I am among the ministers of God.
I am among the ministers of God.
Let us today be neither arrogant nor falsely humble. We
have gone beyond such foolishness. We cannot judge ourselves, nor need
we do so. These are but attempts to hold decision off, and to delay
commitment to our function. It is not our part to judge our worth, nor
can we know what role is best for us; what we can do within a larger
plan we cannot see in its entirety. Our part is cast in Heaven, not in
hell. And what we think is weakness can be strength; what we believe to
be our strength is often arrogance.
Whatever your appointed role may be, it was selected by the
Voice for God, Whose function is to speak for you as well. Seeing your
strengths exactly as they are and equally aware of where they can be
best applied, for what, to whom, and when, He chooses and accepts your
part for you. He does not work without your own consent, but He is not
deceived in what you are and listens only to His Voice in you.
It is through His ability to hear One Voice Which is His
own that you become aware at last there is One Voice in you. And that
One Voice appoints your function and relays it to you, giving you the
strength to understand it, do what it entails, and to succeed in
everything you do that is related to it. God has joined His Son in this,
and thus His Son becomes His messenger of unity with Him.
It is this joining through the Voice of God of Father and
of Son that sets apart salvation from the world. It is this Voice which
speaks of laws the world does not obey, which promises salvation from
all sin, with guilt abolished in the mind that God created sinless. Now
this mind becomes aware again of Who created it and of His lasting union
with itself. So is its Self the one reality in which its will and that
of God are joined.
A messenger does not elect to make the message he delivers.
Nor does he question the right of him who does nor ask why he has chosen
those who will receive the message that he brings. It is enough that he
accept it, give it to the ones for whom it is appointed, and fulfill his
role in its delivery. If he determines what the messages should be or
what their purpose is or where they should be carried, he is failing to
perform his proper part as bringer of the Word.
There is one major difference in the role of Heaven's
messengers which sets them off from those the world appoints. The
messages which they deliver are intended first for them. And it is only
as they can accept them for themselves that they become able to bring
them further and to give them everywhere that they were meant to be.
Like earthly messengers, they did not write the messages they bear, but
they become their first receivers in the truest sense, receiving to
prepare themselves to give.
An earthly messenger fulfills his role by giving all the
messages away. The messengers of God perform their part by their
acceptance of His messages as for themselves and show they understand
the messages by giving them away. They choose no roles that are not
given them by His authority. And so they gain by every message which
they give away.
Would you receive the messages of God? For thus do you
become His messengers. You are appointed now. And yet you wait to give
the messages you have received, and so you do not know that they are
yours and do not recognize them. No one can receive and understand he
has received until he gives. For in the giving is his own acceptance of
what he received.
You who are now the messengers of God receive His messages,
for that is part of your appointed role. He has not failed to offer what
you need, nor has it been left unaccepted. Yet another part of your
appointed task is yet to be accomplished. He Who has received for you
the messages of God would have them be received by you as well. For thus
do you identify with Him and claim your own.
It is this joining that we undertake to recognize today.
We will not seek to keep our minds apart from Him Who speaks for us, for
it is but our voice we hear as we attend Him. He alone can speak to us
and for us, joining in One Voice the getting and the giving of God's
Word, the giving and receiving of His Will.
We practice giving Him what He would have that we may
recognize His gifts to us. He needs our voice that He may speak through
us. He needs our hands to hold His messages and carry them to those whom
He appoints. He needs our feet to bring us where He wills, that those
who wait in misery may be at last delivered. And He needs our will
united with His own, that we may be the true receivers of the gifts He
gives.
Let us but learn this lesson for today: we will not
recognize what we receive until we give it. You have heard this said a
hundred ways, a hundred times, and yet belief is lacking still. But this
is sure—until belief is given it, you will receive a thousand miracles
and then receive a thousand more but will not know that God Himself has
left no gift beyond what you already have nor has denied the tiniest of
blessings to His Son. What can this mean to you until you have
identified with him and with his own?
Our lesson for today is stated thus:
*I am among the ministers of God,
And I am grateful that I have the means
By which to recognize that I am free.*
The world recedes as we light up our minds and realize
these holy words are true. They are the message sent to us today from
our Creator. Now we demonstrate how they have changed our minds about
ourselves and what our function is. For as we prove that we accept no
will we do not share, our many gifts from our Creator will spring to our
sight and leap into our hands, and we will understand what we received.