The Seven Stages of Spiritual Transformation in the Acts of Paul & Thecla
Soul-Voice Meditation
The question for our soul-voice meditation for Stage Six is: who am I? Listen for an “I am” statement that feels like the truest truth you could ever describe about yourself. You can meditate on this question in silence or using the guided audio meditation.
IN THIS SERMON
Stage Six is ownership.
That inner treasure though has to be well-kept, held, and used wisely. This is the sixth stage. It’s when we learn to own the hard-won power we’ve become. It’s when we learn to take care of the self we have freed from the circumstances of our birth, from the world around us that had wanted us to become someone else, the world that wanted us to be defined by what has already existed.
And what we learn in this sixth stage is how to be our own. We learn to be a self that has never existed before. We learn simply to be true most and only to what we hear within. Because we’ve completed this journey, because we’ve understood that all along ultimately, no matter how far we traveled, the real journey took place from within.
“And the women were panic-stricken and cried out before the court, “Unholy judgment!” (The Acts of Paul and Thecla – Chapter 27, Verse 2)
“And the women along with the children cried out from above, saying, ‘God, a godless judgment has been passed in this city!’” (The Acts of Paul and Thecla – Chapter 28, Verse 3)
“In the name of Jesus Christ, I baptize myself!” (The Acts of Paul and Thecla – Chapter 34, Verse 3)
“And the governor called out to Thecla from the midst of the wild animals and said to her, ‘Who are you? And what is it about you that not even one of the wild animals touched you?” (The Acts of Paul and Thecla – Chapter 37, Verse 1-2)
“I am the slave of the living God. And as to what it is about me, I have trusted in the child of God, and through whom not even one of the wild animals touched me… for this one alone is the limit of salvation and the foundation of life through the ages…a refuge for those in a storm; freedom for the oppressed; for the despairing, a shelter.” (The Acts of Paul and Thecla – Chapter 37, Verse 3-4)