The “higher self” is a reference to the fact that God is within every one of us and loves all of us unconditionally. God is total love and light—the creator, the link that joins us all together. Although I use the pronoun He when discussing God, in reality God has no gender.
I love how British psychologist Robert Holden puts it in his book Shift Happens: “When you pray to God you are not praying to an ‘it’ or a ‘him’ or a ‘her’ that is outside of you. Rather, when you reach for God, you are simply reaching for the highest in yourself.”
Although many of us think of God in a positive way, some will have negative associations and believe that God will punish them for what they’ve done. There are people who blame God for negative circumstances they are experiencing in their lives. In truth, when we do something we believe is wrong, we just know within ourselves it isn’t right. We experience a guilty feeling not because God is judging us, but because we are judging ourselves.
When we step away from what we truly are, which is pure
love, we step away from the true essence of God—and it feels awful. If we do something physically or emotionally harmful to ourselves or others, we also temporarily cut off our connection to the whole.
On the other hand, if we do something considered good—for example, when we help others without expecting anything in return—we experience peace within ourselves. This is because the goodness resonates with God who is within us. When we share or feel love, we experience God more fully and subconsciously remember who we really are. Since we are all one, when we help others, we also feel good because we are, in fact, helping ourselves as well!
In my work as a psychic medium and healer, I often interact with those who have experienced tragedies in their lives. Many times, their sorrows cause them to become angry with God, wondering how he could have allowed them to happen. Still, many of these same people feel guilty over their anger. However, it’s important to remember that God neither causes so-called tragedies to occur, nor does he ignore prayer requests.
Everything that happens in our lives is a learning experience for the growth of our souls. Sure, we could learn life’s lessons in easier ways, but sometimes we don’t listen until there is a crisis. Our souls may create events in our lives, such as illness, to force us to wake up and make changes we wouldn’t otherwise have made. For instance, sometimes illness enables us to get the rest we desperately need, make the move we really want, quit the job we hate, or whatever else we need to do.
What I strongly recommend is to be still and ask God to help us understand everything in a better way. When so-called bad things happen, our first reaction may be to blame God and ask, “Why me?” However, throughout all our sorrow and helplessness, God still shines for us and never abandons us. He is always, after all, within us.
Often, when bad things happen, something good comes out of it in the long run. We can ask God to let us know what we need to do to get well or make a situation better. Then we need to quiet ourselves and just listen, and we will receive an answer.
The key is that we need to be willing to accept and act upon whatever is being shown to us. God is within us, but respects our freewill choices. He will never force us to do anything. We have to make the decision to take whatever action is necessary for our own peace as well as for the peace of others.
God will never abandon us. When we need him the most, he will carry us through it all. All we need to do is to ask him to grant us peace and strength in any situation. We may not always understand why things happen now, but after we leave our physical bodies, we will finally understand the bigger picture.
Excerpt from We Consciousness: 33 Profound Truths for Inner and Outer Peace, Karen Noé