Commentary Teachings

Corinthians 10:5; “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” You might have ways of behaving due to your ways and system of thinking you were trained to have by the world; and need to destroy that system of thinking and have your mind renewed by the truth of God’s Word. So that you will then act and behave in a different manner. In a way that is godly and acceptable to God. Take every thought captive. Test every spirit! Align yourself to the will of God!

 

 

1.      A powerful destiny will affect the character of others.
A powerful character will affect the habits of others.
A powerful habit will affect the actions of others.
A powerful action will affect the words of others.
A powerful word will affect the thoughts of others.

Proverbs 23:7  For as he thinketh in his heart, so is the man!

Anonymous quote / original author unknown:

“watch your thoughts they become your words. Watch your words they become your actions. Watch your actions they become your habits. What your habits they become your character. And Watch your character for it becomes your destiny.”

 

Nelson Mandela quote:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others”!

 

 

“Where attention goes energy flows; where intention goes energy flows” James Redfield

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Simon the sorcerer and reiki; a hard lesson about trying to buy God:


What is the difference between what Simon did and what reiki students do when paying for reiki training? What is the difference between what the apostles did and what reiki teachers are doing when charging for reiki classes?

These are excellent questions that have been asked of me by people before. When I first got into reiki many years ago, I asked these same questions. For those who don’t know the bible story, Simon was a man who practiced magical arts. He fooled many people including himself into thinking he was a great being. Phillip however preached to him, and did miracles in his presence. Simon accepted the gospel and was converted. Simon however was still a baby Christian immature in his relationship to God. He saw the miracles of the apostles and was amazed by them, but he did not understand their true and real purpose. He saw the apostles laying hands on people and the people receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit and he offered money to the apostles to give him that power also. The apostles chastised him with sharp tongues and rebuked him saying that he and his money should parish together. He begged for forgiveness and asked that they pray for him that it would not be so.

What crime did Simon really commit? What was the point of the story? His trying to buy God, God’s salvation, God’s authority, God’s power, God’s gifts. The fact that he offered money showed that he knew what the apostles had was valuable. But he didn’t really understand its true value, and what’s more Simon wanted to take credit for himself and not give God the glory.

In reiki you are paying for the teachers time not the reiki. reiki is something you already have, and just need to learn how to tap into it better. A reiki master can attune you to the reiki energy to allow you to have greater access to it, they can teach you how to become good vessels for the energy, they can show you how to direct its flow when necessary. But reiki masters can not save your soul, nor can they give you the power, they can not give you reiki, only God can do that! Again Reiki masters can help open you up to the energy but it is what happens in your inner relationship with God, with the universe, and with reiki in your soul that will determine how effective the reiki is with you, or if it indeed flows freely in you at all! It has been my experience that reiki people who didn’t know God could still help me but their energy was not as fast, as effective, or as intensely overwhelming as the people who have done reiki on me who knew God. You can’t buy or sell reiki. that is not what it is all about. Even when reiki people do sessions on clients, we are not charging them for our prayers or the reiki, that would be breaking a very serious divine prohibition. It would be unethical. We are charging for our time, our overhead, and our materials because our time is valuable. Our time is in fact just as valuable as everyone else’s. And to further the point, when people sacrifice nothing, when they don’t pay for something, it is usual that they devalue it, or undervalue it. Even salvation has a price. While some may think that God’s salvation is a free for all gift for us, it is not. I would urge people to read scripture more closely, and to have a conversation with God. What does God’s salvation cost you may ask? Nothing less then utter submission to the divine will. You have to love God, believe in Christ, ask forgiveness, and then you have to let go and let God. You have to turn your entire life over to him. It is not about giving up your free will and becoming a slave, oh no! it is about becoming a servant who gives their will freely over to God. It has to be their free will choice. This may sound like a steep price, and it scares people away from having a deep and abiding relationship with God. In reality however it is the easiest thing a person could ever do if they can get past their own fear, and their own illusion that they are in control, and just trust God, and let him love them. So it is with reiki. reiki masters sacrifice their time, and so much of their lives that first level students can’t imagine or understand, in order to bring people this wonderful gift. Students are called upon to share a little of their financial harvest, and abundance to help take care of the material needs of their teachers, just as their teachers take care of their energetic, metaphysical, and even some of their spiritual needs. This was also true of Christ and the apostles to some extent. While Christ did come from an affluent family he and the apostles still worked; however people did give food, money, clothing, and lodgings. Even today people give doctors money the way they did to physicians and shamans in ancient times. Simon wanted to share the gift of the holy spirit with people. That desire in and of itself was not bad. It was in fact good. But he went about it the wrong way. He thought there was something that he could do, some way he could buy the worthiness to have that gift. There is nothing we can ever say or do that can make us worthy. We can not buy our way into holiness. We must let go, and let God make us worthy. And even after he makes us worthy it takes time and discipline to live into that worthiness. We must over time, with aging, and experiencing life with God mature in him, and gain wisdom from him. It is not we who make ourselves worthy but it is God who makes us sanctified. Simon wanted to take credit for what the Holy Spirit of God was doing. Why? He like all of us wanted to be loved, to be recognized, to be accepted, appreciated, to be admired! What he failed to grasp in that stage of his spiritual infancy is that it is God’s acceptance we really want, not other peoples. We don’t really need other peoples acceptance. In the end of all things God’s approval is all that will matter. Does it feel great to be loved, accepted, and admired? Yes of course it does! But what is the true profit, the true benefit to it in the end. The only thing that matters is God’s love for us. If Simon would have just trusted in God and gave God the time and opportunity to share his love with him, he would have received the ultimate reward. There is nothing in existence that is better then God’s Love. Perhaps God would have given Simon the power of the Holy Spirit had he simply asked for it, and asked for the right reasons, instead of trying to buy it. Simon tried to buy God, and that is not only impossible but beyond disrespectful. He tried to cheat his way ahead in his relationship with God instead of letting it develop as any relationship has to in its own time, at its own pace. A tree does not simply magically appear in your garden. A seed has to be planted and it has to grow, in its own time, in its own way. Simon tried to purchase the power to do miracles! He didn’t want the power to give glory to God or further the cause of Christ. He wanted glory for himself. God through the apostles chastised him for it and rightly so. Is reiki part of the power of the Holy Spirit? Yes it is. And I have seen God use even atheistic people as vessels to channel and wield that power. Why? Did it bring glory to them, really? No! in the end God had his way and his glory blazed brightly as it always does. Did the atheistic vessels know it? No, probably not! Did the person receiving the healing know it? Perhaps! But I can say for certain that the entire universe witnessed God’s display of power, generosity, mercy, compassion, and love, and all that is good in the universe sees this and praises him for it. All that is good in the universe pays homage to the holiness of God and gives him the glory! Simon it is said learned his lesson and spiritually evolved into a deeper understanding of God and a deeper relationship with God. The real question is, have we? Reiki will not save someone’s soul. Reiki is merely the gift of healing. it can change our earthly lives that is true; but it will never change our eternal lives unless we say to “God be the glory”, and then let God use the reiki as a tool to refine us and make us ever more like Christ with his Love, mercy, generosity, and compassion. This is the only way in which reiki will have anything to do with enhancing our eternal soul. Reiki can not give us salvation, you can’t buy salvation, and you can’t buy reiki. reiki can however be a fruit of our salvation if we really understand it and what it is. Reiki can give us a tool, a way in which to experience the Grace of God’s healing in our lives; the grace of the balance and wholeness that he can grant us. Reiki is not a means to salvation but a product of salvation. Can unsaved people do reiki? yes, but they will never truly receive the ultimate benefits from it. They will never learn its greatest lessons; the higher mystery teachings that it has to impart or bequeath to them. You will know them by their fruits God told us; (speaking of his children that have received his gift of salvation and eternal life; leaving the issue of religion aside, in the case of reiki the salvation I am speaking of here can be seen as enlightenment. Are you enlightened?)! When you see a reiki master, practitioner, or student you will know where their hearts are, how far along they are in their spiritual evolution if you just watch, and listen. They will reveal themselves to you even in the most subtle ways. You will know them by their fruits! Ask yourself when dealing with a reiki person if they are an uneducated Simon before the apostles admonishment to warn him of his foolishness, or are they a mature Simon who has learned their lesson about spiritual morality, and ethics? It is equally important to ask this question of and about yourself. Which Simon are you? Remember to God be the glory! We practitioners of reiki are merely vessels after all.



"But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the LORD for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me." (Acts 8:9-24).





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Further commentary and insight into reiki:


There are some issues about reiki I feel I must address, so that the students we as reiki masters send out will know how to answer people. I was having a conversation on the internet one day with a man who I am guessing was a very misguided seminary student. We were discussing reiki. This man was very uneducated about what reiki is and what it is not. Though he claimed to be a reiki practitioner, he went so far as to say that in the united kingdom where he was located he has distanced himself from the reiki community there. Why? Because he felt they were the misguided ones. How did he come by what I call his mis-education about reiki? Well for several years he was apart of martial arts school. These people instructed him about the word reiki. To many people in the orient especially in the martial arts communities the word reiki is no different than saying the word chi or ki. To them it just means energy. the energy of the universe. In fact in the orient the word reiki is widely used for a variety of healing modalities as well as general use as the word energy. that is why we who practice reiki in the west always reference usui reiki ryoho. This is reiki as taught by usui and his school. This martial artist became very agitated when I said that reiki was a spiritual energy. “NO” he said “it’s cosmological, it is natural, it’s effect is in the corporeal realm”. Well I explained to him that it most definitely is natural, cosmological, and it is also spiritual. The physical is manifested and sustained by the spiritual. Everything to me is spiritual. Nothing exists that did not and does not and will not stem from a spiritual source. People always throw the word supernatural at me. They seem to think that supernatural means something that is un natural. Well this is not what the word means. Super natural means just what it says; super natural, that is another way of saying supremely natural. It also means the same thing as the word metaphysical, which means beyond the physical.


The word reiki is translated to mean “universal life force energy”. when usui used the rei in reiki which translates to mean universal life force he meant a good deal more than the simple word he used. Rei implies not only the energy that all existence is made out of. Rei in this context implies also the source of all life, all living energy in the manifested universe. Usui was speaking about the divine or God. He was saying that the very energy of existence is filled and animated by the life force of the divine. God breaths life, the breath of life into all things and animates them with it. Usui was teaching us that the very energy of the divine used to animate all things was made readily available to us as a tool and a gift from God to help us as we make our way through this life. The martial artist was also very upset when I said that you can’t cause harm with reiki, it will not manifest anything negative, and it is no harm no foul. “Yes you can cause harm with reiki” he said “martial arts training is just that” “part of the training” he went on to say “is to concentrate ones own ki whilst deflecting and suppressing your opponents. Where the ki goes the blade follows”. This poor man does not know which way is up when it comes to the reiki taught by usui and others before him in history. He solved his own dilemma in his own words. Part of martial arts training is to concentrate and focus ones own ki. Ones own ki is right. You can use regular ki to cause a lot of damage. Ones own energy can be harnessed to cause someone, something, or ones own self a lot of damage indeed. Don’t people spend their entire lives doing just that; misusing their energy. But when we say the rei in reiki as teachers of the usui tradition we are not speaking of using ones own energy. in fact that is just what we tell our students not to do. We tell them to draw on the divine energy of God which is spiritual energy, as well as drawing on the energy of this planet which is powered by the sun star in order to help people heal. We should never presume to use our own energy to do this for several reasons. One is that it would deplete us and drain us, thereby leaving as vulnerable as the shamans of old who didn’t know how to ground themselves properly to take on the illnesses that plague our clients. Eventually taking on other peoples sicknesses would kill us as it did the shamans of ancient times. Secondly we physicians need to heal ourselves and take the beam out of our own eye. Our energy is not a high enough frequency to accomplish all that needs to be accomplished during a healing. That is why we use God’s own ki to work with and not ours.

We always instruct our students that we are not the source of the reiki, nor do we ultimately control it, we are simply vessels and wielders of the reiki. And to be a reiki master does not mean that you master reiki but rather that reiki masters you! Ki and reiki are very different things altogether. The martial artist whose name was Thomas went onto to other issues he had with me, although he did not know me or the amount of training I did or didn’t have. He said that fools rush in, and that anyone could be a “reiki master” now in the space of a weekend. There are many false reiki teachers in the world. People like diane stein who try and do mass attunements, who try and do distant attunements, and there are places on the internet now that claim they will make you a “reiki master” through these ridiculous methods within twenty four hours or a weekend. These things do not work. These methods do not attune someone to reiki. You can not become a reiki master overnight. It takes hard work, and discipline, as well as true spiritual growth to achieve true mastership as usui taught it. I assured the doubting Thomas that I had actual training that lasted for a good long while, and that even after I had my masters certificate it was a long while after that I waited till I took on students and started teaching. Let me say this again in as plain a language as I can. If you did a weekend class that ended with a mass “attunement”, if you did a twenty four hour class that ended with a distance “attunement” than you are not a real reiki master or practitioner, according to the usui tradition. You have missing frequencies that can only be passed on through the actual touch, of laying on of hands; by a true master who is acting as a channel for the divine energy to come and do its work.


There are also people who are charging anywhere between six hundred and ten thousand dollars per level. These people are also charlatans and frauds. They do not understand reiki or they would not be doing that. Reiki isn’t about money even though we do believe in charging for our time and our work. So I personally feel anyone charging over five hundred dollars per level is a false teacher and you should stay far away from them. Thomas was also very dismayed at the fact that I spoke of reiki as being a living conscious energy. he shuttered and used the “O” word. That is occult philosophy he said, and now we were treading in deep dangerous waters. Oooooooooouuuu……now I am fearful and trembling in my shoes was my response. Every time someone starts to try and fill you with fear tell them that there is no room for fear and evil in your life because you are filled with the love of God, you are filled with his Holy Spirit, and you are devoted to the lord. God is perfect and God is love, and the bible says perfect Love casts out all fear. So if you are afraid of God then you don’t really know him or love. He is not out to deceive you or do you harm. This is a ridiculous notion. Either you fear God or love God. You can’t have it both ways. He was upset because I said I don’t always know what I am doing but the reiki knows. Reiki is the presence of God. It does know best. It is an intelligent force that emanates from the creator of the universe who is the source of all love and compassion and true power. It is not simply an energy. it is more than this. Are you simply an energy? no you are also more than this. So if you yourself are more than mere energy, and you are channeling the energy of God into a person to try and help them find healing, than that energy has to know the full depths, and heights, the ins and out’s of a persons entire five fold soul being. You alone are not wise enough to know the heart of a person in its vast full richness. Only God can know this. Therefore the energy of God that comes to facilitate a healing must know this or else we could not and would not get results, it wouldn’t work, the energy could not do it’s job and accomplish true healing any other way.


Reiki must be a living presence that knows what it is doing. Either you understand this or not. Either you know that it is God who is the source of all healing and life force or you don’t. If you do not know this then you have no business laying your hands on people to heal them. To God be the glory, we are mere vessels, and proud to be so. Thomas also said that acupuncturists and reflexologists don’t claim spiritual intervention. Well he has not known the ones that I have been privileged to know, because they did just that. According to the people that I have met who practiced these types of modalities, they understood that the divine spiritual energy had as much to do with the guidance, practice, and success of their work as their techniques or their own minds did. Thomas said to me that becoming a reiki master did not require any sacrifice or character building. Well I will say that he was and is absolutely wrong on that issue. I have been a reiki master for almost a decade and I can tell you that it is without a doubt entirely about character building. God has shaped me, sometimes painfully to mold me into who and what I am. My refining is not done and never will be. That is what life is all about here in this earth school. Thomas told me that any liar, and fraud can be a reiki master. Well I know many false teachers who went and got the title in a weekend and teach entirely from a misguided standpoint. They are not reiki masters even though they think they are. It is no different in church, just as Christ himself warned us. There will be many false priests and teachers of the law, many who come in my name and do not know me. Christ acknowledged that those people are not real priests or teachers, so my attitude can not hold any different truth on this issue. Thomas wanted to know if reiki was a presence than who was it. I can tell you with no hesitation that when I do reiki or have it done on me there is only one presence that I feel moving through me and that is the presence of Christ God Emanuel as the Holy Spirit. He went on to describe the “psychic link” or bond as he called it that is forged during an attunement between the teacher and the student. Well no, he is mistaken. There is an energy cord formed called an aka cord. This cord of energy is the same cord formed no matter what person you come into contact with. Some are big, and some are small, some are temporary, and others last for many years. When this cord is formed it is an energetic connection not a psychic one and in the reiki tradition this energetic link has been called “en” pronounced eeen. The only psychic link formed during a reiki attunement is between the student and God’s reiki. Though the cord may be thinned it is not typically cut until training is completely over and one of the parties usually the teacher cuts it on purpose. Thomas went on to say that he respected reiki because you can cure or kill with it. I adamantly oppose this notion, it is wrong and I will fight against whenever I hear it. You can not kill or harm with reiki, only with ki. And as stated before there is a huge difference between the two. Again I will also restate that reiki is both natural and spiritual since I make no distinction between the two. The more spiritual something is, the more apart of God it is, the more natural it is. Because God is the most natural thing. He further explained that I and others like me in happy ignorance invented and lived in whole realms of pure reiki fantasy. Well I am a realist and a pragmatist. Anyone who really knows me will testify that while I absolutely love fantasy, I do not live in one. Some people might say I lead a charmed life, those that really know me, understand this is not the case and could not be farther from the truth. My life may be many things but fanciful and easy it is not. Though I have no real complaints at this point, I feel I am very blessed indeed. As I explained to Thomas there are many things that I am working on changing about myself and the life I live, but despite those things I am blessed. Thomas reported to me that “reiki guides” were an epidemic in his locale, and he said people were urgently being told to find theirs. The way he spoke he was not talking about the reiki guides at all but rather about spirit guides. He philosophized for me that this was a kind of psychic or spiritual Russian roulette. People are just assuming he said that all spirits are good, helpful, and safe. Well I personally test all the spirits I speak to and work with to see if they are from God. Christ has given us a way to do this in scripture. He said people were being led to enter into “contracts” as he called them with unsavory spirit beings. He also added that such beings demanded a boon, and fed off of peoples energy. While I think he is right to a large extent about this issue, I disagree with taking a position of fear. I will give fear and evil no room in my life. Any seasoned individual who has had contact with spirits knows what should and should not happen. For us who are Christians we simply have to ask if yashua now called Jesus Christ came in the flesh. If the spirit says yes than it is of God. In the first great war in heaven only one third fell, which means there are two thirds or twice as many beings that are of God than are not of him.

We Christians have also been instructed to put on the full armor of God. So for me at least it is quite easy to ascertain whether or not a spiritual being is of God. Also a spirit sent by God would never ask for worship or a payment, a compensation, or even a thank you. They would never try to make you feel afraid or ashamed. They would tell you to fear not, and to thank and honor God. The spirits who are of God give him all the glory. According to the theories that Thomas proposed teachers who have spirits misguiding them go out and corrupt their students. While this may in some cases be true, to make it into a blanket statement is an unfair underestimation of both reiki students and God himself. All of my students are taught to test the spirits and check them out to see if they are really here to help or hurt us. He went on to say that power can be used for good or ill. Well I say that power that is used for ill is no power at all but rather it is the height of insecurity. I have had many interesting interactions with fear based people, and many reactions from them. Once I had many so-called Christian friends, and they all stopped talking to me in one failed swoop. While on the phone with the leader of our pack you might say she began to tell me about the church service that she had attended that day and how the preacher was warning people of the evil new witchcraft leading people in the church astray. She went on to say that this new evil was called reiki. I laughed and asked her if she knew that I practiced and taught reiki and had done so for years. “oh no” she cried out in horror. “how can you do such a wicked thing”? I told her that she and the preacher who told her about reiki were both very wrong indeed! I told what reiki was and was not. She asked me if I told my students that they have to be saved Christians to do a healing. I said “no of course I don’t tell them such a ridiculous notion”! she sounded concerned and irritated. I could tell in her mind I was already burning in the fires of hell. I asked her if every time she went to the doctors office she asked the doctors religious persuasion? “no of course not” she said “why would I do that”? exactly I said! God is not limited by the hearts of men. If he wants a healing to take place he will use whatever vessel is around, whether that vessel is willing or unwilling, broken or whole, whether it acknowledges him or not! God uses atheistic doctors all the time to work healing miracles on people. He will even do a healing when no vessel is around if a healing needs to be done. And with that one conversation I lost all the Christian friends that I had for so many years. I decided that I didn’t really care. It hurt for a while but the trade off was well worth it because I know that I am doing the work that God himself wants me to do. I also had an older married couple come one time. I trained them in level one and they left never to contact me or return again. They would not even take my calls. Later I found out that after I taught them reiki they went around telling people that I did evil things to them called attunements and they had to get exercised afterwards so they could feel clean again.


 I think they had many very deep spiritual problems long before they ever laid eyes on the sight of me. I prayed for them and their misguided placement of blame for their spiritual turbulence. I prayed that they would find their way back to God, his truth, and his reiki. Then once in massage school there was a girl who went around telling people that she didn’t like my energy. She said a lot of nasty things about me. After finding out who was spreading these awful lies about me I instantly knew why she hated me. She hated me because I was a proud Christian man. She hated Christianity and everything to do with it. But if I were to gather up all the bad experiences that I have had since learning reiki, they could never even begin to compare with the number of all the good experiences that I have had. God used reiki to help transform my life into something I never dreamed that it could be. He used my reiki master Laura to teach me how to see life in such a very different and expanded way; full of richness I never knew before. God has brought me colleagues, friends, and students to share in this wonderful gift of life and love with. His reiki changed me, changed my life forever and I will always be grateful to him for that.
I can only conclude by pointing out the differences in Thomas’s fear based mindset and mine. I am making my way through this life and I know God and his reiki are here on my path helping me. I feel protected, safe, and loved. I know that God and his reiki are here evolving me. I am not afraid and you should never be either. Fear not! Just love God and devote yourself to him and that will make all the difference. I promise you it will transform your life into a sacred treasure and gift that you never knew it could be!

In the year of our lord 2009
Rev. Loush M. O’Raven




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