“The soul is programmed for greatness of mission. When we are dissociated from that ray of light, we descend into darkness. Much unhappiness in this world is due to the fact that people are failing to perform the greatness of their missions, and they know it.

Each of us has such a mission, for each of us is a child of God. Yet in failing to ask God what that mission is, and in failing to make ourselves available to Him so He might guide us to do it, we fall into the neurotic patterns of a soul that does not recognize itself or remember why it’s here.

In my book A Return to Love, there’s a paragraph that begins, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” That one paragraph, often misattributed to Nelson Mandela, has become very well known. And why? Because it points to the ego’s resistance—as well as the soul’s mission—to fully claiming the greatness of our potential as children of God.

The power of Moses’s staff has great significance, as it refers to the power of spiritual consciousness. Like Merlin’s wand the staff is a symbol for focused, light-filled, disciplined thinking. It channels the power of thought when it travels straight down from the divine, making the human mind a conduit not only for God’s thinking to be done on earth, but for his will to be done on earth.

In order to prove his power, God told Moses to throw the staff onto the ground, at which point it turned into a serpent. Moses fled in fear, but God told him to pick up the serpent by its tail—and it turned back into a staff.

The transition of the staff from terrifying serpent to miracle-making source of power refers to the relationship each of us has to the power of our own minds. The ego shrinks from spirituality because it shrinks from our greatness.

It suggests that surrender to God is dangerous, that if we go there, we’ll be out of control. Yet once we pick up the serpent, and take charge of our minds, then the energy of the wily serpent turns into our greatest support in performing our God-given missions.

Each of us has a staff—the unlimited power of thought—and like Moses, we are meant to use it to perform God’s miracles. When our thoughts are high and loving, loving effects result; when our thoughts are low and fear-based, they do not. When Moses held up his staff, the Israelites were victorious; when he let down his staff, Israel’s enemies prevailed. For him, as for us, it was not always easy to carry the staff of God.

At one point Moses’s hand grew tired and he didn’t feel he could hold up his staff any longer. Aaron and Hur then helped support him so that “his hands remained steady until sunset.” Our staffs often feel heavy and burdensome as we reach for our higher selves; such effort goes against our ego instincts. Sometimes we cannot take the high road in life without the support of friends and loved ones. But just as support arrived to hold up Moses, it arrives to hold us up as well.”

Excerpt From: Williamson, Marianne. “Tears to Triumph.”