One With The Rising Tide

from

One  With  The  Rising  Tide

Martin Exeter  and  Chris Jorgensen

January 27, 1985  100 Mile House, B.C.

Chris Jorgensen — Let the redeemed of the Lord say so! I am delighted with the privilege and opportunity of standing before you, and to say so.

It was a very precious and powerful hour that we shared together this morning, and I found my experience to be all-consuming. Every fiber of my being, every morsel of my mind, every ounce of my feeling realm, was totally present, moving with the Word, spirit—all-consuming. I found that the world, the many activities in it that go on day in and day out, just receded from view, and there was only the spirit of the Lord God.

I was giving consideration to the question as to whether an experience such as I shared in the hour this morning is sufficient—to have an experience of giving my all to the Lord, to His spirit, the movement of that spirit, in an hour of service. It is, but for those of us who live in a unit there are 164 other hours in the week in which there is space to give one’s all, to be fully consumed. It’s not enough to just come and to be present in a service setting and to move with the Word. That movement is something that rightly takes place in every moment throughout the week.

This afternoon I was reading the Bible, as I often do, and I was giving consideration to the other creative cycles that have appeared on earth to allow the restoration of mankind. I was noting that in each particular creative cycle that has occurred there were critical points, crisis points, in the movement of the creative cycle, where the individual or the group of individuals absolutely needed to be in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing. As one scans the story that is contained in the Bible there are numerous such occasions. I am thinking of the time of the children of Israel and their experience of coming out of Egypt. Certainly they had various critical points along the way where they needed to be in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing, crossing the Red Sea, for example.

I found myself reading the passage in Numbers relating to the time when the Lord God, through Moses, sent twelve spies into the promised land to scout it out to bring back a report. As I am sure you recall, ten of the spies said: “The people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.” But two, Joshua and Caleb, had a completely different view. I would read something out of Numbers, chapter 14, of their experience:

“And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.

“If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.

“Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not.”

Here was a particular critical point in the unfolding creative cycle it had been going on for years and years. The children of Israel cried and died through the night and said, “No, we won’t go. We can’t.” And in a very particular way they were denying what it was that the Lord God had brought unto them. Of course we recall their experience: they wandered in the wilderness for many years. There was a sense of failure.

I was also reading something of the story of our Master and His experience in the creative cycle that was unfolding at His time. In reading His story it’s evident that there were critical points in His ministry where something needed to be met in a very specific way. One such occasion was after the feast, the supper, when He went with the disciples into the Garden of Gethsemane and He commanded the disciples to sit and pray. He took with Him three a little farther on—Peter, James and John—and He himself went farther on and began to pray. And as you will remember He came and found them sleeping:

“And he ... saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?

“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

“He went away again the second time, and prayed ...

“And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy.

“And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time ...

“Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”

Here was a particular critical point, a point of pressure, of proving out, and there was failure. I mention these because I have been giving some deep consideration of where we are now and the creative cycle of restoration that is currently moving, that I’m moving in, that we’re moving in together. I feel we are at a critical time, a point of testing, a point of proving something out, particularly in regard to the Rising Tide of Change events, Here’s an opportunity that is with the body, a chance to bring right into the world of man a spiritual event, to actually let heaven be on earth. Such a thing hasn’t occurred for millennia.

It occurs to me that if there are those willing to allow this to happen there would be something on earth that would be undeniable, unstoppable. It would perhaps even change the very circumstances that come our way on a daily basis. But it’s not a matter of looking to someone else to provide the goods at The Rising Tide of Change—to Martin perhaps, or Michael, or someone else. It is rather the acceptance of a stance on my part—and each one can say that—to let spirit be absolutely represented in living, not just in the Rising Tide event in Vancouver on April 13, but in this very moment in this hour of service, and in the hours to come, that through our individual and collective living there is a channel available, a setting of heaven available, through which the spirit of the Lord God can move, can act on earth, right at the very level where man is. As I mentioned, this would be something undeniable, present in form on earth again after all these many, many years.

So we are faced with a critical time, but it’s not a serious and heavy business. It is serious, and there is responsibility to be accepted in living, but I know, and I trust you know too, that as we are willing to do that, to provide space in our own consciousness for spirit to move, be expressed, there is a sense of lightness, a sense of ease, even humor. On that basis then there is no space for a fear of failure. This is something that has clouded the consciousness of mankind in a particular way. Failure is impossible as long as I am present, as long as I am on hand. So, in a very particular way the body is coming of age. We have had the space to live and to be educated; it is now the time for doing. And I gladly accept that responsibility, individually and certainly with you, to let the Son of Man again be in form on earth now.

Martin Exeter — There are some very interesting points here in what has been said. I have given consideration to the possibility of no more mailings. As long as the mailings are simply used for personal benefit they are being misused, after a certain point. There is another reason for them beyond the provision of what may, to start with, be needful for the increase of the individual experience of association with the Word and with the tone of life. So I have thus far refrained from withdrawing what I have spoken of as my personal letters to all concerned. Another way that I might have handled this matter was to proceed to give expression to something that was totally out of character and see what everybody would do. I was speaking this morning about lies. Now this might be a reason for lying: to give everybody a chance to be true to the truth. I haven’t done that yet, at least not purposely!

There is this very strong sense of failure in human beings everywhere. Because of this sense of failure there is a sense of insecurity. The failure has occurred of course, as we recognize, because of an original stance which someone or ones took relative to their responsibilities on earth. Here was a point of failure. Perhaps, to start with, it didn’t appear to be very much of a failure and may not have been translated as a failure at all because, up to that point, nobody knew what failure was; so this was perhaps deemed to be just another aspect of success. It was anticipated that it would be of that nature: otherwise the stance wouldn’t have been taken. However it proved itself out to be failure. And human beings have never had as a strong point, apparently, the willingness to admit failure. They are quite conscious of the fact of it but seldom reach a point of admitting it. They always have their justifications and excuses and they can give you a long rigmarole of the reasons why: the failure that occurred wasn’t really their fault. But failure is failure, regardless of whose fault it is, and I don’t think there’s anyone on the face of the earth who can exclude themselves from that matter of fault, because all have participated in the failure; and so there is the sense of insecurity, which has always hampered a return to the true stance.

Chris spoke of the historical past in connection with the Israelites and the Master. Here were occasions when there was failure—various lesser failures I suppose you could say, until finally the point was reached of absolute failure. There was a rising tide, one might say, in that Old Testament period, coming into form in a very small way, to start with, through Abraham, who brought it to focus, accommodated it to the extent that he did. This rising tide of spirit was at work in human hearts and minds everywhere but came to the surface and to point in this one man particularly, and because of that something was initiated. At that time it was rather a slow process, at least slow from the standpoint of the human view of things; it involved many generations of people. It continued on after a fashion as there were those who did accommodate the movement of that tide. Various ones had parts to play—Isaac, Jacob. Joseph in particular allowed something to come very keenly to point in his willingness to accommodate that rising tide which was continuing.

This was all one movement of a creative process, unfolding over the years, and of course it eventually emerged in a special way through Moses, who himself accommodated that tide very well and provided what was necessary at that time, as the others had before him. But there was failure, regardless of this, regardless of the fact that the way was really rather easy, because those attitudes which were common in human beings at that time were utilized in the process. Some have wondered why there was all that war and killing and battling by the children of Israel in those days; of course it wasn’t solely by them, everybody else was battling too. But this was the general attitude of human beings, the general level of consciousness, the general way of behavior. It was a very material or physical approach, and we have recognized that fact. That was the way it was then. There doesn’t seem to have been all that much progress since that time, as most are still caught in that state of affairs where it is imagined that the battle is the thing—not only war in the usual sense these days, but everybody is battling with words or however, as though this was the way to go, as though some supposed problem is going to be solved that way. Never.

Anyway that rising tide in the Old Testament time did begin to emerge out of the warring condition, particularly at the time of Solomon, and there was an opportunity for something to occur there which would have been unprecedented—it was somewhat unprecedented, to start with—but there was again failure, and so very shortly thereafter the whole opportunity disintegrated. It might be said that in that disintegration it gave the appearance that the tide had gone out again. I don’t think that’s really what happened, because one aspect of the rising tide is disintegration, and if there is no focus for the integrating part of it then all you see is disintegration. But this doesn’t say that the tide is not still rising.

The evidence of that continued rising of the tide of course was the advent of the Master, in the person of Jesus, and He accommodated that at the time. The tide had continued on from the level of physical action in the old warring ways to an opportunity to begin to understand—in other words to allow the mind to come out of its arrogance and begin to comprehend what was really going on. This was quite possible because there was One present on earth who was accommodating this rising tide and bringing it to focus, and was quite capable of providing what was necessary to allow others to come into an understanding. But, for whatever reason—I think the reason is usually called human nature—it wasn’t accepted, it wasn’t allowed to happen, and again there was failure. Of course the failure of the Israelites, originally, has been persisted in, particularly in what is called Judaism, as though what failed back there could be retrieved. And there is the claim to be the chosen people on the part of a certain section of humanity, because this was the case at one point in the process of that particular aspect of the rising tide. But all that came out of that was failure, disintegration, and so whatever endeavor is made later, or now, relative to that failure, still carries the sense of failure with it. And all concerned do have that sense of failure—it’s accurate, an accurate discernment.

Well the same thing happened insofar as the Master was concerned; here again was failure. And there have been those who since that time have endeavored to get it all back again, something that can’t be done. It can never be done, even with our own failures—that should be more or less obvious. The failures that we have experienced in our personal lives heretofore, can you go back there and do anything about them? No. The failure itself needs to pass away insofar as one’s own experience of victory in the present moment is concerned; then the failure’s gone. But there has been this failure and the sense of insecurity consequently, because it is assumed that everything is going to fail, and the proof positive of this fact is that everybody dies. No matter how successfully you may imagine that you have lived, you wake up one morning dead! But it doesn’t do you any good, does it? No, here is a very vivid evidence of failure which is repeated constantly before the eyes of those who have not quite reached the point of utter failure yet.

So we are aware of the rising tide again. We have some consciousness of two particular occasions when it happened in the past, and now it begins to come to point again, come to focus again, but this time it’s at a little different level of things. It isn’t at a level where everybody is going to be convinced mentally, caused to understand mentally; it doesn’t work that way anymore. That was lost nineteen centuries ago; it could have come then but didn’t. Trying to make it come now that way is futile. Of course it is very popular in the world. Everybody believes in this seemingly: that somehow or other you can get enough mental understanding, enough knowledge, to do everything that’s required to make the world an inhabitable place. But it doesn’t really look as though that’s the way the world is being made, does it? It becomes more and more uninhabitable.

There is this critical point, and there have been many—as Chris indicated—both larger and lesser critical points. This begins to give some indication of a larger critical point when, if one is governed by failure, one will naturally fail. And it’s taken for granted these days: everybody fails. But the rising tide is not a tide of failure unless it is resisted. There is a very great deal of resistance to it. Many of those who are resisting don’t think they are resisting; they think they are moving with the way things are going on earth—high tech and all. But that is hardly accommodating the rising tide of spirit. There’s a rising tide of computer hardware and software and all this sort of thing; but the real rising tide is not supposed to be accommodated by computers but by people, and this has a relatedness to these events which are coming up this year.

There is a certain outline beginning to take form as to certain subjects of consideration which may come up at these Rising Tide events, subjects such as business, education, art, all these sorts of things. Well a lot of people have interest in various areas and may still be looking for some breakthrough or other with respect to those areas but, from our standpoint, from the standpoint of spirit, that is not to be anticipated, because all these areas relate to the state of mankind the way it now is. If there is interest in these areas, that can be used to advantage because it may help people feel a relatedness to what is going to go on; but in coming to the Rising Tide event it isn’t really in order that business people can discuss business, or educational people can discuss education, or the artists can discuss art. It simply is an opportunity to bring people into association with the atmosphere and the creative action of spirit. They come in order to experience what the creative expression of spirit is in living. They may feel that they can carry this into their business, and that’s all right. If that is actually done, of course the business is transformed and probably somewhere along the line ceases to be what human beings imagine business to be.

Now at last there is something which allows people to begin to come clear of their problems, so that they don’t imagine that all that is necessary is to try to solve their problems. What is necessary is that the person should awaken out of a dream-filled sleep into the real world. Everybody talks about the real world as being that sleazy place out there, but the real world we refer to, for sake of a word, is heaven. It is an invisible world until the earth reflects it; then heaven becomes a visible world. But there’s nothing to reflect until there are those who are present in heaven, those whose stance is in heaven, those who have moved out of the realm of failure into the area of what would be called victory—but it isn’t really victory either; it’s the only real realm there is. It’s a matter of waking out of this nightmare state into the experience of what is really there.

This is what all are being invited to experience—not all are going to hear that invitation consciously, very few presumably, but a lot more will hear it subconsciously if it is actually extended. I suppose it’s the same sort of invitation that was issued in words by the One called Jesus when He said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”—an invitation to come out of this laboring world, where everybody seems to be pretty heavy laden, to let that go. I don’t know why that should be so hard, except that people imagine that they have to carry these immense burdens on their backs until they become too much and are crushed to the ground. “Come unto me.” So that invitation is extended, not so much by human beings, although human beings are needful on the scene of things in order to articulate the invitation, but the invitation is being offered not by human beings but by the spirit of the Lord God. If we are in position to accommodate that spirit, so that the invitation is issued, that’s what we are here to do.

I trust we will do just that, in company with many others who also participate in the process with us, because we begin to understand how it’s done. It’s done by reason of spirit and it’s not done by the efforts of human minds. It’s done because spirit is present and in action and there are a sufficient number of obedient human minds and yielded human hearts to let it happen. If those aren’t there nothing happens. So the only reason why we would be there is to let this happen. And there must be something already happening, or we wouldn’t even have conceived of the events. This wasn’t some brilliant human mind thinking up an idea—it’s something that rose and is rising through many people. There is a distinction in our own experience in this regard because we have a greater capacity to accommodate it with understanding. Most people do not have that capacity to accommodate it. They accommodate it after a fashion but usually interpret it with their self-active minds, so that it comes out to be something other than it really is.

We have been in the process of leaving behind what we have in times past called self-activity, and this requires a certain educational process; but somewhere along the way we come to the point where that self-activity has been educated out of the picture—most of human education of course is educating it into the picture. Then finally there begins to be space for what may be brought forth by the creative action of spirit, and as it is brought forth through the creative action of spirit we know it to be our own expression: “I articulate it”—and we’re not waiting for someone else to do it. Someone else, we trust, will be doing it too; and if they are it all fits together, it’s all one thing, we’re not in conflict anymore.

So we share this beautiful exciting opportunity which presents itself to us now and will continue to do so, because the rising tide is not going to stop. I suppose sometimes a person is capable of stepping out of the rising tide, so to speak, or excluding it from his own experience, having already sensed it to a certain extent, but surely no one in their right mind would do that; and we find it reaches a point where that would be quite impossible. We find ourselves to be identified with the rising tide; this is what I am. So we share the responsibility of letting it be brought forth in this way.

People may come to these events for various apparent reasons. We give them various reasons for coming, as they think, but they are all coming for the same thing, whether they come as businessmen or educators or artists or whatever it may be. They all in fact are coming for the same thing: the greater experience of spirit in their own living. It doesn’t matter what the role they are playing is, the greater expression of the spirit can easily appear in that role. But it isn’t the role that is important; the importance is the fact that there is a greater expression of spirit. That’s what carries weight, and we know that carries weight. As we increasingly know that, these external factors begin to recede into the background; they don’t carry weight anymore. And we stop fussing about all the things that we have been fussing about in the past, of an external nature. People are always fussing about their marriages, their children, their … oh every sort of thing, simply because they are all wrapped up in this business. If they get up where they belong they can see the thing with perspective and everything can be handled quite easily, no problem. As long as we have problems, as it has been said—and I think Bill Bahan said it frequently—we are the problem. So they all need to be dissolved because we are in a place where they don’t exist.

Here is the rising tide of change, and I delight to accommodate this with you and with others, that it may reveal victory on this last occasion rather than a repeat of failure, which it always has been heretofore. We have no precedent of victory except in the individual sense, just one person, and that is sufficient for us, I’m sure. But we need to set the precedent collectively. Well, let’s do it!

© emissaries of divine light

A Great Promise

A  Great  Promise

from  Abram

Uranda  March 30, 1953  Class

Back in that period of the dawn of history, our attention comes to focus on a man called Abraham and his particular pattern of response, the things that began to work out in his life. The very mention of the name Abraham should remind you instantly of Melchizedek—Melchizedek, King of Salem—Prince of Peace.

The beginning pattern, initiated by Melchizedek, who according to the record was not as a man born—he was without beginning of years as we think of it, without end of days; the picture we have is of a Being who was not subject to birth and death or ascension, as we think of it, in relationship to this particularized pattern. And we recall that this King—the King of Salem, or Melchizedek—comes into the picture at a time when Abraham had some trouble. His brother Lot was not as responsive to the spirit of God as Abraham was, and he got into trouble. There was a raiding party, as was common in those days with respect to the various tribes that were beginning to take form, and each little group had its king, so there were all kinds of kings in those days. And one of these kings had come against Lot and carried off some of the people and the animals and goods. And the King of Salem went out to help. He cooperated with Abraham in bringing this king under control. They had a little battle, and the upshot was that the loot, or the plunder that had been taken, was restored. Now it's in that setting that we see the beginnings of this pattern.

It's interesting to note that the same cycle initiated with respect to the Orient has the same type of setting—two wholly different outworkings on the basis of the historical pattern, and with respect to the Biblical record we can see this one with respect to Abraham and Melchizedek—but, in the opening phases of the historical pattern as it relates to the Orient, we have a very similar story. And it opens in relationship to a very similar pattern of battle. If you know anything about the Bhagavad-Gita, you will appreciate what I have reference to. I am hoping to introduce you to The Song Celestial before too long. The version that we use was translated from the Sanskrit by Sir Edwin Arnold. He did a beautiful job, but just as we find is the case with respect to the Bible, so is it there—the centuries through which these records come to us, the manipulations of priesthood, etc, have obscured some of the specific meanings, some of the symbolism, some of the values, and some of them become, under this pattern, definitely misleading. So a number of years ago—just about ten, roughly speaking—I undertook to revise the significant portion of The Song Celestial, and it is that revised pattern of Sir Edwin Arnold's translation of the Bhavagad-Gita, which he called The Song Celestial, which we will use as opportunity affords.

            

But I wish to draw particularly to your attention now the fact that that story too begins on a battlefield. This story begins with Abraham, Melchizedek and Lot on a battlefield. And when we come to the story of the Bhagavad-Gita we find that there is the Blind King; there is Arjuna, who would correspond in principle to Abraham; there is Krishna, who corresponds in principle to Melchizedek. And exactly the same principles, exactly the same laws, exactly the same processes, are portrayed in these two patterns—one with the setting, as you know it with respect to Abraham, and the other far away in the Orient, where it took form in the revelation of the laws and principles of God in a completely different place and setting and yet the same kind of setting. So we begin to note such similarities and see that these two revelations of Divine Principle and Law started in each case—though so widely separated—started on a battlefield.

Now what is the case with respect to you? When you begin to move into the pattern of the Divine Design, is there one of you that could say that the story with respect to your life did not begin on a battlefield? Didn't it begin on a battlefield with you? Certainly it did. Wasn't there a blind king—your own self-active mind? Wasn't there a Lot in the lot? Certainly. There is always some kind of a battle. It has various patterns in the background of your individual lives, but there was at least an internal conflict. There was a refusal to accept the realm of limitation roundabout. There was probably in you the contest between the Abraham side of your nature and the Lot side of your nature. If you look back, the Lot side wanted to be content with things as they are, more or less, and talked about how good it was to get settled down in the right kind of a pattern. And Abraham's side was the pioneer. Just settling down here like that, just the same as everyone else is doing, just having these creature comforts—that isn't going to bring the fulfilment of life. We need to lead on out into something more wonderful; we don't know what it is yet, but we have the assurance that there will be a revelation. We will begin to find the Way, the Truth and the Life. We will begin to know where we are going, why we are here, where we came from, what our purpose is, and how to to serve—to have our lives have meaning, so that we can accomplish that for which we came into the world.

So there was the Lot side of you, to whatever degree it tended to have an influence, and there was the Abraham side of you. We could examine the same picture as it is revealed in the Bhagavad-Gita. But there is the Arjuna side of you. And just as there was the Melchizedek to reveal the way at the time of Abraham, there was a Krishna to reveal the way at the time of Arjuna. Always, whenever human beings have been ready to respond to God and let the will of God be done on earth, and they were ready to yield to the will of God, to leave behind the old patterns, always there has been provision by which the things of God might become known to those who would receive them, and we have two outstanding illustrations of this.

And if these two patterns had been allowed to work out—the one in the near East, as it extended out into the Occident, and the other in the Orient—it would not have been necessary for our Lord to come on earth. If either one of these patterns had held, if either one of them had been allowed to work out the way it should have, it would not have been necessary for the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings to come into the world and face the things He did. It was perfectly possible, it was a Divine opportunity extended to man, it was a wonderful invitation. But man didn't let it work out in either case.

And so finally there was the manifestation of the pattern, the same principles all over again, the same type of thing all over again, in what we call the New Testament story. For the land was under subjection to the Roman rule; there was the pattern of conflict and unrest; there was Herod the King; and there was Jesus Christ. Exactly the same thing in principle, in revelation, the laws of being, all over again—a different focalization of them but exactly the same laws and principles.

And outside of the particular facts with respect to the Master as a Being, did He bring into the world any truth, did He reveal to man any knowledge that had not already been offered to man? Many would be inclined to say, “Yes, He surely did,” but is it so? No. It had already been revealed to man; it was already available to man, but man wasn't taking advantage of it. He re-focalized it, revitalized it, but outside of the newness of the reality of His Own Being in manifestation on earth, and the application as it was established with respect to Himself, there was nothing new in it, because it had all been given before. And once we begin to see that and realize it—and you will see it as we go along—you begin to see that it was not God's design, it was not arbitrarily required by God that our Lord and King Himself should come into the world and face the things He did. It was unnecessary. And so, perhaps the best way to make this beginning is to actually read some of the story, let you see how it worked out.

“And Tera’n took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

“Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

“And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

“And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

One of the first things we note here is the necessity for the human capacity to accept, in relationship to oneself, a great promise. The tendency in human beings is to say, “Well, that can be for someone else, somewhere else”—but to receive for oneself a great promise? Why, what arrogance for me to even think that such a thing could be me! Now if God produced a great person over there or something, and gave us a leader, I would be happy to follow. But for me? Just to think, me? No, no, no.” But he accepted a great promise in relationship to himself. There was no outer evidence of the fulfilment of the promise but there was the willingness to do his part; not arrogance or foolhardiness—but not holding back, not refusing to have a share in God's givingness, not refusing to let himself be the means by which something could come on earth. He didn't always function in absolute perfection perhaps, but he accepted a great promise in relationship to himself, when everything made it look as if he was simply having a pipe dream. It was ridiculous; it was fanciful.

It takes a greatness inside, for a human being to accept a great promise in relationship to himself without becoming egotistical, arrogant and self-active on the one hand, or without rejecting it in a false pattern of humility on the other hand. There's the Central Way. Most people reject the blessings of God because they are so humble. Humility is necessary, true humility—but the false pattern of humility has been used by the adversary to defeat many, many people. Oh, it's necessary to be humble before God, yes. But a false pattern of humility has made so many people refuse to accept the great promises in relationship to themselves. And what did Abram start with but a promise? What was there in the pattern round about him, in the uncertainties of the world at that time, the tribal feuds and all the rest of it? What kind of character, what kind of capacity, what kind of a quality would that be? Something quite remarkable, don't you think? that under those circumstances a man had the capacity to accept a great promise in relationship to himself when there was no outer evidence to indicate that he was doing anything but having a foolish dream. It looked like everything was against him. But that is the spirit of the true pioneer, and the quality of a man or a woman who will dare to accept a great promise as having meaning to himself or herself. It's easy enough to set it aside. It's easy enough to spoil it with arrogance, egotism, on the one hand, or to reject it in the false pattern of humility. So few there have been in the world who had what it took to walk in the Central Way, to be balanced. Because if you do walk in that Central Way, there will be those who will take the attitude that you are arrogant, that you are an egotist..

How often I have been classified as an egotist because I refused to relinquish the position that I have a Mission on earth, I have a message to give, I have a purpose, something that is important to the whole of humanity. How often I have been called egotistical because, in the false pattern of humility, I wouldn't deny the Commission. When I received that Commission was there any outer evidence that we'd ever reach a point where I would have the privilege of standing here talking to you? The extent to which that has reached out into the world already means something. And we share it. But it takes that something that causes an individual to accept a great promise as having meaning in relationship to himself in actual fact, so that he is ready to act upon it. Not just to say, “Well now. I'll wait and see if such-and-such a thing works out or someday perhaps, somehow,” but to act upon it when from every outer standpoint it appears that you are just plain fanciful, ridiculous—to dare to do in the face of that type of situation.

The Lord told him—Get thee out of thy country. “Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house.” Now for anyone who is going to amount to anything on earth, that's the finest advice that can be given, whether to Abram or somebody else. It was the advice the Lord gave. And anyone who wants to really serve God on earth had better do it, because as long as one stays in the pattern of kinfolk, as ordinarily established, he will become subject to the old patterns, the old situations. Of course sometimes you can take mother and dad along. I managed that for Kathy's sake, but it was quite a struggle! Kathy: “And you finally won!” [Great laughter from Uranda.]

“Get thee out of thy country.” That doesn't necessarily mean that you have to move from the United States to Canada, or somewhere. But you have to make a change. You're not going to do it in the old pattern because, well, it would just be asking too much. You've got to dare to make a move. “Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house.” Now there is instruction that applies to any man or woman who finds himself stirred of the spirit of God out there in the world. And it is our business to help establish a place to which those aspiring souls may come and turn, that they may not just go wandering through the patterns of life seeking and never finding. But there are many of all ages out there in the world pattern today who are hearing that call. Some of them are beginning to act upon it. Some of them are just getting conditioned to the idea. But they are ready to come and be with us, not necessarily geographically, but from the standpoint of sharing in the working of God's Plan on earth. And so the word today, just as surely as it was then, the Word the Lord if you please, is “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee.” That is a promise to you. You have accepted it or you wouldn’t be here. For some of you it was a little difficult perhaps, and for some of you not so difficult—but if you hadn't been ready and willing!

“And I will make of thee a great nation.” Now that doesn't necessarily have to mean that you will have to be the original parent that produces a great nation after so many generations—No! That is more or less the way it worked out with Abram, but we are not Abram. We are ourselves, right here. “And I will make of thee a great nation.” All of those who so respond, who are willing to dare to move out of old patterns and into the new, whoever they are, wherever they are, “I will make of thee a nation,” and that promise applies for us today and the people who awakening, just as surely as it did to Abram. And what does He say “And I will bless thee.” Not perhaps—I will. Once we begin to move in that pattern, as you have done or you wouldn't be here, once you begin to share, in a true sense, that Divine outworking—“I will bless thee.”

Of course, you have to learn how to receive the blessing. And it is the thing you have to learn how to help others learn, because human beings simply do not know how to receive the blessings of the Lord, and that is the difficulty. So when you learn to receive them, and you can inspire others to receive those blessings, you are serving. And those who are responding to that call, which is sounding in the world today as surely as it did at the time of Abram, begin to see the pattern of service to the Glory of God and the blessing of the children of men to which you are called. So few? Yes. But as we hold it steady and do our part it will open, and there are many who are ready to become a part of this Great Nation. Not a great nation in the sense of entering into competition with the United States or Canada or Great Britain or someone else, no. A Great Nation in the sense of a body of human beings who are willing to serve God on earth, to let the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven. “And I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.” Now, when you are blessed, you are supposed to become a blessing. What did the Master say? “He that would be great among you, let him be the servant of all”—the same principle exactly that God had expounded to Abram way back there, the same principle. “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

My question is, today: Are you man enough, are you woman enough, to receive that promise in relationship to yourself, in this day, in this time, in this hour? Because it is offered to you just as surely as it was offered to Abram. It may not look like you can do anything about it, but how about accepting a Great Promise in relationship to youself, in this hour? This promise: that you shall be blessed and that you may be a blessing to others; that you may let this have meaning in your life, now. Because if it was of any value at the time of Abram, as he was then known, it is of value to you in this moment. And it applies to you just as surely as to Abram, if you will let yourself do your part in this moment, in this hour, in relationship to this Cycle of the Divine Plan. Because it's the same promise today as it was then, for the same purpose. It is not a changed pattern. Oh, it may manifest differently, yes, but just the same laws, the same promise, the same principles, the same God, all for the same purpose. And we are the ones who are on earth and have a chance to take a look at it. Are you man enough, woman enough, to receive a Great Promise from God Himself to you, now? That is the question.

© emissaries of divine light

A Great Company Without Number

A  Great  Company,  Without  Number

Grace Van Duzen   September 14, 2002

I had a great compulsion to come to be with you today. And I'll start with this (lifting her book, The Book Of Grace: A Cosmic View Of The Bible) it's heavy!

“The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones.” That's the whole man–made world, which is full of bones—skeletons? You don't look like skeletons!

“And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley;”—population explosion!—“and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live?” Can God's crowning creation survive in its present state on this planet? “And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.” A little reproach in there maybe—you're asking me? But that's the only way it can be done. The Lord did not respond to that. “Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.” It's the only answer. “Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath”—symbol of spirit—“to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.”

It wasn't until the breath came in that there was life in the body. It wasn't all the wonderful curves and sinews. Are you ashamed of your body? The Lord wasn't when He made it, or He wouldn't have made it the way it is. And I imagine when He got to certain points, wonderful curves, He said “Mmm–hmmm, it's all right!” But this skeleton had to come first. This is the formation, the bones; and if any bone is out of place, you know it!—the tiniest bone.

In the process of creation, it came “bone to his bone.” What does that mean? It means there's a relationship between every single part of your body with every other part of your body, and unless that relationship is right, it's not so good. Looking at this from the standpoint of the whole body, “bone to his bone” came together. And we're talking about this body, an example for the whole great world body, the open valley that was full of dry bones. In that whole body of mankind, bone comes to his bone. Is that a cosmic mate finding a cosmic mate? Well, praise the Lord! But it's every part of creation finding its right place in the body. The relationship with everything and everyone, with the dishwasher who is with you, with everything. And if there's division, separation in this body, you know the ultimate results are there—there is war. Do we look out there and say, “How awful, war!”? Better look at something much closer. Any little disagreement is monstrous in another setting.

Togetherness is the secret. There is a lot of attention, rightly, given to what needs to be changed in “me.” Absolutely! You're the only one; I'm the only one who can do it. But how about that whole body? And the Lord laid sinews upon it: “And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” YE shall know I AM the Lord. Only when the breath comes into it, not just when the sinews are there and the wonderful flesh and all the rest of it, and the skin. I emphasize the beauty of creation. Do we rejoice in it as much as the Creator must have, when He saw what was emerging? And His love is always there.

“So I prophesied as I was commanded:”—and there's the secret—“and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.” A noise and a shaking? That's not all peace, is it? Something was happening, a great thing. Disturbance? Well, I imagine that's an understatement here, but it all comes together. We're in a world where it is what it is—beyond description right now! But this is where we are, and this is what we need to do: that which is right at hand. And this wonderful harmony and peace, after the bone–shaking and the noise—we know a little of that, I think.

“And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.” A body can be formed according to design, a wonderful body, but unless it is imbued with the spirit it doesn't mean anything. “Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds,”—the Divine Design of Creation—“O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” Slain—dead to the spirit of God. And only the spirit can bring it to life. Everything else is an exercise in futility. “So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”

“Army” is simply the name given to a great body in those days. An exceeding great army—this planet full with those imbued with the spirit. Their breath came into them. Here's this great body filled with the spirit of God. And they lived, and what happened? They stood up! It's the first time you hear of anything standing up. Here it is: they stood up, an exceeding great body. The commission received by Ezekiel is that which is given to everyone who comes into this world: to so live that the radiation from the Lord contributes to the regeneration of the human race. The breath, the Spirit of God, fills the valley of dry bones with living flesh standing upon its feet, an exceeding great body without number.

Now I go back, way back in this book. This was prophesied by Abraham: that the seed which he planted would indeed grow and cover the face of the earth. The similarity that I'm pointing out between these two is that it covers the face of the whole earth. The whole earth is included in what we're doing here, right here in this magnificent circle this morning. An exceeding great body fills this planet. And that was said about Abram in a different way.

“The Lord said unto Abram… For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.” It includes this whole body. And what is meant by his seed? Just his son and then his grandson, his great–grandson, his great–great–grandson, great–great–great–great–great grandson? It's more than that, isn't it? The seed. Well let's look at the seed in relation to this beautiful planet Earth. I know you all love it as I love this planet. But do you ever think how unique it is? What about the seeds we plant? Thank you for these gorgeous roses! A seed had to sometime be in the ground of this planet before it could be a flower. It was all contained in the seed. Every bit of that beauty, everything about it, was in that little seed.

And the seed of Abram—he was the great, great pioneer. He was the first one to change the worship from death to life. Remember he listened to the commandment of the devil to take his son up on a high place, as high as he could get—it was the highest act of worship—and kill his son. Up to that point, that was the habit, highest form of worship. I don't think the world has come very far from that, do you? God decrees that His son be killed in order to save the world? I think this world of dry bones needs to take a good look.

But Abram, strong and faithful and wonderful, did that. So the seed of that victory shall cover the face of the earth. Here is another wonderful promise with regard to the planet. This whole planet—thinking of the physical seeds again, we couldn't have flowers, couldn't have vegetables, couldn't have those gorgeous trees, without seeds. That's true of Earth. But what about the other planets? You couldn't grow any of our wonderful things on them, unless you took some of the Earth's soil with you, dressed up like an astronaut, because you couldn't put it in the ground of another planet—it wouldn't grow. This belongs to this planet, this Earth. How wonderful that is! And do we ever think of it? It's a unique part in the Lord's great Cosmic Home. And I love it, and you love it. Every little thing that comes out of the ground is so absolutely precious.

Abram was told to “Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre ... and built there an altar unto the LORD.” Abram had already sensed a mission that surpassed any earthly vision, when he departed from his father's house: “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Could we say that? That's what this body is here for. All families, not just inhabitants of one little part of one country, of anything. All families of the earth. Abram realized there was no limit to his work in letting the Lord again have control in all the earth through himself. Here was a promise—not just as far as he could see but in every direction—he was told to look north, east, south, and west—the beginning of a New Earth, with himself as the focus because of his understanding of the enormity of the commission. There's an enormity of commission here in this Body, the greatest possible: New Earth.

The “seed” of Abram was to be “as the dust of the earth.” The state of man when he became identified with the “dust” was to be changed into the “seed' of Abram.” The dust of the ground is first referred to at man's Fall, when his mind was likened to a serpent that would crawl on the ground. It would never see anything but the dust, or eat anything but the dust—the material level. But here it was changed with Abram and the promise to his seed—and within his seed was all victory, this largeness of vision which surpassed anything human—all contained in this seed. When it is put in the earth, what comes out is gorgeous. Well we are the seed, planted in Earth's wonderful ground.

We have all the wonderful story of Abraham, how he turned from the worship of death. It was the worship of death: the son had to be killed. It was the highest form of worship. And he had the knife in his hand. He had his son bound, a young man, maybe in his teens. And he asked his father, “Where is the sacrifice? We have all the things to make a fire, but no lamb. Where is the lamb?” And his father said, “The Lord will provide the lamb for a sacrifice.” So he tied him up, put him on the pyre, to burn him after he killed him. What did that boy go through, and Abraham? And he had the knife ready. And he heard the word of the Lord: “Abraham, Abraham.” And he gave the perfect answer: “Here am I.”

Here am I. No matter what the circumstance, no matter what, here am I, Lord. And He said, “Touch not the lad.” And what joy there was in his releasing his son, both in father and son, for this whole world.

So it's been done, many times—victory. This is what we are here to portray, to give our lifeblood so that the beauty of creation is more than bones. But isn't it interesting that a skeleton has taken on a Halloween nature? It's like a devil—death, worship of death. It's all around. And yet it's the foundation. This body is far beyond just bones—far beyond that! But there are many steps. There are the sinews that bring the bones together. There's the flesh that makes the utter beauty of the human body, and skin. Skin is an organ, not just a cover. So there's everything pictured here. And I love to join with each one of you in it.

There's one word I cannot tolerate, in myself or in my environment, and that's “failure.” There's been so much victory through the ages—and failure. So which are we going to identify with? In a way, we don't have a choice. It's all working. But I want to be part of it, don't you?

© emissaries of divine light