THE MYSTERIES OF THE FOUR GOSPELS
Lesson Three. Luke 13.
Unity Interpretation of
The Door
CHARLES and CORA FILLMORE
January 29, 1942
CHARLES FILLMORE: OPENING SONGS
We will sing No. 64 ... 6 - 4 "The Valley of Silence" This song is strictly orthodox. Some of you may object to that second verse: "In the Valley of Silence, I think of my sin and long to be stainless and pure, but God, in His goodness is speaking within to tell me His mercy is sure." The last verse makes amends for all this: "In the Valley of Silence is never a fear, for God will take care of His own, so firmly I walk without tremor or fear, while God and my soul are alone." No. 6
l. In the Valley of Silence, I talk with my God.
Where God and my soul are alone.
And over the path that the angels have trod,
I press with my hand in His own.
CHORUS:
O Valley of Silence, O valley of rest,
Where God and my soul are alone.
In the beauty and stillness I find sweet repose.
And peace, His sweet peace is my own.
2. In the Valley of Silence, I think of my sin, and
And long to be stainless and pure.
But God in His goodness is speaking within,
To tell me His mercy is sure.
3. In the valley of Silence is never a fear,
For God will take care of His own.
So firmly I walk without tremor or tear,
While God and my soul are alone.
Charles Fillmore: All join in the Lord's Prayer. Amen.
CORA FILLMORE: MEDITATION:
This is the third lesson in this series we have given in this course, The Mysteries of the Four Gospels. Again, today, our lesson is based on the 13th chapter of Luke, but verses 22 to 30 inclusive. Here in the Bible we read:13:22And he went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and journeying on unto Jerusalem. 13:23And one said unto him, Lord, are they few that are saved? And he said unto them, 13:24Strive to enter in by the narrow door: for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 13:25When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us; and he shall answer and say to you, I know you not whence ye are; 13:26then shall ye begin to say, We did eat and drink in thy presence, and thou didst teach in our streets; 13:27and he shall say, I tell you, I know not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. 13:28There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and yourselves cast forth without. 13:29And they shall come from the east and west, and from the north and south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. 13:30And behold, there are last who shall be first, and there are first who shall be last. 13:31In that very hour there came certain Pharisees, saying to him, Get thee out, and go hence: for Herod would fain kill thee. 13:32And he said unto them, Go and say to that fox, Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I am perfected.
Jesus was teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. How well we, here at Unity, know what that means! Jesus in our soul represents our own indwelling Christ, the mighty spiritual I Am that is continually trying to lead us into Jerusalem, into the Kingdom we might say, into the happiness and peace and spiritual unfoldment.
In this lesson, Christ is teaching different states of consciousness, the whole truth, teaching us how to let go of the negative phase of life and lay hold of Truth. So this leads us into Jerusalem and into the City of peace within the soul. And now this points to the great necessity of spiritual unfoldment, which is really the gist of the whole lesson. . . . the great point in this lesson is SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT. You know how we attain spiritual unfoldment? It must be through spiritual culture, through prayer realization, meditation, through the great I AM, and the soul contacting God-Mind and realizing our God-Presence. In this state, we get new light, new power, new inspiration.
Now to attain spiritual culture, surely we must be faithful to the silence. We must have a period of time each day to go into the silence and to there meet our God, open our whole consciousness to God, realizing our oneness with Him, welcome Him into our hearts, and to follow the inspiration we get. If we are faithful to the silence, surely when we knock, He will answer. When we seek we shall find. This is the law. By being faithful to the silent hour we find in the silence, we gain new joy. . . . we might say a feeling of security, which insures courage and brings gladness to the heart.
We remember Phillips Brooks once said: "Don't pray for an easy life. Pray to be a stronger man. Don't pray for tasks equal to our powers, prayer for power equal to our tasks." What a wonderful thing that is. Let's remember and try to live up to this command of Phillips Brooks. Let us pray and realize, realize and pray until we have the consciousness of the power to demonstrate and live the life to the best of our ability. But above all, let us not think we are especially favored of the Almighty. As a rule, then is when we should be meek and lowly. Right then is when we should invoke the Spirit of the Lord into our hearts. Be willing to take the lowest place if possible and by so doing, we may serve the Lord. We believe to truly go forward we must set aside at least two or three hours a day for spiritual prayer, spiritual realization, reading the Bible perhaps or reading some instructive metaphysical. But, we always bear in mind that the soul that feeds alone on what it gains from books is indeed a poor soul.
We may get inspiration in books, but what we learn in books must be well seasoned with prayer...with realization. I know in my own spiritual ongoing I first got hold of that book, Christian Healing. I knew I was unfolding spiritual faculties and I must work from the ground up. I made it a rule each morning to read a chapter in the book, Christian Healing and realize its truthful statements in it; and in the evening, do the same thing, reading the same chapter or get a realization. Next day, go on to the next chapter, until I have gone through the book, and then go on all over it again. Right now I am glad to say, I am still following that outline.
Each one of us tries to unfold in our own way, or we know that each one knows the way into the kingdom, the way that's easiest for him, and that is the way we are going forward. We are unfolding our spiritual faculties, and when we knock, surely the Lord will always open to us.
It seems to me music, real music of the fourth dimension, just a spiritual culture of the fourth dimension. I often think of what I read in one of Paderewski's letters, saying he had to practice many hours a day. In fact, I think he said nine. He said, "If I miss my practice on the piano one day I know it. If I miss two days, you and I know it. If I miss it three days, the whole world knows it." And so it is in spiritual unfoldment. We must contact God-Mind, realize our oneness with God-Mind through this great Almighty I Am then when we knock, surely the Lord will open unto us.
Now this is the time for our silence. May we go within. Every soul in this room hold his mind steadily on God, God-Mind. God's Name is "I AM" "I AM THAT I AM".
All together, say softly: (repeat) Hold the consciousness steadily on that Word. We remember, spiritual consciousness in each soul here is the door, the door of which Jesus speaks in the scriptures.
Let us take the thought:
MY I AM CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRIT IS THE DOOR.
Together (repeat)
And now: "I AM SPIRIT". . . . very softly (repeat) Let's hold it steadily.
Let us determine to meet God in the silence every day and every day. Let us strive to enter by the narrow door. Then, when we knock the Lord will answer. When we seek we shall find. This is the law. Amen.
LESSON: CHARLES FILLMORE:
In the lesson today, Jesus is speaking about the mind of man, how to get spiritual understanding into the mind. He uses this illustration of the "door". This isn't the only time that he uses this illustration of the "door". He said, "I AM THE DOOR." He didn't mean that he, personally, was the door into God's kingdom. What did he mean? He meant that spiritual man in him was the door. I am going to read in the scriptures the text for today and call your attention to the constant reference to the "door".
13:23And one said unto him, Lord, are they few that are saved? And he said unto them, 13:24Strive to enter in by the narrow door: for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 13:25When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us; and he shall answer and say to you, I know you not whence ye are; 13:26then shall ye begin to say, We did eat and drink in thy presence, and thou didst teach in our streets; 13:27and he shall say, I tell you, I know not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.
Now this constant reference to the door, the closing of the door, and the narrowness of the door; these all have reference to something not only in the man Jesus, but is every one of us. Now this Kingdom of God — and this kingdom you know he had demonstrated — he had attained to the consciousness of the kingdom far beyond anybody of his day or even in our day. But that consciousness was something that he recommended to all of us.
Remember in the Lord's Prayer he said, "When thou hast shut thy door"! So the important part of the lesson for every one of us is to find out just what is meant by this "door of the mind". Well, we all want spiritual understanding. We want spiritual demonstration. We want to reveal to ourselves that inner spiritual man; and how are we to do it? Is it through depending upon an unknown method of salvation through believing in the personality and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ who lived nineteen hundred years ago; or is it something he did and that we must do to attain the same consciousness that he did?
It seems logical to be and reasonable that we are all of the same God. We are part of the one Great Mind and it must be that we all have to go through this same process of unfolding our spiritual "I AM" or the Spirit in us. . . . .and we know that God hasn't created us perfect. He has given us the ability in inner consciousness, the ability to become perfect. But, we have something to do about it. I sometimes think that he made it a little harder than it really is. He was an oriental; and the Orientals all talked in large figures.
He tells us this is a very difficult matter to get into the kingdom, or to go through this small narrow door. But when you understand that Spirit is the real and that Spirit is really the great and Universal Light, Intelligence, Power, and then it must be that if we work in the right way or take the right attitude, it should be an easy matter to get in. There isn't really anything but Spirit, and there again, what of it, it doesn't make it any less and doesn't make it any more. Just a matter of a little attention, and with the attention goes the understanding. Of course, you must have this faith that there is such a thing as Spirit of course. You must have this faith that there is such a thing as Spirit, and then you must understand how to know (go) about it; and here this lesson tells us about entering into this. How to use it — and we can use it in many ways. It is told in the Psalms to "Set a watch, O Jehovah, before my mouth and keep the door of my lips." (Psalms 141:3)
Now this door is expressing through every one of our faculties. The door of the Spirit in your eyes, in your ears, and in your mouth especially. It is expressed through the words that you speak and especially through the concentration and appreciation, let us say of that Something in you that you say is "I AM", your central identity. And there is really Spirit. And yet it is a very small proposition. It seems insignificant and narrow, and the multitudes in the midst of their scramble for the broad highway of externality, miss it. As Jesus said, "This master of the house will close the door sometime and then those who have lingered in the outer will say: We ate and drank in thy place, and thou didst teach in our streets." That's our outer consciousness.
We here are acquainted with this divine principle. Let us say, we study the life of Jesus Christ. We know what he did and we take for granted that he was the Son of God, and that he went through crucifixion and died and went to heaven. We will go and follow the historical and believe in his blood as our salvation, and we will go to haven finally. ...
Now if we understand the truth about man and how we have to attain to salvation, we have to reverse that whole thing. We have to take Jesus Christ as the great Instructor, and not only the Instructor, but the Demonstrator and we must follow Him. Well how shall we follow Him? By understanding with our mind of course that we have within us this kingdom of God that is a spiritual realm, and that it is presided over by a Spiritual Man, a man, or image of God or image that God created, and that we must contact with this perfect image and bring it into expression. And how do we do it? Through some attitudes of mind? Jesus said "it is the door". What is the door? He said, "I am the door." You have got the key there. That's it. What you have to have is steadiness spiritually. If you get it, you have the key to unlock this spiritual mind (gate), and that is your "I Am". And as I say, that I Am is intended to be used in a multitude of ways.
You can direct that I Am consciousness to the without. And, as I say, you can take on your religion as something that pertains to the outer activities. You love forms, ceremonies and church, you feel a quieting presence when you go into a church. You say, now this is what I am seeking for! Well, is it? Not altogether. You have made one contact. You have made contact with peace and harmony of the spirit that has been expressed there. But, you must get that peace and harmony and something more. You have got to get certain power, certain knowledge of the whole man in the human body through opening the door. So we would impress on you, each one, as you study the mystical lessons, that you use your mind in opening this inner spiritual door, and you will be surprised how wonderful sometimes your results will be.
We don't confine this altogether to being good and pure in preparing us for a future heaven. But we can get results, all right where we are every day of our lives as we learn how to open this inner door and give it expression. It is here inside this. Now the "door" is something that has to do with "I Am', with impulses from the inner spiritual self as it is sometimes called in reference to the soul the subconscious. There you make union with great spiritual intensity, great spiritual power, and great spiritual possibilities; and by closing the door to outer things in the lower plane — in the Lord's Prayer, we are told, when you pray, enter into the inner closet and close the door. It is something you need to understand and apply every day when you go into the silence, and that is to close the door to worldly things. Close the door even to that personality that we eat with and that we heard teaching in the streets — outer things, all of them. We get the real contact within. When we make that contact, then we demonstrate.
The scriptures tell us about many incidents where this inner opening was made by people who — well — were in dire need, like the widow that Elisha found who was in debt and her two sons were about to be sold for debt. And he said to her: "What have you in the house?" She said, "I only have a little oil, a pot of oil." He said, "Take thy sons and the pot of oil and go in thine house and close the door." Close the door. First he told her to borrow all the empty vessel from thy neighbors that she could. The point was that she was to go in and CLOSE THE DOOR. Then something happened. He told her to begin to pour out. He didn't tell her to go in and proclaim the power of God as her supply. But, he said, "Go in, close the door, and then begin to pour out." Here again you can see it is a purely metaphorical lesson. You must go within, and then though you have a very small supply apparently of substance, begin to us it. Pour it out. You will be surprised what a large amount you get. This widow got enough oil to fill her vessels and she called for more and they told her everything was full. So she had enough to pay her debts and enough to live on.
While this shows how prosperity comes, it shows how to go away from these outer appearances of lack and insufficient of those things that appear in the outer. Close the door against them and then let your thought come into the inner consciousness. Pray to the Father in secret and the Father that hears in secret shall reward you openly.
Here you have the great lesson today and every day that you must understand this law and apply it. If you don't do that you don't get permanent results. You may get temporary soul satisfaction from outer religious services or observances, but you never get the real thing. You never lay hold of that inner spiritual life.
Jesus Christ said: "I am more abundant life. I come that you might have this more abundant life. I am the door" (John 10:10). And this is not the Lord just as a man, but that Lord Jesus speaking in Mind telling us, every one of us, "I am the door." Don't be afraid of closing this door that Jesus Christ said would come. That is something that builds up a fear in us that maybe we have committed the unpardonable sin and the door will be closed. That presumption comes to those who look on a little narrow door, a kind of door that is when they think only of the life beginning with physical birth and ending with the physical slipping away. That isn't the real door. That door is broad as the universe and the time will doubtless never come to us when the closing door will be closed. That is, when there will be a closing up of the merciful love of God for all His children. So, just cultivate the side of this great Cause that came through love and compassion and mercy of God. Think, well it doesn't make any difference to God about our sin. We had a lesson in which it was shown we are really all sinners, but one loving good can overcome every sin small or great, if we only press on in this power.
There again, we must open the door of our minds to spiritual power; open the door of our minds to the inflow and outflow if Spirit-life; open our minds to the full inflow of spiritual power and life and everything we can imagine as belonging to God, infinite in its capacity. No limit whatever. Also open the door of the mind, let in this mighty power. It will bring you to that place in consciousness where you can say with Jesus Christ: "I am the door of the sheep", that is, "I am the door of all my true thoughts." I am the door by man enters in. We shall be saved there and shall go in and out and find pasture. I came that they might have life." That is, all my thoughts, that they may have life abundantly.
We all want to realize a larger, more abundant life. It is all right here within us, waiting for us to realize it and demonstrate over that thought of lack and insufficiency. Just know an abundance of all good is right here all the time waiting our recognition. First we recognize it. We say, now let it come forth. Let the door be open to all good. Let me shine forth. Let me express the infinity of God from within, and let it be manifest within and without in infinite capacity, infinite power, infinite goodness. Amen.
CORA FILLMORE: OFFERATORY
We will now give you an opportunity to give a love offering. Let us give in the consciousness of Spirit, knowing that as we give we receive. We will repeat our usual statement, which is: "DIVINE LOVE THROUGH ME BLESSES AND MULTIPLIES THIS OFFERING" Together: (Repeat)
Blessing the offering: Father, we thank Thee for this generous outpouring of Thy spiritual substance. The givers and receivers are blessed in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen
HEALING POOL
CHARLES FILLMORE: Jesus instructed us to go forth and do his work. He said, "You shall do these things and even greater things." So in all of our meetings here at Unity, we emphasize the healing power of the spirit within us. The wisdom of God is within. Now shall we ever find this kingdom of health and our ability to express it, unless we demonstrate it, unless we have this spiritual mind in us. So now we are going to enter into this consciousness of spiritual healing. Take the healing thought of our lesson today: SPIRITUAL MAN IS THE DOOR FOR WHAT YOU EXPRESS. Take the thought: "I AM SPIRIT. I AM THE DOOR OF HEALTH." Take the highest thought you can think of: "I AM SPIRIT AND I AM THE DOOR OF HEALTH." And we can say: "BE THOU MADE WHOLE." We don't say it in personality. We say it with the consciousness of Spirit within us as speaking the Word: it is health; it is wholeness.
I AM THE SPIRIT OF HEALTH. BE THOU MADE WHOLE.
Think about centering your attention with. Close this outer door to all thoughts of things going on without and realize the Spirit, I AM "I AM THE SPIRIT OF HEALTH. BE THOU MADE WHOLE." Speaking in the name of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have the names here of those seeking our help, sending their names, asking for our prayers. It is a prayer of affirmation: "IN THE SPIRIT OF HEALTH, BE THOU MADE WHOLE." We are going to speak it for all these who are asking healing. Let's speak the word: "I am the spirit of health. Be thou made whole." Speak it. Everybody. Every time you speak the word, you get a deeper realization of the truth: speak it again (repeat)
Now there are many here present whose names we haven't ready. Let us speak this word for them. The Lord knows. Let's say to them: "I AM THE SPIRIT OF HEALTH. BE THOU MADE WHOLE." That may be the one sitting next to you — it doesn't make any difference, the word will reach him (repeat). Speak that again for those present: (repeat). If you have a friend anywhere the needs healing, needs help, think of them. All speak the word, join with me in speaking the word as in speaking to the absent one: (repeat). There are others. Speak the names silently: (repeat)
CORA: May I ask again that you remember that we are speaking for those dear ones who have given their names: First, healing: Together (repeat) Let's realize these dear ones are made very whit whole. This one asking prayers to let go of fear. Let's realize that soul is free from all fear. She realizes God is within her. God's loving arms enfold her and there is nothing to fear if she just lets go and rests, and rests, and rests.
CHARLES: We can speak the word everywhere for all people who are in need of health. Speak that word from her for them: (repeat).
CORA: We can speak now. Now there are those here who are asking for prayers for positions, prosperity, and freedom and so on. Say:
I AM THE SPIRIT OF PROSPERITY. I AM PROSPERED
Together (repeat). Realize God is hold a position for you in divine intelligence and divine intelligence guides you into your position and you are prospered.
CHARLES: The Spirit of prosperity enters into all your affairs when you proclaim that Spirit, as we do in projecting the law. "I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS EVEN TO THE END OF THE EARTH. THEY SHALL ASK IN MY NAME AND IT SHALL BE DONE FOR THEM."
We are to be thankful for this fulfillment of this promise for every one of us. We will pray for all. "LO, I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, EVEN TO THE END OF THE EARTH. THAT WHICH IS ASKED IN MY NAME, IT SHALL BE DONE FOR YOU." Amen.
Transcribed by Linda Kathryn Pezzuti on September 2, 2016.
