The Great Gospel of John
Volume 9
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in Nahim in Judea
- Chapter 37 -
The condition for a personal revelation of God.
Now you should only believe all that, but when your faith has become alive through works, then by your living faith you will begin to envision it, to feel it yourself and to be deeply convinced to know, and that is much better for the soul of man than when he only accepts something, being convinced of the truth after he has made the truth his own through his own seeking and searching with great difficulty by way of experience.
2
It is true that such a seeking and zealously searching soul is also worth of his salary because every worker is worth of his salary, but if a soul believes and acts according to the truth that he has - let us say - heard from God's mouth, this is better, because by that he unites through love My Spirit with himself, and that can - and also does - give him in 1 hour more of the most lightened wisdom than what he can acquire by way of very personal investigation in 100 years time. But for this reason, a pious, believing soul should not set aside the right seeking and searching, because every person should investigate everything that he hears from men and keep that which is good and which consequently is also always true. But that which has been revealed by Myself to men, which is easily recognizable, man should not have to investigate it thoroughly. He only should believe it and act accordingly, then he very soon will see the active result.
3
Whoever believes in Me, does My will and loves Me above all and his fellowman as himself, to him I Myself will come and faithfully reveal Myself to him. However, in future times it will be that finally everyone who truthfully longs for Me as the eternal truth, will be taught by Me, because I, who am the truth in the Father, am like a Son, but the eternal love in Me is the Father. So whoever will be drawn by the Love or the Father, will also come to the Son or to the truth.
4
That is why it is better to draw near to Me through love than through investigating the pure truth, for with love will come inevitably also the spirit of truth, just like with the fire, that has flared up as an active flame, will come the light. However, when someone sees from afar a light and runs to it, he certainly will need a longer effort before he can reach the place of the light in order to be also warmed up to life by the active flame of the light.
5
Whoever will truly search God, should search Him in his own heart, thus in the spirit of love in which all life and all truth is hidden, then he will also quickly and easily find God and His Kingdom - through every other way however, with difficulty, and in this world often not at all.
6
It is also written in the Scripture that man should worship God. But how should he worship God when firstly he has never heard about God except at most by hearsay and moreover hardly believes that such a God exists, and when secondly he does really by far not know what it means to worship God. God, who is the eternal and most pure love Himself, can certainly not be pleased with lip-prayer in which the heart has no part.
7
To worship God means: to always love Him above all and his fellowman as himself. And to truly love God means: to keep His commandments very faithfully, also during oftentimes most unpleasant life conditions which God - when it is necessary in one way or another according to His love and wisdom - brings over such and such person to strengthen him and for the life's practice for his soul who is too strongly attracted by matter, for only God knows every soul, his nature and qualities, and knows also the most clear and best how that soul can be helped on the true way of life.
8
So God is in Himself the highest and purest Spirit, because He is the purest Love, and therefore, those who really wish to worship Him, should worship Him in spirit and in truth, even unceasingly during the whole life, as also all angels in Heaven are doing eternally.
9
If lip-prayer would be a good and God pleasing manner of worship, and God would ask this from all men and angels, then He would be as weak, vain and unwise as a blind and haughty Pharisee who wants to be highly honored above everything and rule above everyone. For if a person had to pray God day and night with his mouth, even unceasingly, then how can he find the time to do other necessary work and how will he then acquire the necessary food for the body for himself and his family? Unfortunately there are now among the Jews a great number of such fools, and those will also exist in the future, who will worship God with almost endless lip-prayers and will think that this is a real religion and that God is well pleased with it, more in particular when that lip-bawling will be accompanied with all kinds of ceremonies.
10
But truly, I say to you all: wherever I will be worshipped and honored in this manner by men, I will immediately turn away My face and never pay attention to such worship and honoring, more precisely to show foolish men in a practical way that such worships and honoring are a true abomination to Me, and that I will never pay attention to that, especially when they are done for money through priests. Because he who prays while someone paid him for that, mumbles out such prayer only for the sake of appearances, mostly without any faith, while even the one for whom that prayer was meant to help, became too lazy himself to bow his knees before God and therefore prefers that someone else prays for him.
11
Thus, love God above all and your fellowman as yourselves, do even good to those who want to do evil to you and pray in the same manner also for your enemies, pray also for those who hate and curse you, and do not pay back evil with evil, except in the extreme case of necessity in order to perhaps turn away a real criminal from the way of sin to the way of virtue - then I will look upon such a real and living prayer with the most hearty fatherly satisfaction and will truly not leave one of your prayers unanswered. But simply lip-prayer without heart or without the fullest belief I will never look upon or answer in no matter what way. Now I have shown you truthfully the right way of life. Walk and act in such a way, then you will be and remain in Me and I in you.
12
And in whoever I am residing through his love for Me, and from that, for his fellowman, will not walk in the night of the judgment and the death of the soul, but always in a completely clear life's daylight.
13
And now do tell Me, My dear son, how and if you have understood that. For if you have well understood it, you will also act accordingly in the right manner, and you will become full of light."