BD.6611
August 1, 1956

HOW IS BAPTISM TO BE UNDERSTOOD

You do not realize how inconceivable My grace is that you can receive My Word, that all your questions are answered by Me and every doubt dispelled when you turn to Me for an explanation.

I do answer your questions also 'mentally', but sometimes you are not sure whether these thoughts have been given you by Me and, therefore, your doubts are not dispelled. But the 'word conveyed' to you, when you make use of this grace bestowed upon you, makes you happy. So many questions bother you, and just a trusting prayer to Me would provide the answers. However, it is not often that you address such a prayer to Me as you are not yet conscious of the great grace at your disposal.

Every human soul needs a 'thorough cleansing', a bath freeing it from all impurities, refreshing and reviving it and preparing it for the work it must do on earth.

And every human soul must be prepared to undertake this purification or submit to it, recognizing that it is not the way I want it to be, the way it has to be to be able to come to Me and stay with Me forever.

Such a 'purifying bath' is not to be understood in an external sense. It has to be an inner act becoming outwardly noticeable only through a change in a person's nature, thus also giving him the certainty that he has worked his way out of a morass, has had a refreshing bath and left it completely cleansed. Clear water with a refreshing effect cannot be stagnant; it must be a flowing, living stream capable of cleansing and quickening. Therefore, you are in need of the 'living water' and do you know what 'living water means?

I keep inviting you to come to the source from which the 'living water' streams. I want you to plunge into the 'sea of My love', to be baptized by Me with My Word which alone is powerful enough to effect a change within you, to purify and quicken your soul and give it true life.

So when I said to My disciples: 'Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost' it meant that they were to bring My Word to men in My name, the living water originating from Me, that they had to go to the source.

Love itself, the Father, is offering you this, which will lead you to most profound wisdom, to the Son if you 'live' the Word, thus awakening the 'spirit' within you, which will fully enlighten you. Your soul needs this Word which alone has the effect clear water has on your body: that it leaves the bath strengthened and fit for any task that it will be required to perform.

And thus My disciples were to carry My Word to all men: they were to receive through love something precious that was to kindle love within them thus animating the Spirit in them. But living water has its source in Me. I am the source from which it flows and every human being must have descended into the 'well of My love' to receive divine wisdom and conceive it 'through the Spirit'.

This is the baptism everyone must have received to become a member of the Church of Christ, of that church which I Myself founded on earth. And here it is first your will that has to make a free decision to plunge into the 'stream of My love': to accept My living Word thus cleansing its soul to prepare it for My presence.

My words must always be understood in their spiritual meaning, and no outward process will ever achieve an inner change, the purification of the soul. Therefore you people must always endeavor to fathom the spiritual meaning of My word, which will become quite clear to you if in your heart you ask Me for an explanation. If your desire is genuine, you will not be able to think any but the right thoughts.

Then you will also accept My Word without opposition if brought to you by My disciples, you enter the 'stream of My divine love', you receive baptism. Then My love fills you with My Spirit and guides you into truth. Love, wisdom and strength have become part of the soul that was baptized with the 'water of life and love'

AMEN