“We, by reason of our path in life, have come into a certain awareness,
which may be of unique value to the Archangelic Body.”
Historically in most human religions there has been the belief in the necessity, and the attempt to build a so-called body of God, through which God could act on Earth. In recorded history we know of many attempts to build this outer organization, and thus far success has not been known, evidenced by the continuing chaos in world affairs. However, the cosmic schedule has moved on, and the experience of this planet cannot remain forever outside the divine design of heaven. If we survey the scene on Earth now, it would seem rather unlikely that such an outer organization will be built in time to prevent what seems like imminent disaster.
However, if such a body existed, what would be some of its objectives? Presumably, one would be a new experience of what the word God really means. This would relate more to knowing a quality of character, rather than more knowledge about some mysterious object of theological dogma. Another objective would be the reintegration of the sense of identity into eternal Being, and functional reintegration into the divine design. There would be the elimination of the isolated self-centered human ego, and therefore likely a severe reduction in the number of human beings. Now from the Archangelic point of view, all this is being accomplished now, albeit very gradually, and seemingly being brought about by reason of the contraction of the planetary experience.
Human beings are beginning to doubt their rigid lines of theological separation. We ourselves are beginning to experience reintegration into the identity of the Spirit of Life, the Creator. We can also see through various practical possibilities, the imminent numerical thinning out of the body of mankind. With respect to this latter process, we recognize that the body of mankind is in a mixed state, and that we ourselves cannot self-centeredly set ourselves aside, imagining that our own outer forms might not be included in the general cleaning up process. However, we recognize that nothing of reality is ever lost, only the surface levels of outer form of the planet would be reordered.
As we experience increasing identity in true Being, we can see there is no need for us to have millions of co-members in some outer organization. We know that we are one with the reality of Being, and with all Angels incarnate and discarnate everywhere. In this Identity we are moving with the one Cosmic Power, which is doing everything everywhere. And we are seeking to consciously move with the Archangelic action, which is transpiring at every level of substance. Our true Identity, as is everyone else’s, is in the Archangelic Spirit—not the Archangelic Body. The Body is the outer form—the planet. The true Identity expresses itself through outer form. So we can introduce a mode of thinking which allows us to not be overly concerned with what is transpiring in the outer levels of substance.
We are the Spirit of the Body, not the Body.
The Body is designed to heal itself. Just as in a healthy individual human body, a clear subconscious mind lets healing transpire automatically. It is not necessary for the conscious Identity to be worried and engaged in the healing process. In the Archangelic body, which is the planet, the same principle applies. There are mechanisms in place whereby the Body will preserve itself, and that which is causing dis-ease will be eliminated. The purpose of divine law, which consists of the lines of force emerging out of the undimensional levels, is not to punish anybody or anything. The laws of Being are merely intended to preserve the experience of heaven, the ecstatic state of Being. Where there is a temporary diversion from the true state, it is, in the context of eternity, a very brief interlude. When I suggest that many people will be eliminated, some people think, “Oh, what a downer!” But is it a downer to contemplate the elimination of the source of such misery in the world? I don’t think so. In any case, the truth of the matter is that the greatest disasters have already happened. The introduction of conflict, distortion, disease, and death into the planetary body has already happened, and needs to be healed.
So let’s look at our current role in this process. And here, I am not thinking particularly of just this little group of people, but of anyone throughout the body of mankind who has some dawning awareness of a sense of Self as being of the Creator, who loves this character above all else.
Let’s examine this matter of external organizations a little. One of the main problems about external spiritual organizations is that a tremendous amount of energy is invariably expended in keeping everybody moving—always having to inspire people, encourage them, comfort them, console them, deal with their squabbling, and their egotistical striving for position. You have to deal not only with the dysfunctional people themselves, but the dysfunctional states they create within a collective—their lives become messed up and they need help. Now there is nothing wrong with any of those creative acts of assistance. But in the focus that we are seeking to provide, we certainly are not emphasizing these levels of service in our work, nor are we seeking to coerce anybody into behaving better. For one thing, it takes a lot of effort supervising to see if they are behaving better, and then if they’re not, there’s all the effort involved in thinking about what to do about it!
The level of function we are seeking to participate in relates to one
where those present are self-sustainers in the Tone.
They know themselves as identified in that Tone, and are true to it in the living of their lives. There are not many people who are able to do this, or to see themselves in a Body of God which includes everything that exists. Most people like to have a few million people as a context and call that the Body of God. This is big enough for them to feel a little powerful, and small enough for them to get their heads around. However, such a number is only a fraction of the actual Body of God. It is a rarity to find individuals in the Body of God, who know they are in the Body of God, and are integrated by reason of identification in the Spirit of that Body.
We understand very well the value of external organizations, and we wouldn’t discourage anybody from being part of any number of organizations. But we would suggest that in fact no external organization is implementing what needs to be implemented on Earth. It is the Archangelic Spirit which is implementing what needs to be implemented, and it is doing this at every level of substance within the Archangelic Body—and every level of its activity is valid, in every part of the Body.
We, and others spread throughout the Body, cannot be all things to all people. We are beginning to know more vividly a particular level of responsibility in the Archangelic Body. It begins to come within the range of our consciousness by calling it the undimensional level of Being. There is a need for an awareness of true Identity in the body of mankind, knowing both the quality of that Identity in the undimensional levels, and yet being physically present in the dimensional levels.
All levels of substance—physical, mental, spiritual expression, and the undimensional level—are all present in every human being, and in fact in every form. However, it is apparent that the consciousness of most people is predominantly in the coarser levels of substance. As one moves up through the different levels of substance, the population thins out, as it were.And it is very thinly populated in the finest levels of substance. The reason for this sparseness is because it requires an adequate amount of fine substance to embody a sense of Self, and an awareness of function in those levels of finer substance.
As our sense of Self ascends into the undimensional levels of Being, we find ourselves at a level where problems are not. Now there isn’t a sudden leap from one level to another, it is a gradual process. If it was an instantaneous transformation we would think we went mad! Ascension is a gradual process, coming with the gradual generation of finer substance. In so doing, we begin to find that focused in the quality of true Being, many of the problems with which we were preoccupied recede in their force of impingement on us. There is a whole meditation in this, which we can possibly pick up another time. But matters like physical disease and social conflict, begin to have less impact on us. We are certainly aware of such discomforts in the outer world, but are less intensely impinged upon by them, and therefore less moved by processes occurring in these lower levels of substance.
Many human beings anticipate, one day in the future, entering into “eternal life.” But the truth is that we are experiencing eternal life now. If we stay in the current of our own Beingness, we can experience this present aspect of eternal life. “I Am” is always present. It always has been present in our experience, and always will be. “I Am”, this sense of Identity, is the primary ingredient in every reincarnation, no matter in what form we may find ourselves. In whatever form we manifest, “I Am” will be the main ingredient, no matter how different the outer characteristics may be. In each incarnation, who “I Am” gradually asserts itself ever more powerfully through whatever the outer factors may be.
It is worth remembering that every particle in the cosmos wants to do the right thing. Take your own case! Now there is a universal awareness that human beings, for various reasons, don’t always manage to do the right thing. But the core awareness here is that every particle in the cosmos is motivated to do the right thing by its very nature of Being. Knowing this, we begin to refrain from judging anything else, because we know that everything is fundamentally seeking to do the right thing. What that right thing is, depends on exactly where the participant is in the unfolding design. That we cannot judge, so let it be. We get on with our own responsibilities and our own fulfillment, which comes by doing the right thing now and always.
A focus of consciousness is needed in the undimensional levels of Being on Earth.
Spirit is working and achieving many things, focusing in the various levels of the outer body—physical, mental, and spiritual expression. Now if we are considering responsibilities of the undimensional levels of Being on Earth, is it not possible that we therefore might have some responsibility in this level, no matter how unworthy our outer minds may think us to be?I am quite sure that there are many people hither and yon more virtuous than we are in their expression on Earth. However, we, by reason of our path in life, have come into a certain awareness, which may be of unique value to the Archangelic Body. In saying this there is no spirit of superiority. We have no grandiose visions of, or aspirations to some exalted positions, whether real or imaginary. We are simply willing to give expression to our thrilling experience of Being, and to contribute this into the Whole.
The human consciousness as it is, tends to make spiritual utterances by people now long gone, sacred. The motivation is commendable, but it tends to freeze consciousness in a state that was being dealt with in the past, and there tends to be no new expansion in spiritual awareness. This frozen state occurs because human beings do not ascend into the undimensional levels of their own Being. Therefore they do not know themselves, and they do not trust themselves. They do not know the Tone, and they do not trust the Tone, therefore they hang on to what they know of the Tone as uttered in the past. Included in this freezing process is also the gravitational pull of the mass consciousness, which prevents ascension into the heavens, into the finer levels of spiritual substance, into the experience of true Being. Of course there is another danger. Some people float off in imagination—their feet leave the ground, and there are fantastic flights of psychic fancy which then occupies the consciousness, and that isn’t real or helpful either.
The true Tone emerges out of the undimensional levels of Being manifesting in every level of substance moment by moment. That is how the multidimensional cosmos unfolds, and this should include the human consciousness, since the consciousness would need to be changing in order to participate in the multidimensional changes occurring in every other level of substance. So we don’t cling to old “truths.” That statement can immediately make a lot of people nervous. But if we begin to know the Tone and know our Selves as aspects of the Tone, we become free to give expression to the Tone in the moment, which allows us to participate accurately in the process unfolding now.
So life is emerging out of the undimensional levels in this very moment. Let us speak into the Archangelic Body. The Archangelic Voice is one Voice. Here is an interesting thing. The Archangelic Voice is one Voice, so as we experience our own Being in the Tone, we hear and express the Archangelic Voice. This voice is actually sounding in every human being—indeed, sounding in every form that exists. What I say on-Tone is being said, in essence, everywhere. Here is another large meditation.
We have many moments of private awareness of what We Are (I Am) saying within Ourselves (thinking, we call it), and we can insure that what “We Are” saying in our own consciousness is clear and on Tone. Then that Voice is sounding, not only in this little form, but in every form everywhere, simultaneously. It is the One Voice, differentiated through every form that exists, but still the One Voice. What shall We, (I) say? “Be your true, beautiful, magnificent Self. Express this into the Whole now.”
There is no need for us to imagine some vast task, individually speaking. The task is brought to focus where I Am in this form, exactly where I Am in the multidimensional design. All that is required is that I reveal who I Am, where I Am. The Voice is the Voice of who I Am universally.
The Archangelic Voice has a focus here and now in Us.
My Voice is spoken, heard and obeyed—one way or another!
We seem to be a little short of seats this morning. It's wonderful to see so many here this morning. And we are joined today by others who are gathered in various locations at the end of the telephone line Green pastures, Glen Ivy, Still Meadow and 100 Mile House. The point of origination is here in Vancouver. There must be getting on for a thousand sharing this hour, which is a goodly number. There could, of course, be many more around the world! We might question as to how come all these friends are participating directly in what we share in this hour, and also that there might well be others around the world who would delight to be a direct part of what we ourselves now know. How come? Was an advertising program put on? There have been those who have been a little enthusiastic in times past in an endeavor to gather people out of the highways and the byways; but this isn't really the way it works, although no doubt people do come from the highways and byways—all of you, for instance! No.
The requirement is that there should be an attractive force, a point of spiritual radiation, so that the substance of the quality of character in people may begin to resonate therewith. This radiation has been present in a specific way for many years. The force of attraction has been in operation. The substance has been resonating and has been drawn, and brought with it all these people. We are usually rather proud of our independence and that we choose to do this and to do that. But really it isn't a matter of choice. When something genuine puts in an appearance it is no longer a matter of choice. If there is genuine substance of character in a person and there is this focus of spiritual radiation, there will be resonation, there will be attraction. While there are those who resist the attraction and come rather reluctantly, they can't help but come. It just depends on the extent of that quality of character that may be present. For those who do come, they discover that there was really no choice. One might as well admit and acknowledge that right away; otherwise there is a good deal of discomfort. But to be true to oneself as this attraction works, one is compelled to come home.
It is a matter of coming home—coming to a place where we all belong. We have managed, with a great deal of effort, sweat of the brow, to stay away from that place, together with most of the human population. But it takes much effort and much grief. It seems that people are inclined to enjoy their suffering; otherwise why would there be the inclination to keep at it? It is a matter of yielding to a compulsion. This compulsion relates to a focus of spiritual radiation. I'm quite aware of the way it works, because it had to work for me, just as it is available to work for anyone, anywhere, at any time. The spiritual point of radiation insofar as I was concerned turned out to be the one whom many of us knew as Uranda. Oh yes, he had a name like the rest of us—Lloyd Arthur Meeker—but he offered himself on the basis of this name Uranda so as to indicate something which was not merely of human nature.
The requirement is that there should be a point of focus—radiant focus, spiritual focus—in form on earth to provide that attractive force. Obviously we are all very much aware that there must be a point of focus in the invisible sense. Many people on earth believe that. Christians particularly think of it in terms of Jesus, and other characters for other peoples. But the mere fact of an invisible point of focus, which apparently is quite successful in operating the universe, is not enough insofar as human beings are concerned. In spite of claims to the contrary, that point of focus has consistently been ignored in the actual practical experience of living, so that humankind has got way off into left field, separated from any awareness of this coordinating point of invisible focus. That has always been available for everyone, but the state of human nature has been so strong that scarcely anyone has acknowledged that point of focus, except in theory, in an attitude of belief perhaps. But as practical experience of that point of focus in one's own expression of living, it has been absent. It seems helpful for some to believe that there is such a point and to try to conduct their lives according to what they deem would be the requirement of this invisible point, but no one really knows. There are all sorts of ways by which people have attempted to do this; but it has all been very theoretical, and it has all been very conflicting.
There is only one way by which this conflict might be dissolved, and that is if all concerned found their centering in this one, presently invisible, point of spiritual focus. Without that there is no possibility of what human beings think of as peace. We recognize the necessity for realignment with, repolarization in, the point of invisible spiritual focus. But that is impossible. Everybody has been trying to do that, but people had their own ideas as to what it was, and those ideas differ. People try to do what is considered to be the proper thing in relationship to various designs of religion, whether Christian or any other. But we still have conflict. Clearly enough, whatever has been done has been of little value, simply because this point of radiant spiritual focus has been ignored. To be acceptable as it really is, such a point must be embodied in human form.
There is the necessity for the spiritual point of focus to be embodied on earth. This is the one thing that has been lacking. There has been no common point toward whom all could orient. This necessity has been recognized by people in general, that there is this need, and so there are various ones who have presented themselves as usefully providing this point, not only in the world of religion but in the world of politics and everything else. “Follow me, follow me. I'm the great one. I'll lead you into heaven on earth.” And there are all these ways, all these systems, all these various conflicting undertakings, coming to focus in different people, everybody vying with everybody else: “If you would only come my way, then everything would be solved.” Nonsense—I don't care whose way it is.
There is only one way, and that is the way of this heretofore invisible point of focus. That point of focus, of spiritual radiation, must emerge through a person. It doesn't emerge through two dozen people. It emerges through one person. I had the very fortunate opportunity of becoming aware of this in this very city of Vancouver. I have had something of a love affair with Vancouver for a long time. I first visited the city in 1930. In 1940 Uranda came to Vancouver and I met him here in person. I had been in touch with him before and had arranged for his coming here to Vancouver to speak in a room that I obtained in the medical-dental building opposite the Vancouver Hotel. He came, and he spoke seven times there. There was a handful of people who thought it worthwhile to come and listen. I had a house in Vancouver, a rented house, on Blenheim Street almost at Marine Drive, and it was in this house that Michael and I first met Uranda. Michael was only four or five years old, but he remembers. I had only recently had contact with this man. He came to the house. There was something about him that was very familiar. Of course I was busy racking my brains, which is the usual procedure, as to how this could be, because I had never met Uranda before. The mind usually, on such occasions, goes off on its round trips: “He must remind me of somebody.” I suppose in a way that's true. If there is a genuine focus of spirit the reminder is of oneself. But of course I was searching around, looking here and there to see if there wasn't someone who fitted the bill; but I never did find anybody.
I attended all the lectures; and at the time I felt rather desolate, because I could hear what was being said and it seemed, at the time, like an impossible task was being undertaken. I am sure we have all had that sensing at times as there has been an initial movement with the creative focus of spirit. Uranda provided this for me. The reason why such a necessity is there is that one may awaken oneself to one's own responsibility in the matter. It is not that it can all be left for somebody else. For a while this usually is the attitude. It took a while for me to begin to realize that I had a responsibility in the matter and so proceed to assume some of it. Fortunately, somewhere along the way it all fell into my lap, because Uranda was no longer here. That was a most wonderful blessing. Tragedy? That's what it was thought to be at the time, but it opened the door for something which had not occurred up until that point. And I was compelled, very specifically, to assume responsibility.
It is much better to assume responsibility without having to be forced to do so. I can't say that I did it exactly unwillingly, because I knew it had to be done and couldn't do anything else. One needs to recognize that for oneself in whatever field of responsibility one may be, that what is required in your individual world will not be available in that world unless you provide it. It is very specific. I am sure there are many who are now awakening to this fact, so that the focus point of radiation in form on earth may expand, may become more intense. That is what draws resonant substance to itself. It isn't because someone stands up, like I'm doing now, behind a lectern and merely speaks words: “You should do this. You should do that.” It comes because there is somebody present, oneself in particular, who is actually doing it—not merely telling someone else to do it.
Mind you, there may be some sort of inspiration offered perhaps, so that others may be inclined to do it, let it happen, emerge out of the state which is present on earth with respect to all people, the human state. Usually when that is called in question a person will say, “Well there are some good things about that human state.” Maybe. By the same token there are a lot of bad things too. But it is the whole human state that is the revelation of failure. Everything, whether it is judged to be good or bad—it's all failure. It's all failure because the focus point of spirit—the spirit of Love, the spirit of Truth, the spirit of Life, the focus point of that—has been rejected, ignored, in favor of each individual doing what he or she pleases. That is considered to be freedom. “I have the right to do as I please, I have the right to think as I please”—human rights claimed.
But this claim, that one has the right to move in any other way than the way that the focus of spiritual radiation requires, is a wrong, not a right. There are manifold human wrongs which people claim, calling them rights. The truth of the matter is that we either accept the established design of things the way it is or we perish. And because human beings have refused to accept that, every generation has perished. Perishing is taken for granted. What really happens, at the time of what is called death, to that person? The world which human beings have made—I've called it the mind-made world—passes away insofar as that person is concerned; it's gone. They had it in consciousness to the last gasp probably, and then it's gone. That world passes away in every generation, for each individual in that generation. It is an unreal world.
There is a real world, but that has been lost, because everybody has been so busy sustaining their unreal worlds. This is considered necessary. One has to find one's place in this unreal world; one has to make one's mark in this unreal world; one has to prove somehow or other that one is worthwhile when in fact one isn't. It's impossible to prove! There is an endeavor to fool oneself on this score, but everybody has doubts.
The essential element that has been entirely lacking, as far as history goes back, is this focus point of spiritual radiation on earth. It hasn't actually been lacking, because it's always been there, but unknown to human beings, so that one has to have beliefs about it. There are all kinds of beliefs about it, but that achieves utterly nothing. The knowing comes because one accepts the fact of it for oneself. You can't accept the fact of it for anybody else. Many who go out and try to convert other people say, “You should accept the fact of it.” But the individual doesn't accept it for himself. The truth has remained unknown; therefore we have to believe this and believe that and believe the other thing. What an unreal state. What a counterfeit state! Yet it has become so thoroughly ingrained in people that it is taken for granted—because one has chosen that. And human beings are inclined to go along with the crowd. Everybody does it, it must be right—majority rule. Does the majority make anything right. Of course not. One may be very, very sure that if there is a massive majority of human beings in favor of something, or against something, it certainly isn't the truth, because the human state has been maintained over all these millennia on the basis of a lie. The lie is that I can do as I please, provided I'm good—whatever that means—and things will be all right; and if you believe in God, God will be in favor of it. How anyone can maintain such a stance, involved in this counterfeit state, is really beyond belief! Who is there who is responsible in fact, not in fancy? What finds expression through me determines what my world is, not what finds expression through somebody else but through me. I am responsible for my world. We can each say that easily enough, but it takes something to make it stick. It takes manhood, or womanhood, as the case may be.
The responsibility comes because of the spiritual focus of radiation, which is the base of one's own responsibility in the expression of living, that one may convey into one's world this radiation, which means that one is no longer controlled by everything that is going on round about. That's where fear and greed come in, of course, because all these things round about engender fear or, “ah!—make it possible for me to get something.” Most people are on the get, aren't they? Are we on the get? Is our purpose in life to get something? There are those who have very high aspirations in this regard; they're going to get the truth. Where are they going to get it? From somebody else? The only truth that anyone can experience is the truth that is expressed in his or her own living, not the truth that's gotten from somebody else.
In order for an awakening to come in an intelligible way to human beings, there must be an initial point of focus of spiritual radiation which will set the substance of character, if there is that substance present, to resonating. It is that resonation that begins to enable a person to see and understand, so that all the things of the human state cease to be the controlling factors in human existence. And that's what it is—just existence, not life. Human beings exist for a few years and then they're gone. But there is a purpose for mankind. We are all aware that that must be so, or mankind couldn't have lasted as long as it has.
That purpose begins to come within the range of awareness as there is resonant substance in oneself which begins to acquaint us with the fact that there is a focus of spiritual radiation. One sees that, apparently, beyond oneself, to start with. There must be that in fact on earth if there is to be any starting point at all. There is one invisible point of focus. Human beings talk glibly about one God. There is one God, one point of focus. They think of God as being a sort of miasma spread throughout the universe. That's a very human view of things—smoggy! In fact it all comes to point. There is one point, and out of that one point everything is coordinated. Everything fits together. There is a design. Human beings can't have their own way without destroying themselves. Well they've done a pretty good job of that, generation by generation.
We share the responsibility, individually, to allow this focus of radiation to be the expression in one's own living. It is differentiated in various ways, because there are unique people around. It can be differentiated beautifully, and because it is differentiated it is understood. But until it is differentiated it is not understood. It is understood only when one gives expression to this beautiful reality of being in one's daily living because one is no longer controlled by one's heredity, one's culture, all these things that are so worshipped in this world—not only in religion. One's religious beliefs are part of it. You can't have religious beliefs and know the truth at the same time. That should be obvious to anyone who thinks about it, because there are multitudes of religious beliefs, and the fact is that none of them are true. They may have some relatedness to the truth but, if clung to, immediately become non-truth. That sounds like a lie. The truth is only known when it's expressed, not when something is believed in. That doesn't make it true, does it? “Oh I believe this to be true.” Who cares? It doesn't make it true. The truth can't be known until it's expressed, and it's expressed in momentary living because the individual takes responsibility for doing it.
We share this opportunity in this particular setting now; but always it's present with us, so that we cease to be governed by all these human nature states; good states they are, undoubtedly. But we were enjoined not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—it would bring death. Did anybody notice that there's dying around here? Why? Because of that. There is another way. There is another state, which has been totally excluded from human experience so that they have to believe that there must be something after I'm dead. Why not something while I'm alive? Wouldn't that be more sensible?
So we share the opportunity of revealing the radiant focus of spirit on earth when we are expressing it. If we are expressing it we find that we are put together. Love one another. Love doesn't come because of trying. It comes because one totally resonates with the radiant expression of the spirit of Love and of Truth and of Life. That is what finds expression, and there is no longer the control of religious belief, no longer the control of culture, no longer the control of any of these human things which human beings worship—idols, maintaining the hell of conflict. The truth is one, and as one expresses that, one fits with everybody who expresses the truth. And there is love consequently one for another, not because one tries but because that is the experience. We may share this, now and always.
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All of us are under the necessity of living in the world the way it is, but there is no necessity to be governed by the world the way it is in our own individual expression of living; no longer to be governed by all the antics of politics, for instance, of religious belief, of culture, of all the hereditary influences which have been present in us. Yes, we’re in the world. But why let these things govern the expression of our living when equally, even more so, the spirit of the one point of focus, the spirit of the King, is freely available?
Giving expression to that, we find ourselves put together in the design of life, not the way we want it but the way it is. And if we are participating in the design of life we live—if we’re not we die. Very simple. Apparently everybody has agreed to die, in other words to reject the way of life. Now we begin to awaken to an understanding of the fact of it. But it isn’t a fancy belief; it’s a practical experience. What is going to control our thinking, our speaking and our acting? What is going to father that? We share the opportunity of letting the fathering be done by the One who heretofore has been an invisible King, an invisible point of focus. Let Him become visible! It comes through one’s own living, and it only comes through one’s own living to the extent that these controls in the man-made, mind-made world cease to govern the way we express, behave and live.
In the history of the past we have the record of man's failures in relationship to God's plan of restoration. The precedent of failure has been reenacted an untold number of times; there is never anything new in the patterns of the unreal. There is never anything unique in the patterns of failure, and these cycles have been repeated with monotonous repetition down through thousands of years. But the precedents of victory are few, and those which we have are generally more or less incomplete. We have the pattern of victory which our Master established, providing the central essence of fulfilment on earth, and in relationship to that victory a few scattered manifestations of victory in part. The precedent with respect to real fulfilment is something which, from the standpoint of a group of people, even a small number, does not exist in history. In all history there is not one single precedent of victory for a group of people. Even under the Master's leadership it did not appear.
And so we have a rare privilege, a rare opportunity. This one thing which we have undertaken has not, in the period of recorded history, ever been accomplished. This achievement is, and will be, something new under the sun insofar as recorded history is concerned. The precedents of failure are repeated over and over again. There were various cycles of beginning, but never, for a group, the precedent of victory. You have been called out of the world, out of the patterns of the world distortion, to share the most important undertaking the world has ever known, an undertaking which our Master came into the world to make possible, an undertaking which has had a great deal of preparation from the standpoint of the Divine outworking, an undertaking which is unmatched, unequalled, in all history.
This should emphasize the vital importance of correct function in day-by-day living. It should emphasize the vital responsibility and the sacred privilege that is granted to you. Some of the patterns which are of vital importance to us were acted out in rich drama on the stage of the world a long time ago. These principles are of great importance to us, but in that dramatic enactment on the stage of the world there came not the conclusion of victory but of failure. There were steps of victory, they started moving toward victory, but they did not carry through.
There have been many beginnings with respect to correct function in the patterns of life, limited perhaps in some ways. The particular pattern of which I speak is that which was revealed on earth through the children of Israel. The word “Israel” means “chosen one of God” or “God's chosen one.” Whenever we read the word “Israel” we should not limit our thought to a specific group of people in the earth's history; we should not think of some particular race or creed, some people who were merely bound together by language or custom or belief. Israel—God's chosen one. That word, like so many others, has been sadly abused, and today it is used by man in a manner which disregards the meaning of the word. Israel, God's chosen one—God's Chosen One who came into the world to reveal the Way, the Truth and the Life. To follow Him is to become one of those who may be properly called the children of Israel.
There are many recorded events with respect to the original pattern of the children of Israel as it began under the direction of Melchizedek through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Three—Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jacob became Israel. Man is a three-phase being. Three basic opportunities have been, and are, offered to man. Three opportunities to return to the Divine Pattern were given to man when he first fell. The three has figured in the pattern down through the whole period of recorded history over and over again, because we are functioning in a three-plane world insofar as the outer manifestation is concerned.
We have recognized the Divine Trinity. The opportunity that was brought into the world by Melchizedek through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was the first. The opportunity brought into the world by our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, was the second. We are now sharing the third—the third and the last opportunity offered to mankind. The first two opportunities have already been lost. The patterns established by those first two opportunities can no longer be worked out. The cycle was broken and the precedent of failure established in each case. This which you share is man's last opportunity. That should emphasize the importance of our right function, the importance of remembering always our privilege and responsibility.
Some may say, “But how do you know that it is the last opportunity?” There is evidence on every hand, and there is the sign of the prophet Jonas. But if I must of necessity point to this evidence and tell you the secret of the prophet Jonas in order to bring conviction to your heart and mind, then my words would be of little value in any case, and the time is not yet. The evidence can be seen for those who have eyes to see. The evidence can be heard for those who have ears to hear. And that is enough.
Let us take a brief look at the pages of history to see the meanings which are contained in relationship to ourselves here tonight. Melchizedek, King of Salem, opened the cycle long ago, and even today the door is open for those who would enter the Priesthood and become a priest or priestess after the order of Melchizedek. In the outworking of things—and there are many interesting points leading up to the time of the children of Israel in Egypt—those who were the children of the Chosen One of that day found themselves in bondage, in slavery, in the darkness of Egypt. By the hand of God, in a great deliverance, they were taken out of Egypt, and they crossed the Red Sea. These things, as they appeared in relationship to that group of people, must work out individually in you today. The pattern of fulfilment for the group is different. The basic principles revealed through that group apply to the individual tonight. The Red Sea, which blocks the way of escape from the bondage and darkness of Egypt, represents the limitations of your own physical body, your own body as such, which by itself is incapable of permitting passage to victory. But this same Red Sea, your body, responds to the Divine Word, the Divine command, the uplifted hand of Moses and Aaron, and it opens in the current of the spirit, allowing movement out of darkness, out of slavery and bondage, out of limitation, into the pattern of God's design for man. When the Red Sea of your own body is first opened, so that you can begin to pass over on dry land out of the realm of bondage, you find that you are in the wilderness. You cannot move—and this is true of every man, woman and child on the face of the earth—you cannot move out of Egypt, the bondage, the slavery, which has held you in darkness in time past, through the opening of the Red Sea, the opening of your own body to the working of the spirit of God and the control of God's will, directly into the promised land. It cannot be done. You must first cross the wilderness.
Some, because they do not see the promised land when they look across the Red Sea, imagine that it is better to remain in Egypt, in bondage, in slavery. Some imagine that it takes great courage to move out of the patterns of slavery, through the Red Sea and into the wilderness, that there may be movement toward the promised land and the Kingdom of God at hand on earth. To my mind it does not take great courage. One might say that the cowards are afraid even to start, lest they be overcome by Pharaoh, the king, which represents the self-activity of your own human mind. But it is not courage in any particular sense that makes it possible to move out of that realm of bondage. It is, rather, a simple recognition of basic truth, a simple recognition that it is utterly stupid to do otherwise; for to remain in bondage and in slavery in the darkness of Egypt has no future but labor by the sweat of the brow for a little time, decay, misery, degradation and death. In other words any individual who is offered the opportunity of movement out of that Egyptian darkness and slavery as it manifests in this day and who refuses the opportunity and the invitation is indeed stupid, for those who leave that Egyptian darkness have nothing to lose. Why should it take courage to leave behind slavery, degradation, where there is nothing to lose, in order to begin movement toward the promised land? Courage? Just a little sense is enough, just a little perception, to see how stupid it is to remain in slavery.
Once the Red Sea of your own body is opened to the working of the spirit of God, which correlates with the great wind, you pass over, out of bondage, into the wilderness, on dry land in an easy passage. But when the king of the self-active mind thinks to pursue with his hosts he is always caught amidst the waves and the Red Sea is not opened to him. He destroys himself by his effort. Your Pharaoh, the Pharaoh of your own self-active mind, will seek to pursue you once you begin to move out of bondage and darkness through the open Red Sea of your own body. If you become fearful because Pharaoh pursues, you will be in trouble; but if you remain steady under the leadership of your own spiritual perception in response to Center, Pharaoh and his hosts will be overwhelmed in the Red Sea and he will trouble you no more. Of course those who follow Pharaoh always become confounded—they are always destroyed in the Red Sea. For the self-active ones, for those who insist upon being a member of Pharaoh's host, there is no open passage through the Red Sea, and those who attempt to use the open passage provided for the children of God's Chosen One always find themselves overwhelmed and they cannot pass through.
This is something that works out in the life of each and every responding one, in one way or another. The principles are absolute for you, and having passed through the open Red Sea of your own body, you come into the wilderness of your own heart and mind. But you are not left alone there, for you have also your Moses and your Aaron, your spiritual perception and consciousness in heart and mind which, when they remain centered, guide you through. But the wilderness is of your own realm of consciousness extending into the subconscious mind, the barrenness of heart, the emptiness of spirit, and if you become fearful, facing the wilderness, you perish there in emptiness, even though you may have found the open way through the Red Sea of your own body. You must stay centered and clear the realm of your own awareness in heart and mind, whether it takes five minutes or ten days or ten years, or forty years for that matter.
You cannot, by any means whatsoever, get out of the wilderness into which you enter until you let yourself cross the Jordan—the Jordan, the dividing line, the River of Life, the water of truth—the dividing line between the wilderness of a man's own barrenness into the promised land of God's true fulfilment for you. But when you enter that promised land you find not a ready-made realm of perfection according to your own standards and specifications and what you may have thought you told God to do and to prepare for you. You find a realm where there are problems, where you have a share in creativeness, where the kings of this world must be overcome and cast out, where the giants in the land are removed, where the walls of Jericho must fall, where the vineyards must be planted, where the fulfilments must be allowed to appear because you have entered into the Garden of God, the Kingdom of Heaven at hand, the Promised Land, and you tend it and keep it as God first ordained. Then, in season, it manifests, and the things which occupied this place where the Garden ought to be in you and round about you are cast out, removed, and that which is there that responds is made new, until the former things are passed away, that they may nevermore come into mind nor be remembered, and the Divine Pattern is allowed to manifest in its fulness, not just through one or two, or even a few, but through all who follow through.
Having entered the promised land, those who were called the children of Israel in that day began to compromise with the distortion patterns which they found round about. They failed to carry through, and that which the promised land should have made possible to them never truly appeared. Oh I know it carried through until they had the development and fulfilment and recognition in the then known civilized world which appeared at the time of Solomon, but that was not what God designed. All the way through it was a poor substitute, and as soon as it was put under pressure it failed. The kingdom was divided and there was a capital in Jerusalem and a capital in Samaria. They were scattered and taken into captivity, and the priests of Baal took over and the precedent of failure was built. There is very little that worked out in Canaan after the then children of Israel crossed the Jordan into the promised land which was according to the Divine Design. Most of it was greatly modified, even when it was good, and the rest was a complete distortion which never allowed the beauty and the wonder of God's plan to find a place in the record of man's history. Blessings which God had in store were thrown away. Almost from the time they first set foot upon that land, they began imposing their own human wills upon the pattern which God ordained, and that which worked out for the children of Israel was not the manifestation of the Divine Design. And so it failed.
After a time the Master came and opened the door once more, established the pattern by which man might know the victory. He set the Pattern himself, but again, those who were supposed to follow Him did not let His will be done on earth as it was in heaven. They did not follow His design, and impulsively the disciples dissipated the power that began manifesting on the Day of Pentecost, and the pattern of outworking since that time, with respect to those who call themselves Christians, has not been the fulfilment of God's will or the revelation of the Divine Design. It has not been the outworking which God designed, any more than it was with the children of Israel in Canaan.
And so once more we have an opportunity on earth to let God's will be done as it is in heaven—not under some modifications which the human will determines to be desirable or which it seeks to impose on God's Great Plan. While there have been those who have recognized my patience and gentleness, there have been those who felt that they had reason to rebel because I insist that any pattern designed by any human being which would, if followed, seek to impose the human will upon God's Plan must be rejected. I have been called hard, a dictator, etc., simply because I point to the fact that the human way is no good. It has been tried over and over again down through the centuries and does not work. It is not working in the world today. It will not work. We have the privilege of establishing the precedent in the world, the Precedent of Victory, but it cannot, will not, be done on the basis of human will and fancy, human desire. If it is done—and I am confident it will be—it will be because there are human beings who have sufficient sense to see that there is nothing to lose by leaving behind the world's pattern of darkness and bondage, slavery, and moving through the Red Sea, across the wilderness, and into the promised land.
Having entered the promised land, crossed the Jordan, the job is not done. The work is only begun. Why? Because the manifestation in form of that which is the Divine Design must follow. It cannot be humanly developed; it cannot be produced by human effort. Human function is essential to it, but it requires that human beings allow the things of God to take form on earth without human beings imposing their own limited visions and distorted concepts upon that Plan. When the things of God come forth they are not supposed to be distorted, ugly things, partial manifestations of blessing. We have had much of that, yes, but it cannot, must not, continue on forever. The thing that is to appear in form must be in harmony with the Divine Design, the Pattern, the Garden of God planted eastward in Eden, and we must let it appear. How can the Garden of God be restored to man?
The Garden of God is vibrational, spiritual, already available; it is at hand. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The control pattern and the control power are at hand. The vibrational factors of the Divine Design are at hand. But the form of these things must yet be made. That is where man comes into the picture. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and has been down through the centuries, but man must so function under the Law as to allow the form an opportunity of manifestation, through which the vibrational factors of the Kingdom of Heaven at hand may appear. Our responsibility out here is to give form to that which is invisible, that it may have form on earth. Form cannot be arbitrarily produced without regard to the vibrational factors present in the realm of the substance which is to be used. The body of man is filled with vibrational factors imposed upon it by the self-active mind and the impure human heart, and until these vibrational factors which do not belong in the Divine Design are cast out the form cannot be the means by which the Divine Design appears.
Your body is not only the Red Sea; it is likewise the promised land. Your body is the wilderness too, and when you cross the wilderness you come to the River Jordan, and when you cross the River Jordan you find that your body is likewise the promised land. First your body is the land of Egypt, filled with darkness, slavery, bondage, degradation, that which leads to death. Then, beginning to awaken to the things of God, your body becomes the Red Sea through which the spirit of God begins to work, that you may pass out of the state of Egypt, into the state of the wilderness. Your body is the Red Sea, your body is the wilderness, and your body is the promised land. Egypt, the Red Sea, the wilderness—you see, there are only three steps to the promised land. Again the three. But your body does not become the manifestation of the Promised Land on the basis of the Divine Design until you let God's will be done, until the kings, the vibrational factors which have so long held control, are cast out. Just as the kings who were present in that day had to be cast out of the promised land, so do the kings which have held sway in you for so long have to be cast out. So must these kings, these vibrational factors which have controlled, distorted, prevented the fulfilment of yourselves as human beings, as Divine men and women, be cast out, before the vibrational factors of the kingdom of heaven at hand are received into the form of your body.
So here we have the various steps. There is the pattern of Egypt, which we see out in the world and which some of you perhaps can remember if you look back far enough. And there is the pattern of the Red Sea. How many of you have passed through the Red Sea? Then your body is the pattern of the wilderness. Have any of you ever been in the wilderness? I wonder. If so, were you merely wandering about, or did you perchance come to Mount Sinai? Did you come to the River Jordan, and did you cross the River Jordan into the promised land? Or did you listen to the ten spies who said, “It cannot be done; there are giants in the land; we cannot do it”? Then, did you wander in the wilderness and decide to perish there, wishing you had remained with the fleshpots in Egypt? Oh, there are those who say that there are giants in the land—and there are; we do not deny it. But of what concern are the giants to us if we are letting our Father's will be done on earth as it is in heaven? When you enter the promised land and your body becomes the promised land, do you think that, presto, in a minute, it is going to be everything you thought in advance it ought to be? If you do you will find yourself scurrying back across the Jordan into the wilderness to perish there, or you will perish in battle perchance.
The Promised Land. When you enter it, when your body becomes the promised land for yourself, it is not yet in manifestation a revelation of Deity, of the Kingdom of Heaven that is at hand. It is merely the substance that is ready to be used, ready to be cleansed of the vibrational factors which have ruled it for so long, ready to have the Canaanites cast out, ready to let the Divine Pattern take form. But some there are who feel that it would not be right to cast out all of the Canaanites, the vibrational factors that have been present in the body for so long. After all, they have had squatter's rights for so long. Where would they go, and by what sword would they be slain? The Sword of Truth. And if you leave some of them alive and say, “I will just incorporate these; I am sure God will not mind. This vibrational pattern is pretty good, this is a nice king; I will let him live and I will let his people mingle with mine,” what then? The children of Israel tried that and they wrote on the pages of history, in the pages of time, a record of failure. What will be for us? The old vibrational factors, which were but a distortion, must be cast out and the whole must yield to the Divine Pattern, the Divine will, Divine control. And so this story of the outworking of the children of Israel of that day has vital meaning for those who would be the children of the Chosen One of this day.
