*     Elyon (Jonathan TR):  Greetings to you all, this is Elyon.  I am happy to be in your company, to enjoy the fellowship, and I come to recognize your year end celebrations, your honor of Michael and his incarnation on your world so long ago.  While you feel the blessing of his visitation, truly you have blessed him by the way in which you live your lives according to the truths he taught.  You know that the master loves you regardless of the success of your efforts to live out those truths.  His forgiveness to you for your shortcomings comes as encourgement to better yourself, not as the setting aside of error.  His forgiveness is that of, ³Come, my child, let¹s try that again.²
      
I wish to speak some about treasures today.  Jesus said to lay your treasures up in heaven, for these treasures of the heavenly nature are enduring.  They will be with you for world upon world.  I have spoken in the past of your heavenly treasure being your soul, and have also acknowledged that the accumulation of wisdom and your acquirement of virtue, your ability to love, are also treasures, as is your skill in morontia sensitivity.  Today I wish to turn this around and look in the other direction.  From the standpoint of your soul, it too has treasures; it has your mind, your physical vehicle. Its two greatest treasures are your personality and the indwelling spirit of God.
      
This soul of yours is truly dynamic.  While you remain a stable creature because of the immutability of your personality and the unchangeability of the Father¹s presence, your soul is constantly in flux, ever growing, ever accumulating experience and becoming larger than it ever was.  As you choose to do the Father¹s will, to discover truth, and to promote and live truth, you feed your soul.  As you keep your mind open and alert to revelation and spirit ministry, your soul is uplifted.  This morontia self within you cannot function in the world without your physical presence, and so it behooves all of you to treat your body well that it may be a force for soul growth, that it may engage in the activities that advance you on the morontia level.  It is your soul¹s treasure for it brings the riches of experience.
      
When Michael chose his seventh bestowal to be on Urantia he took on the form of a human being, and that was his treasure toward the advancement of sovereignty, to be born, to grow up, to live and die just as each of you do, without which he would not have the power he has today.  If such a life is that valuable to him so is your life to you.
      
Truly the soul longs for the attainment of Paradise, for the fusion union with the indwelling Spirit, and the human heart reaches to these high levels of being.  But do not neglect the value of your current presence.  Every moment that ticks by is an opportunity for further awakening and for the expression of divine goodness through your very motion.  Treat each day as if there will be heaven on earth before you ever reach heaven.  Treat it as your immediate task; the attainment of Paradise is your long-range objective.
      
You know that I have postponed my ascension that I may participate in this Teaching Mission, for I am qualified to advance but am willing to be here to serve my younger brothers and sisters. You may likewise do so in your advance to Paradise.  So Urantia, your nativity world, may reach Light and Life before you reach the shores of Paradise.  So while you are here you may promote those events which foster such an attainment of Light and Life wherein there is peace, there is health, there is harmony, and there is a true knowledge and an enlightened understanding.  Those descriptions I just gave about Light and Life is what you can foster today even if the planet is eras away from such a state.  Treat even your world as a treasure of the soul, for it is your birth place.  It nurtures you that you may live and grow in your relationship with God.
      
I will close my comments by saying that as you seek the kingdom of heaven there is an easy method to do so, and that is to open your eyes, sharpen your ears, for heaven is all about you.  The kingdom of heaven is on earth; it is discovered as you fully integrate your entire being into a wholeness which is soul.  Thank you and I make way for others to address you.

Evelyn:  Thank you, Elyon, for your kind words, your challenging, inspiring presentations to us.  Like you just mentioned, thank you for the service that you offer of postponing your own advancement to be with us.

*     Michael:  I am Michael, and I pass along that Elyon receives your comments with gratitude. I address you with a parable, the parable of my birth on Urantia.  You know that stories from antiquity are not often exact historically.  The events are infused with flourishment and coloration, with romance and majesty and mystery and glory.  So the story becomes beatific and ideal.  While that runs the risk of creating skepticism in the minds of some of the veracity of the event, it serves to prolong the memory of the occurrence, for such ornamentations serve the memory and encourage the retelling of the story, for such stories are far more enjoyable to relate than one that is merely dry with facts.
     
I look to each one of you as the three travelers from the east, those wise men who saw that star.  They were seekers as you are; they looked to the light.  They set their entire travel on discovering what that light meant, who that light represented.  They left home; they went into unknown countries.  What did they find?  A young couple and an infant.  How disappointing that may have been had they not had the faith that they were being guided by the inner spirit.
      
They sensed that the world was entering into a new era.  And do you not, my fellows, sense the change to a new era today?  Take your gifts and give them to those in need.  Tell the skeptics that you simply followed the light and the guidance became clear.  Let those with faith know that the hour has come, that you are born into a new age.  All who hear my voice are my disciples by default.  It is in the hearing that you are qualified.  But those who hear and act become my apostles, for you go forth and teach.  You do not need to teach by way of verbal instruction to be a teacher of truth, for those who have the sensitivity will perceive in you as they had at one time perceived in me the divinity wherein one did say, ³Behold the man².
      
Yes, indeed, I came to your world far more humbly than the story describes.  But now I am here in spirit, and I am here within each of you.  You are the ones who now grow up from the infant child, who realize the spiritual family of our heavenly Father.  You are the ones to bring the light to the world that all may see.  You are the ones that others will touch the garment and be healed.  You need not even make the action, for they will touch and be healed.  I pledge to ever be with you and be the force and power behind you at all times.  My blessing upon you, my dear children.