April 5, 2005
God illuminates your lives with compassionate love, with a caring concern, and with a warmth that reflects endurance, strength, vulnerability, and openness. God’s love reflects your love just as yours reflects God’s. All souls are like mirrors that reflect at many angles, that take light and spread it outward and create an illumination that provides light to and from all creation.
Your prayers for your friend who recently made his transition are deeply felt by him. He is with us, he is resting, he is filled with love, he is filled with a great peace and great joy. Your friend is surrounded by all those whom he loved who preceded him to the spiritual manifestation of love. He recognizes all. He sees your own lights, he knows of your concerns and interests, and he feels your support. But it is also important that you realize that he surrounds you with love and light and peace. He will communicate with each of you. You will know when it is appropriate.
Your friend has entered the first of several stages of spiritual enlightenment. These stages, these levels or spheres of development, are experienced by all souls. When a soul joins us, it is part of a continuous process of growth, of healing, a process of learning more about love, a process that leads some to teach as we teach. For others, the process is converting energy more purely into love—the energy of creation, the energy of light, the energy of humankind, the energy of the inanimate as well as the animate.
There is much that occupies the life of a soul. Yes, it is filled with peace. Yes, it is filled with joy, with love, with light. But the growth of which we have spoken continues constantly. You might ask why such growth continues—what is the benefit? The benefit is in strengthening the power and presence of God, affirming the power of love, enabling love to overcome all that is negative, allowing beauty to reign—beauty that you see and beauty that is beyond your vision. The purpose of growth is always to bring affirmation, to create an environment in which love flourishes non-judgmentally.
We learn much in our growth. We learn what it means not to be different in superficial ways. We learn the beauty of individual characteristics. As we learn that beauty, we become empowered even more to help you learn these lessons. Your guides are not at the lowest level of spiritual development. We are not on the first sphere, but we have experienced the first sphere. We have learned from that and we are a part of that continuum of growth. Eventually our growth leads us to different activities. Even though we are not forever your individual guide, we are always with you and we always are in support of that spirit that has chosen to shepherd your lives through the human condition.
There are, therefore, many layers to the Spirit. You wonder about angels and archangels, the Holy Spirit. We can tell you that it is true, there are numerous levels. Angels or guardian angels…they are the same. When you sense an angel is with you, you are sensing your guardian angel, your guide. But as there are so many levels of spiritual growth, there are equal levels of angels. It is perhaps most helpful for you to feel that your guardian angel is your guide, but there are different such levels. All are angels.
Humankind has forever been concerned and sometimes consumed by the issue of angels, of spirits—spirits in nature, spirits in the trees, spirits in the clouds, spirits in the earth, spirits in the rock—for all human beings seek at some level to understand: Why life? Why am I alive? Why are you alive? Why is there human life? What is the relationship between human life and the natural environment that surrounds you? In the desire to understand those relationships and in a desire to understand why one has life at all, some cultures establish deities. Some cultures establish icons that represent spiritual identification. Some cultures teach about the existence of angels. We can tell you in truth that all of these constructions collectively are correct, but each culture has its own view of that ultimate reality, and for that specific culture, that view is truth, that view serves the highest purposes. Such views are not complete, but they are, in themselves within their own limitations, correct.
All religions of the world try to explain life beyond what is seen and heard and felt, and so each religion, each belief system, is created to provide meaning for people. For this reason, no religion can claim sole authority for what is correct. Is there an absolute truth that separates one belief system from another, that gives validity to one group at the expense of another value system? The answer is yes and no. There is absolute truth. That truth is: God Is; You Are God. All else comes from these statements. God Is and therefore You Are. There is no You without the existence of God. There is no Us on our level of spiritual growth without God, for we are as much a part of God as each of you. We are not more a part of God. We have a greater understanding, a greater knowledge of God, for we understand more what it means to be loving, but that does not make us more a part of God. We are closer to the Source because we are all Spirit, but we are not more a part of God.
There is so much strife in the world created by a sense of exclusivity, of owning the “real truth.” As we grow in our ability to experience and express love, we are given the power to help break down the sense of exclusivity. As each of you joins us, the collective ability to change and influence humankind is enhanced. That which we learn in our own stages or spheres of development is essentially a clearer understanding of the God Center of all that is. Your journey on that path of growth began during your human life to take on specific characteristics. You learned before you became human, but human life provided and continues to provide the context for what you learned prior to human life and what you continue to learn during human life. This context gives richness and depth to your lives.
Human life is but a moment in the continuum of spiritual deepening. The first level of spiritual life that is experienced after human life is also one step in the direction of ultimate perfection, of being drawn to the Spirit Center that is God. All souls make that journey regardless of what was learned prior to human life, regardless of what is learned during human life. The journey is successfully completed. This journey is not arduous, for it is a journey based solely on the expression of love. As you express love as human beings, you become more capable of expressing greater love.
It is the same for us. We learn to love more deeply and in that process we guide you—we are your guardian angels. It is not so important that you know our names. For some individuals it is essential, for they feel that in knowing the name of their guide, there is a personal connection. It is no longer anonymous, it is no longer a concept. It seems more personal, identifiable. We had names in our previous life, but those names in themselves are not of great importance. What is essential is our loving duty to be with each of you. Some of us become guardian angels for spirits on our side, for in addition to being surrounded by those who have loved you and those whom you have loved, spirits are also surrounded by guides. We have our guardian angels. Our guardian angels have their guardian angels. The life of spirit is a life of shared giving to one another, teaching, loving.
It is this environment that your friend has entered so joyfully and so peacefully. You are about to honor him [with a memorial service]. You are about to celebrate his presence among you, and you wonder what can be done for him and what can be done for each of you. Most importantly, you can pray for his growth, and you can feel gratitude and love for his love in your lives. Each of you is given the opportunity of assisting souls who have joined us. It is certainly understandable and fitting and appropriate to mourn his loss, for it is a shared loss. But you will ultimately give him strength when you use your sense of loss as a springboard for prayer for his growth.
We benefit always when we are prayed for. We obviously grow when you ask for our help, for in our response to your request, growth is also achieved. Holding one who has transitioned to us in a loving light that is peaceful, thankful, and asks only for the best for that soul, provides a support beyond your imagination.
We grow when you pray. Our lights are brighter because your prayers send out a great illumination. We mirror that warmth, we mirror that light back to you and back to countless others. When you pray for us, many whom you do not know are warmed and sustained by that prayer, for we reflect that love back to human life. We share life together. We walk with you; you walk with us. Our lives are enhanced because of what you do just as much as your lives are enhanced by an acknowledgment of what we do. It is a permanent partnership of love. There is no end to this relationship. There is no end to a relationship between you and one you have loved who has joined our side.
So many beliefs describe the transition as the great divide. In truth, there is no distance. We are no further away nor separated from you than your thoughts are from you. We are around you, we are within you, above you, below you. If we had physical bodies, you would feel our touch constantly. Some of you may sense our presence physically. Others may sense our presence visually. Your relationships to nature are a manifestation. But there is no distance between us, between those you love, and you. It is for this reason that our relationship to you and our relationship to other spirits is permanent, for one cannot be separated from what one is.
You are each spirits, but you are each part of Spirit with a capital S. You are each drops in the ocean. You are never separated from that ocean; you are always in contact. Energy knows no boundary; the Spirit has no boundary. Those who have joined us have no boundary that separates them from you. You are no longer able to see them in the way you saw them before, but that never changes the reality of their presence.
Pray for your friend, pray for his growth, pray for his peace, pray for his love. Express your gratitude for his presence. Express your love…that is what is needed. He is on his journey through your prayers and with the assistance of our loving presence. It is a time of rejoicing for his new life. It is a time for missing his immediate visible presence in yours. The two go hand in hand.
Affirm life, life that is permanent.
Affirm the Spirit.
Affirm your love for one another.
Amen.