This message is based on the parable of Luke 15:11-32. Most of us are familiar with this story. I have heard this parable preached in a salvation setting, where the younger son is lost in sin, while the older son is saved and safe at home. I am not going to look at this story from that view since it is a far cry from the truth. This story is about two prodigal sons and not one. It is very important that we recognized the parentage of these two boys. Both sons had the same father and both are loved dearly by the father. They both started out in the fathers' house. The fathers' house is his consciousness (mind of Christ).

 

Luke tells us this man had to sons who were created in his image and likeness. It was the younger son who told the father give me the part of the estate accruing to me. The father divided the estate and gave to each of them his livelihood. The father made no distinction between the sons, played no favorite, he showed no partiality. He divided his livelihood equally among them. Christ is not divided; he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. Not after many days the younger son gathers all and travels to a far country and there spent his estate, living in excess. The word far in this verse does not imply in distance, for e.g. from New Jersey to Buffalo is it a far distance? Rather the word far means absence altogether. It carries the same thought when Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod. Cain did not go anywhere physically, but he did journey in his mind where he could no longer sense the presence of the father, and he dwelt in Nod (wandering).The word country denotes two limits or places.

 

In all reality like Cain  this younger son didn't go anywhere physically, rather he went out from the fathers' house (consciousness) and dwelt in the lower realm of illusion and mortality, that in itself is two limits or places. After spending all, a severe famine occurred in that country and he began to be in want. The word famine here is translated hunger. This younger son never knew hunger or lack when he was in his fathers' house. He felt with all that he had, all that he knew, he was capable of taking care of himself. This freedom to live as Christ was enough for him. He no longer needed the comfort and security of the fathers house or his family. He became a god unto himself. He could no longer identify with the father. He went so far outside the scope of the fathers' house in his own knowledge that he lost all perception and so he began to live off his own nature. We must come to the reality that there is no life apart from the Christ consciousness.

 

In his state of hunger he was joined to one of the citizens of that country, and so he sends him to the field to graze hogs. He yearned to be satisfied with the little carob pods which the hogs ate and no one gave to him. The swine or hogs speak of his own physical nature. The word citizen means a single encounter or a series of battle, fight, and war. This battle was taking place in his mind. He had a double mind, trying to satisfy his reality with the things that was not real. He was in need of food, the food on the planet of illusion was not able to satisfy him or make him complete or full. He was in want and no one gave to him. The food in the country of two limits did not have the nutrients to sustain him; it was not compatible with his system. It was dead food. He had to return to the fathers' house where the bread of life resides. Jesus said, I am the living bread which came down from heaven, if any man eats of this bread he shall live forever. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.

 

Now why was that possible? That is possible because we are of the same substance and form as he is. This younger son left the fathers' house the place of his birth and true identity, a place where he was being fed the bread of life. He found his existence in a world that held no reality for him, and it was there he spent all that he had trying to survive, trying to improve upon who he was. He failed to realize that he couldn't improve upon the Christ in him. God is whole, complete and perfect, knowing no disease, lack or limitation. Whatever we are experiencing in and of the world we put it there. This is the law of sowing and reaping.

 

This younger son didn't realize he created the world he lived in by leaving the fathers' house. As a man thinks in his heart so is he. Verse17 is our true consciousness in reality. When HE CAME TO HIMSELF, he realized that in his fathers' house  is enough bread and to spare and here he is dying of hunger.  The world that he lives in was defective and full of lack; he felt the separation and loss as he tried to live from day to day on yesterdays bread. He felt like a failure and a victim. The truth about him is that he was not a failure and a victim. He was the fathers offspring, with all the power and rights of a son when he chose to accept it.

 

At first the change  in his consciousness only appear in his mind, as he continued to keep his mind and his thoughts on the fathers' house,  we see changes began to appear and then his whole life and body was changed. He said to himself I WILL ARISE and go to my father, and say I am a sinner and I don't deserve to be called your son, so make me a servant for I have sinned against thee. He knew he was a son but he lack the awareness of himself to function as one. He couldn't dispel the darkness of the human thinking which he associated with himself. It is glorious when the revelation of his permanent identity breaks over him. That he couldn't do anything to change who he was, even if he told the father he wanted to be a servant. No amount of reasoning or thinking could change his reality. We are not asking you to create a new consciousness or reality; this is how this younger son felt.  We are simply calling attention to that which actually exists in all humanity and has always existed. I and my father are one. True to this son the fathers' consciousness was buried beneath years of human thinking and reasoning. I am a failure and not worthy. He came to himself and said I will arise and go to my father. The word rise means to stand up, raise up again and speak of an upright and active position. His consciousness had now  shift to his true reality. It rose to another level, a higher realm. He stood up realizing that his reality is in the fathers' house. 

 

While he was yet a great way of HIS FATHER SAW HIM, and had compassion and run and fell on his neck and kissed him. All this time he is telling the father I am not worthy, I have sinned, his focus was still on the realm of defect and illusion, even though he came to his true identity. If you like this younger son is seeing a world separate from the one you truly live in; it is only separate to the one who perceives it. Our reality lies in the Spirit. He alone was seeing the illusion of his present state, all the father saw was his son created in his image and likeness. The word saw in verse 20 is to see, perceive, to gaze i.e. watch with wide open eyes, as at something remarkable. The father perceived or saw with eyes wide open  something remarkable in his son. He saw himself revealed in his son. He never saw what the younger son was seeing. The father could only see himself personified in his son.

 

The father told the servants to dress him in the best robe, put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet.  Robe comes from a word meaning to withdraw self. Nothing was seen of the old identity or self that he saw. He was covered over by the life of the father. All that is seen is his true identity. Paul said our life is hid (covered over) with Christ in God. The word ring comes from a root word- meaning a primary number ten. Ten signifies the perfection of divine order, completion, the whole cycle is finished. With the ring the father perfected him forever. He was complete lacking nothing in his fathers' house.

 

The word shoes means of place, time, it retain the same general application especially of inferior position or condition. The position and condition he saw did not exists, he was always seen and placed as a son. We must hear by the spirit what  the father is saying when he said,  "this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." No matter what the view of our self and the world, the father always see everything and everyone as he created them very good. There is joy and feasting in the fathers' house, the fatted calf is dead and his son who was dead (asleep in consciousness to his true identity) is home alive (he is one with the father, living out of his true reality) again. The fatted calf speaks to us of the old man thinking (that comes from Adam).

 

There was joy in the fathers' house, and  his elder son was out in the field and as he drew near he heard the music and the noise so he called one of the servants and asked what things these mean and he was told his brother had returned. Rather than being joyful, he was angry and would not go in, therefore came his father out to entreat him. It is interesting to note here it was the father who came out and not the younger son because it is the father who is doing the work. Revelation 3:12 says, Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall GO NO MORE OUT, and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God and I will write upon him my new name.

 

The elder son was furious that his younger brother  went out and lived in excess returned home and all the Father did was receive him  in  love. Verse 29 says he answered his Father and said, "Lo so many years am I slaving for you  ,and I never passed by you precept ,and you never gave me a kid that I may make merry with my friends. Yet when this son of yours came ,who is devouring your livelihood (living KJV) ,with prostitutes ,you sacrifice for him the grain-fed calf (Con.Lit.)." The word livelihood (living) is 979 beos meaning life i.e. literally the present state of existence. He was angry because his brother abused the fathers' present state of existence, his goods, life, and living (mercy, grace etc.). He used the liberty and freedom of the Spirit for all his living and life. That is still not the focus of the father. The elder son felt more like a servant than a son. He lived in the fathers' house, under the fathers' present state of existence and still did not have the life of the father flowing in him.

 

He had never  experienced  the fathers' consciousness, he did not know he was one with the father. The focus of this parable is the infinite love of the father. The father responded to the elder son with such love and compassion, verse 31 says, "He (father) said to him, child, you are always with me and all mine is yours. Yet we must be merry and rejoice, seeing that this your brother was dead and revives, and was lost and was found (Con. Lit.)."  Even this elder brother was lost in his own consciousness, still living in the field (old Adamic consciousness). This son was living in a realm where he was bringing forth fruit unto himself, he couldn't let go and allow himself to see the workings of love the father was bestowing upon his brother that he should be called a son. He was living in a realm of illusion where he thought it was all about him, he couldnt see the fathers' plan involved all men, even those not living at home. All he saw was the external life of his brother but not of himself, he saw himself as being righteousness.

 

The illusion that held this son is what is keeping captive many sons today, he saw the son in the same light as he sees the rest of the world. His eyes weren't single. When your eyes are single to the pure all things are pure. Think about that for a moment. There is so much that the father has to do in this son before he is ready to manifest the reality of the new state of things to him. His mind must be worn out trying to dream and work for it. All the while the younger son was not at home, the elder son had no liberty because his thoughts were on what his brother was doing with the fathers livelihood. He was bound a prisoner of his own thinking. The reality of this son is one can spend all their time laboring for the father's house and still not live in the reality of it.  In one instant a change took place in the younger brothers life, yet all that took place was a showing forth of that which has always existed, that which had been created in the beginning perfect and eternal in the heavens. When this reality washes over us it makes every situation so possible to change. Then we are suddenly released from centuries of human thinking and reasoning, which has bound our capacities to function from the mind of Christ.

 

In closing the whole premise of this parable is the unchanging, infinite love of the father towards humanity. He sees creation just as he always did, perfect and complete in his image and likeness despite their flaws and failures. He cannot change, therefore his love is unchanging, and as he is so are we, we are his offspring he cannot deny himself. We must hear the voice of the father say, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased."

 

 

I trust that this word has been a blessing to you, please feel free to share it with others.

 

Namaste,

 

Winston & Sarah