Ascended Master Jesus through Kim Michaels.

The most dangerous effect of the epic struggle is that it serves as the perfect “machine” for allowing the ego to justify doing what it wants to do—namely raise itself up by putting others down. Seeing this should not require much thought. Just look at how the sense of an epic struggle makes it justifiable to do virtually anything to “save the universe from destruction.” When you add to that the sense of urgency, you will see how people can be made to do things that they know are wrong while being absolutely convinced that they are necessary in order to bring about a greater good or avoid a greater evil.

The most dangerous effect of the epic struggle is that it leads to the consciousness that “the ends can justify the means.” This is the very consciousness that is responsible for the vast majority of atrocities seen in known history and beyond. When the “end” is believed to be serious enough, it follows that any means that are believed to be necessary for achieving that end are automatically justifiable. Normal moral or ethical concerns simply do not apply. What is actually happening in this process?

Although most people are blinded by the duality consciousness, most are not so blinded that they have lost all sense of a greater reality. The Conscious You can never totally forget its origin, and it cannot completely lose an innate sense that doing certain things is not in your own best interest. The only way your ego can get you to do something that your Conscious You knows is non-constructive is to find a way to neutralize your inner sense of reality.

The primary tool for doing this is, of course, the epic struggle. There is a power elite of fallen beings who are seeking to control planet earth and its inhabitants. These beings have – as a result of their own choices – cut themselves off from being able to receive light directly from the spiritual realm. Their continued existence is dependent upon stealing light from beings who have not yet lost that connection. This can be done only by getting people to misqualify the pure spiritual energy they receive from above, which is best done by tricking people into engaging in any self-centered activity.

In order to achieve this, these forces of anti-christ – what I called the “prince of this world” – have created elaborate schemes that build on the epic struggle. For examples of this, take a look at history and see how many schemes have been used to override the most basic sense of right and wrong, namely the inner knowing that it is wrong to kill another human being.

This is truly the most basic of all moral imperatives, for the Conscious You knows that it has no right to take the life of another human being—it has no right to so drastically violate the free will of another being. I realize most people will immediately seek to qualify this by referring to self-defense, but the self that is defended by killing another human being is the separate self, and the act of defending it only reinforces the sense of separation. Because this is a crucial point, let us take a closer look.

Understanding the command “Thou shallt not kill”

When you look at history, it is clear that the members of the three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have engaged in conflicts that killed millions of people. The people doing this killing were deeply religious people who honored the Old Testament, the center of which is the Ten Commandments, one of which states: “Thou shallt not kill.”

This commandment is but an outer reminder of the innate sense that you have no right to kill another human being. How can the members of these religions be made to override both the inner command of their own beings and the outer command of their religion?

When you look at the text of the Ten Commandments, you will see that it is unconditional. The commandments do not specify any conditions under which it becomes acceptable to kill. I know that you can quickly point to other passages in the Old Testament in which God supposedly commands the Israelites to kill other people, but there is a contrast between the unconditional nature of the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Old Testament. What is happening here?

The entire story of the Israelites being imprisoned by Pharaoh is a metaphor for the enslavement of the spiritual people of earth by the elite of fallen beings trapped in the consciousness of anti-christ. “Egypt” is a symbol for the duality consciousness, as opposed to “Israel” – Is real – which symbolizes the state of oneness with your source.

The escape from Egypt is a symbol for a cycle in earth’s history where greater numbers of people started to question their overlords. We of the ascended masters were allowed to send various teachers to represent the Christ consciousness and lead people out of the duality of “Egypt” and toward the promised land of oneness.

Moses ascending the mountain represents that such a leader goes to get a new covenant that can guide the people in their newfound freedom. The withdrawal of the teacher was also a test to see whether the people would rise to use their inner discernment or would simply look for another overlord to tell them what to do. The people cannot be free from a tyrant until they are willing to take responsibility for themselves. Moses did originally get a higher covenant, but when he returned and saw that in his absence the people had sunk right back into the duality consciousness instead of rising to the occasion, he smashed it in anger (which was a mistake on his part that cost him his ascension in that lifetime).

Moses had to go back and get a covenant adapted to the lower consciousness of a particular group of people, meaning that the original covenant was withheld for a time. That is why the Ten Commandments are such direct statements of “do this” and “don’t do that,” instead of a higher teaching.

As a side note, the original covenant was then given by me in my embodiment as Jesus. You will see the seeds of non-duality between the lines of my teaching, as I have explained throughout my books and website. You will also see that I had to pass the test of not reacting with anger no matter how the people responded to my ministry. I had to pass the ultimate test of letting them humiliate and kill me without responding with anger. In doing so, I cemented the new covenant and made it a permanent part of the collective consciousness. Since then, people have had a greater opportunity to embody the Christ consciousness on earth—an opportunity that was – in practicality, not in theory – out of reach before.

The new covenant – the Christ covenant – is one of the people using their innate ability – the key of knowledge – to discern between what is God’s reality and what is an unreality created by the duality consciousness. The most important effect of this is that people use their discernment to see through the many subtle disguises of the epic struggle and the consciousness that the ends can justify the means.

The conclusion being, of course, that the ends can never justify the means. This can be understood only when you know the reality of which kind of “end” God is looking for. As I have explained, the goal of God is to raise up all life. This cannot be achieved by using means that put down – or kill – one part of life while raising up another. Killing is never justified in the greater cause of raising up the All, which is precisely why I told people not to resist evil but to turn the other cheek. Turning the other cheek is the only way to avoid being pulled into the dualistic struggle.

The ego and the false teachers of anti-christ have come up with myriad schemes for overriding the Conscious You’s inner sense of reality. They seek to get you to ignore, override or analyze away your inner knowing so you fall prey to the belief that in this particular case it is justifiable to do what you know to be unacceptable.

Letting something in this world override your inner sense of reality is never justified and will never contribute to God’s cause of raising up the All. For true students of Christ, this entire consciousness must be unmasked and abandoned, which means you must begin by looking for this beam in your own eye.

NOTE: The rest of this dictation is available in the book Freedom from Ego Dramas.