The Great Gospel of John
Volume 6
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
At the Sea of Galilee (John 6)
- Chapter 113 -
The right way of religious teaching.
But My disciples asked Me why I have not revealed Myself to this fisherman more closely.
2
But I said: "This I know and understand best of all! For him it is better that he will learn it from the local teachers later on with whom he had dealt with in My person. He is too much caught in the idea that I am a magician and with such people it is for the short term not sufficiently effective to get along with them. In time he will be taught by the people of the house about us, namely about Me, and this mainly by the doctor who understands everything in the best way and to whom I have given the ability to heal all kinds of illnesses by laying on of hands. The fishing master will then say good bye to his magician and obtain the right idea about Me.
3
I say it to you all: If you teach any of the heathens, you should never reveal everything at once, but you first have to study the person thoroughly and then recognize from which side he can be approached; for if you have approached him from an inaccessible side, you made the work much more difficult for yourself, and you then will have to work very hard to bring such a person onto the right path again. Therefore, I cannot tell you often enough: Be clever like snakes and gentle like doves!
4
You do not know what power is exercised in someone's disposition by a false rationale. You have to find out what this consists of, and you should never directly attack him from this his most armoured side, but only there where he is the most vulnerable, what you soon can find out. If you have overcome him there, now, it will not be that difficult anymore to also seize his strong side. You must also keep this in mind and also act like a skilful and very agile general. A skilful and agile general will use his trusted spies to explore the enemy's weakest side. Once he knows this, he will keep the enemy busy at his strongest side in a minor way, only to deceive him; but he will attack him at the weakest point and quite easily defeat him.
5
You also must behave like a very skilful doctor who quite well diagnosed the seat of an illness. What is he going to do? See, there, where the illness is seated he does nothing and often is not able to do anything! But he gives the sick such medication to divert the illness to the healthy parts of the body, from there partly to the sweat and partly to the stomach and the intestines, - and the sick person will be healed. Where the illness as the enemy has its strong roots, nothing can be done with it, but one should divide it by good and right medication, and it then can be easily defeated in its weakness.
6
See and listen further! This fishing master - who is not here now, why I can speak freely with you - is in his strongest mind set a magician. He so firmly believes in certain proverbs, amulets, ointments, quarters and angles of the moon, the sun, clouds, air and bird migrations and still a thousand other things, that he becomes very angry with anyone who would oppose him dead-straight. With such a person he would not make contact anymore because he would regard him as too stupid and regard him unworthy for his wisdom.
7
But otherwise he is quite a good and honest loyal person and finds joy therein to learn something new and extraordinary from someone, - and see, this is his weak side! From that side he must be approached and things must be presented and explained to him in an absolute natural-true state and in time he secretly will discard the magician al by himself, because on the other side he will more and more begin to recognize that all his magic is based on hollow ground.
8
It is therefore also good for those people whom you want to win over for the truth, to clear themselves verbally from the bottom from their wrong perceptions. If they have done this with all energy - as the women of the priest have done - they do not have any main energy left and only then begin to pay attention to the opponent, also begin to think about his higher truths, discard by themselves the wrong perceptions, and one has won them over.
9
You should therefore not be surprised if I speak with such people like ordinary people; for I see every person through and through immediately and recognize only too clearly his strong and weak sides and therefore also know what I have to say and do to him! And if the human disposition is not too much caught by haughtiness and stinginess, everyone can be won for the truth; but haughtiness and stinginess are always most difficult to be conquered in man. Remember this and if you act accordingly, you will act easily and always achieve the best results!"