Wist Ye Not

EVERY question Jesus asked seemed to be full of surprise at the continued ignorance of man —even of His disciples. He had been with them three years, daily instructing them and guiding them into the new dimension—the Fatherhood degree of life. Yet they perpetually seemed to ask questions which belonged to the sonship degree. The business of “Self-expression” has been one of the most tortuous questions of all time, and so it came to Jesus.

“Wist ye not?” — Jesus might well have said, “What—do you mean to tell Me, that after all this time, you do not know that I should be about My Father’s business? Is it possible that you are still won­dering about Life’s expression? What are you asking questions about? Your place in the universe?”

All this surprise carries with it something deeper than the thought of the futility o f words; it carries a deep secret knowledge that He knew that the disciples (who apparently didn’t know “that He should be about His Father’s business”) had innate possibilities of being about their Father’s business.

When you begin to read the words of Jesus—I said read—you will discover revelation and inspiration. The surprise that is expressed in that one word “What” is enough to fill you with wonder and with joy. Honestly Jesus was surprised that man had not found out that His first and only consideration was to be about His “Father’s” business-which is the busi­ness of life. When you begin to see this, even vaguely, you will not wonder any longer what Your business is. You will discover it.

Pause a moment and see what this surprise question must mean to an awakening soul. Suddenly you move into the place of recognition (recognizing) the Fatherhood degree of life. It brings with it the ex­tended vision which explains “wherefore I was blind, now I can see.”

All the subtle revelation is between the lines of the message. All at once it is as if it were shouted to you, and suddenly within yourself you say,”Oh!—now—I see.” See that by asking the question, Jesus has awakened in you the way you, the heir to this great heritage, have been micro managing MY affairs. He seems to be taking for granted that man already knows that such a state of affairs as the Father’s business already exists, for He says to the most casual lis­tener—“Go thou and do likewise.” Not in the manner of doing something unusual, but in a perfectly normal, natural way, in the way of your own individual Christ-consciousness.

Perhaps the easiest and the most difficult step in the ongoing of man is that of assumption—that some­ thing which must take place between thepigsty and the Banquet of the “Fatted Calf.” Assumption is when the congested human thought gives way to the flow of illumination which comes through the dark­ened senses of man.

This Fatherhood degree, wherein you begin to realize you are aboutyour Father’s business, is the point or place of contact with the Universal cosmos. It is the touch-in, the point of contact, and is that which enables Jesus (John Smith) to do the things that he could not possibly do of himself because they are of another dimension. They are outside of all physical science. To the man whose breath is in his nostrils they come under the caption of supernatural, but they are only supernatural to the human mind. They are natural to the awakened Christ-consciousness. “When ye be in the spirit ye are no more under the curse of the law.” The curse of the law is your human destiny, which will finally function in evil and death. Yet Jesus says, “The last enemy that shall be overcome is death.” Do you believe this?

After this assumption has taken place in you, you begin a natural appropriation of the things and con­ditions which you formerly dreamed of bringing into manifestation. You begin to take your good. “Ask and ye shallreceive.” There is no qualification whatsoever. “Knock and it shall be opened unto you.” Do you hear? “Seek and it shall be found.” Do you hear? “It shall be opened unto you.” You shall receive and you shall find. Do you believe it? Is this possible? Or are you just hoping it will take place? It is so written in the Law, and it “shall be opened unto you.”

This “Going about the Father’s business” is the key to all manifestation. Thousands of people ask me about their place and their expression in the universe. Once they discover that they are about their “Father’s business” they will automatically find themselves expressing in harmony—remember that your Father is your concept of God. If it does not please you—if it is not enough, it is time that you contem­plate the Law—time that you “be still and know that I am God”—here, there, and everywhere. Contempla­tion of this God and His power will do more for you than ten thousand lessons in truth, affirmations of truth, or psychological ways and means that are given out to help you (and God) get into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Suppose you went into a bank and the President handed you a check book, saying that your signature would be honored for any amount. Could you take it? Could you sign? When you begin to see you will find that your name (nature) will be honored for any­thing for which you can sign. “Ask whatsoever you will.” It is so wonderful that it almost blinds one with illumination—this new day, this new dimension, this new revelation which Jesus so patiently tried to give to the world. “The pure in heart shall see God.” The pure in heart are those who sense-feel the reality of the Presence—become one with it, and thereby bring it into manifestation. A “pure” mathematician would be one who was thoroughly conversant with the law of mathematics, and an “impure” one would be one who only half believed in the same law. The higher mathematics goes, the more abstract it becomes. At certain points it would seem completely to contradict its former statements, such as when it subtracts a greater number from a lesser, which, to the more ignorant thought, cannot possibly be done. And so with the manifestation of the higher laws of God —they “confound and confuse” with their simplicity the “man whose breath is in his nostrils.”

“I shall ask my Father” as He has told me to “Call upon Me in the time of trouble, and I will answer you.” Not maybe or perhaps, but “will” answer you. I shall not ask John Smith, a book, a teacher, a lecturer or an organization. I shall ask my Father—who will you ask? Do you begin to see a difference between radical reliance on God and a mere belief in a tribal Jehovah? I shall ask my Father. Who will you ask? “Let us go into the House (consciousness) of the Lord.” The Lord of the Universe—we suddenly consciously enter in to Him. We live and move, breathe and have our being in Him. Literally, actually, a something that is more real than entering into any house built by man, and He enters us, and lives, and breathes, and moves, and has His being in us.

Do you begin to see the hookup between the within and the without? And why it is if you should “make your bed in hell.” He would be there knocking at the door, and if you could hear (recognize) Him, He would come in and sup with you, thereby transmuting hell into Heaven, for where Heaven is, there is God. Do you begin to see what it means to be about your Father’s business? For the first time you discov­er why you are here. Have you ever asked yourself “What am I here for?” And have you ever come to the conclusion that your sojourn here wasn’t of any great importance, and that your mission seemed rather puerile. Once you conceive the fact that your Father’s business is the business of self-expression, you begin to experience new depths of understanding and new heights of revelation. A nice sense of the finished mystery takes possession of you—you are a revelator, no more a teacher or an expounder of the word.

What the world calls healing is merely the releasing of congested thought. The resurrection of the body might be likened to the picture on a camera plate—you know it is there because you took the pic­ture, though you cannot see it—you know it is there, and you can prove it by developing it. Now you would never develop a plate unless you had good reason to believe that the picture was there, and so in reality you will never call upon God unless you are sure He is there. This perfect agreement between yourself and the Idea establishes the fact on earth. It is nothing you do, it is something you do not do. The moment you stop trying to hold up your universe and “lean on Me”—you will find yourself being sustained. It is strange, and wonderful, yet it is so. Believest thou this? Answer me.

There is nothing fantastic about the use of this law, Jesus saw plainly that a child could do it, but an adult could not, because an adult “knew” too much —had seen too many proofs and thus knew that it could not happen—“You must become as a little child.” This is a “must.” It does not say to become childish, but it says to appropriate or discover within yourself that peculiar quality of accepting the Word without re­servations. It is wonderful! It is glorious to contem­plate the unselfishness of Jesus in trying to give man­kind this wonderful revelation.

Such a change will come over your business affairs the moment you consistently enter every transaction with the consciousness that you are “about your Father’s business,” that both you and your client will be surprised at what takes place. There is so much light in this consciousness of the Father’s business, that no matter how humanly ignorant you may be, you are protected by this light from any unintentional dishonesty. You cannot fall into any trap that is “digged” for you, but the Light through you can cause the one who set the trap to step into it himself.

“Wist ye not?” Do you sense all the wonder of why you in the Father Degree cannot now be out of alignment with the perfect, eternal harmony of life? From this moment on, you will begin to perform many things and experience many glories that are not spoken of in books. You will transmute, you will change anything that must be changed or transmuted.In the relative way of thinking, man goes from problem to problem. But in the Fatherhood degree you go from “glory to glory”—that is from illumination to illumination. On your path of Divine Destiny are so many things you have never thought of that you are in a constant state of delight and wonder. The blessings are as the sands of the sea, so I ask you, “What! Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” Do you hear?

 

Walter C. Lanyon