The moment Christ is realized in individual consciousness, and please, let us not forget this for a moment, when the Christ is realized in consciousness, the depth of true humility is realized, and not before. Before that there is always a sense of personal ego, but not after the Christ has been born. Because with the birth of the Christ, an individual loses all sense of what we would call personal demonstration. That is, the desire for any thing or for any body; the desire for any accomplishment or any achievement. With the birth of the Christ, there exists no longer any sense of even a need for God to do anything for one, because there is now a sense of God acting through one, but never for oneself.
It is a point of transition in consciousness from where there exists a need or desire or an unfulfilled life, to that place where there is no life of one’s own to be fulfilled, or to be made happy, or prosperous, or content. The activity of the Christ in individual consciousness is never for one’s own benefit. It is always there as a blessing, as an activity of good, for the unenlightened. That is, for those who have not yet realized the universal nature of Christ, who have not yet had the experience of the conception and birth of the Christ within their own being.
Again, the Christ reveals a state of consciousness that makes the human scene somewhat fantastic. Yesterday this came to me as a Christmas Message, and it says that a Christmas message should always be one of peace.
Our thoughts turn from the peace that the world is seeking to My peace, the true peace which, when men are ready to receive it, comes with healing of mind and body. The world seeks a peace, which can never be found while its sense of peace is but an absence of war.
Peace is found as we cease warring with the conditions of earth. Peace is realized as we find our union with each other through the experience of God. Peace is achieved as we lay down the armor of flesh, as we put up the sword of defense from the fears, and hates of the world. Peace is attained as we behold the Son of God ruling first our lives, then our relationship with our neighbor.
The world is seeking peace out there in the world. Peace is found only in entertaining the Prince of Peace within ourselves. The peace the world is seeking, even when accomplished, is temporary, because it is based on men’s relationship with men.
Lasting peace reigns only when men’s relationship to each other is based on their relationship to God. Men seek peace based on conferences among men and nations. True peace is based only on communion with God.
Let us no longer seek the peace the world is seeking, but rather the peace that passeth understanding, My peace, the peace achieved only through the Prince of Peace. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
This I that speaks and says, My peace I give you, not as the world giveth, is not a man talking to you or to me. This is the still small voice which is within the realm and reach of every individual who attains the receptive ear. The Master spoke of those who have ears but do not hear, and those who have eyes and do not see. And this surprised the people, because they had ears, and they had eyes, and they thought that they heard and saw. But he was speaking of an inner hearing and an inner seeing, which beholds that which human eyes can never behold, hears that which the human ear can never hear, knows that which human mind can never understand.
The nature of this Christ, of this still small voice, which, Elijah said was not in the whirlwind, was not in the noise and clamor of the world, was only in the still small voice. The nature of this Christ is likewise described in the 42nd Chapter of Isaiah. In that passage, a bruised reed shall he not break. In other words, there is no physical strength in the Christ. There is no physical power in the Christ. Not even a bruised reed. Not even the burning torch can be quenched, because the nature of the Christ is a spiritual activity and wholly without physical accompaniment, and yet, is sufficient to destroy the whole four temporal kingdoms.
You remember Daniel revealed to us the nature of the Christ in that passage, A rock, a stone carved out of the side of a mountain, without hands. Visualize that … a stone carved out of the side of a mountain, without hands. And yet he says of that stone that it will destroy the four temporal kingdoms. Now you see, inside of me it is very much like a running, a gushing, heavy mountain stream. It not only is tumbling over itself coming down the mountain, but from many directions little streams are joining it, uniting with it, and there is a turbulence as this stream flows down toward the sea. And yet in all of its turbulence there is an order, an orderliness, since the several steams that unite with it form one, one stream, and keeps on in orderly fashion, going down the mountain, around rocks and under rocks; always following an orderly process to the sea.
And so it is that in me now there are these thoughts of Isaiah, Elijah, Daniel, all rushing in from the different parts of scripture, different parts of the Bible, into my inner being, and there uniting in the revelation of one spiritual essence or presence or power, that seems to be tumbling over itself in order to get back and reach its source. And yet with it, there are thoughts of children, little children, and I’m seeing at this minute many, many children in many parts of the world that have come into this life handicapped. There are those little children who have come in blind, and deaf, and dumb, and crippled. They are piling in on this earth consciousness, and the earth has no answer to their problem.
The earth has no answer to their healing. And it is as if the cry, as if the cry was going up from them, just as it is going up from adults, for a world peace, for a cessation of war. And to them also there appears to be no answer. The earth has no answer to the subject of war, to the subject of peace, any more than the earth has an answer to the subject of these little ones saying, “Why, why, why me? Why this?” And no answer comes. But the answer is. The answer is, “coming Christ.” The answer is, “coming Christ.” The Spirit of the Lord God Almighty is upon the Christ, that is, a spiritual influence within you, within me, within those whose hearts and souls have been opened to this annunciation, to this experience of conception, and birth of the Christ.
Now, the Spirit of the Lord God Almighty is upon the Christ of our individual being, and it is this gentle spirit within us, which is not achieved by might nor by power, but which is the anointing of the Spirit Itself; it is this Christ that is the answer to world peace, just as it is an answer to these little children clamoring for their divine heritage, which is harmony, wholeness, peace, goodwill.
You see, in what we call the work of prayer, that is, an avenue or an activity of our consciousness which brings the presence and power of God into human affairs, in this prayer it is not necessary to reach out to this person or that person, since our mission is not so much the healing of this person or that person, as it is the healing of the world itself. Yet the result of the activity of the Christ within us is a specific healing to this one and that one.