21:3.1 A Creator Son is given the range of a universe by the consent of the Paradise Trinity and with the confirmation of the supervising Master Spirit of the superuniverse concerned. Such action constitutes title of physical possession, a cosmic leasehold. But the elevation of a Michael Son from this initial and self-limited stage of rulership to the experiential supremacy of self-earned sovereignty comes as a result of his own personal experiences in the work of universe creation and incarnated bestowal. Until the achievement of bestowal-earned sovereignty, he rules as vicegerent of the Universal Father.
21:3.2 A Creator Son could assert full sovereignty over his personal creation at any time, but he wisely chooses not to. If, prior to passing through the creature bestowals, he assumed an unearned supreme sovereignty, the Paradise personalities resident in his local universe would withdraw. But this has never happened throughout all the creations of time and space.
21:3.3 The fact of creatorship implies the fullness of sovereignty, but the Michaels choose to experientially earn it, thereby retaining the full co-operation of all Paradise personalities attached to the local universe administration. We know of no Michael who ever did otherwise; but they all could, they are truly freewill Sons.
21:3.4 The sovereignty of a Creator Son in a local universe passes through six, perhaps seven, stages of experiential manifestation. These appear in the following order:
21:3.5 1. Initial vicegerent sovereignty—the solitary provisional authority exercised by a Creator Son before the acquirement of personal qualities by the associated Creative Spirit.
21:3.6 2. Conjoint vicegerent sovereignty—the joint rule of the Paradise pair subsequent to the personality achievement of the Universe Mother Spirit.
21:3.7 3. Augmenting vicegerent sovereignty—the advancing authority of a Creator Son during the period of his seven creature bestowals.
21:3.8 4. Supreme sovereignty—the settled authority following the completion of the seventh bestowal. In Nebadon, supreme sovereignty dates from the completion of Michael's bestowal on Urantia. It has existed just slightly over nineteen hundred years of your planetary time.
21:3.9 5. Augmenting supreme sovereignty—the advanced relationship growing out of the settling of a majority of the creature domains in light and life. This stage pertains to the unachieved future of your local universe.
21:3.10 6. Trinitarian sovereignty—exercised subsequent to the settling of the entire local universe in light and life.
21:3.11 7. Unrevealed sovereignty—the unknown relationships of a future universe age.
21:3.12 In accepting the initial vicegerent sovereignty of a projected local universe, a Creator Michael takes an oath to the Trinity not to assume supreme sovereignty until the seven creature bestowals have been completed and certified by the superuniverse rulers. But if a Michael Son could not, at will, assert such unearned sovereignty, there would be no meaning in taking an oath not to do so.
21:3.13 Even in the prebestowal ages a Creator Son rules his domain well-nigh supremely when there is no dissent in any of its parts. Limited rulership would hardly be manifest if sovereignty were never challenged. The sovereignty exercised by a prebestowal Creator Son in a universe without rebellion is no greater than in a universe with rebellion; but in the first instance sovereignty limitations are not apparent; in the second, they are.
21:3.14 If ever the authority or administration of a Creator Son is challenged, attacked, or jeopardized, he is eternally pledged to uphold, protect, defend, and if necessary retrieve his personal creation. Such Sons can be troubled or harassed only by the creatures of their own making or by higher beings of their own choosing. It might be inferred that "higher beings," those of origin on levels above a local universe, would be unlikely to trouble a Creator Son, and this is true. But they could if they chose to. Virtue is volitional with personality; righteousness is not automatic in freewill creatures.
21:3.15 Before the completion of the bestowal career a Creator Son rules with certain self-imposed limitations of sovereignty, but subsequent to his finished bestowal service he rules by virtue of his actual experience in the form and likeness of his manifold creatures. When a Creator has seven times sojourned among his creatures, when the bestowal career is finished, then is he supremely settled in universe authority; he has become a Master Son, a sovereign and supreme ruler.
21:3.16 The technique of obtaining supreme sovereignty over a local universe involves the following seven experiential steps:
21:3.17 1. Experientially to penetrate seven creature levels of being through the technique of incarnated bestowal in the very likeness of the creatures on the level concerned.
21:3.18 2. To make an experiential consecration to each phase of the sevenfold will of Paradise Deity as it is personified in the Seven Master Spirits.
21:3.19 3. To traverse each of the seven experiences on the creature levels simultaneously with the execution of one of the seven consecrations to the will of Paradise Deity.
21:3.20 4. On each creature level, experientially to portray the acme of creature life to Paradise Deity and to all universe intelligences.
21:3.21 5. On each creature level, experientially to reveal one phase of the sevenfold will of Deity to the bestowal level and to all the universe.
21:3.22 6. Experientially to unify the sevenfold creature experience with the sevenfold experience of consecration to the revelation of the nature and will of Deity.
21:3.23 7. To achieve new and higher relationship with the Supreme Being. The repercussion of the totality of this Creator-creature experience augments the superuniverse reality of God the Supreme and the time-space sovereignty of the Almighty Supreme and factualizes the supreme local universe sovereignty of a Paradise Michael.
21:3.24 In settling the question of sovereignty in a local universe, the Creator Son is not only demonstrating his own fitness to rule but is also revealing the nature and portraying the sevenfold attitude of the Paradise Deities. The finite understanding and creature appreciation of the Father's primacy is concerned in the adventure of a Creator Son when he condescends to take upon himself the form and experiences of his creatures. These primary Paradise Sons are the real revealers of the Father's loving nature and beneficent authority, the same Father who, in association with the Son and the Spirit, is the universal head of all power, personality, and government throughout all the universal realms.