The 12 Steps to Joy and Happiness: Finding the Kingdom of God that lies within Luke 17: 21

Copyright © 2018 David L. Peters.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

To my wife Eileen. You have shown me the love of God for more than fifty-five years. Even when I tried to ignore that love, you never wavered— you brought me back home to my heart.

To our children: Barbara, Karen, Maureen, Janet, Tim, Dan, and Drew. You have had to put up with my workaholic efforts in everything I did—and you turned out so well despite me.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 Abundance

Chapter 2 Our Lives Are Ours to Create

Chapter 3 Our Perceptions Create How We See Our Life

Chapter 4 A Story of Abundance

Chapter 5 Trust in the Goodness of God

Chapter 6 Trust Is No Accident

Chapter 7 Ego Abundance

Chapter 8 Soul Abundance

Chapter 9 Living Abundantly

Chapter 10 The Nature of Abundance

Chapter 11 The Physical Nature of Abundance

Chapter 12 Synchronicity

Chapter 13 You Are Worthy of God’s Love

Chapter 14 Acceptance

Chapter 15 Abundance: Our Choice

Chapter 16 Nothing Is Impossible

Chapter 17 The Faith of a Mustard Seed

Chapter 18 Change Your Perception, Change Your Life

Chapter 19 Step 1

Chapter 20 Step 2

Chapter 21 Step 3

Chapter 22 Step 4

Chapter 23 Step 5

Chapter 24 Step 6

Chapter 25 Step 7

Chapter 26 Step 8

Chapter 27 Step 9

Chapter 28 Step 10

Chapter 29 Step 11

Chapter 30 Step 12

Chapter 31 Twelve Steps to a Life of Peace, Joy, and Happiness

Chapter 32 Quiet Time

Chapter 33 Do Not Doubt

Chapter 34 Quiet Time: Time, Place

Chapter 35 Quiet Time: The How

Chapter 36 Quiet Time—Meditation

Chapter 37 Contemplation

Chapter 38 Living the Life of Abundance

Chapter 39 Why am I not happy?

Chapter 40 Now

Chapter 41 Conclusion

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION

My life has been filled with miracles, time after time, even when I have not lived up to the promise time after time, due to my own weakness. And yet the experiences of life have taught me in ways that no other path of life could have taught me: it is possible to have joy and happiness in great chunks of life even when events should have led to gloom, despair, and hopelessness. The number of synchronicities in my life has astounded me; amazing coincidences have appeared time after time.

Many have considered me extraordinarily lucky. One event that illustrates that type of action was when I graduated from college (University of Dayton) with a degree in electronic engineering (BSEE) in 1959. I had already accepted a PhD offer in the fascinating field of radio astronomy, but I was a bit jealous of my classmates who were traveling here and there for interviews. I had always wanted to visit New York City, so I looked at the list of upcoming companies coming in to interview engineering graduates, and picked the first one that was in New York City, and studied up on the company.

I had an interview, expecting and receiving an invitation to go to New York City for a second interview. I requested the interview coincide with a weekend and that they let me stay in New York City for the weekend. The request was granted. I flew to New York City, aced the interview, and was offered a job. Of course, I already had the PhD offer. But I really enjoyed myself over the weekend. The company I had interviewed was on Long Island, a neat train ride into the city.

I had always been interested in television electronics, picking up spending money in college by repairing TVs, usually just replacing vacuum tubes (those were the thing in the fifties.) The job offer from the company was to work on FAA displays for the control towers at airports, and I reasoned that it was close to TV. I was a bit older than most graduates (twenty-five) since I had worked before going off to college. When I realized I would have to spend five to seven years getting my advanced degree followed by a few more years with post-degree effort, I took the job in the New York City area.

A couple months after accepting the offer—while I was still waiting to graduate—I helped out at an electronics trade show at my school. I was a ‘gofer’ and helped vendors with whatever they needed. A vendor asked me what I was doing after graduation, and I told him. He casually mentioned that the company I had joined also had a small television-research group that included many of the inventors of commercial television.

I called and asked about the group, but I was told that they were very small. There were fewer than fifteen people, and they only accepted people with at least fifteen years of experience in television electronics. I thought it would be a goal to work there in the future, and I went on to graduate a few weeks later.

When I arrived for my first day on the job after driving seven hundred miles, I was asked if I was still interested in working at the research center. The research group had put a request in the preceding Friday for a recent college graduate who they could train. Since I had asked about the group, they asked me. I accepted, and it changed my life. I spent ten years there, working for the leading television experts. The vice president of the operation, Bernard D. Loughlin, was known as the grandfather of color TV. He had 120 patents, including the basic patent on the color encoding used today in television broadcasts and receivers in the United States.

I learned so much about how the human eye operates, how television fools the brain into thinking everything is continuous, what color is, and how the brain uses color information. It led to a career in the flight-simulation industry and the subsequent founding of my own company with a partner in that industry. In 2015, I retired (one never retires when you own a business) at the age of eighty to pursue writing.

That is just one example out of many synchronicities that have dotted my life. Most just call me lucky, but I do not consider it luck. It has been the result of a conscious relying on the grace of God in my life—since childhood (except for a few years in my teens when I wrestled with the concept of God). I emerged from my teens with a more mature concept than the blind faith of a child.

My conceptual knowledge of God has changed dramatically over the decades. It is still in a state of flux as more knowledge is poured into my life and I experience God in my everyday life.

I was born and raised a Roman Catholic, and I went through sixteen years of Catholic education. I still attend a Catholic church with my wife, and I am a member of one of the few—if not the only—progressive parishes in our diocese. I have been actively leading groups for most of the past fifty years. I spent fifteen years establishing and leading (on the diocesan level) a group known as the Cursillo Movement. This lay-directed group is interested in bringing the teachings of Jesus into the everyday work environments and creating more just working environments in our world.

I also worked in groups with, and used, the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) twelve-step program to guide my life when things seemed a bit rough (to put it mildly). The teaching steps in this book are a direct result of those life-saving steps.

I go to church with my wife of fifty-six years. My personal beliefs are somewhat different than the mainline Catholic teachings and most mainline Christian teachings. I watch little television, and I have watched little television throughout my life. I prefer to read or write in the time I have left for this pass through the world of physicality. Many of my beliefs are connected to science, especially quantum physics (the science of the very small) and the cosmos and its breathtaking implications of life (now and eternal). My writings and teachings center around the unity of God and the universe; no true knowledge of both can have contradictions, that is, true theology and true science must arrive at the same conclusion.

The second most important set of study I have recently taken is the Conversation with God series of books. In them, God talked through the pen of Neale Donald Walsch about how the God System really works in our lives and the life of the universe and beyond. I arrived at most of the key teachings in the books on my own. I was directed to pick up the first book of the nine-book series. I have no other term I can use. I could not refuse this directive. My arm moved of its own volition to pick up the book when I had no idea what it was. Neale Donald Walsch wrote the series in conjunction with God. I facilitate a group that studies the books of the series, and we meet every Thursday evening. Do I believe all that I read in these books? The answer is no, but I do follow the vast majority of what I read in this series.

I use many quotes from the Christian Bible since that is the faith I have studied for more than seventy years. I read the Bible, cover to cover, starting with Genesis, in eighth grade. While I have read other sacred texts over the years, I still find that the Bible, especially the words of Jesus, is the most powerful way to express the truths of the universe.

There is no set series of beliefs required to follow this book, except an acceptance of some type of ‘higher power’ that exists beyond oneself. The ‘higher power’ can be of any form, and I generally call that power ‘God’ or a similar title. You can use any title you feel comfortable using for your ‘higher power’.

I consider myself a follower of Jesus. His living presence was filled with the grace of his Father/Mother, that eternal force we call God, the Creator of all, and the being of all throughout the infinity of all. There are no words to express this being. All terms we use are limited in concept so that we can have some vague understanding of what is meant. Only in the obscure math of quantum physics are some of these outer limitless expressions presented. Even those arriving at the math cannot explain them to themselves. They just give vague thoughts about their meaning. If the concepts expressed by the math are looked at from the direction of the infinity of God, they start to make sense.

I have been in the presence of God in my life. I will talk about that later. But that experience 50 years ago changed my life profoundly, as I went from having faith in God to knowing God, through direct experience. Only through personal experience can we move to that level of understanding Jesus’s words The Kingdom of God lies within. (Luke 17:21, KJV)

Some of the theology expressed in this treatise may seem startling, but they have a long history. I am a firm believer in ‘penentheism’, which is not ‘pantheism’. ‘Pantheism’ is the belief that all of nature is God, and only nature; that God does not exist outside of the material world.

‘Panentheism’ is the statement that God includes all of nature, that nature rests in God, but God is much more. In other words, God is truly the All in All. Perhaps the most prominent saint in the past who taught that was St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis called the earth brother earth, talked and sang to the animals, who according to legend came up close to him, for he recognized the God within their beings. So don’t be surprised when I speak of the All in All as being God, which includes the energy fields that we call matter. St. Paul put it: So that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:28, NIV) and But Christ is all, and is in all. (Colossians 3:11, NIV).

God has been part of my life more than eighty years, including my earliest memories. I am always amazed when I comment about this nature and people look at me like I am crazy. It was many years before I understood that this type of relationship with the Almighty Spirit is rare— even among those who have dedicated their lives to serve God. I have had this sense of the presence all my life, and I assumed everybody did. I found out that I was very wrong. Most people have no sense of the overwhelming Spirit that has guided me all my life. They are winging it. I have struggled to help others find the way to this comforting and wonderful level of understanding, and I have been disappointed that most people I have talked with had no way to see the possibilities.

Thus, this book was born. We will walk with the aid of thirty-nine meditations along a path I have walked for eighty years. I hope a few—even if only one—will find the wonderful sense of completeness that I have. If that occurs, all is worth the effort to put this concept and program out in the world. Even if no one picks it up, I have done what God has been pushing me to do for the past few years. This treatise is one of the reasons I have been on this path on earth—with all its pain and all its glory.

This is a book of meditations along a path to experience the living God. There are many ways to use this book. One way is to read it through and then read it one meditation at a time. Spend time on each concept—but no more than one meditation a day. Do not be afraid to spend more than one day on a meditation. That time cements a path into your mental framework, and the use of these specific meditations will lead you far on the path. I ask questions at the end of each chapter, and I strongly recommend that you keep a personal journal to answer these questions, so that you can see for yourself how your thinking moves along.

So welcome to the journey of a lifetime. It is only a start—as you will see.

CHAPTER 1

Abundance

So God created humanity in God’s own image; in the image of God, God created them. Male and female God created them.

—Genesis 1:27, NIV

Prosperity has become a favorite word of some of contemporary, self-empowering speakers and preachers. The Secret is a book about how to become rich and comfortable only by thinking about it. The book has led to gatherings that feature a large number of speakers, large crowds, and much hype.

Many mega-churches teach the prosperity gospel, which is the belief that following the gospels can lead to wealth, prosperity, good health, great jobs, and great cars and homes. If people lose their jobs, have health problems, or suffer other calamities, then they obviously failed in their beliefs. They are told to firm up their faith, and all will be well. If all is not well, they are asked to leave since they obviously do not have faith. They might contaminate others (or, more importantly, reduce the cash flow of the church).

The ‘law of attraction’ suggests that we attract the world and environment we live in. By thinking, writing lists, and believing firmly, we can change our lives for the better. This term is closer to what I call abundance, but it is still used too often in a manner that is very close to prosperity.

Many people have been attracted to these messages, and they follow them with great enthusiasm. However, most people find that they fail eventually in their basic message. Life eventually offers challenges that the approaches cannot respond to in any manner that would signal prosperity.

This rubbish has caused most mainstream believers to doubt the very concept that our beliefs and working with God can lead to a good life. I will not use the terms prosperity or attraction, with their materialistic connotations. Instead, I will use the word abundance to form the path of knowing that all is good, no matter what the outward appearance seems to say, and we can live in abundance—filled with joy and happiness—if we so choose.

I have been blessed with abundance

I have been blessed with physical abundance that has let me live comfortably all of my life, but I have found that the words espoused by those preachers and writers talking about prosperity or attraction have missed the mark of the truth of abundance as I see it. Yes, there is such a thing as abundance, but it requires so much more than wishing for some particular success (i.e., a promotion) and hoping it (the promotion) will occur.

Abundance is real. It is based on the truth that we create our own lives by what we think and do—consciously and subconsciously. The subconscious mind almost always directs our lives, based upon our actions or reactions to the events in our lives. Wishes of the mental or spoken kind by themselves will not become reality, but our thoughts, actions, and patterns of life that lead to that moment of life spell out what the next moment will be. Wishes are just wishes. The fundamental grasp of life we hold spells out the next moment of truth for us—moment by moment.

Our beliefs, understanding, and perspectives create our lives, and if we wish to live in abundance, we adjust our beliefs, understanding, and perspectives to achieve that level of perspective. We shall see that both from the metaphysical viewpoint and the scientific viewpoint our life is a product of our beliefs, understandings, and perspective as one event leads to the next event. This is one of the great truths of life that science is just grasping, and it is causing a giant ripple in thought, especially among those who study the fundamental causes of all that is. Physicists in the quantum physics world have some mighty strange conclusions based on the mathematical theories that seem to hold against the patterns of nature of the very small particles and their extreme energy.

Did I know that I was living a life of abundance at the time? Not really. I understood that life seemed good, that I had a lot of extraordinary good luck, and that my faith in God seemed to be part of the equation. However, it is only from looking back on my more than eighty years of life that I have realized how blessed I have been. I have lived a life of abundance. I have been a seeker of the kingdom of God, and all else has been granted me.

As Jesus said, Seek first the kingdom of God, and all else will be granted you (Matt. 6:33, ESV, modified).

Did I understand what I was doing in this process? No, I did not—but it still happened. There were times when parts of my life were far from that center, but I continued as best I could to seek the kingdom of God. God continued to grant me all I needed for a good life. Deep in my heart, I held to the God-given truth of the joy and love of God.

We will look at these areas in further detail later, but right now, it is important to see that all we think and do—the patterns we let our minds follow—form the links that set up our lives, step by step. One step leads to the next, and a life of abundance is based upon having a sequence of steps that follow general patterns. These include certain beliefs, understanding, trust in our beliefs and understanding, and firmness in following where they lead—even if the present moment seems far less than desired.

Our thinking sets the course of life.

Our basic thinking patterns form the basis of what occurs in our lives. Are we vague or clear in our thinking? Are we facing things in a negative or positive manner? Is our perspective on life one of passivity, excitement, joy, or gloom? Those characteristics form the basis of our lives, and our lives will unfold according to those directives we put in place in our basic understanding of life.

Seek first the kingdom of God, and all else will be granted you.

—Matthew 6:33

When we wish for something, we get a wish—not a truth. A wish, by its very nature, states that it is something we do not have. It is only a maybe; it is not a concrete event. The writers of that nature insist in many stories that just by wishing—or ‘believing’—we can gain wealth and prosperity in this life. We will rise over all others in the process. Almost all who attend these conferences, and they attend by the thousands, hope to be able to forego illness, become wealthy, and not have to work—just by believing they will do so. They use chants, self-hypnotism, and other techniques to convince themselves it is as they wish. Unfortunately, deep in their being, they do not believe. Eventually all that effort is swallowed by events, and it vanishes.

I hate to prick the balloon, but it ain’t so. Some positive attitude will help, but it will not create wealth (except for those giving the speeches and writing the books). The truth of gaining abundance is not just wishing. It is far more than that. Wishing will only give you the wish. By wishing, you are stating that you do not have abundance. But by approaching abundance from the vista of being one with God, the Eternal Wisdom, the truth of abundance appears. When we are united with God, we see that abundance is granted with respect for our love of others. Love lights the path to help others on their way,

Jesus said, Seek first the kingdom of God, and all else will be granted you (Matt. 6:33).

When we seek first the kingdom of God and all that it entails, we will be surprised to see that we will have food on the table, sufficient clothes, etc. We may not be wealthy, but we will have everything we need to live abundantly. We will be happy and fulfilled. We will have a place in life that means something to someone—if only to ourselves.

I have lived an abundant life. I always found just the right opportunity before me, and I always took it. It often started out by what many would say was a negative (job loss, etc.), but the result became the nexus of the next phase of my life. I have always expected God to provide the next opportunity at the appropriate moment, and the Eternal Wisdom did just that.

I seldom recognized the moment as a gift from God when it came, but I always responded in a manner that seemed appropriate. As a risk-taker in life, I always went for the gold. Maybe I only ended up with what appeared to be the silver, but I gained knowledge and the skills to continue on the path before me. In hindsight, the silver I saw at that time was the gold.

Abundance is trust in the Creator.

Abundance is the result of total trust in God. No doubt. God will give me all I need. That is the secret. Not self-confidence, or self-will, but trust. Nothing but trust.