(Back) Jesus Fortells His Death The Cross and Self-Denial (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 22 given on March 1, 1976
9:28And it came to pass about eight days after these sayings, that he took with him Peter and John and James, and went up into the mountain to pray. 9:29And as he was praying, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment became white and dazzling. 9:30And behold, there talked with him two men, who were Moses and Elijah; 9:31who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 9:32Now Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: but when they were fully awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him. 9:33And it came to pass, as they were parting from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah: not knowing what he said. 9:34And while he said these things, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. 9:35And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my Son, my chosen: hear ye him. 9:36And when the voice came, Jesus was found alone. And they held their peace, and told no man in those days any of the things which they had seen.
In the Luke version of this we read... (Read Luke version).
Notice the strange wording on verse 31. They are talking about his forthcoming execution, but look at the way in which this is described,"...and spake of his decease which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem." So, whose hands was it in. It was in his hands, not in the executioner's hands, they were simply carrying out what he had decreed.
The character symbolism involved here is very important; first Jesus' being spiritual awareness and then the accompanying of him by Peter, John, and James up into the mountain for his prayer time. Right here we have a beautiful lesson on what constitutes a prayer consciousness: the three disciples, Peter (Faith), John (Love), James (Good Judgment). Take these three with you into your prayer times, check on them, call the roll, and make them answer: Faith, are you here, are you present, are you involved? Love, are you here, are you present, are you involved? Good Judgment, are you here, are you present, are you involved? Remember that the twelve faculties in some mysterious way do respond to the I AM as though they were entities. This is true, they respond to the I AM as though they were actual entities and so through your I AM consciousness or awareness of Jesus you can actually speak to your twelve faculties and get responses from them. You can give them directions and orders and they will obey but it must be from the I AM consciousness, not from self.
The actual phenomenon of the luminosity of Jesus' person I don't feel is as important as it is made out to be, I think it is just a detail in this incident. I don't think it was the reason for the incident as I have often heard it made out to be. It is simply a symbolic description of the state of your soul when you are in the true prayer consciousness, you are filled with light and it radiates through you, whether it be an actual luminosity of spectacular character. Well, o.k. I think this is really not so important but in this case obviously it was an actual perceivable condition of luminosity but many times your most radiant states does not appear as a luminosity phenomenon because it is you illumined, enlightened.
Then we have the two other characters talking with Jesus, conversing with him. When you are in spiritual awareness, in a high state of illumination the same thing is duplicated in you, the Moses dimension of your being and the Elijah dimension of your being are in full rapport with your spiritual awareness which is the Jesus Christ dimension of your being. The three are in alignment and in rapport and are producing a very valuable state of your soul. Moses symbolizes basically your knowledge of the letter of truth teachings and metaphysics, the letter of the law. Moses represents that phase of you which studies and learns the truth teachings as truth teachings. You never lose that. Elijah stands for the demonstration of these teachings, the concern with making them work, putting them into action and. he is very important and very wonderful. Then it says that Peter thought that these were three separate entities and should have three separate tabernacles and did not realize what he was saying. Then the cloud comes down and the voice, “This is my beloved Son, my chosen, hear ye him." Then the cloud rises and there is only Jesus. In other words, that which the other two characters stand for while they were separate phases of our development, when we know the Truth they blend into the One, the current state of our spiritual awareness, they merge into the One Jesus Christ self of you, "This is my beloved, my chosen, hear ye him." Nothing that you have ever gone through or worked at in order to gain spiritual awareness will ever be lost, will ever be taken from you, but it will no longer exist as a separate compartment of you. The Moses phase that you went through, the Elijah phase that you went through are still a part of you but not separate compartments so that they don't need three separate tabernacles, they are now blended into One, your current spiritual awareness which is Jesus Christ.
Text of the original transcript of middle of p.137 through the page 138.
Transcribed by Margaret Garvin on 04-02-2014
