Next Saturday, July 19, God is a Brown Girl Too will enjoy a virtual retreat via the phone, at 8:00 to 9:00 A.M.  Just dial 567-314-3648; use pass code 48201.

Here is the excerpt from the God is a Brown Girl Too book that we will be discussing, which can be purchased from Amazon and  Barnes and Noble, and wherever books are sold.

Re-Discover Your True Self

When you know that I am you,
and you are me –
you will begin to realize who God is.

***

Do you remember who I am?  I am the Absolute Good that breathed you into being. I am the Divine Mind that gave you consciousness. I am the Endless Source that formed your soul.  I am the Inexhaustible Supply that continues to feed you out of the eternal cosmos of the universe. Nothing came before me.  I AM that I AM.  I am the Creator here to remind you that my image and likeness is reflected as you.  Creation is not something that happened and then stopped.  Creation is something I did, and am still doing.  Wherever there is creativity, there I am.

In order to know me in the Spirit, you will have to transcend the box of tradition in which you are locked. You will have to remove those strait-laced handcuffs of dependence, fear and shame. You will have to be bold enough to leave doctrine and diplomacy to embrace your own power.  If you want to reclaim your life, acknowledging me – the Divine within – is not an option; it is a necessity.  Men have so dominated your religion that most of you believe that I am an old white man.

Perhaps if you close your eyes and center your thoughts in a past that transcends the world as you know it, you can remember a creation that is older than European biblical tradition.  Try to remember a beginning where ancient Africa was the Motherland of creation.  Meditate on what Moses told the Israelites.  He said “you forgot the God who gave you birth” (Deut. 32:18 NIV), or recall that Isaiah said God carried you since your birth (Isaiah 46:3).  Imagine me from Hosea’s perspective, who said that I taught you to walk, that I healed you, that I lifted you like a child to my cheek and bent down to feed you (Hosea 11:3-4).

I cannot be limited to words, but you may prefer to call me Spirit.  Like “Love,” Spirit is a term that you can use interchangeably with “God.”  The elusive sound of Spirit will help you stop picturing a person with a long white beard.  Picture me as you growing in all directions at once instead of a person with a long white beard. I am greater than you can imagine, comprised of everything that is.  I am that point at which you find yourself.  I am far greater than any pre-conceived notion of human sexuality or gender. If this is confusing, call me whatever you like.  Call me “science” or “chance” or “coincidence” or “miracle.”  I am everything that is.

Throughout time, the bodies of women have carried and delivered my souls, those fragments of me from now to eternity. I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.  These are my mountains and my valleys and my trees.  This is my thunder and my rain and my river.  You are all that I am. You cannot be limited, or minimized, or marginalized or demonized.  You are my seed of life.  Come and reclaim your rightful place as equal heirs to my throne.

True liberation of the oppressed, the imprisoned, the disenfranchised, the denigrated and the despised will only evolve as each individual evolves.  It is up to each one of you to realize that you are more than your flesh, and to re-discover yourself as God.  I am your liberation, your freedom through Spirit, and your connection to unconditional love.  It is up to you to allow my light to glow in all of its magnificence as you.  My beloved Jesus said “Í am the Light of the world” – but also that you are the light of the world.  Let your light shine.

Through you, I teach, nurse, build, draw, sell, purchase, divine, uplift, heal, nanny, negotiate, arbitrate, lawyer, doctor, sweep, mop, clean, cook, pray, baptize, massage, water, write, dance, model, sing, invent, farm, design, birth, pastor and encourage – not  only the hearts of the privileged few but of the entire world.  I fight for freedom.  I abolish apartheid, genocide, lynch mobs, gas ovens, prostitution, slavery.  I lead protests, I die for justice and equality. I go to jail in order stand up for what I believe is right. I refuse to give up my seat.  But I have not stopped killing and maiming and abusing and destroying because you have not.  You have forgotten your true self worth.  You have given up your power.  You have yet to realize that you are my co-creator.  You choose.  You decide.  You deliver.  I can only do for you what I can do through you.

I send manna constantly, but you refuse to pick it up, or you still attempt to store it for yourselves.  No matter how much you horde, you cannot be nurtured by it until you stop being afraid and be in my moment.  You don’t need to be greedy, or jealous, or spiteful – especially of one another.  Imagine how foolish that looks to me, knowing that you have all that you need.  I am your way out of no way, your Jesus on the main line, your calm in the storm, your gangster, your hook-up, your constant supply.  Stop judging by mere appearances.  Remember that you really are God.

Step Into Your Greatness

When you stand on the edge of pure possibility,
you can use your prayer as the impetus to fly.

***

It is important for everyone to study and know the truth – especially you.  Disregard those who believe that you have no right to God – for they want you to believe that you have no right to yourself.  No woman or girl should be oppressed because of those who misinterpret the truth to mean that God is male and therefore, only men are God.  I am inextricably part of each one of you in the same way that a breath is part of the wind.  You, too, are the energy of life.  There is no separation between all that I am and all that you are.  Paul was right when he said that you live, move and have your being in God.  You are my offspring  (Acts 17:28).

All of you who see me in Jesus should be aware that Jesus acknowledged me in you when he said  “I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20).  Jesus said that the “kingdom of God is within you”  (Luke 17:21).  Jesus not only said I and the Father are One, he also said, “you are gods” (John 10:34).  This is called oneness.  This means that there is no separation between you and Spirit.  This means that your greatness is you waiting for you to express the Absolute Good that you are.

Feel me at the bottom of your feet.  I am stepping through divine vibrations that I am sending from the tip of your toes up your muscles and bones –through your veins and glands – to the top of your head.  I am always in your midst as your teacher, your companion and your guide.  I always direct you, move you, lead you, speak to you, create through you, act through you, dance through you, and sing through you. I am always there, always here, always now.

I sing“Jesus loves me this I know” because it is Jesus whose teachings have taught many to step into their greatness. Jesus is the perfect manifestation of Spirit in creation.  Jesus is the divine idea of God fully expressed as humanity. There is nothing like the blood of Jesus.  But focus less on his crucifixion and more on his resurrection. Jesus has never stopped reminding Brown Girls everywhere that you will do “even greater things” than him (John 14:12).  Eat those words with as much joy as you would a trip to Red Lobster, and let them slither off your tongue like those hot cheese biscuits.

Christ is not a person.  Christ is the salvation, the stature that Jesus attained to show you that God dwells in all humanity.  Paul said “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27), teaching you that Spirit is your birthright.

I sing, “Jesus on the main line, tell ’em what you want.” But Jesus does not merely teach you to ask for what you want.  He commands that you do so – commands that you be in the right consciousness to receive it. Jesus is teaching you to step into the kingdom of God that is within you, and know that all else – every single detail of my good will be added to you (Matt. 6:31-33).