Ascended Master El Morya, May 27, 2006 through Kim Michaels.

I am fully aware that some of you either do not know what your God Flame is, or you might understand it intellectually but you have still not established that heart connection to it. I ask you to consider that the central challenge on the spiritual path is very simple. The path implies that you are at a particular step and you need to move up to the next step. In other words, there is a gap between where you are now and where you need to go. So the central challenge on the spiritual path is how to close that gap. And for many people it can seem insurmountable.

One of the major tactics employed by the dark forces and the ego, is to create the illusion that it is impossible for you to bridge the gap. They have used Jesus as a primary example in the West, but in every religion there has been created this monster of idolatry concerning the leader or leaders of that religion. Jesus was so special, was so far above everyone else that how can you possibly close the gap between your present level of consciousness and the superior level of consciousness that Jesus demonstrated. The same thing with many leaders of many organizations.

There are indeed many gurus and teachers in this world today who are not necessarily false gurus—they are well-meaning individuals, they have attained a certain spiritual attainment, perhaps even certain abilities. Yet if they do not understand the dynamics of the path, they often teach essentially by saying, “Look how advanced I am. Come up to my level!” But they do not provide a step-by-step path between where people are at in consciousness and where they are at themselves.

If these individuals are not aware of this, and are yet too focused on themselves – meaning they have not truly let go of the self-centeredness but they have a little bit of ego left – then even though they have genuine spiritual attainment, and they actually have the ability to help people grow spiritually, they have not yet bridged the gap between their own attainment and the attainment of those they teach. And thus, even though they might give a genuine teaching, it is actually a false teaching in the sense that it discourages those who accept the teaching because they think they cannot bridge the gap between their consciousness and the consciousness of the teacher. Because they see no logical step-by-step path between their level and the level demonstrated by the teacher.

A fundamental problem for spiritual teachers

And this then brings you to another understanding of the spiritual path, an essential dynamic of the path that even we of the ascended masters cannot circumvent as long as people are trapped in the ego. For you see, how can we make anyone motivated to follow the spiritual path unless we demonstrate to them that there is an advantage to following that path? We do that by giving people examples who demonstrate a higher level of consciousness, perhaps certain abilities that are beyond the ordinary. And yet, the ego can then use this to create that aura of idolatry, or infallibility, around the leaders, which makes it seem impossible for others to bridge the gap and attain the same consciousness as the leader.

Yet my beloved, for many years we have said, “What one human being has done, all can do, all can attain.” And thus, I ask you to seriously ponder whether you have – in your own being – some element that makes you look at the ascended masters, or anybody in embodiment that you consider to be more spiritually advanced than yourself, and think, “Oh, I couldn’t possibly do that, I couldn’t possibly attain that.” And then I ask you to recognize that if you see this, it can only come from the ego. It cannot come from a realistic assessment from the Christ Mind because the Christ knows, as Jesus said, “With men this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.” And thus you see, you of your own self could not bridge the gap but God within you can indeed bridge that gap.

We of the ascended masters are constantly attempting to come up with ways and means to help people bridge the gap. And many spiritual people have used certain mechanical tools to get answers from beyond the lower mind. Yet I ask you again, as we have said before, to keep in mind that every tool we give you can become a trap, if you become too attached to it and think that you should be able to get all your answers in a specific way. And thus, I desire you to recognize that every tool we give you as a means to an end must not become an end in itself, for in that case it is no longer helping you to grow but only helping to keep you trapped.

This is an excerpt from a longer teaching. You can read the full dictation HERE.