The Benediction

Oh, about 15 or maybe 20 years ago, I heard the Archbishop of Canterbury speak at Trinity Church in New York City, which is the head of Wall Street. Because I heard him and saw him on TV, I did not attend the service. And he took at his feet that great benediction of Paul, taken from the last verse of the the 13th chapter of 2nd Corinthians. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of and participation in the Holy Spirit be upon you all. And he treated it beautifully. He's a cultured, educated man but he treated it on this level. They all loved it. Perfectly wonderful. If they only knew the benediction.

From time to time when I go to dinner at other people's home, if they have the custom of saying grace before dinner, sometimes I am asked to say grace. Well, I will invariably use this benediction. I don't explain it if I explained it to them they would be mortified for here this most elaborate benediction of Paul is a description of an experience which was the central fact of Paul's life this is the center of the work. For he was pursued by the great lover and in spite of his resistance in spite of his evasion, he was found. And then, this is what he said in his benediction and he wishes every person in the world to have this experience.

For this is God's method of regeneration. It's not spelled out, but this is God's method of regeneration. Let me quote it again. Here, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship and participation in the Holy Spirit be with you all now let us go into the story and find out what he means by it and Mary wonders how is this thing possible seeing that I know not a man and the angel said to her the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you therefore the child to be born will be called holy the son of God here he tells us the theory of supernatural conception how it's done Now, the power of the Most High, he equates with the Holy Spirit.

And it's in his benediction now he is asking us, or wishing us, to have this experience, the experience of Mary. So the office of the Holy Spirit is that the sons of God, by union with their father may by his grace become their own father. That's what he is asking of everyone in the world. If you would actually transcend this level and enter what is called the kingdom of heaven or the new age, you can't do it with the body you wear here. and you can only do it by a complete transformation and a radical transformation which is brought about through union with the Father and he tells us the Father is all love and the love of God that's the Father he emphasizes the Holy Spirit as the office by which this union is brought about as told us in the story of Mary.

That the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Well, the power of the Most High is called Christ Jesus. For we are told Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Who touched me? For I perceive that force, that creative power has gone out of me. That someone touched him. Fear is an actual creative act. On this level, it offends people. But on the highest level, it is the most radiant, glorious, ecstatic event that you can ever conceive of. For you're being lifted up to an entirely different level. On this level it would seem immoral incest and here the story is telling us if we know the story as one should know it, that he who came out of his mother as you told in the story was her husband, he was his own father.

I and my father are one. For did he not say, all things were made by him, and without him was not one thing made that was made. So here, who then is Mary? Are we not Mary? Are we not the emanation of God from whom God gives his faith only for a moment, for a short while, as we are told in the 54th chapter of the book of Isaiah: Sing, all barren those who have not born, let forth into singing; you have not been in travail; for your maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name. Here we are the barren one; we haven't brought forth the promise. The promise was a son.

That was the promise made to Abraham, the beginning of it all. And man waits and waits and waits and he gives up in despair because he hasn't brought forth the son. Now he tells us the time has come, but it came. Then there is a method, a deft method by which it appears in the world. And the great lover finds you. And in spite of your evasion and your resistance, you are now one with him. There is union between the father and the son, for he is going to make the son one with himself. And this union is an embrace of love. So he incorporates the three states and the love of God. He puts that into the benediction.

And love embraces you. And it is by the office of the Holy Spirit who impregnates you. For you fuse with the Father and you become one body with him. That fusion is oneness. You put him on just as you would a garment. As you are told in Scripture, all who are baptized into Christ put on Christ. So the first event recorded in the Gospel after the prelude of the mission of John is that of baptism. This is the baptism. So we are told as John is coming to the end of his picture, he on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Here is a secret: he tells you the mystery: he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit; He is the Holy Spirit, and therefore he is the one who impregnates you; he impregnates you with an embrace after you actually answer correctly, which is love.

It is the greatest thing in the world. So he incorporates into the benediction and the love of God. He starts off with the Son first. Then he comes to God the Father. He calls it love. And then he comes to the Holy Spirit. And he calls that now participating in the Holy Spirit. And he, He calls it a fellowship, a union. So here is, I wish you this. I could not wish you anything greater in the world. For if that wish was granted tonight, I could then prophesy whether you remain in this world or depart from this world. But it will still be 30 years from that moment of the wish being granted, when you are embraced and there is union with the Father.

And 30 years later you're going to actually bring forth the sign of your birth from above. And in just a few months following that you're going to bring forth the consciousness of being God the Father. So it takes 30 years come the wish being granted. And so the great lover is seeking and calling us one by one in spite of our resistance and our evasion, till I hid my face from you for a short, short while. But now I will give you my everlasting love and will never take it from you again. So sing, O barren one. break forth into singing you who have not born who have not been in travail so here this wonderful benediction that people take on this level have no concept of the depth of it, what Paul is really wishing for everyone in the world, for he ends the benediction with you all, not just a few, may all have this experience.

He is describing an experience that was actually fundamental. It was basic in his life that changed his entire world. He never knew the old test until this experience took place. And then in the fullness of time it broke forth. And then he understood what happened to him 30 years before. I know Nobody happened to me. I only made a note of it. I did not understand the experience. And true knowledge is not merely experience, but the understanding of experience. I pondered it and talked about it. I told others about it, and they poo -pooed the idea. That was a vivid, vivid dream, Neville. All right. To them, a vivid dream. I still kept it alive in my mind's eye and pondered it.

and I lived with it. And 30 years later, to the month, it erupted. And that embrace that took place 30 years before, which was an impregnation from my father, unfolded within me and I discovered I am my own father. I am the father. He gave himself to me. That's the purpose of God, to give himself to to man directly, without an intermediary. Just directly. So these three mentions in this benediction are one. This is not what the churches talk about, about three persons. This is simply one. These are three opposites. One is the creative act. One is God the Father. Infinite love, in unthinkable origin. You can't conceive of the origin of it. And then here is this son, the one who actually is brought forth, who discovers himself to be his own father.

So you speak of these mysteries in the scripture. How can a man be his own father? How can he be his father's father? And all these questions are asked in scripture. And if this benediction is accepted and realized by anyone here tonight, I can prophesy for you, should you remain in this world for 30 years or should you depart this world, it will still be 30 years between the acceptance of it, the fulfillment of it when you are embrace and then the expression of it. And then you will know you are God the Father. So in the end there's nothing but God the Father. Nothing but God. So here this simple wonderful statement of all of his benedictions and every, I would say every letter of his, he always has some blessing.

Begins with it or he ends with it or maybe beginning and end. But this is the most elaborate law. And so in my own case, I will always say it, but I never explain it. ¶If called upon to say a blessing, that grace, I will always use this. And isn't that wonderful? That's scripture, and therefore that's nice. And they all say, Amen, then we start to eat, not knowing what I am asking for. But this story of scripture, if really understood, it would shake the entire structure of those who call themselves so proper and so altogether right. Because the whole thing is one grand sex act, but on an entirely different level. Entirely different level.

¶A few months ago, rather a few years ago, a book came off the press telling of the inside story of the prominent people of Europe at the turn of the century in the days of Victoria. She had quite a son who was quite a boy who got around. And so it was rumored that he was living with the Duchess of, I wouldn't mention her name, but it is in the book, you can always find it in the book. And he was living openly. Everyone knew he was living with the Duchess. But the Duke could do nothing about it because after all, he was the Prince. And some nosy lady went to Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, who was very prominent in those days, she was an actress, accepted in all the circles and told her that she had heard that our prince is living with the Duchess and isn't that a horrible thing?

And she would blame me, the Duchess. And Mrs. Campbell said, I don't care what they do so long as they do not do it in the streets and frighten the horses. Now she would understand this benediction, Mrs. Campbell would, ¶Others were simply like the one who gossiped and told her about it. They were so completely disturbed that this man was living openly with the Duchess. So when one knows the inner side of the story of the Bible, you see the whole thing is one grand creative act. That the Father actually has union with his Son. that the son may be the father. And they are called one by one into such a union. I will call you one by one, O children of Israel.

And one by one are called and they are embraced after they have actually fulfilled their place by answering correctly what is the greatest thing in the world. You're in the presence of the greatest thing in the world. you're in the presence of God and God is infinite love and infinite love asks you the question but you can't think of anything but love in his presence you answer love then he embraces you and that is exit sheer exit so when you are safe then back into the world you tell only what happened to you but you don't understand what happened to you you are as innocent as the virgin and you can say what? I do not know.

I knew not a man. How could I possibly? I was embraced by infinite love, but how can I have a child saying that I know not a man? And then comes that moment for delivery when suddenly you bring forth the child and you're surprised that anyone could be because you didn't know all along in in these 30 years that you were pregnant. And so it is said that he began his ministry when he was about 30 years of age. It is 30 years from the moment of impregnation. Not 30 years physically, because that is not when you started. You started at that moment when you were impregnated by God the Father. And 30 years later you bring forth the Son which is yourself, but the Son is would approve in the not distant future.

He is the Father, for five months later, in my own case, 139 days later, you discover you are God the Father, because his Son stands before you and calls you Father. And you know without any uncertainty that He is your Son, and you also know that He knows you are His Father. And so everything is just perfectly told in Scripture, but it's all adumbrated. It's all foreshadowed. It's not spelled out in detail, any more than Paul's benediction is spelled out in detail. To say that this is his description of an experience is really to go a little bit far, are, because it isn't really described. Here we ask the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship and the participation of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

But that is an experience of all. But I can't really call that a description of the method by which He actually brought forth the child. He does say in his Leviticus of Galatians, when it pleased God to reveal his Son in me, then I conferred not with flesh and blood. So the Son came forward. He doesn't tell us it took 30 years. But Luke tells us 30 years when He began his ministry. And here we find that this is all based upon baptism. And that is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. For there's one coming after Me who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. But no one tells you what that baptism is. And they think it's simply going to church where the little child is an infant and putting water on it in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

That's a shadow that conveys nothing concerning the deep mystery. And yet millions of us, I was baptized when I was simply three or four weeks old. My mother insisted that my son, when he was two, should be baptized or he wouldn't go to heaven. And she took that literally on this level. I said, Mother, if it pleases you, I'll take you to church this coming Sunday and we'll baptize you. So we did. He was two years old. It pleased my mother because she said he couldn't go to heaven. Should he die now? What's going to happen to him? He can't get to heaven unless he's baptized. She didn't know what baptism meant. The baptism is union with the Father.

That's baptism; until one is actually embraced by the Father and actually has union with the Father, he doesn't have the seal impressed upon him of the Father, so he can't bring forth the Father's image. So here He brings forth the Father Himself, not a likeness. Comes forth as the Father, and time proves that He is the Father. So here, when you read any portion of Scripture, know you're actually looking at a mystery. Paul uses the word mystery twenty times. He tells you it's a mystery. The whole thing is a mystery, but he doesn't explain it. I'm trying my best to explain to you, not based upon any theory, but based upon my own experience. For if I would come and speak with authority, I must speak from experience.

He speaks not as the scribes and the Pharisees, but He speaks as one having authority, because He is speaking from His own personal experience. ¶3030|Now you have an experience; don't quite understand it, wait for the fullness of the time for that experience to flower and then you speak with authority. I had no knowledge, no concept of what that union meant. I felt the union. I was embraced. We became one, infinite love. So I actually put on, like as I would a garment, the being who embraced me. The being who embraced me was love. But I didn't understand it until thirty years when it erupted within me. And then all that he embraced me and contained within himself, for the story is his story.

As he embraced me, he simply transferred to me his story, that I will unfold within my own being and become as he is. For the birth had to be just as his. The resurrection had to be just like his. The discovery of David had to be just like his. The ascension into heaven like the fiery serpent had to be just like his. The descent of the dove had to be just like his, because he impressed me with himself. and that was giving himself to me for all things bring forth after their kind so that the end is always like the origin and here was the origin so the end had to be just like the origin for this is a basic law set up in the beginning that all things bring forth after their kind so if he impresses me with himself and I fuse with him when I bring it forth it has exactly what he is and so I say to anyone I could ask for nothing greater for you than that which is contained in this benediction you will find it in the 14th verse of the 13th chapter of 2nd Corinthians the Lord the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and grace means the gift unearned unmerited it, the gift of God himself.

So that's the grace, because grace comes through Jesus Christ and the love of God. He brings that in because he's telling you exactly how it's going to happen. You're going to stand in the presence of love. And you're going to use his words from the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians. These are his words. When asked to name the greatest thing in the world, Paul answered, love. So he brings in the love of God. And John tells us God is love. Then he brings in the office of the Holy Spirit, which is the impregnating one. But it's all one. These three are one. You're standing in the presence of one being. And then you're embraced. But all these things are present.

the gift is there which is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ love is embracing you so the love of God is present and then the actual impregnation is present which is the Holy Spirit for the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you therefore that which is reborn of you will be called holy the Son of God. When the Son comes out in this form, the Son then blossoms into the Father and he is God the Father. So this is the story of that simple, wonderful benediction which you can read in just a matter of seconds. And I would ask you to commit it to memory and if you're ever invited to say grace, and people say grace, just say it.

It takes you just a matter of ten seconds to say, and then they'll all join with you and say, Amen. And you need not explain it to them, because they would be shocked, just like anyone else is shocked when they hear Mrs. Patrick Campbell's reaction to the Duchess.

So here, we take this same theme and put it now on this step. I was embraced, and then I brought forth the nature of the one who embraced me.

So now you put yourself into a mood of empathy with someone that you want to help. Get into the mood. Wouldn't it be wonderful if she or he or they were this, that, and the other? And bring them before your mind's eye and would you normally, naturally embrace them because of their good fortune? Wouldn't you congratulate them?

But I personally am given towards embracing people. So it's not difficult with me to embrace anyone. I embrace them because I feel like it. I just want to do it. So I embrace and then feel the thrill that they've told me they're a good fortune. And the first reaction is to embrace them because they've just told you of something marvelous about them. Well, take the same technique. Bring them into your mind's eye. Put yourself first into a mood of empathy. Not sympathy, empathy. You're rejoicing with them. And then, as they tell you, in your minds' eye, you listen to it, then embrace them and feel the thrill that is yours because they have accomplished their objective in this world. And I can do that with male, female, equally.

In fact, when I embraced men publicly, my father, I've always kissed him. I wouldn't care. I wouldn't have had the door to kiss him. If I came to the store at any time of the day, and here I'm a man with my children, I would embrace my father and kiss him. It always, to me, was the most natural thing in the world. And he expected it. If I met him on Fifth Avenue, I always kissed my father. It wasn't strange. It wasn't something that, well, now you have somebody strange about it. I always did it.

And here, I meet my friends, Fifth Avenue, Broadway, any place, I am there. I went down to see him, I flamed off the other day to the Orient. He was gone for seven weeks. And here was Charlie waiting for me. We had about 12 others coming to have cocktails to see him off. When I came to the door, he expected it and I wanted to. I embraced him and kissed him. He's a man a few years older than I am. And one man coming down, I'd never seen him before, and he said, what's going on here? He thought that was a strange thing to do. Well not to me it isn't strange because I love people. I'm male or female and it's all the same to me. Kiss from anyone.

So in my own case I can practice this easily because it's natural with me to empathize with someone, to feel a thrill because they really have what they want in this world. When I feel myself working to that point, like a real creative act. Wouldn't it be wonderful? And then at that moment I embraced them and feel the thrill for them. Not for me, it's for them.

But at that very moment I have imparted to them all that I am feeling. The doctor bring it forth. They bring forth into the world what I was feeling when I embraced them. Just as I brought forth what my father felt when he embraced me. So he embraced me and I was tired beyond any concept in the world when it concerns ecstasy. You can't conceive of the ecstasy. And that's what he felt for me. He was actually within himself all that he had he gave me. It was his purpose to give me himself and the method by which I would unfold that self that he gave me. And it was a definite method.

First he would awake me within my grave my own skull and then I would come out and the symbols that he foretold in scriptures would surround me and then I would go one step further and discover my fatherhood that I am the father not looking to a father, I am the father, I am he, and then comes one more and one more, and all these unfold because they were all contained within him. And when he embraced me, he gave me them. And he gave me the method by which they would unfold within me.

So here, this night, this simple, simple benediction. And I can't ask anything greater for you. If I asked this night, if you be, well, you name it, it would pale into nothing compared to this. If you wanted to be a billionaire, alright, a billionaire, and maybe you will leave it tomorrow for someone else to spend. Maybe you would want to be famous in this world, and have all the famous talk about your picture and then play it tomorrow. But this cannot play. This is forever. So could I ask anything greater for anyone than this benediction and quote it sincerely, meaning for them. But he to all people in the world, with you all, said he as he closed the benediction. But tonight you can put it into the most practical manner and use it lovingly for everyone that you meet. Fall in love with anyone that you meet. Just fall in love with them. And then you don't have to meet them socially, you don't have to go out with them. Just love them because behind the mask there is your brother.

Behind every man is your brother who is in eternity, and you're going to do it for him, and so you embrace him here and then one day our father will embrace him, and he will become the father. He can't volunteer for it; he is running from it. The whole vast world is running from it, but the great lover will find him, one after the other.

When he finds them, in spite of their protest, he embraces them. And then in the interval of time, that pregnancy lasts 30 years, they will bring forth sons. And then that son will only reveal to him who he is, and he will have confirmation of that 139 days later. He is the Father. And so when you read it, that he on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, he it is, who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And so everyone incorporated into that body becomes the one who is doing the inclinations. For he is the Father.

After incorporation and then the birth from above, from that moment of birth from above, he is part of that creative power of God who is used in the impregnation. So that everyone is coming one by one, and we all then will be used in that one body, because there's only one body, one spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all.

Now that is counted as Aarti. So, I'll let me go back to Israel. Israel, Israel, Israel, Israel, they tell this in their own marvelous way, and it's so hidden I dare say that every one present has seen Julius Caesar, and you read it; those who went to high school undoubtedly you read Julius Caesar, but you have pictures. I know I've seen the play on Broadway a few times. I've seen it on the screen, and I had occasion to look up something in Julius Caesar this past week. And so I took my concordance on Shakespeare and it says I could find what I'm seeking in the first act, the second scene. So I started and then my eye fell upon a simple little speech of Caesar.

Caesar. And here what we're talking about tonight, these are the words of Caesar as Shakespeare put them into Caesar's mouth. Forget not in your speed, Antonius, to touch Calphurnia. for our elders say the barren touch in this holy chase shake their terrible curse they shake off their terrible curse so forget not in your speed to feed Antonia, to touch Calpurnia. For Calpurnia is Caesar's wife, the barren one. He was barren. So do not fail to touch her, for our elders say that the barren, touched in this holy chaste, shake off their tarot curve for isn't that the student of the Bible all great poets are students of the Bible and they're inspired to tell it in their own way and so here was a statement put into the mouth of Caesar if you could but touch well the father touched me and then my baroness came to an end for I brought forth the child and he was simply taking the 54th chapter of Isaiah and putting it into his own wonderful words in the story of Caesar any questions please any until the next time, thank you.