nl-Chapter 21 - God's Omnipotence, Omnipresence and Justice
The Power of God
1. If modern man, with all his science, is unable to subject the elements of nature to his will—how then could he impose his power upon the spiritual forces?
2. Just as the celestial bodies in the cosmos follow their immutable order, without the will of man being able to make them change their course or their destiny, so too can the order that exists in the spiritual realm not be altered by anyone.
3. I created day and night; that is to say, I am the light, and no one but I can hold it back. The same applies to the spiritual realm. (329, 31–33)
4. If you believe in Me, you may trust that My power is infinitely greater than the sin of mankind, and that therefore man and his life must be transformed as soon as sin gives way before the light of truth and justice.
5. Can you imagine life in this world once people do the will of God? (88, 59-60)
6. For Me, the repentance of a human being, his renewal, and his salvation cannot be impossible. I would then not be almighty, and man would be stronger than I. Do you consider My power to be inferior to the power that evil possesses in man? Do you regard the darkness in man as superior to the divine light? Never! say your hearts to Me.
7. Consider this: My task, having given you existence, is to lead you to perfection and to unite you all into a single spiritual family; and do not forget that My will is fulfilled above all else.
8. I, the Divine Sower, imperceptibly plant My seed of love in every soul. I alone know at what time this seed will sprout in all of humanity, and I alone am able to wait with infinite patience for the fruits of My works. (272, 17–19)
9. I do not wish to humble you with My greatness nor to boast of it, but I reveal it to you nonetheless, as far as it is My will, so that you may feel the highest joy in having as your Father a God of all power, wisdom, and perfection.
10. Rejoice at the thought that you will never witness the end of My power, and that the higher the development of your soul, the better you will come to know Me. Who could fail to be content with the knowledge that he will never attain the greatness of his Lord? Did you not, while on earth, accept being younger in years compared to your earthly father? Did you not willingly grant him experience and authority? Did you not rejoice to see that you had as a father a man stronger than yourselves—proud, brave, and full of virtues? (73, 41-42)
11. What is the power of men compared to My power? What can the opposition of materialistic peoples possibly accomplish against the infinite power of spiritualization? Nothing!
12. I have allowed man to go to the limits of his quest for power and to the height of his pride so that he himself may realize that the gift of free will, with which he was endowed by the Father, is a truth.
13. But when he has reached that limit, he will open his eyes to the light and love and bow before My presence, subdued by the one absolute power and the one universal wisdom, which is that of your God. (192, 53)
The Presence of God in All Creation
14. I have no specific or limited place where I dwell in the Infinite, for My presence is in all that exists, both in the Divine, as well as in the spiritual or the material. You cannot say in which direction My Kingdom lies; and when you lift your gaze to the heights and direct it toward heaven, you do so only symbolically. For your planet rotates ceaselessly, presenting you with new sections of the heavens and new heights with every movement.
15. With all this, I wish to tell you that there is no distance between you and Me, and that the only thing separating you from Me are your unlawful deeds, which you place between My perfect Law and your spirit.
16. The greater your purity, the more noble your deeds, and the more steadfast your faith, the closer, the more intimately, and the more responsive to your prayers you will feel Me to be.
17. Likewise: The more you distance yourselves from what is good, just, and lawful, and surrender to the materialism of a dark and selfish life, the more you will have to feel Me growing ever farther from you. The more your heart strays from the fulfillment of My law, the less sensitive it will become to My divine presence.
18. Understand why I am revealing My Word in this form at this time and preparing you for the dialogue from spirit to spirit.
19. Since you believed Me to be infinitely distant, you did not know how to come to Me. I have sought you out to make My divine presence tangible to you and to prove to you that there are no spaces or distances between the Father and His children that separate them. (37, 27-32)
20. If you think that I have left My throne to reveal Myself to you, you are mistaken; for that throne which you imagine does not exist. Thrones are for vain and arrogant people.
21. Since My Spirit is infinite and almighty, He does not dwell in any specific place: He is everywhere, in all places, in the spiritual and in the material. Where, then, is that throne you attribute to Me?
22. Stop attributing to Me a material, physical form on a throne like those on Earth; free Me from the human form you always ascribe to Me; stop dreaming of a heaven that your human mind cannot comprehend. When you free yourselves from all of this, it will be as if you were breaking the chains that bound you, as if a high wall were crumbling before your eyes, as if a thick fog were lifting and allowing you to behold a boundless horizon and an infinite, radiant firmament—one that is, however, accessible to your spirit.
23. Some say: God is in heaven; others: God dwells in the hereafter. But they do not know what they are saying, nor do they understand what they believe. It is true that I "dwell" in heaven; but not in the specific place you have imagined: I dwell in the heaven of light, of power, of love, of wisdom, of justice, of bliss, of perfection. (130, 30, 35–36)
24. My universal presence fills all things; there is no void in any place or realm of the universe; all is permeated by Me. (309, 3)
25. I have told you that I am so close to you that I know even the most secret of your thoughts, that I am everywhere you are, for I am omnipresent. I am the Light that illuminates your mind through inspirations or luminous ideas.
26. I am within you, for I am the Spirit that animates you, the conscience that judges you. I am in your senses and in your body, for I am in all of creation.
27. Feel Me more and more within you and in all that surrounds you, so that when the moment comes to leave this world, you may enter fully into spiritual life, and there be no disturbance in your soul from the impressions the sensory world might leave behind; and you may draw one step closer to Me, who am the Source of infinite purity from which you shall drink eternally. (180, 50–52)
28. Do you know what the origin is of that light contained in the words spoken by the lips of the messengers? Its origin is in goodness, in divine love, in the universal light that emanates from God. It is a ray or a spark of that luminous All-Being that gives you life; it is a part of the infinite power that moves all things and under which everything vibrates, stirs, and ceaselessly moves in its circles. It is what you call divine radiance; it is the light of the Divine Spirit that enlightens and enlivens souls.
29. That radiance influences both the soul and the body, both the worlds and the people, the plants, and all beings of creation. It is spiritual for the spirit, material for matter, intelligence for the faculty of reason, and love in the hearts. It is knowledge, talent, and self-reflection; it is instinct and intuition, and it stands above the senses of all beings according to their order, nature, kind, and degree of development. But the origin is one: God; and its essence is one: love. What, then, could be impossible about My enlightening the minds of these creatures to send you a message of spiritual light?
30. The plants receive the life-giving radiance that My Spirit sends them so that they may bear fruit. The stars receive the power that My Spirit radiates upon them so that they may orbit in their paths. The Earth, which is the present, living testimony accessible to all your senses, ceaselessly receives the radiance of life that brings forth so many wonders from its bosom. Why, then, should it be impossible for man—in whose being the presence of a Spirit shines like a jewel, in which his likeness to Me is founded—to receive directly from My Spirit to his own Spirit the divine radiance, which is the spiritual seed destined to bear fruit within him? (329, 42–44)
31. Not a single one of your sighs will go unheard in Heaven; every prayer finds its echo in Me; none of your sorrows or life crises go unnoticed by My Fatherly love. 280 Chapter 21 I know all, I hear all, I see all, and I am present in all.
32. Because people believe that I have withdrawn from them because of their sins, they ultimately feel distant from Me. O human ignorance, which has brought so much bitterness to their lips! Know that if I were to withdraw from any of My creatures, it would instantly cease to exist. Yet this has not happened, nor will it happen, for when I gave you the Spirit, I endowed you all with eternal life. (108, 44-45)
Turning points
33. Do not curse the trials that afflict you and all of humanity; do not say that they are God's punishment, wrath, or vengeance, for then you blaspheme. I tell you that it is precisely these afflictions that bring humanity ever closer to the saving harbor.
34. Call them justice, atonement, or lessons, and it will be accurate and correct. Wrath and vengeance are human passions characteristic of such beings— —who are still far from peace of mind, harmony, and perfection. It is not just that you should give my love for you—which governs all my works—the vulgar name "punishment" or the unworthy name "vengeance."
35. Consider that you have voluntarily set out on thorny paths or into dark abysses, and that you have not heeded My loving call nor listened to the voice of your conscience; therefore, it became necessary for pain to come to your aid to awaken you, to halt you, to bring you to your senses, and to lead you back to the true path. (181, 6-8)
36. I do not punish you; but I am Justice, and as such I let everyone who violates My commandments feel it. For the Eternal One has made His law known to you, which no one can alter.
37. Behold how man laments in a severe trial, when he plunges into an immeasurably deep abyss, when he sees his wife weeping at the loss of beloved ones, the children deprived of their sustenance, and the homes sinking into misery and sorrow. He is dismayed by his misfortune; he despairs; yet instead of praying and repenting of his sins, he rebels against Me and says, "How is it possible that God chastises me in this way?" while the Divine Spirit, in truth, also sheds tears because of the pain of His children, and His tears are the blood of love, forgiveness, and life.
38. Truly, I tell you: Given the stage of development humanity has reached, the improvement of its situation at this time does not depend solely on My mercy. It is a victim of itself, but not of My punishment. For My law and My light shine within every conscience.
39. My justice descends to uproot every weed* by the root, and even the forces of nature reveal themselves as executors of this justice. Then it seems as though everything is uniting to exterminate humanity, even though it is meant to serve its purification. But some are led astray by this and say, "If we have to endure such great pain—why do we come into this world at all?" without considering that pain and sin do not come from Me.
* From another, similar saying of Christ, it is clear that this "weeds" does not refer to people, but to their evil and vicious instincts and inclinations.
40. Man is responsible for remaining ignorant of what justice and atonement are. Hence comes first his rebellion and then his blasphemy. Only he who has studied My teaching and observes My law is no longer capable of accusing his Father. (242, 19-21)
The Justice of God
41. You are like shrubs that sometimes have branches so dry and diseased that they require a painful pruning to remove their diseased parts so that they may recover.
42. When my justice of love removes from the human tree the diseased branches that harm his heart, it restores him.
43. When a person is to have a limb of his body cut off, he sighs, trembles, and becomes fearful, even though he knows it is done to remove what is diseased, what is dead, and what threatens what can still live.
44. Even roses, when pruned, shed their sap like tears of pain; but afterward they cover themselves with the most beautiful blossoms.
45. My love prunes the evil in the hearts of My children in an infinitely higher way, whereby I sometimes sacrifice Myself.
46. When people crucified Me, I covered my executioners with my goodness and my forgiveness and gave them life. With my words and in my silence, I filled them with light; I defended and saved them. Thus I prune away evil, I ward it off through my love, and I defend and save the evildoer. Those acts of forgiveness were, still are, and will forever be sources of salvation. (248, 5)
47. I cannot pass judgment on you that is heavier than the weight of your transgressions. Therefore, I tell you that you have nothing to fear from Me, but from yourselves.
48. I alone know the gravity, the magnitude, and the significance of your transgressions. People are constantly swayed by outward appearances, for they are unable to penetrate the hearts of their neighbors. I, on the other hand, look into hearts and can tell you that people have come to Me who have accused themselves of grave transgressions and who were full of remorse because they had offended Me, yet I found them pure. In contrast, others have come and told Me that they have never done anything evil to anyone, yet I knew they were lying. For although their hands have not been stained with the blood of their neighbor, the blood of their victims—whose lives they had ordered to be taken—has flowed down upon their souls. They are those who cast the stone while hiding their hand. When I have uttered the words "coward," "false," or "traitor" in My message, their very being has trembled, and often they have turned away from My lesson because they felt a gaze upon them that judged them. (159, 42-43)
49. If the greatest love of the Father were not present in divine justice, if His justice did not have this origin, this humanity would no longer exist; its sin and its ceaseless transgressions would have exhausted divine patience; but this has not happened. Humanity continues to live, souls still incarnate, and at every turn, in every human work, My justice is manifested, which is love and infinite mercy. (258, 3)
50. Ponder My Word, so that you may not, like many, be led astray by the acts of My divine justice when I punish with severity those who commit only a slight transgression, and conversely seem to forgive those who have committed a grave offense.
51. The Master tells you: When I punish with severity those who, on the surface, have committed only a minor transgression, it is because I know the weakness of souls, and when they stray from the path of fulfilling the law, it can be the first step leading them to ruin. Yet when I overlook a grave offense in others, it is because I know that a great transgression is, for the soul, a cause for equally great repentance.
52. Do not judge, do not condemn, do not even wish in your thoughts that My justice should fall upon those who cause bloodshed among the peoples. Think only that they, like you, are also My children, My creatures, and that they will have to atone for their great crimes with great acts of reparation. Truly, I tell you: Precisely those whom you point to as having mercilessly destroyed peace and plunged you into chaos will, in the times to come, become the great peacemakers, the great benefactors of humanity.
53. The blood of millions of victims cries out from the earth for My divine justice, yet beyond human justice, it will be Mine that reaches every soul, every heart.
54. Human justice does not forgive, does not redeem, does not love. Mine loves, forgives, redeems, brings to new life, uplifts, and enlightens; and it is precisely those who have caused so much pain to humanity that I will redeem and save, by letting them pass through their great atonement, which will be the crucible in which they are purified and become fully awake to the voice of their conscience, so that they may look into the very depths of their deeds. I will make them walk the same path that they made their victims, their peoples, walk. But eventually they will attain the spiritual purity to be able to return to the earth, to rebuild all that has been destroyed, to restore all that has been laid waste. (309, 16–18)
55. You must know that your Father does not judge you only when death comes to you, but that this judgment begins as soon as you become aware of your deeds and feel the call of your conscience.
56. My judgment is always upon you. At every turn, whether in human life or in your spiritual life, you are subject to My judgment; but here in the world, within the physical body, the soul becomes insensitive and deaf to the calls of conscience.
57. I judge you in order to help you open your eyes to the light, to free you from sin, and to deliver you from pain.
58. In My judgment, I never hold against you the offenses you may have committed against Me, for in My judgment there is never any resentment, vengeance, or even punishment.
59. When pain penetrates your heart and strikes you in your most vulnerable spot, it is to point out some error you are committing, to help you understand My instruction, and to impart a new and wise lesson to you. At the root of each of these trials, My love is always present.
60. On some occasions I have allowed you to understand the cause of a trial; on others, you cannot find the meaning of that warning from My justice, and this is because there are deep mysteries in the Father's work and in the life of your soul that the human mind cannot unravel. (23, 13–17)
61. Long gone is the time when you were told: "With the measure you use, you will be measured." How often has that law been used to take revenge here on earth and to set aside every feeling of charity!
62. Now I tell you that I have taken up this yardstick of justice and will measure you with it according to how you have measured, though I must add by way of explanation that in each of My judgments the Father will be present, who loves you dearly, and the Redeemer, who has come for your salvation.
63. It is man who passes judgment upon himself through his deeds—terrible judgments at times—and it is your Lord who provides you with help so that you may find the way to bear your atonement.
64. Truly, I tell you, if you wish to avoid an overly painful atonement, repent in time and give your life a new direction through a sincere renewal, with works of love and mercy for your brothers.
65. Understand that I am the gate of salvation—the gate that will never be closed to all who seek Me with true faith. (23:19–23)
66. Now you see that divine justice consists of love, not of punishment as yours does. What would become of you if I were to apply your own laws to judge you—before Me, before whom no outward appearance nor false arguments hold any weight?
67. If I were to judge you according to your wickedness and apply your terribly harsh laws—what would become of you? Then you would rightly ask Me to show mercy.
68. Yet you need not fear, for My love never fades, nor does it change, nor does it pass away. You, on the other hand, will certainly pass away; you die and are born again; you go and then return, and thus you walk your pilgrimage until the day comes when you recognize your Father and submit yourselves to His divine law. (17, 53)