And The Word Is God
Martin Exeter March 31, 1985 p.m.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
The Word has tended to be looked upon as something unrelated to human beings. Perhaps the One called Jesus Christ in the Christian religion is considered to be “the Word” to Christians. This One, who certainly did incarnate on earth in the form of Jesus, through that form represented all people. He revealed man in that particular setting, in those particular circumstances, in the world the way it was. That would not be the revelation of man as man was in the beginning but the revelation of man in the human circumstance as it now is, in order that that human circumstance might be transcended. It was there that the revelation was needful. So He did what He did on earth, representing the whole body of mankind. There is some slight recognition of this in a rather peculiar way in what is called Christianity: “He died to save us all," which seems to me to be rather an inane statement. He lived to open the door of life for all, because man is rightly the Word, the Word that was in the beginning with God, and was God; there was no separation. Such a view tends to smack of blasphemy, according to usual human ideas at least.
“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
We ourselves have finally begun to acknowledge, partially at least, that we are responsible for making our own worlds. Human beings have continued to accept the responsibility—this they have accepted—in separation from the true state of man, to create a world. This has been done but subsequently virtually no one wants to take responsibility for it. I suppose some might be inclined to say, “Well if everybody will take responsibility, I will too.” But it would never work that way, would it? So we do take responsibility as individuals, that again there may be the evidence on earth of man in the circumstances the way they are. The acceptance of this has been put off for almost two thousand years now. The acceptance of this attitude was of course available to those who were present at the time when the Master Himself was on earth; but who received Him, received what He represented? To receive Him, as I say, would be considered to be blasphemy.
“In the beginning was the Word.” In this beginning once again there is the Word, and the Word is with God, and the Word is God. All things were made, are made, will be made, by Him; and without Him nothing is made. All this has been plainly stated in the book which Christianity claims to be the Word of God; so far who has not only acknowledged that here is the truth but has also received it? It is joy to receive the truth. It is discomfort, at minimum, to reject it, to react to it. We see, I am sure, very clearly what the choice is; it’s quite clear-cut; there are no halfway measures.
Sometimes we say that we meet some very fine people as we move along the way of life, and no doubt we do. But have any of those fine people whom we meet not only acknowledged the truth but received it? I haven’t met any of them. While we may have respect for people and understand the potential that is present, we certainly have no reason to try to delude ourselves into supposing that the truth is made manifest anywhere except within the immediate range of our own awareness. That, after all, is where we know the truth, isn’t it? To know the truth, we acknowledge the fact of it and receive it. Receiving it, we share it.
“In the beginning was the Word.” This was the way things were created to be: the Word with God and the Word being God on earth. That's the way it was. Surely it is our acknowledgment in this moment that that's the way it is. If we acknowledge it as being the way it is, is it not natural and reasonable to receive it? All things are made by the Word. This is the design. If the true state is to put in an appearance it is because there are those present who make it, not because some imaginary God waves a magic wand. All things are made by the Word. Seeing this we surely would associate ourselves with the Word, that we may be as it was in the beginning, as it is in this beginning. This is the beginning, after all, of what is to be made.
In the Word is life. It’s not hard to acknowledge that in our own experience. The question arises as to whether this life is in fact the light of men. As individuals we are responsible that that light should be revealed. After all, we know the reality of life as being present. In the Word, in the truth of man, is life; and that life is the light of all those who know it not. The only way to know it is to be it; otherwise you merely have a system of beliefs, which is characteristic of Christianity. But to know the truth: “If ye continue in my word.” This is the Word of God. This is man. This is me! Is there that acknowledgment individually insofar as each one is concerned?—receiving the Word, so that it might be said by each: I am the Word of God. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” So we share the immediate opportunity of acknowledging the truth and of receiving it.
There is a rising tide of life, of truth, of love present in the world—there certainly are pulsations, but it is rising to the extent that this tide is acknowledged and received. Then it becomes increasingly evident as being a rising tide, rising into the experience of mankind, lifting mankind to a level where the acknowledgment may be made and the truth received. That has been done on earth through the One called Jesus, but who else? Now it must be done if it is ever to be done. We ourselves finally begin to know this, not with fear and trepidation—if that’s still hanging around there has been little experience of the rising tide other than in the processes of drowning; that’s a fearful thing apparently. But why drown? Why not stand where man belongs, that all things may be made, remade, in the way it’s done?
We are not alone in seeing these things, and we are not alone if we acknowledge them. It seems to be a little more of a lonely business to receive the truth, to be a part of the Word, of the creative expression of the Almighty. Is it imaginable that any real change could occur in this so thoroughly depraved human race without the speaking of the Word of God? I am sure we are all convinced of the futility of human effort. At least we are with respect to the larger picture. Maybe we are not quite so sure with respect to what is immediately at hand.
We have had a marvelous illustration of the way things work in the true process, when there are those on hand who are willing to move with it. The process continues—it is sure. What is sent forth accomplishes that whereunto it is sent. Let us be available to let it be sent forth in all the momentary circumstances of our living. The spirit, the essences, are to be brought into the world because we provide the way by which these essences may come. We can’t stand aside and shepherd the essences into the world. They come because they are in us, emerging through us, expressed by us. Then they are in the world.
So we share this grand and awful responsibility—it is full of awe. We should be filled with awe with respect to it, but not afraid of it. It’s just wonderful, marvelous; it's tremendous! It is the work of God Almighty inseparable from oneself. So we continue in this acknowledgment and receiving, now and in the days to come, wherever we may happen to be in the geographical sense, knowing oneness in the Word. I thank God that there are those who begin to know this oneness, relinquish their dis- honesties, their judgments, their cursings, that the world may be blessed by the shining of the light of life in the Word. Where there is understanding of these things truly, no one would ever even consider relinquishing the Word.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
