FEAR AND LOVE OF GOD And the sublime Abedam replied to the known Abedam's excuse of his fear: 2. "You have spoken the truth, but between ourselves I must raise a little objection. Behold, if this light thunderstorm were a work of My might, where would the earth now be? Yes, I tell you and also you others, where would the entire creation be? 3. "If you want to see a work of My might look at the entire infinite creation, how everything is consolidated and consists as a whole in its particular kind and yet only as a part of the infinite whole; and how nothing can leave the earth, the sun, the moon and all the stars except the most imponderable, namely, a properly limited light. Behold, those are works of My might. 4. "Do you believe that My might is a might of ruin or a might of destruction? 5. “Truly, if My might were like that nothing would ever have been created through it. 6. "But since My might is not a might of destruction and ruin, but of a constant creating and preserving of the created, it is consequently a might of eternal order. 7. "Since My might is like this and not otherwise, tell Me now where that is which you fear? 8. "Or do you think that this thunderstorm is less a work of My love than a calm, bright day? 9. "I tell you: A calm, bright day can be compared to a lover who is sitting with his wife in his hut. He certainly loves his wife steadily, yes, faithfully, but what a difference there is between his love and that of a young wooer. 10. "If the wife says to her husband: 'Would you go outside and fetch me some pears from the nearest tree, or some other ripe fruit, for I am a bit hungry and long for some fruit, 11. "then the man will scratch his head and say somewhat reluctantly: 'But my dear wife, look, it is only three steps outside, let me rest a little. If you long for this fruit you could really get it yourself.' -" 12. "But if a tender maiden said to her ardent admirer: 'You shall have my hand and heart, but for a true sign of your love you shall travel from here for a hundred days and from there bring me a most precious and rare gift!', 13. "Will then the wooer of his dearly beloved maiden do what the husband in the hut did to his wife? 14. "Oh no, say it. Instead he will reply: 'O maiden, not just a hundred days will I travel, but if it pleased you even to the end of the world there to gather all the treasures of the world to place in your tender lap!' Tell me, is it not like that? 15. "Behold the calm, bright day in the hut and compare it with the loveturbulent night in the heart of the young wooer. What a difference between the two kinds of love! 16. "If now this stormy night from My part towards you children were comparable to the love of the young wooer, - would you, Abedam, still call it an awful work of My might which appears so terrible to you?" 17. And the known Abedam answered: "O Lord, my sublime, most loving namesake, behold, now once more a great part of my stupidity has been destroyed. For this eternal thanks to You. 18. "But I think that some of my foolishness must still be hiding somewhere in the background as, I cannot help being still a bit afraid. 19. "As You, sublime namesake, put up with so much from me and graciously relieved me already of many a thing, do relieve me also of this foolishness and put it away wherever it pleases You." 20. And the sublime Abedam answered: "Behold, now you have found the right word. Truly, I have to put up with a great deal from you all and the sack into which your countless follies are gathered is called My forbearance and great patience. 21. "But I tell you, let no one trust too much in the sack for it might tear one day. And if that happened, woe betides the earth and its inhabitants. 22. "Are you two, Enoch and Lamech, still afraid too? And Enoch replied: "O Abba, unfortunately I must answer Your question in the affirmative. However, I think that just as all children are full of anxiety and fear, so am I too. But I find it proper, for if Your fatherly kindness had not given the weak child the loving-wise, proper share of anxiety and fear, what would become of the weak child that falsely imagines himself strong? Who could guide and educate it? 23. "In this way fear is already the child's greatest teacher. It was with me from the beginning and shall remain so henceforth, for I know only too well that in this very fear of the weak your highest love is active. 24. "It is the most reliable caretaker of the little ones and therefore it shall also remain mine as it was, namely, as the great gift of love from You, the good, holy Father, from the beginning and forever. 25. "Through Your mercy I know and feel it very clearly within me that thanks to Your helpful care and loving grace nothing bad can and is allowed to happen to me. Yet I fear such extraordinary happenings and that because I love You above all. 26. "Behold, where there is love there is also fear, but where there is no fear, there is no love." 27. And Abedam replied to him: "Enoch, you have spoken the truth. But who taught you to speak thus? 28. "Yes, it is true that I am present in the fear of the weak. He who loves the Father fears God and without the fear of God no one can love the Father. 29. '"Therefore fear of God and love are equal and one cannot be without the other. But one thing must be noted, namely, that love is superior to fear. Thus there is life solely in love and not in fear. In fear there lies death and not life. And so everyone shall let his fear be captured by love, then he will live in the Father who alone is the Lord of all life. Do understand this well!" 30. However, Lamech asked Abedam "Would You quickly tell me whether I am really afraid? 31. "Behold, it all looks rather terrible and the constantly increasing howling, crashing and thundering, the uncanny rushing, roaring and raging instinctively fills one's heart with great, yes, with rising fear. And although all this affects me I am still not sure whether it is the foolish fear or perhaps some other, to me still unfamiliar, frame of mind. O Abba, do explain this to me, if you will. Amen." 32. And Abedam gazed very kindly at him and said: "Lamech, I think you do not see the wood for all the trees. How can you ask another whether your heart is overcome with fear when you are trembling all over for fear? 33. "Behold, what courageous words you have spoken not so long ago. Where is now your great courage and unshakeable trust? And yet not one of all the horrors you mention has come to pass. All of us are still standing on the sufficiently solid earth. It has not yet been destroyed; the sea has not evaporated, no world-sized hail has fallen, not a single mountain has been carried away by flaming hurricanes and no flames have enveloped us; and yet you are trembling beside Me as if all the fevers had seized you simultaneously. 34. "What will become of you if I in order to test you allowed to happen what you earlier spoke of so courageously? 35. "So note this too: It is better, like Enoch, to remain in your fear than to promise too much in your burning love. It is actually immaterial what someone promises under the influence of burning love or in a state of fear rendering him deaf and blind, for all such promises are not kept since such an overstrained state can never be a permanent one. 36. "How the fire of love as such changes you can see in the marital love which is a cooled down fire which never makes the blood in the heart boil but only gently and softly warms and quickens it. 37. "And from the weak children you can see how long their fear lasts and the promise with it. In their fear they stick to their promised betterment as long as the father thunders around them with an angry mien" But once his mien brightens again, the fear is gone and with it all the promises out of it. 38. "If you want to be perfect there must always be three parts of fear and seven parts of love in you; and then you will add to all your prayers also this: 'Father, let not temptations assail my weakness but deliver me from all evil spiritually as well as physically!' And thus you will ask properly, for temptation is not good for free man as it first kills the body and then weakens the spirit. 39. "You are fortunate that you conquered fear through love --- though only until the time of temptation - and did not let love go when temptation came, but allowed your mightier love for Me to drift through your fear. But henceforth only those will be fortunate who with always proper fear of God will awaken in the love for the Father. Thus men's first duty to God will be a voluntary obedience, which is a fruit of the proper fear of God. Only in this obedience will men be born anew as God's children, recognize Him and then behold the most loving, holy Father. 40. "Fear is the seed of love, and as there cannot be a fruit without a seed, there will never be a true love without the proper fear of God. 41. "As the seed rots in the soil and the live germ of love breaks forth, sprouts and brings living fruit, thus also love, this holy germ of eternal life, will break forth from the fruit. The old fruit will decay, but out of this decay on the good soil of My love for you there will arise an amazing fruit, a tree of life, under whose branches even the dwellers of heaven will establish their abodes. Take good note of that. 42. "But now no more of this! For look, Adam has got up and is fearfully coming towards us. For he also begins to suspect help from Me. Therefore, keep silent before him. Amen." (HHG vol. 1. chap.158) 8. And the high Abedam added: "Amen, say I too; amen, according to the love of your hearts, amen, according to the action therefrom. And I do not ever say amen anywhere but in the pure love. 9. "You shall not pray to God Who is holy, holy, holy, but only to the Father's love; for to God all men are an abomination, - only to the Father are they children. 10. "God's holiness is inviolable, but the Father's love descends to the children. 11. "God's wrath judges all things towards eternal annihilation; but the Father's mercy does not allow even a dream to ever perish. 12. "As far as God is concerned everything must die, but then the life of the Father come over the dead. Whoever seeks God will lose Him, himself and his life, for God does not allow Himself to be touched. And men's wisdom that seeks Him is to Him a disgusting folly and inevitably kills he seeker. For he touches God with wisdom, but no created being may touch God with whatever a sense and still stay alive. 13. "For God is an eternal, purest but also endlessly intense fire which never goes out; and if the Father did not mitigate it, it would destroy all things forever. Therefore everybody shall fear God above all and love the Father above all; for the Father is the most opposite to God. 14. "And yet God would not be God without the Father who is the eternal Love in God. And the Father would not be the Father without God. 15 "But as the Father is all life in God, thus God is all power and might in the Father. Without the Father God would be inexpressible to Himself, for all Word within Him is the Father. But the Father would never be Father without God, and thus God and Father are one. 16. "Therefore, whoever touches the Father with love, touches God too. But he who forgets the Father and with his wisdom only wants to touch the Deity, the Father will ignore; but the fire of the Deity will seize and tear him up and destroy him endlessly so that he will forever be unable to find himself. And it will not easily happen that the Father will once more gather him together from all infinity and form him anew. 17. "Wherever the Father is there is God too. But only the Father reveals Himself to the children. God cannot reveal Himself to anyone, except through the Father, and then, as is the case now, the Father reveals the Deity So whoever hears, sees and loves Me, hears, sees and loves also God. He who is admitted by the Father is also admitted by God. 18. "An unworthy one who is not admitted by the Father will fall into the hands of the judging and annihilating Deity, and there will be no mercy, nor any love and grace. 19. "Therefore, fear the Deity for it is terrible to fall into Its hands! 20. "But love the Father! Hold on firmly to His love and let yourselves always be touched and guided by the Father's love, then you will not ever taste death, except the separation from the body which latter is a curse of the Deity and wherein the life out of the Father is protected from the wrath of the Deity through the shielding love of the Father. 21. "From the hand of God you receive the curse, - but from the hand of the Father the blessing of love and all the life out of it. Therefore, adhere forever to love and you will stand steadfast in love. But when you stick to wisdom you will perish and be blown away forever by the Spirit of the Deity. 22. „These words are a great Sabbath-gift from the Father, whose children you are and Who loves you above all in the abounding infinity. Ponder on this in your hearts and act accordingly and you will live and never fall into the hands of the Deity. (HHG vol. 1, chap. 167) 2. "Listen, you My beloved, most pious Enoch! I perceive a fear in your heart, your immortal heart, which for some time has been surrounded by a shadow alarming you, like a healthy, fresh apple which is attacked by a stray fly ready to breed and probing with its stinging snout where it might penetrate the skin of the healthy fruit so as to deposit a wicked offspring of its evil kind in the flesh of the fruit, there to gnaw and possibly destroy the life of the fruit. 3. "Behold, what good would such a fruit then be? To what purpose would a fear serve the free heart? 4. "As a true high priest of My love, mercy and grace you shall make a speech to the people in My name. 5. "Behold, this has for a long time been the pious wish of Adam, even before I came to you in person. 6. "As previously, I have now actively acknowledged you and have told you both yesterday and today not to worry about what you shall, or want to, speak; for at the moment of need I shall inspire you faithfully, word for word, with what you shall say. And see, despite all this you are afraid! 7. "Can you not see how silly such a fear is? Me you cannot possibly fear any longer; for you know it and have always known from Me that I am supreme Love Myself. 8. "But now you also know that from the bottom of My heart I am meek, exceedingly gentle, mild, forbearing and exceedingly patient. 9. "What, then, do you fear? Perchance your fathers, brothers or children? Behold, this is vain of you. You think about it in secret and say to yourself: 'How shall I stand if I should yet have to make the required Sabbath speech to the people, and even during the short presence of the Lord of eternity and the almighty Creator of infinity, - in the luminous presence of the supreme wisdom of the most holy Father, full of love, grace and mercy? 10. "What will my poor word look like now after the most holy, most essential, living words which have already, like an endless stream of light, poured from the most holy mouth to us poor little worms in the Dust of all dust?' 11. "Behold, are not these your own musings? - But what are they good for? Perchance for life? - Behold and understand: Surely you need no longer care about life. Do you think that I am pleased with your silence and with talking in your stead? 12. "I tell you: I do not like the kind of humility where you lose courage before Me and are in fear of My ears and My eyes. 13. "But I do take the greatest pleasure in a behavior like that of little children, who have no fear of their parents, are at all times of good courage and talk and chatter away before their parents as if they were the masters of the house; but as soon as they are hungry and thirsty they still run, full of childlike love and submission, to the parents asking for bread; and when they receive the bread out of the hands of the parents they thank them through the happy enjoyment of the same rather than through an excessive respect and fear of them and a meaningless torrent of words expressing their gratitude. 14. "Do not every father and mother by far prefer the little children to happily enjoy what is proffered them, all the while looking healthy and fresh like little flowers after a refreshing rain, rather than have them tremble with fear and excessive respect before their parents, so much so that if these lovingly give them bread they do not dare to take, let alone eat it, out of excessive respect, all the while looking like withered grass emerging from weak roots out of a bare, stony cleft? 15. "Behold, is this not folly? - Yet therein consists the rule of love and of all wisdom out of it, namely, that for him who is finite, everything must be kept within proper limits; for, to the finite, the infinite means death. 16. "You cannot love Me as God, but only as man; for, what finite heart might be able to bear the infinite God, or the endless fire of divine love, what finite spirit the divine wisdom in its endless fullness? 17. "What little child can ever fully return its mother's love? What would become soon of the little child if it could do this with its limited strength? "Yet here it would only be a matter of one limitation versus another. 18. What shall be the outcome, should the finite try in every respect to absorb the infinite? 19. "Behold, Enoch, hence your fear is vain and futile. Whoever loves Me with all his endowed strength does enough, having fulfilled the measure allotted him. This requires neither fear nor anxiety. 20. "A tree is a good tree, when its branches are loaded annually with sweet fruit; however, what folly to expect this tree to supply the whole earth plentifully with its fruits! 21. “Thus be of a joyful heart and fulfill My will, and I shall be fully pleased with you. 22. "Do not strive to satisfy Me infinitely - which is an impossibility even for the highest created spirit -, but only in a finite manner according to your strength so that the measure granted you become full, and leave it to Me, your good Father, to look after the infinite. 23. “The required speech is part of your measure; thus raise yourself up courageously and open your mouth in My name before all those present. Amen." (HHG vol. 2, chap. 25) 12. "Behold, I educate, teach and liberate you with nothing else but My supreme, exceedingly true fatherly love, and you say in your hearts that I cannot be trusted. 13. “O you more than blind people! If, thus, I cannot be trusted, I Who am the most true, faithful, loving, gentle and patient Father to you all, - in whom else can and will you then trust? 14. "If you feel uneasy and frightened with Me, the most pure and holy Father, Who am filled with the best, truest and most honest fatherly intentions out of My eternal, most selfless love for you, how must you be feeling towards one another, you who are, compared with Me, full of evil and bad tricks, to become so utterly discouraged because I rectified a fault in Purhal's heart? 15. "O you blind ones! Before Me, the eternally alone living Father, you tremble and are full of fear when I raise you to Me and thus from death to eternal life; 16. "But the world, which is as such nothing but a mere death, does not instill any fear into your heart! 17. "Oh behold, how full of wrong thinking you still are! 18. "Who begot you to be afraid of Him Whom you should only love above all? Whereas with that which you shall fear and avoid with all your strength you fill your hearts quite comfortably! (HHG vol. 2, chap. 69) 16. But the Lord looked at him mildly and with great friendliness and said to him: 'Terhad, you have always wanted a sign so that you could believe what all the others believe. 17. "I told you Myself: If I shall give a sign of My presence to you or to someone else or to a whole people, they are under judgment, which carries death within. 18. "But he who recognizes in the heart, has recognized Me freely and thereby found within him the true, eternal life, and death will be far from him forever. 19. "Behold, this was the meaning of My speech; but these words did not suffice you and you wanted to seize Me first with your intellect - rather than with your love. 20. "I allowed this and spoke to you rationally through the mouth of your brother so that you might grasp that I am in all earnest that which Lamech had proclaimed Me to be on the throne. 21. 'Thereby you grasped Me in your intellect filling the same more and more with My primordial-eternal divinity. 22. "Expanding your intellect with Me, you forgot your heart which consequently shriveled, and when you tried to absorb Me into your heart, the latter was seized by terror of My magnitude in your intellect and was crushed by it, and you trembled for fear and on My approach fell down like dead. 23. "And behold, this was also a sign for you that I am He Whom you would have found alone in the heart much more easily and comfortably without having to have a little taste of judgment. 24. "But since you have now recognized Me, seize Me with your heart and be a faithful guardian of My sanctuary which I gave you. 25. "Now be serene and happy; for I, your Father, have revealed this to you. 26. "Love Me, and you will not ever have to fear Me; for I am only a Savior for you all, but not ever a destroyer. So be serene and happy. Amen." (HHG vol. 2, chap. 264) 16] The Lord turned to Adam and said to him: "You're talking here as a human being with Me, your Creator, and does well; because it proves to you My masterly successful work, in that you can out of yourself speak so freely to Me. 17] But absolutely true children, who fully know their Father and know how endless good He is, then also speak with Him quite differently; because they love Him and therefore have also no fear of Him, but they do, as these daughters have done and still do. 18] If, however, the Father wants to threaten his children to love Him, as you have shown through an example with yourself, He then would be anything else but a father! 19] But if I, as the only true Father, see that in you still dwells a silly fear for Me, I surely will know how to capture the same to get it out of you, which means, to remove the creature portion from you since a good one half of you is still creature, and to transform you into true children! 20] If you consider this a little, you will surely understand that I as the Creator and Father, even if no shoe squeezes Me, nevertheless will recognize where the shoe squeezes you, in order to help you out where you need help the most and that I will choose the most suitable means for it! (HHG vol. 3, chap. 12) 54. THE TRUE FEAR OF GOD [1] THE scribe said: “Somewhere deep in my heart I have the feeling that I understand it, but in my head everything is now mixed up, and I realize that such things can only be understood in the heart of the soul and never with the reason of the brains. But Moses commanded to fear God and to always pray to Him only. Do I not anymore have to fear and to worship You in the prescribed manner?” [2] I said: “Yes, yes, Moses did prescribe that, and that was also good, but truly, in this time no one understands anymore what it means ‘to fear God’, and you priests taught the people completely untrue and totally wrong concepts about the fear of God, partly because of your own blindness but mostly because of your insatiable pursuit of profit. And so, the weak people who still believe a little in God, fear Him as a malicious, extremely relentless tyrant who lacks all love and mercy, and for the word and the concept ‘God’ they back away in fear because they can see in Him almost nothing else except eternal wrath and eternal vengeance. [3] But it is also written that men should worship God and love Him above all. But how can a divine being be loved and through that also truly be worshiped if men already tremble before His name more than before death? [4] Therefore, you surely will realize now what kind of untrue and extremely wrong concept you – and because of you, also the other people – have about the fear of God. [5] What does it actually mean ‘to fear God’? To fear God means: to love God above all as the eternal, highest and purest love, and, because God is the highest truth, to remain in the divine truth and not to adhere to the lie of the world out of material self-interest. [6] Whoever is truthful in everything has the true fear of God in his heart, and he who has that, will always worship God in the right way. For as the lie is a very great dishonoring of God, so also is the pure and living truth a continuous and highest glorification and truest worship of God. Do you understand that now?” (GGJ Book 21, chap. 54) Thus, there is always a bond between created being and Creator, and it is not based on fear, on crouching before the throne of an almighty, wrathful God and severe judge. No, it is based on the faith and love a dependent child has for its strong protector, its father. It is love and not fear that keeps the heart in motion and makes it strive with a joyful beat towards the eternal, immutable Father of all created beings. It is the most beautiful bond that exists in nature, the bond of love between a child and its father, for the sake of which everything was created, is preserved and perfected. This is the only bond adequate for a spirit like Me, and the only one that can help a man or created being attain his spiritual nobility. Therefore, My children, you should understand what it means to "make supplication", to pray, to turn to Me in the name of Jesus. The name "Jesus" comprises My greatest act, My greatest acrifice which I made out of love for you and all spirits. Remembering My suffering, you cannot be proud; remembering My love, you cannot hate; and remembering My sacrifice, you cannot be mean; but by invoking My earthly name, you should strive after all these virtues which I personally practised during My life on earth. (The Lord’s Sermons, chap. 24) [17] Of course, one will object here and say: "The honour should be God's! For it is a noble fruit of the true fear of God; for he who is not afraid of God is capable of all evil deeds." [18] But I say: Even though the fear of God is better than to do evil deeds, yet such a fear of God will never give anyone eternal life, because a fearful mind is already a judged one! [19] For he who refuses evil only for fear of Me will have to pass a hard test; for in the fear of Me, no man's spirit is capable of salvation, and only when the fear will be taken from him, then it will be shown what he will do without fear of Me. [20] So many prisoners in the dungeons are well preserved on earth because of the fear of punishment of the legal order; but if they are released after the penalty, they are ten times worse off than they used to be. [21] All spirits in hell live and exist in the greatest fear of Me; To see Me only from a distance or to hear My name is the most terrible thing for them! But what fool will assert that the hellish spirits are good because they are so terrified of Me?! [22] But I will give an example: There would be such a very good man on earth, who would be extremely wealthy, but with the greatest love, meekness, and courtesy, and every person who come to him - whatever rank he would be, of whatever nation, whether friend or foe, would always be lovingly received by him. Question: Which person would have to be such a big fool to fear such a person as he would an executioner?! [23] But which man is better, more loving and meek than Me ?! And yet one would rather be afraid of Me than love Me with the greatest confidence! [24] Nevertheless, I say: Those who fear and honor Me seem to do so for good reason; for they know that their hearts are void of all love. That is why they want to replace this with the fear for Me. [25] But it is like a bride who has been unfaithful to her most faithful bridegroom and became a whore. Why did she? - Because she threw away the love to her bridegroom in her heart! [26] But when the bridegroom comes, will he also look upon and accept the bride, who is filled with trembling fear, as if she had come to meet his flaming heart? Will not he say to her: [27] "Why do you look thus? I have never saw you like this! Why do you tremble before me, who loved you above all else? Verily, in this condition I do not know you! What have I ever done to you that you should fear me? How did such fear supplant your former love? How am I to make you happy now, I, whom you do not love, but fear?! So I must depart from you for love of you, so that the fear of me in your heart no longer torments you!" [28] See, in this example, the "I do not know you, you "Lord, Lord!"- callers! are clearly and properly explained, and therefore I do not want the glory of men as being the fruit of fear, but I want the faithful filial love for Me. [29] Search your hearts, whether you will be able to approach Me, but not in your honour and fear! Be free in love (freed by love), but not the fear-directed of My Word; therein you will find eternal life and Me, your Father! Amen. (Explanation of Scriptures, chap. 27)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
NEW REVELATION ExcerptsFundamental Teachings
Categories
All
Archives
March 2019
|