|
The stages of spiritual
development
Jesus: When you survey the behavior, the attitudes
and the beliefs of human beings on this planet, it should not be difficult
to conclude that people are in many different states of consciousness,
they are at different stages of spiritual development. These stages
correspond to different degrees of understanding of the spiritual
side of life. To give people some sense of co-measurement, I would
like to give you a survey of the different stages of spiritual development
found on this planet.
The following stages cannot be put on a line and ranked from lowest
to highest. A soul does not necessarily have to descend to the lowest
stage before it turns around and starts climbing its way back to God.
There are many souls on Earth who never descended to the lowest stage
of spiritual awareness. The numbering of the stages is therefore a
practical matter of making it easier to reference the stages.
Stage 1. Souls who rebel against God
Certain souls are in a state of consciousness that causes them to
deliberately, and in most cases knowingly, rebel against the laws
and the will of God. In some of these souls, the rebellion is obvious.
Some promote atheism or agnosticism. Some advocate scientific materialism
and vehemently deny the need for a creative being. Some are openly
practicing satanism, and although they do not deny the existence of
God, they defame, belittle and ridicule everything related to God,
religion or spirituality.
In some of these souls, the rebellion against God is hidden deep within
the psyche, and it is often unrecognized by the person's conscious
mind. Therefore, this rebellion can often be camouflaged behind a
facade of various beliefs, including religious beliefs. It might be
surprising to many people, but some of the rebellious souls have managed
to attain high positions in various religious movements and churches.
They claim to be highly religious and working for God’s cause,
yet they have a deep anger against God and believe that they know
better than God how the universe should be run or how people should
be saved.
For all of these people it is common that they are actively seeking
to run away from God, to reinforce the impression that God does not
exist or that he does not exist here on planet Earth. Some of these
souls engage in an endless quest to prove that God does not exist
or to prove that God is wrong and that they are right. They are literally
seeking to prove that they can create a world in which God does not
exist and in which they have no need for God.
You might ask how the people who work in religious movements can be
said to work for this cause or to run away from God. The answer is
that they use their power to cement the belief that God is somewhere
“up there” in Heaven. These are also the people who cement
the idolatrous belief that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God and
that no one can follow my example. These are often the first people
to cry blasphemy, as they did when I made certain remarks that made
it sound like I was equating myself with God or calling myself a Son
of God.
Stage 2. Souls who try to hide from God
Many people are openly angry at God. Many souls on Earth have been
hurt, and they believe that God has hurt them or treated them unfairly,
unjustly or in a way that defies logical explanation. Many souls are
afraid of God and see him as an angry and judgmental being who is
always ready to punish them for the slightest transgression of his
laws. Common for these souls is that they are running away from God,
but not because they are rebelling against God. They simply want to
get as far away as possible from what they see as an angry, punishing
and unjust deity. They are trying to hide from God.
Running away from God is an act of self-defense. These are the people
that I referred to in the saying that I wish people were hot or cold.
The people at this stage are indeed cold. They are cold in the sense
that they have come to accept a negative image of God, and therefore
they are running away from that image. However, they have the potential
to be turned around if they can come to accept that their feelings
for God were caused by a false, imperfect or incomplete image of God.
Stage 3. Souls who are indifferent toward God
A large number of souls on planet Earth have become so indifferent
toward God, religion and the spiritual side of life that they have
become lukewarm. Some of these souls are indeed in a spiritual coma
that makes it almost impossible to reach them with any kind of spiritual
truth. Many of these souls have been so hurt or disappointed by organized
religion that they have rejected religion, or given up on the idea
that they could ever partake of a true sense of spirituality.
Many of these souls have adopted a false, imperfect or incomplete
image of God. Yet trying to help them see this and trying to help
them accept a correct image of God is very difficult because they
often will not respond to any kind of spiritual message. Many of these
souls use the imperfections, real or perceived, of orthodox or organized
religion as an excuse for rejecting anything related to the spiritual
side of life. If one approaches such souls with a spiritual message,
they will often become very suspicious and feel that one is out to
convert them, to manipulate them, to take advantage of them or to
get their money.
These souls often reject all types of spirituality and thereby put
themselves in a catch-22 in which they reject the very tools that
could help them heal their wounds and get on the upward path. They
are often unreachable for a spiritual teacher.
Stage 4. Souls who are conflicted about God
Certain souls have come to the realization that there is indeed some
reality to the spiritual side of life and that there is a path they
can follow toward a higher understanding of God and their relationship
to God. These are souls who have turned around and started the path
that leads them back to God. However, many of these souls have been
so deeply hurt that they need spiritual and soul healing before they
can earnestly engage in the spiritual path.
Some of these souls have been hurt by physical trauma. Others have
been hurt emotionally through their interactions with other people
or the institutions of society. Still others have been hurt by the
imperfections of organized religion or have been scarred by so-called
infallible doctrines that could not answer their questions about life.
These wounds often cause such souls to feel conflicts in their conception
of or relationship to God. They might feel that religion doesn't make
sense and presents a contradictory or inconsistent image of God (which
is true). Or they might feel that a just and loving God shouldn't
have allowed them to have been hurt. They often feel like victims
of forces beyond their control and see no way to personally change
their situation.
These souls have come to a realization that they want more from life
than what can be attained by material means. They sense there must
be a place to go to find spiritual understanding and healing. Yet
they have been so deeply scarred and hurt that they are not yet able
to start walking toward that understanding. They are like people who
have broken a leg and therefore need to heal the fracture before they
can start walking toward their goal. Therefore, such souls would do
well to recognize their wounds and to focus all of their energy and
attention on healing the psychology (as understood by the world) and
the soul.
Stage 5. Souls who want to experience God’s creation
A certain group of souls are young souls who have not yet spent a
long time (meaning many embodiments) in the material world. Some of
these souls still have a great desire to experience everything in
the material world, and this can make them indifferent toward religion.
They are simply so preoccupied with the things of this world that
they have no attention left over for spiritual pursuits.
Other young souls are very open to religion, yet often approach it
in a somewhat unbalanced manner. This can cause them to take their
religious pursuits to the extremes. They often use religion not as
a way to transcend the world but as a way to enrich their experience
of this world. For example, they might seek to gain a position in
a religious movement because it increases their status among men.
These souls have not yet had enough experiences to achieve the balance
of being wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
Unfortunately, given the current conditions on this planet, it is
common that young souls, in their innocence, will be hurt or taken
advantage of by both material and non-material forces. This can often
cause such souls to lose their innocence and slide toward disappointment
or anger. If such souls are taken advantage of by organized religion,
they might find it impossible to distinguish between God and the outer
religion and thereby become angry at God.
Stage 6. Souls who seek to understand God
These souls have consciously realized that there is more to life than
the material realm. They know there is more to understand about life
than what they were taught in school and Sunday school, and they have
made the decision to start looking for it. These souls have also healed
at least some of their deepest wounds so that they have attention
left over to focus on studying the spiritual side of life.
To achieve maximum growth, these souls need to focus most of their
attention on studying spiritual teachings, practicing various spiritual
techniques and seeking to internalize spiritual truth and principles.
These souls are the “reason for being” of any true spiritual
movement. It is their quest for understanding that gives the Ascended
Host great hope for the future of planet Earth.
Stage 7. Souls who seek to help others understand God
After a soul has spent a sufficient amount of time studying spiritual
teachings and practicing techniques for spiritual growth, that soul
has internalized a critical amount of spiritual knowledge. The next
logical step is that the soul begins to give out that knowledge by
teaching others.
One can be a student only for so long. When one has reached a certain
level, the soul cannot learn any more until the soul begins teaching
what it has internalized. Only by teaching others can the soul ascend
to the next level of learning because it is through giving that you
truly receive and it is through teaching that you truly learn.
These souls are the backbone of any true spiritual movement. Without
these souls acting as our partners on Earth, the Ascended Host would
have little hope for reaching other souls with a spiritual message.
Stage 8. Souls who seek union with God
As a soul climbs the spiritual path, it gradually becomes less attached
to outer manifestations, such as a particular religion or spiritual
teaching. It begins to see that there is a transcendent reality behind
the many different expressions of spiritual teachings. It begins to
see the universal path behind all of the outer religions, organizations,
teachings and teachers.
During the previous two stages, a soul might follow one particular
religion or philosophy and use it as its springboard for growth. This
is quite acceptable, as long as the soul does not become stuck in
thinking that its particular religion is the only true religion or
the only valid road to understanding God. If a soul does become attached,
it will remain stuck at a certain stage of spiritual growth until
it begins to acknowledge the universal path.
When the soul does begin to see the universal path, it ascends to
the level of becoming a mystic. It now realizes that the ultimate
goal of the spiritual path is not to understand God but to know God,
to experience God and to attain union with God. This is what I demonstrated
in my life, and it is reflected most clearly in my statement, “I
and my Father are one.”
Some mystics might indeed withdraw from worldly activities and focus
all of their attention on attaining the mystical union with God. However,
in this day and age, many have the opportunity to choose to remain
active in the world, and this is indeed highly needed. Such souls
can then demonstrate the universal path by example, and some of them
can teach this path openly.
Stage 9. Souls who have attained union with God
As souls rise on the path and begin to teach spiritual truth, they
will gradually begin to internalize more and more truth and more and
more light. They will then gradually become what one might call Masters
in embodiment.
These are souls who have understood some of the deeper mysteries,
especially the difference between “doing” and “being.”
You will recall my statement that, “I of my own self can do
nothing, it is the Father within me who is doing the work.”
When the soul attains mastery, it is no longer trying to DO anything
in this world. It is simply BEING who it is and therefore allowing
the spiritual self, and possibly spiritual beings, to act through
it.
The soul has become the open door that no human can shut. The soul
might serve to bring fourth spiritual truths directly from a higher
realm, thereby delivering the Living Word in its highest form. Or
such souls might serve in other capacities to further and demonstrate
the cause of the Ascended Host. These souls can literally be our hands
and feet on Earth.
However, there is no exact standard for how a soul with spiritual
mastery should act, or rather BE. Some souls might become world teachers.
Some might live a seemingly ordinary life and can hardly be distinguished
from the average person. Some might have severe handicaps or diseases.
Some might sit in a cave in the Himalayas, or elsewhere, and meditate
day and night to hold the spiritual balance for the Earth. Others
might even exhibit behavior that is not associated with spiritual
mastery.
Do not misuse this teaching
Let me issue a word of warning. There is an inherent danger in giving
any kind of teaching that allows people to compare themselves to others.
Many people are still caught in the spirit of vain competition, and
they will use my stages of spiritual development to judge themselves
and their progress compared to others. They will then attempt to set
themselves up on a pedestal and judge themselves as being better or
more important than others because they have reached a certain level
of development.
Let me make it clear that as long as people are caught in this state
of consciousness, they have not reached a high level of spiritual
development because when you reach such a level there are no value
judgments and there is no sense of competition.
I am giving this teaching because it is valuable and important for
a soul to realize its current level of spiritual development and thereby
take appropriate measures to quickly rise to a higher level. It is
especially important for souls at lower stages of spiritual development
to realize that there is a path that leads them home to God. It is
essential for such souls to discover that path and to lock themselves
firmly upon that path.
Likewise, it is essential for souls at higher stages to discover the
universal, inner path to God. Such souls need to transcend their attachments
to a particular outer religion and thereby realize the goal of manifesting
their full potential as sons and daughters of God.
Let me also say that the stages I have outlined here are not meant
to be seen as the only possible way to categorize spiritual development.
One can take different criteria and come up with other stages. One
can also divide the stages I have outlined and gain a more detailed
picture. Indeed several of the stages overlap, and a soul might be
working on two or three stages simultaneously. In future teachings,
I will expand upon the stages I have outlined here. Yet I desire to
give a picture that is not too complex and thereby causes people to
focus on details and lose the overall view.
When you do step back and look at the big picture, you will see that
the common denominator for each of the stages I described above is
that they all represent a different way for the soul to relate to
God. The importance of this realization is that no matter where a
soul is in its spiritual development, that soul is always facing the
challenge of working out its relationship to God.
As I explain throughout this website, every soul truly is a son or
daughter of God, an individualization of God. The soul is meant to
come to a full awareness and acceptance of its divine potential and
thereby act as a co-creator with God in the material universe. Therefore,
the most important task for any soul is to resolve any imperfections
in its conception of or relationship with God. That is truly what
life in the material universe is all about.
Therefore, the goal of life is to resolve and heal all imperfections
in the soul’s attitude toward God. Such imperfections stand
in the way of the soul’s union with God and its acceptance of
its potential to be a co-creator with God.
Why souls descended to Earth
I will use the stages of spiritual development for future teachings.
However, I would like for now to give a brief teaching on the different
categories of souls that have descended to planet Earth. When the
Earth was first created, it expressed the purity and perfection of
the seven Elohim, the seven spiritual beings, who created this planet.
In the beginning, most of the souls that descended to planet Earth
fit into the category of young souls.
These souls were indeed innocent and had no negativity towards God.
Yet some of them did have a great desire for the things that can be
experienced in the material universe, and therefore they focused most
of their attention on enjoying this world. They had little thought
left over for the spiritual side of life. Other souls were more spiritually
inclined but had not yet firmly anchored themselves on the spiritual
path and had not attained a permanent awareness of their spiritual
identity and potential.
Along with the young souls were a group of souls who had attained
a degree of mastery. These souls served as the spiritual teachers
for younger souls.
For a very long time, the young souls kept descending to planet Earth
without becoming trapped in the consciousness of the material universe.
Many of these souls did indeed ascend back to God after just one lifetime,
although that lifetime was far longer than a normal life span today.
At some point a shift started to occur on this planet. A number of
souls started becoming attached to or trapped in the consciousness
of the material universe, and they started descending further and
further into that state of consciousness. One might say that these
souls started walking the path that leads them away from God, causing
them to lose the awareness that they are spiritual beings.
As the consciousness of humankind was gradually lowered, it eventually
reached a critical level. At this critical level it now became possible
for certain rebellious souls to start embodying on Earth. These were
souls who had rebelled against God in the spiritual realm or on other
systems of worlds. These souls are indeed the rebellious souls, and
for thousands of years a number of them have continued to embody on
this planet. They have attempted to pull as many souls as possible
down to their level of consciousness and accept, even justify, their
rebellion against God.
These souls are very aggressive and very ambitious in trying to prove
their point that they can create a world in which God does not exist.
They have literally influenced every aspect of life on this planet,
including the field of religion.
The influence of these rebellious souls has created a perilous condition
on this planet. There are still young souls who descend to this Earth
for the first time, yet there is a great risk that such souls will
be hurt by the conditions found on this planet. This can cause a soul
to gradually slide down to the stage of being a wounded soul. It can
then slide even further down and seek to hide from God, either from
anger or fear. It is even possible that the soul can descend to the
stage of deliberately rebelling against God's will and God’s
law.
After the fall, a number of souls have embodied on this planet that
are at higher stages of spiritual development, from being teachers
to being Masters. These souls have descended on a rescue mission in
an attempt to help the souls who have fallen find the true spiritual
path, anchor themselves on that path and walk the path until they
have regained their spiritual identity and can start the higher levels
of the path that lead to the mystical union with God.
Some of these souls have indeed become hurt by the conditions on this
planet and have descended into lower stages of consciousness. A few
of them have even become rebellious against God because they could
not maintain the connection to their higher selves.
My purpose of giving this teaching is to show you that the Earth today
presents a very complex picture and a very complex challenge for a
spiritual teacher. It simply is not possible to give one spiritual
teaching or one religion that will appeal to people at every stage
of spiritual development. That is why there needs to be more than
one religion, indeed more than one true religion, in order for the
Ascended Host to reach out to as many people as possible.
Where are you headed?
I would also like to mention that there is a clear division in the
stages. The center of the scale are the souls who are young and who
are simply experimenting with life on this planet. A soul is not meant
to maintain this neutral stage for very long. Given the current conditions
on this planet, most souls will quickly be forced to go in one of
two directions.
One such direction is the souls who have been trapped by doubt or
have been hurt in various ways. These souls now start moving away
from God. The other direction is represented by the souls who have
realized that there is more to life than the material world. These
souls have discovered the path and are moving toward union with God.
So the two basic divisions you have on planet Earth are souls who
are moving away from God and souls who are moving toward union with
God. I am aware that some souls were already moving away from God
before they descended and some were already moving toward God before
they came into embodiment. Nevertheless, the important consideration
here is whether a soul is moving away from God of moving toward God.
Souls who are moving away from God are facing a perilous situation.
Although there is a final limit to how far a soul can move away from
God, there is indeed a very great distance that the soul can descend.
The problem is that everything in the material universe is characterized
by limitations. This means that the soul does not have an infinite
amount of time to make it back to God. If the soul keeps moving away
from God until its time is up, it will face the final judgment, If
it does not respond positively, it can be erased in the ritual of
the second death. So it is indeed possible that souls can be lost.
To avoid this scenario, a soul must come to a turning point. The soul
must literally decide that it will stop running away from God and
start the path that leads it back to God. It must come to the realization
that, "I can't do this any longer!" What does it take for
a soul to turn around? That depends on the soul’s stage of development.
It is very difficult for a rebellious soul to turn around. Such souls
are often caught in spiritual pride, and some of them would rather
die than admit that they are wrong. However, some souls can eventually
come to the realization that their attempts to create a world without
God are futile. This can especially happen when they are confronted
with a person who has attained Christhood and therefore refuses to
be changed by anything in this world. This did indeed happen to a
few souls who saw me during my embodiment 2,000 years ago. They realized
that even though they could kill my physical body, they could not
change my spirit, and this caused them to realize that God will eventually
be victorious regardless of the appearances of this world.
A soul who is seeking to hide from God out of fear or anger finds
it a bit easier to turn around because it does not have to prove that
it is right. It is possible for such souls to come to the realization
that they have an incorrect or incomplete image of God. Therefore,
it was this image that caused them to be hurt, to become angry or
to fear God.
Souls who are indifferent toward God can be very difficult to reach
for a spiritual teacher. However, these souls have enrolled themselves
in the school of hard knocks and in many cases they can be turned
around by a severe outer crises. These people will procrastinate the
acknowledgement of the spiritual side of life until some outer crisis
forces them to realize that something is missing from their lives.
Souls who are conflicted about God or have been deeply hurt can be
turned around when they realize, that God did not hurt them and God
did not create the doctrines that gave them the conflicts about God.
When these souls realize what is truly happening on this planet as
a result of the misuse of free will, they can often go through an
instantaneous turnaround in which they realize that God has never
hurt them. Instead, they have been hurt by forces and people who rebel
against God or who are angry at God. Therefore, such souls will often
realize that they have no desire to run away from God, and this will
enable them to engage in the path that leads to their healing.
Once a soul has discovered the spiritual path and anchored itself
on the path, the soul has already turned around. However, this does
not mean that the soul is home free. The essential point for a soul
who is moving toward God is that it realizes the absolute need to
keep moving, to keep transcending its understanding of God. It is
absolutely essential that the soul does not become attached to a particular
outer expression of spiritual truth because such an attachment will
cause the soul’s growth to come to a halt.
If the soul does not see the need for constant self-transcendence,
it can become stuck at a particular level of the path. If it remains
stuck for a long time, it will inevitably start sliding backward.
There are indeed many souls on planet Earth today who have discovered
the spiritual path and who are walking the path. Yet they have not
yet come to the full realization that the path is ongoing. These souls
have not yet discovered the inner, universal path, and therefore they
have not yet become mystics. It is very important for these souls
to recognize the ongoing nature of the path and the ultimate goal
of union with God.
Copyright
© 2009 by Kim Michaels |
