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March 2nd, 1917
Received by:James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
I am here, Jesus.
I come tonight to write my message on the soul, and will do so,
if we can establish the necessary rapport.
Well, the subject is of vast importance, and difficult of explanation,
for there is nothing on earth known to man, with which a comparison
may be made, and, generally men cannot understand truth, or the
nature of things, except by comparison with what they already know
to exist, and with whose qualities and characteristics they are
acquainted. There is nothing in the material world that will afford
a basis of comparison with the soul, and, hence, it is difficult
for men to comprehend the nature and qualities of the soul by the
mere intellectual perceptions and reason, and in order to understand
the nature of this great creation - the soul - men must have something
of a spiritual development and the possession of what may be known
as the soul perceptions. Only soul can understand soul, and the
soul that seeks to comprehend the nature of itself, must be a live
soul, with its faculties developed to a small degree, at least.
First, I will say, that the human soul must be a creature of God
and not emanation from Him, as a part of His soul, and when men
speak and teach that the human soul is a part of the Over-Soul,
they teach what is not true. This soul is merely a creature of the
Father, just as are the other parts of man, such as the intellect
and the spirit body and the material body, and which before its
creation had no existence. It has not existed from the beginning
of eternity, if you can imagine that eternity ever had a beginning.
I mean that there was a time when the human soul had no existence;
and whether there will ever come a time when any human soul will
cease to have an existence, I do not know, nor does any spirit,
only God knows that fact. But this I do know, that whenever the
human soul partakes of the Essence of the Father, and thereby becomes
Divine itself, and the possessor of His Substance of Love, that
soul realizes to a certainty that it is Immortal, and can never
again become less than Immortal. As God is Immortal, the soul that
has been transformed into the Substance of the Father becomes Immortal,
and never again can the decree, "dying thou shalt die," be pronounced
upon it.
As I said, there was a period in eternity when the human soul did
not exist and was created by the Father, and when it was made the
highest and most perfect of all God's creation, to such an extent
that it was made in His image - the only one or thing of all His
creations that was made in His image, and the only part of man that
was made in His image, for the soul is the man and all his attributes
and qualities, such as his intellect and spirit body and material
body and appetites and passions, are merely appendages or means
of manifestation given to that soul, to be its companions while
passing through its existence on earth, and also, qualifiedly, while
living in eternity. I mean some of the appendages will accompany
the soul in its existence in the spirit world, whether that existence
be for all eternity or not.
But this soul, great and wonderful as it is, was created in the
mere image and likeness of God, and not in or of His Substance or
Essence - the Divine of the universe - and it, the soul, may cease
to exist without any part of the Divine nature or Substance of the
Father being lessened or in any way affected; and hence, when men
teach or believe that man, or the soul of man is Divine, or has
any of the qualities or Substance of the Divine, such teaching and
belief are erroneous, because man is only and merely the created
man, the mere likeness but no part of the Father or of His Substance
and qualities.
While the soul of man is of the highest order of creation, and
his attributes and qualities correspond, yet he is no more divine
in essential constituents, than are the lower objects of creation
- they each being a creation, and not an emanation, of their Creator.
True it is that the soul of man is of a higher order of creation
than any other created things, and is the only creature made in
the image of God, and was made the perfect man, yet man - the soul
- can never become anything different or greater than the perfect
man, unless he receives and possesses the Divine Essence and qualities
of the Father, which he did not possess at his creation, although,
most wonderful gift, with his creation, God bestowed upon him the
privilege of receiving this Great Substance of the Divine nature,
and thereby become Divine himself. The perfectly created man could
become the Divine Angel, if he, the man, so willed it and obeyed
the commands of the Father, and pursued the way provided by the
Father for obtaining and possessing that Divinity.
As I have said, the souls, the human souls, for the indwelling
of which God provided material bodies, that they might live the
mortal lives, were created just as, subsequently, these material
bodies were created; and this creation of the soul took place long
before the appearance of man on earth as a mortal, and the soul
prior to such appearance, had its existence in the spirit world
as a substantial conscious entity, although without visible form,
and, I may say, individuality, but yet, having a distinct personality,
so that it was different and distinct from every other soul.
Its existence and presence could be sensed by every other soul
that came in contact with it, and yet to the spirit vision of the
other soul it was not visible. And such is the fact now. The spirit
world is filled with these unincarnated souls, awaiting the time
of their incarnation, and we spirits know of and sense their presence,
and yet with our spirit eyes we cannot see them, and not until they
become dwellers in the human form and in the spirit body that inhabits
that form, can we see the individual soul.
And the fact that I have just stated, illustrates, in a way, describes
the Being of Him, in whose image these souls are created. We know
and can sense the existence and presence of the Father, and yet,
even with our spiritual eyes we cannot see Him; and only when we
have our soul developed by the Divine Essence of His Love, can we
perceive Him with our soul perception, because you have not words
in your language to convey its meaning, and nothing in created nature,
of which you have knowledge of in which a comparison can be made.
But it is a truth; for the vision of the soul perception to its
possessor is just as real, as I may say, objective, as is the vision
of the mortal sight to the mortal.
It may be asked in considering this matter of the creation of the
soul, "were all souls that have been incarnated, or that are awaiting
incarnation, created at the same time, or is that creation still
going on?" I do know that the spirit world contains many souls,
such as I have described awaiting their temporary homes, and the
assumption of individuality in the human form, but as to whether
that creation has ended, and at sometime the reproduction of men
for the embodying of these souls, will cease, I do not know, and
the Father has never revealed it to me, or to the others of His
angels who are close to Him in His Divinity and Substance.
The Father has not revealed to me all the truths and the workings
and objects of His creative laws, and neither has He given to me
all power and wisdom and omniscence as some may find justification
for believing in certain of the statements of the Bible. I am a
progressive spirit, and as I grew in love and knowledge and wisdom
when on earth, I am still growing in these qualities, and the love
and mercy of the Father come to me with the assurance that never
in all eternity will I cease to progress towards the very fountain
head of these attributes of Him, the only God, the All in All.
As I was saying, the soul of man is the man, before, while in the
mortal existence and ever after in the spirit world, and all other
parts of man, such as the mind and body and spirit are mere attributes,
which may be dissevered from him as the soul progresses in its development
toward its destiny of either the perfect man or the Divine Angel,
and in the latter progression, men may not know it, but it is a
truth, that the mind - that is the mind as known to mankind - becomes,
as it were, non-existent; and this mind as some say, the carnal
mind, becomes displaced and replaced by the mind of the transformed
soul, which is in substance and quality, to a degree, the mind of
Deity, itself.
Many theologians and philosophers and metaphysicians believe and
teach that the soul, spirit and mind are substantially one and the
same thing, and that anyone of them may be said to be the man -
the ego, and that in the spirit world one or the other of these
entities is that which persists and determines in its development
or want of development the condition or state of man after death.
But this conception of these parts of man are erroneous , for they
each have a distinct and separate existence and functioning, whether
man be a mortal or spirit. The mind in its qualities and operations,
is very well known to man, because of its varied manifestations,
and being that part of man which is more of the nature of the material,
and has been the subject of greater research and study than has
been the soul or the spirit.
While men have, during all the centuries, speculated upon and attempted
to define the soul and its qualities and attributes, yet to them
it has been intransitive, and impossible of comprehension by the
intellect which is the only instrumentality that man generally possesses
to search for the great truth of the soul, and hence, the question,
of what is the soul, has never been satisfactorily or authoritatively
answered, though to some of these searchers, when inspiration may
have shed a faint light upon them, some glimpse of what the soul
is, has come to them. Yet to most men who have sought to solve the
problem, the soul and spirit and mind are substantially the same
thing.
But the soul, as concerning man is a thing of itself, alone. A
substance real, though invisible to mortals. The discerner and portrayer
of men's moral and spiritual condition - never dying, so far as
known, and the real ego of the man. In it are centered the love
principle, the affections, the appetites and the passions, and possibilities
of receiving and possessing and assimilating those things that will
either elevate man to the state or condition of the Divine Angel
or the perfect man, or lower him to the condition that fits him
for the hells of darkness and suffering.
The soul is subject to the will of man, which is the greatest of
all endowments that were bestowed upon him by his Maker at his creation,
and is the certain index of the workings of that will either in
thought or action, and in the souls, qualities of love and affection
and appetites and passions are influenced by the power of the will,
either for good or evil. It may be dormant and stagnate, or it may
be active and progress. And so its energies may be ruled by the
will for good or evil, but these energies belong to it and are no
part of the will.
The soul's home is in the spirit body, whether that body is encased
in the mortal or not, and it is never without such spirit body,
which in appearance and composition is determined by the condition
and state of the soul. And finally, the soul or its condition decides
the destiny of man, as he continues in his existence in the spirit
world; not a final destiny, because the condition of the soul is
never fixed, and as this condition changes, man's destiny changes,
for destiny is the thing of the moment, and finality is not known
to the progress of the soul, until it becomes the perfect man and
is then satisfied and seek no higher progress.
Now, in your common language and also in your theological and philosophical
terms, mortals who have passed to spirit life are said to be spirits,
and in a certain sense this is true, but such mortals are not nebulous,
unformed and invisible existences, they have a reality of substance,
more real and enduring, than has man as a mortal, and are in form
and features visible and subject to touch and the object of the
spiritual senses. So when men speak of soul, spirit and body, if
they understood the truth of the terms, they would say, soul, spirit-body,
and material-body. There is a spirit, but it is altogether distinct
and different from the spirit body, and also from the soul. It is
not part of the spirit body, but is an attribute of the soul, exclusively
and without the soul, it could not exist. It has no substance as
has the soul, and it is not visible to even the spirit vision -
only the effect of its workings can be seen or understood, - and
it is without body, form or substance. And yet it is real and powerful,
and when existing never ceasing in its operations - and is an attribute
of all souls.
Then what is the spirit? Simply this - the active energy of the
soul. As I have said, the soul has its energy, which may be dormant
or which may be active. If dormant, the spirit is not in existence;
if active the spirit is present, and manifests that energy in action.
So to confuse the spirit with the soul, as being identical, leads
to error and away from the truth.
It is said that God is spirit, which in a sense is true, for spirit
is a part of His great soul qualities, and which He uses to manifest
His presence in the universe; but to say that spirit is God is not
stating the truth, unless you are willing to accept as true the
proposition that a part is the whole. In the divine economy, God
is all of spirit, but spirit is only the messenger of God, by which
He manifests the energies of His Great Soul.
And so with man. Spirit is not man-soul, but man-soul is spirit,
as it is the instrumentality by which the soul of man makes known
its energies and powers and presence.
Well, I have written enough for tonight, but sometime I will come
and simplify this subject. But remember this, that Soul is God,
soul is man, and all manifestations, such as spirit, and spirit
body are merely evidences of the existence of the soul - the real
man. I have been with you as I promised, and I know that Father
will bless you.
So with my love and blessing, I will say good
night.
Your brother and friend,
Jesus
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