Here is what I’d like to say in the most blatant way I know how to say it. And it goes like this: I would like to speak to that part of you that never dies. That part of us all is present now and always.

What happens when we become conscious of that and we respond to life, knowing it? When we come from that part of ourselves that never dies, will never die, and has never died? In some traditions, that’s called the soul. In the context of Emissaries of Divine Light, we speak of that dimension of who we are as the angel, the angel who incarnates in the flesh, who comes and goes, but who is eternal.

We can have a conversation together from that perspective, from the perspective of the part of us that never dies. We might consider the part of us that does, and what we are going to do with it. There’s a conversation around how to take care of that part of us that has a life cycle. I suppose there’s a conversation about how we can postpone the inevitable as long as possible. But that’s really not the conversation I’m looking to have right now.

The conversation I’m looking to have as that part of us who never dies is about this: What do we do with that human capacity that gets up to whatever it gets up to? That’s a conversation that can go someplace. It goes to a place that is different from the conversation that originates and is bound by the human part of us that is temporal. A conversation that begins and ends with the temporal tends to go down the tubes.

There’s no answer to that conversation. There’s no resolution to it. There’s no solution to the human experience from the perspective of that part of us that is temporal. When the conversation begins and ends with that part of us that never dies, then that part of us brings the wisdom of the cosmos to the human experience. It brings the power of love to the human experience. And then there’s an answer.

Then our human experience has a God encounter—an encounter with the angel. And how does that happen? As we bump into an angel someplace? No. It happens when we know ourselves as that.

There are many dimensions to who we are—mother, father, sister, brother, clerk, swimmer, skier, American, Canadian, or whatever. But all the dimensions of who we are have the opportunity of a God encounter.

Maybe at first it seems like that is an encounter with something outside ourselves. But a God encounter occurs when the aspect of the Creator that we are looks at the human experience from that perspective. Then there’s a right beginning for what happens in the human experience, and there can be a creative fulfillment.

If you begin with love, there can be the fulfillment of love in your life as a human being. There can be a radiation of love, and the knowing of it with other people. The vibration of love can fill the air.

I spoke with a woman who has a network of string instrumentalists who give music education for young people. She was visiting Sunrise Ranch and we were exploring the possibility that she could offer her program here. Her program is very successful and she has colleges begging her to bring her program to their college.

Why is she successful? She said it’s all about the bubble. She couldn’t tell me how she does it. But she creates a bubble for the young people to be in; and in that bubble, something happens that can’t happen outside it.

That’s what happens when the human experience has a God encounter. There begins to be the bubble of love encircling the human experience. And within that bubble of love, miracles happen. Without a God encounter, there is no bubble of love and there is no fulfillment of the human experience. No matter how hard a person tries, if life doesn’t begin with a God encounter—a love encounter, a cosmic encounter—the world doesn’t go to a happy place.

When a few of us are having a conversation from the perspective of that part of us that doesn’t die, then we are bringing the God encounter to the world. This is what we have been about as Emissaries of Divine Light since 1932, the year when we were born into the world as a network of people.

There is the story of Gideon in the Old Testament of the Bible. He was confronting human sacrifice in his day. And so, he was attacked. A vast army against him, like grasshoppers too numerous to count. Gideon winnowed down his army to three hundred men. By night, they surrounded the camp of this vast army with lamps inside pitchers. When Gideon blew his trumpet, others of his team blew theirs. And they broke the pitchers so that the lamps would show.

The invading army assumed that every lamp was an Israelite army. And so they fled.

That is a portrayal of Emissaries of Divine Light. There are many who are touched by this ministry. Many contribute in various ways. But ultimately, there are only a few who have a conscious conversation from the perspective of that part of us that never dies. These are the lamps shown to the world. This is what blows the trumpets of today. And this is what brings a God encounter to the world.

All that we do relies on a few people who are conscious that who they are at their core is someone who does not die. I’m not talking about a fantasy or fairy tale. I’m talking about ceasing to identify with the human drama, knowing that the reality of oneself participates in what we speak of as the Creator or God.

God to me is a very general way of naming Divine Presence. The highest parts of each of us participate in that. Coming from that place, we have authority in our own human experience. Makes sense, doesn’t it? That the source reality of love and life, the truth that created this human being, should have authority over the experience of this human being?

If you think about the word authority, it goes back to the word author. We have authority when we know ourselves as the author of this experience. The author is coming into the world that the author has created; first of all, into our own human experience.

Do you have authority in your own life? Is there some kind of heavenly order?

As I began with, I’d like to have a conversation among us from the perspective of that part of us that never dies. Because it is that part of us that has authority in our experience if we let it—if we show up as that. We have the authority of love. We have the authority of truth. We have authority in our human experience so that it can line up with the expression and embodiment of who we are.

That’s why our flesh is here—to reveal and embody the love that we are. And you’ve probably noticed that if your human capacity is not doing that, it’s getting up to other things that it shouldn’t be getting up to.

As we have authority in our own human experience, we have value to bring to our world. Do you think there is a need for the authority of love in the world in which we live? Absolutely.

All kinds of authority are asserted in this world. We have autocratic governments and politicians, and all kinds of other autocracies, large and small. There are little fiefdoms that people create without love, where they live in their unhappiness and let their unhappiness rule the world. And then there are bigger fiefdoms that keep the world unhappy. That’s clear enough.

We’re here to blow the horn, to shine a lantern for the world, to speak to the truth of who we are and why we’re here and what’s possible to us as humankind.

Here is a poem from David Barnes, entitled “Gratitude for the Way of Oneness.”

now each day
i hear that thunderous voice
speak clearly
and show the way of oneness

and when i look at you
i see my own reflected brightness
streaming from your eyes
radiant face of me shines back from you

oneness is the given gift
oneness is the blessing received
in thanksgiving to the creator
of every dawning day

These words are the lyrics from a choral piece entitled “One Shall We Worship.” It was written by Hugh Malafry to a Russian hymn tune. Perhaps you could join me in letting these words reverberate with love, bringing a God encounter to the world.

One shall we worship only, God of creation.
One shall we worship only, God of creation; holy art Thou.
Love, thou almighty King, we bow before Thee; holy art Thou.
Awake our heart in love to Thee we bring; holy art Thou.
Our life in blessing lived, Thy light our way.
One shall we worship; holy art Thou.
Eastward in Eden dawning, Thy peaceful day; holy art Thou.

One shall we worship. As the part of us that is eternal, this is simply who we are and what we do. We know oneness. This knowledge proclaimed becomes a call to that dimension of humankind that is in need of a God encounter.

One shall we worship! Love only. Never fear. Never reaction. Never a human autocrat, even the autocrat of our own mind and heart. One shall we worship, God of creation. Holy art Thou.