Click on the link below to access the audio tape of this message from the SPIRITMUV Sunday Service, held every Sunday at the Unity Center of NYC, located at 213 West 58th Street, from 2:30 P.M. to 3:30 P.M.

We were in Detroit on Friday —  in a banquet hall with about 90 people waiting for my dad to appear for his 90^th birthday party, and the people who had not seen him in awhile, those who were waiting for a subdued person, a person perhaps who needed to be assisted, a person perhaps – who walked slowly and breathed slightly —  were completely surprised when dad emerged – decked out in a dark gray suit – in great shape, wearing a black cowboy hat and dark sunglasses – dancing around greeting everyone – with his hands up in the air – going to all of the tables, dancing with joy.

I believe that it was the happiest – most joyful moment that I have ever seen him – and perhaps the most powerful moment that he has ever experienced.  For me, the moment was surreal, and I was grateful to be there to experience it – grateful that others were there who could also be a witness.

There were friends and family from all over – even as far away as Ghana.  There were those who brought the  blessings of the ancestors – who were there to teach us that old age, and old people, and the wisdom of the ages is a blessing.

This reminds me of the one of the most important lessons – the most important piece of wisdom that my parents gave me – and that is that the celebration of 90 years or 100 years or thousands of years is available to us every moment – because we have a repository of wisdom, a repository of information, a repository of guidance, a repository of knowledge, a repository of divine ideas that is always available to us.

We don’t need someone with a particular pedigree or background or title or accomplishment to give us what we already have because Spirit is not only available to each and every one of us – it is here right now.  You see, we don’t have to wait for a special anointing – or a particular religious experience – or a certain place – or a certain amount of people – or someone else to tell us that what we are doing is right – because Spirit is always guiding us and leading us as part of our connection to – rather than our separation from – the greatness of God — the divine manifesting itself in the infinite possibility that expresses as each and every one of us.

We don’t need someone to touch us or bend us or press us or shape us or deliver us because when we practice the presence of Spirit – when we turn on and tap into the omnipresence of God, and open our consciousness to receive the healing that we need, the energy that we need, the creative expression that we need, we do the work that needs to be done to be the good that we are called to be.

And here’s the thing: this source, this well, this living water of unlimited guidance and grace and power is always available to us – nothing stands in its way.  There is nothing for us to wait for – the manna that we need,the inexhaustible supply and the unlimited source — Spirit — is here right now — “present at every point in space at the same time.”  Huh?  The wholeness and the fullness and the goodness of God is present in its entirety at the point at which we are.

In other words, we’ve got the right stuff baby.  We can’t lose with what we choose.  We are baaaaaad.  We are endless  co-creators of divine source.  We have the gift of truth and the right to exercise it in everything that we do – with every situation and every person that we meet.   Some of us have a fancy name for this – we call it discernment.   

In John 16:13, Jesus said When the Spirit of truth comes, we will be guided into all truth.  Well, when does the Spirit of Truth come?  Do we need a ritual to invite it in?  Do we need the approval of someone else?  Do we need to convulse and kick and scream?  Do we need the fresh water of baptism?  Do we need an anointing of oil?  Do we need to bend over backwards?  Do we need to speak in tongues?  No.

Spirit is recognizing that we are better today than we were yesterday – but only because we recognize that the best that we are – we always were.  We always had the power to move mountains out of our way.  We always had the power to cross the River Jordan.  We always had the power to be greater than who we are in the flesh.  We always had the power to be the magnificence that we seek.  We always had the power to let our lights shine.  Why? Because Spirit was not here yesterday and is expected tomorrow — Spirit is here right now.

We don’t need a medium to access Spirit; we don’t need a posture to open its channels.  We don’t need anything or anyone in the flesh because nothing and no one can interfere with the God Source that is present in us.

In John 14: 16-17, Jesus said I will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth – a Spirit that lives with you and will be in you. And he – you see – didn’t teach us that we need anything other than a consciousness of love to embrace this pure source and unlimited connection to the God in us.

I’m not saying love in the flesh, I am talking about love in the Spirit.

In John 15:26, Jesus says: the Advocate, the Counselor, the Holy Spirit will teach you all things.   Teach us what?  That when we slow down and listen and trust the inner wisdom of God speaking and teaching and moving as us, we realize the presence of our own power.

The last thing that I remember Eric Butterworth saying is “I have no theology, I dance.”  I have no systematic approach to God, I dance.  I move with the Holy Spirit.  I flow with the center that knows no separation between all that we are and all that God is.

I live, I laugh, I sing, I pray, I dance with that center – completely without circumference or end, a center that is everywhere present.

When I dance, I shake the dust off my feet — grateful to be free from whatever is not a part of the rhythm of my life.

In this dance of letting go and going with the flow, I know that there is nothing that will not lift me in the power that I am — nothing that will not bless me with unlimited source — nothing that will not stir in me the movement of divine ideas.

In the Book of Second Samuel, the 6^th Chapter, says that when David brought the Ark of Covenant to Jerusalem, that he had watched it from a distance for 3 whole months before he attempted to carry it.  You see, this Ark was supposed to carrying the Spirit of God, and if the bearer wasn’t careful, its energy would strike him dead.

And you know what the Bible teaches us, it says that when David finally did take the Ark, it says that he danced.  David danced before the LORD with all his might.  And when he returned home and his wife complained about his dancing, David said to her . . .Now wait a minute, I will turn back flips, I will do the shingaling, I will crawl on my knees, I will tap dance and break dance – I will do whatever it takes to celebrate before the Lord.  I will clap my hands and stomp my feet and I will gladly be a dancing fool for God.

To witness this was to see energy moved beyond time and space, to see unlimited potential, to see the vortex of endless ideas whirling into manifestation.  I saw burdens being laid down by the riverside.  I saw wars turn to peace that would be studied no more.  I saw change circling through the vast universe of endless vibrations.  I saw the people by Bethesda getting up to walk.

Dad danced through the entire hall – up to every table of friend and relative and loved one – with his brim on and his arms out with the agelessness of Spirit – as if he was saying – what are you waiting for – everything that you long for, everything that you hope for, all of your desires whirling, turning, leaping and loving in the divine ethers of life – are here.

AND SO IT IS, AND SO BE IT.