Rise of the Mystics Read online

  Here, I was no different from the smallest child, because none could be honored when all were already equally honored.

  None but Justin, and we were all one in him.

  “No word?” I asked.

  “Not yet. I think we will know when he—”

  And then we did know, because everything went perfectly still. Everyone knew at once, catching themselves just as Jacob had, as if the air itself had spoken. And it had.

  The three of us stood as one, and I saw that all either stood or were gaining their feet. Without a word, I ran back to the edge of the meadow, breathless. My heart was hammering and my fingers tingled.

  He is here.

  He was always here, but he was here. I could feel his power in every cell of my body.

  Jacob joined me and took my hand, wide stare fixed on the distant waterfalls. Then came Aaron, tears in his eyes already. Then Talya and Samuel, and that’s all I saw because they came, a hundred thousand Roush flying over the distant cliffs in a massive formation. It’s why Michal and Gabil and the other Roush weren’t with us now, as they often were. They were with him.

  With Justin, who emerged from the forest next to the waterfall on his horse, flanked by a hundred white lions.

  I could barely contain my excitement. I wanted to leap and shout and scream my pleasure for the whole world to hear.

  But the whole world already heard that pleasure. It was coming from every rock, every tree, every blade of grass, every man, woman, and child in Other Earth.

  Where once the whole earth groaned for the revelation of the sons and daughters of Elyon, it now celebrated that revealing.

  Justin was in the meadow past the lake now, riding slow, settled in his saddle. Not a word was yet spoken. Not a breath taken. He was across the Realm from me, and he was right before me. I felt as though if I reached out my hand, I would touch his.

  Still not a word.

  He stopped in the middle of the meadow. For long beats of my heart, he sat upon his white stallion, looking at us in silence. All of us.

  I saw motion from the corner of my eye—Paulus dropping to his knees, arms of welcome spread wide. Tears of joy streaming down his cheeks.

  I dropped to my knees with him, and with me, millions, like falling dominoes. The sound of so many knees hitting the ground was like a distant herd of wild stallions.

  A lone cry shredded the air.

  “Inchristi is all!” Paulus cried, trembling now. “Inchristi is in all!”

  And then a thunder shook the Realm of Mystics, threatening to tear every leaf from every tree, promising to reduce every stone to dust under the power of the crushing sound of three million voices in rapture.

  The thunder of every living soul in Other Earth, shouting one word over and over so it sounded like an everlasting peal from the heavens, speaking a simple truth for all who had ears to hear.

  That word was Justin.

  Justin, who was One with me and with all.

  Justin, who was love.

  The End

  Author’s Note

  You’ve just finished the final chapter in the two-book saga Beyond the Circle. Is there more to come? Perhaps. We shall see.

  Then again, yes, there is more to come. We are all on the same journey of discovering ourselves in this world, just like Rachelle. It’s the journey from fear to love, from darkness to light, from blindness to sight.

  If the journey draws you in any way, please visit The49thMystic.com. There you will find much more: additional content, behind-the-scenes interviews, and more of Yeshua’s teaching in The Forgotten Way, including a daily guide that will assist you in taking the same journey Rachelle took to find and know the truth of who you are in this reality we call the world. Dive deep.

  Ted Dekker

  Ted Dekker is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of more than forty novels, with over ten million copies sold worldwide. Born in the jungles of Indonesia to missionary parents, he lived among cannibals. His upbringing as a stranger in a fascinating and sometimes frightening culture fueled his imagination, and it was during the lonely times as a child that he became a storyteller.

  Dekker’s passion is simple—to explore truth through mind-bending stories that invite readers to see the world through a different lens. His fiction has been honored with numerous awards, including two Christy Awards, two Inspy Awards, an RT Reviewers’ Choice Award, and an ECPA Gold Medallion. In 2013, NPR readers nationwide put him in the Top 50 Thriller Authors of All Time.

  Dekker lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, Lee Ann, and their four children, Rachelle, JT, Kara, and Chelise.

  Talya’s Journal

  on The Forgotten Way

  Key excerpts from the journal of Talya, who herein did transcribe those teachings of Yeshua, Paulus, Johnin, and Petrus as written in the ancient Books of History called Scriptures.

  (Talya’s personal notes in parentheses.)

  Organized by Rachelle, the 49th Mystic

  Relating to Chapter 12

  1) [Love] is not provoked, takes no account of evil. (Other translations say it does not keep a record of wrong or holds no record of wrong. It is a legal term meaning “inadmissible as evidence.” Paulus’s word for evil or wrong is singular, the same word Yeshua used for evil, and so has been translated as “does not take evil into account.” Some scribes have felt compelled to insert extra words of their own such as deeds or thoughts following the word evil, and easily before provoked, but again, these words are not in Paulus’s writings.)

  Paulus’s First Letter to Corinth 13:5 WEB

  2) If I . . . know all mysteries and all knowledge (doctrine and confessions); and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned (service and loyalty to beliefs), but do not have love, it profits me nothing. (True love, which does not take into account wrong.)

  Paulus’s First Letter to Corinth 13:2–3

  3) And those whom he foreknew he also fashioned in the likeness of the image of his Son, that he would be The Firstborn of many brethren. And those whom he pre-fashioned, he called, and those whom he called, he made righteous, and those whom he made righteous, he glorified. (Past tense. Our true state of being right now.)

  Paulus to Rome 8:29–30 ABPE

  4) The eye (singular, perception) is the lamp of (shows you) the body (our earthly experience); so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. (We experience only light and beauty in this life if we are seeing clearly.) But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. (The state of most, most of the time.) If then the light that is in you (the light is already in us) is darkness, how great is the darkness! (Suffering in this life.)

  Book of Matthew 6:22–23

  5) Do you not say, “There are yet four months and then comes the harvest”? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. (A change in perception shows you the kingdom is already here, though most are blind to it.)

  Book of Johnin 4:35

  Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed (it is now, not later); nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ (It is beyond our dimension of space, neither above nor below, not seen with earthly eyes.) For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” (Literally, already inside your very being.)

  Book of Luke 17:20–21

  6) From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent (metanoia, change your cognitive perception, go beyond your knowledge) for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Already here and in your very being.)

  Book of Matthew 4:17

  Relating to Chapter 13

  1) Ye have heard that it has been said, Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. But I say unto you, not to resist evil; but whoever shall s
trike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other. (One of Yeshua’s many teachings on love versus resistance in all respects.)

  Book of Matthew 5:38–39 DARBY

  2) There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

  First Book of Johnin 4:18

  Relating to Chapter 18

  1) Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come (Inchristi), we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

  Paulus to Galatia 3:24–25 KJV

  The former regulation (the law of Moses) is set aside because it was weak and useless . . . and a better hope is introduced (the law of grace), by which we draw near to God (know him intimately).

  Letter to Hebrews 7:18–19 NIV

  Relating to Chapter 21

  1) As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God (the manifestation of God’s light) might be displayed (made visible) in him (literally inside him). We must work the works of Him who sent Me (seeing God’s light within us) as long as it is day (while we are alive on earth); night (death in this life) is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” . . . So he went away and washed, and came back seeing. (By symbolically blinding the man, Yeshua showed how this world blinds us and how only the water of the Spirit can give us true sight. We are all born blind to see.)

  Book of Johnin 9:1–7

  2) And those whom he foreknew (an experiential intercourse with God before the foundations of the universe, ginosko in Greek—firsthand acquaintance) he also fashioned in the likeness of the image of his Son, that he would be The Firstborn of many brethren (Christ is our elder brother). And those whom he pre-fashioned (all of his children), he called, and those whom he called, he made righteous, and those whom he made righteous, he glorified. (Past tense. Our true state of being right now and always.)

  (Note: Some have translated fashioned as predestined, as though this suggests a future act, which undermines both the meaning of the Greek, which is “to establish or fashion,” and the rest of Paul’s statement, which is definitively past tense.)

  Paulus to Rome 8:29–30 ABPE

  The One having saved us and having called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, having been given us in Christ Jesus before time eternal. (This happened to us before time began, a great mystery.)

  Paulus’s Second Letter to Timothy 1:9 BLB

  3) Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven (heaven: the dimension that is here now, unseen by earthly eyes), and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. (Yeshua’s claim of the power we wield through our beliefs and agreements, both collective and individual. This manifestation is happening every moment of every day by all, though most are blind to it. Most don’t flow in the miraculous because they are bound to their earthen vessel and the laws of physics in agreement with collective observation.)

  Book of Matthew 18:18–19 NIV

  4) If you forgive anyone’s sins (including yourself), their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. (Through grievance we cast others and ourselves into outer darkness. The power of letting go of offense—forgiveness—releases that bondage in darkness.)

  Book of Johnin 20:23 NIV

  5) In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. (Letting go of attachment to the world of polarity and judgment is the only way to experience the kingdom of heaven.)

  Book of Luke 14:33 NIV

  Relating to Chapter 23

  1) And He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. . . . Then they themselves also will answer, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison and did not take care of You?” (This spoken by those who call Christ “Lord” but have not awakened to true love.) Then He will answer them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these (the sinners of his day, those in prison and destitute for their failings), you did not do it to Me.” (Not “as if unto me,” but “to me.” Thus we see and serve Christ in all.)

  Book of Matthew 25:33, 44–45

  2) [You] have put on the new self (a new way of being in the world) who is being renewed (metanoia, a transforming of the mind, like being re-born) to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—a renewal (awakening) in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian (seen as the worst of the worst in his day), slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. (We are one with Christ, and that One, our true identity, lives in our earthen vessel. Inchristi is all; Inchristi is in all.)

  Paulus to Colossae 3:10–11

  3) If anyone comes to Me (responds to the good news of the kingdom), and does not hate (release attachment to) his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life (all the masks we cling to in relationship to others and ourselves), he cannot be My disciple. (Cannot follow Yeshua into an experience of the kingdom now present within all.)

  Book of Luke 14:26

  Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily (release attachment to the earthen vessel) and follow me.” (Unless one lets go of everything this world values in form, one will not experience the kingdom of heaven that Yeshua experienced—i.e., born again as an infant to experience all things in a new way. This is a continual process daily, not a onetime event.)

  Book of Luke 9:23 NIV

  Relating to Chapter 25

  1) For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (We are that light Inchristi.) But we have this treasure in earthen vessels (temporal and returning to dust), so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God, and not from ourselves (the earthen vessel self).

  Paulus’s Second Letter to Corinth 4:6–7

  So we fix our eyes (perception) not on what is seen (earthen vessel self and all polarity), but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary (dust to dust), but what is unseen is eternal (true eternal self—eternal, beyond time and space).

  Paulus’s Second Letter to Corinth 4:18 NIV

  2) He has made everything beautiful in its time. (Without exception.) He has also set eternity in the human heart (foreknown before the foundations of the earth); yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (In part because in the eternal there is no beginning or end—it defies the mind, which thinks only in time.)

  Book of Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV

  3) They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (Yeshua’s affirmation that we are not of the world, explained by Paulus in different language as only in temporal earthen vessels for a short time.)

  Book of Johnin 17:16

  4) You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all. (Yeshua declared this to the outcasts and destitute of his day, and his words are true of all who live. This is the foundation of the good news to which most are blind. That light shines, but the earthen vessel too often is blind to it and keeps it hidden under another identity, or basket.)

  Book of Matthew 5:1
4–15

  5) Therefore if any man be in Christ, (since you are in Christ) he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (Being in Christ is a state of being known by those who experience themselves as the light of the world, beyond the world of polarity. In that being, all is experienced in a new way.)

  Paulus’s Second Letter to Corinth 5:17 KJV

  Relating to Chapter 28

  1) The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God. (All who were foreknown and glorified before creation but blinded by the knowledge of good and evil in the Fall.)

  Paulus to Rome 8:19 BSB

  Relating to Chapter 32

  1) So whatever you believe about these things (what is and what is not sin as described) keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

  (Paulus’s most direct definition of sin as a state of being out of alignment with faith, not defined by the act itself, but the intention behind the act. What then is faith as he uses it? Faith is alignment to the unseen kingdom we place our hope in as expressed in the letter to the Hebrews 11:1 [BSB]. “Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see”—the kingdom of heaven not seen with earthly eyes yet ever present within and everywhere.)

  Paulus to Rome 14:22–23 NIV

  Relating to Chapter 34

  1) During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death (garden of Gethsemane), and he was heard because of his reverent submission (comforted by angels, as written). Son though he was, he learned obedience (came into alignment) from what he suffered and, once made perfect (having surrendered the will of his earthen vessel in that garden—“Not my will but your will,” two different wills), he became the source of eternal salvation (alignment to the eternal realm now in our midst, called the kingdom of heaven) for all who obey him (also align to Christ).