It is good to gather once more to share the privilege of meditation upon the things of God, and this Thursday evening I would carry forward the pattern of meditation which we were considering the beginning of this week, for our time did not permit us to examine adequately into this particular subject which finds its centering in the words the Master taught men to pray, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” One of the greatest patterns of misunderstanding in relationship to the meaning of our Master’s life on earth, centers in this particular subject of meditation. It is sad that so much that our Master did, so much that He taught, so much of the work that He accomplished on earth, should have been caused to be so meaningless for so long. And one of the great reasons for this rests in the wide-spread misunderstanding with respect to the meaning of intercession. The process of forgiving debts, trespasses, or sin, however one may classify it, is actually the work of intercession.
The popular idea, having some variation in concept, is that Jesus is somehow up in heaven constantly interceding before the Father on our behalf, as if the Father were constantly looking for some opportunity to cast some hapless human being into an eternal hell, or as if the Father were on the alert to find something wrong with some human being so that He could heap some kind of horrible judgment upon him. If God the Father were so interested in finding something wrong with some human being, any human being, I do not think that He would have to look too hard or too far. But the picture as it is painted, with various modifications, has Jesus constantly interceding on our behalf to keep the Father mollified, calmed down, sufficiently patient, so that He will not suddenly do some terrible thing to humanity. This basic concept actually shows a complete disregard for the Nature of the Father and it shows a failure to understand the real nature of the Master’s life, His work and His teaching. God is Love. God the Father is not trying to find some reason for wreaking vengeance upon human beings. God the Father is just as interested in saving human beings as our Lord Jesus Christ is interested in saving human beings from the disasters which they bring upon themselves.
In this sense, I have used the expression God the Father to signify the higher focalization of deity to which the LORD of Lords responds. We remember the much quoted text, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” As many millions of people there are who know that text by heart, as many millions of times as it has been spoken, quoted, and repeated in various ways, the basic reality of its significance has been overlooked. For it was God the Father who sent our LORD and KING into the earth, for a specific purpose.
Generally speaking, human beings do not recognize getting ill, sick, and finally dying, as a part of perishing. By some strange quirk of human perverseness, lack of logic, the idea is advanced that God did not mean that people should be saved from getting sick, that they should be saved from their illnesses and thereby healed, or that they should be saved from physical death. The application is extended to a hereafter, but why should it not mean this present time? Theoretically at least, we recognize that it applies to us here, now, tonight. If we take this text at its face value, we do not have to imagine that God the Father who so loved the world that He sent our LORD and KING into the world, must be constantly mollified to keep that same God from destroying humanity, that our LORD returned to heaven or the Inner Planes of Being, must somehow be constantly interceding for each one of you. Once we see how illogical this concept is, it is easy to relinquish it and look at the facts and see the truth as it is.
We remember that as the superficial pattern of response that has been engendered in the world was drawing away from our LORD while He was on earth, He recognized that with the breakdown of that response it was inevitable that the pattern of world reaction should come in upon Him and that He would have to meet man's concerted effort, brought to point, by which man hoped to destroy God.
Man, in the beginning, set himself up to be as God, and since that time has devoted himself to destroying the manifestation of God on earth, preventing it wherever possible by reason of self-activity and patterns of self-determination which have become fixed, in all the social orders that have ever been developed, in all the cultural programs that man has ever devised, fundamentally designed to prevent the manifestation of God on earth. But where these cultural programs and social orders have not succeeded in keeping Divine Action completely out of the earth, man has consistently, down through the centuries, to and including our present day, sought to destroy any manifestation of God that should appear. And this pattern of action includes the so-called Christian world, because even among the Christians—not limiting it to some other religious pattern or background of belief—there has been a constant crucifixion of the Christ Spirit as it has sought to manifest through human beings. The impulses of the Spirit of God have been constantly and consistently rejected, and wherever any human being began to truly respond to the Spirit of God, that person has, without exception, been subject to various patterns of persecution or resistance—anything, even lethargy, refusal to respond, just simply ignoring that which God would give; all of these phases of action designed to make any Divine Manifestation on earth to be of no effect.
We have seen this pattern working out at various times in various ways in relationship to our own ministry. It is not something that is relegated to the dim and distant past. At the time the Master was on earth, there were thousands who were willing to follow Him to be fed by the loaves and the fishes, there were thousands who were willing to be entertained by His charming voice, they were willing to be enthralled by the Spirit of His Presence and His Being, as long as it seemed completely safe and as long as it seemed that they could get something from Him. And when the idea began to develop that perhaps He would set up a Kingdom and remove the rulers of that time from their earthly thrones, there were those who were willing to follow for a little way. But as soon as there was a little pressure, all of this interest in what our Master had done and said, was shown to be largely superficial. And those who had a short time before shouted, “Hosanna to our King,” quickly melted away into the shadows and very carefully hid themselves to avoid any possible detection. Those who had eaten of the loaves and the fishes, found it expedient to be far away. Those who had been healed by His hands, had business somewhere else.
And it came down finally to His disciples. One of those disciples thinking to force the Master into a pattern of action, decided on some clever strategy, as he thought. He felt that the Master was not adequately utilizing His power, His opportunities. He felt that with a little political maneuvering, the cause of the earthly kingdom which he anticipated, would be advanced. And he became impatient with the Master. He felt that the LORD was not moving forward rapidly enough, and He was not using sufficient wisdom in that maneuvering which would be necessary to the accomplishment of the end desired. The disciples, by and large, had failed to recognize the true nature and the true purpose of the Master’s life and ministry and teaching, even though they had walked with Him in the Way for around three years. And so, Judas proceeded to develop an idea which he thought would be very wise. To understand this pattern, you must realize that Judas did not intend, in fact had no inkling of an idea, that the Master would be crucified as a result of his action. If we imagine that he deliberately betrayed the Master on the basis of having Him crucified, the whole thing at once becomes pointless. We must realize that Judas, being the treasurer of the group, had the money that was available at the time; he carried the bag; he handled the money for Jesus and the disciples; and he did not imagine that he was sending his LORD to the cross when he started this bit of political maneuvering. He had it in his head, in firm conviction, that if the matter was put to a test, if an issue was forced, that Jesus would use His great power. He would be forced to use His great power to remove the mighty from their seats, and the setting up of the earthly kingdom would be thereby hastened. And unless we recognize this scheming in the heart and mind of Judas, we cannot understand the nature of the man or the true nature of the events which took place at that time.
So Judas decided to do a little maneuvering on his own to force our LORD into using His power to overcome the rulers of that day. When Judas began to realize that our Master would not use His power in defense of Himself, that He would not use His power to keep these same rulers from torturing Him, spitting upon Him, and finally crucifying Him, Judas was terribly unhappy, sad, despondent, and there was a terrible self-reproach. If Judas had deliberately betrayed the LORD to be crucified, he would not have returned the money and gone out and hanged himself. That pattern of action is completely inexplicable unless we see the facts which are not generally known or recognized or considered. But actually, Judas was maneuvering to force the LORD to use the power which He had, to overthrow the governments of that time. He expected to compel Jesus Christ to defend Himself, and when he found that the Master would not do it, he saw the whole plan crumbling; he realized what he had done and remorse overcame him, and he hanged himself. A little later, after the betrayal, Peter denied Him, most followed afar off.
But the most significant part of the outworking came before the actual betrayal, came before the mockery of the trial began. This was in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Master took His eleven disciples, for one was busy about his own self-determination, so he was busy about his own business and he was not there. And the Master took His eleven disciples and went into the Garden that is called Gethsemane, and He established eight of those disciples in one group, the base of a pyramid, of a creative triangle. He took three [John, James, Peter] of those disciples a little further on, a line nearer the top of the creative triangle, then He Himself went a little further and established a point as the apex of that creative triangle. Even then, with the thousands of His would-be followers scattered and turned away, there was still an opportunity for those eleven disciples to help hold the vibrational pattern. Eight forming the base of the creative triangle, three a little nearer the apex, and the Master Himself at the apex of the triangle. We can see the three points established in such a pattern from the Biblical record. But most of the disciples promptly went to sleep. Instead of watching with Him, holding the vibrational pattern, staying centered in Him, they went to sleep. Just as surely as Judas failed Him, those who went to sleep failed Him. It is not only those who deliberately fight against God in a pattern of self-determination that tend to defeat the manifestation of God on earth, but those who are so asleep, so lethargic, that they do not respond, no aliveness can be stirred into them, no sense of responsibility. They are ready to go to sleep and let God do it.
Here in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Master began a most remarkable pattern of intercession. His followers had turned away. One of His disciples was out betraying Him, and ten of the disciples were asleep. Do not imagine that all went to sleep. Someone was there to write the record, someone was there who knew what happened. If they had all been asleep do you think the Master would have appeared to one of those disciples or to someone else and said, “Well now, while all you were asleep, this happened to me, that happened to me, I was sweating, as it were, blood etc., while I was going through this agony up here. I must tell you all about it because you were all asleep and you did not see it.” Can you see the Master doing any such thing? No. The very fact that there is a record proves that they were not all asleep, but most of them were asleep, failing our LORD on earth. In the face of this, it would have been so easy for our LORD to find reasons to be discouraged. He had helped so many people, He had ministered such long hours, He had done so many things. He had spoken so many words, and here He was, alone and neglected. He had so many reasons to be discouraged. One of His disciples was out to betray Him, and there, a little ways away, He could hear the snores of disciples who were supposed to be serving with Him. They were asleep. Yes, He had plenty of reason to be discouraged. If He had been functioning on the basis of the ordinary human pattern, He would have said, “It is not worth it. Let them all go to … wherever they were headed for!”
The pattern of reaction out of the world was rushing in upon Him because those who were supposed to hold the pattern with Him were afar away or asleep. He was left defenseless. There was no one of those who were asleep or of those who were far away who had any real realization of what they were doing. And so, that hour passed. In the agony of facing the vibratory patterns of the world, the mental and emotional pressures of human reactions, human rejections, human failures, in the face of that monstrous ingratitude, there was no judging, there was no condemnation, there was no resentment, there was the same spirit and attitude which found expression from His lips later upon the cross, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” This attitude of forgiveness, this attitude of refusing to respond to all that man had done, all the rejection, allowed Him to remain perfectly centered in God the Father.
Now for those of you who may not have heard me speak along this line before, I must interject a parenthetical statement which will be clarified later on. There are those who believe that Jesus on the cross said, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” He did not make any such statement. The words, as nearly as they were understood, are given in the Bible. How many times do we find that to be the case? We find it here because those who heard were not sure of the translation, they were not sure of what He had said. The words contained in the record, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” was translated by hearers who understood some Hebrew, because it seemed to them, the only thing that it could suggest to them, was the opening line of one of the Psalms where the Psalm expresses the idea, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” But we must remember that the language then used was the Aramaic. It was the common language of the people, and Hebrew as such, was not generally used among the people at that time. And the Master spoke some words in the Mother Tongue, the Tongue that was used in the Garden of Eden before the beginning of the Tower of Babel, and because those who stood near, generally speaking, did not hear plainly what He said, they did not understand what He said, they jumped to the unfounded conclusion that He said, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”
Such a thought did not cross His mind, such an attitude never entered His heart. The expression that came from His lips was a recognition that darkness was covering His face and that His work on earth was done. Not once in the whole pattern did He veer from the attitude of, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” And it was because of this that He remained perfectly centered in God, and was a channel through which the power of God was made manifest. If, as He was losing consciousness, He had said, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” His body would not have come forth from that tomb, there would have been no resurrection. It would have been a failure on His part. And to this day there are millions who count themselves to be His followers who believe that He said something which if He had said it, it would have meant that He had failed. But He did not fail. If He had given way to resentment, or if He had felt that He was somehow separated from God, lost His attunement with God, He would not have been a channel for the manifestation of the Power of God. So, in the attitude of forgiveness He was interceding for man. During this cycle, beginning in the Upper Room, continuing through the Garden of Gethsemane, and on through the mockery of the trial and to the cross, the Master was interceding. But what is intercession?
Intercession is not trying to stop God from passing some judgment upon a human being. Human beings have acted as if Jesus had to work to keep God the Father, who sent Him into the world (the God who is Love), that Jesus had to intercede with God to keep God from bringing judgment upon human beings—which is not the case at all. Intercession is that polarity in God which stays centered in God, which keeps ill actions from producing their results in the human being who commits the wrong action; not interceding in the sense of withstanding God's judgment, but in the sense of holding so centered that wrong reactions on the part of others are not allowed to produce, in any immediate sense at least, the results which they otherwise would produce. If you meet any situation in the attitude, truly, of “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” you are sharing in intercession.
Jesus Christ in heaven cannot intercede on earth. If there is any intercession at work today, it must be here on earth. There is not, and cannot be, a pattern of intercession in heaven, because the ill conditions which are coming upon human beings are the result of their own action, the result of the things they themselves have done, the things for which they themselves are responsible. And intercession is not with respect to some future thing. Intercession is with respect to the vibratory patterns at work in this moment in connection with wrong actions on the part of others—any other, whoever, wherever it may be. An intercession makes null and of no effect, it nullifies the power of evil in the moment when the evil is active, not after it is all done. When the power of evil has acted and the deed is done, there is no intercession, because then it is finished, it cannot be stopped. It is while the cycle is in process that intercession counts. And intercession is not in heaven, in the sense of something separate from the world. Intercession is here.
And the Spirit of our LORD and KING in the Inner Planes can have meaning on earth in relationship to intercession at this time, in this moment or in any other, only to the degree that human beings on earth yield themselves in body and mind and heart to His Spirit, letting themselves be members of His Body, branches of the One Vine, so that His Spirit can act on earth through human beings now, to produce intercessory function, to produce a pattern of vibratory current, an attitude, a centering, which can nullify wrong actions. Because intercession is just that: nullifying the results of wrong or evil action. But if there is to be a nullification, if there is to be any true intercession, that nullification must take place during the cycle of the evil action. After the cycle is completed in any given case, there is nothing to stop—it is done. Out of that something else may spring, another cycle, another vibratory pattern, and that new vibratory pattern may be dealt with by intercession, by nullifying it. But in any case, with respect to any cycle, the process of nullification must work during the cycle itself, not after it is completed, because then there is nothing you can do. And if the Spirit of Intercession in our LORD and KING, which was so gloriously manifest on earth when He was here, is to have any meaning in these days, it must be because human beings have so yielded themselves to Him, in body and mind and heart, that His Spirit can work through them as Members of His Body, by reason of which that nullifying power of intercession may work on earth here and now. That which is in heaven cannot have meaning on earth except as it comes to earth through human beings.
And this is just as true of intercession as it is of anything else which must come down from God out of heaven into the world. Looking forward to some results in some hereafter, looking forward to some intercessory work after one is dead, is of no avail. It is not needed then. It is on earth here now that it is needed. That God Being did not sin no matter what the human being may have done. The focalization of deity in any human being did not ever sin. You may say, “But what of Stalin?” The focalization of deity in Stalin did not ever at any time sin. The impulse of the spirit through that focalization of deity was without a single exception, to counteract the evil action. The God Being in any human being has never at any time sinned. And that God Being whether in yourself or some loved one or some friend or someone far away, that God Being is eternal and has eternal identity. That focalization of deity did not in any case sin no matter how sinful the human being may have been. According to the Master's Word, there is only one sin. There may be various patterns of evil action resulting from this one sin. But we must remember that in actual fact, there is only one sin according to the word of Jesus Christ our LORD and KING, and He said that “When the Spirit of Truth should come, he would reprove the world of sin—the one sin—of sin because they believe not on me.”
As you have seen in the pattern of diagrams presented before you in the classwork here, the God Being, the focalization of deity in you or in anyone else, has always, without a moment's break, recognized the focalization in the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings. Not once did any God Being in any human being at any time, break from that pattern. The focalization of deity in you believes in Jesus Christ, our LORD and KING. The focalization of deity in every man, woman and child on the face of the earth, without a single exception, is perfectly centered in believing in the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, and that is without exception, that has been true regardless of race or color or creed. It is true regardless of what the human being believes or does not believe. The focalization of deity in every human being who has over lived on the face of the earth has been centered in that God Being who was made manifest on earth through the body of Jesus, and that God Being has been all the way through, without a single exception, the focalization of deity for all the God Beings who have had anything to do with this world, whether the Inner Planes of it or the Outer Planes of it.
Now there are some things with respect to what I have just outlined that you will no doubt need more instruction upon as we go along. But as you begin to see the basic pattern, the whole will unfold for you as you let it be so.
But remember that the work to which you are called is intercessory work. You have absolutely no business seeking to have a part in God’s Ministry on earth unless your primary desire and determination is to share in the intercessory work on earth which finds its centering in our LORD and KING. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-role-of-intercessor.html] What are you doing when you give an attunement? You are beginning the work of intercession, to nullify the cycle of wrong function in body or mind or heart, to restore health which cannot be until that intercession has been allowed to have meaning right here on earth. The power of God to forgive sin and to intercede must manifest in you and through you if there is to be the manifestation of healing under your hands. For unless you, as a Member of the Body of God on earth are allowing the intercessory spirit of God to work through you, and unless you are letting God’s forgiveness work through you, what you attempt to do in giving an attunement will mean utterly and absolutely nothing.
And here is the key point of the difference, for just holding your hands in some fashion or other, will not make of you a server. If you are going to serve it must be as a Member of the Christ Body or the Body of God on earth, through which the intercessory work of God, God the Father, is allowed to manifest on earth now, because God the Father sent our LORD and KING into the world to begin the manifest focalization of this intercessory work, and it was made manifest in every healing that resulted from the Master’s Ministry. Every time He spoke a word that calmed the turmoils in a human heart, every time that a human being responded to Him enough to let the power of God have meaning, that was intercessory work and it was a process of forgiving sin. So only as we are Members of His Body, yielded to that same spirit, dedicated to that same purpose, can we now be of any value. Only as you learn to let the true spirit of intercession work through you in body and mind and heart, can you truly serve,as a server or in any other field, no matter what it may be.
And so, blessed ones, we see how human beings have failed to recognize the Master’s attitude for what it was, when He said, “Turn the other cheek.” He was not talking about something weak. He was talking about something so strong, something so noble, something so full of character, that it would not yield to resentment under any provocation. And so, the power of God should manifest, interceding, nullifying the results of evil things that have been done, forgiving sin, changing the future for those who come to you. According to your response to my Ministry, you are having your future changed. No one should come to Sunrise Ranch unless he or she expects the future to be changed, changed from the old pattern of the old cycles that are working, so that cycles that are at work may be nullified and brought to nought, and so that new cycles may be established according to God's Love in harmony with the Truth and in the expression of Life. And this is healing. We must see it in relationship to every phase and department of life, not just the physical body, but in the whole expression of being.
And so, blessed ones, as you learn to hold center, learn to have a true, positive, dynamic response to God, so that when something goes wrong you do not give way to it in resentment nor do you say inside of yourself, “Now outside I am going to remain calm. I am not going to say a word. No one is going to know what I really feel inside. I am going to hide it. I am going to see if what Uranda says will really work. I am going to see. I am just not going to say a word of resentment. I am going to keep myself under control so that I can see if this really works.” Blessed ones, it cannot be an outer submissive thing that says, “I am not going to give evidence of what I feel inside.” It must be something that changes what you feel inside so that there is no hint of resentment or judging or condemnation, for God has not made you to be a judge over your fellows, nor has He made you an executioner.
Your business is to nullify the evil things that are. Your business is to intercede. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-one-great-intercessor.html] Your business is to forgive sin. And, blessed ones, only as you do this as Members of God's Body on earth, do you have a part in our LORD's Kingdom on earth. There is no other way. And only so can you know the joy of truly serving, the joy of seeing the future of human lives changed. Every time there is a healing in any department of life, physically, mentally, emotionally, it is changing the future, for if an ill condition is going to continue you know what the results will be. But you intercede, you establish a new control pattern according to response, you forgive sin in the name of our LORD and KING and the future is changed, the ill thing loses its power, the results of ill action are nullified, and the current of God's creative power is made manifest, causing all things lovely, beautiful and glorious to appear, that you may truly know and realize to the depth of your being what it means to acknowledge our LORD and KING and His Hallowed Name with the words, “Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, forever.” So let it be.
Our Gracious LORD and KING, I thank Thee for those blessed ones here gathered, and for all who are with us in spirit, that all who will yield may come to know the Way, the Truth and the Life, and realize that Truth, the Truth that makes men free. For Thine indeed is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, forever. Aum-en.
The LORD is your Shepherd, you shall not want. He maketh you to He down in green pastures. He leadeth you beside the still waters. H restoreth your soul. He leadeth you in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you will fear no evil, for the LORD your Shepherd is with you, His rod and His staff, they comfort you, and you let yourself be comforted. Ho prepareth a table before you in the presence of your enemies, regardless of the adversities within or without. He anoints your head with the oil of His Love and the cup of your life is caused to overflow. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life and you will dwell in the House of the LORD forever. And this is the Divine Pattern of intercession which our LORD and KING made manifest on earth. Good night and God bless you.
“And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John
and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart;
And was transfigured before them:
and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.”
I would like to continue the pattern of Meditation which we have been sharing on the basic realities of the Magic of Life. Human beings have for so long unwittingly, ignorantly, been subject to the black magic patterns of distortion in the world, and as we gain a comprehension of the reality of Heavenly Magic we can begin to live, for most people spend the days of their years dying. Let us spend the days of our years living. In opening this pattern of Meditation, let us have a moment of devotion.
Our gracious LORD and Holy KING, with thankful hearts we gather here in the peace which is born of Thy Love, wherein we yield to the control of Thy Eternal Truth, and let the Beauty of Design which Thou hast ordained come forth in body, in every nerve and tissue, gland and organ, and in heart, every part of the emotional or feeling nature, and in mind, that in all levels of the mind we may yield to the Truth and be at peace within and in relationship to those round about us, to the end that we may truly fulfil Thy Eternal Law according to the commandment: Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart, and mind, and soul, and with all thy strength; for we realize that as we love Thee with all that we are we have no love left for self love, no love left for our neighbor, but all of our love centered in Thee allows Thy Love to come through us to those round about us, to loved ones and friends and neighbors, that the expression of Thy Eternal Love may have meaning on earth now and forever, for so shall Thy Kingdom come and Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, with the same results as in Heaven; for Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, for ever, IN the Christ. Aum-en.
Last evening in the pattern of our Meditation [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2025/04/enoch-and-moses-elias-and-jesus.html] we began a consideration of some of the principles of ascension, and we saw that the recorded pattern relating to ascension revealed the Shekinah Pattern of Being—the Cloud of Glory, the Light that Glows, the Fire that Burns, and within the Fire the One Who Dwells. The One Who Dwells. The Master spoke of this Shekinah Pattern of Being as the Father, not excluding the One Who Dwells, for there is the centering, but including the Shekinah Pattern of Being. And wherever we read His words translated as referring to “the Father” we should bear this in mind.
As we begin to gain a comprehension of the reality of Shekinah, we begin to comprehend the basis of our relationship with God, and the things of God are no longer to our consciousness far away, vague, or ambiguous. We begin to yield in a realization that we are not required to do something fanciful, something rather foolish, something that violates logic and reason, but that under the Law, the Law of Being which contains and unifies the Cosmos and all that is therein, we ourselves can begin to know, not in wishful thinking, not in prejudicial concept, but in knowing—not merely knowing about, but knowing the reality of our relationship with Deity, so that we, like Enoch of old may walk with God, and like Moses of old we may talk with God, and like Elijah of old we may reveal the essential Spirit of God, and like our Master who lived on earth, and invited us to follow Him, we may reveal God Himself, not just the Cloud of Glory, not just the Light that Glows, not just the Eternal Fire which is in reality God's Love, but a revelation of the One Who Dwells by the fact that we live.
But here is one of those inconsistencies which beset human beings. Being subject to death, spending the years of their lives, or their existence, the days of their years, in dying, they wonder why they do not more successfully reveal God. But how shall God be revealed by a dying soul? Would that be a true revelation of Deity? No. We must recognize that if we would truly reveal God, if we would let Deity find manifestation in our lives, we must be living souls. That is the first word concerning MAN—the first word concerning MAN in the beginning of things. For God said, “Let us make mankind. Let us make mankind, in our image, after our likeness.” And so, God created mankind; in His own image and likeness created He mankind; male and female created He them. And God breathed the Breath of Life into the nostrils of mankind, into man's nostrils, and MAN became a living soul. The first word with respect to life, action, being—“And man became a living soul.”
Last evening, in our pattern of Meditation, we touched briefly upon the statement the Master made as recorded for us in the Seventeenth Chapter of Matthew, where we find the words—the Master stated, “He charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.” Now some there are who have imagined that Jesus was talking about Himself, but most surely He was not. Until he shall be risen again from the dead. Had He already been dead somehow? Not at all. The Son of Man, the Son of mankind, the Son of Adam, the whole body of humanity. Had man been dead before? MAN, though formed by the hand of God, was dead until the Breath of Life had been breathed into his nostrils and man became a living soul, which is to say, MAN first-formed had been a dead soul. And so, the first time man rose from the dead was when man was first created by the hand of God, and man became a living soul. And that is resurrection, resurrection, rebirth. And so, the Son of Man—“Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead.” Our Master had not been dead before; He was not dead after that; He did not die upon the cross as so many have supposed. He was not dead at all. He gained or revealed the victory over death, which means that He did not die—for had He died, where would the victory have been? Not to die and then to live, but to not die. And He gained the victory over death.
Now if we begin to see these things truly, we begin to be in position where we can comprehend something of the real significance of ascension, the meaning with respect to these four men who revealed the Shekinah Pattern of Being by their lives, by the fact that they did not die, by the fact, as it is put, that they ascended. Ascended from what to what? Now some suppose that it means leaving the earth's surface. But we recall the Master's word, just after He came forth from the tomb and spoke to Mary in the Garden. She was about to fall at His feet, and He said, “Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended unto my Father.” The outer form of Being, in other words, was going through the process of ascension. If He was just going to ascend sometime later on, there would have been no reason why she should not have touched Him. But He was going through the process of ascension while He stood there on the surface of the earth.
Now ascension may mean moving from the surface of the earth, if we are talking about an airplane, or a balloon. That may mean being up from the surface of the earth. But if we are talking about the laws and principles of Being, it does not mean moving from the surface of the earth, it means a vibrational change into a higher level of being at that same point in relationship to the earth's surface. For if we are going to think of Heaven as being up, up is a relative thing. Up, what we say is “up” in this moment, twelve hours from now will be “down”, and yet we will say “up” and it will be exactly opposite of what was up when we said “up” in this moment. Twelve hours from now you will still say “up” from the earth's surface and mean exactly the opposite direction from what you mean when you say “up” in this moment. “Up” is a relative thing—let us not forget. And so, ascension is not a matter of ascension from the earth's surface; it is a matter of change in the vibrational state of Being, or the level of Being, without changing from the standpoint of the human concept of the relativity of “up” and “down”.
Now, let us examine this thing. Up from what? The state of the world. To what? The state of Heaven. And everyone has imagined that Heaven was in some far place. But is it? Our Master came and made a statement, a statement that He said was His Good News, His Gospel. Human beings have ignored it, generally speaking. They have said that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was that He died on the cross. In the first place the idea that He died on the cross is a contemptible lie. The idea that He had to die on a cross by some decree of God to save man is a blasphemous falsehood. God did not ordain that He should die. For the Master Himself said, remember, before the betrayal, before the trial, before any of that great atrocity took place—He said, in prayer to the Father, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.” He did not say, “I am about to finish it. I will have finished it when I have died on the cross.” The Master did not at any time in any recorded word signify that He was to die, although people assumed that that’s what it meant because He was crucified—pure assumption. He did not say He was going to die; and He did say, before any of these things, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.” If we say that He, in that prayer to the Father, did not know what He was talking about or did not mean what He said, then we attempt to judge Him and make Him a liar. Let it not be so.
So, He had finished the work before that atrocity took place; He had finished the work which God gave Him to do, but He faced something which man bed imposed upon Him, which was not required by God, and which was not in any sense essential to the salvation of man. And until we begin to see that we cannot comprehend the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel which He Himself stated as, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand”—available, within reach. And according to His Word, this Gospel of the Kingdom that is at hand was to be preached unto all nations, unto all peoples, and then should the end come. The end of what? The end of the rule of evil, the end of discord and inharmony, suffering, misery, sorrow, meaningless futility, the end of misery, the end of the self-active pattern of humanity. But not the end of the world, not the end of the earth, not the end of MAN—the end of the fallen state of man, that man might be restored to his Divine Estate. And where would that be? In some far-off Heaven? Not according to the Bible; not according to what the Master taught.
In the beginning God created MAN to be on earth. He created MAN in the image and likeness of God, to be on earth and to have dominion on earth. Man is not supposed to be thought of as some particular asset to some far off Heaven. Man never gets to Heaven in that sense, never has and never will. MAN belongs on earth; and that which is MAN never gets away from the earth, for that which leaves the earth is not MAN. It is something else. MAN's place is on earth, and until we begin to comprehend that basic, fundamental fact, the delusions and superstitions and prejudices which have bound human beings for so long will continue to entangle and betray us. Let us, then, remember that the place for MAN is on earth. God created MAN to be on earth, to have dominion on earth, and the only place where God has any use for MAN is on earth, and MAN is never anywhere else, for that which ascends in the sense of going somewhere else is not MAN, for then MAN has been absorbed into something that is of a higher level of Being and it is no more man or woman. That is a large subject and we do not want to get into it this morning.
But what is ascension as far as we are concerned? The movement from earth, in the sense of the fallen state of things, from this world to Heaven. And where is Heaven? Where is the Kingdom of Heaven? At hand. If it is at hand, it is within reach, it’s available, it’s right here. And until we begin to realize that the true pattern of ascension does not mean that we become something else than that which we are, it does not mean that we leave the surface of the earth and go into the sky, it does not mean that we are to be confused with the relativity of up and down. It means that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and that we ascend from a state of being subject to the pattern of fallen man to the state which God first ordained for MAN—for in that beginning man knew Heaven and earth to be one. They still are. They have never been anything else but one. Man lost consciousness of the heaven aspect, but it was there all the time. And the good news, the thrilling news, which the Master brought to the children of men, was the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, right here, and we do not have to go anywhere to ascend into it, we do not have to lose our bodies, we do not have to die, our bodies do not have to become ethereal things. Our bodies as they are can ascend into Heaven.
Now remember the distinction. The Master said with respect to His body that He, the MAN, had to ascend unto the Father. That is an altogether different thing. In the Divine State, if a God Being incarnate, had completed his or her task on earth, there was an ascension unto the Father. But let us not assume that ascension to Heaven and ascension unto the Father are the same thing. They are not. The Father is there—the One Who Dwells. Individually and collectively the principle holds true. But ascension unto the Father means for the body to leave this sphere of things as we know it, into a level of vibratory Being that is still right here but which human eyes as such cannot see, regardless of all the fantastic tales of so-called visions and all the rest. People suppose they have seen a vision of Jesus Christ, for instance. They have not. They have not. They may have had a vision that was contained within their own consciousness; they may have thought they saw it out here; but it was something formed in their own consciousness and was not a vision of Jesus Christ. It can’t be done. It never has been done since our Master left this sphere of things, and until there’s some radical changes in relationship to man, man is not going to see Jesus Christ again. They will never see Him just as He was. But the same God Being will come—when? After the whole earth has been restored to the Divine Estate and we are ready to turn the Kingdom in full functional form over to the KING. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-pattern-of-his-appearinglight-of.html] But the KING did come, and He suffered that great atrocity at the hands of men. Those who imagine that He is going to come floating down out of the sky somewhere but delude themselves. He is not going to come and set everything to rights on earth. If it is done, MAN is going to do it in the spirit and power of God; for God always acts on earth through MAN, through the human being, or through the body of mankind. So, we better be busy about letting the Kingdom come.
If it was so important, according to the popular concept of the second coming of Christ, as it is put, that He should return, why did He not teach men to pray, “Hasten Thy second coming so that then Thy Kingdom may come and then Thy Will may be done on earth as it is in Heaven”? He did not teach men to pray any such thing. He said that we are to pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” the Kingdom of the KING appear, that is the first thing, that is the important thing; everything else has value only in relationship to that in a relative sense—the coming of the Kingdom. “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” And according to all reports, the Will of God does very well in Heaven, producing beautiful, lovely, wonderful things; not producing misery, suffering, sickness, sorrow, death; not producing any of the ill things which are commonly attributed to God's Will, in a blasphemous attitude. God's Will produces on earth exactly the same thing God's Will produces in Heaven. So let us let His Will be done on earth.
But now, once we begin to realize that the place of man is on earth, it always has been on earth, always will be on earth, we will stop trying to get out of the earth into Heaven. In that same prayer what did the Master say? “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world.” He recognized this weakness, this tendency in human beings, and He Himself put in His prayer. In the Seventeenth Chapter of John it is recorded, if you want to read it for yourself—“I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” And yet human beings have been imagining through the centuries that if they wanted to get to Heaven they had to die and get out of the world. Blasphemous nonsense. Heaven is at hand. It is here. And until we begin to recognize that Heaven is here, and our place is here, and we are not to be concerned about getting to some other place, we cannot possibly have the right attitude toward living or the opportunities that are granted to us day by day. Ascension then is ascension from the state of fallen man, the state of self-activity, the state of misery, to the state of the Kingdom of Heaven at hand, the restoration to the Divine Estate on earth.
Now let us connect this up with something upon which we have given Meditation before. For God planted a Garden eastward in Eden. Now Eden is what? The earth, the whole earth; not just some part of it. Eden is the earth as a whole. “And God planted a garden eastward in Eden.” People have wondered if it was not in the region of Mesopotamia, or here or there. They imagined some kind of a garden just planted on the surface of the earth, like you might go out and plant a garden on some spot on the earth's surface. But that is not what the Bible teaches. Eden is the whole earth, including every part of it—every part. And the Garden of Eden God planted was eastward in Eden. From what point? From every point. From all points. And that means east is in the future—tomorrow morning or the next five minutes. What is coming to us from out of the east that will appear and get here in just five minutes from now. Can you prognosticate and tell me? You certainly cannot while I am up here and you are listening to me, because you do not know what I will say in five minutes from now. But the point is that everything of God must come out of the future.
When human beings begin to realize that they cannot change the present—you have to live in the present, but if there is something in the present that needs changing you cannot ever, at any time, change the present. That which was in the future a little while ago is now in the past. The present is never more than one instant long—just this instant; and in this instant we are in eternity. We can’t get out of eternity and we can’t get into it. Why? Because we are in it already. If there is such a thing as eternity it is now. You cannot have an eternity in the future, can you? Without an eternity that is present, an eternity that is past! It is all one. This is eternity. People talk about getting into eternity. They have never stopped to think. You cannot get out of it. This instant is eternity. But you cannot change the present. You can change your future however; you can refuse to let what God planted in your future to come into manifestation, and then that which manifests in the moment will be evil, it will be unpleasant. Or you can let what God planted in the Garden eastward in Eden manifest as it comes to the point of fruitage in the moment, and appears and takes form, and it will be lovely, beautiful, wonderful.
You cannot change the present. The present is going into the past so fast that before you begin to get something changed in the present, if you think you can, it’s gone and you never get oriented. Trying to change the present is the most foolish and futile thing which human beings undertake, unless it be to try to be as God. That is more foolish still. But trying to change the present is impossible. Why waste time trying to do it? The present is as it is. We may look at it, we must live in it, and we must not try to live in the future or in the past—live only in the present, but let your future be changed, let God design it—for the Garden that God planted eastward in Eden is still there.
What is the Divine Word? That there was an angel with a sword which turned every way, a flaming, fiery sword, who was placed in the way that leads to the Garden. What is the way that leads to the Garden? The future. It’s there; it has been in every instant of time, for every man, woman and child on the face of the earth. And if you can pass that flaming sword that turns every way, you can walk in the Way that leads to the Garden of God. But that Garden is still there, and that Garden that is there, at hand, as close as the next second, is the Kingdom of Heaven that the Master talked about, the Kingdom of Heaven that is at hand.
Now if you are going to ascend up into some place, physically speaking, what meaning are you going to have on earth? None. Your place is on earth; that which you need to do is on earth, in relationship to the earth. As I pointed out before, why be in a hurry to get to Heaven? Do you think you will be some especially beautiful ornament up there, or that God needs you up there to make everything work right? Somewhere else you want to go! You don’t know what it is but you want to go. No. Here is our place, and it is only here that you can live, only here that you can live. So if we wish to reveal Deity on earth, if we wish to let the things of the Garden of God come out of the future, into our lives and into our circumstances, we must live here in the present, we must be on earth, and we must be spending the days of our years living and not dying. The time you spend dying you have shut out from yourself and your life, your environment, all those things which God has provided for you in the Garden that He planted eastward in Eden, eastward in the future, the days of our tomorrows. And with each day we have an opportunity to receive something from out of the future, that God provided, that God made possible to you.
What then is ascension? Not leaving the surface of the earth, but moving from the realm of misery and suffering and sorrow and death, moving from the realm of the self-active state to the realm of attunement in and with the continuity of manifestation coming to us from out of the future, from out of the Garden that God planted eastward in Eden. And where is eastward? In the future. Our days come out of the east; the sunrise comes in the east. And so, in the days of our tomorrows the things of God are already provided, but we must learn how to receive them on earth. If we once start receiving them, we may not receive completely all at once, but then the things of God start being around us, and they start extending into the past. What is it that extends into the past with most people? The beauty of the Garden of God or the misery of the hell that man has made on earth? Once you reach a point where that which comes from out of the future from the Garden that God planted eastward in Eden, has come to you, been made manifest in you and through you because you live on earth so that it surrounds you, and begins to move back and extend into the past, where are you then? You are in the midst of the Garden of God. But it’s the only way you can be, when you let it come out of the east, manifest where you are, and extend into the west or into the past. Finally, you are in the midst of the Garden that God planted. And what is in the midst? The Tree of Life.
The Tree of Life is in the midst of the Garden. It is to manifest where you are—where you are! If you think you can go to it, by going up or down or sidewise or something else, you are wrong. The Tree of Life is just as available to you as to any Adam or Eve in the past, before the fall or after. It’s at hand; it’s available; the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand; the Garden that God planted eastward in Eden is at hand; for they are one and the same thing. But we must let them come into manifestation, and when we do that what do we do? We ascend out of the old order of things into the new, into the Divine Estate. But we do not leave the earth's surface. We are living right here, letting God's Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. And so does His Kingdom come. Where from? From out of the east, from out of the future, in a manifestation through those men and women who let His Will be done; and it takes form around them; and it begins to extend into the past; and others begin to see, and they aspire to that same ascension—to ascend to the place where there is the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells.
That is the mystery unveiled by Enoch, by Moses, by Elijah, and by our Master, who was made manifest through the body of Jesus. And He said, “Follow me”—follow Me, that the mystery may be unveiled, that you may begin to know the reality of the Cloud of Glory. The Tabernacle—your own body—the Tabernacle filled with the Glory of the Lord until it shone round about. Yes, to be true of you. Where? In the wilderness of this world as it is, until the wilderness is caused to blossom as the rose because the Garden of God comes out of the east and is made manifest through those who let His Will be done.
Seeing these things, let us take another look at the Mount of Transfiguration. For He ascended a mountain—the process of ascension—but He did not leave the surface of the earth, to be transfigured. The Mount of Transfiguration—let’s take another look at it. “And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John”—again the three and the one, the four—“and bringeth them up,” ascension, “into an high mountain” of consciousness, “apart” from what? Apart from the discords and the limitations that are characteristic of the world. “And was transfigured before them.” In other words, they saw that which gave evidence of the Divine Estate. “And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.”
Now wherever we have had a description of the One Who Dwells, hasn’t this same pattern of language held true, in the Old Testament or the New, in Revelation or wherever you turn? “His face shone as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.” Now note: “And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.” Why just Moses and Elias talking with Him? That made three. Where was the fourth? Here on this level, He was a part of the three, and the fourth was higher still, the next up focalization in the Higher Level of Deity. Up. Moses and Elias, and the Master, making the three. But there was a fourth who was not seen. But these three gave the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells on the next higher level, carrying the Focalization of Being.
Then Peter had to get impetuous and talk out of turn. We will skip that. It does’t mean anything. “While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them.” A bright cloud overshadowed them. The Cloud of Glory, whether of the Old Testament or the New—it’s all One. “And a bright cloud overshadowed them”—the Shekinah Cloud of Glory. “And behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” Now what was overshadowed? Not just Jesus, but the manifestation, the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, the Next Higher Focalization of Being, “overshadowed them.” Then the Shekinah Pattern of Being is the Son, the only begotten Son.
Those who imagine that the body of Jesus was the only begotten Son do not know what they are talking about. It was not, is not. Your body is just as much one of the Sons and Daughters of God as the body of Jesus was, just as much. What was the only begotten Son of God? That which issues forth from God at all times. What is it that issues forth from God? The Shekinah Pattern of Being, the Fire that Burns, the Light that Glows, and the Cloud of Glory. These are present wherever God is, wherever a God Being is present. And that which issues forth from God all the time, that which reveals His Presence to those who have awareness, is the only begotten Son of God.
The Cloud of Glory enfolded Elijah and Moses as surely as Jesus. All three were there, and in that pattern they were the three in relationship to a higher fourth. And “This”—this what? This one man? No. It does not say that. Take a look at how human beings have assumed and jumped to conclusions. What the word said was This—“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” That which was the expression through Jesus was the Shekinah Pattern, yes, but it is the Shekinah Pattern of Being, the Fire of Love, the reality of Truth, and the reality of Glory or Life. Yield to Love and Truth and Life and you will be hearing, you will be feeling, you will be knowing, the Son of God. Because human beings have assumed ignorantly that the body of Jesus was the only begotten Son of God, they have felt separated by nineteen centuries, and by some far sky, from the body of the only begotten Son of God. But the only begotten Son of God is here just as much in this hour as in any moment when the Master walked on earth, in actual fact. Perhaps not revealed as much, but the only begotten Son of God is the Shekinah Pattern of Being; and once you ascend out of the state of dying into the state of living in Shekinah you begin to be a part of the body of the only begotten Son of God because you are a part of the body of mankind, yielding to the Spirit of God or the Shekinah Pattern of Reality.
And it is here, and you do not have to go anywhere. And ascension is not leaving the earth's surface; it is living here on earth. And our work, our place, is on earth, and it is our job to reveal the fact that Heaven and earth are one, they have always been, they will always be, and as we let the Garden which God planted eastward in Eden come into manifest form because we live we will be doing our part toward letting the Kingdom come, and the Will of God be done on earth as His Will is done in Heaven. So let it be in you and through you, now and always.
Our gracious LORD and Holy KING, we would indeed let Thy Kingdom come, that Thy Kingdom may be made manifest and may be made ready to receive Thee, that all who enter Thy Kingdom may know the oneness of Heaven and earth and know that Thou art near, that there is no necessity for Thee to come floating down on a cloud from some far sky, but that Thou art here in Heaven on earth, in relationship to this part of the Cosmic Body of Being, and that the centering cycles extend on and on until we are caused to realize that this part of the Cosmos is centered in the Center of the Cosmos as surely as any other part, and that All is One, and that Thy Allness is here insofar as we are capable of receiving it and revealing it and using it to Thy Glory and to the blessing of the children of men; for Thine is the Kingdom; therefore Thou art the KING, and we would act like it, and we would let Thy Kingdom manifest, we would let it come; and Thine is the Power by which these things shall be done; and Thine is the Glory revealed as they are done in the blessings of Life to all who will receive, IN the Christ, now and forever. Aum-en.
The body of the man or the woman is supposed to be an Ark of the Covenant, a manifestation of the Temple of the Living God, a specific place that is supposed to be Holy and Sacred within which no ill vibrational pattern may be found.
Wherever there are stress patterns in the vibrational factor at any level, the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells is withdrawn and only when the patterns of accord and true peace are again made evident can there begin to be the restoration of the manifestation of the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells.
When it begins to appear, we have evidence that the creative field has been maintained, that there have been no adverse vibrational factors, no discords, no resentments, no critical attitudes, no conflicts, no fear, for where these things rule we never see the beautiful Glowing Light of the Cloud of Glory revealing the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells.
Human reactions, patterns of attitude such as resentment, and the whirring of the endless rounds of meaningless thoughts, or so-called thoughts, maintain a condition which prevents the manifestation of the Light That Glows, and the Cloud that forms, that in season the Cloud may become still more dense, and the Glowing Light begins to appear as if it were a Fire.
As long as human beings are more concerned about the expression and manifestation of their own ideas and concepts and desires, their own pattern of thought and word and action and feeling, than they are of the manifestation of the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, they will have their reward: the privilege of expressing that which they think they think, which they think they feel, which they think they believe, which they think they wish to do; but none of these things bring peace or satisfaction or the Glory of Living. Only the futility and the emptiness of the processes of dying.
Remember well that wherever there are vibrations of conflict, resentment, any ill attitudes whatsoever, you keep yourself shut out of the Cloud of the Shekinah and contain yourself in the cloud of darkness. Wherever there are resentments, frictions, conflicts, within or without, within the individual or between individuals, you cannot know the beauty and the wonder, the glory and the peace, of the Shekinah, the manifest evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, everywhere, always.
