Heather, in that we continue to argue about free will millennium after millennia, it would appear that, no, no one understands this sentence. You can still find highly intelligent and learned philosophers and theologians who insist that everything is predetermined by God or a Higher Power, that we have no say in what we do, that no one can withstand this, just as your sentence says. On the other hand ask any ordinary ten-year-old whether they are familiar with an angel being on one shoulder urging you to do something and a devil on the other shoulder urging the opposite, and they will not only know what you are talking about but insist that it is ultimately up to them to decide which way to go.

To complicate this, if you searched you could find multiple places within Heavenletters where God specifically talks about our free will as a treasured gift and a reality. Well, which is it? Both can't be right. Make up Your mind, God.

The problem in understanding would appear to be our holding on to dualistic thinking in which apparent opposites can't exist together. It has to be either/or. This is the way people have thought for a very long time, especially in the Western world, where rationality and logic and the intellect have prevailed. We just might be in the middle of an evolutionary leap where that is only true within a certain context and upon stepping back for a wider view, either/or becomes both/and.

The problem you bring up appears to come from not being able to separate our ego from the Divine Presence that lives within us. That's a hard one and perhaps is our basic life task. Today's message speaks of the Oneness that is the end goal where these two supposedly conflicting points of view no longer exist as separate. God ends the message saying, "Come along. Come now." If we were puppets, God wouldn't have to say this. At the same time, if God was not at work in you drawing you to Him, you most likely wouldn't be reading these messages and wondering these thoughts. It's sort of like God sends the wind and you raise the sail.

Because of a very powerfull vision I had a few years ago, I think I know EXACTLY what that sentence means. To fill the void of love that I considered my heart to be at the time, I was told to replace it with the love of God. So, during a group ceremony, I asked to feel God's love. And my prayer was granted. I had a vision of the hugeness of God's love. It was represented as an immense pink cloud which I knew reached to infinity and filled it all. I saw myself under that cloud behind a window that was just slightly opened and allowed just a very small ray of that Love to fall on me. Ahh!, the feeling of being loved so much was all that I could ever wish for for the rest of eternity and it just numbed all other thought or feeling. But I could only withstand it for a few seconds because I just knew neither my body nor my mind would survive if I got much more at that time. It was not caused by a feeling of unworthiness but rether a knowing that my body or my energy level was not yet high enough.
That is why I've been hoping since then that the ladder to reach God would have many rungs. That is why it makes sense to me that we'll only be ascending to 5th dimension while there are a great number of other dimensions to which we might aspire.
I also deduced another lesson from that vision and that is that it is impossible for God not to love us. He cannot even NOTICE our misdemeanours or see our faults so immersed is He in that immensity of Love. It is only us that judge ourselves unworthy, therefore lowering our energy level and thus making it far more difficult to climb the rungs of the ladder.
Needless to say I was on a "pink cloud" for a while after that. I just loved everybody and was going around kissing almost anybody and enjoining my friends and family to search for God. I met with so many rebuffs that I eventually came down off of my cloud. It hurt a lot.
I then understood that I couldn't go there and remain unless I was surrounded by kindred spirits. I'm certainly one of those who prayed for mass assension.

I very much like and agree with the understanding you give here, Victor. We cannot be, for very long, other than God intends us to be... we cannot successfully swim against the current. Even given our gift of "free will", we cannot really move in the wrong direction, only face the wrong direction and feel as if we are being pulled backwards. When we learn to freely surrender to the Love We Are our free will IS the One Will and we know the joy of Being.

Yes thank you Victor...this does help...I learn best by visual....so now I can see this 'not withstand' is not meant negatively..but as something presented to us which so spectacular..... a joy or love that would supersede our gift of free will....a true awakening....Heather

How beautiful is this discussion. Everyone is speaking the truth of his or her heart and not stepping on anyone's toes. There is agreement and disagreement from open hearts, and there is good will. This is what the world is going to become more of. And this is what is happening right here on this forum.

There was a time we can remember in our lifetimes when differences led to fighting!

There was an earlier discussion about destiny and/or free will. This is what this is about, isn't it?

Maybe all of us who are here right now were destined to come together on this page. Perhaps it was written somewhere that we would. From different parts of the world, supposed strangers, we meet right here on this forum. Our hearts meet. We didn't know about it beforehand. We just came together from the goodness of our hearts.

Did any of us come here unwillingly? Was anyone forced? I think we chose to be here together on this day. We came of our own free will. We are glad to be here. We were not misled to come here. I mean, no one sold us a bill of goods. There wasn't false advertising. We were not duped.

And, at any moment, any one of us can choose to come again or choose not to come, or just not come back because we are pulled somewhere else seemingly by default, yet, nevertheless, we are the ones making our choices.

God Who gave us free will is irresistible to us. To God, time is nothing. Ultimately, He has the upper hand because He is the most charming of all that life offers. Ultimately, we will jump on His lap. It's possible to say that God has it rigged just like the magnets Victor describes. Still, it's our choice. We make that choice when we make it.

The swallows go back to Capistrano.

This goes deep, beloved Normand.