Be loved or be loving.
December 12, 1981
God is again joyous in your union at this time. It is an important time in your lives spiritually. It is an important time in the lives of organized religions. There is much that is remembered and much that is asked at this time. There are concerns of the present, anxieties over the future, but what unites each of you is the oneness that you share through the union of your souls, not only at this moment but eternally.
You each have lives which are greatly different from one another. For some it is a time of joy, and for others a time of questioning and challenge and sadness. But despite the diversity of each of your experiences, you really are one. You really are the same, for each experiences all that another experiences. What differs is the timing. There is no one who has been spared sadness or frustration. There is no one who has missed the exhilaration of success and joy and hope. So despite your differences, you are really the same. There may be differences in expression, differences in the degree of feelings, but the feelings themselves are common to all of you.
That which you experience in life leaves its imprint upon your souls. The souls are a reflection of all that you experience. Your souls to begin with are equal. They are equal in their potential for love, but the experiences as the souls progress through spiritual life and earthly life penetrate the character of those souls and give them different personalities. It is for this reason that some souls are more advanced than others. It is a matter of experience, not one of potential. The potential for each soul is the same.
Your souls are a part of God. They always have been a part of God. A soul is not born for it is an eternal entity. Your hands were not created at a different time from your feet. Both have different potentials. Both have different experiences, and both have different purposes. Each of your souls is given a separate route to travel. The pathways leading to God are many, and in the end, all will be united with God.
Your lives are governed by your souls, and if all souls had the same function, human life would be of one essence. It would be of only one dimension. It would be totally limited and singly directed. The fact that one individual is active in one aspect of life that is totally different from the activity of another is due in part to the differences between souls. It is due to these differences that life in its manifestations is varied and colorful. Your souls govern your lives. Although they began with the same potential, they travel different routes, and it is those different routes which provide the contrast of personality for each of your souls.
You are all reflective of God, not just you who are together in prayer, but all human life, even those who are evil. Their souls have chosen not to respond to God. It is choice which plays a part also, but even within the most evil human being the soul resembles the creator. Of course, we do not refer to any physical resemblance, but God is love and the reflection of that is the potential to love.
Each of you is given gifts which endow your lives with meaning. You may choose to use those gifts or to ignore them. The choice is yours, but the gift is there. In a manner of speaking, God’s gift to the eternal part of each of you is the potential for love. All that God has taught you through us focuses beyond all else on the exercise of love. God is trying to shape your sense of direction so that you may choose continually to exercise your potential for love. All therefore are equal because of that spark: the spark of the divine which is the potential for love. Everything else is a result of that. All knowledge and all feelings are a response to the potential for love.
You may find it difficult to relate your perceptions of knowledge to the potential for love. It is a difficult connection to make. Even one whose knowledge is limited in a formal sense, in a very human sense still has the need to be loved. It is God’s desire that eventually the need to be loved is elevated to a need to be loving. That is the knowledge of which we speak—the basic needs for loving.
When one is consumed by the need to be loved, one’s life becomes self-serving. One surrounds oneself with all that is needed to obtain praise and recognition. That lifestyle is a matter of choice and has many expressions. If one is consumed by the honest desire to be loving, activities will be engaged in which serve to bring meaning to life through service to others. The difference in character between these two orientations of life is obvious, but they are centered on one’s development of knowledge, centered first of all on an orientation around love. That center, that central orientation, is from the soul. It is you who choose to respond to the potential for love. It is not your soul. But it is your recognition of the importance of your soul which helps you govern your own lives in a more meaningful fashion.
The choices that each of you makes, therefore, directly influence the nature of your soul’s development. If you choose to ignore the potential for love, your soul’s development, upon completion of your earthly lives, will be greatly diminished. There will be much more that your souls shall need before progressing further. God allows your souls, in such conditions, a long period of rest and reflection, and frequently a decision is made to reincarnate.
A child who lives a short life has relatively little chance to directly affect the development of his or her soul. Because the life is so short, there may be need for an additional earthly life. The fact that the life is shortened is not an act of God. It is the behavior of the organism. What is the act of God is the instilling of the Divine spark, the potential for love in the newborn. For those whose lives are led through a strong consciousness of the presence of the soul and its ultimate importance, there is generally little need for reincarnation.
Each of you is gaining a special insight into the nature of your souls. It is a slow process, but your attentions are focused and there is much that you can learn. The more you are able to put into practice the innate potential for love, the more your soul will develop in its earthly existence. That development is continued in further stages or spheres in the future until ultimate unity with God.
Much that God tells you through us emphasizes the soul. The soul is for this, the soul directs that. But you must not feel that in some way the physical aspect of your lives is meaningless. It is not to say that what happens to you as people is of no significance, for you are the temple of the soul, and the soul is your direct connection with God. What a tremendous responsibility that is! We who have completed our earthly lives find it difficult to believe how important it is to recognize that the body is the temple, that the body is important, and that the body directly controls the development of the soul. Many of us here have felt the body does its thing, the soul goes on forever, and there is little connection between the two. But the connection is a very strong one and you must be aware of it.
Your daily lives in your work with others, in your professional dealings, and in the relationships you have with those close to you, are serving as etchers of the soul. Your experiences and attitudes are responsible for the soul’s growth. It is that responsibility which you should feel. The soul influences your lives, of course, but the nature of your lives is not only a reflection of what you are, your spiritual self, but is a mold through which your soul must pass.
Yes, all souls are equal in potential, but all souls are different in their personality. We see that difference here. There are souls who are aggressive, superior, warm, antagonistic, loving, childish in a way. These are all attributes of the soul which are the result of your human lives. Those attributes, those characteristics of the soul which are not according to God’s teachings must be eliminated if the soul is to move forward. That reshaping, that refining of the soul, can be done in another human life and in future spiritual spheres. But the refinement must come, and to the extent that each of you can refine your lives, can focus your lives on your potential for love, on your ability to be loving, you are giving meaning to your lives, you are enhancing the lives of others, and you are smoothing the progression of your soul in its path toward God.
God has responded to each of your prayers. Be open to God’s recognition. Be ready to acknowledge the central unity of each of you, the potential for loving. Don’t merely acknowledge it but express it, exercise it, seek it out in others. There is much that you can do to bring about a recognition of another’s spiritual ties to God. It is done only through love, only through giving, only through God’s Light.
We pray for you. Yes, prayer for us is important too. We have a clearer understanding of God, but we first pray for you. Each of your guides prays for you. Each of your guides acts to support your lives with God’s Light. You should pray for your guides. Pray for us that our vision of God will be clearer and that we will be able to transmit God’s strength and light to you more clearly.
We bless you in God’s name.
Amen.