Paper 34 Overview: The Local Universe Mother Spirit

The Local Universe Mother Spirit is a unique manifestation of the Infinite Spirit who serves as the divine partner of the Creator Son in the organization and administration of a local universe. She undergoes a transformation from a creative focus of energy to a personal divine being who ministers to all creatures in the local universe. Through various spirit circuits, including the Holy Spirit and the adjutant mind-spirits, she fosters spiritual growth and development in mortal beings, working in harmony with the Creator Son's Spirit of Truth and the Universal Father's Thought Adjusters.

The Divine Minister plays an essential role in the evolution of inhabited worlds, from endowing primitive life forms with the spark of existence to guiding human beings toward spiritual enlightenment. Despite the challenges faced by mortals, particularly on Urantia with its troubled history, the combined ministry of divine spirit presences offers a path to overcome the conflicts between the spiritual and material natures. This spiritual guidance never forces but gently leads willing souls toward divine heights and spiritual progress.

When a Creator Son is personalized by the Universal Father and the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit responds by individualizing a unique representation to accompany this Son into the realms of space. This Creative Spirit companion assists the Creator Son first in the physical organization of their universe and later in creation and ministry to the creatures that inhabit it. Both the Creator Son and Creative Spirit react to physical and spiritual realities, making them coordinated partners in local universe administration.

The Daughter Spirits possess the essence of the Infinite Spirit but cannot simultaneously function in physical creation and spiritual ministry. In the work of physical creation, the Universe Son provides the pattern while the Universe Spirit transforms energy creations into physical substances. Though it may be difficult to envision this early universe presence of the Infinite Spirit as a person, to the Creator Son the Spirit associate is personal and has always functioned as a distinct individual with whom he can collaborate.

After the physical organization of a star and planetary cluster is complete and energy circuits are established by superuniverse power centers, the Michael Son proclaims his intention to project life into the newly organized universe. This declaration receives Paradise Trinity approval, followed by a spiritual event involving the Master Spirit of that superuniverse. A tremendous spiritual flash, called a "primary eruption," occurs that is visible as far away as the superuniverse headquarters, marking a dramatic change in the creative spirit presence of the Infinite Spirit.

In response to these Paradise phenomena, a new personal representation of the Infinite Spirit immediately personalizes in the presence of the Creator Son. This Divine Minister becomes the personal creative associate of the Creator Son, the local universe Mother Spirit. From this new personal segregation of the Conjoint Creator flow established currents and ordained circuits of spirit power and influence throughout that local universe. This personal presence is a transformation of the previously less personal associate who helped with physical universe organization. Following the reappearance of the supervising Master Spirit and the spiritual energy flash, the local universe manifestation of the Infinite Spirit changes to resemble the Master Spirit of that superuniverse, giving the Mother Spirit a personal nature tinged by the Master Spirit's characteristics.

Having undergone a marked personality transformation during life creation, the Divine Minister functions as a person and works closely with the Creator Son in planning and managing the extensive affairs of their local creation. To many universe beings, this representation of the Infinite Spirit may not appear fully personal during the ages before the Michael Son's final bestowal. However, after the Creator Son is elevated to sovereign authority as a Master Son, the Creative Mother Spirit becomes so enhanced in personal qualities that she is recognized as a person by all who encounter her.

From her earliest association with the Creator Son, the Universe Spirit possesses all the physical-control attributes of the Infinite Spirit, including complete antigravity power. Upon attaining personal status, she exercises full control of mind gravity in the local universe, equivalent to what the Infinite Spirit would if personally present. Each Divine Minister functions according to the nature and characteristics of the Infinite Spirit as embodied in one of the Seven Master Spirits of Paradise. While all Universe Spirits share basic character traits, they differ in function based on which Master Spirit originated them. This accounts for the diverse techniques used by local universe Mother Spirits in different superuniverses, though they remain identical in spiritual attributes, equally spiritual and wholly divine regardless of these differences.

Neither the Eternal Son nor the Infinite Spirit is limited by time or space, but many of their offspring must deal with these limitations. The Infinite Spirit pervades all space and exists in the circle of eternity, yet when interacting with time-bound children, the personalities of the Infinite Spirit must often consider temporal elements. Many mind ministries can ignore space but experience time delays when coordinating different levels of universe reality. Some messenger entities can move almost independently of space but still require time to travel between locations.

In personal prerogatives, a Creative Spirit is entirely independent of space but not of time. She is equally and diffusely present throughout her entire local universe, making her just as literally present on one world as on any other. The Creative Spirit is limited by time in her universe ministrations except when she deliberately uses the personal prerogatives of the Universe Son. In pure-spirit functions, she can act independently of time, particularly when collaborating with the mysterious function of universe reflectivity. When the Creator Son and Creative Spirit function together administratively, they become practically independent of both time and space within their local creation, providing each other with the liberation from these constraints that the other needs.

There are three distinct spirit circuits operating in the local universe of Nebadon: the bestowal spirit of the Creator Son (the Spirit of Truth), the spirit circuit of the Divine Minister (the Holy Spirit), and the intelligence-ministry circuit that includes the seven adjutant mind-spirits. Creator Sons possess a spirit of universe presence similar to the Seven Master Spirits of Paradise. This Spirit of Truth is poured out upon a world when a bestowal Son receives spiritual title to that sphere, drawing truth seekers toward the personification of truth in the local universe.

The Creator Son may come and go throughout the universe, but the Spirit of Truth continues functioning undisturbed because it is centered in the Divine Minister. The Universe Mother Spirit never leaves the local universe headquarters world, and her Holy Spirit would become nonfunctional if she were removed from Salvington. The Creator Son and Mother Spirit both contribute to the mind endowment of their universe children, but the Creative Spirit only bestows mind after receiving personal prerogatives. The seven adjutant mind-spirits are the Divine Minister's creation and include the spirits of wisdom, worship, counsel, knowledge, courage, understanding, and intuition—these are similar in character but diverse in power.

The Divine Minister cooperates with the Creator Son in formulating life and creating new orders of beings through the Creator Son's seventh bestowal and beyond, continuing to collaborate in world ministry and planetary progression. On inhabited worlds, the Spirit begins evolutionary progression with lifeless material, then endows vegetable life, animal organisms, and finally the first orders of human existence. Each successive impartation contributes to unfolding the evolutionary potential from primitive stages to the appearance of will creatures. This work is largely accomplished through the seven adjutants, the spirits of promise, which lead races toward higher ideas and spiritual ideals.

Mortal humans first experience the Spirit's ministry when their animal minds develop capacity to receive the adjutants of worship and wisdom, indicating mind evolution crossing the threshold of spiritual ministry. When minds are endowed with Holy Spirit ministry, they gain the capacity to choose the spiritual presence of the Universal Father—the Thought Adjuster. After a bestowal Son liberates the Spirit of Truth for planetary ministry, all normal minds are automatically prepared for Thought Adjuster reception. The Spirit of Truth works with the Divine Minister's spirit presence, hovering over worlds to teach truth, enlighten minds, inspire souls, and lead evolutionary peoples toward their divine destiny.

As inhabited planets evolve and their inhabitants become more spiritualized, mature personalities can receive additional spiritual influences. As mortals progress in mind control and spirit perception, these multiple spirit ministries become increasingly coordinated in function and blended with the overministry of the Paradise Trinity. Although divinity may appear plural in manifestation, in human experience deity is singular—spiritual ministry is unified regardless of its plural origins. As creatures grow in appreciation for this unifying spirit ministry, it becomes in their experience the ministry of God the Supreme.

From eternal glory, the divine Spirit descends through a series of steps to meet mortals where they are, embracing the soul of mortal origin in a partnership of faith. The Spirit then begins the certain retracement of those condescension steps, never stopping until the evolutionary soul is safely exalted to the heights of bliss from which the divine Spirit originally came. Spiritual life requires effort and can lead to relative spiritual exhaustion. The dead theory of even the highest religious doctrines cannot transform human character without the power of the Holy Spirit. Those who recognize God's indwelling have been born of the Spirit and become temples where God dwells. The divine Spirit must dominate every phase of human experience for true spiritual transformation.

The inherent nature derived from animal-origin races does not naturally produce the fruits of the divine Spirit. When mortal nature has been improved by the addition of the Material Sons' nature, as Urantia races were somewhat advanced by Adam's bestowal, the way is better prepared for the Spirit of Truth to work with the indwelling Adjuster. If you do not reject this spirit, it will eventually guide you into all truth, even if eternity is required to fulfill this commission. Evolutionary mortals on normal worlds of spiritual progress do not experience the acute conflicts between spirit and flesh that characterize present-day Urantia races.

Urantia peoples suffer from a double deprivation in their task of spiritual attainment: the Caligastia upheaval caused worldwide confusion and robbed generations of moral assistance from a well-ordered society, while the Adamic default deprived the races of a superior physical nature more aligned with spiritual aspirations. Despite these challenges, present-day mortals would experience less conflict between flesh and spirit if they entered the spirit kingdom through faith. Jesus showed mankind a new way of living that largely escapes the consequences of rebellion and compensates for the Adamic default. Those born of the Spirit experience no more conflict with their mortal natures than inhabitants of worlds untainted by sin, living on spiritual planes far above the conflicts produced by unrestrained physical desires.