A Study of God the Spirit
as a Participant in God the Sevenfold
by David Kantor
This study of material contained in the Urantia Papers is drawn primarily from:
Paper 8: The Infinite Spirit
Paper 9: Relation of the Infinite Spirit to the Universe
Paper 10: The Paradise Trinity.
Reference numbers appear as [10:2.7] (110, 5)
[10:2.7] indicates Uversa Press Paper: Section.Paragraph number
(110, 5) indicates original edition page and paragraph numberClicking on the underlined numbers will display the related reference from The Urantia Book.
The goal of this study is to help us better understand the nature
of the Infinite Spirit as a functional part of God the Sevenfold. God the Sevenfold
encompasses the widespread ministry of the Paradise Deities to the ascending
pilgrims of time and space.
Review: God the Sevenfold consists of:
The Universal Father (Note: The term "Universal Father" has two meanings: It may designate God prior to all divergence or distribution of Deity. It may also designate the type of relationship played by God as a participant in the Trinity and in God the Sevenfold. In all cases it is still the same Universal Father who indwells each of us.)
The Eternal Son
The Infinite Spirit
The Supreme Being
The Seven Master Spirits
The Ancients of Days
The Creator Son/Creative Spirit Liasons (Note the change in this label. While the Foreword indicates the Creator Sons as the lowest level of God the Sevenfold, note the statement at [17:8.8] (206, 3, #5): "In their participation in the individualization of the local universe, Divine Ministers contribute to the last level of God the Sevenfold, the Creator Son-Creative Spirit union of the local universes." We will return to this issue when we study the nature of this relationship in conjunction with the ministry of God the Sevenfold.It is helpful in this study to conceive the time-space universes--the domain of the finite in the present universe age--as repercussions of the relationships sustained between the members of God the Sevenfold.
Understanding the Infinite Spirit
Note how the revelator's attempt to communicate the nature of the Spirit to
us is largely done by contrasting his nature and function with the Father and
the Son.
[8:6.6] (96, 8) In the administration of universes the Father, Son, and Spirit
a perfectly and eternally interassociated. Though each is engaged in a personal
ministry to all creation, all three are divinely and absolutely interlocked
in a service of creation and control which forever makes them one.
[8:4.2] (94, 4) God is love, the Son is mercy, the Spirit is ministry--the ministry
of divine love and endless mercy to all intelligent creation. The Spirit is
the personification of the Father's love and the Son's mercy; in him are they
eternally united for universal service. The Spirit is love applied to the creature
creation, the combined love of the Father and the Son.
[10:2.7] (110, 5) The Eternal Son alone experiences the fullness of divine personality
relationship, consciousness of both sonship with the Father and paternity to
the Spirit and of divine equality with both Father-ancestor and Spirit-associate.
The Father knows the experience of having a Son who is his equal, but the Father
knows no ancestral antecedents. The Eternal Son has the experience of sonship,
recognition of personality ancestry, and at the same time the Son is conscious
of being joint parent to the Infinite Spirit. The Infinite Spirit is conscious
of twofold personality ancestry but is not parental to a co-ordinate Deity personality.
With the Spirit the existential cycle of Deity personalization attains completion;
the primary personalities of the Third Source and Center are experiential and
are seven in number.
(Note: These "primary personalities" are the Seven Master Spirits who also function
as a part of God the Sevenfold and will be discussed in a later study group.
This relates to the fact that the universe is operated in seven grand divisions,
and that the number seven is basically fundamental in the organization and administration
of this same universe.)
[8:4.1] (94, 3) Paralleling the physical universe wherein Paradise gravity holds
all things together is the spiritual universe wherein the word of the Son interprets
the thought of God and, when "made flesh," demonstrates the loving mercy of
the combined nature of the associated Creators. But in and through all this
material and spiritual creation there is a vast stage whereon the Infinite Spirit
and his spirit offspring show forth the combined mercy, patience, and everlasting
affection of the divine parents towards the intelligent children of their co-operative
devising and making. Everlasting ministry to mind is the essence of the Spirit's
divine character. And all the spirit offspring of the Conjoint Actor partake
of this desire to minister, this divine urge to service.
[9:0.2]
(98, 2) The Father is infinite in love and volition, in spiritual thought
and purpose; he is the universal upholder. The Son is infinite in wisdom
and truth, in spiritual expression and interpretation; he is the universal revealer.
Paradise is infinite in potential for force endowment and in capacity
for energy dominance; it is the universal stabilizer. The Conjoint Actor
possesses unique prerogatives of synthesis, infinite capacity to co-ordinate
all existing universe energies, all actual universe spirits, and all real universe
intellects; the Third Source and Center is the universal unifier of the manifold
energies and diverse creations which have appeared in consequence of the divine
plan and the eternal purpose of the Universal Father.
[10:2.4]
(110, 2) The First Source and Center is the infinite father-personality,
the unlimited source personality. The Eternal Son is the unqualified
personality-absolute, that divine being who stands throughout all time and eternity
as the perfect revelation of the personal nature of God. Ihe Infinite Spirit
is the conjoint personality, the unique personal consequence of the
everlasting Father-Son union .... The personality of the Third Source and Center
is the superadditive consequence of the union of the liberated Father-personality
and the absolute Son-personality.
Note: Think of "superadditive" as an attribute of a relationship -- an attribute
whose existence could not be predicted from an examination of either component
of the relationship:
[ 12:9.4] (141, 5) Technical analysis does not reveal what a person or a thing
can do. For example: Water is used effectively to extinguish fire. That water
will put out fire is a fact of everyday experience, but no analysis of water
could ever be made to disclose such a property. Analysis determines that water
is composed of hydrogen and oxygen; a further study of these elements discloses
that oxygen is the real supporter of combustion and that hydrogen will itself
freely burn.
Side note: While we have the concept of "superadditive" in mind, we might use
it to gain a better understanding of the term "absonite realities" or the "absonite
level" -- the "absonite level" may be considered a level of universe reality
beyond Supremacy which "eventuates" as a superadditive repercussion of events
and evolutionary processes within the Master Universe (not just the Grand Universe).
Another term we might use for "superadditive" is "associative". When we discuss
the c4associative" potentials of personality we are talking about superadditive
realities emerging as a result of relationships between personalities. The associative
potential of all personalities in the Grand Universe functioning relative to
the will of God will be the actualization of the Supreme Being.
[8:0.1]
(90, 1) Back in eternity, when the Universal Father's "first" infinite and absolute
thought finds in the Eternal Son such a perfect and adequate word for its divine
expression, there ensues the supreme desire of both the Thought-God and the
Word-God for a universal and infinite agent of mutual expression and combined
action.
[8:0.2] (90, 2) In the dawn of eternity both the Father and the Son become infinitely cognizant of their mutual interdependence, their eternal and absolute oneness; and therefore do they enter into an infinite and everlasting covenant of divine partnership. This never-ending compact is made for the execution of their united concepts throughout all of the circle of eternity; and ever since this eternity event the Father and the Son continue in this divine union.
[8:0.3]
(90, 3) We are now face to face with the eternity origin of the Infinite Spirit,
the Third Person of Deity. The very instant that God the Father and God the
Son conjointly conceive an identical and infinite action--the execution of an
absolute thought-plan--that very moment, the Infinite Spirit springs full-fledgedly
into existence.
[8:0.4]
(90, 4) In thus reciting the order of the origin of the Deities, I do so merely
to enable you to think of their relationship. In reality they are all three
existent from eternity; they are existential. They are without beginning or
ending of days; they are co-ordinate, supreme, ultimate, absolute, and infinite.
They are and always have been and ever shall be. And they are three distinctly
individualized but eternally associated persons, God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit.
[9:1.6]
(99, 5) The Conjoint Actor seems to be motivated by the Father-Son partnership,
but all his actions appear to recognize the Father-Paradise relationship.
The paragraph above contains an important concept which will help us understand
the Infinite Spirit. Short related study: What is the Father-Paradise relationship?
[11:9.3
] (127, 1) In the eternity of the past, when the Universal Father gave infinite
personality expression of his spirit self in the being of the Eternal Son, simultaneously
he revealed the infinity potential of his nonpersonal self as Paradise. Nonpersonal
and nonspiritual Paradise appears to have been the inevitable repercussion to
the Father's will and act which eternalized the Original Son. Thus did the Father
project reality in two actual phases--the personal and the nonpersonal, the
spiritual and the nonspiritual. The tension between them ... gave existence
to the Conjoint Actor and the central universe of material worlds and spiritual
beings.
[9:1.3]
(99, 2) While you envisage the Father as an original creator and the Son as
a spiritual administrator, you should think of the Third Source and Center as
a universal co-ordinator, a minister of unlimited co-operation. The Conjoint
Actor is the correlator of all actual reality; he is the Deity repository of
the Father's thought and the Son's word and in action is eternally regardful
of the material absoluteness of the central Isle.
Compare:
[8:3.5] (93, 7) The Infinite Spirit is the effective agent of the all-loving Father and the all-merciftil Son for the execution of their conjoint project of drawing to themselves all truth-loving souls on all the worlds of time and space. The very instant the Eternal Son accepted his Father's plan of perfection attainment for the creatures of the universes, the moment the ascension project became a Father-Son plan, that instant the Infinite Spirit became the conjoint administrator of the Father and the Son for the execution of their united and eternal purpose. And in so doing the Infinite Spirit pledged all his resources of divine presence and of spirit personalities to the Father and the Son; he has dedicated all to the stupendous plan of exalting surviving will creatures to the divine heights of Paradise perfection.with:
[8:1.4] (91, 1) The God of Action functions and the dead vaults of space are astir. One billion perfect spheres flash into existence. Prior to this hypothetical eternity moment the space-energies inherent in Paradise are existent and potentially operative, but they have no actuality of being; neither can physical gravity be measured except by the reaction of material realities to its incessant pull. There is no material universe at this (assumed) eternally distant moment, but the very instant that one billion worlds materialize, there is in evidence gravity sufficient and adequate to hold them in the everlasting grasp of Paradise.
The first quote [8:3.5] tells about the Spirit's instantaneous response to
the Father-Son plan; the second quote [8:1.4] indicates the simultaneous repercussion
within the domains of Paradise gravity and material energy.
In the above two quotes we see the Spirit's reponse to the dual aspects of the
Father's expression of himself in the Son -- support of the Father-Son partnership
and full recognition of the FatherParadise relationship. The Spirit embodies
both the personal and non-personal repercussions of the Father-Son relationship.
The Infinite Spirit sustains a relationship to the Father-Son relationship:
[9:0.3]
(98, 3) The Infinite Spirit, the Conjoint Creator, is a universal and divine
minister. The Spirit unceasingly ministers the Son's mercy and the Father's
love, even in harmony with the stable, unvarying, and righteous justice of the
Paradise Trinity. IFEs influence and personalities are ever near you; they really
know and truly understand you.
The Infinite Spirit sustains a relationship to the Father-Paradise relationship:
[9:0.4]
(98, 4) Throughout the universes the agencies of the Conjoint Actor ceaselessly
manipulate the forces and energies of all space. Like the First Source and Center,
the Third is responsive to both the spiritual and the material. The Conjoint
Actor is the revelation of the unity of God, in whom all things consist--things,
meanings, and values; energies, minds, and spirits.
Review: The Sevenfold Controllers
1. The Source of Paradise -- the Universal Father
2. The Isle of Paradise -- the infinity potential of the Father's non-personal
self
3. The God of Action -- the Infinite Spirit
4. The Almighty Supreme -- evolving on the value-level of nonpersonal activities
5. The Supreme Power Directors
6. The Supreme Power Centers
7. The Master Physical Controllers
(The last three groups are of origin in the Infinite Spirit)
The Personality of the Infinite Spirit
[8:6.1] (96, 3) The Infinite Spirit is a universe presence, an eternal action, a cosmic power, a holy influence, and a universal mind; he is all of these and infinitely more, but he is also a true and divine personality.
Contemplate these descriptions:
a universe presence;
an eternal action;
a cosmic power;
a holy influence;
a universal mind;
a true and divine personality...
[8:2.2] (92, 3) The Third Source and Center is known by numerous titles: the Universal Spirit, the Supreme Guide, the Conjoint Creator, the Divine Executive, the Infinite Mind, the Spirit of Spirits, the Paradise Mother Spirit, the Conjoint Actor, the Final Co-ordinator, the Omnipresent Spirit, the Absolute Intelligence, the Divine Action; and on Urantia he is sometimes confused with the cosmic mind.
[8:2.3]
(92, 4) It is altogether proper to denominate the Third Person of Deity the
Infinite Spirit, for God is spirit. But material creatures who tend towards
the error of viewing matter as basic reality and mind, together with spirit,
as postulates rooted in matter, would better comprehend the Third Source and
Center if he were called the Infinite Reality, the Universal Organizer, or the
Personality Co-ordinator.
Reflect on the Spirit as "the Personality Co-ordinator" and review [114:6]
(1254 Section 6) regarding the twelve corps of the master seraphim of planetary
supervision. Note that most of these angelic corps are directly devoted to a
category of mortal personality associations--churches, nations, races,
homes, etc.
God the Son is often called "the Word" -- we may view him as the personification
of the first thought of the Father -- not necessarily "first" in a temporal
sequence, but "first" in primacy -that relative to which all other thoughts
occur. This must of necessity be a thought of divine perfection and integration.
The Son is this primary thought personalized.
[8:3.1]
(93, 3) As the Eternal Son is the word expression of the "first" absolute and
infinite thought of the Universal Father, so the Conjoint Actor is the perfect
execution of the "first" completed creative concept or plan for combined action
by the Father-Son personality partnership of absolute thought-word union.
[8:6.3]
(96, 5) The Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of Deity, is possessed of all
the attributes which you associate with personality. The Spirit is endowed with
absolute mind: "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God."
The Spirit is endowed not only with mind but also with will. In the bestowal
of his gifts it is recorded: "But all these works that one and the selfsame
Spirit, dividing to every man severally and as he wills."
[8:6.4]
(96, 6) "The love of the Spirit" is real, as also are his sorrows; therefore
"Grieve not the Spirit of God." Whether we observe the Infinite Spirit as Paradise
Deity or as a local universe Creative Spirit, we find that the Conjoint Creator
is not only the Third Source and Center but also a divine person. This divine
personality also reacts to the universe as a person. The Spirit speaks to you,
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says." "The Spirit himself
makes intercession for you." The Spirit exerts a direct and personal influence
upon created beings, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are
the sons of God."
This paragraph contains a clue to help us understand the nature of God in the
universes. Consider the sentence "Whether we observe the Infinite Spirit as
Paradise Deity or as a local universe Creative Spirit, we find that the Conjoint
Creator is not only the Third Source and Center but also a divine person."
This implies that attenuations of Deity function (or local adaptations of Deity)
may be endowed with personality and function as distinct individuals. Note that
this is not the creation of separate independent entities but rather the personalization
of various manifestations of one integrated Deity. This functional pattern begins
with the primary persons of Deity -- the Father (the love of God), the Son (God's
mercy), and the Spirit (God's loving and merciful ministry to universe creatures)
and extends down to the natures of the Creator Sons and Creative Daughters.
The functional relationships between these primary personalizations of
Deity constitute the presence of God the Sevenfold in the present universe age,
much after the manner in which the relationship between the Father, the
Son and the Spirit constitutes the Trinity. This can be viewed as a patterning
taking place within the nature of the Universal Father.
The Spirit in the Local Universe
[8:3.3]
(93, 5) The Eternal Son and the Conjoint Creator have, as partners and through
their co-ordinate personalities, planned and fashioned every post-Havona universe
which has been brought into existence. The Spirit sustains the same personal
relation to the Son in all subsequent creation that the Son sustains to the
Father in the first and central creation. [8:3.4]
(93, 6) A Creator Son of the Eternal Son and a Creative Spirit of the Infinite
Spirit created you and your universe; and while the Father in faithfulness upholds
that which they have organized, it devolves upon this Universe Son and this
Universe Spirit to foster and sustain their work as well as to minister to the
creatures of their own making.
[8:4.4]
(94, 6) When a Creator Son of God accepts the creatorship charge of responsibility
for a projected local universe, the personalities of the Infinite Spirit pledge
themselves as the tireless ministers of this Michael Son when he goes forth
on his mission of creative adventure. Especially in the persons of the Creative
Daughters, the local universe Mother Spirits, do we find the Infinite Spirit
devoted to the task of fostering the ascension of the material creatures to
higher and higher levels of spiritual attainment. And all this work of creature
ministry is done in perfect harmony with the purposes, and in close association
with the personalities, of the Creator Sons of these local universes. [8:4.5]
(94, 7) As the Sons of God are engaged in the gigantic task of revealing the
Father's personality of love to a universe, so is the Infinite Spirit dedicated
to the unending ininistry of revealing the combined love of the Father and the
Son to the individual minds of all the children of each universe. In these local
creations the Spirit does not come down to the material races in the likeness
of mortal flesh as do certain of the Sons of God, but the Infinite Spirit and
his co-ordinate Spirits do downstep themselves, do joyfully undergo an amazing
series of divinity attenuations, until they appear as angels to stand by your
side and guide you through the lowly paths of earthly existence. [8:4.6]
(95, 1) By this very diminishing series the Infinite Spirit does actually, and
as a person, draw very near to every being of the animal-origin spheres. And
all this the Spirit does without in the least invalidating his existence as
the Third Person of Deity at the center of all things.
[8:4.8]
(95, 3) As man learns more of the loving and tireless ministry of the lower
orders of the creature family of this Infinite Spirit, he will all the more
admire and adore the transcendent nature and matchless character of this combined
Action of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. Indeed is this Spirit "the
eyes of the Lord which are ever over the righteous" and "the divine ears which
are ever open to their prayers."
[8:5.3]
(95, 6) In your sacred writings the term Spirit of God seems to be used interchangeably
to designate both the Infinite Spirit on Paradise and the Creative Spirit of
your local universe. The Holy Spirit is the spiritual circuit of this Creative
Daughter of the Paradise Infinite Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a circuit indigenous
to each local universe and is confined to the spiritual realm of that creation;
but the Infinite Spirit is omnipresent.
[8:5.4]
(95, 7) There are many spiritual influences, and they are all as one. Even the
work of the Thought Adjusters, though independent of all other influences, unvaryingly
coincides with the spirit ministry of the combined influences of the Infinite
Spirit and a local universe Mother Spirit. As these spiritual presences operate
in the lives of Urantians, they cannot be segregated. In your minds and upon
your souls they function as one spirit, notwithstanding their diverse origins.
And as this united spiritual ministration is experienced, it becomes to you
the influence of the Supreme, "who is ever able to keep you from failing and
to present you blameless before your Father on high."
[8:6.5] (96, 1) Ever remember that the Infinite Spirit is the Conjoint Actor; both the Father and the Son are functioning in and through him-, he is present not only as himself but also as the Father and as the Son and as the Father-Son. In recognition of this and for many additional reasons the spirit presence of the Infinite Spirit is often referred to as "the spirit of God."
[8:6.6] (96, 2) It would also be consistent to refer to the liaison of all spiritual ministry as the spirit of God, for such a liaison is truly the union of the spirits of God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, and God the Sevenfold--even the spirit of God the Supreme.
Some functions of the Infinite Spirit
1. Manipulator of material reality
[9:0.4]
(98, 4) Throughout the universes the agencies of the Conjoint Actor ceaselessly
manipulate the forces and energies of all space. Like the First Source and Center,
the Third is responsive to both the spiritual and the material. The Conjoint
Actor is the revelation of the unity of God, in whom all things consist--things,
meanings, and values; energies, minds, and spirits.
[9:3.5] (101, 5) The Conjoint Creator is not energy nor the source of energy
nor the destiny of energy; he is the manipulator of energy. The Conjoint Creator
is action--motion, change, modification, co-ordination, stabilization, and equilibrium.
The energies subject to the direct or indirect control of Paradise are by nature
responsive to the acts of the Third Source and Center and his manifold agencies.
[9:3.6] (101, 6) The universe of universes is permeated by the power-control creatures of the Third Source and Center: physical controllers, power directors, power centers, and other representatives of the God of Action who have to do with the regulation and stabilization of physical energies. These unique creatures of physical function all possess varying attributes of power control, such as antigravity, which they utilize in their efforts to establish the physical equilibrium of the matter and energies of the grand universe.
[9:3.7] (101, 7) All these material activities of the God of Action appear to relate his function to the Isle of Paradise, and indeed the agencies of power are all regardful of, even dependent on, the absoluteness of the eternal Isle. But the Conjoint Actor does not act for, or in response to, Paradise. He acts, personally, for the Father and the Son. Paradise is not a person. The nonpersonal, impersonal, and otherwise not personal doings of the Third Source and Center are all volitional acts of the Conjoint Actor himself, they are not reflections, derivations, or repercussions of anything or anybody.
[9:3.8] (101, 8) Paradise is the pattern of infinity; the God of Action is
the activator of that pattern. Paradise is the material fulcrum of infinity;
the agencies of the Third Source and Center are the levers of intelligence which
motivate the material level and inject spontaneity into the mechanism of the
physical creation.
Note again the Sevenfold Controllers as complimentary to the Sevenfold Creators,
all participating in the ministry of God the Sevenfold.
2. Originator and sustainer of creature mind
[9:5.2] (102, 8) In the domain of created mind the Third Person, with his
co-ordinate and subordinate associates, rules supreme. The realms of creature
mind are of exclusive origin in the Third Source and Center; he is the bestower
of mind. Even the Father fragments find it impossible to indwell the minds of
men until the way has been properly prepared for them by the mind action and
spiritual function of the Infinite Spirit.
[9:6.1]
(103, 6) All these activities of mind are grasped in the absolute mind-gravity
circuit which focalizes in the Third Source and Center and is a part of the
personal consciousness of the Infinite Spirit. [9:6.2]
(103, 7) Much as the Father draws all personality to himself, and as the Son
attracts all spiritual reality, so does the Conjoint Actor exercise a drawing
power on all minds; he unqualifiedly dominates and controls the universal mind
circuit. All true and genuine intellectual values, all divine thoughts and perfect
ideas, are unerringly drawn into this absolute circuit of mind.
[9:6.4] (104, 2) Selffiood of personality dignity, human or divine, immortal
or potentially immortal, does not however originate in either spirit, mind,
or matter; it is the bestowal of the Universal Father. Neither is the interaction
of spirit, mind, and material gravity a prerequisite to the appearance of personality
gravity. The Father's circuit may embrace a mind-material being who is unresponsive
to spirit gravity, or it may include a mind-spirit being who is unresponsive
to material gravity. The operation of personality gravity is always a volitional
act of the Universal Father. [9:6.5] (104, 3) While mind is energy associated
in purely material beings and spirit associated in purely spiritual personalities,
innumerable orders of personality, including the human, possess minds that are
associated with both energy and spirit. The spiritual aspects of creature mind
unfailingly respond to the spirit-gravity pull of the Eternal Son; the material
features respond to the gravity urge of the material universe.
[9:6.9]
(104, 7) There is much about mind that is unknown, but of this we are sure:
The Infinite Spirit is the perfect expression of the mind of the Creator to
all creatures; the Supreme Being is the evolving expression of the minds of
all creatures to their Creator.
3. Manager of Universe Reflectivity
[9:7.1] (105, 1) The Conjoint Actor is able to co-ordinate all levels of universe actuality in such manner as to make possible the simultaneous recognition of the mental, the material, and the spiritual. This is the phenomenon of universe reflectivity, that unique and inexplicable power to see, hear, sense, and know all things as they transpire throughout a superuniverse, and to focalize, by reflectivity, all this information and knowledge at any desired point. The action of reflectivity is shown in perfection on each of the headquarters worlds of the seven superuniverses. It is also operative throughout all sectors of the superuniverses and within the boundaries of the local universes. Reflectivity finally focalizes on Paradise.
[9:7.2] (105, 2) The phenomenon of reflectivity, as it is disclosed on the superuniverse headquarters worlds in the amazing performances of the reflective personalities there stationed, represents the most complex interassociation of all phases of existence to be found in all creation. Lines of spirit can be traced back to the Son, physical energy to Paradise, and mind to the Third Source; but in the extraordinary phenomenon of universe reflectivity there is a unique and exceptional unification of all three, so associated as to enable the universe rulers to know about remote conditions instantaneously, simultaneously with their occurrence.
4. Bestower of Third Source personality -- the Personalities of the Infinite Spirit
[9:0.3]
(98, 3) The Infinite Spirit, the Conjoint Creator, is a universal and divine
minister. The Spirit unceasingly ministers the Son's mercy and the Father's
love, even in harmony with the stable, unvarying, and righteous justice of the
Paradise Trinity. fEs influence and personalities are ever near you; they really
know and truly understand you.
[9:8.1]
(105, 6) The Infinite Spirit possesses full power to transmit many of his powers
and prerogatives to his co-ordinate and subordinate personalities and agencies.
[9:8.2]
(105, 7) The first Deity-creating act of the Infinite Spirit, functioning apart
from the Trinity but in some unrevealed association with the Father and the
Son, personalized in the existence of the Seven Master Spirits of Paradise,
the distributors of the Infinite Spirit to the universes.
[9:8.6]
(106, 4) The Third Source and Center is represented in the grand universe by
a vast array of ministering spirits, messengers, teachers, adjudicators, helpers,
and advisers, together with supervisors of certain circuits of physical, morontial,
and spiritual nature.
[9:8.9]
(106, 9) There are numerous types of Third Source personalities. The Infinite
Spirit bestows Third Source personality upon numerous groups who are not included
in the Father's personality circuit, such as certain of the power directors.
Likewise does the Infinite Spirit treat as personalities numerous groups of
beings, such as the Creative Spirits, who are in a class by themselves in their
relations to encircuited creatures of the Father.
[9:8.12]
(107, 2) The functional family of the Third Source and Center, as it is revealed
in these narratives, falls into three great groups:
I. The Supreme Spirits. A group of composite origin that embraces, among others, the following orders:
1. The Seven Master Spirits of Paradise.
2. The Reflective Spirits of the Superuniverses.
3. The Creative Spirits of the Local Universes.II. The Power Directors. A group of control creatures and agencies that function throughout all organized space.
III. The Personalities of the Infinite Spirit. This designation does not necessarily imply that these beings are Third Source personalities though some of them are unique as will creatures. They are usually grouped in three major classifications:
1. The Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit.
2. The Messenger Hosts of Space.
3. The Ministering Spirits of Time.
These groups serve on Paradise, in the central or residential universe, in
the superuniverses, and they embrace orders that function in the local universes,
even to the constellations, systems, and planets.
The spirit personalities of the vast family of the Divine and Infinite Spirit
are forever dedicated to the service of the ministry of the love of God and
the mercy of the Son to all the intelligent creatures of the evolutionary worlds
of time and space. These spirit beings constitute the living ladder whereby
mortal man climbs from chaos to glory.
Much more understanding of the Father, the Son and the Spirit as well as the
relationships which they sustain with each other may be obtained from a careful
reading of Paper 10.
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship