The affairs of God are much more related to the actual orbit of the earth around the sun and to the particular points of significance in that orbit than they are to the human calendar. We have taken note of the basic substance which fills what human beings think of as space—very tenuous substance, according to the human view. This has on occasion been referred to as the ether. As the earth orbits around the sun it passes through what might be called the solar ether; but then we are aware that there is another movement of the solar system relative to the galaxy, so the solar system is passing through the galactic ether. Besides this, the galaxy itself is in motion and could therefore be said to be passing through the universal ether. These terms describe something, but something which is not, certainly, understood by human minds, even if there is a recognition that such patterns or states of ether exist.
Another way of describing these various levels of ether would be to refer to them as atmospheres—a solar atmosphere, a galactic atmosphere, and a universal atmosphere. All these various levels of atmosphere permeate and bathe this little earth, which would include our little earthly bodies. As long as we exist, physically speaking, we cannot step out of these atmospheres. They are there, exerting influence, whether we like it or not. Obviously such things are not controllable by human beings. They have to be accepted for whatever they are. This fact could be seen as helping to cut human beings down to size, because there is a very deceitful imagination in human minds that human beings can somehow control not only their own affairs in the human sense but everything that's going on on earth. Human beings have this peculiar quirk of consciousness of long standing, to imagine that they can do much as they please on earth without any particular expectation of reaping the consequences; but of course the consequences are constantly being reaped and then the complaints proliferate.
We have some awareness of these things, and that it is very foolish and futile to ignore factors which are scarcely recognized at present, and only include in human calculations those things which are recognized. If we were to compare the things that are recognized with the things that are not recognized, we would find a vast majority in the things that are not recognized, so that virtually everything human beings do is based in a false view of things. If this is so, it would not be surprising if confusion should result, and we certainly observe chaotic conditions in human affairs, spilling over into other affairs beyond them, all based in the fact of a fundamental denial of anything higher than man. Lip service is paid to God, or Allah, or whoever, but this has very little effect upon human behavior. It is modified in minor ways, but scratch the surface of civilized man so-called and it is discovered that he is very little different from his remote ancestors. He has a bigger head, is more conceited, he thinks he knows more, he thinks he’s more capable; but all this view is in fact false and human beings find themselves endeavoring to govern their affairs, individually and collectively, on the basis of their mental views; occasionally, with some, bringing the mental view of God into the picture. Mental views of God are religious beliefs; but a mental view of God does not acquaint anyone with God, merely with the particular idea that the individual has, and that as a rule is not very original. It is mostly of a hereditary nature, perhaps modified a little generation by generation.
Seeing that the mental view actually takes scarcely any of all the vast array of factors that are actually present into consideration, then chaos and confusion are inevitable. It shouldn’t be expected that there would be anything else. When these things occur, as they are occurring, on a large scale and on a small scale, no one should be surprised; for such things are inevitable as long as a mental approach is made, as though the mind could, if not immediately but eventually, understand everything. Here is a false view which leads to destruction, because there are those things going on which are totally beyond the comprehension of the human mind, and what the human mind decides to do does not take such things into account but proceeds to act on a basis which it considers will be beneficial to itself. This is placing human beings at the supreme point, as though everything was designed to be of benefit to human beings. This particularly refers to the so-called resources of this earth but would include much more, to the extent that human beings are able to get hold of much more—maybe the moon could be useful, or Mars, or Jupiter, or something else.
If human beings are here on earth they should have some purpose, which would relate to the overall picture and be included in the universe; therefore the function of man is important in the overall picture, however not for man’s sake but for the sake of the overall picture. The earth was not created for man, but man for the earth. There is a difference! Because human beings are intent upon following out the dictates of their own desires and their own minds, what is actually happening from the standpoint of the fact that the earth is a part of the whole universal picture is being ignored and human actions simply cut across whatever it is that is actually happening. This actual happening is unknown insofar as human beings are concerned because they have been so intent upon the little thimbleful of understanding that they have with respect to what would be beneficial to themselves. So the state which is known on earth is a false state, and rightly that false state should pass away.
Things are not the way they seem to the human mind at all. The human view of the universe is based upon certain assumptions, some of which are now being found to be invalid. So the universe is not at all the way it has seemed. Of course this is something that has occurred periodically during human history: the view that is held at one point is discarded and something else is taken on and this modern view is surely the correct one. Then a little further along it doesn’t stay as modern as it was and it turns into something that is discarded also. In any case, the human mind all on its own cannot possibly encompass what is present. Its comprehension is very restricted, rightly so; the human mind, after all, is only a part of this creation—it is not the Creator. It was indicated in the Book of Revelation that all the world was deceived. It certainly is! The whole outlook of the mental apparatus of human beings in general is askew—based in what may be described as self-centeredness, the whole outlook is false.
We have noted before how the attitude of most people is that we live in a hostile world: everything is agin us, everyone is agin us. We have to be constantly on the defensive; otherwise we will inevitably be overwhelmed. The very attitude of fighting for everything is indication of the sort of outlook that human beings have. As long as we are involved in hassles we will have no sensitivity to what is actually occurring, and the involvement in the hassles comes because of our emotions, doesn’t it? “Things are so unfair!” Well who made them unfair? Oh we can find the devil almost anywhere, but always over there, always somebody else, as though one had no responsibility oneself. Every individual on the face of the earth has responsibility for himself, or herself, and if the world is the way it is, it is because this responsibility hasn’t been handled correctly. Let us not assume that it is somebody else who did it. As long as each individual has that attitude, nobody else did it, according to the human view at least, because it’s always over there. But to find someone who has what it takes to accept personal responsibility, that, generally speaking, is conspicuous by its absence. If there is an acceptance of a personal responsibility it’s usually to associate oneself with a group of people who see the devil over there. We have some remarkable examples of this on the international scene in these days, but it’s not much different from the way it’s always been: the devil is somewhere else, someone else, and one is so lily-white oneself! Who is interested in the truth of the matter? We have presented ourselves before the Lord this morning because we have some interest in the truth of the matter, and some interest in letting that truth be the base for our own living. When it begins to be the base for our own living then our outlook changes. You have discovered that this is so. You see the world in a different way. What I have been considering this morning offers an awareness of the way things are—up to a point at least—which is not exactly in harmony with the way most people presently see things.
We have noted that by reason of this continuing movement through these various levels of atmosphere, and what is present in these levels of atmosphere, there are some changes taking place in the experience of human beings, changes which may be either constructive or destructive. The old state, the old outlook to which human beings have clung for millennia, is in the process of being dissolved. It can’t continue to exist in the changing states of atmosphere. The way human beings should be, the way they were created to be, described as in the image and likeness of God, is in the process of reemerging. Something is coming forth through human beings and in some ways it is driving them crazy, or more crazy than they were before. In another way it is bringing a new experience in living which allows for a new outlook, mentally speaking amongst other things, so that the world is not seen the way it was seen before. But this change in awareness is consequent upon a change in living, a change in actual experience, an emergence out of the imaginary condition into the factual condition.
To the extent that there has been a willingness to let this happen so that there actually has been some change, primarily in attitude, then there has been a clarification in awareness. In one sense nothing is changing. Things have always been the way they’ve always been, but the way human beings have seen things is changing. Now, there are those who continue to manipulate in the ways to which they have been accustomed in the past without apparently any great recognition as yet that they are living in a world that is not the same as it was—the same brash human nature manipulations going on as though the world was still in the state where it could be manipulated. All the manipulation does now is to bring increased destruction, increased disintegration, not only with respect to the particular geographical place where the manipulation comes to focus, but for everything and for everyone. That was described as the dragon being cast into the earth, where he has great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time. He’d better get his manipulation done quick, because he sees the days are numbered, perhaps not as clearly as all that yet.
But there is this which is coming forth through human beings everywhere on the face of the earth, describable as the spirit of God, the Christ, coming forth into manifestation, into expression, and pushing aside what is not in harmony with that expression. This should alert human beings, if they begin to see it, to make sure that they are in harmony with that expression—otherwise, for sure they’ll be pushed aside, and there is nobody on the face of the earth, including all of us, who is exempt. It’s happening whether anybody likes it or not, whether anybody recognizes it or not. The Christian world has long been looking for the second coming of Christ. Here it is! But it requires that all the structures that have been created in the human mind should be dissolved, so that there is no attempt made anymore to try to live according to those structures. That is inevitably fatal. “Behold, I make all things new”—there is the Word, very descriptive, very factual, and there isn’t anyone anywhere who doesn’t sense something of the sort. But human beings cling to their structures, cultures they are sometimes called—cults is what they are.
But the passing of such things is not merely at hand—it’s here, and the intensity of that passing increases. Human beings try to live the way they’ve always lived. There are certain differences in human nature in this part of the world and that part of the world, but it’s all human nature. They try to follow out their ideas, whether they be religious or political or economic, or whatever, all based in this coarse realm in which human beings have existed for so long, losing their sensitivity to the spirit of God. But because human beings lose their sensitivity to the spirit of God, and therefore have little awareness of it, doesn’t mean that it isn’t there, and it doesn’t mean that it is not coming forth, and in its coming forth bringing all kinds of things that human beings don’t like, clearing out the rubbish.
Let there be those on earth who rejoice in that coming forth, who rejoice to let their own lives be transformed by reason of a transformation of consciousness, so that there may be present on earth the evidence of what it is that is happening. If everybody resists that coming forth, gets into a battle with it because it’s uncomfortable, then there is no evidence in form of what it is that is coming forth. Nobody knows, and people find themselves in this mishmash of experience, going down to destruction. Let there be those who allow the clarity of the spirit of God to take form in their own living, and then there it is. It becomes evident, both in a direct sense for those that are on hand nearby to see, but also in an indirect sense, because one cannot do anything without having an effect on everything. If the spirit of God is coming forth and finding expression in form on earth because there are those who are willing to let it, that has an effect for all people.
It was said of the birth of Jesus long ago that here was something “to all people.” Well here it is, to all people—this is what it is. We have the opportunity to prove it out, not merely try to believe something. “Oh, Martin said so. It must be so.” Really? I have never asked anyone to believe something merely because I say so. My concern has been to offer something that can be proven out in the individual’s own living, and it is up to each person. The kingdom comes forth in the expression of living through the individual, and when it comes forth through a number of individuals they find that it is something in which they are sharing. They are in agreement with the coming forth collectively then. They begin to know what it is and they begin to be able to see what is happening in the world. What is happening in the world is not at all describable by discussions in the United Nations, or even by observing the events that are going on. Such things are far-out evidence of the fact that there is something pushing forth, but what it is that is pushing forth is only known when there are those who are participating in harmony with what is pushing forth, and are therefore revealing it in their own living. Then there it is! And when it is there in the world then there is a means by which all who will may awaken to the fact, instead of slumbering on in the dream world of imagination. There is a point where people can never wake up.
So we share in an increasing awareness, by reason of our own experience in living, of what is occurring immediately around us, and therefore we may intelligently handle it in whatever way it should be handled. We can handle these things that are next to us. We can’t handle anything out there, but in handling what is next to us our right handling of that extends an impact and an influence so that particularly those who are honorable people, and are hungering and are thirsting after the experience of rightness on earth, may be touched. And there are these in all nations everywhere. It has nothing to do with politics. It has very little to do with religion, incidentally, too. All these things that have been customary in the human nature world are passing away. Let them go, and rejoice in the coming, the coming which is actually one’s own experience, not the coming of some belief or other but the coming of actual experience which, if one had a belief before, will likely be very different to what one believed, because beliefs have all been a part of the human state of consciousness which is passing away. It’s a dream state. “Behold, I make all things new … these words are true and faithful.” Let us abide in this state of wholesomeness, holiness. Glory to God in the highest.
Government—the word Jehovah reminds us of this—the action of spirit by reason of us in a specific sense, within the world that man has made. In this matter of government we've taken note of various roles. There is a design, which has something to do with the truth, a design of government in the kingdom; and this implies that there are roles to be played. In a broad sense we have seen these roles in terms of the executive, the legislative, and the educative. As the spirit in action begins to take form on earth, there are rather few people who at that point are on hand to let it happen. The human consciousness of those concerned does not really understand what is occurring, even though some new ideas may be generated and various Emissary beliefs engendered. But regardless of all this superficial stuff, there is something happening. What puts in an appearance in this superficial sense is the evidence of something happening underneath. This has been true with respect to all the various religious and denominational patterns that have put in an appearance on earth. Something was happening underneath which began to take form on the basis of the material that was present in those concerned. But then it tended to crystallize into the forms that first emerged. They might be embellished a little, later on, but the same basic crystallizations.
With the intensification of spirit that has been occurring because of the greater focus it has been given, there has been a force at work which has started to break down some of the crystallizations in the long‑established cults. We recognize that as the evidence of the working of the spirit. It doesn't have any tremendous significance from our standpoint; merely that things are being loosened up a little, so that the material which is present in people may be more easily brought into the design of the emerging spirit if that emerging spirit is allowed to continue to emerge—but it can get blocked by the Emissary concepts just as easily as it can by any other concepts. So we have let Emissary concepts prevail for a while, in order to permit as much spirit as might be possible to emerge through them, but when the concepts are full, then they have to give way—and we understand this happening. We see it as something that is required.
There may be those who tend to bewail the fact that all the Emissary structures that have been builded over the years now look as though they're all going to pass away, but we recognize that they must, as all structures must. We don't wish to equate ourselves with Babylon the Great. Babylon is usually thought of simply as being that great evil world out there; but Babylon includes everything of human nature, including Emissary structures. “Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen.” The present tense was used there; I think we could well use the present tense now. There's a good deal of rubble, a good deal of dust, and many people trying frantically to maintain their lifestyle in the rubble, blinded by the dust.
Our concern is with the government—what it is that is emerging from the standpoint of spirit. Not particularly what form is emerging at this point, but the nature and character of the spirit that is emerging. So we're looking at the spirit of government. Now the spirit of government only is known as there are those who are oriented in that spirit. We think of ourselves as having had some orientation established in our experience, but we are still aware, I am sure, that that orientation can at times be lost. We know it perhaps in little things with respect to ourselves, but we also see it in a larger sense with respect to a total individual occasionally. We think of that person as having good orientation in spirit, moving along, and then one fine day suddenly, it seems—it wasn't suddenly—but it seems suddenly the individual drifts off over the horizon somewhere, and there is a wondering after the beast as to why such things happen. We know very well why they happen. If one loses one's orientation in spirit, one will gain orientation in something else—and one moves according to the orientation. So these things are not particularly surprising when they occur. They may be a little saddening on occasion, because possibly the Lord has invested a good deal of work and so on in the individual concerned and it all goes to waste. But regardless of all that, we are here; and thus far our orientation is intact. So we move on the basis of the fact that this orientation is the way it is now. By the way, if there is a lapse on occasion, the orientation is lost momentarily, then the command is “Repent quickly; worship God”—because a loss of orientation in spirit is always based in the fact that one is worshiping a false god and one is therefore returning into the human nature state.
We see the world in that human nature state because of wrong orientation, earthly orientation. The apex of human nature in the world can be seen in the lust for power. There is much lusting for power in the world, and this is conceived to be the highest ambition, I suppose you could call it. It is in this lust for power that the prince of this world comes to ultimate focus. Power, humanly speaking, is produced in various ways. All the means of producing the power are less than the power—they are a means to an end; the end is the power. We think of money as being a controlling influence in human nature. It is a controlling influence; it is used for that by those who lust for power. Money is one aspect of the means by which power may be gained in the human nature world. There are other means; not just money, which represents something—commodities, natural resources, what have you, are all means to an end in the acquisition of power.
Politics is a means to an end. Usually people who look at this dragon think of these means as being the end. They get into a battle with the means rather than with the reason for the means. International finance—there's an evil ogre which something needs to be done about. But it isn't international finance that is necessarily the point. That is a means to an end in the lust for power, and of course the ultimate fulfilment of that lust is somehow to reach a point—and there must be an apex here—reach a point where power is being exercised over the whole world. We recognize that there are various undertakings which have this intent; but the ones that talk about it are not the ones generally speaking who are going to find themselves in the driver's seat in the end, when that end comes. They don't see that it is the end. They see it as an end in their own lust for power—“Now we have succeeded”—but that point of success is at the same time a point of defeat. We can understand this if we recognize the reality of the kingdom government which is present, because of us and others on earth, largely unseen, unrecognized for what it is but there nevertheless, and operating effectively at a level where the dragon cannot reach. This is why the dragon for the most part is unaware of what is going on, even though in the operation of gaining power in the human sense a great deal of expertise is developed which may be seen as paralleling spiritual expertise. In other words, there are sensitivities developed of various sorts in the pursuit of their goals.
The pursuit of goals is not merely an intellectual pursuit. There are feelings involved also. Obviously, if we talk about a lust for power emotion must be involved. Now I'm not speaking of it in that sense so much as the fact that in the manipulative dealings a person will become sensitive, vibrationally speaking, at the level of human nature function—and it is those who are sensitive in this way who are one step ahead of those who are not. Those who are trying to do it all on the basis of logic and reason are out‑maneuveured by those who use logic and reason too, but they also have this additional sensitivity to vibrational factors. So we see that while all human beings in one way or another lust for power, the power to govern their own experiences, this all builds up to an apex somehow, and with the world being brought together in an external state of unification, the opportunity is provided then, from the standpoint of human nature, for those seemingly contending aspects—heads of the dragon—to culminate finally in one head. As this process continues, the heads begin to thin out.
In view of the fact that such heads usually are there on the basis of their sensitivity to vibrational factors, they have a basis for remaining invisible. Those who are plodding along, like the so‑called Communist conspiracy for instance, plodding along toward their goal, manipulating everywhere of course, as a general rule they don't have much sensitivity—it's pretty brash. And of course that's all right insofar as those who do have the sensitivity are concerned; let everybody focus on these sort of things, which are not the real issue anyway, even though they may appear to be, or made to appear to be. According to Paul we wrestle not against flesh and blood but with spiritual wickedness in high places, the powers of this world, etc. Well, we don't wrestle with any of these things—it’s a waste of energy. Our concern is not to waste our energy against something but to conserve our energy for something—and that which we are for is the kingdom government; because the kingdom government is sensitive to higher vibratory levels than is possible to human nature government, and so there is always the ability to reach to a level of action which transcends anything that human nature can put together. There is a sort of hypnosis in this, because those who are concerned have their eyes fastened on this, so that they have their backs to what else may be happening of which they have heretofore been aware; it doesn't amount to a row of beans in the view of those who have gained a considerable measure of power in the human nature sense. They have the power, after all; they don’t need to worry. Little do they know! That's all right too. But there is something coming together, as we realize from the standpoint of the spiritual government, the kingdom government of which we have some awareness and which we are capable of observing as it emerges in form.
We have observed that form but tended to equate it with Emissary structures, which is not the real form at all; that's simply something that is thought up by wild Emissary imagination. The real form is yet to emerge. We're not concerned with that. The real form can't emerge in any ultimate sense until the unreal form has dissolved, because it is the dissolution of the unreal form that unveils the real form. Now if we say that, we see there is a very close connection between the unreal form and the real form—in other words they are not apart from each other. We well understand the fact that it isn't a matter of Jesus coming on His charger, and the hosts of heaven with Him, and utterly destroy the unreal world, because the fact of the matter is that if such a foolish imagination were even possible, there would then be nothing there. Nothing there but imagination, but there would be no human beings on hand to imagine it. It is the falling of the unreal, of Babylon, that unveils the presence of the kingdom—and the extent that Babylon falls unveils to that extent the kingdom. And the whole process is going on at the same time. It isn't sequential.
So we recognize the lust for power as relating to human nature and as providing an apex goal insofar as the prince of this world is concerned, who takes form through human beings. We're not talking about a vague entity floating around and doing all these things; we're talking about human beings doing all these things. And the things that are being done are very often seemingly more or less all right to human nature, because everybody else is doing it as well, on a different scale and in a different way. So it sort of correlates with what everybody is doing anyway; and the people who are doing it are not altogether that much different from the rest of the human race. If one were to meet up with someone who could possibly be categorized as a luster for power in a very special sense, I doubt if he would be seen as being very different to your next door neighbor or anybody. So let us not categorize these roles that people play; they're all human beings in human nature. Our concern is to open doors so that the state of human nature might be transcended by the lowliest person and the most exalted person in this human nature field—it doesn't make any difference; we don't go striding into the international oil companies executives’ offices with fire in our eyes because all the wicked people are there, as though there were none outside in the street. How ridiculous! Let's not classify and categorize people.
There are people playing roles of all kinds everywhere, but it is the real people behind the roles with whom we are concerned, even if they are where the current human devil may be. All this is of concern to us because in our position of government we need to understand these things and see them in a balanced way and do not work up heat under our collars by reason of the terrible, wicked things that people do in high places. What is being done in high places in the world is actually falling in with what needs to be done from the standpoint of the Lord. In other words, there are a lot of people doing what needs to be done so that we may be saved the trouble. There is a building up toward this apex point. I suppose that somewhere along the way when we are in position collectively, because there really is a government, to say “Thank you very much; we'll now assume the responsibility.” Of course maybe it doesn't come quite that easily but the principle can be seen. So while there are a lot of nefarious deeds going on all over the place, we are assured that the spirit of God is in action. We are assured in that regard if it is in action in us—then we have the assurance—and everything that is occurring is one way or another leading to what needs to happen. And these appalling crises that put in an appearance every now and again, and will continue to do so—worse ones to come—are not seen as portending disaster, except to human nature, but as pointing to the fact of victory, the fact that the creative spirit of God is at work.
The power that is present by reason of the spirit of God we refer to as the power of love. This is the supreme power. There is in fact no other power. Even the power that is being acquired by those who lust after it in the human nature sense is only there because of love—there isn't any other power. It is a stealing of power in this sense, but it is the same power being stolen—fire is being stolen. We are concerned with the power of love but only on the basis of the truth, only on the basis of its operation in the true design and under proper control. That control and design are the responsibility of the kingdom government on earth—in other words, these are our responsibilities. We don't have to worry about the power—there is no lack of power. Human beings think of themselves as being in some sort of a crisis relative to what they call energy. But this is a crisis of human nature, we would agree—too bad! But insofar as power is concerned, I don't think there's any less power available in the universe than there was before human nature had an energy crisis. There's no trouble about the power. Love is the power. It is the one power of the universe. The whole universe is operated on this basis, but it is operated with the power under control and according to a very particular design—and that operation is a living operation, in consequence.
There is the necessity of the kingdom—“Thine is the kingdom”—this is our concern, the necessity of government. “Thine is the power.” Then the power is available in the right expression of it, because there is the facility which is one with that power; no longer a stolen power. And the operation of that power by reason of this facility is life. “Thine is the kingdom; thine is the power; and thine is the glory.” The result of the kingdom being on hand so that the power can work; then the evidence of that is glory. Glory we recognize as relating to life, to the manifestation of life in form as it really is. So the kingdom government then is obviously the essential factor. We have a little Assembly here in order to give us some experience relative to this government—the government within which there are various roles to be played. In the initial stages of the coming forth of the spirit there were few in number so all concerned had to play all the roles. Now, as there begin to be more people available, the design can be more differentiated and specific roles can begin to appear as dominant ones in the overall role of the angel on earth.
However we find ourselves in the human nature world, so here we are, and many of the things that are characteristic of that human nature world are characteristic of us simply because the human nature world is still here and the restoration has not yet occurred. So we don't rebel against the fact that human nature is still on hand relative to ourselves personally, or in other people in all kinds of other roles in this human nature world. That's the way it is! The Lord recognizes that's the way it is—why shouldn't we? But we learn to function correctly because our orientation is correct in the circumstance in which we find ourselves—and sometimes we find ourselves in disintegrating circumstances. Obviously we do in the human nature world as a whole. We find it also in relationship to our own bodies in whatever measure. This being closest to us and being our direct responsibility, we can perhaps do something about it to some extent—not because we're anxious to preserve the body but because we recognize that the Lord has invested something in us and He better get a return on His investment before we depart. This indicates that as long as we have something to do we'll be concerned to be on hand. But by the same token, if we've done what we came to do we're no longer concerned to be on hand. In other words, a very open attitude here and the matter of death doesn't loom so large anymore.
So in all these things we see the necessity of the true government based in the fact that there are those who are spiritually oriented and who, if they lose their footing for a moment, repent quickly and worship God. Worship God—call to remembrance. This is the action of the spirit of truth, isn't it? It calls all things to remembrance. Let be called to remembrance what we really know. We know it already. If we lose our orientation we may think for a little that we don't, but that's because we lost the orientation, not because we don't. We fool ourselves in that regard. As soon as we regain the orientation, then we immediately discover that we really know how to handle the thing. We don't need to go rushing to somebody else, saying “Help me; help me; handle this for me.” We remain babies if we do that. We see what has happened. Orientation has slipped. All right. Repent quickly. Let it be restored. Worship God. And lo and behold we have all the material necessary, all the understanding, everything that is required to handle whatever it was. And when we do this, small slips in orientation are not all that dangerous, because we immediately repent, and we immediately find ourselves back where we belong and capable of participating in this government, whatever role we are required to play—still, for the most part most of us play all the roles.
In what I say I usually bring to focus what is at the forefront, what is at the spear-point, so to speak, trusting that the rest of the spear will follow through. But the spear has more than a point. There is the head of the spear, which is a complete object in itself, and that's fastened to the shaft, so there's quite a bit to follow through, at all levels. And I trust that what I say is said in the current of the spirit, in which case those who are at any particular level will discover what they need to be at their particular level—but by the same token I am saying, as plainly as I am in position to do, what needs to be heard by those who are emerging into the real world. So provision is made for all concerned, and we need to recognize that this is so in assuming our roles in government—that the only way we can operate is in the current of the spirit. We need to say what the spirit of God would say in us and when that is the case there is something said in every tongue. We speak in tongues. There is something available for each level of experience. In the Assembly there is a much more cohesive thing, and there is a greater sharing of the level at which we need to be operating. Whereas if we had five hundred people in here instead of 49, we wouldn't have such a cohesive gathering, and you couldn't bring it to point and carry it through in the spirit to the level that we may here. You understand that. In the current of the spirit we speak in tongues—tongues that those who are present to hear can understand, and we do take into account the audience which we are addressing.
Government. This is our concern, as you already know. All right, let's govern on the basis of our knowing. This indicates a governed life in the personal sense. We're not going off in all directions. We're not subject to all the human nature moods that may put in an appearance from time to time. Who cares? They're of no interest to us. We’re not interested in human nature as such, just to let it go, let it be dissolved. So we don't allow our life force to flow into these things. We stay together in a cohesive whole and begin to share a greater control in the design of government. That's what we're here to do, with others.
The powers of this world think that they are gaining the victory over those who regard conditions in the world in a way that would be of the greatest benefit to the greatest number. Those who have thought to do the right thing have been overbalanced. It looks like a tremendous victory for the workers of iniquity, for those whose only purpose is to satisfy their own lust and greed for increased power and increased wealth. If we do not have absolute conviction and certainty within ourselves, we could well be discouraged; but we know that the power of God is greater than the powers of evil. Actually, as we look back over the progress of world history and see how history was made, we see how everything has been shaped toward producing the very conditions that exist today. Some, undertaking to analyze these things and seeing how the forces of evil have tended to build up such a state of affairs, feel that the situation is virtually hopeless. God did not cause the forces of evil to make the choices that they did, to produce the situations that have been produced, but the thing that the forces of evil fail to recognize is that the fulfilment of all of these things according to human plans is not contrary to the fulfilment of things according to God's Plan. Evil is always playing into the hands of God. Evil, in its designs and at the cost of so many human lives and much human suffering, is building something that it conceives to put the workers of iniquity in absolute control over the world and over all the things that are in it. They have come well nigh doing just that, and since they chose the way of evil, God opened the way and gave them opportunities to accomplish just what they have accomplished. If they had refused to make the wrong choices then of course God's will could have been accomplished and brought into manifestation without so much human suffering. But God knew man and He understood man's tendencies.
It was because God knew man and his evil tendencies that the prophetic outlines that we find here in the Bible were possible. An understanding of vibrations in relationship to cycles was involved, so that it is primarily a mathematical proposition in outworking as to when certain lines of vibration will converge. Because God understood those cycles and vibrations and recognized how, or at what points, those vibrations would converge, and because God understood man, He knew what reactions man would make manifest as He Himself worked out the vibrations of the world according to His own Plan. In other words, God did not change His Plan because man failed. In the sense of the immediate necessities in granting man every opportunity, it might be said that God did make certain adjustments in His Plan to meet the situation, but from the standpoint of the long-range cosmic cycles they were left absolutely untouched. It was ordained clear back in the beginning of things that at this particular point in the outworking of cosmic cycles, the earth in its function in relationship to the solar system would move into vibrations of a peculiar nature, and they would be intensified in a higher expression of the spiral. That cosmic outworking in the cycles has moved forward just as it would have if man had not fallen. Insofar as the basic Plan is concerned God did not change it one iota, and He will not do so. God gave man every possible opportunity to return along the way, because God knew that as these cycles progressed conditions would develop which would force the issue with man. God gave man an opportunity to avoid the stress of suffering and turmoil that would be involved in such conditions as we now have, but man refused.
We remember that at one time Jesus was talking about those who refuse to respond, and He called them an evil generation and pointed out that they asked for signs. They asked for signs in a demanding way, saying, “If you will give us signs, then perhaps we can believe.” And what did He say? He said, “But no sign shall be given unto them save the sign of the prophet Jonas.” We do not have time to analyze all the implications of His statement and attitude, but it should be clear to you in basic principle. That which He was mentioning in relationship to the sign of the prophet Jonah was actually much more than human beings think of it as being. At the time Jonah lived the world was in the first of the Grand Solar cycles. We remember that those cycles are Water, Air, Earth and Fire, so the first Grand cycle that was in existence at the time was Water. But the closing of the cycle, which extended for a little over two thousand years, and which had the most direct vibrational contact with man, was Fire. Also the twelfth, which would be the completion of the succession of Water, Air, Earth and Fire in the 25,000-year periods, would naturally be of a Fire vibration. In other words, at that point the Trinity of cycles was Water in its Grand 300,000-year period, Fire in its 25,000-year period, and Fire in its 2,000-year period. This means that the Fire vibration was dominant.
We look back at the period preceding the life manifestation of Jonah and we see that insofar as the present outline of history is concerned its detailed expression begins approximately, insofar as the Bible is concerned, with Abraham. At that time there was sacrifice by Fire, and Abraham had the trial as to his only-begotten son. All the way through the history of the children of Israel up to the time of the manifestation of Jesus Christ there is emphasized in many different ways the principle involved in the vibration of Fire and sacrifice by Fire. We see how the whole structure of God's revelation to man during that period was on a Fire vibration. It could not have been in any other way. Jonah was sent to warn Nineveh of the impending destruction by fire, but he felt that it was a terrible thing to go in and tell these people that if they did not repent they were going to be destroyed by fire. His human sympathies were too much at work. He had not yet entered into the firmness of function in Divine Love, and the absolute, inflexible course of the Cosmic Plan. Consequently he undertook to run away, and when he was on the ship a great storm came, and in order to save the ship he was thrown overboard. And God had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights before he was spewed up on dry land; that is, into the air.
Now we recognize that the Master was in the tomb for three days and three nights, and that that revealed the necessity of transformation in the three phases of man, that the three phases of man be resurrected into the things of God. Some have supposed that Jonah's three days and nights in the belly of the great fish were merely a prophecy of the fact that Jesus was to be in the tomb for three days and three nights, and the real significance they miss entirely. The three days and three nights represent the necessity of resurrection of the three phases of man into a state which conforms with the Divine. When the period that was dominated by Fire came to a close, it was around the year 400 B.C. Prior to the time that Jesus came into the world there naturally had been a change to a Water vibration in the two cycles, and an Air vibration in the third or uppermost cycle—in other words, in relationship to the 300,000-year period, which began about 400 B.C., we had a dominant, overall vibration of Air. And that vibration will continue for over 300,000 years from this moment, because the period is roughly 310,000 years, but insofar as the 25,000-year and the 2,000-year periods are concerned, both were the beginning of the cycle, which meant that both were a Water vibration. That meant that the people of God, represented by Jonah, were to move out of the Fire vibration, which was emphasized by the threatened destruction of Nineveh by fire in relationship to the unreal state of the world, into a Water vibration. And the great fish prepared for Jonah was simply the Biblical sign, or symbol; a way of saying that the Water Age would begin in the next cycle, and that the children of God would move into the belly of that Water Age.
Now the Water Age, insofar as the 25,000-year cycle is concerned, will continue for about 23,000 years yet, but insofar as the directly involved cycle is concerned, the 2,000-year period, which is roughly 2,154 years, it would come to an end at about 1750 A.D., and immediately following that there would be an Air vibration. God was telling man that he would have roughly a 2,000-year period under the Water vibration, in which he would have the opportunity of experiencing the resurrection of body and mind and spirit into conformity with things Divine; but after the close of that cycle, or period of time, man would be spewed up out of the belly of the fish; i.e. they would be moving out of a period of comparative darkness under the Water vibration onto dry land; that is, into the Air. Man was being told that the Air Age would begin, and it did begin with the Air Age at about 1776. Present outworkings insofar as world events are concerned provide proof of that fact. 1900 marks the end of the overlapping period, because the vibrations of the Age that exists and the one that succeeds overlap each other for a period of about 300 years. That means that an outgoing Age dominates the first 150 years of the incoming Age. The incoming Age is increasingly dominant, but the first 150 years of the incoming Age are dominated by the outgoing Age. That point of division comes roughly at the year 1900. In other words at 1900—back forty-six years from the point of time where we now live [119 years ago now]—God's people were spewed out of the belly of the great fish into the Air Age, and since that time we have had the development of the airplane, radio and a thousand other things that take cognizance of that Air vibration which became dominant at that point.
Now the Master said that the sign of Jonah was given to the people of the world, and He indicated that it was sufficient and they did not need any other sign. What I have been dealing with was what the Master had in mind when He spoke of the sign of the prophet Jonah. Bible students should have been able to see much in relationship to that statement, but the world of Bible students has not seen it. Nevertheless it all worked out exactly as God said it would, and the children of God were spewed out of the belly of the fish into the open Air at what we call 1900, about forty-six years ago [119 years ago now]. They had been in the belly of the fish for a period of time beginning about 400 B.C. They were in the process of being spewed out for 300 years prior to 1900, roughly speaking. To the degree that we have grasped the fundamental significance of all of this, our minds immediately recognize the fact that Jesus Himself emphasized that He was living in a Water Age, in contrast to the Fire Age which had been. He called fishermen as His disciples. He performed many of His miracles in relationship to water, the first being the changing of water to wine, so that man might know how to change the abstract water of truth into the living wine of life. He performed the miracle of walking upon the water, and He stilled the storm, saying, “Peace, be still.”
At the beginning of His ministry there was emphasis placed upon baptism by water. You find no record whatsoever of Jesus Himself baptizing anyone with water. John the Baptist was the one who baptized with water and the later disciples carried through on that; but in sending His disciples out Jesus did not instruct them to baptize with water. He instructed that they baptize with the Holy Spirit. He Himself was working from a Cosmic vibration. John the Baptist was the harbinger of Light, through whom the emphasis was placed on baptism insofar as ceremonial function was concerned in relationship to the Water Age; and the later disciples, in their activities after Jesus ascended, used baptism with water and emphasized it—but Jesus Himself did not. Jesus recognized that that Water Age would pass, and that when it had passed, as it was revealed to man through the sign of the prophet Jonah, man would be spewed out into an Air Age, where the primary necessities would be coordination with the spirit, and a period would come when it would be very needful that man should be baptized of the Holy Ghost. We live in that time. We see that the sign of the prophet Jonah carries up to the time where we now are, but that is not all of the sign.
Let us look at the rest of it. Jonah went back to Nineveh and proclaimed the Word of the Lord. That means that a great revelation of the Word of the Lord would come after the close of the Water Age in which Jesus should manifest, in the early part of the Air Age that should follow, and that is the time in which we live. And it meant that those who responded to the call to repent, as the people of Nineveh did, would be spared destruction by Fire. Nevertheless, as it is stated here in Peter: “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment.” Perhaps we should look on the word and consider it in relationship to the atomic bomb or atomic fire. “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” It does not say that the godly men should be burned, and it is not something to be feared by godly men. In the 10th verse it says: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
We represent the people of the world as they move into this new Air Age
They have the opportunity of repenting and accepting the greater revelation of the Word of God, as the prophet Jonah foretold would be made manifest early in this Age. We know that that prophecy has been fulfilled. The Word of God has been made known to the children of God; not to all the people of the world as yet, but it is expanding in that direction. Those that repent will not have to be destroyed by Fire, because they will be transformed by Fire and made whole. It is only the ungodly that are destroyed by Fire, because the Fire burns away the unreal. Those who are identified with the unreal will be destroyed. Those who are identified with God will find that the fire simply burns away the bonds, as it did with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who were cast into the burning fiery furnace which was heated seven times hotter that it was wont to be heated. It destroyed the ungodly, but for the faithful ones it simply burned away their bonds, so that they walked with another, like unto the Son of God. This Fire, then, sets us free, so that we may walk with the Father within individually—one like unto the Son of God. Therefore we see that the sign of the prophet Jonah was completely sufficient for man and that no man was left without sufficient signs if he would but open his eyes, that he might live in an understanding of the period of the Cosmic Cycles in which we live and serve God and man.
We should have a deeper understanding of that which is taking place. So, as I said in the early part of this service, these things that have developed through man's misuse of the opportunities which God granted are actually what God anticipated that man would bring forth. It is not something that in any sense hinders or prevents the outworking of God's Plan, but rather, the workers of iniquity play into the hand of God and permit the ultimate outworking and fulfilment of that which is according to the promise, by reason of which the new earth and the new heaven are assured unto us. So let us remember that these world turmoils which are now, and which shall increase, are not signs of failure on the part of God, nor are they an indication that we ourselves shall fail in that to which we are called, but rather, when we see these things we should rejoice and we should realize that God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. We should remember the words of the 92nd Psalm: “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High.”
At the present time we have in the Grand Cycle, Air; in the 25,000-year cycle, Water; and in the 2,000-year cycle, Air. However, we must also remember that the overlap period of the 25,000-year Fire Age that closed 400 B.C. is still with us. Therefore, there is a projection of the Solar Fire Age into this present Air Age. The activity of the Fire in the Air is that of cleansing. In other words, we do not have to have a Fire Cycle in order to have the fulfilment of the cleansing by the Fire of God—Love. We should always remember what vibrations we are working under. Anytime you do anything that is not blended with those vibrations it is not going to work. The Air vibration is the dominant one, and remember to be attuned to the spirit. From the standpoint of planning, or from the standpoint of long-range vision, or in relationship to the Plan, we have to consider how those vibrations are working through the Air-Water-Air vibration, or it will not be a clear picture. Regardless of what we feel, we go ahead and do the right thing. “Think not that I am come to bring peace, but the sword.
This point could be emphasized again: “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets…” That includes Jonah, and is emphasized by the fact that the sign of the prophet Jonah was the only one that would be given to the world. “… and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” We know that it is the sign of the coming of the Christ kingdom for all the people who survive the changes that are at hand—the ushering in of the New Earth State, where heaven and earth are one, as emphasized by the sign. The sign of the prophet Jonah is given to all people of the world, but how many will be able to see that sign in the sense of accepting it and recognizing its importance? Let us not imagine for a moment that because we have dealt with it tonight that it will mean anything more to the people of the world as a whole. If you had a means to broadcast that expression, as it was given tonight, over the radio every week for six months on a national hookup, there would be precious few that would pay any attention to it.
This emphasizes the importance of our Radiation work. Please let us remember that it is not necessary—in fact it would be undesirable—to have people who are just beginning to sprout spiritually come immediately into the Third Sacred School consciously. Let us remember that those individuals who have the real stuff in them—and if we carry through properly here—will be drawn step by step to the point where they can contact us. If we start thinking about it in the sense of running out and telling them about the School, we will wreck it. All those individuals will have to grow and develop out of that darkness and move along the ways that will open, and as long as they respond they will be drawn by those irresistible cords of Love. And we must remember to remember that we mean what we say. It is true that we will want to open up new channels. They will run into various things that will give them an avenue of approach. That means, then, that we have a great responsibility in understanding these things, working on the vibration and letting the radiation flow out. That is what we are doing here, and that is opening the way for those individuals, whether they are in Russia or China or New York. It will touch all those who are sprouting spiritually. They have to sprout under the conditions where they live or they will not be reached. It matters not to what church they go, we cannot smooth the path before them. We have to remember that it is working according to these plans, programs and principles and do our part and let it work out. If they cannot follow through to the point where they contact the service, they wouldn't be any good anyway. So until they come through to it—we will open it up for them—it is no good. We must realize that personal sympathy will not work. They have to prove the stuff that is in them, and if they have it in them they are going to come through.It is going to be easier all the time. Now, this is a good subject and a good point that we can radiate through, but before I open up into it I would like to invite some of these young folks to express what they would consider to be something of an answer. Give what you can.
Kathy — The intensification of things, I think, has a great deal to do with it. At the time when you were twenty these qualities were in you but the service was not here to bring them out; but by the time I was twenty the service was here and flourishing.
Uranda — You see how young folks open up the vibration for other young folks. Kathy, for instance, almost from the time she could remember, knew that there was a Third Sacred School and was being impregnated with the teachings of the School. That was a peculiar circumstance that developed which permitted an opening up of something—no one would have suspected that something so important to the world was being accomplished.
As for myself, I started out from Colorado in search of something. I went to Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, back to Kansas and from there to Nashville, before I found that attunement that let it open up. In Nashville I started absolutely from nothing. I was unknown, had no resources—a young fellow who from an outer standpoint had no more opportunity to put the thing over than the man in the moon. When I first started working on vibration I was working nine hours a day, six days a week. I was living in the poorest section, in a little room down on First Street, where the white folks and the colored folks mixed. It was just about as poor and impossible as any situation that could exist. However I started holding classes. I called my brother from Florida and there was then, in the beginning of this, my brother, my wife and myself, and my little daughter was generally sleeping nearby. There were then three individuals, in that sense.
I started having these classes each week, set up vibrations and began to get a clear revelation of the principles involved. How was it that within about three or four weeks of doing that, a man by the name of Henry—I cannot think of his last name—found his way into that room? He lived over in the other part of town. A lady who lived in a very nice apartment on the other side of town and who worked for the railroad found her way into that room, and gradually others came, and that was the beginning. Now if you were to ask me just exactly how all of these things worked out—it was one of those things that you might as well classify as a miracle. And why did Henry come? Someone on the north side of town would have been a lot closer. Henry came, and then the girl, and gradually others. Out of the people who were in the School at that time, in that vibration, Marjorie and myself are the only ones who are left. Gradually we moved uptown and then Alberta Sandefur came in, and Alberta Sandefur was one of the group of the Mystic Seven. I undertook to draw out of the group a group to set up vibrations, and those vibrations are just now coming into fulfilment. Back there, fourteen years ago, I undertook, with the help of individuals who were willing, to set up vibrations. I have seen them come into partial manifestation time after time, just to see them slip off again. And there was nothing left but the vibrations and those could not be disturbed. Now certain vibrations are emerging, and since that period I have traveled in forty-five of the forty-eight states in order to draw the people. And here, from all these scattered places, we have a little group tonight working on the basic vibrations and undertaking to strengthen the basic current already in operation and let the radiation reach out to all those responding.
How do these things happen? What is the answer? There are many things to be considered. First, from the standpoint of my own expression, I have looked back on this period a number of times. It was my first movement into the vibrational field insofar as application and function was concerned. I have wondered time after time how it was that anyone who was in that group could have turned away. The things they knew and the way it worked out should surely have helped them to stay on the Rock. They had the opportunity. And then all the ups and downs of the service you already know. It started with three individuals. It grew from that, and as I was able to set up vibrations in relationship to that focalization there were certain other individuals who were attuned that made it possible for me to set up those vibrations. It is a matter of attunement. Those individuals who began to respond to what we were able to radiate and coordinate on that vibration finally began to come into the current. That which we radiated, which was possible under the circumstances, produced a reaction in individuals out there who happened to be attuned. Those who keep following it up are the ones who are being drawn.
I myself, without any outer help, had to wade through the ceiling of the mass consciousness. I had the Bible, but it did not mean very much to me in an outer sense, so I had to break through that ceiling and I did not have any assistance. As soon as that was broken through, it became easier for others. But having broken through, I was limited to the response that I could generate immediately in that sphere insofar as the outer manifestation was concerned. Insofar as that time was concerned, only those who responded could be drawn in, and my radiation was limited to the ranges of consciousness in those who did respond. And then others gradually came in and touched it to a degree, but did not necessarily follow through. In the fall of 1934 I landed in California and, while I don't recall the exact number—I think it was seventy-five or eighty individuals on the mailing list—within a week after our arrival there it dropped to twenty or thirty, and there were weeks when I had absolutely no income. I had thirty dollars and I had spent about twenty dollars of it for a duplicating machine. For weeks the average income was from two to three dollars a week, but I kept the lesson material going out. I had three people to feed and I had to have a place for them to stay. The mailing list dropped to twenty or thirty but it kept building up. The greatest growth came during the latter part of 1935 and during the first few months of 1936. About the middle of 1936 it jumped from about twenty-five to right at a thousand; but most of those individuals who responded to it to a degree did not carry through, and by the middle of 1937 it was back down to about four hundred.
Now in all of this you have a key to the answer. As the world response is being speeded up we have gradually got to a point where we can intensify the strength of the Radiation. Then as those out there permit an increased radiation to be effective, we are coming to a point where it must intensify. But it is reaching those individuals who are responding, and consequently we are pulling just as hard as their response will permit. If we could arbitrarily start speeding things up, that would snap the vibrations. These lines of vibration will stand only so much pressure. Sometimes I have to let it relax and stop the pulling pressure. There is a pulsating effect in the whole thing, and as individuals respond they are drawn. So these who are here are the ones who followed through on vibrations that were set up and were given the opportunity of service here. As individuals work on the vibration, it will work, just as surely as it has before.
