PART III:
“The prophet said, “Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us, for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.” While this in itself is true, yet there is another side to it, the purpose being, as noted, to make man in “The Image and the Likeness” of God and to give him dominion. Before man achieves dominion, he must have his powers developed so as to give him the practical experience in the use of the powers, and in the control of the conditions that will enable him wisely and correctly to dominate, to have dominion over the world and all things in it. Therefore, Jesus said:
“Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” We are treated as friends, and the newly begotten son of God in the individual must now take possession of the body, of the appetites, passions, impulses and desires, and of all the conditions affecting the body in any way. This spirit-child being of God, is in itself perfect, but it is yet a child, though a perfect child of God, but not a perfect man of God. This child must grow, increase, become strong, and as Jesus said, it must bind the strong man and then spoil his goods. The strong animal desires and propensities must be bound and subordinated to the spiritual soul, so that the physical man will be as a lamb, passive and obedient in everything to the mind of the controlling spirit within.
When we take a passing glance at what the goods of the strong man or carnal mind are, we find that they are in a general way everything that pertains to the law of generation and death, for the whole mind is centered in my wife or my husband, my children, my father, my mother, and my relatives; then after these, my friends. In this thought there are two points. The first point is the I, the ego, the self; because these friends are mine, they are of greater value than my neighbor’s. The Lord Christ said that we must be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect. I wonder if our Father loves my wife, my children, and my relatives better than he loves yours. You would not like to believe that he does, should you? Neither should I. The second point is, that all human relations that are formed through the sympathies of the flesh, relate exclusively to the work of generation, to the old order of evolution, labor, sorrow, and death. In the new order there will be no such relationship, for Revelation says, “Behold, I make all things new.” “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.”
This brings us to the emphasis that Jesus put upon the work set before us as individuals. He said, “I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.” “I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” The announcements: “I am the light of the world”; “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”; “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up”, all point to the fact that he came as a light in a dark place to show man the way, to show man the methods by which, if adopted and practiced, he might be saved from the curse of the fall.”
Hiram Butler
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 