Standing in God’s Way?

JJK: Before falling asleep and right after waking up, the phrase “Live in the Light!” was vividly impressed upon me. This message announced itself, and now I wonder: What does it truly mean to live in the light?

After integrating the message “Step into the Light!” during the 136th Light Reading, the focus now shifts to living in the light. But how? I reach for a book beside my bed and randomly open a page by Paramahansa Yogananda:

“I have come to describe to you the joy that is to be found in God, a joy that each of you can discover through your own initiative—a joy that permeates every moment of my life.
For He lives with me, He speaks with me, He thinks with me, He plays with me, He guides me on all paths. ‘Lord,’ I often say, ‘I have no worries, for You are always with me.

I am happy to serve You and to help Your children as a humble instrument.
You are responsible for all the people You bring to me—for all the events You send me.

I will not thwart the plans You have for me by harboring personal desires in my heart.”
(Words of Paramahansa Yogananda, p. 82 ff., Self-Realization Fellowship)

JJK: “Living in the light” by completely surrendering to God, having no “personal desires” so as not to interfere with “the plans God has for me.” How is this possible when we are full of plans?

Why are we so often told the opposite—that we should know our desires and create abundance ourselves?

What is the answer? What is the key to understanding and living this profound spiritual truth from Paramahansa Yogananda?

The Foundation

ARCHANGEL MICHAEL: Beloved, you are honored and carried by GOD, the Creator of all that is. Living in the light begins the day you become aware of your needs and desires, your longing for things and people, your yearning for success and abundance.

This is the solid foundation upon which the walls of a house where Spirit can dwell are built. These are the walls on which the roof of desirelessness—the highest manifestation of your awakened divine consciousness—can be placed.

A person who lacks this grounded perception of self or constantly avoids it can neither stand nor live in the light. Only after a person has worked on their foundation—their spiritual base—can their spiritual house be built, and the roof of realization be set upon stable walls.

In today’s consciousness work, under the grace of GOD, we address how you can live in the light in everyday life. What does it mean not to stand in God’s way through your own needs and desires, and what is required to live this realization in practice?

Do you need a master, or can you master this yourself? We will explore these questions here and now.

Everything Begins With…

Beloved human,

Everything begins with a first step. Never take the second step before the first or the third before the second.

Everything starts with the first thought, the first feeling, the first action. This is how people journey through their lives, unfolding their wings at the right time, when the moment for the next developmental step arrives.

Not taking the second step before the first means seeing and accepting what is revealed to you now, working with it, and living with it.

Do you have desires and needs? Live them instead of suppressing them. Accept them and realize yourself by first acknowledging what is. For only a person who knows their needs and desires can one day let them go. What can you let go of if you neither know nor have lived what you wish to release?

Cloud 7 or Shadow Work?

Many spiritual seekers soar to cloud 7, erecting a spiritual roof without walls and building walls on sandy ground without a solid foundation. Disappointment is inevitable. Withdrawing from earthly life prematurely, without having truly lived, always leads to disillusionment and frustration.

The reason many spiritual lightworkers abandon their path after years and return to the dense level of this matrix lies solely in declaring themselves as light-and-love without resolving their own shadows. To stand in the light, one must walk through their shadows, not avoid them.

Neglected shadow work catches up with a person eventually, ending the dream of a spiritual life, awakening, and enlightenment.

What happens is this: People are lured by widespread spiritual concepts into simplistic spiritual solutions. Little importance is given to foundational spiritual work. Thus, people cannot be met where they are, as they fail to recognize themselves as needing for a long time.

As long as the “everything is light-and-love illusion” exerts its magic, there is nothing for such a person to see or realize.

Only when a person’s concepts face a reality test does the actual process begin—and for those unpracticed in working with themselves and their shadows, this is an insurmountable obstacle.

This is why many abandon the spiritual path, returning only when they are satiated or disappointed by “enlightenment discounts,” ready to invest effort in their own shadow and light work. For:

Without resolving fundamental issues, abandoning the spiritual path is inevitable. The only key to preventing this is to live authentically from within!

Embrace the Human Experience!

To experience the Divine and your own divinity, you must fully embrace, love, and live the human experience. This is the fastest path to GOD, the most direct way to ultimately place everything—worries and happiness—in GOD’s hands.

Do you want to live with God, reach God, accept God as your only true Guru?

First, reach yourself, try to live with yourself, and accept the mirrors God sends you throughout life as your Guru.

Nowhere does GOD meet you more directly than in your everyday life! Life is your master, your daily routine is full of opportunities seized or missed, for GOD meets you in many forms on your path to mastery. The lifelong goal is to know yourself before you can know GOD, for only those who have grasped themselves can grasp God.

Thus, give food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty. Only when these basic needs are met can a person open to the Divine. “Never take the second step before the first” means recognizing what your life reveals NOW and responding accordingly.

As you master your lessons, life’s abundance will richly reward you. Living the light means living who you are now! There is no better or worse version of you. What exists is who you are now.

If shadows are present, embrace and love them instead of ignoring or suppressing them. This is how you progress toward spiritual maturity. You can choose to harvest unripe spiritual fruits or wait for your soul’s maturation. The goal is: Live your life with the light you are now, with the love you can give now—free from wishful thinking and illusions!

Examine your true self, delight in its beauty, and work on the unlit areas:

How to live in the light? The answer is given here!

Your spiritualization comes once your humanization is complete.

Nothing on the spiritual path can be forced; everything is given when the human is mature and ready—and until then: Live your life and tend your soul’s garden so the harvest is bountiful.

JJK: This is so beautiful and powerful. Do I understand correctly: Having desires, admitting them, and manifesting them until you naturally lose interest in them…

ARCHANGEL MICHAEL: Exactly, Jahn!

One day, everything falls away on its own! If it doesn’t, wait for maturation. What remains unlived must be lived; what yearns to be experienced must be experienced! There is no shortcut to GOD unless, in a single moment, you are ready to give up EVERYTHING.

What many try to shed through asceticism or self-denial—a form of spiritual torture—is never successful. For nothing, absolutely nothing, happens before its time!

Your daily life is full of events showing you where you truly stand, often not where you’d like to see yourself.

Denying it is futile, negating it is pointless, ignoring it is a waste of time. No matter where you flee, your thoughts always catch up; no matter where you travel, you travel with yourself.

Do you want to live in the light? What prevents you? Yourself or the world around you? The answer to this question determines your level of realization.

Proper Focus

JJK: The world around us is currently, in many ways, not exactly pleasant to behold. War energy keeps resurfacing instead of global peace prevailing. How does the external world influence our inner development?

ARCHANGEL MICHAEL: The external world significantly hinders a light-filled perception when you grant it influence through constant focus on the negative.

Just as you must show yourself authentically in self-reflection, you must also approach the external world. This means giving the highest potential as much chance as the lowest potential of possible futures. The goal is to keep your focus on the light without ignoring the unlight. Wars are only an option if people who wage them are drawn in and fall for propaganda. There is another option—peace—and the more an individual nurtures it, the more realistic it becomes that those planning wars will lack soldiers.

Inner healing work is therefore of paramount importance! Only when a person ceases “waging war” against themselves, against their own spiritual and vital human needs, does the external world change.

Peace begins within you!
Is peace your inner reality? Who are you now? Where do you want to evolve and unfold?

What have you realized, and what is pretense? I ask you: Do you live in peace with yourself and others?

If so, you have graduated; if not, there is work to do—simple, clear, and healing for humanity and the world. War or peace? It all begins within you! That is the answer.

JJK: Self-reflection, shadow work, and consciously using your energy in a light-filled way—it’s a step-by-step process…

ARCHANGEL MICHAEL: Many spiritual aspirants believe living in the light means presenting a smiling face or using servile words, gaining attention with pre-packaged spiritual phrases.

This “parrot mentality” is often original but rarely profound, lacking personal experience.

Those who have walked through their shadows know the light shining within and understand what this transmission speaks of.

It’s not those who say, “I am the light and the love,” who reach desirelessness, but those who have learned to love and live their desires are freed from them.

Beloved human, take a moment for yourself and reflect on your life:

• Are you YOURSELF?
• Are you living YOUR life?
• Do you KNOW your needs and desires?
• Is truthfulness, especially regarding YOURSELF, your best friend?
• Do you WANT to see what is, to become what YOU are?

Affirmation

If you are ready, say:

I, (state your name),
AM READY TO LIVE IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH.
I AM READY TO SEE WHAT IS NOW.
I AM READY TO BECOME WHAT I AM.
THE SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION FOR A LIFE IN THE LIGHT IS BUILT.
I THANK GOD FOR THIS GRACE.

This affirmation uplifts and grounds you simultaneously. Life is lived from the inside out, and the foundation for this is established here.

Do you want light? Live your life!
Do you want love? Live your life!
Do you want peace? Live your life!
Do you want joy? Live your life!
Do you want to reach GOD? Live your life!

What Is My Life?

JJK: “What is my life?” some might ponder now.

ARCHANGEL MICHAEL: The responses you give to daily mirrors—that is your life. Thus, the circle closes. What you are, your life reflects; what you will become lies hidden in the responses you give to those mirrors.

The healing of this message summarized: A human is born, gets lost, and returns to the source. This journey from eternity brings great insights and leads a person through the unconditional acceptance of their human needs and desires. Only when these are lived can they be relinquished.

No one would think to fast while starving. Similarly, it’s unwise to abandon fundamental needs before living and experiencing them. This is part of this game, part of your incarnations, where life by life you become more satiated until one day everything naturally falls away. Then you can no longer stand in God’s way—YOUR needs are HIS needs, and HIS needs are YOUR needs.

When you are one with GOD, everything you are is one with GOD. No separation exists between YOU and HIM.

The only question is: Where are you NOW? Is your spiritual foundation stable, and are the walls strong enough to support the roof?

JJK: Yogananda says: “To find God is a joy that each of you can discover through your own initiative…” What does “through your own initiative” mean?

ARCHANGEL MICHAEL: When joy in things is lost, the longing for GOD arises naturally. Do not rush enlightenment! It comes soon enough. Until then, live and enjoy who you are today, here and now—and if certain traits or habits displease you, address what you dislike and live. It’s simple when you simply do it!

Living in the light or dreaming of a life in the light… What does your soul’s clock show? A human in whom GOD sleeps, or a human in whom GOD has awakened?

In infinite love,
ARCHANGEL MICHAEL

Tags: Spirituality, Live in the Light, Personal Growth, Shadow Work, Spiritual Awakening