Suffering and the Great Controlling Power

There is no division or void between you and God at all. That is impossible when it is a question of the Father and His child. This dimness, this lack of what you call "control", will be made good in the shortest time possible but you must go a little carefully just at first so that the strain will not be too great, in addition to the physical strain which has occurred.

Think thoughts of love, of wide-open sympathy, and allow those thoughts of yours to go out on the atmosphere and in return you get recharged with all the love and sympathy that is near.

You have had your little disappointments. The day has not turned out as you anticipated. But God's ways are best, and what has happened was no idle "chance," but was by the direction of the Most High; entrusted to His servants to be carried out without mishap of any kind.

You have had your little disappointments. The day has not turned out as you anticipated. But God's ways are best, and what has happened was no idle "chance," but was by the direction of the Most High.

You have been told again and again that the Father uses the Spirits in this way in preference to doing the thing directly Himself. He is training them, He is training you, and the only way in which to train and to test anyone is to give them responsibilities. But there is a great controlling force in regard to the things of the spirit which rises up at the smallest hint of power being misused, however innocently it may be. That is what you must try and grasp.

It seems to all sometimes, and to those who suffer, very often, that plans go wrong, that this or that was not thought of, that there had been carelessness or lack of attention by those who had the work in hand. Upon earth this happens very frequently. The human mind is not always reliable; and when you find a person is unreliable you don't choose them, if you can help it, to carry anything through.

On the Spirit side there is not even that half-chance of proving that, at times, the Spirits can be depended upon. The servants of the Christ have been tested and tried again and again! When it is a question of the care of souls, then only those who love the Master with all their being are allowed to have this governance in their hands. The Spirits are deputising for the Christ and it would not be possible to assume that most sacred role if they were not to be trusted in little things as well as in the big.

The Spirits long, not only for their own sake but still more so for your sake, for the trust and the confidence to be there. For you to feel, with never a swerving thought, that those you love and who love you could not, as well as would not, fail you whatever might happen! You must get this conviction in your mind if you are to get on in the way of growth and happiness, for these two things are one. As you grow, which means as the gift of understanding is developed within you, so does joy fill your being. So do you realise that between you and the brightness, the harmony and that sweet companionship of the spirit, there is no division, no separation of any kind. As this realisation comes to you so you can throw off the world, step free, independent of those destructive forces that wound and wound again, into your sonship or daughtership with the Most High; and know that where He is nothing can harm you and steal that which is your own.

All must have more faith, have more trust, in the tender regard of your Father. Though this or that may seem an unwarranted blow; like a stab in the back, know God is your Father, in the sense that He protects, and that in the future even that which struck the hardest will be revealed as Love, and the wonderful purpose will be shown beneath.

One more word on this subject, and that is on the question of pain, which so often strikes those who love God best. To the outsider again and again the thought comes surging up; why does God not prevent the torture of one who has tried to do their best?

It is a very serious subject indeed and you must ponder on it with the spiritual mind itself. Those who are out to climb have seen, in spirit, the glorious vista in front and, ignoring the complaints of the body, have clasped to themselves that most effective of all weapons; pain and the torture of the mind as well. God cannot rob the spirit of anyone of that advantage, that advancement which they long to make their own. But while the pain is borne if you can only hold on to the thought of Divine Love, then something of the realisation and revelation will come of what that pain is working out. Cast from your mind that distorted thought that God stands aside and allows the evil to do its worst! Gather in instead the consolation that the Christ who suffered so much Himself, out of Love, dare not tear from the individual soul the treasure that pain can purchase.

All around you are the spiritual forms, not only of those you love but of the countless host who love you so well. You sometimes forget that love on the Spirit side does not require, of necessity, love from the object on which it is focused on the earth. It would limit things to a very serious extent if the Spirits only loved those who were able to love them. They should feel very lonely indeed if they were restricted in this way. Love, with the Spirits, is such a comprehensive thing; it is not bound by the same rules as when they are in the physical body. Over and over again you hear of love being "killed", of love turning to indifference and then to dislike. Or of one person loving another with all their heart and the other being rather impatient over the affection so bestowed. Understand that this is the earth point of view. It is not easy always to love the majority; in fact many exclaim that it is very hard indeed to love those even in their own surroundings. It is easy to love those on the Other Side but very often it is as much as they can do not to detest people here!

God’s children sometimes have rather an exaggerated way of speaking. But the Spirits acknowledge that, having spiritual sight, it is quite a different matter for them to love humanity as a whole. With the children of the earth the chief cause of lack of affection is want of sympathy in the way they look at life; sympathy in opinions. You would be surprised if you saw how the evil uses this lack of sympathetic understanding to turn what was once regard into positive dislike.

Being in your midst in this way, the Spirits are privileged to look into your heart and mind. The chief thing the Spirits notice with all God’s children is that very often it is the slightest phrase, the most casual remark which starts the first vibration of antagonism. Looking into the heart and mind of this one and that the Spirits find there is no intent to harm or to cause distress; but words are dangerous weapons. How often is it that, even to yourself, the conviction comes that you have put into words that which but faintly represents what was in your mind. You didn't mean it exactly in the way you put it, but the words have gone out, they have found a lodgement in the mind of another, and the first little bit of damage has been done.

You must never fail to recognise that so long as you are in the body so these things will happen, unless you can so bond yourself to God that the danger will be evaded.

Think how it is that people you once liked you do not care for now. Could you go back, as the Spirits can go back, you would find that a careless phrase, a heedless remark in the beginning was the source of that which now has turned into a mighty stream, so wide that you stand apart. Now you understand why it is so much easier for the Spirits to love people who don't love them. They see what has happened, and they see also that it has exacted a far bigger price than it was worth. So in their love is sympathy and compassion too, compassion in the sense that they long to soothe and cover up all those unnecessary wounds and assure each one that it wasn't intended and that the wound never should have been there.

There are many near from the bright spheres. They are pouring down upon you a great volume of love, of brightness and of happiness. All they ask from you is first, to be allowed to love you, and then for you to recognise their love as personal. The moment you can do that instinctively you will want to give back something from yourself.

Love is a very humbling thing. It brings with it a sense of unworthiness, a humility that instantly raises in the mind that query why they love you! Does this not apply to that great and overwhelming love which the Saviour bestows upon all? Does it not make you humble to feel that you, who sometimes forget how much you love Him, are the recipients of so much love, unasked for, in its completest form! More than words can say!

Try and gather this closer, closer to that self within which does understand a little what Divine Love represents. Have you not wondered to yourself how God can love you? All who are His acknowledged children think that. The answer comes at once; because you are His own! That should tell you a little, it should explain something of that wonderful tie there is between you and the Father. That unbreakable tie; which means that for ever; for all that Eternity which your mind has to leave untouched, you are bound to Him. What is more wonderful still is that He, the Great Spirit of Love, is bound to you! Inseverable are the links, and it is your glorious privilege to claim, not only as a gift but as a right; that care, that protection which is your own.

That unbreakable tie means that forever, for all that Eternity which your mind has to leave untouched, you are bound to Him. What is more wonderful still is that He, the Great Spirit of Love, is bound to you!

God, looking down upon His children, sees them struggling with temptation and their many upsets. If you would but allow it He could gather all into His Mighty Arms, when grief could touch you no more. But because you cannot always do that He does not stand aside, but ever and ever again wards off the enemy and brings into the very surroundings which hurt you most the brightness and the sunshine of His Presence. All will acknowledge that at times, if not always, they feel the warmth of His most blessed Love close to them and they marvel that anything could be strong enough to come in between.

You are a child on a long journey. If you only wish to do the right thing it is not more serious than that. It is only if the influence could be great enough to turn you from the light to darkness that real evil could come. As it is, sometimes you delay yourself by stopping for this and for that. It is like plucking the red berries which have danger in their beauty. But the Spirits are there and, just as the parent would watch their child, so the Spirits loosen the fingers and cast the temptation aside. "Come along" they say "there are lovelier things in front", and in a moment that which so attracted has passed from the mind in the anticipation of what lies ahead. Sometimes children are rather heedless, they carelessly run on and, in spite of warning, the stone in the path is unseen and down they go! Of course the Spirits are distressed because they suffer, but a child's wounds soon heal, and taking the lesson to heart, for a little while they are content to walk by their side.

These things happen in the life of all, however great or important the position held by the one concerned. These things occur, and all the superiority about being experienced and "grown-up" gains nothing. When they pass over and see things as they are they will see that it was like a child on a long journey that grows very tired, that stumbles and falls. But the parent brings that child safe home at last, and that is the only point that counts in the reckoning up. The child is safe home at last in their Father's House, and the Great Father of all knows how to wipe out sad memories and all those things which you would forget, and in their place gives joy and peace and understanding.

The Great Father of all knows how to wipe out sad memories and all those things which you would forget, and in their place gives joy and peace and understanding.

On thinking over these simple words gain comfort and also comprehension of what physical life really represents. Above all, make your own the thought of the mighty, overwhelming love of the Father, who never loses patience with His children, who never wishes He had left them behind. The great Father is different from the earthly parent in many ways. He knows that in time the child will recognise the link between them, when He can do for that child and give to that child all that His heart longs to; and then the love between them is complete.

If you only could see things as they are you would know that you have done wonders. You must remember that the Spirits see things as they are and not as they appear. With the conditions you have done wonders, and the peace shall lay upon you all throughout the week if only you will allow it.

"At eventide there shall be Light." Take this as referring directly to your own life. It is true indeed that as you pass through the various experiences of life age, so far as years are concerned, matters very little; the age of the soul rests entirely on the experiences which it has been through. Some when quite young in years are as old as those who have reached the allotted span of physical life. "At eventide there shall be Light." Take from this, not only a prophecy, but a promise that will be worked out in minute detail if you will only do your part.

For the most part you have worked through the hot noon-day of sorrowful experience; and as the twilight sets in a sense of peace and rest should be there. But in your world the twilight is followed by the night, and to you the very word brings about a sense of captivity. But "At eventide there shall be Light!" Instead of the night closing in with its crippling restrictions the Light of the Spirit will shine in upon you; illuminating the way, making all things clear and turning age into the realisation of the meaning of life itself. Then you shall find that the years shall fall from you and the perpetual youth of the Spirit be your own.

Joy, brightness, peace and harmony shall be yours. Unity as well because, though not understanding, you kept on and you tried to do your best. Because the way has been long and dreary and full of perils in God's Name "At eventide it shall be Light!" In that one word is expressed all the joy, the revelation and the recognition of the Divinity within.

Rest then content. Keep a watchful guard over your thoughts and remember that much shall be given to those who have faith. But you have got to do your part, and only by the showing of faith can you have those good gifts of the spirit, which shall turn faith into sight and hope into certainty for ever and ever.

Bless you in the Name of the Father, of the Son and the Holy Spirit; bless you with His peace and His love, as always!

This message was first given in 1924 through Winifred Moyes.

© The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Association 2026

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