The Fine Substance of Life
Martin Cecil July 10, 1977 p.m.
Again we are all present to assume the responsibility of very specific spiritual creative action. We can only handle this responsibility to the extent that there is available spiritual substance of the required fineness. We have taken note before how it is that you can speak to someone of really quite elementary spiritual things and the one to whom you speak may give you a blank glassy stare. They couldn't understand a word of what it was you were saying. That simply indicates that that person had no spiritual substance of the required consistency to give form to what was being offered so that it might become comprehensible in his own consciousness. If this is true—and you know it to be so from your own experience I'm sure—it is also true of you insofar as your understanding is concerned of those things which require a finer spiritual substance than you have yet generated in your living.
Very often you may find yourself with a great desire to understand and to do what needs to be done but you don't understand and you don't know what needs to be done—when we are functioning with respect to spiritual things no one can tell you either; you have to discover it for yourself—there has been a lack of the generation of adequate substance of the required consistency to know what to do. Nobody can hand that substance to another and say, “Well now you can think it all through.” A person has to generate the substance for himself and it is only done in living. It is not done through intellectual exercise or gymnastics; it's not done through physical exercise or gymnastics. It is done through a finer expression of living.
The coarse levels upon which most human beings function are a distorted realm of earthly heredity, and yet this has been the controlling sphere of human experience. This is what most people know, a coarse experience. I am sure that all of you are very much aware of the coarse levels upon which people live, or exist would be a better word, because while we may have functioned at those levels before, it is no longer natural to us, and yet perhaps we sometimes revert. We are concerned with the finer levels of substance, spiritual substance, that we may have the material available to permit us to comprehend what we need to know so that we may serve effectively in spiritual expression. I am thinking of it now particularly with respect to a gathering such as this when we may bring something to focus, but it will always be based upon the general level of substance that is available. I sometimes make use of the finer substance but very shortly I find that I am losing too many. In spite of the longing to be with me there are many who are not. I can't wave a magic wand and say, “Well now get busy and generate some fine substance so that we can have it to use this evening.” The substance is what you bring with you; it is what characterizes your own present expression. And yet in order to fulfil our responsibilities there must be a sufficiency of the essential fine substance required to permit effective spiritual expression, effective unified radiation.
This fine substance which permits enlarged understanding is in a sense very delicate. It can be very quickly dissipated. If any coarse hereditary human nature expression enters in, the fine substance is dissipated, at least dissipated insofar as making use of it is concerned in a situation such as this. As individuals we need to learn to generate the fine substance and to protect it so that no matter what is going on around us of a coarse nature it is never allowed to get into us and so to dissipate the fine substance of our own generation. In view of the fact that most people live from the coarse level of earthly heredity there has been scarcely any finer substance available on the face of the earth, at least within the range of human experience. It just simply couldn't exist in the face of the coarseness of human expression.
So we are properly concerned with letting our momentary expression of living be of an increasingly fine nature, exemplifying the character of the angel. When this is done there is a pressure exerted which pushes out the coarse things of human heredity beyond our immediate experience, the experience as it relates to what is present in our own character. It is pushed out beyond us and we are quite capable of observing the coarseness beyond us. We see it being exemplified by human beings but we have the attitude that none of these things move me. We do not let that coarseness disturb the surface levels of spiritual substance within ourselves. As long as there is a calm there is a clear reflection of the spiritual design made evident and we are able to know that. But if we have the habit of becoming bothered and disturbed emotionally speaking we will be continually messing up this surface level of the substance closest to us and it will become coarse and distorted; and when it is that way our expression in living will be coarse and distorted. We will exemplify, as most human beings do, what may be identified as an angel of the dragon, or the devil, or satan, however it might be put. There are lots of his angels around functioning from the standpoint of this distorted spiritual substance which composes the heaven of the devil, the place from which control is exerted in what is expressed by human beings in their momentary living.
I would remind you of a passage from the Book of Revelation which can be seen to deal with this matter as we have it under our present consideration: “And there was war in heaven,” a disturbed state, and we see where that level of heaven is. It is the spiritual substance in which there are present the distortions of earthly heredity. “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.” This is the pushing-out process of which I have just been speaking. To the extent that there is the acceptance of a quality of character in our living which transcends the earthly hereditary character the war is experienced. I am sure that you all are aware of the nature of that war, which gets quite hot at times. There is the pressure of the truth of yourself pushing out up against the character which you have been exemplifying in earthly heredity.
We may see this on an individual basis or we may see it collectively relating to the body of mankind. As there are those individuals who allow the coarse levels of earthly heredity to be pushed out there begins to be heavenly space on earth in the experience of those concerned, because the earthly distorted condition has been pushed out beyond them. When you let it happen it's beyond you. You see it in other people around you perhaps but only with your eyes, not with your heart. You do not become emotionally involved in it. To this extent, then, you provide a safe place for the generation of the more refined levels of pneumaplasmic substance; they are protected because of you. You will not allow anything to enter in that defiles or works abomination or makes a lie in the expression of your own character. To the extent that this is true of you this substance is safe in you and therefore you will have the material which is capable of giving form in your own consciousness to the spiritual understanding that is necessary. If you don't have the substance there, you can't understand and no amount of effort will cause you to understand. It is a very practical matter: the substance must be there. No one can fool the Lord or get away with anything. Either you generate it in your living or it isn't there, and you generate it in your living to the extent that you acknowledge in expression the quality of your heavenly heredity. It is something quite different to what was the prior experience of earthly heredity. You begin to find that as those who are involved in earthly heredity give expression to what comes forth on that basis it jars on your ears, so to speak; you are not comfortable in it; not that you are moved by it, not that it controls you, but you have no sense of relatedness to it. You may recall, with perhaps a little disgust, that you may have indulged in such things yourself in times past but you repent in dust and ashes, that you may let your own expression be kept clear and true to the real quality of character which springs from heavenly heredity.
As there are an increasing number of human beings who let this happen, then there is increasing spiritual space in which the finer substance can continue to exist and be increasingly generated on earth, a protected place, protected by those who will not let into their own experience and expression anything that would destroy it. And so the earthly heredity state is pushed out. As this creative process continues then there is an increasingly large space for the finer substance on earth and a decreasing space for the coarser substance. The dragon and his angels prevailed not, “…neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world…” and “…he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb…” Here is reference to the expression of living, the lifestream of God in expression by reason of heavenly heredity. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. ”The popular condition in earthly heredity is to love one's life in earthly heredity until one is dead; but we stop loving our lives unto the death. How very foolish to continue to love our lives unto the death, because the experience of death is absolutely sure to the extent that we sustain earthly heredity in our own experience and expression. “Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”
As the space available for the expression which is natural to those who sustain earthly heredity becomes smaller, the expression of earthly heredity in its destructiveness becomes obviously more intense; it is compressed into a smaller space. “Having great wrath”—that is what is indicated here. That destructiveness is self-destructiveness. The dragon and his angels destroy themselves. Those who sustain earthly heredity in their own expression destroy themselves. This has been the fact of the matter as long as human memory goes back but now it is becoming the fact of the matter collectively speaking. It is so because there begins to be this space on earth where heavenly heredity is in operation and the creative substance is safe. Because this is something that is factually occurring in the world these things are being brought to issue, as indicated by the words that I have just read to you for instance. We see and we understand what is taking place, not because it's written in the Book of Revelation. A lot of people have read these words and not had the faintest idea what they meant. We begin to understand what they mean to the extent that we have some substance to give form in our own consciousness to that understanding, and we didn't get the meaning out of the Book of Revelation. The meaning was there already, ready to take form in our consciousness the moment that there was the material which would give it form.
Now, we have an understanding at a certain level. The understanding of all here varies from person to person; naturally so, because there is different quality and extent of spiritual substance available to provide the material to give it form. There are levels, obviously, where there is no adequate substance yet, therefore where there is no adequate understanding yet. But we can see these things and be aware of the fact that there are levels of understanding which are open to us the very moment that there is sufficient substance of the required consistency to give them form in our consciousness. None of these things happen by chance, and our understanding is there to the extent of our faithfulness, to the extent of our consistency in living, because only on that basis is the substance available, and it can be dissipated in short order. There have been all too many down the years who began to allow something to be understood because their living was generating the substance but then they stopped, for some reason, generating that substance. They reverted back into the pattern of earthly heredity and very quickly the fine substance that had been there before was dissipated, and what they remembered was just as though it was the memory of a dream; something stuck in memory but it had no substance. It had been impressive to them when it had substance but as soon as the substance was gone there was an empty husk and that had no more particular meaning but was just something that could be recalled.
Everything works the way it works, and there is nothing that human beings can do to make things work the way they don't work. So the wise course always is to cooperate with the way things do work and as there is such cooperation we find ourselves increasingly aware of our spiritual responsibilities. But remember how quickly that understanding and effectiveness can be dissipated. So when we come together, hopefully there is brought a sufficiency of substance to enable us to serve at an effective level, as it is required at the particular time when we may be gathered. Mind you, this is not always the case but, with greater understanding and an awareness of what it is that is happening and of how we ourselves participate and have the responsibility of providing the essential substance because of our prior living, then we begin to have something and we can begin to go to work in a much more specific sense; because certainly we do not gather here so that I may benefit you or you may benefit me. This is not a mutual benefit society, but we come together that we may provide the facility for the creative achievement of what is needful now in the fulfilment of divine purpose. So we have an awareness of that according to the quality of our living, the quality of the character displayed by reason of our living. When that quality is of heavenly heredity, then, as it is put here, “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down.” Do you still recall the days when you might be classified as the accuser of your brethren? Or is that too far back for you to remember? How much have you accused others of failure, of faults, of wrongdoing? This is judgment, isn't it? This is eating of the forbidden fruit. This is sustaining earthly heredity. This is dying.
The accuser is cast down. Accusation is one of the primary qualities of human nature. That's cast down, pushed out, from your experience; it doesn't characterize you anymore; you are not that sort of person anymore. Another person is coming on the scene, a totally different person, not a modified same-old-human-nature person with better human nature qualities, but a new person, the son or the daughter of God beginning to put in an appearance because there is the available substance to give the son or the daughter of God form and expression on earth. Spiritual substance, the heaven, comes first. The angel appears in the heaven, and the earth is shaken by that appearance. What initially happens in the earth is that the human nature pattern of expression is forced into a smaller space and consequently becomes more intense, more violent, more destructive. Do we see this occurring in the world? It is something that is actually happening and we can observe it happening, and it will continue to happen. It will continue to happen until the space becomes so small that it eventually vanishes. Then it stops happening because there's no one on hand to sustain the human nature state of earthly heredity anymore. We can comprehend the mechanics of these things but exactly how it works is another thing altogether. We don't need to speculate but we can see something happening anyway. But let us be true to our trust so that we readily allow the human nature character to be pushed beyond us. Here is the veil. It is impossible for a human nature person to penetrate the veil and get into heaven but it is quite possible to let a heavenly person push the veil out through the earthly person so that the veil is then beyond you and you are back of the veil in heaven.
“Rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.” That's the only way to dwell in the true heaven. You can't scramble in. The human nature person can't get in. People have hopes in this regard of course. They expect to somehow get through simply by dying, for instance, but dying is an indication that the veil has been forced out and the person has gone with it. The angel remains, that's true, because the angel was always in heaven. It might be risky to wait for that experience to occur to find out what happens. It's much better to let it happen while we are still here to understand, to understand what it is that is occurring in our experience on earth. Here is the flaming sword held by the cherubim to keep the way of the tree of life. In human nature you can't get past that sword. In heavenly nature you are never the wrong side of the sword; you are the one who is holding the sword in the first place. What you are in the external sense has the opportunity of being drawn back to share with you in your true state, to share with the angel of the Lord, the truth of being; but it cannot be drawn back as long as there is an insistence upon sustaining the human nature which had been the prior experience.
So we may come together as a group here with such substance as has been generated by our living, to share in letting that substance be made available for use, to give form to the design in spirit, so that we may have understanding and participate therefore in the creative expression of what is needful in the particular moment of our service. While I am speaking of these things, outlining something, drawing to your attention the reason for the attendance of anyone at service, we are at the same time participating in the service by doing so. We are sharing in letting the creative expression of heavenly heredity push out the character of earthly heredity. I am sure that when you are present at a service such as this and moving in the current of the spirit, the things of earthly heredity and earthly experience recede into the background. They are no longer prominent in your consciousness. Your earthly heredity has been pushed out to that extent. Unfortunately all too often there has been the tendency to revert right back into it after a service—maybe not immediately; sometimes even immediately. Maybe you are willing to associate with the angelic experience for a little longer but something comes up and you find yourself expressing the same old earthly hogwash. Well there is the quality of character that is being displayed and there is the dissipation of what had been generated of spiritual substance, so that the experience, the spiritual experience, fades, becomes merely a memory.
We have all kinds of memories, don't we? Some people try to live on their memories, but what are memories? Is there any reality to them or is it just a replay of the computer tape of our mental equipment? It isn't anything really, is it? What is a computer? It isn't anything really, is it? There must be living substance to have something. So we can invent machinery of different kinds; electronics is in vogue these days, so the inventions are largely in this field; but what substance is there to it? Human beings find these things useful to their nefarious purposes and perhaps even we ourselves in the Lord's business can make use of such things, but only valuable use to the extent that we have the substance which is essential to make what is done meaningful, to have more than an empty husk. Meaning comes only because of people, because of the character of heavenly heredity in people in the expression of their living, so that they have substance. We sometimes meet people who have what seems to be substance to them but that substance is not all that beautiful at times; but when there is the spiritual substance there is “the power of his Christ,” as it was put here. We are concerned that there should be that spiritual substance generated in our living, sustained in our living and brought with us to gatherings such as this so that we may get the job done to which our hand is given.
I am most thankful this evening for having the opportunity again of touching into this field of very specific spiritual expression so that we do not imagine that spiritual expression is merely a general effulgence of some kind that radiates forth and catches people unawares. There are some very specific needs in spiritual expression, needs which can be handled by various groups of people. This is one group this evening. There properly are many groups of people to handle specific areas of spiritual expression, to achieve specific things in the heaven. That's all that's necessary, you know. When you have it set in the heaven it's set in the earth. “Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven?” How do we know? When we have substance to give form to those ordinances so that we understand; then we know the ordinances of heaven. “Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?” Certainly. It might be said that it is an automatic process but it does require very specific action from the standpoint of the heaven, that the ordinances may be set in the heaven and reflected in the earth. That's the way we get the job done. It's a lot more effective than trying to push and pull the world into some sort of shape by the sweat of our faces. This is the easy way. However to allow the earthly heredity patterns to be pushed out may involve a little discomfort on occasion. Who is afraid of discomfort? When we recognize what we are here to do, that shouldn't faze us at all. We are no longer controlled by earthly heredity, whose main concern is to become self-sufficient, self-satisfied, self-righteous and comfortable. It never really succeeds. So we have this opportunity then of moving with understanding as we go forth to the experiences that will come in our momentary living.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
Behold I Make All Things New
New Gospel of the KING
from The Tabernacle of God
Uranda August 30, 1953
The reality of Service is a point upon which we have meditated a good deal. As we consider all those who are responding to the Spirit of our Ministry and as we recognize that our value depends upon the reality of our Service, perhaps we might well tonight meditate for a moment upon this subject which is so vital. Human beings have accepted various goals, individually and collectively, which have inspired and thrilled the prospect of certain fulfilment, and on the basis of these goals man has labored long and with diligence. But I was wondering, remembering the reality of that which is greater than we are, remembering our agreement with that which is greater than we are, if we might find, if we were to search for it, the most thrilling goal to which human beings might become dedicated.
In beginning this pattern of meditation we remember the words of Krishna, as he spoke to Arjuna after Arjuna had beheld the Glory of God and after Krishna had returned to the friendly form of the charioteer, how Krishna said that not by Vedas — not by studying the holy writings, not by sacrifice, not by works, could such a thing be seen and known, but that those who whould turn themselves with pure devotion should begin to know the way. And he stated, “Only by uttermost devotion am I known and entered into, Indian Prince. Only by uttermost devotion am I known and My Being shared.” What a thrill it is to think of that. And yet, it has seemed to man that he must of necessity leave this sphere of things and ascend into some high and far away Heaven to see, to know, and to enter into the reality of God. If instead of assuming that on some individual basis we might by uttermost devotion find freedom from the things that bind, and “soar to high neglect of what is denied or said, this way or that,” in doctrinal writ, to gain for ourselves the sharing of Deity, how would it be, what kind of a goal would it be to recognize the revelation of that Deity on earth, to recognize that we can have a share in letting this beauty and this wonder, this unspeakable Glory, have meaning right here on earth? Since we have recognized the reality of that Kingdom that it is at hand, there is nothing strange to us in the beginnings of this thought, nothing strange in the pattern of this meditation. But let us examine it and see what we shall see.
“Only by uttermost devotion am I seen and known and entered into.” Only so is my being shared. If man is to know this revelation, if man is to see this wondrous thing, if man is to know the Being of God, then it must manifest where man is, in the place where man can be, and man can be no place except on earth, for that which is of another realm is not man. Only here on earth is man known; only here on earth can man live; and it is man who needs to see and know and understand. The question which is posed for us tonight, Could this thing, this glorious thing, be for us here and now? causes us to think once more of words that are contained in the closing portion of the Book of Books. “And I saw a new heaven” — a new vision of Heaven, a new manifestation of Heaven — “and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.” The world as man knows it, and Heaven as man knows it, has passed away. Actually, this does not mean that the earth itself, as such, has passed away, but the world that man has known, the world that man has made, with all of its distortions and limitations. A new manifestation of Heaven, a new manifestation of a realm on earth wherein man should dwell. “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”
A Voice out of Heaven. And where is Heaven? “A great voice out of heaven.” And where is Heaven? It is at hand; it is right here where we are — and it really is. We have come to begin to see that, and to know it to the depths of our being. And a Voice out of Heaven. Where does My Voice come from? What voice do your hear when you listen? Merely the voice of a man, or is the voice you hear a Voice out of Heaven? And what has My Voice, this voice that you hear, what has it been saying to you out of Heaven? “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,” the Tabernacle, the dwelling place, the Temple of God, is with men — not somewhere far away. This Voice out of Heaven declares, “The tabernacle of God is with men” — right here on earth. “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”
Have you begun to see? Have you seen anything of the Holy City? The new Spiritual consciousness or awareness or vision, have you seen anything of it? Have you seen it coming down from God out of Heaven? I wonder. Have you? Have you heard a Voice out of Heaven declaring that the Tabernacle of God is with men? If you have seen and if you have heard, there must surely stir in the depths of your being the desire that others shall see and hear. The thrilling vision of the Holy City coming down from God out of Heaven, to see it and to know it—can your mind conceive of any greater goal than this? Can your heart desire a greater thrill than this? What would it be to see the Holy City coming down from God out of Heaven into the earth, and to hear the Voice from Heaven telling of the tabernacle of God that is with men? Human beings expect to have these things happen some time in the future, some day. Can we begin to see that that day is here, that the Holy City is coming down all the time, for all men everywhere? How few there are who see it. Can you accept the reality of a Voice out of Heaven in this day and age? Why have you gathered from the north and the south and the east and the west? And what Voice have you heard? From whence comes that Voice? And what is the message conveyed by the Voice?
Behold! Look! See! Become aware! Recognize and realize! Look and see! “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” And for those who let this be true, for those who begin to see and hear and know that the Tabernacle of God is with men, these words are written: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” What is the process of healing? What have we been studying through our Class work for the past six months? What is the theme of our whole Ministry? That when we let the healing power of God have meaning there is the resurrection into life, the cause of tears is caused to pass away, the vision clears. “For the former things are passed away.” If there is an ill condition and it is caused to pass away, whether it be an ill condition of the body or the mind or the heart, then there is healing. If the heart has been heavy and sad, if the mind has been troubled, if the body has been ill, and the former things pass away, then what? “And he that sat upon the throne said” — the Declaration of His Majesty the KING — “Behold, I make all things new.” What does it mean to serve? First there must be the dedication to a thrilling goal, something that takes hold of body and mind and heart and fills the whole soul constantly, all the time.
How many of you, walking along the path which leads to the kitchen, let us say, and seeing a glorious and beautiful double rainbow across the rimrocks, would glance at it and shrug, and go into the house and say not a word? Would you not move with quickened, lightened step and before you were well in the door call out to all could hear, “There's a beautiful double rainbow! Come and see!” Would you not, now? I think most of you would. Could you just see that gorgeous sight and walk into the house and say not a word, not a mention of it, not a suggestion that anyone should go to the window even, let alone step outside and really see it? If you saw such a sight, even a glorious double rainbow, as we have seen here on occasion, you would say something about it and there would be a thrill to your voice, an invitation and an urgency. “Come and see!” How much more if you see the holy city coming down from God out of Heaven! How much more if you hear the Voice from Heaven saying, “The tabernacle of God is with men”! Could you contain yourself, or would you be filled with a burning zeal, a desire to serve, to carry to others somehow, to be an instrument by which others might come to know and see and hear?
I have talked to you much about the Gospel which our LORD brought into the world, that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. But here is My Gospel, and My Gospel is based upon His Gospel. But this is My Gospel, the good news which I bring to you: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” And under the Pattern of this Gospel there is a further word from His Majesty The KING: “Behold, I make all things new.” Those who hear the New Gospel of the KING are not going to attempt to keep the old things in their old order. They are going to thrill to His New Gospel — the Gospel of His Majesty the KING — Behold, I make all things new.
Now, if this be true — if you see it, if you know it, if you hear it — can you refrain from so living, so serving, that others may begin to see and know and hear? Can you behold this glorious thing, can you begin to know this wonder, can you begin to thrill to this power and yet say and do nothing to convey the realization to another? Perhaps it will not be by shouting from the house-tops, and perhaps you must wait until you can get someone to listen, but will not the very fact that you have seen and heard and known be as a Light shining in you? Will there not be a zeal to your living, a vibrancy to your words, an assurance in your manner? Will you not be a carrier of good news to all who will hearken?
And what is Service? Service is that Pattern of Living, of saying and doing, by which others begin to know the good news. What else is Service, wherever you may be, under whatever circumstance? What other Service is there but to bring to the minds and hearts and bodies of men and women everywhere the awareness of the Holy City that is coming down from God out of Heaven? The Garden of God planted eastward in Eden, it was called in Genesis, coming out of the east into the world of men. Can you see that Holy City and keep still, and say no word of your vision of the thing that is to be seen? Can you hear the Word of the Voice from Heaven and keep still, saying no word of the thing which you have heard? Can you, now? “Only by uttermost devotion am I seen and known and heard. Only so is my being shared.” So stated Krishna in the long ago, and it is just as true today as it was then, just as true when our Master spoke it on earth nearly two thousand years ago — just as true.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne — His Majesty the KING — said
Behold I Make All Things New
© Emissaries of Divine Light
Perfect Woman — Two in Oneness
from Myths and Legends of Jesus
Uranda March 16, 1947 Riverside, California
The so-called miraculous, or immaculate, conception of Jesus Christ is a matter that is controversial from the standpoint of religionists, and with many of them the point is established so thoroughly in prejudice that if it is even suggested that the meaning generally accepted is erroneous, anything else that may be said is rejected in advance. Therefore, to the degree that we can come free of any tendency toward prejudice in this regard, it seems reasonable to suppose that if there is any fundamental truth in the story of the birth of the Master Jesus, then He, being the greatest Teacher that the world has ever known, must surely have given something in his own words which should reveal or provide the key for, at least an understanding of the truth with respect to His manifestation in the world. Our time tonight does not permit our examining the whole Teaching of Jesus in search of the key, so I shall draw your attention directly to it. In John 14 we have a record of the Master’s words where He said: "The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father Who dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." During the Master’s Ministry He spoke often of His Father, and He spoke often of the Oneness of His Father and the manifest being whom we call Jesus, and in this text He says: "My Father Who dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works."
Human beings have lost the vision of their relationship to God. The Saviour was born to re-establish in consciousness an understanding of man’s relationship to God. Man, in the fallen human consciousness, thinks of his parentage as being limited to that generally recognized in the human sense—his earthly father and his earthly mother. The one point wherein man in the fallen state is permitted to participate in relationship to true Creative Work in the physical sense, is with respect to procreation, but because of this fact man has tended to think of the whole matter as if it were a purely physiological proposition instead of recognizing that the one point where he is still permitted to have a relationship with true Creative Work is still the point where he could, if he would, discover his fundamental relationship with God.
In the story of the Master's birth we have a presentation which is properly designed to take attention away from the earthly father, in order to establish a consciousness or awareness of the relationship of God to birth—not just the birth of Jesus Christ, but the birth of every man, woman and child on the face of the earth. It has always seemed to me to be utterly ridiculous to claim, on the one hand, that Jesus is supposed to be our example and then to claim, on the other hand, that He had a birth into the world so far different from that which we are privileged to have. If our birth into the world is so far different from His birth into the world, then God would be asking the impossible of us, to expect us to accept Him as our example, because if there was anything true with respect to the Master's birth that is not true with respect to our birth, then He is not our example—He is simply a Being so far separated from us, and so far above us, that there is no hope of our ever achieving that which He achieved. But He, Himself, said: "The works that I do shall ye do also, and greater works than these shall ye do," thereby pointing out that that which He achieved we can achieve, and if we can achieve what He achieved, then that which was true of Him is true of us. It is not sacrilegious, on the basis of the Master's own words, to undertake to determine the truth with respect to His birth which will, at the same time, reveal the truth with respect to our birth, and if we recognize the truth with respect to our birth, we find that we are not so far separated from God that it is foolish and futile for us to accept Jesus Christ as our example. The story of the Master's birth emphasizes rightly, to start with, that God was His Father. With the world consciousness as it was, and as it still is to such a high degree, there was no other way by which the truth of the Master's Divinity in relationship to His parentage could be focalized into the consciousness of the world in a way that would make it have vital influence in the attitude of the world.
As the translation stands the wording of it does not necessarily give a clear indication of the truth of the matter, but rather tends to support the prejudiced viewpoint whereby the truth has been presented in a false light that defeats the purpose of the truth. So, the light wherewith we view this matter must come from the Master's own words. When He said that the works that He did were possible to us, and when l said that the Father within Him accomplished the works which He did, it is evident that He was recognizing the Father within us and recognizing that, to the degree that we let the Father do the works, the works of the Father would be done through us as surely as they were done through Him. We recognize that in the processes of birth the physical seed is present, and must be present, and if that is true of us and we say that it was not true of Jesus with respect to His birth, then we set Him apart from us where His Life can have no real meaning to us, and that peculiar distinction which has been established in consciousness has caused His life to not have very much real meaning, even to the mass of people numbered in Christendom, because they have felt that lie was too far removed from them for them to achieve; therefore, under the direction of the devil they developed the idea of mere acceptance with the lips, assuming that that would be enough, that Jesus did it all and they would not have to do anything but believe with the lips. How convenient!—and how certain to bring failure and maintain the supremacy of the devil. The physical seed was present with respect to the birth of Jesus. That may seem to you as an arbitrary statement on my part, and if you ask for Biblical proof I am not in position to give it.
Let us go back a little. The fall came into manifestation through Eve, and she was promised that through her seed salvation should come—woman represents the negative manifestation of humanity; man represents the positive phase of humanity; but humanity as a whole is represented as a Woman in relationship to the positive expression of God. We have, for instance in Revelation, the Church and its membership of men and women forming the Bride of the Lamb. From the standpoint of the relationship in actuality, in the right sense of Man and God, Man and Woman are One, and the Two in Oneness are negative to God, so that, in that Absolute Oneness of Man and Woman the manifestation of Woman in relationship to God is made manifest, so that the Fatherhood of God, working through the Woman, manifest as the Oneness of Man and Woman, permits the manifestation of the birth of the Child as revealed in the case of Jesus Christ.
The Perfect Woman, insofar as this world is concerned, is the perfect manifestation or blending of Man and Woman, so that together they make a Complete Unit that is negative or responsive to God, so that that which is of God may come through that One Being into the world. This is the central, fundamental truth back of the story of the birth of Jesus, for the Mother of Jesus, pictured in its idealism, simply symbolizes the perfect blending of Man and Woman. "They two shall be one flesh," and if they are one flesh they cannot be two pieces of flesh and separated, and considered as being distinct, one from the other; therefore, to the degree that we recognize that Man and Woman, as One Flesh, become perfectly negative and responsive to God, then the Fatherhood of God in relationship to birth or Creative activity on earth, becomes a reality.
Now it is true that the degree of perfection in this cycle was higher in the case of Jesus Christ than is true in the case of most human beings. Nevertheless, it is true for each child who is born of a love union. In that union the male and female are One Flesh and they constitute the Woman in union with God the Father, so that God the Father is the Father of the Child, and the recognition of the Father in the Divine sense is absolutely essential to a realization that we are not far from God, and that in reality we can, if we will, let it be so, fulfilling the Master's words, "Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." How? On the same basis, by reason of which His works were made manifest. "The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works." So here we have briefly, directly stated, the real truth back of the story of the immaculate conception, and when we recognize this truth we realize it is not ridiculous, nor is God asking the impossible of us for us to recognize that Jesus Christ is our example, and that we are to follow Him.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
