Intercession

Father,  Forgive  Them

Uranda    March 12, 1953   Class

I would carry forward the pattern of meditation which finds its centering in the words the Master taught men to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” One of the greatest patterns of misunderstanding in relationship to the meaning of our Master’s life on earth, centers in this particular subject of meditation. It is sad that so much that our Master did, so much that He taught, so much of the work that He accomplished on earth, should have been caused to be so meaningless for so long. And one of the great reasons for this rests in the wide-spread misunderstanding with respect to the meaning of intercession. The process of forgiving debts, trespasses, or sin, however one may classify it, is actually the work of intercession.

The popular idea, having some variation in concept, but the picture as it is painted, with various modifications, has Jesus constantly interceding an our behalf to keep the Father mollified, calmed down, sufficiently patient, so that He will not suddenly do some terrible thing to humanity. This basic concept actually shows a complete disregard for the nature of the Father and it shows a failure to understand the real nature of the Master’s life. His work and His teaching, God is love. God the Father is not trying to find some reason for wreaking vengeance upon human beings. God the Father is just as interested in saving human beings as our Lord Jesus Christ is interested in saving human beings from the disasters which they bring upon themselves.

I have used the expression God the Father to signify the higher focalization of deity to which the LORD of Lords responds. We remember the much quoted text, John 3: 16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” As many millions of people there are who know that text by heart, as many millions of times as it has been spoken, quoted, and repeated in various ways, the basic reality of its significance has been overlooked. For it was God the Father who sent our Lord and King into the earth, for a specific purpose. Generally speaking, human beings do not recognize getting ill, sick, and finally dying, as a part of perishing. By some strange quirk of human perverseness, lack of logic, the idea is advanced that God did not mean that people should be saved from getting sick, that they should be saved from their illnesses and thereby healed, or that they should be saved from physical death. The application is extended to a hereafter, but why should it not mean this present time? Theoretically at least, we recognize that it applies to us here, now, tonight.

If we take this text at its face value, we do not have to imagine that God the Father who so loved the world that He sent our Lord and King into the world, must be constantly mollified to keep that same God from destroying humanity, that our Lord returned to heaven or the inner planes of Being, must somehow be constantly interceding for each one of you. Once we see how illogical this concept is, it is easy to relinquish it and look at the facts and see the truth as it is. We remember that as the superficial pattern of response that has been engendered in the world was drawing away from our Lord while He was on earth. He recognized that with the breakdown of that response, it was inevitable that the pattern of world reaction should come in upon Him and that He would have to meet man's concerted effort brought to point by which man hoped to destroy God.

Man in the beginning set himself up to be as God, and since that time has devoted himself to destroying the manifestation of God on earth, preventing it wherever possible by reason of self-activity and patterns of self-determination which have become fixed in all the social orders that have ever been developed, in all the cultural programs that man has ever devised, fundamentally designed to prevent the manifestation of God on earth. But where these cultural programs and social orders have not succeeded in keeping divine action completely out of the earth, man has consistently, down through the centuries to and including our present day, sought to destroy any manifestation of God that should appear. And even among the Christians—not limiting it to some other religious pattern or background of belief—there has been a constant crucifixion of the Christ spirit as it has sought to manifest through human beings. The impulses of the spirit of God have been constantly and consistently rejected, and wherever any human being began to truly respond to the spirit of God, that person has, without exception, been subject to various patterns of persecution or resistance—anything, even lethargy, refusal to respond, just simply ignoring that which God would give; all of these phases of action designed to make any divine manifestation on earth to be of no effect.

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We have seen this pattern working out at various times in various ways in relationship to our own ministry. It is not something that is relegated to the dim and distant past. At the time the Master was on earth, there were thousands who were willing to follow Him to be fed by the loaves and the fishes, there were thousands who were willing to be entertained by His charming voice, they were willing to be enthralled by the spirit of His Presence and His being, as long as it seemed completely safe and as long as it seemed that they could get something from Him. And when the idea began to develop that perhaps He would set up a Kingdom and remove the rulers of that time from their earthly thrones, there were those who were willing to follow for a little way. But as soon as there was a little pressure, all of this interest in what our Master had done and said, was shown to be largely superficial. And those who had a short time before shouted, “Hosanna to our King,” quickly melted away into the shadows and very carefully hid themselves to avoid any possible detection. Those who had eaten of the loaves and the fishes, found it expedient to be far away. Those who had been healed by His hands, had business somewhere else.

It came down finally, to His disciples. One of those disciples thinking to force the Master into a pattern of action, decided on some clever strategy, as he thought. He felt that the Master was not adequately utilizing His power, His opportunities. He felt that with a little political maneuvering, the cause of the earthly kingdom which he anticipated, would be advanced. And he became impatient with the Master. He felt that the Lord was not moving forward rapidly enough and He was not using sufficient wisdom in that maneuvering which would be necessary to the accomplishment of the end desired. The disciples, by and large, had failed to recognize the true nature and the true purpose of the Master’s life and ministry and teaching, even though they had walked with Him in the way for around three years. And so Judas proceeded to develop an idea which he thought would be very wise. To understand this pattern, you must realize that Judas did not intend, in fact had no inkling of an idea, that the Master would be crucified as a result of his action. If we imagine that he deliberately betrayed the Master on the basis of having Him crucified, the whole thing at once becomes pointless. We must realize that Judas, being the treasurer of the group, had the money that was available at the time, he carried the bag, he handled the money for Jesus and the disciples, and he did not imagine that he was sending his Lord to the cross when he started this bit of political maneuvering. He had it in his head, in firm conviction, that if the matter was put to a test, if an issue was forced, that Jesus would use His great power. He would be forced to use His great power to remove the mighty from their seats and the setting up of the earthly kingdom would be thereby hastened. And unless we recognize this scheming in the heart and mind of Judas, we cannot understand the nature of the man or the true nature of the events which took place at that time.

So Judas decided to do a little maneuvering on his own to force our Lord into using His power to overcome the rulers of that day. When Judas began to realize that our Master would not use His power in defense of Himself, that He would not use His power to keep these same rulers from torturing Him, spitting upon Him, and finally crucifying Him, Judas was terribly unhappy, sad, despondent, and there was a terrible self-reproach. If Judas had deliberately betrayed the Lord to be crucified, he would not have returned the money and gone out and hanged himself. That pattern of action is completely inexplicable unless we see the facts which are not generally known or recognized or considered. But actually, Judas was maneuvering to force the Lord to use the power which He had, to overthrow the governments of that time. He expected to compel Jesus Christ to defend Himself, and when he found that the Master would not do it, he saw the whole plan crumbling, he realized what he had done and remorse overcame him, and he hanged himself. A little later, after the betrayal, Peter denied Him, most followed afar off. But the most significant part of the outworking came before the actual betrayal, came before the mockery of the trial began. This was in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The Master took His eleven disciples, for one was busy about his own self-determination, so he was busy about his own business and he was not there. And the Master took His eleven disciples and went into the Garden that is called Gethsemane, and He established eight of those disciples in one group, the base of a pyramid, of a creative triangle. He took three of those disciples a little further on, a line nearer the top of the creative triangle, then He Himself went a little further and established a point as the apex of that creative triangle. Even then, with the thousands of His would-be followers scattered and turned away, there was still an opportunity for those eleven disciples to help hold the vibrational pattern. Eight forming the base of the creative triangle, three a little nearer the apex, and the Master Himself at the apex of the triangle. We can see the three points established in such a pattern from the Biblical record. But most of the disciples promptly went to sleep. Instead of watching with Him, holding the vibrational pattern, staying centered in Him, they went to sleep. Just as surely as Judas failed Him, those who went to sleep failed Him.

It is not only those who deliberately fight against God in a pattern of self-determination that tend to defeat the manifestation of God on earth, but those who are so asleep, so lethargic, that they do not respond, no aliveness can be stirred into them, no sense of responsibility. They are ready to go to sleep and let God do it. Here in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Master began a most remarkable pattern of intercession. His followers had turned away. One of His disciples was out betraying Him, and ten of the disciples were asleep. Do not imagine that all went to sleep. Someone was there to write the record, someone was there who knew what happened. If they had all been asleep do you think the Master would have appeared to one of those disciples or to someone else and said, “Well now, while all you were asleep, this happened to me, that happened to me, I was sweating, as it were, blood etc., while I was going through this agony up here. I must tell you all about it because you were all asleep and you did not see it." Can you see the Master doing any such thing? No. The very fact that there is a record proves that they were not all asleep, but most of them were asleep, failing our Lord on earth. In the face of this, it would have been so easy for our Lord to find reasons to be discouraged. He had helped so many people, He had ministered such long hours, He had done so many things. He had spoken so many words, and here He was, alone and neglected. He had so many reasons to be discouraged. One of His disciples was out to betray Him, and there, a little ways away, He could hear the snores of disciples who were supposed to be serving with Him. They were asleep. Yes, He had plenty of reason to be discouraged. If He had been functioning on the basis of the ordinary human pattern. He would have said, “It is not worth it. Let them all go to … wherever they were headed for!”

The pattern of reaction out of the world was rushing in upon Him because those who were supposed to hold the pattern with Him were afar away or asleep. He was left defenseless. There was no one of those who were asleep or of those who were far away who had any real realization of what they were doing. And so, that hour passed. In the agony of facing the vibratory patterns of the world, the mental and emotional pressures of human reactions, human rejections, human failures, in the face of that monstrous ingratitude, there was no judging, there was no condemnation, there was no resentment, there was the same spirit and attitude which found expression from His lips later upon the cross, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” This attitude of forgiveness, this attitude of refusing to respond to all that man had done, all the rejection, allowed Him to remain perfectly centered in God the Father.

Now for those of you who may not have heard me speak along this line before, I must interject a parenthetical statement which will be clarified later on. There are those who believe that Jesus on the cross said, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” He did not make any such statement. The words, as nearly as they were understood, are given in the Bible. How many times do we find that to be the case? We find it here because those who heard were not sure of the translation, they were not sure of what He had said. The words contained in the record, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” was translated by hearers who understood some Hebrew, because it seemed to them, the only thing that it could suggest to them, was the opening line of one of the Psalms where the Psalm expresses the idea, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” But we must remember that the language then used was the Aramaic. It was the common language of the people, and Hebrew as such, was not generally used among the people at that time. And the Master spoke some words in the Mother tongue, the tongue that was used in the Garden of Eden before the beginning of the Tower of Babel, and because those who stood near, generally speaking, did not hear plainly what He said, they did not understand what He said, they jumped to the unfounded conclusion that He said, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Such a thought did not cross His mind, such an attitude never entered His heart. The expression that came from His lips was a recognition that darkness was covering His face and that His work on earth was done. Not once in the whole pattern did He veer from the attitude of, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” And it was because of this that He remained perfectly centered in God and was a channel through which the power of God was made manifest. If, as He was losing consciousness, He had said, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” His body would not have come forth from that tomb, there would have been no resurrection. It would have been a failure on His part. And to this day there are millions who count themselves to be His followers who believe that He said something which if He had said it, it would have meant that He had failed. But He did not fail. If He had given way to resentment, or if He had felt that He was somehow separated from God, lost His attunement with God, He would not have been a channel for the manifestation of the power of God. So, in the attitude of forgiveness He was interceding for man. During this cycle, beginning in the Upper Room, continuing through the Garden of Gethsemane, and on through the mockery of the trial and to the cross, the Master was interceding. But what is intercession?

Intercession is not trying to stop God from passing some judgment upon a human being. Human beings have acted as if Jesus had to work to keep God the Father, who sent Him into the world (the God who is love), that Jesus had to intercede with God to keep God from bringing judgment upon human beings—which is not the case at all. Intercession is that polarity in God which stays centered in God, which keeps ill actions from producing their results in the human being who commits the wrong action; not interceding in the sense of withstanding God's judgment, but in the sense of holding so centered that wrong reactions on the part of others are not allowed to produce, in any immediate sense at least, the results which they otherwise would produce. If you meet any situation in the attitude, truly, of “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” you are sharing in intercession. Jesus Christ in heaven cannot intercede on earth.

If there is any intercession at work today, it must be here on earth. There is not, and cannot be, a pattern of intercession in heaven, because the ill conditions which are coming upon human beings are the result of their own action, the result of the things they themselves have done, the things for which they themselves are responsible. And intercession is not with respect to some future thing. Intercession is with respect to the vibratory patterns at work in this moment in connection with wrong actions on the part of others—any other, whoever, wherever it may be. An intercession makes null and of no effect, it nullifies, the power of evil in the moment when the evil is active, not after it is all done. When the power of evil has acted and the deed is done, there is no intercession, because then it is finished, it cannot be stopped. It is while the cycle is in process that intercession counts. And intercession is not in heaven, in the sense of something separate from the world. Intercession is here.

The spirit of our Lord and King in the Inner Planes can have meaning on earth in relationship to intercession at this time, in this moment or in any other, only to the degree that human beings on earth yield themselves in body and mind and heart to His spirit, letting themselves be members of His Body, branches of the One Vine, so that His spirit can act on earth through human beings now, to produce intercessory function, to produce a pattern of vibratory current, an attitude, a centering, which can nullify wrong actions. Because intercession is just that: nullifying the results of wrong or evil action. But if there is to be a nullification, if there is to be any true intercession, that nullification must take place during the cycle of the evil action. After the cycle is completed in any given case, there is nothing to stop—it is done. Out of that something else may spring, another cycle, another vibratory pattern, and that new vibratory pattern may be dealt with by intercession, by nullifying it. But in any case, with respect to any cycle, the process of nullification must work during the cycle itself, not after it is completed, because then there is nothing you can do. And if the spirit of intercession in our Lord and King, which was so gloriously manifest on earth when He was here, is to have any meaning in these days, it must be because human beings have so yielded themselves to Him, in body and mind and heart, that His spirit can work through them as members of His Body, by reason of which that nullifying power of intercession may work on earth here and now. That which is in heaven cannot have meaning on earth except as it comes to earth through human beings.

And this is just as true of intercession as it is of anything else which must come down from God out of heaven into the world. Looking forward to some results in some hereafter, looking forward to some intercessory work after one is dead, is of no avail. It is not needed then. It is on earth here, now, that it is needed. That God Being did not sin no matter what the human being may have done. The focalization of deity in any human being did not ever sin. You may say, “But what of Stalin?” The focalization of deity in Stalin did not ever at any time sin. The impulse of the spirit through that focalization of deity was without a single exception, to counteract the evil action. The God Being in any human being has never at any time sinned. And that God Being whether in yourself or some loved one or some friend or someone far away, that God Being is eternal and has eternal identity. That focalization of deity did not in any case sin no matter how sinful the human being may have been. According to the Master's word, there is only one sin. There may be various patterns of evil action resulting from this one sin. But we must remember that in actual fact, there is only one sin according to the word of Jesus Christ our Lord and King, and He said that “When the Spirit of Truth should come, he would reprove the world of sin—the one sin—of sin because they believe not on me.”

The God Being, the focalization of deity in you or in anyone else, has always, without a moment's break, recognized the focalization in the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings. Not once did any God Being in any human being at any time, break from that pattern. The focalization of deity in you believes in Jesus Christ, our Lord and King. The focalization of deity in every man, woman and child on the face of the earth, without a single exception, is perfectly centered in believing in the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, and that is without exception, that has been true regardless of race or color or creed. It is true regardless of what the human being believes or does not believe. The focalization of deity in every human being who has over lived on the face of the earth has been centered in that God Being who was made manifest on earth through the body of Jesus, and that God Being has been all the way through, without a single exception, the focalization of deity for all the God Beings who have had anything to do with this world, whether the inner planes of it or the outer planes of it.

Remember that the work to which you are called is intercessory work. You have absolutely no business seeking to have a part in God’s ministry on earth unless your primary desire and determination is to share in the intercessory work on earth which finds its centering in our Lord and King. What are you doing when you give an attunement? You are beginning the work of intercession, to nullify the cycle of wrong function in body or mind or heart, to restore health which cannot be until that intercession has been allowed to have meaning right here on earth. The power of God to forgive sin and to intercede must manifest in you and through you if there is to be the manifestation of healing under your hands. For unless you, as a member of the body of God on earth are allowing the intercessory spirit of God to work through you, and unless you are letting God’s forgiveness work through you, what you attempt to do in giving an attunement will mean utterly and absolutely nothing. And here is the key point of the difference, for just holding your hands in some fashion or other, will not make of you a server. If you are going to serve it must be as a member of the Christ Body or the Body of God on earth, through which the intercessory work of God, God the Father, is allowed to manifest on earth now, because God the Father sent our Lord and King into the world to begin the manifest focalization of this intercessory work, and it was made manifest in every healing that resulted from the Master’s ministry. Every time He spoke a word that calmed the turmoils in a human heart, every time that a human being responded to Him enough to let the power of God have meaning, that was intercessory work and it was a process of forgiving sin. So only as we are members of His body, yielded to that same spirit, dedicated to that same purpose, can we now be of any value. Only as you learn to let the true spirit of intercession work through you in body and mind and heart, can you truly serve.

And so, blessed ones, we see how human beings have failed to recognize the Master’s attitude for what it was, when He said, “Turn the other cheek.” He was not talking about something weak. He was talking about something so strong, something so noble, something so full of character, that it would not yield to resentment under any provocation. And so, the power of God should manifest, interceding, nullifying the results of evil things that have been done, forgiving sin, changing the future for those who come to you. According to your response to my ministry, you are having your future changed. No one should come to Sunrise Ranch unless he or she expects the future to be changed, changed from the old pattern of the old cycles that are working, so that cycles that are at work may be nullified and brought to nought and so that new cycles may be established according to God's love in harmony with the truth and in the expression of life. And this is healing. We must see it in relationship to every phase and department of life, not just the physical body, but in the whole expression of being.

And so, blessed ones, as you learn to hold center, learn to have a true, positive, dynamic response to God, so that when something goes wrong you do not give way to it in resentment nor do you say inside of yourself, “Now outside I am going to remain calm. I am not going to say a word. No one is going to know what I really feel inside. I am going to hide it. I am going to see if what Uranda says will really work. I am going to see. I am just not going to say a word of resentment. I am going to keep myself under control so that I can see if this really works.” Blessed ones, it cannot be an outer submissive thing that says, “I am not going to give evidence of what I feel inside.” It must be something that changes what you feel inside so that there is no hint of resentment or judging or condemnation, for God has not made you to be a judge over your fellows, nor has He made you an executioner.

Your business is to nullify the evil things that are. Your business is to intercede. Your business is to forgive sin. And, blessed ones, only as you do this as members of God's Body on earth, do you have a part in our Lord's Kingdom on earth. There is no other way. And only so can you know the joy of truly serving, the joy of seeing the future of human lives changed. Every time there is a healing in any department of life, physically, mentally, emotionally, it is changing the future, for if an ill condition is going to continue you know what the results will be. But you intercede, you establish a new control pattern according to response, you forgive sin in the name of our Lord and King and the future is changed, the ill thing loses its power, the results of ill action are nullified and the current of God's creative power is made manifest, causing all things lovely, beautiful and glorious to appear, that you may truly know and realize to the depth of your being what it means to acknowledge our Lord and King and His hallowed name with the words, “Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, forever.” So let it be.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

Focus For The Master Pattern

Focus  For  The  Master  Pattern

David Barnes   May 1994   Kamloops, B.C.

For the possibility of a living psychology of sacred wisdom to emerge through the consciousness of human beings, here and now, it is imperative to listen, observe and perceive all familiar things in new ways. This requires the courage to open the heart and embrace the power inherent and available in the Silence, and allow re-attunement with the original harmony of the Great Way. The mystery of the Creator and the mystery of the Creation remain an enigma for those who fear to enter the Silence, those who fear the intensity of light which cleanses the gates of perception and unveils the Way of the Master. Opening to mystery is opening to ceaseless wonder! The vast and intricate design of Spirit which enlivens the phenomenal world becomes discernible and increasingly comprehensible in momentary living. The matrix of connection between the historical and the immediate emerges out of the mists of the collective unconscious, revealing the wonder of what before had not been heard, seen or understood.

The prolific influx of wisdom which found expression in some of the classical Greek philosophers, the sages and mystics of the east, and the Hebrew prophets appeared as a specific response to conditions on earth and within the Solar whole, preparing human consciousness for the initiation point of a new Universal Cycle, which began around 400 BC, opening the way for the incarnation of a conscious focus of the Master Pattern, capable of leading responsive human beings out of the chaotic state which had governed world conditions for several thousand years and into realignment with Cosmic Order and purpose. In his book The Dimensions of Paradise, John Michell tells us that “the geometric order of the universe” is represented by the design of “twelve equal spheres...placed around a thirteenth, so that each touches the nucleus and four of its neighbors, producing the geometers image of twelve disciples grouped around a master. Christ, Osiris and Mohammed are among those who are represented as a central sphere with twelve retainers” (Michell, 1988, p. 73).

The Master Jesus—LORD of the Sacred Seven—was born on earth just 400 years after the initiation of a new, overlighting 310,000 year Universal Age, a new 25,850 year Solar Age, and a new 2,150 year Age. A perusal of developments during the centuries prior to His appearance leave the distinct impression that everything was set up, that the flow of events was inextricably linked, and that the timing was now-or-never for the achievement of specific Cosmic purposes as they relate to this Earth, and the transformation of human consciousness in particular. The social, cultural, and spiritual atmosphere of the global whole was as receptive as it was ever going to be, to welcome the sublime message of this One who provides a Focus for the Master Pattern—which is the foundation of this whole world. His arrival on the world stage was precisely orchestrated by the Great Cosmic Timekeeper.

Jesus, the Christ, is perhaps the most misunderstood man in human history. In my copy of the Holy Bible there are 132 pages recording the details of His personal life and public ministry. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke offer but little insight into the affairs of His life prior to the age of twelve. No accurate documentation of His movements between the ages of thirteen and thirty are extant, though speculation abounds in metaphysical literature. The four Gospels of the New Testament (and certain of the Gnostic Gospels) are what remain, and they record events pertaining to the last three years of His life. However, John, the beloved disciple, emphasizes in his writings the abundant expression of his Master: “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” Given the remarkable, albeit limited, account of His life and the enduring impact of His message, it is evident that most of His associates and followers failed utterly to understand His mission. Just prior to the crucifixion He asked His disciples: “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me?” From the beginning, He has been largely misunderstood.

The record in the King James version of the Bible suggests that the earthly heredity of Jesus extends back to King Solomon and King David, about 1000 B.C., and back another 1200 years (2200 B.C.) to the great patriarch Abraham—father of the children of Islam and the children of Israel. Following out one line here, Abraham's grandson Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel after his awakening and illumination) had twelve sons whose legacy, drawn together initially by his son Joseph and culminating in the leadership of Moses, became known as the development of the Thirteen Tribes of the House of Israel—which included as the Thirteenth Tribe, the Levite priesthood. A relatively unbroken (though frequently corrupted) lineage of spiritual leadership can be traced up until 971 B.C., when King Solomon ascended the throne of a united Kingdom of Israel, bequeathed to him by the incomparable work of his father King David. A nation of immense wealth, power and spiritual focus, all the known world paid tribute to Solomon, servant of the LORD God of Israel: “So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom. And all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.” Approaching this apex point in the development of the spiritual and temporal nation of the Israelite people, something went terribly wrong: “Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father.” Whatever the cause, the result was an Israel left corrupted, vulnerable and weakened from within. The nation crumbled by 931 B.C. Spiritual leadership was assumed by a series of prophets, notably Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel—and a debased Judaiac royalty and Levite priesthood.

It is noteworthy that recorded history in Greece didn't begin until around 1100 B.C., and in China until about 800 B.C. Within the then-known world virtually nothing was known of the Americas. Outside of Egypt, whose culture was of the most ancient vintage, Africa remained an enigma. However, the Hebrew people had by this time enjoyed a lengthy, unbroken history of language, culture and leadership, fueled by a powerful sense of destiny as the children of the One God. Respected for their strong spiritual focus, and their capacity as a nation of spiritual warriors to maintain that focus, something unique had been established in this “peculiar people.” With the decline of the Kingdom of Israel during Solomon's reign, chaos enveloped the known world for several centuries.

Gradually the focused light of wisdom began to rise once again in a few individuals. In Greece, the philosopher Thales was born in 624 B.C., followed by Anaximander in 611, each one searching for physis, the essence of life. The legacy of Lao Tsu, born in China in 604 B.C., is the Tao Te Ching: Classic of the Natural Way. In 582 B.C., Pythagoras was born in Greece, teaching the art and science of sacred music and number, and reminding his students of the immortal Soul. While in captivity, the Hebrew prophets Daniel and Ezekiel refocused the Word of the One God of Israel, around 570 B.C.

In India, Gautama Buddha was born in 560 B.C. He brought to remembrance the Middle Way, the Four Noble Truths, and the Eightfold Path. His mission was to “beat the drum of the Immortal in the darkness of the world” (Humphreys, 1951, p. 34). Confucius was born in China in 551 B.C.  Empedocles and Heraclitus were both born in Greece in 540 B.C. Contemporaries all, it was a significant influx of genius, an incarnation of wisdom flooding the human psyche in one massive and well-synchronized wave.

This same wave washed to ruin the remnants of Hebrew culture, now rotting at the core. Assyria and Babylon invaded from the north, destroying Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon. In 586 B.C., the Hebrew people were led captive into Babylon. The prophet Daniel was the man of the hour during this desolate period. His wisdom compelling, his counsel invited, he served four kings, exercising a secular authority and a spiritual influence which moved Persia from polytheistic to monotheistic worship. He had prophetic awareness of the future incarnation of Jesus, the LORD of the Sacred Seven, and Daniel’s influential groundwork served as a guide for a future generation of Hebrew prophets in their determination to prepare a setting for the coming of the Master Jesus. It is no mere coincidence that Lao Tsu and Confucius in China, Gautama Buddha in India, Daniel and Ezekiel in the Middle East, and many of the classical Greek philosophers were all incarnate during the closing phase of a 310,000-year Universal Age.

In 538 B.C., a remnant of the Tribe of Judah returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the great Temple, begin a restoration of the greatness that was Israel, and prepare the way for the coming of a Messiah. In fact, a global regeneration of the human mind was underway in the Mediterranean, and throughout the eastern world with the spread of Buddhism and Taoism. In 458 B.C., the Hebrew prophet Ezra began the work of compiling the Torah, the basis for the Old Testament of the Holy Bible as we know it. Socrates was born in Greece in 470 B.C., followed by Hippocrates in 460, Plato in 437, and Aristotle in 384. The Hebrew prophets, Malachi and Nehemiah were active in Israel, preparing a receptive spiritual nucleus for the coming of the Master Jesus. In China, the Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine was compiled around 400 B.C.

This brings the historical overview to 400 BC—that date which has been identified as the completion point for one great Universal Age (310,000 years) and the initiation point of another. Preparation had been deliberately made, through the overlighting guidance of the Master Pattern, for the incarnation of a specific focus point of Mastery at this most auspicious time. The commission was to provide an embodiment of Divine wisdom and power capable of drawing humanity into re-attunement with Cosmic Order and design, in harmony with the Spirit of the new Universal Age, and within the context of the conditioning atmosphere of the correlated, lesser Ages and cycles which were also in ascendancy.

The rebuilding of the Hebrew homeland, midst war with both Syria and Greece, and complete domination by Rome when Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 B.C., left a weary Jewish people ready for the appearance of a Messiah who would restore freedom and fulfill the prophetic destiny of Israel. Hunger for wisdom in the daily affairs of a perilous age—with the decline of Greece and the ascendance of the Roman Empire—aroused apocalyptic memories. Approximately 400 years after the initiation of a new Universal Age, Jesus of Nazareth was born.

How do you recognize a Messiah when you meet one? Jesus identified Himself: “I that speak with thee am he.” This forthrightness didn't go over too well with Jewish authorities, as word of His presence spread. His conduct didn't fit the paradigm of Messiah as political liberator who would lead the fight against Roman oppression and restore the glory of Israel. Both the Jewish establishment and His own gathered disciples failed to grasp the Cosmic significance of the presence of the Master. He was of the Universal Whole, and was thus present for the blessing of the whole world of humanity, and all living things. Jesus continually emphasized that He had other designs, spiritual purposes in mind, and this vexed a generation of Jews who had been nourished on the letter and precious little of the living Word. The prophets of Israel had long since gone mute—this Voice was unfamiliar and challenging.

He didn't fit their preconceived image. He was not of their conventional paradigm. The term I abounded in His discourses. “I know whence I came." “I came from above.” “I am the light of the world.” “I and my Father are one.” “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” When He spoke the words, “Before Abraham was, I am”, it was too much, too threatening for Jewish authorities, and they plotted to stone Him, and thereafter worked to eliminate Him. His authority was perceived as arrogance and blasphemy. All the world loves a philosopher, but few can receive such expressions of absolute and eternal identity and authority. Plato and Aristotle had postulated a realm of Pure Ideas, First Principles, the Abstract, but they never had the audacity to absolutely identify with that realm, saying I Am That. Jesus did! Moreover, He challenged others to assume the same eternal identity and character, reminding them, “Ye are the light of the world.”

His greatest message was simply expressed: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It is not far away. It is not in the realm of abstract ideas. It is not only in the invisible realms of this world. It is not only to be experienced after you die. It is right here now. Such an expression is powerfully disturbing of the status quo. Its implications are apocalyptic. In Nazareth, in the synagogue of His home city, Jesus delivered the first message of His public ministry, drawing to remembrance the words of Isaiah: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” He concluded by proclaiming, “This day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Astonishment at this bold pronouncement—as He berated Israel for its treatment over the ages of those who come in the name of the Lord—gave way to fear and anger, and: “All they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust Him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him headlong down.”

With Jewish authorities He brooked no compromise, His lamentations taunting them, prophesying: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Ye fools and blind. Ye are full of hypocrisy and inequity. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” Yet His message was such that “the people were astonished at His doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Jesus seemed to have paranormal abilities. He turned water into wine, multiplied two loaves and five fishes to feed five thousand people, and walked on water. He could see into the past and knew the future, healed the sick, forgave sins and had the audacity to do it on the Sabbath! He identified with God, then said: “With God all things are possible.” “All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth.” “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Yet He came, “eating and drinking ... a friend of publicans and sinners.” and that too was unacceptable. Jesus was an altogether unconventional character. He didn't fit the paradigm of Messiah, holy man, prophet, or king. He emphasized Heaven and embraced the earth, at home in the union of both domains.

He was a living embodiment of Taoist wisdom at its apex of refined understanding, and His life was an exemplification of the injunction uttered by Lao Tsu, six centuries before Him: “Let your honour serve the world and you may be an emissary to the world. Love the world as yourself and you may be entrusted with the world.” (Stubbs, 1990, p.13). His primary work was to re-introduce of the Spirit of Truth, and make immediately available the Spirit of His Love, forgiveness, inclusiveness, peace, and His consciousness of Oneness: the unity of God in both man and woman, the oneness of Heaven and earth, the Invisible and visible. It was not an unfamiliar message—but none before Him had ever lived it completely. “He came unto his own and his own received him not, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” Few received Him. Few received the available power.

Conscious of the power immanent in the Cosmic Pattern of Twelve, Jesus gathered around Him a core of Twelve disciples—the Melchizedek Priesthood—with Himself, as the Thirteenth, at the Center, and attempted to draw them into a unity of spiritual perception and expression; even as Moses had worked to draw the Twelve Tribes of Israel—with the Levite priesthood as the Thirteenth—into a unified body of God's people on earth. However, the failure of this inner core of associates to understand His purposes led to a rapid disintegration of the collective embodiment of the Master Pattern which He was capable of developing, had there been adequate communion with Him, in Spirit and in Truth. After a mere three years of high public profile and ministry, he was rejected and crucified at Golgatha, the place of the skull, an apt symbol of the unwholesome, destructive and separated state of human consciousness. His compassionate words on that sad and painful occasion, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”, were consistent with the attitude He displayed throughout His life. The resurrection and the ascension reveal His characteristic mastery over external circumstance.

The ministry of Jesus, which could have expanded beyond Him alone, to include the whole world in a new, collective manifestation of the Master Pattern, disintegrated, even as the nation of Israel dissolved in chaos after the failures in Solomon's time. Peter (who denied Him) and Paul (who never met Him) each carried their own brand of Christianity to the world. The Christian religion, with its manifold denominations of belief, is certainly not the Gospel of Jesus, the Christ. John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, was the only one of His original circle of male friends who remained physically and spiritually close with Him during the whole ordeal of His trial and crucifixion. A few of the women who had remained true to their established love and understanding of the Master Jesus throughout His life and ministry, were with Him, providing essential physical and spiritual care and support to the end. In his elder years, John wrote the prophetic and much misunderstood book of Revelation while imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos. The wisdom inherent within his writings, awakened through the few years of spiritual intimacy with his Master, was largely ignored by the rest of the Christian apostles, disciples, zealots and martyrs, in their rush to spread their own limited perceptions of the Gospel of Jesus. While John was eventually exiled on Patmos, his life and writings formed the basis for a new, though cryptic, revelation of the Master Pattern.

The Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., and the world entered another dark and chaotic round. The rhythmic movement of Universal cycles causes history to repeat itself, unless the incarnate light of the Master Pattern is received, expanded and differentiated clearly through at least a few individuals. Both Catholics and Protestants tend to define a lineage that originates in Peter and Paul rather than the Master Jesus. Scarcely anyone in fact has a clear understanding of Jesus, the Christ—LORD of the Sacred Seven—and what He established through the vibrational quality of His living. After the crucifixion and His departure, the world was left with skepticism, stoicism, and the zeal of Christian martyrs and crusaders—a reaction against the Spirit of the times. What amounts to a significant corruption of the clear and simple message of the Master Jesus was later synthesized into the confounded doctrines of neo-platonism and Pauline Christianity. When Moslem and Christian scholars resurrected the works of Aristotle, a blend of Christianity with neo-classicism resulted in the suffocating, anthropocentric dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. In the East, the original power of Buddhist and Taoist wisdom was likewise manipulated to serve the degenerate purposes of a corrupt priesthood. A few precious men and women in every land kept available the Sacred Thread of Wisdom and Love, allowing the ongoing delicate weave of the Master Pattern to work its invisible magic. Under a yoke darkness and decay humanity has labored throughout this past 2,150 year cycle, initiated around 400 B.C., and concluding in the mid-18th century, at the dawn of a new era.

The presence of the incarnate wisdom of previous ages has been briefly outlined. Points of success and failure have been evident throughout the story. Perhaps the greatest success can be sensed in what has been termed the mystery of the resurrection and ascension of the One who functions as a Focus point for the Master Pattern of love and beauty for this world. Such mastery has enormous implications in our time. We have moved 250 years into a new 2,150 year Cycle—a new Age. In this current light, it is possible to listen and perceive all old and familiar things in entirely new ways. This is the Spirit of the new Heaven and the new Earth. Look around. Incarnate wisdom is present in our midst. You and I are not here by accident. Our own presence, along with many others who are awakening but who yet may be unknown to us, has been precisely orchestrated by that Great Cosmic Timekeeper who has governed the Cycles of incarnation down through the ages. Such Mastery has enormous implications for our time—in your life and in mine.

And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately,

Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see:

For I tell you,

that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see,

and have not seen them;

and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Luke 10: 23-24

Spirit and Antispirit

Spirit  and  Antispirit

Martin Cecil and Hugh Malafry   May 11, 1986

Hugh Malafry — “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”—the Word in essence spoken to the city of man, with all its convoluted ways, its twisted patterns, its obscure, entangled motivations and its abominable purposelessness. It occurs to me how, when the Word has found a place at one point in the consciousness of mankind, in essence at that point it is done in heaven. Now there may be various cycles working out to let that be the fact in the earth, but the consciousness of mankind is no longer as it was—by reason of the presence of one point. That point, we know, is now being magnified, that the whole earth might become a city of habitation. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Is this not the gospel of the kingdom to the city of man: this gospel of the kingdom, that the kingdom of heaven is at hand?

We look out on the world, and in addition to the reflection of ourselves that is there, we see through that perhaps somewhat still misty and smoky lens of our own perceptions a state of affairs which is apparently far more reactive than responsive to the expression of the Word. We see cycles set in motion and what often appears to be reaction to those cycles occurring in the earth—just the opposite, sometimes, to what one would suppose should emerge—emerging in the city of man, because there is reaction to the expression of the Word. When one deals with the city of man it’s wise to be diplomatic. Going out and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” takes many forms. It is said that diplomacy is “the art of letting others have your own way”! I think, with slight modification, there is a certain truth in that; certainly divine diplomacy is the art of letting man see that he must have God’s way in his expression, or have nothing.

“The kingdom of heaven is at hand” brings to my thoughts another promise, to the effect that “except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” When one hears these words one is perhaps inclined to feel, if one feels that there has been some experience of what it means to be chosen, that this is a pretty good break: God is on our side, or we are supporting His expression and therefore things will work out rather well; the tribulation will not be what it could be, for the elect’s sake. But can we see these words as meaning, fundamentally, that because there are those who are willing to provide the point of focus with the point of focus, the days are indeed shortened, so that there might be some flesh saved, so that there might be some space in the city of man to allow a pattern of response to emerge, rather than persistent reaction to the expression of the Word.

We see, too, that things are heating up, that when the Word is spoken things move much more quickly than they seemed to do in the past, that the lag in the cycle is not what it was. In times past, things could be set in motion and maybe years down the road, looking out in the world, we’d say, for example, “Hey, things are beginning to show up! People are into natural foods and sprouts—we were first!” A superficial aspect, perhaps. But there has been this tremendous lag in the cycle. But now the days are shortened. The city of man is certainly deteriorating, and the city of habitation, the consciousness, the place of consciousness for the expression of the one life, is becoming increasingly distinct.

Thinking about this, I wonder if this is not so much a reflection of the increased response of mankind to the expression of the Word (and there needs to be that), as a reflection of the fact that the gap between the expression of the Word and the sustaining of that in the life processes of this Body has diminished. Is that not in fact the way the days are shortened, because there is no gap, no arbitrary division between the creative Word at its point of origin and its natural amplification through us? No reaction to radiation, perhaps no response even—just unified expression. And if that gap ceases to exist, does that not then bring together the patterns in which human beings move with the cycles of life which move in this Body of the Spirit of the Living God, so that there is one-to-one correlation. We can have our hand on these things, directly. I think it is important that we include the world in our consciousness, see things for what they are, let our touch be upon it. But the deepest service in this regard is in fact within the mechanism of this Body itself, not in self-centered and selfish terms, not in self-indulgent terms, but in realizing that what we do within the Body of the Living God, that is done in the earth. Once it is established in the heaven it must follow through in the earth—it must! That is the law, that is the law of creation: as the heaven, so the earth.

If we look out in the world these days we see many points of focus emerging, people who are in essence representative of their cultures. Shall they move in the old, habitual cycles of their cultures, doing the same thing all over again, or is there a guiding touch which is intimately at point with respect to those patterns? Very often such ones as they emerge become the focus of troubled feeling. We have the mechanism within this Body to be sure that all those who hear the word, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”—whether it be unconscious to them now or whether it begin to glimmer at the surface of consciousness—we have the mechanism to be sure that these processes which are emerging the world around are brought into oneness with the life processes of this Body in such a way that what needs to fall away can fall away and that which needs to be brought into this Body can be brought into this Body.

In essence it is our absolute focus in the One. As that One is absolutely protected—absolutely—here is the mechanism by which all those who serve in whatever way, wherever, find drawn about them the right patterns of association, the right pattern of protection. This is heavenly magic! We don’t need to go “lo here and lo there”—unless the spirit of the Lord carries you off into the wilderness for whatever reason and puts you there, making right use of the substance and situation—but here and now it is all represented. This gospel of the kingdom—“the kingdom of heaven is at hand”—shall be preached in all the earth, and then shall the end come. And the gospel of the kingdom is this: that heaven and earth are one, and that what we do together in the heaven must surely be done in earth to the glory of God.

Lord Exeter — Does anything else need to be said? It becomes increasingly apparent as to what we are here to do, no longer to be fussing about our personal confusions and disturbances of mind and heart, or aches and pains of body. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Most people seem disinclined to repent but think it more useful, in a self-centered way, to seek out someone who can, hopefully, dispel the ache and the pain. Repent! Stop pouring life force into your aches and pains, stop pouring life force into confusions and disturbances; repent from doing this, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. We have had long opportunity to participate in this process of repentance, so that the kingdom of heaven might become the city of habitation and the King be present in His kingdom, to do what He wishes to do.

Those who have some view with respect to the King I'm sure would be inclined to say, "Well I'm sure that what He would wish to do is what should be done." So that's settled! But I wonder how many of us here present this evening, or beyond the few of us, really consider what the vision, the attitude, the outlook, of the King really is, so that we might associate ourselves with that? I don't think His intent would be to fuss with aches and pains, confusions and disturbances. He is not interested, as we well know, in condemning anyone. There is this lingering attitude present in human beings in general that God is dealing out punishment. We have divine terms here, a recognition of love, understanding, and a door opened in heaven. There is no intent on the part of the Lord to mete out punishment to anyone. I think if we consider His attitude we would find that He is quite aware that human beings mete out sufficient punishment upon themselves, without Him interfering in the matter!

But, really, what would His outlook be? What is His vision of what is occurring in the world? Do we really know what that is or, knowing, share it? Or do we have our own little view, which, as I say, tends to be short-circuited when we start to fuss about all these aches and pains, confusions and disturbances? Certainly He is not interested in all that. The suggestion He would make with respect to it is, "Leave it alone; let it pass away; don't insist that it should be given more and more and more life force." The kingdom of heaven is at hand. There is no need for all of that.

The whole kit and caboodle of divine design is available to be given form and expression in the natural pulsations of spirit, when there are hearts and minds that are open to let this happen. When they are open in that way and there begins to be the movement of the creative cycle within one's own experience, it will have an effect. That is why it is important not to judge that effect. It may even engender a few aches and pains. There may be some increase in confusion and disturbance, because, after all, there are those things of human nature present which need to pass away; something is being stirred up: "Oh Lord, save me from this hell!" But it is really heaven in the process of coming. Judge not. Let the accuser be cast down out of the heaven which he has occupied in human experience for so long. As I recall in the illustration in the Book of Revelation with respect to this, he raised particular hell in the earth after he was cast down. Well isn't that nice? Aches, pains, confusion, disturbance—part of the natural process by which the heaven may finally be reflected accurately in the earth. Obviously it can't be reflected accurately the way things are now.

The King has been rejected; that is what caused the fall in the first place. How could there possibly be restoration without the acceptance of the King? The kingdom of heaven is at hand—but, we are discovering, a lot closer at hand than perhaps in times past we thought it was. Of course for most it looks more like doomsday which is at hand: things are closing up and disintegrating all over. "Poor us; we're not going to be able to enjoy ourselves the way we used to." It obviously is a dilemma, which is so easily dissipated once there is acceptance into one's own experience of the focus point of spirit, the spirit of the King, which then immediately proclaims in one's own consciousness that the kingdom of heaven is not only at hand but is right here. Then of course the accuser comes along and begins to whisper and say, "Well if it's right here, why isn't it more evident in your circumstances?" Give it a chance!

As has been indicated, the days are shortened and there is less of a lag between the heavenly impulse and the effect of it in the circumstances and in human experience round about. Of course this intensifies things, hots things up, which makes it even more uncomfortable for human nature; but at last it is recognized that what feels uncomfortable should feel uncomfortable, and it is splendid that it does. One need no longer be identified with the discomforts of human nature, and by the same token we are not interested in trying to make human nature comfortable—our own or anyone else's. It must come to this point. There has been a tendency to tolerate human nature in others for the simple reason that one is tolerating it in oneself. Until you bring it to point in yourself you're not going to bring it to point in anyone else.

But the days are shortened for the continued existence of human nature. And where should those days be shortened first? The greater intensity should be welcomed, because it is that that shortens the days: the burning up of the human nature in one's own experience. The days are shortened, and as we have this viewpoint of the necessity of receiving the kingdom—which cannot be done without the disposition of human nature—then we are anxious for human nature to dissolve. And we begin to become aware of the King's viewpoint: let human nature pass away. But this requires that there be an acceptance of the King and His spirit into one's own experience and expression.

This is done individually speaking—but then it comes to the body and we become aware of what needs to happen in the body and we become aware of our own responsibility, as individuals, for the dissipation of human nature in the body. We do not align ourselves with the accuser. The only way that one can be a part of the process by which this dissipation occurs is to recognize that, largely, what is seen in others is this reflection of what is still present in oneself but which one has not yet admitted to oneself. You don't judge what you think is occurring in anybody else, because you don't really know what it is. One comes to the point where there is a recognition that all that is required is that there should be a clarification in oneself relative to the whole body. The clarification in oneself clarifies it for the whole body.

So we let it clear in the body, and the body becomes a fit place for the King. And the King comes into the body, and He is not interested in fussing with the aches and the pains in the body, or with the confusion and disturbance in the body. All He is interested in doing is what He is incarnate in this body to do. So there begins to be an alignment of thought, of feeling, of awareness with respect to what it is that is happening in the creative field of the King. And that is what is of sole concern—not "How's this going to affect me? What's going to happen to me? Well who are you? Are you the human nature person who is not being turned over to the King at all? Or are you the one whose identity is in the King? This is my body, and I am here on earth in this body not to condemn the world, not to accuse the world of anything, but to offer salvation. The offering of salvation requires the dissolution of human nature, and it requires the dissolution of the invisible focus of human nature, which has been manipulating human beings ever since the fall.

What you consider to be right and good will have been built into your subconscious mind coming out of your hereditary past since the fall. So all that has no further meaning insofar as we are concerned, does it? All we are concerned to do is to represent, be, the King in expression because He has a body through which to express Himself. And we compose that body; we can't get away from the King, then. There is no sense of separation; it is all one thing. And, individually speaking, we find that we think the King's thoughts, we move in the King's ways. We don't have any personal, human nature thoughts or ways of our own anymore. That would be considered, from the human nature standpoint, some sort of absolute dictatorship.

But, you know, from the human nature standpoint, from the standpoint of the invisible focus of that human nature, there is the intent to establish a state of affairs which is an absolute dictatorship. We hear about people's desire for peace and the disposition of all nuclear weapons, all good causes. Who could be against it? Yet these causes are fundamentally the devil's causes, because the intent is that it should all lead to what has been called world government. Here is an attempt to duplicate what is the fact with respect to the kingdom of heaven, but to do it without the King, to establish something that would be world government. Of course when people think of world government they think of it in terms of their own structures of consciousness. The kingdom isn't a democracy; human beings don't know what it is. There might be the inclination to say, "Well the King rules; therefore it's a dictatorship." Therefore there is an attempt here to bring in world government.

Well, of course the world should be governed, governed as a part of a universal government, whatever that is. It can't really be taken out of that, which is what this particular invisible focus of human nature is attempting to do, so that there is a background influence constantly, to maneuver things through well-meaning people so as to lead everybody to the logical conclusion that the only way we can have peace is to have a world government. But then who is going to govern? Who is going to govern? Of course, if there is a recognition that there is an invisible focus insofar as human nature is concerned, then there is the point from which this government would spring. And that could be interpreted as dictatorial, because it would appear through somebody, or some group of people. That invisible focus might be called the antispirit. We are concerned with spirit proceeding out of heaven, participating in the expression of that spirit so that the earth may reflect it. And in a sense I suppose you could say that's world government; that's the way things actually work. But it's a very different thing to the emergence of what comes to focus in antispirit, in the absence of the spirit of God—that is what the antispirit means. And what comes into expression on that basis is human nature, and human nature is always tying itself up in knots.

Well we're not interested in what is happening in that regard, although we need to be alert with respect to these various movements and causes that are present on earth, and which seem on the surface to be so good, so necessary in case the whole human race should perish: "We must have world government!" If that threat is present and sustained and big enough, then it seems only logical, "Let's rush in and have world government"—world government by antispirit, the invisible focus of human nature. The control is exerted through human nature. It already is, of course, but there is a gathering of things together so that finally there may possibly be a dragon with only one head. The dragon is there already. At the moment it has quite a number of heads, which appear to be in conflict with each other; but back of the heads there is the rest of the dragon. But it's just one dragon. Finally it might work out that all the heads destroy each other but one.

I'm thinking of that in terms of form, but it is all happening because of something which is quite invisible. This is why people who have been looking so desperately to find the evil genius who is making things go wrong on earth have never really come up with an answer. They find someone occasionally—ah, off with his head! But everything is the same as it was before. There is no shortage of human nature on earth! There are plenty of candidates to be moved by this invisible focus, and as long as the attention is paid to form—this form, that form, the other form; this person, the other person; this nation, the other nation—this is distraction from what is actually happening. People with the best of intentions go along with these movements and causes, imagining that somehow or other they are going to achieve some great thing, when those forms are not what they seem to be, because of human nature. It doesn't matter what anyone does, how they organize, how good their intentions are, it's all human nature, and human nature is governed invisibly; there is an invisible focus to do it.

I have never emphasized this point particularly, because one needs to reach a point when one has an awareness of the invisible focus of spirit coming down from God out of heaven in one's own experience, in order to understand what it is in the reverse direction. But there is a reverse direction, obviously so; the fall took place, and human beings are governed by human nature. Until one has an awareness of what the situation is from within oneself, one is in no position to deal with what needs to be dealt with in the larger picture, which is the King's purpose through His body on earth: To do just that, deal with it.

Well, obviously you're not going to deal with this rather immense pattern of human nature, and the antispirit which focalizes it, by soft and peaceable words. There is going to be the necessity for meeting the situation, but not on a crusade basis: "Ah, now we see the antichrist! Let's get on our white horses, with swords drawn, and off with his head!" Well, one can do that; a lot of people have tried that, but he always grew another one. No, it's not the form, because that is merely a reflection of what is in the heaven of that form, and that is an invisible focus. But we need to begin to become conscious that our mandate—shall we put it that way?—is immense, compared to the stupid little things with which as individuals we become involved, and as a grouping we become involved.

Finally we begin to look out with the eyes of the King, with the understanding of the King, with the strength of the King, with the authority of the King. Then all these other things simply are nonexistent anymore as influences, insofar as our vision and outlook and action are concerned. They may be present for a while. I know I personally am not free from aches and pains. I'm not so confused as I used to be! or so disturbed, because there is more space for the focus of invisible spirit coming down from God out of heaven. It is merely something that happens when there is space for it to happen. It is available to anyone, and we find that it comes in a certain way: We move in the way of the Lord; we think the thoughts of the Lord; we share in the expression that is natural on that basis. And consequently we are able to begin to bring into conscious awareness something of the immensity of the job that has to be done—immensity, I suppose, really from the view of the human mind, because it is not immense at all from the view of the spirit of God. It's a very little thing in the total universe, obviously, so there is no problem. But it transcends any view that we have had in the human nature sense. All those things are so utterly petty and meaningless once we begin to associate ourselves with what it is that is really to be done in the fulfilment of the purposes of the King on earth.

© emissaries of divine light