(Back) The Man Born Blind Receives Sight The Mission of the Seventy (Next)
This is a series of lectures given by Mr. Edward Rabel, member of the faculty of S.M.R.S.
Winter semester 1976 - 2nd. Yr. Class. Part of Lecture 29 given on March 18, 1976
10:1Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 10:2But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 10:3To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. 10:4When he hath put forth all his own, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. 10:5And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.10:6This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them.
10:7Jesus therefore said unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 10:8All that came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. 10:9I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out, and shall find pasture. 10:10The thief cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
10:11I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep. 10:12He that is a hireling, and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, beholdeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf snatcheth them, and scattereth them: 10:13he fleeth because he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep. 10:14I am the good shepherd; and I know mine own, and mine own know me, 10:15even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 10:16And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice: and they shall become one flock, one shepherd. 10:17Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. 10:18No one taketh it away from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment received I from my Father.
10:19There arose a division again among the Jews because of these words. 10:20And many of them said, He hath a demon, and is mad; why hear ye him? 10:21Others said, These are not the sayings of one possessed with a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?
Here we have a very fine discourse about the good shepherd. It is a very esoteric discourse but it is easy to interpret its’ metaphysics if you keep in mind that Jesus represents spiritual awareness; sheep represent our subjective thoughts and feelings; and the door is always the conscious mind. Keep those three main factors in your mind and this discourse will come very clear and very beautiful. In the midst of this discourse he makes a statement that we want to take out of the context because of its beauty and its monumental meaning. It is John 10:10, "I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." Remember that primarily Jesus' ministry, that is, his actual ministry was the ministry of the word and that over and over again he calls our attention to the great importance of taking his words not only seriously but taking them actually unto ourselves. To actually eat them, appropriate them, merge our stream of consciousness right into them because they are words of truth in more than one level of course, but it does not matter on which level that truth is discernible to you it is the truth of them that counts and therefore it causes his words to be quite literally "life giving words."
The words of Jesus Christ taken into consciousness, believed in, actually impart greater intensity of life to the very organism. Mr. Fillmore talks about this quite often especially in the book “Jesus Christ Heals.” Many many Truth students have experimented this Truth and have experienced startling results and therefore we don't want to leave it out of any presentation concerning the Gospels; that the words of Jesus Christ, on whatever level of meaning one can perceive their truth and this include even the most literal or the most charismatic type of reaction to the words of Jesus. If that person finds the truth of meaning on that level of meaning, that is truth and those are life giving words and they will impart life into the consciousness and into the organism of that person.
Then Jesus also says in verses 17 and 18, "Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it away from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment receive I from my Father." One of the great attributes of true spiritual awareness (and by now folks if you prefer not to use spiritual awareness when speaking about Jesus but to use Christ, that is O.K., but I'll stick with spiritual awareness for a while longer.), as I said, one of the great attributes of spiritual awareness, true spiritual awareness is the gaining of the individual of complete control over the manifestation of the life processes in the body consciousness, even that aspect of it which we call death.
Conscious control of all the expressions of the life processes will be ours when we grow into that level of spiritual awareness typified by Jesus Christ. I want to read to you some of my old notes. "The process we now view as death of the physical body is, from the truth standpoint, another life process which can and should be under the conscious control of the individual involved in it. Perhaps this is still too great a mystery for many to think about." I believe in this truth now even more than when I wrote it because obviously I didn't understand it when I wrote it. In another place in the Gospels he says almost the same thing but instead of the word "life" he uses "body".
Text of the original transcript of p.176-177.
Transcribed by Margaret Garvin on 04-05-2014
