26 Aug 1996
Re: God, Trust, and Spirit
Hello Trudy. I'm glad my web pages and email have been a help to you. And
thanks for your permission to share your letters -- I know several people
who need to see them.
Yes, as you wrote concerning discernment of spiritual presences, "Some
are really obvious -- like the demons that attacked me when I prayed for
my brother. But some presences feel just like people, and I don't get a
sense that they are necessarily bad." They feel like people because
they *are* people -- without physical bodies. As I wrote, "some are
good, some are better; some are bad, some are worse..." It was from
just such experiences that I came up with my definition of the spiritual
spectrum. And yes, it can be disconcerting to discover that the spirit-world
is not "somewhere else" but here and now.
That light-show was probably a bunch of God's angels battling and capturing
the darkest ones associated with your brother. Teams of heavy-duty warrior
angels go after demons and devils, but they don't seem to see run-of-the-mill
gray ghosts. Even people-rescue teams usually need to follow a lit-up caring
connection in order to find lost souls. So, your discernment of what remained
in your vicinity after the light-show corresponds with my experience.
And so, yes, the drinking and depression could have been caused by one or
more lost souls who attached to you. It isn't "fair" but that
is a human ideal that does not exist in reality. At all levels of the spiritual
spectrum, relative intentions, capabilities and vulnerabilities are the
operative criteria. There are souls who will help if they can, and souls
who will take advantage if they can, and souls who will hurt if they can
-- both in and out of the physical world.
Yes, trust is a choice, and often a difficult one, but I am more willing
to trust a person who *would help but could not*, than I am a person who
*could help but would not*. To apply this line of reasoning to theology
is, of course, either heresy or blasphemy to those who accept the great
boastful assertion, "our God is omnipotent" -- but that is in
essence what I have done. I have rejected the dogma that produces the dilemma.
All this is implicit in the maxim: "Help God; give greatly."
Thus, like you, I believe the doctrine of free will should not be applied
when children will be harmed. Interestingly, when Jesus told his apostles
to cast out demons, he said nothing about respecting the free will of the
demons...
Don't be in a big hurry to get clear verbal messages. For now, concentrate
on the first three steps: stop, open, and generate an upward flow.
Concerning your friend, Simon: you did all you could to relay the message
that he was in ill health and needed to do something about it, but both
he and his doctor ignored that warning. Even so, good did come of it, because,
spiritually, Simon died in your arms. Now he can always be reached and rescued,
through you, at any time, so his situation is not desperate or urgent from
the point of view of the rescue teams.
Lisa seems typical of those cases in which the "demons" are actually
the ghosts of human drug addicts trying to continue their addiction. These
are not easy cases, because usually the human host also wants the effects
of the drugs and thus continues to be vulnerable. However, here again, when
you are ready -- better trained and practiced -- you can still reach her.
I enjoyed your dream of the man who found it necessary to fight many large
devils, but I did not understand the significance of "while he was
on vacation." What did that part of it mean to you?
I do understand the message conveyed to you in this dream -- and there are
even more levels of meaning implied in the image of the penknife. What is
a little tiny penknife good for? It is not a weapon like a sword or dagger.
It does not destroy or even wound very deeply. How did the man use it to
defeat all those large (Tasmanian) devils? Can you return to that dream,
make sure it is the same man, and ask him?
Yes, I agree this is the course on which you are embarked: to become a sharp
little instrument of God. I will work with you for that purpose. First,
I suggest that you take another look at your own image of God, your theology.
Then it may be easier for you to connect your heart to God, and that is
necessary for the work you are yearning to do.
With my blessings
Ben
Home | Listing
| Next