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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Michael—</SPAN><st1:date Month="10" Day="1"
Year="2007"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">October 1,
2007</SPAN></st1:date><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Marin T/M Group—</SPAN><st1:place><st1:City><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Mill Valley</SPAN></st1:City><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">, </SPAN><st1:State><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">California</SPAN></st1:State></st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">—</SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">U.S.A.</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT
size=3>MICHAEL—T/R-JL<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Honoring your full humanity’s
health)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Your freedom of
choice)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Fully accepting moments of trial, and
later) <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Opening to
reality)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Differences between hope and
expectations)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>(Remembering to use your free will)<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>(Fear and disease)<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>(Seeming contradictions—different viewpoints)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>(The uniqueness of Urantia’s situations)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>(Jesus’ question and God’s answer)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Dear Michael and Mother Spirit,<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Once again we gather in to
feel your presence and to hear your words of encouragement and inspiration--and
wonder. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You speak to us of a vast
confluence of life expanding with the universe itself for hundreds of billions
of years, far beyond the ability of our telescopes to see or of our minds even
to imagine. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And you reassure us of
our own lives continuing beyond our ability to penetrate the certain opacity of
death. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet beyond these facts you
present us with, it is your help in our feeling and appreciating our day to day
lives and how to share these with those we love, and others--so we can multiply
our happy moments together: it is for this we are truly and immediately so
appreciative. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Amen.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Good evening, my children, this is your
Spirit Father, Michael. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I am very
happy to be with you this way. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I
would like to express these feelings of mine even more, but I fear it would be a
bit beyond the capacity of this person to handle. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So let’s just take a few minutes and see
if you can feel my love in your hearts.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>(there ensued a very long pause)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Remember, dear children, I am beside you always. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Mother Spirit is right within you as part
of you, part of your realization of this life you are
living.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>We talked by way of discussing all that
goes into forgiveness about the fact you so often get carried away into just a
portion of yourselves. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You become
in that sense very literally partial, partial to your own self-generated notions
of who and what you are, and who and what others are.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>By doing so you lose the spiritual
blessing of humility, that marvelous ability to see the larger picture, the
greater situation, the full physical and mental and spiritual encompassing in
which you live, and of which you are all composed.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Honoring your full humanity’s health)
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>The human species has struggled for
many hundreds of thousands of years just to get some small toe-hold, if you
will, of mental and spiritual freedom from sheer physical necessity, and made
possible only recently by the full blossoming of the Industrial Revolution in
the more advanced societies, but which--as an aside--the whole world has yet to
achieve. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But for so many of you who
will read these words, who are able to easily take care of the necessities of
life, you tend to disregard your physical being and so the so long, longed-for
and greatly anticipated utopia of physical health all your distant and even
not-so-distant relatives wanted for you, has failed to materialize.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>I cannot give you an exact figure in
terms of some amount, but certainly in the more advanced societies of the world
by far the greatest percentage of your physical difficulties are due to what you
have come to call lifestyle choices. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>By far the greatest numbers of things
plaguing you in terms of bad physical health are the very direct result of your
free will choices. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>The good side of this is that they are
your choices.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There are no
super-paternalistic governmental or religious bodies standing over you telling
you how to live, although they certainly try. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(group chuckles) <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And your generally free-wheeling
capitalist societies have long become accustomed to the need for advertisement,
with an attendant unconscious acceptance of it.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’ve only to look back a few decades
at your early TV ads which were about ninety per cent information, whereas today
you nonchalantly expect your advertisements to be about ninety per cent
entertainment: and that, of course, is the subtle hook. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>People have grown so accustomed to
being pandered to; to those who spend a great deal of their time in front of
that glowing tube life becomes purely relative and abstract.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What comes across as real or not is no
longer being compared in great measure to something happening outside where life
is going on all around them, but just compared to what was on last season, or
the sentimental memories of several seasons ago.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet again I’ll repeat: These are all
their free will choices. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Neither
Mother nor I, nor any true spiritual teacher, would have that part of the
equation be any other way. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Indeed you can evaluate us, or any
so-called spiritual teacher—and we challenge you to do so--by the degree we or
they encourage you to realize—make real for yourselves--your free will. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This part of the equation has to
hold.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is the hallmark of all
true spirit-intended beings--the degree to which they limit themselves to
persuasion alone by appealing as graciously as they can to your sense of
values.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We remind you that these
choices are yours, and are being made either consciously or willy-nilly by
habit.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>From our point of view you
are inextricably co-creating your own day to day life, even if only by refusing
to expend the effort necessary to consciously create your own unique personal
alternatives, right down to what to do next, five minutes from
now.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Your freedom of
choice)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>I put it this bluntly, my children, so
you don’t feel embarrassed within yourself if and whenever it gets down to this:
Dear Father, what do I do next? <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Rather, I ask you to embrace these
moments. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let your realization
expand to accept where you are, and let it change you as needs be toward growth,
toward flexibility, toward decisiveness, and above all, toward remembering this
was where you once were--especially in the very success this decisiveness can
lead you to. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For ironically enough,
it is not in these moments of trial--so-called, that the greatest test
comes.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is two weeks, or two
months later, in the very success of your marvelous human adaptability that the
real test comes: do you continue going forward? <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>This is where your more advanced and
seemingly successful societies are failing in the context of general physical
health I set up at the beginning of this lesson. This is where some historical
perspective can be of enormous value in appreciating all the choices of
lifestyle you do have, hopefully only occasionally needing to be backed up by
your profound advances in medicine or, at times, the surgical skills to sew you
back together--that your ancestors did not have, but dreamed and hoped you
would.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>For those of you who have studied my
human life in detail, I welcome your heartfelt appreciation and the honor you do
me when you realize what I was able to put into one relatively short human life.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>To keep going forward spiritually,
day by day, week by week, month by month, even year after year, is not generally
humanly possible.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The world would
be other than what it is, were that so. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So again, my children, don’t compare
yourselves to me in my human life as an example. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m a very unique creature of our Father
in that respect, and for two thousand years it has been an understandable puzzle
as to just how much was I a human being and how much was I a Creator Son of
God--simultaneously. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I can only
tell you that as a human being I had everywhere as much a need as yourselves to
constantly tune in to my Father’s presence, and open myself to His
leading.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>This was both the value and the
necessity for me as a Creator Son to have a human life.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And so I can validly offer you this
advice, offer to share with you the necessity to get in touch with the Father
within you. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then by a human process
of mostly trial and error, have the courage to try what this inner voice
suggests, and then the further courage to honestly evaluate the results. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is how you continue moving forward
spiritually, one alternate step of trial and evaluation at a time.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>First you come to feel the most right
course of action, and then you try it, staying open to what happens--keeping in
mind a large part of what happens depends upon the whole physical, mental, and
spiritual encompassing in which you live with all your others: and all the past,
and all the unfathomable next moment, focused into
now.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Fully accepting moments of trial, and
later) <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So don’t be embarrassed within
yourselves, my dear children, if you find yourselves just hanging on and living
moment to moment at times. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Take a
deep breath and welcome the chance to feel yourself living--even so, even if it
seems to have come down to this.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Seize that moment: use it well: and then remember it well. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The real test will come sometime later as
part of your success.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>If you have any questions or comments,
let’s go forward to them. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you for this lesson, Father
Michael. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s very practical. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If I understand it correctly, it’s what’s
actually happening in my life right at the moment.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s what I’m realizing that really
works. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>After all the mistakes there
is a…something there. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I always
known it in theory, but now it’s happening in real life, and me practicing my
life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s very nice.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Opening to
reality)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are very welcome, my son. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s my intention to assuage that
embarrassment you feel inside at times by an overwhelming sense of failure or
the loss of some imaginary position.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Getting down to acknowledging not knowing what to do next is often what
is necessary to open you up to embrace the reality there are some large things
happening all around you, or right within you, you need to take into account.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So congratulations on doing so, my
son. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Bit by bit, day by day, you
are finding a touch my peace.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student: Yes, and it’s very nice too.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you, Father Michael.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Hi, Michael.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I also feel
like you were speaking directly to me this evening. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I find myself very busy in the days, and
I tell myself, get to your determination, get to your work.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And so in the last few months I feel I’m
getting closer to that determination to finish the story I’m working on, not for
it’s entertainment value but for what help it could be for parents and their
children—their parenting skills.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So
hearing you tonight gives me great determination to create something that speaks
to the next generation.</SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">I
know I have it in me to do this.</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>I also want to mention, dear Michael, I
think I’m learning in looking back at emotional moments that, Wow!—that little
tyrant was a great teacher, or that horrible incident was just awesome to get me
to this point.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m understanding
the difference between hope and expectations.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I had two days of depression, that I
never get.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When I felt that I
thought, Wow!—other people go through this all the time.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I really felt for them.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then I made myself get out of it because
the feeling of hopelessness is the worst thing in the world.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So if you could speak about how we need
hope, and how to build that, and it’s good for everyone; and how it’s the
expectations that we’re waiting for, and don’t happen; and then we crash and
burn.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I want to deal with hope
instead.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So if you could say
anything.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thanks for listening to
my rambling.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Not at all, my daughter—you were very
clear and right to the point.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m
embarrassed to say more about it, you have such a good grasp on the distinction
between hope and expectations.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes,
there is a quantitative one of simple specificity.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your expectations can be very overly
detailed: you expect exactly this or that.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>So in this sense hope is simply more general and open-minded toward
outcomes.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Differences between hope and
expectations)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>But the qualitative difference is one of spiritual value, and
directly proportional to your acknowledging the enormity of all the influences
affecting you—especially for you, my daughter, realizing all the social realm
you are involved in, all the other people you interact with.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Hope springs from faith, not only in
yourself but in other people and what you’ve wisely thought of as the human
condition.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You realize how that
general condition is susceptible to large swings of enthusiasm, and the lack of
it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Yeah)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>To take this in stride without any
outside chemical assistance to get over your moments of depression is by far the
best way.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m not speaking here of
clinical depression that does require a trained physician who can truly help by
prescribing an appropriate medicine.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>I mean the more common ways of avoiding any downtime whatsoever through
using various powerful stimulants or recreational drugs.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>Just have the nerve to feel what is happening inside you very purely
and without any equivocation.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Usually the best thing to do is to ride out these temporary storms or, in
your case, a dead-feeling lull that leaves you stranded for a few days, deeply
appreciating the plight of those who get stuck there.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Just to take your own inner weather—your
tempests and your lulls--as they come, and be genuinely curious about their
causes, this is another aspect of faith--faith in your ability to understand,
faith that understanding does change things.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>Exercising your faith in these times gives rise to hope.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When all your specific expectations have
fallen away and their particular force no longer fills your sails, and you are
definitely adrift without them, now comes the lesson that it is hope that
sustains you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is your faith in
your very humanness, with all its ups and downs, that can give you the patience
to stay with yourself and reap the reward of feeling a force that is truly,
finally--just you, regaining strength all by yourself.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’ve paid the price of getting down to
who and what you are, and that very discovery strengthens you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>All you need is good nutrition, and
exercise, and rest—all those basic, wonderful things.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I felt you
very strongly about a month ago, and it was a major shift instantly as I was sad
and crying.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>All of a sudden a line
from one of your lessons was so powerful I felt you, Michael, closer than I’ve
ever felt you before.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You said, You
can choose to believe you can be perfect in this.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can choose to believe you can be
re-trained inside—and that’s what you’ll teach.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If you want to teach love you have to
feel spiritual and vulnerable.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It
just lifted me off the ground.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I
felt so grateful for you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank
you.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>MICHAEL:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you, my
daughter, for your faith.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That’s
what it really takes to hear me, because I am always here; and Mother Spirit as
well—right inside you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But it takes
a lot, sometimes, to get you to remember to listen.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And knock the
barriers down that I’ve built against your love.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I know this now.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>(Remembering to use your free will)<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>MICHAEL: Mother Spirit and I are so appreciative when you do.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As you say, it was by way of remembering
your own free will, to choose to listen to us, that enabled us to get
through.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I love you so
much.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(many tears and much
laughter)<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>MICHAEL:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are very
welcome.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Keep remembering to choose
my peace.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The fear just
falls away, and then everything is possible.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>MICHAEL:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You loose
yourself, and then you suddenly pop back up.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So let go!—and then hang on tight.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If I could ask
one more question?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I was wondering
why it is people can feel so much protective love for their own family and yet
find it difficult to extend that to all of humanity?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I don’t get
that.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>MICHAEL:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Well, my dear,
you have to have some appreciation of the hundreds of thousands of years of
incessant tribal warfare and what was for them the stark and absolute necessity
to curtail their responses of loving and caring to only those they were familiar
with, just to survive as a group.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Every insult or injury to the extended family or tribe had to be avenged,
otherwise they would shortly have been enslaved or wiped out as a distinct
unit.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m talking about times when
even slavery itself was an enormous advance forward from simply killing
everyone—putting to the sword everyone above the age of small children, who
would be adopted. The two World Wars of only the last century, fueled by
nationalism and racism, were the end results of this expanding principle.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It takes a while to get over this long
ingrained historical/cultural habit of exclusiveness and embrace all of humanity
as the children of a single Father, all of one family.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So I’ll
exercise my hope that people will evolve.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Thank you again.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>MICHAEL:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We can only
assure you, my daughter, that they are by fantastic leaps and bounds.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But you do have to realize where you are
coming from, and how far you have to go.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If I could ask one
more question about fear and how it affects our bodies?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If someone comes down with a pancreas
problem, can stress or fear affect the body so drastically, and can it be healed
when that person really does understand that the fear has to be broken down
before they can be healed?</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>(Fear and disease)<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>MICHAEL:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Very
directly--yes, most assuredly.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>There is no separating the mental and the physical components of
fear.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They are one and the same in
effect.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The genesis of fear can be
deeply unconscious, a reaction caused by years of conditioning as a baby and
youngster--something absorbed from the parents and surrounding society.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You could even say it is the persistence
of this very deep and shared cultural conditioning that so largely determines
human behavior today, and can be traced back two hundred thousand years ago to
the Lucifer Rebellion and the Caligastia betrayal on Urantia that thwarted the
hundreds of thousands of years of progress, with both instinctual and
conditioned fear, which had gone before this.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>The world is still suffering this conditional fear and it takes
enormous spiritual faith to confront it and realize it personally, creative
spirit to suggest some alternative, and then courage to entertain these notions
of a better way of living, and hope these better ways can make a
difference.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the only way
out of this deeply conditioned/cultural fear.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For yes indeed, this is a major cause of
disease.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What you term stress is a
kind of fighting within the organism against itself, a discontinuity, a
straining against itself.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These
deep fears are unconsciously triggered both mentally and physically and form
part of your total encompassing.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>And then your organism tries to deal with them unconsciously as
well.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have to meditate and let
them come to the surface of consciousness to be realized.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>This is how so many kinds of assumed incurable diseases can be
suddenly and seemingly miraculously cured by a spiritual triumph.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The personality is able to realize a
great spiritual hope and faith that is the only solution.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For the logic of the mind can only
correlate causes and effects.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>An
appreciation of all the warfare the human race has come through can show you
ample cause for the fearful attitudes/conditions in the world today, but only
your hope and your faith can show the way forward personally, and lead to that
inner transformation that can heal disease.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So yes, most assuredly, my daughter, the
ending of fear, like the ending of some great pain, is paradise enough.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you…beautiful.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I find it sad so many people have the
need of suffering their own punishment; but they have their own
path.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>MICHAEL:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And these are
just their ways of articulating their inner feelings.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Heaven and hell are right here and
now.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Yes)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(there followed a very long pause,
several minutes, of everyone resting in Michael’s
presence)<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, Michael,
it’s good feeling being still, here, with you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I feel your presence within me, this
moment, real strongly.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I have no
formal questions, just a kind of musing.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>So many of the lives I see around me are distorted by fear, by belief
systems based on erroneous ideologies, and assumptions, and theories: about the
universe, and God, and you: so much distortion; so much misunderstanding and
misconception.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>Yet: completeness and wholeness still exist.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Just because one cannot see it, or feel
it, or believe it, wholeness and completeness always exist.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>God always exists, even in the heart of
an atheist.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Truth and love always
exist.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Wholeness always exists,
even in the most diseased body.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>That’s the hope.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That’s the
benefit of stillness.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Even while we
are sleeping we are awake.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Tahoma size=3>I was
thinking of our conversation two weeks ago--rereading the transcripts--about
your free-will choice to go through the torture of being nailed to the cross,
and I thought, how courageous of you, how strong in your convictions and your
understanding of our Father, and of what human life is all about.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If I had on ounce, a thumbnail grasp of
that conviction…<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I can’t even
fathom.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Because I do see around me
a lot of grieving and despair.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Some
kind of shift has to happen, some perception that truth and love still
exist.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>(Seeming contradictions—different viewpoints)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>MICHAEL:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, my son,
but to so many what you just expressed is a whole litany of contradictions.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet it does express well the difference
of viewpoint of the spiritual community, who can very blessedly perceive the
living truth and the goodness in all of God’s way, and even in His errant
children, contrasted with the very real suffering of people, never to be
nonchalantly disregarded from the human viewpoint.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These are the very real experiences of
men and woman, the real suffering and unbelievable, unfathomable pain they do
endure.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They both exist; they are
both real.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So the realization of
both viewpoints is a movement from the solely mental and physical one to that of
the spiritual.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Spirit is always
inclusive.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Tahoma size=3>Very
few of Urantia’s historical religions have introduced their followers to the
notion, let alone the means of accessing, the presence of God within them.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As a matter of fact, the exact opposite
has been the general rule, instilling fear in order to insure compliance with
what we’ve correctly designated the authority of power-hungry politicians of the
tribe, or city-state, or larger community, posing as spiritual
leaders.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>(The uniqueness of Urantia’s situations)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>But be of good cheer, my children.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The awareness of these facts is
happening.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is why Mother
Spirit and I do mention, from time to time, the extraordinary rarity of
Urantia’s world situation as contrasted to those worlds which have been under
the direction of a loyal, faithful Planetary Prince and his whole corporal
staff, being in control of human events for hundreds of thousands of years and
more or less bringing everyone along together.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The situation on Urantia is very unique
insofar as you have nearly the whole spectrum of human social and technological
evolution still coexisting at the same time.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is only in the last few decades that
some tribes have come up out of the stone age to embrace simple metal tools,
while others were getting to the moon by drawing out complex alloys to withstand
the heat and velocity of rocket engine parts.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Think of that contrast and all this
simple example implies, coexisting on the same planet.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That too is real.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You still have extraordinarily primitive
tribal organizations, and ever so recently your more advanced nation-states
managed to kill tens of millions of their citizens in world war.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>The truth is always there in spirit; but the mind and the body truly
suffer: these are not illusions.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>And so our task, our good work is always near at hand.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I thank you for your observations, my
son, however seemingly contradictory.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Again: you have to distinguish between levels of personality
manifestation and their different viewpoints and abilities of realization; and
when you presume to speak from which.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>For human beings, still evolving, mind and spirit are not yet on the same
plane and perfectly consistent with each other.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’ve just been
moved by all the things I’ve been reading about.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It seems there is so much suffering
going on in the
<st1:country-region><st1:place>Sudan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, in
<st1:country-region><st1:place>Burma</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Other places there are still people
being captured for slaves.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I can’t
conceive of the suffering these people and their families are going
through.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I can’t even conceive of
the mindset of the perpetrators of such acts.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then there’s the free will.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet you had that conviction as you were
being led toward torture and death.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>You knew.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s just hard to
fathom.</FONT></P>
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size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>(Jesus’ question and God’s answer)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
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size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>MICHAEL:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But I too, my
son, had my low point there in the
<st1:place><st1:PlaceType>garden</st1:PlaceType> of
<st1:PlaceName>Gethsemane</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Indeed, the whole spiritual community of
Nebadon experienced it with me when I asked my Father if I could let this bitter
cup of suffering pass.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And He came
back: The choice was mine.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And so I
truly thank my Father for that choice.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
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size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>Previous Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Michael, remembering what you went through—that is, several months ago; I
thought, nothing I have ever gone through, or will ever go through, or face on
this planet in my life, will ever come close to what you went through.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have taught me that, to be
absolutely grateful and enjoy my life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The older I get the more I enjoy it, so I will always thank you for
that.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>MICHAEL:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And so we make
real our consecration of will.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It
only exists in the very exercise of it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>But then we have it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It
becomes part of our soul.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It
changes everything.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>More potential
becomes real and possible.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The
possible future has just changed.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
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size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>My children, it grows late, and it has been a very full
visit…<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
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size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I love you,
Michael.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you so
much.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Tahoma
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face=Tahoma>MICHAEL:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are
welcome, dear one.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I really enjoyed
our long moments of stillness together.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It is not always possible for you to achieve such a marvelous rest, so
consciously, but it is unmistakable when it happens, is it not?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you for sharing it with me.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Be in my peace.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Good evening.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
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