MICHAEL BECKWITH - POSSIBILITY

Hello everyone. Kuwana here. Many of you have seen “The Secret” on DVD or read the bestselling book. I recently sat down with Michael Beckwith, one of the stars of The Secret (who just happens to be my godfather) to ask him to share some of his insights.

Dr. Beckwith is the founder of the Agape International Spiritual Center, one of the world’s largest ministries devoted to the teachings of New Thought-Ancient wisdom. He’s appeared on Oprah and Larry King Live, among many other shows. But long before The Secret, he was internationally recognized for his spiritual and humanitarian works. In 2004, Dr. Beckwith was awarded the Africa Peace Award. Previous winners include Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton. An internationally known speaker, peace activist and author, he’s led panels with world leaders such as his Holiness the Dalai Lama and continues to speak and teach around the world.

KUWANA: Rev. Michael, In A Word, what is the one quality that has allowed you to prevail over the most challenging obstacles in your life’s journey?


DR. BECKWITH: Possibility.

KUWANA: How has being aware of possibilities helped enable you to achieve goals and dreams that others said were impossible?

DR. BECKWITH: One of my favorite inspirational quotes is: You’re pushed by pain until you’re pulled by a vision. More than twenty years ago, I had a vision for a space where people of all ethnicities, classes, sexual orientations and religious persuasions could come together to worship the One Presence together. I saw a place where differences were not merely tolerated, but loved and appreciated. I saw a place that was a prototype, an energetic, a living picture of the possibility of how we can live together in this world. Though we may try to distance ourselves, the reality is that this Presence, this God, is everywhere and lives within us all. We are all connected by It. I knew that I was here to create a place that would help break down false boundaries and allow people to come out of beliefs that separate into a practice of the Presence that binds. That’s how the Agape International Spiritual Center was born.

Agape started in 1986 with twelve people sitting in my living room. But in those first years, it flourished beyond anything I’d dreamed of. Then, about six years in, we came to a crossroads that put everything that we believed in, including the future of the church, on the line. We had to vacate of the buildings we were in. The lease was up and the landlord wouldn’t rent the space to us anymore. So we found a building in Culver City but we had to pay for construction work to bring the building up to code. We also had to pay for rent, security deposits, permits, staff and the hotels that we’d be using to keep the church going while we were doing the construction. The money dwindled down to nothing and we were still weeks from completion.

We had two flyers designed. One flyer said that Agape would have its first service in the new building on a particular date. The other flyer said Agape would no longer exist. We had to decide which flyer we were going to put out.

KUWANA: How did you decide which flyer to put out?

DR. BECKWITH: I called an emergency board meeting with the contractor and we discussed what could possibly be done to speed up the process and get the funding we needed. Mostly people said things like, “What you want is impossible. We don’t have the man power, we don’t have the time, and we don’t have the cash to do this.”

I started asking them if there was a possibility. The contractor said, “No this is impossible. I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to start over.”

I asked again: “Is there a possibility?” And again most of the board members said no. We don’t see how it can be done.”

I said, “I’m not concerned about whether you see how we can do it. All I’m asking is: is there a possibility?”

I locked the door, took a chair, put it up against the door and had someone sit in it. We’re going to go around this circle until we can agree on the fact that it’s just POSSIBLE. I’m not concerned that it’s probable or how we can do it—just that it’s possible.”

It took a very long time, but finally everybody said it was possible. It can’t really be done, but it’s possible. When I got 100% agreement that it was possible and I said, “That’s all I need.” We prayed, I let everybody go and then put out the flyers that said Agape would open as scheduled.

KUWANA: That took incredible courage. Were you able to open as scheduled?

DR. BECKWITH: That week, two things occurred. We’d put in for a loan at the bank for about $400,000 to complete the rest of the building. But the bank hadn’t done its due diligence yet, so there were still a number of weeks before the money would be available. The individual that had our portfolio was looking over our file when one of the owners of the bank walked by and said, “What are you working on?” The loan officer said, “The Agape loan.” The owner said, “Beckwith? Give him the money.”

“They don’t have any collateral,” the officer explained. “I haven’t done my research, or finished my interviews, or completed all the paperwork—”

“I know him,” the owner said. “Give him the money.”

When the loan officer called and told us what had happened and that we had the money, the contractor decided to step up as well. He said he was so moved by what he saw at Agape and what the people stood for that he was going to pay his workers out of his own pocket and put on day and night crews until the job was finished.

So within a week, what had been totally impossible became a reality. The space opened up primarily because we got an agreement about the possibility of it. We didn’t know how, but we all agreed that it could be done. That was enough.

KUWANA: What spiritual principle was operating through your agreement at that point?

DR. BECKWITH: Agreement opens us up and allows something beyond the conscious mind to take over. What I would call the super conscious mind now comes into play. Often times we live from a very limited point of view and we use very little of our resources in terms of our brain power, in terms of our spiritual dimension, because we only operate from our history and ways we’ve done things successfully in the past. But relying on past success can actually be a hindrance when something unprecedented is seeking to express through you.

When you get into the past or into “how,” you then operate primarily through historical patterns. It leaves you less open to spontaneity or anything beyond the narrow confines of conventional thinking and “the way it’s always been.”

But when you transcend prevailing beliefs and agree to do something that’s never been done before, that agreement sets something in motion in the human spirit, which then allows for that new height to be replicated by others. Your willingness to step into greatness adds to the evolution of our planet.