All things bright and beautiful—a new acceptance of the truth in living. It's been rather a heavy trip for many in times past. One makes it so for oneself, because it isn't really so. Just by saying the words that the yoke is easy, the burden light, doesn't make that the individual's experience, but it is the truth of the matter. And if it isn't our experience it is by reason of our own attitude, our own particular structures of consciousness, by reason of the impurities of heart that are still present. Now of course seeing that doesn't immediately dissolve the impurities of heart. This is a matter of healing, isn't it? We've been talking about relinquishing the impurities of heart, but it is healing. All healing comes through the heart. When the heart is pure there is no need for healing, so all healing is healing of the heart—the purifying of the heart. When it's clear as crystal, a sea of glass clear as crystal, oneness of heaven and earth is known and there is no need for healing. That is healing, that is health.
So perhaps we can see healing particularly in terms of the heart. There may be necessities of physical healing—there certainly are. I don't think human beings the way they are now in these rather coarse flesh bodies are a revelation of the true state. So there's a lot of healing to happen which includes all levels. We can't reach the levels where healing is required without the heart being healed, and immediately the heart is healed there is the oneness of heaven and earth and that is restoration—not a long, drawn-out process which it tends to be looked upon as being from the usual viewpoint of physical healing, for instance; or even mental healing, the healing of the attitudes and views and outlooks of human beings. If one is merely working at those levels, trying to make healing be, it won't work very well. You can't be healed by diet. You can't be healed by taking supplements. You can't be healed by reading books, particularly books about healing. The heart must be healed.
The healing of the heart is the purifying of the heart. This occurs not by reason of anything that human beings can do in their present state: not by might, nor by power, but only by the spirit of the Lord which is at work. We don't have to make it work—it is at work—and it is this creative power that is achieving what is being achieved. It is placing all of us under certain pressure to let the heart be healed. We have become aware of the factors which are present to resist it. Now here we come to this matter of welcome to the Lord, welcome to the spirit of God in action in our own experience, but—“Maybe tomorrow would be better. Stay out of our coasts for the moment, because it's uncomfortable.” How open are we really to the discomforts that arise?—not looking upon them as being caused by some external entity, clothed in human flesh very often, but in other ways too, but consequent upon something that is internal to ourselves. In other words, it relates to the heart which is in the process of being purified—and the spirit of God is in action.
Lillian mentioned changes working out in so many ways all over our ministry. Bill and Donna now have moved to Green Pastures; have their own house there. While I'm sure it wouldn't be inclined to be admitted by most of those who dwell there, nevertheless there has doubtless been a feeling of, “Depart from our coasts” because of the discomfort that is thereby engendered, because it requires something that is more obvious than it was before. It was required before, and if it had been allowed to work before then whatever comes next is found to be quite easy. But if the things that should have happened haven't happened, then it's going to be difficult, or seemingly difficult, and the inclination arises then to say, “You're the one”—someone external to oneself who's causing the trouble, causing the discomfort, “stay away and we'll be alright.” Then of course it wasn't alright before. So there is this matter of the working of spirit to purify the heart and the individual finds out how capable he or she is to handle the situations that arise. There’s nothing wrong with the situations that are arising, but how capable is a person of handling them? That's the only question that's being asked.
There have been things working out here on Sunrise Ranch that cause a certain amount of discomfort. Great. Praise the Lord, something's happening at last. And provided that all concerned assume their own responsibility in the handling of whatever discomfort arises within oneself, which is what it amounts to; but it requires the handling of situations external to oneself, then everything moves very rapidly and very easily, and it's found that the yoke is easy in the burden light. But of course the moment judgment enters in, “This person shouldn't be behaving the way he's behaving”, or whatever the problem may seem to be is looked upon merely as something external to oneself. Well if there is a seeming problem there, great! That's what's required, but the question is, “How am I going to handle it?” How am I going to allow the expression of spirit to be clear through me, so that I'm not reacting to the disturbance which I feel? As long as one is reacting to the disturbance and blaming someone else for it, one is not handling the situation; one is being handled by the situation—and all the beautiful Emissary principles that may come pouring out of the mouth don't mean anything.
It's what a person does that counts, not what he imagines that he knows. We're all in a circumstance where there is the necessity for assumption of responsibility and the handling of it. And we'll never be able to handle any circumstance that come to us as long as we are being moved by our emotions, our feelings, with respect to the circumstance, because always on that basis we will be rationalizing, and we will be feeling unjustly treated somehow—by the circumstance! Well we're supposed to have dominion on earth, and to be capable of handling whatever it is that arises, whatever it is that comes to us. Now this is something that we have particular opportunity to experience, in this Assembly now, for all who are present in this particular setting, to let what arises be seen in the light of one's own, specific field of action on the basis of the action of the spirit, not on the basis of one's reaction to the circumstance. Well you know these things in principle, but it is something that needs to be actual, not principleized.
Now here we have the Son consciousness beginning to put in an appearance while the cleansing of the heart continues. In the story of Jesus, the temptations in the wilderness are the initial consideration immediately before He assumed His responsibility in the public sense, or in the open sense. Something had been happening before that point. He'd been in the cycles of the maturing of His mind and heart and there was a necessity for the proof to be made apparent, that the point of maturity had been reached. So it's couched in this particular way, of the temptations in the wilderness, something to be handled, circumstances arising, in this instance, for something quite deliberate—to fast for forty days in order to have a circumstance in which many things would doubtless arise, clearly seen as relating to oneself. And He met the issue, assuming the responsibility of the Son.
These things which are described relate to what was rising up out of His own heart, out of His own subconscious mind, to be handled by Him. Now in that sort of a setting I suppose it would be possible to say, “Well these stones are bothering me,” or “It's so dry and hot here I don't like it; and this is what is causing all my troubles.” But He was sufficiently honest to acknowledge the fact that if there was trouble He was the trouble, and therefore saw the situation for what it really was—the means of handling what arose up out of his own subconscious mind and heart. He didn't try to blame anyone else. He didn't even blame the things that were rising up out of His subconscious mind and heart. He just met the situation in the right way, in a positive way. He didn't hedge.
Well the same thing is true of all of us, coming to a very particular point now, where presumably we recognize that our dependence, our security, our safety, is not based in this subconscious world, the subconscious state which is present in the world around us. We don't live by that bread alone. Something is needed—air to breathe for instance. We don't depend upon the ideas and the concepts, beliefs, the rationalizations of the mental realm. We don't imagine that heaven on earth can be produced by manipulating the kingdoms of this world and the supposed glory of them. We have no dependence at all, rightly, upon the idea that our salvation comes from external sources.
If we're still complaining and judging external things then obviously we are still assuming that somehow or other our salvation is coming from out of there, and somebody is preventing it from coming. Well we know, or should know clearly enough that this is not the case. But we have to prove it out, prove out that we know. We can't do that as long as these external things are dictating our course of action. Realizing these things, the spirit of God is moving in the heart—we're aware of the reality of this and therefore when there is agreement, conscious agreement with the spirit of God that is moving subconsciously, that's the two on earth who make possible the doing of what is needful by the Lord. Here is the continuing cleansing of the heart, because we recognize that it's not only our individual hearts that are involved, it is the heart of our emerging, resurrecting Body—it is the heart of all mankind. The job will continue to be done as we are faithful in our place as the Son.
The healing of the heart, the purifying of the heart, and the actual healing of the supposed scars that are present in the heart. Lillian said something about the scars that are present in the Emissary heart. Human beings are inclined to make a rather big song and dance about these things, like many people in the human world who are proud of their physical scars. They’ll show you the scar of their operation at the slightest provocation. And there has been a little inclination on the part of some to revel in the fact that they have such terrible heart scars. But the healing of the heart is a simple matter. When the heart is restored, of course it won't be anymore the scarred heart; it will be a different experience altogether. There are those who try to drag forward heart experiences out of the past which are part of all this scarred condition. We find people trying to patch up their differences in various ways when they could never be patched up. They don't need to be patched up. What is required is healing of the heart, which is actually not only a transformation but a transmutation—a new heart, a clear heart, a pure heart, in which the spirit can move without coloration or distortion but is revealed as it really is. It is this that makes possible the continuing work that is required relative to the responsibility of the Son.
Indication is that each individual must take his or her own responsibility so that one says for oneself, as one becomes aware of something that is in the field of one's responsibility, “I will take care of it. I will take care of it! I don't require anyB else to take care of it, I will do it.” But then, of course, sometimes there has been a little arrogance in the picture here. Human nature has still been hanging around saying, “I will take care of it,” on the basis of a view of oneself that isn't factual. In other words, one may have the desire to take care of it but is not yet capable of doing it. That is something that needs to be taken into account, but how is anyone going to develop the capability? By waiting for it to develop? A lot of people have seemed to imagine, well they're sitting around while the spirit’s busy here developing something, and suddenly it'll pop out. I don't think it works exactly that way. The spirit undoubtedly is at work but we have to provide the outlet, shall we say, for the action, for the expression. In other words, take responsibility; you have to do it. “I see what needs to be handled here; I will handle it.” But in that attitude it isn't an isolated thing either, because one recognizes one will have to take into account many other things in the handling of it. One can't ignore the total picture and say, “I will handle just this one thing,” as though it could be handled outside of the whole—it's a part of a whole! So always there are other people involved in relationship to what we are handling. But if we assume a focus point for the handling of something then one will take into account this person and that person who is related to the field of our handling. And one would always be very concerned that the tone of life be clear in one's own expression; and that relates to what has been called connection upward.
I've indicated that, in one sense at least, I'm personally not a part of the Body because I represent the Spirit of the Body. Now the spirit is presumably one with the Body when the heart is pure. So I represent the Spirit of the body—in other words, the Tone which is sounding throughout the whole Body. And it is this spirit which makes possible the handling of one's own individual responsibility. “I see the need here.”. I recognize that perhaps you looked around a little to see whether there's somebody else who might be better fitted, but doing that don't just leave it there. “I can't really find anyone who is better fitted.” It could be that if you can't find anyone who is better fitted, you are the one! So you take the responsibility, and it is seen in the context of the whole. You never lift out the factor of responsibility which you are taking, you never lift that out of the whole. You have to leave it in the whole, and handle it in the whole. This has seemed to be a problem to some. They think they could handle it if they got it all separated out into their own little bailiwick. But again, it doesn't work that way because the spirit of the whole is working through everybody.
I represent that spirit to the Body, but the Body increasingly comes into position so that mind and heart can provide the facility for the action of spirit. Sometimes people talk about, “Well I have to work with this in myself in this field, and so on. Well if that's what's actually happening nothing is happening, because minds working with minds, and minds working with hearts, and hearts working with minds, and all this, doesn't get anyone anywhere. This is what's been going on. It is the factor of spirit coming into the picture that is the missing element, or has been the missing element heretofore. So when it does begin to emerge from within the Body itself, then there is the possibility of right action insofar as the conscious mind is concerned, and insofar as the subconscious mind is concerned, in a unified sense, in an agreed sense.
As I say, I represent the Spirit of the Body. I represent the One who incarnates in that Body. We have referred to that One as the Archangel, for the sake of a word, incarnating in His Body on earth. The consciousness of the Body, and the Body itself all together, is a little rusty, and not all that capable as yet to accommodate that spirit fully. I suppose if that spirit is accommodated fully then there is no need for me anymore, to represent anything, because it is being done. That's what needs to be done. In one way or another I could retire at that point. But for the moment there is still a representation available, but not to be used as a means of avoiding the acceptance of individual personal responsibility. There are many areas where it is obvious there is need for someone to assume responsibility. Now one has to have some sort of a relatedness to the area.
I have noted that there has been an inclination, which is a mistranslation of what it is that is actually moving, for people to go off on tangents, imagining that, “Well, a great ministry is in this direction or in that direction.” From my standpoint the greatest ministry that is possible is right here on Sunrise Ranch. I've said that many times but no one, well very few at least, have really believed me. They see it over there, over there, somewhere else. Well, there's a stirring to assume the responsibility, but why should it be translated in consciousness as meaning over there?—when the fact of the matter is that the greatest possibility of assumption of focused responsibility is right here. Now I know that you mostly come from other places, so obviously you have an association in the unfolding cycles in other places. I'm thinking of this more from the standpoint of those who dwell on Sunrise Ranch, who have tended not to see the possibilities that are right here; not possibilities but essentials. Obviously, if you take it to the ridiculous extreme, if everybody on Sunrise Ranch decided that their ministry was somewhere else there would be nobody on Sunrise Ranch, and there would be no ministry anywhere else.
So, there are some things to clear in the subconscious minds of people, and there are applications that relate to other fields than Sunrise Ranch, as I'm sure all of you are capable of recognizing for yourselves. There are responsibilities, certainly, to be taken, in other places, and if one lives in some other part of the world or some other part of this continent, well presumably that's the place where you are to take the responsibility—to assume one's own responsibility for what one sees as being required, and keeping the acceptance of that open to the Tone which is represented by me, so that nothing is ever done that excludes that.
Now of course I couldn't possibly, in a practical sense, include all the information from all the people who are participating in our Body, directly. So there is a means by which it can come on through to me, but there are those things always that are rightly brought to me, in the sense that the individual is seeking to hold the connection open so that his assumption of the responsibility which he has assumed for himself—he's not requiring me to assume it, he is assuming it—he wants to make very sure that his Tone is clear. And while there are many who say, “well, I know you're not going to tell me what to do”—nowadays they may make that comment when something is brought to me—“but I would appreciate your comments.” That's getting around it isn't it, a little bit? No comment. Because the provision is all there already—everything is present, and continuingly present, principally by reason of what is moving through the services and the mailings. Here is a cohesive element which allows for the direction to be understood,provided a person doesn't become too hung up in some special area that he thinks of as his own. Then there's a tendency to overlook the obvious.
So there is this need for the assumption of responsibility in a personal sense, but never ignoring the point of representation of the Tone on the one side, and the responsibilities of other people on the other side, so that it is always encompassed, enfolded within the whole. One can't do that if one isolates oneself from the whole, or isolates one's field of activity from the whole. And on this basis the moving of the spirit purifies, heals, the heart. The healing of the heart is the healing of the mind, is the healing of the Body. Behold, I make all things new as the heart is healed. This is the truth of the matter.
