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


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