Stepping Through the Narrow Gate

Instead, this book will show you how to become someone you have never been before, someone with the power to live successfully and experience life in a wholly different way. It will describe a proven process in which your sense of self evolves into a new and unprecedented state of being. In this new state, you will become consciously aware of your unity with the creative presence of love and life that is the foundation of the universe. Jesus described it as entering the Kingdom of God / Heaven. The good news is that it is available right now, in this life!

The first thing you need to know is there will be a price to pay, and it’s a big one – the sacrifice of your current sense of self. There is no way around it if you are to be reborn into a new state of awareness- a new you. This is the hallmark of evolutionary change. It’s what Jesus taught. Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy^ that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. ¹⁴For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matt 7:13,14)

This book is based on the premise that this evolutionary change is the destiny and salvation of humankind. This is good news because its purpose is the expansion of God’s love in ways that make life so much better here on Earth. Through this spiritual change in ourselves we bring the Kingdom of Heaven into visibility through the unfolding stories of our lives.

In Step Four, we make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

With this step, we begin the Life Review process. A complete life review is part of the ending of one life and the beginning of another. Most people in the Christian culture see this as a kind of judgment day, something that occurs in association with physical death. Here, it is a phase of our spiritual evolution, marking the birth of the Christ sense of self.

Understood from this perspective it can be seen as a normal part of life, even if not an everyday occurrence. In nature it can be likened to the conclusion of a growing cycle: Vegetation matures, serves its purpose and dies, at the same time producing seed for the next season.

For us, this is a time of harvesting the good that came from previous stages of ego development and discarding whatever would impede the future expansion of good.

One of Jesus’ parables illustrates the need to sort through ideas, beliefs and attitudes, keeping some and abandoning others.

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, "Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?" He answered, "An enemy has done this." The slaves said to him, "Then do you want us to go and gather them?" But he replied, "No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’" (Matthew 13:24-30)

The "enemy" in the parable represents the fear-inducing ego state of mind that exists in human nature. The "weeds" symbolize ideas, attitudes, and beliefs that cause trouble, drain energy, and continue to plague us into adulthood.

Weeding out harmful ideas one at a time is one of the ways people try to deal with problems. But as the parable shows, this practice is not only ineffective but can deplete even more energy. Jesus’ advice is not to worry too much about them while they’re growing, instead dealing with them all at once at harvest time.