NEUOFFENBARUNGDeutscher Text · Book contents
12 February 1844, evening
[Ste.01_030,01] ‘And I send the promise of My Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high!’
[Ste.01_030,02] This verse already shows openly in its literal meaning what it carries within. In that respect it is like a friendly man who, so to speak, comes to meet his friends carrying his heart on his open hand. It is hardly possible to mistake him, and at first glance everyone can tell what this friendly man has in mind.
[Ste.01_030,03] It is just the same with this text, as I have said. For when the Son ascends, the promise of the Father comes in its fullness to those who, in true hope born of love, waited for that promise.
[Ste.01_030,04] But what does the ascent of the Son signify, that the Father's promise should thereby be sent to those who wait and to the witnesses? You know what is meant by ‘Son’, namely the Father's wisdom. Accordingly, everything in each person that belongs to wisdom corresponds to the Son. Such things are the understanding, reason, and every kind of learning and knowledge.
[Ste.01_030,05] Yet in each person what belongs to wisdom must also pass through that humbling, that crucifixion as it were. It must then be laid as though slain in a new tomb in the heart, rise again from there, and, giving and offering itself wholly to the Father, ascend to become one with the Father.
[Ste.01_030,06] Only when this has happened will the promise of the Father, which is eternal life, become manifest in the person's life. This is the act of rebirth.
[Ste.01_030,07] But baptism with the Spirit of power does not take place at the same time as this act. Likewise, no one should baptise a child as soon as it is born, but at least a few days afterwards. So it was customary among the Jews for this to take place no earlier than the eighth, tenth or twelfth day. Sometimes, however, the baptism of circumcision took place much later. Here, too, the apostles and disciples are told to remain together in the city for a time after My ascension, until the power from on high comes upon them.
[Ste.01_030,08] Everyone should take heed of this state and venture out only after receiving the baptism of the Spirit. Without it the reborn spirit is like a weak child, as pure as an angel in every respect, yet lacking the power to act and the free insight necessary for it.
[Ste.01_030,09] You know that the power from on high came down upon the disciples and apostles on the tenth day after the ascension. What does this signify? It signifies and bears witness to the complete subjection of the ten commandments of Moses within the life of the spirit that has become free. Thus the spirit must first be freed from all shackles and bonds before it can put on the garment of divine power from on high.
[Ste.01_030,10] When this power has come upon it, it is wholly a new creature out of the Spirit of love and all the power that comes from love. Only then can it act in the full power of divine love and mercy. For it is only through such a baptism of the Holy Spirit from on high that a person is released from all the bonds of death and becomes one with and in Christ. Then they too can say, ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me! I myself am no longer my own self. Christ Himself is the self within me!’
[Ste.01_030,11] So, as was already shown, all that corresponds to the Son in a person must first go the way of the Son of Man. To each of you it is irrevocably said, ‘Take up your cross and follow Me, or you cannot attain resurrection and ascension to the Father!’
[Ste.01_030,12] And this again fits our subject exactly. No one can attain rebirth and the baptism of the Holy Spirit by cultivating the understanding in many directions with the aid of well-stocked libraries and pompous university professors. It comes solely through humility and great love in the heart.
[Ste.01_030,13] People must give back to the world all that they have from it, down to the last penny, including the learning in their heads that makes them proud. Otherwise there will be precious little hope of rebirth and the baptism of their spirit with power.
[Ste.01_030,14] Never suppose that someone will immediately enter the kingdom of heaven simply because they have given all their wealth to the poor, if they should still think to themselves and say, ‘Lord! As I have been merciful, be merciful to me also!’ Whoever speaks this way still lacks a great deal of the kingdom of God. For that person and Christ are still plainly two, and the one is, as it were, setting what they think are fair terms for the other.
[Ste.01_030,15] I am always the poorest among you. In plain words, what is most needy and poorest in every person is the true vital power of the heart. This must first be endowed in full measure if any gift made outwardly is to have value. In other words, your heart must become fully alive from love for Me. I Myself must be the whole of your love. Only then can you do what is truly meritorious for eternal life out of this love, because the merit belongs to Me alone. You remain simply the recipients of My love, grace and mercy.
[Ste.01_030,16] For so long as someone still says, ‘I have done this, and I have given that,’ that person is far from the one who says, ‘I have always been an idle and unprofitable servant!’ and so is still far from My kingdom. Only when a person confesses this livingly within and says, ‘Lord, my God and Father! In all things I am nothing, just as all people are nothing before You. You alone are all in all!’ is that person near My kingdom, and My kingdom has come near to them.
[Ste.01_030,17] In the same way, heed all that you are told here, and you too will attain the ascension and the baptism with the power of My Spirit. For the Father's promise is being sent to you also this very moment. Amen.