HOLD THE LINE - CHANGE IS COMING

For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 1 Corinthians 11:31

For many of you, you realize you are holding the line. And although it might feel like you're stuck in the ups and downs, you will only tarry here for a time, it will not be longer than necessary. Our Saviour speaks about it in the Gospels, along which way the soul ordinarily passes in order to reach this high and happy union with God. This week the Lord is calling the line “Judication”. 

It needs industry and goodwill if we are to make this transition to union, for the process involves a true spring-cleaning of the soul, a turning-out and re-arrangement, a wide opening of closed windows, that goes beyond our garden to drown the noise of our phonograph within. 

Those who do this, discover that they have been living in a stifled world. Your inner self, who is your spirit, possesses a unique ability to expand and merge with a larger awareness. Then and only then can it come together as a more unified and powerful personality. It's like having this innate sense of something deeper, a rhythm or reality beyond the usual stuff you experience. 

In simpler terms, it can tap into something vast and boundless. This capacity, this desire for something more, is frequently pushed aside or hidden by the practical aspects of a busy life. But it's the root of that feeling of restlessness you sometimes have. It's also where your strongest feelings of love and passion originate, as well as the driving force behind your brave actions and accomplishments.

The realization of your true position, your place in the Eternal World, is ready for you. 

You may even be hearing in a whisper, “there is more…. something bigger.”

To discover it, you simply need to turn your attention inward, towards your deepest self, to really come to understand your own soul. It's like you're already part of something bigger – "We dwell in Him and He in us" – you're already part of the Eternal Order.

Judication marks the next step in your gradual journey toward understanding reality. The method to achieve this is very much like how we gained an awareness of the natural world. Here too, it will involve direct intuitive contact, relying on your senses rather than your thoughts. 

It marked by weathering your emotions to find a calm that can’t be shaken, detachment without coldness, presence in conflict, authority over emotions, quiet strength, responding —- not reacting, complete government of peace. 

This realm isn't just misunderstood by your regular concepts; it can't be represented by them at all. 

My Vision

I am praying and my eyes are closed and I hear a loud thump. When I turn inward, I see a closed door. I opened the door with an old fashion skeleton key that was hanging just outside the door. Once inside, I find 2 old leather suitcases with belt clasps. Their hardware was a tell-sign of age, the saddle stitching, the scruff scratches and faded bits of leather told a tale of my journey that would require my attention away from everything that can be thought or felt and away from every image, notion or thing. 

A few nights later, I wake up in a stadium where people are piling-in to kneel and pray under the big lights. On the loud speaker we hear, “change is coming”. The scene changes, and I am no longer in the stadium but standing in front of a train track. A train pulls-up in front of me and its doors open. Without a thought, I step-up into the train and its doors close. I wander down the aisle of an empty train and take my seat. The train blows its whistle two times and slowly pulls out of the station. 

I knew the suitcases represented a spiritual lesson but these suitcases weren’t just containers but silent story tellers. I am given a knowing that I am moving toward that enigmatic state of obscurity and eventually discover as the "Dark Night of the Soul". 

For if we would judge ourselves, 1 Corinthians 11:28; we would exercise a strict scrutiny over our hearts and feelings, and conduct to arrive seated at the Lord's Table. His Table is a plane of existence not tied to our bodily senses.

To arrive here we must judge ourselves - We should not be exposed to the expression of God's disapprobation. He refers here to the punishment which had come upon the Corinthians for their improper manner of observing the ordinance; and he says that if they had properly examined themselves, and had understood the nature of the ordinance, that they would have escaped the judgments that had come upon them. 

This is as true now as it was then. If we wish to escape His divine displeasure; if we wish our communion to be followed with joy, and peace, and growth in grace, and not with blighting and spiritual barrenness, we should exercise a severe judgment on our own character, feelings, and motives. We should come to Him with a sincere desire to honor Christ by understanding this dark night.

When we enter INTO dark night, God has drawn us forth —through which the soul passes, and God sets to touch upon certain characteristics in order that we realize the state of our weakness. Once established, we may take courage, and desire that God will bring us to a place into this night, wherein the soul is strengthened and confirmed of it’s virtues, we are made ready for the inestimable delights of the love of God, vision, dreams, words of knowledge etc.

However, to come to this state…. It’s imperative to meditate on the spiritual road that begins to set oneself in the state of awareness and readiness to contemplative every step—to the very end in order to pass through it—- to arrive at the state of the perfect, which is that of the Divine union of the soul with God.