“In matters within the spirit, you should be delicately sensitive; to My words, you should be carefully attentive. You should aim for the state in which you see My Spirit and My fleshly self, My words and My fleshly self, as one indivisible whole, and make it so that all of humanity will be able to satisfy Me in My presence. I have trodden the universe with My feet, stretching out My gaze over its entire expanse, and I have walked in the midst of all mankind, tasting the sweet, sour, bitter, and pungent flavors of human experience, but man never truly recognized Me, nor did he notice Me as I walked abroad. Because I was silent, and performed no supernatural deeds, because of this no one ever truly saw Me. Things are not now as they once were: I am going to do things that, since the beginning of creation, the world has never seen, I am going to speak words that, throughout the ages, men have never heard, because I ask that all humanity come to know Me in the flesh. These are steps in My management, about which humanity has not the faintest inkling. Even when I speak of them openly, man is still so befuddled in his mind that it is impossible to articulate them to him in every detail. Herein lies man’s abject lowliness, does it not? This is precisely what I wish to remedy in him, is it not? All these years, I have not worked anything upon man; all these years, even those who were in direct touch with My incarnate flesh never heard the voice coming directly from My divinity. And so it is unavoidable that human beings should be lacking in their knowledge of Me, but this one thing alone has not affected humanity’s love for Me through the ages. Now, however, I have wrought upon you countless amount of work miraculous and unfathomable as well as spoken to you many words. And yet, even under conditions like these, so many people still oppose Me to My face. Let Me give you a few examples:
Daily you pray to a vague God, trying to grasp My intentions, to get the feel of life. But, when My words actually come down, you look at them differently: You take My words and My Spirit as one indivisible entity, but you kick the man aside, thinking that the man that I am is simply incapable of uttering words of this kind, and that they are rather the result of My Spirit’s disposing. How would you know about a situation like this? You believe in My words to a certain extent, but as for the flesh that I put on, to greater or lesser degree you entertain your own ideas, about which you cogitate day by day, saying: “Why does He do things in that way? Could it be that this comes from God? Impossible! In my view, He is pretty much the same as I am—a normal, ordinary person.” Again, how would you explain a situation like this?
Regarding what I said above, is there any one among you who is not equipped with it? Any who does not possess it? It would appear to be something that you’re holding onto like a piece of personal property, and all this time you’ve been reluctant to let it go. Still less have you been willing to pursue active effort; instead you wait for Me to do the work in person. Truth be told, there is not a single human being who, without seeking after Me, comes to know Me with ready ease. Indeed, these are not shallow words with which I preach you a lesson, because I can raise an example from a different angle for your reference:
As soon as Peter is mentioned, everybody is full of praise, instantly reminded of all these stories about Peter—how he thrice denied knowing God and moreover rendered service unto Satan, thereby testing God, but in the end was nailed upside down on the cross for His sake, and so on. Now I place great importance on narrating for you how Peter came to know Me as well as his final outcome. This man Peter was of excellent caliber, but his circumstances were different from those of Paul. His parents persecuted Me, they belonged to demons possessed by Satan, and for this reason one cannot say that they transmitted the way to Peter. Peter was agile of wit, endowed with native intelligence, doted on from boyhood by his parents; after growing up, however, he became their enemy, for he always sought to know Me, and this led him to turn his back on his parents. This was because, first of all, he believed that the heavens and earth and all things are in the hands of the Almighty, and that all positive things originate from God and come directly from Him, without passing through any processing by Satan. With the counterexample of his parents to serve as a foil, this enabled him all the more readily to recognize My love and mercy, thereby inflaming in him an even greater passion to seek after Me. He paid close attention not only to eating and drinking My words, but even more to grasping My intentions, and was constantly prudent and cautious in his thoughts, so that he was always keenly astute in his spirit, and hence was able to please Me in everything he did. In ordinary life, he paid close attention to integrating into his own life[a] the lessons of those who had failed in the past so as to spur himself on to greater endeavor, deeply afraid that he might fall into the nets of failure. He also paid close attention to assimilating the faith and love of all those who through the ages had loved God. In this way he not only in negative aspects, but much more importantly, in positive aspects sped up the progress of his growth, until he became in My presence the one human being who knew Me best. For this reason, it is not difficult to imagine how he could place all that he had in My hands, no longer being his own master even in eating, dressing, sleeping, or where he stayed, but made satisfying Me in all things the foundation on which he enjoyed My bounty. So many times did I put him under trial, which of course left him half dead, but even in the midst of these hundreds of trials, he never once lost faith in Me or became disillusioned with Me. Even when I said I had already thrown him aside, he did not grow faint of heart or fall into despair, but continued as before to carry out his principles so as to realize his love for Me. When I told him that, even though he loved Me, I did not commend him but would cast him into Satan’s hands in the end. In the midst of these trials, which did not reach unto his flesh but were trials by means of words, he still prayed to Me: Oh, God! Among the heavens and earth and the myriad things, is there any man, any creature, or any thing that is not in the hands of You, the Almighty? When You wish to show me mercy, my heart rejoices greatly on account of Your mercy; when You wish to pass judgment on me, unworthy though I may be, I feel all the more the profound mystery of Your deeds, because You are filled with authority and wisdom. Though my flesh may suffer, I am comforted in my spirit. How could I not extol Your wisdom and Your deeds? Even if I die after coming to know You, I would be ever ready and willing. Oh, Almighty One! Surely it is not that You truly do not wish to let me see You? Surely it is not that I am truly unworthy of receiving Your judgment? Can it possibly be that there is something in me that You do not wish to see? In the midst of these kinds of trials, even though Peter was not able to grasp My intentions accurately, it is evident that he considered it a matter of pride and personal glory to be used by Me (be it only to receive My judgment so that humanity might see My majesty and wrath), and was anything but dejected on account of being put under trial. Because of his loyalty in My presence, and because of My blessings upon him, he has become an exemplar and a model for mankind for thousands of years. Is this not precisely the example that you should follow? At this time, you should think hard and try to work out why I have given such a lengthy account of Peter. This should serve you as a code of conduct.
Even though there are very few people who know Me, I will not on that account vent My anger upon humanity, because human beings have so many shortcomings that it is difficult for them to attain the level that I ask of them. And so I have been lenient to humanity for thousands of years, all the way down to the present day. But I hope that you will not, because of My leniency, be too ready to accommodate yourselves; you should rather, through Peter, come to know Me and seek after Me, and through all of Peter’s stories, become enlightened in unprecedented ways, and in this way arrive at a realm previously unattained by humanity. Throughout the universe and the limitless expanses of the firmament, the myriad things of creation, the myriad things on earth, and the myriad things in heaven are each and every one consecrating their whole strength for the sake of My last stage of work. Surely you do not wish to remain spectators on the sidelines, driven hither and yon by Satan’s forces? Satan is constantly devouring the knowledge that men hold of Me in their hearts, and constantly, with teeth bared and claws unsheathed, engaged in the last throes of its death struggle. Do you wish to be captured by its deceitful stratagems at this moment? Do you wish, at the moment that the last phase of My work is completed, to cut off your own life? Surely you are not still waiting for Me to dispense My leniency one more time? Seeking to know Me is the key thing, but neither should you neglect to pay attention to actual practice. I am revealing insights to you directly in My words, in hopes that you will be able to submit to My guidance, and cease to entertain aspirations or designs of your own.”
February 27, 1992
No comments:
Post a Comment