4542 Development of the soul independent of physical advantages....

January 16, 1949: Book 52

The nature of the earthly body has nothing to do with the soul's development, it only affects the soul differently, so that every person is fully offered the opportunity to mature on earth. Spiritual abilities can certainly lead to faster perfection but on the other hand they are also a danger for the human being that he exploits them in an earthly, i.e. material way and hinders rather than supports the soul in its upward striving. A well-developed intellect should certainly be able to easily recognize the eternal creator and His working, yet a primitive person is usually more devout, who lets his heart rather than his intellect speak, whereas the intellectual person often presumes to be able to fathom everything by virtue of his intellect and therefore rejects what he is unable to fathom. But what the intellect alone cannot do is possible with the power and grace of God.... And thus one can certainly say that it is a grace to be able to believe and to penetrate spiritual truths, a grace which, as a gift from God, must also result in the soul's upward development.... But this gift of grace has to be requested or accepted or it will remain ineffective. God gave the human being earthly life for the purpose of perfecting the soul, which is still far away from God. Due to its deficient state the soul is weak and ignorant, it would never take and cover the path to ascent on its own strength if God did not want to help it always and constantly. And this help is grace which approaches the human being in many different forms, which certainly strongly stimulates the human being's will but does not force it. If the human being allows himself to be stimulated by it, grace will become effective in him, if he rejects it or acts inactively, then he will not make use of grace and will not be able to progress. However, God's grace is often not recognized as such, and only obvious phenomena of spiritual development are regarded and acknowledged as grace from above. However, people are unaware of the fact that every human being can constantly receive grace and that God's source of grace is never exhausted, indeed, they even start from the false assumption that people are already considered differently by God in their physical constitution and can therefore also mature differently. This much is certain, that physical advantages, gifts, talents and special abilities often make a spiritual maturing more difficult, because the will must first become active and is much more inclined to exploit such advantages earthly. So they are, to a certain extent, gifts of grace, but if they are not used, they are completely ineffective. The human being is constantly in the midst of graces because God's love is constantly looking for means to help him to ascend. Everything that approaches him is a possibility of help, and thus everything is also grace which will always be effective if the human being consciously asks for the supply of grace, if he constantly unites himself with God in thought, through prayer or through loving activity. Then he will also use the graces according to God's will. But a gift of grace with a special effect is His word, which is offered to you humans from above.... And again, the decisive factor is whether it is accepted by people, whether the gift of grace becomes effective in the individual and he wants to derive benefit for his soul from it. Anyone who has God’s word, who accepts it from above or from the mouths of His servants on earth, certainly has an extraordinary opportunity to mature, thus he is in possession of an exceedingly great grace from God, yet even this grace can be carelessly rejected if it does not want to be recognized as grace. And again, the primitively thinking person can be at an advantage who emotionally confesses the divine word, whereas the person blessed with all abilities only lets his intellect speak and rejects what the heart faithfully accepts. Thus graces can come to the human being unmeasured.... they want to be recognized and accepted as blessings, otherwise they are and will remain completely ineffective and the human being's development will come to a standstill because he does not make use of the blessings which God, however, in His infinite love bestows upon all His living creations because He wants everyone to become blissfully happy....

Amen

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