United Prayers Across America
A National Prayer Project to Awaken the Sleeping Giant
Conference Call #28
In Service to God
Martha Lopez-Durkin
June 26, 2006
I am honored to be a guest speaker tonight, and I thank you in advance for your attention and indulgence.
When Philip asked what the Awaken the Sleeping Giant Prayer meant to each of us, the words "service to God" came to mind, and I felt moved to explore what that meant. I wondered, "Why service to God? God is omnipotent." Eventually, I concluded that we do service to God, not because God needs our service, but because we need to appreciate God in everything around us. It is by serving others that we serve God. I felt that my thoughts were confirmed when I read an interview with a holy woman whom many consider a saint, Amma1, "the Hugging Saint" of India. In the interview, Amma said:
Just as the sun doesn’t need a candle’s light, so too, God doesn’t need anything from us. But we should come down to the level of the poor and needy, try to understand their pain, and serve them in any way we can. For me, there is no such thing as a God living up on some throne in heaven. God is the all-pervading Consciousness that throbs in everyone and everything. My God is each and every one of you—all the people, plants, animals, trees, mountains, rivers.
This is Amma’s God. We are in excellent company when, like Amma, we understand that doing service to God means acknowledging the oneness with All That Is, expressing our gratitude and joy, and the satisfaction of serving a higher purpose. We also know that helping others really is the best way to help ourselves.
Tonight, I want to share quotes from two spiritual masters about service to God. I also want to share an inspirational story of service that I heard during our recent Wesak in Texas Celebration depicting a level of service to God in the highest order.
Like Jesus, we belong to the whole world, living not for ourselves but for others. The joy of the Lord is our strength.
Mother TheresaI slept, and I dreamt that life was all joy. I woke, and saw that life was but service. I served, and discovered that service was joy.
R. TagoreMany spiritual teachers have recognized the importance of doing service as a path to enlightenment. Sanaya Roman, in her book Spiritual Growth2, dedicates a whole chapter to this topic:
Becoming a world server means joining the higher community of beings working together to bring light and evolution to others. Your own growth will accelerate rapidly, and you will become magnetic to people and opportunities that allow you to make a difference.
Being part of the Awaken the Sleeping Giant prayer group supports our spiritual work and gives us avenues of taking a leadership role to serve and make a difference.
Cathy Acker, my teacher, friend, and organizer of the First Wesak Festival in Texas, found the story I want to share. A member of the Theosophical Society channeled it in 1953, and it revealed to me the real meaning of Wesak. It is about Ascended Master Sanat Kumara, his brothers, whom he calls the Kumaras, and souls from Venus who came in service to save this planet. I am sharing this story to honor their service.
The definition of the threefold flame (given by the Summit Lighthouse on their website) is important for us to know so that we can understand the story:
The threefold flame is the divine spark sent from the I AM Presence as the gift of life, consciousness, and free will. It is sealed in the secret chamber of the heart that through the Love, Wisdom and Power of the Godhead anchored therein, the soul may fulfill her reason for being in the physical plane. Also called the Christ flame and the liberty flame, or fleur-de-lis, it is the spark of a man's Divinity; his potential for Christhood.3
Now for our story: Many thousands of years ago, planet Earth had fallen so deeply into darkness that in the Higher Heavens there was talk about cutting off the cords of the I AM Presences (or the individualized presence of God in our souls) from the beings of Earth. Higher Beings from the Central Sun’s Planet Venus, led by the Kumaras, especially Sanat Kumara, came to our rescue. Sanat Kumara tells this story:
"I, Sanat Kumara, was among those who heard of earth’s crisis at the great cosmic councils. I was the one who said that I was sure that if only a Holy Being would come and nourish those tiny infant sparks and keep them alive and fan them with all the power of God’s divine love, surely someday the attention of mankind would return to its native divinity."
Sanat Kumara asked God, and he and a number of other Venusian brave souls were allowed to anchor the threefold flame into Shamballa. Sanat Kumara continued:
"Earth was then in her darkest days. The light within the hearts of men was scarcely discernable. Beings of love from Venus, who knew nothing but harmony, chose to pass into that darkness. … For nine hundred long years, they labored in the building of Shamballa in the midst of that darkness. These dedicated souls were compelled to hold the vision and the pattern of the city of Shamballa which they had chosen to build. They also had to hold the unbroken connection between their outer consciousness and their Christ Self, and with myself, and with the outer consciousness through which they were serving. The perfection of the beautiful white island grew. My love flowed continuously around the builders, and ever about them stood the sustaining power of my faith until the cosmic moment of the visitation arrived.
As our beloved friends awaited us in Shamballa, the Kumaras descended upon a pathway of flame and created a threefold flame in the heart of Shamballa into which I stepped. In that moment, the threefold flame was attached. The threefold flame of Shamballa was connected to the sparks of light within the hearts of every life stream.
The threefold flame, which we brought so very long ago, has been breathing spiritual life into each life stream on earth ever since. It is like a cosmic bellows that has played through the threefold flame on the altar of each and every human heart.
…Now, we are…turning the attention of the guardian spirits and the peoples of this earth back to the immortal threefold flame within their own hearts. We are encouraging mankind to control their attention, taking it away from the appearance world, and turning it to the power of the Presence of God within their hearts. We are endeavoring to assist you all to nourish that flame of divinity and to master and make that flame expand.
The Presence of God will again increase within as you take your attention away from discordant creations, no matter what they are: limitations, ill health, disharmony, and all those creations that are distasteful to you and to others. When your life has been redirected, the result and appearances are manifest expressions in your world.
Beloved Hearts of Light, within you is this mighty Presence of God, the same great Presence of God that I have used to sustain this planet in the universe. Whatever your mind can conceive, whatever your heart can feel, this Presence of God can perform. This God Presence must be invited and given opportunity to act for you and through you. Through that invitation and opportunity to serve you, it matures and expands. When the Presence of God does anything through you, you are indeed expanding the light of the world. When the Presence of God issues the decree of perfection through you, you are expanding the light of the world.
…Sanat Kumara kept the flame on your heart alive for you…until Beloved Lord Gautama Buddha freed Sanat Kumara from that responsibility so that he could indeed go back to his own home star. Now, we understand that Lord Gautama occupies the spiritual office of Lord of the World and has that responsibility and also has the responsibility of keeping the pressure of the light flowing through the hearts of men. This is truly the greatest selfless service. Lord Buddha returned from Nirvana, at the call of his students, as an example of his own selflessness. He was willing to give up the bliss of Nirvana to reenter the atmosphere of the earth and from inner planes radiate to mankind the light of Shamballa."
This is what we celebrate during Wesak. And now, whenever I need a little motivation to do my prayer work, I think of these and so many Ascended Masters and the service they continue to give us.
1Sidon, Rob. June 2006. "A Hug Above." Chicago Conscious Choice, Website Link
2S. Roman. 1986. Spiritual Growth. Tiburon, CA: H.J. Kramer, Inc.
3http://www.tsl.org/presence/Default.asp
Martha was born in Mexico, and she moved with her family to the U.S. when she was seventeen years old. She has a master’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language, and works at a language school at one of the military bases in San Antonio, Texas. She works with many international people and has been able to travel to a number of countries.
Martha has been a student of metaphysics for over twenty years. She is a Reiki Master and hypnotist, specializing in healing through past-life regression. Martha is also interested in teaching and writing. For the past four years, she has been studying under the guidance of Cathy Acker, a Channel for the Christ Matrix Ascended masters. The teachings of the Ascended Masters have resonated with Martha, and she feels that this is the spiritual path best suited for her. Martha was the original designer for the Christ Matrix web site, which you can find at www.christmatrix.com.
Martha is looking forward to retirement in a few years, when she can dedicate more of her time and energy to her spiritual pursuits.