Charity's very form is that of giving, and it doesn't ask anything in return. God has never approached you and said, "Give me that." But God laid out examples and guidelines that we call disciplines - the disciplines that bring you into greater strength and set you free.

The spiritual energy brings liberation, and liberation is the keynote of the Soul. Liberation is the inner attitude of freedom. It is not what you do; it is how you do it. You can say right now, "I am free from the shackles of my emotional habits. I am free from the addictions of my mind. I am living a life of preference."

The way of the Soul, of the true self, is not about doing things in order to get a return of some kind. When that is the basis of your actions, you may get the temporary satisfaction of a job well done, a new car, or a beautiful house. But you can have all the material wealth in the world, and if your motivation is not pure, you will feel hollow inside. With your mind and imagination, you can see what the results will be if you act on your addictive impulses. In exercising your divine energy by making conscious choices, you allow Spirit to seal the door to your addictions, so that when harmful impulses tempt you, you won't act on them. You step free.

When you realize the glory of God and see it consciously, there are no problems. The glory is a celebration. It's the rejoicing of the Spirit. It's the "free at last." We are completely free. We are forever free. Until then, watch out. Don't take things for granted. Don't assume that you're always holding yourself up in the most positive Light and in the clearest way. Be ever vigilant. Choose the things that work for you.

God has given each of us the precious gift of life and awareness and then the additional gift of freedom to do with it what we will. God has chosen each one of us as heirs to His kingdom; it's up to us when we choose to return home to Him and claim all that our heritage offers to us. If I had a prayer, it would be that each and every one would choose back and come home to God. It has been my choice. I recommend it.

I am not saying to lie to yourself and deny that irritability exists in you, but just to recognize that the ability to be productive, calm, and joyous exists in you at the same time. You're the one who chooses which to act on.

There eventually comes a time when you realize, "I want the real thing, I want my Source, I want to awaken and throw off these layers of illusion and the perceptions that are not real. I want to take to the truth of who I am." As you put truth forth in your consciousness, the Traveler comes forward to meet you and work with you to do those things that are truthful. But it's kind of like you need to be the one to take off the layers, and it really requires that you stop the negative as your identification, focus, and choice. Then the truth that sets you free from the negativity is engaged in your fulfillment and liberation.

There was a young man who had great potential. He was being taught about the Light and the action of the Light, and he could have moved into an expression of Light consciousness. But he also went to a lot of pot parties with his friends. He was told about the drug action and he said, "I go into the group, and I send them the Light and love them all, so everything is okay." It was explained to him how he could get suckered right into the drug scene because it was a potential karmic path for him. He was at a choice point of either accepting it and going that way, or stepping away from it. He had the knowledge and the ability to choose another path. He said that he did not want to leave his friends, so the recommendation was: "Get new friends." Well, he was a free Soul. No one controlled his life. He's so hooked on narcotics now that his mind is shot. You'll be talking to him about one thing and he'll go off on a tangent. You try to get him back to the subject and he sort of comes back and then takes off again. His mind is following what to him is a logical pattern, but he doesn't know that his mouth isn't matching it. And he thinks you're weird because you're not keeping up with him. This is one of those cases where it's his right to destroy himself as he chooses. And it's his responsibility to go through every bit of the action. The problem is that there is no foundation for spiritual illumination through the illusions involved with drugs.

It takes great courage to see the face of God within you. To see the face of God, you must go in very deeply, past all the things that camouflage reality for you, all the things that have frozen up inside of you, all the blocks that you have placed in the path of your own freedom. And you must confront and clear them all.

The Spirit we work with is entirely free of any confinement, illusion, or misunderstanding and full of freedom to love and live in the truth.