HEAVEN ARCHIVES

Hello. Such good questions! Will God answer them? Here are a few of my thoughts:

Is it presumptuous to let God speak through you? (That is different than speaking for God.) I rather think it is humble, actually, and courageous. There is a long tradition of prophets through whom God spoke, often to their own great discomfiture (to put it mildly). You can tell your story, Gloria, of how you came to be writing these letters, and explain the organization and the workshops clearly enough. Many others have felt God speaking to them, and more than one have written down what they heard.

I am in the process now of re-reading A Course in Miracles, and am thinking about the relationship between it and Heavenletters. The purported source of A Course in Miracles is Christ, so there is a somewhat different slant, however the "identity" or "character" or "personality" (what word to use?) of God they reveal seems to be very much the same.

I like Heaven's language better. There are more plays on words, and it often seems lighter, more playful and creative. The use of imagery (metaphors, similes) is delightful, and helps the Heaven messages seem less abstract and philosophical.

I don't know really what channeled means exactly. St. Francis' famous prayer starts out: "Make me a channel of your peace."

I, too, want to be a channel for the Spirit of God to be present in the world. Lots of religious and spiritual people do. Does the usual understanding of channeling involve going into a trance? I'll be interested to see what comments come forth in connection to these questions.

And now another paragraph for the questions that I really think more about:

What is supposed to happen when we read the messages? Sometimes I feel so frustrated that I can "understand" (intellectually) the words but not "be" the attitude they describe; other times I feel uplifted by something in the letters, and I like to let my thoughts return to that idea over time. I don't know how we change our thinking by more thinking even if it is different thinking. So I agree when the reader says it doesn't seem easy to apply God's advice.

And with him, I question whether God is really trying to get us to follow God's advice. Giving people advice is not usually conducive to their changing their attitudes or behaviors. The old self seems so strong and persistent; it is highly anxious at times; it seems more persistent under perceived threat of another way of thinking about things. I realize that it is probably the old self that makes me feel so bad when I read something so good, but that doesn't mean it doesn't keep happening.

I don't understand why "the light" dawns on some people and not on others; I don't understand the timing of anything.

I am thinking as I write and I am grateful for the opportunity to exchange thoughts with you and the Heaven News audience.

I recognized, as I was writing this to you, that there has been a predecessor to the frustration I sometimes feel when reading God's messages: I have learned techniques that were supposed to enlighten me, and I felt nothing. I can cry even now remembering my disappointment! And I cried a lot then. Interesting, and healing, I hope, to have this come up now. Talk about expectations! Some systems/techniques really build on our expectations and I have always had such high expectations, such intense longings.

One of the most helpful Heavenletters for me so far has been the one (#436, Where Is God?) in which God said, "Give up your preconceptions of Me, I am ordinary, I am always with You." This focus is more helpful for me than thinking about "radiating light" or how wonderful I "really" am, how God and I and everything else are One.

The other most helpful letter has been the one (#440, Be More Content) that says life doesn't have to be something you like; look at it like a book, just keep reading and turning to the next page.

To give up expectations, just pay attention to what IS; that is right now all I know to do. Who was it who said, "Enlightenment is easy for those without any expectations"?

I read these two Heavenletters over often. I try to just pay attention NOW to whatever IS.

Gloria, I think it is wonderful that what IS for you NOW is the receiving of these messages and the sharing of them! And a special thank you for sharing the comments made by recipients as you did in this last newsletter.

Seeker in Iowa

Dear God, what in this beautiful letter from Seeker in Iowa would You like to respond to?

I would like to respond to the writer's heart, for her heart needs much healing. I do not single this beautiful heart out; all of My children's hearts require much healing.

As to what is supposed to be happening when you read Heavenletters, let Me enter your consciousness for even those few moments when your eyes glance over My pages. As much as you are able, read Me with your heart and not your intellect. Leave your intellect, like shoes, at the door.

I can never be grasped by the intellect. My children have a habit of intellect.

It is enough that you seek Me out and settle down for a few moments into the love and wisdom I send you. I pour out My heart for you. It falls to you in a stream. Perhaps you get all of it and are immersed in My love, and then, to your dismay, you get dried out. Perhaps you only get splashed. But all of you get at least a splatter. All you need is a splatter of awareness. A little daily splatter.

You are like a cake in the oven. I touch you with My finger, not to test if you are done yet, but to let you know I am here and thinking of you.

Meanwhile, you cry out: "Am I done yet? When am I going to be done?" And you writhe in an agony of anticipation and concept of failure because you are not done yet. You don't want to stay in the oven. You are impatient.

I do not usually give you assignments. Think of what I say, not as advice, but as Truth.

You have heard many times and continue to see evidence that you and all the other Human beings on earth are of some low caste and are not really worth much. Perhaps no more than a bug on its way to be swatted. Or just a blip on a monitor, a passing blip that endures but is ever the same monotonous blip, only a blip and never more than a blip, a blip forever blipping a horizontal line across a screen that knows only blip-blip.

So, once in a while, you hear that you are more than a blip. You hear that you are even golden light, and that you are My golden light dispersed on earth. I know you don't believe it. I know you cannot conceive it. But you can hear it. You need to hear something to counteract all the low-line stuff you hear. And some of what I say will get in and be recorded within you. Little by little some of what I say becomes your thought.

What if you had grown up hearing Me whisper Heavenletters in your ear every day? What if what I say were all you had ever heard? What if the murmured negativity around you was the foreign language? What if your thinking could reverse itself?

Consider Me in Heavenletters a taste you get every day. Consider Me one spoonful of a sweet dessert. Consider Me whipped cream that you lick your lips over. You bring the spoon to your lips and you imbibe Heavenletters like whipped cream.

When you taste sweet cream in ordinary life, you are not overwhelmingly disappointed that you can't run to the mirror and see the results of it in your face or in your life.

Read My sweet words and surrender to them.

Surrender your control of what should be made of them. They will digest within you in their own way. Let Me work My Will within you. Remember, My Will, not thine. It is enough that you move towards Me. You hear My Voice. I am glad. Be gladdened too that, in reading a Heavenletter, you give Me a moment of you. You do not have to look for more with a magnifying glass. You have that moment with Me.

No one is enlightened in a moment, although it may appear so. The lit spark may be noticed at a particular moment, but the spark was lit long ago. Enlightenment and the recognition of enlightenment are not parallel.

But you are not here with Me to look for a result. You are not here to see what you can do or what I can do.

You are here to serve Me however you serve Me. It is enough that you come to My fountain to drink. You do not need a certificate of guarantee with it. You are not here for a reward. You do not come to Me to receive. You come to Me to give. And you cannot fail Me. And you do not disappoint Me. I understand that you disappoint yourself, but disappointment is not innocent.

When I tell you to be like Me, that is not an instruction. Being like Me is not a performance that you must give. It is not something you run off and do. I am not asking you to change yourself. I ask you to accept yourself. I ask you to accept that what I say MAY be true, and MAY be possible for you. I ask you to let in a little light, that's all.

Is it possible that you can listen to Me more than you listen to the riffraff of your thoughts and the world's thought? Your attention to Me is your homage. Tune into Me a little. That is all I ask of you. And all that I can promise you is Myself. I promise you Myself.