from

God's  Things

Uranda   July 7, 1953  Class

Because there is such a widespread pattern of confusion in relationship to what we mean when we say “the things of this world”, I think we should take a moment to consider that specific point. Human beings, limited in consciousness, having backgrounds influenced by many of the concepts and beliefs in the world, are inclined to think of the whole pattern of human activity as being “of this world”. When I say mixing the things of this world with the things of God they imagine it means the pattern of daily activity, the necessities of daily life in various ways, etc. But if you stop to think about it, to meditate upon it a little bit, you find that that is not the case, it cannot be the case; that again there is a pattern of mere assumption. 

First let us question for a moment, “What are the things of God?” Who made your body and all of its parts? Who made your body with all its capacities? Who made the opportunities? Who made the earth? Who made the things of the earth? God did. So when I speak of the things of this world I am not talking about anything that God made, I am not talking about anything that God created. I am not talking about the right use of any of the capacities which God gave you physically, mentally, emotionally. Those things that are of God must not be confused with the things that are of this world, and yet human beings are constantly confusing, in their own minds and hearts, these things that are of God, and attempting to classify them as if they were of this world. And when they try to treat them as if they were of this world they are in effect, when they try to live a so-called spiritual life, they are in effect trying to make God fight against God, and it doesn’t work.

We must recognize that all the things that God made are not of this world. They may be of this earth, they may be made of the substance of this earth, they may be in patterns specific in relationship to our present function in life. For instance, would you classify an automobile as something purely of this world? I would not. An airplane? A radio? The pattern of use determines the meaning of the thing; so the thing, as long as it has a potentially constructive use, is not of this world. Who provided the means by which it could be designed in relationship to man's uses? Who provided the intelligence for the inventor? Who provided the inspiration that the need might be filled? Are these things of this world? They come into the classification of being of this world only when they have no constructive use or when they are used destructively. Only that which is subjected to, or patterned by, the self-centered, self-active pattern of life expression is of this world. We must learn not to confuse the things of God with the things of this world; and God has plenty of things on earth. God made plenty of things on earth. He provided the metals, and all the other things that we may properly use in constructive activity. And I have had people, when I have said something about not being subject to the things of this world, or functioning in relationship to them, I have had people because of background patterns of training in false doctrines and ideas, jump to the conclusion well that means then there shouldn’t be any sex, there shouldn’t be any this, there shouldn’t be any that, there shouldn’t be anything—I wonder what we should be!

We were placed on earth as human beings. God made us, and he made all parts of our bodies for use in the Divine Design. He made all parts of our minds, hearts, our capacities. He made the things round about us. Some of them man has designed and built on the basis of potential use for the blessing of man, for the uses of man to the glory of God. How could we hope to achieve our goal without radio? How could we hope to achieve our goal without automobiles and airplanes? How could we hope to do anything without highways and byways, and all kinds of things? Blessed Ones, who are they who serve the Lord? Just those who have a consciousness of what we are doing here in this hour? Those who are making the things and providing the opportunities whereby the Word of God, the works of God, may be extended into the earth. We have Dick and Billie with us this morning, back from Newfoundland. And we are happy to have them back home. How did they go? By plane, by train, etc. How did they return? By boats and trains, and planes, automobiles. How did they carry on their ministry up there? Because there was a little automobile provided for them to get around. How did they manage to accomplish their work to the degree that they did? Because there were thousands and tens of thousands, yea millions of people working to produce the things that would make our lives effective. And all of those things which can be used to the glory of God, for the service of God, are the things of God on earth.

The things, unless they are wholly destructive—for instance, about the only thing I can think of that comes in that classification is the liquor industry—practically everything that man has made has a potential in the right pattern of being. And these things when they are used in the divine pattern are not the things of this world. So when I say let us not mix the things of this world with the things of God, I am not asking you to separate the things that God has made from the things that God has made. They all belong to God, and why should we try to draw a line and say, “this belongs and that does not.” If we can use it to the glory of God it is one of God’s things, and it has a relationship to heaven. Suppose it is somewhat limited for the time being; if it’s the best that’s available it is still one of God’s things. And there is opportunity for improvement. We begin to recognize then that if we are going to let the things of God have meaning on earth we must not be constantly attempting to classify the things of God as being the things of the devil, or the things of this world. Let us never be confused on this point: What are the things of this world?

Suppose there was no one making shoes. It’s good, as we considered yesterday, to go barefooted under certain conditions, but I wouldn’t want to have to go barefooted in the conditions as they are in the world all the time. Someone has to make the shoes… So those who made the things that make it possible for me to appear before you were serving me, they were serving God. Who built the highways? You say, “Those who were serving the devil.” Well maybe some of them did, part of the time; they may have been serving the devil in their off hours. But they who built the highways, those who manufactured the automobiles that make it possible for us to do what we are doing; those who did all the things that make it possible are a part of what this is. And their labors are recognized as part of the Divine Plan. If any man or woman at any time in past generations has done one thing which contributed toward making it possible for me to stand before you here this morning and speak to you, then that person was serving God, and if that pattern of activity was limited to ten minutes, then that life was not in vain. How many people have contributed to your being here and to my having the opportunity of standing before you? How many? Could you count them? No. Alright, let’s not forget them, whether of past generations or of this, it makes no difference.

So let’s not confuse the things of God with the things of this world. We need to recognize that we were created by God and the things that were created by God on earth are for our use. And if those things come out as automobiles or airplanes or what have you—as long as they serve a constructive purpose they are the things of God and they are not the things of this world. So when I say the things of this world I never mean just material things as such. I mean the influences, the attitudes, the evil spirits, the things that spoil the proper uses of the things that God has made in Creation and the things that God has made through man. Whether it be mighty bridges or—how about those who drilled a thirteen mile tunnel through granite back up here in the mountains so that water might flow along in that canal and we might have the sweet music of the motor running out here in our sprinkling system? All the men that labored there digging the canal, all the machines that helped to make it, all these things are the things of God, the works of God.

Now, those who help make it possible for us to minister effectively are ministering. Those who make it possible for me to do some thing are ministering. To the degree that you are centered in Reality, the same thing holds true with you. So, let us not confuse the issue and classify the things of God as being the things of this world, for it puts you in the position of attempting to fight against God and trying to make God fight against Himself, and that doesn’t work. If you would know God accept Him as He is, and stop rejecting Him or that expression of His Being which makes it possible for us to be what we ought to be ...

The  Priesthood  After  the  Order  of  Melchizedek

from  Original Sin

Uranda  April 6, 1953  Class

Man was created in the image and likeness of God, to be the Body of God on earth, to be the means by which God's dominion could be extended into the earth with respect to all forms of manifestation here, including the elements. We recognize that in the process of becoming in actual fact members of the One Body, letting the power of God work in us and through us to carry on the Divine Pattern, we must become Priests and Priestesses after the Order of Melchizedek. We can be hangers-on, or we can be disciples, or followers (a disciple is a follower), or we can reach the point of being prophets—that is, letting the Word of the Lord express through our lips—or we can keep on and become Priests or Priestesses.

I would not want you to feel that I arbitrarily take the stand that every man, woman and child on the face of the earth should be a Priest or Priestess in the ultimate outworking. There are all kinds of spheres of service and responsibility which relate to that Central Focalization, and for a person who is content just to be a disciple, well, no one is going to find fault with him if he is a good disciple, or a good prophet or prophetess, as the case may be. There are many spheres of service. But from the standpoint of actually establishing the patterns and accomplishing the will of God on earth, it must be through the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek. There is no other way. That is the way which Jesus Christ revealed on earth, and He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He was reestablishing on earth a consciousness, an understanding, a recognition, of the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek.

We might point out that it is only as human beings have responded to the influence released in the Pattern of the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek that they have accomplished anything worthwhile in a real beneficial sense to humanity or to the Glory of God, at any time on the face of the earth. This is without respect to church or denomination or creed or color or anything else. You begin to realize that this in which we are sharing comes over to us from the Motherland, from the days before the fall of man, and it is the Divine Pattern which has not been changed. It is still the same. It is still the same Laws and Principles of Being. What we are speaking of here as the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek was the governing force on earth before the fall of man, and had been for around one hundred and thirty thousand years. And it has been the governing force behind every constructive move, every really blessed life, on the face of the earth since that day, without respect to any of the man-made divisions. In other words, when we begin to recognize the basic truth of the matter, we find that it is the catholic church. Catholic means universal. To say Roman Catholic is to establish a division, a limit, to build a fence. You begin to see that whatever is constructive or right or real, or response to the spirit of God, in any person on the face of the earth, regardless of nationality or creed or religion or anything else, is a response to that Pattern in which we are engaged. We do not use the word “catholic” because of its misuses; but it means universal. And we do not speak of it as a church, in the ordinary sense, because it is much more than the human concept of what a church means. But it is the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek. And in order to see the full significance of this, we go back and recognize that the Divine Pattern was in operation before the fall. This Pattern was in operation in relationship to the conditions that worked out after the fall. We remember man's sudden plunge downward into the caveman age, etc, and his gradual emergence into the dim dawn of history. It was by this means that the Focalization of the Pattern was carried over from the period that was beyond the range of history, or man's knowledge, and re-established with respect to the dawn of history.

So, from my standpoint, any man or woman, regardless of who it is, or where, or in what condition, what they call themselves or anything else—any man or woman on the face of the earth who lets God's Will be done, even to the slightest degree, so that there is a real service from it, that person is a part of this which you share here. And it is only to the degree that any person is a part of this, that he or she can amount to anything—I don't care what the standards according to the world concept. But this is, and has been for many thousands of years, the Universal Pattern with respect to the things of God on earth, the progress of man, everything. Every step of progress that man has made has been worked out under this Pattern, without a single exception.

We have people talk about their churches or their denominations going back two or three hundred years or four hundred years, or back to the time of Jesus, or something of that nature. This program which you are sharing here goes back to the fall of man, on the basis of its present purpose—that is, the restoration of man—and it goes back to the beginning of the creation of the world in actual fact. So as far as this world is concerned it cannot be any older than that. It is the Divine Pattern in operation, and has been since the beginning of the creation of the world. Once we begin to see that, we realize that we have a tremendous responsibility, a glorious privilege, to consciously share in this process of restoration. But man has been in the fallen state for so long that he imagines that God's whole purpose is just to get him back into heaven, and once that is done, everything is done.

This twenty-thousand-year interval in which man has fallen has simply meant that some of the other things that God intended to do have had to wait a bit. Getting man back into the Divine Pattern is a temporary goal. After man is back in the Divine Pattern, then we can go on with our Cosmic work, our Divine Pattern of work. Simply saving human beings is not the end and aim of all things—it is merely incidental; because when man fell, man interfered with the processes of God's creative work as it was being carried on in the Solar System in relationship to the Universe and the Cosmos. Just as you might, conceivably, in some time in the past have been working on some certain job and you became ill and you were home for ten days, we will say; well, after the convalescent period was over and you were strong enough, you went back on the job. And that interval is like this interval. It is a correction of something that is wrong. It is a process of restoration; it is not the real goal. It is important, but once we have achieved this process of restoration, then we can go on with our work, the work that was interfered with when man, the body of mankind, became ill through eating the forbidden fruit. As a child, did you ever eat a green apple and get a bellyache? That is what has happened to man. Once we get him over this illness and the process of restoration worked out, then we can go back to the work that we were ordained to do.

It seems to me that once the human being begins to see that, he has a pattern of inspiration that is beyond anything that is ordinary, because human beings seem to think that this little interval here, the little life span on earth, is so important—and it is—and being saved is so important that once that is done it is all done, and God is satisfied, and that is all it is going to be for all eternity. The body of humanity became ill. It is not well yet. So as soon as the body of humanity is well and the process of restoration has been worked out, we can go back to work and do the thing that we really were ordained to do, we were intended to do and should be doing. But for the time being we are on a temporary job.

There are only two bodies on earth: the body of the Son of God and the body of the son of perdition. And those who are coming out of the body of the son of perdition are becoming members of the body of the Son of God. The son of perdition is lost. It is the body of humanity that is lost, wandering away from God, away from the Tree of Life. It is lost, and if it keeps going in the direction in which it is going it will die. Now the son of perdition must die, one way or another. It is going to be in one of two ways as far as God's Plan is concerned. To make it a little easier to illustrate—it is not the case yet, but just to illustrate principle—suppose of the two billion people on earth, one billion is actually enjoying membership in the body of the Son of God, and the other billion has membership in the body of the son of perdition—two bodies, more or less equal in number of people. The body of the son of perdition must die, it must cease to exist. As long as it exists it will be interfering with God's Plan and purpose; there will be misery and suffering and sorrow and death. So there are two ways. Every one of that billion of people in the body of the son of perdition could relinquish the old pattern, let his or her life be redirected and move over in life into membership in the body of the Son of God. And suppose every man, woman and child on the face of the earth did that, so that each one had entered into membership in the body of the Son of God—the body of the son of perdition would be gone without the death of a single human being. The death, the end of the son of perdition, could come about without the death of a single human being. Now it is hardly likely that that will be the case, but I want you to see what the possibility is, because as far as God is concerned that is the desirable goal. But human beings are reactionary creatures; they are still fighting, still resenting, still trying to get their own way, still insisting on eating the forbidden fruit. So in all likelihood there will be those who will simply refuse to come out of the body of the son of perdition to become members of the body of the Son of God.

It will work out on the basis of individual and collective response. From the standpoint of those who are members of the body of the Son of God there will be no effort to destroy the members of the body of the son of perdition anywhere along the line—no effort whatever. But sooner or later it is anticipated, according to the vision of God in the matter, that there will be those who are members of the body of the son of perdition who will decide they are going to fight against the members of the body of the Son of God. Remember what I told you? We can use response that is yielded or response that is opposition, either one. So the moment they begin to fight—we will have done everything we could in the meanwhile to get them not to fight; we do not want to fight; we would that every man, woman and child on the face of the earth should yield and respond and come into the Divine Pattern in the right way—but those who begin to fight do what? They separate themselves from the Source of Life, from God—the positive rejection of God—and any such group action would simply be vigorously fighting against God's Love. And what happens? The individual becomes nothing.

So there are the two bodies. Our business is first to get clearly out of the body of the son of perdition as far as this group is concerned and over into membership in the body of the Son of God—and then there to serve, to lead people, inspire away from the tree that brings death to the Tree that brings Life. “In the day that thou shalt cease to eat thereof, thou shalt surely begin to live.” And then to begin to actually inspire people to repent, let their lives be redirected in actual fact, on a permanent basis, and forgive sin, and move forward to the end that the body of the Son of God shall be made manifest in all the earth, that the body of the son of perdition may be no more. So shall it be, as it is written, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ.” The kingdom of heaven is at hand. These are the things you are invited to share, that through your ministry, through your service, others may find and know the Way, the Truth and the Life, and so respond that the Truth may make them free. I thank God that it is so.

Peace be unto you

© emissaries of divine light