The Great Gospel of John
Volume 7
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord on the Mount of Olives. (cont.) Gospel of John, Chapter 8
- Chapter 75 -
The spirit, the innermost power.
Said Agrikola: "Heavenly friend, to make this matter even more clear and more convincing as you have made it to me and all of us, is truly impossible! That we cannot as yet recognize and understand everything in its full depth, as you understand this, will also be for you much clearer as it is to us; for which the earthly person still does not have any right conceptual sense, even with his very best intentions he will never be able to comprehend in the right light. Nevertheless, this has become very clear to me, that all being-like reality is to be searched and undoubtedly found in the pure spiritual. I would like to ask you, pure heavenly friend, for the sake of a more clear understanding of your teaching about the pure spiritual, to give us some more tangible examples. See, we Romans have there an old saying, which says: Longum iter per praecepta, brevis et efficax per exempla! (The path is long by teachings, but short and effective by examples!) And this is surely an old and very true teaching. A very small and short example says to a searching person often and nearly always more than what all theoretical teachings and principles are able to state, and based on that I ask you about a few small and good examples."
2
Said Raphael: "Yes, my friend, it would be possible to give you many more very tangible, clear examples; nevertheless, despite of it you will never be able to completely understand with your physical senses the pure spiritual. The spirit is everywhere the most inner power and penetrates everything, sees everything and conquers everything - what also your spirit will do, but not today and also not tomorrow, only then when everything in you is ordered according to the full truth.
3
Look over there the disciples of the Lord, from which two are still down in the temple; but one of them is addicted to the world! See, these disciples - with exception of the one - are already close to the point, where I as a pure spirit am standing now; but to achieve this was not at all something so easy for them, as you might imagine it by yourself. They were mostly fishermen at the Galilean Sea in the vicinity of Capernaum and were home and property owners and have wives and children, and see, they left everything and followed the Lord willingly and with great joy, for the sake of reaching the Kingdom of God and for reaching His strength and power! And because they have turned their backs to the world for the sake of the Kingdom of God, they have reached it in themselves in a very short time, which you as a great man of the world can only achieve in time.
4
But you will achieve this according to the measure of your love for God the Lord and in the same measure as your love for your neighbor; since the strength of your love to God and for the neighbor will show you, how much of the kingdom of God has become awaken and ripe in you.
5
But the kingdom of God in you is the said love in you, and this love is also your spirit as the only truth, reality and the everlasting, indestructible life. Now, how this is the case, as I have shown it to you just now, can not be shown to you by even a still so elective example, but you have to experience this within yourself. Up to the own experience it means: believe and hope for the certain fulfillment of this what the Lord as the primeval everlasting truth faithfully promised you and all of you!
6
Nevertheless I will perform for you a few miraculous signs, from which you will see even more clearly, that all primeval material and all reality resides in the spirit. You Romans have also a saying, which we can quite usefully apply here as an introduction. See, your saying reads as follows: Quod a principio non valet, aut valere nequit, etiam in successu non aliquid valero potest; ex nihilo nihil erit (What from the beginning has or can have no power, can also not in its progression achieve anything; from nothing can come only nothing.) From this even according to the human reason it is clear, that the pure spiritual must be a true something; because if it after the material perception of man would be nothing which is impossible to be conscious of itself, how could it ever become something which is conscious of itself?!
7
So that from the pure spiritual everything there is, can originate and can continue to exist, this pure spiritual must above all be a true something, so that from it everything else can arise as a result. Thus, in the seed kernel only the spirit which rests inside the small bud-shell, is a true something, while the rest of the seminal body is nothing, but only is what it is, by the inner residing spirit. This spirit works according to its inner residing intelligence and through the power of its will, and from that originates a plant, a shrub, a tree, an animal, yes even a whole world.
8
However, what the spirit is in itself, I have explained to you already several times. But you cannot fully get to the bottom of it, because your own spirit has not yet penetrated yourself, but you can try to imagine it in your soul, that the primeval something of the spirit is a living fire and light which is most clearly conscious about itself and is as such the highest love and the highest wisdom itself. More about this not even the Lord can tell you!"