December 24, 2014
Authority Agility Grace Stature
You know from your own
experience that if there is a refusal to accept responsibility you lose your
authority. When you accept the responsibility, even though you may feel
inadequate in the situation, the authority is still there. The authority goes
with the responsibility—reject the responsibility, you reject the authority;
accept the responsibility and move in it, and you have the authority. Not
because you thought you had it before, perhaps; you may have thought you lacked
it because of the sense of inadequacy—but accept the responsibility and you
have the authority.
You may handle it, consequently,
on the basis of the Tone which you have come to know. You really know what that
is, so don’t dither around—sound it! Don’t say to yourself, “Well I am not just
sure how the Tone should sound in this situation.” That is rejecting the
responsibility, so you don’t have the authority or the experience of the Tone.
Accept the responsibility and the Tone sounds, and you know the authority.
We are able to
encompass the creation. Let us not downgrade ourselves by assuming a false
humility. If there is the inclination to say in any circumstance, "Well
I'm only one person, what can I do about it?"—you are at least one
forty-foot person! And if a forty-foot person looms on the scene I am sure
everybody would take note and there would be a little hesitancy about
contending. So let us be assured in this regard, partly because the facilities
of incarnation are a lot bigger than we had previously thought, but also
because we who incarnate are any size that is needful, and we are capable of
encompassing whatever is required of us—namely our worlds. We encompass our
worlds. Let us therefor see our worlds from the standpoint of One who
encompasses them, and not from the standpoint of some little human form
crouching there, who doesn’t see much beyond the end of his nose. The human
form is handy; we need it; but we need all the other levels of our incarnation
as well, in order that there may be an adequate capacity of incarnation to
accommodate US as Angels.
We do not accommodate
our worlds merely on the basis of our physical forms. Of course not! How could
we? But we are able to encompass our worlds because of all the levels of this
machinery of incarnation; and because we ourselves as Angels are capable of
using these facilities of incarnation—and they are sufficient to do what needs
to be done. Let us not accuse the Lord of making us inadequately. That is what
happens when a person says, “Well, I am inadequate.” He is saying, “Lord, you
should have made me much more than I am.” The Lord made each of us of
sufficient magnitude! Insofar as our facilities of incarnation are concerned we
can encompass whatever is needful. That’s the fact of the matter—we should
acknowledge it, and not try to shrink down into our little physical forms, oh
so humbly!
And yet, of course, it
is not a matter of arrogance either. It’s not a matter of brashness. There has
been a certain amount of this within the scope of our Emissary experience—a
foolish brashness. No, we don’t make a display of what we imagine to be our
great magnitude. We let the facts speak for themselves—and they do
incidentally! And by the way, we don’t need anyone else to blow us up to size.
If I am speaking of these things now, it is not because I am trying to operate
a bicycle pump and blow you up to size. I am simply speaking of the way things
are. We better align ourselves with the way things are, rather than denying the
way things are and insisting upon the way things aren’t. This is what most
people do. They feel so insignificant that they have constantly to be inflating
themselves to make it seem as though they have some significance and some
authority. How quickly the bubble bursts, doesn’t it! Just a little
pin-prick will do it.
We have size,
magnitude, in the sense of the machinery of incarnation, sufficient to handle
the incarnation—and we begin to know these things; we begin to function from
the standpoint of this awareness. Most people, when they look at the time when
Jesus was arrested and subjected to all the indignities to which He was, most
people look at that physical form; that’s all they see. Well, certainly
something was happening to the physical form, but was that all that there was
to Him? There was something so tremendous standing there, that completely
dwarfed the physical form, and what was happening to the physical form in that
sense was quite insignificant to the machinery of incarnation, because of this great form that was present there, and
known to be there, by the One who was incarnate. Do you suppose it was so very
difficult to permit that physical form to experience what was called resurrection?
One could almost say it could be done with one hand tied behind one’s back.
We need to have a
consciousness of our real capacity, not merely of that little thimble which is
seen by human nature consciousness. We don’t need to boost our egos to make it
seem as though we are something which we are not, because the Truth is right there—and we become aware of it as
our expression begins to sound the Tone of Life continuously. Then we find that
Tone reverberating in far more than our physical form. It reverberates through
this vaster form which is actually
present, and which is being fleshed out as there is the generation of
substance. I commented that there was considerable substance present during the
time when you were each speaking here in turn, because each one who came up
here brought far more than his physical form. There had been far more substance
generated which fills out something much bigger, and we all have a sense of substance, we say—of
largeness, really. It isn’t just something hollow. We are not looking at a
bigger form. We say, “Oh yes, there are seven levels. That form must be
considerable.”—but if it has no substance, if it’s just hollow, it doesn’t mean
much. But because there is the generation of substance, then this larger form begins
to have increasing meaning, and we sense it with each other.
But the One who
incarnates is greater than the facility of incarnation. In fact, the facility
of incarnation seems to become less—even though it is so great, just simply
looking at it from the outer viewpoint. It becomes less as the Angel comes
forth through it, because the Angel is so much greater. And we find that
individually speaking we all blend together in the larger form, which is vast
in the external sense. We think of the numbers of people in the world as being
great, and the body of mankind as being vast—compared to what it was 500 years
ago—but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the True Stature of Man. But that
True Stature of Man is absent. There is just a space there where it should be.
But as we allow, in this Body, the generation of the substance that fills out
the true stature of this Body, then the stature of this Body is far greater
than the stature of mankind the way it is now—and because of this we are quite
capable of handling whatever needs to be done in this rather small sphere of
responsibility.
We are no longer so
impressed with numbers. This is what impresses people, isn’t it—numbers—numbers
of people, very often numbers of dollars. We are impressed by something
different. It isn’t numbers, because as far as we are concerned there is just One—and that is sufficient. That’s all
that is needed. We see all these numbers of isolated people in the world, composing
what is supposed to be the body of mankind, but that is very small potatoes
from the Angelic standpoint, because there is One who is much greater. We are
not overly impressed with respect to the numbers participating in this
ministry. One of the questions that we are often asked is, “Well, how many are
there in your program?” I suppose we have difficulty in answering because the
fact of the matter is there is only One—there
is only One, and to most people one would not be very impressive. But when that
One is seen for Who He is, and when His Body of incarnation is seen for what it is, that is greater and more vast
than all the rest of the population of the world put together. Of course,
they’re not put together! They are all scattered abroad, and there is very
little substance, obviously. The evidence of the substance being present—the
True substance—is Oneness. If there
isn’t Oneness there is not much substance.
Mention was made of the
United Nations this morning. There is not much substance there, is
there—because there is no cohesiveness. There is no Oneness. It is all
separateness; people jockeying for position, jockeying for position as
individuals and also in representation of nations. Is that so great to us? We
acknowledge the fact that it’s there.
But what we see as
being great is the One—the One whom we Love above all—not only from the
standpoint of what He is, but from
the standpoint of His Body of incarnation on earth, because this is fleshing
out. Usually when those words are used it is thought of in terms of more
people. I am not thinking of it in those terms at the moment—no doubt there
will be more people—but more substance,
more spiritual substance generated by the people who are present now. This is
the important thing. If we have that substance, and there is the Oneness of the
Body, then the sound of the Tone can reverberate through that Body and it will
have an effect upon those who are open to be affected.
We have a
responsibility for the sounding of this Tone collectively speaking, and this is
done in many ways—but one of them is in the extension of the sounding of that
Tone in a peripheral sense. Not that we moved anywhere—we stand where we are
and sound the Tone, but that Tone will sound right out to the periphery of
whatever substance we have, and there are those who will be more responsible on
the periphery just as there are those who are more responsible at the Core. But
it’s all One Body anyway. You can’t separate the Core from the periphery. If
the Core could be separated from the periphery then there would be a corpse,
wouldn’t there? That’s what happens in the individual experience. We are interested
in the True experience, not in the human nature experience.
It could be said, in
one sense, that we believe in the resurrection of the Body. The resurrection of
the Body—we believe in it because we are it. We are not looking at some body
over there. It is right here where we are. This
is the Body! This is the blood. This is the living form—not only physical
form, with just a few people, but a form composed of substance, far more than
flesh substance, and yet it is not separate from the flesh substance. It simply
extends through it and beyond it. And in this sense there is a heavenly giant
present on earth. We need to have a strong awareness of this so that we never
shrink into a state of uselessness. We do not lay claims to anything as
individuals, but we honor and respect the Body.
The Body of the
Archangel, we have called this Body. We would never, in anything that we do, or
say, or think, or feel as individuals detract from that Body. Our concern is
that there should be the generation of more and more substance, that it may be
filled out at all levels; not merely trying to grab more and more people, as
though that was going to make it great. It isn’t that, that makes it great. It is the quality and quantity of
substance that makes it great. The stature is vertical more than horizontal.
(Even human beings are a little concerned when their stature begins to be more
horizontal than vertical.) Let us have a vision of magnitude—the magnitude of
what we are in this One Body. It is vast, entirely capable of handling
everything that needs to be handled.
The population of the
world is incapable of functioning together. Well, we can take advantage of the
principle then—divide and conquer—because that which is to be conquered is
already divided; we don’t have to divide it. There may be configurations in
that body where a certain amount of substance has been developed in various
ways to allow that particular configuration to function in a manner that seems
to be quite powerful in the human nature world. But how do you think that
stacks up against the Body of the Archangel? Obviously, such substance as may
be generated beyond the physical substance—it’s mostly physical substance,
numbers of people—but such substance as may be generated beyond that only goes
to a very limited level, perhaps what we might call the psychological level.
Where does our
substance stop? It goes, presumably, to any level, and we are concerned that
there should be a sufficiency in this regard at every level. Then it becomes
easy to handle these seeming giants in the land, who are pretty dense up here, who have no idea really what
they are doing, clumsily maneuvering around, trying to crush opposition by
falling on it. That’s about it, isn’t it? Well, we’re nimble on our feet, and
if anyone tries to fall on us they may find we’re simply not there. There is
great agility in the Body of the Archangel—agility and grace, grace and
stature—and capability beyond anything that the human mind ever thought of.
In this sense we see
clearly that as the Body is there, as the substance is there, we have it made.
Insofar as the Lord is concerned, there is no problem—no problem at all. But
let us be convinced in our earthly consciousness in that regard, so that we may
share what is present. It has often been said that all the provision essential
has already been made. We begin to discover that it is the fact of the matter,
not just a nice theory! But of course, all of us as individuals have something
to do. Behold I come quickly—and this is so when we let that coming be quick,
because we function on the basis of the true vision which accepts the true
responsibility, and which thereby lets the coming be quick.
If we move quickly,
then those who are going to share the movement with us will move quickly too.
They don’t have to go through all the rigmarole that may have been necessary—for
some of us at least—to get us on the road, so to speak. Those old methods don’t
apply any more. I was commenting recently, that there are those servers who are
continually offering introductory material. Introduction has been made long
ago—long, long ago! There are all kinds of people who come to the services in
the Dome Chapel who have never been to a service before. If I reverted every
Sunday to introductory material, where would we be! It is introductory material
at this level now, and those who have
any openness of heart, they’ll move right along with it. They will see what is
offered at their own level of experience. Let us all have confidence in this,
so that we can move with the Spirit now, with what is current now. Behold I
come quickly—like this! That’s the way it works. We don’t have to try to paint
everybody with the same brush with which we were painted. We may have been
dumb, but why lay that on everybody else? That would be rather a self-centered
attitude, wouldn’t it? Anyone who is going to come to the Lord must come
through all the rigmarole that we went through. Nonsense! If we’ve done it,
that’s enough! We leave all that behind, and come quickly. And as we come
quickly, so will others—all on the basis of the sounding of the Tone of Life now,
through the Body as it is now.
It is never one
individual doing anything. Anything that is done is done by the whole Body, and
in fact it is done by the Archangel, who is incarnate, and that isn’t a little
thing. That is tremendous, and we need to be assured—because we ourselves
accept responsibility in the matter—of the magnitude of that expression. We
stay put in the Body of the Archangel and all that is needful to be dealt with
will come to us. We handle it intelligently, with dispatch. Behold I come
quickly.
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