The Gospel of Peace (1)

The Gospel of Peace (1)

'Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.'   John 14:27

I would like to speak here about something that is a deepest need of each human being, something that is so so precious and of such a great value that every and each soul is in a constant search for it, I will speak here about PEACE and inner REST of the soul, I will speak here about Joy and Contentment that are to be found ONLY in and through our Redeemer and Savior, our Lord and beloved Father, Jesus Christ!

'Peace of heart is the greatest miracle in this world(, and also a central miracle of Christianity, it is the proof of the truth of the Gospel); we find this peace only in Christ. He has created our heart for peace, therefore, it can only be at rest when it has found it.'     Sadhu Sundar Singh (from 'The Gospel of Sadhu Sundar Singh  – 3:3' by Friedrich Heiler')

Yes, my dear brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ, Who through His sacrifice and death liberated us from the ancient sin of apostasy, is that 'Pearl of a great value' which all merchants are zealously seeking' (Matthew 13:45, 46), and it is this very Peace and Rest of our souls, that very Joy and Contentment that all of us are destined and able to enjoy in His most Holy Presence, that are signified with that 'treasure hidden in the field'! (= Matthew 13:44), and truly blessed is he who found them, who 'sold everything else' so he can 'buy' them!

But while writting these lines I am not concerned for such a people, for such a rare souls who are in possession of these most valuable treasures, no my dear brothers and sisters, here I am concerned with those amongst men who are less fortunate, for those who are still languishing in the darkness of their sins, who are still imprisoned in Satan's heavy chains, for those 'blind', 'deaf', 'lame', 'mute', 'crooked' and 'possessed' men who live their life without Jesus Christ, i.e. for Whom His death was in vain and who are, due to their unbelief and unfaithfulness, i.e. to their 'hearts of stone' and 'stiff necks', unable to enjoy all the graces and benefits of that greater than great Act of Mercy.

Therefore, I am writting these lines for all those poor 'orphans' who never in their whole life enjoyed their Father's immesurable love and kindness, who never played in His Presence neither they sat in His lap and talked with Him as a true child always talks with his most beloved Parent.

‘Christians who do not appropriate to themselves this wonderful treasure of peace and joy which is within their reach are like a beggar whom the Sadhu heard of in Nepal some years ago. "The man had been a beggar for twenty-one years. His ambition had been to become a rich man and yet he had died poor. After his death it was discovered that under the spot where he had sat and begged for twenty-one years was a buried treasure, containing jewels and other valuables which had belonged formerly to a king. The beggar had not been aware of the endless riches over which he had been sitting. Even so there are many Christians who go through life without enjoying the peace and happiness which are accessible to them in Christ Jesus (!!!!).’ 

Sadhu Sundar Singh (from B.H. Streeter's ‘The Sadhu – a study in mysticism and practical religion – 3’)

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'I couldn't find anywhere that spiritual food for which I hungered, and in this state of unrest I remained till I found the Living Christ.'  Sadhu Sundar Singh 'With and without Christ – V'

But let me first of all describe my own life in regard to this as it was before, as it was without Jesus Christ, i.e., before I knew Him, before I met Him, before I recognized Him and accepted Him as my Redeemer and Saviour... before He become my everything ...

As all other people, I also felt that deep unrest in my soul ... that deep longing for inner peace and satisfaction, for joy and happiness and, as all other un-spiritual people, i.e. people who live their lives without Jesus Christ and are consequently unredeemed (for a fullest understanding of this thought, i.e. why without Him we are unredeemed and why without Him we are still imprisoned or un-saved, it is of utmost importance to learn about our ancient sin of apostasy from God and further about reason and purpose of God's incarnation in Jesus Christ + we must learn also about the true meaning and purpose of our earthly life; see my compilation booklet 'Primeval beginnings of all Creation, the Apostasy of Lucifer and primordial angels & God's Eternal Plan of Salvation' that you can download here), I tried to satisfy that hunger and that thirst of my soul by external means ... I tried to fill that terrible emptiness with external things... and also with an imperfect and impure love for, and of, other human beings who were even more empty and unhappy that I was (= and as an effect of that, I only become more hungry and more thirsty... and my unhappiness grew stronger).

In another words, I searched for it in the world, not knowing that 'there peace cannot be found', but only a 'tribulation and distress' (John 16:33), I searched for it outside of me, not knowing that IT, that glorious KINGDOM, can be found only WITHIN US (Luke 17:20, 21).

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'Men, in their folly, use intoxicants not only to forget their sorrow, but also to get a passing exiliration and joy. They have not even enough discrimination to know that while a pleasurable effect is obtained from these transitory stimulants, the joy to be found in Him Who created all things must greatly transcend these pleasures and be more lasting. If they could once taste the true joy of the fullness of His Presence, they would never again waste their precious time in seeking artifical pleasure in transient created things.'              Sadhu Sundar Singh 'With and without Christ – IV'

So, in that quest for PEACE, for TRUE JOY & REST, I tried every available drug... first alcohol... than marihuana and hashish... then ecstasy pills, MDMA powder and amfetamine (speed)... after that cocaine and also a crack made from it... and finally a heroine...

But Alas, not just that I didn't succeed in finding and achieving that lasting peace and joy that I was searching for, but in contrary, my unrest increased... and on top of that... I started to be haunted by the pangs of conscience, to wit, I felt (about this 'discontentment' see please Bertha Dudde nr. 5766 at http://www.wordofgod.de/ ) and I knew from inside, because of that 'voice in my head' (and about this 'voice of the conscience' see please Bertha Dudde nr. 1565, 6262, 6585; 7698), that what I am doing is wrong... that I was hurting myself!

'For to be carnally minded (= to be enslaved by our body, i.e. to serve our bodily cravings and lusts!) is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace... For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.'            Romans 8:6, 13

[Now when I turn back, I know that those very 'inner feelings/urgings' and 'voices' were in fact the 'loving Voice of my beloved Father, Jesus Christ ('To see the Divine Providence in the back and not in the face is to see it after it operates and not before; and to see it from a spiritual state and not from a natural state is to see it from heaven and not from the world. All who receive influx from heaven and acknowledge Divine Providence, and especially those who by reformation have become spiritual, when they see events in some wonderful series, see the Divine Providence, as it were, from an interior acknowledgment and confess it. E.Swedenborg 'Divine Providence – 187'), Who, even then, when I was an unbeliever, was calling me to Himself ('Now, through living with Christ and having had experience of Him, I have learned this secret, that before I ever knew Him or believed on Him as my Saviour, He unknown to me, was working in my soul like medicine working in the eye For the eye cannot see the medicine that is in it which is clearing the sight, though it feels its presence.' Sadhu Sundar Singh 'With and without Christ – V'), and warning me that with my way of life I am doing a great damage to my soul (indeed, none of us can, and will be able, to excuse himself when standing before the Judgment seat of the Christ, saying that he or she didn't know how that what he/she was doing was wrong... each of us, I know this for sure, are in those moments warned and admonished from our Heavenly Father that taking any drug, any stimulant, is something bad and evil in the sight of God = Revelation 20:11-13; 2 Corinthians 5:10 + Bertha Dudde 6236!)]

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But since Jesus Christ come into my life (= about this very 'encounter' see please another page on this Blog, namely, 'The miraculous power of the Lord's Word')... since I accepted Him as My Saviour and Redeemer, and since I began to live my life after His example (Matthew 16:24; 19:21) and in accordance with His will (John 13:34; 15:12, 17), to wit, since I live my life in His most holy Presence and in a daily communion with Him through my life of love for Him and other people and through the prayer in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:21-24), I entered into that most desired realm of peace and joy, of that internal satisfaction and rest ... that I was desperately searching since my early years!

I will not exaggerate here when I say, and I am saying this because I am able to say this due to my earlier life in sin (= I know the difference very very well!), that when I enter into His Presence during those silent moments and hours which I spend in Prayer, I feel so ecstatic as never before while using those 'ecstatic' drugs like MDMA or ecstasy pills (and it is exactly this feeling what those people are searching for, their need is the same, their longing is the same, what is different is their understanding and wisdom, i.e. the means used for achieving that goal, or satisfying that need!)... or to be more precise ... that feeling is more profound and stronger than anything that I ever experienced while stimulating my self in an artifical way... and moreover, it is lasting... so to speak constant ... invigorating and not exhausting and hectic... and because it is 'legal', or 'in accordance with the Order in which we were created', there are no accompanying 'pangs of conscience'... no remorse... there are no 'dark feelings' of being 'bad' and 'doing something wrong', but in contrary... only joy...

Sometimes those waves of happiness are so strong that I am afraid that my body will collapse... sometimes my soul is so elevated into His Presence that it feels like she already left her's body...

Once I was so to speak hurled from my-self by something that looked as a mighty whirlwind... it seemed to me that I was uplifted from the ground and freely floated in the air...  during which I lost any notice of space and time (this 'weight-less' or 'body-less' feeling is in all truth most interesting!)...

So, I truly learned from my own experience what our Lord meant when He said, 'there are much more things that I want to show to you, but you couldn't bear them yet in your present state!' (= John 16:12)

(it is important to note here that these ecstatic states are not of such a great importance for our spiritual progress, neither they are to be desired before anything else, after all, they are so to speak a 'spiritual sensuality' and if we search for them exclusively they can be of a great damage to the soul too; I mentioned them here ONLY for the purpose of comparision with those un-natural and artificially produced states of exhilaration!)

Also ... during that very Internal Prayer by which I enter into His Presence (see on this Blog another page named ‘The Living Presence of Jesus Christ’)... I am in possession of such an inner calm, and rest, and deepest peace in my soul (furthermore, all this is also accompanied with a clarity of the mind, with a realization, with a revelation of His wisdom and also affections of His love, than with a sense of protection from His side and many more sensations of the similar kind!; I believe that this ‘state’ or ‘reality’ corresponds in the way with what Paul experienced and described in his 2 Corinthians 12:3, 4; ‘The terms “peace,” “joy “ and “happiness”, used by the Sadhu when speaking in English about the nature of this experience, are not, we elicited by a question, intended to express three different kinds of feeling. In the Tamil addresses only two, peace and joy, are mentioned. What he speaks of is a single movement of the soul, combining in ineffable harmony a calm, profound and undisturbable, which he names “ Peace,” and a radiant fullness of life and light which he calls “ Joy,” and which is to him not only the evidence, but the actuality, of personal union with Christ. An especially interesting characteristic of this “Peace” is that it is for him a condition of intellectual illumination and the faculty of insight into spiritual problems. “Would you say, Sadhuji,” we said to him one day, “that this peace which you have is the same as that which St. Paul describes as the peace which passeth all understanding?” “Yes,” he replied, “it is a peace which not merely passeth all understanding but which enlighteneth all understanding.” B.H. Streeter ‘The Sadhu – a study in mysticism and practical religion – 3’), that no heroine could ever produce (= again, it is nothing else which attracts those who are addicted on heroine but this state, i.e. they look for a relief from their pain, they want to escape from their present state of affairs, they look for peace and rest for their suffering and unredeemed souls!)... it is like being back into the womb, into that place of utmost safety, and assurance... it is in deed a ‘heaven (that ‘heaven’, argues Sadhu, would be nothing but ‘awareness of indwelling Christ’) upon Earth’,:

’This supernatural experience of ”heaven upon Earth” is based on prayer, which itself brings man into immediate living communion with the Lord of heaven. ”In proportion to the reality of our inward prayer is our experience of joy and heaven upon Earth.” ”When our souls are in communion with God and we experience the Reality of His Presence, we discover that heaven consists in the possession of perfect peace.” ”When we wait upon God in the stillness of prayer,” ”we do not need to wait for the next world, we have already reached heaven upon earth.” ’”The Christian lives already in heaven here upon earth. His heavenly life consists in prayer, in continual communion with God in prayer.” ”In prayer we are filled with the life of God and taste the bliss of heaven.” ”Eternal life is lived in prayer and is begun here below.” ”Through prayer this Earth is turned into God’s heaven.” For Sundar Singh the whole mystery and wonder of the Christian life consists in the fact that ”life in heaven” begins upon this Earth, that eternal blessedness begins in time. ”This is the mystery: that here on Earth we begin to live in heaven, because we live with our Saviour.” For the Sadhu, Christianity is not so much a religion which consists in the promise of heaven, or the hope of heaven, but rather in heaven as a present possession.  ”All other religions offer a future redemption, but Christianity says: Now. The man who wrote these words, ’Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation,’ knew this from experience.”

From Friedrich Heiler’s ’The Gospel of Sadhu Sundar Singh – 3/5’

, that highest of all heavens about which we read in the Book of Revelation 21:4 as follows:

'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more... mourning, or crying or pain...' 

('New Jeruslem' or 'City of God', would be of course a certain 'quality of our soul' or 'mind', i.e. of our 'love and wisdom' or 'will and understanding/perception')

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'It is a wonderful peace. I wish I could show you this peace. It is impossible, because people cannot see that wonderful peace. We cannot tell others: there are no words to express that peace, but those who have had their spiritual eyes opened can understand it... I have no words, even in my language, to express that wonderful peace.'

Sadhu Sundar Singh (from B.H. Streeter's ‘The Sadhu – a study in mysticism and practical religion – 3’)

I also realized that this inner experience, this amazing encounter with Jesus Christ, is impossible to convey via words and truly describe it to the other people. In fact, they, because of their lack of the experience, are prone to doubt and deny it althogether and even question your sanity (= I was informed many times by one of my she-friends, how people, whom she heard speaking about me, i.e. about happenings in my life and my state of affairs, are denying that something as 'being all the time more and more happy' or 'constantly joyful' truly exists)!

The other day, again, while visiting my bank, I was asked by the employee about the reason for my happiness and joy (this is of course impossible to hide in today world amongst present stressed and deeply unhappy humanity; in another words, amongst so so many sullen and downcast faces, it is next to the impossible not to take a notice of anybody who is happy and smiling, whose eyes are shining, and whose tone of the voice is gentle and mild), and when I gave her an explanation, she said that what I am saying is impossible to achieve in the world, except during those very very rare and extremelly short moments. And when I refered to her that verse from Revelation 21:4 saying that this 'state' is promised to all those who will be in, and belong to the Christ's true Church (about the characteristics of this 'Church', see please the booklet nr. 19 'The Church of Christ' at http://www.wordofgod.de/ ), she said that something like that is possible only in heaven, not here on this Earth!

‘This world is full of sorrow; our body is the abode of misery. This being so, many argue that so long as we are in this world possessed of this body heavenly joy is impossible. Once on the Himalayas I said to another ealized, `Here are some hot springs.’ He thought I was mad and said, `It is a lie to say that in this cold place where even water freezes there are hot springs.’ I took hold of him and led him and made him dip his hand in a certain spring. Then by means of personal experience he ealized the truth of what I had said. Then he tried to offer a scientific reason for the fact. In the same way, only by personal experience can we know that even in this world full of sorrow we can have a heavenly joy.”

Sadhu Sundar Singh (from B.H. Streeter's ‘The Sadhu – a study in mysticism and practical religion – 3’)

So, is this a really ‘illusion’, nothing but a phantasy, or this ‘inner heavenly experience’ has it’s objective reality?! The following most beautiful explanation should suffice to solve this dilemma :) !:

‘In Germany, a leading psychologist asked me about my spiritual experience and peace of heart: ‘What proof have you that spiritual peace and satisfaction is the result of the presence of the Holy Spirit, or of the Living Christ in your heart, or that they are not subjective, but have an objective reality?’ I replied: ‘The existence of hunger and thirst in us is the proof that there is, beside them, some objective reality such as food and water, that will satisfy them. Can you tell me of any man in the whole world, who, by his imagination alone, has been able for any considerable time to satisfy his hunger and thirst? It is an utter impossibility. It is possible that he may by auto-suggestion be able to work up a subjective mental state, in which he does not feel his hunger for a short time. But it is not possible that a man should, by auto-suggestion alone, obtain for his whole life full satisfaction of soul and ‘the peace that passeth all understanding’ (Philippians 4:7). That can be permanently obtained only in Him, who has created this spiritual hunger and thirst in us. And, when we live in conscious union with Him, and obtain from Him this satisfaction of heart, our whole being bears witness that we have at least obtained that reality which we so passionately longed for.’        Sadhu Sundar Singh ‘With and without Christ – V’

And yet in another place:

”The wonderful peace which the man of prayer feels during his prayer (!!!) is not the fruit of his own imagination or of his own thoughts, but it is the result of the Presence of God in his soul. The mist which rises from a pond cannot form itself into great clouds and return to the Earth as rain. Great clouds can only be drawn up from the mighty ocean, and it is the rain which comes from them which refreshes and quickens the thirsty earth. Peace does not come from our subconscious life, but from the infinite ocean of the Love of God, with whom we are united in prayer.”

                     ”I was talking once with a very learned man, a psychologist, who assured me that the wonderful peace which I experienced was simply the effect of my own imagination. Before I answered him I told him the story of a person who was blind from birth, and who did not believe in the existence of the sun. One cold winter day he sat outside in the sunshine, and then his friends asked him: ’How do you feel now?’ He replied: ’I feel very warm.’ ’It is the sun which is making you warm; although you cannot see it, you feel its effects.’ ’No,’ he said, ’that is impossible; this warmth comes from my own body; it is due to the circulation of the blood. You will never make me believe that a ball of fire is suspended in the midst of the heavens without any pillar to support it.’ Well, I said to the psychologist, ’What do you think of the blind man? ’He was a fool!’ he answered. ’And you,’ I said to him, ’are a learned fool! You say that my peace is the effect of my own imagination, but I have experienced it.’ ”    From Friedrich Heiler’s ’The Gospel of Sadhu Sundar Singh – 3/3’

So, although it is impossible to describe in all fullness and beauty this inner experience, and so to speak convey it to the other people, it is in-deed possible, in a certain way, to ’inform’ our fellow human beings about it through our ’bearing and behaviour’, and this is due to the fact that our internal man or our soul, although veiled and restricted by the external man or our body while we are living in the world, spreads through and around itself it’s atmo-sphere which, as E.Swedenborg beautifully explained all the way through his great revelation, exercises it’s influence upon those who are around it!:

‘The sphere is so to speak a person’s image projecting outside of himself, and is in fact an image of all that resides within him.’  E.Swedenborg ‘Arcana Coelestia – 1505’

‘The spiritual sphere existing with man or spirit is an emanation from the life which belongs to his loves, from which his character is recognized from afar.’  E.Swedenborg ‘Arcana Coelestia – 6206’

Let the following story from my life serve as an practical example of what I am trying to convey here.

Once I was visiting a she-friend of mine... whose at-that-time boyfriend was an heroine addict! So, it was three of us in the apartment for a period of let’s say 7 days! I knew about ’his’ problem, but I didn’t say a word about it ... I acted so to speak ’normally’, minding my own ’business’ :) ...

Then one evening, while I was preparing a supper for three of us (two us us were at home and she was working at that time!) he, who in that moment was in the other room watching the television, approached me suddenly, and said: ’I can feel your peace, I can see that you are enjoying the great peace of your mind, and I, myself, I simply cannot find it!’ And only after that, after his ’cry for help’, I was able to deliver my sermon and explain to him where this peace can be found and what he need to do to take it into his possession.

’Yet that which words cannot express can be revealed through bearing and behaviour. The Sadhu’s face is a living sermon about the peace which he carries in his heart. Soderblom says: ”He radiates peace and joy. One who went about with him a good deal describes him as the embodiment of peace, gentleness, and loving kindness.” Mrs. Parker says: ”That which is so surprising about the Sadhu is the quite extraordinary joy which one can see upon his face — no picture can give an idea of the beauty of his smile.” It was this steady, quiet joy which particularly struck Sundar Singh’s father, who had only known him as a restless, unhappy youth. In 1920 he said to his son: ”I have been watching your life and comparing it with the years which you spent at home. At home you were never happy, but now, in spite of your many sorrows I have never seen you unhappy. Why is that.’’ ”Sundar answered: ”It is not due to any good in me, but it has come to me because I have found peace in the Living Christ, whom formerly I hated.”        From Friedrich Heiler’s ’The Gospel of Sadhu Sundar Singh – 3/3’

Yet another example. Once I visited one lady and her husband who are living in Danmark. It was my first visit to those people whom I met on the street while living on the Canary Islands. Now, it is important to note that here we are talking about two atheists, a worldly people so to speak, of whom one, she, was deeply unhappy, restless and suffering person. Also, I was the first person who ever come to their apartment to live with them for a while, and they were then in their sixthies and seventies!

The following would be her short report about what happened then, when I entered into their apartment (I also believe that it is important to know that both of them were unable to speak English, more precisely, he spoke absolutelly nothing and she spoke at that time like a very very little!):

'My life has been quite hard because I never felt loved throughout my life. When you came to our house I felt for the first time, peace and tranquility in my life as never before.'

That very person was so affected with that peace of Jesus Christ which I brought into their house (= Luke 10:5, 6), that she become a true believer, she accepted Jesus Christ as her Saviour, as her Heavenly Father, and now, after let's say 5 years, she lives in such a continual communion with Him through prayer that her life indeed become heavenly, especially when compared with her previous experiences:

‘…I have a whole new life with God the Father, it so nice. I have never thought I would be believer in my life, but this has given me so much in my everyday life now that I will never give up now. I hope that you understand me, this is the best I have done for myself and I am happy…’

‘… I am happy… and I feel a rest within myself…’

'I am sure that our heavenly Father was with me, I had such an inner peace of my body then thanked Him every day and prayed a prayer... I felt myself really happy all the time...  I have not been very long...'

'I've never felt better in my life with such a long period where I have been so happy as now, every day is a joy when I get up to a new and beautiful day with very warm and strong a feeling for everything that has happened to me and about me every day is so beautiful and amazing, therefore, all the joy jubiiiiiiiiiii and thank our loving Father in my prayers and I never would have believed that I could be so happy in my old days, with all the peace in the heart as if I live in a different world now, without fear of many things and death… what a joy.'

(there are of course a many many more expressions of the same kind, but I believe that this above will suffice!)

This was in all truth an amazing change, and it was through this very situation that I learned about that spiritual reality about which we read in the Gospel of Luke 10:5, 6, i.e. ‘my-although-not-mine-but-His peace truly rested on her!’ :) (= see also additional text to this Page, namely, one of my earlier teachings ‘Peace be to this house’)

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'Human beings ought to communicate and share all the gifts they have received from God. If a person has something that her or she does not share with others, that person is not good. A person who does not bestow on others spiritual things and the joy that is in them has in fact never been spiritual. People are not to receive and keep gifts for themselves alone, but should share themselves and pour forth everything they possess whether in their bodies or their souls as much as possible.'     Meister Eckhart 'Meditations with Meister Eckhart – III'

‘One can see how great the delight of heaven must be from the fact that it is the delight of everyone in heaven to share his delights and blessings with others; and as such is the character of all that are in the heavens it is clear how immeasurable is the delight of heaven. It has been shown above (n. 268 = ‘It can be seen how great the wisdom of angels is from the fact that in the heavens there is a communication of all things; intelligence and wisdom are communicated from one to another, and heaven is a common sharing of all goods; and this for the reason that heavenly love is such that it wishes what is its own to be another's; consequently no one in heaven perceives his own good in himself to be good unless it is also in another; and this is the source of the happiness of heaven. This the angels derive from the Lord, for such is His Divine love. That there is such a communication of all things in the heavens it has been permitted me to know by experience. Certain simple spirits were at one time taken up into heaven, and when there they entered into angelic wisdom, and then understood things that they were never before able to comprehend, and spoke things that they were unable to utter in their former state.’), that in the heavens there is a sharing of all with each and of each with all. Such sharing goes forth from the two loves of heaven, which are, as has been said, love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor; and to share their delights is the very nature of these loves. Love to the Lord is such because the Lord's love is a love of sharing everything it has with all, since it wills the happiness of all. There is a like love in everyone of those who love the Lord, because the Lord is in them; and from this comes the mutual sharing of the delights of angels with one another. Love towards the neighbor is of such a nature, as will be seen in what follows. All this shows that it is the nature of these loves to share their delights. It is otherwise with the loves of self and of the world. The love of self takes away from others and robs others of all delight, and directs it to itself, for it wishes well to itself alone; while the love of the world wishes to have as its own what belongs to the neighbor. Therefore these loves are destructive of the delights of others; or if there is any disposition to share, it is for the sake of themselves and not for the sake of others. Thus in respect to others it is the nature of those loves not to share but to take away, except so far as the delights of others have some relation to self. That the loves of self and of the world, when they rule, are such I have often been permitted to perceive by living experience. Whenever the spirits that were in these loves during their life as men in the world drew near, my delight receded and vanished; and I was told that at the mere approach of such to any heavenly society the delight of those in the society diminished just in the degree of their proximity; and what is wonderful, the evil spirits are then in their delight. All this indicates the state of the spirit of such a man while he is in the body, since it is the same as it is after it is separated from the body, namely, that it longs for or lusts after the delights or goods of another, and finds delight so far as it secures them. All this makes clear that the loves of self and of the world tend to destroy the joys of heaven, and are thus direct opposites of heavenly loves, which desire to share.’E.Swedenborg ‘Heaven and Hell – 399’

It is a well known thing that we cannot give to somebody something that we don't possess ourselves, but it is not so known that if we DO 'possess' something precious, to wit, if any of Divine graces or gifts were and are bestowen on us, they were not given to us by the Lord (= because in all truth, we are here, as in every other thing, only a stewards!; 'All gifts of nature and of grace have been given us on loan. Their ownership is not ours, but God's.'  Meister Eckhart 'Meditations with Meister Eckhart – IV') for our own personal and selfish use, but for the glory of His Name and for the benefit of our fellow human beings, i.e. for the purpose of their redemption and salvation!

Unfortunately I know many who, having received from the Lord some of His graces and gifts, were 'idle' and 'unprofitable' and 'unworthy', i.e. 'worthless' servants, to wit, they were of the opinion that these are in fact theirs own, and also that they will be always with them, so instead of 'trading with them' they 'burried those in the ground', they did not used them but they lived their life irresponsible, and what happened, those graces and gifts, those 'unused talents', were taken from them (see Matthew 25:14-30)!

“Fish which always live in the depths of the ocean lose some of their faculties, like the Tibetan hermits who always live in the dark. The ostrich loses his power of flying because he does not use his wings. Therefore do not bury the gifts and talents which have been given to you, but use them, that you may enter into the joy of your Lord.”

“While I was in Tibet I saw a Buddhist, a monk, who had lived for five or six years in a cave. When he went into the cave he had good eyesight. But because he stayed so long in the darkness his eyes grew weaker and weaker, and at last he became quite blind. It is just the same with us. If we do not use the blessings which we have received from God for His Glory, we are in danger of losing them for ever.”

“When I was in Palestine I stood by the Jordan and said to myself,” This fresh water is always flowing into the Dead Sea, and yet the Sea remains dead, because it has no outlet’... Even so there are individual Christians and Christian communities and churches which are dead because the living waters of the Gospel are always flowing into them, but they are not flowing out again to make the land fruitful. They receive gifts of knowledge and experience, but they do not share them with others. The gifts of the Word and of the Spirit come to them, but they do not give them out again to those who have them not.”   Sadhu Sundar Singh ‘Parables and Insights’

So, it is an unmistakeable mark of those who are in real and true possession of this extremelly valuable experience, that they are urged from the inside, to 'go into the world and to preach this Gospel of Love and Peace to all creatures' (Mark 16:15), in other words, they are utterly unable to stay 'at home' and be quiet, and 'at peace'!

'God's peace prompts service amongst brothers and sisters. In that way once creature sustains another. One enrich the other, and that is why all creatures are interdependent.'    Meister Eckhart 'Meditations with Meister Eckhart – IV'

'It is a characteristic of this new life that it constrains one to bring others to Christ, not by compulsion but from the desire to let others share in the joy of this wonderful experience...'

'...They are constrained by their blissful experience to bear witness to God...'    Sadhu Sundar Singh 'With and without Christ – V, VI'

‘If we have really received God’s redeeming message, it becomes a power within us which impels us to speak of the Lord. Those who have experienced this cannot sit still and keep silence about that which God has done for them; no, they must speak.” “We have no right to be silent; even when confession of Christ leads to persecution and suffering we must bear witness.”

“It is a joy to me to be allowed to bear witness.” “I want to bear witness of my Saviour, because I have received so much from Him.” “What a privilege it is to be His witness, a witness of the Living Christ! That is a privilege not even given to the angels, because they cannot testify to His power as Redeemer. They have no experience of salvation because they have never sinned. Only those who have been saved by His grace can bear witness.” “Oh what love God has shown toward us, in refusing this honour to the angels, and in granting it to men.’’  

“Many people despise those who give their health, their strength, their means, for others, and call them fools; and yet they are those who are able to save many.” “Not until we lavish our strength do men begin to see that we are not selfish, but that we are really redeemed. Our Saviour says that we are the salt of the earth. Salt does not impart its flavour to other things until it is dissolved. Suppose we put some salt into a saucepan with boiling rice .... Because it dissolves it gives flavour to thousands of grains of rice. In the same manner we can only redeem others by giving ourselves up for them.”

This giving out becomes a blessing to others. That is my own experience. When I went up to Tibet, if I did not give out some blessing or power which I felt I possessed, I lost my peace; and when I gave away any gift of strength, then peace came back.” “The pipe which carries water from place to place is always clean, because it is always being cleansed by fresh pure flowing water. It is just the same with those who are used by the Holy Spirit to serve as channels of the living water to others. They keep themselves pure and holy and become heirs of God’s Kingdom.”  Sadhu Sundar Singh ‘Parables and Insights’

***

A simple practical recipe for an every-day stress-less life

'All medical authorities are agreed in regarding worry, care and anxiety as factors that sap the energy and destroy life. Now, in our Prayer of Contemplation (or 'Prayer in Spirit and in Truth'), we are wonderfully delivered from these life-destroying agencies. Peace, joy and quiet reign in our souls, and these build up body and soul (!!!), just as their opposites destroy them.'     C.F. Andrews 'Sadhu Sundar Singh – A personal memoir – note nr. 3'

'He holds inward communion with Christ, he waits to receive the inspiration of the Holy Spirit... The sense of peaceful contentment, the consciousness of being at home, fills his soul during the ecstasy; the effect is always the same; his previous mood makes no difference. When he returns to normal consciousness he feels strengthened and refreshed, with all his powers renewed for his work.'    From Friedrich Heiler's 'The Gospel of Sadhu Sundar Singh – 3/2'

I would like to share here something more with my fellow Christian brother's and sisters, with those of them who are still di-stressed with and in their every day life and with what happens around them in the world, who are due to their wrong idea of the Divinity of Jesus Christ and their lukewarm religious life incapable of freeing themselves from the shackles of self love and love of the world, i.e. who are consequently unable to completely abandon themselves to Him and His guidance (to them our Lord and Father adressess Himself with those 'O you of little faith' words from the Gospel of Matthew 6:30!), I would like to reveal and point to them one quite easy path toward the liberation... which in fact consists of the most simple action of turning to our Lord and God Jesus Christ with all our problems and giving up of all our worries to Him, to Him Who is also our Eternal Parent and our Loving Guide and Preserver!

Now, two things are of utmost necessity here,

1. our recognition that Jesus Christ IS that very God (John 1:1, 14; 14:8-11; 20:28; 1 John 5:20) Almighty (Revelation 1:8) to Whom is given all power in heaven and on Earth (Matthew 28:18) and also a power over every flesh (John 17:2), in Whom in all truth bodily dwells Essential Divine in all fullness (Collossians 2:9), and that only through Him, His Divine Glorified Human we are able to approach and, which is most important, connect with the Essential Divine or our God and Creator (John 10:1, 9; 14:6), and secondly,

2. that He is to be found within our souls, not outside of us, in some other people, or images, or buildings, or in some ceremonies and external rites, but ONLY IN HIS TEMPLE, WHICH IS OUR HEART (Luke 17:20, 21; 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17; 6:19).

Now, when we are truly in the possession/perception of these two most important truths, we must, with that attitude of our heart and mind, do more or less the following (I am saying 'more or less' because each of us, as individual persons, will of course have his or hers own 'method' of doing the SAME thing):

‘First, as soon as the soul by faith places itself in the presence of God, and becomes recollected before Him, let it remain thus for a little time in respectful silence.

But if, at the beginning, in forming the act of faith, it feels some little pleasing sense of the Divine presence, let it remain there without being troubled for a subject, and proceed no farther, but carefully cherish this sensation while it continues. When it abates, it may excite the will by some tender affection; and if, by the first moving thereof, it finds itself reinstated in sweet peace, let it there remain; the fire must be gently fanned, but as soon as it is kindled, we must cease our efforts, lest we extinguish it by our activity.

I would warmly recommend to all, never to finish prayer without remaining some little time afterward in a respectful silence. It is also of the greatest importance for the soul to go to prayer with courage, and to bring with it such a pure and disinterested love, as seeks nothing from God, but to please Him, and to do his will; for a servant who only proportions his diligence to his hope of reward, is unworthy of any recompense. Go then to prayer, not desiring to enjoy spiritual delights, but to be just as it pleases God; this will preserve your spirit tranquil in aridities as well as in consolation, and prevent your being surprised at the apparent repulses or absence of God.’    Madame Jeanne de la Mothe Guyon ‘Experiencing the depths of Jesus Christ through Inner Prayer – 4’

This is an excellent method of prayer, and I am sure that anybody who will practice this on daily basis will discover for himself everything that I was describing above, and even more. Also, this practice will prepare him for another and more perfect stage, and that would be that of a Constant Prayer, or a ‘Prayer of our whole life’, which is not constricted to any place or time, to wit, a Prayer of His Presence which we experience not only in those quiet moments when we are behind our ‘closed doors’ (Matthew 6:6), but in every place, and during the whole day, no matter what are the circumstances!

‘Now, one who is rightly disposed (= truly abandoned) has God with one in actual fact in all places, just as much in the street and in the midst of many people as in church, or the desert, or a monastic cell.’    Meister Eckhart 'Meditations with Meister Eckhart – II'

'So the soul is indifferent as to whether it be in one state or another, in one place or another: all is the same to it, and it lets itself be carried along naturally. It ceases to think, to wish, or to choose for itself; but remains content, without care or anxiety, no longer distinguishing its inner life to speak of it. Indeed it may be said not to possess one: it is no longer in itself; it is all in God. It is not necessary for it to shut itself up within itself; it does not hope to find anything there, and does not seek for it. If a person were altogether penetrated with the sea, having sea within and without, above and below, on every side, he would not prefer one place to another, all being the same to him. So the soul does not trouble itself to seek anything or to do anything; that is, of itself, by itself, or for itself. It remains as it is. But what does it do? Nothing–always nothing. It does what it is made to do, it suffers what it is made to suffer. Its peace is unchangeable, but always natural.'  Madame Jeanne de la Mothe Guyon 'Spiritual Torrents – 9'

And I believe that this just recommended and discussed path is the same path that was discovered by that great Apostle of Our Lord, who in his noteworthy Epistle to the Philippians 4:6, 7 wrote about it as follows (please take your time, and in prayerful manner deal with these verses, because in them is in-deed revealed that 'Key' for a peaceful and stress-less daily life in the world!):

'Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding (or 'which is above all imagination'), shall keep your hearts and minds through (or 'will guard your hearts and your minds in') Christ Jesus.'

*

Furthermore, our life of pain and trouble in this world, of unrest and dissatisfaction, of di-stress and tribulation, together with what we must do to liberate ourselves from those miserable conditions, can be perfectly portrayed and explained by the use of that happening about which we read in the Gospel of Mark as follows:

'And when they had sent away the multitude, they took Him even as He was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And He was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake Him, and say unto Him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And He said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?'  Mark 4:36-41

Now, when spiritually understood, which means when these scenes are considered in relation to our soul's condition = when we ARE that scene, that 'ship' would be our own life... 'sea' would be (our 'life in) the world'... 'a great storm of wind' are all those troubles and unhappy for us conditions that we experience in the world and in contact with other people', and 'Jesus sleeping in the hinder part of the ship' being our 'ignorance of His Presence in our souls', i.e. 'our condition of being separated from Him' = 'our condition of being 'un-redeemed due to us not recognising Him and accepting Him as our Saviour', or 'Divine Spirit still not active in our souls'... 'Apostles/disciples' are in that case our 'emotions and thoughts' or 'everything that pertains to our will and understanding'.

So, when we are overwhelmed with the problems, with the accidents and sufferings of any kind, by which our Lord is turning our attention from the world and from the self towards Him, and when we are then coming to Him with our whole being, with all our thoughts and with whole of our will, when we are so to speak 'completely surrendered' and when we become 'utterly abandoned' to His Will, He will indeed 'awake' and He will surely take from us those 'external disturbances' and 'problems' and together with it grant us so much desired peace of our souls.

*

About necessity of this surrender and this abandonment, and also of the absolute faith in Him and His guidance, wrote that greatest practicant of perfect love for Jesus Christ, and also Madame Guyon's most prominent disciple, Francois Fenelon, who in his 'Christian Counsel, on diverse matters pertaining to the inner life – 27' exclaimed to his fellow Christians:

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR ATTAINING INWARD PEACE.

There is no peace to them that resist God: if there be joy in the world, it is reserved for a pure conscience; the whole earth is full of tribulation and anguish to those who do not possess it.

How different is the peace of God from that of the world! It calms the passions, preserves the purity of the conscience, is inseparable from righteousness, unites us to God and strengthens us against temptations. The peace of the soul consists in an absolute resignation to the will of God.

“Martha, Martha, thou are careful and troubled about many things; but one thing is needful.” (Luke x. 41.) The pain we suffer from so many occurrences, arises from the fact that we are not entirely abandoned to God in everything that happens.

Let us put all things, then, into his hands, and offer them to Him in our hearts, as a sacrifice beforehand. From the moment that you cease to desire anything according to your own judgment, and begin to will everything just as God wills it, you will be free from your former tormenting reflections and anxieties about your own concerns; you will no longer have anything to conceal or take care of.

Until then, you will be troubled, vacillating in your views and enjoyments, easily dissatisfied with others and but little satisfied with yourself, and full of reserve and distrust. Your good intentions, until they become truly humble and simple, will only torment you; your piety, however sincere, will be the occasion of more internal reproach then of support or consolation. But if you will abandon your whole heart to God, you will be full of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Alas for you, if you will regard man in the work of God! In our choice of a guide, men must be counted as nothing; the slightest respect for their opinion dries up the stream of grace, and increases our indecision. We suffer and we displease God besides.

How can we refuse to bestow all our love upon God, who first loved us with the tender love of a Father, pitying our frailty, and well knowing the mire from which we have been dragged? When a soul is filled with this love, it enjoys peace of conscience, it is content and happy, it requires neither greatness nor reputation, nor pleasure, nor any of the perishing gifts of time; it desires only the will of God, and watches incessantly in the joyful expectation of its Spouse.

I can solemnly testify that peace, I mean a true peace, cannot be found anywhere else!

*

But let me repeat and emphasize again the following, namely, this state of 'peace' and of 'great calm' is and would be experienced only by those who live with and in Jesus Christ, and in whom He lives (John 14:21, 23; Revelation 3:18; 21:3), only with those who, as explained above, recognized Him as the Only God Who rules over heavens and earths and who accepted Him as their Saviour and Redeemer (= because without this recognition and this conscious acceptance no connection is possible and consequently neither the effects of the Salvation, about which I just spoke, are experienced and felt by the person!; Matthew 10:32, 33), and also as their loving and benevolent Father (Matthew 6:9; Revelation 21:7).

It is particularly stressed in John 14:27 that it is HIS Peace that is given to us... and that is an quite important fact to be considered!

'Without Christ I was like a fish out of the water, or like a bird in the water. With Christ I am in the ocean of Love, and while in the world, am in heaven (Ephesians 2:5, 6). For all this, to Him be praise and glory and thanksgiving for ever.'  Sadhu Sundar Singh 'With and without Christ – VI'

***

According to His mercy He saved us (Titus 3:5)...

'For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These, then, are things you should teach. ... For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us (!!!), by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.'  Titus 2:11-15; 3:3-8

'And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief*. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (Matthew 18:11; Luke 9:56; John 3:17); of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.'   1 Timothy 1:12-17

One thing I want to emphasize very strongly at this point, to avoid any misunderstanding (and I am saying this because there are some who are of the opinion that I was, and am an holy man, that my life was, and is blameless!), namely, it was out of pure Mercy of our Lord and Father, Jesus Christ, that I was led out of that terrible sinful life of mine that I led before... and that without any merit on my side!

'To a saintly man – so goes an Arab tale – God said somewhat maliciously: 'Had I revealed to people how great sinner you are, they could not praise you.' 'And I', answered the pious one, 'Had I unveiled to them how merciful Your are, they would not care for you.'    C.Milosz 'A poem for the End of the Century'

Now, when I look at my previous life in and from His light, I can clearly see how even those 'good deeds' that I performed then, so to speak for the benefit of my fellow human beings, were all exercised with only one view in the mind, namely, to gain some personal benefit or pleasure (= I am seeing perfectly clearly now that I was utterly incapable of doing any real good, to wit, every apparent 'good' that I did then, has inside of it hidden some selfish end)!

I am especially ashamed of my behaviour toward the girls who were around me and attracted by me, because I seduced them shamelessly by any available means, of which worst were the drugs, and used them for my pleasure and to satisfy my lusts:

'But those will be worst off in the future who try eagerly to seduce these industrious maidens or immature girls by all sorts of presents. Truly, such men, whether single or married, are like wolves in sheep's clothing and will get the same reward. Whoever forces himself onto a maiden or child or woman shall be judged while still here. The force may consist in the strength of the hands or in the bribe through very valuable presents, but as far as crime is concerned this does not make any difference (!!!). Neither is this sin mitigated by a hair's bredth through the fact that the female partner submitted apparently voluntarily to the lustful will of the man through the power of speech or the application of magic potions (= drugs!), not even if an offspring had actually been begotten in the act; for such procreation took place against the will of both and does, therefore, nothing to help mitigate the crime'   As received from Jesus Christ by His servant the prophet Jakob Lorber and written down in his 'The Great Gospel of John – 3/68:7, 8'                       

Back then I used to 'play' with their innocence (, what a terrible person I was!)... even placing bets on their virginity together with one of my friends with whom I competed as to which one of us will deflowerate more of those young girls (and if I remember correctly, that summer I won against him like 5:3 in that dirty game, not to mention other girls with whom I slept, and it was like 7-8 of them more)!

No one can imagine the pain and remorse that I felt, and am still feeling when seeing some of them now after my eyes were opened! One of them, for example, whom I deflowered way to early, later on in her life became promiscuous above any measure... she also become an heavy heroine addict ... and her life was/is basically destroyed because of me!:

'A man should not touch a virgin before he is twenty-four years old – you know how this is mainly to be understood – and the virgin should be eighteen years old, or at least a full seventeen. Before this time she is not properly mature, and if she is touched too early by a lustful man, her flesh grows brittle and her soul weak and full of passion (= this is eaxactly what happened in that case!). It is hard enough to heal a man's brittle flesh, but very much harder to heal that of a maiden if her flesh was broken before the time. Firstly, she will hardly bear completely healthy children and, secondly, her desire for intercourse will keep growing and she may easily end up as a wanton, a disgrace for the human race (= again, exactly what happened), not so much for herself but rather for those whose carelessness has been responsible for this.'    As received from the Lord by His servant the prophet Jakob Lorber, and written down in his 'The Great Gospel of John – 4/80:10, 11'

‘It follows from these observations and those of the preceding discussion that after the maidenhead has been breached and her virginity tasted, a maiden becomes a wife, and if not a wife, a trollop.  For the new state into which she is then initiated is a state of love for her man, and if it is not one of love for her man, it is a state of lust.’        E.Swedenborg ‘Conjugial Love – 503’

[For proper understanding of this quotation from Swedenborg’s most remarkable revelation ‘Conjugial Love’, i.e. for proper evaluation of this ‘great wickedness and sin’ (Conjugial Love – 501), it is necessary to read at least chapters 501-514; for example 502:2, because when understood what is explained in this paragraph, than the nature of this villainy becomes apparent: ‘The nature of the villainy is apparent from observations made above, that virginity is the crown of a woman’s chastity, a token of conjugial love to come, and that a maiden commits her soul and life to the man to whom she yields it. The friendship of a marriage and its accompanying trust are also founded on it.  In addition, too, after this portal of conjugial love has been breached, a woman deflowered by villains such as these loses her sense of shame and becomes a trollop, for which as well that thief is responsible.’ E.Swedenborg ‘Conjugial Love – 504:2; all theological works of E.Swedenborg are available for reading at http://www.theheavenlydoctrines.org/ ]

Another one ... who with me tried heroine for the first time ... was addicted on that drug for many years ...

Third one, with whom I fornicated quite often, her baby later on died during the pregnancy, or straight after the birth, I am not sure now ... but when I spoke with her, and when she told me what happened (in that time I was already converted to Jesus Christ), I felt, and I knew, that I hade my share in that also!

Not to mention that I also slept with the prostitutes, although but few times:      

'But if he only secretly gratifies his carnal urge with prostitutes and has his pleasure without begetting an offspring, he thereby certainly commits a grave sodomitic sin against the order of God as well as of nature.'    As received from Jesus Christ by His servant the prophet Jakob Lorber and written down in his 'The Great Gospel of John – 3/66:3'             

All this should suffice, I believe, in convincing everybody how great sinner and bad person I was, and that I was saved from the hell in which I lived for years (about lot of those who were and remained of the same promiscious character even until their death, please read in E.Swedenborg's  'Conjugial Love' chapters 505, 510, 512 & 514) by the pure mercy of our beloved Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, Who in all truth 'did not remembered the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways', Who 'remembered me in His love and forgave me my iniquity, although it was greater than great!' (feat: Psalms 25:7, 11)

It is also possible for everybody to learn from this report of mine how immense must be His love for His erring and rebellious children that He allowed and enabled such a great transgressor as I was then, to step out of that terrible darkness into His most bright and glorious light.

Consequently, it was through this living experience of mine (1 John 2:27), and not from any book or through any human agency, that I truly and in all depth learned how our beloved Lord and Father, Jesus Christ, 'did not come to judge, condemn and destroy sinners, but to save them from the perdition!'  (Matthew 18:11; Luke 9:56; John 3:17). And it is because of the very same reason that I am able now to testify before the whole world (Matthew 10:32; Luke 12:8) that He is indeed 'a Living One, Who lives for ever and ever' (Revelation 1:18), to wit, that He is not just some 'perfect moral man' Who lived and preached then in Palestine a 2000 years ago, but our God and Loving Father Who is even now, daily and hourly, most active through His Holy Spirit of Love in saving and redeeming us, although many of us, due to our blindness which is caused by our sins and hardness of our hearts, are not aware of His constant Presence and activity in our souls!

‘For whoever practices harlotry and fornication is very sick in his soul. Through this sin a person’s heart hardens from day to day, becomes ever more unfeeling and merciless towards its fellowmen and in the end loves nothing but itself and the object of its lust, not for the sake of the object though, but only for the sake of satisfying its lust. Such a heart then flees God’s Word which admonishes it against its evil desire and in the end even becomes hostile to those who carry the Word of God in their heart and live accordingly. Many of you suffer form this sickness and that is why I returned to you to heal you from this very bad and fatal disease. Those of you who know that they suffer from this deadly disease should entrust themselves to Me and I shall heal them.’      As received from Jesus Christ by His servant the prophet Jakob Lorber and written down in his 'The Great Gospel of John – 1/86:3'

I also must loudly confess that since I 'put on the Lord Jesus Christ', and 'since I become a new man in Him' (Romans 13:14; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Colossians 3:10; Galatians 3:27; Ephesians 4:24), to wit, since by His power I was freed from the Satan, i.e. from the bodily lusts and passions ('Because the sensual thrill/apetite for a sensual pleasure is Satan's artful trick. Woe betide, whosoever allows Satan to seize him in this manner!' As received from Jesus Christ by His servant the prophet Jakob Lorber and written down in his 'The Great Gospel of John – 1/86:8'), the whole world become heavenly for me, and I am enjoying now most of the time such a blessedness, happiness, joy and peace that I am unable to describe them in the words!

For me it is a greatest miracle of all, that such a lascivious and sensual person as I was then, a fornicator = a 'wolf', could be transformed into such a chaste person as I am now = a 'sheep', a person who 'have made himself an eunuch for the kingdom of God' (Matthew 19:12; 'eunuchs' are, according to E.Swedenborg, those who 'abstain from the evils of licentious relationships’ Conjugial Love – 156:2), i.e. who, in all truth 'renounced any kind of mute satisfaction to which the flesh, and thusly sin, is attached', who is able 'to control his desires at all times when the time has not come for procreating a living fruit for the Lord!' (feat: 'The Household of God – 2/89' J.Lorber).

In yet another words, I vowed to the Lord, with Whom my soul is married, that I will never touch any woman except the one who will be appointed by Him as my celestial spouse (see J.Lorber's  'The Household of God – 2/88', especially verses 15 & 16, and also 'Bishop Martin – 202', especially verses 2-4, 10-11'), and even then only with the purpose of begetting the child or 'living fruit' as He calls it! J

Since I successfully done that with the gracious help of my Lord, and this now for a duration of almost 7 years, I can truly relate to these words of his:

'Who cannot remember that, through long abstinence from sexual intercourse, he is seized by a permanent well‑being?'     As received from Jesus Christ by His servant the prophet Jakob Lorber and written down in his 'Earth and Moon – 12'

I will repeat this because it is indeed a greatest miracle and it portrays the redeeming power of the Lord and His dominion over the Satan perfectly, we are talking here about the person who used to had a different girl every day, who during the whole day used to think only about sexual and immoral things, and that very person, who is even now also surrounded with a most beautiful girls as then, who are even today not less available to him than then, is absolutely free from any immoral and salacious desire, from any sexual lust, and he lives his life in chastity and purity using all to him given powers to lead those very girls and women out of their present sinful state towards that glorioius and virtuous life in Jesus Christ.

I also learned from my apostolic practice that nobody who is out of this experience (and EVERYBODY IS OUT OF THIS EXPERIENCE who is NOT TRULY REDEEMED BY JESUS CHRIST, i.e. who is a Christian on his lips but not in his heart) is able to believe that anybody can live such an perfectly chaste life, even free from any licentious thoughts when surrounded with the beautiful female bodies, but I solemnly declare and testify that this is indeed possible for everybody who is truly transformed into the image of our Lord, who become His abode and dwelling place or, as brother Paul stated, 'Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).' 

The 'recipe' for this sin-less life, and also a confirmation of this experience, was given through Jakob Lorber, namely, in his 'The Household of God – 2/89' we read as follows:

‘So care only for that which is of the spirit; leave flesh to Me, doing My will in the same time so that it becomes powerless and you will at all times grow in the spirit to that degree by which you death diminishes, which is the sin or the flesh... Whenever the flesh will make unseemly demands on your heart, look up at the stars of heaven, and I shall speak to you from the stars and tell you what to do... But if you remain faithful to My will, you will soon begin to perceive the great might of the same within you; for by the very act of fulfilling My will you absorb it and make it your own. When then My almighty will becomes your order as it is forever Mine, tell Me, what power of death will be able to subdue you. I am giving you all such a commandment that by its fulfillment everyone may adopt the might of My will through which all things have been made and before which all things tremble. As long as a person fails to make My will his own, he remain a prisoner of death and a servant of sin, which is the old death. However, he who has made My will his own, has become perfect like I, his Father (Matthew 5:48), am and will do the works of life I am doing.’

And further through the mouth of our Lord’s favourite disciple:

‘No-one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.’  1 John 3:9

Therefore, it is my sincere hope that some of those who are presently in the same or similar condition that I was then, could be helped and assisted by and through the knowledge of these workings of the Lord in my life, to wit, that through these most sincere reports of mine they will be enabled to rightfully evaluate their position and state of their own souls, and after that also inspired to repent from their life in sin and subsequently to remorsefully and penitently return to their Father, Who patiently and forbearingly awaits for them with His arms wide open (Isaiah 65:2-5; Luke 15:20).

(*p.s. One more thing should be considered, namely, there is a huge difference between those who used to sin, and are sinning in their ignorance, who were without any religious education, as me for example,

'You, Zorel, were not quite pure in this respect, either; for already as a boy you were afflicted with all kinds of impurity and a bad example for your young companions. However, you cannot be made responsible for this because you did not receive any education that would have guided you to the pure truth and could have shown you what is right according to the order of God. You only began to understand what is right when at an advocate's  you became acquainted with the rights of the citizens of Rome. Since that time you were no longer a brutish man, but a first-class twister of the law, deceiving your fellowman wherever possible. However, all that is now past, and with your present cognition you are standing before Me as a better man.'    As received from Jesus Christ by His servant the prophet Jakob Lorber and written down in his 'The Great Gospel of John – 4/80:18'

, and those who are keeping to do the same after they were informed in all truth about their wickedness:

'For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.'  Hebrews 10:26-31

In E.Swedenborg about the same kind of people:

‘Second, the kind of profanation committed by those who understand and acknowledge Divine truths, and yet live contrary to them. Those who only understand profane more lightly, while those who also acknowledge profane more grievously. For the understanding only teaches, much in the same manner as a preacher, and does not from itself conjoin itself with the will; but acknowledgment does make conjunction; for nothing can be acknowledged without the consent of the will. Still this conjunction varies, and the profanation is according to the measure of the conjunction, when the life is lived contrary to the truths that are acknowledged. Thus if one acknowledges that revenge and hatred, adultery and fornication, fraud and deceit, blasphemy and lying, are sins against God, and yet commits them, he is in the more grievous form of this kind of profanation; for the Lord says, 

The servant which knew his lord’s will ... and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. Luke xii. 48 (A.V. 47);

and elsewhere, 

If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth. John ix. 41.’  E.Swedenborg ‘Divine Providence – 231:2’

Also, the worst fate awaits those who were in sin, who then learned what is good and what is evil and who repented, who for some time were changed and lived their life differently, and than who returned to their former evils:

'For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.'  Hebrews 6:4, 5

State of those people in the beyond would be most pitiful as reported by E.Swedenborg, because in that case we are dealing with the most grievous of all spiritual sins, a profanation of what is holly, or 'mixing what is good with what is evil', and that is something that does the greatest damage to the people's souls! Their later state is then much much worse than previous one:

‘Seventh, the kind of profanation committed by those who first acknowledge Divine truths and live according to them, but afterwards depart from them and deny them. This is the worst kind of profanation because such persons mingle things holy and profane to such a degree that they cannot be separated; and yet these things must be separated in order that men may find their place either in heaven or in hell. As this cannot be effected, however, in the case of such persons, all that is human, both intellectual and voluntary, is rooted out and, as was said before, they come to be no longer men. Almost the same thing happens with those who in their heart acknowledge the Divine things of the Word and of the Church, but who immerse them completely in their proprium, which is the love of ruling over all things, and about this much has already been said. For after death when they become spirits, they are wholly unwilling to be led by the Lord, but desire to be led by themselves. When loose rein is given to their love they desire to rule not only over heaven but also over the Lord; and as they cannot do this, they deny the Lord and become devils. It should be understood that the life’s love, which is also the ruling love, remains with everyone after death, and cannot be taken away.

[8] The profane of this kind are meant by the lukewarm, of whom it is thus written in the Revelation:

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Rev. iii. 14, 15 (A.V. 15, 16).

This kind of profanation is thus described by the Lord in Matthew:

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.

Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.

Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Matt. Xii. 43-45.

The conversion of a man is here described by the unclean spirit’s going out of him; and his turning back to his former evils, after things good and true have been cast out, is described by the return of the unclean spirit with seven others worse than himself into the house garnished for him; and the profanation of what is holy by what is profane is described by the last state of that man being worse than the first. The same is meant by this passage in John:

Jesus said to the man who had been healed at the pool of Bethesda: Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. John v. 14.’   E.Swedenborg ‘Divine Providence – 231:7, 8’)

I am dedicating this to my dear friend T.M.

'Wake up you rebellious child, while there is still a time for that,

Because this day is soon over, and night is quickly approaching!

Wake up! Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols;

turn away your face from all your abominations (Ezekiel 14:6)!

Cast away from you all your transgressions,

whereby ye have transgressed;

and make you a new heart and a new spirit:

for why will you die, O you rebellious child? (Ezekiel 18:31)'

Lorens N.

(July 18-25, 2009)