April 15, 1985
God is a part of your gathering and a part of your lives at all moments.
It is so fitting that you meet together, for although you have opportunities for being close to God on your own time, somehow your efforts lack the focus to achieve a reflective state like you experience now, except when you are in this group. It is not the group, per se, which is so important, but rather the attention that you give to matters which are of ultimate importance. Certainly you all have concerns about friends, health, well-being, the future, the past, the present…that’s normal. But focusing your attention on God is a unique experience for many and essential for all.
We know of your efforts. All of your guides are constantly aware of all that each of you does on behalf of others. We also know of your concerns about self and want you to feel that that is perfectly acceptable to God. Occasionally, some of you may experience a kind of elite feeling that somehow you have an inside track, a closer connection than others, but this is not the case. Your awareness and experience of God’s presence is not wholly unique, but it is important for you at this stage in your life. It is helping in your preparation for your next life.
Too often you become wrapped up, as it were, in concerns for the present without really recognizing the greater continuum. If it were possible for but one moment to enable each of you to have a glimpse of your life, your lives would take on totally different directions. It would be that stunning.
Our life is merely a continuation of yours, and in time you will be a part of our life. But although we are a continuation, we are vastly different. Our perspective is different. Our strengths, our sensitivities are greatly heightened. Our knowledge is far greater. We learn. This knowledge of which we speak is not immediately imparted to us. It isn’t something which is bestowed upon us. We work for it; we strive. You could almost say we study. Essentially, we continue to learn, just as you continue to learn. We, too, are taught, just as you are being taught. We find opportunities in our lives to reflect and to grow, just as you do. That part is the same, but the magnitude and the beauty is much different. The depth of what we study, of what we learn, is far beyond your imagination, let alone comprehension.
What we, your guides, want you to know as we are with you, within you, and next to you, is that what you experience in life is a minute, almost invisible portion of the entire spectrum. Notice we do not say “insignificant.” Size has nothing to do with importance. It is merely to set a sense of perspective. When you have a cold, you put up with it. It is not particularly pleasant, but also it is not overly worrisome. If you have a severe illness, the cold loses its impact for concern. And so it is for the spectrum, the entire spectrum of life—before human life, your life, and the life to come. What occurs within a short period, be they days, months or years, is not of great importance. Regardless of the import you give it, you must realize that it is only a small part of the whole. But what is that whole? What is it? What is the entirety?
This spiritual life which we have frequently described means that life for you must take on a different perspective, a different set of values, a different set of priorities. What you do tomorrow is not important; what you do in your lifetime is. You know the expression, “You can lose a battle and win the war.” In a sense, that’s what we are saying. When you go through frustrations and disappointments, that is all they are. It is not the end of life; it is not the end of one’s value in life. It is just a frustration. In the same light, when you experience great joy, appreciate it, but don’t feel that because of that joy, suddenly life is absolutely magnificent. Because if you value your life as weighed by the importance placed upon a single event, you will swing from ecstasy to desperation throughout your life, and that is a life of imbalance. You need to achieve a kind of equilibrium. In this equilibrium, the joys give pleasure, of course, but they are accepted as a part of life, but not all of it. The tribulations which you face are also then a part of life, but they don’t destroy your life. They mustn’t destroy your life.
Worry has no purpose. Anxiety has no purpose. They’re both destructive…they lead you nowhere. Worry is a much stronger emotion than pleasure. It is also longer-lived. You can worry about something for months, and it can gnaw away at the very core of your perspective. It may be one issue, but how often does one issue create unbounded joy for months at a time? Seldom. Because worry, concern, and anxiety are such important emotions in life, we feel it is important that you recognize where they fit within the entire perspective of life. Those matters of concern in life must not be given more influence than is due.
How often it is that lives are governed and controlled by a kind of crisis management. You worry about what may happen, you worry about what has just happened, and you worry about what has happened in the past and whether it will recur. Life governed by such negative emotions becomes crippled, and you are no longer able to exercise the potential for growth that God has presented you with by the very gift of living. Living means growth, it means change, it means flexibility. Living does not mean defeat and agony.
What does all this mean for you at this point in your lives? It means simply that you must not let the size of the waves in the ocean alter the course. How is that course maintained? To follow the symbolism, it is with a rudder, of course. That rudder must for you be two things: a faith that somehow God is a part of every living experience; and second, that your present life experience is but a part of a much greater life.
There is much to look forward to. There is much that lies ahead of each of the paths that you take, much which is positive. You’ll never walk those paths in darkness if you choose to have light. You aren’t alone, you have never been alone, and you shall never be alone. Our presence and God’s presence are continuous. We were with you before your earthly existence, and we shall be with you in your next life. Although we may change, you will always have a guide.
How could we be with you prior to life? Your souls, as you know, come from God and therefore are a part of God. But your soul travels a great distance, spiritually speaking, in its development from one cell to a glorious being, so to speak. The journey of your soul before life must be guided. It must receive some direction. Part of our responsibility is the guiding of very young souls—young in experience, not in age. All souls are the same age, in your sense of the word. Some souls have little experience; some souls have a great deal. You all know of people of a given age who seem to have experienced so much and others of the same age who demonstrate a considerable naiveté about life. So it is with souls.
Your souls at one time were greatly inexperienced and needed to be directed, ultimately finding human life in your present form. It’s not by accident that the soul of a prior existence is now a part of your life. It’s not by accident—it’s both design and choice, for your guides led you to a position where you would be a part of the choice of the kind of life to be led. We were with you; we were a part of that.
We say it is partly choice, partly design, for God’s wisdom oversees all, and a soul is not given life, human life, until such time as it is ready to accept what God has offered. And then it chooses, willingly, to move to human life. This time takes eons…it is immeasurable. As you know, it may happen once or more times, but the decision, the positive decision, is always made through the presence of a guide and with God’s help and light.
As you move on to your next life, your guides will also be with you to guide and nurture, to instruct and comfort. Those are our responsibilities, and we do them most lovingly. We know you prior to your earthly life, and we shall know you after your earthly life. We are a part of that continuum, and you should begin to sense that continuity as an essential perspective on all life, all human life. We make that distinction because humans alone have souls; humans alone are immortal.
Live your lives, therefore, with the knowledge that you are part of a marvelous greater life—not insignificant, but a part of it. The fingernail is a part of the human body, a small part, but certainly not insignificant. An eyelash has no less significance. So it is with human life. You are all significant—a very small portion visible to you of life in its entirety. You can’t fully appreciate the breadth of life, but perhaps through your gathering together, you will develop a sense of it. And as you feel contact with previous and future life, you will find yourselves better equipped to deal with present life. If you know you have an examination to take in the future, the material which you are presented with now takes on greater significance. So it is with life. If you know that life has a future and you have that sense, then the present takes on value and significance, but not out of proportion with reality.
For some who suffer greatly in life, that suffering is caused by too much importance being given to the present. An individual who cannot take criticism places too much importance on the value of praise. Govern your lives with the firm conviction that life continues, that you continue, that what you do is important because it has an influence on the future, and yet it is not the entire future.
You are all united in love and united through love. You are all one because of love. You are all strengthened through the presence of love, affirmed by those around you. You must also be strengthened by the affirmation of God’s love. We serve as a means for your experiencing God’s love—not the only means, but a means which gives you a perspective on both the past and the future.
We give you God’s blessings, and surround you with our love and peace.
Amen.