Posted on 13 August 2018, 9:44

Most of us have episodes in our lives which make us feel ashamed.  We can judge ourselves harshly, and wonder what consequences there may be for us in the afterlife, or in a future incarnation. Hindus are not the only people who believe in Karma or consequences. When churches present a number of things that we have to do, or not do, before we can go to heaven, they stoke our fears.

If you have these fears, you will probably find this conversation with the spirit of Stephen the Martyr helpful.

It is such an important issue for us all, and I would value readers’ thoughts about what he has to say.

Olive: I have some questions tonight, Stephen. The first one is: would you please give us more understanding on asking God for forgiveness for our sins, in connection with Karma? [The necessity of recompense for the wrong we have done.] 

Stephen: Is it your intention that you ask: Does the Father take away your Karma?

Olive: Perhaps, yes.

Stephen:Then let us ask ourselves: What is our Karma?

Our Karma, if we would allow it, would condition us to judge - maybe not even consciously - our own sin, to decide what is a suitable recompense for that sin and to sentence ourselves to that. This is, in fact, what we often do.

When we confess to the Father, we pray that the responsibility of this judgement be taken from ourselves and what needs to be corrected in ourselves [may] be corrected through the guidance and love which is the Father’s.

The two methods can not be confused, for the results are greatly different. If we ourselves judge ourselves we would be harsher than would be the Father. What we do in our judgement, from our own will and by our own choice, need not necessarily be the will of the Father. That is what we must learn.

We have spoken before of these things and we have said that it is the desire of the Father that we raise ourselves above the Karma.

Let us not then decide at the other extreme that by confessing we alleviate any necessity to pay a debt that our actions may have caused; for that debt should and will be paid with guidance and with love.

Think each of you of what you have judged to be your own indebtedness. As an exercise even now decide, in your own wisdom, what you would have considered to be the correct recompense or payment in return for what you have done wrong.

At the same time, look at what you do now, and the many things that you have done that would balance those things that you have done wrong, the opportunities where, through love, and feelings of love, you have done kindly deeds.

Do not judge that because you harm or do injustice to a particular person that the payment that the Father will have you give through love, shall necessarily recompense that same person. Often their recompense comes from elsewhere - from another who pays a debt.

But always these debts are paid with love, not with duty. These debts are paid in grace and not in duty. We pray for forgiveness and know that, through the love of the Father, we shall pay this debt - a debt that shall become a joy for us to pay, that shall bring love to another. Never revenge, for someone to give another satisfaction for a harm caused them can often lead the one thus paid into sin - the sin of satisfied revenge.

Therefore, I say that it is better that you pray for forgiveness and allow the Father to help you pay what you might owe. Only He can judge, only He has the strength by which you can repay.

Always, with love, you pay a greater price than what you took without love.

Do not believe that your way to salvation is by judging yourselves and repaying what you consider to be sufficient payment. Most often the payment which you return will fall short of what is deserved, it will be paid more often to the wrong recipient and lead the recipient into a debt of their own.

In the next conversation, we talk about this saving love.

Session 70: Love.

Stephen: The first thing you must ask about love is, what is the nature of love?

We have felt that love and God are the same.  Therefore it must be true that we cannot ourselves give love but be used as the instrument that allows love to flow. 

We have decided for ourselves and in our minds that I, Stephen or Thomas [the medium] or Michael,  or some other one of us, shall give love to this person, or love somebody who is good, then we shall proceed to give our love to this one.

We decided this time, in which direction the love, that should be flowing through us, must go.

Like when we point water at a flower we direct and give it to that one flower.

But as good husbandmen we know that if we did not direct the water also to all other plants they would wither and die for they needed this water.

Therefore should any of us decide that we ourselves must give love, to be correct, we must be sure that we could nourish all that require that love.

We can see that, should this be the case, we would faint and were we the giver of love many would be denied that love. 

Let love flow through us from the Source in the direction that is designated by the Gardener who can see the entire garden.

This is not that we do not realise our full potential, for our full potential is that we are a part of the Father, never that the Father is a part of us,  for we are a part of the Whole and the Whole is the Father.

To realise our full potential let us be that part that we are. 

Let us never assume [ourselves to be] a part that we are not for the little that we can give of our own can be only unsatisfying both to ourselves as givers and limited by those who receive.

For why else would the Lord say that we should love our neighbour as ourselves, when we know that if each of us were to attempt ourselves to love all our neighbours with the love that we can give, we could not succeed.

And if we did not succeed we would feel that we had failed and cease even to be a channel of love to ourselves.

We would indeed feel ashamed; we would indeed doubt our ability to be loved by the Father.

For each of us now can think of many whom we have had great difficulty in loving.

When this happens it is usually because we have decided that love is ours to give.

Think now of these ones that you cannot love.

Ask yourself, “Are they denied love simply because you are unable to give them love, your love? Do they lack sunshine?

Does the Father not care for and love them?”

You must say to yourself, “The Father has chosen me as an instrument to love these and I am pleased that I am an instrument and that the love of the Father flows from me to these and I feel the love I have given.”

Do not admonish the Father and say, “Father, why am not I the instrument for your loveto go to these that I feel no love for?” or “Father, why am I not the parent of all children; why do you slight me?” 

This then, is the nature of love. 

Be your instrument to allow what comes from the Father to flow through you.

Do not give yourself the unhappiness that a finger might feel if it wanted to see.

Know that you do have potential and do not judge what that potential must be.

God bless you all.

Michael Cocks edits the journal, The Ground of Faith.
Afterlife Teaching From Stephen the Martyr by Michael Cocks is published by White Crow Books and available from Amazon and other bookstores.

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