Understanding the Meaning of Our Spiritual Missions
Fishers of Men — DUDASH, Michael
Sometimes we may find ourselves stranded in the oceans of our minds. Feeling lost, not knowing what to do, and deciphering if it has a meaning or not. Feeling that you lost your mission, and, yes, it’s possible that you’ve lost it. For instance, if my mission set by a doctor or nutritionist is to eat pumpkins, but I don’t wanna eat them, I just lost it. But, I can think of and choose another way to do it, and that will be fine, the important thing is that I ate the pumpkin.
With this example, I want you to understand that a mission is something that you think of and choose to do or put yourself to it. How is that? First, we need to be comfortable with the concept that everything has two sides, just like a coin. Second, you have to be comfortable denying the first one because, if you notice, I said “think and choose” so there is a key factor to this. I’m not talking about free will, which is the right to choose. I’m talking about the capacity to choose, that is, a conscious will. Christ gives us a testimony about it (John, 10:17 and 18): “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father”.
So in relation to a mission, we can say that there are those we choose for ourselves and those we are obliged to fulfill. The particularities of each will depend on both: free will and conscious will. The missions are defined previous to our reincarnated life or while incarnated. That’s something we usually forget or simply don’t think about. But, the missions that we are obliged to; were chosen by our own conscience when in the Spiritual World, and can only be fulfilled on Earth. Now, you may be wondering: “what does he mean by that example of the Spiritual World?”
Well, not everything that we see is the true reality of what we think. The Matrix is a good example of that, although it’s a movie, the philosophical idea behind it already introduces us to the perception of something beyond reality. Think about that, start to notice in your life’s moments where logic gives you a context and a reason, but the phenomena transcends it. After that, then you’ll start perceiving reality beyond what the material eyes can see. But, the subject of reincarnation is still an earthly matter.
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” Jesus (John, 3:5-7 and 12 - KJV)
One mission or missions?
No one imposes on you a mission to fulfill. Not even Jesus, yet, He has the Authority received from God to validate and authorize according to the Divine Law and God’s Will. But, who knowingly or unknowingly chooses is you. Christ gives us permission to reincarnate on this Earth that He governs, but expects us to at least have the Good Will to help in His Divine Planning.
Brother Paiva Netto, President-Preacher of the Religion of the Third Millennium, summarizes it with this quote: “What determines our destiny is not the will of others. It is our decision in Christ Jesus!”
The Celestial Master, remembering Psalms (82:6), said (John, 10:34): “you are gods”. But, the detail is that it is with the little “g”. So, the present you face or the future you will have are both results of past choices you’ve made. That does not mean a deterministic*1 factor to traumatic experiences. This idea does not condemn children or misfortune people that suffered in the past and now have a traumatic present, no. Rather, it shows us that the person has everything at their disposal to get stronger, overcome it, and see their past with a merciful, just, and loving eye. Let’s not confuse mercy and love with injustice, it’s quite the opposite, they complement Justice.
If you feel stranded, that you lost it, remember that with the help of Jesus, you have the power to find it again, you! That tends to be something unnoticed, and people yell saying that they were abandoned by God. It’s ironic because we are the ones that put ourselves apart from God and Christ, not feeling worthy of His presence or, on the contrary, feeling greater than the King of kings. As if refusing God we will become greater than God, and show Him how it should’ve been done. We could say that this would be, as commonly considered, a luciferian syndrome*2.
Now, usually, we think that we have one Grand Mission to fulfill on Earth. We do, I’m not denying it, however, it’s not everything. We can use it as a compass to understand our path, but throughout, others will appear that can complement or jeopardize it. Also, most of the time we don’t quite know, let’s say, the Main Mission. It doesn’t mean we can’t discover it. It’s just that we confuse ourselves by thinking that our Main Mission is attached to one specific aspect of our life.
For example, bakers. As someone who extremely respects this profession because I love any kind of baked goods, we cannot say that a baker’s Main Mission is to discover a different kind of recipe that will create an outstanding type of bread. However, they can choose to make it a mission, and through their Love for their craft manifest God. Yet, it will be a secondary mission to the Main one the person needs to fulfill. What is the point of creating the greatest bread of all times if you’ll need to reincarnate again because you didn’t learn the lesson of forgiveness, love, and solidarity and forgot to feed your family with those principles as well?
The difference between them is that a Main Mission is a general idea connected to a specific objective, and a secondary mission is a specific objective connected to a general idea.
It would be like this: Bring Peace to Earth (general idea) by focusing first on families (specific objective). The latter is to work for the means (specific objective) to maintain my family in peace (general idea).
What does Jesus expect of me?
Dr. Viktor Frankl, the creator of Logotherapy, a model of applied therapy on psychology, brought a different approach to the search for the meaning of life:
— “At this point it would be helpful a conceptual turn through 180 degrees, after which the question can no longer be “What can I expect from life?” but can now only be “What does life expect of me?” What task in life is waiting for me?”
With all due respect to Dr. Frank. Here in our debate, we could ask “What does Jesus expect of me?”
We need to ask this question, because, sometimes it seems that we only seek for a Religion to attend to our material and psychological needs, rather than to really look into it as a way to help us find an active and deeper meaning through our own effort with the natural help of Christ. Let’s not use the time of prayer to only ask for “stuff” from Jesus or God, but to truly engage in a deeper and meaningful debate that can guide us in this life that we are currently living. As Dr. Frankl also argues: “Religion is the search for ultimate meaning”.
Jesus as our Divine Compass
“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. These words of Jesus in His Gospel (John, 14:6), already give us a direction to the fulfillment of our Spiritual Mission.
There is always someone that we use as an example for ourselves. As the proper way to be, that carries a truth, that gives us life, and that is a purpose to live. So why not use Christ as this example? If we truly want to feel, to see, to sense God, Jesus is the Greatest Example to dedicate our lives. One to follow so that we too can be One with God.
Only through that, any Spiritual Mission that we decide to complete will produce Divine Fruit. “I’m the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” Jesus (John, 15:1 and 5). He is the True Vine and in order to give fruits that will persist through time and space (Revelation, 2:7) we have to willingly put ourselves as His branches.
And, again, you can choose any Main and secondary mission as your Spiritual one, as long as its final objective is God, which is Love (1 John, 4:8), and you, also, must be attentive to those you’ve chosen before your reincarnation. I, for example, chose the objective of my church, the Religion of God, of the Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. That is to prepare the paths to Chrit’s Triumphal Return and to save lives and souls to God.
Even though, sometimes, we personally may face challenges and see ourselves as not in the ideal situation, remember that “with Jesus we shall always, always, always win”, as Brother Paiva proclaims. Put yourselves into it. If you’re going to risk, do it for Jesus. Make the best of what you have. Just like the first Christians who started in a cave where the risk of imprisonment and death was routine.
This way we will establish our connection with Jesus. We will feel His peace in our hearts. His peace brings us the certainty that we are on the right path and will see ourselves not only as His disciple but also as His friend.
“No longer do I call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from my Father I have made known to you”. (Gospel of Christ, according to John, 15:15).
These words were also gathered by Brother Paiva Netto as a Treatise, making a beautiful statement of the New Commandment of Christ for all of us. Our Divine Rule to be followed.
*1 Determinism - An intriguing subject that the Religion of the Third Millennium dialogues about the existence of two types: a historical and a divine one. Learn more by accessing Brother Paiva’s Blog.
*2 Luciferian syndrome - Different from the Lucifer effect, defined by APA Dictionary of Psychology as “the tendency for iniquitous social contexts to negatively influence and transform human behavior, in some cases to an extreme degree (see the power of the situation). According to this conceptualization, even individuals who are inherently moral in character and upbringing can, in a corruptive social setting, be induced to act dishonorably and unethically. This phenomenon takes its name from the Christian story of the angel Lucifer, who defied God’s authority and ultimately became the Devil. See also Stanford prison study. [coined by U.S. psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo (1933– ) in his 2008 book The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil]”. The luciferian syndrome is characterized by a will to become greater than God or act above His Will through flawed reasoning inflated by the idea of being more knowledgeable than God.
