Vol. 34 No. 15 - I AM the Witness

Vol. 34 No. 15 - I AM the Witness - April 14, 1991

I AM the Witness

Beloved Mother and Friends,

I would like to witness to the unique sponsorship of the Church Universal and Triumphant as I have experienced that sponsorship directly.

I am a practical person. I am not prone to visions or fancies. I have always avoided people who said they could see my aura, predict my future, etc. I considered these people to be psychic, and I was not interested.

I was attracted to the Ascended Masters’ Teachings because I was searching for a spiritual discipline that would make me feel holy. I had tried yoga and meditation and prayer–all of them were fine but they were just not enough. Then I found decrees.

I was living in Vermont. One day I went into a little bookstore and found The Science of the Spoken Word. Soon, I was using the decrees in the back of the book. From the moment of that first decree, I knew that this was the spiritual discipline I had been looking for. Never had I felt holiness like I felt when I decreed.

It took a while before I knew there was an organization or church associated with the books. I was simply thrilled to read the teachings of the Masters and do their decrees. I had read some teachings from Theosophy, so I could relate to Kuthumi and Djwal Kul and El Morya and Saint Germain, but I wasn’t so sure about “Mark and Elizabeth Prophet.” I did not know who they were and, frankly, for probably a year I wasn’t the least interested in finding out. I did my decrees alone because I did not know anyone associated with the Church.

About a year and a half after I read my first book, I was home for winter break (in a suburb of a large city) and decided with some hesitation to visit the Church’s local teaching center to see what kind of people were in this group. I had never been much of a joiner but the decrees were so great and the Masters had explained how much more effective decrees were when said with others, so I went.

I attended a service with fifteen or twenty people decreeing and I was converted. It was the most powerful experience of Light I had ever felt! Within two months I had dropped out of school, moved to California and was working on outreach at the Los Angeles Teaching Center.

About a year later, I applied to become a communicant of the Church and was accepted. For those of you who do not know, when you become a communicant of the Church, there is a formal ceremony. Mother makes invocations and imparts an initiation of the crown chakra.

Well, it just so happened that on the day of my initiation I was terribly sick. I had the flu or something and felt just lousy. The ceremony was at the Ashram of the World Mother. All of us who were becoming communicants were lined up waiting for our names to be called. I think I was probably hunched over.

When my name was called, I walked up to Mother and knelt. As she began making the invocation, I was suddenly transported to a cloud and there, standing in a receiving line, were Lanello (with his big, magnanimous heart that made me feel so tenderly loved), Jesus, Saint Germain, El Morya, Gautama and others. Behind and above them I sensed the entire Celestial Host. I remember walking down the line and each of the Masters welcomed and congratulated me. While this was a sober experience, I felt like I was on cloud nine–literally, perhaps.

Now flash forward a few years. I have gone back to school and received an advanced degree. I am working in my first post-graduate job and making more money than I have ever made. I am on top of the world and my ego is real pleased with my success. But after a couple of months things stop going so well. I start feeling depressed and unhappy. People at work are mean spirited. Weeks pass into months and I am getting more and more down. Emotionally, I feel like a black hole is engulfing me. I am decreeing, but not as much as I used to. I just don’t know what is wrong.

Finally, I am reaching the end of my rope. One night before I go to bed I kneel before my altar and I pray fervently to God to show me what I am doing wrong.

That night I slept very soundly and the next morning I woke up with one word emblazoned across my mind’s eye: TITHE. Sure enough, though I had started out my new job tithing every month, after a few months I had stopped. Debts I had incurred during school were pressing and when I paid bills each month I convinced myself it wasn’t necessary to tithe.

In that moment when I woke up with the word TITHE written on my eyeballs, I knew that I had broken my commitment to the Masters. I had broken my commitment to big, beautiful Lanello and Jesus and Saint Germain and El Morya and Gautama. They had sponsored me in their Church and blessed me with wonderful blessings for many years, but in the moment of my worldly success I had broken my commitment to them.

It is true that our tithe ties us to the Masters. It is how we show the Masters we are serious about our love. There are few greater proofs of our love than when we dig deep into our pocketbooks each month (even when it hurts) and tithe.

I had forgotten the key: always pay your tithe first–before all other bills. As soon as you deposit your monthly paycheck, the first thing to do is write a check to the Church for 10 percent of it. God always returns to us tenfold what we give, and I have found that there is always enough to pay those other bills.

From that morning forward I have tithed. I feel like the blessings of light and love are mine again. I am no longer depressed but feel the deep joy of an inner silent communion with the Masters. I have not seen the Masters since that precious day when I became a communicant of the Church Universal and Triumphant, but their presence is with me ever.

Thank you, Mother, for your stewardship, your love and your willingness to stand for Truth when so many jump to criticize and condemn you. Thank you for welcoming me into this wondrous Church Universal and Triumphant.

Holiness unto the Lord!

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