In stillness, all things can be known

So our relationship with Knowledge is based on what we can do together. Your relationship with God is based on what you can do together. God gives you authority over your affairs, yet God has authority over your direction. So the authority is shared, you see, at different levels. And this is very confusing for people because they think either they have to take charge of everything or they just give up all authority and let God guide them. And that’s not going to work. God doesn’t want to guide your life. God wants you in the driver’s seat. But God will be in the backseat whispering in your ear when you need a little direction or need to stop or turn or accelerate or slow down or maybe go get some fuel for your tank.

So we’re in a dynamic now that is not just our personal dynamic. We’re actually beginning to work in a relationship with a Higher Authority. And we can’t give our power over the High Authority. But we also can’t claim the power of the High Authority because we each have our own domains of responsibility.

So you are responsible for your thoughts and your actions and the consequences of your actions. But who you are and what sent you into the world and what you’re here to do, that’s part of something bigger. And so for this, you must learn to follow and have confidence that the journey has many steps, and certainly day to day, you won’t really understand the journey. Sometimes you’ll gain a vision of it or have a sight of it, and then you lose sight of it. It’s like the distant mountain out there and you see it at certain high points. And then of course, you descend into the forest and you don’t see it anymore. And you journey a long time in that forest through valleys and over small hills and you don’t see the mountain and then all of a sudden, there it is again a little bit closer.

So you take the steps. And the steps are really important because the journey is what shapes and refines you. It’s almost like everything that isn’t you begins to fall away; either consciously you give it up or it just leaves you. And that sense of things leaving you is, I think, very important. But day to day, you know, we can’t put it all together and have it all make sense because we’re now working in concert with Higher Powers, and we only can see parts of it that are our parts, and not necessarily the bigger parts.

And sometimes you feel very strongly about where you’re going in life and sometimes you’re really confused. But you’re still going. So the New Message says if you keep taking the Steps, you get up the mountain. If you stop and try to control or understand, then you don’t make progress because you’re only going to see certain things in climbing a mountain that’s going to give you the panorama. In fact, you have to get pretty far up the mountain to really see the panorama, still down in the trees, still down in the forest. So there are days to take control; there are days to relinquish control, depending on what you’re focusing on. Certainly your personal daily affairs, that’s your responsibility. God is not going to manage your life or tell you what to buy at the store.

But the things that really matter in terms of your real destiny and who you choose to be with, the big decisions you make, that’s something that engages a Higher Power because that will affect your destiny. And the things that really will affect your destiny, that’s something you really have to call for help: “Please show me what I need to know about this situation.”

Now, some people want to know the next step, but you know, your next step may be six months away because your next step has to do with other people’s next step. It’s part of a Greater Coordination. This is why you can’t see the big picture because it’s no longer just you anymore. It’s you in a Greater Coordination. And you’re being prepared to be in that Coordination part of that because that’s your destiny. Your destiny isn’t here just to be fulfilled as an individual. What does that mean?

So there’s some days are diamonds and some days are stones. It’s actually a song with that title. So you keep moving forward and you remember: “My Teachers are with me. I must keep going forward.” And you will see things you have to give away and certain things will fall away and certain things you need to take on. And that way, you build that which must be built and you relinquish that that must be relinquished. It sounds simple but day-to-day it takes real confidence. You have to talk to yourself kind of the way that Steps talks to you; after a while you have to start talking to yourself like that.

The only way you can fail this is to quit. And even if you quit, at a certain point you can’t quit because at a certain point freedom is no choice. That’s mysterious. But someday it will make perfect sense to you.

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There’s a writer named James Howard Kunstler who had an interesting idea that really stuck with me. And that’s the psychology of previous investment, which is whether you know it or not, whether you have set a direction for yourself or it has been set for you by others or by circumstances, but you have a certain direction. And say that direction is going here, but where you really need to go is over here. So when you start to go through that turning point, it gets very confusing because you thought you were going over here, but now you’re really not going over there. So there’s loss and apprehension, self-doubt. And you really don’t know where you’re going yet because you really haven’t turned the corner enough to see what that direction might be. And it’s a big corner.

And part of the problem of psychology of previous investment is where your mind is wired up to do what you do, where you’re going, whatever direction you are in and have been in for some time, and something now is changing your course from the inside out—naturally. But it creates a lot of confusion. And you go through a period of prolonged confusion about what you’re doing. And there’s a sense of loss, apprehension, uncertainty; self-trust issues come up. Your own lack of confidence in yourself certainly arises, becomes an obstacle. But you are in essence in the process of turning a corner.

And it’s a big corner. It’s not like you turn it in a day or a week or a month or a year. You’re turning incrementally because your life is like a ship that’s been going in one direction for a long time and you’re going to turn that ship to go in a different direction. And you’re being propelled both by Higher Powers and by Knowledge within to make this turn. But you have to make the decisions on a daily basis to keep turning because you’re in the driver’s seat. And God wants you in the driver’s seat.

So I just want to share this perspective because I’m hearing many of you and it’s…I can really relate to this sense of “I’m not going where I used to be going, but I’m not sure where I’m going now.” And that really, I think, reflects this great turning point that I’m talking about. The New Message has some teachings on the turning point, including a teaching called The Turning Point, which would be really helpful to read.

But it’s a big transition. And it’s kind of a reshuffling of your whole deck of: Who am I and what do I think and what should I follow within myself? What are my real values? What are my…what are the values I’ve just picked up from society? What’s the real me? What’s not the real me? All these things have to go through a process of gradual re-evaluation as you make this turn. It’s not your plan. It’s a plan that was put within you at a certain point that you would have to take and you’re you’re in that process, probably.

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For me this is the center of the wheel right here in terms of preparation. Do you know that this teaching is, well, far older than human civilization? It’s actually far older than humanity. It’s been in the Greater Community for eons, given to individuals, mostly, through a process of initiation, but given to our world in a very rare situation, made available to people everywhere—which rarely happens in the universe—because of the urgency of our times, because of our emergence into the Greater Community of worlds in the universe and the hazards and opportunities of that.

So what is in this book is really ancient. The words are chosen for the human mind and within the English language. And it’s now being translated in many languages, of course, thanks to many of you. But it is the center of the wheel. It’s not how much we understand; it’s who will take the journey. It’s not how refined our thoughts become; it’s who will take the journey of really being recreated as we were really meant to be and as we truly are.

So Steps is a vehicle for that, something we could not achieve on our own. We just can’t remake ourselves like that. It takes a Greater Power and a Greater Force to do that. We can be changed by life, but often not in good ways. We can be damaged by life, but we really can’t be transformed by life, not on the mundane level. It’s a good thing.

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The big thing that needs to happen for you may be 150 steps down the road of your life. And from where you stand, you can’t see it. All you can feel is the pull to go in that direction. So after a while, the pull becomes enough. You don’t need the understanding. You don’t need the validation. You don’t need to have a reason. Because you’re just becoming stronger with the force of Knowledge because Knowledge is primarily a force, a gravitational force, and sometimes different than our emotions, different than our passions, different than our compulsions. It’s trying to take us somewhere in terms of not just self-realization, but where we need to be in life.

So I had to go to a very…to a place I never expected to ever go to receive this book because that’s where it had to be received. Yeah, it’s only after and consequently following that, I began to understand why that was the case. But if you’re going to engage with the Higher Power, it’s just going to be mysterious. And you will know things profoundly within your domain. But beyond that, you can only take the Steps.

Who will follow the mystery, the invisible light? Who has the courage and self-confidence to do that? Who has the honesty to do that? So I pray you will do that, and you’re doing that already and continue to do that. You’ll hit that point where something big will happen, but you have to get to that point. And it’s not just something in your mind. It’s a place, a situation, maybe even a location.