July 2, 2002

• Why live a human life?

• The expansion of God

• Relationship between body and soul

You are indeed surrounded by the presence of the single spirit to which each of you belongs. We have said how important it is to recognize your total unity with each other and with all that has been created, whether animate or inanimate. It is, in truth, God that has created and transformed and reformed all that exists. The spirit that you all share is a spirit of loving energy. That is the essence of soul. That is the core, that is the center of gravity, if you will, forming creation.

You are concerned, interested, compelled by the issue of human life and its specific relationship to spiritual union. You want to understand more about the relationship of the differences between humans and human experience, and the overarching reality of spiritual oneness. In effect, you seek an understanding of “why human life at all?” If you are all filled with a godly presence, if you are all divine, what then is the function, the purpose of becoming human?

Your questions are both profound and profoundly important. The answer is seen through your experiencing of your human lives. We wish to share with you a perspective, but a full understanding requires a lifetime, as you perceive it to be.

You live human lives to learn. You live human lives to enhance. You are living human lives to give as well as to receive. You live human lives to grow, but you also live those lives to promote growth. Your human lives inform, enhance, strengthen, affirm your spiritual self, but you are also strengthened and affirmed by the spiritual self. There is indeed a dialogue of sorts between the body and spirit.

Why is it necessary for spirits to grow if they are inherently good, if they are inherently godly? This is a great mystery for humans to grasp. As was discussed in your gathering, the creative force, the creative energy that is God is enhanced, is given greater depth, is intensified through the experiences of your soul as a result of participation in human life. That is indeed true. God is all-knowing, all-powerful, all- loving, but each of you knows from your own human experience that love is not static. It is not complete by itself. Love grows in depth and in breadth and in the capacity to reach out and beyond. A love that is static does not survive, just as any relationship that remains static cannot survive. Is it then not easily comprehended to acknowledge that if God is love, God is not static? The characteristic of love is to expand; therefore, the characteristic of God is to expand. Without the opportunity of the soul to grow, the presence of God is unable to follow the natural course of expanding.

Loving another person by the simple acknowledgment of that love is not in itself sufficient. You cannot tell a neighbor or a friend that you love that person, either through word or deed, and then no longer express that sentiment, even when it has been expressed in some fashion. A single expression of that love is against the nature of love. Love must be expressed again and then again and yet again. Love must be returned again and again and yet again. The dialogue must always continue or the relationship falters.

God’s presence has been eternal. There is nothing to change the existence of God. There is nothing that humankind is capable of doing that will reduce the presence of God. However, by expressing love you are allowing God’s presence to grow in influence. You are allowing the light to become more intense. The light is always there. It will not be dimmed, but it can always become still brighter. When the loving light of God reaches its ultimate state, there is no longer space, if you wish to call it “space” in terms of human understanding, for anything that is not love.

Pure love exists and it is always, always present, but it is not yet the only presence. There is suffering, there is greed, there are acts of evil. When the loving presence of God is fully formed, there is no space, there is no opportunity, there is no reason for whatever may be negative. God’s presence in human lives is greater than it was in the past and it will continue to become still greater in the future, as you measure it. For this love to grow in its presence—not in its perfection—human beings are essential, for it is the human life that provides much of the opportunity for that part of the soul that occupies your lives to grow and to enhance the totality.

We have said before that the soul is like the ocean and that each drop shares common traits with all other drops in the ocean. There is unity. But we have also said that each drop has in its way an impact on the totality of the ocean. So it is with that part of the total soul that resides in each of you. You have great influence on the divine presence. How you treat the human life, therefore, has great impact on what ultimately is eternal. Human life is brief, but the impact is present constantly. The impact is permanent. Your influence upon your soul is permanent. It may change in terms of the characteristics of the soul, but nevertheless, what you offer is retained in some form. It is much like adding ingredients in a recipe. Every ingredient is present in some form and yet any particular ingredient may not be of dominant influence. You do not remove the presence of that ingredient when you add another. You change its character, but you do not eliminate it. Your human lives contribute a permanent ingredient in the growth of your soul which has an impact upon the character of the union of all souls, the single soul, the center soul, God, Yahweh—whatever name you wish to apply.

The question arises concerning boundaries of the body and boundaries of the soul. There are no boundaries to the soul. The boundaries of the body are real, but they are merely a means of identifying the ingredients. They are to be respected, they are to be nurtured, they are to be acknowledged, but at the same time those boundaries lack the ultimate significance of the boundless soul. What is of benefit to the human is only of value as it enhances your part of the unified soul. Beyond that, the boundaries have little significance. You can recognize the difference in boundaries between people and yet affirm the lack of boundaries between people. You can recognize your physical differences. You can recognize the importance of maintaining the body, and yet you can also recognize the insignificance ultimately of those boundaries on the totality of the spirit. The boundaries are a means of identifying differences in contributions, differences in gifts that are applied to the enhancement of the common spirit.

Your hands have boundaries which are recognized as fingers. Those fingers have different purposes and abilities, but ultimately they are all considered the hand. However, without considering the boundaries of the fingers and the differentiation of purpose defined by those boundaries, the hand is incapable of functioning as a hand. The boundaries that you recognize to be fingers are the same as the boundaries you recognize between individuals. But if one finger does not recognize its connection to another finger, the functioning of the hand is reduced in effectiveness. If you as an individual fail to see your relationship with another human being, with all human beings, the function of human life is reduced and the benefit to the entire spirit is negatively impacted.

Yes, the body is a miracle. It is its own universe of enormous complexity. Much of the working of that universe is the same from one individual to another, but the differences allow for each individual to make his or her own contribution to the totality of spiritual presence. “The body is the residence of the soul.” How often you have heard that spoken. It is both true and untrue. It is true because your soul experiences human life through the body and therefore is dependent upon the body. But it is also untrue because the soul in its entirety is far greater than the limitations of the body.

Respect the body. Respect your relationships with other human beings, for your relationships carry great impact for the future. Such relationships are filled with successes and failures, but you as individuals and your soul grow, both through what is successful and what is not. Growth takes place because experience has taken place. It is the experience itself, not merely the rightness or wrongness of a decision, that creates growth.

You learn in your lives as much by trying things which do not work as you do by seeing what does work. When you respond to others in the absence of love, there are consequences. You learn thereby what it means to respond without love. That in itself gives relevance to the necessity of a loving response. You can be told many times how beneficial it is to be loving toward another, and you will not learn until you experience what it means to be unloving toward another. Both sides of the experience have value. Certainly we do not suggest that you organize your lives so that they bring upon you negative experiences, but we urge you to accept what in your lives may create pain or worry or anxiety as being equally important as that which brings a sense of fulfillment.

Yes, you should design your course of living for the benefit of others, but you should also accept those failings. If the objective is true, the failings in reaching that true objective are important and justified. When the objectives are not true, when they are not based on love, there is little gain, and that you know. Orient your lives toward the service of others. Accept your failings in that orientation. You will then accept your humanness. You are not expected to be divine. It is in your humanness that ultimately divinity is reached.

You are blessed in your seeking of God and you are blessed in your failings as well as your successes on that search. Be comforted by knowing that you are in the presence of God. Be comforted in the illumination that God provides for your lives. Rejoice in your humanity as well as your divinity!

Amen.