“Our Creative Power” by Rev. Christine 6/27/2021
Today I’m speaking about the creative power that is within us. We are naturally creative beings. The following is from Divine Science and Healing by Malinda Cramer. Please note, that Malinda uses the word “man” as a generic term to represent all of humanity.
“Divine Science teaches that creation is the Creator expressed, that self-revelation is the law and order of the Infinite One. It reveals the law by which the Invisible Source becomes visible in effect. It is one law, hence all must necessarily see Unity and know Truth in order to experience the fulfillment of the law within themselves. God is known as a Trinity in Unity – the Creator, creative action and creation. This trinity has always been, and will ever be; in other words, man is Being, doing and result, or he is the I am, that thinks and speaks.”
Malinda continues, “An Infinite Source and Cause cannot be conceived of without containing perfect intelligence and limitless ideas. It must be the intelligence that is revealing in expressing its idea in creation; so it is logical to conclude that Being or Mind contains both intelligence and idea. Man must of necessity be the same in being and nature to live and fulfill the Law of Life.
Man is a triune being; he is cause, action and result. He is not divided by qualities or substance, degrees of conscious mind, or states of unfoldment. Man is one solitary substance, pure Spirit throughout. The whole man is equal to the sum of the three. Let him not separate, by space or by any theory, what God has united. There is not a visible thing in existence that is not Eternal in the Invisible.”
Therefore, God created us for Self expression, expression of Self. The attributes of God are inherencies we innately have within us; they are as joy, life, love, power, knowledge, wisdom, peace. Our first thought of God as put forth in the Bible is as Creator of our universe, earth, and all of life.
Then we must have inherited the ability to create. God creates out of itself. Then we too create from within our self. Creative intelligent energy is a natural part of us; it originates in the life-giving Spirit that is expressing us. I am, you are, one with this living-giving spirit we call God.
The following is one of my favorite quotes from the book Mysteries by Nona Brooks, “Man is the outburst of God. I like to think that we are spontaneous expressions of Divine Love because this love could not contain itself for joy – the joy of giving. Man must be a wondrous outburst, when we remember that God can bring forth nothing unlike itself.” Therefore, I am an outburst of God that expresses Divine Love and Joy.”
Let us affirm: “I am an outburst of God that expresses Divine Love and Joy.”
Every person is an artist! We are the artist of our own life. When Jesus said that Heaven is within us, I see it as a great blank canvas that we get to draw upon, color in, and write the script of our lives. Everyday 24/7 we are writing our scripts with our thoughts, beliefs, and our faith.
Everyone has innate gifts; some are more obvious than others. For me it was dancing. As a little girl I just loved to dance. After going to see a musical movie, I would imitate the dances and songs.
Eventually, I learned to become one with the music; allowing the music to move the body. This is when we give up thinking about what we are doing, and let the music dance us; it is being one with the music. This is true of all artists. Whether a painter, sculptor, writer, inventor, singer, musician, or builder. This Divine Intelligence within us takes over and creates its masterpiece. Our mental process steps aside; we let go of all judgement, doubt, fear, or planning. In that moment of creating, we are in the flow of spirit, in an altered state of consciousness, we are spontaneously creating.
Julia Cameron author of the Artist Way says, “The heart of creativity is an experience of the mystical union; the heart of the mystical union is an experience of creativity.” She is saying that creativity is a spiritual experience of the Omnipresence of God - the Presence of God within us expressing itself through and as our self - it is a complete state of union.
Jesus said, “The Father within does the work.” When in this state of creative union, it is no longer the personal I doing or being the expression, but it is the Divine Spirit flowing within and through and as me that is creating the beauty, feeding the multitude, healing the lame or raising the dead. The ego cannot take credit, for it doesn’t even exist in conscious union with God. In that moment of creating is only pure joy; the joy of being, the joy of expressing, the joy of at-one-ment.
Many people think they don’t have any talents. I’m reminded of the parable Jesus shared about the Talents. Back then a talent was a coin for money. In today’s world we see the word as our artistic gift. In the parable, the Head of household was going out of town for a while, and gave three of his servants each talents according to their status. The first servant got 3 coins, the second 2 coins, and the 3rd servant received one coin. The first two servants invested their talents and doubled their income, and the 3rd with one coin buried his talent. When the boss came home he asked about their talents, wanting to know what they had earned for him. He was very pleased with the first two. But, to the one who buried his talent, he said you of little faith, and took it from him, and gave it to the one with the most.
This is a lesson about being a good steward of what is given us. Our talents, our gifts are freely given to us, and it is our responsibility to discover, cultivate, and share them. Everyone has gifts, even if it isn’t obvious. Always look at what brings you joy.
Reading and writing didn’t come easy for me. But, math I excelled in. Who knew that in my last career that I would develop writing skills. It was 1978, the beginning of my career at the Cooperative Library Agency for Systems and Services. This was a new organization with a new computer; a mainframe that required its own room. I was part of a team to update the California Database of Serials for some 700 libraries. Back then the software was not user friendly. I had my scribbled notes as a cheat sheet. Soon co-workers were coming to me for help. Out of need, I took it upon myself to write a user guide; I had the technical knowhow, but not the writing skills.
I would submit my draft document to be reviewed by the editor; an ex-librarian. I remember getting my pages back with lots of corrections in red. I asked the editor to use green or purple ink because it seemed friendlier. One day I asked why she didn’t do any writing of her own, and to my surprise, the answer was that she couldn’t take the criticism.
Creativity is coupled with inspiration and imagination. Inspiration is about receiving ideas. We are like an antenna, a receiving station that we tune into. Many artists describe receiving downloads of music, or whole pictures, or answers to complex problems while in a meditative or resting state. Einstein said that when he took short naps answers came to him.
Imagination is the expansion of thought - going a step further with ideas. The imagination can take a thought and create great beauty. Both of these, inspiration and imagination, requires the quieting of the thoughts. A creative person knows how to still their thoughts to receive, and then to expand upon.
Ideas are always floating around us. Its just tuning into them - a matching of frequencies. Once tuned in then it is our responsibility to express it forth in some fashion. Have you ever tried to hold an inspired thought back.
Sometimes, a thought would pop in while giving a prayer treatment, and I would push it aside thinking its not appropriate. Then it repeats itself, and nothing else will come forth until I let it come out. Turns out it was exactly what needed to be heard.
Not expressing our creativity blocks our flow of energy - spirit energy. Illness, disease, depression are signs of blocked energy. We are designed by nature to be creative. We are here to be the visible expression of the Divine Creator. Our whole purpose in life is to express the Divine within and through us. Spirit is love, and is creatively expressing this love through us. Being creative makes for a joyous life.
Wayne Dyer from Power of Intention wrote, “Beauty is Truth, Truth is beauty, that is all. As you become receptive to seeing and feeling beauty around you, you’re becoming attuned to the creative power of intention within everything in the natural world, including yourself.”
Back in the 1990s I facilitated Artist Way Sacred Circles. As part of these circles we would say together the “Artists Prayer” from Julian Cameron’s Artist Way book. I will close with this prayer.
“O Great Creator, we are gathered together in your name that we may be of greater service to you and to our fellows.
We offer ourselves to you as instruments. We open ourselves to your creativity in our lives.
We surrender to you our old ideas.
We welcome your new and more expansive ideas.
We trust that you will lead us.
We trust that it is safe to follow you.
We know you created us and that creativity is your nature and our own.
We ask you to unfold our lives according to your plan, not our low self-worth.
Help us to believe that it is not too late and that we are not too small or too flawed to be healed– By you and through each other – and made whole.
Help us to love another, to nurture each other’s unfolding, to encourage each other’s growth, and understand each other’s fears.
Help us to know that we are not alone, that we are loved and loveable.
Help us to create as an act of worship to you.” Amen.