The Presence

MARY “lived, moved, breathed, and had her being” in the Presence, but not until it became a personal thing did the Annunciation come.

Mary symbolizes every man, living in the midst of the Presence and yet not being aware of it until the annunciation is made, the annunciation that foretells the bringing forth of a Messiah.

The beautiful Annunciation which came to Mary urged upon her the need of contemplation and recognition. The thing stirred within her and she became conscious that she was to bring forth that which was to rule. “The government shall be upon his shoulders.” The necessity of deep secrecy is so obvious in the symbology which is given that it hardly needs to be mentioned. What would have happened literally had a Jewish girl announced to the world that she was going to bring forth a child whose Father was Spirit, unseen, unknown, and unrecognized? What would happen to the same girl today? The same thing would happen to her that happens to you when you tell the annunciation, when you expose the holy urge of Spirit within you which is awakening the Christ into being. So Mary took the better part and “magnified the Lord within,” and knew full well that the manifestation would take care of itself.

Historically the incident is full of interest and daring, but symbolically It is fraught with such powerful revelation that it proclaims itself from the “housetops” of your being.

Think of what it is to find the Christ within yourself. Think of what it means to become conscious of the Presence within you, and to know that you are partaking of the blessed nature of God.

Yes, finally the command “Be still and know that I AM God” becomes something more than a metaphysical affirmation. The glorious, pulsating Presence, like a heavenly symphony, enfolds you. A piece of music must be enjoyed as it is expressed. Waiting to enjoy it puts it off in the fanciful and uncertain place of imagination. So is it with the Spirit. Waiting to enjoy it, to live with it, to experience it, and to know it, is like remembering a single experience you have had, which eventually becomes old and stale with repetition.

The lovely sense of the Presence which keeps hovering about you, and announcing the coming of the new idea, is here and now, and must be recognized in the present tense or it is nothing.

This glorious Power hovers over you with its announcement of the New Messiah. Your part is the recognition of it, and the magnifying of he Lord within. The coal of fire will have eventually sealed your lips against the possibility of casting that which is holy unto dogs. Curious minds and people who are looking for fantastic results will wait with empty lamps. No matter how much oil they borrow, it will never be sufficient to light the way dear enough for them to “see” the approaching Bridegroom.

The deep secrecy of the precious word which has been spoken to you is enough to make you experience a joy which knows no limitations. What do you care about the clattering masses who have much advice and thousands of worthless opinions to offer? They are as the woman at the well. The only thing she could see was a man who told her fortune. She wanted to assemble a big crowd to “see” a man.

I cannot come to the curious adult any more than Father Christmas can continue to come very long to the curious child. He will finally destroy this beautiful reality by finding that he cannot fit it into human reason. So with the Presence, the curious mind cannot entertain it because the cumbersome human reasoning and beliefs cannot see how it can possibly be true.

“Be still”‘ it is well. Even at this instant the hovering wings of the announcing Angel, the urge of the Presence, are about you, calling attention to something which is to come forth. “Magnify the Lord” within yourself and let the embodiment take care of itself.

“To the poor the gospel is preached.” To those who are “poor” in human reasoning and beliefs “gospel” of the annunciation is preached, revealed, or shown. Their emptiness is filled with the new idea which is to embody itself on earth.

“Be still”; it is wonderful how the Spirit of the Word is descending upon you, filling you with the Inspiration of the Almighty. You shall want nothing after this happens. You will magnify the Lord within you and see it come forth with power and plenty.

The “gospel” (good spell) is the Power which breaks the “evil spell” of conscious-thinking which has held you so long that it has become real to you.

“The government shall be upon his shoulders.” A new day is merging out of the night of thought. A new code comes into being. “Rend the veil” which keeps you from this Presence — the veil of conscious thinking. The more you fight the pictures shown thereon the more the veil, which is only as old as your last thought, becomes a wall of steel. “I come as a thief in the night.” I emerge into being quietly, and “my reward is with me.” Fear not !

“Put up thy sword” is a command, just as “Peace be unto you.” If you are “hid with Christ in God,” nothing can find you, and this very place of hiding or oneness makes you a majority, which sends conscious thinking scurrying into the outer darkness of unbelief. It is wonderful what the New Messiah, who is to come through you, is to show you. “Be still!”

“Go thou and do likewise.” Likewise is in a like manner. If you are going to do likewise to the Christ Power you cannot do likewise to your conscious thinking; and you will soon discover the difference. This does not mean likewise to Jesus — that would have been in the manner of a carpenter; but likewise to the Christ is a different story. When you go to dolikewise, see that it is not the likewise of a barber, writer, dressmaker, painter, etc., etc.

“As he is, so are we in this present world.” Exactly the same, without the shadow of difference. As the Christ in Jesus was, so are we.

“My Kingdom is not of this world.” The Kingdom of Spirit, the force and power back of the manifestation, is not concerned with the manifestation as a reality. The person standing before a thousand mirrors is not of the kingdom of the reflections, because they are nothing and depend entirely upon the reflector. So the thing called matter or manifestation is eternally coming and going, but the Power remains untouched or unmoved by these shadows forever.

Just as the law of gravity existed long before Newton became aware of it, so the Power of the Christ existed before Jesus, and “Before Abraham was — I AM.” It is wonderful when you begin to perceive life and to know that is is not something that was invented within the last hundred years, trade-marked, copyrighted, and ear-marked by a thousand personalities, all claiming the right to be the discoverer of God. In the realm of Spirit there is no “personal” brand on God. You may write your initials in fire on the side of a steer and show your possession, but trying to make a personal possession of God shows a feeble understanding of the Infinite. If God is all, what then is the protection thrown up about the discoveries of Him?

Losing the personal, you find the impersonal, and it immediately personalizes itself, just as we see in the case of Jesus. When he lost the narrow confines of Jesus, a carpenter, he found the Father, and then we find this same Jesus doing what the Jesus (carpenter) could not possibly have done. Do you begin to see and understand the dimensions of Spirit” It is wonderful to contemplate the truth of “Lose your life.” You immediately find the Presence when you do, and then the Presence comes to expression through you; and you, who have been unable to do anything, suddenly exclaim, “I can do all things through Christ.”

“Old garments and old bottles” are cast aside instead of trying to refurbish them and refill them. So are the old ideas of man when he becomes conscious of the Presence. It is wonderful ! All manifestation is but a limitation of the Infinite, since it could never show forth the all. “Loose it and let it go” then. Fear not; coming by the way of God is coming by the way of Man-ifestation and not by the way of man.

“My grace is sufficient for thee.” Do you hear? What are you looking for?

“These things have I spoken that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full.”

 

Walter C. Lanyon