The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 209 -
On prayer.
Now I step up to them again and say: "I Myself; and just as I could say to the dead: 'Awake from death and live!' just as effectively and validly I can say to you: 'Be pure, and all your sins are forgiven!' and you are now pure and without sin before Me. Do you now believe this?"
2
Jurah and Shabbi say, "Lord, we believe it! For according to Your eternally most holy advice things happened for the healing of all Jews and heathens, so let us poor sinners be merciful and full of Your mildness and compassion before You! Oh Lord, be with us and from now on with the spirit of all those who have been awoken to eternal life through You, now, as in all eternity of eternity! But now, Lord, since we have recognized You and now are devoted to You in our hearts in the fullest love, let us give air to our hearts and worship You most fervently and in the full contrition of our mind!"
3
I say, "My dear friends and brothers that cannot be! You have read what My spirit spoke through the mouth of the prophet when he said: This nation honors Me with their lips; but its heart is far from Me! And I Myself repeat it to you: Every kind of pure lip prayer is an abomination before Me!
4
Be truly reasonable and have a decent heart, do good deeds to everyone who needs your help! Yes, even do good to your enemies, and bless those who curse you! In this way you will resemble Me, for I let My sun shine on the good and the bad, and My worst enemies are daily covered with good deeds from My all-powerful hand; but My whip is only used on extreme evil doers. Yes, I say to you: You are all children of My heart and brothers of My soul. Therefore, if you pray, do not pray like the heathens and the Pharisees with their lips, using words formed by the fleshly tongue, but instead pray as I have told you, in the spirit and in truth, through living works and deeds of love towards your neighbor, then every word in My name will be a true prayer that I will always and without a doubt hear; but the sigh of lips I will never hear! Do you understand well what I have just said?"
5
Shabbi says, "Oh Lord, You are so different to what we imagined! Who should not be able to love You above all else, who has once recognized You?! You are Yourself love and the greatest gentleness, and how endlessly far from every night and darkness is Your most holy teaching, and how easily understandable is every word from Your mouth! Yes, only now do we fully believe that You are truly the expected Messiah, and there is no other besides You!"
6
I say, "All right, all right, My dear friends! I knew you and led you on the road to Me as was shown to the prophet Elijah. In the mighty storm was My will, in the fire My power; but in the gentle rustling I am Myself. And thus, in order to come to Me, you had to go through a very mighty storm and through water and fire. But now you are with Me, having found Me, for Whom you have looked for such a long time. Difficult as I am to find by many a human being, yet once I have been found it is many times more difficult to lose Me! Those who have seized Me in their hearts will also be seized by Me; however, he who has seized Me can indeed let go of Me again, but I shall never let go of him again. For My love does not last only for a while but forever, and who has received it into his heart can never be separated from Me. For My love keeps a tight rein on him forever, so that he can never go completely astray from Me. And so it will be also with you. You will certainly be placed in situations and worldly circumstances where you will find it somewhat difficult to bear witness to My name and remain steadfast in the faith - for before long things will happen, because they have to happen, which will cause you to become faint-hearted where I am concerned. but I will strengthen you again at the right moment and fully enlighten you in the little chambers of your heart. Then you will never come into temptation for the sake of My name, but henceforth you will remain in My love and My power.
7
But now something else. You will return to Persia. When you are there again shortly, preach faithfully, without adding anything, of what you have met with here and all that has happened to you here for the salvation of all men on earth. In this way you also become workers in My vineyard. Preach it also to your king so that he will know what to do!" He should give up dark paganism and should never listen to the deceiving words of the magicians who call themselves the priests of God and are basically the servants and slaves of hell. He should also drive the terrible apostles from Jerusalem out of the land, who cross the lands and seas in order to make Jews of the heathens; and once they have made any heathen into a Jew, he is then many times more a servant of hell than he was as a heathen. Besides such remarks the terrible apostles of Jerusalem also sow bad rumours like that about the cruelty of the Romans, which you openly confessed to us, that you acted so terribly careful towards Me out of fear of the Romans!
8
Therefore in order to counter all this evil I called you out of your land before many thousands of thousands, in order to lay this easy duty on your shoulders, as you possess the fullest power and means to complete it in abundance! Your reward will not be little in My eternal kingdom one day.
9
You now know what you have to do in My name, and besides also in the name of the Romans who are being very shamefully slandered there; do not lack in good will, industriousness and action, and I will also let nothing lack for you!
10
But now I see Mark coming out. He will invite us to an evening meal that today will happen a few hours later then normally; but the storm is to blame for that. The hail has damaged many benches slightly; these had to be repaired again. But now everything is in the best order again, and the food has been very well and richly prepared, and so we will now tuck in again after another great work!"