"Even I learned obedience by the things which I suffered," declared Christ humbly. Or, as it is recorded in Hebrews, Chapter five, verses eight and nine: "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." And then, as Christ so lovingly said, "When one has learned obedience there is no more need for suffering."
Christ's last test of obedience was passed in the Garden of Gethsemane, when in final and complete surrender he yielded his will to the will of God, the Father.
This obedience spoken of is not a blind, stupid obedience of deadened, indifferent relinquishing of one's powers. It is not the surrender or obedience of defeat. It is the triumphant obedience of overcoming. It is victory and glory, the point attained in which one becomes endowed with ineffable power. It is the utter, almost overwhelming, magnificence of comprehending the divine perfection and the unutterable glory of the Will of God.
This divine vision is attained only by lifting one's eyes to behold the glory of God and then by holding to that vision of exquisite, beautiful perfection.
As one's eyes become single to the glory of God he begins to comprehend the glory of God's infinite plan in creating the world. He begins to comprehend the great love expressed in the creation of each and every child of earth, for each and every child is, first of all, a child of God.
In God's great love all are included. There were no favorites at the dawn of creation. There were not a few created above the others, nor were some created only to grovel and wallow in failure and despair. These conditions of failures and darkness have been of man's creating and of man's choosing because man has been blinded by the great ignorance.
In God's plan and in His Will only are the great perfection, the divine, triumphant glory, the supreme, healing love. And in that love and triumphant, sublime perfection are contained the eternal free-agency of man. Every man must make his own choice. He must develop and use his own will. He must make his own selections. He must learn the power of his own thinking and his own desiring. He must learn the suffering that is caused when he sets himself up contrary to the laws of progress, love, happiness and eternal goodness.
"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servant ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness." (Rom. 6:16).
When man has learned obedience by that which he suffers through his pride, his arrogance and his evils and follies, he learns that he is indeed a prodigal son who finds himself cast out and lonely, a wanderer in a strange land. Humbled and repentant, he becomes aware of a burning desire to return to his Father's house, if only as one of the least of his servants.
In that moment one realizes he has only messed up his life. In acquiring wealth he has forfeited the greater treasures of the soul. In seeking illicit loves he has become disgustingly satiated by his defiling indulgences. And in using his energies for selfish ends he has reached the downward track of life, empty of the great happiness he so eagerly anticipated. Every stolen joy only left its mark of deterioration and its decadent repulsiveness. His every wayward step only led him farther away from the happiness he expected to gather in huge quantities. His great pride turned into deep humiliation as his life crumbled into defeat. He may still be propped up by the soulless dollars he clutches in his hands, but their power to bring him pleasures and enjoyments has long since been dissipated. Or he may be left empty and penniless in some pensioners' lonely, forgotten retreat.
No matter what earthly road one may select to travel, there is always a certain amount of suffering connected with it until he learns the great obedience. No one can possibly escape the suffering of the road he travels in his willful ignorance. If one never looks beyond the cause to learn what created the suffering, if he never lifts his eyes to behold the glory of God, he will of necessity be stricken down eventually. There will come old age, sickness or senile feebleness. And all who travel the road of "self" will be claimed by death for death is the road mankind is traveling.
In his suffering and old age one may not be entirely forsaken. He may be permitted to spend his last, lingering days with his children -- and be unwanted. He may live those last years entirely alone -- and forgotten. Or, he may be in one of the most comfortable hospital beds in the world (and none of them are comfortable), or he may just drop dead without any long, lingering illness to prepare him in any way for death. But regardless of how he goes death will pry his fingers loose from all that he has so ardently clutched in his grasp, for in that last moment he will be stripped of all his life's gatherings, his authorities, his powers and his worldly possessions. Empty, as naked and alone as he came into the world, he will be taken through that back door, to be salvaged if he has not sinned too greatly.
Any individual traveling one of the mortal, selected roads of earth will suffer -- and will die. Suffering, setbacks, disappointments and sorrows will dog his footsteps all the days of his life. And regardless of what his earthly gains have been, or to what physical, mortal level of achievement he attained, he never touched upon the beauties of perfection in one single phase of his rather empty and often wasted life. He suffered. He will continue to suffer until he learns of the great obedience that will not only free him, but glorify him.
Each individual lays claim to mortality just as much as mortality lays claim to the individual. It is a mutual embracing of complete willingness. Each man holds fondly to the things of earth. And the more violently wicked a man is the more desperately he struggles to cling to his soiled, frayed little thread of life.
When one has endured any degree of suffering whatsoever and uses that suffering as a means to gain true knowledge, he is taking a step into another realm of existence.
To escape the ills of life one does not need to commit suicide. That is not the way out. That is only the way into deeper suffering, more intense anguish and greater difficulty. It is impossible for anyone to run away from himself and the conditions his own thoughts and feelings, hence his actions, have created. Evil conditions can only be dissolved and transmuted into glory and light and power by one's learning to live in contact with that redeeming, purifying, glorifying Light of Christ, which is given to abide in every man who cometh into the world.
Christ gave the map to the road of overcoming, for even "He learned obedience by the things which He suffered." And when the obedience was learned the suffering ended.
All suffering is contained right within the personal will of man himself. Oh, he does not will the suffering. He only uses his will and his desires and his determination to follow his own way, and in so doing he creates the conditions which bring forth the suffering. He is a prodigal son gone out on his own, to follow the law of his own leading.
Accepting the creeds and doctrine of some church does not release one from the suffering. A church may help to turn one's mind to God, but usually the church wins out above God and one becomes completely sidetracked in his passive obedience to the church's conformity, or to its leaders. When one becomes impeded in his search for good through an organization, he will remain on the level of all physical, mortal suffering as that whirling vortex of evils holds him in its whims.
Only if one is courageous enough to lift his eyes to God and to Him alone, until his eyes become "Single to the very glory of God", can the pattern of evil and ills be broken. Sin and its cause will be completely left behind as one's eyes become single to the glory of God. And in that divine vision a new phase of existence is commenced.
At this stage one usually looks back upon his failures, his sufferings, his errors and mistakes, his sins and his weaknesses and realizing he can no longer carry the burden of them, he turns at last to God.
No mortal man has ever lived on this earth who has not sinned. "He who says he is without sin is a liar, and the truth is not in him." But sin, which has been caused by the great ignorance, can be overcome. It is overcome by banishing the ignorance which caused it. It is overcome in the search a man is invited to make -- for God. It is overcome in the "asking, the seeking and the knocking" which God requires of all who would attain. It is overcome in the love that is developed through following the higher admonitions of the Almighty.
The sin, the suffering, the darkness and all evils have been caused primarily by the great ignorance. It has been man's great ignorance which has caused him to reject that divine Light of Christ, given to abide right within himself. In that Light is contained all the healing powers, the joy, the happiness and the glory of redemption, of complete forgiveness and eternal restoration.
As one accepts that divine Christ Light and no longer permits it to remain a rejected factor in his life, his life will take on a new meaning. He will begin to be prepared for admittance into another realm, where all suffering, all lack and sorrow and evil are left forever behind.
In the purifying flame of that divine Christ Light the individual will become cleansed and purified from all sin. The sins, the weaknesses, the errors and mistakes will be consumed in that altar fire of Christ's holy Light.
As one's vision is lifted by this exalting experience his eyes truly become single to the glory of God. And in that revealing glory he beholds the breathtaking wonder of God's holy Will. He beholds the perfection contained therein. He comprehends for the first time the eternal, everlasting beauty of God's divine, holy plan. He sees and comprehends the love of God and views the wonders of His powers of unutterable, magnificent fulfillment, which has been dedicated and held in waiting for every child willing to accept the ineffable glory and wonder of such exquisite, manifested power.
Humble and love-filled, such an individual kneels at His throne in an obedience of grateful, utter surrender, yielding his own strident, rebellious, hateful will to the Will of God in a complete relinquishing. In this superb surrender he is prepared to take on immortality. He becomes one with God, or one with the Will of God. From henceforth he desires only the Will of God to be done, in which there is no suffering, no evil, no darkness no sin or distress. The Will of God contains only that which is perfect. It contains the great, boundless glory of all that is good and beautiful enfolded in Its eternal light and filled with eternal love.
This is the point where one becomes willing to let God's Will be done. At this point one literally blends his own will with the Will of God. This is done without effort and completely without strife. It is accomplished by beholding a glimpse of just what His holy Will contains. As the individual comprehends all he has been fighting against as he has sought to live his own life unaided and in suffering and beholds that there is no need for the suffering; when he ceases "kicking against the pricks", his own will melts and dissolves in a love of adoring surrender that is exquisite in its beauty and the happiness it brings. This is how one actually becomes one with God. At this stage the individual reaches the point Christ achieved when He stated humbly and simply, "The Father and I are One."
When one has reached this state of attainment all seals will be removed. His whole being will be opened wide to the great Light and the perfect, divine love. The self will be conquered, overcome, outgrown and left behind. One becomes a holy chalice of glory held open for the Will of God to fill -- even with the very "Fullness of the father" -- which IS the Fullness of His Will. This is also when one receives a "Fullness of Joy!" as promised to all those who attain. It is also the fulfillment of power and dominion and eternal glory.
One does not give up anything of value when he gives up his will. In releasing his will thus he gains all that is possible to receive. Then he discovers that he has not released his will at all. He has learned that he has only purified and perfected and glorified his own individual will to the extent that it can blend perfectly with the holy, divine Will of God. Man's will is thus exalted to the height and glory of God's perfect, holy Will. In this yielding and exalting process man becomes completely free. He is more free than he ever realized was possible. He is no longer bound by the shackles of earth. He comprehends the great TRUTH and becomes free indeed.
One reaches this divine point of exaltation and glory by first learning to accept all things that come to him as though they were direct from God and were sent as special privileges to him for his own training and purification. Just by being thankful in all things causes the higher laws of transmutation to begin to operate. Blessings begin to increase and to multiply and one begins to comprehend the joy and the glory of having all things added unto him. "He who is thankful in all things shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him a hundredfold; yea, more."
He who complains, continually finds fault or feels sorry for himself, shuts off the supply of his own blessings and the glory of God's great abundance. Only in gratitude can the law of increase be released and its powers of glorification become active.
There is nothing lacking in the Will of God for man's complete glorification, his eternal, exquisite enjoyment, his everlasting exaltation and his ultimate good now -- and forevermore.
If you are depressed, if you lack, if you are suffering, if your messes have so involved you that you can see no possible way out, know that none of these conditions are the Will of God. It is never the Will of God that man should suffer. And all that is necessary to overcome the suffering is to learn the divine obedience that will blend your will with His Holy Will. Align yourself with His Holy Will and watch all adverse conditions transmuted into power and glory and ineffable joy.
In God's will is all-power and all-joy and all-happiness and all-good for you, with blessings so far beyond your present comprehension they have never even entered into either your mind or your heart. Yea, all that the Father has is yours and He is much more eager and anxious to bestow it upon you than you are to receive it. In His Will is only the great glory -- even the glory which is your own, as you accept it -- and are willing.
In this complete relinquishment of one's will, or rather, in the purified exaltation of one's will, is held the time when God will reveal Himself to the individual. This is the time for the complete fulfilling of all promises This is the time of the complete purification. It is the time when one can behold the face of God. "For he will unveil His face unto you. It will be in His own time; and in His own way; and according to His own Will!" And in this greatest of all blessings and revelations one is bound to silence by the very unutterable glory and sacredness of knowledge so breathtakingly divine. "He who knows not God always tells it. He who knows God tells it not!"
The great obedience is the point of complete humility. It is the point where pride is destroyed, arrogance melted, love perfected. It is the point where the little mortal "self" is overcome or transformed in an obedience of reverent devotion that fulfills all perfection and reveals and bestows all power. It is the point where one actually KNOWS God.