16. ONE DOES NOT KNOW THE WORD IF IT IS NOT TRANSFORMED IN GOOD DEEDS [1] (The Lord) – Whatever it is necessary for the normal person to know and to believe is in any case recorded – look over there – at My bidding by My two scribes (Matthew and John - J. Lorber). He who will accept it and act accordingly will press onward to receive My Spirit. Having that, he needs nothing further. [2] But if after what he has learnt he remains lukewarm and unwilling to act accordingly, he will indeed have the letter as it is recorded by My two scribes, and as it was recorded by Raphael for you and some others; but he will never reach the spirit that rests hidden deeply within the letter. [3] It will not benefit anyone merely to exclaim, full of faith: 'Lord, Lord!', for such followers will always stand before Me as beings who do not know Me and whom I do not recognize. [4] I tell you for all eternity as a truth from God: Unless a man becomes fully active according to My teaching, but instead is merely a hearer who occasionally admires and praises it, he will not receive My Spirit, and My whole teaching is of little or no benefit to him. For when he has shed his body and become a naked soul, he will know as little of Me and My teaching as if he had never heard a syllable about it on the earth, which is quite a natural phenomenon.” [5] If, for example, someone has heard even many things spoken about the great imperial city of Rome, also knows the way there and also has the means and the opportunity to travel there in order to see the great city at leisure and to get to know everything in it – yes, he is even often encouraged to undertake such a journey many times by his friends who have already been in Rome! Alone, he firstly never has the right time to do it, then he is too lazy and shies away from the possible difficulties of the journey that could occur and in the end he says: Ah, why should I go to Rome then? My friends have in any case already described this great city to me in such detail that I can see it already in my imagination as well as if I had already been in Rome myself many times! [6] Our man imagines this very well. But if we allow him today to present a very faithful picture of the city of Rome however without a title of what it is and represents – and our man who pretends to know the city of Rome entirely will look at the image just as an ox looks at a very new unfamiliar gate! And if we let him guess for years, he will nonetheless never be able to say with full and convincing certainty that this is a successful image of the city of Rome! [7] But I say in addition: Let us allow this person to really come to Rome quite accidentally – but alone, and so that no one in Rome would actually tell him that he was in Rome, but instead in another very different city – in the end he would believe it himself and thereby not see the whole forest for the trees! [8] Accordingly it is not necessary at all that the person creates some knowledge of anything through hearsay or through reading of all sorts of descriptions. All this knowledge remains mute and without any value for life, if it is not brought into some connection with the life of the soul through some activity. [9] If that person, if he has heard very many strange things about the city of Rome, then sets out on his journey and then also really travels there and has a look at everything there, he will then have the full truth most deeply stamped into his soul and will never be able to imagine Rome in any other way than how he saw this city himself. [10] But if he had never seen Rome himself, his imagination of the form of the city of Rome would also have differed in the greatest way in its new and changed account; one fantastical image would have replaced the other, and that would continue until he in the end would no longer be in a position to imagine any even somewhat durable idea of the city. [11] But once he has, as we said, seen Rome himself, hundreds of gossipers may come to him and make very new and strange descriptions of the form of the city of Rome, and he will only laugh at them and only become annoyed at times at the presumptuousness some dawdlers and idle strollers who want to gain some fame, and would most gleefully show them the door; for in him now lives the true image of Rome in actuality and cannot be replaced by any other, simply created imagination. [12] But how can this be possible now? Because through his effort and work he has filled his living soul and not only simply his brain with the full truth! He has accordingly accepted the true spirit of things into his soul; the faithful image now lives in him and cannot be killed or destroyed any longer by any false image, because it has become a true image of life. [13] But like this parable very clearly shows the difference between the deceptive appearance and the full truth in every aspect and respect, from which everyone can also see very easily and thoroughly that even a very correct description of Rome nonetheless leaves the actual conviction far behind because the image called forth through this is still only an imagined one and can be very easily driven out by another, differently justified one, because it has not become any living image in the soul – likewise and exactly so are things with My teaching.” 17. THE IMPORTANCE OF CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION [1] (The Lord) – You may record for all time of time word by word with iron symbols so that no iota is lost, and you can also preach it and read it out to all peoples, and all peoples should call out at the top of their voices: ‘Ah, look there, that is a very superb lesson and is worthy of God’s mouth’, but nonetheless no one will put their hand into action and become active fully according to their principles and demands – then is this so purely preserved religion of Mine of any use to anyone? I tell you: it is of no use at all! Or what use is some medicine to someone who is sick if he does not take it and use it according to the directions of the well-experienced doctor?! [2] But someone who, knowing only little of My teaching, immediately acts accordingly will obviously derive a greater and more vital benefit from it than the other who, while talking reverently of Me and My teaching, can never decide to act accordingly. The former will act according to what little he has heard and thereby enliven it in his soul, and the little grain of seed will soon be followed by a great harvest out of the living spirit, which no evil power will be able to destroy. However, the latter who praises and faithfully preserves My teaching will, plagued by spiritual hunger, occupy himself also with every other teaching; but in spite of this, he will die of spiritual hunger. Will his soul recognize Me in the beyond if here it has not adopted the true spirit of My words in the fullness of truth by its actions? [3] Suppose a person knew only about My teaching that he should love God above all and his fellowman like himself, and would seriously think by himself: ‘Look, this is a good teaching; there must be a supreme Deity who, judging by everything that was created by Him, must be very good and exceedingly wise and who also must be alive and moving. It therefore behooves us to respect, esteem, and honor and love this exceedingly good, wise and almighty Being more than anything else in the world. My fellowman is a man just as I am and was put into the world with the same rights by the Creator. Therefore, he must not be disparaged, on the contrary, reason tells me to do for him what I do for myself because by disparaging him I disparage also myself, for I am also only a man. I recognize this as a highest principle of life which, for the time being, I intend to apply with all severity to myself.' [4] This the man puts into action. Moreover, he tries to influence those around him, partly through his own example and partly through his very simple and unpretentious precept, thus turning his household into a good example of true and devout human beings. And what, briefly, is the result of this most laudable attitude? The people live in peace. No one tries to assume superiority over another. The wise endeavors with earnest patience and love to elevate the unwise to his own level; and he draws his attention to all the wonders in creation known to him and is happy when he has been able to give strength to the weaker person. [5] But because such a thing actually happens in reality, it is absorbed into the life of the soul. Thereby the soul obviously becomes more and more active and gains in vitality.” 18. WISDOM IS THE RESULT OF LOVING ACTIONS [1] (The Lord:) “The more activity there is in the soul, the lighter it becomes within it; for fire is the primary element of the life of the soul. The mightier this element sets to work, the more light it spreads in and out of itself. Therefore, the more fire there is in the life of the soul, the more life-light it develops. With this inner life-light the soul then begins more and more to penetrate and understand the innermost secrets of life. [2] This deeper insight and understanding lend new courage to the soul so that it will love and adore God even more, and this love is already the first spark of the Divine Spirit within the soul. It grows and increases mightily, and soon the soul unites completely with the Spirit of God and is then led through the Spirit of God into all truth and wisdom. [3] Let us presume a man had attained to all this wisdom in the way I have been preaching and demonstrating to you continually for days. Tell Me, was this because that man had received all the words I had spoken to you exactly and unchanged to the jot? Oh no! He had learned of nothing else but the two commandments of love; only the exact, painstaking, actual compliance with the same gave him everything else. [4] There are some amongst you who, although I have demonstrated the matter very clearly, are asking in their mind: ‘Well, how can the soul attain to such wisdom by complying with the two commandments?’ And I tell you: Because the soul has been so organized from the beginning! [5] How does a grape ripen and become full of sweetness and spirit – seeing that it is only a simple, natural plant? This is accomplished by the light and the warmth of the sun. Through the light and through the warmth the nature spirits in the vine become increasingly more active. As they become more and more active and there is more friction between them, they become increasingly more fiery and shining in themselves. And this constant increase in their brightness and luminescence brings about an obvious increase in their mutual specific intelligence; the brighter their intelligence becomes, the more they recognize each other as belonging to one and the same order and, seizing each other, begin to organize themselves and unite. Once this has been fully accomplished, the grape has become ripe and edible. [6] Once the juice has been gathered and well stored in a recipient, its well-ordered natural spirits now will no longer tolerate any foreign element which contains in itself natural spirits of a very different order, which would disturb the accepted good order of the settled natural spirits of the grape juice. As soon as something foreign which belongs to another order enters the young wine, it brews and ferments until the foreign body has been thrown out or has fully been assimilated into its order. Once that has happened, only then the inner light and the inner warmth of the spirit awakes from the good order of all the natural spirits of the grape juice which has become pure, and through the previously yet very impure young wine a spiritually stronger and purer wine has matured. [7] So all this is an effect of the sun, that is, its light and its warmth. And likewise it is the same with a person and his soul! If he can put his soul into an ever greater activity through the observance of a law of the highest divine order, it will become brighter and warmer in all the areas of his life. It will then recognize itself ever brighter and more purely and likewise the divine power that flows into it ever more and more and also pulls it into an ever higher life. [8] But if it recognizes this power, it also recognizes God, from whom this power comes. But if it must necessarily recognize this, it must also love God ever more and more. With this love it then expels everything that is foreign out of its ever purer and more perfect order of life and becomes ever more one with the order of the Divine spirit in it; as this is certainly so, it is a foregone conclusion that a soul thus permeated by the Divine Spirit must gain in strength and power and infallibly become a true child of the Most High. [9] When such a soul then finally leaves the body and reaches the great Beyond endowed with the most perfected consciousness, it will certainly also immediately recognize God, since it has already become fully one with Him here and brought Him to the fullest and clearest consciousness in itself, and this is for the tangible reason that the eternally certainly very clearest consciousness of the spirit of God has become in a certain way the brightest and most united consciousness of the soul.” 19. KNOWING THE TRUTH WITHOUT ACTIONS [1] (The Lord) – But if that is all so and cannot ever be otherwise, how petty your concerns seem about keeping pure a word that has been given to you! Only very little of that is necessary for a person, only a smallest mustard grain; if he plants it in the earth of life of his heart and then takes care of it arduously and actively, a tree will grow from it, under whose branches even the birds of the sky will make their home. [2] Have the Pharisees not kept the books of Moses and the Prophets in their purity to a jot?! But what use is this to them? They are still ravening wolves walking about in sheep’s clothing and seeking to ravage the peaceful pastures of the lambs. [3] I tell you all: everything external, even if pure in itself, kills; only the spirit is alive and quickens everything it permeates. You will therefore summarize My teaching very briefly and easily, in as far as it is necessary for mankind. Whoever will act accordingly will, proportionately to his activity, awaken the spirit out of God within him. This will enliven the soul in the light and fire of all truth, and the soul will be guided into all truth and wisdom out of God and will clearly, in and by itself, experience what I have shown you, and inexpressibly more. [4] Just consider now that I wanted to most wonderfully reveal My whole creation very analytically from the greatest thing to the smallest, so that I would call many thousands of My angels and order them to write down everything in the way that is possible for them, at lightning speed! Firstly we would need so much of the white parchment that truly there would not be enough space on the whole planet; but secondly, if all the endlessly many skins had been covered in tiny writing, tell Me, how far would you come with reading all these scripts to the end! I now hope that you are beginning to see your foolishness a little! [5] Go to Memphis, to Thebes, to Carnac and to Alexandria! Everywhere you will find libraries, all the most genuine and correct; but I guarantee you that nobody is capable of reading everything through even in 500 years! You would truly need the age of Methuselah in order to scan all the scriptures and signs just once! And what‘s his benefit after making such most amazing effort? You would finally quite purely forget what had been read from day to day, yes, in the end, if you were really confused, from hour to hour and from minute to minute and not gain the smallest advantage for his life. [6] Now do you remember what sort of very different path I want to show you with this teaching of Mine, so that in the shortest time, if one only truly wants it, one can reach all wisdom of heaven?! [7] I am this way, and the truth and the life. Whoever has truly accepted Me into his soul with love, but not only simply in faith according to the words he has heard, but instead perfectly indeed, to him I will always come in spirit and will reveal Myself to him and will illuminate him like a bright rising sun illuminates the previously dark fields of the Earth. [8] With one inner spiritual glance he will grasp in its depth more than he could have done through reading in a million years, provided a man could live that long. [9] You yourselves have now heard and seen some things for several days, which I have performed constantly teaching and acting among you, whereby your souls were awakened, and in your hearts love, faith and full trust have entered; however, if you were to leave it at that, your souls would truly gain very little and your cognition and knowledge would remain at their present level. [10] You must from now on become independent according to My teaching, then your soul will become more alive and full of light. Only then will My spirit take up residence in your souls and will lead you into all wisdom. [11] The new school of true life also consists of this and the only true recognition of God and of oneself, and therefore My teaching is called a true gospel, because it teaches man to go on the only correct and true path to achieving true, eternal life and to achieve the only true love and wisdom from God. [12] The precepts are indeed few and, written in a book, can be read in a few hours by anyone who can read. However, the most eager reading alone will benefit a person only insofar as he will have acquainted himself with the external aspect of My teaching – which, of course, must be done first of all. [13] For this action is like the necessary first step on a journey; for if I should travel from here to Damascus, but never make the first step, then it goes without saying that I cannot take the second step and the many future ones even less so, which should bring Me to Damascus. But if I take the first step even very firmly and then the second, third and fourth, that is no use to Me at all if I then stop and find it of too much effort to continue the steps until I have reached Damascus. [14] I have now shown you all very most clearly what you have to do, in order to truly reach eternal life and all its righteousness. Therefore act accordingly and My promise will come to fulfillment in you all; for of all the things revealed to you so far, what I have just now told you and revealed is indeed the greatest and is of the highest importance for your life.” [15] I have shown you and revealed to you very many miracles of My creation, and you have learnt extremely much from Me; but you now know only that which you have heard and what you have seen. Nevertheless you do not know anything further. But with the present revelation I have shown you very exactly and tangibly clearly what you and everyone have to do in order to reach the unlimited self-view of all the miracles of the endless great creation of God, which then cannot pass away, but which will last for eternity.” 20. THE NECESSITY TO EXAMINE ONESELF [1] (The Lord) – So then do act accordingly; make every effort and check everything to see whether you have forgotten something, so that in the end you will not have to say: Look here, I have now done everything for a full ten or twenty years that the new teaching directed me to do, yet I am still in the same spot and feel within me no special enlightenment or a so-called eternal life! What is still lacking? [2] That is why I tell you: Check very carefully to see whether some strong thoughts of worldly advantage have not assailed your heart, whether temporal arrogance, a certain too extreme thriftiness – a younger sister of avarice – ambition, sense of judgment, bossiness, salaciousness and the like have not captured your heart and thereby also your soul! As long as that is the case for one or another, he will not attain to the promise, that is, to its complete fulfillment for him. [3] Look at the cider and the pure wine in a keg or a skin, full of spirit. As long as the cider contains coarse and foreign particles, it will ferment and not achieve any purity; but as soon as these are eliminated, it becomes more and more quiet in the keg and the cider clears and becomes pure wine, full of spirit. [4] Many a person is not far from attaining to the Kingdom of God within his soul, yet if he does not examine himself to see whether something material still clings to his soul, he will not succeed. On closer self-searching he may find that he is still very touchy and easily hurt by some trifle. [5] Someone says: ‘Well, is a man not meant to have a sense of honor at all?’ Oh yes, say I, man can indeed have a sense of honor, but it must be of the noblest kind. If a man who is still weak in his spirit offends you, do not be angry but go and tell him: ‘Friend, there is nothing with which you can offend me, for I love you and all people. I bless those who curse me, and to those who do evil to me I do good to the best of my ability. But it is not decent for one man to offend another; therefore, leave that be in future for the sake of your own salvation. With your increasing tendency to offend, you could one day run into one who would really take offence and cause you great trouble; for that you would then only have to blame yourself.’ [6] If you speak thus with someone who has offended you, without the least grudge in your hearts, you have then completely justified the noble and divine sense of honor in your heart. But if you do not notice even a tiny type of small grudge in yourself and are bitter and unfriendly to people, that is another consequence of a small arrogance hidden in your soul, which alone is sufficient enough to prevent the union of your souls with My spirit of light in you. [7] Or one and the same poor man demands from you several times some considerable alms. You have it indeed, and could give the poor man a thousand times over what you have already given him; but his particular brazenness embitters you and you show him the door and tell him not to accost you so often expecting alms whenever he asks for it. [8] Well, look, that is indeed a very reasonable speech for a man of the world, and such a small reprimand does the beggar some good; but he who meets the poor in this way is nowhere near mature enough to enter My kingdom, where I allow My sun to rise and set every day on good and evil people and for the good of all creatures. [9] The same beam that illuminates the golden palace of the kings and purifies, matures and greatly sweetens the noblest of all juices in the vine, also shines on puddles and cloacae and is not annoyed by the croaking of frogs and the chirping of the grasshoppers. Such restraint reveals some stinginess. Such stinginess and great restraint are not far removed from avarice and cloud the living cider of the soul. As long as this continues to happen, the soul is not turned into a pure wine of life, full of spirit. [10] But he who has the means and enjoys giving, not reproaching the poor because he has several times given him a small handout, is in this respect well able to enter My Kingdom, provided he is not aware of some other minor fault within his soul. [11] Therefore, I tell you: Do always examine yourselves carefully in everything and advance to that level of life on which you will clearly and actively become aware that you are rid of all worldly dross.” (GGJ Book 12)
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