[UrandaJune15, 1952] Having recognized something of the means by which the spirit of God is to come into manifestation through form on earth, to accomplish the Will of God on earth, you can begin to see the significance of these words: “And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.” The Lamb comes and takes the Book out of the Right Hand of Him who is sitting upon the Throne. Who is on the Throne? The LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, who was made manifest as Jesus Christ. He cannot be both. He is the Center of Deity, but it is the Lamb that takes the Book out of the Right Hand of Him that sitteth upon the Throne. And from there we move to an understanding of what it means to let the Book of Life be opened on earth—the opening of your Book of Life. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2023/05/christ-spiritonly-begotten-son-of-god.html]
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I would like to consider with you a portion of the record from the Book of Revelation, beginning with the 1st verse of the 5th chapter: “And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.”
We have recognized that the right hand signifies the hand of positive power, the positive or controlling factors made manifest, the directing hand, the controlling hand. “And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.” This is the Book of Life, the Book of Life individually and the Book of Life collectively. The fulness of living which we may know as a Unit or as a part of the human family depends upon that which is written within and on the backside of the Book of Life. Some human beings have imagined that the Book of Life was a huge book in heaven, and all that was necessary was for you to have your name written there and all would be well after you are dead. We are interested in living, and why a Book of Life should be conceived to be of particular importance after you are dead is a mystery. A Book of Life should relate to living, and it should relate to living when and where we have the opportunity of life, and that is here and now.
This Book is sealed with Seven Seals. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2021/09/body-of-living-christ.html] We have recognized, from the standpoint of our study of the human body, that the book of physical life is sealed with Seven Seals. There must be the functioning of the Seven Focalizations of the endocrine system in order for the physical body to be an instrument through which life may manifest. The physical life is merely a step in the realization and the experience of life. Physical life is essential to the body so that the body may be an instrument through which life can manifest. If this be recognized we can readily see how it is that with the mind there must be intelligence. There must be understanding in relationship to the human being or in the human being, in the mind, if the higher level of consciousness is to manifest. If the mind is to be an instrument for the expression of Divine Intelligence there must be intelligence in the mind; if the physical body is to be an instrument for the expression of life in the larger sense, the physical body must be alive. The same is true with the heart. If that which is of the Heart of God is to manifest, then the condition natural to the Heart of God must be present in the human heart. It is for this reason that the Master said, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”
Here we begin to see emphasis upon the basic and original truth that man was made in the image of God and after His likeness. Divine Life cannot manifest through a physical body which is physically dead. Divine Intelligence cannot manifest through a mind which is mentally dead. The Divine Reality of the feeling nature or heart cannot manifest through a heart that is emotionally dead. There must be the Living Reality, the likeness in man of that which is to appear from God through man, the image—the design, the control factors, all things necessary for the manifestation of life and those things which are essential to living.
Physical health is a wonderful thing, but it is of small importance unless that life in the physical body makes possible the manifestation of true living. Human beings have for so long mistaken physical existence, the fact of physical life, as if it were the real thing, the process of living. Here we begin to see something of the mystical portrayal of the Heavenly Magic of Life and that which is necessary to the release of that life through the complete human being—the Book of Life, the Book of the individual life expression. In other words the Book of Life is the individual Garden of God, that which is designed for you, which is supposed to come to you from out of the east, the manifestation because you live.
And this Book is written within and on the backside. The front of the Book was blank, and it is for you. The front of the Book is blank. As the Book of Life, the opportunity of life, begins to appear, the front of the Book does not reveal that which is within the Book and that which is on the backside, and we do not have the true living of life until living reveals that which is within and on the backside of the Book. The only way that which is in this Book can ever be known, in the sense of this world, is for you to live it out. You cannot develop some kind of spiritual vision and look into some high realm of heaven and read it, and then simply talk about it here, and say, “This is my Book of Life. I'll tell you what's in it.” You cannot tell what is in it—you have to live what is in it. The only way it can come out through the front of the Book and become known is by the living of it. The living expression is much better than just reading something and saying it, and letting it pass by. The revelation of your Book of Life must manifest in the living of your life if it is to ever be known.
“And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?” Who is worthy to open the Book, and to loose the seals thereof? Now, notice that it does not say, “Who is able to read the Book?” To open it, to loose the seals, the Seven Seals, so that it may find expression in the living of life. “And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.”
No human being as such can, no matter what he does, how he tries, what techniques he may develop, what concepts he may engender, no man, whether in heaven or earth, can open the Book or even look thereon. Until we begin to realize that that which appears through the processes of existing on earth is not living we cannot begin to appreciate the vital importance of letting this Book of Life be opened, that it may be revealed through living. Perhaps the most difficult task we have in ministry is to convince human beings that it is possible to live. The human mind cannot ordinarily distinguish the difference. It does not know anything about living, so it is convinced that the patterns of existence are living, and it refuses to so function that living may be possible. Or the human being sets out with the misuse of his own capacities of intelligence, etc., determined to open the Book for himself; he is going to open his own Book of Life. But no man, no woman, no person on earth, no human being has ever at any time, in any cycle of time, in any circumstance, opened his Book of Life. And how few there are in the world who have ever revealed the Book of Life, Divinely designed for them, by their living. How very few! Within the scope of the world response our Master did, and His living on earth was a revelation of His Book of Life—within the scope of the world response which would let that revelation manifest.
We recognize that there are the limitations of response in the patterns of the world, but if we function correctly, in right polarity, God is able to begin to produce the conditions which will let our Book of Life be revealed. But you cannot produce those conditions as human beings, individually or collectively. Here we see the reason why all of the efforts that have been known in the world in past history, all of the efforts that have been made to cause groups of people to come together on a collective basis—in order to truly live, they thought; they were going to find the way to live by drawing together a particularized group of people; working together they were going to produce the conditions which would allow them to manifest the life they thought they wanted to live—but they could not open the Book of Life. On the self-centered basis, each wanted the other to produce the conditions which would let each live. Instead of working together to produce the conditions, the human tendency is for each to want others to so function that he himself may have the opportunity to live according to his own concepts of what he wants his life to be, or what he imagines it should be.
Down through the centuries these things have been working out. Multitudes have tried to achieve, and there are those who imagine that our undertaking here is more or less the same idea, the development of a colony or a group, a sort of closed-in thing in which we are supposedly attempting to do what human beings have attempted to do down through the centuries. They have all failed. We are not attempting to do it. It only appears to the limited human vision, on the surface, as if we were. No, we have come together here on Sunrise Ranch to so function that the book of life may be opened, but not by our own efforts, in the sense of men and women determining what we want out of life and expecting others around us to produce the conditions that will let us have what we want out of life. That in which we are engaged is an altogether different thing, and there has not yet been, even among you here, a clear realization of that difference, a clear understanding of the distinctions involved. Tonight, to the end that we may more rapidly move forward toward the opportunity of living in the true sense, I would like to draw your attention to these things, and if your mind says, “But I've heard Uranda speak on this text before. I think I know about that; I accept that idea,” etc., you will defeat yourselves. It is something new that I would convey to you through the words, and it is that which is conveyed through the words tonight that is important.
“And no man in heaven, nor in the earth, neither under the earth,
was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.”
We have universities, schools, experts of various kinds, psychologists and psychiatrists, all presumably giving human beings an opportunity to open their books of life, to set a course, to determine how to live, what to do—experts of various kinds. But no man can open the book; it simply cannot be done. All the period of history which we know in this outer world proves that, and generation after generation human beings have come and gone without ever revealing their books of life; a moment's existence on the stage where life should be lived, but they did not know what was in the book. They refused to do their part toward letting the book be opened. They existed for a moment and were gone; opportunity lost, privilege betrayed, and life gone. You here need to come to a vivid realization that anything that may work out here or anywhere, under any circumstance which you may devise, which is not a revelation of that Book of Life for you is a waste of time; it is a futile, useless, worthless thing; it is a betrayal of your trust, the trust in you, a betrayal of yourself, a betrayal of God, a betrayal of your fellows; it is treason against the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Anything that may be humanly designed and determined is not a revelation of that Book of Life for you; it is an imitation, a false thing, something that is futile and utterly worthless.
You see, one of the great difficulties we have here on Sunrise Ranch has been, and still is, that you do not believe it yet, and we cannot cause other people to believe it until you believe it. You believe it partly, yes. Intellectually you have more or less accepted the idea, but from the standpoint of our Unit function you have not given evidence that you believe it, that you have come to a realization of that fact. Even this small group could be the means of a manifestation of power and meaning far greater than has yet been experienced. You are moving toward it or I would not take time for this consideration tonight. But if you could be inspired to the conviction that this statement is true, if you would actually accept it tonight, what a difference it would make in the days to come! How rapidly would our program be carried forward!
This first cycle of emergence out of the realms of decay and degeneration and death must of necessity be the most difficult one, but it must be done. We are the ones who are here. Regardless of how well-equipped someone else may be, regardless of how important someone else may be, regardless of anything, we are the ones who are here. And it is up to us, working together with one accord in one place, to let the ceiling be broken, to let the way be opened, to let the truth be known, that we may live life, that each may become a constant revelation of that which is contained in the Book of Life. Occasionally you have let hints of that which is in the Book of Life come through, and even those hints have been beautiful. We have made progress, but it is not enough.
I thank God for your earnestness and sincerity, your devotion and the progress made in and through you, but we need more than anything else to come to the realization here, that no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, is able to open the Book, neither to look thereon. The human being cannot even get an idea, he cannot by his own effort get a hint, and so he goes out to make something out of himself, the human being who in the first place was made by God. You yourself were formed in your mother's womb not by your own hand but by the hand of God, made by God to be a means by which this Book of Life may be a living reality on earth. But human beings refuse to let it be so, and they are going to make themselves into something, they are going to live their own lives.
Do you know there has never been a human being born who lived his own life on the basis of that concept?—he is going to do as he pleases, he is going to live his own life, he is going to determine what he wants to make of himself and he is going to do it. We have heard about those self-made men who were very religious, very devout in worshipping their own creators. They were self-made, but they did not live. It was merely a pattern of existence. It was not a revelation of the Book of Life, and anything that is less than the living revelation of the Book of Life is not living. The fact that all these generations have come and gone, attempted every humanly devised means of opening that Book of Life and yet it failed, should cause us to cease conscious or unconscious, subconscious, tendencies which keep appearing by which the human being is attempting to shape and mold or dictate the expression of his own life. You may say, “But I like to be independent.” Short of this fulfilment, the living revelation of life, your Book of Life, you cannot be independent, and in that you will be completely dependent; but only there can you find freedom, only there can you know peace.
It is really not difficult to let this Seven-Sealed Book be opened. There are those who imagine that they open the Book by giving particular consideration to what they call the seven centers, or working through the endocrine glands perhaps, the various centers in the body. They are going to open these centers and when they get them opened they are going to have a spiritual life. So many ideas have been developed. In the Oriental philosophies we find much of this—methods by which human beings can open the centers of being and live. But it cannot be done. It never has been done, it never will be done. I do not care how high the supposed master has achieved, I do not care what yoga method or other method may be utilized, I do not care whether it supposedly comes from Tibet or some other place, it cannot be done. It never has been done by anyone anywhere, tales to the contrary notwithstanding. It cannot be done. And once we begin to face that fact, and really accept it, the rest is easy, very easy. But we must reach a point where we believe the truth of these words: “And no man, no man, in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.” Once we have accepted that, the rest is easy. But we have to reach a point where we actually believe it, before we will stop trying to do that which is impossible. The billions of people who have gone before you trying to do something impossible should, by their testimony, the testimony that it cannot be done, make it easier for you.
“And I wept much.” How many human beings there are in the world who have shared that feeling. They have recognized that the patterns of existence known to men were not what ought to have been. They have wept much. They have searched. They have longed with a deep longing. They have tried everything they could think of, and all the things that other people could think of. “And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.” Now here, at this point, we touch the point of “reading,” which is to be translated as “perceiving”; not necessarily reading aloud but perceiving, the perception which makes possible comprehension. “And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.” It simply could not be done. It is one of the impossible things which human beings keep trying, individually and collectively; and once any human being is convinced that it cannot be done he will stop trying to do it. As long as human beings are trying, one way or another, to do it they show that they have not been convinced that it cannot be done.
There are those who have stopped trying to do it in this sense. They have acquiesced to the factors of existence around them. They are not trying to do anything; they have simply given up, perfectly content to go through the routine of the job, the pattern of life, round upon round, merely to exist and in season die. They have become convinced that it cannot be done by man, therefore they take the attitude it cannot be done by any means whatsoever. And that is the fatal thing. It is in that lethargic, asleep and half-awake state that so many people in the world are existing today. And then, beyond that, there are those who are “the dead.” They are completely dead to any impulse to have the true expression of life. So this is the situation.
“And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” We must remember that we are dealing with mystical language, dealing with that which reveals the Magic of Life, the magic of living. And we recall that there were four and twenty elders—four and twenty elders.
“And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
“And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
“And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
“And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.”
These have been the mysteries to the human minds of men because, no matter how they tried, no matter how they prayed with the ordinary concepts of prayer, no matter what exercises they took, what periods of meditation, what efforts they made, they could not open the Book or loose the seals thereof. But here we have the mystical revelation of the means by which the Book can be opened—your Book. Notice: “One of the elders saith unto me, Weep not.” That is the first step. Stop weeping, stop making a lot of noise, stop trying, stop attempting to do the impossible—stop weeping. Listen, look, and begin to understand.
“Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David”—the Root of David—“hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” What book? The Book of Life. For whom? There we have a recognition of the fact that we mentioned earlier in our meditation tonight, that the Master's Book of Life was opened, the seven seals were loosed. His Book of Life was opened and there was a revelation in the process of living. But that is not all: “The Root of David.” We think of a root as coming first, do we not? Here the Lion of the tribe of Juda—whatever that means—is spoken of as “the Root of David.” David, David the king, had lived a good many hundred years before, several centuries. The Root of David would be that which went before David, would it not?—not after. The Root of David would be that which went before David, not after him. What was the Root of David? We may say there are many evidences, many rootlets; but what is symbolized in this mystical language by the name or the word “David”? David the king—we look at him and what do we find? A king who lived a rather bloody life, always at war; a king who, according to the outline, made certain mistakes, did certain things that were wrong, but he was blessed by the Lord and achieved many victories. He was the king of conquest, or “the victory king,” from the standpoint of the history of the children of Israel.
This pattern of revelation and outworking in the Master's own life, and the setting established with respect to the author of this book and the outworking at the time, was within the scope of the children of Israel. That was the place, or the means, by which the pattern had been developed up to that time. And so David was the king of conquest, the king of victory. But this mentions the Root of David, not David himself—that which went before David, which makes possible the victory. It is clearly stated, then, that that which makes possible the victory in true living, the true revelation of life, was something that had gone before David, and David lived hundreds of years before the coming of our LORD and Master. But the Root of David. Carrying it back to its final analysis, it leads of course to the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, the apex of Deity in and through and for this world, the beginning point of the processes of creation for this world, the starting point for the outworking of the creation of man himself, the starting point for the planting of the Garden of God eastward in Eden.
The beginning of victory was established at the beginning of creation. And in whom was it established? The KING, the Supreme KING of the God Beings who shared in the work of creation; the KING of Conquest, the conquest involved in the creative processes themselves. Each day revealed a victory, each Creative Day a Victory. And God looked upon that which had been accomplished and He saw that it was good. So it was. The conquest, the victory—and the Root of David, then, is the beginning of the victory.
Man fell. Man has assumed that God lost, and that man could under these conditions live his own life the way he wanted to. But no human being has ever succeeded in doing it, not one in any generation, anywhere—not one. So what looks to man like God's failure is not so much a failure on God's part. It is not a failure at all. Man has taken the attitude, “We're going to exclude God from the earth, from our lives. We're going to live our own lives the way we want to live them.” And because evil has continued for this period of time, man has assumed that he was winning, that he had a stronger pattern, that he was in control, that he was going to have his own way. But the Root of Victory extends back beyond the time of the fall. It has been maintained constantly through all these millennia, and the very fact that no human being has ever achieved that which human beings have been attempting to achieve looks like failure to me, not like victory, not like success on the part of humanity, just plain failure.
Who is the victor? God—our KING. So as long as the rebellious ones keep trying to do the impossible and open their own books of life, they fail. There has not been one single instance in which God has failed, in which the KING has failed, the KING of Conquest, the KING of Victory, whether with single individuals who preferred to die rather than yield, or whether with nations and peoples, or empires—the rise and fall of empires, the coming and the going of peoples and tribes, colors and races. Who has maintained the victory? God, our LORD and KING, the Root of David, that which was back of David, that which was in the beginning of things—our LORD and KING, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David.
The tribe of Juda. We will not take time tonight to go into this particular point extensively, but the lion has long been thought of as the king of beasts, the King of Beasts. The Lion is the symbolical representation of our LORD and KING—the Lion. The tribe of Juda. The tribe of Juda, in the pattern of things, attempted to establish its own absolute supremacy in relationship to the Children of Israel, and then, later, in relationship to all the children of men. The tribe of Juda tried to establish its own supremacy with respect to all the tribes of the Children of Israel, and then later with respect to all the children of men—the supreme pattern of human effort to produce supremacy on a human basis. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2022/03/as-we-near-climax-of-history-of-mans.html] This has been a constant thing under the banner of the tribe of Juda; for look you into the world of history: the great musicians, the great scientists, the great doctors, who came out of the tribe of Juda. There has not been a single field of human endeavor, that had any basis of true recognition from the standpoint of human beings, where those who are of the tribe of Juda have not undertaken to establish supremacy. There has never been, in all the world history, anything to compare with it on the basis of establishing supremacy above and beyond all others—and there have certainly been some fine people that have done some wonderful things and produced some marvelous things, that have brought blessings into the world, yes.
But here we have that which is the Lion of the Tribe of Juda. That does not mean that it was “of” Juda. It was that which was Supreme over Juda, which has made the most concerted attempt in all the world history to establish supremacy in the world over all men. If you begin to see this point there will be a great pattern of liberation, for from the standpoint of human endeavor and human attainment, it does not make any difference which field you turn to, you will find high in the realms of success, leaders, individuals, who had achieved so much that generally speaking no human being would ever dare to think to surpass them. They would say, “If we can imitate them, if we can achieve something of what these great men have done, then we will have done much to open the book of life.” If we are going to achieve greatness in the field of music, then it is not generally speaking an attempt to be greater than the great men of music that have already been in the world, or any other field, it matters not—in the field of medicine, or science, turn where you will; in the fields of financial endeavor, in the fields of organization, human achievement in any realm whatsoever. But this which looks to be, from the standpoint of analysis of human achievement, the absolute zenith no matter which way you look, where you turn, which makes people feel, “We perhaps cannot achieve that much, but if we apply ourselves diligently we can add to it perhaps in some way or at least make something worthwhile out of our lives”—until that is not seen as the zenith of potentiality in life, human beings are bound by that which has been conceived to be supreme in the realm of human achievement.
There have been these great men—and I am not detracting from them; they have been great men. But the simple fact is that the pattern has been so established in relationship to the consciousness of men, that who is there to dare to say, “I will go higher than these great men have gone”? “If we can achieve something of it we will have done much.” And that very attitude has established a limitation, and the consciousness of man has come to believe nothing greater in the Book of Life can be established than that which has been done by these great men. Supremacy! To establish supremacy! And from the standpoint of human endeavor they have done it, there is no doubt about it. But there is that which is a lion over even that degree of achievement, even that degree of living, even that degree of accomplishment; and that which has been accepted by human beings as supremacy in living and achievement is not by us so accepted. Oh, in those realms, in the realms of the self-activity of man, that is the zenith. Well and good. We would not detract from that.
But there is the Lion, the symbol of the KING of Heaven and Earth, which is above and beyond and over the supremacy of Juda. Once we begin to see this we will not be limited, as human beings have been, by the levels of achievement attained in the self-active world of man. We will begin to reach a point where we can let our own Book of Life be opened, a living revelation of the Divine on earth.
“And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again at the last day.
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him,
may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
This is the will of God through Shekinah: that those who belong in the Body of the Son of God should be raised up at the last day. The last day is the Sixth Day of the creative cycle, upon which the creation, or the re-creation, of man occurs—the last of the six days, when man is brought forth complete and whole. At the point of re-creation on the Sixth Day the facility called MAN on earth is available for God to extend His creative works from the surface of the earth.
The Seventh Day is the day when God rested because there was a man. He had therefore a place to rest His head on earth—the union of God and man. This was the completion of the creative cycle in the sense of bringing forth all the facilities that were necessary for God's action on earth. Of course from that point the creative work for which all this had been brought forth might begin. Certainly it was not as though, having got that job done, God then said, “I will call it a day and rest eternally thereafter.” No, the real job was just getting started because there was a means to do it.
And then of course the failure came—as we know in our own present experience; this is made plain—so that the job which was to be done has not yet been done. Clearly then, the first order of business is to recreate man on earth, capable of experiencing oneness with God. All the elements of heredity, all the remaining influences of self-centeredness, all the distorted patterns in body, mind and heart, must be cleansed away so that man may become again what he was originally created to be. Coming to the last day in this recreative cycle of resurrection it is said that Shekinah will lift him up, lift him up into union with God—obviously a task incapable of being performed in human self-centeredness. The external manifestation of man, both the positive and negative triune aspects, are the creation. The creation cannot govern itself without disaster. Let it be in the hands of God so that the resurrection may occur.
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These things are clearly portrayed in this particular passage which we have considered today but also in many places throughout the Bible. It is not as though man had been left without any hint as to what was necessary. It has all been plainly set forth. We are the inheritors of all that has been offered down through the ages. Those who lived in the past didn't have quite so much. This would seem to indicate that we have less excuse for failure than those who went before us. But the truth has been offered to guide human beings in the Way if they were willing to pay attention. However, it is also true that there are definite creative cycles and one cannot ignore what is unfolding in those creative cycles. Some may say, “Why wasn't something initiated before this time? After all, it has been nineteen centuries and nothing happened!”
As we were noting in Class recently, when there is an aborted cycle it must work itself through to the point where it may rightly be reinitiated in the correct sequence of the four forces. We need to remember that nothing can be creatively accomplished from the Divine standpoint except on the basis of the working of the Law and the operation of the creative forces. We noted that when our LORD and KING was on earth He came to initiate a creative cycle, and of course He did it on the basis of the first of the four forces: water, truth; the spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters. “Let there be light.” He said of Himself, “I am the light of the world.” However, He made it plain that it was not necessary for the light to be extinguished if He left. Of those who desired to follow Him He said, “Ye are the light of the world.” So He initiated the creative cycle on the basis of the first force.
But there was failure, not on His part but insofar as the essential response to what He brought was concerned, so that in fact the creative cycle which He initiated was aborted; in the creative sense it never went beyond the first force. A few hundred years after He was on earth the Dark Ages ensued, clearly indicating the abortion of the cycle. However, this didn't mean that, that cycle having been aborted, one could ignore the rest of the forces and try to start another one right away. It had to work its way through the four forces, and this can be followed out in the record of history, as we noted. After the Dark Ages came the Renaissance, a spiritual renewal of vision—something to do with air, the air of the spirit—mostly related to the field of art, art particularly in religion. So here was the reaction of human beings to the air force, but because it was an aborted cycle “the LORD was not in the air.”
The Reformation followed shortly thereafter, having something to do with form, with earth. Various things worked into this earth aspect of the pattern: the industrial revolution came along. There were sundry earthquakes, “but the LORD was not in the earthquake.” And finally, while there had been many wars and rumors of wars during this time, as there have been throughout human history, the culmination came at the time of the First World War—fire. The Second World War followed after, as a postscript to the First World War, “but the LORD was not in the fire.” It wasn't until this creative cycle, which could have been included in the process by which the resurrection of the Body of the Son of God took place on earth, had been completed in its aborted condition that the world came again to the point where the water force might once more find application.
These things can't be ignored and are not ignored by God. He never tries to do the impossible; He takes things as they come. He is content to let the cycles unfold to the point where advantage may be taken again of what comes next. We see something of what comes next in relationship to that with which we are ourselves now associated, because at about the time the Second World War came to a close Sunrise Ranch was bought, and in 1946 the birth in the water cycle of the new creation, or the starting point of the cycles of resurrection occurred. Uranda was responsible for this. There had been of course prior preparation. But the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and in 1946 the initial starting point for the resurrection of the Body of the Son of God came into form right here on Sunrise Ranch—a very little thing apparently, just as small, relatively speaking, as the one cell at the point of conception in the mother's body.
Now this doesn't really relate to birth in the ordinary sense. Our Master spoke of these things to Nicodemus, and Nicodemus was a bit confused. How would it be possible to climb back into one's mother's womb? It isn't a matter of birth in the ordinary sense, because the Body of the Son of God was already born. The very fact that mankind has persisted on earth to this very hour is an indication that the Body of the Son of God is potentially present—seemingly dead heretofore. So this concerns what may well be called rebirth. And while the cycle of rebirth does relate to the cycle of original birth, it obviously is a different process, symbolized and represented by the body of Jesus in the tomb. This cycle of rebirth, insofar as He was concerned, initiated the resurrection. There had to be a starting point in that apparently dead body. For a starting point to be there it obviously was not dead in fact, no matter what the appearance was. The same is true of the true Body of the Son of God in the world today, and in the world throughout the ages. Life has been in the carcass of mankind all down through the ages; not life which would give evidence of the Body of the Son of God, but life present nevertheless. Because of the fact of life still persisting there is a starting point in the true Body of the Son of God, and this starting point was activated as the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters specifically in 1946.
The fire cycle was complete—and it sure ended with a bang, didn't it?—so that instantly the LORD was right there to take advantage of the situation. He didn't linger or hang around and say, “Well we'd better wait for a while; it's not very propitious at the moment; it doesn't look as though many people are going to respond. We'll wait.” No, He was right on the job. In fact He had been making preparation before the point was reached, so that there was something present on earth to permit the spirit of God at this level to move upon the face of the waters. So the new creative cycle was initiated: the cycle of rebirth, which is succeeded by the cycles of resurrection, the six days of re-creation. And we have been moving together in this unfolding creative process that we might come, following out the correct sequence of the four forces, to the Sixth Day, when man is restored—restored as an adequate six-plane facility for the LORD.
Individually speaking the same principle is at work, and the Lord for the individual is the truth of his own being. The consciousness of the fulness of that truth comes when the wholeness of the facility is available for the expression of Shekinah. We know ourselves by reason of the expression of what we are. If what we are in reality is only partially expressed we can but know ourselves partially, and it will be partially expressed until all the cycles of the recreative process, the processes of resurrection, have worked out to the Sixth Day. This does not mean that we do not have a changed awareness of ourselves. It merely means that because the facility for the full expression of ourselves individually and collectively has not yet reached the Sixth Day there can be only a partial experience. So we are content with that. We know why it is that way and we do not fool ourselves into imagining that it is not that way. There are those who have caught a glimpse of the way things are but, still being caught in the self-centered trap, they have proceeded to put on a big front which was supposed to be the truth of being, saying in effect, “I am the Lord.” The LORD on earth requires the facility recreated for His expression if His identity is to be known.
So we remain humble, in an awareness that there are many hereditary factors present in the external manifestation, particularly in the subsurface levels of consciousness, which do not make possible as yet the full expression of what we are in reality. We have noted that the requirement is to remain true to the truth that we do know in surface consciousness, not allowing ourselves to be distracted by the call and the clamoring of what is symbolized by Eve, who constantly invites us to eat some more of that delicious forbidden fruit. If we do again accept the government of the results of our own actions we perpetuate the fallen state and we interrupt the creative cycle that was working out in us individually.
The cycle works out, wheels within wheels, always on the basis of the true sequence of the four forces. So if you abort the cycle somewhere, by accepting the government of externals, there will be the necessity of letting that cycle move all the way through until it can be reinitiated. I may say that in the outworking of things in this ministry we have vast experience in this regard! most of which was unrecognized by those who precipitated the abortion of the cycle, because the individual, having aborted the cycle—it only takes a moment—then says, “Let's forget about that. Let's get back on the beam again here and get going in the cycle and carry it forward.” It doesn't work that way. Once the cycle is broken it can only be initiated again when it comes around to the proper starting point.
Over the years so many of those who have been associated with the unfoldment in this ministry have been occupied with aborting cycles in relationship to themselves. But of course you can't abort a cycle in relationship to yourself without affecting everybody else. So someone, somewhere, aborts a cycle. It becomes necessary to wait, insofar as that individual is concerned, for things to work themselves through to the point where something can be reinitiated. And while this is going on someone else aborts a cycle over here, and back and forth it goes. As soon as we get something reinitiated over here someone aborts another one over there. So, seemingly the process has been slow because of these things. But the overall pattern has continued because there has gradually developed a Core in which cycles finally are not being aborted, and this immediately begins to become an increasingly potent thing, providing a stable influence which may easily hold other responding ones steady so that they do not need to let their cycles be aborted. The more adequate the Steadfast Core is the more stabilizing influence is released to all those who are beginning to share in the resurrecting process as it relates to the Body of the Son of God.
But I bring these things out and emphasize them so that from the standpoint of your surface consciousness you may recognize what happens and you may be more careful then to make very sure that you do not do anything to abort the cycle in which you are moving, to abort the cycle for which you are responsible. Now there will be opportunity to do it, just as there were those three opportunities specifically brought to focus through what are called the three temptations of Jesus. There were provided three very specific opportunities for Him—if He was interested, which He wasn't—to abort the cycle which was moving through Him. He refused to do it, and anyone may refuse to do it. But this relates to something that must become more than a mere determination to hold steady and true to one's highest vision of the truth. This is necessary, but it must become such a habitual attitude that always, in relationship to anything that comes up, the first flush of feeling will be right. To start with, as I am sure you all know from experience, the first flush of feeling tends to relate to the old hereditary patterns. One has always reacted this way, so it's natural to do it again! Consequently there is a need to hold steady, even though in the initial stages the first flush of feeling is contrary; in other words Eve's voice still rings rather loud and clear. She says, “Follow me, indulge with me in involvement with externals.” Well this habit needs to change. So there is the necessity of holding steady at the surface level of consciousness because we are faithful and true to our highest vision.
We refuse utterly to become involved with Eve. This gives a chance for Eve to change, but until Eve does change, until she agrees with the highest vision, there cannot be movement any further in the resurrection process. This business of coming into agreement relates to movement through the Second Day of creation into the Third. By holding steady, true to one's highest vision, it is possible to maintain a state of tranquility where it may be said, regardless of what is felt, “None of these things actually move me.”
We can listen to someone trying to get us to do something and hear what the person says and what influence is being brought to bear, but we do not need to do what the individual is trying to get us to do, do we? Well the same thing applies when the demand comes from our own emotional realm, from our own feelings—our own feelings which say, “Follow me. Do what I want you to do. This is the way I want to go.” “No, I am going to be true to the truth.” So, regardless of feeling, one may stay steady. And if the onslaught of feeling seems to be particularly violent, now that there is a Stable Core present it is always possible to contact someone in the external sense who will provide an additional stable point of agreement with you, someone who is not going to get involved with your feelings. If someone else doesn't need to get involved with your feelings, why do you need to get involved? Hold it steady, in agreement with those who are likewise holding it steady.
Now if you hold it steady of course you will be in agreement with them anyway; but if you feel the onslaught is too violent it may be wise and advantageous to take some deliberate action in this regard and come into the presence of someone who is trustworthy—not to try to persuade that person to become all involved in the things you are fussing about, but leaving the things you would be fussing about if you became involved with them outside the door. You come in to find agreement with the truth, to stabilize that agreement, and fundamentally you do this because of what I mentioned at the conclusion of our hour together this morning: “I love You, LORD. I love you, Lord, certainly more than I love Eve.” [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/shekinah-and-sex.html]
Some people feel that this would be a way to break up marriages. It is the only way by which a true union between a man and a woman may be established, that both parties say first, “I love You, LORD.” And neither one of the two parties is making demands upon the other, saying “Love me, love me. Tell me you love me.” This is supposed to make a marriage—if husband and wife are always telling each other that they love each other, that's supposed to be the answer. That maintains an exclusive self-centered state, and self-centered states are all disintegrative. No. “I love You, LORD,” and only on the basis of this is a person capable of loving another in the right way.
The First Commandment really does come first. It isn't just a nice suggestion; it is a Command. Do it or else! That's what it amounts to. This is the Law. And when we love the LORD we love Love. And finding oneness consequently with the LORD in that love, there is unified radiation, the radiation of love. In the expression of love, the truth of love, we then know what love is. Love is experienced because we express it. But we do not try to express love according to our own idea of what love is, because that is self-centeredness. We have no real idea of what love is until we know the truth of it, and we can't know the truth of it until we love the LORD. Very often when a person is told to love the LORD he says, “Well then I am not going to be able to love anybody else.” That's right! Self-centered you is not to love anybody else, because the only way you can love anyone else is self-centeredly, and that is no good. It brings all the woes that we may observe very easily in the world. “I love You, LORD.”
And we come again to be held steady by Shekinah in the creative cycles. We are not trying to do anything else, and we do not need to try to do that even. If we love the LORD we do it. If we are genuine in our attitude, “I love You, LORD,” where is the problem? If you genuinely love, you naturally do what is necessary because of that love; you don't have to try to do it. A person who is trying to be true to his highest vision isn't being true to his highest vision. Love makes it so that one couldn't do anything else; it is actually impossible to do anything else. Of course in self-centeredness the individual is inclined to imagine that that would be some sort of slavery. “Well you have to do what is required. I thought we had freedom of choice.” Here we are free to choose to let go of the freedom of choice, that we may be governed by our Beloved. Human beings in their self-centeredness think of love in this way, don't they? Would there be anything more delightful and wonderful and fulfilling than to be one with the Beloved? Well, there's only one Beloved with whom we should be one. “I love You, LORD.”
And then we do what is natural in that love. There's no problem; there's no sweat, as they say, no more sweat of the face, just a natural movement in love. We find ourselves being gathered together unto one place. The waters under the heaven are gathered together unto one place in the Third Day of creation, to be with one accord in one place, and the dry land appears. The form of the Body of the Son of God begins to come to life; sensation begins to return to that Body—not too much to start with: the grass and the trees, the evidences of life reappearing in the creative process of resurrection. There's no great rush. Let it work out under the hand of Shekinah, certainly not what you think with your surface consciousness. And in that gathering together unto one place, under heaven, under the realm where Shekinah has control, the dry land appears, the evidences of life come increasingly in the Body of the Son of God. Certain parts of the Body begin to become conscious of themselves again—not the whole body yet, just parts, rising up in consciousness, feeling something, rejoicing in what is felt.
But this is just the Third Day, remember?—just the beginning of the Third Day, not yet halfway even. So let us not jump to a conclusion that this is it. It is it in the sense that we are participating in the creative cycle which brings us to the conclusion where it may be said, “This is it”; but we're still on the way. So we stay humble. We stay humble but steady and centered in the truth which we know, and gradually we find that what we feel agrees with the truth that we know, so that heart and mind come together. Here is part of the gathering of the waters under the heaven being brought together under the dominion of Shekinah so that the creative process may continue.
We share these cycles as they occur in us. As we have experience of them we know what they are and we are therefore in position to know what is happening in others who are experiencing what we have known. So in turn we become the means by which others are held steady as they move through these various levels of resurrection. And while there may be some breaking from the pattern on occasion, we ourselves, recognizing the responsibility, hold the line because we're not interested, surely, in going back to square one, as it were. What a waste of time! and it's not surprising, when we do that, that we begin to feel futile. But we don't need to do it. We can be true; we can keep our integrity; and as we do this we share the resurrection in the increasing awareness of the reality of life, the life which is emerging.
How good to see these things at this level of understanding so that we may move with effectiveness forward into the levels of understanding that are yet to come, being willing to relinquish what we thought we knew in favor of the truth at every step of the way, because until we come to the Sixth Day we necessarily see things through colored glasses to some extent, through the distorted lens of remaining self-centeredness. But the way is clear. Shekinah gets the job done. It got the job done in the beginning, so I don't see any reason why it shouldn't get it done now. It's no less capable than it was then; in fact there's less to be done now than there was then, because the Body is already here; it doesn't have to be created. It is the re-creation of the consciousness of that Body. And we share in letting this happen, moving together and staying together with one accord in one place.
Because of this oneness Shekinah can move easily. But remember, that movement will have the tendency, if you are not alert, to cause a scattering again, as it did on that first occasion long ago in what has been called the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on that day of Pentecost. Things felt so wonderful. “Here is the power. Isn't it great? Isn't it tremendous?” Have you ever felt that way? “We can achieve great things.” Yes, in the seasons of the LORD, not in the way you may think.
Let the increased enthusiasm hold you steady. Don't let it scatter you. If you are scattered, you are scattered out of the Body and you very quickly lose the power then, because the power of Shekinah moves through the Body, nowhere else. So remain where you belong and move forward with assurance in the Way, because we are all with one accord in one place, in our hearts saying always, “I love You, LORD.”
I love You, LORD. These words coming to focus and finding expression through this form, are the words of all who have come into agreement with me, and consequently with Thee. We abide in Thy Love, abide under Thy Shadow, the Shadow of Shekinah, because we dwell in what has been the Secret Place of the Most High, but which is now no longer secret to us, being true to what is Most High in our consciousness of the truth. Abiding under the Shadow of Shekinah, all things are made new by Shekinah in the cycles of resurrection. No self-centered human mind is necessary to get the job done; it is done when the surface consciousness at last is content to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord and no longer insists upon dwelling in the tents of wickedness, the tents of self-centeredness. O LORD, I thank Thee for all those here present and everywhere on the face of the earth whose integrity holds them steady, centered in Thee, because they love Thee, in the Christ. Aum-en.
This evening let your response be a silent one insofar as the spoken word is concerned,
as you remember those words which naturally form in your heart,
