The Ever-Flowing Lifestream
Martin Cecil September 29, 1974
It's good to be together in this chapel this evening, providing us with the opportunity of serving in this moment. We are here to do this of course. This is an essential aspect of living. We may begin to participate in these moments in the expression of the truth which should be born in these moments. Only as we do participate in this process may we know the Truth. In recalling the statement of our Master's words, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” we remember that the beginning of that statement established a requirement—“If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
To know the Truth we must continue in what was referred to here as His Word. A great many people have been inclined to think that this simply meant the record of the words which Jesus spoke, the record that came down to us presumably in the Gospels. His Word, or the Word of God, is sometimes thought of as being the Bible. But anything that is recorded in that book is obviously in the past; the Truth can only be known in the present. It is only known because it finds release and expression through those who know it. So it isn't a matter of recalling words out of the past, whether those words were the words of Jesus or anybody else, if we are to know the Truth in this moment. Recalling some words which were the Truth insofar as the ones who spoke them were concerned when they were spoken, we may be reminded of what is required of us now. But let us not ever imagine that the Truth can be known by bringing forward something out of the past. This is something that must be born in the moment. We are here now to let something be born now, in this moment, or these moments, as each one becomes the present in its turn. This obviously would then be fresh and new—not a revived corpse, so to speak, out of the past. Those are sometimes called zombies. There are many believers in zombies. Here again, we need to recognize clearly that a belief about the Truth absolutely prevents a person from knowing the Truth. Beliefs perhaps may be useful in pointing a person in the right direction, but sooner or later he's got to relinquish his beliefs if he is to give birth to the Truth, the Truth of the moment. Giving birth to this Truth in the moment, we know it. We don't have to believe anything.
Now I think you realize there have been many beliefs present in your own experience, and no doubt you have been relinquishing some of them. It's interesting to observe that many of the Christian churches have creeds, where the members of the church are required to accept this statement of belief. Little do they realize that as long as they insist upon accepting the statement of belief they absolutely preclude the possibility of knowing the Truth. We can see that very easily, can't we, with respect to those church members out there. But how about your beliefs, for instance? It's the same thing, you know; no real difference. A model is never the real thing. The real thing is living, and is born in the moment.
This relates to Cause, of which many people have an awareness. There must be one; something's moving. We have seen the necessity of moving with that something. And the way we move with it is to participate in letting it be born in our own experience—then we're with it. If we are merely looking for it to be born through somebody else then we're apart from it, we're not with it, we are not moving with it. Obviously, if we have a setting such as this, I have a responsibility to permit something to be born in my own expression. But whatever it is that is so born should be an inspiration or a moving element in your own experience; in other words something is born through you at the same time as it's being born through me. The words that I speak are only a part of what it is that is being born. It's likely that whatever is being born through you as individuals will not exactly coincide with what is being born through anyone else in the room. There is something particular and peculiar and unique which rightly is born through each person. When this is so and we move together in what has been called the Current of the Spirit, then we are with what is moving; we are serving in this fashion and we are participating in the manifest expression of the Cause which engenders the effects that we see round about on the basis of human response or reaction to what is moving. Most people don't realize what it is that's moving. Perhaps from what I am saying now, and from your own experience, you have a certain awareness of what it is that is moving.
We speak of the Current of the Spirit, or the Spirit of God, as a means of pointing to something which in different terms may be referred to as Shekinah perhaps, or the Christ, or the Lamb, or the Tone—something which is moving. Now, it's moving everywhere, not just geographically here. It's moving in relationship to all people. It's moving by reason of Life. It is Life, wherever Life is being born in the moment. We recognize many living forms on earth, but we also realize, I'm sure, that these forms which we speak of as living are not in fact the only living forms. There is no form in the whole universe that is not living. There are different levels of Life and the expression of Life, but it's all Life. Life is present everywhere. It's interesting that a stone was used as an example to portray something about which we were speaking this morning—a stone cut out without hands. Most people look at a stone and say, “What could be more dead than that?” But actually it's living substance, part of the body of the universe—certainly a part of the body of this planet. This planet is part of the body of the universe. So Life is everywhere and moving everywhere. Another way of describing this is to refer to what is happening as the pulsation or the flow of the Lifestream, or the bloodstream; in our own experience properly we might say the blood of the Lamb, the Lamb having particular reference to spiritual expression. We are concerned with spiritual expression, with letting the Spirit express. This same Lifestream could be referred to as the Christ or Shekinah, relating to the dominance of certain other levels of being—mental and physical in these cases. Then we've also mentioned the Tone, using another word. It's all one thing, but we may lay emphasis on certain aspects of that one thing. And the Tone of course has a particular relationship to the pure heart, something clear sounding.
And so there is the bloodstream present, and we may see this applying especially to the body of mankind. There is a certain range of Life manifesting through human beings. That range is wider or larger than the range manifesting through anything else here on this planet. Lesser ranges manifest through the animal kingdom or the kingdom of vegetation, the mineral kingdom; but it's all this same bloodstream, and it's moving everywhere. When we think of our own physical bodies we say the heart is a muscle which pumps the blood through the body—this is one way of looking at it at least. Now, it's a very efficient pump, if that's what it is, because it keeps a constant flow. It doesn't just spurt out a package of blood while the various parts of the body are waiting for the package to arrive, and then after it's passed and returns from whence it came they're left high and dry. That's not the case. There's a constant flow.
And this is a very good illustration of what is happening in this matter of the Lifestream of God, the blood of the Lamb, or however it might be put. There's a constant flow everywhere; all are related to this flow. Not all have an awareness of it. You are beginning to have an awareness of the reality of it. It is this flow, and our consciousness of the reality of it, that begins to put us together, begins to make us aware of being part of One Body, that we're not just isolated individuals who somehow or other are going to let a little piece of Truth be born where one happens to be, quite regardless of what's going on anywhere else; it isn't so. Whatever is born, actually born, through an individual is closely related to what is being born, actually being born, through others. We're not separate in this sense. There is consequently a sense of unification, because of the experience of the birth of Truth in one's own expression in the moment. The birth of Truth in one's own expression in the moment doesn't segregate one from everybody else: “Well now I'm a sage and Truth is being born through me. I'm illuminated, and where's everybody else?” No, it's the same thing that's moving through everyone, but everyone is not letting it be born adequately or accurately into expression. To the extent that we begin to be an adequate means for this birth then we begin to become aware of other adequate means of this birth, and we begin to find ourselves associated in this way. And the association takes place quite without our choice in the matter. We're not going to pick and choose with respect to those through whom the Truth is going to be born. It either is or it isn't, in an adequate sense, being born through a person. Those through whom it is being born we find a relatedness to: we become conscious of a relatedness that already exists because of what is being born.
So we don't choose each other. We find that we are chosen. This is perhaps the basis of what has been called “the chosen people.” The people are chosen by reason of what is being born through all concerned. As one becomes aware of that, one finds one is part of the Whole, associated with others whether one likes it or not. Some have rebelled against this and objected to this one or that one, but we'd better learn to like it or lump it. We find that it is likable as it proceeds. In the initial stages the birth is perhaps not too adequate yet, and therefore there are frictions which arise, but as the fuller experience comes all this gets smoothed out, ironed out. We find that those people with whom we are associated are not so bad after all. Because of this we don't judge; we stop judging others. We move out of the condition of iron and clay.
Now here is the Truth being born in the moment. It is particular and specific in relationship to each one, but it's not unrelated to what is being born through others. It is not the same thing as is being born through others. We don't want any repetition. It's unique to the individual, but it all fits together because it's all the Truth; and on this basis we begin to know the Truth. Of course we can't let this happen if we are carrying forward our beliefs. Now the Truth that is being born in any given moment at this point is not yet adequate; it's a partial Truth as yet. When it is born through you, you may say, “Now I see. Isn't that great? Now I really see!” Well you see something more than you saw before, and that is greater than you saw before. So it's the greatest thing so far; but don't take it as though it was the last word, because whatever it is that is being born now is not yet the adequate expression of Truth. We speak of highest vision. Well that's as high as we see at the moment, as high as we understand at the moment, as high as we express at the moment. But there's more to come.
What is born in one moment being seen as something marvelous and great because it is so much more than was true of the past moment, there is the inclination then to establish a belief. You believe that this is now the Truth, and then you carry this belief forward with you and it stands as an absolute barrier, as long as you hold that belief, to what is to be born through you in the next moment, and the next, and the next. This is a tendency, a human tendency, because it has been so customary. Most of the processes of what is called education in the world are designed to establish these patterns of belief and concept and idea. But we may have a whole houseful of this stuff, and think we are wise because we have so much, and yet not know the Truth at all, because the Truth is born in the moment. Every belief that a person has stands as a block to that birth, because the individual is assuming that he knows what the Truth is and therefore what should be born in the moment. But what things should be born in the moment “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man” yet. It only does so as it is born. In this way we begin to establish association with the flow of the Lifestream; in other words we begin to live. It is the flow of the Lifestream present in all parts of the body that maintains Life in our individual physical bodies. And so likewise is it in the larger body of mankind, or any aspect of the total body of the universe which we might consider. There is a flow, and we need to be present with that flow if we are to participate in the birth of the Truth through us in the moment.
Now, part of this as it relates to our own present experience is seen, or may be seen, with respect to a service—for instance such as we share in this moment. Here something is being brought to focus of this Lifestream, but not only here. If it is the Lifestream and Truth is being born here, it's everyplace else as well. No one is segregated from it until they're dead. I have spoken of the mailings for instance, and tapes and services and so on, as relating to this Lifestream. There's an outer form of something. “Well,” you say, “whatever service comes as a mailing, that's out of the past, isn't it?” Yes, it's out of the past, but you who are reading it are in the present. And what you are reading can provide the inspiration, or the trigger, however you would put it, to permit the Truth to be born through you in the moment. And from your own experience you know this to be true, because you could read a service and ... well it's beautiful; something fresh is seen. Then you read it a couple of weeks later and it's something entirely new. It's not because what was written on the page had changed, but because you had changed, because something new was being born through you.
There are many many people who could read these words and they would mean absolutely nothing to them at all. Many people have read the Bible for instance, being assured by others that there was something there, but the words have meant absolutely nothing to them. However, you have found, particularly those who've had the opportunity of sharing in Grace's class, that the Bible comes alive. But what is it that really comes alive? You do! The Bible is the same Bible, no different at all, but something is born through the person who reads it. And it is this in-the-moment birth that is the basis for association with the flow of the Lifestream. What is being expressed in a focalized sense through the services which we share, you and others, brings to point something of the flow of the Lifestream that is transpiring in the present moment; it's fresh and fairly up-to-date, if we keep it that way. But what allows for the real experience is what is born through the person who moves with that and lets something appear in his own expression of Life.
So what appears through the mailings, for instance, is of vital importance in this regard, because it allows for a new birth in the individual who considers it—not only considers it from the standpoint of reading something but considers it from the standpoint of living something. In other words whenever you read a mailing it should enlighten you with respect to your own experience in living. How does it apply in relationship to your own experience? And there is the essential quality, then, of keeping up-to-date. We must be up-to-date if we are to be with it. We are up-to-date when the Truth of the moment is being born through us in the moment. And this provision of mailings at this time is most useful to assist in the development of the ability to allow the Truth to be born in the moment; not only in the moment when you're reading a mailing but in every moment of living, because then we begin to have the stone cut out without hands. It is not being formed by human effort. It's being formed by the fact that the Truth is being born, by the fact that there are those who begin to know the Truth and are consequently free to express Life as it really is. And it is this irresistible force, this power, which is the Cause relating to all that is unfolding in a specific sense right here on earth. There are many other things unfolding in many other parts of the universe, and it's all related, but there is something specific happening here and we have a particular responsibility with respect to this specific happening.
“If ye continue in my word.” It isn't as though Jesus spoke some words nineteen centuries ago when He was on earth and then quit. He said before He left, “I have yet many things to say unto you.” There are many many words yet to be spoken in this sense. In other words this Stream is an ever-flowing Stream, but the only connection we have with it is in the present moment. We don't have a connection with it in the past; we're here. So this we experience now if we experience it at all. “If ye continue in my word…” Continue, continue, continue. The Word continues, and unless we can somehow connect up with it in the present moment, we don't know what that Word is. We may have some ideas about something that happened in the past, but what's happening now? Most people are entirely at sea in that regard. They think they know something about what happened in the past and they have expectations for the future, but they haven't the faintest, foggiest notion as to what's happening now. The only thing that has any meaning is what is happening now. What is it that is being born into our expression in the moment? Not necessarily a spoken word. There are times when it's right to speak. Presumably this is a moment when it's right for me to speak, but I think if you observe me you don't see me going around talking all the time. There are times for silence, but that doesn't mean something can't be born through you at those times. When something stops being born through you you're dead.
So there is a constant flow rightly, and we begin to know it when we're with it. And we're with it when it's being born in our own experience. Then we participate in this causative element which is very particularly working in the consciousness of mankind. This is our field of service. This is our area of responsibility. What works out in the consciousness of mankind will be reflected beyond mankind in relationship to everything in the further environment. We are concerned with letting the consciousness of mankind change. And how is it going to change? Because we impose something on somebody else? No, because we let it change in us. We're part of mankind. If it changes in us, the consciousness of mankind has changed to that extent. In fact if it changes, in the sense of the birth of Truth in one's own experience, there is the irresistible force related to everybody else, and something's going to continue to happen because we continue in the Word of the moment and consequently know the Truth which should find expression in the moment. You don't have to doctor up that Truth which is to find expression in the moment in such a way that it conforms with your beliefs that you've been dragging forward out of the past.
There are many beliefs that need to pass away—they don't belong. They may relate to something that was born back there, that was fine back there in that moment. But in actual fact, whatever is born in the moment should pass away in the moment because there's something coming in the next moment, and we don't want to block it. And we do discover that there is indeed a pulsing flow of the bloodstream. There is a pulsation. It isn't just a squirt, so to speak, an indefinite squirt. There are beautiful variations. Allowing the Truth to be born one could never be bored. If at any time you find yourself bored you may know why. Because the Truth is simply not being born through you in that moment. You're expecting to be entertained in some way by what's happening in your environment. And this is a very strong influence in human lives, isn't it? They always want to be entertained. Do you want me to entertain you? Let's entertain the Lord, because we give expression to the Truth together; and that's very entertaining, because it's so new and fresh and something unexpected is appearing constantly. It's an adventure, and we don't need to be entertained anymore. We become the entertainer.
It's all one thing. The bloodstream is everywhere. Life is consequently everywhere, and as the Truth is born through us we live, we live in that new expression of Life—the Life that is eternal. If we're on hand to let it be born through us we have an association then with Eternal Life; we participate in that movement. We share in the creative working, the creative pulsations, and we begin to become aware of what is happening to what is next to us. We see the significance of this as extending to something beyond, because it's all one thing. And as we handle the things that are ours to deal with in the moment we are handling and dealing with far more, if our handling is on the basis of the Truth being born in the moment. Then all things are being made new. We see what is transpiring in the world as being part of the unfoldment of Divine Purpose. We have a certain awareness of the immediate Divine Purpose, which is the restoration of man, the facility through which the Divine Purpose may be allowed to find expression on earth. Being restored this can then happen, but in the meantime there is the necessity to be restored.
So we let the bloodstream flow again through this body of mankind that has so long been existing in a coma in the tomb. Blood begins to flow again and Life to come into all parts, that it may be restored. We have a responsibility, because we become aware of it. In our consideration this evening that awareness has been emphasized in this particular way, and something has been born through each one on this basis. If you think you've seen something new or sensed something new, wonderful! Let it go and let's let it continue to be born naturally in the moment, to the Glory of God and the blessing of the children of men. Something has been brought to very specific point here through you. Because of this you're the ones who have the focus of responsibility for what is moving. It's how you behave, what you do with it, that matters. You either allow the Stream of Life to intensify and flow more fully or you let it drain away, you spill the blood. Spilled blood doesn't do any good. It needs to remain and flow through the channels which are prepared for its flow, and those include you. And so it is. We're all together, and we know it. What a blessing, and what a blessing to be offered to all who will receive it.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
God's Things
Uranda July 7, 1953 Class
Because there is such a widespread pattern of confusion in relationship to what we mean when we say “the things of this world”, I think we should take a moment to consider that specific point. Human beings, limited in consciousness, having backgrounds influenced by many of the concepts and beliefs in the world, are inclined to think of the whole pattern of human activity as being “of this world”. When I say mixing the things of this world with the things of God they imagine it means the pattern of daily activity, the necessities of daily life in various ways, etc. But if you stop to think about it, to meditate upon it a little bit, you find that that is not the case, it cannot be the case; that again there is a pattern of mere assumption.
First let us question for a moment, “What are the things of God?” Who made your body and all of its parts? Who made your body with all its capacities? Who made the opportunities? Who made the earth? Who made the things of the earth? God did. So when I speak of the things of this world I am not talking about anything that God made, I am not talking about anything that God created. I am not talking about the right use of any of the capacities which God gave you physically, mentally, emotionally. Those things that are of God must not be confused with the things that are of this world, and yet human beings are constantly confusing, in their own minds and hearts, these things that are of God, and attempting to classify them as if they were of this world. And when they try to treat them as if they were of this world they are in effect, when they try to live a so-called spiritual life, they are in effect trying to make God fight against God, and it doesn’t work.
We must recognize that all the things that God made are not of this world. They may be of this earth, they may be made of the substance of this earth, they may be in patterns specific in relationship to our present function in life. For instance, would you classify an automobile as something purely of this world? I would not. An airplane? A radio? The pattern of use determines the meaning of the thing; so the thing, as long as it has a potentially constructive use, is not of this world. Who provided the means by which it could be designed in relationship to man's uses? Who provided the intelligence for the inventor? Who provided the inspiration that the need might be filled? Are these things of this world? They come into the classification of being of this world only when they have no constructive use or when they are used destructively. Only that which is subjected to, or patterned by, the self-centered, self-active pattern of life expression is of this world. We must learn not to confuse the things of God with the things of this world; and God has plenty of things on earth. God made plenty of things on earth. He provided the metals, and all the other things that we may properly use in constructive activity. And I have had people, when I have said something about not being subject to the things of this world, or functioning in relationship to them, I have had people because of background patterns of training in false doctrines and ideas, jump to the conclusion well that means then there shouldn’t be any sex, there shouldn’t be any this, there shouldn’t be any that, there shouldn’t be anything—I wonder what we should be!
We were placed on earth as human beings. God made us, and he made all parts of our bodies for use in the Divine Design. He made all parts of our minds, hearts, our capacities. He made the things round about us. Some of them man has designed and built on the basis of potential use for the blessing of man, for the uses of man to the glory of God. How could we hope to achieve our goal without radio? How could we hope to achieve our goal without automobiles and airplanes? How could we hope to do anything without highways and byways, and all kinds of things? Blessed Ones, who are they who serve the Lord? Just those who have a consciousness of what we are doing here in this hour? Those who are making the things and providing the opportunities whereby the Word of God, the works of God, may be extended into the earth. We have Dick and Billie with us this morning, back from Newfoundland. And we are happy to have them back home. How did they go? By plane, by train, etc. How did they return? By boats and trains, and planes, automobiles. How did they carry on their ministry up there? Because there was a little automobile provided for them to get around. How did they manage to accomplish their work to the degree that they did? Because there were thousands and tens of thousands, yea millions of people working to produce the things that would make our lives effective. And all of those things which can be used to the glory of God, for the service of God, are the things of God on earth.
The things, unless they are wholly destructive—for instance, about the only thing I can think of that comes in that classification is the liquor industry—practically everything that man has made has a potential in the right pattern of being. And these things when they are used in the divine pattern are not the things of this world. So when I say let us not mix the things of this world with the things of God, I am not asking you to separate the things that God has made from the things that God has made. They all belong to God, and why should we try to draw a line and say, “this belongs and that does not.” If we can use it to the glory of God it is one of God’s things, and it has a relationship to heaven. Suppose it is somewhat limited for the time being; if it’s the best that’s available it is still one of God’s things. And there is opportunity for improvement. We begin to recognize then that if we are going to let the things of God have meaning on earth we must not be constantly attempting to classify the things of God as being the things of the devil, or the things of this world. Let us never be confused on this point: What are the things of this world?
Suppose there was no one making shoes. It’s good, as we considered yesterday, to go barefooted under certain conditions, but I wouldn’t want to have to go barefooted in the conditions as they are in the world all the time. Someone has to make the shoes… So those who made the things that make it possible for me to appear before you were serving me, they were serving God. Who built the highways? You say, “Those who were serving the devil.” Well maybe some of them did, part of the time; they may have been serving the devil in their off hours. But they who built the highways, those who manufactured the automobiles that make it possible for us to do what we are doing; those who did all the things that make it possible are a part of what this is. And their labors are recognized as part of the Divine Plan. If any man or woman at any time in past generations has done one thing which contributed toward making it possible for me to stand before you here this morning and speak to you, then that person was serving God, and if that pattern of activity was limited to ten minutes, then that life was not in vain. How many people have contributed to your being here and to my having the opportunity of standing before you? How many? Could you count them? No. Alright, let’s not forget them, whether of past generations or of this, it makes no difference.
So let’s not confuse the things of God with the things of this world. We need to recognize that we were created by God and the things that were created by God on earth are for our use. And if those things come out as automobiles or airplanes or what have you—as long as they serve a constructive purpose they are the things of God and they are not the things of this world. So when I say the things of this world I never mean just material things as such. I mean the influences, the attitudes, the evil spirits, the things that spoil the proper uses of the things that God has made in Creation and the things that God has made through man. Whether it be mighty bridges or—how about those who drilled a thirteen mile tunnel through granite back up here in the mountains so that water might flow along in that canal and we might have the sweet music of the motor running out here in our sprinkling system? All the men that labored there digging the canal, all the machines that helped to make it, all these things are the things of God, the works of God.
Now, those who help make it possible for us to minister effectively are ministering. Those who make it possible for me to do some thing are ministering. To the degree that you are centered in Reality, the same thing holds true with you. So, let us not confuse the issue and classify the things of God as being the things of this world, for it puts you in the position of attempting to fight against God and trying to make God fight against Himself, and that doesn’t work. If you would know God accept Him as He is, and stop rejecting Him or that expression of His Being which makes it possible for us to be what we ought to be ...
The Priesthood After the Order of Melchizedek
from Original Sin
Uranda April 6, 1953 Class
Man was created in the image and likeness of God, to be the Body of God on earth, to be the means by which God's dominion could be extended into the earth with respect to all forms of manifestation here, including the elements. We recognize that in the process of becoming in actual fact members of the One Body, letting the power of God work in us and through us to carry on the Divine Pattern, we must become Priests and Priestesses after the Order of Melchizedek. We can be hangers-on, or we can be disciples, or followers (a disciple is a follower), or we can reach the point of being prophets—that is, letting the Word of the Lord express through our lips—or we can keep on and become Priests or Priestesses.
I would not want you to feel that I arbitrarily take the stand that every man, woman and child on the face of the earth should be a Priest or Priestess in the ultimate outworking. There are all kinds of spheres of service and responsibility which relate to that Central Focalization, and for a person who is content just to be a disciple, well, no one is going to find fault with him if he is a good disciple, or a good prophet or prophetess, as the case may be. There are many spheres of service. But from the standpoint of actually establishing the patterns and accomplishing the will of God on earth, it must be through the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek. There is no other way. That is the way which Jesus Christ revealed on earth, and He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He was reestablishing on earth a consciousness, an understanding, a recognition, of the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek.
We might point out that it is only as human beings have responded to the influence released in the Pattern of the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek that they have accomplished anything worthwhile in a real beneficial sense to humanity or to the Glory of God, at any time on the face of the earth. This is without respect to church or denomination or creed or color or anything else. You begin to realize that this in which we are sharing comes over to us from the Motherland, from the days before the fall of man, and it is the Divine Pattern which has not been changed. It is still the same. It is still the same Laws and Principles of Being. What we are speaking of here as the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek was the governing force on earth before the fall of man, and had been for around one hundred and thirty thousand years. And it has been the governing force behind every constructive move, every really blessed life, on the face of the earth since that day, without respect to any of the man-made divisions. In other words, when we begin to recognize the basic truth of the matter, we find that it is the catholic church. Catholic means universal. To say Roman Catholic is to establish a division, a limit, to build a fence. You begin to see that whatever is constructive or right or real, or response to the spirit of God, in any person on the face of the earth, regardless of nationality or creed or religion or anything else, is a response to that Pattern in which we are engaged. We do not use the word “catholic” because of its misuses; but it means universal. And we do not speak of it as a church, in the ordinary sense, because it is much more than the human concept of what a church means. But it is the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek. And in order to see the full significance of this, we go back and recognize that the Divine Pattern was in operation before the fall. This Pattern was in operation in relationship to the conditions that worked out after the fall. We remember man's sudden plunge downward into the caveman age, etc, and his gradual emergence into the dim dawn of history. It was by this means that the Focalization of the Pattern was carried over from the period that was beyond the range of history, or man's knowledge, and re-established with respect to the dawn of history.
So, from my standpoint, any man or woman, regardless of who it is, or where, or in what condition, what they call themselves or anything else—any man or woman on the face of the earth who lets God's Will be done, even to the slightest degree, so that there is a real service from it, that person is a part of this which you share here. And it is only to the degree that any person is a part of this, that he or she can amount to anything—I don't care what the standards according to the world concept. But this is, and has been for many thousands of years, the Universal Pattern with respect to the things of God on earth, the progress of man, everything. Every step of progress that man has made has been worked out under this Pattern, without a single exception.
We have people talk about their churches or their denominations going back two or three hundred years or four hundred years, or back to the time of Jesus, or something of that nature. This program which you are sharing here goes back to the fall of man, on the basis of its present purpose—that is, the restoration of man—and it goes back to the beginning of the creation of the world in actual fact. So as far as this world is concerned it cannot be any older than that. It is the Divine Pattern in operation, and has been since the beginning of the creation of the world. Once we begin to see that, we realize that we have a tremendous responsibility, a glorious privilege, to consciously share in this process of restoration. But man has been in the fallen state for so long that he imagines that God's whole purpose is just to get him back into heaven, and once that is done, everything is done.
This twenty-thousand-year interval in which man has fallen has simply meant that some of the other things that God intended to do have had to wait a bit. Getting man back into the Divine Pattern is a temporary goal. After man is back in the Divine Pattern, then we can go on with our Cosmic work, our Divine Pattern of work. Simply saving human beings is not the end and aim of all things—it is merely incidental; because when man fell, man interfered with the processes of God's creative work as it was being carried on in the Solar System in relationship to the Universe and the Cosmos. Just as you might, conceivably, in some time in the past have been working on some certain job and you became ill and you were home for ten days, we will say; well, after the convalescent period was over and you were strong enough, you went back on the job. And that interval is like this interval. It is a correction of something that is wrong. It is a process of restoration; it is not the real goal. It is important, but once we have achieved this process of restoration, then we can go on with our work, the work that was interfered with when man, the body of mankind, became ill through eating the forbidden fruit. As a child, did you ever eat a green apple and get a bellyache? That is what has happened to man. Once we get him over this illness and the process of restoration worked out, then we can go back to the work that we were ordained to do.
It seems to me that once the human being begins to see that, he has a pattern of inspiration that is beyond anything that is ordinary, because human beings seem to think that this little interval here, the little life span on earth, is so important—and it is—and being saved is so important that once that is done it is all done, and God is satisfied, and that is all it is going to be for all eternity. The body of humanity became ill. It is not well yet. So as soon as the body of humanity is well and the process of restoration has been worked out, we can go back to work and do the thing that we really were ordained to do, we were intended to do and should be doing. But for the time being we are on a temporary job.
There are only two bodies on earth: the body of the Son of God and the body of the son of perdition. And those who are coming out of the body of the son of perdition are becoming members of the body of the Son of God. The son of perdition is lost. It is the body of humanity that is lost, wandering away from God, away from the Tree of Life. It is lost, and if it keeps going in the direction in which it is going it will die. Now the son of perdition must die, one way or another. It is going to be in one of two ways as far as God's Plan is concerned. To make it a little easier to illustrate—it is not the case yet, but just to illustrate principle—suppose of the two billion people on earth, one billion is actually enjoying membership in the body of the Son of God, and the other billion has membership in the body of the son of perdition—two bodies, more or less equal in number of people. The body of the son of perdition must die, it must cease to exist. As long as it exists it will be interfering with God's Plan and purpose; there will be misery and suffering and sorrow and death. So there are two ways. Every one of that billion of people in the body of the son of perdition could relinquish the old pattern, let his or her life be redirected and move over in life into membership in the body of the Son of God. And suppose every man, woman and child on the face of the earth did that, so that each one had entered into membership in the body of the Son of God—the body of the son of perdition would be gone without the death of a single human being. The death, the end of the son of perdition, could come about without the death of a single human being. Now it is hardly likely that that will be the case, but I want you to see what the possibility is, because as far as God is concerned that is the desirable goal. But human beings are reactionary creatures; they are still fighting, still resenting, still trying to get their own way, still insisting on eating the forbidden fruit. So in all likelihood there will be those who will simply refuse to come out of the body of the son of perdition to become members of the body of the Son of God.
It will work out on the basis of individual and collective response. From the standpoint of those who are members of the body of the Son of God there will be no effort to destroy the members of the body of the son of perdition anywhere along the line—no effort whatever. But sooner or later it is anticipated, according to the vision of God in the matter, that there will be those who are members of the body of the son of perdition who will decide they are going to fight against the members of the body of the Son of God. Remember what I told you? We can use response that is yielded or response that is opposition, either one. So the moment they begin to fight—we will have done everything we could in the meanwhile to get them not to fight; we do not want to fight; we would that every man, woman and child on the face of the earth should yield and respond and come into the Divine Pattern in the right way—but those who begin to fight do what? They separate themselves from the Source of Life, from God—the positive rejection of God—and any such group action would simply be vigorously fighting against God's Love. And what happens? The individual becomes nothing.
So there are the two bodies. Our business is first to get clearly out of the body of the son of perdition as far as this group is concerned and over into membership in the body of the Son of God—and then there to serve, to lead people, inspire away from the tree that brings death to the Tree that brings Life. “In the day that thou shalt cease to eat thereof, thou shalt surely begin to live.” And then to begin to actually inspire people to repent, let their lives be redirected in actual fact, on a permanent basis, and forgive sin, and move forward to the end that the body of the Son of God shall be made manifest in all the earth, that the body of the son of perdition may be no more. So shall it be, as it is written, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ.” The kingdom of heaven is at hand. These are the things you are invited to share, that through your ministry, through your service, others may find and know the Way, the Truth and the Life, and so respond that the Truth may make them free. I thank God that it is so.
Peace be unto you
© emissaries of divine light
from
Father and Mother of Life
Uranda August 16, 1953 Class
In our study and meditation upon the reality of the Shekinah Pattern of Being we’ve been gaining a deeper realization of the fact that insofar as we in the outer sense are concerned, in the physical sense, we have both earthly and heavenly parents. We recognize that the Fire of Love is the Father of Life, and that the Reality of Truth is the Mother of Life. And in our meditations we came to realize that the commandment, Thou shalt honour thy Father and thy Mother, that thy days of life may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, applies more to the heavenly parents than to the earthly. Sometimes earthly parents are not worthy of honour, but the heavenly parents always are.
And we have come to recognize that the word Father, as the Master used it, included, generally speaking, the One Who Dwells, but that the word included, specifically, the Shekinah Pattern of Being; and that in the outer sense, in the direct and personal sense, the One Who Dwells or the God Being, is not the Father, for the One Who Dwells is the Father of the Only Begotten Son, which is the Spirit of God issuing forth eternally from God; and that this Son or Spirit, is the Shekinah Pattern of Being—and in that Pattern we find that the Child, which is Life, must be born in the form, from the parents of Love and Truth.
We have come to recognize that Life, as such, is not something that is projected into one from some source above or beyond—we can release the Radiation of the Life Current into another, but the true manifestation of Life in the individual is something which must be born in the form through which it appears—and that the presence of the parents of Life must be in the form, in harmony, or united in union, before this Child, which is Life, can appear. If Life is diminishing, then the human form, the human mind and heart have been functioning on a basis which has tended, insofar as the human being is concerned, to separate the parents, to hinder their union, their coordination, and consequently their Child, Life, begins to disappear. When the parents of Life are separated, insofar as a specific human form is concerned, Life is gone and that which remains is called a corpse.
The Father includes the One Who Dwells, but the Heavenly Father which we can contact and know in a direct personal human sense is God’s Love. And so we have in heaven at hand, within range of comprehension, Father God, which is the Fire of Love, and Mother God, which is the Reality or Water of Truth. From the union of these two comes the Child of Life. And these are heavenly parents, individually speaking. When there is One Body of Many Members, the same Pattern is developed in relationship to all. Once we begin to realize that the Father means more than just the Being, the God Being, but includes the Shekinah Pattern of Being, we can more readily understand many of the statements which the Master made—in the prayer, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” When the Father is spoken of, the Mother is automatically included in the pattern of portrayal utilized in holy writings; so honouring the parents or keeping the name of one’s parents, or one’s Father, sacred is seen as something of vital importance so that we do not violate that which is Divine.
We have recognized the Fire of Love and the Water of Truth, but Truth is symbolized by a different term also—Light—the Light that Glows, and our Master spoke of the Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” If then we have Love and Light being made manifest through us, we have the reality of the parents of Life present in our form, and the pattern of relatedness with invisible God, or the One Who Dwells, is clearly established; for in us, in outer form, there is the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. In the First Chapter of the Gospel according to John we have a vitally significant passage; and here the word Word is used to symbolize or signify the sacred or secret word Shekinah. So instead of reading this text as it is written here, we recognize that which the author indicated by the word Word, and we will use the word Shekinah; and let us see how much more there is for us to understand.
“In the beginning”—there was the creation, of what? The creation of the world and all the things that are therein? Yes, but in the beginning of any creation, the beginning of anything that we would do to the Glory of God and the blessing of the children of men—to the Glory of God, to the increased manifestation of Life from God on earth through form—for we remember that Glory always relates to Life. And these things we would do to the Glory of God and to the blessing of the children of men. If it be then to the Glory of God it is to the increase of the manifestation of Life from God through form, so God’s Glory may be increased on earth; and if God’s Glory is increased on earth we have an increase of Life. According to all indications there is enough Glory in Heaven and enough Life in Heaven, so that it is not in Heaven or in some invisible realm that we need an increase, but it is here on earth that this need is present. So if we glorify God we are not going to trying to get out of the earth into some Heaven; we are going to remember the words of the Master’s prayer, “I pray not that thou shouldn’t take them out of the world (earth) but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” The evil is the failure of man to let God’s provision be made manifest. So if we are to be kept from the evil, we are going to let God’s provision be made manifest, and that will let Life increase on earth, and the forms shall be changed to the patterns of Life instead of being changed to the patterns of death, disintegration and decay.
“In the beginning”—in the beginning of anything that we would do to glorify God and be a blessing to the children of men. In the beginning was, in the beginning is, the Word. In the beginning is Shekinah, and Shekinah is with God, and Shekinah is God. Sometimes these words have seemed to be ambiguous. If we read the text using the word Word, which was the word utilized by the author to signify the secret word Shekinah, we find that there is the appearance of ambiguity. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.” This is put in the past tense—but if it was true in the beginning in relationship to the earth, it is likewise true in this moment; so we transpose to the present tense, because God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and that which was true of God, is true of God tonight. And, how can something be God, and be with God? The reality of God is revealed by Shekinah but Shekinah is not all of God—it is the evidence of the Presence of God. So Shekinah was with God, and Shekinah was God, but Shekinah was not all of God—and as that was true then it is true tonight.
In the beginning of that which we do, there is Shekinah, and Shekinah is with God, and Shekinah is God. The same—Shekinah—is in the beginning with God. In the beginning is Shekinah, and Shekinah is with God, and Shekinah is God, is God in action; the same—Shekinah—is in the beginning with God. Having this present pattern of reality, let us note the next verse: All things were made by Shekinah, and without Shekinah was not anything made that was made. In Shekinah was Life, and the Life of Shekinah was the Light of men. If the life goes out of the body, is there any light in the body? No. The presence of Life is necessary to the reality of Light, the reality of comprehension, the function of the mind or heart or body. And so the Light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not.
Let’s bring it up to date, in this present moment, not only what was but what is. All things—now all means one hundred percent, good things, evil things or bad things. There is no creative power but God’s power. If we use the power of Life, the abilities that we have, the capacities, to produce some evil thing or bad thing, then we have stolen God’s force, God’s Life, God’s capacities, and used them to produce something that is contrary to the will and purpose of God, but still, that life in us is the thing that made it possible for us to produce the ill thing. Therefore every ill thing is produced by the same power that produces good things, right things; but when that power that is from God is used according to a distortion pattern to produce some ill thing it is not according to God’s will, but contrary to God’s will. Therefore, we must recognize that all things, absolutely one hundred percent of all the things that have ever been made, or that are being made, or that ever shall be made; and man says, “I have made these things”—perhaps an automobile, perhaps a mechanical brain, perhaps something else—he made these things. In and of themselves they are neither good nor evil; their uses determine whether they shall cause good or evil to manifest. But how were these things made? Did some man who had no Life make them? No. The Life that was in that man enabled him to make them. The intelligence, the ability, the comprehension, the inspiration, whatever it was all came from God. How? By means of Shekinah.
So it does not make any difference what any human being anywhere makes or does, that which is done is done by the power of Shekinah; but if it is done contrary to God’s will it means that that individual has stolen something that belongs to God, that came from God, and used it for a purpose contrary to God’s will. Nevertheless, all things, without a single solitary exception, anywhere at anytime, all things were made by Shekinah, all things are made by Shekinah, and all things that shall be made will be brought forth by Shekinah—and without Shekinah there is not anything made that is made; there is not anything that will be made but what it will have been made by the use of Shekinah. If we, by human self-will and self-centredness, take the forces of Shekinah and use them contrary to the will of God we cause these forces to diminish in us and finally they are gone from us; but while we misuse them it is still Shekinah, and by Shekinah all things have been made—good things, evil things, indifferent things.
By the working of Shekinah you were conceived. You could not be conceived, you could not develop in your mother’s womb, you could not be born without Shekinah. And it is in this sense that we begin to see that while every individual has a physical father—and the Master’s body had a physical father too; that story has gotten a bit mixed up, as we find if we study into it; nevertheless, in His Life, He was emphasizing not His earthly father but His heavenly Father. And we have a heavenly Father, just as surely, individually, as Jesus had. And just as surely, as the Holy Spirit, which is sometimes called the Holy Ghost, was present and working in relationship to His conception, the Shekinah Pattern of Being or the Holy Spirit was working in relationship to your conception, each and every one of you. So we begin to see that we are conceived of the Holy Spirit. The physical seed of the father is present, but it is not the physical seed of the father that causes conception.
Actually, there has never been a baby born upon the face of the earth, which includes you, but what you were conceived, that baby was conceived, by the Holy Spirit. If the patterns were wrong, perhaps there was something wrong with the babe at birth, or other things went wrong in various ways, but as far as the conception is concerned, there has never been a baby conceived upon the face of the earth at any time but what that baby was conceived of the Holy Spirit, of the Shekinah Pattern of Being. Regardless of the limitations or distortions with respect to the earthly parents, it is not the seed of the male that causes conception. The seed of the male is necessary to conception, but the seed of the male does not cause conception—it never has and it never will—but it is the Holy Spirit that caused the conception, and it’s just as true of you as it was true of the man that was called Jesus. So, all things, without a single exception, have been made by the uses of Shekinah—whether Shekinah was used quite self-actively by man or divinely by God—all things were made by Him—all things are made by Shekinah, and without Shekinah is not anything made that is made.
In the beginning, God said, “Let us”—note the plural—“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” And God did so, and created man, “male and female created he them.” Let us create man in our image, after our likeness, to have dominion upon earth; and after man was created male and female he was instructed to have dominion upon the earth, and to subdue it—subdue the things of the earth, the forms of the earth. Now man has been trying to subdue the earth and the things of the earth according to his own will, according to his own idea and determination. He has not learned to let God’s will work on earth as it works in heaven. However, God’s purpose was clearly stated in the beginning, and God’s purpose remains the same today. It is not something different. And what do we find with respect to God? God was a Creator, and man, male and female, was created in the image and likeness of God. Therefore God made man to share creative work on earth. If we are going to share creative work we must share in the function of Shekinah on earth. The body of man, male and female, was brought forth on earth to the end that there would be an instrument through which Shekinah could act on earth under the will of God, so that God’s dominion could extend into the earth, and man should be the means by which that dominion would be established. And if there is dominion there is the kingdom—a kingdom is a dominion, a place where there is control; and the earth is a place where there has not been control. Human beings have gone this way and that. There is chaos and darkness and misery, physically, mentally, emotionally—a lack of control according to the pattern of the Divine Design.
If we were all with one accord in one place, in full agreement, in harmony with the things of God, which includes the will of God, we would find that all chaos would begin to vanish away, all illnesses would begin to disappear, every ill condition would be overcome or cleared away. Now, if we are to let this be a reality, we must acknowledge for ourselves that God’s purpose for us is that we should so function in relationship to Him that Divine Dominion, the Dominion of the Kingdom of Heaven at hand, can be made manifest on earth—for God’s purposes! Man is the image and likeness of God. The qualities, the characteristics of God, can manifest through man on earth. We have the capacity of mind so that God’s intelligence can work through us. We have the capacity of heart or feeling, emotional nature, so God’s Love can work through us. We have the physical body so that Life can work through us. But the body as such is the means by which Shekinah may act on earth; and if we have life on earth and become self-centered and self-willed, we use Shekinah for a little time wrongly; we use it for purposes not according to God’s will. We destroy ourselves if we do so. Billions of human beings have lived on earth and have tried to use Shekinah—they didn’t know what it was; but their own life, people have said, “My life is my own to do with as I please.” But it wasn’t. And whether they knew it or not, everything that they did was done by using the power of Shekinah; but they used it wrongly and destroyed themselves. If we let God use the Pattern of Shekinah rightly, through us, we will not destroy ourselves, but we will live. Once we begin to see God’s will and to accept it, to know something about it so that we know how to let God’s will be done, we begin to find more and more that all factors of our life become creative, begin to produce a blessing to others. Instead of trying to get something for ourselves we are giving, and we are constantly creative.
Without creative action in life there is no such thing as true happiness, true satisfaction, or accomplishment. We are not trying to get something. We are ready to give something—but what? Every word we speak, every thought we think, every act, whatever it is, we’re giving something into life, either to bless or to curse. And all things, all actions, all functions—you do not have a single function, you cannot do anything, without Shekinah. All things are made by Shekinah, and without Shekinah is not anything made that is made. Life—Love—Light—these are the evidences of the Presence of God. Used to produce blessings they bring forth into form that which belongs in the Kingdom of God that is at hand, or the Garden of Eden, or the Promised Land, whatever we want to call it—the name has meaning by reason of the thing that is named. Your name has meaning by reason of you, by the meaning you give that name by the living of your life, by the things you do, by the things you give into Life—either to create or to destroy, to build or to tear down, to increase health and life or decrease it, to make things wholesome and beautiful or to make them ugly and sordid. Either there is wholesomeness or there is not—wholeness, the dignity of man, nobility.
As we do those things that increase nobility in ourselves and in others, we have an influence which tends to cause others to be inspired to do the right things. Step by step—if we are living noble lives, if we are doing the right thing, if we are creative—step by step that which is true is revealed for what it is, and we increase nobility, we increase the wholesomeness of Life, we are creative, bringing forth blessings to the children of men, to the Glory of God—the Glory of the increased manifestation of God’s Life on earth in form—and that is the coming of the Kingdom. So let us serve God by letting Shekinah be used in us and through us, according to the Will of God. So shall the LORD’s Prayer be answered. Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And I thank God that it is so, and for the privilege of sharing that creative work on earth with you in the Holy Name of our LORD and KING.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
