We have been considering the magic of life. And I would like in this hour to change our theme. I believe we have reached a point where we can do so and make it mean something. And so let us begin a little series of meditations on the Magic of Creation. When you first began your studies in this Class, we considered some of the principles of creation: creative power, creative patterns; but you were just beginning. Now do you suppose if we go back and make an approach from a little different angle it can mean something more to you? Because when you are giving an attunement you are sharing God's creative power. If you are not, you are not giving an attunement. But you are beginning to know the reality of the working of the power of God through you, beginning to know the reality of the working of the spirit, or the Shekinah Pattern of Being. So let us change our theme, and we will make it so difficult for those who have to go. We will make it just as tough for them as we can. I see some heads shaking. Well bless your hearts, better to have a little of it than none, so we will make a start. The magic of creation, of sharing on earth in the kingdom that is at hand, the reality of God's creative power. To make our start I am going to go back to the beginning of the record as we find it in the first chapter of Genesis. We will not dwell perhaps quite so long on some of these points, but I trust that you will find things that we have studied before connecting up in our present meditation.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” In what beginning? In any beginning. Now human beings have tended to get into a state of mind where they think of the beginning as meaning merely the beginning of the creation of this earth and the things that are in it. That was the beginning of the creation of this earth; but the beginning of the creation of your body, the time of your conception, the beginning of anything that is to appear: “In the beginning God created …” If we would begin something or let something begin, we must start where we are. We cannot go back to some past point to begin. We may observe past points which have meaning in relationship to the present, but if we are to begin, it must be now. There is no other place to begin but now. If you say, "I will begin in the future," the future has to become now; and if you are always putting it off in the now for the future, it keeps getting put in the future and never gets here. “In the beginning God created …” If we are going to share God's creative activity we must make a beginning. There must be a starting point. And we must accept it in relationship to ourselves in this present moment.
In the beginning, what did God create? He created the heaven, and then He created the earth—not the earth and then the heaven. We have recognized in past meditations that if we are going to have something created in form, in the sense of physical substance, there must be a heaven created for it first. It must have a heaven. We have begun to realize that every physical form has a heaven—a heaven! All of these heavens put together make the heaven, unless we are talking about the heaven of a specific form. In the overall sense there is the heaven, but every form has its own heaven. There cannot be a form come into manifestation from the standpoint of God's creative power, or from the standpoint of anything growing, or gestating in the womb, without the heaven taking form first. There must be the heaven.
Now the heaven takes form on the basis of the truth, the elements of design and control, and on the basis of the pneumaplasmic substance which makes the heaven meaningful. You remember that after the reality of conception, that which is formed at first in the womb is alike, whether it is for a human being, a bird like a dove, a horse, or a lizard. Some of you may not have heard that before; but that which is first formed in the womb, or as with the bird, in the egg—that which first takes form is so much alike that even an expert cannot tell for certain. If you take that embryo at about, say, three weeks and put these embryos—from the human being, from the horse, from the dove and from the lizard—in a box without any label to indicate what they are, the expert will have trouble telling them apart, telling which is which, identifying them. There is meaning in this, vital meaning for us. Why?
We recognize that this first form that is generated is for one purpose: to make possible the generation of the pneumaplasmic substance, pneumaplasm, and that the pneumaplasm that is generated properly takes form according to the pattern in spirit as established by the design and control factors of truth. Like begets like. Very soon that embryo of the horse or the human being begins to look very different; but at first, during the period of the development of the pneumaplasmic substance, they look very much the same. Now there has to be the reality of the heaven for this early embryo before it can take form in substance, and that is achieved through the sperm and through the ovum. So the actuality of the mechanism to permit the manifestation of the pneumaplasmic substance is there right from the start, and it must be handed down from generation to generation. Then after enough pneumaplasm has been generated to make possible the development of the heaven of the form that is to be, there is the beginning of the change of the embryo; because the embryo is the starting point, moving from the known to the unknown. So after the pneumaplasm is generated, the physical substance of that early embryo begins to be the starting point for the formation of the physical substance which is being caused to conform to heaven. Every development on earth that is to have any meaning must conform to something in heaven. If it does not it will not have real form; it will not be a living thing.
So in the beginning, any beginning, in the beginning of you, in the beginning of any cycle, in the beginning of your ministry—it has already begun; we have been generating the pneumaplasm of your future pattern of ministry; we have been generating something of the substance of it; the embryonic pattern has been taking form and it will be born one bright day. But even when you are a server out there you will be still one of my servees, and the pattern that has been generated here, and is established in pattern, will tend to extend out through you, and the attitude that you have toward me will tend to control or establish the pattern for the attitudes of others toward you as you serve, as you minister. Everything must be started this same way. It cannot be done any other way. And so you can look back now, through the weeks and the few months that we have been together and you can see how I started out on the basis of the design, on the basis of the control factors in spirit, in truth, generating the essential pneumaplasm so you could begin to feel yourself related to me and that which I was offering you. Gradually it began to take on some meaning in your consciousness, in your awareness, and then step by step, after this pneumaplasmic body was provided, it began to take form and it began to have meaning inside of you.
Every creative cycle must work on the same basic principle or it will not come to fulfilment in life. There will be an abortion. Either there will be nothing or there will be an abortion, unless the laws and principles are followed. No man can change them; they are absolute, whether the human being thinks he likes it or does not like it. We must share God's creative function in bringing forth that which is to appear. So “In the beginning God created …” But let us not project it back to some vague distant beginning of this earth. Let us recognize it in relationship to ourselves and our present patterns of living. He created heaven first, and if you do not create heaven first you will not be successful in bringing forth the form by which the earth, or the physical substance of the thing, may appear, no matter what it is—your ministry, your pattern of life and living. We must create the heaven first. The Master emphasized this. He said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God," the kingdom of heaven that is at hand, "and his righteousness”—right function, right control under that divine design—and all of these things of heaven shall be added unto you in the realm of form. So the Master used these principles. He taught them, exemplified them, and there is no other way. And do not ever try, because you will just be wasting your time if you try to do it without regard to these laws and principles.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” To start with, what was the state of the earth? It was not; it just was not. And that is true with respect to all the things you start to bring forth. You do not have something yet in form that is to appear in relationship to your life and ministry. “The earth was without form, and void”—it was an empty place—“and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” And for us, what is the deep? It is the deep of the future. Insofar as the earth was concerned it was the deep of space—the deep of space. But for us at the present time, in these cycles of outworking, it is the deep of the future. And darkness was upon the face of the deep of the future. But in relationship to this, we are to start something, doing something, letting the creative cycles work.
“And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Water is the symbol of truth, the symbol of the design pattern. Movement suggests the reality of control. Spirit, the power, the intelligence, the reality that is being brought forth, moving upon the face of the divine design in truth—that movement relates to control. “And God said, Let there be light.” Now remember, it is presented in the first chapter of John in a way that makes this so clear: “In the beginning was Shekinah, and Shekinah was with God, and Shekinah was God” [in manifest action]. And Shekinah, the same, was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Shekinah; and without Shekinah was not any thing made that was made. In Shekinah was life; and the life was the light of men.”
“In Shekinah was life; and the life was the light of men.” Now the starting point with respect to the actual processes of manifestation here is: “And God said, Let there be light.” But all things were made by Shekinah, the Presence of the One Who Dwells, and the evidence of His Presence: the Fire that Burns, the creative Fire of God's love; and the Light that Glows, the truth, the design and control factors relating to intelligence; and Life, the Cloud of Glory. And the life factor in Shekinah is the light of men. Now as soon as human beings begin to respond, you, as an instrument in the hand of God, or as an extension in the hand of God, begin to act on earth, or you let God act through you so that you act so that God acts. You let the divine action appear. And what are you doing? As you begin to help any person, giving an attunement, doing any creative thing, whatever it may be—of course there is the pattern in reality, the Shekinah Pattern of Being—but the first step in actual manifestation is “Let there be light.” And what is this light? “The life of Shekinah is the light of men.”
As you look back along the way, how did I start with you? Try to jam you into some pattern or other? Make you be thus and so? Give you rules and regulations to follow? Some of you were quite tantalized because I did not give you enough rules and regulations, tell you what to do. Oh you wanted to know what to do, and you were bothered about it because I did not. No. What did I do? I began to let light be for you. Generally speaking it was something I said, perhaps coupled with something I did; but it was something I said. There was an openness of mind, an inquiringness, and I said something to you so that you could understand it, so that it would have meaning, logic, reason—something that would be sensible, something that you could comprehend. And so as you began to have light in your mind in relationship to the point I was talking about, so that you could understand it, we had begun the creative cycle in you and through you.
But the first step of the first cycle is “Let there be light.” That is the first step in actual action. But now: “And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.” Have you found that being true here, having light divided from the darkness in your own consciousness? Has it been a process at work? Yes. In other words if I had not functioned according to these principles, we would not even have this Class. You would not be here. If you had come you would have gone away again; it would have been scattered and it would not have had any meaning. But you find that everything I do is based upon these same basic laws and principles. And it is up to you to learn to share God's creative action on earth. The more of us that do it in actual fact, the more the manifestation of power will be.
“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Now this was not a twenty-four-hour day, as we have noted. Some people tried to say that it was. But if they say that, they say that God is a liar. Remember this point, because there will be those who will try to convince you it was a twenty-four-hour day; but if they say that, they take the position that God was a liar. For God said to Adam, according to this story—we recognize its allegorical significance—but God said to Adam and Eve, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” “In the day.” Now Adam lived to be nearly a thousand years old, so obviously God was not talking about a twenty-four-hour day, because if He was talking about a twenty-four-hour day, then Adam should have died within twenty-four hours from the time he let Eve persuade him to bite the forbidden fruit. We will get to a little further study of that later. But consider that, and remember that, because there will be those who try to confuse you. God was not talking about a twenty-four-hour day. By day here, He means a cycle of time. We do not need to go into that too much at the moment, but you know, as you recall, that that cycle of time in the first creative day was roughly speaking 28,850 years, as we count years today. We will not go into the whys and wherefores of that for the moment. But no one can say that it was a twenty-four-hour day without calling God a liar, because He likewise said, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” and Adam did not die in twenty-four hours. So here we have the manifestation on the basis of what? Light, the light that glows relates to what? The truth. And truth is symbolized by water.
Now let us recall to mind the reality of the symbols of the Four Forces. We recall water, air, earth and fire as the symbolic names of the Four Forces. The first is water, and water relates to truth, and truth relates to light, the Light that Glows. So we begin to realize that this is the step with respect to water. Every creative cycle must start with water dominant, which is to say, truth dominant. In every creative step all Four Forces are always in action, but one of the four must be dominant. And every creative cycle must begin with water, or truth, dominant. Water symbolizes the nature of truth. Man cannot pick up the ocean and carry it away in his hands. Neither can he do so with the truth. So the first step in the manifestation of light is with respect to truth, which is symbolized by water. Here we have the dominance of water, the beginning of the creative cycle. Remember that every creative cycle that is opened must, without exception, begin on this basis, or it will fail; if anything manifests, it will come to an abortion. These are absolute laws and principles which cannot be successfully violated by man.
Under this water pattern, “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”—upon the face of the vibratory patterns of truth—“and God said, Let there be light.” As you began to respond to the creative cycle that we are sharing in this ministry there was the beginning of the manifestation of light because I presented something to you in some way that would let you begin to see something more clearly, so that you could begin to understand something with respect to yourself or someone else. And as you serve, remember to keep it in this pattern. Now there are those who imagine that they have to start with the fire of God's love; but remember, that is the fourth of the Four Forces. If you start with that, trying to emphasize it, trying to love people into this state or that, as the saying goes in some religious circles, you will fail! Many people try to start with fire and it fades. You must start with water. Of course fire is there, as are the other four forces, but it must be water, or truth, that is dominant. And with the recognition of truth there begins to be light. The light begins to be divided from the darkness for you today, and in the cycle of your service to others there will be that which they cannot yet see, which is yet darkness, but they will begin to see the light and they will begin to distinguish between the light and the darkness. So, “The evening and the morning were the first day.”
Now God did not say, and it is not written here in symbolical portrayal of creative principle, that the morning and the evening were the first day. Remember that. Never. “The morning and the evening were the first day.” In every instance it is “And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Everything that is going to work out on the basis of a true creative cycle starts in the evening. Now that does not necessarily mean that, in the recognition of our cycles of day and night and so on, that you should never start anything in the morning. This could be carried to some kind of ridiculous extreme. But if you are really going to open up a creative cycle, it will start in the evening of our days. You may not realize that it started in the evening; you may think you started it in the morning; but if it is true, it will have started in the evening. Why? Why is it written here, with respect to the situation after man was created, that “the Lord God came walking in the cool of the day”? What is the cool of the day? It is the evening—in the evening. The vibratory patterns of attunement for the beginning of things, the beginning of the coordinated outworking of cycles and patterns between heaven and earth, are always in the evening. We could take a whole hour on this one point without any difficulty. So do not jump to any conclusions, but recognize the point.
“And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.” Now what is the firmament? It is the air, the envelope of the earth's atmosphere, the earth's air. And air is the symbol of spirit. Here we have the second of the four forces. First, water; second, air. And so in the second cycle air must be dominant; that is, spirit must be dominant. And what does spirit do when you begin to let it be dominant in the creative cycle according to the divine plan? It separates the waters from the waters—the waters that are above, from the waters that are below. Now, there are some clouds in the sky, so from a physical standpoint we can say there is some water up there. And there is water down here. And what is between? The air. Man has, revealed—with respect to every one of these basic principles—he has revealed for him right here in nature the basic principle itself, and the reason for it, and man has consistently ignored it. But, the waters that are above from the waters that are below—immediately our minds revert to that remarkable examination.
How many of you would like that examination today, the examination that the Lord presented to man through Job? How many of you would like to take it today? Let us see your hands. You are smart to keep them down. But in this examination He said, “Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?”—the ordinances of heaven, the laws, the principles, the governing factors of heaven: “canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?”—their control patterns in relationship to physical substance. That is one of the points.
Now when we begin to think about the action of the second force in dominance, the dividing of the waters from the waters, and we know that water is the symbol of truth, we recognize that there is a level of truth with respect to the heaven—I am not just talking about the sky—a level with respect to the heaven and a level with respect to the earth. It is the air of the spirit that not divides but connects, not separates but unifies. Actually, in the process the waters that are above are divided from the waters that are below, aren't they? By what? By the firmament—the air, which is the symbol of spirit. But if we have something that divides, it also unifies. If it separates, it also connects. Let us remember that. So the truth with respect to the invisible realms of so-called heaven and the truth with respect to the earth and the physical substance of being are not a different truth, but that which separates them is the air of the spirit. So we begin to see that God said, as the second step, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters.” Not to divide. God made the firmament and divided the waters, yes—a heaven and an earth—but the heaven came first, every step of the way. And it must with you.
So there is the firmament in the midst of the waters—the reality of spirit, with truth above, the truth of the heaven, and the truth of the earth below. And it is the spirit that connects them up. So in our cycles we begin to establish what? A firmament. Why do we give an attunement? What is an attunement? It is a process by which we begin to establish the firmament—something that has been said, that has already begun to give a glimmer of light somehow, to the individual. There must be some light before there is the action of developing the firmament. Why would the individual even come to you for an attunement? Even if you do not stop to talk about it very much, you probably say a sentence or two to clarify something. But there is the light, and then the attunement itself begins to establish the firmament of the spirit in the individual, so that the waters, the truth of his reality, may have a correlation with the truth of his body.
Now the ill conditions do not reveal the truth. They are the evidence of the presence of a distortion, something that is spoiling the true pattern. But there is a pattern of truth for the body, a pattern of truth for the invisible reality. And you begin to project, by reason of an attunement, the reality of the firmament, the air of the spirit, which is in the midst of the waters, so that the water that is above and the water that is below may be connected up, and the reality of the Divine Design that is in the realm of heaven may manifest through the pneumaplasmic layer without distortion on the underside of the pneumaplasmic layer and have meaning on earth in relationship to physical substance. Is that not simple? See how easily it all connects up? You begin to know what we have been studying about for so many months. Now some of you have not heard all of it, and that does not sound simple to you. Do not jump to the conclusion that it is not really simple. It is—and easy. Take it easy and you will know what we are talking about. But you can begin to see something of it, because here is a revelation of the four forces. Water. Now there is Air. And then we come to the next step: “Let the waters under the heaven …” Not under the sky! Physically it works out here, in pattern, so that we can say that it is in relationship to the sky; but it says “under the heaven.”
Never confuse the sky with heaven. People talk about "the heavens" sometimes, when they are talking about the sky and all the stars that are beyond the sky. But how far out is the sky? How far out do you have to go before the sky is no longer blue? Not very far. Not very far! You get out there twenty-five or thirty miles and there is no light, in the middle of the day. You only have to go out from the earth's surface twenty-five or thirty miles and it is night in the middle of the day. A hundred miles out it is just plain black night—in the middle of the day! You can check that from a scientific standpoint. Why? Because there is nothing to reflect the light. You do not actually see the light that is coming from the sun. Of course you contact it, because it is already being reflected by the earth's atmosphere. So you have the sense of seeing it coming from the sun. But you go out beyond the earth's envelope of air which extends out and it is very thin out about seventy-five miles, and you have no air, nothing to reflect the light, no earth there to reflect the light. Though you might conceivably see a spot up there that looks something like a star, the sun would not have the same appearance to you one hundred miles out from the surface of the earth. It is dark night! You go straight out there, toward the sun even, and it will be dark night one hundred miles from the earth's surface. You can check it up for yourself if you wish, but that is the way it is.
The light has meaning on the basis of reflection. It is being reflected by the earth's atmosphere, and we begin to have the sense of sky when we look up toward the sky, because of the pattern of the light. There are various explanations as to why it is blue; we will not go into that at the moment; but blue is the symbol of truth. In the color range, blue is the symbol of truth, so whatever scientific explanation you choose, why that is all right; but blue is the symbol of the truth. But you get out there very far, you get even five miles above the surface of the earth, and do you think the sky is blue anymore? No. Five miles above the surface of the earth and the sky is not blue anymore. It begins to be black. Up where the jet pilots fly, it begins to be black. So you begin to realize that in this earth and up in the sky, the earth's envelope of atmosphere, we have some very interesting things—very interesting, fascinating. And they all mean something in relationship to our life function, our relationship to God—the creative forces. So the sky is black when you get out just a little ways; it is not blue anymore. The blue of truth, the design, the living factors, are all right here on the surface of the earth. If you go up five miles you had better take oxygen with you. From the standpoint of movement out from the earth's surface, you get ten thousand feet above sea level and you begin to need oxygen, if you are going to maintain the same pattern of coordination and control that you have at sea level. From the standpoint of the airlines, they start the air pattern change at nine thousand feet. They do not wait until ten thousand. These pressurized cabins that are used in the big airliners function on the basis of air as of nine thousand feet above sea level. Well now, the light, then, depends upon reflection. You cannot see the light from the sun until it is reflected. It must reflect somehow before you can see it, and if you were out a hundred miles from the earth's surface it would be dark midnight in the middle of the day.
"And God said, Let the waters under the heaven"—under the heaven; that is, in relationship to the earth, or what is to become the physical form—“be gathered together unto one place.” Now what have I been working to do here? One of the primary factors through the entire period of this Class has been to get the truth of you gathered together in one place. As it is put with respect to the day of Pentecost: “They were all with one accord in one place. And there came a sound as of …” It was not a rushing mighty wind. “And there came a sound as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto each of them as if it were cloven tongues of fire.” Now it was not fire; it only appeared as if it were. It was not wind: it only had a sound as if it were a rushing mighty wind. And all of this happened when they were with one accord in one place. We have been letting the light shine; we have been gaining a deeper understanding of all the principles. But here we come to the third step. It is the step with respect to the third force, which is symbolized by Earth. But what must take place before the earth appears? Earth is dominant in this third step, yes, in the outworking of the cycle; but it is beginning to refer to the physical substance of your own body, or of the world around you, physical substance as a fact. But that physical substance appears after something happens. Let me read you the text: “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.”
“And let the dry land appear” is a creative command that follows something else: “Let the waters be gathered together unto one place.” Until we get the focalization of truth in relationship to the physical realm of things drawn together unto one place we are not going to have the manifestation of power, and we are not going to have the real manifestation of earth, the substance which is to provide the form for the beauty of design established in truth, or “the waters.” Now here God used, right in the beginning of the creation of this earth—and it must be used in relationship to every true creative cycle—the same pattern that we find appearing in relationship to the manifestation of power, the beginning of the manifestation of power, at the day of Pentecost. But how quickly it disappeared! They violated it. They did not follow out the creative pattern; and so instead of that being the beginning of the manifestation of God's power, that it might increase and become greater and fill the earth, almost immediately we see impulsive Peter rushing out to use it according to his own concepts. And within a very few years, what had happened to that Pentecostal power, as it is called? That power was gone, so that the Christians, as they were called, were thrown to the lions and burned at the stake and all kinds of terrible things happened. And people look back and think about what wonderful days they were when there were martyrs! It was not our LORD's intention that there should be martyrs like that. If they had not violated this cycle, they would not have been thrown to the lions or burned at the stake. It was a violation of the laws of God that permitted the manifestation of these atrocities. They were not required by God. They were not a part of the plan. They violated it and lost the power.
The power manifests on the basis of the laws and the principles and the creative cycles. And here we see how it begins to work; that which is required of you, yes, here. You have been gathering toward one place, the place of being with one accord in one place. But you have not reached it yet. This creative command is still sounding for you. And when will you let it have meaning? We shall see. “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven”—under the heaven. The waters—the truth of heaven that is at hand, available, as the Master said, that which is good news, to remind man that this is true. The waters are under the heaven; they are available, within reach, something that you can accept in relationship to yourself. And He said, “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered unto one place.” After that is done the second command will take effect: “And let the dry land appear”—let the earth substance appear. Now the earth substance is not going to appear until we have the gathering of the waters. They must be gathered unto one place. We see the symbol of it in the ocean, but seeing the symbol of it is of small avail unless we know the reality of it at work in our own lives. When are you going to let this creative command of God that relates to the third day of creation have meaning in you? It needs to be done in this Class, before you go your several ways. Unless you let the waters be gathered together unto one place you will be going out there not fully equipped, not equipped the way the Lord wants you to be, the way I would like to see you, the way you can be. That is the command that is established for you now, God's command to you. And when will you obey it? When will you let it take form? "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place,” so that you may be truly with one accord in one place, and then the dry land of the physical substance will begin to appear and the power manifest; for this is the third step. And the fourth one comes after the third one.
This is where you are as a Class, in this third step. I am waiting for you to obey that Divine Command: "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place." And when you do that the next command will take over and the dry land will appear, and then we will be ready for the fourth step. Let us touch for a moment on this fourth step: “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years …” and so on. The earth's atmosphere had cleared to the point where the light of the sun could begin to reach the earth for the fourth day of creation, in the actual cycle of the development of the earth. But what is the character of this? The sun symbolizes what? Fire. And fire is the symbol of God's love, the reality of power, the reality of the creative power of what we sometimes call the Creative Fire. And that comes on the fourth day.
Now what do you suppose is on the fifth day? What is dominant on the fifth day of creation? It goes back to water. Water is again dominant on the fifth day. What is dominant on the sixth day of creation? Air again. And so forth. Every creative cycle has these four forces working out over and over again, and every particular step in a creative process has one of these four dominant. That is the story here in Genesis. It is the story in life. It is the story wherever you turn. And this Class has reached the point of the third step. Not the fourth; the first half of the third step. What are you going to do about it?
“I am come into my garden.” The garden is prepared on earth by the angels of the Lord incarnate in human form. It cannot be prepared by human beings as such but by the angels of the Lord incarnate in human form, which permits the generation of the substance whereby radiation may be received on earth and understanding may increase in human consciousness on earth. We have noted that there are very specific ways by which the purposes of God may be accomplished at this level where human beings are. The purposes of God are inherent in the radiation. The radiation becomes comprehensible at the level of human consciousness when the essential spiritual substance is present. The extent of comprehension will depend upon the extent of spiritual substance and the particular levels at which it is generated. You present yourselves here this evening as angels of the Lord. The fact that there are angels present is only made apparent and meaningful because of your physical flesh and the consciousness that is present by reason of that flesh. It is through this instrument that the song of life is sung.
Light requires substance to become meaningful. Even if we consider the light that comes to us from the sun, it is the reflection of that light, that radiant light from the sun, from the surface of the earth, that causes it to be meaningful and valuable on earth. There must be substance for the reflection. We have considered the Tone of life and recognized that if this Tone is to be discerned there must be substance present in which it may sound. These are analogies of the truth. If we let it go with the analogies and insist that we understand the source of the analogies we remain ignorant. But if we allow the reality to be the experience then we know the truth. We know it not because someone told it to us—as though it could be transmitted by words, which it cannot—but because we let the light shine, because we became aware of the Tone of life by reason of the substance that has been generated by the human facility. Angelically speaking we know these things at the level of the angel but they need to be known at the level of human beings, so angels put in an appearance in human form. There are a number of those human forms sitting here this evening. I trust there is a sufficiency of angelic expression for me to assume that there are angels sitting here this evening, not just human forms. As angels you are here to play a particular role in the creative process.
Upon first approaching spiritual things the positive and negative aspects are usually seen as God on the one hand and human beings on the other: human beings must respond to God, the positive radiation, and something then happens. If the response is true there will be the generation of some substance. The reason for the generation of the substance is not to enlighten the human being particularly. It is to make possible the emergence of the angel, that there may be an angel present in human form and functional on earth. Only as this requirement is fulfilled is there any means by which further steps may be taken. So you as angels in the flesh have a particular role to play in the situation in which we find ourselves this evening. This role may be seen as a negative role; and remember, when we use the word “negative” we do not use it to indicate something wrong. The negative aspect of being is just as essential as the positive; there must be both—this is a real duality. So you have a negative role to play here as angels: first of all to bring such substance as has been generated through your human form with you into this place; and then to participate in further generation of spiritual substance, of finer substance, that there may be a garden, that you may invite the Lord into your garden.
Now the Lord of whom we usually think is not incarnate at this present time in human form, so it is necessary that He be represented somehow. If there are angels who provide the facility and play the role of the negative aspect essential to the working of the Law in human experience, then there is the necessity for an angel incarnate in human form to play the role of the positive aspect. The one who plays that positive role in any particular situation is properly, in that situation, an angel representing the Lord on earth through the flesh. The flesh is not the Lord; the spirit is what is being represented; but if the flesh permits that representation to appear so that there is an angel made evident in the flesh, it is difficult if not impossible to separate the flesh from the spirit which is made known by reason of the flesh. And yet the spirit is primary. In this particular situation, evidently I am the one charged with the responsibility of providing a representation of the Lord in the flesh on earth. That representation is only possible to an angel—an angel who is sent to provide what is necessary in this regard. Now I am not limiting this to myself, because in many other situations there is the same requirement of an angel in the flesh representing the Lord, because there must be the positive aspect and the negative aspect of the angelic union if there is to be the true creative expression.
We may perhaps see this in other terms. You may recall the occasion recorded in the Book of Acts when there was what has subsequently been called an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The ultimate experience was described as “cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.” Let us see this in relationship to our own experience now. Here we are, gathered together with one accord, in whatever measure of agreement between angels there may be present, and in one place physically speaking. We're all here together in this Chapel and we could say consequently there is one flesh, one body of people, one body of people composed of a positive aspect and a negative aspect, in this sense the union of male and female, one flesh. And out of that one flesh of our gathering here this evening, as it truly is a gathering of angels, there appears the flame, the cloven tongues as of fire. Cloven—two aspects.
It springs forth from the head, or the consciousness of this unified body here present. There is one flesh at the base but there arises from that one flesh two aspects of what is described as fire, an ascending flame of fire, an intensification. And fire propagates light and heat. Light and heat come from the sun. They are made meaningful on earth by reason of reflection; there is substance available for reflection. This light and heat which is generated out of the flame is made meaningful by reason of reflection in the spiritual substance that is present; and there is unified radiation—unified radiation consequent upon the presence of angels with one accord in one place, composing a body which can be referred to as one flesh. It is one flesh because there are the two aspects, the male and the female aspects, the positive and the negative. We could say spiritual union—spiritual union on earth, out of which springs the radiation of the spirit of the Lord on earth, is obviously essential for that radiation.
To the extent that this occurs in our own experience there is radiation at the level of mankind, and it becomes discernible, comprehensible, generating vision in the world wherever there is substance to reflect it. This is happening without those in whom this substance may be present having any idea whatsoever as to what it is that is happening. Insofar as all of you are concerned you had no idea what was happening in your experience, and yet there has been some sort of an experience, hasn't there? This occurs quite rapidly but is all based in the fact of radiation at the level where that radiation is required and the fact of substance at that same level whereby the radiation may be reflected and so become meaningful to human beings. It becomes meaningful to individual human beings for the purpose of generating more substance, because if there is an awareness of new understanding, if there is new vision, the individual's lifestyle, as it is called these days, will change. His attitudes, his approach to living, will be different. It will be consequent upon his new vision, his new experience of himself; and this in turn will generate more spiritual substance both quantitatively and qualitatively. In other words there will be finer levels of substance generated, thereby permitting greater vision, greater understanding, and an increased change in lifestyle.
Of course while this is going on there will be many factors present, dragging the individual back into the old routine. Some will succumb to those factors no doubt, but others, those with integrity, will seek to be as true to their vision as is possible to them. You have come along the way to the extent that you have kept your integrity and been true to your highest vision. It seems relatively easy in the world the way it is to deny and betray that vision with the idea that it will be profitable to do so, perhaps profitable financially or profitable in some other way—you are going to get more of what you want. Every endeavor on the part of a human being to get what he thinks he wants is a violation of integrity. And because it requires that one express something less than one's highest vision, you have to manipulate to get what you want. So this is not yet the experience of the angel on earth. But there are those who will be true to their integrity and will live according to their highest vision.
In the world the way it has been there have always been such, but their vision never went very high simply because on the one hand there was the inadequate generation of substance on the part of those concerned which would allow a reflection of the essential radiation, and on the other hand there has been, for the most part, an inadequate provision of a facility of angelic radiation at the level where human beings are. Once this facility begins to appear so that there is radiation at the level where human beings are, then there will be activation of this spiritual substance which may be present by reason of the generation of at least a segment of the population. So this creative cycle necessarily has had to be set in motion. It is in motion in our own experience now, but there were requirements by which it could be set in motion.
We have noted the fact that a creative cycle has from time to time been set in motion in the world in times past. Something was set in motion at the time of the children of Israel. Something was set in motion at the time when Jesus was on earth. It was set in motion because there was a facility which provided a means of essential radiation at the level where the radiation was required. There was present, and always has been present in the body of mankind, a certain measure of spiritual substance capable of reflecting spiritual radiation. Generally speaking when that reflection has appeared it tended to be overwhelmed by the strong drag that there is in human consciousness based in earthly heredity. This strong drag was very evident in the story of the children of Israel and it brought about the eventual dissolution of that opportunity. The strong drag has been very evident in what has been called Christianity, and so what might have been, from the standpoint of Christianity, has never been. There is dissolution here also. Christianity has become conceptualized in human consciousness and bears virtually no resemblance whatsoever to the truth which was brought into the world by the One whom we may rightly refer to as the Lord, or the Master. And yet that One is supreme to us. We know what was brought from the standpoint of the children of Israel, we know what was brought from the standpoint of the Master, and we know this because we know what is brought now. Only what has been generated now and reflects the radiation now brings with it what might be called enlightenment, understanding, understanding of the past; not that what happened in the past is all that important now except as it brought us to this point. The question is what is happening now. And we see the essential elements needful to permit creative action on earth. There must be angels present in human form, angels willing to play their particular roles in given circumstances.
Now we have this particular circumstance of the moment and there are particular roles to be played in this circumstance. There are other roles in other circumstances but all the roles are included in the working of the Law. We may at one time be playing a negative role in a particular situation and at another time playing a positive role; and I am not making the division in this regard on the basis of male and female. In this particular circumstance now I am a man and playing a positive role. You are both men and women and playing a negative role. In fact I don't stand alone as a man here. There are those who have made possible the role I am playing by providing a garden for me. If I had had to wait around for you to provide me with a garden I would have been waiting a long time. You are now providing me with a garden but only because there have been others who did it before you. And in relationship to that requirement of a garden there are of course two who have played a consistent role in that regard over the years—Lillian and Grace—and so it may be said, in a sense, that the three of us are standing. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/let-my-beloved-come-into-his-garden.html?m=1]
We begin to recognize that there is an expansion, rightly, not only of the negative aspect but of the positive too. In the overall sense of what we call our ministry the positive aspect is the CORE aspect which is composed of quite a number of people. In given situations here or there it may be just one person who provides the positive point and other angels incarnate in human form who willingly offer what is required from the negative standpoint. But we should not assume that because we play a positive role at one time we should not play a negative role at another time. There is complete flexibility in this because as angels we play the roles that are necessary to allow the creative cycles to unfold as they should in all their ramifications. Some of those creative cycles are large ones, some are quite small, and there are many in between; but it requires angels who are present and functional in human flesh in order to get the job done.
As I say, we have a special occasion right in this moment. Every moment, as far as that is concerned, is a special occasion for angelic function, but we may recognize something rather specific in our gathering here this evening where there is a body of one flesh—positive and negative aspects, and something of the flame ascending from this point of junction. And it ascends on the basis of the positive and negative. But from this dual flame there is radiation occurring in the consciousness of mankind as a whole, and within that consciousness is some substance to reflect it. The substance reflects it and those who are associated with the substance that is reflecting it begin to see something, begin to understand, begin to move in a creative cycle, to the extent that there is a willingness to let go to what is being experienced by reason of the radiation. Of course those concerned don't know what is happening but they have an increased vision; something is stirring. It is necessary to let go to that.
Very often the instruction is given to let go of the factors of distortion, the factors of human heredity; but no one will let go of those unless there is present something which he can let go to. If you let go of the factors of earthly heredity, what would you have? What would most people have? Just a blank. And that verges on the experience of insanity, doesn't it? Letting go of earthly heredity is absolutely essential, yes, but it only becomes possible to do when there is something to which human beings may let go—let go to the true radiation. But the true radiation in its initial stages is something rather vague. A person may feel the urge to do the right thing. He's not sure what the right thing is but he feels the urge to do it anyway. So he has a certain level of vision, and he tries to be true to that level of vision. Here is someone of integrity on hand; but if there is to be real movement so that he is not more or less thrashing around in the dark, so to speak, the point of radiation must be seen. We see the sun for instance from the surface of the earth. Everybody is more cheerful on a sunny day. When the light is diffused because of the overcast, then gloom tends to prevail in human consciousness. There may be an awareness of light, it must be coming from someplace, but the individual doesn't know where specifically. But when the sun comes out, there it is; we know; and the whole world lights up because of it. There are many human beings in the twilight state. They are trying to be true to their highest vision but it doesn't seem to be getting them anywhere, and they look at their fellows and they see people violating their integrity all around, getting away with it apparently. It is only when the sun comes out that there is a specific point which brings a sense of certainty.
In our fulfilment of responsibility this evening, to the extent that there is unified radiation released by reason of our presence here, those in whom the substance is present which can reflect this radiation find nothing much more than a diffused light, as it were under an overcast, because they are not in position to see the source of the radiation. You know the source of the radiation because you participate in its release; so it is not a mystery to you. And you consequently have a far greater sense of assurance. You begin to share the knowing of the angel who you really are. But most people in the world don't have that awareness yet. Some of them are in deep, dense darkness anyway, with no flicker of light in the true sense. Those who have some substance to reflect the light and feel the warmth realize that there is something somewhere, but they don't yet know where or what it is. But as, in your own experience, you were true to your integrity, somewhere along the way the light broke through and you became aware that it had a source on earth at the level where we are.
Most people who look to spiritual things are looking into the sky somewhere, into some invisible heaven somewhere else than on earth. There are many people on earth of course who are looking for leadership of one sort or another, and they set this person or that person up on a pedestal but he inevitably falls off it. Then the idea is generated that no one can be trusted, which is true of human beings certainly. No one can be trusted. I don't trust you at all as human beings but I do trust the angel. To the extent that that angel is putting in an appearance I know I can depend on you. I'm not trusting the human being. I'm trusting the angel—the angel who is in charge of the human facility. There begins to be something trustworthy. And so we find a sense of mutual trust to the extent that the angel has put in an appearance and there is a light shining of which we are aware.
We have our contribution to make, whether of the positive aspect of the flame or the negative aspect of the flame, whichever it may be, varying back and forth in different situations. We know the light because we are the light angelically speaking. And others may awaken to that too. They begin to see something, as you have seen something along the way. To start with you don't know what it is. Sometimes it seems too good to be true. But only as you continue to keep your integrity, as you begin to emerge increasingly out of the coarse levels of human function, do you have the substance available which permits the vision to appear by which you can understand. If you don't have the substance you can't understand and you will continue in the old human ways of blaming people and criticizing people and condemning people. That is the filthy state of human nature and it dissipates any substance that might have been present.
I don't care how much substance anyone may have generated back along the way and how much they may have experienced of spiritual things, they can blow it anytime—and many have. Many have insisted upon remaining at coarse levels. “Well if the Lord will come here and save me here, all right, but I'm not going to move.” What a foolish attitude, because on that basis we never know the truth of ourselves; we have no faintest idea of the reason for our presence on earth. Some have complained about that: “I don't know why I am here. I thought I knew somewhere along the way but now I don't know why I am here.” Well if that is true the substance has been blown somehow. There is only one way to go and that is to generate some substance in living. But you can't generate that substance if you are immersed in critical attitudes and in demanding attitudes.
So as angels here present, all that has receded into the background, has no further meaning to us. Let what is filthy be filthy still, but not in us. Let what is righteous be righteous because there is an angel present and he keeps all his expression sacred and plays whatever roles are necessary in the unfolding creative cycles, a negative role sometimes, a positive role sometimes. But there is great variety with respect to the roles themselves, never a dull moment when we are doing it as angels—otherwise boredom and uselessness and hopelessness set in. Well if anyone has that experience in human consciousness he knows in that moment that the angel has been ejected from his experience. We make our own choices. We are responsible for whatever occurs in our experience; no one else is.
Seeing this, how important it is then that we should play our roles as angels in whatever the circumstances may be. And we don't try to make the circumstances be some way that we want them to be. We let them be whatever they are and play our role there. That is the only role we can play; otherwise it is just simply imagination. The way it is is the only thing we can handle, because it is the way it is. It is the only real thing that is present to handle, and if we are not struggling with all the things that we think should be, then how easy it becomes. We only have one thing to handle, the thing of the moment. We only have one thing to handle in this moment. I have my role to play, you have your role to play; nothing else is required. It is quite sufficient; it may occupy our total experience and consciousness if we are willing to let it. To that extent we are with one accord in one place.
And there is the fire burning, transmuting, radiating. The radiation goes forth but not for our personal benefit; it goes forth to achieve the creative purposes of the One whom we represent on the basis of the roles that we play. We all have the responsibility of representing that One, and we don't do it secondhand; we take responsibility for that representation. I do in this moment. I represent Him in this moment. I take that responsibility. I don't say, “Well Lord, please come here and take my place.” Of what value would that be? He is in no position to come here and take my place. Collectively we are providing a garden of increasing quality and size so that there may be a place where He could come, if He chooses to come; but that is His business. We provide the garden and we keep the garden, whether He is here or not, because this is His domain and we are stewards of it, responsible people—responsible angels.
I thank God for the angelic expression which is appearing through the human facility. But we remember that the human facility needs some training to be in position adequately to encompass the angelic expression in every circumstance. We can handle that too when we know the business we are about. I thank God for your participation this evening as angels, to the extent that this has been true in expression through your human form, that there might be creative achievement to the extent that there has. Glory to God in the highest. We are here to let that be true because we live always to our angelic highest.
When the Master was on earth He said something to the effect that He had not come into the world to be ministered unto but to minister. Obviously there were those at that time who extended assistance and hospitality to Him, so He was not particularly referring to ministry of that nature but rather to what He came to deliver into the world.
If we agree with Him, if we follow Him, then obviously our attitude is the same. We did not come into the world to be ministered unto but to minister. In order to reach a point where a person is in position to minister there must be a period of being ministered unto. There is this necessity of awakening to the consciousness of the fact that one is here on earth not to be ministered unto but to minister. Back along the way I was concerned to find someone who could minister unto me. I found that individual in the person of Uranda. However there came a point when he was no longer present with me and others on earth, so in that sense I had lost the one whom I had previously found to minister unto me. Fortunately, during the latter period of Uranda's presence on earth I had learned something about ministering; I had gained some experience in this regard. Clearly then, when Uranda was no longer here, as far as I was concerned there was no one here to minister unto me, so I was forced to take the attitude that I did not come into the world to be ministered unto but to minister. The same thing should be true for each one, without the necessity of any such drastic experience. It should be true for all of you for instance.
As I say, there is properly a period of time when one is being ministered unto for the purpose of learning what it means to minister. The idea of course is not to become a perennial student but to graduate, to grow up and to and to minister. When there is such an awakening there is a recognition of relatedness to others who are ministering likewise, but we no longer require anyone to minister to us. I suppose I could ask two questions, indicating alternatives insofar as you are concerned: Must I minister to you in the name of the Lord? Or will you stand with me and minister to the world in the name of the Lord? I have indeed over the years ministered in various ways to many people. I am thankful that there are those who do stand with me to minister to the world in the name of the Lord. Each one needs to consider these questions with respect to his or her own field of living.
There has been a platitude repeated in the world many times, something to the effect that when the need arises the teacher will appear, as though teachers would be appearing indefinitely over the period of our life cycle. You know that this properly is not true. Sooner or later, to keep one's integrity, there must be the acceptance of the responsibility of ministering without being ministered unto. If I have ministered to many over the years the purpose was not particularly to benefit those concerned but to find the ones who would stand with me. If anyone gives evidence of the fact that they are not so willing they have little further interest for me because, after all, there is only one reason why I am here and why any true person is here, and that is to serve the Lord on earth in providing a facility for the positive action phase of the One Law at the level where human beings are in the world. Nothing else has any meaning. Only when this is done is there the power present by which the world may be restored.
Over the past twenty thousand years there has been a creative process at work to allow the restoration of man to occur. If one were to judge by appearances it would not seem that very much was being accomplished, and yet the One Law is at work. Twenty thousand years is quite a long time from the human standpoint but just a moment from the divine standpoint. When man violated his integrity and set in motion this tragedy which has been in effect for the last twenty thousand years—a little comedy thrown in here and there—it could only be a temporary state of affairs; in other words by reason of the working of the Law a conclusion would come to this temporary state of affairs somewhere along the way. There were two possibilities insofar as the conclusion was concerned: the first and foremost, the one of deepest concern, was that man might be restored; the second, which would inevitably occur if man was not restored, would be the elimination of man. The elimination of man involves the elimination of much more than man. So there are these two possibilities which have always been present.
In the outworking of events over this lengthy period of history the main concern has always been that man might be restored. This is as much so today as it was at any other time. However the only way by which man can be restored is as the positive action phase of the One Law has opportunity of expression at the level where man is—or where human beings now are, because human beings in the collective sense are no longer man. This is why there is need for restoration. But the way this task is accomplished is based in the positive action phase of the One Law. Actually either the restoration or the elimination of man is consequent upon the same thing: the positive action phase of the One Law. The elimination of man occurs when there is no means for the positive action phase of the One Law to operate at the level where human beings are. To whatever degree we have awakened to this awareness and have awakened to our responsibility in relationship to it, there may be the facility for the positive action phase of the One Law to operate at the level where human beings are. This requires that we be at the level where human beings are.
There are those who have been concerned apparently with rising to some other level, ascending up into some mystical heaven somewhere, but what earthly value would that be? I don't think it would be of much heavenly value either. The point is that we need to be here where we are and we are not interested properly in trying to escape, to get away from the circumstances as we find them. This is, after all, part of the level where human beings are, so our concern is to let the positive action phase of the One Law operate where we are. Insofar as we are concerned it will only operate where we are because of us. It may operate somewhere else where we aren't, because of somebody else, but observing what is going on in the world we have not, I am sure, been very much encouraged on this point. We have an awareness of what it is that is required and because we have this awareness we consequently have the responsibility of letting it happen. Obviously those who do not have the awareness are not going to do anything about it. Always, increased vision carries with it increased responsibility. Woe unto those who attempt to possess the increased vision for themselves without assuming the increased responsibility that goes with it.
If the positive action phase of the One Law is to work effectively there must be a CORE of human beings who have accepted the responsibility for letting it happen. We do not have to make the One Law work; it never stopped working, fortunately. But we may participate in this working at the level where human beings are to the extent that we share the responsibility in our own expression of living for the positive action phase of the One Law. Another way of putting that is summarized in the words "spiritual expression."
I presented two alternatives in the form of two questions: Must I minister to you in the name of the Lord? in which case I would be left alone insofar as the positive action phase of the One Law is concerned. Or will you stand with me in ministering to the world in the name of the Lord? I assume, with respect to everyone who participates in any way in this ministry, that here is a person, male or female, who is offering him- or herself to participate in ministering to the world. As I say, initially the individual is usually looking for help personally; he wants to be ministered unto; but no one can rightly assume the attitude which requires being ministered unto indefinitely. There must come a point somewhere along the line where there is sufficient wakefulness and integrity to accept the responsibility of ministry—one's own personal ministry; no guru is required. Yet this does not mean, as you well know, that everybody scatters in all directions, setting up their own little areas of ministry here or there, because what we are talking about certainly is not children's games. This is the positive action of the One Law here on earth, the same Law which is present and operative throughout the whole universe. It is not really a little thing.
The positive action of the One Law is the expression of the creative spirit of God and it produces a reaction in what may be called the creation. The negative reaction phase is automatic—it can't help itself; there must be negative reaction. All that is necessary is to allow the positive action phase of the One Law to work at the level where human beings are, because the reaction aspect is sure. There will be transformation. The state of incompleteness, the state of evil, will change; it will be transformed. If there is the clear positive action of the One Law it will be transformed perfectly. Now it is quite true that the world is a jumbled place at the moment because human beings have messed things up very thoroughly, but it does not really matter how messed up things are, when the positive action of the One Law comes to bear, things will immediately begin to sort themselves out. They can't help sorting themselves out. Human beings may object, they may rebel against what is happening, they may be very disturbed because things are not going the way they think they ought to go, but no matter what they do they are quite incapable of preventing the transformation which is occurring. Part of that transformation relates to the restoration of man; in other words once there is a CORE PATTERNon earth capable of permitting the positive action of the One Law at the level where human beings are, the results are absolutely inevitable. There will be the restoration of man. Lacking that positive action of the One Law at the level where human beings are, the results will be equally inevitable: the elimination of man; because the One Law is working anyway whether human beings like it or not, and it is not possible long to maintain something which is at variance with the operation of the Law. The distorted factors get swept out of the way. Human beings over the millennia have ample experience in this regard individually and collectively; much has been swept out of the way.
Much is in the process of being swept out of the way right now. Even from the standpoint of what might be considered to be the natural processes of decay, artistic monuments of all kinds in the world are disintegrating. Immense sums of money are being spent in an endeavor to prop them up, an endeavor which must eventually fail in any case. Why bother? "Oh these works of human culture, the achievements of human beings! How could one dare to suggest that they profitably might pass away?" This is a terrible thing to say, isn't it, in a world where human beings everywhere seemingly are trying to preserve their precious cultures. Who pays any attention to the true culture, to the true state of man on earth, and what would be engendered by reason of that true state? It seems that few are able to envision anything more than the glorious things which this unfortunate creature on earth has produced.
To what extent are those of you here present, and many more who are associated with this ministry, to what extent are you and they willing to relinquish any desire to be ministered unto? I suspect all too many would feel that they would perish if they were not being ministered unto: "What would happen if I didn't get my attunements? What would happen if those who carry particular responsibility didn't include me in the scope of their responsibility?" Such questions might arise in the minds of some. But how about agreeing with the Lord whom we serve, in acknowledging that we did not come into the world to be ministered unto by anyone but to minister, to be the positive expression of the One Law on earth. One can remain in a state of limbo indefinitely by insisting that there are occasions when it is most important that someone should minister unto you. I have been most fortunate in this regard because I had nowhere to turn. Who was going to minister unto me? Oh lots of people have provided many things for me in the external sense, but from the standpoint of my ministry on earth, the responsibility which I carry in the world, who was going to minister to me in that regard? There was nobody on hand.
"Well," you may say, "there is the Lord"; but that is true of you just as much as it is true of me. Yes, we all have parts to play. I have my particular responsibility but you have yours, and to carry that responsibility requires exactly the same thing of us both: to acknowledge that it is unnecessary to be ministered unto, that we are totally capable of ministering. As always there is a little questioning possible here because, as I have said before, initially speaking a person needs to be ministered unto to come to the point where he may minister. But where is the point where he may minister and no longer require any ministering unto? Where is that point for you? Did it possibly occur last year? Or is it going to occur next year? Or maybe even tomorrow? When? When is the point reached? One can put it off easily: "Oh I need some more training. I need some more information. I need some more understanding. I need some more ability. I need to develop this and that to a greater extent. And then, then I will minister." But when is then? Is there an examination that you are going to pass? "You have graduated now; you are responsible for ministering"—is someone going to tell you that? Obviously one could continue as long as life remained in the student position, taking the attitude, "One day I am going to graduate."
The fact of the matter is that one may accept the responsibility now. I presume that over the last, what is it? twenty-three years, since I was put into the position of having to acknowledge that I was here to minister rather than to be ministered unto, I have learned something. My state of experience now is different to my state of experience twenty-three years ago. Obviously. I could very easily back there have said, "Well I need more of somebody ministering unto me." But there wasn't anyone to do it. Just because there is someone to do it insofar as you are concerned, does that mean that you can put it off, put off the acceptance of that responsibility? Clearly, if everyone puts it off we have no CORE PATTERN by means of which the positive action of the One Law could be brought into effect at the level where human beings are. And it requires more than one person or just a few people. It was suggested somewhere that it might require 144,000 to handle the world, 144,000individuals who have accepted the responsibility to minister and have relinquished any idea that they need to be ministered unto. There may have been occasions in the past, in my own experience, when I felt that I needed to be ministered unto, but as I say, most fortunately there was nobody on hand to do it and consequently the responsibility had to be taken. There was no alternative insofar as I was concerned, unless I violated my own integrity. This was the only way I could evade the necessity. I didn't think it was worth that. How about you? There is always a seeming excuse because there are other people around ministering. "If I need to be ministered unto I can go to so-and-so." Yes you can, and you will continue to need to go to so-and-so until you have accepted the responsibility of your own ministry. It is yours and nobody else's.
As I say, this acceptance of responsibility does not carry you off into left field somewhere. It does not scatter everybody to the four corners of the earth. We find ourselves holding together because we are all part of the positive action of the One Law, and it requires all of us and we all have different parts to play. From the standpoint of my particular position one would presume that it is not really any longer ministering to individuals as such. There are still quite a few people who come along wanting to be ministered unto. There are those who properly have a responsibility to take care of what is necessary in this regard but I doubt if it should continue to be me forever, because how could we ever get down to business in the positive action phase of the One Law as it relates to the larger picture of the world? We may say, "Well we serve the world by ministering to the individual." That is true up to a point but there are many things to be done of which there is virtually no consciousness as yet on the part of most, and these things cannot be done as long as there is an insistence that those who should be doing these things are required to minister to this individual and that individual in an endless round which has been going on for as long as this ministry at least has been on earth, but long before that no doubt. There are always people, seemingly, who think they need to be ministered unto. Okay, that may be all right up to a point, but there comes a time when one acknowledges the fact that one came into the world to minister and not to be ministered unto.
When this is the accepted responsibility of a sufficiently sizable COREgroup of human beings then there begins to be power, because that experience is the experience of the Holy Ghost coming upon those concerned. They have accepted the responsibility. They are not anticipating that their own field of service is going to be handled by somebody else. It is only then that we begin to have the experience of what it means to become a man or a woman. Otherwise we continue to be, in some measure at least, puling children—that's right, isn't it?—expecting to be taken care of. We did not come to be ministered unto but to minister. There are those whose ministry may particularly be concerned with matters pertaining to education, education of people who are learning to minister. There are those whose special concern will be in the field of healing. Others will handle the affairs which are of immediate concern in our environment. There are many areas which require people to handle them, people who are capable of ministering and are not demanding anymore to be ministered unto. But above and beyond all this, these areas of responsibility, there is a field of what might be called vibrational responsibility which may be handled by those who are allowed to do so because no demand is being placed upon them by this person or that person requiring to be ministered unto. You can see that there are many levels of operation insofar as the positive action of the One Law is concerned and there is the need for those who can handle these various levels of operation, but it will not be handled by those who are demanding to be ministered unto, only by those who are capable of ministering. The only way one can learn to minister is to minister. One can never learn to minister merely by being ministered unto.
The immediate concern is that there should be this CORE composed of human beings who are ministering, who are providing the facility for the positive action of the One Law at the level where human beings are. That is the experience of the Holy Ghost coming upon you and it is stated: "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." There is the power, the creative power of the positive action of the One Law, and it is this that transforms the world. We begin to allow that positive action of the One Law which is already in operation to be brought to focus and to find release in radiation, in action, in living, because we have assumed the responsibility for letting it be so. Then we might say the job is done. Oh there is a lot to work out, but it will all work out; it can't help but work out. The transformation occurs because the reason for its occurrence is present, present and in operation. Having some vision and awareness of these things, the self-centered state dissolves because we let it dissolve. And here we are together, standing together, to minister to the world in the name of the Lord. How else shall the world be transformed? There isn't any other way. Do we really recognize how much trust has been placed in us? Keeping our integrity we cannot help but be true to the trust.
I am most thankful for the opportunity of speaking of these things to you who are here present this evening, and by reason of what you have made possible in this regard many, many others are included. The Lord is good and greatly to be praised.
James Wellemeyer — Martin, I don’t feel we can really walk out of here this evening without acknowledging the wonder of what has been shared, to sense the power that has moved through your word and through us and to recognize that we are here to get the job done, that we are here to stand with you, not just in theory as undoubtedly it has been many times but to stand with you in fact. How I delight in what has been shared this evening and with you. Praise God that it is so. Thank you, Martin.
Martin Cecil — Your word of response, Jim, is an evidence of the working of the Law: positive action, negative reaction. We need to understand the working of the Law so that we may participate in its working in a fitting and proper manner. Jim brought to focus something of the response which properly is engendered by reason of the positive radiation. We need to understand how these things work so that we may intelligently cooperate with that working. It is only by reason of such direct participation that the power is allowed to be generated and released in radiation. Where there is positive radiation there must be negative response in the fulfilment of the Law, and only as we play our respective parts in cooperation with the working of the Law are we of any particular value in generating what is required insofar as intensification of positive radiation is concerned. We have shared an opportunity of radiation this evening. I am thankful that the Law has been allowed to work in your experience, in our experience, as much as it has.
