Steve Ventola — Welcome, everyone, to our Temple of Light service. It's wonderful to see you all. And to be together in this way, let's begin by sharing radiation together; and you may want to put your hands together. Let's just still our souls, and begin to feel the currents that move between our hands; or in ways that you share radiation. As we feel the intensity moving we look to relax in it. Being open to listen, finally listening, as we put our living, worldly concerns aside, we come into this moment, bowing our heads. And as we do so, we receive our world, that there may be an updraft—our world through ourselves. Into this space of love for one another, as we feel the substance gathering amidst ourselves we let it come to rest, and we let it be placed before the Lord. And here, the fire can fall from heaven, as there is substance to receive that which is of God, of Thee, O Lord, for here is our reason for being, to let Thy fire fall from heaven, as we still our hearts. Feeling the intensity, we give thanks for this moment and this time now, that Thy Word may go forth, all for the glory of Thy love. In the Christ. Aumen.
I would like to begin by sharing a few words from “Behold, I Create” by Uranda, from the chapter entitled “The Firmament”.
“So all the things of heaven are to be given to you; not just to you but through you. But first the dominion of the ordinances of heaven must be set on earth in you and made manifest through you. Then you begin to know what it is to feel the outworking of the second phase, the second cycle of the creative process, in yourself. And you see it move out into your environment; you see it begin to bring blessings to others. And you begin to share the work of answering the Lord's Prayer, for without men and women he Lord's Prayer cannot be answered. It is not God in heaven who will answer the Lord's Prayer; it is men and women on earth who must answer the Lord's Prayer, and so yield, respond, that they acknowledge our Father in heaven, so live that they reveal that His name is hallowed, holy, sacred. It is men and women on earth who must let His kingdom come and who must share in the fulfilment of His will on earth as His will is done in heaven.”
When I fly back to see my family in New Jersey, and flying into Newark Airport, I actually love seeing the density of population of houses in view as I sit in a window seat. Something rises up within me when I see that, and a sense of “Wow” comes over me in feeling that all these people here need an influence, they need an uprising influence. And I think to myself, there's no coincidence why Bruce Springsteen is so beloved in New Jersey, because he sings for the everyday person. He sings to lift up the masses. And with our spiritual perspective we have an “Apex” sense of what it is to provide for the masses. And Bruce does it in his own way, and we are here to do it in our unique and unified way.
As we think of the Lord's Prayer, answering the Lord's Prayer—and as we've known it, as many of us have known it growing up, maybe just parroting the words—for some those words have deep meaning and value. “The Lord's Prayer” is an acknowledgement, but it's also, as Pamela Gray was mentioning a little while ago, it's also an “ask” of the Lord. As we've known the words:
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen”
So that is “The Lord's Prayer”, and it's been a beautiful prayer for many. It was the first prayer I ever learned growing up Catholic; and that's the only prayer I kind of remembered when I would go to confession, and the priest would say, “Okay, say three Our Fathers and two Hail Marys.” I could never remember the Hail Mary, but I always remembered “The Lord's Prayer”. So, answering the prayer, though—answering the prayer of the masses. And as Pamela and John Gray cited in our recent service, about the prayer of being, let’s look at ”The Prayer Of Being”, in contrast with “The Lord's Prayer”—answering “The Lord’s Prayer” with answering the masses with “The Prayer Of Being.”
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”
I AM in heaven.
The revelation of myself is holy.
“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
My kingdom comes because I am here.
My will is done on earth because my will is done in heaven.
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
I give the bread of life in each moment of my living on earth.
“And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
I forgive, and that forgiveness is received by those who share
the spirit of forgiveness.
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
I lead no one into tribulation but deliver all evil into the creative cycle.
“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen”
For mine is the creative power of the Word,
And mine is the glory which results
Shining round about,
To be reflected by the world which I create.
Now let’s look at “The Prayer Of Being” straight on, with more expansion on it.
I AM in heaven.
The revelation of myself is holy.
My kingdom comes because I am here.
Now, just expanding on that, those three sentences, to the degree we know this in experience, we open the door in answering “The Lord’s Prayer”—we provide the orienting influence of the Lord to all the world.
My will is done on earth because my will is done in heaven.
The Power of the Angelic Host in Union is the wind behind our back
I give the bread of life in each moment of my living on earth.
We are here to give life expression into the world! And as we remember Dr. Bill Bahan's words: “The cause of disease is the interference to the expression of life.” But we're here to give the Bread of Life, and to know the cause of health—giving life expression.
I forgive, and that forgiveness is received by those who share
the spirit of forgiveness.
Forgiveness is received according to response. We extend it and let it be what it is. We forgive, just as the Master forgave. No matter how we feel we may have been wronged, we forgive. We learn how to forgive, immediately, in that sense.
I lead no one into tribulation but deliver all evil into the creative cycle.
I do not wish ill will on anyone but let evil play itself out
For mine is the creative power of the Word,
The Word goes forth through us
And mine is the glory which results,
Shining round about,
To be reflected by the world which I create.
Behold I create.
What does it take to live in this stance of Apex Identity, providing the answer? In thinking about the words of Uranda regarding, “How to Meditate,” instead of meditating on “The Lord's Prayer”, to actually meditate on “The Prayer Of Being”, taking every word in that, every sentence in that, and holding it dear to our heart. And coming so much into communion with it that we have a stance of knowing this, Apex Identity. But it does take something. We let the creative process bring us to the peak. We're allowing for understanding at the Apex. And in David’s words in preparing us for this service, here are words of Martin from, “The Perspective of the King”—let’s acknowledge this: “Rising up we come through the heaven, as we came through the earth, to the Apex Point, where there may be participation in the outlook and attitude of the King toward the creation, which is an extension of Himself. It becomes therefore an extension of oneself if one rises up to that point of Apex, which is the focus centered in the King.”
What a glorious opportunity we each have to move along in this direction; to know that point of Apex which is focused in the center in the King. And how well we can come into that experience does take something. So, I thought for the next ten minutes, I would share an audio of Martin, an excerpt from that service, “The Perspective of the King” [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-perspective-of-king.html] that highlights how we can ascend into this experience:
“Man belongs at the peak. From the standpoint of our own experience, if we are honest we know that we do not have the peak experience. This should not be a matter of self-condemnation, because certainly there is whatever is required to bring one to the peak. We have described that as the creative process relative to our own experience. So there has been a movement which we have known individually, and have shared to whatever extent collectively, rising up into the heaven, so that we might have a heavenly perspective. There has been at times, with some, a certain sense of self-satisfaction that one has a heavenly perspective which most other people don't have, so that makes one rather superior to most other people. But it hasn't accomplished anything if by reason of such an attitude we sit down on the mountainside and go no further. Then we might as well have stayed in the plain.
“Our concern is to participate in the creative process, which is not going to drop us off at any point. If we are participating in it we are carried by it and we rise up to a point where we have a heavenly perspective of earthly things, to whatever extent that is. Yes, we look out over the plains from the mountainside and like most human beings there usually is the thought: “My, isn't this a wonderful view; I should build my house here!” Well at the moment we are not in the house building business in this sense because we are responsible for a great deal more than sitting and admiring the view. If we use this analogy again of the mountainside, then if you are going to continue in the ascent you have to turn around with your back to the view. I don't know if you ever tried walking up a mountain backwards but it could be quite a dangerous business. So you have to address the necessities of the immediate moment in participation with the creative process regardless of the view. I suppose one may pause a little for breath occasionally and sit down and look at the view, and the view may help to restore energy and make it easily possible to continue the ascent, but let us never become fascinated by the view.
“There is a creative process which will carry us to the mountaintop, and incidentally, from the mountaintop the intent is not to sit there and admire the view any more than it was during the processes of ascent. The view is magnificent and any way one turns there it is, but it is there because there is something to be done by reason of the continued working of the creative process. One's encompassment of the view is for a purpose, not merely self-satisfaction. So this way of describing the continued working of the creative process may give a sense of what it is that is the ongoing necessity: for one thing, never to indulge in an attitude of self-satisfaction.
“Stay humble. It's not difficult if one has a constant awareness of the fact that there is a continuing necessity for repentance. We don't have it made yet, and if that is the fact, then obviously there are some things still to be relinquished. It seems like a task involving great sweat of the brow, to walk up a mountain with heavy weights on one's back. There are a lot of weights to be shed, a lot of human possessions to be relinquished. I am not so much thinking of possessions in the external sense, but of those factors present in oneself which do not belong. Such must be relinquished, and that is repentance. One relinquishes one's grip, which seems not to be a very onerous task. It involves less of the sweat of the brow than maintaining the grip. Ahh! At last! That is repentance. What is so difficult about it?
“We have had the personal necessity of relinquishing elements that we have come to recognize are not on Tone, as we might say, various factors in our own experience and expression which do not reveal the quality, the nobility of character of the King. We do not as yet have the required understanding of the character of the King, but we know enough at the point where we may be on the mountainside. We don't know enough from the standpoint of standing on the peak. So there need be no self-judgment, but obviously there must be a relinquishment of those things in one's own character, in one's own attitude and expression of living, which obviously do not characterize the King.
“So there is repentance, repentance, repentance, as these things become apparent, as these factors come into view. Because we are rising up they come into view, not for the purpose of mulling over them but merely for the purpose of relinquishing them. As we do so we find ourselves becoming lighter.”
“I think that we have seen certain ceilings that have arisen in our collective function, but, most importantly for us right now, let's look at the ceilings that arise in our own experience. These ceilings are often a subconscious factor; things that come up from our subconscious that we don't even actually think about; a feeling or a thought comes up, and it's so easily avoided or skimmed over, when actually what's taking place is that there's a ceiling that's been made evident. These are the things that we have been petitioned to clear through, just as the Master was. He cleared through all those ceilings in His life, in His experience. Can we not expect exactly that commission in our lives, those of us who have been offered the ample petition from the Lord to continue His work? I think that there's a lot that we can examine in our own experience: subtleties. A lot of times these feelings that we meet, rather unconsciously often, are built right into the fabric of our culture, right into the way things are designed, set up: everything is built and created to continue that lie. And so we, who understand the necessity of moving through these ceilings, have the call to be absolutely diligent, to see through this lie. And sometimes it takes whacking your head against the ceiling, doesn't it, to recognize it? There's some humility, that this isn't working; this isn't working for anyone. And we need to, in moments of prayer, you might say, to call on the strength of the collective, and call on the Victory of the Master to be around us and in us, and to listen to the voice that is inside of all of us—that Voice is inside of us, if we will just listen. As we used to teach kids: the ‘Conscience Compass’, that Voice of what is actually the right thing to do, is present.”
So you think about the ceilings, and in a specific way, the Master met those ceilings through what is called “the three temptations”. So, I'd like to continue along in this meditation, and invite you to consider these things, as I do in myself:
“And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
How do we meet it? Wishing our circumstances were different?
“Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
How do we engage in life, that lowers the natural and true expression of ourselves?
How do we compromise our upright integrity?
“Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
How involved do we get with the world? How hooked are we by the things of this world?
How do we take note of the ceilings we have had, without casting ourselves down, but in making corrections, allowing the creative process to lift us up as we let go of our entanglements?
“If there is pressure, then, in the sense of the contest, [a ceiling] there are two patterns present—never just one, for if there is only one there is no pressure. If there is pressure, in the sense of the contest, there are always two patterns present, and the question is: Which one of these two patterns will govern in the individual life? Which one will control? Which one will the individual follow? If in the first flush of reaction the individual follows the adverse pattern and then laboriously tries to become true to the right pattern, he has not yet attained to the state of true leadership. But if in any moment when pressures appear the individual always remembers there are two patterns present, if he takes time to see, to note, to examine, to be sure that he follows the right pattern, he will not, in the first flush of reaction, be subject to the wrong one. Such stability, under pressure, begins to reveal the reality of leadership material. Such an one begins to be in the state of functional leadership [elder leadership] on the side of reality.”
By following the right pattern, remembering and acknowledging our vow to continue the work—to continue the work of extending the things of God on earth. Remembering our greatest love. Playing our part in answering the prayer. Learning to abide in Apex Consciousness. It takes something! So, these are the things I want to share together, and Stewart will expand on from this point.
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Stewart Berger — Thank you very much Steve, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak a little about my current experience, and to blend with you in the consideration that you've presented for us. And speaking of the mountainside, you probably see the photo behind me—a few miles behind me!—of Mount Shasta in Northern California, just south of the Oregon border. It's a photo I took of the mountain a few years ago during a road trip. But, I'm happy to say that I did not build a house halfway up the mountainside!
I can relate very much to what you've presented Steve—and one thing Steve asked is, “What does it take to know the stance of Apex identity, and to provide the answer?” And I agree—I'm sure we all would—that there is a creative process involved. As Martin said, “Rising up, we come through the heaven, as we came through the earth, to the Apex point.” And Martin rightly pointed out that both heaven and earth are the creation in the dimensional world, though there is also what we've called “the unidimensional” beyond that.
One thing that a person who shares the Apex experience might say is, “What is the greatest creative action I can take in this situation that I find myself in, to serve the purposes of the divine?” Another is, “How may I bless this situation or person, or people, and extend a blessing to those involved?”—a blessing to the situation just as it is. And that's an important point you raised, Steve: to accept things as they are. That's an indication of divine intelligence, to give thanks for things just as they are, because this is the reality at one level, and as we manifest the Apex experience, then that substance of being can meet the substance of the earthly circumstance as it is, and that's how the creative process works in changing things.
About my experience in recent months; I don't know if yours has been similar—I'm sure that it has been for at least some of you—but I've been having a greater experience of allowing the accommodation of pressure internally to enlarge the heaven within. This has been enjoyable for me. Isn't that always the case when we have a larger experience: we enjoy it. And I think we know that there is a lot more to be experienced. I also know, of course, that several of you are ahead of me up the mountainside, so to speak, in various ways, though we each have our own unique part in the design, and unique things to contribute.
So, these things are happening simultaneously: more of the old heaven and the old earth are passing away, as we experience more of the new heaven and the new earth. And I'm sure, like me, you have seen this occur in world issues and in the experience of many people. There does seem to be a much greater “churn” as more of us accommodate pressure and the new heaven, allowing it to connect with and find form in the new earth: that acts as an influence on the material that is stuck in forms that in some way can no longer accommodate the new substance. And so, there is this wonderful exchange; it's amazing how life works easily in many ways.
I too loved what Anne said in the service that was given a two weeks ago, about how Jesus cleared through ceilings in His life. And she asked, “Can we not expect exactly that commission in our lives, those of us who have been offered the ample petition from the Lord to continue his work?” She spoke that around the same time that I was reflecting on something that Jesus said, and you've probably reflected on this too: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father.” And that has caused me to reflect on what works can be done, now and in the days ahead. I think, for me anyway, it relates to how much pressure I'm willing to bear internally to expand my experience, to allow a greater and clarified heaven. And I agree with what was said about how those greater works take all of us together. I love the words that Jesus spoke at the beginning of “The Lord's Prayer”: Our Father. Very beautiful. It speaks of inclusion and of how we are of one spiritual family. And saying “Our Father” means each of us can know the experience of divine greatness, that Apex experience, and do greater works because of that.
About “The Prayer Of Being”, and the words, “I AM in heaven”—It does take some deliberate action to generate the substance of heaven and maintain it. Because of this, we know the Spirit of Love, and there is an updraft, which Steve spoke about. I've been feeling it, and no doubt you have as well: the updraft of the Fire of Love which purifies and also raises up. I've loved and have been amazed at how, when we come together in a service like this, we bring the substance of our living, and as the service goes on, these slightly different qualities of spirit coalesce, unite, and become one: one spirit, one thread, and it becomes stronger; it's magical.
“My kingdom comes because I am here. My will is done on earth because my will is done in heaven.” Identifying with True Cause, we know something of the Apex experience. And even through various types of work like “Shadow Work”, or “Four Quarters” work, many of us have come to know in greater measure the qualities of the King, especially for men, or the Queen for women; the sovereign; and there are other archetypal energies—all of it is to be used by the one I Am, for the Lord's purposes.
Those are a few things that it's my joy to share with you as we continue in this beautiful process, and I'm very thankful and blessed to be your brother in service, and I love you, the members of our spiritual family. It's always tremendous when we come together; and it's good to be with you in this moment, and to be open and available to reveal the Apex quality which we each carry, in every moment in the days to come. So, Steve.
Steve Ventola — Thank you Stewart very much for your bright, real expression, grounding what we've been sharing here. Let the seed of what we've shared continue. I know there may be more that may be said, but there's such an effulgence now that the substance is full; and let’s hold that precious. Some words that I will close with from that service on “The Reality Of Leadership” are that when love is real there is protection. In real love, there is protection. Uranda went on to say, “protection for the things of God”. As we have real love, protection for the things of God, then for sure we can continue to move and experience a greater sense of Apex Consciousness together, and individually allow for an easy sense of forgiveness relative to ourselves and others. I have a song to play for you of Bruce Springsteen, relative to how everyone has a “hungry heart”, everyone is hungry for what we're sharing. Everyone is hungry for the influences that extend through us in answering “The Lord’s Prayer”. Let us so continue in our days.
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