2141 Give in order to receive.... make an offering....
November 5, 1941: Book 31
Bring every sacrifice to the lord of heaven and earth so that He can consider you according to your love. The soul mostly desires the world, it desires that which is beneficial to the body, and this prevents it from making contact with the spirit within it, it prevents it from fulfilling the spirit's desire. But advantage can only bring it the fulfilment of what the spirit within it tells it to do. As soon as the body urges you to fulfil its desire, you should resist it, for only then can the spirit unfold in you, and what the spirit imparts to you outweighs all earthly pleasures and joys. But the spirit which expresses itself in you, if you give it the opportunity to do so through your will, is a spark of the divine spirit of love, it is an emanation of God, thus a part of Him, and this divine spark of love shall become a brightly shining flame in you, and this requires nothing more than that you constantly feed this spark so that it can develop into a bright flame. You must constantly give so that you can receive, i.e. give up everything earthly in order to receive spiritual things. Thus your soul only has to obey what the spirit in you demands and disregard all the body's desires. It must sacrifice what pleases the body and in return it may receive undreamt-of spiritual treasures that compensate for every sacrifice. He who gives, receives; but he who takes, will likewise be taken away. Spiritual good, however, outweighs every sacrifice, for it is more valuable than any earthly riches. The giving of spiritual goods is always an act of love, God closes the earthly child to His heart full of intimacy, He therefore distributes His love, and the human being receives something extremely precious when this love is clothed in an external form, when God imparts His word to the human being. The divine word is therefore a visible sign of God's love for mankind.... However, the divine word can only be received when the human being gives.... when he gives up what has previously given pleasure to the body. Man must sacrifice in order to be able to receive, because sacrifice testifies to love.... If a person gives up something that seemed valuable to him, he proves this love and God rewards his will. He now bestows His grace upon the human being, for His love is infinite and He does not want the earthly child to suffer but to receive, yet nothing earthly may appear more valuable to him so that he desires it.... Then he will deny divine love access to his heart. Then the human being prevents the working of the divine spirit, and then the human being's heart is not yet receptive for the gift God wants to offer him.... for he can only receive from God if he gives away what belongs to the world....
Amen
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