At these words I call Kisjonah down from his five-fathom-high pulpit and say to him in secret: ‘Be silent for the moment, and do not reveal Me before the time! For there are still many here who are not as mature for this as you and therefore must not learn fully who I really am; otherwise the freedom of their spirit, which is to become alive, would come under judgment, from which such a spirit could scarcely ever rise!
‘It is enough that many now begin to sense who I am, while most regard Me either as a great prophet and some as God’s Son—which I now am according to the outward appearance. More than this would for the moment cause great harm; therefore let us also leave them for now with such an opinion and such faith, and for that reason you must not reveal Me further.’
Kisjonah says: ‘Yes, Lord, that is quite certainly so. But I too am a human being; will it not become judgment for my soul, since now without any doubt I not only believe, but know through and through who You are?’
I say: ‘I have prepared you through word and teaching; when I came to you a few days ago, you indeed regarded Me as a very wise and discerning physician, and when you saw unusual deeds performed, you began to regard Me as a prophet through whom God’s Spirit worked. But you are a man versed in all schools, and the urge drove you to bring into your full knowledge how a person could attain such perfection. Then I revealed to you what a human being is and what is within him, and also what can become of a human being when he has fully known himself and thereby attained the fullest freedom of life.
‘But then I also showed you how God Himself is a human being and how for this sole reason you and all beings like you are also human beings; then I also showed you in secret that I Myself am precisely the human being, and that every human being is called to become and eternally be what I Myself am! Then you marveled, and from that time you know who I am.
‘And look, that was a fitting preparation of your soul and spirit, so that now you may see Me create a whole earth and make people out of stones, and it will nevertheless no longer trouble you; for you have freely accepted, and indeed by a path of knowledge, that God can be a human being and a human being can very well and in a fully knowledgeable, true way be a god. And so it can now no longer unsettle your soul and spirit, however much more perfectly you perceive that I am the wholly sole and only true God and Creator of all things from eternity.
‘But matters are entirely different with all these other people, who without exception are inaccessible by the path of knowledge alone! They have only faith, and with it exceedingly little understanding.
‘But faith is closer to the soul’s life than the most perfected understanding. If faith is a compulsion, then through that it is at once also a fetter upon the soul; but if the soul is fettered, there can be no question of a free development of the spirit within it.
‘But if, as with you, the understanding has first been brought to proper insight, the soul remains free and always takes from the light of understanding only as much as it can quite well bear and digest.
‘And so from a properly formed understanding there develops a true, full, living faith, through which the spirit in the soul receives proper nourishment and thereby becomes ever stronger and mightier. Every person can perceive this at once when his love for Me and for the neighbor becomes ever stronger and mightier.
‘But, as already mentioned, where a person’s understanding is often entirely undeveloped and he, the person, has only faith—which in its isolated position is in a certain way merely an obedience of the heart and of the will—this must be handled with all caution, so that it does not harden into the sheerest delusion or does not stray onto the most dreadful wrong paths, as is only too evidently the sad case among all heathens and also at this time among very many.
‘And now you will easily be able to see why I called you down earlier from the rock from which you wished to reveal Me before the people; therefore a blind person should never lead another, but one who sees sharply in his proper understanding, otherwise they both plunge into the abyss.
‘I tell you: be diligent in everything and gather proper knowledge in all things; examine everything you encounter and retain from it what is good and true. Then it will be easy for you to grasp the truth, enliven faith that was previously dead, and make it a true lamp of life.
‘I tell you, and through this everyone: if you wish to derive a true benefit from My teaching for your life, you must first understand it and only then act according to it in keeping with the truth!
‘As perfect as the Father in heaven is in all things, just so perfect must you also be; otherwise you can never become His children.
‘You have read Matthew’s writing and My Sermon on the Mount within it; there I taught the disciples to pray, and indeed with the invocation: Our Father!
‘Whoever prays such a prayer in his heart but does not grasp it in proper understanding is like a blind person who praises and extols the sun, yet despite its mightiest light does not see it and can form no conception of it. He does not, of course, sin through this, but in truth it is of no benefit to him either, for he nevertheless remains in the same darkness!
‘Therefore, when you truly form a person’s heart for life, do not forget first to form the understanding properly; otherwise you make him a blind worshiper of the sun who is of no use.’