Below you’ll find a video discussion that’s a part of our new series discussing the Padgett Messages.
I really enjoyed this chat between Jesus and I. We talk about the message received from Joseph Salyards on 3rd May, 1915.
If you would like to read along with the Padgett Message as you watch the video, click here. The message will open in the next tab of your web browser.
In this talk we touched on many of God’s Laws and I fess up about my rebellion at one of the most important Laws to understand while on earth.
As a self-confessed rebel, coming to love God’s Laws has been a drawn out process for me. Lately however no-one is more surprised than me that exploring, discussing and experimenting with individual Laws is developing into a sort of personal love-affair.
OK – its more truthful to say that I’m falling in love with most Laws… my inner rebel is still complaining about some of them. I can say however that I’m beginning to experience the power of honouring Law in my life (look out for a ‘Jesus Quotes” post coming up on this topic). It turns out that obeying God’s Law is actually liberating, not restricting. Who knew? 🙂
After this discussion I had the idea to offer you a self-reflection exercise. I completed it myself and thought you might be interested!
Personal Reflection Activity:
Here is a list of movies that demonstrate characters who encounter the Law of Compensation.
Everybody’s Fine (2009)
Director: Kirk Jones
Stars: Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale
Developing Self- Awareness Questions:
As you watch or re-watch these movies notice your reactions:
Did you ‘recognize yourself’ in any of the characters? For example have you had common feelings, attitudes, or experienced similar events to anyone in the movie?
Without analyzing too much with your intellect – Do you feel that the main characters in this movie did the ‘right thing’? If you do, what actions did they take that you agree with? Would you, or have you taken similar actions? If you don’t agree with the actions of the main character/s, why not?
If you have seen any of the movies before, have you previously considered that they each demonstrate a person encountering the Law of Compensation? Did you feel that the behaviour of the characters displayed repentance? Did you feel the actions of the main character were noble and just?
I found it most powerful to simply let myself feel my response to this first set of questions. My emotional reactions tell me most about where my soul is at in terms of fully understanding the principles of Divine Love and Truth involved.
Later on I came back to use my intellect to analyze where my injuries are still showing through. For example, as I watch the movie I might emotionally identify the sacrifice and hiding of truth of certain characters with them being loving and honourable. Its great to let myself feel that.
When I come back and analyze that reaction intellectually I can see that its a false belief in my soul that will effect my relationship with God, and ability to truly love others. I wouldn’t have learnt that if I’d only analyzed the movie intellectually and with a view to getting the answer ‘right’. These first questions were designed to help me self-reflect and learn about myself – so by definition the only ‘right’ answers were honest answers.
The second lot of questions (below) helped me to see what I really understand and believe the Laws of Compensation and Repentance/ Forgiveness to be.
How did the main characters in the movie begin to encounter the Law of Compensation? What happened? How did they feel? How was the Law beginning to work upon their soul?
How do the characters respond when they start to feel the effects of the Law of Compensation?
Which characters fight the Law when it begins to act on them?
Did any character move from experiencing the Law of Compensation, into a process of repentance?
Reflecting upon your knowledge of God’s Laws and Love, and the true nature of the human soul, do you feel the main character developed or degraded their soul condition through the events portrayed in the movie?
If you feel that the main character developed in love, did they do this via engaging the principles of the Natural Love or the Divine Love Path?
I hope you enjoy the self-reflection exercise if you choose to do it.
If I’m super organized I’ll do a follow-up post, summarizing my observations and reflections about each movie in relation to the Laws of Compensation, Repentance & Forgiveness.
Have a great day everyone! We’re in Kyabra for the week and it’s great to see how all the projects from last year’s Summerfest are going.
Back in December and January I shared a little about our project to assist a community in Kenya with some of their immediate physical needs and to provide them with teachings of Divine Truth.
Since then Jesus has spent many hours tirelessly researching various means of technology that may be suitable to the rural community without power, in which Javan, his wife Susan and their family, live.
We decided to fund the installation of a modest solar system by a Kenyan company.
Click below for a link to the PDF summary report – (it has cute photos)
Jesus has spent many more hours assembling an impressive portable, rechargeable audio visual system that will allow Javan to travel between the remote parishes to share Divine Truth teachings. All of the equipment can be recharged at the home base via the solar system.
The exciting news is that at the end of April, the three awesome folk below have volunteered their time and finances to travel to Kenya to share Divine Truth with Javan, Susan and their community and to assist in training for the equipment we will be supplying.
Jesus has spent the past few weeks ironing out the glitches with the system and training Kerry, Paige and Denis in how to use it, pack it and carry it.
Donations & How They Have Been Used
Donations for this project have come from coming mainly from four major contributors. These funds were augmented by many smaller donations (for full details you can see the link to project summary below).
In our support of the community in Kenya we’ve been balancing the need to share information that provides lasting tools in the development of a relationship with God and in dealing with the causes of problems, with providing and demonstrating love and care for some of the more pressing physical needs of orphans for food and clothing.
So far we have assisted in:
– translation of Divine Truth transcripts into five local languages
– government registration which enables Javan and Susan to teach publicly without persecution or punishment
– a modest solar installation that will provide power to low voltage lighting, sound system, projector, and laptop computer.
– equipment in the form of a sound system that is small, compact, transportable, rechargeable, LED powered, compact projector, laptop computers, various auxiliary items
– money towards food, clothing and shoes for orphans
We’ve also been discussing and problem solving with Susan & Javan about the following topics (among others):
– the difference between facade and our true soul condition
– the equality of men and women in God’s eyes and the inappropriateness of separating men and women when teaching about God
– the truth some souls are created with dominant gender qualities, resulting in soulmates of the same gender
– the importance of dealing with causes and not effects
– the difference between a demand and a request, and how these states relate to our soul condition and our relationship with God
– how to deal with persecution and abuse from religious figures (like local priests) in humility and love
I think everyone involved with this project first hand would agree that it has been a great learning experience.
Future Projects
Since Jesus and I will continue to focus on producing Divine Truth materials that can be used to assist the maximum amount of people at one time, we will no longer be doing so much hands-on planning, purchasing, assembling, training and liaison for projects in the developing world. We feel that these projects are so worthwhile, yet there are many others who are qualified to handle these details.
For this reason a small team of people have decided to take on the task of receiving donations and coordinating projects to share Divine Truth with new individuals and communities internationally. Read about it here. If you would like to help out, donate or join this team, contact them via the blog.
Jesus and I will continue in a mentoring and advisory role for this team and their projects.
If you are interested in learning more about the Kenya project and the adventures of Kerry, Paige and Denis and you live locally to us:
There will be a afternoon ‘press conference’ and Q & A to learn more about the Kenya project on Saturday, 27th April, 12 noon @ Joy’s place.
13777 Chinchilla- Wondai Road (1.4 km past the O’Dea Road turn off, on the right)
Bring a plate of vegan food to share if you’d like to join in the festivities afterwards.
I hear a rumour that at the event we will have the opportunity to learn some rap songs about Divine Truth. These songs have been composed by Joy, and are designed to teach children some of the basic truths about God, His Love and our soul. The team traveling to Kenya will be using these songs to teach some English and have fun with the kids over there. (exciting, right?)
Here is Joy being a big kid. (I love that about her!)
If you are interested in learning more about this project and the adventures of Kerry, Paige and Denis and you live internationally:
After spending some months in Kenya, Paige, Kerry and Denis will be continuing on their international travel and are open to visiting you if you would like to hear about their experiences of sharing Divine Truth in a developing nation.
After Kenya they will also travel to Thailand/ Burma to discuss Divine Truth with a social/ health worker in that area.
At this stage their only definite stop after Kenya is England.
So, if you live in England and would like to hear them speak, or if you are in another part of the world and would be interested in having them visit to share their experiences, please email me at mary@divinetruth.com. I will forward on your contact.
(N.B. Kerry, Paige and Denis are currently sorting out travel emails and blogs – once that is done I’ll amend this post to include these details. That way you can contact them direct. My role in forwarding on is just until that time.)
OK, I think that’s all I have to tell you about the Kenya project. As I said, its been awesome to be a part of. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to learn so much and to get to know a brother and sister on the opposite side of the world.
I can’t wait to hear how Kerry, Paige and Denis go on the next step of this adventure!
After our time some months off from giving seminars – so long that many of you have stopped checking the ‘Events’ page for updates – I thought I’d give you a heads up in a post that we will hold a seminar May 11 & 12 at the Murgon Town Hall.
Please check out the Events page and/ or the website for full details.
I’m very excited about this weekend as the topics will be Prayer and Faith… two qualities that hold a renewed and strengthened value in my heart this year.
Hopefully in our ‘downtime’ you’ve all still had plenty to go on with.. we have still managed to produce quite a bit of material on both youtube channels. If you haven’t seen the new FAQ channel there is a growing amount of interesting content there. I’ve also been loving our new Padgett Message Discussions, hopefully they interest you as well. 🙂
Don’t forget that if you have a slow internet connection we offer the Hard Disc Drive copy service. If you would like to have a Drive copied or your Drive needs updating the details of how to do that are on our site.
The other day my kindly youtube account recommended a number of videos for me. I suspect they do this by scanning the word themes of my subscribed channels and suggesting to me videos with similar tags or themes to those I’ve already watched. (I’m sure there is a specific technical term for this process – if you know maybe you can write it in the comments and I can amend this post!)
I watched the clip. I wept for these people. I felt about the reasons why people are drawn to cults. I prayed for the healing of those I saw on film and all others who are damaged by such horrible acts and erroneous belief systems about God and Love.
It wasn’t until I was finished with all that watching, feeling and praying that I suddenly realized that loads of people assume that my life is similar to those of the people described in the documentary. It also dawned on me that people might even think that we treat people like the ‘leaders’ in these groups treated the people who told their stories.
Its true that the false, slanderous, misleading and sensationalized media coverage of us in recent years has encouraged people to think in such ways. But I am also aware that many would assume these kinds of things simply based on our identity claims.
Now you might think I’m a little slow on the uptake when it comes to considering how others perceive us. Truth be told, I have (of course) considered it all before.
But given how different my life actually is to what the media has said about it, and given that I actively spend everyday attempting to grow in and extend love, truth and humility to others, and given that I am adored, encouraged and inspired by the man I live with, its easy to forget that people think that I live a tortured, power-hungry life with a narcissistic megalomaniac. So extreme is the contrast in viewpoints that the latter assumption can be swiftly dismissed by my heart and mind as utter absurdity (and is thus difficult to retain).
Put simply, such slander is so daft and uninformed that I don’t think about it much anymore. And I sometimes forget that many people are actually holding onto the daft, uninformed and absurd ideas about who we are and what we stand for.
So at times I still feel suddenly very shocked and naive when I watch these types of documentaries and realize that this kind of abusive behaviour would be associated in the minds of others with my life or belief systems.
You see, we are all about assisting people to end their acceptance of abusive and unloving behaviour. We teach the embracing of free will and that to receive Love from the One Absolutely Reliable Source is the surest way to happiness and growth – no intermediary necessary!
We preach that God is not One who punishes or requires penance in order to receive His Love, nor is any person more important or powerful in God’s Eyes than any other (so if we live in harmony with God’s Laws we would never be able to view each other in terms of hierarchy or to set up abusive power systems on Earth).
In short, we are the most anti-cult people I know.
I’ve written about this subject before, and I was considering writing about it again yesterday. But then Jesus had an email requesting an interview/ opinion on cults and he wrote awesome things. So I’m just going to share his words after the clip of the documentary below.
I know that if you read my blog regularly you might be scoffing at the necessity for me to write about such topics. You’re know you’re not a member of anything and you are completely relaxed in the knowledge that you aren’t in a cult, right?
Well, in my opinion and experience its always good to explore emotions around such topics. They are sensationalized in our media and our lives because many people – no, most people – harbor huge fears about being controlled, manipulated and hurt. (Jesus discusses this in more detail in the text below).
While we deny and suppress these fears, they have power in our lives. Fears of being abused, controlled and manipulated, when left unhealed and unchecked, can cause us to be needlessly suspicious of good people, and/or foolishly trusting of people with bad intentions. They are the very fears that people who want control use to manipulate us e.g. they accuse us of being controlled and manipulated in order to have us change to what suits them or to fall back under their control.
It can sound like a complex issue, and honestly unless we explore our doubts and fears things can become complex and confusing. Thankfully if we are willing to delve deep into our feelings, ask the tough questions, and feel our pain of past hurts and manipulation, we do emerge with the clarity to discern who and what is trustworthy.
If we involve God in the process, we also learn what Love truly looks like. With such knowledge we can never be fooled by dubious characters, peddling false teachings and tainted ‘love’.
Excerpt from a Response to a Media Request for an Interview Regarding Cults.
Written by Jesus
April, 2013
No matter what you have heard from other members of the media, we do not have a religion or a cult. All Mary and I do is speak at seminars we provide for free, provide information for free over the internet about Divine Truth, and share Divine Truth with anyone who questions us where possible. Just because we claim that we are Jesus and Mary Magdalene, it does not mean that we fit your assumptions of what persons making those claims would normally be like. We do not have any person staying with us where we live. We live on a 40 acre private property that I purchased quite some time ago when I was still computer programming. No-one else lives with us. We have no experience of living in a cult, and we are not “cult leaders” as the media has falsely claimed, we have no “following”, we do not interact with the same people on a day to day basis, we do not manipulate and control people, since that is against our teachings of love and the honouring of the free will of the individual, and so I could not provide you with any perspective on the matter aside from my own opinion.
I have also placed my comments about Cults on our Divine Truth FAQ YouTube channel for anyone who wishes to see the truth about what we do, along with my general comments about cults and cult leaders as well. I do feel that many cults on earth are quite destructive, but I also feel that there are many institutions on the planet that are just as destructive in their teachings, because they are not based around love. I include some orthodox religions, economic institutions, political movements, and other professions amongst these destructive institutions. As I said, anything that does not honour the free will of the individual, promote the exercise of love in our day to day life, and allow for the discovery of further Truth, scientific and otherwise, is destructive.
I have a lot of compassion for people who have been a part of cults, and I do completely understand why people are attracted to them. I feel these attractions begin often because of the unloving treatment of parents towards their children, and this makes their children susceptible to the influence of self-installed “authority” figures when they become adults. In addition, many claims are made in the name of God, and people are even encouraged to go to war, and perpetrate violence, for the sake of their “Gods”. This is all cult-ish behaviour on the part of the people encouraging such actions. I have spoken of these things in my Divine Truth FAQ channel.
*******
I feel that the general population has a huge amount of fear regarding “cults”, and they bring this fear, which I believe comes from their childhood, and their experiences of being controlled and manipulated by society as children, into their adult life. As adults, we usually operate either in agreement to, or rebellion of, unhealed emotional issues from our childhood. This means that we are either attracted to persons who are “cult-like” authority figures, or we could say more like the impression we had of our own parents, or repelled by and afraid of such persons (and sometimes have both reactions at different times, just like when we were children).
If I, within myself, felt secure in my own search for truth, and honoured my own free will to make choices and decisions for myself no matter what other people in society or my family or friends generally thought, and understood what love really acted like, and could determine when someone was truly unloving in their actions towards me, then I would not feel the need to either follow a “cult-leader” or fight against one. I would feel secure in my own choices and decisions, and I would be able to change my mind at any time. I would not listen to anyone who manipulates me or attempted to manipulate or control me through force or threats, since I would see such an action as harming my own free will choice, and being out of harmony with love.
A person with conviction in their own belief system will be firm for what they believe, but they, if they were loving, would never force (either verbally, emotionally or physically) their belief system upon me, and require that I change my own belief system without applying logic and love to the analysis of the belief system they are sharing. They would honour my ability to choose for myself what I wish to believe, even if it disagrees with their own concept of what is right and true. Most religions do NOT do this. They instead attempt to force their beliefs, along with the threat that God will destroy or punish me at some time in the future for having the wrong belief. I feel that God does not punish us for wrong beliefs. I feel that the only penalties in the universe are for acting out of harmony with Love, and so, people who attempt to force me into a belief system are acting out of harmony with love and will eventually feel the weight of their own unloving actions. The pain and suffering in this world are the direct results of society acting out of harmony with Love.
I also feel that society has many false beliefs surrounding what is acceptable when we are a child, compared to what is acceptable when we are an adult. For example, the average Christian believes, as the Bible states in Proverbs 13:24 “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.” For the average reader of this verse, it justifies spanking the child, or acting violently towards the child, in the name of “love”. So, many people feel justified in hitting their own children as a result, as a form of “discipline”. But if we hit an adult with a stick or even with our hand (even with the intention of correcting them), government law in most Western nations views that as violent assault, for which we can be incarcerated. So, a violent and terrifying act towards a child is tolerated by society (for many reasons including the parents concept of “ownership” over their child, and the acceptance of religious books that promote violence), and, at the same time, the same action perpetrated towards an adult is called a violent crime. This is a measure of the hypocrisy of society, allowing a violent action towards a child who cannot protect itself from such an act, while at the same time attempting to protect an adult who experiences or is threatened by the same violent act.
The result of this is that very few people have a correctly aligned “compass” when it comes to determining what real Love would do. Unfortunately there are many times when we are tolerant of what society calls “heinous crimes” towards children, for many reasons religious and otherwise, and I have only provided one example. These crimes are not tolerated towards adults. Of course, when those children grow up, it makes sense that their own concept of what love is will be severely crippled, and therefore, it becomes difficult for them to determine who actually loves them, and who is just making statements of “love” without any real love being present. It causes them to be open to people who use many words of “love”, but who do not have loving feelings or actions. It opens them to concepts that are flawed when examined by love, and they readily accept such flawed concepts, since those same concepts were forced upon them as children. It will also be very difficult for them to correctly reason about whether the group of people they are becoming involved with actually promote really loving teachings and actions.
As you say, society must learn “where to draw the line”, and I feel the line must be drawn by the thought I mentioned in my previous email to you, and that is; “anything that does not honour the free will of the individual, promote the exercise of love in our day to day life, and allow for the discovery of further Truth, scientific and otherwise, is destructive,” and needs to be corrected. This line would apply whether the problem is exposed within a family, within a community, within an organisation, within a religion, within a government, or within a country. If this line was consistent in all circumstances, then each individual, including children, could feel safe to explore the world and continue their own quest for truth without fearing potential violence, control, manipulation or any other act which would harm its own expression of free will. Then all of us would feel comfortable in the world, whether we had different belief systems or not.
What I am suggesting is that eventually we all need to agree about what is loving behaviour, and what is unloving, and make a personal choice to live in harmony with what is defined as loving. But this will need to be done with logical and reasonable discussion, not with emotive belief systems that have no bearing on logic, not relying on books (religious or otherwise) written hundreds or even thousands of years ago that are obviously flawed when we examine them from the perspective of love, or by reverting to character attacks of others just because they have a different opinion to ourselves.
Just my thoughts towards the discussion for what they are worth.
You can check out more from Jesus about cults here.
He’s so wise my guy.
I love how relaxed and jovial he is answering questions about cults! Every media outlet I’ve encountered accompanies such discussions with ominous, foreboding music. Jesus just cracks a smile and answers without hesitation or fear.
In this first series of messages I’ve chosen for discussion we often find people in darkness, despair, disillusionment and doubt.
It isn’t by accident that I chose as I did. It’s important for all of us to face these four ‘d’s i.e. darkness, despair, disillusionment and doubt. Many of us find ourselves the most stuck, faithless and desperate (another ‘d’) when we are shown our own darkness, when doubt and disillusionment rise up, or when faced with the deepest of sorrows.
Yet moving through these ‘d’s, instead of shying away or trying to go around them, is not only necessary to our progression but empowers us to face any difficult emotion.
After reading some of your responses to the last post and on re-reading this next one, I could see that many of you resonated with the themes of hopelessness and despair.
The great news is that Padgett and his friends also give us a great road-map for moving through (not around) the four ‘d’s.
Here’s what I see:
Padgett encourages his friends to open up to God simply from a place of possibility of His love. He encourages them to take steps in faith. However he never does this in ignorance or denial of all of their current doubts and fears. He never belittles their struggles, nor tells them to ‘just get over it’. Yet I find many of us tell ourselves and others these kinds of messages when we encounter the four ‘d’s.
Padgett doesn’t lecture them on why their feelings aren’t valid; he asks them to consider truth and logic, and to try it out for themselves.
Using our will in a positive direction is vital if we are to move through the four ‘d’s.
Here’s our latest discussion of a message in the Great Experiment Series.
Click here to view the message in the next browser tab.
Can you see any other clues this message provides for dealing with doubt, despair, disillusionment and darkness?
Some More Practical Tips to Not Get STUCK in the Four ‘D’s
1. Acknowledge and Own the Feelings
Don’t try to tell yourself that they don’t exist, that their presence means that you aren’t spiritually evolved or that you should be over them by now.
Instead recognise these feelings as a signal from your soul that something needs healing.
When you judge your darkness, instead of examining it, this is your attempt to shut it down.
When you try to push away doubt, instead of really allowing it, you miss the opportunity to discover the real emotions of fear the doubt is covering. Doubt is often a place we use to hide from fear, but it gets depressing and depleting to live in. When we dig deeper into our doubt, then we discover our fear and can unlock the stuck place we have been enduring.
Despair and disillusionment are tough feelings – acknowledging them helps to uncover why they are there.
Ultimately you will need to grieve the causes for all of these feelings (you know that bit right), but I see that many of us fall down, get spirit influenced, and waste time on our spiritual journey when we know we aren’t getting to the causes yet. I see people start to push themselves hard to get there, instead of recognising that there are blocks (which are also feelings) that need to be worked through in order to completely release these causes. This work of releasing blocks is so vital and important, and pushing ourselves is the opposite of sitting with our resistance and allowing it to be felt.
Sitting with our resistance to our errors feels uncomfortable. That’s usually when the pushing, self-punishment or the denial starts. We want it over with, fixed and healed very quickly, or we try to talk ourselves out of the truth of it.
That’s because acknowledging we have a problem or error in our soul and realising that we are totally resisting the experience of this error can trigger other sets of emotions. Lots of childhood terrors of not being loved if we aren’t perfect, or aren’t performing can start to surface. The only answer I’ve found to combat this (and it’s a point that probably deserves an entire post of its own) is to practice compassion with self.
Recognise that these feelings are scary and painful and give yourself time and space to explore your soul. I see many of us treating ourselves worse than we would another person in the same situation. Ask yourself, how would I lovingly treat a child who came to me with the problem I find myself in? Treat yourself the same way.
Let me say categorically that pushing ourselves never helps.
Instead we can take positive steps to acknowledge the pain; know and be kind to ourselves and to pray for sincere desire to change.
2. Remind Ourselves of Truth
Many of the Padgett messages demonstrate spirits and Padgett himself speaking with others to remind them that their fears, doubts and worries are not in harmony with the way God’s Love or Universe works.
We can do the same thing for ourselves.
When disillusionment and despair loom, dark spirits love to get in on the act and reinforce really negative messages to us. Engaging very sincerely in prayer i.e. seeking Truth from God (rather than listening to messages from spirits in lower conditions) is perhaps the most important thing we can do in this situation.
Along with this we can seeking out sources of truth on earth via the Padgett Messages, revisiting past lessons in love or big growth changes we have made in the past, talking to people who have a higher condition of love, or listening to a seminar on the issue we are struggling with.
The use of logic is very helpful in reminding ourselves of truth. The problem with fear – and it is fear that drives the existence of all four of the ‘d’s in our lives – is that it resists logic. Fear can’t continue to reign in an environment that upholds truth.
So we can decide to uphold lives and actions that honour truth. This will trigger us into releasing our fears and pain.
Our intellect can be a useful tool to remind ourselves of truth. Even if the truth has not entered our souls as yet, if we remind ourselves of the Truths we have faith in, or have simply heart, we can base our actions on these. This is a very important step in breaking the dominance of fear over our lives (and again there is much more I could say on the topic but today I’m just giving you the
Here is a very basic, practical and helpful exercise to help if you find yourself really stuck.
Divide your journal page into two columns. At the top of one column write ‘My Belief’, in the other ‘God’s Truth’.
Work your way down the page being very honest with yourself about your current beliefs around a certain issue. Instead of writing what you think your feelings or beliefs should be, write what you emotionally believe.
Examining your actions in the area you are exploring is helpful to discover what you really believe. For example, if I say that I believe that telling the truth is the most loving thing to do, and yet I continually avoid doing it – then I must consider that either I don’t feel its a loving act, or I don’t yet have a desire to love. What are the emotional beliefs that drive the actions?
Here are a few examples:
My Belief
God’s Truth
I’ll never be able to handle my shame, pain
God created me to be able to heal any injury
Acknowledging my fear and allowing it as physical experience in my body makes me a ‘weakling’. People will attack me more if I show I am afraid.
Allowing my fear liberates me from it. It is strength to acknowledge and experience fear bodily not weakness. Others can harm us less when we feel our fear. We are more able to respond in love and maintain our safety when we know and allow fear.
Telling the truth to others hurts them and is not loving them.
Telling the truth is an act of personal integrity – when we withhold truth and put on a façade we break God’s Laws of Love.Sharing truth enables the free will of others i.e. they are able to make more informed choices(Personal reflection after considering God’s Truth): When I don’t tell the truth its more about preventing my fear than about regard for their emotions.
Keep in mind that none of these strategies take the place of true emotional healing which is vital to our progress, however many of these things keep me away from negative influence and soften me to my fearful feelings.
I’m excited to tell you all about a new book by our friend Luli.
It outlines a programme designed to assist people to heal their physical pain. It includes the reasons why we manifest pain in the body in the first place and provides tools and exercises to assist anyone in physical pain.
You can read more about the book and find it as a free download here.
So inspired to see a sister following her passions.
I know of a woman, who, after eagerly anticipating the birth of her first child, took one look at him after delivery and said “But he’s a blond.” She refused to wash, hold or nurse him for days after his birth. She had anticipated a cherub with brown hair and eyes, and couldn’t accept the blue eyed beauty who arrived.
This woman had no appreciation for the utter wonder of this small new being, a child of God, grown in her womb and birthed by her. She was not awed by the miracle of birth, or the gift that God offered her in the privilege of becoming a parent – which is the opportunity to learn about love, and God’s very nature through our own lived, visceral, heart-tugging experience with another being, a child.
She wanted a brown haired baby, and this one was blond. So he was rejected.
I know of another woman who felt certain that her long-standing boyfriend was soon to propose to her. She collected jewellery catalogues pondering which ring she would love to wear. When she found one she liked she strategically left her chosen ring circled in the pages, lying around her apartment. She was hoping her man would take the hint.
Sure enough, the day arrived when after a long and beautiful date that the boyfriend had planned, (culminating on the deck of a yacht no less), he got down on one knee and produced a ring box. This was it – her long anticipated moment. He asked to spend the rest of his life with her.
And yet as he opened the ring box her face suddenly fell in disappointment. He had purchased another ring! Her ‘perfect moment’ was suddenly marred as she gazed into the ‘wrong’ glittering diamond arrangement.
It turned out that she had previously marked another ring in the catalogue and the diligent boyfriend has seen this and bought it, thinking it was what she wanted.
After accepting his proposal, she promptly insisted that he go back and exchange the ring for the correct selection.
This woman could overlook the huge gratification of having the man that she professed to love, actually loving her back. (No small gift in itself people).
She could forget that this same man loved her so much that he wanted to spend, not just the afternoon, but the rest of his life with her, and only her.
She wasn’t interested that he was attentive enough to even notice a jewellery catalogue in her home, and to look to at it in order to attempt to make her dreams come true.
Nope, she felt that he ‘ruined’ the moment by not getting it exactly right.
True story.
So why am I telling you all this?
I’m telling you because these are examples of people who, because of their own agendas, overlooked gifts that were offered to them. Their examples might sound extreme to you? But I didn’t use them so that you could shake your head and judge these women.
No, I’m telling you because as I look at my own life and I see that I have been showered with gifts, and I have rejected so many of them because they didn’t come in the package or way that I wanted or anticipated. A lot of times, it is only with hindsight that I even recognise that a gift was even being offered.
I’m telling you because often we see the absurdity and hurtfulness in other people’s actions, but at the same time overlook how we ourselves are acting in very similar ways.
About five years ago, I had just returned from living overseas for an extended period. It had been a time of great personal change, new experiences and exposure to new ideas. I was at a point where I knew that I wanted to reassess what my life was all about.
I’d experimented with my career. I’d taken up more post-grad study. I’d recently broken up with a partner. While I thought I knew some things about what I wanted, there was a whole lot of stuff that just didn’t sit right about my future direction and life values. I sort of knew what I didn’t want, but internally I didn’t think I could get what I really dreamed of – because that stuff just doesn’t work in the ‘real world’, right?
Around this time my friend Jessica invited me to go out for dinner in Brisbane with her and some of her work colleagues and friends. After dinner we piled into a near-by night club called ‘Fridays’. Having lived in Brisbane for four years while I studied for my degree, being back in ‘Fridays’ brought back many memories of my uni days, not all of them were fun or flattering (smile). This night, I distinctly remember standing very soberly on the edge of a dance floor, surrounded by people of various ages and in varying degrees of inebriation and thinking “Here I am back in a familiar place, yet I feel so different. What is my life really all about anyway?”
I chose that moment to pray. Strange I know, but there it is.
Now, back then I wasn’t what you would call a formal ‘pray-er’. In fact I hadn’t explored my own feelings enough to decide what I really believed about God. But from what I now know about true prayer, I can tell you that I most definitely prayed at that moment.
Here’s what I prayed:
“God, please let me find the one man who is for me. I want the partner who will share my passions, and dreams, who will want to make a life together, a life that is about something meaningful and true. I want the ‘forever’ man who will be my friend and partner and who will want what I want for the world.”
It was a strong feeling, that I felt explode out of me like a shock wave. Then I just went back to making small talk with the journos I’d had dinner with.
You know what comes next in this story don’t you?
The next week AJ gave a talk at my parent’s home and he and Cornelius stayed overnight. It wasn’t a huge, harps playing, thunder clap kind of moment. I wish I could tell you that doves appeared in the sky and we gazed knowingly into each other’s eyes.
The event passed for me without much conscious acknowledgement (although many emotions were stirred). AJ was famously tongue tied, and I spent most of the time telling Corni about my travels, interspersed with me directing some pointed questions towards AJ about the Course in Miracles or something or other.
I couldn’t see the gift.
In fact, as is by now well recorded, as I got to know AJ I vacillated between extremes of attraction towards him and intense rejection, anger and denial of any feeling toward him.
Quite simply, meeting AJ triggered every fear and deeply suppressed sense of loss inside of me. So extreme was my fear and its denial, that I didn’t see our relationship as a gift. In fact I hardly saw his true personality at all. I rejected my feelings, resented the truth, and did a great many things to harm him and the possibility of us being together.
With every gift that God gives us He desires that we come to know ourselves more fully. And that we may be drawn by our own desire to grow closer to Him. This often means confronting the errors and blocks we have to knowing God’s Nature, Love and to recognising the Wisdom inherent in His Design.
I feel now that my meeting AJ again was perhaps the best gift I have ever, ever received – even better than our very first meeting in the 1st century. Yet at the time not only did I reject this gift, I resented the sense of a loss of control and terror of attack, that our meeting triggered in me.
The creation of our soul mate is an immense gift. It is the gift that delivers the exact answer to my prayer made in the night-club five years ago. Even in our injured state, being in a relationship with our soul mate has immense power to help us grow and know ourselves. Even if both halves of the soul are injured or hurting, if they desire to know and heal themselves, they naturally and automatically become a support, inspiration and example for the other simply through their own self-expression and journey.
But I literally couldn’t see or receive these gifts until I developed humility to my own fear and pain. The resistance to my own self caused me to be blind to what gifts I had received and was being offered.
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Our friend Josh always says that God’s Law of Attraction brings you Truth in a graded way – first as a feather, then as a brick, and then as a truck. Meaning that God is gently trying to bring us towards Truth all the time, and when we engage our soul’s desire to grow and yet keep overlooking the feather-weight Truths that nudge us, a stronger attraction is required to wake us up to our error, enter the brick. And if we still deny or resist he brings us a truck sized event, all in the effort to help us see how we err from Love and Truth.
Imagine if we could all wake-up to the feathers brushing up against us, designed to show us our errors. If we saw these nudges and worked in our hearts on releasing their causes, our awareness and appreciation of gifts would overwhelm us.
I know that it has become fashionable in recent years to keep a ‘Gratitude Diary’ as a way of counting blessings, and seeing gifts. The problem with this approach is that we aren’t already automatically seeing and feeling the gifts. Instead we are employing a technique to grow our awareness. In principle I’m not opposed to any non-violent practice that assists a person to grow their awareness. Awareness is the first step we take when healing a problem, or opening to a gift.
However the problem with simply keeping a journal and not pausing to reflect more deeply to ask ourselves why we weren’t already noticing these gifts and rejoicing in them in our daily life, is that the practice will require constant repetition in order to provide any sense of joy. The joy cannot be deep and lasting because we are already suppressing or avoiding the feelings that prevent the natural recognition of gifts.
In my own example, it didn’t matter how intellectually aware I was of the gifts of my soul mate’s love, support and acceptance of me. While I justified my fear and pain, I simply didn’t honour or feel them as gifts. Until I was willing to be humble to my true feelings I couldn’t see that God had answered my prayer; instead I believed that He had dealt me a poor hand in life.
In the experience of the first women above, the emotions triggered by the birth of a son whose appearance reminded her of something painful, marred her joy at motherhood. So intense was the experience, that she couldn’t manufacture gratitude. Her only solution would have been to explore her reaction emotionally in order to resolve it and open her heart to her child.
In the second example, the woman had closed her heart to love, and instead lived in the injuries of façade. She believed that love equated to providing her with material things, and fulfilling her every wish. She literally could not see the gift of her boyfriend’s love and fidelity because she was obsessed with appearance, fanfare, and tradition. She demanded the fulfillment of her obsessions, rather than seeing what of value was being offered.
Intellectually counting gifts in order to grow gratitude is only effective if we understand that in a truly humble place we would not need to count our gifts – they would already be blindingly apparent and abundant on a moment to moment basis. So if we are using an intellectual technique to notice our gifts, in order to grow we must be willing to take the next step which is to heal our injuries that prevent us seeing receiving these gifts without the need for technique.
Also, if we try for gratitude, we can quickly end up in a stuck and self-punishing state. We can use our mind to see or count gifts around us, and yet finding that our heart is dead to them, we can end up berating ourselves. For example, I spent many nights punishing myself, because I had vast evidence of my soul mate’s kindness, patience and generosity with me and others, and I could see that I was not feeling grateful for these things. In fact I was actively rejecting and criticizing them.
By trying to be grateful, trying to manufacture gratitude because we ’know it’s the right thing to be’, we can end up creating a hell of self-flagellation for ourselves.
The only way to truly notice and receive gifts is to open our hearts and heal the injury that blocks us to receiving in the first place. Our lives lived in suppression of emotion cause us to seek out addictive and damaging prizes, rather than notice and honour the true and nourishing gifts that God and others offer us. It’s like trying to suppress a deep hunger with sugary sweets, that don’t stay in our stomach long and rot our teeth. Our real hunger and thirst is to feel and know ourselves and God, but most of us feel that’s frightening and dangerous so we bail out and deny.
Yet when we close down the experience of one emotion, we close down the potential experience of others. If we shut down our pain and fear, we can’t feel love or gratitude. It’s as simple and difficult as that.
I can tell you from lived experience that once you begin to open your heart to whatever is in there, without self-punishment, and with a desire to love and heal, gratitude is a natural result.
Can I inspire you today friend? The benefits of opening to our pain are not just a stronger sense of self, greater potentials of a relationship with God and a more loving lifestyle and relationships. Undertaking the journey of healing ourselves literally makes life come alive with a knowledge and experience of the gifts that God has offered.
I feel some pain as I begin to feel how many gifts I have overlooked, rejected or simply let pass me by in life. But there is also the excitement of knowing that as I continue, and grieve and grow, the gifts begin to appear in technicolour all around me.
Do you remember the wonderful world of Walt Disney – full of colour and magic? I liken those images to how life comes alive as we grow. The gifts spring out at us, to be relished and received readily.
But in order to live this we must be willing to examine our expectations, our agendas, and our preconceptions in the light of what is loving and what honours Truth. Only when we are willing to allow the pain of past hurts and the discomfort of letting go of unloving expectations can we even begin to notice the gifts being offered. And this is the first step in coming to discover and embrace the beauty and fulfillment that God has planned for us.
I have been blind to the many blessings and opportunities offered to me until I at last found the courage to begin to open my heart to all that was within it.
I even received the exact thing that I prayed for within one week of my prayer. But I missed the gift because I didn’t expect or want his name to be Jesus.
While I’m busy in my own process I thought it a great time revisit an amazing interview between Jesus and Barb (you can view Part 1 below).
This discussion covers the topic of abortion, and its effects on the soul of the aborted child and both of its parents.
However, in case you skipped this one thinking it wasn’t relevant to you, here are some of the other themes discussed by Barb and Jesus during the interview:
The Gift and use of Free Will
Our role as parents
The unloving investments we may have in the role of parenthood and how these damage our kids
Miscarriage
Adoption
Judgement
Repentance
As always there are some great points made and this was a particularly natural, relaxed and respectful conversation about a customarily contentious topic.
Last year, we travelled to Barbados and I had the chance to meet and stay with some of AJ’s old friends, George and Calena.
I loved getting to know them and especially hearing from George about his experiences with Divine Love and Truth. On the last day of our stay I also had the extreme honour of channelling George’s guides to him. There is something so special about feeling a guide’s love for their friend on earth. I never tire of this process.
I also get to feel some of the pristine qualities that draw specific guides to their individual charges on earth i.e. what soul qualities they have in common. So its like catching a slight hint of the person on earth’s true personality and potential, for just a moment. As I said – huge honour.
George is a great story teller. During our stay he told me of his first experience with ‘The Great Experiment’ and it was gripping! He is very expressive, descriptive and full of passion for God.
So when I decided to put together this series it seemed natural to ask him to write the story of his receiving Divine Love for the first time. Of course, some of that expression is lost in the written (rather than spoken) word but I still love his story.
Thank-you George – over to you.
George & Calena
This is my testimony and findings concerning GODS DIVINE LOVE which is still available to all mankind.
Some years ago, I believe it was in 1999, my wife’s sister, aged 46, passed away suddenly one night. This of course was shocking to all the family to say the least. In the interim a friend through our network, Brenda, gave my wife a brochure entitled: “What happens when you die” She wasn’t up to reading it for some reason so she gave it to me to peruse. I found this brochure extremely intriguing as no one really talks about death. Makes one wonder is this what everyone is so afraid of it?
Anyway I asked my wife to ask Brenda if there was a book I could read about this, she told me there were 4 plus, I told her get me book 1 please. I don’t think I had finished 20 pages of the book (that has over 300) before I quickly asked my wife to get me the rest of the books.
My life came to a complete halt. I locked myself in my room (peace and quiet) and read these 4 books written in the early 1900’s by James E Padgett, a lawyer form Washington D.C., and New testament Revelations 3 times consecutively. Non stop. I couldn’t get enough. I ate and came back up to read, more than 12 hours a day.
As I read in the beginning these folks writing to Padgett and one thing kept repeating itself over and over and over again…
“PRAY IN ALL EARNESTNESS FOR THE FATHERS LOVE TO OPEN AND COME IN YOUR SOUL”
I hung onto those words and still do like my life depends on it. There is no greater truth that mankind can know, while this privilege is still available.
So the first day I prayed and prayed… nothing seemed to happen.. I broke down and prayed some more and…. zip.
nothing happened.
I kept reading and this same message kept repeating itself from so many different spirits..
So the second day…. I prayed some more, but when I awoke the 3rd day I had the realization that I hadn’t prayed as strong as I had the first day.
Well this 3rd day praying, I let it all go the words IN ALL EARNESTNESS, and read the Prayer for the Divine Love.
I left it all on the table that day.. I broke right down and prayed.
When I look back on that day I realize why I didn’t feel anything right away. I was crying so intensely, wanting to experience the Love so much, that I was in fact expiating quite a bit of negative emotions. (But that is another story).
So I woke up the 4th day. Oh what a glorious morning it was as I sat in bed and felt this beautiful deep glow around the heart region.
It was so beautiful.
It lasted the entire day. I didn’t know that when I woke on the 5th day, the same strong feeling would not be there. Instead I experienced the SOUL LONGINGS, which simply means your soul longing for more.
This is not just a mere thought or words or expressions, but Real True and hard felt emotions. My life has totally changed since.
This is my testimony.
Wishing your soul desires to all come true.
Your brother and friend in the Fathers Divine Love,
Firstly, thank-you to all of you who responded to my last post, requesting some feedback on whether my idea of posting simple “Jesus Quotes” regularly appealed to you. I had no idea there were so many of you out there reading! (just kidding)
Needless to say, I now plan to make “Jesus Quotes” a regular feature. Thanks to all of you for joining in and letting me know how you feel.
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I’ve chosen this ‘Great Experiment Series’ because it’s an area that I’m personally giving focus to at present. The simple process of open-hearted longing and relating to God is at the core of everything we teach. Yet it’s something I feel needs much, much more of my personal attention.
As crucial as I know it to be, at times, to simply sit and engage with myself, in order to even begin to open up to God, can be quite a challenge. As the series goes on I plan to share more about the blocks to opening our hearts in sincere prayer that many of us encounter.
I’ve also chosen a number of Padgett Messages to inspire me in my quest. You can find the full list here. These messages relate the experiences of real people engaging the experiment of longing for God’s Love, and clearly highlight the benefits of doing so. For any of us feeling completely blocked towards God, and disheartened in our prayer life, these stories tell us exactly how and where to start.
The first message in our series was received by James Padgett, from his father John Padgett, on the 31st of December, 1914.
Below you will find:
– Some of my brief and recent written reflections on this message
– A video of Jesus and I discussing the message in its entirety
– A full transcript of the actual message
I think it’s apt that for our first message we find Mackey and Taggart in a stuck and disheartened place – a lot of us start right where they are at. Their expression in this message highlights some of the big hurdles and blocks that have prevented their growth so far, such as disillusionment with God due to teachings they learnt on earth (how many of us are still carrying these kinds of injuries in our soul, even though our intellect is now telling us different?), and their fears of hoping and trying for something that they aren’t sure will ever happen.
And yet by the end of the message we see that they are assisted, through Padgett’s sincere concern and his appeal to their logic, to develop some humility. They undertake to understand and attempt the experiment.
I was impressed by Padgett’s example in this and following messages and was very struck by the references that all of the spirits made as to the power of his individual prayers for them.
Some Specific Reflections:
As I reread this message in preparation for this post, a few things really stood out to me.
I was reminded of the power of Truth. As we see demonstrated in this and many other messages to Padgett, simply hearing a truth, or having contact with a person who demonstrates love and truth can be a crucial turning point in a person’s journey. Speaking and acting in support of truth can reach people even in the depths of their despair and hopelessness. It can begin to generate hope, curiosity, and a desire for positive change. And these qualities are all helpful in building faith.
Indeed we see that Padgett’s demonstration of love for his friends, his personal faith and prayers for them, and his delivery of Truth (even in spite of the protestations and arguments of his friends) – that these gifts planted seeds of hope and the possibility for change in the men in spirit.
In this message Mackay’s condition was described:
“he is not very hopeful of ever becoming very happy, as he sees nothing around him but darkness and depravity, and evil spirits who delight in trying to make everyone around them feel that there is no hope for any spirit; but that their lives must be spent in a condition of suffering and unhappiness,”
So not only was a lack of truth harming Mackay’s progress, but spirits were able to manipulate his ignorance and his despair for their own unloving ends. This can happen so easily to us on earth as well.
When we choose to ignore Truth and the evidence of God’s Love for us, we never challenge our hopelessness, or identify it as just a feeling (rather than Truth). This opens us to large amounts of spirit influence from spirits who are invested in us remaining the same, so that they may feed their addictions through us.
When we are without hope, and do not grieve it, dark spirits can tell us that the situation will never change, and that we are deserving of our state.
But we have the choice to challenge negative messages with Truths that we have already been made aware of. We have so many tools available to us that can remind us, and keep us taking steps towards love of ourselves and honour of God’s Truth.
When we focus on Truth, and are humble to our hopelessness (rather than becoming rigid, angry with others or punishing of ourselves – techniques which actually just distracts us from our fear and sadness), we open the door to change, and guidance from higher spirits. Faith grows. Mackay’s example demonstrates this process.
The second element to inspire me in this message was Padgett’s reassurance to Taggart regarding the true nature of loving prayer and its power for our planet:
“He says that he never thought of it in that way, but, if as you say the prayer should be that this love which you say would make men love not only God but one another, and make every man strive to make happy every other man, then if that prayer should be answered, the war would soon stop, and the nations as nations and as individuals would undoubtedly be happy and peace would reign over all the land.”
This vision of peace for the world is a dream of my own. And it inspires me to know that as we pray in sincerity to God for His Love, and receive it, the natural love we have for brothers and sisters is also refined.
So to conclude my reflections, even this simple message gifted to us from John, Mackay and Taggart, serves as an excellent tool through which to challenge our hopelessness with truth, and inspire us towards change.
It demonstrates the power of love, of sincere prayer and of the service we can give to each other, by reminding our sisters and brothers of the great truths we know, and the great hope for humanity that can be gained through each of us developing a personal relationship with God.
What stood out to you in this message?
Our Video Discussion:
The Message Transcript:
December 31, 1914
A Message from John H. Padgett to his son James Padgett
Mr. Padgett’s father tells of soulmate records.
I am here, your father:
I am very happy and am glad that you seem to be also.
Yes, because of your experience the other night in loving Helen and her loving you. You certainly were filled with love and you must be perfectly happy, to have had such a demonstration of love and the realization of the actual sensitive presence of your wife. for I tell you that she was with you and was so filled with her love for you, that we all wondered at her love. She is a spirit that seems to have no limit to her love for you, not many spirits seem to have such abundance of love as she has for you. So you must consider yourself a very blessed man to have such a wife and a soulmate.
Yes, as I told you many years ago, there is of record in the heavens a book of lives, as I might call it, which contains the names of those who are decreed by God to be one through all eternity: and when I want to know who is the soulmate of one who desires to know his or her soulmate, I consult that book, and there I find who the soulmate is. I am not permitted to give the name of the soulmate if he or she is on the earth life, for it might create discord or unhappiness to the living, but if the soulmate is not married then there is no restriction upon me, but if the soulmate is married then I must not tell the name, such is the law of God in this particular.
The reason is that I have that duty assigned to me, and as Helen has told you I have taught her to perform this duty and she is now engaged in it, and is most successful in the performance of her mission. She seems to have a wonderful ability, or you might call it, intuition for locating the soulmates in the spirit world as she never fails when she undertakes to find one. She also finds great happiness in doing this work and in seeing the happiness that comes to them who ask her to perform this task. I do not engage in it with so much enthusiasm as she does, but I do the best that I can, and I am rewarded also by seeing the happiness of those soulmates when they are brought together.
No, not if they are not assigned to do this work. It is one of the provisions of the spiritual world that each person has some work of a certain kind, or several kinds to do, and in that way are helped by the higher powers, or, as we believe, the love of God to perform. A spirit who is assigned to do a particular work, such as helping the spirit when it first enters the spirit world, will not attempt to engage in other work of a wholly different kind.
Yes, as to attempting to awaken a spirit to a conception of the love of God that is waiting for it, all spirits may do this, and when a spirit succeeds in causing a darkened or blinded spirit to feel or realize that God’s love is waiting for it, then the spirit who has caused that awakening is most happy.
Of course, it is only the spirit who has had that awakening himself, who can cause or lead another spirit to that desire for spiritual enlightenment, that will finally cause it to get this love to his full and complete happiness. I am not yet in a condition to be fully able to do this with much success, but your grandmother and mother are very powerful in this particular, and they are the cause of many spirits becoming reconciled to God and His salvation.
So you see, the one great thing to obtain, either while on earth, or after you come here, is this great awakening and love of God in your own heart. It is of all things necessary, the greatest. I know to a considerable degree what it means and the happiness that comes from it; but I am not satisfied and am striving to obtain more of this love, and to rise higher in the Kingdom of God. So you must try also, for you need not wait until you come over.
She has it to a degree that almost enables her to go with your mother, and I think that in a very short time she will leave us and rise to the higher sphere, and we will miss her very much.
Yes, he (Mr. Riddle) is becoming more in condition to receive this love and believe in what your mother tells him. She is the one that is trying to show him the way, more than anyone else. He seems to have great confidence in her and in her love.
He is also progressing very fast, and I expect that he will soon be with me in this sphere. So you see we all are doing well in the way of progressing and your prayers help us very much.
I have seen him (Taggart) very recently and he is in the same condition as when I wrote you first about him. He does not seem to realize that he needs any assistance to help him to become happier or to progress to a better condition and it is difficult to convince him. I tried several times, but he said that I was mistaken in what I told him, and that he knew that he was just where it was intended that he should be, so I have not tried lately.
No, I do not, but I can find him (Mackey) if you desire that I shall, He might want to say something to you, but only through me, as you must not get into rapport with these strangers to our band, for it will do harm, and we must not run the risk.
We are here. Mr. Mackey and Mr. Taggart. They say that they are very glad that you have given them the opportunity to say a word.
He (Mackey) says that he is much happier than when he first came over. as he has commenced to see the things that are necessary to make him happier. He says, that he wants you to tell him of your experience with some of the other spirits, with whom you have come in contact; as he says, he has recently learned from earth sources that you have had considerable experience with spirits who have been in a condition of unrest and spiritual blindness, and have helped them some.
He says that he is in the earth plane, and that when he came over it was a very dark and dreadful road that he traveled, that he was all blind and left alone after he first entered the spirit world, and that only recently has he commenced to see a ray of light, that his condition now is not one in which he receives much happiness, and he is not very hopeful of ever becoming very happy, as he sees nothing around him but darkness and depravity, and evil spirits who delight in trying to make everyone around them feel that there is no hope for any spirit; but that their lives must be spent in a condition of suffering and unhappiness, in other words, that they are in hell and have no hope of getting away from it.
He says that he has gotten some little light from a spirit who has been telling him, that there is hope and a better place if he will only believe it to be so, and let his soul open up to the better influences; but that he cannot believe that there is any God or any Saviour or any better place for him. He says that if there is a better place or any reason to believe that there is a God or Saviour he wants to know it, and if you can help him any, to please do so.
He says that he has not seen Mr. Riddle and did not know that he is in the Spirit World. He says that he will try to find him, and may be he can get some help.
He says that I am much more beautiful than Mr. Taggart, and more happy looking. He further says, that I am not so very different, as he sees it, to cause him to ask that question, but as you request it, he will do so. He has asked me and I told him that my appearance and happiness was caused by my having gotten the love of God in my soul, and the realization that God is my Father, and loves me so very much that he wants me to be his child and become one in thought with Him.
He says that that may be true, but he does not understand it, and that if it is the cause, he would like to know the Way, for he certainly wants to be rid of the awful darkness and despair that is with him almost continuously. Because, as he says, that you are his friend and that he will try to do as you suggested; but he says that he cannot yet believe that there is a God who can help him to get out of his awful condition. He says that he will try to pray and try to believe and that if there is anything in what you say, and you really believe what you say, that you must pray for him also.
He says that for the sake of what you say, that if any of these spirits that you speak of, should come to him, he will listen to them, even though he may not believe – that he cannot promise to believe.
He says that he will come to you tonight and try to pray as you say, but he doubts that it will do any good, but he does not think that it can do any harm. He is willing to pray and will try to believe, you must not feel bad, if when he does so, he tells you that he don’t believe in prayer or God.
He says that he is not willing to run the risk of having his conscience lash him or of his suffering any more than he is now. He does not believe that he can do so and live.
He says, that what you say sounds as if there might be some truth in it, and he will think about it, that is, if his happiness or future state depends upon his will, he will very soon determine that question, for if what you say is true, then he will be a big fool to remain where he is, when by the mere exercise of his will he can get into places of happiness and light. So he says, he will think of what you say.
He says that what you say may be all true, but the difficulty is that he can’t understand, and, therefore, can’t believe.
He says that he can say what you have just said and mean it, and he is ready to do so now. “If there be a God, and if that God has a love for me, and is ready to fill my soul with that love and make me happy and full of light, and whether I receive that love or not depends upon my will, then if this is all true, I will that God give me this love with all my strength and desire.”
He says that he is feeling some strong sensation now, and that he will repeat this and pray to God and ask for faith; and will continue to repeat it, as you have taught him, and he hopes that he may receive this love and light. He says that you have shown him that there may be some such thing as this love of God, and that he is willing to pray, and if his receiving it depends upon his will, he is willing it with all his heart. He says that as you seem to have such faith in this love and in prayer, that you do not forget to pray for him.
Yes, Mr. Taggart has heard it all and he says, that you certainly did put it up to Mackey to try the experiment, but that he is very doubtful if you will see any good results flow from it. He says that he will wait and see what effect it has on Mackey, and then he may be willing to consider the matter. He does not believe that prayer is anything more than a mere wish that emanates in and goes no higher than mind; and that, consequently, there is no God to answer, for if there was the prayers of all the people of the warring nations, would bring about such conflicting answers that confusion would be worse confused.
He says that he never thought of it in that way, but, if as you say the prayer should be that this love which you say would make men love not only God but one another, and make every man strive to make happy every other man, then if that prayer should be answered, the war would soon stop, and the nations as nations and as individuals would undoubtedly be happy and peace would reign over all the land. And if this is the love that you are trying to tell us about, then I am not so certain that it is worth striving for.
You are a very ingenious reasoner, and I commence to see that there may be some logic in what you say, but how am I to attempt to do that in which I have no faith? I know that I ordinarily, when on earth required everything to be proved, and unless things were proved I was not willing to accept conclusions, and I have not changed in that particular since I have come to the spirit world and I find it hard to change; but, as you say, I should be reasonable enough to let my mind be open to a conviction, if such conviction can possibly be brought about by any means, whether they arise from the knowledge that I gained when on earth, or whether they arise from things connected with this spiritual world of which I have very little knowledge.
So after all I guess Mackey is not such a big fool to try the experiment; and having confidence in you as a friend that has at heart my welfare, I will do the same as Mackey has promised to do. So you can pray for me too, and I will pray also – but of course I will not be able to have any belief that my prayers will be answered. So you see I am not only hard headed, but hard hearted also.
Yes I am, if it depends on my will I am more than willing, not only that, but if there be a God and the love that you speak of, I will forever thank that God for taking me away from this condition of blindness and unhappiness.
Yes, I am willing to pray to God to help me to believe, and if that will bring relief, then there will be no difficulty, for I will make such a prayer with all my heart.
You are the most persistent man that I have ever met in these spiritual matters and if what you say happens, I will certainly thank you with all my heart and soul, for I can conceive of nothing more desirable than to have the great blessings and possessions that you tell me about. So I will keep faith with you as I said when nest you give me the opportunity to write, I will frankly tell you what the result of my experiment is.
Yes, and I appreciate what you have done and I say to you that this violation of your law, which the band you speak of has prescribed, has caused me to think more deeply of your interest in me and what you said, than I can express.
So good bye for the present, the next time I come I will try to observe your law, and write through your father, if he will permit me to.
Yes, you certainly did give the gentleman a struggle to get away from what you said to them, and I believe that you have impressed them to such a degree that they will be lead to learn the truth. You are tired and must stop.
Notes Along The Way 