This is our GPC Servers’ Training Class of June 26th, 1953, carrying forward with the basic theme of Heavenly Magic and considering specifically Shekinah Magic. Gradually the pattern is unfolding so that you can begin to perceive with the eye of your heart the beautiful reality of the Divine Design, and seeing it, you begin to relax into it. You begin to let its control have meaning. You can, on the basis of faith—not seeing clearly—when there is trust, begin to let control have meaning, but the fulness of control in the reality of Truth appears when you have begun to see for yourself the beauty of the Divine Design. Until you do begin to see for yourself, there tends to be a feeling that you are going to lose something, that something, somehow is being taken away from you, or that you are being forced into some type of pattern where you will lose your independence. Independence to be a dying soul is not of much value. When we enter into the glorious liberty of the children of God as living souls, we find that we have the privilege of living in the Kingdom that is at hand, and are no longer enjoying(?) the seeming privilege of being independent in a prison cell from which the only release will be death. And so, you are beginning to see the beauty of the Divine Design, and relaxing into it you begin to let control have meaning. And you’re finding that gradually your questions are either answered or they tend to become unimportant. Have any of you noticed that? The questions are either answered or they tend to become unimportant. In season all things are made clear. But you must learn to see for yourself, and you are learning to see with the eye of the heart, with the Guardian Angel of the mind, the conscious mind, at work in you.
This morning I would like to direct your attention to one of the outstanding keys to a realization of reality that can be found in Scripture or Holy Writ anywhere, an outstanding key which has from the standpoint of its true purpose and meaning been virtually ignored. As long as we ignore the keys, we cannot use them to unlock the doors and let the things of God come in. It is not a matter of you climbing up; it is not a matter of you opening your prison door and going out of it. It's a matter of opening the door—you have to do that, you have to use the key—but you let the Master in, and when He comes in He begins to prepare a place for you; He begins to make the place over, not just an ordinary remodeling but the former things are caused to pass away. Behold I make all things new. Instead of imagining that you must somehow escape from a prison, you let the prison be rebuilt into a mansion, a mansion of the soul in which the things of heaven are present and made manifest.
This particular key was given to man at the time our Master's body was born on earth in the form of a babe. There were many remarkable revelations of the reality of Shekinah at the time of the Master's birth, but the central key is the Angels' Song. The central key is the Angels' Song: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Let us look at this expression from the standpoint of reality, with the eye of the heart. Glory to God in the highest. What is the Glory? The Shekinah Cloud of Glory. Glory to God in the Highest. That carries to the Highest Focalization of Deity, going beyond the range of human consciousness or awareness. Glory to God in the Highest. And the expression was made in relationship to those who dwell on earth.
So, if there was a recognition of Glory to God in the Highest, we see with the eye of the heart how there was a Great Cone, shall we say—or what we have illustrated by the use of the word “tent”—a Great Cone, allowed to settle down over the earth, the base of it enfolding the earth as in a net, and the point of it extending upward to God in the Highest. And what is it that shapes this; what is it that gives it form? Glory—the Shekinah Cloud of Glory. And it was brought to the earth, enfolding man, centered on earth in the babe that was born.
And, Glory to God in the Highest, signifies that the Cloud of Glory, made manifest to man through the form of the babe that was to become a Man, extended to God in the Highest—that there was no break, no point of separation, no veil, except the inability of human beings to see the Cloud of Glory, the Shekinah, extended to the earth, enfolding the earth and carrying to God in the Highest. Glory all the Way. The Shekinah Cloud of Glory here, and all the Way to God in the Highest. And then following, when that is a reality, what does follow? “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth”—enfolded in the Shekinah Glory, something begins to manifest—peace on earth. “Peace on earth, good will toward men.”
Now, the coming of the Master was the supreme gesture from God, the zenith of God's Gift of Love to man—and only in relationship to love can there be peace—and it is clearly indicated it was on earth, and the supreme gesture of good will—good will. Instead of seeing God as an avenging god, seeing God as a blood-thirsty god, seeing God as one who was always looking for a chance to torture human beings, instead of seeing God as One who had somehow conceived in His own mind the idea that He wouldn’t forgive human beings until His own Son was sent into the world and slain on the cross, we see that at the time of the Master's birth the Divine expression, the Angels' Song, conveyed to man the supreme gesture of love and good will. If there is good will, can we say that in the pattern of that good will there is a desire to get even, to make people pay for their sins, to make people suffer, etc? No. What is the natural result when human beings allow themselves to be enfolded in the Shekinah Cloud of Glory that extends all the way to Highest God?
First there begins to be a sense of peace—peace on earth, from which peace had been banished for so long, and from which it was again banished—peace on earth, the result of the working of God's Love within the Shekinah Cloud of Glory. And then good will—good will from God in the Highest, through the Shekinah, to all the children of men. Good will—the willingness to let all differences be past, to let all wrongs be as if they had not been. This is not the message of a bloodthirsty god through his angels, his avenging angels, to the cringing cowards dwelling on earth. This is the message of a God of Love, who does not require any blood sacrifice. This is the message of Highest God to the children of men through the Shekinah Cloud of Glory made manifest on earth, and centered on earth in the body of a babe. Peace on earth.
And the Angels sang the Song even though there was no room in the inn for Him; they were so busy there, celebrating; they were so busy with such important affairs that there was no room in the inn, no bed available to Mary. They were busy with such busy business! And the Angels sang the Song. Even though they had to move the ox from the stall, and put in a little fresh hay in the manger to make a place for the birth of the babe—the lowliest place. And still, even though that was all that man could provide for the coming of the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, there was still the Angels' Song, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” No judgment, no condemnation, the open invitation to come, to come and let the beauties of the Kingdom of Heaven be revealed in the lives of the children of men. In conjunction with this there were other evidences.
This Song the Angels sang was heard by the shepherds who tended their flocks—and there we have again the Pattern of the Shepherd. Suppose a good shepherd is herding his sheep and one of the sheep wanders off a bit, gets over in a dangerous place, and the shepherd brings it back. Suppose one of the little lambs straggles, is straggling behind, does the shepherd come along with that staff and start beating it, and say, “Get up in there where you belong, or I'll beat you to death. I'll have your blood if you don't get in there”? And one of the sheep wanders aside a bit. Does he beat the sheep with the rod, or send his dog to chew it up, to make it bleed? We would take the attitude that such a so-called shepherd ought to be confined somewhere. We would say that that shepherd was a brute.
And yet we take the attitude that that was what God did. He wasn't content unless there was some bleeding. He was going to beat them up, have their blood, and the only way, supposedly, He could set aside this dogmatic attitude—“I'll have your lives for this”—was for Him to send His own Son into the world and say, “Now, I'll torture you. I'll have your life. I'll spill your blood. And then I'll take that as a substitute for the blood of all these other critters.” That is supposed to be the religion of the so-called Christian world. That's what they say, exaggerated a bit maybe, but that's what it is. No, God is not like that. Human beings have attributed to God their own dastardly attitudes and conceive God to be as limited as they themselves are, and they have built their concept of religion on that basis.
So instead of seeing the glorious significance of the Angels' Song, they have continued to weave the patterns of assumption and belief on the basis that prevents God's Love from being received, His Power from manifesting, His Truth from being known. And so human beings have continued to die, not because God cursed them and required that they die. No. How were they cursed in the beginning when man fell? They cursed themselves. Did God curse them? Human beings have consistently assumed that God cursed man, that God cursed woman, that God cursed the serpent. No, He did not. God did not curse anyone. They cursed themselves. They brought the curse upon themselves. And God did not say, “Now for doing this, because you did this, you've got to die.” No. He said, “If you do this you will die.” He didn't require their death. He only recognized that if they violated the laws of Life they would die.
If I say to you, “You go out here on one of these high points on the Rimrock and jump off, it'll kill you.” Now does that mean I'm going to take a club and drive you up there and force you to jump off. Certainly not. I've merely acknowledged that if you do violate the law of gravity, and jump off of that point, there won't be anything but crushed flesh and bone at the bottom of the cliff, and your life will be finished. Just so, God acknowledged, God told them, “If you do this you will die.” He didn't force them to die. He didn't compel them or say, “Now that you've done this, I'm going to make you die.” And it’s this distortion pattern in consciousness which has kept human beings from even beginning to see what the Master was talking about when He said, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” Remember, God did not curse man. God did not require that anyone should die at any time, under any circumstance, and least of all did He require that His Son should die.
Let us remember that the Master said, before the betrayal, before the mockery of the trial, before the agony of the crucifixion, before any of that, He said, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” Before any of this pattern of atrocity had appeared, Jesus said, or the reality of our LORD through the lips of Jesus, “I have finished.” He didn't say, “I have almost finished. When I've died on the cross, and the blood has been dripping from my hands and feet and side, then I'll have finished the work.” No. Before the betrayal, He said—and if we deny it we make him a liar, or try to—He said, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” And once you begin to see that God did not require the death of any human being anywhere at any time—God did not produce the condition which would cause death—that He did not require the death of our LORD on earth, or His body; once you begin to actually see these things, the truth of the matter, you can begin to have a new attitude toward life and towards God. But as long as you imagine, which is again an assumption, as long as you imagine that you are under sentence of death from God, what can you do? God does not require your death, or anyone else's; your suffering, your misery—it is not required.
Now carry this a step further, a point which we have noted before, but let’s have it clearly established in consciousness, with spiritual vision of the Truth. If God required that our Master's body had to be crucified on the cross, or that He had to die, if that were required of God, as some assume, then those who carried out the conditions or produced the conditions necessary to the crucifixion were serving God; they were preordained by God to do that, if you are going to carry out such a concept, if you are going to say that God required that they should do that so that man could be saved. And when spineless Pilate washed his hands and said, “I don't know. I don't find anything wrong with this man, but if you want to take Him out and crucify Him, all right, I guess it’ll be all right”—spineless Pilate.
But that was after something else. Let us clearly understand what was at work in Judas. Let us understand Judas. Judas was the treasurer. He was inclined to be over-fond of the monetary aspect of the program. And he conceived himself to be rather smart, politically minded, and he had the idea that they were going to set up an earthly kingdom, to restore the kingdom to Israel, and that Jesus was going to sit on an earthly throne, and they were going to drive the Romans out, and they were going to re-establish the pattern in Palestine. But he felt that the Master was not taking adequate advantage of His opportunities, His political opportunities. He felt He was wasting His time and effort, and was not getting the job done. Now he knew something of the Master's power, and ability. He had seen Him disappear from the eyes of men. He had seen Him do all kinds of things. And so the reasoning in his distorted brain, his distorted mind, was this: “I see an opportunity here, to take advantage of something. I’ll force the issue with the Master. He is so powerful that if He gets in a corner He will have to use His power. We’ll precipitate the thing a little. He is letting it drag on too long and He is missing His chance to become king. So I will do a little conniving. I am going to set the stage that will put Him in a position where He will be forced to use His power, and the thing will be opened up and then He will carry through, establish the victory, and we’ll have the kingdom, the kingdom of Israel on earth again.”
And in his distorted mind there wasn’t the slightest concept but what Jesus would do just that. He never dreamed for a moment that the Master wouldn’t resist, He wouldn’t use His power under that circumstance. And so he undertook to set the stage, and that was his reasoning. And when he found that the Master wasn’t going to use His power to establish an earthly kingdom, when he saw all that he had hoped for crumble, and realized that it was too late to do anything about it, he went out and hanged himself. He couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t face it. It wasn’t just regret—he loved the Master in his fashion—but it wasn’t just regret over what he had done, in that sense. He had seen himself as treasurer of a kingdom, collecting taxes, making the wealth roll in, having political power, the power of life and death—if someone did not do just so, he could put the squeeze on. He had seen himself as a political figure of power in an earthly kingdom. That was the reason why he did what he did. And he saw all his dreams fade and he knew that it would never be, and he couldn’t take it, and he went and hanged himself. Now, that is the fact of the case, that is the way Judas felt and reasoned, if you could use the word.
Let's see it as it is, and stop assuming, and begin to recognize that the death of our LORD on the cross was not something required of God. It was an atrocity pure and simple. And he did not actually die. He went into a coma. He went into a coma, but He did not die. Once we begin to see that, we can begin to realize the truth of the matter, that God did not curse man; man cursed himself. God did not require that you or anyone else should die. Human beings produced the conditions which brought on death, and God simply said, “If you violate these laws you will die.” They violated the laws; established themselves in the pattern wherein they would bring on death; and consequently they cursed themselves.
The Angels’ Song to the children of men was, “Glory to God in the highest and on Earth peace, good will toward men.” And where is there in that, the death sentence for God's Son on Earth? It isn't there! It never has been there. Human beings have believed a lie, a falsehood, an assumption, and until we begin to accept that, and realize that the greatest lie, the greatest and most dastardly lie that the devil has ever succeeded in establishing in the minds and hearts of men, was the lie that Jesus died on the cross, and that He had to die to save us. As long as the devil can keep human beings believing that, the Kingdom of God can be kept out of the world. God's control cannot reach into the world, because human beings are believing something of God that is not true. Their pattern of religion and belief and worship, and their supposed way of salvation—all figments of fancy! Assumptions pure and simple, deluded human beings! Now, don't go out and try to tell them that, but you must know that if you are going to serve God, and not be trapped into serving the devil. Remember that there are good people in all these religions and beliefs, and don't try to change their religion, whatever you do. Never proselyte, never condemn the religions. I do not. But I have to point to the truth of the matter if you are going to know the truth and let the truth make you free. And in season there will be those who are willing, of their own volition, to draw near and begin to see the truth as it is. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
The shepherd—the Pattern of the Shepherd—not concerned about punishing the sheep. What was the parable the Master gave? The ninety and nine that were safe in the fold, and one had wandered away, and the shepherd went out and found it, and carried it back, to bring it healing and restore it to its place in the fold. Do you suppose he went through all that just to give the sheep a good beating when it got he got it back in the fold, to beat it with an inch of its life? No. How senseless to attribute such dastardly things to God. No. Those who say that because man fell he either had to die, God couldn't do anything about it; or His Son had to die or we couldn't be saved. That isn't reasoning; that's assumption pure and simple. And we cannot understand life, the Magic of Life, the principles of living, or even how to give an attunement, until we see that.
Seeing it, we begin to recognize that the Wise Men who followed the Star came to the place where the Master was born, directed of the Spirit of God. And what was the Star? First we have the pattern with the Shepherds—the Glory, the Shekinah Cloud of Glory. And then come the Wise Men—wisdom, the sense of the fitness of things, a function in relationship to the mind, to the Truth. And what do we see? The Wise Men following the Star. And the Star is what? The Light that Glows. The Cloud of Glory, the Light that Glows, and then the Fire of Love. And within the Fire, One like unto the Son of God. The Shekinah Pattern of Being was established in relationship to the Master's birth, and He used it all the way through His ministry. He talked about it. He revealed it over and over again.
And when He came to the point of the conclusion of His work on earth, before the pattern of the atrocity had taken form, before the betrayal, He prayed a prayer. And in this prayer we find a glorious portrayal of Shekinah: “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come.” What hour? The hour that He had to be crucified? Because He was crucified, human beings have jumped to the conclusion that He meant, “Now the time has come for me to be crucified.” He didn't say it. It's an assumption, pure and simple. The hour is come for what? “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.” Now in order for God to glorify His Son, He had to put Him through the mockery of a so-called trial, the misery of a crucifixion, and all of that was necessary to glorifying the Son so that the Son could glorify the Father. Not at all! Only human assumption has connected up those ideas and assumed that, well now, Jesus said, “Now is the time for me to be glorified, for me to glorify Thee, Oh Father.” And what happened following that? He was betrayed. He was crucified. He went through all of the ignominious experiences involved. And what happened? Human beings assumed, “Well now, this is the way God glorified His Son. Because He came forth out of the tomb, that means that He had to die. He had to do this; He had to do that.” Assumptions! Assumptions! No. How is He glorified? Not by the crucifixion on the cross—the cross of your body. You can crucify God and the things of God on the cross of your body too. There has been enough crucifixion. And it wasn’t required. If it was required that Jesus should be crucified on the cross then it's required that you should crucify the things of God on the cross of your body; God intends that you should do evil, so you might as well go out and do a good job of it.
And He said, “As thou hast given him power over all flesh.” As thou hast given Him power over all flesh. Well then, He could have used that power to do what? He had power over all flesh. But who is it that is speaking the Word? The man Jesus? The man Jesus was One in it, not to be separated from it. But remember that it is the Shekinah that has power over all flesh. The Shekinah Presence of the One Who Dwells has power over all flesh. And entering into the Cloud of Glory is the Way by which the Father glorifies the Son. He was talking about the Shekinah Pattern of Being here. And then He continued on, “I have glorified thee on the earth.” How? By letting the Shekinah Cloud of Glory have meaning, by letting the Shekinah Power manifest, by letting the Shekinah Light shine. “I have glorified thee, O Father, on earth”—the revelation of the Shekinah on earth.
And then He said, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” Now, is that a true statement or not? That is where the thing finally hinges. What do we believe? Whom do we believe? He said, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” He had some other things to face, but they were things that human beings forced upon Him. He had already completed all that God had given Him to do, before the atrocity. Seventeenth Chapter of John, the Fourth Verse, if you want to read it and look at it yourself. “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” Here we have the description of Shekinah, and it’s working in relationship to heaven and earth. “I have manifested thy Shekinah unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.”
But those who thought they were following Him, who called themselves Christians, forgot that, “All things are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me.” Specifically, “I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me … and they have received, and have known surely that I came out from thee.” And that is all they did know, surely. The pathos in this prayer is something that must surely touch the awakened heart. He couldn’t anywhere through it say, “My disciples have reached a point where they can carry on.” If you read it with understanding you will see that the only thing He could say that they knew surely was that He had come from God. But how it worked, what it was, the reality of Shekinah, all the rest, they did not understand. “… and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.”
“I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.” How? When the Shekinah Pattern of Reality works through them, the Shekinah Cloud of Glory, the Light that Glows. He said, “Let your light so shine before men”—the Light that Glows. “Love the Lord thy God”—the Shekinah Fire, the Light that Glows, the Shekinah Cloud of Glory. Let these things manifest in you. He said it so many times, so many ways.
“And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own Shekinah those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy Shekinah: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the scripture must be fulfilled.”
Now, human beings again assumed; they jumped to a conclusion that meant Judas. “And none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled.” And immediately busy minds jumped to a conclusion, an assumption, that means Judas. It didn't mean Judas any more than it meant any man or woman. What is lost? The son of perdition. Is Judas the son of perdition? He may have been a manifestation of the son of perdition, but the son of perdition is the whole devil pattern as it works through man, the whole fallen sphere—the son of perdition in any generation. Every human being who defies God and refuses to let God's Will be done is a member of the body of the son of perdition. And the son of perdition is lost. If you are not a member of the body of the son of perdition you are not lost, but if you are a member of the body of the son of perdition and insist on staying there, you are lost. The son of perdition is lost; yes, that is true. But to say he meant Judas is an assumption pure and simple.
“And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” Here, at the conclusion of the Master's ministry on earth, He was talking about joy: “That they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” Does that mean that they have to go and be crucified? No. No. That wasn’t the working of God's Will. That was man violating the Will of God. “I have given them thy word”—I have given them Thy Shekinah—“and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world.”
Well, most of those who conceive themselves to be Christians are very much concerned about getting out of the world and into heaven where they will be safe from the devil. And the Master in His prayer which concluded His ministry on earth said, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” Thy Shekinah is Truth. Sanctify them through Thy Truth; Thy Shekinah is Truth “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” Now let’s stop and look. If God sent Jesus into the world to be crucified to save people from their sins, then He sent you into the world on exactly the same basis. You were sent into the world on exactly the same basis that He was sent into the world. “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” Was He sent into the world to be crucified? If He was, then you were too; if not, then you are not. You were sent into the world on exactly the same basis, the same laws, the same principles, as the Master was sent into the world.
“And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth”—through Shekinah. “Neither pray I for these alone.” Now the Master recognized that in all likelihood there would be those who would rise up and say, “Well now, He was just talking about His disciples, the twelve, and Judas was gone; but just these men were going to have power, not us down here. We cannot expect it. We’re just poor, weak human beings. We can’t have the power of God. He was just talking about His twelve disciples having the power.” And there are churches that actually believe that rot. That's all it is.
What does He say? “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.” I do not know how He could have made it any plainer, that everything He was saying in His prayer applied to any man or any woman, in any generation, of any color, regardless of background, socially or by creed or anything else. No limitations. It applies to you. His prayer applies to you just as much as it did to anyone, anywhere, at any time. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory”—and the Shekinah Glory—“which thou gavest me I have given them.”
Now where are those who have received the Glory? Look in the world—either God didn’t give our Master very much Glory, or else those who were supposed to receive it haven’t received it. “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them.” And it applies to us in this hour. When are we going to receive the Shekinah Glory? When we let it appear. “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are.” Now human beings have assumed that we had to be One with the Father on some other basis than Jesus was. Now He was One with the Father for this reason and that reason, and the other reason. Now we are not going to be like that; we'll be some other how. We'll be One with the Father; we're going to go through some other channel. Assumptions. If we do not say that Jesus was a liar when He prayed this prayer, we must accept the fact that we are supposed to have Oneness with the Father on exactly the same basis that He had Oneness with the Father. And how was it? Through the Shekinah. It has been called different names, but human beings have forgotten what it means; they dom’t know. “That they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me.”
I, Shekinah, in them, and Thou, the One Who Dwells, in me, Shekinah, that through Shekinah we may all be one. Not until you begin to understand the principles of Shekinah can you really understand the Master's use of language here. “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me—Shekinah—and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” That the Father loved them—you, in this hour—as, in exactly the same way, that He loved our LORD when He was on earth. “As thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.” Not where I am going to be. They have jumped to the conclusion that that meant He was going to take Him up into the sky somewhere. Where was He when He said these words “Where I am.” He was the manifestation of Deity on earth. He was the focalization of, the revelation of, Shekinah to the children of men, and He said, “I pray that they shall be with me where I am,” not where I am going to be. But assumption again has said, Well, He really meant, “I want them to be where I'm going to be, and I'm going to be up in heaven; so, come on, little chillins, come on up to heaven.” No. Where I am—the manifestation of the Power of God on earth.
“Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory…” What Glory? Do they have to go to some far heaven to behold the Shekinah Glory? Certainly not. “… which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name”—I have declared unto them Thy Shekinah—“and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” The Shekinah Fire of Love in the manifestation of the Divine Pattern on earth.
Here we have the words of the Master Himself, in His concluding prayer. If they be the words of Truth, the words of our LORD in fact, then let us give heed to them and stop being concerned with all the assumptions. Let us “soar to high neglect of what's denied or said, this way or that, in Holy Writ”, on the basis of assumption, interpretation, belief, and all the rest. The Master said, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”—free to live, and move and have your being in the Shekinah of our God. And so shall you share the Victory and do your part toward finishing the work which you came to do.
Shekinah transcripts and audios by Uranda,
and related Shekinah transcripts and audios by Martin
Martin Cecil April 13, 1978 Advanced Training Session
We have the opportunity of sharing an hour now, letting something emerge which is unique to this particular gathering, to this particular moment, and to the creative needs that are in focus now. We have a mutual awareness that whatever needs to be achieved from the standpoint of the Lord requires our spiritual expression. That is a rather general term at the moment, but we need to see that there is some very specific detail relative to spiritual expression. There may be a general effulgence: let your light so shine before men. We need to let the light shine. We need to exemplify the true character. But in that exemplification certain specific actions naturally emerge. We share the responsibilities, so we need to look at this matter of spiritual expression not only from the individual standpoint but from the standpoint of the whole.
We are moving away from prior patterns of earthly self-centeredness so that the whole of our expression of life is concerned with the overall fulfilment of Divine Purpose. We are no longer holding out little areas here and there in ourselves which we deem to be private and personal. If we do that, in those areas there is darkness, just a blank, a void. Where there are blanks and voids in our expression of living there could never be the Holy Spirit—the Holy Spirit is a whole spirit and it requires every aspect of our being. We are in no position to hold out anything of a personal nature, anything considered to be private to ourselves alone, and experience the reality of true spiritual expression.
True spiritual expression requires the presence and the release of the whole spirit, not bits and pieces. With human experience, for the most part the True Spirit has been absent; and it is these absences that have caused the expression of something distorted—a distorted cause which has produced distorted effects. We cannot have true cause without expression of the whole spirit. So we need to understand something with respect to this in a more specific sense. First of all there is the necessity to realize that we cannot participate in the expression of the whole spirit, true spiritual expression, and still maintain personal and private areas in ourselves.
I'm not suggesting that one splatter all over the place the innermost factors in one's expression, but none of them are withheld from the Lord. Every aspect of one's own state of internal being is offered to the Lord for right use. We do not retain anything for ourselves, saying in effect that this is my own area, put up a private sign, “Keep Out!”—so that we continue to have something which is not a part of the wholeness of being. We cannot experience the reality of God while restricting the expression of God to particular areas of our own choosing; the choosing will be that of the mind and heart and restrictions will be placed upon the true expression of spirit. We can maintain these private places where we wish to keep something for ourselves.
The dissolving of barriers in this regard, so that everything opens up, is not something that has been required of anyone in a moment. All of you have been given quite a considerable time to allow these things to transpire—I don't think there is anyone here present who hasn't had plenty of time. If there are still restrictions and limitations and areas in one's own inner being which one has reserved for oneself this is an evidence of a failure to let time be used rightly.
“Step by step,” the Lord says, “You can do it step by step.” But there comes a time when all the steps have been taken. I would suggest that we are gathered here to prove that that time is now. I can see no other reason for our being here. This is not a class; in other words it is not so that you can take some more steps, putting off the final step as long as possible, which is what most people do. We are here to do what is only possible when the final step has been taken. And we don't need a class. We need a radiant session, where we gather together and experience the creative purpose for which we are all on earth, and for which we are all present in this particular setting now.
So there is this matter of spiritual expression. Looking at the unfoldment of spiritual events over this recent period of time [at least 4000 yearsall together, which would take us to about 2000 BC] there has been a provision in the experience of human beings for the release of true spiritual expression. We have seen this relative to the various Sacred Schools: the First, the Second, and now the Third. The objective in any one of these instances was to bring those concerned to the point of true spiritual expression. It has never happened yet. Presumably we are here to accept the responsibility of letting it happen now. And that is a very vast responsibility; it is not a little thing. On each occasion the means by which true spiritual expression could appear was True Spirit. The facility, insofar as human beings were concerned, had to be conditioned sufficiently, undergo sufficient re-creation, so that this True Spirit could come clear in expression, and not constantly be colored and distorted and changed by the faulty attitudes of human beings. But the means, power, by which the change could occur was always True Spirit, presented in various ways, differently insofar as each of these Sacred Schools was concerned.
In the First Sacred School the word used was Shekinah, the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, the evidence of the Presence of True Cause. So the word Shekinah—Glory of the Lord—was used in that instance because it had particular application to the level of approach that was being made, the physical approach. And then it changed when the Second Sacred School came along, the mental approach, and the word used was the Christ: true spiritual expression. The Christ was revealed in a very specific sense on earth by reason of One Man, so He is usually referred to as Jesus Christ. But the word Christ is not the surname of a man whose Christian name was Jesus; it simply indicates the evidence of true spiritual expression on earth, as it related particularly to the Second Sacred School. Then proceeding to the time of the Third Sacred School, where the approach is the spiritual expression approach directly, another word was used which has been translated in the Book of Revelation as the Lamb.
True spiritual expression is the experience of those who are moving from the standpoint of the spiritual expression plane approach directly. As there is the experience of true spiritual expression from this standpoint, obviously it directly effects the mind and the body; there is mental and physical effect. But the focus of True Cause is in true spiritual expression, and the concern is with that. It isn't a matter of building up towards it by establishing physical rules and regulations, or by the mental approach of trying to understand everything, but of discerning spiritually and living spiritually, living from the standpoint of spiritual expression now. So, the Lamb was the word that was used in this regard; and it is by reason of the Lamb, true spiritual expression, that what we call the restoration is made possible. The essential changes in the body and the consciousness of mankind are wrought by reason of the Lamb.
Now this is nice theory. It has been a theory for a long time, recorded in the Book of Revelation. In our recent Sunday services we were considering a few verses at the beginning of the Fourth Chapter of Revelation [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/we-need-to-get-on-with-job.html], relative to a door being opened in heaven, and allowing something to be experienced because there was response, and obedience to the words, “Come up hither.” This allows us to have an experience of something that is described in earthly terms. I’ll read one part of that description: “a throne set in heaven” and “one who sat upon the throne”. There is never any description of the One who sits upon the Throne other than to indicate that He was like something or other, because the One who sits upon the Throne is actually not a part of the dimensional scene. There is the undimensional state, the state of God, and the One who sits upon the Throne originates in that undimensional state.
What is initially emerging in the dimensional state is described in rather fanciful terms. There were Four-and-Twenty Elders around the Throne, and there were Seven Lamps of Fire, which are the Seven Spirits of God before the Throne. There was theSea of Glass like unto Crystal before the Throne. And the Four Beasts, or Four Living Creatures, which were in the midst of the Throne and round about the Throne. These Living Creatures indicate the composition of the Throne itself—in the midst of the Throne and round about the Throne. Here was the initial dimensional manifestation of the authority of God, described in these rather strange terms; earthly terms have to be used to describe heavenly things, and they don't work too well; although they give us something of a view of what is present to permit the authority of God to emerge from the undimensional realm into the dimensional state. There is a reason, there is a way, there is a means by which everything happens. We need to associate ourselves with that. So there are these various elements described relative to the design of authorityin heaven—this is all a description in heaven.
I have covered the Fourth Chapter of the Book of Revelation. My concern is to move into the Fifth Chapter where there is a repetition of some of what is contained in the Fourth, but in a little different way. I will read some of it here: “And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.”
This book, we could call the Book of Life, which has been sealed from human experience ever since what has been called the fall. The absence of the Book of Life has produced the presence of the book of death—the “Book of the Dead”, and nothing whatsoever of any value comes out of it. What does come out of it could be said to be the actual experience of human beings in the world, the experience of being dying souls. Because dying is so prevalent it seems as though it is important that one should pay attention to it, that one should begin to really understand just why one should go through this process and what is being gained by it, and how one may handle it successfully. But you are well aware that the real purpose is to live, not to die. So why study death? Why not pay attention to life? And that is our primary concern. But we need to emerge out of the conditioned human state where death is dominant.
Now the purpose here is, with respect to this book, to loose the seals, as this relates to the human state. The book, you will note, was written within and on the backside. The backside relates to those experiences before the fall, when the Book of Life was open. The Book of Life was open at that time, and so what occurred was written on the frontside of the book. But by now it is the backside of the book—a long time ago; and even though it is written on the backside, because of the seals it cannot be read. Human beings don't know what happened. They have been frantically trying to understand their origins, their roots, in various ways, but there is always a wall. They can't get past this barrier which is unassailable by reason and logic alone. People develop theories of various sorts, but the theories are not true; nothing is sure. Human beings are still looking; they hopefully look further out; perhaps they will find it out there in the far reaches of the universe. But there is no by which human beings in their present state can discover the True Story. The True Story has been told to a certain extent, in a very limited way, in myth, one thing and another of that nature. But what happened before the fall is a complete blank. There is no admission in a general sense, certainly not in a scientific sense, that there ever was a fall because there is an absolute barrier there that no one can get behind. This book is written on the backside—it is all there, it's all been written—but the book is sealed. So nobody gets to read it. No man, no matter how spiritual or how scientific or anything else, gets to read it. The book it is sealed.
And it is also written within—inside. Our concern is that the seals should be loosed so that what is inside can come out. What was available in true spiritual expression for human beings ever since the fall has been written in each moment within, but it never got out. The Book of Life, the experience of life, has not been known consequently. The only experience that human beings have is of dying. This is the case since the first point of failure. And it has been so long-standing now that it is taken as being the natural and inevitable thing. The restoration to the true state of man as a living soul requires that these seals should be loosed so that what is inside the book can come out. When what is inside the book begins to come out then there begins to be some understanding of what was written on the backside. The question arises as to how these seals are to be loosed seeing that nobody can loose them.
Of course, where human beings think of themselves as being supreme and all-important and all-wise, if human beings can't open this book, well, nobody else can. And if nobody else can it must be just a figment of fancy; and the whole thing is consigned to a state of limbo in human experience. But as it continues here there is evidence that there is a means by which the seals can be loosed: “And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” Here is a reference to what was achieved by reason of the One called Jesus on earth, in relationship to Himself.
We have taken note of the fact that the only way by which anything could be salvaged from the failure of the Second Sacred School was as this One Man accepted the responsibility of everything into Himself, because there was no other body available by which it could be done other than His own. He represented in His own Body and earthly consciousness the whole of humanity. He stood alone. He was alone in this. And there was a victory. The seals were loosed in the individual sense. And so there was a point of victory established on earth, available for the subsequent right use of those who would let it be used rightly. It has, in a way, been dormant for the last two thousand years, although, like the leaven, working underneath so that something could emerge at the point of the Third Sacred School.
“And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the Seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.” The right hand is the positive hand, the hand of action. Here is the means by which True Cause [in the undimensional realm] can begin to operate in the dimensional realm. The dimensional realm is all a realm of effects. But when True Cause generates effects in the heaven aspect of the dimensional realm, the heaven aspect of the dimensional realm becomes the expression of True Cause insofar as the earth aspect of the dimensional realm is concerned, and the earth aspect becomes a realm of effects relative to the heaven aspect.
For this to happen there is the necessity for loosing the seals and opening the book. This is achieved by reason of the presence of the Lamb, true spiritual expression. But the spiritual expression of whom? We have referred to the Archangel as a means of identifying the One who incarnatesin the manifest form which is our responsibility to allow to appear. It appears because of the incarnation of the Archangel—nothing could happen otherwise.Using the word Archangel, we could say that here is One who has the responsibility of true spiritual expression—the expression of the One who is incarnating in this Body. But that true expression won't come out through the Body unless the seals are loosed. To the extent that those seals are loosed in His Body, and the consciousness of that Body, then there is a means by which the seals may be loosed in the body and consciousness of mankind as a whole.
We begin to see that we have a very particular responsibility in this matter [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-final-step.html], making possible the loosing of these seals. We may begin to understand as we move along in the days to come more of what is implied when this term is used, “the loosing of the seals”. Heretofore, the inference was that it related to the endocrine system in the physical body, combined with the various aspects that relate thereto in the nervous system—and this certainly is related to the matter. But we need to have a much larger vision than the individual physical body. We are not going to achieve very much, at least beyond a certain point, insofar as individual physical bodies are concerned unless there is some means by which the seals can be loosed in the Collective Body. We have seen the necessity of being totally given to true spiritual expression as individuals. Therefore it is not a personal matter anymore; it becomesa matter of the whole. And what happens personally to those concerned is of secondary concern, and will automatically take care of itself because of what is happening in the whole.
Unless there is a whole, in the sense of the physical and mental manifestation there is no means by which anything can happen. There is what corresponds to the endocrine system in this Collective Whole. And the Collective Whole must be adequately in manifestation if those seals are to be loosed. As long as human beings are fiddling around as individuals, imagining that they have some great thing to do as isolated persons, nothing happens. It is only when this larger Body begins to be a reality that something can be brought to bear. So the Lamb refers, first of all, to the focus point of spiritual expression in that Body, but it includes the differentiation of that spiritual expression through those angels who compose that Body. It is this differentiated spiritual expression brought to bear in a very specific sense in the body and consciousness of mankind that permits the seals to be loosed in that larger body. So we begin to recognize that while this wording here may have seemed to be rather obscure, it has a very pertinent and relevant relatedness to our own immediate experience. Whether we describe what is to be known in that experience in these terms or some other earthly terms is really of little consequence; the point is to have the experience.
This is that which we are about is the differentiation of the Spirit of the Archangel through our unique, individual angelic expression; and this allows for a wholeness of spiritual expression because, regardless of how many more will properly participate in this Body, there are sufficient present now to cover all aspects of differentiation. The differentiation may continue in greater detail, but there is sufficient present in those angels who now participate in this form to permit the whole of true spiritual expression, the essences of which are in focus in the Archangel, to be differentiated in a rounded sense. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/sex-2-female-principle-negative-response.html] Now there is greater detail to occur, but there is this base from which to work.
Each angel has the responsibility of carrying the differentiation of one specific aspect of that spirit into expression in all that is undertaken in momentary living. And we need to see more particularly what this really implies. We have some awareness of it now; we have some experience of it now. And we know that many things transpire that we couldn't have figured out with our own minds, we couldn't have brought to pass by our own efforts. And in fact these things have transpired when we weren't trying to do it on that basis. And if we have been trying to do it on that basis, well, not much has happened because what should have happened is blocked. This cuts us down to size in the human sense because all we can do is interfere. So let's get with it.
This Book of Life has been taken from the right hand of the One who sits upon the Throne, and is the responsibility of the Archangel whose spirit is the Spirit of the Body for which we have been responsible to give form, and to differentiate that spirit. We see that all of this is totally above and beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend or do anything about. It doesn't know anything insofar as this realm is concerned. It can come to know what it needs to know when it is a good servant and willing to move on the basis of the spirit which is being differentiated. When that happens then what needs to be known can be known. We can know something of these things in this hour. Here is something that is opening up to the extent that we have been in the spirit, and the mind has been sufficiently yielded so that it can move with what is moving in the spirit—and then it sees. But if it tries to see by grabbing hold of anything it loses the vision; it gets lost. I'm sure that you have found on occasion that you became lost. You were moving along fine for a little, and then you became lost, because your mind started to take hold of something, and it has various effects—sometimes somnolence is one of them. There is a reason for all these things.
I rejoice in the privilege of clarifying the field of our responsibility. Obviously, in opening this area for further movement you become aware that there is a vastness about it. But if you let your feelings get in there it could be devastating. It is something tremendous, but it is all under control. The Archangel is present, and incarnate, and in expression. The individual expression of all of you as angels is simply a differentiation of that. So it is all held together; it is all one thing. It is all strong, stable, sure. As we find increased ability to participate in this unified spiritual expression we find that the power is moving, and that others who are not specifically in this point of focus for which we are responsible here, are moving with us whether they consciously know why or not. So let us continue to allow this to unfold by being very much aware in our momentary living of the responsibility for what it is that is finding expression.
On this Sunday morning, May 2, 1954, we gather in the Chapel on Sunrise Ranch with a deep spirit of thanksgiving to God for all His many blessings, and particularly the blessing of moisture by which the earth has been replenished. And now we know that with the coming again of the warmth, the sunlight by which the earth is warmed, the seeds will sprout and the plants will grow and the earth shall be covered with a garment of green, which is the garment of life. With this spirit of thanksgiving in our hearts let us have a moment of devotion.
Our Gracious LORD, our Holy KING, hallowed is Thy Name to us, and yielding to Thy Spirit we would let Thy Kingdom come and let Thy Will be done in earth as it is in heaven, that Thy seasons of fulfilment may appear and that the haphazard, uncertain seasons of man may no longer control in the cycles of outworking in Thy service in the earth. For we would remember, and in all things reveal, the reality that Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, now and forever, in the Christ. Aumen.
Our purpose here is to be, or to learn to be, servers in our Master's harvest field. As servers it is our responsibility to reach a point in understanding, in capacity, where we may help others to accept and to pass through essential periods of cleansing by which there may be a renewing in body and mind and heart. We realize that if we are to reach a point where we can help others be made new we ourselves must first lead the way in the experience of letting the cleansing be a reality and the process of renewing be a fact in form. As we realize the need for this deeper cleansing, that we may by faith be made every whit whole, we are in position to begin to accept and receive that power of God by which such fulfilment may be known. We have in recent meditation considered something of the reality of Father God and of Mother God. To the end that we may allow the manifestation of God on earth we would in all things so yield that each in his or her appointed place, and according to the Divine Provision of capacity, do that which is needful to the revelation of God on earth, which is to say, the revelation of Father God and the revelation of Mother God.
As we pause to meditate upon these things, our thoughts turn to the basic application of the One Law by which essential building or creating may appear and by which essential cleansing may be maintained, for as we consider the matter, we realize that God provided a means of cleansing and that that means of cleansing was ordained to function in the ideal state. A certain amount of cleansing is essential at every level of being, in heaven above or in earth beneath. If, as in illness, the cleansing process has not been adequate, and there appears to be a special need for cleansing, the functions of this process must in the sense of that which may be observed in form become dominant; and yet in the sense of actual function, in the sense of that which is actually at work in both the visible and invisible realms, this function of cleansing must never be allowed to become dominant. What do I mean by these words?
If the evidence in outer form is distorted and failing to function according to the fulness of life, that which is evident is a dominant need for cleansing; but if we try to achieve this cleansing without regard to the dual function of the Law we will fail, and in this mankind has been most successful, most successful in failing, and it is for us to change the tide. Let us consider the principle—it is the principle of pulsation. We see this principle at work in our bodies, in the respiratory system. We inhale and we exhale. The inhalation of what is presumed to be pure air provides the body with the needed oxygen, and in the exhalation there is the expulsion that allows for a cleansing away of those things which must not be allowed to accumulate in the body. In a perfectly healthy condition this elimination of matter that ought not to be is constant. We see this pulsation at work in breathing; we see it in the heart, the pulsations by which the life-fluids, the life-stream, is caused to move in arteries and veins. We see the provision of that which permits the building, and we see the provision of that which permits the cleansing away of refuse. We see this cycle of pulsation in relationship to the alimentary canal; we eat and we allow the elimination of refuse. The principle of pulsation.
It is needful that we begin to realize that, regardless of the form, whether from the single-celled amoeba or the complex human being, the application of the One Law in relationship to form, here or anywhere, is on the basis of pulsation. If the ebb and the flow ceases at any point there is the cessation of the manifestation of life in the form at that point. The working of the Law in any form, at any level, is by reason of pulsation. If there is at any point the positive expanding expression and then the negative form fails to respond thereto, at that point there is death. Whether in the amoeba, in the nucleus, or in the sun, in the solar system, there is the expanding expression of the positive element in radiation in the release of the positive forces of being. But those forces of being do not become power, in the sense of the living of life in form, until there is the response thereto in the negative aspect of the form. It is this pulsation between the positive aspect and the negative aspect that provides the Current of Life. If there be the positive outflowing and then an inadequate, weak, uncertain response in return, there is weakness, there is illness, and the life forces do not manifest as power in living.
Anything which inhibits the response pattern to the positive pulsations inhibits the expression of life in the form. The forms through which the pulsing rhythms move extend from the single cell to the solar system and on beyond, and we are in between. There is a great lesson to be learned by those who are wise, in the fact that humanity after twenty thousand years of the fallen state still suffers as it does. The positive pulsations in radiation from God the Center have been rhythmic and certain in all their cycles, large and small, through all these centuries, through all the millennia, but God, with all of His power, could not force humanity to receive and respond adequately. There has been some receiving and a little response or the body of mankind would have perished from the face of the earth, but it has been inadequate receiving, an inadequate response. In desperation human beings would let a little more of the response appear, do a little more receiving, and then again become self-sufficient, self-satisfied, arrogant, self-willed and self-active at a level which was not more than a tenth of what could have been, and in season must be. Man accepted a level, above which he has refused thus far to move, because he has not accepted the pulsing rhythms of being in the working of the Law through his own form, and he has contented himself with barely existing instead of opening to that which is, and permitting himself to know the resurrection and the life by which he might share the full strong rhythms of the heartbeat of the Body of God.
As we consider these things, we realize that the response factor in the Body of God, in the Being of God, belongs to Mother God; the positive radiation factor belongs to Father God; and the pulsations between provide the Field of Being, the field of living, the field of attainment, achievement, fulfilment, the realm of creation.
We realize that we cannot comprehend that which we do not allow to manifest within ourselves in some way.
We cannot comprehend anything of any level which is not allowed expression through ourselves.
It must appear through form on earth.
We have as the body of humanity had that uneasiness, that insecurity, that restlessness, which gave evidence of the absence of Mother God. We have perceived something of the pulsing, positive expression of being from God but we have allowed so little of the vigorous response thereto to appear in our lives that we could not see or know here on earth that which would have given this realm of creation the spirit and the nature of Home, the true expression and manifestation of Mother God. If we are to share in the full, free rhythms of life, we must let the cleansing take place without allowing this dominant need to become the dominant factor in consciousness, for that is where human beings fail.
You who have functioned as servers know full well how it is that human beings allow their consciousness to be so filled with their aches and their pains, their needs and their difficulties, the things they think they do not have, that they have no means of allowing the positive expression of being, which they cannot yet see, have true control in their lives. There is in the sense of the form, the outer evidence, the dominant need for the healing, for the cleansing, for the correction of the ill conditions, but if that dominant need is permitted to become the dominant aspect in consciousness, the healing, the cleansing, cannot take place. This that is the dominant need in the outer form must be relinquished to the control point in an attitude of trust and faith, so that even though it is there, as far as the consciousness of the individual is concerned it becomes a secondary factor. The need for the centering in God, the need for the fulfilment of the whole, the need for rising above all personal and petty limitations, must become the dominant factor in consciousness, otherwise the human capacities of being are not permitted to share and make manifest in form, where they can be perceived, seen and known and experienced, the positive pulsations of God Being by which this need may be cleared.
To convince human beings of this one point is the most difficult thing in our whole ministry. The human vision sees the need, is centered there, and the human consciousness becomes so filled with that that it is not aware, and has no means of becoming aware, of anything else. So the ill condition continues and worsens until the form is lost. But recognizing the need for cleansing, or healing, or growth, or development, or fulfilment, for all the things which we recognize as being necessary, seeing them and acknowledging the need, we must let them become completely and utterly secondary.
Now if we deny the need when it is present and try to function from the standpoint of the positive God Being we will fail. We must acknowledge this need. If by reason of human pride we shut our eyes to it, if by reason of concepts of human self-sufficiency we deem ourselves to be sufficient and adequate and we say, “I am not going to let all of these needs bother me; I am going to function from the standpoint of positive God,” what happens? The same old thing that has worked out in human history in various forms over and over again. We have accomplished nothing. We have not risen above the ceiling under which man has been struggling with his ten percent or less of fulfilment.
We must see these needs, we must face them, we must accept them, we must acknowledge them. If we try to deny them or imagine that they are not present, or refuse to face them by reason of human pride, we fail. We must face them, we must acknowledge them, we must recognize them, but having done so, we must let them take the secondary position, not the dominant position. Having so acknowledged, we must then set these needs aside, as it were, and let our whole consciousness become centered in that which is dominant—not even our personal need for salvation. If the sense of a personal need of salvation remains dominant, that person remains damned.
We must face the need, we must acknowledge it, accept it, we must not in any sense deny it, but having reached that point, we must then take the next step and let our concern for development, progress, personal fulfilment in any way, shape or form, with respect to salvation or fulfilment in any degree or realm, become completely secondary, completely so in relationship to our centering and response for the benefit of the whole, for the fulfilment in any place or time or way by reason of the positive radiation from God, from Center, from Core, from Nucleus, from whatever we wish to say that represents the positive elements of being in action.
Then the human mind will not be trying to direct and control the uses of the positive outflow;
for as long as the mind, seeing the need, attempts to control and use the positive outflow,
for good causes surely,
that person is defeated by his own function.
You say, “I accept the positive current from God”; but you want to determine how it shall be used, what shall be fulfilled in yourself or in another, when and how; and you will fail. This is the breakdown—for human beings have been through the centuries refusing to let the will of God be done in earth as it is in heaven. Having acknowledged the need on earth and seen the condition for what it is, faced the issues honestly and squarely, we then yield to the positive outflow, unconcerned as to whether the fulfilment comes in someone over there, in the clearing of that condition first, in whatever manner whatsoever, through whom, when or how—not demanding one thing for ourselves, not requiring one speck from the standpoint of position or fulfilment or healing, not requiring anything for ourselves but actually rejoicing, in a completely selfless joy, in the response and the outworking, the fulfilment, the manifestation out here, anywhere, at any time, under any circumstances, through any person.
If when there begins to be a fulfilment in some person over here we rejoice, then we share—but if we say, “Such and such a person is being put ahead. Such and such a person is receiving such a blessing. I ought to have that blessing. I am hurt,” on the basis of human reaction and pride we stiffen up and cease yielding to the positive power. Then the breach gets wider and wider and wider, and that person who is suffering from human pride becomes more and more meaningless, until he either wakes up and responds anew or passes from the scene of things.
These pulsations are here and we have to learn to recognize and work on the basis of the pulsations. When there is the responding inflow to God the human being tends to remain rigid, unresponsive, and he says in that condition, “I want to feel the positive power of God. I am trying so hard to feel the positive power of God and I can't feel it,” and he passes by the inflowing. And then the cycle of God, the Season of God for the outflowing from God comes, and he has this positive pattern—he has failed to yield in the pulsation—and he is pushed a little further away, and a little further away. Two positives repel each other. And the cycle works and the cleansing continues.
If we insist on the right to be foreign objects in the body of the amoeba we will be pushed right out sooner or later. This pulsation, whether its rhythm is one second or one year, depending upon the cycle, is beside the point. That pulsing rhythm is there, in some places moving at a very high rate, in others a long, slow pulsation. We might say it takes twenty-four hours for the double cycle of the pulsation to work out in relationship to the tides of the sea. There is the stronger one and the lesser one every twelve hours, but the full cycle, the double pulsation, twenty-four hours. Now if man became rambunctious and said, “These tides ought to run every twenty-four minutes. I don't see why God didn't make them run every twenty-four minutes. I want it that way,” we would say, “How foolish can man be?” The tide is here, this is the rhythm, let us work with it.
That is what is meant by working with the Law, that is to say working in and with the pulsations of the Law; not according to the seasons and the times of man's self-determination, but according to the seasons and the times and the cycles of the pulsation as God has already established it.
If we try to change it we may say, “Oh I am trying to apply the One Law,” but it will amount to nothing. You are not going to change the pulsing seasons of God's ordaining. We either accept that and work with it or we fail, struggle as the human being may—and we have twenty thousand years back of us, six or seven thousand years of recorded history full of the evidence that it does not pay to ignore the One Law. But in what way do we ignore the One Law? We ignore it in the patterns of its manifestation through the pulsing cycles of its expression. Work with the Law. Do not try to set the Law up yourself as if you were God. That is what caused the fall in the first place. You are going to be positive, you are going to use the One Law, you are going to initiate the positive pulsations and expect the negative response to appear? You are going to do it? You are going to be as God? It will not work.
The pulsations are already established
They are already here with respect to every little cycle and every big one. All we have to do is to perceive them and coordinate with them and then we are working with the Law. But if we ignore those pulsations and try to establish our own rhythms we are trying to be as God and we will surely fail. But if we will accept the pulsations that are, little or large, and work with them, then we will be sharing in and with God the expression of God Being, and the proper cycle of response to the positive radiation of Father God will appear through us and we will begin to know Mother God. And knowing Mother God, we will begin to be at Home on earth where God has placed us. So it is that the Kingdom comes. So it is that all fulfilments are possible. Anything that disregards these already established pulsations, which is to say, the control factors, the Kingdom factors.
The Kingdom of Heaven that is at hand is what? The pulsing rhythms of the operation of the Law in all the cycles of being and creation all around us. We conform with them and we know what it is to share God's creative work. We ignore them, and seek to establish our own, and we fail. It is the Law, and no man can alter or change it. Man can reject it and refuse to work with it and destroy himself. Each must make his own choice.
But these pulsing rhythms of being are present everywhere, and we have the responsibility of receiving from God the positive radiation, of responding thereto, and doing what?—and giving it back to God. When children play ball—two little ones playing toss, shall we say—one throws the ball and the other is supposed to return it. If the one who receives it takes it and walks off with it, no ball game. God tosses the ball to you. You receive it and don't toss it back, you walk off with it; you are going to do something, something big; but no ball game, just like that. Or perhaps God tosses it to you and you don't even catch it; you just let it go on by, you ignore it, and you say, “When is God going to throw me the ball? I will stand here. I will be patient. I will keep my eyes shut so I never see God throw it, but I will wait.” We must be alert.
We must begin to perceive, to sense, to feel and to know the pulsations from God and to work with them. That is the Secret of Life, the secret of fulfilment, and as we feel it coming from God, filling us, do we say, “Well now I am beginning to feel something. I am surely going to have to use this”? What are you going to do with it? Like self-active Peter did so long ago, go out and start using? Or are you going to hold steady and let it fill your being and thrill your being, until you cannot contain it any longer and give it back to God, and then let it come? It begins to appear and fills, becomes higher and higher, until you are filled, and then it goes over the top and back to God.
Over and over again, in every little cycle, in every big one, you receive; but you cannot respond in the sense of true expression the minute you begin to receive. You have to let yourself be filled, and then there is the overflow. And what do you do with it? You try to use it here? You try to do that with it? Or do you give it back to God, let it flow back?—receiving and responding.
What is responding? Responding is just receiving on an open, yielded pattern until, being filled, you reach the absolute limit of your capacity to receive and you give it back to God—the ebb and the flow, the pulsing working of the Law. And you accept the cycles. You do not try to change them, and you work with them. You do not cut yourself off by human pride or self-activity. You let the will of God be done in earth as it is in heaven, and you acknowledge the reality that “Thine is the Kingdom.” Well where is the Kingdom? Your body, your whole being, with all of its capacities. And “Thine is the Power” that fills the Kingdom until it can contain no more. And then, “Thine is the Glory,” the wonder and the beauty of the return of that to God. And you have become a part of the ebb and the flow, the pulsation of life, and in it all things work together to perfection, because those who are in it Love and Serve the LORD.
Our Gracious KING, we thank Thee for Thy loving invitation, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” We would yield and learn to be open and responsive to the positive power of Thy Being, that being filled to the full the returning pulsation of response may establish the pattern of our relationship with Thee. For Thine is the Kingdom. And we remember Thy Word, “Thy Kingdom come.” We are the Kingdom. Thine is the Kingdom. The Kingdom belongs to Thee. And we are the Kingdom and we would receive the positive power of Thy Radiation, until, being filled, we come unto Thee not empty-handed but filled to overflowing, that the returning cycle to Thee may have meaning. And then we wait upon Thee and let the cycle be repeated, over and over again, that we may share the Pulsations of Being, the Pulsations of Creation, the Rhythm of Deity expressing through all the Cosmos, the Music of the Spheres, the coming of the Kingdom in Power and in Glory, the Kingdom yielded up to the Positive Centering in the KING. O Father, we thank Thee that it is so, and shall be so, in and through and for all who yield to Thee and let Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Aumen.
