A Mending Shift

a bird sings, not because if has an answer to give, but because it has a song to sing … this is my song

Where Does Conflict Come From?

Is it not from the selfish desires that wage war within you, me, us?

90% 100% of the conflict that rises up within me and rears its ugly head stems from the selfishness that lives within my being. Then you merge that with another human being who has selfish desires waging war within them and you get …[anticipating silence]… conflict!

But how do we deal with it? How do we deal with the selfish-war within ourselves? How do we deal with it when two people’s selfish-wars clash? Where does that space lie? How is it done? Where is the safety to throw it out on the table, see it, label it, look at it, acknowledge its existence and not hide it? Where can we find healing and restoration in the midst of conflict?

I am finding more and more that as I allow God and others into my life to help heal me from the selfish-war that wages inside of me, the more I can begin to participate in—get this—recognizing, resolving and bringing restoration to the conflict I see in others, sometime caused by me. I am also finding that the more I am engulfed by my own little cloud of darkness, the less I can see and participate in healing others. My son is a case-in-point that comes to mind. When I am at peace, I find that I can be a pretty good dad who can see what he needs when he is in conflict. When I am at war within, I find that my dadness becomes pretty self-centered and his conflict is just an annoyance.

I am thankful for my friends and my Daddy who are loving me into a place where I can find peace. It comes and goes, but thankfully it is moving and progressing.

So here is my question (feel free to comment even if you don’t have an answer). How are you seeing Jesus show up within your conflicts? How are you struggling with the selfish-war waging within you?


About The Author

Jeromy Johnson
I live in Folsom, CA, with my wife, Jennifer, and three kids. I am surrounded by and cared for deeply by some great friends. Their love for me is truly a moonlit reflection of Papa's love, and for that, I am deeply blessed and grateful.

Comments

  • monachusbellator

    Here’s the choice I face in every conflict: http://monachusbellator.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/power-vs-love/

    Rarely do I find a truly justified reason to be angry with other people. It’s usually my stuff that’s causes the emotion behind a neutral action.

    I’m working on a book, though, that should help. It’s called “How To Change The Other Person So You Both Can Be Perfect.” ;-)

  • http://www.thriven.org Jonathan Brink

    This is not really going to answer your question but rather share what transformation looks like for me. The more I look at transformation, the more I realize that heaven and the new earth are likely not going to be absent of conflict, but will instead be reflective of our new nature which is to deal with the conflict from wholeness…which to me is to forgive/seek forgiveness.

    As humans we will instinctively see the Imago Dei in each person and recognize the value in each, thus our first move will likely be to restore immediately.

    This gives me hope because I recognize that I can participate in that restoration right now. It’s present. I don’t have to wait to die to begin.

  • http://mendingshift.wordpress.com Jeromy

    Belchazar – Sounds like a great book…can I pre-order?

    Jonathan – Thanks for being a good friend and not waiting to die to participate in my restoration. ;-)

  • Andrea

    Hello Jeromy,

    I enjoyed your post and love your questions at the end: Jesus revealing himself in our conflicts and the ‘selfishness’ within. In my opinion, your being is very intuitive to offer an awareness of self-judgment (selfishness) and potential cure (Jesus) in one expression.

    Of course I have no answers for others but I can share what seems to be working for me- but before I attempt this, I feel I must share a brief overview of my relationship with Christ.

    I was an accomplished martial artist (5th level black belt) and operated a school for 15-years that involved extensive work with energy or ‘chi’ as it is known; I was also practicing Buddhism. One evening after my students had retired, I was training in front of the mirrors when I thought I heard my name called from within me. To shorten this story considerably, the ‘voice’ identified itself as ‘Yeshua’ and told me that I was able to sense him because I had become energy-conscious (to a degree) and was now able to ‘feel’ him… Yeshua complimented my peaceful, non-violent nature and asked if my low-keyed need to defend myself was fear-based or love-based? And once we agreed my ‘little box’ of defense skills was fear-based, he gave me a vision that allowed me to see a manison-sized structure instead of my box and said “That is how much fear you are displacing by sustaining your need to defend yourself, no matter how noble.” After my shock he asked if I would be willing to explore the possibility that love-consciousness was more informed than fear-consciousness. He said in effect, ‘whoever heals all energies of fear (fear of survival/defense, etc.) within their field, will remain with only love-awareness, and there is no life that exists that can manifest malevolence towards one who is completely love aware; they can only drink…’

    This old warrior literally placed his training sword on the floor and cried uncontrollably, for he knew he would never lift another hand to defend himself again. He would seek love by opening the doors to his deepest fears, his own self-hatred that would be revealed with Yeshua’s guidance.

    The school closed, the other career (25-yrs) ended, the house sold, all within four months and Yeshua and I moved to Alaska to ‘learn some things.’

    This will be difficult to convey… Yeshua taught me about energy-consciousness and how to literally feel it within my body. I discovered that every atom in our field is conscious, not just the ones clustered together in the formation of our brains. And ‘I’ learned to ‘speak’ their language of feeling, to communicate with other parts of my being that were in fact more conscious than ‘I.’ I learned the power of the Breath and how it unites the visible and invisible, the dark-ones with those in the light. Yeshua taught me how to offer healing to ‘internal conflict’ (as you offer) by feeling it, speaking to it and inviting it into my heart with my Breath, which would allow it to raise its own vibration. I offered ‘conflict’ absolute acceptance versus rejection…!

    As an example: I learned to sense the lifeforce of ‘Rage’ as its own entity, its own consciousness through literal feeling… (I know this sounds wierd); and once I acknowledged Rage on an equal basis (one group of atoms to another) it spoke from within (like Yeshua did) and shared its story of pain and grief by allowing me to feel its experience. Rage is a being that cries and often travels with other fear expressions known as Hatred, Shame, Self-Judgment (selfishness), Blame, etc.

    For me in my journey of discovery and healing, I now know that each of these expressions of fear are quite conscious and have their own agendas until their pain can be acknowledged and especially accepted. To detect them requires a person to live in the present-moment with awareness of what they are literally feeling in their bodies, and Breath-awareness allows this to occur.

    The ego-mind does not like hearing this for it believes it IS the consciousness and cannot at first grasp that there is more-informed consciousness in the same vehicle. This is why Yeshua and energies having consciousness had to become ‘myths,’ so my ego-mind would allow the door of possibility to open. As you know, a myth does not have to be proven or understood, and in this the ‘data’ can be collected…

    My dear brother, I know this is quite the mouthful and yet I don’t expect understanding. I am just sharing my relative truth that seems to be healing all the fear-based consciousness within my field. My myth Yeshua offers that fear is finite but that each expression of fear must choose to heal itself, for ‘we’ (the energies comprising the mind) cannot do it for them.

    Humans are a literal plethora of energy consciousness, and learning to open the door to the detection of the most subtle is only difficult because the ego is frightened of something unknown. It will often use the fear-consciousness of ‘Superiority’ to deny other levels of consciousness and will remain in the cognitive, the intellect, where it will use the mouth to offer that it is ‘feeling’ life. Talking about feeling and feeling within are two different realms…

    To offer Fear’s powerful and conscious expressions a chance to know love is to offer transmutation
    versus transcedence; one is permanent… And it is to offer great hope to unseen life that is in agonizing pain; for as Hatred once shared with me: “Andrea, when I vibrate and speak I only hate; I know nothing else. And whatever hates gobbles and destroys life. I don’t want to be hatred anymore; please help me, I’m terrified…”

    This is my continuing story, dear brother and I thank you for your insightful questions and audience. This story will challenge most seekers but to those who have ears, let them listen. There is much more to this healing, for it is permanent. To anyone: Write me should it flow to do so and maybe we are designed to have a conversation.

    Blessings, Andrea

  • http://mendingshift.wordpress.com Jeromy

    Andrea, thank you for swinging by. You said:

    “I offered ‘conflict’ absolute acceptance versus rejection…!”

    “I don’t want to be hatred anymore; please help me, I’m terrified…”

    Those words spoke deeply to me. The more we stop running from the conflict, darkness and hatred, the more we can see them for what they are. Your cry of not wanting to be hatred anymore is profound. A friend of mine who never considered themselves spiritual has found great peace in the practice of breathing.

    Again, thank you. I do feel however that even those who embody love can be hated and killed by others. But when love becomes a reality in us we realize that death is nothing to fear…when even death can be embraced and conquered by love.

    Blessings and peace,
    Jeromy

  • Andrea

    Hello again,

    I’ll try not to write a novel this time around…

    You offer a good point when you say that one who embodies love can still be hated and killed by others. Yes, most people would agree with you and yet let me ask this: Is our current awareness of love in its highest or ultimate expression? Do we know love’s fullest potential; and does any in humanity truly exist without fear awareness, therefore the purity of love? Personally I don’t believe it has been seen as of yet. Let me offer something of my experiences in this matter that seem to be working:

    It has been 4-1/2 yrs since my first encounter with the myth of ‘Yeshua’ and since then I have been traveling nationally and internationally, following my heart-guidance to the locations that provide the most powerful opportunities to grow. This translates to areas that hold some very dark and dangerous lifeforce. I don’t travel into these tough areas because I’m out to prove something; I simply go wherever I am guided, with fear usually encouraging my heart to follow. How will I ever heal all the fear within me if I don’t discover it? Traveling to these difficult places illuminates my fears and also challenges me to trust that my work with energy detection will keep me safe; that what Jesus taught me actually works… He has sent me out into the world to develop actual healing experience that is filled with peril. For me it’s either real or it’s bullshit, and I am truly willing to die if love is not greater than fear, and/or if God mislead me.
    Little by little the danger has increased and yet my energy-awareness work has yet to fail me. I run into plenty of people who hate life completely for the misery it offers, and this hatred is sometimes pointed in my direction. But what is different for me is that I am aware of the lifeforces, the fear-consciousness that is rising in their beings BEFORE they are; before it can usually manifest into violence. In other words, I begin speaking to their energy fields- these emotions- (I know them as literal conscious Beings) of hatred, rage, destruction, self-hatred, etc, and offer the energy of acceptance that often stuns them! I can clearly feel this when it happens. The lifeforce of ‘Hatred’ as an example, becomes confused because it is expecting rejection, which incites it to violence. When hatred feels my being flowing the powerful energy of acceptance, it often cries and causes its human host to stir in a most unusal way. Many times, dear brother, I have had some very dangerous people not say a word as they literally come into my arms weeping… I hold them closely and breathe acceptance to the life within them that is controlling the show and leaving the human-shell tortured and confused. Initially this kind of response shocked me but I soon became accustomed to the vastness of acceptance (love?) expanding fear.
    I would not be able to detect these dangerous lifeforces in others if I had not first developed this ability within myself. In this work, one must first learn to literally feel their own energies of hatred, violence, etc, and when I use the word ‘feel,’ I mean that they must discover their corresponding bodily sensations that occurr as each energy expresses itself (physically), and of course how to offer it permanent healing.
    I can not heal another’s fear-based lifeforce, but through the offering of acceptance and communication in the deepest levels, I can offer another respite or ease to their bodies and minds. And if it is their time and if it resonates for them, I can share a process of possibility that will open doors to their permanent healing of all fear.
    This is unique work that is spoken of considerably in the gnostic gospels of Mary Magdelene, Thomas and especially Phillip. They speak specifically of working with “energies” that are quite conscious…
    This work is obviously not for everyone, for others will continue to find guidance in other directions. It is rare in my journey to encounter a brother or sister who is in alignment with this level of energy consciousness, but I do find them in various parts of the world, and they are true treasures!
    I do not know where this work is taking me or what my contribution to all life may be. Yeshua seems to have some ideas but as he has taught me, his truth is not my truth until it becomes my personal feeling-experience.
    I live in every moment breathing and feeling my way to each destination not knowing how I will keep going. I exist on the edge and no longer relate to 3-D awareness as I once did. I am blessed and I’m ruined, and I’m lonely at times.

    Thank you for your kind words and again for your audience that allows me to express things more for my own growth. I have some clever ideas about life sitting on my shelves but I truly don’t have a clue!

    Love, Andrea

  • http://thebestparts.blogspot.com/ Tracy Simmons

    Andrea,
    I would love to dialogue with you via email. My email is on the main page of my blog (click on my name, above, and it will take you there) under the “contact me” box in the right-hand column. If you’re so led, please shoot me an email!
    Thanks,
    Tracy

  • http://mendingshift.wordpress.com Jeromy

    Andrea, you said: “Is our current awareness of love in its highest or ultimate expression? Do we know love’s fullest potential; and does any in humanity truly exist without fear awareness, therefore the purity of love?” No, we do not know Love in its ultimate expression. No, none of us as humans exsist without fear. But I do believe Love’s ultimate expression and potential can be seen and one day fully experienced in Jesus.

    “I can not heal another’s fear-based lifeforce, but through the offering of acceptance and communication in the deepest levels…” So many of our problems seem to lie right there, thinking we can heal and fix other’s fear-based exsistance and all the crap that is expressed because of it. We do this at the avoidence of looking at our own fear-based exsitence, thinking we can — and should — fix them while ignoring ourselves. I think Jesus said it well when he told us to “love others and we love ourselves”.

    Thank you for your words. Your humilty is apparent in your words.