Ron Roth - Reclaim Your Spiritual Power

Also by Ron Roth, Ph.D.

Books
(with Peter Occhiogrosso)
The Healing Path of Prayer
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit for Healing
I Want to See Jesus in a New Light
Prayer and the Five Stages of Healing
(also available in Spanish)

Audios
The Dark Night of the Soul
The Healing Path of Prayer
Healing Prayers
Holy Spirit: The Boundless Energy of God
Prayer and Spirit As Energy Medicine
Prayer and the Five Stages of Healing

All of the above are available
at your local bookstore.
Items with may also be ordered
through Hay House, Inc.:

(800) 654-5126 or (760) 431-7695
(800) 650-5115 (fax) or (760) 431-6948 (fax)
www.hayhouse.com

Copyright 2002 by Ron Roth

Published and distributed in the United States by:
Hay House, Inc., P.O. Box 5100, Carlsbad, CA 92018-5100
(800) 654-5126 (800) 650-5115 (fax) www.hayhouse.com
Hay House Australia Pty Ltd, P.O. Box 515, Brighton-Le-Sands,
NSW 2216 phone: 1800 023 516 e-mail: info@hayhouse.com.au

Editorial supervision: Jill Kramer Design: Julie Davison

Permission is gratefully acknowledged to reprint lyrics from:
How Could Anyone, words and music by Libby Roderick, 1988 Libby Roderick Music. From the recording If You See a Dream. Turtle Island Records, P.O. Box 203294, Anchorage, AK 99520

e-mail: libbyr@alaska.net www.alaska.net/~libbyr

phone: (907) 278-6817

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews without prior written permission of the publisher.

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.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Roth, Ron.
Reclaim your spiritual power / Ron Roth with Peter Occhiogrosso.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-56170-708-2

1. Spiritual life. I. Occhiogrosso, Peter. II. Title.
BL624 .R68 2002
291.44dc21

2002000810

ISBN 9801561707082
05 04 03 02 4 3 2 1
1st printing, August 2002

Printed in the United States of America

For all those individuals whose prayers and expressions of love hastened my swift return to health, and my renewed dedication to experience life more fully in the spirit of St. Irenaeus, who stated, The glory of God is found in the person who is fully alive.

My sincere, heartfelt thanks to all of you, including the staffs of Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, California; and Illinois Valley Community Hospital in Peru, Illinois, and to my personal physician, Dr. Kim.

God bless you all. I will never forget your kindness to me.

Contents

Changing Our Misconceptions

The search for yourself is your lifes purpose. To know yourself is to know the power of God within you. We are here to discover our truth and to make our unique contribution to life. The Spirit wants us to give something back to health and to heal others, but first the healing must begin within us. We must learn to trust the mystic within. We must learn to recognize and respect God within ourselves. You and I know these truths. We know the way. Our challenge is to close the book, to leave the religious service, to turn off the tape, and practice living the message. The more we practice living from within, listening and talking to God throughout each day, the more conscious we become of Gods indwelling presence. The more receptive our minds and hearts become to the wisdom of Spirit, then we have deeper insights and a greater understanding of life. Then our duties, cares, and worries become our opportunities for growth and our burdens become lighter.

Susan Taylor, In the Spirit

I n the 1970s and 80s, I often experienced periods of intense depression even though I was a Catholic priest. To try to help change my frame of mind, I would go to hear motivational speakers, and each time I did, I felt so good immediately afterwardsbut then I would find myself returning to my depressed state just a few days later. I still believe that this happens to most of us when we go to hear inspirational lecturers or motivational speakers, because we fail to realize that authentic motivation does not come from somebody else. Our most powerful and authentic inspiration originates from within us.

As I preached to hundreds of people every Sunday, I began to notice that I would go from one extreme to the other. Sometimes I was very gung ho about my religious duties and prayer life, often praying three to four hours every daythis was very invigorating for me, but if I didnt also take care of my body with exercise and nutrition, I couldnt maintain that level of energy. But then, after hearing someone like the motivational speaker John Bradshaw, I would remind myself that something in my inner makeup needed to be dealt with. So I would work on some psychological aspect of myself, letting go of the prayer, exercise, and diet; and once again, I would become bored.

This vicious circle continued until one day it finally hit me: To be congruent and in harmony, and to live a healthy, holistic life, you have to work on all three areas of yourself at the same timeyour spiritual essence, your emotional and psychological being, and your body.

One story from the Gospels eventually changed my understanding of how we limit our view of what we need to be whole. The Master Jesus comes to a town and notices a blind man sitting there. Jesus asks the man what he would like Jesus to do for him. The man replies, That I might see. Jesus says See! That was ithe walked away and the man saw.

In another section of the Gospel, however, the Master enters a different city and comes across yet another blind man. Jesus asks him what the problem is, and the man says, I cannot see and I want to. This time, Jesus spits on the ground, makes a mud ball, and plasters it on the mans eyes. He asks the man if he can see now. But the man is honest and says, Well, no, not really. People look like trees moving around. Then, like any good spiritual master would, Jesus ministers to him again, and this time the man is finally able to see clearly.

Nowhere in the Gospel does Jesus pray for the sick the way you and I were taught to pray. He doesnt ask God to heal anyone. Instead, he customizes the healing to each situation and simply commands the healing to take place. One day I began to wonder if the two blind men in those accounts ever met. I imagined that, about a year and a half later, Jesus is coming to town to give a lecture, and both of these formerly blind men happen to show up. They dont know each other, because they werent in the same town when they were healed. But people are gathering because the Master is about to teach and heal the sick and the word gets around that these two have already been healed by Jesus. So the two men meet.