Everyone has an ego even if they admit it or not. The ego, or the id, is man in his human personality self. It identifies with the body and attempts to get us to believe that we are limited beings. Alone by ourselves, we are restricted to creating within our own memory bank; cut off from divine mind, we are subjected to rehashing thoughts previously entertained. As we are often stuck and preoccupied in yesterday; no new ideas or experiences can be had by us. The ego is composed of divine energy that has been separated from the complete body of “God Mind” and believes itself to be God and seeks control over our thinking and feeling. The ego of itself is possessed of nothing; acting out as a child throwing a tantrum; resisting compliance with the “God Mind or the Mind of Being”. The ego wavers in its support of us often building us up while at other times tearing us down. True blessing from the bounty of God is received when the ego is retrained to be obedient to God.

 When the ego attaches itself to the sense consciousness better known as the personal will, the antichrist or Satan is created which bring about suffering in our daily lives. True, these experiences have no basis in reality but we experience them just the same. The ego causes all the trouble in the world. It is self-seeking and greedy making man grovel in the sludge of material gain instead of soaring in the heavens of spirituality.

 When the personal will attaches itself to the ego, the ego becomes self serving. The ego postures itself as supreme in its attempt to supersede the will of God. It is egotistic and believes in self rule. Thus, this geocentricism stops the flow of divine spiritual energy; nothing new comes into being and atrophy begins to rob individuals of spiritual growth causing them to self sabotage. In an effort to solidify its position as ruler, the ego sets itself up as honorable, great, and mighty. In essence, the ego says obey me for I am God and I rule.

 Further, the ego is very shrewd, cunning, and crafty. It convinces us of our greatness and creates scenarios where we believe we have to prove our greatness to the world. The ego is seen throughout the Bible. In its conversation with Jesus, the ego (Satan/devil) attempted to persuade Jesus to follow it; first, by desiring to fulfill his human desires, second by taking matters into his own hands, and third by seeking appeasement from obtaining material goods.

 Mathew 4:1-11covers the temptations. Jesus’ reference to being hungry was regarding his seeking spiritual substance not physical food. Quite often our hunger is for internal substance, it is our soul desiring to be spiritually fed while instead we seek outer stuff as a means of fulfilling this hunger. Nothing we can buy, eat, or drink can satisfy a spiritual craving. The ego is a maniac for attention so when hard times or (stony situations) confront us, we seek to take matters into our own hands instead of allowing God to be God. When we take matters into our own hands, we usually create ego to ego debates; where neither one can win. We see this scenario so often on jobs where bosses debase employees and in traffic where people attack and cuss each other out.

 Furthermore, the ego shows up every where there is a platform for performance. Jesus being savvy in spiritual law responded to the first temptation by saying “it is written Man shall not live by bread alone”. This Law grounded him in discipline; he knew that every perceived need was already provided for by God. The second temptation occurred when Satan took him to the highest point in the holy city and requested him to prove that he indeed was the son of God by jumping off this high point and again Jesus responded with the Law; “It is written again that thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”. How often do we get so religiously high and mighty putting others down at the same time elevating ourselves? We use any little thing to prove that we are one of Gods’ favorite. We verbally declare a place for ourselves in the kingdom while sending others to hell. For the third temptation Satan (the ego) took Jesus into an exceedingly high mountain where he was shown the prosperity of the world, which Satan (the ego) promised that he could have. Once again Jesus responded with the Law saying, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou Shalt Worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt Thou serve”. In other words Jesus was saying how can you give me what’s already mine? The world does not belong to (Satan/ego) it is a creation of God and it and all that’s in it is eternally God’s.

 Being created by God and forever connected to this divine life stream, we forget that we are energetically connected to it and all that is good. It is in and throughout these periods of forgetfulness that we fail to collect what’s already ours. This seeking for satisfaction is so deep that we find ourselves hunting for things to fill this yearning; only to find out nothing in the external world can satisfy this particular hunger. No amount of shopping or numbers of relationships can disrupt the need to be reconnected with our source. All seeking ceases when one is able to get their ego in check by retraining it to follow the instructions of “Divine Mind” and perfect balance is restored not only to that person but humanity as well. It has been proven again and again that true contentment and fulfillment is not obtained by material gain. We see millionaires and billionaires who not only have money and trinkets of every kind find themselves in numerous marriages and business but unhappy as Hades. It is comforting to know that the poorest of poor has the same opportunity as the richest of the rich to reconcile the ego as a means of restoring kingdom consciousness. It is this reconciliation that peace is restored to the earth. You can begin to retrain your ego by reciting these affirmations daily.

Positive Affirmations:
 Today I work with zeal and enthusiasm to redirect my ego to God.
I understand that I am the watchman of my own thoughts and emotions.
I disrupt all thoughts and feeling that cause me disease.

Lovingly always
Rev Crystal Smith.