Good Friday – Teachings of the Spirit

April 4, 1980, 12:00

Yes, o son, I have called you to hear My voice at this time on this day. It is well that you hear My calls to you and are able to respond as I desire. It was not chance that brought you and your letter to Bob together again this morning. That shall be part of what we talk about today.

Tradition calls this Good Friday, the commemoration of My earthly suffering as Jesus. There was a way in which I suffered, and another in which I saw, and felt, and appreciated the suffering as Holy Other. As in many things it was both/and rather than either/or. I am apart from you, yet dwell permanently within you. You pray to Me, yet I am basic to any sincere prayer. No one really prays effectively by themselves alone.

So I experienced the suffering and the death on this day in several ways. I was the sufferer. I was the Comforter, and I was the Father and the Power and the Glory to which I called and who then lifted Me up. Does this sound as though I am All in All? That, too, is an absolute… the prime one for today.

The rhythm that is life now manifests itself visibly and spiritually. I died this day, and life was dormant… not dead, but dormant. Then came Easter morn, and life was renewed and restored. That was a great and symbolic time. It was one of My finest times. It is certainly one to remember and to celebrate. It should never grow old in the celebrating and in the retelling.

But know, of course, that the spiritual significance and truth goes quite beyond the physical, earthly analogy. For with this act, which began on this day, came Grace, the guarantee that there would be no more apartness from Me. You are so right in your insistence that Grace is an absolute. Though it wasn’t identified until later, it commenced from this Friday. It is the absolute acceptance of you as My Son, an absolute adoption to be a Son like unto Jesus. You shall be better for that, but not perfect as the world judges. But you are perfect as Jesus was perfect – by definition, proclamation, and acceptance.

It is not your task, responsibility or role to act like a Christian… or like Me, as Jesus. It is your eternal opportunity to act like one who is saved, redeemed, transformed, under Grace. It is a gift, with no strings attached. It is My gamble that those who accept this gift will feel and live in ways in more harmony with Me.

Duane’s sermon on Transfiguration expressed some other important truth. You hear My voice and you know what I expect, and still you fall away. (You thought yesterday of My stern admonition about new order… in juxtaposition with the state of your office and desk there. Yes, that is unnerving). Still, the absolute is that you will return and I will accept you again, fresh and new and clean. No qualifications.

Good Friday is both failure and triumph. It was death, but it also was the commencement of the new life, with grace included. You experienced failure, but it was the commencement of other tasks more appropriate to My Purposes. Good Friday and Easter are part of the rhythm. Feel it. And feel the comparable tides in your life.

You felt the surge and the ebb of money this morning in one tidal time. This has been a continuing experience, and it ever-more shall be. Do not cease to feel the exaltation and the depression. Just know that it is part of an everlasting rhythm… to be and yet ever new, at the same time.

The other critical truth symbolized by this time is that of My Absolute Sovereignty. Good Friday seemed to be a triumph for the forces of evil, but it was not. My Will and My Power prevailed then, and it does so now and shall, forever more. My Ways are not always straightforward and clearly discernible to you and to most humans, particularly non-Christians. But My Will is being done, and the rhythm of My Kingdom, manifest and non-manifest, is satisfactory to Me.

So ponder this Day and this Time. It is important to contemplate and to experience. Feel the surge of life. Hear My guidance. Appreciate your reactions to the happenings of life. Know that you will have your Good Fridays and your Easters… and the times between. My Grace is sufficient as a motivator of being. As you fall away, always return, feeling My presence, both within and without.

Celebrate life as it comes and as you create it… or co-create it with Me.

A premature Hallelujah! Amen

1:03 PM