Divine Incarnations: God's Emissaries - Discourse 1, Part 8

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(p.29) 'John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, " This was he of whom I

spake, 'He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me' "

(John 1:15).

 

The consciousness of the prophet John the Baptist was in tune with the universal

Christ Intelligence and could " witness " or declare from his own intuitive

realization the glory of Christ Consciousness as manifest in the omnipresence of

the Holy Ghost creative Light, and also in the divine consciousness he saw

incarnate in Jesus. That Consciousness was " preferred " in Jesus for he came to

fulfill a special dispensation. [1]

 

 

(p.30) 'And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the

law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ' (John

1:16-17).

 

Of the fullness of the Christ Consciousness that permeates creation all prophets

have received--all those who are in tune receive that consciousness without

measure. Lesser men, according to their capacity, also receive; their every

goodness, like a mouth, drinks of the eternal grace of the Christ Consciousness.

" And of his fulness " : That is, the omnipresent Christ Consciousness all can

receive who make their minds pure. " And grace for grace " : For every goodness in

man, he receives from the eternal goodness of God.

 

The fullness of Spirit

is reflected in all souls

 

The fullness of the Spirit is reflected evenly in all souls. But those who are

sons of God--those who have changed their charcoal mentality into a diamond

mentality--receive and reflect the fullness of the Divine Presence. In the sons

of God is the " fulness " of the omnipresent omniscience of the Bliss of Spirit,

the complete awareness of the glory of God within themselves.

 

" And grace for grace " : Every goodness is an opening through which the light of

God shines. Every expression of a dark mentality shuts out the sunny Divine

Presence. So each time man practices goodness, he receives a special measure of

God's grace.

 

" For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ " : Now

here is a contentious verse of scriptural disagreement between Jews and

Christians. But this verse is not intended to define any difference in the

degree of spirituality between Jesus and Moses. The point is, every prophet has

a special purpose to fulfill on earth. This statement of Saint John's merely

recognizes Moses' gift from God to man in the form of the Ten Commandments.

These are eternal verities, universal laws of life that make man's existence

morally comfortable and spiritually fulfilling. The word " commandment, " however,

does not give the best connotation, for it is as if God is a dictator and man

His servile attendant. These dictums should rather be regarded as a code of

natural righteousness. If man does not follow those laws which evince the divine

image within him, he falls out of tune with God into delusive suffering of his

own making.

 

(p.31) " Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ " : That is, all truth, the power

behind universal laws, flows from the Christ Consciousness, which power was

manifested in Jesus, as in all great prophets. The eternal laws are in fact

maintained through the omnipresence of the Christ Intelligence. Jesus, through

the consciousness of the Universal Christ within him, came to show that grace

and truth and goodness flow from that divine Source.

 

The Second Coming of Christ (The Resurrection of the Christ Within You) Volume

I, Discourse 1, pg. 29-31

Paramahansa Yogananda

Printed in the United States of America 1434-J881

ISBN-13:978-0-87612-557-1

ISBN-10:0-87612-557-7

 

Notes:

 

[1] The content of John 1:15 is repeated in verse 27 and 30 and is explained in

greater detail in that fuller context in Discourse 6.