The Imprisonment of the Soul

Throw off the shackles of the physical world! Sometimes the details of everyday life have that same oppressive effect upon the bigger you within which heavy clothing has upon the physical body. It gives a sense of restriction; of captivity, of weight and of burden, and you long to cast it from you and be free.

But when it is a question of the spiritual you and the physical you it is not easy, so you think. It seems indeed that the world in which you live, your surroundings, your environment, everything is so part of yourself that it is almost as a second skin and you cannot be separated from it until the body itself is laid aside. That brings you a sense of irritation, and also a feeling that somehow or other things are not quite fair.

It is a sensation of being restrained; held by something which is antagonistic to your real self and something which you never wanted to be there or to have.

When you pass into the Spirit world you will know all about it. But the fact that years from now a thing will be made plain and clear does not provide very much satisfaction for the present discomforts.

So think a little about the imprisonment of the soul within a very limited space, not only as regards breadth and height and depth in a physical sense, but also in a very limited space both mentally and spiritually. Of course, the latter is far harder to reconcile yourself to than the purely physical restrictions.

After all, the physical mind is adaptable; in a surprisingly short time it is able to settle down in conditions which a little while back seemed impossible. You have illustrations of that over and over again because life is full of ups and downs, of changes and swift moving developments. Even here you get an illustration of what is very much the case in regard to the soul-part of you.

Then consider a most important point, and that is in regard to the formation of habits. There isn't one who has not struggled against a habit formed quite unconsciously during an earlier period of their life. When your view point changes, you would like to drop that habit and take on others that you think would be more appealing altogether. It is not easy, in regard to habits, to change, but it is easy for the physical mind to adapt itself to outward changes of environment and surroundings. Do not confuse the outward with the inward! More often than not they work on totally opposite lines, and there you have a great spiritual truth illustrated to ponder over.

There are habits and there are other kinds of habits. There are those which belong entirely to the physical mind and will be left behind with the body when the real you passes on. A multitude are gathered in under that heading and it should not be necessary to enumerate them because your common sense will tell you that in changed conditions those habits will have no place. They will never be able to put in an appearance because the conditions which called them forth in the physical are absent.

Then you have the other kind, and in regard to these people sometimes rename their desire and call it by the very harmless one of habit. They say it is just a habit of theirs, implying that at will they can toss it aside. But that is a mistake, a very great mistake, because in reality the basis of that habit is desire; and when that desire is not such as the spirit would pass it holds one back.

Do not misunderstand. These habits are not crimes or sins in the sight of Almighty God, but they most definitely are injuries to yourself.

All who read these records should go through their own mind and put their finger on the weak spots and set about strengthening that which at present is not up to standard.

It is entirely for your own sake to curb and throw overboard habits of this kind. Let the spirit within decide; don't weigh the scales on the side of the physical. Justice means in your world that the "for" and the "against" are equal but, unfortunately with the vast majority and unconsciously perhaps, the extra weight that tells is put upon the physical side.

This does not apply to one more than to another, it applies to all and to the many more who in the future will be gathered in as God’s children and the children of the Light; the Light of the World!

When you pass into the Spirit World you will find that those little flaws in your armour will cause you grief; in some cases very serious grief, because it was a matter of a little less and how much more could have been brought to the soul!

Be watchful. Those who are out to hold you back have many misleading arguments with which to make you delay. They tell you it doesn't matter, that, after all, it is such a little thing and it doesn't affect anyone but yourself. Not from your point of view perhaps but, in reality, it affects the world at large.

Do you not see that even when you think weak thoughts, and how much more so when you allow yourself to do weak actions, you are sending out weakness which may attach itself to those who are not yet strong enough to fight against it. No one is independent; there is not one who can say over any indulgence, however trivial it may be, that it only concerns them, because it is not a fact. Will you do this? Or will you try by prayer, by watchfulness and by self-discipline, to weed out these things from your daily life? Will you leave a clear field so that the spirit can stretch itself and grow?

Let nothing hinder its growth for it is of such importance that it cannot be put into words. It is so important that you should stand straight spiritually; stand straight and throw your props aside. You have reached that stage now when all you need is the Christ, and if you only are strong in courage and in faith you shall never feel again the lack of that which you have thrown from you.

Spiritual growth is a very delicate thing. In your world you are used to the cruder side. It is not easy for you to understand the extreme fineness of everything that appertains to the spirit, and you cannot understand the nature of this fineness because you have no parallel at all. The growth of the spirit is a very delicate thing, inasmuch as the trivial can slow down that growth as well as the dynamic forces of evil which are thrown against it. You are here to grow; to grow in the likeness of God your Father. You are here to make the most of the opportunity provided by Love; you are here to guard the treasure within because hereafter any neglect will cause you anguish from which the Spirits shall not be able to extricate you, because the cry is always the same; you did it yourself!

Although to your mind the conditions in the realms of the spirit differ in many respects from those of the physical, you would be surprised to see how soon people feel at home. Of course, it is not surprising really, because of the time they spend in those conditions during the sleep state. But the sleep state is not quite the same as when the body is discarded altogether.

During sleep that is your time of recuperation in order to fit you to carry on the duties that you have imposed upon yourself. It is quite different in that sense from being out of the physical altogether, so far as the body is concerned. It is just the same as taking a holiday. During that time you feel you are at liberty to get as much sunshine and rest and happiness as is possible, because you have got the long strain of the autumn and winter before you. The Spirits also regard the sleep state on those lines too; it is a time of healing up the wounds and of recharging you with courage and with strength in order to continue the campaign. When you pass over, no longer as a guest, but when you come home you soon settle down to work again.

There are a lot of people, very good people too, who have an extraordinary idea as to the cessation of activity when death closes in. It is so absolutely against temperament and common sense. Those people upon earth always want to be doing; they could not stop if they had unlimited opportunity. Yet, such as these are able to rule out of being their characters, their temperaments, their likes and dislikes, and to throw over them all a thick, impenetrable covering called "death" which is able to smother everything that they had ever been. It is a curious attitude to adopt apart from the absolute waste of the gifts they have developed by so much pain and industry.

So think it over again; ask yourself if it is reasonable and is it in accordance with the plans of God as worked out in nature? Nature is really the only simile that offers a variety of illustrations of the facts. In nature you can find your key to many a great spiritual truth if only you seek for it with the mind of the spirit and not with the mind of the body.

Those hard-working, energetic people who have so disciplined their wills that they respond at an instant to their bidding have in front of them labour, effort, and struggle of a kind impossible for them to imagine. But in all this output of energy there is this great compensation; you see what it is producing, and that takes away all the weariness, all the disappointment and all the sense of strain with which these words are associated upon earth.

Those energetic ones are not energetic now for nothing; it is the preparation for the time to come. It is essential there should be some who will work and work and work, often forcing their minds and bodies to do that from which they shrink out of pure fatigue. You have been told that it is not wise to take liberties with nature in this way while still bound by the physical, but those should know, for their comfort, that not one effort they have put forth, not one wish for ease which they have suppressed, shall not bring them hereafter a power and a force which nothing else can supply.

Widen your borders and get the God view more and more. Be certain that those who toil, if that toil is not for self, shall indeed work in the fields of the Lord, and by their efforts produce such a harvest that no words can express. Built up during the physical stages by suffering, by the murmuring of the body, by goading the physical on, that which represents dust and ashes upon earth shall produce the fruits of the spirit in the garden of the Lord!

So throw off the garment of the physical. For the time being you have got beyond self as represented by the body and its restrictions, and you have also learnt a little more about the truth, and that is the wonderful part in regard to truth. For however much you learn you know there is a little more to know in the next stage and the next stage still, and that goes on right through Eternity; unending because it is of God Himself.

Little by little the door is opened, and little by little the Light beyond is revealed. Not through dictating to you what you ought to do but just trying, because of the Love of God which is in your heart, to save you steps. You know when one is rather weary it is a help to have someone more experienced to point out how that rather dreary stretch can be avoided; and that that's the nearest way to reach what they have in mind. When children have a long way to go, and it always seems long to the young, when they are out on this big journey of the Spirit, it is a comfort to know which is the most direct and which is the most certain way to take them nearer to God.

The Spirits want to help you now but even more so when you pass into the World of Spirit. They want you to feel that, after taking everything into consideration, you did not go so far out of the way which the spirit within you intended; which is God, remember. Many are sorrowful when they pass over, far more sorrowful than they were upon earth. It is always over the same thing; the wasted opportunities, the little detail which would have meant only a little more to make the big difference. It is the little things which always cause the most grief because in many cases they only just missed being of God and not of the earth.

God's ways are best, as you shall see in time to come. Although the conditions are very good, still there is tomorrow to be thought of, and do not feel anything but happiness and brightness in the days to come.

It is difficult to think with clearness just now about the future and all that the future holds. Trust God implicitly and be certain that everything has been thought of and that God's Hand is upon it all. Do not ask questions of yourself, but leave it, leave everything in the care of the Saviour. There is so much coming to pass which will require the resources of your mind, and a mind that is worried does not think clearly.

You will find it a useful weapon in the Spirit World if you have tried to get the upper hand of your thoughts and your mind generally. Careless thinking is not the sole commodity of people upon earth, it would be much better if it were. Unfortunately, a great many people in Spirit are very prone to it too. They allow their minds to run them, and although the physical mind is laid aside, the memory of that physical mind remains and so the effect is almost the same.

Harness your thoughts, get into the way of keeping a tight hold on the reins. You will find it a bit of a struggle to be master at first. Spirited horses who have a will of their own do not like to run in an orderly and restrained manner; they prefer to take the bit in their teeth. It's just the same with you and with a great many free from the flesh if a firm hand is not there.

"Thinking" is a gift, but you can abuse even a gift direct from God unless there is that steady anchorage to Him which makes all other precautions unnecessary. It is when your thoughts are allowed to wander on their own that the shadows get a better chance of interfering, but because you are on your guard they found very real resistance, and had to wait in order to upset God's will.

It is no use saying that this one or that is susceptible or more easily assailed by the shadows. The only protection that you have is the Christ, and those who want to get closest to Him immediately attract the strongest forces of evil.

Conserve your energies, harvest your resources, which does not mean to shut them up or to hold them to yourself. But instead, with your thoughts, your energies, with all those things which make up your physical life, you must keep before you always the work.

It is not a question of forsaking one duty for another; they all have their place in your daily life. But the more you develop that control of your mind so you will find that you have more energy and vitality to devote to the service which you have taken on for the Christ.

Be happy in the thought that you have been chosen to work for God. What this means you cannot grasp, but even that loss will be made good in such a wonderful way that only your Creator could have devised!

Do not let your heart be troubled ever again. Just think of sunshine, of beauty and of promise, and be certain that as you think these are taking permanent shape and that you are indeed blessed by your Father. Although He will call upon you again and again to do this and that in the doing shall the rejoicing come. As you go on, not only rejoicing, but that inward peace and unity with the Spirit will come, which is the last and greatest gift of all.

God is with you, and God shall be with you for evermore.

This message was first given in 1924 through Winifred Moyes.

© The Greater World Christian Spiritualist Association 2025

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