There is no greater thrill than sharing in divine creative activity! This activity, however, cannot be earned, for it is given by grace. When someone proclaimed: “I am of Paul and I am of Apollo,” Paul asked, “Who is Paul and who is Apollo? I have planted and Apollo has watered, but God gives the growth.” An idea is a seed which can be planted in the mind; but having no life in itself, the thought will remain dormant unless God gives it birth.
Speaking of a remnant, Paul said: “When Elijah petitioned God against Israel because they had killed his prophets and destroyed his altars, and I alone am left, what did God say? He said: ‘I have seven thousand men who have not bent their knee to Baal.” Then Paul added this thought: “So, too, at this time there is a chosen remnant, chosen by grace; and if it is by grace, then it is not based on works . . otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.” (Romans 11) The remnant is chosen by grace, yet no one knows the secret of God’s selective love, and therefore cannot boast if he is elected. I, like Paul, say that at this time also a remnant has been chosen.
Now, although Paul speaks of seven thousand men, these are not people, but the number seven . . which means spiritual perfection, a perfection which cannot be earned. Fitness for the kingdom is the consequence, not the condition, of God’s grace. The moment an individual is called, embraced, and has union with the Holy Spirit, he is spiritually perfect. Prior to that moment in time he is not fit, therefore he is chosen by grace.
The entire epistle to the Romans rests upon Paul’s argument for the paramount importance of faith in God’s plan of salvation. To Paul, Christian teaching was teaching Christ as a great mystery. He defines Christ as God’s power and wisdom wrapped in a pattern which unfolds within an individual. And the faith of which Paul speaks is faith in the pattern he calls Christ. The churches have distorted Paul’s faith in Christ, making it a person; yet Paul asked: “What came you out to see, a man that can be tossed by the wind? How can men call upon him in whom they do not believe? And how can they believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how can they hear unless there is a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news.” Using Isaiah as his marvelous argument, Paul asks: “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” Then he concludes: “Therefore, faith comes from hearing, and hearing comes by teaching Christ.”
Paul is speaking of his faith in the vision of the end, when he told Timothy: “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.” No matter what happened to Paul, whether he was in prison or shipwrecked, he held aloft the mighty works of God, which must come to the individual at the end of this age of death. Your departure from the age of death and entrance into the age of life occurs when the power of God and the wisdom of God is born in you individually. This act fits you to function consciously in an entirely different age . . a world which is unknown to anyone here, as nothing here relates to what is seen there. Although perceived, that age is unknown until your garment of death is removed for the last time.
Now, those who are sent are conscious of being sent. They are aware of that moment of union with God, as well as every event which takes place thereafter. Paul tells us that only the sent can be the preacher. But as we are told in the gospels: although some bring forth a hundred-fold, others sixty-fold and still others thirty-fold, all are qualified to enter the kingdom of heaven, and exercise their creative power of different levels.
Although many here have not brought through the full consciousness of birth, one lady has had all of the experiences but the dove. I will now tell her story. In her vision she was on a ship moving down the coastline of California, when she asked someone to let her know when she would pass Point Conception. A man at her side said: “We passed that thirty miles back, don’t you remember?” Feeling a little foolish, she admitted she had forgotten . . but I say to her: this was thirty years, not miles. Your conception happened thirty years ago, and therefore your birth from above is imminent. A short time later she awoke, hearing a voice say: “Father, father.” Feeling fatherly love, she answered: “Yes, my son.” This vision was not an adumbration, but her very Being, telling her in symbolic form what has already happened, for this vision was followed by another.
The next day a beautiful infant appeared before her. This was followed by a handsome youth. As the vision continued, she found herself in a house with a man who was both a thief and a murderer. Running toward the kitchen, a terrified female companion blocked her entrance. Turning, she found an alcove with an unusually small window. Sticking her head through it, she had to squeeze her body through, when suddenly everything gave way as though made of paper. At that moment the man appeared with a jackknife in his right hand and a butcher knife in his left. Approaching him from the rear, she grabbed both of his hands and, slamming the jackknife shut, she cut his right hand and somehow wounded the left.
Then her female companion entered with an enormous saw which she held above her head with both hands and asked: “Shall I saw him in half?” Screaming, “No,” my friend moved between the two and . . with her back to the lad . . she said: “I love him.” With that, she took the man in her arms and embraced him. As she looked into his face she saw, not a criminal, but a friend who had died many years ago, yet one she had always respected because of his integrity, his courage, and most of all for his individualism.
In his poem, ‘The Hound of Heaven’, Blake tells of being chased all through the nights and days, down through the arches of the years, all through the labyrinthine ways of his mind; and in the midst of tears, he hid from him. But at the very end he discovered he was the one he had been seeking. That seeming other . . his tormentor . . was in truth his lover, who is God the Father.
In her glorious vision, the companion severed her when she faced her tormentor. At that moment she experienced the splitting of the curtain of the temple from top to bottom. She did not see the act, for she turned her back on the lifted sword. She doesn’t remember the blow any more than she remembers the conception or the birth, but the whole thing is over for her. It was brought back to her in beautiful imagery. Her Father knows why he kept the experiences away from the surface mind, but it is my hope that she will remember the descent of the dove.
Another lady wrote telling of her vision, in which she was holding an elongated box, much like a shoe box. Knowing she is in the box she is observing, she hears her own voice speak from the box, saying: “I am Joseph and cannot get out until I am Jesus.” This is perfect imagery. In the Book of Genesis we read: “In the beginning God,” and the book ends with these words: “In a coffin in Egypt.” The word translated coffin means an elongated, movable place of worship covered with skin. Joseph is in this elongated box, dreaming this dream called life. Now, the Bible ends with the words, Come Lord Jesus. And we are told: I am the beginning and the end. God began to make this world alive by burying himself in man. Your body is the coffin in which Joseph is buried, dreaming your life into being, and he cannot get out until he becomes Jesus. Only then can he break the shell and resurrect himself to reveal you, individually, as the Lord God Jehovah. My friend has already had the conscious union with the Holy Spirit. She is destined to experience all of the events consciously.
Another lady wrote saying she found herself in a huge domed room, which she knew to be her skull. Awake and aware as she had never been before, she was aware of the immensity of space as she awoke. Finding herself awake in God’s tomb, she has resurrected. This event is followed by the birth from above. Although she did not bring forward her exit from her skull, she has been born from above. In her letter, she said: “After this experience the world seemed to change. The people began to take on the appearance of mechanized dolls and the world a huge doll house.” She saw correctly, for the world outside is truly filled with mechanized dolls. Every event in the world contains the capacity for symbolic significance. Everything there is dead, simply bearing witness to the imaginal acts of men.
Let me put it this way: This past week the nation mourned the passing of what . . on the surface . . was a fine, cultured, well-educated young man, with seemingly everything to live for. As far as we know, he was a member of a devoted family, a senator with multiple millions at his beck and call. He was first publicly recognized as a lawyer when his brother appointed him to be the United States Attorney General, therefore, he personified law. Desiring to become the president, he personified government.
Although the people had only a day or two to arrange his funeral to be shown on television, millions of people set themselves to the task. If you watched their production, you saw two hundred priests, cardinals, and archbishops on the inside of the church. The choral groups sang and the music played, as everything was performed on cue. Now, when a Broadway show goes into rehearsal, it may take weeks or even months to open; yet this event was done live, without any retakes. What average person could depart this world and find such a gathering of archbishops and cardinals, the president, and government representatives? Therefore, he is the personification of that greatest of all institutions of an orthodox nature.
Let us turn to the last chapter of the Book of Revelation, where we find these words: “Those who will not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, let there be a curse upon him.” This is followed by the word ‘anathema’ and translated, ‘Come Lord Jesus’. The word, however, means a curse, solemnly pronounced by ecclesiastical authority and accompanied by excommunication.
When you turn your back on all organizations, laws, customs, and institutions which would interfere with the direct access to your Father, you will look dispassionately upon a scene such as that which recently took place, and see it as proclaiming your freedom. Having witnessed the passing of that which personified and embodied the institutions of law, government, and orthodox religions from your mind, you will realize that every belief which would interfere with your direct access to the Father has passed away, and you are free to be born from above. You cannot hold any false beliefs and expect birth from above, for your belief will be your intermediary between yourself and the source. You must give up all and stand alone, just you and God the Father. Only then are you born from above. This is followed by God’s son revealing himself to you by calling you Father. And like the lady who felt an intense fatherly feeling for her son, you will answer automatically: “Yes, my son.”
As I said, I cannot conceive of any greater satisfaction than sharing in the divine creative activity in the depth of one’s soul. I was called and sent in 1929. Thirty years later I experienced the birth from above. It has been 39 years since my conscious incorporation into God’s body, thereby becoming one body and one spirit with the Risen Lord. The night of my birth I knew the mission that was mine. I am telling you now, not to boast, for I did not commission myself. I did not volunteer, but was drafted. I was called, incorporated into the body of love and sent, fulfilling scripture; for how can men hear unless there is a preacher, and how can men preach unless they are sent?
The pulpits of the world do not preach Christ, but the issues of the day, discussing what can be done to change this moral illness. That’s not Christ! Tell the true story over and over again until those who hear it respond deeper and deeper. Tell it continuously, for there is no other story to tell. What does it matter what happens in a doll house filled with mechanical dolls? Are you going to be confused about this doll’s departure and that one’s arrival? The world is an externalized play, bearing witness to an inner activity of the soul. If you see experiences as horrors and become emotionally involved in them, they tie you to them. But if you can see that which is external to yourself, but reflecting your thoughts, you will change their flow, thereby departing from thoughts which would bind and curse you.
You are told: “They will put you out of the synagogue. They will murder you and think they are serving God. They will do this because they know neither the Father nor me.” If they knew the real Father, they would know me, for we are inseparable. One day you will know who you really are. You will know you are God the Father, because you will look into the face of God’s only begotten son, David; and knowing he is your son, you will experience a love greater than you have ever known before. And when he calls you father, you will know for a certainty that you are God!
This vision is God’s gift of grace, which is God’s unearned and unmerited gift of himself. In spite of the fact that you may feel you are unworthy of receiving so marvelous a gift, God so loves you he gives you his only begotten son to reveal your true identity and fulfill God’s purpose to himself. Your response to what you hear concerning the true Christ is the measure of your real faith, which deepens as the story is heard over and over again. Then you have but one consuming goal: to set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the unveiling of Christ from within you.
Asking the simple question: “What think ye of the Christ?” he continues by asking: “Whose son is he?” When they answered: “The son of David,” he asks this most important question: “Why then did David in the spirit call him Lord? If David, in the spirit calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be David’s son” Only when David calls you Father, will you know you are the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are told that in the beginning God placed himself in a coffin in Egypt. This world is Egypt. It is dead, but God’s hope is fulfilled at the journey’s end when all the promises in the Old Testament are fulfilled in the New, in you! The Old Testament ends upon this note: “A son is his father’s honor. If then I am a father, where is my honor?” The New Testament opens with the genealogy of the coming of that son!
I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Of all that He has given me I shall not lose one. I do not consciously draw those to me. I have to let them come. The Father in me who sent me draws them. Having been sent, everyone who is drawn, must come as part of the great remnant. That’s how God builds his living temple. It is made up of the redeemed . . all woven into the one living body, the one Spirit, the one Lord, the one God and Father of all.
God’s temple is not made with human hands, like a cathedral here. It is not dead, but a living body. How one being who is now magnified to fill the earth can contain every being within himself and still remain one man, is a great mystery and a true one. You will fuse into it, without loss of identity. And those who are sent will do so with the consciousness of what has happened, and grow more and more aware of what has happened from then on.
Everyone who comes into God’s temple brings his measure of divine creative power and wisdom, which he received through being reborn from above. Therefore, as we all share in creativity, we add to the wisdom of God, to the power of God, and to God’s luminosity; for everyone brings light, brings power, and brings wisdom, causing the body to grow in wisdom, grow in creative power, and grow in light.
Now let us go into the Silence.
