Whom God Hath Afflicted

“Whom God hath afflicted, for secret aid, He comforts and heals, and calls them friend” — in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, which is the basis of the Christian faith. In a way, he had done nothing that was violent — he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth — yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise him, and to put him to grief. But when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied. Now, to understand this strange mystery, let me share with you an experience of my childhood. Undoubtedly you know it, you are the witness of it, or you’ve done it yourself. My mother was very fond of flowers. I can see her every morning with her parasol — she was very fair-skinned — and she always had this parasol against the sun, not against rain. She had a gardener who would do all the weeding and the digging and the raking, but she did all the little grafting herself; she loved doing it. But you know what a graft is: you take a shoot — some tiny shoot of a plant that is capable of propagation. When you make an incision into another stock, I would say, and then you take this shoot and you simply insert it into another stock, a different plant altogether. And then you tie it securely, and in time it takes — the graft adheres to that place. And then, when the time comes for the bearing of the flower or the fruit, it brings forth after its parent stock, not the kind on which it is grafted — [Music] — it brings forth after that from which it was taken.1135 ¶1

That is the story of the Christian faith. Here is the Bible: that which exists in its perfect state in the parent tree of life is then detached from the tree of life, and, inserted into another stock, becomes, for the fruit that it brings forth, the fruit of the parent tree.1135 ¶2

So Jesus Christ — let us find out, just for reason, for a little moment, as to God — that which exists on the tree of life is transplanted not upon any particular person in this world, but upon human nature, to lift human nature to the level of God. So here, this transplant, transplanted on human nature — this violent, violent thing that is human nature, with every moment of time the horrors that take place in the world — on this it is engrafted, out of the tree of life, not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For here we are, now, on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and it is to be raised to the level of the tree of life, for it has light in itself. But it is translated — it is grafted onto this human nature; it is not grafted until an individual — so I can see my mother now, doing this little job on a certain branch, and then, in the course of time, saying it was ripe, or the bursting of the flower — out will come the flower, not of that on which it was grafted, but that from which it was taken.1135 ¶3

Though we are the sons of God, and we actually came down into this world, we are grafted unto human nature. And in the fullness of time we will bring forth the fruit of the tree of life, and the fruit of the tree of life is David. David is the Son of God the Father. You, who existed and participated in the life of the tree of life, when detached from it and inserted into this tree of knowledge, which is human nature — when the graft takes place, and you actually absorb the sap, you do not pretend that you can retain only that — you actually become human, with all the violence that is in the animal world. And so you actually adhere to that sap of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And then, as you adhere to it, it not only feeds upon the sap of that stock, but it begins to grow, and then, in the fullness of time, it brings forth its fruit. But the fruit is of the stock from which you were taken. And you bring forth — therefore you are saying, “Father, you are of heaven.” You were not a parent when you participated in the life of that tree, the tree of life. You can only become equal to, and be, the parent by detachment from that tree and attachment to human nature. And you suffer in all the things that you do in this world. But in that fullness of time you bring forth the fruit of the tree from which you were taken — not the tree on which you are grafted.1135 ¶4

Now we know this is true in the world. My mother’s gardener — he had a passion for flowers, and I can see him now, going months, six days a week; Sunday was out, he didn’t come to work. So Sundays were not included in the day of mother’s grafting and mother’s doing the things of the garden, but six days a week I can see her with her little parasol, shading her head — she was very fair, blue-eyed — shading her head from the sun. And our gardener would simply dig and rake, but when it came to this little incision into the plant, she would take the shoot quickly — just capable of propagation — and then she would actually insert it. And that was an insertion into this new stock, and when it came forward it brought forth, not the thing on which it was grafted, but that from which it was taken. It only can bear that fruit.1135 ¶5

So here, you and I have not associated as sons of God; we are the gods coming down from the tree of life. We have not appropriated this individual or that individual — we’ve appropriated the nature of humanity. That’s what we appropriated.1135 ¶6

We are pretending — we have to actually assume all the limitations of humanity, as we are told in the eighth chapter of bathrooms [garbled in source] — he took upon himself all the infirmities and all the diseases of man, as we are told in that wonderful fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. [Music] Oh, well — looking upon himself.1135 ¶7

So here tonight I am talking to you who came down with me. Do not let anyone tell you that you are one little being, separate from that — you are that, part of the tree of life.1135 ¶8

So, when you are told in Scripture, “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” — bear what I’ve just told you in mind: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” And that Word became flesh and dwelt in us. That incision was made — it is not going to be made, it is made; it dwells in us. The graft is there; it will not fail. “My word shall not return unto me void, but it must accomplish that whereunto I sent it, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” For what did I say — to bear the fruit of the tree of life? And the ideal flower of that tree is David; you bring forth David. And if you bring forth David, then you are the Father. While you are still in the tree of life, partaking of the life of that tree, you are not the Father — you are perfect, enjoying it all, but you are not the Father. By detachment, and then incision into this that is called human nature, feeding on the sap as a little shoot, you begin to grow on that on which you are grafted. But you do not bear the fruit of the tree on which you are grafted — you bear the fruit of the tree of that from which you were detached. We are the sons; we are the beings detached from the tree of life and grafted onto human nature. And in this way we lift the whole thing up — everything must be lifted up, so that in the end there is only God, the one divine.1135 ¶9

Oh — So here — now I want to read you a letter this week; I have received certainly some wonderful ones. Here is one, one of hers: [Music] — a dream of her dead father. Her father died a few years ago, and here she is in this room, and it’s obviously these days, and she knows her father had died. And then, looking at him, suddenly she began to sense: “You are living” — as the blood is coming into him, and then from the feet, right straight up to the head. Then he stood up, and he tells her that he is not dead — it’s obvious that he is not dead. Here is the return of the father. If someone in my audience tonight is to have a vision of that nature — well, the average person, it means nothing to them; to me it means so much. Because here is actually seeing what the whole inner world is — a subconscious state within man. They would never find their father, who is buried in them from eternity, within them. She is finding that cause now, of the whole phenomena of her life — for the father who, she thought, died, is the earthly father in her vision. And she said — and all of a sudden he’s returning to life, and he sits up and tells her, “I’m not dead” — which is obvious. So now the father in her is coming to life. And if the father comes to life, then the father has one son. Therefore she is, in her very being, I believe, going to have this proof of being the father — of what? Of the perfect fruit, which is David. That’s why we are here; everyone must bring forth that flower, which is David, which is the tree of life, by detachment. As she said, you could see that all the veins were detached, as she said in her letter, and in some strange way it must adhere, and then, like once more, it became alive within him — he was regenerated.1135 ¶10

Well, take a little shoot — I can see my mother tackling it — you take some little shoot and detach it from some stock, and then you make an incision, and then you put it in, and then you tie it, and then it adheres to that stock. And then, all of a sudden, in due course, it begins to grow, and it grows, and then, in season, it brings forth its fruit, its flower — and it’s the flower of the tree from which it was taken, not the flower of the tree on which it is grafted.1135 ¶11

So here we are the grafts; we are the being spoken of in Scripture as the Word of God: “I will send my word and heal them.” I send my word, and my word becomes flesh; it takes upon itself human nature and dwells in human nature — it does not retain only that, it is more.1135 ¶12

So let no one tell you, because of your past — if you have a memory of any violence — that it is unforgivable. You are outliving it. You are attached to the most violence in the world; the thing called human nature is part of the animal kingdom. And your attachment will actually take you — you came down, and only that which comes down can ascend into heaven; that which descended from heaven, for you were the one who came down. And you came down to redeem human nature, but you are the God of the Kingdom, and all of us are the sons of God. It was God’s pleasure for us, the sons of God, to be detached, and then, ourselves, become God the Father. So, “whom God hath afflicted, for secret aid, He comforts and heals, and calls them friend.”1135 ¶13

So here, in that wonderful fifty-third chapter, it was the will of the Lord — being God, the God of love, it was his will to bruise him, to detach him from the tree, to send him out — as being where I participated in the life of the tree of life was in operation, and that’s where he was bruised; that was preparing the whole thing, to send me out, and thereby insert me into human nature. And so we are all implanted in human nature. And so let no one tell you that it will fail: “My word shall not return unto me void; it must accomplish that whereunto I sent it, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Therefore, “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” So, instead of being a part of the tree of life and being perfect in it, you are detached, and therefore you now become the Father.1135 ¶14

[Music] Before, you were not from heaven; you only participated in the life of the tree — by detachment, and by the transplant, you then, in turn, become — and now you are God the Father. Everyone is destined to become God, and to be God the Father you must produce the fruit — that is the fruit of the tree of life, which is God the Father — and that fruit is David. So he brings forth the fruit; you bring forth the fruit; and when it all comes to pass, we are David; we are the tree of life, having life in ourselves. Rather than participating in the tree of life, we are the being that is the tree of life; we have light in ourselves. So, as the Father has life in himself, he granted the Son also to have life in himself, and the only way he can prove it is to bring forth the fruit of that tree, and the fruit of that tree is David.1135 ¶15

So here, when you read it, bear in mind what I’ve told you tonight: you are independently greater than you think you are. You and I came down, and if one goes before in time, it doesn’t mean he is better than another — no one is better than another; we all bring forth the same Son. So let no one tell you that, because he preceded you in a chronological time sequence, he is better than you — we all are of the same God. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world; he told us all — thank God — not as individuals, to make one better than the other, but in human nature.1135 ¶16

We assume human nature unto our salvation, as a person — I mean, I tell you, Jesus Christ is a person — believe him as a personal, individual being. I can’t develop this tonight to its fullest; I will continue on Monday. But it’s too long a story to show you how Jesus Christ truly is a person — that this, which I speak of just to use as an analysis, is truly a person.1135 ¶17

[Music] And that person comes out — although he existed on the tree and participated in the life of that tree, he was not the Father. To make him the Father, we have to understand why he came out from the Father: “and I have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world, but I am returning” — but really he is returning as the Father. So, if you see me, then you see the Father; if you see me, you see the Father. When he comes out and comes into this world, and assumes human nature, and then bears the fruit of the Father, you suppose — until he goes back, and he goes back as the Father.1135 ¶18

So here, I will have you, before you have the experience, develop upon it, and try to identify yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ, who is really your true identity, before you actually have the experience — identify yourself.1135 ¶19

[Music] I wrote this morning — [Music] — and all things are simple in our world. Your earthly father is the symbol of your heavenly father. Everything is important, and it was shown to me so clearly in a simple little thing, like an umbrella. I was dwelling upon birth, and the birth from above, and how it’s brought about — how man awakens within himself and then comes out of himself; it’s a reversal, like something from the inside coming outside. And here is this umbrella, and I saw the whole thing: the wind turned it inside out. And I saw that was only the first stage; the event that happens after that, physically, is another turning inside out, and that is the glory. So, you see, it is turned inside out, and you are born from within it. And then you tell the story — if you are brought about by being drawn from within yourself outward, looking back at the little dawn out of which you came, and you feel it, really, and you tell about it — and then, when men hear you, at that moment you are turned again from within out, and then your whole world is unfolded, and you are the Father. You know why you are here — because you actually brought forth your son, that is the Son of God. When they see your state, they are saying that you really are coming into your entire glory, radiating and reflecting the glory of yourself.1135 ¶20

So when you read, “it was the will of the Father to bruise him,” you ask how could the one who is God the Father have the will to bruise his own son, called Jesus Christ. It is because we don’t quite understand the mystery of Jesus Christ. But you dwell upon it, as I told you tonight, for all the little things that happen in your world — they have meaning; they all happen. And when I can see now the little graft, a little incision into a stock, and then, in the fullness of time, it is feeding on the sap of that stock — as it grows there comes a moment now for the bursting of the flower. And we are waiting eagerly to see the flower, and the flower is the flower of the tree from which it was taken, and not of the tree on which it is grafted. So Jesus Christ is grafted onto human nature; he’s not retaining that — he’s not the precarious set-up; he actually became man, human nature, so that he could actually transform it and lift it up, and it grows into that which will give birth to the Son of God. That everyone is going to do it, I hope, is part of yourself. I hope I’ve made it clear. I can make it no clearer at the moment; if it should come tonight, or become clear in another manner, I will tell you the next time.1135 ¶21

For this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. [Music] Through him all things were made, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”1135 ¶22

And then the Word became flesh and dwelt among us — it is translated “dwelt among us”; I’m not denying this, that he is among us, in those in whom he has awakened.1135 ¶23

But do not then turn out — if you think now he’s a man, and you turn to one in whom you believe, thinking now he’s walking among us, you’re going to miss the point: he dwells in us. He is still dwelling in us, and that — in us — is the point. And then, whatever you think of the one who told you his story, you are going to have that same story happen in you. But don’t turn out and think in terms of another — then you’re going to turn and worship something on the outside. I cannot deny that it has happened; indeed, I do not deny that. But if you turn to me as one on the outside, one who walked a while ago, you’re going to miss the point. The preposition is “in us” — it’s translated in all translations, why I don’t know, but it actually is “in us,” though they translate it “among us,” and he dwelt among us. They made you hear that, and you’re going to start looking around, “where is it?” And then someone who was looking very good, he has been freed, but then you’re going to start making an idol out of him, or an icon out of her — that’s not the point. The word became flesh and dwelt — it’s past tense — and dwelt in us.1135 ¶24

For now, let the graft take place; the graft is taking place, and as it takes place, in its own good time, in the fullness of time, he then sends his son into our hearts, crying “Father!” — in the fullness of time. That is the flower coming out; he stands before you. And here, you’ve always known it, but you didn’t know it — you just — can’t you know it now? Because when you participate in the life of the tree of life, you are not aware of being the Father; all is given, you were in a perfect, perfect state. But only by his bruising of you, by detaching you and sending you out, to be attached to human nature, do you actually have the experience of being God the Father.1135 ¶25

So then you come out, and you are attached to human nature, and no one will tell you more than you know yourself what you have to go through. If you read that fifty-third chapter, you wonder how on earth a God of love should do this — and only a God of love would do it: we see him put his own thought, his own son, and implant him on the horror of human nature, knowing that all the pain he’s going to suffer for it was the witness of God, to redeem them. And all the griefs he bore for a person, and then, in the end, he is God himself — or, in the end, there can be no other Lord but God, for God. So he takes it all together, that he has chosen — not all the people; there were those who would not come out. If you read it carefully, you will see it was a voluntary act on his part.1135 ¶26

[Music] And the power to lift it up again — if you read it, you will see it was not someone else grabbing it, as my mother took the shoot without harming it — this was a constraint on our part, but not all would forgo the joy of remaining and participating in the tree, in a perfect sense, in the tree of life. It is too great for all to consume — you and I can understand it.1135 ¶27

So, when he gave himself — “and I offer myself, to redeem human nature” — but to redeem it I couldn’t be saying, “I am human”; I had to become man — I came right down into the state called humanity, identify myself with it, and wear a mask, as I call it — never pretending otherwise — and I go through the world saying I am the same as others. I can’t pretend; I have, every moment of my life, been just a man, a human being.1135 ¶28

And then, as it grows, I am feeding — I started feeding on the sap of human nature, until I continued and I grew. Then came that moment in time, twelve years ago this year, when it was time for the fruit to appear, and the fruit of pain. And then, of a period of twelve hundred and sixty days, except in appearance, and all that is by faith of my Father — then I explained that I knew the reality of the detachment, and the incision into humanity.1135 ¶29

Now share it with all those who have also been through it before. Don’t crow, don’t brag about it — just tell it, for all are going to have this identification, and we all go back as the Father.1135 ¶30

We were not the Father when we came out; we were part of that real life, but not the Father — but after the graft, it was not transformation, but the incision into human nature — when we, in turn, became the Father.1135 ¶31

Don’t believe it ends there — in the end, go inside: I am the root and offspring of David. And others have not told the truth; and yet here, now, I truly am the root and offspring of David. I didn’t know it before. And then I brought forth, out of humanity, that which would come out of humanity in a few days.1135 ¶32

[Music] Now, in the meanwhile, you take it from this point — the being of which I speak — I’m not speaking of some impersonal thought; I will develop it to the best of my ability on Monday night. But let me tell you now: that being is your own wonderful human imagination. The Divine body is the Lord Jesus Christ — that thing that was detached and sent into human nature, to assume human nature. And his risen being is your own wonderful human imagination; that is the being of whom I speak. And on Monday I’ll try to show you how I know this — I know it’s my experience — and how we can actually put it into practice, and why it is an actual body.1135 ¶33

[Music] It is not some intangible thing — it’s the body. And they all try to touch that garment — you can read Scripture: the woman with the issue of blood, and the crowd testifying to touching the body — on Monday I’ve tried to show you what I mean by that: how that body is so alive, it’s so real, and that you could exercise it, and it’s actually producing results to the degree that you will exercise it and believe in the reality of the body that is the Lord Jesus Christ.1135 ¶34

But tonight — you receive with meekness the implanted word.1135 ¶35

As a friend of mine, again tonight, said — you were talking with a friend who sits next to her, and he used one word, “engrafted,” and it struck a bell, and something happened in me while he was talking; I could only think of the word “embedded.”1135 ¶36

Well, again, all this is coming to the surface in all of us — yes, he is embedded, engrafted — actually inserted into human nature.1135 ¶37

And while she was listening to her friend, and the other one, her father — who, she knows, symbolizes that which she is looking for, the cause of the phenomena of life — that’s the key. And he was only detached — she saw the return; in some strange way it was regenerated, and the body is coming back to life, and she felt life moving in, from the toes up, and the whole body is moving — he finally sits up and tells her that he is, obviously, not dead. So their belief that nevermore would they find their father, who is buried in them from eternity within them — but at that moment in time the father returned, and the father is the individual, when he has the experience of being father. And their father in David — that is the son — he says he is the father of David, and I must be about that again, in the same way.1135 ¶38

What you heard tonight has seemed not practical, may I tell you — that which is most profoundly spiritual is, in reality, most directly practical.1135 ¶39

[Music] If you catch this tonight, even though it seems not practical, and you put it into practice, all the problems in the world that offer you this — how to get this, how to do that — it all shrinks into nothing compared to this. Don’t touch them — and they got exactly what they wanted when they touched it, and he asked, “Who touched me?” — the virtue went out of him.1135 ¶40

And the healing need not be something physical; the disease could be the healing of some financial distress: if something goes out, what was now a secret sense of poverty is instantly healed if we touch that garment — for that body is everything; it is the creative power of the universe.1135 ¶41

So, I have never seen anything more profoundly spiritual, and not seemingly sensible, may I tell you, that is also the most direct effect.1135 ¶42

If you want to be given a proof, I speak to life, and what I’m trying to get over, by using just a few passages — a few from John, a few from Isaiah.1135 ¶43

But when we read that statement, in effect, and you begin to send it to the wrong address, through those twelve tribes of the dispersion — and now he really begins his blessing: “Jesus Christ, and God the Father, of the Lord Jesus Christ, [Music] by whose abundant mercy we are begotten again” — are you grateful? — “unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”1135 ¶44

He’s implanted in us, but we are the ones that were severed and implanted in human nature. Now our resurrection is our birth again, but this time moving back as God the Father — it is the Father’s desire to get all of these sons equal to himself. And because he is the Father, all must be father; and then we all come up as God the Father, and the only Son is the essence of the experience of being man — and the experience of being man is David. It’s very essential, for David is the symbol of humanity, where I pass through all the experiences — then, in the end, when I bear the fruit, it is David — and then I come to the end.1135 ¶45

I will take these days to conclude, and that’s when I am proving it for the first time. [...] Thank you.1135 ¶46

“No, no, my dear — you’re using synonymous terms.” Jesus Christ, in the making — as [Blake?] said, you know, that after Christ’s death he became Jehovah — the essence of God, detached and then buried in human nature, and now I call it to yourself as well: bring you to the experience, arrive at the point where you bring forth the fruit of the Father, which is David, and then depart this world.1135 ¶47