First Three-And-One-Half Of Seven Steps Of Restoration
Uranda April 12, 1953 Class
We have been sharing in a pattern of meditation which gives us a deeper insight into the reality of God's Plan. We have looked back along the way and seen something of the outworking of that Plan in time past, and under the inspiration of the spirit of God we have, according to our several capacities, accepted responsibility in the fulfilment of that Plan in the present. In order to facilitate the effectiveness of our ministry in this present time, we began last evening a weekend meditation upon the outline of this plan as it is established for us in the future, that we might more readily recognize the goal toward which we are moving. The key text, in the material we have already covered from the Book of Revelation, I will give to you now—the 7th Verse of the 10th Chapter:
But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel,
when he shall begin to sound,
the mystery of God should be finished,
as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
We are engaged in a pattern of study, training, meditation, designed to let the mystery of God be finished in us, that God may no longer be a mystery to us, that the working of His will, the reality of His Plan, may no longer be a mystery in our lives. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2023/06/mystery-of-god.html] Only so can we do our part in service toward letting the mystery of God be finished in and for the world. And then we gave meditation to the sounding of the voice of the Seventh Angel. “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying…” There were many great voices, you will notice, in heaven, and we recognize that heaven is at hand. It is not something off up in the sky somewhere. It is the heaven that is at hand here where we are. “And there were great voices in heaven [on earth], saying, The kingdoms of this world…” Where were those voices? In heaven on earth. “The kingdoms of this world.” So those who spoke must be on earth, in relationship to this world. And the great voices in heaven on earth were saying, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.”
In recognition of this particular outworking in the cosmic scheme of things there is a pattern of thanksgiving: “We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.” We are sharing in the actual outworking on earth of these things. And then the result: “The temple of God was opened in heaven” [the Kingdom of Heaven that is at hand]. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of the living God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” So the Temple of Heaven is being opened to you, in you, that you may be a manifest expression or revelation of the Temple of God in heaven. “And the temple of God was opened in heaven…”—and that is to take place in you, through you, for you—“and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.”
In our meditation last evening we recognized that the testament, the revelation of the will of God, the reality of the Divine Decree, the testament, the expression of God's purpose and will and authority, is seen in this Temple in Heaven, in you, when God's Temple is opened in you. When you realize that in the range of self-activity it is not the testament of God that finds expression through you but the testament of the prince of this world, you begin to recognize that there are only two testaments in actual fact. We speak of the Bible as having the Old and the New Testament. They are actually two revelations of the same testament. They are not two different testaments; they are just two revelations of the same testament, the testament of God's will, purpose, power and authority. So there is another testament, the testament of the prince of this world. And in every move you make, every word you speak, every attitude you show forth on earth, you are revealing either the testament of the prince of this world or, having let the Temple of God be opened in heaven in you, you reveal on earth the Testament of our LORD and KING.
With this broad view of the Divine Plan and purpose, we introduced the consideration of what is generally spoken of as the Seven Personages. The Seven Personages are actually the seven aspects of your own person! The Seven Personages are actually the seven aspects of your own person as an individual. And in relationship to these Seven Personages we have the revelation of the steps required in the process of the resurrection, the process of restoration, the process by which you come to illumination. Just as there are seven days in the week, and it is necessary that you live through all the seven days of the week if you are to live for the week, so is it necessary for you to live through these seven cycles of the process of the restoration if you are to know the reality of the resurrection. We must recognize, with respect to these seven cycles of the restoration, the seven aspects of your own person, that the application is to you as an individual, and likewise it is to the world body of responding ones. All of those human beings on the face of the earth—of whatever color, race, nation, creed, denomination, it makes no difference—all who are responding, all who are yielding to the working of God's spirit on earth, all who are letting themselves come under the control of the Divine Design, all who are permitting God's Testament to have meaning on earth, must as a Unit, as a Body, as a Body of God on earth, likewise go through this process. And so in the beginning of the 12th Chapter we read—the first of the Seven Personages, the woman:
“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven…” Now, is heaven in the sky somewhere? No, heaven is at hand, as the Master said. Heaven is within reach, available. It is in you and around you. “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” Now we cannot possibly in this short period of meditation this morning consider all of the significance contained in that short verse. But let us recognize the pattern first as it relates to mankind, particularly mankind in the sense of the members of the human family who are seeking God, seeking to do God's will, or responding in any degree whatsoever, so that they are being used as instruments of the working of God's spirit, no matter who they are or where.
“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun.” Now what do we recognize in the fulfilment of the One Law in our relationship to God? We recognize that individually and collectively we must respond to the Divine Positive. We also find in another portion of this great Blueprint the portrayal of the Bride of the Lamb—the members of the Body, the Christ Body, pictured as being the Bride of the Lamb. So the feminine aspect is utilized to reveal the proper attitude of mankind, men and women alike, toward God. “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun.” This woman contains in her body every man, woman and child on the face of the earth who is in any sense turning to God, who is in any degree responsive to the spirit of God, whether he or she knows it or not. And so the pattern of response begins to appear in the body of humanity.
And this woman is clothed with the sun. With what are we clothed in the outer sense in actual fact? If this earth, and as a result ourselves as human beings, were not clothed with the sun in the physical sense, clothed, bathed, enfolded, in the radiance of the sun in physical fact, how long would we live? Not very long. In other words, here is a portrayal of something that is revealed spiritually by reason of physical fact. We are clothed with the sun as a physical fact. And if it were not for the rising of the sun each morning and its warmth that is shed on the earth, life would soon become not only impossible but intolerable if it were possible. We would find no pleasure in it. So in the physical sense we are clothed with the sun. But likewise there is a deeper meaning. We must never be content merely to recognize the surface revelation of fact. But the woman—the world body of responding ones who are turning to God, including all people regardless of religion or race or creed or color, all people who are responding to God—is “clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.”
Now this pattern here we could study all day today and still not exhaust that which is contained in this one little text. But the moon is under her feet. The moon is what? It is a dead body that is negative to the earth as a physical fact. It revolves around the earth. It is a dead planet, or body, and it is responsive to the earth. So those who begin to respond begin to have the proper position of positive radiation and control over the dead body—for the body that was responding to death and the things that produce death, the body of humanity, is dead. But by reason of function under the Law, in love response to God according to the Way, the Truth and the Life, the positive power of God begins to manifest through the woman, the world body of responding ones, and the dead body begins to come under subjection, under control. “And the moon under her feet.” Now this same thing works out with respect to you; and the moon, the dead body, needs to come under subjection to the power of God made manifest in and through you.
“And upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” We notice, with respect to the physical facts, that there are twelve months in a year. The twelve stars here have their basic origin in relationship to the physical patterns of our solar system, by reason of which we have twelve months in a year. But out of this physical fact we see the development of a great spiritual truth. We remember that at the time of the sounding of the Seventh Angel, when there is a recognition, as we recognize now—not something going to be—“The kingdoms of this world are become.” They now are in actual fact, and the outworkings in the world are moving toward the revelation of the fact that already is. Do not be projecting this idea into the future, thinking that, well now, someday it will be. It now is. The kingdoms of this world are become now, in actual fact, the Kingdoms of our LORD and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever. The conditions that are working out in the world in this present time, in this hour, in this day, are all a part of the process by reason of which that great truth is being revealed on earth. So if we understand our position in the cosmic scheme of things, we recognize this as a present fact, not as something yet to be. The truth of the matter is not yet fully revealed. The people of the world do not yet truly know it, but it is still a fact in this present moment.
And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats,
fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty,
which art, and wast, and art to come;
because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
And the evidence of this is widely manifest in the world for those who have eyes to see, for God is reigning. The change in the pattern of the world, the tempo of movement, the release of knowledge, and all the rest of it, that we have seen since the turn of this century, all is a part of this great fact. And so we particularly recognize here the four-and-twenty elders. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2023/06/four-beastsfour-and-twenty-elders.html]
We do not have time this morning to go back and study the pattern with respect to the four-and-twenty elders, but twenty-four is twice twelve. Twenty-four is twice twelve. The twenty-four is a recognition of the positive and negative aspects of twelve, in other words. The twelve stars here, in a crown. A crown is a symbol of authority, a symbol of power, a symbol of the ability to do something. And this woman, the body of responding ones—which includes you individually and collectively, and all the others on the face of the earth who are so responding—is subject to God; that is, responsive to God, and as a consequence has power to bring the moon, the dead body, under subjection. And she has a crown of twelve stars—the twelve in the positive and negative aspects of focalization and being, the four-and-twenty elders. Now rather than take time to go back and study all the significance of the four-and-twenty elders at this moment, we will ask you to just simply rest in the recognition that the four-and-twenty elders, the positive and negative aspects of the twelve, are before the Throne of God, as indicated in this text: “And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God.” The four-and-twenty are the twelve in the positive and negative aspects, which bring to focalization the response of all the responding ones to God.
The broad base of response comes to point and is established in the
Control Pattern of the Divine Design
through the four-and-twenty elders,
or the twelve in the positive and negative aspects of their being.
And the woman is crowned with a crown having twelve stars. The twelve stars represent the twelve elders in their positive and negative aspects. In other words, just as the four-and-twenty elders bring the world pattern of response to focus to God, they likewise provide the crown of authority and power, the release of force, influence, control, out into the world of responding ones. And so the woman is crowned upon her head with a crown having twelve stars, and these twelve stars and the four-and-twenty elders are exactly the same thing.
This means, then, that the woman comes under the full control of God, and the Divine Pattern of reality is allowed to work out through her. Once this pattern of response begins to be a reality in life, in the life of the Body as a Whole or in the life of you as an individual, something happens. Such an one finds that he or she is with child. Such an one finds that he or she is with child individually and collectively, and there is the process of crying, as it is put here, “…travailing in birth, and paining to be delivered.” In the process of your response to God did you not find, as you came to this hour somewhere along the way, that there was something in you seeking to be born? Did you not find that there was something in you seeking to come forth to reveal the reality of your own being, the individuality, the nature of that which you are, the true expression of your own spiritual being? So once you begin to be a part of this process of responding to God, once you begin to let the steps of the resurrection work out in and through you, you find individually that you are with child, or that you have been, if you have brought forth your child.
“And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.” Now if you had not become aware of something gestating in you, something as yet in the embryonic stage, something that was seeking to be born through you, you would not be here. And the sufferings you may have had, the difficulties because you did not know how to relax into the power of God, all of the different things that enter into the process of birth—or rebirth, for it is the same thing—all of these things that you may have suffered amount to nothing in relationship to that which is to come forth.
And so with this brief introduction we consider the second step of the process of restoration, the second of the seven steps of restoration, or the second of the seven aspects of your own person, in this outworking. “And there appeared another wonder in heaven…” And heaven is at hand. “And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.”
Have you ever met that dragon? And if you got the crown off of one of his heads and said, “Well now, the power of God is going to keep you under subjection,” he just stuck another of his heads around in front of you; and the problem of getting the crowns off of all seven heads seems, from a human standpoint, to be utterly impossible. And it is. You as a human being have for so long been under the control and the rule of the great red dragon, but you are coming out of the body of the great red dragon and moving into the body of the woman. “And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.” A rather formidable creature. And human beings have found that it is futile to fight the dragon in human strength, according to human wisdom. It takes something more.
“And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth.” This signifies that the stars of heaven—which is not the same as the stars of the sky, by the way—the stars of heaven, the third part of them, have been under the control of the dragon. Now where is heaven? It is at hand. What are the stars of heaven? And how is it that the dragon could take the third part of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth? Human beings have imagined that this meant the stars of the sky, but it does not say that. Where has the dragon gained control of the third part of the stars of your heaven? You are a trinity. This says the third part, so it is one of those three parts, obviously not in the sense of any real control of the body as such, obviously not the spiritual expression as such. The stars, that which is supposed to be of a higher level of being in consciousness, that which is supposed to be the apex of understanding with respect to the living of life—the stars with respect to the mind of man, the stars of heaven with respect to your mind, were taken by the tail of the dragon and cast into the earth. So that instead of your stars, upon which the mind was dwelling, being in heaven, they were in the earth, and your mind was caught in the trap of meditating upon what you could do to get something to eat and to pay the rent and to buy the place, to do this, to do that. All of the things with respect to the working of your mind instead of having centering in the stars of heaven were centered in those stars cast into the earth, and it seemed that in order to exist you had to become subject to a materialistic program that ignored the Reality of Being, so that you as a human being found that the dragon had taken your stars of heaven.
You may have glimpsed them a little in your youth or childhood, but the dragon came along and gathered them up with his tail and cast them into the earth in your own life, and soon you were bound in the pattern of materialistic enterprise and activity, so that your mind was centered with respect to these stars, the important things of life in the earth, and thereby your awareness of heaven was lost. Your awareness of your own stars in heaven was gone, and all of your stars were down here in the earth and you poured out your life-stream struggling to save those stars in the earth. There is a graphic picture, so beautifully portrayed in symbolical language, of that which is the experience of human beings, who may start out in life with good intentions, high ideals and great determinations, only to find that the dragon has cast all of the stars of which the mind is directly aware into the earth. And so the human being becomes a slave of the materialistic patterns, as we see it in the world.
“And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth…” And then what does he do? “…and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And you find in your own personal experience that as soon as this child that is in you begins to really act like it was going to be born in your life, there the dragon is right in front of you ready to devour it, ready to destroy, ready to make your efforts futile. And if you become alarmed and afraid and react and start trying to fight the dragon, what will happen? It will destroy your child. But if you remain centered, if you remain under the control of the twelve stars of your crown, if you remain a part of the body of the woman clothed with the sun, with the dead body of the world pattern under your feet—signifying the process of the resurrection—you will ignore the dragon that stands before you ready to devour your child. We come to the third step, the third phase of this cycle:
“And she brought forth a man child.” A man child signifies the positive expression of Divine Being on earth. That which is born through you as a part of the woman is the positive expression of Divine Action in life, in you and through you. “And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.” In other words, you begin to realize that this which is being born in you in the process of rebirth, in the process of restoration, in the process of resurrection, cannot be devoured by the dragon unless you function incorrectly. For that which is born spiritually in you and through you is caught up unto God—not separated from you, but established in the Divine Pattern of Being—is caught up unto God and to His throne. “And the woman fled into the wilderness.”
And the woman fled into the wilderness. Now you, as members of the Unit here, are members of the body of this woman. And that which we are doing here in the wilderness is that which is here outlined and portrayed. This is our business on Sunrise Ranch. “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” The woman did not try to fight with the dragon, neither did she become so afraid of the dragon that she refused to bring forth her man child. Though the dragon is there right in front, she keeps centered in God and lets the power of God work out. The birth becomes a reality in and through you regardless of the fact that the dragon is there, and the child is caught up to God, established in the pattern of the Divine Design. And you, as a member of the body of the woman, have a place prepared of God in the wilderness, a place where you will be fed. Fed what? The bread of life. And given to drink of the water of truth. Now this is the brief consideration of the third step here, the third phase of your own being. Next we will note very briefly at least the first part of the fourth:
And there was war in heaven: Michael and his Angels fought against the dragon;
and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not;
neither was their place found any more in heaven.
And the great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world:
he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
If you try to fight the dragon when you begin to reach the point of bringing forth a man child, the positive expression of God's power from within you, you will lose. But if you let it work out on the basis of this outline of principle, you will find that the fourth step—after the man child has been born in and through you—is made manifest; for then the Archangel Michael, and his Angels do something. Once you have reached that point, there is war in heaven. Where? In heaven at hand in you. This is something which works out in each and every one of you; not something just of the past or just to come in the future. This is the process of restoration in and through you. So there was war in heaven in you. Now whether it has been, or is now, or is yet to come, is beside the point; but if you remain centered in God and hold steady there is going to be war in heaven in you, and Michael and his Angels will fight against the dragon. You cannot cast the dragon out; you cannot successfully fight with him. You must hold steady until Michael and his Angels are permitted to join the fray.
“And there was war in heaven [in you]: Michael and his Angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels.” Now if you ever have felt something of this contest with the dragon, you have found that the dragon has angels, just as surely as Michael has Angels, and there will be human beings who will come up to you and say sly, insinuating things. They will try to discourage you. They will say and do things to try to upset you. It becomes an uncanny thing from an outer human standpoint. But the dragon has his angels, and human beings round about always seem to be willing to serve the dragon and try to destroy the pattern of your being as a son or daughter of God. But if you hold steady, regardless of the dragon and all of his sly-speaking, foul-mouthed angels, Michael and his Angels do something—they cast the dragon out of heaven in you into the earth.
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth,
and his angels were cast out with him.
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven
[with respect to you, once this is done],
Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God,
and the power of his Christ:
for the accuser of our brethren is cast down,
which accused them before our God day and night.
And so the victory. You begin to know the victory, and this is a part of the fourth step in the cycles of restoration, the fourth aspect of your own person in the fulfilment of the process of resurrection. “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now”—not sometime in the future—"Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ.” So let it be in you and through you to all who will receive. Gradually you are beginning to have an actual realization of the fact of the resurrection in relationship to yourselves here and now; not just an intellectual idea postponed to some future time, but the realization of the process in this present time.
And as we begin to let this process truly work, it is a wonderful thing to begin to know the privilege of membership in the Body of the Woman, the Body of the Woman who wears the Crown of Twelve Stars, who is clothed with the Sun and who has the moon under her feet, the position of power, by which the power of God is allowed to manifest with true meaning in your life. So, remember your privilege of being a part of the Body of the Woman, the Wonder in Heaven, clothed with the Sun, and with the moon under your feet, crowned with a Crown of Twelve Stars.
And as you remain true, properly centered, living in the position of power, all the other things can follow out in their natural cycle, and step-by-step the great red dragon will cease to have power over you, for at the appointed time, when you are ready to let it be so—it is not governed by God and withheld from you; it is something that happens at any time when you are ready to let it happen—the great red dragon, with all of his seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns, all of his display of power and authority and everything else, is all cast out of heaven in you into the earth and caused to be of no effect.
So let us remember [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2023/06/where-you-arewho-you-areto-whom-you.html] the privilege we have of being instruments in the hand of God through which the Divine Plan comes to fulfilment, the Mystery of God is finished, and it is revealed on earth that the kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our LORD and of His Christ, and He shall rule for ever and ever. God bless you, each one.
© emissaries of divine light
