I welcome you to the Holy Place on this Christmas morning 1972. In the story told in the Book of Job long ago, “There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and satan came also among them.” Satan is the self-centered, self-willed consciousness of man. The self-centeredness and the self-will of the consciousness of man is what impels him to do what he does. Satan is certainly not an unknown quantity in the world as it is in this day and hour, for here is the compulsion which drives men to do what they do. In that day long ago, it is said that Job was a perfect and an upright man who feared God and eschewed evil. There was, however, evidently a weakness in the hedge about him. One of the evidences of this weakness was indicated at the point when his wife suggested that he curse God and die; she was not in agreement with him. Because of whatever weaknesses there were in Job’s hedge, satan was able to enter in, bringing disaster. Because the Holy Place was not maintained by those who were responsible for it, the hedge was breached. The self-centered, self-willed consciousness of man—satan, the adversary—took command of the situation temporarily and, as I say, there was disaster and tragedy.
As I welcome you to the Holy Place this morning as the sons and daughters of God, the question arises as to whether satan comes with you, whether there is anything remaining in your consciousness which is in agreement with the self-centered, self-willed state. At that time, because there was a weakness in the hedge, what satan had to say necessarily had to be listened to. This morning I trust that we may ignore anything that he might have to say. He has many specious arguments to maintain his position in those who are self-willed and self-centered; but relinquishing this state of consciousness in favor of praise and thanksgiving to God, satan may be ignored—certainly not agreed with—because our agreement is with the LORD.
In the Holy Place we may come before the veil which connects the Holy Place with the Holy of Holies. To you this morning I represent that most Holy Place. And remember that only the High Priest enters therein. But the High Priest—whoever he may be at any particular time in the unfoldment of the creative purposes of God—represents the LORD to the Priesthood and represents the Priesthood to the LORD. The High Priest and the Priesthood represent the LORD to the people and the people to the LORD—these are the people of the encampment. The High Priest, the Priesthood and the people of the encampment represent the LORD to the world and the world to the LORD. Here is a first recognition of a certain detail to the pattern of representation. There is an intricacy to it, in one sense, requiring each individual to be faithful and true, maintaining integrity in his or her particular place in the overall design.
In this pattern of representation, over the last few days, we have moved out of the encampment into the Outer Court, and through the Outer Court into the Holy Place, to provide the setting in the Holy Place for the spirit of the living God. That spirit is represented to you this morning by the spirit of the words which I speak, that you may know that the Holy Place is a reality because of the reality on earth of the Holy of Holies. All that is essential to every human being on the face of the earth springs from the Holy of Holies. To deny this truth is to die. Because the children of men, in their self-centeredness and self-will, have been persistently denying this truth, and betraying the LORD in consequence, they have died—and the whole world moves to the point of death. Death to what? To self-centeredness and self-will. If a person is identified with this, a dupe of satan, then it is death to that person. But if the Priesthood is present on earth in right relationship to the High Priest, then the door is opened to life. There is life for the world. There is a future for the world on this basis. Those who indulge in self-will and self-centeredness take the attitude so often described by the words, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” That's true, of course, for those who indulge in such fantasy. Death is the chosen course, but only by reason of their own attitudes, by reason of their own decisions—for the LORD has ordained life. This is a world of life. This is a world uniquely created to reveal the Glory of Life in all its fulness. What remarkable variety there is on earth for this purpose even now, even now after all these thousands of years of human self-centeredness and self-will.
So we stand again in the Holy Place, aware of the reality of life, life which is revealed by the Cloud of Glory of the Shekinah Pattern. The Cloud of Glory emanates from the Holy of Holies because therein is the Light that Glows and the Fire that Burns—the source and the origination of everything that is required for the manifestation of life at every level on earth through mineral, vegetable, animal and man. But man holds the key to life or death. Assuming the posture of ignorant self-centeredness and self-will, he dies, and he takes his world with him.
Acknowledging again the reality of life as represented by the Priesthood and the High Priest, the experience of what has been called the resurrection immediately applies. There are two ways: the broad way in which human beings have been treading recklessly for centuries, and the narrow way, the way of integrity, the way of honor and honesty, the way of beauty and meaning, the way of life. Out of the Holy of Holies the Word is spoken through the Priesthood, “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve: If the Lord be God then serve Him, but if Baal, Satan, self-centeredness, then serve him.” Every human being on the face of the earth must make this choice. This choice has been made in every generation all down through the ages, but now we come to the time of culmination when the whole stupid mess of self-centeredness may be swept from the face of the earth. This occurs by reason of the creative power of God, not by any mighty effort of man, whose sole effort is the digging of his own grave.
This is Christmas morning. This year, as never before, the unfoldment of what has been occurring during this weekend of Christmas has been placed in my hands, so that the spiritual aspects of Christmas might dominate. Heretofore, the material aspects have tended to dominate. Because it has been in my hands, and because there has been the openness of response that has appeared, because of whatever measure of integrity is present, we have moved to this hour. We have moved to stand before the veil, a place of trembling, and yet a place longed for in the hearts of those whose response and integrity brings them to that place.
The veil connects the Holy of Holies with the Holy Place. It is not a veil of separation. It is a veil that is rightly there, impenetrable to all but the High Priest, and no one with integrity would ever seek to tear it aside. It is of the quality that allows what is present in the Holy of Holies to shine forth into the Holy Place, so that the Holy Place may be the place of the experience of what originates in the Holy of Holies. The setting of holiness is maintained that it might be so, that the birth of water and of the spirit might be the constant experience. As this hedge is maintained to preserve the holiness of the Holy Place the creative power of God becomes increasingly evident, shining forth as the veil into the Holy Place, through the Priesthood, into the Outer Court, where the consciousness of those who occupy the encampment comes to focus in praise and thanksgiving. The Glory of the Lord fills the Temple, the Tabernacle, the Outer Court, the encampment, and shines round about. There is nothing on earth that can contend with the power of God when it is made manifest in this fashion. The world is inevitably restored—and man comes again into his place, made in the image and likeness of God, walking upright and perfectly on earth, fearing God and eschewing evil. Behold, all things are thereby made new. The world becomes again a world of life and not a world of death, the world of God and not the world of satan.
Lift up your hearts and eyes in this hour in praise and thanksgiving to God in the consciousness of the quality and the character of God, which is your own, and in the awareness of the Lord God in the Holy Place, in the midst. As the LORD Himself said when He was on earth, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name”—in the consciousness of me—“there I am in the midst of them.” So it is in this hour. So it is in every hour when there are men and women of integrity who stand in that integrity revealing the truth of themselves in the expression of the Glory of Life on earth. That Glory of Life made manifest is the Cloud of Glory of the Shekinah. Behold, in this hour, of this Christmas morning, so it is established, to you, and through you, and all those of integrity who share the responsibility of the Priesthood of God on earth today.
O LORD, I am present before this company this morning representing Thee. To this end, I am present on earth in this physical form, in this place, at this time. My word spoken in the current of Thy Spirit in this hour, has been brought forth by reason of those of integrity and open response, who are present in person or in spirit. I am thankful for these blessed ones who make all this possible, that what is yet to come may continue to unfold with certainty and power in the hours and days to come.
I am Thy servant; and these are Thy servants. Let them prove the truth of my words in the future, that it may be known on earth that Thou art the LORD, that Thy Will is done, that the reality of life comes again in the fullness of true expression because there are those who have accepted the responsibility of letting it be so; those who are no longer moved in any way by satan, by self-centered self-will, but are moved only by Thy spirit, that through Thy spirit, according to Thy Word, all things are made new. Glory to Thee, O LORD, in the highest expression of our living on earth, now and always. Aumen.
