August 3, 1994

• Look both inward and outward for God’s light

• Reincarnation

• The body communicates its stress tolerance

The spirit and light which is God is shared by each of you, by your souls and your bodies. God's presence is so much a part of your lives. We wish you would be more aware of that presence on a daily basis. There are times when you acknowledge God’s being a part of your lives, but there are too many times when you turn your back to the light. You turn your back, not because the light is too brilliant, but because at times you are lost and are not sure where to turn. Losing one's sense of direction in life is normal and it will constantly be an issue for all of you, indeed for all humankind. But there is much that you can do to increase your awareness of the light that is available to illuminate your paths.

Too little time is spent consciously thinking about the light and strength of God's presence daily. You are aware of it in periods of great joy, and you are aware of the need for it in periods of stress and despair. The problem is in the remaining experiences in life that are not characterized by despair or euphoria. You go along with your activities basically unaware of the intensity of God’s light which is hovering about you constantly. You must cast your eyes upward and outward. It is too easy to look down or to be consumed by the need for looking inward. There are those who spend much time meditating and yet are totally unaware of the light around them. There is of course light from within. You are correct in recognizing that the answers to life lie within, but it is equally important to recognize the light which is necessary to view those answers comes from without.

There are those who devote their lives to pensive contemplation of the meaning of life and on the place of God within life and yet never see God, never see God’s light. They are fully aware of the importance of God and the need of God, but they do not see God. There are also those who constantly look outward, are aware of the visibility of a light but are unaware of what is illuminated by the light. What is needed is both a view outward and upward and sight of what lies within. The journey inward, the view toward what lies within, is important in that one recognizes what is really vital in life, what is long-lasting, what is permanent, what is essential. Understanding those issues, one needs to see God's light which illuminates the path that responds to the inner recognition. It is at times like these when you are together that you are looking upward and outward. It is at times of despair that you are most motivated to look inward and to feel helpless. You need to spend considerably more effort looking in both directions, for God's light is constantly reflected upon your individual and collective lives, but you must see that light in order to follow a path that leads toward peace and love.

Human life is different for each of you, for your paths differ, your strengths and weaknesses differ, your views inward toward what is essential and outward toward the proper direction vary from one to another. But it is through your human life that you learn to apply the brilliance of God's presence to the minutia, to the deep, to the inspiring, to the troubling which lie within. For some of you, this application of God's light to your understanding of your inner selves is clear and relatively well focused. For others, your perception of that beam of light is somewhat diffused.

It is unimportant how fast you develop, that you know. You also know it is only important to grow. For some, that growth is achieved in necessary measure within the confines of time allotted for human life. For others, more time may be necessary. For those, it is possible that more than one life in human form is necessary. There are certain lessons which must be learned only within the experience of human life. You cannot learn some of those from the spiritual side, from our side. They must be brought with you to our side.

The child who dies at an early age has not been willed by some preordained expression of necessity to live a short life, but that child will often be given another opportunity to provide the learning experiences which were never encountered earlier. The individual who lives to an old age as you would view it, may not necessarily have learned more than one who lives fewer years, but the chances for learning are that much greater when the life is an extended one. What is important therefore is not whether you must have two lives or three lives or many lives, but rather what do you do with the life you have been given. How do you use your life as an opportunity for development of the spiritual entity which is eternal, which is permanent? The question is therefore how you live, not how long or how many.

The issue of reincarnation has been raised on numerous occasions, and we can assure you that there are many who experience multiple human lives; there are also many who experience only one. Much is dependent upon the growth before the human existence as well as the growth during human existence. When your human lives are completed, your growth does not stop. For some people, the growth that takes place after the human experience is essential in order to allow the next human life to be more fulfilling. There is therefore an interrelationship between the lives as you know life to be and the life that we see at this moment. Human life enhances the spiritual plane, but it is the spiritual plane which gives potential for human life. They both work together.

Yes, there is reincarnation. Yes, there are lessons to be learned only in your current life-form. Those lessons are to be learned whether they are accomplished in one or several lives. Those of you who are especially aware of the importance of human life and the potential of human life are much more likely to learn the lessons that need to be learned, to have the experiences which must be shared. The individual with no understanding or interest or knowledge of spiritual life often must go through several before that life becomes refined and hardened, burnished and brilliant. Life is a refining process. It is the only way to achieve ultimate union as total love with the entity that you refer to as God.

Your lives are essential, therefore, for the growth of your soul. When one takes one's own life, one has eliminated the opportunity for growth that was so necessary, and more often than not repeats again the human experience.

Your expression of love to one another is essential to your experience of the essential lessons of life. You cannot learn all that must be learned for total peace and total love in your current form, but you can learn what it means to be the recipient of unconditional love and the giver of that love. That in itself is perhaps the greatest lesson that must be learned. It comes now or it comes later, but there is no question of its necessity.

One person in your gathering wonders about the physical manifestations that are present in his jaw. They are caused by tension, anxiety, pressure. As one grows through human life, one is both strengthened and weakened. One becomes stronger in maturity and understanding in the expression of love. One also finds stress to be more difficult. As you grow through your human lives, you become physically less able to handle stress than when considerably younger. The impact of stress therefore becomes more apparent. Stress must have an outlet. For some it is fatigue, for some it is muscular tension, for some it is felt within through ulcers or other difficulties, but the body becomes less able to deal with stress.

What he experiences is not so serious. As he reduces the stress in his life, the issue will become less present. This is not to say that he should eliminate all stress, all challenges—that's not the point. But as he approaches another crossroads, he will have an opportunity to choose between more or less stress. He will have an opportunity to choose to pursue or to change the way of life to which he has become accustomed. The reduction of stress and tension is what is essential here. The difficulty is not serious and he need have no anxiety over it. It is but a physical message that his body would like to be under less stress. He can be confident in this and not expend much energy in anxiety.

You are all at crossroads. It seems this has been a theme which has recurred frequently. The crossroads are being faced by each of you and you are fully aware of them. It is a time for each of you to reexamine what is important for you, to reexamine your relationships with others, and to reexamine your awareness of the light which is above and around you constantly. Do you see that light? Are you willing to use that light to illuminate the path which you find for yourself by looking inward, or do you turn away from that light in confusion? Do you turn away through insecurity or worry? Does fear turn you away from the light?

The light is there. We see it as clearly as you can see light physically. It is present, it is constant, it is incredibly brilliant and filled with an indescribably loving warmth. It is yours, for each of you. You must embrace that light. Allow yourselves to be in the middle of it, not off to the side. If you seek the light, you will see the path to follow. If you turn your backs to the light, the anxieties, the worries, the tensions which are a part of life will misdirect the steps you take at your own crossroads.

The center of the crossroad is God. God is there for each of you, not just intellectually—vitally, clearly, in every possible manner God is there. God is here with each of you. Draw upon God’s light. Reflect that light so that wherever you turn, the path is clear. You greet that light with faith and you redirect that light with courage.

You are blessed as we are blessed in the presence of that light. You are warmed as we are warmed, and you may be shown the path as we are shown our paths. Bring God into your vision. Bring God’s light into view and the way will be clear.

Amen.