With the advancing evolution of an inhabited
planet and the further spiritualization of its inhabitants, additional
spiritual influences may be received by such mature personalities. As mortals
progress in mind control and spirit perception, these multiple spirit
ministries become more and more co-ordinate in function; they become
increasingly blended with the overministry of the Paradise Trinity.
Although Divinity may be plural in
manifestation, in human experience Deity is singular, always one. Neither is
spiritual ministry plural in human experience. Regardless of plurality of
origin, all spirit influences are one in function. Indeed they are one, being
the spirit ministry of God the Sevenfold in and to the creatures of the grand
universe; and as creatures grow in appreciation of, and receptivity for, this
unifying ministry of the spirit, it becomes in their experience the ministry of
God the Supreme.
From the heights of eternal glory the divine
Spirit descends, by a long series of steps, to meet you as you are and where
you are and then, in the partnership of faith, lovingly to embrace the soul of
mortal origin and to embark on the sure and certain retracement of those steps
of condescension, never stopping until the evolutionary soul is safely exalted
to the very heights of bliss from which the divine Spirit originally sallied
forth on this mission of mercy and ministry.
Spiritual forces unerringly seek and attain
their own original levels. Having gone out from the Eternal, they are certain
to return thereto, bringing with them all those children of time and space who
have espoused the leading and teaching of the indwelling Adjuster, those who
have been truly “born of the Spirit,” the faith sons of God.
The divine Spirit is the source of continual ministry
and encouragement to the children of men. Your power and achievement is
“according to his mercy, through the renewing of the Spirit.” Spiritual life,
like physical energy, is consumed. Spiritual effort results in relative
spiritual exhaustion. The whole ascendant experience is real as well as
spiritual; therefore, it is truly written, “It is the Spirit that quickens.”
“The Spirit gives life.”
The dead theory of even the highest religious
doctrines is powerless to transform human character or to control mortal
behavior. What the world of today needs is the truth which your teacher of old
declared: “Not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit.” The seed
of theoretical truth is dead, the highest moral concepts without effect, unless
and until the divine Spirit breathes upon the forms of truth and quickens the
formulas of righteousness.
Those who have received and recognized the
indwelling of God have been born of the Spirit. “You are the temple of God, and
the spirit of God dwells in you.” It is not enough that this spirit be poured
out upon you; the divine Spirit must dominate and control every phase of human
experience.
It is the presence of the divine Spirit, the
water of life, that prevents the consuming thirst of mortal discontent and that
indescribable hunger of the unspiritualized human mind. Spirit-motivated beings
“never thirst, for this spiritual water shall be in them a well of satisfaction
springing up into life everlasting.” Such divinely watered souls are all but
independent of material environment as regards the joys of living and the
satisfactions of earthly existence. They are spiritually illuminated and
refreshed, morally strengthened and endowed.
In every mortal there exists a dual nature: the
inheritance of animal tendencies and the high urge of spirit endowment. During
the short life you live on , these two diverse and opposing urges can
seldom be fully reconciled; they can hardly be harmonized and unified; but
throughout your lifetime the combined Spirit ever ministers to assist you in
subjecting the flesh more and more to the leading of the Spirit. Even though
you must live your material life through, even though you cannot escape the
body and its necessities, nonetheless, in purpose and ideals you are empowered increasingly
to subject the animal nature to the mastery of the Spirit. There truly exists
within you a conspiracy of spiritual forces, a confederation of divine powers,
whose exclusive purpose is to affect your final deliverance from material
bondage and finite handicaps.
The purpose of all this ministration is, “That
you may be strengthened with power through His spirit in the inner man.” And
all this represents but the preliminary steps to the final attainment of the
perfection of faith and service, that experience wherein you shall be “filled
with all the fullness of God,” “for all those who are led by the spirit of God
are the sons of God.”
The Spirit never drives, only leads. If you are
a willing learner, if you want to attain spirit levels and reach divine
heights, if you sincerely desire to reach the eternal goal, then the divine
Spirit will gently and lovingly lead you along the pathway of sonship and
spiritual progress. Every step you take must be one of willingness, intelligent
and cheerful cooperation. The domination of the Spirit is never tainted with
coercion nor compromised by compulsion.
And when such a life of spirit guidance is
freely and intelligently accepted, there gradually develops within the human
mind a positive consciousness of divine contact and assurance of spirit
communion; sooner or later “the Spirit bears witness with your spirit (the
Adjuster) that you are a child of God.” Already has your own Thought Adjuster
told you of your kinship to God so that the record testifies that the Spirit
bears witness “with your spirit,” not to your spirit.
The consciousness of the spirit domination of a
human life is presently attended by an increasing exhibition of the
characteristics of the Spirit in the life reactions of such a spirit-led mortal,
“for the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.” Such spirit-guided and divinely
illuminated mortals, while they yet tread the lowly paths of toil and in human
faithfulness perform the duties of their earthly assignments, have already
begun to discern the lights of eternal life as they glimmer on the faraway
shores of another world; already have they begun to comprehend the reality of
that inspiring and comforting truth, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink
but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” And throughout every
trial and in the presence of every hardship, spirit-born souls are sustained by
that hope which transcends all fear because the love of God is shed abroad in
all hearts by the presence of the divine Spirit.
Michael Of Nebadon
University Of Salvington
