July 19, 2006
Each of you, dear souls, lives and thrives in your growth because of your vision of God. You know in limited fashion what it means to be godly. You know in your own way what is right when the question that is posed relates to what is essential. Those questions you have that are crucial for your own spiritual development and for the development of others have their own answers that really are clear. Where the difficulty arises is when you have questions whose importance is merely temporal.
To illustrate this, if you ask yourself, “How do I respond to my neighbor in need,” you really know the direction of that response. If you ask yourself, “Do I invest in this or do I invest in that,” the answers are not so clear, for such a question is merely temporal. We, the collection, the permanent assembly of your guides, are given the loving task of guiding you in those matters whose importance is permanent. So many individuals offer prayers of the second kind and rarely consider those of the first. They ask, “Do we turn left or right? Do I take this job, do I take that job? Do I decide for this, or do I decide for something else?” But asking for that advice, you are really asking for something more fundamental, something which addresses what is permanent, something which addresses matters of spirit, for if you know the nature of spirit, your concerns of temporal issues are far clearer. What you pray for in terms of temporal issues is clarified.
We are not saying that God has no interest in such temporary concerns as characterize human life, but we are saying that those concerns are given perspective, are given a sense of direction, purpose, through your awareness of all that is permanent. When faced with temporal issues, it is entirely appropriate to pray for help, but as you know, the direction that help leads may be different from what you wish or anticipate. But because of your prayer, you can always be assured that the choices you make are the appropriate ones.
The primary function of your guides, each of us and the countless others that are assembled with us, is to guide you according to those needs that are permanent, are crucial, that are spiritual. All questions relating to your function within the realm of God are addressed. That is why we are with you. In the frenetic nature of human life, it is important that you always keep one eye on what is godly. You must not ever lose sight of that, for such vision informs your responses across the spectrum of human life. Simply put, if you are with God, all is right in your life. We say all and we intend to be absolutely inclusive. We do not say all and refer only to spirit. All includes every component of human life.
Your perception of God, therefore, informs and directs all elements of your life. Some individuals have what they refer to as an intensely close, personal relationship with God. Others claim a belief in a supreme being but have less defined understanding of what that really means. Both approaches inform human life. Both approaches are fluid. The individual who claims to have a strong personal connection will see that connection change, take on greater perspective, be altered in its impact. But such is also the same for the individual who is nominally aware of God at some level.
You are asked never to judge another. The judgment we refer to is a sense of entitlement or elitism that separates you from others. Your understanding of God is a creative process. It is a living process, never stable, always on the go. That is as it should be, but you are never more important, you are never specially chosen, you are never somehow separated from the pack. Your understanding has validity in your lives, but there are many others whose understanding, although quite different, is equally valid. No individual has exclusive knowledge of absolute truth, and likewise there is no individual who travels the course of human life with no understanding of God.
There are many who reject the existence of God, but behind that verbal rejection is a kind of question that asserts maybe that objection to God is ill-founded. Even those who bring harm intentionally to others have a level of awareness. That awareness may be responded to, it may be ignored, but it lingers in the background nevertheless. As a result, no one is exclusive. No one has a corner on knowledge. No one can claim to be more spiritually sensitive than another. There are, of course, those whose spiritual beliefs are more publicly held, but that does not mean that those whose beliefs are not expressed publicly have no belief.
Each of you experiences the challenge of human life because of the need, acknowledged need to learn. You may learn about the stars in the sky, the moon and the sun. You may learn about the smallest particles, but belonging to that learning is the unmistakable reality that there is something yet greater, that all that you study and examine has been created, all has energy, all has a kind of life. God is present and it is only a matter of time, as you define it, before all ultimately acknowledge that reality.
You assemble as a group because you share the quest, and yet each comes with different questions, different perspectives, different ideas about even the validity of what you experience. These differences are a miniature view of the more profound differences that belong to humankind. You seek, but you also question. You experience shared joy and laughter, but you all have lingering concerns and sadness. What concerns you differs one from another, just as what gives you joy differs one from another, and yet you are united in the quest, in the search. You are given the blessing of being alive to enable that search to continue. The search is filled with pitfalls, disillusionment and frustration, with jealously, anger, but your search is also accompanied by love, affirmation, support, prayer, light.
We, your guides, are very well aware of this distinction between what gives pain and what provides pleasure in your life. The measure of one versus another will always change, will always be fluid. Where is the stability upon which you can fashion your life’s direction? The stability is simply your acknowledgment of the presence of a loving energy. You may choose to call it God. You may choose to give this energy human attributes of joy, pleasure, of revenge, anger. That is, of course, an option. But God, this higher power, is an absolute certainty in your lives. You may question, you may accept, you may rejoice, you may deny, but you are always at some level or another grappling with the reality of this power.
There are many religious beliefs that characterize God in one form or another. Those beliefs are valid to those who hold them, and they must therefore be given support. They must be acknowledged, they must be respected. It is not necessary that the God whom you seek must be described by all in the same way. There is no exclusive religion. There is no exclusively accurate description of God. If you acknowledge a life force beyond your own, you are doing all that is necessary. How that force is manifested in your life will change, but being aware of it, your lives are shaped and given perspective.
Think always of what makes each of you similar to one another. Don’t dwell on the differences. The differences are clear but unimportant. There are days of clouds and days of rain, but regardless, the sun is always there. God is always with each of you, whether you experience rain in your lives or cloudiness or the warmth of sunlight. Those are only temporary characteristics. What is permanent is the presence of that sunlight. Sometimes you can see it and other times you cannot. That light is always there and it is always there for everyone. As a result, there is no distinction, one person to another.
We recognize differences as changes in energy, but in essence there is virtually no difference between you individually and anyone else. There is no real difference or distinction to be made between your life and our life. Both share the commonality of a loving warmth, the brilliance of the sun in the heavens that is God.
You are blessed by all that you know to be true of God. You are blessed by all your questions and doubts, for that keeps you in the search. You are blessed for the clouds that provide respite. You are blessed by the rain that provides refreshment. You cannot have a life of all sunshine, and you will not have a life of all clouds or rain. What is permanent is permanent. What is temporary—the clouds, the rain in your lives, metaphorically—are only brief moments and they do not obliterate the loving warmth that is God.
You are one with each other. You are one with all creation. You are one with God. You are one with us. Your lives should always be viewed by this shared permanence.
We bless you with your awareness. We bless you with our prayers for your growth. And we in turn are blessed by your acknowledgment of God, brief as it may be or extended as it may be. Such acknowledgement brings great warmth and a brilliant light, illuminating our companionship with you. Be refreshed in your blessings.
Amen.