As we begin another hour of meditation let us have a moment of devotion. Our gracious LORD and KING, we thank Thee for the multitude of Thy blessings made manifest; for the holy privilege we have of yielding to the spirit of Thy Presence, and letting the patterns of Life be molded and shaped to the Divine Design, that we may truly share in letting Thy Kingdom come; that we may behold in the lives of others around us, and in our environments and circumstances, the evidence that Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power and the Glory forever. In the Christ. Aumen.
In our hour of meditation last evening we read Psalm 107 and concluded with the 24th Psalm recognizing the way in which the LORD accomplishes great things in the lives of those who recognize the goodness of our God and who appreciate the fact that his mercy endureth forever. “O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men.” And in this pattern we see how, in the Divine outworking, he gathers his children from the east and from the west from the north and the south and delivers them from the hand of the enemy, and brings them into a land, a place of habitation, a realm of living. And we recall that our Master taught men to pray, “Thy kingdom come.” We have recognized this Divine expression from the lips of our Master many many times, and yet it seems to me that we can, this morning, by meditation and yielding to the spirit of our LORD and KING, enter into a still deeper realization of the significance of these words in relationship to ourselves.
There are the more or less crystallized patterns in the world around us which to some degree, to some extent, we share. There are those things which human beings deem to be essential to themselves or to their comforts, desirable, pleasing, to which they tend to cling. As we meditate on this point we are reminded once again of that which the LORD expressed shortly before the flood, when the Great Ark was in process of preparation; for the LORD recognized that the imagination of men's hearts was only evil continually, and with the then-known civilization in danger from the vibratory results of man's own ill actions—for we must remember that the LORD did not produce the flood that brought such havoc and destruction to the world; man produced that flood—the LORD found a certain man and his family, as we recall the story, who were willing to disregard the patterns and circumstances, ideas and concepts, the crystallizations of that day. And in a place where there was only dry land, no sea nearby, this man began to establish an outer form that seemed to onlookers to be utterly incongruous, and the incongruities of the circumstance caused them to mock this man; for he was spending his time, his money, his energy, building an ark on the dry land in a position where it could not be readily gotten into the water. And so the people of the day mocked him. They took the attitude that he had lost his mind, that he had gone crazy. He was doing something which appeared to be utterly foolish, and yet he kept on. The pattern of that ark is a very interesting thing, which we might pause to consider for a moment this morning.
“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth…” I wonder what God sees in the earth today. “…and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”
The heart, the heart of love, the feeling nature of God, was grieved because "the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord… And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
“And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits."
In the general pattern there was variation with respect to the actual length of a cubit. One cubit is generally considered to be two spans, and that was one foot and seven inches approximately, about nineteen inches per cubit, in other words, a little over a foot and a half. We recognize, then, that according to these measurements the ark would be over four hundred and fifty feet long; nearly five hundred feet. “And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.” But it is not so much the length or breadth or height, in the sense of measurement as we use it, we are interested in; it is in the symbolism of the figures themselves. “The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits… and the height of it thirty.” Here we note that both in the length and the height we have the figure three, signifying the three planes, or three primary phases, of man. “And the breadth of it shall be fifty cubits.” We recognize that the figure 5 carries the symbolical significance of the life factor, the expression of life. The length and the breadth and the height: of life and the three phases of being.
“A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.”
A three-story building in the shape of a boat, sitting in an area of dry land, and the people of that time felt that Noah was crazy, that he was a fool to spend all the time that he did, and the energy, building this peculiar, unwieldy, unsatisfactory building in the shape of a boat. We remember that water is the symbol of truth. And we also recall that after the flood there was the rainbow of promise which was given to man, the vision of the rainbow, carrying the promise that the earth would never again in that same sense be destroyed by water. But that which was symbolized by the water, truth, was yet to have its part to play. As Noah in his day built an ark of gopher wood and pitched it within and without to make it watertight—three stories high, correlating with the three phases of man's being—that he and his family and certain animals might be preserved from the overwhelming flood of water, so are we building an ark. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/build-ye-ark.html]
We remember the time of the children of Israel. They had what was called the Ark of the Covenant. It was a comparatively small box set upon staves so that four men could carry it. On the top of it there was the mercy seat and the cherubim—the Ark of the Covenant. First there is the ark of gopher wood as a means of protection against the flood of water, and then there is the ark of the covenant, designed to keep men from forgetting the covenant, designed to remind man of the divine purpose on earth. An ark, a symbol, which was supposed to keep man from forgetting. Along with this ark there was the measure of manna (symbolizing the bread of life), Aaron's rod which budded (suggesting the manifestation of life, the power of God), and the shewbread. In any case it was the place where the Law of God was supposed to be preserved, the Law of God preserved in the Ark of the Covenant. Those who preserve the Law of God in a true sense do not forget God's covenant. But this Ark of the Covenant was a symbol. As we see the first ark, Noah's ark, as a symbol, so is the Ark of the Covenant a symbol for you—the upright man or woman, symbolized by the staff, or the rod that budded. You are supposed to be a means by which God's love and truth and life are made evident in the earth. You are supposed to be a means by which the bread of life is preserved in the earth. You are supposed to be the means by which the Law of God is preserved to the children of men. Which is greater? Keeping a piece of stone upon which certain words were written, a piece of stone which was called the place where the finger of God had written His Law? Or that you, the living man or woman, having had a heart of stone, should become a manifestation of the Ark of the Covenant, preserving to the children of men the reality of the Law of God, giving evidence that the finger of God is written upon the stony tablets of your heart, the heart that is supposed to yield to God? That which is established in symbol is supposed to appear in fact. The evil of the world was destroyed by a flood of water, and water is the symbol of truth. Thereupon the rainbow of promise appears, establishing in the hearts and minds of men the assurance that evil shall be destroyed from the face of the earth by the truth, that the earth shall be cleansed and purified and sanctified by the flood of truth. And then the Ark of the Covenant, a symbol.
But men began to conceive the symbol to be a thing unto itself. They began to treat it as if it were God. They lost a consciousness of the significance of the mercy seat—“for his mercy endureth for ever.” They lost a consciousness of the significance of the cherubim which established between them a creative field, a place where the spirit of God could come to rest under the working of the Law of the Positive and the Negative, a place where the fire could appear, the fire of love above the mercy seat. Man lost sight of the fact that he is supposed to be the ark which can survive the flood of truth, that he is supposed to be the place where the Law of God is written in letters of fire, that he is supposed to be the revelation of Aaron's rod which budded, that he is supposed to give evidence of the eternal bread of life. Because man failed to properly understand and appreciate the symbol, the symbol was taken away from man. It was lost to man, and man has wandered in darkness and superstition for these hundreds and hundreds of years, failing to recognize that that which is symbolized is supposed to appear in fact, and that we are supposed to be building an ark, an ark the design of which comes to us from out of the east and the realms of heaven, an ark which is capable of surviving the flood of truth upon the earth, an ark which has a window above, a window which signifies the real connection between man and his Creator—the silver cord. And this ark not only has a window above, but manifest in relationship to the working of the One Law, the positive and negative poles of creative function as signified by the cherubim, the creative field where the fire appears, signifying the presence of God, yes, but God's love; for God's love signifies the presence of God. Man remembers the Shekinah Fire, dimly at least, but he has forgotten that that fire is supposed to appear in relationship to himself.
The fire—evidence of the Presence of the LORD. The fire that burns forever in the creative field where the Law of God is clearly established; not just tablets of stone in a box, even though that box be covered with gold leaf, but the Law of God made evident in the living of life. We see in these things how man back through the ages has tended to get into a state of crystallization: where the wickedness of man is great in the earth, where there is violence, and the evil imaginations of men's hearts are made evident. That which does not conform with the crystallized patterns is conceived to be evil by those who are evil. That which is not of the divine design of God, being evil, conceives all things which do not conform to itself to be evil and foolish. The ark, the Holy City, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/we-are-holy-city.html] the place of divine habitation, the new Jerusalem which comes down from God out of heaven—whatever symbolical term we may use—describes the fulfilments suggested by the symbolism of Noah's ark, and the Ark of the Covenant at the time of the children of Israel; but human beings today are inclined to feel that, as it is put in Peter's Epistle, “there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the foundation of the world.”
Scoffers saying, “All things continue as they were. We have had this pattern of world activity a long time. There has been the rise and fall of empires; we have had birth and death, and suffering and misery; we have had times of prosperity and times of depression, times of peace and times of war. These things are natural and they'll just continue on that way. All things continue as they were.” That is what they said in the days of Noah. It has been man's theme down through the centuries. But things do not continue as they were. We either move toward God, in the fulfilment of His will, or we move away from God toward oblivion. We need to be prepared for the flood of truth, for it is the flood of truth that shall cleanse and purify the world. And the fire shall be made evident, the fire of God's love. Do we welcome that fire and let it manifest between the cherubim? Or do we try to keep that fire of God's love, the evidence of His Presence, far away? Are you an Ark of the Covenant? Is your life, in its pattern, unfolding an ark wherein there is a window above, an ark that is capable of riding out the turbulence of the flood of truth? It was written by Daniel that in the latter days knowledge shall be increased and many shall run to and fro. What is the evidence of the coming of the flood of truth? The increase in knowledge. The very fact that knowledge is increased and human beings are running to and fro provides us evidence of the coming of the flood of truth. We see how man has taken this knowledge and used it to his own purposes. He can produce a great fire, a fire which is so intense that it causes metal to be as if it had not been—the fire of an atomic explosion. But is the fire of an atomic explosion an adequate, satisfactory substitute for the fire of God's love? Can man's ability to produce this fire establish a control upon the earth that will cause evil men to withdraw from their evil purposes? This fire, the atomic fire, is available. Man has used it and contemplates its use. Well our enemy likewise has learned to produce this fire. Some thought, “Now that we have produced the atomic fire our evil enemies will cease to be evil. They will be afraid and they will stop and consider the importance of peace on earth.” Our enemies stopped to consider and they said unto themselves, "Let us learn how to make this fire and we will make a great fire and we shall have the greatest fire, the fire which shall destroy the fire of those who resist us." And so man proceeds, not to find the fire of God's love by which peace might truly come but to exert himself with all energy and speed to build, or to be able to build, a fire greater than the fire of his enemy.
The earth is reserved unto fire. What fire? The fire of an atomic war. The fire of an atomic war—not that God wills it to be so, but man insists that it shall be so. God knew that the flood of truth would come upon the earth in season and He sent the flood of many waters to cause man to consider the necessity of the divine design; but man soon forgot his lesson and the Ark of the Covenant did not make man remember those things which man should have remembered. What is it that produces the latter days? Human beings have acted as if they thought that when the latter days should come then certain things should manifest. What produces the latter days? The coming of those certain things. Why are they the latter days? Because with the outworking of the divine plan the former things shall pass away. It is written with respect to the time of the flood:
“And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/sethenochnoah.html] And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.”
The latter days. People have imagined that upon the calendar of time God simply made a mark and said, "These shall be the latter days. And when the latter days come, why then this shall be produced and that shall be produced, in the latter days." That concept fails to recognize that the coming of knowledge, the forerunner of the flood of truth, is that which brings the latter days. The latter days of what? The latter days of man's evil rule upon the earth, the latter days of the crystallizations which man has developed and established on earth. These crystallizations must come to an end under the advancing flood of truth which has been let loose in all the earth upon all the children of men. Man, accepting the substitutes of atomic fire for the fire of God's love, is building for the fire of judgment, the fire that produces the latter days. But the fire, the ability to produce that atomic fire, is the result of the coming of the flood of truth; for without the increased knowledge, man could not make the atomic fire as a substitute for the fire of God's love that is supposed to appear between the cherubim, between those who establish points of polarity in the creative field by which the power of God might manifest.
These crystallizations, these humanly devised patterns and programs, must come to an end, and the former things must pass away. But those of us who have advance awareness, who have time to build an ark, who have time to know and to understand the reality of that which is taking place, have the privilege of letting the crystallizations, crystallized patterns, pass away from us so that we can move into the pattern of heavenly flexibility, which permits us to function according to the will of God on earth, letting the Kingdom of Heaven come. If we resist the passing of the crystallizations from us we simply establish for ourselves the judgment that we shall pass away with our crystallizations. The crystallizations shall pass away—from us, if we permit it to be so; but we shall pass away with them if we refuse to let the Kingdom come, to let the new patterns of being appear in our lives, to let the new elements of life control. And unless we let the fire appear in us and through us, unless we help to establish a creative field where the Shekinah Fire may manifest, we shall be subject to the atomic fire. Unless we, like Noah, have built an Ark of Being, capable of functioning in the flood of truth, we can never know how to let that Shekinah fire manifest; and the atomic fire of man's design is not, and cannot be, a satisfactory substitute. Man trembles in awe when he sees the mighty explosion of the atomic bomb. He beholds the fire and he recognizes that this fire could spread, through war, and destroy the great cities and the civilizations of the world. One fire or the other will control in our lives. Which shall it be? Shall we let the crystallizations that still limit and cramp and distort our lives pass from us easily and naturally, yielding to the fire of God's love and functioning in relationship to the creative field of His power? Or shall we resist, until the crystallizations shall be blasted into nothingness by the fire which man himself brings forth?
Do you think for a moment that in the world with two opposing camps, with both camps having the power to produce this fire, and considering the nature of our godless enemy, do you think that they will not, at a time which they conceive to be advantageous to themselves, start making that fire? Do you think they will restrain themselves?—men without God, like children without parental control, having a toy. Will they not use that toy? Do you think that the world can escape that fire, the fire which man produces and brings upon himself in self-judgment, even as he is judged? The furnace, the fire, the fire of atomic bombs. I do not emphasize this to produce fear but rather that we may face the facts, that we may cease deluding ourselves, that we may recognize that we must choose between two fires; for, whereas there was the flood of water, there is now the flood of truth which has been loosed upon the earth, and the frontal waves of that flood have been to man the increase of knowledge, and many are running to and fro. The latter days of evil are at hand, the latter days because the things of the unreal world must come to an end. The unreal realm of man is preparing to destroy itself. Only as we have the ark, the ark of the covenant or Noah's ark, only as we let the ark of reality be made manifest in and through us so that there may be the evidence of the heavenly fire, can we be in position to survive and function on the basis of the divine assertion: “Behold, I make all things new, for the former things are passed away.”
What shall it be for us individually, or all responding ones collectively? The former things are passed away and the time is at hand, and we do not have long to linger and wait in the building of the ark. When the floods came it was too late for those who were mocking to build an ark for themselves. The time is at hand. It is here. “Behold, I make all things new.” Let it be so in you.
Our gracious LORD and KING, we thank Thee for the wonder of Thy Love, the beauty of Thy Truth, and the glory of Thy Life, that we may truly share the coming of Thy Kingdom on earth; that as the former things are passing away we may not cling to them or identify ourselves with them, but being flexible in the working of Thy Spirit and Thy Will, we may be molded to the Divine Design and share in the outworking, as all things are made new, for Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever. In the Christ. Aumen.
There is a question which each of us might well ask him- or herself: “What is the size and the quality of my world?” The size of the world for each one is based in the extent of vision, one's own vision; and the quality of one's world is dependent upon the quality of one's own living. The extent of vision will in turn depend upon the extent of the light that is shining, the intensity of that light. One can see in the light. If it's dark you do not see very much. The quality of one's world is always filled with the quality of one's own living. If that is really seen it might be accepted as cause for some careful thought. Always the quality of one's own personal living fills one's immediate world. If there is a lack of quality apparent in one's view of one's own immediate world one may know why.
A consideration of these things relative to our individual worlds immediately places responsibility where it belongs, not out there somewhere, or on the shoulders of someone else; it comes right back to oneself. We all have this individual responsibility for the light and quality of our living, the light of illumination. It is often looked upon as something that is going to illuminate oneself, so that thereafter one may say, “Well, I know, I understand, I see everything.” But the light of illumination is the light of one's own living, and it illuminates one's world. It illuminates it so that one may see what is present accurately. The intensity of the light that shines will determine the extent of one's world for which responsibility is being accepted.
There are in fact two kinds of light. Sometimes using words seems to carry ambiguity, but we are well aware that spiritual things are spiritually discerned. So there is the need for spiritual discernment, to see beyond the words that are used to what it is that is really being said. So many people just get hung up on the words, never seeing what is actually being said. They interpret the words according to their own darkness, rather than letting the light of their living reveal the truth. There is the light of illumination, the light which shines forth by reason of the quality of one's own living; there is a field of illumination therefore all around. According to the intensity of the light, so is the size of that field. This is one kind of light, the light of illumination, the light which illuminates.
There is another kind of light, which might be defined by using the word “observed”—observed light. We have an example of this on a clear night when we look up into the sky and see the stars twinkling there. The stars do not illuminate the earth, but the fact that there are stars can be observed. There is therefore a distinction between these two kinds of light. Utilizing the example of the heavens in the external sense, the sun provides illumination for the solar system; however that same light observed from another star would be categorized as observed light. But in this immediate system it is the light of illumination. We have illumination here on earth, during the daytime at least. Sometimes there is illumination of a sort at night; that comes from the moon, the reflected light of the sun, the source of illumination for this system. By the same token each of us properly has a field for the illumination of which we are responsible, a world which should be illuminated because we are present.
In the world the way we know it the fact that human beings are present doesn't as a rule illuminate very much. It increases darkness, confusion, chaos, conflict; and while the human intellect claims great things, it is a source of confusion too. However we do have the potential for letting the light shine. The light only shines on the basis of the real quality of our living. When there is such real quality the light shines and there is a world illumined around us, so that we ourselves may see what is present. Because this is not understood by most, the light that is commonly experienced is merely observed light. This comes out of memory, out of the past, out of tradition; someone can tell us about it. It has been customary in human experience to pass on traditions from one generation to the next. This was considered to be important because for the most part it was the only kind of light that anybody had: second-hand light, we might call it, connected to us by the darkness, just like the stars. The only valid light is the light in the present moment—not the light out of the past, which is second-hand light, observed light and not the light of illumination. It doesn't really illuminate anything. It engenders imagination, so that one may interpret what it is imagined is seen in the darkness. The interpretation given to what human beings think they see in their dark worlds is based in the past, the experiences of the past, the traditions of the past.
We have tended, ourselves, to see everything in this way. This is usual in the human world. But our concern is the light of illumination, so that we may emerge out of the darkened observation, out of misinterpretation. We emerge out of that into the experience of illumination because we see what is present with us in our worlds, and the quality of that is dependent upon the extent of our illumination—the illumination, the light that is shining by reason of our presence. The world for which we carry spiritual responsibility changes when the light shines. It could be said that it is not an actual change; it is merely a change of what is observed. The greater the intensity of light the more there is to be seen.
It was said that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Human beings have repeated this statement over the centuries. We have come to realize that this is the Gospel, the Good News: the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. However if nobody knows it because nobody sees it, the statement itself doesn't have much value. It is a hint that there is the necessity for increased illumination so that we might see what is actually there. If the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand it's there, but we cannot see it in the dark. It requires the light of illumination. As this light increases in intensity then we discover that there are lots of things that have been present with us all the time that we haven't seen, but because of the brightness of the light which is now shining we begin to see what is present. This requires the light of illumination, which is the shining of the light in our living.
We only see on the basis of our own light. Someone else may inform us of what is present because the light of illumination is shining forth from that one. Being lazy in human nature, there is a tendency then to say, “Yes I see that.” But you don't; you merely have received a tradition, a more immediate tradition perhaps. But the only way one can actually see first-hand is by reason of one's own light. You never see first-hand by reason of someone else's light. What is present may be conveyed to you in words perhaps by someone else who sees, but that doesn't cause you to see. It merely stimulates your imagination, and your imagination being stimulated, you say, “I see.” Well you see what is in your imagination, yes, but on that basis you haven't seen what is actually present yet. There is only one way to see that, and that is because the light is shining with sufficient intensity consequent upon the nature and quality of your own living. Then you begin to see what is present, and the things that you thought were present before begin to fade or recede in favor of the reality, which becomes ever more plainly visible. It begins to stick out at you.
The quality of your own living permits the shining of the light, the shining of the light illuminates the reality that is present, and you find yourself in the Kingdom on that basis—the Kingdom has come. It didn't actually travel to you. It was always there but you hadn't known it. Now, with the light shining, you know it, you see it, you experience it. This is the restoration, isn't it? It seems to me that very often the idea of restoration centers in the concept of a transfer of a true state to where human beings are, as though it wasn't there already. It is there already. Reality is always present. How could it be otherwise? If that reality has been covered up by what might be referred to as unreality, the vain and evil imaginations engendered in the darkness, that does not deny the fact that the reality is present. It merely reveals the fact that there is little or no light shining through the individual who remains unaware of the reality.
Here we have a gauge, incidentally, of the extent of the light that is shining. Let us not fool ourselves. Let us not take the attitude, “Well the Kingdom isn't quite here yet. We're doing our best, we're living according to our highest vision, we're following out Emissary instructions, and the Kingdom will arrive one day.” Never! It doesn't have to arrive—it's arriven!—the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. It's here. It's present. The quality of our living reveals it. The light shines and there it is. As I say, we have a good gauge then. What is the extent of our vision? What is it that we see? What is the nature of what we see? As we have noted repeatedly, even those who think of themselves as Emissaries see many things about which it may be felt that complaint would be justified.
Recently we have been considering the matter of thankfulness. We discover that it is only natural to be thankful when we see what is present. We couldn't be any other way. Here the Kingdom is! Awakening to that fact because the light is shining to reveal it, is that not cause for thanksgiving? It may be said that nothing has changed except the light which is shining by reason of your own presence. The light coming through into your world illuminates your world and you find your world contains the Kingdom. It's there already.
On this basis, then, we discover that it is the fact that human beings live in a world of unreality. They live in a world that only exists in their own imagination. I noticed the editorial indicating that the idea of inflation exists in human consciousness; and as long as it is there, as long as it is constantly being reinforced, of course the fact of inflation will always be present. Everybody anticipates it. Everybody makes arrangements so that they are going to be protected as this inflation increases, and so the inflation increases. “That which I feared is come upon me.” It always happens. We establish the thing that we are going to experience. People are trying to preserve themselves in this inflationary world. They are figuring out ways and means of doing it—absolutely certain that inflation is going to come! They don't want it much. Some may think that they are going to profit by it, but most people don't want it much. They go into the grocery store and they see the prices have gone up again—cause for complaint. Yet it is something that human beings establish upon themselves. Now we may say that as individuals, and we may observe it, but we realize that all this is happening simply because people are living in an imaginary world, a world which is capable of being manipulated in this fashion.
The true world, the world which is revealed when the light shines, cannot be manipulated by human beings. As long as a person is involved in the human world, in the world of imagination, he doesn't know that any other world really exists. He may have faith, he may have strong convictions, strong beliefs, that heaven is a reality somewhere, somehow, but he doesn't know. The only thing he knows is what is apparent in his own imaginary world. We all share this imaginary world in the human state. Everybody agrees on it, so that's the way it is. There seems to be no other alternative for most, but we have recognized, surely, that there is an alternative; in fact we have experienced a little something of it. How about letting the experience be increased? We cannot let it be increased by subscribing to the unreality, by agreeing with that. We have the opportunity of accepting the reality into our own living so that the light shines. One has to do that for the light to shine, and until the light shines you don't see what's there.
It may be helpful if someone comes along who is somewhat aware of what is present in reality and tells you about it. It may encourage a person to accept the responsibility of letting the light shine so that he may know for himself. Unfortunately all too often when something has been said and the individual has accepted what has been said—it's a second-hand light, isn't it?—he has assumed that that was sufficient: Now he knows; now he understands; now he is an Emissary. But he is no different from anybody else. Nothing has happened. Nothing has changed, except the nature of the outlook with respect to the unreality.
There is only one way, and that is to allow one's own light to shine: Let your light so shine. Then it illuminates your world and you are no longer fooled by the crazy notions that most people have on the basis of second-hand vision. You see first-hand what is actually present, and because you may then work with what is actually present, what you do is extremely effective. People are trying to be effective by manipulating unreality, and because it is unreal it keeps slipping through their fingers. Everything gets established according to some certain way that is supposed to be effective, and it works for a little, apparently—a new form of manipulation. But it doesn't work for long, because here is a dream state, here is a realm of imagination, and imagination tends to go this way and that way. There is a firm imagination with respect to inflation these days. There have been firm imaginations with respect to all sorts of things in the past, quite different things, and what was effective in days of yore is no longer effective now. So a new application is made in the realm of manipulation, and it works for a moment but then that too passes. There is nothing sure. Everybody tries to make something sure. Social security! Well we seem to benefit from that a little for a while, but then we are struck by inflation.
Why be all involved in this imaginary state? “Well,” the human being says, “we have to be, we have to live in this imaginary state.” Do we? Do we really? We have been accustomed to living in it, and we may at times have the idea that if we ignored it we would be in a bad way. “We have to struggle to keep our heads above water.” The more you struggle in quicksand the quicker you sink. But there is a real world present. Because the imaginary unreal world has been thought to be real, the real world has been thought to be imaginary. Here is the backward state of the human condition, and it seems like quite a thing to let the customary viewpoint be reversed. Someone may say, “Well four billion people can't be wrong!” In days gone by they said fifty thousand Frenchmen couldn't be wrong! But this is a larger majority. Is it believable that they are all wrong? Well let's find out! The only way to find out is by letting the light shine, by assuming the qualities that are of reality in one's own experience. Strange, isn't it, how human beings fight tooth and nail against being restored to a state of reality. And it isn't as though they enjoyed the dream so much. Pleasing experiences tend to be few and far between in that state. But there we are in the midst of reality. How much do we know it? The unreality still looms pretty large in the consciousness of most, even of most of those here gathered, I believe. But the reality is here, completely hidden if there is no light shining, or an inadequate light shining.
But the light that is to shine is such that it illuminates the reality. It illuminates it within the scope of one's own world, so that each may say with respect to himself, “Whereas I was blind, now I see.” But don't say that merely on the basis of what someone else has told you, me or anyone else, or what has been written in some traditionally accepted book. The Bible stands out in this regard. The Bible has nothing to tell a person until the light is shining by reason of that person; then he sees what is present in the Bible. He sees what is present in his environment. And on this basis there may be those who begin to be capable of functioning in the real world. The real world is not separate from the imaginary world out there.
The real worldfills all the space,
and the imaginary world has been superimposed on top of it.
We can't find a real world by going to some other planet. The real world is right here, just as the imaginary world is right here. So we begin to discover that there is vastly more present in our worlds than we had previously thought, and what we had previously thought is seen as being untrue. Some of it was out-and-out foolishness; some of it was reality twisted. When the light shines the twists come out, and what was out-and-out foolishness just isn't there anymore.
Human beings have the capacity of superimposing complete fabrications on their fields of observation.
This very often happens when a person is bored. You may recall the story about the truck driver driving down the highway hour after hour after hour. It was night. Suddenly he saw a dog run across in front of the truck and he swerved the truck. The truck was wrecked. It was foolish to swerve the truck. But the dog was imaginary; there was no dog there. Yet I am sure he was completely convinced that the dog was there. So there is a superimposition of complete fabrication upon our worlds very often, and a person doesn't have the capacity to tell what is a complete fabrication and what is merely a distortion of something that is really there. The only way to discover the truth is to let the light shine, and then what is really there is seen and all the fabrications go and all the misunderstandings go, and we are in position to take responsibility. We now have authority because we know what's present.
To try to exercise authority with respect to a field, an area, a world, of imagination is done of course by human beings, but it piles confusion upon confusion. True authority can only be known in the real world, and we must be aware of the fact of the real world before we can know true authority. We let the light shine. We see what is present. We find that we have authority in the situation. That's the way it works. There is no great struggle about it. We didn't have to make the real world be; it's there already. It's already built. It's already there. Human beings have excluded themselves from the experience of it in their world of imagination, but when the light shines it all begins to come back. I suppose some might say, “Oh that's a memory, something being brought to remembrance by the spirit of truth.” That's one way of describing it, because it is something that was always known in reality; but it isn't really memory; it's just observation of the fact. “Let your light so shine.” We all have a part to play in that.
Some people are a little hesitant to play their parts. Some may say, “Well I'm too young yet; I don't have sufficient experience.” Yes, experience of reality is important, but each person has a part to play at the level where he is. It doesn't matter what, for instance, the age is in the external sense. There are those who say, “Well I'm too old now; it's time I retired.” Looking at the true picture, I would say that the older a person becomes the more responsibility he should carry.
Most people think of carrying responsibility primarily in physical terms, sometimes a little mental thrown in, so that when one loses somewhat the seeming vibrancy of youth then it begins to expose what is actually true of the person. One can cover up one's spiritual expression with a lot of physical activity, for instance, using the physical activity as a means of proving that one is very vibrant in spiritual expression. But that may prove to have been merely a cover-up; there wasn't any spiritual expression. You'll find out when the vibrancy of that physical activity begins to wane a bit as you get older. You can't do all the things physically that you could before in youth. Then what is there? That's the question. People become more exposed in this regard as they grow older, and it begins to be revealed as to how much actual light of illumination was present. It had nothing to do with the extent of physical activity.
Age, in the usual human sense, indicates that a person has had greater opportunity to experience what was needful from the standpoint of spiritual expression than has yet been possible to a younger person. So the older a person is the greater the responsibility he should be carrying. It is well to remember that in the days of your youth, because when a person grows old he often begins to feel rather desolate, simply because there was no adequate light shining. He is suddenly faced with the truth of the matter, which was covered up by all the expertise that this person had in years gone by when he had lots of physical strength to undertake whatever it was. But when that's gone, what is there left? With all too many people, precious little. They never remembered now their Creator in the days of their youth so that there might be the expression of the real quality of living, the shining of the light, an awareness of the reality, and the ability therefore to take responsibility for it and to speak as one having authority and not as the scribes, who are the second-hand people. Age of itself doesn't give anyone any special privileges.
Privileges come in balance with responsibility accepted.
Of course the longer one has lived, presumably the more responsibility one should have accepted. I am speaking of spiritual responsibility here particularly, and to the extent that that was actually done then there may be said to be privileges that go with it. So at every level we have the opportunity of letting the light shine, and as the years go by that light should be shining more and more brilliantly, so that the individual concerned is more and more aware of what is present.
We may see this as it relates to a collective body responsible for letting the light shine; all share then in that greater illumination which then becomes possible and the reality becomes that much more apparent. The more there are sharing in this the more apparent the reality becomes. Aha, the Kingdom is coming! It isn't really coming; it's emerging out of the mist. It's found to be present and the things which obscured it are seen as being unreal, not worthy of very much consideration at all. Behold, I make all things new. The things are there already. The Kingdom is there already—that's one of the things. They become new, or apparent, in their reality, not having been known before by those who are letting the light shine now; and that's a wonderful experience, cause for tremendous thanksgiving. The more this happens the more constant is the thanksgiving. It's not a matter of getting up in the morning and saying, “Oh well, I'm thankful for this new day,” and then forgetting all about it for the rest of the day. Everything that happens reveals the reality that is there, when the light is shining; and one is responsible oneself for the shining of that light, nobody else. When you let it shine you know the reality that is there and you are thankful in consequence. You cannot help but be. If you are not thankful you do not know the reality that is there, and if you do not know the reality that is there your light is not shining. Proof! Let's not fool ourselves.
Let your light so shine, to the Glory of God, revealing the truth, illuminating the truth in your world; and behold the quality of your world changes. The quality of you and the quality of your world are found to be synonymous, and when the true quality of you is present the true quality of your world will be found to be present also.
The Essential Focalization Of Divine Power On Earth
"Victory In The Lord"
Martin Cecil November 14, 1971
Our sense of identity has changed and is changing, so that we find ourselves together in God to the extent that we move out of a sense of identity in the world. When our identity is merely in the earth we find ourselves struggling to survive. Our identity is in the earth because our values are there, and as our Master graphically put it, “moth and rust corrupt, and thieves break through and steal,” so we have to be constantly ready to defend ourselves. But when identity is in heaven there is no need for self-defense. Our values have changed and nothing can take away the heavenly values from us. To the extent that we do have experience of these heavenly values, we find that earthly values follow right along, perhaps not in the way that those who are identified with the earth would desire, but the heavenly values are reflected by the earthly values according to the true design. So our identity in the heavenly values brings us together in an experience of oneness, regardless of physical position. We do not lose that sense of closeness as long as we remain centered in the heavenly values. Of course if we should become involved in the earthly values then we do lose it and once more we find ourselves in a precarious condition.
There are some words here contained in the final verse of the 16th Chapter of the Gospel according to John. Our Master had been reemphasizing many things to the disciples who were present with Him and He said: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
Incidentally, here are some very definite promises. “In me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation.” Which identity shall we accept for ourselves? The worldly identity, which is about the only one that most people have any awareness of at all? Or, being awakened to something else, shall we accept identity in the Lord? If we do allow ourselves to be drawn out of the sense of identity in the world so that we may come into a consciousness of identity in God we become a part of the Body of the Son of God. Having been a part of the body of the son of perdition in the world, we become a part of the Body of the Son of God. Many have had some ideas in this regard, recognizing the need for the Body of the Son of God on earth. The church, for instance, was supposed to be this. The idea was based in fundamental truth of course, but did not reveal anything very practical or effective in application. It was just an idea, something one might believe to be so but at the same time obviously seeing that it wasn't so. It is through this Body that the power of God may be released in doing the works of God.
There are many illustrations, in the Bible particularly, of how small a manifest focalization of divine expression may be and yet accomplish great things. The fact of the matter is that it doesn't require very much; in fact there is, one might say, a necessity for something rather small, because as soon as an association of human beings begins to take in large numbers the real values tend to be lost. They only stay vivid and in application through small numbers of people.
You may recall the story of Gideon in the Book of Judges. With three hundred men only, he put to flight the vast company of Midianites and Amalekites; and yet he wouldn't have had the three hundred men if it weren't for the fact that there was something out of which they might come; in other words the Israelites were there, and out of that pattern Gideon with his three hundred men were available to the Lord for His use. They were used effectively in this particular situation, whereas if the whole body of the children of Israel had gone to battle with the hosts of Midian no doubt the outcome could have been very different.
Then again there was an occasion when a young lad by the name of David welcomed a contest with the giant who was representing the Philistines, namely Goliath. But David would never have had that opportunity if it had not been for the fact that the Israelites were present there and there was something of a challenge being offered to the Philistines by reason of this. However to deal with the situation in the power of God only required this lad. He ran to meet Goliath, slinging his stone, which smote the giant in his forehead so that he fell to the ground. This was the one vulnerable point in the giant, incidentally; it would have been useless to sling stones anywhere else, but the stone found its mark at this vulnerable point, the point which would represent the nature of the identity of the giant. His was a worldly identity. He was a mighty man of great stature and strength, and he had seemed invincible to the Israelites. They couldn't find anyone who could match him until David came along, and of course they were pretty skeptical about David. But it worked—one man. One boy! Mind you, he was pretty proficient with his slingshot. He had had much practice. He knew what he was doing and he did it.
The stone found its mark at the point in the giant which represented his identity, a self-centered identity of course. This is the nature of identity in the world, isn't it? It is at the point of self-centeredness that the vulnerability is. Mind you, it seems on the surface as though man's self-centeredness has been the thing that has made him so mighty to achieve so much in the world—because it has all been achieved, after all, for the benefit of man, entirely on a self-centered basis. So it looks as though man's strength is in his self-centeredness. And according to the evidence that we may observe around us it appears to be that way. But, while it may appear so, his self-centeredness is the point of vulnerability too. It is the only point that needs to be hit; then the whole thing collapses, because all that man has built has been built on this basis. If the Lord's missile, so to speak, goes home at that point then that's it!
So we may see that for the achievement of divine purpose it doesn't require vast numbers of people.
It requires the right people at the right time, in the right place.
If David had still been looking after his flocks in the wilderness nothing would have happened insofar as meeting the challenge of Goliath was concerned, but he was willing to come out of that particular pattern. It seemed quite an incidental reason that brought him out: he was bringing some supplies to his brothers in the camp. Nevertheless, whatever he may have thought the reasons were, he came. It does sometimes take reasons that are acceptable to our reasoning minds to get us to move in some particular direction, when the true reason for moving in that direction is not really the idea that has consciously engendered the movement. When we get to where we were going we find that there was another reason, another reason that we hadn't been able to see, so the Lord used other methods to get us where we belonged. If we hang on too strongly to the seeming reasons as to why we came somewhere or did something, we may overlook the real reasons. Fortunately David didn't. He was challenged. Immediately he perceived what the reason was for his presence. Here were all these Israelites sitting around shivering in their boots, and he said, “What's this?” He had a very keen awareness of the reality of the Lord, and here were the Lord's people cringing before the Philistines. So he took up the challenge, seeing that no one else had; and it seemed like a very little, petty, rather futile thing, but it didn't prove to be that way.
The judgments of men with respect to such things are meaningless. We need to remember that in relationship to our own experience if we do play a part in what the Lord needs to His hand. The giant scoffed at David of course: “This beardless youth! What do you mean sending a boy to meet me, a mighty, powerful man? I will feed his flesh to the birds!” And so the worldly-wise scoff and look upon the works of the Lord as being insignificant, meaningless, foolish. Well that's all right too, because the giant is not going to be quite as alert as he might be if someone his own size were coming along; so overconfidence is perhaps one of the weaknesses. We don't object if people are overconfident in relationship to what we may represent, saying, “It's very nice, but it doesn't amount to very much.” Who cares what anyone thinks about it? The question is as to what the truth is. We need to be very keenly aware of the truth in this regard. Finally, coming along down a little further in the historical record, we reach the point when our Master was on earth. He said here in the words that I read, “I have overcome the world.” It didn't seem so at the time.
Now these previous occurrences which I have quoted—and there were others—were illustrations of a truth, but they did not in and of themselves carry through to any great ultimate accomplishment. They were just indications of how that ultimate accomplishment might be experienced, but nobody really accepted the challenge adequately until our Master came. He did. He accepted the challenge. Now He could not have initiated what He did if there had not been something present in the world which gave Him a base to move from. Just as we have seen that the Israelites were present with respect to Gideon, and also with respect to David, so was it with our Master. There was something there. There always needs to be that something—the one, perhaps, described in the Book of Revelation as “a woman clothed with the sun,” out of whom may come the essential focalization of divine power on earth. It is on the basis of this focalization of power that the job, whatever it is, gets done. But to have a focalization of that on earth there must be something to focalize out of the world, as well, of course, as something to focalize from the heavenly standpoint.
While our Master sought those who would stand with Him in what He came to do He didn't find them, and so He had to accept the challenge alone. This was something absolute. He wasn't fooling around on the periphery of things. He went right to the core. He met the challenge in the very focus of it and carried all the way through in victory. “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world”—that is, He had no identity merely in the world. His identity was in God and this was all that was necessary for the victory. It is all that is necessary at any time for the victory, but He Himself proved it out with respect to His own experience in His own body. Because He did that nobody else needs to do it. Human beings have more or less ignored what He did, and said, “If anything is to be achieved, He has got to come again and do it, do something else better than He did then.” They are saying in effect that He didn't get the job done, so He needs to come again and do it. And this is claimed as being belief in Jesus Christ. It is in fact the very reverse. He came and proved the thing out, and invited anyone anywhere, at any time, to share what had been proven out, not to do it again. Human beings have had rather conceited views all too often and thought they were going to emulate Jesus—they were going to let themselves be martyred and this was going to achieve something very effective—instead of recognizing that the achievement was already there and all that was necessary was to participate in that achievement.
He carried all the way through with His body. All right, let us participate in His body then! That's all that's needed. However we can't participate in His body without accepting His spirit, without experiencing the true nature of identity. As long as we insist upon being self-centeredly identified in the world we have had it. We are a part of the body of the son of perdition which is lost; that's it. But the body of the Son of God isn't lost. The body of the Son of God revealed the victory. It wasn't a matter of God having a victory; God hasn't been anything else but victorious all His life! What was needed was the manifestation of this truth on earth, and it came through the body of Jesus. So the body of the Son of God proved the victory. It doesn't need proving again. It's been done, but who is going to share in the experience of that proof? Toward the end of His ministry our Master spoke of reproving the world of various things; in other words He was going to prove it out in His own individual body, but the fact that He had proven it out would need to be revealed by others who participated in giving form to this victorious collective body on earth. It is not a matter of giving form to a defeated body, a dead body, a crucified body, but to a victorious body which walks in the Garden on earth. We have the opportunity of giving it form. Anyone has had that opportunity at any time in any generation, but finally it begins to come to point again. Someone begins to take a little notice once more, so the manifestation of what is needful to reveal what has already been established can appear.
It does not need to be something very large. Very often, I think, the thought tends to be that somehow or other a point will come and all the peoples of the world will enthusiastically accept the beauty of divine being. Does it look like it? Has it ever looked like it at any time in all of recorded history? If something is to be achieved it is achieved by God through something relatively small. Only as we begin to comprehend this do we stop trying to impose upon God the human concept of achievement. The only way that it was thought, for instance, that David could have challenged Goliath was for him to be arrayed in the same sort of armor that Goliath had. So they got him all dressed up in this stuff and he couldn't move; it was so heavy he couldn't move. So he wisely said, “To hell with it!” and went out as himself, not trying to emulate Goliath. Let's not try to emulate the world, because the world is quite strong enough in its own sort of strength to deal with anything of that nature. But the power of God, that's something different. The giant doesn't know anything about that. He doesn't think it amounts to a row of beans, but the smooth stone was quite sufficient.
So it is in allowing the required body to take form on earth, with a conscious awareness of ability, that the proof of victory may be revealed. Here we begin to see these things, so that we are not trying to do in human strength what cannot be done in human strength; we are not trying to impose upon God humanly devised methods for doing what needs to be done. This is actually what has occurred in times past from the standpoint of what has been called Christianity, for instance: human methods used to try to do what can only be done in the power of God and using divine methods consequently. Self-centered human beings do not know what those divine methods are. Goliath certainly had no idea what David was going to do or what effect it was going to have, or he wouldn't have been so cocksure, would he? Well the world is pretty cocksure, but the Lord is quite capable of handling the situation. The only way He can do it is when there is the facility available to His hand. In the case of David it was David's hand actually, wasn't it?
That facility needs to have been trained. It wasn't as though David had never slung a stone before in his life. He was expert in the field. But in the process of becoming expert in that field he didn't know why he was becoming expert in that field. He thought it was to protect his father's flock. And it was useful in that area, but only later did it become apparent what the real reason was. Very often there are those who feel that if they are functioning under the control of the spirit of God then they will easily do whatever needs to be done even though they are totally ignorant and incompetent. That's right, isn't it? How ridiculous! We need to do as the opportunity affords, that we may learn something, that we may become competent. We may not know why we need to be competent in some particular field. It may seem a very insignificant thing, but how can we tell? We are not, to start with at least, aware of how the job is going to be handled, what is going to be required when. So we need to take advantage of everything in order that we may be proficient; not necessarily in slinging stones, although I suppose there are some who could do this, but in taking advantage of the opportunities that arise, whatever they may be, even though we don't see immediately as to how they may be of value, because our judgments still tend to be based in self-centeredness, in the idea that the conscious mind must know everything.
How often have you had the experience of perhaps being reminded to take something or other along with you when you go on a journey? And you look at it and you try to figure out why you should take that along. You may be able to convince yourself that it is foolish to take that along, so you leave it behind. Then somewhere along the way you say, “Oh, I wish I had brought that thing,” whatever it was. The conscious mind doesn't know everything ahead of time, but there is a knowing which we may experience. Some people talk about that as guidance, as though someone else somewhere were pulling the strings so to speak. Well I suppose in a sense it could be called guidance, but it is one's own guidance. It is the expression through oneself. And what one is in divine identity, in heavenly identity, is very much more capable than what one is in worldly identity. It encompasses far more in the range of understanding, and there are many things that come within the scope of that understanding that are completely excluded when we depend upon the self-centered consciousness. The self-centered consciousness thinks it's so clever at times, but what an appalling chaos it produces. Whereas as we begin to become associated with the spirit of God, the holy spirit—a total thing—we become balanced in our expression and there are many things that we do that we would not have done before, because we would have had no awareness that there was anything to be done.
Now it is through this coordinated body, small body, that God may act, because there begin to be a sufficient number of people in this form to provide a whole view of things; not that any single person will see that whole view, but all put together see it. Consequently, each one acting according to his own aspect of vision will find his action coordinated with the action of all others who are doing likewise with their own aspects of vision. It all comes together into a coordinated whole, and what is done through that coordinated whole is adequate to deal with the giant. We have the opportunity even now of seeing something of the effects of what is working through the form that has already emerged. We may observe human beings everywhere struggling with their problems, immersed in the world, not understanding what is going on at all, not seeing the reasons why things are happening the way they are, but taking hold of the happenings and trying to adjust the happenings to make them satisfactory, to solve the problems, as they call them. But this is an effort dealing with the very periphery of things. There is something happening back of those happenings; and whatever is happening back of those happenings, there is something happening back of that, and back of that, and back of that. We come back finally to the point of divine action appearing through whatever form there is for its manifestation. Those who stand in this form begin to have the vision to see what is occurring beyond and see it merely as a result of the power of God in action. So there is no sense to struggling with the apparent problems on the periphery, because they are not the problems at all. They are merely the evidences of the fact that something is happening and people are being pushed this way and that way by their reactions to whatever it is that is happening in the background.
Sharing the divine vision in this regard, we can begin to see that what is occurring is needful as long as human beings are self-centered. Of course if there should be a willingness to come out of that state of self-centeredness, then the state of affairs would change immediately, but for the most part there are very few who are so willing. Those who are so willing, and who actually do it, provide the facility by which the power of God works, and the power of God working produces reactions of various sorts in the self-centered state. Those reactions in the self-centered state are looked upon by those who are in the self-centered state as being problems. And being conditioned to the need always to solve problems, they start to try to solve the problems—which is totally impossible, because this is merely the result of reaction to the power of God. It is like the tide. The tide is coming in. Well let's build a breakwater of sand to stop it coming in! But it's going to keep coming in, and in its coming in it is going to eliminate the breakwater of sand, and the elimination of the breakwater of sand is going to appear as a great number of problems. We rush around trying to solve all the problems. We're overlooking the reason why the breakwater of sand is dissolving: the tide is coming in. The power of God is working.
Now we need to be true to the truth which we know and to let the power of God work, remaining undisturbed, uninfluenced, uninvolved with the effects of that working, because they are bound to be there. We couldn't stop them from being there; we wouldn't want to stop them if we could. Our concern is to let the power of God work, and if it brings a great increase of tribulation in the world—as our Master said, there is tribulation in the world; there will be tribulation in the world—if it brings a vast increase in this regard, fine. Let's get it over and done with! Let's not drag this nonsense out any longer! Let us let it be finished!
So here we may begin to have a more balanced view of what is occurring, in the recognition that it doesn't take very much in the outer form of things, at the point of focus, to get the job done. Again, of course, in this day and age we recognize that there could not be a point of focus in this regard if it were not for the fact that there is a foundation from which it sprang in the external sense. There are many people in the world who, according to their highest vision, are honorable; and that's fine; we rejoice in that. We couldn't begin to let the job be done if it weren't so. But let us not imagine, because there are honorable people in the world, that merely that will get the job done. It won't! There have always been honorable people in the world. It requires something more than that and we begin to realize what that more is and participate in it.
So let us continue to move together in a consciousness of this one form, the body of the Son of God, in the awareness of the spirit which is shared in that body. No matter where we are we are together, and no matter where we are the power of God is working through every aspect in a whole sense to get the real job done. This is the way, the truth and the life to be shared by all who are willing; for the body of the Son of God has already experienced the victory, and as we associate ourselves with it, come into it, find ourselves as a part of it, we have the victory; not because we did it but because it has already been done. So let us share that victory because we relinquish the self-centeredness that maintains our identity merely in the world and accept the identity in and with the Son of God! In Him there is peace. If human beings want peace, there's the answer. It is the only way. In Him there is peace. In Him there is the victory. In Him the job is already done.
