High-res version
Jesus said: I have cast fire upon the world, and behold, I guard it until it is on fire.
The steward acts from mystical wisdom in order to control the manifestations of the lower self (the world.) It is only when the lower self is contained that divine presence (fire) has the possibility of appearing.
Jesus said: The dead are not alive and the Living shall not die.
Those that are spiritually asleep (the dead) are not alive to the inner realm. They are simply living a biological existence. Those who have awakened to their true nature, on the other hand, will not fall back to sleep.
Jesus said to His disciples: Make a comparison to me and tell me whom I am like.
Thomas said to Him: “Master, my mouth will not at all be capable of saying whom Thou art like.” Jesus said: I am not thy Master, because thou hast drunk, thou hast from the bubbling spring which I have measured out.
Thomas’s divine self had appeared because he had ‘drunk’ from the same mystical teaching which Jesus taught. Thus, when the divine self is present, the teacher and the student are one and the same.
… And if you go into any land and wander in its regions, if they receive you, eat what they set before you, and heal the sick among them. For what goes into your mouth will not defile you, but what comes out of your mouth, that is what will defile you.
Nourish those who will heed your teachings of mystical wisdom. It is not what you take in that has the potential of putting you back to sleep, but it is what you say that will return you to the realm of the sleeping.
Jesus said, When you see one who was not born of woman, prostrate yourselves on your faces and adore him. He is your father.
When you meet one who has awakened to his higher self (that which was created through one’s own struggle against the physical body,) learn from him, for he is your teacher.
Jesus said: Perhaps men think that I have come to cast peace upon the world, and do not know that I have come to throw divisions upon the earth, fire, sword, war…
Our lower selves may be fooled into thinking that the essence of Jesus’ teaching was to bring contentment to our physical body. This is not the case.
The role of the steward is to create discontentment with the lower self through promoting presence (fire,) by acting upon mystical wisdom (the sword), and through the moment-to-moment struggle (war) against the attachments and desires of the lower self.
I shall give you what no eye has seen, and what no ear has heard, and what no hand has touched, and what has never arisen in the human heart.
The higher self is not capable of being physically seen, heard, touched, or felt through the senses. The higher self is not part of the physical body. It is a separate entity, imprisoned by the physical vessel, whose components and source are beyond human recognition.