1 GUIDE COMMENT: I would like to talk about the tests. There is hardly any group of people, be it a family or any other community, where at least one human soul will not be still so low in its development that that person becomes the plaything of the Forces of Darkness.

2 GUIDE COMMENT: Moreover, you always cling to the false belief that death and pain are the worst things that can happen to you. I refer here to physical death, which must certainly not be considered as punishment. Spiritual death is the worst, and it stands at the end of the road of least resistance.

QUESTION: What is spiritual death?

ANSWER: Spiritual death is to give yourself over to the Forces of Darkness, consciously or unconsciously, that is, to cut yourself off from God’s world. Thus there are not only spirits who are separated from God, but also people. They will not join his ranks because they prefer to walk the road of least resistance and to give in to their weaknesses. Thus they belong to the land of the dead. This is spiritual death. But in no way is this state eternal.

2 QUESTION: Why is it that one feels abandoned by God, that one finds oneself without assistance from the higher spheres, just when one goes through the most difficult times?

ANSWER: This is often so. When you are tested, at first you learn how to attain your goal with the help of spiritual protection. Then this protective influence will step somewhat aside and you are left to yourself, at an equal distance, so to speak, from the divine and the dark forces. You have to stand your ground alone, and act right out of your own will.

Then, when you have withstood the test, the dark forces will be periodically allowed to get quite close to you – though divine love is always close by, watching that everything goes well – so that you can stand your ground even better. Only then are you strong enough so that God can fully count on you; only then can you be sure that you have attained mastery over your lower self, over your weaknesses that needed exactly this kind of testing. This is the process.

Then, in the so-called favorable periods, you gather new strength for the next period of testing, and can enjoy the fruits of what you have already achieved.

It is up to every human being to avail themselves of the weapons of spiritual law and fight with them. No evil spirit, be it the most powerful, can do anything to you unless you allow it. The moment you fight your lower self, you protect yourself completely. This is what you must do: fight the battle! This is not too much to ask of you.

The times when human beings feel alone come only when they are ready to use their will to stand up for themselves without help. Your inner will is always a most important factor, but never will more be expected of you than you are able to accomplish.

9 GUIDE COMMENT: No devil, no Satan, could get at you, if you did not have something in you that responded. When you pray that God keep Satan away from you, you are therefore in error. For in you, in your lower self, in the crust that envelops your perfect self, lies the germ through which you can be led into temptation.

The dark forces serve as instruments to draw it out, to bring it into your awareness, so that you can fight it. If the germ of evil lay dormant, if it had no opportunity to manifest, you would not come one step nearer to perfection, to true bliss.

QA247 GUIDE COMMENT: I want to tell you all that this time of crisis is, once again, as so many times before, a time of cleansing. Those who allow the process of inner cleansing through what is being stirred up, will emerge stronger, more purified, lighter, and so much more full of joy and peace. Those who ally themselves unwittingly with the Forces of Darkness, and fail to summon the inner will to be in truth, will have to come to this point again and again in their incarnatory cycle, until they learn to master this obstacle in their soul.

Many of you resent disturbances of any sort, upheaval, crisis, and the pain and fear that are surfacing through them. There is an unrealistic picture about what life should be like. The attitude is that if all were really right with the Path – and/or their leaders and/or themselves – upheaval would not happen. This is a severe misunderstanding of life.

You live on this Earth, which expresses both good and evil, truth and untruth, joy and suffering, because your own inner beings still express both these sides. Therefore, it is inevitable that you must attract both kinds of events – joyous and painful. You need to learn from both.

Both are not only a result of your inner states, but also an opportunity for your liberation and transformation. Human beings who are not yet ready to undertake purification work such as this Path gives, will experience the same alternation of pleasurable or unpleasurable events. Often these events are experienced without understanding.

Many of you believe that you who work in this deeply intense way, should be exempt from painful experiences. In fact you feel that the Path betrays you when they still occur. You fail to realize that the more your commitment to truth, to the love for Jesus Christ, is expressed and acted on, the more the forces of evil try to influence you so as to desist from this commitment.

They are threatened precisely when you mean and live the truth. It is a covenant between the heavenly forces and the Forces of Darkness to allow their emergence at times, to a certain degree. I have said this a long time ago. As long as there remains the slightest lesson to be learned, you must be somehow affected by the forces of evil.

It is up to you what you make of it. And even if there should remain no further lesson to be learned for any one specific individual, painful incidents must still occur. The forces of evil can still attempt to rage among you and stir up what finally needs to be met anyway. Assumption that this should not happen is dangerous and leads to erroneous doubts. This is exactly what the satanic forces want.

It will always happen that someone you loved and trusted, sometimes one you least expect it from, will suddenly leave this Path, in terror of their own lower self and the exaggerated meaning they attach to it in terms of self-value in the ultimate sense. You have to learn to go through this pain. You have to learn to realistically expect it, as part of your life. And you will, of course, learn whatever lesson each of you, as individuals, as well as the community as a whole, has to learn. You are given all the blessings, all the guidance and help, you need to do this.

In the next lecture [Lecture #248 Three Principles of the Forces of Evil – Personification of Evil], it has been planned in our world to discuss once again, in a new approach, the reality of evil on your sphere of consciousness. This too will help you to deal with whatever life brings you. For now, I just want to say to you one more thing: yes, try to learn whatever lesson there may be contained in these events for each one of you.

But beware of the danger of overdramatizing, of investing too much energy into this event. You may become too attached to this event and its ramifications, which again plays right into the hands of the evil spirits who try to distract you from the course you take. Let go and continue with your work, with your tasks, with your lives.

Never forget that we are always there with you, no matter how close the dark spirits are allowed to come to you at certain times. We watch over you and see to it that they can never overstep their line. The last word is always you! Do you permit yourself to know where your thoughts and decisions come from? Do you wish to listen to these voices, or perhaps to turn to the voice that is at times more removed and harder to discern?

At such times you need to assert your will to remain with God and serve him even stronger. You need to question the easiest way that comes to you. When you do this, you will always triumph, as God must finally triumph over Satan. The light of Christ is the strongest there is, and with it, you must be safe. Be blessed!

QA257 QUESTION: I have a recurring experience during sleep in which I suddenly wake up in my mind, but not my body, with the feeling that another force is trying to get control of me. It feels as if something is pulling me down into unconsciousness, and the only way to combat it is to force myself into full wakefulness.

Sometimes this is easy and sometimes it’s a struggle that leaves me shaken and frightened. This has been happening for many years. I used to think it was just a dream; now I suppose that there may be an entity involved, but if so, I’m not clear what it wants or why it comes. Please help me to understand this experience and why I keep attracting it.

ANSWER: Whatever forces come near you cannot have power over you if you free yourself from your own fears. My advice to you, in this respect, is to directly transform this fear of spirits – of dark forces – into love, help and self-affirmation. Before going to sleep and/or upon waking up at such occasions, pray for those who are in darkness. Speak to them. Instruct them that they need to search for the light, that they can be helped in their suffering – that there is a way out.

Tell them in no uncertain terms that there is nothing they can do to you because you belong wholly and totally to Jesus Christ, whom you follow, in his footsteps. They can never have power over you. Make this clear to them. The more you do this, the stronger and safer you will feel, and soon these incidents will cease.

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