Baba says, ‘this is the confluence age in which you become most elevated‘. You completely surrender to the Father.

No great person became who they are without facing challenges. That is the role of the challenges- they come not to defeat me but to propel me to my greatness. At this confluence age, the play is of transformation. I go from being a degraded human being not to a better human being but I go from a degraded human being to a deity. The praise of the deities is 16 celestial degrees pure, completely viceless, and righteous i.e. the complete opposite of what I am when I come to Baba. I am learning to become pure, viceless and righteous in an impure, vicious and unrighteous world. I am going against the tide. So yes, there will be challenges along the way and the principle is: the higher the destiny, the more tests I will face.

Baba says, ‘storms will come’. He never says, storms might come. Maya will tempt me, she will try to convince me that there is nothing where I’m headed, that it’s a lie, that I should return to her world. How I respond makes all the difference.

God won’t stop or get me out of every storm. In fact, He will allow the tests in order to move me into my purpose. If I pass the test, on the other side is a new level of my destiny. I cannot be who I am created to be without testing. My response will determine if I come out bitter or better. And the challenges that come to each of us are not random, they are tailored to us. They are not ‘bad luck’ or ‘bad karma’, they are tests. God is seeing what I’m made of. Am I going to live sour, discouraged or will I dig down deep? Will I trust the curriculum? Will I trust that my Supreme Teacher will get me to where I need to be?

That coworker who leaves me out – this hasn’t happened once or twice but has been going on month after month. Will I live shallow, let it frustrate me, will I plot my way to pay them back, quit the team…or will I remember who I am becoming, Who is teaching me, what He is teaching me and follow His instructions? It takes strength to overcome the adversity and do the right thing even when the wrong thing is happening. It takes maturity to not live sour but to keep a good attitude despite the circumstances. It takes being tuned into the moment to not quit and instead stay committed because I know that I am being prepared for my destiny. If I leave, I delay the lesson I am being taught. I cannot get to where I need to go without learning it, it will come back in the future in another setting through another person…I might as well learn it now!

This study is for the future kingdom, Baba reminds me, it is for the new world. He couldn’t care less about status and recognition here, in this old world of Ravan. ‘You know this old world is now to end and therefore shouldn’t you have disinterest in it?‘ asks Baba. All the glory and praise in this world are false, He reminds me. Someone who is celebrated today is dropped like a hot potato tomorrow, so why am I still chasing after the false? Perhaps that coworker will never change and I might lose that promotion but that’s okay, it was never my destination. My aim is to return to my original self, the deity self. So what looks like a setback here in Ravan’s world, God will turn to my advantage to get me to my destiny. That coworker is in fact being instrumental in pushing me forward, in toughening me up, in making my character come up higher. Baba says, ‘don’t be afraid of the storms, they come bearing gifts‘.

If everything just fell in place for me, I wouldn’t get to where I need to be. If I didn’t have to resist the urge to quit, if I didn’t have to stretch my faith, I wouldn’t be who I am created to be. Without those storms I wouldn’t build the power, the strength, the courage I need. God wants me to go from peak to higher peak, do great things. I can’t get there if I don’t learn to face some strong winds, climb some steep slopes. Let me not get discouraged with the challenges. Every time I pass a test, it is lifting me, promoting me.

Baba says, ‘always keep the Almighty Father in front of you and you will experience this path to be easy‘. I am never alone on the journey, neither am I meant to take it alone. God is always with me. At times, when the winds are really strong, when things are taking too long, it seems as if God is on vacation. He isn’t. Let me realize that I am taking a test and the Teacher is silently watching me. He hasn’t forsaken me, He has me in His eyes, in His heart. He knows its difficult, He knows I feel overwhelmed, He knows I think I can’t go on, but He also knows something else I don’t- He knows that I am stronger than I think I am. He knows I can even when I think I can’t. If He did everything for me, I wouldn’t build power and confidence. God, at this time, becomes the instrument to enable me to reap the rewards of elevated deeds. All He needs is one step of courage, He wants me to simply stand in faith even when I feel like running away, even when I feel like paying someone back, even when I feel alone, even when every voice says it’s not going to work out. He doesn’t need me to figure things out, or feel responsible…He just needs me to keep standing, to remain steadfast, immovable and unshakable with faith in Who is in-charge of my life, in Who is teaching me.

I know God is on my side not by the storms He stopped but by the storms that didn’t stop me. I cannot experience His help as much by the storms He kept me out of but by those He got me through. Those are the testimonies! – the times when Maya couldn’t push me down, when she couldn’t scare me, when she couldn’t triumph over me. I know God is on my side, because in the face of those hot winds of testing, I just kept on standing, doing the right thing and He defeated Maya for me. That’s His promise. And His ways are His ways, He will keep me out of some fires, other times, make me fire proof and send me into the fire. I might be in a fire now, maybe I’m feeling the hot flames but this is not a fire that will burn me, it is a fire that will cleanse me.

It is sung: ‘why should the moth not burn and sacrifice itself to the Flame...’. When I trust the Teacher, I surrender. I walk through any fire with faith because I know He will bring me through the fire unscathed and the only things that burn in that fire will be the strings of bondages of the old world, the strings of body consciousness, of fear, of insecurities. Let me not be discouraged by what God is bringing me through, He won’t allow a test that He can’t bring me out of.

Keep standing one day at a time, He teaches. Don’t worry about tomorrow, simply remain standing today. Tomorrow is a new day, with fresh lessons and fresh strength to learn it.