January 6, 2009
You are all in the Light. You are all a part of the energy that is God, and because of that you are all a part of God. By being a part of God, you are not fully God, but you are essential to the reality of God’s presence.
Your conversation this evening was centered essentially around the issue of relationships—relationships between human beings, and relationships between human beings and your guides, between human beings and other spirits, between human beings and spirits coming from life-forms beyond your familiar surroundings. The life of a spirit is essentially a life of relationships. All that we teach, all that God wishes you to know, concern relationships. We’ve spent great effort helping you to understanding more deeply your relationships with other human beings, and we’d like to focus more attention at this time on your relationship to spirit—not spirit in the abstract, but spirit regardless of where or what type of reality it inhabits.
Concerns have been raised about how to deal with others who suffer seemingly beyond your understanding, and the impact of that suffering on your own lives. It is important to acknowledge something you already know: every human life has a history. That history is a physical history, that history is a spiritual history. No individual exists beyond the influence of its own history. It is a fact that you will never fully be aware of the history of another person. That other may be a spouse, a good friend, a family member, but nevertheless that individual’s history resides within that person.
It is also true that you are not fully aware of your own history—your human history and your spiritual history. You are where you are, you are who you are because of that history. You respond to life because of the lessons you have learned and the lessons you are continuing to learn. To understand another individual completely, you must understand their human and spiritual history. That not being possible, you can never fully know another person. You can never fully know yourself. For that reason, judgment becomes meaningless or misguided. No judgment is fully valid, for no judgment can be based on full knowledge. It is one reason why you are encouraged to dispense with judgment.
There is a spiritual history even though there is no real time, for learning does take place. Spiritual history is the progression of learning. It is not the succession of time. Learning takes place, learning must take place. It is the measure of the spirit’s development, but it is not within the framework of time. When we speak, therefore, of one’s spiritual history, we speak of the progression of learning that takes place.
When you are encountering another whose behavior, actions, attitudes or words run counter to what you would wish, you must remind yourselves that that individual is functioning within his or her own history. You may find it difficult to accept, you may find it impossible to accept, but you must acknowledge that all human beings act out their lives on the basis of where they are. Where they are is a function of where they have been, and also a manifestation of where they will be and who they will become. No two souls, no two spirits evolve at the same rate, in the same direction, with the same characteristics.
In encountering another who is felt to be most challenging, you are urged not to internalize with guilt, but to externalize with love. It is easy to blame oneself for the anger, the disagreement, the clashes that occur with another. There is always a fear that somehow it is you who are wrong, it is you who are misguided. That fear may not be acknowledged as fear. It may be felt as anger. It may be felt as a sense of self-righteousness. It can also be felt very judgmentally, very critically, with impatience. But lurking behind all of that is fear. The absence of love is fear…it is not hate. When you are filled with love, there is less fear. When you are filled with less love, there is more fear.
When you encounter those who challenge your right to exist as a respectable entity, you must first acknowledge that the other is acting in accordance with where he or she is. You cannot be critical of that location. You must accept it. It may make you uncomfortable, but nevertheless, that other individual’s location is every bit as valid and useful and beneficial as your own. There is no path that is more valid than another. There is no path that is more worthy than another.
When you receive criticism with gratitude, you cannot ignore it. One cannot merely just let it go by. You must acknowledge it in your own being, and state to yourself simply, “It is where they are.” It may hurt, it may be embarrassing, you may feel insulted, you may feel defensive. That’s very human. But say to yourself, “It is where they are, and I am where I am.” If you accept their place and you accept your place, you have done all you can do, and you have defused any cause for judgment or anger. That is the great challenge for experiencing human life, the challenge of accepting where another is. Do not ignore the other if someone strikes out in anger. Ignoring the other places no value on where they are. Acknowledging that another individual is in his or her own place neither condemns no condones the action. It is one of attempting to understand, attempting to be supportive. It is in that understanding, it is in that supportive mindset that you are actually being loving in the moment.
No one has been guaranteed a life without conflict. No human being has existed who has never felt the disagreement of another, whether it is a child who is not supported by a parent when a child acts in a particular way, or a friend or parent or family member or stranger. Everyone who is alive with a consciousness of another experiences moments when the feeling of non-acceptance or non-agreement is a reality. Because of this fact, relationships with other human beings are crucial to your own spiritual growth, your own spiritual history.
Your relationships also extend to your connection with your guides. The reality of relationships carries further and has an impact on our own relationships with other spirits. As we are never alone and as you are never fully alone, relationships are a crucial ingredient in our growth and in yours.
You wonder about your own relationships with your guides. How do you know that you are being guided by the Light and not by the darkness? There are indeed negative forces, negative energies, and we have referred to the reality of the dark side in the past. There are spirits that join our side who find it difficult to make the transition. These are spirits who have accompanied lives that deny any awareness of a spiritual entity that exists beyond the physical. When those souls join us, it is such a radical change from their awareness, that some choose to return immediately. That choice, that preference is not granted. Souls that seem incapable of accepting their new existence are given time—time to learn, time to allow their history to evolve.
Any soul that serves as a guide serves willingly and serves in such a capacity after reaching a particular level of development. Each soul who serves as a guide knows when it is ready to function in that capacity. There are no guides who are ill-prepared. Every guide serves as a lens that reflects God’s reality. The development of a guide is much like the polishing of a lens. It is ready when it is ready. Until that moment when it has developed as it must, it cannot focus God’s Light adequately. Those spirits, therefore, who are your guides, are ready to be your guides.
A soul who joins us and experiences discomfort in its new life does not function as a guide. On the contrary, it learns from other guides. Some guides focus Light on the souls occupying human bodies. Some guides choose to focus Light on troubled souls as they join us. Guides open the spirit. They open the soul to God’s Light. The knowledge imparted by guides comes not from the guides, but guides merely focus what comes from God.
Why then are you asked to pray before you are open to your guides’ instruction? It is not a test of guides. It is merely a way of opening your own spirit to God’s help that is present. There are those who claim to receive guidance, messages, inspiration from the spirit world who actually are creating on their own. They are originating from their own level of development. In these cases, what is transmitted is less than what is appropriate. By praying first and then being open to whatever Light that shines upon your spirit, you allow yourselves to be fully open to your own guides. There are negative energies and the human spirit is capable of tapping into those negative energies, but those energies that are not God-oriented cannot function in an environment that looks to God. A criminal may feel the impetus to do or commit an act which is clearly not reflective of God. That individual may claim God told him or her to take that action, but such actions do not come from a request made prayerfully to be open to what is good and supportive and loving. Such requests are always answered directly through the associated guides.
All human beings can be consumed by what is negative as well as be attracted to what is positive. Each of you experiences this at some level from time to time. You take certain actions, you accept certain opinions, certain attitudes, certain moods, that you know are not reflective of your concept of God, and yet you proceed with those actions, those thoughts, those attitudes. Such actions do not reflect your guides, but they are rather conscious rejections of them. Any time you wish to be guided by God and not by self, just pray to be open to God. Then you make a choice. You either follow what you know to be appropriate or you reject it. The choice is a conscious choice.
Your guides are always with you. They are at your side. They are within you. They surround you. They are a part of who you are. They belong on your path. It takes little effort to open yourself up and allow the Light that they focus to come through. How do you communicate to your guides? How do you communicate to your soul? You communicate not through words, for words are never necessary. You communicate through attitude. That attitude is a loving openness and a willingness to take steps that reflect your current perception of God.
There are many views of God. All views have validity for that individual. We say to you that God is not judgmental. That is a statement of absolute fact, but there are many who firmly believe that God is judgmental, and recognizing that perceived judgment, those individuals feel motivated out of guilt, out of fear, to do what must be done to support others. In the end, it is not important whether an individual chooses to feel God is judgmental or nonjudgmental. What is important is the direction that individual chooses throughout his or her life. If you live with a desire to help others, to uphold, to uplift, to be loving, it is these actions that are part of the good that is permanent. What motivated those actions is ultimately of little importance.
For countless years human beings have lived in fear of God, and that is not an invalid position if it leads to a life that reflects what they feel to be God’s loving objectives. You know that God is not judgmental, and yet you still wish to be supportive, you still choose to listen, you still choose to be loving. Your path is no more valid than the path of one who believes God to be judgmental. The nature of that belief is less important than the actions that you take.
There are countless human beings who do not acknowledge a god and yet are motivated to live lives devoted to the betterment of others. Despite a lack of acknowledgment of God, those lives are being guided, are being nurtured, are being supported, for your guides are also not judgmental. There is no evaluating of the kind of life that they are attached to. They seek to learn, to be loving. They seek purification to become ultimately Love itself. All souls connect with others through the desire to be loving.
You wonder about the awareness that we have of life-forms elsewhere in the universe of God’s creation. We are aware of such life-forms. We can assure you that there are other life-forms associated with spiritual growth. We are governed through life, our life, in a loving direction, a loving goal to all that belong to God’s creation. You are no different. Your souls are the same. Your physical manifestation may be different. Nevertheless, all are guided by the spirit.
You are blessed in your own awareness of your spirit. You are blessed in your awareness of God. Rejoice in your vision!
Amen.