Here is a story from the Bible:<\/p>\n
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,\u00a0\u201cWho do people say the Son of Man is?\u201d<\/p>\n
They replied, \u201cSome say John the Baptist;\u00a0others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what about you?\u201d\u00a0he asked.\u00a0\u201cWho do you say I am?\u201d<\/p>\n
Simon Peter answered, \u201cYou are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jesus replied,\u00a0\u201cBlessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood,\u00a0but by my Father in heaven.\u00a0And I tell you that you are Peter,\u00a0and on this rock I will build my church,\u00a0and the gates of Hades\u00a0will not overcome it.\u00a0I will give you the keys\u00a0of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be\u00a0bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.\u201d\u00a0(Matthew 16: 13-19)<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s reading says, \u201cYou are Peter,\u201d so let\u2019s look at Peter in relation to the story told above and see what “You are Peter” means.<\/p>\n
When Jesus asked the apostles who they thought he was, Peter said that Jesus was the Messiah. What does that mean? According to Dr. Leila Leah Bronner, a scholar of Jewish and Biblical studies, \u201cthe term referred to an \u2018anointed one,\u2019 a divinely chosen figure who would bring to fruition God’s plan for his people and for all humankind. The term also conjured up images of a future world filled with peace and divine tranquility. These two biblical ideas were elaborated upon in the post-biblical era.\u201d<\/p>\n
With that definition of Messiah, let\u2019s imagine Peter\u2019s answer to Jesus’ question in this way:<\/p>\n
You are one in whom God\u2019s plan for humankind is being fulfilled. Through you, peace and divine tranquility will be brought to all of the world.<\/p>\n
Now, let\u2019s imagine that the one listening to Peter is not identified with a body-personality-mind; it is unity consciousness. Unity consciousness responds:<\/p>\n
Blessed are you, for this was not revealed to you by your body-personality-mind,\u00a0but by inner spiritual knowing.\u00a0And I tell you that you are a rock of faith to have trusted this knowing. On this rock I will build my assembly,\u00a0and the ego will not overcome it.\u00a0I now anoint you. I give you the keys\u00a0of the kingdom of heaven. Follow your inner knowing, and it will lead you to know heaven, which is here now. But be aware that whatever you believe on earth is believed in heaven, because heaven is here now. And whatever you let go of on earth will be let go in heaven, because heaven is here now.<\/p>\n
Jesus is often seen as The Messiah, the only anointed or chosen one. However, as soon as Jesus saw an inkling of inner intuition in another, and he saw that one trusting inner intuition enough to speak it, he anointed that one.<\/p>\n
What does this mean?<\/p>\n
It means that as soon as genuine spiritual intuition awakens in us, and as soon as we trust it enough to begin following it over the personality-mind, we are the Messiah, the one in whom God\u2019s plan of awakening is being fulfilled.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t said to make anyone feel special. This is a great responsibility of humility, because it means we have awakened to the point of choice. We are no longer limited to only the personality-mind, a slave to its thoughts. We have awakened to spiritual intuition, so we are able to choose what we will trust and follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here is a story from the Bible: When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,\u00a0\u201cWho do people say the Son of Man is?\u201d They replied, \u201cSome say John the Baptist;\u00a0others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.\u201d \u201cBut what about you?\u201d\u00a0he asked.\u00a0\u201cWho do you say I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101,88],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-27928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-gentlehealingtips-year2","7":"category-sidebar","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n