April 8, 2004
The loving God permeates your lives giving comfort, direction and a strength of spirit to your faith.
Your lives, the lives of all are basically characterized by good. You are given life accompanied by a reflection of love. When you begin human life as a baby, there is no presence of evil or wishes that are in some way directed toward others. You begin your human lives vulnerable. You have needs, but you are also the closest you will be in your entire lives as human beings to what it means to be loving. This love that a baby has is not described or characterized as compassionate or giving. It is a love which is expressed by being open, by being receptive, being willing to accept what is offered with no judgment, with no guilt, with no anger. A baby may be impatient and have pressing needs, but it does not know hate. It does not know pride. It is not spiteful. The needs are there, but the real meaning of love is also there. But as human beings develop in their earthly life, they learn spite, they learn anger, they learn hatred, suspicion, jealousy, a sense of entitlement at the expense of others.
These lessons, while not godly, are actually ordained by the necessity of the soul to experience that human life. But part of the mission of human life, in addition to learning those negative reactions, is learning to overcome them. Part of your lives must be devoted to finding ways to clear away such negativity and to return, as it were, to that kind of love, that kind of relationship with others that is the common heritage of every human being who has ever lived.
Human beings are basically good. It is incorrect to assume that humans are basically evil and that human life is somehow an acting out of that evil. On the contrary, the goodness that is basic to all human life, the goodness from which you all evolve, is precisely the goal that you each must seek in your own way.
The figure of Jesus is important as a reminder, as a guide to what it means to return to a life from which you all evolved. The place of Jesus is a reminder of your origin—your spiritual origins and your human origins. For many in the world, that reminder, that example of a love that is first and foremost vulnerable, is a lesson that is essential for all human beings to embrace. But Jesus was not the only figure to provide the guidance, to provide the light. Each faith finds a central figure that can serve to lead those who follow back to the beginning of their lives.
There is meaning to approaching God, and therefore also your own lives, as a child. When you advance beyond infancy, it is common for many to have a spiritual vision that is very real, that is poignant but not necessarily fully understood. It is not unusual for young children to claim that they saw God or that they heard God. It is not uncommon that children are aware of their guides. But the lessons of interaction in human life often serve to invalidate such experiences, and an adult emerges who vehemently negates any reality of seeing God, hearing God, or recognizing the love that characterized the early development.
Your lives therefore are not characterized as a trajectory that takes you from where you are to where you can be. Your lives rather are a circle that takes you from where you are to where you began. Your lives therefore are a circle, not a straight line. It is the same with your spiritual lives. You evolve as spirits but that evolution is circular, for you eventually develop to be the spiritual entity you were at the beginning of your individual, spiritual life. We say “at the beginning of your spiritual life,” not implying that there was a time when you were not spirit, for all of you began as spirit and all of you will return as spirit. But each spirit evolves into its own particular identity, and it is to that identity’s origin that the circle is drawn and ultimately the wider circle of being fully aware of being full spirit, absolute unity with God.
Life then is a series of circles, concentric circles: a full life from unity with God to unity with God; a smaller circle characterized as growth from an individual characteristic of spirit back to the beginnings of that individual identity; and an inner circle consisting of a sense of God, a sense of love that characterizes all human beings at birth, eventually evolving back to that beginning spirituality, that beginning love as a human form. All forms of life must complete the circle. For some human beings, that circle is completed in the span of a single life term. For others, it requires additional human experience. Ultimately the human life returns to that love that was part of the very beginning of such life.
Living your human lives with a desire to return to becoming vulnerable is difficult, but such a return allows you then to become aware, as a result of that human experience, of your individual spiritual identities. The circle of life for that spiritual identity, that individual identity, as it returns to the essence of that identity, becomes aware of the spiritual circle that leads directly back to total unity with God. These circles of evolution all have one component in common. That component, as you know, is love. All spiritual development, whether through human form or spirit form, is really the evolution of loving presence.
The figure of Jesus, therefore, is a reflection of the reality of the final circle of love as seen from the inner circle. It is a connection through which you are given an awareness of the totality of love in the complete unity that is God, that is the outer circle. As you contemplate the meaning of Jesus in your own lives, you are acquiring a glimpse of the outermost circle of love. It is, however, an untruth to believe that the only vision outward to that greater circle of love is Jesus. That figure has meaning for you, but Jesus is only one of many views of the outer circle.
There is a feeling among many that biblical texts were the only examples of God speaking to the inner circle, but that is not correct. There are many opportunities to have a glimpse of the outer circle. There are many opportunities to hear God, for God has not stopped speaking to human beings; rather, many human beings have stopped listening to God. That is a choice that each of you may make, but that choice is never a permanent one if you decide you wish to change. Human beings can reject God, can reject the concept of an encircling love, the outer circle that gives light to all within. But that same individual can choose at a later time to be committed to listening and to acknowledging the reality of that outer circle.
At times when the world is filled with upheaval, strife, anger, feelings of entitlement, the need for control, domination, the exercise of hatred, we can assure you that the truth of all life is that love increases. The world is not drawing further away from an acknowledgment of your shared spirituality. Quite the contrary, the world is more aware of being united by spirit. But you are, in these days of your lives, more aware of what is happening than at any other time in history. It is not new that nations oppose nations. It is not new that groups of individuals oppose one another. It is not new that individuals seek power and control. It is not new that a part of the human condition is selfishness. That has always existed, but the consciousness of a loving God that surrounds all grows constantly. The sense of expansion of the power of love is not just a hope—it is a reality.
Each of you is able to contribute to that growing awareness. Each of you has the potential for providing a view of that outer circle from your place within. Each of you can make a difference. You must be committed in your lives to reflecting your understanding of the outer circle. You must be committed in your lives to an understanding of the spirit that dwells within each of you. Despite worries—worries about peace, worries about health—worries about the very act of living a human life cannot take away the reality of the outer circle, the circle of love that has within it the experience of the souls of all who have shared human lives. It is a common bond—your own soul and the outer circle. You are not separated in any way from that circle. Your vision may be limited but it expands continually.
You have questions about the souls of family members, you wonder about parents, you wonder about siblings, relatives of all generations. We can assure you that all is well. Every spirit who joins our side is well and whole and healed. Every spirit who joins our side is aware of you. We say this very specifically…every spirit who joins our side is aware of you…not just the spirit of those family members who join us…every spirit. You do only have selected guides, that is true, but you all are in the vision and love of virtually every soul with us. That is the nature of this plane. You are watched over, you are prayed for, you are cared for by the souls of individuals whom you have never met, for there is nothing that separates all of us from each of you. All souls are well, and it is good.
We hear your prayers for the souls of those whom you have loved. It is important that each of you knows of the goodness and wholeness that are part of their lives. As you know, we are not separated from one another. The soul of one individual is in no way separated from the soul of another. We may have individual characteristics but we are in no way separated. We are all connected and therefore you can be assured that we know full well of your beloved souls, for they and we are the same. We are a single entity. We are individually the drop in the ocean, but we are the ocean. There is no differentiating.
It is difficult for you to comprehend the wholeness of spiritual unity, but that does not mean that such unity cannot exist. This unity is part of your past, it belongs to your present, and it is in all ways your future. We suggest you live your lives with the commitment to this knowledge.
The directions you seek in the decisions you make, both immediate and long-term, will always be clear when taken from the perspective of complete unity, of absolute love, and the acknowledgment of equality of all human life. If you choose to sustain that equality and enhance it, strengthening it, you have made the right choice. When you question whether to go in one direction or another, the right choice is the choice that enhances the love from which you all began and to which each of you will return.
Our love is for you. Our prayers are for your vision and for your willingness to listen to God.
Amen.