This is Part 1 of 5 of a sermon on Mark 12:28-34 by the Messenger Elizabeth Clare Prophet delivered on Palm Sunday, April 15, 1984, at Camelot. It is published in Pearls of Wisdom Vol. 27 No. 23 – May 28, 1984.

And one of the scribes came and, having heard them reasoning together and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord! And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment.

And the second is like, namely this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth, for there is one God and there is none other but he. And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself is more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.

And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.

Mark 12:28-34

Love God with All Your Heart

It is a wonderful day to take up the teaching of the Great Commandment. We are poised with Jesus at an hour of great change in his life—a transition, an acceleration, the initiation of the resurrection and that new life of glory which he enters and therefore we enter with him.

We study his words given to John in his Revelation, given unto this hour through all of the saints and prophets. And we come to understand that there is an essence, a seed essence of teaching—and here it is in the Great Commandment.

We make it our own because we know it is our sure defense. And this defense is so necessary for the disciples who would go forth to heal in his name, to cast out devils, to bring mankind into alignment with their I AM Presence.

Those who would follow Jesus in his footsteps must understand the meaning of drinking his cup; they must realize that great protection and vigilance are required every hour, dipping into the communion cup each week, receiving from the altar the fire of the Holy Spirit as that protection on the way.

Let us realize how great, therefore, is the protection of God given to us in this Great Commandment to love the Lord thy God. This means the Lord, the I AM THAT I AM, the I AM Presence representing Elohim (see Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 21, nos. 8-27) where you are. Your representative of the Godhead—in fact, the replica of the Presence of God—is the Mighty I AM Presence.

There is only one Mighty I AM Presence, but we say, “My God and your God,” as Jesus did, (John 20:17) reinforcing the conception that each individual must individualize the God flame and therefore make it apparent, bring it forth, show forth by life—example, words and works, by the very Presence, by the perfume of the soul, by vibration and kindness or brilliance or whatever the virtue—what is the aspect of God that portrays the fullness of the Godhead truly dwelling bodily within us (if we will it so) as it did dwell in the Son of man, Jesus Christ.

This one God of all Israel is the very fire of creation, the Presence of God in the Great Central Sun, the one God who is able to heal all thy diseases, if thou wilt be healed. Therefore, you have with you always the Presence, I AM THAT I AM, that is the concentrate, the Person of the Father bearing the power of Elohim.

Therefore, the commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. What is thy heart? Thy heart is a vessel that contains the divine spark, the threefold flame of life. Thy heart is a chalice, it is the Holy Grail. It contains the body and blood of the living Christ.

Loving God with all thy heart is with the full momentum of thy life, for the heart is thy life. It means loving—directing to God all of one’s love and heart.

Thus, the mystery here in the Great Commandment is to give back to God by free will all that he has given us. And by giving to God all of our heart, loving him with all of our heart, we are taking every bit of his life that he sends forth perpetually as the River of Life, as the crystal cord, and saying, “I have received. I will return this life of God with all of my heart.”

Thus, the mystery of the Great Commandment is: life is a two-way street. God sends forth his light; he gives us free will to send it back to him in love. And if we so do, we establish this closed circuit, a mighty circle of life. None can enter, none can penetrate with devices of unreality.

Sending all of our heart’s love to God protects us from ignorance, from karma, from world conditions because we are sealed when we are perpetually loving God. It is a tremendous gift of free will. We have the choice to love or not to love God, to direct our heart to him or not to. And therefore, we can observe the lever of attention, the lever of the heart—its occupation.

For there are some who do not have a pure heart. There are some who retain hardness of heart, the fear of the heart, records of death. These momentums, which are of karma (therefore we say they are karmic), block the flow of pure love, of one hundred percent of our life to God.

We desire to purify the heart, for out of the heart are the issues of life. When we allow the heart’s energies to descend to feed untoward desires and old momentums, these increase in power because our power is in the heart. And then these desires and momentums overtake us, and when we are confronted by them we are not able to defeat them because we have given them our attention.

And therefore, to fulfill the Great Commandment in all of its essence means to daily withdraw the heart’s devotion and love from those extraneous, exterior matters—matters of ambition or ego. For the ego would displace the Christ consciousness of our heart, setting up material goals, desires to acquire, desires of all manner of things in life. And each one of these desires takes a little bit of the momentum of the heart.

And then, when we need the heart for healing, for the supreme gift of life to someone, for raising the dead, for making our own ascension, for winning a cause, for standing for justice, the heart is weak, it cannot perform. We do not have the full power of the Godhead to pour that heart into His desire, His devotion.

When you love someone with all your heart, you begin to know that one very well. You begin to sense his very heartbeat and his soul and spirit. You live and move with him because out of the devotion comes a oneness.

Thus, when the object of your love is God—first and foremost the Mighty I AM Presence and then that Presence of God in all people—when you love God with such a steadfastness of your attention, you begin to know who he really is. You know the Father. There is such a current and an opening established in your life that you speak and he answers. And the acceleration of devotion of your heart clears the pathway for the descent of light. You ask God a question and he answers you by his Holy Spirit, by the Son of God also dwelling bodily within you.

If you don’t practice and exercise and communicate, then one fine day when you need an answer, it will be as though the heavens were leaden and you will hear nothing. Well, if you do not write a letter to someone for many years, and all of a sudden you knock on the door and say, “Here I am!” they will say, “Where have you been all this time? I haven’t heard from you. Now you expect me to be your friend—all of a sudden you need me. Well, I have other things to do today.”

In other words, a friendship or a love requires nourishing, as you water a plant daily. One should not presume upon this love-tie to God. One should have devotion to it as one is devoted to one’s acquaintances and understand that the bond of love needs nourishing.

When you know God because you love him and you feel him, you have a sense of anticipation of the Father’s presence in your life and in your decisions. You begin to know what God would want you to do in the given circumstance. You do not have to ponder every footstep, because your footsteps have a goal and you are moving straight to the goal. You do not have to ask God a thousand questions, because you have the sense of his being and you know what he expects; it is second nature. God has become your second nature because you love him, the Lord thy God, with all thy heart.

Continued in Part 2 With all thy soul…