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May 10th, 1920
Received by: James Padgett.
Washington. D.C.
Let me write for a short time upon a subject that will be of interest
to you and to those who may read my messages.
What I desire to write upon tonight is the condition of those who
think they have received the inflowing or baptism of the Holy Spirit,
when the fact is that they have received only that advancement in
the purification of their natural love and a harmony with the laws
of their creation that causes them to believe that what they experience
must be the result of a bestowal of the Love which the Holy Spirit
brings to mortals. In this mistake so many humans indulge; and in
the satisfaction or rather happiness which their experience, growing
out of such an increase in the harmony, brings to them, they fully
believe that the Holy Spirit has taken possession of their souls
and caused the happiness. But in thus concluding, they are deceiving
themselves, and will realize their mistake when they come to an
awakening in the spirit life.
The Holy Spirit is that part of God's Spirit that manifests His
presence and care in conveying to men's souls His Divine Love. This
Love is the highest and greatest and most holy of His possessions,
and can be conveyed to men only by the Holy Spirit; and this appellation
is used in contradistinction to the mere spirit, which demonstrates
to men the operation of God's Soul in other directions and for other
purposes. His creative spirit, and His caring spirit and the spirit
that makes effective his laws and designs in the governing of the
universe, are not the Holy Spirit, though equally part of God's
Soul, and equally necessary for the manifestations of His powers
and the exercise of the energies of His Soul. These deal with the
things of the universe that do not have interrelationship with the
Soul of God and the souls of men, and whenever the Holy Spirit is
spoken of it should mean only that part of God's Spirit which transforms
the souls of men into the Substance of the Soul of God in its Quality
of Love.
I heard the preacher discourse Sunday night on the work of the
Holy Spirit as portrayed in the contents of the New Testament, and
saw that his conclusions from these contents were wholly erroneous
and apart from the truth. As he said, the effects of the workings
of the Holy Spirit are shown in more ways than one, and not everyone
upon whom it is bestowed is filled with the same powers of displaying
its presence and possession. Now in all these evidences of its existence
in the experiences given, it must be understood that it is limited
in its operations to those conditions and manifestations that have
their source in the Divine Love of the Father, that was bestowed
upon mankind at my coming in the flesh, and that those evidences
of the existence that have no relationship to this Love are not
evidences of the presence of the Holy Spirit. As mentioned in the
New Testament, when it was bestowed upon my disciples at Pentecost,
it came as with the sound of a mighty rushing wind, which has before
been explained to you, that shook the room in which the disciples
were assembled, and filled them with its powers, which means only
that this Divine Love came into their souls in such abundance that
they were shaken in their souls to such an extent that they thought
the building in which they were assembled was disturbed. But in
this they were mistaken, for the effect of the presence of the Holy
Spirit is not to affect the things of inanimate nature, but is confined
to the souls of men.
And the preacher must know, that because men are possessed with
powers to accomplish the mental or material things of their living,
they are not necessarily possessed with the Holy Spirit. Much of
the physical healing of mortals is caused by powers that are bestowed
upon men, or some men that are not connected with or proceed from
the Holy Spirit. That there is evidence of this, men will recollect
that the Old Testament is full of instances where men were healed
of their diseases, and other wonderful things performed, at the
time that the Holy Spirit was excluded from man's possession. Yet
these marvels, as then considered, were performed by men claiming
to be endowed with the Spirit of God, which is working for the good
and happiness of mankind, and which will continue to work until
men shall become in harmony with themselves as first created.
I understand the object of the preacher in attempting to show and
convince his hearers, that because they have not those powers that
the Bible describes as having been possessed by my disciples after
the bestowal of the Holy Spirit, that therefore, they must not believe
and conclude that they, his hearers, have not this blessing. His
intentions and efforts were commendable, and arose from the desire
that his hearers should not become disheartened and disappointed
in their efforts to obtain the inflowing of the Love that the Holy
Spirit brings to men; but on the other hand, his teachings were
dangerous and misleading to these hearers, for the natural consequence
of such teaching is to lead men into the belief or persuasion that
they possess this power and Comforter, when they do not, and thus
prevent them from seeking for an obtaining this Comforter in the
only way in which it can be obtained. The Holy Spirit primarily,
has nothing to do with great mental or physical achievements, and
to say that because a man is a great inventor or philosopher or
surgeon who does things without knowing where the inspiration or
suggestion to do the things comes from, therefore he is possessed
of the Holy Spirit, is all wrong and misleading.
All things, mediately (ultimately or even dependent on an intervening
agency) or immediately, have their existence and operation and growth
in the Spirit of God, and only in that Spirit, and which Spirit
is evidenced in many and varied ways in men's experience; and hence,
men say that they live and move and have their being in God, meaning
only that they live and move and have their being in God's Spirit.
This Spirit is the source of life and light and health and numerous
other blessings that men possess and enjoy - the sinner as well
as the saint, the poor man as well as the rich, the ignorant as
well as the enlightened and educated - and are each and all dependent
on this Spirit for their being and comfort. This is the Spirit that
all men possess to a great or less degree, and the brilliant preacher
or teacher or orator, possessing this Spirit to a greater degree
than his less favored brother, depends upon the same Spirit. It
is universal in its existence and workings, is omnipresent, and
may be acquired by all men in this sense to the degree that their
mental receptivity permits. And this further demonstrates the fact
that God, through and by this Spirit, is with men always, in the
lowest hells as well as in the highest heavens of the perfect man.
It is working continuously, ceaselessly and always at the call of
men, be that call mental or spiritual. It is the thing that controls
the universe of which man's earth is an infinitesimal part. This
is the Spirit of God.
But the Holy Spirit while a part of the Spirit of God, yet is as
distinctive as is the soul of man distinctive from all other creations
of God; it is that part of God's Spirit that has to do with the
relationship of God's Soul and man's soul, exclusively.
The subject of Its operation is the Divine Love of the Father's
Soul and the object of Its workings is the soul of man, and the
great goal to be reached by Its operations is the transforming of
the soul of man into the Substance of the Father's Love, with Immortality
as a necessary accompaniment. This is the great miracle of the universe;
and so high and sacred and merciful is the transformation, that
we call that part of God's Spirit that so works, the Holy Spirit.
So let not teachers or preachers teach, or their hearers believe
that every part of God's Spirit that operates upon the heart's and
thoughts and feelings of man is the Holy Spirit, for it is not true.
Its mission is the salvation of men in the sense of bringing them
into that harmony with God, that the very souls of men will become
a part in substance and not in image merely of the Soul of God and
without this working of the Holy Spirit men cannot become in such
union.
I have written you before as to how this Holy Spirit works and
the way in which it can bring men the Divine Love of the Father,
and what is necessary for it's inflowing. The way described is the
only way, and men must not believe and rest in the security of such
belief, that every working of the Spirit of God, is the working
of the Holy Spirit.
Except a man be born again he
cannot enter into the Kingdom of God, and such attainment is possible
only by the working of the Holy Spirit.
Oh, preacher, upon whom a great responsibility rests, learn the
truth and then lead men into the way of salvation. I will not write
more now, but will come again and deliver another message. Believe
that I love you and am
Your friend and brother,
Jesus
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