When Spirit Soars

MON., OCT. 23, 1989, 7:23 AM
OXFORD HOUSE, CHICAGO

A well developed spirit soars… frequently. Even less developed spirits soar occasionally. It is not easy to describe in words what this means. From experience you know, so just let Me, the Holy Spirit speak about this human possibility without carefully defining it.

A spirit can soar in happiness… or in pain. Soaring can come with elation, with positive emotions, with satisfaction. It can be a powerful soaring, as happens sometimes at the end of a class session or at the ending of “John Baker…” Or it can be a gentle soaring as you sit in Peter’s Park with your dogs close by. It can be rather short and it can be prolonged. But spirit does soar with occasions, some predictable and others not.

I say also that spirit can soar in pain. Recall the experience with the barbed wire where there was physical pain. You recall a soaring of spirit even as the blood flowed and pain was felt. You wonder, rightly, if in some future incident of pain you could experience a soaring of spirit, at that time. Pain is often a distractor of spirit. Also, this soaring of spirit is not truly volitional. You can’t make it happen by discipline or desire. You can, however, be aware of this as an opportunity and appreciate its potential. This spiritual practice, for this is what it is, can allow the soaring of spirit to overcome the attention that pain commands.

Spirit can also soar in the pain of disappointment or defeat. You must still take opportunities that could end in defeat. This seems less desirable than when you were younger, but I say, “Don’t always back off.” Just appreciate that disappointment, because it is far from joy and elation, seems not be compatible with a soaring spirit, but I tell you that it is. It is not easy, and it often will not be appreciated by friends, family, and colleagues, but it is possible and quite likely if you just let spirit dominate.

You see, your spirit was before your body and its pleasures and woes, before your brain and its inherent and developed capacities, before feelings and emotions of all varieties, and before the influences of others and of social customs and institutions. It also shall be after all of these have ceased and others call you dead. Spirit develops in interaction with these aspects of the human self, but is not bound by them. Even the nature of the interaction is not important for spiritual development, though there are some circumstances that seem clearly to be more conducive than others.

Even undeveloped spirits soar, but soaring is more common in mature spirits. It’s another case of “to him who hath shall more be given,” My unfair principle. The soaring of spirit enhances its growth, and the more it develops the more often and the more easily it soars. It is first a matter of awareness that this can happen. Then it is an allowing of spirit to override the brain, the emotions, the pain centers.

In the Gospel story of My life as Jesus there is the incident of the temptations in the wilderness. You have considered these to be rather silly temptations, so let Me offer you the story as an illustration of spirit soaring in the midst of adversity. I didn’t smile and cheer, yet I realized the power of spirit to triumph in trying circumstances, and I let My spirit soar.

I, the Holy Spirit, am the “force” that calls on the human spirit to soar. I am aware of all the pain and suffering, all of the inequalities of earth life. I am aware of human activity that damages the earth. But I am more aware of and more interested in the spirit in people and in places. Along with all the “ill-health” I see much “health,” and with that I am pleased. I feel spirts soar in response to Me, even without realization, and I am pleased. I did not design this earth as a “perfect” place… though it is, by definition, because I did design it. It is perfect, in one sense, because spirits can and do soar in its many environments. And I am in its midst, active in indescribable ways.