Ascended Master Lord Maitreya through Kim Michaels.
The quintessential problem with religion on planet Earth can be summarized very simply. Most people have an inner knowing – a knowing that transcends all outer teachings or scriptures – that God is ultimately and wholly good. Because of this knowing, people expect that a religion and its leaders – who claim to represent God on Earth – are sincerely striving to be ultimately and wholly good. So when they see behavior from religious leaders that is not good, people often lose their faith in religion. And if they do not differentiate between religion and God, they can also lose all faith in God. This has happened to billions of people over the course of history, and it is happening at an ever-increasing pace in modern society.
Destroying a person’s relationship with God is the greatest crime that can be committed in this and any other world. Yet I think we have now set the foundation, whereby we can shatter your illusion that religion is ultimately and wholly good without shattering your personal relationship with God—who is ultimately and wholly beyond any religion on Earth.
If you take a look at history and consider how human beings have been treating each other, you will see that one of the central questions raised by the human experience is man’s inhumanity to man. Why do people treat each other the way they do? Why do people do harmful things, why do they keep doing them over and over again, and why can’t they see what they are doing? Such questions often lead to another question, namely why God allows all this to happen. Why doesn’t God simply remove evil from this planet?
We can now see that these questions actually have reasonable and logical answers. The central realization that can open your mind to these answers is the very fact that the Earth was not designed to be a paradise. It was designed to be a mixed environment that gives home to a variety of lifestreams in different states of consciousness. The most important consequence of this fact is that there are lifestreams on Earth who are completely identified with the fallen consciousness, the consciousness of duality. Yet the vast majority of the people on Earth have been influenced by this state of consciousness, and it has affected every aspect of human existence.
When I say that the fallen consciousness has affected every aspect of human existence, I am not exaggerating. And the consequence is that religion has also been affected by the fallen consciousness and the beings who are choosing to embody it. This one realization – when you understand all of its ramifications – has the power to set you free from all religious thralldom. You can then claim your spiritual freedom, a freedom that religion often limits rather than expands. So let us take a look at precisely how religion has become a tool for reinforcing the fallen consciousness and its influence over humanity.
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Based on my long experience as a spiritual teacher, I find it necessary to say that the truth I am about to reveal will often be met with fierce resistance from people on Earth. And ironically, it is usually met with the fiercest resistance from the kind of people one would think would be most open to the reality of God, namely the most spiritual and religious people. Those who are most concerned about religion and spirituality are often very reluctant to acknowledge a fundamental problem with religion in general and with their religion in particular. It is, consequently, important for us to discus why this is so.
The underlying cause is, as I stated above, that all spiritually aware people have an inner knowing that God is ultimately and wholly good. Thus, they feel that even though there is evil in this world, God will ultimately win and the movie about Earth will have a happy ending. These people are truly optimistic and they hold a positive vision for Earth and the future of humankind. Thus, they feel that even though there is much evil in human affairs, there must be some aspect of life where evil cannot get a foothold. There must be something on Earth that is sacred, that is above being corrupted by evil—and they would like that sanctuary to be religion, especially their own religion.
Spiritual people often feel that if there is nothing sacred on Earth, then how can they maintain the hope that good will ultimately win? And if they cannot maintain that hope, then how can they continue living on a planet with so much imperfection? It is as if they know life could and should be so much more than what they see around them, and this puts a constant burden on their hearts. They can endure that burden only because they have the hope that ultimately things will turn out for the best, and thus their sacrifice of being in this environment will not have been for naught. They simply cannot bear the thought that there is nothing sacred, that there is no aspect of human affairs where evil cannot triumph. And therefore, they often will not look at how evil influences religion.
I must tell you that even though I have maintained a neutral tone throughout this book, I very much feel the pain and anguish of the many spiritual and religious people who feel the way I have just described. I understand the dilemma that tortures their souls. Yet I must also tell you that it is precisely people’s unwillingness to take a critical look at religion that continues to give evil a foothold in religious movements.
Thus, it is my duty to tell you that unless the top ten percent of the most spiritually aware people on Earth will open their minds to reality, religion will not fulfill its potential on this planet. Allow me to show you that your basic expectation is true – namely that good will win out in the end – but that you have an incomplete understanding of how this will come about. And once you attain the complete understanding, you will be able to acknowledge the truth about religion without losing your hope that the Earth will rise above all evil. In fact, only if religion is set free from the influence of duality is there a realistic hope that this planet will rise above evil.
NOTE: The rest of this dictation is available in the book Master Keys to Spiritual Freedom.
Copyright © 2007 Kim Michaels.