The Voice
Shekinah Patterns
Uranda June 30, 1953 Class
We thank God for the privilege we have of unfolding in the patterns of Being, that we may begin to know the reality of the Presence of the One Who Dwells — the Presence of the One Who Dwells. We have been considering the Principles of Magic, Heavenly Magic, the magic of living, and particularly the principles involved in the Shekinah Fire, the Shekinah Light That Glows, and the Shekinah Cloud of Glory. And, as we consider the processes of practical application, and yielding to the Reality of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, let us in this hour turn our attention to the Master’s words as recorded for us in the Tenth Chapter of the Gospel according to John.
“Verily, verily” — that means Truly, truly — “I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” Now we have begun to see the door of the sheepfold, and we recognize that millions of people are trying to climb up some other way. Man has conceived every sort of way that he could imagine in his own evil heart to try to get into heaven, here or hereafter, without using the door of the sheepfold. Truly, truly “I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep.”
Now you will recall that I pointed out to you that you would not be a member of the flock of the sheep forever, but once you begin to actually enter into the door you cease being a member of the flock of the sheep and begin to be a member of the Body of the Shepherd. That change takes place as you enter in by the door. “But he that entereth in by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep.” The sheep are sheep only until they are ready to enter the sheepfold; it looks like a sheepfold, it seems to them that that’s what it would be, a place of protection and rest, a place of peace, a place where they can be assured of something to eat and a place to sleep, and protecting care; a place that is safe. But the sheep never get in the sheepfold. They’re cared for and tended, but in the deeper sense the sheep never get in the sheepfold. “But he that entereth in by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep.”
I know that some have attempted to say that that simply means that the Master Himself entered in by the door, and I am the Shepherd of the sheep. But that isn’t what it says, is it? If we stop to look at it, that isn’t what it says. As long as human beings have the goal of being a sheep in the sheepfold they can never be what they ought to be. First we are gathered as sheep, to move toward the sheepfold. That’s all that the human being can understand to begin with — all he can comprehend, all he can accept, because he doesn’t understand the Shepherd; he doesn’t understand God or the laws; he doesn’t understand his relationship to life, to the Green Pastures; he doesn’t understand his relationship to the Still Waters, the Truth; he doesn’t understand his relationship to God, to His Love; he doesn’t know what he is and he doesn’t know what he is supposed to be. So, those who respond are gathered as sheep and the Shepherd begins to take them in the direction of the sheepfold.
Now there are many who try to get into the sheepfold so that they can be sheep; they try to climb up by some other way. But they reveal themselves as thieves and robbers, not true servants of God, because those who attempt to use the wrong methods never realize that once you get in the sheepfold you are no longer a sheep. Once you enter the sheepfold you are no longer a sheep, for the moment you truly pass through that door you become a member of the Body of the Shepherd.
“But he that entereth in by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth” — to him the porter openeth — “and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” The sheep hear His voice “the sheep know his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name”. “And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice, and a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers.”
You notice the emphasis on the Voice of the Shepherd, and we are reminded of the passage in Revelation where the experience of being in the spirit on the Lord’s day, the Revelator heard a voice behind him as of many waters. “And he turned to see the voice that spake with him, and being turned, he saw.” Here again we have that same distinction between hearing the Voice, recognizing the Voice, and turning to see the Voice, and then that which is evident after one has turned. This is the point of entering in at the door — “and a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers.”
Now in our Class work here, we have begun a consideration of the Voice, haven’t we, your voice. Effective speech, a development of the realization of the qualities, the nature, the character, the functions of the server — what a server is. You are beginning to have a picture, in general outline, of the basic nature and character of a server; and in conjunction with that you are learning something about your Voice, to let it be developed. For what voice is to appear through you? Is it that you may speak effectively, and that people may hear your voice? or is it that your organs of speech may be the means by which the Voice of the Shepherd may be heard on earth?
Once you begin to let the true current of the spirit of God work through you, you will not need to take thought what you will say but you will be functioning in the Shekinah Pattern of Being, as the Master did when He said, “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father who dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.”
The Shekinah, whether it be the evidence of the Presence of the highest focalization of Deity, or the evidence of the Presence of any God Being in the pattern of the Body of God, carries the same nature, the same basic principles. There are specific characteristics, but did you know that the Shekinah of the Central God of Gods, the absolute focalization of Deity in the Central Sun of Suns, in relationship to the entire Cosmos, has a particularized Shekinah Pattern of Being, and that that Shekinah Pattern is here, it is everywhere in the entire Cosmos, without a single exception. There is no point in the entire Cosmos where His Shekinah Pattern of Being is not, but do you have the ability to directly, in a personal sense, contact that Shekinah Pattern? You do not. You do not. It is only as we have the functions of the God Beings in the Body of God, as there are functions of cells in your physical body to make up your whole body, that we can have the transformer pattern by which this high voltage, high vibration, Shekinah Pattern of Being can be related to you.
Here you begin to see, at least a glimpse, of the basic processes by which specific Patterns of Creation are brought forth. Why does the seed of grass bring forth after its kind and produce grass? Why does every seed bring forth after its kind? Why is it that we can plant grains of wheat and know that we will not have sunflowers coming from that seed? How is it that we can plant sunflower seed and not be afraid that we are going to have corn popping up where we expected the sunflowers to be? What is it that establishes the particularized characteristics of any created thing? We see these characteristics in the world around us.
To the human being himself, his true characteristics in the individual sense are obscured. The pressures of circumstance, his own ideas and concepts, have produced the appearance of something in relationship to himself which he imagines to be himself, so he has developed a false pattern of human personality that is a caricature of himself. It is not the true expression of his Being. You are gradually going through the process of letting the caricature pass away so that you can begin to be what God designed you to be — your real Self in expression, in nature, in function.
So, step-by-step, according to the patterns of Focalization, the creative triangles, the creative cycles, extending out to every part and place in the Cosmos, we have the modifications and particularizations which establish the unlimited aspects of Being — and these aspects have not by any means been thoroughly explored. What has been created is not all that shall be created. God is a Creator and He never violates His own nature by ceasing the work of creation. Man fell and interfered with specific processes of creation so God had to establish a pattern — a temporary pattern — in order to bring man back, to repair the machinery. Meanwhile, the creative processes for which man was supposed to be responsible in relationship to God must wait. They haven’t been carried on.
So these Creative Processes continue on, in all spheres except those where man has interfered; but there has been a lull, shall we say, or a limited pattern of function in the whole Cosmos — it is not something that just relates here to the earth as such. By eliminating the earth, and people on it, from the Cosmic Pattern, annihilating it, God could conceivably have gone on, carried forward the Cosmic Pattern without any limitation, but that’s not the nature of the Creator. He undertook, and is working out, the process of saving man from himself, restoring him; and that is our work — first to let ourselves be restored so that we may function effectively in helping restore others; and then when the Pattern of Restoration is complete we can get back to work — the heavenly purpose for which we are on earth.The real purpose for which we are here on earth is not now evident and cannot be. We must function on the basis of our temporary purpose, the purpose of restoring man to his Divine Estate, restoring the manifestation of the Garden of God on the face of the earth.
Once that is done we can begin to take part in the creative work of God which is now beyond your comprehension. But, in order to achieve this, we remember the words in the first Chapter of the Gospel of John, in relationship to Shekinah: All things — All covers everything — All things were made by Shekinah, and without Shekinah was not anything made that was made. If we remember that we will understand why it is written that man, of and by himself, can do nothing, and he is nothing, We will not be trying to do something without Shekinah, for all things were made by Shekinah, and without Shekinah was not anything made that was made.
Meanwhile there are limitations in the pattern of function in the entire Cosmos. We need to realize that when we speak of the Cosmos we mean absolutely everything there is, all of the universes, all of the solar systems, all of the stars or suns, all of the vast expanse of the Milky Way. You know, we are a part of the Milky Way! When you see that vast expanse of the Milky Way — it has that broad sweep across the sky — and we here, on this planet, in this Solar System, we are a part of what we call the Milky Way. We are neighbours. There are many nebulae, many varying patterns in that vast expanse; but in any case, we’re a part of that, and that is a part of what we are. And that is a part of the Cosmos. Man cannot see the Central Sun of Suns, the Center of the Cosmos. Man has never discovered it; he can’t very well. But, we are a part of the Cosmos.
It does not stop you if you if you have a little sore, say on your little finger; you go on, but to some extent it limits the pattern of your whole function — to some extent. And until that sore on the little finger gets well you cannot say that your whole body is well. The fallen state of man here on this planet is as a sore on the little finger of the Body of God, and it establishes certain limitations with respect to the whole pattern of function in the entire Cosmos. That which we do here has its meaning in that vast expanse of the Milky Way; it has its meaning in all the other planets of our Solar System; it has its meaning in relationship to the center of our Solar System, or the Sun.
We look at the Solar System and we see the Shekinah Pattern of Being. All the way through it is present — the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells — and all the various combinations of focalization of pattern by which these things have been produced and brought forth to this present point. But we need to be sharing in the creative activity of the Cosmos. We’re not just going to be saved and go to heaven somewhere or other, to twiddle our thumbs, and pluck on a harp and float on a cloud. We have a part to play in the creative work of God that extends through all eternity. Because God finished the work at a certain point in relationship to something He was doing, human beings have imagined, strangely enough, that God just quit creating, that he is all through — that’s all! That is not the case at all. He finished certain things. He finished certain steps, and He was ready for man to share in further creative work.
The pattern of these Creative Cycles in relationship to the Shekinah, and the One Who Dwells, is revealed in our days of the week, the colors of the rainbow, the notes of the octave. In many places wherever we turn we see these things revealed. We see them manifest in the Solar System — the Shekinah Fire in what we call our Sun. Man says it’s a flaming fire, burning gases. Well I am not going to deny that. I suppose there are some gases burning. It’s still made in the image and likeness of Shekinah — the Fire in the middle; the Light That Glows all around it; and the Cloud of Glory, or the body of the planets. The Fire, the Light That Glows, and the body of the Shekinah, the Cloud of Glory — and you see the Solar System — and that Shekinah Pattern extends from the atom to the Solar System and beyond.
The Shekinah Pattern of the Cosmos is present here, is present everywhere — the Shekinah currents, vibratory factors — but they are of a level which you cannot, in a direct sense, perceive or contact. They must be brought down in the patterns of, well, the transformers, into a range where they can begin to have meaning to us; and as those vibratory factors are stepped down in their patterns of application they are brought into specific forms by reason of particularized Focalizations in the Body of Being. But every step of the way, in every thing, every form there is, anywhere in the Cosmos, it was brought forth by Shekinah — absolute, everywhere.
And, as you begin to understand the principles involved in your function in Shekinah you are not going to be trying to do something without Shekinah. You understand the laws, gradually learn to harmonize with them, function in relationship to them, to partake of God’s creative power, and to let it manifest on the design, the pattern, the Truth as God established it for your particular part of the Cosmic Plan. And if you try to create or use the forces of Shekinah to bring forth something contrary to that design you defeat yourself, destroy yourself. Man has been doing it for centuries, for millennia. And until you begin to reach a point where you cease trying to do the impossible, cease trying to make something that does not conform to the Divine design, cease trying to do something that is not subject to the Divine control, cease trying to bring forth something that is not being produced by Shekinah in harmony with God’s will — until you have reached that point you will be defeating yourself. When you reach it you will begin to be what God intended you to be.
And a part of that Shekinah Pattern of function is the use of your Voice, so that the voice of the Great Shepherd may sound through your lips.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
