Posted by Roberta Grimes • September 09, 2023 • 34 Comments
Jesus
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
– Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), from “How Do I Love Thee?” (1850)
Someone has recently asked me if I could channel Jesus, or if I knew of someone who could channel Jesus. I told her No, on both counts. And in an effort to temper her expectations, I added that Jesus is very busy, and we cannot cause Jesus to appear at our command just to chat. She emailed me back rather huffily that she would try to remember that Jesus did not have time for her. At once I sent her another email, saying that was not my point at all! But there are billions of Christians on earth, and there is just one of Him, and I don’t know how either God or Jesus can be receptive to all the prayers that they receive; but somehow they do manage to hear and to answer each individual prayer. I didn’t think that she would presume to ask if I could channel God, would she? And Jesus is no different!
Although perhaps that is not really true at all. Jesus is fully God and fully Man, and He is determined to maintain that human aspect of Himself, even though now He can continue to maintain His humanity only with tremendous effort. I have talked here about how Jesus has remained on the entrance level of the astral plane so He can welcome every returning Christian who wants to meet Him personally, and He and Thomas spend a lot of time together, even physically play-fighting as loving brothers will, all so Jesus can maintain Himself in human balance. So Jesus really is unique. Although He is vibrating now even above the Godhead level, His love for humankind is such that He puts tremendous effort into maintaining Himself as fully one of us. And His maintaining that gritty human touch does require a surprising amount of effort!
Before last year, I guess I thought of Jesus pretty much as most people do, more or less as just another public figure. And you and I feel as if we own public figures, don’t we? That is the brutal price of fame: when you are famous enough, you give up your privacy. Before last year, Jesus was generic Jesus to me as well, so I would have expected, just as that woman who emailed me expects, that I could pray to Jesus and expect to get His personal attention. If someone were channeling Jesus, I would assume that as a cradle Christian I had the right to get in line and talk directly with Jesus as well. There is now an artificial intelligence Jesus chatbot app available, which frankly seems to me to be an abomination; but before last year, I think I would have seen a Jesus chatbot as just fine, and perhaps even inevitable. Technically Jesus is a deceased public figure who possesses no legal personhood, so He sadly lacks the standing even to sue in court to protect His good name.
But having personally met Jesus last year has made such a monumental difference for me that now I wish that everyone could also personally meet Him! Jesus is a complete and well-rounded, living and breathing Person. I have read articles about Jesus since the night when I first met Him, each talking about some little facet of Jesus based on Biblical evidence and various assumptions, but none of the authors has ever had the great good fortune of actually meeting Jesus, and therefore nothing that I ever have read has conveyed the fact that my treasured Friend is a whole living Person who has His own unique personality. And remarkably, the impression that He makes is not what you might think. Jesus is difficult to describe because He seems when you meet Him to be so young, and yet He has such obvious deep gravitas. He looks to be in his early thirties, and He is only maybe five feet nine or ten inches tall. You can feel people’s personal energies in the astral, and Jesus’s energy is like no one else’s, powerful and yet absolutely smooth, with no low notes at all. I think the reason Jesus seems so powerful and at the same time so mild is that He has no ego, as we think of an ego. No sense of putting Himself forward or wanting your attention, although of course there is no need for that because His personal energy makes it clear Who He is. Jesus focuses great attention on you, and He doesn’t expect you to focus attention on Him, which is not how people customarily act; but it is charming to have Him so delightfully interested in you! He looks deeply into your eyes when He talks to you. Indeed, talking with Jesus is such a different experience that it flustered me on the night when I first met Him. I recall that at one point I became so overcome that I blurted to Him, “Have you any idea what a big deal you are?” Then I was embarrassed about having said something so stupid. But He seemed not to have heard it. Or perhaps He was just perplexed about why I had said it.
I think the best way to describe Jesus’s manner is to say that He makes me think of a self-made, very prosperous young man. I have worked with some very successful businessmen in my legal career, which has been spent advising the owners of closely-held businesses. And all the most successful business owners that I ever have met have been pretty much the way that Jesus is now. They were friendly, kindly, respectful, entirely focused on their visitor, and at the same time efficient and no-nonsense because their time was so valuable. Jesus is all of that. As I have said in other posts, my Thomas spends time with Jesus on most nights as part of his effort to help Jesus maintain His human balance, and since as my spirit guide Thomas also is supposed to keep watch over me, he generally takes me along, but with amnesia for the event. Last summer, however, He and Jesus were allowing me to remember some events from the nights that I spent with them because we were thinking through developing seekreality.com and teachingsbyjesus.com, the two websites that Jesus wanted me to create, so Jesus liked having me nearby where He could give me His thoughts on the websites. And what an extraordinary summer it was! I never remember dreams. And anyway, these experiences were not dreams. I would wake up on a couple of mornings each week with an awareness of having been with Jesus and Thomas by the river, and the actual memory would fill in over the next hour or so. In earth-time, no visit was very long. And some memories seemed to have missed the mark in terms of timing, in that I think I was remembering what had happened just before or just after Jesus had spoken to me and I would have His words separately. But they were real and amazing memories of having spent time with Jesus and Thomas in the astral plane.
One thing I have come to understand is that the Jesus I love so dearly has grown spiritually even a great deal more since He lived on earth two thousand years ago. The historical Jesus whose life’s work is described in the Canonical Gospels was and remains abundantly real. The evidence that Jesus was born from the Godhead as a perfected Being, powerfully and miraculously divine, and that He lived, died, and was resurrected in the first century CE is beyond question. But my Thomas tells me that most of the extraordinary spiritual growth that is so evident in Jesus now is the result of His having spent the past seventeen hundred years patiently loving and healing the hundreds of millions of people who were damaged by Constantine’s Christianity as the Roman Emperor and his successors established and built their religion beginning in about the year 313 CE. During all that time, Jesus’s healing gardens in the afterlife were full of brutally damaged victims of the Inquisitions and the Crusades, and even victims of the fear-based lies about God and about reality that the Romans built into their version of Christianity so they could use the religion as a means of human control. All the centuries of boundless, selfless love that Jesus has put into healing those hundreds of millions of people since He was resurrected have made Jesus even immensely more spiritually powerful than He was when He lived on earth as Jesus, or so my Thomas tells me now. And Thomas knew our Friend on earth during His earth-lifetime as Jesus, so he is able to describe the differences this further growth has made in Him.
One thing that I have long wanted to know from Thomas was how Jesus could possibly be hearing and answering the prayers of billions of people at once. And my Thomas, always a man of few words, used always to tell me just that Jesus did it the same way that God did it. Which of course told me nothing at all. So finally, and very recently, Thomas told me that when Jesus seemed to be sitting and gazing out at the river perhaps, or otherwise He seemed to be deep in thought, He was actually deep inside His mind and involved with all the people who needed Him. And I was suddenly aware that, of course, Jesus did that sort of brief withdrawal almost constantly, all the time, and in little bits of time. For example, if Jesus was having a conversation, He often would blank briefly, looking away, and then come back again. Thomas tells me that at this point, Jesus’s mind has become what is probably a close mimic of God’s mind. And yes, Jesus can hear our individual prayers, so no worries about that. I still don’t really get it. A billion is a lot of people! But earth-time is not astral-time, so things in the astral might be altered or compressed in some way. And whatever is going on seems to be working for Jesus. And therefore it works for us.
But I do so much love my precious Friend! I don’t think I ever understood the meaning of the word “charismatic” until I met Jesus in person, and now I think it is no wonder that He had crowds following Him all over Galilee. You just want to be near Him. You want to hear His voice, and it doesn’t much matter what He is saying. I think it is all because Jesus makes you feel so personally loved. So individually precious to Him. That seems to have been a theme throughout the Gospels, too, that Jesus called to fishermen to leave their nets and follow Him, and instantly they made that life-changing decision. Or He otherwise gave His attention to someone, and He got an instant positive reaction. And wow, I certainly know how that feels! When Jesus looks at you, the love in His eyes and in His face overwhelms you completely. And His is a personal, individual sort of love: it belongs to you alone, which may perhaps have been what bothered the clergymen of His day, who did not take it well. He was calling them to a standard so far above their own in terms of love and service to humankind. And since one of Jesus’s purposes in coming to earth was to abolish religions and teach people to relate to God directly, you can see why Jesus as a Teacher might have grated on them!
Jesus calls me “Little One.” He is avid to hear about my day, and He listens closely and asks me questions as if the trivialities of my life matter more to Him than they do to me. You have never had a truer Friend than Jesus, or a better Teacher, or a more doting Parent. Since meeting Him, I have become a nicer person than I was before, kinder and a lot more patient with others. I have thought more than once that if only there were some way that we could clone Jesus so everyone could have his or her own personal Friend, the world would be at once a more perfect place. But when I first said that, both Jesus and Thomas said that we each do have that perfect Friend in the Gospels, and now further simplified in teachingsbyjesus.com. You will be amazed to know how much Jesus cares about the personal lives of each of those who love Him. It is not just me! So read the Gospels, and read His website. Speak to Jesus in your heart. You can tell Him about your day, just as I do! If you have questions, email them to me and I will try to answer them. Think of that Browning sonnet as Jesus speaking to you personally, and recite the sonnet to Jesus in return. Feel free to love Jesus with everything that is in you now, and for Him and for yourself do the very best that you can with your spiritual growth in this lifetime. Live His teachings every day. You know that when it is time for you to go home, He will be waiting to greet you as the eternally treasured personal friend of His that now and forever you truly are.
Good Morning Roberta!
It seems such a difficult task we engage in to “understand” Jesus. We so desperately want to know, feel, hear and see Him, as if, as you say, He is some Rockstar. And yet, He spent His time here, and His “time” now, teaching and encouraging us to know, feel, hear and see ourselves and brethren the same way. We want someone as important as Jesus to tell us we are rockstars too-so loved and cherished. We want this because we don’t recognize the truth within ourselves, always looking to the external for validation. Perhaps this is why your email friend asked that of you. I think we can agree vast numbers of souls are so desperate to love and be love and struggle with it because they look outside. And as typical humans, we want someone to tell us what to think, say or do-it’s ingrained in us and all our laws, rules, and institutions, lest we make a “mistake”! Who better to be that Someone we seek for than Jesus? And yet, not only do we have connection through the gospels, but through the Holy Spirit. I can relate to your friend, for sure. And, I can relate to your views as well. We are all connected. Perhaps we can find comfort and peace of mind in simply accepting we don’t know and never will know, while in human form, “how” Jesus does what He does. In that, we can be relieved and let go, and just allow ourselves to happily be “Little Ones”, confident and sure that we are in His care.
Oh my dear beautiful Fran, Jesus is so amazingly unassuming! It’s almost as if He is naive about His position, but as I have come to know Him better I have come to see that it isn’t that at all. Oh no. But He is long past needing any kind of worship, and He is adamant about maintaining in all of us, and in Himself most of all, a servant’s heart. Only love and service, and He personally is never above that!
When I finally got free enough of my other work to come here and answer comments and it is already Tuesday afternoon for heaven’s sake, I was amazed to fine that Jesus was reading over my shoulder. He hasn’t done that in a while! But this post is about Him. Perhaps that was why. Then we got to Litsa’s comment below, where she is somewhat upset, and He said, “Where is she? Where is she?” I had no idea, but Jesus has His ways of honing in on people. My dear Litsa, if you felt comforted on Tuesday afternoon, please know that you were being hugged by Jesus Himself.
Roberta:
My favorite weekly posts from you are about the gospels and whatever you can share about Jesus. I come here to learn about him and I am so thrilled when you can share a story about your encounters with him. We all want to know him, and I often feel insignificant in imagining that I would one day get to meet him. I sometimes feel guilty when I ask for his attention or help and I do this often, knowing that he is busy with billions of other requests. He has not let me down and has been with me or sent some angels to me when I needed them most. I am grateful for his help and all of those who he sends to me. I too feel that he wants us to communicate with him directly and no other intervention is necessary. I, too, was Catholic for many years and I found that Jesus and God can be accessed with heartfelt direct communication and not a memorized prayer. God and Jesus are divine as is the Holy Spirit and I do not think they are ever too busy to hear us as we live these human lives and try to advance our spirituality. Thank you for today’s post. Learning about Jesus as you meet and see him is wonderful. I hiope you will be able to share more in the future.
My sweet Jennifer, Jesus wants these interactions with those who love Him! If He didn’t want them, He easily could move above the third level. He loves our little group here, I am so glad to say, or why else would He read over my shoulder sometimes when there is a blog post here about Him? I understand why just the thought of being near Jesus would make you feel shy. I feel the same way! But we are all humble, gentle people here, dear. Kindly and loving people. His people.
Psalm 139:16 says today has already written for me.That cripples my freewill I do not believe it. I will concede I will act on the level to which I have “risen”.
Since joining Roberta’s blog, my heed for Jesus has exploded!I can feel my soul’s longing.I can feel my dogged resistance to change, to obey!My small self is loud and lately, rude.I want to let it out because it needs some gratification as I let more of Jesus in. I have alot more unformed to say but can say Jesus is closer to me than ever: someday I can feel his warmth and calm.
Oh my dear Erica, yes! And, indeed you do have free will. Don’t worry about that! It doesn’t surprise me at all that sometimes you feel close to Jesus, since sometimes when you have been feeling distressed, Jesus has gone to be with you and comfort you, just as He did with Litsa today.
Another great post Roberta, thanks!
Weird that you mentioned it, I decided to start telling Jesus about my normal day to day activities hoping it helps him keep his human connection. I think it’s been about a month or so since I have started, though I admit I haven’t been as punctual as I like.
I figured I would give it try and help out if I could.
Oh my dear Thomas, so often you make me smile! I’m sure He enjoys hearing about your day for a change, especially if you have managed to fit some small kindnesses into it!
Dearest Roberta,
Thank you for the wonderful post, but one that puzzles me when you write ” my treasured Friend is a whole living Person ” but also “He has no ego, as we think of an ego.” So, what puzzzles me is that He is whole yet lacks an important component, the ego either normal or mild to the point of undetect ability.
We are taught in various churches, mune being one of them, that Jesus is wholly God and wholly man. I preume that is correct, but how can he be whole without an ego? Do our egos not count as egos?
Yours,
Cookie
To jump on David’s question.
Is there such a thing as ego in the afterlife? I assumed it was a teaching tool used while we are here.
Dear Thomas, I think that we learn to rise above it!
Hey Thomas,
I feel ego-confidence belongs to Freud and he
was trying to make the machinations of the mind more distinct. But all that is replaced by the flowering of your soul which no longer needs
donations of ego! Jesus praises us 24/7- He loves us now….and forever.Ego is a false structure we no longer need♥️
My dear wonderful Cookie, yours is a good question, and I’ve had to stop and think about it, with the Jesus that I know in mind. It just seems that Jesus simply doesn’t think about Himself the way that most of us think about ourselves. He is not self-protective.There is no aspect of Himself that is a small-s self, a selfish self, or anything that might possibly be offended. It’s as if He is merged with Consciousness Itself somehow – He doesn’t protect an individual Personhood, as we all do for ourselves, since He has no need to do so. Does that make sense? He has risen above all of that. So He is meek and gentle. If you said something insulting about Jesus in His presence, He would probably laugh and hug you.
Hi Cookie and Thomas. The ego should probably be in absolute minimum function mode for anyone interested in higher spiritual vibration. I can’t imagine we have one in any but the lower regions of the afterlife. I’m betting the ego resides in the physical brain, and the primitive part at that.
My dear Ray, yes I think the ego is somehow attached to the physical or the lower aspect of ourselves. As we develop spiritually, we seem simply not to be attached to the idea of our own individual importance anymore, if that makes sense; it just doesn’t matter to us in the same way, since other things – our own spiritual growth – becomes so much more important to us.
Dear Roberta. I’m so pleased to see this blog. I’ve wanted to ask you for a while whether Jesus heard and answered prayers from us Earthbounds.
Oh my dear Ray, Jesus certainly does hear and answer our prayers! I don’t know how He keeps up with it all, but He does.
Hi Roberta,
Your blogs regarding Jesus helps me through all the hard times in life. Recently, a company I worked for, for almost 5 years decided to “let me go”.
I will not get into the details on your blog, but, being alone with no support, having dyslexia, and being on the autistic spectrum has me feeling horrible.
To forgive my former employers is tuff because I was so dedicated to my work. I have been meditating and know that Jesus would tell me “Forgive them they know not what they do” Always easier than it sounds. But slowly after processing the hurt and sadness, I am slowly letting go.
I wondered if Jesus hears my prayers the sadness and rejection because this isn’t the first time this has happened to me.
Please keep writing about Jesus, and I wish there was away for all of us to have our questions and prayers answered.
I am sure grateful for you, Thomas, and Jesus for all that you do for the souls that feel lost and rejected.
Litsa
Hi Litsa,
You are not alone. I wish I knew a way to send you my email or phone number in case you ever need to talk with someone. I don’t want to just put it out there on a public blog as you can imagine.
In any case, I would bet all of us here would be happy to listen if you ever need someone to talk with.
Ho Thomas,
You all are like family to me and your post made me feel better.
I think God has something better for me!
I have to believe that thia all happened for a reason.
Also, I read Roberta’s reply to fFran and did not know she had mentioned my name in her reply to Fran.
But between your comment and Jesus giving me a hug, I do feel better.
My heart feels lighter and I have tears in my eyes from Roberta’s comment and your reply.
I pray Roberta’s blog keeps going, for a long time.
I pray that more people will get to know the realy Jesus through Roberta’s blogs and through Jesus’s own website.
Litsa
Litsa, I do think this could be an opportunity.
Sometimes we get stuck in our daily life and need a kick in the butt to push it forward.
This may be the kick you need to jump on something that you would have otherwise passed on.
I have been listening to Scott Adam’s new book Reframe Your Brain. So far I really like it. You should be able to sign up for a Amazon Audible Trial and get the book for free. It basically talks about how we can reframe thoughts to make our lives better.
In your case, the reframe could be… this is an opportunity to find something better and more fulfilling. Where you will feel appreciated for your great work. All true, by the way.
I have felt exactly like you do. I imagine many people have. It’s a struggle at times and I realized I needed to change the way I think. That dang knucklehead ego always messing with me.
Dear Thomas, thank you so much for your recommendation! And dear Litsa, please welcome the love of Jesus into your heart. Please let Him strengthen you, and embolden you, and make you free. With you and Jesus together, anything is possible!
My dear Litsa, I do love it so much when Jesus reads over my shoulder and is moved by something that someone has written! That hasn’t happened in a while, but I guess He was interested in these comments because this post was about Him. He has a distinctive voice, a very slight accent, and I hear Him in my mind, all excited because here is someone who needs Him, and He rushes off to help! OMG, my dear, that is some powerful love you have focused on you now!
Hi Roberta,
Again, thank you for your beautiful message! And, I did feel something very powerful yesterday. It feels that things are coming together. I feel less angry and more forgiving. Like I am ready to move on and not dwell. i am more peaceful and less worried. And you are right with the Powerful love of Jesus EVERYTHING is possible. I hope I can carry his love and be more like him.
Litsa
My dear Litsa, you know by now that when Jesus read this post from you, He rushed off to hug and comfort you. I don’t know how He finds people who write comments and emails that touch His heart, but this has happened several times: He was reading comments or emails here with me, and someone was having problems, and He somehow has a way to figure out where people are so He rushed off to help. Quite amazing! And my dear, if you will keep talking to Him, He will stay with you. He is perfectly capable of multi-tasking, and staying with the people who are benefiting from His help and encouragement.
Dear Litsa,
We should have coffee and just spill what’s bugging or bringing us down
My email is ericapaul706@gmail.com.
If you need a chat,feel free, but this is the safest♥️blog
Dear Erica. What love and kindness you have. I am so fortunate to share this time and space with you.
Hi Erica,
Thank you for your kindness and posting your email address on Roberta’s blog. I love all of you and I find it fascinating that we all come together to learn about Jesus and many other things regarding spirituality,
I am so grateful for Roberta and her team! Can you imagine such a team to belong to you? Jesus leading the way…
Again, thank you for your kindness!
Litsa
Roberta,
What is your opinion on ACIM based on your current understanding regarding Jesus’s desire for us.
I am feeling led to study ACIM. I seem to remember that you spoke highly of it in the past.
God bless us all, David
My dear David, Jesus led the group that channeled ACIM, so it is spiritually correct, but it is really heavy lifting to understand it thoroughly without the help of a study group! Most Unity Churches do have ACIM study groups, which is where I did the Course.
Dearest Roberta,
What a magnificent weekly blog! Really.
It’s the inner sense of the true Jesus that we feel through Thomas & your writing; we look inside, even for a moment, and we can feel Him.
He feels like inexhaustible love; or as if we are immersed in an infinite sea of love – which by definition, being endless, does not fail or drain away. The Sea of Love is not bound by time either, so it does not end.
So I try to remember, in the midst of the busyness and to-and-fro of daily life, that even though I’m living in this earthly world, I’m really not. I’m somewhere better at the same time. Behind all the things I see, is the real existence of Infinite Light, of which I am an integral part. We all are, I reckon; integral to brightest Divinity. Even though we walk around on a earth, at a deep level we are with that Light of God. We are so beloved of Jesus, we are there with Him.
So, I kind of stop; put my attention on the top of my head; think of Jesus and feel enveloped in His love. Something does ‘shift’ inside and I notice that any tension in an external situation or any obstacle is relieved. Truly Roberta, if we change our conscious ‘set’ even just a bit, the externals of this daily life will change.
I can only guess at what full, collective love-consciousness can achieve. ❣️🙏🏼🌅
Oh my dear Efrem, Feeling the sudden presence of Jesus really is such an overwhelming thing! He isn’t always with me, which is why having Him suddenly back is such an amazing feeling!
Dear Litsa. I’m so sorry to hear about your loosing your job, along with the other challenges you have. It’s good to know that you’re so loved. May that make you feel better and your situation improve soon.
Thank you Ray! Life throws us lots of curves. They don’t call this the “earth school” for nothing…
Litsa