Earth Life Vs. Eternal Life

MON., JULY 26, 1993, 6:36 AM
FARM, STUDY

As you expected this is a followup of the final paragraph in Our last Teaching, dealing with the opportunities and challenges of earth life. Because earth life is comparatively short it always has to be compared with eternal, everlasting life. And, yes, in a way they are competitive.

Let’s go back, first, to The Thorn Birds story, which featured Father Ralph’s dilemma. He wanted to be a priest and give himself completely to Me. Yet he had a conflicting love for a little girl who grew into a beautiful woman who loved him, fully and obviously. The Church took the position that in such a conflict he had a choice, but he must choose God and the Church, keeping his vow. He could not, and therefore, as a Cardinal, he had to see this as weakness. But then he had to consider whether his unwillingness to give up the Church was for love of Me or from ambition, which he had achieved.

The harshest judgment, and this should be Mine, would be that he had to choose, and he should have chosen Me and rejected the temptation of Maggie. The other “pure” choice would have been to accept Maggie’s love and return it, but give up his position in the church. It had to be either/or, not both/and.

But haven’t I told you much about the values of both/and? The essence of you is spirit, which, in your case and for many other present humans was not created afresh for this earth journey. We decided, you and I (the “you” that is your immortal, somewhat experienced soul), that you should embark on this earth life as Bob Russell. This meant, given My “rules,” that you gave up knowledge of all that you had experienced “before,” including other lives in the earth. You had certain “destinies,” but you were not to be aware of these until you and I came into this close relationship, rather late in your life, after you fulfilled the “destinies.”

We both wanted your spirit to grow and develop in the experience, but we also both knew that you are both an everlasting spirit and a human person, in a culture that emphasizes your freedom as a person and the “fact” that you have only one earth life. I wanted you to be a faithful, active churchman, but not an ordained minister. Yet I also want you to have earth experiences that just aren’t possible as pure spirit.

You have never experienced discrimination, clear prejudice, abject failure, or overt degradation. Some spirits do profit from such experiences, terrible as they are in the process. As I have told you, My plan for Myself, as Jesus, was a shameful, painful, drawn-out death. Thus I have more than general compassion for those who must die of cancer or some other deteriorating condition, including traumatic injuries. And yet My ordeal was relatively short, so I still haven’t had the truly drawn-out experience. I experienced both adulation in the Hosannas and humiliation in the cries of “Crucify him.” This was a test of even My Spirit.