Just a Minute of Your Time

An Address From Brother Bernard

Recorded in the Abingdon Church on the 17th of May 1992

Good evening friends.

It is with joy that we come into your group once again to speak with you for a short while and to leave with you one or two thoughts that might be of help to you in the coming week.

You have come into a Spiritualist Church and you have accepted the fact that life is eternal.You know that when you have come to the end of your time upon Earth you will step forward into a new phase of existence but you will still be the same person that you are on the earth plane; the innermost soul of you; the part that will go on when you leave your body behind will be the same when you are in the World of Spirit as it is when you are on the earth plane.

But, we hope, that when you do come to the end of your time upon Earth you will have learned some of the lessons that you came to the Earth to do.

We want just to remind you that eternal life means that you existed before you came to Earth; even as you will exist when you leave it behind. Each one of you has probably had many existences upon Earth; and not only upon Earth. You have probably lived in other worlds, in other universes, but the essence of you, your soul as you term it, is the same as it always was. It will be broader, it will be deeper, it will grow, because the purpose of your coming to inhabit a body of matter is so that you will learn various lessons that you think are necessary for your development.

Each one of you is on a pathway that will, eventually, sometime, lead you to God; lead you to Spirit; lead you into a phase of existence that you cannot imagine at the present time.

Your life upon the earth plane, with all it's difficulties, with all it's troubles; even though it may seem to you at times to be so very long; so very burdensome to your soul it is just a minute of your time.

When you consider eternity what does it represent to you? Your world of science is beginning to go further and further into your universe; is beginning to see more and more of the worlds that are around you, and yet you are so very limited. You see your sun, you see your moon, you see those other suns as being stars in the sky and all the knowledge that man has got is nothing compared to the knowledge that there is.

Sometimes, as you go through your pathway of life you think to yourself that you have learned very, very little and especially when you are coming towards the close of your days you look back and you feel a sense of disappointment because you can see the things that you could have done and that you omitted to do. When you come over the border that you call death, when you are reborn into the Spirit World, then you look back at the whole of your life, you see it unfolding, not in an instant, but gradually as you are in a position to look, as you are in a position to understand, as you are in a position to take advantage of the knowledge you have gained. Perhaps you will see the dark places, but you will also see the good. You may see the things that you have left undone, but you will also see the things that you have done.

While you are walking the earth plane you cannot meet anybody, in any form, without having an effect upon them, even as they have an effect upon you. If you can go through your Earth life knowing that you are immortal, knowing that whatever happens to your body cannot affect your soul, knowing that if you face the difficulties and the troubles, and they seem to you to be greater than other peoples, then it is because you need that experience.

We have spoken to you many times to you over the past few years and always we have tried to emphasis the fact that we want you to experience, we want you to accept the obstacles that lie in your pathway, we want you to take the opportunities that come your way, we want you to pass on the everyone that you meet, whether they are on the Earth, whether they are in the Spirit World, whether they are in human form, or whether they are in animal form, or in the World of Nature. Everything that has life has a part of God, has Spirit within it, and we want you to recognise that Spirit. We want you to feel your kinship with the whole of your world. It can be a very beautiful place, it can be a very dark experience, but always it will be necessary for you soul to make contact with it, to accept the things that come your way, to know that you have chosen the way that you are going, you have chosen the experiences you meet, you have chosen to live a life on Earth, and you have got to accept the things of Earth, the limitations of matter.

Of course you reach out to the Spirit World. You know that you have got helpers from, what you term, the other side of life who are there to help you, not to lead your lives for you, not to give you advice on your day to day behaviour, but to try to help you to see your pathway. If you have a choice before, you to try to help you to make a wise choice. But you have got free will; you can choose which way you want to go, what you want to do, the pathway that you wish to tread. Sometimes it will be very simple and easy, you will find that you go along for a certain period of time when everything seems to go right for you, and then you will come to another place where it seems as though it is difficult for you to make any progress at all. You can learn from the happiness that you get in life, as you can also learn from the tragedies that come.

Tonight we know that you are mourning one of your Brothers (Ralph Wakelin who had been President of the Church for may years) who has passed on into the World of Spirit, but you need not feel sorry for him because he has left behind a body that was becoming more and more troublesome to him. He will have a short period of rest, recuperation, we do not mind what you term it, but then, once he awakens, because of the knowledge that he has had during his life, because of the good that he has done, because of the love that he has engendered in so many people, so he will find his place in the Spirit World easily and well.

Sometimes, as we link into your minds, we feel the despair that you have, we feel the times when everything seems to go wrong. When whatever you do seems to be misunderstood, when everything seems to be in such a state of desolation. Remember you can always link up with Spirit, you can send our your prayers knowing that they have power, you can do the little jobs that come to your hand willingly and well. Try to show happiness in your life, try to prove to other people how much better life is for you because you have this knowledge of Spiritual Reality. You will always find those who are more advanced than you and those who are less advanced but remember each one of you is an individual, you are at an individual stage of your progress, you look at things from a slightly different point of view from anyone else. And so it is in your life. Do not condemn anyone for the sins that they commit upon the earth plane. Send out your love to them, to the spirit that is within them, praying that they will see the error of their ways, praying that they will be conscious of your love and being conscious of it that they will do better in future.

Life on the earth plane will never be perfect; if it were there would be no point in coming to Earth. You come in order to learn, in order to experience, in order to progress, and the progression that takes place in your life upon Earth will lead to your progression in the next world when you leave the Earth behind.

We come to you with our love and we send our love out to each one of you, to those who are linked to you, and we try to send our love out to the whole of your earth plane, praying that sense will prevail, that man will learn that he can gain nothing by force, that love is the most powerful thing that there is, both on the earth plane and in the Spirit World.

Goodnight and God bless each one of you.