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THE GREATER WORLD CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALIST CHURCH
THE ZODIAC MESSAGES
"FREE-WILL"
An address given by the celestial messenger 'Zodiac',
(the unnamed scribe of the Bible and a teacher in the
Temple of Jerusalem at the time of Christ), at the
Zodiac Circle on Saturday, 29th May, 1926
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"Most Gracious Spirit, in love we meet together,
and in love we continue our work. Grant that the greater
consciousness may come, that each one of Thy children
may feel tonight more strongly than ever before the
wonderful privilege given into their possession.
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"Father, help us to help others. Give us that
inward grace when we can separate ourselves from the
mind of the body and think truly, putting the present
where it rightly belongs, and building ever for that
glorious future which lies in front.
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"O most tender Saviour, teach us how to be tender
to others. O most loving Christ, give us the grace
to throw out our love over all, however weak, however
wilful they may be; and thus, by example, to demonstrate
that we are dominated by the Spirit of God.
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"In Thy hands we leave this evening, and under
Thy direction we speak; passing on to others that which
Thou hast gifted to us.
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"Father, we thank Thee, Amen.
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"My children all, tonight we have gathered together
once more to listen to that portion of Wisdom which
we can grasp; and oh! my little ones, think you not
that I stand far apart because I am a little older,
because I have had a little more experience. Does not
the parent go through the lesson with the child of
his heart, and does he not find this: how in going
back on those early stages he sees much that he missed
when he learnt it himself? So, my children, so gladly
do I re-learn with you, and remember always that when
love is in command distinctions or differences fail
to exist at all. We are all servants of our Master
Christ, called by Him, yes, chosen by the Holy One
to work out that which He has planned - our little
portion, our little threads in the great pattern. And
because you who have seen something of Wisdom have
also, in a measure, released the spirit within, so
you bend to your task, and though the weariness comes
rather close, yet the spirit cries: 'Go on!'
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"This, dear children, is a gift, to feel within
our hearts and minds that we are tools used by the
Lord God of all; aye, a gift indeed, for with one thought
All-Mightiness could work in that which we strive to
accomplish over the years; but God, being our Father,
wishes to bring nearer the possibility that they can
share in those powers He possesses Himself.
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"So, having underlined Whose children we are,
for Whom we work, and that it is the by and by that
counts so much, I wish to speak to you tonight on a
subject which, from the surface point of view, seems
somewhat limited; but when you come here you will realise
it is unlimited, you will see that it has no boundaries
and that its influence stretches from the day of creation
and lasts for ever. Children, it is that same FREE-WILL,
and I want you tonight to be patient with me while
I go back a little on what I have sought to instil
within the mind of the body.
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"I have told you that when you started off from
God on the long journey of experience, that most precious
and most dangerous gift of free-will was part of your
equipment. But, lose not sight of this point: only
part of that wonderful equipment was bestowed upon
you by the Lord God of all. And through the involutionary
stages it was as this: many gifts were allowed to remain
unused; that control by the inward Self, which gave
man the power to control nature in its many forms,
that also was allowed to dwindle, to waste even as
an infant from whom its food is kept. But the one gift
prized - and I include humanity as a whole - the one
gift which was prized was that most dangerous weapon,
free-will.
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"I want you always to regard free-will as a weapon
which has a two-fold purpose, but which is used in
a three-fold way because of the blindness, because
of the foolishness of the children of the earth.
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"Free-will was given to us so that we might choose
aright - and I am speaking of the greater, stronger,
Self within. It was given also so that the same free-will
might operate for the advantage of others; that is
the two-fold aspect. And the third is the misdirection,
the abuse of it, that turning from God and listening
to the counsels of the enemies of the Spirit.
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"Yet, lest I make you sorrowful, remember this:
That although again and again free-will has been used
to damage that which is Divine within, yet tonight
what can we say? Why! that, by the grace of God, our
same free-will has operated in the way God meant, in
the measure that we are His servants, His tools, His
instruments; imperfect enough, you may say, but the
wish is there to be used by the Master.
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"All that imperfection, dear children, belongs
to those involutionary stages that preceded the evolutionary,
which now you are pushing on with all the strength
you can find within. But we have to consider the present
as well as the past, for the past and the present combined
build the future, that glorious future which we want
to be as near the ideal as possible.
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"So, my little ones, I bring you to that very
prosaic subject which you call Habit, and within that
word lies tragedy, or an aspiration which shall be
realised in a gigantic way when you are free.
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"The habits of your daily life - yes, but their
roots are your thoughts, from whence come they? They
come from sources that the children of the Light have
sought to study, but of which you are totally ignorant
at this stage.
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"There are those around you who you can see; there
is the vast multitude, those whom you sense; but beyond
that again and again, range after range, built up by
the ages, are the influences, are the thoughts.
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"Ah, little ones of my heart, you know it not,
but because this gift is yours, you are wonderfully
attractive to those who have laid the body aside; and
this presents both a great protection and a serious
danger as well. Can you not see how plain it is? There
were many in the past, dominating characters, possessing
that same personality which you on earth rank so highly;
but these so oft misused that gift of free-will, and
they have much to work out, much to purify. The processes
are going on, and because in the long ago temptation
was not fought and overcome, so again and again they
fall.
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"And, dear children, because within your hearts
there is the wish to rise, so they try and link up
with you, for many of the barriers have been broken
down. And while I have taught you to be missionaries,
yet I trust to your spiritual instinct to push off
those who in their weakness speak to you of things
which are of second-best.
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"There should be no doubt in the mind of anyone
in regard to those in their vibrations as to whether
they care strong or whether they are weak. What effect
have they on you? There are times when my children
can rise in mind to the heights which indeed reflect
God's purpose; and there are times when viewing the
hill which must be climbed, the thought comes: 'No!
I cannot; the valley is for me'.
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"Children, without anyone in the body or out of
the body telling you in words, you know yourselves
that influence is destructive, that those thoughts
come from your brothers and sisters who indeed found
the hill too steep. What should be your attitude? Is
it not clear to all? By the mere fact that you reject
the thought, you are lessening the strength of that
thought in the one who instilled it. that is free-will,
free-will as God meant it to be used; it is the act
of free-will which brings the double gain to the Spirit
within. It strengthens you, and because you have been
used, even in a minute degree, to hearten another,
so by those wonderful laws of God, the gain comes back
to yourselves. Two steps instead of one.
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"My children, be more on your guard against your
thoughts, because these thoughts of yours form your
habits; and those habits cannot be laid aside with
the garment of the flesh. Nay, they have to be shed
when the body has been forgotten.
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"Again I say I would not make you sorrowful, but
oh, my children, cannot you see how glorious is the
other side of the shield? How by your wish to help,
by your compassion, by your healing thoughts, you are
preparing the ground for that time when, free from
limitations, free from the mind which binds, you will
see God's purpose, and find to your infinite joy that
you are ready, ready to work for Him.
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"And then I take you on from that time when the
body has been laid aside - and I speak with knowledge,
for I am drawing from All-Knowledge Who bids me make
this plain: children, you have heard oft before that those who are free from
the body come back and tell of the glories of their
conditions. Life, so it seems to them, is as a summer day; they
find those pleasures which delight the mind; the ability
to reproduce what stands to them as beauty; and in
ignorance you place such as these in the Paradise promised
in olden times, for a Paradise it seems. There are
the flowers, the birds, everything to hand, and they
walk through that which is brightness, culling from
this, gathering that, and the uninitiated cry: 'My loved one is in Heaven itself!'
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"I have touched on this subject before and tonight
I underline it. Those conditions, which delight the
mind so akin to the mind of the body, that sphere is
only just beyond the physical. It is that same Summerland,
so named.
Those who dwell therein have not attained the release
of the Spirit
as I have ever taught you to pursue. They are taking, they are not giving, they are failing
at the test; for oh! think you like this: again and
again I say - remember the One you follow, how unlike
He Who gives all and takes so little in return.
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"When those so placed speak to you in this way
- they are barred from conditions such as these
(Zodiac Circle)
- when these speak of the joys and the possessions
and the powers which are their own, then pray that
the strength may come that they may leave their toys
and climb the hill to God. Who is there amongst us who deserves such as this?
What have they done to be so rewarded, if 'reward'
it is regarded? What care they doing with so much when
there are countless millions living in twilight and
in darkness unconscious of a God, bound by their sins,
fettered by their past, and unable without help to
get free?
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"Free-will again, my children, that same free-will
that holds and cannot relinquish - that same free-will
which is blocking the path to understanding, to purification,
to that release of the God which is within.
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"Thus I must teach, for this is Truth as those who wish
to follow Christ see Truth. The One Who owns all, the Creator, ah! my little
ones, the Christ Whom you love so well, He works in the shadowy places, He goes after the lost sheep in the depths of the valley; He Who created all takes nothing for Himself, but strives ever to give to His children that which
He meant should be their own.
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"Free-will after the body is no more. A fatal
gift to many because it is as a precipice over which
they fall, for they have not the spirit of Christ within, else they
would push their possessions aside and seek the useful
tools, the tools which can do God's work. And what are these: The laying aside of self and
fighting for the possession of faith. What test for
faith in such conditions? What inducement for sacrifice
when these, so blind, regard that in which they live
as their "reward" - aye! reward, and for what?
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"Temptation comes in many forms, and when those
of you have attempted to rise, have desired to do better
than before, so the enemy most skilfully blinds your
eyes; and this is possible if the sight of the Spirit
within is not released by will.
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"The things of the world - they but illustrate,
in miniature it is true, the so-called joys of the
Summerland, the so-called possessions of that condition
which is only just beyond that which the earth itself
represents. For you see, dear children, in the human
mind there arise these ambitions: To have plenty of
this and plenty of that, to be removed from sorrowful
sights, to live in splendid conditions, whether represented
by Nature or by things; to be care-free and to be unhindered
by responsibilities. So man dreams on, and the contrast
of the daily round is as a whip. And when the body
is no more he passes into that which he thought would
be so desirable, and the second state is worse than
the first.
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"Little ones, have I not taught you to fix not
your minds on
(material)
beauty as
(spiritual)
beauty? Can you not see that by effort, by
the wish to serve
you are creating,
not
the beauty of the Summerland which in itself is a temptation,
but you are creating that loveliness, that
power
which purity of heart represents - contributing just
your little to those spheres which are Spirit. And
remember that until you enter those spheres which are
Spirit, your power is as naught to help or comfort
or relieve another, either on earth or in those planes
where God is unknown.
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"In regard to that gift of free-will, so gigantic
in its nature, so far-reaching in its influence, do
you ever consider what it is you have in your possession?
And how that free-will, trained through the physical
stages, will operate when you are free from the body?
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"The cry goes up now: 'Work and strive after better
things!' And, what is more, do not despair at your
failures, but realise that by trying again, so in time
that which you long for should be there, will indeed
dwell within.
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"Free-will in the past. Had you misused, as some,
that gift, then these sacred hours would have been
impossible; had you used that gift of free-will in
the highest measure, then today, sorrow as sorrow would
be unknown. The enemies of Christ could not touch you,
the vicissitudes of daily life would be seen for what
they are worth, and the pains of the body would be
as the symbols of the power to be used Hereafter.
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"Thinking thus, so you can send your minds on,
you can thank God that, today, in spite of the reluctance
of the physical mind, you hold fast to that portion
of the Work which has been gifted to you by the Father,
which was only possible by the struggles made in the
past.
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"So we go on, and so ever we grow stronger, because
All-Strength not only bids us come to Him, but He comes
to us, He replenishes, makes good that which we fail
to find within ourselves. This is the path of the pilgrim,
this is the way of discipleship - the holding not back,
but ever giving out - if in ignorance, if in blindness,
then in faith and in trust; for you belong to God and,
in time to come, that purity which is of Him will not
only be as a cloak around you, but all else will have
vanished - it will be your true self, the Christ-spirit
yours.
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"Again and again must I go back on different aspects
of this same free-will, but I pray you guard your thoughts.
Think the best of others, yes, and the best of this
mixed and complex world of yours; the best of those
who are still bound by the memories of the past; the
best of the weakest and frailest. For by so thinking,
as a shaft of light - because the thought is on the
side of reconstruction - so it shall pierce the vibrations
of the ones concerned, and in time, ah!, in time, feeling
the warmth of the thought, they will stir, and then
we shall get our chance.
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"Missionaries, builders, disciples - to that we
are called and nothing less.
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"And now, ere I go, I would underline one thought:
Remember, today, tomorrow, and in the days to come
that it is within your power to think for God or to
work against Him.
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"Remember that as you try to construct, try to
contribute your part, so you are making it possible
for others to have the strength to contribute in like
measure. But rest you not there; be that which the
Father has asked - a willing tool, a tool prepared
by the discipline of physical life, an instrument for
His use, for His purpose, for the working out of the
mighty Plan.
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"God bless you all, and keep you in the safety
of the consciousness of His Presence; and in those
moments which are weak, give you the power to listen
to those who are a little stronger and a little wiser;
so that in the by and by you too can render that service
to others, and have the great joy which it brings,
and which it enables you to retain.
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"God bless you with resolution to arise and to
rest not, for the rest which is of the earth, means
toil of the Spirit; but the work which is of the world
- rightly done, done in the Christ way - that is just
grist to the mill, the mill which is grinding for you
that which shall be as the Bread of Life."
©GWCSA
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