Threats To Youth

WED., OCT. 17, 1990, 12:42 PM
SHORELINE PARK, LONG BEACH

I, the Holy Spirit, am fully aware of the threats to human health and life, including the threats to the youth of your country. You have heard much about these threats this morning, and now you are here in the hazy sunshine, wondering what I shall say. I do have comments, and it is good that you are here, even if the writing position is not ideal.

I shall not say that all of the views that you express about alcohol, other drug use, STD’s, and HIV infection are exactly Mine. But I shall admit that I have influenced you over these years, so that what you feel and say do reflect My influences.

Ultimate reality is spirit, but you and over 5 billion other spirits are incarnated into physical bodies here, inhabiting a physical, tangible earth. This is a special realm of spiritual challenge (the theme of My Teaching last Monday), where spirit can grow or can regress. There are dangers. There are threats. These differ in cultures, and in the same culture at different times. You have driven a good deal in the day you have been here. Automobiles are a threat to life and health, but your culture loves them and is ready to fight a war to maintain them as part of your way of life.

You are quite aware that alcohol as part of social beverages is a threat of some importance. It takes time and experience to become a responsible drinker, so young people tend to have more trouble with drunkenness than do their elders… except for those who cannot or will not accede to responsibility. A portion of your adult population are alcoholic, and their behaviors and their modeling are part of the threats that youth must face.

As I have told you many times, My main concern is the lack of a spiritual dimension in any human’s life rather than with any specific behavior. Thus I do not condemn drinking except as it represents lack of spiritual concern or when and where it interferes with spiritual growth. Some other drugs, such as cocaine and its derivative crack, have such a powerful effect on people that it is difficult for them to have concerns for others and even for their own continued well-being. These substances and these behaviors, which deny the spiritual realities, are ones I do condemn.

And yet in a final sense I am responsible for them. They are threats the come out of My creation, and humans must learn to adapt to them. All shall not succeed, and yet failure in the earth is not the end. Some who die early in life as a result of drug abuse (their own or others) may find another realm in which spirit may develop more readily. Devise any genuine human contest and you will find some who excel, some who will still compete (even without much success), and others who cannot or will not try to succeed. It is much like this in the realm of spirit.

I have offered you several Teachings relating to HIV infection and the development of AIDS. It, too, is a threat to life and health, and it shall increasingly affect youth. Where youth put no great value on life, and particularly when they do not know or have rejected Me, death from AIDS does not seem like much of a threat. For those youngsters who come to feel immediate pleasure from injecting drugs with a communal needle and for those who feel some strong need for promiscuous sexual acts of intercourse AIDS is a present threat. The desire or a healthy, long life must be stronger than these other pleasures, or there must be a sense of relationship with Me that makes risky behaviors of this nature less appealing.

Some shall take their chances and live to become more careful. Others shall die in ways that cause friends and acquaintances to change their lifestyles. And, yes, this is a part of the need to halt the growth of the human population. You may continue to say this, for I want this earth to remain a marvelous realm for spiritual growth. Some hardship is valuable, but I do not want horrendous tragedies. I am not causing these threats, but I am allowing them to work in natural ways. I welcome all who turn to Me in their misery and escape what is the fate of those who don’t.