NEUOFFENBARUNG← Gifts of Heaven · Volume 1 · Contents
Unnecessary worries
24th May 1840
Question: May we not ask You, oh Father in Heaven, in childlike humility, that recruitment cease, whereby the man is taken away from the woman, the father from the children, the son from his parents, the citizen from his trade and the farmer from the cultivation of the fields, and often forced to a state in which few of Christianity is to be found. How long is this evil to last according to Your will? May it please You to demand a sacrifice from us, so that the hard yoke, the sight of which fills us with bitter melancholy, may be taken away by our brothers! But not ours, but Your holy will be done for all eternity!
[1] As your good, holy Father, I have joy at all times when you turn to Me in whatever matters. Only you do not have to ask Me for some foolish stuff to which I then would not like to give you an answer, because it would be senseless to encourage you in an error or superstition.
[2] But such questions are those about time determinations by year, day and hour! For see, I never determine a time for something, but always act according to the nature of the circumstances with people, like a father with children and as a God to the (world) people. Should I not then be cruel if I were to say: "In the next year I will let My judgment break out upon you" – and would certainly do so, even if you were radically reformed!? Well, judge for yourselves! And if I did not, would I not then be a bare liar! And how could this be reconciled with My Love and Holiness?
[3] For this true cause I will call upon all prophetic timekeepers and time calculators and in the end they will be shamed. And so it is not I, but people will unconsciously determine the time through their actions. And I will then come like a thief, when they will least expect it.
[4] A second such foolish question is: By what kind of sacrifice would I be persuaded to do something? Behold, such a question from My children hurts Me, because I see from it that they still look at Me as some kind of idol, instead of in all truth and love for their only good Holy Father who wants nothing from you but your childlike love. Your childlike love, that is the only sacrifice, your Father enjoys it and your God is most pleased with it!
[5] But as far as recruitment is concerned, it is not the greatest evil of all, but only a consequence of worldly love – and thus to be seen more as a consequence than as actual evil itself. And so is the soldiering, which will last as long as worldliness is born of human self-love… Therefore, you should not make so much of it for the sake of the recruits. For be completely assured that My children are never to bear arms because I am their weapon against all evil. And even if they would have to do the same as the children of the world, which will and can only rarely happen, believe Me, I will also be their Father and a strong God, as a sharp, invincible weapon.
[6] Look, there is very little to it, what you would be in the world as country people or guarantors of the cities, or soldiers, or princes, kings and emperors. What matters is how you would be – out of self-love or out of love of neighbor or out of My love in you (i.e. out of love for Me and out of it) for your neighbor.
[7] I am well aware that there is little religion to be found there (in the military profession), and that the excesses there are obviously worse than in the civil profession. But the punishment for this is also more severe than that of the citizens. And so many things are prevented, which often have free rein with the citizen.
[8] By the way, religion – as it is generally among you – is as good to Me as none at all. For where there is nothing, there still something can be built that can be good there. But where there is only
bad, there is little room for any good. But all worldly things are at the same time hellish, and therefore filled with all kinds of cruelty, whose reward sooner or later will not be lost, whether in the citizen or the soldier.
[9] However, My children shall not worry about anything! For I have much to give to the oppressed and needy, if they only want to come to Me. And those who have lost something in the world because of Me – one way or another – they will find it again infinitely one day in the bosom of their good, holy Father. Amen.