GOD is everywhere present; the Universal Father rules the circle of
eternity. But he rules in the local universes in the persons of his Paradise
Creator Sons, even as he bestows life through these Sons. “God has given us
eternal life, and this life is in his Sons.” These Creator Sons of God are the
personal expression of himself in the sectors of time and to the children of
the whirling planets of the evolving universes of space.
The highly personalized Sons of God are clearly discernible by the lower
orders of created intelligences, and so do they compensate for the invisibility
of the infinite and therefore less discernible Father. The Paradise Creator
Sons of the Universal Father are a revelation of an otherwise invisible being,
invisible because of the absoluteness and infinity inherent in the circle of
eternity and in the personalities of the Paradise Deities.
Creatorship is hardly an attribute of God; it is rather the aggregate of
his acting nature. And this universal function of creatorship is eternally
manifested as it is conditioned and controlled by all the co-ordinated
attributes of the infinite and divine reality of the First Source and Center.
We sincerely doubt whether any one characteristic of the divine nature can be
regarded as being antecedent to the others, but if such were the case, then the
creatorship nature of Deity would take precedence over all other natures,
activities, and attributes. And the creatorship of Deity culminates in the
universal truth of the Fatherhood of God.
The ability of the Universal Father to be everywhere present, and at the
same time, constitutes his omnipresence. God alone can be in two places, in
numberless places, at the same time. God is simultaneously present “in heaven
above and on the earth beneath”; as the Psalmist exclaimed: “Whither shall I go
from your spirit? or whither shall I flee from your presence?”
But for you, my children, and for all others
who would follow you into this kingdom, there is set a severe test. Faith alone
will pass you through its portals, but you must bring forth the fruits of my
Father’s spirit if you would continue to ascend in the progressive life of the
divine fellowship. Verily, verily, I say to you, not every one who says, ‘Lord,
Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but rather he who does the will of my
Father who is in heaven.
“‘I am a God at hand as well as afar off,’
says the Lord. ‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?’” The Universal Father is all
the time present in all parts and in all hearts of his far-flung creation. He
is “the fullness of him who fills all and in all,” and “who works all in all,”
and further, the concept of his personality is such that “the heaven (universe)
and heaven of heavens (universe of universes) cannot contain him.” It is
literally true that God is all and in all. But even that is not all of God. The
Infinite can be finally revealed only in infinity; the cause can never be fully
comprehended by an analysis of effects; the living God is immeasurably greater
than the sum total of creation that has come into being as a result of the
creative acts of his unfettered free will. God is revealed throughout the
cosmos, but the cosmos can never contain or encompass the entirety of the
infinity of God.
The Father’s presence unceasingly patrols the
master universe. “His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his
circuit to the ends of it; and there is nothing hidden from the light thereof.”
The creature not only exists in God, but God
also lives in the creature. “We know we dwell in him because he lives in us; he
has given us his spirit. This gift from the Paradise Father is man’s
inseparable companion.” “He is the ever-present and all-pervading God.” “The
spirit of the everlasting Father is concealed in the mind of every mortal
child.” “Man goes forth searching for a friend while that very friend lives
within his own heart.” “The true God is not afar off; he is a part of us; his
spirit speaks from within us.” “The Father lives in the child. God is always
with us. He is the guiding spirit of eternal destiny.”
Truly of the human race has it been said, “You
are of God” because “he who dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.” Even
in wrongdoing you torment the indwelling gift of God, for the Thought Adjuster
must needs go through the consequences of evil thinking with the human mind of
its incarceration.
The omnipresence of God is in reality a part of
his infinite nature; space constitutes no barrier to Deity. God is, in
perfection and without limitation, discernibly present only on Paradise and in
the central universe. He is not thus observably present in the creations
encircling Havona, for God has limited his direct and actual presence in
recognition of the sovereignty and the divine prerogatives of the co-ordinate
creators and rulers of the universes of time and space. Hence must the concept
of the divine presence allow for a wide range of both mode and channel of
manifestation embracing the presence circuits of the Eternal Son, the Infinite
Spirit, and the Isle of Paradise. Nor is it always possible to distinguish
between the presence of the Universal Father and the actions of his eternal
co-ordinates and agencies, so perfectly do they fulfill all the infinite
requirements of his unchanging purpose. But not so with the personality circuit
and the Adjusters; here God acts uniquely, directly, and exclusively.
The Universal Controller is potentially present
in the gravity circuits of the Isle of Paradise in all parts of the universe at
all times and in the same degree, in accordance with the mass, in response to
the physical demands for this presence, and because of the inherent nature of
all creation which causes all things to adhere and consist in him. Likewise is
the First Source and Center potentially present in the Unqualified Absolute,
the repository of the uncreated universes of the eternal future. God thus
potentially pervades the physical universes of the past, present, and future.
He is the primordial foundation of the coherence of the so-called material
creation. This nonspiritual Deity potential becomes actual here and there
throughout the level of physical existences by the inexplicable intrusion of
some one of his exclusive agencies upon the stage of universe action.
The mind presence of God is correlated with the
absolute mind of the Conjoint Actor, the Infinite Spirit, but in the finite
creations it is better discerned in the everywhere functioning of the cosmic
mind of the Paradise Master Spirits. Just as the First Source and Center is
potentially present in the mind circuits of the Conjoint Actor, so is he
potentially present in the tensions of the Universal Absolute. But mind of the
human order is a bestowal of the Daughters of the Conjoint Actor, the Divine
Ministers of the evolving universes.
The everywhere-present spirit of the Universal
Father is co-ordinated with the function of the universal spirit presence of
the Eternal Son and the everlasting divine potential of the Deity Absolute. But
neither the spiritual activity of the Eternal Son and his Paradise Sons nor the
mind bestowals of the Infinite Spirit seem to exclude the direct action of the
Thought Adjusters, the indwelling fragments of God, in the hearts of his
creature children.
Concerning God’s presence in a planet, system,
constellation, or a universe, the degree of such presence in any creational
unit is a measure of the degree of the evolving presence of the Supreme Being:
It is determined by the en masse recognition of God and loyalty to him on the
part of the vast universe organization, running down to the systems and planets
themselves. Therefore it is sometimes with the hope of conserving and
safeguarding these phases of God’s precious presence that, when some planets
(or even systems) have plunged far into spiritual darkness, they are in a
certain sense quarantined, or partially isolated from intercourse with the larger
units of creation. And all this, as it operates on Urantia, is a spiritually
defensive reaction of the majority of the worlds to save themselves, as far as
possible, from suffering the isolating consequences of the alienating acts of a
headstrong, wicked, and rebellious minority.
While the Father parentally encircuits all his
sons — all personalities — his influence in them is limited
by the remoteness of their origin from the Second and the Third Persons of
Deity and augmented as their destiny attainment nears such levels. The fact of
God’s presence in creature minds is determined by whether or not they are
indwelt by Father fragments, such as the Mystery Monitors, but his effective
presence is determined by the degree of co-operation accorded these indwelling
Adjusters by the minds of their sojourn.
The fluctuations of the Father’s presence are
not due to the changeableness of God. The Father does not retire in seclusion
because he has been slighted; his affections are not alienated because of the
creature’s wrongdoing. Rather, having been endowed with the power of choice
(concerning Himself), his children, in the exercise of that choice, directly
determine the degree and limitations of the Father’s divine influence in their
own hearts and souls. The Father has freely bestowed himself upon us without
limit and without favor. He is no respecter of persons, planets, systems, or
universes. In the sectors of time he confers differential honor only on the
Paradise personalities of God the Sevenfold, the co-ordinate creators of the
finite universes.
Urantia Revelation
Michael Of Nebadon
Salvington University
