The Open Book
Grace Van Duzen
February 5, 1989 Sunrise Ranch
It is a real privilege for me to stand in this place on a morning like this, with the sun shining brightly, with all of you. I would like to share something from the Bible with you. It is from Revelation, the last book in the Bible. The emphasis I wish to share with you is on some of the words in this Book— “things which must shortly come to pass … for the time is at hand.” I will read a few verses from the beginning of the Book:
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.” Here we have a continuum. I would mention this wonderful servant, John, who was the one to allow what the Master Jesus brought to continue. It came to focus in the Book of Revelation, which John wrote.
“Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” Isn’t that what we have always heard? You can read the words, but do you hear them? You can hear them, but do you live them? Are you among those who keep the words?
I am going to use the tenth chapter of Revelation—it is a picture of incarnation. In the whole Bible, and certainly in Revelation, when there is something depicted, as in this chapter, it applies to the individual, but not just to the individual. It can refer to a particular individual, or a whole body of people. I am emphasizing the Whole Body this morning. This is what we are concerned with, surely. But you will find it interesting from the standpoint of your own incarnation!
“And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.
“And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me. Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not … And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said. Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
“And I went unto the angel, and said unto him. Give me the little book. And he said unto me. Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me. Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”
Again, from the first verse: “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud.” That is the first step in incarnation: a movement, we say, “down.” It isn’t denigrating anything that is lower: it is simply a movement into a denser level. So the movement begins, down from the absolute state—we say “God Being”—the Source—coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. Here is the first form: Cloud-clothing.
“And a rainbow was upon his head.” Here is a sevenfold differentiation—the Cloud, or the levels of vibrational being, comes first. From this Cloud-clothing will come physical form in this process. We have talked about pneumaplasm, or spirit substance, which is the Cloud closest to the physical body. So we have this spiritual body—which is not a separate body; it is the connecting link. There are those who have a certain sensitivity, perception, about these levels, having seen something of them. It has been recognized that any distortion or lack in the physical body is first in this Cloud Body, this vibrational body. Therefore the healing must take place in that spirit substance. None of this is new, but it lets us see something in a different way.
“And his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.” Here, from the pure, white light, which is Divine Being, we now have some golden substance: “his face as the sun.” One is reminded of the Silver Cord and the Golden Bowl in Ecclesiastes. If you see the moon, particularly a full moon, right over the horizon, it looks golden because it is shining through a cloud. Well, here we have the pure, White Light through the Cloud, and we have the Golden Bowl. It is all a description of this process.
“And he had in his hand a little book open.” This is true, and the book has never been closed. “And he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth.” So we have the earth substance now, right here, and something begins to happen. The little book contains the design for this form—everything is in that little book. And it is open; there is nothing hidden. The earth substance is now ready to receive this little book: “He set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth.” The book will be integrated, the incarnation of the being will take place, with everything provided that will manifest through this person.
Now that this substance is in place, he “cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth.” Throughout the Bible, when the sound of a loud voice, or a trumpet, or anything like that, is used, it is talking about an impact, a vibrational impact, the emanation of power. This is certainly happening here, likened to a lion roaring; the lion is the symbol of the highest point of authority, of One Power.
“And when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.” We have a differentiation again. We had white light into seven, a rainbow—the colors, from the most ethereal down to the red, physical, in that Vibrational Body— and now we have it in sound. Here is the One Power being differentiated into seven thunders, or vibrations. Here is the establishing of that magnificent system, the endocrine glands. The endocrine system consists of ductless glands. Here is something pouring directly from the Spirit into the River of Life, the bloodstream. So into the physical form now we have the establishing of this sevenfold system which provides the connection with the inner reality.
“And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices”—were in place and operating—“I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me. Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.” Here is something hidden: the endocrine secretions. There is a definite connection between the invisible and the visible. This is a fascinating subject for the human mind; it would like to control this! Of course it is the way all of this is used that determines what happens to the individual. Expressing emotions of anger, hate, and all the rest, impacts the body and brings about distortion. Conversely, this system may also be the instrument for healing.
“And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again. and said. Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.” The angel is present, so there is a Voice here. And I, whoever I am at this point, do have a responsibility: take the little book!
And I went unto the angel, and said unto him. Give me the little book. And he said unto me. Take it.” I had to do it every step of the way! I like this text, because it shows I took responsibility before I ever came on earth—and so did you. It seems that there have been complaints by some: “I didn’t ask to come—all this is imposed upon me.” But we did, for sure! We took responsibility from the very beginning: “Give it to me!” And he said, “Take it”—absolute responsibility. Contained in that little book (and it is still open, always) is the Commission, the purpose, the very specific reasons we are on earth. It is all there, and open to be used. One aspect of the physical provision in the little book is the wonderful spiral of DNA.
What about this business that it is bitter in the belly? “It was in my mouth sweet as honey.” The Word contained in the book is sweet in the mouth, isn’t it? It is in the living where a little something else might creep in, in the belly, in the area of digestion, the subconscious realm. Remember that this little book is eaten, absorbed into the world just exactly the way it is, individually and collectively, with all the factors of heredity, environment—prenatal, postnatal—all the rest of it. This little book, this Presence, is now in the midst of all this, the way the world is. And when there are bitter experiences it is purely because of subjection to these earthly factors. The Master spoke about being in the world but not of it.
In the sense of the whole body of mankind there has been a twenty-thousand-year-old bellyache! When we think of all the function that goes on in what is indelicately here called “the belly,” we have digestion, assimilation, elimination. The acceptance of the Sweet Commission in the mouth is wonderful—we can’t wait to get to it—but then there is the living of it! It all has to be applied in everything we do, and the digestion, assimilation into every speck: the physical substance, mind, heart. This is what is necessary if there isn’t to be indigestion and the bellyache. And that is all that needs to be assimilated—the little book. This is the one thing that will let the Word be made flesh. We are beginning to see it, feel it, and really know it. The time is at hand, and these things must come to pass.
I often recall Martin’s words, particularly more recently, that the pollution in the heaven must be dissolved—must! This is the time. This bitterness has been in the subconscious of the whole body of humanity for a number of years, but it isn’t very long from the Divine standpoint. How could John say, in Revelation, written two thousand years ago, that these things “must shortly come to pass”? Our minds may say, “Next week, next month, next year—surely in a lifetime!” Two thousand years? We have what is called a “timeline” in our Story of Man class, where it shows graphically this period of time since the fall of man, compared with other cycles. It is a short span of time, a twenty-thousand-year period, as compared with what went before. So from the Divine View I would say definitely that the time for change is at hand. And it is being brought to consciousness in many, many people that this is such a time. From a view that sees the destructive side of life, it could be said, “There isn’t any more time. This is terrible!” But what a wonderful thing that this is the time for the end of all that.
There is a word that pictures this state, and that is karma. Karma never seems to get resolved. I don’t think it is expected to be resolved! It is there: “So I’ll come back and finish what I couldn’t do now.” Why not do it now? No one has ever had more opportunity, more training, care, inspiration. Let’s keep moving. We let the conviction dissolve, the conviction that nothing will change: “It can’t. It has gone on this long, this stuff in me. It can’t change!” We know it not only can but it does and it has. It is absoluteness I am talking about. The word is, “The mystery of God is finished,” as recorded in this Book, Revelation, which is dealing with this present time. It isn’t God’s mystery; it is man’s mystery, even though it is seen as God’s mystery. So there is the finishing of this closed-in state that man’s mind has created. What could be more wonderful? The fact that we are here is cause for the greatest thanksgiving, but it requires all of the old state to be gone, every last bit.
I am going to read some words from the twentieth chapter of Exodus, which contains the Ten Commandments. These words are from the first of those:
“I am the Lord thy God … visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” Let the little book that is open be incorporated into everything we do. That makes the difference.
There is another verse, in Matthew, where the Master said, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” I would say that this implies that karma doesn’t go on forever; after all, it is only in the consciousness of mankind. The idea has been that God inflicts this unto the third and fourth generation, but we are talking about hereditary factors. It applies only to those who reject the little book in the hand of the angel. It is all dissolved for those who love the LORD and keep His commandments, and let the book be revealed, which is the Word made flesh.
“Till heaven and earth pass”—the old heaven and the old earth. That is the theme in the Book of Revelation: the passing of the old heaven and the old earth. And I would not say, “the coming of the new,” because there it is—if the old has passed, the smudge is off, the sludge is gone, there it is! It has always been here. But until every jot or tittle (today we would say “tad” or “titch,” whatever), until every speck of it is gone, there is the state of being under the Law. It shall not “pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Here is the state of absoluteness. It isn’t a matter of trying to dig out every little bit of the old so that every bit has gone. Love simply cleans the slate. Love is radiation, and nothing escapes that radiation.
From this passage in Revelation I will read the last verse again. This is written to the Body of the Son of God: “Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” That prophecy isn’t foretelling what is going to happen next week, or whatever. It is simply the uttering of the Word in the moment, and it inevitably touches many peoples and nations and tongues—all tongues; it doesn’t matter what the language is—and kings, and heads of state, and presidents! This is the impact into the body of humanity.
I would like to look into another book in the Bible. It is written, as is Revelation, purely in symbol: the Book of Ezekiel. In his day Ezekiel prophesied very much as John did later. His writings apply to exactly the same time as John’s do—this time of fulfilment. There is a chapter I would like to share with you. The reason my attention was called to this Book was because of the service by Martin that came in the last mailing. The title of it is “The Sign of the Times”—a singular sign. We see lots of signs out there. Martin said:
“There is one central and primary sign of the times which has not been recognized, let alone acknowledged, by the population of mankind in general. We know something about it because of our own personal experience. It might be described as the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. The Son of Man is the sign, and that sign is in heaven. Human beings are aware of many things in the earth but virtually nothing in the true heaven. Consequently there is no awareness, really at all, in the consciousness of mankind of the Son of Man in heaven. That awareness shall come.
“The Son of Man is the Body of the Son of God, the Body of which we have some immediate experience. The experience of the Son of Man is only known in heaven. The fact that it is present on earth is easily recognized, but the reality of it is in heaven. We only know the Son of Man to the extent that we ourselves abide in heaven.”
Reading the Book of Ezekiel with Martin’s words in mind—that the Son of Man is the Body of God on earth—I find a chapter here that is very interesting. Chapter thirty-seven:
“The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones.” We are talking about the earth and we are also talking about the time in which we live today. There weren’t that many bones in the day he lived! This is the day of the population explosion. “And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley”—of this planet—“and, lo, they were very dry.” That describes the state of the world—very many, and very dry, and it looks impossible that anything could be done about this situation. “And he said unto me. Son of Man”—the words are to the Body of God already established “can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.” You’re asking me?
“Again he said unto me. Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.”
The prophecy is: “Hear the Word of the Lord.” The absoluteness of that prophecy is to know that I am the Lord: “Ye shall know that I am the Lord,” he says. First there is the recognition that there is a Body of God on earth, that there is a Voice that can say, “I am the Lord,” and this is what the Body represents: it must, if it is to happen. Then eventually there comes the realization that I am the Lord.
“So I prophesied as I was commanded”—and there’s the secret, isn’t it, to prophesy “as I was commanded,” this which is in the little book—“and as I prophesied, there was a noise”—again, the noise, one of the first things ever to appear in a creative cycle, the impact of spirit, of power. “And behold a shaking”—that came along simultaneously; we have all experienced that! The shaking is what loosens the hold on everything. Every external influence is shaken: relationships, people, things, situations—all of it. This is the process when the Word is truly spoken.
“And the bones came together, bone to his bone.” That is a picture of what is happening in the world, even though they are just bones at this point. They come together. “Bone to his bone”: here is a picture of one person coming to another. We could say a group draws people, but it is always, isn’t it, the influence of one person, one word, one smile, the light in the eyes of one. So the experience of “bone to his bone” is happening—we do see it.
“And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them.” Ah, it is beginning to have a body—the skeleton is going to have a form, because it does start out as a skeleton, as bones that have come together. Then there comes flesh up upon them, but first sinews, muscles, ligaments, etc. And these are brought into this forming Body, which was just a honey structure at one time. The body of humankind is now beginning to have these vital elements, and we see it; we see it coming. It could look like a beautiful body one of these days. We see what is going on in the Soviet Union, Korea, Japan, South America, many places. Things are moving, and the parts that make the Body operational are coming into place.
So, continuing with this analogy: “And the skin covered them above”—that is good; the body needs skin. Creation is all one thing, but in this analogy we have the individual parts coming into place. Well, they are all wonderful, and they have their functions, and they work together; but until the skin is on, the body isn’t wholly beautiful. Until the skin covers it, it seems to be composed of separate parts, even though they are working together. Covered with skin, you have one thing, and you don’t see the parts. They are all moving and working, but blessed skin makes it one unit. It looks like it is all ready: the parts are all covered with skin, “but there was no breath in them.
“Then said he unto me. Prophesy unto the wind.” We have a fresh wind blowing! as this larger Body is forming, coming so beautifully into place and into a place of conscious awareness. There is a wind needed. This is the final step, and we hear the U.S. president talk about a fresh wind blowing, and all over the place there is a wind blowing.
“Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, Son of Man, and say to the wind. Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”
This is the purpose of the wind. But there must be a Core Body, the Son of Man, to prophesy. In other words, the Word is spoken through the wind. This Core Body has this vital place with regard to the wind. “O breath,” the breath of God, “breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”
One can feel the longing, in the hearts of this larger body that is forming, to live. There has been a conviction throughout the vast population of the world that the human state is in a terminal condition; it is all going to end in destruction. Well, we don’t know how it is all going to work out, but the question was asked of the Core Body: “Can these bones live?” And the Core Body might say, “I decide this? I know this? Surely it is the LORD who knows.” True! “Surely it is already decided that the LORD’s Will shall be done, that it cannot be defeated.” True! But we are responsible for what happens in this part of the cosmos right now, in this time that is at hand. In this chapter we see our responsibility toward all the people on the face of the earth—a great responsibility. That is accomplished only as the absoluteness of our Mission is achieved. It means that not one little bit of that old heaven is allowed to remain. The little complaints and judgments that are experienced, maybe as recently as yesterday, don’t have to be here today.
This prophecy was to the breath: “Come from the four winds.” We know about those Four Winds, and their representation: the Four Forces, which are differentiations of the One Spirit which makes creation possible on this earth. In the very beginning in Genesis, concerning creation, a river is spoken of, One River, that went out of Eden. It represents the one source of power in all the cosmos, and it is differentiated, or takes characteristics applicable to the place needed, into Four Forces on this planet—the One River became Four Rivers. We have One Wind becoming Four Winds. It is all one thing. Here is the working of the Spirit of God. We need to let it be so vibrant and so consistent in us that we truly remember taking that little book. We may say, “I took it, and in my mouth the Commission was sweet as honey. I love to talk about it!” But it is in living that the Commission is fulfilled, and that is not bitter.
“Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” And what begins to come into the consciousness of all mankind is a conviction of life.
“So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great body.” This is the time that has been looked forward to, as Uranda put it, “by all the prophets of all the ages.” Do we give thanks for just being here, that the mystery of God can be finished, and all the mystery on the face of the earth be dissolved? There are those who would have loved to be here in this time that is at hand. Our responsibility is very great; we are here. And we are His body, and there is an absoluteness in consciousness.
I am reminded of the words of Jesus: “That where I am, there ye may be also”—that your state of being may be what mine is. This has nothing to do with place or geographical position, just that this state of being may be so absolute, because of love, that the mystery of God might be finished. It is the only thing that does it: love, a passion that transcends love for self. We knew that with Uranda, with Martin—for many years with Martin; of course most of you only knew Martin, and that is enough! The love is so great that it fills everything, and there is nothing else. I am most thankful for the opportunity we have of letting the LORD live on earth through us, very aware that this is the time, and that it must be done.
© emissaries of divine light
