It could seem that simply becoming spiritually conscious is ineffective or of little consequence. When we think of what is happening right now in Israel and Gaza, or in the Ukraine, we might think that the awareness of these places by spiritually conscious people is insignificant. A friend in Holland, Monique Van de Raapkamp, lost a colleague and his family in the Malaysian airliner shot down over the Ukraine. Her view was that in the face of spiraling violence, a person has the opportunity to bring love into the world immediately around them. If you were in a place with a high level of turmoil, wouldn’t it matter to you if people around the world were aware of you in a loving way?

Imagine what the world would be like if all of humanity became spiritually conscious and aware. The implication is that people would be honest and unafraid to see what was actually going on in the world around them. Each person would be aware of their own presence personally, aware of their oneness with all others, and aware of the collective purpose for humankind. They would be bringing the Light of Truth and the Fire of Love. It is easy to imagine that, almost instantaneously, the evolution of the planet would begin to move in a very different direction, just because of conscious spiritual awareness.

Now imagine that half the people in the world became totally spiritually conscious. That would be interesting! There would probably be some tension between that half and the half that were still somnolent. But still, you can imagine that the world would begin to shift and change under the influence of awake people.

In your own mind, you can reduce the fraction of awake people to a quarter and then to an eighth of the total world population. And then to two percent, one percent. One percent of the world population would be 72 million people.

I wonder what it would take in terms of percentage to alter the destiny of Planet Earth. And if it was a low percentage and you were part of it, what would it take for you to stay conscious and to allow the forces of consciousness to prevail over spiritual slumber? Do you think that for you, being one of those who are awakening and becoming conscious, there would be some work to do to address the darkness? To learn not to fall prey to it or to react to it; not to give up your crown of spiritually awake consciousness? You would have to do more than face the ignorance and dysfunction in the world around you, because every time you did, your own ignorance and dysfunction would be tested.

It is powerfully simple to be awake and to stay awake. Yet anyone who has undertaken it knows that it is not a static thing. It takes time for spiritual awareness to penetrate all of one’s consciousness at every level and to reshape and re-pattern all of what is in us subconsciously. That process brings life to every level of your being. Beyond that, there is not only a reshaping and re-patterning of consciousness that transpires for an awake person. There is also the natural cycle of growth and development that, according to some, doesn’t complete until age 70 at the earliest.

So there is a process, once you awaken, to stay awake and to let the power of consciousness sink in and develop your capacities, so that you have a full, rich and strong ability to overwhelm the forces of ignorance. I don’t mean to paint this as a big battle in the usual sense. But we live in a world where many are spiritually asleep, and some portion of that slumbering world is taking advantage of the fact by exploiting other slumbering people. They are manipulating them for their own benefit and for their own unenlightened vision of how the world should be controlled. With that dynamic, it takes a lot from a spiritually awake person to stay awake so that they can fully realize their calling to be on earth; so that they can fulfill their commission of being a spiritually awake person with all others who are spiritually awake, and shift the world pattern.

We are certainly not waiting for people who have gone through the whole seventy years of personal development, or who have become totally enlightened at every level. I think if we waited for that we would be waiting a long time. All we need for ourselves and all we need in a body of people are those who see what is happening and have awoken to the calling to be spiritually awake and have committed themselves as a spiritual warrior to stay awake through everything, no matter what, and to allow their own awake state to penetrate every level of their being and not to give in. Not to acquiesce at any step along the way in the face of ignorance and dysfunction, wherever it appears—in oneself or in the world. A spiritual warrior does not acquiesce to what is around them and, far more importantly, they do not acquiesce to the patterns within them. At no point do they give in to their own slumber at any level, their own pattern of living an unconscious life that they have inherited from the many generations who have gone before us. At every stage of life, they take advantage of the opportunity to re-pattern the human experience in the most creative way.

That certainly takes someone who has awoken consciously, even if that awakening hasn’t penetrated all through their being. But beyond that, it takes someone who is totally committed to their own awakening. Because if you are not a spiritual warrior you don’t have a chance. You will acquiesce. You will give in. You will face an issue and that asleep state in yourself will win and you will lose.

Today, there are spiritually awake people around the world. People who are spiritual warriors—some known and many unknown to us. I cannot tell you what the number is, nor the percentage of the world population. But here is what I do know. The future of Planet Earth depends on these people. It depends on them as spiritual warriors who face their own ignorance and the ignorance of the world. And who then bring the Fire of Love and the Light of Truth to it, for their own healing and flourishing as a human being, and for the healing and flourishing of the world. If you are one of these people, I honor your awakening. Thank you for being a spiritual warrior. You are changing our future.