I am here, Jesus
I come tonight to tell you that you are in a better condition than you were last night and, in fact, have been for some nights past. I desire to write to you a message on the question of how the soul of a mortal receives the Divine Love, and what Its effect is, even though the mind may indulge subsequently in those beliefs that may tend to prevent the growth of the soul. Also, what is a lost soul?
As you know, the inflowing of this Love is caused by the Holy Spirit’s bestowal in response to sincere prayer and longings. I mean prayer and longings for the Love Itself, and not prayers for the material benefits that men more often and more naturally ask for and desire. The prayers of mortals for those things that may tend to make them successful and happy in their natural love are answered also, if it is best that they should be. But these are not the prayers that bring the Divine Love or cause the Holy Spirit to work with men.
As the prayers of the sincere, earnest soul ascend to the Father, that soul becomes opened up to the inflowing of this Love. The soul’s perceptions then enlarge and come more in rapport with the conditions or influence that always accompanies the presence of this Love. Accordingly, Its entrance into the soul becomes easier and, in Its reception, more perceptible to the soul sense. The more earnest the prayer and sincere the longings, the sooner faith comes. And with this faith comes the realization that the Divine Love is permeating the soul.
When the Divine Love once finds a lodgment in the soul, it (the soul) becomes, as it were, a changed substance (to the extent that it receives the Love and partakes of the essence of that Love). And as water may become colored by an ingredient foreign to itself, which changes not only its appearance but also its qualities, so this Divine Love changes the appearance and qualities of the soul. And this change of qualities continues ever thereafter. The natural qualities of the soul, and the essence of the Love become one and united,and the soul is made altogether different in its constituency from what it was before the inflowing of the Love – but this only to the extent of the Love received.
As this Love increases in quantity, the change and transformation become correspondingly greater. Finally, the transformation may and will become so great that the whole soul becomes a thing of this Divine Essence – a being of Divinity – and partakes of Its very nature and substance.
When this Love once enters and truly possesses the soul, and works the change mentioned, the Love never leaves nor disassociates Itself from the soul. Its character of Divine Essence never changes back to that of the mere natural Love. And to the extent that It is present, sin and error have no existence. This is so because it is just as impossible for this Essence, and sin and error to occupy the same parts of the soul at the same time as it is for two material objects to occupy the same space at the same time, as your philosophers say.
Divinity never gives place to that which is not of the Divine. Man is working towards the attainment of the Divine when he pursues the Way provided for obtaining the Divine Nature. And as he advances and obtains a portion of this Divine, no matter how small, he can never retrace his steps to the extent of ridding himself of the presence of this Transforming Essence.
But this does not mean that a man may not lose the consciousness of the existence of this Essence within his soul, for he frequently does. The indulgence of his carnal appetites and evil desires will place him in a condition where he may cease to have a consciousness of the existence of the Divine Love in his soul. And to himself, he will be as if he had never had any experience of the change that I speak of.
And while this Love can never be eradicated by the evils that man may indulge in, or by the mental beliefs that he may acquire, yet the progress of this Love in his soul may be checked and become stagnant, as if it no longer existed. And sin and error may appear again to be the only dominant elements of his life and being. But yet, when once possessed, the Love cannot be crowded out of his soul by sin and error, no matter how deep and intense these two may be.
I know that this may seem strange and impossible to man’s intellectual thinking, and that it is not in accordance with what has been attributed to me in my teaching that a soul may be lost. Nevertheless, a soul that has once received this Divine Essence cannot be lost, even though its awakening from its dormant condition and its realization of the presence and life of this Love may be greatly delayed by sin and error and misdirected beliefs. And much suffering and darkness may have to be endured by the soul that is plagued by such conditions.
But I must not be understood to mean by this that a soul cannot be lost, for it can. Many souls have been and will be lost, and many will realize this fact when it is too late.
Now, what is a lost soul? It is not one that a man may actually lose in the sense of being deprived of it or being separated from it, or its even being lost as regards his possible lost consciousness of it. For while he may believe that he has lost his soul at times, in the sense of not having any, yet he is mistaken in such a belief. The soul, which is the man, can never be separated from himself. And as long as he lives in the physical body or in the spiritual body, his soul will be with him. And yet, he may have a soul, consciously or not, and at the same time, he may have lost it. This may seem to be a paradox to the mortal intellect or to the intellect of a spirit, but it is true.
Then what is a lost soul? When God gave to man a soul, that soul was made in the image, but not in the Substance, of its Maker. And at the same time, there was bestowed on him the privilege of having that soul become of the Substance of the Father and, to an extent, Divine, and entitled to and capable of living in the Celestial Kingdom of the Father, where everything is of His Divine Essence and Nature.
When the first parents forfeited that privilege by their act of disobedience, their souls lost the possibility of becoming of the Divine Nature, and at-one with the Father in His Kingdom. They lost not the natural soul thereby, which was a part of their creation, but that part of their soul having the possibility of obtaining the Essence of Divinity and Immortality that the Father has.
As I have said heretofore, this great privilege was restored to mankind with my coming, and the lost soul became again the object of man’s recovery; and now he has that privilege that the first parents had before their fall. But men may also lose it as they did. As the first parents’ souls were lost until they received the Divine Essence of the Father into them, so with men now. Their souls are lost until and unless they receive this Divine Essence therein. And as the first parents forfeited their privilege of having their souls become a living, Divine substance by their disobedience and refusal, so now will men forfeit their privilege to save their souls from separation from the Divine unity with the Father by the same disobedience and refusal.
The lost soul is as real as the verities of the Father’s immutable laws. And only by the operation of the Divine Love can the lost soul become the found soul.
Men may believe and teach that there is a part of the Divine within them that will cause their souls to progress and develop until they reach the condition of Divinity that will make them a part of the Divinity of the Father. But they are all wrong in such thinking. For while man was the highest creation of God, the most perfect, and made in His image, yet there is no part of the Divine in man. And having no part of the Divine, it is wholly impossible for him to progress to a possession of the Divine. He of himself, no matter what his development may be, can never become greater or more perfect, or of a higher nature, than he was at his creation.
The Divine comes from above. And when once planted in a man’s soul, there can be no limit to Its expansion and development, even in the Celestial Heavens. Let all men seek this Love and there will be no lost souls. But alas, many will not do so, and the spiritual heavens will be filled with lost souls who lack the Divine Essence of the Father.
I have written enough for tonight, and I am pleased at the way in which you received my message. Continue to pray to the Father for more and more of His Divine Love, and your prayers will be answered. You will soon realize, with the certainty that comes from the conscious possession of the Divine Essence, that your soul is not lost and never will be.
So, with my Love and blessings, I will say good night and God bless you.
Your brother and friend,
Jesus
(The above Angelic Message was received by James Padgett and taken from Ch. 7, “The Divine Love of the Father and the New Birth of the Soul”, pp. 132-136, Angelic Revelations of Divine Truth, Volume I. An electronic copy of Volume I can be found at www.truths.com)