July 23, 1992

• Biblical scripture and other inspired writings

• Spiritual development requires change

The presence of God's spirit joins all of you, your souls and your guides, together. The bonding which connects each of you is the quest for a clearer sense of God's presence.

All humans seek knowledge, seek a sense of security and assurance that whatever is being done is being done for the right reasons. These concerns do not occupy all of your thoughts at all times, but each has experienced them in the past and you will be faced with them countless times in the future. There is a right and a wrong in governing your lives, but the sense of rightness and wrongness is not in absolute terms.

There are many ways of achieving noble objectives. There are actions which you can take which lead you to goals you set, and there are actions which you may choose to take which do not lead you toward the goals which are important for you at the moment. But an action which is wrong does not necessarily mean that it lacks purpose or benefit. It may merely mean that your route toward a chosen objective may be longer or that you will be motivated to change the objective and seek something else.

There are of course actions and behaviors which are just plain wrong. One does not proceed down the street and thoughtlessly without motivation kill another. That is certainly wrong even in absolute terms. But what we are referring to in terms of rightness and wrongness not being absolute is in the formulating of decisions based on thoughtful choices which are made.

What is best for you, what beliefs must you hold true, what approaches result in appropriate spiritual growth, what kinds of behavior are consonant with God's teachings? These questions, these issues are the reason you are presented with human life. The answer to these questions cannot be formulated and acted upon with any solely spiritual form of life. You can only face these questions in human form. Just as your souls are all different—different in character, development—so are your responses to these questions. The response of one individual may be entirely appropriate and yet lack validity for another.

As was mentioned this evening, the Bible may be the best source of inspiration for an individual. We say this to confirm and support the importance of the Bible, but we also say that there are other sources of inspiration, of guidance which lead toward the spiritual development resulting in a union with God. One source is not necessarily better than another in a universal sense. One source is more appropriate than another on an individual basis. These sources all contain truths. These sources all contain and encourage interpretation.

The books which comprise the Bible are the result of inspirations experienced by many people. Those inspirations were written about, they were written as a permanent record of what had been told, but nevertheless are the result of inspiration received in one form or another. And so it is with the major documents of the world's religions. There are discrepancies as you know within the Bible, but there are even greater discrepancies between the central documents of the many world religions.

The obvious question which is raised therefore is "which one has the greatest truth." The answer is that they all have within them elements which are infallibly true, but they are also subject to interpretation, and it is within the interpretation that the problems, the differences, the disagreements, even wars, are founded. It is therefore part of your journey in human form to search out what has meaning for you and then live by that which provides such center.

You change in your beliefs as you develop. It has happened to all of you. That's part of development. That does not necessarily mean that as you change your beliefs you are coming closer to the perfect truth. It only means that you are finding a truth which resonates with your spiritual selves. Those needs change and therefore what you seek changes.

The messages, the information which you receive from your guides, is no more or less valid than that which has been passed on to civilization in the form of major tenets of the world religions. It is how you respond to what we give you that is really important. So often your response to previous messages is far different now than at the time that you heard them at the first, and that is okay. Your interpretation changes and you begin to see another dimension to a truth which has validity for you. You cannot question whether what the guides transmit through prayer to you is meaningless or absolutely false, for that is not the case, but you can always question whether what you understand has meaning for you at this moment in your own development. If it has meaning for you, take it in and make it a part of you. If it does not have meaning, let it wait. It may have meaning later.

Each of you is able to draw according to where you are in your own development. Countless times we have said that spiritual development is not a race. There are no winners or losers. There's no first or second place. There is no one path that everyone must take. It is a process in which time has no place. It is something which just occurs. You develop as you develop. It is not important that one develops fast. It is not a problem when one develops slowly. Such a sense of timing is absolutely meaningless. Each of you develops when you are ready to develop, and each of you grows at a rate which is appropriate for your growth. There is no point in comparing. There is no point in feeling as if one is growing slowly. One merely grows. It is the growth that is important, that's all.

It is your growth in love, it is in your growth in awareness of the presence of God —that is what is growing. Your spirit grows as you grow in love and God's awareness. That is all that is really important. That is why you are alive, that is why you experience human life and not just spiritual life. You grow in loving by experiencing what love is. You don't grow in loving by being told about it. You grow in your awareness of God's presence by becoming aware of God’s presence in many situations, not by being told of it.

The growth in both of these directions is growth which requires experience. It is the knowledge that you obtain by living, by experiencing, which assures that growth. There are some who live many years who show little growth. There are some who live for a short time who show much growth. The length of life is not a determinate of one's growth but rather what one does with one's life.

That's why we are here. We are here to help you grow as you live. We cannot do the growing for you, but we can help you to do your own growing. We provide a light for your life. We provide a sense of direction. But we are not the only providers of such light and direction. For some it will be Biblical sources and that is entirely appropriate. As was mentioned this evening it is really not essential that one comes up with a set of standards which determines that one source is valid and another source is invalid. You accept what you can which has meaning for your life, and you recognize that what you accept may change as your lives change and as your soul grows.

Living requires change. With no change life has no meaning. You live so that you may change. Your relationships to others change. They become deeper, they become less intense, but they never remain the same. All that you do in life is related to change.

Be willing to be open to the changes that occur. Be willing to be open to the need for change. Be willing to recognize the opportunities that you are given for change.

Look for love, look for faith, look for God. Wherever you find it, draw towards it. That is the appropriate place for you at any time.

We pray for you. We pray for your openness to change. We pray for your vision of life which encompasses love and faith and recognition of God, and we bless each of you with God's warmth and ever-present love and peace.

Amen.