Fitting sound is a creative blessing. Our experience in the realm of form has obscured so much of what is really present. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and yet even we who should know this have acted as though it wasn’t. If the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand we are in fact within it. In an awareness of this fact, then obviously our behavior would be conditioned thereby. If there is any consideration of these things in human consciousness, usually it relates to a struggle to somehow get into the Kingdom of Heaven or to get away from the vicissitudes of earth. If we managed to get away from these we’d get away from the Kingdom of Heaven too. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. We are present in it now. There are moments when we really know this to be so, and in those moments our experience is a transcendent one. Why have we been doing so much fussing about humanly constructed problems and difficulties? The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Here is our natural dwelling place. In the Kingdom of Heaven the creative processes are at work. Participation in those creative processes is life. Life is joy unspeakable and full of glory.
We give much thought and consideration to creative processes, to the working of the Law of the Kingdom. In those creative processes, the positive and negative, as they have been referred to, are always present. They are already operative from the Kingdom’s standpoint. We do not have to make anything be so in this sense, but merely to become aware of what is so, sharing in what is so. There is a vast variety in the Kingdom.
Back of human experience there is what might be referred to as a herd instinct. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/giant-stature.html] Where do you think this comes from? It comes from the fact that we have some measure of animalistic, earthly hereditary. Human beings rather easily find themselves lost in the herd. It is a wonderful thing, in our observation of nature, that a flock of birds, for instance, can fly in close formation, wheeling and turning and never colliding. There is a reason for collective function of this nature, which is quite natural in the animal kingdom; but this has also been included in human earthly heredity because of misfunction in times past on the part of human beings. We find ourselves with this background. It is even said that human beings are gregarious animals. I suppose human beings might be, but Man isn’t. He is not governed by the sort of controls which work with animals. We certainly, I am sure, have seen the fallacy of endeavoring to return to nature, as many people have attempted, as though they were animals—just another species of animal that needs to fit into the ecological system somehow. That could never be done, because man rightly is not just somehow another species of animal. He belongs in the Kingdom. This needs to be our natural experience, one which transcends any herd instincts.
There is a Body of Wholenessinsofar as mankind is concerned, and we have begun to find something of this in our own living. There is a natural relatedness between the various aspects of the Body ofMan, which is rightly the Body of God, but they never fall into a herd category. Out of herd function come lynchings and such things, which makes human experience lower than the animals, certainly. In the Kingdom, in the creative processes which naturally operate in the Kingdom, these work in the Unified Body which is Man, and there are natural relationshipsin this Body, essential to the operation of the Body. These relationships could be described in sexual terms, but they are found to be necessary to the operation of the Body so that there is a Body, a Living Body, present in the Kingdom on earth and capable of participating in the creative functions natural to that Body as a whole.
The resurrection of the Body is required that there may be a Body on hand capable of action. We may think of this in terms, presently, of the Body of the Archangel, or the Body of the Son of God, the Body of which we have an immediate awareness. That Body is incapable of health, of operating as it should, without the parts fitting together—not in the sense of a herd, because each part is uniquely individual. When we have considered such things as relationships, for instance, in our Emissary considerations, they almost invariably have tended to deteriorate into herd associations, as though there was little difference from person to person and there was little difference from relationship to relationship. A flock of birds is composed of individual birds; they’re all of one kind, they all look very much alike. I suppose under careful scrutiny one would find some distinctions, but for the most part we do not distinguish one bird from the other.
It is not so with human beings. It certainly is not so within the Body of Man. There is a pattern of uniqueness; therefore there is a pattern of unique combinations. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-nature-and-work-of-shekinah.html] We should neversuppose that we need, all of us, to be aware of what these combinations actually are. It would be impossible to encompass such a design in human consciousness. So we do not need to have an awareness of everything that might rightly be occurring within the healthy operation of the Body of the Son of God. Individually speaking, we need to mind our own business. Fortunately, in our own physical bodies the parts tend to mind their own business, which is more than can be said for some experience in this Emissary ministry.
If we consider the word “tolerance,” in the human sense it usually means that one is willing to let people get away with anything; you’re tolerant. But true tolerance is based in the fact that there is no necessity to know everything because the Body is a whole and totally operational, and you tolerate the operation of every part of the Body in the assurance that it is part of what is required for health. With the judgmental approaches of human consciousness, there is much interference in the emerging creative operation, by indulgence in inquisitiveness. We only need to know what we need to know, and fundamentally, that is one’s own unique, personal expression. This will undoubtedly fit with respect to some others, both in the immediate vicinity and further afield, but it will not particularly fit with everybody. Now this is something that has been misinterpreted by too many, when it seemed that two people were supposedly incompatible. They were only incompatible if they were trying to operate in the same space. The heart is incompatible with the liver if they try to duplicate each other’s operations. But when they are in place they are compatible.
Now we have to find out what the relatedness is, within the range of our unique individual experience. And it will be unique for each one. There is no one else who will rightly duplicate your experience. There have been, as we know, many attempts in the Emissary ministry to duplicate experience, which absolutely prevents health. Not surprising, then, if individually speaking there has been a good deal of ill health around, because various ones have been trying to function in a way that was not fitting. Now one of the things that we are concerned about is wisdom, the sense of the fitness of things, so that we are able to discern the right pattern of relatedness within the Body of Wholeness of which we are parts. We’re not going to find out what this is by examining external forms. We find out what it is to the extent that we have spiritual discernment and the ability to function in harmony with the spiritual design which we begin to discern. And it is a spiritual design.
We have noted that the creative processes with which we are engaged are in fact sex [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/sex-4-levels-of-being.html] but in a far larger context than we may have thought of it. But beginning to discern spiritually, and having some sense of the fitness of things, we know where we belong and where we do not. And if we discern some place that we do not belong, we certainly would not feel that we were being excluded from that place and therefore had a right to feel badly about it. We discern where we belong, that’s all, and we discern where we do not. And it certainly would not make us happy to be where we do not belong. Not that we are seeking happiness particularly, but this would be one evidence of being where one did not belong—unhappiness, that is. Gossip is an evidence of people being where they do not belong. And while it may be said that someone or other is not happy unless he is gossiping, it is merely a particular form of misery to which the individual has become accustomed.
So let us see that we are uniquely individual, and that we have uniquely individual associations with others, and that we cannot devise a design in form which would be fitting for everyone. This has been the futile attempt that has been made in the human nature world, to try to get everyone to be equal, whatever that means. We are all unique. Not better or worse, but unique, not the same. And all relationships are distinctly unique—obviously, if they are composed of unique people. There have been some concepts that certainly have tended to crystallize in so-called Emissary consciousness with regard to relationships. I don’t know whether I need to define these concepts—I suppose you know what they are. None of them are right; none of them could be, because this is a living experience, unique from moment to moment. There is a state of uniqueness at every level, in every way, in every direction. And if we start to crystallize things into some supposedly right design we will lose the uniqueness, we will lose life. We will separate ourselves from life.
Now we may have an awareness, by reason of spiritual discernment,
of various necessities relative to the development of the composition of this Unified Body.
We have an awareness in this regard with respect to our own flesh bodies, so that we know something about the positioning of the organs, etc., and what they do. We have some understanding of the operation of the various systems in the body. If we have a responsibility in the conscious sense within this resurrecting Body on earth, then presumably we will have some awareness of how it is put together and how it operates; something we will know about the organs and systems of it, which may be quite unnecessary for most people to know. The awareness that we have as individuals with respect to our own bodies is focalized in a rather restricted area. You don’t have any sense that your foot understands all this. It is generally thought of as centering somehow in the head. The vast majority of the Body is not the head.
So it may be necessary for us, functioning from the Holy Place,
to have a more extensive understanding of what goes on.
But insofar as we ourselves are concerned, if we have this understanding, we will at the same time develop a sense of the fitness of things. We know where things belong, and we will be keenly aware of the fittingness of the relationships with which we ourselves are associated. And because some particular pattern of relationship is fitting for you as an individual, this will not indicate that it is fitting for anyone else on the face of the earth. By the same token, in our observation of others, let us not judge the situation on the basis of what we might sense at this point, at this level, of what would be fitting for us. Just because it is fitting for us does not mean it is going to be fitting for somebody else, and because something is fitting for somebody else does not mean it is going to be fitting for us. Here again we come into a freedom, an openness, a clarity, which allows the spiritual design to take form at the level of spiritual substance.
Spiritual substance, whatever quantity and quality of it there might be, is not separate from physical substance. Heaven and earth are one. If we recognize the necessity of making a spiritual approach, this does not exclude physical things. We have, in times past at least, been accustomed to making a physical approach; this is the state of human nature, a physical approach to physical things. Looking at it that way, it is obvious that there is no basis for any pattern of right control here, because the approach is being made from the level of the thing that is being controlled, not from above. Control always comes on the basis of the Law, from above down, from inside out. But the control is not separate from the controlled. Heaven and earth are one. We cannot make a spiritual approach to the creative operation and exclude the physical levels—at least, if we try to do that, we will land up in a realm of imagination. We only come out of the realm of imagination to the extent that there is the experience of wholeness. If we just look at things from the standpoint of a part, we land up in imagination.
We are part of a Whole, and we share in the substance of the Whole in the spiritual sense—and also in the flesh sense, incidentally. So we see this unique state of affairs, and we never try to establish our own experience on the basis of what we imagine is happening with somebody else. We have seen how this has been done from the standpoint of the group developments in our ministry, for instance. “Look at Sunrise Ranch, and that will tell you how this group should take form.” No, it won’t. There has been the idea with some religious people that it was necessary to imitate Jesus Christ. What a blasphemous attitude! Would it be a creative and fulfilling world if all the people in it were imitations of Jesus Christ? Can you imagine a more awful state? We don’t need to be imitations of anyone but genuinely ourselves. And being genuinely ourselves we will find, as the dominion of spirit becomes our experience, an ability to discern what the nature of our relationships with others really is. So we are not trying to make other people fit into some conceptual design that we have extracted from our emissary concepts.
We may have an awareness in a general sense of the functional state of the Body in which we play a specific part. Now I am thinking of this part as relating to the Holy Place, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/resanctify-vessels-of-temple-martin.html] the focus of spiritual consciousness, that aspect of the Body which is capable of enfolding the Whole Body and having some awareness of what is going on in that Body. And incidentally, as individuals, if we do come to the point of factual spiritual expression, then we enfold our own individual bodies and know what’s going on in them. Most people are completely oblivious to what is going on in their bodies until the body finally acts up in such a way that they can’t miss it. How sensitive are we to what is going on in our own individual flesh bodies? Most people don’t notice anything until they are flat on their backs, in other words until whatever the problem is has taken control. Well, did it suddenly leap out of space and grip you? No. It had been something that had been going on for quite a time before. And when we begin to discern these things, we are in position to handle them in a reasonable and intelligent way before ever they get to the point of something to lay us out, so to speak. I think there is the idea that there are some evil spirits lurking around, just waiting for an opening so that they may come in, and then you have the flu or whatever it is. If we are so ineffective with respect to our own flesh bodies, how on earth do we imagine that we could be of any value in handling this greater Body out of the Holy Place? Of course we wouldn’t be in the Holy Place.
Spiritual discernment, spiritual sensitivity, a sense of the fitness of things—all these descriptions relate to what is rightly our experience, so that there may be an ability to live as individuals. And until that is known, how do we expect to include someone else in our living? The human beings rush to set up house, so to speak, with others at the slightest provocation, without ever having learned to handle themselves. So two inept people get together, and as we have been learning, one and one multiply troubles in that direction as well. But there are right patterns of association; but they all spring out of spirit, not out of the form. The form simply shares with spirit in whatever the design may be. Well, if, as people usually do, the form is promoted as being the thing of greatest moment, then all sorts of forms begin to get together without ever having the spirit determine what it should be. And it’s not surprising if there is a good deal of confusion.
But when the spirit determines, and there are those individuals who are letting it happen, then there is a vast variety of relationships involved. Each one is unique, each person is unique, each relationship is unique. Now it may be that with respect to certain ones there is one central relationship which is persistent, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/friendship.html] shall we put it that way. It carries through because it has a particular spiritual purpose to do that. If this is the case and is the experience of these two people, they don’t need a marriage ceremony to make it stick. The marriage ceremony doesn’t make it stick anyway, does it?—not these days. It is there. Marriage ceremony may be a wise step in the matter because of the legal implications here, and in that sense one can render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. But it makes absolutely no difference to the actual union that is present. It doesn’t make it more and doesn’t make it less; it is whatever it is.
Any union, when it is a true one—when it emerges out of the spiritual design of what is necessary at this time—will allow certain creative fulfillments to occur. But let us not get hooked on the form of it. This is what has occurred in certain religious approaches, but all these things—whatever the particular social state may be, and wherever—have been developed because they were useful in the particular formation that was appearing. And while things are not quite as rigid as they used to be, monogamy presumably is the idea in Christianity, but it is not the idea in Islam, for instance, necessarily. All these various patterns—and there are many of them—have been developed for human convenience and for various reasons of that nature, and then been given some sort of a religious slant so as to make people toe the mark. Well, that is really of little significance insofar as we are concerned, because our approach is from the standpoint of spirit, from the standpoint of the creative operation, first of all of the forming Body, and then, when the forming Body is operational, the Body has something to do to allow the expression of the Son of God on earth in creative action. Well, all these rigid forms of structured concept that human beings have had have prevented the free flowing of the substance that was there into the pattern of creative design that was necessary, first of all to let the Body become operational.
Living in the world the way we do, obviously there is the necessity to approach these things with some intelligence, not being inhibited so that we cannot do anything because of what someone else might think, but certainly not splattering around what would engender unnecessary difficulties. Nevertheless we see ourselves that if there is movement from the spiritual standpoint that, in a sense, it will turn the world upside down. That is something that was said about the beginnings of Christianity, wasn’t it? All these people were turning the world upside down. Well, the world is wrong side up, that’s a sure thing, so perhaps it needs turning upside down. But in any case, we have to approach what is necessary, even though we begin to discern what is necessary, with great caution. And there are not too many thus far who have discerned what was necessary, because almost immediately there was some discernment, it was trapped into a concept of some kind.
What is initially discerned is not what it will be; it is just the beginning emergence of something into one’s awareness so that there might be a continuing movement in allowing the spiritual associations to be revealed in their physical forms. There are those who attempted to have what they would term “spiritual relationships.” Usually this means a platonic relationship, something that is up here, so that evidently no bodies are present. Well, that would be a state of imagination, wouldn’t it, because the fact of the matter is that bodies are present. So there always is a physical relationship where there is a spiritual relationship. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/spiritual-sex-and-physical-sex.html] You can’t help it; heaven and earth are one. This does not say that all the spiritual relationships are the same, or all the physical relationships are the same. Of course they are not. They are unique.
And one has certain associations spiritually speaking—it all springs out of spirit—which are essential to the health of the developing Body. And there are other associations which if they were forced together would ensure the ill health of the Body. Now there would be nothing wrong with this person and that person. It is only something wrong when they try to push themselves together when they do not belong together. Then everything is disrupted, and the two concerned are not very happy. There is a sense of incompatibility, which is right! There is nothing wrong with the incompatibility. What is wrong is trying to make it compatibility.
We do not have to be closely compatible with everybody. This does not mean that we cannot be friends. It doesn’t mean that we cannot understand each other. And it doesn’t mean that we need to be buddy-buddy with everybody. Now there is a little concern, perhaps, when I say that, because it may seem from the human standpoint to encourage some sort of a crony condition: “Well I am buddy-buddy with this person.” I don’t think that that particular way of describing a relationship would hold in the Kingdom. I don’t think of a buddy-buddy with anybody. That is a state where human nature supports human nature. So we have a variety of proper spiritual relationships, which are revealed in a variety of different ways and forms. And the expression of these spiritual relationships in form are an essential part of the handling of creative responsibility within the Body.
Approaching the consideration in this way, we may find ourselves with a clarity which at the same time is very conscious of the specific nature of the relationships that do put in an appearance, and they are handled with the greatest delicacy. And there are no conclusions to jump to, which people are inclined to do so quickly. There is a willingness to let whatever it is be whatever it is at the moment, without an attempt to make it be something.
Words are inadequate. I often hear people say, “Well, yes, I feel something with this person. Let’s see if something will develop here.” And they go off into a realm of vain imagination. You don’t have to see if something will develop here. If something will develop, it will develop if you let it, but you don’t have to go chasing after the rabbit, as though you were going to thereby discover what this remarkable relationship should be. It becomes obvious. If it isn’t obvious, then don’t fuss with it. Let it alone. It will never become obvious in the sense that it is recognized as being something—without having been made into something—if you don’t let it alone. But people associate with one another and they get into hassles, and then they say, “Well there’s nothing here.” And then they go apart again. And then they come back together again—all this thing going on with people trying to find out something. What a waste of time. Why not be about one’s own business? and leave the other person alone. And on this basis we discover what associations are right and proper. Of course when something begins to put in an appearance, particularly if it relates to a member of the opposite sex, then, “Ah now, what’s this going to be?” Forget it! Let it alone. It will be whatever it is, if you let it. If you make it into something, it won’t be right anyway.
So we may share in letting this unfoldment take place as there is a clarity here. And that doesn’t give us license, in this realm of clarity, this realm of freedom. It still belongs to the spirit of God. It doesn’t belong to us. But we are clear about it, and we are willing to allow whatever it is to begin to be discerned. And we are going to discern it spiritually first. Let us be alert to spiritual discernment, then. We have an association here in the Assembly that was not deliberately put together by you as individuals. It is something that came together on the basis of spirit. And various patterns of compatibility appear, some more compatible than others. It happens very easily if we let it.
Always when the human mind begins to suggest that there is a contradiction, there is the place to be most careful to examine the basic factors and to keep it in alignment within the scope of the Law; for when the human being begins to respond to the Lord, and to recognize the Lord as the Savior, what is it that the human being can legitimately hold back and say, “This is mine and not Thine, O Lord”? Can he hold back his money? No, that comes first. Once the human being begins to respond, money and the possessions of all sorts, and the land, everything, the whole land of Egypt, individually and collectively, belongs to the Lord. And the Lord brings it into Pharaoh's house; that is, within the range of direct control of the king. The manifest king is the mind, the mind, the conscious mind of the individual, or from the standpoint of focalization. So here we see that once the human being begins to truly respond to the Lord, if he is going to function correctly and be truly saved, he cannot hold anything back, in a recognition of receiving the Bread of Life, in a recognition, as they put it here, “Thou hast saved our lives.” The human being reaches a point where he, and all that he is, becomes the servant of the Lord. As the Master put it, we must first be servants and then we reach a point, developing through the servant pattern, to a place where we can be classified as friends. The human being who remains so centered, so faithful and true as a servant, that he never violates the trust reaches the point of being a friend. And a friend is what? A friend is the closest relationship possible to human beings.
Friendship. I am not talking about the casual acquaintances and the so-called patterns of friendship that are really not properly so classified. I am talking about true friendship. A marriage to have any meaning must become a basic friendship. If it does not, it does not have any true meaning in any lasting sense. Friendship signifies that pattern of unified understanding, agreement, harmony, trust, oneness, the oneness of the inner and the outer, the fact that the outer has been received into the oneness of the inner. We see such a pattern of friendship between Joseph and Pharaoh, one of the most outstanding illustrations of friendship to be found anywhere. Pharaoh accepted Joseph. He did not undertake to interfere with the Lord's rule, and the Lord, or Joseph, did not fail in his responsibilities to Pharaoh, and the pattern of correct relationship between the Lord and the conscious mind, individually speaking and collectively speaking, is here revealed. It is one of the most graphic and excellent portrayals of the principle to be found anywhere.
So the pattern of friendship was established. First it appeared that Joseph was Pharaoh's slave. Because he may have been a slave in the house of Potiphar, or somewhere else, fundamentally he was Pharaoh's slave in outer appearance. But because of the integrity of Pharaoh there was in season a deliverance from the state of slavery and imprisonment to the state of effective function on earth for Joseph. And then in actual fact, in that pattern of function as Pharaoh turned all authority over to Joseph, the principle was that Pharaoh was a servant to Joseph. He did not relinquish his throne, but in actual fact Pharaoh put his whole future, not just part, his whole future, the whole future of his kingdom, everything, into Joseph's hand, a complete, absolute trust. And that trust was proven over and over again. Joseph became ruler in the land of Egypt, Lord of all Egypt.
So, in friendship what do we begin to see? In friendship each is the servant of the other, and neither imposes upon that fact and neither violates the trust so established. In friendship, true friendship, each is the servant of the other, on the basis where the relationship is never imposed upon and the trust is never violated. Here you begin to see the true nature of friendship as the Master was speaking of it while He was on earth, and as it is necessary to us; for we cannot function effectively on earth unless the Lord serves us, and we cannot find any fulfilment on earth unless we serve the Lord. The pattern of this relationship is not immediately clear when the human being first begins to reach the point of being a servant, a true, trustworthy servant. And as long as the human being keeps violating his responsibilities as servant he will never reach the point of friendship, where it is an interrelated pattern of servitude, each the servant of the other. We see that so beautifully portrayed here, because Joseph could not have accomplished what he did without Pharaoh. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/if-world-can-help-it-no-leader-shall.html] Pharaoh was absolutely essential to Joseph and Joseph was absolutely essential to Pharaoh, and neither ever violated the trust. So Joseph brought all of these things into Pharaoh's house, and the response to the Lord through Pharaoh, or by reason of Pharaoh, was not just something in part, just to give a little time or a little money, or a little of what one thinks he possesses. In this outworking there was a complete yielding, a complete process of turning one's whole being over to the Lord, so that the human being as such was not in a position of owning something without regard to Pharaoh or Joseph. This is that which is necessary to you if you would know it.
What does the human being give up? Sometimes it is pictured as a sacrifice, supposedly a sacrifice, to turn all of these things over to the Lord. Was it a sacrifice for the Egyptians actually? Well what was better? To live or die? And it comes back to that question with us, doesn't it? For the human being who seeks to retain to himself his money, his flocks, his lands and himself will always die in the famine; he will starve to death spiritually speaking. He may exist for a little time but he will be full of woe and misery, and his so-called possessions will give him no satisfaction. Until the human being reaches the point where he retains nothing for himself he cannot think of himself as a servant of the Lord. To retain anything, no matter what it is, is to deny himself the privilege of becoming a servant of the Lord, and until you have become a servant of the Lord you most certainly cannot become His friend. So the pattern is established on a basis where the Lord is your servant and you are the Lord's servant, when you let it balance out and come to a level in the function of service.
Now the Lord is serving you, no matter what you do, or you would not be alive. You would not have anything, you could not breathe, you could not think, you could not have any pleasure whatsoever, you could not have any consciousness, any awareness, nothing. Only by reason of the fact that the Lord is serving you do you have any privilege or right or opportunity in life on earth. The pattern of service, then, is way out of balance. The Lord is serving you so much more than you are serving Him, even yet, but you are here learning to be a server, learning to serve the Lord. There is no other purpose here but to learn how to serve, to learn to understand the principles back of service, the basis of service, so that first you can begin to serve the Lord, and then you can begin to let your pattern of service rise up, ascend, be resurrected into a level where, under the Lord's grace and blessing, it is allowed to balance out.
As you are the Lord's servant He is then your servant; neither imposes upon the other and neither violates the trust of the other. And there you have friendship. While you are a servant, in the sense of serving only a little, according to your capacity, according to your potentiality, you are not a friend; you have not proven yourself as a friend yet. Until you have reached the point of being a servant without any reservation whatever, you cannot be a friend. The only reason why any human being holds back is because he simply does not trust the Lord, and while you do not trust the Lord how can you be classified as a friend? How can you prove that you trust the Lord other than to yield all to Him? If the Lord required that your service to Him should equal His service to you, you would be in a bad way. It wouldn't ever work out.
What does He require with respect to your service? That you begin to function on the basis of your true potentiality, your true capacity, to fulfil that for which you came into the world. That is all He requires. It is much less, actually, than the Lord's service to you, but it is on that basis that the level of service is allowed to balance out. And once it comes to balance, you are friend and not servant. If you are neither servant nor friend, what are you? A stranger? A foreigner as far as the kingdom of heaven on earth is concerned. And if we would enter into the kingdom of heaven on earth, and know what it is, we must of necessity begin to experience this pattern of service which will allow us to reach the point of becoming friends.
So this is clearly portrayed here. And the Master was asked, “What is the greatest commandment?” He answered correctly, wisely. “To love the Lord thy God with ninety percent of your spiritual expression. That will not bother you very much, if you do not have more than ten percent. About fifteen percent of your heart you can use to love the Lord. You will need the other eighty-five percent to continue on in self-activity. And about three percent of your mind, so that you can have the other ninety-seven percent to do as you please, think about whatever you want to, in the way you want to. And about one percent of your physical expression in life. And your God will be perfectly satisfied. And the second is like unto it: Be sure you love yourself more than you love anybody else.” Or did I get it mixed up somewhere? Seems to me I did.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, thy mind, thy soul, and with all thy strength,” which certainly includes the body—the soul signifies the body also—with your whole being, all, and all is one hundred percent. Now if we had been studying this portrayal of the Divine Pattern and had not found here an indication, in this drama on the stage of life, an actual outworking with respect to that principle, could we have very well trusted this portrayal? No! It is because this portrayal is there that we can trust it, because it reveals the fact that not just part but all must be yielded to the Lord, so that the Lord can bring it into Pharaoh's house, under the control of Divine mind. But until all the land of your Egypt, no matter what its nature or quality or characteristic, until all the land of your Egypt is without any reservation yielded to Joseph, you cannot share in the pattern of friendship between Joseph and Pharaoh, you cannot enter into that pattern of agreement—what was it the Master said, about agreeing on earth as touching these things, two or three of you?—you cannot share the pattern of agreement which allows the power of God to actually manifest on earth. And that agreement is already established on earth; it is already here. It is. It does not have to become. All that is necessary is to share that which already is. It has been for a long time.
One aspect of World Service has come particularly to my attention of late, over the past few years, and that is the evidence in the world body as a whole that they are hearing the Word. They haven’t heard us out there speaking it particularly but they are certainly getting a message. Of course everything that’s happening on the face of the earth, whether we like it or not, whether it’s good or bad or anything else, is a result of the World Service in which we participate — the Word and its influence.
But I am thinking of it specifically with regard to some books that have come out. And one must be very careful in this because you would like to know what books, and read them, and so on. It isn’t necessary. But what is revealed is a growing recognition that what has been included, for instance in the Bible, has been distorted — not an innocent accident but deliberately. I am thinking of the gathering together and arranging of the Bible as we know it — the Gospels — that much has been put in there. Well, for all of our Story of Man classes we have known that. We have said the virgin birth is an inclusion of a paganistic concept, and that Jesus did not die on the cross, and so on — but it’s really getting through in many places. And what I find interesting is that it doesn’t matter a hoot how it was put together, the Word came through. The Word is in the Bible. It is in the Gospels.
It is good that this recognition come, the conviction that the Master did not die. And it’s interesting because there are different manipulations as to why He didn’t, what the circumstance was — which doesn’t matter, again — but the conviction is there, and that’s great! And of course, what we see a lot of these days is, or I have, is Biblical scholars — the ecclesiastia, if you please, of the church — doubting many things. A very recent one is a man who has been associated with the church for many, many years, who realizes the things that have been included such as the virgin birth, and other things, put Jesus in a class by Himself, and contradict His words that “you can do it, and greater works than these.” Why are they greater? Because more people are doing it. So these are some of the things which, to me, are strong indications of our World Service having effect.
In a very different vein perhaps, another Book has come to my attention. Not recently written — it is one of the oldest on the face of the earth — but has been given form recently and has come to my attention. It is called, The Book of Enoch the Prophet, and that goes back pretty far. You know where Enoch came in the Bible? Before the flood. Right? And he is spoken of as one who “walked with God.” He was with God, and he was not because God took him — not up into the sky somewhere. That’s an interesting fact in this book, because he was around. So this prophecy — I would bring it to focus because it is exactly the same as anything we hear from this place today. The truth is true and it doesn’t change. But it’s interesting to see something that was said that long ago — before the flood is what I am talking about. He was the great-grandfather of Noah. So I am going to read a little bit about this:
“In the year 1773, after a period of almost total obscurity lasting 1500 years, a Scottish explorer, James Bruce, discovered in what is now Ethiopia, The Book of Enoch.” Many of these things were unearthed in the land around Egypt. He writes: “Amongst the articles I consigned to the library at Paris was a very beautiful and magnificent copy of the prophecies of Enoch. Another is amongst the books of scripture that I brought home, standing immediately before The Book of Job, which is its proper place in the Abyssinian canon.” I find that interesting. It had its place just before Job. And Job, which is included in the Bible, is in this same category. This is acknowledged as the most ancient document — without date. They don’t know when it was written. And here again you have something that occurred before the story of man as we know it, the history of man, which we take from, well in the Bible, Abraham.
And he says it rested there forgotten until 1821 when Richard Lawrence issued his first translation — and that is the book I am talking about. Interesting that in the Epistle of Jude, and one of the Epistles of Peter, you find the Book of Enoch quoted, perhaps emphasizing the authenticity of this document. Jude has always seemed to be a very strange book in there. It didn’t seem to fit. Well that is really quoting from Enoch. This ancient book now rediscovered was used by different ones up until 400 A.D. And 400 A.D. is when the Bible, as used by particularly the Catholic Church was put together — but that’s Christianity as far as the Bible goes. And that is when these paganistic aspects got in there and it’s when certain things were left out, including the Book of Enoch. It was in the Bible as late as 200 A.D. and then removed. It actually contains much from which so-called mystic passages come, such as in Revelation. “When primitive Christianity had freely appropriated the visions of Enoch as the materials of constructive dogmas, this remarkable book gradually sank into oblivion, disappeared out of western Christendom, and was eventually forgotten by a church which unconsciously perpetuated its teaching as the miraculous revelations of Christianity.” He says that this translation places the book within the reach of all English readers. “Catholics may disregard its contents as it is not found in the sacred canon of their infallible church, but Protestants who adhere to the principles of the reformation, etc, must inevitably enrol among the prophets.”
Now with regard to the contents of this book there is the term, “watchers,” which is used synonymously with “fallen angels.” The following is quoted from the Mesopotamian flood story, the old Babylonian myth. There are — I’ve forgotten how many — over forty or fifty stories of the flood throughout the world. The ancient cultures of practically all people include a version of the flood with a little different name for Noah. It’s the same story, but some of them have more detail, which is quite interesting. For instance this one says the gods’ motive for the flood, after being asked why, is: “A cosmic imbalance between the human world and the divine world. The human world is overpopulated with humans.” This was written before the flood: “And the gods cannot sleep because of the noise.” They probably couldn’t eat at suppertime either! Hence the flood which destroyed much of the population.
In this myth it is set forth also that there had not been death before the sons of God mated with daughters of men. And this cosmic imbalance of overpopulation had to be corrected. Thus death became the result, in this story, of overpopulation. The story of Adam and Eve tells the same story essentially, when human beings wished to be as gods. Now I suppose if you look at the story in Genesis 6 where the sons of God wanted the daughters of men, that could be the other way too. Couldn’t it? Humans wished to be as gods; but it’s the same thing. The fall simply was that this resulting being would have control which should be in the hands of the Lord. Not all beings fell — only a certain number of them; that’s why they are called fallen angels; but not all participated in this. It probably would have been the end of everything if that had happened. The result of this — the offspring — was giants, not just larger beings, but distortions which covered the face of the earth. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/factors-of-heredity.html]
There is another little quote from another story of the flood which simply emphasizes the reason for the destruction: “the people multiplied.” Now the only brief reference in the Bible to overpopulation is that they multiplied. Biblical scholars are embarrassed by that story? They don’t like it. They really don’t like that insertion. Along the way in the history of the writing of the Bible they have tried to eliminate it, so they changed it a little bit, this story of the sons of God uniting with the daughters of men. This was not pleasing to man’s mind. And the giants — one aspect of the giants, I suspect, along the way, was simply dinosaurs — but here again an aspect of giants, of distortion. And this other little record from another story of the flood: “The people multiplied. The land was bellowing like a bull. At their uproar the God became angry; He heard their noise; He addressed the great Gods: ‘The noise of mankind had become oppressive to me; because of their uproar I am deprived of sleep.’”
I will read a few passages from The Book of Enoch and then we will take a look at a few of the highlights in the Bible, which gives a continuous story. You may find excerpts here and there of the truth written in other places or other books or whatever, but it isn’t a continuous thing. I have always found it stopped, but here we have something that follows all the way through — a continuous thing. Consistency. We heard about of the appearance on earth of, what shall we say, unfallen angels in the fallen state. This is just a bit from this book: “The word of the blessing of Enoch, how he blessed the elect and the righteous who were to exist in the time of trouble, rejecting all the wicked and ungodly.” And again I emphasize that these words could be said of today. It is very timely.
“Enoch, a righteous man who was with God, answered and spoke while his eyes were open and while he saw a holy vision in the heavens. This the angels showed me. From them I heard all things and understood what I saw: that which will not take place in this generation, but in a generation which is to succeed at a distant period on account of the elect. Upon their account I spoke and conversed with Him who will go forth from His habitation, the holy and mighty One, the God of the World, who will hereafter tread upon Mount Sinai, appear with His hosts, and be manifested in the strength of His power from heaven. And all shall be afraid, and the watchers be terrified. The earth shall be emerged and all things which are in it perish while judgment shall come upon all, even upon all the righteous. But to them shall He give peace. He shall preserve the elect and toward them exercise clemency. Then shall all belong to God, be happy and blessed. And the splendor of the godhead shall illuminate them.
“Then the most high, the great and holy One spoke and sent ____” [some angel’s name here, very long] “to the son of Lamech. Who is he? Noah! “saying, ‘say to him in my name: conceal thyself’”— function secretly— “then explained to him the consummation which is about to take place. For all the earth shall perish. The waters of a deluge shall come over the whole earth and all things which are in it shall be destroyed. And now teach him how he may escape and how his seed may remain in all the earth.
“There I beheld the Ancient of Days whose head was like white wool,” and we see this very clearly in other passages in the Bible — Daniel. “And with him another, the Ancient of Days, another whose countenance resembled that of man.” We have Jehovah. “His countenance was full of grace like that of one of the holy angels. Then I enquired of one of the angels who went with me and who showed me every secret thing concerning this Son of Man, who he was, whence he was, and why he accompanied the Ancient of Days. And he said: This is the Son of Man to whom righteousness belongs, all before the Lord of Spirits.” Here we have a constant reference in this ancient book to the Lord of Spirits—I think an interesting term.—constantly this is the reference to the Highest Point.
“This Son of Man whom thou beholdest shall raise up kings and the mighty from their couches, shall loosen the bridles of the powerful,” and so on. “In that hour,” speaking of the hour when all of this would be consummated, “was this Son of Man invoked before the Lord of Spirits, andHisname in the presence of the Ancient of Days. Before the sun and the signs were created, before the stars of heaven were formed, His name was invoked in the presence of the Lord of Spirits.” It gives me a feeling of the One who focalizes the body of mankind; we have known His name to be Jesus — Jehovah. “All who dwell on earth shall fall down and worship before Him, shall bless and glorify Him, and sing praises to the name of the Lord of Spirits.”
Now we have a little section in here by Noah. I think it would be nice to hear something of what Noah said. “In those days Noah saw that the earth became inclined” — we hear that the axis was tilted — “and that destruction approached. Then he lifted up his feet and went to the ends of the earth, to the dwelling of his great-grandfather Enoch.” When he needed some help he found Enoch. “And Noah cried with a bitter voice: ‘Hear me, hear me, hear me’” — three times — “and he said, ‘Tell me what is transacting upon the earth, for the earth labours and is violently shaken.’ After this there was a great perturbation on earth and a voice was heard from heaven. I fell down on my face when my great-grandfather Enoch came and stood by me. He said, ‘Why hast thou cried out to me? A commandment has gone forth from the Lord against those who dwell on the earth that they may be destroyed. For they know everything, every oppressive and secret power of the devils.’”
And that’s an interesting observation because other ideas or concepts have come through as to what occurred before the destruction called the flood. The distortions, on the physical level for instance, of the power that was still in man as he was then. Because of this combination — divine and human — he is often spoken of as a semi-divine being. He wasn’t created to be semi-divine. He was divine. And this fall is not just some little airy-fairy thing that took place. And you say, “How could it happen?!” It was a mixture with a level beneath himself, and it produced so-called giants — monstrosities!
And after the flood this power was removed from him in that sense, but he still produced monstrosities all over the face of the earth. But whatever he can produce on the physical level, and he can produce monstrosities, no matter how limited he is — we see that today. It is just a different kind of a giant. But there is a giant! However, there was a destruction of the actual union between man and animal levels. So that was destroyed. And we need to keep in mind that overpopulation was the reason then, just as it is today, and this was a result of that mingling of the so-called sons of God with the daughters of man in a level where he did not belong.
I mentioned The Book of Job as being in the same category as The Book of Enoch. So we could take just a brief look at Job here — a record again. Of course Job starts out with an account of creation and then the fall, which includes in that record the involvement of other planets — which was absolutely true. It was not just something which happened in the earth itself. Here was the involvement of the family to which this earth belongs. How could everything else be unaffected? So in the restoration, or turning back of the heart of man, we will find much, surely, that is restored in the whole body. I like the words in another record of the flood, of the cosmic imbalance caused, the relation between cosmic and human balance drastically disturbed — and so we only need to look at our solar system to see planets that have been greatly harmed, destruction there, and so on. We won’t go into that, but it’s evident.
And the wonderful record of Job where he meets everything that came to him through these first three so-called friends, and then the one who brought all those three to focus, and couldn’t stop talking! As it was put, “I am full of matter, I have got to talk or I’ll explode.” If anybody ever says that you’d better get out of the way. “I’ve just got to get it out of my system.” I have always been impressed by the very modern nature of these arguments. Oh my, they are so modern! And they are just talk about double-talk. You can’t find the meaning in them; not that you should read them, it’s a waste of time, but some of them however, without having a centering, can seem to make sense. “Who does he think he is? He thinks he is God.” This was their argument, the basic one — and that’s exactly what they said to Jesus. He was accused of blasphemy because he said, “I Am.” And that’s just what they said to Job, and Job provided that victory back there in a magnificent way. And some of his answers deal with the workings of the earth. Very beautiful, this wonderful awareness of the tiniest bit on this level. Then he switches to Orion and Arcturus — a cosmic balance recorded in Job. And that is what is necessary; the same principles work in what we call “out there” as in this self, and this is what we find in Job, the magnificence of it — which also is evident in the Enoch book.
And these wonderful words: “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind,” after he met all this stupid nonsense that the mind could produce. This was his mind. He met all of this in himself. It wouldn’t do any good to meet it somewhere else. It’s always what we meet in ourselves that has any meaning whatsoever. The Lord answered Job and said, “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof: When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for Joy?”
That’s a picture of the way this planet was created — the solar system and man — the morning stars sang together. The morning is a wonderful way of depicting a new creation. So whatever or whenever this solar system came into being the morning stars sang together, there was cosmic harmony planet-wise, and through man. The sons of God shouted for joy. That wonderful picture.
And I bring some of these ancient things to focus because of the timelessness, the feeling that time is erased. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-timelessness-of-time.html] We hear of time being no more. Well what does that mean — that we throw away our clocks and watches? I suppose that would save a lot of time too. But it erases the barriers. What was on earth, back there we say, “before the flood,” is exactly the same today. And what is depicted in Revelation — none of it is strange, none of it is somewhere else. It all happened right here on this very same earth. And so the restoration happens right here on this earth. And it’s real. So the picture in Job is that he participated. He was in the world exactly as it was. He had physical miseries and he moved through it perfectly. And the end was victory, not a personal victory only, which it never is, but World Service. Going back in the story, I read from Enoch about the time of the flood, and I should read the story from Genesis, Chapter 6:
“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth.” I read this because these little references got in, but they tell a lot more than what is in that little sentence. And scholars would eliminate it altogether if they could, because they are embarrassed by this — “… began to multiply” and “… the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” There was a deliberate action here. “And the Lord said? My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” That’s not very much considering that he could live forever when he was first created — maybe not be here forever, but a different way of living altogether. But let’s not see it as different from what we are today, because we are here to let this transmutation be an absolute reality. It depends on consistency, and it works. It is working. It’s happening.
“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that.” Interesting, because there were a few instances of giants that were taken care of at the time of the children of Israel, and this is an old remnant evident there. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD and He said, I will destroy everything.” And we found that in Enoch as well. It was all going to be destroyed. And then came Noah. “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/grace-in-eyes-of-lord.html] And always there must be that focus if anything is going to be continued. Noah was that One. And of course, Enoch was that One. It is said that Enoch ascended, so we have that precedent.
And now we’ll go to Abraham who brings the same spirit. We come to history as it is set down and as it is acknowledged — after the depiction of the state that the world was in. In the story of creation, it was said that all the provision for man’s perfect health and unending life on earth was there; and there is a characteristic that’s mentioned with regard to all this provision: the seed was in itself upon the earth. That applies to food, but to anything — the seed is always here, for anything. The seed is always here, within itself, in ourselves. However, immediately after this destruction, the flood, cataclysmic occurrences, the state that we recognize as a caveman state was in evidence for thousands of years. It doesn’t say that everyone on the face of the earth was going around killing animals with clubs, any more than today everyone is on the same level. So I bring that point out because there would not have been anything if that were not true. But the imbalance was very much in evidence, and it pictures man eating animals, as he does now. It is said that the fear of man came upon beasts. Why? Because it’s all there was to eat. The earth had been almost physically destroyed, and this was the way of survival. But something else did enter the picture here.When we see the state of the world today, the way things survive, all the kingdoms, we can see the result of something — not the way it was created but the way it has become. It’s the way it is, and the beauty that has persisted no matter what certainly says that the Law of God, the Word of God, is present no matter where you look, and it is not subject to anything man can do, and we need to remember that.
Okay, after all this the first Great One we find referred to is Abraham, and he has been labeled the pioneer, and I would say that certainly applies. In that dark time, here was one who knew the Lord, knew why he came on earth, maybe not always consciously, but this absolute compulsion of the spirit, the Lord of Spirits, was there in him. And the one thing I must refer to in Abraham is, of course, the fact that he had the compulsion that made him leave his father’s house — leave his whole environ which was in ancient Babylon, and which had all of the human nature of course, as it appeared then, not maybe exactly as it appears today but in essence exactly the same thing. It was a great civilization; and it worshipped death, which is the same thing today. And the highest form of worship was to sacrifice that which was closest to you to an angry god. Remember they were close to this time of the cataclysm, and there was fear that god would strike again and they must appease this god. And so sacrificing the most precious was a custom, and Abraham undertook to do this. His only son, for whom he had waited many, many years, was taken to a mountain to worship, it is said.
But remember that this is what’s happening today, exactly! The only son — each one has that expression within himself and herself, and this is what is sacrificed. And just as he was to kill his son the Angel of the Lord spoke. That’s the essential thing. We hear the words and we answer, “Here am I.” And the Angel said, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him.” And I emphasize that word, because believe it or not, Bible scholars, including Scoffield, have taken that verse to say that it was prophesying the death of Jesus. That’s what they say right here in the footnotes. But the Lord said, “Don’t do it. Don’t touch Him, that precious One. That doesn’t make any sense at all.” And this is looking to the day when there needs to be the recognition that God is not subject to anything man can do, and we need to remember that in this day. It looks like the world has passed redemption. Well, there is a cosmic balance, and that is what we are about — that balance must be in us in whatever is required! But to say that God can be killed, and much of this world worships an idol which is a dead body hanging on a cross, which is supposed to be the Lord. That makes God pretty ineffectual, I would say. But, of course, He was resurrected after He was dead. And that is what the world says, “After you die you’ll go to heaven but you can’t have it here.” So this whole Book deals with that lie and letting it be dissolved.
We have then a Body appearing on earth called the Children of Israel. Jacob was responsible for that. After all, they were all his sons — twelve of them. And that was no mean feat. There were four women involved with a contest going on as to which could produce more, and Jacob weathered it and the sons were produced. However, I would emphasize that two women, regardless of anything, when the crisis came, they were right there in agreement. When he needed to move out of his father-in-law’s house they said, “Whatever is right we do with you.” I mention that because the provision has been there; and I mention Jacob, but the real factor in letting the twelve sons become a body was Joseph. And this is not recognized.
We have the wonderful story of his dreams and all the rest, and how he fed the world with his cleverness in storing the grain in time of famine. The primary purpose was that his brothers came down into Egypt, seemingly for some food, but he put them through some tests, every single one of them, to see whether they had changed, whether they would sell their youngest brother — which was Joseph’s true brother; they had the same mother — the way they had sold him. And he tested them, put them in jail, all sorts of things. They did not know Joseph was their brother. And they came through, they had changed absolutely, and they would not do it. They offered themselves instead of their brother, because it would kill their father. All of this story is a very valuable one, completely overlooked, as far as I can see, by biblical scholars. But that’s what did it. And there was the Focus for the Body. But they had to be right. And so Joseph, in my book, takes great credit for the Body of the Son of God appearing on earth. That was the first evidence or manifestation of a Body.
And, of course, we go on to Moses who really brought that Body into form, coming from the twelve sons to the Twelve Tribes. And there was the opportunity to let it all happen. Moses, of course, was a Mighty One.
These are all points who allowed it to come to focus, to survive actually. And you have many along the way. You have the kings, and wonderful Samuel. It was at his point where the people demanded the separation of church and state — we would call it that today. They wanted a king like all the nations. The priest Samuel, priest in the true sense of the word, was also the head of the nation, the government — true government. And the people demanded the separation. “We want a king like everybody else.” Here was the insistence, and there was no way that this could not happen. So, after Samuel, who did everything he could, you have the first king — Saul, and then David, and then Solomon. At the time of Solomon there was a great kingdom of Israel in the sense of a kingdom we would think of today, an earthly kingdom, very wealthy, in supremacy as far as other nations were concerned. And in that part of the world it was a focus for the Whole World. Solomon was very wise, we hear; but he certainly lost his wisdom along the way, and his failure was the end of the First Sacred School — it could have been the magnet, but actually it was the failure of it.
And when we come to the story of Jesus and the temptations, you remember the third temptation was “all of the kingdoms can be yours.” And they were His. Here was a temptation, if He could ever be swayed. “You can have all the power and glory on earth, the earthly kingdom, if you do what I say” — the mind could manipulate this. Well of course it could. A great, wealthy, earthly kingdom — and it is pictured of Solomon having a thousand women, seven hundred wives, three hundred concubines. Remember they wouldn’t all live in the same house, or anything. These were heads of other countries, princesses of different countries were included in this, and this was very political. And he let them build idols to their own gods. In other words, let’s just be nice to everybody and they’ll love me as their ruler. It doesn’t work that way. They waited their opportunity and rose up and turned against him. That is not the way to go, any more than it is in ourselves, when we let these little things pass. Absolute obedience is the answer. And Solomon completely failed in that regard. And the Master met that — at the beginning of the Second Sacred School He met the failure of the First Sacred School. And when the word was “Look what all you can have,” He said, “Get thee hence, Satan.” That is the word for us today, and it is the only World Service there actually is.
After that failure there was the division of Israel into two kingdoms, Judaea and Israel. The first Great One after that was Elijah, a great pioneer who came in that very low and miserable state and followed through — in spite of Jezebel who was a lot worse than Ahab, her husband. Here was a great victory again.
But we come to Daniel, a Mighty Prophet, who found himself in enemy country — Persia, the land of the captivity. And what Daniel did was magnificent. Here we have the one evidence of function under four kings, where they turned their hearts to the One God. These were all polytheistic religions, many gods worshipped, and the idols. And Daniel’s influence was so great that these countries turned, and actually changed their religion under him, which certainly had an influence worldwide — vibrationally at least. And then we have the return of a remnant to Jerusalem — a very heroic time, because that land was peopled with the enemy, so-called. Daniel did not return, but we have others coming back. Most of those in captivity had no idea or concept or wish to go back there — they were happy in Babylon; they were well treated. They weren’t in captivity — they didn’t think they were. They were given fine conditions, they went along with their gods. It’s exactly the same thing today. How many are willing to do that, to just leave it all for very primitive conditions, in fact very dangerous conditions? Many of them did not survive. Here it was, and it is just the same today. But those who came back provided something into which the Master could come, and He came — it was there that the Master was born. And, of course, His life and His Word is the basis for all that has happened since.
I would suggest that following what is in the Bible from Acts until Revelation it is not worth your time, truly. What Paul did — the church wouldn’t like to hear this — well, it is a lot of manipulation, a lot of it lies. Again, so much put in here in the record, but it doesn’t mean anything. It’s the beginnings of the church as we know it today; that’s the point. But as Uranda used to say, the Catholics have Peter and the Protestants have Paul, but nobody has Jesus Christ. I visited the Vatican last year, and forget it! But the wonderful nature of the Master, this beautiful presence and expression — not the way He is pictured on stained glass windows with a crown on His head; He wouldn’t recognize Himself — but this beautiful persistent, consistent expression of the Lord of Spirits on earth.
And we read His magnificent words, certainly the fifteenth Chapter of John: “I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman.” Here is the restoration of cosmic balance, the absolute oneness of heaven and earth right here — and it is the only thing that will release this imbalance, this distortion. “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” Something to remember when the purging’s going on. “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” “I am the vine? ye are the branches.” That One who focuses this body of mankind. His victory is the victory of the Body, and the Body is simply asked to participate in that.
I think we could finish our time with a look at the last book in the Bible — Revelation — written in so-called mystic language, symbolic. We’re talking about analogies all the way through here, not about something that did happen before the flood, after the flood, but how it applies now in everything we do, in every day. And again, we see the consistency.
In the eighteenth Chapter, speaking of these days, there is the attitude portrayed of two different sets, you might say, of beings — something being separated here. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-from-of-babylon-uranda-may-30-1954.html] “The kings of the earth, Who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her” — Babylon, a female, symbol of this world, of this material level separated from the spiritual level — “shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning.” This is called Babylon. “Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying? Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour is judgment come.”
“And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more.” That’s what it amounts to. And certainly on the face of the earth there is this focus, and as it is put elsewhere in the Book of Revelation, certain things would happen because of the merchants, the great men of the earth. In other words, this level of money, greed, the whole thing, individually and collectively, is the reason for what must happen — and is happening. And then there is this other word: “Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for god hath avenged you on her.”
“And a mighty angel took up a stone," and so on. But, “Rejoice over her.” On the one hand there is the sharing of the torment of all that is happening; on the other hand, rejoice! It’s happening! And that’s the wonderful part of it — it’s happening. And we’re here to make it happen. I almost said, “See it happen.” But we’re here for the one reason that nothing has been able to eliminate the creation of the Lord on this planet. And it takes the angels of the Lord to do it, those who have their focus in the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings. And the physical, the material, the absolute expression of it through ourselves, and the focus that we find on earth which allows it to be so — that is a marvel. We read about it being in Jesus. We have in our history the presence of Uranda, we have Martin. This is a marvel. It’s a magical thing. This focus of the Word in One, that the Whole Body may participate. “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” There is no separation. It is what we need to see in every moment.
And I saw a heaven opened. “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth.” Isn’t that what we’ve been talking about? A cosmic imbalance — old heaven and old earth. But the new heaven and the new earth — here is cosmic balance, if we want to call it that. The working of the Creative Process. The joy is in being a part of it happening, and recognizing it happening, not thinking it needs to be any other way but just the way it is.
“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” The last words in the book: “I come quickly.” And it doesn’t need to be dragged out any longer. This has been a look at the timelessness of the Word. It is the same. The very first words in Revelation were regarding that which is, and which was, and which is to come. And I like the order of that. It doesn’t say, “Was and is and is to come.” It says what is, and was, and is to come, because what was and which is to come is all in that whichis — right now, here.
