is a land flowing with milk and honey, filled with good things, the soil is good and the fruit is there, it?s heavily defended. There are strong fortifications, there are walls and cities, and the people there are so big that it made us feel like grasshoppers.? So they were negative about it.
And what did this do? Instead of the Hebrews being joyous about going into the Promised Land, they became negative about it. They said, ?Agh, we would have been better had we not left Egypt. We were better off in bondage in Egypt than we are going into this land where there are these fortifications and people who are giants.? So they became fearful and negative. They wanted to hold onto the past, no matter how difficult and how uncomfortable and how awful that past was.
Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? Have you ever found yourself wanting to hold on to the past and not going to the new because of the fear of what that new might contain? That?s a city in our consciousness, and it?s called ?Scare City? ? or ?scarcity.? How many of you live in Scare City?
To dance the dance of abundance your center of consciousness, your center of being, has to be a low center of gravity. You move easy in the dance of abundance. But in the Scare City, where is your consciousness centered? You?re breathing way up high. When we get anxious, we breathe high up in our chest and our shoulders are tense. So that?s when you know you are in Scare City, you know you are filled with fear and anxiety when you are breathing shallowly way up high and when our shoulders are tense.
We have to really center ourselves, take a deep breath and ?Ahh!? let go and feel your center down in the area of your diaphragm. We have to lower our center of gravity so that we are moving easily upon the earth and we are also connected to our heavenly realm, the kingdom of heaven or kingdom of substance, in a nice easy way.
So, they were scared; they were rejecting their good, their promised land. We also do that sometimes, we reject our good because we hold on to the past out of fear.
You will remember that Jesus, when people came to him or he met people who were blind or lame or had other problems, would say to them ?Do you want to be healed?? Do you want to be healed? We have to ask that question of ourselves. And sometimes the answer is ?No, not really. I want to be well but I don?t want to be healed. I still want the sympathy, I still want to be able to complain, and I still don?t want to take responsibility, so I don?t really want to be healed.? Then you are still holding on to the past, aren?t you? You?re not opening yourself to the new, you?re not willing to let go in order to move forward.
So our second step in this process, after the first step of knowing God as our source, is to release the past.
That includes releasing any grievances of the past. It includes releasing any mistakes or failures of the past, of yourself or of anyone else. Releasing the past also means forgiving yourself and others, doesn?t it? Forgiving the past, in order to let it go. We cannot move into our future good if we?re still holding on to the past, the complaints, the unforgiveness, the resentment, the bitterness, the scarcity, the fear, or whatever it might be. We have to let go of all of that in order to move into our promised land.
It also means that we have to stop talking about unhappy experiences, doesn?t it? How often do we go on thinking and talking about that? We carry that stuff on and we get sympathy from others, don?t we? ?Oh, I remember my operation. Do you want to see my scar?? or ?I remember when I was really sick or I was really hard put to scrape by? or ?I remember those days when it was so difficult? or ?I remember that relationship, and he was such a nasty guy. Do you know what he did to me?? And we keep on talking about this stuff.
So we cannot move into the new without letting go that old experience. Our mind will not have space for the new if it?s fully occupied with the old.
Again, Charles Fillmore has this to say: ?Thoughts are things and occupy space in mind; we cannot have new or better ones in a place already crowded with old, weak, inefficient thoughts. A mental house-cleaning is even more rewarding than a material one.? A mental house-cleaning ? but don?t forget the material one too.
The material house-cleaning is very good. Catherine Ponder, the author of Open Your Mind to Prosperity and many other prosperity books, recommends that we do a house-cleaning if we?re also cleaning out our mind, because it helps us to associate one with another. We need to let go of some of the stuff we accumulate, to go into our closets and drawers and throw out that stuff, clothes we haven?t worn for a year, books we haven?t looked at for five years that are just collecting dust on the shelves, or old files ? keep your income tax records for a maximum of seven years and throw away any from before that. We tend to stack up stuff; how many of us are pack-rats? So Catherine Ponder says to let go of all that stuff, and as you do that you also begin to clean out your mind.
Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
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