Jesus Christ

Now who is Christ? Some Christian religions claim he is God. This is not so, for he himself has said, as you can read in the Holy Scriptures, that he is not God. He is not the Father, or the Creator. Some say Jesus was just a wise man, a sage, a great teacher with great wisdom, not unlike a few others who have lived at other times in other countries. This is also wrong. The truth is, my friends, whether you want to believe it now or not, that Jesus, the man, was the incarnation of the Christ. And this spirit is the highest and most exalted of all created beings. He is the first direct and inborn creation of God. His substance is the same as the substance of God. All of you possess some of this substance which I call the higher self or the divine spark; it has to come out gradually through spiritual development. But no other created being has this substance in quite the same degree as the Christ. And there is the difference.

There are many ways, indeed, to test with what spirits you are communicating. Anyone who wants to judge must, under all circumstances, take the trouble to study the vast subject of how to test spirits. Only then will that person be in a position to determine from where they come. I have spoken about this subject and will do so again in the future. For the time being, I only wish to say this: If you still lack the necessary knowledge to determine with what spirits you are communicating and what laws are involved, you can ask your heart right now. You will get the answer to some extent, provided you do not let your doubts shade your feelings. If your feelings are receptive and open, you will be able to find and feel harmony, as well as love, patience, wisdom, and humility—or the opposite of all this. But your heart will only be able to speak to you and confirm what you wish to know if you are receptive, if you are open and put all prejudice aside for the moment.

Greetings in the name of the Lord. I bring you blessings, my friends. Again I will answer your questions tonight, instead of holding a lecture. I will resume regular lectures after most of your questions have been answered. It is a very good sign if my little group has questions, for this is proof that…

Everybody knows that it is important to be a decent person, not to commit so-called sins, to give love, to have faith, and to be kind to others. However, this is not enough. In the first place, knowing all this and actually being able to act on it are two different stories. You may be able by voluntary action to refrain from committing a crime such as stealing or killing, but you cannot possibly force yourself to feel that you do not want to harm anybody, ever. You may act kindly toward another, but you cannot force yourself to feel kindly. Neither can you force yourself to have love in your heart or to have real faith in God. Whatever pertains to emotions is not dependent upon your direct actions or even on your thoughts. Changing your feelings requires the slow process of self-development and self-recognition.

There is a right and proper kind of self-love. Cowardice is nothing but self-pampering, self-pitying self-concern. Courage ascribes as much importance to a cause, to an issue, or to another person as to the self. Therefore courage and love, in the last analysis, are inseparable. Think about that, my dear ones. You will not only better understand Christ’s life and death, but you will also be able to better understand and evaluate yourself, which means that you will be more successful in the process of purification. In the light of the work you have done so far, it should not be difficult for you to see where you are courageous and where you lack courage. And where you do lack courage, you will always find that you must lack love as well.

QUESTION: I would like to ask something about self-responsibility. Would not self-responsibility lead to irresponsibility toward others? If I am responsible for just myself, how then am I my brother’s keeper? Wouldn’t it lead to selfishness, being responsible only for my own life and well-being? I would look for that which is best and most suitable for me first, and only then consider the other person. Although I would give the other equal rights, I would consider myself first.

QUESTION: What is the difference between an emotionally mature and an immature person? How can you recognize it?

A spiritual teaching, often misunderstood, says that one must rise above pleasure and pain. This is of course true in the ultimate sense. However, it cannot come about by flight from the unpleasantness of the duality. Instead, the transcendence of pleasure and pain happens only by accepting and fully facing the duality: life and death. Those who misunderstand the meaning of rising above pleasure and pain do so because they wish to avoid rather than go through those deep experiences.

Obedience to authority has been encouraged by exponents of religion under the half-true and only partly valid argument that humanity was too much enslaved by its passions to be let free. Therefore obedience had to be stressed in order to protect society.

The topic of this lecture is the meaning of tradition. Let us first examine what tradition means in its best sense, and then what it means when it is distorted. Many human beings have distinct images about tradition. These images trigger off conditioned reflex reactions as soon as this term is mentioned or when human conditions reflect adherence to tradition either in its real or in its distorted sense.

Question: I am very puzzled by the tremendously strong reactions about the whole issue of Jesus Christ. I understand what you said about the fear of expansion that applies to all phases of expansion. But the reaction to your emphasis of the role of Jesus Christ in the pathwork is so strong that I have the feeling there is more to it than resistance to expansion. Could you comment on this?

In this lecture I wish to instruct you again about certain realities and laws concerning evil. It is very important that you understand more about this so controversial subject at this present moment. For many centuries the power of evil was fully recognized. Humanity had a sense of the invisible and what is usually referred to as supernatural regarding both the forces of light and the forces of darkness, as well as their manifestations, their effects, their influence in your realm, and their personification as spirit entities—as angels and as devils.

In this lecture I would like to discuss particularly a law of timing that applies to the development of every entity. You surely must have sensed this law and may even know about it vaguely. But it is important that you thoroughly understand it. According to this law a certain necessary time sequence exists on an individual’s path.

In this lecture I would like to speak about some significant aspects of the New Age. This term has been used a lot recently by certain groups of people. Some use it with correct understanding, some manage to make it into a cliche. This, however, is unavoidable; it happens with all concepts of truth, because of a human tendency to be glib and lazy and to label, so as to avoid feeling the reality of a specific truth. But those who do not fall into this trap should not give up altogether using a term that conveys a true concept.

If you seriously long, pray, and search for a realization of Jesus Christ’s personal love for you, the answers will come forth. Perhaps you will not recognize the first answers as such. They may have something to do with specific barriers that prevent you from this experience, this reality. They may bring up new, or again old, material on your path that you need to work on for your purification. These are the answers! Once the barriers begin to crumble, you will experience what it means to feel Jesus Christ’s personal love for you.