Sunday, March 30, 2014

Prayer and works will follow

October 5th, 1915
Received by:James Padgett
Washington D.C.

I am here, John, Apostle of Jesus.

I am the apostle, and you need not try me as your friend said, for no spirit can impersonate me when I am present.

So you must believe me and try to receive what I may write to night, in faith, and you will find that you will be benefitted.

I came principally to tell you that I have been listening to the conversation between you two and to the reading of the Sermon on the Mount given to us by the Master in the days of long ago, as you would say.

When that sermon was delivered we were not in a condition of great spiritual development, and we did not understand its inner meanings, and as to its literal meaning we thought it was not intended for the practical affairs of life. 


People, I know, think that we, at that time, were very spiritually developed and had an understanding of the great truths taught by the Master, which were superior to what men have now, but I tell you that this is a mistake. We were comparatively ignorant men, fishermen by occupation, and had no education above the ordinary working man of that time, and when Jesus called us to become his apostles, we were as much surprised and hesitated as much as you did when the similar mission was declared for you.

Our knowledge came with our faith in the great truths which the Master taught, and from our observation of the great powers which he displayed, and also from the influence of the Great Love that he possessed. But when mankind think that we easily understood the great truths which he taught, they are mistaken. Only after the descent upon us of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost did we fully come in accord with the Father, or fully appreciate the great truths that the Master had taught.

Of course we learned many things which men of that time did not know, and our souls became developed to a large extent, but not sufficient to bring us to a knowledge of the wonderful meaning of the truths which made men free and brought them in unison with the Father. In your conversation tonight you discussed the relative value of prayer and works, and did not agree with the preacher, that works are the great things to develop men into love and bring about great happiness in the world, and that prayer is not of such importance.

Now let me, as a spirit and as a man who worked on earth and prayed on earth, say with an authority that arises from actual experience, and knowledge that comes of observation, that of all the important things on earth for men who are seeking salvation and happiness and development of soul, prayer is the most important, for prayer brings from the Father not only Love and blessings, but the condition of mind and intent that will cause men to do the great works that the preacher admonished men to engage in.

Prayer is the cause of the power being given to men that will enable them to do all the great works which will bring reward to the doer, and happiness and benefit to the one who receives the works.

So you see the results can never be as great as the cause, for the cause, in this instance, not only gives to men this ability to work, but also to love and to develop his soul and to inspire him with all good and true thoughts. 


Works are desirable, and in some cases necessary, but prayer is absolutely indispensable. So let you and your friend understand and never doubt, that without prayer the works of men would be unavailing to accomplish the great good which even now man performs for his brother.

Pray, and works will follow. Work, and you may do good, but the soul does not benefit, for God is a God that answers prayer through the ministrations of His angels and through the influence of His Holy Spirit, which works on the interior or real part of man.

I will stop now.
               

With my love to both of you,

 I am your brother in Christ,

John




Sunday, March 2, 2014

St. Augustine

August 7th, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington D.C.

I am here, St. Augustine.

I merely want to say that I am the St. Augustine who lived after the death of Jesus and was well acquainted with his teachings as they were preserved by the Church. 


At that time I never knew exactly what became of the manuscripts that were in existence when I lived, but the ones that are supposed to furnish the origin of many of the Biblical writings were not the ones that I was acquainted with. 

Those that I used were all written in Greek and were written by the disciples of Jesus, and by those of his followers to whom the disciples had communicated the teachings of the Master; and they were the genuine ones and were written from the actual communications of the disciples.

Of course, the teachings of Jesus were never recorded at the time of his teachings, but were merely the recollections possessed by the disciples of what they thought he really said, and consequently, as you may realize, they were imperfect and could not be relied on implicitly.

I know that great controversies have arisen in the church as to what portions of these writings should be accepted as genuine, and many needless disputes have caused the officials of that church to differ as to what were really the writings of the disciples, and what were not.


When on earth I joined in these disputes, and maintained that certain of these writings were genuine and certain were not, but I was as likely to be mistaken as any of the others.

But even the ones that I thought genuine were more or less flavored by the spiritual knowledge and beliefs of those who wrote them. So I tell you that you cannot depend on these writings as a whole to learn what the Master actually did teach.

He is now in condition to give you the genuine truths, and whenever what he may say conflicts with what is contained in the Bible, you must consider what he now writes as the truth and discard the Bible account as unreliable.  


I tell you this, because I am interested in having the world learn the truths which he came on earth to declare.

I am a spirit of the Celestial Spheres and am a follower of the Master, and am trying to help in having these truths come to the world again.


I did not always believe, as I do now in many particulars, and my comments on the Bible should not always be taken as correct. So if you will pardon my intrusion I will repeat, pay attention to what Jesus may say now, and do not let the Bible statements, which do not agree with what he may write you, disturb you or cause you to doubt what you may receive.

Sometime I shall come and give you my ideas of some of these spiritual truths, and how necessary it is that men should know them. 


I certainly believe in the New Birth, and I want most emphatically to say that it is one of the most important truths of the spiritual world. It has not heretofore been very often understood, and its exact meaning is somewhat in doubt by even the best students of the Bible.

I will not write more tonight, but will say that you are my brother in the good work of showing to mankind the truths that are so important to their future happiness and salvation.

So with a love that is in Christ,


I am your brother
St. Augustine 



St.George of the Dragon

July 22nd, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington D.C

I am here, St. George (of the Dragon).

I was a warrior, and not a saint. I was an enthusiast in the cause of the Christians against the Turks, and I fought and suffered and died; but as to my being a saint, I never was one more than was any other warrior who was stirred by the great cause which urged us to rescue the Holy Land from the infidels.

But, while I was never a saint, yet I was of a religious turn of mind and spiritual things appealed to my higher nature, and at times my soul felt the influence of the workings of the spirit world.

But I was never a real possessor of the Father's Love as I now am. Since my coming into the spirit world I have received this Great Love, and am now a follower of the Master in my belief in his teachings, and in my efforts to work for the good of humanity.

I now know what the Divine Love of the Father means, and how the possession of it fills the soul with happiness and immortality. I live in the Celestial Spheres and am a member of the Kingdom of Jesus.

So, I merely came to add one more testimony to the fact that through you the Master is working to save mankind from their sins and to extend his Kingdom of Love and happiness to all parts of the earth.

I will not write more now. So I will say good night.


Your brother in the cause,

St. George 

 

St. Sebastian

July 22nd, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington D.C.

I am here, St. Sebastian.

I am the spirit of a man who lived on the earth a few hundred years after the death of Jesus and was a bishop of the Church of Christ, and was crucified because of my faith and teaching of the truth of Jesus.

I was not a very great Christian in the sense of having a large degree of soul development, but I had the intellectual faith which caused me to pursue with energy and zeal the callings to which I had given my life.

I was not known to the world as a great disciple of the Master, but in the limited territory in which I lived and worked I was known as a zealous follower of the Master and a propagandist of his truths.

I am now in the Celestial Spheres and am possessed of the Divine Love of the Father and am happy beyond description. I am interested in the work which you are now performing and want to assure you of my cooperation in making known to the world the great truths which Jesus came to earth to teach and make known to humanity.

So, I will be of those who will sustain and help you to transmit these truths to mankind, and I will occasionally write you, as opportunity presents itself.

I lived in Italy and died there a martyr to my faith. So you see, I was like the disciples in this particular.

I will not write more tonight but will say that I am


 Your brother in Christ,
St. Sebastian 


 

St Chrysostom taught intellectual development not soul religion.

July 22nd, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington D.C

I am here, St. Chrysostom:

I come because I want to tell you that you have entered upon a work that will bring much happiness to mankind and much glory to the cause of the Master.

When alive, I was a teacher of the truths of the Master, and lived a great many years among a people who believed with their intellects, but who knew very little of the soul religion. 


I, myself, was not a great believer in the truths having reference to the soul's development, but I taught those truths which appealed more to my intellect, and which were of a character suited more to instill merely moral principles than to cause men to receive and understand the real spirit and real meaning of these teachings. But yet such teachings accomplished some good among the people of those times. I was a great student of the Bible, as it was then written, and my studies enabled me to teach and explain these truths in an intellectual way.

It seems strange to me now, but it is a fact, that I never understood the inner depths of these truths, and when I came to die, I had not the consolation of knowing that the Divine Love was the great desideratum, in order for men to become at-one with the Father, and to become a partaker of His Divinity.

I learned these great soul truths after I became a spirit, and met those spirits who had received this Great Love, and showed by their wonderful appearances and happiness that they possessed it. So you see that while I was sainted for what I was supposed to have done for the good of the church and for mankind, I was not a saint at all, but a very great sinner without the essentials to make me a saint.

Many a saint of the church was, when on earth, anything but a saint, and the church in making such person a saint only does what a nation may do in making its prominent warriors and statesmen heroes in marble or bronze.

We who were saints of the church only as we were believers in the Christ, but we were not saints as to the perfection of our soul condition. In my time on earth, I sought to correct abuses in conduct among those people who outwardly, as clergymen, were carrying on the work of Jesus yet, in character, were lax in obtaining from modes of conduct which were contrary to the laws of God as proclaimed in the writings of Moses and preached by the Master.

So no church can make a man a saint by merely declaring and recognizing him as such. On earth the sins and evil deeds of men may be hidden by the glamour which the church casts over and around them, but in the spirit world these sins and blemishes appear in all the nakedness which the glare of the noonday sun may develop.

Character cannot be hidden and defects cannot be hidden, and unless the soul of a spirit is pure and spotless, it will have to occupy that place and take that station which its soul development determines are suited for it. So how futile are all these canonizing and worshippings of men as saints when there is nothing of the saint about them. The poorest peasant may be more of a saint in the spirit world, than the greatest and most exalted saint according to the creation of the churches.

I do not remember if Vespasian was a Christian at the time, but he is a Christian now, and an inhabitant of the Father's Kingdom. So you must not let the doubts that you may have about his writing to you cause you to disbelieve what he said. I saw him write and I know it was he, and no other.

With the love of a brother, I will say good-night.
Your brother and friend,


Chrysostom

called Saint John A.D. 347 - 407

Archbishop of Constantinople