June 30, 1994

• The relationship of peace and love in human life and spiritual life

• Accept the futility of fear

God has gathered all of us, your guides, together as you meet as a group. The collection of spirits and the spiritual strength and light emanating from each of you and each of us is brilliant and warm, and reflects the brightness and the variety of color that is so much a part of our life on this side. It brings us joy—yes, we experience joy—to welcome a new guide in our midst. That guide of course is the newcomer’s to your group. Her guide brings strength and great love to us as she brings strength and love to your group.

The last time that we were assembled jointly the focus of our sharing with you was centered upon our experience within the spiritual plane of life. It is indeed a beautiful experience, full of the light of which we spoke and the comforting warmth of love. We would like to continue a bit further in our sharing of life as we experience it, not because we wish you to join us immediately, but because we feel that our experience in spiritual form may have a direct and beneficial effect on your life's experiences in human form.

We have spoken of love as the great objective and unifier of all, but it is important to recognize that for such love to flourish to its greatest brilliance, each of us, you and we, must achieve total peace. We have spoken of crossroads in the past and the spiritual winds which pass through your souls bringing with them God's presence. Those crossroads are not moments of brief duration which are then passed and forgotten. Lives are always a series of crossroads. Each of you must make decisions. They may be decisions about what to do or how to feel, but nevertheless these decisions are founded upon the desire for peace. So what we share with you this evening is not meant just for isolated moments of your lives but is intended to enhance your daily living.

When we passed to this side and became aware of the spiritual nature of our new lives, we still brought with us remnants of our human existence. Many of us never achieved a total sense of peace and acceptance. We knew of its importance, but we had not achieved it. There are other souls who have joined our company as spirits who are advanced in their ability to find peace from within. It is these souls who have experienced the greatest facility at receiving and giving love. There is no competition here obviously, but the point is that all souls bring with them various levels of peace.

Some approach the end of their human lives with great fear, for they are entering a level of existence of which they have no recollection. It is totally new when viewed through their consciousness. Such a journey is understandably the source of anxiety for many. There are others who make the transition with a very deep and abiding peace. For them, the transition was easier, for they had learned what it meant to find a corner of their lives that provided peace.

When we arrive therefore, we arrive with different levels of peace. For each of us, the process of evolving into the expression of pure love is accompanied by the efforts to increase one's reservoir of peace. Peace does not come to you automatically. Peace is not something you suddenly feel when you enter our sphere of existence. It is learned, it is developed and nurtured, it is given strength and credibility and meaning.

This life that we now have is the permanent life. The lives you experience are only temporary, but all that you do in your lives has a direct bearing in the way that you grow on this side. We work toward peace within. Peace and love do go together, for you cannot be honest in your expression of love if you do not experience the beauty of peace. But in the same light, peace has no chance of developing outside a relationship centered in love. Peace and love are both necessary, but it is peace which ultimately is the means of achieving complete love. For us then, the search for real peace is the means by which we grow in our expression of love to the point where peace becomes complete. It is no longer a search and we are then fully agents of love.

Peace does not come cheaply. It takes effort for us. It takes constant striving. It means that we must be receptive to the beauty around us, the beauty of the souls of which we are aware. When you are receptive to the beauty around you, there is no fear. When there is no fear, there is only peace. Peace is restricted by the presence of fear. When we join the spiritual plane of life, there is nothing to be afraid of, but we have learned the importance of fear as a protective device, and it takes time to shed that protection. It takes time to shed that sense of fear, that protective shell. But once the protection of fear has been released, the love which is surrounding can enter and peace is increased.

Peace begets love and love begets peace. When you seek peace, when you pray for peace, you are really praying for the release of fear. When we work for peace, spiritual peace, we are working to release the fear, the habit of fear from our human experience. Even though there is nothing for us to fear, the habit is durable and must be broken. We eventually succeed in recognizing the foolishness of fear. We eventually recognize the pointlessness of building up defensive barriers which we used to protect who it was we thought we were. We now know who we are, and there is no need for such barriers.

When you realize the true beauty of someone near you, and we refer to spiritual beauty, there is no need to put up defenses. Where is the threat? To break down those defenses, you must learn to recognize and have faith in the beauty of everyone around you. That is not easy to do and you cannot expect to succeed one hundred percent in your human lives, but to the extent that you are able to break down those barriers of fear and protection, you enhance the beauty and joy and sense of fulfillment in life.

If you wish to find peace, accept the futility of fear. Recognize that most fear is selfish. Recognize that most fear is centered on a view of what you want as opposed to what you think will happen. You must release from yourselves a sense of expectation. Live your lives from moment to moment without placing a kind of overlay of expectations on what others should do or what should happen to others.

It is easy to be fearful of the health problems of others, but when you recognize that God is present in the lives of others, there is no need for fear. You may pray that others may become more aware of God's presence and be guided by it, but in so doing you are not exercising fear and agitation. Such a recognition of God in the life of another can only bring you peace, and that peace allows you to relate to others with greater love, a love which is nonjudgmental.

If you experience fear, you cannot be nonjudgmental, for the act of judging another is motivated by fear from within. Eliminate the fear, you eliminate the judgment. Eliminate the judgment and the love is pure. It all seems simple. The relationships between peace and love are clear, but the achievement of pure love is enormously difficult.

Regardless of what level of peace they bring with them to our side, all souls ultimately achieve complete peace and are transformed into total love. Time is not an issue here. All that is important is development, growth. In your lives, work for patience. Be patient with yourselves; be patient with others. Recognize God's hand in the life around you. God not only illuminates your soul but all souls. If you fully believe that, you can greatly lessen anxiety or fear, and you achieve greater peace within. Love is the objective, but the means to that objective is the nurturing of peace.

The peace that you feel is not always the same. There are times of course when you are more peaceful, as you say. It is not so important that you achieve a sense of constant peace, but that you experience peace and that you know what you can do to bring peace back within your lives when you feel it is escaping and out of control.

We have said that peace brings about love and love brings about peace. Part of achieving inner peace is taking the risk of expressing love and recognizing that that expression has been received and accepted. That recognition may not be a visible one. It may be a recognition based on faith. When you express love to another and it is not returned, if you have faith that your expression has in some way benefited another, that recognition helps to bring peace within.

The development of peace, the development of love are incredibly close. One cannot be nurtured without attention to the other. It is almost a complete circle, not having a beginning. We say almost because the objective at the end of that circle is love. Peace and love are interrelated, but it is love that wins out because of the presence of peace.

We pray for peace for each of you. It is not because peace is the objective, but because we pray for your experience of love. When we wish God's peace to be your peace, we are wishing God's love to be your love. We reflect God's peace and God's light to each of you, and we reflect that also to each of us on our side. God's peace is yours. Hold onto it and nurture it and let it grow and flourish.

Amen.