Everything Is Happening Because This Point Of Orientation Is Here

Everything  Is  Happening

Because  This  Point  Of  Orientation  Is  Here

Bill Bahan  and  Martin Cecil  April 15, 1981  Assembly

Bill Bahan — None are free if any are bound. This was a statement made many years back by Uranda. At the time that these words were spoken there was the vision of the fact that the ones who were bound were going to be offered their freedom. The outer facility as to how that would be done certainly wasn't in form, but the vision of the fact that it would take place was certainly in his consciousness.

This morning I noted words that were mentioned, two words: binding and loosing. Well we have the responsibility in this process which is going on—the loosing is taking place. And I thought that we might refresh our pure minds in relationship to the process that is involved so that this flood which is coming, which is now, may be handled by those of us who have the responsibility intelligently, deliberately, so that we go about it as professionals, one might say.

We have the words in Matthew 18, the eighteenth Verse, “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Now this loosening process is taking place. It is taking place because of the fact that there are those who are loose—have been for some time now—and there is the facility to provide the focus to begin to unloose those who are tied down in the mass subconscious mind. Human beings have been bound by convention. They are in the habit of tying themselves in knots. We know in our own experience that conventional behaviour, and how we found ourselves tied in knots—probably not too tightly or we wouldn't be here—but there was the binding in our own experience, and the offering of the Lord which allowed that loosening to take place.

The LORD has always offered the word, “Don't be too much in a hurry to unloose them,” because if we do have a large influx of those who have been cut loose and we are not in position to handle them, well we know that they go out and tie themselves up tighter than they were before. And in the next verse which follows this one on binding and loosing is the answer to handling this particular situation, something that we are very aware of and alert to. The next verse: “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” Now, in our recent services we have been looking at this “two in agreement” and we have seen that there must be two—that is the minimum. I think there are some who consider it the maximum. But there must be two: the Conscious Mind and the Father initially. We have seen in our own experience how that representation of the Father has been provided for us, and in our conscious mind being in agreement with it, regardless of the state of our subconscious mind. We didn't have to be concerned about that. “If two of you shall agree on earth.” There is the representation of the Father—and in our conscious mind we are in absolute agreement with it. “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

The third one will come along. I would suggest that this which is opening up is the third one coming along, which is the subconscious mind. It is coming along. Here are those who are putting in an appearance out of that particular level, and I think it is very interesting—the responsibility that we have towards it. Hugh Malafry mentioned something about the subculture; about the subculture being something on its own because it doesn’t trust the greater culture. Well this is just a reflection of the conscious and subconscious minds. The subconscious mind of man distrusts the conscious mind of man, rightly so, because the conscious mind of man has the responsibility of being the guardian angel, of protecting what it is that gets down into that subconscious mind. It has been a very negligent angel, as we know, and consequently all of this stuff has come down on the subconscious mind.

Our responsibility, really, is to work with that subconscious mind, and to develop the trust. This is beginning to happen because the Son consciousness has been expanding and revealing the fact that it is a guardian angel, and we have had the opportunity—whether or not we have recognized what we are doing, what we have been doing—we have had the opportunity of offering something consistent from the Father through the Son consciousness into the subconscious mind of mankind which says to the subconscious mind of mankind, “You can trust.” So it begins to open up, and it is opening up now. And woe unto those who have the responsibility of representing the Son consciousness who, when this heart begins to open up, this subconscious aspect—the subculture of the mind begins to open up—and we offer any defilement into that, because it will close like a clam.

So here it is, opening. We begin to see the release of real power—and change comes when this subconscious opens—particularly through those of us who represent the conscious aspect of the mind, and if it is a true representation there is the Holy Ghost. The third aspect will follow along which is the Holy Ghost. It is the Holy Ghost which does the work—there is where the power is. It is the Holy Ghost being made manifest through the Son consciousness which allows us to begin to work with the Holy Ghost of the body of mankind—which hasn’t been a Holy Ghost, but it is a Holy Ghost aspect. This is where the work is being done. We realize that none of that could have been done unless there had been the presence of the Son consciousness, and nothing could have been done if there hadn’t been the representation of the Father.

I was thinking this morning how things of such magnitude are taking place, and how few see what it is that is taking place. How few saw what was taking place at the time of Moses. How few saw what was taking place at the time when our LORD and KING was on earth—even those close in as we read the record. There was just one or two really, who saw something of what was being offered, the greatness of it. And this particular Divine Line which opened up through Uranda—he was the only one who could have come out of this subconscious mess, because of who he was—because he came out he opened the door so that all of us could come out. Now you and I have the opportunity because of that representation of the Father, and those who responded to it initially, with their conscious mind in agreement with it. Now the whole thing is here, and we the have the opportunity of taking advantage of it because the light is on, the surface is there, everything is clear. We can’t see all the ins-and-outs, but we do know what is required.

We can do what is required, as I say, intelligently and deliberately. And one of the things that I would emphasize—that we need to be alert to—is that initially when people begin to move in the pattern of transformation they want to help mankind. We are not here to help man! We are here to serve the LORD. That is first. I think we have reached the point where there has been that clarity in consciousness—where the do-good syndrome has been cleared out of our particular expression. We serve the LORD. Now in the particular gathering that I mentioned that we had in New York, so many of them that were there—and there was a wide spectrum of representation, from political activists, to so-called spiritual people, to environmentalists—and they were all concerned with saving mankind. They were all concerned with serving man. Perfect! That’s where they are—but it isn’t where we are! We serve from heaven, and serving from heaven we serve man, but our first responsibility is to serve the LORD.

So I delight to serve the LORD with you. Isn’t it wonderful to know what we know and to see what we see. And in knowing what we know and seeing what we see we move forward, on that absolute path. It will be done. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2014/07/from-sacred-period-bill-bahan-september.html] If any heart should open to the Lord, to us, we know that we will take care of that. It has been offered into our hands. We are stewards of that heart, and we will bring that one to the place where the LORD would have them in His Kingdom, right here on earth.

Martin Cecil — The Word of the LORD is powerful and beautiful. “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” That is an absolute statement. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

We have begun to understand what agreement is. Many more than those who are gathered here have this understanding and experience, but we provide a focus of representation in this regard in a particular sense, and I am sure all of you are most willing to accept the responsibility of it. We accept it together because we are in agreement. We don’t have to discuss the matter, pro and con—we are in agreement. This is a remarkable state of affairs on earth, isn’t it? Because of this what needs to be done is done. We are constantly being encouraged that this is so by the opportunity to observe what is being done, to see what is happening. We have sufficient vision to be aware, at least in part, of what it is that is going on. We are content with the vision that we have, but at the same time I am sure all of you are aware that there is more to see. We haven’t experienced a complete vision, complete understanding, yet.

As Bill said, “While any are bound, none are free.” There are various levels of the experience of freedom but never complete until it is experienced wholly. This is more or less obviously so, but most human beings have tried to think that “wholly” meant “just me completely", whereas it doesn’t mean the individual alone. The individual participates certainly, but the freedom is the freedom of the whole. What has been bound has been mankind as a whole; therefore the reality of freedom in the experience of mankind includes the whole. Therefore the statement is seen certainly to be true: “While any are bound, none are free,” because the freedom of the whole is not known. Until the freedom of the whole is known, the freedom of the individual cannot be known—only perhaps hints of it. We have hints and delight in those hints ourselves, and this gives us sufficient freedom to move and to act, and to see so that we may be useful in the creative cycle which is already at work by which the fulfillment of freedom for the whole comes.

Now as individual human beings certainly we didn't have anything to do with this creative cycle. It was moving before ever we were born anyway—but as angels maybe we had something to do with it. As the human form awakens to the angelic consciousness, then there begins to be an awareness that we certainly as angels have had something to do with what is happening. It becomes quite apparent to us, for instance, that this cycle in which we now participate, while there was something moving before, was initiated in a very specific sense by the One whom we call LORD and KING, when He was on earth. And there is something that has been happening ever after. It appeared in various ways, and we have a record which we can read as to what occurred with the disciples way back, but this was only a little thing that conceivably could have led to greater things—but didn’t. So what was initiated was something above and beyond that. That may have been evidence that something had been initiated, but there has been this unfoldment which has been taking place consistently down over the centuries until we were born on earth in physical form to play our part in bringing what had been initiated to its ultimate conclusion. We are aware of what that conclusion is. We call it the restoration of man, freedom for the whole. The truth makes free. The extent that we see the truth at this point, to that extent we are free. But we know that that freedom is not total as yet.

So we are moving in this process and various things occur because of this. First of all there needed to be a conscious awareness established on earth, and this particular aspect of the matter was brought to focus through Uranda. Here was a conscious initiation, re-initiation, or an initiation at a new level of consciousness, of what had been at work all the way down since the Master set it in motion. And it emerged at this point in human consciousness. We have had the opportunity of awakening to this ourselves at various times in various ways to whatever level of conscious awareness we now have, and this has provided an expanded focus of true awareness in the consciousness of mankind on earth. And because this has been established a certain measure of agreement, as Bill has put it, between Father and Son has emerged. It has emerged to the extent that the Son consciousness has emerged. We participate in that.

We see what we see. We know that there is a lot more to see, and for that seeing to occur much needs to happen with respect to those who do not see. Now we see because something has been happening with respect to those who do not see. You can all look back to a time when you did not see, when you did not understand. And I am sure no one has the view that it was by some special efforts on their own part that they finally reached the pinnacle of success. We have noted that in some ways it has been a painful process, chiefly because from the standpoint of mind and heart there was a certain amount of resistance to it. But to the extent the resistance has been dissolved, we have come a long way and we have what we have now, and we see what is happening on a much larger scale than we originally understood. What we originally understood probably simply related to the confines of the Emissary ministry which was somehow or other supposed to take in everybody else. But it didn’t happen just that way. It isn’t happening the way it may have been set up in the structures of human consciousness, our own included. It is happening the way it does happen, and we are quite willing in these days to allow it to happen that way rather than the way that we had it set up in consciousness.

There is the conscious awareness, some measure of the reality of the Son consciousness, providing a focus of orientation in the consciousness of mankind. At the same time the spirit of God has been moving not only to produce this focus, but to achieve what was properly related to the bringing forth of the focus in the subconscious levels of the mind of mankind. Now, being conscious and aware of what it is that is at work, we begin to see what is happening from the standpoint of the subconscious mind of humanity. We realize that this is not separate from ourselves because we would not be in the position to have a conscious awareness if it had not been that something had been happening in the subconscious mind of humanity—and what was happening was happening by reason of the sending and the consequent coming of the Comforter.

It has taken almost 2,000 years to reach this point, which gives some indication of the crustiness of the human nature consciousness of mankind. It has taken this length of time, but things are showing themselves more in these days than they have in the past and it seems as though there is a quickening of the pace. However, we would have to acknowledge that the LORD has a great amount of patience. He has waited so far 2,000 years, quite apart from what went before that. Maybe patience is a very important quality in the development of whatever is needful in the creative process on earth.

So we are not in any great hurry from the angelic standpoint. We see that the human aspect of the matter may feel that time is of the essence because it is apparently hovering on the brink, so to speak. The control however is present on earth. I think we have a greater sense of this now than heretofore. If the working of the spirit of God could have produced what has been produced to allow for what is now present over these thousands of years, it is not about to bow out of the picture and say, “Oh, well—couldn’t really bring it to fruition.” It is coming whether anybody likes it or not. We have been learning to like it. A lot of people haven’t been quite so sure. We have learned to like it because we begin to understand that it is necessary, and it is beautiful really, when we see what it is that is being brought to pass.

So we have a balanced view here. We are not taking some sort of arrogant stance to say, “Well, we did all this.” No—but we have something to do nevertheless, and we have been doing something—but because the spirit has been at work and certainly not through any human brilliance or effort. We find ourselves a part of what is happening. There is something in focus in the conscious sense and we see this now in particular focus, today especially so. Let us not fool ourselves into imagining that it is the only thing that is happening. If it was we would be in a bad way. There is the necessity for the provision of the continuing point of orientation. There is a point of orientation, whether it has been clearly seen by all or not. It has been acknowledged. It is the fact whether anyone likes it or not. So there is a point of orientation which is the reason why something can come together. If it wasn’t there, it wouldn’t come together, obviously so.

Because there was not an adequate point of orientation heretofore, it has never come together before—just enough to maintain life. Here is a form appearing which is capable of encompassing other forms and of allowing them to participate in a living organism in form on earth. There will be more to the form—and there will be more to the spirit than is now seen as the Emissary ministry. In other words, the spirit has some expanding to do relative to the form that is being brought forth. This is obviously so—we see the expansion necessary in ourselves as individuals to encompass what is putting in an appearance by reason of the form. But seen in this light, I am sure we can recognize that everything is really under control because all that has happened so far has happened because of the working of the spirit of God, and as I say, the spirit of God is not about to throw up its hands at this point and say, “No more; I can't do anymore.” It is just getting started, just finally something is beginning to emerge and here it is. I am sure all of us who participate in this spirit by which the form is being brought forth find ourselves rejoicing that this is happening at last. It’s been a long haul, but now it’s here. How thankful therefore we may all be, both angelically and in mind and heart, for what is transpiring. There are many very practical things to be taken into consideration and done.

Here is the spirit bringing forth at all levels. And we are here as angels to let it happen, and to provide our facilities on earth to let it happen. We all have minds and hearts and bodies by which these things take place. We all have responsibility in it, but we are constantly aware that our individual responsibility is not disassociated from the responsibility carried by others. So we always have this in consciousness. We never act unilaterally. If I offer something to you during these sessions that we share, I trust you realize that I am not acting unilaterally. What I offer comes because of you. We are both required and we share the positive and negative aspects of the truth of love in the expression of living, and behold, what is needful is born on that basis. Being born on that basis it is natural to all of us; we're none of us being imposed upon by anything. We delight to share whatever it is that is being born. Now this same delight needs to be known throughout all this developing form of the body which at the moment can be seen. It all comes together because there is one spirit, and in fact the representation of that one spirit.

We see this clearly enough for ourselves so that we never surrender that focus to anyone else, any other gathering of people who may in themselves be offering something that is all right, part of what is working out. We are always at the point where we belong. We have been trained for this reason. Now we don't need to say to people, “Well, the Emissaries provide the focus”—because maybe many of them don't in fact. But there needs to be those individual angels who form one focus of spirit to provide what is necessary—and they never relinquish that position. There must be this point of orientation. Everything is happening because this point of orientation is there. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2016/09/special-martincecil-september-16-1981.html] It wouldn’t happen if it wasn't there, and if we see this we see our own responsibility in the matter surely most vividly. We are absolutely essential to what is happening. This doesn't make us any better than anybody else because everybody else may participate in being essential, and they are beginning to awaken to this fact.

So we rejoice in all these things, but hold firmly the agreement that we know so that the point of spiritual focus on earth is steadfast, unwavering. And all who are coming may sense that point of orientation. For most it will simply be a sensing. For some there will be a seeing, and for those who see no doubt in season a greater participation in that point of orientation. We are to provide what is required of us by the Lord and we do that. And whether someone thinks it is good or bad makes very little difference. There are those who think the Emissaries are a focalization of the devil. Do you know that? Well it doesn't matter what anyone thinks, good or bad. It is what the fact is that matters, and as long as we keep the fact clear, that's it. We've got the job done from the standpoint of our own responsibility. This is not to say that we don’t have many things yet to do and many people to encompass—and a great deal of expanded understanding necessary in order to encompass them. But we do it from a firm foundation—the spirit of God. I am sure you have seen many areas of consideration that have arisen because of what we have been looking at that will necessarily need to be expanded in our consciousness in the days to come. So praise the Lord! This is the way the door is opened in fact for others, because it is opened in ourselves.

© emissaries of divine light

My Sheep Hear My Voice

My Sheep  Hear  My Voice

Martin Exeter  February 24, 1985

“Even if out of the five billion people there are five hundred that hear the voice,

that is all that is necessary.”

We have the opportunity of participating in a unified time, all brought to focus as you hear the sound of my voice. There is something beyond the sound of my voice. This is a form which we share, but we are quite familiar with the spirit which is so vibrantly present for all of us—the spirit of the living God—a constant thing which pervades our living day by day, but is brought to a particular sharpness of focus during an hour such as this. We have something to do together which carries impact and significance to all people who have the perception to be aware of it.

There was a man who lived in the world a long time ago. On one occasion he was questioned by his Master: “Do you love me?” At the time he was quick to reply that he did. The instruction was then forthcoming: “Feed my lambs.” Shortly thereafter the question was repeated again, twice. With growing impatience this man repeated his answer. The instruction from the Master was: “Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep.” This is very pertinent to our own experience, because in this particular story it related to something that had happened previously. This man had found himself in rather a tense situation, and because of fear he denied his Master three times. Probably his impatience at being asked the same question three times later was based in his own shame for what had occurred previously. If we are honest we would all admit that there have been occasions, by reason of fear and other human emotions, when we have denied the truth in our own living. Because we have done this, there is a continuing sense of shame. If we are at times impatient in various ways it likely springs from this sense of shame. This particular man was being offered the opportunity later to forgive himself, an opportunity which is available to all of us, if we will accept it. Some are rather self-righteous and suppose it is important that they should forgive other people for their sins against themselves. It isn’t so much that, as discovering how much we really need to forgive ourselves. We can’t forgive ourselves without admitting our shame.

The way forgiveness is received was indicated by the instruction that was given on that far-distant occasion: “Feed my lambs: feed my sheep; feed my sheep.” The lambs and the sheep represent those who would be willing to be fed the correct nourishment—spiritual nourishment: however we need to see more clearly what this implies. It might be said of sheep that they are vegetarians. It isn’t initially so much a matter of changing our diet, or urging other people to change theirs, as of providing the nourishment that is essential to those who are represented in this analogy as lambs and sheep. These creatures are indeed vegetarians. There are other animals that are not. Goats are vegetarians too. They eat a different kind of browse than that which is acceptable to sheep. And then, beyond them again, there are the wolves; their diet is not vegetarian as a rule. Utilizing these various animals as representative of people, we easily recognize that human beings in general have a variety of diets in this sense. They are only willing to eat certain food. I am not speaking of physical food in the ordinary sense. But human beings receive to themselves what they feel is necessary, first of all to their survival. Survival in the general sense is a very self-centered attitude. Who knows that one should continue to survive? One could usually think of quite a few people as to whom it might be beneficial if they didn’t. But that viewpoint is seldom turned toward oneself. There are a lot of other people that we could do without, but not this one!

The general attitude of human nature is to try to get what you want. We have become aware of the fact that there is some sort of a tide rising in the world which is causing some changes to come about in various ways, in the population principally. I don’t think that rising tide has as yet changed the general human attitude which centers in trying to get what you want. It may have an effect on the methods that are used to get what you want. But still that human nature stance persists. We need to be very conscious of this when we are observing the rising tide of change, so that we don’t get carried away with the idea that people everywhere are now becoming more spiritual. If it seems so, perhaps it is simply that it is now considered that one can get what one wants by spiritual means more effectively than one could get what one wanted by material means.

While the true state of man is an innocent state, this doesn’t prevent those concerned from seeing the way things are quite clearly. I don’t think any fundamental change has taken place in human beings yet anywhere! Maybe a little in us; we hope so anyway. It may be that the methods by which one gets what one wants are refined a bit, and what one wants may be refined a bit. People want satisfaction. They want peace of mind. They want less tension. They want better health. Why? So they can do the things they want to do with greater ease. There are all kinds of good things that people want. And the changes that are occurring would seem to relate to this refining of what one wants and the methods one uses to get what one wants. This is characteristic of human nature, but I’m sure we all recognize that the attitudes involved in all of this continue to be fatal. They don’t bring any answer whatsoever.

You can find people coming around to receive something at our hands. We need to be sensible in recognizing why they do it, for the most part. Oh, they’re fine people, but they are still trying to get what they want. This is the way that humanity, both individually and collectively, destroys itself. A recognition of this has presumably exercised us to a certain extent so that we saw the need to let go of this human determination to try to get what we want, even though those wants seem to be very spiritual and very good. I think many who have become associated with EDL have tended to anticipate that by this means they would get what they wanted. Their wants were perhaps quite high-sounding, very spiritual wants: “I want to be an angel.” As long as you are wanting to be that, you’ll never be it. It’s useless to want what you already are. You want to have an angelic human nature—much the same, only with all these wonderful angelic characteristics. There has been a lot of effort put forth in this regard—emissaries trying to behave themselves as they thought emissaries should, angelically of course, but it is still the old syndrome.

The basic motivation is to get what one wants in human nature. One’s wants might be quite deeply buried. They come out of the past. They are the same sort of wants that people have had all down through the ages, distilled into our individual experience. Because they are our own we don’t think they are too bad, particularly if they can be spiritually colored. We are aware that there is a totally different state to be known. It isn’t a modified human nature state; it isn’t a spiritualized human nature state; it is a different state to what has been known in the human nature stance. We all initially find ourselves tarred with that brush, simply by reason of the fact that we were born of human nature parents into this human nature world. We still have the human nature approach, to start with at least, which expects to get better and better, until finally you land up perfect—not too quickly, please. But there is no idea of what it would mean to be perfect, only a human nature concept. The perfect state is the natural state of man.

If there has been a certain willingness in us to relinquish some of these human nature endeavors, we may discover that there is actually another state that doesn’t have an approach that is trying to get anything. There is no need to get anything, because what is necessary is already present, covered up by all these efforts to get what we think we want. Let’s not fool ourselves—we want to get what we want, and we have quite resounding phrases to describe what it is we want. As long we are trying to get it, it isn’t the truth in expression—just a modification of human nature, so as to make what is thought of as being better. We are not interested in better or worse, rightly. We are here to be what we are, and what we are is not warmed-over human nature. We talk of angelic nature, and it’s nice to have some words to describe something of which we do not have very much experience. There is something, and occasionally we touch it. It comes forth into expression, and that’s wonderful; but very shortly thereafter we likely revert into human nature again with our endeavors to become more spiritual—whatever that would be.

Finally, I would acknowledge, there are those who are beginning to emerge out of this fog—the mist thins somewhat, but as long as there is mist around there is human nature around. Then everything that finds expression is modified by the mist. We find factually, in our own experience, that there is mist hanging around, and that modifies our outlook in human nature ways—we tend to revert. As the mist clears, the truth is unveiled. It doesn’t look at all like anything that human nature has thought or hoped it would. This unveiling we have described in terms of a tone, and also in terms of the Word.

The Word is spoken on earth through the life of somebody or other; and if it is, there are those who hear it. I give all of you the benefit of the doubt, that if the Word has been spoken you heard it. You didn’t know what it was; you translated it in all kinds of different ways—emissary concepts and consequently conflict. But when the Word is spoken on earth those who are capable of hearing it hear it. Those who hear it would be described as lambs or sheep, in this analogy. If we ourselves heard the Word, and have aligned ourselves with it in some measure, so that we can speak it momentarily and spontaneously, without quoting like the scribes do, then immediately the Word is extended and there are those who will hear it. “Feed my lambs, feed my sheep,” by allowing this expression to be made available. It isn’t warmed-over spirituality according to the human view. It’s something fresh and new and momentary. And those who might be classified as lambs or sheep hear it.

What’s the difference between a lamb and a sheep? A lamb is younger of course. Lambs have a slightly different diet to the mature sheep. There is this provision available which fits the diet of the lamb as well as of the sheep. The point is that those who are in this classification hear. The instruction wasn’t—and we’ll find out that it wasn’t an instruction anyway—the seeming instruction wasn’t to feed all the animals; just the sheep and the lambs, because all the other animals continue to exist on a different diet. The diet which is suitable to the lambs and the sheep is not suitable to any of the other animals. This is the idea that is being conveyed. So you don’t try to feed a wolf grass. You don’t imagine that a wolf should be eating grass; you don’t try to force it down the wolf’s throat. There is no need to force anything. Provide the nourishment of tone of one’s own living and the lambs and the sheep will hear it. Others won’t hear it. Don’t imagine that you can make them hear it. It proves itself out.

The point is that, awakening to the truth of one’s own expression, you don’t have to be instructed; you just express the truth of you. And you are in the process of discovering increasingly what that is. You discover to the extent that you are no longer trying to get any kind of satisfaction at all for yourself—anything. Human beings do not, for the most part, have this sort of attitude, because human nature demands that you get what you want. In order to get what you want you have to think a little bit about the things that you imagine you lack. “I don’t have enough love. I need to get more love.” And so various methods are devised in order to get people to give me what I want. I’ve noticed myself that I keep running into the endeavor on the part of people to please me. In other words they're saying, “You should be trying to get what you want”—speaking to me, trying to seduce me. Your attitude toward others will tend to be the attitude that you would like others to have toward you, and if you’re still on this kick of trying to get what you want, you will want other people to please you. If you want other people to try to please you, you demonstrate this by trying to please them: “I’ll scratch your back; you scratch mine.” Can we not come absolutely clear of this? There is a tremendous industry in the world these days of counseling. Why? Well because there are masses and masses of people who are trying to get what they want—maybe, oh, just an explanation. It never satisfies. Stop trying to get an explanation! It won’t be of any value if you get it.

There are some people on earth who might be included in the lamb and sheep classification, who hear the Word. My sheep hear my Word. If you’re not my sheep you won’t hear my Word. Very straightforward. Don’t try to convert the world to sheepdom. It is a matter of finding the sheep, because these are the ones who then give form to the body of the shepherd; and the shepherd speaks by reason of his body. The shepherd needs a body, the body of incarnation. The Son of Man comes in His glory, because He has a body available for use, so that the voice may resound on earth and all the lambs and the sheep perk up their ears. But never imagine that everybody around is going to do that, because, as we note from our own experience, most are inclined to try to get what they want. But when that voice of truth is heard it is very compelling and, momentarily at least, you forget what you want. That may have happened when Jesus called His disciples. They were busy fishing, trying to make a living no doubt, getting what they thought they wanted. But when they heard the Word all that endeavor to get what they wanted just simply vanished, and they forsook all that and came and followed Him—they didn’t really do it on a consistent basis, as most of us haven’t.

When we first heard the voice, maybe we … “Oh! Isn’t that tremendous!” And we began forming concepts about it. But it wasn’t our concepts that woke us up; it was the sound of the voice. We were sufficiently sheep-like or lamb-like to be able to hear it, and we were filled with enthusiasm, with zeal, for a little while. But then the old getting-what-one-wants idea reasserted itself. And probably you wandered in the wilderness for a while, maybe even forty years. Let’s not wait too long. “My sheep hear my voice.” That is the only thing that is important. It doesn’t have to be explained; it can’t be explained. It doesn’t have to be clothed in intellectual arguments for those who hear the voice. No. That’s it! Then, afterward, they may begin to doubt a little, and there will always be someone who will assist you in your doubts, as you may have discovered.

When the shepherd has a body on earth to speak the Word, to sound the voice, then His sheep hear His voice. It’s useless to speculate as to how many sheep there might be around. One would be inclined to think very few. The only reason for hearing that voice is that one might be unified into the body of the shepherd, that the shepherd might be on earth and that his voice might come through loud and clear. If the Word of truth is spoken far and wide it is not because it is anticipated that, far and wide, people are going to pay any attention, but the sheep will. Even if out of the five billion people there are five hundred that hear the voice, that is all that is necessary. It may be a sad commentary on the rest of the population of the earth, but everything is based on hearing that voice. People either do or they don’t. You know that. You have spoken to people. You may have waxed eloquent! You thought that even a stone would be moved, and the individual just sits there—never heard a word.

Most of the words that people think they hear are the words that are encouraging them to get what they want. So much of what is called response relates to that. There are a few—indeed a very precious few—who hear the voice of the Master. The others are hopeful that they can get something out of what they think they hear to produce what they want. What they want may be the kingdom of heaven. But it’s at hand, isn’t it? That is indicating that there is absolutely no need to want it, because it is there, if you stop wanting it. But the habit is strong and human beings very quickly think they are being badly done by if their wants are not being fulfilled. People have come around the Emissary ministry expecting their needs to be filled, and stayed a while, but because they didn’t hear the voice, just thought that they were going to get something—whoosh! away they go.

This idea of trying to love everybody so that they would participate in the kingdom on earth is ridiculous. Oh yes, there is love. Love has been available for everybody all down through the ages. And yet, people think they don’t have it and they want it. Can we move with assurance, without wants? “Oh I feel so badly today, just desolate inside. I need somebody to come and remind me that I’m really an angel, and I shouldn’t be feeling this way. I want to feel better.” Ah, you want. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

So we move together because we hear the voice. That is the only basis. We need no explanation; we need no comfort; we don’t need anything, because we don’t want anything. And we find that everything that we are is already present. If we thought there was a lack it was because what we are had not been expressed, not because someone else didn’t express what they are. That’s fine for them; but if you are to know the truth, you must express the truth—it’s the only way it can be done. Such a simple thing seems so difficult for wanting human minds to comprehend. So we share in acknowledging these things and seeing that the only thing that is required on earth is to feed the lambs and the sheep—for each one of us individually to do that, because that is the expression of the truth of our own living and we are not trying to give people what they think they want.

You find people flocking in to try to get what they want. We are not interested in giving them what they want at all, just in providing the nourishment of the voice, the Word, the tone, so that the individual who comes around—not knowing why he’s come around really—may have the opportunity of hearing that voice. You may smooth people down a little vibrationally, so that they will feel comforted somewhat, and stay around long enough so that if they are capable of hearing the voice they may do so. If they are not capable of hearing the voice, you will very shortly find out, and away they go. That’s fine, we don’t object to that; we don’t feel that we are successful or failing on the basis of how many people come around. How do we know who is going to hear the voice? Our responsibility is just to provide it. That’s all. Those who are capable of coming home will do so; they won’t be able to prevent themselves from doing so. “My sheep hear my voice.”

There are those throughout the world who have that capability. It is our responsibility to make sure that the voice penetrates everywhere. The gospel is preached in the whole world, just so that the voice may be heard. Those who can hear it will come; those who don’t hear it will go. But let us not be fooled by what we may have heretofore imagined was response when all it was was the concept in that individual's mind that if he stuck around long enough he was going to get what he wanted. Do any of you have that idea? “Just stick around a little longer and you’ll get what you want.” No you won’t. But you may participate in the process of sounding that voice in all the world, that the end may come—the end of human nature. Good riddance! How exactly that comes is not for us to speculate about. We can see some possibilities, but we are here to do what we are here to do. Let’s do it.

It is a joy to sound that tone, to speak the Word in oneness of spirit, because we don’t want anything. One might say that one wants to speak the Word, but it isn’t a want; one just does it. So we do it together, in our living, moment by moment, that there may be that resounding tone on earth, capable of being heard by any who are capable of hearing it. And if there are more people who are not capable of hearing it, well that is all right too. It isn’t for those. It is for those who have ears to hear and hearts to understand.

© emissaries of divine light

Feed My Sheep

Feed  My  Sheep

from   The Vibratory Turmoil, Tension and Misery

Uranda   August 20, 1953  Class

Our visit this afternoon in the city of Denver emphasized a number of things: one, the blessed privilege of peace we have here. The vibratory turmoil, the rushing to and fro, the tension and the misery, the sufferings of humanity which are so evident in untold ways—and the blessed privilege we have here of knowing a peace which is not known in the world. There are so many human beings who are subject to futility, who have reached a point of hopelessness, of not caring, and we need to have a still deeper appreciation of our privilege and responsibility, a dedication which cannot be caused to waver for even a moment, to the end that we may as effectively as possible serve. 

In our togetherness we have been considering many things with respect to service, what it means to serve and how to serve. We are here on a basis of dedication to service. You have all meditated upon it in various ways, but I was wondering if tonight we might in our togetherness gain a deeper realization of the significance and the opportunity, yes, and the means by which we may serve. Sometimes familiar things tend to take on an appearance of sameness. We tend to take them for granted, and we tend to assume that what we hear of familiar words has been heard before, and the mind and the heart seek for something new. In the pattern of change, we have been given the assurance that there is something new. The divine Word is, "Behold, I make all things new." But we have old problems with us: problems of the social order, problems of government, problems that take on a political pattern, problems of human relationship of every sort. 

Generally speaking the approach to these problems is made on the basis of trying to treat the disease, to heal an ill condition. Our approach is to seek to find something that is right, a point of health and strength in a body that has illness, so that we can increase the health and the strength in the body, that the illness may be crowded out. The same with the mind and the heart. It is easy to look for what is commonly called evil, or sin, and condemn people for it. Sometimes it is not so easy to find something that is right in other human beings and begin to encourage it, begin to give it an atmosphere in which it may grow and become strong and become a dominant factor in the life of the individual. Looking for the right things, looking for the starting points, is our business. 

This opens up a consideration in our field of spiritual psychiatry, the problem of understanding other people if we are going to serve them, the problem of how to find a means of inspiring the acceptance of an increase in that which is right. Most human beings exist on a basis of a deep conviction with respect to what is wrong, both with themselves and with others. This difference of approach is something which requires an educational program before human beings can begin to see its value.

I was particularly thinking in relationship to ourselves. We need to remember that we are a part of this world family, this world body, with all of its parts, with all of its ill conditions, with all of its suffering. We cannot consider ourselves as being separate from it, and if we are not separate from it and we think too much about all the tragedies and the sufferings and the ill conditions, the injustices, we will tend to become subject to them. We need to face the facts and then pause to consider what it means to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven at hand, right here on earth. How much does it mean to us?

When we see all of this misery in the world, when we recognize the tremendous problem before us, the human tendency is to feel that it cannot be done, that it is too big a problem, and to become fearful. And yet your body was made to let the spirit of life manifest on earth, your mind was created to let the spirit of truth have meaning on earth, and your heart was created to let the spirit of love have meaning on earth. To start with, these three aspects of yourself as the human being do not function perfectly. We cannot say with respect to any of you that the manifestation of life through you is perfect. Your body is not yet a perfect instrument for the manifestation of the spirit of life, but it is moving in that direction. Your mind is not yet a perfect instrument for the manifestation of the spirit of truth, but it is moving in that direction. Your emotional nature is not yet a perfect instrument of the manifestation of the spirit of love, but it too is moving in that direction. 

If we start looking for that which is right we may be forced to recognize that with many human beings in the world it is just too late. With many human beings there is no way to help them. We have recognized that there must be basic integrity. Sometimes it is covered up, sometimes it may be hard to find; but if there is a basic integrity, that is the first point. And the second is, the individual must be not only willing to be helped but must eagerly seek and accept help. In this pattern of dedication to service, we recognize that some people will not let you help them. Therefore as long as there are people in the world who will let you help them we must not waste time trying to help those who do not want to be helped. There are so many who are ready to be helped, looking for someone who can help them, those in whom we can inspire or uncover a spark, a starting point of integrity. If you have these two things in any human being, regardless of his problems, regardless of difficulties with habits, alcoholism or dope or anything else, if you can find or uncover these two things, you can do something. If you cannot find or uncover or inspire these two things, you cannot help that person no matter what you do. 

If you are trying to do something but are not actually doing something, can we classify that as service? We must not confuse trying to help someone with the actuality of helping, trying to serve with the actuality of service. If we see this distinction and recognize it clearly in relationship to ourselves, we can see that, regardless of intent or ability, regardless of purpose, unless we actually do serve someone in the sense of helping them, our effort is not service. 

In the world there are many service organizations, there are many people deeply interested in helping their fellows in various ways—church people, ministers and laymen, all sorts of approaches to this problem of helping others. I have seen many a minister who genuinely wanted to help someone, who was looking primarily at what he conceived to be the sins of the individual whom he sought to help, and he took a more or less condescending attitude, a perhaps halfway tolerant, halfway judging attitude, where there was no meeting point established. If the minister is as righteous as he wants to appear to be, and if he is dealing with and seeing the sins and the evil in the people whom he is trying to serve, there is no meeting point between the two. The individual feels that there is a self-righteousness; he does not feel a contact and he feels that he is not really being appreciated, just more or less condemned. If your function is of reality, you cannot have a meeting place with others on the basis of their unrealities, and unless there is a meeting point between two human beings, they are not going to really, in any direct sense, influence each other's lives. 

It is our business to influence the lives of people in any way that rests within our ability on a legitimate basis—to influence the lives of people toward a constructive expression of life. But what is our meeting point? The ill conditions, the sickness? Many people like to have a pattern of relationship established on the basis of their sickness, and I have been forced at times, in order to get a toehold so to speak, to listen to some tale of woe or other about an operation, sickness, etc.—you can learn something about human beings as you listen to them—and then to say something about, "I know, I have been sick too." Just a touch. "I've been through something." Not to exaggerate it, but many human beings simply do not know how to have a meeting point with another person except on the basis of sickness, illness, operations, misfortunes, tragedy, and if we are going to find a point of relatedness with that person we may be forced to touch an acknowledgment of something of that nature, but we must not dwell on it. What is our meeting point? The righteous condemning the evil? No. If we are functioning on the basis of reality we are looking for that which is right. 

I remember a good many years ago, in the early period of the depression, I got into a very difficult circumstance, financially, etc.—now, you see, we are going to have a meeting point on the basis of a little bit of suffering—as I want to bring something out so we can see it clearly. I was persuaded by some well-meaning friends, finally—they talked several times about it—that I just ought to go down to the Welfare Department and get a little help. Everyone else was doing it, why shouldn't I? I was having difficulty feeding my family, finding enough income to, well, just barely keep alive in the physical sense. My whole soul rebelled against the idea, but I finally decided, well perhaps, for the sake of my wife and baby, I ought to: "Perhaps I'm letting pride stand in my way, perhaps I ought to." So I went down, and into an atmosphere that was so utterly repulsive. Then the cross-questioning started and the ideas were presented. They started to treat me as if I were some kind of a criminal, and if I were not some kind of a criminal, some scoundrel or ne'er-do-well, I would not be looking for any help. I stood it for a while. I got up and walked out. I never got the so-called welfare assistance; I decided I could get along without it. But there I was, under a circumstance that would put any young man's integrity to a test, feeling futile enough; difficult enough in any circumstance; and the situation in the world, you know how it was. And instead of recognizing the situation as it was with me, the whole additional load started pouring in on top of me—the very attitude that was taken, to make me appear even in my own eyes to be worse than I really was. And I rebelled about it, I rejected it. 

Another time, back in the middle twenties, there was a certain circumstance—I was ill and no one to care, in the outer sense. I had been too ill to be on the job, and when I tried to go back to work my boss told me to go back to bed. I had been in a room alone, sick, for a week and I thought I would go crazy. So I could not go to work. I didn't have any money, but I couldn't, just couldn't, go back to that rooming house. So I got on a freight train and took a little trip, and wound up in a little town down in Oklahoma. It is a mining town. I got down there and looked for work. I thought maybe I could get another job but was not successful. I had not had anything to eat for two or three days, which was probably all right for the sickness; but I had been cold and miserable. Various times in my life I had contributed as generously as I knew how to the Salvation Army, and I thought, "Well now, I have given a lot more to the Salvation Army than a meal and maybe a place to sleep tonight would cost." And I sure needed it. "If I ever needed it in my life, I need it tonight." So I went down to the Salvation Army to get some help. I needed something to eat and a place to sleep, just for one night, so I could have enough strength to go on. Of course they were having a meeting, and there were two or three other fellows apparently having the same need in some way or another. And these Salvation Army officers, whatever their proper titles were, proceeded to do some questioning, which is understandable up to a point. Then they proceeded on the basis of saving our souls. Here we were, hungry and tired, and the Salvation Army captain insisted that we get down on our knees on that hard floor. He would not even listen to us. We had to get down on our knees as the first thing, and then the prayer. He was the righteous mouthpiece of God and we were the poor, lost, sinning souls. Oh, the whole thing was made so utterly repulsive. It stirred every rebellious, independent streak in me, to think that under that circumstance, in that need, I was required to be treated as if I were, well, something or other. Actually the food that I got was nothing. It was the nearest nothing I was ever offered. And it was a cold night, there was snow on the ground, and after a long rigmarole to save our souls, finally I was taken to a room. There was a little iron cot there and a little thin cotton blanket on it, and that is all, absolutely all—a little thin cotton blanket, no cover. I got under it with my clothes on and got everything I had over me and just simply froze. I finally left the room very early in the morning and went down to a place where there was some kind of a plant or something, and managed to get warmed up a little bit. It was a terrible experience, and I would not have given a nickel for the help I had receivedy. I needed help and I was not given help on any decent basis at all. 

I am pointing out that all too often this thing that is called service, that people render to others, is not service. It is something so utterly contemptible, something that takes away any bit of dignity that there may be left, anything that allows the individual to recognize himself as having any meaning. We need to see that service, if it is to be really rendered, needs to be on the basis of that which is, and not on the basis of that which is not. If we are functioning in reality we do not have attunement with that which is wrong, with that which is sick, with that which needs to be changed. If we are functioning on the basis of reality we need to look for that which is right, the point of integrity, to inspire the willingness to be helped, to seek help. If the person is seeking help, at least on the face of it, we can take it as an honest gesture to start with. If he proves to be dishonest, then that is his tough luck, not ours. And we can remember that the body is designed to let the spirit of life have meaning on earth, that the mind was designed to let the spirit of truth have meaning on earth, and the heart to let the spirit of love have meaning on earth. In one of those three levels, surely, we can begin to find something. If we just give a person an attunement and don't say even a word for the mind, not a gesture of love for the heart what have we done? Gone through the motions of serving? We need to be able to bring these patterns into alignment. 

I had an experience once, something that lives in my memory. After leaving Oklahoma on that trip that I mentioned, I got to Joplin, Missouri, and I went up one side of the street asking each restaurant if I could do something, wash some dishes, for a bite to eat. No, they wouldn't even offer me a crust of bread. Going down the other side of the main street I got pretty well down; it looked like it was running out of streets and then, I wondered, what was I going to do? I was terribly hungry, and getting so weak I could hardly walk. And I went into a tiny, little hole-in-the-wall place. It specialized in a stack of wheats and a cup of coffee. And I asked this man if I could do a little work to get something to eat. He said, “No.” He didn't have anything for me to do. There was a man sitting at the counter and he looked at me and he tossed a dime, one thin dime, on the counter, and he said, "Give the kid a stack and a cup of coffee." Some of the sweetest words I ever heard in my life. My body was starving for food. "Give the kid a stack and a cup of coffee." That was a thrill. I don't know whether I managed to thank the man adequately or not. It is something that stands out in my memory. That was service, real service. I have a few such memories running back to my earlier life. 

We reach the point where we can feed the hungry—"Feed my sheep." The Master repeated it three times when He was talking to Peter. Peter denied Him three times. "Feed my lambs—Feed my sheep—Feed my sheep." Feed the body, feed the mind and feed the heart; feed the three phases of being in those whom you do serve, and be alert to ways in which you can feed them. I have seen so many starving people treated as if, well, it was their just desert to starve, and I do not mean just physically starving. People that were hungry. When we look for that which is worth feeding—not to condemn, not to find fault, not to try to treat what is wrong, but to feed the hungry, to serve—how do we do it? With ostentatious display? Or a comradely attitude, a meeting point, something that reaches into the heart, something that arouses gratitude, something that puts you on the basis of meeting the one whom you serve? I wonder. What does service mean to us? What does service mean to us? Are we alert not to force something upon someone but to feed the hungry and let the pattern work out, let the cycles clear, so that we get completely away from "what I am going to get out of it," completely clear in the true expression of service? To feed the hungry. 

It seems to me that if our peace here in this little valley, if our privilege of togetherness, is to have any meaning at all we need to meditate upon these things in relationship to a starved and hungry world, a world that is starved for God's love, a world that is starved for the water of truth, starved for the bread of life—a world that is starved. And yet how are we going to feed people? Go out and say, "Well now, here you are starving, aren't you?" and try to drag them in? No. We must see clearly enough, we must have perception enough, to see what needs to be said or done at the right time, just the word, just the gesture, just a little something that begins to create confidence, assurance, a sense of relatedness, a sense of trust, a sense of a meeting point. Build those things first, the meeting points, and the rest will follow. 

And remember: As God has been patient with us, let us be patient with others. And we will find that there are many who are eager to help us build the form of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

© emissaries of divine light

From Water To Air

From  Water  To  Air

Martin Exeter   October 27, 1985 am

In a very particular way today a line is drawn upon the face of the earth. This earthly line provides a base of connection with the earth and with all who dwell therein. Beyond this we may be with one accord in one place, one position, the position where we rightly belong, in heaven. This place of accord is a place of stillness where we rightly may all be together. Let it be so. Out of this place, this shared position, the light shines. If we are in fact in the place where the light shines we are identified with the light. Here is the place of radiation out of stillness, out of heaven. Being the light, all shadows flee away. This can be readily understood within the range of our own experience. Forms cast shadows. If one is in the position of the light the shadows are behind the forms. The forms are seen clearly for what they are because the light shines upon them. The shadows then are unseen; the shadows have fled away.

Human experience has been confined to the realm of shadows. This is indicative of the experience of what has been called the fall. Human consciousness has not been one with the light, but rather one with the shadows. The shadows are cast by forms. Those forms which cast the shadows have not been known. Being under the forms, or behind the forms, in the realm of the shadows, all that has been known has been shadows. All human activity—mental, emotional, physical—is merely related to shadows. We have ourselves spoken of this before as the realm of the unreal—but being unaware of anything but shadows, of anything but the unreal, it didn’t really mean very much, because what we were aware of was real to us even though in the larger perspective it was factually unreal. Having no larger perspective human beings have been unaware of what the fact is.

The realm of forms was described allegorically in the Bible as the Garden planted eastward in Eden. There is indication that man, as he was first created, removed himself from the Garden, and instead of being identified with the light which illuminated all the forms in the Garden he was behind the forms, experiencing the shadows consequent upon the illumination in the Garden. This has been the human state. We have had various ideas about it heretofore and have had considerable experience of it; but this is a way of portraying the state of affairs with which we may begin to have a sense of kinship. There is a way by which hearts and minds may be cleared of the shadows, rise up, participate in a process of resurrection.

Resurrection in its fulfillment brings human beings again into the light which shines forth from the midst of the Garden, so as to be one with that light. It may then be said: I am the light. And from that positioning all the forms of the Garden are seen for what they are. They cannot possibly be seen for what they are outside of the Garden in the realm of shadows, the customary realm of human experience where shadows are deemed to be the reality and there is the endeavor to manipulate shadows. This is not a very satisfactory pastime, because the shadows keep changing according to the changing forms which cast them, the forms which are present in the Garden. Outside of the Garden all that can be seen are shadows—the back of the forms, but the back of the forms are very dark. In the realm of the shadows there has been immense effort to try to make the realm of shadows into the Garden. The futility of that is surely obvious.

The process of resurrection was initiated by one man over nineteen centuries ago, one man whose experience brought him again into the Garden, into the place of light. In that place all the forms of the Garden can be clearly seen. It is a place where man belongs. He was placed in the Garden to dress it and to keep it. He could hardly dress it and keep it if he was not aware of the nature of the living forms of it. This was no mystery because, being identified with the light, the character of the forms of the Garden was obvious. Even then, beyond the Garden, there was a realm of shadows—the forms cast shadows. But this realm was of little consequence insofar as the action of man was concerned in the midst of the Garden. His concern was with the forms of the Garden, the forms which were casting the shadows.

The radiation of spirit, the light, creates its own forms, and it activates those forms because the creation is ongoing. They are living, moving, changing forms; and because they are living, moving, changing forms they cast moving, changing shadows. This has always been troublesome to human beings in the realm of the shadows because they kept changing. There was the idea that something was being well encompassed and pinned down, and then suddenly it was discovered that the shadows were changing, and so there was a rapid regrouping to try to take care of the new set of shadows, much rushing to and fro in the earth and up and down in it, much movement in the realm of shadows, much expenditure of energy, much effort, and much destructiveness.

The consciousness of human beings has been trapped in the realm of shadows. Now, because of what was initiated these nineteen centuries ago, the process of resurrection has been at work; that is resurrection where minds and hearts are sufficiently open and yielded to let the rising up process be experienced. If there is resistance to the rising up process, then it isn’t resurrection; it’s destruction. It has to be one or the other. Human beings can determine which for themselves, but there is no other choice. Either rise up or go down. This relates to human forms and the consciousness that is within those human forms, all of which have been held in the realm of shadows. The raising-up process is not something that is produced by human effort. Human beings cannot say, and make it stick, “I am now going to raise myself up.” It’s impossible. But there is the creative process at work—the rising tide—which will raise up the condition of human hearts and minds if those hearts and minds are not resistant to it. If they are they stay in limbo, in the realm of shadows, until destruction overtakes them.

This raising-up process relates to man, and man is not just one person. Man is not even just one male person or one female person. Man is both male and female and includes a number of people. The population of the earth today is not man, because it is out of the Garden. Man can only be in the Garden. So there is another creature here, a shadowy creature, existing briefly in the realm of shadows but having the opportunity to participate in the resurrection. However, as soon as the process of resurrection is set in motion, also the process of destruction is set in motion. As the resurrection takes effect and there is a raising up of a body of human beings to participate in the place of accord and stillness, to be the light, then all that is unwilling to be raised up in this way passes away. There is a particular passage in the Book of Revelation which says something about this: And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. That is an interesting comment which hasn’t been readily understood.

In the symbolic sense human beings have been existing in the realm of shadows underwater. This relates to the subconscious state. Human beings have not been conscious of the true state of Man in the Garden. They have vague memories of such a state sometimes and there is an aspiring toward that state, even though it may not be seen in the terms of the Garden; but what that state would be is totally unknown. There has been the process of resurrection in effect, however, regardless of what human beings have been doing, so that some become aware of changes which allow an emergence out of the shadows to some extent.

If one is in the water—and in the depths of the water it is very dark—rising toward the surface of the water it begins to brighten and it gets quite light near the surface of the water even though one is still under water. Human existence has been at the level of the subconscious. There has been a certain consciousness of the subconscious. But in the process of resurrection there is a rising up. Using this allegory of water, we may see that under water one can only hold one’s breath so long. In factual experience this probably wouldn’t be more than two or three minutes, but if we’re looking at it from a larger perspective the capability of holding one’s breath might extend to threescore years and ten—holding one’s breath under water in the subconscious state. One may perceive what a marvelous release it would be to break surface and gulp the air once again.

This has not occurred for mankind. It just occurred for one person, who was in the business of opening the door for the rest of mankind to let the same thing happen. One cannot let the same thing happen if one denies the possibility of sharing the experience of that One; and this Christianity has done in a very effective way. They have shut the door—people have been deceived, or deceived themselves, into imagining that this was somehow efficacious, but everybody remained in the realm of shadows.

So, individually speaking, we are able to hold our breath spiritually for a human lifetime, whatever that may be, sometimes short, sometimes longer, but it has all been a condition of holding one’s breath under the water. Some have risen up in the water to a greater extent than others and become aware of light while still under the water. This is considered to be very commendable, if one began to experience something of that light while still being under the water. But it never was or could be resurrection until surface is broken into the air. The air is above the water. You have to come out through the surface of the water to come to the air. It has been so customary for human beings to hold their breath spiritually that they have suffocated, as though that was the normal and only experience possible. Generation after generation there has been that suffocation.

Breaking surface is not just an individual matter, except in the case of the One who opened the door. It is the resurrection of man. That One represented man, and the resurrection that was set in motion then relates to the body of mankind, whatever that proves to be, to be raised up out of the water of the subconscious, out of the realm of shadows where nothing is really understood, into the realm of spirit. That’s the heaven, the place where man belongs in the midst of the Garden. Then everything else around him is seen from that perspective, and it is totally different. Behold, I make all things new. They are factually the same things but seen from the standpoint of the light—the radiation which has created those things. The forms are created, the forms are seen for what they are, understood for what their purpose is, and in the midst of that man lives. That is the true state, but it certainly is unimaginable to human consciousness still in the realm of shadows. There may be a sensing that there is something, because in the process of resurrection one is moving up through the water closer to the surface so that there is light. But you don’t see much of what’s going on up there, the other side of the surface of the water. There is a mere awareness that there is light.

What is in process is the resurrection of man, collective man. There are those who have tried to experience something special for themselves, but the fact of the matter is that man is one, that all things are one. You can’t pick little pieces out and have a special dispensation for them; this has been a peculiar human doctrine in the realm of Christianity. We are all part of one thing. We can’t escape from being a part of one thing without vanishing, because there isn’t anything else. Of course human beings have been busy vanishing generation after generation, because fundamentally there was a refusal to accept the fact of oneness. The fact of oneness cannot be known below the surface of the water. It can be sensed. But only when one breaks surface, so that one comes again to the place of light, to be identified with the light, can one understand what the situation really is. We have all these philosophies, all these doctrines, all these intellectual struggles by human beings, to try to find out what the truth is while still under the water. It can’t be done. There is no perspective there, just imagination, fantasy, with respect to shadows.

We have a certain sensing of the truth of all this; and there has been a certain willingness also, on our parts, to rise up in the water. Ah, there’s light! Rising up in the water and being aware of some light, we begin to think we understand; but we haven’t broken surface yet. To understand, one has to come into the midst of the Garden, and you can’t come into the midst of the Garden all on your own; no one can do it. It relates to a whole whole sorting-out process in the present body of humanity. It includes everybody. So we, approaching the surface so that the light is brighter, begin to recognize some of the factors related to ourselves; the factor, for instance, that we belong in the air above the water, that we belong in heaven, we belong in the spirit. But when we say “we,” what are we referring to? We are referring to our hearts and minds and bodies, which are what we have known ourselves to be. This is the way we have known ourselves, on earth.

This process of resurrection clarifies these capacities of mind and heart so that they can accommodate more of the light. This is the experience of rising up in the water: There is more light being accommodated in one’s own heart and mind; also an awareness that if there is light there must be a Source of light. Then there is a dawning awareness that the real person is already in the light, and that it is simply one’s own heart and mind which are rising up to a level where they may break surface so that there is the experience of what is in the light, an experience in heart and mind. That is man restored, resurrected.

So we share the process. But let’s not fool ourselves into imagining that somehow we can arrive without everybody else—everybody else who is in the process of arriving, not everybody else who is in the process of being dissipated in the processes of destruction. There are those. We won’t judge between them. By the way, it’s very easy to see in this realm of shadows as to why one should not judge by the appearance. Judging by the appearance of the shadow doesn’t tell you anything. Well it tells you one thing: there is something which is casting the shadow, and there is also a light present which produces the shadow. It doesn’t take much intelligence to realize those two things, but very few people do. So we are, have been, in the realm of the shadows and there has been a process of resurrection going on, not because we decided, “Now I am going to be resurrected,” but because willy-nilly we were pushed up, or we rose up. There is no need to question why, just to realize the fact of it, that’s all.

Rising toward the surface then, we become aware that there is light and we also become aware that we belong in the light. We do not have that experience yet. We belong in the light to be one with the light. We have that experience when everybody has that experience. There may be those who rise up in the water ahead of others who are lower down, so to speak, in the whole process, but it is all one process. And it may be that there are those who break surface first, but they are not thereby separated from those who are coming up through the water. It’s all one process. It’s all one body. It’s all one thing. Man is whole, but not only is man whole, one whole composed of however many individuals, but the whole universe is whole. It’s all one thing and man is not separate from that.

There is a rather interesting little passage I came across in the Song of Solomon which says something about this. It says here: “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away”—of course they have been fleeing away for quite a long time, because the light has been there even though the day has not broken yet. And the shadows flee away always from behind the forms which cast them. If you are in the position of the light you don’t see any shadows, all you see are the forms. You have to get behind the form to find the shadow. Well you don’t belong behind the form outside the Garden. We belong in the Garden, one with the light; then everything is clear, natural and easy and understandable. It doesn’t require great stress and strain, sweat of the brow, to gain knowledge in all these things, because everything is plain. It’s only in the shadows that you need that sort of thing. If a person has expended all his life force in accumulating knowledge about shadows it may be seemingly a little difficult to let go of all that in order to associate oneself with the light which cast the shadows in the first place. The shadows don’t really mean anything. It is the forms that are casting them that mean something, but one can’t tell what those are until one is in the Garden. One can’t be in the Garden without being one with the light.

“Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.” Bether is a word which apparently means division. And there are mountains of division in the earth, divisions which human beings have created amongst themselves, between themselves and the rest of what is thought of as nature, the rest of the universe. So there is a time when one necessarily has to function with ease and grace, like a roe or a young hart, on the mountains of division. All this is going on and we are very much aware of it; it’s still in the realm of shadows. We know what’s happening in the realm of shadows—we know what the shadows are doing; but we can function in that realm without becoming involved with it. With grace and ease and naturalness we can move upon the mountains of division. It doesn’t matter what they are, we need not become involved with them but reveal the fact of the light which is now known at whatever level we are in the water.

There is another verse down here which says, “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.” Here we have the realm of stillness, the atmosphere of heaven, the aroma of heaven. Let’s allow that to be the fact until the day break. The day break relates to this breaking of surface. And incidentally, in the margin it says that the word “break” is the word “breathe.” Interesting, isn’t it?—until you are able to breathe air again and stop holding your breath. It’s necessary to hold your breath while you are under water to survive a little while, but how much better to share in the process of resurrection so that the surface may be broken and we may breathe once again freely in the air of the spirit.

So we participate in this resurrecting process, letting the door be opened for all who would rise up, to feel safe in rising up in the water toward the light and away from the darkest shadows. It is a very perverse thing in human consciousness, that there is usually an endeavor to remain associated with the darkest shadows. All the troubles and difficulties and terrible things that are supposed to be going on in the shadows, which are reported prolifically by the media, human beings are gluttons for. They want to stay in the dark, associated with the darkest shadows; and it seems like a betrayal of some sort to most people if they should let go of that. “Well, after all, there are terrible things happening; I’ve got to do something about it.” Yes, rise up out of it. Let it go, so that one may come to the surface. Everybody is being offered that opportunity to come to the surface but most people hang on to these weights; they insist because they’re good people—all this just increases one’s awareness of the darkness of the shadows. It produces awareness of more shadows. Let go. Rise up, that we may come again out of this appalling realm of shadows where we don’t belong, where it’s miserable and we suffer. Why not let it go and come up out of it? The way is there. The door is open. We are here to prove that that is the fact of the matter so others may become aware of the wide open door that is there. We share in coming again into the Garden where man is. Man can’t be anywhere else but in the Garden. Outside he’s something else, a shadowy creature in the shadows. Let’s become real, sharing that reality in our own experience, so that the door may be opened for everybody else.

I rejoice today that we are in position to see these things sufficiently, even though we may still be holding our breath below the surface of the water to some extent. I think we do get a little sniff of the air now and again, and it revives us! We go again. But the point isn’t what happens to oneself personally; it’s what happens to man, male and female, the whole body of mankind. This is a resurrection for all. We share this to the extent that we provide that open door for all who will move through it. We rejoice to have shared in the movement of the creative forces: from water into air. This all relates to what it is that is unfolding in the larger perspective.

We rejoice to catch a breath of air now and again, that we might finally be willing to leave the water and move again into the Garden where we belong. We cannot be in the Garden except as the Light. The term emissary of divine light has a relatedness to this. These are real words. They mean something. They are not just reference to some human organization, sect or cult, or something of this sort—this is a human interpretation rather far down in the water. But coming to the surface we are aware that we are responsible for being the Light. Individually speaking we have that responsibility, but not apart from everybody else. There is One Light differentiated through us and through others, but we are identified with that Light, rightly, because we come to know the truth of man in heaven, man in the midst of the Garden, playing his creative part in the whole cosmic drama. So we rejoice to participate in this very natural process which can be so easy and so delightful as we are willing to let it be so.

© emissaries of divine light