Good morning. What you have shared this morning, W [wife], is very good to listen to, because in your sharing I hear growth going on; I hear maturity occurring in your life, steps toward that greater maturity.

True maturity comes not just through intellectual knowledge; it is not a matter of gaining college degrees that qualify you to enter into discussions in various social circles. True maturity, from My perspective, is becoming a person who is truly open, and not only open but communicating with Me. What that means is that you become fully aware of My perspective on the world. As I speak with you, many times I feel that words are so limiting and do not always express my full intention. When I say perspective, it's not just a viewpoint of the world, but it is a consciousness of the world.

Your world is in My heart. Therefore, I have completely absorbed that world from so long ago, even before it was created in My own heart. In that way, the perspective is not so much an intellectual perspective or just a certain opinion, but it is an awareness of what that world truly is. What could I do after the human Fall? It was very painful, because that world that was so deeply and fully a part of My heart had exploded with the outbreak of evil and had separated from that original ideal. In that respect, then, what could I do? Good or not good, that world is still in My heart even after the explosion. My one concern has been to restore and bring that world back to its right place.

So, as you share more and more and as your life becomes more and more open, then you start to feel that hunger, that desire for the original ideal. And when you see inner blindness, short-sightedness, narrowness, and all of those subjective human emotions that don't relate with that original perspective, it becomes a pain for you. And you not only see it in other people, of course, because as you wake up you have to see it in yourself, too. That's a very natural thing. It's not something that anyone has to tell you. When you awaken from those moments of having slipped back into that deep sleep of separation from Me, you say, "Oh, no, I did it again!" No one has to tell you. Truly, then, it's not a matter of defending yourself before the eyes of other people or desperately searching for and proclaiming your dignity as other people sometimes do.

No. It's simply beginning to see in a whole new way, and you no longer feel desperate to be recognized or lifted up in any way that is not of Me. You simply want to become more and more alive, more and more awake in this very different kind of knowledge. As I see you awakening, don't you know I'm right there to shake you, to kiss your cheek, to encourage you, to open up the draperies and show you the bright morning sun? Sometimes a child wants to roll over, pull the blanket over his head, and go back into that sleep, but I can't let you, because I know what is waiting for you as you put your feet on the floor and become grounded in that true awakeness that is coming. I want to do this with each human being.

What I am saying to you is that humanity has been in a profound sleep. It is the sleep of those who have projected their own realities from their own state of separation from Me, which are like the dreams of that sleep. They even project what I am like. Someone sees Me as an angry, vengeful God Who wants to destroy that which is evil. Someone else sees Me as a forgiving God Who wants to forgive His enemies. Someone sees Me as an uncaring God Who thinks the human race is already lost and Who is worried about other things in other parts of the universe. They live their lives according to how they see Me. Many have no thought of Me at all; I'm not a part of their reality, their lives. They think of other things; they project other realities out of their own subjective conditions.

Religious people don't want to hear that, especially if they have studied the Scriptures and followed great holy men and women who have become the role models for their lives. They have tried to live a righteous life. Still, not in every case but in so many cases, even those religious ones entirely project their subjective viewpoint on the world around them. Therefore, they fight among themselves, one religion to another, one sect to another, about who is right and who is wrong, whom God loves and whom God has trouble loving. They generate their own God. And you, in this moment, could easily do that also.

You get a certain message, you've had a certain experience, and then something in you says, "Now I know." So, with that knowledge that you know and that you've understood--who God is, what God's Will is--you go marching into the world confident that you know something that other people don't know. But you will find that you will never achieve anything of true or lasting or real value with that kind of attitude, because you become so conscious of the fact that "I know and you don't know; and, therefore, you need to know what I know." And the I becomes bigger and bigger, and the I know becomes larger and larger, and here is the problem of so many righteous people. They become self-righteous because the self becomes too big; it's no longer the true self, it's a concept and an ego that takes over.

Think of it this way: Think that we had one very meaningful communication four years ago, and then you spent the next four years testifying how great that was and how much you learned through that. Wouldn't there be some part of you saying, "Is that the only one we'll ever have?" So, your testimony may be very good about that one communication and that great message that you had, but isn't there another part of you that says, "Shouldn't there be more than just this one communication? Shouldn't it be moment by moment eventually?" As I told you before, the truth is not just in relating that wonderful communication we had four years ago. The truth, ultimately, is in our moment-by-moment relationship.

Now, this is a very delicate matter, because when people are not fully mature and just think they know that they have that profound relationship with Me, and then go marching into the world immaturely, it can create a lot of problems. I'm sure that if you examine the state of our relationship at this moment, you'll find yourselves still rolling over and putting that blanket over your heads many times during the day--getting lost in anger or feeling hurt as you expressed, W, or feeling subjective feelings that have nothing to do with Me.

So, you go marching into the world with this, along with the conviction that you want to share something about God, and you bring it all with you and the results will be accordingly. Truly, to come to the point of full maturity to where you and I can work together consciously, without lapsing into spiritual sleep day after day, is a long journey. It's like the process of growing up. But it is a journey that must be made if your life is to be completely fulfilled and if the world around you is to be enlightened by the light that is in your own heart. So it is with each and every person.

Historically, you see over and over again how people have gotten the message most often not through their own spiritual experiences but through the spiritual enlightenment of another person; they got that insight and might have had a deep or profound conversion and went marching off into the world saying, "Now I know. Now I want to change the world in this way." While this is good (because if the world has no knowledge of Me, if the world is practicing all kinds of evil, then any step upward is good), additional steps are needed, especially at this time in history. The steps that have already been made have brought humanity to a certain level, but by the very nature and situation of the world today, we can see that so many more steps are needed. And I tell you that the very steps that are needed are steps of individual awakening to Me; this day-by-day, moment-by-moment relationship with Me is, ultimately, the truth. Ultimately, this is what the truth tends to speak about.

All of the religious book-learning in the world (the memorization of the entire Bible, for example, which some people have done) doesn't mean a thing if those words are just locked up in your skull. You may be able to quote any verse at any moment, but is that true knowledge? That's an extraordinary accomplishment, but is that the true knowledge that we have spoken about so many times? No, it is not. Those who had no way to have a Bible, who were locked away in prison for many years--I know them; they are for Me very special beings.

There were men and women who were locked in prison for years by very evil authorities and who quietly made that bond with Me. And the only thing that kept them sane, the only thing that kept them truly alive was that secret connection with Me. No, they couldn't have a Bible; they had no right to anything by earthly standards, and yet their hearts reached out for Me. And in that bond something very special was formed. I tell you, it's only when people come under very unusual pressures or suffering that they recognize that what they have been confident about before, be it their religion or their life, is not enough. Something more is needed to sustain them.

Yes, in America it is very painful for Me to see, because your people have taken a way that brings them further and further away from that waking state, that state of being awake, and they just want to sleep in a deep, soft bed, full of dreams, full of illusions, more and more full of evil. Your nation is going to need a tremendous jolt sooner or later to awaken it. That's not to say that all people in America are unrighteous or evil people, but the strain that has grown like cancer in a body is alarming even to Me. When you take away that waking state, more and more you go into dreams and anything can happen.

There's no foundation in that sleep; there's no guidance system. That's why this awakening has to be. And it needs to be on a different level than any historical awakening. At this point in all of history on your planet, it has really come down to the awakening of each individual, because that's the basic unit of reality. The atom is the basic unit of the structure of your body. If each atom is corrupted and isn't functioning correctly, your body is immediately gone. So, if we look at the people of the world, while historically they could be lifted up by certain religious revelations, movements, and so forth, finally it has to come back to that original standard, and that must come from each heart and not just from outside campaigns or whatever. It must come from each heart. It's not a matter of motivation by the media or by outside sources. Finally, each heart has to awaken to Me, to the very quiet, silent Voice within.

Historically, there has been one form of semi-awakening, but the final awakening is coming from a different place, a different direction. Ironically, sometimes those earlier forces in history would even fight that next force, if you understand what I mean. The forces of enlightenment of the past have oftentimes become so confident that they are the answer, that when the final answer comes, when you and I begin this communication together and as I begin it with each and every individual, then those with earlier answers are defensive and there becomes conflict.

You see that even in your own experience. And while you have to be very conscious of self-righteousness as in I have the answer or I know, you have to see that around you, too, that those who have become very confident that they have an answer, that they know, see them and reflect on yourself. Don't be angry toward anything or anyone outside of you. Just rededicate yourself to waking up. Rededicate yourself to waking up. And pray. And stay close with Me in praying for the day that this awakening process will spread far and wide, and do all you can to help it. Do all you can to help it. How can you be angry with someone who is still reaching out with anger to you when they're asleep? You must not let that kind of reaching out in anger toward others dominate your life either, in any way.

It's in that very moment when you allow that to infect your soul that you fall back into that historical sleep, and then the next morning I have to come and try to wake you up again and say, "Don't you see what's happening? Don't you see? Please, please slip out of bed; get your feet on the floor. Let's stand up together and never allow that to overcome you again." I recognize that you may have to put your feet on the floor a million times, but don't give up. Don't give up. It isn't an awakening that will happen overnight, but it is an awakening with which I will help you every step of the way. Wherever I find that awakening in process, as I told you before, when I see My children opening their eyes toward the light from a million miles away, I am there. I am there. I think you understand My point.

I want to speak again to each and every person who, somewhere down the road, would pick this up and read it. I am speaking to YOU. I'm not speaking to someone else who wrote this and sent it to you. I'm speaking to YOU because I no longer play favorites, and this is no longer the age of adoration of this or that person who had a great connection with God, adoration by all the sinners forgiven by grace. No. This is the time that I want to have that great connection with each of you. And this is the time that it's possible. For various reasons in history, it wasn't as possible in the past as it is now. But this is the time that that can happen.

Your world has no greater hope than this--in fact, no other hope than this. I don't care how technically superior you are; if there is no awakening of this very basic and very original contact, you will just use that technology for more and more evil, and the entire universe will cry because of the suffering that you bring to it. And I don't want you to have that kind of image in creation, because I made you in My image as sons and daughters. And the very thing I'm speaking of this morning is what makes the son and daughter a son and daughter of God, what makes our relationship be the way it should be. That's what I'm talking about. Maybe you can call this a very short wake-up call this morning.

Don't give up and don't allow yourself to be frustrated by your everyday cares, and don't let them overrule this most fundamental thing. You can even use the problems that you face to wake up more, rather than letting them put you back to sleep. What good is that? If you really want to solve problems, you can't solve them when you're asleep in despair or despondency or anger. You can really only solve them as you awaken.

I love you very deeply, and I long for that moment when all of us can sit down together and laugh and have the most wonderful fellowship and realize that whatever we went through in the past, in terms of suffering in our family, that this moment made it worth it. This moment is what it was all finally for and this moment will be eternal.

I want to finish this morning and I'll ask W to pray.