July 11th, 1917
Received by:James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
I am here. St. John.
I heard your prayer and know that this Love is flowing into your soul and that now you have a great abundance of its possession of which you are conscious. It will never fail you when you pray in earnestness and with the real longings for its coming. It is always ready to respond to your aspirations and to make you feel its presence and the happiness that comes with it.
I, as you know, am your special friend in my work of helping to develop your soul, and whenever you pray to the Father, as you have just prayed, I come to you with my love and influence to help open up your soul to the inflowing of this Love. Have faith, and you will have the certainty of the presence of the Love, and that it is yours - seeking to come into your soul in greater and more abundance.
You are blessed in that you have the knowledge of the existence of this Love, and that it may be yours if you so will it to be, and pray with the true longings of your soul's desires. You cannot doubt the truth of what I write, for, as in the ordinary things of life, there is nothing so convincing as personal experience, and your experience is such that there has been no room for doubt. So if you would keep the consciousness of the presence of this Love continually alive, pray and pray whenever the opportunity presents itself, and by this I don't mean that you shall wait for a time when you are not engaged in your business affairs, but at moments when the mind may be free, even if only for a moment, from these business affairs. The longings, if exercised only for a moment, will bring their results; for God's ear is always open and ready to cause the responses to such longings.
One moment of true soul felt longings is more effective than hours of prayer where these longings are not present. The prayers of the lip or of habit rises no higher than the escaping breath, and does not cause the Love to respond and flow into the soul. Remember this, and then realize how futile are all the prayers of preachers and ostensible worshipers when the soul's longings and desires are not present.
Only soul can call to soul, and love responds only when such soul calls. The mere desires of the mind, if I may so express my meaning, do not in the least affect the soul, and as mind can operate only on mind, there cannot possibly be any activity of the soul's faculties, when only mind is in operation. Hence, you will see, that all the worship that comes merely from the mind will not effectuate the working of the Love or bring into operation the Spirit's work.
I write this to further encourage you, and also to make plain the necessity for the true prayer.
John.