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NOTE: This answer was given on
May 19, 2007, during the Shangra-la conference in Ireland.
Answer from Jesus:
One of the best ways to help other people is to share with them what
has helped you. And therefore, certainly, if something has helped you
rise to a higher level of understanding of the spiritual path, you can
share that with them, if you feel it will help them. This goes not only
for this particular writer, but any others.
My beloved, I am not thereby saying that you could not have been helped
or inspired by some teaching that is not necessarily sponsored by the
Ascended Host. You see, my beloved, it is important not to be black-and-white
or to be fearful about spiritual teachings, going into the consciousness
that anything that is beyond our religion is a false teaching or is
the work of the devil. On the other hand, it is important not to go
into the opposite
extreme of saying that any teaching out there is good or saying
that anything that helps you is okay. I have given teachings on false
teachers that I encourage you to study.
So what I am saying here is that as you grow on the path, you will want
to be careful how you recommend certain teachings to others. In other
words, you do not necessarily need to recommend a certain teaching to
others if you have come to realize that it is not the highest possible
teaching. But on the other hand you can recommend a teaching by describing
how it helped you rise higher and then letting people know that you
have also come to realize that there is a higher teaching beyond the
teaching you are talking about. And that they might want to keep that
in mind as they grow on their own path.
I will also say that you need to be careful of not going into the state
of consciousness of saying that if people do not want to hear about
the ascended masters, you should not talk about it, or you should look
for some teaching that is more palatable to them. For you see, my beloved,
it is acceptable to describe for other people the stages you have gone
through. So it is acceptable to tell them that at a certain point of
my personal path, I was helped by this particular teaching. But it is
also important for you not to go and preach below the level of consciousness
you are at right now.
What I am saying is that there is a delicate balance between not giving
people too much and falling into the other extreme of giving people
too little. For you see, your role is not to make people comfortable
but to call them – to challenge them – to come up higher.
So again, there is a middle way that can be found. And there are, again,
the two extremes, where we often see those who are new to the path become
so enthusiastic that they give people more information than they can
handle, seeking to force people to come up many steps on the path all
at once. But we also see the opposite extreme of people who are so concerned
about not disturbing or provoking other people that they give them too
little. And therefore do not give them the balanced opportunity that
they need to come up higher.
So again, this is an individual path—for you and for the person.
You need to tune in to the other person. When you come to the right
point on the path, you can know intuitively what to give to another
person. But in order to come to that point, my beloved, you have to
follow the advice given of overcoming your expectations and conditions—so
that you do not have a preconceived opinion about what other people
can handle and cannot handle. And you do not have a pre-conceived condition
that says, “Oh, I do not want to tell them something they don’t
want to hear. Or I don’t want to disturb or provoke them.”
You need to come to the point where you are at peace within, no matter
how the other people respond. And where you are not acting on a condition
you have decided on with your outer mind, but you are flowing with the
Spirit and saying whatever you are being prompted to say in the actual
situation. For truly, your Christ self knows what another person needs
to hear in order to take the next step. And when you can get your outer
mind out of the way, and overcome the conditions of the outer mind,
then you can be a clearer instrument for giving people exactly what
they need to take that next step.
For my beloved, what is the point of telling people about the spiritual
path if you leave them at the same level of consciousness at which you
met them? Truly, the purpose is to give them something that empowers
them to come up higher.
Added 9-2-07:
The concept of universal salvation was inspired by the Ascended Host
and given to several individuals in the 1800s. Some understand the concept
to mean that since every soul came from God, every soul must inevitably
return to God. However, this was not our intended interpretation.
The original concept was given as a counter-weight to the increasingly
heavy emphasis on Christian exclusivity – only members of our
church will be saved and all others will burn forever in hell –
seen in several large Christian churches. This emphasis was to a large
degree a reaction to the increasing popularity of science and materialism.
The Christian churches felt threatened – realizing their grip
on the minds of the people was loosening – and they responded
by seeking to scare people into accepting Christian doctrine uncritically
because of the fear of going to hell.
We foresaw that this reaction would only deepen the rift between science
and religion and attempted to counter it with a more universal view
of salvation. Our intent was to make it clear that your salvation is
not the automatic result of outer criteria, such as membership in a
certain church, being baptized or declaring me to be your Lord and Savior.
Instead, your salvation depends on your state of consciousness, which
is an inner criteria that can be met regardless of your outer religious
affiliation—or lack thereof.
The interpretation that since all souls came from God, all souls must
return to God is actually taking the concept of universal salvation
to the opposite dualistic extreme of the fundamentalist view that only
members of one church will be saved. It is an ultimate attempt to set
up an outer criteria for salvation—because you were created by
God, you MUST be saved. If that was the case, it would be a denial of
free will. If you cannot refuse to be saved – coming back into
God’s kingdom – then you do not truly have free will.
Thus, while there is some truth to the concept of universal salvation,
the real picture is far more complex. The most detailed description
of this is given in Maitreya’s
book, which clearly explains the importance of free will and why
this means souls can choose not to be saved.
The short explanation is that all energy comes from God and will inevitably
return to God as a given sphere
ascends. However, what most people call a soul is a being with free
will, and thus this being can choose to go against the process of a
sphere ascending. Ultimately – because everything in the material
universe must have a time limit – a soul can run out of opportunity,
and thus the awareness of the soul is dissolved in the second
death. The energies that make up the soul are purified and returned
to their source, but the consciousness and memories of the soul are
erased as if they had never existed.
The I AM
Presence and the Conscious
You are not dissolved, but they are “reset” to their
original state, meaning that the lifestream cannot build on its prior
experiences but starts over with a clean slate. It is comparable to
what you do to a computer by reinstalling the system software and reformatting
the hard drive.
Thus, one might say that the Conscious You will inevitably return to
God, but God's intent for creating that lifestream was not that it should
return by being purified to its original status. God's intent was that
the lifestream should multiply its talents and thus return as being
MORE than it was created to be.
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© 2007 by Kim Michaels |
