The Panoply Of Experiences

THURS., JAN. 6, 1983, 5:54 AM
FARM, FRONT OF FIRE

You were impressed this week, o son, with a small evidence of the varied panoply of experiences with spirit and with Me that are part of your American scene. And you know that if you considered the other cultures and sub-cultures in the earth today the scope would be ever wider. Your legitimate question is, “How do I fit in to all of this?” So that’s what We shall talk about this morning.

As you should suspect I am involved in all of these manifestations in some way or others. Remember that I have created this earth plane and it is fundamentally for humans, but I allow other spirits to be present and functioning also. All that happens in the earth is not directly pleasing to Me, but it is My choice not to be frantically involved with changing circumstances to fit My immediate will. Oh, of course I do intervene in some settings, mostly as an answer to prayer, but know also that prayers often oppose one another, so a result that seems to answer one prayer seems to reject another.

I can use what happens in the earth quite creatively. Also I have a perspective that is not limited by time or by any earth life. What appears to be tragedy or triumph, success or failure may ultimately be as it seems, neither one, or actually the opposite. This is something you, with your spiritual growth, can understand only dimly and in part. But you do better than most of your fellow Americans and Christians.

Just as you can observe a wide range and variety of “natural”, physical experiences in humans so is there a varied panoply of experiences involving spirit. As I have told you, I have called some to come to Me in one narrow way and that way only… and to denounce all deviations from this. Yes, that is of My doing… and it is like unto a parent who tells his children what he wants them to do, and how he wants them to live. One child follows the parent’s rules and style and desires religiously, even exhorting his siblings to do likewise. Others follow some of the dicta and fall short of others. One rejects the parents position and desire completely. Now what is the parent to do?

If his principles and way are good and well considered then it is legitimate for this parent to cast out all but the one who complies, saying, with righteousness, “I am the way and the truth. You can come to me only on my terms.” Yet to do so would violate the relationship of parent and child. That is a special and sacred relationship, not to be dissolved by differences in earth conduct, which may be of no great eventual consequence anyway. You have no son that has accepted all of your values and behaviors. Are they all to be cast out? Or are you to love them and rejoice quietly as each comes to a way that is like unto yours… but voluntarily and in his own time? The experience with Peter showed you that love for the one who is least like you and the most disobedient can be unusually strong.

From My perspective I smile more than I grieve over the panoply of experiences My children have. Some, surely, will come to naught and their earth experience will be wasted. But remember that life is continuous and more growth may occur “later” because of a flub in the earth. You know that such happens in earth life… a person comes to the Lord after years of rejecting and “living apart”… and the testimony may then be strong and ringing because of the contrast.