It’s Independence Day! I think it is significant to note that “The United States wasn’t actually born on July 4. We had to win the war first. We stated our ‘intentions’ on July 4. July 4 was the start of the insurrection against the King. …The Revolutionary War against Britain for Independence lasted till 1781 when Cornwallis surrendered, and really wasn’t finished until 1784 when the Articles of Confederation ratified the treaty of Paris. We celebrate July 4 to reaffirm our commitment to freedom, liberty, freedom of choice.”

What about you? Do you feel free? Do you feel like you are at choice? Have you written your own declaration of independence and actually put it into action. This is what I want to write about today? Every change in our life comes from a commitment for that change. It comes from within and is made by making a decision. Just as our forefathers had to decide first that they wanted independence, we must decide first. Everything after that decision moves with that decision. We can be at war many years after making our own life decisions, the changes can come as quickly as we decide to make them.

The war I am speaking of is the war that unfolds in our own minds whenever we want to change. We are swimming in a sea a field of receptivity filled with our thoughts. All those thoughts come from our beliefs, and they are running our life. This is both the good news and the not so good news. Good news in that a belief can be changed, and not so good news because sometimes it feels like a war to change a belief.

Perhaps it feels like a war because our beliefs are wired in our brain. The circuits are firing and re-firing causing us to repeat the same behavior over and over based on those beliefs. Hebb’s Law states that “Neurons that fire together, Wire Together’. On the negative side of this, ‘Neurons that fire apart, wire apart’. Effectively this means that if you do not use it, you’ll lose it!”

If we really looked at it simply, scientifically, we could easily see that we are programed to believe the way we believe. However, I ask, “Who programed us?” We can say our parents or we can say that we are victims of circumstance, but really that thinking will not allow us to make the positive changes we might be seeking. Ernest Holmes once wrote, “We are bond because we are first free.” He is making the point that we’ve convinced ourselves through our freedom of choice to create bondage in our lives. When we look at it all as a program, we can see that we can change it. Remember, Hebb’s Law means “if you do not use it, you’ll lose it.”

However, how will we ever change our beliefs? The second part of this is that we must accept that “It is done unto us as we believe.” We have to accept that we live in a limitless sea of receptivity or an energy field that creates from the vibration of our feelings. So, our thinking powered by our feelings creates our life. What we put out comes back to us.

If you take anything from this message, I trust that you will understand that you are free. Your thoughts do not own you. You are not bound by anything besides your self-created beliefs that you can change.

Ernest Holmes once wrote, “To suppose that the Creative Intelligence of the Universe would create man in bondage and leave him bound would be to dishonor the Creative Power which we call God. Individuality must be spontaneous; it can never be automatic. The seed of freedom must be planted in the innermost being of man, but, like the Prodigal Son, man must make the great discovery for himself.”

So to wrap this up…

You are free

You’ve been programmed by yourself, creating beliefs that are running your life by making you think and react that way you do.

Your feelings, the most prevalent ones are coming back to you as your experiences.

You can change your beliefs by your own initiative and thus change your experiences.

Trace your thoughts back to a belief and change the belief. This is what Spiritual Mind Treatment also called Affirmative Prayer does. There are many other methods out there. This one works the best for me. With Spiritual Mind Treatment you are directing your mind to create new beliefs, you are rewiring your brain. You are re-directing the Quantum Field.

Let’s get conscious. Let’s declare our independence today. I wrote this a few 4^th of Julys ago…

When in the course of my life, it becomes necessary for me to dissolve the  bands of limitation which I have constructed in my mind that prohibit me from realizing my full power under the Laws of Nature, as being created in God’s Nature and all that I am entitled to, I separate myself from man’s opinion and unify myself with my True Nature, which says: that I and all humanity are created equal, that we are endowed with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, a Law of Cause and Effect is instituted in our Being. I say yes to using this Power constructively for myself and in turn for all of creation. And that, whenever any form of thought in my mind becomes destructive of these ends, it is my right under Law to abolish it, and to institute new thought, laying its foundation on these True Principles and bringing in that moment into my life all that is Good. This is my freedom under Law. This is my duty as a Divine Being. I declare this as my Truth and go forth now to live it.” Rita Andriello-Feren as borrowed and re-written from the Declaration of Independence

Happy 4th of July 2021!

Rev. Rita Andriello-Feren