IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 188

YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

We ‘rang in the New Year’ with the thought of doing the thing that the Master tells us is an outward sign of our spiritual nature and through which we can all play a part, however small it may seem, in helping to dissipate the worldly attitudes that prevail today. At the same time, if we can do as He says and “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16), we can advance our own spiritual stature and bring to ourselves ever more Light. As we saw yesterday this is a way par excellence of increasing our ability to serve the Master through our serving Him, which follows along with His sayings on this subject which we repeat here before we move on. Through the ‘building effect’ of these precepts we can come into our place in His Kingdom and by our example we can create ‘waves of Goodness’ in the environment in which we live.

Jesus tells us through parables that to each is given certain ‘talents’ “according to his several ability” (Matthew 25:15) which can be seen as one’s ability to build a personality nature through which the Soul can adequately work. This in itself is a complex subject with which we will not deal much here today but which can become food for thought. It is written that God is “no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34) and for this to be a true statement we must see that no man can come into Life with any benefit over another and that no man can be seen as any better than another. While this is true, it must also be considered that man is not this body of flesh nor its inherent conscious personality; man is the Spirit and then, in manifestation, the Soul and it is in this regard all men are equal. As we have discussed in past posts this is a Christian principal, spoken of in our New Testament, but not nearly understood and, this is also a central theme through which the concept of reincarnation can be understood. The differences that we see between men in this world, whether they be physical, mental, emotional or differences in the total complexity of a conscious man, are differences in the body nature that the Soul can build and desires to build though ‘use’ may be a better term for our understanding. So man comes into Life on Earth “according to his several ability” which we should see as the result of what we have here said. Some in the church choose to look at a mans “several ability” in the world as a gift of God but it the right thinking of this concept one would have to set aside the idea of God being “no respecter of persons“. Rather, if we look at this as man coming into the world in with his “several ability” based upon the spiritual progress made in prior lives we can maintain a proper view of our God being “no respecter of persons” and when we compound this idea by the concept of free will with which a man is born into the world we can see too that much of one’s spiritual progress is based upon the choices made in a lifetime, the focus of one’s life. Again, this is a very complex subject and one which is not nearly understood by any in this world save the very few who are accounted worthy of His Kingdom and it is likely too that those who do understand are not at liberty to divulge its secrets.

Returning to our remarks regarding the Master’s sayings, we should keep in mind these things which are based on our interpretation of the parable when one is involved and not on the history nor the story itself.

• In the Parable of the Talents or Minas (In the Words of Jesus parts 104-105) Jesus speaks the words above in relation to what man is given. He says “And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey” (Matthew 25:15). Likening this to what it is that our Souls impart to our consciousness for a particular lifetime we can see the vast array of differences between men. It is desired by the Soul, the Christ Within, that whatever it is that ability we have as men in form, being spiritual in nature, we will use in a spiritual way and not according to the ways of the world. We know however the lure of the world, we all experience “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” which pulls us away from our spiritual nature until such a time as we can see the reality that this “is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16) and begin our journey back. The Master goes on to tell us that when the Soul, the Christ Within, which is represented as the lord who gave the talents and then went on his journey, ‘returns’ there is then to be a reckoning of what one, as a man in form, has done with what he had been given. Jesus tells us here that “After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them” and to those who had done well with their ‘talents’ he says “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things” signifying a successful Life based on what was given. Those however that had not done well with their ‘talents’ are told “Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents” signifying an unsuccessful Life based on what was given and the need then to give up that which was not used and was wasted. Here we have then the finish of this idea in “For unto every one that hath shall be given , and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath” (Matthew 25:19, 21 28-29). We can look at these ideas as working out in one’s day by day activities as well as in one’s lifetime as they are equally well suited to both; we build upon that which we have and use, and we lose sight of that which we have and use not.
• The second part of this is found in the Parable of the Faithful Servant (In the Words of Jesus part 103) and is in regard to the idea of ‘how much’ of ability we come into Life with. The Master tells us here that “….for unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luke 12:48) and this should be seen in the same Light as what we have have above. The greater our ability, the greater ‘amount’ that we may have in this Life, the greater our responsibility as well and here we should see that we are not only to be measured by what it is that we do but also in proportion to that ‘amount’ we have. We may ask what is the measurement in both instances and who it is that does the measuring. We call Him God that measures and judges but in the reality of this the judges are ourselves, our True selves. This may be a difficult concept for the Christian mind but it should be seen as no stranger than what we are taught about a God that sits above and judges mankind. The Soul, the Christ Within, is pure and blameless in all things and it is this, the Life of the Soul, that the body is destined to reflect; anything short of this keeps us coming back until that time as the man in form is able to live the Life of the Christ Within and is able to be as the Master is and as He tells us that we should “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” Matthew 5:48).
• Our last point here is in the combination of the above ideas. First that we come into Life with some amount of ability which we shall here now call Light and see it as the Light of the Soul. Some of those born are capable of displaying a little Light and others are capable of displaying much Light with this difference not at all based on the presumed gift of God but based upon our several abilities as Souls which we have accumulated in Life after Life here in this Earth. This can be seen in one’s form Life as the ability of the form built to express this Light; this is comingled then with the focus of that Life thus creating the overall complexity of this matter. This is then, before the idea of focus, one’s inherent capacity that is based upon “to every man according to his several ability“. Second we have the idea that we need to use all the capacity to display this Light as we may have and this from the Master’s saying that: “….for unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required“. In this we should also see the necessity of single mindedness and the reality of the Master’s pronouncement that “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” Luke 16:13). Finally if there can ever be a finally in the Master’s thoughts, there is the concept of having and getting as it is related to using what we have. In the context with which Jesus uses this saying there is always the idea of doing, doing well, doing right, etc. and in this we should see that the saying “For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath” (Mark 4:21-25) in its varied forms is never intended to stand alone. It is ever tied to what we do with what Light we have; if we use what we have we will receive more and this can be seen just by way of the concept of it; to use the Light we would be focused upon the Soul, the Christ and the Kingdom and in this focus we find revelation which is tantamount to more Light. The opposite is also true; if we focus on the world we are shutting out the Light of the Soul and then, even that Light that we may have atrophies as we do not put it to use. Then, in a nutshell and from the perspective of the man in form, we must ‘use it or lose it’ as is true with most every ‘talent’ that one may have in the world as well.

In this all we should see, as we discussed yesterday, the ideas behind the Master’s telling us to “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven“. This is our charge, to use whatever capacity for Light that we may have as conscious personalities, in service to the Master and thereby, to our fellow men. While some in the church may tell us that it is by Faith that we are accounted worthy, we should see in the Master’s saying that there is indeed more as the connotation of our saying is that our Light shines within our “good works” which can also be seen as our fruit here on Earth. We should see in our saying above, that our ability to “glorify your Father” is found in the Light we shine by our “good works” and which are our fruit, is amplified by the Master’s saying that “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8).

We begin now a new topic and one that has been touched upon in many of the ideas we have written on our posts, the miracles of Jesus. In the long list of miracles by the Master we will find some that can be considered rather ordinary, that is that men through history have been able to perform the same. We will find others that are not quite so ordinary which can range up to and including the idea of being able to “say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove” (Matthew 17:20). The Master tells us that we too can do this by Faith, by believing, which we have defined in previous posts as KNOWING  with an absolute certainty. All of the miracles of Jesus are within our ken and our ability when we have the proper ‘tools’ which can range from simple faith to believing to KNOWING. Again, all is a matter of degree and the nature of a miracle is seen not in the largeness of the thing but rather in its uniqueness, in its being done by means of no outside force from the world of form. Like all else, this is a complex subject and one which is largely misunderstood. We will begin in the next post the details and close this one with the sayings of the Master that tell us of our potential.

• “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23).
• “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12).
• “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him” (Matthew 11:27).

In the context of this last point we should remember that the Father is akin to the Spirit of man his True self that is at One with God. The Son is akin to the Soul of man that shine his Light onto the conscious personality when that personality is ready and willing to accept it. From this perspective we will continue in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day