Freeing Your Voice with Roger Teel

[00:00:01] Hey, this is Josh Reeves. You're listening to the Mile Hi Church Podcast. On Friday, October 23rd, we're thrilled to welcome Lissa Rankin and Jeffrey Rediker. They're going to be speaking on the topic of their new book, Relationsick, and it's about how toxic relationships can affect our health. The next day, Saturday, October 24th, they're going to bring all their great healing wisdom that we've read about in their many books to a workshop from 9 a.m. to 12. So

[00:00:28] you can get tickets to one or to both these events on our website, milehighchurch.org. Had an interesting thing happen this week, midweek, our son, Bobby, you know the guy that does the announcements? That's Eric, that's our youngest son. And so we were... Well now, hold on. Hold on here because he called us up and he said, hey, I want to take a break from my work. Come on over to Village Roaster across the street there and have some coffee with me. So

[00:00:57] Eric and I hightailed it over there along with our little dog. And Bobby and I went and made the orders. Erica stayed out on the patio with the dog. And as our order was finally up and Bobby collected his portion, he started walking out. And some guy at a table said, I know you. You're that guy that does the announcements over at that milehigh church over there. You're that guy. You're the announcement

[00:01:21] guy, are you? And Bobby said, well, yeah, yeah, I guess. Yeah, yes, I am. I'm a celebrity, he said. And so I'm over at the counter collecting the rest of this stuff. And I thought, oh, well, took my sunglasses off so I could see. And then I walked over by him. Nothing. He just looked at me

[00:01:42] like, and I looked at him again and said, nothing. So it was a humbling experience. So now I'm Bobby's dad is what I'm going to be going as. Our topic today, our topic, it's all lessons like this are

[00:02:06] always good for your soul. Our topic is freeing your voice. And I chose this topic after reflecting on the times, especially in my young adulthood, the times when I held back, when I held back my full honesty or choked back my truth and how I'm sure that at the time that felt protective and

[00:02:34] perhaps strategic, but how ultimately it was so self-limiting and ripped me off. So we deal with that. And also in this topic, it holds the potential to connect us more deeply to the essential power that is vested in you and me. There's an essential power. Nobody is without it. There is an essential

[00:03:00] power in you and me. And it's about the transformative energy of declaring and living with authenticity, spiritual inspiration, purpose, and courageous commitment. Now this essential power in you and me, there's some aspects of it relative to today. The first of the three is the power of words

[00:03:24] in general. We all know that they're the tools of communication for our species, the words, but we also know that they have power within them to either lift up or tear down, to obscure or to clarify. Words have that kind of power. They're more than just signs or symbols. In fact, as we understand in this teaching, they are magnets, they're magnets because they are the garments of our thoughts.

[00:03:54] And the thoughts within the words tend to take on intensified power as we verbalize them. If you have a great idea, its first level of manifesting physically in the world is when you speak it and give it vibration into the world. And then a greater power takes over the creative energies beyond that and continues that manifestation process. And so we're called to set the high watch

[00:04:21] on the words that we speak. Are they of the highest or are they not? As it says in the Bible, out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. This ought not to be so. Does a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? And then also, for by thy words thou shall be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. So we begin to understand that the words that we just

[00:04:51] toss out, sometimes mindlessly, sometimes intentionally, the words that we toss out are idea, feeling, intention seeds. Your every word is an idea, feeling, intention seed that has as much power in it as you give it. And we understand there's this infinite creative mind, which is like the soil that those seeds are planted in.

[00:05:18] So we do well to set the high watch on our words. That's the first level of our power. And then second is the power of your word. Now there's a certain kind of word that comes forth from you that has extraordinary power. And in his landmark book, Don Miguel Ruiz addresses this, the book, The Four Agreements. And I'm bringing it up on the screen. It's so important. And he comes

[00:05:44] right out the chute saying the first agreement is be impeccable with your word, with your word. Speak with integrity and say only what you mean. Through the word, you express your creative power. Regardless of what language you speak, your intent manifests through your word. So creative power

[00:06:08] and intention, that there's a kind of energy when we focus in, that is our word going forth from us to be made manifest. And so to be impeccable with our word is to bring our unspoken word of inner intention into alignment with our spoken words. All right? To take charge of what comes out of our

[00:06:36] mouth, our word is what we stand for, which isn't always what we say. So to create this alignment alignment of intention and action or intention and word, that puts us in a state of integrity. And the universe always responds powerfully when we are whole and integrous, meaning the inner is what the outer is about and what we're speaking relates to our inner intentions. And then beyond this, your word can be

[00:07:07] a channel for spiritual energy and light. In this teaching, we have something called spiritual mind treatment, which is essentially affirmative prayer, prayer treatment, we sometimes call it. And we also say that when we're doing a treatment, we are speaking our word, meaning before anything comes forth from us as idea or word, we're moving into a state of energy. We're moving into a state of at-one-ment.

[00:07:32] We're clearing away the fog because most of the time we see us through a glass darkly. And we're clearing away the fog and we're seeing clearly that this universe is of spirit. There's only one life. That life is God. That life is my life now. We get into harmony with that. We shift all of our energies. We release the discordant thoughts, the fear thoughts, and we enter into a sense of the

[00:07:56] truth. And then we speak our word. That that inner consciousness might move through that word into the creative universe to take form, to bless, to heal, to uplift, to guide. That's the sacred power in your word. It says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word

[00:08:21] was God, and nothing was created without the word. And as a conscious being, you are privileged to participate in that same creative energy of your word going forth into manifestation. What a beautiful sacred power vested in you and me. So there's general word power, but then there's

[00:08:42] your word. And then thirdly, there's power in your voice. Now let me clarify all of that. Your voice is, yes, your audible voice, but that's not really what I'm speaking to here. Although I have witnessed times when people have owned their voice and their own sense of who they are, such that their audible voice changes tonality and it becomes deeper and richer and calmer and more

[00:09:12] forthright. I have seen that. But what I'm speaking about in the power of your voice is the power of your core expression on this planet. You came here to be and to speak and to share and to create uniquely. And this is your voice, your unique voice. It's your uniqueness. It's your callings.

[00:09:39] It's your convictions. It's your art. It's your genuine essence. It is irrepeatable. You're a once in the universe person. And so we talk about freeing your voice. Yes, the sounds that come forth from you, may they be in alignment with your heart and your truth. But we're also talking about the voice of

[00:10:01] your being here, your sacred beingness, and to bring a sense of self-respect and courage to proclaim, first to find and then to free your voice. So powerful. Now I have a formula that I've used in my life a number of times I want to share with you. It's three parts. And what I have found

[00:10:27] is that I return to this at many different times. And I suggest that there'll be different times in your life, and maybe you're in one of them now, where this is going to be particularly relevant. And I invite you to use it and draw from it, but then know it'll probably be relevant at another time in your life. So the first of these avenues of action in the power of your voice is to step out of

[00:10:53] the shadows. Step out of the shadows. How easy it is to get into a sense of belittling one's self, compromising one's self, letting other forces rule, and in a sense becoming an echo instead of a voice. And to decide in favor of your creative brilliance,

[00:11:23] and your right to be you, and to express that beingness, your core expression. It's like deciding I am who I am. And that's enough. It is fully enough. But life didn't bring me here to hide it, to compromise it, to explain it. You're not here to explain your life. You're

[00:11:49] here to exclaim your life. And this is freeing your voice. Step out of the shadows. One of my favorite examples of this was also a movie. It's the example of King George VI of England. He was the second son of King George V, and he wasn't expected to inherit the throne. And he spent most of his early life in the shadows of his brother Edward. He was a very shy young man, stuttering and

[00:12:19] stammering. And the movie was called The King's Speech, and George was played by Colin Firth. And it begins with George miserably stammering through a speech to close the 1925 British exhibition when he was still Duke of York. In 1936, his father the king died. And his brother became King Edward VIII. But later

[00:12:44] that year, you may remember, he abdicated the throne so he could marry American socialite Wallace Simpson. And so George, here the shy guy, was thrust onto the stage of the world, thrust into being king of England. And so he takes the throne as King George VI as World War II is approaching. And Hitler is marching

[00:13:10] across Europe. And all of England waits for a reassuring voice from their king. And how would he rouse them? How would he ever lead them? Well, George's wife, Elizabeth, had set up a meeting between the king and an oddball, self-trained Australian speech therapist named Lionel Logue. And he's played

[00:13:35] by Geoffrey Rush. And at their first meeting, Logue declares to the king, my job is to help you find your voice. To find your voice. And at first it's a very stormy relationship. But eventually they become friends through Logue's humor and his goading and his wisdom shared with the king. And all of this

[00:13:55] encourages George to relive and to neutralize the pain of growing up with a demanding, overbearing father and a taunting brother. And Logue puts the king through all sorts of vocal calisthenics, including demanding that he sing. But what was the best thing for him was the emotional cleansing,

[00:14:22] the clearing. That had the biggest impact. Well, the day finally came when King George, head of the British Empire, speaks to the world. And a speech was really about England's declaration of war on Nazi Germany. And so there the king was, alone in a room with a microphone and only Logue. That was all

[00:14:46] that was there. A microphone and his friend Logue. He took a deep breath and he opened this way. In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in our history, I send to every household of my peoples, both at home and overseas, this message. Spoken with the same depth of feeling for each one of

[00:15:08] you, as if I were able to cross your threshold and speak to you myself. And in so saying, he tapped into the hearts of the people. And he succeeded in touching them. And by the end of that speech, he was speaking freely without any support from Logue. And it was an amazing communication. And after it was done, he and his family stepped out on a balcony to thousands of Brits cheering wildly

[00:15:38] for him. So in confronting Hitler, he not only found his voice, he found his power. He found his power. He was able to become the voice of his people. He became a very involved and caring king. And he and Logue would remain friends all their life. There's a time when we step out of the shadows.

[00:16:00] Maybe it's that time for you. Is it? Is it a time where there may be certain changes afoot? Certain challenges? Or a calling in you? And you're struggling with whether you're big enough for it? Step out of the shadows. See what life can be as you free your voice. Secondly, then, follow the wisdom

[00:16:28] of your heart. Follow your heart's wisdom. Because the home of our voice is the heart. That's the home of our voice. When we access the ego to make our decisions and to chart our course, we inevitably find ourselves limiting ourselves and ensconced in fear. Whereas when we tap into the heart, we find that we

[00:16:55] have so much more creativity, capacity, and power than we ever knew was possible. So stepping out of the shadows, we trust the heart. It's like we say, this is what I'm going to trust. Not all the stored data in my head. Not all the voices that are shouting out their bad advice all around me. I'm going to trust

[00:17:17] the knower in me, which is the power of your heart. That's why Shakespeare wrote, to thine own self be true. Be true to your heart. Mark Nepo, a wonderful guy we've had here in the past. A great author and poet. He tells a story about a man

[00:17:40] named Ted Sean. Ted, when he met him, was a young divinity student studying to be a minister. But he was also stricken with polio. He'd had that a part of his journey. But as he got more and more in touch with his inner life, Ted Sean discovered the unlikely calling beyond the ministry. That his real calling

[00:18:05] was dance. Dance. And so with great difficulty, he quit divinity school and he began to dance. Slowly and meticulously, he regained the movement and the use of his legs. And Ted Sean went on to become one of the fathers of modern dance. An amazing thing.

[00:18:32] And Nepo concludes that sharing by saying, studying God didn't heal him. Embodying God did. Now we can study all we want about God, but there's a time when we had to step out of the shadows and follow our heart and become the embodiment, the living expression of that divine life that is centered right in us. It calls us to be an allegiance to its whispering voice.

[00:19:00] That still small voice that says, here's your genius. Here's your way of being. Be true to that. Follow the wisdom of your heart. And then the third aspect of that that completes this triumvirate is proclaim your authentic truth. Proclaim your authentic truth. Yes, vocally if you choose,

[00:19:27] but proclaim it by how you show up. That's the full voice of your life. How you show up. To express that, to take a stand for what lives in you. Who you are as a specialized creation of infinite love to proclaim your authentic truth.

[00:19:54] And there takes, sometimes it takes time to weed through the inauthenticity we have accepted over time. Like a divinity student deciding, nope, it's dance, even though I've dealt with polio. There comes a time when we take a stand for what's genuine and true. Is this your time?

[00:20:16] Is that why you're here today? To finally live out your truth. I conclude with a great sharing. It's kind of a, it's an actual account that's a classic in our New Thought materials, but it's about a young man born with defective lungs. They were debilitating, but you know where it really hit him was not just in his lungs, but was in his self-esteem. His self-esteem. And he lived an overly

[00:20:46] protected life. And he actually became an outcast because he had no friends. And as the years progressed, the levels of his medication were increased time and time again, such that his reactions to them were almost worse than the challenge with his lungs. Well, in his early 30s, he found out about this teaching. And isn't it just a glorious day when somehow or another the

[00:21:11] universe brings us this into this? So it was in his early 30s, he began to learn that as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he, so is he. Now the doctors at that time were proposing a whole new set of medications that were increasingly powerful and had side effects that were very daunting. And it was then that he found the spiritual weller with all to utter these powerful words,

[00:21:41] no way, no way. He took command of his path and his thinking. And he also began to explore what was beneath it. And that's some of the beautiful work you do when you take classes here and you get into this teaching, not for the short term, but for the long term, as you discover that we have all accepted

[00:22:02] a lot of nonsense. Sin is often described as self-inflicted nonsense. And it obscures the light within us. And he found out that he had early on accepted deeply the phrase born defective. And it had spread like a cancer, not just to his lungs, but to his heart and to his, not his physical

[00:22:32] heart, but to his sense of passion and his sense of worthiness. When he realized that, it was like popping a balloon, that that no longer had the power it used to have. And he began to embody it more and more. And then he began to experience a shift. Now the doctors continued to want to give him different medicines, more medicines. And he just kept saying over and over, no way, no way, no way.

[00:22:57] And here's how he talks about this shift that happened. Cavities that only moments before held no air now filled with amazement and wonder as the creative intelligence of the universe, honoring my new beliefs, began to complete a marvelous, miraculous transformation. When I went to the doctor the following week, my doctor got a surprise as he began the routine of

[00:23:21] listening with his stethoscope. He got confused looking and stated, you have to understand this is not possible. Yet the breathing level was incredible. And as he continued to listen, I told him the whole story. And finally from his mouth, I hear the words, this one we have to call a miracle. Then with alarm in his voice, he began to talk about the new medications he'd have to put me on

[00:23:47] to prevent massive withdrawals that I was about to go through. And I'm sure you can guess what my answer to that was. No way. I didn't use them and now all medication is behind me. This was an experience of using the only gift that God had given me complete control over. My thoughts. My thoughts to change the direction

[00:24:08] of my life. My thoughts to live abundantly. Where is it time for you to be definite? To proclaim your authentic truth. In the Bible it says, let your yes be yes and your no be no. To proclaim your truth. See, I don't know where you're at, but it may help you to just challenge yourself. It's time to step out of

[00:24:33] the shadows the way I hold back. It's time to follow my heart's wisdom, the true knowing in me, and to proclaim in word and beingness my authentic truth. You know, it's what you came here for. Go for it. I want to close with this phrase by a wonderful guy named Neil Gaiman. I love it so much.

[00:24:56] I'm putting it on the screen. The one thing you have that nobody else has is you, your voice, your mind, your vision. So write and draw, build and play and dance and live as only you can. I liked it so much I put it in the first person that we might proclaim it together.

[00:25:26] Out loud. So maybe take a breath. Summon that true voice. And if you choose, join me. The one thing that I have that nobody else has is me. My voice, my mind, my vision. So I shall write

[00:25:50] and draw and build and play and dance and live as only I can. Congratulations on freeing your voice. Practitioners, if you'll stand in consciousness, let's speak the word together this day. Together this day. The word that is the creative intelligence and energy of the divine.

[00:26:17] That love and light permeating all of the universe and permeating you and me at the cellular level as well as at the cellular level. We cherish that whispering voice within that says, Thou art my beloved child in whom I am well pleased. Live the life that is your unique essence.

[00:26:45] Let your voice of beingness and expression be clear and resolute, loving. And may you realize that it is in this way that you are the beneficial presence I have designed you to be. Trust. Step out of the shadows. Trust your heart.

[00:27:10] And boldly step forward to live the divine life for which you are designed. As we sense that inner movement of spirit, may your heart overflow with joy. Joy at the miracle of life. Joy at the overcoming spirit within you.

[00:27:39] Joy in the boundless creative energy always upwelling within you. Joy in the sacred light of you. A luminous light being. And so let your light shine, beloveds. Be the word going forth into manifestation. And you both be blessed and a blessing.

[00:28:10] We give thanks for this. With great joy. Pausing also to affirm the presence of love everywhere. And speaking our word to know that peace is unfolding. Upon the planet. For this in more than words can say, I am profoundly grateful. And now as we let it be, then so it is. Sealed in truth. Amen.

[00:28:48] Thanks for listening to the Mile High Church podcast. This podcast is made possible by the generous contributions from listeners like you. To make a donation, please visit milehighchurch.org. thank you. Thank you.