The Greatest Works of Joseph Benner. Joseph Benner

      Chapter 14

      Mediums and Mediators

       Table of Contents

      You, who, in your desire to serve Me, have joined yourself with a church, religious organization, occult society, or spiritual order, of whatsoever nature, thinking, by aiding in and supporting its work, it would please Me, and that you might receive special favors from Me in consequence, harken to these My Words and ponder over them.

      First, know that I AM already pleased with you, for you do nothing that I do not cause you to do, and you do it to fulfill My Purpose, although it may seem to you at times you are acting contrary to My Wish and only to satisfy your own desires. Know likewise that I provide all minds with all their experiences of life, which I utilize solely to prepare the body, quicken the heart and develop the consciousness, so that they can comprehend Me, and so that I can express through them My Idea.

      I inspire minds with glimpses of Me and My Idea through these experiences, and I have spoken thus through inspiration to many, who have taken My Words and have written them in books and have taught them to other minds. These Words I have caused to quicken the hearts and consciousness of those who are ready to receive them, even though the writers and teachers of themselves had no real comprehension of My Meaning.

      Many of those whose minds I thus inspire with glimpses of Me and My Idea I cause to become teachers and leaders, organizing churches and societies and cults, drawing seekers and followers to them, that I, through the words I speak through them, can quicken the hearts and consciousness of those that are ready to recognize Me.

      I, the Impersonal One within, do all this, and the teachers and leaders personally do nothing, only serving as channels through which My Idea can express to the consciousness of those I draw to them for that purpose.

      For the mind is only a channel and the intellect an instrument, which I use Impersonally wherever and whenever necessary to express My Idea. Not until the heat has been quickened and has opened wide to contain Me can man, with his mortal mind and intellect, consciously comprehend My Meaning, when I express through him My Idea.

      You, in your desire to serve Me, may have found in some teacher or leader a personality whom you think, from the many seemingly wondrous words I speak through him, is now containing Me in his heart.

      In your doubts and anxiety to please Me, and in your fear of My displeasure when disobeying My Commands, you may even have gone to such teacher or leader, who possibly claimed to be a priest or priestess of the Most High, thinking to get through such My Message to you, or words of advice or help from some "Master" or "Guide" you can hold. Until finally, in sorrow and humiliation from the disillusionment of which eventually and inevitably follows, you once more are thrown back upon yourself, upon the Teacher within, upon Me, your own True Self.

      Yes, all the deception, all the discipline, all the taking of your ardor and devotion - not to speak of your money and services to what you believe to be My Work, and selfishly purloining and utilizing them for the up-building and strengthening of their own personal power and prestige among their followers; feeding each of you with just enough subtle flattery and promises of spiritual advancement, together with clever sophistry under the guise of high and beautiful sounding spiritual teaching, to keep you bound to them so you would continue to support and honor and glorify them, ever holding over you the lash of My displeasure if they receive not unquestioning trust and obedience, yes, all this I permit to be, for it is what you desire and seek, and Desire is truly the agent of My Will.

      You may be even giving to some other teacher, - either in the seen or the unseen and no matter how true, well-meaning and spiritually wise, - who you think cannot be classed with the kind just mentioned, your unquestioning love, devotion and obedience, and you may be receiving what you think are teachings and guidance of inestimable value.

      All this is well, so long as you are receiving that which you seek and think you need; for I supply all things to satisfy such desires. But know that all such is vain and unproductive of the real results sought; for all seeking and all desire for spiritual attainment is of the personality and therefore selfish, and leads only to final disappointment, disillusionment and humiliation.

      If you but can see it, it is in the disillusionment and humiliation that the real results are attainable, for those are what I opened up for you and led you towards, when presenting the possibility of getting help from some human teacher; and these, disillusionment and humiliation, and what I purposely brought you to, in order that, having become once more humble and docile as a little child, you would then be ready to listen to and obey My Word spoken within, and, hearing and obeying, you could enter into My Kingdom.

      Yes, all outward seeking will end thus, and will but bring you back to Me, weary, naked, starving, willing to listen to My Teaching and to do anything for even a crust of My Bread, which in your stubbornness and conceit you disdained before and deemed not good enough for your proud Spirit.

      Now, if you have had enough of teachings and teachers, and are sure that within you lies the Source of all Wisdom, these words will bring joy unspeakable to your heart. For do they not confirm that which you already have felt within to be true?

      For you who cannot yet see this and still need a Mediator, I have provided the story of The Christ crucified for your redemption, picturing how I desire you to live that, through the crucifixion of your personality, you may rise in consciousness to Oneness with Me.

      But to you who are strong enough to bear it, I say you need no mediator between you and Me, for we are One already. If you can but know it, you can come direct and at once to Me in consciousness. I, God within you will receive you and you shall abide with Me for ever and ever; even as does My Son Jesus, the Man of Nazareth, through Whom I AM even now expressing as I did express two thousand years ago, and as I some day shall express through you.

      To you who wonder how and why I say such beautiful and such spiritual things through personalities who fail to live up to the teachings they apparently of themselves give out, I say: I use all avenues Impersonally to express My Meaning.

      Some I have prepared to be better mediums of expression than others, but personally knowing nothing of Me.

      In some I have quickened the heart the better to contain Me, thereby becoming consciously more at One with Me.

      Some have become so at One with Me that they no longer are separated in consciousness from Me, and in Them I live and move and express My Spiritual Nature.