Divine Revelation
My beloved sons and daughters, My revealed word today is also meant to help you look more deeply into My laws; for you know that it is My concern that My human children not merely believe—often enough blindly and without reflection—but that, in the intended sense, they use their intellect, which fulfills its task best as the “right hand of the heart.” The heart, which here stands for love, should therefore have the say; and your intellect should be a help to your heart in gaining insight—and not the other way around.
Free will plays a central role in this, the free will I have bestowed as a gift upon all My creatures—the angels of the heavens and the human beings of earth. How you deal with it, how and for what you use it, determines your well-being or your distress, not only in your earthly life but also in your life beyond.
Let us together develop the thread that will help you, step by step, to recognize the connections—provided you are ready to do so because you recognize the great benefit My explanations can have for your lives. One thing or another will be repeated in the process; but it is nevertheless important and valuable because each time another aspect is illuminated.
If you have recognized yourselves as immortal beings who—for whatever reasons—have incarnated into a human body in order to learn something in your “earth-school,” then you are also aware that your true home is somewhere entirely different. You are all on the way to this destination, which sooner or later you will reach. And here free will already comes into play.
Whoever wants to get “from here to there” must change something. Whoever changes nothing remains where he is. A simple truth! Yet it is not your human body that will return to your true, your heavenly home, but the spiritual being within you. Your material covering serves only to enable your soul to learn and mature for the duration of your earthly life. When the soul leaves matter again, the covering has fulfilled its purpose.
Where the soul goes is governed by the law of attraction; I have spoken to you about this in many revelations. In the end it will seek out realms that correspond to its condition, which in turn has been shaped by its human self and through it. And this imprint, this vibration, this smaller or greater energetic potential of the soul is the consequence of what the human being previously did or failed to do through the use of free will, measured against the commandment to love God and one’s neighbor. I repeat: this too is a simple truth, easy to understand!
A positive change in the human being does not happen by itself, as though automatically, even though I support it to a great degree. Nor is it achieved through outward measures, through observing prohibitions, through membership in a religious community, or through practicing religious exercises. It is set in motion exclusively through the increased flow of the energy of My love. And that, in turn, is the result of the effort to live according to the commandment of My love.
I brought this teaching to human beings as Jesus of Nazareth. At its heart it says: love—and nothing else!
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Everything in My creation is evolution; everything builds upon what came before. Evolution, insofar as it follows My will, My love—as is the case in the heavenly realms—develops unswervingly step by step. In this way it is ensured that everything is contained in everything. Minerals, plants, and animals have no self-will and therefore cannot circumvent My will. With the human being, matters are different.
The development of the soul within the human being is fostered or hindered by the human being’s free will. Thus the evolution of the soul very often does not proceed smoothly toward the point that makes the soul strong enough, after so-called death, to continue its path in the beyond in the light without major hardship. In such cases, because My will is to bring all My children back, My mercy gives every soul the opportunity, in another incarnation—or in several incarnations—to learn what it had intended to learn but did not succeed in learning in one or in its most recent life.
Anything else would be incompatible with My love!
The thread we are following leads us in thought to the next consideration: change presupposes that the human being must seek it voluntarily, because although I give impulses, convey knowledge, confront you through destiny with the consequences of earlier wrongdoing, enlighten you, and encourage you, I never act against your will. A decision on your part is therefore necessary, and such a decision can be made with an honest heart only when the realization has first grown within the human being that in this or that respect he has thought and acted wrongly.
You call this process self-knowledge, and you have a familiar saying for it: Self-knowledge is the first step toward improvement. You use these words now and then, usually without recognizing the deep truth contained in them. Without self-knowledge you have no chance of being able to seek a real and lasting change, because My law is based not on prohibitions but on commandments. And observing commandments is a matter of free decision, which bears the best fruit when its foundation is love for Me.
Recognizing oneself is not always easy. Often it is made more difficult by fear of what one may discover when questioning oneself and one’s conduct. Or there is a fundamental unwillingness, based on inertia, lack of interest, and much more. Yet even where a willingness for self-knowledge exists, the question often arises: “What am I supposed to change? Am I really so flawed or burdened with so many shortcomings?”
The point is not, My sons and daughters, that you should see yourselves in a “bad light.” On the contrary: you are creatures of heaven who carry within yourselves a power for spiritual transformation and spiritual renewal that you yourselves do not yet know! On this foundation and trusting in My love, also look at those sides of your human self that still, or repeatedly, make it difficult for you to put into practice what you have so often resolved to do. For here are the weak points that make it possible for negative forces to impair you, hold you, deprive you of drive, and make you hesitant to decide.
There is one method that those who can summon the courage might try: namely, to ask themselves the following: “At what point would I begin with myself, perhaps even attack myself, if as a tempter I intended to bind myself to previous behavior, seduce myself, or harm myself?” Honest answers to such or similar questions help you learn more about yourselves. You will find many examples of situations in which you actually wanted to react differently, but in such moments an old, often-practiced way of acting took over, over which you had little or no influence.
Whoever does not care to approach it quite so drastically, but nevertheless wants to learn more about himself, should at least look at what the day shows him in many small and large situations and, in doing so, not disregard his emotions, thoughts, and perhaps the actions that follow.
Whoever reflects little or not at all about himself is like a fortress besieged by an enemy who knows every opening and delights in the fact that none of them is secured or closed, because the master of the house either has no interest in protection or does not believe there is any “siege” …
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Many of you have the desire to change, and you have already begun to do so. You come to Me within yourselves, lay before Me your request that I help you, and then experience how My power changes you. This is what I call “inner work”; for your own effort is indeed required, even though I contribute by far the greater part toward a good outcome. Inner work is therefore the next step along the thread we are following in our train of thought, after the steps of self-knowledge—when necessary, remorse as well—and decision have been taken.
Every change means that something new is set in motion and, at the same time, something old must be left behind. Little thought has been given to what this simple truth means in practice, but you yourselves know how true it is. Your saying “Wash my fur, but don’t get me wet” expresses the impossible wish that both things might somehow be possible …
From the human point of view, it is understandable that a person wants to hold on to what he has “grown fond of.” Yet often it is precisely what he has grown fond of that causes his difficulties, and therefore it is not really as dear as the expression would suggest. Over the course of the years of life and past incarnations, many things have become habits, “conditioned reflexes.” They make you the way you are. Much of this is good, right, and important and makes everyday life easier because you do not always have to stop and think and decide how to react now, what to do now. Practiced long enough and often enough, it finally enters your soul through your subconscious and becomes part of it. It strengthens your soul when it is something good, constructive, and loving—or burdens it when it does not correspond to the commandment of love.
In this way, much has also become part of your nature that at some point proves to be “in need of change”: either because, through honest observation, you have developed this desire within yourselves, or because the law of sowing and reaping has helped a little and brought you into a situation in which you “must” change something because you sense that things cannot continue as they are.
Whatever gave the impulse, My love for you played the decisive role and ensured that something began to move. For My endeavor is to help you make your path across the earth easier than it was in the past and to free your soul from what burdens it—and therefore burdens you as a human being. I desire, and I do everything for this, that your soul may breathe freely again and that your gaze may turn forward with still greater joy and trust; that you may once again become a child of freedom!
You know how important it is to come to Me, to speak with Me, to pour out your heart to Me, and to ask for My support when something in your life and in your conduct is to change. It is important for you because by doing so you express that you freely wish to entrust yourselves to the power of My love.
But have you ever thought about why so many prayers are not answered? Or not immediately, or not according to your expectations? Is it because of Me, who long for you and want to gather you back into My arms as soon as possible? Is it because I arbitrarily help here and not there? Because I distribute My love unequally or perhaps do not even hear the pleading of My children? Or because I ignore My children when they come to Me? Or because I am a deaf and mute God, far away in some heaven, without direct contact with My creatures?
Truly, My sons and daughters, I live in every one of you! I am the presence in everything because I am the life in everything, in the spiritual and material world. When you close your eyes and go within, in that very moment you are with Me! How, then, could I fail to hear what you tell Me? I know even more: I also know what you do not tell Me, for I know you through and through, to the furthest corner of your being. This means: I know what you would like to change, but I also know what—despite your desire for change—you still want to keep; what you are not yet ready to let go.
A prayer may go unanswered for many reasons: there may be karmic causes; or heaven must first “set some things in motion, set the switches correctly”; or the time may be wrong; or what is requested may be desirable from the human point of view but harmful to your soul from the spiritual point of view.
There are many explanations that would nevertheless not help the human being even if he received them from Me, because only rarely is he able humbly to bow his head and gratefully, perhaps even joyfully, accept My will—not even when “Your will be done” is all too often added to the end of a prayer without reflection.
In such situations the human being often turns to other sources because he is promised that the fulfillment of his wishes can be achieved through the use of certain techniques. Here and there this may indeed happen—though in disregard of divine laws—but what awaits the human being who gives preference to forces from the astral realms over the working of My love-wisdom …?
If a request concerns the desire to receive help with a change of the soul—for example, to transform a negative character trait into a positive one or to replace a previously burdensome quality with a beneficial one—then different criteria apply: such requests, I say with a smile, are fulfilled by heaven as quickly as possible; they are “given priority.” How could it be otherwise, since the development of the soul is what is most important for My human children. And in keeping with the progress of the soul, the outward circumstances will then change as well.
We have reached the next point along our thread. A decision for something always also means a decision against something: for yielding, against stubbornness; for faithfulness, against unfaithfulness; for moderation, against gluttony; for forgiveness, against bearing grudges; for discipline, against disorder; for responsibility, against carelessness; for honesty, against lying; for acceptance, against rejection; for letting go, against holding on, and so on and so on.
I will give you a picture for this:
You have asked Me for something; I stand a few yards in front of you and hold what you requested in My hands. I throw it to you—like a ball. If you are able to catch it, it will be yours, and you will have what your heart longed for. But you will succeed only if your hands are empty; that is, if you have first let go of the opposite of what you are now receiving from Me as a gift. For I can fill your hands only when they are empty.
So you must be ready and endeavor to leave behind what may have accompanied you for a long time and what repeatedly makes you act in a way that calls for change. At this point your honesty, your attentiveness, and your firm intention are required. If your only or primary concern is to receive something new, and if you do not set about, with My help, “cutting off old braids,” then sooner or later you will discover that nothing, or not much, has yet happened.
The reason for this, if it is the case, is obvious: even if you are not always aware of it, for the most varied reasons you still do not want to let go. Your free will wants to retain the previous inclination or old pattern of behavior, even if only in certain aspects. Then My help cannot take hold to the desired extent. If in such a situation you were to ask Me why your request had not been fulfilled, My answer would be: “I could not transform this within you, or only partly; that is, the energy of My love could not become fully effective within you because your free will did not permit it.”
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I have spoken repeatedly about surrender, the highest form of love for God. It is not easy to accomplish, nor does it consist of a single act. Yet your readiness for it will grow more and more as you experience how My love guides you ever more safely through your life, provided you are fundamentally ready for such a step. With every yes on your part to Me, and thus to the law of love, you come closer to your goal of living more intimately with Me than before.
Your readiness to look at yourselves is such a step. It can be compared to cleaning a streambed in which the accumulation of branches, leaves, mud, and refuse has caused the water to back up. The more thoroughly you carry out the cleaning with My help, the more water can flow again, and the clearer the water will become.
You still underestimate the power of My working in every human being who, in addition to his requests and prayers, is ready to begin “working” with Me. This is due not least to the fact that it is largely unknown that the energy of My love is present in the human being at all; that My Spirit is the life within the human being, and that all that is needed is the sincere desire to be guided by this love. Even the beginnings of such a desire, a call from a restless, worried, despairing heart or one longing for love, set much in motion—far more than you sense or think.
Often you say, when or because the work of change seems too difficult: “I can’t do that.” Taken literally, you are right with such a statement, especially when it involves problems that seem impossible to overcome; by this I do not mean the “harmless” habits you have acquired as human beings. But the obstacles that the forces of darkness have often built up within you over a long period really cannot be removed by the human being alone; for in many cases they have literally dug themselves into your soul and even into the cells of your body. They make it difficult or impossible for you to oppose them permanently with your own will.
But remember: My additional energy—as the spark of Christ or light of Christ within you since Golgotha, often perceptible to clairvoyant people—is able to overcome even the strongest blockages! I alone am able to break the power of these negative influences, this manipulation of your soul and your being, and lead you onto the path of love, which then expresses itself in your everyday life, in your thinking and your actions!
The door to making use of this possibility stands open to you. This means that at any time you can make use of the energy of love dwelling within you. That, My beloved, is not a question of ability! Would it therefore be wrong to turn “I can’t” into “I don’t want to”? For no one can prevent you from giving Me your yes so that I may stand by you in your work of change …
What can make it a little difficult for some of you to receive and take in My words with an open heart is your view that, although My words are clear and direct, love cannot be recognized in them.
My children, to whom all My love belongs, I tell you: Feel into My words. Allow the areas within you that you have not liked looking into until now to open as well. Allow My words to fall into your hearts! Then you will recognize that they are borne by My infinite love, that I am the good shepherd who goes after every sheep, even when it has gone astray and become caught in thorny scrub. Everything that comes from My truth and wisdom always carries love within it as well. This is anchored in My law.
I admonish you, I give you courage, I direct your gaze forward, I entice you like a “hen gathering her chicks,” I assure you of My infinite love, I comfort you and enlighten you by showing you the background—but I also do not cease pointing out to you the help and the tools that are necessary in order to put your knowledge into practice; and the necessity of your own effort—which I call inner work—so that your knowledge may indeed be translated into action and bear fruit in your lives and your surroundings.
With that, My sons and daughters, we have reached the end of the thread we spun in order to recognize the connections, and in which, as you were able to see, your free will plays a decisive role.
Amen