1 Corinthians 13:12 – Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror;then we shall see face to face.Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
So while in the physical body, our knowledge and experience of God is limited, though it increases as we grow in the Divine Love and with it in soul perceptions. At death, we will shed the bodies of flesh and retain our spirit bodies. Their brightness or otherwise will correspond to our soul condition. The more our soul is developed in the Divine Love, the more glorious our spirit body. Even when our soul transformation is complete, there will be no limit to our growth in the Divine Love and corresponding glory.
As children of God, we are also brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 2:11-12). He is the pioneer of our salvation and the first to have reached the Celestial Kingdom, whereof he is the Master. He is the most developed spirit in the Divine Love and closest to the fountainhead of God.
While our transformed souls become one in essence with the Love of the Great Soul, it does not mean that we become God as the Father is God. It does mean that the quality of Love possessed by our transformed souls is such that we will never experience death. We will not receive all of God’s attributes, such as omniscience and omnipotence. This way the Father will always remain the one and only God. Even Jesus is not God, but only one, and the first, of God’s children in the divine sense, with many to follow.
From TGRABJ/2/320, paraphrased, we learn regarding our ultimate status in relation to God: All partake of God’s Divine Being – his attributes – but there is a difference in the workings and scope of the operations of the various divine attributes. The divine is that which has in it, to a sufficient degree, the very substance and essence of God Himself. Divinity belongs to God alone, and can be possessed by spirits or mortals only when He has transfused into their souls a portion of this divinity, and to that extent made them a part of Himself. Nothing in the universe is divine or partakes of the divine except that which is of the soul, for all else is of the material, and this even when it has the form or appearance of the spirit. Even the soul, as created, is not divine and cannot become such, until it is transformed into the divine by the transfusion into it of divine substance. Many souls in the spirit world, although pure and in harmony with their created condition, are not divine. They cannot become such because they do not desire and seek divinity in the only way provided by the Father.
God’s creations are no more a part of God or divine than human creations are a part of their creator or human. God is wholly divine as are all His attributes – which may be separated in their workings and bestowals. The person or soul that is the recipient of one of God’s qualities is not necessarily the recipient of the others.
Omnipotence and omniscience are never given to humans or spirits – God remains their exclusive possessor, although in all His attributes there are powers and knowledge. While humans may receive one of the divine attributes, this does not make them Deity. There is and can be only one God, although He may give of His essence and substance, so that an individual can become as He is in that essence and substance, to the extent that it is bestowed.
As regards human salvation and happiness, the greatest of God’s attributes is His Divine Love, which is the only one that can bring the souls of humans into a oneness in nature with the Father, and which contains the quality of immortality. This Love has a transforming power and can change something of a different substance into the same essence as itself. In addition, it can eliminate from that thing its innate, but undesirable components, without injuring or destroying the thing itself.
To give three of his disciples a foretaste of the glorified Celestial Kingdom existence, Jesus arranged for the transfiguration vision. We read about it in all three of the synoptic gospels, but here is a quote from Matthew:
Matthew 17:1-3 – After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
Elijah comments later in TGRABJ/1/271: “At the time of the transfiguration on the mount, some of us possessed that Love to such a degree that our appearances were shining and bright, as described in the Bible. But Jesus was brighter than Moses or myself, for he had more of this Divine Love in his soul and could manifest it to the wonderful degree that he did, notwithstanding his physical body.”
We are given a few glimpses of the beauty and happiness in the Celestial Kingdom of God in TGRABJ/2/60 and 3/268, where Ann Rollins shares (paraphrased): I am now in the Second Celestial Sphere, where everything is so beautiful, and happiness exists to a degree that I cannot portray to you. I am in my own home. It is not possible for me to describe its appearance, only to say that its beauty is beyond any conception that you may have. It has everything that the heart may wish for and everything that you can conceive of as necessary to make a home beautiful. I am in a great degree of happiness, and have many bright and beautiful spirits for companions. Also, I never get tired of listening to the grand and angelic music.
My home is of a material that you have no counterpart of on earth, and it is furnished with everything that makes me happy and thankful to the Father for His Love and kindness. I am living alone, but have many visitors, and love is the ruling sentiment among all the inhabitants here. No spirit who is not filled with the Divine Love can live in this sphere. Spirits who may have the most wonderful intellectual acquirements, but are without this Love, cannot enter this sphere, nor can the mere natural love of mortals or spirits fit them for inhabitancy here. Only the Divine Love of the Father can make a spirit at-one with the surroundings and atmosphere of love that exists here.
The spirits here are so much more beautiful than those of any other sphere that I have lived in. They are more ethereal and their garments are all shining and white. Nothing here reminds one of the earth or the grosser spheres of the spirit world. And the music here is entirely divine and of such a great variety – all telling of the great Love of God, and sung in His praise and adoration.
TGRABJ/2/261 (paraphrased) gives a few more glimpses of life in the Third Celestial Sphere, as reported by Helen Padgett: I have been praying and trying to get more Love of the Father in my soul and have succeeded to such an extent that I am now in the Third Celestial Sphere. I don’t have the words at my command to give you any satisfactory idea of the appearance and conditions here. I have described to you my home in the Second Celestial Sphere, though very inadequately, but that home cannot compare with what I have now. I can only say it is beyond all conception of what you can have of beauty, grandeur and love. I am only in the lower planes of this sphere, but these are so filled with the Father’s Love that it almost seems impossible that there can be any spheres where there is more of this Love. But of course, as Jesus and others have their homes in the higher Celestial Spheres and nearer to the fountainhead of Love, there must be yet more Love there.
I am so happy that I can scarcely tell you what this happiness means, but there is never the slightest thing to interfere with my happiness or to make me think that I am not an accepted child of the Father, partaking of His Love to an extent that makes me immortal and never again subject to death. This happiness is not such as satisfies only for a while, but is one continual source of living, free from anything that might take away from being one with the Father and a part of Him in Love and beauty.
Even those who have reached the stage of redemption in the Third Spirit Sphere (below the Celestial Heavens) – a state where their souls are purified and the law of compensation has no more power over them – experience wonderful happiness which increases as they progress through the Fifth and Seventh Sphere to the Celestial Kingdom. Here, based on TGRABJ/3/26, are a few glimpses given by Helen Padgett of her earlier spiritual journey.
Spiritually, I am now in [the Fifth Spirit Sphere] that enables me to know what the Love of God really is, and in this Love I have almost complete happiness. I now love everybody, and am trying my best to help every soul that I possibly can. Feelings of dislike, envy or hatred have no place in my heart, for which I thank God.
My home here is much more beautiful than that which I had in the Third Spirit Sphere, and everything is beyond what I conceived when I lived there. The house, trees, flowers and fruits are very much more beautiful and delightful. No one could be anything but happy in such a home. We have nothing to interfere with our happiness and every one is a delightful companion and full of love and beauty. I have met many spirits that I did not know either on earth or in the spirit world before I came to this place, both men and women.
I am sometimes engaged in painting these flowers and landscapes, and have many pictures which others painted. I find that I can paint with a more artistic touch than when on earth. I am also studying music, and especially enjoy my vocal lessons. Sometimes I try to sing some of the songs that I used to sing to you, but they are not pretty in comparison to the songs we have here, either in the music or the sentiments.
Concluding about her progression and the help she has received along the way, Helen shares further in TGRABJ/1/317: I now have God’s Love to a considerable degree, and the more of it I get, the happier I am. I thought that I was happy when I entered the Third Sphere, and more so in the Fifth, and then supremely so in the Seventh, but, really, I did not know what happiness was, until I got into my present home in the Celestial Heavens; and I suppose as I go higher, the happiness of each succeeding sphere will be much greater than that from which I progressed.
But, of course, the Master has been the great teacher, whose love and power have helped me more than all the others. He is so wonderful in love and wisdom that I almost adore him, although he says that I must worship only God, and I follow his directions.
My experiences here are so wonderful that I hardly realize what it all means. My time in the spirit world has been so short, and yet, the wonderful knowledge of spiritual truths and the great happiness that I have received, cause me to wonder in amazement that such things could be. (For more insights see also TGRABJ/2/29.)
As we learned, the divine angels have beautiful homes and enjoy immense happiness. A part of their joy, however, comes from service to others. In TGRABJ/3/251 (paraphrased), we receive a few glimpses.
More of the Celestial spirits are performing missions of love in the earth planes than might be expected, considering the happiness that their homes give them. But these spirits know no selfishness in the sense of desiring all this happiness for themselves. Of course, if they have no attraction on earth – if love for mortals does not call them there – they live mostly in the spirit heavens or Celestial Heavens, but always work for others. Spirits are never idle, indulging their own pleasures in the way that Christians often imagine. They do have their harps and music of various kinds and all those things commonly conceived to exist in the Kingdom of Heaven. However, they enjoy them only in moments of cessation from their work in helping other spirits to progress towards the fountainhead of the Father’s Love.
I [Helen] am also now working in teaching the spirits of the lower spheres the plan of God for the salvation of their souls. It is a glorious work, and the resulting happiness is beyond explanation. As we give knowledge and love to these spirits and realize their happiness and joy, more love streams down upon us from the higher planes filling our souls with increased abundance, and we realize the saying, that the more we give, the more we receive. We are never made poor by giving and never cease to give when the opportunity presents itself. We are only disappointed when those to whom we try to give our love and share our happiness with, refuse to receive these gifts. This happens frequently in the lower spheres, and especially in the intellectual spheres, where the divine angels spend much time trying to lead those spirits to the way of the Divine Love and endless progress.
Helen shares elsewhere (TGRABJ/3/20 and 26, paraphrased) about her work when she was in the Third and Fifth Spirit Spheres – below the Celestial Spheres, but on the way there: I am also trying to help the spirits who are in a condition of blindness and doubt. Much of my time is given to helping the spirits who do not know the way to God’s Love, and the necessity for obtaining it in order to find perfect happiness. I am also engaged in studying the laws pertaining to spirit communication with mortals. And I am specially endowed with the power to find the soulmates of spirits. Many here have no conception of what a soulmate means. They seem to think that they have to remain all alone, until some day they may meet a spirit to whom they may become attached and live with. But when through my work they find their soulmates, they become ever so much happier.
The Father is so loving and good that he never prevents His spirits in the Celestial Kingdom from indulging in things that make them happy, and so despite occasional disappointments, divine angels and spirits in the higher spheres of the spirit kingdom live in supreme contentment.
Shortly before his death, according to the gospel of John, Jesus told his disciples:
John 14:2 – “In my Father’s house are many rooms [“mansions” in KJV]; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.
In TGRABJ/2/34 and 3/43, Jesus further elaborated on the nature of his Father’s Kingdom (paraphrased): I meant that in the Kingdom of God there are homes, and that I would go and prepare a place where my followers would have a home with me, separate from the spirits who didn’t believe in or follow me. My kingdom was to be a separate kingdom from the other parts of the spirit lands, and those who wanted to live with me would have to get the Love of God in their hearts to do so. I have now completed the preparations and it rests with spirits and mortals only to become inhabitants thereof.
The Divine Love has no counterpart in all the universe. It must be received in its fullness for a person to attain the Celestial Spheres, where the Father’s fountainhead of Love exists. No one can become a part of God’s divinity until they receive this Divine Love and realize that they are one with the Father in Love and purity.
Those who have received the Divine Love are way beyond the lower spirits in intellectual development and spiritual knowledge. Their soul development has enabled them to obtain great soul perceptions. They don’t allow anything to lead them to any actions that would be out of harmony with the Divine Love and God’s laws. They are in perfect peace and their happiness is beyond all comparison.
And once more from Helen Padgett (TGRABJ/2/28): “Faith and prayer can open the very heart of the Celestial Spheres, and Love will flow down into your soul as the avalanche of snow that feels the warmth of the sun’s bright rays rushes from its mountain heights when winter leaves with its chilling gloom and blasting breath for other climes. Love is not only warmth, but it is the very burnings of the soul’s great storehouse of God’s divine essence.
I am not only the possessor of this Love to a large degree, but I realize that as I advance to higher spheres there is a greater abundance awaiting to fill my soul with its great undying fires of never ending burnings – but burnings so great and free from everything that makes for unhappiness and discontent.”
How amazing is the Celestial Kingdom and what incredible places Jesus has prepared, which will be more than worth all the effort and the trials of this earthly life! The apostle Paul is quoted as saying:
1 Corinthians 2:9-10 – As it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”, but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
Romans 8:18 – I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 – Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
May the hope we have of indescribable beauty and happiness carry us forward to the realization of our incredibly glorious potential which has no bounds or limits. May this hope overshadow all the trials and challenges of the earthly life, which compared with eternity is a mere moment in time. And as we are exhorted, may we make every effort to encourage the work of the Divine Love in our souls here and now, so that the joys of being in our Father’s awesome Kingdom can be ours soon after passing over from this life to the next.