April 18, 2011

• Spiritual exchange compared to multiple candles

• The difference between who you are and what you are

• How guides recognize human emotions

• It is not life’s events that are important, but your response to them

God surrounds you and all of the spirits that are a part of this gathering. If you could see all who are present, you would be overwhelmed in your experiencing of loving support and care. You would be nearly blinded by the brilliance of spiritual energy—its light that serves to illuminate the paths that you are on and especially those points of intersection when your paths meet.

You gather as a group, and you share with others for the simple reason that at this stage in your collective growth, you share a common bond that is most effectively expressed through your contemplation of life’s meaning, of God’s meaning, of our meaning. Life in all forms is designed to be shared. In human form, you share with your family, with friends, with strangers, with associates. What is essential is that you are sharing.

Sharing means more than just being present. Sharing implies an exchange of sorts. You exchange spirit energy. You exchange your concepts of spirit. You exchange your perceptions of life. You exchange your response to life events that are held in common.

We do the same. We exchange our spiritual development with other souls. We exchange our presence as light with others. Our light is reflected back, and the light of all souls is reflected between each other, the result being an assembly of spirit energy that is far greater than what we can muster individually, alone, separate.

This exchange is much like the candles that illuminate your space. Each candle exchanges light. Each candle exchanges aroma. Each candle exchanges warmth. Each flame has its own character. Each flame consumes its own energy, and yet in that consumption also increases the energy provided by each other flame.

Your sharing amongst yourselves, your sharing with us, your sharing with God are essentially the same. They appear different. You may feel they have different purposes, but they are really at the center about exchanging what is truly permanent.

Sharing life means giving—giving to others individually, collectively, giving through love—but giving is more than just presenting another with something you have. It is also a giving up of something you have. In giving you expend some of the energy that is you. But when all are giving, then all benefit from the public expense of energy.

The candles expend their own fuel, but in such process the light is far greater. You can think of the candles as sacrificing something of what they are, and in the process strengthening the light, strengthening the view available between candles.

When you share with another, you are giving to another—giving something that comes from your core, something that emanates from your own spirit. What you give is according to what you can give.

There is no candle that is more essential than another, that is more important than another. The flame is the flame. The light is the light. The warmth is the warmth. The aroma is as the aroma can be. There is no comparison between one flame and another. There is only a recognition of the collected light that is created.

There is no comparison in your own gifts of spirit to another, only a recognition that that gift exists, that you are offering to someone some part of who you are. The identity of who you are is entirely different from the identity of what you are. We have touched upon this at some length in the past, but we would like to continue this discussion.

You are “who” you are—you are not “what” you are. You are human beings. You are caring. You are faithful. You are fearful. You are hopeful. You experience anxiety and anger but also optimism and joy, but those expressions are a combination of the “what” and the “who” that identify you. If you are angry, that is not an expression of who you are. It is an expression of what you are—a human being that can experience anger.

But when you identify components of human life that you would say are reflective of your perception of God, then you are making a distinction. You are identifying who you are, for every human being is in part divine. Every human being is in part God. Every human being is in the process of becoming all that God is. Those characteristics of human life that reflect God’s essence—those characteristics, those traits, those activities—are a true reflection of who you are. You can experience anger and that is what you are, but how you express that anger, how you express that concern, how you express that indignation is often a representation of who you are.

When we say that we see who you are by and through your heart, we are saying we are aware of your reflection of what it means to be a part of God. The “what” component is ultimately of no value. What you do with what you are, how you use what you are to become a manifestation of your understanding of God becomes then who you are, and that is what we see.

Being white, being black, being of one nation or another, being of one sect of religious belief or another are all matters of what you are. They are temporal. They don’t become part of the permanence that we associate with spirit. They are the trappings, they are the clothes, but they are not the core. If you are Christian, being Christian is what you are, but being Christian is not who you are. How you express your Christian identity becomes an important manifestation of who you are. If you adhere to Islam or another belief system, that may be what you are, but how you exercise those beliefs in ways that are godly, as you understand that to mean, then becomes the “who” and is no longer the “what.”

We say we don’t recognize your toil. We mean by that we don’t recognize in what way you are specifically engaged in terms of label. You may have a position that occupies great respect, you may have a position that occupies less respect, but that position is merely a “what.” The central importance is how you use what you do, how you use what manner of toil you choose in order to reflect your perception of God. That is what is important.

When you serve others, you may serve out of concern. You may serve out of fear. You may serve out of pride. That service, that reflection of God, is not toil. It is an expression coming from your identity of what it means to be loving.

We are therefore aware of how you reflect God. When you feel in great pain, when you feel in great anxiety, when you have many concerns we recognize that, for we recognize that imbalance, that sense of what things may be to you versus what things you wish them to be. When you are filled with great worry, we know, for that worry affects the energy of spirit. It does not destroy energy nor can it, but it changes that energy, for that energy that is the full reflection of God is no longer being directed one hundred percent outward to another but is being partially redirected to your own sense of need.

God responds to your needs because they are your needs. For that reason, your acknowledgment of such needs invites God’s response. It invites our response. We are here always to uplift, to lighten your load, to give you strength, to deepen your faith. Such response to your life is solely because we are aware of those needs. If you feel guilty and regretful, what it is you are guilty of or what it is you feel regretful of is of no concern for us, for we are not filled with judgment. But in your expression of remorse or guilt or regret, you are acknowledging that you wish your interaction with others to be more reflective of God. That desire to be more reflective of God is what we see for that is what strengthens your spirit.

You are strengthened by acknowledgment. You are strengthened in your human form by the very acknowledgment that God is. One does not feel remorse unless one feels something could have been done differently. Acknowledging that something could have been done differently affirms the reality of that possibility and of your desire to accommodate that possibility in your own lives. That we see, that we know.

When you are anxious about another, we recognize that as your light changes. That light changes such that it is more filled with a kind of color that is associated with being loving. Your concerns for another are an expression of being loving toward another. When you are concerned about your own health, you are recognizing that there may be a resolution that is possible, and you are therefore providing yourselves with the potential for hope. That potential for hope is reflected in your spirit energy that emanates from your own core or spirit center. Hope is a positive response. Hope is a beneficial expression of the possibility of balance. That expression is clearly a reflection of God. If there were no God, there would be no reason to hope.

We say often your lives are not random. You don’t just proceed down a path without a connection emotionally to all that you see. That emotion can be positive, strengthened by hope, affirmed by faith. That faith, that hope, that positive energy is what we see. When we are aware that you may be consumed by sadness, we are aware of that only to the extent that it dims somewhat the light that emanates from you. We respond to that diminished light, and in that response your sense of need has been spoken to.

You express concerns about the suffering of everyone, and the essential, as we say, quality of that suffering. Being essential means simply that it belongs to your particular experience, and that that sense of belonging carries with it the potential for growth, the potential for an expanded ability to be loving. It isn’t what happens to you that is important, rather it is your response that reflects God in your lives.

There are many lessons to be learned in human life-form, just as there are lessons to be learned in other life-forms. Were those lessons not crucial to your spiritual development, you would be given a different life experience than human life. You live to grow. You live to become loving. You live to reach out to others. You live to respond to your own pain. You live to respond to the pain of others. You live to experience great joy. You live to respond to what issues much grief. It is always that you live to respond.

Therefore respond as your understanding of God develops. Respond to your own lives, to the lives of those around you. Respond to the suffering of those whom you have never met. Respond to what uplifts. Respond to what provides hope. Respond to what emphasizes unity. Respond to our efforts to enshrine you in light. Respond to those glimpses that you get of God, for God is not a secret. God is not a hidden force. God is as evident as the trees, the flowers, the birds, the signs of spring. God is as evident as the healing presence of water, of rain, of air, of earth.

Be open to finding ways to increase your response to life. Be open to what seems most appropriate. It may be action. It may be just being present. It may be a smile. It may be a prayer. It may be your commitment to something far greater than you can adequately identify, and yet the commitment is still present.

We respond to God’s light through our reflection to your lives. We respond to your needs. We respond to the needs of all, and we rejoice, as must you, in the heavenly energy of love that is the ultimate response for all.

Amen.