One is not born of the Spirit because he has espoused some religion or had certain ordinances performed over him and for him, as mankind has been taught to believe. These ordinances are beautiful and impressive and certainly not without merit but they are only the symbols of the true reality. They are often but the infant pacifiers of the searching soul.
The earthly ordinances are but the symbols used to gain admittance into some church that belongs to this earth. There is a higher church than any earthly organization. It is "The Church of the First Born" and consists of the great "Brotherhood of Light." This church belongs to a higher realm and in order to gain admittance into it one must go beyond the symbols and partake of their true reality. It is only the full Truth that can bring the fulfilment of so great a promise as that "spiritual birth."
One is born of the Spirit only when "The divine Light of Christ, which has been given to abide in every man who cometh into the world," is brought forth in its fulness. Only with the completion of this divine reality is one truly born of the Spirit. Then it is that one is so filled with Spirit he becomes Spiritual -- or is Spirit. His physical being is exalted into a spiritual vibration that is eternal and divine. In this new awareness and exalted condition the flesh and all its weaknesses and desires are transformed and one becomes a new person -- a literal son of God.
Within this birth of the Spirit is contained the dynamic fulfilling glory of the released Christ Light as it fills the individual with Its eternal Light and everlasting power.
As one prepares himself, through love and compassion and inner devotion he grows into the vibration of Spirit and Its boundless Light and eternal Truth become a very part of him. One is only born of the Spirit when the great Christ Light so fills his being It becomes a permanent factor. When this happens it becomes as impossible for him to return to the dark, mediocre level of mortal living and thinking as it is for a chick to return to the egg, "Or for a man to enter the second time into his mother's womb to be born again."
It is only the TRUTH that will make one free -- the great Almighty Truth of God Himself and the unutterable glory of His vibrating power of Eternal Light -- or Spirit -- of Life. As one steps into the fulness of this Light, or divine knowledge, he steps into a higher phase of existence. This is not just a cherished membership in some church organization. It is a spiritual birth that is a divine reality. It is as literal as one's birth into mortality. And with this birth of the Spirit one is admitted into membership with the Church of the Firstborn, the Great Brotherhood of Light.
Christ, personally, does not redeem any man. Man is redeemed as he brings forth that Christ Light contained within himself. In that Light is his redemption held, and Christ is its source. To bring forth that Light man must learn to believe on His Name. And His Name is the great Unspeakable Name of ineffable power. It is a Name that is unspeakable because it is not contained within a word. It is a Name that is held in the dynamic powers of an unutterable vibration -- unutterable because it cannot possibly be spoken. No word or sounds can contain it. It is a vibration of exalting, limitless power. This unspeakable Name of promise cannot possibly be the spoken word of His Name, but the true reality of His Name as it is sent forth on His own vibration of Light in singing, triumphant, unutterable glory. This great Name, in which we are admonished to believe, cannot possibly be spoken in word -- not in any language. His great ineffable Name, in which man is admonished to "believe" or "BE-LIVE", is the vibration of His holy Light as it is developed and brought forth from within through awareness expressed in tenderness and love.
To bring forth this great vibration of Christ Light is how one takes upon himself the Name of Jesus Christ, which the sacramental prayer designates. One takes upon himself the Christ vibration of Light and glory, even the Unspeakable Name when he develops that vibration within and brings forth Its everlasting Light of Eternal power. Celestial powers are released with the bringing forth of that holy Christ Light. As one is filled with this Light of Christ he is truly born of the Spirit even as the tiny pattern of an infant is fulfilled when that pattern is filled with flesh. Then it is born.
Those who bring forth this Light are actually doing the works which Christ did. And the greater works will follow.
The holy Light of Christ is but a small pilot Light lying dormant in the soul of man. One is only aware of it at first through that uneasy voice of conscience, or through that inner proclamation of divine approval that is bestowed through meritorious actions. This dim, flickering Light holds within It the divine Seed of God Himself. This Seed, that has been placed within the soul of every man is the "Holy, Immaculate Conception." It has been spoken of in awesome reverence down the centuries as the greatest mystery and belonging to Christ alone. None have comprehended that It belongs to every man. This precious, divine Seed is the very Seed of God Himself. And God implanted It in every man in the very beginning -- even before the world was. It has always been man's to bring forth and to glorify. He who glorifies It and brings It forth will be glorified by It.
When one brings forth the Light of Christ until It fills his being permanently he is born of the Spirit. When he brings forth that divine Seed of God until it grows and matures to fill his entire being he receives "The Fulness of the Father," which is the greatest glory possible to receive.
As this great and holy calling, which belongs to every man, is fulfilled, that individual will be filled-full of the glory and the power of God. He will also be endowed with the divine power of Jesus Christ. He will arise from his dead, mortal estate into his divine maturity to receive and to fulfill all things. When this is achieved one is no longer a mere mortal. He takes on immortality. He "evolves from the man kingdom into the God Kingdom."
Man's mortal mind may exclaim in protest, "Impossible!" Then mortal man should let his doubting mind explain the transition of a crawling caterpillar into a flaming butterfly winging its way over the flower-spread beauty of earth.
Man has worked in reverse from the time when he first chose the difficult, mortal road. Man himself deliberately relinquished the divine way of God's choosing. He plunged himself into mortality and has been held steadfastly in its grasp ever since because of his lack of understanding. Yet always there has been the higher Way standing open for his return into the Paradisical realm of a more beautiful existence. That road is the "Straight and Narrow Road" that leads to immortality, without one needing to partake of death with its degrading, undignified sorrows and sufferings. That "Straight and Narrow Way" is the inner way. It is the Christ Way for it is through the Christ Light within that one must travel it. He who journeys along this road must bring forth that divine Christ Light and take upon himself that Unspeakable Name. Such a one is born of the Spirit and will stand forth -- a new creature -- even a son of God!
Man has worked entirely from the mortal, physical side of his nature. It is true that stupendous wonders have been conceived and brought forth by the powers of creatorship contained within the minds of men. Men are inherent creators by nature. But they have only used their powers to father a machine age of mechanical inventions because of their gross, blind ignorance. Man himself is as impotent as were his stone-age ancestors -- even more so. No man of the present day has the ability to go forth alone into the wilderness and carve out a beautiful estate. He needs great machines to saw his lumber. He needs one man to make his bricks and another to lay them. He requires men and machines to cut his timbers. He probably needs help to swing his doors and to hang his windows. Knowledge is so concentrated and so specialized and so mechanically worked out that man has become only the weak, guiding robot of his own high-powered inventions.
Each year man himself has become less and less important, less secure, more unhappy and more and more impotent.
Man has literally dethroned himself and will assuredly destroy himself by the very power he has taken from himself to delegate to his machines unless he takes over the task of developing his own potentialities into the full measure of their divine purpose.
When man lifts his mind beyond the mechanical and financial and physical levels where he has placed it and begins to work upon himself and to explore his own potential powers he will begin to fulfill his own greatness. As he brings forth that holy Light of Christ from within himself, he will truly be born again. He will be born out of the physical, mortal estate into a higher spiritual realm of divine comprehension and existence. Then he will find himself to be far superior to anything he has created or achieved in his mechanical or political fields. He will stand awed and wonder-filled at the mighty, breathtaking glory of God's greatest handi-work -- himself! Man is truly the greatest creation ever conceived, the most wonderful invention God ever fashioned, for within each and every man is an embryoed god, waiting for fulfilment. When man's divine potentialities begin to stir toward their quickening, man will arise from the dust and awake from the sleep of the ages! Man himself is the sacred instrument divine! He is the marvel and the wonder of existence. Man is the very expression of God when he fulfills the measure of his own creation. And assuredly, "All that the Father has is his!"
When this great quickening comes, and it will come whenever an individual begins to comprehend the powers and the super-faculties lying dormant within himself, he will be fulfilled, or filled full of the power and glory of God. This birth is the great actuality of being born again. This is each individual's assignment as he releases the Christ Light entombed within himself. This is a resurrection as the divine Christ Light, long lying entombed within each man, is released and brought forth. When this is accomplished, then will man's mechanical inventions rust away and become as nothing. Man, in this new-found estate will arise as a living part of the great Celestial vibration of Light and will automatically move upward into his own divine perfection, crowned with infinite glory and eternal power -- a son of Light.
Man has worked backward from the beginning. He has yearned and striven for power, not to govern and control himself, but to govern and control others. Most men, when given any power or authority use it to strip all other men of like power. They seek to bring all men into subjection to themselves. These usurpers of free-agency desire greatly to enslave the minds of men as they enforce their own wills and their ideas and methods upon the lives of their fellowmen. This is the same power Lucifer always exerts over his subjects.
Man has desired power to perform miracles, while he has persistently concealed and denied the miracle of eternity contained right within himself. He has yearned to be enthroned upon the pinnacle of the temple that he might awe the minds of men and prove that he alone is endowed with the super-powers of divinity. And in such desiring, his thoughts have turned to the little, mortal, physical "self" as he has blocked his own way to progress.
In all selfish desiring, man has but locked his own divinity more securely within his heart and reinforced that seal upon the great stone slab guarding its tomb. Man, with these personal desires held uppermost in his mind, is but a small child. He is but a third grade student yearning for the credits of a college degree without first mastering fully the mystery of the alphabet.
In man's yearning to perform miracles, he has been unwilling to prepare himself so that he could become worthy of so great a work. He has sought to change everything but himself, and everyone but himself. Man has made no effort to purify the inside of himself, as he has conformed to the outside cleansing methods expounded by mortal ritualists. Man has made no effort to train himself to even believe or to Be and Live according to those great inner teachings -- or to believe even in His Name -- His great Unspeakable Name -- the Name of ineffable, fulfilling power and Light, or to take upon himself that Name or vibration. Neither has man made any effort to hold himself within those holy vibrations of Light by his own exalted thinking habits.
When any man brings forth that divine Light, or vibration, that is unspeakable in its power, It will go forth to do the works. Man will then know that the power to move mountains, to raise the dead, to heal the deaf, the blind and the lame is contained within that holy vibration of Light as It is sent forth on the wings of love. He will know that even the power to feed the thousands -- or the whole world, for that matter, as well as himself and his loved ones, is contained with that Light.
When man realizes that, "Of his little mortal self he can do nothing," perform no miracles, do no great works, and accomplish no permanent good, he will let go of his own impotencies and let that Light of Christ Vibration come forth until It fills his entire being as it flows on out to help heal and glorify a world. He will be like an electric light bulb that receives the full power of the current and stands forth to light up the world -- his own world. Then it is that he will be born of the Spirit and take on immortality.
The bringing forth of the great Light is the major work which Jesus accomplished. All other works are predicated upon this one master achievement. And this is the work He left in our hands. This is the assignment that has been waiting down the centuries for us to fulfill, that we might step forth into our own divinity and become "co-heirs with Him", not just in words and beautifully worded phrases, not in shouted fanaticism -- but in actual power.
One is born of the Spirit when he brings forth the Christ Light from within until it fills his being. Then it is that he grows into Its fulness and is born of the Spirit. Everything else is only the symbol of this divine reality.
When one comprehends the great Christ Light, he will understand the powers contained in that dynamic vibration of glory and will be lifted into a new dimension of comprehension, a new world of profound, indescribable glory. Christ's Light and the vibration of His Unspeakable Name are but the stupendous vibration of one's fulfilment when it is brought forth in its fulness.
The higher vibration of Light and fulfilment can only be contacted and brought forth through the wondrous law of love. Love casts out all fear. It dissipates all negative thoughts and conditions. Love is a singing glory that fulfills all other laws and gathers all divine vibrations into a concentrated power of completion.
Those who learn to hold themselves in the Light of Christ, as it is brought forth from within by their own efforts, learn to think on a higher level. As they continually lift their thoughts to new and higher visions, they soon receive a fulness of that divine Light. These enlightened ones will act from inspired impulses that turn into complete knowledge and power. These advancing ones are filled with gratitude and love for the new understanding and as their appreciation grows they advance speedily until that Light takes over and begins to direct and glorify their lives. And then it is that they comprehend all things. These noble ones will enter the realm where all things become comprehensible and therefore possible.
It is impossible for a tiny child to make a cake. It is a simple task for one who has all the "know how" and the ingredients.
These enlightened ones, with the "spiritual know-how," naturally step through into a higher dimension to join the "Great Brotherhood of Light," known as the "Church of the Firstborn," or "The Church of Enoch."
These titles must be made clear, for they do not pertain to any earthly organization. The Brotherhood of Light consists of those who have brought forth that divine Light of Christ from within themselves until they are filled with It and so are born into a higher vibration of existence. This great organization is also known as "The Church of the Firstborn." This title designates those who have been born into the Spirit, literally, during their earthly experience. They achieved the stupendous accomplishment of being born into the great Spiritual Light or vibration without having to enter the other realm through death. Not too many have accomplished this wonderful thing. This glorious Church is also known as "The Church of Enoch," because Enoch was the first mortal to make that transition from mortality into immortality without tasting death or partaking of it. This group is composed of the choice ones of the ages -- those who have overcome, while in the flesh.
There are many of the present generation who are being prepared speedily for this wonderful transition. These dynamic, progressive, enlightened ones will soon be prepared to step through into that higher dimension, though it is to be an individual accomplishment for each one. As they step through they will automatically be born of the water. This wonderful experience will be fully revealed in the following chapter. And those who are born of the water and of the Spirit have the power to overcome death.
You great and wondrous ones, arise! And take upon you His Name -- His great Unspeakable Name and clothe yourselves in Its Light.
"And I put off darkness and clothed myself with light, and my soul acquired a body free from sorrow, or affliction or pain." And again: "I have put on incorruption through His Name; and have put off corruption by His grace. Death hath been destroyed before my face; and Sheol hath been abolished by my word; And there hath gone up deathless life in the Lord's land, and hath been made known to His faithful ones, and hath been given without stint to those that trust in Him." (Odes of Solomon).
Beloved, such is your heritage! And such can be your fulfilment.