The Great Gospel of John
Volume 9
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in Galilee
- Chapter 74 -
The meaning of acting according to God's Word.
Listen, when someone has a weak stomach, he once takes a drink of herbs that is well known to you, by which the badly digested foods are moved away from the stomach and the intestines along the well-known natural way. Those badly digested foods can be compared with the objections that are absorbed in the soul, namely if he should believe this or that completely and should act accordingly.
2
Once the physical weak stomach is cleansed, then what has to be done to make it strong again and that it should remain strong? Such a person should become really active, and at the same time take good exercise in the fresh, pure air. By that, the stomach will in the first place regain its full and healthy strength. Look, this is what the soul should do also. He must cleanse his heart of all false doctrines, wrong notions and ideas. Then he should absorb the truth as I am teaching you, with love, willfully and in full faith, and should be busy and active with it, then by that he will soon become much stronger and also become fully and permanently healthy.
3
Therefore, none of you should only be listeners, but should also seriously and zealously act according to My word. Then in a very short time all objections and doubts will have disappeared from his soul.
4
The physical stomach of the body, being in a healthy, strong condition, can take up all kinds of clean and if necessary also unclean food into itself without suffering damage, because through its activity it removes all that is unclean from itself or transforms it into something clean. And this is also what the strong and completely healthy stomach of the soul does. And thus for the pure everything is pure. And even the most impure spiritual stench of pestilence of Hell cannot cause any damage to him.
5
When you will completely possess My Kingdom in yourselves, you will be able to walk over snakes and scorpions and drink poison from Hell without causing you the least of damage.
6
If you all have well understood this now and have grasped it, you will now also perceive according to the full living truth what I wanted you to understand in Capernaum with 'eating My flesh' and 'drinking My blood', and from now on you surely will not call it a hard teaching anymore.
7
Already in the visible natural world the deeper causes of things and of many phenomena are so difficult to explain for the pure human reason in such a way that it can remain free from all possible errors that feeds the bad superstition, and that it can in this way walk the way of the truth. How much more difficult will the pure reason of the brains understand the heavenly spiritual things, powers, actions and phenomena which are invisible for the physical eye of man and to make it perceptible for the soul.
8
Therefore I always say to you: you will only be initiated in all wisdom related to the spiritual, heavenly life's conditions and its power and might when you will be completely newly born in My Spirit in the manner that I have extensively and clearly shown to you. And ask yourself now if you also have completely understood the correct, full truth of all that."
9
The disciples said: "Yes, Lord and Master, if You reveal to us the secrets of the Kingdom of God in this manner, they are also for us easy to understand, but when You speak in parables, then the meaning of Your words is for us always difficult and sometimes not at all to understand. But when after that, You explain the parables to us, we realize that only the godly all-wisdom can give such images and parables. O Lord, we thank You from the deepest of our heart for Your more than great patience and Your love for us. If we as men would ever become weak and tired on the way to the true new birth - the rebirth of Your Spirit in us - then do not leave us, Lord, but strengthen us and let us never become weak. And when our mind becomes fearful and sad when in the future You will no more visibly walk among us, then come with Your mercy and compassion, and comfort us, and revive our love, our faith, our hope and our expectation."
10
The innkeeper and his healed chief helper said: "O Lord and Master, we also ask You for what the disciples have asked You."
11
I said: "Truly, truly, I say to you: that which you will ask the Father in My name, will also be given to you. Where can you find a father among men, who are mostly bad, who would give to a child a stone when he asked him for a piece of bread, or who would give to a daughter a snake when she asked him for a fish?
12
When men who are - as already said - only bad, can give their children all good gifts, how much more will the Father in Heaven, who is the only One who is more than good, do good things for those who lovingly and believingly ask Him.
13
Therefore you always can have a cheerful heart and be in a happy mood, because the holy and more than good Father always watches over you and takes care of your well-being and salvation of your soul.
14
And the Father is in Me, as I am always and eternally in Him, and I give you the full assurance that I will never leave you behind as orphans, until the end of times of this Earth.
15
Truly I say to you: who truly loves Me and keeps My commandments I will come to him and reveal Myself to him, and then everyone will be able to convince himself that he is not like an orphan in this world. The one to whom I will reveal Myself to him in this manner should however not keep it to himself, but should also tell this comfort to his brothers, so that also they may be comforted and strengthened by that.
16
Who gladly will strengthen the weak, comfort the sorrowful and gladly will help those who are suffering, can in all these things expect tenfold the reward of life from Me. You always can be completely sure about that."
17
These words of Mine made everyone happy and cheerful, and the innkeeper let our cups again be filled with his best wine, and we drank and talked then also for about 1 hour with each other.