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April 9th, 2003
Received by H.R.
Cuenca, Ecuador.
I am John Mark.
Please, could you write down here the question
you received — about the free will?
[This is a subject that has come up quite often on
web boards that I frequent. I guess it is good that folks are concerned
about not transgressing any spiritual laws relating to free will,
but some folks actually believe you should not pray for folks who
haven't asked for it. They certainly believe it is wrong to send
healing to someone who has not specifically asked for it. So, for
example, if I see someone on the street, and they are in pain, I
am told it is wrong to send them healing energy. What then about
love? Surely not that too? Crazy! The whole thing is getting out
of hand, except, I personally think it's all nonsense. But we have
had some absolutely head on discussions, with neither party moving
from their position.
It is clear many of us are channels for different types
of spiritual energy. Whether healing is different to love, I would
guess it is. I have always assumed that we are only a channel if
it is Father's Will. The alternate view is that we somehow could
transgress Free Will by imposing healing, love, prayer, etc. That
it is under our control. And therefore we must respect free will.
I wonder if this might be a subject Judas might
touch on someday?]
I am not Judas, sorry. But I will try to explain my point of view,
and Judas will surely agree with me.
First, I wish to state that free will has many facets: There is
not only the will for giving, but also the will for accepting or
receiving. When I try to transmit a message through you, I may drain
all my energy in vain, when you are not willing to receive my thoughts.
Do you understand me? The same thing happens with love and healing.
You can send tons of love and healing energy to other people, however,
if they are not willing to receive it, it rebounds without effect.
Jesus said: “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”
What did he mean to say by this? We know that we are not as perfect
as He is. This is impossible. But the Master's exhortation is clear:
We have to make every effort to achieve this goal, to come closer
to God, to be as He is in the nature of our souls, and so to act
as He does.
God sends us His Love daily, in every second of our existence.
He never requests our permission to do so. He simply sends His Love.
But He never compels us to accept it.
Even those who already consciously possess His Love, frequently
reject new portions, because they close the doors of their souls
temporarily. To pray for the Love of God and to ask him to send
His precious Gift is nothing other than to open up the soul to the
reception of the Father's Love. It is an act of faith; it is the
child’s trust and certainty when he goes humbly to his father,
knowing for sure that his father will accomodate him. The father
is always willing to give, but what is manifested now is the child’s
will to accept the father's offer.
In the same fashion, when we channel healing energy to people,
it is always necessary that those people open up to this offer.
If they fail to do so, it bounces back with no effect. We can never
heal people against their will. We have to deal, therefore, with
an interaction of the free wills of two people, one who gives and
another one with the desire to receive. And this desire is not always
expressed through words.
Now, I think that we have come to a good moment to also touch on
the uncomfortable question: Why are you not able to cure as the
apostles did, when you have already spent years praying for the
Divine Love?
Well, you have already achieved many healings, but let me explain
your frequent failures this way:
In the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus could not heal in
Nazareth. He did not become down cast, because he knew that for
an effective cure, sick people’s collaboration is essential.
If they closed themselves off to the healing, out of distrust, indifference,
or feelings of guilt, seeing their disease as the consequence of
their bad lives, that is to say, as a punishment for their sins,
then a successful intervention was never possible. This attitude
of seeing disease as a punishment for their own sins was very widespread
in those times. It constituted an almost insurmountable barrier
for the effect of healing energies. Hence, Jesus had to expend much
effort in convincing people that they were the beloved children
of the Father, who had no intention of punishing them, and that
they had to make the first step: opening up to the inexhaustible
Love of the most affectionate and good Being in existence. Once
this was achieved, healing was easy. You did not put this well.
It is not "to convince," it is "to open their eyes."
He opened their eyes, so that they became convinced by themselves.
Once again, it is apparent that we cannot impose healings against
the will of people. We need their cooperation. Nowadays, disease
is no longer considered a punishment inflicted by God — at
least most people have got rid of this absurd idea. However, there
are other obstacles: in those "primitive times full of superstition,"
perhaps it was easier for people to accept the existence of these
kinds of energies. Today, people usually reject as outlandish and
nonsensical whatever they cannot see or touch.
It would be sad to think that we can only act when we are invited
to do so. I do not intend to talk about the extreme case of unconscious
people who cannot ask for help.[1] I would rather
like to draw your attention to another account in the Bible:
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Some time later came one of the Jewish feast-days and Jesus
I went up to Jerusalem.
There is in Jerusalem near the sheep-pens a pool surrounded
by five arches, which has the Hebrew name of Bethzatha. Under
these arches a great many sick people were in the habit of
lying; some of them were blind, some lame, and some had withered
limbs. (They used to wait there for the "moving of the
water", for at certain times an angel used to come down
into the pool and disturb the water, and then the first person
who stepped into the water after the disturbance would be
healed of whatever he was suffering from.) One particular
man had been there ill for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there on his back—knowing that
he had been like that for a long time, he said to him, "Do
you want to get well again?"
"Sir," replied the sick man, "I haven’t
got anybody to put me into the pool when the water is all
stirred up. While I’m trying to get there somebody else
gets down into it first."
"Get up," said Jesus, "pick up your bed and
walk!"
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(John 5:1-8)
I have no intention of broadening upon the topic of forgiveness
of sin. I want you to put yourself in the blind man's position.
How many times would he have asked somebody to help him, but nobody
cared? Then, the moment comes when one no longer asks, fearing the
rejection that hurts so much. The sick person's silence does not
mean that he, inside, is not calling out for help. So, it was Jesus
who approached him.
When people consider their diseases as some kind of punishment
for their sins — which is all wrong, of course — it does
not mean that they do not need help: Perhaps they need it more than
others!
Jesus' work is essentially a work of help. Had he waited for people
to come closer and ask for his help, he could have better stayed
at home in Nazareth devoting himself to carpentry.
There are moral obligations… what am I saying? These are not
obligations. They are attitudes that flow naturally from a love-filled
soul. It is a law that truly does assert itself without failure:
The more advanced spirit helps the less advanced spirit. I am referring
to spiritual progress, of course. So it happens in the spirit world,
and so it happens on earth. This is a compulsory process, since
the formation of the free will goes hand in hand with the soul’s
development. I am aware that it is hardly possible to determine
the degree of progress in oneself. But when people do not feel the
powerful and irresistible impulse of always helping when they can
help, then the moment has come for them to seriously meditate about
their own spiritual condition.
There is a law that dominates all the others: The Law of Love.
And when Love is expressing itself and prompts you to do something,
do it and do not waste time. A hundred hours of discussion over
the problem whether it is lawful on the Sabbath to carry a pin in
one’s hand, or have it fastened to one’s garment, or to
carry it clutched between one’s teeth or stuck in one’s
hair does not compensate for one good-hearted glance or a single
word of love.
I appreciate that you have received me as your friend and brother,
and that you have allowed me to communicate my thoughts on the topic
under discussion. When another opportunity should arise, I will
come back with great pleasure.
John Mark
[1] H.R.: In a letter to this question I had answered:
“If I understand correctly, these people consequently also
think that when they suffer a car accident and are trapped unconsciously
in their burning vehicle, the fire brigade has to wait until they
wake up (or the car explodes) to ask them whether they wish to be
rescued or not?”
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