The Protecting Power

The  Protecting  Power

from  Hospitality—One Law

Uranda   April 8, 1953  Class

We will, as we go along, have an opportunity to analyze more deeply than we will at the moment, the principles involved in what is generally spoken of as death. But in the past few days, I have, particularly in connection with the Easter season, dealt with this subject considerably in the sense of emphasizing the fact that the Divine Design is that man should live, and one of the greatest difficulties we have is developing in consciousness a true realization of the Pattern of Life without leaving the consciousness subject to some extreme of viewpoint which would tend to interfere with the natural outworking of the Divine Pattern within the individual.

Some days ago, when we were talking about the pattern of the outworking as it related to the solar system I pointed out [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2017_08_05_archive.html] that until this runaway planet which is at the present time functioning as a comet in relationship to our solar system is returned to its proper orbit, and until the earth itself is restored to its proper orbit, we will not have the vibrational factors necessary to the actual manifestation of ascension as God intended it to be. So, while conditions remain as they are, we must recognize that our physical bodies are subject to a pattern which corresponds with what is spoken of as death; but our attitude with respect to death is changed. In other words we recognize that as day by day there is a certain amount of refuse left behind and we do not mourn about it, yet that refuse was, to some extent at least, an actual part of our physical body. There is a breakdown all the time, and we have recognized that by the time a person reaches the age of fifty years he or she has had seven complete bodies, with the exception of the brain substance, etc., that there is a complete change in the vital tissues every fourteen months, and with the whole skeleton every seven years. We see that the individual has had seven different bodies by the time he reaches the age of fifty, and those seven bodies were all equally important.

In other words the wrong pattern of centering of consciousness upon the body that the individual happens to have at the close of the life span distorts the whole picture. We need to learn to recognize that the body that was present at any point along the way was just as important, just as necessary, as the body at the close of the earthly span of life as it is known now. We cannot just arbitrarily expect to establish a vibratory pattern which will allow the complete process of ascension with respect to the physical substance. There may be a very nearly complete ascension in some cases. However, in the immediate future, we can anticipate that there will be a certain amount of residue, but that residue that is left after the processes of ascension have come to a stop in relationship to any individual has no more meaning, no more value, no more real relationship to the individual than the residue that was left behind day by day during that life span. And it is the attitude toward the residue that must be changed.

We are not attempting to establish the idea that there is not going to be death with respect to ourselves for instance, or human beings on earth. I have never made the statement that my body would never die. I have only pointed to the fact that in the present cycle of things, the processes of ascension are incomplete. We are working forward to the time when they will be complete, but there has to be a change in the vibratory pattern of the earth itself and of the solar system. We have recognized the interrelatedness of the influence of the various planets for instance, in that vibratory system and we illustrated with the notes on the piano. And we recognize that at the present time, we have a year of approximately 365 and one-fourth days and that the year is longer than it ought to be. As we get into a study of some of these things, we will begin to see that the length of the year on earth has varied from time to time—it has not always been. We recognize that there are 360 degrees in a circle, and that is something that is based upon basic law and principle, not arbitrarily established—there are 360 degrees in a true circle. The earth's orbit around the sun, should take 360 days. Now if we were too far off of that basic pattern it would not be possible for human beings to live on earth at all, but five and one-quarter days off in relationship to that large a cycle, is not enough to throw the pattern completely out of balance. It is just off key.

Until we begin to recognize that the vibrational patterns in which we live are off key, we cannot clearly comprehend all of the factors that are involved. However, this should not make us feel that we are up against some impossible barrier. It is possible for us to achieve much more in than we have yet achieved within the scope of this particular vibratory pattern. So, we look forward to the day when our sister planet, which is at the present time functioning as a comet—and remember that every comet of which we are aware has the earth for the center of its orbit—and when the sister planet is returned to the solar system we will begin to have a different vibrational pattern, and when that comet becomes a planet again our earth is to be restored to its true orbit in relationship to the sun. Now always, there has to be physical factors in relationship to outworkings in the physical realm. To imagine, for instance, that just by some mysterious spiritual power the earth is going to be pushed into a different spot in the solar system, and have a different orbit, would be fantastic. But there are physical factors involved which allow that to work out under spiritual control. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2016_06_20_archive.html] So, we can confidently look forward to a day when the earth's orbit will be on the true pattern of a circle, to allow the right vibrational factors to work out in the cycle, and that is on the basis of a 360-day year as far as we are concerned.

Once we begin to see this and realize that undue attention has been attached or centered upon the residue that is left behind at the end of the life span on earth, we can begin to take an altogether different attitude toward what is called death. And while it is to be recognized that there will be a certain amount of residue for some time to come—I am not in position to indicate just when such a thing will be—but it is to be anticipated that until this change takes place there will be, for each one, a certain amount of residue left behind, but that is not the person. It is simply the residue, the refuse that did not work out in the pattern of the ascending cycle—and we leave a certain amount of refuse behind every day and there is no mourning about it, there no feeling that somehow or other all of that refuse has to be brought together at one point. When we stop to consider from a scientific standpoint, some of the popular concepts with respect to the resurrection, we can see how utterly fantastic they are.

We pointed out that the vital tissues of the body change every fourteen months. That is something scientifically established. You can check up on it and find that all of those who know anything about the functioning of the body, realize that. That is, with the exception of certain brain substance. But during that fourteen months—of course it is constantly changing; you cannot draw a line anywhere and say it is all different one day to the next—but during that fourteen months, that is your body. Just as much as you have a body now, you have had a different substance in your body in the past. Now that different substance was your body then, and your personality, your characteristics, you, as an individual, have continued on regardless of those changes in the physical substance. Now those who imagine that the resurrection means that the dust that has gone back into the ground is going to be gathered together and made into a body all over again, if they were going to be logical, would have to assume that all the dust that had been a part of your body for the entire period of your life, should be gathered together to make up your body, the refuse you leave behind every day should be brought into the picture. Now it is one of those fantastic things, when we stop to consider it, that human beings believe that now, while there is life in the body and while it has form, God's Power is not sufficiently available to us to make it conform to the laws of life and health and ascension, etc., but after the body is dead, after the form has disintegrated, after everything has been returned to the dust, then somehow or other, God is so concerned about that little bunch of dust and He is going to come along and by magic means cause that substance to be reformed into a physical body sometime in the future. Now actually, it is just plain fantastic, that is all. There is not any basis for any belief. The Bible does not teach it. It is merely that human beings have jumped to a conclusion, assumed things for which there is no basic of belief. But millions of people do believe that.

Now when you go out you want to be careful that you do not say something with respect to this point or the point about death that will shock people too deeply, too fast, too far, because look back—consider how I have given you an opportunity to move along the path to come to the state where you could understand what I was talking about, and just on the basis of the Truth you could begin to see the reality of it. So, in the days of your ministry ahead of you, be sure that you are considerate of these things in relationship to the consciousness of people and do not expect them to be able to comprehend everything just on the basis of some brief statement or other. We must lead the responding ones into a sphere where they can understand, and it is the changing of the attitude toward death rather than establishing the idea that immediately we can be in a state where there will not be anything called death in relationship to the residue of our bodies or somebody else's. But that residue does not mean anything to us, not when we come to the point of clearly understanding the laws and principles of life. And when we recognize that the processes of ascension are taking place all the time, while we live, then that in which we are interested, about which we are concerned, has ascended. It has already ascended and is no longer in this vibratory realm of things, but having ascended, as it does, it no longer has any meaning in any direct sense, to this world, to this earth. Well, we could go on and talk about the second resurrection and all kinds of factors involved, but we will leave that for the future. However, I wish, before continuing on, to have this little parenthetical consideration, to be sure that we do not begin to get off on any tangent on the basis of our own state of consciousness with respect to the principles of life and death.

In that connection, I might add that the protecting power of God which works through us in relationship to these things, when we are properly centered, is not something that would make it possible for instance, for an atomic bomb to go off a few feet above this building and none of us be touched. I have never suggested such a thing. If an atomic bomb did go off in such a position, why there would not be anything but refuse left here, visible, as far as any of us are concerned. The point is, that if we are functioning correctly under the direction of the spirit of God and there is danger of such a thing, we will not be where the bomb goes off. That is the difference. It will be a matter of our placement in relationship to the explosion of the bomb—not that if the bomb went off right here, that we would be so protected in that sense that we, our bodies, would not get hurt. The point is, that if we are functioning correctly, it simply will not go off here, or if it goes off here, we will not be here—ahead of time.

Now, I would like to give you a little practical illustration of this in relationship to an actual experience I had a good many years ago—twenty years ago now, when I was in Nashville, Tennessee. One evening I was holding a class, and there was a group of us, probably six or eight, in a little study class that I had there at that time, and we were meditating upon the things to which we are giving attention here. I do not recall the subject. But as we were having this period of meditation, study, we heard a peculiar sound. There was a peculiar vibration in the atmosphere, a peculiar suction feeling, and a sound as if a million swarms of bees had suddenly come over. At the moment, at first, I did not place it, and then, while I had never been in such a thing before, I suddenly realized what it was. It was a tornado, and this tornado had come in from the southwest right toward the heart of Nashville. It came into the edge of town, wrecking buildings on the way. It lifted about one-half a mile before it came to the house where we were, and went right directly over that house and set down again smack in the middle of the city of Nashville, and cut us off like you had run a mowing machine right out to the edge of town, all the way.

Well now, there would of course be the possibility of a certain manifestation of the power of God and protection, had the tornado gone through that particular spot, but the tornado actually lifted and hopped directly over that house. You could feel the suction, the pressure, the peculiar sounds of it—and it set down in the middle of the city and stayed down clear to the edge of town. It was just like a huge mowing machine had gone through. The section down on the flats there, for two blocks wide—it was just simply level and houses were in every sort of situation and condition. We went out to see it the next day. Lines were down everywhere, and sides of houses were gone out, tops of houses were lifted off, some of them had been picked up and turned around and set down, every sort of thing you can think of. And that tornado had come up to within a half a mile of that house, lifted over it and set down—it would not be quite half a mile beyond where it set down and stayed down through the town. Well now, you can say whatever you want to say about it. You may say, “Perhaps it was only coincidence.” The fact is, it did not hit the house where we were studying. But that is, to my mind, an illustration of the manner in which God's protecting power works; and if you are following the direction of the spirit so that God’s protecting power can be working in you, you are simply not going to be in the spot where the bomb explodes. If you are, for some reason or other, well then, the same sort of thing would probably happen to your body, conceivably, that would happen to anybody else's body. I am not saying there would not be some kind of special protection for you, and we function on the basis of trust. But let us not develop any fantastic concepts that our bodies, subjected to these things, will not suffer from it. They would.

What is God's protecting power on the highway? Not that we should have a wreck and go through something that, well, would normally kill somebody—but that we should not have the wreck. In other words, if we are following God's protecting power and really letting it work, we will be able to drive for ourselves, and the other party too, and keep out of the wreck. I have avoided hundreds and hundreds of potential disasters on this basis, on the highway. So, our function from the standpoint of the protecting power of God is to be so responsive to the impulses of the spirit that we will be able to do what we should do in order to avoid that difficulty. Now the working of the spirit of God in such a case can take over and function through individuals who do not ordinarily function on that basis. I have seen it happen over and over again, and I know that by working in that current I have saved many people from wrecks and they did not know what happened or how it happened or why—but I could see the pattern of danger, see what was impending, and in that current, reach out to the individual, impelling specific action, and they responded and let danger clear away. So the protecting power of God is that which keeps you in the right place at the right time—not that has you in the wrong place at the right time and then, by mystic means, protects you from that—although I do not want to limit the protecting power of God and say that it would not be of any avail in such a circumstance. But the true pattern of it is to keep you out of the dangerous spot. If you get into a dangerous spot well then, the protecting power of God is there too. But you cannot, in advance, anticipate such a thing and know just exactly what will work out and why, where. However, let us so live, that the spirit of God working through us can have us at the right place at the right time and have things under control. It is when things start getting out from under control that we have trouble and danger.

Now let us get back to history. We recognize that the beginning of the manifestation of the First Sacred School was worked out through Abram by Melchizedek. The promises of the Lord are given to Abram with respect to his seed. We are not to assume that only those who have that physical blood relationship are included in what God said to Abram about his seed and about making him a great nation. “And I will make my convenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.” And thou shalt be a father of many nations. Was that promise fulfiled merely in the tribal aspects of the Children of Israel? No, certainly not. So, the limitation of vision, supposing that the Hebrews as such were the only seed of Abram, is clearly seen there, because God said to him, “And thou shalt be a father of many nations... Neither shall thy name anymore be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.” Abraham means, “a father of many nations.” And the mere tribal division that was within the scope of the Children of Israel did not fulfil that promise. So, we recognize that the lineage in the sense of geneology or blood relationship, is not the thing that determines whether we belong in this category or not. It is whether or not we are functioning according to the Laws of Being, whether we are responding to the guiding influence of the Priesthood of the Order of Melchizedek ...

© emissaries of divine light

Come  Home  and  Stay  Home

from  The Creative Process Is Perfect

Martin Exeter  and  Hugh Malafry   May 3, 1987

Hugh Malafry — I have been thinking today how characteristic it is of human nature to take a typical human experience, project it into the heaven, and assume that that is the truth. After all, we say, experience is the best teacher. We are rich and increased with goods, have much knowledge. Our intellects these days range from outer space to the bottom of the seas; raping the earth for materials, of course, but also seeking to make the earth give up her secrets. This is the son of perdition in action. By this sign is he known: the effort to thrust the things of the earth into the place of the heaven and to determine the creative cycle on that basis. This is a sure sign: human arrogance.

One such concept has to do with time. We believe that time flows in a long line from some point in the past to some point in the future, that there was a beginning and there will be an ending, and here we are somewhere sandwiched in between, trying to explain where we came from and hoping against hope that we can figure out where it is we’re going and what to do about it. This is a very human-nature view of time, based in involvement with the transformation and movement of forms, the flow of forms. There is a view of the changing creative process, the effects with which human beings are involved, and out of this movement of three-dimensional things man has formed an idea that time is a process of change, taking a certain material shape. Obviously, on that basis, to know anything about it we’d have to know as much as possible about where it came from and where it was going. It is treated like a thing in change. It seems simplistic to people to suggest that everything is contained in the present moment, that one should live in the present moment. People who try to do so usually, let it all hang out, or let everything slip and slide along, buffeted by circumstance. Most shake a finger at you and say, “Lay up treasures on earth against the ravages of time. Your idea is mad.” But the truth is, everything is contained in being, and being is only known now.

It occurs to me that the worldwide religion of the twentieth century is science. There are varying religions in the world and varying political systems, and people worship fervently at this or that church of their choice. But, worldwide, virtually everyone has a deep faith in science. This is the religion of the twentieth century. Science is going to take us through all of this. It is the faith of the son of perdition. It strikes me too that, while you could say a good deal of science is devoted to predicting the future, probably the practice of science is devoted to making the future predictable. And that isn’t just a nice turn of phrase, it is a tragic fact, because this is the instrument that human beings have taken into their hands in an effort to nail down the creative process in human terms. If we can acquire enough knowledge, and if we can apply it diligently—these days through the use of computers that are able to process an immense amount of information—we will be able to act in such a way as to make the future predictable. Of course, religions of old had much the same purpose: to propitiate the gods. They were less materialistically oriented in some senses, perhaps, but the end and aim was much the same. There was a feeling—and there still is, within the bounds of religion—that mankind is carried willy-nilly on the stream of time and there’s a comeuppance comin’ up. How can we inject things into this process that will change the harvest?

We don’t think we think too much about the future. Sometimes we are wrapped up in nostalgia or regrets for what has been. Most of the time we take the view that we rather take the future as it comes. But who is free of anxiety, truly free of anxiety? Anxiety is just the feeling that something is coming that one had better get ready for; that perhaps if one is quick enough, quick-witted enough, intelligent enough, manipulative enough, one might be able to get those events sorted out before they happen, and therefore be able to relax a little bit, not be so anxious about it. Anxiety is just a polite word for fear, perhaps not quite as charged as the word “fear” suggests. But I would like to suggest that it is a polarization between fear and regret that holds people out of the present moment. We may not be aware of our regrets and fears so very consciously, but they are there. There is another way of looking at this too. These are tolerable emotions. Most people feel they have their emotional realms more or less under control, that anxieties are moderate and that with the right amount of preparation—pensions, money in the bank, a roof over your head, food, clothing, your sons and daughters signed up for prep school—things may be reasonably tolerable. But back of that there is something much deeper that rarely breaks the surface. And I think a good word for it, a good name for it, is hysteria. Listen to people laugh sometimes and you catch a hint of hysteria in the background of the laughter—strained, forced, something not totally at peace.

It’s an interesting thing about hysteria: when you get a full-fledged hysterical reaction in a person, right out on the surface, there are certain phenomena that tend to appear: the person may have motor difficulties, things happen in their body. But there are certain psychological effects, so called, related to hysteria as well, and sometimes a person will go blind, or go deaf, or be unable to articulate, or even lose his memory: amnesia is a hysterical reaction. And I think one could well look at the human race and say, The human race is blind and deaf and dumb and has forgotten all about life in the present moment—which is what really needs to be remembered, not the archaic past, but life now. It is really a hysterical reaction to experience that keeps people out of the present moment. Sometimes there are phenomena of mass hysteria, and great wonders and signs are shown. In the Christian church you have the famous stigmata that show up in this or that person with the marks of the nails of the crucified Christ appearing in their hands, the wound in the side, the crown of thorns, the bleeding forehead—all of these lovely images! But there is a hysterical reaction back of that, and it shows up, projected by the unconscious mind of the body of mankind upon various individuals who think they’ve tapped into something wonderful, when all they’ve done is depart from life in the present moment.

Hysteria means “troubled in the womb.” If you look that up in a dictionary, Webster will tell you that it comes from an old belief that women are more prone to hysteria than men. More likely, it comes from a realization that human beings have broken with the creative process, that man has forgotten how to maintain the Spirit of the Womb, the place of being, the spirit by reason of which wisdom—as Uranda described it, “the active knowing of the One who knows”—can emerge in the moment when it is needed, the present moment. There is no need of knowledge, then, in the usual sense of the word, no need to drag the bag of bones along from the past, and the fossils, and so on, because the character of being is present in the present moment, the door of eternity.

Man has broken from the Spirit of the Womb. That’s where the anxiety comes from. And there is an awareness in human nature that there is a harvest to come by reason of this. That’s where the hysteria comes from: a latent awareness that mankind has set itself upon a path along which there will be a reckoning. But the reckoning is now. There, again, human beings project into the future some ultimate moment when the sun will nova or whatever will happen, and that will be the end of human nature. But in this moment the harvest fires burn. There is always something coming to focus, there is always something returning to the Lord, and there is always something to be initiated in the present moment. Typical human nature looks on the harvest: “Well that’s nice; that’s not so nice. Maybe we can manipulate it out of the way. Maybe we can get a hold of what’s coming that looks good”—human nature polarized on the harvest. But the spirit of God, that elemental character, is focused in giving birth to precisely what is required in the present moment. Think not upon the harvest. Let this moment be a beginning, and a beginning, and a beginning. And receive what comes, but let the Lord provide what must be given now. It is this elemental character that makes possible the experience of trust.

I was considering earlier today, and have much recently, what it is that gives one absolute confidence in Martin. In my own consciousness I have described him at times as a force of nature, but that doesn’t do it justice. It is the elemental expression of what is right: you can’t get around it; you can’t make it some other way; you certainly can’t improve upon it; and it isn’t going to fit with any human-nature design. It is the power of the creative process incarnate, the sign of the Son of man, present to be embodied, differentiated in each one. In this connection, there is a passage in the Bhagavad-Gita which has always meant a great deal to me—not that that necessarily means anything to anybody else—but it is an expression of the spirit of truth. “By this sign,” it is said, “is he known: being of equal grace to comrades, friends, chance-comers, strangers, lovers, enemies, aliens and kinsmen”—you name it!—“loving all alike, evil or good… This is the faithful and illumined one.” People come in all sorts and sizes and all categories and with all different kinds of patterns into our presence. But if the Son of man has been truly embodied, or begins to be truly embodied in our experience, there is no concern in us but for the proper and fitting representation of the creative process. We do not form alliances based in human nature. As the Master put it, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” And if it applies in those fields it certainly applies throughout the whole range of human relationship.

In the present moment is the wisdom to do the right thing, the purity to make the right gesture, to form the right bond, because all of those things are secondary to us. It is the focus of the creative process that is primary to us, and our love for that lifts us out of fear, anxiety, manipulation of space and time to suit human nature, lifts us into the place of peace, into the place of heaven where we belong. I am most grateful for this opportunity. I always question my competence, but I know the justness of the creative process that much, to know what is fitting for this moment is what is required. And so my thanks to one and all, together at peace in our mutual love for the Lord.

Lord Exeter — We all share the opportunity, and others of course besides those who are here present, to provide the sign of the Son of man in heaven, to make available what is in fact absolutely trustworthy. That trustworthiness is exemplified by the Son of man in heaven. It is exemplified through this Body of many members, because each one proves trustworthiness in the Body.

Many of you are beginning to realize what it means to be in the Body. The son of perdition may explain it in terms of loss, loss of what human beings have been persuaded is freedom. But there is no freedom for any human being to experience outside of the Son of God, outside of that One Body. All the forms of life on this planet, for example, are included within the scope of this Body. All forms of life are free to be themselves. They are not free to be anything other than themselves. This is still widely revealed in the various forms of nature. A lion is not free to be a camel. It is quite free to be a lion. Insofar as human beings are concerned, the fact of the matter is they are only free to be what they were created to be. Otherwise they are in bondage. All human beings find themselves in bondage to the extent that they are not revealing what it is that they were created to be. And what it is that any individual was created to be does not exist outside of the Son of man.

Hugh very aptly and accurately described what occurs in the experience outside of the Son of man—hysteria. That is based in fear; one might say, fear of the consequences, the consequences of one’s own behavior. It is possible that there may be some self-righteous people on earth who feel that their behavior is exemplary, and they will be rewarded in some future fictitious heaven. But that is a surface play. Underneath, in the subconscious minds of all people, there is this devastating fear. One may say it is very proper that it should be there. “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.”

Many of the fears are submerged, of course, but those are the most deadly ones. If they are allowed to come out a little, without too much explosion, then it is possible to face them and deal with them on the right basis. The very fact that there is blindness and deafness and dumbness, insofar as any recognition of the truth is concerned, is the evidence of the hysteria. I think Velikovsky was inclined to attribute this to past events. There certainly were some horrendous past events, carefully tucked away from the conscious mind but still wreaking havoc in human lives. But, as was suggested by Hugh, the fear relates to future events, possibly based in some sort of hidden memory of past events: it happened before, it can happen again.

But all these effects which put in an appearance inevitably, the harvest that is reaped, are consequent upon the failure which separated man from God. It could easily be put that way in words. The results are obvious enough. But what exactly that separation is, and how it could be dealt with, has been kept in a very obscure realm; partly because there has been this deep-seated reluctance to face the reason for the fear, and partly because, under the baton of the son of perdition, most human beings are still in love with the endeavor to satisfy themselves—as we were speaking of it this morning: to get their own way, to do what they want to do, having decided, after a consistent swallowing of the forbidden fruit, that they know what would be good. Be good and eschew the evil.

Eschewing evil, which is mentioned in various passages in the Old Testament relative to different people, Job and Noah particularly, had nothing to do with this matter of the judgment between good and evil, so that if one eschewed evil one would only do good. The point in that regard is that nobody knows what would be good. It is strange how rather stupid people are, ourselves included, because I am sure we have often done things in the past that we thought would be good, and later we had to repent because it didn’t turn out to be good at all. I was just thinking of a very common attitude on the part of parents sometimes—as it used to be and I suppose still is widely—with respect to their children: “Look at all the good things I’ve done for you so that you didn’t have to go through what I went through when I was young. And now you turn out the way you do!” And the parents then feel very justified in feeling that they have been betrayed; of course that’s not the view of the children. “Look at what I did for you, and you turn around and do this to me.” Self-centeredness!

We are aware of the need to repent and have thought, to start with, that repentance was rather a difficult thing, and really one shouldn’t be required to repent about everything. “Some of the things I have been doing have been good.” Not a thing, if we are thinking of good as relating to what is required in the participation of our lives in the creative process. Eschewing evil simply means eschewing any activity which denies and rejects the creative process. Whether someone thinks it’s good or bad makes no difference. It is a rejection of the creative process; and a rejection of the creative process is a rejection of life. It is not surprising that death dominates human experience. That is very just. We have been aware that it really is just, in the sense of principle. But when it comes to the matters which rise up in our own immediate personal experience there generally is a little thought once more that “I am being unfairly treated.” “EDL has treated me unfairly.” That’s one scapegoat. No one was ever treated unfairly at any time. The creative process works, and things happen the way they must happen.

It seems to take a while for people to really awaken to this fact, and during the time when they are moving toward such awakening there may be some necessity to provide assistance so that a person may hold steady while it is working out. I know I have had this necessity, in times past, to do this with multitudes of people. Some of them were willing to be assisted, some were not. But there comes a time when it is not a matter any more of dealing with individuals as though they were not a part of One Body. There is no need to discuss anything with anyone—and I do less and less of that—relative to anything that is not included in the One Body, because it means utterly nothing to me. Now it may be that there are others who have taken on my chores of the past somewhat, because if I continued in that way I would soon be worthless. There is something else to be done. We have reached a point where what needs to be done must be done, and all the talk and discussion won’t ever get any- thing done.

Being, in experience, part of this One Body allows for a very clear awareness of what it is that needs to be done. Nobody needs to be told. If one insists upon needing to be told, one is making a very strong statement that “I have no place in this One Body.” There is the one spirit which moves through this One Body, and all those who compose that Body are capable of being moved by that one spirit. There have been so many holdouts, haven’t there? “Well I want it to work the way I want it to work. I want to do what I want to do. I want to go where I want to go.” All this. But those who have had any association with this Body for any length of time know better. That’s not the way to go. It has no interest for me, because it is not part of what is required of the One Body.

There is one answer. I suppose it could be summarized in the words. Come home, and stay home, going no more forth, so that the creative process has a Body on earth which is trustworthy: it will always be there. Now we can say “Hooray for the Body!” But the Body is me, each one individually, or there isn’t any. And that must be the attitude of each one. Otherwise one is pulled this way and that way by the son of perdition, and one has no part in the Body. The fact is that for myself, and I know for others as well, there is no reason whatsoever to be present on earth except to do what is necessary to permit this Body to act; not to act on the basis of the usual human ways of doing things, but to act because it is the Body of the King. It is His Body, and when we are a part of that Body we come into position to say, “It is My Body.” It is not a second-hand body. So we share this tremendous opportunity, tremendous privilege—these words we use—and tremendous responsibility. The question is, are we going to do it?—it is very simple, really—or are we going to go our own way, our own human way, inspired by the son of perdition? He inspires, you know, as well as driving with a whip. He can provide what seems to be necessary in a multitude of different ways, and human beings have been falling for it for millennia. Well there is a good habit formed ... I said a “good” habit; that’s just a strong habit.

But finally there begins to emerge a Body, and that is all I have been interested in from the word “go.” And there are those who have shared this interest with me. I thank God for all of them. But there are those who of course halt between two opinions, maybe not deliberately so—some deliberately so—but because the reason for fear, the controls which operate through fear, have not yet been faced and honestly seen.

When one honestly sees what the human state has been, one is so revolted by it that one could not associate oneself with it anymore and retain the slightest degree of integrity. This is the fact of the matter. I am not preaching hellfire and damnation. I am merely indicating what the fact is, and we can be exercised by the fact. I rejoice that there are those who are facing the facts and letting the creative process work. There is something new being experienced. There was something new being experienced in the visual art gathering this afternoon in the West Chapel, with people right there. Well we need to be right there. What is more important, of course, is that we need to stay right there, so that the King has a Body He can depend on. It is His responsibility to act through that Body, not for us to develop any fancy schemes. We become aware of what the action rightly is as we participate in the creative process. It is not a spineless operation, but we don’t need to make choices. It becomes obvious what is needed, and we do it. It becomes so customary that we love it. We love to be, and we love to do what the fact of our being brings forth. We love that individually and it is consequently loved collectively.

There is One Body. There is One Body which can be trusted. The creative process is working, and it works perfectly all the time. It works on the basis of what is present in individual human beings, and brings forth accordingly. The bringing forth is just perfect always, on the basis of what is present—completely just, just the way it should be by reason of what is present. Human beings say there is no justice. So they try to set up their systems of justice, and there is even more “no justice” in their view; but it is what they themselves brought forth, by reason of what is internal in human beings, and we play a part in that. But now we are content to let the creative process work. It doesn’t make any mistakes. You don’t need to be suspicious about it. Let it work. It will prove itself out. And what is brought forth, the effects—integration, disintegration, whatever they are—will be absolutely perfect, just exactly what they should be.

Let us let the field be clear so that what is in us may be harmonious to the creative process, and what is brought forth will still be perfect but of a different nature altogether than what was brought forth through human nature and human beings subject to the son of perdition. And the world is transformed in consequence. We don’t need to discuss it very much, do we? It happens automatically when we let it. We don’t try to manipulate anything. Most human talk relates to this matter of manipulation. But there is a willingness to let the creative process work, and to prove out one’s own stability, one’s own trustworthiness. What a marvelous thing. This is what has been called the restoration, the restoration of man to the state of being made in the image and likeness of God, so that the expression of God by reason of man is natural to man. Then one may say, “That’s me!” And so we rejoice to be ourselves. Let there be expanding life throughout the body of mankind, even though there may be a recognition of the fact that most human beings cannot stand expanding life. It behooves those who are aware of what it is that is happening to come into a position to accommodate expanding life, without being pushed out of the picture.

© emissaries of divine light

You Will Be Surrounded By What You Express

You  Will  Be  Surrounded  By  What  You  Express

from  Learning To Welcome Changes

Uranda   July 22, 1954  Class

Changes come—sometimes they seem long in coming; sometimes it seems that we must withstand unpleasant or difficult circumstances for a considerable period of time, but changes come—and the fact of change is one of the great Truths which should give us joy, assurance, confidence. If we hold steady, rightly centered, maintaining the right atmosphere, the changes that come will be according to God’s choosing. One of the things that we need to remember in life is that if we are to be successful, we need to learn to welcome change; we need to learn how to use change. Many people fight against the changes that come in their lives, others wish for changes, or at least they say they wish for them, changes for the better, but they continue to do those things which reproduce old and difficult circumstances. But as we learn to welcome change and use it to advantage, instead of fearing it and resenting it, welcome it and use the opportunity which changes bring, in this we maintain the evidence of newness, the evidence of growing. We have considered in time past the reality of the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. That evidence, to the human mind, very often at first seems to be very far away—rather intangible, something almost impractical. But as we watch the unfolding changes, we learn to recognize, near at hand, the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, for if there is growing, if there is progress, if there is beauty, if there is love, if there is nobility, if there is anything fine within the scope of our vision or comprehension, it is evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. All of the qualities which we love in others are qualities which come to us into manifestation, into the realm of our relationships, from the Divine Source. There may be tendencies or characteristics which are not of reality which appear for a little time, but we know that they must pass away, one way or another, and we see ever increasingly the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells.

Tonight I should like to share with you the meditations of my heart, by which we may in oneness together move into a deeper, clearer realization of the sense of personal relatedness to that which is of God. The Divine order of things is something that we must bring to mind—the movement of the stars in their courses, the certainty of the rising and the setting of the sun—the Divine order of things which permits the manifestation of life on earth; the evidence of control, of the working of Law, the evidence of the constancy and consistency of God. These background evidences tend to lose their meaningfulness when the human being feels his mind and heart rent with chaotic, conflicting patterns of thought and attitude. But we know that we can let that control come into our lives, gradually but certainly displacing disorder and chaos, establishing that which is orderly, that which is natural. The invisible Spirit of Life which makes it possible for us to act. The invisible Spirit of Love which makes it possible for us to feel and know a sense of personal relatedness with others and with God. The invisible Spirit of Truth which permits us to comprehend the beauties of Life—to look at the sky as it appeared this evening and see that beauty; the beauty of a sunrise or a flower—the Divine Design. So many beautiful things. The working of an invisible Spirit in us, through the invisible capacities of mind and heart, and the body has meaning, nature around us has meaning, we have meaning one to another. We consider the evidence which convinces us of the presence of those who are around us. We may say, “I can see the physical form. I can shake the hand, I can touch, I can hear with my ear the voice that is sounding.”

The evidence of the physical presence of our friends; the evidence of the physical presence of those whom we love—and yet we have all passed through that experience of sharing the final rites wherein the physical body through which the friend or loved one had been evident in our lives was laid to rest—the physical body, and we have seen that physical body; we have seen the evidence of the presence of that physical body—and yet, the results of another evidence, something we could feel that people sometimes call the feel of death. Simply the feeling of the absence of life—not death—the feeling of the absence of life which is called death. But death is not anything—it is the absence of something, the absence of life. And we could see that physical form and yet it was not the evidence of the presence of the one we had known or loved. The evidence of the presence of that one was no longer there, even though we could see the physical form. The evidence of the presence of the one who was loved was gone, and yet the physical form remained. The physical form of-and-by itself may be the means by which this evidence of the presence of the one we love is made manifest to us on a practical, comfortable, happy basis, but that body, in-and-of itself, did not provide the evidence of the presence of the one we had known. The Spirit had gone from the flesh, and the meaning had gone from the flesh, the evidence had gone from the flesh, and that one, with all of the qualities we had loved, all of the nobility, had ascended into another realm of life.

When we think of it this way, we realize how much there is of meaning in our lives that is actually invisible to our eyes. The evidence of the presence of a human being is not dependent upon the physical body but dependent upon a Spirit made manifest through the physical body—not visible, invisible. The invisible something that characterizes you, that makes it possible for you to live and share the joy of life is that which we love, that which we know in those around us. And this invisible realm that means so much to us, that we can all sense and realize and perceive in various ways is likewise the beginning of the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, the Divine Source, God, Deity, whatever name we might use—the evidence of the Presence of God. I have seen so many people in the years of my ministry, so many hundreds and hundreds, yea, thousands of people, who did not know God. Some of them imagined that they could not know Him; others were desperately trying to know Him—but to all there was a feeling of vagueness, of uncertainty, and something far away, something unrelated to themselves, and they could not receive the evidence of His Presence. They did not know how to look; they did not know how to see, to hear, to know.

Gradually, some of them, a few of them—some of those few might even be here—a few began to learn how to perceive the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. But as much as we have seen and known, as much as we realize of this evidence, we know, inherently within ourselves, every time a word is spoken which, once spoken, we know that it somehow was not just right; every time there is an action or attitude that should not have been, there is a knowing that the evidence of the Presence was not sufficiently strong in that moment, as far as awareness was concerned, to provide a means by which the perfect centering might be maintained.

“And ye shall receive power after the Holy Spirit is come upon you.” People imagine that to have the Holy Spirit, they must go through some kind of fantastic experience. We have come to know that the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of God, has three primary aspects, just as light has three primary colors—the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Truth, and the Spirit of Love—and if these three aspects of the Spirit are in you so that you can move physically, so that you can think mentally, so that you can feel any appreciation or love or concern for someone else, then the Spirit of God is in you now, and you do not have to get it, you do not have to go through some fantastic experience to find it—it is in you now. And if it is, and there is not enough power made manifest in life, we simply need to allow the release through us in daily living of more of that Spirit. More of what Spirit? What is the Spirit which is released? We cannot release any Spirit unless we have the Spirit of Life from God in us, for even the most evil of human beings has the Spirit of Life from God in him—something of the Holy Spirit is in him or he would not have the power to move one finger; he would not have the power to swallow water or food, he would not have the power to blink one eye. The Spirit of Life from God is in him, regardless of how he uses that life. So, if we express any spirit that is not of God—envy, strife, jealousy, fear, hate, resentment, whatever the evil spirit may be—we are using the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Life, in us, as a means by which to express a spirit which is not of God. We are stealing something of God’s Spirit and using it for purposes contrary to God. That in and of itself produces conflict and brings about weakness.

Some people think that by such function they can have power over their fellows; they can get money; they can get position; something—but when they think they are getting it or when they think they have gotten it, what do they have? A great emptiness. A vast emptiness which we can feel and know in the world in relationship to those who have thought they were getting something when they were stealing the life force from God and using it for evil purposes—a vast emptiness. And if a human being anywhere steals this life force from God and uses it for self-centered—really not evil, you know, just a little bad; just not light; not really evil—but purposes that are not of God, and a sense of emptiness comes in. Sometimes that feeling of emptiness turns into a horrible feeling of desperation in human hearts, an overwhelming thing. Why? Because they have established an attunement—they have produced in themselves a relatedness to that vast emptiness. Having it, knowing it, what do they have? Nothing! As far as their perception is concerned, as far as their awareness is concerned, they have the evidence of the absence of the Spirit of God. Life is held to be a cheap thing, and wherever we are not aware of the Presence of God in some way, whether we think of it as God or not; wherever we are not aware of the Presence of that which comes from God, we are aware of the absence of God.

We have come to realize that Heaven is at hand, within reach, available to anyone, anywhere; and hell is not a thing in itself, any more than death is a thing in itself. What happens when we begin to consider the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, and we begin to be careful to express in attitude and action, in thought and word, only those things which provide the evidence of the Presence of God. We express in thought, in word, in deed, in attitude, one thing or the other; that which is the evidence of the absence or the evidence of the Presence. Every time you speak, every time you have an attitude, every time you act, without any exception, you are providing evidence either of the absence or the Presence of God, and the Spirit of God working in and through you. If you are revealing the absence of the Spirit of God and giving evidence that the Spirit of God is not present in you, then you have one result, but if in speaking, in attitude, in action, you are providing evidence of the Presence of the Spirit of God in you, you are helping to produce Heaven, and gradually the invisible realm begins to be visible in relationship to yourself.

In the past year I have watched changes taking place in you—to me, you are not the same people. Changes come with absolute certainty, providing evidence. What evidence? Either the evidence of the absence of God or the evidence of the Presence of God. I have seen a light come into your eyes, health into your faces—changes. Not perfect yet, no; more changes are needed, but I have watched these changes come. Almost all of you have shown some wonderful changes and progress, wonderful—for you are more and more letting the evidence of the Presence of God be made manifest when you speak, when you act, when you display an attitude. But to whatever degree self-centeredness has continued to rule, and your words and attitudes and actions have revealed the evidence of the absence of the Spirit of God in you, well, changes came that way too—up or down. But the more we come to absolutely realize this invisible realm that has such meaning to us, not something far away but right here, because the attitude may be expressed in a tone of voice, in an action, in a gesture, in something done, and yet there is an invisible something that gives meaning to that gesture, act or word—an invisible something.

Words—words can be spoken by the million and mean nothing. You have heard people say, “Thoughts are things.” Thoughts are things through which something else must move. Thoughts in and of themselves can be dead things—no power—they may be things, but the mere fact of a thought has no meaning. The feeling, the current, the spirit that flows through that thought is the important thing. The word—have ever heard anyone say, “I love you,” and have it fall absolutely flat, just not mean anything at all—just words. Words are things, but it is the invisible something that works through the words that make the words wonderful or meaningless. Words, repeated like parrots; words, and yet the words have meaning; not on the basis of the words, but of the something that is in the words—the invisible something that gives evidence of the invisible heart or feeling nature. Actions, empty actions or actions filled with love, or actions filled with resentment; actions with feelings, wrong feelings, no feeling or right feeling—three kinds of actions, that is all the kinds of actions there are in the world. Just three kinds: actions without feeling, listless actions that accomplish nothing; actions that reveal a spirit of resentment, hate, attunement with the wrong spirit; or actions that reveal the invisible Spirit of God. If we, by our lives, refuse to let that invisible Spirit of God have evidence of its Presence, how can we find fault if our lives are empty?

If we insist upon stealing the life force and giving evidence of spirits that are unworthy of us, how can we complain if there is emptiness?—evidence of the wrong thing we are producing, and it is invisible, an invisible spirit? Or when we speak, when we act, when we display an attitude—we are bringing into manifestation the evidence of the Presence of the Spirit of God. Now here there must be choice, here there must be deliberate choice and deliberate doing. Sometimes the human being says that “I cannot help it.” Whether he or she knows it, that is a lie—you can! You can deliberately choose, if you will; you can deliberately choose to reveal the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, just as you can deliberately choose to reveal the presence of envy, hate, jealousy—what else? Fear. It is a deliberate choice in any case, whether you know it or not. It may not be deliberate with respect to the conscious mind only, but it is still deliberate, whether we are willing to face the fact or not. “Perfect love casts out all fear.” How are we going to have perfect love? Is it going to just somehow appear in the sky—be handed to us on a silver platter? No, if you are going to have perfect love, you must express perfect love with the consistency of the nature of perfect love—deliberately, in attitude, in word, in action.

I have thought many times this past year, with a deep humbleness of spirit and gratitude to God: I know today, I know more love and loyalty to me here and now on earth, among you and others who serve in this Ministry day-by-day, I know more love and loyalty than the Master was privileged to know at any time on this earth while He walked among men. To me that is such a sacred gift, such a blessed thing—love and loyalty. And yet I look back a few years at the beginning of my Ministry—last September we had the twenty-first anniversary. Twenty-two years ago, no one knew, to all intents and purposes, that I was alive. Loyalty? No one had any reason to be loyal to me. Love? No one really loved me—no one really loved me, no one knew me, no one trusted me. There was no reason for anyone to be loyal to me. No money—nothing, as far as the outer world is concerned. I could have said, “Oh Lord, it is impossible. You will have to send someone else.” How did it happen that I began to receive so much love? I must have expressed some, somewhere, somehow, with a little bit of consistency, something that became constant, whether people loved me or not—no matter what people said, no matter what people did, it had to be there; and finally, someone noticed and I began to get a little back, I began to receive back some love, some trust, some loyalty. And finally we are here in this room. After only twenty-two years I can say I have more love and loyalty shown to me now than our Master ever had when He walked among men.

Why are you here? Because you began to perceive the evidence of the Presence of something from God, and because you are invited to share in bringing forth the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, and the best that is in you is challenged that you might deliberately—regardless of the limitations, regardless of anything—that you might deliberately begin, through your thoughts and words and deeds and attitudes, to reveal the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, to let the invisible Spirit of God have meaning in the world of human beings. Learning to actually do it, not to just dream about it, not just to talk about it, but do it—the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. And the interesting thing about it is that—it is the just judgment of God that cannot be changed or altered by anyone, anywhere—that each one shall be surrounded by that which he, himself, makes manifest by his thoughts, his words, his attitudes, his deeds. The individual who only reveals something that is not of God—he is surrounded with it, he has to live in it whether he likes it or not. He can struggle, he can strive, he can push, he can bewail his lot, but until he stops giving evidence of the presence of such things, and deliberately chooses to give evidence of the Presence of God’s Love and Truth and Life, he will be surrounded with it; he will be in his own prison, try as he may. Each one is surrounded in his own expression, and he cannot get away from it. He can fly to the sky, he can go down in submarines, he can go to the north pole, he can go to hell, and he will be surrounded with it, whatever it is, and no one can take it away from him, if it is good or bad or indifferent, no one can take it away from him. He is surrounded with it, he is stuck with it, as long as he keeps producing it, giving that evidence. But if we give the evidence of the Presence of God—your presence here stands as evidence that if we keep producing the right spirit, providing evidence of its Presence, someone, somewhere will take notice; someone, somewhere will appreciate it; someone, somewhere will acknowledge it; someone, somewhere will be blessed by it.

You, each one, must make your own choice. You, each one, must deliberately do what you do—and you will be surrounded with what you express, like it or not; and if you do not like it, change the pattern of what you express. Do not imagine that if someone over there would change everything would be all right with you. You must change—and changes come, and learn to welcome them, learn to eagerly welcome change, because if you do and you are letting the evidence of the Presence of God be made manifest through you, the changes that come will be a blessing. You may not always see just how or why or when, but all things work together to perfection for those who love and serve the Lord. And the invisible realm that is at hand right now, here, is made manifest and there is evidence of it in our lives. And when I look at you, well, you are evidence of it in my life. Are you not? Why else are you here? You are evidence of it, and you can provide the evidence for others, on and on and on until it shall be said, rejoicing in love response before the Lord, “And Thy righteousness shall cover the earth. The evidence of Thy presence in right action shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.” So let it be.

If we remember it, we can deliberately choose and we can deliberately act; we can deliberately refuse to express the wrong word and express the right one; we can deliberately refuse to have the wrong attitude and display the right one. We can deliberately choose, we can deliberately act, practicing with deliberation until it becomes second nature—and you will find it is your first nature. It is your true nature, the nature of God made evident in your life. And that is the Victory, that is following our Lord and King according to His invitation, and that challenges the best that is in you. Peace be unto you in body, in mind and heart. Peace be unto you as you let the Presence of the Prince of Peace be made evident in your lives, as you do your part to help produce peace on earth. Unless you help to make peace, you cannot know peace no matter how many around you have peace. You must help produce in your own life the evidence of the Presence of peace on earth if you would know it and share it. Peace be unto you, in the Holy Name of our Lord and King.

© emissaries of divine light