The Vine and the Branches

All of the process of experiential unfolding and gathering up that is taking place on the local universe levels through these finite creators, which then feeds into the actualizing Supreme, is called ‘power-personality synthesis’. The Creator Sons are further called ‘power-personality focalizations’ whose creative actions provide the starting point for the ‘real laboratories in which are worked out the mind experiments, galactic adventures, divinity unfoldings, and personality progressions which, when cosmically totaled, constitute the actual foundation upon which the Supreme is achieving deity evolution in and by experience’. 116:4:7

We humans are described in the Urantia Book as being the furthest reach into dense matter that God could manage in the creation of a will creature. We were gifted the greatest degree of limitation and so conversely enjoy the greatest possibility for growth in the evolutionary arc of the Supreme. This is the real meaning behind the saying, ‘The last shall be first’.

We enjoy the gift of personality, a unique and unchanging configuration within that coheres in identity and continuity of experience through time, from the Paradise Father—the source of all personality. The book says he’s also given a living fragment of himself to live and work within the mind, subject to our freewill choice, to evolve a soul. The co-creation of a viable soul is an evolutionary process taking place in each individual according to the moral, ethical and spiritual decisions made moment by moment in the presence of that living fragment of the Absolute. We get to choose to think or act however we wish but the Father has the final say in terms of what ends up getting woven into the fabric of a living soul. It’s in that collaboration between creator and creature that the soul gains substance and becomes capable of surviving death to move forward into endless progression.

The spirit influences from Creator Parents are felt through mindedness, though. The very fact of having mind is evidence of utilizing the mind circuit of the Mother Spirit and it’s in the higher mind, the reflective realm, that the presence of her Holy Spirit and the Creator Son’s Spirit of Truth are experienced. These spiritual influences are so elemental in our experience of mindedness we’d not be able to imagine them as separate from how we think. People respond to intuition and the gentle nudges of spiritual leading all the time, no matter what they espouse in terms of belief, and these influences are like the amniotic fluid an unborn child swims in. They constitute the spiritual environment humans have always spiritually grown and moved in—especially the influences of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of Truth is a little different, though. This is drawn from Christ Michael, our Creator Son, and becomes more accessible through personal reflection about him as a person, and on his teachings and beautiful energy. He is a highly reflective being and his relationship to us is designed to be reflective.

The Urantia Book talks about reflectivity in general as an operational aspect of divine mind in the finite. While mind itself creates the mechanism for ‘endless progression’, the operations of reflectivity provide ‘omniscience in the context of the finite’ enabling thought to move and be received independently of time and space. Spiritual values and meanings that come to light in experience are gathered instantaneously in the living circuits of mind and there are many agencies and beings, including angels, that serve to help that happen.

As we creatures utilize all the different ministries and operations arising from the godhead and through these finite Creator Parents, we end up not only experiencing personal evolution but effecting the channels we move through in ways that create repercussions in the evolving Supreme. The book says a ‘trail of actualized reality’ is left behind as we progress and that all of this experience becomes a living possession of the experiential God, as well.

When it comes to Jesus and interacting with his Spirit of Truth, it’s good to remember again what is taught about the Creator Sons; of their reflective natures, inherent meaning, and deep level relationship to us. We’re each a tiny part of what will unfold from that particular embodiment. So, reflecting into that source relationship with him will bring up inherent spiritual and creative potentials that would otherwise remain latent.

This is why it’s important to study his life and teachings. Creator-creature relationships in the finite are like any other in that they need to be grown. I met a Urantia reader once who complained that he’d never felt the presence of God in himself. I asked him if he’d ever prayed or meditated and he said, ‘Of course not!’ So, I asked how he thought God was ever given an opportunity to become manifest to him without his invitation and he said he’d never thought about it. 

But, given that divine will sits so considerately and respectfully in relationship to human will, we actually do need to make the first move—not only once but thousands of times—to invite that relationship. Over time, it becomes easier to identify the energies of the Father, the Absolutes, the Creator Son and Mother Spirit and to trust where they’re coming from but again, it takes faith to forge any relationship with spiritual beings of that magnitude. The gap is just too wide and the requirement of faith is innate in that limitation.