We all have the opportunity
of sharing this service this morning, bringing a gift to the Lord, and also a
gift to the children of men. It is well and fitting that we should take time in
this day to be together in oneness of spirit, aware of purpose and in position
to provide what is right and needful now. This day has dawned
over the earth. Perhaps we here on the west coast of North America are about
the last to have come to that dawning. I am thinking particularly of those who
are consciously aware of true purpose and who share this day on that basis.
There may be a few present in Hawaii who are yet a little while behind us, but
most of those who are consciously aware of true purpose, the reality of being,
having a certain measure of experience in this regard, have awakened and are
present with us in these moments.
In oneness of spirit we
are assembled in the presence of the Lord to present the gift of ourselves in
manifest form to Him. We have awakened to an increased awareness of the reality
of the presence of the One whose birth is this day celebrated around the world.
We recognize that original birth as a point of conception. That One is present
in the body which He has been forming over the centuries. He is present in that
body in this hour. We share whatever awareness of this to the extent of our own
awakening. Certainly we do not look back, any more than as individuals we
particularly look back to the point of our conception. We know there was a conception
or we wouldn’t be here. But we are here — that would seem to be the point. Exactly
the same thing is true with respect to this larger body in which the Lord, as
we have known Him, is incarnate.
No one needs to look
for the day of His coming, because the fact is that He never
left. According to the story He was taken up into heaven, and this is assumed
to mean that He went someplace else. But we proclaim with our lips at times
that heaven and earth are one. His presence has been constant. As He said,
“There am I in the midst.” It has always been so, up to this very hour, and His
body forms in consequence. Because of the spirit that has been present individually
with us we are here. Because of the spirit which has been present in this larger
body He is here. We may have taken the attitude that He is here; we may be
inclined to take that attitude now; but if it is His body and we are a part of
that composition, both in form and in consciousness, then the word is naturally
spoken by reason of that body, “I am here.”
We share this awareness
to the extent that we are awake. Those who still slumber may say, “He is here,”
or perhaps, “He is at hand,” or “He may be here one day” — there are various
levels of understanding — but the truth is to be known, and the truth is that “I
am here,” and each one of us can say that. Because we can say that, the truth
is proclaimed — the body is present of the One who brings peace, peace on earth,
goodwill to men. Most human beings are not awake; they slumber on. There are
those on earth now who are awakening or are awake and who are in position
therefore to proclaim the truth. We rejoice this particular day because it is a
reminder for all people that conception did take place, that there has been
gestation and birth since, and there is One on earth incarnate in His body who
says, “I am here,” and so the gift is offered to the children of men. Because
there are those who have brought the gift of themselves to the point of
awakening, then the gift which the Lord would give is given to the world, and
we find this to be increasingly so. It is given that others also may awaken to
the truth. The Word is spoken on earth, in living, not merely in words, although
words are spoken.
We all speak words. Do
these words that we speak ring true always? What are our words day by day? Is
the Word present by reason of our words? What of our attitudes day by day? Is
the Word present by reason of our attitudes? What of all aspects of our living,
in every detail? Is the Word present because of this? If we are awake it is so.
If we are not awake then dreams persist, words are spoken, deeds are done, that
do not ring true. Today is the day when we may well rejoice to be aware of the
truth and to be very sure that all that finds release this day shall be true to
the truth, ring true, that it may be so henceforth forever. There are those who
have cried unto the Lord, “O Lord, how long, O Lord.” I would suggest that probably
the Lord’s word is, “O human beings, how long, human beings!” Why drag it out?
Why not let the truth be known? Why not let the reality of the power of love be
the expression of living? What better day is there to experience this in the
fulness of our oneness in the spirit of the Word? Let the Word be spoken this
day and in all the days to come because we, with many more, provide a body and
a consciousness, a facility, by which this may be so, to the glory of God, to
bring the experience of peace on earth and goodwill to men. Glory to God in the
highest!
Ceremony of Exaltation
Pendell and Choir
The Spirit of His Presence
Special Focalization Session
Gabilan Ranch, Salinas, California
Uranda February 26, 1948
Tonight, I would like to talk to you heart to heart, considering words that our Master spoke when He was here on earth. Words that, each time we hear them, they mean more to us: “I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned... As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment. That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”
Our experiences of the past week, as we have been working together in the service of the Lord, prove that these commandments are being fulfilled. You are learning to love one another with the Christ Love. You have all felt and known my Love, that that Love has had meaning because of the outpouring of Love from the LORD of Love, and you have known that I AM come out from Him into the world, even as He came, sent of the Father, into the world, to be the Light of the world, the manifestation of Love revealed in the pattern of Truth, symmetrical and beautiful in form, the focalization of Deity on earth, the One Whom we revere, the One Whom we are glad and thankful to call our LORD and Master — our KING. He opened the Way in which we walk, in which we find ourselves tonight. And so, we recognize that it is through Him, and because of Him, and the wonder of His Love for us and for all the children of men, that we have been privileged to be drawn together through the currents of Love, that in the Oneness of the Christ Love we may begin to make manifest on earth the pattern of Truth, whereby the beauties and the wonders and the joys of Reality may be made known on earth.
Your lives leading up to this hour, your sharing in the Work of our God, proves, have proved, that Love for God that is in you, and because I have been privileged to speak to you the Word of God, because I have come into the earth as His Prophet, bearing His Word of Truth, I have been privileged to share on earth in that Love which you bear Him Who is our KING. I always feel very humble before our KING and my KING, in this privilege of sharing in the Love which His Faithful Ones bear to Him, and the last day or two particularly I have been sharing even more fully than before, because you have found a greater unification in oneness in your response to our KING. You have found yourselves drawn still nearer before His Throne. You have found yourselves abiding more consistently in the peace of His Presence. In the Words that I just read to you, He admonished those who should follow after, continuing His Work on earth, to abide in Him, that He might abide in them. He is the LORD of Love. You have been learning, step by step, to abide in Him, and as you have responded, you have come to know more fully, day by day, what it means to let Him abide in you.
He is in His Place in the Inner Planes, as the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings. His Person is not made manifest on earth as it was when He walked among men nearly two thousand years ago, but He provided a Way whereby He might be on earth through the Body of Faithful Ones who should let His Will be done on earth, even as His Will is done in Heaven. And so, as you have come more deeply into that unification of the Christ Love, more deeply aware of the Way, the Truth and the Life, you have, of a truth, been drawing near to our Father which is in Heaven, and you have found His Spirit is in you. Through His Spirit, He is in you. Through the One Body, He is, as it were, incarnate on earth, so that His Works may continue to manifest on earth. There is no greater privilege, no more sacred responsibility, than that of being a member of His Body on earth, that He may be in you because, through Love Response, you are in Him — and in Him, being a branch of that One Vine, you bring forth Fruit.
The Spirit of His Presence in you causes the fruitage to appear, and you have found yourselves being purged and cleansed, that you might bring forth more fruit, and you willingly let go that, in season, you may bring forth much fruit. The fruit of the Vine appears on the branches. He said: “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” If the branches all be pruned away, there is no fruit made manifest, until new branches grow, and appear on the Vine. So are you branches upon the Vine now, and the fruit of the Vine must appear through the branches. He, our LORD and KING, said: “I am the vine.” What is His fruit? What was the fruit of His Life? The manifestation of Love and Truth, the Works of Love, the Revelation of God on earth. “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” The fruit of the Vine must appear through the branches. The revelation of Deity on earth made manifest through the Vine, must appear through the branches of the Vine.
He brought into the world the healing touch. He brought into the world the Word that gives Life. He brought into the world the Word that cleanse and purifies. As He said, “Now are ye clean, through the word that I have spoken unto you.” Through His Word, the Word of Truth filled with the Fire of His Love, each one who responds and keeps on responding is purified and healed, and made every whit whole. In the individual He brings forth a New Thing. “Behold, I create a new thing.” That applies to the world, but it must first apply to you, and to all others who truly walk in the Way, the Truth and the Life.
And so, I have brought to your remembrance once more these words our Master spoke, that they may be in you words written in letters of Fire, words realized and caused to have meaning in life, here and now. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men. And so, we rejoice in the Holy Privilege of abiding in Him, the joy of letting Him abide in us, that His words may abide in us, that our joy may be full. Truly, the world is in need of the manifestation of the fruit of the One Vine, and except the fruit of the Vine appear through the branches, wherewith shall the needs of the world be filled. Except the fruit of the Vine appear through the branches, how shall the Earnest Ones and the Responding Ones and the Seeking Ones begin to find and to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life. Truly, He brought the Good News, and we have come to know that the Kingdom is at hand, and that we are privileged to enter into that Kingdom here on earth.
