Three thousand five hundred years ago a great leader became aware of the fact that the people whom he was leading needed a symbol of the Temple which each one is. These were the very early days, and these were people who were responding to a call to form the body of God on earth. There was need for many such symbols. Moses was aware that it was time to share what he accurately knew—because of his identity with the One who dwelt in him—of the design for this which was to be built; the measurements, the materials, everything. It is a fascinating story, the building of this Temple, this Tabernacle. The relations between the figures, the measurements, are those of the Great Pyramid in Egypt, the same as those of the Temple of Solomon, and they are the same as in this temple, the human body; in other words, the Divine Design is consistent throughout the cosmos. We are looking at this particular one now, with emphasis on the Ark which was contained in the Tabernacle.
So I invite you to share my vision of this, and I suggest that it not be for the purpose of categorizing or dissecting or delineating, but just letting the spirit of it be shared. In the twenty-fifth chapter of Exodus we read:
“Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it. According to all that I shew thee …” Here is the design already established, pictured as the Lord speaking through Moses, the source of being which is in each one. It is according to that which is shown, or revealed, from the Source. “… after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof.”
In this hour I am thinking of the Temple of God which each one is, of which this Tabernacle is a symbol. These are the specifications by which you and I are fearfully and wonderfully made. “And they shall make an ark.”
In my vision of this text, the Ark depicts the head. The specifications for the Ark describe the place where God communes with man. The specific means, the instrument, for that communion is contained in the head, which is the purpose for the whole Tabernacle: that there be a means for the communion between God and His creation. There are magical seals throughout the Temple, and in the head we have the pineal gland, for one; here is the connection with the silver cord, the connection with the source of all being, the source of all the power in the cosmos. We have heard about accepting a great promise. How great is the promise we accept? Does it include this whole planet and the people on it?
“And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about.” A crown around the Ark is an aura. Here we have an overlay, within and without, of gold. We have spoken of spirit substance, calling it pneumaplasm. Spirit substance is God substance, and God is love, so we have love substance. Everything was overlaid within and without with pure gold, which symbolizes love substance.
Religious art through the ages has depicted this aura. It is natural; it is the way we were created. But in the present human state it is a phenomenon when anyone sees it. Here is a light emanating from this gold overlay, within and without, of love. Gold is a symbol of love, and love is power. This gold, this aura, is an emanation of love substance, which is light. “Let your light so shine before men.” This is the source of the name Emissaries of Divine Light. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works.” What are the good works? The shining of the light! In the presence of that, all that is necessary is achieved and accomplished. The presence of one who is letting this light shine has impact upon others—that is the good works. When the light is there, everything else means something. Without that, all the words in the book don't mean anything. The shining of the light is very practical.
Other substances were used in the building of the Ark—much silver, and brass—but especially gold in abundance. The physical body is composed of minerals, as we know, all the substances of the earth, and gold is one of them. One does not usually think of gold as being one of the substances of the physical body. It is not easy to ingest—you cannot take a capsule of gold; there is no vitamin of gold! I once read that the only way the element of gold could be taken into the body is in conjunction with some electrical factor. That is interesting, because there was a definite charge to the Ark that was being built in the story. It had electrical qualities, for want of a better word; it was imbued with power. And all this gold had a great deal to do with the current which filled the Ark. Gold is a very effective conductor of the current—love, the conductor. “And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof; and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it. And thou shalt makes staves of … wood, and overlay them with gold. And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them.” The Ark was to be carried by the staves, not to be touched itself. “The staves shall be in the rings of the ark: they shall not be taken from it.”
The Priesthood, the body of priests, ministered in the Tabernacle with the Ark, took care of all these instruments, and carried the Ark. They were trained, lifelong, to do this. This is a symbol of what we are trained to do. Here is this very potent, charged instrument which we carry—which we are, actually. The Priesthood is trained to bear the Ark. There is a record in the Bible of one man, not trained, not of the Priesthood, touching it the wrong way and being immediately killed. It is a good symbol. The human body self-destructs, shall we say, and has for twenty thousand years. And we are here now, in this time of climax for the whole world, a time of crossing over, when the current is increased, and there must be that which can carry it. Much is happening, one way or the other, according to the reaction to this intensified current.
It is interesting to go through the story and see the materials that the priests used in the Tabernacle and in the Ark—very specific directions for the materials and measurements and so on. One of them was for the use of badger skins; it seems this was a form of processed leather which was very effective as insulation from charged objects. So perhaps the priests had a little help along the way! But basically there was training whereby the priests could operate effectively in the presence of great power. The power was allowed to move through them. This is the place where we are right now. It has been ever thus, but surely we can see an intensification now—a time of the end, as it has been put.
The name written on the mitre of the priests, which is the cap that extended above the head—again, beautiful symbolism—was “Holiness to the Lord.” This is what made it safe.
“And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee”—the whole purpose for the creation. “And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold… And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be. And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment.”
The cherubims were a very special part of the Ark. In religious art you will find them pictured as angels with wings. In the most ancient records the cherubims in the Tabernacle were not persons or angels, but wings—two beautiful wings. It must have been a gorgeous sight in the Ark, which was not a small construction.
My vision of this is that in the head are these two beautiful wings, halves of the brain. It is a beautiful picture if we see it in this way. “Their faces shall look one to another.” Here is the perfect communion between the two aspects, positive and negative, of this magnificent creation. Today we hear about right brain and left brain quite a lot. Both aspects are present, and there is an interchange between them constantly, face-to-face. They face each other, in a beautiful exchange, not separate. In this marvelous creation of the brain is the control for the whole body. Within these two wings is a sacred, holy place, the place where the Lord can commune with His creation. So there is a protection, and a magnificent interchange of design and control for the entire body.
Some years ago I read a beautiful article by a renowned and remarkable brain surgeon. He was a very spiritual man, and his love for this organ caused him to perform what could be called miracles with damaged brains. It was his love for the brain that imparted to me a different picture. Heretofore the image had been of gray matter, of convolutions—it was not really attractive. But he described the exposed brain as an indescribably intricate and beautiful creation, which to him resembled mother-of-pearl. That's not gray matter, that's luminescent—two great luminescent wings.
“And the Lord spake unto Moses… And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua … a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.” [Exodus 33:11] Joshua was with Moses all the way through. “Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” [Exodus 40:34] With respect to these two great ones, Moses and Joshua, we see a specific correlation with the lives of Uranda and Martin. There is a beautiful parallel story here, where something was begun, a body of people initiated and formed, and then the development of a body throughout the earth. We have heard how Abraham accepted a great promise—the great pioneer. Moses accepted a great promise; it included the whole earth. Joshua, who was with Moses all the way through, was right there when Moses had to leave. So now we come, in the story, to the time of Joshua, who was with the children of Israel at the River Jordan. They needed to cross that river; how were they going to do it? Throughout the wandering in the wilderness the Ark was carried with them—sheltered in a tent because of the travels, but always with them. So they came to this point of crossing, in which place we are now: the crossover of consciousness from the old to the new. And I am not talking about a New Age—there have been new ages throughout the millennia. I am talking about a new heaven and a new earth.
It was at this point, at the river, where Moses left this sphere of things. There is a poignant picture of Moses standing on Mount Nebo, from which he had a view of the Promised Land. His vision was not dimmed, or his natural force abated, but it was time for him to go. Joshua was perfectly in place. The River Jordan has been interpreted as “that last river to cross” when you leave this sphere of things and go to another one. That transition has been seen as being possible only through the death of the physical body. This story emphasizes the fact that that transition is to take place here on earth. That is a great promise! Can we accept that? It has nothing to do with personal fulfillment—“Will I be one of them?” But we accept this promise, no matter what happens to us. We know that with men it is impossible. With God all things are possible—with God. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. This place of crossing is where the world is now, where we are—a place where the crossing in consciousness from the old heaven and old earth takes place to the new heaven and new earth, right here on earth. The mind cannot possibly imagine what that would involve—which is a very good thing!
From the Book of Joshua, Chapter 3: “And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there… And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host; And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests … bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place”—get up—“and go after it.”
Then a warning was given: “Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.”
It was a new way at this place of crossover. Two thousand cubits is three thousand feet. Previously in the story there were directions given for the space and it was less than this; so they were coming to a place now where something was about to happen, and more precautions were taken. When we talk about the Israelites in this story, we can relate it to all the people in the world—this is what we are talking about. There is a body of people, the Priesthood—we, with all our preparation, are included surely—which can bear this intensified power without reaction. The whole world is experiencing it; the whole world is at this point. But what happens with the intensification of the current? Reactions of all kinds, to get out of the pressure, or maybe to have something that might be pleasing under the intense current. But to let it move in whatever way the Lord would have it move through His creation, where He can commune—this is where we are.
A certain distance was to be kept between the Ark and the people. They were to follow but not get too close—in other words, they were not in position to get too close. Anyone who could, fine! come on in. But there were many who could not. We see this in the world today. We also know that many are coming, subconsciously at first, at whatever distance from this concentration of power. If they just keep that Ark in sight, keep moving, it will become conscious somewhere along the way. This is what is happening now. It was a new way that had not been followed since the fall of man—to cross Jordan. Dying has been the way to reach a new state, and man has said it is the will of God. Abraham did not accept that. He almost did; he almost sacrificed his son. But he said, “No, this is not the will of God.” But isn't this the picture in the world? Death seems normal. Yes, it is, but because man made it that way. To let something actually change, to accept that great promise, is why we are here; and we would not be here if we could not accept it.
So there is a new way
“And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves.” That was the first requirement. The people were ready for the crossing. How could all these people cross the river? It was a big river, and it was overflowing its bank because it was harvest time. But they were to go right up to it. The Priesthood carried the Ark right to Jordan.
Joshua said: “Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. And Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people. And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan.”
This is the verse that caught my attention and made me say, “What? This electrical structure that killed a person who wasn't attuned to the power? Carry this and walk into the water?!” What could possibly be the result of that intensification of the current? That is where we are today. Does it look like it is the end of everything—for the world or for us? Let's see what happened.
“And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you… Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan. Now therefore take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap.”
They were not being acted upon by the power—they were the power. Something happened to this river, a seeming barrier that defied their passage, and the waters were stayed. This is a picture of what is happening today: there is time for those who can and will cross over Jordan, cross over to this state of consciousness. There is time given for them, because of this body of intensified power that is in the midst of Jordan on dry ground. That is the source of power. If we look around in the world, I think we could say that something has been stayed. There is this mighty force. There is only one power, but it has been turned into destructive avenues by fallen consciousness, unleashed forces which people say could have destroyed the earth long ago—could tomorrow, they say. Something is holding that force in abeyance until something happens, until there is a body of people who cross over in consciousness, until there is an effective body in place.
“It came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people; And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,) That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap … and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho.”
The River Jordan has its source in a beautiful mountain. The water is clear at the source, picturing the river of life, and flows through what has been called the Promised Land—a symbol of the whole earth, twelve tribes, twelve divisions, not only of the peoples of the earth but of the earth itself, twelve physical divisions of the planet. But it comes to a place called the “salt sea”—we call it the Dead Sea—a place where it receives everything and gives nothing; there is no outlet. The result is crystallization, the Dead Sea. It is an accurate picture of the fallen state of consciousness.
“And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.”
There is something wonderful about those words “clean over Jordan”—altogether, absolute; not partway over and then complaints: “I don't like this; it needs to be changed.” There are such picayune things that sometimes distract us, aren't there—so petty. This is a picture of the whole world in this place of crossing, not just a few Israelites. The whole world is in this place. But there is a body capable of bearing this Ark, which is the place of communion with God, with all the power of the cosmos; and that power is exercised, so that this force which man has distorted is kept in abeyance until there is that strong body which has crossed over. It is the only way that the crossover can take place here on earth.
“Until all the people were passed clean over Jordan”—that hardly means that all the people in the world are going to experience this change in consciousness. The point is that what remains on earth will have passed clean over Jordan; it is absolute, and all the people can say, “The Lord, He is the God,” without reservation; bend the knee. “All the people” pictures the state of the earth restored. All the people then present will be totally with the Lord, will be a part of that which happens in the midst of Jordan on dry ground—firmly on dry ground.
“The priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan.” That is where we are, with our feet solidly on dry ground, with all the power of the cosmos operating on earth because of that foundation. The emissary body has a firm foundation—fifty-eight years of it. Solidly on that, in the midst of everything that is happening, with the waters held in abeyance, it is a magnetic, charged area. How could this Ark be there, and this Priesthood, without it being a very intense place? This certainly can be recognized as happening in the whole earth, with all the peoples—things happening which, a few years ago, we would say were impossible. But then we could say that about this body right here. Changes can happen with the overlay of gold, with love surrounding and penetrating; then it is easy. The problems dissolve in one way or another, and are washed away.
And from Joshua, Chapter 4: “And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man.” We had the core of the Priesthood, but then twelve men were taken out of the people, a man to represent each tribe. We know something about that: twelve men representing twelve units of people. This has been achieved. Joshua did that. Here we have a design.
“Command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night. Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man.” Today we see this representation of the whole world—in groups of people, not just in individuals.
“And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel.” The “number” doesn't mean one, two, three, four, five; it means the distinguishing characteristics of each tribe or portion of this world's people—not twelve sons of Jacob but the twelve divisions of people all over the world, all represented. “And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the Lord spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there.”
The substance of the earth itself, pictured as stones, was carried over. The substance of the earth was not discarded as being unclean. It is beautiful substance. When I walk through Eden Valley, and see and smell and hear the wonders of it, I often say, “What more could there be to make it heaven?” We know how the earth has been abused, desecrated, polluted. But here is a picture of the earth's substance being carried over into the new heaven and new earth, to be as it was created. We speak of Mother Earth. Here is a picture of Mother Earth restored because of the worship of the Lord of all the earth. That of course includes the substance of the earth, our bodies. However, in the new earth state there is a new heaven first—the new heaven and the new earth. That speaks of different vibratory levels, the way we were created in the beginning, where there was a communion between all levels, seven levels of being—at least seven. Here is the design. It is perfection, magnificent. With all these vibratory levels interacting, there is a new state, a new earth—not limited to one level, the physical, which man has focused on entirely, but a beautiful interchange with all levels. Here is a picture of Divine Being.
“For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until every thing was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over.” After they heard the word, when all that had been given to Joshua from Moses was given to the people, they too “hasted and passed over.” That is quite a picture: the priests in the midst of Jordan, standing firm on dry ground until “every thing” was finished. That is our job—to see that everything is finished, and that all who can and will have passed clean over, absolutely. “… until every thing was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over… And the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of Jordan. Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan. And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks.”
What happens then is perfect. It will clear out whatever needs to be taken away. When there is this body, firm, then there is the time for the flowing of power, which will take care of whatever needs to be taken care of, without destroying everything—which would have happened if the body of the Priesthood had gone into the water and been washed away. The power was there to let the water be stayed until there was a body that had come “clean over” from the old consciousness to the new. That power which brings the new heaven and the new earth is the same that dissolves the old heaven and the old earth; and all that is connected with it, identified with it, is taken care of. There is no judgment—just a big sigh of relief in the cosmos.
“And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the Lord passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people.” [Joshua 4:11] This is where we are. A great promise has been accepted, a promise so great that the mind of man says it is impossible. To men it is. With God, in that place of communion with God, all things are possible. Is it too big a job for the Lord to sort out what needs to be sorted out? It was all made by Him, and this machinery is in place.
This great promise, as I say, has been accepted in this day. Abraham let it be accepted in him—something which included all the earth. It was said that his body would be as the grains of the sand and the stars in the heaven—you can't count them. That same promise was accepted fifty-eight years ago by Uranda and, not long after that, by one who came to stand very closely with him. Now we have a body under perfect leadership for this time. It was done by Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and two thousand years ago by that greatest one of all, Jesus, who proved it in himself but had to leave because there was not a body. And that must be present. The body is the essential ingredient. In this day it was begun, was carried forward, is here. We are here, and the whole world is in this place of crossover. It is being done—we can see the evidence of it everywhere.
In the intensified current of the Ark, in the place of the magnificent, luminescent wings that extend far above and protect that sacred, holy place of communion—this is the place where we are, symbolized by the Ark. This is what allows the water to be stayed, what lets the power work without destroying everything. It is communion with the Lord—individually yes, but also collectively, because that is necessary. There are signs that the body can work together; there always have been. But with the increase of the current of life, of love—which is the power of the cosmos—there is a smooth outworking, and it is reflected all around us. It is all one thing; we are all in this. Regardless of the distances from the Ark that people are located, if they are on track it is all right. And when the waters return, it will be fine! We have lived all these years to see this happen, and now it is happening.
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.
