I say: ‘Because you are a person of this earth, you also speak like a person of this earth; but He who is from above speaks differently, because He alone perceives and knows very well what a person needs at every time, so that his spirit may become free from God’s all-power and wrath and attain true independence for eternity!
‘For the life of this earth gives the spirit neither life nor its freedom, but death; yet the death of this earth is the spirit’s birth into eternal life and its true eternal freedom!
‘But if I do wish to speak in human terms, I tell you that all this and far more has already been undertaken with humanity, and tell yourself where, in your opinion, the golden fruits are?!
‘What happened in Noah’s time—and how much better have people on this earth become through it than they were before Noah?! What happened soon afterwards in Sodom and Gomorrah?
‘And look, all the present-day heathens, down to the Moors and Sinites in the farthest eastern lands, are Lot’s descendants, as are many Scythians who have become entirely animal-like and savage and inhabit the earth’s northern lands; how do you find them despite the lesson their father Lot experienced?!
‘Go to Egypt and examine the peoples: how much better have they become through the seven plagues?! What had Moses done, and what so many prophets?!
‘For forty years Jehovah let the Jews, who had become too wicked, languish most miserably in Babylonian captivity. They have been treated like the worst beasts of burden and fed the food of pigs and dogs; the lovely daughters of the Jews have been violated day and night unto death by the arrogant Babylonians amid scourging and all kinds of torture, and likewise the boys and young men, who were first castrated!
‘Go and ask all the high and proud Jews how much better they have become after such a lesson! Show Me a time, a year, a month, a week, a day when the Lord had not chastised humanity, grown too wicked, either individually or in general?!
‘Therefore you come to Me far too late with your advice; for all this has already happened and has also accomplished for the spiritual path what it had to accomplish. But for people’s outward earthly condition of life, in the ground of the ground no perceptible effect can or may arise, because nothing was ever permitted from above for that purpose alone.
‘But if I now wished once again to proclaim to people the Gospel of the kingdom of God on earth with thunder and lightning, I would not need you for it; for in heaven there would still be an exceedingly great multitude of the mightiest angels, who would understand such a spreading of God’s kingdom on earth much better than you.
‘But now the time has come that was shown to Elijah when he lay hidden in the grotto on the mountain! Jehovah passed along, not in the storm, nor in the fire, but in the gentle blowing! And now the time of Jehovah’s gentle blowing before the grotto of this world is here; therefore we now neither wish nor are permitted to go out with storm or fire, but according to God’s eternal order with all love, gentleness and patience! Yet you should not disregard shrewdness; for I do see that you now go as lambs among ravening wolves—but if you are shrewd, you will nevertheless accomplish much.
‘(Matt. 10:17) Therefore beware of those certain (wolf-)people, and have no dealings with them; for it is they who will hand you over and drag you before their town halls and also scourge you in their schools—and that very soon if you are stupid and insufficiently shrewd! If a lamb is on the projecting bay of a house, where the wolf cannot reach, the wolf will do it no harm despite all his bloodthirstiness; but if the lamb is inquisitive and comes down from the safe projecting bay to look more closely at the enemy, it must blame itself if it is (Matt. 10:18) torn apart and devoured by the wolf.
‘But later, after I shall have ascended again into the heavens to prepare eternal dwellings for you in the Father’s house, you will indeed be dragged before princes and kings for My name’s sake, as a testimony against them and against the heathens, so that what Isaiah, My prophet, prophesied concerning the stupid kings for all times and for My kingdom now to be founded on earth may now also be fulfilled, when he said: (Isaiah 32:6–20)
‘“A fool speaks of folly, and his heart deals in calamity, so that he brings about hypocrisy and preaches error about the Lord, to starve the hungry souls still more and deny drink to the thirsty. The rule of the avaricious man is nothing but harm; for he finds enough treachery to ruin the wretched with false words when he should speak for the poor man’s right. But upright princes would also have princely thoughts and uphold justice over them.
‘“But rise, you proud women, and hear my voice! You daughters who are so secure, give ear to my speech! It is a matter of a year and a day, and you secure ones will tremble; for if there is no grape harvest, there will be no blessing either. Be alarmed, you proud women! For it is high time to bare and gird the loins!
‘“There will be lamentation for the fields, yes, for the lovely fields and the fruitful vines; for thorns and hedges will grow on My people’s field, and also over all the houses of pleasure in the joyful city. The palaces will be deserted, and the multitude in the city lonely, so that the towers and fortresses become eternal caves, a delight for wild animals and pasture for the herds! And this until the Spirit from on high is poured out upon us.
‘“Then the wilderness will be reckoned as a field and the field as a forest. And right will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness inhabit the field; and the fruit of righteousness will be peace, and the benefit of righteousness eternal stillness and security.
‘“Then My people will dwell in houses of peace, thus in secure dwellings and in proud repose. But along the forest the hail will nevertheless remain, and the city here below will be a lowly one.
‘“Well for you, then, if you now sow diligently beside the waters; there you may indeed calmly let the feet of the asses and oxen walk upon it.”
‘If, then, you are led and handed over by the wicked fools of this world to the fool-kings designated by Isaiah, do not be anxious about what you should say and how you should answer for yourselves! For in that hour you shall be given what you should say and (Matt. 10:20) how you should answer for yourselves! For it is not you who speak, but My Spirit who speaks in you!
‘But this applies only to the aforementioned second sending, which you will have to undertake after My ascension. For now you should not have it too hard; for as the prophet says at the end, so I now also tell you:
‘Well for you now, who have to sow along the shores of the lake; for on this ground you may let your asses and oxen—that is, your diligence for the good and the true, for which I have called and chosen you—walk about quite safely. There you will encounter no fool-king and no women full of pride and arrogance, but the poor, sick, possessed, lame, deaf and blind, naturally and also in spirit. Go to these, preach to them the Gospel of God’s kingdom, heal everyone who believes, and do not withhold My name from him!’