The human consciousness is a most wonderful instrument of divine action—for one thing, it’s multi-dimensional. It can function in various ranges of vibratory substance. For example, there are the stratums of time and space, of thought, of feeling, and of quality. However, because it now has less fine substance available, there are many aspects of divine technology which should operate through this consciousness which are now incomprehensible to it. One remnant experience is what we call “feelings”, but because of this lack of fine substance, those hints of creative arenas are no longer meaningful to the outer human mind. The most dominant range of vibration to human consciousness now is probably the dimension of time and space. However, this currently is an unbalanced experience. The most dominant awareness should be that of True Identity. This is a qualitative factor, so that’s why we tend to emphasize the necessity of reintroducing more vividly the sense of Divine Identity. This is the starting point for the restoration to a balanced consciousness.
I thought this morning it might be of some value to explore the use of consciousness in the realm of time and space. It is possible, after all, to time travel in consciousness. We can quite easily go into the past or the future, and from an Angelic point of view there are reasons to go into the past or future from time to time. For example, there are, for some people, events in their past experience which they had interpreted as destructive. That interpretation may have remained with them in the ongoing cycles of their lives, and we know that so-called destructive events in a person’s past can certainly mar the experience of life now. So, identified as the Creator, we can go back into the past, revisit such an event, and change it in consciousness. We could probably all think of such happenings in our own lives. But I ask you, “Did not that experience eventually cause a greater expression of Divine character in you? Didn’t you need to mature to overcome the effects of such an event?” Sometimes people look at destructive interactions with their parents, for example, and blame their parents for their present misery. But we can go back to that interaction and see now that our parents were psychologically damaged goods themselves, and we can understand why they behaved the way they did, and forgive them. Or in retrospect we may discover that our interpretation of circumstances was very incomplete or inaccurate in our then immature minds.
In any case, if we have trouble changing our experience of the past in the ways I’ve just described, surely that event back there was part of the life process which has brought us to today and our awareness of True Identity, to whatever degree, and to the quality of that Identity and of our purpose of expressing this quality in every moment? That is a tremendous position to be in on Earth. So we look back to uncomfortable events and realize they were not as destructive as we may have thought. We are thankful for them, actually, because they brought us to where we are now. So we’ve just visited the past, and if we need to, we can do it again and continue to change our false interpretations.
We can also travel into the future. Let’s do that. Let’s go to our deathbeds, assuming we’ll be in bed! But anyway, let’s visit our last gasp! Surely at that moment we wish to look back upon our lives on Earth and have it have been a glorious cycle of experience and Divine achievement? So there in the future we’re looking back to today, which is in the past as far as that future point is concerned. We’re looking back to August 22, 1999. And here we are, and what do we do? We intensify our awareness of our Divine Identity, and we intensify our aspiration to give expression to the wonderful Being that we are. So we’re coming out of the future into the present. That’s a form of time travel, and that too was a creative journey.
Let’s take a different look at time and space. There is a specific relationship between time and space—they’re two aspects of this dimension which most people find dominant. There are heavenly bodies moving through space. Without this there would be no time. Time is perceived and measured because heavenly bodies—planets, moons, and so on—move through space. That creates the experience of time. For example, the rotation of the Earth measures days, the movement of the moon around the Earth creates months, and the Earth traveling around the Sun creates years—so you can see that space and time are two aspects of this dimension.
And here’s an interesting thing. We have radiation coming towards the Earth from everywhere else—that is our future. The radiation coming towards us contains factors which constitute the future for this Earth, but you’ll notice it’s in the past. When we look at the light traveling to us from other places, we know that actually that light originated in the past. Anyway, what is coming towards us is our future. Once it reaches us, and leaves us, going out beyond—it’s then in our past. Once it’s leaving us it’s in our past, and it will be the future for whatever it’s moving towards. Incidentally, as the radiation leaves the Earth and moves out, it obviously mixes with and therefore modifies the radiation coming towards us, so that our past affects our future. And actually the radiation coming towards us meets the radiation that is leaving us, so the future is also modifying the past.
Now all this may seem rather meaningless to this point, but it isn’t. One obvious fact here is that just out beyond us is a mixture of the past and the future. And whereas we can see it most easily in this planetary sense, it is also true for us as individuals. When we express something it is immediately in our past, but it is in our world’s future. And when anybody expresses something in the world, that is in our future and their past. And the same principle of the mixing of past and future radiation goes on all around us individually.
This may seem to be getting us nowhere, but it actually brings us to the point. And the point is: The significance of where I AM, here and now. Outside of this point where I AM, is a mixture of future and past vibratory factors. This is why we emphasize the matter of coming into perfect expression of True Identity—I AM, because who I AM is the undimensional Identity, the Eternal Presence. The starting point for all real experience is the true, qualitative Identity. Here is, you might say, the truth back of man’s desire to travel in space and travel in time. The greatest journey in time is to come into the present moment. And the greatest journey in space is to actually be where the physical body is. Most people are not in that state. They think they are. If you ask someone if they are present, here and now, they would say, “Well of course I am.” But it is virtually never the True Identity that is present. The identity answering is invariably a mish-mash, psychically speaking, of“I was”, and “I will be”, which we don’t have time to analyze now, but that identity is a mixture of“I was”, riddled with guilt and regret, or “I will be”, full of dissatisfaction and fear.
The greatest accomplishment of space and time travel is to come out of the undimensional levels of Being into the dimension of time and space here and now. And the only way one can successfully arrive here and now is by the balanced presence of I AM—the undimensional reality. Then when we are where our physical bodies are, in space, we begin to correctly administer the other vibratory factors coming to and leaving us. Only an undimensional Identity can handle the complex material of time and space. Most people are not physically where their physical bodies are. Often they want to be somewhere else, or they’re trying to populate where they are with people that aren’t there, or get rid of people and things that are there, and so on and so forth. They are not actually the Angelic Identity present where their physical body is. So the greatest journey is into True Identity—and then, we find ourselves where I AM in true position in the dimension of time and space. There is an absolute time, which is the same throughout the whole cosmos, and that is now. In the cosmic now, radiation is emerging out of the undimensional levels of Being simultaneously everywhere. And that simultaneous radiation is coordinated as it starts moving through the dimension of time and space, so that the cosmic action is in fact one action. Now that’s a vast organization, and let’s remember that our lives are part of this. As we are present in the here and now in True Identity, we are coordinated with the single action which is emerging through the whole cosmos in each moment.
Another aspect of this subject relates to memory. What is memory?Memory is the impression of a moment registered in atomic substance. I suppose that’s how digital memory is emerging in the computer world—that is a crude copy of a divine technology. Anyway, an atom receives the vibratory impulse of the moment, and that imprint constitutes memory. In the human consciousness there is this storage of atomic substance then, which contains the memories of the moments of our lives. But in the fallen state these memories become crystallized—especially the highly charged destructive ones (as they were interpreted then anyway.) Those impressions are crystallized—petrified one might say, by intense emotion at the time. In the individual case, the healing of memory relates to the bathing of these atoms in the Tone, by the spirit of the Creator. We already touched on this process when we traveled into the past. But when the healing radiation of Spirit is allowed to touch the crystallized atomic memory, it dissolves that impression, and the dissolution of that pattern begins to cause the memories and the feelings related to them to dissolve. That is healing. This core pattern of healing within the individual can obviously affect that person’s whole world. You can see how, in this way, that memory patterns tend to be the DNA of a person’s world. So as we let the distorted, destructive memories be changed through radiation from the present, we find those memories dissolve and come no more to mind. It is as if they never were.
This is a microcosmic or holographic example of what is true also of the Archangelic Consciousness, Body, and experience. Mankind’s consciousness has become crystallized, and distorted in a crystallized state. As a result, of course, everything that human consciousness looks at is distorted and crystallized. The view of the cosmos has become a crystallized thing, and everything is not at all what it appears to be. We, as focalizations of the Archangelic Spirit—I AM THAT I AM—are responsible for a much bigger task than merely healing our own individual psyches. This consideration this morning is part of the process of awakening to this larger responsibility as the Archangel—I AM THAT I AM—relative to the Archangelic distorted memory and the subsequent distorted Archangelic Body and its function in the universal design. That seems a very large task. However, there’s only one vast Spirit and we are part of it. And such a consideration as this morning’s is part of the generation of finer substance in which we may become aware of a larger Self, and our larger responsibility in the Whole.
So we’re present undimensionally, looking into this dimension of time and space, seeing how we can, through the human consciousness we have, move around much more flexibly than the outer consciousness was previously aware of. We can move into the past and the future—releasing creative radiation into the past, which brings healing there—or into the future, sending forth radiant lines of force which influence the movement of, shall we call them particles, or the circumstances of the future. But we can only do this as we are, in expression, the Creator. This surely is a great adventure. And we realize now more than ever that we are not bodies, minds and hearts with a Spirit. We are Spirit with a body, a mind, and a heart. Our dominant experience is of the glorious quality of our own Beingness. That’s not an egotistical claim because it’s true of everybody—and everything else too. This is who we are. And our radiant action at whatever level, as fitting in the moment, is what we are eternally about.
We are redefining ourselves, redefining mankind, and redefining man’s experience on Earth—not making it up but letting it emerge naturally out of the undimensional, letting it shine into the dimensional and reveal itself in those levels of substance. This is a wonderful, magical activity. It’s not a matter of tryingto do something—it’s a matter of lettingthe reality of our Beings shine into the lower levels of substance—some of which we’re aware, some of which we’re not aware (speaking of the outer mind now.) We know that the effect of that shining is to create heaven in those levels.
We’ve already healed many distorted memories of the past, so they don’t come to mind anymore. And this frees us, frees up the substance of consciousness from crystallization so that our Spirit, emerging out of the undimensional, moment by moment, can clothe itself exactly through fine and pliable substance as it wishes to now, no longer distorted by crystallizations of the past. This is not merely an exercise of self-improvement for our own benefit. We are an integral part of a bigger design. So if something creative is happening in us, it’s happening in the larger design also, and that’s our joy. We’re not living for ourselves, we’re living in and for the Whole, moment by moment.
How deliberate are we in utilizing the opportunities that present themselves to us? Or do we take the attitude that it doesn’t really matter? Little things are important. If we cannot handle the little things we will not be able to handle the larger things. From time to time I receive letters, or indication from certain ones, that while they had a sense or feeling of agreement with what I was saying, they didn’t really understand everything I was talking about. If anything could shock me this would, in most instances. Now we utilize certain words, and have done over a long period of time. If I have to go back to square one and start all over again to acquaint everyone with what we are talking about when a certain word is used, we would never get anywhere, would we? I think I have a right by now to assume that there is understanding. I think this matter of a lack of understanding tends to give indication of a cop-out. The individual has never bothered to develop implications for himself.
In another letter of response I had, the statement was made that everything that needed to be said was said in one service; all the implications were there. That is true—just one service, each service. Everything that needs to be said is said in that service. If the individual will follow out the implications, he will have just as much understanding as he assumes I have. If I give evidence of some understanding it is simply that I have taken the trouble to follow out implications. I don’t have a special pipeline out of heaven somehow which acquaints me with all the information that is needed about everything; nothing special at all along that line, merely a willingness to move in the current of the spirit and allow the implications to be made known. And who has no ability in this regard?
I would suggest that if a person reaches the point, when things are said, where he is inclined to excuse himself by saying, “Well I have a feeling of agreement with this but I don’t really understand it,” maybe he is the one who should go back to square one. Why should it be supposed that it is necessary for me to make everything clear to everybody? Why don’t you allow it to be made clear for yourself? That is the only way it will be made clear. I may give you a feeling of making something clear to you but you discover later that it wasn’t made clear to you because you didn’t participate in anything more than the hearing; you didn’t follow out the implications; you didn’t take the trouble to do so.
I am speaking to you generally. I’m speaking to a lot of people generally besides those who are here present this evening. There are those who are here present this evening, and there are those elsewhere, who have followed out implications and have allowed a clarity to come, so that when I speak of things, immediately they are right there. They know what I am talking about. We need to keep moving forward, and if anyone finds himself with a blank, with no sense of understanding, then that person had better go back and start from square one again. If everything that is needed is provided in each service, all the implications being there, then surely on the basis of all the services that have been given all the implications should have by now been absorbed into a second nature, so that when I begin to speak about something there is a flood of the implications into consciousness immediately. That is what is meant by agreement, by being together, by moving in oneness. If you’re sucking your teeth, or whatever you do when you don’t understand, if you are sitting there doing that, then you are utterly worthless.
What floods your consciousness when I begin to touch upon something which you have heard before? These attitudes which arise indicate that the individual thinks that I never said anything about it before, this is the first time; therefore they can't understand. Oh yes you can! Everyone can understand if they have not only heard but done something, and one of the things to do is to follow out the implications. Don’t ever claim for yourself a lack of understanding. That is an indication of the fact that you are embedded in human nature and are determined to stay there, because everything necessary to understanding has been provided. When you have heard the Tone and your life reverberates to that Tone, you have understanding—it is there.
One of the ways this is sometimes put is this: “I don’t understand it with my mind.” Well probably that is because you never learned how to think. That is sometimes presented as though it were a reasonable excuse; but your mind is for something, you know; it’s not supposed just to be a blank. When there is movement with spirit there is unfoldment in an understanding of implications because the individual takes enough trouble, enough time, to let it happen. This is what I have been doing over the years: following out the implications. Perhaps I have done it too much, so that you felt that all that was necessary was for me to follow out all the implications; you didn’t have to do anything because I was going to provide it. But what I can provide is just a drop in the bucket relative to what should be provided by us all together. I can follow out my line of implications, but how about you following out yours? Then there begins to be substance to our understanding. You begin to share in something which carries impact. But if just left to one or two people to do it, it is very thin.
This relates to the need to speak, act, as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Each one properly carries authority of his own. Never trade upon someone else's supposed authority; that is a cop-out. Either what you are saying is true because you are saying it, or you’d better not say it. Don’t use anybody else to back up what you are saying or what you are doing. Whatever it is you do, take responsibility for it: “I am doing it because I’m doing it!” If you shovel it off onto somebody else, that is a sign of pretty weak character, isn’t it? If we all took responsibility in this moment for everything we do, how long do you think it would take the world to be transformed? There is a tendency to look at the concept that is held of restoration: “Well it is going to unfold somehow or other, and one day—a little over the horizon yet—it will be here.” But from our standpoint surely we can say, “It is done! I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. I will take responsibility for this myself, the water that is my responsibility to give into my world.”
Some of you may feel that you can trust me to give the water of life freely into the world. All right, let me do it; but you do it for your world! When we assume responsibility for our worlds we do not hesitate to give expression to the spirit of God in our particular circumstances, our worlds, our environment; but we do it for ourselves. After all, nobody else can do it in your world. So we each do it, and when we do it there begins to emerge into expression what has been referred to as the Holy Spirit. Here is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Human beings sit around waiting for the Holy Spirit to pour out upon them, give them a good soaking. Well the opportunity for that has been provided, I think, over the years in this ministry. Something has been poured out in abundance to give everybody a good soaking. But we are collectively responsible for pouring this out to give the world a good soaking.
We know the Tone. Let us see the implications. You’ve heard what I’ve had to say this evening. You’ve all heard it if you were listening and not dozing. This indicates that there is also something to do. All that is necessary is to acknowledge the reality of the Tone of Life and let that Tone sound in one’s own living—that’s all! Then one will find that everything falls naturally into place. There may appear to be contradictions in external form but they only appear to be that way as long as a person is not moving in the current of the spirit in the expression of the true Tone of Life. As soon as he does that everything harmonizes.
So we acknowledge the fact that we understand. If we can still convince ourselves that we don’t, or if we haven’t had sufficient opportunity yet to become really acquainted with the Tone of Life, then let’s go back to square one and start all over again; because it is all there, it is all there! As was certainly correctly indicated, even in one presentation the implications are all there. Let us not admit that we are so lazy that we couldn’t be bothered to find out what they were, but rather let us be in fact sons and daughters of God who carry responsibility for the world, and we are quite willing to receive whatever of the world the Lord would present us with. He presents us with whatever it is we are in position to handle now. We handle what we handle now—there’s some more coming! There’s quite a bit more coming. There is an immense backlog of human garbage.
We are here to let this be handled as it should, so that the world may be transformed by the spirit of God, which is the expression of our living; but this requires intelligence and understanding. We can easily handle what it is that is being brought to us, what it is that is on our plate. It wouldn’t be on our plate if we couldn’t handle it. Let us have that assurance. And if we think we need more know-how somehow, well let’s be diligent in discovering what that know-how is for ourselves. Let us not expect someone else to hand it to us. No one else can hand it to us! We can only know it on the basis of our own discovery of it. Then we know it. If you think you know something merely because I said it, have another think! You know something when you are capable of saying it and know that it is true for yourself. You don’t need any backup on that, because it is the spirit of God which is finding expression because you are present. So let it be always.
We have been considering together the matter of design, and we begin to realize more keenly the ways in which the design as God established it has been distorted, obscured, and made meaningless. It is not meaningless in that range beyond the reach of man. Where man cannot reach and spoil, the Divine Design remains as clear, as true, as real as ever, as God made it. Let us remember that it is only in those places, in those situations where man has been able to self-actively reach and meddle, that these distortions have appeared. We have begun to sense the fact that as rapidly as we relinquish the imagined rights and the will to distort, so that we let the distortions be cleared from within mind and heart—automatically, by the Power of God—the right design begins to exert an influence, begins to appear in form.
In our meditations on Sunday, we considered the matter of being in position to receive that which is of God, and we noted that two primary factors are important to this particular process: proper preparation and proper position. Broadly speaking, proper position is the position of facing the Throne. In worldly courts, those who are presented before a King or a Queen take care not to turn their backs on the King or the Queen. That is essential to us. Man tends to turn his back on the KING. Once we begin to realize that the Presence of the KING extends to all places and in all times, we do not imagine that we must journey through so many years of life, or journey through the miles to a different location geographically, in order to begin this process of facing the Throne, of learning to be in and maintain the right position. But while we may see the sense of these principles, the human mind raises the question, “How can I face the Throne and do my work? How can I be active? How can I accomplish what God wants me to do if I am going to face the Throne all the time. I need to turn aroundand get busy.” And there is one of the distortions in relationship to design as it is established in the consciousness of the human being.
In the Mohammedan world there are times of prayer for the devout, five times a day, at which times the faithful face toward Mecca. Mecca is a particular geographical location and the human being is inclined to be lost in the relative factors involved. If we here were to say, “Let us face toward New York City”, we would in a general sense turn our faces toward the east from this position. But if we were in the middle of the Atlantic say, we would not turn east ordinarily to face toward New York City, would we? We would face west. And yet if we were to stop judging this matter on the basis of relative distance, could we not face west and face toward New York City just as surely as we could face east? This illustrates for you the manner in which human consciousness becomes entangled in relative factors so that ideas are established in consciousness which simply are not true, and which so confuse the issue that one is inadvertently violating the principles of the Divine Design. Facing the Throne of God suggests to the human being that he must be facing some particular direction, just like the Mohammedan when he faces Mecca to pray. Now he could face the opposite direction from the one he does, and if he forgot the relative factors of distance he would still be facing Mecca. But to him that would be turning his back on Mecca, because he has a consciousness of the direction from the point where he is, the shortest distance to Mecca. He does not have a consciousness of movement around the earth to reach Mecca from the opposite side.
Now facing the Throne. We recognize the Master’s Commandment—the Greatest Commandment—He said, “To love the Lord thy God with one hundred percent of heart and mind and soul and strength.” We recognize that the soul includes the physical body. Let us remember that always, because there is much confusion in consciousness on that point, and while you may have to deal with it gently it is something that can bring confusion in conversation with others if you are not careful. God created man of the substance of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man, the physical man which God created out of the substance of the earth, became a living soul. It does not say that he was given a soul, or that he had a soul before. Man was created out of the substance of the earth and God breathed the breath of life into man's nostrils and man became a living soul. So we are all souls, either living souls or dying souls—and the soul always, as it is used in the Bible, includes the physical body, it includes your whole being—as a human being, that is, a man or a woman. Now the First Commandment, to love the Lord thy God with ALL—one hundred percent.
In this matter of facing the Throne, we begin to realize that we do not have to face some certain direction. Some people if they want to face the Throne, they look up to the sky. If they want to bow before the Throne they get their heads down. As a gesture of humility that is all right, but it is not a matter of the direction in which you are facing as to whether or not you are facing the Throne. You find that you can face in any direction. You can be giving attention to any task. You can be in any position, looking up or down in the relative sense, and face the Throne.
What is it that causes a person to turn his back on the Throne? In this sense we realize that the Presence of God is back of us, because if the Presence of God is everywhere, no matter what direction you face you are facing the Presence of God, but the Presence of God is back of you too. It is all around you, all the time. Above and below you. If you look down, it is there. If you look up, it is there. To the right or the left, before or behind, it is there. So how do we turn our backs on the Throne of God?
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What is the Throne? The Throne is that upon which the KING sits in the expression of His Kingly duties. The Throne of God. Where is it? It is said with respect to Moses that he saw the hinder parts of God. What is the Throne of God? What is the Place of God? Upon the Throne—above, upon the Throne. We can begin to develop a clearer consciousness of the significance of these points if we remember the first words of the Bible: “In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth.” The Heaven—we have recognized that Heaven is wherever God is. The Presence of God provides the atmosphere of Heaven wherever God is. If we say that the Presence of God is here, then we say that Heaven is here. The human perception may not have recognized it, but if the Presence or God is here then Heaven is here. And if we say that God's Presence is not here then we say that God is limited and cannot be in this place.
Of course, from the standpoint of our perceptions we tend to judge the matter on the basis of the evidence in form. Is the evidence of the Presence of God such that we may see it? If the evidence of the Presence of God be lacking in any moment, or circumstance, or person, that does not say that the Presence of God is lacking, only that there is no evidence in the moment. Why? Because human beings have produced evidence of the absence of the Presence of God by wrong function, by self-activity. But wherever God's Presence is, and He is omnipresent, there Heaven is. But His Presence manifests by reason of something in form, that which gives form, and so is the manifest evidence of that Presence we speak of as earth. The reality of that Presence, not yet evident in the form, we speak of as Heaven.
God created the Heaven and the earth. The Heaven, whatever else it is, is the reality of the Presence of God in an invisible realm—that is, invisible to human perception. But He provided the earth and all the things that are therein, which He created, as a means by which the evidence of His Presence might be known. God is eternal. So if we see that the KING does not die and the KING does not pass into some realm where His Presence is not allowed to be here, if we remember the fact of the omnipresence, we will see that the earth itself is the Throne, as far as we are concerned. The physical earth, the physical substance of our own bodies is supposed to be the Throne. Now the earth, because man has been self-active, does not adequately reveal the evidence of the Presence of the KING. But the only Throne that has any meaning to us in this world is the substance of this earth of which man himself was formed, for in the beginning God created man out of the substance of the earth. It is translated, “dust of the ground”, but “substance of the earth” is thereal significance involved.
Now the Throne of God—when we think of a Throne we think of something beautiful, something more-or-less ornate, probably either made out of gold or at least covered with gold, made out of gold in God's case, for gold is the symbol of love—and the fact of the Throne is in fact all the evidence of the Presence of the KING which we need. We do not say, “We must see God according to our concepts of what we think God would be like.” Yes, the Master said, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” But at least until you are pure in heart you do not need to be too concerned about what you will see when you see God. That will come in its season. The immediate point is that if we remember that God is eternal, that God is not going to pass away or go to some other realm and leave this realm without any of His Presence. We can see that the Presence of the Throne is in fact evidence of the Presence of the KING. If you went into a palace you might see the throne, but if the King was not sitting on his throne at the moment, and you had reason to believe that he was in the palace, you could properly say that the presence of the throne is adequate evidence of the presence of the King.
The Throne. We say, “That upon which the KING sits in the expression of His Kingly duties.” But we could also say, “That which contains the KING, that which supports the KING, that which provides the KING with a resting place.” And when our KING was here on earth He did not find much of a resting place, did He? “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head.” And yet the substance of the Throne is present. The nature of the Throne has been spoiled. Man has taken the Throne, the substance of the Throne, and changed its pattern, changed its form, marred it, spoiled it in various ways, but merely because man has spoiled it to some degree does that mean that it is no longer the Throne? No. It still belongs to the KING even in a marred state, and it is still the substance of the Throne.
Now presumably the KING, through His workmen, can re-establish the manifest pattern of the design that was established for the Throne. It does not have to stay marred and spoiled. The pattern of the form of the Throne, of its ornamentation, can presumably, by the workmen of the KING be restored. And that is really why we are here, to learn to become workmen. If we were to study the story of the building of the Tabernacle, we would find some interesting things there, emphasizing the excellence of workmanship that went into that. Trained workmen, trained weavers, trained expert people of in all kinds, all manner of craftsmanship. And the excellence of workmanship was the keynote in that endeavor, as far as the fulfilment or manifestation of the design was concerned in the outer form—the outer evidence of the Presence of God. For how often was it written after the Tabernacle was built or made: “The Glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle and shone round about.”
Excellence of workmanship. If man in self-activity has spoiled the form, the appearance of the Throne of God, cannot the workmen of the KING restore it? The earth itself is, as far as we are concerned, the Throne, the substance of the earth, the substance of the Throne, shaped, molded, particularized, to be the means by which the evidence of the Presence of the KING may be offered to all who will perceive. Facing the Throne. Well then, does that say, “Let us face the earth?” It is not merely the substance of the earth, although it is the substance of the Throne, and some might be content just to have a little piece of gold, or a little sliver taken out of the Throne of God. They say, “I have a sacred thing here, something very holy. I took my knife and whittled off a little sliver of the Throne of God and I am keeping it.” How many people keep little slivers of this and that which they think to be very important? But that is not the point. The point is that when the substance of the Throne is in the proper form it is the Throne. The earth provides the substance of the Throne—your body, the substance of the Throne, for if your body is the Temple of the Living God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you, in actual fact, then is not your body the substance of the Throne, as far as the aspect of Deity which is related to you, may be concerned.
Your body is the substance of the Throne, but is its outer expression of design—the basic design as a man or a woman, yes, we have that—but the human being interferes with that design. Do we see through this substance in the pattern of its form and function the evidence of the Presence of the One who dwells, the evidence of the Presence of the KING? How are we to face the Throne? Not just facing the substance which should be shaped into the true expression of the Throne, but facing that which is a revelation of the Presence of the KING—and what is this? What fulfills the requirement here, as we are bringing it to point? Your whole pattern of life activity, the things you are saying, the things you are doing, the things you are thinking, the attitudes you are displaying through your body, because whatever you display is, in relationship to your body, the substance of the Throne. But the actual nature or ornamentation, the design, the form of the Throne, is basically still the same even if it looks like an old bench, but it is not the true appearance of the evidence of the Throne of God.
So in this matter of design we face the Throne when, in the expression of our lives, all the things that we think and say and do, are revealing the evidence of the Presence of the KING. That which is life expression, manifest through or by means of the physical body, is in fact the ornamentation of the Throne, is it not? We can have the form here, unconscious, or, in the extreme sense, perhaps dead, and there, without life or without the expression of life, we do not see the evidence, do we? The ornamentation, the beauty of being, is gone. The form of the substance itself, while it is essential to that manifestation, provides nothing more than the substance of the Throne. It is through the body that we have the appearance of the Throne itself, that which provides the means by which the KING may rule. The Throne—that which provides the means by which the KING may rule. Is that not your body in the expression of your life? And the nature of that Throne, if the ornamentation in the sense of the living process is true to the design, with exactness, with good workmanship, then the clear evidence of the Presence of the KING is revealed. But if not, those who see the Throne will think, “Well, that is just an old antique of some sort, or a bench, or something other than what it is. It is shaped a little bit like a Throne but no one will see it as a Throne unless it carries the ornamentation of the Throne, the evidence of the Presence of the KING.
So we have the Presence of the KING regardless, up or down or round about. His Presence is there. But the evidence of His Presence is the important thing as far as our living is concerned. If our lives are to be meaningful, and this takes some doing on our part, doing, not according to the self-active patterns of men, but because we have carefully considered the design. If we were to read the record of God’s instructions to man in the building of the Tabernacle, we would see how precise, how exact each direction was, and how carefully the workmen undertook to follow that direction, each part, each detail; and the workmen did not say, “Well now, I do not like this business of being so controlled that I have to do it just so. I think I should have the privilege of including a little bit of my own artistic sense. After all, I am doing the work here, why should not I have a little hand in the design? I think I will change it this way. I think I will change it that way. I want to exert some control. I want to show God how much I love Him, so instead of doing this with exactness this way, I will do it that way.” And that is self-activity, the projection of the human element of control in the realm where man can reach, in the realm where man carries responsibility.
If you say, “But I understood this before.” Did you? Theoretically, perhaps, intellectually, in a sense you accepted it, and yet if you had understood it truly I think I would have been able to see something I have not yet seen in relationship to that part of the Throne of God which you are. We need to develop such a clear realization of this, in every little thing, every little part, as we build the Tabernacle. What is the symbolism of the Tabernacle in the days of the Children of Israel in the wilderness? Simply an outer evidence of form, a type shall we say, in a sense a promise of something that was to take form in a larger sense, a larger sense that was not fulfilled by Solomon’s Temple, for again that was only a type—something that was to take form in man to include all human beings. And the workmen who are to perform the task in building the Tabernacle of God in the true sense must work with exactness, they must not rebel against the design which God established.
Presumably man could take this substance and shape it a little differently, inject his own idea, his own desire, and to him it would be as good or better. But that rejection of control, that rejection of trust, that failure to be obedient, that failure to follow through, would destroy the beauty of the Throne that is to be. We have the substance of the Throne right here, in our own bodies and round about useverywhere, but the substance of the Throne is not enough. It needs to be shaped and molded into the true pattern of the Throne, and that is where the trouble rests in the world today. It is not a matter of restoring man in the sense that we want to be saved, or we want to do thus-and-so. It is a matter of letting the Throne of God be restored on earth, and then we will be what we ought to be. If we could stop being concerned about our own development in the sense of personal fulfilment and begin to be concerned about performing well our tasks, doing what we are called upon to do in the shaping of the substance of the Throne into a fit Throne for the KING, we would find that thereby the evidence of the Presence of the KING would be revealed, thereby He would have the opportunity to rule, to control and to clear away all of those things which bring misery into the hearts and lives of the children of men.
These distinctions are of such vital importance, and the human mind is so prone to forget them, so prone to ignore the design in the little things. “Oh, yes,” we say, “We will let the big things be the way God wants them to be.” But all big things are made out of little things. You cannot name me one big thing here or anywhere, but what it is made out of little things. You have been finding that out in relationship to your own bodies. Perhaps you knew it in a sense before, but I think there is a deeper realization of the little things and of their nature in your body. The bones, the cells that make up the bones and the tissues, the parts. And if you have the responsibility of making one of the little bones, particularly the part of a joint here, and you say, “Well, I do not see why it needs to be just so. I am going to change the design a little bit. I will make it higher here.” And the first thing you know there is a big bump. Someone looks at it and says, “Arthritis.” Do you want to give the Body of God arthritis? The Body of God, the Throne of God, the Place of God, whatever name we may use, and there are many—it means that this substance here is supposed to be shaped and molded and ornamented in life expression, in a pattern, in a design, which will reveal what? The evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, of God, the KING, the Father, whatever term we wish to use. To reveal the evidence of His Presence. We say we would like to have pure hearts and to be able to see God. “Oh, that would be wonderful if we could just go somewhere. We would like to go to Heaven and see God. That would be wonderful.” Go to Heaven? Heaven is here. Heaven is wherever the Presence of God is, and wherever and to whatever degree we see the evidence of the Presence of God we begin to see God.
Now, I do not think that any human being would be so foolishas to imagine that with his human perception he could see the ALL of God. We can see something of the stars in the sky, but when we realize the vast distances and the huge suns and all the rest of it we do not imagine that we can see even all of that. You look through a telescope and you will be convinced that there is more than can be seen with the naked eye. And even that is not the ALL of God. We do not have to see the whole of God in order to see God, do we? And yet that is one of these little quirks in consciousness that tend to keep human beings from fulfilling their mission on earth. It is one of the little snags, one of the little stumbling blocks that tends to influence almost everything that you do and spoil it to some degree. If you were to say, “I must see the whole of God before I can say I have seen God”, remember, you do not see the whole of each other and yet you say, “Well, I saw so-and-so. I saw this person or that person.” And you did not, you know. You saw the head and the hands and the clothing. You did not see the whole. Generally speaking, I think that is true. Anyway, if you see any part of me, my fingers, it is what? Can you say that it is not me? If you see any part of God and see it truly, you can say, “I have seen God.” Not the wholeness of God, no. And the more you learn to see of God the better. There is no limit except the limit of your own capacity to see. However, this idea that the human being must see ALL of God before he will admit having seen God is such foolishness, because if you see the evidence of the Presence of God made manifest in form you have at least begun to see God. And that is the thing that we are interested in.
The only value of design, the only value of substance is this: that through design established in substance we begin to see the evidence of the Presence of God. We can say the Presence of God is everywhere and be true. It is right. Yes, God is everywhere, omnipresent, but where is the evidence of the Presence of God? That is the range of our responsibility and unless we begin to realize this deeply we will never be Servers, we will never be true Ministers, we will not be in position to help others develop in themselves and in their lives the evidence of the Presence of the KING. So whatever we are doing we need to remember that we are workmen, helping to build the form of the Tabernacle, or the Throne, or whatever else you want to call it, the Kingdom of God on earth—we are helping to develop the form according to the design, which shall reveal the evidence of the Presence of the KING. And if we see the evidence of His Presence we begin to see Him, we begin to know Him, and Heaven and earth begin to be One, they begin to have a real relationship because earth is supposed to give form to Heaven on earth.
Earth is supposed to let Heaven be revealed in this level of form. If we will meditate upon that, think about it, remain or maintain a pattern of awareness in relationship to all that we do, that this is the substance of the Throne, and the ornamentation appears, the gold of the Throne appears by reason of love, but that love must be shaped into some kind of a design. It will be this way here and that way there. It will not be the same everywhere. How could it be? Could you devise any form, any kind of a form, where it would be the same everywhere in the form? Say a ball, a sphere. Would it be the same everywhere? Well you say, “The surface would be the same”—but you see you cannot do it. It is utterly impossible. Every part is different and all these different parts need to be there and it takes all of us, all the people in the world in fact, to make all the different parts. We cannot do it all alone. It takes everyone. So we have the substance around us and in our own bodies, but the ornamentation, the shaping, the forming, must appear through us.
Love, the gold of the Throne—how much of that? “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, that ye have love one to another.” How is it shaped, how is it moulded? And all the other factors that enter into it, the expression of your life, the manifestation of your workmanship on the substance of the Throne of God. What shall it be? Good workmen or poor? If it is poor, it is not the evidence of the Presence. The Presence is there but not the evidence of the Presence. But if you are good workmen, then the evidence of the Presence appears and there is that which shall then bring conviction to others. It is the life we live that counts, the things we do, not merely what we say. And so let us as good workmen, do our part toward revealing through the substance of the Throne the evidence of the Presence of the KING.
