God’s Plan

               "God has His methods of teaching you. First of all, He gave the Holy Spirit complete power to do with you whatever it needs to do to bring you up into your awareness of the child of God. Have you ever wondered why certain people come into your life at certain times? Have you ever wondered where, out of the blue almost, it seems a person will come who proves to be a dear and treasured friend? Equally so, out of the blue, comes a person who appears to be the devil Incarnate. Have you not noticed that?

               That is God's plan you know. There is a reason for both of these people in your life. The dear friend is there to bolster you up, to give you strength, to support you, to make you know how much you are loved. The devil Incarnate, on the other hand, is the one to treasure. The enemy is the one you treasure because therein lies the lesson. The friend is there for an arm around your shoulder, a pat on your back, a hug, a phone call: ‘Are you alright? I want you to know that I love you.’

               But the enemy is the work of God afoot because how are you going to learn forgiveness if there is no one to present themselves to you to be forgiven? How do you learn to swim if you don't get in the water? You don't. You don't put on a pair of skis to go swimming, do you? …You don't climb upon a horse to learn to swim, do you? No indeed.

               The one who teaches you the most is frequently the one who is present in your life as the most trying person you have ever met. The one who offers you the biggest opportunity to forgive is the one who does everything you hate. The one who riles you up, who makes you angry, who makes you think, ‘Oh, I give up. I can't. It is no use.’ who pushes all of your buttons is the one who is your dearest ally.

               That person is giving you an opportunity to come up out of your egos belief system and into the knowingness of the Christ who says, ‘There is nothing you can do or say to me that is going to hurt me because the child of God cannot be hurt, the child God cannot be attacked, and the child of God cannot be injured in any way or form whatsoever.’

               ‘Therefore, I bless you, dear friend, in all of your antagonistic ways. I bless you and I thank God for you and I forgive you and I release you. I let you go to your highest good. I thank you so much for the opportunity that you have afforded me to forgive you with love.’

               That is why you are all here. It makes no difference, when you forgive someone, if it is for a little thing or a huge thing. There is no difference in the value of what you are forgiving. A little forgiveness has as much value as a great forgiveness. It is the act of forgiveness that forgives you. Forgiveness is a strange thing. Whenever it is given, it comes back to embrace the forgiver. Whenever it is given, it comes back to free the giver. It isn't the person being forgiven that is getting the value of this. It is the person doing the forgiving that is getting the value of it and that is very important.

               Forgiveness is the foundation, the deep, abiding, eternal foundation upon which is built the sonship of God which includes all people. It is in forgiveness that you come to recognize that after a bit, as you forgive and as you grow, and as you forgive and as you grow, you come to the point where you recognized there is nothing to forgive and there never has been. When you come to that, guess what? You have forgiven yourself."

01/11/2026 Blog. Archangel Gabriel, INTRODUCTION TO PRACTICAL SPIRITUALITY, Pgs. 80-82. Copyright 2013 Rev. Penny Donovan. All rights reserved. To buy this book, please click here.