Gifts of Heaven · Volume 1 · Chapter 161

Natural and spiritual house renovation

26th June 1841, from 3:45 pm.

Writer: K. G. L. – Andr. and Ans. H. – Question: J. G. asks for information about whether and to what extent we are in the company of a patron spirit ("patron saint"). To this the Lord graciously answered through His servant J. L. the following:

1 Depending on the belief in people, so is the effect of the same. Because faith is that powerful bond through which the body, soul and spirit are connected to one another.

[2] But there cannot possibly be an effect in the physical world that is not based in the spiritual. If someone feels any need, i.e. as long as he himself is naturally in touch with the natural world, he immediately seeks some means that would help meet his needs. But since every person is necessarily only natural in his initial existence, he knows little about the spiritual, he still does not see it, nor hears it – and that because, as said, he himself is still natural.

[3] But just as everything natural is frail, so too is man in body.

[4] What do you think a landlord does when his house shows fractures or other defects that make him fear that, if he does not remedy this immediately, the house will ultimately become so dilapitated that it will not be able to withstand even a small shock ? Will the master of the house not reach out to the means to restore his house to it’s proper strength? He will certainly do this as long as he is not tepid and takes note of the defective condition of his house.

[5] What method do you think this master of the house would like to use? It should not take you long to guess, and you will soon find him, as he is having his house examined by a building expert. But when the building manager says to the landlord: “Listen, my friend! Your house is looking bad! Because the fault that shows up on the walls comes from a bad cause. What use is it to you if I have the cracked walls covered with mortar and plaster it from the outside as well as the inside !? If a very slight quake will come, it will bury you and yours under the rubble."

[6] But when the master of the house hears such evil testimony from the builder, he becomes fainthearted about the great wickedness of his house, and gives advice to himself: "What shall I do now? Shall I believe this expert in building, tear down the house completely and build a new one from the bottom up, which is connected with considerable expenses? Or should I call in other experts in this field and leave my leaky house to further investigations?

[7] After considering thus, he deliberates with himself: “As for the first advice of the building expert, it is true in and of itself. But if it is a matter of building a new house, it is no use to repair this leak. Because a new house can be built elsewhere; But here it is a matter of the necessary repair of the existing damaged one!"

[8] So a new consultation is started, not just one, but several builders are called in. But now some decide like the first. Others, however, suggest ways in which this house can be restored so that it becomes as solid as a new one, from a solid foundation.

[9] What advice do you think the master of the house will approve of? Certainly for none other than the second council.

[10] Now behold, the body of every man is nothing but a moving house of the spirit.

[11] This house is often threatened by manifold dangers. These dangers are, so to speak, already real cracks in the house or are so placed that the house, by virtue of the experiences at other houses, would receive some life-threatening cracks.

[12] Since the natural man sees such things, what is more natural than that he consults with all kinds of people, in which way he could easily restore his already craggy house, as if it were a new one, or, when he sees other craggy houses from his still uncraggy one, he then thinks how he would like to protect his house from damage.

[13] He too turns first – according to the advice of the word that I have spoken to all people – to Me as the chief builder. But this master-builder demands that the rotten house be torn down completely and that a new and solid one be built from the ground up in it’s place.

[14] But such advice costs the owner too much. Therefore he also turns to other, at least in his opinion, building experts. Many of them advise him like the master-builder, which is why they don't have his approval. Others, however, who do not hold fast and undoubtedly to the word with the great master- builder, give him the advice of mending, so that he can maintain and fortify his house like a new one – whatever advice the deceived house master takes first.

[15] But what do you think, is this advice good advice? It is certainly good for the owner of the house, since it is in accordance with his desire. In itself, however, it is not good, because the house only seems to be solid, but is not really solid.

[16] Behold here the effect of faith! This bond now connects the homeowner with the needs of the house itself and with the help of the house, which is not at all too costly for him. But as faith, so also help! But ask yourselves, how does such a thing look like with Me?

[17] I will give you a little parable, and it is to serve you as a spiritual mirror, in which you are to see the image of a cost-shy householder, as it costs him a far greater effort and work in the end if he plasters his house, instead of wanting to break it down immediately and build a new, strong house under the direction of the great builder.

[18] Now this is the parable: Someone is in the fullest, most convinced consciousness that the monarch of a state is such a condescending, good man, according to which everyone who seeks something from him, receives it without any further complaint. In spite of this knowledge, however, the needy man does not dare to come to the threshold of the monarch, but creeps about among all the courtiers, who at last make it more difficult for him to gain access to the monarch, so that it seems to him a flat impossibility ever to reach the monarch, and still less to receive anything from him.

[19] So he stops with the courtiers and looks for everything with them and corresponds with the monarch in the most incomprehensible crawling.

[20] But the monarch sees such timidity; and, so that the supplicant should experience no compulsion, he lets it stop at this humble servility, too, until the time comes when it becomes too colorful for the monarch, that in spite of all his unlimited goodness and condescension, the poor people may be tempted to shy away from the chief helper through other profit-seeking brokers – and to seek help from them, who can never help, and, if they could, do not want to help, because they are selfish, and also not because the monarch would look badly at them if they would presume something that was, is, and will always be, only the monarch's own affair.

[21] Behold, as this parable shows, so it stands with the man who seeks help somewhere else than with Me alone.