Doubts And Diversity

MAR. 28, 1981, 6:42 AM
W. WILLOW, STUDY

You have been away for some time, o son, and thus your hearing is not acute this morning. You shared with Dave, and that was an experience in the authenticity of these teachings, but then you read Island, and some doubts crept back. Good. I want you to be confident… but not to the point of not questioning particular manifestations of spirit… including that which comes to you.

Faith and doubt complement each other. Now it is not necessary that your doubts be equal to your faith. Yet faith loses its strength, resilience, yea even its health, when it does not have to “contend” with some doubt. So admit you have doubts when you have them, and deal with them honestly.

The story that disturbed you involved the old Rane who hears a spiritual call to be pure and establish a world religion, and some of the comments on what she heard and the way she heard it seemed close to those you might merit in the future. All right, let’s examine this. (Know that there are few experiences that you have that I am not willing to review and comment upon.) The realm of the spirit is a populous one. I, alone, do not inhabit, dominate, nor control this realm. As you should know, this is by design. It is not an evidence of My weakness nor of My inabilities. Everything is ultimately of Me, but development, in the spiritual realms as well as in the earth, can be away from Me… as well as in concert with Me. Your sons are of you, and they have been influenced by you, and yet the values and behaviors different from one another, and some differ rather clearly from you. And so it is with Me. It could be otherwise, but it would be a far less interesting universe.

In this diversity there are two truths to recognize. One is that those who serve Me, truly and faithfully, are a diverse lot. You are a Christian, but you know that many others who are also Christian would deny, even vehemently, that what you write can possibly come from Me, the Holy Spirit. Some worship in ways too loud and raucous for you, while others glory in ritual and liturgy that does not elevate your spirit. Some want no close contact with Me; they feel more comfortable in the back pews. Some hear Me, but in different ways. And just as a group can listen to one of your songs and hear it in many different ways, so some hear Me, but differently… and sometimes inaccurately. I cannot force spirits in people to hear Me as I want to be heard. I can make them listen if I wish (but force is not My main mode of operation) but I cannot make them hear Me accurately. So some diversity comes from misinterpretations of My Word and words.