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THE GREATER WORLD CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALIST CHURCH
THE ZODIAC MESSAGES
"THE KINGDOM OF GOD"
An address by the celestial messenger 'Zodiac' (the
unnamed scribe of the Bible and a teacher in the Temple
of Jerusalem at the time of Christ), through the mediumship
of Miss Winifred Moyes in the earlier part of the twentieth
century
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"O DIVINE Spirit of Heavenly Love, we ask Thee
tonight to send down Thy power and strength, to make
good the weakness on the physical side, and to recharge
Thy child that the body may not hinder the Spirit;
but both may be offered up to Thee, willingly and gladly,
because love dictates, and the desire to serve presses
ever more nearly, ever more persistently, and will
not be denied.
-
"Saviour Christ, Thou knowest all that we would
ask. Thou knowest the needs of Thy children individually
- those who are gathered here and those who are far
away. Grant that they may feel Thy peace, and that
the blessing which Thou distributes so freely may be
tangible and real to them all.
-
"Today, O Father, once more we ask Thee to use
us for Thy work; we ask Thee to give each one just
that right poise of mind which may make the contact
between those in the Spirit and those bound by the
physical, complete and lasting.
-
"Into Thy Hands we commend ourselves; and we know
that if we go on in faith Thou wilt send the power,
Thou wilt renew the strength. Give us ever more and
more consciousness of Thy protection, consciousness
of Thy wonderful Love, consciousness that because the
Spirit within wishes to do Thy will, all else must
stand aside. Amen.
-
"MY children, we start a little over-weary tonight
but - as you know and as I have shown you before, by
God's direction - when the Spirit is in command that
which is physical must stand aside. And tonight, because
we have work to do, so we accomplish that which has
been laid down. Send out your thoughts of strength,
of faith and of certainty, and once more prove to yourself
and to all who will heed, that the Spirit of God at
work will not be gainsayed; that it is able to gather
together the weakness and the weariness of the body
and to demonstrate that because God wills, that it
is as naught.
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"Tonight, my children, we have work to do; but
I do not wish you to gather from this that you have
slipped, even in the smallest degree, outside my loving
care. I speak to all my children where'er they may
be - whether their thoughts are lent to us tonight
or whether the things of material life have for the
moment distracted them from God's great purpose, His
purpose in demonstrating His Love for humanity, and
the perfect plan which evening by evening is being
unfolded to you. Never think, dear children, because
I place 'the work' so high that it removes you into
a lower strata because, as yet, you are bound to the
earth, bound to that physical body which now and again
- unwilling though you may be - comes between you and
the realisation of the wonderful Heart and Mind of
God. When you get a little further on you will see,
with so much joy, that by concentrating on the furtherance
of the work I did but honour you as Christ would have
me do: I laid upon you the responsibility, and the
responsibility brings privileges which no tongue can
tell.
-
"Tonight, dear children, heeding the request of
one of my little ones (Miss Owen), I will attempt to tell you something about the Kingdom
of God. Yet in the beginning you must know that physical
language is totally inadequate to describe the things
of the Spirit.
-
"Many mistakes have been made, and will be made,
in regard to God the Father of mankind. In the first
place I must ask you to get right away from your idea
of a monarch's position. Of necessity you cannot think
of kings without at once surrounding them with pomp
and splendour, with power and much authority in regard
to the lives of others.
-
"Children, the position of a king of the earth
and the King of kings does not tally in any particular.
And so, dear children, I want you to banish from your
minds that sense of exclusiveness and the remembrance
of all that furniture - physical, mental and material
- which shuts in those who have been chosen to fill
high places in a world which, in reality, knows not
its God.
-
"Then, dear children, I want to say this: That
the one who put this question
(Rev. H. R. L. Sheppard)
that he, during the sleep state, has wandered far and
wide in the Realms of the Spirit. In the Spirit he
understands what constitutes the Kingdom of God, and
because it so arrested his attention during those journeys
- so soon forgotten - so the mind of the body, catching
a reflection of the greater mind of the Spirit, sends
out that query yet fears no answer can be given.
-
"Children, many there are who have asked of us
and others: 'Where is the Kingdom of God?' or 'Of what
is the Kingdom of God?' and we - instructed by our
Master - we have taken them from beauty to greater
beauty, from marvel to greater marvel still, and at
each point they have thought or said: 'Surely this
is the Kingdom of God!' But we say: 'Not yet, not yet'.
And so the quest continues and sometimes much experience
has to be gone through before they are in a suitable
condition in which to grasp something of the splendour,
something of the beauty of the Infinite Mind of Love.
-
"Children, at this point I must try and explain
that those spheres or planes - which you refer to for
the most part in a figurative sense - that these, as
some know well, are but conditions - conditions of
holiness, or conditions which as yet cannot be called
holy because those who dwell therein turn from the
Light to the darkness, turn from freedom to a hideous
captivity indeed.
-
"From time to time I have tried to explain to
you that the physical world and the spiritual world
are undivided; that it is impossible to say where one
begins and the other ends. Indeed they are so weaved
together that in some cases the physical is directly
a reflection of the spiritual, and in God's good time
will be made the spiritual without any distinction
whatever.
-
"When those on earth - in order to convey degrees
of progress - use such terms as the first or fifth
or twelfth sphere, they are trying to interpret in
words what cannot be described in words at all. You
see, dear children, we are all handicapped in the same
way. There are 'conditions' which we are most anxious
to describe to you - to portray to you in imagery -
so that some realisation of the Mind of God may be
your own. And in order to do this we are forced to
choose words and phrases which will convey something
to your physical minds - something which you will recognise
- and that is as far as we can go until spiritual sight
is your own, when words are no longer necessary, their
support no longer needed because - again in miniature
- the eyes of the Spirit have seen something of the
Glory of the Lord.
-
"Dear children, I do not wish to destroy anything
in regard to those planes and spheres which you have
heard a little about. Such descriptions are essential
and they give as fair a representation as it is possible
to have while still bound by physical limitations.
But there is one objection and this to us is of a somewhat
serious character.
-
"As it were, the inference creeps in that these
various spheres and planes are separated one from the
other; that there are spiritual distinctions just as
on earth there are social distinctions; that those
who are farther on are centred in such holy conditions
that indeed space divides them from the child-like
soul in those spheres which you grade as the 'lowest'
- that that void in between is there in very truth,
as unbridgeable as the gulf between a king of the earth
and the beggar who creeps along the streets.
-
"Children, I have had a little trouble here because
this point is so important to impress upon you; and
you know that when I am trying to break down barriers
in the physical mind a certain amount of opposition
(from the shadows) has always to be met and overcome.
Still we go on.
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"Tonight it is my endeavour to show you that although
those in the Spirit may be divided by conditions, separation
- as separation - does not and never has existed. Those
who have learnt their lessons more quickly than others,
those who have found within themselves resources, determination
and will to find God; those whom you would describe
as the 'Angels of Light' - they indeed are but nearer
in love and in patience and in understanding than the
child of the earth, buried in materialism, buried in
all those thoughts which block out purity and holiness
and truth.
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"Cannot you see what I am trying to impress upon
you: That the greater one's capacity for doing the
will of Christ the nearer we grow to reflecting - in
a fragmentary way - He who is Love itself. As we try
to follow in His steps so also we try to do His work:
we seek out those who have strayed; we travel far in
thought in order to companion those who, it would seem
to the world, are outcast from all that holiness represents.
-
"Never think, dear children, that because you
hear that this one or that one has penetrated into
a higher and more glorious 'sphere' - never think that
he is separated from you or that you are divided from
him. Still, as you must know, like calls to like; and
sympathy of thought and aspiration dominates both the
spiritual and physical worlds. And so it is that sometimes
the children of the earth can be helped more easily
by those who have passed out of physical life who as
yet have not attained to those heights of spirituality
to which your thoughts and hearts ever go out with
such deep longing.
-
"Children, in that last sentence you get the key
to the whole so-called riddle of life and death; of
physical and spiritual experience. If in your minds
there is a desire for holy things, there is that love
and admiration for those who have got a little nearer
towards the Christ-ideal than you yourself have been
able to reach, then, because those thoughts are in
your mind - instinctively, without any barrier in between
- those who are the most experienced in the Land of
Light love to gather to your side as friends, as companions
- not as dictators, not as directors in the earth sense
- but as companions, as most understanding friends
they come to you and they abide with you as long as
the need and the desire remain.
-
"You will see, dear children, what I am trying
to convey. I am hampered tonight and always by the
gigantic readjustment which has to take place in your
physical minds when I attempt to describe that which
is in the Mind of Love.
-
"It would be incomplete if I did not draw your
attention to another point which perhaps you may have
forgotten: and that is the domination of the Spirit
in physical life. In this material world of yours the
Spirit of God dominates and controls. And although
there may be those who refuse to recognise its guidance
in their lives, yet even they when they are free from
the body will look back and see that in spite of their
destructive thoughts, in spite of their most destructive
actions, the Spirit - if not able to hold its own -
yet still controlled many of the events of their earthly
experience.
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"You see, dear children, from this that I am trying
to show you that this physical world of yours is not
divided from any of those spheres or planes except,
and only, by the thoughts of the individual concerned.
It is strange to us that so many who read with delight
and great devotion the sacred records of the sayings
of Our Lord, can, at the same time, relegate the spheres
of God as something which have to be waited for and
which cannot be penetrated into so long as physical
life remains. Tonight then, yet again, I ask them to
reread those portions which relate to the Kingdom of
God and to try and gather something of the inner meaning
which The Master endeavoured to convey.
-
"Children, in no instance will you find that the
Kingdom of God is described as a place. Using various
similes it is likened unto this and unto that; a condition
is described - a mental and a physical condition -
and anything which could be termed a 'place' is rigidly
excluded. You see, dear children, that it was impossible,
as I have told you before, for The Beloved to speak
to His listeners of things as they were. In the first
place He was hampered, just as everyone has been hampered,
by the lack of similarities in physical life and the
inadequate nature of the words at His disposal. And
I want you to remember also that although, in endeavouring
to convey some impression to the physical mind, we
liken the things of the Spirit to the things of the
earth, yet always the things of the earth are but a
crude manifestation of the things which are of God.
The things of the Spirit get not their reflection in
any particular from the things of the physical world;
for there is nothing in your world which - being rightly
interpreted - is not a crude reflection of one or other
of the many marvels which are of the Spirit.
-
"So, dear children, I come back, after going rather
a long way round, to tell you - so far as it is possible
for you to understand - where and what is the Kingdom
of God.
-
"Children, be careful in your thoughts regarding
those many edifices which are in the world, constructed
to symbolise the home of God. I speak with due consideration
of every aspect of this great subject, and I see and
I say that there is an element of danger in the importance
attached to those edifices and their many requirements.
Yet, dear children, I should not be portraying the
truth if I did not explain that in those 'houses of
God' - so-called - if the hearts and the minds of those
who worship therein are as sincere and as pure as may
be - or, at any rate, if the wish is there to be sincere
and pure - then those buildings, those walls do indeed
contain a mighty force, a mighty power of the Spirit,
which is used by God again and again in order to help
those who as yet have not found that same strength
within.
-
"You see, dear children, it is rather a delicate
subject; and yet viewed under the Light of the Spirit
it is simplicity itself. As you know, in the Father's
House - and the word should be 'home' - are many mansions.
And that means that being the Great Parent not only
does He understand the individual heart and mind but
also He has provided many channels through which His
children may find Him, unimpeded by those distinctions
of thinking which make such barriers upon earth. Therefore,
dear children, it is quite easy for you to sympathise
with all forms of worship of God. You look at things
in the reasonable, commonsense way and you know that
anything that is a help in raising the heart and mind
to God - that anything which is able to do this is
precious in the sight of the Father. Yet when you come
here you will realise, dear children, that all unconsciously,
at different stages of the earth journey, you took
on this and that support, and as you grew stronger
you were able to lay them aside and, finally, to walk
in your own strength into the Father's Home.
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"It is in this connection that I would give one
brief word of warning. Whatever the edifice may be,
whatever the method of worshipping God, take care -
take care that not only does God come first but that
His second injunction is not overlooked: 'Love your
neighbour.' Anything of the world, however beautiful
it may be, however associated with holy memories and
with sacred incidents - these things will be shown
as obstacles between you and the One True Light if
that injunction is overlooked.
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"You see, dear children, how I am trying to get
things into their right perspective. These buildings,
devoted to the honouring and the worshipping of God,
are sacred in one sense and in one sense only: by the
help they were able to give to the struggling soul;
by the fact that they provided a vehicle through which
this one and that one were able to find his God, but
not more - not more. Never deceive yourselves as to
this. Beauty of raiment or ornament or architecture
to the Mind of Love is as dust itself in comparison
with the salvage of one poor soul. Yet forget not my
words. Some there are who are helped by the outward
semblance of beauty - it enables them to visualise
the beauty of the Life Hereafter - and because of that
it does its part; but again I say, not more than that
in the sight of God.
-
"Children, all unconsciously to yourselves I am
getting you a little nearer to understanding something
of the Kingdom of God.
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"I ask you once more to go back to your sacred
Record - to the example of the Great Lover of all.
Children, do you remember the incident when The Master
bathed the feet of His tired disciples? Keep that thought
in your mind; and then recall my words in the beginning
when I told you that a monarch of your world and the
great Monarch of all were not alike in any particular.
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"You see, dear children, what I am trying to convey:
That the Lord God Almighty, Creator of all things -
that He who has not only created this little world
of yours but holds uncountable worlds and states in
the hollow of his Hand - His attitude is the same today
as it was in the beginning and will be unto the end.
The Father, the Christ, the Good Shepherd lays aside
His Glory and His Power and tends the weary children
of the earth, not as a concession to Love but as a
demonstration of the Love which is yours and mine for
ever more.
-
"You see, dear children, when viewed from the
earth's standpoint and from the spiritual standpoint
how different things are!
-
"And now I bring you a little closer still to
the Kingdom of God, and I ask our friend
(Mr. Sheppard)
- who is inspired with the desire to serve God to the
best of his ability - I ask him to ponder over my words
and to allow the Spirit within to decide as to whether
or no what I teach portrays that which is Love Itself.
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"Children, the Kingdom of God is not in those
distant heavens; the Kingdom of God is not reserved
for those experienced travellers who, to you, seem
to have worked through so much that you feel separated
from them in every sense there could be. The Kingdom
of God is not in any given place - not centred in any
of those bright spheres which you long to hear more
about - but the Kingdom of God is in the actual presence
of those two or three who are gathered together in
His Name. Yes, and in the heart of the humble worker
- the one who does her best, unaware of the reward,
unconscious of even the first threads of the pattern
which she is working out in such beautiful design -
there in the unselfish heart, in the pure and simple
thoughts, there is the Kingdom of God.
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"Children, within you all you have the Kingdom
of God; within, all those who have been created there
is the Kingdom of God. But alas! in so many it is veiled
and shrouded, so blocked in by the world that the owners
perceive it not. Yet where the Holy Spirit has entered
in there is the Kingdom of God, there is that which
is sacred indeed - not built of stone or wood; the
precious ornaments are missing; bareness and poverty
often the surroundings - but where simple goodness
reigns there is the Kingdom of God, and because it
is His Kingdom, God indeed is centred in His own.
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"Children, I want you always to take that practical,
commonsense view which, in its best sense, so nearly
represents the spiritual, and I want you to think over
the life of Christ on earth, to meditate on His holy
teaching, to try and build up in your minds some conception
of those gigantic truths which He sought to unveil
to a world which understood Him not. I want you to
balance all that with the little explanation I have
given tonight and to for ever cast aside the idea of
a monarch in an earthly sense; to remember that God
wishes you to visualise Him in your daily life as the
Friend in need, as the One who never fails, as a Companion
as well as a Guide, to whom the word 'dignity', as
you understand it, is unknown.
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"Once you see with the eyes of the Spirit the
only dignity that has life in it is that of service;
once the hearing is attuned to the Voice of the Spirit
those things which represent power are seen for what
they are - very often weapons used by the destructive
forces not only to cause distress to others, but far
more to damage that which is of God within.
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"So, dear children, I leave this thought with
you, and I want you all to try and get something of
the inner meaning which lies beneath; I want you to
try and penetrate just one step into the Mind of Love
and to think over His attitude towards His creation.
I have told you before that the beauties of Nature
are but a pale expression of the beauties of the Spirit;
I have told you that the most perfect rose which the
world has ever shown is but a poor drab thing in comparison
with the beauty of effort, with the beauty which is
created and which will last for all time by simple
thoughts of love and sympathy towards others.
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"Yes! out of the endeavours, out of the thoughts
of His children, God has built up the beauty of the
so-called 'spheres' of Light. That beauty is not far
removed from you; it is in your presence now and has
been and will be. Blind the physical eyes may be, but
the Spirit within recognises that which is its own.
So tonight I tell you that everywhere you go there
is beauty, there is a definite expression not only
of Spirit power but of the Holy Spirit itself. Ugliness
is of the earth but beauty is of God, and so because
there are portions of your little world which by their
squalor and neglect are pitiful to look upon, so the
Father has surrounded that which is of the earth with
the beauty which is of the Spirit.
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"My children, we have had several little things
to contend with tonight, but as you know it has never
been my rule to give way. Once you acknowledge that
that which is antagonistic to God is strong enough
to divert you from your purpose, then indeed are you
striking at Love Itself. And so I bid my children go
on; and you shall find that we have done better than
you imagined and that those concerned contributed their
part, though nerves may have suffered a little in the
process.
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"My children, I leave you now for a little while,
but only for a little while. The personal messages
must stand aside tonight because I am anxious to leave
upon your minds a deeper impression of the wonderful
thoughts which are in the Mind of Love for His little
children, who, as yet, understand Him not at all. And
now I go".
©GWCSA
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