God’s presence not altered.

December 22, 1985

God joins you all in a magnificent bond of closeness. 

As you read through what was given to you in your last gathering, it became evident that the relationship between God’s presence and your needs is not altogether clear. How does God help? What must be done to receive it? And how is it given? You all have varying perceptions of God and the nature of God, and these perceptions include within them a view of how one connects with God. Each perception is in part correct, but there is much that you do not understand concerning the interaction of God’s influence upon your lives, and we wish to focus our meeting together with your souls upon this topic. 

First of all, each must recognize that God is always present. Reflect for a moment what that implies. It means not just that God is somehow here with you. It means that God’s influence is alive within you: God’s love, peace and faith. All are present. 

Secondly, it is true that there is great benefit in asking for God’s presence to be an important influence within your lives. You are thereby inviting God to be a part of life. But if God’s presence is always within you, what is the need for your invitation? By asking God to be a part of your life, you are really asking that you be influenced by God’s presence. That influence is somehow very recognizable, but it is much more often never perceived. Nevertheless, that influence is there. When you pray for God to be a part of your life, you are asking that your life be a part of God, for it is your life that can be altered, not God’s presence. It is you who chose to be sensitized to the presence of God. There is much of importance here. 

As you discussed, it is possible for the atheist to receive God’s strength. It is not only possible but it is natural and entirely expected. God bestows God’s strength just as a parent bestows love upon a child who never asks for it. This love is given because the love is felt. The child can either respond to that love or ignore it. But the love is offered because that is the nature of love. When God is perceived rightly, in part, as the Force of Love, that love just does not wait to be given. It is offered, it is given, it is sent out. It may be received warmly or rejected coldly, but that does not change its being given. If a child does not respond to a parent by saying, “Thank you for your love,” the parent still offers love continuously. If you do not consciously say to God, “Thank you for your love and your strength and faith and peace,” it is still offered. It is still inside each of you. You are filled with its potential, as we spoke of before. But it is you who decide whether or not you are sensitive to what is within you. 

A person may offer love to another human being and yet know nothing of God, and that is acceptable to God, for God does not require thanks, appreciation, gifts of sacrifice. God does what God does because God is God. When God gives the gift of love and a person exercises that gift by offering love to another, that individual is sensitive, is aware, so to speak, of the love within himself or herself. That individual is, in fact, responding to that love. Humankind’s reaching out with love is a response to the love which is within. That is really inviting God’s presence to be a part of one’s life. 

You do not have to call God, “God.” You do not even have to call for anything. It is a response to what is within. That which is within is the gift of God; the response is the gift of humankind. You have a responsibility, and we emphasize the relationship between response and responsibility. Your responsibility is to fellow human beings, and it is based on the ability you have to respond with what you have within you. This is what we mean by inviting or asking for God’s presence. You are being asked to respond to what is within you. The source is not so important. If you call it from God or Allah or Yahweh or Ra—it is unimportant. It is ultimately unimportant if you do not recognize that the love that you have within you comes from something greater than you. What is important is that you are motivated to reach forward, to reach outward in all directions to the needs of your fellow human beings. That is the direction your lives must take. That is your response to the God that is within each of you. 

Yes, God’s presence is always there, and you can choose to accept or reject it. We find it so unfortunate when we see those who have some knowledge of God and who reject God through their own actions. It is better not to know God but to reach out and love, than to know God and do nothing. 

You have met for such a long time as a group that you are intimately aware of God in your lives. What a crime it is then when you recognize the reality of that presence and yet fail to respond to what lies within you, for God is not someone who is just outside, just beyond reach, at some distance. God is totally within you and around you. God’s influence is felt throughout all of you. God’s presence is there. It is only for you to act upon that and to act with the knowledge that you have been given. 

As you proceed through your lives, recognize the fact that all you need to be, all that you can be, is already within you. You have the potential for response as a clear and brilliant reflection of God among people. Choose to respond to that which is inside. Follow the impulse to give, to support, to comfort and console, to listen to others—not to what they say, but to what they mean. Each of you has so much that you may do in your responsibility to God’s presence. Grasp hold of the great potential which has been given to you as a gift and which has been given to all in equal measure as a gift. Seek time to recognize that. 

It is good to give thanks to God, not because God asks for it, but because it is kind of a reminder to you that you recognize what God has given. God does not need thanks, but you need constant recognition and giving thanks is a means of developing greater recognition.

Our prayers are for each of you. We work so that God may respond to your needs in a way you may recognize, thereby increasing your sense of faith and an awareness of God’s presence. 

We bless you with God’s love and peace, now and always. 

Amen.