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Soaring â" a Teen's Guide to Spirit and Spirituality

John Hunt Publishing Ltd.

God and You: We Are All One

What is God? Who is God? Is God a She? Is God a He? Is God in me? These questions you may have asked yourself at some point in your life since you were very little; since you received religious instructions. The simple answer is, You Are God and God is You. Okay, what does that mean? Well, from every piece of spiritual literature, teachings and trainings I've received, the simple fact is that we are all one. I'm sure you have heard this, but you still ask, "but what does that mean?" This means we are individual beings of God. We have our human personality, human ego, but our human self is connected to our true self which is our God-Self. Our God-Self is connected to the God Source of which every being in the universe is connected. Our soul, when it's released from our bodies at death, merges back into the God Source. Telepathically, intuitively, and spiritually we are always connected to God. We are never not connected to God. For the purposes of clarity and to differentiate from our God-Selves, I'm using the term "God Source" to indicate what we understand to be as God. Each of us, though, is an individual being of the God Source clothed in a human body attached to our God-Self. Later in this chapter, I will be teaching you a new term for God-Self which is quite beautiful.

Most of us as children and adults through attending religious services at our family's place of worship are taught in a way that makes God feel he is above us, but not actually part of us. Like he is a benevolent grandfather in a white robe and white beard always looking after us from Heaven. While it's beautiful to know and feel his loving light and radiation showering us when we tune in, that's always felt so far away to me. If you are Christian, you are taught that Jesus was God's son. He lived and died for us, but after his Ascension which we celebrate every Easter, he too, feels apart and far away from us living in Heaven. If you are Jewish, Muslim or other Christian faiths, you may pray to saints, prophets, or angels. Again, these beautiful Beings are "in Heaven" with God; always seeming to be so far away from us. Do you feel like you are left alone or isolated with this kind of understanding? Religion teaches only one way to feel somewhat closer to God, Jesus, the saints or prophets and that is by prayer and attending services in a place of worship. I'm pleased to tell you it's so much more than that – that the Spiritual Heavenly realm is much closer, and we can connect in ways you never thought were possible. It's so much closer and more wonderful than you realize. If your parents have already taught you a more expansive way to view God and your spirituality, then my hat's off to them. This book will resonate with them as well, even though it's written with you, dear readers, in mind.

As I mentioned in my introduction, I will be straying from what is traditionally taught in churches, temples, religious books and teachings. But if you are reading this book, then I think you are already highly sensitive enough to understand spirituality at this level. You are already asking the big questions about your existence, your place in the universe, and sense that there is much more than you have ever imagined. This means you are ready for what is written in this book.

In keeping with the theme of this chapter, I would like to introduce you to new terminology that will explain how you are connected to God. Connected to every human being on this planet is our own, individual, Beloved 'Mighty I AM Presence.' ® The 'I AM Presence' is your GodSelf and from here on I will use both terms, God-Self or 'I AM Presence,' or 'Presence' for short.

Your Beloved 'Mighty I AM Presence' is your true self, your soul. To be close to God is through connecting daily with your God-Self; your 'I AM Presence.' Your 'Presence' knows everything you need to get along in this lifetime. [This unique expression, 'Mighty I AM Presence,' was created by the Ascended Master Saint Germain for His Students. In It He embedded the Great Creative Word, 'I AM.' It is used in this book 'The Magic Presence' ® by permission of the Saint Germain Foundation. ®] If you cultivate a relationship with this part of you, it will guide, teach, love and protect you in powerful ways. It is already doing this for you, but once you begin to connect with this true part of yourself, it will provide for you in ways you didn't think was possible from the vantage point of your human ego and personality.

Let me explain further. As I mentioned, every human being is connected to their soul, their God-Self. You are connected to this part of you through a silver cord which doesn't disconnect until your death when your soul, your being-ness, merges back to God. During your lifetime, depending on the quality of your heart, and level of your humanity, your 'Presence' can be anywhere from twelve feet above you to much higher – as much as fifty feet or more. The goal here is to bring your 'Presence' in as close to your physical body as possible until you can merge with your 'Presence.' This is what they call the Ascension. To do that our physical, mental and emotional bodies must be pure and cleared of all negativity and past negative deeds and thoughts. By beginning the work of connecting with your 'I AM Presence,' you will begin to bridge that distance. All answers about your reason for being here, your divine path, your divine purpose, your service to humanity, who or if you will marry, have children, where you will live, is controlled and guided by your Beloved 'Mighty I AM Presence.' This part of you is already guiding you in many different ways. If you are an intuitive or a highly sensitive person, you may be aware of taking advantage of this guidance by following your instincts, following your intuition. That is excellent. If you are reading this book, you have been guided to do so as well. Of that I am certain.

The goal of every student of spirit should be to attain perfection. I know that this would seem an impossible task, but it's not. By simply setting this intention and beginning the work, you will quickly feel positive changes within yourself. For instance, you will have moments of joy just for being. The joy won't be connected to the new thing you purchased, or the special occasion you experienced, or a good grade or report card, and so on, but you will feel joyous just doing your everyday activities like going to school, doing homework, helping out your parents, going to work, and similar. You will also feel shifts in your perceptions about people. You might feel less defensive in an angry situation. You will begin to feel compassion for cranky, angry or unpleasant people, and not react to their negativity or behavior. You might begin to feel like old hurts and negative emotional memories begin to clear away and heal. As you continue on this path of meditation, purifying, and being a kind, loving, peaceful and compassionate person, you will also begin to connect with what you are supposed to be doing – not only the big-picture stuff, like which classes you should take, or what major in college you want to go for, but everyday stuff, like helping your neighbor shovel snow, or bringing in the groceries for your mother, or babysitting your siblings without expecting payment so your mom and dad can have a date night. As your sensitivity begins to open, you will be guided in everything single thing, from the smallest, like giving someone at the supermarket a smile to brighten their day, to what leisure activity you wish to enjoy on Friday night – whatever it is it will always be the right thing you should be doing at that moment.

It's a process, a long and wonderful journey that just gets better and better and better. You will have bumpy and grumpy days, and days where you feel totally disconnected from your God-Self, but getting back on track is part of the learning. You will find that love heals and transforms everything. I mean everything! You want to fix your relationship with your parents, use love. Apologize first and sincerely. You'd be surprised how quickly the situation will turn around if you approach everything with compassion and the feeling of love.

The key to a harmonious life, loving and supportive relationships, positive outcomes, happy experiences is positive intention. If your words are positive, but the emotions behind them are negative or you just don't believe the words you are saying, your emotions will determine the outcome no matter how many times you recite positive affirmations. You must do and say everything you want with true feeling. As you learn this, as you clear yourself of past karma and negative patterns, it will become easier and what you positively request in your life will come sooner or faster. It's important to stay consistent and persistent. You will find that once you are on this path, there's no going back. You will miss your connection to your Beloved 'Presence.' You will miss the little miracles, the sweet joyful moments, and good feelings that began to be part of your everyday life. This is a one-way trip to all you can imagine and dream for yourself.

Your 'I AM Presence' is also your source for all abundance, and supply. As you tune in, and begin to work and connect with your God-Self, what you want will manifest in your life. There will be a momentum and things will happen that you didn't ask for but enjoy because you created an energetic momentum to attract all that's positive. I'll give you a brief example. Two days ago, I receive a phone call from my cell-phone service provider. When the caller identified hmself on the telephone, I was a little surprised. Usually these calls are to collect on a past due bill. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to find that this service representative wanted to tell me that the company was lowering my bill by $15 because they had a new plan offering the same service I already had, but was now cheaper than I had been paying. I was pleasantly stunned. This is an example of when you live with your God-Self in charge as much as possible; you attract positivity, and abundance in all forms. Allow the universe to provide for you in clever, unusual and convoluted ways. It's fun to watch how things unfold for you and it shows how interestingly we are all connected.

Before I close this chapter, I'd like to briefly talk about gratitude. Gratitude is one of the most powerful emotions to raise your vibration, increase the amount of divine love and light in your body, mind and feeling to bring you closer to union with God. In everything you do, every person you meet or interact with, every job, chore or activity you do, be grateful. Be grateful to your God-Self. Be grateful to your parents, siblings, extended family, friends, teachers, acquaintances, peers, strangers and even those you perceive as enemies. In every moment of every day, we are both teachers and students of life and life lessons. Enemies, by the way, can be our greatest teachers. What we gain from these types of lessons is determined by our level of understanding of love and forgiveness. Forgiveness being the key to learning and overcoming the lesson no matter how hard they are at the time. Be grateful to be alive each morning and feel the joy of being alive no matter what your home life is. Each day is a new opportunity to do better, to feel and find happiness, contentment, peace, joy and love. Nothing is a foregone conclusion. If you want a better life, be first grateful for what you already have. And if you feel you have nothing and no one, just be simply grateful to be alive and to have another opportunity to achieve or manifest what you want.

In closing this chapter, I'd like to add some personal comments about my use and reference to The Magic Presence throughout Part I of this book. It was written in 1935 and is a story – a romantic story in truth – of four teenagers who because of their advance level of spirituality were permitted to work directly with Saint Germain and many other ascended masters in preparation for their ascension at this tender young age. It was and still is quite rare for someone so young to be born at a level that is advanced enough for this special privilege. I chose this book for many, many reasons, including the most obvious one that this book is about four individuals who are around your age. It is included in the recommended books listed at the back, but it seemed important to mention in detail here. I do hope you will feel encouraged to purchase a copy of this extraordinary book to read and learn spiritual lessons that are far wiser and more relevant than many books and sources out there today. Lastly, in addition to the wonderful story and spiritual lessons of The Magic Presence, there is also a radiation that comes to you when reading the book that is truly loving peaceful and even healing. You can't help but feel it as you read through the pages of this amazing and true story.

Understanding Intuition: Learn All the Ways it Works

What is intuition? Here is the dictionary definition:

Intuition – n 1. Direct perception of truth, fact, etc. independent of any reasoning process; immediate apprehension. 2. A fact or truth, etc. perceived this way. 3. A keen or quick insight. 4. The quality or ability to have direct perception or keen insight.

Simply put, intuition is knowing something with some certainty without knowing why you know it. We all have intuitive abilities. You have been using yours since you were a baby. This ability is within each human being. But what is not developed in many of us is the ability to recognize it at work. I'm sure you have had many "gut instincts" or a strong feeling of "knowing" which is definitely your intuition working. But noticing when your intuition is at work for all things big and small is the other piece of it that many people do not know how to recognize and take advantage of. The key is in tuning in to your sixth sense – your inner guidance which can be coming from your God-Self, or through your spirit guides, angels, etc., depending on what the information is that you need in a given moment.

If you are reading this book, I sense that your intuition is more developed than others in your age group. I've read, and am seeing in your generation and those younger being born with high levels of sensitivity, intuitive abilities, and a strong connection to God and your spirituality. You all carry more light, higher vibrations, which means you are naturally able to connect to God and many, different types of Light Beings in the Heavenly realms more easily than you parents' generation. You might recall when you were very little the ability to see people's auras, or see or sense when there was "an energy" in the room; such as deceased relatives, angels, spirit guides, and other benevolent energies.

You may also be naturally sensitive to human energies. Ask yourself: Do you pick up on people's emotional states, worry, sadness, anger, depression, frustration, confusion? Are you able to shrug it off, or does it get stuck to you for a while? Can you easily sense someone's goodness or meanness? This is all part of the package of having the gifts of sensitivity, and intuitive abilities. All wonderful gifts to enjoy once you know and learn how to use them. When you don't know how to use them, these gifts can feel overwhelming and can hinder you tremendously in getting along in the world around you. I hope those that are reading this book have had loving support at home, that it felt safe, and secure – particularly through your parental relationships. If you do not feel that way, there will be tools in this book to assist you in feeling unconditional love, personal safety and inner peace. You are indeed, loved, valued and important to yourself, to humanity and to God. And, you are never alone. If you are experiencing an unpleasant childhood and young adulthood right now, be aware that these situations are part of your life lessons. Learning from these relationships and experiences will allow you to heal and grow emotionally and spiritually. In Part II of this book, I will be talking about divine purpose and soul contracts. This might help ease your mind and feelings as you navigate your teens into your early twenties with a new perception on how to view your unpleasant family life and heal yourself in the process.

Recognizing the Different Ways Intuition Comes Through Our Being

Okay, you know you are naturally sensitive and gifted intuitively. I'm going to show you the many ways intuition comes through and give you some fun exercises to develop it further. If you think you have already mastered your intuition and psychic abilities, you can still learn from these seemingly basic tools. It's like someone having a beautiful voice naturally. They will still need voice lessons to develop good breathing, exercises for developing technique, and they will need to practice in order to bring out their ability to interpret a song's lyrics, through artistry. So, even though you are more advanced than some of your peers, this book can assist you in honing and fine-tuning your abilities while providing information about who you are reaching through those invisible connections. I still go back to the basics even though I'm an advanced student of spirit. It's like taking a refresher course reminding us of little things we might have forgotten along the way. Here is a list of five ways to utilize your intuitive senses:

Clairvoyance or "clear seeing" – Many of you may be aware of this term. Clairvoyance is not just the ability to see energy, spirits or auras directly with your eyes. It can also be through your mind's eye. You may be able to see pictures, scenes, words, colors, symbols, movies simply by closing your eyes and seeing through your mind's eye. Some people are born with this gift, as they have a very specific divine purpose and path in which they are meant to use this gift. For all others including myself, we can develop this gift and also learn the language of the pictures, words or images we already might see. It's about interpreting what you receive if it's not clearly illustrated through clairvoyance. I will tell you, that clairvoyance is not my strongest intuitive sense, but I do see colors, words and blurry images. Through guided visualization you can also develop this skill.

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Excerpted from Soaring â" a Teen's Guide to Spirit and Spirituality by Deneen Vukelic. Copyright © 2014 Deneen Vukelic. Excerpted by permission of John Hunt Publishing Ltd..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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