“This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.” While this is a quoted verse from the Gospel according to John, it is also my word to you now. How have I loved you? I trust that over the years my love has been adequately clear, without strings one might say, so that you were not capable of changing my behavior. If your behavior were sufficient to impel a change of behavior on my part, then clearly enough I would be subject to you, or at least to your behavior.
We need to see this not only as it relates to what might occur between us but also what might occur between you and everybody else. If you observed someone else and decided that one was behaving wrongly, and this caused you to get onto your red horse and with your great sword try to correct the situation, your behavior would have been the result of the wrong behavior of somebody else. By the same token it is possible that what you thought was wrong behavior on the part of someone else might not have been wrong behavior at all but was your judgment of the situation, in which case your behavior would have been wrong to start with. So whether it’s wrong to start with or whether it becomes wrong because someone else has impelled you to wrong judgmental behavior, you’re in the same boat.
The commandment is to love one another, and the only way to do it is certainly without judgment. Immediately judgment enters into the picture you yourself are behaving wrongly, regardless of how justified the judgment may seem to be. The fact of the judgment is wrong behavior. Nobody’s behavior should be capable of causing us to behave wrongly. If what others do or say has this power over us we are representing the son of perdition.
Let us look at this matter from the standpoint of initiating the true creative cycle by which the resurrection may take place. We all have a background experience of earthly heredity. By reason of this we are connected to multitudes of people who are likewise subject to earthly heredity, both those who are now living and also those who have recently or in the far-distant past passed from the experience of life on earth. The earthly heredity which is present with each of us springs from many forebears. Go back far enough and we all are related in this earthly sense. All this has come down and is a part of our makeup in the physical sense, and what is true physically speaking is included in the quality of consciousness which has been known. The substance of consciousness is generated out of the physical flesh, so what is present in earthly heredity physically speaking is also present in the sense of consciousness.
So there is all this backlog here, of which we are a part, together with, nowadays, more than four billion other people. We are all connected by reason of this heredity and also by reason of what has been our experience during the course of our existence on earth thus far. We have been associated with many people, directly and indirectly; so there is this whole mass consciousness to which we are directly attached, so to speak. It is obvious that there are many things moving in this mass consciousness affecting people everywhere. We see how multitudes of people are influenced in various ways without their realizing it, and their behavior reflects that influence. It is repeated through numberless individuals, and we have been included in this mass.
There is an inclination to think of oneself as being oneself and capable of handling or directing one’s own life, but that is one of the most widespread deceptions because human beings have been moving as the son of perdition directs for millennia past, even to this very hour. It is as though all human beings were puppets on the end of strings which are yanked from time to time, and that produces the type of behavior that appears. Yet most are blissfully unconscious of this, imagining very often that they are rugged individualists. So we all find ourselves as a particular point of focus of this background state which emerges out of the mass; and here we are as individuals, occupying a point of focus of all that, as it specifically relates to ourselves.
We need to understand clearly how this should be handled, because obviously there will be influences and impulses arising out of this mass to be presented to us at the point of our particular focus. When such things come they will command us to behave in a certain way. You may know that it is being brought to you out of the hereditary mass consciousness, being brought to you as a son or a daughter of God, to be dealt with rightly. You understand these things, or should; most people don’t: these influences arise and they behave accordingly. It’s almost automatic in most cases and a person doesn’t realize what it is that is happening.
It is rather a sad state of affairs if our behavior is forthcoming on this sort of a basis, because there will always be something coming up; we have these connections leading all over the place. We are at the point of focus; all these things come to us. But we are not at that point of focus in order to be maneuvered around by what is occurring in earthly heredity, the earthly heredity of mankind, which includes our own particular brand of it. So we are here to provide the controlling expression of the spirit of God relative to what is presented to us by reason of the fact that we are a point of focus for this mass of earthly heredity.
Now these connections bring these things to us, but if they are capable of bringing something to us they are also capable of taking something in the other direction; and this is the basis of what we have spoken of before as vibrational ministry. If we can be influenced, and surely we all of us have been, by what comes to us over these vibrational connections with the mass consciousness of humanity, so that our behavior was dictated accordingly, then if our behavior is not based in those things but in the essences of the Son of God that come to focus in us also there is something to flow back over the connections.
There will naturally be things constantly arising in our experience which do come out of that mishmash to present themselves to us for our right action, and the right action is basically that our behavior is not changed at all by whatever it is that arises on that basis. We behave as a son or a daughter of God in any case. The prince of this world comes and finds nothing in us. He can’t needle us into a reaction which would cause our behavior to be of the quality of the son of perdition. I’m sure each one of us can take a look at this and see how easily we can be needled into alignment with the son of perdition. It has been all too easily in most; it doesn’t take very much.
It’s interesting to note that before the Master proceeded with His public ministry He fasted for forty days. This could be looked upon as a means of cleansing but it also took that length of time for the son of perdition to put in any appearance insofar as He was concerned. I have noticed some on occasion miss a meal and the son of perdition sure put in an appearance! How about forty days?
Love, the truth of love, is the power of God which is properly released over these connecting links with the mass consciousness whenever anything is presented to us out of that cesspool. The truth of love is the creative power by which transformation occurs. Unless we do this we don’t participate in playing our part in the cycles of transformation.
It is usual for human beings to look around to see whom they can blame—this is an almost instant reaction, isn’t it? You feel something unpleasant, something you don’t like particularly; you look around to find out why it is you are feeling that; and you spot somebody who is doing something which you can connect up with this feeling, and you say, “Well there, that person’s to blame.” This is the usual human behavior, son of perdition behavior, because in any event probably it had nothing to do with that person at all; it was something that came from a completely different direction. But it was a ghost to you, it had no body, so you felt uncomfortable about it and looked around to give it a body. Well there is no necessity for this. This is a vibrational ministry. We should be quite familiar with the matter of dealing with ghosts. We are rightly laying them to rest all the time. Basically all that is necessary is to continue to behave as a son or a daughter of God. We are not objecting to what is brought to us out of the mass consciousness. This is what makes possible our meaning and ministry on earth. If we were somehow aloof from all that, we would also at the same time be absolutely useless. So we necessarily do have these connections because we have flesh bodies, and we do have what comes to us by reason of these connections. Rightly we have no attitude of attempting to escape from this, trying to get away.
We are concerned with providing the focus point for which we are responsible out of the Son of God relative to the focus point which comes to us out of earthly heredity. These two points come together for a purpose and we always let them be together. That is where our experience of true being is. We see, in dealing with the things that come to us, we deal with them on the basis of the true creative process. We noted last Sunday [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-four-horsemen.html] that there is the same point of initiation for the true creative process as there is for the destructive cycle. We saw this symbolized by the one who put in an appearance on the white horse. Incidentally he had a bow. We might assume that he had arrows, I suppose, too, but it might not mean that at all. He might have been revealing the fact that the whole spectrum was present with respect to this initiation of the true creative cycle. The seven colors of the spectrum, of the bow, are all present in the white light, represented in this instance by the white horse. We also noted this same starting point when God said, “Let there be light.” Here was the true starting point and there subsequently sprang out of it the true creative cycle. The next experience was not the red horse one, but, “Let there be a firmament.” There is a parting of the ways, depending upon who is present, the Son of God or the son of perdition.
The opportunity is always available from God. Nothing happens that does not originate in God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” All things were made by the Word. All things spring from God. The action proceeds from God but when it impinges upon the consciousness of the son of perdition it goes in a certain direction: it goes to destruction. But when it is being handled by a son of God it permits resurrection. We are thinking of it particularly with respect to what is to occur here on earth. The Son of God must be present therefore, in position to handle the creative cycle so that it moves in the correct way. There will be plenty of representatives of the son of perdition around to make sure that it moves in the wrong way. They have been doing this for a long time and they are really at it in these days.
So when the cycle is initiated by the one with the bow on the white horse we do not proceed on the basis to which we would be impelled by earthly heredity, by all that is coming to us out of the mass consciousness. We have been accustomed to this in the past but we are interested, I am sure, in stopping it. The buck stops here, so that we might assume the proper responsibility. So we don’t take a great sword, get on our red horse and start to try to put things to rights. This is what happens when the son of perdition is in charge. He’s trying to put things to rights according to his own view of what that would be, and we have had this habit with respect to those with whom we have been associated. We have had the rather foolish conceit that we really knew how somebody else should be behaving. We didn’t even know, for the most part, how we ourselves should be behaving. But we have some awareness of the quality of the natural behavior of the Son of God and we would associate ourselves with that. If we do, we are not trying to set the world straight. Do you think when the Master was on earth He tried to set the world straight? Certainly not. He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” It is impossible to set this world straight. Its natural condition is crooked; it can’t be made straight. But something needs to be done.
Those who have expertise in various fields are those who are most inclined to jump on the red horse, because they have all this background education and experience to tell them that they really know how things should be. There are experts in every department of the son of perdition, all imagining that they know how things should be. Well that’s the red horse direction, which leads a little further on to the black, where there is not so much an endeavor physically to force things to be some certain way but there is a more subtle manipulation. That fellow riding the black horse had a pair of scales in his hand and he was seeking to balance things out. We have policies in the world relative to balance of power, and balance of trade, and balance of all sorts of things. Unfortunately these days everything is getting out of balance and disrupted, and people are frantically shifting weights from one part of the scale to the other to try to keep the balance. But all this effort by the rider of the black horse totally excludes the expression of the Son of God. It is all human manipulation, and that takes everybody down the slide to the pale horse; and there are various forms of disintegration described when that particular experience comes into view. So we have seen that as being the destructive cycle.
We recognize there is some necessity for a disintegrative aspect to what is happening, but there is another aspect: the true creative cycle which leads into the experience of what we have referred to as the heaven, sacred space, which allows the atmosphere of what we might call spring to begin to put in an appearance. There is a new spring here, isn’t there? The first heaven and the first earth are passing away, and a new heaven and a new earth are putting in an appearance. So there is a spring in this sense. The first heaven and the first earth have been winter, but now spring comes—and spring comes because there is a change in the atmosphere; a certain amount of warmth emerges. There’s spring in the air.
We are responsible for providing a focus of the creative power of God, of light, to operate in doing what needs to be done. And what needs to be done first after the light puts in an appearance is described as the creation of a firmament, of a safe heavenly place, containing the essential atmosphere which allows the snows of winter to melt. And when they do, the waters are gathered together unto one place, and the dry land appears. The dry land appearing, together with the light, the warmth, the atmosphere, allows for something to begin to grow out of the earth. That is described in the third day of creation.
Here is the natural, the true, cycle. Something is to grow. Seeing that this is the first spring of our experience in this sense, we have no idea as to what it is that is going to grow. But presumably we have reached a point in our close association with the light so that we are able to trust the creative cycle. And the spring comes. We don’t imagine that we should go out and start laying concrete all over the ground and putting up arbitrary structures of various sorts to suit ourselves. We let God do His thing. We don’t have to try to make anything over, because it isn’t something that is being made over. “Behold, I make all things new.” It is a new spring, and things are to grow on the earth that have been unknown in the memory of the son of perdition, things that have been hidden under the snows of winter for a very long time.
When we share the responsibility of providing the atmosphere of heaven and keeping this clear because we love one another, then the creative cycle can work. We are not saying how it is to work. It will work the way it works. Let it work. We don’t have to push in our bright ideas, although we may examine what it is that is beginning to emerge. We may see some things that are putting in an appearance. And perhaps we look at the little shoot that is emerging on the surface of the ground and we see it and we say, “That may be something or other,” but we don’t really know what if we have never seen that Garden before, never seen the type of flowers or plants that put in an appearance before.
Judge not. Just let the Garden grow because the atmosphere is kept the way it should be. And of course as spring moves into summer it gets hotter. There is an increase in the intensification of the truth of love—a reality between people, not a concept of the mind, an idea of brotherhood or something, but the actual experience. Here is the warmth. Here is what is absolutely essential to let the Garden grow. We can’t make it grow but we can provide what is necessary to let it grow. Let us not be so foolish as to try to make it grow or make it appear according to some concept or idea we have, particularly as this relates to the behavior of other people. We know that human nature behavior must pass away and we are willing to let it. We don’t need to clobber it to get rid of it. It’s going. It goes just as easily as the snow melts when the warmth is there.
That warmth is there as there is a consistency of the behavior of the Son of God brought to focus in each of us and shared between us and beyond us. “Behold, I make all things new.” Here is the Garden of God putting in an appearance, that we may keep it as it should be kept, that we might share the responsibility of letting everything be right in the expression of the Son of God on earth. The yoke is easy, the burden is light. How little human beings have acknowledged this to be true. They think that nothing worthwhile happens unless it is hard. But the beauty of the earth restored, with man in the midst of the Garden, comes easily. In fact it comes easily or not at all.
This transcript and audio recording initiates a series that opens Uranda's meditations and explorations on the Shekinah Fire;
during this Class session, on the morning of June 14th, Uranda spoke about the Shekinah Pattern for the first time.
As we begin another hour of meditation let us have a moment of devotion. Our gracious LORD and KING, we thank Thee for the multitude of Thy blessings made manifest; for the holy privilege we have of yielding to the spirit of Thy Presence, and letting the patterns of Life be molded and shaped to the Divine Design, that we may truly share in letting Thy Kingdom come; that we may behold in the lives of others around us, and in our environments and circumstances, the evidence that Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power and the Glory forever. In the Christ. Aumen.
In our hour of meditation last evening we read Psalm 107 and concluded with the 24th Psalm recognizing the way in which the LORD accomplishes great things in the lives of those who recognize the goodness of our God and who appreciate the fact that his mercy endureth forever. “O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men.” And in this pattern we see how, in the Divine outworking, he gathers his children from the east and from the west from the north and the south and delivers them from the hand of the enemy, and brings them into a land, a place of habitation, a realm of living. And we recall that our Master taught men to pray, “Thy kingdom come.” We have recognized this Divine expression from the lips of our Master many many times, and yet it seems to me that we can, this morning, by meditation and yielding to the spirit of our LORD and KING, enter into a still deeper realization of the significance of these words in relationship to ourselves.
There are the more or less crystallized patterns in the world around us which to some degree, to some extent, we share. There are those things which human beings deem to be essential to themselves or to their comforts, desirable, pleasing, to which they tend to cling. As we meditate on this point we are reminded once again of that which the LORD expressed shortly before the flood, when the Great Ark was in process of preparation; for the LORD recognized that the imagination of men's hearts was only evil continually, and with the then-known civilization in danger from the vibratory results of man's own ill actions—for we must remember that the LORD did not produce the flood that brought such havoc and destruction to the world; man produced that flood—the LORD found a certain man and his family, as we recall the story, who were willing to disregard the patterns and circumstances, ideas and concepts, the crystallizations of that day. And in a place where there was only dry land, no sea nearby, this man began to establish an outer form that seemed to onlookers to be utterly incongruous, and the incongruities of the circumstance caused them to mock this man; for he was spending his time, his money, his energy, building an ark on the dry land in a position where it could not be readily gotten into the water. And so the people of the day mocked him. They took the attitude that he had lost his mind, that he had gone crazy. He was doing something which appeared to be utterly foolish, and yet he kept on. The pattern of that ark is a very interesting thing, which we might pause to consider for a moment this morning.
“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth…” I wonder what God sees in the earth today. “…and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”
The heart, the heart of love, the feeling nature of God, was grieved because "the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord… And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
“And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits."
In the general pattern there was variation with respect to the actual length of a cubit. One cubit is generally considered to be two spans, and that was one foot and seven inches approximately, about nineteen inches per cubit, in other words, a little over a foot and a half. We recognize, then, that according to these measurements the ark would be over four hundred and fifty feet long; nearly five hundred feet. “And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.” But it is not so much the length or breadth or height, in the sense of measurement as we use it, we are interested in; it is in the symbolism of the figures themselves. “The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits… and the height of it thirty.” Here we note that both in the length and the height we have the figure three, signifying the three planes, or three primary phases, of man. “And the breadth of it shall be fifty cubits.” We recognize that the figure 5 carries the symbolical significance of the life factor, the expression of life. The length and the breadth and the height: of life and the three phases of being.
“A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.”
A three-story building in the shape of a boat, sitting in an area of dry land, and the people of that time felt that Noah was crazy, that he was a fool to spend all the time that he did, and the energy, building this peculiar, unwieldy, unsatisfactory building in the shape of a boat. We remember that water is the symbol of truth. And we also recall that after the flood there was the rainbow of promise which was given to man, the vision of the rainbow, carrying the promise that the earth would never again in that same sense be destroyed by water. But that which was symbolized by the water, truth, was yet to have its part to play. As Noah in his day built an ark of gopher wood and pitched it within and without to make it watertight—three stories high, correlating with the three phases of man's being—that he and his family and certain animals might be preserved from the overwhelming flood of water, so are we building an ark.
We remember the time of the children of Israel. They had what was called the Ark of the Covenant. It was a comparatively small box set upon staves so that four men could carry it. On the top of it there was the mercy seat and the cherubim—the Ark of the Covenant. First there is the ark of gopher wood as a means of protection against the flood of water, and then there is the ark of the covenant, designed to keep men from forgetting the covenant, designed to remind man of the divine purpose on earth. An ark, a symbol, which was supposed to keep man from forgetting. Along with this ark there was the measure of manna (symbolizing the bread of life), Aaron's rod which budded (suggesting the manifestation of life, the power of God), and the shewbread. In any case it was the place where the Law of God was supposed to be preserved, the Law of God preserved in the Ark of the Covenant. Those who preserve the Law of God in a true sense do not forget God's covenant. But this Ark of the Covenant was a symbol. As we see the first ark, Noah's ark, as a symbol, so is the Ark of the Covenant a symbol for you—the upright man or woman, symbolized by the staff, or the rod that budded. You are supposed to be a means by which God's love and truth and life are made evident in the earth. You are supposed to be a means by which the bread of life is preserved in the earth. You are supposed to be the means by which the Law of God is preserved to the children of men. Which is greater? Keeping a piece of stone upon which certain words were written, a piece of stone which was called the place where the finger of God had written His Law? Or that you, the living man or woman, having had a heart of stone, should become a manifestation of the Ark of the Covenant, preserving to the children of men the reality of the Law of God, giving evidence that the finger of God is written upon the stony tablets of your heart, the heart that is supposed to yield to God? That which is established in symbol is supposed to appear in fact. The evil of the world was destroyed by a flood of water, and water is the symbol of truth. Thereupon the rainbow of promise appears, establishing in the hearts and minds of men the assurance that evil shall be destroyed from the face of the earth by the truth, that the earth shall be cleansed and purified and sanctified by the flood of truth. And then the Ark of the Covenant, a symbol.
But men began to conceive the symbol to be a thing unto itself. They began to treat it as if it were God. They lost a consciousness of the significance of the mercy seat—“for his mercy endureth for ever.” They lost a consciousness of the significance of the cherubim which established between them a creative field, a place where the spirit of God could come to rest under the working of the Law of the Positive and the Negative, a place where the fire could appear, the fire of love above the mercy seat. Man lost sight of the fact that he is supposed to be the ark which can survive the flood of truth, that he is supposed to be the place where the Law of God is written in letters of fire, that he is supposed to be the revelation of Aaron's rod which budded, that he is supposed to give evidence of the eternal bread of life. Because man failed to properly understand and appreciate the symbol, the symbol was taken away from man. It was lost to man, and man has wandered in darkness and superstition for these hundreds and hundreds of years, failing to recognize that that which is symbolized is supposed to appear in fact, and that we are supposed to be building an ark, an ark the design of which comes to us from out of the east and the realms of heaven, an ark which is capable of surviving the flood of truth upon the earth, an ark which has a window above, a window which signifies the real connection between man and his Creator—the silver cord. And this ark not only has a window above, but manifest in relationship to the working of the One Law, the positive and negative poles of creative function as signified by the cherubim, the creative field where the fire appears, signifying the presence of God, yes, but God's love; for God's love signifies the presence of God. Man remembers the Shekinah Fire, dimly at least, but he has forgotten that that fire is supposed to appear in relationship to himself.
The fire—evidence of the Presence of the LORD. The fire that burns forever in the creative field where the Law of God is clearly established; not just tablets of stone in a box, even though that box be covered with gold leaf, but the Law of God made evident in the living of life. We see in these things how man back through the ages has tended to get into a state of crystallization: where the wickedness of man is great in the earth, where there is violence, and the evil imaginations of men's hearts are made evident. That which does not conform with the crystallized patterns is conceived to be evil by those who are evil. That which is not of the divine design of God, being evil, conceives all things which do not conform to itself to be evil and foolish. The ark, the Holy City, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/we-are-holy-city.html] the place of divine habitation, the new Jerusalem which comes down from God out of heaven—whatever symbolical term we may use—describes the fulfilments suggested by the symbolism of Noah's ark, and the Ark of the Covenant at the time of the children of Israel; but human beings today are inclined to feel that, as it is put in Peter's Epistle, “there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the foundation of the world.”
Scoffers saying, “All things continue as they were. We have had this pattern of world activity a long time. There has been the rise and fall of empires; we have had birth and death, and suffering and misery; we have had times of prosperity and times of depression, times of peace and times of war. These things are natural and they'll just continue on that way. All things continue as they were.” That is what they said in the days of Noah. It has been man's theme down through the centuries. But things do not continue as they were. We either move toward God, in the fulfilment of His will, or we move away from God toward oblivion. We need to be prepared for the flood of truth, for it is the flood of truth that shall cleanse and purify the world. And the fire shall be made evident, the fire of God's love. Do we welcome that fire and let it manifest between the cherubim? Or do we try to keep that fire of God's love, the evidence of His Presence, far away? Are you an Ark of the Covenant? Is your life, in its pattern, unfolding an ark wherein there is a window above, an ark that is capable of riding out the turbulence of the flood of truth? It was written by Daniel that in the latter days knowledge shall be increased and many shall run to and fro. What is the evidence of the coming of the flood of truth? The increase in knowledge. The very fact that knowledge is increased and human beings are running to and fro provides us evidence of the coming of the flood of truth. We see how man has taken this knowledge and used it to his own purposes. He can produce a great fire, a fire which is so intense that it causes metal to be as if it had not been—the fire of an atomic explosion. But is the fire of an atomic explosion an adequate, satisfactory substitute for the fire of God's love? Can man's ability to produce this fire establish a control upon the earth that will cause evil men to withdraw from their evil purposes? This fire, the atomic fire, is available. Man has used it and contemplates its use. Well our enemy likewise has learned to produce this fire. Some thought, “Now that we have produced the atomic fire our evil enemies will cease to be evil. They will be afraid and they will stop and consider the importance of peace on earth.” Our enemies stopped to consider and they said unto themselves, "Let us learn how to make this fire and we will make a great fire and we shall have the greatest fire, the fire which shall destroy the fire of those who resist us." And so man proceeds, not to find the fire of God's love by which peace might truly come but to exert himself with all energy and speed to build, or to be able to build, a fire greater than the fire of his enemy.
The earth is reserved unto fire. What fire? The fire of an atomic war. The fire of an atomic war—not that God wills it to be so, but man insists that it shall be so. God knew that the flood of truth would come upon the earth in season and He sent the flood of many waters to cause man to consider the necessity of the divine design; but man soon forgot his lesson and the Ark of the Covenant did not make man remember those things which man should have remembered. What is it that produces the latter days? Human beings have acted as if they thought that when the latter days should come then certain things should manifest. What produces the latter days? The coming of those certain things. Why are they the latter days? Because with the outworking of the divine plan the former things shall pass away. It is written with respect to the time of the flood:
“And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.”
The latter days. People have imagined that upon the calendar of time God simply made a mark and said, "These shall be the latter days. And when the latter days come, why then this shall be produced and that shall be produced, in the latter days." That concept fails to recognize that the coming of knowledge, the forerunner of the flood of truth, is that which brings the latter days. The latter days of what? The latter days of man's evil rule upon the earth, the latter days of the crystallizations which man has developed and established on earth. These crystallizations must come to an end under the advancing flood of truth which has been let loose in all the earth upon all the children of men. Man, accepting the substitutes of atomic fire for the fire of God's love, is building for the fire of judgment, the fire that produces the latter days. But the fire, the ability to produce that atomic fire, is the result of the coming of the flood of truth; for without the increased knowledge, man could not make the atomic fire as a substitute for the fire of God's love that is supposed to appear between the cherubim, between those who establish points of polarity in the creative field by which the power of God might manifest.
These crystallizations, these humanly devised patterns and programs, must come to an end, and the former things must pass away. But those of us who have advance awareness, who have time to build an ark, who have time to know and to understand the reality of that which is taking place, have the privilege of letting the crystallizations, crystallized patterns, pass away from us so that we can move into the pattern of heavenly flexibility, which permits us to function according to the will of God on earth, letting the Kingdom of Heaven come. If we resist the passing of the crystallizations from us we simply establish for ourselves the judgment that we shall pass away with our crystallizations. The crystallizations shall pass away—from us, if we permit it to be so; but we shall pass away with them if we refuse to let the Kingdom come, to let the new patterns of being appear in our lives, to let the new elements of life control. And unless we let the fire appear in us and through us, unless we help to establish a creative field where the Shekinah Fire may manifest, we shall be subject to the atomic fire. Unless we, like Noah, have built an Ark of Being, capable of functioning in the flood of truth, we can never know how to let that Shekinah fire manifest; and the atomic fire of man's design is not, and cannot be, a satisfactory substitute. Man trembles in awe when he sees the mighty explosion of the atomic bomb. He beholds the fire and he recognizes that this fire could spread, through war, and destroy the great cities and the civilizations of the world. One fire or the other will control in our lives. Which shall it be? Shall we let the crystallizations that still limit and cramp and distort our lives pass from us easily and naturally, yielding to the fire of God's love and functioning in relationship to the creative field of His power? Or shall we resist, until the crystallizations shall be blasted into nothingness by the fire which man himself brings forth?
Do you think for a moment that in the world with two opposing camps, with both camps having the power to produce this fire, and considering the nature of our godless enemy, do you think that they will not, at a time which they conceive to be advantageous to themselves, start making that fire? Do you think they will restrain themselves?—men without God, like children without parental control, having a toy. Will they not use that toy? Do you think that the world can escape that fire, the fire which man produces and brings upon himself in self-judgment, even as he is judged? The furnace, the fire, the fire of atomic bombs. I do not emphasize this to produce fear but rather that we may face the facts, that we may cease deluding ourselves, that we may recognize that we must choose between two fires; for, whereas there was the flood of water, there is now the flood of truth which has been loosed upon the earth, and the frontal waves of that flood have been to man the increase of knowledge, and many are running to and fro. The latter days of evil are at hand, the latter days because the things of the unreal world must come to an end. The unreal realm of man is preparing to destroy itself. Only as we have the ark, the ark of the covenant or Noah's ark, only as we let the ark of reality be made manifest in and through us so that there may be the evidence of the heavenly fire, can we be in position to survive and function on the basis of the divine assertion: “Behold, I make all things new, for the former things are passed away.”
What shall it be for us individually, or all responding ones collectively? The former things are passed away and the time is at hand, and we do not have long to linger and wait in the building of the ark. When the floods came it was too late for those who were mocking to build an ark for themselves. The time is at hand. It is here. “Behold, I make all things new.” Let it be so in you.
Our gracious LORD and KING, we thank Thee for the wonder of Thy Love, the beauty of Thy Truth, and the glory of Thy Life, that we may truly share the coming of Thy Kingdom on earth; that as the former things are passing away we may not cling to them or identify ourselves with them, but being flexible in the working of Thy Spirit and Thy Will, we may be molded to the Divine Design and share in the outworking, as all things are made new, for Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever. In the Christ. Aumen.
We come to the hour of our Thursday evening meditation on this 8th day of April 1954, and it's good to have the privilege of gathering here in the chapel on Sunrise Ranch. Tonight, and beginning our period of meditation let us have a moment of devotion.
Our Gracious LORD and Holy KING we thank thee for the privilege of gathering together in the Spirit of Thy Presence that we may more fully yield to the working of Thy Spirit in body and mind and heart, to the end that we may share in letting Thy Kingdom come, first in ourselves, and through us in the manifestation of control in the range of our circumstances and affairs. Letting Thy Will be done in earth as it is in heaven we may prove that it is possible for human beings to be changed from the old world pattern to the new, while they live here on earth, that we may let Thy Creative Word make all things new in us, according to the working of Thy Great Plan, in the fulfillment of Thy Purpose, for Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever. In the Christ. Aumen.
Continuing the pattern of the Easter season meditation I would like to draw your attention to a passage which we have considered before, and which we will consider again many times. It is one of the passages of very great significance upon which we may well meditate.
The Easter season and the approaching Easter Day commemorate great and stirring events in the outworking of history, in relationship to man and his spiritual attainment. We have considered together the fact that having received the current of the Holy Spirit, we can anticipate the manifestation of power. Obviously there must be power before the Greater Works may be done. The means by which this power may come into our lives is of tremendous importance to each and every one of us.
We have, in the past, considered the significance of the Word—the secret Word, the sacred Word—and we have recognized that the word Word was very often used in sacred writings to signify the secret or the sacred Word. In the ancient Hebrew, the secret Word was Shekanah. The modern scholars give the pronunciation, Shekinah. We have used the term Shekeenah, carrying a slightly different vibrational pattern, which correlates with the Motherland Tongue. But whatever pronunciation is used, the meaning is the same. I understand that there are other pronunciations utilized.
And in the first chapter of the Gospel according to John, we have a most significant outline of basic Truth in relationship to the Word. Human beings have jumped to the conclusion that this word—Word—here, is supposed to be a synonym for Jesus. We cannot agree with that view, and I feel that a careful study of the factors will show that while the Christ Spirit that was revealed through the body of Jesus was indeed the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells This word should not be taken as signifying Jesus the man, but rather the Spirit that was revealed through the man.
The meaning of this word Shekinah is the Presence of the One Who Dwells. The Master revealed the Father in His living, in His teaching, in His action, and the revelation of the Presence of the Father was the Christ Spirit or the Christ. So the word Christ in the New Testament actually means exactly the same thing as the word Shekinah in the Old Testament. And we remember that this Word was signified many times when it was not actually stated.
We recognize the revelation of the Christ Spirit as God's Love—which is the Way—God's Truth and God's Life. As the Father put it, speaking through the lips of Jesus, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” And so the Christ Spirit, so gloriously revealed through our Master's life, was indeed the evidence of the Presence of the Father, the One Who Dwells. The Secret Place of the Most High was and is Shekinah. The Shadow of the Almighty was and is Shekinah, the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells.
It was this Word, the Logos, the Christ, the Shekinah, made evident through Jesus, and through the Apostles—to the degree that they let the works of God be done—and through the Prophets of old, which allowed the works which have been performed to appear on earth. All of the works of the Old and New Testament periods—which were above or beyond the ordinary pattern of function—were definitely the result of the increased working of the Spirit, which is the evidence of the Presence of the One who Dwells.
As long as we have life in the body, we have the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells; as long as we have the capacity to think, to feel and to know, we have some evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. It is not that we imagine that there is no evidence of the One Who Dwells or of His Presence. We see the evidence of His Presence on every hand. We see it with every expression of faithfulness, of nobility, of true character, as we observe one another in daily life. Yes, here in our daily life we know the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, but we know that this manifestation of the evidence is not yet great enough—that we here can let our lives, our capacities, our bodies, our patterns of life action, become a means by which still greater evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells may appear.
We remember the word that is written, “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the living God and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” The Spirit of God is the Shekinah, the evidence of the Presence of God or the One Who Dwells. We remember that in the days of old, the Tabernacle was the symbol of the body of man, or mankind. In one pattern it was the symbol of the female body—but it was also the symbol of the body of mankind, as mankind is supposed to be negative or responsive to the Body of God; and it was in relationship to the Tabernacle that this evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells was made evident in the days of the children of Israel—the Glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle and shone round about.
Your body is the Tabernacle, and in your body we have the Outer Court, which relates to the conscious mind; we have the Holy Place. which relates to the emotional nature, and the Holy of Holies. The ancient description of this evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells was first of the Cloud of Glory, and within the Cloud of Glory, the Light that Glows and within the Light that Glows, the Fire that Burns—and Glory relates to Life, Light relates to Truth, and Fire relates to Love. We understand the symbolic meaning of the words. We see that in the Old Testament pattern, it was exactly the same portrayal as that given by the Master. God’s Love and Truth and Life made manifest through human beings is the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. Now with respect to this Shekinah of our KING, we have this passage in the Gospel according to John, beginning with the first verse in the first chapter:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” In the beginning was Shekinah, and Shekinah was with God, and Shekinah was God in action. This same evidence of the Presence was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.
We will consider this passage again in different ways, but tonight, we pause first to note this statement, “All things were made by him.” Life, whether made manifest through a righteous person or an evil person, that life is a part of the Christ Spirit, a part of Shekinah. All things that have been made on the face of the earth, by all the human beings who have ever lived or who live today, all things that man has made were made by reason of the Presence of Shekinah—the Christ Spirit, the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Life. “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
Wrong uses of this evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells permit man to make evil things, but without Shekinah was not anything made that was made, at any time in history. In your life you have never made anything, achieved anything, experienced any fulfilment except through the working of Shekinah.
In any beginning—in the beginning of your life, in the beginning of any action, in the beginning of function in any moment—the action that is possible, is made possible by reason of Shekinah. To the degree that we realize this, we see that man can take this Spirit of God, which is in fact the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, and use it self-actively, use it contrary to God's Will, contrary to God's Purpose and produce that which God would not bring forth. But whatever we do, good, bad or indifferent, whatever appears in our lives in any way, shape or form, has come forth by reason of the use, right or wrong, of the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. We recognize that it is of vital importance that the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells should be allowed right function, right use, right application in our daily lives, in ourselves, in our circumstances.
“In the beginning was the Word.” Because of this statement as it is worded, human beings are inclined to think that this Word, whatever it was, while it was in the beginning, it remained back there somewhere, but this Word, this Shekinah, this Christ, was and is the Only Begotten Son of God. It is that which issues forth from God—the Shekinah, the Christ, the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. And while this Word was present in the beginning, it has been present in every moment of time since that beginning, whenever that was.
This Shekinah, this evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, is present with us in this moment; and the baptism of the Holy Spirit relates to an increase in the manifestation of the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, and that evidence should appear more vibrantly, more fully in our daily lives.
From the beginning of the story as it is portrayed in Genesis to the conclusion of the Book in Revelation, the same theme is repeated over and over and over again. We see it exemplified in the life of the Master, but that was not a variation; it was not a different theme—it was the same theme that has been expressed from the beginning of time. This is the theme that is with us now. Once these simple truths are seen and accepted and we share the experience of allowing an increase in the manifestation of the evidence of the One Who Dwells, we thereby become members of the One Body—we thereby share in the increased outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Blessed ones, all the things that have been done have been achieved by reason of this Word—Shekinah. Our Master's life was made meaningful because of Shekinah. If our lives are to be meaningful, it must be by reason of this same Shekinah. No matter what the term, no matter what the name used—it is the same thing: the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. And to the degree that we allow an increase in this evidence, we fulfill our mission on earth—to the degree that we use the Love, the Truth and the Life of the Christ Spirit, of Shekinah, for wrong purposes, for self-active purposes, we fail.
To the degree that we let Shekinah use us to reveal the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells in us, we serve God, we glorify our King and we become a means by which blessings are made manifest to our brother man in the true Spirit of Service. If there is power, that power comes from God. But how does anything come from God? By one means only, by Shekinah or Christ, the Christ Spirit—that which issues forth from God constantly. At all times, under all circumstances, the Christ Spirit, Shekinah, is present. “And without him was not anything made that was made.”
If my lips make a sound, which we call a word, in the expression of the truths of Being, that sound was made by the Word, by Shekinah, by Christ. As our bodies become the means by which the revelation of the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells is brought forth on earth, the fruit of the Spirit appears in our lives—we become members, branches of the One Vine, bringing forth the fruit of the Spirit. And what is the Spirit? The Holy Spirit, Shekinah, Christ, it is all the same.
The Master said, “By their fruit ye shall know them.” The fruit of the Spirit is the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. Every action, every word, every attitude, gives evidence of some spirit in man—but no spirit, even the ill spirits of fear, resentment, envy and all the rest cannot appear except by reason of the misuse of Shekinah in our lives. If we, in reverence before the Throne of God, come to realize that every word, and every deed, all that we express in life, provides evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, and that Shekinah makes possible all these expressions, we will surely, in relationship to any impulse, pause to consider and meditate, upon the wonders, the beauty and the glory, granted to us as we allow the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells to appear in our lives.
In court, the courts of our land, a witness is supposed to be capable of giving evidence, and the value of the evidence is weighed, that there may be justice. As long as life remains in you, you are a witness. What is the evidence that appears in your life? The evidence of distortion, self-activity, wrong function or the true, pure evidence of a true witness, the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. What is the evidence in your life? Is it the pure evidence? All that you think and say and do every attitude you express tends to convince someone either for or against the Kingdom of God on earth.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” We cannot separate that which is with God from God. The Only Begotten Son of God—not Jesus, the man, but the Christ Spirit revealed through the man, which we also are privileged to reveal, the Shekinah, the Word. The Wordis with God, and the Wordis God. The true manifestation of the evidence of the Presence of God is the expression, the action of God in our lives.
In this present time, there is Shekinah, and Shekinahis with God and ShekinahisGod. In this present time, there is the reality of the Christ Spirit and the Christ Spirit is with God and the Christ Spirit is God in action, for the Word is the Only Begotten Son of God; and this is that which you are called upon to reveal in your life, according to your capacity, for our Master said, “Follow me”, and if He revealed the Only Begotten Son of God, and if we follow Him, then we likewise reveal the Only Begotten Son of God—Shekinah, the Spirit of the Living Christ.
Until we realize our opportunity in letting this be so, we cannot truly follow Him; we cannot truly serve God or man; we cannot experience and know the increase of power—we cannot hope to have fulfilment. Only as we, members of the Body, branches of the Vine, do our part toward revealing the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, Shekinah, Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God—only so, can we bring forth the Fruit of the Spirit; only so can we accomplish that for which God brought us into the world; for your body was formed in your mother’s womb by the power of Shekinah, by the working of the Christ Spirit of Love and Truth and Life.
You were born and you grew as a babe, a child, a young man or woman, to this present day. Regardless of the wrong uses to which you may have put that Spirit in you, making it manifest not as true evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells, but the evidence of darkness, of distortion, of chaos, of unreality, you come to know that only as you follow our LORD and KING in revealing the evidence on earth of the Presence of the only begotten Son of God, Shekinah, Christ, the Holy Spirit, can you come to know your part and place in the Cosmic Plan, only so can the Kingdom come, only so can the Will of God be done in earth as it is in Heaven.
Without Shekinah, no change is possible, in the sense of movement toward the goal which God has set before us. To the degree that we violate our privilege of having Shekinah present in our bodies, in our Temples, we separate ourselves from Shekinah and come to naught. But to the degree that we let Shekinah have full, true expression in revealing the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, we find that there is power enough, understanding enough, to permit great events to take place in our lives, so that we begin to share in the doing of the Greater Works. We come to know the truth with respect to the resurrection and the life; we come to know the Only Begotten Son of God—not the man Jesus, though He revealed Shekinah. We cannot come to know Jesus, the man—for He is not here. We can come to know the Shekinah of our KING, which He revealed on earth. We can come to share in the action of the Only Begotten Son of God in this realm of things, in this day and time—and surely there is need in the world for the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells.
Heavenly Father, we would let it be so,both now and always, for Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory. Thine is is the Christ Spirit. Thine is the Only Begotten Son ofGod. Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever. Thine is the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells,in the Christ. Aumen.
Let us then let the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells be made manifest in us and through us, in thought and word and deed, in attitude; for the Christ Spirit is here, as surely as at anywhere at any time, and as a member of the body of mankind, you are called upon to be a member of the Body of Christ, a member of the Body of the Only Begotten Son of God on earth, the Shekinah of our KING. So let it be.
Peace be unto you, as you abide in the true evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, letting your capacities of Being in body and mind and heart reveal the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells. Peace be unto you, in the Shekinah of our KING, in the Christ Spirit of His Being, that mankind, the Son of Man, may provide the evidence of the Presence on earth of the Only Begotten Son of God. Peace be unto you, in Love, in Truth and in Life. Peace be unto you, in body and mind and heart, and through you to all who will receive, in the Shekinah of our KING, which is to say, in the Christ. Aumen.
