After this reply I ask the colonel whether there are no sick people in this place. And the colonel says, ‘Friend, if You also understand the art of healing, then heal my wife; for she has suffered for a full year from a hidden illness that no physician recognizes. Perhaps the depth of Your wisdom could make it possible to recognize the affliction and free my wife from it!’
I say, ‘I tell you: your wife is well! Send for her!’
The colonel immediately sends a servant there, and the colonel’s wife meets him at the threshold, cheerful and well, and goes with him at once to the colonel. He is exceedingly astonished and says to Me, ‘Friend, You are a god!’
I say, ‘So you human beings are all alike after all! Unless you see signs, you do not believe. Yet you are nevertheless blessed now if you still believe because of the signs. But if someone should not believe even because of the signs I perform, he has fallen prey to death.
‘But in future only those people will become blessed who, without signs, believe solely in the truth of My word and live accordingly. Only then will they find within themselves the true living sign called eternal life, and no one will then be able to take it from them anymore.
‘You now rejoice that I have made your wife well solely through the will of My heart, and constantly ask yourself: “How is that possible?” But I tell you: if a person lived according to the inner pure truth, then himself entered into such truth, and had no more doubt within his truth, he could say to one of the mountains surrounding this area, “Rise and fall into the sea!” And the mountain would rise and fall into the sea.
‘But since such truth does not dwell in you, as it does not in very many others, you not only cannot perform such deeds; on top of it you must marvel beyond measure when I, who have such truth within Me in all its fullness, perform deeds before your eyes that can be performed only through the power of the innermost living truth!
‘Only in such truth does faith, which is the spirit’s right hand in the human being, become living and active; and the spirit’s arm reaches far and performs great things!
‘When through such truth you have sufficiently strengthened the arms of your spirit within you, you will do what I have now done before you. And besides this, you will see quite clearly how this is possible far more easily than lifting a stone from the ground with bodily hands and throwing it several paces ahead of you!
‘Therefore live according to My teaching. Be doers and not merely empty hearers and admirers of My words, teachings and deeds, and you too will receive within yourselves what you now so greatly admire in Me.
‘But I show you this not of Myself, but from Him who taught Me this before the world. And He is the One of whom you say that He is your Father, yet you do not know Him and have never recognized Him. But the One of whom you say that He is your Father is He from whom all things are: angels, sun, moon and stars, and this earth with everything in and upon it!
‘But as this Father taught Me before all the world, so I now also teach you, so that the Father who now lives in Me may also dwell in you and, in you as in Me, beget the primordially eternal pure truth from the eternal primordial foundation, which is called, and is, love in God. And this in turn is the very essence of God Himself!
‘So do not let yourselves be carried away so much by the signs I perform before your eyes, lest you fall into a dead faith under judgment, which is of no use. Rather, live and act according to what I teach you, and you will receive within yourselves what you now marvel at in Me beyond measure; for you are all called to be as perfect as the Father in heaven Himself is perfect. Now you know everything; act accordingly, and within yourselves you will perceive whether I have told you the truth or not. Therefore test My teaching through action, but with all zeal, far from any lukewarmness, and only through this will you learn whether this teaching is from a human being or from God!’
After this important instruction the colonel says, ‘Now it is beginning to dawn within me! There is indeed an incalculably deep wisdom in all this, which is difficult for us quite ordinary people to grasp at first. But that does not matter too much; for if one can attain right understanding only by acting accordingly, I shall now leave off all further speculation. Once Jonael has introduced me to the whole teaching, I shall immediately devote myself to full and entirely earnest action. And let this resolution stand!’
I say, ‘Well said, My friend. But when you attain the light in this way, let this light of yours shine for your brothers too, and thereby you will prepare a reward for yourself in heaven. But now let us go to Sychar, for I still have some things to accomplish there. So let us continue.’