November 6, 1982
God surrounds each of you with constant love and with the brilliance of light upon your souls.
You have indeed grown this evening. But such growth need not be limited to dialogue between one another. If you find opportunities for quiet contemplation of the messages which flow through us from God, there will be many issues which come to mind, which seek application, which seek clarification and refinement.
That which we present to you is directed toward your continual growth, but as we have said so often, it need not and must not be taken on face value. These messages are not intended to be looked at once and put aside. They need further study. The basic truths may be simple, but their application may require deeper understanding, such application with thought before being effective in your lives. Of course there are times when messages present you with thoughts that are foreign to your experience and understanding. But God chooses the proper time, the appropriate opportunity for presenting new truths for consideration.
All that has been presented to you thus far has been new to you at some time in your lives. Occasionally such truths immediately ring clearly and you find yourselves resonating sympathetically, so to speak, with the vibration of those truths. But certainly that is not always the case.
Sometimes ideas are brought forward which are as seeds in a garden. One cannot imagine the size and shape of a tree that is to grow from such a small seed. Likewise you may be unable at this time to fully understand the implications and applications of all that is given to you. But the fact that you recognize the difficulties with some concepts, and that you debate them and question them and examine them and wonder and sometimes doubt is indicative of your potential for growth through such examination.
We would all be so pleased if you apply the same energy of questioning to all that you receive, even those concepts that are not in themselves new to your experience. Because an idea is not new does not imply that it is of less importance. It may be equally essential as an idea which is foreign to your experience and which generates much discussion. It is not whether one message is difficult to understand and therefore needs much discussion, whereas another message is easy and obvious. What is important is that both messages receive the same careful thought and treatment. The fervor with which you have confronted the last few messages should serve as a model by which you seek to understand even more deeply those messages which on the surface seem familiar to some.
Certainly we are aware of the difficulties that are experienced in coping with matters of emotion as they relate to life. Emotions which are positive and those which are negative are both part of your existence. The goal, as it were, is, as you know, to focus on constructive thoughts and constructive responses to that which confronts you in your lives. But such a goal cannot imply that only a positive directed life is worthwhile, whereas a life containing negative emotions is somehow wasted or of lesser value. That is not the case. Throughout your lives you will experience both polarities of feeling. You will experience joy and also anxiety.
In our last message we spoke of balance, with the instruction not to really change that balance. What is meant is that one must accept the presence of positive as well as negative emotions as part of life. That is all that is meant. But we also urge each of you, while accepting the negative in your life, still to try to make the positive emotions the dominant feeling—not the only influence, but the dominant influence. That kind of balance is really essential as you pass through your life’s experience. You have a saying, “accentuate the positive”—that is really what we are saying. Accentuating does not mean a complete absence of something else, it just implies the prominence of one part of your life.
That vision is defined through your faith and through the expression of love. It is not characterized by despair, for despair centers on the present and the past. One does not despair of the future. One may have concerns, but despondency of the deepest sort is centered on the present with a view also of the past.
One must therefore focus a life on the opportunities which lie before, which lie ahead, and draw you forward. When you take a trip and see on the horizon in front of you spectacular scenery, great beauty, perhaps a sunset, perhaps mountains, deserts, beaches, whatever it is that attracts you, your attention is drawn to that. Your pace quickens. You may lose a degree of your awareness of the side of the road and wish to come closer to that which holds such attraction. Your travels then take on an added significance. A goal is added to the trip—one of not only reaching some final destination, but having a better look at that which is so attractive. You are drawn forward. So it is with life. When there is a glimmer of hope of something in the future, your life takes on new energy. It has an eagerness about it. Your emotions become more positive, your ideas more constructive.
It is said that success breeds success, and that is so true. The vision of a future goal lying ahead makes one dream of further goals lying beyond. These positive feelings of hope, of growth, of development are goals which each should strive for in daily living as well as in distance viewing. Try not to be bogged down by negative feelings—jealousy, blind anger, intimidation, guilt, fear or anxiety—for these serve to stunt that growth. These serve to divert your eyes to the sides of the road thereby missing the beauty of what may lie ahead.
Your lives are in constant battle between good and evil, between positive and negative forces, between constructive response and destructive response. The choice is yours, but the choice is always there. Your lives will never be void of the presence, even on the side of the road, of negative influences, but they need not pull you off the chosen path. You must recognize, of course, that they exist but nevertheless not give them dominance in your lives.
You can choose that which dominates your existence. You can choose not to look forward but to be hampered by the concerns of the present condition. You can choose to be controlled by anxiety or guilt or antagonism, or you can choose to recognize that those feelings are indeed a part of your life, but you are governed by their opposites. You are governed by what draws you forward and not by what keeps you at a standstill.
Life is a series of choices. That ordering or balancing between positive and negative is essential for you. Accept the reality that such choice will always be present, and recognize that God is there with you to assist in your choices. If you so wish, all that is needed is a prayer for God’s help. Your lives, while always containing such choices, will never proceed in only one direction. When there are difficulties of whatever nature, such difficulties will not maintain a permanent grip upon your outlook. They may not go away, but you may choose that they do not dominate. Many difficulties which you face in life are indeed of short duration. They may seem strong and at the moment permanent, but that is not to say that they are indeed such a force in your life or the future.
Each of you goes through such cycles as we addressed when you were together last. Cycles imply coming and going. A cycle does not mean a permanent state but an evolving and, to a degree, repeating state—emotional high/emotional low, positive outlook/negative outlook, hopeful as well as discouraged. The cycle repeats itself and it must be accepted.
When you are on an emotionally high plane, it can certainly be enjoyed, but with the realization that it too will change. And when you find yourselves discouraged, there is nothing wrong in recognizing and expressing that discouragement. But it is essential that you believe that the cycle will change and that life will become more positive, and therefore your view should be outward, looking for those signs and not dwelling on the negative.
Despite its cycling nature, life is and can be positive in its overall direction for all humankind, whether in an affluent society or in a society surrounded by great trials. Despite those trials, a positive response to life can be the dominant force. In the end, life is not merely to be endured but is meant to be triumphant. It is a positive experience. It can be dominated by light through a vision of God by whatever means. That beauty, that indescribable scenery of which we spoke, for many is a sense of God’s brilliance everywhere and the need to be drawn closer to it.
You are meeting as a group because you sense the brilliance of God in life and wish to have a closer vision. Whatever occurs in your lives is then dominated not by momentary events, but by that ultimate vision of God’s presence in life.
You must rejoice that your eyes are open to God’s light. We are experiencing great joy when we see you look forward, seeing a closer relationship with God, for that is the vision for which we seek, the vision of what lies ahead on the road. That is what draws you forward and in the end gives meaning to your very existence and purpose to your travels.
God blesses each of you with love and a firm magnetic drawing of each of you toward God. Be thankful for your glimpse of God.
Amen.