The Body of the Shepherd
from Shekinah Magic
Uranda June 23, 1953 Class
We continue our theme of Heavenly Magic. There is nothing more wonderful than the magic of living. One cannot live in darkness. One can exist in darkness and give the appearance of living for a time, but in such a state, generally speaking, one is asleep, to some degree at least. So we turn our attention to the consideration of light in the spiritual sense—light and darkness. Spiritually speaking, we do not need the darkness of ignorance or ill conditions or distortions. “The life”—the life of Shekinah—“is the light of men.”
“In Shekinah was life.” Life, as we know it physically, must come from Shekinah or we cease to have it, regardless of the pattern of existence the human being may follow. All life comes from God through Shekinah, without any exception. But, the life as it is in Shekinah is the light of men. We must, of course, be physically alive in order to perceive light, to distinguish light from darkness. And as that is so physically, it is also true mentally, emotionally, spiritually. We must be alive to spiritual things in order to distinguish between the light and the dark of the spiritual factors of life.
“In the beginning was Shekinah, and the Shekinah was with God, and the Shekinah was God.” So we have learned that we cannot separate between the evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells and the One Who Dwells. There is no divinding line. And as far as we are concerned we are contacting God the moment we contact the evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells. “All things were made by Shekinah.” There is a key statement that is of utmost importance to us. Anything that we attempt to make without regard to Shekinah is not then truly made. If we would have a creative expression in life, if we would share God's creative activity, we must function in relationship to Shekinah; otherwise nothing worthwhile is brought forth or established in the realm of form.
“All things were made by Shekinah”—all things were made by God's use of Shekinah. Your mind is supposed to be a capacity by which Divine Mind can function in this level of things in relationship to the use of Shekinah. Now if you, as a human being, undertake to use Shekinah, you will fail; but if you function on a basis which allows the Divine control to be conveyed through you into the earth, then on this level, in this physical realm of things, Shekinah is used by God through you, and we need to have that distinction clearly in consciousness so that you do not, as a human being, attempt to use Shekinah—but you must not refuse to use Shekinah. That could sound like a paradox. If you refuse to use Shekinah in the pattern of Divine control and say, “But Shekinah is higher than I”—and many Shekinah patterns are—you will never be able to be truly creative. And here we have one of the delicate factors with respect to growth, progress, development spiritually, and that is to find the balance point between arrogance and egotism and the true expression of your Heavenly individuality of Being.
Humility, true humility, keeps you from becoming arrogant or egotistical, but false humility keeps you from functioning on a basis which will let God convey something through you into the world. Where is this balance point? Between that which is actually egotistical and that which is simply a recognition of your Divine heritage as you share the expression of Deity on earth. I have known many people who, because they did not have clear vision, assumed that I was egotistical. I have had many people attempt to fight against me, fundamentally on that one point, the assumption that I was being egotistical. On the other hand, if I had functioned on a basis which I have classified as false humility, could I have been an instrument for the expression of God's blessings to you? Obviously not. We must not deny our correct relationship with God. It is not being egotistical or arrogant when we function on the basis of God's Love and Truth and Life in an acceptance, a recognition, of that which is the reality of God's Pattern for us.
You recognize that I have said very little about my particular place in the Cosmic scheme of things, but I cannot deny it and I am forced to mention it on occasion, briefly though it may be, in order to help bring the whole pattern together for you so that you can see and understand. But in that, if you have eyes to see, I believe you will find that it has always been with a spirit of humility before God that I even touched upon that particular point. On the other hand, if I were to carry a false pattern of humility so that I was responsive to conditions, to people, I could not convey a positive pattern to you. I would be useless to God and useless as far as you are concerned. So, it is very easy for the human mind to confuse the true expression of Being and call it egotism. On the other hand, there is a fine balance point, and sometimes people assume that they are simply being positive in the nature of their own true reality when in actual fact they are being egotistical; when in actual fact they are being arrogant. And so, one of the things that you have to learn to see in the light is this line of distinction, so that you are not caught in the pattern of arrogance and egotism on the one hand and on the other hand you do not become so subject to those conditions around you that you cannot be a proper point of positive expression for the release of God's Power on earth. You cannot deny the reality of the positive pattern of God's Power by your actions and attitudes and still let it manifest.
Human beings, given a little authority, given a little power, tend to abuse that power and use it selfishly, and very often they appear to find certain satisfactions in imposing ill conditions upon others. One of the characteristics of those who rise on the basis of world patterns to a position of dictatorship is that they establish in themselves the life and death control of other people, and they feel that they are justified in almost offhandedly requiring the death of some human being, or diminishing the life opportunity in some human being—imprisonment or something of that sort. One of the ways we can distinguish in ourselves or in others with respect to this proper functioning in the positive point of Being is in relationship to the constructive pattern that is involved. Is the authority, is the power, used in such fashion that it arbitrarily denies other human beings their full pattern of rights and privilege? If such is the case there is probably the manifestation of arrogance and egotism. If, on the other hand, there is that which human beings might conceive to be egotism and yet there is a pattern of consistent dedication to the constructive, helpful, creative pattern of life in others, then we can recognize that there is at least some indication that it is in harmony with the Divine Plan. The dictator always produces an imitation of this. We can see it very easily in relationship to Hitler, for instance. He was presumably making his nation a people of supermen and women. There was an imitation, the appearance of the manifestation of Heavenly magic.
As we have noted in times past, the outer mind in self-activity can appear to duplicate the Magic of Life up to a certain point—the Magic of Reality, or Heavenly Magic—but it reaches a point where it cannot. If that which appears to be a duplication of the Divine Pattern of Heavenly Magic is being used unselfishly, perhaps it has some value, perhaps it is moving in the right direction—even though in the world at the present time we find so many situations where there is good, where it is moving in the right direction, but nevertheless it is a far cry from what it ought to be. So we want to be careful about judging, yet we must recognize that this appearance of duplicating the constructive expression, the appearance of the altruistic attitude, the savior of his people, [in Hitler it] was merely a cloak. It turned out to be the manifestation of a wolf in sheep's clothing.
And that is the pattern that the Master utilized in distinguishing—revealing the difference between correct attitude and pattern of function and that which is of the world. Those who have a cloak of sheep's clothing—what are they? Are they sheep? If they are sheep they need a shepherd. But they fool the sheep. They may not delude the shepherd, but what are they concerned with? Not so much the shepherd as the sheep. If one is a true leader one will not have the appearance of a sheep. Now that may sound a little strange to you.
The pattern indicates that we all are, in one sense, at some point along the way at least, sheep in the fold of the Great Shepherd. That pattern is used in the beginning of the cycle. But that is the range of the servant pattern. At first we must be servants, or slaves even, before we can reach the point of being friends. But once you go through the transition, from the state of the servant to the state of the friend, you are no longer a sheep. So, if there is an emergence out of the pattern of the world helplessness into the pattern of true Divine function, you are no longer symbolized by the sheep—but you must function under the pattern of the Shepherd until you learn how to emerge. Well our classes and the purpose of our function is to help you to emerge into a range where true leadership can manifest through you—not the leadership of arrogance, self-righteousness, not the supposed leadership of egotism, but the true leadership. You are either a member of the flock of the sheep, assuming that you are responding, or you are a member of the Body of the Shepherd. That will clarify the point for you.
If you are a member of the Body of the Shepherd, and you have been received as a friend, then you function as a shepherd, and to the sheep you may appear, to some of them, to be assuming something—if you are, it will soon be shown—but, the fact that human beings may judge you to be assuming something, judge you to be arrogant, judge you to be egotistical, does not make you so unless you let it be so. You can have the proper pattern of response to our King and be a member of the Body of the Shepherd. And if you are a member of the Body of the Shepherd, you will not need to wear a cloak of sheep's skin.
Now how did you get the sheep’s skin to begin with? You killed one of the sheep. You see? How did anyone get the sheep’s skin? By killing one of the sheep. So the wolf in sheep’s clothing fails to appreciate the True Pattern. There is the seeming pattern that will delude other sheep, perhaps, for a little while, the pattern of black magic—but you are either numbered among the sheep, if you are responding, or you are numbered as a member of the Body of the Shepherd, and you do not have to wear a sheep skin. So those who claim to be leaders, who point to the sheep’s skin on their back to emphasize the importance of accepting them as leaders, do not know what they are talking about. You see what I mean? They are pointing to a sheep’s skin, and say, “Look, I'm one of the sheep, I'm just one of the sheep, look at my sheep’s skin.” But he who emerges as a true leader is not wearing a sheep’s skin. He is wearing the badge of membership in the Body of the Shepherd. And there is the difference—so you do not need to be confused. “Beware of wolves in sheeps’ clothing,” the Master said, and we begin to see how true it is.
And what is the true nature of the shepherd? There are millions of people in the world who assume the patterns of leadership, who want to appear as sheep. Some of them really are sheep and some of them are wolves in sheeps’ clothing. But he who emerges as a true leader is not wearing a sheep’s skin. He is not one of the sheep. He is a member of the Body of the Shepherd. And you are invited to be members of the Body of the Shepherd. So let us watch, individually and collectively, with respect to this delicate point of balance, so that you do not become egotistical or arrogant and yet you do not sell your birthright for a mess of pottage, you do not refuse to be what you ought to be, even if someone classifies you as being arrogant and egotistical. Time will tell always—time will tell.
“All things were made by Shekinah; and without Shekinah was not any thing made that was made.” Having recognized this important distinction which we have been considering, we can see that the sheep are those who need to have something made for them, they need to be led into green pastures, they need to be taken to the still waters to drink, etc. But the one who is the leader, the one who is a member of the Body of the Shepherd, will carry the true characteristics of the Shepherd and he will be functioning in relationship to Shekinah so that he can make something. We begin to see two classes of people in the sphere of the responding ones. There is another class, of course, those who are dead and in whom there is no response. But, there are the sheep and there are the members of the Body of the Shepherd. The sheep have not yet learned how to function in relationship to Shekinah. They must be protected from themselves, they must be led, they must be drawn into a position where they can begin to know the reality of Godhood—they must begin to know how to function as a Shepherd that they may not be sheep forever.
The only reason there is the pattern of the sheep in the world is because man fell. God did not create human beings to be as sheep and He did not establish Himself to be as a Shepherd to the sheep. Remember, it is not the Divine Design that makes you or anyone else as a sheep. That is the nature of the responding one as he moves out of the pattern of sleep into the pattern of response, moving in the direction of the Divine Design—and gradually he awakens to the reality of his own true Being and steps into the sphere of the Body of the Shepherd, becomes a member of that Body and is so restored to his Divine Estate. We have this point clearly set forth in the Psalm which we have recognized to be the formula: “The Lord is your shepherd.”
“He restoreth your soul”—and remember what your soul is. The soul is the outer manifestation of your Being. And God breathed the breath of life into man's nostrils, and man, the physical man, became a living soul—a living soul. “He restoreth your soul,” to its Divine Estate, which is to membership in the body of that which which is now functioning as a Shepherd. That body will function as a Shepherd only as long as there are sheep, but the day will come when there are no more sheep, when they have all entered the Body of the Shepherd, and then the function will be restored to the pattern which was originally designed for it.
You know, the processes of working out salvation for human beings is a substitute pattern for Divine activity. God had to produce a substitute pattern. He had to begin functioning in a sphere that was not a part of the original design, the original purpose, simply repairing the machinery that broke down. After the machinery is repaired—that is important—but after it is repaired the work will be in harmony with the true purpose of the machinery. We will not go on fixing the machine forever. Once that is repaired and mankind is restored to his Divine position, he will begin to share God's creative activity according to the Original Purpose. You do not need to be concerned about trying to understand that Original Purpose, but you can remember this illustration. For the time being, God is working to repair the machinery that was broken down. Once the machinery is repaired, and all is in order, the machine will be used in the work for which it was originally designed. Now it is repair work; then it will be the use of the machine. And that is all you need to know about it at the moment, except that it will be creative work.
The immediate point, then, we need to realize is that “He restoreth your soul.” The Shepherd restores you into a position in the Body of the Shepherd, and He has assumed the role of a Shepherd only because there were sheep, and as soon as there are no more sheep He will put aside His robe of the Shepherd and function according to His true nature, His true purpose, and no longer as the Shepherd. “He restoreth your soul.” And God, Shekinah, breathed the breath of life into man's nostrils and man became a living soul. So the man is the soul, if he has the breath of life in his nostrils. Let us remind ourselves: All things were made by Shekinah; and without Shekinah was not any thing made that was made. In Shekinah was life and the life of Shekinah was the light of men—and in the beginning Shekinah breathed the breath of life. In Shekinah was life—and in the beginning Shekinah breathed the breath of life into man's nostrils, and having the Shekinah breath of life in his nostrils man became a living soul.
What is the distinction to be seen here then, in order that we avoid any confusion in thought and attitude? Any human being who is alive is a soul. He is either a dying soul or a living soul. Many human beings—body, mind and heart—are souls, but they are dying souls. If they will respond and if there is a Shepherd, if there is a pattern of creative activity available to them, they can become living souls; but they do not become living souls until the Shekinah breath of life is in their nostrils. Something of the Shekinah breath of life has already entered into you, or you would not be responding as you are. But what is this process by which the Shekinah breath of life may enter into your nostrils so that you may be in actual fact a living soul?
The Master, while He walked among men, set the stage for that particular pattern of outworking, that the Shekinah breath of life might again be breathed into man's nostrils, that human beings might cease their function as dying souls and that they might become living souls. You will recall that at the time that the disciples allowed the beginning of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, or the appearance of Shekinah, what is called the day of Pentecost, they were in the habit of breathing upon someone. They breathed upon so and so and he or she received the Holy Ghost, as it is put. What is the Holy Ghost? The Holy Ghost is the outer Cloud factor of Shekinah, insofar as the general sense is concerned—the Body of many members.
You have recognized that the Holy Ghost has a particularized application in you as an individual, but the same pattern holds true in the Body of many members. So, every human being has a ghost or, in one sense, is a ghost. He is a dying ghost, or he is a living ghost. If he is a living ghost in the pattern of the Heavenly Magic, it is the Holy Ghost—but if we must distinguish that which is of reality by calling it the Holy Ghost, by inference we immediately acknowledge that there is an unholy ghost. There would be no necessity of saying Holy Ghost if there was no such thing as an unholy ghost, would there? No. So the very fact that we say Holy Ghost clearly indicates that there is an unholy ghost, and the unholy ghost is the pattern in the dying soul. The unholy ghost is the pattern in the dying soul. The Holy Ghost is the pattern in the living soul, and the Holy Ghost also manifests in relationship to the Body of many members.
We begin to see, then, that what is called the day of Pentecost was actually the beginning of the process by which the Shekinah breath of life was being breathed into man's nostrils, that they, then, might become living souls. But they got the first whiff of the breath, they started to get a little of it into their lungs, spiritually speaking, and they got so exhilarated, so thrilled, and their minds got so busy, that they went rushing out and started functioning on the basis of the whiff, on the basis of the little beginning. Now if you will recall the Master's instruction to His disciples, He said, “Tarry in Jerusalem until the day of Pentecost is fully come”—until it is fully come. The disciples disobeyed that direction. They did not do it. They did tarry until the day the cycle of Pentecost—that is, the cycle of Shekinah—started to appear; and the minute it started to appear they assumed that that was all. They jumped to some conclusions and rushed out and tried to use the Power that they felt in themselves according to what they thought would be good deeds, not realizing that they were actually disobeying our King, spoiling the pattern, throwing away the opportunity to let the day of Pentecost fully come.
You see, it never has fully come. There was just the first faint Dawn of it, the first faint breaking of the New Day, beginning to dispel the darkness for those who were awake at sunrise. They did not even let sunrise come—sunrise, the manifestation of the Body of the Son. The day, the cycle—not a twenty-four hour day—the day of Pentecost was supposed to fully come, and it did not because Peter and the others spoiled it. They did not let it fully come. God has been waiting nearly two thousand years for some human beings somewhere to so function that the Son would no longer have to stand still. The Son has been standing still for a long time. What is the story about Joshua making the sun stand still? Well the Son has been standing still, the Dawn did not fully come, there was just a little of the light of the Dawn. Instead of letting the Body of the Son take form and rise above the horizon so that the day might fully come, those who were supposed to be the members of the Body of the Son went rushing off to use the Power they felt according to their own idea of what would be good—so the Son stood still and darkness has remained for nineteen centuries while God waited for human beings to appear on earth who would let the Dawn of the New Day come, who would allow the Son to rise, the Body of the Son to appear, to let the day of Pentecost fully come.
If we are to let this work out in relationship to ourselves, that we may be a true blessing to others, we must let the Shekinah breath of life come into our nostrils so that we may become living souls, and as living souls, we, who were once dying souls, can be members of the One Body, the Christ Body, the Body of the Rising Son, that the day of Pentecost may fully come, that darkness may be dispelled from the whole earth and the Kingdom of Heaven be made manifest.
Once you begin to actually see this Divine Pattern, the Divine Purpose, you no longer have the urge to go out and try to do good, as Peter did. So many people have followed Peter's example, Peter's leadership. But when they do they are not following our King, because Peter did not follow our King. He let a little truth appear in his two Epistles. He let a little truth appear there. He was a good man. Oh, he was a good man, was Peter! But let us follow our King! It is not enough merely to follow a good man, a man who was so good that the moment he began to feel the flash of God's Power coming into his being he could not wait, he could not let the day of Pentecost fully come until he realized what was happening. He had to rush out and start using it. What does this tell us? This tells us that he began—and the others, focalized in Peter however—he began to let the Cloud have some meaning; but he did not wait until he was fully attuned with the Cloud so that he could see the Light within the Cloud. And then, becoming attuned to the Light that glows, they should have let themselves see what was within the Light, that they could comprehend the meaning of the Fire. There were those who sensed the reality of some Fire in it, yes. “And there came a sound … as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.” “A sound … as of a rushing might wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting,” and there appeared upon each of them as if it were cloven tongues of fire.
There was some recognition of the fact that there was some Fire inside of the Light that glows within the Cloud, but they had not become attuned to it, there was no real unification in it, there was no real pattern, there was no real Divine control established. They had not waited until they could see and know and obey the One within the Flame, the One within the Fire. If they had waited until they could hear His voice, so that they could obey the Word of the One within the Fire, they would not have gone off on impulsive tangents as they did—the world story would have been different, where the restoration would have been completed to the Divine Estate centuries ago, as God intended that it should. But impulsive Peter and the others who followed his lead spoiled it, ruined it, and did not let the day of Pentecost fully come.
It is for us to let it fully come, that the breath of Life, the Shekinah breath of Life, may be breathed into your nostrils, and that Life shall be your Light. But the Light is not all. Behind the Light there is the Fire, and within the Fire there is the One who is like unto the Son of God. Let us let the day of Pentecost fully come. Let us obey our Lord and King.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
