THE MYSTERIES OF THE FOUR GOSPELS
Lesson Nine. Luke 10.
Unity Interpretation of
Sending Forth the Seventy
CHARLES and CORA FILLMORE
November 27, 1941
CHARLES FILLMORE: OPENING SONGS
We are going to sing ... (Making signs in the air: laughter and answers of Yes! Yes!) two-nine-one 291 Did you get it? (hands) I just wanted to see if you were paying attention. (Laughter) 2-9-1 "HELP ONE ANOTHER": We're going to sing that:
1. "Help one another," the snowflakes said,
As they cuddled down in their fleecy bed.
"One of us here would not be felt,
One of us here would quickly melt.
But I'll help you and you help me
And then what a great white drift we'll see."
2. "Help one another make a maple spray,"
Said one to its fellow-leaf the other day.
"The sun would sear me here alone,
long enough e'er the day is done;
But I'll help you and you he|p me,
And then what a splendid shade there'll be."
3. "Help one another, "the dewdrop cried,
Seeing another drop close to its side.
"This warm south breeze would dry me away
And I should be gone e'er noon today."
"But I'll help you and you help me,
And we'll make a brook and run to the sea."
4. "Help one another," a grain of sand
Said to another grain just at hand.
"The wind may carry me over the sea,
And then what would become of me?
But brother, come, give me your hand,
And we'll build a monument and there we'll stand."
Chorus: (finale)
And so the snowflakes grew to drifts,
The leaves became a pleasant shade
The grains of sand to mountains,
And dewdrops fed the fountains.
Let's all join in the-Lord's Prayer: (in unison) ... Amen.
MEDITATION:
This is the ninth lesson in this course "THE MYSTERIES OF THE FOUR GOSPELS". Today our lesson is based on Luke 10: verse 1, and 17 to 24. Here in the Bible:
10:1Now after these things the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself was about to come. ...
10:17And the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in thy name. 10:18And he said unto them, I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven. 10:19Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall in any wise hurt you. 10:20Nevertheless in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
10:21In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: yea, Father; for so it was well-pleasing in thy sight. 10:22All things have been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth who the Son is, save the Father; and who the Father is, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him.
10:23And turning to the disciples, he said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: 10:24for I say unto you, that many prophets and kings desired to see the things which ye see, and saw them not; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not.
We return to the first verse, "the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them forth two and two before his face to every place he himself was about to come." Interpreted within us, we know Jesus represents our own indwelling Christ, do we not? And the "seventy others" — the indwelling Christ sends forth, represent no doubt spiritual thoughts, thoughts that were the good and the beautiful in every situation; in Truth, they are thoughts that image our ideals. We know, do we not, that within each heart, we are working toward a certain image; we would be a superman, or a super-woman; and we image that which we are working toward. We would be free from sin, sickness and death. We would be Christ in expression. We all have in mind an ideal man, an ideal woman.
Supposing the Christ in you and in me were to linger in the silence and in this stillness we were to image this perfect man, or super-woman we would be. That work, in itself, would call forth these seventy other thoughts, or any multiple of seven, in order to bring forth the edicts of our own ideal Lord.
And here he sent them forth "two and two". These thoughts usually work in pairs, all dealing with thoughts, the thought of respectively — the man thought, the woman thought, the wisdom thought, the love thought, all working to enable this to bring forth the image of the ideal which we are holding in consciousness, if we are all working in perfect harmony with the indwelling Christ.
Now in this state of consciousness these idealistic thoughts have dominion over demonish thoughts, or Hitlerish thoughts, or thoughts of sin, sickness and death, as we have to bring into subjection all these error thoughts.
Then the Indwelling Christ symbolises the idea of "Satan falling" as "lightning from heaven". "Behold I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Nevertheless in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rejoice because your names are written in heaven."
What does it mean now: "I beheld Satan fall as lightning from heaven." What does it mean? to you and to me? Satan here means the personal ego, does it not? The "personal ego" that formerly has to always work for self-glorification, has always worked for selfishness, proud in its own conceit. And when this personal ego contacts the Christ, or stands face to face with the Christ, it must fall. And when it does fall, it is very well on the road to redemption, because we know that personal ego must be transmuted into an individuality of the Christ; selfishness into unselfishness.
Now we don't rejoice that we have been given authority over error conditions. We don't brag that we are so strong spiritually that we can demonstrate over this, that and the other, because if we brag about those deeds a personality does, it pulls us away, does it not, from the very kingdom of heaven itself. But we do "rejoice that our names are written in heaven", which means that we are functioning in spirit consciousness — just what we are all working for, is it not? to function continually in spirit consciousness.
We may be able to function in spirit consciousness when we are deep in the silence; but we don't live continually in spirit consciousness. This is something to rejoice about in this state of consciousness, the error falls away naturally. So let us work in spirit consciousness regardless of breaks that pass our way. We are working to function in the kingdom of heaven.
Then here in the Bible it says: "In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit." We all rejoice in the Holy Spirit. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GOD'S WORD IN ACTION, is it not? And which, when active in consciousness, gives us added illumination, gives us light, gives us dominion and mastery? Everyone of us has had an experience with the Holy Spirit. Perhaps everyone in this room has been conscious of your spiritual baptism. When in the silence we get a strong realization of Spirit. When we have really merged our consciousness with God-consciousness in the silence, until we have satisfied the law and that word we are holding to [breaks ?] forth in a floodlight and we are baptised on the crown of the head, from the crown of our heads to the sole of our feet, until every cell and fibre of our whole being really is just baptised in this light. We all know what that is. Sometime, somewhere, we have had this baptism of the Holy Spirit and great illumination always results.
So here Jesus in this hour rejoices in the Holy Spirit. He said, "I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven, and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and dost reveal them unto babes." We know the wise of that day were fearful, were the Pharisees and Scribes who held all the learning, who held to the letter of the law, held on to their schooling and didn't bow down to the spirit within.
Then again "All things have been delivered unto me of my Father." How true that is today, just to the degree that we open our hearts to the Father, to that degree we can receive from Him. As we develop, we receive more and more. We know people to this day who have a desire for this Spirit through necromancy, or through spiritualism. The one way is to go DIRECT to God.
Now again, we refer to the first verse: "Jesus sent them forth two and two before his face to every city and place where he himself was about to come."
Now is it possible for these seventy idealistic thoughts to bring forth the demonstration? I don't believe it is. I believe they have to have the help of the Indwelling Christ. And the Scriptures say here, "he himself" ... "where he himself is about to come." Consequently, in order to bring forth a demonstration we must have the help of the Indwelling Christ, and his faculties, twelve different faculties, stationed in different parts of soul and body consciousness, give us a purchase on spirit, soul and body. Comparatively speaking, we are not very far along in the wonderful unfoldmant but we are working away and today we are laying hold anew as never before.
We are grateful, are we not, for every avenue through which we have received spiritual unfoldment. We are grateful for the Spirit of Truth, the one and only Teacher, which is leading us into all truth. We are grateful for every blessing we receive. A grateful soul is always a great soul, and we believe that thankfulness really is the fruit of a deep spiritual realization and we are never beggars so long as we are thankful for the good we have received, so long as we are thankful for the blessings we know are in store for us. Thankfulness is really the parent of a rich consciousness.
Now in the silence, we turn to God with thankful hearts. With one accord right now we will consider that verse: "And the Lord appointed seventy others" — these are our idealistic thoughts. We each one here image himself or herself as superman or superwoman, toward which we are working today. "SEE YOURSELF AS GOD SEES YOU", free from sin, sickness, death. See the personal ego within transmuted into the individuality of the Christ. And now in conclusion, we call upon our own Indwelling Christ, holding this statement:
I AM THANKFUL THAT I AM THE PERFECT EXPRESSION OF THE CHRIST OF GOD."
"I am thankful that I am the perfect expression of the Christ of God." Together please: (repeat) Let us realize it. Through gratefulness weave a soul fabric which unites that soul with all other progressive souls. In this spiritual unity there is strength. Unified in Spirit, we see ourselves perfect. We see all people perfect. In His Name. Amen.
LESSON: CHARLES FILLMORE:
Let me remind you again that this lesson is on the development of the spiritual Man. In order to understand it, we must eliminate from our minds the thought of an historical Jesus, or that the seventy he sent forth were real entities, that they were personalities. We are dealing with thoughts, ideas, or phases of thought in the man that lead up to his spiritual unfoldment. We all have this ideal Man and here we are taught how to bring him into manifestation.
Now in the first verse of this tenth chapter in Luke, we read:
"Now these things — or after these things — the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whither he himself was about to come." ... "After these things". What things? Like the last chapter, the 9th in Luke, we read:
9:59And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 9:60But he said unto him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but go thou and publish abroad the kingdom of God. 9:61And another also said, I will follow thee, Lord; but first suffer me to bid farewell to them that are at my house. 9:62But Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
That's "the things" that preceded the lesson, and you can see that it all means that we have to forsake "the old ways, the old thoughts, and give ourselves up wholly to spiritual unfoldment. THEN, the seventy are called. And the question with every one of us is: what do these seventy represent? Well, it is very evident that they represent ideals that have not yet been demonstrated; that they represent something in our minds that we can send out and make open the way that we are after wards to follow, not realizing that we haven't yet realized these things — that [is] what the seventy rerpesents.
They are our projections. We [unreadable] the thought that: "The Spirit of the Lord goes before me and makes easy and successful all my way." You are sending out some of the seventy. Now the word "Seventy" represents an UNLIMITED NUMBER. When Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive, he said: Shall I forgive seven times? And Jesus said: Seventy times seven. This then represents a number of ideals or thoughts that we ean project — send ahead of our demonstrations.
Now you find that in everything you do, you do plan. If you are going to make, or build a house, you make a plan of it. But do you know, we can send out our thoughts about that house and build it in the mind, and project it and help things along wonderfiully? We find that to be true. We can send out seventy, or unlimited ideals, and put into them substance of life and develop them to the place where they DO something! The majority of people say to you: O well, that's my imagination. But you can put into the imagination, something real, and you get results.
There was a little girl, who said as she drove her car: "This car is infolded in the spirit of safety and no error can get in front of it this day." She was sending out the thought of safety before her car, wasn't she? That's what we may all do. So we must plan our program and then carry it forward according to schedule.
Who is doing that today? Who is having wonderful success in Europe? Conquering all the nations? Nine nations Conquered. The Germans, they say everything is "a putsch" (a push) according to schedule. They have projected and idea out and expect it to come to pass. That's psychology. That is what the world is just waking up to in German strategy. In other words, they have sent out their seventy, because they expect to follow up. [TruthUnity note: See the above remark about "Hitlerish thoughts". The Fillmores are not praising the success of German war in Europe. They are only praising the use of projecting thoughts.]
That's exactly what Jesus said. He said: these should go before his face into every place where he himself was about to come. So we follow up. This is the great spiritual follow-up, and if you know this law and consecrate yourself to the Lord, and really use the law, carry out the law, why you will be surprised how you can work things. And we are told to be fore-warned is to be fore-armed. When you know that, you can use your mind to prepare the way, and to not only prepare the way right here, but project your thought, send it out, and then you will accomplish things easily. It won't be so hard to do things.
Now you remember that Jesus was talking in parables — without parables spake he nothing unto them — which we should remember in studying these lessons. They are really not historical. But Jesus used the law of the seventy, but the interpretation of the law we should always remember. As Mrs. Fillmore explained, that represents the positive and objective; the positive which is masculine, and the feminine of man and woman, and he sent those "into every city and place" — that means he is projecting his thought into all states of consciousness — every state of consciousness.
And than he told them WHAT they should do; that is, HOW they should prepare themselves for it. And he said: "Now the harvest is plenty but the laborers are few." We haven't prepared many thoughts to do the work. Now that you know the law, you must begin to use it.
And he also said: "I send you forth as lambs in the midst of wolves." Here you can see — here again you see that our thoughts are not aggressive. We don't go to war with our thoughts, but they are nonaggressive; they are lamblike — and we do run up against many wolves ... "devouring" thoughts. But we are victorious in the end if we stick to the law. So "resist not evil." But KNOW that we are going to succeed.
And how about preparing for your work? Do you have to have a purse, or a script, or a bag to carry your food in, and extra shoes, extra preparations (toilet preparations, face creams, and so on ... laughter)? He said, NO, carry no purse, no wallet, no shoes. We have to trust God for our supply. Now that's one of the very important things.
And SALUTE NO MAN ON THE WAY. In oriental countries when those of the same nation and religion meet much ceremony follows. They kiss each other on each cheek and inquire about the health of the family, the father, mother, sisters, brothers, grand parents and go into all the details, taking a half house sometimes to salute people they meet on the way. That in our day would be considered more or less gossippy waste of time. So Jesus is saying to everyone of us, "Don't spend any time gossiping, but tell about the truth, carry out this command to let the Kingdom of Heaven be known." So in this we can see a very practical application. They who don't know that didn't understand what that meant: "Salute no man" ... (they thought) that you couldn't say, "Howdy," as you passed by.
That is part of the great work of man, to know how to handle all these thoughts. Every detail is worked out in Spirit. He said, say, "Peace be to this house." "And if the son of peace be there, your word shall rest upon him." ("10:5And into whatsoever house ye shall enter, first say, Peace be to this house. 10:6And if a son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him")
"Son of peace ... what is a son of peace? It is a thought of peace, that's it. Whenever you enter into the consciousness in any place in yourself or in your environment and world, cast a peaceful consciousness, that is a state of peace, or thought of peace. When you can meet that, there is peace. Peace. And you can remain in that house, he said, and eat and drink. That is, affirm the truth and deny the error, "washing" we term denial, and "eating" is affirmation. In other words, when you get to a place where there is a little peace, you can get hold of with your mind, use that as a kind of a claw and declare more and more.
Then he said: "Heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you."
Here is a thought we use a great deal in our Unity activities. Are we realizing who the sick are? Do we think of persons coming into a house seeing somebody sick there saying that man is sick? But how about our own house, our own thoughts? Now aren't all bodily ills the result of sick thoughts? Anger is a sick thought. Fear is a sick thought. Death is a sick thought. Indifference to truth, is in the minds of most people active in body; but it really does make one negative if you are indifferent.
Then they said to the Lord some were not healed. Healing was not given over to those who didn't acknowledge God for themselves; who didn't care about God; and didn't acknowledge God in any way. They weren't for God, just for themselves. There are a whole lot of people in the world like that. Now you find thoughts in the clutch of false pride and vanity are sick thoughts. All these can be healed by holding the perfect image and the perfect thought in this house and abiding in that consciousness.
Now the kingdom of God — he said, "Declare the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." That's a very important statement, a very important thing in this healing kingdom of God; this Kingdom of Harmony, Kingdom of all-round perfection, is very NIGH unto you, and is really within you; when you know, you are nigh unto it.
Jesus said the seventy had to be prepared for any emergency. You are to train these thoughts you send out, telling them exactly what to do. (10:10But into whatsoever city ye shall enter, and they receive you not, go out into the streets thereof and say, 10:11Even the dust from your city, that cleaveth to our feet, we wipe off against you: nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh.) "They receive you not" — when you find a state of consciousness too material "even the dust from your city, clinging to our feet, we wipe off against you." In other words, when conditions are so material, we don't allow the dust into our consciousness. We dust off our feet, or we dust off our understanding, or get rid of the dust of people's materiality, material mindedness.
Many healers set up that idea: "That person is so materially minded, so dense, that I can't get hold of him at all." Don't think that, because if you let that into your mind, it causes all sorts of things, and soon their material thoughts, their dust, will get hold of you and cause you to go through yourself and eliminate their dust and all materiality from your mind.
Then we are told
10:17the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in thy name. 10:18And he said unto them, I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven. ... 10:20Nevertheless in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
We have always thought and been taught, when he said: "Beheld Satan falling from heaven unto earth", that the devil was once on angel. Through this meaning, he fell from heaven. That doesn't mean that at all. That is what he means is what Satan is. What is Satan? Personal ego; adversary; that state of mind that prevails in worldly-minded persons; one who isn't regenerate; hasn't real spiritual understanding, but developed an ego or I am, and it is in the high place or heavens of his mind, and when he comes into truth and begins to understand what the real ego is, he changes his mind. That is, he sets up another ego, his spiritual I am; and the material Satan, he falls down to the earth; gives up his, high place. That's exactly what that means.
And when we understand this and know that this "lightning fell" — that is Satan fell as lightning — what's that mean? "Lightning" represents "light" — lightning represents ... "he fell as lightning" — Jesus Christ told about when in the second coming, he would come as lightning flashing from east into the west: that is, as "intelligence". You know the world in the last forty or fifty years has been enlightened in a wonderful way by this spiritual thought of the infinite mind of Jesus Christ. He came with his wonderful word into the place he expected to come — and the world has received this "lightning". You know what we are teaching today is being received more freely than it was even ten years ago.
Ministers, are teaching it. Where did they get it? They are getting it out of the ether, the thought atmosphere. These thoughts have been sent out and all minds have been in a measure lifted up, spiritualised through the thoughts we have sent out. Then as we know this, we are sending out these seventies; that there is an invisible emanation of spiritual thought into the world. Yes, we are sending out these thoughts. When you get right down into yourself and begin to realize the power of Spirit, you are sending them out, and Spirit knows your thoughts are projected into the earth, the ethers, the thought atmosphere just to the extent you realize they are spirit and they are power.
If you send out such thoughts [like these]: "Of course, I am not vary spiritual. I don't know much about this truth and it don't go very far" [then] STOP!!! Begin to eliminate those thoughts that give you weak nothings. Your thoughts in Divine Mind are God's thoughts. Are God's thoughts limited in any way? No. Send out the seventy. Send them out with this thought:
ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME IN HEAVEN (THE HIGH PLAGE) AND IN EARTH.
Maybe you think that's all right in the spiritual realm, but will they ever get down into the earth atmosphere? Yes. They get down into the earth consciousness. They just get into the earth consciousness just as you train them to suit that earth consciousness, train them to meet the conditions of the earth, and they have their effect.
But it you have to take on a little duet sometimes and you have to shake it off. And expert metaphysicians know how to do that washing away of all thought of materiality. So we are today thanking God for an understanding of these wonderful lessons. And when I began to study these chapters, I didn't see much in them. When I began to dig into that, it appealed to me, and when I declared:
The universal Spirit of the Lord goes before me and makes easy and successful my way",
I am sending out my seventy and I am making open the way for a condition. I am coming to that place which I am idealizing. Today we are idealizing what? Your higher self, the Spiritual Man. Have you realized it? No. But you are following the law. You are projecting that thought and sooner or later you will visit that place in consciousness that you are idealizing today.
CORA FILLMORE: OFFERTORY:
Now is our time for the offering. Let us take our offering in our hands and repeat the usual word together. Let us know this offering we give is given spiritually; given as we receive; as we receive, we give. Please take your offering in your hands. Repeat together the usual word. Together please: DIVINE LOVE THROUGH ME BLESSES AMD MULTIPLIES THIS OFFERING. (Repeat three times) BLESSING: Father, We thank Thee for this blessing. We receive it in His name. Amen.
HEALING POOL
CHARLES: We now come to that period in our lesson in which we demonstrate the law. We send out the thought, the spiritual word, Jesus said to the seventy: Go forth: heal the sick; and say, the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." What is the Kingdom of God? Well, we can say that the kingdom of God is the kingdom in which perfection reigns. Or we might change that and say the Kingdom of Perfection is come nigh unto us. I like this word "nigh". "Nigh" means "a little outside, near". (Reporter's note: C.F. may have said: "I don't like this word 'nigh', from the nature of his following qualifying sentences).
The Kingdom of God is WITHIN you. I think that expression struck the high note. The Kingdom of God is WITHIN you, Let us seek the Kingdom of Spirit which is WITHIN us. If you say that to your patient, say it to yourself, you always get wonderful results. That is the realization of Spirit:
THE Kingdom of PERFECTION is WITHIN YOU.
Let us use that for our healing word today. Let us realize that for a moment: THE KINGDOM OF PERFECTION IS WITHIN YOU, The kingdom of perfection is everywhere. The kingdom of perfection is within us.
It is good to speak the word aloud. Let's all speak it for ourselves:
THE KINGDOM OF PERFECTION IS WITHIN ME.
Let's say: GOD'S PERFECTION, that will make it a little stronger. WORDS have a WONDERFUL POWER. YOUR RIGHT WORD always gets results. THE KINGDOM OF GOD'S PERFECTION IS WITHIN ME. Let's all speak it aloud: (Repeat) Silently. Now speak it a little stronger. Some of you didn't speak that. Now you want to be healed. You all want to be healed. You all want to be spiritualized. Let's say to ourselves: THE KINGDOM OF GOD'S PERFECTION IS WITHIN ME. That's better. Again: repeat.
That starts the claim of spiritual perfection within you. "THE KINGDOM OF GOD'S PERFECTION" is within, go now let the light shine. That's starting the light for everyone of us. Speak the word for others. Speak the word for all these names that we are given — here are their signatures. They have asked for a spiritual realization [and] we have asked for the realization of this mighty truth: (Repeat).
CORA: Repeat that word: THE SPIRIT OF GOD'S PERFECTION IS WITHIN YOU". Repeat that please. Please give us your spiritual help while we read the names silently. Then aloud for those names we have read. THE SPIRIT OF GOD'S PERFECTION IS WITHIN YOU. Now again.
CHARLES: Now a little stronger. Now if you have friends anywhere whom you want to help with this healing, through the silent seventy, think about them. You don't have to send your thought right there, but realize we are speaking these true words in Spirit.
THE SPIRIT OF GOD'S PERFECTION IS WITHIN EVERYONE OF YOU. THE SPIRIT OF GOD'S PERFECTI0N IS WITHIN ME.
Let's speak it aloud, (repeat). Speak it again. Now there are words: remember, all power is in Spirit, that Spiritual thought goes forth through the Spirit of God's power. Speak it aloud again for all these: (repeat ). Let's speak that word now for all sick people everywhere. All together aloud, then silently (repeat).
In Spirit, see the spiritual mind radiating a spiritual light. Let's rise please.
BENEDICTION: As you go forth, let us take that as our central thought: THE SPIRIT OF GOD'S PERFECTION GOES BEFORE ME. THE SPIRIT OF GOD'S PERFECTION IS IN ME, IN YOU, AND IN ALL OTHERS.
May your light so shine before thee that they may see your perfection and glorify your Father in the heavens. Amen.
Transcribed by Mark Hicks on August 22, 2016.
