Spiritual Fluency

Spiritual  Fluency

Howard Goodman  Sunrise Ranch    David Barnes  Salmon Arm BC

David Karchere  Sunrise Ranch

September 13, 2026 a.m.

Keahi Ewa — I want to welcome you this morning. My name is Keahi Ewa, for those I haven't met yet. After my prayer, we're going to have a karaoke hymnal, “The Beauty Way,” hot off the presses, last week, I believe, David Karchere created it. So please sing along if you'd like. Howard Goodman from Cape Town, South Africa will be speaking; and David Barnes, from Canada will be offering his gifts; followed by David Karchere closing our time together.

I invite you to close your eyes if you'd like and breathe this in as we deepen our practice of giving and receiving in this breath. Let us take a breath together and allow ourselves to arrive fully in this moment. Let the activity that brought us here begin to settle. Let the mind soften, the heart open, and the body remember what it belongs to—to the living rhythm of creation. There is beauty here. There is beauty in the breath moving through us, in this life stirring within us, and in the unique presence of every person gathered. This beauty is not something we have to manufacture. It is not something we have to earn. It is the inner pattern of being already present, waiting to be seen, welcomed, and given expression through us. As a flower opens naturally to the sun, may we open to the creative power that is here now. May everything within us say, “Yes, come here. Come into this heart. Come into this body. Come into this gathering. Come into the words spoken, the music offered, and the silence we share.”

May we see beyond the outer forms of one another and recognize the essence shining through. Beneath our different stories, personalities, cultures, and experiences, we are already connected. We are already belonging to one another, belonging to one another within the greater constellation of being. May we meet there. May we meet in the sacred place within where nothing needs to be defended, where no one needs to prove their worth, and where the beauty of who we are may move freely among us. May this service be an invitation to life, an opening through which love may enter, creative power may move, and something more beautiful may be born. May we be present enough to receive it, open enough to embody it, and generous enough to offer it into our world. The beauty of being is here. The power of creation is here. And we — we are here together. Let us be here. Aumen.

The Beauty Way

I walk with a beauty before me

I walk with beauty behind me

I walk with beauty below me

I walk with beauty above me

I walk with beauty all around me

I walk the beauty way

May all my thoughts be beautiful

May all my words be beautiful

May all my acts be beautiful

I walk the beauty way

— David Karchere —

Howard Goodman — I don't know how to speak when it's beyond words. Walking the Beauty Way, being in it together; flying across the globe, over the beautiful continent of Africa, moving into the west of it across the Atlantic, coming into this valley, coming into our ancestral home. Anne-lise and I are very glad to be here—for the recovery of our courage.

If we remember somewhere in the deep, beautiful, untroubled waters of our heart of remembrance, that we signed up for this work; and so we join hands, join hearts, and honor and hold each other to the task—the task of letting beauty be born. Why does it take courage for us? Loosen the grip, my friends, the survival grip. For ultimately we wake up and come to understand that who we are is both beauty and power, and the restoration of true memory.

I too call in the presence of our ancestors to join us in this ancestral home—the ancestral home that is born from the future, not from the cultures and the structures that are generated out of the past. We are his, her story, His story, Her story, the creation from the future, from this place of the secret, internal domain of the Most High. We laugh. Whether we know it or not, we begin to remember that what joins us at hip, belly, heart, throat, head, body, spirit, is the fire of our ancestral legacy. The legacy that is, in fact, our destiny. We stand here together—seated, standing, it matters not—to honor the present moment. The present moment is a cosmic portal, wherever we may be in the universal scheme of things. We are not strangers. We may feel we're in a strange land, but we are pioneers of restoration, remembering this beautiful body of humankind, cluster, constellation, pod by pod, as we are gathered by the mystical power of love. For the presence of who we are is speaking in and through us all right now.

This is not a solo form behind a microphone disseminating something separate from what you know already. All of us know from the inside. But we are here like a flower to reveal, to let flourish our remembrance, our joy, to know that we are receiving what has already been given, and it takes courage to loosen the grip of what we have come to believe erroneously is a long walk of struggle! Eh? No, it's the beautiful long walk to freedom, to claim the freedom that comes into the present moment amongst us now. All of us here in the Mountain View, with the beautiful paintings, the artistry, the gorgeousness of how we are constellated as all of nature is. And I'll finish off before handing it over to Brother, powerful Brother David from the north, by sharing how when we are focused in our truth, knowing that truth is beauty, the power of our influence in this natural, extraordinary creation, planet Earth is profound.

And this is—I need to do this very quickly, so I'll do it this way. A gathering, music conference, late 1970s, Sunrise Ranch, two weeks together—amazing! what a generation of unified experience. What joy. We end at Eastview down the road here, and we sit in the garden, and our beautiful ancestral guide, Lillian Exeter, says, “Go now and pray your thanksgiving for what we have generated. Commune.” So I do, by the canal, and I'm sitting, and there is silence, and it's the middle of summer, and I say to myself, “Where are the sounds of nature? Where is this beautiful symphony I'm expecting?” And suddenly, from the left comes a battalion of swallows, swooping past me, and the crickets are sounding, and everything is coming alive, and it's all happening. And then my little mind gets in there, and asks a silly question of doubt, and everything returns to silence. Let us let life, the beauty of who we are, be born constantly through the presence of our ancestral ones, by whatever name—father, mother—who are proud of us. Let us make them proud of us by being really fully present together. David, over to you.

David Barnes — Good morning everyone. I live in south-central British Columbia, Canada, about five hours to the northeast of Edenvale. There has been such a wonderful intensification of the current of the Spirit moving since Gary opened the service this morning. There was a powerful movement through you Howard. And of course we must all let our spiritual substance increase to meet the challenge of the intensification that is with us, both now in this morning meditation, but also in the cycle of expansion that we're in, spiritual expansion in the world, and more particularly in the cycle of expansion that is coming to focus at Sunrise Ranch over the next couple of weeks. All of us are a part of that.

I wonder if you know and remember that it is 94 years ago this morning—September 13th, 1932—that Uranda began to move through his great awakening process. And so this is the completion of the 94th year, and we are moving into the 95th year in the cycles which relate to the initiation of the Third Sacred School on earth, and the founding of the ministry of Emissaries of Divine Light; which led 14 years later to the founding of Sunrise Ranch. So here we are on a journey related to the Commission that Uranda received way back, but it was to be shared by all who would take part in it. And it is to this end that we are all called to share in the fulfillment of this Divine Commission, which relates to the restoration of the consciousness of Divine Man and Divine Woman on earth. Now is this not a most beautiful Commission, and beautiful anniversary remembrance! And remembering, is it not the most wonderful and beautiful and glorious opportunity to provide the substance and the spirit and the presence, which allows it to continue.

Something most beautiful occurred here last Sunday; and David Karchere established it under the name “The Secret of Life”; and he identified that as the qualities of beauty, the Beauty of Truth. I thought that the record of that service, those words spoken, pretty much said it all. If you want to look at it line by line and paragraph by paragraph, you will see that everything necessary to the outworking of the Perfect Plan was identified in essence. It's a very wonderful thing for me to be able to say that; and so it should be for all of us in recognition that this Perfect Pattern was articulated in words by our brother and our friend, who did not come alone. He came with others who spoke, and others who gathered from around the world to be with him—all of us together for this purpose.

I thought I would read a few words by Uranda that relate to the matter of beauty, partly to share some of Uranda's spirit and words on this anniversary morning, and be thankful for his presence and what he brought; but also to show you how perfectly David spoke his words of beauty, in exact attunement and alignment with the spirit of Uranda. And you can check this out for yourself—maybe after the service you can go back and read or watch what David said and you can reread these words by Uranda. Uranda wrote a short piece titled Beauty, excerpted from his 1936 masterpiece, “Steps to Mastership”:

“The best way to enter into selfless service  in Life is found in Beauty. He who looks for Beauty in all people and all things soon finds that which he can truly Love. The blending force which draws one into a realization of Oneness is Love, and the Presence of Love in people and all creation is discerned through a perception of Beauty. Beauty is not to be confused with surface prettiness. Beauty is that deeper quality which partakes of the Divine. The Inner Being of all things is Beauty. Look for Beauty and you will find it. When you find Beauty, you will have found the Key to Love [and I might add here, the Secret of Life]. When you have found Love, you will blend with that in which you find it. Thus is Oneness attained.

“The selfless [impersonal] expression of Life depends on the ability to perceive Beauty everywhere. Everywhere present, Beauty will attune you with Love, and Love will blend you with God. Beauty and Truth are One. The Essence of all things is Beauty. The Essence of all things is Truth. Through the Pathway of Beauty, you can ascend to the limitless heights.

“Set yourself to the pleasure of looking for Beauty. Beauty is Reality. Behold It, and the clouds of darkness and illusion will vanish away. Fill your mind with Beauty and there will be no room for the ugly things of the personal life expression. The Christ is Beauty. The Way of the Christ is Beauty. The Truth of the Christ is Beauty. The Life of the Christ is Beauty. You cannot Love that in which you do not see Beauty. Therefore look for Beauty and you will find Love. Look below the surface in contemplation and you will find Beauty. He who hurries sees not Beauty. Follow Beauty and you will find Love. Enter into Love and you will find God. In God you will find the ALL in All.”

I watched the video of the expansion session held after the service last Sunday. I wasn't able to be on it directly. There was a flow present of wondrous beauty in expression through every individual who spoke—a seamless flow of meaning and beauty and power, with substance gathering. Quite amazing, really! It made my whole body tremble to receive it. There was something portrayed, for example, through Lana—to single one out—which was astonishingly beautiful and intelligent and wise and radiant. And to single out another—I could point to each one really—but I want to mention the words that Maria Zayas spoke. It is such a fulfilling thing to hear the Word of truth and love, of vibrancy and life, spoken and revealed with understanding, and knowledge, and richness of expression, such as came through Maria. And I watched the Wednesday night service from the Ranch, focused by Gary Goodhue in the revelation of his vibrant presence. It is so wonderful Gary, to watch you and be with you and hear you in action. And then, of course, there was this most wonderful, beautiful revelation through Cese Foster. I mention these things because all this happened during this past week, in our midst—an expansion of truth and beauty and love and light.

I have just a couple of minutes left, so I want to read—I could speak my own words very easily, but I want to read Maria's words. They came right from the center of her being, out through my heart, moving out through my consciousness in oneness. Here's what Maria had to say, which I think was such a wonderful expansion and complementary expression offered in relationship to that morning service, and particularly the words expressed by David, his words on the theme of beauty, and the Secret of Life. Maria emphasized the marriage between Mother God and Father God; and the spirit and substance, and the engagement that is available within each one of us through this marriage internally. She said:

“The marriage between Mother God and Father God—that is available within each one of us. It is the source of energy and creation when there is this blending. When we are in our correct place, functioning through the design, there is the emanation of Light and Beauty and Truth, and it happens automatically. We don’t need to look at external qualities in the distorted state. It is an inner experience of Beauty and it expresses everywhere—we see it in manifestation in form. We could call these Father and Mother aspects Electrical and Magnetic: the Electrical penetrates and the Magnetic draws. [Father: Love, Electrical. Mother: Truth, Magnetic.] We can think about how these forces are balanced in different configurations, in anything, and in any one. So, the Beauty of Design and Geometry is perfectly in order, and balanced and functional. To be in the Secret of Life is to be available to fulfill these functions at all times—to let that process of engagement occur within me [and within us all together as a collective body], the Electrical and the Magnetic, the Masculine and the Feminine, the Radiant and the Responsive. It is like a little nuclear reactor when these forces come together, and they generate Substance, they generate Light, they generate Vision and Knowledge. So WOW! Hopefully that’s not so much a Secret to us, increasingly. But it is a Secret in the world. I love the power to bring the Truth of Love in this Generative Way.”

So here is an expression through one of our sisters, speaking the Word, that is he was here in person he would rejoice, to see this magnification of what he initiated, occurring now, referring to what our brother David spoke and wrote, and what Maria brought, and the beauty of what you brought Howard, and you Keahi. We could go on and on and on in these generations, through this little “nuclear reactor”, the Ark made flesh. So, David, I'm going to turn this over to you, recognizing the beauty of your name, which means “beloved”, and how David in the Bible was once called “a man after God's own heart”. Here we are with you, men and women who come with a revelation of God's own heart, a heart of courage. Over to you, David.

David Karchere — Thank you, David. It was a supreme pleasure to hear you speak. And I want to give back to you what you have given so generously to us, which is recognition, a seeing, appreciation. There can be no doubt that here is an uncommon man. And of course there's something unique and uncommon about each of us, unique to us, a unique spirit, unique combination of factors, unique creative abilities. And one by one we get to receive that and appreciate that from others—and then get to bring our gifts. What we've already shared here this morning is so monumental, and for me just such a joy to be with and to receive. Thank you all.

I too want to acknowledge the anniversary of Emissaries of Divine Light. Uranda called what he was undertaking and what Emissaries of Divine Light is all about as the Third Sacred School. And he spoke of it as the spiritual plane approach—an interesting turn of phrase, the spiritual expression plane approach. He was making a distinction there, and using that word spiritual; he wasn't referring to the ultimate reality of spirit. He was talking about that dimension of us as human beings that have the ability to bring the spiritual into the human experience and into the human world—our spiritual nature, the spiritual nature of human beings. And he was saying that the work that he was undertaking, and that those who were with him were undertaking, was the work that was of that level of things that came to focus there.

And what we know is that what happens in our spiritual nature as human beings affects everything else. So it isn't limited to there. What's happening in our spiritual nature affects how we think and feel, and what we do and what we say. I don't know how fully people who have been associated with this Program have appreciated the significance of what was being said. That level of things in human experience has been taken over and largely occupied by, prevailed over by worldly priesthoods, and spiritual and religious institutions. And you have people who are followers of all that, and all the dogma, and all the disciplines that come out of that. And then increasingly in our day you have people who say, enough of that noise, I'm out of here—and by the way I'm going to reject any kind of spiritual approach because it's obviously awful, because it's taken over by institutions, and it doesn't have life. Not realizing that in the process the spiritual is being thrown out, which is not really owned by any institution, or anything of human culture. It's owned by the divine, and ultimately us in the name of the divine. But a sad state of affairs if you think about it.

So to put it this way, this ministry is about a takeover. We're not interested in overthrowing the Roman Catholic Church or any other religious institution. Not a takeover in that sense, but a takeover of the space. Throwing out all the old idols, all the old dogma for or against. Not relevant. Not relevant. What's relevant is this tremendous capacity for spiritual expression that we have, that we are owning. But if you don't have the courage to confront all the religious ideas, the doctrines of the dogma, and all the rites and rituals and disciplines of worldly spirituality, in the name of the creator being that you are, that we are—that we are, that we are, in the name of the reality of spirit—then that area lies dormant in human experience. And then we settle on other things. Are Emissaries of Divine Light are an elevated social club? An alumni association? That's not what Uranda created. And I dare say for any of us who came to be a part of what this is, we didn't come for that. No, we came for something vital. The vitality of our own spirit, the vitality of what we knew and then what we touched. In people for whom it was real. People in whom there was, in fact, spiritual expression. Well, it's a nice phrase.

Last week especially, and again this morning, we are going into depth on some of the factors that are involved in spiritual expression. It's not all monotone, one thing: “Spiritual expression; yes, I flipped the switch. It's on. I'm expressing spiritually.” There's all kinds of—wha —colors to the expression of spirit. David was highlighting truth and beauty. We could well say, as I believe David did say, truth is beauty and beauty is truth. The pattern of creation. The essence of it. The shape and the color and the rhythm of it. And then there is the power of creation, the ultimate value of creation, ultimate reason, which is love. The creative power that moves through the patterns of truth.

Last week I was saying that truth is like a flower. In the beauty of the flower, it attracts creative powers. It attracts the sun. It welcomes the rain. And that's how beauty is. When we know the beautiful, we are calling in the creative powers which all ultimately originate and center in love. And in that there's life, the power of life, the pattern of life. We're alive and it's beautiful, and we know it. All those things are happening in spiritual expression when our spiritual expression is open and alive.

I think of another term, which is spiritual fluency. For talking about expression, I think fluency is a valid word to use. So how is our spiritual fluency, our ability to express—and express whatever color of spirit, whatever dynamic of spirit is called for in the moment? What is called for from us? That electricity that David spoke of, that magnetism that he spoke of? Is that what's called for? What is called for? And do we have the emotional fluency and the spiritual fluency to give it expression? Or are we somehow embedded in some facet of human culture, embedded in some facet of human personality, that constellated as what we think of as ourselves? So we're embedded in that personality or culture, which tells us that this is who we are, this is how we express, this is how we come off, this is the impression we want to give. And even though the moment calls for something else, we're chained in that culture, in that personality. No fluency.

I have an unusual topic for Sunday morning: gender fluidity. We're not going to get into all the political and social ramifications of those words as they're known today. That's not for me to get into, not for us here this Sunday morning. I’ll make only one comment about it. A good place to start is being thankful for what you have, I think. Whatever we have, however we think of it, being thankful for what we have allows us to use what we have as a human being to, you know, bring the optimal pleasure and creativity. But I really want to speak of something else.

We could be embedded in our culture, we could be embedded in our gender as we think of it on a cultural basis. So that even though the circumstance, even though the person is calling out for the love of Mother God, we can't go there because we don't have the fluency, spiritually, to go there. The fluency to open up our arms and allow our arms to be the arms of Mother God that could hold that person or that group of people in the arms of the Great Mother. And if there's a lack of spiritual fluency—and from a spiritual standpoint, gender fluidity—we could be unable to do that. And if a circumstance calls for the power of the Father—the nobility of the Father, the assurance of the Father, the confidence of the Father—but we're stuck in some kind of phase of personality, concept of our own gender identity, we can't go there. That's sad. And the same thing is true for us together. Are we spiritually fluent? Can we go where we need to go? Can we bring the dignity and the power and the nobility of the Father; and the loving arms and the patterns of truth of the Mother? Can we go where we need to go spiritually and allow for a spiritual expression that is called for in this day?

In the last book of the Bible, the Revelation of the Apostle John, John had all kinds of fantastic imagery, dragons and beasts and all kinds of things. And in chapter 18, he speaks about the Babylon as the fallen state, and all of the demons of Babylon. And he was colorful in his language. And I won't use it, you know, read all that. We don't need it all. But in the middle of all that, describing all that, he said something which is so powerful and memorable. “Come out of her, my people.” Come out of her, my people. Come out of your cultural identity. Come out of your personality identity. Come out of her. It's portrayed as coming from a great voice out of heaven. Come out of her, my people. We're not supposed to be living in all that! In a humanly defined state of consciousness, or culture or world. Coming out of it into a place of higher awareness and expression, an appreciation for beauty, which is truth; and speaking out of truth, speaking out of love, spiritually fluent, knowing an abundance of life.

Is this spiritual bypassing? Come out of her, my people. We're just going to take off to some place in some heavenly realm. No, actually quite the opposite. Come out of her, my people, so that you can go into her, and express into her authentically as who you are, with the authenticity of spirit that is unaltered by the cultural state into which you're speaking. It doesn't originate from there. It isn't changed by that. It is speaking into it, and then is embodying itself through it in expression. Come out of her, my people, so you can go into her as me. I think you could say that that's what spirit is telling us.

We're reaching the end of our hour. There's so much more. I'd love to speak about it. And I want to say just a word to give you the territory. In the Book of Job, Chapter 38—some of you probably familiar with it; it's thought of as the examination. And I'll read the first couple of verses. “Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I'll demand of thee and answer thou me. Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare of thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof? If thou knowest, or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof? When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”

So here is apparently, through this Chapter, reference to astronomy and astrology, and cosmic factors related to creation. You might say up there, out there. So the examination is about having some awareness of all that. But then it goes on to talk about Job's ability to allow those factors to be manifest through his own experience. “Who hath laid the measures thereof? If thou knowest, or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof?” Yes, these things relate to cosmic factors related to creation. But then they relate to us. Who has stretched the line upon this creation? How is this creation established? Where are the cornerstones of it? Who knows? Who is one of those cornerstones?"

There are lines between people that allow for creation to occur. Something heavenly being known, but in the flesh as human beings. That establishes a line, a creative line of agreement, we say. A creative line of energy, of awareness, that builds a grid. We are speaking of a constellation, the constellation of being. There's the constellation of being up there, you might say, in the invisible. But who knows the constellation of being here? And if you know it, and I know it, there can be a line between us of knowing each other. And that line allows the powers of creation to move. And if that line is not present, no creation, human struggle. Anyway, maybe next week we'll get into that.

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