Jesus explains the necessary conditions required, so that the higher spirits can help those in lower spheres

I am here, Jesus.

I see that your work has prevented you from receiving my message tonight, and while I am sorry, I do not complain, for you must do your work, and thereby the more rapidly get in condition to start the effort accumulate, to get in the position that you desire, and which is so necessary to our work. You are better tonight, spiritually, and our rapport is very complete, and I could easily write my message, but you are physically tired, and I do not think it wise to attempt to write, so I will postpone doing so until tomorrow night, when, I hope there will be nothing to interfere.

(comment)

Yes, that is the correct idea, and I will endeavor to make the message as full and lucid as possible. I know how you feel in reference to the matter, and that you desire to receive the message in the best possible shape, and I know that you will do so. You must not think that I am not willing to wait whenever you have your professional work to attend to, or that I will not be with you even though we cannot write, for I am with you very often, trying to help, as I have said. So you must keep up your courage and trust me, and have faith in my promises. I will not write more now, and will say that you have my love and blessings.

(question)

Well, as to that, I know that you will in the not distant future, be able to see me as you say, for I am desirous that you do so. You have the power of clairvoyance, but it is not desirable that it be developed in you at this time as we wish all your power to become centered in receiving the messages; but some night when you are praying and I am with you, the power will be given you and you will see me as I am while praying with you. I feel that this may strengthen your faith and draw you closer to me, and I myself want you to actually see me as I am.

Well, let us say goodnight and stop.

(question)

Yes, I understand, but if I should come and write to you in a, as you may think, dignified way that an elevated spirit should write, you would not feel the nearness to me that I so much want you to feel, and besides you might not just understand what I intended to communicate. It is impossible for you to accommodate yourself to my condition, and hence, I have to accommodate myself to yours. I want you to get as close to me as possible, and in order that that may be, I have to become verily human as you are; otherwise the rapport could not exist between us, and I would seem to you like some far off nebulous being, that you could not understand or feel the influence of. No, I am very human when I come to you.

But this I will say, in order that you may get a somewhat better idea of our relationship, that as you progress more in your soul development and in the possession of the Father's Love, you will be less human - I mean in your condition of soul, which is that in you that furnishes the rapport between us - and I will meet you on the plane that you may occupy. So you see what a determining factor in our rapport your condition of soul is. And if you consider this for a moment, you will more clearly comprehend why it is that the dark spirits can find in you a closer rapport, that enables you to help them, than they can find in the higher spirits. We try to make a rapport with them, but their souls do not respond, and it is only after you have talked to them and directed their attention to us - which causes, as it were, an opening up of their souls to us - can we come in that rapport with them that enables us to gain their attention, and create in them an interest in what we may say to them.

This to you may seem surprising, as you believe that we who are more elevated must have great power with and over these dark spirits, and this is so for certain purposes; and we do often restrain them from doing things that they should not do. But this, as you must understand, means that we by our powers arbitrarily force them to do or not do certain things, just as on earth, your laws, or the enforcement of them, restrain those who desire to violate the laws from doing so.

But when we come to the work of attempting to turn their thoughts to those things that affect their soul condition, this thing of constraint or force will not effectuate the work. We then must deal with the exercise of their free will, and in such cases only persuasion or love influence can possibly do the work of helping them out of their dark and tainted condition of soul. We must invite and persuade the soul to awaken, we cannot force it, and to do so we must form that relationship with these dark spirits, that will cause them to voluntarily open up their souls to our influences.

The great obstacles to our work among spirits of this kind, is that they will not listen to us or come in conversation with us, and we cannot compel and accomplish our purposes. No man or spirit can ever by force, be made to open up his soul to the higher thoughts and essentials of the soul's progress. Of course, when we once get in that rapport with them that enables us to enlist their attention, and listen to what we say, we can cause them to have an awakening by informing them of the sufferings and torments that will be theirs, if they continue in their same condition, and you may say, by a kind of mental force compel them to think of these things that are holding them in their condition of darkness, but this does not occur, unless we can first secure their attention, and to some extent, their confidence.

So you may realize from this to some degree the importance of the work that you are doing among the dark spirits. They, being in the condition of darkness and want of soul development, cannot see any such development that you may have; and to them you are merely a mortal, as they themselves were a short time ago in many cases. And finding that they can communicate with you, they come to you just as one man would to another for the purposes of conversation; and outside of the phenomenon of spirit and mortals conversing, you do not seem to them any different from what men seemed to them when they were on earth. They are all very human, and to them your conversation is very natural, and, hence, they listen to you with the same feelings of confidence, or rather not of distrust, that they would to another spirit of their own kind. You are all humans together, and your opinions or ideas to them, are just the same as they might expect if they were in the flesh, or you were a spirit like themselves.

While these dark spirits may, under certain circumstances, see the bright and beautiful spirits, as they sometimes tell you they do, yet they see only the appearance of the spirit body - they cannot see the condition of the spiritual development in these bright spirits, for it is a law, that the spirit perceptions cannot vision conditions of the souls of others, to a higher degree of development than they themselves have. And this applies to all spirits, no matter what sphere they may occupy, and hence you will understand, that as we progress in our soul spheres, the higher we ascend, the more clear and comprehensible becomes our soul perceptions of the Father and His Divine qualities.

So, I say, so far as the real perception of these dark spirits are concerned, they cannot comprehend the real spiritual development of the higher spirits, whom they often see. The interior condition of these higher spirits are just as hidden from the dark spirits, as is the interior condition of one man from another. Only when like meets like can there be a perception, that is, not a real visual perception, but a spiritual perception of each other.

But the higher spirits can see the interior conditions of those who are in spheres lower than they, and determine just what the soul development of these lower ones are.

Also, you must understand that the appearance of the spirit body indicates and portrays, to a large extent, the condition of the soul, and from this, one spirit may judge the actual development of another. I mean those may so judge who have progressed above the dark planes.

Well, I have written more than I intended, but as you were desirous to have some conception of what I have written, I concluded to attempt to explain to you these matters, though I know from my explanation, you cannot fully understand what I have been trying to make known to you.

But we must stop now.

So with my love I will say, goodnight.

Your brother and friend, Jesus

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