We are told that because of an act of disobedience man fell, thereby separating himself from God. But scripture tells us that God consigned all men to disobedience that he may have mercy upon them. So we see: the fall was a deliberate act, a plan for expansion, for greater existence, and an ultimate birth.
Scholars consider the 82nd Psalm as one of the most difficult of all the psalms to interpret, stating that although the idea may be perennial, its meaning has vanished.
Here are a couple of verses from that psalm: The Lord speaks, saying: "I say, 'You are gods, Sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like men and fall as one man, O princes.' " These words are addressed to every child born of woman regardless of race or nationality. I say to you right now, you are gods, Sons of the Most High, all of you!
Evidently when these words were first spoken we were not men, otherwise the forecasting of our death like men would have no meaning. As a man, you know you will die; so what is being said here?
First called a son of God, you were told of the grand experiment in the statement, you shall die like men. Here is the plot for expansion and an ultimate birth. But what were we prior to the fall? I cannot describe that body, but I will use scripture in the hope that you will use your imagination, although I urge you not to come to any definite conclusions.
The fall, in symbolism, is associated with the serpent. As God's wisest creature, he said to generic man (in the form of woman): "Did God say you would die?" and she answered: "Yes, if I ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Then he made this statement: "God knows you will not surely die, but your eyes will be opened and you will become like the gods, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3)
The serpent has now become man! This serpent is described by Isaiah as the seraphim [sic]. Describing his vision, Isaiah said: "I beheld the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. Above him were the seraphim." In Hebrew, the word means glorious celestial being, fiery serpent, noble one, prince.
Our friend, Marta, departed this world on the 19th of July. Within a week after Marta's departure, her friend who was with her when she died had this vision. She saw Marta, the same dear girl we all loved. She was in a cage, heart-shaped but inverted so that the base was wider than the top, with a line of division between the two sections. Marta was on one side, with an enormous serpent on the other, with rings of color from its tail to its head. Questioning her, Marta said: "How much longer will it be until we will become one?" Picking up a book, the lady read aloud: "After six thousand years, man and the serpent become one. You can tell the age of the serpent by the number of rings." Approaching Marta, preparing to count the serpent's rings, she said: "If Neville says it is so, it is so" and awoke.
Now, God speaks to man through the language of dream and makes himself known in vision. Here is a vision. My friend has come to the end of the road. She has completely finished the drama and the two are now becoming one. Think about it. What would you get if you blended man and the serpent? A glorious, fiery being which Isaiah described as having six wings - two covering the face, two the feet and two used for propulsion.
You cannot describe the heavenly being you really are; yet you are gods, sons of the Most High, O princes. One being, containing all within himself, fell into division and resurrects into unity, into a holy temple of the Lord in whom you also are built in.
The act of resurrection is God's mightiest act, for he must awaken his sons, who deliberately fell into this world of decay and death. Dwell upon your true being, for although you have forgotten it, you are a son of God. You had to forget this truth in order to assume the limitations of this cross called man.
But before this assumption, our one grand hope was for expansion and ultimate birth. Having fallen into division, we will return to a unity far greater than we knew prior to the descent.
Without defining exactly what you look like, suppose you are now the being spoken of as the son of God. You certainly are not a man, because you must fall into man and die like men. Knowing that no man takes your life, you lay it down yourself. You have the power to lay it down and the power to lift it up again.
You agreed to take upon yourself this garment of anatomy called man, which is filled to overflowing with passion. Now, believing yourself to be human, you have emptied yourself of your power and wisdom. You cannot restrain the impulse to act, even though you were told that if you entertained one concupiscent thought you would die. Can you now see that the drama is psychological and not physical?
The moment you contemplate an act, it has been committed. Whether it is pleasant and you may be inclined to do it physically, or you restrain the impulse to act upon that which you are contemplating, the act is already done!
"You have heard it said of old: 'You shall not commit adultery,' but I say to you that any man who looks upon a woman lustfully has already committed the act with her in his heart." Here you see the whole drama put into a psychological frame. It is not good enough to restrain the impulse. You can't even have it! God consigned you to disobedience by giving you a garment of passion and then telling you that if you entertained one concupiscent thought, you would die.
There is not a thing you -as man - have ever done that God has seen something to be blamed in the act. And in the end, God in his infinite mercy will step beyond and arouse you. Having tasted what it is to be man in a world of death, you - a son of the Most High - will add what you have extracted from being man, to God's glory.
Before you fell into this world of men, you were infinitely greater than any man who ever walked the face of this earth. You have no ancestor comparable to the being you really are. Although you emptied yourself of your divine power and wisdom, it is still awaiting your return. And you will return expanded beyond the wildest dreams of what you were prior to the fall.
One Man, containing all men, fell into division, and all men are gathered one by one and redeemed into the unity of the one Man who fell. "This structure is slowly built as a holy temple of the Lord in whom you also are built in."
Let no one tell you that you did anything wrong to cause your descent. It was because God challenged himself to literally die and overcome death. This you will know to be true when you begin to stir within yourself. Then your brain will become alive, and you will awaken in the tomb of your skull, from which you will come out.
Now we are told: "He is designated son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead." If you read scripture carefully, you will discover that the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes is not a birth, but a sign of the birth. And when it is said that Jesus was twelve years old, I ask you: twelve from what? Not from a little garment of flesh, but Jesus Christ is a wholly supernatural being. He is the son who fell when he wasn't man to begin with. Jesus is the someone buried in you that is you!
One day he will awaken and you will see others, but they will not see you, as you will be invisible to them. But you will know yourself to be sheer power and sheer wisdom.
So resurrection is identified with birth, for at that moment you are designated son of God, with power by your resurrection from the dead. Man is born anew through the resurrection of the son of God, who died to give life to his little body which appears in the world. Regardless of your physical age, the moment you are called you are resurrected to experience your ultimate birth, which was the hope before the fall of the one Man who fell.
Although this may seem too spiritual, I am telling you of your true background. You do not have any ancestor who is a son of God - you are! You have deliberately forgotten it for a little while, but no one here can come close to the nobility of the being you really are. You are the seraphim! A glorious flaming celestial being! The noble one! Even though our association with the serpent is one of fear, the seraphim are those who are around the throne of God.
What we are dealing with here is creativity. Having eaten of the tree of good and evil, man judges, but God sees neither right nor wrong. Allowing man to do what he wills, God knows that man will be redeemed and return more glorious, more luminous, than before his descent.
Let no one tell you that because of your disobedience you are separated from God, for your separation was both a tragedy and a triumph. A tragedy because you fell into death, and a triumph because you will rise into life everlasting.
Now, every mystic sees the journey as one of six thousand years. Blake beheld the visions of his deadly sleep of six thousand years as dancing around his skirts like a serpent of precious stones and gold - which he knew to be himself. How can I describe my vision other than to say that when my body was split from top to bottom, I did not see a form, only golden, liquid light, which I knew to be myself. Then I fused with it and rose, just like a serpent, into my skull.
Now, I know from experience that when you are born from above, you are designated son of God and given the power to raise the dead. "The dead will hear the voice of the son of God and rise. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the son also to have life in himself." (John 5)
The son of man has the power of judgment on earth, but the son of God has the power to call his brothers out of their graves. No hydrogen bomb can raise the dead. It can kill them, but nothing can arouse them but this power. When it is applied to one who has been asleep for six thousand years, it will cause him to awake and rise from the grave of his own body, in which he has been sleeping all these years.
Now I would like to tell you a little story. As a man called Neville, I was born into a large and very poor family. We had no educational, social, or financial background, but my mother was very wise. If she saw anything she thought unbecoming in her children she would say: "Have you forgotten that you are a Goddard?" (That was our surname.) We were too young to know anything about backgrounds, but the mere fact that mother said it, made us realize that we must have forgotten we were Goddards or we would not have done what we did.
By the time we discovered that we had no background, the idea was so ingrained in us that we made the name important, with the result that the Goddards in Barbados today are the outstanding business people of the island. Year after year, our family-owned corporation does a gross of over $30 million and it grows and grows; yet it all started with mother saying: "Have you forgotten you are a Goddard?"
You can take any little thought like that and make the tree of money grow for you in this world. Then just imagine what you could do if you go beyond this world of Caesar.
You could imagine that the Elohim - a compound unity of one made up of the redeemed - has taken his place in the divine congregation. In the midst of the gods he pronounces judgment, saying: "You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you: nevertheless, you shall die like men and fall as one man, O princes, O seraphim, O' glorious celestial beings! You will empty yourself of your glory, your wisdom and your power and take upon yourself a garment of death and decay. Then, after a journey of horror for six thousand years, you will be restored having expanded your wisdom and your power by reason of your descent into decay and death."
So let no one tell you that you did anything which was wrong to be expelled and separated from the Father. Yours was a deliberate act for your expansion and ultimate birth.
Now let us go into the silence.
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