Book Four Chapter Sixteen: Aggregate Levels

Aggregate levels:

As more and more minds open to the power of God within, and reject the concept of God as ‘long ago and far away’, higher unions will form. Not only does cream float to the top, but, warm air rises. Mountain climbers seek higher heights. And you, you may at times feel that you are getting ‘warmer’ in your personal investigations into truth and where you fit in. Here is what you can expect: like iron filings within the influence of a magnet, we shall be drawn together.

See Acts 4:32, “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart (mind) and of one soul (higher identity).”

We will be drawn together to form the body of Christ (who is the Word of God: an attribute of mental communication), and yet at first, we will seem to be divided. We are yet in development. As in the formation of the physical body, where single cells align themselves in small clusters that must yet develop into organs, so it is with us - we will be small at first. The direction of our development encourages us while we are in our smaller states. While we are small and weak, we are vulnerable to attacks from the ‘establishment’ camp. They are a discontent bunch, and give themselves a liberal license to think and act for others, but, we are not without developmental defenses.

See 2 Corinthians 5:12, “That ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance (corporeality), and not in heart (mind).”

The aggregate levels are levels of transition, migration, and correction. They are levels of personal inquiry into the exact nature of who we are. They are levels of consolidation and growth. We are individuals, each with a burning fire within, each seeking truth personally. Yet, we are drawn together, noting that others also have experienced the new revelations that we have so far borne alone. We see a highly personal, yet amazingly common, work in progress. It is a work that is neither distant nor impending, but a work that is taking place here and now within our present condition.

See Ezekiel 11:19, “And I will give them one heart (a single mind), and I will put a new spirit (a new mind) within you; and I will take the stony heart (disconnected mind) out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh (a spirit that is integrated with their flesh).”

Lead toads and iron moths.

We left the toads on the moist level ground near the pit. They hop in and out at will. They have always a chorus of irritating voices wherever they land. We moths have risen ever higher, ever focused on a single bright light. We will surround it like a living cloud of white beating wings, but this living cloud might never have come together as such a host had not the light drawn it. We have chosen our direction and our direction has chosen us but we have yet to arrive. It would be well, at this point, to ask ourselves why we were separated out and drawn – and not the toads. Might it be that moths have wings and toads do not? The answer may possibly be found in our very inclination to rise up and fly.

See an iron filing take wing in Matthew 22:32, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

We have corrected our courses; we have amended our paths. We have made those corrections most befitting our fluttering: no toad-like thoughts enter here. And yet, not only have we made corrections but we have been corrected.

See Hebrews 12:9, “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits (minds), and live?”

Whether singly or two by two, we flutter and we fly. We seek and ask and knock. Our small coalitions align with others so inclined as we. Our numbers grow ever larger; the God-mind is magnified. The more we look into the light, the more we have only light in our thinking.

2 Timothy 2:22, “Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart (a brightly lit mind).”

Moth eyes see differently than toad eyes. A toad surfaces; croaks cacophonously; shoots out the tongue and devours something with wings. The toad’s thoughts follow patterns of toad action. The toad moves through a dark, dank world, and so also does its thoughts. We ‘wingy’ things must stay out of reach; toad tongues are slick and lethal. We are drawn higher and we seek higher, because (if you will permit the pun) we see in a different light. That which we see is invisible to toads.

I use the word ‘invisible’ in the sense that even though they see it (they must perceive the light to see us flying through it and to it), it is useless to them and therefore meaningless. For the toad, to discern its own mind is only to see the tool by which its actions have delivered something warm and wiggly into its belly. The toad may or may not acknowledge God - if it does, it is not a personal God; it is not a God within, but some personal derivation of the ‘long ago and far away’ formula.

On the other hand, let's just take a moth’s-eye view.

See Numbers 16:22 and Numbers 27:16, “The God of the spirits (minds) of (within) all flesh (corporeality).”

Growing, we grow. Coming together, the diverse are more nearly one. Knowledge is not an end in itself; knowledge is the practice of learning. We are aware that a wagon follows the horse only because the horse pulls it. We are aware that when thoughts fall into our heads, they must drop from higher climes. Our greater knowledge is like the practice of having a head open and ready for such manna. We have seen from scripture that we normally ascribe our better nature to one who gives, or implants.

Open up to 2 Corinthians 8:16, “But thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart (mind) of Titus for you.”

We commonly attribute a shared bond to our interactions. We perceive that the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that we communicate between our members come to characterize all of us: individually and collectively. What we share identifies us. After all, one may define an organ as a body of cells that share the same traits, functions, and goals. Each cell in that organ partakes of the collective character of the whole.

See Philippians 1:7, “Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart (mind); inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.”

The heart, or mind, must be broken and rewritten, like Moses’ tables. The upward path is never easy or static. Change and growth involve not only building up but tearing down and rebuilding. Eventually, the messenger becomes iconic. We do not think of Moses unless we think of the Ten Commandments; we do not think of Paul unless we think of the gospel message spreading across ancient boundaries, filling the pages of the New Testament, transcending time. We think of Moses’ conversations with God, his forty years and death in the wilderness. We think of Paul’s traumatic conversion and his beatings.

The messenger, thus, is characterized by the nature of the message.

See 2 Corinthians 3:2-3, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts (minds), known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit (mind) of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart (mind).”

We are aware of the transient nature of our minds – that they are constantly in a state of flux, both affecting and being affected. We know that when a new thought comes into the mind, that is a changed state. We know that the things that change the mind are many. We know that change is actually the practice of change.

See Daniel 2:29 and Habakkuk 1:11; see Daniel 5:20, “Thy thoughts came into thy mind.” “Then shall his mind change.” “His mind hardened in pride.”

Also, we now know that practiced change is like physical exercise – if you exercise the good, the

good will grow strong.

See Zechariah 10:7, “They of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart (mind) shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; (and then) their heart (mind) shall rejoice in the Lord.”

Clearly, this references practiced change that is communicated via the nature, character or outward manifestations of the individual(s) that experienced the change. We see, in the messenger, the message that attracts and builds an organ of shared character and shared purpose.

What do you mean when you say that a person is mindful? Do you think of a process? Do you think that a mindful person is one who has had the mind filled? Let us, for a moment, think of that mindful person as a ‘gas-full’ car. A mental image comes to mind. The car parks by the pump, the driver gets out and performs a process. The tank is first opened, then the nozzle is inserted, the trigger is squeezed – and voila! – the tank is ‘filled’.

See man parked at the ‘gas-pump’ of knowledge in Hebrews 12:23, “To the general assembly and church of the Firstborn, which are written (communicated) in heaven (where the God of knowledge dwells), and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits (minds) of just (pure, single-minded) men made perfect (whole, complete, full).”

The God of knowledge tells us in Ezekiel 11:5, “I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.”

As a seeker, I am convinced that is true because the God of knowledge sits upon His throne – within our minds. Heaven is a spiritual state or location, and as we say: spiritual is mental is spiritual. Our thoughts parade before His throne. He is exposed to all of them. Our thoughts are like a picture puzzle on a table in front of God. If He so chooses, He may remove any of our thoughts and replace them with His own. While we naturally assume that our will is our own, the seeker must be aware that the will is an aggregate of individual thoughts.

The God-mind is a process.

An individual’s thoughts and will are but half of the mental map. See Proverbs 16:9, “A man's heart (mind) deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.”

The aggregate levels are levels of transition, migration, and correction. They are levels of personal inquiry into the exact nature of who we are. They are levels of consolidation and growth. We may consider these levels as the pumps at which we park during the process of becoming ‘mindful’. Heaven is the state or location where the God of knowledge dwells and deals with the machinery of our whole identity. We have on this side the brain; we have on the other side the mind.

That is the machinery of our whole identity: our spiritual, or ‘mindful’ solidarity that we sometimes

call our soul. Notions of the isolated human will must fall away. Our thoughts within us are affected by the spiritual strategies of God. Since God-thoughts happen without regard to our will, all that we may do is open our will to them. Then we may rejoice as a mighty man, with other mighty men, as one mighty body with a single mighty voice.

See Mark 13:11, “But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost (the God-mind).”

Those of lesser inclinations will resist this concept for the reason being they resist the implication of another’s will imposed upon their own. And isn’t that the mind of rebellion? Yet, it matters not how hard the rebellious resist; they are rank amateurs pitted against a pro.

See them vainly struggle against a superior will in Job 23:13. “But He is in one mind, and who can turn Him? and what His soul desireth, even that He doeth.”

Any who resist will be overthrown as in a flood. The dam breaks from the sheer weight and force of the water. Well-rooted trees are ripped from the ground. Large rocks are thrown forward like straw. Who can stand before the onslaught?

See the spiritual fury of God in Hosea 13:8, “I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul (obstruction) of their heart (mind), and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.”

We seekers seek not to resist, but to open our heads like bowls that God may pour Himself in. We seek to be mindful. We seek to be ‘God-mindful’. We are in long lines at the pump. Each vehicle is a different color; each driver dresses differently, each horn sounds individually. What brings us together, what we cannot move forward without, is that filled tank. We may roll down the window and call to one another, but the seeker is mindful of the true communication.

See Luke 10:20, “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits (minds) are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names (character, nature, outward manifestation of inner growth) are written (communicated) in heaven (where the God of knowledge reigns).”

Our aggregate levels have been a preparation for a type. We shall become a type both individually and collectively. Quite a few have failed, remained vile toads in the quagmire of mismanaged genesis. Some few of us have taken white fluttering wings and sailed up toward the light. For the toad, a slime-covered rock and a belly filled with wiggling prey are satisfactory prizes but the real treasure for the toad is the practice of its craft and the pride of its solitary fulfillment. The white moth seeks the bright light within himself and the camaraderie of the congregation of God-minded brothers and sisters. Will you be the mindful type?

‘X’ marks the spot in Matt. 6:20-21, “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven (where the God of knowledge lives) . . . for where your treasure is, there will your heart (mind) be also.”

Book Four Chapter Sixteen: Social Levels

Social levels:

The man on the level ground helps the other man up from the confining limitations of his pit. Now there are two men to find and help the third. In a room full of candles, one or two lit candles is quite dim. However, as one candle is used to light another, and that one yet another, the light grows by the number of candles in current use. The mind of God abides first in one man, then in two. The numbers increase: God is magnified by every life that allows the God-mind to inhabit and lead. 'Lead where,' you ask? Out of the pit: out of the limiting prison that describes an individual whose every action and reaction only leads him down the dusty trail of demise.

See 1 Peter 3:19, “By which also He went and preached unto the spirits (minds) in prison.”

If, therefore, Christ, having been crucified and placed in hell for three days, did preach to all minds imprisoned since the time of the flood, shall not that same Holy Mind of God shine as effectively in us? If a day is a thousand years to the Lord, and Christ preached for three days to minds in prison of darkness that leads to death, is Christ presently preaching to you the light of life?

After one has been lifted from his former earthliness to stand on level ground, his present course will be set toward social intercourse with other individuals. Some, he will convince to take his hand; others he must grab by the hair and snatch to freedom. On the social levels, men form unions. Some go ‘round and ‘round pulling the imprisoned free from their muddy lives. In doing so, they must deal with the emotional levels, learning to reason in emotional tirades that move the confined.

The social levels are the formation of organs that will become the body. Within the process, bones must develop to support the growing weight. While an individual gives to another, that same individual is in need - and draws from those who are superior. In other words, ministry is never a one-way street.

See Philemon 1:10-13, “I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds: Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me: Whom I have sent again: thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels: Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel.”

It takes some doing to get fully past the attraction of the mud. Even when some climb free, they fall back. The social levels are a primary education. Individuals must learn that the pit must always be separate from the level ground. The advancement of this primary education is an extension of emotional rhetoric. Inevitably, formulas are set, codes calcify into laws. The basic theme throughout is, of course, the differentiation between the muddy pit and higher ground.

See Romans 8:7, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”

The unfortunate thing about this primary education is that it develops as an institution whose

foundations are built in the mud. As differentiation is practiced, differentiation takes on a life of its

own. Those who regularly see differences will soon see them sitting in corners and creeping through

shadows. While it serves a limited function, differentiation between two people will grow beyond

control. Consider the good and bad uses a single belief may foreshadow.

Consider Proverbs 11:13, “A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit (mind) concealeth the matter.”

Consider also Proverbs 29:11, “A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.”

When does a fool become a dog? When does a dog become the enemy? When does an enemy become a threat, and deserve to be annihilated? It is all still that same base distinction: ‘self’ and ‘other’. A ‘brother’ is just an ‘other’ with a couple of letters in front. We find, then, that good may be a tool or a weapon.

See Ecclesiastes 10:2, “A wise man's heart (mind) is at his right hand (strength); but a fool's heart (mind)at his left.”

Once pulled from the mud, an individual needs support. You can’t just say, “You’re free! Go and be free.” Everyone struggles with freedom: ‘now that I have it, what do I do with it?’ Support and direction have been markedly lacking. We scrutinize our orthodox formulas, our entrenched dogmas, and we find meager comfort.

See Job 30:26-27, “When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.”

If the emotional levels are levels of identification, then the social levels are levels of repetitive practice. Just what gets practiced? Well, for want of anything better, identification is practiced - repeatedly. So far, they’ve only been told to come up out of the mud. They practice the identification of the low estate and assistance to those who seem to be like they used to be. But the nearness to the pit, not to mention the fact that the foundations remain moored in mire, tugs at them. In the end, it is still about the alleviation of sorrow by the application of elation. They are not as elevated as their PR would have them believe. There is still the emotional beast to feed.

See Ezekiel 7:19, “They shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the

stumblingblock of their iniquity.”

The school of the social levels is the church. The teacher is a vague concept at best. The teacher is all, gives all. If we can present enough shiny apples to our teacher, we can come to where the teacher is. Where is the teacher? So far as evidence constrains, the teacher is on level ground and in the church. We never really see or hear the teacher, only the (br)other. While we form suspicions about all our moon-eyed (br)others, our teacher sits buried behind a wall of apples - lonely, desiring a relationship with those who would truly be students.

Having only the moon-eyed to communicate through might seem like a very limiting factor, but the teacher is able to shout loudly. In the muffled messages that the moon-eyed pick up on and propagate, there are hints for the rest of us. As we all sit in class reciting and practicing over and over, the little muscle within our spiritual ear grows ever more keen to the muffled cries that issue from behind the shiny wall.

Listen to the reps in Jeremiah 44:21, “The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye, and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them, and came it not into His mind?”

God knows where the repetitions will lead. I use the image of a school because that is where multiple minds develop in a common setting. ABCs and apples. While the reps continue, the apples pile higher. There are so many apples that walls form in the aisles between our seats. Some students are totally encased in such a tightly fitting wall of apples that they seem to wear apple skin. They are like walking talking Golden Delicious apple people. But even so, we all develop together. We still inhabit only the level ground – but God can work with that. The moon-eyed hear a muffled sound. They wave their arms about and proclaim the ambiguity. Upon that ambiguity, they build (with their emotional rhetoric) entire institutions without once approaching clarity.

But some of us are not clothed in apples, we naked ones; we discern the stirrings of an internal voice. It is like ours, only stronger. It is small and sometimes hard to distinguish from our own inner voice. It is calm and quiet, oh, but how inescapable the power of it! We find a union and harmony that neither pit nor level ground suggested. Our first real gain in the social levels is a mental graduation to a higher grade.

Colossians 1:21, “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled.”

And yet, we sit in the same classroom with the apples: they totally encased, we exposed. The social levels are those of intermingling, of growing up together – they are people levels. They are also the ‘get-a-clue’ levels. The successfully obtained and practiced knowledge within these levels will be the beginning (for some) of a trek into the foothills of understanding.

1 Corinthians 14:24-25, “He (the unlearned) is convinced of all, he is judged of all: And thus are the secrets of his heart (by communication of the God-mind) made manifest.”

On the level ground is the church. The apples promote the level ground and the church as goals. The promotion itself has become institutionalized. The level ground, the first level, is a broad plain. Finding a direction, taking a stand, making a commitment is of the character of primary development. One simply must choose.

See Titus 1:15, “Unto the pure (singular) all things are pure (one): but unto them that are defiled (legion: “for we are many”) and unbelieving is nothing pure (absolute); but even their mind and conscience is defiled.”

The social levels are also levels of influence. The apple-skinned have practiced and institutionalized differentiation. They have formed their moon-eyed unions and seek to proselytize every (br)other. The church of the level ground is the Holy goal that they proclaim, for that is where their practice of differentiation has placed advantage and justification. The maintenance of their advantage and justification is the institution they have built, through calcified emotional rhetoric, upon those distant muffled cries they never bothered to investigate or define. And remember, the foundations of their institution are grounded in the pit. It would appear that they are only going in circles. They promote the same old message to the same tired people in the course of maintaining their advantage and justification. Those of us less clad in apples hear the message anew from within.

Hear the inner voice speaking from Jeremiah 4:14 “Wash thine heart (mind) from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved.”

The shouting heard from behind the wall of apples troubles those who wear the wall, for it threatens to shake off their clothing and leave them naked. Elation is no longer an answer to their sorrows, but elevation is, and they reach their heights through institutionalized supplication and humility.

Even when it is a genuine and sincere response, after the manner of the true spirit of supplication and humility, as found in, Lamentations 1:20, “Behold, O Lord; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart (thinking) is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.”, even then, it is only a last-ditch effort to maintain advantage and justification in the face of jarring adversity and fear.

Ultimately, it is inevitable that two opposing camps should form. They are ‘establishment’ and ‘anti-establishment’. Historically, they have manifested in many guises. Sometimes, their separate arguments can share the same source. Establishment, on the one hand, seeks the security of the status quo. Anti-establishment, on the other hand, may use the same source message to indicate new spiritual advances.

Consider the separate uses of Hebrews 13:9, “Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart (mind) be established with grace; not with meats (sacrifices, ceremonies), which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.”

We are aware that the emotions and passions are the forces that drive our lives. Some of us are driven toward something, but of the whole, some is a small percentage. The winds wail; leaves are ripped from trees and sent in all directions. As they fall from the trees along the banks into the river of progress, only a fraction fall into the center where they may advance forward. The majority fall along the banks where the eddies keep them turning in small, confined circles. The passions drive us but passions are of the mind (what we used to call the heart).

See Deuteronomy 18:6, “With all the desire of his mind.”

The mind, then, might represent the chalkboard in our school. On that chalkboard are written the problems we must solve. We are called forward individually to take chalk in hand and write down the solution. Now, at this point, we are not speaking of absolute right and wrong. We are developing: we are learning. Doubtless, we often get the answer wrong, but as we learn and grow, so grows our percentage of correctly answered problems.

The classroom is a mess. It is in a state of chaos. It is a free-for-all classroom where one advances only in accordance with his desires. If you want to learn, you will learn. Many simply think they already know it all, and they speak as if they think they are the teacher but they exist in stasis (or, could I mean that they exist in the status quo?), and the few of us that are placed with our noses in the corner, beneath an ill-fitting dunce cap, are placed there by our (br)others. Doubtless, many more would be in the corner if the teacher was set free. In our present, mixed-up state, all of us have our ‘rights’ and our ‘wrongs’ - and plenty of each.

Our scores are posted on the chalkboard. Some of us know that the teacher is really not trapped

behind the wall. Our teacher is not so far removed; our teacher is inside our minds, where the presence or absence of a wall is critical.

See 2 Corinthians 8:12, “For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that (what) a man hath, and not according to that (what) he hath not.”

Of the walls that may be found inside our minds, let it be known that the broad and fertile plains of the level ground are no more than a beginning. They are not, nor can they be, the end that some people make them out to be. Social levels cannot be a goal in themselves. This is where people develop, where people make decisions, and choose directions. When there is no more room in the classroom for walls of apples, other walls may be built within our thinking. The foundation for such walls is pride, preconceptions, calcified emotions and passions like so many stalactites and stalagmites filling the vast, echoing vaults of the inner man - where God is building His kingdom.

Many people build walls in their minds to match the walls of their actions. That may be the end result of such well-practiced differentiation. Their thinking is action-oriented: that is their nature. They are wall builders. Realistically, there is some of that in all of us. Then again, some of us heed the call to break down those inner walls. That call is our new inner man. We have practiced him on the sly because the Apple-people might view such things as a threat to their advantage and justification.

We secretly break down our secret walls; we listen to the voice of our inner man – and what

a voice! It sounds somewhat like the teacher.

See Psalms 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken (exposed) spirit (mind): a broken (exposed) and a contrite (conscientious) heart (mind), O God, Thou wilt not despise.”

See also Psalms 34:18, “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken (exposed) heart (mind); and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit (a mind open to God).”

Still, these are the social levels. These are the levels of interpersonal intercourse, of positioning, of getting one’s head around, and practicing, knowledge – of learning the difference between the advantages of the higher ground, and the disadvantages of the pit. It must be said, therefore, that the social levels are levels of salvation. That single word characterizes our present dispensation like no other word can.

See our present dispensation in Romans 10:1, “Brethren, my heart's (mind’s) desire and prayer (communication) to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.”

See our present dispensation in Romans 10:10, “For with the heart (mind) man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth (communication) confession is made unto salvation.”

But as I say, these are the social levels, where custom and tradition are binding restrictions of differentiation and allegiance. The actions of people weigh heavily; established ceremonies weigh

heavily; even the enlightenment of some is based in common, stock concepts that place God far away

and treat the mind with an emotional standard while treating the flesh with a standard of subservience to the advantage and justification of the church of the level ground.

Presently, power and influence belong to those leaves trapped in small eddies along the banks and near the roots. At the same time, however, some few leaves do fall further from those foundations that are moored in mire; they reach as far as the currents that can sweep them forward personally. They progress beyond the mere social and emotional merry-go-round of baptism, tithing, and blind obedience to church administrators. The church of the level ground has penned its flock, whereby they gather their wool.

They have settled on the emotional laurels of social interaction.

See Romans 10:9, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart (mind) that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Even in such restrictive conditions, some individuals have climbed to the foothills of understanding, where no corrals may be found; where they are not regularly sheered, and where the voice of their new shepherd sounds from their inner man. This climb to understanding is not an act that comes without sacrifice. The sorrows of knowledge may no longer be avoided or balmed into nonexistence. They must be clearly and intimately realized. They must be held with ungloved hands.

See the severe new realization in 1 Corinthians 5:5, “To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit (mind) may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

Such a realization may yet feel the comfortable tug of the social and emotional standards not far below them. The ointment that once was applied to their fears and sorrows may be found still in the corral of the church. The laurels of custom and tradition are warm and comfortable; they subscribe to the well-being of the corporeal individual. They stipulate that the body must be now, and separate from the spirit, which they hold will come into play after death. They bend all argument back to the status quo. And yet, the same source material that is used to maintain stasis may also be newly interpreted.

See both the old and new in Hebrews 10:22-23, “Let us draw near with a true heart (an authoritative mind) in full assurance of faith, having our hearts (thinking) sprinkled from an evil conscience (a practice of wrong standards), and our bodies washed (infused) with pure water (spirituality). Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful that promised).”

How many read into this the exclusivity of body and soul? How many read into this the inclusion of spirit into flesh? The school year is nearly done. In such a chaotic class, many will fail, and may not be allowed to advance. Some few will actually graduate to the next higher level. If they at all think,

speak and act unlike the apple-skinned people, they will be cast out as anathema; they will perhaps

be labeled as oranges. But, that orangeness will not be an outward wall, nor will it be an inner wall.

The difference that makes for orangeness will be a sensitivity to higher communications, an exposure

to the true teacher, a relationship between the inner man and God, a new mind within the present

flesh.

These free sheep will never wander far from their shepherd, for all progress is toward Him. They will seek and find the true path that leads them to pasture. They will climb yet higher and further from the level ground. These milling, seeking sheep are moving out of the social levels and moving upward into aggregate levels. They will read beneath the lines; they will seek brothers and sisters who are infused with the God-mind; they will amass, coalesce, and become the new, spiritual Israel.

See Deuteronomy 10:12, “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart (mind) and with all thy soul (combined spiritual/corporeal identity).”

It is a wonder that we have spent so much time and labor in the low lands of the level ground. We are now aware that much of our former righteousness was actually transgression. When we should have reasoned with God, we, instead, fondled our emotions. When we should have been about the business of opening to the infusion of the God-mind, we wasted time with routine, custom, tradition, ceremony, and the tight, mindless circles of affectation.

See Ezekiel 18:31, “Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit (a new mind).”

Former standards will pass away. Former concepts and interpretations will be undone. The God-mind will expose to our newly opened eyes grand vistas of conception. New and beautiful truths about heaven and earth will dawn upon our tender understanding.

See Isaiah 65:17, “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”

Book Four Chapter Sixteen: Lost Levels

Lost levels:

We do not have the ability to dismiss God. Some people comfort themselves by taking the name of atheist or agnostic. By such a choice they delay the realization of their personal responsibility but, they have in no wise negated the forces that affect their lives. It is like the lemmings who cry out, “I am my own, no one tells me what to think!” - as each, in turn, throws himself into the void. He wishes to be unique and separate, but never shall his willfulness undo his bonds.

Some people chafe at the authority or the urgency in others and so seek to separate or distance themselves. They claim that fallible man, speaking for God, negates all authority by the presence of his fallibility and, by extension, negates the power and authority of God. Yet, God has more than one option. He may act directly upon the mind that is in denial, or He may act through the agency of fallible men.

Minds in denial, no less than believers, have people they will listen to. Believers have chosen to hear men who speak for God but nonbelievers and those who claim to believe otherwise have also chosen their prophets. These men of science, literature, and secular persuasion are often quoted by them, just as believers quote scripture.

The alliances of the rebellious, however, seldom work in their favor, as we see in 2 Chronicles 18:22, “Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit (communication) in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil against thee.”

The thought of a ‘sweet-natured’ and forgiving God: the notion of a limited and ineffectual God is to the believer a comfort and to the nonbeliever a font of individual empowerment. I am saying here that all people, those on both sides of the issue, struggle with their concept of God. The believers are assured that a Holy and Righteous God cannot look upon sin or evil. They are in error. The nonbelievers are assured that a God of love and forgiveness will not condemn the soul He has formed and instructed to the torments of hell. They are in error.

God is a spiritual God: a God of knowledge. He is less interested in the sinner’s fleshly comforts than in His own spiritual agenda. He is working a spiritual work more toward His own clearly formed will than toward the romanticized misconceptions of His children. It is not beyond God to exercise the full range of His power and authority.

See Judges 9:23, “Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech.”

God can, does, and will work against an individual, both directly and indirectly, but that is not to say that it is all about the individual. God may act against an individual because of established plans. The individual stands in the way of progress and that explains the tire track across his face.

God may act against an individual responsively because the individual has turned his back on God

and has disregarded the terms of his covenant with God. God may act against lands, or times, or

societies - all of which include individuals.

I have listed three scenarios.

Of the first scenario, whether of short or long-range plans, we see an indication of God acting against individuals in 1 Chronicles 5:26, “And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day.”

God may act responsively against single individuals for many reasons. Usually, the individual has disregarded the terms of his agreement with God. That was the case with king Saul, but we also

see that God had plans to set up another as king so that Saul was in the way. But, consider the power

of God to do exactly as He chooses.

Consider 1 Samuel 16:14, 15 & 16, “But the (good) Spirit (mind) of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit (mind) from the Lord troubled him. And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit (mind) from God troubleth thee. Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit (mind) from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well.”

Consider also 1 Samuel 16:23, “And it came to pass, when the evil spirit (mind) from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand.”

God may act against any individual, and He is not limited by those who believe that He cannot lie. Consider that God’s angels, whom He may send anywhere at any time as a lying spirit, are beings who are of the mind of God. Read the very words of the Bible and see for yourself that such lying spirits never act apart from God’s authorization.

2 Chronicles 18:20-21 & 1 Kings 22:21-22, “And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And He said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.”

God may act against any individual, and He is not limited by those who do not believe that He will punish them.

See Matthew 22:13, “Bind him hand and foot, and take him away.”

See also Matthew 13:30, “And bind them in bundles to burn them.”

God may do as He chooses. God does all that He does for His own reasons and for His own purposes. Neither the misconceptions of believers nor the complaints of nonbelievers affect the facts. God may also act against times, and societies, and entire nations. He may send forth His angels not only to lie but to destroy. He has done so in the past and, according to the final book of the Bible, will do so again in the future.

See Revelation 9:14, “Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.”

These four spirits (or, minds of God) will, by themselves, destroy one-third of the earth’s population in a period of time described as a little more than one year. Some people employ thoughts of a sweet, forgiving, and ineffectual God to rationalize their willfulness, or strengthen themselves against underlying fears. They complain against the concept of a God that has authority over both good and evil because that bursts the bubble of their fantasy.

What is their fantasy? It is that they are unique, special, the center of the known universe.

It is for the reason of such a fantasy that they complain - because the agreement with God and the communications involved come to them through ‘fallible man’. Should they be led by their (br)other?

That flies in the face of all their ‘unique’ independence and free will. It is much easier to think that the other is playing the know-it-all. It is much more appealing to think that they know at least as much as their (br)other. It is more empowering to believe that God should be sweet-natured and concerned only with their well-being.

But, God has His own personality and His own character. He is not limited by either belief or non-belief. Man’s justifications and rationalizations of his romanticized misconceptions and desires for self-will without consequences matter not in the least. God has, through chosen avenues of communication, described His intent and will, has offered the covenant of His choice - and we have only two paths before us: acquiescence or rebellion.

See Jeremiah 30:24, “The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until He have done it, and until He have performed the intents of His heart (mind): in the latter days ye shall consider it.”

See also Jeremiah 23:20, “The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He have executed, and till

He have performed the thoughts of his heart (mind): in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.”

What are the lost levels? They are the willfulness that separates us from the mind of God; they are the unqualified pride that leads to rebellion; they are the romantic notions that impede the advance of knowledge. It is not about man. God will never be your personal genie. It is not about God apart from man but it is about the state of man that allows the mind of God to be a real part of our complete makeup. Then the spiritual God of knowledge may truly dwell among us, and abide within. God began with a physical Israel but works toward a spiritual Israel.

See Jeremiah 9:26, “For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart (minds).”

God has his own agenda. God may either work for or against any culture, people, society, place, time, - and, yes - any individual. The reasons and purposes belong to God, not man. That being said, we must realize that in all of His work, God’s relationship with and actions toward man are basically responsive. I think that describes ‘judgement’ in a nutshell.

If you ask of Him, He will give. If you seek His truth, you will find it. If you knock on the door that is Christ, it will be opened to you. If you take a stand against God, He will take a stand against you.

Knowing that ‘what goes around comes around’, I have this to say: before you do anything that might be construed as a choice or an action against the goodness and truth of God within yourself, consider the nature of judgment explained in Proverbs 24:12, “If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart (mind) consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his works?”

Book Four Chapter Sixteen: Levels and Types: Emotional Levels

SIXTEEN

Levels and Types

Emotional Levels:

Here is the model. A mire-coated man, waist-high in a pit of mud, is surrounded on three sides by steep and slippery rocks that are overgrown with thorny vines. On one side only is there ground that is level and unobstructed. We shall return to the model in a while.

In all of human experience, in all of spiritual evolution, there are levels. Man’s journey takes him from the primitive, embryonic end of that spectrum to his fulfillment at the other end of the same. Mankind began his sojourn with utter ignorance and feral longing.

The mind of God was, to man, more distant and less attainable than space travel: Romans 11:34, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord?”

Yet, mankind never existed in a vacuum; that is to say, apart from God. Man’s genesis is from the spiritual. His spiritual counterpart, though high and exalted, was bestial after a certain fashion, and so man, being the reflection, began in an extremely low estate. Therefore, changes became necessary on the spiritual side.

See Daniel 7:4, “The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart (mind) was given to it.”

Ever wonder why angels, as described in the Bible, looked like wingless men? Man began low, like a salmon at the mouth of a river. Just as the salmon faces a long, mostly uphill, and frequently dangerous journey, so the journey of mankind and the evolution of spirituality has had to face seemingly insurmountable odds. Man has always had to grapple with his brutish nature, and by that, I do not only point to mankind’s propensity toward violence, but to all of man’s more emotional inclinations.

See John 16:6, “But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart (mind).”

Just as a wolf can, in a moment, go from docile to ferocious, so a man will careen between lofty elation and bottomless sorrow. Why? Man has always wrestled with the spiritual. He has sought to alleviate sorrow by the application of elation. Man has sought continuing and ever-increasing gratification.

Lamentations 3:51, “Mine eye affecteth mine heart (mind).”

Unfortunately for mankind, that has always worked against his spiritual nature. The end result of mankind’s fight against his spiritual nature has always seemed rather automatic.

See Deuteronomy 28:65, “Among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind.”

To say ‘man shall not live by bread alone’ is equal to saying ‘there is more to man than meets the eye’. Yet, man’s sorrow, and by extension, his search for happiness via gratification, is inexorably entangled in corporeal issues.

See a short list of corporeal happy-makers in Psalms 104:15, “And wine that maketh glad the heart (mind) of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart (mind).”

Now, back to our model. Man in a mud pit. Man’s face caked with mire. The pit is his world; he identifies with it - cannot distinguish himself from the mud. His sustenance, his gratification, is the mud.

Man’s spiritual journey has fallout: lives first settle on emotional levels. Mankind’s first spiritual stirrings are emotional levels of sorrow, need, desire, anger, joy, hate, love . . . and anyone who tries to sell man on something more than the pit must reach him through his emotions.

See an emotional appeal in 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart (mind), so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”

See an emotional appeal in Romans 9:1-2, “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart (mind).”

See an emotional appeal in John 16:22, “And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart (mind) shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.”

The first spiritual levels, therefore, must be seen as levels of identification. The man in the pit must come to a new assessment. He must see that he really is not one with the pit, and despite the fact that mud covers him, he is not the mud, but a man in the mud. Enter the prophet: an ordinary Joe, except for the fact that knowledge helped him identify himself as not-the-mud. He pulled himself from former gratifications to find a higher happiness. He stands on the level ground and offers the man in the mud an alternative.

Philemon 1:20, “Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in the Lord.”

There is, then, a new way to deal with sorrow.

Psalms 102:4, “My heart (mind) is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.”

Suddenly, there is new direction: another rather than self.

See Daniel 6:14, “Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart (mind) on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him.”

Man learns that there is something more than the pit; it is himself. Man learns that there is something more than the man he is able to see; it is a whole new man inside himself. It is a man of great potential - already, in the identification of his inner existence, he has recognized someone aside from himself; someone named ‘(br)other’.

A dialog has commenced. Along with the concession that he is not the mud he wallows in, is the evidence that his brother has found a strength that is not of the mud. Since his brother has a non-mud strength that can lift him to higher ground (also newly discovered), maybe there is something in all of this for him.

See Job 34:33, “Should it be according to thy mind? He will recompense it, whether thou refuse, or whether thou choose; and not I: therefore speak what thou knowest.”

So, the man in the mud has changed. Through his emotions, man has managed to reach a broader scope of view. He has guessed that there is more than the mud; now he sees more than the mud. His former happy seeking no longer gratifies. His sorrows loom once again, and his desires reach beyond the pit. To this, add the new and bizarre: there is someone like him, only ‘not him’; a fact that demands due consideration. Not only is the other man on a higher plane, neither in this pit nor another, but he offers to share the found strength that lifted him to higher ground. The stranger points to known facts - facts that the man in the mud can all too clearly see in himself.

See Psalms 109:22, “My heart (mind) is wounded within me.”

See also Psalms 143:4, “Therefore is my spirit (mind) overwhelmed within me; my heart (mind) within me is desolate.”

And, the man on the higher ground continues his attempts to render aid. He knows that like as he used to be, the reasoning of the man in the mud is (if you will permit the pun) grounded in the mud. All the man’s ups and downs are in the pit, like sticks and stones on the surface. Surely, every time he reaches for one of them he sinks a little deeper. The man on the higher ground must present his arguments on the level of the other man’s emotions. The man in the pit must be shown the sorrows of the pit and the joys of higher ground. Comparisons and contrasts are cataloged.

See Proverbs 17:22, “A merry heart (mind) doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”

See also Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred maketh the heart (mind) sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.”

The man in the mud is drawn to the level side, where the emotional appeals are seamlessly integrated into a proper reasoning. He puts his elbows on the bank and listens more and more to the man on higher ground. He is shown his own ‘higher ground’ strengths and the gratifications of ‘higher ground’ bonds.

See Isaiah 63:15, “Where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me?”

After both have identified that the man in the mud desires the higher ground, it is explained to him that when he chooses any part of the pit, the mud, or his former habits, he is actually choosing against the higher ground. If he wants ‘up’, he will never get it by choosing ‘down’.

See Matthew 5:28, “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart (mind).”

That man is drawn slowly to higher ground, where a continuing education may be found in the social

levels. Now, the man in the mud has two basic choices. He can accept the proffered hand of the stranger, or, he can reason: “If that man can do it, so can I.” If he chooses the latter course, he grabs hold on the vines and receives thorns in his flesh; he climbs the slippery rocks only to fall back again and again. He has moved past the entrance to social levels and has made a choice for ‘lost levels’.

According to his reasoning, the path that leads to the level ground is blocked by the extended hand

of a stranger. On the emotional levels of identification, there are always ‘self’ and ‘other’. A ‘brother’ is just an ‘other’ with a couple of letters in front.

The man in the mud hears what the stranger has to say, understands that the hand will draw him up to higher ground - but, herein lies the problem for the man in the mud: there is no mud on the higher ground. He may tell the man with the extended hand, “Oh, that’s just your opinion!” The man in the mud may, indeed, exercise his freedom of choice all day long, but freedom of choice and freedom from the pit are never the same. The man offering help will counter, “You are free to choose.”

See Romans 14:5, “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.”