WHAT YOU WERE
CREATED TO DO

Sixty-two years ago I entered this world and came to know what life is during the course of my ‘growing up’. I was very blessed to have hard-working middle-class parents who valued work, family and self-sufficiency. My mother was firm and loving. My father was brilliant and tenacious. My sister is friendly and loves animals and kids. My eldest brother, who is now deceased, used to come and take me flying kites. My next eldest brother did so much with his life while expressing his creativity; he was a police officer, a pilot, an interior decorator, TV show host and contractor. I was very blessed to have a family that supported my creative efforts.

I moved to Los Angeles in my early 20’s and again was blessed by working with such Motown greats as Antonio Newton, Marvin Gaye, The Coasters, The Platters and The Drifters. I enjoyed performing as a keyboardist with Iron Butterfly and Wild Cherry as well as working radio promotion for Frank Zappa. The Divine has blessed me time and time again with multitudinous opportunities to work with some of the best in the music industry. I have engineered many recording sessions for producers like Kim Fowley and Frankie Gaye. I have produced many albums over the course of my career and now I am a writer.

I released my latest book, Spiritual Growth: Articles of Expectation in 2011 and over 17 eBooks since then. I love what I do and every day I reach out to many friends on Facebook all over the world. I have led such a blessed life with many ups and downs. I have been threatened, beaten and verbally abused by those who could not handle the truth. Yet every day I wake up with immense thanks and gratitude to the Divine for an eventful life. After two marriages, six children and 10 grandchildren, I have finally found the woman of my dreams and we are now married.

The Divine has blessed my life many, many times. It’s all in how you look at things and which feelings you choose to live from and allow their blessings to unfold. Every day I start my day with writing what I observe and feel about what is going on around me. It is so fulfilling to be blessed with the opportunity to serve others. My Divine purpose has been unfolding my whole life just as yours has; you only have to see it unfolding and feel what it has done to edify your life. Be blessed in knowing that the Divine is always there guiding and directing you to fulfill your Divine purpose in Divine order.

Don’t allow the opinions of others to dampen your spirit. Be tenacious in identifying with your spirit. It is who and what you truly are and no one else has the right or ability to influence your reality unless you allow them to. You are the enlightenment just like the Buddha said. Your realizations of your spirit are your connection to the truth in life. Don’t ever allow anyone to dampen your spirit. It has been the guiding factor in my life and it can be in yours as well.

Because I feel this way I have been attacked by many as being egotistical, insane, obviously drugged, outlandish, selfish, inconsiderate, psychotic, sociopathic and blasphemous. As I hear these accusations of my character I consider the source of these accusations as others lashing out at me because I have stepped on their precious belief systems that offer them their security in being mediocre. What they call me doesn’t matter; what truly matters is that I have reached out and shared what the Divine has given me. I have fulfilled my Divine purpose in Divine order and I am at peace with that.

I sincerely appreciate and give thanks to all of those who have reached out to me and it touches my heart deeply to know that I have reached so many on the Internet. I am so blessed by each one of you and your support. May God bless you now and ever more! May you and your families live in the bounty of health, wealth, prosperity and abundance each and every day of your lives. May you experience beauty, peace, joy and love as a result. You are the Divine in action. Be ye therefore perfect; as your Father in Heaven is perfect. ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.

LOWER THAN LOW

We all have times when we feel lower than low, helpless and totally lost. When we are feeling this way it is allowing us to see that what we have been doing in our lives is not working.

It is like experiencing physical pain; it points us in the direction we need to observe in order to effect healing. Deep within each and every one of us is the essence of Divine love and THAT is our source.

No one or nothing else is our source; even us. Letting go of the emotional distractions will allow us to feel our inner peace. When we see ourselves in our mind's eye smiling and feeling joy instead of loss is when we are allowing the Divine to guide us.

We were created to be OURSELVES and no one else. It is up to us to be the greatness that we are. As Yeshua said, “Be ye therefore perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect!” ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.

BRIDGING THE GAP?

Have you ever bridged the gap between what you are thinking, feeling and manifesting? Is it just in a crisis situation that you do or do you practice ‘bridging’ that gap every day?

In reality, there is no gap between these experiences; it is a perpetual and ongoing connection that just ‘seems’ to be a gap at times when we identify with the separation of the perceived dualistic reality.

The more we focus on separation, the more we become accustomed to operating within its parameters.

The ego thrives on separation in order to validate its own existence. Remember, the ego’s main job is your self-survival at all costs. For example, you are driving down the road and a car darts out from a side road right in front of you.

What do you do? You react! You instantaneously move the wheel of your car to go around the car in front of you. Hopefully, there wasn’t somebody else in the next lane over. A crisis infuses the connection between thinking, feeling and manifesting in a split second.

However, non-critical experiences in our lives are more subtle and we sometimes don’t bridge this perceived ‘gap’ because we become distracted from focusing on the actual connection we have between thinking, feeling and manifesting. The process of creation is first thinking about something, adding feeling to what it is we are thinking about and then actually bringing it to fruition.

If we are thinking about something and we are harboring negative feelings about it, the process has started in creating the outcome of those negative feelings. It is up to us at this point to treat those feelings as the car that darts out in front of us. We need to react to them and get out of their way first; then proact from them by co-creating positive feelings of joy by projecting the manifestation into the perceived dualistic reality.

Our feelings are our internal barometer to awaken us to what mindset and heartset we need to choose in order to manifest our deepest desires. We move in that direction by ‘expecting’ positive results without controlling, dominating or manipulating ‘how’ they will manifest.

When we begin to see the positive manifestations blossoming in our lives we move into the realm of simply ‘allowing’ them to happen. Just as we automatically sway away from the car we are attuned to the fact that harboring negativity creates more negativity; and switching the channel instantaneously to positivity redirects that emotional energy to create positivity.

We are in control by learning that we are not in control. As a novice in Spirituality we program ourselves for positive results through consistent expectation of our innermost desires. As we grow in our Spirituality we learn to bring them to fruition by accepting our worthiness and allowing them to manifest in our lives.

Before any behavior becomes automatic it requires consistent and diligent practice. Spending at least an hour a day in prayer, meditation and service of others keeps us focused on positive results; no matter what car darts out in front of us! ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.

CHOCOLATE

Dave Barry once said that “Your hand and your mouth agreed many years ago that, as far as chocolate is concerned, there is no need to involve your brain.” But the brain is involved! Chocolate is one of the few items that affect the medial forebrain bundle (the pleasure center). Other triggers for the bundle are any form of pharmaceutical 'speed' and sexual orgasm. Chocolate definitely fills a need!

Where it gets tricky is when you pick up a chocolate chip cookie and take a bite only to realize that it’s a raisin cookie; then you develop trust issues. Like anything in life you never truly know what it is until you taste it. You expect a certain sensation and you are surprised with another. So goes the life of living in immediate gratification.

Chocolate definitely fills the need for your pleasure center to be stimulated when it isn’t being stimulated by other forms of stimuli. So, go ahead, have some chocolate; but don’t overindulge. Remember, too much of a good thing loses its perception as a good thing. Satisfy your physical needs and it will free your brain to think about more important things; like paying the bills! ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.