Something Special Ahead
Click on photo for information about it.
Even though we have no conscious awareness of it, we are always surrounded by spiritual assistance. While there are many spirit beings and forces impinging upon us, we will discuss only a few here: the spark of God dwelling within each of us, the Spirit of Truth, our soul, and our Guardian Angels.
God Within
Every mortal with a normal mind living on this planet has as a part of their being an actual fragment of God, called our Thought Adjuster, or Monitor; this is also discussed in the God Within talking point page. God is therefore infinite, can be everywhere, and yet at the same instant actually dwells within each of us; He is both within us and outside us guiding us toward His presence. We need not go any farther than our inner experience to find God and commune with Him.[1] The presence of our Heavenly Father within each mortal is also mentioned in the Bible.[2]
Our Heavenly Father is infinite, perfect and infallible; how then can He experience growth, change, or have finite experience? By bestowing these Thought Adjusters to mortals He can experience every true experience of our ascending carrier; in this way He becomes in fact our experiential Father.[3]
Spirit of Truth
After the Last Supper, Jesus addressed the apostles, telling them about the Spirit of Truth he would soon bestow upon the world; he said he would leave with them one who would teach them truth and comfort them, the Spirit of Truth.[4] He told them he could be with each of them at the same time; he would not leave them (or us) without guidance and he would be with them, teaching them.[5]
This spirit guide is exactly like Jesus except for the material body and will live with each of us. Jesus tells us: in this very manner will my Father and I be able to live in the souls of each one of you and also in the hearts of all other men who love us and make that love real in their experiences by loving one another, even as I am now loving you. (Urantia Book 1949.1) He lives in us as the Spirit of Truth just as the Father lives in us by means of the Thought Adjuster. Each of us has powerful spirit guides dwelling with us and they will certainly show us the way if we let them.
This Spirit of Truth is not the letter or law of truth, nor is it some expression of truth. The new teacher is the conviction of truth, the consciousness and assurance of true meanings on real spirit levels. (Urantia Book, 1949.3) With this spirit guiding us, we know truth just as if Jesus were with us pointing it out for us. If we follow its guidance this spirit will certainly lead us into truth.
Now we have started seeking life everlasting and accepted the opportunity to progress, do not fear the dangers of human forgetfulness and mortal inconstancy, do not be troubled with doubts of failure or by perplexing confusion, do not falter and question your status and standing, for in every dark hour, at every crossroad in the forward struggle, the Spirit of Truth will always speak, saying, “This is the way.” (Urantia Book 383.2)
We are familiar with the Spirit of Truth since it is mentioned in the Bible where it is called the Holy Spirit.[6] It powerfully activated the apostles at Pentecost, especially Peter.[7]
Our Soul
The idea something of a spirit nature dwells within each of us has been known since early times on Urantia; it appears several times in the Bible.[8] Many peoples have believed there is something vital growing within us destined to survive after physical death.[9] There is a word equivalent to the idea of soul in the language of every evolving race on our planet.[10]
The soul grows by experience as the individual makes spiritual decisions. This growth is encouraged by the indwelling adjuster and grows as the personality continues to make spiritual decisions. This soul is not physical nor is it purely spiritual but rather it is between these levels; it will survive death and eventually go to Paradise should the individual so choose.[11]
When the Thought Adjuster arrives as a consequence of the child’s first moral thought, the soul is born. Moral choice and spiritual attainment, the ability to know God and the urge to be like him, are the characteristics of the soul. The soul of man cannot exist apart from moral thinking and spiritual activity. (Urantia Book 1478.4) Thus the soul grows as we continue to make spiritual decisions and the soul must always be reaching out for growth because a stagnant soul is a dying soul.
There are three factors influencing the creation and growth of the soul: the human mind, the indwelling adjuster, and the relationship between these two; this relationship becomes the soul.[12] The soul thus grows as we, of our own free will, arrive at spiritual decisions under the guidance of our adjuster; we hinder or assist its growth by our decisions.
Guardian Angels
Our guardian angels assist us in our earthly life, they are the traditional angels of heaven that we are familiar with from the Bible.[13] They have real forms but do not have physical bodies and they do not have wings.[14] Other than this they are very much like us, in fact we were created just a little bit lower than them.[15] Angels have been on this planet since the appearance of intelligent life.
Every person has a guardian angel to watch over them but the number of mortals each angel oversees varies according to the spiritual progress each person has made. At first each angel has oversight over one thousand mortals; as individuals make spiritual progress this ratio changes, decreasing to one hundred, then to ten. Finally persons who have made the most spiritual progress each have a personal guardian angel; actually there are two of them because they always work in pairs.[16]
These guardian angels act according to the directions of their supervisors rather than upon our direct requests; they have orders independent of whatever our passing fancy might be. Our choices may make their work on our behalf easier or more difficult but they do not necessarily respond to our prayers. Any response to prayer comes from God and He may use beings other than our guardian angels to answer our prayers. Guardian angels actually do guard us but they will not interfere with any of our free will choices; our free will decisions are held sacred by all higher beings. When we do make such a free will decision, our angels will do everything possible to help us make the best use of our chosen course.[17] If it is a worthy decision they will help us all they can, if on the other hand it is unworthy, they might work with us to assist us to see the better way, arrive at a better choice.
Our internal Thought Adjuster is the essence of our eternal nature, what we will be throughout future eternity, should we so choose. Angels are the teachers of our evolving nature, of what we are becoming as we progress Godward; after our life in the flesh angels will still be with us, and then we will be able to see them and interact with them;[18] they will be with each of us for a very long time indeed.
Contrary to what our physical senses tell us, we are not alone in a friendless world. We are guided, guarded and protected by loving spirit guides. We hinder their work when we engage in selfish materialistic activity, when we put ourself ahead of our sisters and brothers, when we trample on the rights of those beaten down by society, and when we ignore spiritual reality. We must go forth with the certain knowledge of God’s guidance in our lives. Although there may be momentary setbacks, our Heavenly Father is with us and when we trust in this truth we cannot fail.
Further reading
“Light of Truth: Anticipating the Triumph of Righteousness”
Chapter 2 – Spiritual Reality
Urantia Book
Paper 5 God’s Relation to the Individual
Paper 38 Ministering Spirits of the Local Universe
Paper 111 The Adjuster and the Soul
Paper 112 Personality Survival
-
All references are to The Urantia Book unless otherwise noted. The number refers to the single column version in the format page.paragraph; 62.1 ↑
-
Bible, I Corinthians 3, 16 ↑
-
1185.2 ↑
-
1947.2 ↑
-
1948.2 ↑
-
Bible, Acts chapter 2 ↑
-
2060.2 ↑
-
Bible, Psalms 23, 3 for example ↑
-
1215.2 ↑
-
1216.1 ↑
-
8.10 ↑
-
1218.2-5 ↑
-
1241.2 and Bible, John 20:12 ↑
-
1246.1 ↑
-
1248.3 ↑
-
1242.2-3 ↑
-
1246.2-3 ↑
-
1245.2 ↑