Who Am I?

WED., JAN. 18, 1995, 9:12 AM
OFFICE, PULLIAM HALL

Your early morning breakfast group reconvened today, and the presentation and discussion was interesting enough to Me, the Holy Spirit, that I shall comment. From this should come better understanding of Me and of the important message I sent forth through My servant, Paul, of old.

As I have told you before, and as the Scriptures indicate clearly, I selected Saul, who became Paul, for an important task. He would never have thought of doing the job I gave him on his own. Theoretically he had a choice. Actually, I wouldn’t take no for an answer.

The action had been taken to be the basis for a fine religion, a super way of coming to Me. I had come to earth, as Jesus. I had lived as a baptized preacher, teacher, and healer. In My life I demonstrated ways to live lovingly. In My preaching and in My parables I offered the most valuable insights on life. Yet one terrible action remained. I had to die in order for life to be eternal. Now this is symbolic, of course, because life, in the spirit, was eternal from “the beginning.”

I, as Holy Spirit, was “from the beginning,” but symbolically, in your tradition, I came on or at Pentecost. So, as a symbol, I had to die, and I had to do it willingly and lovingly. But it was a long and painful dying process, and I was a human, who felt the pain, as I was supposed to. I then died, but rose again on the third day, and came to My disciples. They were good men, but My teaching had not penetrated sufficiently, and I determined that they would not be able to create a lasting church, which, then, would symbolize My Spiritual Body.

So I selected Paul, and he did a creditable job, even as I had to keep electing others to carry on the developmental task. I certainly influenced Paul, and I gave him words to say and to write… in his letters, several of which became Holy Scripture. But I allowed some of his own thoughts and interpretations to be included… and also become Holy Scripture. And I still like the way it has come out, and how it “plays” today. Paul says that his way is the only way, which becomes an important part of the spiritual diversity that I truly like.

Remember, also, that your favorite way of thinking in your culture tips toward the either/or. Something cannot be and not be “at the same time.” If “I am the only way”, there can be no other. I cannot be limited to such an interpretation. I am the only way…and there are many others. How about that?

I am the ultimate Source of all spirit and all manifestations of spirit, even the evil and undesirable ones (apparently). I like diversity, even as ways seem competitive with one another. Paul was the way I used to establish My Body among gentiles. Later I used Mohammed to write down another Holy Book for another group of My people. Other ways of relating to Me were already nurturing spirits in other portions of the earth, who were not part of the Biblical story, except in a general, abstract way.