So much misfortune these days seems to come about because of our disregard for a fundamental universal/human right – the right to free will.
Why is that phrase so much neglected? Because we hear our parents say, “Now you two play fair with each other” and we grimace at being controlled (never mind how much we enjoyed disagreeing with our sibling)?
Is it because we think anything “free” mustn’t have value? Or that “will” equates to wilfulness and that’s a bad thing?
Whatever it is, we overlook the fact that “free will” is the right of every sovereign and independent being. If our free will is violated, a universal law has been violated and that results in unlearned lessons or karma.
What does the law say?
Matthew Ward put it this way: “The law of free will is a cosmic law decreeing that it is the birthright of all souls to choose their pathway toward or away from spiritual enlightenment.” (1)
Hilarion gave a good statement of it as well:
“Each individual has the right to express and act on their own inner convictions of what they feel is the right thing to do and it behooves everyone to begin to respect each other no matter what the diversity of their opinions and convictions are. Everyone has the right of free-will choice because you live on a free-will planet and that is what it means to live on a free will planet!” (2)
He expands on these summary statements:
“It is the right of each individual to access their internal sovereignty and use their Divine wisdom and knowledge to make free-will choices in that which they feel is the right and good thing to do. Because opinions differ does not mean that those you oppose are less than you – all it means is that they walk to a different beat. All that means is that they have taken the time to go within and choose that which they believe is the right choice to make.
“These current times are all about choosing to follow your own star, to walk in joy, to do those things that bring you joy, that bring you happiness. It is not required that you need the outer world to dictate to you what can bring that joy to you, it is all within you and it has always been within you – for that is where the Divine lives – within you!” (3)
The law applies to everyone, Matthew says. “God,” as used here, refers to the conditioned God, the personal God, God in form, ruler of a universe. The formless, impersonal, and unconditioned God cannot be limited in any way.
“Neither God nor any soul in physical or spirit worlds is permitted to interfere with anyone’s use of free will.” (4)
He tells us here that the Creator has enjoined them all to respect free will:
“Everyone’s free will must be honored in accordance with Creator’s edict to rulers of all the universes.” (5)
“Creator established the cosmic laws and God, by whatever name one calls the Supreme Being of this universe, must honor those laws in this universe.” (6)
He continues:
“This is with sound reason. Interference would deny countless souls the karmic experiencing they chose so they can evolve, and evolvement is the goal of every soul in every lifetime. What God and all of His emissaries are permitted to do is send all souls love-light, the most powerful force in the cosmos, to open hearts and minds, give solace to the grieving, courage to the faltering, hope to the struggling, momentum to the newly awakened.” (7)
I once asked Sanat Kumara what the consequences were of routinely violating the free will of another. He replied:
“Well, the most dire consequence is you will never be happy. You will never move into the expanded heart consciousness. You will never know the bliss and the ecstasy. You will never be the fulfillment of who you are, your sacred design, your mission and purpose, if you persist in such behavior. …
“Why would you wish for someone to align with your will when it is not their will? What is it within your being that makes you think, feel, believe, that you are more aligned, more correct, and have the position to assume superiority over another’s life? How, in any construct, could this ever be considered love?
“How – in overriding what you think of as right or wrong, correct or incorrect of what you think someone else is thinking, doing, behaving, feeling – how can that ever be translated as love? Well, it obviously cannot. It is an egoic move, and it is a move that is rooted in insecurity and lack of trust, forgiveness and self-worth.” (8)
“At risk of your soul and your soul purpose,” he cautioned us, “you cannot interfere or try to override another’s free will. It is highway robbery. ” (9)
Jesus through John Smallman describes how an organization works on fear to create a hierarchy to which we feel we must conform:
“You have always had free will, but, within the illusion where you have taken form as individual humans, seemingly totally separated from one another, you have accepted the illusion as a real state comprised of levels of authority to which you have to submit.
“Most of you believe that where you are situated in that power structure is as a result of your family’s place in that structure, modified by your own intellectual abilities and academic achievements. In other words you can progress upwards through that structure to places of power and influence, and the system encourages you to believe this and to do your best to rise through the ranks.
“Initial successes or achievements can be extremely rewarding and addictive, encouraging you to attempt to climb ever higher in the organization and claim the further rewards that success offers you. You bend or modify your honesty and integrity in apparently small and unimportant ways to enable you to rise upwards to positions of increasing power, authority, and acclaim, only to discover that you are no longer free, and instead belong to the dogmatic authoritarian structure to which you have given away your power.
“It becomes apparent that however high you rise there is always someone above you to whom you answer and whose authority you have to accept even if you utterly disagree with the directions and orders that you have to follow. By then, because of your personal commitments – financial, family, and friends – and your small indiscretions where you have abandoned honesty and integrity to support your superiors, you find yourselves trapped in a web of deceit from which there seems to be no escape.” (10)
Meanwhile people who have made it to the top live in the greatest fear of all.
“At the highest levels in all organizations people live in intense fear! Fear of discovery or fear of dismissal, and so they are encouraged and tempted to discard all their remaining integrity and honesty, the aspects of themselves that they were originally taught to believe were the most sacrosanct. To arrive at this level and realize that there is no way back is shocking and terrifying, because all personal power is now lost, given away, and for nothing!” (11)
At some point we awaken to the fact that nothing can take our free will from us, Jesus explains.
“Of course, you always have free will. It can never be taken from you. However, to reclaim it demands honesty and integrity. … To come clean and apologize is both extremely painful and absolutely essential if you are to regain your self-esteem. …
“It demands courage at a level that you have never had to call on before – it is terrifying, it is the edge of the abyss, and you have to jump.” (12)
Sufficient has been said, I think, to suggest ways the sense of free will has been eroded in our society.
Like Plato’s prisoners in the cave, we come out into the Light and see that, as eroded as that sense of free will may be, we still are and always have been free.
But all our relationships would be enhanced, I think, if we rigorously respected each other’s free will. Sexual assault would stop. The rationale behind hierarchical structures would be revealed as hollow and self-serving.
Sooner or later, we’ll have to begin to respect that everyone has been given the right of freedom by the One to pursue the paths they wish to, without censure or penalty, as long as they harm no one.
Footnotes
(1) Matthew’s Message, Aug. 5, 2005, at https://www.matthewbooks.com.
(2) Hilarion, Nov. 15, 2016, at https://www.therainbowscribe.com/
(3) Loc. cit.
(4) Matthew’s Message, June 19, 2016.
(5) Matthew’s Message, Oct. 19, 2014.
(6) Matthew’s Message, Nov. 12, 2004.
(7) Matthew’s Message, June 19, 2016, ibid.
(8) Sanat Kumara, “Universal Law, Divine Justice & Freedom,” May 23, 2016, at https://counciloflove.com/2016/05/universal-law-divine-justice-freedom/.
(9) Loc. cit.
(10) Jesus through John Smallman, March 30, 2016.
(11) Loc cit.
(12) Loc. cit.