He Continued With Them Forty Days
Easter Cycle of Pentecost
Uranda March 28, 1948 Salinas, California
Book of Acts 1:1-16 & 2:1-8 “The
former treatise have I made ... of all that Jesus began both to do
and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the
Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom
also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being
seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom
of God: And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they
should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,
which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but
ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
“When
they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou
at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is
not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his
own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon
you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea,
and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had
spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received
him out of their sight.
“And
while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood
by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye
gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
“Then
returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from
Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up
into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew,
Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and
Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one
accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of
Jesus, and with his brethren. And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of
the disciples, and said … (the number of names together were about an hundred
and twenty,) men and brethren …
“And
when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one
place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind,
and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto
them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as
the Spirit gave them utterance …”
Uranda — The closing hours of
Easter Day in this year of our LORD one thousand nine hundred forty eight, and
we gather in His Name to consider the Way, the Truth and the Life. We have, in
our studies and considerations, been keenly cognizant of the necessity of living
life in accordance with the Christ Spirit of Being. As we have considered the
Way which is open, whereby we may let ourselves be resurrected from the tomb of
this world into the Life of the Kingdom of God on earth, we have proven, individually
and collectively, the Power of the Truth to set us free, and, beginning to be
free, we begin to know the Reality of Resurrection, and we begin to live the Life. The Resurrection and the Life—today the world has commemorated the
Reality of the Master's Victory over death, His coming forth from the tomb,
little realizing the deeper significances to be found in these events, little
realizing that man is privileged now
to be resurrected from the tomb of this world into the Life of the Kingdom here
on earth.
We touched on these things
in our Morning Service, but I wish now to carry you forward somewhat in the
Current to the events that followed. For forty days after His Resurrection, our
Master continued on earth. We find the statement in the third verse of the
first chapter of the Book of Acts where, speaking of Jesus, it is stated: “To whom
also” (i.e., to the Apostles) “He showed himself alive after his passion by
many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days”, and the concluding
portion of this verse is especially significant, although so little is recorded
of it—“and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” Here is a
mystery. Our Master, having come forth victoriously from the tomb and the
Resurrection, continued to be seen of the Apostles for forty days thereafter,
having “showed himself alive” more than once, and speaking—of what
did our Master speak?—“of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” Yet the
record of what He said in that period is contained in a few verses.
Do you suppose that all of
the things that He said were recorded? I think not. If they were ever recorded
they were deliberately set aside and ignored. The state of mind in the
disciples themselves as a whole is revealed just prior to His Ascension,
according to the record in the sixth verse of this same chapter: “When they
therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying Lord, wilt thou at this
time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” Even those whom we know as the
Apostles were obsessed with an idea, which they did not let the Master Himself
eradicate from their minds. Back along through the period of Ministry we find
that, repeatedly, they assumed that He was going to set up an earthly kingdom.
He told them otherwise, repeatedly, and yet the majority of the Apostles, or Disciples,
failed completely to grasp His meaning and they were still under that obsession
even when the moment of His final Ascension was at hand. Is it surprising then,
that so little consideration is given to what He said when He was “speaking of
the things pertaining to the kingdom of God”?
How truly were they
earth-bound spirits, and yet in the hands of those earth-bound spirits rested
the continuity of the Ministry begun by Jesus the Christ. The Master instructed
them plainly to tarry in Jerusalem until they had received the baptism of the
Holy Spirit, and He promised that they would be imbued with the Holy Spirit.
His Promise was fulfilled, and yet even then, as they began to let themselves
find inspiration in the Current of the Holy Spirit, they, as a body, allowed themselves
to be swayed by impulsive Peter's rash self-active uses of the Holy Spirit. They
failed to acknowledge and follow the directing Head that the Lord had
established for them, and impulsive Peter's personality became dominant,
determining the course in a current of self-activity. It is not to be wondered
at, when men who had walked in the Way with Jesus Christ and shared three and a
half years of His Ministry, who had shared the hours of His trial and
Crucifixion, and who had been convinced of His Resurrection, and who, at the
moment of His Ascension could ask such a question: “Lord, wilt thou at this
time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” No. It is no wonder that they would
follow such a pattern as they did, for in that question they proved their
incapacity to comprehend the things He had been saying to them “pertaining to
the kingdom of God”.
Even in this day, nearly
two thousand years after, human beings are so materialistically minded, so
imbued with the ideas of the self-active world, that any concept of the reality
of the Christ Kingdom on earth is looked at askance, even by those who claim to
be followers of Jesus Christ. They, like impulsive Peter, prefer to twist it
around to suit their own fancies, to cause it to be what they think it ought to
be, and so few are willing to listen to the Word of Truth which reveals the Pattern
in Reality. Nevertheless, there is that which is of great significance to us in
considering what is called the Day of Pentecost, a short time after the Master
had Ascended; but first let us go back to Luke's record, here in the Acts, of
what the Master said just before His Ascension: “But ye shall receive power,
after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part
of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was
taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.”
He said that when the Holy
Spirit should come upon them they would receive Power. The action of that Power
would have to be according to their perception of Truth. If they had learned to
live according to His Word, if they had recognized the Reality of His
instruction, then they would have been ready to use that Power to the Glory of
God and to the Blessing of their brother man, but, immediately upon receiving
greater Power they used it with the same shrivelled, warped state of consciousness
that had dominated them before. Yes, they received Power, and forthwith they
brought upon themselves persecutions and difficulties, and caused many ill and
terrible things to come to pass because they were not willing to let the Voice
of Truth determine the uses of that Power. Is it any wonder that, in the Third Sacred
School, such great emphasis is placed upon the necessity for correct function
in true Polarity, before the increase of Power is made manifest? The Master
could not do other than He did. The fault rested, not with Him, but with the
Disciples, and He could not tarry longer. He had given them all necessary
instruction, and He had ordained the Leadership which they should follow, but,
coming to the last moment, they could ask such a question as that—“Wilt thou”
now, “at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
When men could live and
walk with, and listen to, our Great Master through three and a half years of
Ministry, and pass through the events of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, and
listen to His Words speaking of the things “pertaining to the kingdom” during a
period of forty days thereafter, and could come to the final moment and ask
such a question and reveal themselves as being such shrivelled, wizened, warped
souls of men as that, it is no wonder that the Dark Ages ensued. It is no wonder
that there has been two thousand years of misery, sin, suffering, sorrow and death,
of wars, turmoils and conflicts, until, in the beginning of a New Age, those threads
could be gathered together once more and the Cycles opened in the Currents of Fulfillment.
But there was a Day of Pentecost. The Master kept His Promise nevertheless, and they received
Power when the Holy Spirit came upon them—but the very moment they began to
receive that Power, instead of holding steady and letting the Spirit bring a
true understanding of the Word of Truth, they began to use the Power according
to their own concepts, and failed. Nevertheless, the outworking of these events
on the basis of the Master's Promise leave open the threads of that Current whereby
those who are faithful and true in this day and in this hour, may share in the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that they may, when the Holy Spirit is come upon
them, receive Power. “But ye shall receive
power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you.” That is true for the Faithful
Ones in this day, but what would be done with that increased Power? Are your
thoughts, your words, your attitudes, your states of polarity, so established
in Reality that you would be willing to take the responsibility for a truly
increased Current of Power in manifestation through yourself into the world? What
would happen? We have had many moments when we have shared a glorious outpouring
of the Spirit, but never yet a moment that truly corresponds with that which
was established on the Day of Pentecost. Why? Because the Unit is not yet ready.
But, for this Unit of Faithful Ones, there is the Promise: “Ye shall receive power after
that the Holy Spirit is come upon you”, and when, for this Unit, the Day of
Pentecost shall fully come, there will be the beginning of the manifestation of
the Works and the Greater Works.
Let me read from the
second chapter of Acts, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they
were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from
heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were
sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it
sat upon each of them.” Three verses—supposed to describe that event. The rest
of it is with respect to what followed after. We look forward to our Day of
Pentecost, but I do not mean a twenty-four hour day—a Day, a Cycle, a period of
time of Ministry which shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, when the Unit,
functioning according to the Voice of Truth shall receive Power and shall Minister
in the world. This is that Ordination for the Unit as the One Christ Body, which
shall yet be. How long shall it be until that Day? How long until we shall be
with one accord in one place, in full alignment in Reality, focalized vibrationally
according to the Law, with all restive emotions under control, with the heart
fully purified, with the mind fully permeated with the Truth and the
consciousness fully dedicated in reverent Love Response to the LORD of Lords
and KING of Kings, that, when the Unit shall receive Power it may act, not as a
self-active body—there are enough such in the world—but rather, as the Body of
the Christ on earth, in Oneness with the Father, letting the Father do the Works,
letting the Father speak the Words in the Power that is not of this world? My
Ministry has had, through the years, as its first Goal in the Absolute sense,
that Day when a Unit, well and truly formed, by those who let themselves be
drawn from the East, the West, the North and the South, shaped and formed
according to the Divine Pattern, with hearts purified, obedient to the Law,
might know that Ordination that shall be not just a Day of Pentecost but a
Cycle of Ministry and Being, which shall be filled with the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit, that the Unit may receive Power according to the Promise, not
Power to be used self-actively according to human concepts, but Power that
shall be used in letting the Father do the Works and speak the Words.
This is that toward which
we are moving; this is that to which you are dedicated as Members of that Unit on
earth. In such function there is no place for the shrivelled souls of men,
where the tempests of emotional upheaval continue, or for that filthiness of
spirit and mind which must wallow ever in degradation. It is a place for those
who are pure in heart; it is a place for those who are letting themselves be
established in the fullness of that Nobility of Being, that Reality of Truth,
that fullness of Divine Love, whereby our KING may cause again His Spirit to
manifest on earth.
He spoke, just after His
Resurrection, of “My Father and your Father, my God and your God”. His Word is
recorded: “I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your
God.” Individually, as they had been taught, they had an individual Father
within, but as a Unit, as a continued manifestation of the Vine on earth, as
the One Christ Body, they were to have the same Father, “My Father and your
Father”—and according to this Plan He had taught them to pray: “Our Father
which art in Heaven”. So, therefore, it is evident that this Unit, this Body,
is to be a means by which our KING may manifest Himself in Spirit on earth, but
that Unit is not to be a Unit of His Spirit only, but, according to the
Commission which He gave, not only on the Cross, but just before He ascended
also, and as is clearly revealed in His instruction prior to His Crucifixion—there
shall also be the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Love and Truth, which shall
allow the Unit, having been Resurrected, to be an expression of the Spirit of
Life on earth.
Has the world ever had
greater need that these things should be? Would it be wise for us to say within
ourselves, “The need of the world is not yet great enough; we will tarry a
little; we will delay ourselves until the need of the world is greater and then we shall let these things be”? Nay, let it not be so, but, rather, let the Unit
be, in its consciousness and in its mind and in its attitude, as that Unit should have been when they saw that our LORD had truly come forth from the
tomb. He continued with them forty days, “speaking of the things pertaining to the
kingdom of God.” You have been taught much longer than forty days concerning “the
things pertaining to the Kingdom of God”, and you have had all things that He
said brought to your remembrance, that you might have all the advantages, all
the privileges of realization and understanding which were granted to those who
walked with Him in that day. Forty days after the Resurrection, after that
first Easter, He Ascended, and then a few days later they had what is called
the Day of Pentecost, and they received Power, after that the Holy Spirit had
come upon them.
Year after year, I have
looked forward to the Easter Season, trusting that surely the Unit should have
reached a point where it might begin to truly realize these things. Is this the
Easter Season, the Easter Day, the Day of Resurrection, which shall be followed
shortly by a Day of Pentecost for the Unit, or must we wait until 1949 or 1950 that such things might be? Has the Word of Truth been withheld, given
only in part? Has the Spirit of Divine Love been so little manifest that the Unit
cannot yet comprehend it? Has the Reality of the Resurrection been but a vague dream?
Has the Word concerning “the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” been too
ambiguous to let a true realization yet manifest? What more is needed? What more
is required that the Unit may let its Day of Resurrection truly manifest, and, having
come forth from the tomb, may let the Day of Pentecost truly come? Surely, there
have been delays enough, and we need delay no longer! “Blessed are the pure in
heart: for they shall see God.” Let us come together, with one accord in one
place, where the purified heart, the serene and tranquil emotional realm, and
the consciousness transformed into that Mind that was in Christ Jesus, may let
our LORD continue His Work on earth through His Unit Body, that the Branches of
the Vine may truly bring forth fruit—much fruit.
O LORD of Lords and KING
of Kings, I thank Thee for these Blessed Ones and for all who are with us in
Spirit, for all who are letting themselves be blended into Thy Body on earth,
that this Unit may, being purified and made whole as Thy Body, come truly to
that Day of Pentecost when it shall receive the Holy Spirit, and Thy Power
shall be made manifest, not to restore the kingdom to Israel, but to bring forth
into manifestation on earth the Kingdom of God, that the Christ Kingdom may be a
Reality on earth, and that it may grow and fill the whole earth, that every
knee may be caused to bow before Thee, and that every lip may be caused to
acknowledge Thee, the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, for IN the Christ it is
so established, and shall be accomplished. Aum-en.
The Spirit of our LORD and
KING be with thee always, even as it shall be as thou shalt abide in Him, and
let Him abide in thee.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
