3286 Dissolving the soul shell.... necessity....

October 9, 1944: Book 43

Anyone who closes himself off to the word of God is still surrounded by a shell which stops the effect of the divine word. He cannot feel anything, God's emanation of love certainly touches him, yet due to his own immaturity the soul is insensitive to it, and it remains so until it is active in love itself. The word of God is intended to stimulate activity in love, and therefore it first has to be received with the ear and conveyed to the heart through the human being's will. If the heart is now ready for love activity then the human being accepts the word of God ever more joyfully and hungrily; but if he is incapable of love then he rejects it, he closes himself off to its effect, and the soul remains in dense encasement to its own disadvantage. The strength of divine love, which is conveyed to the human being through the word, cannot penetrate this envelopment and consequently cannot awaken the spirit in the human being's soul to life either. The spirit of God cannot make contact with the spiritual spark in the human being and the human being always remains isolated from spiritual strength. Nevertheless, the word of God shall be offered to him again and again, his intellect shall be stimulated even though his heart remains inactive and unwilling. He shall be prompted to think by love being preached to him again and again. The soul of a rejecting person is to be regarded as an unfree, unhappy being which cannot help itself from its bondage alone, and it should be the constant endeavour of fellow human beings to bring help to this soul. The fact that this help consists of stimulating the human being into loving activity therefore results in the necessity to repeatedly bring the word of God to him in love and patience. Every opportunity is to be used, and a servant of God should never tire in this work, for the hardship of the souls is exceedingly great, which walk along in the night of the spirit and cannot register any progress in their higher development. People should be admonished to at least make an attempt to work in love so that they will feel the success in themselves and become aware of the strength which arises from loving activity. Then they will also listen more to the word of God and, even if they don't want to admit it yet, nevertheless think about it, and this is already a step forward. The strength of God must be supplied to the human being, since without it he is weak and unable to mature spiritually. As soon as the will to do good is present, strength flows to the human being through prayer. But if this will is first to be turned towards God, the strength must also flow to him because he is too weak to change himself and his will. And this strength is the divine word.... but it can only become effective when it is willingly accepted. And therefore the love of the fellow human being must come into play, for what is offered in love does not easily miss its effect.... The fellow human being must lovingly try to explain to the person the consequences of a loveless way of life and present to him the successes of a life of love which he can achieve himself if he does not close himself off to the word of God, and he himself must set a good example by practicing the life of love he preaches himself, by giving love and thereby awakening reciprocal love again, and he will achieve success by the fact that a good example encourages imitation. And once the human being has made the attempt, every good deed will result in further deeds of love, for then the strength from God will already be active in the human being.... love makes him happy, and now the human being will also open himself up to the word of God more and more, for it will gain life, it will no longer merely be words which touch the ear but will penetrate the heart.... the cover which surrounds the soul will become increasingly weaker until it is completely dissolved by the working of love and the spirit will then awaken to life. And now it can be constantly active.... now the word of God no longer penetrates the human being from outside but it is offered to him from within, from his spirit; the spirit teaches him and forcefully presents to him the necessity of a way of life according to God's will. The spirit impels him to activity, to work in love, the spirit guides him into truth.... He now receives the divine gospel through the spirit within him. And he will be instructed in the divine teaching of love as well as in the most profound spiritual truths, so that he can now acquire knowledge which is no longer imparted to him from outside but which is offered to him by divine love itself through the word which the spirit in the human being receives from God Himself and now imparts to the soul, which is extremely grateful as soon as it has shed its shell and entered into fusion with the divine spirit within itself. For only now does the human being live when soul and spirit work together....

Amen

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