Adapting to a Changing World

You have come into the world at a time of great change, change brought about primarily by humanity’s overuse and misuse of the world’s resources. This will produce Great Waves of change, affecting every aspect of your life—resource depletion, environmental degradation, changing climate and violent weather, growing economic and political instability, and the risk and threat of war between groups and nations over the remaining resources.

These Great Waves of change are now converging, creating great currents and cross currents, making the situation impossible to predict precisely, for so much depends upon human response, human responsibility. How will people consider their lives now within the context of such a radically changing world?

Water will be scarce in many regions where there are very large populations, while other parts of the world will be flooded—destroying crops, inundating cities and towns.

Violent weather patterns will increase as the planet becomes warmer and as the atmosphere is being altered by human pollution. There will be crisis in many parts of the world due to food shortages, leading to political instability and social unrest. Even people in the wealthiest nations will be impacted, sometimes severely, by the changes in the world.

Many of these changes have now been made and while further degradation must be stopped, you will have to face the reality of adapting to a changing set of circumstances. For almost two centuries of industrial development have had an impact upon the world, and this impact has grown—changing the conditions of the world, changing the environment of the world. The human family has been growing rapidly, overtaxing what the world can produce, overspending your natural inheritance.

This change will be disruptive and, in most cases, for many people, will be unanticipated. They could acknowledge change in society, perhaps change within their own life and conditions and circumstances, but change in the whole world? That is something that very few people have really considered.

That humanity would begin to face a world in decline is something that very few people have really considered. For there is still the attitude that the world is an endless producer of resources and wealth, and that it is only a matter of investment in technology to bring this wealth forth.

And so, instead of focusing on how humanity must adapt to changing circumstances, there is an ever-greater emphasis on further exploitation, believing that humanity’s existence is assured into the future by endless resources, as if the world were a cornucopia of resources for humanity’s benefit.

There is very little concern over the future environment and conditions for the human family. Everything is done for expediency, for profit, to maintain a standard of living amongst the wealthy nations that is depleting the rest of the world and impoverishing the rest of the world.

This overconsumption is the engine of war. It forces nations to intervene with other nations, to compete with other nations, to exploit other nations. You cannot simply blame political leaders or political theories when people’s way of life itself is generating the need for this exploitation.

You are living in a changing world. It is not just changing politically or economically. It is changing as an environment. If great and radical remediation is not taken, whole regions of the world will become uninhabitable. Dry desert regions of the world will not be able to sustain their populations, and then where will these people go? Major cities will run out of water. Sea levels will rise, leading to inundation of coastal regions and cities. Where will people go?

There will be shortages of fuel. There will be shortages of food and water in many regions. Everything will become far more expensive and in some cases difficult to acquire. How will people respond to this? With anger, with rage, with condemnation? Will they seek to make war on other nations that their leaders tell them are responsible for their plight?

People have come to expect their governments will provide for them under all conditions, but the government of any nation has limited resources and limited capabilities. If prolonged drought in one part of the nation threatens the existence of other areas of agriculture, what will the nation do?

Clearly, to face these situations, to mitigate them, and to adapt to them will require an immense human effort—a collaboration of all of humanity’s talents, skills and vocations. This will require a commitment on the part of even the average citizen to consider how they live and where they live and how they travel about. For these things will become very challenged for so many people in the future.

Poorer nations will face increasing deprivation, and the wealthy nations will have to face a series of radical changes in how people live and the standard of living. People’s expectations and habits will have to change to adapt to a changing set of circumstances.

Many people will lose faith in their institutions and their leaders, perhaps even in God, for failing their expectations, for depriving them of things they felt were entitlements. There will be a great deal of blame placed upon governments and commercial institutions.

Everyone really is drawing from the same well, and this well is slowly shrinking. How will humanity deal with this? It will have two fundamental choices: Either it will collaborate and adapt and unite to preserve and to equitably distribute the resources of the world. Or nations and groups will struggle with each other over who gets the larger slice of the pie, who gets the remaining resources.

It is not enough to expect or demand peace at a time of such calamitous change. Change is not something that generates peace. Change is difficult and upsetting, particularly when it is forced upon you and you do not feel responsible for it. Have you ever undergone real change peacefully without complaint, without denial, without condemnation of yourself and others?

Now it will be a turbulent time, a time of tremendous difficulty. It is one thing if human corruption and incompetence drive your economy down, but it is another thing when your environment is changing, changing even beyond your control.

Here you must see that your resources are precious and not to be taken for granted. All the bounty of the earth is precious. It cannot be taken for granted—your energy resources, your food production and distribution, the availability of water, the preservation of a healthy natural environment. People assume that these are either unimportant or they think that someone else is adequately taking care of it for them. They do not realize that their environment is the most important thing.

You may have a loving attitude or a fearful attitude, but if your environment fails you, you face the same consequences. If food production collapses in a part of the world, people’s political and religious views are only significant then in whether these views enable them or disable them from facing and dealing with the situation appropriately. Neglect your environment and it will disappoint you and deprive you.

Here people who raise food should be given great social status, should be given great public support. Instead of being considered mere laborers, they are the ones who are feeding humanity. Here people in all kinds of situations will have to learn to grow part of their own food if they want to have fresh food, healthy food. To offset the expense of purchasing food, they will have to learn to grow food, not as an emergency measure, but as a mere fact of life.

People have become so complacent, thinking that everything is going to be provided for them. They just have to work slavishly to earn enough money to afford these things. But in a changing world, this provision will be challenged, and under changing circumstances, such as drought or flood or violent weather or hurricanes, the government can only do so much. If people are unprepared or if they live in highly vulnerable areas, they will have to face the prospect of devastation.

Here you cannot use the past as a reference, telling yourself, “Oh, well, we have been through this before. We can deal with this.” That is a foolish assumption. You have to look at what is coming over the horizon as something new, as something different. Do not rest upon past assumptions or experiences. That is being lazy. It is not paying attention. It is not being responsible.

In a changing world, living near moving water is unwise. Do not be close to moving water for storms, for hurricanes, for floods. These things will increase in the future, and as time goes on, your government will be less and less able to assist you in rebuilding your life should you face a natural disaster of this kind.

People have to look at their environment and say, “Is this an appropriate place for me to live?” and if it is appropriate, “How should I live here?” If you live in such a situation where you cannot function without the use of a car, you may have great difficulty in the future getting about. People living out in the country will be stranded. Far away from distribution centers, they will be stranded. If they cannot purchase the petroleum for their automobile, they are stranded as if they were on a desert island somewhere because they are not paying attention to the changing world, to the change in the environment. People may demand or expect that other people should take care of these problems, but really these problems are growing beyond the capability of governments and institutions.

Already humanity is changing the chemistry of the Earth’s climate to such an extent that the world will adapt to a new equilibrium, an equilibrium that is unfavorable to human habitation.

What will happen to cities when the glaciers that provide all of their water resources evaporate over the years? There will be great human migrations in the future because people have fled their homelands. Greater than any world war or human conflict will this human migration be.

This is the changing world. Neglect it at your own peril. You can live in this changing world, but you will have to re-evaluate how you live, where you live, how you use resources and the viability of your career. You can see the signs of this in many places if you look carefully and objectively.

Do not think that governments or other institutions will simply take care of the problem for you, or it is someone else’s problem, and you do not have to deal with it. In truth, everyone will have to deal with it.

The wealthy must contribute great financial support to help humanity to adapt to changing circumstances. There will have to be immense human contribution. It is not merely a problem for poor people in some foreign country. It is a problem for your people in your country.

God has sent a New Message into the world to alert, to strengthen and to prepare humanity for the Great Waves of change. They are now beginning to strike the world in so many places, in so many ways. But the human response is either non-existent, or it is without sufficient commitment and resources to mitigate humanity’s impacts upon the world and to prepare for a future that will be unlike the past.

People may say, “Well, I don’t know what to do. What can I possibly do? I am just one person.” You effect change by changing the way you live, by re-examining your values and your activities, by conserving energy, by becoming very mindful of what you create and your impact upon your local environment.

Your greatest contribution will be to gain access to the deeper Knowledge that God has placed within you, that is there to guide you and protect you and lead you to a greater experience of life and being in the world. With Knowledge, you will have the certainty to navigate the difficult times ahead, to make the correct decisions regarding how you must proceed and how you must respond to changing circumstances in your own life.

This deeper Knowledge is entirely ethical. It represents not only a guiding power, but your deeper conscience as well. It will provide the clarity, the guidance and the certainty that you will not be able to find in your outer life or from other people or from institutions.

Even now, nations and economies are struggling to adapt to changing circumstances and to the longstanding problems and products of human error and miscalculation. Do not think that if you deplete this world, you will be able to go out into space to get what you want, for the resources you need you will not find in this solar system. And beyond this solar system, you will enter territories governed by others, others who are far more powerful than you are.

The New Message from God reveals what life is like beyond this world and the great importance that is given to humanity maintaining its self-sufficiency in this world. For this is a requirement for human freedom and sovereignty to grow and to be maintained into the future, in a future where you will have to encounter competition and influence from many races from beyond the world.

This competition and influence are already being exerted here by several groups who are here to influence humanity for their own purposes, to establish their own power here. Your willingness to face this will give greater impetus to the need to establish a stable and sustainable existence in the world. For should you deplete the resources of this world, beyond a certain point, you will have to receive and accept the terms that other nations will impose upon you, just to meet your most fundamental requirements.

There will have to be great technological advancements in the world, but do not accept technology from other races whom you do not know and do not trust. They will only give you trinkets from space to make you dependent upon them and to shift the focus of power away from the human family. It will be a trap and an inducement only. Do not be seduced by such promises or offerings, for they are given to the unprepared and to those who are unwary.

No, it will have to be humanity that solves its problems and establishes a stable and secure future in the world. Other races may promise to rescue you or save you, but they are really here to plant their own flags. It will be human responsibility, human cooperation, human ingenuity and the wisdom that humanity has acquired over the ages that must be brought to bear.

For your economies, it is not about growth and expansion, endless profit taking off exploiting the world. That will only deplete the world ever more quickly, leading you to despair and to greater vulnerability to the influences of powers from beyond the world.

You will have to adapt to survive. That is the rule of the natural world. That is what every creature must face, not only in this world, but throughout the universe. No one in the universe has overcome the need for resources or the requirement of adaptation.

Advanced technology may solve many problems and serve many needs, but it cannot overcome this basic need. That is why even the most technologically advanced societies in the universe have a constant problem with the acquisition of resources, which has led vast numbers of nations to enter into very restrictive networks of trade and commerce.

Humanity is still very adolescent in its view of the world. It thinks the world is just a great resource to use, and when it is used up, it will go on to some other resource to use. You just consume it, and then go somewhere else and consume that, and go somewhere else and consume that.

But within a Greater Community of intelligent life in the universe, you cannot do this. For humanity exists in a very largely inhabited part of space where there are much older nations, and very vast networks of trade have been established. It is here that war has been suppressed. Conflict has been suppressed. Aggressive nations have been held in check.

Humanity cannot go out and seize whatever it needs, for it will find itself facing a vast and highly developed opposition. So it comes down to human responsibility, human awareness and human adaptation.

God has given this world to the human family as its planet of origin, and while the Earth has been visited throughout history by certain races seeking biological resources here, do not think the world will not be sought by other nations now for dominance.

You have reached a point where other nations are alarmed by humanity’s overuse and destruction of the natural world. They will seek to intervene to save it for themselves, using whatever guise, whatever persuasion they feel will achieve their goals. They will not take this world by force because they do not want to destroy its natural environment. And they need humanity as a work force, being unable to live here themselves.

If you really understood humanity’s predicament in facing a changing world and in facing competition from beyond the world, you would take a very different view of your life. You would take your life far more seriously. You would recognize the immense importance of your resources and your ability to sustain these resources over time.

Here the emphasis shifts from being on growth and expansion to stability and security. The natural world has a harsh punishment for those who overuse natural resources. Humanity is driving itself into facing starvation and deprivation and the great risk of conflict and war.

The wealthy want more. The poor need more. But the Earth only has so much to give, and you are reaching these limits now. The soils of the world are being depleted. They are being lost to erosion. They are being sterilized by chemical implementations. Humanity’s entire existence depends on a few inches of topsoil. If this is lost, then the Earth’s ability to sustain a growing human family will be lost.

You should think of these things now and not simply your pursuit of pleasures and happiness, for you are here to be more than a locust upon the world. You are really here to serve the world under these circumstances. And the gifts that you have brought with you from your Ancient Home are for this purpose.

The very circumstances that you dread or would seek to avoid are the very circumstances that will call out of you your greater gifts and your greater strengths—freeing you from addiction, freeing you from giving your life away to trivial things, to relationships that have no promise, no purpose and no destiny.

Your greater purpose requires stronger relationships, more committed relationships, relationships of a higher order altogether. But only Knowledge within you knows why you are here. You may assume any attitude or belief. You may fantasize about this. But only Knowledge within you really knows why you are here, who you are to meet and what you are to do. That is why taking the Steps to Knowledge, building a connection from your intellect to the deeper Mind that God has placed within you, is the center and most important thing.

For you cannot simply live defensively in a changing world. You cannot stockpile food for the rest of your life. You cannot go live in a cave somewhere and hope the world does not find you. You have to be in the world, serving the world, moving with life, adapting to changing circumstances.

Your intellect does not know how to do this. Its range of wisdom is limited. It has no vision. It cannot see what is coming. But Knowledge within you—it is aware, it is wise, it sees, it knows, it acts. It is not lost in confusion or speculation, comparison and condemnation. It represents an entirely different Intelligence within you. But this Intelligence cannot be corrupted. It cannot be harnessed to gain power, persuasion or dominance over others. You cannot use it as a resource.

The mind cannot use Spirit as a resource. For in truth your mind is a resource; your body is a resource—for God. In the purest sense, this is the case. But you must yield to the power that God has placed within you. You cannot use it to gain wealth or advantage.

If you think you can do this, you will only delude yourself and deceive yourself, thinking that whatever you are doing is what God wants you to do when, in fact, very few people are really doing what God wants them to do.

That is why the world is in its present condition. That is why humanity is destroying its natural inheritance in the world. That is why humanity has been reckless and destructive, spending its future inheritance as if there were no tomorrow, using up everything in sight.

For example, your petroleum, you should have been rationing it for the last twenty years. If you want it to last for centuries, you should [have been] rationing it for the last twenty years. Of course, this would change your economies and change how people live, but really this would be the wise approach instead of using it up as fast as possible. That is like spending your money as fast as possible. Some people do this and are always facing deprivation and immense stress and difficulty.

This recklessness is driving you now into the Great Waves of change, into a world of change that people are not prepared for, that you do not anticipate. Without preparation, the change will be devastating. It will undermine people’s entire way of life as if they were struck on the beach by a great wave—unaware the great wave was coming, unprepared for it, unaware that they needed to move to higher ground.

Many people think you cannot be aware of such things in advance, but life is always giving you signs and indicators. Before a great storm, the animals become quiet and seek shelter, but people go on doing whatever they are doing as if nothing were about to happen. So who is more intelligent here?

People are not using their intelligence. They want to have what they want, and they will forgo everything else. They will risk their lives and their future to have some current advantage or pleasure.

But the world is changing. You cannot escape this. You cannot run away and go live in some distant place, find shelter where the storms will not reach you. There are no such places now. It is a great time of reckoning. The bill has come due.

Humanity can meet these great challenges. You, as an individual, can meet the great changing circumstances of your life because God has given you Knowledge to guide you. But you must learn to be still, to listen, to become objective, to set aside your wishes, your dreams and your preferences to see what really must be done.

God’s New Message will teach you The Way of Knowledge, and how to respond to Knowledge, and how to distinguish Knowledge from all the other voices in your mind. There are outer preparations that must be made. God has provided the guidelines for how to proceed here. God is warning you of what is coming, preparing you for what is coming, but you must respond.

Instead of living on in your little dream world, preoccupied with your interests, your hobbies and your personal pursuits, you must now pay attention to the world. This will strengthen you. This will redeem you and free you from all the little things that captivate your mind and keep you a slave to these things.

You must pay attention to your environment now, and after you get over the initial shock and dismay, you must become clear and objective. Do not demand solutions, for you must live with the problem and learn how to navigate the changing circumstances of your life.

Do not wait for economic collapse to alter your position. Relieve yourself from indebtedness. Relieve yourself of unnecessary possessions. Free up your energy and your time. Live in the moment. Enjoy the immediate pleasures and the wonders of life. Seek honest engagement with others who are also beginning to respond to the world. And do not try to convince those who will not and cannot respond.

Free yourself from excessive use of the automobile. Free yourself of the demands and expectations of others that go against what you know you must do for yourself and for your family. Do not count on governments to solve your problems or to rescue you when the Great Waves come.

Be resourceful, but be compassionate. This is not a time for condemnation. Take all of the energy that goes into complaining and condemnation, and bring it to bear on your preparation and upon your deep evaluation of what you must do in your life.

Do not try to lose yourself in your hobbies, in your addictions, in your personal escape. You are going to need to really be present now. You are in the driver’s seat of your life. You are going to have to stay awake for that.

You are going to need to become strong, not only for yourself, but to assist others—to assist your family; to assist elderly people who will be vulnerable; to become active in your communities; to think ahead, to think about the great challenges coming over the horizon; to bring this into conversation with others; to become clear and objective; to escape the intellectual obscurities that keep people from seeing and knowing things directly; to support your local businesses, your local farmers, producers of your food and other necessary items; to listen to your scientists, who are warning about the changing climates of the world and about environmental decline—to pay attention to your life.

Your pursuit of happiness will deceive you and betray you if you do not pay attention to the circumstances of your life.

God has given you a greater purpose for being in the world. The discovery and the fulfillment of this purpose will give you a greater satisfaction than anything the world could provide. This meets the deeper need of your soul. This is what you are seeking in all of your pursuits of pleasure and happiness, but only the fulfillment of your greater purpose can fully fulfill you in this way.

It is not something the intellect can invent or discern. It must arise within you by meeting the real needs and challenges of your life. This is what will bring forth the power and the presence of Knowledge within you, and with this Knowledge, you will begin to discern a greater direction for your life. This direction has always been there, but it has been obscured and replaced by your own pursuits and distractions.

Now you are finally able to be yourself, to honor and experience the deeper movement of your life, to begin to experience the power and the fearlessness of Knowledge within yourself. This stirring takes time and happens in many steps and stages, but its emergence is so vital for you—for your survival, for your contribution to others, for your discovering meaningful relationships that represent a higher purpose and for the fulfillment of your soul. This is why you are here.

Do not deny or run away from the Great Waves of change, for this is why you are here. Do not blame others or condemn nations or leaders for the circumstances of your life. It is you who must change the circumstances of your life, and only Knowledge within you really knows how this should be done, effectively and constructively.

You may pray to God for deliverance. You may pray to God for a miracle. You may pray to God to be rescued or saved, but God has given you the power and the presence of Knowledge to guide you—your deeper conscience, a deeper wisdom that cannot be corrupted by the world. It is this that you must learn to experience increasingly, and to discern and to follow.

If your life must make a thousand turns, Knowledge will guide you to make each one.

Life in the future will not be like life in the past. Your sense and assurance of safety and security, to whatever extent it has existed for you, will be diminished. You will be vulnerable to presence and the change of changing circumstances.

This may terrify your mind, but for Knowledge it is the perfect environment for you to redeem yourself, for you to become of one mind and one purpose, to gain a greater strength and a greater direction.

Here even the tragedy of humanity’s impact upon the world can be used for a greater good to lay the groundwork for a better future, a future of stability and security for the human family.

Do not run away from adversity. It is your greatest ally in the discovery of Knowledge. But you must be fully present. You must be fully engaged. You cannot sit back and think that God will take care of everything for you, for God has sent you into the world to take care of everything. It is this work that will redeem you and restore you and will show you the source of your power and the source of your life.

May this power emerge within you strongly. May you find the courage to face the changing world. And may you have the integrity and the commitment to re-evaluate your life and circumstances so that you may be a source of inspiration and courage and guidance for others.