Freely  Ye  Have  Received  —  Freely  Give

from  Giving and Receiving

Uranda  November 29, 1953

I would like to carry forward the particularized application of the principles we considered together on Thanksgiving Day. In gaining an understanding of the answer to the question which was posed—Why this separation between heaven and earth?—we hark back once more to this Seventeenth Verse of the Third Chapter of Genesis: “And unto Adam,” the LORD God said, “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it.” As we examine this pattern here, we see that it was not merely because Adam listened to his wife that he was in trouble, but because he listened to her when she asked him to do something wrong.

If the spirit of God be working in-and-through the female, and if she allows that true expression of the Divine to appear there is no curse, but a blessing which appears by reason of listening to her. But it was because Adam listened to her, harkened to her, yielded to her, when she asked him to do something which the LORD God had commanded him not to do. Here then, we see the basic principle: If her thought had been in obedience with that which the LORD God had commanded, all would have been well; but it was because her thought was contrary to what the LORD God had commanded, and man accepted woman as being superior to God—man is cursed when he accepts woman as being superior to God. When man obeys the LORD God, regardless of what woman may say or do, the power of God is made manifest through the man. If Adam had refused to put Eve above God as the authority, and had been obedient to God, one of two things would have taken place. Either Eve would have repented—perhaps she would have rebelled a little, and held back for a little time, and tried by various manoeuvres to still put over her own way. But if Adam had held steady in his centering in the LORD God, it is highly probable that Eve would have repented, and if she had not repented she would have destroyed herself, and the pattern of misery which the world has known would have been prevented. Eve could not impose that pattern of misery upon the world until man accepted it for himself, and since that day the tendency has been for man to place woman as being above God. And woman, in her pride and in her arrogance, has tried to maintain her place as being above God.

Now, it is not enough for any given man or group of men to reach a point to where they are not responding to woman. Many in the world have gone that far and the pattern of their expression in that regard has manifested in various ways—for instance, as in the life of a monk or in some other pattern, more or less austere, generally. But, in any case many, many men have gone that far and yet, nothing really worthwhile came of it. It didn’t accomplish what was necessary. Now, it is not to be expected that we could, by some kind of propaganda secure the cooperation of the majority of men on earth so that they would arbitrarily reach a point of putting God first and woman second. Just from the standpoint of approaching it on that basis, I do not think we could succeed because women generally would fight the program with everything in their beings and man would again listen, harken, to the voice of his wife.

So, the only way, the right way, is to start on the basis of what we have called a Nucleus Pattern. This does not mean that in the nucleus all the persons involved have to be married, or that they have to have mates, or that women with mates are particularly blessed in the sense that they are beyond their sisters who may not at the moment have mates. But, in a Nucleus Pattern of couples and individuals, as the case may be, such as we have here, where there is a recognition, a deep realization, and a heart acceptance of the fact that the seed which is to grow in the whole world body of responding ones, the point of starting, the embryo, must be of the nature of that which is to be produced, though it is as small, comparatively speaking, as a grain of mustard seed. It still must, in its essences, be like that which is to be brought forth in the larger sense; which is to say, a restoration to the Divine Pattern, wherein man maintains his centering in God regardless of what woman may say or do. And, where woman devotes herself to assisting man to that end, so that woman may share the same centering, the same response to God.

The tendency, as yet, even here on Sunrise Ranch, is for woman to try in some fashion to dictate the course of man. Now, if woman is functioning selflessly in the current of the spirit of God, her suggestions, her revelation of her perception of the spirit may rightly, be very seriously considered; but if man finds that she is asking that which is contrary to that which the LORD God has commanded, then man must not obey woman, for that would be to again establish the pattern of the fall, placing woman above God. Because man placed woman above God and woman has undertaken to maintain a situation where man would place her above God, we have the world of misery. It should not be required of any man that he should achieve the state of this full centering on a basis of the constant and consistent opposition of woman. But segregating the man from womankind is likewise not the way—as we might do if we were to establish a monastery. Woman is responsible for helping to bring about the healing of man, just as she was responsible for helping to bring about the illness in man—and then, after she has so functioned, she herself can be healed.

A number of years ago, those of you who were here in 1946 will recall, due to various factors, my physical body because subject to an illness pattern. Why? Because, at that time, as those of you who were here will recall, I told you that I recognized that I could no longer hope to shepherd a responding group of people through to the pattern of the Divine Design while remaining, myself, aloof from the vibratory factors of the Unit. Up to that time, to some degree at least—I hadn’t kept it absolute—but to a large degree I had functioned on a basis of maintaining a vibratory separation, so that the vibratory results of the Unit would not necessarily have too much effect on me. I offered the leadership, I offered the guidance, I offered the instruction so that the responding ones could carry through under that assistance. But, every time I had begun to develop a Unit pattern on that basis, it had reached a point where the Unit pattern failed. In that failure, of course, I suffered. But the actual fact is that if those patterns had worked out as they did and I had been completely, vibrationally, attuned with the Unit patterns of those days I wouldn’t be here today. And yet it had reached a point where I recognized that I was going to have to take into my own body the vibratory patterns of the Unit itself. When I did—and I explained to those who were here at that session what it was I was doing—and when I did it almost destroyed this body, as some of you will be able to recall. At that time Nancy was a baby, and I told you who were here then that I was placing the life of my wife, of my baby, and my own body on the altar, and that if the Unit then taking form carried through, I would be restored to health; and if the Unit then taking form, with which I identified myself vibrationally, should fail then I would leave this sphere of things. Some of you were here and you will recall these things, for I plainly stated that placing my own physical life, the life of my wife and my baby, upon the altar.

I was ill, and as much as possible I protected my wife and my baby from the vibrational factors involved. And you will recall that it took some little time before my health began to really improve. Certain ones here felt a keen responsibility and functioned on the basis of doing everything possible to take the load from me and make it easy. One of those who very diligently did everything possible to lift the load, to avoid physical strain upon my body, one who helped in countless ways, in this regard, and went out of his way over and over again to protect me from physical strain and the necessity of stress factors of various kinds was Ralph, after he came to the Ranch. He came here without a background of the teaching; he came here without a basic understanding of what we were undertaking to do. Nevertheless, I cannot forget the diligence with which he sought to keep me from being placed under stress that would hurt me. If he has had shortcomings of various kinds, and if he has made some mistakes—while I do not condone those things—I remember deeply the fact that at a time when I needed someone to take that physical load, lest my body give way, he was the one who did more than any other man in the Service to make possible my recovery.

There are many factors that entered into this picture in various ways, and I am using this largely as a point of illustration, because if someone had not taken that load, I wouldn’t be here tonight—nor would you. Many shared in various ways. I am not going to take time to outline all of them. The point I wish to make is that my life, and the lives of my wife and my baby were placed upon the altar, and I accepted the vibrational repercussions in my own flesh—and there were times when it didn’t look like I would survive the results. But by the Grace of God, and by the faithful service of various ones, in many, many different ways, we are here tonight. I remember so well the day, the only time I can remember in all my ministry when I had to be helped, to the extent that I was, from my place before a group. It was over here in the barn, and afterward, I was assisted into the living room, where we have the dining room now, at the Ranch house, and there was a couch there; and I was placed upon that couch, and one by one or two by two, those who were present at the time came and knelt by the couch. It was a critical period. At the moment I was not sure, even in my own conscious mind, whether I would be here very much longer, or not. And from that day to this there have been ups and downs, but gradually my health has improved. I could not get help. I could not, having accepted the vibratory factors as I did, heal myself. I would have had to segregate myself from the Unit pattern and that would have meant that I accepted my mission on earth as an absolute failure, and I wouldn’t have cared to remain on that kind of a basis. So that was out. The point is, through these years since 1946, I have had health only as you gave it to me. I couldn’t get it. There was nothing I could do to arbitrarily produce it myself. I have had health of the body only as it was given to me.

Now this leads us to the central core point of our meditation tonight: freely ye have received, freely give. As ye give so shall ye receive. I would like to help you to understand the fact that you cannot get anything for yourself, though you may delude yourself into thinking that you do so. I cannot have anything, except as it is given to me by others. I cannot receive anything from God for myself. That which I receive must come through someone else from God to me. It’s a gift of God—but I cannot receive one solitary thing from God for myself. Everything that I receive must come from God through someone else to—without an exception—including the health of my body. Everything that I require in order to live and minister, I am absolutely dependent upon others. You, and others who minister with you, are the channels through which I receive from God those things necessary to myself—and I cannot receive from God, for myself, anything which I may need—even the life of my own body, my own health. I cannot get from God. The privilege of living on earth, of ministering, of serving our KING here on earth is something that comes from God, yes—but it comes from God through someone else to me, not directly.

Now, to the degree that that is realized, you can perhaps recognize that you cannot receive from God, in any direct sense, that which you need. Everything that you need for the perfect expression of your life must come to you—from God, yes—but through someone else to you, for you are under the same Law. It must come to you through someone else. If you think you get it some other way, you find that you are only deluding yourself for a little time—and it will not, does not, work. You can—your presence here indicates that you realize this—you can receive something from God through me that you cannot get any other way. It cannot be had on earth by any other means. But I cannot receive from God and give to you all the things that you need—not by a long ways. You have to receive from God for each other, any one of you here. We can pick one of you; maybe Jimmy up here. All of you have received something from God through Jimmy. All of you have received something from God through Al. And we could go on and name each one, actually, and say the same thing. And to the degree that you have effectively let God give something through you to others, you have been serving. To the degree that you have not allowed God to give something through you to others, you have not been serving. And this is the Law of Heaven, the Will of God on Earth. This is what is meant by selflessness, selfless service.

Once you realize that is utterly and absolutely, eternally impossible for you to get anything from God for yourself, you will stop the foolish business of trying to get something for yourself. There isn’t anything more foolish than that—trying to get something, in a direct sense, for yourself, from God or from anyone else! If you try to get it from God through someone else, it’s still from God. If you say, “I’ll get it from so-and-so over here”—you’ll fail. Whatever you do to try to get something for yourself, you will fail—period. Billions of human beings for thousands of years have manoeuvred and twisted and turned and tried to defy that principle, and they paid the price in misery and suffering and sorrow, disease and death. Not one has ever been able to violate that Law successfully, and once you realize it cannot be done—well, you do not have to have very much wisdom to stop trying to do the impossible!

Now I am going to let you in on a secret. God Himself cannot get anything from any source for Himself. Our LORD and KING, Jesus Christ, cannot get anything from any source whatsoever, above or below, for Himself. He is absolutely limited, in Heaven, to that which is given to Him by others. The CENTRAL GOD of Gods, the Highest Being in all the Cosmos, is under the same, absolute, limitation. No God, no God Being anywhere at any level, can, under any circumstance, get anything for Himself, by any means whatsoever, in a direct sense. GOD is absolutely limited to that which is given to Him by others—our KING cannot get anything. Now God does not attempt to do the impossible. Only human beings are so foolish that they attempt it. If you say, all things are possible with God, and you say that is possible with God, you lie—because that is one thing that is utterly impossible to God, or to any Being in all the Cosmos. He who tries to do it destroys himself. It may take a few years to get the job done but he does it. If you begin to realize this, with any understanding at all, you will stop trying to do the impossible. You will give to others in the expression of Life as you have seen me do.

It has been about eight years—summer of 1946 wasn’t it—about the middle of next year it will be eight years. You’ve seen me do it, functioning on a basis where I was absolutely dependent—in the sense of health, healing, absolutely everything! And how many of you have heard me ask for anything for myself? Will you please hold your hands up. Will you please. If you have, please put your hand up. And not a hand goes up. Not one. I have waited until you found yourself good and ready, till you got around to it, very often. Till you’d taken care of this for yourself, and that for yourself, then what was pleasing to yourself. And when you finally got around to it, to give me something, I accepted it. But how often have I seen, back through these seven years, that it was always the tail end of the giving which I got. I never complained about it, did I? I worked with what was given to me, and asked for nothing more. I’ve seen people with marvellous opportunities of giving, hold back. They were going to do this first, they were going to do that first, and finally they would get around to the point of giving a little something to me—and I accepted it, and praised God for it, and used it in the Service of our KING.

Now, if in over seven years—and I’ve lived it before you, day after day, month after month, through the seven years—if I didn’t get discouraged and say, “Well, this isn’t working fast enough. I am going to start trying to get something for myself. I don’t like having to live down here in a little house like this, the situation as it is. If the rest can’t behave themselves, I am going to have a decent place to live. I am going to have something for my family. I am going to do this myself.” Did you ever see me do it? Did you? Once? Even after it began to work out where we could have a bathroom—how long was it, between the time the Lord provided the bathroom fixtures until there was a septic tank provided, and I had a bathroom. Was it a year? At least—just about a year. And I know, everything had to be done first. That’s all right. But the thing that people haven’t realized is that everything they keep away from me, they themselves lose. It’s a sure way to loss. As some of you are beginning to find, if you give to me first then everything unfolds. But if you just give the tail end, that’s all you have left, because the cycles work out for you to lose—and I don’t make it so. It’s been so for twenty-thousand years, with billions of human beings—for you to lose that which you refuse to give to God, as always happened. We see it over and over again here on Sunrise Ranch. There have been all kinds of examples, living examples—and I’ve left them among you, sometimes for months, so you could get a good look at what it was like to see such creatures, before they finally left Sunrise, so that you could see and know, positively.

As you give, so shall you receive. As you give where? To God—and if I am the representative of our KING on earth, what is your giving to me? You can’t give to Him except by giving to me. If I ask any one of you to do that—to give something to our KING without giving something to me—how would you go about it, I would like to know? Does anyone here know how to go about it? What would you do? Just how would you do it? You can’t do it! It’s utterly and absolutely impossible to do it—as long as I am on earth. As long as I am on earth, it’s absolutely impossible for anyone to do it, actually! Of course people give to me in ways that they know not of. But, you cannot give to our LORD and KING without giving to me. And I cannot have anything except what is given to me. That’s the Law of the Kingdom—the Kingdom of our KING on earth. I cannot have anything on earth with which to build that Kingdom, or give it form, except it be given to me, to use—and then I’ll use it for the Divine Purpose. And it is an absolute Law, that that which anyone refuses to give to God, he loses, sooner or later—absolute certainty, as surely as the sun rises and sets. If you are going to take care of yourself first—all right, go ahead, you will lose it. But you have to convince yourself that it is so. I can afford to wait. That’s the secret of patience. I can afford to wait.

You see me here tonight, with health of body far exceeding that which I had seven years ago, because of the giving. The healing of my body is not yet complete. Some day this Unit will get around to the point of giving me back the rest of my health—meanwhile I’ll wait. I can get along without it, for a little while yet anyway, until you decide that its time to give it back to me, so that I can have my health of body complete.

When you begin to realize that whatever you have in your life must be give to you through someone else, if it is to have any meaning, you will begin to live. And in your giving you will be planting the seed which sooner or later will bring forth fruit, because if you give to others to help them live you will in season find someone—you may have to wait quite awhile sometimes—but sooner or later you will find someone who will give to you, so that you can live; not merely exist for a time, to pass away.

There have been so many things on Sunrise Ranch that did not need to be—so much loss, so much suffering, so much difficulty—but I could never convince a group of people before, that it would pay to live selflessly. They were going to get some things for themselves, the way they wanted to. They were going to get some things from God direct, and they didn’t have to get it through me. All right, go ahead and get it. See if you can? See what it will mean? You can, in your department, receive from God that which you are responsible for passing out to others. Yes, there are those things which you can receive direct from God—but not one solitary thing for yourself! Only that which you are responsible for giving to others, from God! You are a channel for God’s giving to others. You cannot receive from God one single, solitary thing except that for which you are responsible in the expression of God’s giving to others—to me and to others. This is the basis of life in the Kingdom. When we begin to understand it, and to see it and know it, to accept it, we will begin to live. We will begin to have heaven on earth. We will begin to let it appear where it ought to appear, right here on Sunrise Ranch—and it will appear according to the Law, as I have outlined it for you heretofore. If you try to change it around, make it some other way—go ahead! Maybe you can afford to play around with self-activity some more, throwing away opportunities, throwing away the substance that God has given into your hands—waste and loss. Perhaps you are wealthy enough to afford it. I am not. I can’t afford it, but I can afford to wait. I can’t afford to try to get something for myself, but I can afford to wait.

And there you begin to see the Way, the Truth and the Life. Accept it and live, reject it and die. It is your choice. And in this you will find, as you meditate upon it, the answer to the question—Why? Why the gulf between the intellectually accepted idea and the functional manifestation inform? Why? The answer is given to you, if you will receive it. We can carry through to victory only as we serve our KING according to the Laws of the Kingdom. I thank God, from the depth of my heart, for all the things I have received from God through you, individually and collectively, but I have not yet received enough to give adequate form to the Kingdom of God on earth.

© Emissaries of Divine Light