Seeing and being God.
April 2, 2024
The energy center that is God is a center of loving presence, a center of energy that fills that loving presence. It is the God to whom all can pray. There is no name to God. Even the term God is not a name, but it is kind of an identity that you have in your search for guidance, for strength, for understanding, for insight, for peace, and above all for love.
In your discussion, you wonder about creation or transformation of energy, God’s energy. Are you transforming an energy that exists to a wholly new form, or are you creating a basic, fundamental energy that did not exist? We can shed some light on this for you, but it is important at the same time to recognize that all discussions are colored in one way or another by your associations with terminology. Labels and terms are just ways of helping to identify what exists or what is thought perhaps to exist, but such labels are in themselves incomplete. Your understanding of the meaning of energy is full but by no means complete, and our descriptions of the reality of God’s energy are in fact descriptions. They do not contain within them a full characterization of all the realities associated with a particular concept or interpretation.
That being said, we can say two things. One, there is no energy in terms of its existence that is being created from nothing. We also say that all forms of energy originate from a single source, but that single source is not the only source that creates. Think of a common practice of lighting a series of candles where one passes a candle to another in order to light that other’s candle, and now there are two candles, and that individual passes on the flame to someone else carrying a candle without a flame, and in sharing a flame, another candle is lit.
If you look at each candle individually, you could say at one moment there is no flame, and at the next moment, a flame is present. One could say in the simplest terms, it’s a new flame. A flame has been created. Yes, a flame has begun that had not begun in the past, and yet the energy of the new flame is received from the energy of a flame that exists. This process, of course, continues until there are many lit candles, and the area is brightened in ways that had not been the case. Each new flame contributes to the totality, but each new flame owes its origin not to its neighbor but to the source. It is this concept which is part of the energy of God’s presence. The potential is there to be lit by the light from another.
If you are standing next to someone with a lit candle, and you turn away and so direct your gaze elsewhere, you are unable to receive the light of your neighbor. When we talk about understanding the presence of God as it is expressed by another, from someone else to you or from you to another, we are using the same principles as the passing of light from one candle to another. It is the light of that first candle. It is the energy of the Spirit Center, God, that is passed along, and in the process that energy is converted and added to in ways that generate great light. The energy of the candle of your neighbor is the same energy that is in the flame that is on your candle, but the presence of both, because of the intention to give light to another, results in the creation of more light, more energy, and yet that additional energy is essentially a transformation of the energy from the first candle to the energy that is contained within the second.
All human beings, and we emphasize all human beings, are as the candle with a wick that is capable of being lit and becoming a source of light of its own. When you begin human life, you are not suddenly given some new powers of spiritual energy. You had the presence of spirit before human life, for that spiritual presence has always existed. But a spirit being part of human life does not guarantee that such a life is lived with a strong spirit demonstrated in that life. It is potential. All life has the potential to be ignited.
All candles, in this sense, have a wick, for without a wick they would not be candles. Candles must have a wick. Human beings are human beings because contained within and becoming a part of human life is the reality of spirit. A human life is not always characterized by a life of growth in a visibly spiritual manner, but we can say that there is growth. The candle may not be ignited at the wick, but the candle is impacted by all that surrounds it whether it is warmth or cold, moist or dry. A candle is not just a candle. A candle is being impacted at some level by what surrounds it.
Human life, even when it seems void of God’s light, is still impacted in ways that may not be seen, and that impact does have a part to play in the growth of spirit. You are given life, but you are also given light. We speak of seeing God in the actions of others. We also speak of being God in your actions toward others. Human life is a blend of seeing and being God. There are times in human life when you cannot see, and it is a struggle to be. But seeing evidence of God in others provides a view of your potential to be the hand of God to another.
If your neighbor’s candle has just a spark, it is tempting to say there is not enough heat present to ignite your own candle. But in a sense, we could say from a spiritual perspective that the smallest spark imaginable can ignite the candle. The smallest spark of your neighbor can serve to ignite your own flame. Lest you feel at times your own flame is lacking spark, incapable of making a difference to another, believe in your heart that even a small spark carries with it the same energy as the Creator, the same energy as the originating flame.
Seen from a distance, therefore, one could claim that energy has been created. Seen up close, one may recognize that the energy that is visible is an energy with a direct connection to the source. When we say that energy is not created, we are saying the source is the same source for all. But we also affirm the impact of that continuity can be seen as the start of new energy. The energy that is in the candle is in the candle whether there is a flame or not. With no fuel, the flame is extinguished. The fuel must be present, both for the flame to exist and for the flame to be passed on to another.
All human beings contain within them that fuel. It is that fuel, that potential, that is the same for all people. That fuel is the presence, the spirit, and when that spirit is ignited, the strength can be offered to another.
We often ask you to be open to the presence of others in their acts of being God’s response. We are saying in the candle analogy to turn toward the light wherever that light is. Draw from it. Allow it to ignite your own light. In doing so, you are then aware of the impact, the meaning, the significance of turning to another to offer your own spiritual light.
We say that God’s presence is expanding. We could therefore say you’re creating a larger presence of God, but you’re not creating a larger Spirit Center. That Spirit Center is the fuel, the soul life. It is the generator of that life. It is the generator for all light that follows. Your spiritual growth in many lives is transforming the energy from one form of life to another form. When you live within the universe of spirit, your life is transformed to a life of spirit. You’re not suddenly given spirit when you are finished with human life. Your spirit in human form is merely transformed. It is merely converted to a different kind of energy.
A discussion of God’s light can be understood more clearly as a passing of the torch, a passing of the candlelight, a sharing, a sharing that is both receiving and giving. You are born with the energy that is necessary to give. You are born with a kind of energy that is waiting to be ignited and shared. You receive the light from others, and you give that light to others. That is the life of spirit.
Many of us experienced human life multiple times, and it is through our experience of human life that we are given the flame to pass on to your soul. We are sharing in that light. We are part of the light of your pathway. We are the light of love, the light of giving, the light of receiving, the light of being present, the light of doing, the light of understanding, the light of inspiration.
The loving light that we surround you with is the loving light you can offer another in the darkness, and in that process, the darkness, the fear, the negativity, the anxieties, and angers are dissipated. It is the light that has the energy to be passed on. You cannot grab something that is dark and then cause another to be dark. The negative energies that are overcome by the light are real, are present, but that darkness never wins the race. It is only light. It is the light of love. It is the God presence through intention.
Turn to your neighbor. Receive the light. Turn to your neighbor and share that light, and in that process the illumination that is God’s illumination bathes all, cures all, embraces all, and gives meaning to all.
You are blessed in the light that you receive, and you are blessed in the light that you offer. Be open to those opportunities to receive and be constantly seeking for ways of sharing that light, guided as always by your heart vision of God’s presence.
Amen.