Respond to hatred with love.

February 25, 2019

It is God that is the center of all that is. This, of course, you know. God Is—that is the ultimate truth. Knowing that God Is, the most profound question which you can ask is “what does that mean?” In your increasing understanding of the meaning of God Is, you will come to a clearer vision of your place in God Is. You will see more clearly that in the midst of the chaos that you speak of as a challenge and a great question, God’s presence is nevertheless always with everyone and everything. 

A comment was made about the bubble of our assertion that spiritual presence, this ever-encompassing love, is indeed everywhere, and yet you are surrounded by chaos, by evidence of what is negative and unaffirming, what causes pain, what creates loss. If God is everywhere, why is there pain and loss, and emotional, physical, and spiritual suffering? For as long as any group of people have contemplated where God is in terms of impact, there is the dilemma of balancing a God that is present always and everywhere with the accompanying reflections of darkness. If light is all-powerful, why is there darkness? Why is there a shadow? 

You also feel frustrated about the reality that the presence of guides seems too often to be ineffectual in terms of a reduction of that which is dark, that which is threatening, that which creates pain, anxiety, anger, or loss. Such questions about the presence of God and the presence of suffering have existed as long as human beings have contemplated a sense of a higher spiritual existence, whether that existence is concentrated or centralized into a single point or shared among other entities, other guides. 

God, as we have said, is an energy. God is a force. God is a reality that emphasizes a commitment to love, a commitment to being nonjudgmental, but human beings, although a firm part of God’s creation, also exist in an independent way that you have referred to as free will. Your growth as human beings is in large measure understood as a kind of transformation that takes the reality of free will and directs it away from self and toward others, toward a creation of God. Each of you lives with the capacity to choose to do this or to do that, to turn your lives in this direction or in another direction. That element of choice is an essential component of human life. Your own spirit, your own soul, grows through the exercise of that free will. When people exercise free will for the benefit of themselves, solely themselves, they are denying the connection with others of which we most recently spoke.

Your progression through life can often be described as that transformation of free will toward the self being redirected to free will toward all others. It is through dedication of your lives, not just to what is best for you but to what is best for others, that that becomes crucial and central to the growth of spirit. 

We speak of love directed toward others. We also speak of love directed toward self, for only when there is love directed toward self as an acceptance of self can you most effectively redirect that love outward, for you must contain a measure of love in order to give a measure of love. That ultimate expression of love, nevertheless, is love directed outward that is centered upon love that began within. 

The presence of God is a force that all human beings can connect to. It does not take great skill and deep knowledge to find a direct, clear connection to God. It takes only humility and a willingness to be vulnerable, for it is in that humility and ability to be vulnerable that you are given the clearest vision of God’s presence. Vulnerability and humility serve together in the window that allows the Light to come in and radiance from within to be directed outward. 

Some people are not ready to take that leap of vulnerability or humility, for they are motivated to think primarily of their own needs for affirmation, for strength, and the need to be in control. The effort at being strong and in control has the effect of tying one’s hands behind the back, making it ever so much more difficult to open the shutters of the window to allow the Light to enter. 

Human beings are given the ability to choose, and the choices may seem infinite in their variety. It is true that there is much evidence of a rejection consciously or unconsciously of the possibility even of the existence of a God. Without recognizing that possibility, what is left? It is the self. The self becomes what’s important. The self is what directs the needs that are recognized. For those who are aware of even the possibility of a God existing, there is an openness, a willingness to find evidence of that presence, and it is in that openness and that willingness that Light is received, and Light is reflected outward. 

You expressed concerns that there is much more to be done to reflect an awareness of God’s guidance than what you perceive in the world around you. There are indeed many who are aware of God’s reality, that power that is God, whom you know nothing of. You are struck more by what seems a denial of God, denial of love, than what gives evidence of its true existence. That is understandable, for you cannot know all that lives within every individual. But we can state as a fact that the peace that we speak of, the presence of spirit that we speak of, is indeed expanding. In your frustrations you may feel it is not expanding enough. It must be quicker; it must be more widespread. But the growth of human awareness into the spirit energy that is God is a slow process. 

We speak on occasion about reincarnation. What is its purpose? Its purpose is the further growth of the spirit, of the soul. For growth that can only take place within the confines of human life, many spirits must continue to experience that human life. That implies, therefore, that there are humans whose spirits will get sufficiently developed so that there is no longer need for the human experience. 

Each of you has a soul that is different in experience, in understanding, in needs, in strengths, but that spark of the energy of the Spirit Center nevertheless resides with and within each of you. In truth, the work of all guides does have an impact in the same way so that even when you don’t pray for specific guidance, you are guided. Even when countless human beings are unaware of guides, unaware of God, the impact of those guides and of God is upon them. 

All are being guided. For some, the connection is clearer, and the guidance is transmitted with great clarity. For others, that connection is a difficult one, and the guides are less able to find adequate impact for humans. These differences are to be expected, for each guide is different, each spirit is different, and the receptivity of all people differs one from another. But there is no difference in the efforts of the guides. There is no difference in the sacred component that is part of all life. That spirit, the soul, the spark of God—that is constant. 

The loving energy that is God is not conferred upon some more than others. That energy is constant for all, and there will be those who are sensitized to it and those who are not. Part of the purpose of reincarnation is the increase in sensitivity to that Light so that that Light may be reflected back outwards through the same window. 

You expressed concerns about knowing that prayers are indeed answered, for the concerns for which you pray are clear to you, and those prayers are offered along with an anticipation of how the response to those prayers will be identified. As we have often helped to clarify, prayers are not a way of encouraging God to act. They are merely ways of opening you to God’s presence. The manifestation of those responses, the manifestation of God’s presence, will vary from person to person and may or may not take the form which you specifically anticipate. 

There is no proper way to pray. One of the most effective ways is to just be quiet and know that God Is without the need to craft words to explain what your needs are. By praying, you are being vulnerable. By praying, you are allowing yourself to be receptive, not putting conditions on that receptivity, not applying standards of what help must be, but merely being open, merely allowing yourself to be vulnerable, to be receptive. That help, the responses that you hope for, will then be recognized, not so much by specifics that you anticipate but by an affirmation that in some way what you pray for is indeed a reality. 

You pray for health, but what is health? It is a balancing, a sense of peace, a sense of rightness. 

You pray for peace specifically. It may be your own emotional peace. It may be political, social peace, or military peace. Peace has so many manifestations, but ultimately when the prayers for peace are answered, they are answered with a sense that somehow all that is happening is happening with a loving foundation that is the generation for all that takes place. 

You pray for the elimination of suffering by so many, not necessarily by actions of other human beings but from natural occurrences. You pray for a resolution to conflicts between the environment and the individual. Despite the acts of nature which can seem random and so destructive, the God to whom you pray is present. The acts of nature also belong to the realm of God’s creation. 

Human beings require water. It is the water that is part of God’s creation. When the supply of water becomes chaotic, too much, too little, much of that is a consequence of human interaction. That you know. But when human beings suffer, as an example when there is too much water, there are other corners of creation that depend on that water for their own benefits. 

There are bound to be conflicts between elements that are part of the totality of creation. Some life-forms flourish with lots of water; other life-forms flourish in the scarcity of water. Some life-forms flourish in an environment of high heat that cannot be tolerated by other aspects of the environment. 

God’s direction, if you wish to see it this way, is not that one part of the environment will benefit at the expense of another part and that such a relationship is permanent. All of creation, all of life on earth, and all other life-forms share at some level in the interrelationships and conflicts that are part of the cycle of what is created. Many rocks begin not as hard rocks but as sand, as minerals in the water, as fluids in the center of the earth. They go through transitions. They go through conflicts, but in those transitions and conflicts they evolve as they are to evolve. 

So it is with the microcosm of human life. You evolve because of what you experience. You grow through what is positive, but you also grow as you confront challenges of pain and concern. That growth is undeniable, and it is a result of that growth that your spirit flourishes and is nurtured. God’s presence is felt not only in what happens, but even more importantly by how you respond. When you are met with hatred and you respond with love, such response strengthens the spirit. But if you respond to hatred with hatred, then that response does not nurture the spirit, for no hatred becomes the manifestation of love, and therefore no hatred is an expression of spirit. 

You can always respond with patience. You may be aggravated or angered, and that is part of being human, but you can also choose to step back and remind yourself that it is best for all to change your response to one that reflects your awareness of the spirit within and the Spirit beyond. 

You are indeed one with the Spirit. You are indeed one with each other. You are indeed bound in a loving connection to the Spirit Center that is God and to us, your guides. Reflect when you can your growing awareness of the spiritual sea within which you swim. Be nourished by those waters. Be challenged by those waters. Be strengthened by those waters and be buoyed up and supported by that Spirit. 

Be grateful for your lives. Be grateful for the understanding that you have for what lies beyond the human boundaries of spirit. All humans are on a great journey. All humans are on their own paths, and all paths lead ultimately to complete love and peace. 

Amen.