Ascended Master Jesus through Kim Michaels.
Let me summarize the essence of the path to personal Christhood. Right now, you have a self-image, a sense of identity, that is less than your actual potential. The Conscious You was created in the image and likeness of God and it has the potential to be – literally and with no qualifications – anything it can conceive of being. In the here and now of space and time, you are who you think you are. Thus, the essence of spiritual growth is to raise your vision, to increase your ability to think – to envision, to imagine, to know, to accept, to be – beyond the human identity that is defined based on the material universe.
Right now, your sense of identity is to a smaller or larger degree based on the conditions in the material universe and upon ideas that are unreal because they spring from a state of consciousness that is out of sync, out of oneness, with God’s reality. I have called that state of consciousness “death,” but we might also call it the consciousness of anti-christ or the consciousness of duality.
Why do I use the term anti-christ, which has – as virtually any other part of my teachings – been misused by overzealous Christians? I do so because the consciousness of Christ is – as explained earlier – designed to maintain oneness between the Creator and the created. Anti-christ is therefore that which is in opposition to oneness, namely separateness and division. The consciousness of anti-christ sees a difference, a distance, a chasm, a division between the Creator and its creation, between God and humans, between itself and the remote God. That is why this consciousness elevated me to being God on Earth and degraded all other people to being lesser creatures. The purpose was, of course, to prevent anyone else from following in my footsteps, declaring their oneness with God and doing the works that I did.
So the essential problem of human existence is that right now you have a sense of identity that is partly based on the consciousness of anti-christ. This causes you to identify yourself as a being who is different from – separated from – your source, your Creator. What has given rise to this mortal sense of identity is that the Conscious You has come to accept certain illusions that have sprung from the mind of anti-christ. Thus, the essence of the path to Christhood is that you systematically uncover, challenge and let go of these illusions, replacing them with the corresponding truth of Christ.
Precisely because the concepts of anti-christ and the devil have been so misused by orthodox Christians – mainly as a scare tactic – most people have a very superficial understanding of what I am talking about. You have been conditioned to think that the devil always appears as an evil-looking creature, perhaps with hoofed feet, a tail and horns. This, of course, is a deliberately engineered lie, partly created to scare you and partly created to prevent you from realizing the profound truth that Paul encapsulated in this quote:
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2Corintians 11:14)
The stark reality is that it is not a straightforward matter to identify the representatives of anti-christ. They are good at camouflaging themselves as representatives of Christ, which you see in many Christian churches today. Yet my real point here is that it is likewise no straightforward matter to identify the illusions of anti-christ. For they are always presented in such a way as to appear to be the truth.
In other words, walking the path of Christhood is not a simple matter of identifying elements in your psyche that are clearly evil or dark. It is a much more complex matter of identifying the – sometimes very fine line – between the subtle lies of anti-christ – that might appear as perfectly benign and true – and the reality of Christ—which might at first appear to be so different from the norm that it seems to not be true.
Take note of what I am saying here. I realize that if you are open to this course, you have some willingness to change. Thus, if you came to the realization that you believed in an idea that came from the mind of anti-christ, you would be willing to let go of that idea. So the reason why you have not already let go of all ideas that spring from the mind of anti-christ is that you have not yet seen them for what they are. And the reason you have not seen them is not that you are stupid or deficient, but that these ideas are indeed very subtle and difficult to identify as what they truly are. They appear benign, beneficial and truthful. They are often confirmed by the traditions of your society and culture, and in some cases they can even seem to be confirmed by your experiences in life. Yet despite all appearances to the contrary, they are illusions, they are lies and they will – indefinitely – keep you from entering the kingdom within you.
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The essence of the path to Christhood is that you become able to see – to identify – illusions that you do not currently see because they appear to be anything but illusions. The essence of my job as a spiritual teacher is to help you see what the Conscious You cannot currently see and what your ego will never be able to see—and thus does not want the conscious self to see either. Thus, we might say that my job is to get you – in whatever way necessary – to see what you cannot currently see by challenging your existing belief system, your mental box.
At this point you may think I am repeating myself, for surely I have said this before. But did you truly understand and internalize what I have been saying? You see, there is no question that you still hold on to illusions that spring from the mind of anti-christ. How can I say this? Because if you had let go of all such illusions, you probably would no longer be on Earth. You would either have ascended to the spiritual realm, or you would be able to communicate with me directly without needing this course!
This planet is currently a very dense environment in which all aspects of human endeavor are colored by the mind of anti-christ. Even matter itself is more dense than the way it was originally designed, and thus even matter seems to confirm the basic illusion that you are separated from God—even to the point that the density of matter makes some people believe there is nothing beyond matter.
My point is that it is wise to adopt the attitude that as long as you are on Earth, you need to be in a constant state of alertness, where you never allow yourself to think that you have nothing more to learn, that you have somehow reached some ultimate state of consciousness from which no further growth is needed or even possible. As the saying goes, “Constant vigilance – constant willingness to examine and transcend yourself – is the price of discipleship.”
You are who you think you are, so if you think no more growth is needed, how could you be open to further growth? Yet Christhood is not a state of perfection that never changes. Christhood is being one with the process of life itself, the river that is always flowing.
When the Buddha was asked what kind of being he was, his extremely profound and powerful answer was, “I AM awake!” Being completely and totally awake is the ultimate goal of spiritual students, and it is a very difficult goal to attain in the density of the material universe. Thus, it is the role of a spiritual teacher to first take the student to a high state of “awakeness” and then make sure the student does not imperceptibly – as has happened to many people who thought they were advanced students, perhaps even masters – slip back into being less awake or even less than awake.
Do you see what I am saying? My job is to always challenge you to reach for a higher state of consciousness, to reach beyond your current beliefs and your current sense of identity. My job is to always challenge your sense of comfortability, your sense of equilibrium, your sense of status quo.
It is the ego that does not want to change, that does not want to be challenged—which is why it seeks to silence the Living Christ, even by killing him. The reason being that the ego needs security, which it – because it has no built-in divinity – seeks to attain through control. The ego is constantly seeking to maintain some sense of equilibrium, and thus the serious student must be willing to let the teacher challenge all sense of comfortability, even outer security. Again, look at this quote:
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew, Chapter 16)
Being willing to lose your life means being willing to give up any sense of comfortability and security based on the things of this world in order to follow the Living Christ. Giving up security can be very difficult for new students, and, ironically, it can be even more difficult – but in a more subtle way – for older students who think they should be above being challenged. Yet – as I have attempted to explain – no one on Earth is beyond being challenged—that is, if they want to remain in the Master-disciple relationship with a true teacher. The mind has a tendency to form habits, and this makes a familiar illusion seem more attractive than an unfamiliar truth, causing people to cling to the lie simply because it is familiar and offers comfort or security.
It is extremely important for you to understand that although the ego will always resist being challenged, even the conscious self can build a resistance to growth, a resistance to learning. This resistance can be very subtle, and few students recognize it for what it is. Thus, let me explain it to you in clearer terms than has been done before.
NOTE: The rest of this dictation is available in the book: Master Keys to Personal Christhoood.
Copyright © 2008 Kim Michaels