Joan claimed that her voices, her divine counsel, assured her that she would be set free from captivity. Yet that never happened, and she was condemned and burned at the stake. Did her voices say that, knowing that “free” meant being back in heaven, versus being literally released physically? If so, how was this not a kind of divine “white lie” or “lie of omission” if Joan understood it to mean release from physical captivity rather than death? It seems understandable that the voices were attempting to comfort her and prevent her from deeply despairing. Was her martyrdom part of her mission plan, or simply a consequence of too many variables to successfully avoid? What can Creator tell us?

What she recorded for history, from her witnessing, was a work in progress all along the way that was not decided fully until the very end. There were many divine plans at work that could have rescued her if things worked out favorably, and even though that was not a high probability, was still in play, so there was no reason to tell her she was doomed because that is an absolute and the divine never deals in absolutes. So even a very encouraging promise of success and a breakthrough benefitting a person that might make them wildly happy, and ecstatic even, is not a guarantee. Something might still go wrong and change the future in such a way that grand vision is undercut and prevented. What is true is the divine sees future probabilities, but those are never certain, and that is part of the divine plan underway, that is what makes it real, and that is what makes it count. It is not something predetermined which would make all of you, in a sense, robots following a script even if unaware of it yourselves consciously. If you are marching to our tune, our plan, our destiny for you, that leaves you nothing to do than be, in effect, a kind of puppet, a robotic being simply following preplanned influences that come and go and manipulate you, which would make your own thinking and perception of having choices an illusion and a kind of lie. So what we can tell you about the meaning of life and your role in it, which was just as true for Joan of Arc, is that everything that you do matters. It is life and death always underway in how things go, favorably or unfavorably. This is all leading somewhere, and that future eventuality will be built on everything that happens in between, much of which is up to you, and only in your control, if only to take part or bow out in some way or another to withdraw, hunker down, and hide out at an extreme of disconnection. That might be the best course to take during a war-related conflagration that is destroying everything in its path, but most people who have a chance at a decent life will be choosing their path in a series of small turning points all of which will add together and lead to something greater. You will be encouraged along the way by the divine regardless of what we see might lie ahead for you. We also have a quite different perspective of adversity and we can tell you that even a life, as lived by Joan of Arc, ending in a tragic and horrific death, was a life of great purpose that served her tremendously and it will add to a depth of character and awareness that could be gained in no other way. It is your life experience that builds who you are, and you will draw on it over and over all through your vast unfolding future yet to come. She did not plan to die but she was going up against long odds, and that was simply a choice she made, to do her utmost under difficult circumstances. In that way, her life was not a needless death because she was not doomed to fail and lose, she was likely to be unsuccessful but the gains along the way, from every temporary triumph and every bit of the learning that took place, will serve all of her future, and that will be many, many new lifetimes to come. That is worth having an early death along the way, even in multiple lifetimes, for the learning it imparts. This is hard for humans to see. It is a divine perspective. But you are part of the divine, and the divine plan and mission, and it suits you to be heroic and courageous even when the odds are against you. It is, after all, who you are and where you come from.