Spiritual progress is measured by character.
April 30, 1983
God is here. God illuminates your lives at this point with a light which each of you feels. The peace is deep and the harmony nearly overwhelming in its breadth and its depth.
At this point in your lives each of you is at a crossroads. Each of you is poignantly aware of a sense of continuity and a sense of the past. You are aware of the presence of the future. This may seem contradictory to speak of the future as being in the present, but the future is built upon the present. The foundation of what lies before is given strength by what is occurring now.
Your sense of the continuity of life is almost startlingly precise in its correctness, for each of you, as you know, is bound to one another through your spiritual brotherhood, but you are also bound to the past and to the future through the same spiritual ties. The soul does not have a beginning and an end. It is part of what always has been and shall always be. The continuity of the spiritual essence of all humankind is part of the essence of a higher level, God. God works through each generation according to its capacity and potential. Countless generations ago the potential of humanity as you identify such was significantly limited. Humans were an evolved species, not unlike species of today of a lower order in the animal kingdom. But what made humans different ultimately was the possession of a soul and the recognition of a higher order of spiritual presence.
It was a long time before humans became sufficiently aware of this higher spiritual order or power or presence by identifying it as God. But God’s influence was already at work. The souls from the body of God or from the mass of God were infused with human life. The spiritual entity resulting from being placed by God in a human form has always resonated with the presence of God. This resonance for us is light. In physics you learn that light is a form of vibration, of resonance, but souls resonate with God by the same means. So, God has always communicated with souls from the beginning, you might say.
Life has grown as a result of God’s presence. Life has evolved, and that evolution continues. You are the result of that evolution, that spiritual development. You are aware of the meaning and implications of biological evolution, but spiritual evolution is of a different sort. You do not become closer to God as a result of evolutionary developments, that you grow toward God at your own pace and by your own means. Nevertheless, there is a kind of evolutionary consideration to your spiritual progress that is measured in terms of character.
In our plane, we refer to souls being young or old. It is not meant in a chronological sense but rather in terms of development. A soul whose existence contains the character of much from the past is an old soul. It is a soul in which experiences have accumulated, a kind of depth has been achieved. In other words, it is a soul with many imprints from the past. A young soul, in contrast, has fewer imprints from the past. It is not younger in your terms, but it has accumulated less over its existed time.
The genetic inheritances of which one often speaks—personalities, appearances, etc.—are recognized as facts by all, those of a scientific background and those without. But precious few recognize the spiritual kind of evolution, the growth of the spirit which is achieved beyond the human life span, both prior to that life and subsequent to it. The generations of humankind are related biologically, but there is also a spiritual relationship. We don’t mean that the child’s soul is in some manner extracted from the parent’s souls, but what is meant is that the child’s soul will develop during human life to an extent related to the effects of the parents’ souls upon it. This kind of evolutionary consideration is experiential in nature.
You may also recognize this truth as it relates to all others with whom you are in contact. Your soul influences the souls of others, and it leaves a mark, so to speak. Your soul leaves a permanent imprint upon the soul of every other human with whom you are in contact. If you think upon this in depth, you will see a kind of evolutionary effect. Another soul gains character in part as a result of your soul. Another human being will approach life in a manner which is affected by contact with you, and that acquired approach to life in turn has an effect upon that person’s soul. Your soul affects another, therefore, by way of human experience. That is the link in the growth between two souls.
If two people do not seek a sense of peace and understanding between them, the soul of one has no impact upon the soul of another. If the two are intensely antagonistic toward one another, there is no spiritual impact. The result is neutral. There is no retrograde movement. In other words, one soul cannot pull another down. There is simply no growth. The only movement of a soul is forward, toward God. It is a brightening of the light. That is the only motion.
Therefore, the growth of one soul is very much tied in with the positive reactions of another human being. Your sense of continuity is ultimately measured through positive steps. The continuity is measured through love, foremost through love. It is love between people which empowers one soul to help another. Your soul, your spirit, your divine essence, works only as you yourself reach to another.
Thus, there is a kind of spiritual continuity as well as a physical evolution of traits. The two forms of evolution are very different, but both can be easily understood. Only physical evolution can be studied and analyzed by humans. We on our side see spiritual evolution as it occurs. We are aware when your souls move forward, and we are aware when no progress is made. Time and time again we have counseled you that it is not how fast you progress, but only that you do progress. The speed is in part immaterial, and yet is frequently of great concern to you.
You ask, “Am I growing spiritually? Am I really drawing closer to God? Am I responding as God wants me to respond in life? Am I making the right choices? Am I making the proper decisions?” All of these questions are the result of natural human desires to measure progress. If your objective is only that you are being reassured of progress, then such questions are valid. But if your objective is one of determining how much progress by some measuring increment of your own device, then such inquiry has no meaning.
Each of you is involved in decisions of the future and that is why we say that you are at crossroads. The decisions may be a matter of choice—which among several options to select—but those choices are not merely idle choices. For each of your lives, those choices are indications of priority. What you are doing, in fact, each of you, is looking at your priorities and determining what is important in your lives and what best reflects God.
Of course, there are always priorities to be examined, but all of you are at a particularly intense period in your lives right now when priorities are of significant importance. Ask yourself with each decision whether or not you feel God’s presence in every choice. There are some choices for which there is no evidence of God, and there are other choices in which God’s presence is clearly felt. It is not a matter of saying “which choice would God wish me to make,” but rather “which choice is for God; which choice is God clearly visible in?” There are choices between God as a presence willingly felt and welcomed and choices of God’s presence ignored.
If you feel God’s presence as a part of that choice, then you are rearranging your priorities in the proper manner. There are, of course, developments in your life that are not of your own choosing, in which case you must pray for God’s presence in your response. Although it has been said so many times, it is so crucial to your life that it must always be repeated. You must choose God first, then all else will fall into proper perspective. Such choices are realized only through prayer. That is the means by which God reaches you.
Our prayers are with you so that God may reach you. Your prayers are with us so that God may reach us. We pray that you may continue to become more deeply aware of the continuity of your spiritual existence and the place of your human lives within that development and growth. Each of you has much to look forward to in the days and months and years ahead. You can rest assured that wherever you may be and whatever you may be doing, God is indeed present and God’s power need only be tapped by you through simple prayer.
May God’s light bathe your life with love and a glowing stillness that radiates outward to all around you.
Amen.