You Might Be a Christian and Not Even Know It!

By David Alfred Tetley

Your fondest dreams are about to come true. Imagine talking with Christ, face to face, and hearing His reassuring voice ringing in your mind and heart. David Alfred Tetley has been there and can lead you to an inner peace perhaps you have never known. Follow the simple steps outlined in this book to gain greater health and well-being in all areas of your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Oct 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781452521244

David Alfred Tetley

I never thought that, after receiving a doctorate in theology at a major seminary, I would wind up in jail! But it turned out to be the very best thing that ever happened to me. At that time, my life changed, and I found Christ, in a simple prison cell, as I was reading the Bible on Christmas Eve 2003. Since that night, I have felt called to answer the question, “Why is prayer not answered?” My book, You Might Be a Christian and Not Even Know It! will answer that and many more questions. Born in Berkeley, California, in 1953, I grew up in Southern California in the 1960s. Raised in an Episcopal church, I learned fear and guilt at an early age. My book blends the Bible’s teachings with A Course in Miracles to bring my readers into a finer attunement with the Voice of God within them. This Voice can lead us to greater physical health, more loving relationships, and success in business and finance. The choice is ours to make, either to listen to the crowd of losers within our minds or to follow the Christ Spirit to the light of a finer day.

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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 publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

The Jerusalem Bible, Reader’s Edition, Jones, Alexander, Editor, (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1966-1968). Cited as (JB).

Bible, Catholic Study: New American Bible, Second Edition, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990, 2006). Cited as (NAB).

Today’s English Version: Good News Bible, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers/American Bible Society, 1966, 1976, 1986). Cited as (TEV).

King James Version, (New York: American Bible Society, 2002, originally published in, 1611). Cited as (KJV).

George M. Lamsa’s Translation from the Aramaic of the Pershitta, (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row Publishers, 1933-1968). Cited as (LB).

The Nelson Study Bible: New King James Version, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1979-1997). Cited as (NKJV).

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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.

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ISBN: 978-1-4525-2123-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-2125-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-2124-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014915595

Balboa Press rev. date: 10/15/2014

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Introduction

1. Hope

2. Hope Part Two

3. The Quiet Joy Of The Inner Christ

4. Chapter 4 Two-Way Prayer Revisited

5. Two-Way Prayer Explained

6. The Technique Itself

7. Breath Of Spirit

8. Cleanliness Is Next To Holiness

9. The Amen Technique

10. The Faith Of A Mustard Seed

11. The Science Of Thought

12. Distractions On The Path

13. Peace Of Mind

14. Love Is …

15. Silence Is Not Always Golden, But Quietude Provides Peace

16. Changes Are Necessary

17. Twistin’ The Axis Away

18. Sinking The Stone

19. Raising The Stone

20. Reincarnating For Eternity

21. Romancing The Stone

22. Peace Dwells Within

23. Entering The Sacred Heart

24. Specialness As A Barrier To Peace Part One

25. Specialness Part Two

26. The Joy Of Christ Part Two

27. Racing The Stone Around The Soul

28. Racing The Stone Part Two

29. Racing Through Life

30. Drifting With The Currents

Epilogue

References

For my daughter, Rebecca

Cover art Light of the World

By William Holman Hunt (1854)

"The door in the painting has no handle,

and can therefore be opened only from the inside."

Courtesy of Wikipedia

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

No book is a sole effort of its author. I have a debt of gratitude to those who helped me along the way over the last ten years while I formulated my ideas. I thank my mother and sister in Christ; I appreciate her wise counsel and continued support. She has taught me the profound power of kindness. I thank my father and brother in Christ for his support and for showing me how time, effort, and a positive mental attitude can lead to success and prosperity.

I thank my friend, mentor, and Spirit guide, Dr. Clif King, for patiently giving me his wise guidance and loving support, which has always been my inspiration.

I thank my sister Susan, a sage teacher and loving mother, for generously sharing her wonderful children!

I thank my brothers, Thomas, Stephen, and Dennis (my brother from another mother); I appreciate their respect, friendship, and support.

I thank Jessica Hawkins for introducing me with great joy to Balboa Press as well as Heather, Shannon, Staci and the entire fine staff at that marvelous publishing house. I thank Martin McHugh for his wise editorial contribution to this book.

I send a special thanks to Louise Hay for her inspiring book, You Can Heal Your Life, which has been a constant reference.

I thank Oprah Winfrey, whose inspiring weekly program, Super Soul Sunday, happily introduced me to many powerful and beautiful teachers, including Michael Singer and Dr. Brené Brown.

I thank Jesus Christ, whose Light and Love have guided this book from its inception.

Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.

—John 8:32 (KJV)

PROLOGUE

Have you heard?

As children, we learned in school to place our faith in scientific research, which offered solutions to our problems, including pills to cure depression, internal combustion engines for transportation, and electricity to power the Internet. Connecting in cyberspace does remediate our loneliness, but science is far from perfect even if modern medical science, as one example, has progressed since the days of bloodletting and mercury tinctures. Bodies still die. For this reason, we wonder what happens to us after this life is over. And while science researches the afterlife through examining near-death experiences, most of us still feel anxiety about death. Once we solve life’s fundamental riddles, our fears will diminish and a bold, new day will dawn for us. While we may applaud the wonders scientific research is producing and the suffering it can alleviate, we’re also acutely aware of its glaring limitations especially in assuaging our existential mental and emotional compulsions.

In the words of the eminent psychologist Dr. Carl Jung, We must forgo compulsion and turn to self-development. For this we must have knowledge of a way or method.¹ Jung’s way might be the oldest method for mental health, an internal dialogue with our Creator. Even though this might seem impossible now, I can assure you it is possible. Why listen directly to God’s Voice in us? It’s because our goal is complete peace of mind and bodily relaxation.

Have you recently felt completely alive and genuinely enthusiastic about life? If we were honest, most of us would say no. Life is tough sometimes, and we tend to forget the happy times and remember the sad. We had moments as children, usually during holidays or on family vacations, when we felt joyful just to be alive. We still seek that joy! That spark isn’t lost; we can always reignite the inner flame. A closing invocation at various twelve-step meetings promises, It works if you work it! The techniques we discuss in this book work; they have worked for many people for nearly forty years. In the following chapters, we reintroduce a simple version of an ancient prayer dubbed Two-Way Prayer. I didn’t invent it; Christ taught this technique to His disciples, who passed it along to their students. Together, we will deeply and symbolically read scripture and find Christ’s unbroken, two-way communication with us.

With our hectic twenty-first-century pace, however, who finds time for Bible reading? And even though the Holy Spirit inspired the biblical writers, uninspired editors later altered their work to suit their theological and political aims. After twisting texts and inventing dogmas, the church has used scripture to oppress instead of enlighten humanity. Thankfully, the storm clouds of delusion are clearing. Today, at the dawn of Christ’s third millennium, His guiding light is leading the prepared in performing the same miracles He enacted in the New Testament. For two millennia, billions of believers have marveled at but not duplicated Christ’s feeding the masses, healing the sick, restoring the blind, and raising the dead. He promised we’d someday perform these miracles and even greater ones. Our first step comes from establishing a direct, inner connection with His power. St. Paul told us, We are those who have the mind of Christ.²

Modern psychology confirms that we see only what we believe; preconceptions shape our perceptions of the world, one another, and ourselves. Usually, we acquired these untested prejudices before we were old enough to reason. Racism persisted in America’s Southern states long after the Emancipation Proclamation simply because one generation carefully taught the next. In the same way, our basic beliefs about religion, sex, politics, death, and even which sports team we support reside in the unplumbed reservoir of feelings, the subconscious mind. In these pages, we will uncover better ways to understand these subconscious drives and discover ways to remove race beliefs from our hearts.

In his groundbreaking textbook The Science of Mind, Ernest Holmes coined the phrase race consciousness³ to describe not only racial hatred but also all mental illusions of the human race. A law of human thought has been made, he explained, which binds the race.⁴ It seems that our environments, parents, teachers, and cultures have not limited us; our own internal concepts, those buried beneath the deepest waters of our minds have held us back. Christ offered living water welling up to eternal life to the Samaritan woman.⁵ Today, He offers you, dear reader, that same thirst-quenching beverage, the eternally satisfying living water in your heart and mind. The techniques He will share with you in this book will uncork your internal fountain of youth.

In the Dark Ages, alchemists symbolically referred to Christ’s Holy Grail as the living source. Sadly, society condemned many of them as sorcerers. We don’t dabble in any black arts here; we use only white magic, the same kind Christ used to cleanse lepers, heal the sick, and raise the dead. As He walked on the Sea of Galilee, He demonstrated how mentally to master gravity. Rather than break that law, He superseded it with another, more-powerful principle, the law of faith. After we rise to Christ’s awareness, we will fulfill His promise to perform even greater works.⁶ He embraces us fraternally because we all share a common birthright as children of the Most High.⁷ For this reason, all souls share a sacred inheritance as cocreators with the inmost Spirit, God Almighty, and Christ, the greatest spiritual alchemist.

How does this promote inner peace? Simply, our souls wear thinking bodies just as we don physical bodies at birth. These thought auras create health, wealth, and happiness. Because we’ve unknowingly worn these thought bodies, we caused disease, poverty, and turmoil for others and ourselves. Conversely, staying healthy, receiving big checks, or experiencing love, we believe we’re just lucky. There’s no such thing as luck; in one way or another, we’ve created our fortunes and our failures by our subconscious thoughts. During Two-Way Prayer, we examine those binding misconceptions in the accepting atmosphere of His wisdom, and He helps us break those limiting emotional chains. As a result, we return to our natural, God-given state of mental equilibrium and divine joy.

Of course, our most limiting chain is transmigration. Eastern religions call this reincarnation, but I refer to it as a bad habit. In Two-Way Prayer, Christ bestows His liberating grace that frees us forever from the misery of physical existence and takes us on a journey through the joys and sorrows of past incarnations, reviewing the unfinished business that necessitated our returns. Through understanding why we are here, we can more easily undo the mistakes of the past and heal the relationships of the present. After graduating from earth school, we may volunteer to return as teachers, helping others transcend space and time. We can remain in the next world as Spirit guides (also referred to as guardian angels) and help loved ones we left behind. On the other hand, we may choose to roam the peaceful splendor of the higher realms with our countless, long-forgotten loved ones. Yes, there’s a bright future for us, resting in the arms of Christ’s love, after we’ve broken the reincarnation habit.

Modern psychology has evolved from Freudian analysis to more positive, therapeutic approaches. Those unfortunate souls who spent many years and thousands of dollars in analysis received nearly always negative diagnoses and very little cure. However, psychiatrists continue to dispense indeterminable supplies of antidepressants despite the severe side effects reported by patients. Many of us turned instead to natural remedies such as deep breathing, herbal treatments, yoga, and meditation. Some of us assumed the lotus posture until our ligaments cried for mercy. We sought foreign gurus and followed their every word. Some found relief in intense aerobic exercise and strict dietary regimens. This book presents a moderate yet highly effective approach to Christian spirituality.

During our somewhat dissipated journeys, the calm Christ mind in us was gently tapping on the doors of our hearts, requesting entrance. Centuries passed while we ignored Him. We were busy pursuing exciting careers in business, child rearing, dance, art, or scientific research. But Christ kept on knocking, and occasionally, usually at Christmas or Easter, we felt Him in our hearts and were provided some inner peace. This quickly faded after we plunged back into our hectic work and passionate play, and the dance of life consumed us again. Perhaps, more than money or fame, time is humankind’s most precious commodity because we cannot buy any more of it with wealth or prestige. If that’s true, we have no time to waste in our search for peace of mind.

When I was sixteen, my wise mother introduced me to a highly evolved meditation instructor, Dr. King. After chatting affably for about forty minutes, he shocked me by declaring, God is within you. Growing up in Glendale, California, I pictured God in the blue sky or on the altar of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, where our family attended on Easter Sundays. But Dr. King’s classes were different; they fascinated me! He taught us Two-Way Prayer.

When I was eighteen, I moved to Davis, California, to study religion at the university. One night, while I was asleep in the dorm, he spoke to me in a dream and asked me to visit him. At the close of the quarter, I traveled five hundred miles south and went to his home. Before I spoke, he remarked, You know, that was more than a dream you had. Stupefied, I realized he could teach me a great deal. After confessing to my patchy Two-Way Prayer practice, he challenged me by asking, Can you pray for two minutes a day? Well, I thought, anyone can do that! And so I have faithfully sat in meditation or Two-Way Prayer practice each day since.

God blesses the beginner! During those early years, the Holy Spirit blessed me with innumerable signs and wonders.⁸ Rather than describe these miracles, let me simply say that when the Almighty summons us—as that wayward prophet Jonah discovered—there’s no escape from that loving tractor beam.⁹

While I was finishing a doctoral program at Claremont School of Theology and serving the Encino Community Church in Tarzana, Dr. King’s guidance helped me continue with Two-Way Prayer for several years. Sadly, in 1979, I left him and our church and finished my doctorate. Graduating penniless, I quickly entered the financial services industry. Seeking an Eastern path to God, I became a vegan, joined the Los Angeles–based Self-Realization Fellowship, and spent many quiet hours in meditation during the 1980s and ’90s.

Unfortunately, in 2000, due to severe alcohol addiction, I quit minding the store, and my financial planning business failed. I sold my ocean view home in Malibu, moved to the lovely island of Maui, where my father lived, and earnestly began as a realtor there. While visiting relatives in California in 2003, the news of an arrest warrant—I was charged with forty felonies—sent me through the roof. During my years as an insurance agent, I had forged documents out of sloppy convenience, but the LA deputy district attorney, heading the recently formed elder abuse unit, needed a verdict advancing that department.

While working in Hawaii, I was paying $3,500 monthly to the insurance companies that had reimbursed my former clients. Because these companies had completely restored my former clients financially before the judge issued this warrant, there were no losses and no thievery. A newspaper announced I would serve a forty-year sentence. In fact, the DA offered me twenty years for forgery or six years if I pled guilty to embezzlement and financial elder abuse. I lied under oath and took the lesser sentence.

Prison usually degrades an individual and breaks his or her Spirit. Due to my decades of study and prayer, however, I fortunately turned these years to my advantage. At the beginning of my incarceration at a state prison, for example, my cell contained only two books—the Holy Bible and the Twelve Steps.¹⁰ This was quite a message. During my entire stay as a guest of the State of California, God’s reassuring Voice patiently guided me back to vigorous physical exercise, Two-Way Prayer, and scripture reading. For me, custody was salubrious.

On New Year’s Eve in 2004, with snow drifting and winds howling outside, I sat on my bunk and practiced Two-Way Prayer. Christ said I would become a best-selling author while under His direction and write ten books! I felt very surprised until soon after, hearing St. Paul’s words, I transcribed them, and what he said made sense. Therefore, I base this book and those to follow upon inner dictations received directly from St. Paul. I function as his scribe.

His message is this: we’ve swayed back and forth like willows in shifting winds, seeking God in many religious traditions. Even though we developed much-needed respect for other beliefs, their ways are not ours, and we were waylaid on our homeward journey through Christ. To progress quickly to the highest spiritual realms, we must find our souls’ true way home. Christ is calling the prodigals home. That’s why this book is entitled You Might Be a Christian and Not Even Know It! We can say the same for a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist, or a yogi. These pages reveal a forgotten but essential secret: like an internal GPS system, each soul contains a preordained chart to heaven. Fascinated by the imported religions, we delved into fascinating alternative routes, but these simply lengthen our pilgrimages. For the Christian, Buddhism is a serene sideshow, a diversion that offers nirvana only to members of the inner circle. Christian souls will never reach the Buddhist western paradise, and Buddhists will not become fully enlightened Christians. Furthermore, if we fail to realize our goals in this brief lifetime, another or several more physical embodiments will be given us.

For those encountering resistance in practicing TM, vipassanā or raja yoga, here is my observation: after struggling with Sanskrit terms and studying under Indian gurus for over twenty years, I found much quicker and deeper spiritual progress after I returned to the inner Christ through Two-Way Prayer and received God’s grace. There’s no brighter light in the universe than Christ’s, and for the Christian soul, there can be no faster way to achieve moksha, freedom from corporal rebirth. The Christ who raised the dead and walked on water has much truth to impart if we’d only listen.

In addition to St. Paul’s, the divine Voices of many of our elder brothers and sisters aided me in offering a more complete and authentic message of Practical Christianity to all women and men. I thank you in advance for giving this message an open-minded and wholehearted hearing.

INTRODUCTION

This book is an expression of Christ’s Love translated into written words. Naturally, His Love transcends mere words; His Love is eternal and ever present. St. Paul pointed to the source of this love by recommending the techniques of Two-Way Prayer, Amen, and breath of Spirit, about which you will read. Although the ocean is full of fish, we’d starve if we didn’t bait a hook and drop a line. God asks us to do our part in finding divine love. Lasting love isn’t the stuff of Hollywood movies or romance novels. To paraphrase a favorite verse, love is patient, kind, and enduring.¹¹

We turn our backs on God’s Love, however, when we condemn ourselves. If you are like me, you’ve found that long after others have forgotten some careless remark or an impulsive action you have mistakenly said or done, the painful memory remains and your conscience pricks you with guilt. We can arrest, subdue, and quiet the little voice in our minds that bitterly condemns us for our mistakes through Two-Way Prayer, which we will explore together in these pages. I urge you to read on, but more important, to practice the techniques, for they’re the real bread and butter of this book.

This book explores a positive concept of God. Somewhere between wanting all the money in the world and all the peace of the universe, we find God’s wisdom. We don’t want a Christian faith that teaches that poverty is a virtue, nor do we want to live as materialists who endlessly chase the almighty dollar. We want to find the true God who enriches us materially and spiritually. As we sit in the stillness, practicing Two-Way Prayer, we will encounter this rich and loving God.

This book gives Voice to the prophetic visions of St. Paul. No prophet is a hundred percent accurate, but despite that, we highly regard the prophets of old. We respect the prophet Isaiah, for instance, who predicted that the calf and the lion cub would feed together and a little boy would lead them.¹² Literally speaking, however, he was wrong—at least for now. Of course, we respect Isaiah for accurately foretelling the coming of the Jewish Messiah. Here he was correct, even though his prophecies took nearly seven hundred years to unfold.¹³ The prophet Zachariah later foretold that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey.¹⁴ About five hundred years later, Jesus fulfilled that prophecy, and today, we celebrate the event every spring on Palm Sunday.

Prophecy is like predicting the weather; although meteorology is an inexact science, we still pay attention to weather reports. Why do some prophecies fall short of their mark? The Creator endowed us all with free will to decide our futures. Some events, however, are divinely preordained and foreseeable. Zechariah may not have known the entire future; by God’s grace, however, he clearly glimpsed a picture of the Messiah riding a donkey through the gates of Jerusalem. More recently, American psychic Jeane Dixon correctly called the White House and warned President John F. Kennedy not to go to Dallas the next day. Sadly, her precognition was devastatingly accurate.¹⁵

On numerous occasions during the 1970s, Dr. King predicted that science would one day prove the existence of God. Four decades later, an article with this title appeared in Forbes: The Higgs Boson: Why You Should Care About the God Particle. And, Sadly, Why You Don’t.¹⁶

During July 2012, many provocative headlines declared that physicists in Switzerland had proven the reality of God.

Today, Christ’s mission continues; of this we can be certain. Over two billion humans currently recognize His wondrous leadership. What becomes of the confused souls who have not found a spiritual shepherd to follow? They too have the choice to accept or reject their God-given path homeward. This book gives you a way to determine your God-appointed Messiah whether it’s Buddha, Krishna, Muhammad, Socrates, Christ, or Moses, to name a few candidates. The Two-Way Prayer Dr. King taught and I reintroduce here points to the universal door you can unlock that leads to freedom from human confinement. Just like the cave dwellers in Socrates’ analogy who stared at shadows on the wall, we’re hearing news of a more beautiful world far too marvelous to believe and merely awaiting our conscious recognition.

The earth offers incalculable buried treasures, but we prosper only by staking our claim. This is true for spiritual riches as well. Store up treasures for yourselves in Heaven Christ recommended, For where your treasure is there your heart be also.¹⁷ We can experience only as much of God’s infinite Love as our hearts can accept, but if clutter clogs the storehouse of our hearts and minds, there will be no room for new treasure. To receive Him, we must transform our minds and hearts. That’s why He insisted, New wine must be put into new wineskins.¹⁸ If we are to receive the true sacrament, the inner Christ presence, and eternally serve the bread and the wine of life, we must make room for Him.

This is a book about transformation. God’s Spirit renews us day by day until we’re prepared to join Christ’s wedding feast. We daily don the wedding garment by sitting in prayer and awaiting the coming of Christ in our souls. We don’t accomplish this alone; the grace of God manifesting through our Christ mind does most of the alterations. In the words of St. Paul, We have the mind of Christ.¹⁹ The Christ mind doesn’t judge us for being rich or poor, tall or small, black or white. He accepts us as we are and tailors our characters from tattered gowns to elegant attire. We’re often not aware of His influence until much later. Then one day, we look at ourselves in the mirror and admit, I have changed!

The change we want is the kind we experience by regularly working out at the gym with an expert trainer. We start slowly and then build up to a strenuous regimen. At first, it’s all pain and no gain. Later, however, we notice our spiritual muscles growing. We become stronger day by day with Christ’s help. This requires faith and practice!

This book doesn’t dictate specific behavioral standards. Christians have suffered far too long under dogmatic rules and regulations handed down by misguided priests and pastors. Ethics are far too situational to make specific recommendations for everyone. We offer a more flexible and very accurate way always to know what to do and when to do it in any circumstance. We ask Christ. Then we wait for a response. He knows what we need to hear in any situation we face. With one touch, He can heal our bodies, minds, and souls.

After we’ve learned to hear His Voice, we may find that following His advice is a harder lesson. This book suggests constructive ways to build confidence and trust in internal guidance. Learning to trust our intuition is somewhat like early twentieth-century pilots learning to fly at night and relying on instruments rather than dead reckoning. For many years, pilots were reluctant to fly at night and flew only on cloudless days. When the fog closed in, they were lost. Then airplane manufacturers started placing radar, radios, and altimeters in planes. Then, pilots could fly at night and rely on these navigational instruments in any weather. This resulted in fewer plane crashes.

We’re like those pilots, flying in countless directions. It would be impossible for one book