In case you haven’t noticed, the world continues to go through incredible changes but this is because consciousness continues to go through incredible changes. In other words, the world is merely mirroring what we all are going through in consciousness. It was never just a fad to talk about things like “The Prophecies of Nostradamus” or the “Shifts of 2012.” All of these changes are completely true and authentic and they are happening now. The world as we know it continues to shift. We are literally shifting from living in a third-dimensional universe with a third-dimensional consciousness toward higher dimensions and higher levels of consciousness. Examples of the evidence and symptoms of this shift in consciousness vary from positive (experiencing profound synchronicities) to negative (watching the systems of the world—such as politics, relationships, and church—fall apart and disappear).

Keeping the Faith in One Another

Currently, one of the most common things people are asking about, in workshops and in private sessions, is why so many people who were formerly close friends or partners and so forth, are seemingly shifting away from love and beginning to act irrationally, possibly attacking others unnecessarily. And, if so many people are finding this to be true, why is it happening? It’s because we are all having our faith tested . . . not the usual “test of faith” that is often attributed to God, such as when we are told that “God is testing our faith in Him.”

Instead, the tests that we are experiencing are actually related to our ability to maintain faith in who God is, who we are, and who others are. In other words, what we are all going through at this time is simply a test that calls us to remain faithful in our ability to know the Divinity of God, as well as the divinity of ourselves and others. The world around us and many people in our lives might be acting “insanely” but we are called to nevertheless remember that the insanity is not what they are—even though it is was they are doing. If they act insanely, that would merely be the insane, ego part of them behaving as such. And since it’s their insane, ego self that is doing this, we might not expect anything else but insanity to come from them. Our test is to know that beneath their insane behavior is their true essence and we are asked to affirm the presence of this true essence—despite their behaviors. A Course in Miracles says, “Holiness cannot BE SEEN except through faith, and your relationship is not holy if your faith in one another is limited.” Now this doesn’t mean we have to enable their behavior or “move in” with them, but it does mean that we have to love their soul (but not their ego)—even if we choose to say goodbye to them.

Faith in Our Divinity

When Jesus spoke of us having faith, he was not referring to the usual “blind faith” in God that fundamental churches ask us to have. Instead, Jesus was imploring us to PRAY to know the true Divinity of all beings, then to have FAITH that this Divinity is so, and lastly to then TRUST that we will one day see and experience the incredible results of maintaining such convictioneven if not in this world. This is the only way we can say that we have “passed our test.”

And when the New Testament told us that “Faith is the conviction behind things hoped for and the belief in things not yet seen,” it was not actually suggesting that we are to have faith that “the things we are praying for will eventually manifest.” Instead, it was saying that instead of focusing our prayers on material things or material outcomes, we should focus them on “things unseen,” which meant to focus our prayers on spiritual things—attributes of God—such as Love.

Of course, faith should not be confused with having a careless trust in potentially harmful people or things. Instead, healthy trust (and faith) comes from having faith in the true identity of God, Self, and Others. And if/when we begin to doubt, it means we are being faithless and not trusting in who God is nor who we (or others) are. The solution is to return to the first step of praying to remember everyone’s true self. Then we need to restore our faith in the Divine Identity of all beings. And if/when others are not choosing to align with this identity, we are asked to “shake off the dust (residue)” of the experience and walk away but without losing the faith that in their core: everyone is still Divine and all will return to sanity as soon as they choose to do so. In the meantime, we are called to affirm the identity that they themselves may have forgotten. And in so doing, we also rise to a new level (and higher dimension) of consciousness than we have ever been.