A New View of Shekinah

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A  New  View  of  Shekinah

Uranda   July 16, 1953  Class

As we recognize the inadequacy of that degree to which we have found relatedness to and with God thus far along the way of life, we feel the need for a deeper vision, a clearer recognition, of those things which have seemed to be mysterious. We remember the Word that is written: “And every secret thing shall be revealed.” I can well recall, when I was a boy, hearing the conventional pattern of Biblical presentation, wherein everyone was made to feel guilty of many sins known and unknown, and when I heard that text it struck terror to my heart. I did not know what I had done to sin but I knew, according to all the concepts that had been presented, that there must be something utterly terrible, something that was secret, even secret from me. I did not quite know, but—“And every secret thing shall be revealed.” And that idea was presented as a means of causing fear. If you do something wrong, it is going to be revealed. If you slip somewhere, it will be revealed. And so my first introduction to this particular text was not a happy one. “And every secret thing shall be revealed.” And those who spoke and, I think, all who heard—I know to my child mind it seemed strange, but it must be true because my elders said so—that the secret things were all evil things, things that were going to be revealed, human beings going to come before the judgment bar of God and all their evil was going to be revealed and they were going to be made to feel like nothing. It was going to be a terrible event, this judgment day, when every secret thing should be revealed and human beings would be known for what miserable creatures they were. And so, I think many others have tended to find that same concept forced upon them. But today, and for many years, this text has been to me a great joy, a pattern of assurance, with something utterly wonderful, utterly beautiful, something to be greatly desired. For as I reached a point of beginning to comprehend something of the Reality of Being, I discovered that the evil that men do and think to hide cannot really be classified as a secret thing. They reveal it. The secret things are the secret things of God, secret only because human beings have not been willing to see them, to consider them, to recognize them, to give heed to them.

“And every secret thing shall be revealed.” And what a joy it is to begin to recognize that the secret things of God are being revealed on earth, and that we can let our lives, our bodies and minds and hearts, be a means by which these secret things of God may be secret because they are revealed on earth among men. “And every secret thing shall be revealed.” And yet there are those who teach that the mysteries of God cannot be known, that there is so much that we are not supposed to know. But with this concept I cannot agree. We are supposed to know all that we have the capacity to know, as much as may come to focus in us; and if we begin to know the Truth that is in us now, begin to know that which is within the range of our potential comprehension, we will find that range is enlarged and the secret things of God are being constantly revealed in our own lives and in the lives of others. And when I see the secret things of God beginning to manifest in and through you, it gives me joy, for they are being revealed on earth because you live and share the Ministry which is ordained of our Lord and King. “And every secret thing shall be revealed.”

One of the secret things, one among many, which needs to be revealed and made known in and through you, and in and through all who will receive, has to do with the individual relationship with God. One is supposed to believe, one is supposed to do this, that and the other thing—but to know the reality of personal relatedness to God, that has been a secret thing. The promise is to you, if you will but receive it—every secret thing, not just some of them. The secret things with respect to your relationship with God in a personal sense shall be revealed. To whom? To you, and to those who have any reason to see or know or understand. The secret things of God have been made so mysterious, made to seem so far away, so impossible in relationship to us, here, now. “But every secret thing shall be revealed.” Where? In Heaven? Are they hidden there? No. On earth, in those places, in those hearts, and in those minds, where they have not been known, to those human beings from whom they have been hidden, to us and to all others who will receive. We could follow out this pattern and find that it extends into every phase and avenue of life; we could follow out the patterns of logic and reason and explore over a long period of time, and perhaps make it very interesting, but let us instead of undertaking to list all of the secret things which we might need to know, let us be content for the moment in examining the secret thing which is most important to us. No doubt many questions tend to arise in the mind with respect to secret things, but there is one secret thing, one central, most important secret thing—the means, the pattern, of your personal relationship with God. Let us examine for a moment.

You are a human being. There have been human beings on earth for several thousand years. Our history, in the recorded sense, goes back six or seven thousand years. And so, those who went before you were human beings having the same basic needs which you have. That which was true with respect to the need in personal relationship with God six thousand years ago is true now, or that which is true with respect to your need in this respect was true six thousand years ago—it will be true tomorrow. We cannot, if we are logical and reasonable, say that the need was different three, four, five, six thousand years ago than it is today. If we are willing to face the facts with respect to our membership in the human family we cannot say that our need today is different from that which was present long ago. What is the value of this observation? It has a tremendous value to us because it helps us to remove one of the veils which human beings have hung before the eyes of human beings.

We have been taught that there was a different pattern three thousand years ago than there is today, that there is somehow a change, a different dispensation, a different method inaugurated, that God provided one method for the people in the long ago and another method for us now. And as long as we believe that, we have a sense of separation, and that that which was revealed in relationship to those of the long ago ceases to have vital meaning to us. We cease to have our pattern of orientation with respect to that which was accomplished by those who have gone before us. But once we begin to realize that God did not change His pattern. He did not change His Truth, He did not change the Way, the method, He did not change anything, that human beings with limited vision have only assumed that He did, we can look into the pattern of past experience, for instance with respect to the children of Israel, and see that that revelation of Truth, that which was necessary to human beings then, fits perfectly with that which was the experience of those who followed at a later time.

When we begin to try to separate that which was of the older pattern from that which was of the life and teaching of our Master on earth and those who lived at that time, and those who followed after, we segregate the Divine revelation, lose our point of orientation with respect to the beginning of things, and try to start as if the revelation of Truth which came from our Master was new. If we assume that He presented it for the first time, then we must assume that it is different from what God has revealed before, and immediately we begin to have confusion.

But our earlier observation—God is the same yesterday, today and forever. The needs of human beings were the same six thousand years ago as they are today. And we do not take the attitude that what the Master revealed was the first time it was revealed. He may have revealed it in a new form, but if it was from God, the Father, who is the same yesterday, today and forever, it is the same thing that God was revealing through the prophets of old, and we stop trying to separate, divide. We throw aside the prejudices, cast aside the assumptions, and take a look at the basic, fundamental principles of Being. We do not approach our consideration with the assumption that it is different but that it must be the same revelation of the same Truth from the same God for the same purpose, to all the children of men. And seeing this, we begin to look for similarities, we begin to look for correlating factors which will give us a key to understanding, a key that will help us to a clearer vision of what the Master taught, not to assume that suddenly there was a change in that which was being revealed from God, or that human beings were different, or that their needs were different. It was the same.

And so when we consider what the Master gave, for instance with respect to the Way and the Truth and the Life—three things—and He mentioned the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, in what is called the Lord's Prayer—three things—and His whole teaching was hinged about these central themes—we begin to look into the older pattern of revelation to find those three things. If we say, “But we read these words recorded in the Master's expression and they are sufficient. We don't need the Old Testament.” Do we not? Do those who say that adequately comprehend what the Master meant? Is there anyone so brash, so arrogant, as to say, “We fully comprehend what the Master meant. We have scaled the height, we have encompassed the breadth, we have plumbed the depth, of all that He said, all that He meant to convey. We know it all.” Do we? Or is it possible that even we, so wise, so brilliant, could learn something more with respect to the simple words of Truth which our Master revealed on earth?

Going back into the revelation at the time of the children of Israel, remembering our central theme of personal consciousness, of individual relatedness to God, we look for something that would be a central theme. It is not difficult to find; it is not a search for a needle in a haystack; it is something that stands out, looking at us if we will but see it. We remember how the tabernacle was prepared in the wilderness and all of the various factors were worked out. But there was one thing outstanding in that tabernacle, one thing that was kept in the Holy of Holies, one thing that must carry the supreme significance. Whether it was recognized and understood by the people of that day or not, this thing had a separate place for it. There was an inner sanctuary, a Holy of Holies, and just one thing in it. That must have been the supreme thing, the supreme revelation of something. And if our Master on earth was providing a supreme revelation of God and the things of God, there must be a correlation, not just simply the suggestion that there was a type of some kind, not just simply the suggestion that it was all indicating things to come. No, there must be a correlation, a fundamental pattern of relationship.

Now we have all read and studied and meditated upon our Master's life enough so that we should have a background of consciousness and understanding which will permit us to start examining these basic factors of correlation. It is not unreasonable to assume that the supreme revelation at that time would correlate with the supreme revelation of our Master's time. Both revelations were from God, both were for the blessing of the people, both were for a means of establishing relatedness between humanity and the Creator. So, remember, we do not assume differences—we assume relatedness, we assume that there is correlation, that they do belong together, that they are the revelation of the One God, of the one Truth, of Love, of the secret things of God. If we pass lightly over one pattern of the design to reveal the secret things of God and say that we will examine only from another revelation, what do we do? We reduce perspective. We are going to miss something.

Did you ever find it necessary to bandage one eye for a period of time, for some reason, so that you were only using one eye to look, to see? If we try to understand the revelation of the secret things of God by reason of just one pattern of revelation, when there are two patterns of revelation, we are closing one eye or losing the sight of one eye, and we miss the point. We lose exactness, we lose definiteness, we move into a realm of generalities; and generalities may have their value, their place, but until we move from generalities into specific patterns of understanding we most certainly are not going to have adequate comprehension. So let us look with both eyes, clearly, to see one thing. Do we have double vision when we look with two eyes? Not if we are functioning on a normal basis. You look with two eyes, on a normal basis, and you have single vision—single vision. You see one thing, not one thing twice, in your sense of perspective. You are not seeing two people. Some people do when they get under some certain circumstances, but normally you see one person—one person, when you look at one person—single vision with two eyes.

So, we are not going to see double, imagining that our Lord provided a revelation of Truth over here and there is another one over there—but it does not mean much; we will pass it by lightly; we will cover up one eye and look at this one, and we begin to lose perspective, we begin to miss the fine points, and we lose orientation in the deeper sense. So we come back to the Holy of Holies, and there we find the Ark of the Covenant. We could take time to study that which is revealed by all the other aspects of design and function in the tabernacle, but our time does not permit it tonight—but the Holy of Holies, and there is the Ark of the Covenant. A chest, a box, was covered with precious metal, and there was gold, the symbol of God’s Love. But it was a box, a chest—a treasure chest. Oh, what ideas tend to come up into the mind.

A treasure chest. We open it and what do we find? We find the tablets of stone upon which the finger of God wrote, revealing to man the Law. We find Aaron's rod which budded. And we find a measure of manna. Three things! Interesting. Three things. And we look at the box, this chest, this Ark of the Covenant, and we see that it has its basic form and upon the top of it, the top of the lid, there is what is called the mercy seat. There is the main body of it, and the mercy seat, and above the mercy seat two Cherubims. Three again. The box itself, the revelation of the mercy seat, and the Cherubims—three. And some there are who say that bur Master came and revealed God as the merciful God for the first time, the God of Love, that no one knew He was the God of Love until the Master came. Is that true? What did the psalmists sing but of God's Love and mercy. “Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men.” The Lord is merciful, “His mercy endureth for ever.” The mercy seat—not a God of harsh judgment, but a God of mercy. Can there be mercy without Love? Is there any such thing as mercy without Love? No. It is impossible. Without Love there is no mercy.

We could spend much time, more than our hour tonight permits, studying these two patterns of three. I drew to your attention two patterns of three in our Master's revelation of deity, the things of God—“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Well, this makes it four—three things—the Way, the Truth, and the Life, that I mentioned before. But He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” — “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.” Glory. Ah, that reminds us of the days of the tabernacle. “And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle and shone round about.” Glory. “And thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory”—the glory of the Lord. And so, without stopping to examine every step by which the manifestation may be observed, we come to that which appeared between the cherubims, above the mercy seat, upon the Ark of the Covenant; for here there was something which did not have physical form.

There was something which appeared, revealing the Presence of God. And it was called, in those ancient days, the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells—the One Who Dwells, and the revelation of His Presence. Not that under that concept they thought they could see the One Who Dwells, but there was the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. And they had a word, a name, to signify these things. In the Old Hebrew it was called Shekanah. The modern accepted pronunciation, according to the scholars, is Shekinah. But we have used the vibratory factors of the Motherland to call it Shekenah—again three, if you wish to take note of the fact. Shekinah. And what is Shekinah? The evidence of the Presence of One Who Dwells. The evidence of the Presence.

And the Master said, speaking the words of the Father through the lips of Jesus, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”—I am the One Who Dwells. And the revelation of the One Who Dwells, the evidence of that Presence, was called the Way, the Truth, and the Life, made manifest as the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory. And there was glory in the tabernacle, “and it filled the tabernacle and shone round about.” That was the outer edge, or surface, of the evidence, then. And it is named last in the prayer: “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.” The glory is the last thing—therefore the thing we could probably see first. We should be able to see the glory before we can see the power, before we can see the kingdom—and if we carry out our pattern of correlation, that makes sense, it is logical, because the outer evidence was with respect to what? The glory that filled the tabernacle and shone round about. It was that which could be seen by the children of Israel.

But what was seen by the Priesthood? What was seen by the High Priest? What was contained in the Holy of Holies? What was inside the glory, for the glory was the outer circumference of evidence, revealing the Presence of the One Who Dwells—I Am. And the three things? “For thine”—four things. There should be three things revealing a fourth thing. “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.” “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Here in the tabernacle we see the glory, and it is the beginning as far as human observation is concerned, the beginning of the evidence of the Presence of One Who Dwells—One Who Dwells—Thine—I Am—all the same. So, seeing the glory we should not expect to immediately comprehend the One Who Dwells.

“I am the way, the truth,” and then, “the life.” Does not glory always relate to life? Can you separate glory and life? No. If there be glory there is life, and if there is true living there is glory, the glory that fills the tabernacle, the temple, the body. What is it that shines forth in the outer manifestation of the temple, the body that you are? Life, the vivid, the vital, the wonderful expression of life, and there is glory in it, feeling alive. You wake on a spring morning, hearing the birds sing, and your aliveness and your alertness, and there is glory—glory in the fact that you live, glory all around you. The glory is filling the temple and shining round about you, here, today, in this age, this time. And so, when we see the glory, we recognize that that should be just a first step. There should be more, not just the glory and then the One Who Dwells. There should be two more steps before we come near unto the One Who Dwells. And we are back to our theme.

We started out to consider the means by which we could have a personal consciousness, a personal awareness, of our individual relatedness to God. And who is God? The One Who Dwells, or the Father. “For thine,” oh Father, “is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.” There must then be the glory. We touched the glory, but can we begin to see the glory and know the glory until we begin to live, vibrantly? If we do not have a consciousness of aliveness, can we begin to see the glory? Have you ever heard anyone say, or perhaps you have had the experience of arising on some particular day and being especially aware of aliveness in yourself. You were alive and you were thankful to be alive. It was a wonderful thing to awaken and be alive. And you step to the door and look out at nature, and because of this exquisite aliveness, the thrilling vibrancy of life, the grass was especially green, the leaves of the tree were especially green and beautiful, the flowers had more vibrant colors than those you remembered. Perhaps they looked a little dull yesterday, but here they are vivid, vibrant. You see more clearly. Did you ever have such a morning, such a day, when you had that awareness that—not just red, not just yellow flowers, not just blue—they are glorious!

Life and glory, always together. If there is a diminishing of life, a dying, what is there then? Glory? No. Then there is the lack of glory. Everything becomes somber, everything begins to be black—the absence of life, the absence of light, black. The presence of life, the presence of light, white with all of its colors, all of its component parts, vibrant, beautiful, alive. And lo, we begin to see that the step toward awareness of relatedness with God must be with respect to life and glory, not treating life as if it were, well, something to be taken for granted, something to be considered as of small importance, something of little value. No, here is one of the treasures in the chest.

Do you think the Ark of the Covenant was lost? Oh no. It is right here, it is right here. The Ark of the Covenant, if you can but see it, it is in the chest, these three things. But we are looking above it now. Some day, perhaps, we can look in it. But we are looking above it, and first we become aware of glory. But if we are reacting to the things that bring death, the diminished life, can we see the glory? Did you ever hear anyone say to another, “This is a wonderful day, it is a beautiful day.” “Well, I don't know what's beautiful about it. I can't see anything beautiful about it.” Two people. One, there is glory—the other, it is somber and dying. One, it is light and the other, it is black. And in the light you see the vibrant color, but in the black you see the absence of color. Is not that right? In the black you see the absence of color.

So we must be alive and we must thank God for life, and begin to see the glory, the glory all around, the glory that belongs to God. “For thine is the glory,” and there is glory here, and being alive we see the glory—and the glory here, on earth, belongs to God the Father. So God the Father must not be too far away. The glory is here, so He must not be too far away. We are about to find Him. He is at hand. He is near at hand, and He said, “Come unto me.” And He was not mocking us. He must be near at hand. And He said, “Come unto me.” And lo, we begin to relax in the glory, to appreciate it, to give thanks for it and the wonder of life. And inside the glory we find, in the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, not just Shekinah Glory, the Shekinah Cloud of Glory, but within that Shekinah Cloud the Light that Glows—the Light that Glows. For once we begin to feel and know and appreciate the Cloud of Glory, we begin to see the Light that Glows. And that reminds us of some thing.

The Master said, “Let your light so shine.” What light? What light is going to shine? Did you ever look at human beings and look for the light? Or did you ever look for your own? Where is it? Where is the light, the light that shines. “Let your light so shine.” What light? The Light that Glows. It is not to be hidden under a bushel. What bushel? The bushel of a dumpy and dead body. Let it glow, let it be on a candlestick, a vivid, living body, alive, you—you. So there is the Cloud of Glory, and then we discover the Light that Glows. This is the Shekinah pattern of Being—the Shekinah Cloud or the Shekinah Glory, and then the Shekinah Light, the Light that Glows.

As we meditate upon the Light, we begin to see clearly, the shadows flee away, and the darkness is no more. There is illumination, there is understanding, there is a greater comprehension, and the Light that Glows reveals a greater glory still. And then there is something inside the Light that Glows, something else—the Fire, the ball of Fire. And fire is the symbol of God's Love—God's Love. The Eternal Fire, the fire that burns for ever and ever. And inside the Light that Glows, the Fire—but though there is the Cloud of Glory, the Cloud is not the One Who Dwells. It is just the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. And inside the Cloud is the Light that Glows; but the Light that Glows is not the One Who Dwells. It is just the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. And finally, inside the Light that Glows, we find the Fire; but the Fire is not the One Who Dwells. It is the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. And now we have three things—so inside the Fire there must be the One Who Dwells.

And our minds turn to another story, the story of Daniel, and how it was at the time of Daniel that there were three men—three. Who were they? Three men: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—three men cast bound into a fire, a fiery furnace heated seven times hotter than it was wont to be heated. And soon the king came and looked, and he said, “Behold, did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace? Lo, I see four men walking in the midst of the fire, and the fourth is like unto the Son of God.” The three—and there is the fourth, in the midst of the burning fiery furnace. And so in the midst of the fire, the fire of God's Love, we find at last the One Who Dwells. But is your eye ready to see the One Who Dwells? Is your heart pure enough to step without hesitation into the fire? What happens in the fire? The things that bind are burned away—the things that bind are burned away. But when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth from that burning fiery furnace, their clothing was not scorched, the smell of fire had not come upon their hosen where they had walked in the flame. Only the things that bound them were burned away.

And yet human beings are so afraid of the Fire. They see the Glory and they hide their eyes; they begin to recognize there is a Light that Glows; they hurry to the cell of darkness lest they be overcome by the Light. And the Fire—stay far from it! If anyone says, “Come, walk with me into the fire. Take my hand; it will not burn you. Come with me and step into the burning fiery flame,” how many are there who will dare to say, “I will come. Here I am.” And inside the Fire, within the Flame, we find the One Who Dwells.

And what of the Shekinah, the Shekinah pattern of Being? I would read to you a few words in conclusion, a few words from the first chapter of the Gospel according to John, for he told us about Shekinah. Because Shekinah was held to be a very sacred thing in those olden days, they very often did not write the word Shekinah but simply wrote Word with the understanding that it meant the sacred word Shekinah. And human beings have puzzled and wondered and assumed, and jumped to conclusions about the “Word,” but the Word is Shekinah. Let me read these verses to you.

“In the beginning was Shekinah, and the Shekinah was with God, and the Shekinah was God.
“The same was in the beginning with God.
“All things were made by Shekinah; and without Shekinah was not any thing made that was made.
“In Shekinah was life; and the life was the light of men.
“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”

The Word here spoken-of was the sacred word Shekinah, the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. “All things were made by Shekinah; and without Shekinah was not any thing made that was made.” If we then would share God's creative power, if we then would truly live, we must find and know the Shekinah pattern of Being, and come to know through Shekinah the reality of the One Who Dwells. And what of the Fire? Is it not the Way? What of the Truth? Is it not the Light that Glows? And what of the Cloud of Glory? What of the Life? The Life is the Cloud of Glory. “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” signifying exactly the same thing that we find revealed between the Cherubims above the mercy seat in the Ark of the Covenant. We find revealed the One Who Dwells, and the Fire, and the Light that Glows, and the Cloud of Glory—one and the same thing—available to the children of men, then as now, and now as then.

Who is willing to see the Cloud of Glory, to accept the Light that Glows, and come at last to stand within the Flame and know the One Who Dwells? “For thine,” oh Father, “is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.” For how long? “For ever.” That was the forever that is past and the forever that is yet to come. So shall we come to know our personal relatedness with God the Father, the revelation of deity on earth in you and through you, to the glory of God, to the glory of God's Life in you, and to the blessing of the children of men.

© Emissaries of Divine Light