by the Creator—seeking to ultimately be a companion to the Creator, thus striving to become companionable and in harmony with the ideal.
All of this becomes difficult to grasp when perceived from a finite, temporary perspective. Soul life is on a much grander scale and timeless, as compared to one eighty-to-a-hundred-year incarnation. And yet the soul’s opportunity for resolving karma lies within the choices, behavior, and character development of the present incarnation. The finite experience is an opportunity to improve the infinite, eternal experience.
In day-to-day physical life, we easily forget that we were created to be companions and co-creators with the infinite First One, the Creator, out of whom all originally found life and consciousness. God created us in love to know each other and share life. In order to realize this, God gave us free will, the ability to independently choose to be companions. Without free will, we could only become children, subordinates, automatons, or loving servants but not true companions. . . companions choose to be with you and commit through thick and thin, in good times and bad.
Before the gift of free will was given, God set up a simple yet powerful universal law—Whatever one does with free will, one will experience—not as punishment or retribution but as education and enlightenment, that one may know the effects of one’s thoughts, words, and actions.
How, then, can any of us survive our mistakes with free will? Who has not misused free will? Are we now caught up in a tangled web of karmic reactions to our prior misuses of free will? Not necessarily. Jesus said that the Spirit seeks mercy from us, not sacrifice. When He taught this lesson, He said that curious little saying of His, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” It’s as though there is some secret within these words, “I seek mercy, not sacrifice.” (Matthew 9:13 and 12:7) The secret is that the law is so perfect that we do not have to make up for all our past sins with free will; rather, we have to understand these mistakes in others who have and do misuse their free will. The law is absolute: What you do or think comes back upon you. If you can understand the misuse of free will in another, then it is understood in you! If you can forgive the misuse of free will by another, then it is forgiven in you. And, best of all, if you can forget the misuse of free will by another, then it is forgotten in you. This is the secret in Jesus’ words, “I seek mercy, not sacrifice.” Few of us could sacrifice enough to make up for our misuse of free will, but having mercy upon others who have misused their free will brings mercy upon us. The law is absolute. Not one jot will be erased from it. Therefore, jots of understanding, forgiveness, and forgetting will also come back upon us.
With this understanding of karma established, it is now important for us to understand that not all of physical hardship and suffering is karma. Some is the test of the Spirit—actually, the test of Satan! In ancient Israeli teachings, Satan was the accuser (ha-satan in Hebrew, and the exact name used in the book of Job) and the tester, as we shall see in the story of Job. In fact, according to classical rabbis, Satan’s job was to “break the barrel but not spill any wine.” In other words, he is to test us hard but not destroy our soul in the process. In Kabbalah, Satan’s role is to tempt us as best he can, then turn and accuse us when we fail—but the Kabbalists believed that, deep down, Satan wanted us to be victorious, because he was, in effect, an agent of God’s testing. The planet Saturn and the day Saturday have been associated with the test by Satan. Astrologically, the planetary influence of Saturn is said to engage one in his or her tests on the way to self-awareness and enlightenment. Saturn’s lessons require one to succeed through trials, building toward mastery of free will, God’s gift to us. Here’s the story behind the idea of a life with divinely approved tests and trials.
The high priest Melchizedek wrote the biblical book of Job for all incarnate souls to better understand the nature of incarnation. Life here is a test of our love, our companionability, and our commitment to God and the ideals that are Godly. Melchizedek begins the book by describing how the sons and daughters of God came together to present themselves before God, and Satan came among them. God turns to Satan and asks if he has seen the goodness in His servant Job. Satan challenges Job’s apparent goodness, claiming that if God touched one thing of Job’s physical life or physical person, Job would curse God to His face. Satan claims that the human is not interested in spiritual life with God, only physical life. He wants two cars in the garage, a chicken in the pot, a fantastic spouse, money in the bank, and a healthy body. Spiritual things are of no interest to him. Job’s prayers to God are just to keep physical, selfish life the way Job wants it, not to awaken spiritually or know God personally. After Satan laid down this challenge, God instructed Satan to test Job to see if this were true. From that moment on, Job’s physical life and body fell on hard times. His friends accused him of sinning against God or that members of his family had sinned. But Job insisted that every time he or his family sinned, he had asked for forgiveness, and Job believed that the all-merciful God forgave him and his family. Still, his friends wondered what else could explain these sufferings and misfortunes. Job had no answer to this question, but he did not and would not curse God. In the end, God and Job talked directly. They got to know each other and understand one another. A hundredfold of what Job lost in the test was restored to him.
So it is for all of us who journey through physical incarnation. Here we will be tested to see for sure what we really treasure: mammon or our Creator and ultimate companion. And the Spirit of God is composed of the Fruits of the Spirit. These fruits have the seeds of the Spirit within them and grow a more companionable soul to the Creator, who longs for our companionship. “God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24) What may be the qualities of this Spirit are revealed in the Fruits of the Spirit, the focus of study in this book.
God’s wisdom is evident in this exactingly magical law of karma and the testing revealed in the book of Job. Understanding mistakes, vices, and weaknesses in others and faithfully enduring the tests are two keys to regaining our birthright as companions and co-creators with our Creator—the Creator of the entire universe and all that is in it.
2
Grace
Like karma, the word grace has its origin in the ancient Indo-Aryan language of Sanskrit. It comes from the root words gr and grnati, meaning “warm approval” and “favorable acceptance,” respectively. It finds it way into Latin as gratia, meaning “to favor,” and ex gratia means to give a favor when one is not required—this is where the word gets its greater meaning as an unmerited divine favor given to souls for their salvation, regeneration, and sanctification.
Although the effect of grace is similar to mercy, there is a subtle distinction: mercy is when God does not give us what we deserve, and grace is when God gives us what we do not deserve. Grace comes from God’s awareness of our potential as eternal companions—the purpose for which God conceived us and gave us free will. Seeing this potential, God established leeway in the unfolding of creation and our soul growth. This leeway is the grace of God’s love for us.
Aware of the ultimate potential of the developing soul, the Creator favors the soul even when it does not yet deserve it. Grace is a gift from the Creator to the created, given in a spirit of love and patience.
American writer and theologian Frederick Buechner wrote:
Grace is something you can never get but can only be given. There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth.
The grace of God means something like: “Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are, because the
