We are living during a great spiritual depression, having reached levels of general and specific spiritual depravity worse than one can say. So many believe these days that they possess the keys to the Kingdom, when, in truth, it is they who are possessed by a consciousness that is darkness itself. And, as you are seeing, how can these blinded beings do anything but harm those who would follow them?

Thank God for His Light! For through it we can begin to see that although it seems to wound us at first . . . it does so in order to start a healing in us that can begin in no other way. What is mortally "struck" in us is who we have mistaken ourselves to be; and even though its torment and confusion feels like us, it is not our True Self. And if we can see these things are true, or at least sense that they are, then what else can we do than accede to what this Light wants us to see and learn about ourselves through its actions in us?

What we are given to see about ourselves -- because of our wish for a Godly life -- we are given for a reason greater than the self that recoils for being so exposed. So, when this happens, for whatever reasons it will, we must bear the unbearable moment of wanting to act on our own to save ourselves. What reason would the Light show us what it does, if it didn't have a plan, the means and the power, to use us for a greater Good? It seems to me that now is the time for patience, and not for trying to prove anything.

I have found that whenever we will embrace the darkness of the unknown that we are thrown into by the Light, that Light never fails to prove itself our worthy champion. All perfection to be belongs to its actions, not our own.

And when that Light of lights is ready for you to take action -- whatever that may be -- you will not mistake its prompting; this I can promise you. But when that time comes, do not hesitate: leap!

Consider this, as it will help you better understand both your past experience in church, as well as shed more light on the part of you that created such an experience then and going forward. Weakness always reacts to and then pounces on the presence of weakness in others. So when we see fakes, hypocrites, pretenders, there is a part of us that -- in order to keep us from seeing where we share that characteristic (maybe we don't sing praises, but perhaps laugh a little too loud at parties, or smile too broadly to win approval, etc.) -- that will denounce and then pounce upon that general quality in another. Seeing these things in ourselves, where we judge others because they make us see something in ourselves we would rather not become conscious of, is a good thing. Persist!

As opposed to doing the required inner work to discover what is false about their present life, most people are very comfortable with organized religion because it allows them the ease of simply accepting what others say is true about the Almighty. Allowing any person or organization to act as a middleman between you and your God is spiritual death. To accept any truth as being so -- that you have not personally awakened to and found to be true in your own life -- is the path to a wrongful self-righteousness and all forms of harmful hypocrisy. The purpose of Moses, Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, and all truly illuminated beings is to give individuals their heavenly rights to be free, not to create groups of slaves calling themselves free.

If common social convention -- with all its contrivance and hypocrisy -- has one redeeming value, it is this: the happy day may come when we realize that most of our lives have been spent conversing with clever thieves, making plans with unseen liars, and listening to promises of people who are, by majority, incapable of a single act of integrity. This day of our awakening is the same as the delightful date of our departure from a bankrupt world filled with beggars dressed as kings and queens.

This is an increasingly important issue in these days where everyone has a card that introduces him or her as some master or avatar. We can only recognize what is false in others to the degree that we have uncovered that same nature within ourselves. As we work and root out what is untrue, it becomes easier and easier to instantly taste the truth of anything (or anyone) we encounter. Do your own work. Go inward. Be alone. Ask the Supreme for help and guidance, as best you understand how to ask and from what spirit to ask this. If you will do your work this way, a part of you will develop that could no more be fooled by a false light than a moth would fly into a dark well.