This is not only a service hour this morning but an hour which concludes the Pacific Council which has been in session over the last several days. Any conclusion is always, at the same time, a beginning. From our standpoint, in any beginning God creates. This may be so to the extent that we ourselves permit and participate in this creation.
During this Council earthly things have been considered from a heavenly perspective. This has been possible to the extent that there has been repentance from considering earthly things from an earthly perspective. If it is necessary to repent from maintaining an earthly perspective with respect to earthly things in order to rise up sufficiently to view earthly things from a heavenly perspective, how then could heavenly things be considered? To try to consider heavenly things from a heavenly perspective would not be any more fruitful than trying to understand earthly things from an earthly perspective. The human state of consciousness of course is always endeavoring to understand earthly things from an earthly perspective. Mental analysis of earthly things is undertaken and there is a great process of dissection which occurs. Indeed there is the necessity of repenting from an earthly approach to a consideration of earthly things, in order that there might be some experience of resurrection to a heavenly level of understanding and a heavenly perspective of earthly things. I would say that this certainly has characterized the various considerations that have been brought to point during this Pacific Council.
There is a greater sense of comfort and ease in considering earthly things from this perspective than there used to be. It has become more natural. Here is evidence of a creative process at work in the experience of all concerned, and also a willingness to participate in this creative process a little less reluctantly than may have been the case in times past. Through experience we find out that it is a very delightful and satisfying experience to move in the cycles of resurrection. We have only done so to the extent that there has been a relinquishing of the earthly perspective of earthly things, and that relinquishment is defined by the word repentance. One can continue to insist to view earthly things from an earthly perspective—to that extent there has been no repentance. Repentance comes when there is the relinquishment of this earthly perspective of earthly things. It takes a rather deliberate stance to do this. It has been so customary for human beings to limit themselves to this viewpoint. There are many ramifications to this viewpoint, some of which seem to be progressive, but they are all in fact deadly.
During this time of the Council there has been a rising up, as there has been in a general sense in this whole body of ministry, a rising up in repentance to the point where earthly things might be viewed from a heavenly standpoint. Let there be no sense of self-satisfaction in this, because it is only a beginning of participation in the creative process. There needs to be further repentance to occur in the relinquishing of the heavenly perspective of earthly things, because if one is involved with heaven in this way one cannot understand heavenly things—we cannot understand heavenly things until we are no longer involved in the heavenly perspective. This is not to say that the heavenly perspective has not freed up our awareness with respect to earthly things, but as long as we remain involved merely in that heavenly perspective we cannot understand heavenly things.
One considers whatever it is, at whatever level it is, rightly from a higher point. The earth may begin to be comprehended, the things that are occurring in the earth can begin to be understood, because there has been a rising up to a higher level of perspective which we call heavenly perspective. That is a step which has been taken by many of you, and others who are playing their part in this creative process. So there is the experience of resurrection to that extent. In order to be in position to consider heavenly things one must have risen to a level of perspective which is above the heaven. We could refer to this level of perspective as the perspective of the KING. It is the perspective of God brought to focus in relationship to the earth. The perspective of God is of the heaven and the earth; there is the comprehension of the wholeness, of the oneness, of heaven and earth.
If we merely examine the earth from the heavenly perspective, there is a state of separation being maintained between the heaven and the earth: Now we are up a bit higher we can look at the earth; there it is, apparently separate from the heaven; it isn't, after all, reflecting the heaven. But how shall the earth reflect the heaven if we do not comprehend the heaven? If we merely stand in a higher position and look at the earth, we may pat ourselves on the back and say, “Well now I understand what's going on.” The fact of the matter is that we don't really. We are just seeing things from a little different perspective, that's all. But the point has not been reached where there is true understanding, because true understanding comprehends the whole—there is a consciousness of oneness.
So our concern rightly is to continue in this cycle of repentance. We haven't finished yet! How quickly the tendency is to become self-satisfied, to assume that one has repented simply because there is a new perspective. This new perspective when it first begins to put in an appearance is remarkable, because it is unprecedented insofar as we are concerned. It is something new. This perspective from heaven sees something of a new earth—we see the earth in a different way. But what about the new heaven? To see the heaven in a new way requires a new stance which establishes a new point of perspective. As I say, this point of perspective is in God. Insofar as our own field of responsibility is concerned with respect to the heaven and the earth, it is in the One we have referred to as the KING. Our stance must be the stance of the KING if heaven and earth are to be seen in the new, true perspective.
On this basis then there may be consideration of the heaven, because we are no longer involved in the heaven. Heaven and earth, after all, are the creation. But there is a Creator if there is a creation, and the stance of the Creator permits a true and accurate perspective with respect to the creation—which includes heaven and earth as one. I am sure in our own awareness there has been a sense of separation between heaven and earth. That is bound to exist until the point of unifying perspective is experienced. Obviously there is a need during the process of resurrection to rise up through whatever is present between one's immediate positioning and the point to which one is rightly to come. One must pass through the intervening space, and this has been occurring.
There has been a release in consciousness which has allowed this new perspective of the earth to be encompassed, first of all in vision, outlook, attitude, but then also necessarily in action. If it merely remains a thing of mind and emotions the state of separation still exists. But rising up we come through the heaven, as we came through the earth, to the Apex Point, where there may be participation in the outlook and attitude of the KING toward the creation, which is an extension of Himself. It becomes therefore an extension of oneself if one rises up to that point of Apex, which is the focus centered in the KING.
It's interesting that when the Master was on earth He provided what He Himself referred to as the Way, the Truth and the Life, so that there might be opportunity for all to rise up to the true point of perspective which is established by reason of man. There is indication in three of the Gospels of an occasion when, as it is put in the seventeenth Chapter of Matthew, He took Peter, James and John, three of the disciples, up into a high mountain. Obviously this wasn't a mountaineering expedition. There were no high mountains handy. So reference here is to something else: rising up to a new level of perspective in which these three men were invited to share. This wasn't just for them but simply to open the door through them to the whole of mankind, to rise up once more to the point of true perspective. This occasion would subsequently be referred to as the transfiguration, an incomprehensible story to most, certainly to the three disciples who were on hand. When it happened Peter didn't know what to say. It didn't occur to him that he might just keep his mouth shut. If one doesn't know what to say, why not keep one's mouth shut?
In any case, regardless of whatever the reaction of the disciples might have been, something was established to open the door wide, not only between heaven and earth but through to this Supreme Point of Apex above the heaven, from which real perspective is made possible. Anywhere below that point there is what might be described as a modified perspective—it is somewhat inaccurate, untrue. This perspective from the mountain peak in a physical sense, if we are thinking of a mountain which comes to a peak above and beyond the surrounding countryside, will be a perspective which is all-inclusive, 360 degrees. Anywhere else but at that point the perspective will be restricted. Ascending the mountain, of course, there is only a one-sided perspective. Only when you come to the peak can it be complete. So mountains were often used symbolically to portray what was necessary for the restoration of man. Man belongs at the peak.
From the standpoint of our own experience, if we are honest we know that we do not have the peak experience. This should not be a matter of self-condemnation, because certainly there is whatever is required to bring one to the peak. We have described that as the creative process relative to our own experience. So there has been a movement which we have known individually, and have shared to whatever extent collectively, rising up into the heaven, so that we might have a heavenly perspective. There has been at times, with some, a certain sense of self-satisfaction that one has a heavenly perspective which most other people don't have, so that makes one rather superior to most other people. But it hasn't accomplished anything if by reason of such an attitude we sit down on the mountainside and go no further. Then we might as well have stayed in the plain.
Our concern is to participate in the creative process, which is not going to drop us off at any point. If we are participating in it we are carried by it and we rise up to a point where we have a heavenly perspective of earthly things, to whatever extent that is. Yes, we look out over the plains from the mountainside and like most human beings there usually is the thought: “My, isn't this a wonderful view; I should build my house here!” Well at the moment we are not in the house building business in this sense because we are responsible for a great deal more than sitting and admiring the view. If we use this analogy again of the mountainside, then if you are going to continue in the ascent you have to turn around with your back to the view. I don't know if you ever tried walking up a mountain backwards but it could be quite a dangerous business. So you have to address the necessities of the immediate moment in participation with the creative process regardless of the view. I suppose one may pause a little for breath occasionally and sit down and look at the view, and the view may help to restore energy and make it easily possible to continue the ascent, but let us never become fascinated by the view.
There is a creative process which will carry us to the mountaintop, and incidentally, from the mountaintop the intent is not to sit there and admire the view any more than it was during the processes of ascent. The view is magnificent and any way one turns there it is, but it is there because there is something to be done by reason of the continued working of the creative process. One's encompassment of the view is for a purpose, not merely self-satisfaction. So this way of describing the continued working of the creative process may give a sense of what it is that is the ongoing necessity: for one thing, never to indulge in an attitude of self-satisfaction.
Stay humble. It's not difficult if one has a constant awareness of the fact that there is a continuing necessity for repentance. We don't have it made yet, and if that is the fact, then obviously there are some things still to be relinquished. It seems like a task involving great sweat of the brow, to walk up a mountain with heavy weights on one's back. There are a lot of weights to be shed, a lot of human possessions to be relinquished. I am not so much thinking of possessions in the external sense, but of those factors present in oneself which do not belong. Such must be relinquished, and that is repentance. One relinquishes one's grip, which seems not to be a very onerous task. It involves less of the sweat of the brow than maintaining the grip. Ahh! At last! That is repentance. What is so difficult about it?
We have had the personal necessity of relinquishing elements that we have come to recognize are not on Tone, as we might say, various factors in our own experience and expression which do not reveal the quality, the nobility of character of the KING. We do not as yet have the required understanding of the character of the KING, but we know enough at the point where we may be on the mountainside. We don't know enough from the standpoint of standing on the peak. So there need be no self-judgment, but obviously there must be a relinquishment of those things in one's own character, in one's own attitude and expression of living, which obviously do not characterize the KING.
So there is repentance, repentance, repentance, as these things become apparent, as these factors come into view. Because we are rising up they come into view, not for the purpose of mulling over them but merely for the purpose of relinquishing them. As we do so we find ourselves becoming lighter. We have associated ourselves with the term emissary of divine light, but I have noted a certain amount of heaviness around at times. This is an indication to anyone of course, if the heaviness comes in their own experience, that they are carrying unnecessary weight. Something needs to be relinquished; and, again, what a sigh of relief when that is done. A person who actually does it says, “Why didn't I do this long ago?” Of course one has to become aware of what it is that is the weight, and this requires honesty. It is said of satan that he was a liar from the beginning. He has always been dishonest and yet he has always required loyalty from his followers. In other words, if he is dishonest all his followers must be dishonest too. And human beings have gone right along with that. But as there is repentance one comes free of these things, one becomes aware of one's dishonesty, what has been dishonest in one's own attitude.
There are those who have complained about the fact that I bring these things up. It seems to me that if there is such complaint it is very clear indication that the individual is carrying around some things that certainly have not yet been relinquished and which the person is very reluctant to relinquish. I know, to those who participate in this process of repentance easily and naturally, speaking of the things that need to be relinquished is a relief: Let's let them go, now we see them! And I doubt if they would ever be seen if we didn't give them some consideration: “Look at this heavy ingot of lead that is in your knapsack.” People resist that, fight against it: “Don't tell me what is in my knapsack! I don't want to know. I have always carried it around; I would feel unnatural if I didn't.” Of course it isn't put this way by the person concerned, but here we see why there is a necessity to refer to the weights. If everyone was willing now to be completely honest I would never refer to them again. That's a promise! But as long as they are there I am going to refer to them, and if you don't like it, that is up to you, but it will have no influence upon me at all.
There are those who have over the years attempted to tell me what I should do and how I should do it. They don't even know what they themselves should do or how they should do it, so how can they tell me? Nothing that can be brought to bear on me will change my expression from being what is needful in the moment. I make that statement and put myself on the spot thereby, but I think we all need to put ourselves on the spot in this way. As long as we can keep little excuses: “Well, I am not as strong as I ought to be yet, therefore I can't put myself on the spot…” That sounds like a good excuse. “Give me a little more time; I will strengthen up and somewhere along the way I will be strong enough so that I can do it.” One can do what needs to be done now; it is the only time it can be done anyway. And what needs to be done now is what relates to oneself and one's state of consciousness now, not to something in the future. There may be things, and will be things, in the future, but what is it now?
So we share in rising up to the mountaintop. Now the three disciples in the story were taken by Jesus to the mountaintop; they couldn't go on their own. And even when they were there they didn't know it, there was no comprehension of what the outlook was from the mountaintop. That was all right at that point because they were willing anyway to ascend the mountain with the Master, which was the process of opening a door for everybody. They were uncomprehending. In one of the stories it says that they were very heavy with sleep. This, incidentally, was a forerunner to the occasion in the garden of Gethsemane. They were heavy with sleep, so whatever the experience was seemed to them like a dream. They didn't talk about it much afterwards; they must have said something because somebody wrote about it. But the person who wrote about it didn't know what it was, and those who participated in it at the time didn't know what it was, so it is not unexpected that it wouldn't make much sense to anyone else later. There has been a certain amount of analysis and study, trying to figure out what it was that was going on. But here was a very natural thing: rising up to the mountaintop, the place where man belongs, where there is a consciousness of the expression of Spirit and an awareness then, by reason of that expression, of what that Spirit is.
It was described in the story in symbolical terms. There was Jesus, and Moses and Elias (that is Elijah of the Old Testament) talking with Him. This is an interpretation that somebody made and it has its base in the truth of the matter, which was and is that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Life in communion—they were talking together—in oneness, just One Spirit. But there were three of the disciples there, which had its significance also, although not in their conscious awareness. But Peter, who seemed to be rather an emotional chap, couldn't keep quiet. He felt it was incumbent upon him to say something, so he said something inane. A bright cloud covered the scene, and so the awareness that had been momentarily touched was lost. I am not saying there was something wrong with that. It was all that could happen at that time, and it did establish the point of connection, the point where true perspective may be known, the point where man belongs, at the peak, the point where it is clear that heaven and earth are one and that the Creator, oneself, is one with his or her creation.
So there is repentance continually required, that there may be a rising up through the heaven to the point where there may be an examination of heavenly things, and in doing so there will at the same time be an examination of earthly things, because heaven and earth are one. But from the standpoint of heavenly perspective alone the earth seems to be a separate place. One can see things going on in the earth from a new perspective but it does not include the things that are going on in the heaven yet. Only when one rises up to the peak where the identity is with the KING can the whole picture be seen and the whole of one's expression be included in the creative process.
I rejoice that we might touch into this, partly so that we do not subside into a state of self-satisfaction, but also because here is a part of the experience continuing to unfold. There needs to be a consciousness of the fact, so that it is a state of affairs that is understood. Whether individually we understand it or not is beside the point. It is understood from the standpoint of that Apex Point on the mountaintop.
We are able to speak together of earthly things from a heavenly perspective. This is most necessary, that a sharing in the process by which hearts are purified might be known. Only when the heart is purified to a goodly degree can we speak of heavenly things with a heavenly perspective. As we have already understood, the house of the Lord, where we rightly dwell, has both a heavenly and an earthly aspect. A purified heart opens the door into the experience of heaven, dissolving the veil which is the impurity of heart. The earthly aspect of the House of the Lord is hardly present at all in human consciousness now.
We have to see the earthly state as it is, but from a heavenly viewpoint; and we have begun to do this. We have noted the awareness that is now present of the working of the creative cycle and how it is that all that transpires in the world as it now is comes about by reason of the working of the creative process; therefore we do not need to dispute what is going on. We may, and I suppose we do, observe the foolishness which is expressed by people the world around, close in and far out. We understand as to why this is. It is because human beings are foolish. Very simple. They are inevitably foolish in this human state. Therefore if we observe foolishness it is not very surprising. It carries very little weight. What carries weight is the working of the creative process, which certainly emphasizes foolishness when foolishness is present; but it also emphasizes wisdom when wisdom is present. Our concern is with the wisdom, because wisdom is of heaven. We ourselves therefore would surely be wise.
We are able to observe the effects of the creative process in the world of form around us. It is well that this process should be operative and that we should at the same time be aware of the fact that it is operative. This gives us a heavenly perspective of earthly affairs. We see these earthly affairs with a heavenly vision and no longer with the earthly vision which comes because of involvement with the earthly affairs. We are quite aware that the vast majority of the population are involved with the earthly affairs and therefore put great store in the various ways by which these earthly affairs are being handled by human beings in this unfortunate state. We do not put much store in that, even though we observe it. We put great store in the creative process itself.
However we need to see the creative process not merely from its effects in the earthly sense. We need to understand that creative process as it is present in the heaven. We are familiar with the question: "Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?'' One can't know the ordinances of heaven without being in heaven. The ordinances of heaven are in the process of being set in the earth by reason of such awareness as is present in those who know that what is happening in the earth is consequent upon the working of the creative process. It is because of this that the ordinances of heaven are being set more directly in the earth, even though those who carry this responsibility may not be fully aware of what is happening by reason of their acceptance of the responsibility. There is, so far, little conscious awareness of what is happening in heaven from the perspective of heaven. There is an awareness of what is happening in the earth—beginning to dawn—as a result of what is happening in the heaven.
The creative process springs out of heaven, and the effects are recognizable to those who begin to share a heavenly perspective. But there needs to be more than that. We need to be in position to speak of heavenly things. This only becomes possible to the extent that we can speak of earthly things from a heavenly perspective. Then there may be the beginning point for the acceptance of what is present in heaven. This relates to something that we perhaps know of old, pointed to through the word "Shekinah": the evidence of the Presence of the One who dwells in heaven. The first touching into what is present in the heaven relates to the most peripheral aspect of Shekinah. This of course is the Cloud of Glory. The Cloud of Glory relates to a more or less undifferentiated awareness of something. This is about as far as anyone has reached from the human standpoint. Nirvana has been considered to be an ocean of bliss; it is another way of speaking of the Cloud of Glory, the most peripheral aspect of such awareness as may come of the heaven; it isn't really the heaven yet.
This also relates to what we have seen as the necessity of silence, of quietness. In that quietness there has, at the same time, been an awareness of the sounding of a tone and of a brightness. This has been known in some measure to us. We speak of the tone of life. How on earth did we become aware of it? This is present within the scope of the Cloud of Glory. We had to be quiet enough to begin to hear the tone, a sounding note, which is quite different certainly from the cacophony of noise that is present in the earthly state. We begin to hear the tone when we are quiet enough, and we become aware that there is a brightness, a lightness: The yoke is easy and the burden light. Here is the first dawning awareness of the heaven of the House of the Lord from the heavenly standpoint.
We are to dwell in the House of the Lord. We can't yet dwell in the earthly aspect of the House of the Lord, because it isn't present. But we are in position to begin to dwell in the heavenly aspect of the House of the Lord. It's only when this is done that the earthly aspect can begin to put in an appearance. There have been many sincere and earnest people in the world who have had the romantic idea of somehow building an earthly heaven, but you can't build an earthly heaven without heaven. It is heaven that carries the weight insofar as we are concerned, surely, that we may be so unmoved by the present earthly state that we can share an understanding of the heavenly aspect of the House of the Lord.
I am reminded again of another story from the Bible, relating to the Master's experience shortly after His conversation with Nicodemus. At least that seems to be so in the story that has come down to us. He had another conversation, this time with a woman. Perhaps there is more significance in all of this than meets the eye, relative to the male and female aspects and the particular conversations that occurred. After some talk, during which the Master was feeling out the nature of the state of this lady, the conversation developed and she expressed some rather structured views as to how it might be possible to worship God. Then the Master said something which in fact carries considerable significance.
"Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me"—understand me, understand what it is I am saying—"the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." It wasn't a matter of form. Certainly it wasn't a matter of geographical location. "Ye worship ye know not what.'' And I think that is a statement that could be repeated within the hearing of almost anyone on earth, particularly the religious people. "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews."
I suspect that the latter portion of that sentence was inserted somewhere along the way, but it does make a point relative to the creative process as it has been working out, and as it had been working out up to that point. The First Sacred School, which was brought to a very specific point by Moses, had failed of its purpose after Moses. However here was the initial opportunity provided, by which the restoration of man might occur. Therefore, in the continuing unfoldment of whatever might happen next after that failure it would necessarily have to emerge out of what was left of that state of failure. This is why Jesus was born into that particular situation as He was, because out of the remains of the previous opportunity the next opportunity could come. We are aware of the fact then of the Second Sacred School. These are ways of describing the sequence in this aspect of the creative cycle.
The Second Sacred School emerged through Jesus. As I said, Moses was primarily responsible for the First Sacred School, which failed after him. Jesus was responsible for the Second Sacred School, which failed after Him. The Second Sacred School therefore necessarily emerged out of the First, and what we know as the Third Sacred School must necessarily arise out of the Second—I suppose you could say out of what remains of the Second. But the remains are rather more massive than they were of the First Sacred School at the time of Jesus. That involved the Jewish pattern of things at a particular point of focus at that time in Jerusalem. The evidence of the failure of the Second Sacred School and the remains of it could be summarized by the word "Christianity." So out of Christianity, somehow or other, the Third Sacred School had to take form. It did so through Uranda. He certainly had a very strict, one might say, Christian background—Seventh-Day Adventist, to be exact. I myself had something of the sort too.
So what has arisen in the Third Sacred School emerged out of a Christian condition simply because this had provided at least some recognition of the Master's presence on earth and the importance of what He did. All this got mixed up, but still here was a connecting link with the Second Sacred School. Uranda was responsible for this. And while there had been of course failure previously, both after Moses and after Jesus, if anything was to be salvaged out of all this there had to be some sort of success or victory from the standpoint of the Third Sacred School. Thus far it has been proving itself out. Something remained in clear polarity after Uranda. I necessarily had something to do with that, but there were others who held the point with me, so that there might not be a failure this time.
All this is indicated in that little passage that I read: "For salvation is of the Jews." Salvation emerges out of the creative process, which had two shots, followed by failure and dissipation in each case. I don't think those who are Christians would like to hear this; and I suppose most of us came out of a Christian background, but much more than that is included now. Certainly there is the inclusion both of what came out of the First Sacred School and what came out of the Second Sacred School, as witness the fact that there are those who have thought of themselves in the past as Christians present, maybe in this room now, and also those who have thought of themselves as Jews. So, here we go! We would not exclude anyone, regardless of background, whether from the Orient or from the—what?—Middle East. But here is the way the creative process works. It's interesting, it's quite capable of picking up the chips again. It has been doing that, and we are at least some evidence of the fact that it has been doing that.
"But the hour cometh"—and this is surely the hour; it came anyway—"and now is"—you can say that again!—"when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him." Along the way perhaps some of us may have misinterpreted this matter of seeking, sensing that "the Father seeketh such to worship him." We would be good Emissaries and find them! But He seeks how? In the expression of His spirit. Here is what we have described as a magnetic force, and the magnetic force is quite capable of finding those who will yield to that magnetic force. It is, in that sense, a foolproof system. It brings home those who should come home. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2021/09/a-different-kind-of-leadership.html]
Some of those who begin to come home decide against it along the way. Woe unto them, because they had the opportunity. There are vast numbers of people who never had that same opportunity. If there is one thing that I might feel quite strongly about, it is that anyone who has the opportunity should turn their back on it. There certainly have been those who have done that. They turned their back on my KING, and that is the unforgivable sin. I suppose, for some, it is possible to turn around again, but it certainly hasn't happened too often. It may happen for those who, as it were, go "by default"—just drift away. And there are some of those who, as it has been put, are re-surfacing; and I rejoice in that. But if there are those who turn their backs on my KING they mean absolutely nothing anymore to me. This is an attitude that we need to share. We are not playing children's games. We are not here to fiddle around with human nature. Along the way we have done a great deal of fiddling with human nature, our own in particular—and other people's too, because we were still fiddling with our own, so we felt it necessary to fiddle with other people's.
But, coming to the point of knowing what we know, we realize there is no sense to fiddling around with human nature. We repent of it in ourselves, and so the current of life is offered to others. And we see this is quite effective. People put in an appearance very often that we really don't know where they came from or why. It doesn't matter. They come because the magnetic force is there and it brings them, and we are thankful for that. We can't pat ourselves on the back and say, "I did it." We may have participated in extending the magnetic force. We had no idea where it would land up, and we don't need to know—just do it. We do it through our willingness to repent as necessary. We become aware of the elements in ourselves which need to be relinquished, then let the spirit carry them away, and then there is a clear connection for those who are being drawn by this magnetic force. We all share in this. We all have our own fields of responsibility because we are all different. Aren't you glad for that? Would you want any reproductions of yourself? I am quite content to be unique, and so it should be for each one. We are not trying to be anyone or anything. Someone may be accused occasionally of trying to be Jesus, for instance. What blasphemy! That One is who He is. But each one of us is who we are individually.
We discover that our dwelling place is in the House of the Lord; and our first experience of the House of the Lord is necessarily the heavenlyaspect of it, because as yet there isn't any earthly aspect to experience. When we know the heavenly aspect then we begin to be in position to dress and to keep the Garden, in other words to set the dominion of the ordinances of heaven in the earth. Then the fact of the New Heaven and the New Rarth can come quickly. The New Heaven and the New Earth simply refer to the House of the Lord. It isn't new; it's just new to us.
So in our time together this evening we have touched into a heavenly awareness of the creative process, which certainly has produced certain effects in the earth. But we begin to see that it is our responsibility to understand this heavenly aspect of our responsibility. We may know that we have repeatedly played a part in this particular creative cycle which I have described from the time of Moses. You can go back farther than that, I suppose, if there is any reason for it, but this is the most recent application of the creative process in a specific sense through human beings. We have a perspective in this regard because we are very much aware that in the heaven the total concern is for the re-creation of man. This much we know of the heaven from the heavenly standpoint. All that happens at the moment is for that purpose. There is a lot more going on in the universe than that, but insofar as our field of responsibility is concerned, that's it! And when we are in the heaven that is known; it's prominent in awareness. We don't find ourselves at any point saying, "Ah, shucks, I forgot!" No, the dwellers in heaven are trustworthy. They are inseparable from the One whose House it is. We begin to become aware of what the ordinances of heaven really are and how they must be brought into the earth to allow for the restoration of the earthly aspect of the House of the Lord.
We learn once again to dwell in heaven. I don't think that is such a tough proposition. It means that a good deal of our present surroundings must be largely ignored. We don't find it necessary to become involved in them in the sense of reacting to them. We may utilize our external opportunities in the business of repentance—that is required—but we see everything we do in the external sense from the heavenly standpoint and we don't get lost in our consideration of it from the earthly standpoint. What are your favorite things from the earthly standpoint? What do you imagine you were created to do on earth? Human beings translate that invariably in human terms: "I'm a businessman. I'm an artist. I'm a banker. I'm a scientist. I'm a sociologist"—all very important things, meaning absolutely nothing.
I am the angel of the Lord incarnate on earth. All these affairs that human beings put so much store by are not important for that reason at all. They may carry an importance to us because they enable us to bring something out of heaven into the earth in relationship to people, that's all, not to satisfy ourselves. What do you do, day by day, to satisfy yourself? That's something that might be thought about a little, because we are not here to satisfy human beings, ourselves or anyone else, but to bring heaven into the earth; and we use what is at hand to do that. Anything we do day by day is for that purpose only. People get so thoroughly embedded in their external interests, that they forget: "Oh shucks!" again.
Of course one has to have money; one has to live, after all. You do? Why do you have to live? What would the reason be? So that you can do your human thing, whatever it is? That's no reason at all. You might just as well be dead. The only reason that human beings are still alive is to give them an opportunity to find out why they should be here; that's the only reason. If we begin to know that, then let's be true to it. I thank God that there are those who are discovering what it means to be true to that, so that nothing of this earthly state looms so large that it causes amnesia, a lapse in memory, as to why one is here.
So we consider these things together in times like this. But, remember, the Spirit of Truth brings all things to remembrance constantly, so that you never forget. We are not here to forget why we are here but to do what we are here to do. Remembrance Day is coming up shortly. With respect to it there is something about "lest we forget." Well I think that's a pretty good thought to conclude our time together this evening. We are not here to forget why we are here but to do what we are here to do. Just let it happen. Just let it happen.
