A Soul Food Thanksgiving

A Soul Food Thanksgiving
Rev. Elease Welch

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh Lord of my Soul.  I often say these words to the congregation before I give a sermon.  I know the feeling of peace and gratitude this invokes in me and I know that when I speak I experience and express these feeling; I am connected in that moment to the God within me. 

In this week of Thanksgiving, we will spend time eating and feeding our bodies, giving thanks and being in celebration with family and friends.  If for some reason you are not doing this, you will probably spend some time thinking of a past Thanksgiving or one in the future; you will give thought to the way it was or the way you'd like it to be.

As we interact with family and friends or spend time with our selves, we are given opportunities and reminded to give thanks.  Giving thanks is a form of gratitude and gratitude raises our level of vibration, lifts us up in consciousness to an even greater experience of what is present in our consciousness.  As I say, before the sermon, "may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh Lord of my Soul," the words feed my Spirit somehow.  I experience a connection and that connection is greater, the experience is heightened, and the gratitude I feel is amplified.

This month we are focused on elimination and renunciation.  At my church we are also focused on the mind, body, spirit connection.  As we prepare meals, for the season we spend a lot of time planning, preparing, and looking forward to what we will eat, who will visit, who will be missing.

As I thought about the mind, body, spirit connection, I thought ,we spend a lot of time focused in this season on what we feed our bodies.  The question is, what do we feed our mind and, more importantly, what do we feed out Spirit? 
 
This season gives us an opportunity to plan a meal to feed the Spirit; we get a chance to make food for our Soul.  In the planning, making, eating and digesting of this food, we may renounce and eliminate the things that stand in the way of seeing our self the way God sees us.  This act will increase our feelings of gratitude and raise the level of our vibration.   So plan a menu to feed your Soul, a menu to feed your Spirit.  These are some of the courses that are on my menu:

Appetizer:  Silence, I spend time listening to my inner voice.

Salad:  Separate, I eliminate those thoughts, behaviors, and circumstances that serve as a distraction and create any illusion that I am separate from God.

Main Course:  Saturate, I fill myself with the Holy Spirit; read sacred text, listen to music that feeds my soul; praise, worship, meditate.

Dessert:  Sacred space, I clear the clutter in my home, in my office, in every place I spend time to shift the energy and open to Spirit.

Each of us is unique yet each of us is made in the image and likeness of God.  When we have a menu, we can select a course at any time to feed Spirit.  This increases our connection, increases our appreciation of our infinite God like qualities and allows them to grow as we grow in Spirit!

Enjoy!

Our Trigger Releases:
 
I now release, renounce and eliminate all distractions.
I now release, renounce and eliminate old thoughts that no longer serve me.
I now release, renounce and eliminate any judgments that stand in the way of seeing myself as God sees me.
Our Healing Affirmations:
I now affirm that I am made in the image and likeness of God.
I now affirm that I am empowered by Spirit.
I now affirm that I express outwardly what I am inwardly, a unique expression of God.
The Inner Visions Full Life Fellowship is an Interfaith Ministry dedicated to the evolution of the consciousness of humanity.  We believe that the presence of Christ Consciousness is the spiritual authority on the planet and the divine path to personal transformation. 

http://www.innervisionsworldwide.com/
Rev. Iyanla Vanzant-Bandele, Founding Minister