See God in another.
March 27, 1981
God is with each of you and is a part of your daily lives. God’s light illuminates your lives in so many ways. We see God’s light and we see yours becoming brighter and more colorful. We, your guides, are a part of your gathering at this time. We see your lights and we know the strengths of your souls. God’s light illuminates our vision and the light is reflected by your faith. We always are aware of that reflection. We are aware of God’s presence and yours just as you are so often aware of God and of us.
We are joyful that the circle of your souls grows ever wider. Your souls show strength, warmth, and indicate to us your desire to know God in a more personal way. Although it is never possible to know God completely, your experience of God must be personal. You do not merely hear about God; you experience God. Of course, you experience God at times like this, but you also experience God when you listen and look for God. You experience God through those around you, and others experience God because of you.
We wish to devote God’s teaching to a greater understanding of communication between people. As you become more sensitive to another, you are becoming closer to God, for God is that other person. You communicate with one another verbally and through non-verbal means. What each of you says to another is only the surface of what you intend to communicate. There is much in your relationship to others that does not enter the experience of conversation. Indeed, it is the non-verbal aspect of your relationship to others which is the greatest opportunity for responding to God.
Your experience of God is not by listening to God speak to you in a manner that you can receive in your normal senses. Your sense of God is deeper because it is an experience of your soul. Therefore, to experience God in another, you must be open to a level of sensitivity of far greater depth than that of mere listening to words.
Two people can face each another, and without touching or speaking they can communicate great sensitivity. They can communicate love. They can reach out and accept. How is this done? It is done through spiritual contact. There may be visual evidence by way of a smile or another gesture, but it is what causes that smile, what initiates the gesture, that is so important.
You have heard it before but repeating is vital: there is God in everyone. You are a part of God, and God is one with you. When you recognize the divinity of another, you communicate love to that person. You cannot reject anyone whom you recognize as divine, for you cannot reject God. By turning your back to another, you look away from God. To say that you are God-loving but that you hate another is illogical. You may not understand another, for you cannot fully understand God. You may look for a positive response in another and not find it, but you frequently pray to God and fail to hear the response.
When you criticize another’s actions as an indication or a measure of the amount of goodness one has in comparison with your own sense of self-worth, you place yourself above God. To judge another is to judge God. That is its meaning. If you seek in some manner to find the good in another, the redeeming quality of strength and faith, then you are seeking God. Jesus referred to this so often in his parables. When he stated that what was done to him was also done to God, he did not mean that he was God when others were not. The meaning was that all are God and therefore what is done to all is done to God.
The ability to find God in another is not a matter of just liking another. It takes spiritual strength and energy which must be developed. It is easy to love someone you like, but it is very difficult to find God in one who has brought you pain, be that physical pain or emotional anguish. It is equally difficult to see God in perfect strangers. You react to their appearance, their behavior, what they say, but none of that is the essence of God.
As an experiment when the opportunity presents itself, view a stranger, even at a distance, and concentrate on the goodness which is contained within. It may last only a brief moment, but you will experience the feeling of closeness to that person more intensely than what you experience with many whom you know personally. You will sense a kinship with that soul. If you observe a stranger whose actions are opposed to your taste, ignore the actions and concentrate on the true, unchangeable fact that that individual is as much God as you are. Consider that person equal to you and divine as you are divine. No one has a preferred seat next to God. All are equally important. All have the potential to express divinity in their lives.
You know so many, but that knowledge is so shallow. You miss infinite opportunities for recognizing God in others. When you succeed in seeing God in another, the light of your soul will be brightened by the reflection from the other, and the combined light will be greatly intensified.
We know that this is relatively easy to understand on an intellectual level, but its practice requires a lifetime. Don’t pass up opportunities for recognizing God in your life. You are acutely aware of God in the springtime, but you should be equally aware of the divine presence in another human being. The beauty of a soul, the strength of its divinity, far exceeds the scene of a beautiful spring. It is with each of you that God manifests most strongly. Be glad for the opportunity of putting into action your desire to communicate directly with God through another.
We rejoice in this opportunity of reflecting God’s strength and wisdom upon each of you. You all proceed along roads leading to God. The movement is unmistakable to us. The more you seek God’s presence, the more closely God’s strength will be sensed by you. Pray for God’s presence, but not just as a spiritual light. Pray for God’s presence as reflected by others, and pray for God’s presence in the world in which you live reflected by your presence.
God responds immediately to all of your prayers—those which are offered and those which are felt within. Look for the response. Ask for strength and wisdom to know the answers, and be guided in your lives by the knowledge that God’s light is ever present. All you must do is open yourselves and see the light. We also bless you in God’s presence.
Amen.