Art Thou Willing To Face The Facts?
Uranda August 25, 1948
I have a letter here, part of which I would like to share with you:
“I walked into the office, and here on the desk I find The Triune Ray opened to these words: ‘The one great test, passing which thou shalt begin to know life, is this: art thou willing to face the facts?’ The one great test.
“Beloved Master, I come humbly, now, longing to pass that test. If I gloss over the unreal that remains in me I can never let it fall. I would strip it of all that keeps it in a state of preservation, remove the protecting film, and bare it to the bright Light of Truth. It can only live while it is covered up—whether by shame, self-righteousness, the lies of the prince of this world, it matters not—but as the facts are faced, honestly and squarely, and the unreal is seen for what it is, a thing without weight, meaning or value when it is exposed to the Light of Truth, the Warmth of Love, the free air of the Spirit, then it is truly nothing; for without its dark corner, its protecting web of fine-spun lies, it withers in the Light, shrivels up and is blown away in the clean, sweet Air of God's Spirit.
“‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand’. It has ever been. We must not be content to know it is so. We must let the Kingdom manifest through us, to expand through us, to be vibrantly Alive in us and through us. We must not be content to keep it at hand; we must let every dark corner be swept clean by the Spirit, that the Kingdom of God shall fill the whole earth.
“Why wait? The Kingdom is here. I will live in it. I will act like I am a Citizen of the New Civilization now.
“Looking back, I see that such progress as I made was always when I had a renewed Realization of what it means to Let. I have been thinking of the words, ‘Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.’ I feel that sometimes one drifts into rather a helpless state with respect to that Fact, somehow as if one could not help the word that was spoken. I feel a great need in myself in this respect. Before I let the wrong reaction find expression in word, I can Be still, and then, facing Facts, Let the Spirit of my Lord and Master, Spirit of all Truth, fill my whole Being, thus letting my heart be changed, thus letting the words of my mouth, which spring from the abundance of my heart, be forever unto Thy Glory, be forever a Blessing to my brother man.
“I want to truly help You in your Glorious Ministry, in which Ministry the Pattern of Truth must set the whole world Right. I will work with you to let that Pattern be established, finding my Joy in Loving You, in knowing I am helping You. I will let it be so.
“‘Create in me, O God, a clean heart,’ with every dark corner washed white as snow. ‘Let the wards of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight,’ my Lord and my Master.”
“Let the words of my mouth and meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight”. How well that text fits into the Current of our considerations, reminding us vividly that the meditations of our hearts must be acceptable in the sight of the Lord. Our thinking about the things we are feeling is vitally important. Here, in this letter, reference is made to The Triune Ray, which speaks of the one great test which, when it is passed, lets the individual begin to truly live. “Art thou willing to face the facts?” All of you have read these words and heard them read, and yet, as I read this letter, it occurred to me that here was a point upon which you, as a Unit, might well experience further expansion in consciousness.
Facing the Facts
That expression, as it is utilized in this Service, has been twisted by human minds to cause it to mean presumably some very peculiar things. According to the interpretation of the human mind, unreal things are sometimes assumed to be facts. How can nothing be a fact? You may answer that we know that there is evil in the world; there are many kinds of ill action; there is suffering and misery and sorrow—and I would answer, “Yes, there are such things. Temporarily such things are in manifestation.”
“But,” you say, “Why do you use the word temporarily? Have they not been in existence for thousands of years?”
A thousand years, ten thousand years, is but a moment in Eternity. Such periods of time seem so long to human beings, so much longer than the individual human life span, as things now are; but you know, as Emissaries, that the fact is that the manifestation of evil has only a temporary existence. Evil in any specific individual has only a temporary existence. Either evil is eliminated from the individual or the individual is eliminated from the face of the earth. No human being can perpetuate evil indefinitely. Evil is constantly destroying itself, bringing upon itself its own end. So it is that the continuity of evil, as the world now is, depends entirely upon the fresh material which it can draw into its decaying, destructive currents, particularly from the young people. If all children on the face of the earth, up to twelve years of age, were, in this moment, to cease feeding the insatiable appetite of the monstrous forms of evil, so that not one of them would become fresh material for the manifestation, or the perpetuation, of evil, it surely would not take very long for evil to vanish from the face of the earth. Evil would destroy itself utterly in only a few years. We are not suggesting that such a thing, in just that manner, will take place, but we use it as an illustration of the principle. There is no permanency in evil. Evil, in all of its existing forms, is only temporary.
While it is, in one sense, a fact that the forms of evil are in manifestation, in the sense that I used the word when I wrote that book, evil is not a fact. When I have repeated so often that there must a willingness to face the facts, I have always had in mind the fact that only the things of Reality are Facts, in any sense of permanency, in any sense of dependability. Some have taken that expression to mean that one must look at evil wherever one may see it, and consequently acknowledge evil as being a fact. We are not foolish, nor do we undertake to delude ourselves with respect to the necessity of evil, but anyone who has a fundamental understanding could hardly call evil a fact, in the true sense. A fact is something that is unchanging.
A fact is something that has permanency. A fact is something upon which one may depend. That, of course, may not be just the popular definition of the word; and yet I think we can safely utilize it in that sense. Facing the facts may include a recognition of the voids that are present because fundamental facts have not been allowed to manifest in the expression of one’s life. Facing the facts may require a recognition that adjustments are necessary. Facing the facts certainly causes the individual to realize that in human strength alone salvation is impossible—but facts are the things of Reality.
Are we willing to face the Facts of Being? Are we willing to face the Facts of Life? The human tendency is to keep facing the voids, keep facing the various forms of nothingness that tend to appear; but surely you are convinced that the unreal, in fact, has no weight, meaning or value. Consequently, if we face the Facts, it does not mean that we should stare at that which is without value, that has no meaning, that has no weight in Reality. Centering the attention in that which is unreal, in that which does not belong to us from the standpoint of our adoption as Children of the Living God, is not facing the Facts. When we let ourselves be adopted, so that we share in the Heritage of the Son, the Son of God, and become Branches of the One Vine, then we recognize that the Facts are contained in our true Heritage, in our true nature, by adoption—in our true Identity, in our true relationships with our Father. So many human minds have twisted this expression to justify centering the attention upon the unreal, to justify struggling with the forms of the unreal. The unreal is so slippery, its forms changing so, that it is like trying to fight the wind. You can never get ahold of it; you can never really do anything about it; it just mounts up and mounts up and mounts up, and engulfs one like quicksand. There is nothing stable in it. There is nothing dependable in it.
Facing the Facts
If one is willing to face the Facts, then one must be willing to recognize and acknowledge and accept the basic principles of Being, the Facts of Life. Once we face the Facts of Life, and stop facing the illusions and the temporary forms of the unreal that exist, we begin to find that which is truly stable and certain and dependable and permanent, and then our heart is set on such things. When our hearts are set on the things of God, the meditations of our hearts, the thinking we do about our feelings, will relate to the Facts. “The one great test which, when it is passed, allows one to begin to truly live: art thou willing to face the Facts?”
The Fact is that the transforming Power of God is sufficient for every individual.
The Fact is that the foundation that God has provided for every Responding One is stable and sure.
The Fact is that the Law always works. The Fact is that the one who responds to Reality is lifted up, and the one who responds not to the Real, but to the unreal, is carried down.
The Fact is that when the Children of God let themselves be centered in the Facts of Being, the healing, transforming Power of the Creator is allowed to function and manifest through body and mind and Spirit.
The Fact is that the Fire of God’s Love is well able to purify the heart.
The Fact is that the Oil of Love, with which our KING is waiting to annoint us, carries healing, soothing, transforming Power. The Fact is that God's Love is great enough and full enough and free enough to be sufficient for every man, woman and child upon the face of the earth.
The Fact is that the Truth is all-inclusive, and when one lets the expression of life manifest through the Pattern of Truth, the Fact is that Beauty manifests.
The Fact is that the Truth sets men free, and without the Truth human beings are bound by their own limitations.
The Fact is that, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
The Fact is that you are privileged to enter info that Kingdom here and now, and let it manifest on earth.
The Fact is that the Way, the Truth and the Life have been established, and are established, that all who will face the Facts may begin to Live.
Surely, there must be a goodly portion of you who, having read The Triune Ray, have meditated upon that statement that there is one great test, passing which you are ready to begin to truly live. Surely, such a statement must have captured the attention; surely, such a statement must have caused meditation, and the opportunity of meditation upon this statement has not been limited to a few hours or a few days or just a few weeks. As we have been meditating upon that statement this evening—and I have been giving you a sample of what I call meditation—would any of you say that you have exhausted the subject in meditation, prior to this evening? Have you learned anything new through this period of meditation? When such an obviously important statement is made, have you utilized every opportunity to meditate upon it, until you are aware of its significance, until you know what the facts are, so that you can Face the Facts? This sample of meditation, on a point of Truth, offers you an opportunity—it shows you something of the potentialities of meditation.
The prayer of every Earnest One is surely the same as the Psalmist, who said: “Let the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.” And if the meditations of one's heart are acceptable to the Lord, and if the Fact is that the mouth speaketh from the abundance of the heart, then the words of the mouth will surely be acceptable to the Lord. “Let the words of my mouth be acceptable”—but the words of the mouth cannot be acceptable unto the Lord until the meditations of the heart have become acceptable—and That is a Fact.
Art Thou Willing To Face The Facts?
O LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, we thank Thee for the holy and sacred privilege we have of coming before Thee, that through Thy sustaining, directing Spirit, we may face the Facts, walk in the Way, know the Truth and Live the Life; for thus it is tint we Let Thy Kingdom come and Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven; for Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever, In the Christ. Aum-en.
The Blessing of the Lord be upon thee now and forever, that the Spirit of the Living God may flow through thee in blessing to all who will receive, to the Glory of our KING, in Whose Name we gather, and under Whose Banner we live and move and have our Being, now and forevermore. Aum-en.
We might find another point of meditation with respect to the idea that the Power of the Lord works through unreal things to bring about the Restoration to the Edenic State. How, or in what sense, is that true?
To suggest that the Power of the Lord works through the unreal, as if the unreal had weight, meaning and value, or as if the unreal provided the necessary channels for such Creative Activity, would obviously be wrong. The true Creative Currents work through the channels of Reality that are present, that are responsive to the Creative Source. The present circumstance does not provide a manifestation of perfection; so it is evident that whatever Creative function there may be it must be in spite of, or regardless of, the limitations that are established in the field of the unreal.
It occurs to me that perhaps this idea has been interpreted by some minds as sort of justifying the unreal and making it, in some fashion, important to the Divine fulfilment. Fundamentally, we know that the unreal circumstance is not necessary, but, when it appears, even that is used by God on a constructive basis, providing the human being involved will let it be so. So, the Creative Power of God, working through the unreal, does not accomplish its purpose because of the unreal, but in spite of the unreal—and only that which is of Reality can provide a true channel for Creative function. The subject could be expanded still further, for whatever meditation you wish to give it.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
