Jesus describes what a soul is

March 2nd, 1917

Received by:James Padgett.

Washington D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I come tonight to write my message on the soul, and will do so, if we can establish the necessary rapport.

Well, the subject is of vast importance, and difficult of explanation, for there is nothing on earth known to man, with which a comparison may be made, and, generally men cannot understand truth, or the nature of things, except by comparison with what they already know to exist, and with whose qualities and characteristics they are acquainted. There is nothing in the material world that will afford a basis of comparison with the soul, and, hence, it is difficult for men to comprehend the nature and qualities of the soul by the mere intellectual perceptions and reason: and in order to understand the nature of this great creation - the soul - men must have something of a spiritual development and the possession of what may be known as the soul perceptions.

Only soul can understand soul, and the soul that seeks to comprehend the nature of itself, must be a live soul, with its faculties developed to a small degree, at least.

First, I will say, that the human soul must be a creature of God and not emanation from Him, as a part of His soul: and when men speak and teach that the human soul is a part of the Over-Soul, they teach what is not true. This soul is merely a creature of the Father, just as are the other parts of man, such as the intellect and the spirit body and the material body, and which before its creation had no existence. It has not existed from the beginning of eternity, if you can imagine that eternity ever had a beginning. I mean that there was a time when the human soul had no existence; and whether there will ever come a time when any human soul will cease to have an existence, I do not know, nor does any spirit, only God knows that fact. But this I do know, that whenever the human soul partakes of the Essence of the Father, and thereby becomes Divine itself, and the possessor of His Substance of Love, that soul realizes to a certainty that it is Immortal, and can never again become less than Immortal. As God is Immortal, the soul that has been transformed into the Substance of the Father becomes Immortal, and never again can the decree, "dying thou shalt die," be pronounced upon it.

As I said, there was a period in eternity when the human soul did not exist and was created by the Father, and when it was made the highest and most perfect of all God's creation, to such an extent that it was made in His image - the only one or thing of all His creations that was made in His image, and the only part of man that was made in His image, for the soul is the man and all his attributes and qualities, such as his intellect and spirit body and material body and appetites and passions, are merely appendages or means of manifestation given to that soul, to be its companions while passing through its existence on earth, and also, qualifiedly, while living in eternity. I mean some of the appendages will accompany the soul in its existence in the spirit world, whether that existence be for all eternity or not.

But this soul, great and wonderful as it is, was created in the mere image and likeness of God, and not in or of His Substance or Essence - the Divine of the universe - and it, the soul, may cease to exist without any part of the Divine nature or Substance of the Father being lessened or in any way affected; and hence, when men teach or believe that man, or the soul of man is Divine, or has any of the qualities or Substance of the Divine, such teaching and belief are erroneous, because man is only and merely the created man, the mere likeness but no part of the Father or of His Substance and qualities.

While the soul of man is of the highest order of creation, and his attributes and qualities correspond, yet he is no more divine in essential constituents, than are the lower objects of creation - they each being a creation, and not an emanation, of their Creator.

True it is that the soul of man is of a higher order of creation than any other created things, and is the only creature made in the image of God, and was made the perfect man, yet man - the soul - can never become anything different or greater than the perfect man, unless he receives and possesses the Divine Essence and qualities of the Father, which he did not possess at his creation, although, most wonderful gift, with his creation, God bestowed upon him the privilege of receiving this Great Substance of the Divine nature, and thereby become Divine himself. The perfectly created man could become the Divine Angel, if he, the man, so willed it and obeyed the commands of the Father, and pursued the way provided by the Father for obtaining and possessing that Divinity.

As I have said, the souls, the human souls, for the indwelling of which God provided material bodies, that they might live the mortal lives, were created just as, subsequently, these material bodies were created; and this creation of the soul took place long before the appearance of man on earth as a mortal, and the soul prior to such appearance, had its existence in the spirit world as a substantial conscious entity, although without visible form, and, I may say, individuality, but yet, having a distinct personality, so that it was different and distinct from every other soul.

Its existence and presence could be sensed by every other soul that came in contact with it, and yet to the spirit vision of the other soul it was not visible. And such is the fact now. The spirit world is filled with these unincarnated souls, awaiting the time of their incarnation, and we spirits know of and sense their presence, and yet with our spirit eyes we cannot see them, and not until they become dwellers in the human form and in the spirit body that inhabits that form, can we see the individual soul.

And the fact that I have just stated, illustrates, in a way, describes the Being of Him, in whose image these souls are created. We know and can sense the existence and presence of the Father, and yet, even with our spiritual eyes we cannot see Him; and only when we have our soul developed by the Divine Essence of His
Love, can we perceive Him with our soul perception, because you have not words in your language to convey its meaning, and nothing in created nature, of which you have knowledge of in which a comparison can be made. But it is a truth; for the vision of the soul perception to its possessor is just as real, as I may say, objective, as is the vision of the mortal sight to the mortal.

It may be asked in considering this matter of the creation of the soul, "were all souls that have been incarnated, or that are awaiting incarnation, created at the same time, or is that creation still going on?" I do know that the spirit world contains many souls, such as I have described awaiting their temporary homes, and the assumption of individuality in the human form, but as to whether that creation has ended, and at sometime the reproduction of men for the embodying of these souls, will cease, I do not know, and the Father has never revealed it to me, or to the others of His angels who are close to Him in His Divinity and Substance.

The Father has not revealed to me all the truths and the workings an objects of His creative laws, and neither has He given to me all power and wisdom and omniscence as some may find justification for believing in certain of the statements of the Bible. I am a progressive spirit, and as I grew in love and knowledge and wisdom when on earth, I am still growing in these qualities, and the love and mercy of the Father come to me with the assurance that never in all eternity will I cease to progress towards the very fountain head of these attributes of Him, the only God, the All in All.

As I was saying, the soul of man is the man, before, while in the mortal existence and ever after in the spirit world, and all other parts of man, such as the mind and body and spirit are mere attributes, which may be dissevered from him as the soul progresses in its development toward its destiny of either the perfect man or the Divine Angel, and in the latter progression, men may not know it, but it is a truth, that the mind - that is the mind as known to mankind - becomes, as it were, non-existent; and this mind as some say, the carnal mind, becomes displaced and replaced by the mind of the transformed soul, which is in substance and quality, to a degree, the mind of Deity, itself.

Many theologians and philosophers and metaphysicians believe and teach that the soul, spirit and mind are substantially one and the same thing, and that anyone of them may be said to be the man - the ego, and that in the spirit world one or the other of these entities is that which persists and determines in its development or want of development the condition or state of man after death. But this conception of these parts of man are erroneous  for they each have a distinct and separate existence and functioning, whether man be a mortal or spirit.

The mind in its qualities and operations, is very well known to man, because of its varied manifestations, and being that part of man which is more of the nature of the material, and has been the subject of greater research and study than has been the soul or the spirit.

While men have, during all the centuries, speculated upon and attempted to define the soul and its qualities and attributes, yet to them it has been intransitive, and impossible of comprehension by the intellect which is the only instrumentality that man generally possesses to search for the great truth of the soul, and hence, the question, of what is the soul, has never been satisfactorily or authoritatively answered, though to some of these searchers, when inspiration may have shed a faint light upon them, some glimpse of what the soul is, has come to them. Yet to most men who have sought to solve the problem, the soul and spirit and mind are substantially the same thing.

But the soul, as concerning man is a thing of itself, alone. A substance real, though invisible to mortals. The discerner and portrayer of men's moral and spiritual condition - never dying, so far as known, and the real ego of the man. In it are centered the love principle, the affections, the appetites and the passions, and possibilities of receiving and possessing and assimilating those things that will either elevate man to the state or condition of the Divine Angel or the perfect man, or lower him to the condition that fits him for the hells of darkness and suffering.

The soul is subject to the will of man, which is the greatest of all endowments that were bestowed upon him by his Maker at his creation, and is the certain index of the workings of that will either in thought or action, and in the souls, qualities of love and affection and appetites and passions are influenced by the power of the will, either for good or evil. It may be dormant and stagnate, or it may be active and progress. And so its energies may be ruled by the will for good or evil, but these energies belong to it and are no part of the will.

The soul's home is in the spirit body, whether that body is encased in the mortal or not, and it is never without such spirit body, which in appearance and composition is determined by the condition and state of the soul. And finally, the soul or its condition decides the destiny of man, as he continues in his existence in the spirit world; not a final destiny, because the condition of the soul is never fixed, and as this condition changes, man's destiny changes, for destiny is the thing of the moment, and finality is not known to the progress of the soul, until it becomes the perfect man and is then satisfied and seek no higher progress.

Now, in your common language and also in your theological and philosophical terms, mortals who have passed to spirit life are said to be spirits, and in a certain sense this is true, but such mortals are not nebulous, unformed and invisible existences, they have a reality of substance, more real and enduring, than has man as a mortal, and are in form and features visible and subject to touch and the object of the spiritual senses. So when men speak of soul, spirit and body, if they understood the truth of the terms, they would say, soul, spirit-body, and material-body.
There is a spirit, but it is altogether distinct and different from the spirit body, and also from the soul. It is not part of the spirit body, but is an attribute of the soul, exclusively and without the soul, it could not exist. It has no substance as has the soul, and it is not visible to even the spirit vision - only the effect of its workings can be seen or understood, - and it is without body, form or substance. And yet it is real and powerful, and when existing never ceasing in its operations - and is an attribute of all souls.

Then what is the spirit? Simply this - the active energy of the soul. As I have said, the soul has its energy, which may be dormant or which may be active. If dormant, the spirit is not in existence; if active the spirit is present, and manifests that energy in action. So to confuse the spirit with the soul, as being identical, leads to error and away from the truth.

It is said that God is spirit, which in a sense is true, for spirit is a part of His great soul qualities, and which He uses to manifest His presence in the universe; but to say that spirit is God is not stating the truth, unless you are willing to accept as true the proposition that a part is the whole. In the divine economy, God is all of spirit, but spirit is only the messenger of God, by which He manifests the energies of His Great Soul.

And so with man. Spirit is not man-soul, but man-soul is spirit, as it is the instrumentality by which the soul of man makes known its energies and powers and presence.

Well, I have written enough for to-night, but sometime I will come and simplify this subject. But remember this, that Soul is God, soul is man, and all manifestations, such as spirit, and spirit body are merely evidences of the existence of the soul - the real man.

I have been with you as I promised, and I know that Father will bless you.

So with my love and blessing, I will say good-night.

Your brother and friend,

Jesus

Nero - tells of his experience in the hells and how his soulmate helped him progress

January 16th, 1917

Received by James Padgett

Washington D.C.

I am here, the spirit of one who lived on earth the life of a wicked man, and a persecutor of the Christians, and a blasphemer of God and everything that was pure and holy; and when I had lived the life to its end and shuffled off the mortal coil and became a spirit, I also became a dweller in the lowest hells where all is darkness and torment, and the abode of devils and everything that tends to make the spirit unhappy and at variance with the loving God. 

I introduce myself in this way in order to demonstrate to you the wonderful power of the Divine Love, for now I am an inhabitant of the Celestial Spheres, and know that this Love is not only real, but is capable of making the vilest sinner a partaker and owner of the Divine Essence of the Father. 

My sufferings were beyond all description and I was the most desecrated of mortals, and was almost worshipped by the devils of hell because of the great injury that I had done to the followers of Jesus, who, in my time, were possessed of this Love and faith, which even the terrors of the wild beasts of the arena, or the torches of my own evil designs could not cause them to renounce - in this great religion that the Master had taught them, and the disciples were still teaching when I put so many of them to death. 

The devils loved me for the very evil that I had done, but strange to say the spirits of those who I had sent unto the spirit world before their time were not revengeful to me, or came to me with their imprecations or cursings. Then when I had been in the spirit world a sufficient time to realize my surroundings and the nature of these evils, these spirits of the martyrs, which I had made, came to me in sympathy and pity, and in fact, tried many times to help me out of my great sufferings and darkness.

I did not understand all this unexpected kindness and evidence of love, and I would not for a long time believe that these spirits were sincere; and so I suffered for year after year, and century after century, and became convinced that my condition was fixed, and that for me there was no hope, and that the God that I had heard of was not my God, and that devils were the only companions that I was destined to have through all eternity. 

And so I endured, wishing to die, but I could not.

Oh, I tell you it was horrible and beyond all conception of mortals! The law was working and I was paying the penalty, and there seemed no end to the penalty.

I could find no consolation among those who surrounded me, and the pleasures that I first enjoyed, became to me mere things of mockery and derision, and my darkness and torment became the greater.

How often I called upon God, if there be a God, to strike me dead, but the only answer to my call was the laughter of the grinning devils, who told me to shout louder as God might be asleep, and may be deaf. 

What to do, I knew not, and so I became isolated as best I could from these terrible associates, and many years of my living were spent in the darkness of lonesomeness with never a ray of hope, or the whisper of one word to tell me, that for me there might be a fairer destiny. 

And so time went by and I waited in my misery for some kind power to come and annihilate me, but I waited in vain. During all this time the recollections of my earthly deeds were like hot irons scorching my soul, and burning my body, as I thought, and the end came not. 

Well, I suffered the tortures of the damned, and it seemed to me that I was paying the penalties for all the sins and evil deeds that had ever been committed by all the wicked kings and rulers and persecutors of earth.

Many times the shrieks of the Christian children and the groans of the men and women as they were being torn asunder from limb to limb, or burned as living torches which I had made of them, came to me and increased my torment. 

I lived the life of centuries of torment in a few moments, as it seemed to me, and not one cooling drop of water was mine.

It may seem impossible that I should have continued to live in this ever increasing suffering, but I did, because I was compelled to. 

The law did its work and there was no one to say "enough". I might write a volume on this suffering of mine, and yet you would not comprehend its meaning, and so I will pass it by. 

In my loneliness and suffering there came to me on an occasion, a beautiful spirit, full of light and love, and all the beauty of early womanhood, as I thought, and with eyes of pity and longing, and said,

 "You are not alone, only open your eyes and you will see the star of hope, which is the sign of the Father's Love and desire to help you. I am a child of that Father and the possessor of His great enveloping Love, and I love you, even though you took from me my young life when you threw me to the wild beasts to satisfy your desire to gratify your thirst for innocent blood, and see the suffering and hear the groans of your victims, yet, I love you, not because I am a human with a kindly nature and a forgiving disposition, but because I have in me this Divine Love of the Father which tells me that I am your sister, and that you are a child of the Father, just as I am, and the object of His Love just as I was the object of His Love.


You have suffered, and while you suffered, His great Love went out to you in sympathy and desire to help you, but you, yourself, prevented it from coming to you and leading you to light and surcease from sufferings. And now I come to you, your young and innocent victim, who had never done you any greater harm on earth than to pray for you, and ask the heavenly Father to take away from your heart, the great wickedness that caused so many of my people to suffer persecution and death. 

We all prayed for you and never asked our Father to curse you, or do anything to you to make you suffer. And we have prayed for you often since we came to the spirit world, and we are now praying for you, and this because we love you and want you to be happy.

Look into my eyes and you will see that love is there, and what I tell you is true. And now, can you not love us a little and open up your soul to our sympathy, and let your feelings of gloom and despondency leave you for a moment, and realize that in this world of spirits there are some who love you?" 

Well, to say that I was surprised, does not express my feelings, and as I looked into the lovelit eyes of that beautiful spirit, I felt the great sins of my earth life overwhelm me, and in my anguish, I cried, "God be merciful to me, the greatest of sinners," and for the first time in all my life in the hells, tears came to my eyes, and my heart seemed to have a sense of living; and there came to me feelings of remorse and regret for all the evils that I had done. 

It would take too long to tell what followed this breaking up of my soul, all shriveled and dead, and suffice it to say that from that time, I commenced to have hope come to me, and to get out of my awful condition of darkness.

It took a long time, but at last, I got into the light, and this Love which the beautiful spirit first told me of gradually came into my soul, until, at last, I reached the condition of bliss in which I now am. 

And during all the time of my progress, this radiant loving spirit came to me very often with her words of love and encouragement, and prayed for me, and never left me when I became, as I did at times, doubtful and discouraged.

And as my awakening continued, the Love came into my soul, and as she told me of the heavenly things that would be mine as I progressed and reached the soul spheres, where beautiful homes and pure bright spirits are, I became more and more bound by my love to her. 

After a while I got into the third sphere, and realized that what she had told me was true, only I had not been able to comprehend the greatness of the truth. 

She then commenced to tell me of the happiness of the beautiful spirits of the two sexes, that I so often saw together, and explained that they were soulmates, and that their love was the greatest of all the loves except the Divine Love, and that every spirit in all the spheres had its soulmate, and at the proper time would find it. 

My love for this loving spirit had then become so intense that in the very depths of my soul, I wished and prayed that my soulmate might be such a one as she; and, at last, I became so filled with my love for her, that I told her that the only thing in all the heavens that I needed to make full my happiness was she as my soulmate, but that I realized that that desire was hopeless as I had destroyed her life, and of course she could not be my soulmate. And oh, how I suffered when I realized that she could not be mine, but was another's. 

As I told her of these longings and hopeless feelings of my soul, she came close to me and looked into my eyes with such burning love, and threw her arms around me, and said, 

"I am your soulmate, and knew the fact a short time after you came to the spirit world and entered your hells of darkness, and during all the long years I prayed and prayed for the time to come when I could go to you with my love and awaken in your dead soul the response to my great love. And when the time came that I could go, I was so thankful to the Father, that I almost flew to you, with some dread of disappointment I confess, to tell you that you were not neglected or unthought of, but that there was some love in the spirit world that was going to you. Of course, I could not tell you of my soulmate love, for you would not then have understood, but as your soul awakened and the Love of the Father came to you, I became happier and happier, and have waited so anxiously for this moment, when I could tell you that this love that had been consciously mine for so long, is all yours." 

Well, I will draw the veil here, but you can imagine what my happiness was, and as I progressed from sphere to sphere, my happiness and love for her increased and increased. 

Thus I have told you the story of the life in the spirit world of the wickedest man that God ever permitted to live and gratify his feelings of hatred and revenge. 

And I, who have passed through this experience, and realized all that it means, say, that the Divine Love of the Father is able to and does save the vilest sinner, and transforms the chiefest of devils into a Celestial Angel of His highest spheres. 

I have written long and you are tired. I thank you, and will say good night, and subscribe myself. 

Your brother in Christ, 

 Nero

How to become a Divine Angel

May 28th, 1916

Received by James Padgett

Washington D.C.

I am here, Your Grandmother,

I will tell you to-night of a truth that may be of interest to you, and I know that it is of importance to all who may long for happiness in the future life. 

As you know, I am now in the Celestial Spheres, in a place higher than the third Celestial Sphere, and where are no special lines of demarcation separating it from what you may call the higher planes. 

In my plane, the inhabitants are those who have received the Divine Love in their souls to an extent that makes them know that they are of a nature that is Divine and in at-onement with that of the Father.

Of course, those who have entered the first Celestial Sphere have the knowledge of having partaken of the divine nature, but they are not so filled with this love as we are who live in the sphere that I am in. 

It is not possible for me to tell you of the extent of our happiness, because you have no words in your language that can possibly convey a faint conception of this happiness, and I will not attempt to describe it; but if you will combine all the emotions of joy and happiness which you have received or experienced in all the years of your life, you would not be able to realize the meaning of our happiness in the faintest degree. 

I merely recite this truth to show to you and all mankind what is possible for you and them to obtain, if you will only pursue the course that the Father has provided, and the Master has pointed out in his messages to you. 

The great instrument that causes this great happiness is Divine love, and by this I mean the Divine Love of which we have so often written, and without which it is impossible for a soul to obtain this condition or to become a dweller in the Celestial Heavens. 

Man, as you have been instructed, was not created with this Divine Love, and could only obtain it by his own longings and aspirations being exercised in the way that the Father had provided - in no other way could these desires for this divine love be realized. 

But the great pity is that the first of the human race declined or rather refused to pursue this way, and thought that they were wise enough to know a better way; and in attempting to pursue this way brought about their own fall and the loss of the privilege of obtaining this Love; and in all the long years until the coming of Jesus, no man, after the first created, had the privilege, and hence, it was not possible for them to find any greater happiness than that which might come from their natural love. 

At the coming of Jesus, God again had bestowed upon man this great privilege, and a possibility of the knowledge of the way in which the privilege could be exercised.

This was not declared to all men, for the territory in which Jesus taught and proclaimed this important truth was very limited, and the great majority of men died without knowing that this gift had been rebestowed. 

But God in His goodness and love did not restrict the bestowal of this divne love to those who might be fortunate enough to learn of it from Jesus and his apostles, but sent His Holy Spirit to implant it in the souls of all men who might be in such condition of soul aspiration and longing as to permit this Love to enter their souls. 

When spirits became possessed of this knowledge they commenced the work of trying to influence men in such a way that there arose in them a longing for a closer unity with God, and an opening up of the soul perceptions, and as a result many men, in various parts of the world, received this Love in their souls without knowing that it was this Divine Love; but it was, and when these men in their spirit forms entered the spirit world, they soon found that, to some extent, they were possessed of this Love, and it was not difficult for them to listen to the explanations and teachings of those spirits who had received it, as to the truth of its existence. 

Now all this may not appear to be of much importance to present man, and hardly worth attention, but my great object in writing in this manner is to show that God had no special or peculiar people, and that it was not even necessary that all peoples should learn from Jesus the fact of this gift, for in such a case, the great majority of mankind could not possibly have heard of this Divine Love while they were yet mortals. 

No, this was not a necessity, but the knowledge which came to mortals through Jesus enabled them, who possessed it and believed, to the more readily pursue the way to obtaining this Love. 

Many spirits had received the benefit of the rebestowal of this Divine Love, or rather the privilege of seeking for and obtaining it, before Jesus came to the spirit world, yet they understood that the greater extent of the possession of this Love was in Jesus; and no spirit now possesses it to the degree that he does. 

But whether the souls of mortals or spirits received the knowledge of this truth from Jesus or from the workings of the Holy Spirit in its ministrations, they all know that the seeking for and getting this Divine Love are the only means by which the soul may become an inhabitant of the Celestial Heavens. 

I realize that what I have written conflicts with the orthodox belief that it is only through the death and blood of Jesus that men can be saved from their sins and become children of God and at one with Him. 

If this belief were true, then by Jesus' sacrifice all men would he saved, irrespective of their obtaining this Divine Love, or only those would be saved who had heard of Jesus and accepted him as their saviour. 

Neither of these propositions is true, for without this Divine Love entering into the soul of a man, it would be impossible for him to partake of the Divine Nature of the Father, and become fitted to occupy a home in the Celestial Spheres. 

This love in the soul, whether it is a result of the workings of God's ministering Angels, causing a real soul longing, in conjunction with the Holy Spirit, makes the man of a nature divine, and a redeemed child of God. 

Now from what I have said it must not be inferred that the mission of Jesus, and his work on earth and in the spirit world are not the great things connected with man's redemption, for they are.

It was not until Jesus' coming that this Great Gift was rebestowed, and it was not until his declaring this fact and teaching the Great Truth of the New Birth could either mortals or spirits receive this privilege. 

The ministering Angels could not influence the souls of men to seek for the inflowing of this Divine Love until they had first received it themselves, and understood its existence; and here let me declare a fact, that when Jesus preached to mortals on earth the necessity for the Second Birth, myriads of spirit beings heard these teachings and became possessed of this knowledge. 

And to-day, men are attended by hosts of spirits of all kinds, and the sayings and teachings of men are heard by more spirits than men, and the influence of such teachings has its effect upon spirits as upon men, for the spirits of men which are existing in the earth planes are the same spirits substantially, that they were when on earth, and an earthly friend frequently has more influence upon them than do other spirits no matter how high their condition may be. 

I am so happy to be able to write you again, and let you know that I have not forsaken you. 

I am with you quite often and am trying to help you. Pray more to the Father, and exercise more faith and you will grow in soul development and happiness.

I will not write more now. 

So with all my love and blessings, I am Your Grandmother

Ann Rollins