The Natural Heavens is inclusive of earth and expands ‘outward’ through six spheres (the natural heavens ends at the 6th intellectual sphere, and the 7th Heaven is the transitional sphere, where spirits become eligible to enter the Celestial Heavens). Our limited way of understanding space, does not serve to describe the huge expanse contained in the Natural Heavens. The planes which are lower than earth are ordinarily called the dark planes or the hells. John’s message points out that there are two distinct pathways of spiritual development: the natural or ‘spiritual path’ and the divine, or ‘soulful path.’ It is everyone’s free will choice to decide which pathway to follow. You have the free will to choose your destiny.
The souls who do not believe there is a God will eventually progress on the natural love pathway, developing their intellect and material interests, and live under the jurisdiction of the laws that govern the natural love progression. In order to progress on the Divine Love pathway, one gets in touch with their soul’s desires, despite an unawareness of what that means. Here, we learn that we have a love nature which motivates us to want to become a more sensitive and caring person. We may ‘want to do God’s will’ in our life (God’s will is that all souls become at-One in Love). If we pray to be blessed by the Holy Spirit, we will receive Divine Love, because the function of this special agency is to convey Love from God’s Soul to the souls of prayerful people.
John continues his descriptions of the third natural sphere, for those who have Divine Love in their souls: “Your material sun and moon do not appear in this heaven, for the effulgence of light from the Father’s Love eclipses and eliminates the light of these material creations of the mortal world. There are homes of the grandest splendor and beauty, suited to the conditions of the various spirits, which have in them everything that will bring happiness to their occupants and visiting friends; musical instruments and books, paintings and furniture of every kind, fitted to bring contentment and joy to the spirits. They also have a realization of peace and rest from the cares that you mortals have with you all through your earth life. Above and more important than all, is the wonderful atmosphere of love which makes all these spirits realize that they are the children of the Loving Heavenly Father. (Still more to come…)