WHAT ABOUT “THE SECRET”?
By Gary Sigler
This writing was transcribed from a spoken message and
retains that form throughout.
S |
everal
have asked me what I think about the “Secret” It is a movie and book that has
gained an enormous amount of fame.
The
secret is all about changing our mind from the religious training we have had.
I
have been in many gatherings and have heard a lot of negative talk about The
Secret. Many think it is another New Age deception or another doctrine of
demons or an Angel of light.
I
am so thankful that I know the Word. I know the Word when I hear it no
matter where it comes from. I’m also thankful that since I’ve been
11 years old, I’ve studied scripture. The Lord taught me many years ago.
He said, “Listen for my voice, and listen for my voice in everyone you meet;
listen for my voice in the circumstances that are raised up in your life.
Most of all, when you read or listen to something, always look for
truth. If you do that, you’ll find truth everywhere.” So I have not been
fearful since I was a young man about reading anything, hearing anything,
reading anything that might come from Buddhism or Hinduism or anything
else. I have found truth everywhere! One of the biggest problems as
you are raised with the Christian mind-set, is the
belief that only Christians have the truth. That is a big problem!
Most Christians think that only they have the truth. They don’t think
they all have the truth; Most just think their
particular denomination has the truth. So, they are taught fear.
Most
Christians don’t dare read anything from Buddhism or Hinduism or any other
religion. But not only that, they for the most part don’t even go to different
denominations. You don’t fellowship with other Christians because they
don’t believe like you do.
When
I first sat down and watched this movie, “The Secret”, I was overwhelmed
because what I realized as I watched it, and I listened to what they were saying,
I realized that I had been living this way for years. I realized that all
they were saying is that how you think and what you speak creates for you the
life that you are living today. They don’t say it in religious
terms. In fact, they talk about the universe and they talk about the
source. But you know, when I hear people talk that way, I just change the
terminology. When they say, “Source has everything you need”, I change
that terminology and say, “Spirit has everything I need.”
So,
I began to really look into the scriptures because I knew what I was hearing
was spiritual. However I was in a meeting last year, and there were 4
preachers there. They began to talk about The Secret, how it was
deceiving people; it was teaching people how to
live from their soul-life. Then I went into a Christian bookstore later
on, and I found a book there that was written about how The Secret is a
deception. Now this is why Christians never advance because they oppose
everything that is not wrapped in the correct terminology. We sang a song
last night, “I’m raising up in my house again.
I’m bringing salvation without sin. I’m tearing down that carnal man, in
every temple where he stands; I’m rising up in a brand new word in a voice
you’ve never heard.”
In
1982, when I began to speak publicly, from the very first time I spoke I was
called “A New Age teacher.” At that time, I had no clue what New
Age was. This went on and is still going on today. Today some of
the Kingdom ministers say “Gary, you are mixing New Age theology with Kingdom
principles.” About 4 years ago, I was one of the most sought after
speakers in the Kingdom groups. Not so today, because I embrace truth
whether it comes out of Kingdom ministers or whether it comes out of New Age
teachers, because I realize truth is truth no matter who it comes from.
I’ve
been helped in every group and every denomination I’ve been in and I realize
that I needed that experience. Some people today still need those
experiences.
You
cannot really experience Kingdom living when you are fearful. You just
can’t do it! If you are fearful you won’t read something that you think might
be deception. I am not saying there is no deception in some writings, however I
learned years ago before I read something I would always ask the spirit to
reveal the truth in what I read. Jesus said that you could not ask God for a
fish and get a stone. You will ALWAYS get what you ask for.
Romans 12:2
Be
not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and
perfect, will of God.
One
of the first things we need to renew our minds in is to believe what God says
regardless of what religious teachers or anyone else says. I was in a meeting
recently where one of the brothers said “Everyone believes in Jesus, they
just don’t believe what he says.”
The
only problem that we have – and I’m including myself, is that we are
unbelievers. We believe a lot of things, but most of the things, that
even Jesus taught, we don’t really believe. And when we hear somebody
else teaching the things that He taught, without the terminology, we say it is
deception because they are not saying it in our language. They are not
speaking about God or Jesus, and they are speaking about the source. Well
I would ask you, what is the source? The Source, God, has everything that
we could ever need, the most glorious, wonderful, magnificent essence of all
that He is, is available to us.
One
of the criticisms of religious people is, they say the
Secret is teaching prosperity. I would have to ask, what is wrong
with prosperity? The reason most of us are not prosperous is we still have that
poverty mentality. We still think that there is something godly about
being in poverty.
Jesus
never taught poverty. In fact He said “Ask and it is given.” Do we really
believe that? He also said “Seek first the Kingdom of God and all things
shall be added to you.” He said if we ask anything and do not doubt we can have
anything we ask for.
We
need to renew our minds about sickness and disease. Jesus never taught
sickness and disease. He said in John 10:10. The thief comes to steal,
and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they
might have it more abundantly. The life that Jesus gives is His very own life
and nature. The abundant life is to live as Jesus lived while He was on earth.
Christians
all over the world today teach that God will put cancer on you to teach you
something. Yet Jesus said it is the thief who comes to kill and destroy.
Who
is this thief that kills, steals and destroys? Well, at Pentecost, I
learned it was the devil. You know, I didn’t know very much about the
devil until I was in Pentecostal circles. They taught me the power of the
devil. In fact, I learned at Pentecost that the devil was much more
powerful than God, because he will steal your children. He will harass
you every day of your life, and if you don’t walk a straight and narrow way, if
you don’t bring your body into subjection, and if you just miss God a little
bit, that devil is going to get you.
One
day, I discovered who the enemy really was. It wasn’t anybody outside of
me. It was my carnal mind that would not allow me to believe in the
simplicity of the gospel message It was my religious
mind that convinced me that to be sick was either God teaching me something or
I had sinned some way that caused the sickness to come.
That whole teaching about the devil and the power and the ability that he has
is all fables. If it was ever true, the New Testament nullifies his power
anyway. The Apostle Paul said that we have been delivered from the power
of darkness and we have been translated into the Kingdom.
How
could the devil have any power over you if you believe that? That is why
I say we are believing unbelievers. It is the
thief that comes to kill, to steal, and to destroy.
When
you hear some teaching like The Secret, and right away that religious mind,
more than anything, comes in and tries to steal that which you are hearing and
rob you from that truth, because it is not wrapped in Christian
terminology.
The
Secret is one of the most powerful things that I’ve ever read or seen in my
life, because it helps me understand more clearly what Jesus taught. This is
kingdom living, an abundant life full of joy and peace. It teaches that because
we all come from one source we all have the same life.
Carol
and I have been living this way for years, but The Secret clarified some things
for me, and helped me understand even more how to live in the Kingdom of
God. One of the things I experienced from watching The Secret is that the
Lord reminded me of one of the things that I’ve said for years that has kept me in bondage. He said, “You go back and
listen to your tapes.” Several times, even up until 3 or 4 months ago,
I’ve made this statement: “The Lord always meets our needs. Carol and I
always have just enough.” I have said that for years. I’ve
never been unsatisfied because we had everything we need. But I’ve always
said, “The Lord supplies, but sometimes it is at the last minute.” You’ve
hear me say, those of you that have listened to me, that sometimes our rent is
due before ever even seeing any of it come in. And the Lord said, “You’ve
been robbing yourself because that is a belief. It is a wrong
belief. It is not a bad belief, but you are confessing something that has
become your reality.” And so I told Carol “You will never hear me say
again, ‘we have just enough’, because I believe that we have an
abundance.” When we have the Source of all that is available to us we
should be able to live in abundance. Think how much we could do for the
poor and poverty stricken that we see almost every day if we begin to live in
abundance.
Last
month, for the first time in years, we had a good surplus in our bank
account. It has never happened before. So don’t tell me that that
is devilish.
We
have been talking about taking the Kingdom and walking in the Kingdom for
years, but we have not believed God that we could do it. We can’t do it
as unbelievers. There is absolutely nothing that you desire that
you cannot have. You can have the same abundant life of love and
compassion that Jesus has for His creation. God desires that you become one who
manifests his life and nature to the world
If
you can believe it God will always answer the desire of your heart. Because
whatever you focus your desire on and speak about and do not doubt, God, the
source of all that is, will always bring it to pass.
One
of the reasons I know that is because since I’ve been 11 years old, my heart has cried out, “God, I want to be like
Jesus. I want to have that love that He had. I want to experience
the compassion that you have for the world.” My desire for a very long
time was to know the love of God. Well, I do know it today. What ever you desire – Jesus said, “What ever you desire when you pray, believe that you
receive it and you shall have it.” We have such a hard time believing
that. We ask for all kinds of things hoping that we get it. But
see, this is one of things The Secret teaches you, that you cannot ask for
something that you can’t receive. The only qualifier is that you believe it.
And then I discovered – I really discovered what unbelief is. For years
I’ve had the problem of unbelief. I didn’t want it, but I would desire
something and I knew God could do it but then I would begin to think about how
it does not work for most people and what my chances of it working for me are.
Recently
I’ve been seeking God, about “How do I deal with the doubt, because as a human,
although I know all things are possible with You, when
I ask You for something, there is just something in me that starts thinking about
all the ways it is impossible for it to come?” This is what came to me.
“The way you deal with doubt is, don’t think about it. When you ask me
for something, you believe that it is on the way. Every time a thought
comes to you, that is not doubt. Your thoughts are not doubt. The
doubt is when you receive the thought; you begin to think about it and
contemplate it. That is doubt.” All of us have a heart that can
believe God. When you believe for something do not let the negative thoughts
get a hold on you. Our carnal mind is the enemy that is the thief that will
come to you and rob and steal and kill and destroy. Jesus said, “I am
come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.”
I
have had a lot of physical problems since a youth. That is not an abundant life as Jesus said we could have. However
I can be in perfect peace and joyful no matter what the
circumstances Somewhere in my thinking, years ago I began to
believe that I needed to suffer for godliness, that somehow my sickness and
what ever happened to me was what drove me to God. I don’t believe that
anymore, because if you have a hunger for God, it is because He put it
there. Your sickness doesn’t drive you to God. It is the hunger
that He puts in your heart. I understand now what the abundant life
is. It is not a life of lack and sickness.
I
made a statement last night that some might be offended by, I said, “God is not
in control of this earth. He gave His authority to the man He created.”
He gets blamed for all the chaos. People used to ask me, “If God is love
like you say, how come all the starving babies all over the world? How
come we see these videos of these starving children? How come young girls
get raped? How come all of this pandemonium in the
world?” I didn’t have an answer then but I have an answer
today. We have chaos in the world because we as Kingdom people have not
done anything about it. We’ve even believed that we can’t do anything
about it. “What can I do? I’m just one person.” Have you ever
felt that way? God’s people today, could wipe out poverty and could feed
all the starving people in the world. Instead they build multimillion
dollar buildings and sometimes only use them twice a week. You see, God
isn’t responsible for all the sickness and all the wars and all that goes on in
this world, it is His people who are responsible.
We all know, “We are His body.” We have heard it for years. “We are
His temple.” Since that is true, then there is nothing that we
cannot do. I used to say for years when I was so caught up as a Christian
in all kinds of ungodly things and habits, “I can’t do it! If God doesn’t
do it, it will never get done.” I thoroughly believed that. In those days I didn’t have any teaching like “The Secret” or
know how to believe God.
God
came to me and taught me how to believe in His love! He taught me
that “It does not matter what your condition is. It doesn’t matter how
caught up into sin and rebellion you are – nothing matters except your hunger
and your thirst for Me. And if you will continue to seek me in your daily
life, there will come a day when you will come out of all those things that you
feel are hindering you.” I know some of you have heard this, but smoking was a
big thing for me, because I was in Pentecostal Holiness churches, and some of
them would send me to hell for smoking. For 13 years I begged God,
literally begged Him, and would cry and ask Him to take that from me.
Smoking wasn’t the only thing; I had many habits that I felt were ungodly.
For Thirteen years I would try, but I couldn’t break free from those
things. Some of you have been there where you want it, but you don’t want
it. The Spirit of the Lord came to me and said,
“You speak what I tell you.” He said, “I say that you are forgiven.
I say that you are whole. I say that you are complete. But what
are you saying? You are saying, ‘I am a smoker’; you
are saying, ‘I’m hung up in lustful things’; you are saying all of this
but that is not what I say about you.”
I
can remember it like it was yesterday. When God began to talk to me like that,
I went to my room at night, and I would spend maybe 2 hours in my room, and I
would just begin to thank God for deliverance. I was so thankful to know
that God was not looking at my inability to be able to stop smoking or anything
else. He was looking at the Christ within me. And He was
ministering to that until one day that seed in me began to grow. I’ll never
forget the day. July 11, 1982 I awoke a new man after 13 years of
struggle. I woke up and I just knew I’d never have to smoke again.
I didn’t have the withdrawal that I used to have when I would try to quit. That
is because I believed God and spoke what He said about me rather than believing
in my negative experience.
This
is why it is so hurtful to me when I hear something like, “The Secret” being
called a spirit of error. So it’s coming out of the New Age movement! I
have said for years that the New Age movement has more truth than most so
called Christian Churches. They may not be living it or
experiencing it, but I know a lot of preachers
that preach what we do, and they aren’t living it either. We have some of
the most notable reconciliation ministers alive today that the world has ever
known. Some of them are not reconcilers. They are dividers and they
tear down the brothers, and they gossip about them. Why? Because they believe differently.
Jesus
said in John 15, “Abide in me, and I in you” As the branch cannot bear fruit of
itself except it abide in the vine” – Oh I’ll tell you, I used to cry and say,
“God, how can I do that? I know that’s the answer. How can I abide
in you? How can I do that?” Because I knew that if I abode in Him,
I wouldn’t have a problem. Well, today I know how to do that. You
have to abide in the mind of Christ. And you have to learn to reject
everything negative that comes into your mind, and refuse to dwell on
it. A few years ago, it was discovered I had cancer. I’ll
tell you the truth; I had not one little bit of fear. In fact, I told Stacy and
Pam Woods, who were at our home when I heard I had cancer, and I told them,
“Please, don’t breath a word of this to anybody, because I don’t want 10,000
Christians all across the country believing that I have cancer; I don’t need
that. I simply refused to dwell on the negative thought that came to me. That
is how you abide in the mind of Christ.
“I am the vine and you are the branches. He that abides in me and I in Him, the same brings forth much fruit. Without me
you can do nothing. If a man abides not in me, he is cast forth as a
branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, they
are burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall
ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.” There are no
qualifiers on that! You see; if you abide in the mind of Christ, you can
have anything.
The
preachers who are against “The Secret” say, “Well that is just causing people
to go after materialism.” And I say to them, “If people want to go after
materialism, they need to do that. If your heart is burning for riches
and wealth, you need to get it to find out that’s not what will make you happy
and give you peace. If you never get it, and you always suppress it, you may
never get the help you need.” So I tell people all the time, do what is
in your heart to do. People say, “You teach reconciliation. Don’t
you realize that when you teach that, people just go out and live any way they
want to?” And I say, “Good!” At least they are being honest.
And you will find out all of those things that you may be suppressing, when you
really get out there and get, so called, “free”, you will find out that you are
going to reap what you sew. You are going to find out perhaps
the wealth that you seek after, or what ever it is,
is not happiness. I can be happy living in a tent on a riverbank.
It doesn’t matter I can lay in a hospital, which I’ve done, when doctors tell
me that I may not live, and I’m joking with the nurses.
We’ve
been told for 2,000 years, “You have the mind of Christ,” and we haven’t
believed it! It is time to believe it. If you wait to
experience it, you will never experience it. The book of Hebrews says,
“Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” You need to really
understand that your source is God, and He is there to meet every need that you
have and all you have to do is put on the mind of Christ and cast down every
negative thought. You may say, “Boy, that
is hard!” Yes! But what happens when you practice? Anything that
you practice long enough you can do.
The
Apostle Paul told Timothy, “Bodily exercise profiteth
little. But godly exercise profiteth
much.” One day I realized that what he was saying is exercise you
spirit! Your spirit is connected to your mouth. And you
exercise your spirit by speaking what you know to be the truth rather than what
you experience that is not the truth. You say, “Oh,
that is the old ‘Word and Faith’ doctrine.” Well they had some
truth! You will never gain anything by speaking negatively. Jesus
said, “Ask what ever you will and it shall be
done.” Just abide in the mind of Christ. That sounds so
impossible, but it isn’t. If you exercise your spirit by speaking only the
truth it becomes so easy to reject everything negative.
We
talked this weekend about not knowing any man after the flesh. That is
not hard once you operate in the mind of Christ, because you realize the mind
of Christ does not take into account the flesh. The mind of Christ only
centers in on one thing: you have a spirit. Not only do you have a
spirit, you are a spiritual being. As a spiritual being, we begin
to learn to speak spiritual talk, and in spiritual talk, you will not find
negativity. You will not find a condemning word coming out of the mind of
Christ. You will find correction, but you will never find guilt and
condemnation coming out of the mind of Christ. Even when the woman was
brought to Him in adultery, He didn’t condemn her.
Ephesians
4 verse 24 says, “Put on the new man, which according
to God is created in righteousness and holiness. “Put away lying, and
speak every man truth to his neighbor.” What is the truth? It is whatever
God says. Whatever your carnal mind tells you is not the truth.
How many of us, all of our lives, speak more about the untruth than we do the
truth? We get sick, and my God, we are like a bunch of crybabies rather
than realizing in the kingdom of God there is no sickness. The more we speak
truth, the more that it gets integrated into our consciousness. That is
the only way that this body is ever going to put on immortality. You are
not going to put on immortality by telling everybody how sick you are, and how
bad you feel, and how you can never pay your bills, and things never go right
for you. That is why they don’t! When we speak like this we
are not speaking from the mind of Christ. You will find out when things don’t
go right for you, if you speak the truth, they will soon turn around.
Proverbs
4:20, “My son, attend to my words.” We as church people always attend to
the preacher’s words, or we try to fashion our lives in an outward way
according to what the scriptures say. But He says, “Attend to my
words”. Attend to what God speaks to you. “Keep thy heart with all
diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from you a
forward mouth, and perverse lips.” How much do we talk about other
people? You think the mind of Christ ever gossips about people?
When I hear things about somebody, I don’t know if they are true or not.
I really don’t know; neither do you, but gossip will spread like wildfire.
I’ve
told this story, but some of you haven’t heard it. Preachers and people
have done everything to try to destroy our ministry. We had a lady call
Stacy Wood a couple years ago, and she said, “Stacy, have you heard about Gary
and Carol, what they just did?” Stacy said, “No, I haven’t heard.” She
said: “I have heard that they went to a New Age conference in Seattle
Washington and everybody took off their clothes and laid
on the floor naked and meditated.” Now, a story like that, how fast do
you think that spreads? Somebody could have said, “Gary is the godliest
man I know.” That one wouldn’t have gone anywhere near as far. It is not
some devil outside of us that is the problem; it’s the mind.
If
I know something true about you, I won’t gossip about it. There are
circumstances or conditions sometimes when you have to deal with issues, but
you don’t spread it all over the world. I had a situation just recently,
when I had to deal with another minister who was lying to folks and deceiving
women and was stealing. But the world doesn’t know about
it. “Put away the forward mouth.”
Mark
11:22-24 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this
mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt
in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith
shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
24 Therefore I say unto you, What things so
ever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have
them.
You
see, the doubt comes to the mind. It never gets to the heart until you
dwell on it, and when you begin to dwell on it,
then it gets into your heart. So He said, “Whoever says to this mountain,
be removed, cast into the sea, do not doubt in his heart, but believe those
things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall
have whatsoever he saith.” See, this was just
after He cursed the fig tree, and they questioned, “How can that be?”
This is what He answered them. “If you believe it; you can have it.
Wherefore I say unto you, what things so ever you
desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them.” You
can have whatever you want. It is a matter of intent, a matter of your
heart. If you desire something, that is equivalent to asking. You
do not even have to verbalize it.
Whoever
believes and does not doubt in his heart, can have anything that he
wants. That is a blank check. And like I said, Carol and I have
lived these principles for years. It is becoming more
clear today, and it is being fine-tuned, but for years we have been
learning to live this way. God has told us on 2 or 3 different occasions
to move to another state where we didn’t know anybody. We’ve been in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina now for about 6 years. We lived in Seattle
Washington where we published books and tapes by the thousands, and God said,
“I want you to move to North Carolina.” We didn’t have the money; we
didn’t have the resources, but we said, “OK, we will do it.” Never one
time did we ask God for the money, we never prayed about it, or sent out
mailings to our mailing list telling them that we were moving and pray about
helping us get there. When God speaks, all you
have to do is say, “OK”. That is all you have to do. Then, don’t try and
make it happen, because when you try to make it happen, you will miss the
timing.
It’s
the most wonderful life living this way. Having faith is to stay focused
on what you want and do not entertain thoughts about what you do not want.
Because if you are always focusing your attention on what you don’t want that
is what you will get. This is what “The Secret” teaches you. Having
faith is to stay focused on the truth of your being. The truth is, I
am a manifestation of God on this earth, and as God on this earth, or a son of
God, or a manifestation of God, however you want to say it, I have complete
authority over my life. Now I don’t have any authority over your
life. The only thing that God never gave us is authority over one
another. He gave us authority over the heavens, over the cattle, over the
birds, over the fish, over the land – you have authority. And the
land that God is interested in is this land, (your body). The land
that we are to possess, the land that God is concerned about, is this
land. So when He says, “Possess the land”, that is the only way friends, that
you will ever possess this land. If you don’t possess this land, (Your
Body) you are going to the grave. You know, that sounds like a hard task,
but when you realize who you are, and what you have been given, then you begin
to take authority, and you begin to have faith, and don’t receive the doubt.
Oh sure, it will come at you. But if you don’t dwell on it, it can’t get
into your heart. And He said, “If you don’t doubt in your heart, you can
have anything that you ask for.” If you believe, you
receive. They used to say in the Word of Faith, “If you believe,
you receive. If you doubt, do without.” That is the truth.
I’ve said to for a couple of years now, “We can raise the dead.” We can
do anything that Jesus did. The only qualifier is that we have to hear
Him tell us to do it. This is where the Word of Faith missed it because
they would try to teach you to go out and heal people. Kenneth Hagin used to say, “If you pray for enough people,
eventually one will be healed.” I saw one of the leading faith ministers
on TV one night, have a bunch of wheel chairs lined
up. It was a disgrace. He pulled people out of their wheelchairs,
and they fell on the floor flopping around, and he’s telling them, “Get up, in
the name of Jesus.” Not a one of them got up. That is not what I
am talking about. “Lean on me”, – really what He said, “Believe in
me”, When Jesus said “Believe in me”, He was saying
that if we believe in him we can live the same life that He lived while on
earth. The gospel has been hidden for 2,000 years. The gospel that
we’ve been given is a gospel to be saved from hell to go to Heaven. There
is only one thing that we’ve ever needed to be saved from and it is our
darkened mind and understanding. We have never for one instant, ever
been separated or alienated from God except in our mind.
I
wrote a series of booklets in about 1998, titled “COMING OUT OF DARKNESS,”
based on Ephesians 4:18 where Paul told them, “Don’t
be like the Gentiles having your minds darkened, being alienated from the life
of God through the ignorance that is in them.” That has been the
Christian church for 2,000 years. Being alienated from
the life of God which is in them, not in reality, but only in their minds.
God
has never been upset with you. God has never been angry with you,
because He does not judge according to the flesh. Since He teaches you to not
look at men after the flesh, do you think He does? God sees one thing, He sees who you were when you were created, when you
were brought forth. That is what He sees. Knowing this truth is the
only thing that brought me out of a life of sin and bondage.
Luke
11:9-13, “Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek,
and you will find. Knock and it shall be opened. For everyone that
asks receives; and he that seeks, finds; unto him that knocks, it shall be
opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he
give him a stone?”
All
the years that I was searching for truth, that verse came to me many times,
“You are asking for God, so don’t think I will give you anything else.”
So when I began to be accused of being a New Age teacher, a few years ago I decided to find out what ‘New Age’ is.”
I began to listen to people like Wayne Dyer & Deepak Chopra. I was
absolutely amazed at what I was hearing. They did not use Christian
terminology much, Wayne Dyer does somewhat, but mainly it is not religious
terminology, but I heard the most practical issues of how to deal with your
life, and the most practical issues on how to be a person who walks in love and
forgiveness. I never heard it in the church! I heard it from the
New Age people. So when I began to hear it, then I understood why the
Christians were calling me New Age because I was teaching this before I ever
knew it was New Age.
Ask,
and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. So I really
believe the secret to abundant living is to ask. There is no godliness in
poverty and sickness and disease. Like I said last night, we try to tell
the world about God, and look at us. We are all dying, and we are all
sick, and we are all messed up. Oh, but that is changing. There is
a corporate man rising on the face of the earth that are doing nothing but
believing God, learning how to deal with the negativity in the mind, learning
how to put underneath their feet every negative thought, every negative
influence. You know, when you even are around somebody that is talking
negative all the time, and you begin to think about that, and you begin to feel
sorry for them, you draw all that right to yourself.
The
Secret teaches you that you are a magnet. It is so true, because whatever
you think about, you draw to you. Jesus said it this way: “Out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Whatever you believe in your
heart, if you speak with your mouth, it’s a magnet that draws to you what you
think and what you speak. That is why the scriptures say, “Guard your
heart with all diligence”, because your heart is a gateway into the
spiritual world. If you allow all these doubts and fears and you let
people scare you and make you feel fearful that is what you will attract to
you.
I
had a lady call me one day. She said, “Gary, I want you to take me off
your mailing list.” This was when some of the Kingdom ministries began to
come against my teaching. She said, “You know, I just love God, and I’m
afraid of being deceived.” She said – she named this particular person
who’s been on a kind of a campaign to get people to stop listening to me.
She said, “I just don’t want to be deceived. So I just want you to take
me off your mailing list.” I said to her, “You know, you have said to me
that my teachings and my writings have helped you more than years and years of
religious teaching and training. You’ve told me that my teaching has set
you free from bondages, that listening to me has changed your life
dramatically, and now you are going to let
somebody tell you that what I say is deception and believe it because they are
a well known preacher?”
The
first thing I teach people, or try to help people understand when they are
searching for more of God, is get out of the fear of being deceived. You don’t
have to receive or believe everything you read. I could take some of
teachings of Buddhism, and never tell folks where I
got them, just quote what he said and you’d think it was the most spiritual
thing you’ve heard. But as soon as I say, “That came from Buddhism”,
everybody is afraid of it, because you see, the Christian tactic is to teach
you to fear, so they can keep you under bondage.
Most
people don’t know this, even today, but the Catholic Church ruled the known
world for 1,000 years. They killed, they butchered, they drowned in water
everything, and everyone they caught coming against the Catholic
doctrine. Some of that thinking got into our scriptures, and the fear of
going against the leaders came out of that era.
One
of the worst errors that they teach you in Pentecost is that in the latter days
perilous times shall come, seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. They don’t
realize that those scriptures were talking about the dark ages when Catholics
ruled the religious world. The great persecution and the great falling
away happened during the 1,000 years of the Catholic reign. The church of
the living God is not falling away; it is waking up! And the ones that
are waking up are being called all sorts of things because they are dropping
all of the religious trappings.
I
will say one thing; love is the key. Love is the key to prosperity; it is
the key to health; it is the key to the abundant life. For years I would
cry and I’d say, “God, I want your love. I want more than anything
in this world to be as Jesus was.” All the time the scriptures tell us “As He
is so are we in this present world. We just have not believed it because of our
negative experiences. I used to read the red, and I’d think, Why
did we only have one man ever display this kind of life?” Well there have
been many, but the church will only accept the teachings of Jesus.
If
you ever do a study of comparative religions, you will really be
surprised. You know; in religion of years ago, the story of the virgin
birth was not new. It had been told before. Do you know that a man
like Jesus who supposedly was born of a virgin was crucified, dead and
resurrected, was told before the story before Jesus?
Comparisons between the lives of Jesus and Buddha that
should be brought to the attention of every Christian who ever lived. "Both have genealogies tracing their descent from
ancestral kings. Both were born of virgin mothers. The conception of each was
announced by a divine messenger. The hymns uttered at the two annunciations
resemble each other. Both were visited by wise men who
brought them gifts. Both were presented in the temple. The aged Simeon of one
account corresponds to the aged Asita of the other.
As 'the child (Jesus) grew and waxed strong in spirit' so 'the child (Sakay-Muni) waxed and increased in strength.' Both in
childhood discoursed before teachers. Both fasted in the wilderness. Both were
tempted. Angels or devatas ministered to each. Buddha
bathed in the Narajana, and Christ was baptized in
the Jordan. The mission of each was proclaimed by a voice from Heaven. Both
performed miracles. Both sent out disciples to propagate their faiths. In
calling their disciples the command of each was, 'Follow me.' Buddha preached
on the Holy Hill, and Christ delivered his sermon on
the Mount. The phraseology of the sermons of Buddha and the sermon ascribed to
Christ is, in many instances, the same. Both Buddha and Christ compare
themselves to husbandmen sowing seed. The story of the prodigal son is found in
both Scriptures. The account of the man born blind is common to both. In both
the mustard seed is used as a simile for littleness. Christ speaks of 'a
foolish man, who built his house upon the sand;' Buddha says, 'Perishable is
the city built of sand.' Both speak of 'the rain which falls on the just and
the unjust.' The story of the ruler, Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night has its parallel in the story of the rich man who came
to Buddha by night. A converted courtesan, Magdalena, followed Jesus, and a
converted courtesan, Ambapali, followed Buddha. There
is a legend of a traitor connected with each. Both made triumphal entries,
Christ into Jerusalem, and Buddha into Rajagriba.
Both proclaimed kingdoms not of this world. The eternal life promised by Christ
corresponds to the eternal peace, Nirvana, promised by Buddha. And both
religions recognize a trinity."
Now
to me, this gives more credibility to what we have been taught. God has
been telling this story since creation and the revelation is even in the
stars. God has always wanted to inhabit humanity. Yet the church
wants to get out of here. The church wants to go to Heaven; God wants to
come to earth! I absolutely enjoy being human. Believe it or not, I
don’t want to go anywhere. If I had the opportunity to be translated and
taken away from here, I’d say, “Leave me stay! I’m having the time of my
life! And I’m seeing lives change all over the world, because people are
hearing a message that sets them free.” Why would I want to go anywhere?
I want to put on immortality. I know there have been hundreds of
preachers that have preached immortality, and everyone of them has passed on. However the scriptures
clearly teach that life and incorruptibility was brought to light through the
gospel. The Apostle Paul tells us that this corruptible must put on
incorruptibility and this mortal must put on immortality.
The
Apostle Paul said in 2 Cor 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;”
We’ve
tried everything to live in the Kingdom. Why don’t we try this? Try
to deal with the negativity that comes in your mind; I
was so negative for years as a Christian. I literally said, “I’ll never
change.” I used to cry when I’d go to God, and I’d say, “God, I know when
you come back I’ll have a cigarette in my hand. I know I will!”
That is how much faith I had, until I began to heard the Voice, and He began to
tell me, “That is not who you are. That is who you think you
are. But I don’t’ look at you how you are in the flesh, because I know
who you are in the spirit. You are my son.
The
veils are coming off. The moment that you begin to deal with the carnal
mind you will be so encouraged by your progress. The most subtle creature
is the mind.
So,
yes, I like “The Secret”. It really helped clarify for me, and make it
even clearer, how I am to walk in the Kingdom. I’ve been doing it for
years, but this gives me more clarity and more understanding on how to do
it. So, praise God! You know, the church won’t teach this stuff, so
God has got to raise people up out there that aren’t religious, and won’t use
religious terminology. Isn’t there a verse somewhere that says that the
children of men are wiser than the children of God? Well, I think they
are right.
The
End
For more writings go http://www.sigler.org/