Agree with Your Adversary

Before you manifest anything, you need to do this.

It’s this or that...but not both! 

It is simply not possible to get any experience of God worth talking about, or to exercise spiritual power, or to make a successful manifestation until you do one very important thing. 

A spiritual demonstration demands that any negative state of consciousness be eliminated. Not tamped down, quietly set aside, or neatly compartmentalized to be addressed later. It must be swept out of you.  

Until you have gotten rid of resentment, anger, jealousy, condemnation etc., you can have either your demonstration or your negativity, but you cannot have both. 

Agree...agree...agree 

In the Book of Matthew, Jesus counsels, “Agree with thine adversary quickly.” 

He gave an illustration in Matthew 5:25 that a person refusing to settle his debts quickly, might ultimately stand before the judge and be quite surprised at the outcome.  

The one with the grievance could be judged unfavorably, thrown into prison, and end up having to pay a high price to get out. 

Jesus emphasized that outcome could be much worse than agreeing to set aside a small dispute on the way to the court hearing.  

Get your thought right immediately 

Spiritually, coming to terms with an adversary quickly, means that you get your thought right about the mishap immediately. 

Examine how you are holding the mishap within you. Are you steeped in “adversarial” or “conflicting” thoughts about the experience or the person involved? 

Check and see. Indignation, resentment, bitterness, jealousy, the desire to punish, the desire to “get even”, the feeling “it serves him right” are all states of consciousness that create an impenetrable barrier to spiritual power and peace.  

Additionally, holding on to any hostility is dangerous to your physical health, your emotional happiness, and your overall well-being. 

Reconciling quickly causes three things happen. 

1. You do not incur any mental or emotional “costs.” You don’t carry the hurt with you for days (sometimes for years) zapping your energy and interfering with your success.  
2. You don’t build up or strengthen within you an angry, conflicting, punishing way of being. (Perhaps you know someone who lives this way). 
3. The mishap, in its early stages, remains a simple one that’s easy to reconcile. 

Wouldn’t you agree it is much easier to overcome a difficulty if you tackle it when it first occurs than after the trouble has had time to settle into you and perhaps magnify?  

A Zen story about the two monks and a woman. 

Maybe you have heard the story of a senior monk and a junior monk traveling together. They came to a river with a strong current and a woman standing there asked if they could help her cross to the other side. 

The two monks had taken vows not to touch a woman. But then, without a word, the older monk picked up the woman, carried her across the river, set her down and continued on his journey.

The younger monk couldn’t believe what happened. 

An hour passed without a word between them. Then two more hours passed, then three, finally the younger monk blurted out “How could you carry that woman across the river?”

The older monk replied, “Brother, I set her down after fifteen minutes, but you have been carrying her for hours.”

Keep your heart clear

We all go through experiences when other people say things or behave in a way that is hurtful. We can chose whether to ruminate over past actions or events, and let it ultimately weigh us down and sap our energy. 

Or, we can choose instead to let go of the incident the moment a difficulty comes into our awareness, replacing it with an underlying spiritual ideal that brings peace. 

Proverbs 4:23 advises, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” 

Do you want to create a lot of “issues” that create peace and plenty or conflict and negativity?  

By carrying your difficulty around, you risk integrating it and; if you hang onto it long enough, it may be exceedingly hard to get rid of as well as have the potential to create even more problems for you. 

On the other hand, if you think about the most loving way to resolve a mishap, and; incorporate those ideals within you as quickly as possible, you are following the spiritual practice to: “Keep your heart with all diligence.” 

The type of thought you allow to become habitual will sooner or later find expression in your life. 

Allow the spirit of truth and love to shine in your mind and heart and you’ll find it is a much-happier, more successful way to live. 

This week let’s practice together. Whatever experience crosses your path that may upset you even in the slightest, set it down quickly. 

Turn your heart to the most loving resolution as quickly as possible. 

Keep your thoughts high and holy, and. . .  Keep your heart loving with all diligence and you’ll clear the way for your manifestations to flow into your life freely and effortlessly. 

Seeing you living a life of peace, 

Cherie 

CherieLarkin.com

 p.s. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10 

In touch with the divine:
If you want to go deeper with today’s spiritual insight, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Be still for a moment throughout the day and feel its influence within you.