The soul is
neither the human mind nor the divine spirit that dwells within the
mind. Material mind is the arena in which we live, make decisions,
choose or forsake God, and survive or destroy ourselves. Material
evolution provides us with a body and the Father endows us with spirit
reality, but it is by mind that we live or die. The mortal mind is
merely a temporary system lent to us for use during our material lives.
Our evolving souls will faithfully portray the decisions made with
the minds we have been given.
The human soul
has three antecedents: the human mind, the divine spirit, and the
relationship between these two. The relationship between mind and
spirit produces the soul, an entirely new and unique universe value.
The human soul is an embryonic form of the future vehicle of personality.
If this evolving soul becomes permeated by truth, beauty, and goodness-if
it becomes God-conscious-it becomes indestructible. The soul exists
as morontia reality midway between the material and spiritual worlds.
An Adjuster's
work is spiritual, but is accomplished in the intellectual realm.
The mind is the ship, the Adjuster is the pilot, and human will is
the captain. With mortal consent, the faithful pilot will safely carry
his captain across the barriers of time and the handicaps of space
to the source of divine mind, even to the Paradise Father.
The mortal
career is an education. It is not so much what we comprehend, as what
we desire to comprehend that insures our survival. It is not what
our minds are like, as what our minds are striving to be like that
constitutes spirit identification. What we are today is not as important
as what we are becoming.
Doing the will
of God is the willingness to share the inner life with God. Peace
in this life, survival in death, perfection in the next life, and
service in eternity are all achieved when the human will chooses to
become subject to the Father's will. Such choice is not a surrender
of will, but is the consecration and perfecting of will-the Father's
will becomes the mortal's will.
Many human
problems come from our two-fold natures: we are part of nature, yet
we are able to transcend nature; we are finite, but we are indwelt
by a spark in infinity. Religious confidence-living faith-can sustain
us amid conflicts born of this dual nature. The indwelling Adjuster
cannot stop or even materially alter the career struggle of time;
the Adjuster cannot lessen the hardships of life on this world. But
humans would be comforted and inspired if they would allow the Adjuster
to reveal the eternal purpose of the difficult struggle of the material
world.
Uncertainty
with security is the essence of the Paradise adventure. God lives
in us and trusts himself to us, and we live in him and learn to trust
ourselves to him. We may not be certain of the details of the coming
events of our lives, but we are always secure in the infinite love
and compassion of our Father.