Heavenly Government—Earthly Government

Heavenly  Government — Earthly  Government

Stewart Berger  March 31, 2024  Norwalk, California

It's very special to be together on Easter Sunday to consider the process of resurrection, transformation, transmutation—the experience of Jesus having the victory over death and by reason of what He moved through, making possible this opportunity that we find ourselves in now, to find our union with God, the divine, and to manifest that in all our ways.

I've really been enjoying our recent services, and it seems to me that there is an extra level or dimension of vibrancy and life that you and we are allowing to be brought forth, and it's the love for the LORD that is at the heart of that. The web of connection that we share transcends our human activity, permeates it, and is protective; my image of that connective, energetic material is as a strong and fine yet flexible mesh, and I find it's evidence of greater union between us, which consequently allows the opportunity for greater unified radiation. Martin spoke about this in 1981 in “The Mind That Was in Christ Jesus”: 

“Unified radiation relates to what is experienced in an outward direction. The human mind and heart of all those who are participating in the accommodation of the expression of the spirit of God, of the Word, find themselves associated in that expression. Unified in the radiation, there is an increasing perspective of wholeness and awareness that this which is finding expression of the Word is doing so on the basis of a unified whole. As these various stages consequent upon response of heart and mind are experienced, the nature of the form of one's response changes. It is the response of the heart and mind which should never stop responding, but the experience is different because there is more and more of the Word in expression being accommodated by the heart and mind. As there is movement through these creative stages, attraction, union, unified radiation—what happens at each stage is not left behind but is rather amplified by subsequent changes.”

That's what I've been experiencing in these services. The crossover point where we find our being and which we share is expanded and has greater dimension: it's pretty exciting! 

I work reporting, writing and reading news on an L.A. radio station, which certainly keeps me in touch with what's happening in the world.  Sometimes I see stories about various individuals acting in crazy ways—maybe you do too—and I have a feeling these incidents may increase. I think it's a sign that life is intensifying and certain structures are falling away, and some people don't know how to handle that. In a Temple service given in January, Jae Hyoung Lee said that after a meeting somebody asked, “Is there hope for humanity?” And of course a number of people all over the world wonder about this. Jae Hyoung said there is hope for humanity: “As long as we are in our place and doing our part, I think this world is safe. And as long as the Lord can be in this world through us, and as long as the Lord is in this world, this world is safe. Long ago, the Lord Jesus had to do it all alone. Most of the disciples weren't with him, but now we are here, for the glory of the Lord.” We are here, and it's up to us. About what's happening in the world, various ones have at times felt fear. But remember what Moses said to the Children of Israel as they were being chased by the pharaoh and his gang when the Red Sea parted: Fear not! “Fear not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” We have much strength, each of us and together, and that provides a foundation.

Maybe you've seen some polls on the U.S. election in November in which a majority of Americans on both sides say they don't want to see the rematch of the two current front-runners for president, and there's tension because of this. One poll asked people how they would describe what they feel about the election, and one of the top words was “dread”. This issue has made me think about heavenly government and earthly government.

In a great service by Martin, he talked about the ordinances of heaven and the ordinances of earth; and how so many people are really caught up in what's going on in the earth but there's a natural control that originates in heaven: through heaven and through us. Martin addressed this in a few different services, and in one he said: “The Priesthood, in the true state, constitute what may be called government. The government of God on earth is extended through the Priesthood.” In another service he said: “We were considering the matter of ministers last Sunday. By the way, ministers is rather a good word because it doesn't confine the experience to what is deemed to be spiritual. Generally speaking it's called religious. There are ministers of religion, but there are also ministers of government.” So the job is to minister—you've been doing it, as have I.

In the last year, I posted several times about the election on a social media platform and conversed there with others about that. I enjoyed seeing that many people are open to a new and more creative experience politically, while others seem very rigid and insistent on sticking with the way things have been going, and in some cases refused to even consider the idea of change. A good portion of humanity wants to keep going along in the same old ways, and yet we know it hasn't worked.  I think this is a time in which the world finally needs to choose as to whether it will stay in that stuck state or find freedom and solutions by being open to and accepting the natural working of life which originates with God: Father God and Mother God.  And aligning with that, we may each reveal the Divine masculine or the Divine feminine. 

Going back to my mention of the crossover point that we share, I think some who live from that place naturally find their function more in generating heavenly substance or atmosphere, while others are more attuned to service in earthly matters and with people in those arenas. And many operate fluidly in both these realms. Being flexible in spirit and attitude, we can no doubt serve easily in any capacity, as needed; no doubt you have. And because of our web of connection, it all gets covered.

Right now in the U.S., several issues are top of mind; a few are climate change, the National Debt, and wars or conflicts happening elsewhere but which officials take action on. How much more quickly and creatively things might be resolved if those handling them abandoned divisiveness and greed and instead honored our oneness and recognized that, rather than serving ourselves, we're here to serve God, and the greater purposes of life.

So on this Easter Sunday it's wonderful to be with you, providing a place from which a strong and clear blessing may move out through us into the world, to touch whomever is open to receive it; to know that vibrant life is possible now and in all the days to come. I'd like to close with some words by Jesus, spoken just before the events that would lead to his crucifixion and resurrection. These words really spoke to me. There is magic in what Jesus said, and I think the magic was in His love for the Father. We may each know that personal connection and allow it to enliven our beings—our first love. This is from the Book of John, Chapter 17, Jesus speaking with His Father:

Stewart Berger reading John 17

“I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

“I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

“While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

“Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Yujin Pak — As I hear what you have shared, what comes to me are the final words of the Master, “Be with me where I am.” Eternal words. “Be with me where I am”, and in this day we have the opportunity to fulfill the resurrection and fulfill these eternal words to be with Him now, where He is, in oneness with His Being as His princes and princesses. As we are forgiven of the trespasses that we each have known of each other—ways in which we may have trespassed upon each other—asking forgiveness, releasing in forgiveness, we come back into that place that the Master asked, “Be with me where I am, O my princes, O my princesses.” And we have the opportunity to greet each other in this day in the fulfillment of those eternal words and stand now as Sons and Daughters of God, present in this final hour of fulfillment that all that He did may be magnified, glorified. In whom? In us. Stewart, you spoke about Jae Hyoung's words, “Is there hope for mankind?”  As long as the Lord is present through me and you there's hope for mankind. How more true could words be? As long as the Lord is present through me and you; as long as His princes and His princesses are present through me and you today. And the resurrection is not of the past but is now. There's absolute hope for humanity and isn't this the glorious hour in which to fulfill that. To serve the LORD in a kindly human way? Do we want to do that any longer, as individual separate human beings? Why not in these essential hours enter the full surrender that our Master did, released of separate human self, one with the Father, and be the Father present on earth now as He was. This was His prayer for us, that the Father may be present on earth in these final hours, through me, through you. O my princes, O my princesses, I greet you, released of all the trespasses that we may have known of each other.