Be of Good Cheer—I Have Overcome the World: John 17

Be  of  Good  Cheer — I  Have  Overcome  the  World

from  Divine  Commission  John 17

Uranda   April 5, 1953

As we come to the concluding Service, the hour of meditation at the close of Easter this year of our Lord one thousand, nine hundred, fifty-three, it is well that we consider together those things by reason of which we may share the victory of our Lord and King, and particularly tonight I would draw your attention to our Divine Commission—the commission which extends to us here in this hour.

First I would remind you that before our Master was called upon to suffer the indignities of the mockery of trial and crucifixion He made the statement. “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world,” This was His statement before the crucifixion, before the resurrection morn. He said, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” He did not say, “I am going to overcome the world. I am almost ready to overcome the world. I an almost ready to prove God's supremacy over the limitations present in the world.” He said, before the beginning of man's attempt to kill God, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” And it is that fact which gives us real cause for hope. It is that fact which makes it possible for us to follow Him in overcoming the limitations of the world. Hunan beings have developed some very peculiar concepts about what it means to overcome the world.

In actual fact it means simply that as we let the Way, the Truth, and the Life have meaning in our lives we overcome the limitations of the world which arise out of self-centeredness and self-activity and, becoming God-centered, we let Deity be made manifest in our lives, according to that particular capacity which God has granted to us, according to the particular purpose for which we came into the world, for we remember that each one is distinctly individual. Each one has a Divine Purpose, ordained on earth to accomplish some certain thing. And unless each one fulfils that to which he is ordained, he cannot know the joy and the satisfaction of truly living. And so, you came into the world to accomplish something special in relationship to God's Plan and Purpose. And it is only as we share the victory which overcomes the limitations of the world, overcomes those things which prevent the manifestation of the things of God, can we truly follow our Lord and Master—and that overcoming must be while we live. That is the true victory.

One of the things which must be recognized and emphasized in relationship to this point is that human beings have for so long imagined that overcoming the world meant some kind of gloomy life in which one could have no joy, no satisfaction, no natural expression in life—which is not the case at all, for the true expression of life brings the real joy and happiness and satisfaction which God intends for His Children. We remember the Master’s word “Fear not little flock. It is my Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom” And He did not add, after you die. Right here on earth in this life, “Fear not little flock. It is my Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” And once we begin to realize that Truth, our whole attitude toward life begins to change.

And now, with respect to that Divine commission, the means by which we may accomplish that to which we are called, I would draw your attention to the prayer with which our Master concluded His ministry on earth, and this was before the experience in Gethsemane, the mockery of the trial, the atrocities that were brought to a climax in the crucifixion: “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” Now there is the Master’s statement of that which is necessary to eternal life—not the crucifixion, not dying on the cross. “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.”

“I have glorified thee on the earth.” And now notice the next statement. “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” At the point where the Master gave this prayer He said “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” At this point—before Gethsemane. Before the trial and the crucifixion, the Master said, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do,” That which He had to endure afterward was something imposed upon Him by man. It was not required of God, and we have the Master's own statement to establish that fact. For if we say that He had not finished the work which God gave Him to do before the trial and the crucifixion, we make of Him a liar and what is He did of no consequence to us in any case. Let us remember that everything which He had to endure, everything He had to work through, after this point, man imposed upon Him, man made necessary—not God. It was not God's will. He merely faced the issue which man imposed upon Him and carried through to victory. We thank God for that victory, but it was not God's will that He should have to endure these things.

In this prayer we read: “I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name 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.” There is a statement from the Master's lips which human beings have forgotten—the Seventh Verse of the Seventeenth Chapter of John. “Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.” Everything that expressed in the Master's life—every word, every fulfilment, was not from the man Jesus but from the Father.

“For I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest me, and they have received them, 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. 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 name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one, as we are.” In exactly the same manner, under exactly the same laws, for exactly the same Divine purpose—“that they may be one, as we are.”

“While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name; those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

“And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

“I have given them thy word; 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, 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.

“As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.”

“As”—in exactly the same manner, with exactly the same opportunity, in relationship to exactly the same power and the same plan, for the same purpose. “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” What is it that sanctifies?

“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

“And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.”

This includes you tonight in this hour as much as it has included anyone, anywhere, at any time—as much as it included any disciple in the Master’s time, or any man or woman since that day, or any man or woman in the world today. This includes you, if you will receive it.

“Neither pray I for these alone.” Therefore every word in this prayer that applies to any human being anywhere at any time applies to you in this hour, if you will receive it. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all”—without any exception—“that they all”—which includes you—“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 which thou gavest me I have given them.”

What was the glory God gave Him? The glory of manifesting the reality of the Son of God on earth, the glory of letting the power of God have meaning on earth, the glory of doing the will of God on earth, the glory of revealing Deity on earth, the glory of establishing the reality of the Kingdom of God on earth, the glory of victorious living, the glory of truly serving man on earth.

“And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them.” And that includes you in this hour, if you will but receive it. “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, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”

“And hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” In exactly the same manner, with the same degree of love, the same fulness of love, applying to you in this hour. The Father is expressing His Love to you in this moment as surely, as fully, as truly as His Love was made manifest for Jesus—not one whit less, according to the Master’s own words. “That the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, 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, not where I shall be. He had just said “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world.” Those who have followed Him have been primarily concerned about God taking them out of the world. And that was not the Master’s prayer or His purpose. “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world.” It is not the Divine Purpose that you should be taken out of the world. But what does He say? “I will.” Here is our Lord’s will “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.”

Now where was He in that moment? He was on earth. Where was He in that moment? Not in some distant Heaven. He was right here on earth, and He said, “Where I am,” not where I am going to be. And what else? Where was He on earth? Not a geographical location, but the manifestation of the Son of God, the manifestation of God's Power and Authority—a manifestation of Deity. And that is the Divine Commission extended to you, the Divine Invitation, that you should be as a member of the Body on earth, where He was—on earth manifesting the reality of God, the reality of Deity, the reality of God’s Power, working with God’s Laws, fulfilling God’s Will, achieving God's Purpose, fulfilling God's Plan. And this is that to which you are called.

“Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, 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, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them”—that the Body of many members, the Vine of many branches, might be a reality on earth, a means by which the works might be done on earth, an actual accomplishment—not merely a dream of the future, not merely a hope for the hereafter, but the reality of a Divine Purpose in life on earth.

This is the Master’s prayer. This concluded His Divine Ministry on earth. By this means He extended the Mantle of Sonship to all who would follow Him and receive the invitation. And it extends to you in this hour. It is extended to every man, woman and child on the face of the earth who will receive it—but we must receive it on earth while we live. This concluded His Divinely Ordained Ministry on earth, and by this means He conveyed to those who should follow Him, in any generation, in any place on the face of the earth, the same position, the same power, the same ability, the same purpose which He had on earth—not a separate one, not something different, not one thing for our Lord on earth and another thing for you, the same thing. And this is His prayer.

And it was immediately after the conclusion of this prayer that He endured the indignities imposed upon Him by man. He had already finished the work which the Father gave Him to do. God did not require it. But since man imposed it, He established the victory over the worst that man could do. This wonderful prayer contains within it the Divine Commission extended to you—the Divine Commission extended to each and every one, and open to every man, woman and child, without regard to race or color or creed. The question of what earthly church you belong to, or may have belonged to, or that some one else belongs to, is beside the point. The invitation is to every living man or woman or child. We begin to see that only as we yield to a centering in God under the Law, only as we receive forgiveness, can we begin to receive this Divine Commission.

But what does it mean to receive forgiveness? Now, God offers forgiveness to every person without respect to who or where, without respect to what anyone may have done. There is not one single person on the face but what God has offered that person, is offering that person, forgiveness. But what does it mean to receive that forgiveness? It means this—man, functioning with limited understanding of the purpose of his life, functioning without the manifestation of God’s power, functioning without Divine wisdom—the sense of the fitness of things—has done those things which, if allowed to bear their fruit, complete their cycle, will bring disaster, will spoil the pattern of life. To receive forgiveness means that you let God change your future. Your function without this pattern which God has ordained has produced certain conditions which if allowed to come to fulfilment will have certain results.

What is forgiveness? The manifestation of the power of God that changes your future, that nullifies the wrong patterns which you have initiated and brings them to naught and establishes for you the opportunity of fulfilment, the opportunity of accomplishment, the opportunity of sharing in this Divine Commission. As long as the human being refuses to receive forgiveness his future cannot be changed. No one can force a change of the future upon another. Each receives as he sows unless a higher power is allowed to work in the individual life. And that power works not because Jesus was crucified but because human beings allow themselves to become a part of the Christ Body on earth. Because they reach a point where they will let the Truth make them free. And one of the things essential to that state of freedom is a recognition that receiving forgiveness is simply allowing the power of God to so operate in your life that your future may be changed, that the things which would have happened may be nullified, and that the Divine Pattern of Fulfilment may be established on earth for you in this present time.

What did the Master say? “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” What did He instruct His disciples to teach? “Go forth and preach saying. The kingdom of heaven is at hand”—it is available, within reach. You do not have to wait two thousand years, or three thousand, some other number of years. It is available—at hand. But they did not understand. They did not receive it. We do not condemn them. Presumably we should have a better opportunity than they. The centuries have passed. We should be able to look back and know something more than they knew.

In the world of religion man has been content to remain in the ox cart days. He acknowledges progress and understanding and knowledge in all other fields—the field of medicine, all kinds of fields that are classified as scientific, in industrial achievement, in all the other fields of life. But man has continued to sing, “The old time religion is good enough for me.” Our forefathers were supposed to understand everything there was to know about religion, but they did not understand the simple functions of the physical body. They did not understand how to work with the natural laws of life which we are using as commonplace things today. They did not know how to build a radio. They did not know how to build an automobile. They did not know anything about an airplane—and a thousand and one other things which we take for granted now. But they were supposed to have all knowledge and all understanding with respect to religion—the things of God. And so man spiritually, in a religious sense, has remained in the ox cart days. Modern medicine does not condemn the early pioneers in the field of medicine. Those who know the wonders of electronics do not condemn the first clumsy efforts of those who began to experiment with wireless. No. We do not condemn our forefathers because they did not know more. But we cannot excuse ourselves if we fail to understand more fully than they did.

God intended that our pattern of understanding should increase, that our knowledge of the things of God should increase, and the things which used to be a mystery should be a mystery no more—that we should learn to live. Blessed Ones, when we let our future be changed, when we begin to let that which God has established and ordained for us in the future, in the Garden which God planted Eastward in Eden, when we begin to let it come into our life, our lives individually and collectively, so that it may take form, we begin to live, we begin to have a sense of joy and peace and satisfaction—we stop fighting against God.

What did the Master say? "He that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad." From the Master’s standpoint there was not and is not any halfway point. Either you are gathering with Him to the point of Being on earth, or you are scattering abroad. Either you are serving God or you are opposing Him. There is no halfway point, no middle ground. You are doing one or the other. And if we fight against God, can we hope to have the blessings of God? No. We cannot reject the Head of the Corner and share in the building of the Temple of Being.

And so, recognizing that there are many wonderful secrets contained in this Glorious Prayer which we do not have time to meditate upon specifically tonight, I would like to conclude our meditation on this Easter Day by repeating in the Spirit of God's Love and Truth and Life the words with which our Master concluded His Ministry on earth. [Uranda read John, Chapter 17]

© Emissaries of Divine Light

The Ever-Present Heavenly Event

The  Ever-Present  Heavenly  Event

Martin Cecil   April 3, 1983  5:50 a.m.

This is a beautiful Easter morning, pure and white! It is about the time that the sun should rise over the rimrock and, if the skies were clear, shine through the colored windows of the Little Chapel. If we had been gathered at the west side of this Chapel no doubt we would have been able to observe this. In any case, you may have observed that there was light in the Little Chapel—if you didn’t see it coming up, look as you go out—shining through the windows from the inside.

Perhaps here may be seen a representation of the Sun which has risen. The sunrise I’m thinking of is the rising of the Sun of righteousness “with healing in his wings”: a heavenly event which occurred some time ago, almost two thousand years now. The clouds of ignorance have obscured the fact that the Sun rose at that time. People talk about it on Easter Day, calling it the resurrection, but the fact is that the heavenly event occurred by reason of the incarnation of the Lord of Love in human form. This was a divine event, celebrated in the Christian world at Christmas and then again a celebration at Easter, the same divine event: incarnation. Those who populate the Christian world are inclined to remember this; they talk about it: the Son of God came on earth. Out of that have sprung many myths and peculiar doctrines, but the Sun rose. There was a divine event, a heavenly event, which is the same heavenly event present with us now. In this sense it’s not a matter of time at all.

The heavenly event has been present all down through the ages since that time. This heavenly event is here now. The difference is that at the point of initiation it was quickly concealed by the clouds of ignorance and has remained concealed pretty well ever since, until recent decades when the heavenly event has emerged into increased evidence. It wasn’t very evident at the start. It has been made to look rather more evident than it was, in the stories that have come down; it has been magnified in Christianity. But factually there wasn’t all that much evidence at the time—a little brightening of the sky perhaps for a few moments. That brightening of the sky has been emphasized in the consciousness of many people all down through the ages. But there was indeed a heavenly event, as I say, divine incarnation of a very specific nature, and whether anyone noticed or not, the Sun rose.

So there has been a new day ever since, obscured by the clouds of ignorance. That first heavenly event was never withdrawn. It has been the heavenly event ever since, unrevealed as being so. Many people have anticipated something happening in the future again; but it happened; it is. The heavenly event is now. It was the incarnation of the Son of God, of an Archangel, in human form on earth. The real form of course is the whole body of humanity. That would be the earthly event when revealed, but there could be no earthly event if there wasn’t a heavenly event first.

This heavenly event has been present all along, while according to the record it looks as though the One who has been called Jesus went someplace. It was even said that His words indicated, “I go to prepare a place for you.” But He didn’t really go anyplace. The incarnation in this sense is just as much a present fact as it was then. It seemed that He went because He went out of the consciousness of people. He was not in the consciousness of very many people anyway.

And so today this heavenly event has not changed one iota. What has changed is the fact that there are those who begin to give form and flesh to that event. Perhaps we are counted among that number, and this morning we have opportunity to take note of the fact. The clouds of ignorance are beginning to be dispelled somewhat, first of all in us, and in others who likewise are taking note of the fact of the sunrise within their own consciousness. Clouds of ignorance are dissipating, so that what needs to be seen can be seen clearly. It is found that the doctrines of Christianity are part of the clouds; perhaps in a way I suppose brighter clouds than some others, but clouds just the same because they obscure the awareness of the fact of the sunrise, the heavenly event, the heavenly event which has been present in specific focus for going on two thousand years now.

So that heavenly event, the incarnation of the Archangel, is now. It begins to emerge into comprehensible awareness in the consciousness of some. It does this to the extent that the clouds of ignorance are dissolved. The clouds of ignorance, as I have indicated, are very particularly Christian doctrines, but we could say all religions on the face of the earth have been clouds obscuring the truth. Sometimes these clouds look bright, or brighter than the pervading gloom, although at other times they themselves look pretty dark too. We have religious conflict of all kinds in the world. For a few moments on Easter morning perhaps, there are people in the Christian world who think they agree about something. But the clouds of ignorance are dissipating in the consciousness of some, so that form and flesh may be given to the truth.

We share this particular responsibility this morning in a particular way as we are gathered here in the Dome Chapel. It’s evident that the light of the rising of the sun, in a literal sense, is beginning to permeate the atmosphere outside, but nobody is in position under the cloud cover to pinpoint the sun. But for us, we know the reality of that heavenly event. It is not something that we have to believe in. If we have to believe in it we don’t know, and it is evident that while it is true the Sun is risen, the fact is yet obscured by clouds of ignorance. But as the light shines in our living, and the living of anyone anywhere, as the Word is spoken, as the truth finds expression, the fact of the sunrise is proclaimed. There has been no change in that fact; it is exactly the same now as it was two thousand years ago. The heavenly event has been a heavenly event consistently, awaiting the clothing of it in earthly form. And this first happens in earthly consciousness.

We have the opportunity to share this, as we are doing now, and we rejoice greatly in that opportunity. For thus the fact that the Sun has risen, that the heavenly event is a reality, is proclaimed with greater vividness in the consciousness of human beings everywhere, so that the clouds of religion, of all human concepts and beliefs of whatever kind, may so brighten that they can’t be seen anymore, they pass away. The clouds of ignorance dissipate, and behold, the Word is spoken on earth: “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” This Word is spoken now, in this moment, in this place, even as it is being spoken elsewhere in many places the world around—in a sense but a little gleam of the Sun risen, but nevertheless beginning to light up the clouds of ignorance. And so we share this continued spiritual responsibility in this day and in each day, that the truth may be proclaimed because we live on earth.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

Greatest Lie—Greatest Atrocity—Greatest Victory

Greatest  Lie — Greatest  Atrocity

Greatest  Victory

from  The Cross

Uranda   March 16, 1953  Class

You are a cross—either the means by which the things of God cross over into the world or the means by which the things of God are crucified on earth. If you become self-centered in any moment, even for a few moments, you start crucifying the things of God and start preventing the things of God from crossing over into the world. And every moment that you spend in crucifying the manifestation of the things of God which should cross over into the world through you, you are sharing in the crucifixion of our Lord and King when He was on earth nearly two thousand years ago.

You share that act just as surely as if you had stood there and participated in driving the nails or placing the crown of thorns or using the spear to pierce His side; as surely as if you had helped lift the cross into the hole that had been dug after His body was on that cross; just as surely as if you had shared in letting it thud into that hole; just as surely as if you had helped tamp the soil around the foot of the cross. So, whether you think of it or not, realize it or not, you are in every moment of time, without any exception so long as life remains in you on earth, you are a cross—the cross of your own body—and that cross has for its purpose the crossing over of the invisible things of God into the realm of visible form.

But man has used that cross for the purposes of crucifying the things of God on earth. Once we begin to have a basic realization of that, and to realize that in any moment of self-activity, no matter how justified it may seem to your self-active mind, you are sharing in that focalization of crucifixion which was meted out to our Master when He was on earth. The judgments of your own mind by which you justify self-active function, are of no more meaning than the mockery of that trial, so-called, by which human beings then, undertook to justify themselves for the action which was taken. And so, you are either serving God by letting the things of God cross over into the world, or you are serving the adversary by refusing to let the things of God come into the world.

Life is in you—life force. How is it that evil is produced? By creating it as such? No. Evil is produced by refusing to let the things of God cross over into the world, for wherever you prevent the manifestation of something that should appear from the invisible realm, you have a space where the things of God did not appear, and consequently you have either a void or a distorted form which is not filled with the Spirit of God, and consequently is not functioning according to the Divine Design. This cross also represents your own God Being, by whatever name called. The inner cross of your Being always functions correctly—a connecting link between what we speak of as Heaven and earth, the invisible and the visible, according to this particular level of creation. And your body, which is the means by which that God Being has manifestation and is able to function on earth, is likewise a cross through which the Inner Reality is made manifest, or a cross upon which you crucify your own God Being.

Now, in crucifying, you cannot slay God, you cannot kill a God Being. Our Lord did not die on the cross in the sense that human beings think of it. We hear everywhere, in the so-called Christian world, the idea expressed that Jesus Christ died on the cross. His body reached a point of unconsciousness, yes, but if Jesus Christ had died on the cross there would be no hope for you, or me, or any other man or woman on the face of the earth, and as long as the devil can keep so-called Christians believing that Jesus Christ died on the cross, those same Christians cannot receive the power of God by which the works of God are supposed to be accomplished on earth. That is the central key lie of the devil, by which millions of earnest, sincere Christians have been kept from having any power on earth, any more meaning than all the other people, the so-called non-Christians.

When we look out into the world and see what actually is the fact, regardless of human beliefs or ideas or what human beings want to believe, we have to recognize that the power, the spiritual power actually made manifest through Christians, so-called, is precious little more than that which is made manifest through non-Christians. In other words, they are not letting the power of God manifest. I do not care what church they belong to, what beliefs they hold, what creeds they adhere to, the power is not made manifest, and where God is in action, power is made manifest—power to change things. And so, the central, key lie by which the Christian world has been duped, hoodwinked, and kept in a state of slavery to the unreal world, is this lie that Jesus Christ died on the cross—and as long as human beings believe that, they cannot conform to the laws and principles of Being which make possible  the Victory of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

They have been so sure that it was necessary for Him to die on the cross. It was not necessary, and in fact, He did not. The crucifixion was the greatest atrocity of all time. Never in the history of the world has there been such an atrocity. Many of the atrocious things that human beings have done have had a direct relationship to this one thing, but that was the greatest atrocity committed by man in all history—and it was man's effort to destroy God and God's power and influence on earth once and for all.

Once we begin to see that God the Father did not intend that man should try to kill God, there was no necessity within the range of the Plan of Salvation by which, as it is supposed, it was necessary for man to try to kill God in order to be saved. Once we begin to see the truth of the matter, once we begin to let go of all these concepts that human beings have maintained for so long, we see how utterly ridiculous it is for human beings to suppose that God would ordain that man must try to kill God in order for man to be saved—that God could not save man until man had done his level best to kill God. Now that is what it amounts to, when we take a good honest look at it without regard to all the foolish concepts that have been promulgated down through the centuries. God did not ordain that man should try to kill God. God ordained that man should begin to respond to God, to love God, to yield to God and let the spirit of God have some meaning. So the mockery of the trial and the horror of the crucifixion itself was not something that God ordained.

Let us take another look at it. Those who suppose that it was necessary that Jesus Christ should die on the cross if human beings were to be saved, are saying, in fact, that the human being who has rendered the greatest service of all human beings aside from the Master Himself, the one who most fully did God’s will—the one who took a position that would not be understood, but the man who most served God in all of history was Judas. Because if man says that Jesus Christ had to die on the cross in order for man to be saved, man is saying that when Judas started that chain of events that led to the crucifixion, Judas was serving God, he was doing God's will; it was something that had to be done and that our salvation depended upon what Judas did. Now any time, any human being tries to tell you that our salvation depends on what Judas did, do not believe it, that someone had to go and betray. But even so, he did betray, his whole pattern of action was self-active, it was without regard to the Plan and Purpose of God, and yet there are millions who call themselves Christians who say that Jesus Christ had to die on the cross—and if you are going to believe that contemptible lie you must believe that of all the men who ever lived, the one who served us most was Judas, and that his action in betraying our Lord was the will of God made manifest.

Let us take an honest look at it on the basis of the truth, without regard to all the ideas and concepts and beliefs that have been promulgated without understanding the laws and principles of Being. So, when we begin to see this one thing it makes all the difference between life and death, it makes all the difference between serving God and serving the devil, because regardless of the claims of belief, anyone who says he believes that Jesus Christ died on the cross is serving the devil whether he knows it or not. I do not care how sincere, how earnest that individual may be, he is, in actual fact, serving the devil and not serving God.

Our God is a God of Love—our God is Love—and Father God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son into the world that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life—and in those words there is not one single thing about the necessity of Judas betraying Him, of Peter denying Him, of all the others following afar off, those who did it, so that He had to be crucified. There is not one authentic word of Divine Inspiration anywhere, not anywhere, in the Bible or anywhere else, that suggests that Jesus Christ had to be crucified, let alone that He had to die. Once we begin to see the crucifixion of our Lord and King for what it was, the greatest atrocity of all time, something that God did not ordain, something that was not required in any way, shape or form for the salvation of man, we will begin to be in position to see the truth for what it is. We will begin to be in position to understand God’s Word. We will begin to be in position to let the truth make us free.

The Master said, “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,” He did not say, “I will die on the cross and my dying will make you free.” Not once. That is the greatest lie that the devil has ever managed to foist on human beings—the lie that Jesus Christ had to die on the cross, and that if you believe that He died on the cross you are going to be saved. Every human being that believes that is deluded—I do not care who it is. You may say, “Those are strong words.” They are, but they are the truth, the truth that stands, and until there are those on the face of the earth who dare to face the truth, to see it and to accept it, there is no starting point for the working of God’s power into the world, that the will of God may be done on earth as it is in heaven, to the end that His Kingdom may actually come.

Once we begin to reach a point where we can start to relinquish this lie, where we can set it aside without feeling that we are betraying God somehow—Oh, that is one of the first things that a person runs into—conscience, the old idea has been instilled into the human mind since babyhood, perhaps, and conscience says, “Oh, if I believe this, I will be betraying Jesus.” The same old lie by which the devil has hoodwinked human beings down through the centuries, and until we begin to reach a point where we are controlled by the truth which we can see and understand with the intelligence that God gave us, regardless of conscience, regardless of anything else, we cannot begin to know the reality of that truth that makes you free.

Therefore, once we begin to set this lie aside and see it for what it is, we can begin to truly appreciate what our Master did on earth, we can begin to see His wonderful life for what it was, we can begin to see what He truly did to make it possible for you and me, and every other human being on the face of the earth, to rise out of this morass of nothingness and begin to be men and women in Christ, to share the Divine Pattern of Being, to be men and women, to have enough nobility to refuse to believe that contemptible lie—for as long as human beings believe that, they keep right on crucifying the manifestation of God on earth, they keep right on believing that they can be subject to the devil and the powers of evil on earth all the days of their lives, and then simply because they said they believe on Jesus Christ and that He died on the cross to save them from their sins, that they are going to go to heaven and everything is going to be all right from there on out. Once we begin to see this thing for what it actually is, the greatest fraud that the devil ever managed to foist on humanity, we will begin to be in position to be men and women and to truly follow our Lord and King.

You speak to the average Christian about following Jesus and what does that person think about? He thinks about following Him to the crucifixion, about being nullified, to be made of no effect, of being hurt and abused, of being crucified, and they are all like whipped dogs with their tails between their legs. The very word Protestant is a word which destroys any real meaning to the position of men and women. In the sense that it is ordinarily used, what does Protestant mean? Simply that it is protesting against some of the ideas promulgated by the Roman Catholic Church and that is that. Protest-ant. We are protesting against something—not a positive expression of Divine Life. No, the Protestants are just as much in the same applecart as the Roman Catholics, or anyone else. I hold no brief for any of them. I do not condemn them. They are all doing the best they know, and most of them sincerely believe what they say they believe. That is not their fault, and I have no quarrel with them. I simply point to the truth that as long as we believe those things we cannot know the truth—we are believing a lie, and there is no real release for fulfilment in believing a lie. So, until we do begin to let the truth come through into our consciousness so we can begin to know it, it cannot make us free.

What does it mean to be free? Most people, when they think of being free, they want to be free from all of the evil things round about of which they are aware. If they have a hurt or a pain or an ache, they want to be free of that. If they have some difficult situation to work out, they want to be free of that. They want to be free of all the things which they do not like. Now that is a fine attitude, is it not? An attitude that suggests strength of character, moral courage, divine ability to meet situations. You want to be free of everything you do not like. To be free of the things you do not like! Blessed Ones, as long as your primary motivation in finding the things of God is so you will be free of the things you do not like, you are not showing forth the moral stamina and nobility of Being which should characterize a man or a woman. In other words, you are being plain childish. That is all right for little children. And the Master said you had better come as a little child so that you can begin to understand the truths of Being, learn the truth and enter the Kingdom of heaven. When I say that it is being childish, actually I am not condemning you. I am simply pointing out the facts of the case so that you can face the truth, and until you know the truth you will not let the truth make you free.

So man did not succeed in killing God—and the focalization of Deity to which we respond was on earth, and if man had succeeded in killing Him there would have been no hope, because we could not have hoped to do something that He was not able to do. If He had not, in His position, been able to carry through and defeat man in life—not after He was dead—then indeed would the Christian idea that there is no hope of defeating the devil on earth, so you have to die and get out of the earth and go up into heaven—and where is the defeat, and where is the Victory, pray tell me? The devil is not in heaven to start with, and you are going to go sneaking out of life and through the gateway of death; you are going to get into a state where the devil is not, and that is victory! What victory? Where do these evil things need to be met? You are going to get away from them, are you? Perhaps!

But until someone has the moral stamina, the fortitude to dare to meet these things on earth where they are, where is the victory? And if the Master’s Victory was merely that the devil could not control Him after He was dead, where is that victory? There was a Victory, praise God—there was a Victory, a real one; not the false thing that human beings have imagined it to be; for if man had been able to kill our Lord, and it was only after He was dead that he could get out of the clutches of the devil, there was no victory. Do you see that? Do you see how it could not be any other way? That it was in life, on earth, in a physical body, that the Victory had to be established—not after He was dead, but before He was dead. Actually, He was not dead at all. His body did not die, praise God, for if it had there would be no hope that we could gain the victory here on earth. But there is a Victory, there is a starting point for you and for me and for every man, woman and child on the face of the earth and we can share in it.

So it is here on earth that changes need to come. It is here that all the evil forces need to be defeated. It is here that we need to live, and as long as human beings believe that Jesus Christ Himself could not live on earth and gain the victory in this life before He was dead, no wonder they fold their hands and say, “Yes, I believe on Jesus Christ, but you cannot get away from evil on earth; there is nothing much you can do about it. We will just try to be good, we will do the best we can, and after Jesus comes, why then it will be changed on earth. He will do it, but we cannot. And then also, if I die in the meantime, I know I will go to heaven.” O my! Of all the putrid things! It makes my soul revolt! Once we begin to see the truth for what it is so that we do truly follow our Lord and Master, we are not waiting until after we are dead to slip out of the devil's clutches. We are going to face up to the issue right here on earth, and let the power of God mean something in our dally lives—to be men and women in Christ.

So the things of God are coming into you from every direction all the time—the things of God coming from the Divine Source through the God Being and through your bodies out into the pattern of environment— the things of God are available to you from every direction all the time, without regard to so-called up or down or anything else, and you are living inside of your body of pneumaplasm. What is it that makes evil? What is it that causes evil to appear? Not the actual creation of evil, but simply the crucifixion of that which is of God so that it does not appear, and where that which is of God does not appear there is something that we call evil—a void, a distorted form, something out of control, something that is not beautiful and lovely. In this sense you begin to see that you cannot actually create evil. You can help produce evil by keeping the things of God from getting through into the world, into your life. And that which is evil, whether it is sickness in the body, or disturbance in the circumstance, or whatever it may be, is simply that which results when something of God does not get through the way it should.

There is the pattern of the individual responsibility and we cannot shift responsibility and blame someone else, but we do have to recognize that we have a relationship one to another. No human being, by and of himself, created all of the evil that may manifest in his life, but if he accepts that as an excuse and starts blaming someone else, he will never, while he does that, be free. Once you begin to see that evil is something that appears when the things of God do not get through, you will no longer have any fear of evil. “Yea, though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you will fear no evil.” Why should you fear evil? It is simply the mess that is left when human beings crucify that which is of God and do not let the things of God get through. A certain amount of power, force, influence in it, yes—and if you respond to it you can go on crucifying the expression of the Divine in yourself and share in the evil condition. But if you refuse to respond to that, if you fear no evil in actual fact, you are not going to have faith in it. Why should you have faith in this distorted mess that is left because human beings have crucified the expression of God on earth and kept it from coming through? Why not have faith in God? Why not have faith in our Lord and King? Why not have faith in the power of His Love, the reality of His Truth, the vibrant reality of Life?

One of the first things is to be so centered in God's love that you cease having fear, you cease being afraid of evil. You let perfect love cast out all fear and then you begin to be serene and tranquil, then you let the inside edge of your pneumaplasmic layer begin to be clear and the things of God start coming through, and if you do not reject them, you do not react to them, they begin to fill up all the voids. What happens to the evil? It disappears as soon as what God made gets through. Where does it go? It is nothing, so it does not have to go anywhere. We just simply have the manifestation of what ought to be in the Divine Design; we have the manifestation of control and there is beauty where ugliness once was; there is peace and serenity and harmony where there was discord and all the other forms of evil. Evil must pass away; it cannot do anything else. Only as human beings maintain it for a little while by the power of their own life force, sacrifice their own lifestream to it, can it be maintained. And so, after you are dead—you, the human being—it is too late, too late you, the human being, to share in establishing the Victory of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth before the children of men.

The so-called resurrection after death has its origin in this lie, in this lie that Jesus died. His body was resurrected, yes, but not from death, from the tomb. Your body is in the tomb now, is it not? What is this world but a great grave-yard? Your body is in the tomb now and what is the stone that stands at the mouth of the tomb if not the hardness of human hearts that refuses to let God's Love come through, God's Truth control, and God's Life have meaning. It is out of the tomb of this world that the resurrection must take place. But it is while your body is still alive that it can experience the resurrection, while physically alive, for once the God Being is separated it has no more meaning.

InterBeing by Alex Gray

If there is to be a heaven in your life, within your being, you must let God create it—and heaven is at hand, your God Being is there, so heaven is there, but until it takes form and manifests in your body, the fact that it is there means nothing to you. So many people have tried to comfort another by saying, “Well, heaven is within you, if you—well, I don’t know—if you just—I do not know—somehow if you just—heaven is really within you, after all you know; if you will just be peaceful and calm, heaven—somehow you can have this peace.” I have heard spiels from the pulpit that were not much more encouraging than that.

Day-by-day you leave behind certain refuse. Do you go into mourning every time you leave a little refuse behind? No. You may say, “Well, one feels it when one’s loved one passes on.” Yes, and I do not want to make light of that. There is a separation and there is a loneliness. But we still have to face the basic fact that what was left behind is not that person. The one loved did not go into the grave—the one you loved. Blessed Ones, why did you love some certain person? Because there was something noble, something sweet, something lovely that did get through, in spite of everything else. Where did that that was noble and lovely and real come from? From the God Being, it came from the God Being, and man cannot kill God. The circumstances of evil on earth cannot kill God. Guns and bombs and what-have-you, cannot kill God. Disease cannot kill God. Accidents cannot kill God. If man had succeeded in killing Jesus Christ on the cross then it would have been bad. Man would have succeeded in killing God and then there would have been no hope. In fact, we would not even be here now. Everything would have gone to pieces long ago. But man cannot kill God, disease cannot kill God, accidents cannot kill God, guns and bombs cannot kill God, and everything you loved in that person came from the God Being into manifestation through the body so that it would have meaning on earth—but that which went into the grave was not that person, simply the means by which that nobility, that loveliness, whatever it was, was made manifest for a little time.

Now as soon as you begin to know the truth and let the truth make you free, in actual fact, you begin to realize that regardless of what man does, regardless of what happens to the physical body, man cannot kill God and that God Being did not die. The means of manifestation was spoiled, yes, but we begin to recognize that all that you loved, all that was Divine, all that inspired, all that was appealing, did not pass away in any sense of dying—and that still remains and cannot die, will not die. Day-by-day a certain amount of refuse is left behind. When the body is separated from the God Being for any cause whatever, that which remains has become refuse. That is not what you loved, that and is not the person—that God Being cannot die. Remember this! Life does not ever die; life cannot die; it is impossible for life to die. Man has never managed to kill life. He may have disrupted the form through which life was made manifest, but that life did not die, ever, with respect to any person or thing, for life cannot die.

All life is eternal life. The life which you share in this moment is eternal life just as surely as any life that ever was or ever will be. People talk about getting eternal life or going through some process where they will have eternal life. You will never be any nearer to eternal life than you are in this moment, for all life, without any exception, is eternal life and until we begin to realize that—that we do not have to get into eternal life, we are in it now—we cannot possibly know the truth and let the truth make us free.

While the world is as it is there will continue to be some things we do not like, and if we are controlled by the things we do not like we are not being controlled by God—and God's process of making us free is not simply a matter of removing all the things we do not like. To be free, to be a noble man or woman in Christ, to be free to let the power of God manifest, to be free to share in the Victory—which means to be free to move into the pattern of action right here on earth by which ill things are overcome and made to be of no effect. And how do we start? By fighting all of the evil things? What are you going to do when you fight evil things? What is evil? That which results when someone crucifies the expression of God on earth. And you are going to fight it? You are going to go out and stir it up and make the muddy, filthy pool a little muddier. Fighting against evil does not at any time accomplish anything, personally or collectively. It is not by fighting evil that we share the Victory. It is by letting that which is of God come through so that it manifests in form because we live, and then the evil is gone—not to get away from something we deem to be evil, not to get away from things we do not like, not to compel everyone around us to do just what we think they ought to do to please us. No. But to live in the Spirit of Victory. The truth will make you free. How shall the truth make you free? By coming forth into form.

As long as you think of truth merely as some knowledge or concept or belief that you get hold of over there, and then you try to function according to that knowledge and belief, what is going to happen? Nothing! You can get all the knowledge you are capable of gathering within the scope of your poor, puny brain or mind and you will have nothing. How is it that the truth begins to make you free? You let the truth itself come forth in your life and take form. You let God’s Love fill your body, your mind and your heart so that the evil spirits cannot come in—there is no room for them. If you try to drive them out and fight with them, what is going to happen? It will not be very pleasant and you will get nowhere. But if you turn your attention and your love to God and let His Love come in, the manifestation of His Love will fill your heart and mind and fear will be cast out, and all the evil spirits will be gone, and you live that way. 

Next comes Truth, and you let it have form on earth through you because you live. The reality of the Divine Design, and we have beauty, the reality of control and we no longer have chaos. There is order, there is harmony, there is coordinated function and your life functions effectively within you, and you function effectively in relationship to others who are likewise under the control of the Spirit of God. In the expression of that life you begin to be free of all of these things round about because you are under the control of God. You are going to be under the control of something all the time. You are either going to be controlled by circumstances, evil spirits, ill conditions, things you do not like, or you are going to be controlled by the power of God, and once you are controlled by the power of God, you do not fight it any more.

You cannot be free without the power of God, so why not yield to it, accept it, eagerly, open your heart and mind and let the power of God make you free; for the evil disappears as you let the things of God begin to have form within yourself and through yourself in the living of life, and then you begin to share the Master's Victory, you begin to share the victory over death and that is the resurrection. What did the Master say? “I am the resurrection and the life.” To resurrect you out of the old state in which you were and lift you up to a new state, the state of a Divine Man or a Divine Woman in Christ.

© Emissaries of Divine Light