JESUS WAS TEMPTED

IT IS RECORDED that Jesus was taken to a high mount and asked to perform miracles, - such insignificant things as turning stones into bread, which He could have done, - and then to a church spire and asked to cast Himself down. He was taken there by no lesser a personage than the devil.

Just what picture are you seeing as you read? A red devil fashioned after the Mephistopheles created by your memory of the Opera Faust, (who had a certain charm in spite of his satanic powers) talking to the white-robed Jesus?

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What are you going to do with duality in face of the statement of Jesus that God is ALL, in ALL, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent? About the first thing we read in the Bible is the fearful excuse, "The serpent did tempt me".

How was he created, - this devil? "From walking up and down and to and fro." A very thin background as far as his forebears are concerned. What? No family tree to blame for his troublesome capacity to make mischief? No coat of arms or family escutcheon, - no psychopathic grandfather to blame? No, none of these, - and yet there he is, tempting Jesus.

It is recorded that Jesus was tempted as we are tempted. The magnificent sense of equality which is eternally established between Jesus and ourselves unhands any argument about our innate weakness and predisposition toward so-called sin.

"The fame of Him went abroad." His miracles and His conduct and His teachings were the "stuff" fame feeds upon, - and no small wonder, then, that He was tempted, - taken to a high place and shown the kingdoms of the world.

Nothing can tempt you from without if something on the inside does not recognize it. A picture-wire keyed to the same pitch as a note on the piano, will answer every time that note is struck. It cannot in reverse make a sound that would cause the piano string to respond. The original note must come from the piano. Nothing tempts from the without unless something within strikes the note.

Jesus was offered the kingdoms of the world for merely bowing down to the satanic temptation to glorify Himself instead of God. All through the Bible there are records of men wrestling with the devil of temptation, usually at night. And so Jesus wrestled with the temptation to take the world and enjoy it to the fullest, just as He wrestled with the same old devil before the crucifixion, only this time in the ugly form of pain and suffering and futility. After all, why should He go through the test of self-resurrection for a people who had taken everything and given nothing, and who had failed so miserably to understand the magnificent, simple law He had given them?

So you say, "I cannot resist the temptation that comes to me". This is because you give the power to something outside of yourself. You believe that the inanimate thing has power, or that the situation can control you. How can an inanimate thing with no power of itself influence you in any way? You endow it with the capacity to control you, yielding to the power in the situation (the power you yourself have given it), - and so you succumb.

In the Bible we constantly find the division of the ONE into two, - Jesus and the Christ, - always talking to each other under many names. We start with Cain who murders Abel, - the human thought who tries and apparently does crucify its Higher-Self. The lust for power and to-be-known-of-men is so great that it stops at nothing. And still it is within the ONE, - these two separated manifestations who need each other so utterly, - you and your Self, - body and Soul.

And so, many have been taken to the high mount and offered the Kingdoms if they would only murder the Christ within. The old personality will make a final attempt to prove Adam was right when he said he was a creator. He becomes a law unto himself for a short time, but eventually finds the kingdoms of the world destroyed and the bread which was made of stones inedible.

The Blessed One admitted being tempted. He could have hidden in His Robes of Attainment and kept this honesty from us, - but not that ONE who came with the freeing, Life-giving message. He stood His ground, and after weighing all the profits of "casting himself down", said, "Get thee behind Me, satan! Get thee behind Me in memory and reality", - and the devil was not.

And so it will be with your own personal temptation-devil that comes to you with the belief in disease, fear, lack ...... He will disappear into the limbo of the "former things" which are passed away.

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Success is difficult to take-and more especially in Spiritual things-for immediately the personality thinks to set itself up and become a high priest in a temple, to be worshiped of men. When you discover that the healings that come through you are only natural, normal manifestations of the LAW of God and take place automatically, you will be finished with all this temptation to believe in a personal, creative power.

From "walking up and down and to and fro" in the world of appearances, you create the devil of belief in the reality of appearances, endowing it with power to overcome you. Once you have given in to this belief, you are cast out into outer darkness, - and there remain until you SEE the LIGHT.

One man sees a person as his benefactor, - another as his worst enemy. Is he both? Or is it the projection of something from within that does the trick? You look upon a hateful world full of all manner of evil. Jesus said it is the Kingdom of Heaven! "I AM all things to all men." ALL things, -do you hear?

Eventually you must stop fooling yourselves, and recognize that your outer world is but a projection of your consciousness, - beautiful or damned as you decree. "YE shall decree a thing and it shall come to pass!') The evil you decree, either consciously or unconsciously, manifests with great ease because you have believed in evil all these years.

When the prodigal returns home he finds everything awaiting him. And so with you, - when you return HOME into this wonderful ONE-NESS of Life, you will find all good things awaiting you.

"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Man (the Jesus or John Smith of you) is the outcome of his beliefs. This may be bitter to the taste, but it is sweet to the digestion, - and if you are not experiencing the Kingdom of Heaven, you have only to exchange your human beliefs for a BELIEF in REALITIES.

The Phoenix Bird, rising from the heap of ashes of his former limited self, new and beautiful, is but a picture of you, the YOU of you that cannot die no matter what crucifixion you have experienced, rising from the ashes of the human pyre upon which you have placed yourself, -purified from all the old beliefs and for the first time, seeing, - -yes, seeing, and this time SEEING! "Even though you slay me, yet will I say you are God!" That is it, - -the absolute recognition of ONE Power. You must accept and appropriate it for it is the ONLY Truth, and arise from the ashes of a belief in two powers, - leaving in those very ashes the devil who took you to a high mount and offered you so much of the world's goods already at your command. Then you (yes, this John Smith) shall decree a thing and it SHALL come to pass.

Why does an otherwise gentle dog sometimes suddenly jump at the throat of a certain person? Is it within the dog or the person? The dog instinctively senses in the person an active quality which awakens a similar dormant quality within himself. Why does poverty, disease, unhappiness, jump at your throat when they do not attack other people in close proximity? Is it within the 'dog' or you? You "Cry havoc and loose the dogs of war" (the "war" of sin, sickness and death) because these are within your own consciousness, - otherwise there could be no objectification of them. This is difficult to admit, especially if we have been "working" to know the Truth, - but let us face it boldly.

There are no closed doors in the life of Jesus. If He chose to associate with wine-bibbers and harlots, He did not ask permission of any high priest nor offer excuses. Fearless of criticism, He freely went anywhere He chose to go. Yet He did not descend to the level of any of His associates, - He made them rise to the place where He stood. But what goes on behind the scenes today? There can be no dividing line between the audience and the teacher. And what about you? Do you lead two lives in two worlds? In your "diplomacy" have you become a hypocrite? Let us be honest with ourselves!

The greatest event in the world, - in fact, the only event of any worth, took place in a stable, - while all 'my lords and ladies' dined and wined in luxury. You may be in a "stable" right now, - but from that stable can come the GREATEST EVENT of your life, - if you will 'let' it happen. Presently the "lords and ladies" will go their way, drunken on the wines of intellectual and hyper-critical belief, - but from your stable a something is coming forth. You may, in the course of events, be taken to the high mount and there meet the devil of temptation, - but you are now strong enough to say to the tempter, "Get thee behind me" !

This old temptation-devil is not always offering you the kingdoms of this world, - sometimes he offers you the kingdoms of disease, poverty and sin. These are just as much a reality to the human mind as the kingdoms of wealth, fame and success.

And so you either "resist evil" and see it fleeing from you, - or you "resist not evil". They are both the same. If you resist evil, it is because you have risen into the consciousness of the ONE, - and if you resist not, it is because you know there is nothing to resist.

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