We come to the hour of our evening meditation on this 10th day of June, 1954, in the Chapel on Sunrise Ranch. In beginning this hour of meditation let us share a moment of Devotion.
Our Gracious LORD and Holy KING, we thank Thee for the many evidences of Thy Blessings made manifest on earth. We thank Thee for the beauty and the wonder and the Glory of Life made manifest in this springtime. We thank Thee for the springtime that is opening in the hearts and lives of so many people—earnest, sincere, seeking ones the world around—drawing them with the irresistible cords of Thy Love, into the Way, the Truth, and the Life, that all things may truly work together to perfection, in and through and for, all those who love and serve Thee. I thank Thee, Father, that now, in the Spirit of Thy Presence, in the realization of that which has been accomplished and that which must yet be done, we can, with one accord, come before Thy Throne, yielding body and mind and heart to Thee, that the Spirit of Thy Presence may become the Spirit of our Being, that we may entertain no spirits that are not of Thee, but that we may truly let Thy Spirit fill the Temple and shine round about in the expression of our lives, to the end that we may truly serve Thee by truly serving our brother man, to Thy Glory, and to the Blessing of all who will receive, in a realization that, “Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever.” Aum-en.
In the Biblical portrayal there are many incidents recorded with respect to past events where human beings sought help from God through others, and outstanding among these incidents we have the record of a time not too long after the Master’s presence among men on earth, in person, when the call went out, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” It is called the Macedonian Call. “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” We have such a call from Africa. But the call is not limited to Africa. I can hear that call sounding from many points in the United States and Canada, as well as other parts of the world. If we are aware, consciously and constantly aware, of the call, it seems to me that it makes a difference in our attitudes here.
In time past I have posed the question: “If someone else were here, and you were the one out there, the one who was calling ‘Come over and help us,’ would you want that person on whom you were waiting, to function, day by day, as you do now? Would you like to change places with someone else and be the one sending out the call, ‘Come over and help us’?” Why do we receive that call? Because we, as human beings, are worthy of it? No. Because those who make the call address that call to God, and their hope is that the Blessings will come from God, through us, to them. For by what other means can these Blessings derive from God and be extended to the Waiting Ones? We have privileges here. Perhaps there are times when even the privilege of being here begins to seem to be of comparatively little value. But we must remember that if God hears prayer and answers a prayer, the answer to that prayer must appear through someone, somewhere. It is always so.
The answer to that earnest prayer must appear through someone, somewhere. If God is to answer a prayer, someone must be the instrument, the means, the messenger, by which the prayer is answered. Someone, somewhere, must do it somehow, if it is to be done. Without detracting from what others are doing, or may yet do, there is a place for us, for you. God does not yet have enough men and women through whom to answer prayer. It is one thing to pray to God for something; it is another thing to be the means by which God answers that prayer.
This morning we were dealing with the subject of understanding, among other things, developing an answer to the question, “What doth the Lord require of thee?” Understanding—by which we come to the point of agreement. And we realize that, until there is agreement on earth as touching the things of God, the Father is not permitted to do the works. As the Master said, “Where two or three of you agree on earth as touching these things, it shall be done of my Father which is in Heaven.” But there must be agreement. And there must be understanding before there can be agreement. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2021/03/what-doth-lord-require-of-thee.html]
I am convinced from my observation of people—human beings with all their immaturities and fears and uncertainties—that there are few, if any, living upon the face of the earth, who are willing to move into the pattern of Reality unless, or until, their hearts are deeply touched by a recognition of the needs of others. If we reach a point of understanding and agreement, where the Father does the works, we are letting God answer prayer. How shall the Father do the works? What does it mean? To put it simply, in other words, “to let God answer prayer through you.” What kind of works do you expect the Father to do through you? What kind of works will He perform?
“Letting the Father do the works,” or, “Letting it be done of our Father in Heaven,” simply means that you have yielded your body, your mind, your heart, your whole capacity of being, to the work of letting God answer prayer through you—not just praying to God for something, although prayer is certainly proper in its place, but I am much more interested in letting God answer prayer through me than I am in praying to God according to any ordinary concept of prayer. But we develop a new attitude, a new concept, with respect to prayer. And if prayers are to be answered, it must be through human beings.
Have any of your prayers ever been answered? If so, that answer came through someone. Have I ever been the means by which an answer to your prayer reached you? Have I? Has God ever answered prayer through me to you? Yes. You know that it is so. Why do I have your love and respect and cooperation? Because it is so. Why do I have your trust? Because your experience convinces you that God does answer prayer through me—through others, yes—but through me, regardless of what is answered through someone else.
You have prayed in the past, one way or another, and finally you began to receive something of the answer to that prayer. Sometimes you did not realize it when it first started appearing. Sometimes, perhaps, you rejected what God sent to you in answer to your prayer. But the reason for our presence here—for your presence here is for you to learn to be a man or a woman through whom God may work to answer prayer. The call from Macedonia—“Come over and help us.” It is vital and it is important that we realize that we are not here to please ourselves, to gain this or that for ourselves. We are here to be trained, to make progress along the Way, to study, to learn, and experience, above all, those things which prepare us to serve. And what does it mean “to serve?” To be a means by which God answers prayer. And anything else is not service. Anything else is futile, worthless. All the calls, all the prayers in the world—God always answers. But do we always receive? And are we willing to be messengers by which the answer to a prayer is delivered from God to the one who prays?
In one of my meditations in Vancouver I pointed out that nearly 2000 years ago God started certain blessings on their way to me. He started those blessings on their way to me nearly 2000 years ago. If I had refused to receive those blessings they would have been in vain as far as I was concerned, but it would not have been evidence that God did not send the answer to the prayer, He did not send the Blessing. He did.
I prayed a prayer a number of years ago. I felt, in the outer sense, lost and uncertain. I had checked into all kinds of religions. I had left one religion because I found it completely unsatisfactory to me, and because of it I was virtually ostracized from my family. I checked into many religions and many ideas and teachings, including the Roman Catholic, and I could not find what I was searching for. And I prayed a prayer to seek, to know, to find, what is meant by this Way that is talked about. What is the Truth? I had heard religious people talk about the Truth in a way that just grated on my very soul. I have heard them meet each other in a sort of smug, self-righteous self-complacence, and say, “Are you in the Truth?” “Oh, yes, I'm in the Truth.” And they simply meant they belonged to some particular brand of religion. They had accepted an idea and they were “in the Truth,” until it irked my very soul. And I knew what kind of lives they were living, and, “I'm in the Truth.” Ugh! No. To me it was sacrilege and blasphemy because Truth ought to be more than that.
And so, finally, after walking through many a valley of dark despair seeking and finding naught, after, not just days, but months and years of utter loneliness and many a prayer, I finally began to realize that the prayer which I was praying had been answered nearly 2000 years ago, and that God sent the answer to that prayer on its way to me long before I ever prayed the prayer. And once that idea, that Truth, began to percolate through my consciousness, a little Spiritual Light began to dispel the darkness.
God sends the Blessings on their way to all who will receive; but who is willing to be the messenger by which they will receive? Are we here just to please ourselves, or just to please each other? Are you here just to please me? What will please me? There is just one thing that will please me, and that is, that you serve God and become a means by which God can answer prayer, the prayers of those now living, who live on earth today. And if you do not become a means by which God answers prayer then I count your life to be in vain.
There are prayers that need little answers, and prayers that need big answers. God answers prayer, but for every prayer that God answers there must be someone, somewhere, to deliver it, to be the messenger. And so, our purpose here, on Sunrise Ranch, is to so live and so serve that through us God may answer the prayers of untold thousands and millions of people upon the face of the whole earth. We have evidence in Africa of the response to this Spirit that is sent forth. We see it everywhere—I see it—but I wish somehow I could burn in letters of fire the Truth upon the tablets of your heart, so that you might never in any moment forget that life becomes in vain, becomes merely meaningless existence, unless we so live in understanding and agreement, that God through us may answer the prayers of those who pray—that if there is a Seeking One, what shall he seek and where shall he hope to find it, if there be no one who can be trusted to deliver that which the Seeking One would find? And would you change places, exchange with someone out there, and wait for that someone as that someone now waits for you?
Let us never forget, never be lost in petty and unworthy things, feelings and attitudes or patterns of function. Let us remember the sacred privilege, the holy responsibility, of being men and women through whom God answers prayer. So shall we live and so shall we make it possible for others to live and to know the God of Heaven and earth, that they may see, and recognize, and accept, the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells.
Our Gracious LORD and Holy KING, we thank Thee for the privilege of Serving, for the privilege of letting the answers to prayer which Thou dost send into the earth find the ones who pray that the prayer may not be in vain, that the answer may not be in vain, but may be delivered to the right person, at the right time and place, in the right way, that the children of men may come to know, with absolute certainty, that God does answer prayer, and that He seeks those through whom He may deliver the answers to prayer that they may be received, and that all who will may be Blessed in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. For “Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever.” Aum-en.
As you love and Serve the LORD, so shall all things work together to perfection in and through and for you, because through you God delivers the answers to prayer to the children of men, and you begin to receive through others the answer to your own prayers, because you are found worthy to receive the answer to prayer when you are found worthy to deliver the answer to prayer into the hearts and minds and lives of others, to the Glory of God and to the Blessing of the children of men. Peace be unto you, now and always, as you love and serve our LORD and KING. Aum-en.
