Life Plasma

Life  Plasma

Martin Cecil   May 13, 1979

Wherever we may happen to be in the geographical sense we still participate in this one creative process. We know that while we are here present in person there are a lot of others who participate with us in this creative process but who are not here. We all share in this one unfolding purpose. We see the effects of it round about. We enfold those effects but we do not judge them. Sometimes the effects of which we become aware are very close at hand; sometimes we observe them further afield. In no case do we judge or condemn. We simply enfold.

We are in position to do this to the extent that we have allowed the generation of spiritual substance, which I suppose we might call a life plasma. It is only generated by living, and when it is generated it allows the greater experience of life. This we have seen as the substance of connection, rightly, with God and also the substance of action, rightly, from God into the world. The connection and the action all occur in this realm of spiritual substance or life plasma. Life plasma is very compelling because it provides the medium for the easy working of the Law within the range of human experience in a very particular and personal way. We may speak of the working of the Law in terms of radiation and response. Radiation moves freely through this substance when it is present, providing the connection. The radiation extends out in action. Response moves freely also through this substance, emphasizing the aspect of connection.

So the creative cycle works freely and easily as there is this essential life plasma present, and in the working there comes an intensification. This substance we have seen as the substance of fire, the substance which allows for transformation and transmutation.

We understand that this transformation comes not by physical effort or intellectual effort but by the spirit of the Lord. It comes by the Word. All things are made by the Word and without the Word is not anything made that was made and that is now made. So we have seen our responsibility relative to the Word. Our participation in the expression of that Word in our living is absolutely dependent upon this life plasma—the extent of its generation, the extent of our connection in the personal sense and the extent to which this substance of connection overflows to fill our worlds so that our worlds may be immersed in this substance. Then there is the means for transformation. The transformation occurs by reason of the Word and not by reason of human manipulation of any kind.

This morning I was speaking about the intensification of response. It is not really a matter of human beings deciding, “Well now I'm going to really intensify my response.” If you are open in the right direction and yielding in that direction, the intensification of response comes automatically because of the intensification of radiation. It is not generated, it is not manipulated; it simply happens. It is a part of the working of the Law. I mentioned the word yielding. The yielding of course relates to human consciousness, our own in particular. This must be allowed to yield.

This experience comes by reason of the working of the Law: radiation, response. Substance is generated. It is then intensified, and it is this intensification which transforms human experience. In spite of earthly heredity still being present it transforms human experience. As I have already noted, it has transformed your experience to whatever extent, and that extent is based in the degree of passion in your response. So the transformation occurs in the world the way it now is. This is part of what might be called the process of resurrection. New life begins to be experienced because a new consciousness begins to be experienced. But at a certain point the temperature may be raised sufficiently to allow for the cycles of transmutation.

All we actually know of this creative cycle is what we experience now. Let us let our present experience be what it may well be because of the substance which is present, because of the increased radiation which is with us, so that we may allow an increase of response thereto. So the substance is generated and intensified and all things work together to perfection. That is a good way of describing it!

© Emissaries of Divine Light

from

Point  of  Identification

Uranda   July 21, 1954

From the standpoint of that which makes it necessary that man should have an attunement, we trace it back to one thing—man's wrong function in relationship to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

We recognize that if there is going to be anything coming into manifestation it must be born, in whatsoever realm. There must be the point of conception, there must be the period of gestation, and there must be the reality of birth. And after birth there must be a period of growth in what amounts to another womb, out of which there will be still another birth into the expanding expression of being, until one comes to his or her place of being.

When you come to your place of being, you do not reach a point where there are no more questions. You are not then, insofar as the pattern of your expression or form in the outer sense, continuing to go through cycles of rebirth, but you have reached a point of maturity, where all that you are is identified with that which acts, and nothing that you are, in the sense of your body, your mind, emotional nature, etc—you may have correlating factors yet remaining which will condition in the creative field, that is true—but what you are is not, in a personal sense, identified with that which is acted upon.

Maturity—spiritual, mental and emotional—recognizes complete identification in that which acts—which is to say, with the Creator, or God. That through which we act, or by reason of which we act, physically, mentally and emotionally, must go through processes of training, development, growth, rebirth, until that through which we act is so unified, so correlated with that which we are that it is no longer in the process of becoming a true manifestation of that which we are.

The emphasis here on the point of birth and rebirth—I think everyone here has had some type of awareness of that which is the more or less usual pattern with respect to birth, physical birth, as it works out in the cycles of reproduction of the human race in the world as it is today. We know that there are methods of relaxation, correct preparation for the expectant mother, so that if she follows through properly she need not suffer, as many women do, in giving birth to a child. It is not at all necessary that there be that extreme suffering, but we know that in the world as it is there tends to be—and in the mass consciousness there tends to be—something of a resistance against the pressures necessary to the manifestation of birth. This is one of the difficult things that I have had to deal with, with you and all those others to whom I have ministered, and one of the vital things that you will have to deal with in the field, wherever you go, in whatsoever capacity of service.

Correlating these factors now, we go back once more to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which God reserved for Himself—which is to say, that the knowledge of good and evil relates to that which is being acted upon. And if that which is being acted upon tries to determine what is good and evil from the standpoint of the processes of being acted upon, it is bound to misinterpret. The knowledge of what is good and evil, in relationship to that which is being acted upon, must be centered in and controlled by the Creator—which is to say, in the realm of that which acts.

Now man has identified himself in the realm of that which is acted upon, and then, functioning in the realm of that which is being acted upon, he tries to determine what is good and evil with respect to the control factors by which the processes of acting upon are carried out. If once you see that, it will simplify many, many things for you, and if you remember it you will be kept from many needless confusions. There is not anything that you may comprehend which will help you to remain properly polarized more effectively than the recognition of that simple fact.

Remember that the name of this tree is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, both—the knowledge of what to do with respect to that which is evil, that which is evolving; not evil in the sense of that which is wrong, although it would become wrong or evil as we know it if we did not function correctly in relationship to that which was evolving—good and evil, both.

Now, can you be identified with the good in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which relates to that which must be acted upon now, without being identified with the evil, whether it is simply in the realm of evolving, where control must be exercised carefully, or it has gone off on tangents where it is completely out of form? If you are identified with that which is being acted upon, no matter how good it may appear to you to be, then you are also identified with the evil, for that too is in the realm of that which is being acted upon. Human beings have tried for so long to develop an attunement with the good, thinking that they could keep themselves from being identified with the evil. Millions of earnest, sincere religionists, of every sort, have tried it. They have lived their lives in it, and they have failed. This is one of the great secrets of being, if you will receive it and comprehend it, one of the things that puts you in the realm where you may share the heavenly magic of God's creative action.

We have been talking recently about identification with that which acts, that which is—identification in the realm of being, as far as you are concerned, transferring your centering of consciousness and self-identification from the realm of that which is acted upon to the realm of that which acts, from the realm of that which is becoming to the realm of that which is. There is absolutely no limitation in your physical body, in your mind, in your heart, or anything else, which can prevent that transfer of consciousness at any time, unless you yourself give power to it for that purpose.

If you say, “But I haven't learned enough, I haven't grown enough, I don't know enough to experience this,” you are lying to yourself. You have. It matters not what the limitations with respect to the outer expression of your being, how much they may still relate to the processes of becoming, if you will let this simple process take place—the transfer of self-identification from the realm where the processes of becoming are at work to the realm where the reality of being is—centering in that which is. Now the human being says, “But I have this feeling, I have that, I experienced the other, I...” and he excuses himself. As far as I am concerned there isn't any excuse acceptable with any one of you—no excuse acceptable whatever. If you are identified with that which is being acted upon, no matter how good that may seem to you to be, you are also, by that very fact, identified with all the evil in all the realm of that which is being acted upon. You cannot be identified with the good in the realm of that which is becoming without being identified with the evil in that realm of action.

This realization is coming to point. Some of you are really beginning to—what shall we say?—get it right between your eyes. You are beginning to realize it and to know it, not because I say so but because you see that it is. And to the degree that that is there, we have something to work with in actual fact. To the degree that that is not there we are still working in the realm of becoming, without the control factors essential to real control in that realm of becoming, where it is so needed. Control is needed there. And we have no way of putting it there, and holding it there, until human beings actually reach the point of seeing and knowing this—that you cannot be identified with the good in the realm of that which is becoming, no matter how good it is, no matter how desirable it may seem to be, no matter how right it is in actual fact. If you are identified with that, you are likewise, in that same moment, regardless of whether you like it or not, identified with all the evil in the realm that is under the processes of action. You cannot separate them, do what you will. God established that fact in the consciousness of man right at the beginning—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now if you are identified, in actual fact, with that which is, then to the degree of your awareness of that which is, to the degree that you have matured in relationship to correct function in the realm of that which is, you share with God the responsibility of the correct use of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God must act on earth through man—men and women. That means that He must act on earth through human beings, or men and women, in relationship to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” It is just as true today as when God first spoke those words, because we bring about the processes of disintegration and decay, which produce death, when we violate that law, that principle.

But to the degree that we are identified in the Creator, in that which acts—now we cannot just delude ourselves and say, “Well now, I am a part of God. I'm going to go out here and do all of these things.” That is not the way it works—but if we are in actual fact identified with that which is, then we share with God the responsibility of determining the knowledge of good and evil. And only to the degree that you share with God that responsibility can you give a true attunement, because you cannot reach the point of real control in the realm of that which is being acted upon until that is so. That is your final test. That is the difference between mastery and slavery.

Either we are, or we are not. Now when I say that this transfer can be made regardless of the limitations round about, if you will remember our recent meditations you will see that I have been showing you how that is true, step by step, up and down the line, so you would have no reason to come to this hour and say, “Well, I just can’t see it. I just can’t quite believe it.” I have shown you over a broad field, but you do not need to let whatever limitations may remain in you, of which you are aware or of those of which you are not aware, stand in the way of that step. And the corrections that may be necessary with respect to your own body, your mind, your heart, your affairs, circumstances, anything—I do not care what—the effective clearing of that cannot take place—of course we may improve it a little, day by day, we may help you along in various ways, but—it cannot really clear and be what it ought to be until we have a control pattern in that field in you. And can we have that, in actual fact, while you are slipping back and forth, identified part of the time with that which is being acted upon?

To whatever degree you, as a man or a woman, may be used in the control field, a control point while you are centered in that which is, the moment you slip out of that realm and identify yourself in the realm of that which is being acted upon, for any reason or excuse under the sun, control in that instant is gone, and the damage that is done is not limited to you but extends out to others. Now it is that way, whether we like it or not. We either play the game according to the rules or we do not play it. It applies to this bridge between the unreal world and reality—that means by which you get from one to the other. You cannot, in your own mind, for yourself, change any of the rules and have it the Game of Life.

You think, “Well now, I don’t quite like this rule. I’ll play the game this way and that way. I’ll change it around a little bit.” You are going to have your own game. All right. Go and have your own game if you must, but it will not be what I am talking about and you will not have God as your partner. Now, when I sit down and play the game with you, whether it is you, individually, or all of you together, I have a Partner. My Partner and I know how to play the game. We know the Laws, or the rules and the regulations, and so on. My Partner is God. I do not care how you manoeuvre, what you do, how you turn, if I am sitting in on the game with my Partner you are not going to win unless you are on our side. It boils down to that in the whole field ahead. I am not saying it egotistically, and you know it. It is that. You cannot change the rules of the game. You will make something else. We either play the game or we do not, period. So, this is it.

Another point hinges right in here, and that is, that as soon as there begins to be some pressure of any kind human beings begin to resent the fact of pressure. They do not like it. Perhaps there is a little pain with it, there is a little discomfort with it, and the human being does not like it so he starts looking around to decide where that pressure is coming from. “It is from over here. It is from over there,” it is from somewhere. Then he does not like what he thinks is causing the pressure. He probably does not know. His conclusion will be wrong — you can bank on that. His conclusion will be wrong. But he looks around to find out where the pressure is coming from and he begins to resent the source of that pressure. He dislikes it and in doing so he identifies himself with it. The person who is afraid of a little pressure, who, the moment there is some pressure, looks for something to resent or resist and say, “There Is the trouble over there,” will identify himself with that which is being acted upon. He refuses to be a control point by reason of which his own ill condition could be corrected, and pretty soon turns into a hopeless, helpless case—nothing!

There is not going to be a birth without some pressure. When you are getting close to the point of birth, rebirth, you begin to feel cumbersome, you begin to feel heavy, you begin to feel pressure, you begin to feel uncomfortable. There are things that you do not like, more or less. If you lose your identification, then, out of the realm of that which is into the realm of that which is acted upon, what is going to happen? You are going to resent, you are going to push, you are going to shove, you are going to find someone to blame, you are going to do something wrong, and you will spoil something. Something that was sacred and beautiful will be lost. You will have defiled your own dignity as a man or a woman. You will be utterly ashamed of yourself, but probably pride will try to make you cover it up in some fashion. And do you think that there will be a birth, a vital, living birth, under those conditions? No. What could have been will be lost in stillbirth. It is gone. No good.

And then if it is to be, you must go through the process all over again—conception, gestation, and finally to the point of birth. And not one man, woman or child, on the face of the earth, that ever has been, that now is, or ever will be, can go through the processes of birth in bringing forth that which is from God down out of Heaven into the earth without pressure. As more of us learn to function correctly, that pressure becomes less and less uncomfortable, yes, but there is pressure—there is going to be pressure. There is pressure in Heaven, there is pressure everywhere in the whole cosmos, and if you think you are going to escape from pressure by getting out of earth into Heaven you are deluding yourself. There is pressure, and there must be pressure, or there will be no birth, no rebirth, no creative action, nothing.

Those who are trying to get into a state where they do not have pressure, where they do not have to contend with pressure, are trying to get into a state of absolute death—nothingness. I have to withstand pressure in cycles and hold it steady, for you and with you, to help you through this period of the Class work. You complicate it for me. You make it so difficult for me by your pushing and pulling and turning, what have you. But If I did not share that pressure with you, do you think we would really accomplish anything here? No. Not a thing.

I know pressure practically all the time, every day. It is very seldom that the individuals around me, working with me, let the vibratory field come to rest enough—it could—come to rest enough where I can just relax without pressure for even a few minutes, for even a night. Once in a while a pattern will clear to a point where I can have a place to lay my head, to rest in this sense, without pressure, for maybe a few minutes at a time, and it is wonderful to have a little rest on earth. There are periods of rest that are right and proper. It does not have to be that way. But there does have to be pressure. And it can work in rhythmic cycles that have joy and peace and satisfaction in them.

If there is control—control that holds under pressure—it is comparatively easy, and there will be periods of rest from pressure, but if you keep violating the simple fundamental principles, as soon as there is a little pressure, and you say, “Oh, I don't like it,” and you get irritable and you start looking for someone to blame or something, you lose your identification with that which acts, become identified with that which is acted upon, and it is spoiled. The control washes out like a dam washing out, and there is a flood, and the vibrational turmoil. How many will get hurt? Nobody can tell. We stop it and bring it under control as fast as we can, an emergency action, but there is always waste and loss and suffering as a result of it. We have to learn to hold steady under pressure.

I have not promised you that you would get to a point where you would not have pressure. You will have. But it will not be the devastating thing if you are not involved in violating the control factors. If you are a part of the control field, and you hold steady and keep your identification and centering correct, the pressure is not going to hurt you any. It is only when somebody begins to rock the boat that you have any extra load in it. But there is pressure—there is going to be pressure. We are not going to come to any place where there is not pressure, unless it be, conceivably, the grave—and there they even put a headstone on. It is not to get away from pressure.

Pressure is a part of the creative process, but wrongly used it is painful and miserable. When we are using it rightly, it is a rhythmic, beautiful experience. It does not have to produce pain, and it does not produce pain if we are right. Now, if I am sharing a pattern with you and you are violating it, and I am holding the point for you and helping you back, then I must share your pain for as long as I keep you in pattern, identified with myself. If I let go of you and let it go, well then, it comes to a point where I do not have to share your pain. And I am not afraid of a little pain, a little discomfort. I have had a lot of it and I expect to have to have a lot more of it.

Every time I accept anyone into this Service, to really learn how to be a Server, I know that it will not be without pain, that he and I, or she and I, reach the point of that outworking. That person is going to have some pain and I will share it, and I have no objection to that whatever. But I get very tired of the useless, senseless way in which some people keep producing pain for themselves, and me, and others, without accomplishing one blessed thing, just turning it into waste. I do get tired of that, and sooner or later I reach a point where I will refuse to share that kind of pain and let the person take it himself and see how he likes that. You have to reach a point, as a Server, where you are perfectly willing to share pain without resentment, without condemnation, without trying to pay back in some fashion, hurt somebody, where you hold the centering true and you are identified in that which is, and it works. Now there are various places, various parts of our program, where every day there are evidences of a lack of control; still, where there are various breaks. You and the others are learning to do better—thank God for that—in making progress, but there are many things that would not be as they are if we had the control factors that would establish the rhythms, and the coordinations, and all the rest of it.

But as long as it is I have to share it. I can do it, but we waste time, and it all comes back to this one thing, the point of identification and whether you are eating of the forbidden fruit or not—if you are identified with that which is acted upon. Now look! Eat of the forbidden fruit! If you think that your welfare depends upon your ability to eat of the forbidden fruit, then you are identified over here in the realm of that which is being acted upon. You are, by that very action, putting yourself in a place below the level where you should be acted upon. Now, you are supposed to be acted upon in the level of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That is the realm where action is supposed to work out. But if this becomes so desirable to you that you look up to it, so that you could take that and be as God, as if this is absolutely necessary—remember how the devil worked it out? He set it up, it became such a great thing, with human beings looking up to it.

It does not go up so that you can look up to it. You go down so you can look up to it. And what is that? It is a lack of trust In God. The very act itself proves the lack of centering, because if you are willing to trust God for the control you would have no feeling that you needed to eat of the forbidden fruit, even though your pattern of function in relationship to that which is, is limited, because body and mind and heart still must be acted upon. You keep your centering. You are identified here with that which is, and you let the cycles work out. You know there are going to be cycles of birth and rebirth. There is going to be pressure, and under that pressure something is going to happen.

If you give way, that which should be changed is going to be strengthened. It is stronger than you are. But if you stay steady with God the pressure will increase and increase until that gives way, and when that gives way, and you do not, by reason of right centering, then something is changed. You have become a control point. But do not imagine that something is wrong merely because you feel pressure, and that pressure may be uncomfortable. Something out there is going to be changed if you hold steady. Perhaps you do not know where it is going to happen, or how, and you do not need to. Leave it alone and let it work. Trust God. You do not need to eat of the forbidden fruit. Leave it alone. Let it work. Keep the centering right, the polarity, and something in you will change along with it if there is that in you which needs to change. You become stronger, more vibrant, filled with vigorous health of body and mind and heart, each time you share the Victory with God.

But each time you share the victory with the devil, so that it defeats for—temporary, of course, but nevertheless in that moment defeats for—God, and the things of God, then you are weaker. That is loss. We do not need to be afraid of a little pain, a little pressure, a little discomfort. There is nothing wrong with that. It is the attitude toward it that counts, and you will help others by holding steady yourself, and do not yourself react. Supposing someone over here fails under pressure and reacts and gets nasty; well then, of course that excuses you for failing under pressure, too, and reacting and getting nasty, and pretty soon we have a chain-reaction going right through the group, and how much loss before we get it stopped? One domino knocks down another one, and there it goes. That is what it is. Someone else failing does not give you the right to do so. It will increase the pressure on you. If someone breaks the line over here—you will already have some pressure probably, and it will make more for you, but—if you react in condemnation of that person then you are guilty of what he did and someone else will have to hold the line for you, and the other person, too.

The easy way is to hold centered, remember where our identification rests, and until this begins to be a reality, no matter what I say to you about control, of the current that is flowing through your hands in giving an attunement, it will not mean anything. You can share in the control that does things. But if you try to do it self-actively with the power of will, you develop all the ideas about what you think is wrong, what needs to be done in this person. No. There is a Way, the right way, and that is what I would share with you.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

They Are Glad Because They Be Quiet

They  Are  Glad  Because  They  Be  Quiet

Uranda

July 23, 1946   Tuesday  Afternoon  Service

On the vibration of our harmonization in the Christ Love, in opening our Service this afternoon, I should like to read words that we have read before, that beautiful Psalm that instructs us:

“O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; Because they rebelled against the word of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High: Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!”

“For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder. Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing. They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.”

“Then are they glad because they be quiet.” You have been learning something of what that quietness is, that quietness of heart and mind, quietness of being, by reason of which the individual lets himself be brought into his desired haven.

What is our desired haven? It is in the heaven of His being. It is in the heaven of the Christ Body. It is in the heaven of the kingdom on earth. “Then are they glad because they be quiet.” As you have entered into that quietness, it has made you glad, hasn't it? It does make you glad when you let go in that quietness. And then there is the assurance—“so he bringeth them unto their desired haven”—not struggling, not trying—“so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.” When they get to that desired haven, or are entering into it, the Word is: “And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.”

Usually we find that people are given to declaring their own works, talking about the things that they think they have done in one way or another, and they spend so much time declaring their own works that they have no time to declare His Works. How does one properly declare His Works? By going down the street shouting about it? No. We declare His Works by letting His Works be made manifest through us. Our words concerning the Works of God are but empty phrases unless His Works are declared by the lives that we live, by the things that we do in letting Him have His way with us. So the only way that we can declare His Works in a truly effective manner is to let ourselves, as Members of the One Christ Body on earth, be the means by which He may do His Works, and when He does them on earth they are declared without human words trying to tell the world about it. Is that not true? Then they are declared without human words trying to tell the world that there are such things as the Works of God.

“And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving.” A sacrifice suggests an altar, and a sacrifice on an altar suggests fire. If the altar that we individually are, if the altar that we collectively are, has placed upon it the sacrifices of thanksgiving, that thanksgiving will be in the Fire of Love. To say words of thanksgiving with the lips is of no avail. There must be the sacrifice of thanksgiving, which means that that thanksgiving is in the Fire of Love that ascends from the altar to the Throne of our King. So, in our thanksgiving before Him, there must needs be, above all things, that Fire of Love, for in Love Response to Him we are drawn closer, ever closer, and in thanksgiving unto Him, acknowledging before Him His Wonderful Works to the children of men, we open ourselves to that—becoming empty of self-activity, we may let Him fill us with that which He IS.

“Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders. He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the water springs into dry ground; A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into water-springs. And there he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation; And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly.”

As we respond in love to the Lord, so that we realize ourselves to be Members of His Body, or Members of God's Family, God's Children on earth, we sometimes wonder why we are so few. All the way through the history of fallen man, it has had to be the few who opened the way for the many. But if the few will function rightly, if the few abide under the Shadow of the Almighty, if the few let His Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, the Promise is: “He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly.” As our Members are multiplied, that means that we have the privilege of sharing the blessings that we know, the privilege of giving as fully and as freely as the multiplied numbers will allow.

What is 1 x 1? 1. But the Master said: “Where 2 or 3 are gathered together in My Name.” What is 2 x 2? Just double—and 4 x 4 is 16—and 16 x 16 is 256. How many times did we have to multiply? We have not multiplied greatly yet—that is just 3 times, and we started with 2. We should have to keep on going to multiply greatly. “He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly.” We have the One Christ Body on earth, and if we take it just as that—1 x 1 is 1—it does not get us anywhere. But, if we have the One Christ Body and the One Lord in that Body, we have 2, and 2 x 2 is 4, and the first thing you know, when you start to multiply greatly, it gets into big figures—and it gets there fast. But who has to do the multiplying? “He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly.” The Lord has to do the multiplying. When human beings try to do the multiplying, it never comes out right, something always slips. Does that simple illustration deepen a realization?

“The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth. Who is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.”

We recognize that, back through the years, we have been learning to observe these things, learning to observe the art of sacrifices of thanksgiving, of praise to the Lord, of recognizing that He has broken the gates of brass, that He has cut the bars of iron in sunder, that He does still the storm so that there is a great calm, that He does change the dry ground into water springs, that He does bless and multiply us—and lo, because we have been observing these things in Love Response to Him, we do begin to understand the loving kindness of the Lord. “His mercy endureth forever.” The only trouble is that human beings do not endure forever, thank goodness, so, unless they respond to the Lord within the scope of the time that they endure, they never know the mercy of the Lord that endureth forever. That is the way it works.

His mercy endureth forever, but human beings do hot endure forever: and we praise God for that. If God had wanted to curse man to a degree that would have been unspeakably unbearable, all that He would have had to do after the Fall would have been to let them have, in that condition, eternal life. Imagine people in this world as they are in the fallen state, living forever. That would be such a hell that even my imagination cannot conceive of the terror and the torment of it. So, since that is true, we do not fight against even death, do we? Not in the sense of the outer, at least. Our fight is not with death in the deeper sense—it is with the prince of this world that makes death a necessity. In His goodness, God has provided that man in his self-activity cannot endure forever. Do you find that which inspires, uplifts and draws together in Reality through the words of this Psalm? You have heard it before, but you have heard it anew.

Once again, I wish to consider with you other words that you have heard before—words which carry the Spirit that giveth Life. Speaking from the standpoint of the Absolute, not from the realm where human frailties still abound, but from the realm of the Absolute, from the standpoint of God, there are times when it is necessary to destroy in order to give life. There are so many people in the world who, although they are allowed to feel the warmth of His Love, although they are watered with His Truth, and their hunger is partially satisfied with the bread of His Life, still they will not let themselves be resurrected—they are asleep in Jesus, as it is put—they have, in embryonic form within them, that potential which will let them expand into men and women in Christ, but before we can resurrect them—speaking from the standpoint of the One Christ Body, remember—we have to roll away the stone at the mouth of the tomb—the tomb of this world's darkness. What is the stone? One might properly say it is the hardness of man's heart. It could be said to symbolize so many things—almost anything that stands between man and his God.

You are beginning to realize the value of what I have talked about as focalizations. You are beginning to actually experience a specific focalizatlon of Reality in the earth. Focalizatlon—the Key to all things is to be found in their focalizations. Is it not so?

© Emissaries of Divine Light