February 25, 1983
God is again with you as a group in a very special way. God’s presence can be felt as a kind of energy or intensity as well as in a sense of peace. The fervor with which you seek an understanding of God is evidence of God’s presence in a very real and tangible manner.
Your perceptions of God differ in many ways, and indeed they should, for each of you relates to God in a way that has meaning for you individually. God’s response to each of us is an individual response, but God’s presence is also felt collectively, and God’s response is a collective response. What we transmit to you as a group is given with love and with the intention of reaching all of you in some way, but because you approach God differently, your responses to what we are permitted and instructed to give will be different. These differences are essential in life for they provide breadth and perspective.
No one has the ultimate view of the full implication of the reality of God, for the implications change even within the same individual. As your lives individually take on different character, your perceptions of God will be altered. This is much the same as traveling by water between two points. The general direction may be relatively stable, but the specific heading is changed by currents and winds. If you dwell too much upon the direction of the current, losing sight of the objective, the journey will seem pointless and frustrating, for at one moment you are headed in one way and in another instance you are changed in your direction. With a view towards the goal, the deviations in the course are but momentary in nature. It is the progress, it is the movement which is essential.
So it is with your understanding of God. Each of you has experienced doubts, questioned concepts, questioned your faith, questioned the nature of God at sometime in your lives, and you may be assured that such questioning and doubting will remain in your future, but those are as the tides. They are momentary but thoroughly natural, and you must accept them as they occur.
There is an ultimate quality to God but that ultimate essence is in terms of existence. As was stated, “God is.” Beyond a consideration that God is are countless efforts to define that existence. The history of intelligent humankind is laced throughout with a search for an understanding of what lies beyond life, what the purpose of life is, and what the meaning of one’s surroundings is. In short, by whatever term you choose, there has always been a search for what you call “God”. The search has had many avenues and approaches in the thousands of years which have passed, but it is interesting to note that despite the sophisticated scholarship, theologians of all faiths, humans by such organized search, are really little closer to perceiving God as God really is.
The perception of God is not evolutionary. You do not have a better understanding of God now than did people centuries earlier. In the centuries which are before you, humanity, by logic and investigative reasoning, will not have a closer view of the reality of God. This is what we mean by the statement, “The perception of God is not evolutionary.” The perception of God evolves only within the experience of the individual. Your understanding of the nature of God is more intense now than it was in past years, but because you seek God through such experiences as these gatherings, you do not necessarily elevate the understanding of God among all of humankind. That is not a logical conclusion. Your purpose is to reflect God, and through such reflection others may come to know God and be furthered on their spiritual path.
It does not logically follow that because you are gaining greater insight, therefore all others will gain. Your search, your spiritual travel, is important for you, just as the spiritual travel of all people is important, but as we have said, your experience of God is a personal experience. By telling others of God, you do not make them see God, but in reflecting God, others may come to see God and their growth will be a personal growth. It is not a cultural growth. There is no one religious sect that is centering in more accurately on the target of the complete understanding of God.
Those climbers on the mountain may be coming closer to the peak, but they are not seeing the entire mountain. The progress that one team makes in their perception of the mountain does not mean that another group climbing from a different angle will perceive the mountain in the same way. You must not feel that the search for God is futile, for that is absolutely untrue. All search for God is positively rewarding in a greater perception and a greater awareness of love and a greater sense of God’s light and presence, but that search is a personal search. Each of you searches collectively in this group, but your actual progress is recognized individually. There may be times when you recognize another’s progress as it is reflected in peace or tolerance or patience, but nevertheless the other’s progress is an individual progress.
God does not intend that all reach God by the same means. God does not intend that all perceive God to be the same entity with the same characteristics. God welcomes the variety, for in that variety taken collectively, one learns much more about the nature of God. That learning is also personal. You recognize the growth of another and its reflection of God, but the growth of another is not merely your growth. Only the confirmation of the presence of God in that life and in your life is heightened.
Your lives must be characterized by more than just a confirmation that indeed God is present. It must be a recognition of God in a personal experience—an experience felt within, an experience which guides you as a single individual, an experience which gives you as an individual a sense of meaning in life. Another may explain a perception of life, but you cannot really be convinced of that perception until it becomes yours.
Human life is characterized by concrete perceptions. You may speculate about the future, you may make educated guesses about various matters, but ultimately you are moved not by what you suspect but by what you have come to know. Ultimately your life moves forward not by what others say about God but by what you know about God. Your perception of God serves as your individual motivation toward God.
An understanding of another’s perception of God is important, however, for it can present a challenge to your own perception in reasons for looking further, not necessarily to come to some conclusions, but motivated by the recognition that there is more to be learned. Therefore, you should not shut out what others say. You should welcome their convictions, not necessarily accepting them as your own, but respecting them as their own. Therein lies the meaning of love for others. You love others not because what they say is in agreement with you. You love others regardless of what they say because they are a part of God. You may not accept, but you can always listen, and listening offers challenges.
Human life is a social life. You are, by your nature, social beings. You function best with others and not merely alone. God created humankind to be together, not alone. Love is experienced with another, not alone. It is experienced through another, not alone. Your life receives its challenges for growth through others, not alone. You may not be physically near another, but you are always aware of others, and awareness serves as the place from which the challenges can spring forth.
Each of us, your guides and the guides of others, are vastly different from one another. Our perceptions of God differ both from each other and from your perceptions. But God speaks through us to you by means of our perceptions, and we speak to you through your perception and sensitivity.
We cannot instruct you on matters for which you have no receptivity. We must wait for that. If you are far from being peaceful, it is difficult for us to speak of peace. We may speak of its importance when life is full of turmoil, but that is different from your actually experiencing peace. It is our responsibility not only to guide you in ideas but to guide you also in your experience of what we transmit. When we speak of love, our responsibility does not end there, for we need to guide your lives so that you may experience love and express love, experiencing the presence of God. We are therefore important for the experience of your human life and not merely for the instruction.
We know of your prayers for us, and we are grateful that your thoughts turn to us. There are many for whom we pray who are not aware of us or only fleetingly consider our presence. Your prayers for us are a source of great strength, and we suggest that you include in your prayer all who serve as guides to humanity.
We pray for your understanding and for your experience in life. We pray for your perception of love and your experience of love. We pray for your perception of God’s light and joy. We pray that others may be turned toward God in a more positive and meaningful way, and we pray that you will recognize such growth in others. We pray that you may be challenged to grow closer to God and that your experience in life is one that you have received through us.
We, your guides, are with each of you. We, your guides, pray for you. We pray that you may be open to receiving God’s strength and direction. When you are in need and do not pray, we pray. We open your channel. We search for ways to allow God’s light to shine through. That is our loving duty and we exercise it most joyfully.
In the many times ahead that you shall meet as a group, establish a sense of unity, establish a recognition of common search, establish a manifestation of love through spiritual closeness and acceptance and mutual light, for that is the purpose for which you meet. When that occurs, we find ourselves greatly facilitated by your light, and it becomes so much easier for us to speak to each of you in ways that have meaning now and in the future.
Your lights are strong individually and as a group. We see the peace that you experience. Carry it with you in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead, and continue to look for opportunities of sharing that peace with another. God’s peace is with you as it is with us here. God’s light surrounds you as it surrounds us. We are all truly one in spirit. You and we are enfolded in the arms of God in love and light.
Amen.