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You Can Serve More by
Declaring Yourself A Vehicle for Divine Spirit
Our Soul's Journey | by Zeal Okogeri
One simple exercise that I have been doing everyday for the last 10 years is to declare
myself a vehicle for God, the Holy Spirit and the highest spiritual consciousness
available. For Christians, this high spiritual consciousness would be Christ, for
the Buddhist, the Buddha, and for Eckist, the Mahanta consciousness.
In all you do, you want to declare yourself a vehicle for a Divine Essence. In other
words, you do everything in the name of a principle higher than the human consciousness.
By so doing, you transform the function into one of spiritual significance. When
you declare yourself a vehicle before carrying out a task, it means you are serving
God through that initiative.
If you start declaring yourself a vehicle for God, Christ, Buddha, Mohammed and others,
be aware that changes may begin to take place in your life at a greater rate. This
is because you are essentially saying to spirit: "Please use me as you see fit."
And It will! Most of the time you will never know that you are being used as a vehicle,
because the ways of Spirit are very quiet. Spirit will utilize your assistance in
situations that It feels you can handle effectively. You may ask, doesn't spirit
use all of us at some point? The answer is yes. However, if you consciously declare
yourself repeatedly a vehicle for Spirit, you will more often be placed in situations
where you will be of service.
There are several stories on how I served without being least aware of it until later.
I will share one story with you.
Touched by a stranger
An opportunity to serve as a vehicle for divine spirit occurred in Las Vegas when
I attended the Eckankar Summer Festival Seminar in the year 2001.
Before attending the seminar, I had learned of an eminently proficient chiropractic
doctor who practiced in Las Vegas. He had written extensively in the field of alternative
medicine and was the attending physician to the Royal family of Saudi Arabia and
other government officials around the world. Because he was one of the few pioneers
and living legends in the natural healthcare profession, I wanted to meet him. The
seminar in Vegas presented the opportunity.
Major Eckankar seminars are a gathering of spiritual seekers and followers of Eckankar
for a weekend of workshops, uplifting creative arts, small group discussions, programs
for children, youth, and families, and inspiring speakers.
Once I was certain that I would be attending the seminar, I telephoned the chiropractic
doctor and requested a meeting. He gladly obliged. The second day of my stay in Las
Vegas, I arranged to go see him. I decided to take the bus. I boarded the bus at
the intersection of Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard, near the Bellagio Hotel.
I got to the doctor's office and we had quite a profound and memorable meeting. He
proved to be a great asset to the natural health care profession.
My new role begins
After the meeting, I went to the bus stop to catch a bus back to my hotel. There
was a man already waiting for the bus, so I asked him when he expected the bus to
arrive. He estimated another five minutes. Before long, we saw the bus approaching.
Sighting it, some late passengers were running to catch the bus. One of them was
a big, rough looking, ponytailed man with a large super-sized cup of Burger King
drink in his hand. He rudely cut in front of everybody and started climbing up the
stairs on the bus. Before he could enter the bus, the bus driver stopped him and
indicated that he could not bring a drink onto the bus. But the man wouldn't hear
of it. He started a nasty argument with the bus driver, trying to bully the driver
into letting him keep the drink, while a group of us patiently lined up outside waiting
for our turn to board the bus.
The gentleman, whom I had spoken earlier, got fed up with the bully's behavior. He
said, "Look, it says up there on the bus that you cannot bring a drink inside
the bus. Get rid of the damn drink like the driver said and get in."
That did it! The bully threw his drink out the door, barely missing the passengers
who lined up outside. He then transferred his verbal assault to the man who dared
to speak up. Trying to get out of the line of fire, we all defensively climbed aboard.
The bully sat close to the driver up front. The gentleman who had spoken sat in the
back, and I sat in the middle of the bus. As the bus took off, the bully continued
to rant at the man in the back. You could feel the tension in the air. Passengers
were sighing, mumbling and rolling their eyes in disgust, but no one wanted to get
directly involved.
Immediately I started practicing a spiritual exercise -- a mantra called the HU Song.
By inwardly chanting this mantra, I was surrendering the whole situation to Spirit.
When the bus approached the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road,
it was time for me to get off. Interestingly enough, it was also the stop for the
bully and the man in the back whom he had been berating. Before the bus could come
to a complete stop, the bully, full of rage, walked toward the back of the bus for
a close-up verbal attack. By this time everyone's suspicion of what was about to
happen seemed quite imminent.
Like another drink?
When the bus came to a complete stop they both got off, and I was right behind them.
As soon as we landed on the sidewalk, the bully started in on the other fellow, trying
to elicit some response that could be escalated into a fistfight. Although uncharacteristic
of my usual behavior, I went up to the bully, looked up at him and said, "I'd
like to buy you another drink."
He turned his large neck and looked down at me as if I were an ant. He said in a
deep voice, "Excuse me?"
I said, "I noticed the bus driver made you throw out your drink and I'd like
to buy another drink for you." As I spoke to him, the other fellow had started
walking away toward the Bellagio Hotel.
The bully said to me, "Yeah, yeah, you can buy me another drink. It cost me
$2, figure you're trying to save your buddy over there."
I said, "My buddy? Who?"
"Him over there walking away. Hey, come back here," he screamed at the
fellow.
In a firm voice, I said, "Leave him alone. I said I want to buy you another
drink. I have no idea who the other guy is. We simply entered the bus together."
At this point, the bully looked at me completely bewildered. He couldn't believe
I was trying to help a complete stranger in Las Vegas. As I reached into my pocket
to bring out some money, I glanced at him, and it was as if someone poured hot water
on an ice cube. He completely melted. He looked at me, wearing my white African robe,
and seemed rather confused.
In a more humbled voice, the next thing he said was: "Sir, you keep your money;
I'm all right."
I said to him, "Life is tough enough as it is; there is no need to complicate
it any further. We need to have peace."
He nodded his head in agreement, like a little boy being scolded by his mother. We
then shook hands. He thanked me for helping and I thanked him for cooperating. The
scene was so heartwarming that I almost hugged him, but I hesitated because that
sort of gesture might be excessive for the bully. Anyway, by the time we finished
our encounter, the other man had completely disappeared into one of the hotels.
The interesting thing about my encounter with this bully was that, for some odd reason,
I felt completely in control of the situation.
This is how a potentially serious physical assault was averted by the offer of a
$2 drink.
Open to serve
Anyone can be used to serve Divine Spirit, as long as they are open to it. In exchange,
Spirit may shower you with countless blessings through people, pets and anything
at its disposal, as has been the case for me. Do you want to be of greater service
to Divine Spirit? If so, start by consistently doing your daily spiritual exercises.
Immediately following your spiritual exercises, declare yourself a vehicle for God,
the Holy Spirit, and the highest state of spiritual consciousness that you are familiar
with.
Spirit will take care of the rest.
Dr. Zeal Okogeri is the author of the best-selling book, God's Relentless Generosities--An
Inspiring Journey of Soul. His book is available at www.Amazon.com, www. Powells.com
and www.bn.com. The book can also be obtained by calling 1 (800) 431-1579. Dr. Okogeri
speaks worldwide on Personal Development and Spirituality. He can be reached at:
Zeal@ZealOkogeri.com or by visiting www.LightBooksPublishing.com
Copyright
© 2005 Zeal Okogeri. All rights reserved. |
| February 2005 |
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