Poverty

Poverty—the poverty of the Soul, the poverty of the body, the poverty of isolation, the poverty of disassociation from others. Poverty takes so many forms—some visible, some invisible, some apparent, some not apparent.

It is the condition of living in Separation. For poverty is not merely a condition of those who have little to sustain them. It is the condition of living in Separation.

Until you can find the greater voice that God has put within you to follow, you will experience poverty. Even if you have all things that you materially need, you will still be poor. Even if you live in splendor, your life will be empty, without true meaning and direction.

This poverty is pervasive, and it affects people at every level of material well-being. Unfortunately, for the rich their poverty now becomes so well hidden, overlaid with all of their ambitions and their acquisitions, their indulgences, their fantasies, giving the appearance of wealth and comfort and splendor when, in fact, it is all a cover for poverty. They think they are blessed by God—those who have endowed themselves at the expense of others, those who do not give enough back to the world.

But God pities the wealthy who cannot find the gift that their relative freedom would provide. They can be more tragic than the poor, whose needs are evident and more easily fulfilled.

It is a freedom journey, all the way, at every level of society, at every level of personal well-being, at every level of affluence. For so many who have escaped abject poverty will then enter a realm of personal exploration and indulgence, personal escape from the harshness of life. They will live in a world of acquisition, a world of seeking romance, a world of fantasy and self-indulgence.

What has their wealth, what has their newfound affluence given them but deepening their dilemma now, for now their poverty becomes more hidden, though it still haunts them. Now they are less able to be with themselves and others with an open mind and open heart, for their poverty remains, and they now have found new ways to seek escape, always trying to run away from their core experience. This is poverty.

The peoples of the world who cannot find shelter and food and security and sanitation, they all need assistance. It is the calling for the wealthy to provide for poverty at this level.

You do not need a second house or a fifth car or expensive jewelry or watches or apparel when those who are now in your care are starving and struggling to survive. Your wealth now is a resource to be given back to the world primarily.

Give yourself a few comforts in a modest life. Give yourself the freedom to explore the real meaning of your life now that you do not have to struggle daily for survival.

Take this opportunity to receive God’s New Revelation for the world, which will amplify all of God’s previous Revelations, which all—individually and together—call you back to your deeper responsibility and purpose for being in the world.

The rich must take care of the poor, and the poor must help one another as much as they are able to do so.

Do not think you will gain favor in Heaven should you avoid this responsibility. Particularly for the rich, this is a great responsibility.

You will be able to do much good in the world with what you have, and it will restore to you your integrity and your self-respect. It will give back to you a sense of value and meaning and give you the experience that you indeed have been sent from Heaven to provide these things for a struggling humanity.

Everyone in the world is on the same great ship called Earth. If part of the ship goes into disrepair, if part of the crew is not fed and sustained, well, the whole vessel is threatened.

You cannot simply think like a regional person or have a local identity, for you depend upon things now from all over the world. And the condition of nations far away from you will determine what your life will be like both now and in the times to come, most assuredly.

The freedom journey is the journey out of poverty. At the beginning of it, it is the freedom to have food, water, shelter, security and sanitation, and the opportunity to become basically educated—a great goal for such a great percentage of the human family. And it will be even a greater percentage of the human family in the future as the Great Waves of change come upon the world, the great change that few people understand or can recognize even today.

Once you have met these requirements sufficiently, then you can see how your education can serve you to be a real contributor in the world and to use part of your growing affluence to assist others and give them the opportunity to achieve the basic requirements of life.

For you must understand that the poverty of humanity is in large part what keeps humanity primitive, divisive and robs it of its great progressive advancement, which it will need in a declining world—in a world of declining resources, violent weather and economic upheaval.

The great physicians, the great educators, the great politicians, the great servants of humanity cannot arise out of severe poverty, for they are trapped there, you see?

It is the same problem with women in the world, most of whom are trapped in a domestic set of circumstances from which they cannot escape. They will not advance and progress, and all of the human family will suffer as a consequence. The brilliance, the strength, the ingenuity, the dedication to higher goals and greater purposes will not be realized if people cannot escape these conditions.

The future of the world cannot be left up to a few wealthy inspired individuals. It will call on a great number to turn the tide away from the disintegration and failure of human civilization.

The giving will have to grow, but those who can give must first receive. They must receive the basic requirements of life. They must receive a greater education beyond this. And they must recognize that the world is not here to simply endow them with all their pleasures and indulgences, but to give them the opportunity to make a real difference here, for only that will satisfy the deeper need of the Soul.

If the Soul is not satisfied, nothing will satisfy you. You can own as much as you can hold and more. It will not satisfy you. You will always want more, endlessly wanting more, endlessly, because your Soul is not satisfied.

It is an emptiness you cannot fill with things or with romance or with exciting adventures or with endless experiences in the world. It can only be fulfilled by recognizing the deeper intelligence that God has given you, which alone can give you the strength and the purpose to elevate your life and to lead to a greater life of service and fulfillment in the world.

It is only by becoming a real contributor rather than merely a locust upon the land, devouring everything in sight—devouring resources, devouring experiences, devouring the landscape, using up everything today so there will be very little for tomorrow.

You will not only feel empty, but fundamentally guilty within yourself if this is your pursuit, if this is your emphasis in life— endless acquisition.
The deep guilt is there because you are not really living the life you came here to live. You are not really doing what you know you must do. You are not serving Those who sent you here.

Do not hide behind religion, thinking that belief in the edicts of your religion will give you favor in the eyes of Heaven, for they are watching to see what you will actually do in the world, and if you have met the basic requirements of life, how much you will serve others and be a force for good here.

They do not care what you acquire. They do not even care about your religious beliefs if they cannot lead you to greater service and compassion for others.

You are still impoverished, parading as a wealthy person, with your symbols of power and affluence. And all the dressings of beauty and charm that you can acquire and adorn yourself with will not hide the fact that you are poor and failing your mission here.

Poverty is in you. It is all around you. Look at the faces of the affluent who live with so much safety and security in their nations, with access to endless food and water and government assistance. Look at their faces. Are these faces of people who are inspired, who are alive with joy and purpose and meaning?

Look at the poor who live in rags, who have nothing and no promise to have anything. Do not condemn them. Do not think that it is God’s Will that they exist in such conditions. Do not think that this is the result of past life experiences. Do not think they earned the right to be poor, for you must look with compassion and imagine what it would be like to live their lives.

If you do this, you will stop complaining about all the things you complain about today and begin to count your blessings, which are more numerous than you even can account for at this moment.

Religion is about service. It is about taking care of people. It is about healing wounds. It is not about gaining power or waging war or condemning others. If your religion does not lead to greater service and compassion, then you are failing it at its core.

Even if you are devout and follow all the precepts and all the practices of your faith, if it is not giving you a greater impetus for service, compassion and forgiveness, you are failing it.

Heaven is not impressed. And the wealthier you are, the greater the failure. For your wealth now is a resource to help others. That is its real value, beyond giving you a little more comfort and a little more personal freedom, that is what wealth is for.

The wealthy should be the great benefactors of life, all of them, without exception—feeding people, taking care of people, making sure people have the basic requirements, and beyond this the opportunity for greater education and service.

Using religion as a pretext for war or killing others is an abomination. You are serving the dark forces here. Regardless of what you declare to be your faith or your allegiance to your scriptures, you are serving the dark forces.

What We speak of here today is what Heaven values. But what Heaven values is not what people value or want, except for a very few.

No matter where you are in life or your circumstances, you have to arrest poverty within yourself. Beyond meeting the basic requirements of life, your life must be about service and contribution.

You do this for your own redemption. You do this for the welfare of your community and your nation. But you also do this because this is what will be required of citizens everywhere to give humanity the resilience and the stability to navigate the difficult times ahead, to keep human civilization from collapsing as resources decline and as crops begin to fail.

You do this for the whole world even though your service is local and immediate and very specific and does not carry any great glory or recognition with it.

This is what will restore to you your self-value, your sense of integrity, your inspiration in life, your joy, enjoying the benefits of what you have and the sense of meaning of your presence here on Earth that can only be found by following what We are giving you here today.

If you want to please God, feed the people, protect them from the Great Waves of change, educate them. If you want Heaven to support you, then only acquire as much as you really need and not much more and give the rest where it is most needed. Your heart and Knowledge within you, the Knowledge God put there, will direct you where this can be given with the greatest effect.

This will give you strength. This will give you purpose. This will make your life resilient and effective. This will lift you out of depression and self-condemnation and the condemnation of others. For they are merely the manifestations of poverty, the deep poverty We speak of.

In your heart, you know you came here for a greater purpose. In your heart, you know you are not really living the life you are meant to live. In your heart, you know you must be true to that which is permanent and real within you.

This you must face. You must face those things that hold you back, that keep you small and weak and lost in the world, a slave to its inducements and seductions, a slave to your own fear and impulses. You must face these things or you will not be able to overcome them.

Heaven has given you the power of Knowledge that can lead you out of this endless maze of difficulty, but you must learn to recognize it amongst the other voices in your mind. You must learn to feel it and know it and trust it enough to follow it so that it can prove itself to you over time.

God has provided the Steps to Knowledge, the great Teaching in redemption, and practices to help you attain this, given in the simplest possible language with much repetition and clarification. It can guide you and lead you and orient you towards this greater power that God has put within you, which alone knows your destiny and the direction that you must follow, which at this moment you cannot yet see.

Your purpose is to end poverty within yourself and to assist in ending poverty in others, not just physical poverty but spiritual poverty, for that is the root of all human suffering—for the rich, for the poor.

Here everyone has a common purpose. Though your gifts are meant for certain places and people, everyone has a common purpose whether they are religious or not, no matter what country or set of circumstances they come from.

The restoration must happen in enough people, in you. Face your poverty, and it will give you the incentive and the determination to proceed.