The Accuser Cast Out Forever

Our  Heaven  Is  In  The  Process  Of  Being  Purged

The Accuser Cast Out Forever

Martin Exeter  November 25, 1984

I might read some rather familiar words from the Book of Revelation which can be seen in a way that is immediately applicable. “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” If we see this particular passage in terms of what we know—the spiritual body—then I am sure we are all quite aware that even though Michael and his angels were in the heaven, so also have been the dragon and his angels.

Here is the next verse: “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” Another name for the dragon, then, is the accuser; this describes very well his character. I am sure that we are all well aware that the accuser still remains because this attitude of accusation still remains in those who compose what we call the spiritual body.

We are all concerned that the dragon and his angels should not prevail. No longer prevailing, they may be cast out of heaven—out of the spiritual body. If we align ourselves with the accuser then we condemn ourselves, and the accuser continues to prevail in heaven. We recognize that the accuser needs to be cast out of the heaven as it relates to the whole of mankind, but it must start somewhere. I doubt if it would ever happen on a broad front. Accusation describes the ordinary human state. Everybody is identified to a considerable extent with the accuser. We have heard about this; we have considered it many times. We understand that blame and criticism are not the attitudes rightly held by those who are associated in this program; but nevertheless the accuser has remained, at times rather big and fat. I do not think any of us expect the accuser to be cast down in a very general sense throughout the human population. Everybody is thoroughly embedded in this human state. However it can well be said that we know better; we understand the destructiveness of the attitude of accusation, the attitude of blame and criticism.

We might expand that a little bit to see what it is, about which we are inclined to assume the attitude of accusation, blame and criticism. One could well ask a question: Have you ever been hurt? Have we ever seemed to be abused, victimized, imposed upon? We can add to this list at will, I am sure. But are these things present in us as reasons for accusation, as reasons for criticism and blame, perhaps in a more or less general sense, but also more specifically to this person and that person. Here we have the heaven which we are sharing in this particular configuration this morning. How about letting the accuser be cast out because we no longer give him space in ourselves as individuals? That is the only way it can be done. It may seem as though there are a number in agreement about some sort of accusation, but for a number to be in agreement about some sort of accusation the accusation must be being made by all the individuals who compose that grouping. So it is an individual matter; it is an individual choice as to whether finally the dragon, the devil, the accuser, may be cast out of our heaven—our very specific heaven.

Here is a very particular requirement individually speaking, that we might take responsibility for letting the accuser be cast down forever, that there may be a heaven without the accuser. It isn’t much of a heaven as long as the accuser is present. It turns into hell periodically when the accuser asserts himself. We have all had this experience over the years, but finally we come to a point where heavenly dominion must be set in the earth. Heavenly dominion can never be set in the earth until the accuser is cast out. We just fool ourselves if we imagine that we can continue to entertain the accuser. We can always find things to accuse, and people to accuse, in what heretofore has passed for our heaven, a divided state.

Yes, Michael and his angels are present, and we do find ourselves identified at times with what is portrayed through those words, perhaps more particularly when we are gathered in a grouping such as we have today. In this moment we can see these things more or less clearly, but then there always is the tendency to revert into the usual human state of accusation by which all the world is deceived. As long as there is accusation there is deception, there is dishonesty, because the human state was produced by human beings, ourselves included, and not by anyone else. Ultimately, in this attitude of accusation, the accusation comes to point with respect to God or with respect to the Lord: “He didn’t do what is right by human beings; He didn’t do what is right by me, particularly. He caused me to be hurt; He caused me to suffer; He caused me to be imposed upon; He caused me to be victimized.” You know, in theory at least, that that is not true. That is a lie. If we have our troubles as human beings we brought them on our own head.

We may see this, and have seen it, as most people have, with respect to the masses of human beings on earth. Human beings all together have brought their troubles on their head. Well that is something to be recognized, I suppose—it’s true—but what is to be done about it? Obviously someone, somewhere, somehow, needs to emerge out of the state of bringing trouble, into the state of blessing rather than cursing. And whether we realized it to start with or not, we have found ourselves in the position of assuming this responsibility. We have found ourselves together doing this; yes, that’s true. But it doesn’t mean anything until we find ourselves individually doing it, individually taking that very specific responsibility: no more accusation. When the accuser is given no more space in us individually, so that we cannot anymore identify with him, then he is cast out, in the only way that he could ever be cast out. And if he is cast out in me, and in those who assume the same responsibility that I do, then he begins to be cast out collectively. We are provided with this marvelous illustration of where it all begins—the spiritual body. This is the heaven insofar as we are concerned. Do you have any other? Do you know where to go to find any other? This is what we know; let us assume responsibility for our knowing then, that the accuser may be cast out.

There are all kinds of troubles in the world, tribulations, suffering. We nod our heads sagely and say, “Yes, human beings bring these things upon themselves.” There are those of course who have it better than others, and I think we might be counted among that number. This has been particularly brought to the attention of the Western world by the suffering of millions of people in certain parts of Africa—not that suffering is limited to Africa, but at the moment this is out front. And there are certainly those who are in that sort of a hell, a hell particularly identified at the moment by the word famine. Some people say that that is the fault of the weather. Is the weather, do you think, separate from human beings? Does it have a life all of its own regardless of human beings? Of course we know better than that. Everything that human beings do has an effect upon the weather. And where does what human beings do spring from? Out of their own hearts and minds, out of what should be the heaven; and it does that because the accuser is in there. So weather is a human responsibility. Do you think the weather which occurs on earth is because of sun spots? If there is a mess on earth weatherwise, or any other way, it is because of human beings. We have awakened to something to which most people have not awakened as yet, and that is a realization of personal responsibility. Even though there may have been an awakening to this, at times it has not had all that much effect on the way we behave. But now this is coming to point.

Our heaven — and we know what that is now — our heaven is in the process of being purged.

Obviously there are two ways that this can happen. Either we remain identified with the accuser and find ourselves purged from the heaven, or we accept our identity as one of the angels of Michael so that any tendencies of accusation in us are purged from us—and we remain in heaven. Here is the starting point of heaven for the whole body of mankind. Here is the focus of it. Look where you will anywhere else on the face of the earth and you will not find a focus of heaven as clear-cut and definite and absolute as is to be found in our Emissary terms. There are others who are afraid of that clarity, that absoluteness, and so they are inclined to be purged and to go shopping around to find something that isn’t quite so definite, so that one can still continue to accommodate the accuser. But we see, I am sure, individually we see, that we cannot under any circumstances continue to accommodate the accuser. Do you justify yourself in accusation by saying, “Well that’s obviously wrong; that person isn’t doing what he or she should be doing!”?

I will tell you something about the past: Everything that has occurred up to this very moment has been absolutely perfect. It has brought us all to this present moment where we have the opportunity of letting the accuser be cast out. If any smallest element in our experience in the past had been omitted, whether we judged it to be good or bad, who can say as to whether we would be exactly here where we are now? There is nothing wrong, in that sense. Whoever behaved however they did behave, it all worked out to let this come to point now. Isn’t that perfect? How else could it have been done? Then what is the value of judgment, criticism, accusation, with respect to things that are happening now? The things that are happening now—oh, they are in the past already!

So we are present now, willing, if we have any integrity and intelligence—these seem to go together—to let the accuser be cast down and out forever. Each one must say: “I am the one who lets it happen. I do it. Whether anyone else does it is beside the point, but insofar as I am concerned, I do it. I have, therefore, integrity. I take responsibility.” So the heaven is purged, and those who find themselves remaining in the heaven have a clarifying awareness of the ordinances of heaven, which couldn’t be seen at all as long as the accuser was present. But once the accuser is cast down the ordinances of heaven become very clear. This doesn’t mean that one sees a panorama of the great outworking in the days to come; it merely indicates that in this present moment we see what it is that is necessary from the heavenly standpoint. We not only see it but we do it. If we can’t see, we can’t do it; and we won’t see as long as the accuser is clouding the issue. When the accuser is cast down we see, and where there is vision the people live. And seeing the ordinances of heaven, we are in immediate position to set the dominion thereof in the earth, that what is present and emerging now may be purely of heaven.

Once there is space in human consciousness, the consciousness of mankind, for the unadulterated state of heaven, then the end comes. It is because this has never happened within the body of mankind in a collective sense that the accuser has remained in command. Of course it was done quite a long time ago by one individual. We acknowledge and recognize that, and realize we wouldn’t be here but for that. However it has taken all these centuries for it finally to begin to come to point because there is a heavenly space on earth within which there is understanding, within which the truth becomes known.

The truth, by the way, presently not only relates to the truth of heaven but also to the truth of hell. And we begin to see clearly enough the rot and the filthiness that has been sustained by ourselves as individuals in this beautiful heaven that has been so freely offered and made available. We are thinking of this in terms of those who are associated with our heaven, for which we are responsible. Can you imagine how those who carry this responsibility could indulge themselves in accusation, condemnation and criticism of their fellows, doing it day and night?—because that is the human state. That is what happens in the human state. People are doing this all the time, are they not? Certainly it is made very plain in the newscasts on TV, for instance. Everybody lines up, one of a crowd: accuse, condemn, blame, criticize, tear down, destroy. And people wonder why there is war on earth! But change from being the accuser to being the blesser?—that is too much to ask. Is it? We know the way, the truth and the life. Let us reveal that we know it.

Yes, all the things, the miseries, the tribulation on earth, are consequent upon the way human beings have behaved—all of it. How is it ever going to be any different? Because there are those people on earth with sufficient integrity to let the accuser be cast out of the heaven which they know. Most people don’t know the heaven; they hope for something, sometime, somewhere—but we know the heaven now. Knowing the heaven, how could it be that we would sustain the presence of the accuser in that heaven? It is incredible, isn’t it? We know these things. Let us let the accuser be cast down forever, that there may be the true heaven on earth. When the true heaven is on earth through those who give it form, salvation has come.

As it is put here: “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” That has been our state, hasn’t it? That is a very accurate description: accusation day and night. That is the quality of the human state. That is the way human beings are. That is the way we have been, but we now know better.

We are sufficiently taken care of, in the external sense. We have enough to eat. We have, I am sure, a lot more comforts than we deserve, so that we may have time to do what is necessary. Where millions of people are in a state of famine, of hunger, of dying in that way, all their energy is simply given to surviving just a little longer. But we have space, we have time, we have opportunity. Because these famine pictures have been put on the TV screen a lot of people in the Western world are feeling very guilty about it; and they dish out a few dollars to send some food, as though that was going to solve anything. Maybe it’s all right to send some food, but suppose enough food was sent, and all those millions of people survived and continued to breed, what is going to happen next? Something worse. The fat cats—that would include us—of the world have the time to do something, but they won’t do it! They want to do things for their own pleasure, and I have noticed this even in our own program. “We should have more; we are not being treated as well as some of those people in the world. The Lord is falling down on the job.” No, we are falling down on the job. We don’t need those things!

All we need is to be in place, in heaven, with the accuser cast down. And we need to use the space that we have, and find more space, to do what should be done, so that we are not so preoccupied with our own self-centeredness, the things we think we want or deserve or should have, or whatever. We have everything that is necessary to allow us to do what we are here to do. Let’s do it then. Let us accept integrity for ourselves, that we may abide in the heaven as an angel of Michael, as it was described. No more truck with the accuser—to hell with him! That’s where he is; that’s where he belongs.

So I rejoice that today, together, representing east and west, northern and southern hemispheres, we may let this word be spoken in our living clearly and definitely, so that the ordinances of heaven factually are set in the earth—this occurring within the consciousness of mankind because we are not separate from that. And if it happens where it rightly can happen, with us, it will happen throughout the body of mankind with absolute certainty. There is no certainty at all as long as there is a divided state, as long as the accuser hangs around. At least the only certainty then is death, final and complete. So we stand where we belong, with our integrity intact, honest and true and loyal and capable, knowing the ordinances of heaven and, moment by moment in our living, setting the dominion thereof in the earth.

As there is an absoluteness, which we now understand more clearly than heretofore perhaps, then this tragic human state may come to its conclusion because there are those present on earth setting the dominion of the ordinances of heaven in the world. These are those who have integrity. Let each one be able to speak honestly and say: I am that one who has integrity. So we share this time together, apparently far-distant in miles but very, very close in spirit, close in heaven. Let that heaven be pure because the accuser has gone.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

The Culture and Language of the Kingdom

from

The  Culture  and  Language  of  the  Kingdom

Martin Cecil    January 24, 1982

There is power in the spoken word

when it springs forth through a pure heart and a spiritually governed mind.

“Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” That renewing could never happen as long as one was conformed to this world. Being conformed to this world is being conformed to what is now present in the mass consciousness and to the distorted patterns remaining in our own subconscious minds.

It has been indicated that the spirit of God should give utterance in our speech. We have become aware of the living equipment by which the creative expression of the spirit of God may come into action on earth. We ourselves as individuals are aware of that facility of body and mind and heart, fearfully and wonderfully made, exactly right for right use. These facilities, in our own individual experience and the experience of human beings down through the ages, have been used wrongly; the compulsion has arisen out of individual and race memory. There is no doubt, we clearly see, it is impossible to change the circumstances of the past. But the circumstances of the past contained in memory certainly should no longer direct our momentary behavior. This memory is present now in this moment; it isn't in the past. The events are in the past—they cannot be changed; there is no need to change them—but the influence which they exert upon present experience comes by reason of memory which is present now and can be changed. It is indeed our concern to let it be changed because we are no longer conformed to this world.

In order to let the mind be transformed there is the necessity for the water of truth: sanctification by the truth. According to the record of the Master's words, He was quite aware of this necessity and spoke of the way by which what was needful might be achieved. The Spirit of Truth should “bring all things to remembrance” were His words. We have referred to this experience as baptism by water. We ourselves have participated in this outpouring of the water of truth, some of us for many years, that changes might be wrought at the subconscious levels of our own minds. The changes come because new and more fluid material is available to be received. As we have learned, in whatever measure, to take our hands off the crank of the conscious mind, then the flowing of the water of truth has turned the mind; the cistern has been filled with this fluid material, ready to be drawn up as needful. Baptism, a conditioning process.

One of the elements in the memory of each one of us, something that is shared by all of us, is language. All of us can speak the English language, some better than others maybe. We may have other languages at our command, but insofar as this matter of conditioning in the water of truth is concerned the English language has been primary. We might consider this matter of language. There are many of them in the world. It is said now that there is a process by which they are becoming less, so that in due season, according to the human view at least, there will only be ten or twelve languages in the world. Perhaps we might look for the day when there is only one. We would refer to this language as the Language of the Kingdom. It is the natural state of man to speak this One Language. Perhaps there may be some dialects involved, relating to different levels of understanding and consciousness, but One Language nevertheless. The reduction in the languages of the world which is anticipated is an evident awareness on the part of those who are informed about such things that there is movement toward an ultimate of One Language.

The languages of the world are not isolated entities, just existing all on their own. Educators have often tended to look at them that way, so that in the classroom it was imagined that you could teach a language. In your classroom days maybe someone tried to teach you a language other than English; maybe you needed to learn English too, but I am thinking of another language. The question arises as to how much you may now remember of what you were taught; it vanishes very quickly from consciousness because it was taught as though it was an isolated entity. But a language is merely the expression of a culture of some kind. If one is immersed in that culture one will learn that language quite easily. This is why the easiest way to learn a language is to go to the country in which it is spoken. Then you begin to conform to that aspect of the world, and the language which goes with it becomes apparent to you; it springs out of the culture.

If we see this with respect to the languages of this world, we can understand how the Language of the Kingdom comes to be known. It certainly isn't an isolated language that we could find somewhere and learn—it springs out of the Culture of the Kingdom. Therefore one must participate in the Culture of the Kingdom to learn the language. However we are not going to jump into the unknown; we move from the known to the unknown. The known in this instance, for most of us, was the English language, so we have shared some transformation in our own understanding of the English language. We utilize words in different ways to what is usual in conversational English. We see meanings to words that most people do not see. In other words these words have been transformed in our experience, so that there begins to emerge a new language. This new language sounds like English but isn't. As we realize this, we know that it is incumbent upon us to be very careful of the words we use, remembering what they mean to others.

So there has been this much transformation taking place in our understanding of what heretofore was the English language—it begins to become the clothing for the Culture of the Kingdom. Now those who participate in the Culture of the Kingdom understand the Language. Those who try to use the language without participating in the Culture of the Kingdom turn the language into jargon. It may be that there was nothing wrong with the words; there was something wrong with the people who spoke them. If there is jargon it is because there are those who have not participated in the Culture of the Kingdom trying to speak the Kingdom Language, and it doesn't make much sense; it becomes an increasingly meaningless jargon. But if one is participating in the Culture of the Kingdom, then certainly a new language puts in an appearance as part and parcel of the Kingdom experience—it is the clothing of that experience.

The English language starts off by being fairly fluid, therefore correlates well with water, or the Truth, whereas so many other languages have their restrictions; they are far more structured. That is why it is difficult to learn the English language if you are just trying to learn the language. Those who have learned the English language whose first language was something else have done so because they participated in the English culture in one of its aspects. And there are multitudes of aspects. There are multitudes of variations therefore in the English language. Each segment of culture has its own dialect, and sometimes it is quite difficult to understand what a person is talking about even though he apparently is speaking the English language, because his culture is so foreign to one's own experience.

Well we can see a tremendous variety of stuff in this area, in which we are not greatly interested except for opening doors in some way, utilizing the languages of the world, for people to begin to move toward the experience of the Kingdom Culture. Then very naturally out of that will spring the Language of the Kingdom. There isn't any such language at the moment, just a movement towards it, and that movement in our own experience has come because there has been baptism by water, which meant that we all became wet, soaked. And here we have an analogy of a soaking in the Culture of the Kingdom. We don't really know what it is yet, but considerable material has been provided, absorbed in some measure into our subconscious minds so that it is available for the use of the spirit of God in the creative process. The creative process is required for the transformation which is to occur on the larger scale. So we have been conditioned, in whatever measure, by this baptism by water. We have material in our subconscious minds that most people do not have in their subconscious minds. This does not make us better than other people but it does require of us the assumption of greater responsibility, that this material may be put to use—not the use of the conscious mind all on its own, as some have tried to do, but the use of the spirit of God, which operates through both conscious and subconscious minds.

“But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” This points to actual experience, not merely having available material in the subconscious mind to be yanked out and laid on somebody else. There may be what is necessary to be said to somebody else, but the primary requirement is that one should prove the truth for oneself. This has been undertaken, in whatever measure, by each of us. Only when this is undertaken does the other element come into the picture, namely fire. There is the requirement of baptism by fire. Water first, then fire. The fire puts in an appearance when we prove out the fact that we are not conformed to this world. We may find ourselves getting into hotter water on this basis. The water needs to come to the boil so that it may be converted into steam: additional power. This occurs because there is fire put under the boiler, so to speak. The fire relates very particularly to emotional experience. The emotional experience may be very uncomfortable. If our motivation, springing out of the polluted sea of the subconscious, is to be comfortable, well we will try to avoid the discomfort, and the conscious mind has become very expert in finding methods of escaping from the fire. And yet we are looking for the fire.

While I have emphasized the matter of discomfort, there are of course other aspects to the fire too. It is said of the Spirit of Truth that He was the Comforter. In other words there is the ability, by reason of the presence of the Spirit of Truth, to handle effectively whatever it is that is put on one's plate—to deal with it, to take care of it, to look after one's responsibilities without being overly concerned about the way one feels. Feeling has been so pandered to in human experience that it has been fattened in human experience, and a big deal is made out of the discomforts that are felt. There is in fact no need to make a big deal out of it. If we really want to feel uncomfortable we'll make a big deal out of it. And there are those who cry aloud and cut themselves with lancets, or whatever it was that the prophets of Baal used, to emphasize their discomfort. Well we are not interested in playing the roles of the prophets of Baal, are we, and insisting upon discomfort. With the truth available, the spirit of God in action, there is the capability of taking care of whatever comes to us without making a big deal out of the way we feel. Let that habit be dissolved.

Doors and gates are opened. One of the primary tools that we use are words. “Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.” That was the centurion, wasn't it? Speak the word only. We begin to see the true position of man in administering God's creative purposes. He doesn't do it by the sweat of the face. Speak the word only, and it shall be done. But that word must spring out of the Kingdom Culture. It can't spring out of the Kingdom Culture unless the individual who speaks the words is a part of that Culture. Then the spoken word begins to have creative impact. The spoken word impinges upon the spiritual substance that is present with people, and because it is a spiritual word being spoken it has effect. There is attunement between the word and the substance, and that substance is present at the unconscious level of mind, the conscious level of mind, and in the emotional realm. All this substance permeates physical substance too. It is natural for the clarified spiritual substance to respond to the command of the Word, and as there is such response the whole organism moves. This could be seen with our minds as being rather a simple process actually. The true creative process is not all that complicated, and it certainly doesn't require sweat of the face. It requires those who are associated with the Culture of the Kingdom, are a part of it, so that out of that culture may spring the words of the Kingdom. The words of the Kingdom are creative words; they have effect wherever there is substance in human beings anywhere free enough to move.

There is some substance in virtually all the population of the earth which is capable of so moving. It is waiting to be moved. It is waiting for somebody to speak the Word. It is waiting therefore for somebody to be a part of the Culture of the Kingdom. Now we ourselves have been baptized in this regard. We have begun to experience what it means to “prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” To do it, not to talk about it, not to theorize about it, but actually to experience it in living.

By the way, there is something I wish to say to everybody. Maybe it doesn't apply to everybody, but you will see what I am talking about. I have used recently the words “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Yet I continually receive letters, not only from some who may be here present but from all over, which speak of “the way, the truth, and the light.” That isn't true! That isn't what is being said. Our words need to be very specific. We know something about the character of the spirit of God: Love, Truth, Life. It seems to me we learned that in kindergarten. Not love, truth, and light. Where the spirit of God is in action there is light. If the word “light” is used in the context of “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” it is an indication of very fuzzy comprehension. In the Word is life, and the life is the light of men. But it is the Word with which we are concerned, the Word which is spoken in the Culture of the Kingdom. And when that Word is spoken it initiates the creative process and carries it forward. And the first factor in the creative process—it seems to me everyone should know—is light. But that's part of the creative process, not part of what is producing the creative process. It is the spirit of God in action that allows for the manifestation of light—the Word spoken, the Word expressed in living, life. We give account for every idle word that we speak. Let our words never be idle. Sometimes idle words are spoken on the basis of jargon, which often comes out distorted, like “the way, the truth, and the light.” There ain't no such animal! Let us be very careful of the words we use, because we are going to be in trouble with idle ones.

We share the experience of baptism by water, plenty of water—and in some measure, baptism by fire. If discomfort is felt, what is uncomfortable? Something that needs to be consumed by the fire. Let it be consumed! Don't fuss about it, don't complain about it. Thank God for it! It's being burned. Let it be burned. It is a little matter, in the sense of what is felt. There is quite a lot to be burned still, a little at a time. Or do you want it all at once? I don't think we have anything to complain about, only if we have habitually blown these things up in our own experience. Why not accept the offer of the Comforter? We have been provided with the baptism of truth to call much to our remembrance, but most of what is called to our remembrance is of the Kingdom—something beautiful, wonderful and glorious. Think on these things, and behold, the former things, the unreal, passes away and the newness of the new state keeps coming forth increasingly into our awareness, so that we find ourselves standing on a rock and capable of dealing with all that is brought to us for our effective creative action. Much of that creative action is based in words spoken.

We have been sharing in a creative action this evening by reason of words spoken, words which, to the extent that they spring forth from the Culture of the Kingdom, bring to bear a creative influence wherever the substance of that Culture of the Kingdom may be present in human minds and hearts the world around. We do not need to know who is affected, how much, in what way. We may find out in due season what has been occurring by reason of the Word of the Lord spoken on earth which goes forth to accomplish that whereunto it is sent. And it does not return void—it brings back the substance with it. So here is our ministry in the name of the Lord, easy, beautiful, natural. Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

The Body Of The Shepherd

The  Body  of  the  Shepherd

from  Shekinah Magic

Uranda   June 23, 1953  Class

We continue our theme of Heavenly Magic. There is nothing more wonderful than the magic of living. One cannot live in darkness. One can exist in darkness and give the appearance of living for a time, but in such a state, generally speaking, one is asleep, to some degree at least. So we turn our attention to the consideration of light in the spiritual sense—light and darkness. Spiritually speaking, we do not need the darkness of ignorance or ill conditions or distortions. “The life”—the life of Shekinah—“is the light of men.”

“In Shekinah was life.” Life, as we know it physically, must come from Shekinah or we cease to have it, regardless of the pattern of existence the human being may follow. All life comes from God through Shekinah, without any exception. But, the life as it is in Shekinah is the light of men. We must, of course, be physically alive in order to perceive light, to distinguish light from darkness. And as that is so physically, it is also true mentally, emotionally, spiritually. We must be alive to spiritual things in order to distinguish between the light and the dark of the spiritual factors of life.

“In the beginning was Shekinah, and the Shekinah was with God, and the Shekinah was God.” So we have learned that we cannot separate between the evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells and the One Who Dwells. There is no divinding line. And as far as we are concerned we are contacting God the moment we contact the evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells. “All things were made by Shekinah.” There is a key statement that is of utmost importance to us. Anything that we attempt to make without regard to Shekinah is not then truly made. If we would have a creative expression in life, if we would share God's creative activity, we must function in relationship to Shekinah; otherwise nothing worthwhile is brought forth or established in the realm of form.

“All things were made by Shekinah”—all things were made by God's use of Shekinah. Your mind is supposed to be a capacity by which Divine Mind can function in this level of things in relationship to the use of Shekinah. Now if you, as a human being, undertake to use Shekinah, you will fail; but if you function on a basis which allows the Divine control to be conveyed through you into the earth, then on this level, in this physical realm of things, Shekinah is used by God through you, and we need to have that distinction clearly in consciousness so that you do not, as a human being, attempt to use Shekinah—but you must not refuse to use Shekinah. That could sound like a paradox. If you refuse to use Shekinah in the pattern of Divine control and say, “But Shekinah is higher than I”—and many Shekinah patterns are—you will never be able to be truly creative. And here we have one of the delicate factors with respect to growth, progress, development spiritually, and that is to find the balance point between arrogance and egotism and the true expression of your Heavenly individuality of Being.

Humility, true humility, keeps you from becoming arrogant or egotistical, but false humility keeps you from functioning on a basis which will let God convey something through you into the world. Where is this balance point? Between that which is actually egotistical and that which is simply a recognition of your Divine heritage as you share the expression of Deity on earth. I have known many people who, because they did not have clear vision, assumed that I was egotistical. I have had many people attempt to fight against me, fundamentally on that one point, the assumption that I was being egotistical. On the other hand, if I had functioned on a basis which I have classified as false humility, could I have been an instrument for the expression of God's blessings to you? Obviously not. We must not deny our correct relationship with God. It is not being egotistical or arrogant when we function on the basis of God's Love and Truth and Life in an acceptance, a recognition, of that which is the reality of God's Pattern for us.

You recognize that I have said very little about my particular place in the Cosmic scheme of things, but I cannot deny it and I am forced to mention it on occasion, briefly though it may be, in order to help bring the whole pattern together for you so that you can see and understand. But in that, if you have eyes to see, I believe you will find that it has always been with a spirit of humility before God that I even touched upon that particular point. On the other hand, if I were to carry a false pattern of humility so that I was responsive to conditions, to people, I could not convey a positive pattern to you. I would be useless to God and useless as far as you are concerned. So, it is very easy for the human mind to confuse the true expression of Being and call it egotism. On the other hand, there is a fine balance point, and sometimes people assume that they are simply being positive in the nature of their own true reality when in actual fact they are being egotistical; when in actual fact they are being arrogant. And so, one of the things that you have to learn to see in the light is this line of distinction, so that you are not caught in the pattern of arrogance and egotism on the one hand and on the other hand you do not become so subject to those conditions around you that you cannot be a proper point of positive expression for the release of God's Power on earth. You cannot deny the reality of the positive pattern of God's Power by your actions and attitudes and still let it manifest.

Human beings, given a little authority, given a little power, tend to abuse that power and use it selfishly, and very often they appear to find certain satisfactions in imposing ill conditions upon others. One of the characteristics of those who rise on the basis of world patterns to a position of dictatorship is that they establish in themselves the life and death control of other people, and they feel that they are justified in almost offhandedly requiring the death of some human being, or diminishing the life opportunity in some human being—imprisonment or something of that sort. One of the ways we can distinguish in ourselves or in others with respect to this proper functioning in the positive point of Being is in relationship to the constructive pattern that is involved. Is the authority, is the power, used in such fashion that it arbitrarily denies other human beings their full pattern of rights and privilege? If such is the case there is probably the manifestation of arrogance and egotism. If, on the other hand, there is that which human beings might conceive to be egotism and yet there is a pattern of consistent dedication to the constructive, helpful, creative pattern of life in others, then we can recognize that there is at least some indication that it is in harmony with the Divine Plan. The dictator always produces an imitation of this. We can see it very easily in relationship to Hitler, for instance. He was presumably making his nation a people of supermen and women. There was an imitation, the appearance of the manifestation of Heavenly magic.

As we have noted in times past, the outer mind in self-activity can appear to duplicate the Magic of Life up to a certain point—the Magic of Reality, or Heavenly Magic—but it reaches a point where it cannot. If that which appears to be a duplication of the Divine Pattern of Heavenly Magic is being used unselfishly, perhaps it has some value, perhaps it is moving in the right direction—even though in the world at the present time we find so many situations where there is good, where it is moving in the right direction, but nevertheless it is a far cry from what it ought to be. So we want to be careful about judging, yet we must recognize that this appearance of duplicating the constructive expression, the appearance of the altruistic attitude, the savior of his people, [in Hitler it] was merely a cloak. It turned out to be the manifestation of a wolf in sheep's clothing.

And that is the pattern that the Master utilized in distinguishing—revealing the difference between correct attitude and pattern of function and that which is of the world. Those who have a cloak of sheep's clothing—what are they? Are they sheep? If they are sheep they need a shepherd. But they fool the sheep. They may not delude the shepherd, but what are they concerned with? Not so much the shepherd as the sheep. If one is a true leader one will not have the appearance of a sheep. Now that may sound a little strange to you.

The pattern indicates that we all are, in one sense, at some point along the way at least, sheep in the fold of the Great Shepherd. That pattern is used in the beginning of the cycle. But that is the range of the servant pattern. At first we must be servants, or slaves even, before we can reach the point of being friends. But once you go through the transition, from the state of the servant to the state of the friend, you are no longer a sheep. So, if there is an emergence out of the pattern of the world helplessness into the pattern of true Divine function, you are no longer symbolized by the sheep—but you must function under the pattern of the Shepherd until you learn how to emerge. Well our classes and the purpose of our function is to help you to emerge into a range where true leadership can manifest through you—not the leadership of arrogance, self-righteousness, not the supposed leadership of egotism, but the true leadership. You are either a member of the flock of the sheep, assuming that you are responding, or you are a member of the Body of the Shepherd. That will clarify the point for you.

If you are a member of the Body of the Shepherd, and you have been received as a friend, then you function as a shepherd, and to the sheep you may appear, to some of them, to be assuming something—if you are, it will soon be shown—but, the fact that human beings may judge you to be assuming something, judge you to be arrogant, judge you to be egotistical, does not make you so unless you let it be so. You can have the proper pattern of response to our King and be a member of the Body of the Shepherd. And if you are a member of the Body of the Shepherd, you will not need to wear a cloak of sheep's skin.

Now how did you get the sheep’s skin to begin with? You killed one of the sheep. You see? How did anyone get the sheep’s skin? By killing one of the sheep. So the wolf in sheep’s clothing fails to appreciate the True Pattern. There is the seeming pattern that will delude other sheep, perhaps, for a little while, the pattern of black magic—but you are either numbered among the sheep, if you are responding, or you are numbered as a member of the Body of the Shepherd, and you do not have to wear a sheep skin. So those who claim to be leaders, who point to the sheep’s skin on their back to emphasize the importance of accepting them as leaders, do not know what they are talking about. You see what I mean? They are pointing to a sheep’s skin, and say, “Look, I'm one of the sheep, I'm just one of the sheep, look at my sheep’s skin.” But he who emerges as a true leader is not wearing a sheep’s skin. He is wearing the badge of membership in the Body of the Shepherd. And there is the difference—so you do not need to be confused. “Beware of wolves in sheeps’ clothing,” the Master said, and we begin to see how true it is.

And what is the true nature of the shepherd? There are millions of people in the world who assume the patterns of leadership, who want to appear as sheep. Some of them really are sheep and some of them are wolves in sheeps’ clothing. But he who emerges as a true leader is not wearing a sheep’s skin. He is not one of the sheep. He is a member of the Body of the Shepherd. And you are invited to be members of the Body of the Shepherd. So let us watch, individually and collectively, with respect to this delicate point of balance, so that you do not become egotistical or arrogant and yet you do not sell your birthright for a mess of pottage, you do not refuse to be what you ought to be, even if someone classifies you as being arrogant and egotistical. Time will tell always—time will tell.

“All things were made by Shekinah; and without Shekinah was not any thing made that was made.” Having recognized this important distinction which we have been considering, we can see that the sheep are those who need to have something made for them, they need to be led into green pastures, they need to be taken to the still waters to drink, etc. But the one who is the leader, the one who is a member of the Body of the Shepherd, will carry the true characteristics of the Shepherd and he will be functioning in relationship to Shekinah so that he can make something. We begin to see two classes of people in the sphere of the responding ones. There is another class, of course, those who are dead and in whom there is no response. But, there are the sheep and there are the members of the Body of the Shepherd. The sheep have not yet learned how to function in relationship to Shekinah. They must be protected from themselves, they must be led, they must be drawn into a position where they can begin to know the reality of Godhood—they must begin to know how to function as a Shepherd that they may not be sheep forever.

The only reason there is the pattern of the sheep in the world is because man fell. God did not create human beings to be as sheep and He did not establish Himself to be as a Shepherd to the sheep. Remember, it is not the Divine Design that makes you or anyone else as a sheep. That is the nature of the responding one as he moves out of the pattern of sleep into the pattern of response, moving in the direction of the Divine Design—and gradually he awakens to the reality of his own true Being and steps into the sphere of the Body of the Shepherd, becomes a member of that Body and is so restored to his Divine Estate. We have this point clearly set forth in the Psalm which we have recognized to be the formula: “The Lord is your shepherd.”

“He restoreth your soul”—and remember what your soul is. The soul is the outer manifestation of your Being. And God breathed the breath of life into man's nostrils, and man, the physical man, became a living soul—a living soul. “He restoreth your soul,” to its Divine Estate, which is to membership in the body of that which which is now functioning as a Shepherd. That body will function as a Shepherd only as long as there are sheep, but the day will come when there are no more sheep, when they have all entered the Body of the Shepherd, and then the function will be restored to the pattern which was originally designed for it.

You know, the processes of working out salvation for human beings is a substitute pattern for Divine activity. God had to produce a substitute pattern. He had to begin functioning in a sphere that was not a part of the original design, the original purpose, simply repairing the machinery that broke down. After the machinery is repaired—that is important—but after it is repaired the work will be in harmony with the true purpose of the machinery. We will not go on fixing the machine forever. Once that is repaired and mankind is restored to his Divine position, he will begin to share God's creative activity according to the Original Purpose. You do not need to be concerned about trying to understand that Original Purpose, but you can remember this illustration. For the time being, God is working to repair the machinery that was broken down. Once the machinery is repaired, and all is in order, the machine will be used in the work for which it was originally designed. Now it is repair work; then it will be the use of the machine. And that is all you need to know about it at the moment, except that it will be creative work.

The immediate point, then, we need to realize is that “He restoreth your soul.” The Shepherd restores you into a position in the Body of the Shepherd, and He has assumed the role of a Shepherd only because there were sheep, and as soon as there are no more sheep He will put aside His robe of the Shepherd and function according to His true nature, His true purpose, and no longer as the Shepherd. “He restoreth your soul.” And God, Shekinah, breathed the breath of life into man's nostrils and man became a living soul. So the man is the soul, if he has the breath of life in his nostrils. Let us remind ourselves: All things were made by Shekinah; and without Shekinah was not any thing made that was made. In Shekinah was life and the life of Shekinah was the light of men—and in the beginning Shekinah breathed the breath of life. In Shekinah was life—and in the beginning Shekinah breathed the breath of life into man's nostrils, and having the Shekinah breath of life in his nostrils man became a living soul.

What is the distinction to be seen here then, in order that we avoid any confusion in thought and attitude? Any human being who is alive is a soul. He is either a dying soul or a living soul. Many human beings—body, mind and heart—are souls, but they are dying souls. If they will respond and if there is a Shepherd, if there is a pattern of creative activity available to them, they can become living souls; but they do not become living souls until the Shekinah breath of life is in their nostrils. Something of the Shekinah breath of life has already entered into you, or you would not be responding as you are. But what is this process by which the Shekinah breath of life may enter into your nostrils so that you may be in actual fact a living soul?

The Master, while He walked among men, set the stage for that particular pattern of outworking, that the Shekinah breath of life might again be breathed into man's nostrils, that human beings might cease their function as dying souls and that they might become living souls. You will recall that at the time that the disciples allowed the beginning of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, or the appearance of Shekinah, what is called the day of Pentecost, they were in the habit of breathing upon someone. They breathed upon so and so and he or she received the Holy Ghost, as it is put. What is the Holy Ghost? The Holy Ghost is the outer Cloud factor of Shekinah, insofar as the general sense is concerned—the Body of many members.

You have recognized that the Holy Ghost has a particularized application in you as an individual, but the same pattern holds true in the Body of many members. So, every human being has a ghost or, in one sense, is a ghost. He is a dying ghost, or he is a living ghost. If he is a living ghost in the pattern of the Heavenly Magic, it is the Holy Ghost—but if we must distinguish that which is of reality by calling it the Holy Ghost, by inference we immediately acknowledge that there is an unholy ghost. There would be no necessity of saying Holy Ghost if there was no such thing as an unholy ghost, would there? No. So the very fact that we say Holy Ghost clearly indicates that there is an unholy ghost, and the unholy ghost is the pattern in the dying soul. The unholy ghost is the pattern in the dying soul. The Holy Ghost is the pattern in the living soul, and the Holy Ghost also manifests in relationship to the Body of many members.

We begin to see, then, that what is called the day of Pentecost was actually the beginning of the process by which the Shekinah breath of life was being breathed into man's nostrils, that they, then, might become living souls. But they got the first whiff of the breath, they started to get a little of it into their lungs, spiritually speaking, and they got so exhilarated, so thrilled, and their minds got so busy, that they went rushing out and started functioning on the basis of the whiff, on the basis of the little beginning. Now if you will recall the Master's instruction to His disciples, He said, “Tarry in Jerusalem until the day of Pentecost is fully come”—until it is fully come. The disciples disobeyed that direction. They did not do it. They did tarry until the day the cycle of Pentecost—that is, the cycle of Shekinah—started to appear; and the minute it started to appear they assumed that that was all. They jumped to some conclusions and rushed out and tried to use the Power that they felt in themselves according to what they thought would be good deeds, not realizing that they were actually disobeying our King, spoiling the pattern, throwing away the opportunity to let the day of Pentecost fully come.

You see, it never has fully come. There was just the first faint Dawn of it, the first faint breaking of the New Day, beginning to dispel the darkness for those who were awake at sunrise. They did not even let sunrise come—sunrise, the manifestation of the Body of the Son. The day, the cycle—not a twenty-four hour day—the day of Pentecost was supposed to fully come, and it did not because Peter and the others spoiled it. They did not let it fully come. God has been waiting nearly two thousand years for some human beings somewhere to so function that the Son would no longer have to stand still. The Son has been standing still for a long time. What is the story about Joshua making the sun stand still? Well the Son has been standing still, the Dawn did not fully come, there was just a little of the light of the Dawn. Instead of letting the Body of the Son take form and rise above the horizon so that the day might fully come, those who were supposed to be the members of the Body of the Son went rushing off to use the Power they felt according to their own idea of what would be good—so the Son stood still and darkness has remained for nineteen centuries while God waited for human beings to appear on earth who would let the Dawn of the New Day come, who would allow the Son to rise, the Body of the Son to appear, to let the day of Pentecost fully come.

If we are to let this work out in relationship to ourselves, that we may be a true blessing to others, we must let the Shekinah breath of life come into our nostrils so that we may become living souls, and as living souls, we, who were once dying souls, can be members of the One Body, the Christ Body, the Body of the Rising Son, that the day of Pentecost may fully come, that darkness may be dispelled from the whole earth and the Kingdom of Heaven be made manifest.

Once you begin to actually see this Divine Pattern, the Divine Purpose, you no longer have the urge to go out and try to do good, as Peter did. So many people have followed Peter's example, Peter's leadership. But when they do they are not following our King, because Peter did not follow our King. He let a little truth appear in his two Epistles. He let a little truth appear there. He was a good man. Oh, he was a good man, was Peter! But let us follow our King! It is not enough merely to follow a good man, a man who was so good that the moment he began to feel the flash of God's Power coming into his being he could not wait, he could not let the day of Pentecost fully come until he realized what was happening. He had to rush out and start using it. What does this tell us? This tells us that he began—and the others, focalized in Peter however—he began to let the Cloud have some meaning; but he did not wait until he was fully attuned with the Cloud so that he could see the Light within the Cloud. And then, becoming attuned to the Light that glows, they should have let themselves see what was within the Light, that they could comprehend the meaning of the Fire. There were those who sensed the reality of some Fire in it, yes. “And there came a sound … as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.” “A sound … as of a rushing might wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting,” and there appeared upon each of them as if it were cloven tongues of fire.

There was some recognition of the fact that there was some Fire inside of the Light that glows within the Cloud, but they had not become attuned to it, there was no real unification in it, there was no real pattern, there was no real Divine control established. They had not waited until they could see and know and obey the One within the Flame, the One within the Fire. If they had waited until they could hear His voice, so that they could obey the Word of the One within the Fire, they would not have gone off on impulsive tangents as they did—the world story would have been different, where the restoration would have been completed to the Divine Estate centuries ago, as God intended that it should. But impulsive Peter and the others who followed his lead spoiled it, ruined it, and did not let the day of Pentecost fully come.

It is for us to let it fully come, that the breath of Life, the Shekinah breath of Life, may be breathed into your nostrils, and that Life shall be your Light. But the Light is not all. Behind the Light there is the Fire, and within the Fire there is the One who is like unto the Son of God. Let us let the day of Pentecost fully come. Let us obey our Lord and King.

© Emissaries of Divine Light