Standing Up for Oneself

“Participant: So what I’m thinking is: forgiveness vs. standing up for oneself. I have a little bit of a confusion about that.

Gabriel: Forgiveness is not passivity. It is not being passive and letting the world walk all up and down you. That's not forgiveness. Beloved Woman, when you have a sense of self-worth… when you know you are a child of God, you have a deep and abiding love and respect for yourself. So, therefore, you are not going to allow anyone else to tarnish that.

               So, when you perceive that another is attacking you, you have two choices. You can listen to the voice of the ego, which will say, ‘Slap them upside of the head,’ (laughter) or you can listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, which will say to you, ‘The son of God cannot be harmed. This person is so in need of love that they feel the need to attack me. They fear so therefore they attack. I will love them out of their attack.’ And you do not take to heart what they are saying or doing because they are not attacking you. They are attacking themselves… they have projected out onto you what they perceive to be a just reason for them to attack you. Really, they are attacking themselves, so if they are attacking themselves, then think of the poverty of spirit they are in. They are not feeling loved at all by anyone, anywhere.

               So, listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit, one would then say, ‘Dear Father, please bless this soul. Bless this person. I send them love and I do not take unto myself the wrath of their words.’ And you let it go right on by.

Participant: Okay, so standing up for oneself really isn't standing up for oneself…

Gabriel: That's right. Not in the terms of 'Psh, psh, psh… get out of my face.' Not that. Participant: Well, like speaking up and saying ‘Not true!’

Gabriel: Well, you could say to them, ‘Just a moment. I do not invite your words of anger. I care not to hear them, thank you.’ But on the higher level with the Holy Spirit, there is your power. There you bless and you love into light this poor Wretch that feels they must attack you.

Participant: And because we're still learning to let it go, allow us to let it go, when it happens where we get that little... you know how it is... you just run into that person. You go, ‘Oh geez, I don't want to see that person.’ That's just another signal for us to know that it's still stuck in here then?

Gabriel: Ah, indeed. When you say, ‘Oh, I don't want to see that person,’ what you are really saying is: ‘I am refusing to look at the face of Christ.” Now does that mean you have to be around people who antagonize you and just grit your teeth and bear it? No. It means that you go with a higher purpose and that higher purpose removes the antagonism and you no longer perceive them as enemies or antagonists. You perceive them as a child of God, very lost indeed and very frightened.”

10/26/2025 Blog. Archangel Gabriel, INTRODUCTION TO PRACTICAL SPIRITUALITY, Pgs. 115-116. Copyright 2017 Rev. Penny Donovan. All rights reserved. To buy this book, please click here.