P2060:6, 194:2.1
Jesus lived on earth and taught a gospel which redeemed man from the superstition
that he was a child of the devil and elevated him to the dignity of a faith
son of God. Jesus' message, as he preached it and lived it in his day, was
an effective solvent for man's spiritual difficulties in that day of its statement.
And now that he has personally left the world, he sends in his place his Spirit
of Truth, who is designed to live in man and, for each new generation, to
restate the Jesus message so that every new group of mortals to appear upon
the face of the earth shall have a new and up-to-date version of the gospel,
just such personal enlightenment and group guidance as will prove to be an
effective solvent for man's
ever-new and varied spiritual difficulties.
P2060:7, 194:2.2
The first mission of this spirit is, of course, to foster and personalize
truth, for it is the comprehension of truth that constitutes the highest form
of human liberty. Next, it is the purpose of this spirit to destroy the believer's
feeling of
orphanhood. Jesus having been among men, all believers would experience
a sense of loneliness had not the Spirit of Truth come to dwell in men's hearts.
P2061:1, 194:2.3
This bestowal of the Son's spirit effectively prepared all normal men's minds
for the subsequent universal bestowal of the Father's spirit (the Adjuster)
upon all mankind. In a certain sense, this Spirit of Truth is the spirit of
both the Universal Father and the Creator Son.
P2061:2, 194:2.4
Do not make the mistake of expecting to become strongly intellectually conscious
of the outpoured Spirit of Truth. The spirit never creates a consciousness
of himself, only a consciousness of Michael, the Son. From the beginning Jesus
taught that the spirit would not speak of himself. The proof, therefore, of
your fellowship with the Spirit of Truth is not to be found in your consciousness
of this spirit but rather in your experience of enhanced fellowship with Michael.
P2061:3, 194:2.5
The spirit also came to help men recall and understand the words of the Master
as well as to illuminate and reinterpret his life on earth.
P2061:4, 194:2.6
Next, the Spirit of Truth came to help the believer to witness to the realities
of Jesus' teachings and his life as he lived it in the flesh, and as he now
again lives it anew and afresh in the individual believer of each passing
generation of the spirit-filled sons of God.
P2061:5, 194:2.7
Thus it appears that the Spirit of Truth comes really to lead all believers
into all truth, into the expanding knowledge of the experience of the living
and growing spiritual consciousness of the reality of eternal and ascending
sonship with God.
P2061:6, 194:2.8
Jesus lived a life which is a revelation of man submitted to the Father's
will, not an example for any man literally to attempt to follow. This life
in the flesh, together with his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection,
presently became a new gospel of the ransom which had thus been paid in order
to purchase man back from the clutch of the evil one -- from the condemnation
of an offended God. Nevertheless, even though the gospel did become greatly
distorted, it remains a fact that this new message about Jesus carried along
with it many of the fundamental truths and teachings of his earlier gospel
of the kingdom. And, sooner or later, these concealed truths of the fatherhood
of God and the brotherhood of men will emerge to effectually transform the
civilization of all mankind.
P2061:7, 194:2.9
But these mistakes of the intellect in no way interfered with the believer's
great progress in growth in spirit. In less than a month after the bestowal
of the Spirit of Truth, the apostles made more individual spiritual progress
than during their almost four years of personal and loving association with
the Master. Neither did this substitution of the fact of the resurrection
of Jesus for the saving gospel truth of sonship with God in any way
interfere with the rapid spread of their teachings; on the contrary, this
overshadowing of Jesus' message by the new teachings about his person and
resurrection seemed greatly to facilitate the preaching of the good news.
P2061:8, 194:2.10
The term "baptism of the spirit," which came into such general use about this
time, merely signified the conscious reception of this gift of the Spirit
of Truth and the personal acknowledgment of this new spiritual power as an
augmentation of all spiritual influences previously experienced by God-knowing
souls.
P2061:9, 194:2.11
Since the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, man is subject to the teaching
and guidance of a threefold spirit endowment: the spirit of the Father, the
Thought Adjuster; the spirit of the Son, the Spirit of Truth; the spirit of
the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
P2062:1, 194:2.12
In a way, mankind is subject to the double influence of the sevenfold appeal
of the universe spirit influences. The early evolutionary races of mortals
are subject to the progressive contact of the seven adjutant mind-spirits
of the local universe Mother Spirit. As man progresses upward in the scale
of intelligence and spiritual perception, there eventually come to hover over
him and dwell within him the seven higher spirit influences. And these seven
spirits of the advancing worlds are:
P2062:2, 194:2.13
1. The bestowed spirit of the Universal Father -- the Thought Adjusters.
P2062:3, 194:2.14
2. The spirit presence of the Eternal Son -- the spirit gravity of the universe
of universes and the certain channel of all spirit communion.
P2062:4, 194:2.15
3. The spirit presence of the Infinite Spirit -- the universal spirit-mind
of all creation, the spiritual source of the intellectual kinship of all progressive
intelligences.
P2062:5, 194:2.16
4. The spirit of the Universal Father and the Creator Son -- the Spirit of
Truth, generally regarded as the spirit of the Universe Son.
P2062:6, 194:2.17
5. The spirit of the Infinite Spirit and the Universe Mother Spirit -- the
Holy Spirit, generally regarded as the spirit of the Universe Spirit.
P2062:7, 194:2.18
6. The mind-spirit of the Universe Mother Spirit -- the seven adjutant mind-spirits
of the local universe.
P2062:8, 194:2.19
7. The spirit of the Father, Sons, and Spirits -- the
new-name spirit of the
ascending mortals of the realms after the fusion of the mortal spirit-born
soul with the Paradise Thought Adjuster and after the subsequent attainment
of the divinity and glorification of the status of the Paradise Corps of the
Finality.
P2062:9, 194:2.20
And so did the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth bring to the world and its
peoples the last of the spirit endowment designed to aid in the ascending
search for God.