You’ve heard that lust is the substance of truth, lust for the Lord. What we call emotion relates to this matter of lust. The experience of emotion gives evidence of something. It may well be said that it isn’t anything of itself. When there is vibrational substance of a sort, of whatever sort, within the scope of one’s own experience, then this may be stirred and moved by spirit. We are concerned primarily with the spirit of God, but we also recognize that there are other spirits which put in an appearance when the wholeness of the spirit of God is not there, when the Holy Spirit is not present. Then there is, to that extent, an unholy spirit, an unwhole spirit, a piecemeal spirit. The spirit of God is balanced and it operates at all levels of vibrational substance. As that vibrational substance is clear and available for the movement of the spirit of God, the spirit of God moves through it. It moves in it, and it moves to generate more substance, so that it may move beyond the immediate limits of that substance. That movement is experienced as emotion.
We’re inclined to think of emotion as being something in its own right, so to speak. But all it is is the evidence of the movement of spirit through substance—vibrational substance. Most of the spirits which human beings in human nature have known fall into the classification of the unholy spirit, the incomplete spirit, with gaps and absences. Vibrational substance that is present in a person is moved and stirred by that, engendering certain kinds of emotion. We come again to the recognition of the first great commandment as permitting an orientation in the spirit of God, not yet whole, but nevertheless moving in us and stirring the substance that is present, and we feel emotion consequently. Human beings have been so accustomed to thinking of emotion as something of itself that they give it the authority to control them.
When the spirit of God stirs emotions, that presumably would be thought of as good: “At last, the spirit of God is being allowed to stir the substance, the vibrational substance, of my being, and I am experiencing emotion on this basis. It really chokes me up.” Do you think the spirit of God is choking you up? No, it’s your own acceptance of the emotion as though it was something of itself, when it’s only the evidence of whatever it is that is happening—whatever it is that is stirring your vibrational substance. Then the emotion puts in an appearance. All you might say with respect to what is felt emotionally in that instance is, “I am aware that some spirit is stirring my vibrational substance.” It just acquaints you with that fact.
Sometimes the spirits are strong. Certainly the Holy Spirit is strong, but not too much of it is acceptable, as a rule, to stir a person’s emotions, because it is customary to be stirred by other spirits which, in their stirring of your vibrational substance, bring forth emotion. And then those emotions are accepted as the reason for the way one behaves, and a person is all choked up with emotion. There have been troubles in Emissary circles in this regard, haven’t there, when there was a certain movement of the spirit of God. The individual is so accustomed to accepting emotion as the controlling factor that the movement of the spirit of God is rejected in favor of the emotion, and whatever the spirit of God would bring forth is prevented. Obviously if you say, “Well, I’m all choked up,” what can be brought forth? And we have examples, of course, where a person suddenly finds their emotions there, because of the movement of the spirit through the substance, and the emotion is accepted as the thing, rather than the evidence of the thing. Being accepted as the thing, one is all choked up. Of course, there are various manifestations of what happens. I’m using that as an example, because where the spirit of God has actually been stirring emotion, people quite often get choked up, and maybe tears flow, and so on, and the person can’t say anything. Well that isn’t much indication of the spirit of God being allowed to continue to move through the vibrational substance, which is what we are here for. And we must anticipate that when it does, it’s going to be made evident by the fact that there is an emotion of some kind present.
When the spirit of God does the stirring the individual may take the attitude, “Well this is really a wonderful emotion that’s being stirred, here, that I’m experiencing. So forgive me, please, while I enjoy this emotion, even though it chokes me up and makes me cry.” That looks suspiciously like a stone on the mouth of the sepulcher, doesn’t it?—preventing what would come forth from coming forth. We need to have a very sane, balanced approach, angelically speaking, to what it is that is occurring, so that we do not imagine that the emotions of themselves carry all that much importance. What carries importance is the movement of the spirit of God through such substance as is available for that movement. And we need to let it move.
Now, as it moves with greater intensity there will be a greater evidence of that movement in emotion. The movement of the spirit of God with great intensity, in the experience of Jesus when He was on earth, has come to be called His passion. That is the emotional sensation that comes by reason of the movement of the spirit. Most people think of the emotional sensation in His experience then as being a very painful one. That was something that was quite deliberately undertaken insofar as He was concerned. As He Himself put it, “I can lay my life down and take it up again.” So there was deliberate undertaking in this regard, for a specific purpose. But the movement of the spirit of God generated what might be called passion, a very intense emotion. And yet there is no evidence of anything out from under control insofar as He was concerned. Here was the power which enabled the achievement of what was necessary in that particular situation, which had been deliberately accepted. It was called a cup, wasn’t it? It is supposed that He prayed at one point, “If this cup can pass from me, let it do so.” Here was what was being brought to Him in His acceptance of the responsibility He had for the fulfillment of the particular purpose for which He was on earth. He wasn’t allowed to fulfill it one way, so He was willing to fulfill it another way. And there was passion involved.
Do you think that any of us are going to achieve what we’re here to do without passion, without an intensity of emotion which is giving evidence of the fact that the spirit of God is moving with increased freedom and effect because there is substance present through which it may move? If we’re afraid of that movement, and afraid of that passion, well we’re in the wrong business, because obviously that’s what we’re here to let happen. The passion gives evidence of the movement of the spirit of God through the available spiritual substance, and if there’s plenty of spiritual substance there’s more passion then experienced, and that passion gives evidence of the power. Here is the power. Now we don’t want to stand in the way of that power. We don’t want to become subject to emotion so that we block its movement, because it’s going to be a risky business. We have the necessity of learning to experience this emotional passion at ever-increasing intensities. If we recognize the need for power, you can’t have the power without the passion. And as we are here to handle that power in the recreative processes, then we’d better be willing to accept the passion and learn how to let the passion be present, giving evidence of the power. Here is something controlled. This has been what has been absent, isn’t it? Dominion, the control which would allow power to be intensified to the point where it might do what needs to be done in the sense of what we call restoration.
On the one hand power has been made available for destructive purposes, and it is unleashed on the basis of what might be called the passions of men, the lusts of this world, whatever type of lust that might be. We were considering recently the lust for power, for instance, and if you can’t have the power you’re certainly not going to let anyone else have it. That’s just about it, isn’t it, on the international scene. Of course it’s explained by saying, “Well you have to keep a balance here.” So human consciousness is well aware of some sort of immense destructive power. Human consciousness is far more occupied with destructiveness than with true creativeness, so obviously the power that is around is seen in destructive terms and has been developed in destructive terms. But we begin to become aware of a power which is the creative power, the power by which there may be restoration. While at the same time we are quite aware that there is a certain amount of what human beings would describe as destruction related to the restoration, the primary factor is the constructive aspect, the integrative aspect. It is only because of that that what should survive survives.
So we need substance, as we well know, but we need to see that it is living substance. It isn’t just, “Well it’s nice to have substance, and we’re going to be able to achieve so much if we have substance,” as though it was just a dead tool, so to speak. This is a living experience, and it involves our emotions, intensity of emotion. If there is to be substance through which the spirit of God moves, it must be generated, and there must be space for it to occupy. Here again, we are using words which may bring enlightenment if we are allowing the spirit to move through such substance as is available in ourselves. There must be space into which the substance may be generated and which it may occupy.
In the generation of substance, we have considered the matter of sex as being basic, because there is sex at every level. It is life. You can’t limit it or restrict it to some certain thing. Sex is the way that life works. So when we speak of sex we’re really speaking of life. Now the idea of sex, generally speaking, and what human beings call love, translates in human consciousness, as a rule, as getting very closely together somehow. There is this factor, obviously, at the physical level, in what might be called the physical consummation of sex—a closeness is involved. But that’s just one level, the physical level, the coarsest level. And we’ve already recognized that it is the smallest level. Universally speaking the physical substance in the universe is scarcely anything in the relative sense— there is far more space in the universe than there is physical substance, space into which there may be the generation of spiritual substance. Now we need to see this from the standpoint of our own field of creative action. We need space.
We have assembled ourselves together here, physically speaking, over the last four weeks for a specific generation of substance, that there might be the greater outpouring of spirit, and consequently the greater generation of substance. But in generating substance there must be some place for it to go; there must be space. And we need to see space relative to our associations with others. Mostly what has been seen is the physical level, in fact, and it has engendered tightly packed physical associations, because in the human consciousness there is the idea that you have to get together to experience oneness—when the fact of the matter is that oneness can only be experienced when there is the necessary space. The Universe is One, there’s one universe, but it is only so because there is so much space.
Now of course human beings nowadays have their “big bang” theory, when supposedly everything was jammed together at some point and then, with a shattering roar of some kind—which couldn’t be heard because there was nothing to transmit the sound—it all exploded, and lo and behold, what we think of as a universe nowadays. Well, there may be some aspects of that outworking which are valid, but let us not try to reverse our direction and travel into the dim and distant past to find out, supposedly, what happened. Because we can’t do it anyway; it’s only imagination.
There is something that is present with us now, and we speak of it as the universe. It appears to be thus and so, but we may have an awareness of its nature because it has a very close relatedness to our own. Now, in our association here, as I say, we have come quite close together physically speaking, in this Assembly. But I trust that in our association together in this Assembly there has, at the same time, been a consciousness of expansion, a consciousness of something much vaster than it was before we came together. In other words, in our association with each other we become aware of the space, holy space we might call it, sacred space, which increasingly, because we see it as sacred, we would not violate in any way. And there is need for a great deal of space in this sense between us.
We were looking at the matter of time yesterday, and seeing how we function in the present moment, but that in the present moment there is space into which there may be the generation of this substance, or the release of this substance, so the spirit may move through it. We don’t need vast periods of time to let it happen. In fact, when we become involved with our concept of vast periods of time, we just scatter everything abroad into a realm of fancy. It may seem to be so real to those who study it, but in fact it’s fancy, because to the extent that they are involved in all this, they’re failing to live now. They don’t know what it is to live now. They’ve projected this imaginary scheme of things into the forefront, as though they were living in that, which is just a realm of imagination. They’re not living there at all. They’re living in their imagination, one might say, or existing in it. But how about living in the reality, which is now? The first thing to do is to relinquish all that stuff of imagination. And this is too much for the conceit of the human intellect, that it should acknowledge that it is really nothing. That’s too much. It has the sense of somethingness because of all this vast imagination that has been created, and the view is that the intellect is so tremendous that it can encompass vast areas, when in fact all it is encompassing is the field of imagination—nothing real about it at all. It isn’t encompassing reality. And it is only when the intellect becomes humble—“I of myself can do nothing, except indulge in fancy”—that one may finally come to the point where reality is, which is the present moment.
And we have seen that in that present moment there is great depth. There’s lots of space into which we may pour this substance, so that the spirit can pour forth because the substance is there for it. It does so in the present moment. It doesn’t do so in the past, it doesn’t do so in the future. I suppose it might be said it did so in the past and possibly will do so in the future, but that again opens up a realm of fancy. The only reason for looking at the past is to see how one may experience what is necessary in the present. Sometimes it’s helpful to look at the past. For that reason we’ve done it. But if we think that we’re looking at it just for the past, that’s a waste of time. That is the study of history, isn’t it? Fiction. Human imagination. Whereas the present is real, and here we are in it. And functioning in the present moment, we allow space in which this substance may be generated.
You cannot experience oneness with another person—I suppose this particularly relates to the association between male and female—you cannot experience oneness without what, in a sense, is unlimited space. It isn’t a shrinking experience. It’s rightly an expansive experience. One becomes One with everything. One’s personal relatedness to someone else opens the door for the experience of Oneness with the Whole. The purpose is not to have a nice little sort of imaginary oneness with somebody else. That’s all it could possibly be, if there is a consideration of closeness and the matter of possession—a shrinking in. The reality of Oneness comes because one has the experience of the Whole. That is a spiritual experience, isn’t it?
All this relates to what we are here to do, because what we are here to do is only done by the spirit of God. We’ve had that theory for quite a while. We didn’t understand how the spirit of God might get it done. We thought maybe it needed a little help here and there. It wasn’t doing it yet the way we thought it should, so we had to put in our two bits’ worth, and we were sure, back along the way, that the spirit of God would be very grateful for this. But that isn’t so, is it? The spirit gets the job done. We ourselves have a role to play in order to let the spirit get the job done. Not to interpret what we imagine the spirit would do to get the job done, but to let the spirit get the job done actually. And this is so unaccustomed in human experience that it virtually doesn’t exist at all to start with. There’s nothing to go on. Therefore it seems like there’s nothing there. Therefore we have to put in our two bits’ worth. But certainly anything that may have happened in this Assembly during your time together here has been achieved by the spirit of God. How much we’ve allowed to occur may be a question. But anything that has occurred has been consequent upon the action of the spirit of God that was allowed because there was substance through which it might act.
Now this relates to matters pertaining to sex, to life. It is life. It is life with which we are associated. We can’t associate with life without associating with sex. We can’t banish sex because it disturbs us, because we have been subject to our emotions, and we were not in position heretofore to stand back sufficiently from our emotions to see what they actually are. It simply is the way by which we are acquainted with the fact that spirit is moving through vibrational substance. Our emotions acquaint us with that fact. Well, we’re not concerned with distorted spirits, unholy spirits, moving our vibrational substance, so we seek to yield to the character of the spirit of God so that this may move our spiritual substance. And when it does move our spiritual substance, we have an emotion because of this. That emotion is fine. Praise the Lord for it, whatever it is. But we’re not going to be pushed around by the emotion. We delight to be acquainted with the fact that something is moving, from the standpoint of spirit, in the spiritual substance. And because we’re not being pushed around by the emotion, the emotion itself can acquaint us with the nature of what it is that is moving spiritually speaking. We begin to understand what it is that is moving, and we are delighted to allow this movement to continue to occur in whatever way it should. Now on this basis the movement is controlled.
Spirit includes the spirit of Truth—it includes design and control. So there is control naturally present. That control is known when we are not governed by what we experience emotionally. We don’t object to the emotional experience, because we know that this relates to the intensity of the movement of the spirit in the achievement of what specifically needs to be achieved. So we see emotion as relating to specific achievement. We’re not looking at it anymore as though it was something all on its own, and we’re not saying, “Well now, this emotion is moving, I’m angry.” I AM is not angry. “I am, therefore, not angry, but I experience the emotion of anger because the spirit is moving through this substance in the achievement of some certain requirement in the fulfillment of the purpose for which I am here, and it has generated, in its movement, the sensation of anger.” Now I’m talking about this from the standpoint of the movement of the spirit of God, not the movement of so-called evil spirits, which are chiefly the absence of the spirit of God.
So in the achievement of some certain purpose, of which one has an awareness because the spirit is moving, the spirit enlightens by reason of its movement. And we understand what it is that is happening. So we experience anger because there is the need for an intensity of spirit which is going to do what needs to be done. And because of that intensity of spirit, we have been accustomed to translating it in our minds as anger. We might call it something else—anything—we call it anger. Probably, because it is called anger, from the standpoint of human nature, good people would say, “Well you shouldn’t be angry,” or at least one would have to rationalize it someway so as to make it righteous indignation. That’s been done often enough.
But the point is that here is the spirit of God moving through this substance, accomplishing something, initiating motion of some kind, and the sensation of that may still be translated in our consciousness as anger. I’m taking just one so-called human emotion, which is no longer seen in that light at all. It is merely the evidence of something that’s happening. So that when what needs to happen has happened, the intensity of the spirit of God which was required to achieve that is no longer there. The anger is no longer there, so it seems as though—and one may translate it thus in one’s own experience—one has the capacity to let it turn on and let it turn off. But that capacity is based in the fact of the movement of the spirit; it’s not based in the human mind which decides, “Now, I need to be angry in this situation,” and get all hot under the collar, and then find out there’s been so much whipped up in one’s experience, and the adrenaline and all the rest, that one decides, “Well, now I should turn it off.” And you can’t turn it off, because you’re in subjection to it. But if it’s the spirit of God moving, it’s your spirit moving; it’ll generate an intensity of some sort in the particular situation with which you are dealing, and you will sense the emotion of that. That’s fine. That gives you a key to what’s happening. You let it happen. And when it’s happened, where did the emotion go? Well, it didn’t go anywhere, because it wasn’t anything in the first place. It was merely the evidence of the fact that the spirit of God was moving through the substance.
So in all our affairs we are concerned to let the spirit of God move through the substance. Therefore we must have the substance. And therefore we must have the space for the substance to be in. And we need to have an attitude, therefore, with respect to each other, which allows us to have plenty of space, and we’re not trying to cram people into some sort of particularly good Emissary structure. If there are groups of people all together in a relatively limited space, physically speaking, there needs to be, one might say, more consciousness of vibrational space than if one wasn’t in such a situation. There should be on Sunrise Ranch a vast space vibrationally speaking, into which all the spiritual substance required may be generated by those who are closely together physically speaking. But unfortunately in groups—not just Sunrise Ranch, but all over the place—these groups tend to be much more conscious of being physical groups than they are of the space which is present also. The fact of the physical group should be the least impressive of the factors that are present, because it is the smallest factor. The consciousness may expand to be aware that there is a vast space here and each individual in that group needs to have plenty of space into which this vibrational substance may be generated.
But because people who are in small physical spaces keep bumping up against each other in those small physical spaces, they pay more attention to these bumps than they do to the space which is actually there. If the space was as prominent in the consciousness as the physical factors, then there wouldn’t be any bumps, because there’s so much space that the people are far apart in that sense. Now you may recognize how this is symbolized in its working, at least in some measure, by a number of birds flying together, maybe thousands of birds flying in close formation—starlings for instance. And they go this way and they go that way; they never bump into each other. Why? Well there’s lots of space insofar as they are concerned. Their sensing relates to that space, vibrational space, rather than to the physical factors. Well it needs to be more so, doesn’t it, insofar as human experience is concerned. But human experience has been encased in a little physical area, emphasized by reason of the closeness of people in large population centers, and they say, “There’s no space here.” And people want—“Oh I need to get out into the country where there’s space.” But this is internal space—plenty of it in the present moment. It opens up indefinitely in the present moment. In this present moment there’s all the space, even in the external sense, in the universe. Let us not be bound in the smallest level of our experience, when we have so much immensity available to us.
In the generation of substance we represent the world to God. The substance for which we are responsible is not just personal substance. We say that our personal spiritual substance is generated out of our physical bodies, but we are part of something much greater than this. It is our representation of the people to God that provides us with a base of generation. The people are the base of generation for the substance that is to be conveyed, by us, to God. The way of saying this has been: “We need to represent the people to God.” We need to allow the generation that is in the people to ascend to God. We need to be present to let it happen. So that generation comes forth from the people by reason of what was spoken of as the remnant. And here is the substance beginning to ascend to God, being brought to us. As we have noted, there is an inheritance that is being brought to us all the time. Out of that inheritance there is that which can ascend to God—rather, in a sense, a small proportion so far. This is the substance that is being generated; it is the substance of connection, which rises up the other side of us, so to speak, to the apex. We are in the position of intercessors, allowing this to happen, something to rise up out of mankind, be brought to us and allowed to ascend to God. And here is the substance of connection of our collective body, connection with God.
Now we have recognized that the ladies have a particular part to play relative to the substance of connection. But let us recognize the whole half of the cycle here: out of the body of mankind, out of the world, rising up to us, our inheritance being received by us, and what is capable of going higher is then generated upwards to God. And that composes the substance of connection not only between ourselves and God, which is most necessary, but between ourselves and the people. And in fact it is the substance of connection between the people and God. We are a way station, so to speak, through which it passes. Well it won’t reach up beyond that way station unless the way station is on hand. So there is that aspect of connecting substance which we may see, in a sense, as either side of us, because what is being brought to us out of the body of mankind connects that body with us, so it’s the substance of connection that side. Now it connects us with the body of mankind in various ways, not all of them creative one might say, because there are elements of connection that are present in our human nature that need to be transformed. But there is that which is emerging out, and which is capable of being regenerated through us upward, so that there is substance of connection, then, with God. There is the necessary connection with the world and there is the necessary connection with God, and in between we intercede. We provide the means by which these two are brought together. And to repeat words that have come down to us, “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” If we are in that position of intercession, that’s the only way that anyone can come to the Father insofar as our responsibility is concerned. There’s no other way.
We have this connecting substance on either side of us. This relates particularly to the female responsibility, but it’s also so for men as well. That substance of connection only generates out of the body of mankind because there is something being released into the body of mankind. It doesn’t automatically just go ahead and do it without any reason. There is something being released, which we have called the substance of action. It’s not the substance, particularly; it’s what is moving through the substance that is the animating and activating factor—the spirit of God, which is moving out into the body of mankind, because we are the intercessor also in that respect. The substance of action enables us to allow what needs to happen in our own experience to happen and to extend on out into the world. We do not see ourselves merely as someone who just stands a little to one side and there’s something coming down from God out of heaven, “All right, I’ll usher it through.” No, we have to be right plumb in front of it—and it must have space in us, space occupied by the required spiritual substance—then it can come through.
And in coming through us it will have an effect upon us, in the sense of our facilities of action. And part of that effect, as I say, may relate to anger. It may relate to a deep emotion of compassion, or tenderness—whatever is required in the particular situation. And one does not sort of try to grab hold of the emotion, “Ah, this is a nice emotion. I love this emotion. I’m going to hold onto this one. This surely came from God.” But the emotion is nothing. It is the working of the spirit of God. Glorify God; worship God, if you will, but not your emotions. And you will find you are quite ready and willing to experience any emotion, because it gives evidence of the working of the spirit of God and the achievement of what needs to be done. And whether it is this emotion or that emotion, well, that’s beside the point. One is not having the emotion for one’s own benefit. One is having the emotion so that one may be aware of what it is that is happening, and that’s a very different state of affairs to what is usually humanly experienced, isn’t it?So let us allow the implications of these things to be expanded in our own consciousness so that we may behave accordingly.
I think there must be some sort of emotional passion in my expression or I wouldn’t have been providing what I have so many years. There must be something there. But the emotion doesn’t necessarily make itself all that evident. There are occasions when it does, when it rightly does, because it needs to be seen in order to achieve what needs to be achieved; it needs to be seen by somebody else; one doesn’t need to display it for oneself. And any display of emotion in the true way is there merely because it’s going to be of value as part of the process by which the spirit is getting the job done. And if no value would be gained at all by displaying the emotion, well, it doesn’t need to be displayed, that’s all. You may be aware of it, but you only display it if there is some purpose for its display. But what is felt by you, and others, for instance, with respect to me, is the impact of spirit, not the impact of emotion. That impact of spirit may make you aware of an emotion in you, because it has stirred the substance in you, but then, don’t you become subject to that emotion in turn. We don’t wish to multiply confusion.
You’re doing a job and there needs to be some sort of an impact to let the spirit do what needs to be done, in which case some sort of what might be described by the unenlightened as a human emotion might put in an appearance. And you can see why it’s advisable not to judge in the matter. It may be just a human reaction to the circumstance. On the other hand, it may be the evidence of the working of the spirit in achieving what needs to be achieved. One of the most obvious ways of discerning the difference is the fact that if it is an emotion consequent upon the movement of the spirit of God, an emotion which needs to be expressed so that it is seen, it’ll be expressed just as long as it needs to be seen and then it’ll be gone. There is no hangover from it; there are no recriminations that go on and on. People have violent emotional sprees, then talk about it for years afterwards, and try to explain it, and so on. Forget it. We don’t need to discuss our emotions in that way at all. Just let them appear as necessary in the fulfillment of our purpose.
I thank God for the privilege we have of gathering in the Spirit of His Presence. I have chosen a text which, in times past, we have considered—the Thirty-Seventh Chapter of Ezekiel:
The hand of
the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD,
and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,
And caused me to
pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley;
and, lo, they were very dry.
And he said unto
me, Son of man, can these bones live?
And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou
knowest.
Again he said unto
me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them,
O ye dry bones, hear the word
of the LORD.
Thus saith the
Lord GOD unto these bones;
Behold, I will cause breath to enter into
you, and ye shall live:
And I will lay
sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin,
and
put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
So I prophesied as
I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise,
and behold a shaking,
and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
And when I beheld,
lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them,
and the skin covered them
above: but there was no breath in them.
Then said he unto
me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind,
Thus
saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath,
and breathe upon
these slain, that they may live.
So I prophesied as he commanded me,
and the breath came into them, and
they lived,
and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
“The hand of the LORD was upon me.” Isn't that a good state to be in: to have a consciousness and awareness of the fact that the hand of the LORD is upon me? “And carried me out in the spirit of the LORD.” Have you ever been carried out in the Spirit of the LORD into new fields of vision, understanding, and comprehension? Have you ever been carried out of the state where you were into a new state?
Human beings reading these words ordinarily think of some strange phenomenon in which an individual, a man was perhaps standing here and suddenly he shoots off up into the air and goes somewhere else. I don’t think of it that way at all. “The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones”—in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. What is this valley. To me it is the valley of the world, of human beings. And when we look out into that world pattern, in the world situation it is rather dry, and it reminds us of a valley of dry bones, because human beings are rattling around this way and that, accomplishing what? Are there the proper relationships? Do we see the true body of mankind. The answer is, No.
And the LORD “caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.” What does this dryness signify? A lack of livingness, a lack of life. And in the world as it is we see a tremendous lack of life. “And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live?” How many times have you asked that question of yourself? Did you ever sit in your car, parked at the curb of a busy street an watch people go by—all kinds and shapes and colors, people going this way and that, some appearing to have a goal and others acting aimlessly—and did you ever ask yourself, “Can the world be saved? Can all this mass of humanity be healed of their limitations? Can they be drawn into a pattern of the Divine Design? Can they begin to live in any true sense? “And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered”—and here is the perfect answer—“O Lord GOD, thou knowest”—Thou knowest the answer. “Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them…”
Now before we go further let us remember what the word prophesy means. So many people imagine that prophesy means primarily foretelling future events. That may be included in some cases, but that is not the true meaning of prophesy. To prophesy mean to let the Word of the LORD be spoken on earth, about any subject, any thing, whatever it may be—and action comes in the realm of prophesy also. A prophet is one who allows the words of the LORD and the actions of the LORD to be given expression on earth. A true prophet is any individual who allows his lips to form and express the Word of the LORD in relationship to any subject, any thing whatsoever it may be—past present or future. So, when the LORD commanded Ezekiel and said, “Prophesy upon these bones”, we recognize immediately that he was instructed to let the Word of the LORD come through his lips so that that Word would have meaning to the dry bones. And “he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.” Now there we have a perfect illustration of the meaning of prophesy.
“O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live.” When we look at the world situation with human vision, human feelings and attitudes, realizing the chaos that is everywhere present, the suffering and the misery, the limitations of every sort, it seems to the human mind that this is indeed an impossible task. But it is no more impossible than the human concept of gathering dry bones together in a very dry valley and causing them to live. In fact, every human being upon the face of the earth who has not yet come into the body of formation Divinely designed, so that he or she has begun to live in the Divine sense, is one of these dry bones in the dry valley of the world pattern.
“Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live”—and this reminds us of another statement: Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I create all things new. “And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. So I prophesied as I was commanded”—even as I have done, and you are here. “I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.”
Here we see the beginning cycles of the healing ministry which we share—the gathering together of the bones to form the skeleton of the body of mankind, the body of Christ, or the Christ Spirit, on earth. But that body begins to take form before there is breath in the body—and so it has been. And when we look back along the way, as far as your own participation in this Program is concerned, do you find that this statement is true? “So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a noise.” Did you ever hear a noise, of ideas, and concepts, and reactions, and rebellions, and questionings, and wonderings, and trying, pushing, pulling—all kinds of things? “A noise, and behold a shaking.” Now did any of you ever feel shaken? Did you? Did you ever find a shaking in the process of your being gathered together? Did you ever find your old patterns of idea and concept shaken? Did you ever find yourself shaken? I do not think there is one here who can answer, “No.” And so, there was a noise and there was a shaking, and the bones came together. Witness—here you are!
“And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above:”—or on the outside—“but there was no breath in them.” And we are reminded of the statement in the story of creation, “The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground.” But he was an inert form—and the LORD breathed the breath of life into man’s nostrils, and man became a living Soul. He was therefore, before that point, a dead soul; he was a soul but not a living Soul. So, in our own experience there has been a gathering together of the bones, and the sinews have appeared, and the skin above, or on the outside. The forming has been working out exactly as the picture is portrayed here. But, there is one thing yet which is needed and that is the breath of life, that you may, in the full, complete sense be living Souls; or, in the unified pattern, a living Soul, in the sense of the body of mankind.
We recall that we have used the illustration before, of many members of one body, and the same portrayal is used here—many members of one body, the body of mankind which becomes, in the final analysis, the One Christ Body. And the Christ is a Spirit. The Christ Spirit when it fills the body causes that body to be the Christ Body. But until the Christ Spirit is in the body, controlling all the members of the body, it is only a potential not an accomplished fact as the Body of Christ. And here, the statement is, “but there was no breath in them”—the Breath of Life.
“Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind”—and the wind; the air is a symbol of the Spirit, as you will recall; and the wind is air in action. Therefore wind symbolizes Spirit in action. “Prophesy unto the wind.” That is, let the Word of the LORD be expressed to the Spirit, in control of the Spirit. And is that not what is needed in our lives here, in the beginning of this new year, that the Spirit may be in action in us, working through us on earth?
“Then he said unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.” Many people—an exceeding great multitude. And they stood up upon their feet—they became upright as noble men and women—and they lived; and living is not dying. Living signifies that the pattern has been changed, the cycle has been changed, no more moving in the wrong direction, but in a controlled pattern of the Spirit, moving toward the fulfilment of the goal established by the Divine Design. As we live and serve here on Sunrise Ranch, or in whatsoever place is required of us—as Kathy and I journey into the field in this year—what is the burden of our realization
We see with our eyes how responding ones everywhere are being drawn into groups, bone to his bone; how sinews are being formed; multitudes of people of every church, every group, every color on the face of the earth; people are being drawn together in a realization that there is and must be something more than that which has been. But in spite of all of this, in spite of the revivals, in spite of the urgings to attend church, in spite of all the efforts at social betterment, human progress, it is not yet a living thing. It has not been caused to feel the controlled action of the Breath of the Spirit of God. We see the coming together of bone to bone, the development of the sinews and the skin appearing above, and this is taking place all over the world at this present time. It is being promoted by every earnest, sincere endeavour which motivates human beings of every race and color and creed—they are all having a part, one way or another. But we know that in that pattern, while it is a part of the Program, thatin and of itself is not enough. The first part of the prophesy is in action on a global scale now—but what of the second part of the prophesy?
“When I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me”—now He says unto us—“Prophesy unto the wind”—unto the Spirit in Action, not the Spirit of God in some static state far away—“Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great” multitude.
It is not required of us that we do that which others have done. If we simply repeat in action that which others are doing, what is our excuse for living, for being here? It is not that we are to simply do what they do, achieve what they have achieved and are achieving. If we cannot add something to that Program, if we cannot increase it in some fashion, then we are of no value.
So, we begin to see here in graphic portrayal that to which we are called in service in the earth in this present time—that in this valley of the world where the dry bones are coming together, the sinews are being established, and the skin is appearing above—that which results may not be merely a dead body to again decompose, not merely the same old round reaching the same old ceiling, ending in the same old futility; but that there may be the actual manifestation of the second step of the prophesy, that there may be such an outpouring of the Spirit of God in action in the valley of the world that the Breath, the Four Winds, the Four Aspects of the Spirit in action may appear in and through the body of mankind, and that that body of mankind may live; that men an women everywhere may stand up upon their feet, revealing more and more that nobility of Being which is of God, of the Divine Design; revealing that full stature in Christ, that grace of life and function by which all may come to know what it means to be a part, not only of the body of mankind but of the Living Body of Christ on earth.
For the body of mankind as it is in the world is in fact a dead or dying body, a body subject to death. It is slain, but the victory of the Living Christ, the victory of the resurrection and the life remains to be made manifest in this body of mankind which extends over the face of the whole earth. This step beyond, which was signified in its beginning essences in what is called the Day of Pentecost—as the Master put it, “And ye shall receive power, after that the holy spirit is come upon you.” Man has not yet received that power. Man, in the sense of mankind, is subject to all of these ills—the threats of war and destruction, the threats of disease of every sort. But “ye shall receive power, after that the holy spirit is come upon you” said our LORD on earth.
And here we have the Word of the prophesy: “Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath”—the Spirit of God in action—and “I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them”—not merely upon them, not merely round about as a breeze that blows, but the breath came into them, and being in them permitted the Spirit in action in them, an action which the flesh should share, an action which the mind should share, an action which the whole man or woman should share—the Spirit of God in action shared by all that we are. And as soon as we begin to realize this, and recognize that it is the Pattern of the Divine Design for our living service on earth in this new year, we find that we need not proceed blindly as if uncertain of the goal or the purpose, but we can move wisely, with understanding and comprehension letting this prophecy be fulfilled in us, because we share the prophecy, because we ourselves let the Word of the Lord be spoken on earth, because we ourselves let the action of the Lord appear, and because by reason of that the Spirit on earth is a controlled expression.
The wind, yes—but the wind, Spirit in action under control, coming from the four winds to accomplish something. I am the resurrection and the life, the victory of the Living Christ—the victory over death, the victory in life, the Spirit of the Living Christ rising above the limitations of this world. And so it is in us, through us, for us, and for all who will share it in this day and in this hour, and in the days of this new year that we may move forward in confidence to know and to share the Victory. So let it be, now and always.
So is it established, and so shall it be accomplished, and no man can alter or change it except for himself; for the fulfilment is sure and certain for the body of mankind, for all who let themselves share in the forming of the new body of mankind, even as it is written “Behold, I make all things new.” And this new body of mankind is being formed out of the valley of dry bones, that in season it may appear a living, breathing, vibrant form for the expression of the Spirit of the Living Christ on earth, to the Glory of God. And then shall it be, according to the promise, that heaven and earth are One; and in the recreation it shall be as in the beginning when the Lord GOD created the heaven and the earth, and they were One. And God saw that which He had made and it was good. So shall it be, and now is it taking form. And in this time of our living it is being accomplished.
We thank God, therefore, for the privilege of sharing in the Angels’ Song—Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. In this new year, may the joy and heavenly prosperity of divine riches be upon you, and be made manifest through you, that you may know the joy of this new year. As one who reveals the Shekinah of our King, the evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells, that that evidence may be made manifest on earth here and now, so is it established and so shall it be accomplished—and no one can alter or change it except for himself. And in this, I have prophesied as the LORD my KING hath commanded me. AUM-en.
Tonight I would like to meditate with you for a
little time on certain portions of that blueprint with the specifications which
we speak of as the Book of Revelation. The introduction to this
particular subject of meditation is contained in the Tenth Chapter. I would
like to read the entire chapter to you so that you may feel the vibrational
pattern of the context:
And I saw another mighty angel
come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud:
and a rainbow was upon
his head, and his face was as it were the sun,
and his feet as pillars of
fire:
And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon
the sea,
and his left foot on the earth,
And cried with a
loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried,
seven
thunders uttered their voices.
And when the seven thunders had
uttered their voices, I was about to write:
and I heard a voice from heaven
saying unto me,
Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and
write them not.
And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth
lifted up his hand to heaven,
And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever,
who created heaven,
and the things that therein are, and the earth,
and the
things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein,
that
there should be time no longer:
But in the days of the voice of the seventh
angel, when he shall begin to sound,
the mystery of God should be finished, as
he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
And the voice which I heard
from heaven spake unto me again, and said,
Go and take the little
book which is open in the hand of the angel
which standeth upon the sea and
upon the earth.
And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the
little book.
And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall
make thy belly bitter,
but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
And I took
the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up;
and it was in my mouth
sweet as honey:
and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
And he said unto me,
Thou must prophesy again
before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and
kings.
This concluding verse makes the statement that the author of the Book of Revelation was to prophesy again
before many peoples, and nations, and tongues and kings. Obviously, since this
outworking was near the end of the life manifestation of the one who penned the
words, the promise was for another time, another incarnation in his service on
earth. But our particular point tonight is contained in the seventh Verse.
“But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall
begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to
his servants the prophets.”
Here we have a definite assurance that the time would come on earth
when God would no longer be a mystery to the children of men, when the things
of Heaven would no longer be a mystery on earth. The unification of Heaven and
earth within the range of the consciousness of man is necessary to the
fulfilment of this promise. We are here to share in that outworking by which this
promise may be fulfilled. It is only as you let the mystery of God be finished
in you that you can be a means by which the mystery of God may be finished in
the world. In relationship to this pattern of outworking, we have here a remarkable
picture of the process of incarnation, for each and every one here came into
the world to fulfill a certain task, came into the world to share this divine
fulfilment.
“And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and
said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which
standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.”
This is the book of the individual life, the individual purpose,
according to the Divine Design.
“And I went unto the angel, and said unto him Give me the little book.
And he said unto me. Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly
bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey,
“And I took the little
book out of the angel’s hand and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey:
and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.”
The willingness to come
into the world, the willingness to follow out the pattern of the Divine Design,
is signified here. And the action necessary to that was pictured as being sweet
as honey in the mouth. The actual outworking of the experience in life on earth
could not be anticipated as being altogether pleasant, and so in the belly—that
is in the process of digestion, outworking or fulfilment—the book is bitter in
the belly. God does not give any assurance that when we come into the world to serve
all things will be pleasing, that there will be no difficulties, no obstacles. We
have all experienced in one way or another something of what it means to have this
book of individual life expression prove to be bitter in one's belly. But knowing
that it will be so, or would be so, did not stop us from eating the book,
receiving it into ourselves, accepting the Divine Commission, coming into the
world to accomplish something according to the Divine Design.
Once we begin to
see this portrayal in relationship to ourselves, our purpose on earth, we can
profitably take a moment to consider the passage which outlines the world
condition at the time that is here designated. Remember that the statement is:
“But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound,
the mystery of God should be finished.” Here is a description of the world situation,
the nature of the world condition at the time specified.
“And the seventh angel
sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying. The kingdoms of this
world are became the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign
for ever and ever.”
Now there is the
essence of the message or revelation of the Seventh Angel. You are here sharing
in a Ministry which recognizes the Master’s meaning when He said, “The Kingdom
of Heaven is at hand,” and that we should seek that Kingdom first and let it
manifest. And here is the statement that the time is come, the time of the
sounding of the Voice of the Seventh Angel, when the kingdoms of this world are
to become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for
ever and ever—the process of outworking in the lives of human beings when the Kingdom
of our Lord in Heaven shall be extended into the earth to include the world and
all the kingdoms of this world, that it may be known that they are the Kingdoms
of our Lord and of His Christ.
