In Pursuit Of Happiness To End The Darkness Podcast and Download

In Pursuit Of Happiness [ 7:07 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Man Will Always Be In Pursuit Of Happiness

In times of hardships and tragedies, usually our first reaction is to start worrying or fear the unknown. Our carnal mind always wants to look at the negative side of our problems and situations. Our minds start to become very imaginative and produce bad thoughts and delusions.

Before I go any further I would just like to state that the flesh and our carnal minds are corrupt. They want the things of the world, the pleasures and everything that is opposite of what God wants for us. For those that are on a spiritual journey, you know the battles that you have with the flesh on a daily basis.

Our imagination can produce some pretty grim outcomes of any hardship that we may be experiencing at the time. We can also latch on to these fabricated thoughts of doom, shut down our well-being and start entering the darkness of worrying.

We have to stop these thoughts quickly before they have a chance to grow. We need to train our minds to switch over to a more positive way of thinking. We can’t predict the outcome of the future and what it holds for us. We just have to keep strong in our faith and believe that God knows what is best for us.

When we accepted Jesus Christ, we were supposed to renounce our life and will and turn it over to God. After all, isn’t this why we sought Jesus Christ to begin with? Wasn’t our lives meaningless, empty and missing something? We certainly don’t know what is best for us or how to manage our lives in a way that meets God’s will.

Jesus said to pick up your cross and follow me. Jesus is the way back to God, He is the Truth, the truth of all that comes from God not man. God is infallible, but man isn’t. We should know that by the many mistakes and bad decisions we make or made in our lives. Jesus is also Life, the way to everlasting life is by knowing truth. Truth will set you free from the bondage’s of this world, Satan’s world.

The flesh is controlled by our pride. Our pride is total rebellion against God. We were born to be rebellious, ready to go after all the things that the world has to offer. We become accustomed to this way of life. We have happy moments along with sad ones. We have good times and bad times. We need to find that in between, Equanimity.

Man is always in pursuit of happiness, but which happiness is man in constant pursuit of? Some are always going after the temporary happiness in the things that the world has to offer like, money, recreational toys, clothes, food, shopping, alcohol/drugs, etc., etc. Some of these things have deadly results or lead to self-destruction.

Some try to work both sides of the fence at the same time, they want what the world has to offer and they also want what God has to offer. We can’t have it both ways, their is no room in God’s Kingdom for two loves. It’s either God or this passing world.

Others have made a deep commitment from their hearts to follow Jesus Christ and do whatever it takes to reach spiritual maturity, to be in union once again with God and be blessed by God with everlasting peace and freedom from the bondage’s of this world. Isaiah 51: 11.

Worries, fears and doubts will always keep us disconnected from God. They are our dark, negative emotions that set us back from becoming mature, spiritual adults. How can we say that we believe (be and live) in God or Jesus Christ if we don’t trust Them?

The scouraging that Jesus went through, He did for us. It is so that He can circumcise our flesh and fine tune our bodily senses so that we have no desire for the things of the world. We have to trust in Jesus as we walk with Him and He will strip us of these negative emotions, created love that causes us to attach our hearts to worldly things and give us true spiritual emotions of light. Positive emotions of compassion and be filled with the uncreated love of God.

Tests and trials can be very hard at times, so hard that we even have thoughts cross our minds like, “Why is God doing this to me?” or “What have I done to deserve this?” or “Is this ever going to end?”, maybe even, ” Does God really love me” or ” I thought I knew God, so Who is God?” Don’t ever think that God has abandoned you because He hasn’t, I know it may seem like that at times, but Trust God and believe that He has everything under control.

Faith is like darkness to the flesh, your soul and your intellect are beginning to dominate your flesh. Your flesh seems to become confused because it doesn’t have control over it’s normal faculties any longer. Follow Jesus on a daily basis and He will lead you into the light and away from the darkness of the flesh.

Equanimity – What Plane Are You On Podcast

Equanimity - What Plane Are You On? [ 5:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

What is the Meaning of Equanimity?

Definition of equanimity: Mental composure or calmness; evenness of temper. Peace, what a wonderful thing. Everyone of us wants tranquility. For instance, like when we stop and gaze at the beautiful scenery. For the time being, it removes all our stress, our troubles, it empties us of the things that cause us to be busy inside ourselves. Every moment of every day we are usually thinking about something.

But what we’re going to talk about here is the thoughts that cause us to feel pain or pleasure from humiliation or honor. This is a form of pride. We feel the pain of pride when things don’t go our way or when people say or do things that we don’t like. Jealousy also takes it toll on us. That was our lows, now for the high. Recognition, we all love it and some of us can’t survive without it, it can become an obsession.
To some, it can be very painful to not be honored for what they’ve done. Some even go as far as honoring themselves. You might say, “But don’t we deserve to be honored for the good things we do”, No!, God does. Luke 18:19 Jesus said to him, ‘ Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone’. He’s the one that puts us in the positions to make a choice, whether we are going to do good or not. Goodness comes to us from God, just like evil comes to us from Satan.

We’re in the middle of both worlds, but we can only have one world, your choice. You gave your life over to God. Provided you are on the right road, you have to remember that from then on, all things are going to be learning experiences, unless of course you took your will back. You have to be “aware”, you can’t practice equanimity if you are not aware. One needs to be on an equal plane at all times. We need to be at a place called “nothingness”. This is where you feel no pain from humiliation or you feel no joy or should I say, “Pride in being honored”.

In practicing equanimity, you will keep the ocean within you calm, where there will not even be a ripple. You also will not be able to harm anyone, either physically or emotionally. You can hurt people and yourself by being humiliated or honored. You have to think about this,there’s just too many ways it can happen. Humiliate: injure the dignity or self-respect of. Humility: humbleness; meekness: piously gentle in nature. Humble: lower the rank or status of. Accept humiliation.

1Peter 5:5-8 To the rest of you I say, ‘ Do what the elders tell you, and all wrap yourselves in humility to be servants of each other, because God refuses the proud and will always favor the humble. Bow down, then, before the power of God now, and He will raise you up on the appointed day; unload all your worries on to Him, since He is looking after you. Be CALM but vigilant, because your enemy the devil is prowling round like a roaring lion, looking for someone to eat’.

Proverbs 15:33 The fear of God is a school of wisdom, humility goes before honor.

Proverbs 18:12 The human heart is haughty until destruction comes, humility goes before honor.