Eternal Life: Update

SAT., JAN. 13, 1990, 6:22 AM
FARM, STUDY

I have not offered you a Teaching recently that has dealt specifically with the important but controversial theme of eternal life. Dorothy is in need of some reinforcement on this fact of life. I realize that you are personally comfortable with this view of human life, but are religiously uncomfortable because it is not part of the doctrine of your church. You shall have to continue to balance this difficulty.

Life in the spirit is eternal. I, the Holy Spirit, am eternal. I, as part of the Triune Godhead, always have been and always will be. From Me come manifestations… spirits in need of development. Just as a human baby is born with much need for development and just as that development is affected by the environment in which that small one grows, so each spirit can develop, but in myriad ways. Development is back toward Me, and this can be a long or a short process.

There are many realms in which spirits can develop. The earth is one such realm. And in this realm the most unique way for a spirit to “be” is as part of a human person. This is the maximum challenge for the development of a spirit… that can also be called the soul of that person. In human form there is much potential for growth of the spirit, but also the potential for regression. It is risky for a spirit to take human form… the riskiest spiritual experience.

In earlier times, including Biblical times, humans perceived the earth to be the center of the universe, with a sun, a moon and stars as useful or beautiful “appendages” to the earth. Now it is known that the earth is one planet, revolving around the sun, that there are many systems that may be like this knowable one, and that there are endless galaxies beyond this one. In somewhat like fashion humans tend to see spirit as having been created with each conception and then passing on to some passive reward or punishment when physical life ends. The expansion is to see that the spirit or soul in each human has many developmental experiences, one of which is this manifestation in human form.

Many spirits never take human form. Many others are in human form only once… or very occasionally. Then there are some who have come into the earth repeatedly, some for true growth experiences and some just for the challenge, for which a spirit may not be prepared. A few of you are aware of this process, with even some sense of your previous experiences in development. So humans are a diverse lot, spiritually, ranging from the very immature to fully developed spirits who are in the earth to serve, needing not to be here for any further development.

A human body is composed of the same elements that are present in all forms of life and of the inanimate features of the earth. Carbon is part of the air, the earth, insects, animals of all kinds, and humans. Carbon atoms are exchanged freely from animate to inanimate. Oxygen is necessary for human life. This comes from plants, who thrive on the carbon dioxide waste of humans. Thus, life, in its fundamental “building blocks,” is “eternal,” so far as earth life is concerned. Life is a constant recycling process. And so it is, in a somewhat similar way, with spirits.

If you know this you have certain advantages. Still, spirits can develop quite well without such perceptions. Most Christians do not have this perception and yet many serve Me quite well, hoping for a quiet, non-demanding heaven and hoping to avoid the punishment of an eternally painful hell.

Earth life is a challenge. Yours is not the challenge of handicap, of poverty, of ignorance, of a hostile environment. Yours was the challenge of teenage sons. Yours it the positive challenge of being a teacher who cares about the growth of those who come to learn. Yours is the challenge of accepting opportunities. And you may have the challenge of a broken economy, in your later years.